Prevent skin cancer by avoiding the sun? Not necessarily.

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By, Reuben Chow

The sun is out for most of us, and exposure to sunlight typically brings with it fears of skin cancer. Many people avoid the sun totally to prevent this fate, but is that a wise choice? The research on how sun exposure, sunburn and skin cancer are linked could surprise many.

Let’s examine some facts behind this argument.

First and foremost, you need to be aware that there are different types of skin cancer, and melanoma is the most deadly one, as it tends to spread quickly to other parts of the body. Fatality rates for non-melanoma skin cancers are actually very low — less than 0.5% of sufferers die from them. US statistics suggest that your likelihoods of dying from food poisoning (over four times) and medical errors (over 650 times) are far higher. It’s clearly melanoma that kills.

Sunburn does raise melanoma risk

Long-term and excessive exposure to sunlight can indeed raise non-melanoma skin cancer risk. However, there’s almost no evidence suggesting that such exposure without sunburn would raise melanoma risk.

But when sunburn occurs, melanoma risk does increase. And the more frequent or severe the sunburns, the higher the risk.

Sunlight exposure without sunburn lowers melanoma risk

There’s more — significant research suggests that exposure to sunlight without sunburn actually lowers melanoma risk, while lack of exposure increases your risk.

For example, research conducted on US sailors from 1974 to 1984 found that those who worked indoors had higher rates of melanoma than those who worked outdoors, while those who worked both indoors and outdoors had the lowest rate. Further, melanomas occurred more often on areas of the body which were not exposed to sunlight (trunk, upper back and legs), while non-melanoma skin cancers more often occurred on the face and hands.

Two large European studies in 2004 and 2005 found that sunlight and UV radiation without sunburn were not melanoma-causative factors, but in fact helped prevent it.

Vitamin D

An oft-neglected element of the issue is that sunlight exposure is actually needed for the body to produce vitamin D. And vitamin D has been shown in hundreds of studies to help decrease cancer risk plus improve the survival outcomes of cancer sufferers.

For example, in vitro research in Germany found that vitamin D lowered the spread of melanoma cells by up to 50%. Other studies concurred. This vitamin also helped stop small melanomas from progressing to clinical cases.

Lack of vitamin D not only raises one’s skin cancer risk but also elevates the risk of many types of cancer, including those of the breast, colon, kidneys, lungs, ovaries, pancreas, prostate, rectum, stomach, thyroid, blood, etc.

Sunscreen

It’s important to note that sunscreen lotions actually inhibit the body’s ability to make vitamin D, and they also contain compounds which are toxic, even carcinogenic.

In 1992, doctors Frank and Cedric Garland wrote that, “worldwide, the countries where chemical sunscreens have been recommended and adopted have experienced the greatest rise in malignant melanoma.”

Even if they do not raise melanoma risk, research has also found that sunscreen lotions do not actually protect against melanoma.

Conclusion

It’s clear that melanoma is the deadly skin cancer which you should most guard against. And, putting everything together, it seems that the wise thing to do to lower your risk is to obtain regular and moderate sunlight exposure while avoiding intermittent overexposure.

To prevent sunburn, which raises melanoma risk, build your body’s resistance to sunlight gradually, particularly light-skinned individuals, as light skin burns more easily. Avoid the midday sun. Reconsider sunscreen use and consume plenty of antioxidants, as they protect against sunburn.

Sources for this article include:

Moss, Ralph W, PhD. Cancer Therapy: The Independent Consumer’s Guide To Non-Toxic Treatment & Prevention. Lemont, PA: Equinox Press, 1996. Print.

Alschuler, Lise N, ND, FABNO, and Gazella, Karolyn A. The Definitive Guide to Cancer: An Integrative Approach to Prevention, Treatment, and Healing. 3rd ed. NY, USA: Celestial Arts, 2010. Print.

http://www.insights-on-health.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

About the author:
Reuben Chow has a keen interest in natural health and healing as well as personal growth.

Toxic Taste

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Toxic Taste
CENTURIES AGO A THIRD OF EUROPE WAS WIPED OUT BY THE BLACK PLAGUE.
BY ROBERT LUSTIG | JUNE ’14

Today, half of America will be wiped out by a new plague—chronic metabolic disease—and Obamacare doesn’t address it.

FAST FOCUS
Today the diseases of metabolic syndrome generate close to 75% of the nation’s healthcare costs. Despite having the most expensive healthcare in the world, the United States remains among the least healthy nations.The current medical business model is unsustainable. Medicare is staring at bankruptcy in 12 years.

