Protector or…Perpetrator?

... Or, as my friend put it:

"To sunscreen, or not to sunscreen....that is the question."

While persuasions on using sunscreen are getting more persistent than ever, there is a new (though not surprising) evidence that one of the possible culprits in skin cancers can be the sunscreen itself.

Numerous recent epidemiological studies indicate an increased risk of malignant melanoma for the sunscreen users. For example:

Worldwide, the countries where chemical sunscreens have been recommended and adopted have experienced the greatest rise in cutaneous malignant melanoma, with a contemporaneous rise in death rates.

In the United States, Canada, Australia, and the Scandinavian countries, melanoma rates have risen steeply in recent decades, with the greatest increase occurring after the introduction of sunscreens. Death rates in the United States from melanoma doubled in women and tripled in men between the 1950s and the 1990s.

The rise in melanoma has been unusually steep in Queensland, Australia, where sunscreens were earliest and most strongly promoted by the medical community. Queensland now has the highest incidence rate of melanoma in the world. In contrast, the rise in melanoma rates was notably delayed elsewhere in Australia, where sunscreens were not promoted until more recently.

'Could sunscreens increase melanoma risk?' by Garland C, Garland F, Gorham E (04/01/1992).. Am J Public Health 82 (4): 614–5.

Look, what I've found:
nail sunscreen!

In a new population-based, matched, case-control study from southern Sweden (of all places! How much sun do they have really?) of 571 patients with a first diagnosis of cutaneous malignant melanoma, between 1995 and 1997, and 913 healthy controls aged 16 to 80 years, the association between sunscreen use and malignant melanoma was evaluated as follows:

The median sun protection factor (SPF) used by both cases and controls was 6, range 2 to 25. Sunscreen users reported greater sun exposure than non-users. Persons who used sunscreens did not have a decreased risk of malignant melanoma. Instead, a significantly elevated odds ratio (OR) for developing malignant melanoma after regular sunscreen use was found, adjusted for history of sunburns, hair color, frequency of sunbathing during the summer, and duration of each sunbathing occasion [OR = 1.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-2.9].

'Sunscreen use and malignant melanoma', by Westerdahl J; Ingvar C; Masback A; Olsson H (2000). International journal of cancer. Journal international du cancer 87: 145–50.

There are even stronger opinions regarding sunscreen impact on our health:

The scientific evidence… shows quite clearly that sunscreen actually promotes cancer by blocking the body's absorption of ultraviolet radiation, which produces vitamin D in the skin. 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 by the FDA. They get absorbed right through the skin (a porous organ that absorbs most substances it comes into contact with) and enter the bloodstream.

Proponents say sunscreen prevents sunburn, but in fact, the real cause of sunburn is not merely UV exposure: It is a lack of antioxidant nutrition. Start eating lots of berries and microalgae (spirulina, astaxanthin, blue-green algae, etc.), and you'll build up an internal sunscreen that will protect your skin from sunburn from the inside out. Sunburn is actually caused by nutritional deficiencies that leave the skin vulnerable to DNA mutations from radiation, but if you boost your nutrition and protect your nervous system with plant-based nutrients, you'll be naturally resistant to sunburn.

'The sunscreen myth: How sunscreen products actually promote cancer', by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews

http://www.naturalnews.com/021903.html

While this discussion is only starting, the majority of people  are following the recommendations of American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (see 'Under the Sun') without questioning.

The American Academy of Dermatology recommends now broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreens with an SPF of at least 30. Doctors stress the importance of using plenty of sunscreen -- a golf ball-sized full ounce of sunscreen for a normal size adult body, reapplied every two hours.

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/20110614/new-sunscreen-rules-from-fda?page=2

However, we put on our bodies not only sunscreen. Every year more and more cosmetic products are used. A single jar of face cream is no longer enough: we apply one cream at night, another – at daytime (with sunscreen in it!); special cream - for the eye area; also serum and cleanser.

Only two decades ago, my mom’s beauty regiment was very different. It included water, soap and … nothing much else. Every now and then she would buy a new face cream, something honey-based, according to the label. After the first enthusiastic application she would place the jar into the fridge following a girlfriend’s advice and… forget it there.

In three months the cream usually became either rancid, or dried up. And after my complaints on its unsightly view, it ended up on my mothers’ shoes, of which she took a really great care.

By the way, till her last days my mother had beautiful clean skin with natural glow and not so many wrinkles. 

Today women start following beauty tips early in life, when we all try to look like girls on glossy pages. At this age cancers seem distant and irrelevant. Eventually we end up with all this ‘stuff’…

How many harmful chemicals do we absorb during our lifetime?

I stopped using sunscreens years ago, with no scientific data available to back my decision. As on several other issues I refused to follow the superficial trend, implying that the major source of life on earth is our enemy. I also relied on experience of past generations when sunburns were totally common, but skin cancer - unheard of. Those people, of course, led cleaner and simpler lives, while we ‘cannot afford it’ anymore.

But the choice is always with us: to continue our affordable chemicals-saturated existence and eventually become at war with sun, water, air, blooming plants, and food, or to clean our act and start living in harmony with nature, as it was intended.

As to the protection against excessive sun exposure, the research from Dr. Ronald Watson at the University of Arizona confirms that the antioxidants in red, yellow and orange foods build up under the skin creating extra UV protection.

"The effect is so strong that eating six portions a day for about two months will build a natural barrier equivalent to a factor four sunscreen".

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=yourlife--10-foods-you-must-eat-to-fight-wrinkles-&method=full&objectid=17923641&siteid=115875-name_page.html#ixzz10Y86F3EF

From my own humble experience, since I started eating more fruits and vegetables and by increasing summer sun exposure gradually, my skin tans visibly easier and never burns.