Summer sun - Good or Bad?

By Glenn Forrester of Ground Soap


There’s nothing quite like the feel of warm sunshine on your skin. That radiant glow through the lids of your eyes is an experience that we share with even our most primal ancestors and for those of us who live above 30 degrees latitude, its an experience that signals the long awaited arrival of summer. We need that warm glow for our health but just like all things that Mother Nature provides in abundance, too much of a good thing is, well… a bad thing.  

Goldilocks zone

Essentially the sun is nothing more than an unimaginably massive ball of fiery nuclear fusion in space, contained by only the gravity that its massive fuel supply creates. Needless to say, it’s a good thing that we keep our distance. Here on Earth we’re in what’s commonly referred to as the goldilocks zone, an area in orbit around a sun where conditions are just right for life to exist. These conditions are incredibly rare in our universe and the short of it is, we humans should really count ourselves as lucky to have found such a warm and cozy spot to set up camp. The sun provides us with good health and good spirits as well as being responsible for providing, either directly or indirectly, 100% of the food we eat and the energy we use. It’s what makes the wind blow and the rain fall. It is the main source of energy for the chemical reaction that makes plants grow and is solely responsible for the entire base level of the food chain.

So if we evolved hand in hand with the sun in just the right proportion why is it harmful to us?  Well, for the same reason that walking into a den of lions is probably not the best idea. While we live in the same sandbox as they do, venturing too far into their corner of it makes us look like dinner.  We actually have developed good defenses against the sun’s harmful rays. If your race evolved close to the equator your skin was made to easily handle longer exposure to direct sun whereas someone living in temperate climates evolved skin that can respond to varying amounts of sun and still manage to absorb its vital benefits. But these defenses were built to suit only our basic survival needs and at least in this case, evolution doesn’t reward vanity.  

You have natural sunscreen

Have you ever wondered why your skin turns darker when you tan? It’s because of a pigment produced by the skin called melanin. Your skin’s outer layer makes more of it as sun exposure increases to try and prevent damage to the deeper layers. It acts to block ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which over time damages the fibrous elastin in your skin causing it to blemish, wrinkle and sag. Cumulative exposure to UV can also cause basal and squamous cell cancers, which while serious, rarely spread to other parts of the body. More severe damage in the form of recurring sunburn, especially under the age of 18, is said to cause melanoma, a cancer that is known to spread to other areas of the body more readily.

The sun makes you happy

In the past couple of decades the sun has been demonized for these very real health risks but many healthcare professionals are now starting to question the wisdom of covering up entirely.  There is growing evidence that restricting our exposure to full strength sun disrupts the body’s production of the “feel good” hormone serotonin causing mental health issues like seasonal depression. We also know that upwards of 90% of the body’s vitamin D supply is produced by the skin during full sun exposure and without it we see increases in bone diseases like osteoporosis and rickets. Vitamin D also plays a key role in signaling immune system responses and is known to slow growth rates in some cancers. Further, there is growing evidence that sunlight plays a big role in the body’s ability to regulate sleep and is key in the development of proper eyesight in growing children. So if you take away our regular exposure to the sun that we evolved in step with we may be preventing more than just a sunburn.

How much is too much?

This is truly the million-dollar question and while common sense is probably the best guide, there are several important factors to consider. The darker your skin is the more natural sunscreen you have, meaning that you can safely spend more time in the sun and also that you need longer exposures to enjoy the sun’s health benefits. Inversely, people with very fair skin should obviously take great care when judging when enough is enough.  The intensity of the sun changes from season to season, place to place and with time of day and cloud-cover. Considering all that, the ideal personal exposure time for maximum vitamin D synthesis is roughly one quarter of the time it takes you to burn, twice a week.

Sunscreen

Basically there are only two types of sunscreen, ones that absorb UV and ones that reflect it. Products that absorb UV use a chemical such as oxybenzone to filter UV. Such chemicals, while highly effective sunscreens, are readily absorbed by the skin and may present some health concerns. Oxybenzone is thought to be an endocrine disruptor, which means that it may interfere with normal hormonal function in the body leading to possible cancers and birth defects. The safer option is to use cremes that present a physical barrier to reflect UV light from the skin. Zinc cremes are the most common and are considered safe for use by all ages.  Check out Badger Balm if you’re looking for a safe sunscreen option this summer.