Pure-n-Simple Soap

When we think natural skin care; handmade soaps, shampoo’s, moisturizing creams, lotions, and salves, come to mind, however most of us do not consider what to put on our skin for protecting it from the sun, and just assume that all sun screens are safe.  I just recently received a comment on an article I wrote on protecting your skin during the winter months; the comment stated that I forgot to mention, not to leave the house without applying sun block whether its winter, summer, rain or shine.  With skin cancer at all time highs, it appears that by applying more and more sun block is the answer, or is it?

We do need Vitamin D, which our best source of this is from the sun, and it is said that Vitamin D actually helps prevent and treat many cancers such as lymphoma, lung, prostate, colon and skin cancer.  So it is good to receive the right amount of sunlight each day, however it is important not to overdo it.  We should receive about one hour of sun light per day, but it is recommend only going out for about 10-15 minutes early in the season slowly building up a tolerance, avoiding sun burn.

Remember our skin is permeable, what we put on it works its way in.  Sun Screens are considered toxic chemicals and are applied all over the body at recommendations of every two hours or so.  That is a lot of synthetic chemicals being absorbed into your body that could be affecting your system, increasing the risk of disease.  Sun screens also blocks your skins ability to produce Vitamin D by over 95%, which is the very thing we need from the sun.  Sun screens will not stop cancer and potentially could be increasing the chance, but changes in our diet could actually have more of an effect in causing skin cancer than the sun.   In the past century our diets have changed considerably.  A hundred years ago we consumed very little processed vegetable oil and today we consume over 70 pounds per year from the fats of corn oil, sunflower sesame that are 100% omega 6 fats.  Research is showing that this increase in omega 6 fats does have an effect in skin cancer and we should reduce or avoid these oils and be sure to get plenty of omega 3 fats.

There are natural sun resistant ingredients such as Shea butter that can be found in products such as a natural lip balm, but the very best sun protection would be to wear a wide brim hat, long sleeve shirt and paints when forced to be in the sun for long periods of time, and to take breaks from the sun finding a shady spot if possible.  It is important and healthy to enjoy the sun in moderation’s, and to avoid overuse if not no use at all of sun screens.