It was John Denver who sang that sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. Dr. Martin thinks of that song whenever the sun is shining.
Recently Dr. Martin shared some news that the FDA was recalling lots of sunscreens because of their carcinogenic effect. Now, a new study is showing that people who use sunscreen are much more susceptible to melanoma than people that don't use it.
Join Dr. Martin as he shares a combination of studies on sunshine, why it works, and what it does when you get it on your skin. Exposure to the sun is so good for you, and there’s no need to be afraid of it.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone. Once again, welcome to another live here this morning. Okay. Now you know what we're going to talk about today? VitDerma, the patented name for sun. Okay? Now remember the old John Denver tune? Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy. You remember that? I love John Denver. Okay? Telling you how old I am. You remember that song? Okay. Yeah, I know a lot of you do. Okay. Now two things I want to bring out to you on VitDerma. One of them is whatever you do, don't use sunscreen. Don't lather it up. Don't put it on your skin.
We talked about this maybe a week or two ago where I was bringing you some FDA news, and they were recalling lots of sunscreens because of their carcinogenic effect. Now, new study out showing sunscreen, people that use it are much more susceptible to melanoma than people that don't use it. Guys, you got to make decisions on your own. I'm just bringing you the news, information. And I've been very consistent about that. The way to help yourself in the sun is not to stay away from it. Don't burn. Nobody wants you to burn in the sun.
Now this is anecdotal, but I'm going to tell you what I've seen over the years, and especially with the reset. People have found, once they do the reset, they can get in the sun more than they used to. But be careful. I'm not saying go burn in the sun. I never say that. Wear a hat and cover up. As much as you can, cover up. You need about 20 to 30 minutes. Some people can go an hour easily in the sun. Where you get your VitDerma is on your arms and legs, and that's the problem with the wintertime, isn't it. And that's why I'm so big into supplementing with vitamin D. It's not as good as VitDerma. It isn't. But it's good.
Now I want to talk to you about a combination of studies on VitDerma, the sunshine, why it works, and what it does when you get it on your skin. It's so good for you. I was talking to a friend in Florida yesterday, and we were chuckling about how Floridians stay out of the sun. It's amazing to me. They get what, on average, about 320 days of sun, the sunshine state, and people are scared of it. They don't get into the sun. And it's interesting that in Florida, it shouldn't be this way, but the levels of vitamin D are not much higher than people living in Canada because Johnson & Johnson did their job. They scared the living life out of people with the sun. And here it is, hot off the presses, melanoma, which is that deadly skin cancer, rates are much higher with people that use sunscreen.
I don't like that stuff. It's chemicals. Add heat to chemicals, it's never good. And listen, I didn't say it. Well, I did, but I didn't say it first. The FDA is the one that was recalling hundreds of sunscreens because of their carcinogenic effect. Why would they do that? I don't even think they were talking about adding heat to those things. I always laugh about my chemistry, what I learned in high school chemistry. Don't take a Bunsen burner and add it to a vial of things that I mix together without thinking. Don't add heat. It can be disastrous. I almost blew up the chemistry class.
Anyway, sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy and healthy. Guys, the jury is in. We have all the evidence that we need. The sun, the sun is good for you for lots of things. Now that's what I want to talk about. We're going to go over some of the actual hormones that are made. Remember, vitamin D is a hormone. It's not really a vitamin. I'm glad we classified it as a vitamin, but it's really a hormone that your body makes when sun is introduced. Vitamin D is a hormone. That's why, "Ah, your vitamin D is high. That's toxic." Eh, I don't know. I don't know. I got problems with that. Okay? I want optimized vitamin D levels.
Let's go from your head to toes with vitamin D and the hormones it helps to produce. So when you get in the sun, the first thing, the first ... I shouldn't say first things because they all occur, but I want to go from your head first to your toes. So when you get in the sun, you know what goes up? These hormones. You got a pen? You got a piece of paper? Write them down. Serotonin goes up. Your serotonin goes up. What does that mean? Your mood, feel good hormone, your serotonin. Do you know how many people are depressed? I was reading an article the other day found it interesting because it said depression is an indoor disorder, and I thought about that, and I said, "There's a lot of truth to that."
