Latest news with #LoveLetters
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
Is sunscreen toxic? The UV truthers on the Internet sure think so.
'They told us the sun was the threat,' another said. 'Not the corporations funding both the warning and the cure. I stopped burning when I stopped believing them.' 'People burn because of the seed oils in these processed foods,' read a third reply. 'If you eat clean, you'll be fine.' Wait — what? Wasn't it just yesterday that we were supposed to feel guilty for not using sunscreen? Yes, but forget all that nonsense from your dermatologist. Now it's burn, baby burn. Advertisement Make America Blister Again! Forget Get Love Letters: The Newsletter A weekly dispatch with all the best relationship content and commentary – plus exclusive content for fans of Love Letters, Dinner With Cupid, weddings, therapy talk, and more. Enter Email Sign Up The social media doctors have weighed in, and now a serious portion of the public believes any or all of the following: Sunscreen doesn't prevent cancer, it causes it. Sunscreen is a ploy by big pharma to increase profits by making people sick. Use it, and you'll end up deficient in Vitamin D (most people reportedly don't put on enough for this to be a problem). A 2024 Advertisement Brigham and Women's Hospital dermatologist She learned that firsthand, in 2023, when she posted a TikTok video with what seemed like basic, if perhaps even dull, advice: wear sunscreen on exposed skin and reapply it regularly. The vitriolic responses, and there were hundreds, had a theme: She was a shill for big pharma. She was propagating the lie that sunscreen protects against skin cancer. She was saying this to … somehow … get more patients. 'I had no idea that this was a public sentiment,' she said. 'It had never been discussed in medical school or any of my training.' But the misconception that it's harmful is so common that even educated people believe it, she said. 'I went to play tennis yesterday, and my coach was like, 'I'm not putting chemicals on my body.' He's an engineer.' The skepticism has its roots in reality, if only very tangentially, said Timothy Rebbeck, a professor of cancer prevention at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, whose research focuses in part on false claims connected to cancer. 'This is a phenomenon we see in a lot of cancer misinformation,' he said. 'There is a kernel of truth to a story.' For example, he said: a study is done in a test tube or an animal that shows a compound found in microscopic levels in sunscreen, when exposed to ultraviolet light, could cause DNA damage. Advertisement That result, taken out of context, makes its way to social media, where it's sensationalized and amplified. 'By the time it gets to your social media feed, it doesn't resemble the original piece of information,' he said. 'No one goes back to the original paper and sees that it was in mice.' Even if sunscreen raised your risk for skin cancer — which it doesn't, he emphasized — its well-established cancer-fighting benefits would outweigh any risk. 'If you're trying to make a choice, the choice is pretty clear.' There are two types of sunscreens: physical blockers, which have zinc oxide or titanium dioxide and reflect ultraviolet rays from the sun; and chemical blockers, which contain chemicals that absorb the sun's ultraviolet rays. Fernanda Duarte put sunscreen on Luisa Vilela, 10, of Watertown at the Artesani Playground in Brighton in 2021. Christiana Botic for The Boston Globe Rebbeck said that people who are concerned about the content of sunscreens should choose one that contains zinc oxide or titanium oxide, which are well established as safe and effective without any indication of carcinogenicity or other adverse health effects. As Harvard Health Publishing explained in 'However, there has been no conclusive evidence that oxybenzone is harmful to humans,' it wrote. 'Organizations that have raised concerns about oxybenzone typically cite studies done in rats, where the rats were actually fed oxybenzone. It would take an individual 277 years of sunscreen use to achieve the equivalent systemic dose that produced effects in these rat studies…' Advertisement But what's Harvard Health Publishing compared to the wisdom, or at least the reach, of social media star and 'Anytime I do an interview, I get a lot of s*** when I admit that I don't [wear sunscreen],' she said in a viral 2024 episode of her 'Let's Be Honest' podcast, before prompting her guest to talk 'about the health benefits of the sun and why we maybe don't need sunscreen.' 'We've literally spent our whole existence as humans under the sun all day, until the last, like, 100 years or so, and now we're like shut-ins … and that's really bad for a lot of reasons,' her guest replied. At Castle Island on a recent weekday, the weather app was showing a UV rating of 5, high enough for the website of the National Weather Service to recommend use of a sunscreen of at least SPF-30. But Catherine Civitella, who was hanging out with a friend from college, wasn't wearing any, as she considers it 'toxic.' She formed that opinion from 'the internet,' she said, and also by observing people in Florida, where she used to live. There, she noticed that the better people ate, and the more time they spent in the sun, sans sunscreen, the better their skin looked. 