Cancer risk for redheads etc

[Doug_]

I've been mulling over this for awhile. I would appreciate your thoughts. I've tried my best to read and comprehend the many threads on here, but I would appreciate a summary from you regarding this, or pointing to your favorite studies. Thank you in advance!

Jeff, since I have a dermatologist in the family and we're all redheads with freckles, he is always saying that for people like us, the risk of skin cancer from even brief regular midday sun is probably much higher than the risk of cancer/health issues from regularly taking a vitamin D supplement. He says pretty much every freckled redhead or blonde over 60 who he checks at his office has at least one instance of skin cancer (melanoma or carcinoma) upon inspection.

I understand that your opinion is the reverse: the risk of skin cancer from brief regular midday sun is overblown, and is less than the risk of cancer/health issues from regularly supplementing vitamin D.

Given that those with the MC1R mutation (redheads usually have two copies of that allele, other people who freckle usually have one copy), are at increased risk for melanoma, does your recommendation/opinion of a preference for getting vitamin D from sun exposure stand even for people in this higher-risk group?

If so, I would love to be able to share something scholarly with my dermatologist family member to comfort him somewhat on our behavior (getting some sun regularly). If you would be so kind as to point me to the best study/studies you are aware of that suggest caution against vitamin D supplementation due to increased cancer/other risk, I would be most grateful. Thanks again.

[JeffN]

I've been mulling over this for awhile. I would appreciate your thoughts. I've tried my best to read and comprehend the many threads on here, but I would appreciate a summary from you regarding this, or pointing to your favorite studies. Thank you in advance!

Jeff, since I have a dermatologist in the family and we're all redheads with freckles, he is always saying that for people like us, the risk of skin cancer from even brief regular midday sun is probably much higher than the risk of cancer/health issues from regularly taking a vitamin D supplement. He says pretty much every freckled redhead or blonde over 60 who he checks at his office has at least one instance of skin cancer (melanoma or carcinoma) upon inspection.

I understand that your opinion is the reverse: the risk of skin cancer from brief regular midday sun is overblown, and is less than the risk of cancer/health issues from regularly supplementing vitamin D.

Given that those with the MC1R mutation (redheads usually have two copies of that allele, other people who freckle usually have one copy), are at increased risk for melanoma, does your recommendation/opinion of a preference for getting vitamin D from sun exposure stand even for people in this higher-risk group?

If so, I would love to be able to share something scholarly with my dermatologist family member to comfort him somewhat on our behavior (getting some sun regularly). If you would be so kind as to point me to the best study/studies you are aware of that suggest caution against vitamin D supplementation due to increased cancer/other risk, I would be most grateful. Thanks again.

Are you of the opinion I am completely against supplementation?

If so, you might want to review my position on the topic

http://www.jeffnovick.com/RD/Q_%26_As/E ... ments.html

In Health
Jeff

[Doug_]

You might want to review my position on the topic

http://www.jeffnovick.com/RD/Q_%26_As/E ... ments.html

Thank you for the reminder. I do understand that you are not completely against supplements, but it is still my understanding that you do tend to recommend sunshine over a supplement if possible. From that I take it that you do in fact consider the risk of skin cancer to generally be less than the risk of problems from supplementing vitamin D. Just wondering if that is an accurate read of your perspective, so that we can try to make the most informed decision tailored to our circumstance. Thank you.

[JeffN]

I think you are confusing my writings & positions with others.

The link covers my general position on D including the available choices. I'm not able do anything more in this forum. The Consensus thread covers my position on sun exposure. I don't think you can find any comments from me saying that supplements of D cause cancer as per my recommendations and recommended levels.

All guidelines must be adapted to the individual & their specific situation.

In Health
Jeff

[Doug_]

Thanks for the clarification. Even for someone like me who thinks he has spent the adequate time to read and understand, the big picture can still seem uncertain without full comprehension. Grateful for the help.

[Doug_]

To wrap this up fully...I think I discovered the root of my uneasiness in avoiding all direct sun exposure, for the sake of minimizing skin cancer risk (for those at much higher genetic risk):

Would you please elaborate on what you imply in the following statements? Are you saying that beyond vitamin D, some unprotected sun exposure is essential for good health? Are you talking about just getting sunlight into your eyes and being exposed to beauty and warmth, etc.? Or an additional known medical benefit from light exposure on the skin or into eyes? Just getting any kind of sunshine?

If so, at the risk of guessing your opinion poorly again...might you be saying that no matter who you are and what your skin cancer risk is, getting at least some unprotected sun exposure is essential for optimum health, regardless of getting plenty of vitamin D from a supplement if that is your method? And perhaps that avoiding unprotected sun exposure as much as possible isn't recommendable to just about anyone including redheads/albinos/vampires. We probably don't have enough data on the vampires though...

viewtopic.php?p=207583#p20758

The benefits of adequate & safe sun exposure go far beyond vitamin D & is essential to good health.

viewtopic.php?p=284574#p284574

Hi Jeff, I was curious what your thoughts on this were:
"It should be noted that the American Academy of Dermatology urges people not to get vitamin D via sunshine because of the increased risk of cancer (38)"
http://veganhealth.org/articles/bones#mildddef[

Sunshine is a requirement of health.
Inadequate exposure can pose health problems as can excessive exposure.

viewtopic.php?p=458415#p458415

We require and benefit from a certain amount of sunshine above and beyond Vitamin D.

[JeffN]

This is a start

https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/441266

In Health
Jeff

[Doug_]

This is a start

https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/441266

Excellent. That was very interesting. And while I wouldn't call a little extra circulating NO from skin irradiation by UVA to necessarily be essential for health, for some people it must be a welcome/needed help. There is a health benefit independent of vitamin D as discussed, all-cause mortality not being increased, and it certainly suggests other possible similar and unknown benefits to sun exposure, as the author mentions in the end.

I appreciate the direction. It looks like I have some reading to do...

I found this other paper (full text free) with the same Richard Weller as a contributing author, published January this year. Exactly the right vein of discussion.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 016-0165-y

ABSTRACT
Skin cancer, including both melanoma and non-melanoma, is the most common type of malignancy in the Caucasian population. Firstly, we review the evidence for the observed increase in the incidence of skin cancer over recent decades, and investigate whether this is a true increase or an artefact of greater screening and over-diagnosis. Prevention strategies are also discussed. Secondly, we discuss the complexities and challenges encountered when diagnosing and developing treatment strategies for skin cancer. Key case studies are presented that highlight the practic challenges of choosing the most appropriate treatment for patients with skin cancer. Thirdly, we consider the potential risks and benefits of increased sun exposure. However, this is discussed in terms of the possibility that the avoidance of sun exposure in order to reduce the risk of skin cancer may be less important than the reduction in all-cause mortality as a result of the potential benefits of increased exposure to the sun. Finally, we consider common questions on human papillomavirus infection.