[PSA][Research] Sun avoidance reduces risk of skin cancer, BUT increases all cause mortality

Beauty Tips For Body Care
To avoid this reading like the outside of a Lululemon bag, I'll try to include as many links to full papers as is necessary and appropriate. I'm a long time lurker here and credit you all with bringing me from having horrible acne to people wanting to touch my face because of how smooth it is.The common advice on SCA is to stay out of the sun as much as possible. It's true that UV exposure is the most important cause of skin aging, especially in lighter skinned individuals. It can lead to post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation ("dark acne scars"). As a public health student, I see people worrying a lot about studies like this showing association between some exposure (e.g. sunlight) and a single outcome (e.g. melanoma). This sort of research certainly has a place, but they make it so much easier to get caught up in the thousands of articles you read every year giving you conflicting information on what exactly you should be doing to stay healthy.In fact, one major study has shown that sun avoiding non-smokers have a similar life expectancy to smokers with high sun exposure. Sun avoiders had up to a 2.1 year lower life expectancy compared to those with high sun exposure. Heart disease and all cause mortality (including cancer) were reduced in the sun exposure group, once their longer lifespans were accounted for.Why did sun exposure lead to longer lives? The answer is probably multifactorial. Of course Vitamin D is probably part of the answer, with its wide array of benefits including on the immune system. Another candidate could be nitric oxide metabolites with their cardiovascular benefits. Though the beauty of the all-cause mortality study is that we don't need to complicate things by figuring out the mechanism without knowing how these different exposures interact with each other. Suffice to say that this author recommends sticking to moderate sunshine like your ancestors evolved to deal with: avoid hours bathing on the beach getting that summer glow, and avoid spending days and days indoors avoiding the sun.Hope you all find this useful! :)
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by walAsr