Sun Safety Tips

Article by Allen Lawrence, M.D.

Summer is back, the sun is up and out and so are we out of doors more than during the winter. This year, new guidelines you should know about are being recommended to protect you and your family from the dangers of prolonged sun exposure.

Sun Safety Tips You Need to Know

Article by Allen Lawrence, M.D.

This year, a number of governmental and private groups have presented us with a new set of guidelines for what is safe and effective, and what is not when it comes to sunscreens and protection from the sun. Some of what is now being recommended contradicts what had been previously recommended, so it will pay to read and know what to do.

According to the Environmental Working Group; a team of scientists and experts who review government data, legal documents, scientific studies and perform their own laboratory testing in order to expose health threats to both you and to the environment; here is what you need to know to pick a safe and effective sunscreen for yourself and for your family:

1. Quick tips for a good sunscreen.

Avoid products with the following ingredients: oxybenzone, vitamin A (retinyl palmitate) or any added insect repellents. Instead, look for these safer and more effective ingredients: zinc, titanium dioxide, avobenzone or mexoryl sx.

Avoid sprays, powders and produces with an SPF above 50+. Instead, look for and purchase creams, broad-spectrum protection products, water-resistant for beach, pool and exercise, and no product over SPF 30+ for beach & pool.

2. Here is what to do before going out and even before applying sunscreen.

The best defenses against getting too much harmful UV radiation are protective clothes, shade and timing. Here's a checklist:

✓ Don't get burned. Red, sore, blistered (then peeling) skin is a clear sign you've gotten far too much sun. Sunburn increases skin cancer risk — keep your guard up!
✓ Wear protective clothes. Shirts, hats, shorts and pants shield your skin from the sun's UV rays — and don't just coat your skin with useless goop. A long-sleeved surf shirt might be a good place to start. While shorts and thongs might be most comfortable, they leave a lot of skin very exposed. Use lots of sunscreen if you are outdoors wearing shorts and don't forget your feet, even between the toes.
✓ Find or make shade: Picnic under a tree, read beneath an umbrella or canopy. Always keep infants in the shade as they lack tanning pigments (melanin) to protect themselves.
✓ Plan around the sun. If your schedule is flexible, go outdoors in early morning or late afternoon when the sun is lower in the sky. UV radiation peaks at mid-day when the sun is directly overhead.
✓ Sunglasses are essential. Not just a fashion accessory, sunglasses protect your eyes from UV radiation, which can cause of cataracts.

3. Now, you can put on sunscreen.

Some sunscreens may prevent sunburn but do not prevent other types of skin damage. Make sure yours provides broad-spectrum protection and follow our other tips for better protection.

✓ Don't be fooled by a label that boasts of high SPF. Anything higher than "SPF 50+" can tempt you to stay in the sun too long. While these sunscreens may prevent sunburn, they will not prevent other kinds of skin damage. The FDA tells us that SPF numbers can be misleading. Stick to SPF 15-50+, reapply often and pick a product based on your own skin, time planned outside, shade and cloud cover.
✓ While eating vitamin A-rich foods may be good for you, spreading vitamin A on your skin may not. New studies show that tumors and lesions develop sooner on skin coated with vitamin A-laced creams. Vitamin A, listed as "retinyl palmitate" on the ingredient label, is in 41 percent of sunscreens. Since they are not good for your skin or for you, avoid them.
✓ Avoid the sunscreen chemical oxybenzone, a synthetic estrogen that penetrates the skin and contaminates the body. Look for these active ingredients: zinc, titanium dioxide, avobenzone or mexoryl sx. These substances protect skin from harmful UV radiation. They are not absorbed into your body and remain on the skin longer. Skip sunscreens with insect repellent. If you need a bug spray, buy it separately and apply it first.
✓ Pick a good sunscreen. The best rated are brands that provide broad-spectrum, long-lasting protection with ingredients that pose fewer health concerns when the body absorbs them.
✓ Sprays and powders cloud the air with tiny particles of sunscreen that may not be safe to breathe. Choose creams instead. Reapply them often, because sunscreen chemicals break apart in the sun, wash off and rub off on towels and clothing.
✓ Men, pay special attention here, "Wear a sunscreen." Surveys show that only 34 percent of men wear sunscreen, while 78 percent of women do. Men, start using sunscreen now to reduce your cumulative lifetime exposure to damaging UV radiation.
✓ Many people don't get enough vitamin D, which skin manufactures in the presence of sunlight. Your doctor can test your level and recommend supplements or a few minutes of sun daily on your bare skin (without sunscreen).

