So I can, so I can
See the light that’s right before my eyes.

-From the 1984 Corey Hart song

And thats some pretty good advice with some new research coming out. From Sharon Moalem’s “Survival of the Sickest“:

“As everybody knows, skin color changes, to some extent, in response to sun exposure. The trigger for that response is the pituitary gland. Under natural circumstances, almost as soon as you are exposed to the sun, your pituitary gland produces hormones that act as boosters for your melanocytes, and your melanocytes start producing melanin in overdrive. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to disrupt that process. The pituitary gland gets it’s information from the optic nerve - when the optic nerve senses sunlight, it signals the pituitary gland to kick-start the melanocytes. Guess what happens when you’re wearing sunglasses? Much less sunlight reaches the optic nerve, much less warning is sent to the pituitary gland, much less melanocyte-stimulating hormone is released, much less melanin is produced - much more sunburn results. If you’re reading this on the beach with your Ray-Bans on, do your skin a favor - take them off.”

This brings us to the topic of Vitamin D and how it can help prevent many forms of cancer. It’s estimated that up to 50,000 people die from cancers that could have been prevented from proper Vitamin D levels. Now, whats the cheapest most effective way to regulate our Vitamin D without overdosing? Sunshine!

I remember a time when my next door neighbor, a biodynamic gardner, took me out to climb Mt. Yale, a 14′er in Buena Vista, Colorado. He abstained from putting sunblock on and when I asked if he was scared of getting skin cancer, he unexpectedly told me, “Yes” and that’s why he wasn’t wearing sunblock. huh? He told me that sunblock was actually implicated in skin cancer. Now I’ve never seen this study before and I’m not saying it’s true, it just got me thinking. The skin is a major detox organ and is going to be damaged by the toxins in our body - not necessarily by the sun. Since we evolved underneath this solar bath for millions of years why all of a sudden has it become poisonous? That makes no sense.

The FDA recommends 200-400 IU’s daily. Guess what - 15 minutes in the sun should garner your body the best type of Vitamin D possible, the endogenous kind, and in the 10,000-15,000 IU’s range (this varies due to altitude, skin color, and latitude). Remember, once the skin shows signs of gently turning pink in the sun- you’ve had enough. Don’t go crazy now - over doing the sun exposure by tanning can prematurely age the skin and increase skin cancer rates. You must build a tolerance this spring just like you need to rebuild your muscles after relaxing on your couch all winter. Avoid tanning beds and go to the source. When you’ve had enough, make sure to avoid sunblocks loaded with toxins. Go biodegradable and organic. Here is a page of good sunblocks. Here is what you want to avoid:

Para Amino benzoic acid (PABA)
Avobenzone
Cinoxate
Dioxybenzone
Homosalate
Menthyl anthranilate
Octocrylene
Octo methoxycinnamate
Octyl salicylate
Oxybenzone
Padimate O
Phenylbenzimidazole
Sulisobenzone
Trolamine salicylate

The question I have and that I want to leave you with is, is there a correlative between the massive widespread use of UV protected eye wear in our culture with a rise in skin cancer?
I’m going to listen to Corey Hart and only wear my sunglasses at night so I can…

UNTIL he met a reclusive tribe of near-mythical athletes at the bottom of a Mexican canyon, Micah True could never figure out why his running injuries got worse as his running shoes got better. Then, the Tarahumara Indians taught him a lesson that even Nike is now starting to embrace: the best shoe may be no shoe at all.

Mr. True, 53, from Nederland, Colo., wasn’t the only one baffled by the injury mystery. For years kinesiology professors, physical therapists and athletic-shoe designers have been puzzling over the same paradox: if running shoe protection and cushioning have improved, why haven’t injuries among joggers
decreased?

“The technological advancements over the past 30 years have been amazing,” said Dr. Irene Davis, the director of the Running Injury Clinic at the University of Delaware. “We’ve seen tremendous innovations in motion control and cushioning. And yet the remedies don’t seem to defeat the ailments.”

Since the running boom of the 70’s, giants like Nike, Adidas and New Balance have rivaled Silicon Valley for speed of R. & D. rollout, releasing improved products nearly every six months. One shoe, the Adidas 1, even has microprocessors that analyze foot impact and adjust cushioning with each stride. New Balance has a motion-control shoe so finely engineered it costs $199.99. Still, 65 percent to 80 percent of all runners - joggers and elite marathoners alike - are injured in an average year, according to Dr. Davis. Aching Achilles tendons, sore knees, inflamed arches and hobbling plantar fascia pain are as common today as they were when boot camp grunts were jogging in canvas Converse “Chuckies.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Fails to see the world from an upright position.

- Lucy

There are almost 100,000 deaths in US hospitals each year from preventable medical errors, according to Public Citizen. This number doubles if you use the company HealthGrades numbers. I wonder how many deaths from unpreventable medical errors?

• Only one in eight preventable medical errors committed in hospitals results in a malpractice claim. (Harvard Medical Practice Study Group, Patients, Doctors and Lawyers: Medical Injury, Malpractice Litigation, and Patient Compensation in New York, 1990.)
• Punitive Damages are awarded in less than 1 percent of medical malpractice cases. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1996.)

And yet the costs are still high:
• The annual costs to society for medical errors in hospitals at $17 billion to $29 billion. (Institute of Medicine, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, 2000.)

Could you imagine if the other 7 out of 8 people filed malpractice suits and punitive damages were awared in more than 1% of cases? Our economy would collapse for sure. The interesting thing about the punitive damages was that only 5% of cases paid over 1 million. I guess thats the value of a human life these days. Less then a million. With the creation of healthcare tribunals to get cases out of the court system these numbers will drop drastically in the future. We will be worth less than a 100k in no time.

Malpractice payments for doctors and insurers remain at about 1% of the total health care costs. $4.5 billion in 2001, with total health care costs at about $1.4 trillion. The western health care industry consumes about 15% of our gross domestic product. And according to Dr. Jay Parkinson, this industry runs at up to a 40% inefficiency rate. That is just maddening.

Dr. Jay Parkinson’s Hello Health practice will seriously address the inefficiency problem and give the best quality healthcare. He has created a way for the uninsured and the underinsured get the best healthcare possible. Amen for Dr. Jay.

A final note from Wikipedia:

US healthcare expenditures totaled US $2.2 trillion in 2006. According to Health Affairs, $7,498 will be spent on every woman, man and child in the United States in 2007, 20 percent of all spending. Costs are projected to increase to $12,782 by 2016.