Sunscreen Causes Cancer by Mike Adams (www.naturalnews.com 5/08)

Given the fact that just about everything you put on your skin gets absorbed into your bloodstream, it is interesting that there is a complete lack of regulation of cancer-causing ingredients in skin care products. There are over 150 toxic cancer-causing ingredients currently used in cosmetic products alone. According to federal law, products containing cancer-causing substances should carry a written warning. But the FDA does not enforce this law with cosmetics or personal care products. Consumers are left to purchase these products at their own risk, and as a result they are being harmed by them.

Let's consider a product that's harming tens of millions of people every day in America alone: sunscreen. Sunscreen products do not block ultraviolet radiation very well unless you apply multiple coats, but there has been a flurry of research lately on the harm caused by sunscreen chemicals. These chemicals actually promote skin cancer. This product is causing the very condition from which it claims to protect people.

The skin is not the only organ that is harmed by sunscreen chemicals. Those chemicals are absorbed by the skin, circulate throughout the body and end up harming the liver, the organ responsible for neutralizing chemicals in the body. The continued use of sunscreen products (especially those with fragrance in them) will inevitably harm the liver and, in my opinion, can lead to organ failure or liver cancer.

Sunscreen is not the only harmful product people put on their skin; consider perfume and cologne. In an effort to smell attractive to others, consumers routinely put toxic chemicals on their bodies that come out of beautifully designed glass bottles. Most people do not realize that these fragrances are often made from toxic substances that are known to cause cancer; the perfume industry gets away with murder. This includes everything from skin cream to moisturizer lotion, not to mention shower soaps and other cleaning products with added fragrance. Unless you are buying the natural forms of these products from truly organic companies, there is no doubt that you are applying a bewildering array of harmful chemicals to your skin. And when you put them on your skin, they are absorbed directly into your bloodstream.

Consumers' Bodies Have Become Toxic Chemical Dumps

This is partly why consumers in Western society have hundreds of different synthetic chemicals lodged in their livers, hearts, brains, and other organs. If you keep exposing your body to these chemicals, they will keep accumulating. All of these products ultimately lead to liver cancer and other serious disorders caused by chemical stress on your body. Eventually, immune system suppression will kick in and you will succumb to some form of cancer or other type of immunity breakdown, including autoimmune disorders. It takes a focused detoxification effort to get these chemicals out.

Your skin is your body's largest organ, so its health is crucial to your overall health. It has the largest mass and surface area of any organ in your entire body, and your skin is in contact with the outside environment more than any other organ in your body. Your skin exchanges chemicals with the environment; even if you do not put chemicals on your skin, it still exchanges air and water with the environment. This is easy to demonstrate by taking a swim, and then observing how your fingers start to look like raisins...you are actually drinking water through your skin. Chemicals in swimming pools are a genuine health hazard, and chlorinated pool water has been found to cause bladder cancer. The best place to swim is the ocean, where you can absorb water that has natural minerals, rather than in chlorinated city water.

The Skin Easlily Absorbs Chemicals

But many substances go through your skin other than water. This simple fact was denied for many years by proponents of conventional medicine, who said the skin was some sort of barrier. This was before they figured out that they could use the skin to deliver drugs; now we have patch delivery systems for nicotine, birth control, and even Alzheimer's patches that actually deliver a measured dose of drugs through the skin. Nevertheless, the cosmetics industry continues to make products with extremely hazardous chemicals. The FDA claims that these products are safe because they are not consumed orally. You would be amazed to find what the FDA allows to be sold as long as it says, "for external use only." The assumption is that it will stay external and not be absorbed into the body, so its toxicity is irrelevant, but we now know this is not true. Toxic chemicals on the skin quickly lead to toxic blood in the body.

Some molecules, of course, are too large to be absorbed through the skin, but most of the chemicals found in personal care products and sunscreen products actually do go right through the skin. The same is true with fragrance, hair color products and all varieties of personal care products that contain toxic chemicals. So, the next time you are shopping for any personal care products, keep in mind a good rule I learned from Amazon John, the founder of the Amazon Herb Company: Don't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't eat.

Think carefully about what you put on your skin. Safeguard your skin just as you would any other organ in your body. Your skin is exchanging chemistry with the environment, and if you want to be a healthy individual free of toxic chemicals in your liver, heart, brain, kidneys and many other organs, it's time to stop putting cancer-causing chemicals on your skin. Throw out the junk cosmetics, skin lotions, creams, cleansers, shampoos, deodorants, perfumes, and all other personal care products that deliver a harmful dose of bad chemistry.

Seven important questions about sunscreen

The next time you see some public service advertisement urging you to smother yourself and your children with sunscreen chemicals, think hard before taking action. Ask yourself these seven commonsense questions:

1) Is the sun really dangerous to humans? If so, how did humans survive for the last 350,000 years on planet Earth?

2) Have the chemicals used in sunscreen products ever been safety tested or approved by the FDA? (The answer is no.)

3) Who financially benefits when you keep buying and using sunscreen products?

4) What is the environmental impact of sunscreen chemicals washing off into the ocean, a lake, a swimming pool or being washed down the drain in your shower?

5) Sunscreen manufacturers say the skin doesn't absorb their chemicals. If that's true, then how do nicotine patches work? How do transdermal drugs get absorbed through the skin if sunscreen chemicals don't? (Answer: ALL these chemicals get absorbed through the skin. The skin is not selective about what it chooses to absorb.)

6) If the sun is so dangerous, then why is the vitamin generated by sunlight (vitamin D) so healthy for humans? Why would humans evolve a mechanism for generating a vitamin from sunlight if we weren't supposed to be exposed to sunlight in the first place?

