Sunscreen Allergies

In 2008 Natural Health News reported on sunscreen as unsafe and ineffective. Earlier than this, along with an expert on the subject, we tackled mis-information being promoted by Dr Oz's "Real Age".  Over the years we have continued to cover this story and the associated problems caused by lack of exposure to the sun, sans sunscreen.

Now a new issue seems to be having an impact on you as you use these products.

There are options, and those natural approaches are covered in related stories here at Natural Health News.

Are You Allergic to Sunscreen?

By Krisha McCoy, MS, Medically reviewed by Christine Wilmsen Craig, MD

As the weather heats up and you spend more time outdoors, it’s essential to slap on sunscreen – and it could even save your life. A recent study from Australia – which has some of the hightest rates of skin cancer in the world – found that applying sunscreen daily reduced the risk of melanoma, the most deadly kind of skin cancer, by an amazing 50 percent.

But for some people, applying certain types of sunscreen can actually cause a skin allergy. Sunscreen allergies are fairly uncommon, however, so how can you be sure that your skin irritation is due to sunscreen and not something else?

Detecting a Sunscreen Allergy

Sunscreens work because they contain chemicals that absorb harmful ultraviolet radiation, and keep them from penetrating your skin. Some of these chemicals, including oxybenzone, 4-isopropyl-dibenzoylmethane, PABA (para-aminobenzoic acid), esters, avobenzone, and cinnamates, have been known to cause an allergic reaction in certain people.

According to Anna Feldweg, MD, a clinical instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in allergy and immunology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, there are two ways a sunscreen allergy generally appears: as a contact allergy or contact photoallergy.

With contact allergies, Dr. Feldweg explains, "you get a rash where the product is applied." But, in contact photoallergy, the reaction is due to an interaction between sunscreen chemicals and sunlight, "so you get the rash where the sunscreen was applied but only once the skin has been exposed to the sun," she notes. These two conditions may be hard to tell apart, although the difference is important in determining how to test for a sunscreen allergy.

A sunscreen allergy may appear when you first start using sunscreen, or it can develop after years of sunscreen use. You might experience an allergic reaction immediately, or up to several days after you apply the sunscreen. Some signs include:

• Red skin
• Swelling
• Itching
• Blisters that are filled with fluid

These symptoms will appear in the areas where you applied the sunscreen to your body, and, in the case of a photoallergy, where your skin was also exposed to sunlight.

Dealing With a Sunscreen Allergy

If you suspect a sunscreen allergy, you should see a dermatologist or an allergist, who can diagnose and treat your condition. Your doctor can perform a patch test to confirm whether you are allergic to specific chemicals that are present in sunscreen. For a contact allergy, the patch test probably will be done without ultraviolet light first; a photoallergy patch test will be performed in combination with exposure to ultraviolet light. Patch testing can help your doctor diagnose exactly which chemicals you are allergic to, so you can avoid those chemicals.

For people with a sunscreen allergy, there are alternatives to traditional sunscreen to protect your skin from the sun. Sun protection is an important part of protecting the health of your skin, so if you are allergic to a chemical in sunscreen, your doctor can help you find a sunscreen that doesn't contain that chemical. Sunscreens known as physical sunscreens contain powdered versions of zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, which reflect light, keeping it from penetrating your skin. Physical sunscreens are not known to cause allergic reactions.

An allergy to sunscreens does not have to keep you from having fun in the sun. Talk with your doctor to find out which sunscreens can work for you.

Source, Last Updated: 05/04/2011

From Natural Health News - 

More Vitamins Please

Oct 13, 2008

Air pollution, sunscreen and clothing all limit the amount of vitamin D the body can synthesize from sunlight. The group suggests non-breast-fed infants and older children who are drinking less than one quart (liter) of vitamin ...

84% of Sunscreens Unsafe or Ineffective

Jul 05, 2008

Only 16% of sunscreens on the market are both safe and effective, according to a new analysis by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy and research organization. Of 783 products analyzed, only 125 blocked both UVA and UVB

A Fool is Born

Nov 16, 2010

Yet thanks to sunscreen and workaholic (or TV-aholic) habits, most people don't make enough. How much do you need? The Institute of Medicine is reassessing that right now; most experts expect a big boost from the current levels (200 to ...

Nutritional Status and Orthopedic Disturbances

Sep 12, 2010

It's affecting middle-class children because they're overprotecting with sunscreen and not going out as much. SPF is also increasingly in cosmetics used by young women. “The more dramatic cases tend to be in people who wear traditional ...