Processed Diets
The U.N. secretary-general announced in 2011 his plan to target tobacco, alcohol and “bad diet.” But what about our diet? What’s gone wrong? As the United States went low-fat in the 1980s, we opted for foods that cut the fat, which ushered in the processed food “Western diet,” which has rapidly spread across the planet to become the “industrial global diet.” This is an attractive diet for its stakeholders, due to convenience, palatability, lack of depreciation and cost. But it’s killing us.
There are (at least) eight things wrong with our processed food diet:

1. Too Little Fiber Fiber limits the blood glucose rise, which limits the insulin response, which limits how much energy is stored in fat cells and which reduces cell proliferation, which reduces blood pressure, heart disease and cancer.

2. Too Few Micronutrients Micronutrients include vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, all of which prevent cellular damage.

3.Too Few Omega-3 Fatty Acids Omega-3 fatty acids prevent inflammation, which drives chronic metabolic disease, and may limit risk for cognitive decline. Examples of foods containing these are wild fish and flax.

4. Too Many Omega-6 Fatty Acids Omega-6 fatty acids promote inflammation and drive chronic metabolic disease. Nutritionists suggest that the optimal ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids should be about 1:1. Currently our ratio is about 25:1. Omega-6 fatty acids are found in seed oils, such as corn and canola.

5. Too Many Trans-Fats Trans-fats are synthetic fats that we can’t metabolize for energy. Thus, they line our livers and our arteries instead. Last November the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared trans-fats were no longer “generally recognized as safe,” ensuring their eventual disappearance from the American food supply.

6. Too Many Branched-Chain Amino Acids Valine, leucine and isoleucine are essential amino acids that help build muscle protein. But excessive amounts turn into liver fat and impair insulin signaling, driving metabolic syndrome. These are found in abundance in any animal fed with corn—beef, chicken and fish (and that’s all commercially available protein).

7.Too Much Alcohol A little alcohol is good (one glass of red wine for women, two for men), but a lot is not. Alcohol’s effect on metabolic syndrome is dose-dependent. Excess alcohol is turned into liver fat, driving high blood triglycerides (which cause heart disease) and insulin resistance.

8.Too Much Added Sugar This is the most actionable component of our diet because it’s the one the food industry specifically adds for its own purposes. When the industry cut the fat, the food tasted like cardboard, so producers started adding the sugar. Of the 600,000 food items in the American grocery store, 80% are spiked with added sugar. Excess sugar is turned into liver fat, which also drives triglycerides and insulin resistance, and revs up the cellular aging reaction, further driving metabolic syndrome.

Can’t we just solve this with a pill? Can’t Big Pharma rescue us? We’ve got pills to treat hypertension, diabetes and heart disease (not so much for cancer and dementia). And Big Pharma loves nothing better than selling chronic therapies for chronic diseases. The medicines may slow the downward spiral, but we reach the abyss in any case. There’s only one way out. It’s called prevention—a one-word name for real food.

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Ancestral Diets – A Lighter Shade of Paleo

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Ancestral Diets
A Lighter Shade of Paleo
by SAYER JI AND TANIA MELKONIAN

Vegetarian Awareness Month provides a timely opportunity to realize that a plant-focused diet does not derive exclusively from plants. Just as a carnivore does not subsist on meat alone, the same applies to a vegetarian.

What can we learn from our Paleolithic, or Stone Age, ancestors? The recent trend toward recreating a Paleo-era diet emphasizes the importance of vegetable nutrition to prehistoric communities, correcting the misperception that they were primarily meat-eaters.

The original Paleo diet, before the advent of agriculture, reflected the hunting and gathering of lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and was absent of grains, dairy, starchy foods, sugar and salt. Today’s updated version might comprise foods naturally available and/or abundant before the cultivation of food in gardens, crops and livestock.

Loren Cordain, Ph.D., author of The Paleo Diet and Nutritionist Nora Gedgaudas, author of Primal Body, Primal Mind, each contest the premise perpetuated by many in the weight-loss industry that fat, especially naturally saturated fat, is unhealthy. Those same proponents that maintain low-fat/non-fat food is a panacea for modern illnesses also purport that cholesterol is the chief cause of heart ailments.

Gedgaudas writes that the diets of hunter-gatherers inhabiting varied landscapes, from the Inuit of the north to tropical forest hominids, included large amounts of fat and cholesterol, which is essential to maintaining cell membranes and regulating hormones. She points out that obtaining cholesterol from food is necessary to augment the liver’s function of creating cholesterol internally.

Cordain agrees that even saturated fats in meats can be beneficial, providing the animals are grass-fed, lean and live in clean surroundings. He emphasizes, however, that when our prehistoric ancestors ate fat, they did not also eat grain carbohydrates, sugar and salt, and contends that it is these components, not meat, that can be detrimental to the body.

