Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Leech

 For over 4000 years, the leech has been a familiar remedy, with Greek and Roman physicians praising the application of this clever invertebrate. 

In the 19th century leeches were enjoying a golden age. Millions were raised for medical use as their fame as a cure-all ensued. The mid 1800s saw their constant use for local bloodletting. Druggists administered thousands of leeches to patients with anything from gumboils to facial discolouration. Leeches were applied to the mouth and inside of the throat using a leech-glass, although patients frequently swallowed them. Patients were relieved only with a salty drink of water or perhaps the most popular cure-all of the day, a couple of glasses of wine. Sometimes the leech would not drink and then had to be encouraged by some blood or cream smeared at the puncture site or bathed in a warm glass of beer until ready.

Once sucking, an average leech would drink blood weighing as much as itself in about 15 minutes and consume between 2.5-5.5 grams of blood (half a teaspoon). If the bite failed to stop bleeding after the leech was removed then vinegar, silver nitrate and hot wires were applied.

Apart from using the English and Scottish leeches, huge numbers were imported from France, Hungary, the Ukraine, Turkey, Rumania, Russia, Egypt and Algeria. In 1846 in France alone, 30 million leeches were used. Hospitals in both London and Paris required 13 million between them for that single year. America produced their own leeches and one farm sold over a thousand per day. Leeches were also caught from the wild by many interesting ways, including men bathing a muddy ditch or in a stream with a glass of pig blood, rolling their trousers up and wading into the water. Here they would wait patiently for leeches to adhere themselves to their legs. After a while, back on land the feeding leeches would be stripped off and sold to leech dealers. The leech industry began its decline due to the over collection of the animal and its discredit by the medical profession. By the end of the 19th century the golden age of the leech had passed.

Today leeches are bred in captivity in many institutions including Bristol Zoo Gardens. Leeches have found new fame in microsurgery, where doctors require the precision of the leech to drain congested blood from wounded sites. Plastic surgeons are particularly grateful for the contribution made by the leech, due to their use in the treatment of difficult grafts and reconstructive surgery.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Breathing Exercises

BREATHING EXERCISES

    A 20% reduction in oxygen blood levels may be caused by the aging process and normal breathing habits. Poor breathing robs energy and negatively affects mental alertness. Unless breathing is exercised, aging affects the respiratory system as follows:

    Stiffness: The rib cage and surrounding muscles get stiff causing inhalation to become more difficult. Less elasticity and weak muscles leave stale air in the tissues of the lungs and prevents fresh oxygen from reaching the blood stream.

    Rapid, Shallow Breathing: This type of breathing, often caused by poor posture and weak or stiff muscles, leads to poor oxygen supply, respiratory disease, sluggishness, or heart disease.


BELLY BREATH EXERCISES
    The following exercises are simple ways to deepen breathing and to cleanse the lungs. These exercises will also increase energy and decrease tension.
      Lie flat on your back to get a proper sense of deep breathing. (Have some small pillows available to reduce strain by tucking them under the neck and knees. The natural course of breathing in that position will create a slight rise in the stomach upon inhaling and a slight fall upon exhaling.)

      Place your hands palm down on your stomach at the base of the rib cage. (The lungs go that far down. What fills them deeper is the pushing down of the diaphragm. The diaphragm creates a suction which draws air into the lungs. the air is then expelled when the diaphragm pushes up. In this process, the life-giving oxygen fills the lungs and gets into the blood stream for distribution to the cells. Carbon dioxide is expelled from the blood into the about-to-be exhaled breath, thus cleansing the body and blood of waste products.) Lay the palms of your hands on your stomach just below the rib cage, middle fingers barely touching each other, and take a slow deep breath. (As the diaphragm pushes down, the stomach will slightly expand causing the fingertips to separate somewhat.

      This movement indicates full use of the lungs, resulting in a truly deep breath rather than the "puffed chest" breath experienced by many as the greatest lung capacity. Chest breathing fills the middle and upper parts of the lungs. Belly breathing is the most efficient method. Infants and small children use only this method until the chest matures. The yoga breath or roll breathing combines belly and chest breathing.

    FOR BEST RESULTS, PRACTICE THIS EXERCISE FOR 5 MINUTES.


COMPLETE BREATH EXERCISES
      1. Sit up straight. Exhale.

