To Your Health
Sun and Your Health: It May Be Better Than You Think

by Paulette Avery, R.N., M.S.N.

Undoubtedly, you already know the hazards of too much sun on your skin. Minimally, it can cause skin changes none of us want, such as wrinkles and unattractive "age" spots that can mar the beauty of our hands and faces. At its worst, too much sun can lead to skin cancer, even the life-threatening melanoma. So don't throw away your sunscreen or wide-brimmed gardening hat quite yet, but believe it or not, research has found that sunlight can help prevent eleven kinds of cancer. Here's the story.

When we are exposed to the sun, our bodies manufacture vitamin D, a nutrient essential to maintaining strong bones and teeth. Vitamin D does its work by helping our bodies maintain the proper levels of calcium by aiding the absorption of calcium from the foods we eat. According to a recent eLetter from Dr. Susan Lark, a study reported in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that vitamin D may increase the absorption of calcium by as much as 65 percent. Keep in mind that you need vitamin D to absorb the calcium from supplements, too.

Another bright side of the sun comes from its effect on our moods. Personally, it doesn't take too many days of gray skies before I start feeling a bit depressed, but give me a bright, sunny day and my mood immediately improves. Although I don't think I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, appropriately abbreviated as SAD, many women do. The cure is exposure to the sun or to special lights made to mimic its effects. The sun also improves our immune systems and helps fight fatigue.

But by far the most surprising benefit of sun exposure is its ability to decrease the incidence of internal cancers. As far back as 1941, Dr. Frank Apperly reported that death rates from internal cancers increase with distance from the equator. In other words, the closer one lives to the equator, the less likely it is that you will die from internal cancers, and the further you live from the equator, the greater the chance that you will. On the other hand, living close to the equator increases the chance that you will have skin cancer. Additional studies done in the past 20 years support the power of the sun to inhibit cancer. A paper published in 1992 by Dr. Gordon Ansleigh in Preventive Medicine reviewed 50 years of medical literature on sunlight and cancer. He found that the benefits of regular sun exposure apparently outweigh considerably the risks of developing basal-cell carcinoma, melanoma, and accelerated aging. Scientists have also found a paradoxical relationship between sun exposure and melanoma. Moderate, nonburning sun exposure appears to be protective, while too much sun, especially when it results in serious burns and blistering, increases the incidence of this potentially deadly disease.

According to an article by Richard Hobday, M.Sc., Ph.D., recent laboratory research indicates that a deficiency of vitamin D may play an important role in the development of breast, colon, and prostate cancer, and to a lesser degree for lymphoma, leukemia, and melanoma. Trials currently in progress hope to determine whether vitamin D therapy may help treat certain cancers, including prostate.

So here we are again with another example of the importance of moderation. It seems too often the advice we receive for staying healthy errs in the direction of all or nothing. Here are some guidelines for getting healthy doses of sunlight.

Aim for 30 minutes of daily sun exposure to your arms and legs without sunscreen. If you can't stay in the sun that long without burning, get your sun in shorter doses.

Always protect your face and neck with sunscreen, and preferably with a wide-brimmed hat.

Avoid sunning during the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., when the sun is most intense.

At times other than your daily sun-time, apply sunscreen liberally.

Protect your eyes by wearing sunglasses that block harmful UV rays to help avoid cataracts and macular degeneration.

For further reading, do an Internet search for sunlight + cancer prevention.

Paulette Avery is a registered nurse and a freelance writer who specializes in health issues.