Antioxidants Extend Longevity, Protect Your Health

Oct 01, 2010

Pomegranate Enhances sunscreen protection Lowers "bad" cholesterol Fights prostate cancer. Pumpkin Protects joints against polyarthritis Lowers lung and prostate cancer risk Reduces inflammation. Raspberries Inhibit growth of oral, . ...

Perspective on Vitamin D

Jan 31, 2009

While in the sun, it's important to cover the face but okay to expose the arms and legs for 10 minutes or so without sunscreen, he adds. "If you're going to be out in the sun for five, ten or 15 minutes, don't be paranoid." ...

Suncreen May be Hiding the Facts

May 19, 2008

Today the BIG NEWS is about Sunscreen. Numerous problems remain even after many years of known issues with the chemical ingredients in these products. Some products listed as safe in the EWG report contain titanium dioxide, ...

Yes, you do need more D

Aug 16, 2010

But cloud cover, sunscreen, skin pigmentation and even northern latitudes can reduce the penetration of ultraviolet-B rays. And with sedentary lifestyles and concerns about skin cancer, many people never get enough sun to provide ...

More Foods for Health

Apr 22, 2010

Pomegranate Enhances sunscreen protection Lowers "bad" cholesterol Fights prostate cancer. Pumpkin Protects joints against polyarthritis Lowers lung and prostate cancer risk Reduces inflammation. Raspberries Inhibit growth of oral, ...

Good Day Sunshine

Dec 17, 2010

The experts now say it is fine to go outside in strong sun in the middle of the day, as long as you cover up or apply sunscreen before your skin goes red. 'Too negative'. A good diet and sensible sun exposure will be adequate for most 

Natural Health News: Frequently Copied, Never Duplicated! 

GILSUM, N.H.–Just as many consumers are venturing outside for some summertime fun, Katie Schwerin, co-founder of the W.S. Badger Co., offered several tips to choosing a safe sunscreen in a recent statement.

“The best protection from the sun is to stay out of it or cover up with a good hat and long sleeve shirt," she said. “But for the sun lovers among us, using a mineral sunscreen with zinc, not chemicals, is the safest and most effective way to go because these minerals stay on the surface of the skin and are not absorbed, releasing free radicals into your body."

Schwerin continued, “Sunscreen users should be careful not to have a false sense of security and overdo, over expose or under protect themselves."

She also said it’s important to make sure it’s really natural by checking to see if it has the Natural Products Association's (NPA’s) Certified Natural seal or an NSF/ANSI 305 designation that certifies organic ingredient content.
Next, she suggested consumers make sure the sunscreen includes organic plant oils, butters and waxes, which provide a safe moisturizing base to help protect skin from water, wind, sand and sun while keeping it hydrated.

Other hidden dangers from conventional sunscreen are their impact on the environment and our natural surroundings, she said. If your sunscreen isn't biodegradable, its chemicals can wash off the body and leech into lakes, oceans and rivers causing potential damage and harm. “They can even damage delicate coral reefs and marine life," added Schwerin.

W.S. Badger makes a full line of safe, effective, natural, mineral-based, certified organic sunscreens. The Badger sunscreen line includes SPF30+ Lightly Scented, SPF30+ Unscented, SPF30+ Baby Sunscreen, SPF30+ Sunscreen and Anti-Bug Repellent, SPF30+ All-Season Face Stick, SPF15 Lightly Scented, and SPF15 Unscented Lip Balm Stick. The full line uses uncoated, non-nano zinc oxide for broad-spectrum protection in a base of certified organic ingredients. W.S. Badger sunscreens are recommended and score a number one for safety and effectiveness by the Environmental Working Group as sunburn protection.

Allergy Season: What Makes It Worse

May 2011 - Are the drugs you take for allergy making you gain weight?

Whether you are a Climate Change believer or not, allergies do seem to be coming on earlier in the year, and are causing more problems for more people.

I always advise to look at your environment and your diet as both these areas have a major impact on allergy.  I think it will be interesting to see how the increase in GMO crops and that pollen will start to affect people.

Remember too that cell phone and other wireless devices that are so popular contribute to this problem by creating electrolytically charged pollen and pollutant particles which makes it easier for these to stick to the mucous membrane lining inside your respiratory system.  This finding from a decade ago also shows correlation to increasing asthma rates.

