Redeeming Vitality

Why current Sunscreen is bad? Endocrine disruptors and coral killing compounds are not good for you or the planet. One application of sunscreen is equivalent to a daily dose of estrogen therapy. That is going into the water and can’t be filtered out. It is washing into our streams, coral reefs, and into our water systems. Sunscreen is often made of ingredients that degrade in sunlight which adds to the free radical damage of your skin. Zinc oxide (non-nano) does not degrade in sun so it continues to protect your skin longer. The natural recipe I am going to share with you is full of healthy oils that will make this natural sunscreen water resistant as well. There has been a long standing campaign for everyone to “protect” their skin with SPF lotions. Although there are good times to do that, across the board-all-the-time, isn’t the best solution. (The data shows that even though sun avoidance lowers melanoma, it increases all other causes of mortality.-Journal of Internal Medicine … [Read more...]

Bug Off Insect Repellent  Uninvited insects can really make a vacation unenjoyable. I’ve spent much time in the woods trying to figure out how to manage our presents in a nontoxic way, since we are often the “uninvited” guests. We enter their world. That is not to say we shouldn’t do all we can to prevent confrontation and create boundaries. It is more about the absurdity of elimination tactics like mass spraying that I get "bugged" by. This short term gain is followed by long term environmental and personal devastation that hurts us more than them. Insects have been here for a long time. They are the base of the food chain, and they're highly resistant. Insects are better managed, than poisoned. So what is a mom to do? I often say that You only have to smell worse than the people beside you. It is partially true. Some people really smell great to insects. They are the ones that get bite often. In contract, this doesn’t mean you have to stink. But if you are going to use natural … [Read more...]