The sun is GOOD for you?

[Travesty]

Does he also suggest injecting yourself with your own urine and using pumpkin seed to control herpes outbreaks? I've run into people on the Internet that honestly believed those things. Hilarious.

Everything causes cancer, but I'd say the sun is more likely to give it to you than the chemicals in your sunblock.

[x-x-X-Some_Girl-X-x-x]

Travesty

Does he also suggest injecting yourself with your own urine and using pumpkin seed to control herpes outbreaks? I've run into people on the Internet that honestly believed those things. Hilarious.

Everything causes cancer, but I'd say the sun is more likely to give it to you than the chemicals in your sunblock.

The sun can't be more likely to cause cancer. The sun doesn't contain toxins that sunblock does. The toxins are what cause the tumors.

[Blitzkrieg Beauty]

Vitamin D, dear.

And, keep wearing sunscreen because burns aren't good for you, and it does help prevent skin cancer.
Also, don't stare into the sun, that's just stupid.

[Bandaid Porn]

Yume_Megami

Don't believe everything you read.

Duh.

[Screaming Wombat]

I call bullshit on the sunblock thing. I just spent 6 hours under the baking sun today with hardly any shade and you better ******** believe my skin is on fire right now.

But the sun is in fact very healthy, the truth is a lot of people have vitamin D deficiencies which could easily be obtained via sunlight, and these deficiencies can lead to cancer in the future if the problem is too severe.
Of course, if you don't want to stand out in the sun you can always just eat some sun dried shitake mushrooms.

And about the idea of going out into the sun the second you get sick, I would actually recommend that. There's an emerging field of psychology referred to as "eco-psychology" that examines the connections between nature and our mind, which as revealed some very interesting secrets.
Patients in a hospital with a room overlooking a green grass lawn or anything else growing were examined to heal faster than those with similar ailments placed in a room that overlooks a parking lot.
I imagine the effect is all the same with sunlight, ample amounts of sunlight should raise optimism and speed up the healing process.

[Risa de Navi]

Idk about that sungazing, cuz I'm not sure about what the sun looks like after/before rising/setting. (when the sun is bright, don't look at it. seriously.)
But the sun is good for you with the vitamin D and energy and everything. People need sunlight. However, too much sun is bad for you. Sunscreen does not give you skin cancer--if it did, the majority of people would have melanoma and such by now, hm? Besides, spending a lot of time in the sun with little protection/sunscreen/whatever can cause your skin to be more easily damaged by the sun, which is obviously unhealthy. So, that book you were reading is partially correct but mostly wrong--sunscreen is good for you!
+ The sickness thing, that sounds reasonable to me. Sunlight is natural and healthy, so it probaby does help you heal. Good call. (:

[maffew c]

im like vampire pale and i barely get sick

[SunshineShal]

I really think that the sunscrren thing is bougus. It's the sun that causes skin cancer, not sunscreen. It protects skin. Trust me, I'd know because my grandparents both had it and had to get it removed. But, the sun is good for you. All of the others are right. Personally, I love the sun on my skin because it feels great, but I'd rather put sunscreen on and still feel the sun.

[Generically Unique]

Screaming Wombat

I call bullshit on the sunblock thing. I just spent 6 hours under the baking sun today with hardly any shade and you better ******** believe my skin is on fire right now.

But the sun is in fact very healthy, the truth is a lot of people have vitamin D deficiencies which could easily be obtained via sunlight, and these deficiencies can lead to cancer in the future if the problem is too severe.
Of course, if you don't want to stand out in the sun you can always just eat some sun dried shitake mushrooms.

And about the idea of going out into the sun the second you get sick, I would actually recommend that. There's an emerging field of psychology referred to as "eco-psychology" that examines the connections between nature and our mind, which as revealed some very interesting secrets.
Patients in a hospital with a room overlooking a green grass lawn or anything else growing were examined to heal faster than those with similar ailments placed in a room that overlooks a parking lot.
I imagine the effect is all the same with sunlight, ample amounts of sunlight should raise optimism and speed up the healing process.

