A Gift from Dr Mercola:

The information that follows has the power to save at least 600,000 lives
worldwide every year. This is a MAJOR announcement, and one that every man, woman,
and child needs to be aware of.
This is especially important if you:
• Believe the news portrayed by the media that sunlight should be avoided
• Live in most places in the U.S. or Europe
• Have dark-colored skin
• Spend very little time outdoors, with your skin exposed to the sun
• Would like to reduce your risk of cancer
YOU NEED AN AVERAGE OF AT LEAST 10-15 MINUTES OF
SUNLIGHT EVERY DAY TO PREVENT CANCER
A breakthrough study1 was recently published, which demonstrated just how important
getting regular exposure to sunlight is for you.
Regularly spending even relatively short intervals of only 10 to 15 minutes in the sunlight
allows your body to produce vitamin D, and having adequate vitamin D3 levels can
drastically reduce your risk of colon and breast cancer.
The researchers, from the Moore’s Cancer Center at the University
of California, San Diego (UCSD), estimated that by increasing
vitamin D3 levels, particularly in countries north of the equator,
250,000 cases of colorectal cancer, and 350,000 cases of breast
cancer could be prevented worldwide.
In all, that amounts to 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal
cancer prevented, including close to 150,000 in the U.S. alone.
This is an unprecedented study because it’s the first to take
satellite measurements of sunshine and cloud cover in the same
countries where blood serum levels of vitamin D3 had also been
taken. In all, surveys of serum vitamin D levels from 15 countries
were evaluated for the study—during the winter when sunlight
is at a minimum.
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The data was then used to estimate the average serum level of vitamin D3 among the people
living in 177 countries throughout the world.
Here’s what the researchers found:
There’s an inverse association between serum vitamin D and the risk of colorectal and breast
cancers. In other words, the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of these two
cancers.
The beneficial effect began in the range of 24 to 32 ng/ml of vitamin D concentration in the
serum. The vitamin D level is the main indicator of vitamin D status. (For the rest of this
report I will simplify the terminology by just stating vitamin D, but please realize that I am
referring to the active form of vitamin D that was actually measured in the study.)
However, in the United States, people do not typically even come close to these protective
levels. The late winter average of vitamin D in the United States is only about 15-18 ng/ml.
In addition to preventing about 600,000 cases of cancer each year, the researchers concluded
that increasing the intake of vitamin D3 throughout the world could easily prevent diseases
that would otherwise claim close to 1 million lives each year.
YOUR FAMILY’S LIFE IS AT STAKE HERE
Yes, it’s true; this flies in the face of most public health statements and “expert” physicians
recommendations to stay OUT of the sun. Sun exposure, they say, can lead not only to skin
cancer, but also to premature aging of the skin (wrinkles), and cataracts.
It is vital for you to understand, right here and
now, that the dangers of sun exposure have
been greatly exaggerated, and the benefits highly
underestimated.
I am not exaggerating here when I tell you the
very life of you, your family, and your friends
hangs in the balance unless you understand the
truth about this issue. It is more than worth
your time to analyze your belief about this topic
because if you choose wrong, you could easily
leave this world decades before your time.
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I believe that the evidence is very clear; you are not nearly as likely to develop deadly skin
cancer as you have been led to believe, and the benefits you will receive from normalizing
your vitamin D levels continue to be documented daily in the scientific literature.
There IS merit to the advice to avoid getting sunburned. You will obviously want to exercise
common sense and always avoid getting sunburned. But that is a relatively simple strategy, and
I will give you some practical guidelines below that will easily help you implement this strategy.
If your skin is unused to the sun, it is important to build up your tolerance regularly and
gradually. It’s good to start early in the year, in the spring and early summer. This will
prepare your skin for the stronger sunlight later in the year. Early morning is, for similar
reasons, the best time to sunbathe if you are not used to sunlight, because there is less
chance of burning than there is later in the day. In addition, it’s best to sunbathe when the
temperature is below 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius), so that you don’t overheat.
