The Ongoing Quest to Bust Up Health Fads

So says the people who sell sunscreen. 

You know I love exposing medical myths. You know, that running will ruin your knees. Or that oxygen will stop people from breathing. Or that wine will open your arteries and prevent heart attacks. Another one is that we should all use sunscreen to prevent melanoma. That is another myth worth noting here.

It's a fad. One person says it and everyone else doesn't even question it. It's what you call group think. And I've always been the skeptical one. If everyone else is thinking one thing, you know there's something wrong with it. And there usually is. There's usually some study somewhere that proves them wrong. Or, in the case of the hypoxic drive theory, over 100 studies. 

So, I have worn sunscreen at times in my life. And I make my kids wear it, at least if we are going to be sitting at the beach all day. Or, at least I do this until they have nice tans. Once they have nice tans what's the point? When I was a kid I never wore sunscreen. And we always had nice tans. And we never got melanoma. After your skin was nice and dark, we never got sunburns. We never got skin cancer. 

Some people with certain skin conditions need sunscreen. If they don't use it they will have this problem or that. They will get sun burned easily. I'm not talking about using common sense. But, for the most of us, there is absolutely no evidence that sunscreen prevents melanoma. If you are going to get it, you are going to get it regardless of whether or not you use sunscreen. We all get something. There's no point in fear mongering. 

This past week my daughter participated in track and field day. I was told to send my daughter with sunscreen. I did not. She already has a tan on her face and arms. There was no need for her to use sunscreen. Other parents chided me for this. And guess what? My daughter did not get burned even though she didn't wear it. Ha ha. I win. 

But, my point is, sunscreen is nice sometimes. But, it isn't always needed. You don't need to pour it on to prevent burns when you already have a tan. At least that's how it is for many of us. It will not prevent melanoma. It will not prevent skin cancer. All those people who think it does are just being sheep. They are just going along with the crowd. It's just group think. 

I am usually outside long before beach season. I have already been out in the sun. I sit out on my porch every day it's sunny. I started by sitting out for minutes at a time. Now I'm up to an hour. I have a nice tan. By the time it's warm enough to go to the beach I have a nice tan. And when everyone else is putting on sunscreen, I'm already lying in the sun and enjoying it. 

And there's always someone who is just piling it on. And this person says to me, "John, aren't you going to wear sunscreen?" 

And I say, "Nope! I don't wear it."

Then they say something like, "Well, you need to wear it. You don't want to get a sun burn. You don't want to get skin cancer." 

And I say something like, "I'm fine."

And then they look at me funny, like I'm the one who doesn't know what he's talking about. When, all along, I'm the one with the evidence on my side.

Look, there was one study recently showing sunscreen didn't prevent cancer. A Reuter report even noted this study. Then they continued to ignore the study findings and continued to be sheep.

The report said, "There isn’t much evidence to conclusively prove that daily sunscreen use can prevent most skin cancers, a research review concludes."

But the author ignores this and writes, "But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use sunscreen, doctors say. It just means it’s unethical to do experiments testing the effectiveness of sunscreen by randomly assigning some people to use it and others to skip it."

So stupid. That's what you call fake health news.

Now, you can site a study showing sunscreen did not prevent people from getting enough vitamin D. The article is from NCBI. And even the study analyzers say in their conclusion that they didn't even study high doses of sunscreen.

Look, most kids are recommended to wear so much sunscreen that they get no sun to their skin at all. I go home when my kids wear this stuff and they are white as sheep. So, no studies on how those high doses affect vitamin D absorption. But they (the sheep that be) say this is still not a reason to avoid wearing sunscreen.

See, it doesn't matter what the evidence shows, they still spin it to sell their spin. 

Look, there's no evidence that sunscreen prevents anything. In fact, a recent study actually showed that sunscreen was preventing people from absorbing enough vitamin D. And there's no way to get vitamin D except from the sun.

Oh, you want to know how these fads start. It's because of the people giving the grants. They give out grants to do these kind of research. And, of course, the people giving out these grants have agendas (i.e., big pharma, i.e. politicians). Yep! They have agendas. And as long as your study results conclude what they want you to conclude, you keep getting the money.

And, for God sakes, do you think God would give us the sun and then make it unhealthy for us? I don't think so. But that's beside the point.