Cancer researcher’s warning: Don’t sunbathe at all

It’s time to put sunbathing on the shelf altogether.

This is what one of Sweden’s leading skin cancer researchers, Hildur Helgadottir, tells SR’s Vetenskapsradion.

– Sunbathing means that you really want to be outside to get a tan and we no longer think that you should do that, she tells the radio station.

At the same time as young people’s uv-max-solar and Tiktok are filled with tips on how to best get clear lines from the burn, experts are now issuing warnings.

– Don’t sunbathe, says Hildur Helgadottir, cancer researcher at the Karolinska Institute, to Science Radio.

Sun exposure increases the risk of cancer and causes over 4,000 cases of malignant melanoma annually in Sweden and is the form of cancer that is increasing the most.

Hilda Helgadottir says it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of being in the sun. She says that being outdoors makes us more social and generally makes us feel good, but at the same time, we shouldn’t expose too much of our skin to the sun’s rays.

But at the same time, you don’t have to sit indoors and print all summer, says Helgadottir.

– To maximize the vitamin D stores, you need a very short time outdoors. It depends a bit on how strong the sun is and what your skin type is and so on. But fifteen to twenty minutes can be enough and exposing only a small part of the body to really maximize those stores and then you don’t get more out of it, she tells Vetenskapsradion.