Regular sunbathing is extremely important; you can’t cram all of your sun exposure into a two
or three week vacation period and expect to experience the benefits. When you do sunbathe,
it’s also important to treat it as a medicine and control the dosage; frequent, short periods
of exposure are best. If you overindulge or skip too many days, it can be dangerous. Regular
exposure protects against skin cancer, but intermittent exposure can actually increase the danger.
HOW LONG SHOULD YOU SUNBATHE?
A common myth is that occasional exposure of the face and hands to sunlight is “sufficient”
for vitamin D nutrition. For most of us, this is an absolutely inadequate exposure to move
vitamin levels to the healthy range of 45–55 ng/ml.
In fact, in some societies where clothing is traditionally worn over
most sun-exposed areas year-round, a greatly increased risk of rickets
and osteomalacia has been observed.
You need to expose large portions of your skin to the sun, and you
need to do it for more than a few minutes.
However, UV exposure beyond the minimal
dose required to produce skin redness will not
increase vitamin D production any further.
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In Caucasian skin, an equilibrium occurs within 20 minutes of ultraviolet exposure. It can
take 3 to 6 times longer for darkly pigmented skin to reach the equilibrium concentration of
skin vitamin D.
So, bearing in mind that you need to gradually increase your time, starting in the spring,
you should be aiming towards exposing large areas of your skin to the sun, anywhere from
20 minutes at a time to 2 hours at a time, depending on your skin type and environmental
factors.
A light-skinned person fairly far from the equator (such as in the UK or the northern U.S.)
needs at least three of these 20 minute sessions per week, in bright midday sunlight and
with few clothes. Longer will be needed if sunbathing occurs at off-peak times for ultraviolet
light (before 12 PM or after 3 PM) or at the beginning or end of the summer (April or
September) when the sun is lower in the sky for most of the day. A dark-skinned person, of
course, should be outside significantly longer.
MAJOR CAUTION: AVOID SUNBURN
Once again, I would advise you to use common
sense. You must exercise caution and be careful
not to burn. Never, ever, fall asleep in the sun.
At the beginning of the season,
go out gradually and limit your
exposure to perhaps as little as 10
minutes a day.
Progressively increase your time in the sun so that
in a few weeks, you will be able to have normal sun exposure with little risk of skin cancer.
However, even taking this risk into account, the benefits of UVB (ultraviolet B) exposure
from which you derive most of your vitamin D3 far outweigh any adverse effects by a ratio
of 15:1, according to William B. Grant, Ph.D., of the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health
Research Center (SUNARC).
In the UK, where solar UVB levels tend to be lower, the ratio is likely even higher.
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WHY SUNLIGHT IS HEALTHY
How do the benefits of sunlight so vastly outweigh the risks?
Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is entirely different from any other vitamin you have heard
of because it is not really a vitamin at all, but a prohormone that your body actually produces
from cholesterol. Because it is a prohormone, it influences your entire body—receptors that
respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell, from your brain
to your bones.
Regular exposure to UVB from sunlight (which in turn increases your vitamin D levels)
reduces your risk of the following diseases2:
For all of these benefits, the only risks of UVB come from overexposure. This can be greatly
minimized by avoiding sunburn, not staying out in the sun too long, and eating a healthy
diet (full of antioxidants from fruits and vegetables.)
What you may not realize is that the amount of antioxidants that you have in your skin plays
a major role in your development of sunburn. The more antioxidants you take in, the lower
your risk of sunburn.
Additionally, omega-3 fat deficiencies are a far more significant risk factor for deadly skin
cancers than sun exposure (I’ll explain this more later).
Please understand that while sunburn can increase your risk of skin cancer, it is typically the
far less serious skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma. There is little to no evidence that sun exposure
without sunburn increases your risk of melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer.
16 types of
internal cancers
Diabetes
Heart disease
Hypertension
Multiple Sclerosis
Osteoporosis
Psoriasis
Rickets
Schizophrenia
Tuberculosis
Myopathy
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Quite to the contrary, there is a good deal of evidence that sun exposure without sunburns
actually decreases your risk of melanoma.
Another interesting point to keep in mind when you hear the media telling you the sun is
dangerous is that while melanoma skin cancer is clearly a dangerous illness that can be fatal if
left untreated, non-melanoma skin cancer has a very low death rate.
