How to Use Sunshine to Prevent and Treat Cancer

Cancer Prevention and Treatment with Sunshine
Fresno, CA

As I wrote in my last two blogs, getting enough vitamin D is essential to preventing cancer and it is likely greatly helpful in treating cancer. As you know, we can make vitamin D from sunshine. But, not all sunshine is equal when it comes to making vitamin D.

It is only a very small part of sunshine that we can make D with, it is the UVB part of the spectrum. 99% of the UVB from the sun is filtered out by the ozone layer. And when the sun is on the horizon, the amount of atmosphere the light has to travel through filters out the last one percent. So for the first and last several hours of each day, we cannot make vitamin D from the sunlight that reaches the earth's surface.

Now during the winter, if you live north of the latitude of San Diego, the sun is so low on the horizon all day that no UVB reaches us at all during the winter. We rely on body stores of D from the summer or from our diet. Most illnesses and conditions including cancers get worse or have relapses more often during the winter months than during the summer, and lack of sun leading to low D is now thought to be the reason.

The further away from the equator you live, the longer the time is during the winter where there is no UVB to make D with. Also, the more smog there is, the less UVB reaches the ground level, and of course the more clouds there are, the less UVB. One clear set of data showing evidence for sunshine's role in causing cancer is an overlap of colon cancer incidence rates per region and a map of the amount of sunshine per region. The less the sunshine, the higher the rates of colon cancer. With one nuance, the New England area has a higher rate of colon cancer than should be predicted with the amount of sunshine. But when overlapping the map of the thickness of the ozone, we see that the ozone is unusually thick over New England. This means that more UVB is filtered out in this region than in other regions, even when the sun is shining!

So it's not just sunshine, it is UVB that matters. The amount of UVB reaching the planet is mostly affected by your distance from the equator, but it also depends on time of year, time of day, weather, pollution, and elevation above sea level. The closer to noon, the closer to mid summer, the less the cloud cover (clouds will block at least 20% of the 1% of the UVB that makes it through the ozone), and the higher the elevation, the more UVB is available.

To prevent or treat cancer we need 60-80ng/ml 25OH vit D blood levels. The only way to know your level is to get a blood test (www.grassrootshealth.net). We can make up to 20,000 units of D on our skin in 20 minutes of sunshine exposure at the right time of day and season. But don't wash your skin with soap right away because the D is made on top of your skin, not in it. It needs time to absorb. Soap will wash off some or most of the D if applied too soon after sun exposure. This is one reason cats and dogs lick themselves so much, their D is made from sun shining on oils that have migrated to the tip of their fur. They then lick the vitamin D off their fur and swallow it.

Another variable to making vitamin D from sunshine is skin color. The darker your skin color, the longer you need to spend in the sun to make the same amount of D as a lighter skinned person. The time difference between a dark black person and a fair skinned red head, can be ten times more. In fact, with dark enough skin, it is impossible to get enough D from sunshine for optimal health if you are further than a certain distance from the equator. Again, check your blood levels with a blood test to know for sure.

Dr.John B. Campise, D.C.
5035 E. Belmont #D
Fresno, CA 93727
www.campise-chiropractor-fresno.com