10 Health Benefits of Going Naked

The other day we read an article about the most common diseases of the current times. It wasn’t particularly a positive boost of our day but for some reason, we were intrigued. Mostly because they weren’t what we had expected. We thought about ebola, malaria, or cholera, things you hear about in the news but rarely get very close to you. But no.

Instead, the list contained heart disease, cancer, obesity, depression, anxiety, and anorexia. This should not have come as such a surprise, as these are the things people around us are suffering from. Diving deeper into the possible causes, we had a sudden realization. Although it hasn’t been proven that going naked can cure diseases, we’re pretty sure that it can help avoid them to a certain extent.

In other words, going naked is good for you! And we’ll tell you why.

The whole concept of naturism is said to have come into existence because some German doctors realised that Vitamin D is good for both your mood and immune system. Other than from salmon or a box of pills in the pharmacy, the best way to get Vitamin D is through sunlight on your skin. So the doctors figured: The more skin we expose to the sun, the more Vitamin D it can absorb.

This was before skin cancer was generally known though and today we definitely recommend using sunscreen. Nevertheless, spending time outdoors in the nude will help you absorb Vitamin D. You may have noticed that there’s always a joyful atmosphere in naturist places. A coincidence? We think not.

Exposing your skin to fresh air and sunlight helps with issues like acne, eczema, and other skin conditions. In fact, the founder of New Cambium Resort in the Dominican Republic got his epiphany of starting a naturist place because he was suffering from severe skin disease and had noticed that being naked helped a lot with that.

Stores and supermarkets are full of pots with creme that are said to have rejuvenating, firming, or soothing effects on your skin. You can keep spending your money on those, or you can just take off your clothes.

When you donate blood or when your blood needs to be tested, right after the needle comes out the doctor will often ask you to slightly press the vain to stop the bleeding. It always works like a charm. But have you ever thought about all those veins in your body that are almost constantly being pressed by your clothes? Depending on the fashion of the season, you may be wearing tight pants and elastics keeping everything in place. Is your blood still flowing actually?

By taking off your clothes, you let your veins free. I’m getting a funny mental picture while writing this but that’s probably because I’ve watched too many cartoons. But it’s not rocket science to realise that not restricting your body with clothes will create better blood circulation which then again can lead to better cardiovascular health and reduced swelling.

We tackled this slightly in the part about Vitamin D, but that’s not the only element that helps create a stronger immune system. Fresh air and exercise are also excellent for this. Now imagine a place where you can catch lots of sunlight, lots of fresh air, and some physical activity. It didn’t take long to come up with “naturist campground”, right?

While sometimes neglected, your immune system is one of the most important things to take care of, because it avoids a lot of problems in the long run. So if you want to get stronger, get naked. That sounds good… Get stronger, get naked! We should patent this.

Another incredibly important health factor that is often forsaken is sleep. Both your mental and physical health depends on it, but yet, even though we take vitamin pills, do diets, and have a gym membership, we also prefer to binge-watch that new Netflix series instead of having a good night’s sleep.

Natural light and fresh air are said to have a huge effect on your sleep quality as well as spending lots of time in nature. Nature… where most naturist resorts happen to be. Another factor that influences your sleep quality is your mental health, and guess what, that too can be improved by going naked.

We live in wonderful times when all the knowledge of the world is just at our fingertips. Or in that small device in your pocket. As kids from the eighties, we vaguely remember the days when if we wanted to know why the grass is green and our parents didn’t have the answer, we had to hop on our bicycle and ride to the library. If the “Big Encyclopedia of Grass” happened to be rented out, sometimes we had to wait 3 weeks for our answer. 3 WEEKS! Can you imagine that?

Today, everything is instant and this has its advantages, but it’s not good for our mental health. Stress levels are through the roof and it becomes increasingly more difficult to relax. Many people feel that when they take off their clothes, they are also taking off “daily life”. They feel more in the moment, more alive, and spend their time gently stroking the grass instead of wondering about its colour. The fact that smartphones are often seen as a threat in naturist places may also have something to do with it.

In all sorts of media, we are being bombarded by images of what the perfect body is supposed to look like. Every year, these images slightly change but yet they never look like us. It’s a conspiracy, we tell you! Ok, nobody’s actually out to break us down, but it isn’t too far from the truth. Many industries perform better by making people feel bad about themselves. And a little less when you use their product.

Let us tell you, the best way, if not the only way, to get a decent body image is to ignore everything you see in the media and rather look at normal people. People like you and us. People you meet in the street. But since the average person in the street will probably punch you in the face when you ask if you can see them naked, it’s much better to go to a naturist resort.

Seeing what real people look like naked is only a part of the whole mental experience of social nudity. An equally important part is the other people seeing you naked as well and appreciating and respecting you for who you really are. Many of us think from time to time that we’re not good enough. But what is enough? Who sets the benchmarks?

In reality, there’s no such thing as good enough. We’re all different and unique, we all have our strengths and our flaws and unless you’re looking for a job as a fashion model, there’s absolutely no need to look like one. Becoming confident about how you look will also improve your general confidence. It’s all in the mind, you know.

Confidence and anxiety are each other’s opposites. The less confident we are, the more fear we tend to have. Fear of being rejected by society, fear for being not good enough, for being a loser or a misfit. The more a society is based on material things like money, cars, clothes, and makeup, the higher the chance that you feel like you don’t completely fit in.

Naturist communities don’t really work like that because we have this shared vulnerability. It’s more about the person than about how you look and what you own. This is the kind of community you really want to be part of if you want to fight social anxiety.

One of the things about social nudity we find the most difficult to explain to people who’ve never tried it is how it can give such great peace of mind. We know, it doesn’t sound right. You’re about to do something completely out of your comfort zone, something most people you know have never done (and say they would never do), how can this not be incredibly stressful?

Think about it as a paper you had to write in high school. You worked on it for days, it didn’t slip your mind for a second and kept you awake at night. Even when it was finished, you still had your doubts. But then you hand it in, and you feel this sudden relief. It’s behind you now, there’s nothing more you can do about it.

When people go naked for the first time, they often speak of a sense of “liberation”. It’s exactly the same thing. You may have been stressing about this before, but now you have taken the plunge and it’s alright. Add to that the healing power of sunlight, air, nature, and friendly people, and it will be very hard not to get peace of mind. We told you before, going naked is good for you!