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Lack of sun exposure may lead to cognitive decline over time.


Stashed in: #health, Brain, G4!, FALSE., Health Studies, Cancer, snopes!, Sun!

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It better for people to get too much sun than too little sun because Vitamin D.

According to the Vitamin D Council, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham recently reported that “lack of sun exposure may lead to cognitive decline over time.”

Dissident dermatologist Bernard Ackerman, MD, (deceased 2008) was one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject of skin cancer and the sun, sunscreens and melanoma skin cancer risks.

Below are Ackerman’s views excerpted from an article in The New York Times (July 20, 2004), titled “I BEG TO DIFFER; A Dermatologist Who’s Not Afraid to Sit on the Beach”:

The link between melanoma and sun exposure (dermatology’s dogma) is unproven.There’s no conclusive evidence that sunburns lead to cancer.There is no real proof that sunscreens protect against melanoma.There’s no proof that increased exposure to the sun increases the risk of melanoma.

2000 Swedish study concluded that higher rates of melanoma occurred in those who used sunscreen versus those who did not.

The thing is, it's actually pretty awesome to BE tan -- among other things, it protects you from sun damage! -- but the problem is that it's not so awesome to GET tan, esp if you are very pale in the first place. However I read once a significant number of dermatologists tell you to put sunscreen on your face and neck but not on your arms and legs, which balances the costs and benefits of sun exposure better.

That makes sense to me. Avoid sunburn in face and neck but still get enough sun to make a difference.

It also makes sense to me that vitamin D deficiency is a bigger problem than too much sun. 

Snopes revealed the Swedish study to be false.

"The strongest conclusion that might be drawn from the study is the rather narrow one that people with characteristics of the study group — that is, light-skinned Caucasian women living in parts of the world with limited sunshine and a low UV index — would probably be better off with some sun exposure rather than no sun exposure because the human body needs some sunlight in order to produce vitamin D which is essential to good health."

Source: http://snopes.com/medical/myths/sunscreen.asp

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