21: Is Sunscreen Destroying Your Health?

Michael Kummer (00:02.71)
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Michael Kummer (00:14.442)
I'm in the sun as much as I can, I don't wear sunscreen and I have not had a sunburn in forever. So in this episode, I'll share with you the top three reasons why I don't wear sunscreen anymore and the top five tips you can apply today to avoid sunscreen. A.

So in this episode I'll share with you the three reasons why I don't wear sunscreen and top five tips that you can apply today to avoid sunburn naturally, meaning without any toxic sunscreens or wearing sunglasses or clothing for that matter. And so let's start with the three reasons why I don't wear sunscreen. And reason number one, it's not necessary. You know, think about it.

Michael Kummer (01:05.25)
Just in 1938 when Franz Greiter, a Swiss chemistry student, got sunburned while climbing a mountain in Austria of all countries. And it didn't become popular, sunscreen that is, until the late 1970s. So what have humans done before, while during a time when skin cancer wasn't really a thing? At least nowhere near to the extent that it is today. And

As far as I'm concerned, humans have been under the sun, exposed to natural sunlight, without sunscreen, sunglasses for millions of years. But even if you don't believe in evolution and you think humans were put on earth not too long ago, it's been at least a couple of thousand years, I would argue. And no sunscreen, no sunglasses, no skin cancer. So I believe sunscreen is not necessary. The second reason, equally important I think, is that most modern sunscreen

terrible for your health. Even the mineral based ones. But just you know to start out with the most prevalent sunscreens, the non mineral based ones, the regular ones so to say. They all contain endocrine disrupting chemicals such as BP or 4-MBC that mess with your hormones, with your endocrine system that act like estrogen in your body and

dock to the estrogen receptors in your cells and cause fertility issues, low testosterone levels in men, pregnancy problems, inability to lose weight, weight gain and a lot of other things that I discussed in my article about endocrine disrupting chemicals, also known as Sinoestrogens. And if you just look at, not to pick out any particular brand, but Hawaiian Tropic is like the best off list containing an insane number.

ingredients that include the word fen or bens and parabens that are absolutely terrible for your health because they get absorbed through the skin get into your bloodstream and cause a host of issues again all of which I have discussed in my article about senoestrogens but even the mineral based ones you know before we like in you know in our in the kummer family before we figured out that sunscreen is not good period

Michael Kummer (03:23.382)
You know, we used mineral-based sunscreens, the best, most expensive sunscreens we could find, you know, that are good for reefs and the skin and everything. But even studies have shown that mineral-based sunscreens that contain zinc oxide, one of the common ingredients in those sunscreens, loses much of its effectiveness and becomes toxic after two hours of exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

So even that, I mean you can use them for two hours and then get out of the sun or take off that sunscreen. The problem is, you know, the mineral-based ones are typically so sticky that getting them off after two hours is gonna be a challenge. And we don't even know yet what other potential side effects those minerals or mineral-based sunscreens have over time. So that's reason number two. Sunscreen is just terrible for you, even the better ones. And the third reason is that sun exposure...

without wearing sunscreen or sunglasses is incredibly important for our health. Direct sunlight supports our healthy circadian rhythm. So daytime alertness and sleep. Without sun exposure, our circadian rhythm gets negatively impacted and our sleep suffers. Not a good thing. Our daytime alertness suffers. Not a good thing. You know, I wanna be energetic and alert in the morning and I wanna be sleepy when it's time to go to bed. Sunsc...

Sun exposure is also incredibly important for vitamin D production, which is again important for maintaining optimal immune health and immune function. If you don't get in the Sun, if you have low vitamin D levels, we've seen this over the past couple of years, you know with you know some of the viral infections that were going around and still are, that people with low vitamin D levels were much more affected, had much more severe outcomes than those who had high vitamin D levels and that again goes back to

sun exposure without you know wearing protection without filtering trying to filter out that UV radiation as it hits your skin and your retina. Sunlight is also crucially important for testosterone production both in men and in women testosterone is not only a hormone that's important for men it's also important for women to a lesser extent maybe but still sunlight influences the release of hormones including serotonin and melatonin in the evening

Michael Kummer (05:49.398)
you know, again, your sleep and your hormone levels generally might suffer. That might cause then, you know, anxiety and mental issues if your serotonin levels are off and your inability to fall asleep at the proper time or waking up in the middle of the night, you know, if your melatonin levels are off. It also improves calcium absorption, which is important for proper bone health and dental health. So, you know, if you're not in the sun...

and you have a lot of cavities, you know, maybe that's the reason. There are obviously also dietary factors that are involved that are important, but still even if you get enough calcium, you need to make sure it gets absorbed and sunlight is crucially important to support that absorption. It also triggers sunlight, triggers also the production of melanin, which is a pigment, a natural skin pigment that we'll talk about more here in a little bit, that not only makes your skin tan, but also protects your skin.

