Burning Question: Does Sunscreen Really Work?

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With Spring fast approaching (3 days from now) – I figured it would be appropriate to talk a little in depth about sunscreen’s effectiveness as temperatures are expected to rise, meaning more and more people will be heading to the beach.

The Brand You Use Matters

Sunscreen can be a life-saver. Its purpose is to protect our epidermis from the sun’s potentially harmful UV rays, which can lead to skin discoloration (the bad kind of tan), premature aging, and skin cancer. However, the degree of protection depends on which brand you use. A survey of 1000 sunscreen products proved quite varying results. In addition to sun safety, we now have to consider the health risks of our sunscreen.

 What Are Large, Credible Organizations Saying?

The Skin Cancer Foundation and the Environmental Working Group determined that 4 out of 5 sunscreen products do not protect the skin adequately, and/or contain ingredients that may affect one’s health. There is a scientific standard for these products that is often not upheld. Companies that manufacture sunscreen have developed their own system for evaluating the effectiveness of the protection their products offer. It has no basis in the actual science of these chemicals and the body.

The Environmental Working Group found they could recommend only 143 brands of the 1000 reviewed. Most are little-known brands with the classic UV blockers, zinc, and titanium.

What’s The Problem?

The troublesome ingredient with little scientific research to back up its effectiveness as sunscreen is oxybenzone. A study published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine determined that sunscreens with oxybenxone could lead to free-radical damage to the skin, which in theory can lead to skin cancer. Also, in 2003 the CDC found oxybenzone in 97% of urine samples from 2517 samples. If you go by the vitamin quality standard, that means the chemical is not working, it’s being absorbed, but if it’s being excreted, it’s not effective. Still, there is not yet enough research on actual human beings to determine if oxybenzone is a health risk, or if we just need to be applying our sunscreen more often to properly protect our skin.

What Should I Buy?

Using a broad-spectrum product should cover all the issues with chemical breakdown. As with anything, moderation is key. Our skin needs some sunshine for the best source of Vitamin D on the market; 10-15 minutes of morning sun is the gentlest. If you want more sun, old-school sunscreen with the minerals zinc and titanium seems to be the most body-friendly. Avoid the hottest part of the day if possible, and eat your antioxidant fruits for some extra sun protection. Mmmm, frozen blueberries!

Natural Ways of Reducing Dark Circles Under the Eyes

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Dark discoloration of your skin under the eye, commonly referred to as dark circles, dark rings, or shadows, are not a serious kin problem, though they make you look tired, unhealthy, and older.

The skin around your eyes is the thinnest on your body. Blood traveling through capillaries near the skin surface show off as a bluish tint, and the thinner your skin, the darker the effect. While dark circles can be hereditary, they can also be caused by other things like anemia, aging, lack of sleep, hyper-pigmentation around eyes, and liver problems.

3 Natural Home Remedies to Reduce Dark Circles Under Eyes

There are some natural new age treatments for those dark discolorations, though you can also use home remedies to get rid of them. Some solutions to consider include:

Cold Compressing:

You can dab anything that is cold around your eyes to shrink blood vessels. Use iced water, an ice bag, cold milk, a frozen spoon, or anything else that is chilled and the dark circles should reduce.

Cool Cucumber:

Researchers suggest that cucumber contains multiple antioxidants, such as vitexin, cucurbitacins, isiscoparin, and orienting, as well as vitamins C and K, which help to reduce discoloration under the eyes.

Simply place chilled cucumber slices on your closed eyes for 10 minutes before rinsing it off with water to reduce the dark circles and any puffiness under your eyes. The remedy can be repeated twice a day for a week or two.

You can also use raw potato slices, tomatoes, turmeric, lemon juice, pineapple, and buttermilk to treat discoloration under eyes. They contain different nutrients with bleaching properties that provide a great remedy for dark shadows.

Almond Oil:

Application of a little almond oil over dark circles and massaging it gently before going to bed can help fade under-eye circles, and then wash it off in the morning with cold water. Vitamin E oil can also be used to treat the delicate skin around your eyes.

Avoid Dehydrating Your Skin

Using too much salt in food, drinking too much alcohol, and smoking can dry and weaken the skin on your face by pulling water out of your skin. If you can’t stop, drink water before going to bed and use moisturizers with vitamin C and other essential antioxidants that help support collagen under the eyes.

Lastly, UV radiation from the sun is very dangerous to your skin, so you should consider applying sunscreen every day to prevent dark circles from forming.

Black Market Botox Injections: Why This Cannot Be Trusted

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Don’t take chances, use a board-certified plastic surgeon for all of your Botox needs.

You can probably find every designer item worth buying on the Black Market, including glasses, shoes, handbags, and now, even Botox and a variety of other fillers. But using fillers is not just a matter of carrying a brand name; you have to think about your safety.

