Sunscreen, Medication Cornstarch, Health Tax Cuts | THRR068

The Healthy Rebellion Radio

High Iron, Water intake and fingers swelling, To sunscreen or not to sunscreen, Cornstarch in medication, Health Rewards

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Show Notes:

News topic du jour:

Randomized crossover trial of a modified ketogenic diet in Alzheimer’s disease

1. High Iron [20:36] Tom says: I have crohns disease and am a shift worker. I've had success with paleo in the past but found it hard to stick with while being tired at work and then being the only one in my household with dietary issues.

My wife after not feeling well for years, always complaining about being tired and getting sinus infections, decided recently to do paleo with me. Things were going great but then we just received blood work where everything was in normal range except she had high iron (257 MG). Is this something to be concerned about? If so, how can she counteract this so we can both stay on track?

Side note: she feels better than normal but still suffers from some fatigue. We also have two toddlers at home.

2. Water intake and fingers swelling [22:26] Jill says: I am not on a ketogenic diet, but I eat high protein, LOTS of vegetaible, no carbs other than fruit and no processed or packaged foods. I use salt, everything but the bagel seasoning, and other similar seasonings in my food. I don't watch my sodium intake and use seasonings liberally. I drink about 200 oz of water a day and workout about an hour a day lifting weights and cardio. In the last month, I have noticed my fingers swell and I feel it in my face as well. It's nothing major, but it's umcomfortable and I also wake up with swelling. I do drink coffee, tea, and some sero sugar sparkling water. I do take magnesium and other multi-type supplements. Am I drinking too much water? Do I need to have less salt? I got the free sample of your LMNT drink and I had one this morning and it seems worse than ever. Any advice?

3. What's the D-ealy, yo? To sunscreen or not to sunscreen, that is the evidence-based question. [26:29] Erik says: Just kidding about the evidence-based part. I know that grinds your gears.

Dear Robb and Nicki,

Boring ego-stroking stuff:

I've been a long time listener since the way-way back Paleo Solution days. I have probably listened to every episode since the low-100s of the Paleo Solution podcast and am still catching up to the end of that one while also rotating in the Healthy Rebellion Radio. I like that you've returned to the Q&A format. I missed that -- not that the interviews were bad! P.S. I work in technology for a living and would be interested in helping you try to figure out the live caller stuff.

The meaty bits:

I am a mole-y person. I have quite a few dark/"liver" spots. My maternal grandmother was covered in them by the time she reached her 80s. There's no skin cancer anywhere in the family that's been reported/recorded. I go to the dermatologist to get a yearly body scan/mole check.

I try to have good sun hygiene. I live outside Atlanta, Georgia, and I attempt to get outside and walk shirtless / in shorts any day there's sun. I try to do this after lunch / in the afternoon for anywhere from 20-40 minutes. My street is woodsy and often partially shaded, so this isn't as if I'm sitting around tanning for 40 minutes. I have never gotten a sunburn from this practice, and I don't think I've even gotten pink. This doesn't result in much of a tan by the end of the season. You often talk about full-spectrum exposure and minimum effective dosing (MED). So, this is my practice in an attempt to keep my D levels up. I also supplement with ~4000IU of Carlson's D drops daily, although less in the summer if I've been better about exposure. My blood serum levels are usually "normal" as far as obese, sick, dying Americans go, but it's probably low-normal for us paleo folk. When I usually get my yearly checkup (~January) in the dead of winter, it's around 30ng/mL.

Usually, I end up getting one sunburn a year from stupidity. I misjudge my exposure when out playing (like on a friend's boat). By the time of year that this happens, it's usually late in the season, and it's not a horrific purple death burn. But it's usually enough to result in meaningful peeling. I know this is bad. I promise not to do it again this year.

When getting my yearly mole check, the dermatologist asked about sun exposure and basically said that I should pretty much always be slathered in SPF30-50 no matter what. She even went so far as to mention "recent studies" that showed that sunscreen didn't impair vitamin D conversion and took the time to mention that D was easy to supplement.

Now, I'm certainly an armchair functional medicine doctor at best (after all, after hundreds if not thousands of hours of Robb Wolf and Chris Kresser podcasts and tens of thousands of words of blogs read over the years). In my "expert" scientific opinion, we barely know shit about how the human body works. Sure, we can synth up some D in the lab and guzzle it down and affect our serum D-25. But do we really, truly understand what the complete picture of sun-on-skin exposure is from soup to nuts? Is D-guzzling (get your mind out of the gutter, Robb) and avoiding literal sun-on-skin exposure really the healthiest choice? For fuck's sake, we just discovered new muscles, tendons, and ligaments in 2020 (so I've heard). I'm supposed to believe that just because some (likely industry-funded) studies showed that some poor slobs who slathered up with sunscreen increased their serum D from "pitiful as fuck" to "marginally shit", we're supposed to assume that "this is the way"?

Anyway, I wanted to get your opinion on this particular issue as I know it comes up from time to time, and I know that things do change here and again. And, especially given the recent studies regarding serum D levels and risk of serious COVID complications, all the more reason to be considering "whole picture"/systemic things.

Thanks!

P.S. I am happy to follow up, get additional tests, etc., if it's helpful. I'll likely be getting my 2021 checkup soon. There's also some inflammation/lipid profile nonsense going on that I'd love to get your thoughts on, too.

4. Cornstarch in medication [38:14] Ryan says: I am on the paleomedicina (zsofia clemens/PKD) dietary protocol for lifelong autoimmune + mental + gut health issues.

I only take one daily medication over the counter.

Here is my issue... the one that I take is 2X the price of another brand of the same active ingredient. The only reason I don’t choose to try the much more affordable option is cornstarch. I’m so hesitant to knowingly ingest cornstarch. That’s the only reason. The one I take doesn’t have “cornstarch “ in the ingredients while I could be saving twice as much money (and stress) by being able to take the med that uses cornstarch.

I wonder if, and hope that I’m being overly paranoid.

Do you think cornstarch as a non-active ingredient in a medication is reason enough not to take that med?

Or might it be worth giving a switch?

Thanks for your time.... be safe and happy! Cheers.

5. Health Rewards [41:21] SJ says: Hi Robb!

I was wondering what you think of the idea of people being rewarded with tax cuts and benefits for meeting certain health markers to motivate people to change their eating habits and lifestyles. It’s not altering anyone’s freedom of choice, but encouraging people to pay more attention to their health and diet and – it’s a choice.

I’d sure love to see higher sales tax on junk food. But that would never happen.

Thanks

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Transcript:

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