from the potential damage of UV radiation. And last but not least, it's probably not the last reason, but another important one, sunlight reduces the risk of developing seasonal affective disorder or SAD. So again, if you're not in the best state of mental health, sunlight can make a dramatic difference in how you feel and the quality of your life after all. In fact, a study from 2016, I'm gonna link it in the show notes, said,

concluded that the avoidance of Sun exposure was a risk factor for all cause of death of the same magnitude as smoking. So let that sink in for a moment. Avoiding the Sun poses the same risk of all cause death. So it's not just about you know causing lower melatonin levels or circadian rhythm or whatever. No, all cause of death at the same magnitude as smoking. And we all I think can agree

is a significant risk factor for all cause of death. You know, so, and another study that was published in the Journal of Dermatology and Endocrinology clearly states that the benefits of sun exposure outweigh the negatives. So those are the three reasons why I don't wear sunscreen and I expose myself, my naked skin or as much as I can, as much as socially acceptable, to natural sunlight without wearing sunscreen or wearing

Michael Kummer (08:12.138)
With that out of the way, let's talk about the five tips that you can implement today, ideally, to avoid sunburn naturally. And number one is to stop wearing sunglasses. I know this might sound entirely counter intuitive and counterproductive because, you know, your eyes are very sensitive and you need to protect them from the harsh UV light, etc. The problem is that when UV light enters your eyes, then cells in your body.

They're called melanocytes. They produce a natural skin pigment called melanin. We talked about this before. And that melanin not only gives you a tan, but it also protects your exposed skin from the damaging effects of UV radiation. So if you wear sunglasses, you interfere with that process, leading to lower melanin levels and due to an increased risk of UV damage. And specifically, melanin absorbs some of those UV rays and transforms the energy.

into harmless heat through a process called ultra-fast internal conversion. So in other words, before that UV light can damage your skin, it just dissipates its heat and no harm done. And that prevents UV rays from causing direct damage to the DNA and cellular structures within the skin. Also, melanin scatters some of that UV light. So when that UV light hits the skin, it scatters it and...

also reduces the amount of radiation that can penetrate the deeper layers of your skin where it can cause damage. And melanin is also an antioxidant or it has antioxidant properties and that can help combat the oxidative stress caused by UV exposure. And oxidative stress, you know, can lead to cell damage. That's, you know, clearly that's a fact that has been clearly studied and it is a contributing factor to skin aging and skin cancer. However, by...

reducing the oxidative stress that UV radiation can cause or UV exposure can cause, you actually reduce the risk of any permanent damage. And last but not least, melanin can shield the nucleus of the skin cell thereby protecting the DNA from UV induced mutations that in turn can then lead to skin cancers like melanoma. And so again, wearing sunglasses inhibits all of those protective mechanisms. You're basically...

Michael Kummer (10:39.522)
hamstringing your body if you go out in the sun and wear sunglasses. If you don't wear sunglasses, if you let that light get into your eyes, obviously don't stare into the sun when it's, you know, high in the sky and it hurts, but just getting that UV light into your retina, into your eyes, can allow the body to protect itself. And that's one of the best things you can do to reduce your chances

is to slowly build up your exposure. You know if you're pale white and you've not exposed your skin to the sun in years then it's probably not a good idea to start doing that in August, you know, when the sun is very strong in July. So you want to start building up your exposure already during the colder months of the year. You know I go out in winter when the UV light is significantly weaker

and when the sun is lower, when the light comes in at a lower angle and I expose myself, my naked skin or as much as I can to natural sunlight without wearing sunglasses and without wearing any sunscreen. And if you keep doing this already during the colder months of the year then you're building basically a sun callus, right? And that can help you then when UV radiation peaks in summer

avoid or significantly reduce the chances of burning and that might take a couple of season to really build up. I mean usually if you start early in winter by the time summer rolls around you have enough sun callus to deal with UV radiation for extended periods. Now you might not be able to be under the sun for eight hours but a couple of hours should not be an issue if you have built up your exposure slowly. And that's the second...

very easy thing that you can do and now it's getting colder you know it's fall here at the time of this recording you know now it might be time to already start exposing your skin you know to UV light when the Sun is not as strong anymore. Third tip avoid seed oils in favor of saturated fats. Seed oils meaning vegetable oils you know technically they're not really vegetable oils because a canola oil or a sunflower oil you know they are not made from vegetables they are made from seeds and the problem with

Michael Kummer (12:55.382)
with seed oils in particular or more specifically with poorly unsaturated fatty acids is that they are very unstable. You know they have a lot of double bonds that easily break so the oil easily oxidizes and when that happens it causes inflammation in your skin and that reduces your body's ability to deal with UV radiation in an appropriate manner. In other words it increases by consuming a lot of seed oils it increases your skin's susceptibility to burning.