While getting Black Market injections can save you a lot of money up front, it could turn to be costly in the long run. First, there are the ramifications of using a fake product, and second, there is the risk of having an unskilled, uncertified, and often times an unlicensed “physician” administering the product. How can you possibly trust someone who’s using inferior products to take your health and safety into consideration?

What it means to use black market plastic surgery solutions?

Numerous deaths have been reported from the use of black market buttocks injections, and official data suggests that even more injuries occur every day as a result of unauthorized injections. Black Market injections are definitely risky.

For instance, there are two types of Botox in the Black Market: the first one is manufactured in the USA by Allergan, exported for foreign use, altered by fraudulent people, and redistributed in different countries at a lower price; and the second one is simply fake Botox, with a different recipe.

The “Black Market” is an unlawful trade or traffic in scarce or officially controlled commodities. The scarcity coupled with high demand for certain products motivates people to purchase and modify or manufacture knock-offs and sell them to consumers at a lower rate. The extent of danger may not be significant when dealing with handbags or watches, but there are serious safety concerns when the fakes are pharmaceuticals.

Repercussions of Black Market Botox

Many doctors and patients alike love Botox and other cosmetic injections. Botox is a real medical procedure with the potential to cause actual medical complications if used improperly. Using a knock-off only increases the risks for problems.

Users have suffered fatalities because of requesting untrained persons to administer the right injections, which only increases the risk for fake products. Common risks of Black Market Botox include abscesses or skin infections at best, and permanent disfiguring, blindness, respiratory arrest, and even death at worst.

Detecting Black Market Injections

Everyone, and particularly women, wants to look more beautiful and youthful, and injectables like Botox help you do that. But you should know that it takes research, quality control, and other essential processes in the production process before the product gets to you, so you shouldn’t expect it to be cheap. To protect yourself from fakes, you should follow this rule of thumb: if it is cheap, has a funky label, or comes with a cheap injector, then it is probably fake and unsafe for human use.

“If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.”

Dr. Golshani’s 3 Daily Habits for Healthy Skin

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Skin. What a love-hate relationship we human beings have with our skin. We love it when it’s smooth and youthful; we loathe it when it’s dry and looking aged. The older we get, the more our skin becomes something we must take care of. I wanted to expose you to three simple habits we can learn to keep our skin feeling good and healthy.

1. Exfoliating

To avoid the build-up of cells, which can cause acne, blocked pores, and dullness, we must exfoliate. The skin regenerates, turning over a new epidermis every 28-30 days. This keeps the body looking new, well… as new as it can for our given ages. We can keep our cells on their “toes” by gently exfoliating on a daily basis. You can purchase any mild exfoliant, chemical or physical, at any drugstore or grocery store. But, if you have five minutes to spare at home, there are a few easy options to make either one. Make sure to moisturize with your favorite lotion or crème everywhere you’ve exfoliated. If your skin is naturally quite oily, try spraying it with mineral water.

For chemicals, think acids – orange, lemon, tomato. All fruits, yes even tomato, whose juice, when rubbed on the skin, does the job of eating away at the superficial skin cells nicely, and gently! Just squeeze some juice of one of these babies onto your hands and apply to your face, neck and chest, even your whole body if you have enough juice, the fruit enzymes do the job. One layer or swipe of the hands will do the trick, no need to douse yourself. Only use one at a time, mixing fruit acids could result in a rash.

For physical, a natural bristle body brush, or homemade sugar or salt scrub is a fantastic way to do this. Whichever you use, make sure to apply long strokes toward your heart, from the feet up. If you do your face, be extra gentle with that skin. Combine a cup of sugar or salt with olive, grape seed, avocado or coconut oil. Add in some honey until the consistency is to your liking. Then scrub and rinse.

2. Loving

This one is even simpler. The majority of our bodies are made up of H2O, that’s water for anyone wondering. In short, water responds to energy, negative or positive. So, saying some nice things to yourself on a daily basis might be the best habit you can get into. If you feel silly, do it in the shower. Connect with your skin. Gently tap your skin with your fingertips, everywhere while you’re telling it how much you love it, out loud. Even cooing like you would to a baby or a puppy does wonders. Your skin will listen and in a short time, with this habit in play, people will start telling you how good you look. Guaranteed. The glow of love is a real thing. It’s physics.

3. Nourishing

Your skin loves water, so drink clean water every day. Water is the ultimate skin nourishment. It moisturizes you from the inside out. Teas, made from the bag, not the bottle, are in fact even more hydrating than water alone. Again, it’s physics. The polyphenols in tea attach to the water molecules and when you ingest it, the polyphenols deposit in the cell vacuole, energizing it to do its job, and the H2O flushes through your cells and system. Pretty cool habit to get into. And as a tea drinker, you could even dare to call yourself fancy.

Take my tips in with stride and you’ll be able to see a noticeable difference in your skin within a couple of weeks.