A fellow blogger once said: “The problem with Conventional Wisdom is that by using it, you are actually deferring your thinking to someone else.” In this case, conventional wisdom says to always, always, always wear sunblock to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Even the CBS television network has been telling us to wear sunblock (because “CBS cares”). So what’s the problem?
Well, most of us probably don’t really get enough vitamin D. Very small amounts of vitamin D are available through our diets (more, if you eat a lot of oily fish, but most Americans don’t), but not enough to meet our optimum health needs. For most of us, our primary source of vitamin D is the production of it in our skin. This takes place when certain sterols in our skin are acted on by certain UV rays!
There are three types of UV rays. (The difference is the wavelengths of the various types.) UVC rays don’t penetrate the earth’s atmosphere, though, so we are only concerned with UVA and UVB rays. (UVB rays also don’t readily filter through things like clouds and glass.) Although both can cause skin damage, UVB rays are the ones primarily responsible for sunburn. (Many sun protection products don’t even block UVA rays.) They also play a primary role in the development of skin cancers, including mesothelioma. Oops, wrong cancer; I mean melanoma.
So we have a dilemma: do we block the UV rays and decrease the risk of developing skin cancer, but fail to obtain the vitamin D we need for optimum health; or do we allow the UV rays through, take the increased risk of skin cancer, and get plenty of vitamin D? (And we’re not even touching the question of what all those chemicals in the sunblock do to your body when absorbed by the skin!) It actually gets even more complicated when you consider that sufficient vitamin D is known to reduce the risk of cancer – including skin cancer.
Personally, I don’t think it makes sense to use sunblock for everyday sun exposure. This routine sun exposure is exposure the body is designed to handle – in fact, designed to need. If you’re going to be getting excessive sun exposure – say, from a day at the beach – that’s another matter (although you do still have to weigh the risks of the chemicals as part of the equation). But Americans’ obsession with “sun protection” just may be doing more harm than good. (I challenge you to take a look at the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency, particularly as linked to depression and cancer.)
It depends a lot, though, on what constitutes “everyday” sun exposure.
Most of the time, I don’t get out much when it’s day out because I’m such a night owl. So, I’ll admit, I don’t use much sunscreen.
However, if I know I’m going to be out in the sun for more than a few minutes, I do try to wear sunscreen because as fair as I am, I know that I’m at a higher risk for skin cancer (and indeed, my family has had issues with it and it is not pleasant). Plus, I really don’t need any more wrinkles or moles or other discolorations.
Sure, all that means that I’m at a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency (especially because I don’t drink milk or eat fish). However, there is another choice — vitamin D supplements. And I would definitely rather take a vitamin than increase my risk for all those other things.
Being a VERY white girl myself if I didn’t use sunblocks and cover up I wouldn’t be able to go out in the sun much.
So for good or bad I am stuck using sunblock.
Fair skinned people absorb vitamin D easier than darker skinned people.
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Fair-Skinned-People-Need-Minimal-Sun-Exposure-To-Produce-Vitamin-D-9112-1/
I should probably clarify. lol The current recommendation (as I keep hearing it, anyway – not sure if it’s “official”) is that we should all be wearing UV-blocking lotions, etc. every day. Since the only sun exposure most Americans get on a daily basis is walking to and from their cars on the way to and from work, that seems like serious overkill.
Personally, I rarely wear sunblock unless I’m out in full sun all day, but I don’t burn easily. Those “in-between” situations have to be a personal decision, I think, based on the available information and factors like how fair your skin is. (Oddly enough, my whole family is naturally pretty fair-skinned, but none of us burns easily. I guess we have olive-y undertones or something.)