Anti-Aging Choices and Healthy Lifestyles

Bad News: The sunscreen you use to protect yourself against solar rays may actually increase your risk of skin cancer.

Worse News: That same sunscreen may be increasing your risk of colon cancer as well.

What’s going on? Don’t all the experts agree that a deep, dark tan is unhealthy for our skin - and that sunscreens are our best protection? The true story here may in fact be a bit more complicated than we’d like. There is little doubt that too much sun-light does increase your risk of skin cancer. But some scientists now suspect that getting a certain amount of unlight reduces the risk of developing colon, rectal (sometimes referred to in combination as colorectal cancer) and breast cancer. If they are correct, that would link sun-light to three of the four top cancers: skin cancer, colon cancer and breast cancer. (The other leading killer is lung cancer.)

Do Sunscreens Cause Skin Cancer?

The Garland’s vitamin-D research has led them to develop another theory that is even more controversial: that sunscreens may be doing as much harm as good. Here’s why: According to Dr. Garland, most sunscreens block a very narrow band of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, known as UVB. Nearly 95 percent of the sun’s rays -mainly UVA - go right through most sunscreens. And these rays may be much more damaging than originally thought. Using a sunscreen, which does prevent visible sunburn, encourages people to stay in the sun longer, And that gives the other invisibly damaging rays of the sun plenty of time to do their dirty work. "It used to be that people would get a good sunburn on the first day of their vacation and then spend the next week avoiding the sun," explains Dr. Garland. "But now, people slather on sunscreen and spend their entire vacation outdoors." Then, to add insult to injury, that same sunscreen limits our ability to manufacture the one substance that seems to inhibit the development of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer vitamin D.