Dr. Mercola August 05 2008 100,590 views
Sam Shuster, a consultant dermatologist at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, argues that sun exposure is not the major cause of malignant melanoma.
Melanoma is related more to ethnicity, and in 75 percent of cases it occurs on relatively unexposed sites, especially on the feet of Africans. Melanoma occurrence actually decreases with greater sun exposure and can be increased by sunscreens.
There is also good evidence that the reported increase in melanoma incidence is an caused by the incorrect classification of benign naevi as malignant melanomas, which would explain why melanoma mortality has changed little despite the great increase in supposed incidence.
Unfortunately, in the United States, as well as many other Western countries, the sun has been unfairly demonized. Many people have been convinced that it is necessary to avoid the sun to decrease their risk of cancer, when the converse is actually true.
And, EVEN IF increased sun exposure does not decrease your risk of melanoma specifically – the most dangerous and rare form of skin cancer -- why would anyone in their right mind want to exchange the risk of a few harmless skin cancers with that of serious life-threatening challenges like breast-, prostate- and colon cancers?
Reduced Overall Cancer Risk Outweigh Any Risk of Melanoma
In fact, other studies have confirmed that the benefits of moderate sun exposure FAR outweigh its risks. For example, people who live in sunnier, southern latitudes and have higher vitamin D levels as a result of their increased sun exposure, are less likely to die from any type of cancer than people in northern latitudes.
Optimizing your vitamin D levels can help you to prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers. And vitamin D does not just impact your cancer risk slightly. It can cut your risk by as much as 60 percent!
Its protective effect against cancer works in several ways, including:
Previous studies have found that more than one million people die every year from lack of sun exposure and subsequent vitamin D deficiency, so you really need to overcome your fear of the sun if you want to stay optimally healthy.
The Cumulative Benefits of Sun Exposure FAR Outweigh Your Risk of Skin Cancer
But the benefits don’t end with reduced cancer risk. Appropriate sun exposure has also been linked to:
Northern countries (with less intense sunlight and colder winters) have higher levels of heart disease than sun-filled southern countries, and more heart attacks occur in the winter months, when sunlight is scarce.One study even discovered that low vitamin D levels more than doubled the risk of heart attack and death. That’s big!
Past studies have also found that getting a daily dose of vitamin D boosts your natural anti-inflammatory response, which can help treat congestive heart failure. Just how does vitamin D help your heart? There are a number of mechanisms triggered by vitamin D production that help fight heart disease, including:
What May Be a Greater Risk Factor for Melanoma Than the Sun?
In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences published a comprehensive review showing that your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio was the key to preventing skin cancer development.
If you’re like the average American, you’re likely consuming far too many omega-6 fats, and far too little omega-3.
If you want to reduce or virtually eliminate your risk of skin- and other cancers, it will be vital to radically reduce your consumption of most vegetable oils, as they are high in omega-6 fats. Just 100 years ago, the average American consumed less than one pound of these oils per year, and today that amount has exploded to 75 pounds per year.
Another Australian study showed a 40 percent reduction in melanoma for those who ate fish, which is rich in omega-3.
This is one of the many reasons why I highly recommend taking krill oil or fish oil as a safe and effective alternative to increase your intake of beneficial omega-3s, considering the fact that most fish is now heavily contaminated with high levels of mercury.
To Prevent Skin Damage You Have to Protect Against the Most Damaging Rays
Ultraviolet light from the sun comes in two main wavelengths – UVA and UVB. It’s important for you to understand the difference between them, and your risk factors from each.
Consider UVB the ‘good guy’ that helps your skin produce vitamin D.
UVA is considered the ‘bad guy’ because it penetrates your skin more deeply and causes more free radical damage. Not only that, but UVA rays are quite constant during ALL hours of daylight, throughout the entire year -- unlike UVB, which are low in morning and evening, and high at midday.
If you’ve ever gotten a scorching sunburn on a cloudy day, you now understand why; it’s from the deeply penetrating UVA!
Since UVA’s are inherently more damaging, AND persistently high during all daylight hours, wearing a sunscreen that doesn’t protect you from UVA is going to give you virtually no benefit and be detrimental to your overall health, while increasing your risk of melanoma since you’re more likely to stay out longer and suffer deeper damage.
Two non-toxic ingredients that scatter both UVB and the more damaging UVA rays are titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. They’ve been used all over the world for over 75 years as safe sunscreens. These two natural minerals form the base of my Natural Sunscreen.
Sunscreens May Not Prevent Melanoma Either…
Although sunscreen can prevent the most common types of skin cancer -- basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas -- it does not protect against melanoma, according to research from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
They found that those who used sunscreen did not have a lower risk of melanoma, even though it has been theorized that using sunscreen to prevent sunburns in childhood might lower your risk of cancer.
I love the sun and never wear sunscreen, I refuse to. I eat a healthy diet and live a healthy lifestyle and I don't get burns at all anymore now that I've started being healthier. I believe sun protection has a lot to do with the phytochemicals plants have to offer us when we consume them. All those antioxidants being put to good use or something...
