The Skin Cancer Myth
By Jon Herring 03/03/2010
I sat down for lunch last week and began thumbing through a local health magazine. I came across the headline: “Are You Aware of the Dangers of Skin Cancer?”
This ought to be interesting, I thought.
The article was written by a dermatologist. He spent half the time talking about the “dangers” of skin cancer. Then he stressed the importance of avoiding the sun. He also recommended the near-constant use of sunscreen (a brand you can buy at his office, of course). And he concluded with a recommendation to come in for a screening.
What he failed to mention in his efforts to demonize sunlight is that moderate sun exposure is some of the best “medicine” God ever gave us. Maintain optimal vitamin D levels from sun exposure and your risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes falls dramatically.
He also forgot to mention that the sunscreen he recommends has no fewer than FOUR proven carcinogenic chemicals.
But I’ve covered the topics of toxic sunscreens and the miraculous benefits of vitamin D in this space before. And Dr. Sears and I go into great detail in our book, Your Best Health Under the Sun.
Today, let’s look at the widely held and mistaken belief that “the sun” is responsible for the growing epidemic of skin cancer.
There is no doubt that skin cancer is rampant. It is by far the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control, well over a million Americans will be diagnosed this year. Current research suggests that one in every five people will develop skin cancer in their lifetime.
But consider the following…
Before the 1930s, skin cancer was rare. Since that time the incidence has increased dramatically. The incidence of melanoma (the deadly form of skin cancer) has gone up 1,800%. In just the last 30 years, the death rate from melanoma has increased more than fourfold, while the incidence of all types of skin cancer has more than doubled.
Is Sunlight Really the “Cause” of Skin Cancer?
But how could these massive increases be “caused” by the sun? Our sun is billions of years old – has it suddenly changed in the last 80 years? Not likely.
Or are the growing rates of skin cancer because we spend more time in the sun than we used to? No, that’s not it either. In fact, we spend far less time outdoors today than we used to. At the start of the twentieth century, more than 75% of people in the U.S. worked outdoors. Today, only 10% of the population works outside.
And not only do we spend less time in the sun, we now cover ourselves in sunscreen. In the last 30 years, the use of sunscreen has increased by orders of magnitude. Chemical-based sunscreens are now a $6 billion-a-year industry.
Your Health “Homework” Is Already Done for You
You don’t have to have own a jet and fly all over the world to find the best cures for your most stressful and threatening health problems. A privately funded team of doctors and health scientists has already done the work for you.
They’ve discovered:
A treatment from Central America that can literally burn cancer out of your body.
The highly concentrated extract of a Chinese herb that has been proven in double-blind studies to make you look and feel up to 20 years younger.
A simple treatment for cardiac patients that can supercharge your heart from a doctor who used it to save his own life (and thousands of others).
Click here and learn how to claim these private reports for yourself.
Understanding the REAL Causes of Skin Cancer
The increase in skin cancer is not the result of changes to the world around us. It is the result of changes within us. Because of alterations that have occurred in the human diet – particularly in the last 100 years – we have become far more vulnerable to all types of cancer, including skin cancer.
Science has proven that some foods can promote skin cancer. As a population, we now eat these foods in great abundance. On the other hand, there are other foods that strongly prevent skin cancer. Unfortunately, we now consume far too few of these foods.
In other words, we have artificially raised our risk factors for skin cancer, while simultaneously removing our natural defenses against it. Is it any wonder that the rates of skin cancer have increased?
Sunlight is simply a cofactor that comes into play only after our defenses have been compromised. But what if moderate sun exposure can actually protect us from cancer?
In the case of melanoma (the deadly form of skin cancer), that appears to be the case.
Dozens of studies have shown that those whose occupations keep them outdoors have a much lower incidence of melanoma than do those who work inside. For example, construction workers, lifeguards, and farmers have much lower rates of malignant melanoma than office workers.
Population studies also clearly show an inverse relationship between UV exposure and melanoma. For example, rates of melanoma are higher in Minnesota than Arizona, and higher in Norway than the South of France.
