Avoiding the sun: a hazardous health choice?
Demonizing the sun may be leading us into chronically low Vitamin D levels, impacting inflammation, cognitive health, and more!
Avoiding the sun may be one of the most hazardous actions for your health. Yet ‘wear sunscreen’ has become one of the most pervasive health mantras out there when it comes to skin health. How did the sun go from being one of our greatest benefits to a so-called "death spreader"?
Some experts have argued that we’ve been lied to. We’ve been tricked into thinking the sun is bad, so we lather our skin with sunscreen, filled with harmful chemicals.
“Our entire biology has been programmed to respond to the environmental cues of sunlight. Not getting proper sunlight is unhealthy,” says Dr. Sorenson in his book Embrace the Sun. (This is an excellent resource. While it is currently out of print, it is available online as a PDF.)
Why Are We Afraid of the Sun?
This fear is largely due to partial-truth marketing by big companies. Let’s first look at some facts, taken from the aforementioned book by Dr. Sorenson:
Sun exposure in the U.S. has decreased by 90% over the last 70-100 years, while the risk of melanoma has increased by at least 3,000%. How can anyone believe that sun exposure causes melanoma with such statistics?
Women who completely avoid the sun have a 1,000% increased risk of breast cancer compared to those regularly exposed to the sun. Additionally, sun avoiders experience a 20% increase in all-cause mortality over a 20-year period.
Outdoor workers receive 3-10 times the annual sunlight exposure as indoor workers, yet they have lower incidences of melanoma. Sunlight and tanning actually reduce the risk of melanoma.
Multiple sclerosis is most prevalent in the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere but nearly disappears in sunny equatorial regions.
For every 1 death related to excessive sun exposure, there are 324 deaths associated with diseases linked to insufficient sun exposure.
Cashing in on Fear
It helps to understand that not all skin cancers are the same. The word “cancer” strikes fear into people, and advertisers and manufacturers have capitalized on that fear. They’ve turned all skin lesions into scary “cancers,” overstated their frequency, and pushed consumers toward sunscreens.
This created a lucrative market, including a new, prestigious division of medicine: dermatology. Once primarily associated with treating acne and psoriasis, dermatologists are now seen as serious cancer specialists.
(For a much more detailed presentation on this phenomenon, I highly recommend this post from A Midwestern Doctor.)
Let’s explore the different types of skin cancer:
Melanoma: Often considered the "dreaded" skin cancer, melanoma causes about 8,000 U.S. deaths per year. However, it has the lowest cancer death rate—about about 2 deaths per 100,000 and comprises only 1% of skin cancers. Most melanomas occur on areas that rarely see the sun.
Basal Cell Carcinoma: This is by far the most common skin cancer, comprising 80% of all skin cancers. It is not deadly and grows very slowly. However, if left untreated, it can grow large and cause disfigurement. It is associated with excessive sun exposure, particularly repeated sunburn, and is most common in those with fair skin and a genetic predisposition. It almost never metastasizes (spreads to other parts of the body). Again, this has a near 0% fatality rate.
Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Caused by sunburned skin, this type is more dangerous as it can metastasize. However, if caught early, it has a 99% survival rate. One
Caution: Just because these lesions are survivable, it doesn’t mean they are worth ignoring. If you have a growing skin lesion, consult a dermatologist.
Nestlé's History of False Advertising
Nestlé has a notorious history of misleading advertising, starting with the promotion of baby formula over breastfeeding in the 1970s. “The Baby Killer” was published by the British NGO –“War on Want” in 1974. Their tactics, which included offering free formula samples and falsely presenting infant formula as healthier than breast milk, led to serious health consequences in developing countries. They were dissuading mothers from breastfeeding in favor of bottle feeding especially in developing nations
What did Nestle do?
Offered free feeding bottles, samples, and other supplies to mothers in order to encourage purchases.
Won over hospitals and healthcare professionals in order to deliver products directly to new mothers when they are discharged from the hospital.
They even had reps dress up as nurses when giving out free samples, falsely presenting that their product was healthy.
They spent billions promoting their infant formula as the best way to help a baby. It was devastating to poverty-stricken 3rd world countries as mothers would stop breast feeding and then dilute the formula because they could not afford it. Children died.
Nestlé's advertising practices drew widespread criticism, eventually leading to the successful “Boycott Nestlé“, movement in the 1980s. This pressure was successful in changing attitudes and getting WHO (World Health Organization) to return to breast feeding as the best nutritional way to help babies.
What does this have to do with sunscreen? Well, the sunscreen industry uses the exact same playbook.
In 1974, L’Oréal bought a significant stake in Nestlé and applied similar marketing strategies to the sunscreen industry. They created products, scared consumers, and sold them a solution—sunscreen—despite growing evidence that sunscreen usage does not reduce melanoma deaths.
The sunblock market is now a multi-billion-dollar industry, projected to reach $13.5 billion annually by 2028.
