“They told us that the sun was the threat,” said another. “Not the companies that finance both the warning and the remedy. I stopped burning when I stopped believing them. ”
“People burn because of seed oils in these processed foods,” read a third answer. “If you eat clean, everything will be fine.”
Wait – What? Was it not just yesterday that we had to feel guilty not Use a sunscreen? Yes, but forget about this nonsense of your dermatologist. Now it’s burning, baby burns.
Make America Blister again!
Forget studies showing that sunscreen protects against the three most common skin cancers (epidermoid carcinoma, basal carcinoma of cells and melanoma) – and all that your dermatologist and other “experts” told you.
Social media doctors have weighed, and now a serious part of the public believes that all or part of the following elements: sunscreen does not prevent cancer, this causes it. The sunscreen is a Big Pharma ploy to increase benefits by making people sick. Use it, and you will end up with vitamin D deficient (most people would not have sufficiently put in place for this to be a problem).
A 2024 investigation By the Orlando Health Center Cancer Institute discovered that around an adult in seven less than 35 thinks that the use of daily sunscreen is more harmful to the skin than a direct exposure to the sun. Almost a quarter, believe that drinking water and staying hydrated will prevent a sunburn (the latter is a null theory other than Tom Brady seems to believeAccording to his 2017 book, “the TB12 method”).
Dermatologist at Brigham Hospital and women Abigail Waldman does not need a study to show it growing skepticism.
She learned that from the first hand, in 2023, when she published a Tiktok video with what seemed to be basic advice, or even perhaps dull: wear sunscreen on the skin exposed and reappected it regularly.
Vitriole responses, and there were hundreds, she had a theme: she was a shill for Big Pharma. She spread the lie that sunscreen protects from skin cancer. She said that to … one way or another … get more patients.
“I didn’t know it was a public feeling,” she said. “It had never been discussed in the medical school or my training.”
But the false idea that she is harmful is so common that even educated people believe, she said. “I went to play tennis yesterday, and my trainer said to me:” I don’t put chemicals on my body “. He is an engineer.
Skepticism has its roots in reality, if only very tangential, said Timothy Rebbeck, professor of cancer prevention in Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, whose research is partly focused on false statements related to cancer.
“This is a phenomenon that we see in a lot of disinformation of cancer,” he said. “There is a core of truth in a story.”
For example, he said: a study is done in a test tube or an animal that shows a compound found in microscopic levels in a sunscreen, when exposed to ultraviolet light, could cause DNA damage.
This result, out of its context, makes its way to social media, where it is sensational and amplified. “As he arrives at your social media flow, he does not look like the original information,” he said. “No one returns to the original paper and sees that he was with the mouse.”
Even if a sunscreen increased your risk of skin cancer – which it does not, he said – its well -established advantages against cancer would prevail over any risk. “If you try to make a choice, the choice is quite clear.”
There are two types of solar screens: physical blockers, which have zinc oxide or titanium dioxide and reflect the ultraviolet rays of the sun; And chemical blockers, which contain chemicals that absorb ultraviolet rays of the sun.
Rebbeck said that people concerned about the content of solar screens should choose one that contains zinc oxide or titanium oxide, which are well established as safe and effective without any indication of carcinogenicity or other harmful health effects.
As explained by Harvard’s health edition A 2021 pieceOxybenzone, an ingredient in chemical sunscreens, has received the “worst press” because of fear that it can act as a hormonal disruptor.
“However, there was no conclusive evidence that oxybenzone is harmful to humans,” he wrote. “Organizations that have raised concerns about oxybenzone generally cite studies carried out in rats, where rats have really been fed by oxybenzone. An individual is needed 277 years of use of sunscreen to make the equivalent systemic dose that would produce effects in these rats studies … “
But what is the publication of Harvard’s health in relation to wisdom, or at least within reach, of the star of social media and Kristin cavallari UV denier?
“Each time I do an interview, I receive a lot of s *** when I admit that I do not (wears sunscreen),” she said in a viral episode in 2024 of her podcast “let’s be honest”, before inviting her guest to speak “of the health benefits and why we may not need a sunscreen”.
“We have literally passed our whole existence as human beings under the sun all day, until the last, like about 100 years, and now we are like stops … And it’s really bad for many reasons,” replied his guest.
In Castle Island, a recent weekday, the meteorological application displayed a UV note of 5, high enough for the National Weather Service website in order to recommend the use of a sunscreen of at least SPF-30.
But Catherine Civitella, who dragged with a friend from the university, did not wear it, because she considers him as “toxic”.
She trained this opinion from “Internet”, she said, and also observing people in Florida, where she lived. There she noticed that the best people ate, the more time they spent in the sun, without sunscreen, the better their skin.
“What you put in your body is more important than you put on your body,” she said.
On the beach, Maria Turolska, a Dorchester grandmother looking at her 18 month old grandson, both with clear skin, said that she would not use sunscreen on herself or the little boy, even if her parents wanted him.
When asked if she thought that sunscreen could cause cancer, she reflected generalized skepticism about everyone: “Companies that sell the products want you to think that, but it is difficult to know if it’s good or not good.”
Alas, as is too often the case, you can be condemned whatever you do. Studies have shown that people who use sunscreen tend to stay in the sun longer, according to Harvard Health Publishing, “and can therefore increase their risk of skin cancer”.
Beth Teitell can be reached Beth.teitell@globe.com. Follow her @bethteitell.
