Sunlight is a Painkiller.

Here's how to use it to your advantage.

Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash

It Hurts

One of the most common complaints in a doctor’s office concerns pain.

The insistence to “point where it hurts” indicates the frequency and utility of appreciating, understanding, and responding to pain.

Pain tells us what is hurt or not working as it should.

We should be very attentive to this feedback system, and respond to it appropriately. Not resorting to numbing it with prescription-grade painkillers.

Before we dive in, let’s hammer down a couple of terms:

• Pain - the subjective experience

• Nociceptors - receptors on sensory nerves which respond to noxious or potentially damaging stimuli, to keep your nervous system aware of threats

• Opioid receptors - a population of receptors which bind to opioid peptides, and dampen the sensation and consequences of nociceptor activation by painful stimuli

  • Most commonly discussed = μ-opioid receptor

• Endorphin - an endogenous morphine, a peptide produced by the body which binds opioid receptors and relieves pain (amongst other things)

Curious Findings

Everyone knows someone who is in pain.

Chronic pain is one of the most common complaints in the world, and probably more so in developed countries.

In many ways, chronic pain co-occurs with depression…and some suggest that it is simply a manifestation of depression for which painkillers are often used to subdue.

But, chronic pain can arise from many causes including injuries, psychological distress, or prior surgeries. Where chronic pain goes, so does opioid abuse.

One of the most common findings in animal and human population studies is that Vitamin D levels seem to be correlated with:

• Subjective pain

• Prevalence of chronic pain & headaches

• Use of painkillers

• Addiction to opioids

Specifically, what seems to be observed is that people with high serum vitamin D have a higher tolerance for pain, are less likely to complain of pain, and less likely to need drugs to subdue their pain.

This has led doctors and scientists down some rather misguided lines of reasoning. In part because we know what a potent anti-inflammatory and overall good-health agent Vitamin D is.

And so, in their research they insist on focusing on vitamin D:

More recently, we find studies looking at vitamin D supplementation as a means to modulate pain.

Ultimately hitting a roadblock, quote:

…we conclude that vitamin D supplementation is able to decrease pain scores…despite no significant change in VAS [pictorial scale indicating pain intensity] after increasing serum vitamin D levels.

What does this tell us?

Well, for starters…it’s probably not the vitamin D which is playing the largest role in observed findings around pain.

If it’s not vitamin D, then what is it?

These doctors do not seem to appreciate what is staring them in the face:

Vitamin D levels are an indicator of sun exposure.

Specifically, UV-B exposure. This is the ultraviolet light that reaches us most in the middle of the day, when the sun is up high.

Yes, UV-B is critical in the natural production of Vitamin D. But, UV-B is also important in the production of something else…

Before we get to that. Let’s assuage some concerns.

If you know my work, you know that I am pro-sunlight. However, the population has been brainwashed about the Sun…and have many concerns…

First, how do I avoid sunburns?

Say, no more:

How To Avoid Sunburns

Second, I’m afraid of getting skin cancer!

I got you:

The Best Investment In Your Health is FREE.

If after reading these articles, you still want to avoid the Sun…more power to you.

However, if you want to understand how sunlight and UVB help you:

• increase your threshold for pain

• reduce the subjective experience of pain

• make you less dependent on opioids…

Then, read on.

How Sunlight Reduces Pain

The above image shows you the dominant wavelengths of light that reach the earth by time of day, from sunrise to sunset. Below the color, you can see the specific temperature of the light (which you can correlate with the lighting you use at home).

As you can see, UV-B is highest in mid-day.

UVB is very important, not only for the synthesis of vitamin D.

The many effects of UV light can be well summarized by its activation/cleavage of the gene pro-opio-melano-cortin (POMC). This “supergene” is responsible for many different functions in the body. That is because this one large gene can be cleaved to make many different peptides that serve different functions:

• alpha-MSH plays a role in appetite/satiety, sexual behavior, and the movement of melanin

• ACTH is a critically important component of the endocrine system which directly impacts the function of the adrenal glands

• …and most importantly, beta-lipotropin