Sunshine on my Shoulders Makes Me Happy and Healthy!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I became a parent in the midst of the "slather every inch of your child's body with sunscreen every second of the day lest you relinquish him to an early death from melanoma" dogma.  Now, as the parent of a child with cancer, and a friend of a young man who died from melanoma at age 38, I don't want to seem like I'm trivializing.  However . . . could it be that, like with so many things, we've been sold that bridge in Alaska in the form of products we don't need and that don't even do what they claim to?


My first twinge of skepticism really didn't come until I heard about the possible carcinogenity of that vitamin A additive they're putting in all of the sunscreens for its anti-aging properties.  "Retinyl palmitate," it turns out, may help prevent aging, but not when it's sun-exposed . . . then it becomes carcinogenic.  It is, as they say, "photocarcinogenic."  Think of all of those poor girls on tanning beds year-round with their premium-priced retinyl palmitate lotions . . . trying to stay tan and young at the same time, and getting it completely wrong.

And I hate to admit it, but there have been plenty of occasions in the past when I've actually applied sunscreen to my children's freshly-bathed bodies the night before.  Imagine, I put that crap on their unprotected skin and let them marinate in it all night, just because I was afraid I wouldn't have time in the morning to do everyone's skin properly.  God forbid any sunlight should touch their skin . . . In retrospect, what a dummy!  Seriously, there's a reason they say on the labels not to use it on babies!!!  (The fragrance isn't real - parabens; there are hormone disruptors in there.  Some of them even have nanoparticles so they absorb more easily.)  As a consolation, I didn't do this all that often, but still, that's pretty misguided.  And I say "misguided" intentionally, because I, like many, became a sunscreen zombie at the behest of the health establishment.

(Don't get me started on the skin cancer prevention campaigns, the Skin Cancer Foundation, the multi-million dollar anti-aging industry . . .  I am not falling for any of it.  Goldie Hawn looks like hell --  that's proof enough for me that it's a racket.)  (Sorry, Goldie.)

Anyhoo, not only is sunscreen as prevention an issue, it turns out that sunscreen is a stumbling block to natural body processes.  It is, like so many things, another symptom of our constant gnawing desire to have our cake and eat it, too.  Too much sun will burn you; there is very little you can do about it, other than physically shielding yourself from its rays.  Sure, sunscreens can prolong your burn-free exposure time, but at what cost to other aspects of your child's health?  There are hormone disruptors in those products and we're putting them on our kids in order to prevent disease . . . now there's some irony for you.  The unsavvy buyer is still picking up those anti-aging retinyl palmitate formulations and cooking up some carcinogenity with every moment of sun exposure.  The rest of us who saw that report are avoiding the vitamin A, but do we really know what else to look for?

Lucky us:  the Environmental Working Group is all over it.  Odds are, you've already bought your sunscreen for this year, and with the price of the stuff, you're not tossing it out over anything I say here.  But if you live in the frozen tundra that is Michigan, where we've had about three beach-worthy days so far this year, maybe there's time for some educating.

Surprisingly, there are some mainstream brands that received high marks.  Aveeno's Baby Natural Protection Mineral Block Face Stick is good, and you can find Aveeno anywhere.  Alba, Kiss My Face, and Aubrey Organics are three that I've seen in Target -- EWG gave their products high marks.  And on a list for moisturizers with SPF, I was surprised to see a Johnson & Johnson's product highly ranked (J&J's Baby Daily Face & Body Lotion, SPF 40.)  The cosmetics database allows you to type in the name of your choice, so if you've already invested your twenty-spot for this summer, take a look at how your purchase ranks.  Here's the link for the database:  http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2011sunscreen/

Oops.  What if you made a bad choice?  Well, then, you can either buy a different one or simply use the one you have but use it less often and more selectively.  Even at my most fanatical phase, I didn't use sunscreen constantly.  It was more of a bad sunburn-prevention thing.  Most of us aren't going to be out there all day.  You need twenty minutes of sun a day anyway . . . and that's sunscreen-free exposure, thank you.  Your body makes its own vitamin D with sun exposure.  Don't mess with the process.

Hats, long-sleeved shirts, umbrellas . . . don't negate their effectiveness as chemical-free sun protection.  Move your kids' toys into the shade.  Simple things, really.  I often use sunscreen only on the hotspots, like the shoulders and neck, tops of arms, nose, cheekbones, lips, forehead, scalp, and ears.  (There's a reason that sunburns tend to show up there first.)  But you probably already knew that.  So . . . I'm going to wind down my blathering and give you the link for an article on the reasons why you shouldn't sweat sun protection so much.  You can skip it if you wanna, but here it is:   http://blog.grasslandbeef.com/the-sun-is-your-sunscreen/Default.aspx?utm_campaign=SunIsYourSunscreen&utm_source=newsletter

One more thing . . . on those SPF bug sprays.  Just say no.  If it's a DEET formula, anyway:  the DEET absorbs into the bloodstream six times as much when there's SPF in the mix.  What a poisonous concoction that is, with pesticide and all that other bad stuff in one "protective" formula.  Bugs and sunburn . . . oh, the humanity! 

Summer is truly a gift.  Sure, skin cancer can be a death sentence.  I'm not taking it lightly - I've had my skin exam at the dermatologist.  But let's keep things in perspective.  The sun is not your enemy, it is the source of life on our planet.  If you're that scared, park your car and stay inside, because driving to the store for sunscreen is far riskier than sun exposure. 

Now that may seem counter to everything I'm pushing on this blog, but it's not.  I think maybe we're just worrying about the wrong stuff, yet oblivious to the things that should concern us.  Simplify your life, get back to the basics, sacrifice some conveniences for better health . . . and if it's harmful, find an alternative.  The sun itself is not poison.  Only in excess does it harm us.  It has proven benefits for our moods. 

So don't shun the sun. 

Again and again, we're presented with the magic remedy and again and again, we find the remedy to be lacking (or even more harmful than the problem that needed remedied!)  Some sunscreens don't help at all;  some sunscreens have harmful endocrine inhibitors; some have photocarcinogenic retinyl palmitate.  Hopefully this will help you reconsider your sunscreen addiction.  In many ways it's as ill-founded as the sun-worshipping habits of my generation.

 . . .  my apologies to the Coppertone girls . . .