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Let the sun shine on stroke patients!
Stroke patients often spend weeks without being exposed to sunlight.
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Stroke patients often spend long weeks — even months — convalescing without being exposed to sunlight. In a study published last year, the authors’ said their previous investigations had shown low concentrations of Vitamin D in the blood of 45 stroke patients during long-term hospitalization. The authors then moved to the next phase, exposing 129 stroke patients to regular sunlight for 12 months and depriving the same number of sunlight. Bone mineral density increased by 3.1% for the first group and decreased by 3.3% (p=0.0001) for the sunlight-deprived group. Vitamin D serum levels increased fourfold for the first group. Only one of the first 129 patients suffered a hip fracture, compared with six in the sunlight-deprived group (p=0.042). The significant differences indicate that patients recovering from a stroke would benefit from time spent surrounded by golden sand and palm trees.

SATO Y et coll. Amelioration of osteoporosis and hypovitaminosis D by sunlight exposure in stroke patients. Neurology 2003; 61; 338-342.

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