Does a Sun Tan reduce Breast Cancer ?

Does a sun tan reduce breast cancer ?

Exposure to the sun triggers the skin to protect itself by creating the darker color that we call a sun tan. The skin also makes Vitamin D. The tan takes a while to develop while Vitamin D is made almost straight away - within 20 minutes at most. The amazing point out of the research from researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine is that:

• more sunlight - less breast cancer
  
• less sunlight - more breast cancer.

Read an abstract of the article in Breast Journal May 2008.

The California researchers looked at cancer data from around the world and correlated this with latitude ( and by inference the amount of sun on average women were getting). The results were simple: more sun less breast cancer. The UV-B component of sun-light causes the skin to make Vitamin D. High levels of Vitamin D is apparently protective against breast cancer.

I've blog'd on Vitamin D several times. Of course there is the skin cancer risk but getting some exposure to sun but not enough to burn is important. It is possible to over-dose on Vitamin D taken in through supplements (some foods have Vitamin D added) but Vitamin D manufactured through exposure to sun will not cause a Vitamin D excess. Your skin will just stop producing Vitamin D when there is sufficient circulating in your blood.