Has anyone here noticed a difference in their PD symptoms after soaking in the sunlight for a period of time each day, e.g. reduced tremors etc?
Sunlight Therapy : Has anyone here noticed... - Cure Parkinson's
Sunlight Therapy
36 Replies
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Please be careful in the sun, PWP's have an increased risk of developing skin cancer.
in reply to PixelPaul
Thank you for letting me know. I didn’t know about that.
Could you link to a study that supports this assertion. Thanks!
in reply to CaseyInsights
About the sunlight ameliorating symptoms or the skin cancer correlation? As for sunlight being beneficial I just noticed since gardening outside and sitting in the sunlight I felt more energized, my hand tremors are way less, balance is better. Was wondering if others noticed this connection. Could be a burst of vitamin D. Could be the sunlight is causing some other reactions to take place. Serotonin perhaps.
CaseyInsights in reply to
I take it as a given that sunlight is ‘good for you’. Just wondering about the notion that ‘PWP's have an increased risk of developing skin cancer’ suggested by PixelPaul
in reply to CaseyInsights
If you Google melanoma parkinsons, there are plenty.
CaseyInsights in reply to
This from parkinson.net:
parkinsonsdisease.net/clini...
“Since the 1970s, researchers believed that levodopa (a common therapy for Parkinson’s disease) caused melanoma in Parkinson’s patients. Levodopa impacts the body’s creation of melanin and melanocytes, leading scientists to blame this drug for higher incidence of melanoma in PD patients. Many research studies have since reported that levodopa does not cause melanoma, but no one knows exactly why this association between melanoma and PD exists.”
Notice ‘...no one knows exactly, why this association between melanoma and PD exists.’
The sun is our major source of Vitamin D - a nutrient, hormone, and immuno-modulator. I would err on the side of caution in advising anyone to stay out of the sun.
Staying in the sun till your skin erupts in blisters from sunburn, may be a different matter all together.
in reply to CaseyInsights
It's well established that risk is higher. That the connection is still muddy doesn't mean we should ignore it.
I think being sensible (sunscreen) and getting two skin cancer checks a year (or one every 9 mo) is probably adequate.
park_bear in reply to
I add 10% niacinamide to my sunscreen because it has been shown to reduce nonmelanoma skin cancers. I have noticed that with this formula sun damaged skin gets repaired. I may be adding additional ingredients to help with wrinkles.
References:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
karger.com/Article/Abstract...
Yes, please put me down for the one that helps with wrinkles! 😂
I've lived in the Wyoming Desert about 7000ft, for 35 years. No skin cancer yet while spending as much time outside as I could.
Answering your original question, it depends how much of your skin is exposed, but it is possible to manufacture many more times the vitamin D than you could ever ingest in a fairly short time, i.e. the rate of manufacture is pretty extreme. Yyour skin is extremely efficient in manufacturing vitamin D from sunlight. I don't know the exact rate anymore but when I first learned it it was fairly astonishing compared to the discussions at the time about overdosing using supplements...I am talking 30 years ago.
As to whether niacinamide or sunscreens or both inhibit this productivity, I have no idea. Nor have I an answer about where is the tradeoff between skin cancer prevention by using sunscreens and niacinamide versus the relative loss of benefit of natural vitamin D production, same answer.
Maybe there is some research that helps "illuminate" (ha ha, get it?) the particular set of questions to get a better handle these things. However, part of the fear about skin cancer might be involved in the common error behavior of misapplying aggregate statistics and not realizing how they do and do not support making correct inferences to individual cases, so I'd want to be sure of what I was reading, how to know the difference, and reasonably come to a "weight of the evidence" sort of conclusion.
There is a lot of evidence pointing to the benefit of sunlight in PD.
Keep it early morning and later afternoon in summer to reduce melanoma risk. In winter even in the midday it is not possible to get burned in New Zealand.
The light in your eyes is as important as the vitamin d production for your circadian rhythms, especially in the winter mornings. But don’t wear sunglasses or tinted glasses as it cuts out some of the important wavelengths.
Yes. As a matter of fact, I try to sit in the sun 10-15 minutes every day. Any more than that I cover up.
Could it be from the exercise and meditative relaxation of gardening and not the sun having a positive effect on you?
in reply to PDGal4
I normally exercise but don’t feel as good afterwards as I did just sitting in my chair in the garden basking in the sun like a flower. I have to admit it may sound unbelievable but maybe sunlight is also a form of treatment or medicine.
