The Not So Sunny Side of Sunscreen By Victoria Gregory

It’s summer and most of us have a ready-to-go beach bag filled with towels, beach toys, and of course, sunscreen. But have you given much thought to what’s in that sunscreen that you are slathering all over your and your kids’ skin?

I was at the beach last weekend and was inundated with the toxic smell of aerosol sunscreen wafting through the air. People all around me were spraying it all over their bodies and their kids’ faces without a second thought to what types of chemicals they might be inhaling and their effect on their health. After all, if it’s sold in the U.S., it must be safe! The FDA is surely looking out for us and our families, right? WRONG!

Although there have been countless articles written on the dangers of most sunscreens that you’ll find on the drugstore shelves, it seems that very few of us are paying attention. Whether at the beach or at the pool, most people are slathering themselves with known carcinogens or, worse yet (and my biggest pet peeve!), using aerosol spray-on sunscreens and releasing millions of nanoparticles (i.e., particles known for causing lung damage as well as developmental issues in animals) into the air that they (and everyone around them) is breathing.

My frustration inspired this blog, which will cover the facts and myths of sun exposure, touch on the importance of Vitamin D, talk about how to select right supplement, and of course, sunscreens (i.e., what to avoid and how to select a safer alternative). You can scroll down or click on the sections below to skip ahead:

THE SUN: FRIEND OR FOE?

The sun and sunlight have gotten a bad rap over the years.  There is no denying that sun exposure comes with the risk of overexposure, leading to sunburn and possibly skin cancer. But the sun also provides our bodies with important health benefits, (e.g., production of vitamin D3, which is imperative to good health), and should not be avoided entirely, something many of us are lead to believe. As a result of this fallacy, Americans are using more sunscreen than ever before (using an SPF15 sunscreen can reduce vitamin D formation by as much as 99%) or choosing to completely avoid the sun altogether. It’s not surprising that nearly half of us suffer from a Vitamin D deficiency.

Why is Vitamin D a big deal?

Vitamin D, otherwise known as the “sunshine vitamin,” is vital to good health. It plays an essential role in maintaining healthy bones and regulating the immune system, among having many other important functions. Vitamin D exists in two forms: D2 and D3. Both forms of Vitamin D can be derived from eating certain foods, but the latter is the hormonally active form of vitamin D and is primarily derived from direct sun exposure. Consequently, inadequate sunlight exposure is one of the major risk factors for a vitamin D deficiency, which has been associated with many serious conditions, including;