Could you be upping your risk of melanoma by trying to prevent it?

Melanoma, the deadliest kind of skin cancer, has become an American epidemic.

A new CDC report shows that melanoma cases have doubled over the past 30 years — and 65,000 Americans will get the life-changing diagnosis this year alone.

But before you run to slather sunscreen all over yourself, there’s something you need to know.

Nearly everything you’ve been told about how to prevent skin cancer, especially melanomas, is wrong, wrong, wrong.

We’ve been lied to for decades about how to be safe in the sun — and this new CDC report proves that people are dying as a result.

The great sun scamTen years ago Harvard professor Dr. Edward Giovanucci stood up at a meeting of top cancer scientists and told them they were full of it. He declared that their overly aggressive recommendations on avoiding sun exposure were going to cause 30 times more deaths than they prevented.

They nearly laughed Dr. Giovanucci out of academia — but now he looks like a genius.

Because a growing body of evidence is proving that reduced sun exposure may be causing the spike in melanoma cases throughout America.

If sunscreens were the silver bullet for preventing skin cancer, we should have seen the melanoma rate bottom out years ago. Americans are buying nearly $1 billion worth of sunscreen every year — compared to just $18 million in 1972 — and the FDA is recommending it for everyone over six months old.

But sunscreen sales and skin cancer rates have risen at the exact same time. And researchers are finding that people who spend the most time out of the sun may have the highest risk of developing a deadly melanoma.

While people who work outside get 3 to 10 times as much UV exposure annually as indoor workers, their rates of the most deadly kinds of melanomas (cutaneous malignant melanoma, or CMM) are typically lower than people who work in offices.

That comes from a study by Dianne E. Godar, a chemist with the FDA, and previous research by the World Health Organization has found the same thing.

In fact, a study published in The Lancet a decade ago also found a “decreased risk of melanoma” in people who work outdoors. The researchers said that chronic sunlight exposure seemed to have a “protective effect.”

Now I’m not saying that spending too long in the sun without protection is safe. Because it isn’t. Too much sun exposure can cause skin cancer, especially if you get a burn.

But getting the right type of sun exposure at the right time can also prevent skin cancer — and that’s something that plenty of scientists and doctors have forgotten.

The UVB rays from the sun help your body fill up its stores of vitamin D. There have probably been more studies on vitamin D (the “sunshine vitamin”) than any other vitamin, mineral or hormone that your body requires. And it’s been found time and time again to be one of the most potent cancer fighters out there.

So when we cover ourselves with sunscreen all the time — or completely avoid the sun — we promote skin cancer in two ways.

First, we prevent our bodies from making enough vitamin D. Second, many sunscreens contain an ingredient — a form of vitamin A called retinyl palmitate — that can actually promote skin cancer.

To make sure your body has a healthy supply of vitamin D, your skin should be exposed to the sun for around 10 to 20 minutes each day (depending on how fair you are). Make sure you don’t burn.

And when you’re getting sun exposure, remember that UVB rays are what you want, because they allow your body to make vitamin D.

You can find out the hours when the sun is at the right angle to provide you with those UVB rays by going to the United States Naval Observatory website. Simply put in the date, your state and town name, and click “compute table.”

Then look down the middle column until you find a number at 50 or higher and look in the left column for the time (it’s uses military time). This time of the year in the U.S. you’ll probably find that those beneficial 50-or-over UVB rays will be shining from 10 A.M. to around 4 P.M.

Sources:

“CDC reports rates of new melanomas (deadly skin cancers) have doubled over last three decades” Sierra Sun Times, June 7, 2015, goldrushcam.com
“Melanoma rates way up among young people in the U.S.” HealthDay, June 2, 2015, philly.com