Zinc or Swim
There are times when one needs to just pause, to take a break from what one was doing and to step away if only to recharge or to get a fresh perspective. This is not really the full-on vacation where one can forget one's troubles or bills or problems entirely (if temporarily), but rather a bit more like a weekend jaunt, something almost unconsciously done as if taking a breather after a long workout. In nautical terms, this would likely be called the doldrums where winds stop and terms such as "horse latitudes" emerge (a horrible term but one based on earlier times when cargo sailing ships would throw horses overboard due to a lack of drinking water); admittedly the term "doldrums" sounds a bit more radical than needed, and in the colloquial sense negative, but sometimes those pauses we take are just that, the winds that once pushed you along so gracefully and took you to new lands and sights have suddenly just disappeared for a bit and left your sails flat, not quite threatening you with starvation but more like forcing you to live under an extended power failure. It just happens.
That is the point I have reached in recent days and thus the gap in some of these postings. There have been funerals (yes, plural), ice dams, wonky dogs, visiting friends, and arranging remote emergency help, all things which are far from being crises but have proven to be like little bug bites that have proven detracting. But here's the thing, those breaks can prove enlightening as they force you away from routine and perhaps (and ironically) open up new avenues to explore, ones that you probably felt you "never" had time for. Here's one example...zinc. What?? As you've likely seen on the ingredient-side of sunscreens, zinc oxide is making a comeback. Remember those white noses on surfers or lifeguards? As it happens, many more sunscreens are discovering that with the advent of nanoparticle usage (now even scarier since I last wrote about it since it is appearing almost everywhere, even in toothpastes and chewing gum), chemicals such as oxybenzone and avobenzone (common in most sunscreens) entering your body is now being questioned (two commercial sites offer brief explanations, here and here). And oxybenzone apparently is quite toxic to coral reefs, said NPR a few years ago: New research about sunscreen's damaging effects on coral reefs suggests that you might want to think twice before slathering it on. Reports about the harmful environmental effects of certain chemicals in the water have been circulated for years, but according to the authors of a new study released Tuesday, the chemicals in even one drop of sunscreen are enough to damage fragile coral reef systems. Some 14,000 tons of sunscreen lotions wind up in coral reefs around the world each year. Zinc oxide appears to stop at the layer just under your skin (many sunscreen manufacturers using zinc oxide do utilize nanoparticles as an attempt to reduce that whitish appearance). But then there's those denture creams...
Now at this point I have to jump back to my mother; her meal-eating had become minimal and as it turns out she said it was because her dentures were not fitting well and her gums hurt. So let's clean them, I suggested (something I'd never done and not a big deal, but for those of us still harboring our own teeth, seeing someone's smile turn into shrunken mouth of gum is a bit disorienting). Now for those of you who have never done this, it's the basics...dentures out, put them into a cup holder with clean water, plop in a denture-cleaning tablet and step away while it fizzes. So that cleaning finishes and now comes the application of the denture cream which most of us have seen on ads and likely gave little attention (be patient, the zinc part is coming up). Squeeze that adhesive all out around the rim of the dentures and re-insert into the mouth, right? But my mother had about six tubes of the stuff, all opened, and I wasn't sure which were old and which were (possibly) new. I looked at the coded numbers on the tubes, numbers that bear no correlation* to any dates of expiration, and thus called the toll-free line only to be told by the rep that they didn't put such dates on their packages because "our products never expire." What??? It was then that I began to read the instructions on the tube and box and printed in bright red were the warnings about zinc poisoning. The size of the amount of adhesive a wearer was to apply was basically a tiny droplet no wider than the thickness of a pencil and one was to use no more than 6 such droplets...use more and the possibility of zinc poisoning could occur. Never heard of zinc poisoning, especially from using denture adhesives? Okay, it made news back in 2011 causing GlaxoSmithKline ( the makers of Poligrip which is another popular denture adhesive cream here in the U.S.) to take the zinc out of their creams; in 2010 they told The Daily Mail,(among others): We are taking this voluntary action because we have become aware of potential health problems associated with the long-term excessive use of our zinc-containing denture adhesive products. Proctor & Gamble, makers of the competing denture adhesive Fixodent still uses the mineral in 7 of its 9 Fixodent products (zinc allows better adhesion). Lesson overall...read the label; but let's back up a bit. In general, the users of such products are fairly advanced in age with both eyesight and perhaps comprehension or retention abilities diminishing; and their children (such as moi) are quick to think that they know it all especially since the product has been around for years is probably safe even if it is applied like toothpaste. But would I have discovered this during the course of my normal routine? And let's be honest, when was the last time you purchased a package of denture cream (if ever) and if so, did you read the instructions? Likely not...no matter for that sort of story could be applied to many such products, things that we take for granted since we've used them for most of our lives (ah, marketing at its best).
