A recent Consumer Reports study of 20 popular sunscreen brands found that only 2 meet SPF claimed after water emersion. Some brands tested had as much as 40% less then advertised.
Basics on sun protection – protect your body against both UVA (long wave-cause wrinkles, skin cancer) & UVB (short waves). UVA rays are less intense than UVB but penetrate deeper also going thru clouds and glass! UVA accounts for 95% of the rays that reach the earth.
SPF means Sun Protection Factor and refers ONLY to UVB ray blocking. An SPF 15 rating blocks 93% while a SPF 100 rating blocks 99%. Realize that NO sunscreen can block 100% of UV rays.
Sunscreens on the market can work in one of two manners: absorb the rays or scatter/reflect them before they can enter your skin. For a product to be labeled ‘broad spectrum‘ the FDA requires that a critical wavelength of at least 370 nanometers (nm) of rays be blocked.
POI (point of information -not a Hawaiian dish of taro root)
UVA 400 nm – 320 nm
UVB 320 nm – 290 nm
Important ALSO is your actions:
– use a ‘broad-spectrum’ water-resistant sun protector and reapply every 2 hours/when sweat/when come out of water- cover up wherever you do not apply sunscreen
I would never have guessed in my ‘out there’ imagination that I would find worthwhile medical information reading a fashion magazine while waiting for my car to be serviced! I had not read nor for that matter seen a copy of “ELLE” for a very long time, never mind the June 2014 issue! Arizona is not LA or NYC! Here was the scoop Harvard School of Public Health followed 43,685 women for 12 years looking at depression as it relates to diet. At the onset no one had a diagnosis of; nor were taking anti-depressents. The researchers evaluated a ‘pro-inflammatory diet’ versus one that was not.
Let me share with you the diets – before the findings – as you will probably be able to guess outcome:
‘pro-inflammatory’ diet – soft drinks, red meat, margarine, refined grains
‘non inflammatory’ diet – red wine, coffee, olive oil, green and also yellow veggies
OK you guessed:
29 a 41% of those on ‘pro-inflammatory’ diet were more likely to be depressed then those on non inflammatory diet.
I did not feel the need to verify this blurb shared with ELLE readers, it is so intuitive. Gluten is a well-known pro- inflammatory agent to human body especially the brain. Know I feel very responsible when blogging so yes here is a good link for more details!
Prevention Worth Allot! Every day, thousands look for dental care in an ER, sadly almost always they do not receive the definitive care they need.
Nationally, in 2010 more than 2.1 million people, (adults mostly) show up in ERs with dental pain, double the number just a decade prior, according to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Nearly 80% of these ER visits are for common and preventable conditions like tooth abscesses and cavities.
Do not take for granted your or your child’s oral health. Most dental problems are preventable. Simple measures can make the difference and are in your hands.
A fluorinated water supply helps prevent decay however only 27 states (2010) had that. Scary statistic – a quarter of Americans over 65 have lost all their teeth!
In this blog I want to share a few pearls for children dental health.
Start with the young – ask dentist about ‘dental sealants‘ to protect your child’s back teeth from decay. Sealants last 5-10 years. Find and use a fluoride toothpaste if your child is older than 6, if younger use a ‘pea’ size amount of toothpaste and be sure they rinse well. Too much fluoride can cause white spots on permanent teeth.
Watch your child brush till you are sure they are doing it correctly.
Be sure the dentist’s staff instruct both you and your child on proper technique so it is not just you ‘bossing’ your child. Be patient!
I will blog pearls for adult dental hygiene in the future especially since oral cancer is on the rise in the US.
The leading reason folks over 50 loss their vision even go blind is from age related macular degeneration (AMD). The ‘macula’ is in back of the retina where vision is keenest, it allows us to filter damaging blue light from smartphones, computers, LED screens and increases our ability to handle glare. There are 2 types of AMD – @90% are dry (less damaging) or wet (growth of abnormal blood vessels in sub surface) worst type! AMD has caused visual impairment in an estimated 1.7 million of the 34 million Americans over age 65, according to the National Eye Institute.
As we age our body ‘degenerates’ almost everywhere including our eyes resulting in distortion of vision and loss of central vision and commonly in both eyes blindness can occur.
Yes age is a big risk factor but also race, ethnicity, smoking, sunlight exposure and diet! Less common in blacks and Hispanics with hereditary possibly playing a role. Dietary nutrients as a factor has been extensively studied (AREDS -1, 2)*.
A diet that includes foods high in these 2 chemical: broccoli, spinach green beans corn baby carrots would have to be monstrous in volume daily amount (10mg lutein, 2mg zeaxanthin) necessary would have us eating daily 8 cups uncooked broccoli, 11 cups green beans -you get the point. Dietary nutrients as a formula (AREDS -1, 2)* is prominently displayed on OTC preparations. Retinal specialists do not recommend any brand but suggest supplements of: Vitamin C, E, zinc, cooper, lutein and zeaxanthin must be included. You are already on a high antioxidant diet high in Vitamin C, E, B carotene, I hope.