      2. Inhale and, at the same time, relax the belly muscles. Feel as though the belly is filling with air.

      3. After filling the belly, keep inhaling. Fill up the middle of your chest. Feel your chest and rib cage expand.

      4. Hold the breath in for a moment, then begin to exhale as slowly as possible.

      5. As the air is slowly let out, relax your chest and rib cage. Begin to pull your belly in to force out the remaining breath.

      6. Close your eyes, and concentrate on your breathing.

      7. Relax your face and mind.

      8. Let everything go.

      9. Practice about 5 minutes.


HUMMING BREATH EXERCISES
    Follow the instructions for inhaling the COMPLETE BREATH (Steps 1-3 above). Now, as you begin to slowly exhale, make a HUM sound. Keep making that humming sound as long as possible. Pull your stomach muscles in, squeezing out a few more seconds of humming. Then relax. Practice for 2 to 3 minutes.

CHINESE BREATH EXERCISES
    A very fine, short (though not shallow) breath exercise comes from the Chinese Tai Chi Chuan. Three short inhales are done through the nose without exhaling. On the first inhale, the arms are lifted from the sides straight out in front at shoulder height. On the second, the arms are opened out straight to the sides while still at shoulder height. And on the third, the arms
    are lifted straight over the head. Then, on the exhale through the mouth, the arms are moved in an arc back down to the sides. Usually, ten or twelve breaths are sufficient and will not cause light headedness. If light headedness should occur, simply stop the exercise. This exercise also has the effect of really opening up people physically. In subtle ways, this exercise uses the body in leading the mind and spirit to greater openness with each other and the environment.

    CAUTION !! Especially for older people: Never do panting or shallow breathing except while seated. Hyperventilation may occur. As long as one is seated, hyperventilation will not be a problem because, even if a brief blackout should occur, the body's automatic breathing apparatus will immediately take over.


Kamasutra: The art of making love

Kama Sutra Positions - Face to face

Position classic and universal, but not for that reason boring, the face to face allows a infinity of variants to make it more attractive and exciting. The mobility of the hands, the proximity of the faces and the comfort of the bodies are the advantages that made it famous. It is not necessary to fear to prove new types of contact during the sex.It is a position that many identify with the love and the romance, the beginnings of a pair, the adolescence... but is worth the trouble to experience it in all the stages of the sexual life and to remove the juice to its advantages.

Kama Sutra Positions - The amazon

The man relaxes and lies down with the legs slightly opened and flexible towards his chest. The erection the delay to her, that one complies squatting conforming itself to the position adopted by him. The woman "feels literally" in the penis of her companion. She must do it slowly. Their thighs will impel all the movement that needs this position, where the penetration occurs in sense arrives-down. Only apt for dangerous spirits and opened minds, "the amazon" is the woman who rides her man of the wildest and primitive way.

Kama Sutra Positions - The arc

Variant of the "Face to face", the arc is a position that, through a small variant, modifies the sensations to the end. The woman remains laid down mouth with open the legs and flexible above, supporting her arms behind shoulders. When his companion is ready to penetrate it, he elevates his hips and he settles on the flexible legs of the companion. The pleasure that it receives centers in the deep penetration and the particularitity to feel all surrounded the vaginal and abdominal zone of the skin of the man. The fatigue that experiences when maintaining the position sees compensated with the power of orgasm that can cause

Kama Sutra Positions - The armchair

This position allows the position that consists of which it feels comfortably in the space that it forms with his body. With the aid of his hands, the man accommodates to his companion in his erection, controlling both the rate and the intensity of the penetration. The legs of her lean smoothly in shoulders of the man, who has his head catched and surrounded in the thighs of his companion. The man can touch clitoris of her to the time that maintains it of the waist with force. The difficulty that resides in approaching the faces and the bold thing of the proposal, turns to "the armchair" a different and extremely sensual position.

Kama Sutra Positions - The deep one

This is a position of total penetration, of there its name. With the high and opened legs, it waits to that his companion introduces the penis in his vagina to wear his legs in shoulders of him, who will support his hands to regulate the movement. To many women she can seem to them complicated, uncomfortable or painful the visualization of this position, but she is worth the trouble to prove it because she offers the absolute penetration and a unique genital contact.The difficulty to kiss and the distance of the faces can widely be exciting for both.