This man speaks the truth...ALTHOUGH...some sunscreens, if used excessively, can cause damage to your skin, but not cause cancer unless if you eat it... eek

To add to his argument, sunlight also makes the brain produce more serotonin and dopamine, both contributing in decreasing depression symptoms.
More serotonin + dopamine = better mood = better health overall. So yes, the sun can HELP some diseases by a psychological effect, just like how they bring animals into sick wards to bring the moods up to the ill - A better mood increases your body's defense.

I'm currently taking a eco-psychology course in my college, as well as a bunch of others taken previously...all of them said a better state of mind contributes to a better state of health.

Why do you think there wasn't as much depression back in the days when people stayed outside all of the time?

But yeah, if you go out in the sun all day without sunblock, you will get sunburn, repeated actions such as these can and will most likely cause skin damage and cancer...if not...a leather face!

Remember - use sunblock, but go for the more natural ones...natural is always better.

[firefly_055]

Tsuguayme

Gabunni

Yeah, tell that to my 3 month old sunburn.
Perhaps you can get away with not wearing sunblock for fear of the cancer, but I happen to be a redhead living in a country with no freaking ozone over it. The sun is going to kill me before the screen does.

3 month old sunburn? Whooooooaaaa, how does THAT happen? That's amazing... yet horrible. I feel sorry for you.

Yeah, 3 months and still not faded away yet. I went on holiday to an exceptionally sunny part of New Zealand, which as I said is situated under the hole in the ozone layer. The sun in my country is some of the most dangerous in the world.

I have Celtic roots, so even with sunscreen I got burnt. The worst of it was when I went surfing and had so much fun I forgot to reapply as often as I should have. My entire back crusted over and a huge bubble of boiled skin came up on my shoulder. I have a picture of it if anyone needs convincing sun is bad for you without protection.

This was at the end of January this year. My skins texture has gone back to normal but I still have huge lines where my skin was burnt that are taking a long time to go away. I hate to think of what damage its done to my body, melanomas are one of the most common cancers in New Zealand. I normally keep out of the sun and only expose my face and forearms and calves when out, but I don't know if I'll stay in New Zealand once I'm finished school. It's just so dangerous, especially for me.

[x-x-X-Some_Girl-X-x-x]

Blitzkrieg Beauty

Vitamin D, dear.

And, keep wearing sunscreen because burns aren't good for you, and it does help prevent skin cancer.
Also, don't stare into the sun, that's just stupid.

well staring into the sun when it's really bright is stupid >.<

[Axis of Fabulousness]

Light from the sun makes our body produce Vitamin D, which is essential in building up our bones. Too little Vitamin D is EXTREMELY bad for you, especially when you get older and are more susceptible to bone breakage anyway. But don't overdo it. There's nothing healthy about baking yourself. The thing about looking at the sun I think is supposed to be psychological. I read somewhere that having sunlight in your room when you wake up gives you an early-morning boost or soemthing like that. Looking INTO the sun, however, can't be healthy. You need your retinas.

[Kitten West]

Well, vitamin D deficiency can cause a lot of problems, and once people who have it start going in the sun (IN MODERATION) it does feel like a miracle cure. This happened with my mom. The author might be playing off of that because so many people have the deficiency and don't know it. Among other things.

However excess vitamin D could kill me, so it would be ridiculous to tell me to go into the sun to cure my illness wouldn't it?

I think needing vitamin D is the only medical reason to get sun exposure. And for SAD of course, which may be linked to vitamin D deficiency as well.

It's true that sunscreens can contain ingredients that are "iffy", but it's just like any other drug... you have to weigh the potential risks against the benefits. It's also true that sunscreens aren't always as effective as they claim to be.

Check out this article and it's list of recommended sunscreens:
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens/summary.php

[x-x-X-Some_Girl-X-x-x]

Bandaid Porn

Yume_Megami

Don't believe everything you read.

Duh.

I don't believe everything I read...I would be dead by now if that were the case. But this makes sense. He doesn't mean go sit out in the sun till you get a sunburn. He means for a while each day when the sun isn't at its hottest point. Companies want to sell their products. How would they sell sunblock if the world knew that sun was good for you? o.o

[BlackTooth]

If this has been posted earlier I apologize, I haven't read the entire thread:

The sun is like most things; good in moderation but too much of a good thing is too much. Too little of a good thing would be, well, too little!