Stay out of the sun?

[Amii]

How much sense does it make to actively avoid sun exposure?

The sun is natural, as natural as water. I know why we are suggested to stay out of the sun ("age"ing - but is that really down to the sun exposure, or down to caffeine and sugar in a SAD diet?? , skin cancer etc) but just look at what a LACK of sun does to people:

Vitamin D deficiency is the most obvious, and what about Seasonal Affective Disorder ('SAD' also!), where a lack of sun causes depression?

I really dislike the advice to stay out of the sun. Without sun people look and feel unhealthy, and I don't think it's a coincidence that whenever the sun comes out (at least in England, which is rare) we all instinctively want to go out and soak it up, go swimming, do sports, go for walks, just admire everything and we feel so much happier.

HOUSING is probably not natural and it's not natural to want to sit indoors all day long. I don't think that's how God intended it.. and I'm not religious at all yet I still think like this. Shelter was created for hazardous conditions like blizzard, rain .. where the exposure could cause hypothermia and illness.

If the sun is too hot we instinctively want to get out and under cover, in which case it makes sense to stay safe, but if it ISN'T too hot and we don't burn..??

Sun does some great things for appearance as well: skin clears up, eyes get brighter and whiter, hair gets highlighted, we get that golden tan glow.. and how good and relaxed do you feel after a day spent playing in the sun compared to a day spent walking around indoors?

And as for sunblock? Ugh.

What do you think?

[GreenT]

I believe the sun is good for us. But in moderation depending on your skin type. If you are very fair, don't stay in it for long lengths of time..... prevent burning. That is where the damage comes in.....Burning and blistering!!

I have read articles that now claim that sun screen has chemicals that also cause skin cancer.

So i say, enjoy what God made. Just don't OVER indulge:)

[sport]

For years I have been explaining to people that humans were black when they left Central Africa and that as they came further north they gradually became whiter and whiter until they reached the Scandinavian countries and then ask. Why do you suppose this was.
Was it something in the water or was it that there was not enough sun in these areas for black skin to absorb.
Now if that happened when people spent all day out of doors how much trouble are we in.
What bothers me is that we think that we can get Vit D by taking supplements and that will make up for the lack of sunlight but we do not know what other life giving things the sun gives us.

[Shels]

I agree with you about sunblock - ick. It actually enables the sun to do a lot of bad things to our bodies from what I've heard.

I think that a very little bit of sun is good for you. One has to take into account that as time passes, the sun gets closer and hotter, and we as humans are rather severely damaging the environment we live in (and the protection it used to offer) as well.
It is unrealistic to compare the way we are able to live to the old "ideal" of humans thousands and millions of years ago.

[Revvell]

I just spent the last couple of hours in it and plan on going back for more.

[lovenlife]

I just spent the last couple of hours in it and plan on going back for more.

ditto....I cant get enough and it is VERY good for me!

[aliceapplepie]

Hello everyone,

I came across this forum through a google search for sunscreen. So this post is just a short public service message really...

Sunscreen has been linked to the increasing rates of skin cancer over the past 40 years. It has been established that the reasons for this is because of misleading SPF labeling, the fact that most sunscreens offer no protection from UVA and also two chemicals commonly found in sunscreen, which is oxybenzone and vitamin A.

The misleading SPF labeling on some sunscreens means that people feel they are getting more protection from sunburn than what is actually the case. This occurs because the true protection factor is much lower than the stated SPF.

Another crime that many sunscreens are guilty of is having unbalanced sunscreens, where the product only offers protection against UVB and very little protection against UVA. You probably already know that UVB is what causes sunburn and what the body converts into vitamin D. On the other hand, UVA does not cause sunburn nor does the body synthesise this into vitamin D but it does contribute to the development of skin cancer. Sunscreens like this make consumers more vulnerable to the harmful effects of the sun because it prevents the skin from absorbing UVB, which actually triggers a photo-protective response that causes the skin to go tan. All the while it is not protecting you from UVA so in effect, it makes the skin transparent and more susceptible to harm.

The last point to note is whether your sunscreen contains the chemicals vitamin A or oxybenzone. Vitamin A is an ingredient that you should concern yourself with because it has been shown to speed up the development of tumours when exposed to sunlight. Vitamin A is added to sunscreen in a synthetic form called retinyl palmitate. The reason why this is added is because it has been shown to hydrate skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, it is also commonly found in night creams. However, the reason why night creams are to only be applied at night is because of the toxic reaction it creates if you apply and then expose yourself to UV. Oxybenzone is a synthetic estrogen that is able to be absorbed through the skin. The issue with this is that there are no studies that have examined the long term health implications of the absorption of these hormone-disrupting nano-particles in the body.

If you would like more information then please refer to the following links, which is the results of the 2010 sunscreen study conducted by the Environmental Working Group.
- They examined 500 sunscreens that can be purchased over the counter and found only 39 that could be considered safe to use [http://bit.ly/g3L1yX].
- You can also search the full list of sunscreens to see how well your sunscreen performed [http://bit.ly/e3vw55].
- This is a list of common misunderstandings about sunscreen with number one being that there is no evidence that sunscreen helps prevent skin cancer [http://bit.ly/eFaDBz].