Kama Sutra Positions - The fusion

For this position, the man feels slightly throwing his body backwards and supporting his hands to the flank of the body. The legs can stretch itself according to the comfort that are arranged and the head can be relaxed. The woman, assuming the active roll of the occasion, passes her legs over her companion and back supports her arms of the body. The previous stimulation must be intense, since during the penetration this position prevents the manual approach and the contact of the mouths. The woman marks the rate or an encounter is agreed to penis-vagina with a movement of both towards the center. Of anyone of the two forms, he is essential that clitoris takes advantage of the impacts with the body him. The glance has a fundamental component and the word can be an incredible weapon to enjoy the fusion completely.

Kama Sutra Positions - The hammock

The man is seated (preferredly in a hard surface, not it bed), with the flexed legs and the later part is taken from its knees. This way, it receives the woman who is made penetrate complying in the space that is between the legs of him and her trunk. It presses with the knees the body of his companion, attracts it towards his causing the swing of both while, for example, it kisses the chests to him that are to the height of their face. A unique sensation that remembers the tender one to go and to come from the hammocks of the childhood.

 

Kama Sutra Positions - The mill vanes

Mouth arrives, the woman tends with the opened legs to receive its companion who, in this position, front penetrates it to the legs of her. The difference of sensations is remarkable in this type of penetration: clitoris and the vaginal lips are in the heat of contact with pelvis and the environs of the penis of the companion and the most accessible penetration are through circular movements. The fact of not being able to see itself expensive face gives a special enchantment him to the position. The newness of the caresses surprises pleasingly: the woman can caress the rumps of her companion, to smoothly nail her nails in the later part to the knees, to grasp the testicles of her companion. The man; to absorb the feet of her, to bite its fingers, to approach its hand the genitals of which they are being fused and to take its penis to penetrate it better.

Kama Sutra Positions - The mirror of pleasing

She lies down of backs. She raises his legs and she leaves him maintains them made kneel at the end of his body and supporting the other arm in the floor. The man penetrates, dominates and has the control. The position allows to vary the sense of the penetration and the opening of the legs. The faces cannot approach and the hands little can do in this position, which generates an anxiety extremely exciting: both bodies run together the race to arrive at orgasm and reflect in the other the most varied gestures.

Kama Sutra Positions - The mold

With the together and gathered legs, the woman tends of flank and backwards relaxes her head while he penetrates it, or by the vagina or the anus (excellent position for anal sex) the movements must smooth and be coordinated and the slow and deep penetration: both bodies are conformed like two perfect pieces of a puzzle... "the mold" is ideal for women who have problems in reaching orgasmo and/or please to cause the friction of clitoris during the sex.



Kama Sutra Positions - The put under one

The man lies down comfortably giving his pleasure to the will of his companion. To take advantage of this game masculine submission can be a stimulating total for both: the encounter can begin with caresses and kisses of her to him, that it always remains in the same position, to finish in the deep penetration that allows the position, where she is placed of backs and controls the movements helping itself of the arms. In addition, the man has an easy access to the anus of his companion, who can reduce the speed of the movements to enjoy the anal stimulus or that her even one touches her chests.

 

Kama Sutra Positions - The screw

Nothing else recommendable for a woman with difficulties to arrive at orgasmo that the positions that press clitoris while the vagina is penetrated. She lies down in the edge of the bed and tends her legs flexible to a flank of her body (each woman will know which of both sides is to him more comfortable). This allows to maintain clitoris catched between its better allies to arrive at orgasm: the vaginal lips. The woman can contract and relax all the zone, while he in front of penetrates made kneel her and touching his chests.

Kama Sutra Positions - The surprise

This position is ideal for the lovers of the wildest and primitive sex. The man, standing up, takes the woman behind and he penetrates it taking it from the waist. It, relaxes all her body as the gravity until supporting her hands in the floor. The man "surprises" the woman behind and counts the cadence of the sex. For her, the pleasure is concentrated in the angle of fragmentation of the vagina that, to the limited being, causes a sensation of very placentera narrowness for many women. For him, the most powerful sensation expands from glande, that enters and leaves the vaginal opening at will and caresses clitoris in the most audacious exits. In addition, the field of view of the man includes the anus, the buttocks and the highly erogenic back, zones for many. The domination that it exerts and the total relaxation of her can favor the playing of the man with the anus of her: to introduce a finger during the sex can enormously be exciting.

Kama Sutra Positions - The total hug

The pair is standing, undresses and faced. It climbs to her companion up shoulders and embraces her body with the legs. The total hug is part of a passional and creative sex, where the corporal contact is very complete. The rate of the sex can be of two ways: of above downwards or back for ahead, depending on the intensity of pleasure that both experiment with each option.

