A new study in the Oxford Economic Papers finds that migration in the past 500 years from high sunlight regions to low sunlight regions is affecting contemporary health outcomes in destination countries.
The researchers here noted that human ability to synthesize vitamin D from sunlight declines with skin pigmentation, and that vitamin D deficiency is directly linked to a higher risk of death, from illnesses including cardiovascular disease, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, hip tension, and some cancers. Recent research even confirms that vitamin D affects the severity of COVID-19.
Researchers here focused on groups from high sunlight regions that migrated to low light regions between 1500 and today. The population shifts due to the risk of vitamin D deficiency caused a significant rise. The researchers examined the overall health consequences of such migration over a long historical perspective.
Researchers here took a measure that increased the risk of vitamin D deficiency in a specific population. The measurement monitored the difference between the intensity of sunlight in the ancestral residence of the population, as well as the actual level of sunlight at the usual residence.
Using the difference between ancestry and environmental sunlight as a measure of the potential risk of vitamin D deficiency, researchers studied its explanatory power to life expectancy across the world. The researchers found that an increased risk of vitamin D deficiency is negatively linked to life expectancy, all else being equal.
Researchers here have noted that there is a widespread awareness today of the harmful effects of excessive exposure to sunlight, which is leading people to try to prevent sunburn through natural means. works as a sunshade and slightly open outside. Effective treatments for skin cancer are also widely available. People also spend more time indoors than their prehistoric ancestors, which reduces their exposure to sunlight. As a result, the risk of premature death due to excessive sun exposure has declined since prehistoric times.
However, the lower exposure times to sunlight increases the risk of vitamin D deficiency, especially in people with higher skin pigmentation, whose ancestors came from high sunlight regions.
The researchers here eventually concluded that an imbalance induced by a migration between intense skin pigmentation and environmental sunlight can link and explain global health differences. today: .Sunial light regions that have received significant in-migration from sunlight regions have a lower life expectancy than they would have existed without such migration flows.
“This research is important because it is the first research to document a link between increased risk of vitamin D deficiency and differences in life expectancy across countries and regions. It therefore clarifies the potentially significant benefit in terms of additional life years of taking vitamin D products, especially in autumn and winter “said the author Dr. Thomas Barnebeck Andersen.
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Direct mail to:
Thomas Barnebeck Andersen
Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark
Campusvej 55, 5230-DK
Odense, DENMARK
[email protected]
To request a copy of the survey, please contact:
Emily Tobin
[email protected]
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