Well it looks like we are finally getting some sunshine.  So now is a good time for an article about one of our most important nutrients - sunlight.  Without it our bones stay soft and mushy, our immune system never develops properly, we become vulnerable to numerous diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, brain dysfunction, and so on.

And yet we have been told to stay out of the sun or wear sun-blocking sunscreens to avoid the toxic effects of sunlight.  What's up? 

Lets compare sunlight to another vital nutrient - water.  Let's say you had a "health" agency that started looking at the statistics for number of people that die each year from water over-consumption (otherwise known as drowning).  The safety of the public would demand strict warnings about the dangerous effects of over-exposure to water and recommendations that people stay away from all water exposure, or at the very least always wear a life vest when near water.

An overly concerned public might draw the conclusion that they should avoid even drinking water or possibly even cooking with it.  Showers and baths would be frowned upon as overly risky, and even the use of toilets might require that you put on your life vest first just to be safe.

Does this sound a bit silly?  This hypothetical fear of water is the exact same thinking that has gone into the fear of sunlight that has been promoted for the last 20 years.

Why do we fall for such obviously erroneous thinking?  I see two main reasons - the desire to believe there are authorities that know more than we know from our own experience, and the way the human reactive mind works in black and white.  We regularly turn over our common sense to external authorities who love to tell us whatever they want us to believe (for reasons that serve their agendas and not our own) in the hope that they know what we don't to keep us safe. 

An even deeper problem is that the part of the human mind that makes action decisions (the part that responds to fear) works in black and white - it has to.  To act or to not act is a black and white choice.  The problem is our bodies do not act in a black and white fashion.  Human physiology works on the balance between opposites - the exact opposite of how the action mind works.  Our bodies look for that Goldilocks balance of not too much and not too little.  Health is all about getting just the right amount of what is needed and no more.

Water versus no water is not a choice for the body.  Sunlight versus no sunlight is also not a choice.  Water and sunlight are vital for health - we will die without them... but they are needed in just the right amounts.  We have to stop listening to the stupid mind (and government agencies that operate the same way) and rely on the real world experience of what balance actually works.  That balance is different for each person - another reason that external authorities must be ignored if you are to be healthy.  Any advice they give is based on the illusion of a one-size-fits-all thinking that we all are the same and all have the same needs.

We are all different.  Black people need 3 - 4 times as much sunlight as white people because the black pigment in their skin blocks the benefits of the sun.  Put another way black people can also tolerate 3 - 4 times as much sunlight as white people before they exceed their tolerance and burn their skin.

It is well researched that too much sunlight for white people leads to a type of skin cancer called basal cell skin cancer.  At the same time too little sunlight leads to an even worse skin cancer called melanoma.  The incidence of deadly melanoma skin cancer is 700% higher in people that work indoors than those that work outdoors.  As I said, too much or too little is bad - our bodies need just the right amount of everything.

It was the research on basal cell carcinoma that started the scare over sun exposure, and the "wear a life jacket to sit on the toilet" thinking.  The simple reality is that every time you burn the skin, genetic damage takes place that can eventually lead to a cancer.  Mother Nature provides you with an obvious learning feedback tool called sunburn pain to let you know not to get too much sun.  If you are smart, one sunburn in your life is enough to teach you to avoid sun over-exposure.  Folks who tell me that burning is the quickest way to get a tan are completely missing the point and are likely to suffer the consequences down the road. 

Unfortunately, clever marketing fellows saw this research as a great way to sell sun protection products so they fanned the flames of public fear to a frenzy.  On a practical level you will get maximum sun protection from a sun blocker at SPF 15.  But each competing product had to out do the other so before you knew it there was SPF 20, then 25, then 30, then 40, and finally 50 - all unnecessary.  A sunblocker is appropriate if you plan to be out in the sun longer than is appropriate for your skin type - after you have been out enough to get a healthy dose of sunlight.  For white folks before they have developed a tan, 10 minutes of midday sun full body on the skin is about maximum.  It is wise to start out at 5 minutes and work up to 10 minutes.  The darker your skin type, the longer you can stay out in the sun - in fact the longer you need to stay out in the sun to produce the Vitamin D from the sunlight acting on your skin that you need to be healthy.

The Environmental Working Group has made up a list of the available sunscreens and ranked them by how many toxic chemicals are in each.  I am thinking that fewer toxic chemicals is better.
EWG Sunblock review

 Now for a little bit of information on the benefits of the sunshine vitamin - vitamin D.  Here is a great article in Parenting Bulletin about a huge study done in Spain about childhood asthma that demonstrated that the amount of sun exposure kids get directly related to the rates of asthma.
Asthma

Here is another study done by John Hopkins Children's Center that shows low levels of vitamin D correlates with the development of anemia.
Anemia

Even more serious is the role vitamin D has in controlling the genes that cause the expression of certain cancers, autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Autoimmune

The best source of vitamin D is sunlight.  Vitamin D is formed in several steps, and your body will only make as much as it needs.  Overdosing on vitamin D is never a problem when your skin makes it from sunlight.

An interesting little survival side note: sunlight is an antibiotic.  The ultraviolet tanning rays will kill bad bacteria on your skin.  When I took that fall a few years ago in Mexico and tore up my leg, I treated it by exposing the open wound to sunlight several times a day to prevent infection from setting in.  It all healed nicely without any scaring.  Sunlight and the application of honey on skin surface wounds works better than any over the counter antibiotic cream you can buy.

In the winter months or if you are stuck indoors I recommend taking vitamin D3 in liquid form.  The best source is cod liver oil as all the co-factors are present for best usage, but many people have digestive problems with the fish oil.  In which case most any good supplement of D3 (not D2 - the kind they put in milk as it is almost worthless) at around 2000 units per day will do nicely.  If you have an active autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis or Hashimoto's Thyroiditis then I would up that dose to 6000 to 10,000 units per day.

Lastly - how about a sunscreen in a pill?  The red pigment from algae that turns wild salmon flesh red - Astaxanthan - has been found to protect the skin from sunburn and improve skin smoothness and pore size within as little as 2 weeks.  Folks using only 4 mg of astaxanthan a day were able to tolerate 25% more sun without burning.  I expect we will be hearing a lot more about this natural algae extract once the marketing types start promoting it.  It is a super antioxidant - about 50 times stronger than anything else out there.  It is not widely available out there yet but I expect that your better health food stores will have it.

So to sum up - you need sunlight on your skin to be healthy.  But like any nutrient, you need the right amount for you.  Too much is a problem and too little is a problem.  All of health works this way.  There are no right answers for everyone - we are all different.  We each have to find the balance between the extremes that works best for us.  Information helps us to define where the extremes are, but we still have to use trial and error personal experience to find our balance point for optimal health. 

 

Experience Ellen's Life Coaching Process during her Free Health Exam

 

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Susan McDonald