Sun Block

[Mialsse]

Ok, so I've read time and time again one of the great benefits of raw and living foods is being able to eliminate toxic chemical laden sunblock because the rich foods we eat provide us with everything needed for skin protection. We've been raw for almost a year (april 24th) ... so, we tested the theory for ourselves....

Wellllllllll, we just spent our 10 year anniversary down in Florida renewing our vows, enjoying sunset ocean swims, romantically walking in downpours, swimming with manatee, and getting BURNT beyond belief. Holy moly - I had never, in my life, been so badly burnt. It took 2 days before getting out of bed for the 60 seconds it took to use the restroom no longer made me dizzy and nauseous A.W.F.U.L. I can move around pretty good now, I'm just at the insanely itchy&peeling stage. If it weren't for my lips being completely COVERED in fever blisters (again, the worst they have EVER been!), I'd feel pretty good!

Sooo, I don't think I'll be trusting my diet to provide adequate skin protection any longer (at least for now). I don't like the idea of smearing poison all over us, so my question is what should I use? We're not exactly rolling in money, so high priced items will of course not be practical for us.

Advice? Suggestions?

[cinnamon panda]

i literally was just reading an article on this, here is an excerpt:

"For more fun in the sun, overexposure can be avoided by using a natural or organic sunscreen with a reflective barrier like zinc, instead of chemical sunscreens. Even a small amount of shea butter rubbed into the skin daily offers a bit of natural UV protection."

[Betsy]

It is important to physically block the sun from your skin. Wear Sun protective clothing with SPF and long sleeves with a shirt that has a high collar to turn up to cover your neck. wear long pants, and a large brimmed hat. Wear UV protective suglasses as well and limit yourself to sun exposure between 10:00 A.M and 4:00 P.M, when the sun's rays is the strongest.

I like the COOLIBAR Seaside Hat and the COLUMBIA seaside stretch tunic.

If you decide to choose a sunscreen, something with Zinc or Titanium oxide are natural mineral physical sunblock choices. They can be pricey, SO, I am just going to reccommend for those who cannot afford the aforementioned stuff and you must have sun protection when out in the sun, these sun protective sunscreens have had acceptable test results for phototoxic reactions and contact irritation, of which I suffer with given the wrong sunscreen! The best sunscreens are: (Sorry, but yes, they have chemicals, but what other options do we have other then to burn if the other options won't work???)

1. Bananna Boat Maximum Sunblock Lotion SPF 50
2. Clarins Paris UV plus Protective Day Screen SPF 40
3. Coppertone Sunblock Lotion SPF 45
4. Aveeno Continuous Protection Sunblock Lotion SPF 45
4. NO-AD SPF 60 Ultimate Sunblock Lotion.


Also, results from recent studies have indicated that individuals with higher levels of Vitamin D in their body show a less risk of sunburn induced skin cancers.

[DavidZaneMason]

In my experience, sun is an accellerant....and will greatly accellerate detox. But overexposure is not good...as with any tool. I have found the eating raw is only part of a healthy spectrum - and does not make one 'immune' from over-exposure to peak sun. My opinion to remain healthy with the sun:

1) Limit exposure to non-peak hours.
2) Wear all-over light clothing and a wide brimmed hat if you are concerned about over-exposure.
3) Keep the diet as simple and healthy as possible.
4) Avoid chemicals in your body and on your skin.

-Just some suggestions/my experiences.

-David Z. Mason

[christofu]

I haven't worried about over exposure to the sun for some time now since I live in Vermont. We do have our days of glorious sunshine, but for the most part it is chilly here. I grew up on Long Island, only a few doors away from the Sound, so trust me when I say I've had my share of sun poisoning!

