The Sunscreen Myth

People have to understand this. Diet is the most important part of our health. The fact is, if your body has optimal levels of vitamins, minerals etc, your body practically cannot get sick. The food you eat, plays a far more important role in the development of cancer than sun exposure. Please note also, that your skin absorb basically anything you put on it. Did you know that when you bath, your skin absorb more than the 8 cups of water you are required to drink?

Now, as you would have guessed, the food you consumed is the number 1 reason for the cause of skin cancer or any type of cancer for that matter. The most important balance you need to maintain for cancer prevention is the omega 6:3 ratio. Our diet contains far too much omega 6 while too little omega 3, causing an imbalance and thus causing cancer.

So where does omega 6 and 3 come from? Virtually any vegetable oil, corn, sunflower, safflower etc contains close to 100% omega 6 fats. And due to the saturated fats scare, people often opted for vegetable oil instead of other alternatives like coconut oil. This over consumption of omega 6 distorts the ratio required to maintain a healthy body.

It is therefore important to increase your intake of omega 3, mainly from fish or
Cod Liver Oil, and decrease consumption of omega 6. An Austrlian study has shown that there is 40% reduction in the development of melanoma for those who are eating fish. And that's without any attention to lowering omega 6.

However, I am *NOT* suggesting that you eat more omega 3, eat less omega 6 and run out in the sun naked for the whole day. You must exercise caution. Avoiding getting burnt is very important. Gradually increase sun exposure. Do not use sunscreen, use an umbrella, or a hat when prolong exposure is necessary. If all this is not possible, THEN I would suggest you use sunscreen to prevent a sunburn. Minimize your use of sunscreen.

Most of think applying sunscreen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is the answer to skin cancer prevention. Nothing can be further from the truth. Two British Studies here and here have shown that sunscreens do not protect against melanoma.

In fact some ingredients present in sunscreen can be hazardous to your health! For example, Octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC), which is an ingredient in most sunscreen brand, has been found to kill mouse cells at low doses. To make things worse, OMC becomes more toxic when exposed to sunlight. If they were to penetrate the layer of dead skin cell and come into contact with the living cell tissue, it can potentially increase your chances of developing skin cancer.

The Sunday Times in London interviewed a biophysicist from Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority named Terje Christensen and she said "her research showed that sunscreens should be treated with caution, and used only when it was impractical to stay indoors or to shield the skin from the sun with clothes".

Ok, let's assume you are right that sunscreen DO protect you from skin cancer. Where do you apply it?

What sunscreen does is absorb or reflect UV rays at the skin's surface and prevents direct damage. This is good IF it works.

The fact is most of us apply our sunscreen on our skin, which according to the Journal PhotoChemistry and Photobiology in UK, render sunscreen practically useless. This is because by applying the sunscreen on the skin, its UV protection reduces to near 0. Instead, the sunscreen sinks into sweat glands and skin lines. Worse still, people often stay exposed to sun longer because they THOUGHT they have sunscreen on.

Can you imagine what can happen when it reaches your body? Sunscreen contains cancer-causing chemicals like carcinogenic fragrance chemicals.

Newswise Science News reported, " Newswise - Recent studies by UAB physics professor Thomas Nordlund, Ph.D., suggest that energy transfer by some sunscreen ingredients could actually be harming healthy cells. "Ultraviolet light has a lot of energy, and if that energy does not dissipate quickly as it is absorbed by sunscreen, the energy can enter into healthy cells and do harm. We looked at whether the energy absorbed by sunscreen ingredients as they absorb ultraviolet light can be transferred into DNA in skins' cells or is turned into harmless heat." Researchers found that with one common sunscreen ingredient the potentially harmful energy created by the ultraviolet light could be transmitted into DNA, where it might do damage."

You are better off wearing clothing to protect yourself if you're exposed to the sun for a prolonged period of time