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Greater exposure to bright sunlight correlates with lower diabetes and heart disease risk indicators

General Research

Researchers from the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM) have found that increased exposure to bright sunlight may be associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease by lowering blood insulin and triglyceride levels.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, is the first to suggest that regular exposure to bright sunlight might improve glucose and fat metabolism.

A team of researchers led by Dr Costas Christodoulides and Professor Fredrik Karpe from the Radcliffe Department of Medicine examined data from local weather stations coupled with blood and body fat measurements from over 10,000 healthy middle-aged people from the Oxford Biobank and the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity studies – these are large-scale databases of health information from volunteers living in Oxfordshire, UK, and Leiden, Netherlands. The Oxford team worked closely with colleagues at the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands for this study.

Read more (Radcliffe Department of Medicine website)

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