Do you really need sunscreen?

Recently an article came out suggesting that we need to wear SPF daily… even indoors.

In this video, I break down when you need to use sunscreen, why sun exposure is important for your health, and what sunscreens you should use when it’s time to put it on.

Grab my Aimee Approved Sunscreen list here: aimeeraupp.com/sunscreen

Hello, hello, hello. All right. I am Aimee Raupp of AimeeRaupp.com. I get to come to you guys live every single week and talk about really important healthcare topics, things that can help you live your best, your most reawakened life. Today, we're talking about sunscreen because it's… Let me just fix this thing on my hair. On the East Coast, it's getting sunny. We're heading into summer. I do this talk pretty much every year, and it never fails to bring up a lot of communication.

There was an article just this past week, let me pull it up, on CNN entitled that you need to wear sunscreen indoors, which got my assistant Beth, my chief of communications, excuse me, got her all in a tizzy that you need to wear sunscreen inside now is what they're recommending, which I think is outrageous. UVA rays penetrate through glass so if you're in your room and it has a window, wear sunscreen even when you're inside Dr. Hadley King, New York City dermatologist, recommends. UVA rays are generally linked to the aging of skin cells and tend to cause wrinkles, sun spots and other signs of sun damage. UVB rays, on the other hand, are also principal causes of sunburns, direct damage at DNA and skin cells, and are linked to most skin cancers.

The glass typically used in car, home, office windows is designed to block most UVB, but it does not offer protection from UVA. The UVA is just linked to more aging and wrinkles, which none of us want. Anyway, there's also argument about this high energy visible light, which accounts for 50% of sunlight spectrum. Anyway, they are recommending… None of these are associated with skin cancer, just so you know. I think the biggest things that I want to talk about today are the fact that sunscreen does not prevent skin cancer. Let's be super clear on that. There's a ton of research. In fact, I think as of last year, all sunscreen bottles, labels need to say this does not prevent skin cancer. Sunscreen does not prevent skin cancer. Sunscreen prevents sunburn, which sunburn can lead to skin cancer.

However, what's really interesting with all the sunscreen we've been wearing for the last decade, the incidents of melanoma and basal cell continue to go up by about 4% a year. That doesn't make much sense because you would think with all the protection and the education around sunscreen, we'd be… Skin cancer would be nonexistent at this point, but it's also from previous damage. Obviously if you were a teenager like me and laying out in the sun and getting sunburn, that previous damage could bite you in the ass years later.

There's something else that really matters in all of this too, is your vitamin D levels. If you don't have enough vitamin D, your body can't process the sun properly. If you're vitamin D deficient… Which is basically vitamin D under a 30, when you get it tested at the doctor's office, ideally we want it to closer to 70, between a 50 and a 70, even upwards of 100 is great. If your vitamin D is low, you can't actually process the sun in the same way, plus vitamin D deficiency has shown scientifically to be a reason for increase in cancer and also our lower immune system. Things like the situation we're dealing with right now in our pandemic, if your D is low, you're much more likely… And I just saw an article the other day saying about vitamin D deficiency is being linked to all of these people that are getting COVID, that they're actually vitamin D deficient.

If their vitamin D was in a healthy range, they wouldn't have gotten it. Maybe. There's lots of variables, I think, but that's an interesting one that's been pointed out. Again, vitamin D deficiency is linked to cancer. When we wear tons of sunscreen all day long and we put sunscreen on, even when we're working from home and we have windows in our home, guess what? We are inherently making ourselves vitamin D deficient. That's what we want to avoid. We all should be healthy amounts of vitamin D. That means, in my opinion, you should be getting 10 minutes, 15 minutes of unprotected sunlight every single day between the hours of 11 to one. I was out in the sun earlier today, zero protection on my body, at least 10 to 15 minutes for women, any woman with hormones, wherever you are in your life cycle, whatever you're trying to achieve, vitamin D is crucial. It's a hormonal precursor.

