Nourishing Traditions: Get lots of sunlight!!!

Sunlight is good for you. It is an essential nutrient. 

Sunlight protects you from high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and many cancers. Richard Weller, MD discovered one mechanism – the skin uses sunlight to make nitric oxide (NO). NO lowers blood pressure and lessens heart disease and strokes.

Sunlight is good for your brain; it stimulates production of serotonin and endorphins so you’re in a better mood at the beach. Epidemiological studies show that sunlight reduces the risk of prostate, breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancers. Sunlight also improves circadian rhythms, reduces inflammation, dampens autoimmune responses and improves virtually every mental condition. Most important, it’s free. 

What about skin cancer and melanoma? 

Skin cancer kills very few people: for every person who dies of skin cancer, more than 100 die from cardiovascular diseases. The deadly type of skin cancer, melanoma, accounts for only 1 to 3% of skin cancers. Studies show that long-term sun exposure is associated with less melanoma. Outdoor workers have half the melanoma rate of indoor workers and tanned people have lower rates too. 

An interesting comment was made by Dr. Weller who works in a skin hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that is near the equator and above 7,500 feet, so it receives massive UV radiation. Despite that, says Weller, “I have not seen a skin cancer. And yet Africans in Britain and America are told to avoid the sun.” (5)

Read the entire article, Sunscreen the New Margarine? by Rowen Jacobsen.

What About Sunscreen?
Sunscreen may cause skin cancer. Sunscreen shields from the UVB rays that cause sunburn but not the UVA rays that cause skin cancer. 

SPF ratings refer only to UVB rays, so many users may be absorbing far more UVA radiation than they realize. Meanwhile, many common sunscreen ingredients have been found to be hormone disruptors that can be detected in users’ blood and breast milk. 

The worst offender, oxybenzone, also mutates the DNA of corals and is believed to be killing coral reefs. Hawaii and the western Pacific nation of Palau have already banned it, to take effect in 2021 and 2020 respectively, and other governments are expected to follow.