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Comment by didibus | Hacker News Reader

I heard tanning in short doses is actually ideal to prevent melanoma and procure the best vitamin D intake.

By exposing more of the skin, you absorb more vitamin D quicker, and so if you tan only 5 to 20 minutes depending on your skin complexion, you basically avoid skin burns and excess damage which causes melanoma and you get the benefits of the sun.

What do you think of this?

Edit: Maybe not what people think of as tanning, but it's basically skin exposure to the sun where you want to limit how long each part of the skin is exposed, but maximise the surface area for vitamin D absorbtion.

Source: https://www.outsideonline.com/2380751/sunscreen-sun-exposure...

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After having my bloodwork show that I had low vitamin D levels a few years ago, I was told by my physician that under no circumstances should I be getting vitamin D from the sun (as risking cancer was not worth it) and to wear sunblock everytime I go outside.

Frankly, I don't have the time to do an extensive literature search to find primary sources but I have seen from plenty of tertiary sources that it is a poor idea to get vitamin D from the sun. Moreover, there are plenty of foods from which you can get vitamin D.

This is the source that first got me curious about this: https://www.outsideonline.com/2380751/sunscreen-sun-exposure...

There's quite a bit of research that seem to coroborate it.

Sun can cause melanoma, but lack of sun also has negative effects albeit harder to track. Some even unrelated to vitamin D, as it seems the Sun does more than just provide us with vitamin D.

But it seems that the research on melanoma actually indicates that it is sunburn that is the prime cause. And sun exposure while under 20 is another leading cause. But after that, exposure that does not result in burn, like short term exposure doesn't seem to cause melanoma and does provide other health benefits.

I recommend a read in any case.

Not saying to go wild sun tanning, but I think if you can avoid burn (even minor ones), you're good.

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