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Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

sciencedirect.com

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Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#41

Post by xattt »

mint2 wrote: post #20
swalling wrote: post #15

Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality... for white people residing in the United Kingdom. The selected cohort of people is pretty specific from a global perspective. In particular, if you live in a higher UV location (i.e. closer to the equator), intentionally increasing sun exposure like they measured in this study may not be necessary or helpful. For instance, the entire lower 48 stat…

Glad this was pointed out - this article is specifically about regions in “low” UV latitudes, with the actual subject being from the UK. Accounting for UV intensity of your home country is crucial. Don’t just go out and frolic without precautions just because a study from the UK found sun exposure was good. Their sun isn’t built the same. Mid day UV index in SF is 9 as I type. Compare what the paper says about the UK…

> Make good decisions people! I got some sun when the UV was 2 early in the early morning. Now it’s 9 at midday. All sun is not equal.

I observed a group of people going into a theme park at 5 PM and slopping on a thick layer of sunscreen. Sundown was ~8 PM. Local UV index is essentially 0 at that time of the day.

Mental models of UV exposure are not always intuitive.

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#42

Post by schappim »

I would have thought that exercise was the primary contributing factor, but the study isolated the effects of UV exposure by using independent UV measures, adjusting for confounders like exercise, employing a negative control outcome, and using directed acyclic graphs to identify and account for potential confounders.

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#43

Post by rich_sasha »

They do adjust for area wealth / deprivation etc. Even then I wonder if the "UV radiation" is just proxy for living up North and in cities, both of which lead to less solar irradiation and generally poorer health outcomes. E.g. healthcare coverage, unemployment, access to education etc. all get worse along a north-south axis.

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#44

Post by mensetmanusman »

It’s a travesty that darker skinned people living in northern latitudes are being marketed sun screen. They need extra exposure to get sufficient vitamin D generation. (This is one strong correlate for higher levels of obesity in these communities).

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#45

Post by stefantalpalaru »

marcosdumay wrote: post #29
prbl2 wrote: post #19

This is an interesting finding. But, a reminder that this is epidemiological data. It is nearly impossible to "adjust" for all confounding variables in epidemiological studies. For example, you may expect a health user-bias among people who use solariums, sunlamps, or have high vitamin-D levels, and health at baseline might be effected by random fluctuations not accounting for all variance. I would look for evidence…

How well fundamented is the opposite belief, that seems to be held as true by nearly everybody? I know the link to skin cancer is well established, but I don't know of any broad study about all causes of mortality. Yes, do not take this study as true. But also, look at your priors.

[dead]

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#46

Post by shirro »

api wrote: post #3

Is this more vitamin D evidence or is there something more going on?

There are specific medical conditions that respond well to uv exposure (perhaps through mechanisms like apoptosis and changes to the immune system) that don't benefit much from vitamin D supplementation. I would be wary about assuming those benefits can be generalized or outweigh the known risks of uv exposure. People who spend more time outdoors likely have more physically active lives, are less exposed to VOCs and infections and there could be many demographic differences that are hard to control.

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#47

Post by Cantinflas »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #44

It’s a travesty that darker skinned people living in northern latitudes are being marketed sun screen. They need extra exposure to get sufficient vitamin D generation. (This is one strong correlate for higher levels of obesity in these communities).

Can't they just tale vitamin D supplements? Why extra exposure?

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#48

Post by arcanemachiner »

Cantinflas wrote: post #47
mensetmanusman wrote: post #44

It’s a travesty that darker skinned people living in northern latitudes are being marketed sun screen. They need extra exposure to get sufficient vitamin D generation. (This is one strong correlate for higher levels of obesity in these communities).

Can't they just tale vitamin D supplements? Why extra exposure?

Vitamin D is probably not the only benefit derived from sun exposure:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-43653-2#:~:text=L....

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#49

Post by _xiaz »

fimdomeio wrote: post #27

I have a very unscientific feeling that the scientific consensus will probably one day end up being something like: sun is good for you in moderation, the amount that is ok depends on your skin color, how tanned you get, in which part of the world you are and how often you are outside. Avoid too much sun and avoid sun burns and also avoid crazy strong sunscreens that block the benefits of getting sunlight. The lifest…

> avoid crazy strong sunscreens

It's also known that sun exposure causes the vast majority of visible skin aging. So I choose to use overkill sunscreen on my face and neck to preserve my youth and balance that out by using no sunscreen on my legs. In the summer, running around in shorts, I should get plenty of sun. In the winter, I supplement vitamin D anyway

Re: Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality

#50

Post by _xiaz »

sokoloff wrote: post #24
EstanislaoStan wrote: post #4

So it's not just that people who go outside more are generally healthier: "Solarium users were also at a lower risk of non-CVD/non-cancer mortality."

I would wager that there's a positive covariance between "solarium users" and "not poor" where "not poor" is surely correlated with lower mortality.

I'd love if more studies accounted for this. It's the "Mozart makes your kids smart" mistake repeated ad nauseam
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