I’ve recently been hammered with a few successive illnesses. I’m used to being healthy and taking it for granted. I’m coming to the end of an upper respiratory virus currently (day 5) and so I listened to a podcast on “The People’s Pharmacy” about winter viruses. At the end of the talk, the critical care internal medicine physician reminded people how important sunlight is to our health in our northern latitudes. This is proven by studying the rates of viral URI’s (upper respiratory infections) according to the time of year and the hemisphere in which the statistics are acquired. He said as his last piece of advice for avoiding getting sick, “Get 15 minutes of sunlight every morning.”
I’d heard this before. From an 80 year old acquaintance who is quite astute. Because of my skin, I pretty much cover up and avoid the sun entirely and I’ve always known I’m probably missing something important. I do believe that importance has caught up with me. So this very morning I found a sunny spot against a brick wall in my backyard and sat with my coffee for 15”, cat on lap, pant legs pulled up, and long sleeves pulled up to get some of the sun to my skin. It felt sublime and healing. Talk about absorbing a positive energy from outside of myself, and for free, too!! For the most benefit, it is suggested we do this practice within an hour of getting up. Also, a useful piece of advice is the hydrate with water before starting to drink coffee each day. I feel this is also quite important.
I hope this advice helps someone else avoid viruses this season and every year to come!!