I have discovered Aura Glow, with almond and paba to help filter the suns rays. I'm a redhead with very fair skin, and when I've used this product, I turned a golden tan instead of lobster red. The one thing I did was apply it when I just stepped out of the shower as a moisturizer every day. I believe the oil needs to penetrate your skin in order for it to be effective. You can't just smear it on while your at the beach.
If you aren't familiar with Aura Glow check here;:cool:

http://www.vitacost.com/Heritage-Products-Aura-Glow?csrc=PPCADWLT-aura_glow&s_kwcid=aura%20glow|980123471

[cara4art]

Ouch!!!
I totally agree with David Mason here, and also, the use of shea butter - excellent stuff.
It's never a good idea to over-expose oneself to the sun, a little bit is fine, especially if you have fair skin and haven't been out for awhile. Take it slow, only a few minutes a day at first, building up a tolerance as your own skin pigmentation will allow, and use light loose clothing to cover up, physical blockers, and a broad-brimmed hat if you're going to be out for awhile. The sun IS stronger than it used to be even way north of places like Florida - the thinning ozone layer and global warming are real! But eating really well with all the natural anti-oxidants and practicing common sense out in the sun is a good idea. Lord only knows how much trouble people have who are eating the SAD! Before the use of sunblocks, people used to stay in the shade, cover up, or go inside after they had enough sun, and people with delicate complexions simply didn't indulge in sunbathing at all.
For Mialsse:
Work on getting your skin healed up - aloe vera gel and Vitamin E will help with the burn, and shea butter will help after that to help repair your skin barrier.

[christofu]

ps~Mialsse, I would load up on aloe, too. Try growing a plant in your home and keep it around for emergency's. Hope you heal fast!

[Betsy]

Definetly aloe, for healing the sunburn, for sure. Also, Calendula lotion is great for sunburns and for healing the skin.

Many times as a child, I would get lobser red in summer because I have freckles, white skin that never tans, and really light blonde hair, so I know that Noxema helped me, too. It felt so cool when Mom applied it to my tender, burnt skin and in a day the redness was a light pink with NO burning or peeling!:eek: This was about 20 years ago and the Noxema Creme ingredients may have changed by now, but back then, Noxema got me thru many a miserable burn!

Hope you are healing fast!

[kaybee]

just fyi, it seems that even the mineral sunblocks are not necessarily non-toxic: see http://www.terressentials.com/nanotech.html

ALSO EXCERPTED FROM THE TERRESSENTIALS WEBSITE: www.terressentials.com:


It is very important for all to note that, while we could make a "sunscreen" product and cash in, we aren't doing that. In fact, we had a well-known client, for whom "money was no object," who hired us to make a sunscreen and, after researching the currently available materials for nearly eighteen months, we declined to continue with the project. It could have been a lucrative opportunity for us, but we knew that we could not make a sunscreen product in good conscience. Everyone knows how troubled the public is over this issue and, frankly, it would be very easy to take advantage of people who are confused and worried about cancer. We are not willing to take chances on potentially biased sunscreen chemical data provided by the manufacturers of such products (particularly since we continue to find increasing numbers of contradictory studies from reputable sources). To us this is the fox guarding the henhouse. It is also a well-known fact that "medical" studies can be designed to produce the results that someone decided they wanted to see. It is our opinion that it is very important to determine who is doing the "study," why they are doing it, who is paying for the study and if they are also buying advertising in the journal that publishes the study. In addition, our conscience does not permit us to expose others to potential risks that we would be unwilling to take ourselves.

Folks often ask how we protect ourselves against the sun and we have always shared our rational and practical opinion which is this: avoid the sun during the peak hours of the day and, if one must venture out, one should wear a large hat, sunglasses and tightly woven, loose fitting cotton (organic would be great) clothing, preferably light blue in color (hopefully dyed with a botanical dye and an environmentally friendly mordant) as a light blue color has been said to reflect the most UV rays. It is also our opinion that one should venture out for five to ten minutes at least once or twice every day, if only to get away from the computer screen and stretch the legs, even if it's raining.

