Sun not a healthy pastime By Judy Rupp Commentary
The feel of warm sun seeping into bare skin that has been covered by several layers of clothing during the winter is an experience Americans have come to love…all too much, say dermatologists.
Basking in the sun, bathing in the sun, baking in the sun, burning in the sun. For young people and even for older ones, getting sun is a national pas-time…and not a very healthy one.
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation has been linked to skin cancer, premature aging of the skin and an increased risk of cataracts. A sun burn obviously destroys skin cells, and one or more severe sun burns during youth may increase the risk of melanoma, the most serious skin cancer.
To protect yourself from skin cancer, dermatologists say there is no safe level of exposure to ultraviolet rays. Melanoma expert Barbara Gilchrest, M.D. at Boston University Medical Center recommends daily use of sunscreen, even for short-term exposure such as walking to your car in a parking lot or sitting at an outside table for lunch.
But there is another side to the story. Vitamin D is an important hormone that is manufactured by the body only when the skin is exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
Studies have long shown prostate cancer deaths are highest in areas where exposure to UV rays is the lowest. Death rates from breast and ovarian cancer also are twice as high in northern states as in sunny ones. Recent studies confirm vitamin D deficiency is a significant risk factor for these and other cancers, including colorectal cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Vitamin D has many other important health benefits — lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Without vitamin D the body cannot properly absorb and utilize the calcium and phosphorus needed to build and maintain strong bones.
Older adults with poor diets who don’t get outside often are at risk of bone fractures and osteoporosis as well as cancer and heart disease if they don’t get enough vitamin D.
Vitamin D in the diet is obtained largely from eggs and oily fish such as salmon and mackerel. Milk is supposed to contain 400 IU of vitamin D per quart, but studies have found it rarely has as much as stated and many samples of skim milk have no vitamin D. Sunshine is a convenient and inexpensive way to obtain vitamin D.
Basal and squamous cell skin cancers that are more directly associated with chronic sun exposure seldom are life threatening, although often disfiguring. The wrinkles, sags, freckles and sun spots that inevitably start showing up around age 40 as a result of excessive sun exposure are hardly the look most young sun bathers are seeking.
Individuals with a history of depression should not shun sunlight. For seasonal depression it is the visible rather than ultraviolet rays of sun that are beneficial.
The sun is a powerful, life-giving force. Respect it for its benefits as well as its risks.
Rupp is information and assistance case manager with the Northern Oklahoma Development Authority Area Agency on Aging.
Source