While you may still hear secret stories about women covered in baby oil and lying on a crinkly bed of aluminum foil, sun worship has been discouraged for the last 30 years. But there's still a bright side to sunshine: light therapy. Light therapy is used to treat several medical conditions, and may even help prevent some autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS).
Multiple Sclerosis
Researchers have long suspected that the vitamin D in ultraviolet sunlight protects people from developing MS. This theory was first conceived when scientists observed that the number of MS cases increases as the distance from the equator increases. Since ultraviolet rays (UV) from sunlight triggers vitamin D production in the skin, people in northern areas sometimes have a deficiency due to the low levels of sunlight. Exposure is also affected by the time of day, weather and sunscreen usage.
"The hypothesis has been that vitamin D could reduce the risk of MS, but for a long time there was no data," says Dr. Alberto Ascherio, an associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
A 2004 study co-authored by Ascherio and published in Neurology has provided some evidence. The researchers examined the use of vitamin D supplements in 187,563 women and found that women who took them, usually as part of a multivitamin, had a 40 percent lower risk of MS than women who didn't.
Copyright 2009 NBC Health
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