Less than half of 1 percent of people who develop non-melanoma skin cancer die from the
disease, which is about 1,200 people each year in the United States. This amounts to only
two-tenths of 1 percent of all the cancer deaths in the United States each year.
VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY DOUBLES YOUR RISK OF CANCER
Even many physicians do not realize that the number one cause of death in western
cultures is not heart disease but cancer. Yes, it is more likely that you will die from
cancer than from a heart attack.
Researchers now agree that this epidemic of a wide variety of cancers may be due to
widespread vitamin D deficiency, which is caused in large part because of sun avoidance.
The cancers most strongly linked to low levels of vitamin D are:
• Breast
• Colon
• Lung
• Prostate cancer
The studies linking low exposure to UVB (which indicates
a potential risk for vitamin D deficiency) with cancer
just keep pouring in. For example, low exposure to UVB
increased the risk of endometrial cancer in one study3.
In mid 2007, even the Canadian Cancer
Society came out recommending vitamin
D for all adults—the first time a major
public-health organization has endorsed
the vitamin as a cancer-prevention
therapy.
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The announcement came in response to a study that looked at almost 1,200 women, aged
55 and older, over the course of four years4. Those in a group that were given supplemental
calcium and vitamin D had a 60 percent lower risk for all cancers than those who received a
placebo.
Vitamin D has a protective effect against cancer in several ways, including:
• Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed
to replicate, could lead to cancer)
• Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
• Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
• Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones,
which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous
YOUR SIMPLE CURE FOR MOST COUGHS AND COLDS
Instead of relying on potentially dangerous and ineffective over-the-counter remedies for
cough and colds, your solution may simply be to get outside and have more sun exposure on
as much uncovered skin as possible.
This is because vitamin D has also been found to cause your immune system T-cells—the
cells that destroy damaged and infected cells—to change shape and migrate to the uppermost
layer of your skin. This may also help explain why vitamin D has such a protective effect
against skin cancer in particular.
Aside from helping to prevent cancer, vitamin D is also excellent for your heart, and can
increase your body’s production of naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides, which destroy
the cell walls of viruses and bacteria. Sun exposure also increases blood levels of germdestroying
lymphocytes (white blood cells).
Because of these properties, sunlight was used as early
as a century before the discovery of antibiotics as an
effective tuberculosis cure.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially deadly disease that
is spread by airborne bacteria, which settle in the lungs
and result in long-term infections. TB is currently
responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other
single infectious disease.
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Auguste Rollier began using sunlight therapy to treat TB in Switzerland in 1903, with such
success that, over the course of the next forty years, his methods were adopted by hospitals
worldwide, including in the United States. Of the 2,167 patients who were under his
care for tuberculosis following World War II, 1,746 completely recovered their health, an
astonishing number for the time, with the only failures being those who were already in the
most advanced stage of the disease.
Studies have also shown that metabolizing vitamin D can restrict the growth of tuberculosis
within cells5. In one study, Indonesian scientists found that treating tuberculosis patients
with 10,000 units of vitamin D daily (instead of the much smaller amount usually advocated
by conventional medicine) led to a cure rate of 100 percent—everyone in the study6. Quite
impressive indeed!
Tuberculosis is not the only disease documented to be influenced by vitamin D. Sunlight
has also been shown to be effective against anthrax, cholera, E. coli, dysentery, influenza,
staphylococcus, streptococcus, and other illnesses.
There are also a number of physiological mechanisms triggered by vitamin D production—
through sunlight exposure—that act to fight heart disease, according to the British Journal
of Nutrition7, including:
• An increase in the body’s natural anti-inflammatory cytokines
• The suppression of vascular calcification
• The inhibition of vascular smooth muscle growth
LACK OF SUNSHINE IS LEADING CAUSE OF MATERNAL AND FETAL
DEATHS WORLDWIDE!
Preeclampsia is a deadly condition that can cause both the baby and mother to die. It affects
as many as 7 percent of first pregnancies and can progress to eclampsia, which produces
seizures and often-fatal complications of the liver, kidneys, lungs, blood and nervous system.
