SunScreen …advice with Dr. Alex

” If  You Can’t Eat It… then You Shouldn’t Be Putting It On Your Skin.”

- Not sure where I heard that one .. But It seemed like good advice to Me….-_Dr Alex

 

“In my opinion, corporate greed has created products that are harmful. I’m talking hundreds of sunscreens that I believe are toxic because they contain man-made chemicals … chemicals I believe can cause serious health problems and increase your risk of disease. “      – Dr . Joseph Mercola, mercola.com

Here’s why.

The main chemical used in sunscreens to filter out ultraviolet B light is octyl methoxycinnamate. OMC for short. OMC was found to kill mouse cells even at low doses. Plus, it was also shown to be particularly toxic when exposed to sunshine. And guess what? OMC is present in 90 percent of sunscreen brands! But that’s not the half of it. A common ultraviolet A filter, butylthoxydibenzoylmethane, has also demonstrated toxic properties. Furthermore, several studies show that the chemicals commonly used in sunscreens are absorbed through the skin and end up circulating in your blood stream. Not good. So…

If Your Sunscreen Contains Any of These Chemicals That I Consider Dangerous and Potentially Life Threatening, Do Yourself a BIG Favor…

Dump it in the trash now !

Yes, that’s right. Toss your sunscreen in the trash if it contains any of these questionable chemicals:

 

 

  •  Para amino benzoic acid…
  •  Octyl salicyclate…
  •  Avobenzone…
  •  Oxybenzone…
  •  Cinoxate…
  •  Padimate O…
  •  Dioxybenzone…
  •  Phenylbenzimidazole…
  •  Homosalate…
  •  Sulisobenzone…
  •  Menthyl anthranilate…
  •  Trolamine salicyclate…
  •  Octocrylene…

 

Make no mistake: Natural Sunscreens will  meet your  need sunscreen needs !

Look for an all-natural sunscreen lotion starting with the “ACTIVE INGREDIENTS” either /or

Titanium Dioxide  & Zinc Oxide

These two active ingredients in Natural Sunscreen are natural minerals. Minerals that actually come from clay and beach sand deposits. This means, they are not harsh, synthetically-produced chemicals you’ll often find in popular brands. And it may surprise you to find out that zinc oxide has been used all over the world for over 75 years as a safe sunscreen to help you prevent excessive sun exposure. Unlike chemical sunscreens that absorb ultraviolet light, nature provides us with titanium dioxide and zinc oxide … two remarkable ingredients that remain on your skin to reflect and scatter away both UVA and UVB rays from your body. How do they do this?

Quite simply, they do it by forming a physical barrier, without irritating or clogging your pores.

Other criteria I look for in a sunscreen

  • FREE of chemical fragrances…
  • FREE of parabens (harsh chemical preservatives)…
  • FREE of nanoparticles (allows sunscreen to be more cosmetically appealing as it’s less visible, yet it remains on your skin’s surface)…

P.S……Don’t forget Your Hat

Long Version …5 minutes

 

Short version….. less than a minute

 

 

Here is the hand out I give out in the office:

Here it is in pdf format for you to download …(CLICK)…..             Dr Alex Sunscreen hand out 2

 

 

 

No BPA’s …. in my water bottle….What is that about?

No BPA’s …. in my water bottle….What is that about?

I am in to camping and hiking.  I noticed  a couple of years ago that the water bottles sold in sporting goods stores, we use to call them canteens, all  were claiming  to BPA free. I had no idea what that was. It sounded like something I definitely didn’t want.  I wondered how much of it I was exposed to.

Avoid BPA- Plastic in Your Food Containers and Packaging…..

 

Here is an excellent article I recently read in Mother Earth News that gives a good , straight to the point overview of the BPA plastic problem.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/bpa-zmgz12fmzrog.aspx

I loaded the article into this blog as a pdf file, in case you want to print down load,  share it, or in case the link above stops working.

Pages from mother-earth-news-2012-02-03-feb-mar

Potassium…..

  “#1 Supplement to Stack the Odds in Your Favor”

K+

 

I take this every day.  Most often several times a day. When snowboarding or surfing I take extra. I have done this for years.  Ask Jessica. She does too.

Why? because it works well.  I know because I have taken it regularly, forgotten to take it, stopped taking it and taken it sporadically.  Through trial and ERROR I have learned, and remember I am somewhat of a hard head and skeptical when it comes to “magic potions.”.  I need this stuff. I do so much better when I take it.

It makes me, It will make you, more resilient to the physical, chemical, and emotional stresses that are out to get the best of us.

