Still have this sun issue on my mind. The challenge in commenting on virtually anything is that almost everything is observed in context & there is an exception to nearly every rule (even this one). In the case of melanoma, there is hesitation here... and empathy for people who that is a reality for. With that said, when speculating about skin cancer, I'd say the cause isn't exactly the sun.
I would say the cause is Quick Change. This quick change comes in many forms. Sometimes it is complex, because there are multiple changes interacting, sometimes, perhaps, even to produce false leads.
Although there may be complex genetic factors involved, quick changes may include radical changes in migration patterns. In other words, moving ourselves to areas of the world that have different degrees of exposure to sunlight than we are personally/culturally adapted to.
However, quick change is also in play because our diets have radically changed. We tend to have lower levels of skin protective nutrients (carotenoids/vitamin A, vitamins K, C and E, omega 3's, polyphenols, etc.). Furthermore, increases in other factors, such as inflammation, may be a big factor in our interaction with the sun... and how much damage is done to our skin.
Another quick change is that we are coating our permeable skin with brand new chemicals, most of which have no pre-existing relationship with the skin... some of which, it seems, may as well be from another planet.
Even if someone had the technology to travel to another planet, they would still have to acknowledge a lack of personal, direct relationship with that foreign world--with the air, the organisms, the chemicals. They would do well to hesitate before snatching up a soil sample, breathing in its microbes and tossing it into their garden back home.
There are other wild card changes we have immersed ourselves in. We have new high-stress environments, with high-stress social patterns, along with extreme exposure to florescent lights (low quality, artificial light with unknown long term consequence). Not to mention the low quality light coming from the computer I am sitting at right now, and, of course, alterations of extreme lack of sun & extreme exposure to sun.
Sunlight, though, has a relationship with the body/mind. It links up with us & has a relationship with the pituitary gland. It helps place us in rhythm with our bio-cycles and in harmony with the whole system. Sunlight can actually help to prevent cancer, through proper utilization of vitamin D (and whatever other aspects of light that science will likely catch up with hundreds of years from now).
Removing the sun from the equation seems to be a giant, much more significant Quick Change with implications that are enormous.
We tend to bark up the wrong tree and put ourselves in a "little old lady who swallowed a spider" situation--by trying to solve a problem by way of eating a bigger one.
This reminds me of running. Running isn't bad for the body per se, but it can be bad for a misaligned body, which is what most westerners have. The problem then may relate to running and may require moderation of running, but the misalignment cannot be ignored.
Perhaps the worst thing is to eliminate any type of body motion whatsoever, which could only lead to atrophy.
Perhaps we could stand to get back to basics by observing whatever tribal people are left healthy and in tact. This does not mean groups pushed out of their native environments (or otherwise pushed to the brink) by colonization/civilization. This doesn't mean groups that have integrated a lot of western lifestyle.
In other words, we can't just say indigenous people have higher rates of cancer, for example, without making note of whether or not these individuals are living a completely western lifestyle. It's possible that western lifestyle is even more harsh to them, as they may be marginalized and living with harsher economic realities.
We can't focus here on a group of people that society has suppressed and forced to survive with minimal or inadequate resources... including access to healthy whole foods, that our species has depended upon since our beginnings.
When we do find the ideal groups to study, it may become apparent that, despite having a hunter-gatherer body, we are no longer exactly like the indigenous individual. We can't, for example, drink the water they drink, without having built up a tolerance to it. Yet, at the same time, our hunter-gatherer bodies have not adapted to the stresses of our own civilizations. So, in fact, we may be like travelers, who have culture shock both away and upon returning home, but this would be, perhaps, a start.
If we just stay in our bubble, we are likely limited to the (very young) modality of western medicine, treating symptom after symptom, causing more and more side affects, drifting forever from the basics and the underlying condition. Whatever happened to "first do no harm"?
Maybe a person is more fair and needs less sun, and maybe Iceland and other places provide many of sunlight's benefits through diet, but as a general rule, I'd agree that we've over done the avoidance of the sun issue.