 

 

 

Kama Sutra Positions - The trapeze

The man above feels like with the open legs and their companion (already penetrated) of him. Taking it from the wrists, it is relaxed backwards until falling completely: she must be super relaxed and given to the force of his companion who attracts his body with his arms causing the necessary attack for the sex.

Ideal to change the routine and to prove new emotions...

 

Kama Sutra Positions - The wheelbarrow

On the brink of madness the bed and with the supported forearms, the woman is arranged "to be raised" of the legs by the man, who of foot behind her, penetrates maintaining it it of the thighs. The stimulus and the pleasure are concentrated in the genitals of both, but he is the man who takes to the rate attracting the body of her towards his. The variety of movements and sensations that allows the position is amazing: circular, ascending and descendent, with the closed or opened legs.

Kama Sutra Positions - Variant facing face

This classic position also is made with the woman in the dominant position, which is very exciting for many since it substantially modifies the traditional thing in the "Face to face" that is the man on the woman. The man can put his fingers in the anus of her and attract it towards his body with force taking it from the rumps.

 

Kama Sutra Positions - Variant of medusa

If the man is equipped with flexibility and resistance, this position has a very attractive variant for the lovers of the balance during the sex. Squatting, the man receives the prepared woman to be really ecstasy: their movements can imitate those of a hammock, going of back for ahead with the supported feet affluent in the floor. Of another way, it can remain immovable and to leave her moves until the end.

 

 

 

Kama Sutra Positions - Variant of the fusion

If the man relaxes and supports all his body and the woman gets up itself slightly, the fusion acquires a variant where the penetration is deeper. The rate continues taking it she and the movement that leaves with more facility is arrives-down that the woman must make on her companion. The hands of her can touch the chest of him or take penis as if masturbate to increase the pleasure of both.

 

 

Kama Sutra Positions - Variant of the put under one

Another form to prove this position is that the woman extends her body backwards, supports her arms in those of her companion and extends its legs forwards. This way, the man will be able to arrive at his chests with facility and the woman will be able to make circular movements. The penis cannot penetrate so much in the vagina, which can extremely be exciting for both.

 

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Pressure points of the body





(A) Heavenly Pillar
Relieves stress, over exhaustion, insomnia, heaviness in the head, eyestrain, stiff necks, swollen eyes, and sore throats.
(B) Heavenly Rejuvenation
Relieves nervous tension and stiff necks; increases resistance to colds and flu. It is also good for the lungs.

(C) Crooked Marsh
Relieves nervous stomach, anxiety, arm pain, elbow pain, and chest discomfort.



(D) Inner Gate
Relieves nausea, anxiety, palpitations, and wrist pain.
(E) Spirit Gate
Relieves emotional imbalances, fear, nervousness, anxiety, and forgetfulness

    

Monday, November 17, 2008

Fasting

Fasting is the avoidance of solid food and the intake of liquids only (true fasting would be the total avoidance of anything by mouth). The most stringent form of fasting is taking only water; more liberally, fasting includes the use of fresh juices made from fruits and vegetables as well as herbal teas. All of these limited diets generate varying degrees of detoxification—that is, elimination of toxins from the body. Individual experiences with fasting depend on the condition of the body (also mind and attitude). Detoxification might be intense and temporarily increase sickness or might be immediately helpful and uplifting.

Juice fasting is commonly used (rather than water alone) as a mild and effective cleansing plan; this is suggested by doctors and authors and by many of the European fasting clinics. Fresh juices are easily assimilated and require minimum digestion, while they supply many nutrients and stimulate our body to clear its wastes. Juice fasting is also safer than water fasting, because it supports the body nutritionally while cleansing and probably even produces a better detoxification and quicker recovery.

Fasting (cleansing, detoxification) is one part of the triology of nutrition; balancing and building (toning) are the others. I believe that fasting is the "missing link" in the Western diet. Most people overeat, eat too often, and eat a high-protein, high-fat, rich-food, building and congesting diet more consistently than they need. If we regularly eat a more balanced and well-combined diet, we will have less need for fasting and toning plans, although both would still be required at certain intervals throughout the year.

