Hi JW (& anyone else who is interested in this topic)

I've noticed you've been curious about sunscreens that work well while playing sports/sweating, etc.

Not sure if you're aware of "ProSport" sunscreen, but it is made specifically for that purpose. The only thing is that it is a chemical sunscreen.

I have gone back & forth over the years w/ chemical/non-chemical sunscreen and I used this a few years back while the family & I were on a carribean cruise. I was afraid that no matter what we wore, it was inevitable that we would all get too much sun.

However, with this stuff....even where we were, in the middle of the ocean in the hot carribean sun everyday, we all came back white as ghosts. People couldn't believe it when I told them we had just returned home from a week long cruise in the carribean. But still, I'd rather that then the lobster look. And we saw so many badly burned people on the ship....it made me cringe!

I wore it on my face w/o any problems but I am not blemish prone. I am however oily in the t-zone area & it didn't cause any extra oiliness.

It's waterproof & lasts for up to 8 hours. The company recommends its use for ironman races & the like. They have different varieties but I think they're all the same. It seems like they call it different things depending on who they're marketing it to (ironman, golfers, etc...). We actually used the "rubber ducky" version which doesn't sting your eyes if it runs.

Now I never understood things like that. What makes these companies think that just because we're adults, we want a sunscreen that will burn our eyes.....isn't that silly when you think about it! Rubber ducky all the way....

Just figured I'd mention it in case by chance you hadn't heard of this one & you're not opposed to using a chemical sunscreen from time to time for sporting events.

xo DeeDee

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Wow, a great recommendation/testimonial and sent with xo, too. Thank you, DeeDee.

I don't mind getting caught with Rubber Ducky as I'm using a Coppertone's kiddo sunscreen and insect repellent forumla anyway. I heard about PRoSport sunscreens (sweat resistant, tear-free, PABA free, non-greasy, unscented, for sensitive skin, etc. - everything I wanted) from surfers but never used it. I'll see if I could find one with insect repellent. I think Rubber Ducky is scented, right? Do you have the ingredients for Rubber Ducky? Thanks so much.

I'm also looking for a REI sunblock that someone suggested over the weekend.

Active ingredients: octyl methoxycinnamate, octyl salicylate, oxybenzone, octocrylene, special SI waterproofing system

It doesn't list the inactives on the bottle...sorry.

It's an SPF 44. It seems only slightly scented, but it's very mild & non-offensive (and I dislike almost any fragrance)

this is the contact info on the bottle (can't remember which website I ordered it from)

Sunscreen International
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
800-728-7873
steve@sunblocks.com

Have a wonderful day my friend

Hello my friend DeeDee,

I think I lost my head for a moment, and I didn't even get to soak in the Roman bubble wine bath. Given the active ingredients you provided, it appears that Prosport Rubber Ducky only has limited UVA protection. However, it can still be considered "broadspectrum" protection with current non-agreement agreement standards.

Here is my research on the wave length protection of the ingredients on Rubber Ducky-ProSport:
octyl methoxycinnamate(290-320uvb),
octyl salicylate(uvb),
oxybenzone (270-350-uvb or 50%uva),
octocrylene(250-360),
special SI waterproofing system (na)

Other than the inorganic Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide, the only FDA approved UVA protection organic ingredient (chemical) is Avobenzone with Oxinoxate as stabilizer.

I know Anthelio and Tinosorb may have been approved recently, but I'll post other possible susncreen choices as soon as some definitive conclusions can be made among expert opinions, including the FDA. Instead of a ruling this year, it may be as late as 2008.

Thx for the info JW! You sure do keep up w/ all the details. I really do get dizzy when I think about this topic....as there is just no perfect solution.

Bottom line - you're either putting something harmful on you skin, or you're not getting enough protection, or both.

For now, I'm content with the non-chemical (although not a "total" sunblock) route - skin bio's day cover on regular days & clinique's super city block spf 25 on days I'll be in the sun more. I use Aubrey Organics green tea sunblock spf 25 on the kids.

Of course, we all wear hats & sunglasses when out in the sun (and look for the shade) & just try to limit our time in the sun in general. I always prefer to have the kids play outside after 4pm.

