I live in the place with the world's highest skin cancer rates. That is, Queensland, Australia. Next highest would be Arizona, for comparison. So how do I get enough sunlight for vitamin D, without risking skin cancer?
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The trick is to get sun enough to tan but never to burn. YOu can get a tad pink but should not be red the next day nor should you peel. Newer research shows that two things are positively correlated with malignant melanoma (that's the nasty kind of cancer) and that is amount of burn you get and the amount of sunscreen you wear. The amount of sun you get is positively correlated with the less bad skin cancers like basal cell carcinoma, but not the nasty malignant kind. So basically, it looks like getting your vitamin D via sun with no sunscreen and no burning may moderately increase chances of less nasty cancer but probably protects against malignant melanoma. Plus by keeping your vitamin D up, you will be protected against many other illnesses. If you also keep your PUFA and sugar intake down and keep stress down, your overall chance of cancers should go down quite a bit as well. Everything you do is a part of the stew that is you. |
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Short intervals. As you get a tan your skin will become more tolerant. By "short" I mean less than the time it takes you to start burning. Forget sunscreen. It completely defeats your purpose (Vitamin D) and will if anything increase your risk of skin cancer because most sunscreens block UVB (which produces Vitamin D and causes skin to burn with too much exposure) but allow UVA. So since you're not burning, you stay out in the sun longer and blast yourself with too much UVA. |
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Worried about the same thing but since going low carb I notice that I can last almost 1 hr in the sun without burning - before it was more like 6 min - I am amazed and I have to say the sun makes me feel awesome! I have started using coconut oil for a bit of protection in the midday sun with great success - remember we use to lather ourselves in that when we were young ???- then it was frowned upon - wow how things turn. I also have to ask myself why is it that melanoma rate is going up now that we all slip slop and slap - where 1000 years ago we never even had a hat??? It use to worry me to see kids on the beach without a sun shirt on - I use to think it was neglect - now I let my kids do it for a while each day if they are not going to be out all day. I cant believe how much a 360 I have come ! |
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First, go here and work out how long you actually need to stay in the sun. That way you won't need to expose yourself longer than necessary and you might find out that you can get enough exposure during the gentler parts of the day (unlike here in the UK, where most of the time you can't get any useful amounts of vitamin D other than at midday). Also getting plenty of vitamin A is protective of the skin, so get plenty of liver. Lycopene, beta-carotene, vitamin E and other plant nutrients are supposed to be protective as well. The right fat balance is central as well, namely: lower PUFA and maximise omega-3 to omega-6 to reduce inflammation and the oxidisation of the PUFA and replace them with saturated fat which is less reactive and which preferentially accumulates near the skin, providing some measure of protection. |
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Get enough sun so that you start to tan, and get some shade when you think you'd be burning. Lighter skinned people make vitamin D faster, so if you burn quick you don't need as much sun. I've also noticed that I don't burn as much since eating paleo. I imaging it's the extra omega 3 and other nutrients that might be helping my skin. As stated above, I also rub coconut oil on my skin, it is great! |
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My ability to tan and not burn has improved dramatically this year. I attribute it to supplementing with vitamin D, getting off statins, reducing n6 PUFA, adding fish oil and generally doing things that reduce inflammation (no grains, low carb, improving gut health). |
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vit d supplements, obviously |
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Try to only go out for 30 minutes at a time. And wear sunscreen. I've had 2 cases of skin cancer so far (malanoma) and they say that I should not go outside with a shirt off at all. I do occasionally, though, I just wear lots of sunscreen. Haha |
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