A lack of sunlight is strongly associated with a higher risk of heart disease and a higher risk of cancer.

So I will sometimes joke with my patients that if you want to live long enough to look like a wrinkled paper bag,

you need to get a lot of sun. Lack of sunlight, lack of time outside, is a risk factor for death and

disease that's equivalent to smoking heavily. And yet people are being told you've got to slather up with

sunscreen you've got to wear sunglasses you've got to wear a hat you've got to cover up

well that is the voice of Dr Leland stillman and he believes that current advice about sun exposure is only skin deep.

I'm Liz Earl and this is the Liz Elle well-being show the podcast helping us all have a better second half. just like it says in my latest book of the same name

my absolute mission here is to find ways for us all to thrive in later life by investing in our

health and our well-being today. So summer is coming here in the

UK. Will you be lazing by the pool? In the sun as much as possible, perhaps reading my new bestseller of course, or will you

be slothering on some crazily high factor sun cream and staying in the shade as much as

possible I wonder? Well I possibly don't need to tell you that when I wake up I like to get some sunlight into my

eyes as soon as I can definitely before I look at any screens. In fact now I have an old-fashioned

alarm clock beside the bed so I don't have to look at my phone before opening a window and looking out into real daylight.

And I started this healthy habit while I was researching the circadian rhythm and I began to realize the impact

that both low-level UV light and near infrared light or NIR have on our retinal cells. So that's why I get some naked daylight, not viewed through

a glass window pane, sunglasses, spectacles or even contact lenses. And I have a sneaky feeling

that today's guest will advocate just the same.

Well, all the wisdom that has no doubt been drilled into you since you were young,

don't go out in the sun, slather yourself and your children in the highest factor sunscreen, keep those

sunglasses on from the minute you step outside might just be misguided.

Well intentioned of course, but perhaps plain wrong. Well here to guide us through the evidence for this

...