Health & Fitness
Summer Officially Begins Soon - Fun in The Sun If You Are Not Afraid of It
As summer begins, are your first thoughts about the "bad" effects of the sun? Maybe we should be more concerned about our diet and the sunscreen lotion than the sun!
Summer brings vacations and time by the pool or beach. The sun just makes you feel good, if you haven’t become afraid of it. Many people avoid the sun like the plague. We continue to hear the warnings that sunshine poses. Among the alarmist voices are the sunscreen manufacturers. For the past 20 years the $5 billion-a-year industry has been propagating the supposition that the sun is deadly and we must be protected from it by slathering on chemical compounds.
Of course, they conveniently fail to mention that sun exposure is essential for good health; or that common sunscreen lotion contains five known carcinogens, two of which are actually activated by the sun and block your body’s ability to produce essential vitamin D.
And here is the worst part – there has never been any evidence that suncreens prevent the most serious kinds of skin cancer. In fact, they can actually increase that risk.
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The rising risk of cancer is not because we’ve increased sun exposure. With most of us working indoors now, we are exposed to far less sunlight yet certain cancers, especially skin cancers, have dramatically risen. Your diet is more important. We have progressively lowered antioxidant intake. Many antioxidants have been shown to significantly lower your risk of cancer – even skin cancer. This was discussed in the Journal Of American Academy of Dermatology. They found that regular green tea drinkers were 20 to 30 percent less likely to develop the two most common types of skin cancer, and can reduce burning on UV exposed skin. Dermatologists usually ignore any evidence that diet and sunlight have a synergistic connection. Their prescription is to stay out of the sun as much as possible and wear sunscreen when you do venture outside.
Sunburns are bad, so we must use appropriate moderation. If you need to use sunscreen, please be sure to check out safe suncreens by going to the Environmental Working Group website at www.ewg.org. Till next time enjoy the sun!