A Danish research team this week presented data suggesting that overexposure to the sun lowers a person’s risk of heart attacks, hip fractures and overall mortality — a trade-off that would outweigh the risks of skin-related diseases, most of which are non-lethal in most cases.

“Cumulative incidences of myocardial infarction, hip fracture and mortality were lower among individuals with non-melanoma skin cancer or cutaneous malignant melanoma,” Dr. Peter Brondum Jacobson, of University Hospital in Herlev, Denmark, wrote in the study. “This suggests that sun exposure might have beneficial effects on health.”

The team speculates that non-melanoma and melanoma incidence are signs of overexposure to UV light — an assumption that lacks a solid straightforward relationship, particularly for melanoma and basal cell carcinoma, which have complex relationships with sun exposure in research. Melanoma is more common in indoor workers — who get four- to six-times less sun exposure — than in outdoor workers.

But, studying the entire Danish population from 1980-2006, Jacobson and his colleagues found that those with non-melanoma skin cancer were:

• 34 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack.
  
• 32 percent less likely to suffer a hip fracture.
  
• 46 percent less likely to die of any cause in the time period.

The results were less dramatic among melanoma victims — most likely due to the fact that melanoma’s relationship with sun exposure is not straightforward. Other papers have suggested that vitamin D from sun exposure is the mechanism lowering the risk of these and other diseases.

“What is interesting about this new paper is that it is looking at signs of overexposure to UV and presenting benefits of overexposure,” Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy says. “No one is advocating overexposure to sunlight. But researchers might want to identify if regular, moderate exposure might present the same benefit to this population without the risk of skin cancer. That would be an even better study.”

The study was presented at a meeting of the European Atherosclerosis Society July 1.