Surprising Things You Never Imagined the Sun Could Do For You

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5. Might Increase Longevity

The journal Medical Hypotheses published a study that shows that there is a connection between variation in exposure to sunlight and our life span. During this study, it showed that people who were conceived and born during years of peak sun cycles lived, on average, about 1.7 years longer than those who were born in nonpeak years. It’s thought that sunlight affects the human genome and might be a predictor of longevity.

6. Offers Protection from Certain Cancers

Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia recently published a report that shows sunlight is effective against pancreatic cancer. This study followed 714 subjects in Australia for a four year period, and then matched them through age and sex with 709 control subjects. The idea was to see if high levels of sunlight can possibly lower your risk of developing cancer, specifically pancreatic cancer.

Those who were born in areas that had the highest levels of UV light had a 24 percent lower pancreatic cancer risk than those who were born in areas that had low UV light levels.

Although all skin types had some type of lower risk, those who were fair skinned had a 49 percent lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer than those with darker skin.

7. Lowers Risk of Heart Disease

The journal Archives of Internal Medicine published research done in 2008 that showed that persons who have the lowest vitamin D levels had a more than double the risk of dying from heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular issues than those who had normal levels of vitamin D in their blood.

8. Might Prevent Breast Cancer for Women

Research conducted in Canada compared 3,100 breast cancer victims with 3,471 women who did not have breast cancer. This study found that women who had received at least 21 hours per week of sunlight in their teenage years were 29 percent less likely to get breast cancer than those who got less than 7 hours per week.

Women who spent the most time in the sun during their 40’s and 50’s, the risk fell by 26 percent and for those over the age of 60, getting sunshine cut their chances of developing breast cancer in half. This is according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

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