We’ve been  told for years that we should wear high SPF’s while we are enjoying the sun.  That has to be good advice, right?  Not so fast.

It has been hotly contested for years.  How much good (harm) do chemical sunscreens do when it comes to helping avoid skin cancer?  In fact, many of the toxic chemicals found in sunscreens have actually been shown to increase skin cancer risk!

Confounding the situation, it turns out that many chemical sunscreens don't even protect your body from the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. That's because many chemical ingredients act by physically absorbing UV radiation, and therefore are effective only while sitting on the surface of the skin. But the chemical formulations of many sunscreens cause the active ingredients to be rapidly absorbed into the skin's lower layers, where they are just as toxic but provide little or no sun protection.

Even the most innocuous-seeming sunscreen ingredients may be dangerous. For example, retinyl palmitate, which contains vitamin A, is supposedly included in sunscreens as an antioxidant. Yet lab studies have shown that when exposed to sunlight, retinyl palmitate forms free radicals that have the opposite effect, damaging rather than protecting cells and DNA.

Other common but toxic sunscreen ingredients include: avobenzone, benzophenoones (dioxybenzone, oxybenzone), cinnamates, digalloyl trioleate, homosalate, menthyl anthranilate, methylchloroisothiazolinone (MCI), octinoxate, octisalate, PABA esters and salicylates.

All of these chemicals have been shown to generate free radicals in the body, producing oxidative stress that can lead to cancer. Many of them are also mimic estrogen, capable of causing dangerous and systemic changes to the body. Some have also been implicated in causing other forms of hormone disruption, reproductive abnormalities, behavioral changes and allergies.

An often-overlooked risk of toxic sunscreen chemicals is the way that they devastate the natural and protective microbiome of the skin. Human skin naturally hosts a diverse community of microbes that help maintain our health; slathering the skin with poison dramatically shifts the balance and places skin health at risk.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has tested sunscreens extensively and only about 8% have been shown safe and effective.  The other 92 percent contain at least one (if not many more) of the ingredients designated as detrimental for human use!

What to do?  Our last few blogs have been all about suncare…choosing the right SPF and what you should look for in a sunscreen.

Absolutely Natural contains none of the worrisome ingredients listed in this bog, uses only 100% natural, mineral sunscreens that reflect UV Rays, and have actual free radical scavengers instead of generators.  Oh, we have also been named one of the 10 best sunscreens by EWG.

 It is the prefect sunscreen.

 Best regards,

Charley