by Mary-Jane Liddicoat, 15 June 2011 (click here to listen to the broadcast TBSe FM 1013 Mainstreet 'Family Affairs' program 16 June 2011 and published SIWA Discover Magazine Summer issue)
As an Australian, I grew up being told to slip (on a shirt), slop (on sunscreen), slap (on a hat) and stay out of the sun to avoid skin cancer. They almost got it right.
In June, the Washington-based non-profit Environmental Working Group's published it's findings on the 'best sunscreen', which was: a hat and shirt. So what about sunscreen?
Australians have been slip, slop, slapping for decades. But did you know the incidence of skin cancer in Australia skyrocketed from the point when people began decreasing their sun exposure this way?
It seems that not only have we been denying our bodies the very thing they need to stay healthy (vitamin D), we have been absorbing highly toxic chemicals directly through our skin all summer long.
What Vitamin D can do for you
We all know we can get vitamin D from the sun and that lack of vitamin D causes rickets. In 2009, a study by a group of Leeds University researchers found that higher levels of Vitamin D were linked to improved skin cancer survival odds.
Here's what the Vitamin D Council says: "Current research has implicated Vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer, as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease and more."
Sun-dosing
The recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is set at 200-400 international units a day (IU) -- thought to be the level above which overt cases of the classic vitamin D deficiency disease rickets will not be observed - however, you actually need around 4,000 IU/day just to maintain the vitamin D levels you already have.
The easiest, most effective, and cheapest way of getting the Vitamin D you need is from the sun. How much do you need? That depends on the colour of your skin.
If you lay naked in the park in June in Britain for half an hour between 11am and 2pm, scientists say you could generate around 20,000 IU of vitamin D. Of course, the mitigating factors are skin pigmentation, where you are on the planet, cloud cover, pollution, speed at which the police came to arrest you...
Don't wash it off!
And did you know that it takes around 48 hours for vitamin D to penetrate the skin? By this time, most of us have probably washed it off.
Being oil-soluble, vitamin D is broken down by soap and washed away in your shower. To avoid this happening after adequate sun exposure (enough for fair-skinned types to turn pinkish), wash off the skin with water only, using soap only under arms, feet and other particularly whiffy bits.
If you were a cat, you'd lick it off...
Trying to get sun exposure behind glass won't work since the vitamin-D-making UVB wavelength is disrupted. UVA gets through, but that's not what you need.
Sun-screens
Today most people are aware that for years personal care products have contained harmful chemicals. Sunscreens have their own particular pitfalls with many of the commonly used ingredients becoming highly toxic when exposed to the sun.
The US Food and Drug Administration has known about the dangers of vitamin A in sunscreens for ten years: "Retinyl palmitate was selected by (FDA's) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for photo-toxicity and photocarcinogenicity testing based on the increasingly widespread use of this compound in cosmetic retail products for use on sun-exposed skin." (October 2000 report by the National Toxicology Program).
And yet this ingredient is still allowed in sunscreens and other personal care products.
Other chemicals used as filtering agents are also highly toxic. Avoid sunscreens containing oxybenzone, para-amino benzoic acid (PABA), octyl salicyclate, avobenzone, cinoxate, padimate O, dioxybenzone, phenylbenzimidazole, homosalate, sulisobenzone, menthyl anthranilate, trolamine salicyclate, and octocrylene, just to name a few.
Take this list with you when you go shopping. You can also download a free list of common chemicals to avoid from www.healthyhomes.asia (available in English, Korean, Japanese and simplified and traditional Chinese).
And don't just trust a 'brand name'. Different countries have different regulatory standards. So even if you buy a trusted brand in country X, the ingredients may not be the same as in the product you buy in country Y. So double check the label.
What do I do?
These days, I spend December to March in Australia, and the rest of the year in Korea. So I am spending most of my time in summer. I wear a hat, shirt and use a trusted sunscreen bought in Australia (and mailed to myself in Korea when necessary).
I have lived in Korea for 11 years and have always self imported all my own personal care products and supplements. Why? Because it's easy to do and gives me peace of mind.
The short story for summer fun and sun
Right now, it appears the short answer is zinc or titanium mineral products (make sure it doesn't contain nano particles, which are still being studied).
Other safe sunscreen ingredients that will nourish your skin include: coconut oil, jojoba oil, sunflower oil, shea butter, vitamins D and E and eucalyptus oil.
