Heliophobia
You don't need to be Editor-In-Chief to add or edit content to WikiDoc. You can begin to add to or edit text on this WikiDoc page by clicking on the edit button at the top of this page. Next enter or edit the information that you would like to appear here. Once you are done editing, scroll down and click the Save page button at the bottom of the page.
| This article needs additional references or sources for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Heliophobia has two meanings:
- a specific phobia: dread or avoidance of sunlight
- excessive sensitiveness to sunlight.
Causes
Heliophobia is a problem that afflicts hundreds of Americans, but one that suffers from a lack of true research. The Pacific Health Center suggested that many people have been staying away from the sun because of growing fears about skin cancer. This is not technically heliophobia, simply an unfounded and illogical solution.
Medical conditions such as keratoconus, which is an eye disorder that results in extreme optic sensitivity to sunlight and bright lights, and porphyria cutanea tarda, which causes the skin to be overly sensitive to sunlight to the point of causing blisters, can result in heliophobia.
Since heliophobia forces its victims indoors, heliophobia causes a Vitamin D deficiency problem. This can be corrected by taking Vitamin D supplements or drinking Vitamin D fortified milk.
Hypersensitivity
In chemistry or biology the terms heliophobic/heliophobe refers to an organism or substance that is sunlight-sensitive or has an aversion to sunlight.
Heliophobous plants are commonly known as "shade-tolerant".
In culture
The classic history of heliophobia can be seen easily in most modern vampire stories (Nosferatu was the first to claim heliophobia as an attribute of vampires[citation needed]), in which it was shown that vampires had a total aversion to the sun. This heliophobia was considered a "telltale sign" of witches, vampires, and demons.
There was a short-lived magazine Heliophobe (3 issues, 1994-1996), described as "a not-so-sexual fetish magazine exclusively devoted to pale-skinned women". [1]
Heliophobe is a 1997 album by a German rock band Scumbucket [1]
References
Acknowledgement and Attribution Regarding Sources of Content
Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .
