May 21, 2023 • 15 mins
Humans actually have a long history with using sunscreen, though not necessarily in the form it takes today. We continue to try to engineer a solution to sun exposure, but have we created a host of new problems? If it can kill the coral reef, what could it do to us? And are there any good alternatives? Not all sunscreens are created equal, so tune in find out the answers!
Show Notes:
0:48 - Sunscreen: a brief walk through history - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8682817/
2:28 - Effect of Sunscreen Application Under Maximal Use Conditions on Plasma Concentration of Sunscreen Active Ingredients - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6549296/
6:03 - A long-wave UVA filter avobenzone induces obesogenic phenotypes in normal human epidermal keratinocytes and mesenchymal stem cells - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00204-019-02462-1
8:13 - Aluminum Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis and Signal Transduction Resembles Change that Occurs in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease - https://content.iospress.com/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad111712?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad111712
8:21 - Relationship of Aluminum to Alzheimer's Disease - https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/pdf/10.1289/ehp.8563149
8:23 - 2020 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures - https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/alz.12068
9:51 - Stratum Corneum Is an Effective Barrier to TiO2 and ZnO Nanoparticle Percutaneous Absorption - https://karger.com/spp/article-abstract/22/5/266/295735/Stratum-Corneum-Is-an-Effective-Barrier-to-TiO2
11:48 - Slip versus Slop: A Head-to-Head Comparison of UV-Protective Clothing to Sunscreen - https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/14/3/542
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
welcome to Primedy where we find simple techniques to help address modern problems for our primitive
bodies my name is Andrew Pafford and I'm a health and wellness professional with over a decade of
experience helping Olympic level athletes desk jockeys and seniors achieving their goals and
improving their quality of life while speaking with one of my clients the other day we happened
onto the topic of sunscreen now that spring has set in and outdoor activities are abound
(00:26):
my attention especially as a father has been set towards making sure I Stave off harmful UV rays
for myself and my children what events led to the Advent of sunscreen how does it work and what are
the potential ramifications of using sunscreen and of course what are possible alternatives to
keep us and our environment safe I'll encourage you to reference the show notes at this point
(00:50):
because the NIH has a wonderful study that has done a timeline on the history of sunscreen
those of you too busy to peruse we as humans ultimately have a history with using natural
products to protect ourselves from the sun's harmful rays the Egyptians used rice bran Jasmine
and Lupine all later shown to have some positive effects at staving off UV or healing the skin
(01:15):
the ancient Greeks used olive oil which later was determined to actually have an SPF of eight
and as we get closer to present day more popular names such as Coco Chanel and Eugene Schuler
the founder of L'Oreal had a hand in developing products offering protection from the Sun however
it's not until 1978 as the FDA begin regulating sunscreen and things containing Pata or para
(01:41):
aminobenzoic acid the popular active ingredient at the time the FDA begins regulating derivatives
interestingly in 2019 two researchers found that two active ingredients in sunscreen oxobenzone and
octanoxate to be linked to the bleaching of coral reefs
(02:05):
there was enough evidence present so much so that Hawaii went so far as to pass a
bill Banning the sale of sunscreens containing those ingredients Statewide so as it stands we
actually have data that shows previous iterations of sunscreen were not great for the environment
but what about us well more recently a study was done by Dr Mata and others analyzing blood plasma
(02:33):
levels to see what extent the active ingredients were being absorbed by the body currently the FDA
has limits set saying that any systemic absorption greater than 0.5 nanograms per milliliter need
to undergo toxicology assessments including those regarding carcinogenicity and reproductive studies
(03:00):
in layman's terms if the ingredients are absorbed and shown to get over that threshold then they
need to be studied to see if they can cause cancer birth defects or a bevy of other maladies
in this particular study four types of sunscreens were used two sprays a lotion and a cream
the names of the products were not provided but it's the ingredients that we were mostly looking
(03:21):
to and not necessarily the name brand each of the sunscreens was applied four times per day for four
days and now while that may sound overboard as a former lifeguard I can tell you Adult Swim
happened at my pool every hour and this wasn't just to make people rest or help the Lifeguard
shift but also to force children out of the pool to give the adults time to reapply sunscreen
(03:47):
since most people going to the pool or the beach tend to make a bit of a day out of it
three to four applications of sunscreen for being at the pool for four to five hours
is by no means a stretch of the imagination additionally four active ingredients from
those different types of sunscreens were measured avabenzone oxybenzone octocrylene and ecamsule
(04:13):
so four different types four different ingredients across four different days
but the researchers didn't get too far into the study because after one day of application
all four of those ingredients exceeded the 0.5 nanograms per milliliter threshold established
(04:35):
by the FDA have a benzone range between 1.8 and 4.0 oxybenzone range between 169 and 209
nanograms per milliliter octocrylene range from 2.9 to 7.8 and ecamsule which was only in the
(04:57):
cream registered at 1.5 what this was a clear sign was that all of these ingredients are not
just moderately absorbed by the body but readily absorbed by the body after one day of standard
application they were found to be in large amounts in the bloodstream some more than others however
(05:20):
that threshold is set by the FDA because certain compounds have been shown have deleterious effects
on the body at those small measures while these particular compounds are not yet known if they
have deleterious effects others have and therefore that threshold has been set low to make sure any
compounds that exceed that threshold need to undergo testing to make sure they are not
(05:45):
now obviously we've established that they need to so looking into one of those ingredients
at least one of the more popular ones is avabenzone the first ingredient measured in the
last study which was shown to have one interesting effect from a study that I was able to find
it wanted to see how Ava benzone affected the genes of keratinocytes or to put plainly the
(06:10):
layer of skin that grows the rest of your skin we have about eight different layers of skin
and the bottom most layer is what effectively produces the skin and then as it starts to grow
out sort of like rings in a tree well I guess backwards the top layers then die so the top
layer of your skin is actually dead making it harder for bacteria and viruses to infect you
(06:35):
so if these keratinocytes are affected it stands to reason that every skin cell that they produce
will in turn be affected what was discovered was that the genes in the keratinocyte cells that
were affected by the avabenzone significantly altered its lipid metabolism or the way that
(06:56):
it utilizes or produces fat more specifically it was positively correlated with adipogenesis
or the making of new adipose tissue the authors concluded that avabenzone promotes adipogenesis
and has a role as an obesogen in disrupting metabolic functioning now we could do a deep dive
(07:19):
into all of the different ingredients but that's getting a little bit Lost In The Weeds because
I want to step back from the edge of the rabbit hole for a moment before we dive too far in and
say that all of these ingredients that were studied are organic compounds and these are
at a greater likelihood for interaction with the body many sunscreens currently have begun using
(07:42):
inorganic ingredients so before we go knocking the organic ones too much let's take a look at
the inorganic compounds inorganic ingredients in sunscreen are typically derived from some sort
of metal such as zinc or titanium at some point people made some loose connections to Alzheimer's
(08:03):
and sunscreen what don't know where that came from but the theory logic train goes accordingly
some Studies have shown that patients with Alzheimer's disease have been shown to have
increased levels of aluminum in certain parts of their brain the data also shows that the cases
(08:25):
of Alzheimer's disease are on the rise whether it was from changes in our environment increasing in
population thus the number of cases would rise but the rate would technically remain constant
or we've simply improved in diagnosing or documenting cases with improvements in medicine so
(08:46):
that it would stand a reason we have more recorded cases of Alzheimer's albeit we aren't actually
getting necessarily more cases at a higher rate than we were we don't know however one school of
thought feels that the cases are going up because of environmental factors with humans doing what
we do best and turning the environment against us it would seem with some feeling that the titanium
(09:11):
in our products might very well be absorbed by the body and thus contributing to the onset of
Alzheimer's now that's a pretty serious accusation and a scary one so personally I wanted to get to
the root of this matter and while typically it would be better safe than sorry to avoid those
at this point avoiding sunscreen to potentially avoid getting Alzheimer's and in turn exposing
(09:35):
yourself to harmful UVS is just a good recipe to get cancer so now we're stuck between a
cognitive disease and a life-threatening disease hard play scenario but we don't have to worry
about choosing is the good news one study we found sought to measure the penetration of inorganic
compounds through the skin namely titanium oxide and zinc oxide the favorite active inorganic
(10:02):
ingredients in many sunscreens with this data we could glean the potential for systemic absorption
you can look to the show notes for a link to the study but the short of it was that there
was little sign of penetration beyond the upper layers of skin and no sign of penetration down to
(10:23):
the keratinocytes with the bulk of the compounds getting stuck in your pores this is fantastic news
for those looking to enjoy the summer but don't want any negative effects from certain ingredients
from the sunscreen so to recap if it's not being absorbed down to the if there's no presence of
it down at the bottomless level of your skin it's not being absorbed Through Your Skin So
(10:44):
it's not getting into your bloodstream by wiping it on you would have to eat it or stab yourself
