[stephenbez]

The meta analysis is inconclusive. I would not use that as evidence to back up the idea that you should avoid any UV exposure. I’d describe this as a complicated situation where reasonable people could disagree.

“”” What did we find?: Our findings are mixed. Exposure to sunlight has been reported both to increase and to decrease your risk of dying. Alongside its harmful effect on skin cancer, sunlight may help prevent other types of cancer. However, there were issues with the amount of data available, as well as the quality of some of the data that was available, so we can’t be certain about the findings. Currently, there is not strong enough evidence to alter sun exposure advice and so people should continue to follow the guidance. “””

I’m not the original poster but one thing I look at is recommendations from bodies in other countries that have more experience with the issue. During COVID I found countries that had experience with SARS had better guidance than the US.

Similarly Australia has more than 2x higher skin cancer risk. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends even people with dark skin wear sunscreen daily, even if they don’t go outside. Australia doesn’t recommend this noting the tradeoffs of having higher risk of vitamin D deficiency.

[kelseyfrog]

I'll follow the advice the next time I'm picking cherries in Australia. Until then, I'll stick to the hierarchy of evidence[1].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_evidence