Sun Safety Tips For Kids

Kids are more vulnerable to sun damage. A few blistering sunburns in childhood can double a person's lifetime chances of developing serious forms of skin cancer. The best sunscreen is a hat and shirt. After that, protect kids with a sunscreen that's effective and safe. Take these special precautions with infants and children:

Infants

Infants under 6 months should be kept out of direct sun as much as possible. Their skin is not yet protected by melanin. So, when you take your baby outside do the following:

✓ Cover him or her with tightly woven but loose-fitting protective clothing and a sun hat.
✓ Create shade using the stroller's canopy or hood. If you can't sit in a shady spot, put up an umbrella.
✓ Avoid mid-day sun, take walks in the early morning or late afternoon.
✓ Follow product warnings for sunscreen on infants under 6 months old — Most manufacturers advise against using sunscreens on infants or urge parents and caregivers to consult a doctor first. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that small amounts of sunscreen can be used on infants as a last resort when shade can't be found.

Toddlers and Children

Sunscreen should play an essential part of any day your child plays in the sun. Young children tend to have skin that is especially sensitive to chemical allergens as well as the sun's UV rays. When choosing a sunscreen, keep the following tips in mind:

✓ Test the sunscreen you would like to use by applying a small amount on the inside of your child's wrist the day before you plan to use it. If an irritation or rash develops, try another product. Ask your child's doctor to suggest a product that is less likely to irritate a child's skin.
✓ Slop on sunscreen and reapply often, especially if your child is playing in the water or sweating a lot.
✓ Choose your own sunscreen for daycare and school. Some child-care facilities provide sunscreen for the kids, but you can bring your own if you prefer a safer, more effective brand. Share EWG's safe sunscreen tips and product suggestions with your child's caregiver.

Sun Safety at School

Sometimes, school and daycare policies interfere with children's sun safety. Many schools treat sunscreen as a medicine and require the child have written permission to use it. Some insist that the school nurse apply it. Other schools ban hats and sunglasses on campus. Here are a few questions to ask your school:

✓ What is the policy on sun safety?
✓ Is there shade on the playground?
✓Are outdoor activities scheduled to avoid mid-day sun?

Teens

Teenagers often covet the bronzed skin look, so they are likely to sunbathe, patronize tanning salons or buy self-tanning products. These are not good ideas. Researchers believe increasing UV exposure may have caused the marked increase in melanoma incidence among women born after 1965. Tanning parlors expose the skin to as much as 15 times the UV radiation of the sun and likely contributed to the significant increase in the risk of melanomas. Many chemicals in self-tanning products have not been tested for safety; the major self-tanning chemical, dihydroxyacetone, is not approved by FDA for use in cosmetics around the eyes.

Tan does not mean healthy. Here are a few more tips for teens:

✓ Make sunscreen a habit for every outdoor sport and activity.
✓ Find sun-protective clothing, hats and sunglasses that you like to wear.
✓ To parents of teens: Be good role models — let your teen see you protecting yourself from the sun.

If you want to check out any specific product, click here.

Here is another article from the Environmental Working Group you might like to read: "Sunscreens Exposed: 9 Surprising Truths," click here.

Definitions of Medical Terms

By Allen Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D.

If we are going to look at illness, wellness and healing we first must look at the what each of these mean. The problem is often that there are so many meanings that it is often impossible to know when we use one of these words and when we talk about what illness is, what it means to be healed, cured or be well that we are all on the same line. Too often in the past having taken for granted that what we believe is the meaning is also what others believe and accept as the meaning of these terms only to find out that we have been talking about entirely different things, apples to grapefruits.

