Did you know that your bodies make vitamin D from direct sunlight on exposed skin? Vitamin D is needed in our bodies to boost the immune system, enable calcium from foods to be absorbed and used for strong bones, to help with sleep, reduces inflammation and stress, reduces depression and other mental health issues, reduces the risk of most cancers, assists with weight loss and many more benefits!
Despite the fact that we have a high number of sunny days in Australia, that most Australians are deficient in vitamin D even in summer! This is due to the "sun safe" programs, supposedly to protect people from skin cancer. Unfortunately the real science shows that sunlight does NOT cause skin cancer - sunlight and vitamin D protects against cancer!
One study published in the International Journal of Cancer in 2000 (entitled: "Sunscreen use and malignant melanoma"), it showed that people who used sunscreens did NOT have a reduced risk of malignant melanoma, that they spent more time in the sun and got melanoma even if they didn't get sunburnt, and there was an increased risk of melanoma from sunscreen use.
Sunscreens generally block the UV-B light (which is what we need to make vitamin D), and they allow the UV-A light to penetrate our skin, but this is the one that actually causes skin damage and skin cancers! Sunscreens give people a false sense of security to allow them to stay out in the sun longer and be exposed to more UV-A light, which increases their risk of skin cancer. This is the real issue. Then there's the toxic and cancer-causing chemicals actually found in recommended sunscreens!
An expert Dermatologist, Dr Bernard Ackerman, who has published 625 research papers on skin cancer says that there is no proven link between sun exposure and melanoma. And people with melanoma have it on less exposed body areas.
In the Cancer Epidemiology Markers and Prevention Journal in 2011, 49000 women were studied over 15 years, and the research showed that there was no evidence of cumulative UV exposure increasing the risk of skin cancer. In the same journal in 2011, 38000 women were studied over 15 years, concluding that sun exposure reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and dying from any cause.
Please check your sunscreens, and do your research on the ingredients in them - even the ones promoted by the Cancer Council have very toxic ingredients including neurotoxins, or they affect fertility or cause DNA damage (ie cancer), or disrupt your normal hormones.
For your family's health, get some sunlight on your skin in small doses (but not enough to burn) and use a natural sunscreen that does not have toxic ingredients in it, from a health food shop.
References:
Vitamin D deficiency in Australia - study on 24,000 people:
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/the-great-aussie-paradox-vitamin-d-deficiency-rates-soar-20121023-282kg.html
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2265.2012.04398.x/full
Swedish study – sunscreen use and malignant melanoma (2000) - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1097-0215(20000701)87:1%3C145::AID-IJC22%3E3.0.CO;2-3/full
2011 study - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21551241
2011 study - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21297041
Hormone-disrupting parabens in sunscreens: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/02/toxic-parabens-on-breast-cancer-patients.aspx and http://davidsuzuki.org/issues/health/science/toxics/chemicals-in-your-cosmetics---parabens/
Benzyl alcohol in sunscreens:
http://www.annmariegianni.com/ingredient-watch-list-benzyl-alcohol-another-irritating-preservative-unsafe-for-infants/
toxic sunscreens:
http://www.novamagazine.com.au/article_archive/2008/08_12_toxicsunscreen.htm