The combination of all of these studies plainly indicates that those who spend more time in the sun (without burning) have less risk of melanoma – quite the opposite of what the anti-sun proponents would have you believe.
Lab studies have also shown that vitamin D (which is highly protective against internal cancers) is also protective against melanoma. In several studies, vitamin D was shown to cause melanoma cells to self-destruct. And finally, moderate sun exposure was also shown to DOUBLE the survival rates of those suffering from melanoma.
The more common (though less dangerous) forms of skin cancer – basal cell and squamous cell – are more closely associated with sun exposure than melanoma. But as you will see, the sun is merely the cofactor. It is our poor diet and nutritional deficiencies that make our skin prone to damage from UV rays.
The Role of Free Radicals in Skin Cancer
The underlying cause of most skin cancer is oxidative stress. Skin cells (like all healthy cells) are rich in oxygen. When the ultraviolet rays of the sun strike these oxygen molecules, they can cause some of them to lose an electron. The result is an unstable and reactive molecule – the oxygen free radical.
Antioxidants are free radical scavengers. These electron-rich molecules donate their electrons to free radicals, stabilizing them and preventing cellular damage.
But if antioxidants are in short supply, or if so many free radicals are formed that they overwhelm the antioxidant defense system, then tissue damage, accelerated aging, and eventually, degenerative disease (i.e., skin cancer) will occur.
The Dietary Connection to Skin Cancer
For millions of years, man thrived under the sun. And for all of that time, skin cancer was rare. It has only been in the last 70 years or so that the incidence has increased dramatically. There is a very simple explanation for this.
The standard American diet (which is rapidly becoming the world’s diet) is abundant in foods that promote the formation of free radicals… and it is deficient in the foods that provide antioxidant protection against these free radicals.
Besides the use of chemical sunscreens, the real causes for the rise in skin cancer are two primary changes in the modern diet:
1. A dramatic increase in the consumption of omega-6 fatty acids and a corresponding decrease in the consumption of omega-3s.
At the beginning of the 1900s there were almost no vegetable oils in our diet. Today, the average American consumes 70 pounds of vegetable fat. We are not designed to eat these fats in the quantities we do.
The makeup of fat in the human body is normally about 97% monounsaturated and saturated. Only about 3% should be polyunsaturated. But the fat in your diet dictates the type of fat in your cells. And if you consume plant oils, your cell membranes will incorporate these fat molecules.
The problem with polyunsaturated fats displacing saturated fats in cell structures is that these fats are highly unstable. This means that they are extremely vulnerable to oxidative stress, especially in the skin, where they are exposed to oxygen and UV light.
Numerous studies have also shown that polyunsaturated fats stimulate cancer while saturated fats do not, and further that saturated fats do not break down to form free radicals. The results of having too much vegetable, corn, and seed oil in the diet are that your skin will sunburn faster and more intensely and you will be more prone to skin cancer.
2. A lack of antioxidant-rich foods.
Research also shows that low consumption of fruits and vegetables increases your skin cancer risk. This should come as no surprise. The role of antioxidants in the protection against many forms of cancer has been clearly established. And it appears that these nutrients are especially protective against skin cancer.
Carotenoids are especially protective. These colorful plant pigments are literally Mother Nature’s sunblock. When you consume carotenoids they are deposited in your skin, where they provide protection against sunburn and skin damage. These nutrients are also powerful antioxidants that scavenge for free radicals and repair cells that might become damaged. You could say they reflect and protect, forming a physical barrier and a nutritional barrier against skin damage.
The leading sources of carotenoids are eggs, spirulina, chlorella, tomatoes, dark green leafy vegetables (kale, collards, and spinach), and yellow-orange fruits and vegetables (apricots, cantaloupe, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, and squash).
To slow the aging of your skin and dramatically reduce your risk of skin cancer, you must gain control over all of the factors that contribute to the degeneration process. Don’t believe the hype that skin cancer is exclusively “caused” by the sun. The sun is your ally in good health… and used wisely, it can even provide powerful protection against skin cancer
To Your Health,
Jon Herring
Total Health Breakthroughs
http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/2010/03/the-skin-cancer-myth/
No comments:
Post a Comment