What Are the Benefits of Sunlight Beyond Vitamin D?

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What are the benefits of sunlight beyond Vitamin D? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert, and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Sarah from Twitter asks, what are the benefits of sunlight beyond vitamin D? Hey, it's jj and today I have Max Lugubert, the author of the New York Times bestselling book Genius Foods and Now the Genius Life, here with me to answer this question. Now, besides being an author, he's also a filmmaker and a health and science journalist. In fact, he was pre med in college and then he took this introductory course in filmmaking and bam. Fell in love with storytelling and then figured out a way to merge all those interest. He also sings and he plays the guitar and even released an album in 2012 called One Year Later. We'll be right back.

Stay with us. Hey jj, Virgin here. Okay, real talk. So often the holidays sneak up on me, travel, gifts, hosting, you know, all the things, and suddenly it's like, wait, who spent what and where? And I know I'm not the only one who's looked at a bill in January and thought, wow, that escalated quickly. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or on your phone. Monarch lets you link everything and gives you real time visibility so you're not shocked later. Right now, I've been checking the holiday spending category so I don't accidentally start the new year with that dreaded debt hangover. And honestly, just seeing everything laid out is already helping me stay more aware. This season, Monarch does the heavy lifting. It links your accounts in minutes, gives you smart categorization and super clear visuals. Yes, that end of year reset could be a real goal. This time, don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code virginonarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year. @monarch.com with the code Virgin, the holidays.

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Sunlight plays a number of important roles for one when you receive ambient daylight in through your eyes in the first half of the day, that basically anchors your body's circadian rhythm, which influences nearly every aspect of your biological functioning. I recommend getting light of an intensity of about 1000 lux. And you can easily do this even on the most overcast day just by stepping outside or by hanging out for half an hour by a large open window anchoring your body's circadian rhythm. What that's going to do is that's going to make sure that you are energized and focused during the day when you want to be. And it also makes sure that you get sleepy when you're meant to get sleepy, which is later on in the evening after the sun sets. So getting light, getting good, adequate sunlight in the morning can actually help you sleep better. And it also can improve your cognitive and physical performance throughout the day. So it really is a form of medicine. Sunlight. The other thing that the sun can do other than help your skin create vitamin D, which we know is crucially important as there are vitamin D receptors in every single organ of your body, is it can help boost cardiovascular health by helping create nitric oxide under the skin. It has been suggested in the medical literature that the UVA rays from the sun can actually help boost nitric oxide, which which increases blood flow to all of your different organs. Your brain, of course, but that also can help to reduce blood pressure, which we know is independently related to worse brain health, but then also of course, cardiovascular disease and a number of other undesirable health outcomes. So just make sure that every day you're getting a good amount of sun and don't look directly into the sun, but just make sure that you are outside. Today we spent 93% of our time indoors. And that is related to the fact that many of us are in ill health. And I think that the lack of adequate sun exposure every day, the chronic lack of adequate sun exposure, definitely plays a role in that, in my opinion.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

Hello listeners. This is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.