It’s “Sunburn Season” – July and August are vacation months and the time for fun in the sun before returning to school or buckling down on the job. Some people get more sun in these months than the rest of the year.

Naturally, that leaves them susceptible to sunburns. But did you know that many medications increase your chances of getting sunburned?

This article by pharmacist, Suzy Cohen, explains which drugs can cause serious sun photosensitivity.

Many people find themselves in a catch 22 – they don’t want to get sunburned, but they know they are more susceptible. Even so, it’s not a good idea to avoid the sun entirely.

Getting sunlight is very important. We get our Vitamin D through sunlight, not food. Vitamin D is very important to the healthy functioning of out body from healthy bones, heart, mental health, colds and flu and much more. Avoiding the sun and/or using too much sunblock prevents Vitamin D from forming and contributes to deficiencies.

Vitamin D is created on the skin when it exposed to sunlight. This doesn’t happen through glass, only with direct exposure. Dr. Mercola recently wrote how surprized he was to discover that it takes 48 hours for the Vitamin D to be fully absorbed from the skin. He recommended only using soap under the arms and in the groin area. That may not be practical for most people, but it’s nice to know that skipping a shower now and then can contribute to your health!

Sunburn Remedies:

Quick remedies for sunburn include Aloe Vera, LavaDerm™ Cooling Mist, Lavender essential oil and MMS. Everybody’s skin reacts differently to sunburn and sunburn remedies. Here are a few to try – one of them is bound to do the trick for you:

Aloe Vera: If you have an aloe plant in the garden, break off a spear and gently rub the juice over your burn. Some varieties work better than others.

LavaDerm™ Cooling Mist: Specially formulated with lavender essential oil and aloe vera – two of nature’s most soothing, rejuvenating and healing substances. It soothes, protects and brings powerful relief to stressed and burned skin with its blend of gentle, skin- soothing ingredients.

Lavender Essential Oil Put a few drops of lavender essential oil on your sunburned skin for quick relief.

MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution) It’s surprising that this solution works so well on burns, but I get the most relief and the fastest healing from burns when I use MMS. It’s inexpensive and easy to use: http://tinyurl.com/bec2ya

Spread a few drops of MMS over the burned skin, wait 5 minutes and wash off (it’s very important to wash it off after 5 minutes). It will burn or sting a bit at first, but then subside.

Repeat a few hours later or the next day. If the burn is a bad one, apply the MMS again a third time, but this time, leave it on. It will make your skin smell a little odd, but not bad.

Hopefully, you won’t suffer a sunburn this season, but if you do, these tips can help your skin feel better faster and recover better from your sunburn.

After years of recommending that women perform monthly breast self-exams, doctors are now recommending that women only report lumps they notice while showering or dressing.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed something after my shower. While applying natural deodorant under my arms, I noticed a small but hard lump under my skin – harder than anything I’ve ever felt in my body. It was about the size of a BB and nearly as hard. Since my armpit had been sore and itchy for months, and sometimes numb, I was concerned. I scheduled an appointment with my doctor the earliest I could get in. Since it was over the holidays, the office was going to be closed for a couple of weeks.

I wanted to do something for in the meantime, so I decided to try color therapy. I have used Dinshah color therapy, for years and respond very well to it.

Color Therapy has been grossly misaligned and discredited by the FDA. It appears on many lists and websites as a “quack” therapy. Let them say what they want to say, but I know differently. From the Quantum level up, we are all vibrational beings and can’t help being affected by frequencies. Sound, light and matter, not to speak of our etheric bodies, are all made up of frequencies. And light frequencies are some of the highest on the planet.

The interesting thing is, even as the FDA bashes light therapy as bogus, the medical profession has been using it for many years to treat several stubborn conditions. Neo-natal cases of jaundice are treated with “blue-light therapy,” also called “phototherapy.” Light therapy is also often used for acne, seasonal affective disorder, delayed sleep phase syndrome and many other conditions (see Light Therapy – Wikipedia).

Sometimes it takes a while to get used to. My husband was a complete skeptic. At first he didn’t feel a thing, but he now feels the affects – even after sporadic use. He changed his mind about it after seeing how light therapy accelerates healing.

But back to my lump – I started with a lemon tonation (as sessions under the light colors are called). Lemon is a whole-body balancer that prepared my body for the next color. I then moved on to yellow, a lymphatic stimulator, once a day. By the third day, I noticed a profound relaxation in my whole body. The lump was still there, but smaller.

It is now day 5 and the lump is completely gone. My armpits are still a little sore so I will continue the tonations regularly for a while.

I see the doctor in a couple of days and I doubt there will be anything for the doctor to find. The lump was probably nothing serious, but if I hadn’t taken some early prevention steps, it could easily hardened further and become very serious. A plugged up lymphatic system is never good.

This ounce of prevention could very well have saved me a great deal of suffering down the road. Although it takes an hour each day, it’s relaxing and costs me nothing.*

This has been a wake-up call to me to continue working on my lymphatic system until it’s functioning better. I’m glad things came to my attention early enough for me to do some simple prevention. Isn’t it much better to utilize an easy natural lymphatic system stimulant now than harsh treatment or drastic measures later?

The best prevention is living well, eating well, avoiding toxins and thinking and acting positively. But sometimes, we get exposed to toxins without realizing it. In my case, I suspect this lymphatic congestion has to do with my exposure to agricultural chemicals when I worked in commercial tomato fields as a child. I spent most of the time standing on my knees in damp fertilizer and pesticide-soaked mud picking tomatoes. By the third summer, my legs swelled up and huge, grotesque boils appeared on my ankles oozing pus as thick as white glue.

At the young age of 10 or so, I had no understanding of what could have caused it or what to do about it. Over time, I completely forgot about it, until now. Fortunately, now I know at least a few things I can do to help clean out my body.

The moral to my story is: Pay attention to your body and give it an “ounce of prevention” sooner than later.

*Note: To use the Dinshah light system, there are initial expenditures for the book, the light filters and the equipment to put together a light box, but they are relatively small. The book, “Let There Be Light,” by Darius Dinshah is all you need to get started. The book instructions for putting together a light box are skimpy. If you need help, email me via the help desk.

Also note that color therapy isn’t limited to functioning as a lymphatic system stimulant. There are many uses for light therapy.