Myth : The Higher the SPF of Your Sunscreen, The Better
It's generally unnecessary to purchase sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) greater than 50. The reason for this is because while SPF works by absorbing, reflecting or scattering the sun's rays on your skin, its protective ability is not linear and does not offer a great deal more protection at higher levels.
With regards to SPF, another important factor to remember is that SPF only protects against UVB rays, which are the rays within the ultraviolet spectrum that allows your body to produce vitamin D in your skin. But the most dangerous rays, in terms of causing skin damage and cancer are the UVA rays. This is why you always want to make sure any sunscreen you buy protects against UVA's as well as UVB's … and does NOT contain anycommon toxic ingredients, such as oxybenzone or retinyl palmitate.
Myth : All Skin Care Products on the Market are Safe
It is important to understand that of the 10,500 ingredients used in your personal care products, fewer than 20 percent have been reviewed for safety in the last 30 years, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis.2The reviews that have been done were conducted by a fox in the henhouse—the Cosmetics Ingredients Review, which is run by the cosmetics industry! Not all ingredients need even be mentioned on the label—if they don't want to include one for some reason, they can just leave it off. Therefore, most personal care product formulations are based on nothing more than marketing success, designed to smell good, look good and feel good when you rub them on your skin, regardless of their impact on your health.But in reality, as the CNN video above describes, many skin care products on the market contain chemicals (including parabens, phthalates, triclosan and others) that have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption, reproductive toxicity and other health problems.One of the core principles to remember when it comes to skin care is that whatever you slather onto your skin will be absorbed into your body and enter your bloodstream. This is why it's so important to avoid skin care products containing questionable chemicals! Your skin is an excellent drug delivery system, so you should be just as careful with what you put on your skin as you are with what you eat, if not more so, as your gut actually helps protect you against some of the toxins you ingest by filtering them out ... a protection you don't get when a chemical is absorbed through your skin.