Have you ever spent a November in rainy Manchester UK?
What about a winter in Utqiagvik USA?
If you have, you'll know what a downer
can be living without much sunshine.
You might even suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD
which might not be classified as a mood disorder these days,
but experts still tell us that going without sunshine
does affect the moods of many people.
Some folks even buy themselves a lamp and just sit in front of it,
hoping some happiness chemicals will flood the brain.
That's known as Bright Light Theraphy.
We love the Sun. And a lack of those calming rays leads to a humdrum existence for some.
But what would happen if we totally went without it?
That's what we'll find out today in this episode of The Infographics Show
For a long time, it was said that people did indeed suffer from depression
as a direct result of not having enough sunshine in their lives.
It's understandable, giving that we often associate sunshine with happiness.
Just look at how many pop-songs relate sunny days to being full of joy.
Nonetheless, according to the US National Institute of Health
the explanation for the relationships between seasonal changes and
exasperation of psychopathology remain unclear.
Studies tell us a lack of sunshine could lead
to depletion of our favourite brain chemical, serotonin.
And there is evidence of people killing themselves because of too much darkness.
It's thought but not conclusive that sunlight travelling through the retina and enter the central nervous system
might trigger releases of serotonin.
It's also thought that sunlight on the skin
may influence our serotonin levels.
But does that mean everyone in Yuma, Arizona is jumping for joy
each and every sunny day?
Does that mean citizens of some of those dark Norwegian towns spend every fall
sharpening their cut throat razors in time for the long winter?
Not at all! It's not that simple.
Okay. So let's get down to business.
We know lack of sunlight can make some people unhappy.
But what if we didn't get any sunlight at all for a whole year?
If the Sun went out, we don't need to tell you, it will be a disaster.
No sun means no lives on earth.
Well, the earth retains some heat and it takes sunlight eight and a half minutes to get to us.
So, we'd be okay for a short while.
In a matter of days, temperature would be lower than -100
and while some microorganisms living below the Earth,
most living things would freeze and die.
But let's look at a more realistic scenario.
Afterall, some people on this planet might go to work in the dark, staying at office all day
and then go home in the dark.
As we know, those people not getting any Sun would suffer from a lack of Vitamin D
because sunshine gives us that.
Most health experts would tell you that getting at least
5 to 15 minutes of Sun on your skin every other day is a good thing.
This is because of the Sun's ultravoilet raidations can make our bodies create this Vitamin.
Don't put your f?
cuz as you know, too much of this radiation can cause
skin cancer, cataracts, or even cause viruses to activate.
But how much sun should we get?
One size doesn't fit all.
The National Institute of Health tells us a half hour in the summer sun in a bathing suit
can initiate a release of 50,000 international units, or
1.25 milligrams of Vitamin D into the circulation
Within 24 hours of exposure, this same amount of exposure gives 20,000 to 30,000 IU in tanned individuals
and 8,000 to 10,000 IU in dark-skinned people.
That's like good amount to get.
Sitting under the bright Sun all day, however as those crazy tanners like to do,
is thought to be dangerous.
If you go without a little bit of sunshine in your life
it could cause disease and weaken the bones.
The clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology tells us that people
living in places that don't get much Sun have a higher chance of getting colon cancer,
Hodgkin's lymphoma, ovarian cancer,
high blood pressure, pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer.
A few hundred years ago,
it's said many people in Northern Europe
mainly children, suffered from rickets, a weakening of the bones
because they weren't getting enough sunlight.
In the 19th century, doctors realised that
by exposing the sun-starved kids to UVR via mercury
or carbon arc lamps could help reduce the number of rickets cases.
It worked!
Too, doctors then realised that instances of tuberculosis could also be reduced by
getting some sun on the skin.
This became known as phototheraphy.
And it's written that such a theraphy produce a radical shift in how we thought about our shiny friend in the sky.
People were told by doctors to get more sun
even to treat wounds,
but also diabetes, ulcers, rheumatic disorders and gout.
We also realise decades later that too much sun
might cause certain cancers
such as melanoma, basal cell carcinoma and squamos cell carcinoma.
Some of those pale Brits that went over to sunny Australia could have told you that.
Anyhow, scientists generally agree that we should get enough sun to produce Vitamin D.
How much is enough is still up for debate.
The World Health Organisation tells us to practice moderation,
which means getting out under the Sun for about 10 minutes a few times a week.
That should be easy, right?
Well, tell that to those folks live in Manchester
who ? dawn until dusk shifts through the winter
Back to our main question,
what if we went a year without sunlight?
Well, the best answer to this question would be to look at people who actually did that.
It's said that a total lack of Vitamin D could lead to death
because it'll cause low calcium levels that could lead to spasms in the larynx
Worst case scenario of this happening is suffocation.
That doesn't generally happen though,
because we get Vitamin D in food, such as eggs, fish, juice and cheese.
That's why, when the media a few years ago reported that a religious sect in Kazan, Russia
had been living underground for around a decade.
They weren't all disease-ridden or dead.
Some of the children aged between one and seventeen have never seen daylight.
wrote the UK's telegraph
Members of this Islamic sect were arrested,
and the kids were sent to hospital for checkups.
But from what we can see, they were in okay health.
Not surprisingly though, if you look at photos of these kids, they were kind of pasty to say the least.
So we know that lack of sun can make us sick in some ways,
but we also know that we can live without it.
But what in fact would a total lack of sun have on our minds?
Would we all be glommed, listening to Radiohead's OK Computer on repeat
and reading antevasin photography?
The position that life is so painful we should never have been born?
Well, the Atlantic wanted to know the answer to this
One of the magazine's journalist travelled to Tromso, Norway, where people live with the Polar Night that lasts an entire winter.
Okay. That's not a year.
But imagine living in darkness for a few months.
The article set up a study conducted by BMC psychiatry about the people of this town.
Were all those folks depressed? The outcome was that the people of Tromso
were no more depressed during winter than people in cities in the US.
Th Atlantic writer spent the entire winter there
and said he just got used to it.
The darkness had an appeal of its own.
He concluded as someone who moved from New Jersey to Georgia because he hated the cold.
My personal experiment in winter time mindset has left me convinced that
with a right mindset, it's easy to love the Polar Night.
In conclusion,
we can say that we should get some sun on our skin a few times a week.
And we believe that sunlight can promote happiness.
Saying that, we could live without sunlight for a year and we could adjust to it mentally.
We just wouldn't wanna do that, as the outcome would likely be ill health for some.
But, how about you? What's the longest you've been without Sun?