Is there such a thing as sensible sun exposure?
13 Jul 2019
In their book, “Embrace the Sun”, Drs. William Grant and Marc Sorenson, experts on vitamin D, report that North Americans have been taught to believe excessive amounts of sun cause potentially fatal skin malignancies. The result? North Americans have developed sun phobia and spent billions of dollars on sunscreen protection. But does the sun trigger melanomas?
Dr. Michael F. Holick, Professor of Molecular Medicine at Boston University, agrees that excessive sun exposure causes non-melanoma skin cancer, which diagnosed early is easy to treat. But he says there is compelling evidence that regular sun exposure helps to prevent the highly malignant melanoma, rather than causing it.
There’s also general agreement to be cautious about melanoma if you have red hair, fair skin, a large number of moles, and are prone to sun burning. Severe burns during childhood or a genetic predisposition to this malignancy are also valid reasons.
But the authors point to voluminous research over the last century that shows the positive health benefits of sensible sun exposure.
For instance, in the early 1900s it was observed that indoor workers were at much increased risk of dying from cancer compared to outdoor ones. Later, a Canadian study revealed that women with high sun exposure as teenagers reduced their risk of breast cancer by almost 70 percent compared to those with minimum sun exposure.
It was also recognized that autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn’s disease, are also less common for those who were born and live closer to the equator.
This book was hard to put down once I started reading it. Moreover, it has 59 pages of scientific research to back up the numerous facts.
For instance, sun exposure in North America has been reduced by 90 percent in the last 70 to 100 years while the risk of melanoma has increased 3000 percent!
Why is it many melanomas occur in certain parts of the body that seldom or never see the sun such as around the sex organs, armpits, mouth, and soles of the feet?
There’s also interesting news for North Americans using the antidepressant drug Prozac. This drug works by increasing the amount of serotonin in the circulation. But they claim that sun exposure can increase the amount of serotonin in the circulation by 800 percent in one day without drug toxicity and the sun is free!
The authors also believe that sunscreens are dangerous and suggest others who disagree should read the book. For example, Queensland, Australia, has vigorously promoted sunscreen for years, but has one of the highest rates of melanoma in the world along with vitamin D deficiency. Sunscreen allows people to stay in the sun longer. While it may protect against ultraviolet B rays, it leaves skin exposed to the harmful UVA rays which have a longer wavelength penetrating deep into the skin.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2008 that 96.8 per cent of Americans age six are contaminated with a sunscreen ingredient, oxybenzone. Pregnant mothers exposed to oxybenzone gave birth to babies with low birth weight. Sunscreen chemicals can also cause an increase in estrogen and a decrease in testosterone in men resulting in low sperm counts.
To be fair, the authors say there are three studies that show a decrease in melanoma with the use of sunscreen. But that overall studies show that more sunscreen use means more melanomas.
Without the sun, life on earth would cease. Embrace the Sun shows the immense health benefits of regular sun exposure and how a lack of it is related to many diseases and provides us with much more than vitamin D.
Henry Ward Beecher, an American minister gave this sage advice when he wrote. “I think that you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult with Dr. Sun more.”
