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What Is Your Favorite Sunscreen? - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

It’s summer, and that means it’s time to stock up on sunscreen. What’s important to you when it comes to sunscreen? Is it the SPF? Natural ingredients? Smell? Price? Are you hoping to prevent skin cancer or premature aging? Are you worried the chemicals in sunscreen could be just as bad for you as the sun? What sunscreen is your favorite? I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours.

Okay, me first. Here is the evolution of my use of sunscreen (formally known as suntan lotion)…

When I was younger, SPF didn’t mean anything to me, and my favorite sunscreen was Copportone, because I loved how it smelled. I actually would have preferred the scent of Hawaiian Tropic or BAIN de SOLEIL, but they were a little out of my price range back then. As far as SPF goes…2 was plenty, anything higher than 4 and I thought I would never tan. I eventually wised up, and moved up to an SPF of 8, and even though I still loved the way Copportone smelled, I started using Banana Boat and No-Ad products because they were cheaper. Once I had my kids, I spent the extra money to get them Copportone Water Babies with a high SPF, but I stuck with just getting whatever was cheap for myself. Now that my kids are older, we use the same sunscreen, so I always buy an SPF of 15 or greater. But, I’m not buying the Copportone or the cheap stuff anymore. For me, it’s back to being all about how it smells…And I love, love, love, the way Australian Gold smells, I started buying it a few years ago, and now it is all I buy. It’s not the cheapest sunscreen, but it certainly isn’t the most expensive either.

Not everyone is as concerned with the smell of their sunscreen as I am. Take Michelle at Chic Armoire for example, she says…

For the past 2 summers, I’ve used the Neutrogena Dry-Touch in an SPF range of 15 to 30. The formula goes on dry without an sunscreen smell (I hate the smell of Coppertone and similar sunscreens). It’s paba free, waterproof, and sweat proof. Note that the FDA is considering that the word waterproof not be used in the future. Water resistant maybe the replacement term. It also has Helioplex which is a broad spectrum for UVA and UVB.

Savvy Skin suggests…

There are probably 100 different sunscreens available at drugstores, but of those 100, there’s only a few I would bother buying. I firmly believe Zinc Oxide is the best sunscreen ingredient, and there are almost no drugstore sunscreens that contain decent levels of Zinc Oxide.

Blue Lizard is the only drugstore brand I currently buy. They have a few different products, and the Zinc Oxide ranges from 6%-10%, which isn’t spectacular, but it’s the highest concentration of Zinc Oxide I’ve seen in a drugstore brand.

In searching for posts on sunscreen, I kept coming across this video. I know I’ve seen it before, I just don’t know where. It’s more about inspiration and advice than sunscreen, but I thought I would include it anyway.

So, what is your favorite sunscreen? Why?

Is it because of the smell? The SPF? The price?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan at catherine-morgan.com, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog

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Is It Possible To Eat Healthy on a Budget? - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

With the value of a dollar going down, and gas prices going up, the ability to make healthy food choices is getting more and more costly. Now that we are spending more money at the pump, we have less to spend at the grocery store, and many are resorting to just buying the cheapest food they can get their hands on. The trouble with that is…The cheapest food is most likely also going to be the least healthy food. And this isn’t just about the money, or the food. It’s about your life, and the life of your family.

It’s not just speculation anymore, we now know that poor eating habits and obesity, are directly related to serious health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Even more troubling is the rate at witch our children are becoming obese, and developing adult medical conditions in childhood. But, what can we do? Is it possible to eat healthy on a budget?

The answer is…Yes. It’s not always easy, but it is possible. Here are some links to women who are blogging about eating healthy on a budget.

Student Mum has a post on How To Feed Your Family For Less…

Feeding a family is done best by a family. Involve even the youngest members of your family in all aspects. They will feel they are appreciated and valued, and they will be learning valuable life skills at the same time. The phrase, “A family who play together stay together,” can be related to cooking and eating. Cooking a meal together can be great fun and eating together, especially in the evening, allows us all a chance to share our day, our thoughts, our ideas or our plans.

