Why Sunbath is Important

Sunbath is also called heliotherapy. It has been a very old practice. The mentions of this can be found in ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian history. The Romans used sunbath to train the gladiators because it strengthens and enlarge their muscles.

Earlier people have worked mostly outdoors, and most of the time in sunlight. Now with the advancement of civilization, we work most of the time indoor. Even while going to offices, we don’t really face the sun, and most of the time moving inside a vehicle. Several brands of sunglasses have been introduced which are meant to protect our eyes from the so called harmful sunlight. In this article we will look at the other side of the story and try to provide some beneficial impact about the sunlight and sunbath.

Sunlight is basically consists of 3 types of light waves:

Visible light (wavelength of 390nm to 790nm): This is the light which we can see through our eyes. It though appears to us as white; it is basically a mixture of 7 lights known as VIBGYOR.

Infra red light (wavelength of 790nm to 1mm): This light we can not see we our naked eyes as it does not fall under the visibility range. It generates the heats of the light.

Ultraviolet light (wavelength of 300nm to 390nm): Every body is aware of this light and its effect in causing cancer especially due to huge promotion of different cosmetic companies, but this light also helps in producing vitamin D in our skin. A deficiency of vitamin D can cause Rickets in humans.

Benefits of Sunbath:

Regular sunbath increase white blood cells (WBC) in the body and thus increases our immunity system.

It helps regulating blood sugar level and helps lowering blood pressure.

Regular sunbath helps nourishing the muscles. If the skin is deprived of sunlight for a very long period, the muscles tend to weaken and degenerate.

Sunlight helps in recovering wounds. It also helps to alleviate pain from swollen arthritic joints.

Sunbath is particularly beneficial for pregnant woman. It reduces the usual pregnancy discomfort such as fatigue, backache, nausea etc.

Sunbath is the best way to get Vitamin D. Vitamin D is crucial for the development of human body. It helps in calcium absorption from the intestine and deposition in the bones. As mentioned above, vitamin D prevents diseases like Rickets.

Recent studies also proved that regular sunbath helps in quality sleep.

The best time for sunbath is morning or afternoon when the temperature is mild. It is better to cover the head with some clothes before taking the sunbath. The expose time can vary from 5 minute to 1 hour. It is also advisable to take a bath with cold water after being exposed to the sun.

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Solar Energy: A basic Idea

My earlier blog have some idea on the different renewable energies. This will focus little bit on the Solar energy.

The word Solar is Latin and it means Sun.so the solar energy refers to the various way we can generate our usable energy from the Sun.

It is measured by scientists that the amount of energy which our planet receives in one hour is equivalent to the energy what we all use in an year. So you can have an idea the amount of energy we are blessed with through Sun. Solar energy uses this energy source to make it in the usable format like electricity or thermal energy. Following are two of the technologies that converts solar power to usable energies:

Concentrating Solar Power:

Most of the power plants uses fossil fuel be it petroleum oil or coal to produce electricity. They heat the water by those fuels and steam is used to spin the turbine and thus release electricity. With solar power technology the heat from the sun is concentrated to boil the water and thus omits the use of fossil fuel. Only downside is that it requires to focus the lenses to the sun and thus the uses of this type of solar power can be limited to the sunniest parts of the globe only.

Photo-Voltaic Cells:

Another technique is the use of photo-voltaic cells to produce electricity from the sun light. It was first discovered by scientists in 1954 that silicon generates some electric charge when exposed to sun light. Initially solar cells are used to power space satellites, calculators and watches but in later stages the uses of solar cell have increased very widely. Solar panel which consists of many solar cells are used power the houses. In an average 10 to 20 such panels are enough the power the house.

Once the sun light falls upon solar cells it convert the light (not heat) to the direct current(DC). These cells can even perform on the cloudy days also. But more the intensity of the light more current will be generated. These DC then taken to an inverter which converts it to AC(alternative current) and then you can use it like normal electricity.

Initially these are created only from silicon but now a days they are prepared from silicon as well as non silicon materials. On the downside, this photo-voltaic cells are expensive to start with. But if you consider the total use span it usually evens out.

There are other technology also which uses the heat of the sun and provide hot water to the houses and businesses. There is also a process called solar process heat, which uses solar energy to heat or cool the commercial and industrial buildings.

What do you think about solar energy? Are you a part of it? Share your thoughts.

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