Hence before we start our journey of discussing healing, how to make it create it and make it happen that we all agree upon specific definitions of these terms. We can also agree to disagree about various aspects of these terms while still understanding who the term is being used. We respectfully suggest that if anyone disagrees with our definition, that they 1) use it as a baseline in any discussion and 2) make sure that they clearly state the differences or specific definition they wish to use so that future readers will understand our basic definitions and the writers specific variation of these definitions.

With all of this said let’s jump into this discussion by providing a list of words we plan to define and links to their definitions. As better or clear definition occur or as new acceptable variations of these definitions occur we may change these documents so periodically recheck the basic and definitions and their variations using these links.

Words and terms to be Defined:

What is Illness?

Illness (also referred to as being ill or in ill-health, being sick, sickness, having a malady, a condition, being unhealthy, or having a health problem) is reflects that the individual is in “a state of poor health.”

Illness can be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, acute or chronic, minor, minor, mild, moderate, severe, or life threatening.

Ion order to be considered to be ill, generally there must be at least one or more of three subjective requirements: 1) the person must feel ill, 2) they must look ill, 3) there must be some impairment of normal physiology, bodily or behavioral functions, or bodily processes which can affect all or part of the individual. The person one their own may make the “diagnosis” of illness, a friend, a relative or family member, may suggest it or a physician, may confirm it.

At its most minimal state there are no significant changes in the body hence a physical examination, laboratory and diagnostic testing may show nothing abnormal or wrong. In its more significant state, often referred to as “disease,” there are pathologic changes hence mild, moderate or significant abnormal findings usually referred to as ‘symptoms’ (what the individual subjectively experiences) or 'signs' (physical, laboratory, mental or emotional changes) recognized and used by the physical or healer to make the definition of illness. The physical examination, blood and other diagnostic testing, will likely show a pattern of abnormalities when a specific disease is diagnosed.

Some dictionaries use simplified definitions such as:

a) “An unhealthy condition of body or mind.”
b) “Poor health resulting from disease of body or mind; sickness, illness”
c) “Evil, wickedness”
d) “Affected with some ailment not in good health”


What is Disease?

Disease is any condition or group of conditions, sickness or illness which has a characteristic and defined grouping of symptoms and causes, and which affect all or part of the body.

A disease is often thought of as an abnormal condition of an organism (human or otherwise) that impairs bodily functions. In human beings, the term “disease” is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes discomfort, dysfunction, distress, social problems, illness and/or death to the person afflicted, or problems for those in contact with that person. In this wider sense, it often includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories. As human beings we often think of  diseases as one of man's “greatest enemy.” The terms: illness, sickness, disease, disorder, and medical condition are often used interchangeably.

Disease can also be thought of as associated with the presence of one or more pathologies, that is abnormal changes in tissues, blood, bodily fluids, x-ray or other diagnostic testing. This may occur with or without subjective feelings of being unwell or social recognition of this state. While “illness” implies that the individual feels sick, having a disease does not require that the individual has to feel or look sick. Having a pathology refers to having a distortion, injury or abnormality of physical (bodily anatomy or micro-anatomy), hormonal, neuro-electrical, bio-chemical or functional abnormalities or dysfunctions. As suggested above something that can be sought after, measured and proven.


What is a Syndrome:

A syndrome is a complex or composite of occurrences, signs and symptoms, or abnormal findings that define a pattern indicative of one or more aspects of a disease.

It is a collection of physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual signs or symptoms, with or without physical findings on examination, positive or negative laboratory testing, diagnostic testing or radiologic findings that when they occur together, often in specific patterns, define a specific disease process.

A syndrome can also be a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behaviors.

Many medical conditions of unknown etiology are commonly referred to as “diseases” simply because they have specific identifiable patterns of normal and abnormal findings and diagnostic testing hence are syndromes which define a state of illness or disease or merely a state of being abnormal.