This is from MommyK at The Great Walls of Baltimore…

When a friend of mine went to her doctor in early January for her yearly physical, he had bad news for her. Her blood sugar was up, her cholesterol was in the high range, and she had gained ten pounds in the past year. He told her she needs to lose weight or face serious health risks. Frightened by the prospect of diabetes and heart disease, she immediately overhauled the way she cooks and eats. Since then, she’s lost that ten pounds she gained last year and she feels better than she has in years. In fact, there’s only one downside to the new eating plan. Buying healthy food has taken a big chunk out of her grocery budget.

Stacy from Parent Traps also has a post on Feeding Your Family For Less…

Choose generic or store brands of healthy groceries, such as whole-grain cereal and frozen vegetables. Look high and low for them—the most costly options are shelved at eye level. Buy fresh produce in season. Try local farmers’ markets for fresher, less expensive options. Frozen vegetables are healthy and even more affordable than fresh produce, and you can get out-of-season vegetables less expensively.

Amanda from Mrs. W’s Kitchen has a post on Food Budget Issues…

Build menu plans based on what’s on sale at local grocery stores. Check those sale flyers! I find it’s useful to spend that $1.50 for the Sunday newspaper (we don’t purchase regular paper delivery) for the flyers and coupons. Most big-chain grocery stores also publish sale flyers online.

A must read (and also print out)…

Alanna Kellogg wrote one of my all time favorite BlogHer CE posts - Family Finance: How To Save Money On Groceries

She also did a follow-up post - How To Save Time and Money at the Grocery Store

Also See:

Mommy Points - High Price For Healthy Food

Nina Smith — How To Eat on a Shoestring

We Are What We Eat

Menus4Moms — Frugal Meal Planning

The Coupon Mom

So, the bottom line is. It’s not easy, and it will take a little extra work…But, you can eat healthy on a budget. Do you have any tips, stories, links, or recipes? I would love for you to share them with us in comments.

BlogHer Health & Wellness Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan at The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog

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Dooce on Nightline - Posted by Catherine Morgan

In a much better interview than had been done by Kathie Lee on the Today Show last week, tonight’s Nightline interview with Dooce was witty, clever, and informative. Here is a video clip of the full segment on Nightline…

Are you a woman blogging about politics? Join us at The Political Voices of Women.

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Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and I was honored to be asked to participate in an ACORN Mother’s Day Special. I was asked to write a post on how my mother has influenced me politically. In my family, my daughter has become the fourth generation of strong, politically savvy women…that began with my grandmother.

Because I blog about politics every single day, my 14 year-old daughter is exposed to every aspect of politics, and could probably hold her own debating the issues with someone twice her age. When her grandfather (half) jokingly told her that Hillary could never be president because she is a woman, my daughter snapped back at him, “Are you kidding me?” Then she wanted to know if he thought she could never be president, because after all, she’s a woman too? Showing his true chauvinistic side, he responded to her by saying that she could maybe be president someday, but she would have to live in a little pink house next to the While House. Needless to say, my daughter was unamused.

Since I grew-up before the onset of 24 hour cable news, my mother’s political influence on me was a bit more subtle. I remember the first political discussion I ever had with my mother. We had been in a waiting room with many magazines, and I was too young to read any of them, but I did notice covers with horribly graphic photos of men at war. It happened to be towards the end of the Vietnam War, and I asked my mother, “Why is there war?” She told me that people don’t want to be at war, the leaders of the countries make the wars. That was when I realized women were not in positions of political power. Then I said, “We should make women the leaders of all the countries in the world, and then there would never be any wars.” My mother told me that sounded like a good idea, but it probably would never happen. My response was, “Then those men leaders who want a war, should fight it themselves.” I didn’t understand then, and I still don’t understand today, how war solves any problems, neither does my mother.

