Are We Getting the Full Story?

For decades doctors and scientists have been telling us to avoid the sun at any cost but what exactly is the cost? Everyone knows that too much sun can result in sunburn and possibly even sun stroke, but how easy is it to develop skin cancer from sun exposure? Is the sun really the problem or is there more to it than that? We know that the human body requires vitamin D in order to remain as healthy as possible, and we know that the best possible source of that vitamin is the sun itself, but how does the sun/skin/vitamin connection really work?

For years I personally thought (erroneously) that vitamin D came from the sun itself, when in reality, it actually is produced by your skin. Exposure to the sun is the catalyst that makes the vitamin D production begin in the first place. If you avoid the sun you are not permitting your skin to make the vitamin D that you need. So you may take D supplements with your meals, but how adequate is that? Much of the stuff that goes into vitamin pills is synthesized material, not natural at all.

Without vitamin D the body is succeptible to every kind of illness you can think of, including rickets and arthritis, carcinomas and other cancers, osteoporosis and much, much more. We must have it or we will get so sick and weak that life would be miserable at best. So, what’s the full story here? Are we getting all the information we need from our doctors? I would hope so, but the sad fact is, that quite often, we are not. Recently, a doctor of alternative medicine wrote a report on this very topic and it was eye-opening to say the least.

He stated that our skin is so absorbent that anything you put on it, such as lotions, hand creams, bug spray, sun block and other chemicals, are actually being brought INTO our bodies through our skin. He likened it to upending a bottle of sun block and drinking it to the bottom. It’s basically the same thing, though slower. The skin "drinks" anything we put on it, and not all that stuff is good for us. The basic rule is this: If you can’t eat it, don’t wear it on your skin.

Here’s how he describes the sun/skin/vitamin connection (in my words): The sun’s rays initiates the skin’s natural response to the sun, the release of vitamin D through Melanin, which is our skin’s way of dealing with the sun. Melanin creates the vitamin D. When we wear sun block, we are not actually blocking the sun at all, that would be impossible. Do you really think a thin layer of cream or spray is going to prevent the sun from touching your skin? That’s like holding up a sheet of tissue paper against a semi on the highway, expecting that sheet to protect you.

What the sun block actually does, is prevent the Melanin from creating a sun tan, which is what forms the vitamin D we so desperately need. When you prevent yourself from tanning, you are actually enabling your skin to be exposed longer in the sun with LESS protection than it would have had if you sat under the sun’s rays completely unprotected. If you tan, your skin is protecting itself naturally from the effects of the sun, and thus, helping your body guard against future skin cancers.

Remove the ability to tan, and you are leaving your skin unprotected against the sun and are more likely to develop skin cancer later on. This is why so many people have carcinomas even though they wear sun block. The skin has the ability to protect itself against the ravages of the sun, if we just give it the chance. When we wear chemicals on our skin, we are preventing ourselves from getting the most natural form of one of the most necessary vitamins known to man. Now, is the Doctor of Alternative Medicine right, or is he wrong? You decide. I know I did.