The sins of modern society have been:
1. Obesity
2. Inactivity
3. Smoking
But now comes another one.
4. Inadequate sun exposure! (And too much sunscreen!)
We are not talking about excessive sunning, or using reflectors and iodine in mineral oil from the days of my youth. But, I am referring to sensible time outside moving about in good ole Mother Nature.
What, you say? You just got used to being fearful of the sun!
This info comes from a large study. From the Karolinska Institute, the Harvard of Sweden. It was run on 30,000 Swedish women.
They tracked time outdoors, taking into account other life habits, and how healthy or not women were. They figured out that the more time you spend outdoors, the less you get heart disease, diabetes, MS and even lung diseases.
Avoiding the sun, and living mostly inside an office and/or home, turns out to be a risk factor for death… similar in magnitude as if you were a smoker!
Women who avoided sunlight regularly, compared with those with the highest sun exposure, had premature death by 0.6 to 2.1 years compared to those that spend some time each day OUTSIDE each day.
In other words—YOU need to be outside.
The planet wants YOU!
The more time in the sun, the more benefits this study found to occur. The benefits of being outdoors were what’s called “dose dependent”.