7) If sunlight is so dangerous, then why is virtually every living creature on planet Earth dependent on sunlight for survival? Plants use sunlight to generate their nutrition, too, and most animals eat either plants or other animals that originally ate plants. Nearly all life on planet Earth is powered by sunlight. Why does the cancer industry believe sunlight causes death when, in reality, sunlight delivers life?

Once you answer these questions, the reality of the situation becomes obvious: Sunlight is good for you, and sunscreen is a hoax.

Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored more than 1,500 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org

More Truth About Sunscreen

More Proof That Chemicals Are Absorbed

Can Sunlight Help Save Your Life?

As reported by ScienceDaily (6/08) Get A Little Sun This Summer-It Could Help Save Your Life

As summer comes and people across America get ready to start slathering on the sunscreen, a note of caution is in order &endash; a little sunshine is good for you.  

Studies increasingly are suggesting the value of vitamin D &endash; often known as the sunshine vitamin, because that's one way you can obtain it &endash; in everything from bone metabolism to maintaining muscle strength, immune function, reducing hypertension and possibly even playing a role in prevention of cancer and autoimmune disease.

Summer is a time when most people finally get enough of this vitamin due to their sun exposure, and also help build stores of it in their fat for use during the dark days of winter. But research has suggested that, for whatever reason, as many as a billion people around the world may now be vitamin D deficient, posing possibly serious threats to their health.

"The old theory was that if you had enough vitamin D to prevent rickets and osteomalacia, two skeletal disorders, you were okay," said Victoria Drake, a research associate in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, and manager of its Micronutrient Information Center. "But new research is now raising our awareness about the possible relationships between vitamin D and cancer, particularly colorectal, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. There are also potential links to cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis."

Many of the studies are observational, Drake said, and more work needs to be done with randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Experts still argue about how much vitamin D is enough, and some feel that the optimal amount is several times higher than the adequate intake level set by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, which is 200 international units per day for adults ages 19-50.

What's clear, however, is that many Americans are not getting even those minimal amounts, especially those with dark skin colors &endash; one study reported that 42 percent of African American women were vitamin D deficient. As a result, Drake said, many doctors are increasingly starting to test their patients for deficiency of this vitamin, especially in the temperate zones above 40 degrees latitude &endash; a line running roughly from Philadelphia to Denver and through Northern California. That includes New York City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle and many other of the nation's most populous cities. Residents of the Pacific Northwest, with its northern latitudes and eternally cloudy winters, are especially vulnerable. Inexpensive supplements are frequently prescribed.

"My own doctor said that he frequently tests for vitamin D status, and that vitamin D deficiency is prevalent in his patient population," Drake said. "Experts are now talking about a phenomenon they call 'Vitamin D Winter.'" One recent study referred to vitamin D deficiency as "a major unrecognized epidemic in the older adult population" and recommended routine blood testing for adequate levels.

Open to speculation, but little in the way of proof, Drake said, is that deficiencies of vitamin D may have worsened in recent years as more people became aware of the risks of skin cancer and aggressively avoided sun exposure or used sunscreen lotions, on themselves and their children. Experts still agree that a fairly modest amount of sun is enough &endash; perhaps 10-15 minutes of exposure on your arms and face about three times a week. Sunburn should of course be avoided and a tan clearly isn't necessary &endash; but some real sun exposure probably is. Alternatively, you can also get vitamin D from some foods, including vitamin fortified milk and some cereals or breads &endash; assuming you don't have a diet rich in oily fish. For higher levels, supplements are usually necessary.

Among the recent findings and observations about vitamin D:

• Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that functions as a hormone in the body, regulating calcium metabolism.

• Most people living above 40 degrees latitude do not obtain enough vitamin D from about mid-November to early March.

• Infants who are exclusively breast-fed, and are not supplemented with vitamin D, are at high risk of vitamin D deficiency, because human milk generally doesn't have adequate levels.

• People with dark-colored skin have significantly less ability to synthesize vitamin D from sunlight, as do the elderly.

• Obesity increases the risk of vitamin D deficiency because obese individuals cannot easily access the vitamin D stored in body fat.

So if adequate levels of vitamin D are critical to your health, how much is enough? Depends on who you ask, Drake said. The official government recommendation is 200 I.U. per day &endash; although moderate sun exposure might provide about 100 times that much. Many multivitamins provide about 400 I.U. per day, and it's generally accepted that levels up to 2,000 I.U. per day pose no health risk. Some studies under way with pregnant women are giving them 4,000 I.U. per day in supplements.

One study last year indicated an adequate level of vitamin D, produced by daily supplements of up to 2,000 I.U. per day, might prevent 30 percent of the cases of breast cancer and 50 percent of the colon cancer in the United States &endash; at extremely low cost and with few or no adverse effects.

The Linus Pauling Institute recommends a multivitamin supplement with at least 400 I.U. of vitamin D for most healthy adults, and twice that amount for anyone over age 50. Additionally, at least 10-15 minutes of sun exposure on the arms and legs, or face and arms, at least three times weekly, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. during the spring, summer and fall may help residents of temperate latitudes avoid vitamin D deficiency at the end of winter.

"There's a lot we still have to learn about this micronutrient, but it's already clear the role it has in optimal health, and that a lot of people don't get enough," Drake said. "Many people may need to consider supplements, especially in winter. And one thing we would say is, don't be afraid of getting at least a little sunshine. It's good for you."

Tanning & Natural Health News is a publication of Tan Plus /Essentials Of Life, Barclay Square, 350 Route 108, Somersworth, NH. This publication is designed for educational purposes only and is not intended to be presented as medical advice. Product statements made have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.