Here's something to get most of us out of our rooms and enjoying the perfect day outside: ten minutes of fun in the sun could help against certain cancers, namely colon cancer and breast cancer.

This little tidbit of information comes from the latest study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, which also states that up to 250,000 and 350,000 cases of colorectal and breast cancer could be prevented by more sunlight exposure, respectively.

But how does basking in the sunlight have anything to do with cancer? If you haven't caught on to the craze yet, sunlight helps the human body's development of Vitamin D, the vitamin that protects against attacks of the big C.

As good as it sounds, there's a catch - you can only get doses of it from being exposed to sunlight, hence this study. And if you're asking for proof why, these guys are miles ahead - they've actually linked Vitamin D deficiency leading to a higher risk of breast and colon cancer, through a data-scouring survey that had the team pretty much going at it in a global scale.

All very well and good, but is ten minutes really the magic number? That depends. If you want to get number-crunchy about it, the blokes behind this study believe that 50 microgrammes of Vitamin D can lead to a "meaningful reduction" of breast and colon cancer. That comes around at about ten to fifteen minutes of sunshine - which should be enough for a casual walk around the park or so. It's not that hard.

So, put down your controller, put your PC into Hibernate mode and get some of that healthy sunshine that's just being wasted. It's free medicine, and you get a whiff of some fresh air too.