Hat-tip to Richard Nikoley for posting the following video by Richard Weller, which I am posting as an embedded YouTube video rather than a Vimeo one, as YouTube gives me fewer problems.
Take-away message: Deaths from heart disease are 100 times higher than deaths from skin cancer (because the vast majority of skin cancers are benign).
8 comments:
A couple things: there was a malpractice case in the paper where the elderly patient died of a melanoma on their heel. I doubt they were exposing the soles of their feet to the sun. Melanomas are also found internally. If we discount skin cancers that cannot have been due to sunlight, what then? And why are we told to expose only face and hands to get vit D - if sunlight is such a carcinogen, why expose the same skin every time?
Supplementing vit D fixed my recurrent winter flus and other health problems, pretty amazingly, a real wonder drug. I like the sun too, but they have these things called seasons.
I wasn't trying to downplay the importance of Vit D. The talk was interesting as dermatologists usually recommend that people stay out of the sun as much as possible. I believe that most melanomas are caused by sunburn, but that some are caused by Vit D insufficiency due to avoiding the sun. The trick is in getting the right balance.
I wasn't aware that we are told to expose only face and hands to get Vit D. They just happen to be the parts that are usually not covered by clothes when we are outdoors.
As I'm not an outdoors person, I supplement with Vit D3 and have no intention of stopping.
Yes, it is interesting that he's a dermatologist - I didn't make the connection to cancer.
I was able to spend plenty of my time in the sun without getting burned this year. Just get in the water or put a shirt on once I got enough. I gradually got immune to it, even tho I don't tan that much.
When he says vit D suppp interventions don't prevent heart disease, as far as I know there are three kinds of vit D trial that are popular
- take a massive dose every few months or similar
- take 400-800 IU with calcium
- take D2
as far as I know there is no study yet using paleo type doses (4,000-10,000IU say) of D3 daily, but I may be wrong.
On the rare occasions that I spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer, my skin is more burn-resistant now that I take 5,000iu/day of D3.
There's a study (I can't remember the title) that shows a U-curve relationship between serum 25(OH)D and CHD. It's possible that too much D & Ca increases arterial calcification. That's why I take Vit K complex.
Yes, I think that supplementing calcium may be a bad idea with optimal vit D. It shouldn't be necessary unless diet is poor.
My skin stopped burning, very noticeably and not just in summer but also in cooking accidents, when I cut out rice bran oil and started cooking in dripping. Now if I burn myself it usually doesn't blister, and if it does the blister is not deep, there is still skin beneath it.
I don't think it a co-incidence that fire-walking arose as an entertainment in places where coconut is eaten.
Eating lots of tomato paste can help protect against sun burn. There was a BBC documentary a few years ago on this and other "medicinal" foods like spinach (reverses an age related deterioration of the eyes if I remember correctly).
Before, I used mostly canned tomatoes with a spoon or two of tomato paste when making pasta sauces e t c but after seeing the BBC program I stopped with the canned tomatoes and instead used large amounts of tomato paste. The following spring I did not burn my face when venturing out in the spring sun like I always did before (no matter how I tried to avoid it). As the now ever poular disclaimer goes "it's anecdotal", yes, but I really noticed a difference.
By the way, the BBC program is available on YouTube called "The Truth About Food - How 2 Stay Young & Beautiful" (but of course : ) Part 2 for toamto paste and part 6 for spinach.
Hi Ann,
I watched the series "The Truth About Food". My main source of lycopene is tinned sardines in tomato puree.
Cheers, Nige
Yes, astaxanthin protects against sunburn as well.
the other day I burned my finger getting something out of the oven, one second contact at 200C. It hurt and a blister came up. But then the blister just went away, and it's healed now. That never used to happen - the blister would have peeled, the skin beneath would be raw.
Do we have high rates of melanoma today because of vegetable oils being used instead of butter and dripping?
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