Eclampsia causes 15 percent of maternal deaths during pregnancy and as many as 70 percent
of such deaths in developing countries.
Preeclampsia is a serious complication of pregnancy marked by soaring blood pressure and
swelling of the hands and feet, preeclampsia is the leading cause of premature delivery and
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maternal and fetal illness and death worldwide, conservatively projected to contribute to
76,000 deaths each year
Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health Sciences recently found8 that
vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common reasons for this condition. Amazingly prior
to 2007 this was not known.
So it is vital for any pregnant woman to make certain she is getting enough sun exposure to
allow her vitamin D levels to go into the healthy range.
WHY YOU CAN’T USE SIMPLE GUIDELINES TO TELL YOU HOW
MUCH SUN EXPOSURE YOU NEED
It is important to bear in mind that everyone
responds differently to sunlight, depending on
antioxidant levels, age, skin color, the amount of
melanin in your skin, tan level, latitude, elevation,
cloud cover, pollution, season, time of day, and
many other factors.
A person with dark skin may need as much as
ten times more sun exposure to produce the same
amount of vitamin D as a person with pale skin.
You will need to carefully determine your own sunlight needs and tolerances, and learn what
kind of exposure you need, to tan without burning.
SO HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH SUN TO GET?
Fortunately, there is a relatively simple non-fasting blood test, which nearly any doctor can
perform for you, that will tell you if you are getting enough sunshine.
You can follow the practical guidelines I list later in this report to help guide your
sun exposure. However, if you have any serious health challenge, especially cancer, or
autoimmune diseases like MS, rheumatoid arthritis, or Crohn’s disease, then one of the
MOST important aspects of your treatment will be to optimize your vitamin D level.
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Optimal vitamin D levels lie in a very narrow range. To be certain that your levels are where
they should be, have your physician test your blood, then supplement (or, preferably, get
moderate sun exposure) as needed in order to maintain that level.
Please bear in mind when you go for the test that there are TWO vitamin D tests: 1,25(OH)
D and 25(OH)D.
25(OH)D is the better marker of overall D status. It is this marker that is most strongly
associated with overall health.
The correct test your doctor needs to order is 25(OH)D, also
called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
When you receive your results, please note the difference between normal and optimal. You
don’t want to be average here; you want to be optimally healthy. There is a high likelihood
that the reference ranges of your lab will not be correct. So please be sure and use the values
listed in this report to guide your treatment.
Normal 25-hydroxyvitamin D lab values are 20-56 ng/ml (50-140 nmol/l). However, this
range is far too broad to be ideal.
In fact, your vitamin D level should never be below 32 ng/ml, and any levels below 20 ng/
ml are considered serious deficiency states, increasing your risk of breast and prostate cancers
and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Remember, the
late winter average of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the United States, is only about 15-18 ng/ml!
The OPTIMAL value that you’re looking for is 50–55 ng/ml (115–
128 nmol/l).
Keeping your level in this range, and even erring toward the higher numbers in this range,
is going to give you the most protective benefit.
A study published in March 2007 supported this range9. After assessing data from two
studies, they found that individuals with serum 25(OH)D of approximately 52 ng/ml
hada 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those with serums of less than 13 ng/ml.
The researchers pointed out that the 52 ng/ml is high enough to provide the needed benefit,
but has been found by other scientists to be low enough to avoid health risks.
This blood level corresponds to a supplemental vitamin D intake of 4,000 IU (International
Units, a measure of vitamin activity) per day, which far exceeds the National Academy of
Sciences upper limit of 2,000 IU/day.
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The researchers recommended maintaining a 25(OH)D level of 52 ng/ml by taking 2,000
IU/day of supplemental vitamin D, and spending about 12 minutes per day in the sun.
HOW WIDESPREAD IS VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY?
Vitamin D deficiency is a growing epidemic across
the world and is contributing to many chronic debilitating diseases.
In the United States, the late winter average vitamin
D is only about 15-18 ng/ml, which is considered a
serious deficiency state.
Robert P. Heaney, M.D., a professor of medicine at
Creighton University believes that of all the nutrients
associated with chronic disease, none has the potential
payoff of vitamin D.
