Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

G'day. This is Roslyn Ross's first contribution to Webdiary. An old-fashioned yet ever-timely tribute to common sense, it comes as a coincidence in my own life as I have just recently had a re-look at Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the seminal work in the popular appreciation of toxins in food. Thankyou Roslyn, and I hope we see more from you.

by Roslyn Ross

Sometimes rules were made to be broken

There’s an old saying that rules were made to be broken. As a general rule I wouldn’t agree but there are exceptions to every rule and when it comes to all the shoulds and shouldn’ts which litter our lives as to what is good for us and what isn’t, there’s more than one ‘rule’ which deserves to be broken.

In the seventies it was decided that dummies were bad for babies and now, in 2006, they are said to be good because they seem to protect babies from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Then again, you didn’t hear much about SIDS in the dummy-era. And in the seventies the advice was that babies should sleep on their stomachs because that way they would develop strong necks, and, should they vomit, they would not choke. In this day and age putting a baby on its stomach to sleep is a real no-no. It is said to predispose them to SIDS.

Honey is bad for them too it seems because it can grow botulism spores which can lead to transient paralysis. We can only look back in horror at the decades where just about every baby had a dummy and it was as often as not dipped in honey. There was also a time when people didn’t worry about a bit of dirt. And then came anti-bacterials and we ratcheted up the chemical intake of our kids by washing everything they were likely to suck. In recent years our erstwhile scientists have decided that a bit of dirt is a good thing because it kickstarts the immune system and makes it stronger. The Americans have even gone so far as to develop ‘dirt’ pills.

There was a time when pregnant women could eat processed meats and Italian women still do of course. There was a time when pregnant women could eat soft cheeses... and French women still do. But the French have a way of cocking their berets at things. Take the French Paradox for instance which drives Americans in particular crazy. How, they ask, can the French do all that ‘bad stuff’ and get away with it?

The French traditionally have eaten three times as much saturated fat as Americans and only a third as many die of heart attacks. I happen to think the difference is that the French actually enjoy their food and eat less processed food. At least they have in the past. That too is changing and so the French Paradox may be a paradox no longer.

And the French smoke as well to add insult to injury. But then tobacco, which is a plant, and also a herb, at one time was considered to be good for asthmatics and prescribed as such. The problem these days is more likely to be the chemicals used in the manufacturing process rather than the plant itself. Nicotine has also been found to be useful in the treatment of intestinal conditions like Crohn’s disease because it has a calming effect. This explains why soldiers in war and people who work in crisis environments tend to smoke. In years to come we may see doctors prescribing cigarettes made from organically grown tobacco.

How times change and how they change back again.

I remember when butter which came from cows was said to be bad for us and margarine which was concocted in a laboratory was better. Not any more. I remember when egg yolks were said to be bad for us and we were told to eat only the whites because the fats in the yolk were full of nasty things like cholesterol. A bit more research and they discovered that there was something in the white which enabled the body to process those ‘bad’ fats and that if you ate the whole egg, as Mother Nature in her wisdom pretty much intended, it was absolutely fine and extremely good for you.

And then there was bran and then there wasn’t bran; there was tofu and now it looks like there isn’t tofu; there was soy milk and now we’re not sure about that either and there was the Sun, something that has come to be seen as a definite demon in recent decades.

The latest discovery made by scientists, to replace the former ‘discovery’ that sunshine was bad for us, is that sunshine is good for us. And here’s another paradox: while too much sun pre-disposes us to skin cancer it also contains, a bit like the egg, that which we need to combat cancer... Vitamin D.

A controversial report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute indicates that patients in the early stages of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, are significantly more likely to survive if they've had a history of sun worshipping.

Another study found that prolonged UV exposure was associated with a lower risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. The authors of both studies think that vitamin D may be the key to the benefits of sun exposure since it has a role in regulating cell growth, and may be able to inhibit tumour growth.

Several studies observing large groups of people found that those with higher vitamin D levels also had lower rates of cancer. When Vitamin D was measured in blood samples it was shown that the higher it was the healthier people were.

Laboratory studies and tests done on animals also showed that vitamin D stifles abnormal cell growth, enables cells to die when they are meant to and inhibits the formation of blood vessels that feed tumours.

As we age our skin makes less vitamin D which is no doubt one other reason why cancer is more common in the elderly. And people with black skin have higher rates of cancer than those with white skin. The darker the skin the more pigment it contains and this prevents the production of vitamin D.

Other factors which are leading scientists to renew their appreciation of the role that Vitamin D plays in health is the fact that vitamin D is easily trapped in fat and obese people therefore have lower blood levels of this vitamin and higher rates of cancer; diabetics are also more prone to cancer because their damaged kidneys have trouble converting vitamin D into a form the body can use and people who live in northern Europe and north America have higher rates of cancer than those who get more sunshine all year round.

