How to protect your skin from the sun

So I know it's the middle of summer, everyone wants to be outside enjoying the weather, and the majority of the younger crowd accomplish their goal of obtaining a beach babe tan.  While this may look good now, their skin is being irreversibly damaged.  Coming from a very fair skinned person, here are the top guidelines to being smart in the sun.

1.  Limit sun exposure between 10AM and 4PM:  this is when the sun is most intense and ultraviolet rays damage the skin, contributing to cancer, freckles, age spots, discolorations, and benign growths.  Even when it is cloudy, rainy, or snowy outside as much as 90% of harmful rays still reach your skin.  Sand and water also reflect the sun, contributing to a burn.  When in the sun make sure to generously apply both lip balm and sunscreen/sunblock and reapply every two hours, more if swimming or sweating.  If possible, wear long sleeved shirts, pants, hats, and sunglasses that provide broad spectrum protection, and understand that being directly exposed to sunlight is just as harmful as being in a tanning bed.

2.  Stay hydrated:  drinking lots of water helps prevent dried, chapped skin along with applying the correct moisturizing cream directly after drying off from bathing or showering.  Avoid taking scalding hot showers and aim more for warm water for a maximum of 10 minutes because exposure to water dries out skin.  Chlorine and sodium lauryl sulfate also remove natural oils needed by your skin.

3. Good skin care:  gently wash your face to remove dirt, oil, grime, and dead cells but DO NOT scrub.  This can cause irritation leaving skin chapped and vulnerable.  It is recommended to wash your face twice daily using warm water, a mild cleanser, and a washcloth in circular motions.  Pat skin dry, being careful not to pull, and apply moisturizer.

4.  Health care precautions:  Try not to share lip balms, toothbrushes, mascara or anything that touches your skin with others. Don't share drinks, avoid touching your face with your fingers and other products like cell phones that can carry bacteria.  Cold sores, a viral infection, involve the skin bordering the lips while mainly bacteria contributes to acne.

5.  Check out your skin:  Be aware of new changes in your skin's appearance including freckles, moles, and growths.  Get a skin check up once a year, every six months if you have a family history of skin cancer or disease.  Also check for and cuts or bruises and mend accordingly to prevent infection.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/skin-and-beauty/skin-care-101/protect-your-skin.aspx 

Remember to always choose a sunscreen and lip balm with at least SPF (sun protection factor) 15 that protects against both UVA and UVB rays, contributing to aging and burning respectively.  Sunscreen is a lotion made from chemicals that absorb ultraviolet light and provide a protective layer that prevents harmful rays from penetrating skin.  We see sunscreen and sunblock at the store, two very different products.  Sunscreen needs time to sink in before providing protection while sunblock is effective immediately.  In order to determine how long you can be in the sun before another application is required, here's a simple trick.  Multiply the SPF number by the time it would usually take your skin to burn without sun protection and you'll get a number which equals how long it will take to burn while wearing sunscreen.  


Ex:  25 SPF x 10 minutes in the sun to burn= 250 minutes in the sun before your skin would burn with sunscreen/block applied properly.

I   I also thought this was interesting from:  http://www.gosunsmart.org/yourskin/yourskin_protection.shtml

1.     Percentage of Protection from damaging UV rays:
SPF 15 = 92%
SPF 30 = 97%
SPF 40 = 97.5%

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Elderly euthanasia - right, wrong, or just plain different?

I was doing some research about increasing suicide rates and came across a few interesting articles about elderly euthanasia.  Though this may seem like a morbid topic, I think it's important to discuss not only the medical but also ethical side to this new trend. Having grandparents of my own who struggle daily, this hits close to home and I can understand both sides of the argument.  Let's first talk about how this idea came about.

Huib Drion (April 25 1917-April 20 2004), a Dutch Supreme Court justice, and professor of civil law at the University of Leiden first proposed his idea of an "old people" pill in 1991.  He believed that these fragile individuals deserved to die with respect and dignity because we all experience desires, battles, pain, and expectations of life itself.  He was the main force behind the legalization of euthanasia in the Netherlands and wrote an essay titled "Voluntary Death for Old People" seven years after retiring from the high court.  He had thought up a two-step suicide system for the incurably sick which would begin by taking one pill and waiting to finish the session with the second pill a day or two afterward.  This process gave the person time to change their mind about death.  Interestingly enough, this system was never carried out but in 2002 the Netherlands became the first country to allow physician-assisted suicide for select terminally ill patients as long as they met the following guidelines: their decision was rational and reasoned, their suffering unbearable, and there was no prospect of improvement.  

