Slightly related: I've decided to stop using suncreen altogether for day-to-day sun exposure. My mood and overall sense of happiness increased significantly – in fact, it seemed to have helped more than my antidepressants ever did. (My libido did not increase but my antidepressants are pretty much libido killers.)
There is a whole lot of new conflict world wide out of the isolation and conservation that recent pandemics have caused. It's been a really frustrating missed opportunity by social and dating apps that they don't better help people to navigate social communication, scientifically based health advice, and relationship building/improvement with all the human isolation that is occurring and growing fast.
The term gonads though has always triggered Beavis and Butthead giggles for me ever since high school.
I have been seeing many hints recently that UV might be good for us in moderation but determining how much one is getting is problematic.
Very early in the process one of the scientists, Mac Hadley,[15] who was conducting experiments on himself with the peptide melanotan II, injected himself with twice the dose he intended and experienced an eight-hour erection, along with nausea and vomiting.[13]Curious about this. I understand ethical boards for psychological blind studies and such, but for questionaires?
If those extreme studies were to happen at a non suppressed rate we would be asking for IRBs and talking how science can't regulate itself.
So IRBs might be effective but they suffer from the prevention paradox.
Apparently there was some concern about inducing epileptic seizures. Not that there was any evidence that optical illusions, on their own, separate from the flickering of the computer screen, could cause seizures. But someone had the idea and then it couldn't be un-un-boxed.
The IRB submission process would have been too long to finish the study by the end of the semester (by the time I found out about it). So I just... didn't tell anyone I had already posted the demo online, before I ever even learned that IRB existed, and had a bunch of people on a game development forum on which I was a regular go through the study.
In my case, it was super low stakes. I mean, people into game development are subjecting themselves to the dodgy apps all the time. But when I tell this story today, there are two types of responses: those who have done academic research and laugh at my story, and those who haven't and start crying about "HuMaN eXpErImEnTaTiOn!!!"
I should start putting that on my business card: "formerly engaged in unlicensed human experimentation."
Who am I joking? I don't have business cards anymore. It's going on my Twitter profile.
classic feature creep + bureaucratization (so it's now done by a special class of IRB administrators, not really by peers, etc)
They tracked for 30 years the mortality of all Danes who were at least 50 years old on 1 April 1968 (about 1.4 million people born before April 1918). They also analyzed about Austrians with known birth dates who died between 1988 and 1996 (about 700,000 people born before 1947) and native-born Australians who died between 1993 and 1997 (about 200,000 people born before 1948).
They found in Denmark and Austria that "adults born in autumn (October–December) live longer than those born in spring (April–June). The difference in lifespan between the spring and autumn born is twice as large in Austria (0.6 years) as in Denmark (0.3 years). ... We found the pattern in the Southern Hemisphere to be a mirror image reversal of that in the Northern Hemisphere." British born Australians were statistically closer to the Danes and Austrians.
Their analysis eliminated three hypotheses for these observations: seasonal distribution of deaths, social factors related to seasonal distribution of births, and differential infant survival. Their analysis and other studies of birth weight data led them to conclude that "seasonal differences in nutrition and disease environment early in life [in utero and infancy] could explain the relationship between month of birth and adult lifespan." Over the years, winter and spring nutrition has improved, so "the relationship between month of birth and lifespan seems to be stronger among the older birth cohorts than among the more recently born."
While not globally consistent due to regional weather differences it makes sense for there to be a broad average seasonal benefit.
So this is why I hate winters and don't complain when it's 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside.
I would wear a jacket or hoodie in the middle of summer because of the office AC.
I need to move to Key West.
“UV light is an established carcinogen, yet evidence suggests that UV-seeking behavior has addictive features”
“Opioid blockade also elicits withdrawal signs after chronic UV exposure”
(I'm only half-joking; the countries that are most obsessed with keeping skin white — and so are likely the highest sunscreen users — are also the countries with the lowest birth rates.)
Most industrial materials block roughly 100% of UV rays, except viewing windows which allows as much as 1%. Therefore, just staying in any modern building alone cuts down UV exposure by 99% at very least. There is absolutely no way some translucent face painting does that.
