Sun Tanning

Q: Wayne, i have heard conflicting stories on exposure and how long to stay in the sun,
and whether or not to wear sunscreen? What is your opinion on this. – Liz R. July 30th, 2001

A: This is a very popular and a great question. First of all most of the sunscreens on the market are loaded with chemicals. Skin is our largest organ and it absorbs what goes on it. Hormone and nicotine patches work on this premise. Yes, sunscreens do work, but it does not have to be at the price of absorbing harmful chemicals into our system.

Four most important factors for safe tanning are:

1. Diet
2. Skin care products
3. Medications
4. The Law of Conditioning

Here’s how to protect yourself:

1. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, moderate amounts of fresh fish, raw nuts and seeds, fresh olive, flax and hemp oils, avocados. Stay away from foods with chemical additives, they are difficult for the liver to break down. I am big on eating smaller amounts or NO refined cooked carbs such as whtie flour, crackers, breads, pastries, white sugar, etc. They are very acidic and deplete our minerals, vitamins… because they have little or no nutrition.
Avoid salt and watch how smooth your skin gets! One ounce of salt retains 7 pounds of water in the body! Women (and men) if you want buttery soft skin, avoid salt!

2. Bottom line for synthetic skin care products is that chemicals in these products are not only useless to the body, but harmful! We are led to believe that they are necessary to be in the products for various reasons, but really they are used mainly for shelf life effectiveness.
Let’s remember that healthiest people in the world live the farthest away from the synthetic skin care products and also live farthest away from medical care!

Modern conventional skin care products are chemical overload. Also most of them are loaded with mineral oil and petroleum, coal tars, gasoline, propylene glycol – that is part of the formula for anti-freeze! What goes on our skin goes in our bodies, and must pass through the liver. If a nicotine patch or hormone patch can help us by being absorbed through the skin, then what goes on goes in and through! Please keep things simple, go back to nature and use only pure personal care products. I recommend Aubrey Organics and Weleda for safe natural skin care. They are available in finer health food stores.

3. For those frequently medicated on prescription drugs, I recommend minimal exposure.
The liver must deal with trying to break down the toxins created by the drugs. This weakens the liver’s defenses and also the immune system. This makes one vulnerable to skin damage especially from over-exposure.

4. Law of conditioning. It is not the sun that causes cancer! It is the abuse of it! Africans, and many countries that are constantly in the sun have little known cases of skin cancer. They are conditioned to the sun. Would you ever run a marathon race without training? So if we have not been in the sun and now go on vacation, or summer arrives we need to condition ourselves to the sun’s powerful rays.

The first two days only sunbathe 15 -20 minutes. Increase to 30 minutes the next three days. The next 5 days 40 minutes and thereafter one should be conditioned to the sun’s rays. If you are outside for longer than the times I recommend, I say cover up! Wear a hat, cotton clothing and natural sunscreen by Aubrey Organics.

Note on Suntanning Beds.
There is only one time I suggest using tanning beds …. NEVER!
Like in the case of synthetic vitamins, man cannot mimic or copy nature and improve what is already perfect. The rays of suntan beds are not balanced. To get 1 hour tan in 5 minutes is way too strong! Like micro-waving food, suntan beds damage our cells because they are too strong for our bodies to handle. Micro-waving food damages and alters the chemical structure of food like no other form of cooking. In fact the highest rise in cholesterol levels was after eating micro-waved vegetables!