Today, I thought I would share what I have shared with my private clients the past couple of months. If you have downloaded Healthy Living Strategies and Cancer Prevention Guide, then you know the importance of vitamin D. If you are interested in protecting yourself from whatever colds, flu or viruses may be coming our way this fall, then you for sure want to be able to capture as much summer fun as possible!

Since my daughter’s cancer diagnosis and treatment over a decade ago, I have rarely used sunscreen. I used to burn first, then slowly tan. I tend to be fairer skinned with my green eyes and Scottish heritage. I also have an autoimmune condition called vitiligo and I co-lead a Vanishing Vitiligo Group. This is caused by damaged melanocytes, so that areas of skin do not tan and too much sun can cause burning, pain and itchiness. This can lead to fear of the sun. The story doesn’t end here. Like everything else in life, balance is key.

The dose is the medicine or the poison. 

The primary way to get your healthy dose of vitamin D is through the sun! Sunscreen blocks your body from getting essential vitamin D from the sun. So does a diet high in High Fructose Corn Syrup. This is a cheap, hyper-palatable sweetener in so many processed foods.

Vitamin D is a pre-hormone. It can turn on and off cancer cells at the stem cell level! Nothing else does this. Not chemotherapy, not radiation and not surgery, the three main tools to fight cancer. So, instead of fighting ourselves, I believe it makes sense to make love, not war. What is a self-loving thing to do? This is the advice I gave to our cancer clients when I built an integrative program for a large hematology/oncology group.

Warning, this is exactly the opposite of the standard advice
and may include simple old-fashioned common sense.

Get as much sun as you can, without sunscreen and without burning. The best time to get good vitamin D is between 10 and 2pm when the sun is the strongest. If you are fair like me, then you may only be able to tolerate a few minutes at first, or start with before 10am and after 2pm. Your body will let you know as you have an inborn fire alarm. The skin turns pink or starts to itch. Then you can cover up with hats, clothing and safe sunscreen. Sunscreens turn off the fire alarm, but do not prevent tissue damage below. Could this be one reason that skin cancers have continued to rise, despite the sunscreen campaigns. 

Melanocytes, the cells that turn to tan, can inhibit vitamin D. The darker the skin, the more sun you need to get a healthy daily dose. At the clinic, every single cancer patient tested had suboptimal or deficient levels of vitamin D. Vitamins A and D are essential for a healthy functioning immune system (turning off cancer genes and turning on cancer prevention genes) as well as for healthy epithelial linings. This includes the epithelial lining of the skin, the lining of the lungs, the gastrointestinal tract and even the arteries that lead to your heart have an epithelial lining. You can also take supplemental vitamin D, but too much can lower your vitamin A levels, so I prefer a multivitamin. You also need adequate magnesium and vitamin K before supplementing safely with vitamin D alone. This is where micronutrient testing can be a valuable investment. 

Speaking of skin cancer, if you have a history of basal-cell or squamous-cell carcinoma, believed to be caused by too much UV radiation, see the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, on how nicotinamide (vitamin B3) can be protective.1

Another one from Orthomolecular News states vitamin B3 even helps repair your DNA and is important to counter chemotherapeutic side effects. 2

Anecdotally, when we were at the integrative cancer clinic, one of the patients with very fair irish skin shared a story of going kayaking and camping and forgetting her sunscreen. She put blueberries on her face for the high antioxidant content and prevented a sunburn. Now I am not advocating that we all walk around with blueberries on our face! However, I will share my two favorite sunscreens. Both from direct sales companies that I use and like to promote.

Beauty Counter sunscreens are some of the easiest to spread. Beauty Counter works hard to bring “better beauty” and safer cosmetics to market. Cosmetics have little to no oversight and are commonly laden with carcinogens. This B corp company’s mission is to change this. BeautyCounter has a non-aerosol sunscreen mist in a-travel-sized 3oz can that is free from known endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemicals that also damage our ocean reefs.

For household cleaning and skin care products that are 100% guaranteed non-toxic and organic, my go to is PureHaven. They are also 100% sourced in the United States and are a small business also committed to supporting direct sales and providing income opportunities to those invested in safe cleaning and skin care products. I like the four different sunscreen options for the face, body, a cool stick (that I personally carry in my tennis bag), and lip balm. They are also “reef safe”, so we save our precious environment too! To find other safer sunscreens, visit https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/

Most importantly, have faith in your bodies’ ability to heal from within and go have some safe summer fun!

References:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1506197
http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v17n05.shtml

With Love and Gratitude,
Lisa Jackson