'What you put in your body is more important than what you put on your body,' she said. Over on the beach, Maria Turolska, a Dorchester grandmother watching her 18-month-old grandson, both fair-skinned, said she wouldn't use sunscreen on herself or the little boy, even though his parents wanted her to. Asked if she thought sunscreen could cause cancer, she reflected the widespread skepticism about basically everything these days: 'The companies who sell the products want you to think this, but it's hard to know if it is good or not good.' Advertisement Alas, as is too often the case, you may be doomed no matter what you do. Studies have found that people who use sunscreen tend to stay out in the sun longer, according to Harvard Health Publishing, 'and thus may actually increase their risk of skin cancer.' Beth Teitell can be reached at
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Spouse wants to reconcile with husband's estranged sister
When we had our first child 10 months ago, my husband asked his dad to wait to tell Lisa until we were out of the hospital, in case Betsy tried to come to the hospital (we all live in the same city). When Lisa found out five days or so after the birth, she was furious and cut the whole family off. Advertisement Lisa has recently made amends with other parts of the family, but we have not seen her. My husband doesn't care about connecting with her, partly because they aren't close and partly because he doesn't like her new significant other. I haven't reached out because I'm not that close with her either and the new baby keeps me busy. Get Love Letters: The Newsletter A weekly dispatch with all the best relationship content and commentary – plus exclusive content for fans of Love Letters, Dinner With Cupid, weddings, therapy talk, and more. Enter Email Sign Up I don't have anything against her, and I want her to be in my son's life, but I fear I've waited too long and don't know how to mend the relationship. I don't like being at odds with someone, especially family, albeit not my blood family. My thought was to text her and apologize and start that way. What do you think? WANT TO MEND FENCES A. You're stuck in a tricky position because you're not responsible for any of the hurt in this situation (and it seems like there's a lot of hurt to go around). Nevertheless, it's obviously impacting you. Advertisement Because this is your husband's family and the estrangement from Lisa is connected to the estrangement from Betsy, it'll be best to follow his lead here. There's harm in the past that he's, rightfully, put an internal barrier around. There are also some slightly confusing complications in the present, namely the aversion to Lisa's new husband. I can see not wanting to spend a lot of time around a person one finds awkward but letting that aversion snowball into a family fracture seems extreme to me. I'm left with the question of whether this awkwardness has been understated in the letter (and is therefore more of a concern) or if it seems like more of an issue because of your husband's already complicated history with Lisa. Whatever the truth of the situation is, he and Lisa have some things to work out. You can talk with him about your desire to bridge the gap and ask him how you can best support him, but you've got to let him make the decision. There are old wounds here, so you'll want to exercise care around them. Q. This is regarding 'Worried Grandmother,' who was trying to help her 17-year-old grandson navigate his parents' contentious divorce. My parents got divorced when I was in third grade. Our parents never asked us kids to take sides. It wasn't until I was in college that I heard the term 'broken home' and asked the teacher what that meant and he said 'divorce.' Advertisement As it turned out, dad was a good dad just not a good husband. He had a drinking problem. My dad would bring Christmas gifts and he and my mom would wrap them together. He died from a brain tumor at age 43 when I was 14. It makes me feel sad when parents cannot behave better. Life is too short. Just wanted you to know that some parents get it right. I have been stepmom to my husband's only daughter since she was 5. This Valentine's Day she sent a card that said, 'For My Parents on Valentine's Day,' so I know I did it right, too. UNBROKEN HOME A. Thanks for sharing. Divorce can be so hard for parents and kids. Sometimes we're not able to keep our worst instincts at bay. But it's wonderful when the greater good of a family unit wins out, even as that family is changing shape. Q. This is in response to 'Grieving Son,' who felt disrespected by the treatment he received from cemetery staff after his father's death. I am on the board of a nonprofit cemetery. 'Grieving Son' should contact the state cemetery board to file a formal grievance. Be specific about the nature of the conflict(s), the cemetery personnel's behavior, including their name if known and what they did or said, and to whom. Photos of any damage to the gravesite would also be helpful. CEMETERY BOARD MEMBER A. Great suggestions; thank you very much! R. Eric Thomas can be reached at .
