Over the many years humans have enjoyed walking the earth, we have spent time outside. Whether your ancestors lived in central Africa or northern Europe, they spent a good portion of their time basking in the sun. Today, everyone from the government to dermatologists to media outlets to cosmetic manufacturers are telling us that the sun is dangerous and the best way to prevent skin cancer is to stay out of the sun. Or, if you choose to spend time in the sun, slather yourself liberally with sunscreen. This information has been "gospel" for many years, and parents have heeded the warnings and you'll rarely see children, and usually not adults, outside without a sheen of cosmetic protection. Why is it then, that we have seen the incidence of malignant melanoma (MM), the most dangerous of the skin cancers, continued to rise at a rate of about 3% per year for the last 25 years? If more people are staying out of the sun and using sunscreens, why isn't the rate of melanoma going down? Could it be that the cure is increasing the condition? When you look at the realities, you'll see it may be.
First, there are really three types of skin cancers that are generally linked to the sun. In addition to melanoma, there are squamous and basal cell carcinomas (SCC and BCC). SCC and BCC are almost ten times more common than MM, yet the death rates from these cancers are about one third that of MM. In other words, there are a lot of people with those cancers, yet very few of them will actually die as a result. SCC and BCC have a common origin: cumulative sun exposure. If you add up all of the time you've ever spent enjoying the life-giving essence of the sun, the more you get, the higher your risk of developing either SCC or BCC. MM, on the other hand, has little to do with cumulative exposure, but rather, is related to the damage inflicted by sunburn. Looking at this perspective, the sun isn't really our enemy. Sunburn is what we need to be avoiding.
If sunburn is the deadly culprit, why do we continue to see the steady rise in MM cases? I'd wager a guess that most would say they are heeding warnings and slathering liberally, so shouldn't sunburns be less common? Maybe there are other factors in play.
Our slathering potions come in two varieties: sunscreen and sunblock. The differences, while blurred by cosmetic manufacturers, is stark. Sunblock uses minerals like zinc and titanium to reflect the UV rays away from the skin. Sunscreen, in contrast, uses chemicals to absorb the UV radiation, changing it's molecular structure in the mean time or blocking our body's response to the UV rays. ALL of the chemicals used in commercially available sunscreens have been shown to be at least somewhat, if not significantly, carcinogenic (cancer causing). These include avobenzone, homosalate, octinoxatre, octisalate, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate, and oxybenzone among others.
Another issue with the sunscreen is what it blocks. There are two types of UV radiation: UVA and UVB. UVA hits us all day long, can go through glass, and destroys Vitamin D when it hits out skin. Yes, I said it DESTROYS Vitamin D. The fact the we get Vitamin D from exposing our skin to the sun is common knowledge. The fact that UVA radiation decreases our Vitamin D levels is not. UVB radiation is what stimulates our skin to convert a form of cholesterol into Vitamin D. UVB has much less energy than UVA, and is only around during the peak sun hours. All sunscreens block UVB radiation and allow UVA radiation to pass through. At present, there is no sunscreen which blocks UVA effectively. We'll talk more about Vitamin D in a later blog, but suffice it to say that it has been repeatedly shown to be protective against a variety of cancers and critical to good health.
By following the guidelines set forth by our "experts", we have done several things to our bodies. We are staying out of the sun more, which means less exposure to UVB radiation. If we do enjoy the sun, we do so during "off-peak" hours, exposing ourselves to UVA and not UVB. We are slathering ourselves with toxic chemicals that increase our risk of cancer and block UVB radiation, not UVA. A sum total of these practices has reduced our Vitamin D levels to epidemic deficiency levels and significantly increased our risks of developing any type of cancer. While I don't advocate worshiping the sun to get that leathery raw-hide look, I firmly believe that there is a reason they call it a nice tan a "healthy glow".
When this information finally is acknowledged by the so called "experts", will they apologize for all those killed by their current advice? Will they remove themselves from "expertdom"? Doubtful. When enough of the public realizes they've been duped, they'll likely accept the milquetoast apology and listen to the latest advice from the same "experts". Our health is dependent on taking responsibility for ourselves and holding the "experts" feet to the fire when they've been proven wrong - again and again and again. Until we are willing to throw out the current "experts", expect them to continue to lead us down the road to ill health.
By searching for accurate information at sites like this, you can make informed decisions about how to live your life. Those not armed with knowledge will doom themselves to follow the wolves and be just another medical statistic. Look for future blogs that will expose more lies with the truth the "experts" are ignoring or hiding. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
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