We really dislike spending our ever-so-limited time getting involved in debates about synthetic ingredients like nanoparticulate titanium dioxide (TiO2) with those who would profit from making and selling them. [ "Though the market for nanoparticles will approach one billion dollars next year..." See the ETC Group's full article] We prefer to spend our time in meaningful discourse with folks who are interested in our broad and alternative ecological vision...yet, here we are writing about synthetics. Oh, how we wish we could be sleeping or gardening instead! Our dream is to change the way that people think and to get them to think outside the conventional box of "well, we do it this way because that's the way that everybody else does it" or "well, that's the way that it's always been done." We think that it would be great if we could get folks to explore new and innovative uses for renewable and certified organic materials as alternatives to synthetic products.

We hope that with our research, we can also help to raise awareness about ingredients that are environmentally UNfriendly in their manufacture (in our opinion, environmentally Unfriendly means harmful to humans and wildlife) and that may have a question as to their safety.

Following are two quotes from and a link to a very well-written web site from a reputable supplier of pigments that outlines chemical manufacturing techniques of titanium dioxide:

"The feedstock for the chloride process is a mineral rutile or synthetic beneficiates containing over 90 percent TiO2. A suitable ore blend is mixed with a source of carbon and the two are reacted in a fluidized bed with CHLORINE at approximately 900°C. (1650 degrees!) The reaction yields titanium tetrachloride, TiCl4, and the chlorides of all the impurities present."

"...to ensure efficient sulfation by agitation with concentrated SULFURIC ACID...."

"The pulp is then separated from the mother liquor and extensively washed to remove residual traces of metallic impurities, using CHELATING AGENTS if necessary. The washed pulp is TREATED WITH CHEMICALS which adjust the physical texture..."

Click here to got to Titanium Dioxide Link


"whilst TiO2 may improve the durability of an organic binder (paint or plastic) by adsorbing ultra-violet radiation, free radicals are produced at its surface which leads to photocatalytic breakdown."

Find the quote from above here:

Click for TiO2 photocatalytic info


Our opinion about the vast majority of synthetics is to avoid them as much as possible. As we uncover more information, it is always possible that our opinions may change or our convictions may become stronger. Whatever the future brings, we hope that we will always remain open to change, to enlightenment, as we do believe in kaizen (constant improvement).

Having cancer can be a funny thing--it can make you into an extremely cautious person and give you a new perspective on life. Cancer made me realize that I love my life, my partner, my cats, my friends and my garden and that I need to do everything that I can to have as much time as possible to be with my loves. Do I garden in the bright sunlight or in the peak hours of the day? No. I learned to adjust my life schedule so that I can have my pleasures, but without exposing myself to too many unnecessary risks. Was this a hardship or an extremely difficult thing to do? Absolutely not!

[kaybee]

continuation of my last post, rest of excerpt from www.terressentials.com


"Working in the garden on our farm, as the sun comes up over the mountain with the mist rising up from the little river in the valley, is one of the most zen moments of this beautiful life. I heartily recommend that everyone try gardening at sunrise, at least once. Alternatively, I find immense satisfaction to be had in weeding in the cooler hours of the late afternoon and early evening as our bees are returning to their hive. The perfume of the valerian and the lilies are at their greatest intensity in the evening and the sunsets can inspire one to great poetic depths.

Vacationing at the beach in these enlightened times, the year 2004, and baking oneself during peak hours of the day is, in my opinion, irresponsible and completely avoidable. To continue to expose oneself to these conditions in our environmentally troubled days with our damaged ozone is, in my opinion, old-fashioned and unscientific and a gamble not worth taking. I also don't think that it's fair to me, other cautious people and wildlife that unthinking or uncaring humans take these risks and experiment with questionable sunscreen chemicals at the water's edge and wash them off their bodies and into our waterways. We have one planet and all of our water is linked to all of the water around the world. We all have to share the water that we have on this planet and I sincerely wish that more people would become considerate of our concerns about our tainted waterways.