In a sense, detoxification is an important corrective and rejuvenative process in our cycle of nutrition. It is a time when we allow our cells and organs to breathe out, become current, and restore themselves. We do not necessarily need to fast to experience some cleansing, however. Minor shifts in the diet such as including more fluids, more raw foods, and fewer congesting foods will allow for better detoxification; for a carnivore, for example, a vegetarian or macrobiotic diet will be cleansing and purifying. The general process of detoxification is discussed thoroughly in the General Detoxification program; here we focus on fluid fasting—its history, therapeutic use, benefits, contraindications, and, of course, how to do it, along with other aspects of lifestyle that support fasting.

Cleansing Diet and Healing Diet

Cleansing diet or healing diet ay hindi lamang pangontra sa kanser, mabisang panlaban din ito sa sakit na diyabetes, hika, gout na dulot ng pagkakaroon ng mataas na uric acid, rayuma, pananakit ng katawan, altapresyon o mataas na presyon ng dugo, sakit sa puso, allergies, atbp. Nakatutulong ito nang malaki upang ma-detoxify o tanggalin ang mga toxin sa ating katawan, nang sa gayon ay lubos na gumaling at tuluyan nang mawala ang sintomas at pasakit na dulot ng mga sakit na nabanggit. Ang cleansing diet ay para sa mga taong may malusog na pangangatawan at nais lamang na makaiwas sa sakit, samantalang ang healing diet ay para sa mga taong may karamdaman at gustong gumaling ito. Makabubuting isagawa ang cleansing diet isang beses bawat linggo, samantalang ang healing diet ay tatagal ng dalawang linggo hanggang isang buwan.

Bilang panimula o preparasyon, isagawa ang cleansing diet o healing diet sa pamamagitan ng pag-inom ng 1 litro ng tubig bago matulog sa gabi at kumain ng isang uri ng prutas. Kinabukasan, kumain lamang ng isang serving ng prutas tulad ng mansanas, saging, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe o mga hilaw na gulay tulad ng karot, singkamas sticks, celery stalks, spinach at cucumber na hindi ginagamitan ng dip o dressing. Tatagal ang pagkain ng purong prutas at gulay sa loob ng dalawang linngo hanggang isang buwan para sa healing diet. Kung gusto mo, pwede mo itong kainin nang tulad ng sa salad na walang dressing o kaya ay bilang fruit at vegetable juices.

Sa cleansing o healing diet, ikaw ay kakain ng anim hanggang siyam na beses, dahil makalipas lamang ang dalawang oras, ikaw ay makakaramdam ng gutom. Sa mga diet ding ito, mas mabuti ang kumain ng maraming beses na tig-iisang serving ng prutas kaysa kumain ng tatlong beses na maramihan. Mapapadalas din ang paggamit mo ng banyo upang magbawas (2 - 3 beses sa isang araw). Ito ay dahilan sa ang mga toxin sa loob ng iyong katawan ay inaalis sa pinaka-mabilis na pamamaraan. Makabubuti rin ang pag-inom ng walo (8 ) hanggang sampu (10) 8 ounce na baso ng tubig (preferably distilled drinking water) bawat araw, upang maiwasan ang dehydration.

Sa pagtatapos ng inyong healing diet, makalipas ang dalawang linggo o isang buwan, makabubuting kumain muna ng lugaw o oatmeal o samporado (rice porridge na may tsokolate), bilang preparasyong sa pagkain ng solid food. Ito ay upang hindi mabigla ang inyong tiyan sa pag-tunaw (digestion) ng mga solid food.

Babala: Makakaramdam ka ng pagiging irritable, pagkahilo, di-makatulog at paglabas ng pimples sa iyong mukha. Lahat ng mga ito ay panandalian lamang at makalipas ang isang buwan, ang mga ito ay mawawala rin.



Ang mabuting kalusugan ay nagsisimula sa pagkakaroon ng tamang kabatiran. Ang mga tips na pangkalusugang ito ay makatutulong nang malaki sa ikabubuti ng iyong pangkalahatang kalusugan, lalo na kung gagamitin o isasagawa nang tama. Best Wishes!!!

Sunlight theraphy

In the right hands sunlight is a medicine. Throughout history it has been used to prevent and cure a wide range of diseases, and a few doctors still use its therapeutic properties to good effect. However, at the present time it is widely held amongst certain sections of the medical profession and the population at large that the damaging effects of sunlight on the skin far outweigh any benefits. Public health campaigns reinforce this message in an attempt to curb the annual increase in skin cancers. Any illusions about tanned skin being a sign of health or providing more than minimal protection to further exposure to the sun's rays seem to have been dispelled.