Meanwhile, it’s thought that up to 90 percent of U.S.
senior citizens may
be deficient, along with 70 percent of the American public.
Consider the following vitamin D facts:
• Vitamin D deficiency is epidemic in adults of all ages who have
increased skin pigmentation, such as those whose ancestors
are from Africa, the Middle East, or India, who always wear sun
protection, or who limit their outdoor activities10.
• African Americans and other dark-skinned people and those living in
northern latitudes make significantly less vitamin D than other groups.
• 60 percent of patients with type 2 diabetes have vitamin D deficiency11
• Studies showed very low levels of vitamin D among children, the
elderly, and women.
• One nationwide study of women revealed that almost half of the African
American women of childbearing age might be vitamin-D deficient.
Winter, when sun exposure is at its lowest, is the time of year when you need
to be most concerned about the amount of vitamin D you are receiving, as
your vitamin D levels can drop by up to 50 percent in the winter.
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Of course, if you have the tendency to spend the summer months indoors, out of the sun,
or you only go outside with sunscreen on, then you would need to be concerned during the
summer months as well.
SHOULD YOU GET YOUR VITAMIN D FROM THE SUN OR
SUPPLEMENTS?
Vitamin A Is Also Crucial to Protect You
What many people, including health professionals, fail to realize is that your cells have
two receptors for vitamin A, for every vitamin D receptor. There is a vitally important
relationship between vitamin A and vitamin D. If you receive too much vitamin D, vitamin
A will help protect you from an excess. This is a crucial concept to understand, as many
individuals will take this new information regarding vitamin D, and start to take massive
doses - thinking this would be a good thing.
Mark my words, that would cause problems. You simply were not designed to receive your
vitamin D from your food, but rather to absorb it from the sun shining on your skin. If you
receive it from supplements, or even foods, and you have not built up sufficient quantities of
vitamin A to balance this, you will actually create symptoms of vitamin D deficiency such as
osteoporosis and rickets.
Now please understand that I am referring to vitamin A, NOT beta-carotene. Beta carotene
will simply not provide the protection against vitamin D overdose that you require. You
need the real deal vitamin A. Probably the best source of vitamin A is beef liver. About
3-4 ounces twice a week or six ounces once week would be an appropriate amount for most
people. Since it is an oil soluble vitamin, you don’t need it every day.
If beef liver does not sound very appealing to you, vitamin A concentrates from fish are
inexpensive and available at most health food stores. 50,000 units once or twice a week,
should provide you with most of the vitamin A you will need.
The researchers in the aforementioned study recommended supplementing your diet with
vitamin D, but is this a wise choice? Many experts would disagree with me about this, but
after reviewing the evidence and having personally overdosed on vitamin D, I am convinced
that although you can clearly get some benefit from oral vitamin D, it is not your best
choice—it is simply too darn easy to overdose.
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The major danger of overdosing on vitamin D is that there are no symptoms, just like most
with high blood pressure; you frequently don’t have symptoms until it is too late. Once you
overdose on vitamin D, there is no simple way to treat it other than time, and complete
avoidance of vitamin D.
Another danger of overdosing on vitamin D is that it will cause nearly similar complications as
underdosing. An overdose of oral vitamin D can cause a number of serious problems, including:
• Vomiting
• Constipation
• Weight loss
• Kidney failure
• Calcification of the arteries
Even with this approach, it may take many months to normalize your levels from elevated
levels due to taking ORAL vitamin D. This simply does not happen when you use the sun as
a source of vitamin D. First of all your feedback loop will mostly prevent this from happening,
but even if it doesn’t the levels will typically normalize in days to weeks, not months.
So, rather than supplements, I believe it’s important to strive to
obtain your vitamin D naturally, from safe sunshine exposure.
There are, however, certainly times when it can be nearly impossible to get enough sun.
The darker your skin is, the farther away from the
equator you are, and the further away you are from
the summer months, the less likely it is that you will
produce adequate vitamin D levels from sun exposure
alone.
In these cases, supplementing with vitamin D is
acceptable, but you need to be hyper-cautious when
using oral vitamin D preparations. I would not
recommend using them at all unless you monitor your blood levels of vitamin D regularly,
using the test described above (25(OH)D).
