Did you know that natural light can improve health and help cure some medical conditions? It can! Interior lighting can alleviate the common problems that affect people every day like – problems like overeating, oversleeping, work disturbance and energy loss.
Improved light can have other positive effects as well. In fact, one controversial study showed that improved light could contribute to increased muscle strength. Improved light can even help cure conditions like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), rickets, and osteomalacia.
The Curative Effects of Natural Lighting
In recent months, we’ve written quite a bit about the effect of light on the body. If you’ve been following our blog, you know that light can improve your overall health by building up the immune system, improving mood and contributing to a healthy circadian rhythm. However, we haven’t covered much the effect of light on specific conditions.
Rickets and Osteomalacia
Rickets is a disease that causes young children to develop bone deformations. This condition can be cured by sunlight.
How is this possible?
The development and maintenance of healthy bones is dependent upon the body’s ability to absorb calcium and phosphorus. If the body doesn’t have enough vitamin D, the body can’t absorb the calcium and phosphorus it needs for normal bone development. Sunlight causes the body to develop vitamin D, ergo, exposure to sunlight can help cure rickets.
Sunlight deficiency can also cause a condition called osteomalacia in adults. Osteomalacia is characterized by a malformation of the skeleton, wherein the skeleton becomes very weak. Just as exposure to light can help cure rickets, it can also help cure Osteomalacia.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
SAD is a condition that occurs when circadian rhythms are disrupted. This happens when the body is exposed to less light in winter. People who live farther north are more likely to experience depression in winter, due to the weaker sunlight. In Sarasota, FL, for example, less than 10% of the population experiences SAD annually. Approximately 30% of the population is affected by this condition in Nashua, NH.
This condition is most often seen in adults ages 20 to 40, but even children can suffer from SAD. Symptoms of SAD include sadness, irritability, fatigue, inability to concentrate, trouble performing in school and the workplace.
Although people naturally experience fluctuations in mood throughout the year, SAD is a condition that starts in late fall or early winter and continues for several months. Some people who suffer from SAD feel ongoing persistent sadness, while others get sluggish and put on weight. These symptoms are reversed in summer.
The cure for SAD is light therapy, which can stop the symptoms within a few days. Once light therapy stops, the patient might relapse in as little as two days. Patients who suffer from SAD must get light therapy. Increasing exposure to daylight can help as well.
Install Skylights. Increase Exposure to Natural Daylight. Improve Your Health.
It’s clear that natural daylight is good for your body, and can help you stay healthy. One of the ways that you can increase your exposure to natural daylight – especially in winter – is by installing a beautiful skylight in your home.
VTECH Skylights are designed to improve your home’s value and overall beauty by increasing your home’s daylighting. VTECH Skylights are elegant as well functional, and will improve your home inside as well as out. Our solid-state skylights are made from glass chemically bonded with the frame to become one piece. Our skylights are guaranteed never to leak, so you can enjoy years of natural daylight indoors – without worry that your skylights will fail.
Something else you’ll love about your skylights – they’re highly energy efficient. Even as you’re exposed to natural daylight through the glass, you won’t experience any of the negative effects of heat from the sun, or furniture fading from UV rays.
To learn more about how VTECH skylights can improve your home’s value, contact VTECH today. We’ll be happy to answer your questions and help you choose the right skylights for your property.