For years we have been told to avoid the sun to reduce the chances of getting skin cancer. This is very important for places that have strong sun. But I would suggest we have we gone overboard and inculcated a fear of the sun to such an extent that sun avoidance is leading to vitamin D deficiencies that cause other deaths. Current research suggests the sun is one of nature’s cancer remedies rather than a cause.

Skin cancers are a major health problem. Those greatest at risk are people who have lived or worked long hours outside with long hours in the sun. We were taught to use lots of sunscreen lotion, wear a hat and long sleeved clothes to stop the negative effects of the sun. But this means that we have also lost the vitamin D that our skin makes from the sun’s rays and this has unintended negative consequences.

Back in 1985 the Lancet, one of the top prestigious medical journals and not known for promoting natural cancer remedies, published an article which showed that cancer of the colon was much more common in areas where there was the least sun. High vitamin D levels have been shown to reduce the rates of colon cancer by two thirds in a two decade long study. In Australia the numbers of those who die from skin cancer and those who die of colon cancer due to lack of vitamin D (and sun) are very similar.

This is just one cancer. There is now strong research to show that other cancers including breast, ovary, prostate, bladder, esophagus, kidney, lung, pancreas, rectum, stomach, uterus and non-Hodgkins lymphoma can be prevented by much higher levels of vitamin D than is usual in the population. Low levels of vitamin D in women is correlated with twice the risk of breast cancer than in those women with high levels. As a result it can be seen that the sun is one of nature’s cancer remedies preventing a lot more cancers than it causes.