Honestly, it's hard to know right and wrong - especially when you're deciding things for your children. I hate to keep them "captive" in doors in the summer & I really try not to be too crazy about it, but at the same time, don't want them to end up with the same kind of grief causing hyperpigmentation that I did later in life.

I am a worrier and try to do everything "right" and try to make sure that the kids are perfectly safe, perfectly protected & perfectly nourished all the time, but I have been learing recently....we just have to live our lives and it's ok to say "efff it" & have some carefree fun too.

Sorry to go off on a rant. All of these topics on the board have emotional issues tied to them. How could they not? We're all just doing our best, trying to find a good balance within & without.

Ok people...I'll shut up now.

xo DeeDee

OMG....speaking of trying to be a good parent..... Have any of you seen this? It was just forwarded to me last night. Grab a tissue & watch....worth the 4 mins.
Talk about inspiration...

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I could tell you are an exceptional mother hen.

Even as informed consumers currently, we are not really protected without some kind of established standards and regulations about sunscreen testing and labels. I understand the difficulties in establishing UVA/UVB testing standards and broadspectrum skin protection because they are controversially varied and technical and complicated by commercial interests (unlike Dr. Pickart, I believe with the help of dermatologists, some sunscreens are high profit margin items and some are way currently overpriced whether the science and evidence is there or not, but that's a fact of life in the beauty and cosmetic industry). One almost has to be a technical specialist or an insider to get an objective and credible understanding.

Most chemical sunscreens offer good and sufficient UVB protection with the SPF label (from redness), but there is no recognized and reliable testing rating for protection from the more penetrating UVA rays that cause photo-aging and cancers.

As imperfect as non-micronized physical sunscreens may be, they are relatively inert and do offer the whole broadspectrum protection (290-700nm). The problems are wearability and protection standards for different needs. The efficacy and functional difference are in the formulation and the particle size of TiO2 and ZnO that can't be differentiated from the current SPF label, and we are back to square one with no testing and industry standards.

The is an old 1998 issue about sun scam published by Mother Jones, but the eight-year old article was well written and may still shed some light about the rise of skin cancers and sunscreen use. http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/1998/05/wellbeing.html

What an inspiring video and message. I love it!

I was browsing for some gardening books in the cafe at Borders about a month ago. There was this older man reading the newspaper to a severly disabled young man (without much head and facial motor expression or control but seem to be listening tentatively nevertheless) in a wheel chair. Between the readings and periodic silence and disengagements, the elderly man would have to care for and adjust the head of the disabled young man. I felt it was a father-and-son kind of unique acceptance and enjoyment between the two and smiled at the elderly man when we made eye contact.

Magic moments are always around us.

Here is the "story" that goes along w/ the video. Since you're an athlete....I thought you especially would appreciate it.

OK....off for a 10 day retreat w/ the family. stay well

Strongest Dad in the World
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay
for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I stink.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in
marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a
wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and
pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back
mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes
taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was
strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged
and unable to control his limbs.

``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told
him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an
institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes
followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the
engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was
anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told.
``There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a
lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by
touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to
communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school
classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a
charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran
more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he
tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore
for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running,
it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving
Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly
shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a
single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few
years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then
they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran
another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the
following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he
was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick
tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour
Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud
getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you
think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says.
Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with
a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston
Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best
time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world
record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to
be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the
time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the
Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a
mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries
was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor
told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care)and works in Boston,
and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always
find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and
compete in some backbreaking race every > weekend, including this
Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants
to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the
chair and I push him once.''

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By the way.....I know the previous post may seem "off the topic" of this board in a lot of ways, but I think it's important to give ourselves a real "reality check" sometimes.

This stuff helps us to reassemble our thoughts and put things back into perspective.

I have had some low points over the past several months becoming consumed with negative thoughts...all related to vanity issues. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting to look & feel good, but I am saying LIFE IS GOOD AS IT IS RIGHT NOW -- AT THIS VERY MOMENT -- IN WHATEVER CONDITION YOU FIND YOURSELF IN.

Enjoy this great day

Great viewpoint!