Important Benefits of Sun Exposure

Important Benefits of Sun Exposure

For the last twenty years or so, we have been told to protect ourselves from the sun. 

How much of that fear of sun exposure helped or hurt us?

Many of us are afraid of sun exposure and so we slather on our sunblock.  Unfortunately most brands are laden with toxic chemicals such as:

• Oxybenzone, which is linked to hormone disruption and cell damage that may lead to skin cancer.
• Retinyl palmitate, which has now been proven to be a carcinogen.
• Octyl-methoxycinnamate causes oxidation damage of the skin, which ages your face.
• Butyl-Methdiebenzoylmethane, which releases free radicals into the body.
• Benzophenone 2 (BP2), decreases the function of the thyroid, in a population that is already seriously suffering from hypothyroidism (under active).

While it’s true that sun burns are not a good thing, burns are not all that we get from the sun. What has also become common in the last twenty years is a low Vitamin D level in the general population… do you wonder why?

Humans need sunlight.

Here are some of the things sun exposure does for us:

• Lowers inflammation – which is important for the maintenance of blood pressure;
• Helps muscle and bone health;
• Increases brain health;
• Allows the body to properly absorb and transport calcium to the muscles, organs and glands;
• Assists with weight management;
• Helps with depression/improves mood
• Kills bad bacteria;
• Sunlight is necessary for optimal hormone production;
• Builds the immune system
• Sunlight lowers cholesterol. The sun converts high cholesterol in the blood into steroid hormones and the sex hormones we need for reproduction. In the absence of sunlight, the opposite happens; substances convert to cholesterol.

So, maybe the answer is not to slather on toxic sunscreen to block all the sun’s positive benefits, (for the best healthy sunscreen read here).  Interestingly enough, your ability to not get a sunburn is largely dependant on supplying the body with the right nutrients and making sure the transport of these nutrients to the skin is functional.
Believe it or not, we can help you protect your skin without harmful sunscreen creams and without blocking the great benefit of sun exposure; it has to do with the proper nutritional support.

If you have the genetics towards skin cancer you do have to be careful.  The three main forms of skin cancer—melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma—are largely attributed to excessive ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure. Skin cancers have become the most common form of cancer worldwide,

Whereas skin cancer is associated with too much UVR exposure, other cancers could result from too little. Living at higher latitudes increases the risk of dying from Hodgkin lymphoma, as well as breast, ovarian, colon, pancreatic, prostate, and other cancers, as compared with living at lower latitudes. A randomized clinical trial by Joan Lappe, a medical professor at Creighton University, and colleagues, published in the June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, confirmed that taking 2–4 times the daily dietary reference intake of 200–600 IU vitamin D3 and calcium resulted in a 50–77% reduction in expected incidence rates of all cancers combined over a four-year period in post-menopausal women living in Nebraska.

If you are not at genetic risk of skin cancer I do recommend 10 minutes of sun bathing a day to get the health benefits.  If you are interested in optimizing the benefits of the sun for your health let me know at your next appointment so we can give you the specific nutrition that your body needs to get the benefits of the sun without the burn.