Research progress on roles of ultraviolet irradiation in diseases

Abstract

The electromagnetic spectrum emitted by the sun includes visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet (UV). Among them, UV is one of the hotspots of research. Previous studies have paid more attention to the impact of UV on the skin because UV is one of the causes of skin damage. The physiological effects of UV on the skin are well understood, but its impacts on other organs of the body and other human diseases are unclear yet. This review pointed to the benefits of UV exposure in reducing weight gain, metabolic dysfunction, and cardiovascular disease. In addition, UV exposure may be helpful in reducing the incidence of diseases such as diabetes and colitis. UV may also play a role in inhibiting the development of myopia and depression. These findings provide new ideas for applying UV in the treatment of human diseases in the future. This paper reviewed the impacts of UV exposure on human non-skin diseases and explored the possibility of damage of acute UV exposure to organs, not only at the skin level, clarified the benefits and harms of UV for human body, and provided theoretical reference and research directions for deep UV exploitation and UV dose control.

Keywords

• ultraviolet
• skin
• inflammation
• metabolic disease
• cardiovascular disease
• depression
• myopia