Yes sunshine helps! Sunburn is the main risk factor and I avoid it by getting short exposure every sunny day and covering up whenever necessary. UVB is most available around midday at my latitude and short means 5-20 mins in mid-summer! There is a melanoma risk but I just don't see that missing out on sunlight generated VitD is a good way to manage that.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
"The results suggest that short‐term exposure to unusually intense sunlight increases the risk of melanoma, while long‐term constant exposure has no effect or may decrease risk. No simple relationship was seen between melanoma risk and total sunlight exposure. "
They conclude "Recreational and vacation sun exposures were associated with an increase in risk, and the effects were strongest with activities involving more extreme exposure. ... Vacation exposure is clearly an intermittent exposure, while recreational exposure to seasonal activities, such as swimming, is usually also intermittent". So working in the office all week and going to the beach at the weekend is likely to mean excessive dosages of UV resulting in skin reddening and eventually increased risk of melanoma. Intermittent is bad as it implies no protective tan so you very easily exceed your safe dose without sun protection. If your "slip,slap,slop" sun protection factor is high then safe but you lose all that potential VitD too. Finding a safe daily exposure is necessary and it will vary with skin type - if you redden then that is far too much exposure. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/155...
Yes! I crave the sun and sitting out awhile always makes me feel better.
I didn't know I had a pen-name or associated phrase. Kaypeeoh is my initials spelled phonetically because this website said KPO was too short. Of course we had THC back then but like Clinton I never inhaled.
Dear Shaken:
I just read your pen-name's phrase in a new light! I mean, think of it, new illumination after 55 years of knowing that phrase. Or maybe just that dense for that long. Shaken not stirred. An Austin Powers sign of the times. Kind of sixties philosophical like the end of the movie.
Or maybe it should be stirred not shaken maybe. Did they have THC back then? Whatever.
in reply to MarionP
I literally laughed out loud when I read your post. Super cute. I was thinking more along the lines of James Bond and the way he likes his martinis...shaken not stirred. But I’ll take Austin Powers. 
I have yet to try THC but it’s on my list of “supplements” to try eventually. It is my last resort before meds. So far supplements have been my main approach.
Yes I noticed the difference when it’s sunny, besides if you notice people are happier to , when it’s cold in so cal people are unhappy and that brings on the stress and in tern the tremors
Recently I added ubiquinol, pqq, and chlorella/spirulina to my daily supplements. I found this excerpt from an article on the internet which may shed some light (pardon the pun) on what is happening when I’m bathing in sunlight.
“The mitochondria burn fuel to provide energy for our cells. CoQ 10 and ubiquinol help the mitochondia to provide energy.
Ubiquinol production is active from early childhood up until your mid- to late 20s. By the time you hit the age of 30, it begins to decline. Young people are able to use CoQ10 supplements quite well, but older people do better with ubiquinol.
Recent research shows you can improve your body's conversion of CoQ10 to ubiquinol by eating lots of green leafy vegetables, which are loaded with chlorophyll. This must be in combination with sun exposure.
Once chlorophyll is consumed it gets transported into your blood. Then when you expose significant amounts of skin to sunshine, that chlorophyll absorbs the solar radiation and triggers the conversion of CoQ10 to ubiquinol.“
patch.com/new-jersey/ramsey...
LAJ12345 in reply to
Interesting. Thanks
ssrs in reply to
My husband just started taking the COQ10 with ubiquinol. On another note, have you heard anything about Mannitol helping with Parkinson’s? I am just starting to do some research now.
staying with the sun exposure: We spend the majority of our summer May to September at the lake. This year SWMBO said "I want a bigger garden" so dutifully I went out and expanded what I hope is not going to be a smorgasbord for the deer! Secondly the garden is in a section of land that has some nice big Douglas Fir and a few Spruce trees, which provide a lot of shade all day. Strange how the species of Hexageenia (Sp?) in our lake are so big,I muse that it so they can sting you through a canvas Rain Coat! (OUCH) May flies season i s still a few weeks away. Anyway, My wife noticed how well tanned the backs of my hands and my face were last Friday.
So if I was to get that much tanning while working in and out of the sunlight for a week + - what is the max time I should be exposing myself to the sun for the minimum required amount of benefits for the body whole...?
PS we are at 3000ft so air is a bit thinner...
Sunlight therapy might have a photobiomodulating effect. Look for photobiomodulation or infrared light or near infrared or LLLT (low level light (or laser) therapy) and Parkinson disease. There are some papers, reports mainly, that show improvement of the symptoms in a number of patients.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Although there are early and encouraging indications, further research is required.
There are are several light therapy devices for the body and the head.
Research 'Clint Ober and earthing/grounding'. I sit out with my bare feet on the ground and my rigidity pain disappears. Natures medicine!
in reply to Cyndeb22
Hi Cyndeb22, I have heard of grounding and walked barefoot on the lawn once or twice. I don't doubt that there is benefit from this practice.
On a bright summer day it could be needed but on a dull winter day you are not getting enough natural light if you are only out for a short walk and then block most of the light.Was it a first sign of PD or does wearing dark glasses all the time outside exacerbate PD? That is the question I have been asking. I'm pretty sure it makes mood worse after watching hubby. He also suffers from bright light but now walks with a hat and his clear glasses.
I have read and listened to quite a few articles on this and it seems light at various wavelengths is as important as chemicals to our health. Now we sit under LED and fluorescent lights most of our lives we are missing these wavelength nutrients. At least previously tungsten lightbulbs provided a broader spectrum but new lightbulbs have a very small range of wavelengths.
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