Again with the letters.... "U" and "V"

Well heck.

http://thyroid.about.com/od/newscontroversies/a/sunscreen.htm
"chemicals called MBC and benzophenone 2 (BP2), frequently found in sunscreen and cosmetics are ...potent disruptors of the pituitary-thyroid hormonal system in rats. It's early days, but if the same effect is discovered in humans, then we may have to rethink how we protect children and those with existing thyroid problems or those in iodine-deficient areas from sun exposure."

I've long been of the opinion that sunscreen is evil. Unfortunately, I'm one of the pale people and it is a necessary reality in my life.

A few years ago I read an excellent paper talking about Vitamin D, sun exposure, and health. I originally was tipped off to this by Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org)

"[The] trial involving 1,200 women, and found those taking the vitamin had about a 60-per-cent reduction in cancer incidence, compared with those who didn't take it, a drop so large — twice the impact on cancer attributed to smoking — it almost looks like a typographical error. And in an era of pricey medical advances, the reduction seems even more remarkable because it was achieved with an over-the-counter supplement costing pennies a day. One of the researchers who made the discovery, professor of medicine Robert Heaney of Creighton University in Nebraska, says vitamin D deficiency is showing up in so many illnesses besides cancer that nearly all disease figures in Canada and the U.S. will need to be re-evaluated. 'We don't really know what the status of chronic disease is in the North American population,' he said, 'until we normalize vitamin D status.'" http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/29/0724246

Fascinated by this blurb, I went to the original article in the Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070428.wxvitamin28/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

I was struck by the following quote (made, of course, much more exciting by being taken out of context - do go read the original article)

"The sun advice has been misguided information "of just breathtaking proportions," said John Cannell, head of the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit, California-based organization.
"Fifteen hundred Americans die every year from [skin cancers]. Fifteen hundred Americans die every day from the serious cancers." "

Taking the source back another step, I read through a few of Reinhold Vieth's papers, and came across this beauty: http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/3/422 : "We found strong evidence to support the hypothesis that vitamin D could help prevent breast cancer. However, our results suggest that exposure earlier in life, particularly during breast development, maybe most relevant."

Having read these, I don't wear sunscreen on a day-to-day basis. That means that if I'm having a very indoorsy kind of day, I'll get at least 20 minutes or so on my hands and face (more in the summertime) running errands and taking the dog out. If I'm not going out at all, I'll go sun myself for about 10 or 15 minutes in a bikini if possible. Otherwise I stick to the shade and have a nice big sun hat. If I'm sailing, hiking, or going to be in sunshine for long enough to burn, then I bite the bullet and put on sunscreen. I'd rather wear a longsleeve shirt though. I eat salmon, drink milk from grass fed cows, and take a supplement.

This amount of sun exposure usually gives me just enough of a tan so that I don't burn if I end up being outside for an hour in the summer in Minnesota without other protection. In previous years when I kept myself too pale, I could burn too easily and would actually burn more often than I do now.

Hm. I've just realized that in recent years, I've rarely worn shorts in the summertime, and I usually have a long sleeve shirt on. I wonder if that has been a hypothyroidism symptom? Will be interesting to see if my clothing choices change this summer.