Virginal skin, as my sister calls it, is on the endangered list.  She also predicts that as a result, it will be a highly sort after commodity in the future and I agree but our reasons are a little different. Hers are aesthetic and mine are well, health-based.

I dislike spreading fear in the wellness world, especially around the area of autoimmunity, which is already plagued with podcasting puritans, espousing the notion that people with autoimmune conditions need to give up every single source of joy in their lives and then, and only then, they will be healed

[Silent Scream !!!!!!]

The essential formula for autoimmunity is generally thought to be: genetic susceptibility + environmental trigger = Bingo! i.e. Hashimoto’s or Grave’s or AS or or or…There are already so many candidates, both confirmed and speculated, on the environmental triggers list, from individual nutrient deficiencies, to food groups, from infectious organisms to of course, the big monster under the bed and everywhere else (!), environmental toxins.  But wait there’s one more.

“Black inks likewise have been shown to induce production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as singlet oxygen or peroxyl radicals, which are free-radicals that can steal electrons from neighboring molecules and damage cell constituents. One study by Regensberger and colleagues (2010) found that in the presence of ultraviolet light, some black inks reduced activity of the energetic powerhouses of the cell, the mitochondria, of human dermal keratinocytes, the type of cell that predominates in the outermost layer of skin”

Recently I was prompted to ask one of my mentors whether tattoo inks contained heavy metals. His reply, “I seriously doubt that heavy metal-free tattoo inks even exist.”  Then someone on my team forwarded me this well referenced article that contains the above quote titled, Toxic Chemicals Found in Tattoos: Links to Autoimmune & Inflammatory Diseases.  I haven’t had a chance to read their citations and understand the real implications of this very plausible biological threat and I can’t do anything about the skull & crossbones on my back but I can warn my kids, my patients and anyone else with virginal skin to rethink the ink.

It’s summer time for all of us in the southern hemisphere & that means….Slip Slop Slap?!

Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with a long list of major health conditions: from autoimmunity to mental health & almost everything in between. This has lead to many of us recommending high dose vitamin D supplementation for a large proportion of our patients but do we understand everything we need to to be certain of the merits and safety of this? In this provocative podcast, Should We Rethink High Dose Vitamin D, Rachel outlines the key unresolved vitamin D dilemmas that should encourage us to exercise caution with supplementation and outlines how adequate sun exposure is associated with improved health outcomes independent of the production and action of vitamin D.