There are several excellent approaches to natural allergy therapy, find out more here -

and if you'd like a personal program designed specifically for you contact us for this clinical service.

A new USDA-led study finds a warming planet makes for more pollen and a longer, more intense allergy season in many parts of the United States.

By Leah Zerbe

If you're planning a vacation during prime hay fever season—summer and fall—opt for a spot near water, where pollen counts tend to be lower.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Given the millions of allergy sufferers held hostage by the drippy noses, burning, watery eyes, and continuous sneezing sessions it induces, ragweed may be one of the most hated plants on the planet. And a new the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-led study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences confirms what many allergy sufferers and allergists have already been noticing—hay fever season caused by ragweed seems to be getting more intense and lasting longer.

The study is the latest to make the connection between climate change and a more potent allergy season. (Allergy-related issues cost the United States about $21 billion a year, so a warming planet affects economics, too.) "The main takeaway is that we are already seeing a significant increase in the season length of ragweed; and that this increase in season length is associated with a greater warming at northern latitudes, consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections regarding climate change," explains lead study author Lewis Ziska, PhD, research plant physiologist with USDA's Crop Systems and Global Change Lab.

THE DETAILS: Researchers used ragweed pollen and temperature data recorded between the late 1990s and 2005 in 10 different locations in the U.S. and Canada and found that in all but two of the areas analyzed, the ragweed pollen season increased—in some cases by nearly a month. The lengthening of the allergy season coincides with an increase in warmer, frost-free days. Researchers noticed a general trend—the ragweed allergy season grew longest in the higher latitudes of the northern United States and Canada. Winnipeg, Ontario, allergy sufferers endured a 27-day-longer ragweed pollen season in 2005 compared to just 16 years earlier. In the U.S., Fargo, ND, and Minneapolis, MN, experienced a more than two-week increase in ragweed allergy season, with LaCrosse and Madison, WI, not far behind.

WHAT IT MEANS: Climate change threatens human health in a number of ways, but allergies may be the most immediate, easy-to-recognize ailment thus far. And our increasingly chaotic climate's allergy-accelerating properties are already afflicting millions of people. Ragweed is one of the most common weed allergens, affecting about 10 percent of the population. Among allergy sufferers, nearly a third endure hay fever misery brought on by ragweed pollen. Under normal circumstances, a single ragweed plant creates 1 million pollen grains; but a climate change–charged, more CO2-rich environment boosts that number to upwards of 3 to 4 million pollen grains per plant, according to Clifford Bassett, MD, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York and a member of the public-education committee at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. (Don't your eyes water just thinking of it?)

And scientists are also suspect of other potentially climate change–infused weed species. Ziska says there are concerns that other specific plant allergens are worsening due to climate change. His research group is working with Rutgers University in New Jersey and the Environmental Protection Agency to begin assessing pollen production and season length for other annual weeds like lambsquarters, mugwort, and plaintain, in addition to ragweed.

Consuming less, using less energy, eating organic, and demanding that clean energy subsidies replace incentives to fund dirty fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas that make us sick are all important tactics to help stabilize global climate and protect our health. It's also important to realize that we've already set ourselves up for a lifetime of climate-related problems. Here's how to deal with the allergy aspect as we all work to keep things from getting worse.

Here are some solutions to think about now, before ragweed allergies strike later this year:

• Make sure you're actually allergic to ragweed. It may sound silly, but allergists recommend being tested to confirm you're allergic to what you actually think is making you sneeze. If ragweed is really making your life miserable (the longer you're exposed to the allergen, the worse the symptoms become), consider getting allergy shots. The ongoing climate shift could be a cue to reassess your antiallergy options. "It might make people who previously had mild ragweed seasons to consider interventions they hadn't though of before, like getting ragweed allergy shots," says study coauthor Jay Portnoy, MD, chief of allergy, asthma, and immunology at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, MO.

• Plan vacations accordingly. For many people, February still marks the cold season, months away from hay fever hell. But take your ragweed allergy into consideration as you plan this year's summer or fall getaway. Dr. Bassett notes that pollen counts are generally lower around water. So if you vacation during prime ragweed season—summer and fall, or year-round in places like Florida or Hawaii—plan some time on the beach or around rivers and lakes for some ragweed relief.

• Create better indoor air. Now's the perfect time to grow your own houseplants for free. They should be flourishing by ragweed season. While houseplants can't rid your air of pollens you're allergic to, certain houseplants can counteract indoor air pollution that further aggravates your allergy problem.