And check out the extensive product listing at www.ewg.org.
A new internal sunscreen
Also take a look at astaxanthin, which is becoming known as a 'supernutrient' and is now the focus of a large and growing number of peer-reviewed scientific studies. In 2002, the Journal of Dermatological Science published a study finding astaxanthin is able to protect against alterations in human DNA induced by UVA light exposure.
It's produced from marine algae in response to exposure to UV light. This is the way the algae protects itself, so it makes sense that this deeply pigmented substance would have the capacity to 'shield' you when it is taken in large enough quantities for a long enough time to saturate your body's tissues. Typically this is several weeks.
One of the benefits of astaxanthin that has caught the attention of researchers is its ability to reduce signs of aging, by helping protect skin from sun damage. I'll be looking into this more for sure!
It's summer, have fun!
What if you could read this article without fear or concern? It's summer - enjoy! Stress, worry and fear, after all, can be just as toxic as some sunscreens...
So simply: get enough sun for Vitamin D, and don't burn or slap on toxins. Easy?
Further reading
Mary-Jane Liddicoat is an ex-diplomat now looking at what different choices we might be making to help create more fun and wellbeing in our communities. For more information visit www.conscious-living.asia. Mary-Jane lives between Seoul, Korea and Wollongong, Australia, with her Korean sculptor husband and their three children, aged seven, five and two.
In June, the Washington-based non-profit Environmental Working Group's published it's findings on the 'best sunscreen', which was: a hat and shirt. So what about sunscreen?
Australians have been slip, slop, slapping for decades. But did you know the incidence of skin cancer in Australia skyrocketed from the point when people began decreasing their sun exposure this way?
It seems that not only have we been denying our bodies the very thing they need to stay healthy (vitamin D), we have been absorbing highly toxic chemicals directly through our skin all summer long.
What Vitamin D can do for you
We all know we can get vitamin D from the sun and that lack of vitamin D causes rickets. In 2009, a study by a group of Leeds University researchers found that higher levels of Vitamin D were linked to improved skin cancer survival odds.
Here's what the Vitamin D Council says: "Current research has implicated Vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer, as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease and more."
Sun-dosing
The recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is set at 200-400 international units a day (IU) -- thought to be the level above which overt cases of the classic vitamin D deficiency disease rickets will not be observed - however, you actually need around 4,000 IU/day just to maintain the vitamin D levels you already have.
The easiest, most effective, and cheapest way of getting the Vitamin D you need is from the sun. How much do you need? That depends on the colour of your skin.
If you lay naked in the park in June in Britain for half an hour between 11am and 2pm, scientists say you could generate around 20,000 IU of vitamin D. Of course, the mitigating factors are skin pigmentation, where you are on the planet, cloud cover, pollution, speed at which the police came to arrest you...
Don't wash it off!
And did you know that it takes around 48 hours for vitamin D to penetrate the skin? By this time, most of us have probably washed it off.
Being oil-soluble, vitamin D is broken down by soap and washed away in your shower. To avoid this happening after adequate sun exposure (enough for fair-skinned types to turn pinkish), wash off the skin with water only, using soap only under arms, feet and other particularly whiffy bits.
If you were a cat, you'd lick it off...
Trying to get sun exposure behind glass won't work since the vitamin-D-making UVB wavelength is disrupted. UVA gets through, but that's not what you need.
Sun-screens
Today most people are aware that for years personal care products have contained harmful chemicals. Sunscreens have their own particular pitfalls with many of the commonly used ingredients becoming highly toxic when exposed to the sun.
The US Food and Drug Administration has known about the dangers of vitamin A in sunscreens for ten years: "Retinyl palmitate was selected by (FDA's) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for photo-toxicity and photocarcinogenicity testing based on the increasingly widespread use of this compound in cosmetic retail products for use on sun-exposed skin." (October 2000 report by the National Toxicology Program).
And yet this ingredient is still allowed in sunscreens and other personal care products.
Other chemicals used as filtering agents are also highly toxic. Avoid sunscreens containing oxybenzone, para-amino benzoic acid (PABA), octyl salicyclate, avobenzone, cinoxate, padimate O, dioxybenzone, phenylbenzimidazole, homosalate, sulisobenzone, menthyl anthranilate, trolamine salicyclate, and octocrylene, just to name a few.
