by wellcome images

Skin Cancer Information, the Truth about the Sun

It is certainly true that ultraviolet light causes skin damage and there is no such thing as a healthy tan but there is certainly such a thing as a healthy amount of sun exposure that every person needs each day. Also the vitamin D deficiency disease, rickets is making a comeback now days because we are not getting enough sun exposure to maintain our health.

The most lethal form of skin cancer is melanoma and it is more common in people who work indoors rather than people who work outdoors. That is, an office worker is far more likely to get a melanoma than a farmer. In fair skin people melanomas commonly occur on men’s back or on the tops of women’s legs and not on areas where we get the most sun exposure like the face or the hands. In dark skin people who are less likely to develop melanomas, they get it on there backs or the soles of their feet. Also a very close friend of mine has just been diagnosed with a melanoma in a place that has never seen the sun.

There is now evidence of a huge range of benefits from regular exposure to the sun because of the vitamin D which is manufactured in our skin through the direct action of the sun. Until recently vitamin D was seen as unimportant except for the development of healthy bones and teeth. Now recent research has shown that vitamin D is involved in everything from brain development to the proper function of the immune system.

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We are often told to keep out of the sun but in fact the sun is beneficial in keeping us free of cancer, which includes skin cancer because of the vitamin D our skin makes through sun exposure. We need only a few minutes of sun a day on bare arms and face whereas people with darker skin need a little more to get the same amount of vitamin D. This vitamin is also available in supplements and some foods but the most effective way is through the sun.

 Because the rate of skin cancer has increased alarmingly over the last few years we can’t really blame the sun because the sun hasn’t changed and isn’t changing. Also the ozone layer that protects us from harmful radiation from the sun is only a problem over the Antarctic where nobody lives. Daily sun exposure is essentially for maintaining life for all living creatures including human beings.

I don’t advocate the use of sun screens either; they can actually cause cancer as they block the skin from absorbing the suns rays. Of course that’s what they are supposed to do but in doing so they stop the skin from absorbing the important vitamin D that the body needs to prevent many diseases, including cancer.

So what is causing so much cancer now days? The increase is because of the way we now live, especially with the food we eat. What we now eat has changed where as prior to this our diet hasn’t changed for thousands of years.

All skin cancers are an entirely curable disease and our modern medical approaches are not the most effective way to heal someone of the problem. They are only treating the symptoms which are the growths themselves instead of searching for a reason why the cancer first grew. It’s easy to blame the sun as that allows people to submit to their orthodox treatments of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy which are all money orientated. Also there is nothing in those treatments that will stop any skin cancer from spreading or returning. Treating skin cancer today is a huge industry and the only thing they are not doing is reducing the mortality rate.

Don’t overdo the sunshine, but sunshine is essential for the production of vitamin D, and, strange as it may sound, has been found to be essential in warding off melanomas as well as all other cancers.