Insufficient sun exposure is an emerging public health problem - Study

[Gert van der Hoek]

DERMATO-ENDOCRINOLOGY 2016, VOL. 0, NO. 0, e1248325 (17 pages) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19381980.2016.1248325

The risks and benefits of sun exposure 2016


ABSTRACT

Public health authorities in the United States are recommending that men, women and children reduce their exposure to sunlight, based on concerns that this exposure will promote skin cancer. On the other hand, data show that increasing numbers of Americans suffer from vitamin D deficiencies and serious health problems caused by insufficient sun exposure.

The body of science concerning the benefits of moderate sun exposure is growing rapidly, and is causing a different perception of sun/UV as it relates to human health. Melanoma and its relationship to sun exposure and sunburn is not adequately addressed in most of the scientific literature. Reports of favorable health outcomes related to adequate serum 25(OH)D concentration or vitamin D supplementation have been inappropriately merged, so that benefits of sun exposure other than production of vitamin D are not adequately described.

This review of recent studies and their analyses consider the risks and benefits of sun exposure which indicate that insufficient sun exposure is an emerging public health problem. This review considers the studies that have shown a wide range health benefits from sun/UV exposure. These benefits include among others various types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer disease/dementia, myopia and macular degeneration, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

The message of sun avoidance must be changed to acceptance of nonburning sun exposure sufficient to achieve serum 25(OH)D concentration of 30 ng/mL or higher in the sunny season and the general benefits of UV exposure beyond those of vitamin D.

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE

 

[Emily]

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/does-our-lack-of-sun-put-your-health-in-danger/

[h=1]Does our lack of sun put your health in danger?[/h] Originally published February 13, 2008 at 12:00 am Updated February 13, 2008 at 8:00 am
....
Molecular geneticist John White and his colleagues at McGill University in Montreal discovered vitamin D also switches on an arm of the immune system that kills bacteria ? including the bug responsible for tuberculosis.
?It?s a kind of front-line response to infection,? he said.
That may explain why TB patients in the early 1900s who basked in the sun at sanitariums were often cured, added White, author of a recent Scientific American article on vitamin D.

 

[gsgs]

so, best stay out of the sun but take vitamin D pills ?