Full show notes: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/sunpodcast
In this episode, journalist Rowan Jacobsen, author of In Defense of Sunlight, challenges everything you thought you knew about sun exposure. Modeled after Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, his book argues we've been gaslit into a "zero-sun policy" the science does not actually support. You'll hear why melanoma is tied to intermittent sunburns rather than steady sun, the surprising 2024 research suggesting UVB may be protective while UVA is the real concern, and how office culture, window glass, and car windows may all be hidden pieces of the skin cancer puzzle.
You'll also learn why the vitamin D supplement story is more complicated than the pills suggest, how sunlight lowers blood pressure through nitric oxide and lifts your mood through natural opioids, where sunscreen genuinely helps and where hats and shirts do better, what to make of the new sunscreen ingredient Bemotrizinol, and how a simple 30-day reset of your light exposure could transform your sleep.
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