with it if you wanted it in your bloodstream so good news sunscreens with inorganic compounds
are safe to use there's also data that shows that the inorganic compounds are even more effective at
(11:04):
blocking transmittance of the UV rays then it's organic Brethren so it's even more effective
now a final option if you don't want to use sunscreen do does UV resistant clothing work
wow you would still need sunscreen if you wanted to strip down and enjoy the Sun and
(11:24):
surf many of the activities that we do on a day-to-day basis outside involve us keeping
our clothes on so instead of having to get sticky all the time it would just be easier to throw on
UV resistant clothing but is one Superior than the other is it worth needing to double up
(11:46):
fortunately data is abound and the clear winner is clothing not only is it much faster to Don with no
need to reapply and no need to get sticky the data also shows that sunscreen at higher wavelengths
is not as effective and allows more transmittance of UV into the body on a wavelength scale UVB is
(12:10):
closer to 300 nanometers and UVA is closer to 400 so we're looking at three to four hundred
nanometers on a scale most organic ingredients in sunscreen lose their effectiveness after about
340 nanometers and even then they start at 20 to 30 percent transmittance and then increase from
(12:31):
there in this case the higher the percent the more sun is getting in most inorganic
compounds however or inorganic ingredients hover between 10 to 20 percent transmittance throughout
the entire scale regardless of how of where you are on that wavelength most clothing materials
(12:52):
however allow for zero percent transmittance and only once approaching the maximum end
of the scale close to 400 nanometers do they then start to allow 10 to 15 percent
so in every regard clothing is the superior option with the caveat of wanting to actually
(13:13):
close on now that was a lot of information today I did my best not to go too deep for fear of losing
you but I wanted to set some Frameworks and bass lines to give this information some Credence I
do highly encourage you to look in the show notes for the studies that we've posted so that way you
can review the data yourself with that let's review what we discussed today excessive sun
(13:36):
exposure is detrimental to our health and we have a long history of finding ways to protect our skin
trying to use natural products sunscreen has gone through various iterations and some have been not
so good for the environment and others may not be so good for us testing has shown that organic
ingredients in the sunscreen are readily readily absorbed by the body and they need to undergo
(13:59):
toxicity testing and other testing in accordance with FDA guidelines it's not clear whether all
ingredients have and what those results are yet data shows that inorganic compounds are
not absorbed through the skin and people shouldn't have to worry about Metal toxicity through this
particular mechanism sunscreen is using inorganic ingredients are superior to the organic ones
(14:23):
anyways and they should be the Preferred Choice so check those ingredient labels before you buy
finally UV resistant clothing is even better than sunscreen and should be the go-to option
for maximum Effectiveness for staying safe in the sun when clothing is applicable thank you so much
for the Intriguing questions I had a lot of fun researching this topic and learned a little bit
(14:46):
more about our sunscreens and its history if you have any other health related questions
comments or considerations please email us at info primedy.org and as always strength comes
in many forms from within and without so be strong to be useful take care and stay strong
welcome to Primedy where we find simple techniques to help address modern problems for our primitive
bodies my name is Andrew Pafford and I'm a health and wellness professional with over a decade of
experience helping Olympic level athletes desk jockeys and seniors achieving their goals and
improving their quality of life while speaking with one of my clients the other day we happened
onto the topic of sunscreen now that spring has set in and outdoor activities are abound
(00:26):
my attention especially as a father has been set towards making sure I Stave off harmful UV rays
for myself and my children what events led to the Advent of sunscreen how does it work and what are
the potential ramifications of using sunscreen and of course what are possible alternatives to
keep us and our environment safe I'll encourage you to reference the show notes at this point
(00:50):
because the NIH has a wonderful study that has done a timeline on the history of sunscreen
those of you too busy to peruse we as humans ultimately have a history with using natural
products to protect ourselves from the sun's harmful rays the Egyptians used rice bran Jasmine
and Lupine all later shown to have some positive effects at staving off UV or healing the skin
(01:15):
the ancient Greeks used olive oil which later was determined to actually have an SPF of eight
and as we get closer to present day more popular names such as Coco Chanel and Eugene Schuler
the founder of L'Oreal had a hand in developing products offering protection from the Sun however
it's not until 1978 as the FDA begin regulating sunscreen and things containing Pata or para
(01:41):
aminobenzoic acid the popular active ingredient at the time the FDA begins regulating derivatives
interestingly in 2019 two researchers found that two active ingredients in sunscreen oxobenzone and
octanoxate to be linked to the bleaching of coral reefs