Vitamin D deficiency is also a major factor in osteoporosis, a condition which has become somewhat endemic in recent years and may well be linked to sun avoidance.

While cod liver oil and oily fish are good sources of this valuable vitamin, the sun is our main source of Vitamin D which is why a little bit of ‘slip, slap, slop’ goes a long way. Too much of it and you are in trouble. Common sense would have suggested as much a long time ago and no doubt did to many people but the do-gooders have been hard at work and our children have been wrapped, rubbed and hidden for most of the past two decades.

In the days before sunscreen, when common sense prevailed, many people took their kids to the beach at sunset. When kids played in the sun they wore hats and a reasonable amount of clothing. When they went to school they didn’t cover up. Logic, as well as common sense suggesting that they would be indoors for most of the time and the bit of sun they got walking to and from school, not that they walk anymore, and playing at lunchtime and recess was probably good for them and not likely to do any harm.

Children today are encouraged to see the sun as an enemy to be avoided at all costs, instead of a powerful friend to be treated with respect. Perhaps even worse is the chemical cocktail which is rubbed into children’s skins from babyhood on, and which, evidence is beginning to suggest, may encourage cancer rather than inhibit it.

Chemical sunscreens like methoxycinnamate, padimate-o (even the names sound bad) and physical sunblocks like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, have been found to generate free radicals when exposed to sunlight, which can then attack the nuclei of skin cells and cause mutations. Titanium dioxide for instance is not only used in many skin lotions including sunscreens, but in house paint as well. In 1997 a study done by Oxford University and Montreal University showed that nanoparticles from titanium dioxide and zinc oxide in sun screen caused DNA damage. Everything that you put on your skin is absorbed into your body. Sunscreen chemicals have also been found to mimic estrogen when they pass through the skin and this in turn can disrupt the balance of the body’s natural hormones.

Governments around the world have found sunscreen chemicals in bodies of fresh and salt water. These chemicals have also been found in fish and in human breast milk.

A report from the American National Cancer Institute has determined that over four million new chemical compounds were formulated, many of them for cosmetic use - that means shampoo, toothpaste, soap, sunscreens and food as well as makeup - between 1965 and 1982. They have been adding to them ever since at the rate of thousands a week.

One of the most common of these is Sodium Laurel Sulphate. Read the ingredients on your bottle of shampoo or tube of toothpaste and you are likely to find it there. This chemical is a multi-tasker and is used in floor de-waxers, engine degreasers, floor cleaners and was used by the military as a defoliant agent during the Vietnam War.

Why is it used? Because it makes toothpaste foam and shampoo lather. It has been implicated in the formation of cataracts in adults.

For those who use mouthwash you might like to know it contains propylene glycol, something that doubles as an anti-freeze agent for car radiators. But then you aren’t meant to swallow mouthwash so it is probably okay.

Another chemical used in body creams, shampoos, sunscreens, conditioners and deodorants are phthalates, or plastic softeners. This chemical has been detected in the urine of users and is suspected of disrupting the development of the testicles, reducing sperm counts and damaging the liver and kidneys.

It all sounds a bit terrifying but that seems to be the way of the world these days no matter who is doing the telling. You can research anything online and come up with all sorts of information from which to make a balanced decision. Or you can just believe the scientists although, as we can see, they keep changing their minds. You can also believe the doctors although they keep changing their minds too because what they believe comes from scientific research or research prepared by people with vested interests like drug companies.

Or, you can apply a large dose of common sense to anything you are told and take it from there. There’s one question that is always worth asking: Does it make sense? It’s a good question and one which is likely to lead to a reasonable sort of answer.

Does it make sense to worry about the amount of chemicals in our environment? Not unduly, no, at least in terms of the impact it has on you personally because human beings are clearly resilient and adaptable and some people have such strong constitutions it does not matter what they do. But, we should all remain informed and aware about the impact that chemicals are having on our ecology. We may be tough enough to survive anything but it doesn’t mean our planet can and if it doesn’t then ultimately, none of us do, no matter how strong we are.

Does it make sense to make an effort to limit the amount of chemicals to which we are exposed? Probably, depending upon how healthy you are.

Does it make sense to limit the amount of chemicals to which our children are exposed? Absolutely yes because they are still growing and developing and are more vulnerable because of their greater cellular activity.

At the end of the day there will always be someone somewhere telling us what to do. When common sense prevails we will process the information and make up our own minds what is right for us. As a general rule the more natural something is, as in least processed and interfered with, the better it is likely to be for us. That means discreetly applied sunshine is always going to be better than lavishly applied sunscreen.

And, as the French say: Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose! The more things change, the more they stay the same.