I’m sure you’ve heard over and over about the dangers of too much sun. But one study shows too little isn’t good either.

Researchers in Sweden looked at sun exposure as a risk factor for death, tracking the sunshine habits of about 30,000 women for 20 years.

They discovered that women who sought out the sun instead of staying away from it were generally at lower risk for cardiovascular disease as well as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and pulmonary diseases.

In fact, even those women who smoked but got plenty of sun lived an average of two years longer than those who shunned the sun the most.

The benefits of sunshine also increased along with the amount of exposure, according to the study, which appeared in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

The researchers acknowledged that skin cancer is a danger, but found that even those who developed it had a better chance of survival if they also got sunlight.

Although the researchers did not cite a reason for their findings, I believe it may be attributed to vitamin D, which our bodies synthesize from the sun.