Here in Part II of Reclaiming the Sun, you will find the essential data you need to create a Safe Sun Strategy, based on your skin type and the sun exposure levels dictated by your location and lifestyle.

Sun exposure that are essential to health, particularly, the body’s need for sun to manufacture vitamin D, so let’s determine a safe approach and not deprive ourselves any longer!

Skin type: Since 1976, dermatologists have used a system for classifying skin types from 1 (pale white skin) through 6 (dark skin). The largest group in the United States “sometimes burns moderately, tans gradually to light brown skin”—skin type 3 (white to olive). If your skin type is 1 or 2, you’ve been burned enough times to have a sun protection strategy already in place. Does it meet the guidelines below?

Sun exposure: What times of day are you commonly exposed to the sun? (Ultraviolet levels are strongest at noon, when the rays have the shortest distance to travel through the atmosphere.) What is the UV exposure of your region at this time of year? Tampa is at 28 degrees north latitude, which puts us in the middle of the subtropics. The sun’s rays travel through less atmosphere to reach us here than in the northern latitudes. The shortest path of all is to the Equator at noon.

Stay indoors at midday

This is a piece of advice the experts and agencies all agree on. Staying indoors at midday is such a time-honored tradition in sunny countries that the entire culture is built around it. In some places, businesses shut down in the middle of the day for the “siesta.” All social activity ceases, resuming in mid-afternoon. Before there was air conditioning, this was essential in such climates.

Wear protective clothing

While loose-weave fabrics are cooler, openings between the yarns allow UV radiation to pass through the fabric and reach the skin. Tightly woven or knit fabrics provide the best protection against the sun. Heat and visible light are reflected from light-colored fabrics, but UV radiation passes through to the skin. Darker colors block harmful UV rays.

Modern technology has taken the concept of protective clothing into the new millennium by developing specific synthetic fabrics that block most UV rays. FDA-approved fabrics are guaranteed to reduce UV radiation by 97% or more. Type “sun protective clothing” into your favorite search engine.

From the extra-wide-brimmed sombreros of Mexico to the prairie bonnets and cowboy hats of the Wild West, hats are the traditional way to shield our faces from the sun. A study at Queensland University in Australia showed the risk to farmers of getting skin cancer was one hundred times greater if they did not wear a hat.

In Victorian times, a parasol was part of every woman’s wardrobe and used whenever she went out in the sun. White skin is no longer in fashion, but a bad sunburn is neither smart nor stylish. If you’re on the beach at noon, get under that umbrella!

Safe sunbathing for health

Once you have determined your own Personal Sun Profile, the most important thing is to find out how much unprotected sun your body needs for good health.

Sunbathing for health is different from sunbathing for a deep, dark tan. The basic rule of thumb is to take care not to burn. Start by exposing your skin to the sun only a few minutes a day.

Sunscreens

Studies have found that people using sunscreen are now spending more time in the sun. The greatest increase in skin cancer was found in countries where chemical sunscreens have been heavily promoted. Even natural sunscreen can interfere with your skin’s ability to produce vitamin D, a nutrient essential to the body’s functioning and to its safety from flu and other diseases.

Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide reflect, scatter, and absorb both UVA and UVB rays. These ingredients typically do not produce allergic reactions, but zinc oxide is an immune system toxin and a respiratory toxicant, along with possible reproductive interference.

According to the Environmental Working Group website Skin Deep (http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2), many FDA-approved active ingredients have health concerns.

If you want to give your skin a darker tan color naturally without going out in the sun, try this concoction:

HOMEMADE NATURAL SUNLESS TANNING LOTION

1)         Boil ¾ cup pure water and brew strong tea with 3 black-tea bags.

2)         Put ¼ cup tea into a blender with ¼ cup lanolin and ¼ cup seasame oil.

3)         Blend at low speed.

4)         Add remaining tea steadily.

5)         Spread sparingly on your skin (try a patch in a hidden spot first to test the color).

Conclusion

Like so many things, exposure to the sun is beneficial when used in moderation, harmful when overdone. Hopefully now you have a better idea of where to draw the line.

