Dermatologists have been warning about sun exposure and cancer for decades. Now a study from Sweden suggests that staying out of the sun may also pose a risk.
Researchers studied almost 30,000 Swedish women for approximately 20 years. When the study started the women were asked about sun bathing, smoking and alcohol consumption. The scientists were especially interested in the dangerous skin cancer, malignant melanoma. The leading hypothesis at that time was that melanoma was caused by sun exposure.
By the end of the study, nearly 10 percent of the volunteers had died. Those who made a point of avoiding the sun doubled their risk of dying.
The investigators hypothesize that those who stayed out of the sun might have had inadequate levels of vitamin D, which could affect overall survival. The authors suggest that daily short sun exposure might be better than shunning the sun completely.
[Journal of Internal Medicine, online, April 23, 2014]
The topic of sun exposure and even vitamin D supplementation has been quite controversial in medical circles. You may be interested in listening to the debate between two of the leading experts in the field, JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, and Michael F. Holick, MD, PhD.
