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Longevity Atlas
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„Sunlight should be avoided entirely; sunscreen plus a vitamin D pill covers everything.”

The Swedish MISS cohort (n=29,518, 20 years) found sun-avoiding women had twice the mortality of the most sun-exposed — a gap comparable to smoking, and not just vitamin D: nitric oxide made in skin lowers blood pressure. Yet sunburn genuinely causes melanoma, and sunscreen halved it in an RCT (Nambour). The sensible middle: 10–20 minutes of midday sun on bare arms daily without burning; sunscreen for longer exposure. The pill replaces vitamin D, not the sun.

Sources

  1. Lindqvist PG et al. Avoidance of sun exposure as a risk factor for major causes of death: a competing risk analysis of the Melanoma in Southern Sweden cohort. J Intern Med (2016) ↗

Last reviewed: 6 September 2026

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