Richard Hobday, MSc, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized researcher and author with many years of experience in solar building design. A leading authority on the history of sunlight therapy, he lives in Scotland.

Publisher’s Preface

Introduction

1. Your Body and Mind in the Sun
Vitamin D and “The Vitamin D Winter”
Deficiency or Insufficiency?
Sunlight, Cholesterol, and Vitamin D
Sunlight and Skin Type
Sunlight and the Blood
Sunlight and Growth
The Psychology of the Sun Winter Blues and Light Hunger

2. The Decline of the Sun
Artificial Indoor Light
Comfort and Health
Ozone Depletion and Sunbathing
Sunlight and Cataracts
Skin Cancer
Sunscreens and the Sun
Sunlight, Free Radicals, and Vitamins

3. How Sunlight Can Prevent Serious Health Problems
How Common is Vitamin D Deficiency?
Sunlight and Brittle Bones
Osteoporosis, the “Silent Epidemic”
Rickets and Osteomalacia -- the “Diseases of Darkness”
Tuberculosis and the Sun
Surgical Tuberculosis
Sunlight and Cancer Prevention
Colon Cancer and the Sun
Breast Cancer and the Sun
Prostate Cancer and the Sun
Ovarian Cancer and the Sun
Sunlight Therapy and Cancer
Sunlight and the Heart
Sunlight and Diabetes
Multiple Sclerosis
Sunlight and Tooth Decay
Psoriasis

4. Sunlight: A Medicine for Diseases of the Past, Present, and Future
The Open-Air Treatment of Infectious Diseases
The Open-Air Treatment of Tuberculosis
Sunlight Therapy in the Ancient World
The Rediscovery of Sunlight as a Medicine
Sunlight and Smallpox
War Wounds, Sunlight, and Open Air
Dr Oskar Bernhard (1861-1939): The Healer of Wounds Bernhard’s Heliotherapy of War Wounds
Dr Auguste Rollier, the “High Priest” of Sunlight Therapy The Rollier Method of Sunbathing for Health Making the Most of Sunlight Sunlight and Sea Bathing Then and Now

5. How to Sunbathe Safely
Vitamin D, Health, and the Ageing Process
Time of Day and Time of Year
The Solar Calendar
The Solar Year
Latitude and Altitude
Air Pollution
Surroundings
Ambient Temperature
Diet and the Sun
Is Fat a Sunbathing Issue?
Diet and Skin Cancer
Sunbathing for Health: Which Diet?
Sunlamps and Solaria

6. Indoors, Outdoors
Buildings and Bacteria
Sir Leonard Hill: Comfort or Health?
The Nightingale Ward
The Fireplace and the Chimney
Indoor Health Today Sunlight Outdoors
The Orientation of Cities
Indoor Light

7. Sunlight and Health in the 21st Century
Sunlight and an Ageing Population
Ozone Depletion and Sunscreens
Buildings, Bacteria, and Sunlight

Conclusion

References

Recommended Reading

Acknowledgments

Index

About the Author