(02:05):
there was enough evidence present so much so that Hawaii went so far as to pass a
bill Banning the sale of sunscreens containing those ingredients Statewide so as it stands we
actually have data that shows previous iterations of sunscreen were not great for the environment
but what about us well more recently a study was done by Dr Mata and others analyzing blood plasma
(02:33):
levels to see what extent the active ingredients were being absorbed by the body currently the FDA
has limits set saying that any systemic absorption greater than 0.5 nanograms per milliliter need
to undergo toxicology assessments including those regarding carcinogenicity and reproductive studies
(03:00):
in layman's terms if the ingredients are absorbed and shown to get over that threshold then they
need to be studied to see if they can cause cancer birth defects or a bevy of other maladies
in this particular study four types of sunscreens were used two sprays a lotion and a cream
the names of the products were not provided but it's the ingredients that we were mostly looking
(03:21):
to and not necessarily the name brand each of the sunscreens was applied four times per day for four
days and now while that may sound overboard as a former lifeguard I can tell you Adult Swim
happened at my pool every hour and this wasn't just to make people rest or help the Lifeguard
shift but also to force children out of the pool to give the adults time to reapply sunscreen
(03:47):
since most people going to the pool or the beach tend to make a bit of a day out of it
three to four applications of sunscreen for being at the pool for four to five hours
is by no means a stretch of the imagination additionally four active ingredients from
those different types of sunscreens were measured avabenzone oxybenzone octocrylene and ecamsule
(04:13):
so four different types four different ingredients across four different days
but the researchers didn't get too far into the study because after one day of application
all four of those ingredients exceeded the 0.5 nanograms per milliliter threshold established
(04:35):
by the FDA have a benzone range between 1.8 and 4.0 oxybenzone range between 169 and 209
nanograms per milliliter octocrylene range from 2.9 to 7.8 and ecamsule which was only in the
(04:57):
cream registered at 1.5 what this was a clear sign was that all of these ingredients are not
just moderately absorbed by the body but readily absorbed by the body after one day of standard
application they were found to be in large amounts in the bloodstream some more than others however
(05:20):
that threshold is set by the FDA because certain compounds have been shown have deleterious effects
on the body at those small measures while these particular compounds are not yet known if they
have deleterious effects others have and therefore that threshold has been set low to make sure any
compounds that exceed that threshold need to undergo testing to make sure they are not
(05:45):
now obviously we've established that they need to so looking into one of those ingredients
at least one of the more popular ones is avabenzone the first ingredient measured in the
last study which was shown to have one interesting effect from a study that I was able to find
it wanted to see how Ava benzone affected the genes of keratinocytes or to put plainly the
(06:10):
layer of skin that grows the rest of your skin we have about eight different layers of skin
and the bottom most layer is what effectively produces the skin and then as it starts to grow
out sort of like rings in a tree well I guess backwards the top layers then die so the top
layer of your skin is actually dead making it harder for bacteria and viruses to infect you
(06:35):
so if these keratinocytes are affected it stands to reason that every skin cell that they produce
will in turn be affected what was discovered was that the genes in the keratinocyte cells that
were affected by the avabenzone significantly altered its lipid metabolism or the way that
(06:56):
it utilizes or produces fat more specifically it was positively correlated with adipogenesis
or the making of new adipose tissue the authors concluded that avabenzone promotes adipogenesis
and has a role as an obesogen in disrupting metabolic functioning now we could do a deep dive
(07:19):
into all of the different ingredients but that's getting a little bit Lost In The Weeds because
I want to step back from the edge of the rabbit hole for a moment before we dive too far in and
say that all of these ingredients that were studied are organic compounds and these are
at a greater likelihood for interaction with the body many sunscreens currently have begun using
(07:42):
inorganic ingredients so before we go knocking the organic ones too much let's take a look at
the inorganic compounds inorganic ingredients in sunscreen are typically derived from some sort
of metal such as zinc or titanium at some point people made some loose connections to Alzheimer's
(08:03):
and sunscreen what don't know where that came from but the theory logic train goes accordingly
some Studies have shown that patients with Alzheimer's disease have been shown to have
increased levels of aluminum in certain parts of their brain the data also shows that the cases
(08:25):
of Alzheimer's disease are on the rise whether it was from changes in our environment increasing in
population thus the number of cases would rise but the rate would technically remain constant
or we've simply improved in diagnosing or documenting cases with improvements in medicine so
(08:46):
that it would stand a reason we have more recorded cases of Alzheimer's albeit we aren't actually
