The dos and don’ts of summer skin and heat
If you’re planning a long weekend of summer fun to celebrate July Fourth, don’t forget to take care of your skin. This week the Well+Being team wrote about a number of skin-care topics. Here’s what we learned.
Our take: Don’t try this at home. Influencer and model Nara Smith, TikTok-famous for making bubble gum and tapioca pearls from scratch, recently shared a recipe for homemade sunscreen — one that dermatologists don’t condone. In the video, her husband, Lucky Blue Smith, whisks coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, beeswax and jojoba oil in a bowl over boiling water; once combined, he adds zinc oxide powder to the mixture before letting it solidify in the fridge in a glass container.
We whipped up our own version and tested it against a commercial brand. The testing sticker showed store-bought sunscreen was working — but our homemade variety didn’t pass the test.
Ultraviolet A (UVA) leads to more premature aging of the skin, and ultraviolet B (UVB) can cause DNA damage that can lead to skin cancer. Other environmental factors including pollution from smog and wildfires may also corrode the skin barrier and contribute to skin cancer.
Reduce your risk by practicing “sun protective” behaviors including using UVA/UVB broad spectrum sunscreen; wearing sun-protective clothes, hats and sunglasses; seeking shade and scheduling outdoor activities before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. whenever possible. You can learn more about sunscreens and treatments for people with sun-damaged skin by reading the full article.
Send me your questions about sleep
Join me next Thursday for our weekly live chat. We will tackle sleep problems. Sleep is so essential to our well-being, yet so many us of are faced with issues that affect it. Do you have a partner who snores? Suffer from frequent nighttime urination? Or do you have another sleep issue that’s made life challenging? Click this link to ask your question, and I’ll do my best to provide an answer during our chat.
A covid summer uptick is underway
If you’re hearing about more people testing positive or getting sick, it’s no surprise, as data shows another wave forming, especially in the West. Coronavirus infections are possibly growing in 44 states and territories as of June 25, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nationally, coronavirus activity in wastewater remains low but is increasing; it is highest and rising most sharply in the West, according to the CDC. June data may be incomplete because of reporting delays.
“We have consistently seen over the past three years that there is a winter surge, and there is also a summer surge,” Marlene Wolfe, program director for WastewaterSCAN, a private organization that tracks municipal wastewater data, and an assistant professor of environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. “Right now we are waiting to see whether we actually will see a downturn over the next couple of weeks and we’ve hit the peak here, or whether those levels will actually go up.”
Health reporter Fenit Nirappil answers your questions about the FLiRT and LB.1 variants, news about vaccines, the latest guidelines and updates on long covid. Read the full report by clicking this link.
Ask a Doctor: How do you fix a ‘leaky gut’?
I keep hearing about “leaky gut” and the symptoms it causes. What is it exactly? What’s the best way to fix it?
“Leaky gut” is a colloquial term for increased intestinal permeability — or how easily molecules pass from inside our intestines into our bloodstreams. Some people use the term loosely as a diagnosis, claiming that a leaky gut can cause food sensitivities, bloating, brain fog, acne and fatigue. They even link it to increased frequency of infections or autoimmune conditions.
But “leaky gut” is a physiological process, not a formal medical diagnosis. We all experience increased permeability from time to time. It’s something that fluctuates constantly because of factors such as stress, infections and the food we eat.
To learn more, read our latest Ask a Doctor column. Our columnist is Trisha S. Pasricha, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Find your joy snack!
Here are a few things that brought us joy this week.
- 12 red, white and blue recipes to celebrate the Fourth of July
- Can’t decide on a vacation? Choose your own adventure with our quiz.
- This is the most pointless website on the planet. It’s fantastic.
- Americans would feel rich if they made this amount of money
- A stranger’s voicemail about ‘girl power’ went viral. Meet the woman who left it.
Want to know more about “joy” snacks? Our Brain Matters columnist Richard Sima explains. You can also read this story as a comic.
Please let us know how we are doing. Email me at wellbeing@washpost.com. You can also find us on TikTok.
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