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how it helps to douse this fear of "skin cancer"...
Skin cancer prevention campaigns may be steering people away from
healthy doses of sunlight, which is now thought to protect against
high blood pressure, heart disease and possibly stroke, a group of
British scientists say.
In a provocative presentation to a Melbourne conference this week,
Martin Feelisch, a professor of clinical and experimental sciences at
the University of Southampton, questioned whether it was time for a
"radical rethink" of the advice given to people about how much time
they should spend in the sun.
Professor Feelisch said recent epidemiological studies suggested that
the health benefits of moderate sunlight exposure outweighed the
harmful effects of UV radiation on the skin.
In particular, a recent study conducted with colleagues at the
University of Edinburgh found that a dose of UV equivalent to about 30
minutes of sunshine during the summer in southern Europe lowered
people's blood pressure.
The research, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology,
suggested UV radiation triggered natural stores of nitric oxide in the
skin which dilate small blood vessels. The mechanism was independent
of Vitamin D in sunlight which is already known to improve bone and
muscle health. This means it cannot be substituted with a vitamin D
supplement.
Several other studies have also shown that people with mild
hypertension tend to have lower blood pressure in summer compared to
winter, and that the further you live from the equator, the more
likely you are to suffer from high blood pressure and heart disease.
Professor Feelisch said given high blood pressure was a major risk
factor for heart disease and stroke, which accounts for 30 per cent of
deaths globally each year, health authorities should start focusing
more on the benefits of sensible sun exposure.
"We have to balance the benefits with the detrimental effects for the
greater good of the entire population. The current public health
advice is dominated by concerns about cancer," he said.
"That may be very important for a high risk group but that high risk
group are the minority of the population. Many others would probably
very likely tolerate higher than currently recommended exposure
levels, provided their skin gets gradually used to this, and their
health would benefit from that."
Professor Feelisch said it was possible that public health campaigns,
such as the "Dark side of tanning" television advertisements which
have been running in Victoria for five years, were scaring people into
hiding from the sun.
"Everybody is so scared to expose themselves to natural sunlight or
slap on sunblock lavishly even if they go outside for 15 minutes," he
said at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress. "That is
cutting precisely the bit that is required to keep us healthy."
But head of the Australian Cancer Council Professor Ian Olver said
current public health advice was sophisticated in Australia, balancing
the pros and cons of sunlight for Vitamin D and emphasising high UV
index times when people are more likely to burn.
"If the UV index is three or above, the sun is intense enough to burn
you and therefore you need to take some protection measures. If it's
less than three, you can probably safely go out in the sun. So for
vitamin D, early in the morning or late in the afternoon, it might be
fine to go out without protection but in the middle of the day, it
usually isn't."
(http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/skin-cancer-fears-blinding-people-to-health-benefits-of-sunlight-say-scientists-20141118-11p8we.html)
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