It's really, really, really important to hormonal balance. I deal a lot with women trying to get pregnant. When I see vitamin D deficiency, it's one of the first things I try to fix. Typically, their cycles, everything starts to regulate. Do I need to supplement the same amounts of vitamin D as I do in the winter months? If you're getting that unprotected sunlight for 10 or so minutes a day, you don't need as much. I'm still doing about 5,000 IUs maybe every other day. That's really where I'm at in the summer time. Then, also if you're taking cod liver oil, which is what I take, that also gives you another 2000 IUs. You could get it tested and then see where you're at, but typically in the winter, yeah, it's upwards of five to 10,000 IUs a day. Then, in the summer, I cut it back where I'm maybe doing 5,000 a couple of times a week, especially if I'm getting sun exposure.

When it comes to sunscreen, do you need it? What if the sun doesn't come out where you live? Again, yeah, I think that's a great question. I don't think you need sunscreen then, because the sunscreen is protecting you from getting sunburned. I think it would be fairly impossible if the sun isn't coming out for you to get a sunburn. Right? I wouldn't worry about it. Then, you'd still want to get… I would get a happy light. That's what I would go and buy. You can buy them on Amazon. I have a link, I believe, on my website under AimeeRaupp.com under my recommendations. I would get a happy light and make sure you're looking in that happy light for 10 minutes every single day.

You need the light to really trigger melatonin, vitamin D synthesis. There's so many things that you need the light for. I have a hard time getting outside and I'm chronically deficient. I've been taking 10,000 IUs daily and finally got my levels to a 53. Is 10K too much? When you're at 53, now you could cut back. I would cut back to probably 5,000 a day and then do that, especially if you can't get outside. I would also, for you, get that happy light because the light, the sunlight is super important. The happy light can mimic that a little bit. Those people that get that seasonal affective disorder, that's typically a vitamin D deficiency because the sun is not out in that time of the year, wherever it is you live. The happy lights make such a big difference in that.

I have three key points here that I want to talk about. Do you need sunscreen? I think yes to prevent sunburn. Also, you could wear a hat. You could wear protection. You don't need to lather yourself up all day long every day, especially if you're working from home and you have windows in your room. I think that CNN article is just pretty bogus. I understand that if the sun is coming in, could it cause more wrinkles and cellular aging? Sure. There's a difference between sun damage and skin cancer. I think a lot of people think, I need sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. There's no proof that sunscreen prevents skin cancer whatsoever. There's proof that preventing sunburns seems to decrease skin cancer. There's even more proof that vitamin D deficiency lends itself towards us more likely of getting cancer, all kinds of cancer, not just skin cancer.

Number one is we need sunlight to get us vitamin D. We need to get vitamin D also from really good quality fats or foods in our diet, which are really hard to find. Cod liver oil is one of really the only ones that I know of. A, D, E and K are in cod liver oil. Ghee, coconut oil, things like that will give us some good, healthy fats. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin. We need healthy levels of vitamin D. When we are vitamin D deficient, we're more likely to get sunburned. Does that make sense? We got to get our D levels up, so that our body can utilize the sun properly and not burn. You're going to burn though if you go to the beach on a 90 degree day with high sun and you don't put anything on, right?

You do need some sunscreen. We're going to talk about… I have a list of my Aimee approved sunscreens because sunscreens, in and of themselves, can be highly toxic and highly detrimental to your health and also cancer causing because they have lots of endocrine disrupting chemicals in them. Vitamin D, so super important. That's the number one thing I want you all to take away and that we need at least 10 minutes of unprotected sunlight ideally every single day, even in the winter months. If that's not possible, I would recommend getting one of those happy lights and staring at that for at least 10 minutes a day. It really helps set the rhythm in your body. You need the light to set the rhythm in your body.

Same thing. I'll try to get outside between the hours of at least 10 to one or 11 to one where I'm getting some unprotected sunlight, just letting it soak in on my skin and letting my body eat up the vitamin D. Then, I take less vitamin D on a daily basis in these warmer months. When we're going to the beach, I wear a hat. I make sure the little guy has a hat. He's got those long sleeved UV protected shirts and he's typically mostly covered. Then, I'm putting sunscreen in certain areas on him. Same with my husband, same with myself, trying to prevent the sunburn. The sunburn can cause the basal cell or the melanoma. The sunscreen does not prevent skin cancer. I'm just going to say it again and again and again and again.