Ask your eye health professional if they have a ‘MPOD’ that measures the amount lutein/zeaxanthin in your eyes and an Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) that maps the sub-surface of the retina to ID AMD. It would be good to find out before you loose central vision in one eye! So demand an evaluation.
*doses used in the study were 5 – 15 x the recommended daily dose (RDA). By now I hope you know the RDA is a dated figure.
Salt (sodium) is everywhere (Americans get 75% of their salt intake from processed foods) even in OTC medications. Salt is a nutrient but humans need very little. It makes food, some foods taste better however a high salt diet contributes to heart disease and stroke. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends consuming no more than 1,500 mg of sodium a day for health individual no matter age.
We have often heard of the dangers of high salt diets, recall my blog from Aug. of last year (results of a decade long study of teens). This year researchers find high salt diet causes cell aging in certain teens*. Obese teens that indulge in a high salt diet may have accelerated aging at the cell level. Evident from the study is that an apparent synergies in teens exists between obesity and high salt diet that makes cell age prematurely. This finding was presented at the AHA’s 2014 Scientific Meeting
POI – In the past it has been implied that human cell aging accelerates with smoking, emotional stress, and being a ‘couch potato’ in adults.
Salt may preserve food but in our bodies it causes premature aging of our vascular tissue. [Vascular relating to blood vessels, including heart arteries veins capillaries. Tissue – all cells that have one function work together to form a type of tissue.]
*The study presented took 766 adolescents (ages of 14 – 18).
My recent blog addressed having your ‘lipids’ tested. This is more important then ever since as frequently happens in medicine a change on the view of cholesterol levels has occurred.
Enter the ‘CVD risk assessment tool’ – a calculator that you plug in a bit of personal info along with your total and ‘HDL’ cholesterol value and viola your odds of a heart attack come up!
If you have had a ‘lipid’ profile (blood test) recently, dig out your results (always get a copy of your lab results) and plug them into this new ‘tool’ – a few details like your normal blood pressure, are you a smoker, on blood pressure medication are also needed – out comes your odds (predictor) of suffering a heart attack in next 10 years.
NOTE: “CVD risk calculator’ is for those of us over 20 who do NOT already have a heart issue or Diabetes. Try
Urinary tract infection (UTI – doc talk) is a ‘bladder infection’. While our urine is made in each of our two kidneys, it travels down through the ureters on each side and into the bladder then when accumulates we let it out thru the urethra. At any point on that path a infection can occur, however they are most common in the bladder. UTIs can occur in young children and the elderly and commonly in women in reproductive age. There are tests commonly done ‘to work-up’ the problem.
If you watch evening network programming you realize testosterone use is not totally safe! Lawyers are now soliciting cases from those who have suffered cardiac events and death from the use of testosterone.
Medical literature says- start testosterone and within 3 months you increase your risk for a heart event. Specific studies have shown if you are young (<65) and have a history of heart related problems (clotting causing stroke, high blood pressure) taking testosterone increases substantially your risk for having a heart attack (MI). Also noted in studies that older men (>65) without heart problems will have a 2x increased risk of suffering a heart attack when taking testosterone. Yes the older man studied had testosterone’s benefits of increased muscular strength and mobility but at a cost – heart problems and increase in strokes.
POI: Exogenous (not made by the body) testosterone causes changes in our body: increase risk of clotting, increased blood pressure, polycythemia (increase red blood cells) and decrease in the ‘good’ (HDL) cholesterol. When we take testosterone our estrogens level naturally increases, which can contribute to having cardiovascular-related events (it is known that estrogen therapy is associated with negative heart events in both men and women).
When you go to purchase over the counter (OTC) medication along with looking at the expiration date, check to see if and how much acetaminophen is present. Yes acetaminophen (Tylenol®) is great for fever and pain but like almost everything else that you can put into your body – too much is bad. Liver disease, serious skin diseases that have symptoms of rash, blisters can occur.
Tylenol® is the brand name but other OTC medication contain generic acetaminophen, including allergy, cold, sinus, cough along with narcotics and sleeping meds.
Overview from the FDA warning:
– take only one product w acetaminophen at a time – that goes for prescription medication also. Some especially narcotics and headache medication contains acetaminophen
– only put into your body medication that was RX’ed for you
– do not take more than 4000mg in 24 hours
– do not drink alcohol while taking any medication containing acetaminophen. Reason is alcohol requires liver enzymes to metabolize (break down) as does acetaminophen. Thus a competition occurs and your body ends up higher levels of both.
Recent Comments