Sunlight is good for you

Results in a study published in the Feb. 2, 2005 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute have Scientists baffled. The results show that exposure to sunlight actually reduces the risk of skin cancer.

These results back up important evidence what doctors like Dr. Michael Holick, author of "The UV Advantage," have been saying for years: Sunlight is actually good for you. In fact, the risk of many cancers increases when you do not have sufficient exposure to sunlight.

Sunlight - superior Cancer prevention treatment?

Scientists are really baffled with the results of the study. They can't believe everything they've been told all these years could somehow be false. The conventional medical community has been taught and been telling us that sunlight is bad for you. You must cover up your skin, wear sunscreen and avoid any sunlight exposure at all if you want to be healthy. The sunscreen industry has been pushing this line of advertising for years as well as the dermatology industry, which has been largely funded by the sunscreen manufacturers. They have been telling people sunlight causes cancer, and you must avoid the sun at all costs. I must say that I have always thought it strange that some people who stayed in the sun a lot had no sign of skin cancer and others did.

We were not designed to live under fluorescent lights with a lifetime supply of sunscreen. The human body was designed to live in harmony with sunlight. We evolved under natural sunlight, we need natural sunlight in order to stay healthy. These results may finally turn the tide and help doctors and researchers realize they need to stop telling people to avoid sunlight and start enjoying more sunlight.

Naturally you need sensible exposure, which is determined by the pigmentation in your skin. The darker your skin apparently, the more sunlight you need in order to generate vitamin D. The lighter, or fairer, your skin, the less sunlight you need. One of the people commenting on this study was so baffled by the results they said “It must all be due to vitamin D, and if you want vitamin D, there are better places to get it like drinking milk”. It's typical advice from conventional medicine. They're still telling people to avoid the sun and, instead, drink lots of cows' milk. How's that for lousy health advice? You just need to look at the notmilk.com website for information on how bad processed pasteurized milk is for you.

Sunlight - available in full-body therapy also

Milk doesn't really have much vitamin D in it at all, especially if it's offered in those typical translucent containers, because light destroys the vitamin D content. Also, this whole line of thinking by conventional medicine misses the point that there may be other characteristics of sunlight that encourage human health aside from just vitamin D. In other words, there may be a lot more going on.

Vitamin D is the Key

Vitamin D is manufactured in the skin following direct exposure to sunlight. The amount of vitamin D produced in the skin varies depending on time of day, season, latitude and skin pigmentation. Usually 10-15 minutes exposure of hands, arms and face two to three times a week (depending on one's skin sensitivity) is enough to satisfy the body's vitamin D requirement. Use of sunscreen markedly diminishes the manufacture of vitamin D in the skin, as do window glass, clothing and air pollution. Skin color also affects vitamin D production; the fairer you are, the more you make.

There probably is a phototherapy effect that goes well beyond the biochemistry of vitamin D production. Even if you're just looking at vitamin D, there are so many healing benefits of vitamin D that it's worth promoting sunlight exposure for that reason alone. Vitamin D regulates the growth of cancer cells. It impairs the proliferation of cancer tumours in the body, and at the same time it is extremely important for absorption of calcium in the small intestine. Babies need vitamin D for healthy growth and development. It helps them build strong, healthy bones and teeth. Babies who don’t get enough vitamin D are at risk of getting rickets, a disease that affects the way bones grow and develop.

This helps explain why so many senior citizens get osteoporosis today even though they think they're taking plenty of calcium supplements. The reason is they don't have enough vitamin D to actually absorb the calcium. So they start out with a vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sunlight, and they end up with a calcium deficiency even though they're taking lots of calcium supplements. The end result is, of course, osteoporosis. Once that's diagnosed by conventional medicine, they're usually given hormone replacement therapy or a variety of prescription drugs rather than simply being told to get more sunlight and engage in some form of physical exercise to enhance bone mineral density.

United Kingdom doctors are already being advised to tell people to get more sunlight and not to wear sunscreen every time they go outside, at least not for the first few minutes of sun exposure. So the UK is well ahead of the U.S. in this thinking. The U.S. seems to be a lot slower to acknowledge any healing benefits of therapies outside of drugs, surgery and radiation. It is taking much longer for U.S. doctors to come around to the idea that nature knows best regarding healing. Here we are actually seeing yet another example of how nature actually prevents and even reverses cancer in the human body.

Research shows that sunlight and vitamin D can prevent and even reverse cancers in the human body. We're talking about prostate cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer and now, skin cancers as well. In fact, there seems to be a systemic anti-cancer effect provided by sunlight exposure and vitamin D.

Vitamin D toxicity: Excessive exposure to sunlight does not lead to overproduction of vitamin D. Vitamin D toxicity is inevitably the result of overdosing on vitamin D supplements. Don't do this! Ingestion of milligram quantities of vitamin D over periods of weeks of months can be severely toxic to humans and animals. In fact, baits laced with vitamin D are used very effectively as rodenticides.

I am sure this study is bringing a big smile to Dr. Michael Holick's face, and hopefully increasing awareness of the importance of sunlight world-wide especially in the medical community.

Could it be that sunscreens are causing skin cancer?

Here are 2 natural sunscreens that are wonderful to use:

Virgin coconut oil

Aloe Vera

References

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This document (middlepath.com.au/qol/sunlight.php) was last updated on Monday June 16th 2008 || email

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Sunlight Prevents Skin Cancer

Vitamin D is the Key

Here are 2 natural sunscreens that are wonderful to use:

Virgin coconut oil

Aloe Vera

References