Well, of course, use sunscreen and I have a list of Aimee approved sunscreen, but, again, remember sunscreen does not prevent the skin cancer. It prevents the sunburn. Is your sunscreen toxic? Most likely, yes. I have a list of Aimee approved sunscreens that I'm going to give you in just a second. You want to use a sunscreen that's free of… I have lists in all of my books of the top 10, top 12 toxic chemicals you need to avoid because they're endocrine disrupting chemicals, which basically means they screw up your hormones. They're also linked to many different cancers. A lot of sunscreen has a lot of crap in there. You're putting that right on your skin, it's getting into your bloodstream, it's messing with your hormones. It's causing chemical reactions in your body. It's toxic to your body and can cause cancers.

If I sound scary, it's because I'm meant to sound scary. You really need to be conscious of what you're putting on your skin, especially sunscreen, especially if you're one of those people that is wearing it every single day. It should basically have zinc oxide and titanium dioxide in it and that's it. There should be no parabens, no fillers, no PEG. None of the crap. Any of those spray sunscreens, terrible for you. The powders are good. The ones that are thick and white are typically the ones that are nontoxic. I agree they're a pain in the ass to apply, but guess what? Those are the ones.

How often do we reapply? I see people not reapply after putting on makeup. Yeah, so reapplying is important too. Just want to see, I have questions coming in on Facebook too, I wasn't looking, sorry. Okay. Okay. What about wearing sunscreen on your hands every day? I'm trying to prevent older looking hands and aging spots. The best thing I would do is ghee on your hands every day. Ghee or castor oil really helps with keeping skin, hands nourished. Ghee is amazing for sun spots. Ghee, again, is a really good, healthy fat too, which has A, D, E and K in it. Castor oil, another, I mean, sorry, cod liver oil, another really good thing for aging spots, aging hands. Take that internally every day. It smells, you could apply it topically, but I would just do the ghee topically.

You have to really be conscious of what's in the sunscreen. The reapplying question is there's different recommendations based on the amount of SPF. I think it's something like if it's like 20 SPF, you need to apply every two hours. If it's eight, it's every… It wears off in, I think, a certain amount of minutes based on the number of SPF in there. We generally reapply probably, if we're at long beach day, probably every one to two hours, just kind of depends on the level of sun, things of that nature, how exposed. I'm really protective of my little guy's skin, how exposed he is. If we're only at the beach for a couple hours, maybe I just apply once. Maybe I reapply a second time. Again, just depends on the day, depends on how much you're in the water, all those types of things.

My nephew took off paint on the cupboard with the spray on sunblock. Yeah, that's fucking scary. All Good is the brand I like, is that Aimee approved one? We're going to give you the Aimee approved list in just a second. Sorry if this was covered already, I could not join in earlier, is it true that vitamin D is mainly absorbed from the eyes when exposed to the sun? It's absorbed through your skin as well, but you don't want to stare directly into the sun. You do want to, yeah, get that exposure even without sunglasses. That's what I mean by unprotected sunlight, even without sunglasses so your eyes can really take in that vitamin D from the sun.

Toxic sunscreen. We really need to be particular about the sunscreens that we use for many reasons, right? Hormonal disruptions, cancer causing agents. Sunscreen also blocks your ability to take in the vitamin D, so it could lead to vitamin D deficiency. I don't want you wearing sunscreen all day, every day, especially when you're indoors. Okay? To keep that in mind, so there's a recent study that came out that I wanted to read, sunscreens protect against sunburn, but there's no evidence that they protect against basal cell carcinoma or melanoma. Problems lie in the behavior of the individuals who use sunscreens to stay out longer in the sun otherwise than they should.

Vitamin D inhibition is, at this stage, unlikely due to insufficient use by individuals. Safety of sunscreen is a concern and sunscreen companies have emotionally and inaccurately promoted the use of sunscreens. Vitamin D deficiency has been strongly linked to a variety of cancers. It can be estimated that increased sun exposure might lead to a few hundred more melanoma deaths, but will potentially stop 3,000 other deaths. Basically some exposure might cause a few hundred more melanoma deaths, but that same sun exposure is going to prevent 3,000 other deaths because of the vitamin D benefits from the sun.

