Gardenry and Evolution - Adaptive advantages our skin has.

None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath. - Marian Anderson Age

---

There's a completely naturalized idea in our culture that states something like the following: "Marijuana is the gateway drug for stronger ones", this asseveration implies an ideal title for anyone willing to read something he/she already made his/her mind about: "There's inherently good and bad drugs that have to be fought off". Of course that title would be great if it was checked and backed up with some sort of scientific backup other than a yellow press' reporter ranting about something that he does not like (because his child did not want to share some with him). Thing that, up to today, is not happening. There's so much that we do not know, that it is simply unclear; whether if it is drugs that paves the road towards other substances, neither we know if the final effect is totally contrary, eventually minimizing other drugs consumption. The thing is, this argument; the demonizing; that is rebuilt way too often, is totally lacking of conclusive studies.

The problem with this argument is that it overlaps and masks another one way more important. There's hidden dangers, dangers that we do not talk about. Thousands of stories are told about young people that started consuming Marijuana as it eventually led them into a dark and violent path; a path they've never imagined they would go through. Far off this generation of people that is self sustained in psychoactives, marijuana functions in many cases as a gateway to a horror: Gardenry. Planting anything they may believe will grow, carrots, onions potatoes, even some cherry tomatoes (thing I've to admit, I'm a direct consumer of) as a rarity. I personally saw terrible cases of people that only "trying" this horror, gardenry, converted into this bold adventurer kind of person; throwing seeds wherever they may grow. Desperately asking their friends to water their plants as he's off for the weekend. This delicate and slippery slope can convert anyone in "Mary": 85 years old, talks to her roses.

I am, one of those victims, with the exception that I admit I'm a chronic one, one that started since childhood. There must be a specific gene that takes care of one's addiction to move dirt around. Something that my grandmother did with special ability, where she would grab a dry, old branch, stick it in some dirt, and in a week you'd get a nice green plant. I grew so fond of gardenry, that as I was watering some of my plants, I was unaware of another danger; a scold reminded me that the Sun burns.

Unlike her, a perfectly cooked serving of human evolution.

Or something like that, because if there's something that the Sun does not do to our skin is burning it, at least, in the terms we use to classify something burning.

When our skin "burns" there's no spark, paper, wood, coal (or alcohol, for the sinner that does that to a barbecue). There's no fuel, no ashes as remains. When we burn, or tan, what we may observe is a LOT of evolution. Because "getting a sun burn" is not "burning", it is more like "preparing for the potential effects of future UV radiation exposure in our body", and yes, here come the bad news: dealing with large quantities of UV is actually not that good. Yet, getting a tan feels good, and here's where everything starts to stop making any sense. Why something that is bad makes us feel good?

Or, in other terms:
What is the adaptive advantage of feeling good after spending some time exposed to sunlight?.

A sketch we may call "answer" could have something to do with endorphines production, those happy molecules made out of unicorns and bunnies that our body release under different circumstances, and that also show up as we get a tan, to the point that there's cases of people literally addicted to get a tan. So addicted, that not being exposed to "tons" of sunlight renders in a withdrawal syndrome. (Here's where I imagine someone in the street, begging for money so that he may pay his sunbed session).

Yet, endorphines are not a "happy" signal, sometimes they work as indicators of damage and we need to generate our own analgesics (painkillers, in pleb language); just as it happens under the context of excessive physical activity. This last addiction I mentioned, also lead into severe behavioral changes, that exteriorize in shiny clothing and asking people to tag along as they run (yeah, perhaps it's not that bad... but it is still freaky... Some people fear clowns, I fear people that go run together).

Because, there's something undeniable about our close relationship with the Sun, where there's UV, there's damage. Period. I mean, I won't say that there's a "good" factor under certain limits and after them there's damage. No. There's always damage, constant damage. You're always dying because of something, solar radiation is just another part of this Universe attempting to get rid of us.

This does not mean that it is not a necessary damage, because Sun exposure has positive and needed effects (like, the synthesis of compounds like Vitamin D) but up to a limit. Yes, light is a great thing it can change our mood and arrange our circadian rhythm, but one thing is to lick the edges and another one to stick our head in the bucket, sunlight exposure clearly tends to be excessive.

The good thing is we are adapted to sunlight basically since we lost our body hair. The same evolution that sculpted us, favored our grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-fathers that were balder selecting the ones that had a better response to UV exposure. A Sun that, free of body hair, constantly punished our skin, bashing our DNA making damage, and generating mutations; sometimes, that damage led into a melanoma, one of the most aggressive cancers we know of.

Clearly, the less protected died, and the ones capable of protecting themselves from the UV rays prevailed, this in the case of human implies the production of melanin in melanocytes (way to go, relevant naming of cells based on the main function they have). Melanocytes are specialized skin cells that produce several shapes of pigment able to dissipate around 99.9%(!) of the UVB rays. This is: tanning was selected in our evolution as a survival strategy in our skin against the Sun, sensing UV levels and generating a protective response to future damage.

Such a cornerstone is this evolutive brick that it led us into several kinds of "able" skins according to the environment we lived at, according to different latitudes (lets remember the the survival of the fittest has to apply to different places). So important is to be in good terms with that gigantic plasma ball, that natural selection gave us extreme blond northern men (able to absorb even the faintest traces of light to synthesize Vitamin D), while at the same time, shaded the rest of men darker, peaking at the Equator; where there's A BUNCH of sunlight, so much sun, that having a perma-tan is a must to withstand it.

We still do not know when did we relate tanned with healthy, some blame Coco Chanel, that one day came back from her vacations totally tanned and became a trending topic at that day's social media (which was, being face to face with people). What we know is that there's a large cultural influence arranging this correlation: In 1968, 58% of people associated "tan" with "health", by 2007 this scaled to 81%.

---

If you liked this post and its informal way of talking about sciences, please, follow me for more!

Leave a comment either for good or for bad reviews. I take everything as constructive, and I really appreciate the feedback, even from trolls (at least a troll read it before being himself!).

---

Copyrights:

---

All the previously used images are of my authory or under a CC0 license (Source: pixabay), unless openly stated.

All the Images created by me possess a WTFPL licencing and they are free to redistribute, share, copy, paste, modify, sell, crop, paste, clone in whatever way you want.

---