Sunshine reduces high blood pressure
If you have high blood pressure, you might benefit by standing in sun. Researchers in UK have reportedly claimed to have found out how sunlight helps reduce high blood pressure.
It is the nitric oxide stored in the top layers of the skin that reacts to sunlight and causes blood vessels to widen (dilate) as it (nitric oxide) enters the bloodstream. That is how sunlight lowers blood pressure.
“This is an unexpected finding, in that the skin has not been considered to be involved in blood pressure regulation,” said lead researcher Martin Feelisch, a professor of experimental medicine and integrative biology at the University of Southampton.
Feelisch said he thinks — if this finding is confirmed in further research — exposure to ultraviolet light might help reduce the risk for heart disease. “That’s where it becomes interesting,” he said.
Excessive exposure to sunlight carries the risk of developing skin cancer, Feelisch said, but too little might increase the risk of heart disease. However, more people die from heart disease than from skin cancer, he said.
For the study, Feelisch and his colleagues exposed 24 people with normal blood pressure to ultraviolet A radiation equal to spending about 30 minutes in the sun.
The report was published on 20 January 2014 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
Written by Dr. Ajay Sati.
