Is The Sun Good For Us?

Authors Avatar

Is The Sun Good For Us?

The sun is often portrayed as bad – it’s UV radiation a cause of skin cancer and other harmful ailments, however without it we and most other animals and plants would not exist. It is also shown to have many positive effects such as vitamin D production. In my case study I am going to go into this in depth and try to find out whether the sun is good or bad for us. Points discussed will include:

  • The weather
  • Vitamin D production
  • Treatment of mental disorders
  • Treatment of diseases and cancers
  • Heat exhaustion
  • Cataracts
  • And skin cancer

I believe that the sun is, overall, good for us. The evidence that persuades me is that without the Sun, the Earth's only source of energy would be geothermal. So, excepting some bacteria and small animals that live near geothermal vents under the oceans, all life on the planet would become extinct. Someone might disagree with me because they think that “it is a common misconception that the sun is necessary for the survival of human life.”(killer boot-) the evidence they use is a test done on a wide variety of mammals that has shown that minimal exposure to the sun and it’s harmful UV radiation could result in much healthier dispositions, including better tissue regeneration, eyesight and other positive characteristics. I would persuade them they were wrong by the fact that even if we could survive without sunlight there is no evidence to suggest plants could – and therefore we would die of starvation instead. Also I think their conclusion may be biased or wrong because there was only one experiment carried out and their information might not be all that reliable because it was found on yahoo.com where anyone can post a comment.

Join now!

Where UV is in the radiation spectrum.

Another piece of evidence that persuades me that the sun is good for us is that 75% of the body's vitamin D supply is generated by the skin's exposure to UVB rays from the sun.  

The effect of vitamin D in the sun’s UV radiation on your body.

Vitamin D regulates the absorption of calcium from food, promotes bone formation, is good for the hormonal parathyroid gland, and promotes anti-bodies that fight tumours. Also women with high levels of vitamin D are up to 50% less likely to ...

This is a preview of the whole essay