Anyway, my mother always had an interest in politics, and she voted regularly. Women’s issues were always very important to her, and they still are. She also never voted with a specific party; she always voted for the person she believed was best for the job. So, the way my mother most influenced my views on politics, was by raising me to be an independent thinker, and to believe that any one of us could affect change. I’d like to think that is the way I’m raising my daughter also.

And, my mother was influenced by her mother, who was also a strong, independent woman. I came across a post that my mother recently wrote about her relationship with my grandmother. Here is an excerpt…

I didn’t know it then, but I see it clearly now in retrospect, she was a feminist before that word even existed. Back in the early 50s, she decided she wanted to learn how to drive a car. There weren’t many women drivers on the road back then. Husbands usually did all the driving, or there was public transportation. That wasn’t good enough for my mother. She hired a driving instructor, passed her driver’s test and acquired a license long before her four sisters. As a matter of fact, she became their main mode of transportation, and even though she urged them to get their own licenses, it was several years before the first one found the courage to do it. — read her full post at Frances Ellen Speaks

So, that’s my special Mother’s Day post. How did your mother influence your political views? How do you think you have influenced your daughter?

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Mommy Bloggers and Dooce on NBC Morning Show — by Catherine Morgan

Is it just me or did Kathie Lee kinda “diss” mommy bloggers? Or maybe just minimize their importance? Here is the clip. What do you think?

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What Women Need To Know About Environmental Causes of Cancer — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

Last week the Breast Cancer Fund released it’s State of the Evidence Report for 2008. The 2008 report, provides the most comprehensive listing to-date of chemicals linked to breast cancer. It also provides a much more complex picture of breast cancer causation than traditionally accepted, one in which timing, mixtures and dose of environmental exposures interact with genes and lifestyle factors.

In conjunction with the release of this report, they also held a blogger-only telephone conference to discuss the report. The informative conference featured Janet Gray, Ph.D., and Breast Cancer Fund Executive Director Jeanne Rizzo, R.N., and for an hour they took questions from bloggers on the latest studies linking environmental exposures to breast cancer.

Findings…

While each study, chemical and exposure source alone doesn’t tell the whole story, looking at them together allows us to better understand how to prevent the disease. Learn more about major emerging themes in breast cancer causation through the links below.

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BlogHer Health & Wellness Blog Roundup — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

Tonight I am surfing the BlogHer Health and Wellness Blogroll. So many great blogs, I wish I could tell you about every one…But you could always do a little surfing yourself.

So, in no particular order, here are eleven blogs that are new to me.

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In Health News: Autism Debate, Drive-Thru Mastectomies, and the HPV Vaccine (Gardasil) - by Catherine Morgan (cross posted at BlogHer)

When I heard this story, about a family with a child who appeared to developed Autism after her childhood immunizations, I wondered how this might affect other families dealing with this devastating disease. Also in the blogs, is a petition that women can sign, supporting an end to drive-thru mastectomies. And end they should, this practice is a disgrace, as well as a travesty against women. And, my pet-peeve issue (Gardasil) is also in the news.

Autism…

From Revolution Health - The Autism Debate Continues

This week news spread of results of a Georgia court case in November, which states that the parents of 9-year old Hannah Poling will receive compensation because multiple vaccines contributed to her symptoms of autism. Not all the details are known, as the court case has been “sealed,” but it appears that Hannah has an underlying mitochondrial disorder. After she received five shots in July 2000, at the age of 19 months, she developed a high fever and inconsolable crying within 48 hours. Within three months after receiving the vaccine, she went from being a normal, verbal toddler to one who showed signs of autism and, for a while, lost her ability to speak. She now requires one-on-one care at all times.

Also See:

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Why are so many kids overweight? And, how can we help them? (cross-posted at BlogHer)

I just came across this new study about Why Poor Kids are Heavy, and I decided to do my post on it. It seems that so many more children are overweight today, than I remember were overweight when I was growing up. Childhood obesity has become an epidemic. Why is that? Could it be too much television? Video games? Fast food? Well, there are a lot of theories, and this new study only suggests that more studies need to be done. Typical.