A blog by Dr. David J. Elpern, a dermatologist, has noted how the marketing of skin cancer and the dermatology industry itself have shifted:
“Over the past 40 years, I have witnessed these changes in my specialty and am dismayed by the reluctance of my colleagues to address them. This trend began in the early 1980s when the Academy of Dermatology (AAD) assessed its members over 2 million dollars to hire a prominent New York advertising agency to raise the public’s appreciation of our specialty. The mad men recommended “educating” the public to the fact that dermatologists are skin cancer experts, not just pimple poppers; and so the free National Skin Cancer Screening Day was established.
These screenings serve to inflate the public’s health anxiety about skin cancer and led to the performance of vast amounts of expensive low-value procedures for skin cancer and actinic keratosis (AKs). At the same time, pathologists were expanding their definitions of what a melanoma is, leading to “diagnostic drift” that misleadingly increased the incidence of melanoma while the mortality has remained at 1980 levels. Concomitantly, non-melanoma skin cancers are being over-treated by armies of micrographic surgeons who often treat innocuous skin cancers with unnecessarily aggressive, lucrative surgeries.”
Why?
Dermatology is now one of the highest-paying medical specialties, with dermatologists earning an average of $400,000 annually, and specialists such as Mohs surgeons making even more. This has contributed to the over-diagnosis and over-treatment of benign skin conditions.
What About Vitamin D?
Correct levels of Vitamin D are essential for many bodily functions, including cancer prevention, bone health, and immune support. Levels above 40 ng/ml are associated with a reduction in cancers, fractures, and heart attacks.
Note that when serum levels of vitamin D are up above 40 ng/ml that a number of cancers are reduced – some by 80%, fractures are reduced up to 50%, MS and heart attacks are lowered.
At 20ng/ml you can prevent Rickets, but you need to be much higher. Many physicians recommend 7,000 – 10,000 IU per day. Even then it takes a couple of months to get numbers up if you are low on vitamin D.
The recommendation from the Cancer Care book by Paul Marik, MD is that cancer patients go up to around 90ng/ml. He has over 7 pages of information on his #4 top pick (vit D) for cancer patients therapy suggestions. He states that “Vitamin D has anticancer effects both directly via controlling the differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis of neoplastic cells as well as indirectly…”
His recommendation is for 20,000 to 50,000 IU daily for those with low Vitamin D levels.
Even Dr Dale Bredesen in his groundbreaking book – End of Alzheimer’s recommends a vitamin D level of 50-80ng/ml.
Just think – if all US retirement and assisted living homes gave patients vitamin D, and they got it up to good levels, they could reduce bone breaks by up to 50%. How much would that cost? A three-month supply of a 50,000 IU dose is under $20. It could also reduce cancers, along with decreased inflammation and increased immune function.
Taking vitamin D as a supplement is good, but sunlight tanning is even better. Studies show that vitamin D made from sun exposure to the skin lasts at least twice as long in the blood as unnatural vitamin D from dietary supplements. When I am in Florida, it is shirt off and shorts on as I ride bike or walk on the beach for about 1 hour per day. Of course, it takes a bit of incremental tanning to avoid burning. Tanning is not the problem; it is burning that causes issues in the skin and DNA damage.
To say that any UV-light in and of itself will cause skin cancer is like saying that any food will make you obese, and will therefore give you diabetes and cardiac arrest. It is a matter of moderation and then repeated opportunities to get in the sun for a period of 30 minutes to a couple of hours daily. (This also depends on the intensity of the sun and your location on the planet.)
Benefits of Sunlight
According to Embrace the Sun by Drs. Sorenson and Grant, sunlight offers numerous health benefits:
It improves mental health – think SAD or seasonal affective disorder.
It increases life expectancy
Decreased heart disease is noted
Smokers have the same incident of dying as non-sunbathers.
It reduces other cancers
It strengthens bones
Triggers energy production
Helps with sleep and mood
40 years of sunscreen promotion and use has had no impact on melanoma death rates. Yet the incidence of benign skin cancers has skyrocketed, creating a multi-billion-dollar industry. What do we see today?
More dermatologists are taking off BCC and SCC tags. Most of these will resolve themselves in 1-4 years. (That said, if they continue to grow do go see a dermatologist.) The annual cost for removal of skin cancers was $9 billion back in 2018.
The sales of sunscreen products is estimated to reach $ 13 billion/yr.
My recommendations?
Educate yourself: Learn about the health benefits of sunlight and the potential risks of avoiding it.
Help your children to understand that moderate, gentle tanning from the sun is good and healthy.
Boost your vitamin D: Aim for serum levels of 40-70 ng/ml. Test your levels regularly and consider supplements if necessary.
Enjoy the sun safely: Gradually increase your sun exposure to avoid burning. Tanning is beneficial, but burning should be avoided.
Swimming against the current isn't easy, but understanding these issues can make a big difference in your health.
Blessings,
The Medical Maverick.
Additional Resources:
Jimmy Dore: Most Skin Cancer Deaths Are From LACK Of Sunlight!!
https://www.grassrootshealth.net/blog/current-recommendations-low/