Does Avoiding The Sun Shorten Your Lifespan? C Kressler Aug 2014
His post starts with:
A few weeks ago I was at a conference in Tuscon, Arizona. Two things really surprised me while I was there. First, quite a few people ordered egg-white omelets for breakfast. Huh? Didn’t they get the memo that dietary cholesterol doesn’t increase the risk of heart disease, or even raise blood cholesterol levels? Egg-white omelets are so 1995!
Second, I noticed that a number of people were slathering themselves with sunscreen and wearing long sleeve and pants or wide-brimmed hats every time they stepped out the door in order to avoid the sun.
These guidelines were based on the observation that light-skinned people of European ancestry living in Northern Australia had the highest risk of malignant melanoma, the deadly form of skin cancer, in the world.
He concludes with: Final thoughts
It’s entirely possible that public health recommendations that significantly restrict sun exposure may be doing more harm than good in regions with limited sunshine and a low UV index, such as many parts of Europe, the UK, and North America. Yet many people are unaware that the advice they’ve been given about avoiding sun exposure doesn’t reflect the current scientific evidence on this topic.
This reminds me of the situation we’re in with dietary fat and cholesterol. The mainstream media and medical establishment spent decades scaring us away from egg yolks, cheese, meat, and other high-fat, high-cholesterol foods. The result of this advice was an increase in the consumption of highly refined carbohydrates—which, ironically, contributes to the epidemics of metabolic and cardiovascular disease that fat and cholesterol restriction was supposed to address.
Clipped from his “About Chris”
In doing this research I discovered that many of the ideas and beliefs we hold about health in this society are myths.
See also Vitamin D Life
- Getting Vitamin D into your body
- Melanoma is 44 percent LESS LIKELY if get sun on the job – Nov 2013
- More Cancer, less Solar Radiation - 1941 has been known for a loong time
- Sunny side of the hill is the healthiest – 400BC for a very long time
- Melanoma huge increase - perhaps due to use of sunscreen or lower vitamin D
- Melanoma REDUCED by those getting the most UV, unless 5 blistering sunburns while in teen years – June 2014