Many of the articles in this series either already have or will in the future delve into deeper areas of these processes to look at the cause of illness, treatment, wellness, healing, alternative medicine and types of healing. Our goal is to educate and inform our reader what illness is about, what causes it, how it is recognized and how it can be healed.

In our next article we will return to the topic of “What Causes Illness?”

By Allen Lawrence, M,.D., Ph.D.

Clearly, wellness is the natural state of man. Unfortunately it doesn’t always look this way. As a physician we tend to primarily work with people who are sick, injured or emotionally  compromised. If wellness is our natural state of being, then why are so many people ill?

Healing and Healers

By Allen Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D.

In the last article published, we talked about what healing is and how it works. In this article we will continue this discussion and delve a bit deeper into what healing is, how healing works and how you can make it work for you.

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About Healing

by Allen Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D.

Up until now we have talked about how modern medicine came to be now we must talk about what medicine is supposed to be about, Healing. Within this discussion we outlined some of its strong points and some of its weak points. One area which is often confusing  relates to medicine and healing. We generally look at our doctors as healers, yet in fact, as we will see they do not always have the ability nor power to heal, only the ability to treat. In this series we will look at and define treatment versus healing. To understand how to find a physician who is a healer, one must understand what healing is and how it works. This article will begin this discussion.

Healing and Being Healed

In our past articles we have talked about healing but we have yet to really define what healing is nor how it fits in either ancient or modern medicine. It would be simple to say that healing is one of the oldest professions on earth. Yet, for many people, including the Western medical establishment and even some alternative practitioners, along with their patients there is a good deal of confusion over what healing is and who is a healer. This is one of those situations where a word or action may mean so many different things to so many different people that it can ultimately have little meaning.

Had we lived 200 years or more in the past, the concept of who and what the healer was might have been considerably simpler. In ancient times there were two types of healers, those that lived with and were part of a community and those who traveled from community to community. It was often clear to the local residents of a community who was and was not a healer and how a specific healer worked and what he or she did to create healing. When these healers, men or women, lived and worked within the community, they tended the ill, often sat on the tribal counsel, did surgery, delivered babies, and tended to the work and war injuries of the members of the tribe, group or village. They were known entities. As people they stood out. They often were greatly respected and everyone knew and trusted them. As practitioners they had their secret ways of healing which was rarely divulged to others. They had their own formulary of herbal and root medications, and they used combinations of medications which were known to no more then a very few others. In these ways they were not so very different from today’s modern physician. In our studies of Hawaiian medicine, a “primitive form of healing” this was incredibly clear as the healing discipline was known as Hunã, which translated from Hawaiian into English as the “secret.” The knowledge of the Hunã master, the kahuna or “keeper of the secret” was so powerful that it had to be guarded as it could be used both for good, to heal and for evil, to kill.

Today, healing is still secret, not because of the good or welfare of the community, but for three reasons: 1) medical and alternative practitioners often believe the community is not smart enough to understand what they do and how to they do it, and 2) because these professions often believe that they need to maintain their treatments as “secrets” so they are not misused by non-physicians, or by people who do not have licences to practice medicine. 3) Unfortunately, the also keep secrets because someplace within them they believe that if the tell or teach people to help and heal themselves, they would be out of a job.  

The goal of government and the medical profession while outwardly pure, ends up as both “protecting the uneducated public” from charlatans as well as protecting their licensees from losing their income. These last belief are both faulty as they also acts to cut the consumer, the sick or well person, out of taking any real responsibility for their own health care. It also creates another big problem in that while most physician may understand medicine, few of them, end up knowing much, if anything and often nothing, about healing. Therefore, how can we as physicians and practitioners either talk about or teach that which we do not know or understand?

What Then is Healing?

Today, one of the most common ways we think about healing, is when we think about treating the sick. We think about it as actions we take or the ritual we use on those who are sick. Our goal is to help them become well again. While we generally would like to think of healing as having a relationship to the medical profession, it is clear that the current day medical profession only considers healing in relation to use of drugs, surgery and medical treatments, few of which are truly healing in any way. When an individual who is sick goes to their doctor and they are given medication or a surgical treatment is performed, we often believe that these were necessary to return them to a state of  “wellness.” As we will see, this can be very misleading, for as we suggested earlier, the end result depends on what your definition of healing is and whether this definition is narrow or broad.

