Doctors reply to Gwyneth Paltrow’s sun-exposure advice

The thing about celebrities giving medical advice is that, quite honestly, they are often wrong. You'd think this would be obvious, except that legions of people gobble up daily tabloid headlines with reckless abandon, and some are naive enough to believe the medical voodoo claims many celebrities espouse.

Gwyneth Paltrow's recent interview in British Cosmopolitan is the perfect example of this. In it, she describes her daily health habits, much of which include inoffensive rituals like her fitness routine and her "cheat foods."

Also see: 7 surprising ways your diet can help prevent sunburn

But then she launches into her views on the sun, and that's when things go awry.

Naturally, these pseudoscience claims have ruffled some feathers. The National Post has done us the honours of getting Canadian doctors to comment on Paltrow's statement about sun exposure.

Here is a brief sample of what a couple doctors said:

"This would certainly go against any medical advice I would give. The sun is main cause of several forms of skin cancer, one of which can be fatal, melanoma. Most people do get 15 minutes of inadvertent sun exposure, and the truth is, most people aren't listening to dermatologist," says Dr. Cheryl Rosen, head of dermatology at Toronto Western Hospital.

"Well there are other things that are natural also: Poison ivy is natural -- I wouldn't want a natural moisturizer made out of that. Snake venom is natural -- I still wouldn't want a cobra to bite me," says Dr. Peter Vignjevic, a medical and cosmetic dermatologist in Hamilton.

Also see: Sun safe: 8 sunscreen formulas for face, body & hair

The issue with celebrities giving their ill-advised health views is that their comments would be largely ignored if they weren't famous. But because many of them lead seemingly healthy lives with rock hard bodies that we envy, we give their opinions on health more weight than they deserve. After all, they are probably no more or less informed than your average Joe.

And the reality is, even some medical doctors who have achieved celebrity status like Dr. Oz, turn a blind eye to evidence-based science in favour of gaining public popularity. Real medical science is boring, complicated and slow. Ground breaking medical discoveries are exceedingly rare, which does not bode well for headline driven media.

So what's the public to do with all these Paltrow and Oz types? Simple. Ignore them.