Soaking up the sun may reduce a woman's risk of rheumatoid arthritis, a study has shown.
Over-exposure to the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays can damage the skin and trigger skin cancer.
However, new research involving more than 200,000 women suggests sunshine can also cut the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by more than one-fifth.
The findings are based on data from the Nurses' Health Study, looking at lifestyle factors affecting women's health in the US.
Scientists looked at conditions where the women lived to work out their likely exposure to UV-B rays.
The researchers used a measurement method known as UV-B flux which takes into account latitude, altitude and cloud cover.
It is expressed in R-B units, and a count of 440 R-B units in 30 minutes would produce slight redness in untanned white skin.
Exposure ranged from an annual average of 93 R-B units in the northern states of Alaska and Oregon to 196 in Hawaii and Arizona.
During the 30-year study period, a total of 1314 women developed RA, an auto-immune condition that attacks the joints.
Those with the highest levels were 21% less likely to develop the disease than those with the lowest, the research published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases found.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article