Recommended additional reading:

Debra’s Guide to Choosing Natural Sun Protection, the 28-page eBook by Debra Lynn Dadd from which this article was excerpted. The full text includes the complete skin types chart, additional factors contributing to UV exposure, a UV Index chart according to skin type, and much more. Available for $5.00 here.

Reclaiming the Sun

(Why We Need It And How to Get It Safely)

The summer solstice—the longest day of the year—occurred last week. This ushers in the months of the year where the sunlight is the most intense, so it is a perfect time to reexamine our relationship to this great life-giver. Unfortunately, there is a great fear of the sun today. And this fear is being cultivated to sell millions of dollars worth of products to protect our skin from cancer.

The bad rap the sun has been getting is an understandable result of the discovery of the ozone layer, and the potential for an increased exposure to ultraviolet  rays.  We have been thoroughly warned away from the sun, and persuaded to cover ourselves completely with sun blocks.

But there have been recent  rumblings in the scientific community that we may have been premature in banishing the sun from our lives.

This perception of the sun is very different from how the sun has been regarded since the beginning of our species, which is a bringer of life. From early times, people could see that the abundance of life forms on earth came and went through the seasons of the year in correspondence with the strength of the sun.

Living things need the light of the sun to grow and flourish—and our bodies are no exception. The interaction of sunlight with skin produces Vitamin D, a vital nutrient that is not adequate in our modern diet. Vitamin D occurs naturally in egg yolks, liver, yeast, shrimp, salmon, tuna, and fish liver oils, and is added to fortified milk and enriched bread. However, sunlight is still needed to help the body synthesize vitamin D from these sources. Vitamin D is essential to the optimal function of every cell, tissue, organ and system in our bodies.

So important is our ability to synthesize vitamin D to our health that our bodies have a mechanism—skin color—to ensure that the right amount of sun reaches our skins, regardless of where an individual dwells on Earth. The first humans lived near the equator. Their bodies developed dark skin rich with melanin that protected them against burning, while still letting enough sunlight penetrate the skin to make vitamin D. As migrating tribes started to move away from the equator into areas where the sun became progressively weaker, their skins became lighter and lighter—less and less pigmented—to make best use of the available sun.

Sunlight activates the body’s absorption of calcium and other minerals. So simply taking a calcium or mineral supplement or eating foods containing these nutrients isn’t enough. Our bodies need sunlight to assimilate them.

Since ancient times, sunbathing was considered a restorative for health. Even cave paintings show an understanding that exposure to sun was essential to life. The healing powers of the sun were celebrated by ancient peoples around the world, from the Eqyptians, Greeks and Romans to the Aztecs and Incas.

Prior to the discovery of penicillin in 1938, sunshine was routinely used to treat many ills. Conditions known to be helped by sunshine therapy include tuberculosis, colitis, anemia, gout, cystitis, arteriosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, acne, herpes, lupus, sciatica, asthma, and kidney problems.

Modern studies have shown that exposure to sunlight can

•           lower blood pressure

•           uplift mood

•           enhance the immune system

•           lower blood sugar in diabetics

•           help us tolerate stress

•           increase the efficiency of the heart

•           reduce cholesterol

•           assist in weight loss

•           stimulate the thyroid gland

•           improve psoriasis

•           kill infectious bacteria

•           improve asthma

•           increase sex hormones

•           increase the hormones that affects the body’s responses to sunlight and darkness

…and have other good effects.

So as we reintroduce ourselves to this vital part of life itself, we can also approach it wisely. Our relationship with the sun can be like our relationship to fire—when its nature is respected, we can harness fire to meet our own human needs for heat and light. When we disregard the laws of fire, however, it can destroy and kill.

In times past, the human customs revolved around respect of the sun. Whole cultures have developed around staying indoors during the heat of midday and doing the activities of life during the morning and evening. Clothing and shelter reflected local needs to shade or capture the sun.

It’s important to both allow your body the benefits of the sun while also protecting your skin from the most damaging rays. The best way to do this is to forget about sunscreen and sunglasses and develop your own “safe sun strategy.” We will have much more regarding safe ways to get more sun in Part 2, coming in our next issue.

The sun is essential to life on Earth. Let’s return to celebrating it as a positive influence and utilizing it for our good.