Morning Sunbathing Cuts The Risk of Skin Cancer |

Sunbathing in the afternoon raises the risk of developing skin cancer five-fold, a study shows.

This is because a protein the body produces to repair damage caused by ultraviolet rays is most active in the mornings, scientists say.

So soaking up the sunshine or visiting a tanning booth could be safer before lunchtime, they suggest.

In tests, mice developed five times more skin cancer tumours when exposed to UV rays in the morning, compared to those given identical doses in the afternoon.

The U.S. researchers believe the opposite would be true for humans because mice are nocturnal and their body clock is reversed.

Professor Aziz Sancar, who led the study at the University of North Carolina, has shown in other studies that levels of the XPA protein ? which repairs damage to DNA ? wax and wane throughout the day and seem to be controlled by the body clock.
He believes the XPA level in humans would be at its greatest at 7am.

?Our research would suggest that restricting sunbathing or visits to the tanning booth to morning hours would reduce the risk of skin cancer in humans,? he said.

His team now plans to test human volunteers to confirm that morning sun is safest for people, he told the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Cancer charities said the findings were interesting. But Dr Kat Arney, of Cancer Research UK, added: ?Over the past few years, scientists have been gathering evidence showing that DNA repair is linked to the cell?s biological clock, and these new findings in mice support this idea.

?We would still advise people to avoid using sunbeds or getting sunburnt at any time of day to reduce the chances of developing skin cancer.?

Malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, kills more than 2,000 people in the UK every year.

Meanwhile Bevis Man of the British Skin Foundation added that people should seek alternative ways of achieving a tanned appearance.

?If people are genuinely that intent on getting a tanned look, the safest way of achieving this is through the use of spray tans and self tanning creams.?

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