In the wake of the new FDA guidelines for sunscreen that came out this week I decided to look at the pros and cons of sun exposure. And to do that I took one of the most memorable campaigns I could think of.
In Australia in the early eighties the government launched the Slip-Slop-Slap campaign to ingrain the dangers of skin cancer into their outdoorsy population. Slip on a shirt, Slop on suncreen and Slap on a hat. It worked so well that in recent years they've added Seek shade and Slide on the sunnies (sunglasses) but when I read the results of the studies I was surprised to find that although the basic forms of skin cancer - basal cell and squamous carcenomas - decreased the incidence of melanoma increased. So did cases of Osteoporosis in adults.And in a few rare cases children who had been religiously protected from the sun since birth by their careful parents had developed rickets (see link at the base of this post).
Many scientists believe that a lack of vitamin D - known as the sunshine vitamin because we naturally produce it as a result of sun exposure is the answer. So how much exposure are we talking about. Opinions vary but to avoid being one of the 30 - 70 % of patients who are D deficient just 10-15 minutes of unprotected exposure is enough for the body to produce its daily quota of Vitamin D. For those who believe that no sun is the best way to go there are Vitamin D supplements (which I take in the winter when the winter sun is too weak to stimulate much production.)
Moderation would appear to be the key.
Please note that we are having a debate here - I'm not issuing medical advice because I'm not a Doctor, or a scientist but I noticed that all the media coverage focused on the sun giving you skin cancer and the other information got lost in the media shuffle.
http://www.bmj.com/content/318/7175/39.extract - NB the full article on rickets is subscription only but the extract gives the basic information.
No comments:
Post a Comment