What if I told you that your daily habit of avoiding the sun could be just as risky for your long-term health as smoking? It sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? We’ve been taught for decades to fear the sun, to slather on sunscreen, and to seek shade at all costs. But groundbreaking new research is forcing us to completely rethink this advice. The truth is, our modern, indoor lifestyle has created a new kind of deficiency, and it’s having a profound impact on our health, from our risk of cancer and heart disease to our daily energy levels.
We are spending, on average, 93% of our lives indoors. Think about that. We’ve effectively cut ourselves off from the most powerful, natural source of energy and health available to us. This chronic lack of sunlight is what some experts are now calling the “scurvy of the 21st century.” Just as sailors centuries ago suffered from a lack of vitamin C, we are now suffering from a lack of sunlight. This isn’t about getting a tan or recklessly baking for hours; it’s about understanding that moderate, sensible sun exposure is a fundamental biological need. In this article, we’re going to dive into the astonishing science that reveals why you need to start making sunlight a priority again. (Based on the insights of Dr Roger Seheult.)
Key Takeaways
- Sun Avoidance as a Major Risk Factor: A large-scale Swedish study found that avoiding the sun carries a similar mortality risk to smoking.
- Sunlight Supercharges Your Cells: Sunlight, particularly near-infrared light, boosts your mitochondrial function, which is the energy source for every cell in your body.
- Lower Mortality Risk: A massive UK study confirmed that greater sun exposure is linked to lower mortality from non-skin cancers and cardiovascular disease, without a statistically significant increase in melanoma.
- Modern Life is the Problem: Spending over 90% of our time indoors and using narrow-spectrum LED lighting deprives our bodies of the full-spectrum light we evolved to need.
- Simple Changes, Big Impact: Just 15 minutes of daily sun exposure, especially in the morning or late afternoon, can have significant health benefits.
1. The Astonishing Study That Compared Sun Avoidance to Smoking
You read that right. Let’s talk about a groundbreaking study from Sweden that should make everyone sit up and pay attention. Researchers followed nearly 30,000 Swedish women for 20 years, tracking their sun exposure habits. They divided the women into three groups: those who actively sought out the sun, those who got a moderate amount, and those who actively avoided it. The results were stunning. The women who spent the most time in the sun had the lowest rates of death from cardiovascular disease and non-cardiovascular diseases, including cancer.
The difference was so dramatic that the researchers made a shocking comparison. They found that non-smoking women who avoided the sun had a similar life expectancy to women who smoked and were in the highest sun exposure group. Let that sink in. In this study, choosing to avoid the sun was as dangerous to your overall longevity as being a smoker. This is an association, of course, but it’s a powerful one. It suggests that the benefits of sun exposure are so profound that they can even counteract other major health risks.
2. It’s Not Just a Fluke: More Evidence Confirms Sunlight’s Power
If you’re skeptical, you should be. But the Swedish study isn’t an outlier. Dr. Richard Weller in the UK conducted a similar, but even larger, study using the UK Biobank, which included nearly 400,000 men and women. He found the exact same pattern: the more sun exposure people had, the lower their risk of death.
But what about the big fear everyone has: skin cancer, specifically melanoma? This is the critical part. Dr. Weller’s study looked at this directly. He found that while sun exposure was linked to a reduction in death from all other causes (like heart disease and other cancers), there was no statistically significant increase in the incidence of melanoma. The conclusion he and other public health organizations are now reaching is that the benefits of sensible sun exposure far outweigh the risks. We’ve been so focused on the one potential negative that we’ve ignored a mountain of positives. It’s time for a major rethink of our relationship with the sun.
3. The Secret Ingredient: How Sunlight Supercharges Your Body’s Powerhouses
So, what is the magic behind sunlight? It’s not just about Vitamin D. A huge part of the benefit comes from a type of light you can’t even see: near-infrared (NIR) light. This light makes up over 40% of the sun’s energy. Unlike UV light, which is mostly absorbed by the skin’s surface, NIR light penetrates deep into your body, through your clothes, and into your tissues and cells.