The set of countries experiencing birth-rate decline is not 1:1 correlated with the set of countries with high/increasing white-collar employment; but, AFAICT, it is 1:1 correlated with the set of countries that have strong avoidance of tanning / strong interest in skin-whitening.
Wow what a dismissive comment to chemistry and cosmetics.
Just for fun, try take a pic of yourself with a UV camera (or just UV light with some phones), and you'll see it's translucent only to the visible spectrum: https://petapixel.com/2016/05/26/tiny-uv-camera-shows-youve-...
Isn't it rather more about avoiding skin cancer?
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18268914
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005927/chinas-quest-for-fair...
Such standards of beauty are quite old and largely predate Western colonialism. My impression is that they were often linked to caste or class, where higher-class people spent more time indoors while lower-class workers spent more time out in the sun.
This cultural difference is the source of much amusement for the Indian spouse of my European coworker. When they vacation in Europe all the ladies on the beach want to tan, and when they visit India it’s the other way around.
Industrialized societies most work is performed indoors, most people only tan during leisure time. Thus a tan is an indication of having leisure time and is looked upon positively.
Societies that are not industrialized most work is performed outdoors, leisure is generally indoors. Thus the absence of a tan is an indication of wealth and is looked upon positively.
Note that this lags behind reality, many places have industrialized but their perception of tans is still negative. My wife is Chinese and I sometimes joke that she's half-vampire because of how sun-avoidant she is.
“Avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor of a similar magnitude as smoking, in terms of life expectancy.”
https://www.outsideonline.com/health/wellness/sunscreen-sun-...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2854760/
Add to this the fact that less than 1% of the estrogen in the water supply is from The Pill.
Obsession with keeping skin white is not something I normally see associated with South Korea, Singapore, or Bosnia and Herzegovina.
https://www.outsideonline.com/health/wellness/sunscreen-sun-...
This study is part of an interesting trend I'm seeing of studies finding beneficial health effects to well timed, full spectrum sunlight exposure. The circadian benefits of seeing early morning sun every day (and darkness every evening) are well known. What's more surprising is that even UV exposure is not purely negative, and in the context of sunlight in moderate amounts (not to the point of acute sunburn) may be beneficial for health:
https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/dji019 finds that high intermittent sun exposure actually decreases melanoma lethality. I.e. those who avoid the sun die more from melanoma.
https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.12251 found in a study that followed 30k women over 20 years that more sun exposure was associated with reduced all cause mortality. I.e. those who avoid the sun, apply more sunscreen die more in general.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/07/us-su...
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/banana-boat-s...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sunscreen-coppertone-benzene-re...
Melanocyte-stimulating hormones have been known to stimulate sexual behavior since forever. Melanocortin receptors directly modulate sexual behavior.
Melanocyte-stimulating hormone production is boosted by from inflammatory effects of UV damage. This has been known forever, too.
That wording supports a notion that the boosting is to encourage the most essential activity of a species—reproduction—in the face of potential harms that may shorten the opportunity for that activity (cancer-induced final exit).
That said, I’m aware of counterarguments to the simplistic takes on “sun bad” messaging and think they have merit. Not trying to open a debate on the latter, just clarifying that I’m not trying to grind an ax with the first paragraph.
Many animals are seasonal. And extra sun exposure might indicate a good time to mate (spring/summer)
I don’t go out if UV is above a 2 anymore.
I'm still waiting for someone to explain the difference between colored people and people of color.
https://www.proflamps.com/datasheets/Philips%20Phototherapy-...
https://getchroma.co/product/chroma-d-light/
I never bothered with a device because we have the actual sun for free, and the potential for misuse is enormous -- it's trivial to accidentally blind yourself.
Then as a follow up have the indoor laborers go outside for 1 hr mid-day or something for 12 weeks and measure the effect.
Testosterone is increased for men living in areas with high UV radiation, but only during summer time.
Proteins upstream of sex hormone production were upregulated after just a single day of 25m of bright midday sun exposure in both men and women.