Sunlight: The Good (Or, How To Make It Good)

I interviewed a local nutritional specialist (who is a brilliant person, by the way) in preparation for this series on sunlight. He only had one recommendation. I usually don’t like to mention name brands or anything, but he said Life Extension had currently the only sunscreen that he would personally use out of a bottle. Otherwise, there are some other good things that can help protect you. Shea butter is one of those that is known to help block UVA and UVB. If I’m going out in the sun for any period of time I’ll take some Vitamin E supplements, at least 400 IU’s if not 800. I’ll take a couple of grams, that’s 2000 milligrams or more, of Vitamin C. You should probably take 800 IU’s of Vitamin D (what you get from sunlight, as we talked about previously) or more. Ironically, that actually is a good damage preventer for sunlight itself. Certainly you want to be taking Vitamin D all winter because that’s what you are not getting when you’re not out in the sunlight during the winter.

When I was in China a couple of summers ago there were Chinese out sun bathing. They were putting something on them. They were out there all day with it and didn’t get sunburned. It turned out that it was green tea extract. Because of the anti-oxidant properties, they would put green tea extract on them and they did just great. I was very impressed with the anti-oxidant properties of that. Now I don’t think any scientific, double-blind studies have been done on that for UVA and UVB so I don’t know that I could scientifically recommend it, but they were real happy with the results.

Maybe the most unheralded product for sunblock and sunscreen out there is probably MSM which is what it goes by in the nutrition shop. MSM is maybe one of the best things you can possibly take as an oxidizing prevention agent for sun damage as you are going out in the sun. I would take at least 1000 milligrams (one gram) of that, if not two, if I were going to be out in the sun for any period of time.

The amount of sun exposure varies according to your altitude. If you’re in Colorado and you are out there 10 minutes you can get burned on a sunny day because there is no atmosphere between you and sun. If you’re down at sea level and a little bit of tan, it might take you 30 minutes to get enough sun. I should also mention that the color of your skin affects how quickly you get enough healthy sun radiation.

There are a lot of different things that affect the amount of sun that you get. I mentioned the time of day: you might want to stay out of direct sun between 11 and say 3 o’clock when it is directly overhead. Also, don’t forget good old clothing. They even rate sports clothing and its sunblock ability. Get out there and get 15-30 minutes of sun and then put on your sunscreen that has UVA and UVB in it. Take your Vitamins E, C and D , and your MSM. Maybe you even want to drink a little green tea and spread a little shea butter on yourself. Then put your clothes on after a little while or just get out of the sun. Enjoy it more in the mornings or in the evenings. Your skin will be happier for it. You’ll live longer and everything will be well with your skin.