Leading cancer researchers in Sweden have presented data to make the case that women who actively seek the sun live longer than those who avoid it — a finding that flies in the face of dermatology’s overstatement of the risks of UV overexposure.

‘Our studies show that women with active sunbathing habits live longer,’ Dr. Hakan Olsson of Lund University in Sweden, told the London Daily Mail in an article published Dec. 4. Olsson told the Daily Mail the benefits of exposure to sunlight “far outweigh” the danger of skin cancer.

According to The Daily Mail, “Professor Olsson also suggested that skin cancer was not caused by sunbathing alone.” The article quotes Olsson on this subject as saying, ‘I and many others believe that there may be factors other than the sun that influence the risk of malignant melanoma. The burning of the skin in the sun is not enough to explain this.”

To read the Daily Mail story click here.