

The energy your body receives from the sun converts chemicals in your skin to vitamin D 3, which is then hydroxylated in your liver and kidneys to become active vitamin D, according to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements.

While this essential vitamin doesn’t come directly from sunlight, it does help transform chemicals already in your skin, according to Harvard Health Publishing. Sunlight helps your body produce vitamin D. Here’s how the sun helps you produce one of the 13 essential vitamins, as well as several other important benefits it provides. It’s common knowledge that plants require sunlight for photosynthesis, a biological process which is essential to their growth - but did you know the sun also provides significant health benefits to humans?ĭespite numerous risks associated with prolonged exposure to the sun’s powerful ultraviolet rays (sunburn, skin damage, skin cancer and more, according to the Mayo Clinic), the sun is actually vital to a number of the human body’s functions.
