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Sun Exposure and Your Health

Sun exposure is an interesting thing because it has both beneficial health effects, yet can also have adverse effects for your health over long term exposure. You body needs the things that sunlight provides so it is always a good thing to get out and enjoy the sunshine when it comes to your area. Some locations have sun all the time and others it is severely limited to short seasons so it is not always an easy thing to either get enough sun, or prevent yourself from getting to much.

Benefits of Sun Exposure
sunlight_1The benefits of the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight are more than most people think about. We all have heard that it is a good source of vitamin D, however have you heard all the good affects that vitamin D has to offer. Ultraviolet light and the vitamin D it passes on can help you by strengthening bones and inhibiting the development of some cancer. It also helps maintenance of circadian rhythms as well as well as helping to reduce the risk of seasonal affective disorder which is becoming a more focused on disorder in recent years.

Problems of Overexposure to Sunlight

There are many known conditions associated with long term sunlight exposure. Skin cancer and skin aging are the ones we have heard about most as well as immune suppression.There are also eye diseases linked to too much sun exposure such as, cataracts and macular degeneration which is a loss of vision in the center area of the vision field. So while sunlight has some good benefits, limiting exposure would be a good idea to help avoid some serious health conditions.

How much exposure is good exposure?

Researchers have a hard time deciding this due to the many variables involved: Time of day, time of year, geographical latitude, cloud cover, sunscreen or not, ground altitude and smog are some of the difficulties in coming to a firm conclusion. The suggestion is that moderate sun exposure to the face, arms and legs anywhere between 5-30 minutes twice a week can be beneficial without risking health issues. That however seems a little vague and it might be best to go with your own judgment. If you get plenty of sunlight throughout the course of your normal day then maybe spending hours on the beach over the weekend is not a good idea. Of course severe sunburns are always considered unhealthy so be careful with that aspect as well.

Perhaps just common sense will do the trick too. If you are spending the day at the lake maybe picking out where the shade is and move from one to the other. When you are getting to hot go sit in the shade and enjoy the breeze. You don’t have to be in the sun all the time to get the vitamin D or to have a good time.

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