We Tanned With Baby Oil. The Ones Who Hid Died First

In the 1970s we tanned with baby oil and a square of kitchen foil. No sunscreen, no SPF, no shade. Everybody came home brown. Then Swedish researchers followed 29,518 women for 20 years. The ones who stayed out of the sun did not live as long, and the paper says sun avoidance is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking. What did you use out there? Baby oil? Baby oil and iodine? Did your family have the foil reflector propped against a deckchair? Every study is linked below: SOURCES Every figure in this video, in the order it is said. Checked against the primary sources, not press coverage. MELANOMA - THE DISEASE THE OLD ADVICE WAS AIMED AT 8.8 cases per 100,000 in 1975 and 10.2 by 1979; melanoma death rate about 2.5 in 1982 and 2.7 in 2011 SEER Cancer Stat Facts: Melanoma of the Skin - National Cancer Institute https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/melan.html Melanoma incidence doubled 1982-2011; national rate 19.7 per 100,000 in 2011; death rate remained constant Vital Signs: Melanoma Incidence and Mortality Trends and Projections, United States, 1982-2030 - Guy GP Jr et al., CDC MMWR 2015;64(21):591-596 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6421a6.htm SUN EXPOSURE AND MORTALITY - THE SWEDISH COHORT 29,518 women aged 25-64, recruited 1990-1992, followed 20 years; sun avoiders lost 0.6 to 2.1 years of life; the sentence comparing sun avoidance to smoking; the gap coming from fewer cardiovascular and non-cancer deaths Avoidance of sun exposure as a risk factor for major causes of death: a competing risk analysis of the Melanoma in Southern Sweden cohort - Lindqvist PG, Epstein E, Nielsen K, Landin-Olsson M, Ingvar C, Olsson H. Journal of Internal Medicine 2016;280(4):375-387 https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.12496 The published challenge to that finding Response to 'Avoidance of sun exposure as a risk factor for major causes of death' - Hoffmann S, Sobotzki C. Journal of Internal Medicine 2017;281(6):622-623 https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.12613 The authors' reply, which asks the bias question in its own title Are low sun exposure habits a genuine strong risk factor for all-cause mortality or the result of bias? - Lindqvist PG, Olsson H. Journal of Internal Medicine 2017;281(6):620-621 https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.12612 VITAMIN D - THE SHORTAGE, AND THE TRIAL THAT TESTED THE CAPSULE Nearly 72,000 Americans measured 2001-2018; about a quarter deficient, another 41% insufficient Prevalence, trend, and predictor analyses of vitamin D deficiency in the US population, 2001-2018 - Cui A et al., Frontiers in Nutrition 2022;9:965376 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.965376 25,871 adults, 2,000 IU a day against a placebo, median 5.3 years; cancer hazard ratio 0.96 and major cardiovascular events 0.97, both non-significant Vitamin D Supplements and Prevention of Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease - Manson JE, Cook NR, Lee IM et al., New England Journal of Medicine 2019;380(1):33-44 https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1809944 Mean age of the VITAL participants, 67.1 years VITAL: Effects of Vitamin D Supplements on Risk of Falls in the US Population - LeBoff MS et al., Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2020;105(9):2929 https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/105/9/2929/5850900 WHAT ELSE SUNLIGHT MAY BE DOING 24 volunteers under ultraviolet lamps; blood pressure fell; nitric oxide released from stores in the skin UVA irradiation of human skin vasodilates arterial vasculature and lowers blood pressure independently of nitric oxide synthase - Liu D, Fernandez BO, Hamilton A et al., Journal of Investigative Dermatology 2014;134(7):1839-1846 https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2014.27 SKIN COLOR AND VITAMIN D Darker skin makes vitamin D less efficiently, but how much more sunlight is needed is not settled A systematic review of the influence of skin pigmentation on changes in the concentrations of vitamin D and 25-hydroxyvitamin D in plasma/serum following experimental UV irradiation - Xiang F, Lucas R, de Gruijl F, Norval M. Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences 2015;14(12):2138-2146 https://doi.org/10.1039/c5pp00168d The 1982 study of five people that the familiar "three to six times" figure actually comes from Increased skin pigment reduces the capacity of skin to synthesise vitamin D3 - Clemens TL, Adams JS, Henderson SL, Holick MF. The Lancet 1982;1(8263):74-76 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6119494/ THE SHADOW RULE, AND MEDICINES THAT CHANGE THE ANSWER The shadow rule, published under that name UV Index Scale - US Environmental Protection Agency https://www.epa.gov/sunsafety/uv-index-scale-0 Antibiotics, diuretics and common painkillers among the medicines that make skin more sensitive to light The Sun and Your Medicine - US Food and Drug Administration https://www.fda.gov/drugs/understanding-over-counter-medicines/sun-and-your-medicine