Sun Exposure For Health

Bask in the Sun for a Few Minutes Each Day for Optimum Health

The sun has been getting a bad rap lately. With everything from cosmetic issues like sun spots and wrinkles to serious health issues like skin cancer being blamed on over exposure to the sun's UV rays, it's no surprise that many people are hiding away from the sun in the hopes of improved health and maintaining a youthful appearance. Yet hiding away from the sun to an excess can actually cause health issues. Your body actually needs some exposure to the sun's UV rays every day.

There is no debate that the sun's UV rays can cause skin cancer as well as more pronounced signs of aging. However, recent health studies show that a moderate amount of exposure to the sun's UV rays may actually protect you from some types of cancers and other serious health diseases. In fact, a 2008 health study by the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory has shown that the sun's UV rays are our main source of vitamin D, which is vital to human health.

Vitamin D deficiency in the human body has been shown to be a leading cause of rickets, softening of the bones, skeletal deformations, and more. It can also cause severe asthma symptoms in children, cognitive impairment, and increased incidence of cardiovascular disease. If that's not enough, the US Department of Energy Study has found conclusive evidence that those with greater exposure to the sun's UV rays are less likely to develop internal cancers like colon, lung, prostate, and breast cancer. On the flip side, the study also found that there was not a clear line that indicated increased exposure to the sign caused increase incidence of skin cancer. Overexposure to UV rays do cause skin cancer, but the study found that skin cancer rates do not increase with increased exposure to the sun. Whereas rates for developing these other types of internal cancers does increase with decreased exposure to the sun.