Sunlight lowers blood pressure

Scottish scientists confirm positive effects of solar radiation

14/05/2013

Sun is good - what every sun-worshiper would immediately sign, Scottish scientists have confirmed in a recent study and presented their findings at a dermatologist's convention in Edinburgh.

Lower blood pressure after exposure to UV light
Sunshine would lower blood pressure and even prolong life, regardless of vitamin D formation. For their study, Richard Weller's researchers from the University of Edinburgh had placed 24 volunteers under a UV lamp for 20 minutes each, then under a heat lamp, and measured participants' blood pressure and vitamin D levels before and after each experiment. The result: Following UV irradiation, the subjects 'blood pressure dropped by about 4 mmHg for one hour - while no effect was observed when using pure heat, according to dermatologist Richard Weller in his presentation at the Dermatologists' Congress in Edinburgh.

UV light releases nitric oxide
A possible explanation for the effect, the researchers see in the ability of UV radiation, Nitrate (chemical: NO3-) from special stores in the skin to be able to dissolve and convert to nitric oxide (NO), which dilates the blood vessels, relaxes the vascular muscles and so can lower blood pressure. This had not fallen much during the investigation on a personal level, „but in the total population enough to postpone the mortality rate of heart disease in the population“, so Richard Weller.

Vitamin D level remains unchanged by the irradiation
According to Weller, the scientists consciously chose UVA radiation for their examination, since they do not produce vitamin D., „because vitamin D is produced by UV-B rays and we wanted to separate our cause from the vitamin D thing.“ The result: The subjects' vitamin D level remained unchanged by the irradiation, which would confirm that sunlight has other effects than the formation of vitamin D and, accordingly, vitamin D tablets could not replace sunlight.

Benefits of the sun for the cardiovascular system outweigh the risk for skin cancer
However, the sun is naturally not entirely harmless - and although the risk for skin cancer is still not to be underestimated, Weller would like to rethink, because cardiovascular diseases and strokes due to hypertension would be many times more likely to cause deaths than skin cancer. Accordingly, Weller summarizes in his presentation: „We suspect that the benefits that sunlight has for the cardiovascular system outweigh the disadvantages, ie the risk of skin cancer.“ (No)

Picture: Sven Klöpping