And I've noticed a dramatic improvement in my body's ability to handle sun exposure without wearing sunscreen after I cut out all of the seed oils from my diet. No more vegetable oils, no more seed oils, only saturated fats from butter, tallow, ghee, you know, and other sources, mostly animal-based sources with low PUFA contents, low polyunsaturated fatty acids. And that has made a dramatic difference. And I've heard that from many others who have gone a similar route, that they are now much...

They can handle much more sun without burning just by removing seed oils. Tip number four, embrace an animal-based dye. And that does not mean you have to go carnivore or you have to be super strict and eat nothing but meat or nothing but animals. But there are certain nutrients in animal-based products that your body requires to safely process UV light from the sun and to make melanin for that matter. And there is one...

amino acids in amino acid in particular that is required by the melanin pathway and that is tyrosine and With the help of tyrosine in a body can make melanin But there that's not the only one there are other micronutrients that are required to protect the skin against UV damage from UV light including vitamin A or retinal more specifically cholesterol saturated fats and copper

And the meat and organs of responsibly raised animals are the best sources of those micronutrients, so you can help your body defend itself against UV radiation. And, you know, if you're not big into organs, if you're not big into, if the amount of meat that you consume might be limited, then one of the easiest things you can do is to supplement with freeze-dried beef organ capsules that contain at least all of the micronutrients. Now, doing so doesn't replace...

Michael Kummer (15:17.806)
following an appropriate diet, which in my opinion is an animal-based diet. But even if you do nothing else, getting those micronutrients into your diet, getting those amino acids into your diet can make a significant difference in how much sun you can safely expose yourself to without burning, without causing permanent damage to your skin and then maybe cancer in the long term. So check out NIMK supplements. That's the Free Stride Beef Organ Brands. That's my Free Stride Beef Organ Brand.

I condense all the micronutrients that you need to enable your body to deal with sunlight appropriately. Number five, expose yourself to morning sunlight. That's one of the things that is very safe to do, very easy to do, and it's also very pleasant to do. So every morning what I do is I especially when the sun is out, but even when it's cloudy, I try to go out and see where the sun is, you know, especially when it's just above the horizon.

and I just look into the sun and by exposing my naked eyes to that early morning sunlight, which is, you know, doesn't harm my eyes obviously, it doesn't feel uncomfortable, doesn't feel painful, I not only sleep better, but it also helps my skin to become more resilient to the light. Obviously, you know, you want to, again, expose as much of your skin as possible to that UV light. And well, it's actually in the morning, the light, the sunlight actually has a lot of...

red and near-infrared light which can help make your skin more resilient to UV light. So by exposing yourself to red and near-infrared you can actually improve your resilience then to that UV light that occurs in greater ratios or in greater amounts later in the day. And of course you know if you live somewhere where there's not a whole lot of sun or maybe during the colder months of the year where you don't get as much sun you know using maybe a

red light therapy panel like the one I have in my office, you know, could be an alternative, but I highly recommend using the natural sunlight as much as you can. And, you know, that is pretty much it with that. I used to suffer from what my doctor back in the days when I was a kid called a sun allergy. So I would go out in the sun and I would get this itchy, you know, thing here on my chest, red little dots.

Michael Kummer (17:38.474)
and I was miserable in the sun and that led me really to avoid the sun whenever possible for most of my use or for a significant amount of times. I don't have any of that anymore. I enjoy the sun. I'm out in the sun as much as I can for hours at a time without wearing sunscreen without burning most importantly because you know obviously I can always choose to not wear sunscreen if I burn. That's obviously not a good thing. I have not burned in forever. And if I know that I have to be in the sun for

much longer than I can handle. I'm not, you know, a superhuman. My skin, my skin's resilience has a limit, of course, and so what I do is if I know that I'm out in the sun for extended periods, maybe all day under harsh sunlight, then, you know, I just wear, you know, long-sleeve shirts, you know, instead of wearing sunscreen. You know, sunscreen typically I try to avoid whenever possible. I try to block it with clothing that's non-toxic, you know, some natural material.

And that's pretty much it. There is no need for sunscreen usually if you follow the tips that I mentioned in this podcast episode. And I'd like to hear from you though. Have you tried out any of that? And if so, what has your experience been? Maybe, you know, if you watch this episode on YouTube, leave me a comment or shoot me an email. I'm always interested in hearing what you guys think, what you guys have done and how things have been working for you. And so with that, we're going to wrap it up.

If you like this episode, I hope you did. Keep watching, see you in the next one, hopefully. Otherwise, shoot me an email what I could have done better. Until next time.