I have bottles of the stuff hidden in different places.  I have some at home, in the office, in my car, in with my snowboard gear, my surfing gear, at my dad’s house at the beach. That makes 6 different bottles getting worked on at one time.

When I travel I might forget an extra pair of underwear, socks, or my toothbrush. I left my snowboard boots at home one day this season, but I was not without my Potassium.

 Potassium (K+) along with Sodium (Na+) are the major electrolytes in your body.  Potassium is most abundant inside the cell and Sodium outside the cell.  The osmotic pressure created and balanced by these electrolytes is what controls the movement of water in and out of your cells.  Your body is 70% water.  This basic chemistry is real important.

Electrolytes in Body Fluids (Guyton’s Textbook of Medical Physiology 9th ed.)

 

Potassium deficiency inside the cells causes cells to Bloat & Swell.

This is bad.

Waste Products have a hard time leaving the cell.

Nutrients have a hard time entering a Bloated Cell.

Potassium deficient cells are sick cells.

Potassium deficient cells don’t care whether you are taking over the counter medicine, vitamins, herbs, or drugs the doctor gave you. They wont work well because the cells are stagnant. Movement in and out of the cell is inhibited.

The over consumption of sugar is the leading cause of potassium deficiency. Sugar will be pushed into your cells by insulin. Sugar (Gl) piggybacks on Salt (Na+) in a co-transport mechanism. Potassium gets ejected from your cells and is excreted in your urine. Your body does not have a storage mechanism for potassium like it does for sodium

Lets say you are dying of thirst in raft adrift in the ocean, you are not supposed to drink salt water. Common Folklore and wisdom also say you should not drink a coke or a beer . These beverages will cause you to become dehydrated. How can you drink fluids and become more dehydrated? No, you do not pee it out. Dehydration takes place in the extra cellular fluids in your body. Too much salt and too much sugar cause potassium deficiency and your cells swell and bloat. The fluids get stuck there inside the cells. The fluid outside the cell is where the dehydration is taking place.

 

 

Potassium is found in abundance in Leafy, Green, Raw, Vegetables.  Animals that forage on leaves and grasses get lots of Potassium. For them Sodium is in issue. They will lick it of the road in winter and forest rangers leave salt licks in the wilderness. Humans usually get plenty of Salt. (Salt your food to taste & drink water. Restricting Sodium can cause a whole bunch of problems. ) It is Potassium that we are lacking. Who is eating enough Leafy, Green, Raw, Vegetables? Who is not eating any Sugar? Who is Potassium Deficient?     Who Isn’t?

 —————————————————–

Sodium-Potassium Balance

Eaton, Eaton & Konner. Paleolithic nutrition revisited: A twelve year retrospective on its nature and implications. Eur J. of Clin Nutr. 1997: 51;207-216

“Typical adult Americans consume nearly 4000 mg of sodium each day of which fully 75% is added to food during processing; only about 10% is intrinsic to the basic food items. Potassium intake averages from 2500-3400 mg/d so Americans, like nearly all people living today, consume more sodium than potassium.”

“Humans are the only free-living, non marine mammals to do so.”

“Preagricultural humans are calculated to have consumed only 768 mg of sodium, but fully 10,500 mg of potassium each day.”

“The Intersalt investigators found the Yanamamo, Xingo, and Asaro populations [modern hunter-gatherers] to have a ‘low’ average blood pressure, no blood pressure increase with age, and minimal (0.6%) prevalence of hypertension.”

It is not just the decreased sodium that made these people healthier. They ate and lived innately. Disease is the product of non-innate living and health is the natural product of innate living; it really is that simple.

“These findings are consistent with those for multiple other previously studied forager and horticulturist groups.”

——————————————————

From Dr. Bragg’s Book

 

Body Signs of Potassium Deficiency from Dr. Bragg's "Apple Cider Vinegar" Book

——————————-

Where to get Yours…….

 

Click on this picture and it will link to a website that sells the potassium supplement I recommend. I have no affiliation with this site.

 

Here is a link where you can go to buy potassium …. updated april 9th 2012

 http://www.statmx.com/Potassium-Compound-Salts-100-grams_p_55.html

———————–

Articles, office handouts, and other sources with information about Potassium….

 

 

pdf documents…..

K+ sympathetic dominance loomis

 

 

 

Dr. Alex Blab episode h2o.1……..Hydrate while Driving

Dr. Alex Blab episode h2o.1

Hydrate while Driving: An easy,healthy habit to develop

Dr. Alex Blab episode h2o.1

EASY Health Tip that can make a big difference in Your Health, Episode h20.1