Scientific American offering up one data point as a miracle cure for a whole range of conditions. But it's not even selling sunlight as the cure, which is implied by the title, but artificial light paid for by your insurance.
This is trash.
this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Well this is certainly shocking since most of the drugs given to autoimmune patients are in classes that raise cancer risks by multitudes, and prohibit patients from exposure to direct sunlight. Same with chemo patients.
The article talks about "Ultraviolet (UV) light boxes, which emit only a narrow bandwidth of light that is not linked to skin cancer," so it's possible the UV treatment and the drugs can be combined.
Is sun sensitivity just a sideeffect or how the drug intrinsically works?
The drugs every autoimmune patient are given for the most part have very specific warnings about staying out of the sun. That's the irony.
Yeah, I know, I've tried many of them :).
Its a a pretty common side effect for lots of meds though, so I didn't really see the irony. I was wondering if it was more than just a side effect.
No, it's specific to classes of drugs that are prescribed to autoimmune patients because they work by embedding themselves in the renal system for long termeasueed release. It's not a general think for most medications at all.
Okay, good to know. Doxycycline and some antibiotics have sun sensitivity, same reason?
Edit: list of a bunch of medicines with sun sensitivity effects: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/special-features/sun-and-your-medicine
No. Not even close.
https://www.arthritisresearch.ca/sun-exposure-medications-and-rheumatoid-arthritis/
https://www.drugs.com/sfx/leflunomide-side-effects.html
https://www.drugs.com/sfx/sulfasalazine-side-effects.html
These are the top 3 drugs immediately prescribed to any patients that are thought to need immunotherapy. MS, RA, PA...etc. Everything from Lupus to Alopecia. These drugs increase cancer risk of any soft tissue type by 200% at a minimum individually, and more so for dermal types by sun exposure.
The irony is in prescribing such drugs and then having a study that says the thing that will accelerate your cancer risk may be beneficial.
Doxycycline is taken by a large portion of the human population, and I believe the worst they may expect is less melanin production. They'll get a sunburn faster than expected.
So we're back to sticking UV flashlights up our asses? Nice
I never stopped. my colon is tanned as fuck now
Speed running colon cancer
you mean "reinforcing my colon with extra tissue"
That's a really promising idea but the article only presents one use case....
Also it's hard not to meme this. Like "what else will they think of? Touching grass..."
Artificial grass. The headline says sunlight but the contents are all about artificial light. So it would need to be fake grass to be consistent
Natural sun exposure is good for our health in many ways and it was proven years ago. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joim.12496
I am actually so happy that you posted this information!
I have been a lifetime sufferer of really bad psoriasis... I've worked heavily with my dermatologist, who is wonderful!
We've had the very frank conversation that yes technically no sun exposure is the right move from a skin cancer standpoint... But that requires you to ignore all the deleterious effects of getting insufficient sun in other aspects of our body health.
That is to say, it's being shown that humans need a shitload of sun to stay healthy! The whole "no amount of sun is healthy" concept is a massive lie at worst, and a phenomenally myopic view at best
There are some risks involved. But there are much more benefits. I found this study from this video, where all of it is explained in details:
The natural sun isnt the same as it once was. We fucked up the atmosphere.