What does
make sense are all those prescriptions that warn you to stay out of the sun
because they will cause excessive sunburning. Hmmmm...well, what about all
those chemicals in cosmetics? Lotions? Moisturizers? Hair products? What about
the chemicals in our food? We start using chemicals on our bodies as babies.
Slather on some baby lotion and dust the kid with baby powder, besides the soaps
and shampoos. Smelling like a baby has positive connotations for many, unless,
of course, you are chemically sensitive.
By the time we are adults our skin is massively polluted with
sunburn-causing chemicals. But it's
sunshine that is blamed for bad health? I venture to think it's not the sun
that's the problem, it's the chemical saturation of our skin. Sunshine is getting a bad rap.
To save
yourself from the evil that is sunshine, we are told we must use sunscreen.
Sunscreen with a very high chemical, I mean, protection rating. SPF? Skin Poisoning Factor? I used to slather
sunscreen on non-stop, layer upon layer, for fear of OMG! sun exposure. I am a redhead with blonde eyelashes and
eyebrows. If anyone should be afraid of the sun, it's me. Someone is making a
lot of money with the fear propaganda used to scare us into buying sunscreen.
No sunshine allowed. No wonder everyone is deficient in vitamin D!
Since
becoming chemically sensitive and giving up chemical-laden beauty products, I
no longer get sunburned. I have gone to
outdoor festivals for hours at a time, no sunscreen, no hat, no sunburn. I
garden for hours with no sunscreen, no hat, no sunburn. Last summer like a
self-absorbed teenager I even laid out in my backyard with no sunscreen, no
hat, no sunburn. If it's the sun, then why don't I burn now? Ponder, ponder,
ponder....
Sun gives us
light and vitamin D, nurtures plant growth, and warms the Earth. It is our
friend.
Wow you're a red head and you don't burn?
ReplyDeleteI used to dip myself in a vat of SPF. Have stopped since being sick, but am still uber sun cautious wearing long sleeves, hats etc. My parents have had many a skin cancer resected; not melanoma yet thankfully; and I have a ZILLION moles so don't want to risk it. They need to make more sun protective loose comfortable clothing! I get so hot....
But the sun also makes me react and flush, so I have another reason to stay in the shade and avoid it I guess.
Yep, I don't burn...so far. I keep trying to test it but I'm so conditioned to be afraid, I don't spend more than three hours in the sun and I'm usually moving rather than just laying around. I'm not saying my chemical theory is fact, just pondering WHY and constantly trying to make connections.
DeleteToo bad the medical system doesn't have any answers for this and the thousands of other unanswered questions. It fails us.
I'm also constantly pondering what is going on in your body that makes you react and flush. What does heat trigger? What does the smell of chicken trigger? Yet other things don't trigger it. It fustrates me because it seems as if there is a simple, logical explanation, and SOMEONE should know it!
Remember when a doctor told me that science is not advanced enough to find out what is wrong with me? :) we are like living in the times of cavemen even though we seem advanced! Instead of carrying clubs to clobber people, they now carry medical bills which rack up in hundreds and thousands to clobber the sick.
DeleteIt's insane. The system is so wrong and since it's been around since the beginning of time it really makes one wonder what doctors have been doing all this time if no one knows anything! WHY do we have to pay them for knowing nothing? I still think there should be a money-back guarantee when you see a doctor so if they say "we know nothing" we can say, "Then you don't get my money!!"
DeleteSo true. It seems there has been so much progress in some areas like treating strep throat, or eradicating small pox, but the world of allergy and sensitivity is in it's infancy. Maybe like you said because these problems are new, created by the chemicals in our everyday life. Ick ick.
DeleteI agree I feel something so real and trigger based in my physiology that there must be an explanation and the unpredictability of it all bothers me to no end.
They say it's from degranulating mast cells and the triggers are individual but it is so hard to sort out what they will be.
money back guarantees sound good
so glad you don't burn and jealous that you have red hair! SO COOL
Yeah, but the chemical problem started in the industrial revolution. It's been over 100 years. Well, it started even before with the various chemicals used for tanning, coal mining, dying, etc. Of course the onslaught of more chemicals started in WWII. That's 60 years. A "cure for cancer" financed by the government also started in the 1940s and very little progress is made there just a whole lot of money donated for what? I think the chemical companies have the control. I wonder how chemical executives can live with themselves.
DeleteBut do they have a REASON for the degranulation? (I like that word, although it's not likeable based on what it does!) WHY should the smell of chicken be a problem for anyone? It might be the trigger, but it's not the cause of what's going on. For doctors to say you should avoid triggers, WITHOUT being able to tell you WHY this is happening is medical incompetence at it's finest. GRRRRR....
I'm just talking/thinking out loud...it seems so many of these posts I write start with "it makes no sense to me". The incompetence of the system irritates me to no end. I resent they don't have answers and I can only assume it's because there are more important issues on the table (like making money$$$!!!).