New research from Sweden suggests that women who sunbathe may live longer than women who shun the sun. Should they really be soaking up sun?
Sunbathers Have Better Survival:
This rather surprising result comes from a 20-year-long study that included nearly 30,000 women. Those who actively exposed themselves to the sun on a regular basis were less likely than other women to die of heart disease during that follow-up period.
Doesn’t Soaking Up Sun Lead to Skin Cancer?
Those who enjoyed soaking up sun were at an increased risk of skin cancer, as one might expect based on a lot of other research. The lead author noted, however, “We found smokers in the highest sun exposure group were at a similar risk as non-smokers avoiding sun exposure, indicating avoidance of sun exposure to be a risk factor of the same magnitude as smoking.”
Sunbathing as a Healthy Activity:
That statistical finding certainly casts sunbathing in a different light. Rather than a self-indulgent vice, it might be a healthy pleasure. We don’t know if women who got more sun exposure in this study also got more exercise by hiking, swimming or cycling outdoors in the summer. That could have made the analysis more complicated, since exercise is protective.
It is likely that doing the research in Sweden made the difference between soaking up sun and avoiding stand out. The country is far enough north that people who make no effort at sun exposure will probably make very little natural vitamin D by their skin during much of the year. Those who go out in the summer to sunbathe might make enough of this critical nutrient to last through part of the winter.
