BY AARDE WRITES

Okay, I'm not trying to irritate anyone, but I feel I should share the following information with my fellow Vitamin D-deprived humans. Since we all act like banshees when the sun shines, it does behoove us to arm ourselves with accurate information on our skin health. We all know more and more scams are being unveiled every day, so why not take a dive into our skin care industry for funsies?

A Midwestern Doctor writes in the article “Dermatology's Disastrous War Against the Sun” featured in The Forgotten Side of Medicine on Substack:

"Skin cancers are by far the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, so to prevent them, the public is constantly told to avoid the sun. However, while the relatively benign skin cancers are caused by sun exposure, the ones responsible for most skin cancer deaths are due to a lack of sunlight. This is unfortunate because sunlight is arguably the most important nutrient for the human body, as avoiding it doubles one's rate of dying and significantly increases their risk of cancer."

That seems weird, right? Why would an entire industry tell us to avoid the sun and keep us under fluorescents for over eight hours a day? Well, have you ever heard the term “Follow the money”?

After a few minutes of clicking around the old interweb, it was easy to determine that Wall Street private equity firms dominate from a monetarily flourishing dermatology industry. In the 1980s, we saw an increase in the public's health anxiety regarding skin cancer after a purposeful conflation of types of skin cancers from a hired ad agency. A Midwestern Doctor writes, "A strong case can be made that this dynamic was a result of the dermatology profession (with the help of a top PR firm) rebranding themselves to skin cancer fighters, something which allowed them to become one of the highest paying medical specialties in existence.”

Unfortunately, despite the billions that is put into fighting it each year, there has been no substantial change in the number of skin cancer deaths, claims A Midwestern Doctor, who then goes on to discuss the “dangers of the conventional skin cancer treatments, the most effective ways for treating and preventing skin cancer, and some of the best strategies for having a healthy and nourishing relationship with the sun. There are multiple types of skin cancer, but basal cell carcinoma has a 0 percent fatality rate, and squamous cell carcinoma has a 99 percent survival rate if removed before metastasizing. These types of cancer cells are not dangerous and easily treatable. Melanoma, conversely, can be dangerous if not caught before spreading, and while it only makes up 1 percent of skin care diagnoses- if detected early on, treatments can be 99 percent effective. In total, the US sees a total of 8,000 deaths a year from Melanoma. Get this: Melanoma is not linked to sunlight exposure. For the kicker, documented research has shown that wearing sunscreen has no effect and could possibly increase the rates of malignant Melanoma. Believe me, cases are being made that the chemicals in sunscreen and other cosmetic products are catalysts of skin cancer. The joke of the day is found in a 1982 study of 274 women who found that exposure to fluorescent lights at work caused a 2.1 times increase in developing malignant melanoma.”

Dear reader, this was not meant to stress you out. My intention was the opposite! "By far the most common 'skin cancer' is not dangerous. The 'skin cancers' you need to worry about are a fairly small portion of the existing skin cancers. Sunlight exposure does not cause dangerous cancers (except for SCC, which is nowhere near as dangerous as the others),” our friend AMD writes.

You can avoid getting burned without using sunscreen, you guys! Here are the key takeaways so that you can move forward this summer knowing you know more than they think you know. Know and track your moles, use natural products that Mother Earth makes for you such as tallow, diet (believe it or not!), take cod liver oil, take supplements, and use nontoxic sunscreen products made with zinc.

Arm yourself from the inside out, not with chemically drenched products from the outside in! It's your body. And as always, we don't have to rely on encyclopedias anymore. You have a plethora of information at your fingertips; take the time to research for yourself!