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Bring Me Sunshine... (Health)
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Following on from our recent discussion on the benefits of vitamin D, I started to take D3 supplements in the hope that it would reduce my blood pressure and maybe improve my eczema.

The effect on my blood pressure was dramatic but my eczema remained unchanged... however a chronically painful elbow (which caused me to give up golf) is now pain free.

Anyway, I figured that since I was ingesting the D3 rather than it being produced directly in the skin, my eczema would benefit more from U.V. exposure... so I bought a sunbed and dropped the supplements.

After just a few weeks, my blood pressure is even better and my eczema has shown a great improvement. And because vitamin D is synthesised in the skin (from cholesterol) I also expect my blood cholesterol levels to have dropped (yes they were very high too).

So... while I was laying on the sunbed I got to thinking about the supposed risk of skin cancer from the use of sunbeds (and sunbathing in general) and two thoughts came immediately to mind:

1) People have always exposed themselves to the sun... but the rise in skin cancers only came about when they started to slap sunblock all over themselves.
2) Most people who normally use sunbeds are the very same people that slap on the sunblock and lie in the sun as often (and for as long) as possible.

It looks to me like sunblock is to blame for the increase in skin cancer... filtering out the beneficial rays and encouraging people to spend longer exposed to more dangerous unfiltered wavelengths.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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It looks to me like sunblock is to blame for the increase in skin cancer... filtering out the beneficial rays and encouraging people to spend longer exposed to more dangerous unfiltered wavelengths.


Brilliant hypothesis!
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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I know you can get U.V. therapy on the N.H.S. to treat eczema... but I'm not aware of anybody (until now) advocating its use in the treatment of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.

Umm... must open up a clinic... Any potential investors?

{We could do with a bona fide medic... Do we have one of those?... What about Mallas?... He has the right avatar.}
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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We use only a small part of the available spectrum to synthesize vitamin D. Surely the body would utilize the entire spectrum for a variety of functions.

Is the use of sunblock (together with the general bad press given to sun exposure) robbing us also of other vital photo-biochemical processes?
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Rocky



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Chad wrote:
1) People have always exposed themselves to the sun... but the rise in skin cancers only came about when they started to slap sunblock all over themselves.


No, that's not true. People that live in Northern Australia who are of Scottish/Irish/English origin have always had some of the highest skin cancer rates in the world, well before the advent of sunscreen.

Though people of Scottish/Irish/English origin living in Northern Australia have lower rates of MS than Scottish/Irish/English people living in Britain.

It will be interesting to see if there is an epidemic of MS 20 years down the road in Australia. If so, then we can say that sunblock causes MS.
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Rocky wrote:
Though people of Scottish/Irish/English origin living in Northern Australia have lower rates of MS than Scottish/Irish/English people living in Britain.


It would be interesting to see how the two groups compare in terms of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia... not to mention diabetes, heart disease, arthritis...
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Good to see Sir Alex has been following my advice:

Sir Alex Ferguson told Harvard Business School that he had tanning booths installed at Manchester United's training ground to compensate for the lack of sun in Manchester.
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Free-Radical



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Remember the chief problem of biological science: isolating the variables! ("Demarcation" is the formal term, I think.) And "variable" is an especially crucial word in this case. Besides the advent of sunscreen, modern times and modern life styles have brought some other changes in how we are exposed to the sun. Most important, I suspect, is the very high variability of that exposure. With the development of artificial light, most of us have taken to staying indoors and only going outside to get into a vehicle of some sort. Then, every so often we have a "vacation" and frequently spend it getting a hugely increased amount of sun exposure.

It's difficult to imagine how we could unbalance exercise like this. If you sat on your arse for 50 weeks a year and then suddenly tried to run a marathon, you'd collapse before completing the first mile. While it's true that our skin must have a natural ability to deal with damage from sunlight, like all other biological systems it has to have time to adjust. There are resources to be marshaled within the body. Making sudden huge demands after a long period of laxity is going to have consequences. Maybe skin cancer is one of the consequences of not letting skin adjust to sunlight on a naturally gradual (seasonal) basis.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Good thinking.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
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The clocks went back today and it occurred to me that it was a good guide to mental health -- so long as you didn't know it was happening (and it doesn't apply when the clocks are going forward which is always a nuisance).

When I noticed from my computer that it was an hour earlier than I thought it was I was momentarily displeased. When this has previously happened I have been, so far as I can recall, momentarily pleased. An extra hour! So presumably I have reached that stage in life when every day is somewhat burdensome and to be got through as quickly as possible. Can this really be true?
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Mick Harper wrote:
When I noticed from my computer that it was an hour earlier than I thought it was I was momentarily displeased.


Perhaps you regretted having not enjoyed an extra hour of sleep.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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Sleep is neutral in my mind. Though I saw a recent telly programme that claimed that an extra hour's sleep is wholly beneficial. Which is of course contrary to the Puritan View of Life.
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Boreades


In: finity and beyond
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Free-Radical wrote:
While it's true that our skin must have a natural ability to deal with damage from sunlight, like all other biological systems it has to have time to adjust. There are resources to be marshaled within the body. Making sudden huge demands after a long period of laxity is going to have consequences. Maybe skin cancer is one of the consequences of not letting skin adjust to sunlight on a naturally gradual (seasonal) basis.


Many of these "shock exposure" effects are felt by tourists emerging from their office burrows and blinking in what for them is an abnormal amount of normal daylight.

This reminds me of the incidences of cancer from natural background radiation. When articles on radon gases were in the hysterical phase, orthodoxy used to speculate that in places like Cornwall there must be a more-or-less linear correlation between the amount of natural background radiation and cancer. (More rad, more cancer) In fact, for people that have been born and raised in Cornwall, it's not the case. Maybe the low level background radiation stimulates the immune system, or maybe it's the sunshine.
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Brian Ambrose



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Sleep detoxifies the brain:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/31/sleep-brain-detoxification.aspx
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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This was the research I was referring to. The AE point is that we are taught from all sources and from a very early stage that
Early to bed, early to rise
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise

whereas this research clearly indicates that it should be: early to bed, late to rise

However, society is clearly organised (qua school and then work) on the principle of getting up early whatever time you went to bed so presumably miserable, neurotic, sleep-deprived indviduals are best for keeping society going.

AE-ists can take advantage of everybody else keeping society going by adopting the principle of
Late to bed, even later to rise
Makes a man healthy, poor and wise.
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