Solar Radiation May be Beneficial to Skin

Survey ensures that solar radiation can be beneficial in certain cases

The moderate exposure of the skin to solar radiation may be beneficial for some people to help them generate vitamin D, which protects certain forms of cancer and other diseases.

Scientists Americans and Norwegians reported in a study published by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the benefits of radiation, which may have greater weight than the risk of developing skin cancer.

"It has long been known that solar radiation is the major cause of skin cancer," recalled Richart Setlow, biophysical the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Department of Energy of the United States.

The group headed by Setlow was first established that ultraviolet radiation (UV) and visible light are the leading causes of malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.

Therefore, scientists recommend, it is necessary to guard against the effects of overexposure to the sun's rays.

However, Setlow added that in many cases the same radiation is the source of vitamin D in humans and plays a protective role in several types of cancer and possibly other diseases.

In a complex that examined the incidence and survival rates of cancer at various latitudes, scientists indicated that as a result of increased exposure to the sun Australians who live near the equator produce 3.4 times more vitamin D residents of the United Kingdom and 4.8 times more than the Scandinavians.

"There is a clear north-south gradient in the production of vitamin D and those living in northern latitudes produce less than those living near the equator," said the scientist.

Scientists also discovered that the incidence of other cancers, including colon, lung, breast and prostate, also increased following the north-south gradient.

However, when analysed survival rates of these cancers, they found that people living in southern latitudes were much less likely to die of cancer than those in the north.

"Our data are an indication of the beneficial role played by vitamin D induced by the sun when it comes to cancer," said the scientists in the study.

But they also insisted that radiation is dangerous and one way to combat it is to combine the sunscreen with a higher intake of vitamin D.

Vitamin D is found in many foods, including cod oil, milk and dietary supplements

Source: EFE