Sunlight Reduces Your Risk of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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A long-term American study published in the GUT magazine showed that living in sunny countries can reduce the risk of developing inflammatory bowel diseases, especially in people aged 30 and older.
Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and inflammatory diseases of the bowel are often strongly influenced by the quality of human life.
Although recent studies have identified genetic factors that may be involved in the development of inflammatory bowel disease, the reasons for their development continue to be largely unknown. Scientists say that given the overall genetic risk and factors such as the environment and lifestyle, also play an important role.
Their findings are based on data from two studies that monitored the health of nurses over a long period. One study is called "Nurses 'Health Study I" and started in 1976, and the second - "Nurses' Health Study II" started in 1989.
Both studies took into account information about the place of residence of participants at birth and their inflammatory bowel diseases. When registering participants in the studies, none of them had any diseases related to the intestine. Every two years, all 238,000 participants aged 25 to 55 who participated in the research updated their medical information.
Researchers divided the US states into northern, middle and southern latitudes for each of the four time zones (eastern, central, mountains and the Pacific Ocean). In 1992, scientists registered residences with just under 176,000 women. By 2003, 257 women had been diagnosed with Crohn's disease, and 313 women had ulcerative colitis.
The authors found that intestinal diseases were significantly associated with more northern latitudes, and that by the age of 30, women were more prone to developing such diseases.
They also found that, compared with women who lived in the northern latitudes, those living in the southern climate had a lower probability of developing Crohn's disease at the age of 30 years by 52%, and ulcerative colitis by 38%. The researchers found that smoking, which was believed to affect the risk of developing bowel disease, did not affect the results.
The conclusion that from the north to the south the risk gradient of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease decreases, it is obvious. Scientists attribute this to the difference in exposure to sunlight or UV radiation, which is generally higher in southern latitudes. UV radiation is the largest environmental determinant of vitamin D production. Vitamin D plays an important role in congenital immunity and regulation of the inflammatory response.
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