Sunscreen is worse for you than you’ve been told. And, getting more sun is “just what the doctor ordered.”
How Bad Is Sunscreen?
You be the judge…
More sunscreen use, but more skin cancer…hmmm: As consumers use sunscreen more and more, you’d think that skin cancer rates would go down. Well the opposite is true: it’s tripled since the 1970s. [1]
Vitamin A – good or bad?: While you need to eat Vitamin A for good health, putting compounds with Vitamin A in it on your skin may actually contribute to developing skin tumors and lesions when sunlight shines on it. The opposite of what sunscreen is for! The EWG (more below) recommends that customers avoid sunscreens, lotions and lip products that contain Vitamin A palmitate, retinyl palmitate (also retinol, retinyl linoleate, and retinyl acetate).
Oxybenzone: The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is an organization that studies and reports on the quality of many foods, drinks, supplements, and body creams – to name a few – to keep people safe from “Big Pharma,” and “Big Food” and even the Government. In their studies and reports of hundreds of sunscreens, they’ve found that many contain oxybenzone.Many people are allergic to oxybenzone. It’s highly absorbed by the skin, and potentially is an “endocrine disruptor,” meaning it can throw off your hormones (testosterone, estrogen, etc). The FDA – after years of pressure from the EWG – is finally saying that many more studies need to be taken to call oxybenzone safe to use.
Incorrect SPF claims: The FDA is saying that high SPF products may “mislead” customers. They want to bad SPF claims of higher than 60, as they give customer a false sense of security.
Breathing in sunscreen sprays: The FDA is now proposing that spray sunscreens go through more testing to be sure that they aren’t doing irreparable damage to your lungs. When conducting pilot test, the FDA found that 3 of 14 sprays do not meet its standard.
Getting Sun is Good For you!
When the sun shines on your skin, your body makes Vitamin D. This study by the Demato-Endocrinology Journal reports that getting a good amount of sun (but not burning, that you should continue to avoid), is critical for good health and energy [3]:
“This review considers the studies that have shown a wide range health benefits from sun/UV exposure. These benefits include among others various types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer disease/dementia, myopia and macular degeneration, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The message of sun avoidance must be changed to acceptance of non-burning sun exposure sufficient to achieve serum 25(OH)D concentration of 30 ng/mL or higher in the sunny season and the general benefits of UV exposure beyond those of vitamin D. (emphasis added)”
Look at all of those scientifically demonstrated health benefits!
Summary
While you do not want to get sunburns, it’s still good to soak up the sun for at least 15 minutes a day if you can. If you haven’t been in the sun much, be sure to work up to more and more sun gradually, so that you body can get used to it. And, you should feel better and have more energy.
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