An argument for the sun

In the 1920s, people hung UV lamps over their children's cribs to irradiate them as they slept, believing it was a health cure. A century later, we are told to never go outside without sunscreen. Rowan Jacobson, author of The Sun and the Body, argues that both extremes miss something essential: sunlight is a physical force that interacts with our bodies in ways science is only beginning to understand, and our modern indoor lives may be far more dangerous than a little sun exposure.

The Pendulum of Sunlight: From Heliotherapy to Fear

For most of history, the idea that sunlight was bad for you would have seemed strange. This changed dramatically in the early 20th century with the rise of heliotherapy. Doctors discovered that sunlight could cure two major industrial-age diseases: rickets (a lack of vitamin D causing soft bones) and tuberculosis (specifically the skin-infecting form). The success was real, but it led to excess. Sanitariums in the Alps and California promoted the "outdoor cure," and companies like General Electric sold UV lamps for home use. The pendulum had swung to "sun is good for everything."