Comments on: The Doctor Is In: Can Tanning Prevent Cancer?

By: Patterson

Patterson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:45:27 +0000

I know you may be joking Ben but no one said the Goldilocks rule was “idiot proof”.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:18:13 +0000

I have always had a problem with the “no sun rule” especially for people of darker complexion who live in the northern climate, human evolution was in the sun. I think something else is going on, something in our diet we are eating or not eating.

By: John Davies

John Davies — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:29:20 +0000

>Tell me, how many times shooting yourself in the face would be “just right”?

Zero. -1 is much too infrequent.

By: JLawson

JLawson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:11:34 +0000

Ben -

I’d say ‘0′ on that, unless you’re a masochist with a BB gun…

By: Ken Mitchell

Ken Mitchell — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:48:28 +0000

Typically, none – unless there’s a cougar trying to eat your nose. Then the correct answer might be “one”. The “Goldilocks Number” for most things depends on circumstances, but you probably already knew that. More generally, what’s the proper number of firearms that you should own? As many as you need, but not more than you can handle safely. Somewhere between one and the number that you can afford.

The same thing goes for most recreational pharmaceuticals; the proper dose of opioid drugs would be very low – but then, the curare in my example falls into the same category. The physician will prescribe the “proper” amount – but he may be wrong.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:15:33 +0000

“There is a simple rule that everyone should remember; the Goldilocks Rule of Everything.”

Tell me, how many times shooting yourself in the face would be “just right”?

By: Queenie

Queenie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:30:20 +0000

I spent my teens, 20’s and 30’s staying out of the sun, and I admit it kept me looking younger… but this year, the year of my 40th birthday, I decided to let myself sit out in the sun a little while every day. What the heck, I’m 40 now, right? Well, I have absolutely loved my 10-15 minutes a day (I confess to still wearing sunscreen on my face, and a hat). I look SO much better with color, (though I do think if I’d been doing this for years I might have that leathery Clint Eastwood look). I feel better, too.

The most interesting part, though, is that my nails have gotten so strong, that for the first time in my life it’s easier to let them grow out and be manicured that to bite/cut them off as they break. I’ve never been able to grow long nails before… they look nice!

I don’t know exactly what the sun’s doing, but it’s doing something…It may be unrelated, but I like to think that if my nails are getting demonstrably stronger, maybe my bones are, too?

By: Ken Mitchell

Ken Mitchell — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:24:38 +0000

There is a simple rule that everyone should remember; the Goldilocks Rule of Everything. For everything, there is a level which is “too much”, a level which is “not enough”, and a level which is “just right”.

Not enough oxygen will kill you. Too much oxygen will kill you. (One of my pilots in the Navy had to be reassigned from A-6 attack aircraft to P-3 patrol planes, because in the A-6 you have to wear an oxygen mask all the time, and in the P-3, you don’t. And if you try SCUBA diving with an oxygen bottle…. Well, you’ll only try it once.)

Not enough water, and you die of dehydration. Too much, and you drown.

Salt; you need some, but too much …..

Sunlight; too much gives you cancer. Not enough and you get rickets.

Botulism toxin will kill; BoTox smooths out movie stars’ wrinkles.

Curare is the poison that Amazonian warriors use for their arrows. But in the proper doses, curare stops the heart just long enough for surgery.

Pick something – ANYTHING. Follow the Goldilocks Rule, and you’ll be OK.

By: ZEITGEIST

ZEITGEIST — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:18:00 +0000

[...] CAN TANNING prevent cancer? [...]

By: AgingMom

AgingMom — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:08:59 +0000

Blacks have higher cancer death rates than whites, and this is usually chalked up to worse access to health care. But in a lot of black neighborhoods, the crime is so bad that people avoid going outside. Since darker-skinned people need more sunlight to produce adequate levels of Vitamin D, and since many blacks are lactose-intolerant and therefore consume a lot less in the way of dairy products than white people do, it may be that the black cancer rates really don’t have much to do with health care access, and a lot to do with a greater Vitamin D deficiency.