Sun and skin

longer sun exposure does not necessarily increase skin cancer risk, its measured without taking other lifestyle factors into account and there was a study i read in print even decades ago that showed a correlation between increase in skin cancer and increase in sunscreen use, a certain proportion of sunscreen is absorbed into the skin, and its usually chemically based and that can damage the skin. plus the increase in junk food diets in the west causes more health problems and the greater indoor lifestyle, most westerners who arent supplementing vitamin di will be quite deficient in it, not low enough to get rickets but too low to be healthy its why you are far more likely to geet sicker and stay sicker longer in winter because your vitamin D is inadequate. i work in an office but i'm outside far more expoesed to midday sun unprotected during the weekendm, i was briefly sick once in the middle of winter when i was getting no vitamin D, i supplemented it after getting sick and recovered quickly,,, most of my workmates were sick several times, and up to a week or more at a time, and they are still getting sick because they still dont get enough sun and are unlikely to until they go on holiday

@wayno. Our pet conspiracy theorist at work was quoting similar studies the other day regarding sunscreen use and cancer. I went looking for the studies afterwards but couldn't find anything through google scholar etc, or even mainstream aussie news reports. So I just put it down as another example of alternative truthes / science denial. Can you point us to the studies you are mentioning? Be good to see it in writing and read what they actually investigated & found.

a lot of what i've read is in print, and it was some time ago, it was referenced to scientific studies but i dont have those articles weston price wasnt just an academic, he travelled the world looking at the correlation between various aspects of peoples health and their diet and documented what he found https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-diseases/sunlight-and-melanoma/ https://www.lifeclinic.com.hk/resources/health-newswatch/101-epidemic-of-skin-melanoma-amongst-indoor-workers https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/20/deadly-melanoma-not-due-vitamin-d-deficiency.aspx https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/know-your-fats/a-response-to-the-national-association-of-margarine-manufacturers/ https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-diseases/skin-deep/ https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/know-your-fats/traditional-nourishing-and-healing-skin-care/

From the second link "The rising rates of melanoma documented over the last three decades are not due to sun exposure as often stated; researchers instead believe they are due to an increase in diagnoses of non-cancerous lesions classified, misleadingly, as “stage 1 melanoma”" Might be a little off topic but if I had a diagnosis of stage 1 melanoma with a possibility that it wasnt I would be taking the option of it never having a chance to make stage 2. If it turns out not to be melanoma the worst that can happen is an ugly scar. If it is and you leave it you may die. Also that article was written from an American perspective where people go to the doctor because they sniffed once yesterday so think they need a course of antibiotics. Here no one goes to the doctor until their nose is nearly falling off. Even the doctors would look at a small mole and say it cant be melanoma until it is 6mm across.

I"ve added some more links

yeah i'm going from memory on aus, what i was reading about was probably a range of cancers and not specifically skin cancer's

info on fats and health, a well known researcher Dr Mary Enig published information with the WEston Price foundation https://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/

Quite right, geeves, any primary diagnosis of melanoma should be (and would be) excised. A dermatologist might mistakenly diagonose melanoma (ie diagnosis by visual only) but pathology is definitive. I wouldn't place much credibility in what Life Clinic says. BTW, staging of melanoma isn't a precise process and is actually of limited value these days. Some forms of melanoma appear to metastasise (spread) almost immediately. Other forms may take a few months or so. I wondered if you might have meant all cancers, wayno. I don't have any data across all cancer but it wouldn't be useful, I think, as the causes are so varied across genetic and environmental origins.

Bernieq is right that exposure to the sun doesn't necessarily confer adequate Vit D levels. Currently grinding my way through a link from JETNZ on Vitamin D. A lot of science in that article and there was a reference and link to a study on healthy young Hawiian surfers, some of whom who had low Vit D levels. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17426097/ Binkley N, Novotny R, Krueger D, Kawahara T, Daida YG, Lensmeyer G, Hollis BW, Drezner MK J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Jun; 92(6):2130-5. Interestingly our lab's steroid scientists did a study on the Christchurch population's Vit D levels and 50% of them were deficient in summer and 100% of them were deficient in the winter. So I infer that exposure to the sun does have some influence in individuals . I recall a study on Israeli lifeguards showed that there is a cut-off point for Vit D conversion to the active form after a certain level is reached in the skin. Another thing in that article is the positive correlation between cholesterol levels and Vit D. Wierdly, all my cholesterol levels are high (total is around 7mmol/L) but my Vit D levels are appallingly low with good bone density last time I looked anyway.