That is the question all right.  The hot weather is here and it is 30 degrees Celsius (or 86F) outside.  I won’t need any sunscreen today because I’m not going out!  It’s too hot for me.

All the information about sunscreen is very confusing.  You don’t know what to do or who to believe.  Do you believe the person who pushes their products and wants you to buy them?  Do you believe the Cancer Society that recommends using a sunscreen to prevent skin cancer?  Do you believe your friend who has scared you with their diagnosis story?

Let’s look first at Vitamin D.  It is a free and very valuable nutrient.  Your body will manufacture it when sunlight touches the skin. It is also added to many of the foods that we eat, plus, it is readily available in supplement form.  Still, we are seriously lacking in Vitamin D in this country.  Why are we not getting enough?

Well, many of the Vitamin D supplements are garbage and contain more fillers than the actual vitamin.  As far as the Vitamin D added to various food products, like dairy, many of us don’t consume those either.  You also can’t drink enough milk to get the required amount of Vitamin D per day. 

When it comes to the sun, people also tend to go totally overboard with their fear of it.  On the flip-side, some people are sun-worshippers who stay outside for hours on end and just keep slathering on the sunscreen.

Researchers have found that if you get enough sun during the summer, it will keep you healthy throughout the winter months when we have less sunlight and don’t get outside as much.

An average of 30 minutes a day twice a week, without sunscreen, will be sufficient.  Using sunscreen, however, will block your body’s ability to create the Vitamin D.

Have you noticed lately that everyone in the health industry is starting to push the benefits of getting your Vitamin D levels checked?  The deficiency has become worrisome.

For one thing, a serious lack of Vitamin D or Calcium can cause rickets.  I actually have a close friend who was diagnosed a few years ago.  I had never heard of it being prevalent in this country before, but, sure enough, here it was in my own backyard. 

Rickets is a serious, but reversible, disease that causes a softening of the bones, mostly in children, but it can also occur in some adults.  My friend is a sun-worshipper who always uses sunscreen and does not consume dairy.  She does, however, take a Cal-Mag supplement with Vitamin D which she feels is of good quality.  I didn’t agree and told her so.  She’s still my friend.

On the other hand, I have another close friend who has a basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) on the side of her face.  She hates the sun, or visa-versa, and always uses sunscreen plus, she takes no Cal-Mag supplement with Vitamin D.  (By the way, while she was waiting for treatment, she applied a little good quality hemp oil and the spot has pretty much gone away.)

Two stories and two sets of circumstances but they both have a diagnosis that has a common denominator.  They both use sunscreen. 

A lack of Vitamin D is also being linked with colds and flu; periodontal diseases (mouth and teeth); depression; osteoporosis; heart problems; high blood pressure; various cancers such as ovarian, colon and breast; asthma and multiple sclerosis.

Back to my two friends again – they each have one or more of these other health issues.

We have been told for years to put on sunscreen before venturing out into the sun; however, scientists are now discovering that using chemical-laden sunscreen may actually contribute to skin cancers. 

We need Vitamin D to stay healthy.  That’s easy.  We are told that we need sunscreen to prevent skin cancers but sunscreen blocks the pores and the body’s ability to manufacture Vitamin D.  Again, we need the sun for Vitamin D production in order to stay healthy.  Round and round and round we go.  It’s not a wonder that we are deficient!  Skin cancers have also greatly increased too and you have to wonder why.

On May 15^th, the Canada-Wide Science Fair was held here in Peterborough.  About 500 students in Grades 7 to 12 participated, representing 102 regions across the country.  A local 15-year-old based her presentation on the safety of sunscreens. 

She looked at whether or not the sunscreen was absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream.  What she found was that the lower the SPF (Sun Protection Factor), the quicker that it got absorbed.  She also found that the higher the SPF, the more damage that was done to the liver. 

SPF (i.e. SPF 30) is actually a measurement whereby the skin will not burn until it has been exposed to 30 times the amount of solar energy that would normally cause it to burn.  It is not the amount of time you can stay in the sun before burning, as I always thought.  My explanation is certainly easier to understand though.

The student’s overall recommendation was that we “ditch the sunscreen”.  I’m with her and hopefully not the only one who heard her message.  If the liver can be damaged, how long will it be before a cancer develops? 

I want you to make up your own mind about this but personally, I have not used the stuff in years.  I get my Vitamin D from a bit of the sun and a good quality supplement and I have no health issues whatsoever.  Who are you going to listen to?  Be sensible about the time you spend in the sun but consider doing it without the sunscreen.  Just remember to be sun-smart this summer and not get too much because that is an entirely different story.

Janet Woods is a Doctor of Natural Medicine practising in Peterborough and the Kawarthas.