Take this list with you when you go shopping. You can also download a free list of common chemicals to avoid from www.healthyhomes.asia (available in English, Korean, Japanese and simplified and traditional Chinese).
And don't just trust a 'brand name'. Different countries have different regulatory standards. So even if you buy a trusted brand in country X, the ingredients may not be the same as in the product you buy in country Y. So double check the label.
What do I do?
These days, I spend December to March in Australia, and the rest of the year in Korea. So I am spending most of my time in summer. I wear a hat, shirt and use a trusted sunscreen bought in Australia (and mailed to myself in Korea when necessary).
I have lived in Korea for 11 years and have always self imported all my own personal care products and supplements. Why? Because it's easy to do and gives me peace of mind.
The short story for summer fun and sun
- Don't burn and avoid baking in the sun at midday, especially in the first few days of sun exposure
- Be aware of how much sun your body needs to absorb the required amount of vitamin D (ask your doctor for a Vitamin D test to check your levels, see below)
- Once you have received your required dose of sun, cover up with clothing and a hat, stay in the shade
- Eat a diet of fresh, raw, unprocessed, organic foods, which are full of natural antioxidants which will help counter damage from exposure to ultraviolet radiation and maintain a healthy balance of omega 6 and omega 3 oils in your skin, the first line of defence against sunburn.
- Avoid processed foods which will load your cells with damaged, oxidized fats, which will not give your skin the proper fat protection it needs at a cellular level.
- Avoid using sunscreen unless you must be out in the sun long enough to burn
- Check the ingredients listed on the back of all your personal care products, including sunscreen, and avoid the potentially harmful ones.
- If you choose to use a sunscreen, use a product that protects against both UVA and UVB, and
- Choose the safest sunscreen available...
Right now, it appears the short answer is zinc or titanium mineral products (make sure it doesn't contain nano particles, which are still being studied).
Other safe sunscreen ingredients that will nourish your skin include: coconut oil, jojoba oil, sunflower oil, shea butter, vitamins D and E and eucalyptus oil.
And check out the extensive product listing at www.ewg.org.
A new internal sunscreen
Also take a look at astaxanthin, which is becoming known as a 'supernutrient' and is now the focus of a large and growing number of peer-reviewed scientific studies. In 2002, the Journal of Dermatological Science published a study finding astaxanthin is able to protect against alterations in human DNA induced by UVA light exposure.
It's produced from marine algae in response to exposure to UV light. This is the way the algae protects itself, so it makes sense that this deeply pigmented substance would have the capacity to 'shield' you when it is taken in large enough quantities for a long enough time to saturate your body's tissues. Typically this is several weeks.
One of the benefits of astaxanthin that has caught the attention of researchers is its ability to reduce signs of aging, by helping protect skin from sun damage. I'll be looking into this more for sure!
It's summer, have fun!
What if you could read this article without fear or concern? It's summer - enjoy! Stress, worry and fear, after all, can be just as toxic as some sunscreens...
So simply: get enough sun for Vitamin D, and don't burn or slap on toxins. Easy?
Further reading
- article Best Beach and Sport Sunscreens, Environmental Working Group, June 2011
- article The Bottom Line on Sunscreens - Which Sunscreens are the Safest? Dr Mercola, 6 June 2011 www.mercola.com
- article Scientists reverse stance on sun and cancer: now they admit sunlight can prevent skin cancer, 27 May 2011, www.NaturalNews.com
- article How Supermodel Gisele Bundchen "Infuriated Cancer Experts, April 2011 www.mercola.com
- The Vitamin D council - www.vitamindcouncil.org
- The Essential Guide to Vitamin D by Phillip Day (includes details of how to ask your doctor for a Vitamin D test and what to look for in the results that the doctor might not tell you)
- Interview with leading Vitamin D expert Dr Michael F Holick, MD, PhD www.doctoryourself.com/holick.html
- Dr Joseph Mercola, www.mercola.com
Mary-Jane Liddicoat is an ex-diplomat now looking at what different choices we might be making to help create more fun and wellbeing in our communities. For more information visit www.conscious-living.asia. Mary-Jane lives between Seoul, Korea and Wollongong, Australia, with her Korean sculptor husband and their three children, aged seven, five and two.
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