Chemical Sunscreen Guide Gets It - Mostly Overuse Contributes to 105 Sunlight Deficiency Diseases This is the fifth year the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has published a chemical sunscreen guide. Admittedly the guide gets better every year. For example, this year the EWG highlights the importance of sunlight in the production of vitamin D. The EWG correctly identifies problems with current chemical sunscreens, like the fact that many cause skin cancer, none prevent skin cancer, high SPF give a false sense of security, most disrupt normal hormonal function, and most are unsafe for your children. What did EWG's chemical sunscreen... Continue reading

Superfoods Oh, You Mean Unprocessed Foods Man is the only species who tries and usually fails to outsmart evolution. Brilliant chemists process foods in new and tasty ways, but nature gave us unprocessed foods for health and longevity. Today doctors and scientists are rediscovering the health benefits of unprocessed foods. The funny thing is many are now being called "superfoods," but in reality they are just ordinary foods—foods nature intended you to eat. It turns out food and beverages that are good for your health are also good for your skin, which is your largest, most exposed organ. As you... Continue reading

Bad guys wear white coats too "You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother's milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes." George Bernard Shaw is suggesting heroes may wear white coats, but they can still do evil. It is now 1950s America, a black and white TV in every home and doctors make house calls. Laughter fills the air as The I Love Lucy show comes to a commercial break. The announcer begins: "Time out for many men of medicine means just long enough to enjoy a cigarette. Because they know what a pleasure... Continue reading

Have you met grandma E Huxleyi? Way down your evolutionary tree is a phytoplankton emiliania huxleyi that has existed 750,000,000 years. In a laboratory experiment Dr. Michael Holick exposed these ancients to artificial sunlight and discovered they make ergocalciferol or vitamin D2.1 This proves the hormone vitamin d is ancient; you are an infant. About 350 million years ago, give or take a few, your ancestors headed for terra firma – dry land. The ocean is a calcium bath but dry land has relatively little calcium. The sunshine vitamin became essential for vertebrates to make bones from scarce calcium sources.... Continue reading

Someone's doctor finished at the bottom of the class. The normal distribution is the limiting distribution of a random quantity which is the sum of smaller, independent random phenomena. In other words, some doctors are good, some bad, but most fall in the middle. According to one study1 male doctors have an IQ range of 110-135 placing them all in the top quartile or among the top 25% of IQs. Sorry ladies, but the study did not include women doctors. That is good news, right? But what other factors contribute to the quality of your doctor? Even Einstein believed creativity... Continue reading

The Birth of the Garage Tanning Industry Ashley Fauci is the youngest of three girls. She's 14 and her two older sisters are 16 and 17. Ashley was an unplanned baby. Like most families, the Fauci's didn't plan on getting a sunbed either. Consequently the seven foot by three foot sunbed lives in the garage – next to the lawnmower, pesticides, herbicides, weed whacker and gas can. Ashley has been tanning in her garage since she was 12. The law does not allow her to tan at a regulated professional indoor tanning salon until she's 18. Two years ago, when... Continue reading

Beware of the Dark Side Sun Scare \’sən \’sker\: A movement to increase profits for cosmetics manufacturers, cosmetic dermatologists and beauty magazines by creating an unnatural state of fear of the sun and ultraviolet light exposure. Definition from: www.sunscare.com Sun Scare aptly describes a movement whose sole purpose generates profits for cosmetics manufacturers, cosmetic dermatologists and beauty magazines – at the expense of your health. Their exaggeration of skin cancer risk, especially melanoma, has caused a vitamin D deficiency epidemic in the United States, Canada and other parts of the world - making Vitamin D deficiency the greatest health problem... Continue reading

You're confused because it's confusing For most the following is going to be a little disconcerting: chemical sunscreens and sunblocks do NOT reflect the sun's energy harmlessly back into space. UV energy reacts chemically with the sunscreen in your skin, produces heat and a tiny amount is reflected away. This process is often more damaging than not using chemical sunscreen at all. 1 There is little real distinction between sunscreen and sunblock. The term sunblock should not be used for one main reason: it suggests all the sun's energy is blocked and therefore you have nothing to worry about. There... Continue reading

Duality: Water gives life and takes it, so is it true of food, air and sun – moderation is the rule. How can a disease be both over and under diagnosed at the same time? This is the duality of the UV theory of malignant melanoma and the tragedy. On the one hand, according to the World Health Organization, 47% of the world's melanomas are diagnosed in the United States while 4.5% of the world's population lives there. This disparity certainly cannot be explained by the theory melanoma is caused by any UV exposure. If that were the case then... Continue reading

I've been asked dozens of times if bathing after tanning washes away your tan. My response has always been a qualified, "Yes." You don't really wash off the tan, but you do wash away essential oils that help you tan and you can accelerate exfoliation with excessive bathing. Recently I heard a question asked and answered that surprised me, "Does bathing after using a sunbed wash away vitamin D?" When you expose your unprotected skin to midday summer sun you make 90% of your "vitamin" D. "Vitamin" is in quotes because "Vitamin" D is neither a vitamin nor a supplement,... Continue reading

A friend of mine named Steve Holt of Steve Holt Consulting asked me the following question, "Ok so what are you doing to lose weight?" He followed up that question with, "I am up for trying anything at this point." The question arose from my self-imposed challenge to lose eight pounds in eight weeks. They're all vanity pounds; I just want to look better in my swimsuit come February. Other friends have asked why you would try to lose weight during the holidays. Well, I just wasn't thinking – that's all. Bare with me, I'm getting to my weight loss... Continue reading

The journey to the truth often takes you to rainbow's end and the pot of gold – I.e., follow the money. One such truth explains Sun Scare, a movement whose sole purpose generates profits for cosmetics manufacturers, cosmetic dermatologists and beauty magazines – at the expense of your health. Sun Scare's exaggeration of skin cancer risk, especially melanoma, has caused a vitamin D deficiency epidemic in the United States, Canada and other parts of the world - making Vitamin D deficiency the greatest health problem of the century. Today cosmetic dermatologists lose $4.7 billion per year in eczema UV treatments... Continue reading

“It’s the great cancer cover-up. Panicked into avoiding sunlight by health experts, we are now dying in our thousands from diseases linked to deficiencies of Vitamin D. But still the exaggerated warnings come.” -Oliver Gillie Sun Scare \’sən \’sker\: A movement to increase profits for cosmetics manufacturers, cosmetic dermatologists and beauty magazines by creating an unnatural state of fear of the sun and ultraviolet light exposure. Sun Scare aptly describes a movement whose sole purpose generates profits for cosmetics manufacturers, cosmetic dermatologists and beauty magazines – at the expense of your health. Their exaggeration of skin cancer risk, especially melanoma,... Continue reading