Absence of sun exposure more likely to cause cancer than excessive exposure

By Dr Eric Berg

What I’m about to tell you will probably make you dismiss it and walk away. But before you do, read carefully. Avoiding the sun can be just as dangerous as smoking cigarettes. I know you probably think I’m exaggerating, but be careful. There is a link between at least 17 different types of cancer and vitamin D deficiency, as well as autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular disease.

Vitamin D is intimately involved in over 2,000 different genes in our bodies. Our immune system absolutely cannot function without vitamin D. And look at this. It’s almost impossible to get the vitamin D you need from your diet. You get between five and 10%, and that’s if you eat oily fish, animal guts, lots of egg yolks, which many people don’t even do. The other 90% to 95% of your vitamin D comes from the sun.

Now look at the statistics. There are over 5,000 deaths a year worldwide from overexposure to the sun. But look at how many people die from the opposite, from not getting enough sun: 1,684,677 people every year. In other words, there are 329 times as many people who are negatively affected by lack of sunlight as those who are exposed to it. This is based on a fascinating book called Embrace the Sun by Mark Sorensen, who reviewed and evaluated 1,300 different studies on the subject. He concluded that for every person who dies from overexposure to the sun, there are 329 people who die from lack of sun exposure.

I mean, just think about the prevailing recommendation for sun exposure from the American Dermatology Association: “You need to stay out of the sun. And if you are in the sun, use sunscreen, because the sun is dangerous. But even in the early 19th century, there were sanatoriums where you could go to get sun therapy for tuberculosis, asthma and many other diseases.

What about melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer? In 1935, one in 1500 people developed melanoma. In 2014, one in 50 people developed melanoma. And if you compare these two periods in the past, we’ve had a lot more sun. We were on the farm. Today we’re indoors. 75% of all melanomas are found in areas where we don’t expose our skin to the sun. It’s the lack of sun that puts you at risk of melanoma. And I’m not talking about being out in the sun all the time and exposing yourself to the point of burning. You should never do that. I’m talking about a moderate amount of sun, so you don’t get burned.

But there’s something else that the sun gives us to protect us from cancer: 70% of the sun’s rays are ultraviolet, 39% are in the visible spectrum, and 54% of all the sun’s rays are infrared. Infrared rays (the opposite of ultraviolet) are a powerful stimulant for melatonin production, and 90% to 95% of all melatonin is produced by this interaction between infrared rays and your skin. They also increase the production of subcellular melatonin. So there are two things that protect the mitochondria, vitamin D and melatonin. Both are activated by moderate exposure to the sun. I know there will be people who disagree with me because we’ve been so indoctrinated that the sun is suddenly really bad for us. But I hope you can at least take a different view and look at the information. I think your next step should be to start getting more sun. Get out more often, even for an hour a day in the sun.