Real Sun Safety
What is the Best Sunscreen?
Nature's Blessing: Vitamin D!

So just what is the best sunscreen? There's been so much 'hype' about sun safety and using sun creams, sun lotions, sun oils, sun sprays – call them what you will, but I can't help saying "I told you so!" to myself (if nobody else) as a former fastidious user of these products, when it comes to the fact that it now seems it is WORSE to use them than to expose yourself to the God given sun!

We have been badgered by the medical fraternity, the media, and umpteen other 'supposed-do-gooders' to slap on the sunscreen or other protection whenever there's a chance we might be hit by the slightest shaft of sunlight. We have been beseeched to spray or rub any one of the many increasingly expensive sun care products into our bodies at regular intervals for fear of the dreaded big 'C'! Seems the best sunscreen is one with some high 'factor' and an equally high price!

But have you actually looked at the range of complex chemical ingredients that usually appear on the side of the bottle of even the most expensive 'best sunscreen' in print so small it would test even 20/20 vision?

It must be obvious that no combination of known toxic synthetic chemicals can possibly create the best sunscreen. Indeed, many of these ingredients are KNOWN to be carcinogenic...Yes that is correct, they are KNOWN to be able to trigger cancer! And despite some disinformation about the fact that such products won't be absorbed into the body from some quarters...this is simply rubbish! The skin DOES absorb anything up to 50 or 60% of the stuff that is creamed onto it...and this rapidly finds its way into skin cells and your blood stream.

Self styled 'Health Ranger' Mike Adams makes some powerful points about sunscreen and healthy sun exposure in a recent post on his ever informative NewsTarget website including the following telling quotes:

"...Sunscreen directly promotes vitamin D deficiency. You show me a person who regularly uses sunscreen, and I'll show you a person who's on the road towards cancer and other degenerative diseases. People who use sunscreen are killing themselves and they don't even know it!..."

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...Vitamin D, as recent studies have shown, prevents up to 77% of ALL cancers in women (breast cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, brain tumors, multiple myeloma... you name it). Meanwhile, the toxic chemical ingredients used in most sunscreen products are actually carcinogenic and have never been safety tested or safety approved..."

(You can read the whole piece here: The sunscreen myth: How sunscreen products actually promote cancer)

Health and wellbeing 'web-guru', Dr Joe Mercola (www.mercola.com), also recently wrote (May 2007) of the dangers of sun avoidance:

"...The Vitamin D Council observes that sun-avoidance has increased in the last 20 years as the medical community started warning about the dangers of sun exposure. They believe there is a link. The vitamin D receptor appears in a wide variety of brain tissue early in the development of the baby, and activated vitamin D receptors increase nerve growth in the brain.

...Although excessive tanning and burning is not wise, appropriate sun exposure is truly vital for your health. Daily exposure, for short amounts of time without using toxic sunscreens, may be just the thing to halt the epidemic spread of autism as well..."

The Vitamin D Council blog (http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/health/autism/)recently commented:

..."What's The Risk of Going In The Sun? The window of opportunity to affect brain development is limited. Time is of the essence if the vitamin D theory of autism is correct. Ask yourself, what is the risk of taking your autistic child outside to play in the sun? What's the risk of pregnant women sunbathing for a few minutes every day?

Children always played in the sun before the epidemic of autism; your pregnant grandmother spent time in the sun as well. Physicians considered that sunshine was healthy before the sun scare, that is, before autism became an epidemic."

You have to ask then... HOW can the sun be bad for us? It is after all needed by ALL living things and plays a vital role in good health. So stop falling for the marketing hype, and the 'Cancer Business' scare tactics. But do take sensible and natural precautions to avoid unnecessarily getting burnt.. and basically then you can rely on nature's best sunscreen. Here are our top tips for sun safety:

...and if you STILL feel compelled to use a sun care products then take Mike Adams' advice and "...only buy natural sunscreen products containing no petrochemicals!..." such as Reflect Outdoor Balm (which is made with organic ingredients and refelective natural minerals).