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Hydration: Facts and Fiction — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

When if comes to hydration there are many more facts to report than fiction. I think the most important thing to remember about proper hydration is that, not all hydration is created equal. For example; one cup of coffee is not equal to one cup of water. That’s because coffee is a diuretic - so are many other beverages, such as tea and soda.

Proper hydration is essential to good health, and necessary for the prevention of dehydration…

Signs and symptoms of dehydration include:

• Mild to excessive thirst
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Dry mouth
• Little or no urination
• Muscle weakness
• Dizziness
• Lightheadedness

Mild dehydration rarely results in complications - as long as the fluid is replaced quickly - but more-severe cases can be life-threatening, especially in the very young and the elderly. In extreme situations, fluids or electrolytes may need to be delivered intravenously.

Why is hydration so important for good health?

How do you know if you are drinking enough water? And how much water do you need to drink?

Use this Hydration Calculator from About.com to help figure out how much is right for you.

Obviously, staying hydrated is essential to any good exercise program…I found an interesting recipe for making your own sports drinks at WebMD. It’s as easy as mixing one can of frozen concentrated juice with nine cans of water (instead of three).

Some say hydration is important for a clear complexion, others say this is just a myth.

Hydration and acne…

Poor hydration causes the elimination system to become inefficient. When this happens the body starts eliminating waste and toxins through the skin. This can cause acne.

Poor hydration can also cause the skin oil to become thicker and increase the possibility of it getting trapped in the pores leading to acne.

So…It may be that needing 8 to 10 glasses of water each day isn’t exactly true. However, getting enough water each day is certainly an important part of overall health and wellness.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at The Political Voices of Women

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Four Tips To A Long Life — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

I was surfing the health and wellness news trying to decide what to post on tonight, and I came across this Reuters article… Four Health Changes Can Prolong Life 14 Years. Who wouldn’t want to prolong their life by 14 years?

So, would you make a “resolution” to make four lifestyle changes, if it would increase your life by 14 years? Better than a New Years Resolution, this would be a “Life Resolution”.

What are the four changes to a longer life?

1) Stop Smoking

2) Eat Five Servings of Fruits and Vegetables a Day

3) Exercise

4) Limit Alcohol Consumption

The lifestyle change with the biggest benefit was giving up smoking, which led to an 80 percent improvement in health, the study found. This was followed by eating fruits and vegetables. Moderate drinking and keeping active brought the same benefits…

Well, that seems pretty simple. While we’re on the subject, why not surf around for some other ways to live longer?

Reducing Stress is a good place to start…

There are few things that cause you more stress and worry than your weight. If you gained a few pounds over the holidays, don’t panic…..yet. According to an article (reprinted below) about a study published last November, people who are a little overweight actually live longer.

Could you live longer if you walked faster? Apparently so…

New research following 500 older people for nearly a decade found quicker walkers were less likely to die. Nine years after initial gait speed was measured, 77 percent of slow walkers had died, compared to only 50 percent of medium speed and 27 percent of fast walkers.

Here are Ten Tips For Aging Consciously and Successfully…

As our population ages, our society is finally recognizing that old age is a gift. Despite some of the negative images in the media, it really is possible to embrace our elderhood as a creative and spiritual journey.

People who have aged successfully share common characteristics.

There is no question that most of our lifestyle choices are what will determine whether we age in good physical and mental health or fall prey to sickness and disability. Although it may be a cliché, moderation is the key in everything. By practicing moderation and following these ten tips, you too can be a “long-liver” and, more importantly, enjoy your elder hood in the process.

See the Ten Tips For Aging Consciously and Successfully

If those ten tips weren’t good enough for you, here are ten more — 10 Tips on How to Live Longer and Happier

Well, there you have it.

No excuses for not living longer now.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com and The Political Voices of Women

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Potential Problems with Tamiflu, and Questioning The Benefits of the Flu Vaccine — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

New warnings from the FDA about possible psychiatric events being observed in some patients that have taken Tamiflu and Relenza (antiviral medications used to minimize the symptoms of the flu).