The solution... perhaps to identify the quick changes & negate them when possible. We bring back what we took away (skin protective nutrients, moderate regular exposure to sunlight) and detox foreign agents that degrade the human organism in general. We treat with therapeutic doses of nutrients when appropriate (to get back to baseline). Tricky, granted, because nutrients themselves are concentrated isolates (dipping into quick change territory).
We aren't excluding western medicine entirely, and we can use western medicine to identify deficiencies. However, whenever possible, we seek to treat them less invasively. We recognize that western medicine specializes in western medicine, and we don't look for it to be a master of all modalities--most of which it tends to be ridiculously dismissive of.
My friend, in his late seventies, was diagnosed with melanomas and used medical grade topical cannabis to eliminate them. This was confirmed, through testing by his (conventional western medicine) doctor who examined him to find the melanoma was gone. I'm not a practitioner, and this doesn't mean his approach will work in every situation. Simply an example.
We tend to water down alternative modalities... or melt them while leaving western medicine standing alone on the field. For example, maybe we buy a box of herbal tea... looking for it to treat a symptom... and are left disappointed. However, very often, the serving size is 1/4 or less of the amount it would actually take to treat the condition. And, the time frame may be longer than a western drug. And don't get me wrong... misusing or overdosing on "natural" supplements isn't a good idea either.
There are many modalities to deeply explore. Holistic medicines that are very time tested... western herbalism, Chinese herbalism. Herbs that encourage shrinking of tumors. We can include energy-work modalities---and even meditation, focused intent / use of "the placebo effect". Far-infrared light. These tend to sound "new-age" but they aren't new at all.
As "civilized" human beings, we've lost touch with our deep connection to reality. It's weak, because it is unpracticed. So we underestimate these forces, because we don't know how to use them. If we haven't learned how to ride a bike, we don't say the bike doesn't work. We learn how to ride.
Indigenous peoples around the world have a completely different relationship with plants, other animals, the earth, with their dreams and with their intuition. Of course, we present western medicine to them, assuming we are advanced... but we seldom seek their, time-tested wisdom that would advance us.
In terms of the sun, navigating quick change, of course, may include avoiding a sunburn-inducing pattern of severe avoidance, alternated with extreme exposure. This may include moderation of sunlight to match one's ideal, historic, environment.
When we find those quick changes, we may gradually un-build the superficial framework, which offers inferior support, and get back to ground. From there we can make a true determination as to the sun's true contribution to the problem.
When contemplating cancer, we might get about negotiating the quick changes in play, and all we do to enact them, rather than performing, what any empathetic person would identify as, immoral tests on animals, in the interest of pursing new drugs that often do more harm than good.
It seems the same principles apply to most environmental issues and nearly every other problem. Meaning, in general, it may be good to get in harmony with the slowly changing system.
This is not to say that quick changes aren't natural or that quantum leaps can't take place, but most quick changes do not seem necessarily to trigger human quantum leaps... and getting back to ground, so to speak, seems like a bright idea.
PS
Another bright idea is to actually fund research into studying other modalities deeply. This often does not happen, because the modalities can not be patented. In other words, they aren't an investment that will make a financial return in the same way western medicines do. It's often more in the interest of modern companies to suppress knowledge rather than bring it to light.
Yet modern companies use tax payer funded research to come up with their pills (and then patent them). What if tax payer money went into funding a broader exploration, free of the influence of big pharma and the corporate-influenced corruption of the FDA and so on.
In our new world, flooded with quick changes, why not light up the landscape and allow each modality to be as significant as it is. Then we can find the best path of "do no harm" to get our desired outcome. Through this, we may have a greater appreciation of our environment, and further improve things by limited our own quick change upon said environment.
Western medicine has its roots in herbal medicine. But we've forgotten this and leaped into a bubble that forgets what it was connected to. The bubble's barrier excludes what isn't profitable, and the bubble's practitioners often act like anything outside it isn't of value. However, there's a rich world out there, with a lot of what we need, waiting for us to reconnect with it.
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