Sunshine could be the key to living longer. Photo: Shutterstock.
Surfing has got a lot of good things going for it. It gets you outside, in the salt water, moving your body, and pumping your heart. It’s simultaneously stimulating and relaxing. It’s a great way to socialize with friends or spend time alone to reflect. It helps you connect with nature. However, surfing typically gets knocked for one thing: sun exposure. Hours logged in the water can be brutal for the skin, and surfers commonly experience incidents of skin cancer. No matter how much sunscreen you slap on, if you spend enough time in the water, you’re bound to pay the price.
Despite the negative consequences, a recent study is putting a new spin on sun exposure. Researchers have found that although regular sun exposure increases your risk of developing skin cancer, it can actually help you live longer. The study observed the data of 29,518 Swedish women over the course of 20 years. Those who were regular sunbathers tended to live longer than those who were not. They had lower incidences of heart disease and non-heart disease/ non-cancer related deaths. Proportionally, this increased the rate of deaths by cancer, yet overall sunbathers had a longer life expectancy.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Pelle Lindquist has said that, “We found smokers in the highest sun exposure group were at a similar risk as non-smokers avoiding sun exposure, indicating avoidance of sun exposure to be a risk factor of the same magnitude as smoking.” That’s a pretty surprising finding.
Researchers are speculating that the increased life expectancy could be derived from a number of different aspects. It could be that increased vitamin D intake could ward off heart disease. It could be that another mechanism stimulated by UV radiation factors into the equation. Or, it could be that this study has some kind of unknown bias that researchers have been unable to identify.
Regardless, much more research needs to be done to confirm the results of the study and to identify what aspect of sun exposure might be beneficial for human health. For now, continue to slap on the sunscreen and visit the dermatologist. This study doesn’t change what we already know about surfing and skin cancer. But at least we can hope that the sunshine out in the water is somehow helping us live longer.
