Posted on 11/07/2007 6:54:26 PM PST by blam
Edited on 11/07/2007 8:52:38 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Sunbathing 'slows ageing process'
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 08/11/2007
Sunbathing can slow the ageing process by up to five years, according to new research.
Scientists have found that people who avoid the sun, or have inadequate vitamin D in their diet, are subject to genetic damage associated with ageing and age-related illnesses.
The effect of the damage is so great that those who lack vitamin D - often called the "sunshine vitamin" because 90 per cent of the body's intake is created by exposure to the sun - were biologically five years older than those with the highest levels.
Lead researcher Dr Brent Richards, from King's College, London said: "These results are exciting because they demonstrate for the first time that people with high levels of vitamin D may age more slowly than people with lower levels.
"This helps to explain how vitamin D has a protective effect on age-related illnesses such as heart disease."
Co-author Prof Tim Spector, also of King's College, said the study showed people should spend more time in the sun and eat more foods rich in vitamin D such as fish, eggs, fortified milk and breakfast cereals, or take supplements.
About one-third of the population is thought to be vitamin D deficient. Prof Spector said: "There are scares about melanomas, which do affect several thousand people per year.
"But vitamin D deficiency is making hundreds of thousands of people ill with potentially fatal diseases."
Cancer campaigners pointed out that too much exposure to the sun can cause skin cancer, which kills about 1,800 people in the UK each year.
Henry Scowcroft, of Cancer Research UK, said: "It doesn't take much time in the sun to make vitamin D, and always less time than it takes to redden or burn."
Sunbathing may prevent aging internally, but it sure speeds it up externally.
I recall my first trip to Canada ( I was brought up in S. Fla.for comparison.)
One of the things that struck me was the beautiful complexion on women in their 60s and 70s.
I was used to the alligator skins on South Beach.
yikes, imagine if she was next to you on the beach and asked, “Hey mister can you rub some oil on my back?”
uH.....not just yet.......
Man, I wish these scientists would make up their minds!
Almost everything they come out & tell you is bad - they eventually come out & say, well maybe it isn’t that bad after all.
My grandmother has been right all along - she said everything is OK in moderation.
When you get to be that age, they tend to head towards the waist... or the ankles...
I seriously doubt that, especially in northerly regions where people wear lots of clothes and sunlight is less intense, esp. in the winter. The ancestors of those of us who are honkies had to evolve pale skins to increase the effects of limited solar input in their boreal habitat, even though they were outdoors more than most people are today.
Yeah, but then how would they get all that grant money? We're talkin' job security, ya know.
I think that’s what happens when you’re 80 and gravity hits.
Good point.
omg lololol
btt
And too much sun gives you a fatal melanoma.
Timing is everything, I guess!
: )
...and how’d you like to be the person who gave Great-Great-Great-Grandma a Brazilian ?
I think she untied the string around her neck so that she could get some topless sun exposure. Ewwwww
Sorry, is that "C" or "D"?
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