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IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO OVERDOSE ON VITAMIN D FROM THE SUN
There is very little risk overdosing on vitamin D, however, when your body generates it from
safe sun exposure.
This is because when UVB light penetrates your skin, it converts a form of steroid called
a sterol, the prohormone 7-dehydrocholesterol, into pre-vitamin D3. For a few days, after
it is created, the pre-vitamin D3 continues to undergo more changes in your skin until it
becomes the actual inactivated vitamin D3.
However, if the pre-vitamin D3 in your skin is exposed to the sun for long enough, then
instead of becoming inactivated D3, it is converted into chemicals called lumisterol or
tachysterol, which are biologically inert.
In short, this means that if you stay out in the sun for a long time, your body will produce
the same amount of vitamin D that it would had you only been out for a moderate time,
making it virtually impossible to overdose on vitamin D obtained from sun exposure.
In Caucasians and others with paler skin, you will
actually hit an “equilibrium point” where vitamin D
will no longer be produced after you’ve been exposed
to strong UVB light for 20 minutes or so. If you
have darker pigmentation, reaching the equilibrium
point can take two to three times longer (or up to an
hour).
When you take vitamin D orally, on the other hand,
this sophisticated process that gives you just the right amount of vitamin D does not take
place, leaving you vulnerable to overdose.
IF YOU TAKE ORAL VITAMIN D, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE THE
CORRECT TYPE
There is one other warning you need to be aware of if you choose to use an oral vitamin D
supplement: there are basically two types.
The natural one is D3 (cholecalciferol), which is the same vitamin D your body makes when
exposed to sunshine.
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The synthetic one is vitamin D2, which is sometimes called
ergocalciferol.
Once either form of the vitamin is in your body, it needs to be
converted to a more active form. Vitamin D3 is converted 500
percent faster than vitamin D2. Interestingly, it was previously
thought that the kidney exclusively performed this function;
at least that is what I was taught in medical school.
However, in 1998 Dr. Michael Holick, the person who discovered
activated vitamin D, showed that many other cells in your body can
make this conversion, but they use it themselves, and it is only the
kidney that makes enough to distribute to the rest of your body.
This is new information that virtually no physicians are aware of,
as it was discovered after they went to medical school.
While there have been no clinical trials to date demonstrating conclusively that D2 prevents
fractures, every clinical trial of D3 has shown it does. Further, vitamin D2 has a shorter shelf
life, and its metabolites bind with protein poorly, making it less effective.
However, nearly all the prescription-based supplements contain synthetic vitamin D2, which
was first produced in the 1920s through ultraviolet exposure of foods. The process was
patented and licensed to drug companies for use in prescription vitamins. So if you receive a
prescription for vitamin D from your doctor, be aware that it is almost assuredly vitamin D2.
VITAMIN D FROM PASTEURIZED MILK IS NOT YOUR BEST CHOICE
There are many good reasons you should not be using pasteurized milk products. If you
don’t know why, please review the benefits of raw milk on my site www.mercola.com.
However, independent of the pasteurization process, you probably didn’t know that the
vitamin D that is added to milk is NOT D3 but rather is the highly inferior vitamin D2.
At least one study has actually concluded that “vitamin D2 should no longer be regarded
as a nutrient appropriate for supplementation or fortification of foods.12”
So, if you do decide to supplement, make sure it is with vitamin D3, NOT D2.
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Vitamin D3 is also the type of vitamin D found
naturally in foods like eggs, organ meats, animal
fat, cod liver oil, and fish.
Again, be sure you have your blood levels
monitored to avoid overdosing, even if you are
taking vitamin D3.
What about getting vitamin D from natural foods?
Although you can get some vitamin D from natural
food sources, about 90 percent of the
vitamin is produced within your body as a result of exposure to
sunlight.
To put it in numbers, you can expect to get, at most, 200 to 400 IU of vitamin D per day
from dietary sources alone, but your body needs at least 600 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D per
day, and some experts believe it is much more.