Depression is an indoor disorder. Serotonin is elevated. Your mood is elevated when you're in the sun. And guys, let's just use some common sense for a minute here. Everybody knows that. Maybe they don't know about serotonin, but they know when it's sunny out, your mood is better. Isn't it nice when the sun comes out, my friend? Yeah. Yeah. Serotonin goes up. It ought to be therapeutic in depression, which is a major, major issue today in our society, anxiety and depression. Major. And here we have medications, a whole class of SSRIs, serotonin, meds to lift up your moods.
Oh, if you would just get in the sun, your mood would go up. You know me and my splitting headaches when I hear nonsense. Anyway, let's go down the list. Serotonin, you got it? Your serotonin goes up. Your dopamine goes up. Sun. Now dopamine, again, mood. You know what dopamine is good for, too, by the way? Your eyes. That hormone is good for your eyeballs. Good for your eyesight. Now I think one of the lines in John Denver's hit, "Sunshine in my eyes make me cry." Isn't that what he's saying? Well, I guess if you look right up into the sun, John, God rest your soul, I guess if you look up into the sun. I don't recommend that. You don't have to look into it because it would make your eyes cry, but it actually is very good for your eyes because it elevates your dopamine. Serotonin, dopamine.
Here's another one. You guys know this one. What goes up in the day and goes up again at night? What hormone, okay? Close your books. A little retest. What hormone goes up during the day and with the darkness at night? Now I'm waiting. Sue says she loves the sun. Well, you know what, Sue? You're smart. What's the answer? What hormone goes up during the day? Nativity. You got it. Girl, you got it. Doc McEwen, you got it. If you didn't get this, Doc McEwen, I'd have been disappointed. Diane says she's got a week in Mexico and she's feeling better. Of course.
Okay. Now listen, you know what goes up? Melatonin, the sleep hormone. Now melatonin is good for a lot of things, okay? But it really is. When people think of melatonin, they think of sleep, which is rightly so. Melatonin, your third eye, your pineal gland. Pineal gland in the brain, called your third eye, produces melatonin with VitDerma, the sun. That's why I often tell people, "Don't put your sunglasses on right away. Go outside without your sunglasses for a good 10, 15 minutes. Then put your sunglasses on." Why? Because when the sun hits your eye like a big pizza pie ...
When the sun hits your eye, you make melatonin. Your sleep. That's why if you're on holidays in Mexico and you're in the sun all day, you sleep, usually like a log. True or false? True. They'll say, "Well, the sun wears you out." Yeah, well, it's maybe that, but you're making lots of melatonin. And then when you get into a dark room, melatonin. Sunshine during the day and darkness at night. Wear your mask. Make your room pitch black, you make melatonin. Your pineal gland releases melatonin in pitch black darkness at night. And in the daytime, what happens? You're making melatonin.
Like I said, I don't like to minimize melatonin. I've never really been that big on the supplement of melatonin. Some people find it effective, but I usually tell people with melatonin, it has a shelf life, meaning that you might take it as a supplement, you find it effective, and then after a while, it's not so effective anymore. It's better to actually get your melatonin, in my opinion, from the sun. So, true, you're not really making vitamin D if you're not exposing your arms and your legs specifically to the sun.
Of course, if you live in Northern Ontario, where we live, where I live, okay? Where's Northern Ontario? Well, Santa Claus lives here, and we're just a little bit south of Santa Claus. That's Northern Ontario. Okay? And starting in about the middle of September to the middle of April, well, good luck with getting much VitDerma. You're not getting it on your skin. That doesn't mean when it's a sunny day that it's not good for you, because it is. Still good for your melatonin. It's still good for your serotonin. It's still good for dopamine. Yep. It's still good for that.
Now let's talk about vitamin D for a minute. Okay? The sun hitting your skin in the presence of cholesterol ... Oh, don't get me started on cholesterol. In the presence of cholesterol is going to give you vitamin D. The conversion takes place in your gut of vitamin D, and we all know what vitamin D does. The sunshine vitamin. We went through, a couple of weeks ago, I called it the Petri dish of society. What did I mean by that? Well, we had two years of a social experiment in a Petri dish, what I called the Petri dish, and we watched what happened. And I had been pontificating about mental health and nobody talking about the immune system. We went through two years of it, and it was a great social experiment to see how fear captured people.
