Health + Wellness — sun protection

Polypodium leucotomos (PL) is a tropical fern plant native to Central America and parts of South America. It grows in the rain forest and has a long history of use as an herbal medicine ingested for a variety of ailments by the indigenous people of Honduras. The Mayans even drank it as a tea. Historically, ferns have been used for medicinal purposes since ancient Europe. Commercial extracts of Polypodium leucotomos have been available since at least the 1970s. Polypodium leucotomos is actually the common name for the herb known as Phlebodium aureum. Other names for PL include: calaguala (in Mexico...

Overview People have been drinking infusions of tea for thousands of years, beginning in China and India. Today, tea is consumed more widely than any other beverage in the world except water. Billions of people drink tea, and a large number of studies show that tea has many health benefits. There are three main varieties of tea: green, black, and oolong. All three varieties are made from the leaves of the same species of plant called Camellia sinensis; the difference is in how the tea leaves are processed. Green tea is made from unfermented leaves, while oolong tea is made...

It’s summer. It’s sunny outside. People are doing fun things in the sun and you want to too! You can produce Vitamin D in the sun. And yes it feels good to get a little sunlight. Just understand that there are tradeoffs to sun exposure. Every second you’re in the sun damages your skin and leads to wrinkles and a weathered appearance. In fact, nothing ages your skin more than sun exposure. So if you’re going to get out there during the day, be careful and do it as considerately as possible. You’ll thank your younger-looking-self later! Time Of Day...

Overview Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant present in many of the common foods we eat. Also called rhodopurpurin, it is classified as a carotene, within the broader carotenoid family. Lycopene is a bright red colored pigment, and as such is a popular natural additive used to dye foods. Natural Sources The most common source of lycopene is tomatoes, which have a relatively high concentration of lycopene and are often consumed as tomato juice, tomato sauce, ketchup, or raw. Other good sources of lycopene include gac (a fruit from Southeast Asia), carrots, watermelon, guavas, papayas, and grapefruit. By far the highest...

If you use topical sunscreen lotions, here are some important points to understand this summer (from ABC News): The Truth About Sunscreen: Are Labels Lying? This video and accompanying article explain how much sunscreen is actually necessary to receive the purported benefits of sunscreen lotions, that the benefits of sunscreen lotions may be misleading, that many sunscreen lotions don’t actually protect you very well from UVA rays, and that sunscreen lotions aren’t actually sweatproof or waterproof. The second video (plays automatically after the first) with Diane Sawyer also mentions that the incidence rates of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer are...