Basically avoiding the sun is helping to prevent cancers on a minuscule level. Avoiding the sun though is exacerbating a lot of other health conditions because of the repercussions of vitamin D deficiency. The key is to get your sun exposure. Wear a good quality sunscreen when you do it, get the 10 to 15 minutes of unprotected sunlight every single day. Make sure your vitamin D is up in the 50 to 70 range. What's the last thing I want to say? Wear a nontoxic sunscreen, sorry.

Oh, healthy diet. Here's another interesting thing that the omega-6 fatty acids, so if we're eating a lot of refined vegetable oils, they cause a lot of inflammation in our body, which can also trigger these cancer pathways, these inflammatory pathways in our body. Making sure you're consuming really good quality fats that are rich in omega-3 to bring down that omega-6 in your body, which is… Omega-6 is pro-inflammatory, omega-3 is anti-inflammatory. You need a healthy diet rich in omega-3, so that's things like eggs and ghee and coconut oil and fish oil and good quality butter and nuts and seeds, all of these things increase your omega-3, bring down the omega-3 to six ratio.

Omega-6 is the pro-inflammatory. That's from things like canola oil, cottonseed oil, vegetable oil, soybean oil, corn oil, terrible for us, very pro-inflammatory and will lend us towards a lot more inflammation in the body and more likely to have these toxins, the sunburn and then the toxins from the sunscreen, become cancer causing agents.

Really important is yes, you do need some sunscreen to prevent sunburn. Sunburn can cause the skin cancer. If you head over to AimeeRaupp.com/sunscreen, you're going to see my list of my approved sunscreens, AimeeRaupp.com/sunscreen. They're all linked out. The one I currently use, so this is what I put on my skin every day. This is Dew Skin by Beautycounter, and this is my rejuvenating facial oil. This rejuvenating facial oil is made with ghee, olive oil, coconut oil, pomegranate seed, rose hip seed. This actually has an SPF of about an eight just from all the natural ingredients. A lot of the nuts oils actually have naturally occurring SPF. Almond oil, I think, is the highest and carrot seed oil. This has carrot seed oil in it as well. This has a natural SPF.

This is a 20 SPF. Its only active ingredients are zinc oxide. Beautycounter Super Clean, I use that for most of my makeup. If you've never bought Beautycounter before, you get a 20% off discount. I think this is like 50 bucks, so you'd get 20% off if you follow the link that I have on the guide. It's a tinted moisturizer too. I do one pump of this and then two pumps of this, and that's what's on my skin right now. I don't do that first thing in the morning. If I go out for a run or a walk in the sun, I put either nothing on or just this. This is just basically my makeup.

Then, if I'm in the sun for longer periods of time, we'll tend to use… I might put extra of this on, but that makes me look over made up. I tend to always just have either Badger or California Babies or the… What is the one? When I was just talking to you about Beth, someone was just telling me about that one. Let me just make sure it's on the guide. I want to go and check the guide, and I'll tell you guys the exact ones that I'm using on a regular basis. We also have the Peter Thomas Roth one in the house, which is a powder. That's really easy for me to apply to James. The cream takes more time and he gets real fussy about it.

Beautycounter, the Primal Life. Dr. Mercola, right? The All Good brand, someone asked about that. Yeah. Babo, that's the other one I use. We have Babo, we have Badger. We have the Beautycounter one. Block Island Organics, that's another great one. Badger, did I say Badger? Yes, I did. These are the ones that we'll tend to use in the house and when we're out and about. Let me just see if there's more questions here. Okay, so vitamin D question, I already answered that. Let me see, do you guys have any other questions here?

Do you recommend a specific facial sunscreen on your list that does a good job? Oh, so this, I love this. I love the Beautycounter one. Until May 31st, right, oh yeah, the 20% off is until May 31st. Right? You got a couple of days. Is the Aimee approved list good for babies under six months of age? Yeah. I mean I would just really cover up the baby versus putting sunscreen on them personally. I would just really cover them up. The big hat, that's what we had James in, and then we had the long sleeves and kind of like the shorts that went past his knees and then, yeah, I think I always use Badger on him and the Babo. The Babo is very popular out in The Hamptons and that's how old he was in The Hamptons at that point in his life. The Babo was the one I was using.

