sun may not cause skin cancer after all...
Sensible sunlight exposure prevents skin cancer; findings baffle old school doctors
Scientists are baffled by the results of a study published in the Feb. 2, 2005 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In this study, we learn that exposure to sunlight actually reduces the risk of skin cancer.
This is important evidence backing up what doctors like Dr. Michael Holick, author of "The UV Advantage," have been saying for years: Sunlight is actually good for you. In fact, the risk of many cancers increases when you do not have sufficient exposure to sunlight.
It's remarkable just how baffled the scientists really are with the results of the study. They can't believe everything they've been told all these years could somehow be false. Remember, the conventional medical community has been taught that sunlight is bad for you. You must cover up your skin, wear sunscreen and avoid any sunlight exposure at all if you want to be healthy, they've said. This is the line of propaganda pushed by the sunscreen industry, and of course the dermatology industry, which has been largely funded by the sunscreen manufacturers. They've been telling people sunlight causes cancer, and you must avoid the sun at all costs.
That’s all hogwash. As I've been saying on this site for quite some time, the human body was designed to live in harmony with sunlight. We evolved under natural sunlight, not under fluorescent lights with a lifetime supply of sunscreen on the shelf. We need sunlight in order to be healthy. I've covered this in dozens of other articles on this site. Now we have additional evidence backing up that notion, and it may finally begin to turn the tide and help doctors and researchers realize they need to stop telling people to avoid sunlight and start telling people to get more sunlight.
Of course it's all about sensible exposure, which is determined by the pigmentation in your skin. The darker your skin, the more sunlight you need in order to generate vitamin D. The lighter, or fairer, your skin, the less sunlight you need. By the way, one of the people commenting on this study was so baffled by the results they said, "It must all be due to vitamin D, and if you want vitamin D, there are better places to get it like drinking milk." It's typical advice from conventional medicine. They’re still telling people to avoid the sun and, instead, drink lots of cows' milk. How's that for lousy health advice?
You see, milk doesn't really have much vitamin D in it, especially if it's offered in those typical translucent containers, because light destroys the vitamin D content. Also, this whole line of thinking by conventional medicine misses the point that there may be other characteristics of sunlight that encourage human health aside from just vitamin D. In other words, there's a lot more going on here.
There is probably a phototherapy effect that goes well beyond the biochemistry of vitamin D production. Even if you're just looking at vitamin D, there are so many healing benefits of vitamin D that it's worth promoting sunlight exposure for that reason alone. Vitamin D regulates the growth of cancer cells. It impairs the proliferation of cancer tumors in the body, and at the same time it is extremely important for absorption of calcium in the small intestine.
(This, by the way, helps explain why so many senior citizens get osteoporosis today even though they think they're taking plenty of calcium supplements. The reason is they don't have enough vitamin D to actually absorb the calcium. So they start out with a vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sunlight, and they end up with a calcium deficiency even though they're taking lots of calcium supplements. The end result is, of course, osteoporosis or osteomalacia, the advanced stage of osteoporosis. Once that's diagnosed by conventional medicine, they're usually given hormone replacement therapy or a variety of prescription drugs rather than simply being told to get more sunlight and engage in some form of physical exercise to enhance bone mineral density.)
In the UK, doctors have already been told they're doing a disservice to patients if they tell them to avoid sunlight. They're already being advised to tell people to get more sunlight and not to wear sunscreen every time they go outside, at least not for the first few minutes of sun exposure. So the UK is well ahead of the U.S. in this thinking. The U.S. seems to be the last country in the world to acknowledge any healing benefits of therapies outside of drugs, surgery and radiation. It seems to take forever for U.S. doctors to come around to the idea nature has some wisdom when it comes to healing. Here we're seeing yet another example of how nature actually prevents and even reverses cancer in the human body.
It is not an exaggeration to say sunlight and vitamin D can prevent and even reverse cancers in the human body. We're talking about prostate cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer and now, skin cancers as well. In fact, there seems to be a systemic anti-cancer effect provided by sunlight exposure and vitamin D. If you haven't already, be sure to read the free report available for downloading at **broken link removed**. It's an interview with Dr. Michael Holick on this very topic. It's a fascinating read. That interview was conducted before this new study was published, but I'm sure this study is bringing a smile to Dr. Michael Holick's face, and hopefully increasing awareness of the importance of sunlight exposure across the U.S. population -- especially in the medical community.
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This article is a bit long forgive me. 