Has anyone heard lately about a possible connection between the rise in melanoma in young women and using birth control hormones (pills, patches, etc)? There was a headline a couple of weeks ago about this, women between the ages of 20-39, with no corresponding rise in melanoma rates in young men. Hmmm, no men going out in the sun? I have a personal crusade against sunscreen as a cure-all for skin cancer AND a personal crusade against women being pumped full of hormones, whether for birth control or menopause. A study was done on this very issue of skin cancer and the Pill, at Harvard in 2006 - must have been brushed under by the big guys before we got to see it . . .
Chicamarie,
I LOVE my hormones!! Your 'crusade' may be good for you but you should not push your views on others. Since being on Bio-identical hormones, I FEEL GREAT!! Prior to hormone therapy, I was too hot to go in the sun!! Now, I can work in my garden, hit the pool, exercise.... Without my hormones, I was no fun at all!! My health was quickly deteriorating and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. I felt terrible. Fact is that without our hormones, WE DIE!!
Your 'crusade' should be against ARTIFICIAL hormones. If this is what you mean, please make the distinction so that people with little knowledge will be brought to explore the differences, as they are not the same thing at all!!
Without my hormones, I would not be able to get my sunshine and Vit D.
Chicamarie, As a woman whose ovaries failed at 29, and having been to hell without hormones, I can tell you before you go 'crusading', you might better walk that road first. Until your estrogen has bottomed out, and you are battling bouts of angina, hot flashes, severe leg cramps, migraines, feeling like you have the flu ALL THE TIME, and depression, don't go pushing your views on everyone else. It's people like you, who have a 'theory' and haven't actually experienced anything that make our lives unbearable.
Alli6, birth control and menopause are different things from a severe medical condition like your early-age ovary failure. Giving hormones for birth control and menopause is like giving antibiotics for a cold. Unnecessary, and very likely detrimental.
As someone who has studied Chinese martial arts and medicine for more than half my life starting as a teen It's amazing to me how dumb these scientists and so called medical professionals are in the west. The Chinese (especially the Taoists and Shaolin) have been doing an exercise called "Administering sunbeams" where you actually look toward (not at) the sun for several seconds while either blinking or rolling your eyes around the sun. They knew that the energy (chi) from the sun was good for the eyes, immune system, brain and more.
From a scientific view what this does is irradiate the optic nerve with UV rays which then activates the ocular endocrine system, which is a big part of the immune system they now understand. Since the optic nerve is the only external nerve that runs directly to the brain, these UV rays help to directly activate the immune system and stimulates the pituitary gland, a master gland of health, immunity, growth and longevity to increased strength and function.
Here is a link to an article I wrote about this too if interested in knowing more or learning how to do this.
What's more amazing is how the west actually thinks that either nature or God would create something as prolific as the sun and yet it would be bad for us?? Next they'll be trying to tell you that breathing is bad for you too which I've somewhat heard in terms of cancer since they say that it can increase cancer growth....riiiight, that's why it's been used in China for millenia to get rid of cancer permanently when done sufficiently. They need to check Dr. Otto Warburgs studies on this too.
I eat coconut oil (2-4 tbs/day) only use coconut oil on my body as sun tan lotion/moisturiser, take krill oil, eat sardines, and take 8 mg of astaxanthin in the am and pm when I'm in the sun for hours on end as we live on a lake. If I do get a little pink...coconut oil after a shower and asta again in the pm and it's gone by morning. I NEVER use sunscreen...have you ever read about the chems in that stuff. I think that's why there is such a deficiency among people...they slather it on from head to toe. I also do NOT consume crappy oils. I only cook with coconut and olive oils. Crappy in/crappy out I say. Be well.
The chemicals in sunscreen never fail to burn my face when I apply them (which is rarely--only when I know that I am going to be out in the highest part of the day without shelter/hat). That burn tells me that I should not be using it!! The skin on my face is very hardy and never reacts to other things. Sunscreen also causes me a slight breakout. I just feel that I should not be using it unless I have to.
Olive oil is not suitable for cooking as it is damaged by high temperatures. Coconut oil, butter & tallow are OK
In all of the years I have worked outdoors ,20 plus, I have NEVER come across a fellow outdoor worker, to my knowlege, who was diagnosed with melanoma. On the other hand all of the people I have known to have developed melanoma, although thankfully not many, worked at an indoor job.
Study after study has shown that low vitamin D levels increase your risk for all sorts of cancers. If the SUN is the best source of natural vitamin D (that your body will store for the winter) then those who work outdoors will be better protected.
I was shocked when I had my Vitamin D levels checked (get the Vitamin D, 25 hydroxy) at how low they were. I now take 2000IU/day and got Dr. Mercola's Vitamin D lamp. Getting better but not quite there yet. It's hard to find a place to get it checked w/out a doctor. I finally found a place called Lone Star Screening in Texas.
I ran across another study from Dr. M website that occurred in the UK over several years where participants were given high doses of Vit.D only 4 times a year. Decades later those who took the Vit D had significantly lower incidences of several types of cancer over those given placebo.
It's very inexpensive too, just make sure you don't by synthetic! Natural is always better.