Finally, a few video links. The is a lecture that was given by Edward Gorham, PhD in which he discusses his findings on the relationship between the increasing use of sunscreen and the increasing incidence of skin cancer [http://bit.ly/ht7IOh]. However, this lecture is over 40 minutes and I would describe his presentation style as quite dry. As an alternative this lecture is by Dr Michael Holick, a leading vitamin D researcher. This is a very good video because it manages to be both informative and very entertaining at the same time [http://bit.ly/eruEdB].


Regards,

Alice

[sport]

I have not used sunscreen for years.
I spend time in Florida every winter and twice some winters and I have spent days trekking in Costa Rica where I was out in the sun all day and did not burn.
I have read that we have a signalling system in our body that knows when we have enough sun and tells the body to stop the reddening process but it is in your eyelids so it does not work in most people because they wear shades and the signal does not get enough sun to switch on.
If this is true then, to stay out in the sun, the best sunscreen to use is to leave the shades indoors.

[climbing]

I grew up with a mother who taught me to fear the sun. She slathered us in sunscreen every day, even when we didn't went inside. My mother's parenting generation seemed to have everything backwards. She gave us ultra-fluoridated water *(the health reprocussions of this I am still dealing with today) because her dentist said that was good for kids (UGHHH), she feared the sun, she thought the best diets contained a ton of cooked grains, etc etc etc. I actually respect my mom a lot though because these are the things people were being told were "healthy" at the time and she, unlike many parents, was actually trying to raise us healthy. It sucked that she was so mislead but it wasn't her fault.

But yes, I absolutely do not for a second believe the fear mongering stuff about sunlight. I consider sunlight essential and very healthy and I consider sunscreen highly toxic CANCER causing stuff.

Of course this isn't to say you can't hurt yourself in the sun. Too much of a good thing is never good. I was severely burned on the tops of my thighs after lounging around by a river all day while backpacking in Laos. I wasn't used to being closer to the equator and how hot the sun is there. I didn't even notice I was burned til later that night I began to feel lightheaded and dizzy and went to the bathroom at a restaurant and pulled up my skirt and the skin on my thighs was puffed up about a centimeter more than normal. :( hurt a lot and peeled badly for weeks. Not too good.

I sort of think of it like raw food. Apples are a great raw food but if you ate enough of them (or anything) in one sitting you could probably die. So get as much sunshine as you can, within the safe boundaries of what your skin can handle, and never use sunscreen!

[sport]

I was severely burned on the tops of my thighs after lounging around by a river all day while backpacking in Laos. I wasn't used to being closer to the equator and how hot the sun is there. !
I do not think that anyone should take their body by surprise and suddenly expose it to something like that.
The sun gets gradually warmer as the summer progresses but if we are out in it from the start of the summer then we will have built up a resistance by the time it gets to it's hottest.
If you do it right then you can spend all day in the sun but generally only at the latitude that you have evolved in. I am a northern European and I should stay all day in the sun here. I do not think that my skin would be this colour unless I needed that. I do not do it but I know that I should.
I am surprised that people here are talking about the misinformation out there about sun and sunscreen as my subconscious mind thought that everybody was now saying that the sun is good for you but I guess that I have become narrow minded because all of the sources that I read are pushing that message and I do not read the others so forgot that they were still there.

[Sugar Snap Pea]

Good info, AliceApplePie. Thanks! I just found my second Melanoma, the deadliest of skin cancers, on my left leg. I'm going to have to seriously rethink my outdoor skin protection since I live in Florida, beachside and love to boat and plein air paint. I plan to wear long sleeve flowy shirts (like those by Columbia) and a hat always when outside, even in the summer. I will be using sunscreen now, and I appreciate your list of safe sunscreens.

[Revvell]

Consider this ~ and this is my opinion only ~ Sun may draw cancer from the inside to the outside. Many times we don't even know we have cancer... until the sun draws it out. Could be wrong though! Pretty sure sun is not the cause of it yet, guess that's the easiest thing to blame.

[margoss]

We used a lot of coconut oil on our skin last summer. There were many days I forgot to use SS and was worried. We didn't burn. I made some with CCO & zinc to get a higher screen.

[aliceapplepie]

Hello again everybody. Just so you all don't think I'm a bot, I thought I would come back to the conversation but also because I have something else to add.


I have read that we have a signalling system in our body that knows when we have enough sun and tells the body to stop the reddening process but it is in your eyelids so it does not work in most people because they wear shades and the signal does not get enough sun to switch on.
If this is true then, to stay out in the sun, the best sunscreen to use is to leave the shades indoors.

That is interesting and I will look into it further to see if there has been any research done that could lend weight to this.

Another thing I learnt about recently and am currently investigating is coral reef bleaching. The cause of this phenomenon has been partially attributed to 2000-4000 tonnes of sunscreen that we rinse off in the ocean every year. Now I am uncertain about the validity of this but I am looking into it at the moment and thought that is something else the forum might like to be aware of.

[Sugar Snap Pea]

Hi Revvell- My opinion is, 1/3 genetics: light hair, blue eyes, and fair skin and a family tendency to have many large, irregular shaped moles. 1/3 environment: growing up in sunny Fla. with boats, beaches and more sunburns than I could count. Last but not the least 1/3, I believe the body creates illness to serve it's purpose, and I find it no coincidence that both of these melanomas occurred the 2 years after my 2 most devastating emotional events in my adult life. I'll do what I can to avoid more!