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
Exercise boosts survival rates in cancer patients, study shows
Prior evidence was based on comparing active people with sedentary people, a type of study that can't prove cause and effect. The new study — conducted in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States — compared people who were randomly selected for an exercise program with those who instead received an educational booklet. Get Love Letters: The Newsletter A weekly dispatch with all the best relationship content and commentary – plus exclusive content for fans of Love Letters, Dinner With Cupid, weddings, therapy talk, and more. Enter Email Sign Up 'This is about as high a quality of evidence as you can get,' said Dr. Julie Gralow, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. 'I love this study because it's something I've been promoting but with less strong evidence for a long time.' Advertisement The findings were featured Sunday at ASCO's annual meeting in Chicago and published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Academic research groups in Canada, Australia and the U.K. funded the work. Researchers followed 889 patients with treatable colon cancer who had completed chemotherapy. Half were given information promoting fitness and nutrition. The others worked with a coach, meeting every two weeks for a year, then monthly for the next two years. Advertisement Coaches helped participants find ways to increase their physical activity. Many people, including Terri Swain-Collins, chose to walk for about 45 minutes several times a week. 'This is something I could do for myself to make me feel better,' said Swain-Collins, 62, of Kingston, Ontario. Regular contact with a friendly coach kept her motivated and accountable, she said. 'I wouldn't want to go there and say, 'I didn't do anything,' so I was always doing stuff and making sure I got it done.' After eight years, the people in the structured exercise program not only became more active than those in the control group but also had 28% fewer cancers and 37% fewer deaths from any cause. There were more muscle strains and other similar problems in the exercise group. 'When we saw the results, we were just astounded,' said study co-author Dr. Christopher Booth, a cancer doctor at Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Kingston, Ontario. Exercise programs can be offered for several thousand dollars per patient, Booth said, 'a remarkably affordable intervention that will make people feel better, have fewer cancer recurrences and help them live longer.' Researchers collected blood from participants and will look for clues tying exercise to cancer prevention, whether through insulin processing or building up the immune system or something else. Swain-Collins' coaching program ended, but she is still exercising. She listens to music while she walks in the countryside near her home. That kind of behavior change can be achieved when people believe in the benefits, when they find ways to make it fun and when there's a social component, said paper co-author Kerry Courneya, who studies exercise and cancer at the University of Alberta. The new evidence will give cancer patients a reason to stay motivated. Advertisement 'Now we can say definitively exercise causes improvements in survival,' Courneya said.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Science
- Boston Globe
Your cat may or may not love you, but it knows your scent
Get Love Letters: The Newsletter A weekly dispatch with all the best relationship content and commentary – plus exclusive content for fans of Love Letters, Dinner With Cupid, weddings, therapy talk, and more. Enter Email Sign Up Through referrals from friends and colleagues, the researchers recruited 30 cats and their owners to participate in the study. The cats' owners captured their own scents by rubbing cotton swabs behind their ears, between their toes and under their armpits. Eight additional people who don't own pets and didn't know the cats' owners were recruited to be 'odor donors.' Advertisement Each of the study cats, in the comfort of its own home, was then presented with an array of test tubes containing the smelly cotton swabs from its owner, a stranger and a blank control. A camera mounted to the experimental setup recorded the cats' reactions to the test tubes. Advertisement The cats spent more time sniffing the samples from the strangers than from their owners -- an indication that the cats could recognize their owners' scents and devoted more time to exploring the ones they'd never smelled before. While this finding might seem like common sense, it's 'a very important piece of information,' said Dr. Carlo Siracusa, an associate professor of animal behavior at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine who was not involved with the study. 'This is how science works. You need to prove everything.' A Black Silver Turkish Angora relaxed between judging sessions at the Catsachusetts show in April. Uchiyama and his colleagues further analyzed video recordings of the cats sniffing the test tubes and observed the cats predominantly using their right nostrils to smell the strangers' test tubes, regardless of where the tube was placed within the array. These findings seemed to corroborate previous studies of other animals, including dogs, which also led with their right nostrils when exploring strange scents. 'The left nostril is used for familiar odors, and the right nostril is used for new and alarming odors, suggesting that scenting may be related to how the brain functions,' Uchiyama said. 'It is likely that the right brain is preferred for processing emotionally alarming odors.' Related : Siracusa urged caution in interpreting whether the cats' sniffing behavior relates to brain function. 'The study did not prove that the right side of the brain is activated,' he said. Proving that will require cats willing to cooperate with having their brains scanned while they sniff things. While further research is needed to confirm whether the nostril cats use to smell people is a window into the feline mind, Siracusa said that studies like Uchiyama's are important for furthering human understanding of feline behavior, which can help us provide better care for them. He also remarked on the logistical feat of designing a study protocol deemed acceptable by its feline participants. Advertisement 'I really commend this group of scientists for being successful in engaging 30 cats in doing this stuff,' Siracusa said. 'Most cats want nothing to do with your research.' This article originally appeared in .
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Theatre frees you, says actor Kishore Kumar on his return to stage after two decades
Multilingual actor Kishore Kumar returns to his roots with a powerful comeback to theatre after nearly two decades, with Love Letters - Ninna Preetiya Naanu. He reflects on the challenges of the stage, the limits of screen experience, and why theatre remains an unfiltered space for expression. Edited excerpts. What drew you back to theatre after all these years? The attraction was always there and I wanted to go back to where I started. I began with college theatre more than two decades ago; it was not even amateur theatre then. I feel theatre is a freer medium and is not bound by strictures. You always have the freedom to express yourself in theatre performances. How different is it to return to the stage, with years of screen experience behind you? Honestly, all these years of screen experience were of no help. Cinema spoils you as an actor or performer, giving you a lot of time to prepare beforehand. With theatre it is the opposite. Over the last few weeks, I have realised that every show and every performance is different, and you keep learning as you execute the play. That does not happen in cinema, despite having the luxury of time to create. What was the most challenging part of preparing for this performance? I agreed to do this play because I did not have to learn my lines and only had to read from the script. I thought it would be easy, but then I realised that this was a big challenge, as reading involves a lot of effort in theatre. You have to reach out to the audience through your voice and words. Projecting my voice was a challenge and I also feel that my decibel levels are low. I perform the play with Siri Ravikumar and genetically, women's voices have a higher frequency, so matching up to her projection, sounding clear and not losing my energy was challenging. It required a lot of work for me and the director.
