Each year the public wears more sunscreen and each year more melanoma cases occur. It is rather like telling the people that each year more people smoke, and each year more people get lung cancer; so what we need to do is smoke more. That is, of course, ridiculous. Sunscreens have not been shown to stop melanoma; in fact, quite the opposite. Sun exposure is necessary for health. Here are some facts about sun exposure you probably hadn't heard:

Increased sun exposure is not the reason for increased melanoma! Outdoor work has decreased by 90% in the last century, while melanoma has increased by 3,000%. It is not sun exposure that causes health problems; it is sun deprivation. The latest research shows that sunscreen use is leading to widespread vitamin D deficiency, and sun deprivation, not sun exposure, is leading to 336,000 deaths yearly. There has also been an 8,300% increase in vitamin D deficiency in children since 2000, which is likely due to insufficient time playing outdoors and/or sunscreen use. So you see, all of this "protection" may be fatal. Get your sunshine, produce vitamin D be smart. Here are more facts you should know about the importance of your friend, the Sun.

•A 20-year Swedish study shows that sun avoidance is as bad for the health as cigarette smoking.
•A Spanish study shows that women who seek the sun have one-eleventh the hip-fracture risk as those who avoid sun.
•Men who work outdoors have half the risk of melanoma as those who work indoors.
•Women who avoid the sun have 10-times the risk of breast cancer as those who embrace the sun.
•Women who sunbathe regularly have half the risk of death during a 20-year period compared to those who stay indoors.
•Sun exposure increases nitric oxide production, which leads to a decrease in heart disease risk.
•Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is essential to human survival, and sun exposure is the only natural way to obtain it. Sunbathing can produce up to 20,000 units of vitamin D in 20 minutes of whole-body exposure around noon.
•Sun exposure dramatically improves mood through the production of serotonin and endorphin.
• Sun exposure increases the production of BDNF, which is vital to human health.