Two articles appeared in the Washington Post in the last few weeks that may be important to you, given the amount of time people on this board spend outside.
Both articles suggest changes from previous conventional wisdom and scientific research. Here’s the jist:
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The good news. As you probably knew already, Vitamin D (D3, as opposed to D2 the more common variety often found in vitamins) is manufactured by skin exposed to sun. The new development is that this vitamin D may prove an important cancer fighter according to some preliminary studies (though others disagree). Ironically, then, sunshine in moderation may actually be important in fighting cancers of the skin and elsewhere. Some experts suggest 15 minutes. There will probably continue to be disagreement on this point, and further developments.
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The bad news: in a separate article, it was reported that most sun screens only do a good job of screening out the short wave length sun rays that burn, but the longer wave length rays pass through the outer layer of the skin into the next levels without much trouble to over time injure the collagen. So even if you have been wearing sunscreen, it may not help against wrinkle damage years from now, or other collagen based damage. Point: check your sunscreen for both uva and uvb blockage, look into which it does better, and consider a wide brimmed hat as opposed to a baseball cap.
Aeschylus