OPTIMIZING YOUR OMEGA-3’s TO PREVENT SKIN CANCER
If you consume the typical American diet, you are probably not getting enough omega-3s
in your diet. This is unfortunate for a large number of reasons, but in the context of sunlight,
omega-3 fats will dramatically cut down your risk of skin cancer.
Further, your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats is a very important key to lowering your cancer risk.
As a general rule of thumb, most people in the United States are consuming far too many
omega-6 fats (found in vegetable oils like corn, soy, canola, safflower, and sunflower oil) and
too few omega-3 fats (found in flaxseed oil, walnut oil, and seafood).
While your ancestors traditionally adhered to a healthy ratio of 1:1, dietary changes in the last
century have increased the typical U.S. ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 to anywhere from 20:1 to 50:1!
Ideally, you should strive for the 1:1 ratio, although even a ratio of
3:1 would be a major improvement.
Consider a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found a
low omega-6:3 ratio was the key to preventing skin cancer development; omega-6 fats were
demonstrated to increase the risk of skin cancer, while omega-3 fats decreased it.
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Another study, this one in Cancer Research , found similar results: omega-6 fats stimulate
the development and progression of a range of human cancers, including melanoma, while
omega-3 fats inhibit it.
Improving your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio for optimum cancer prevention is simple: it’s just
a matter of including more omega-3 in your diet (ideally from krill oil), and less omega-6
(which means cutting back or eliminating vegetable oils).
HOW DO YOU GET SAFE SUN EXPOSURE?
Again, sunburn should always be avoided, but there are many all-natural ways to protect
yourself from sunburn that you can use instead of resorting to the toxic infusions of
commercial sunscreens.
Boosting your skin’s “internal sunscreen” from within with effective antioxidants from whole
fresh vegetables and fruits like goji berries (not the juice), raspberries, blackberries, and
blueberries, are far healthier options. Slathering on some aloe vera gel can also be helpful.
Build up your time in the sun gradually, spending perhaps as little as 10 minutes a day in the
beginning of the season. Progressively increase your time in the sun so that in a few weeks
you will be able to have normal sun exposure with little risk of skin cancer.
Spending up to an hour in the sun each day is not an
unreasonable goal.
You’ll also need to make sure enough of your skin is exposed
to the sun. Exposing only your face and hands while going
from your office to your car is not enough for conversion
into vitamin D. Strive to have at least 40 percent of your
skin uncovered.
If you have light-colored skin, you can also use the color of
your skin to tell you when you’ve had enough sun and it’s
time to get in the shade (or cover up using a long-sleeved
shirt, pants, and a hat). Stay out just long enough so that
your skin turns the very lightest shade of pink.
However, if you have a darker complexion, please be aware that you have unique risk factors.
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If you’re African-American, Middle Eastern, or Indian, and you live in the United States,
Europe, or a very northern latitude, you’re at a very high risk for developing certain
cancers—as high as four times the average risk.
This is because darker skin serves as a filter, causing the need for two to five times as much
sunlight to produce adequate vitamin D as someone with very pale skin. If you have a darker
complexion, make sure you get as much sun exposure (without getting burned) as you can,
and have your vitamin D levels tested to determine if you need further supplementation
(which is highly likely).
If you’re still hooked on the idea of using a cream for sun protection,
there are safer natural sunscreen products that contain no
petrochemicals, which you can likely find in your local health food
store.
Just remember, although these products are non-toxic, they still
prevent you from metabolizing vitamin D, so use
them with caution.
In fact, I recommend testing your vitamin D levels to make sure
you’re not deficient before resorting to sunscreen of any kind.
1. Nutrition Reviews, Volume 65, Supplement 1, August 2007, pp. 91–95(5)
2. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, Volume 2 Issue 2 Page 86–98, April 2003
3. Preventive Medicine February 4, 2007
4. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85(6):1586–91 June 2007
5. Wilkinson, Robert J. Influence of vitamin D deficiency and vitamin D receptor
polymorphisms on tuberculosis among Gujarati Asians in west London: a case-control
study. The Lancet 355: No. 9204, p618. 19 Feb 2000.
6. Nursyam EW, Amin Z, Rumende CM. The effect of vitamin D as supplementary
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