Where you live has a huge impact on your health. Air pollution is linked to the premature death of more than 3 million people a year. It causes cancer, asthma, strokes and heart disease, diabetes, and dementia. Read on to learn about the health benefits of living near the ocean.
1. Abundance of Negative Ions
Pollution doesn’t just contribute to premature death, but affects your physical and mental health while you’re still alive.
Polluted city centers, or enclosed areas, are home to an abundance of positive ions. They are naturally present in nature, formed by high winds, dust, and humidity. They cause many to feel uneasy before a storm or have aching joints.
They are found in unnaturally high concentrations in polluted environments.
Positively charged ions (carbon dioxide molecules stripped of an electron), have been linked to:
- Lack of energy
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Lowered immune function
- Heart palpitations
- Sleeplessness
- High blood pressure
- Arthritis
- Mental instability
- Migraines
- Asthma
- Depression
You want to be in environments with negative ions, which are molecules that gain a negatively charged electron. Generally, the more negative ions you are exposed to, the better and more uplifted you will feel.
They are found in abundance near the ocean, forests, and waterfalls.
Negative ions are attracted to airborne pollutants and remove them from the air, and have a host of other benefits:
- Improved mood
- If you are a lactating mother, you find yourself able to produce more milk of higher quality for your infant.
- Increased work capacity
- Better thinking ability
- Shift of alpha activity to the frontal area of the brain for better conceptual ability
- Higher synchronization of the right and left brain hemispheres for a more even balance of the personality
- Makes the body more alkaline
- Better Immune function
- Increased oxygen uptake
- Enhanced cognitive function
- Sedative, healing, and pain-relieving effects
2. Ocean Water Has Physical and Psychological Benefits
If you live near an ocean, making a habit of bathing in it every chance you get can have tremendous benefits.
The sea cures all ailments of man.
-Plato
Some benefits of bathing in sea water:
- Treatment of acne, eczema and psoriasis
- Improves immune function
- Improves skin-barrier function, enhance skin hydration, and reduce skin inflammation.
- Helps clean and heal wounds
- Improves circulation
- Reduces symptoms of hay fever and sinus issues
- Encourages a healthier respiratory system
- Decreases symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Improved joint mobility
- Encourages mindfulness
- Improved organ function
- Fat loss
- Boosted testosterone levels
- Increase of feel-good chemicals like serotonin and dopamine
3. Earthing and Grounding in the Sand is Therapeutic
In modern times, humans have insulated themselves from contact with the earth by wearing synthetic soled shoes and living in homes that elevate the body above the earth. Many people are no longer naturally grounded and their bodies have become charged with static electricity and radiated electric fields can now create unnatural weak electric currents within the body.
Your body is able to absorb electrical charges from the earth because your skin acts as a conductor.
The balls of your feet, specifically, are very efficient in absorbing the earth’s electricity.
Our brain, heartbeat, and neurotransmitter activity all rely on electrical signals. When electricity is off, so are certain aspects of our health.
Benefits of walking barefoot in the sand:
- Anti-inflammatory and lowers cortisol
- Reduces chronic pain
- Improves balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system
- Improves sleep
- Fights premature aging
- Reduces primary indicators of osteoporosis
- Improves glucose regulation
- Improves immune response
- Increases energy
- Reduces blood viscosity (risk factor for heart disease)
- Normalizes the circadian rhythm
- Normalizes blood pressure and blood flow
- Relieves muscle tension
- Improves menstrual and female hormone symptoms
- Speeds healing
- Improves circulation
- Relieves chronic back and joint pain
- Shortens recovery time from injury or exercise
- Reduces snoring
- Benefits the adrenal glands
4. Bio-Available Vitamin D
There are about 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000 of them.
Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to heart disease, heart attacks, dementia, cancer, autoimmune diseases, infections, erectile dysfunction, and mental health conditions.
Sun exposure does have an advantage over vitamin D supplementation:
- Cutaneous synthesis has a negative feedback loop preventing vitamin D accumulation and toxicity.
- The sun provides beneficial UVB wavelengths that are needed to optimize your levels.
- When you make vitamin D in your skin, it lasts 2-3 times longer in the body.
- You make beneficial photoproducts in your skin when exposed to the sun.
Benefits of optimal vitamin D levels:
- Elevated mood
- Prevents autoimmune diseases
- Maintenance of healthy bones, teeth and muscles (regulates the amount of calcium in the body)
- Fights infections, as it regulates the expression of genes that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses.
- Contrary to common belief, it significantly decreased risk for malignant melanoma.
- Improves DNA repair
- Up-regulates genes that control metabolic processes and other biologic processes that we don’t even know about yet.
To Wrap Up
Try to get your feet wet, get some sun, and breathe some fresh ocean air more often than not. It would be best to live in such an environment indefinitely for optimal health.
