Sun Exposure Causes Skin Cancer, Right? Not Exactly.

Recent studies have shown that approximately 1 out of every 4 of sun-exposed skin cells on a person’s body contain gene mutations for skin cancer.

That means when you touch an area of skin that is exposed to the sun, you are touching skin cells that already have the potential to develop cancer.

With so many potentially cancerous cells covering our bodies, why doesn’t everyone develop skin cancer?  It takes more than just cancerous genes to cause cancer because it is metabolic inflammation, not the sun, which activates our cancer genes.

Metabolic inflammation occurs when white blood cells of the immune system are chronically stimulated and release excessive amounts of chemicals known as cytokines.  The cytokines circulate in the blood causing stress to every cell of the body.

The stress from the cytokines activates another substance within cells called NF-κB (“nef-kappa-bee”).  NF-κB migrates to the DNA of the cell and is the major reason why a particular cancerous gene is turned on.

Recent studies suggest that NF-κB may responsible for the triggering of approximately 90% of all cancers.  Interestingly, it is also responsible for turning on the genes that trigger diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, macular degeneration, and many other common illnesses.

So the reality is that sun exposure does not cause skin cancer, it simply provides the mutation that gives a skin cell the potential to become cancerous.  Whether or not skin cancer develops is greatly influenced by the amount of metabolic inflammation within the body.

Understanding how inflammation triggers disease gives us all the power to protect our health.

Metabolic inflammation can be reduced by increasing our consumption of omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil, flax, nuts), decreasing our consumption of omega-6 fatty acids (vegetable oil, soy oil, margarine, shortening), improving our intestinal health by consuming prebiotic fibers (inulin) and controlling intestinal bacterial overgrowths (like “SIBO”), consuming liberal amounts of the oleic acid found in extra virgin olive oil (I suggest the fraud-free California brands), and by improving our brain’s natural ability to control inflammation by insuring that our Autonomic Nervous System functions normally.

The risk of malignant melanoma developing in the United States has now reached 1 in 87, which is an increase of more than 1800% since the 1930’s.  The reason is primarily due to the use of artificial oils, antibiotics, preservatives, and a diet deficient in omega-3 fatty acids.  Those things have triggered metabolic inflammation within our bodies that do not just trigger cancerous genes but also triggers our genetic predisposition for other diseases.

So the sun is not really our enemy, metabolic inflammation is our enemy.  And our best sun protection is not something external that we rub on our skin, our best sun protection comes from within.

I am a classically trained internal medicine physician (D.O.) from UCLA and my private office is located in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area.  My research background has been focused on the Autonomic Nervous System, brain metabolism, and metabolic inflammation.

I am a scientist physician who uses all available scientific and medical tools to induce the nervous system and organs to actually repair themselves by normalizing inflammation control mechanisms, inducing natural stem cell production, using vagal nerve stimulation, and re-activating innate restorative mechanisms.

For more information you may call my office at 623-208-4226 or go to my website www.DrBuckeye.com.

© 2016. Dr. Patrick M. Nemechek and Jean R. Nemechek.  All Rights Reserved.