"Nano's Troubled Waters: Latest toxic warning shows NANOPARTICLES cause BRAIN DAMAGE in aquatic species and highlights need for a moratorium on the release of new nanomaterials"

Click here for Nanoparticle Brain Damage link


Governments around the world have found sunscreen chemicals in bodies of fresh and salt water AND these chemicals have been found in the bodies of fish that humans and other animals consume. Sunscreen chemicals have even been found in human breast milk. Our own Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and progressive scientists from around the globe have established the estrogenic potential of many of these chemicals. Endocrine disruptors can lead to cancer. Cancers overwhelm and threaten to bankrupt our over-burdened "health" care system. Don't we have enough crises already?

We recommend the book "Sunscreen Photobiology, Molecular, Cellular and Physiological Aspects" for folks who would like more technical information on the technical aspects of sunscreens. This volume, however, is not the only source supporting the technical info related to the instability of titanium dioxide AND zinc oxide. Here is a statement from a reputable cosmetic industry trade journal:

"Titanium dioxide AND zinc oxide are commonly used in drug and cosmetic products. Contrary to belief, Sayre and co-workers (Cosmetics & Toileteries Oct. 2000, 75) have shown that these physical sunscreens are not photochemically inactive. Although adequate coating can reduce the risk, an increase in the destruction of photolabile skin lipids is not desirable. The photo-peroxidation of unsaturated skin lipids may result in perturbation of the lipid environment of viable cell layers and degrade skin surface lipids. "

The Washington Post (a reputable source) reports on current scientific concerns about TiO2 NANOPARTICLES:

"Titanium dioxide, for example, is a generally nonreactive substance used in many products, including skin lotions and house paints. Increasingly, however, it is being made in the form of nano-size particles. And tests show that they are HIGHLY REACTIVE, generating chemically "hot" free radicals that can literally burn up bacteria. That has some experts worrying about impacts on soil ecology if the particles are released."

"Some sunscreens have ultraviolet-absorbing nanoparticles so small they cannot reflect light, making them invisible."

The Post nanotech link:

Click here for the Post article


"One thing we've concluded is whatever these things [NANOMATERIALS] are going to do, they're NOT INERT. What will they do when they get in the environment, and what will they do when they GET INTO PEOPLE?" 2. Dr. Vicki Colvin, professor and co-director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, Rice University, Texas
(a reputable source)

"According to Dr. Wiesner, tests that measure the accumulations of materials in the livers of laboratory animals have demonstrated that NANOPARTICLES ACCUMULATE WITHIN ORGANISMS and that nanomaterials, even inorganic ones, HAVE BEEN ABSORBED BY LIVING CELLS. 8. [At their mid-March fact-finding meeting, Wiesner informed EPA officials, 'We know nanomaterials have been taken up by cells. That sets off alarms. If bacteria can take them up, then we have an entry point for nanomaterials into the food chain.']"
(a reputable source)

"The nanomaterial itself may be benign, but, in the same way that proteins will bind to nanomaterials in the bloodstream, TOXINS, such as PESTICIDES, COULD BIND WITH NANOPARTICLES IN WATER, facilitating their transport (into the body)."

"The point is we don't know what accumulated amounts of any human-made nanomaterial will do in our LUNGS or our LIVERS or in our GROUNDWATER, even if we do know how bigger particles of the same material behave in our lungs and livers and groundwater. And so far no one has bothered to find out."

See the above quotes in this link from ETC Group (Click to go to ETC Group)
on Nanoparticle technology: (a reputable source)

Click here for the ETC Group's Nanomaterial article

Also from ETC Group:

"1997 - TITANIUM DIOXIDE/ZINC OXIDE nanoparticles from sunscreen are found to CAUSE FREE RADICALS IN SKIN CELLS, DAMAGING DNA. (Oxford University and Montreal University) Dunford, Salinaro et al.(8)" (a reputable source)


"January 2004 - Research by Dr. Gunter Oberdorster is published showing that NANOPARTICLES ARE ABLE TO MOVE EASILY FROM THE NASAL PASSAGEWAY TO THE BRAIN. "The nanotechnology revolution may design particles that are very different chemically from the ones we are exposed to, and they might have very different properties that made them more harmful. We should be vigilant." Professor Ken Donaldson, University of Edinburgh(13)" (a reputable source)

(Another excellent reason to not powder your nose with color cosmetic powders!)


