Sun - does it cause cancer?

Ritesh Bawri

Jul 15, 2024 — 2 min read

Are you old enough to remember a time when going out in the sun was associated with skin cancer? News headlines would tell us how risky it was to spend time in the sun.

But before we talk about the sun and skin cancer, let us first discuss how you feel about getting tanned. Getting tanned in India, where I live, is almost taboo. It is fair skin that is coveted, at any price.

In Victorian times, a tan was associated with the labour class. People who spent time toiling in the sun. Obviously, not something for the well-to-do.

It took French designer Coco Chanel to make it fashionable.

Having spent time on the Riviera, she came back with a tan. His followers thought it looked cool, and people started spending a lot more time trying to acquire a tan.

If you live in Europe, you know people who go to the beach or park or even tanning saloons trying to get a tan. That is how much a fashion icon can affect our lives.

But we are discussing the link between spending time in the sun and cancer. So I looked up statistics. In 2022, approximately 58,000 people succumbed to skin cancer.

While even one person is too much, approximately 2,000 of these were Indians, a low number given how many Indians there are.

If you know anything about India, you know millions of people spend their entire lives working in bright sunlight as farmers, construction workers, or similar.

So, unless there is underreporting, clearly the statistics do not seem to indicate a great risk of skin cancer for Indians.

You might argue that Indians have darker skin that protects them. That is probably true. But China had approximately 5,385 people. As we know, the Chinese do not have the same skin tone as Indians.

So why do I make the case for a low incidence of skin cancer? Because for most of us, spending time in the sun is a wonderful thing to do.

As for the tan that will come, hasn't Coco Chanel already told us what is fashionable?

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain

Tight Junctions

Tight junctions are essential cellular structures that play a critical role in maintaining the integrity of the gut lining. When damaged, you develop leaks that affect your health. Think of it this way. Your body has thousands of miles of plumbing within. Among them is your digestive tract. The digestive

Meditate - It is easier than you think

Meditation is that time when you should empty your mind, stop all thoughts and be mindless. Or should you? Meditation is a much misunderstood subject. Associated with esoteric, impossible to achieve goals, most people tune out. Even the thought of just sitting is too much, leave alone having no thoughts.

Precious Metals in your body

Have you seen the price of gold and silver these days? Precious materials have witnessed a meteoric rise in value over the past decades. But did you know that your body has several rare minerals within, which I can all but guarantee you have never heard of? Thulium, Vanadium and

Grounding

A friend sent me a post from social media. Grounding mats are the fastest selling product on the Internet, the post said. If you have also seen it and are curious to know why, let’s dig in. Grounding at its simplest just means touching the earth with bare skin.

Read more

Tight Junctions

Meditate - It is easier than you think

Precious Metals in your body

Grounding