The vitamin D link to sunlight is invaluable. And yet, that value just doubled.

Double exposure

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (without Wi-Fi), you know that vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients for your overall health.

And unless you believe the scare-mongers who would have you stay under that rock, you know that spending some time in the sun is a great way to increase your body’s supply of it.

That reason alone is enough to keep you from hiding in the dark like some albino mole. But now we have a second excellent reason to step out into the sun everyday — unprotected.

That’s right… The health value of sunlight just doubled.

Even hardliners step into the light

You know this is a big deal when mainstream researchers are calling for reassessment of sunlight exposure guidelines.

They’re basically saying, “Ummm…we may have been wrong about that big yellow thing. You should probably get some sun.”

About time!

Here’s the remarkable new finding from UK’s University of Edinburgh…

When sunlight hits your skin, it prompts a release of nitric oxide (NO) into blood vessels. NO goes right to work, relaxing smooth muscle around vessels. This increases blood flow, which reduces blood pressure.

And for millions of people, that means (drum roll, please)…

Reduced risk of heart disease.

So instead of pushing blood pressure drugs, a low-fat diet, and banning the salt shaker, medical professionals should have been telling us, “Spend some time in the sun!”

But of course, they couldn’t do that. For years, mainstream hardliners have insisted that sun exposure is lethal…public enemy #1.

Even taking skin cancer risk into account (and ignoring the extremely shaky connection between sun exposure and skin cancer risk just for one minute), the researchers still want us to go outside!

Edinburgh researchers conclude that skin cancer risk from sun exposure is minimal compared to heart health benefits. They estimate that for every skin cancer death in Europe, there is as many as 100 deaths due to stroke and heart disease linked to high blood pressure.

While they’re catching up on the value of sunlight, we’ll stick with our longtime recommendation. About 20 or 30 minutes of full sunlight exposure daily is perfect. No hat, no sunscreen, no sleeves. That’s enough to reap the benefits of vitamin D and NO.

And if you’re going to be out much longer than that, be smart and bring some sunBLOCK and a hat. If you’ve ever had a sunburn, you don’t need a bunch of researchers to tell you that.

Sources:
“UVA lowers blood pressure and vasodilates the systemic arterial vasculature by mobilisation of cutaneous nitric oxide stores” Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Vol. 133, 4/15/13, nature.com/jid/journal

“Sun Exposure Benefits May Outweigh Risks Say Scientists” Catharine Paddock, Medical News Today, 5/8/13, medicalnewstoday.com