The Hallmarks of Aging: What Cellular Aging Can Teach Us About Cancer
Vanessa Pinto October 6, 2026
We know that lifestyle factors can change cancer risk and cancer deaths. Furthermore, we know lifestyle factors are modifiable. This is good news. There are things we can do, starting today, to reduce our risk of ever getting cancer. In our previous posts, we have discussed some of those factors: lack of sleep, cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, excess body weight, physical inactivity, and poor diets. In addition to these modifiable factors, UV radiation makes the top five list of cancer causation factors1.
Skin cancer has become the most common type of cancer in fair-skinned populations in most countries of the world, being more common among sun-sensitive populations, such as non-Hispanic whites in North America2,3.
According to researchers, most skin cancers are caused by a combination of both non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation is considered the most common modifiable risk factor for skin cancer2. UV radiation is also classified as a human carcinogen due to its mutagenic and non-specific damaging properties2,4.
It is alarming to witness the rise in skin cancer rates – “the average annual number of adults treated for skin cancer increased from 3.4 million in 2002-2006 to 4.9 million in 2007-20115.” Studies show an association between the development of skin cancers and UV radiation exposure, including melanomas and non-melanomas (basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma)2,4.
However, there is more to this story than just the potential negative effects of UV radiation, since sun exposure is also essential for human health. First, let’s look at the different types of UV radiation.
It is important to understand the different types of ultraviolet radiation since all have diverse characteristics and impacts on human health. On the UV spectrum, most of the radiation that reaches the Earth is UVA, with minimal amounts of UVB. UVC is filtered by the stratospheric ozone layer in the atmosphere and does not reach the Earth. UVB radiation is essential for vitamin D production, and we recommend that you read our blog What is Vitamin D and Why is it Important? for more details on the importance of vitamin D and how it is produced in our skin from sunlight.
Below you can read the characteristics of UVA, UVB, and UVC radiation, according to the authors of the study “Review: Ultraviolet radiation and skin cancer3”.
Ultraviolet A radiation (UVA)
Ultraviolet B radiation (UVB)
Ultraviolet C radiation (UVC)
The thing with UV radiation is that it can be considered as “two sides of the same coin.” It has strong beneficial effects in the right dose and can have highly detrimental effects when dosage is wrong4. The potential detrimental effects of UV Radiation include4:
All these effects play an important role in photoaging of the skin and various skin disorders, with skin cancer being the most harmful4. But, and this is a big but, sunlight has significant health benefits, which include immune, cardiovascular, and metabolic health6,7.
A group of experts from Europe, the United States, and Australia, released an article in 2020, “to alert the medical community and public health authorities to accumulating evidence on health benefits from sun exposure, which suggests that insufficient sun exposure is a significant public health problem8.”
The numbers support this view; a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies evaluating data from 849,000 participants, concluded that 12.8% of all US deaths, the equivalent to 340,000 deaths a year, and 9.4% of all deaths in Europe, which amounts to 480,000 deaths a year, could be attributed to low circulating vitamin D levels (serum 25(OH)D <75 nmol/L), which in turn is associated with insufficient sun exposure9.
Researchers also found an association between insufficient sun exposure and “increased incidence of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, asthma, type 1 diabetes and myopia8.”
Although it is widely accepted that low serum vitamin D levels are associated with increased mortality, oral vitamin D supplementation doesn’t always help prevent many of the health conditions mentioned above, and researchers propose that “vitamin D status may be a proxy for and not a mediator of beneficial effects of sun exposure8.” This means that the benefits of sun exposure may extend past those conferred by vitamin D.
In a Swedish study, the scientists reported that “nonsmokers who avoided sun exposure had a life expectancy similar to smokers in the highest sun exposure group, indicating that avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking10.” Could this mean that avoiding the sun is a risk factor for death similar to smoking?!
Although the mechanisms are still poorly understood, it is accepted that sunlight exposure is beneficial at many levels, besides vitamin D production.
Some of the beneficial effects of UV radiation4,6,7:
Other proposed effects of UV exposure include8:
We have written extensively on vitamin D and its benefits, and we highly recommend that you read our blogs:
However, the beneficial effects of UV radiation exposure seem to surpass vitamin D production, and we believe that sensible exposure to sunlight and ensuring sufficient exposure of the skin to the sun is crucial for health. This sensible exposure aims to minimize the harms of excessive sun exposure. It is paramount to avoid sunburn, the main cause of skin cancer, and great care should be taken in this regard8.
We propose (read our blog How to Prevent Vitamin D Deficiency?), in alignment with experts in the field, a gradual and sensible approach11,12:
Gradual
Sensible
Avoid sunburn. If you see or feel that your skin is getting red, retreat to shade or cover your skin. In high UV radiation seasons, expose the skin incrementally, use appropriate clothing, and if needed protect your eyes by closing them or using sunglasses that filter UV radiation8.
Michael Holick, an expert in the field of vitamin D, beautifully wrote: “The earth has been bathing in sunlight for more than 3 billion years. As life forms evolved in the ocean they were exposed to sunlight. The energy from the sun was efficiently utilized by early phytoplankton to produce carbohydrates as their energy source7.” So as with other forms of life, we were meant to walk under the sun and not to avoid it. However, avoiding high-risk behaviors, such as skin reddening and sunburn, is the wisest course in reducing the risk of skin cancer.
Sunlight also benefits your sleep and circadian rhythm regulation – two other factors that can contribute to reducing your risk of cancer. In our upcoming blogs we will introduce you to other lifestyle changes that can improve your health and healing, reducing the risk of chronic disease.
If you’re interested in learning about other risk factors, be sure to check out our previous blogs, Can My Sleep Habits Affect My Cancer Risk?, How Smoking and Alcohol Influence Cancer Risk and Can Being Overweight and Sedentary Increase Your Risk of Cancer? where we discuss some of the other risk factors associated with cancer.
References
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