‘Women with tan live longer’
Ladies, please note — catching the sun has more health benefits than costs, as long as you don’t burn, for a new study claims that women who regularly sunbathe live longer.
A team, led by Hakan Olsson of Lund University in Sweden, says that vitamin D produced by the body when tanning gives vital protection against blood clots, diabetes and some tumours, the Daily Mail reported.
Prof. Olsson, who has based his study on an analysis of 40,000 women, believes the benefits of the sun “far outweigh the negatives” and there’s overwhelming evidence that exposure to the sun helps protect against blood clots in the leg.
These clots, known as deep vein thromboses, have been shown to be far more prevalent in winter than summer. Professor Olsson, who presented the research at the Swedish Society of Medicine, cited other studies showing that more patients are diagnosed with diabetes in the colder months, a phenomenon attributed to a lack of Vitamin D.
For the study, he examined tanning habits and the incidence of illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes or malignant melanoma. “Our studies show that women with active sunbathing habits live longer,” he said.
Professor Olsson also suggested that skin cancer was not caused by sunbathing alone. “I and many others believe that there may be factors other than the sun that influence the risk of malignant melanoma. The burning of the skin in the sun is not enough to explain this,” he said.
But Ed Yong, of Cancer Research UK, said: “While some sunshine is good for us and Vitamin D is important for good bone health, there’s inconclusive evidence to suggest that Vitamin D protects against other disease such as cancer or heart disease.”
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