Years ago, I watched my neighbor, Carol, stretch out regularly in the sun She'd baste her body with suntan lotion and stay out there for what seemed like eons.
As the mother of two toddlers and a free-lance writer, I had no time to sunbathe. Too bad - or so I thought then.
I moved away 20 years ago. During a return visit, Carol spotted me and called my name. I didn't recognize her - there stood a wrinkled, leathery looking woman with brown age spots
Now I'm grateful I didn't have my "time in the sun". My skin stayed young looking. A dermatologist I say in In Key West for a reaction I had to a product, told me recently my skin looks very young for my age.
With the blazing sun in Key West, I asked her the best way to protect my skin - wanting to maintain this young look I just learned I had. Her advice was to apply sunscreen every morning and again after swimming or perspiring, stay out of the sun from 12 - 4, or wear sunscreen PLUS protective clothing.
Then she added, "Use a non-nanoparticle clear zinc oxide sunscreen. Most of the others contain ingredients that other countries have banned because of their toxic ingredients." Zinc oxide is considered safe across the globe.
Since a buildup of toxic chemicals on the skin can cause acne and prematurely aging skin (according to research), using the wrong sunscreen could defeat my goal of looking young.
It's great that the bad reaction that took me to a dermatologist was actually the key to learning what to use to avoid the harm most common sunscreens can do.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tender tushies?
Have you been convinced by toilet paper advertisements that you need velvety smooth toilet paper for your tender bottom? Can you believe this "luxury" is made from cutting down old-growth and virgin forests??!?!
Deforestation is a huge problem as it destroys valuable ecosystems, adding to global warming. Yet Americans, mostly unaware of what needs to be done to give them toilet paper, use three times more of than Europeans and 100 times more than the average Chinese person.
Why do we need that much? Why do we buy into the manufactures' need to increase their market share with extra-soft tissue that requires the use of old-growth wood to make it?
Why can't the manufacturers of Charmin and other such toilet papers increase their bottom lines AND help take care of our planet at the same time? Other manufacturers do.
If you're feeling as outraged and deceived as I am, check out Greenpeace's toilet paper guide
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/forests/tissueguide
It lets you rank your "personal paper" in three areas: 1.) percentage of recycled material, 2.) percentage of post-consumer recycled material, and 3.) use of harmful chlorine bleaches.
Look for "green" for your next paper purchase. Some brands that don't harm the planet include Green Forest, 365, Earth Friendly, Natural Value, Seventh Generation, and Trader Joe's.
Bottom line (pun intended) buy recycled (80% post-consumer, 100% overall) toilet paper. An ancient forest will thank you - and so will our planet.
Deforestation is a huge problem as it destroys valuable ecosystems, adding to global warming. Yet Americans, mostly unaware of what needs to be done to give them toilet paper, use three times more of than Europeans and 100 times more than the average Chinese person.
Why do we need that much? Why do we buy into the manufactures' need to increase their market share with extra-soft tissue that requires the use of old-growth wood to make it?
Why can't the manufacturers of Charmin and other such toilet papers increase their bottom lines AND help take care of our planet at the same time? Other manufacturers do.
If you're feeling as outraged and deceived as I am, check out Greenpeace's toilet paper guide
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/forests/tissueguide
It lets you rank your "personal paper" in three areas: 1.) percentage of recycled material, 2.) percentage of post-consumer recycled material, and 3.) use of harmful chlorine bleaches.
Look for "green" for your next paper purchase. Some brands that don't harm the planet include Green Forest, 365, Earth Friendly, Natural Value, Seventh Generation, and Trader Joe's.
Bottom line (pun intended) buy recycled (80% post-consumer, 100% overall) toilet paper. An ancient forest will thank you - and so will our planet.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Skin care you can eat!
It's hard for me to resist a skin care product that sounds good enough to eat and whose ingredients are clean, recognizable and pronounceable.
I get all kinds of information sent to me about skin care products. Most of them don't warrant the time it takes to check them out.
Mandarin Chocolate Shea Butter was a pleasant surprise. It contains only 4 ingredients: Certified Organic Shea Butter, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Essential Oil of Mandarin, Non-GMO Vitamin E.
If you find it hard to resist, too, here's where to find it Mandarin Chocolate Shea Butter
I get all kinds of information sent to me about skin care products. Most of them don't warrant the time it takes to check them out.
Mandarin Chocolate Shea Butter was a pleasant surprise. It contains only 4 ingredients: Certified Organic Shea Butter, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Essential Oil of Mandarin, Non-GMO Vitamin E.
If you find it hard to resist, too, here's where to find it Mandarin Chocolate Shea Butter
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Dealing with contact dermatitis
What's that red spot next to my nose - a bite of some kind? Wrong.
Next day there was another red spot under my eyebrow. A few hours later, lots of red spots are popping up around my eyes and they have tiny, itchy blisters in them. Not good.
What on earth?? Oh....I started a new eye cream 2 days ago. This must be a reaction to it. Uh oh, my eyes are swelling and the itch is driving me crazy.
My partner suggests an antihistamine. A local pharmacist agrees,so I leave with a package of Benadryl, looking forward to relief. Wrong again.
Intensity of reaction increases. Eyes are almost swollen shut and I wake up in the middle of the night from the itching..
Dermatologist time...but none near me have an appointment for 2-3 weeks. Next plan: Emergency Room. BIG wrong.