When it comes to the flu, there are two aspects of concern. First…Are the medications safe? And second…Are the vaccines beneficial? Here are some of what’s been in the news and on the blogs recently.

Personally, I choose not to get the flu vaccine. In general, I just feel we are over vaccinated in this country. And maybe it’s just been a coincidence, but when I have gotten the flu vaccine, it seemed to exacerbate my already problematic medical conditions.

In documents prepared for the meeting next week and posted on the FDA’s Web site, agency staff recommended that Tamiflu’s label be strengthened to note: “In some cases, these behaviors resulted in serious injuries, including death, in adult and pediatric patients.”

The FDA staff also reviewed Relenza, a drug in the same class as Tamiflu, recommending its label be changed to note “reports of hallucinations, delirium and abnormal behavior” observed in some patients taking the drug. — Read Full Article

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Get Your Child Vaccinated or Go To Jail — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

More problems associated with vaccines, this time the controversy is with the Chicken Pox vaccine. I haven’t been silent about my distrust with the pharmaceutical industry, and most recently with the collaboration between this industry and our government…specifically the rush to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for 9 to 12 year old girls. As much as I have a problem with *some* vaccines, I have a much larger problem with our government forcing parents to vaccinate for viruses such as Chicken Pox and HPV.

I am not someone who is against childhood vaccinations, as a nurse I fully understand the necessity for vaccinating children against polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. However, vaccinating against these diseases was begun for the sole purpose of saving the lives of children, that can not be said for most of the newer vaccines (Flu, HPV, Chicken Pox, Hepatitis, etc). The sole purpose for pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines today, is for one purpose and one purpose only…money (and a lot of it). I wont be able to go into each one in detail for this post (maybe in a future one), but here are a few statistics to just give you an idea of what I am talking about.

But now, let me talk specifically about the Chicken Pox vaccine and this latest controversy.

In Maryland parents are being threatened with fines and jail if they do not comply with vaccinating their children for chicken pox. Does anyone NOT see how insane that sounds? What the bleepidy-bleep is going on????

Speaking as one of the lucky ones, who lived through “The Great Chicken Pock Pandemic” of the 1970’s…oh wait, there was no pandemic and everyone I knew got the chicken pox and a couple days off from school, and actually lived to tell the tale. For those of us old enough to remember having the chicken pox…The memories are horrifying…the pustules, the itch, the dreaded calamine lotion. If you haven’t been through it yourself, you can not begin to imagine what we suffered with for those never ending couple of days. [My attempt as sarcasm…I know, don’t quit my day job.]

Seriously now. When my children were born (and at that time the vaccine was not yet mandatory), the pediatrician told me about it, and I decided that if my children weren’t exposed to the virus before they would be attending school, then I would consider it. [CHOICE…it’s a beautiful thing, but becoming more and more rare in our society.] My reservations had nothing to do with a possible adverse reaction to the vaccine…It was the fact that, getting chicken pox as a child is not serious, and getting the virus actually gives a life-long immunity (the vaccine does not). I also wondered why anyone would consider this vaccine, when there was already an anti-viral medication available, that reduced the severity of the symptoms and cut the duration of the illness?

My children both were exposed to the chicken pox before they were even in nursery school, it was no big deal, and now they are protected for life. The same can not be said for children vaccinated for chicken pox.

Most of my friends back then, thought I was crazy for not just getting the vaccine for my kids. But, even though at the time there was no (available) evidence that suggested the vaccine would not be life-long…I knew that they could not be sure until the first generation of children got older (they were the guinea pigs - just like todays generation will be the guinea pigs for the HPV vaccine). I also knew how dangerous it would be if these immunized children got older and developed this virus as adults, not to mention the girls who would be women someday and possibly lose a pregnancy because they didn’t have a life-long immunity to the chicken pox.

