Your Body
Your body is incredible. It wanders, swims, climbs, runs, rows. Your skin feels, regulates body temperature and is your first line of immune defense. Protecting it from the elements is a vital part of being able to safely and happily explore this planet.
What you put ON your body has the potential to be absorbed INTO your body. It’s important to understand the effects of the ingredients in body care products, and make an educated decision based on the balance between healthy and safe.
Ingredients in body care products are more than just words on a bottle.
Fact #1
Some common ingredients in body care products are systemically absorbed into your body and are passed through urine, blood and breast milk.
Fact #2
Some common, FDA approved ingredients in body care products are linked to cancer, hormone imbalances, cellular damage and more. They can disrupt the body’s natural functions.
Fact #3
There are healthier choices you can make when it comes to products and the ingredients within them…but it starts with education.
Your body needs sunlight to produce vitamin D for strong bones and teeth, but when ultraviolet rays meet unprotected skin, they can cause hyperpigmentation, sunburn, wrinkles, freckles, age spots and other damage from free radicals. Windburn adds to the damage when UV ray exposure occurs in conjunction with wind friction and your skin’s decreased moisture from the cold air.
The importance of protecting your skin from exposure to the elements goes beyond the surface. UVB rays affect the outer layer of the skin and is primarily responsible for sunburns.
UVA penetrates deeper and is now believed to be a major contributor to skin damage. UV radiation is known to be a factor in the creation of free radicals which causes oxidative stress in your body and potentially, long term health issues. Besides covering up and staying out of the sun (which none of us explorers wants to do), using sunscreen is your first line of defense! Of equal importance is following exposure with skin care products that contain antioxidants – free radical scavengers – and do not contain chemicals that can cause further damage.