In ancient times the healer was often a shaman or medicine man or woman. In order to heal, they also used drugs, generally in the form of herbs, roots or foods, they performed some types of surgeries, and even used physical therapy. But they also went a step or two further as they might also enter into a trance and then go into the spirit world to obtain information regarding the nature of their client/patient’s  illness. The shaman would then return to this realm and prescribe herbs, potions, use of amulets or other treatments that would expel a foreign spirit or cure the illness. A healer might also work with symptoms or signs as provided by their patient/client or through some other source such as bones, chicken entrails, tea leaves, Tarot cards, astrology or bumps on the face, head or body of the individual. Today the medical profession and most people in our society see this as hocus pocus, magic or just plain chicanery, trickery or dishonesty. Yet, was it really?  Could it have been that these “healers” had added another dimension to healing that today, we have lost? Could it be that they somehow, using the concept of spirits or throwing bones, tapped into their deeper understanding and knowledge of what caused illness and possibly their professional intuition to reach out and understand that illness is much more complex then simply being a deficiency of one or another drug or medication? We will return to this topic in a later article.

Healing versus Treating

For many people in our current day society, the concept of shamanism sounds not just primitive, but “unscientific” as one person at a lecture suggested. Today, we want to think that healing should be a scientific process, one performed by trained, responsible physicians, under sterile conditions and with modern procedures, techniques and instruments. The fact is, modern medicine, is not really about healing nor even about curing. Rather it is designed to treat in order to control or manage symptoms. This is done so that the “patient” can be made comfortable, and be taken out of danger to their life and well-being. All certainly commendable, but not really about healing, rather about treating. While some illnesses are “cured,” and “cure” is often the stated goal, the fact is the medical profession rarely cures anyone, in fact, cures are not very common.

Cure performed by the medical profession most commonly occurs when the illnesses is minor and will respond to medical treatment. They may also occur with surgical problems such as acute appendicitis, sometimes with complex conditions such as cancer, but for most other medical conditions cures are rare and symptom control is much more common. In most cases only conditions that usually considered to be self-limiting are “cured” and this is because they ultimately heal themselves. Generally, what most medical treatment programs offer, is more time and increased comfort during which the sick person’s body heals itself.

There are many conditions however, such as diabetes, heart disease, atherosclerosis, autoimmune diseases, many types of cancers and arthritis where medical treatment at best can only help to slow down the disease process, make the individual more comfortable, and prolong life, while the disease process continues to progress or goes into remission. The process may be slowed down, but the sick person is not cured. In many situations all that medicine does for these patients is to make sure that thec are controlled while the illness process still persists and gradually moves toward chronic disease and even death. In situations such as these, the individual cannot be said to be either cured nor healed, merely held static, improved, symptoms controlled, made comfortable, that is until it reach its final levels where it progresses to a state of  chronic disease or  death.

In those situations where the illness persists but is contained, this too often leaves the door open for the symptoms to relapse or even return in a form worse than the original condition. When this happens the individual may require the use of more potent drugs to control symptoms and contain the illness. These new medications and medical treatments often act as cellular poisons, further injuring the tissues and leading to side effects and new iatrogenic (physician-caused) illnesses. When this process occurs cellular chemistry is altered, significant side effects can occur, even with the risk of secondary chronic diseases or death unrelated to the original condition. In some cases the consequences of these medications are worse than the original disease process itself.

Allen Lawrence, M.D. is a graduate of UCLA, UC Irvine Medical School, Internship at USC County Medical Center, Residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars Sinai. Dr. Lawrence has a Masters Degree in Human Nutrition and a PH.D. in Human Psychology. Dr. Lawrence practices Integrated Medicine, Prevention and Wellness at the Preventive Medicine Centers of the Desert in Palm Springs, California. Dr. Lawrence specializes in Hormonal Therapy,
Stress Management and Healing.

For more information about Dr. Lawrence go to his website, click here.