"Though the market for nanoparticles will approach one BILLION dollars next year, neither government regulations nor labeling requirements exist in ANY country. Because nanoparticles are composed of elements and compounds whose toxicity is well-studied at larger scales, they have been assumed safe even though they can exhibit WILDLY DIFFERENT PROPERTIES from their larger siblings."

[kingdomsatellite]

I have heard that coconut oil is a natural sunscreen. I have not tried it yet, but I will soon. The great weather is approaching.
I hope it works, because I have a one year old daughter who is a water lover. She is already raw, I don't want to expose her to chemicals, but I guess it would be better than sunburn.

[Dimond]

Sun Protection (burn & wrinkles) Internally: Lutein-Dark green, leafy veg-spinach, kale, Lycopene: Tomatoes (esp blended & sun-dried), gac fruit, watermelon, pink grapefruit, pink guava, papaya, red bell pepper, seabuckthorn, goji/wolfberry, rosehip (lycopene), Apples
Celery Juice-allows you to tolerate hot temperatures
Externally:
Red Raspberry Oil SPF 25-50
Spirulina+cacao rubbed on skin (optional w/coconut oil)
MSM Sunscreen-most raw companies sell

[margoss]

Andrew Lessman advertises a high protection zinc based sunscreen. I use Panama Jack 75. I used an organic BB or HT..can't remember and we burned quite a bit. I haven't been in yrs or my DD ever red until we used the organic one. Aveeno is ok. I use paba free. will have to try just CO.

[Ucat]

I know this blog is pretty old but it came out at the top in google still, so just for the record, for people still reading this... a quote from David Wolfe's Sunfood Diet Success System:

"Try cacao butter, coconut oil or fresh aloe vera gel as a sun lotion. Cacao butter is the best natural sunscreen that is a whole food.
By following the sunfood diet [raw food diet] your resistance to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and sunburns will increase. Due to the antioxidants in my raw-food diet it is difficult for me to get burned under the sun; even if I have not been in the sun for several weeks. The best UV protection is inner protection.
Commercial sunscreens disable the body's natural sunburn alarm mechanism. Most suntan lotions, creams and butters are made of chemicals mixed with cooked fats which produce free radicals in the skin just like dietary cooked fats. For these reasons I do not recommend commercial sunscreens - purchase only organic, high-quality sunscreens containing stable oils.
Seek out at least 30 minutes of direct sunlight each day on as much of your body as possible. No matter where one lives, the practice of simply allowing the sunllight to reach one's exposed face will provide benefits.
There is no mistake in nature. We are designed for a life of 'fun in the sun'! Enjoy the abundance nature has to offer - soak in the golden rays of life. Sunlight is good mood food.
Consider the following: 'everyone, ill or well, looks better, feels better, gets healthier and functions more gracefully after exposing every part of their naked bodies to the beautiful sunshine. Sunbathe each moment you can. It enlivens you in every possible way!"

Also, I read elsewhere in this forum that vitamin D is an efficient cure for cancer, but blocked by sunscreens and windows. Thus bathing without sunscreen can actually cure cancer.

... and more from the above book:
"A diet high in cooked fat (free radicals) and chemicals, and low in green leaves and antioxidant plant compounds has been positively linked to skin cancer. This is because free radicals and toxins in the unprotected skin are baked and mutated by the sun's rays. Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine found that people on a low-cooked-fat diet had a greatly reduced risk of developing pre-malignant growths and non-melanoma skins cancers."

MSM (sulphur) might possibly also help cure burned skin because it is reported to cure scars...