Should We Spend Time In The Sun? GCSE?

Question

I have a GCSE examination tomrorow and i am collecting information to answer the question " Should We Spend Time In The Sun?". I Have viewed all the other topics similar to mine and its still not enough. Can anybody give me a link to some graphs or some more detailed opinions. Would be much appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

Sunbathing may not be as bad as we’ve come to think, according to a researcher at The University of Auckland.

Associate-Professor Robert Scragg, an epidemiology researcher at the Faculty of Medical and Health Science’s School of Population Health, says the sun is the best source of vitamin D, which can help the body fight cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

Dr Scragg says everyone should spend some time in the sun each day over summer to get their fix of vitamin D. Pale people need about 10 minutes a day of sun time without sunscreen, while people with darker complexions – including Pacific Islanders, Maori and other ethnicities – need at least 20 minutes as their skin takes longer to absorb the sun’s rays.

“I’m not encouraging people to spend hours in the sun. But there is strong and growing evidence that vitamin D can protect us from many diseases.”

Dr Scragg says vitamin D supplements, which are usually found within multivitamin or calcium supplements, do not provide enough of a hit to help the body.

“It takes about 20 times the dose of a typical vitamin supplement to obtain the equivalent of what would be gained during five minutes in the sun. Sunlight is responsible for 80 to 90 percent of the vitamin D our body takes in. So really, there isn’t anything else we can do but get some sun,” he says.

In New Zealand, elderly people, Pacific people and to a lesser extent Maori, are particularly prone to low vitamin D levels. Dr Scragg says with older people this is linked to a decline in outdoor activity, while for Pacific and Maori it is related to having darker skin. These groups are also statistically more likely to have heart disease or stroke.

Dr Scragg has been researching vitamin D since the 1980s. His work has looked at the vitamin D levels of people who’ve had heart attacks, and people with early-onset diabetes.

“One of my areas of interest is the seasonality of heart disease and stroke mortality rates. Conventional thought is that it’s based on temperature or the increase of respiratory infection in winter. My view is that the low levels of vitamin D in the winter may also be involved because of the lack of sun.

“In the United States there has also been recent research showing strong evidence that UV exposure can protect people from breast, colon, ovary and prostate cancer.”

In 2004, Dr Scragg undertook a project to analyse data from the United States third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey, carried out between 1988 and 1994, was the largest of its kind in the world and included a nationally-representative sample of the US population involving over 30,000 people.

He looked at the relationship between vitamin D and outdoor activity, as well as the relationship between low vitamin D levels and diabetes. Dr Scragg says daily outdoor exercise was found to help prevent the decline in vitamin D with age. His work on diabetes and vitamin D was published in the top American journal, Diabetes Care, in late December.

In 2003, Dr Scragg took a sabbatical and visited researchers in the United States and Australia who are also studying a lack of vitamin D and its links to diabetes, cardiac disease and cancer.

Answer 2

Careful about this - it is a trick question. The above posters are correct in that your body produces Vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. As mentioned you can also get this from food, but not enough. Still, you only need very little exposure to get all the vitamin D you need - I think it was something like 15 mins a day (don't quote me on that...I'm not 100% on it). Even being in the shade should get you enough light. Sunlight as you know, also has harmful UV radiation. UV radiation causes mutations of DNA - and this is why it can cause cancer. A little sunlight is good, WITH sunscreen lotion and not for long periods of time. Too much sunlight is bad for you.

Answer 3

You have to be exposed to the sun or your would get seriously ill; sunlight provides Vitamin D. So it's kind of an odd question.
Interestingly enough, research is now showing that Vitamin D from sunlight can protect against prostate cancer.

2 articles:
http://prostatecancer.about.com/od/riskreducers/a/vitD.htm
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/cancer/prostate/pros.prevent.sun.htm

American Cancer Society on sunlight:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_1_1x_Sunlight_May_Not_Be_All_Bad_for_Some_Cancers.asp

"How much time should we spend in the sun?" is far better. Because there are limits. Ask anyone who has skin cancer.

Here is information from the Cancer Society on skin cancer:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_1_3X_Sunlight_and_Ultraviolet_Radiation.asp