Blue Lizard isn't on the list, but I can add it. Yeah. Blue Lizard is the newer one that people have been talking about that I also think is a good one that you could use, but, again, remember vitamin D, super important to how your body processes the sun. You really want to make sure your vitamin D levels are where they need to be ideally between a 30 and a 50, I'm sorry, between a 50 and a 70. In the winter time… My D was low after my miscarriage. I was taking 10,000 IUs a day. I've gotten it back up. Now that I'm getting some exposure, maybe I'm doing 5,000 IUs every other day right now. My D is now in the 50s again, but D is super important.

You want to get unexposed, sorry, unprotected sunlight every single day at least 10 to 15 minutes. The morning sunlight is the best. Just go out and let your body soak in that sun and take off your sunglasses and just let the sun penetrate. Don't stare directly at the sun. I don't think that's good for eyes, but let your body take in the sun on every level. Again, a lot of the nuts and seed oils have natural sun protection. This is what I use when I'm just going out for a half hour, an hour walk or jog. This is what I have on my face at all times.

Then, if I want a little more protection and I'm wearing makeup, I'm wearing the Dew Skin with this. I do a pump and a pump. Again, 20% off this if you follow the link. If you've never bought Beautycounter before, you get 20% off. The link is in the guide, go to AimeeRaupp.com/sunscreen. Again, reapplying is important, especially if you're going to be out in the sun for long periods of time. We also wear our hats. If I'm at the beach for a long period of time, I just put on a coverup that just protects me for a bit. Then, I take a break and then I reapply, right? If you're in and out of the water, yes, you should be reapplying.

Let's see. I want to make sure no other questions. I love 100% Pure and Treat Yourself products. They're really good, organic and natural. Yeah. I mean I think the list can get bigger and bigger as time goes on, because more and more people are making cleaner products. I do like the 100% Pure. I always used their tinted moisturizer until I discovered the Dew Skin. I just really like the Dew Skin. I love my friend who sells Beautycounter, so I like to support her. 100% Pure is good. I just recommend go on either Healthy Living, their app, or on, I'm sorry, Think Dirty, their app, and make sure sunscreen should be at a two. All products should be at a two or under on their scoring system. You really want to look and I would avoid any of the aerosol, that spray stuff.

My husband sometimes will still buy it and it's like, “Just stay the hell away from me.” It's old habit for him. It's, I guess, easy. He likes that powder stuff too, the Peter Thomas Roth stuff I like and I'll use that, especially for the little guy. It's just easy to get on him. When he was a baby, it was a lot easier to lather cream all over him. Now, that he's a busy four year old, it's a lot harder, but I don't go overkill on the sunscreen. I let my body take in the sun. I think it's really good. It's really healthy, and then also making sure that you're consuming lots of good quality, omega-3 rich fats, which will be amazing for your skin and prevent, work against the sun damage that's happening from the outside.

You give yourself ample fats and a healthy, good quality diet that's low in the omega-6 rich fats, like the processed vegetable oils, soy oil, corn oil, all of that, and your skin is going to be amazing and plump. Then, use products… My skincare, I always say, if you can't eat it, you shouldn't put it on your skin. Even if you don't want to buy my stuff, use things like ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, carrot seed oil, rose hip seed oil, that's the stuff you want to be using on your skin to keep it super hydrated, vitamin C rich, super plump and help fight the fight, help support, help delay the aging process, help rejuvenate. That's what we call this one, the rejuvenating facial oil.

Again, AimeeRaupp.com/sunscreen to get my Aimee approved list. We've done the work for you so you don't have to. All the links are there, just click the link, buy what you want. Again, this is what I'm using on a regular basis. Then, we have all sorts of different sunscreens on that list in our home and kind of just like whatever falls into the beach bag is what we use. Blue Lizard is now on the list. Look at that. Let's see, any other questions on the Instagram? No.

You guys, all right. We did it again, and I love you guys. Enjoy the sunshine. If you're on the US soil, we're getting some, especially on the East Coast, it's getting more and more sunny here. It's going to be 70-something degrees today, so I'm going to try to sneak out and get a little sunlight right now. Okay, love you guys. I'll see you next week, ciao for now.