The United States is the only country in the world that requires the chicken pox (varicella) vaccine. Other countries have assessed it and determined that chicken pox is too mild of a disease and the chicken pox shot to ineffective to justify the huge expenditure needed to mandate a shot. As with the hepatitis-b, several years after the shot became mandated the vaccine industry revealed that it too diminishes in effectiveness over time and boosters are now mandate in many states. The failure to contract wild chicken pox as a child makes a person far more susceptible to the disease shingles as an adult. Shingles is generally considered a far more serious disease than chicken pox. It is acknowledged by the vaccine industry that the widespread use of the chicken pox vaccine will lead to an epidemic of shingles. Merck, the developer of the chicken pox vaccine now has a vaccine for shingles as well. — READ FULL ARTICLE

I feel I made the right choice for my children back then. And it is very sad to me that parents today aren’t able to decide for themselves what is best for their own children. This was a vaccine designed to make money for the pharmaceutical industry, not to save lives…Even the Federal Immunization Advisory Committee admits the benefits to this vaccine are not to save lives, but to save money by reducing the amount of time parents had to take off from work…Honestly, that’s not a joke.

The American people have become pauns and guinea pigs to both our governments and corporate America (which basically are one in the same at this point).

So that’s my take. Here are what other bloggers are saying on this issue…

This is from Barbara Loe Fisher and expert in the field of vaccinations…

- There are many new vaccines being developed that will be added to the childhood schedule and what has happened in Maryland brings up the question that many parents are asking: How many more vaccines are children going to be forced to get to be able to get a public education?

- Although Maryland and other states may allow medical and religious exemptions, they are very difficult for parents to obtain. Doctors cannot easily write medical exemptions that are not second- guessed by public health officials, who require strict adherence to narrow contraindications blessed by the CDC. Often parents, who attempt to file religious exemptions, are thrown into rooms and grilled about the sincerity of the religious beliefs.

- Parents are wondering why every vaccine that industry produces is always automatically recommended for universal use by the CDC and then mandate.

- It is time for the people to take back the power - through their elected representatives - to decide which vaccines their children should have to take to go to school. In the past few decades, legislatures have given up their power to vote on which new vaccines will be mandated and have handed that power over to public health officials who have never met a vaccine they did not want to mandate

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Well, it’s a first. I actually agree with Michelle Malkin. She has a post today titled “Vaccine Bullies in the Public Schools“, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Parents are being treated like child abusers by the Maryland public education system, but who’s exploiting whom? If you’re wondering why the schools didn’t simply threaten to kick the kids out of school–as opposed to jailing and fining their parents–the answer is all in the money. The schools are funded based on average-daily-attendance. Every body in a classroom is cash in their pockets.

From Country Dawn…

Parents in Maryland were threatened with jail time on Saturday if they didn’t vaccinate their children. On the spot. That’s right, nurses with needles were lined up and waiting… and so were police officers.

Oh, and get this. I love this. Many of these kids waited in line on Saturday to get a chicken pox booster so their parents wouldn’t go to jail. Chicken pox–a vaccine that has such dubious effectiveness and value that the Federal Immunization Advisory Committee could only rationalize making it mandatory in the first place by arguing that it would prevent parents from losing about a week’s worth of time from work.

In other words, it was an economic argument, not a medical one. Now, the police state of Maryland is threatening to throw parents in jail for ten days because their children haven’t received a vaccine mandated solely on the grounds that it would keep parents from missing work in the first place…

This is from Yankee Cowgirl…

I heard an interview with Mr. Ivey yesterday where he was asked if he was going after parents that had exemptions. He said he was glad they had exemptions and he was sure they weren’t going after those students.

I don’t believe him. Out of the 1300 students they are going after, I’m expected to believe that none of those have exemptions? Come on!

And in a interesting twist…

See why the pro-life movement and Catholics are against the chicken pox vaccine.

Well that’s all I have. How do you feel about this issue? Do you feel the government has a right to force parents to vaccinate their children for non-life threatening diseases/viruses? Does it seem to you that the government is *in bed* with the pharmaceutical companies on this one? Is it time for parents to take a stand on this issue? What would you do if you were one of the parents facing jail time in Maryland?

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