Sunlight may cause skin cancer, but there is also evidence that it could prevent a number of very common and often fatal diseases: breast cancer; colon cancer; prostate cancer; ovarian cancer; heart disease; multiple sclerosis; and osteoporosis. When combined, the number of people who die from these conditions is far greater than the number of deaths from skin cancer; which is why the current bias against sunlight needs, in my opinion, to be redressed.The sun transmits energy in the form of electromagnetic waves: radio waves; microwaves; infrared radiation; visible light; ultraviolet radiation; and x-rays. Only a small amount of the sun's energy reaches us, as most of it is filtered out by the earth's atmosphere, so solar radiation at ground level is composed of visible light, and ultraviolet and infrared waves. Until the latter part of the 19th century it was thought that the 'heat' of the sun -- what we now know to be the infrared rays -- caused sunburn. Then scientists discovered that it is the ultraviolet component of sunlight which causes the skin to tan, and they began to use ultraviolet radiation on skin diseases. They then found that they could get better results with sunlight itself.

Sunlight therapy has a habit of being discovered and then falling from favor, and when this happens it disappears almost without trace, sometimes for hundreds of years. It was very popular at the beginning of the 20th century, but has since seen a dramatic reversal in its fortunes with the result that a great deal of knowledge about the healing powers of sunlight has been ignored or forgotten.

Did you know, for example, that sunlight kills bacteria and is quite capable of doing so even when it has passed through window glass? Also, were you aware that sunlit hospital wards have less bacteria in them than dark wards, and that patients recover faster in wards which admit the sun? As infections actually caught in hospital are now the fourth most common cause of death after heart disease, cancer and strokes, it is worth bearing in mind.

The human race evolved under the sun, and the sun's healing powers have been worshipped for thousands of years. In fact, your forebears were probably better informed about the sun's healing properties than you are: people hold very different views on sunbathing depending on when they were alive and where they happen to live. Take, for example, a typical well-educated resident of Essen or any industrial city in Germany in the 1920s. Let us say he had served in the German army during the Great War, was wounded, and returned home having recovered from his injuries. Someone in these circumstances would have held sunlight in much higher regard than many of us do today. He would probably been aware of the scientific discoveries that had been made about light in the years immediately before the war: in 1903 the Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded to the Danish physician, Niels Finsen, in recognition of his success in treating tuberculosis of the skin with ultraviolet radiation.

Then again, during the war, military surgeons may have used sunlight to disinfect and heal his wounds at a sunlight therapy clinic in the Black Forest, or a similar institution in the Swiss Alps. Had he contracted tuberculosis on his return to Germany, sunlight therapy, or heliotherapy as it became known, might have been used to aid his recovery. The physicians who supervised the treatment of his wounds or tuberculosis would have paid very close attention to the way he responded to sunlight and, in particular, how well his skin tanned. In those days, the deeper the tan, the better the cure.

Sunbathing for health in this way required the services of skilled physicians who knew precisely the conditions most favorable for their patients: the best time of day to expose them to the sun; the best time of year; the correct temperature for sunbathing; what foods to give; how much exercise to allow in each case; which type of cloud cover would let enough of the sun's rays through to cause burning and so on. Then, as now, the overriding concern was to prevent burning; but it was the actual process of tanning which dictated the progress of the treatment and whether or not it was successful.

During the 1930s sunbathing was encouraged as a public health measure. Diseases such as tuberculosis and rickets were common in the industrial cities of Europe and North America at this time and it became accepted practice to expose anyone considered susceptible to either of them to sunlight. So the sun was used to prevent disease as well as cure it. Also, architects were introducing sunlight into buildings to prevent the spread of infection because, as we have already seen, it kills bacteria. They designed hospitals and clinics for sunlight therapy and even included special window glass so that patients could tan indoors during bad weather -- ordinary window glass prevents tanning because it acts as a barrier to ultraviolet radiation.

In marked contrast to our German friend of the 1920s, someone living in Britain today would have a very different impression of sunlight and its effects on the human body. The received wisdom is that there is no such thing as a safe or healthy tan, and that a tan is a sign of damaged skin trying to protect itself from further injury. Children and adults are advised to protect themselves from the sun; particularly during periods of sunny weather during the spring and early summer. They are to avoid the sun between the hours of 11 am and 3 pm and protect themselves with T-shirts, hats and sunscreens. As you can see, there has been a complete reversal in thinking on the subject.

