Hello!
Just a quick reminder – I will be on Blab this week, Wednesday June 1, 2016 at 12noon MST talking about Travel and Your Must Have Top Ten Remedy kit for first aid emergencies. For sure! Missed a couple of weeks as I was on the road myself and I have a homeopathy to the rescue first aid story to share. I was VERY glad that I had my travel kit with me. Hint – finger meets asphalt road and emergency room visit. How homeopathy can help on the way to get professional medical care.
And on to today’s content…
Until I read guest author, Kathleen Taylor’s article I hadn’t really considered how we could improve our eye health by ‘sunning’.
Check it out. Thanks Kathleen for some great information and suggestions for a couple of homeopathic remedies to have in your home kit.
Sunglasses – good idea? Or not?
My prompting for researching this information is the large number of small children – even babies – who now sport sunglasses. For all things in life, there is balance and with that in mind, I would like to look at health benefits of the sun and sunglasses use and finding a balance in appreciating both.
The sun is the battery that keeps our planet alive. We live in the sun – this is a fact – so we can learn to be in the sun and continue to benefit from what those rays have to offer, as well as take care of the repercussions of too much sun. The benefits of being in the sun start with Vitamin D – such a vital component to our systems that we even take extra during winter and realize the goodness in our immune systems with less sickness. Vitamin D also helps to lift low moods in northern climates during those long winter months.
Sunning the Eyes
The very best way to take in sunlight is through sunning your eyes. Close your eyes and look at the sun for a few minutes each day, 5-10 minutes, depending on the intensity of the sun at the time you are looking at it. On a hot summer day it would be best to do this either earlier morning or later in the evening. If you are sensitive to the sun, spend less time sunning. The most important thing is to keep your eyes CLOSED!! The idea is that you are absorbing the sun’s rays through your closed eyes, in a gentle and time monitored manner.
The benefits of sunning your eyes are far more than you would have imagined:
- Light tolerance will increase so you’ll have less squinting and less need for sunglasses.
- Visual acuity increases, colors become brighter.
- Night perception and ability to visualize darkness will increase, which increases your ability to deeply relax and to see at night.
- The warmth of the sun relaxes tight eye muscles which then release their grip on the eyeball. Eyeballs want to vibrate for clear vision (saccadic motion) and this is better accomplished during and after sunning. This is a great exercise for decreasing astigmatism!
- Light stimulates the retinal cells, hypothalamus, visual cortex and pituitary gland. Exposure to full-spectrum lighting is an effective therapy for treating depression and infection, as well as regulating bodily functions.
- The pineal gland is also activated by light. The pineal gland helps to regulate sleep and produces melatonin.
- You receive all the healing rainbow colors in the full spectrum light contained in direct white sunlight.
While sunning, gently rotate your head, which promotes relaxation. See what the subconscious wants to bring to ‘light’ by allowing inner thoughts and images to surface. This is a time to enjoy a brief meditation and regrouping during the day. When it’s cloudy, you can ‘sun’ the eyes by using a light in your home and allow yourself the same time and space to just relax and trigger the sunning benefits. SAD lights are commonly used during winter months for just this purpose.
Be mindful when in the sun and sunning the eyes as certain medications can increase your eye and skin sensitivity to the sun. This includes drugs such as birth control pills, diuretics, tranquilizers, tetracycline, some antipsychotic meds and sulfa drugs.
Homeopathic Remedies
Two homeopathic remedies made from plants for the eyes are Euphrasia or Eyebright and Cinararia Maritima or Dusty Miller. Euphrasia (Eyebright) may be taken either orally, in homeopathic preparation or as eye drops when prepared specifically as such. Eyebright can also be used as a tea to bathe the eyes. This remedy is very useful to heal conjunctivitis (pink eye), dryness, burning or swelling of the eyes. This remedy is also helpful for a sense of pressure in the eyes or watering eyes. Its’ common name tells the tale- your eyes will look and feel brighter!
The Dusty Miller has a white overtone to the plant, hence the name and also an indication of the symptoms this remedy is helpful for – cataract opacity, the white filter that grows over the cornea of the eye diminishing vision over time. This plant, prepared in homeopathic eye drops (Cinararia Maritima), when used regularly is used to decrease or remove opacity on the cornea. (If eye problems occur it’s best to consult a professional eye specialist or homeopath before starting treatment).
When is too much sun harmful?
For all that we can do to help our eyes for good health in the sun too much direct sun can be harmful. If you’re downhill skiing or out on the water, sunglasses can help to shield your eyes from the reflective glare that damages the eyes – a brimmed hat creates a great shade block for the eyes in sunny weather and should be your first go to.
Too much sun can potentially damage the delicate skin around your eyes; your lens (which may contribute to the development of certain types of cataracts – cloudiness of the lens); the white of the eye – (inflammation and thickening which can cause pterygia that can grow and interfere with vision) and macula degeneration.
This damage is caused from unprotected sun exposure over long periods of time and should not be confused with the benefits of sunning the eyes with eyes closed, in a time monitored exercise. The advantage of sunning is that eye health increases and the likelihood of these damaging effects are lessened!
Choosing Sunglasses
When choosing sunglasses, it’s important to know what qualities to look for. Sunglasses tend to be about fashion and many prefer style to necessity. Unfortunately, many people have diminished their ability to tolerate even minimal sunlight or light in general from overuse of sunglasses and now feel they need to wear sunglasses in bright rooms – indoors!
The darkness of the tint of lenses and the cost of the glasses can be deceptive. You can get a good pair of UV block sunglasses for a reasonable price. While both plastic and glass lenses absorb some UV light, UV absorption is improved by adding certain chemicals to the lens material during manufacturing or by applying special lens coatings. Always choose sunglasses that are labeled as blocking 99-100% of UV rays. Some manufacturers’ labels say ‘UV absorption up to 400nm’. This is the same thing as 100% UV absorption. If your sunglasses claim to be ‘100 percent UV protected’, they must live up to that claim. UV protection is the most important factor in buying effective sunglasses.
Listen to your body. When sunglasses are necessary, use them. Generally speaking a hat with a visor or brim will shade the eyes to provide enough sun protection for all ages in daily life. Wearing sunglasses automatically reduces the bodies’ ability to take in the nourishment of the sun and simply doesn’t let the eyes work as they were designed to. If the light is uncomfortable to your eyes or causes you to squint, put on a hat, find some shade or temporarily use sunglasses.
For more tips you can go to Kathleen’s website and check out diet suggestions for improving eye health. There are more suggestions for choosing your sunglasses too in Kathleen’s full article.
Yours in health and healing,
Donna