Doctor of Naturopathy Maureen Horne-Paul adds that organic, lean and game meats are exempt from the acidity inherent in corn-based animal feed. Plus, “When an animal is insensitively confined and killed, stress hormones are released that result in acidity. So, we are changing our pH from a healthy alkaline state to a more acidic condition when we consume meat from conventionally raised animals.”

Scientific studies published in the Journal of Gluten Sensitivity, Medical Hypotheses and by the Mercola group attest to key problems related to human consumption of grains. Anti-nutrients such as phytic acid in grains lead to the poor absorption of minerals and related deficiencies. Improper absorption of dietary protein caused in part by enzyme inhibitors in grains also tends to damage the pancreas. Individual sensitivities to proteins in specific grains can further interfere with functioning of the neuroendocrine system and subsequent emotional difficulties like addiction and depression may arise. All of these difficulties have been exacerbated by irresponsible prenatal diets that have made younger generations extra-sensitive to the challenges posed by grains to the human system.

While Cordain doesn’t recommend dairy, Gedgaudas suggests organic or raw milk products, provided they retain their full fat content and come from grass-fed cows. She reasons that the presence of the anti-carcinogenic fatty acid conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) and the Wulzen factor anti-stiffness agent in the fat benefit joint lubrication.

Experts suggest that the dietary formula established by our prehistoric ancestors can be the foundation for a modern-day, healthy, non-confining, creative eating experience. We can exchange grains for quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat (not technically grains at all), and include tubers and legumes, due to their folate and protein content. Blue and sweet potatoes also contain high levels of anthocyanins and potassium. Nearly every category of food, in the proper amounts, can be part of such a balanced diet.

When we explore what makes sense and eat clean and natural foods, we have a good chance of finding our body’s own sweet spot.

Sayer Ji is the founder of GreenMedInfo.com and an advisory board member of the National Health Federation. Tania Melkonian is a certified nutritionist and healthy culinary arts educator. Learn more at GreenMedInfo.com.

Spring detox without the juice: Cleanse while eating real food

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2014 by: Heidi Fagley

Notice how many juices are being bottled and sold on store shelves? We’re literally being inundated by juice companies striving to get our attention to buy $10 juices by the dozens, ensuring we will get everything we need to clean out our systems if we just buy the juice.

Yes, juice can be a powerful way to help support detoxing the body, and it is chock full of nutrients — there’s no arguing there — but not all of us can fast, nor do we all want to. So what about the rest of us who want to support cleansing of the body but not give up food?

Simple — eat! A super-clean eating program can do wonders for the body and mind. In fact, the beautiful thing about the human body is that it knows how to cleanse, instinctively. We have multiple organs and systems whose job is to do just that, daily. So, interestingly enough, our bodies are always in the midst of working hard for us to detox — we just need to give them the right environment for success.

Fresh produce contains natural cleansers — this is the way that nature intended. Eating them regularly will consistently support the cleansing systems of the body, without having to drink our way through the day.

For instance, feasting on fresh fruits and vegetables can do wonders for the body and digestive system, and doing so allows the organs to do their job without interference.

To get started, simply remove what is unnatural, and include what is fresh and real. When support is given to the body nutritionally, it naturally detoxes.

Some things to include:

Fresh herbs: Including herbs like parsley and cilantro in your diet can support the detoxification of heavy metals from the system. Chop into salads, or blend into smoothies.

Juicy fruits: Snacking on grapefruits, berries and apples gives the body a host of nutrient-dense vitamins and minerals — plus, they have a high water content, which helps the body stay hydrated. Fiber gently sweeps through the intestines, clearing the digestive tract all while keeping things moving in the right direction.

Healthy fats: Including ripe avocados and chia and hemp seeds provides the body the healthy fats our systems so desperately crave. Every process of the body needs fat in order to function at peak performance.

Greens and wild edibles: We all know that these are at the top of any nutritional program. From kale to arugula, watercress to dandelion greens. Massive amounts of powerful nutrients naturally reside inside these leaves.

Other: Garlic, ginger and turmeric are some of the most powerful anti-inflammatory foods we have available to us. Inflammation is at the root of practically all known chronic health conditions.

A three- or five-day conscious intake of foods omitting anything other than fresh, clean fruits, veggies and healthy fats can help decrease stress on the systems of the body and increase clarity of the mind — all while satisfying the appetite and regulating body weight.

Include lots of pure water and freshly brewed herbal teas, get plenty of rest and enjoy what your body naturally knows how to do by supporting it nutritionally. Include fresh-pressed juices if you’d like, just know that fasting on them is not the only way to give the body a break. With all the springtime herbs, vegetables and fruits this time of year, it’s simple to give your body a break without taking away the simple pleasure of eating.