getting necessarily more cases at a higher rate than we were we don't know however one school of
thought feels that the cases are going up because of environmental factors with humans doing what
we do best and turning the environment against us it would seem with some feeling that the titanium
(09:11):
in our products might very well be absorbed by the body and thus contributing to the onset of
Alzheimer's now that's a pretty serious accusation and a scary one so personally I wanted to get to
the root of this matter and while typically it would be better safe than sorry to avoid those
at this point avoiding sunscreen to potentially avoid getting Alzheimer's and in turn exposing
(09:35):
yourself to harmful UVS is just a good recipe to get cancer so now we're stuck between a
cognitive disease and a life-threatening disease hard play scenario but we don't have to worry
about choosing is the good news one study we found sought to measure the penetration of inorganic
compounds through the skin namely titanium oxide and zinc oxide the favorite active inorganic
(10:02):
ingredients in many sunscreens with this data we could glean the potential for systemic absorption
you can look to the show notes for a link to the study but the short of it was that there
was little sign of penetration beyond the upper layers of skin and no sign of penetration down to
(10:23):
the keratinocytes with the bulk of the compounds getting stuck in your pores this is fantastic news
for those looking to enjoy the summer but don't want any negative effects from certain ingredients
from the sunscreen so to recap if it's not being absorbed down to the if there's no presence of
it down at the bottomless level of your skin it's not being absorbed Through Your Skin So
(10:44):
it's not getting into your bloodstream by wiping it on you would have to eat it or stab yourself
with it if you wanted it in your bloodstream so good news sunscreens with inorganic compounds
are safe to use there's also data that shows that the inorganic compounds are even more effective at
(11:04):
blocking transmittance of the UV rays then it's organic Brethren so it's even more effective
now a final option if you don't want to use sunscreen do does UV resistant clothing work
wow you would still need sunscreen if you wanted to strip down and enjoy the Sun and
(11:24):
surf many of the activities that we do on a day-to-day basis outside involve us keeping
our clothes on so instead of having to get sticky all the time it would just be easier to throw on
UV resistant clothing but is one Superior than the other is it worth needing to double up
(11:46):
fortunately data is abound and the clear winner is clothing not only is it much faster to Don with no
need to reapply and no need to get sticky the data also shows that sunscreen at higher wavelengths
is not as effective and allows more transmittance of UV into the body on a wavelength scale UVB is
(12:10):
closer to 300 nanometers and UVA is closer to 400 so we're looking at three to four hundred
nanometers on a scale most organic ingredients in sunscreen lose their effectiveness after about
340 nanometers and even then they start at 20 to 30 percent transmittance and then increase from
(12:31):
there in this case the higher the percent the more sun is getting in most inorganic
compounds however or inorganic ingredients hover between 10 to 20 percent transmittance throughout
the entire scale regardless of how of where you are on that wavelength most clothing materials
(12:52):
however allow for zero percent transmittance and only once approaching the maximum end
of the scale close to 400 nanometers do they then start to allow 10 to 15 percent
so in every regard clothing is the superior option with the caveat of wanting to actually
(13:13):
close on now that was a lot of information today I did my best not to go too deep for fear of losing
you but I wanted to set some Frameworks and bass lines to give this information some Credence I
do highly encourage you to look in the show notes for the studies that we've posted so that way you
can review the data yourself with that let's review what we discussed today excessive sun
(13:36):
exposure is detrimental to our health and we have a long history of finding ways to protect our skin
trying to use natural products sunscreen has gone through various iterations and some have been not
so good for the environment and others may not be so good for us testing has shown that organic
ingredients in the sunscreen are readily readily absorbed by the body and they need to undergo
(13:59):
toxicity testing and other testing in accordance with FDA guidelines it's not clear whether all
ingredients have and what those results are yet data shows that inorganic compounds are
not absorbed through the skin and people shouldn't have to worry about Metal toxicity through this
particular mechanism sunscreen is using inorganic ingredients are superior to the organic ones
(14:23):
anyways and they should be the Preferred Choice so check those ingredient labels before you buy
finally UV resistant clothing is even better than sunscreen and should be the go-to option
for maximum Effectiveness for staying safe in the sun when clothing is applicable thank you so much
for the Intriguing questions I had a lot of fun researching this topic and learned a little bit
(14:46):
more about our sunscreens and its history if you have any other health related questions
comments or considerations please email us at info primedy.org and as always strength comes
in many forms from within and without so be strong to be useful take care and stay strong
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