Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

cell.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 164 posts

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#121

Post by FullStackAda »

derefr wrote: post #3

Implying that a primary causal factor for globally-declining birth rates could be... increased adoption of sunscreen, leading to decreases in libido? (I'm only half-joking; the countries that are most obsessed with keeping skin white — and so are likely the highest sunscreen users — are also the countries with the lowest birth rates.)

Provided how people apply sunscreen, I doubt it. Not exactly translatable, but there was no effect on vitamin D levels in people using sunscreen: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30945275/

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#122

Post by arbol »

tremon wrote: post #102
arbol wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...skin cancer kills surprisingly few people: less than 3 per 100,000 in the U.S. each year. For every person who dies of skin cancer, more than 100 die from cardiovascular diseases." Personally, I'm from the UK and don't worry about skin cancer. If I was in Australia or some climate I'm not adapted for then I'd be concerned.

kills surprisingly few people: less than 3 per 100,000 Yet the impact on quality of life is huge. Using the same US numbers [0], comparing directly-attributable deaths against life years lost (disability-adjusted life years): - melanoma: 2.2 vs 64.8 - squamous cell carcinoma: 0.8 vs 26.6 - basal cell carcinoma: 0.2 vs 51.2 [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33852922/

Fair cancer impact comparisons. But the point was that increased sunshine can reduce cardiovascular issues so you'd need to look at incidents and impact for heart attack, stroke, etc.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#123

Post by somedude895 »

amelius wrote: post #47

Bremelanotide, a medication used to treat low sexual desire in women, has skin hyperpigmentation as a side effect. Could there be a connection? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremelanotide

My bodybuilder friend used to inject Melanotan II (?) and would get super tan after just a couple days of summer. He'd also get wild random erections while on it. It's an anecdote, but the post title instantly made me think of that.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#124

Post by treeman79 »

AuthorizedCust wrote: post #110
Khelavaster wrote: post #107

This isn't big news at all. Melanocyte-stimulating hormones have been known to stimulate sexual behavior since forever. Melanocortin receptors directly modulate sexual behavior. Melanocyte-stimulating hormone production is boosted by from inflammatory effects of UV damage. This has been known forever, too.

> boosted by from inflammatory effects of UV damage That wording supports a notion that the boosting is to encourage the most essential activity of a species—reproduction—in the face of potential harms that may shorten the opportunity for that activity (cancer-induced final exit). That said, I’m aware of counterarguments to the simplistic takes on “sun bad” messaging and think they have merit. Not trying to open a de…

Sun exposure causes a severe inflammatory exposure for me. Spent a day at the beach and it was 7 months of burning nerve pain before I got it calmed down. Side effect of autoimmune Sjogrens.

I don’t go out if UV is above a 2 anymore.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#126

Post by derefr »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #30
samstave wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, In many caste-esque societies, having a darker tone is a sign of having to work outside, thus of lower class. This happens a lot in the Philippines, for example. With a ton of skin lightening products.

Being chubby and pale was desirable when the poor had to toil away outside and didn't have enough food to eat. Being thin and tan is desirable today when the poor have to toil away in offices and don't have enough free time to go to the gym or take vacations in warm places.

Being tan is desirable for the upper class, because they're trying to avoid being seen as middle class "toiling away in offices", and don't particularly care about being confused for lower class.

Being pale is still desirable for the middle class themselves, though, as they're trying to avoid being seen as lower class (tradespeople, farmers, etc).

Also, thinness is actually a middle-class obsession, because it's the lower class who "don't have enough free time to go to the gym or take vacations in warm places." The upper class don't care what their bodies look like, as they all know that they and everyone else in the upper class can afford to "throw money at the problem" (plastic surgery et al), and so how healthy you look is no longer a good signal for how healthy you actually are. (Instead, they tend to judge your genetic fitness — when they care about that sort of thing — by the health of your lineage, going back several generations. Which is one reason royals/nobles make a big deal of keeping track of that.)

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#127

Post by milesvp »

hh3k0 wrote: post #98
MaintenanceMode wrote: post #89

Well, this is oddly personal for hackernews but what the heck. This is pretty interesting to me. I’ve been living outdoors for the last 12 months, and I’ve noticed some significant changes in libido. It’s been on my mind quite a bit (not only for the obvious reasons but also wondering why this is happening to me). There’s a lot of factors of course, going from a mostly sedentary indoor life to a mostly actively outdo…

Interesting nonetheless, thanks for sharing! Slightly related: I've decided to stop using suncreen altogether for day-to-day sun exposure. My mood and overall sense of happiness increased significantly – in fact, it seemed to have helped more than my antidepressants ever did. (My libido did not increase but my antidepressants are pretty much libido killers.)

I’ve been seeing more and more evidence that we may not be getting enough UV exposure in general in the US. Vitamin D production is big, but what fewer people know about is nitric oxide which is also sythesized from UV exposure. It is a muscle relaxer that lowers blood pressure. It would undoubtedly have a positive effect on your mood.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#128

Post by AuthorizedCust »

whatshisface wrote: post #120
AuthorizedCust wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> boosted by from inflammatory effects of UV damage That wording supports a notion that the boosting is to encourage the most essential activity of a species—reproduction—in the face of potential harms that may shorten the opportunity for that activity (cancer-induced final exit). That said, I’m aware of counterarguments to the simplistic takes on “sun bad” messaging and think they have merit. Not trying to open a de…

There's no way that we evolved to chemically respond to an effect that takes fifty years to happen.

Evolution is a long tail game. Over eons, any mutation conferring an increased likelihood of sustainable reproduction can “win”, including this one.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#129

Post by [deleted] »

whatshisface wrote: post #120
AuthorizedCust wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> boosted by from inflammatory effects of UV damage That wording supports a notion that the boosting is to encourage the most essential activity of a species—reproduction—in the face of potential harms that may shorten the opportunity for that activity (cancer-induced final exit). That said, I’m aware of counterarguments to the simplistic takes on “sun bad” messaging and think they have merit. Not trying to open a de…

There's no way that we evolved to chemically respond to an effect that takes fifty years to happen.

[deleted]

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#130

Post by LorenPechtel »

MaintenanceMode wrote: post #89

Well, this is oddly personal for hackernews but what the heck. This is pretty interesting to me. I’ve been living outdoors for the last 12 months, and I’ve noticed some significant changes in libido. It’s been on my mind quite a bit (not only for the obvious reasons but also wondering why this is happening to me). There’s a lot of factors of course, going from a mostly sedentary indoor life to a mostly actively outdo…

I haven't noticed any changes since I got back into hiking but I'm careful with the sunscreen--I live in the desert where the sun is brutal, any mistake is liable to result in a burn.

I have been seeing many hints recently that UV might be good for us in moderation but determining how much one is getting is problematic.

Post reply on HN