Exposure to Sunlight Linked to Reduced Heart Diseases: Study

A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh suggests that exposure to sunlight helps lower blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.

According to the study, when skin is exposed to sun rays, the blood vessels release a compound called nitric oxide that lowers blood pressure, leading to an extended life span. This study suggests that exposing skin to sunlight greatly improves overall health, because the benefit of low blood pressure outweighs the risk of developing skin cancer.

The study suggests that when compared to the mortality rate caused by skin cancer, heart disease and stroke due to high blood pressure causes 80 times more deaths.

The pressure-reducing compound nitric oxide is separate from the body's manufacturing of vitamin D, which is known to increase on being exposed to the sun. The study details will be presented at Edinburgh among the world's largest gathering of skin experts.

To prove their finding, researchers examined the blood pressure of 24 participants who sat below a tanning lamp during two different sessions. The sessions lasted for 20 minutes each.  In one session, the participants were exposed to both the tanning lamp as well as the UV rays. In the second session, the researchers blocked the UV rays in such a manner that their skin was affected with just the tanning lamp.

They noticed a drop in the blood pressure for one hour after being exposed to UV rays, but not after the heat session. This shows that exposure to UV rays offers more health benefits.  But the levels of vitamin D remained unaffected in both sessions.

"We suspect that the benefits to heart health of sunlight will outweigh the risk of skin cancer. The work we have done provides a mechanism that might account for this, and also explains why dietary vitamin D supplements alone will not be able to compensate for lack of sunlight." Dr. Richard Weller, Senior Lecturer in Dermatology at the University of Edinburgh, was quoted as saying in a news release. "We now plan to look at the relative risks of heart disease and skin cancer in people who have received different amounts of sun exposure. If this confirms that sunlight reduces the death rate from all causes, we will need to reconsider our advice on sun exposure."