D TRUTH ABOUT SUNBLOCK

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory." (Revelation 16:8-9)

In the Northern hemisphere, we're now in the midst of Summer. This is the season of lots of bright sunlight and at times, intense heat. These are, as Nat King Cole sang fifty years ago, the "lazy, crazy, hazy days of Summer". This is the season of people, particularly females, laying out in their backyards trying to get tanned. It's the season of even more girls and guys on beautiful, sandy beaches laying out in the sun, playing volleyball in the sun, and swimming and surfing in the water under bright sunlight.

I remember my first real sunburn. I was ten and it was the summer of 1965. I was wearing a shirt, but no undershirt, and I was sitting in the bright hot sum waiting for my mother to pick me up after a Summer morning band program. I sat there in the hot sun for about forty-five minutes with no sunblock on. Well, in 1965, nobody ever heard of "sunblock". In those days, it was "suntan lotion". Less than twenty- four hours later, my back, especially my upper back and shoulders was beet red and SORE. It felt like it was burning up. To touch that back and shoulders brought excruciating pain! I was also taking swimming lessons that summer, and even the cool water against the sunburn made it feel painful. My next real sunburn was at age twenty-one. A group of us twenty-somethings went to the beach down in Harwichport on Cape Cod for the day. We DID apply "suntan lotion". I think it was SPF 7 or 8, which was pretty typical for the 1970s. We did not realize that any sun lotion under SPF 15 really doesn't give you much protection at all, and that it really needs to be reapplied about every two hours. I came home with a burn all over my body. My FEET were burned. I could hardly put on sneakers or shoes and walk! My legs were burned! My face was burned. My back and chest were KIND OF burned, but it was the legs and feet that got the WORST. That, also, was not fun! I also remember that when my son Jon was an 11-month-old baby we had him with us at a home fellowship group social (from our church) at a park in Rhode Island. Jon was in the sun or several hours. He ended up with a VERY bad sunburn on his face following that day.

Over the past twenty years, we've been educated about the danger of ultraviolet rays,and we've learned that a person who has experience a severe sunburn such as I have described here can develop various types of skin cancer from this- sometimes the skin cancer does not manifest for thirty or forty years! We've learned to apply not "suntan lotion" but "sunblock". I used to use SPF 15 sunblock, but today that's frowned upon as being not strong enough. I will say, sometimes I've been out all day in the sun with SPF 15 on. Even if I've reapplied it, I can come out with a very dark tan that's an "almost burn". In the past couple of years when I've put on sunblock, I've usually used SPF 30.

Now, as important as it is to prevent sunburn and skin cancer, do you know there is a BAD aspect of wearing sunblock? Well, there IS! The sun is the BEST source of Vitamin D that we have available to us. MOST of our Vitamin D comes from sun exposure. Another source of Vitamin D that's not nearly as good as the sun is drinking MILK, believe it or not! But it's mainly the sun that gives us Vitamin D. When we use sunblock WE ARE BLOCKING VITAMIN D! No kidding, since Americans have become conscious of the dangers of sunburn and skin cancer, we've also become Vitamin D deficient! The overwhelming majority of Americans are not getting enough Vitamin D, and many of us are sick and unhealthy because of this.

Do you know what the symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency are? If you research it on-line, you'll find that DEPRESSION, ACNE, SOFT AND BRITTLE BONES, HEART DISEASE, some types of CANCER, and FATIGUE AND VARIOUS ACHES AND PAINS are the result of not enough Vitamin D.

Interestingly enough, we all ideally need about twenty minutes a day out in bright sunlight with NO sunblock on to give us a very healthy supply of Vitamin D and keep us from Vitamin D deficiency. Of course, rainy days limit this, and of course, we get less Vitamin D in the winter. (I wonder if most prison inmates are Vitamin D deficient, and I suspect they ARE.) If you check this all out on-line, you'll find out it's true. I know I'm prone to depression, adult acne, fatigue, and various unexplained aches and pains. Honestly, I've tried to get out into the sun for about twenty minutes a day (WITHOUT ANY SUN PROTECTION ON) each day I COULD over the past three months, and NO KIDDING, it has been helpful.

I wanted to be careful about HOW I shared it. Sometimes these "health matters" are so DELICATE. Many of you know I'm an Assemblies of God minister. Officially the Assemblies of God in the U.S.A. does not allow any drinking of alcoholic beverages. Now, probably a third of our laypeople DO drink alcohol but it's very much frowned upon. I have not had an alcoholic beverage, myself, in over thirty-five years. I say this to tell you about H.J. who was a Member of the church where I served as an Assistant Pastor in the 1980s. A biochemist, he strongly believed in the health benefits of drinking a glass of red wine with his evening meal. He told me privately that he drank a glass of red wine every evening and explained what it does for the body and why it's very healthy for you to drink a glass of red wine each evening. I will never forget what he added, however:

"I know some folks would say, 'If one glass of red wine is good for you, then TWO or THREE have got to be even better!' but that is not at all the case. To overdose on the red wine is actually to do great harm to the body. The good of the one glass of red wine is ruined by doubling or tripling it. It does not make things better, it makes things worse. You have to stick to ONE glass only."

It's like that with the sun and Vitamin D. Twenty minutes a day out in the sun with no sunblock or protection is very good for you but MORE of that and you'll BURN and/or be subject to skin cancer. For any more time in the sun than that, you'll need to put on sunblock, preferably SPF 30 or higher.

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