I recently stirred up a bit of controversy on facebook when I set the title of this post as my status.

You can witness the controversy here for yourself:
My Facebook Profile
Why not add me to twitter while you’re at it?

Since the status caused such a reaction without much prodding on my part (other than setting my status I didn’t do much to provoke the reaction), I decided that it called for an entire blog post about the risks versus the benefits of sun exposure, since it seems so many people have fallen for the ‘anti-exposure’ propaganda.

The truth about sun exposure that most people suffer deficiencies and simply spending more time in the sun with exposed skin will greatly reduce the chance of many different diseases, including cancer.

‘WHAT!??
But the sun CAUSES cancer! Don’t you listen to the scientists and the doctors!?
What about Melanoma!? The sun causes that, doesn’t it?’

Don’t be stupid

The sun is required for all life on this planet as far as we can tell. Pretty much all of our energy comes from the sun, when you follow the energy trail back to it’s origin — plants basically take the suns energy and turn it into trees through many complex processes, they form branches, leaves, and flowers, pretty much ‘out of thin air’, so to speak.

Even the worlds oil addiction is really fueled by the sun. Crude oil was made over millions of years by tiny plants and animals called plankton, so even oil comes from the sun.

Without the sun, we would not exist here on planet earth. The sun is the giver of life, not the great cancer that we are told it is by the media and the companies that want to sell sun-block, tanning solutions, medications,  and other ‘sun protection’ products.

Melanoma

According to the world’s most trusted natural health expert, Dr. Mercola, there is little to no evidence that the sun causes melanoma without sunburn. Put quite simply, if you avoid getting sunburns you don’t have to worry about melanoma.

Click here to read Dr. Mercola’s report on the benefits of sun exposure.

Our bodies let us know when we should get out of the sun. If you’re in the sun for too long you begin to feel sick and you start to overheat. Your skin starts to burn if it’s overexposed to the UV rays that the sun puts out. When you reach the point of feeling sick, overheating, or getting a sunburn, it’s obviously time to cover up or get out of the sun.

If you don’t listen to your body when it tells you to get out of the sun, then yes, you might end up with heat stroke or melanoma, but that’s not the sun’s fault — it’s your fault for not listening to your body!

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin, it’s a hormone that is created in the body when the skin is exposed to direct sunlight, and it plays a critical role in maintaining vibrant health.

Vitamin D plays an important role in so many instances that it’s probably the single most important ‘health hack’ that can make the biggest improvement in the way you feel.

Here is only a brief list of things that Vitamin D is known to protect against:

• many types of cancer
• depression
• arthritis
• multiple sclerosis
• every single auto immune disease
• all forms of the flu
• asthma
• crohn’s disease
• diabetes
• inflammation
• hypertension
• heart disease
• schizophrenia
• myopathy
• rickets
• psoriasis
• osteoperosis
• bacterial infection
• and many more…

Due to the astonishing number of benefits, Vitamin D is the most bang for your buck when it comes to nutrients and it’s absolutely critical that you get enough Vitamin D if you want to be super-healthy and have a strong immune system.

For in depth details on how optimizing your Vitamin D will drastically improve your health, check out the massive amount of information available at Dr. Mercola’s website. He is such a big advocate of Vitamin D optimization that he has dedicated an entire website to it, click here to check out Dr. Mercola’s Vitamin D website.

How much sun?

Although the world is slowly starting to realize the importance of Vitamin D, most people are actually experiencing a Vitamin D deficiency.

Most white skinned people require about 10-20 minutes of direct sunlight per day, and not just on the face and arms either. As much of the body as possible should be in direct sunlight for that 10-20 minutes. The skin should never be allowed to burn, though. Once the skin turns the lightest shade of pink it has produced as much Vitamin D as possible for that day, and it should then be covered. Dark pigmented skin takes 3-6 times longer to produce the maximum amount of Vitamin D.

It’s interesting to note that the more antioxidants you have in your body, the more you are protected from sunburns, so make sure you are getting lots of antioxidants in your diet so that you can produce enough Vitamin D without getting sunburns! If you have ‘sensitive skin’ you might want to start getting out in the early morning or late evening when the sun isn’t as strong, that way you can avoid sunburns.

A person should have between 50 ng/ml and 70 ng/ml of vitamin D, and the only way to know how much vitamin D is needed is to test the blood. Any doctor should be able to do a simple blood test to determine your vitamin D levels.

Vitamin D supplements

Vitamin D supplements are commonly found next to the generic multi-vitamins and other supplements at drug stores, grocery stores, and health food stores, but many of these Vitamin D supplements have little to no effect because they can’t be absorbed properly by the body.

Finding a good Vitamin D supplement means finding a supplement that has a high quality source of vitamin D3 that has been formulated for optimum absorption by the body. Once again, the best source that I have found for quality Vitamin D is Dr. Mercola. Dr. Mercola has found a quality source of Vitamin D that comes in a spritz bottle for easy administration. The sprays are 1000 IU per spritz and the Vitamin D molecule has been shrunk using nanotechnology so that it is more readily absorbed into the bloodstream.

Click here to learn more about supplementing Vitamin D.

Indoor tanning

Another option for Vitamin D is indoor tanning with the use of a safe tanning bed or UVB tanning light. I’ve never used this method for getting Vitamin D, but I am thinking of getting one of these handy indoor stand up tanning lights from … you guessed it.. Dr. Mercola.

Cancer is caused by stupidity

Before you get upset about this statement let me say that I am not saying that people who get cancer are stupid. Modern stupidity is the cause of most cancer in our world today.

Filling our bodies with chemicals and toxins is a leading cause of most cancer, and filling our bodies with chemicals and toxins is also stupid. Most people don’t know just how toxic nearly every mainstream household item is.

Here’s just a short list of things that are full of nasty chemicals that you probably have around the house:

• Processed foods
• Mattresses
• Pharmaceutical drugs & prescriptions
• Most Shampoos & Conditioners
• Many health & beauty products (creams, lotions, makeup)
• Tap water (chlorine, fluoride)
• Most deodorant & cologne
• Ink (computers, newspapers, magazines, fliers)
• Cleaning supplies
• Chemical fertilizers (used on most commercial produce)
• Cigarettes
• Pesticides & herbicides (found on non organic foods)
• Hair dye
• Oil products
• Most plastics
• Carpets, lino, paints & other building supplies
• Fluorescent light bulbs (energy efficient bulbs)

These are only a few things that are full of cancer causing chemicals. All of the above things are also ‘stupid’ and have natural alternatives, it’s just that our ‘modern’ society is so hooked on some of these products that it’s become nearly impossible to avoid some of these products.

Choosing unnatural, non organic, or GMO products when there are natural, organic, or whole food options available is stupid — and it causes cancer! (not to mention a whole bunch of other disease). So it seems stupidity causes cancer, not the sun!

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Check out Dr. Mercola’s newest book, The Total Health Breakthrough by clicking here. I bought a copy a while ago and have almost finished reading the entire eBook and all 5 reports. It’s worth all the pennies.