Anyway, I don't want to get into that, but I do want to get into vitamin D because one thing we learned in this Petri dish, a two-year experiment in the laboratory of life, you know what we learned? You learned it and I learned it, that if they would've just given people vitamin D ... And guys, you have to admit, anybody that's been listening to me, I have been very consistent about this. I don't care what the world out there does. I care about you. And what did I tell you? I don't care what you do with your body, but please, please take vitamin D for your immune system. Your immune system will not work properly without vitamin D. I said it on day one of the social experiment. And guess what they found out?
You have to read the news behind the news because even in Canada, our former health minister said it was fake news. Didn't want to hear about vitamin D. But your T cells, your Navy Seals of your immune system have an antenna for vitamin D. They have a solar panel. They're looking for the sun. That's a fact, guys. That's a fact. So how can the sun be bad for you? If your Navy Seals, your immune system is looking for the sun, from your head to your toe, from your immune system to your heart, to your brain, to your gut, your eyeballs, your bones, of course. Everybody knows Vitamin D and bones. Yeah. And vitamin D and muscles. Yeah.
What was I screaming during the two-year social experiment? "Bring the seniors and put them outside!" You know how they got rid of the Spanish Flu? They put people in the sun, and now the sun is the boogeyman. How can that be? How can that be, guys? Vitamin D is a hormone. Your immune system doesn't work without it. Your bones don't work without it. Your muscles need it. Your eyeballs need it. Your brain needs it for serotonin and dopamine, melatonin. Uh-huh, uh-huh. I'm not finished yet. I'm not.
Men, this is for you. You want to increase your testosterone? Enjoy the sun. I touched on it a little bit because muscle and muscle building and the importance of your muscles, strong muscles, strong brain, strong heart, strong bones. Men's testosterone goes up with VitDerma. There's another hormone, testosterone. Okay? Ladies, don't be scared of the sun either. Okay? You're not going to grow a beard by going out in the sun. "Oh God, my testosterone, Doc." No, that's for men. Usually I'm talking to you ladies, but the testosterone was specific. Don't worry about testosterone. Ladies, if you've got good estrogen, you don't worry about testosterone. Okay? If you've got good estrogen, progesterone, that's how your body works.
Did you get our email this morning? If you didn't, you should. If you didn't, make sure you sign up for our emails because I want to talk to you about one more thing. Okay? It's called nitric oxide. Now true story, guys. I didn't even know what nitric oxide was when I was in school. See, doctors should never stop going to school. Once you graduate, you just started. You should be learning, learning, learning, learning, learning every day. Right? But I didn't even know nitric oxide. We didn't even have the name of it. It was discovered in 1980, and the guy that discovered it won a Nobel Prize in medicine. And you know what they found with nitric oxide? The higher your nitric oxide, the better everything is, including your immune system.
What is nitric oxide? Well, think of nitroglycerin. What's that? You get angina, and they would give you nitroglycerin, a nitro patch, an explosion, and open up your blood vessels. And if you had angina, which are spasmodic, okay? Spasmodic, your chest pain, angina, they would give you nitro, under your tongue, usually, in those days. Now they have it in a patch, they have it in spray, they have it in different forms, and you're getting angina and you spray because you know what it does? Now we know what it does. It elevates your nitric oxide.
Nitric oxide opens up your blood vessels. VitDerma. When you get sun, you know the significance of that? More sun, lower blood pressure, more sun, men, less ED, less of the blue pill because of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide opens up your blood vessels. Your body makes it in the presence of the sun. Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy, and healthy. Nitric oxide. We all have it. The problem is it's very much diminished, very much diminished as we age and we stay away from the sun. Very much diminished.
Okay. Did we have fun today? What's Friday? Question and Answer Friday. Okay? Now guys, we love you. You know that. Make sure you're getting our emails, and make sure you send your questions in for Friday. Okay? I love VitDerma. Now get out in the sun. It's the first day of summer. That's what Kevin said, and Kevin must be right. Okay? Love you guys. Talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!