The Sun Also Heals, Some Believe In contrast to the often repeated warnings about tanning and skin cancer, some scientists have been exploring an almost heretical notion: sunlight may actually protect against other cancers. The idea is not new; two epidemiologists proposed it twenty-two years ago. Their theory was that Vitamin D, which the skin produces when exposed to sunshine, somehow prevents the growth of malignant cells. Sunlight supplies the body with about 90 percent of its Vitamin D. Ultraviolet rays prompt the skin to produce a biologically inert form of the substance, which is then converted into an active form, as a hormone called calcitriol. In the early 1920’s, scientists discovered that a deficiency of Vitamin D from inadequate sunlight caused rickets, a childhood bone disease. For decades, experts believed that the vitamin primarily protected bones. Studies have since shown that people in relatively sun-deprived regions, or with low Vitamin D levels, appear at greater risk for a variety of cancers. Researchers at the cancer institute have reported that the chances of dying of breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancer were reduced by about 10 to 27 percent for people in the sunniest areas, compared with those to the north, based on death certificates in twenty-four of the fifty United States. Source of Summary Chen, Ingfei. “The sun also heals, some believe.” International Herald Tribune, August 8, 2002, p. 9.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:18:34 +0000
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