Sunlight Help You to Live Longer

Sunlight Helps you Live Longer

Everyone knows that you need sunlight to get Vitamin D. And it's now widely accepted that skin color around the world is driven over time by humans need for Vitamin D, balanced by the need to protect from loss of folate with too much sunlight. Africans can protect their folate, Caucasians can live in Scotland and Sweden in the fog and still generate a tiny bit of D, sufficient to stay alive.

We've known that low levels of D lead to more heart disease, cancer, infections etc, etc, but we have been puzzled why giving D as a supplement hasn't had the homerun effects we were hoping for. There is clear benefit at preventing multiple sclerosis, but not quite so clear with cancer. Why the ambivalence? There must be something more. Anyone from Wisconsin who has arrived at Fort Lauderdale and completed a beach walk in February will tell you there is something more and they feel just great. Not just good, great. There must be something more.

Well, enter Richard Weller, the first dermatologist researcher to show that exposure to sunlight produces Nitric Oxide, and that may be more important for your health than the Vitamin D. Gareth Hazel in Nature Communications showed that skin exposed to actual sunlight produced NO across the whole spectrum of UV wavelengths, not just the isolated segment that makes Vitamin D, or sunburn. Even the longer wavelengths that are much less damaging to your skin helped make NO.

It's not a trivial issue. As we age we naturally make less nitric oxide (NO), by about 12% per decade. NO is critical for keeping our arteries flexible and our blood pressure low. It plays an outsized role in helping our immune system kill bacteria and viruses. It downshifts our response to inflammation. You want every molecule of NO you can get. The extrapolation of the beneficial effect of NO from sunlight accounts for some 300,000 excess deaths per year in the USA secondary to lack of sufficient sunlight exposure, and subsequent less NO. Europe is worse off as they are farther north and more congested. Tanning beds won't provide quite the same because they don't offer the full spectrum of UV radiation.

How much sunlight do you need? Not much. A Standard Erythemal Dose or SED is what it takes a caucasian with skin type II (can tan but will burn if enough exposure) about 20 minutes of low-intensity sunlight. But even some clouds will allow you some SED effect. You will still get some NO. You can look up your Fittzpatrick Skin Typeand see where you fit. You need to get your sunlight, as often as you can. No burning.

www.What will Work for me. I was a champion for Vitamin D at Aurora Health Care 15 years ago. There is modest benefit on many fronts but there is no money in a supplement that costs pennies...so little research. Had I stayed longer I would have done a study on Vitamin D and prenatal care (massive reduction in preemie births) and congestive cardiomyopathy in young African Americans. I'm certain I would have shown dramatic benefit. But the money all goes to whiz-bang antibodies and fancy procedures that generate big dollars. Not much for lowly Vitamin D. We all still need to be on Vitamin D. Keep taking your 5000 iu a day. But recognize that you need the sunlight too. Not too much. No more than 1 SED (what it takes to make your skin a little color change). And now we can buy NO supplements to make up for your aging. (www.n1o1.com. I take those too.

References: Nature - Scientific Reports, J. Investigative Biology, Int Jr Environmental and Public Health, TED Talk by Weller, Fitzpatrick Skin Types,

Pop Quiz

1. Sunlight provides what benefit besides VItamin D?                          Answer: Your skin make nitric oxide.

2. Why is it important to keep being exposed to sun?                    Answer; As we age, we naturally lose about 12% of our NO per decade of live. A 70 year old will be down 85%.

3. When does heart disease kill the most of us?                         Answer: In our 60s and 70s and 80s. Concurrent with 75%, 85% and 95% reduction in NO. (Forgive the rounding error)

4. Why is sunlight better than a tanning bed?                         Answer: You get the whole spectrum of UV radiation, which all contributes to NO production.

5. Got your winter plans made yet?                      Answer: I hear Sanibel Island is gradually recovering.