Reasons for the current antipathy towards the sun are not hard to find. After the Second World War, improvements in housing and nutrition led to a marked decrease in the incidence of the very diseases which sunlight had been used to treat. When antibacterial drugs such as penicillin and streptomycin became widely available in the 1950s medical practice changed out of all recognition. These new drugs offered the prospect of rapid cures for a wide range of infections, and so the hygienic and medicinal properties of sunlight were no longer considered to be as important as they had been. Sunlight therapy became unfashionable, and was soon relegated to the position of historical curiosity.

More recently there has been a great deal of emphasis on the harmful effects of sunlight. There is now a 'hole' in the ozone layer to worry about, as well as a year-on-year increase in the incidence of skin cancer. Sunlight is undoubtedly a powerful accelerator of skin aging, and can trigger cancer in susceptible individuals but, paradoxically, it is essential to our health. The human body needs sunlight to manufacture vitamin D by synthesizing it in the skin.

The optimal level of vitamin D for health is not known, and so the amount of sunlight exposure needed to perform this vital function is still very much open to question. What this means is that warnings about sunlight being essentially harmful need to be treated with caution. Sunlight may cause skin cancer but, there is evidence that the sunlight could be crucial in preventing a number of diseases that are associated with low levels of vitamin D. Also, relatively little importance has been attached to the influence of nutrition in the genesis of skin cancer. Yet the limited amount of research carried out on the subject shows that what you eat determines how your skin responds to sunlight. The proportion of fat in your diet, together with the vitamin and mineral content of your food, could decide how likely you are to sustain skin damage in the sun.

The medical literature on sunbathing is contradictory: one field of investigation highlights the benefits while another stresses the dangers. One of the more unfortunate developments in modern medicine is a trend towards specialization. In these circumstances it is difficult not to be unduly influenced by the views of experts in one field or another and miss the wider picture. It becomes much more difficult to see the wood for the trees or, rather, the sunlight through the trees.

Indeed, to fully appreciate the beneficial effects of sunlight it is sometimes advantageous to put aside conventional medical thinking altogether and look to other traditions of healing. Sunlight, when used as a medicine, does not lend itself to the western reductionist method of analysis: trying to fathom its therapeutic effects at a molecular level, to the exclusion of all else, may not be the best way to unlock its secrets.

When sunlight has been valued as a medicine, architects have often produced buildings which admitted the sun's rays. But when sunlight is out of favor with doctors, as is the case at present, there is little incentive for architects to make provision for it in their buildings. There has been a tendency for therapeutic properties of sunlight to be held in much higher regard during periods when prevention was considered to be as important as cure. In these circumstances the demarcation between physician and architect was often much less marked than is the case today. In the past, architects were encouraged to have some knowledge of medicine.

During the last thirty years the hygienic and medicinal properties of sunlight have had little influence on the building professions. Where solar architecture has been adopted it has been for the purposes of energy conservation rather than health; even though it has long been recognized that getting sunlight into buildings has a favorable impact on the well-being of occupants.

Sunlight penetration into buildings is now regarded as 'beneficial' or 'desirable' but this aspect of design still receives a relatively low priority. Indeed, the benefits of getting sunlight into buildings, other than psychological, would not be obvious to anyone reading the current literature on building design. As we now spend so much of our time indoors, I believe the advantages of living or working in a sunlit space need to be more widely studied and appreciated than is the case at present.

Sunlight therapy was a medicine of the pre-antibiotic era, when infectious diseases were commonplace and the only defense against them was a strong immune system. Since then, for about fifty years, tuberculosis, pneumonia, septicemia and a host of other potentially fatal illnesses have been kept under control by antibiotics. Unfortunately an increasing number of bacteria are becoming resistant to drugs and there are signs that the development of new antibiotics is falling behind the ability of organisms to adapt and acquire resistance. If matters do not improve, then therapies which increase our natural resistance to disease may receive rather more attention than they have in recent years. The emergence of resistant bacteria may also come to have an influence on building design.

Please note: There are medical conditions which are made worse by exposure to sunlight, and some drugs, such as antihistamines, oral contraceptives, antidiabetic agents, tranquilizers, diuretics and a number of antibiotics, increase sensitivity to the sun. Anyone about to embark on a program of sunbathing should check with their doctor if they are in any doubt about their health or any medicines which they are taking.