Once inside, it performs a critical function: it helps your mitochondria work better. Your mitochondria are the tiny power plants inside every one of your cells, responsible for producing the energy (called ATP) that fuels everything you do. As you age, or when your body is under stress, your mitochondria can become less efficient. NIR light essentially gives them a tune-up, helping them produce energy more effectively. The effect this has depends on the tissue. In your eyes, which have the highest concentration of mitochondria in the body, it can improve vision. In your brain, it may help protect against dementia. In your muscles, it can aid recovery. By improving energy production at the most fundamental level, sunlight has a positive ripple effect across your entire body.
4. Are You Suffering from the “Scurvy of the 21st Century”?
As we mentioned, the average American or Brit now spends a staggering 92-93% of their life indoors. Our ancestors spent the majority of their lives outside. We’ve completely flipped that script in just a few generations. We work in offices, exercise in gyms, and relax by watching screens inside our homes. We even have windows specifically designed to block the sun’s rays, including the beneficial infrared light, to keep our homes cool.
This chronic indoor living is a form of mal-illumination—a deficiency of natural light. We are the first humans in history to be exposed almost exclusively to a very narrow spectrum of artificial light, primarily from LED and fluorescent bulbs. These bulbs were designed for energy efficiency, which means they emit a lot of blue light that we can see, but they completely lack the red and near-infrared light that our bodies need. We were never meant to get blue light without the full spectrum that always accompanies it in nature. This constant, unbalanced light exposure is a stressor on our bodies, and we are only just beginning to understand the long-term consequences.
5. The “Green Space” Secret for Better Health
Have you ever noticed you just feel better when you’re in a park or a forest? It’s not just in your head. There’s real science to back it up. Studies have shown for decades that people who live in “green spaces” have lower rates of diabetes, hypertension, depression, and overall mortality. For a long time, experts thought this was just because these areas were wealthier. But a fascinating study called the “Green Heart Study” in Louisville, Kentucky, proved otherwise.
Researchers took a four-square-mile urban area and measured a key marker of inflammation (hs-CRP) in about 700 residents. Then, they did something amazing: they planted 8,000 mature trees in the neighborhood. Two years later, they came back and re-measured. The residents’ inflammation markers had dropped by 13-20%, corresponding to a significant reduction in stroke risk. These people didn’t change their income or start a new exercise program. The only major change was the presence of trees. Why? One powerful reason is that green leaves are highly reflective of near-infrared light. Being in a green environment literally bathes you in more of this healing light than being in a concrete jungle. It’s another powerful reason to get outside.
6. Your Action Plan: How to Safely Get the Sunlight You Need
Okay, so you’re convinced you need more sun. How do you do it without being reckless? It’s simpler than you think.
- Start with 15 Minutes: Aim for at least 15 minutes of direct sun exposure each day. If you work in an office, use your lunch break to go for a walk outside. Don’t let clouds fool you; even on an overcast day, you get far more beneficial light outside than you do sitting by a window.
- Time It Right: The safest time to get sun, especially if you’re fair-skinned, is in the morning and late afternoon. When the sun is lower in the sky, the atmosphere filters out more of the intense UV radiation, but you still get a great dose of that beneficial red and infrared light.
- Use Clothes as Your Sunscreen: If you’re going to be out during the peak midday hours, use clothing and a wide-brimmed hat for protection. Remember, UV light doesn’t penetrate clothing well, but infrared light does. This allows you to block the potentially damaging rays while still absorbing the good stuff.
- Consider Red Light Therapy: If you live in a place with long, dark winters or your job makes it impossible to get outside, red light therapy devices can be a reasonable substitute. These devices deliver concentrated red and near-infrared light to help charge your mitochondria when you can’t get it from the sun.
Conclusion
For too long, we’ve viewed the sun as an enemy to be avoided at all costs. The science is now clear that this approach is deeply flawed and may be contributing to many of the chronic diseases we face today. Sunlight is not a toxin; it is a nutrient. Just like you need vitamins and minerals from food, your body needs the full spectrum of light from the sun to function optimally. By making a conscious effort to spend just a little more time outdoors, you can reconnect with this powerful source of health and vitality, supercharge your cells, and take a simple but profound step toward a healthier, more energetic life.
Source: Dr Roger Seheult