Scientists predict ‘solar-phobes’ may die sooner: Are you one?

Some people are so worried about skin cancer that they end up getting no exposure to sunlight at all.

Dr. Robert Stern, chair of the Department of Dermatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, calls these folks “solar-phobes.”

And he and other scientists are growing concerned about the “solar-phobes” of the world, and the health consequences of actively avoiding sun exposure.

Even the World Health Organization has piped in… reporting that 3.3 billion “disability-adjusted life years” (DALYs) are lost worldwide each year due to underexposure to the sun. DALYs measure how much a person’s expectancy of a healthy life is reduced by premature death or disability caused by a disease.

In other words, hiding from sunlight can shorten your life.

If you’re one of those people, Dr. Stern wants you to know that you’ve gone to an extreme that isn’t necessarily good for you.

In fact, daily exposure to sunlight actually carries some major health benefits that outweigh the risk of skin cancer…

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Don’t cheat yourself

Being out in the sun builds up stores of vitamin D in your body. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, which sounds like something a solar-phobe would do, you know how absolutely important vitamin D is to your health.

Just 30 minutes of summer sunlight can set off the release of 50,000 IU of vitamin D in fair-skinned people and 8000 to 10,000 IU in dark-skinned people.

Now, if you’re fair-skinned you probably can’t spend 30 minutes in harsh sunlight without sunscreen — and sunscreen defeats the purpose of sunning for vitamin D exposure. But you could probably spend 15 minutes at a time, twice a day, in the morning sun and later afternoon sun, when the rays aren’t so harsh.

Here are just a few reasons to get out in the sun and build up those stores of this life-saving vitamin…

Vitamin D helps fight cancer. People living at higher altitudes with less daytime sunshine have been shown to be at greater risk of dying from breast, ovarian, colon, pancreatic and prostate cancer, as well as from Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

What’s more, several studies, including one from the National Cancer Institute, have turned accepted wisdom on its ear by showing that sun exposure is associated with increased rates of survival in patients with early-stage melanoma.

Vitamin D helps keep depression at bay. In Australia, researchers have discovered that suicide rates among the middle-aged increase during winter, when sunlight is scarce.

The hypothalamus is the brain region responsible for regulating hormones and emotional responses. This area has an unusually high number of vitamin D receptors. This could be the connection between low vitamin D levels and depression.

Vitamin D supports autoimmune health.  If you have an autoimmune disease, you really want to get out in the sun.

Researchers believe that people with autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis may have a vitamin D insensitivity in the cells that need it most. This means they need even higher doses of D to make those cells go to work absorbing it.

Vitamin D helps prevent Alzheimer’s. A 2014 study published in the journal Neurology showed that people with extremely low blood levels of vitamin D were more than twice as likely as those with sufficient levels to develop Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Later research has confirmed this connection between vitamin D and cognitive health and decline.

Vitamin D helps prevent diabetes. In a recent study from the University of California San Diego, people with vitamin D levels 30 ng/ml or higher lowered their diabetes risk by about 66 percent.

What are the risks of sun exposure?

The relationship between skin cancer and sun exposure isn’t as straightforward as many of us believe.

True, the three main types of skin cancer – melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma – are all associated with too much sun exposure.

But it’s not difficult to avoid being over-exposed to sunlight. A few things to consider:

Your skin type. Skin that is pale and burns easily should not be exposed to more than five or ten minutes a day of sunlight without protection. Even darker skin that tans should have only about 30 minutes of exposure daily.

Time of day. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., when the sun is highest and strongest, would be the time to avoid exposure from powerful UV rays. Early morning or late afternoon walks will give you a safer dose of sunlight.

UV index. As you know, some days are comfortably warm, while others are beastly hot. The UV Index is a prediction of the strength of radiation from the sun in any particular location on a given day. A reported UV index of 3 or higher calls for protection. If the index is above 7, it’s best to stay indoors to avoid UV exposure.

There are natural ways to protect your skin from the sun that do not involve harmful chemicals. If you’re going to spend quite a while in the sun, like enjoying the beach, hiking or doing yard work for any length of time, you’ll want to be protected

The bottom line

If you are sensible about how much time you spend in sunlight, there’s no reason not to get out there and soak up some life-giving rays without becoming a sun worshiper. Consult with your doctor if you’re unsure of just how much sun-time is good for you.