Let the sun shine,let the sun shine in!

"Vitamin D is nicknamed 'the sunshine vitamin' because the skin makes it from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but dermatologists and health agencies have long preached that such lotions are needed to prevent skin cancer. Now some scientists are questioning that advice.

"The reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for preventing and even treating many types of cancer. In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

"Many people aren't getting enough vitamin D. It's hard to do from food and fortified milk alone, and supplements are problematic. So the thinking is this: Even if too much sun leads to skin cancer, which is rarely deadly, too little sun may be worse.

"No one is suggesting that people fry on a beach. But many scientists believe that 'safe sun' -- [at least] 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen -- is not only possible but helpful to health."

How is it that we've been led to think otherwise? How could the star that makes life possible on this planet be responsible for destabilizing and producing disease? Think about it: when have you heard about indigenous peoples or those who live in more traditional (less technological and science-saturated) societies developing cancer at the rate that it manifests in this and other Western countries? Why do you think that is? I'd say it's because such people live in a more knowledgable and holistic manner with the environment.

I've long thought that the increased incidence of skin cancer and other disorders is related to the food that we eat. If the things that we put into our bodies aren't nourished and energized by the Sun -- and instead processed by machines and packed into boxes and cans and plastic containers --, then our bodies won't be taking in phytochemicals and other materials that would, in turn, enable us to assimilate and gain vitality from the Sun's energy (or withstand and cleanse ourselves of the pollutants and other materials that our technological society has produced).

And to go back to the first line from the story: Doesn't it seem likely that inhibiting the production of a necessary vitamin by slathering a synthetic lubricant on the skin would do something to degrade one's health?