April 14, 2016 general

There are a great number of ways to reach misleading conclusions from scientific studies and then take inappropriate health steps as a result. For example, in Fat Free Folly I discuss the disastrous ideas that came out of studies about heart disease and fat in the diet and are at the root of today’s twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes.

Another example of short-sighted science just came to my attention. It does seem to be a fact that cancer risk increases with age. E.g., the longer we live the more likely we are to contract cancer. (No, we don’t want to die young just to prevent cancer.) At first it also seems factual (“everyone knows”) that we should stay out of the sun to prevent skin cancer, right?

Well, as it turns out, it isn’t that simple. That’s because one reason people who are exposed to the sun have more skin cancer is because they live longer. That becomes a major reason to have increased odds of getting skin cancer! They live longer because sunlight exposure reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and other diseases.

In a 20 year study of 30,000 women the scientists came to the startling conclusion that sunlight is like a nutrient. Avoiding the sun had about the same negative effect on life expectancy as smoking! Let me repeat that: Avoiding sunshine may shorten life as much as smoking. Over the period of the study those who avoided the sun reduced their life expectancy up to 2 years. LINK TO STUDY

The benefit of sunlight is not just from the vitamin D our skin forms. There is also energetic power in the far infrared wavelengths of sunshine that in essence recharges the water in our cellular batteries…We are much more like plants than we might have imagined.

But what about skin cancer and sun damage to the skin? I believe that one piece of the puzzle is How we are exposed to the sun. Getting vitamin D from the sun regularly with controlled sun exposure boosts immune function which would in turn fight off cancer. However, getting burned or sunbathing in long periods periodically overpowers that immune protection with excess radiation. Also, our ancestors who ate a natural diet with plenty of plant antioxidants got internal sunscreen protection from the damaging rays. Note: vitamin D forms mainly when the sun is relatively high in the sky, but some of the other benefits of sunshine can be enjoyed early and late when the sun is less likely to burn.

Taking vitamin D as a supplement and using a far infrared sauna may not offer all the benefits of sun exposure, but surely it would help.