The sun has got his hat on

Did you hear that? On balance, and ignoring all the guff we've been reading for the past twenty years, sunshine is good for you. Especially if you live in the north of Europe where you might be a bit short of sunshine and thus vitamin D. This definitely applies to Scotland, where it looks as if we had the summer of 2013 yesterday. Apart from making you feel better and more cheery, sunshine can reduce your blood pressure, cut heart attack and stroke risks and even prolong life. Wonderful, huh? 

There are a few 'buts' coming up, of course.

You can't go out and sunbathe the way we did when we were young. A friend of mine used to slap on olive oil or even the old Crisp n Dry to help her to burn fast - well, you just never knew when the sun would disappear. You're still more likely to get skin cancer oop north, especially if you're fair-skinned or red-headed, so caw canny and wear a hat outside! Use factor 25 in the sun. In fact, and I speak from bitter experience, you might want to go for factor 50 as you get older. 

Indeed, if you are a wee bit older and on medication - and remember: the NHS has got GPs on a bounty for every one of us they can get onto life-extending drugs - you might want to check those inserts that come with your medication. This can be quite challenging. Here's the insert with one of my stomach meds - yes, both pages! 

 

I don't normally read this stuff - life's too short. But when I developed a fairly nasty side-effect to a previous stomach med (visual and auditory hallucinations), I decided to start reading the lists of side-effects enclosed with everything I'm prescribed.

To my amazement, two of the meds I take mention photo-sensitivity as a side-effect, and this is not even one of the rarer side-effects (1 patient in every 100). This would explain why even factor 50 sun-block didn't protect me in Fuerteventura in March where any bit of me that stuck out into the sunshine just fried.

So be careful out there but enjoy the sunshine - if it ever comes back!