Thu, May 20, 2010

SUNSCREEN

Greatest product defense against aging

As always, knowledge is power. When it comes to our greatest product defense against aging, SUNSCREEN, the more knowledge we can provide the better! What ingredients make sunscreens safe? Effective? Read on.


WHAT'S IN YOUR BOTTLE?
While reading the back of a Sunscreen label is like reading the back of a cereal box these days, one thing remains certain: Physical sunscreens, including Titanium dioxide and Zinc Oxide still remain the best ingredients on the shelves for avoiding sun damage to our skin!! They provide the broadest "coverage" from UVA and UVB rays and have been studied the most of all sunscreen ingredients for safety and efficacy. These screens work so well because they sit on TOP of the skin, reflecting the sun's UV rays and "scattering" them before they can harm the skin. While chemical sunscreen ingredients "break down" on the skin in direct sunlight after only a couple of hours, titanium and zinc do not - they are stable when exposed to direct sunlight.


Two good examples of "unstable" chemical sunscreen ingredients that have seen a lot of press over the past couple of years are Avobenzone (Parsol 1789) and Mexoryl SL. These chemical sunscreen ingredients work by interacting with the skin's top layer to ABSORB the sun's harmful rays, and converting them into energy but also releasing free radicals which damage the skin cells. Often times you will see chemical sunscreen ingredients combined with physical ingredients to make them more powerful! These newer formulations MUST be applied 20 minutes before going out into the sun to allow the chemicals to be fully effective. For more info on unstable sunscreens, go to http://www.ewg.org.


The Enviornmental Working Group, founded in 1975, is a group that seeks out information about such issues as food, toxins, energy and you guessed it - sunscreens as they pertain to our health. Disturbing evidence has come to the forefront about Oxybenzone - that it is a possible carcinogenic and disrupts hormone levels! Avobenzone has also now been disappointing in that it does NOT cover the broad spectrum of UVA/UVB rays that it once was thought to. Additionally, we all know free radicals are not good for us! So who wants more in our sunscreens? Chemical sunscreens, such as the ones above, are now responsible for being "stored" in fat cells, damaging DNA, normal estrogen functioning and day-to-day cell functioning. Physical sunscreens, on the other hand, because they are naturally occurring minerals (i.e., from rocks) do not have the ability to be absorbed into the bloodstream and do such damage.

Commonly used sunscreens with chemical components have strong estrogenic actions that may further increase cancer risks by virtue of their free radical - generating properties!

The FDA has yet to comply with government requests mandating uniform labeling on all sunscreens (waterproof, "all-day protection" etc.) and the ewg website is an invaluable resource that provides questions and answers to the on-going sunscreen smokescreen. For more information on all of these ingredients, SPF ratings, and more research from EWG, go to http://www.ewg.org.

Indigo MedSpa carries 4 sunscreens for retail, none of which have the ingredients Oxybenzone or Avobenzone:
1. Eminence Organic Sun Defense SPF 30 - contains Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide
2. Eminence Tropical Vanilla Sun Cream SPF 32 - contains Zinc Oxide
3. TOPIX oil free moisturizing sunscreen SPF 30 - contains Titanium Dioxide
4. Obagi Healthy Sun Protection SPF 35 - contains Zinc Oxide

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