It’s alright: here comes the sun

11:45am Tuesday 13th May 2008

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The region has just basked in its longest sunny spell since 2006. But why does sunshine make life feel better? Owen Amos speaks to experts to find out

I need to laugh and when the sun is out
I've got something I can laugh about
I feel good in a special way
I'm in love and it's a sunny day. Good Day Sunshine, The Beatles SUNSHINE - marvellous, isn't it?

The sky is blue, trees are green and blossom is pink. People eat ice cream, smile and are glad to be alive. If only young men could keep their shirts on.

But why does sun make us feel good? Why do we rush to the garden, or the beach, when the sun emerges? Is it psychological, chemical, or both? Or does it date back to our days of caves without radiators, when sunshine meant one fewer bearskin and one fewer night without the fear of freezing to death?

HAPPY HORMONES

WHEN sunshine floods into your eyes, a series of reactions between retina and brain produces serotonin. "It is the happy hormone," says Dr Amanda Ellison, lecturer in the department of psychology at Durham University. "If you have an increase in light, you have an increase in serotonin." Serotonin boosts moods, relieves stress and eases depression. So, when the sunshine makes your walk to work that bit better, that's the serotonin kicking in.

As a result, it's thought a lack of sun, and subsequently a lack of serotonin, can cause Seasonal Affective Disorder - the condition that causes depression through winter months. "The brain is getting fooled into thinking it's time to hibernate," says Dr Ellison. "One of the treatments is to administer serotonin, for example, through banks of lights."

Dr John Canning, Middlesbrough GP, says fewer people enter his surgery in summer than in winter, although the difference is not as great as 20 years ago.

"More people are on holiday in summer, there are fewer coughs and sneezes," he says. "Good weather tends to make people feel better and they have better things to do than going to the doctor's."

THE WONDER VITAMIN

WE need vitamin D. And, as it's hard to find in food, we get 90 per cent of it through sunshine - the skin produces vitamin D from ultra violet rays.

The benefits of vitamin D are huge. For a start, it's vital in absorbing calcium, which make our bones - and plenty else. "We have a lot of uses for calcium, it's not just bones," says Dr Ellison. "Our muscles need it, our nerves need it. It's more important for more things than people realise."

Ultra violet light is the main cause of malignant melanoma - the worst form of skin cancer. However, recent research has shown vitamin D can also fight the disease - meaning sunshine can prevent, as well as cause, cancer. "Vitamin D is now implicated in the prevention of an increasing number of disorders," says Prof Mary Norval, from the University of Edinburgh, who studied the effects of sunshine. "These include internal cancers, such as colon, breast, prostate and ovarian cancers. Sunscreens shield the body from the type of UV light needed to make vitamin D, so covering any exposed skin with sunscreen at all times is not advisable." Just ten minutes of sun a day can provide enough vitamin D.

And, when your body is well, your mind will be too. "There is a big link between how your body feels and how your mind feels," says Dr Ellison. "If you don't feel right, you get tired - your body is trying to figure out what's going wrong."

Last year, Muslim women in the UK were warned that wearing the hijab could cause poor health for them and their babies, as covering up causes vitamin D deficiency. A Government spokesman said: "We are not interfering in a Muslim woman's right to wear the hijab, but we are stressing that we all need sunlight on our skins."

Dr Canning says a balance is needed. "I have seen somebody this morning with an early skin cancer, almost certainly caused by sun exposure," he says. "But we wouldn't want people to sit indoors all day, as that would cause a separate set of problems. The danger is sun burn, and going red, rather than sun exposure."

Vitamin D can also make women look younger, according to research. Last year, a King's College London study of more than 2,000 women found those with higher vitamin D levels showed fewer signs of ageing.

THAT GOLDEN TAN

A SUNNY weekend means a golden tan - or burnt face - to impress your colleagues on Monday morning. Why - on the off chance anyone notices - do tans make us more self-confident and attractive?

Fair skin was trendy up to Victorian times - women even used arsenic to lighten their faces. However, from the 1920s, celebrities such as Coco Chanel, started burning their skin, starting the tanning craze. Where tans were linked to farmhands, and low-skilled, manual labour, they are now linked to health and jet-set wealth.

"For most of the last 500 years, a tan was considered the mark of a hard-working person who toiled outside," Dr Nina Jablonski, author of Skin: A Natural History, told the New York Times. "A tan was eschewed by people who considered themselves upper class. It went from being a thing that working people got by the sweat of their brows, to being associated with a glamorous, luxurious lifestyle. It is one of the most deeply ingrained images in American advertising."

Bear in mind, though, that in Japan and India, for example, women spend millions of pounds on bleaching their faces, to achieve a whiter look. Seems like no one's happy.

THE CAVEMAN THEORY

THE Northern Echo's anthropology team (led by Prof Owen Amos) thinks sunshine feels good because it takes us to our prehistoric past. Sun meant better hunting conditions, a warmer cave and less chance of freezing to death.

Fast forward 50,000 years and our primeval DNA kicks in, making us happy when it's hot. Interesting theory or uninformed nonsense?

"My guess would be that's quite high on the nonsense spectrum," says Dr Russell Hill, reader in evolutionary anthropology at Durham University. "I think there's more of a medical explanation."

Oh well. There's my anthropology career gone.