Maybe Mom was right: Going outside to play can extend your life

Remember when your mother would tell you to play outside in the sun as a kid? Turns out it may have been pretty good advice.

A new Swedish study finds that women who actively get exposed to sunlight have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who avoid it.

The study assessed the differences in sun exposure as a risk factor for all mortality among more than 29,500 Swedish women enrolled in a melanoma research effort since the 1990s.

Researchers found that women with active sun exposure habits had a lower risk for cardiovascular disease and non-cancer/non-cardiovascular disease death. Life expectancy among women who avoided the sun was up to 2.1 years shorter than for women who get more sun. Researchers suggest lower sun exposure meant women were more likely to have a vitamin D deficiency, which has been linked to cardiovascular disease.

One interesting finding: Nonsmokers who avoided sun exposure had a life expectancy similar to smokers in the highest sun exposure group. That suggests that avoiding sun exposure is as much of a risk factor as smoking.

The study leaves several questions unanswered. It did not distinguish between active sun exposure and a healthy lifestyle. For example, researchers did not assess whether the women who get outside more engage in healthy activities, such walking, running or bicycling.

Findings also suggests that, while women with more sun exposure had reduced risk of cardiovascular death, they had a slightly elevated risk of death from cancer. However, researchers attributed the higher risk for cancer to older age that results from living longer.

Though the research is not perfect, it provides us with additional evidence that humans can lengthen their healthy lifespans right now, by adjusting lifestyles. This makes us all the more excited about the future, when some of the groundbreaking science being developed now begins to deliver on its promise by curing untreatable diseases, enabling people to more easily replace worn or damaged organs and tissues and regenerating cells to restore optimal function.

To achieve Methuselah Foundation’s goal of making 90 the new 50 by 2030, we need to keep exploring multiple avenues. If you’d like to help us achieve our mission, donate here.