Another doctor came along, Dr. Philip Nitschke in 1996 with "The Peaceful Pill Handbook".  This gave a detailed description of how to kill yourself painlessly, peacefully, and easily.  This same year the world's first voluntary euthanasia legislation was introduced, but was later overturned by Prime Minister John Howards federal government.  Recent legislation outlaws the use of the Internet to promote suicide.  The barbiturate Pentobarbital, originally used as a sleeping pill until over-doses became more common, is the same drug that was responsible for the deaths of Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland and effects the body by causing drowsiness, and eventually breathing ceases.  There are a few essays online about how Dr. Nitschke gets ahold of this medication, now banned in the United States, by directing his patients to Mexico.  While he believes the most effective and preferred way to take it is by oral ingestion, many still half-heartedly attempt to inject it.  He began his "Exit" program which discusses assisted suicide and euthanasia for the elderly and seriously ill adults, and conducted his first trial using the  'deliverance machine' the same year his handbook was released under Australia's Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.  This was overturned nine months later.  As part of the "Exit" program people receive an exit guide who talks about other life-ending options, is with the patient when the act is committed, and cannot provide physical assistance or means.  The pill can be made with legal substances such as nicotine and alcohol, and as  long as it is made in the privacy of their own homes is not breaching the law.  Nitschke has recently broadened his target audience to troubled teens, elders with negative feelings about being placed in a nursing home, and euthanasia activists.  He also constructed a 90 minute documentary titled "Mademoisella and the Doctor" in which he promotes his company and individual rights to decide when to end ones life.

 Given the opportunity, what would you decide?

The Idea of "Modern-Medicine"

With new ideas and opinions about medicine arising daily, I felt it would be a good idea to start a blog discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Technology, religion, sociocultural and economic status, along with the influence of media and ethics  all contribute to what we call "modern-medicine". Combine these factors with the always fun rising level of hypochondriasis and the demand to get help and information now, and we have  today's medical field.

While there have been many leaps forward in terms of health care in the twenty-first century, we still have a long way to go.  I see the following as major milestones in the health community:

1. New Functional Genome Information:


The human genome, often referred to as "the book of life", is difficult to read but is vastly made of base-pairs between adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine.  While we have known how these pieces fit together for the last decade, new information was recently acquired about what these pairs actually mean.

"We've known the precise alphabet of the human genome...but not necessarily how those letters make meaningful words.  We know, that only one to two percent of the functional genome codes for proteins  but that there are highly conserved regions in the genome outside of the protein-coding that affect genes and disease development.  It's clear these regions do something or they would have changed or disappeared." said Bing Ren, PhD and head of the Laboratory of Gene Regulation at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at UC San Diego.

When genes are not regulated correctly, mutations and disease can occur.  As of 2012 scientist understand approximately 11% of the genome.

http://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2012-07-02-mapping-the-functional-genome.aspx



2.  Information technology helping both doctors and patients:

Many people worry about technology, security, media, and social medical information interactions in this day and age.  For example, when checking in at the doctors' office it's more than signing a piece of paper.  Insurance, birth date, family information, and employment are all recorded.  Being a pre-med student I've talked to a few doctors Of the doctors about medical school and changes they have seen since making their debut in the medical field.  Many bring up that they spend far less time looking at books after they consult with a patient and more time on their Ipads, phones, and computers.  Now they can check medication interactions, patient history, and confirm their diagnosis all with the touch of a button.


3.  Anti-Smoking Laws to Reduce Public Smoking--I'm a big fan of this one:


As of right now there is NOT a nation wide smoking ban but it continues to be a product of the state which can result in local criminal charges based on occupational safety and health care laws.  The laws vary from banning smoking in only certain areas, to banning it nearly everywhere (except bars and adult only areas), to banning it everywhere (even outdoors).  Currently, 81.8% of the United States population live under a smoking ban.  The following states do not have any kind of smoking ban: Alabama, Alaska, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.


4.  Stem Cell Research:

Probably one of the most controversial health issues, stem cell research became popular in 1998 when researchers discovered that they could isolate human embryonic stem cells, or hESC's.  Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin - Madison made the discovery and thought this was a promising new idea for treating diseases.  The concept  can be explained as obtaining hESC's from an embryo just a few days old which have the ability to differentiate into any type of human cell, making them useful to mature humans who's cells have lost this ability. While this seems like a great idea, a huge ethical dispute surrounds it.  The argument involves killing a human life, which brings up the question of when it begins.  Some believe it starts at fertilization while others say later in pregnancy or at birth.  Supporters of hESC, including those found at aaas.org, point out that eggs are often fertilized but may not implant in the uterus, causing pregnancy.  These supporters say that life does not begin until implantation has occurred.

http://www.aaas.org/spp/cstc/briefs/stemcells/

5.  Cancer Therapies:

The most common cancer treatments include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and transplantation.

Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer drugs which reduce cell growth by attacking all cell DNA.  Some in the medical community refer to this type of treatment as "cytotoxic"or cell killing.  These drugs attempt to target cells with an unregulated growth pattern but cannot always promise exclusivity, resulting in hair loss and other side effects. This treatment itself is not painful, and does not typically cause nausea or compromise the immune system.

Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells by damaging or destroying their DNA, the part of the cell responsible for cell growth and reproduction.  This method can damage normal cells as well, and can be projected onto the body from a machine or work internally by placing radioactive material near tumors or in the bloodstream.  Radiation therapy can be used in combination with chemotherapy.

Surgery to remove the infected body part or organ are common with prostate, skin, colon,  and breast cancers.

Transplantation is the process of removing the infected body part and replacing it with a healthy or artificial one from another being.  This is common with the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, intestine, thymus, bone marrow, and stem cells.  Donors are often living, brain dead, or have recently passed.