To be in the sun?  To not be in the sun?  Too little sun?  Too much sun?  Is it healthy? Will it benefit you?  Will it hurt you?  How many times have you been asked or asked these questions or even others and have never gotten the right answer?  Researchers have gone back and forth about the topic.  The only sure thing is that there is a band of time that is beneficial for yourself.  The medical news that I’m about to share with you supports this.

 

You’ve heard that too much sunlight can be destructive to your skin.  I’m in no way disagreeing with this, but did it occur to you that too little sunlight may be causing you another problem?  In a recent study, too little sunlight exposure resulted in a 56% increase in the risk of stroke.  Wow…. Think about that.  Out of the 16,000+ participants that were followed over 5 years and monitored every 6 months a little more than half of them had a stroke.  That’s pretty much 1 out of every 2 people.  People that lived in areas where they were more likely to have sun exposure year round were less likely to have a stroke.  The opposite was found in very high sun exposure areas were the protective effects of sunlight were gone.

 

You may be saying, well they might have picked out of shape, sedentary, overweight individuals.  Most Americans did not score well on their diet exam.  Diabetes can also complicate your health as well.  Well they took all of that into consideration.

 

“controlled for factors such as age, race, education, systolic blood pressure, region, gender, income, physical activity, time spent watching TV, and body mass index, they still found that lack of sunlight exposure and lower temperatures were associated with a risk of stroke. Extreme temperatures also were linked to an increased stroke risk.”

 

I think everyone should take from this that when a nice day springs up on you in the winter, take advantage of it.  Go outside for a portion of the day, in the sun and get some physical activity worked into your day.  Obviously, practice good sun safety by putting on sunscreen, covering up with a hat and sunglasses and stay hydrated.

 

1) Kaiser, C.  (2011).  Lack of Sunlight, Vitamin D Tied to Stroke Risk.  MedPage Today.  Retrieved from http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ASAMeeting/31008?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&eun=g258129d0r&userid=258129&email=brentrhartman@gmail.com&mu_id=
Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Brent

Brent

President, Personal Training Manager at Body By Brent LLC
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