ER doc won't look at the product's ingredients. "I don't use it so I don't know what's in it". Duh. He handed me a generic sheet with instructions for a skin rash including a prescription for a stronger version of Benadryl and cortisone pills. His parting shot as he walked out the door, "Put sunscreen on your face". EGADS
Hide or cover up from the sun, yes. But a sunscreen??? Most of them are loaded with harmful chemicals. Those would wreak havoc on a raw face that's burns when water touches it! Forget this.
What's in my bag of tricks? The Italian side of my family has great skin and my mother and her 6 sisters are very creative about their skin care.
Hmmmm..... Using only water on my face and no moisturizer -is drying out my skin. What would Aunt Martha do?
Organic olive oil to the rescue. Smoothing that on my face after splashing with lukewarm water made a difference very quickly. The reaction continued, but the dry skin no longer added to the problem.
A dermatologist has an cancellation 2 days away. "I'll take it." When she saw me all she said was "ouch". I showed her the ingredient label (she looked at it!) and the ER doctor's prescriptions (another "ouch").
According to her, my instincts to ignore the ER doctor's advice were right. The stronger Benadryl-type medication would not have done anything and the internal cortisone pills would have taken quite a while to have any effect....and the sunscreen was a definite no-no.
She liked the olive oil solution (organic is best because oils hold toxins, so organic oils - butter, too - is much cleaner). For washing, she gave me a sample of a gentle cleanser and then prescribed a cortico-steroid ophthalmic ointment that would help my skin and not harm my eyes if it got in them.
The first reaction to the ointment (at least she warned me) made my face bright red and the grease made it shiny. I glowed in the dark like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. One look at me and my partner was struggling not to laugh. When I caught a glimpse of myself, I laughed too. It was pretty funny.
The reaction cleared slowly but surely. Eyes could opened wider, the redness subsided, but surprisingly the roots of my eyelashes and eyebrow hairs stayed itchy for quite a while.
A second visit to the dermatologist 2 weeks later got me off the corticosteroid cream (not good to stay on a corticosteroid too long as it can thin the skin and cause other problems) and back to the basics I used before trying the new product.
One glitch - my skin is now sensitive to sunlight (photosensitive), so I have to cover up from the sun. Dark glasses and a wide-brimmed hat - the papparazzi will never spot me. A clear zinc-oxide sunscreen when I go outside, any time of the year, is also on the list.
Anything to avoid the Rudolph look again. I'm also going to see what else I can find out about my family's awesome skin care methods. Stay tuned.
Next day there was another red spot under my eyebrow. A few hours later, lots of red spots are popping up around my eyes and they have tiny, itchy blisters in them. Not good.
What on earth?? Oh....I started a new eye cream 2 days ago. This must be a reaction to it. Uh oh, my eyes are swelling and the itch is driving me crazy.
My partner suggests an antihistamine. A local pharmacist agrees,so I leave with a package of Benadryl, looking forward to relief. Wrong again.
Intensity of reaction increases. Eyes are almost swollen shut and I wake up in the middle of the night from the itching..
Dermatologist time...but none near me have an appointment for 2-3 weeks. Next plan: Emergency Room. BIG wrong.
ER doc won't look at the product's ingredients. "I don't use it so I don't know what's in it". Duh. He handed me a generic sheet with instructions for a skin rash including a prescription for a stronger version of Benadryl and cortisone pills. His parting shot as he walked out the door, "Put sunscreen on your face". EGADS
Hide or cover up from the sun, yes. But a sunscreen??? Most of them are loaded with harmful chemicals. Those would wreak havoc on a raw face that's burns when water touches it! Forget this.
What's in my bag of tricks? The Italian side of my family has great skin and my mother and her 6 sisters are very creative about their skin care.
Hmmmm..... Using only water on my face and no moisturizer -is drying out my skin. What would Aunt Martha do?
Organic olive oil to the rescue. Smoothing that on my face after splashing with lukewarm water made a difference very quickly. The reaction continued, but the dry skin no longer added to the problem.
A dermatologist has an cancellation 2 days away. "I'll take it." When she saw me all she said was "ouch". I showed her the ingredient label (she looked at it!) and the ER doctor's prescriptions (another "ouch").
According to her, my instincts to ignore the ER doctor's advice were right. The stronger Benadryl-type medication would not have done anything and the internal cortisone pills would have taken quite a while to have any effect....and the sunscreen was a definite no-no.
She liked the olive oil solution (organic is best because oils hold toxins, so organic oils - butter, too - is much cleaner). For washing, she gave me a sample of a gentle cleanser and then prescribed a cortico-steroid ophthalmic ointment that would help my skin and not harm my eyes if it got in them.
The first reaction to the ointment (at least she warned me) made my face bright red and the grease made it shiny. I glowed in the dark like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. One look at me and my partner was struggling not to laugh. When I caught a glimpse of myself, I laughed too. It was pretty funny.
The reaction cleared slowly but surely. Eyes could opened wider, the redness subsided, but surprisingly the roots of my eyelashes and eyebrow hairs stayed itchy for quite a while.
A second visit to the dermatologist 2 weeks later got me off the corticosteroid cream (not good to stay on a corticosteroid too long as it can thin the skin and cause other problems) and back to the basics I used before trying the new product.
One glitch - my skin is now sensitive to sunlight (photosensitive), so I have to cover up from the sun. Dark glasses and a wide-brimmed hat - the papparazzi will never spot me. A clear zinc-oxide sunscreen when I go outside, any time of the year, is also on the list.
Anything to avoid the Rudolph look again. I'm also going to see what else I can find out about my family's awesome skin care methods. Stay tuned.
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