So, short story long, these posts might prove sporadic at best for a bit, at least as long as I remain somewhat motionless in the horse latitudes of my head. I'm dabbling in writing children's books (now there's an interesting side tale) and who knows what else. As long as my boat is just parked in the water, I may as well dangle my legs over the side and just ponder...at least for a bit (not sure if you remember the Star Trek Next Generation episode where the crew entered a "dark zone" where there was no light, no stars, no nothing, even as they traveled at warp speeds; it was exciting for them at first, but as weeks and months went by and still no light, the crew began to grow worried -- what was this section of space...of mind). For me, this pause of sorts is my still water and as of this date, is far from being a dark zone. One could say that at this point I am still learning, perhaps even still learning to swim...wait a minute, don't they put zinc plates on the bottom of boats to act as sacrificial anodes? I'd better dive off and check it out...
*For those of you still using the Fixodent products, here's how the coding works; should you see the random numbers such as 32426, the first number (3) indicates the YEAR of release (2003 or 2013), the second three numbers indicate the day of that year it was made (in the example above, the 242nd day of that year), and the last number...well, they wouldn't tell me.
That is the point I have reached in recent days and thus the gap in some of these postings. There have been funerals (yes, plural), ice dams, wonky dogs, visiting friends, and arranging remote emergency help, all things which are far from being crises but have proven to be like little bug bites that have proven detracting. But here's the thing, those breaks can prove enlightening as they force you away from routine and perhaps (and ironically) open up new avenues to explore, ones that you probably felt you "never" had time for. Here's one example...zinc. What?? As you've likely seen on the ingredient-side of sunscreens, zinc oxide is making a comeback. Remember those white noses on surfers or lifeguards? As it happens, many more sunscreens are discovering that with the advent of nanoparticle usage (now even scarier since I last wrote about it since it is appearing almost everywhere, even in toothpastes and chewing gum), chemicals such as oxybenzone and avobenzone (common in most sunscreens) entering your body is now being questioned (two commercial sites offer brief explanations, here and here). And oxybenzone apparently is quite toxic to coral reefs, said NPR a few years ago: New research about sunscreen's damaging effects on coral reefs suggests that you might want to think twice before slathering it on. Reports about the harmful environmental effects of certain chemicals in the water have been circulated for years, but according to the authors of a new study released Tuesday, the chemicals in even one drop of sunscreen are enough to damage fragile coral reef systems. Some 14,000 tons of sunscreen lotions wind up in coral reefs around the world each year. Zinc oxide appears to stop at the layer just under your skin (many sunscreen manufacturers using zinc oxide do utilize nanoparticles as an attempt to reduce that whitish appearance). But then there's those denture creams...
Now at this point I have to jump back to my mother; her meal-eating had become minimal and as it turns out she said it was because her dentures were not fitting well and her gums hurt. So let's clean them, I suggested (something I'd never done and not a big deal, but for those of us still harboring our own teeth, seeing someone's smile turn into shrunken mouth of gum is a bit disorienting). Now for those of you who have never done this, it's the basics...dentures out, put them into a cup holder with clean water, plop in a denture-cleaning tablet and step away while it fizzes. So that cleaning finishes and now comes the application of the denture cream which most of us have seen on ads and likely gave little attention (be patient, the zinc part is coming up). Squeeze that adhesive all out around the rim of the dentures and re-insert into the mouth, right? But my mother had about six tubes of the stuff, all opened, and I wasn't sure which were old and which were (possibly) new. I looked at the coded numbers on the tubes, numbers that bear no correlation* to any dates of expiration, and thus called the toll-free line only to be told by the rep that they didn't put such dates on their packages because "our products never expire." What??? It was then that I began to read the instructions on the tube and box and printed in bright red were the warnings about zinc poisoning. The size of the amount of adhesive a wearer was to apply was basically a tiny droplet no wider than the thickness of a pencil and one was to use no more than 6 such droplets...use more and the possibility of zinc poisoning could occur. Never heard of zinc poisoning, especially from using denture adhesives? Okay, it made news back in 2011 causing GlaxoSmithKline ( the makers of Poligrip which is another popular denture adhesive cream here in the U.S.) to take the zinc out of their creams; in 2010 they told The Daily Mail,(among others): We are taking this voluntary action because we have become aware of potential health problems associated with the long-term excessive use of our zinc-containing denture adhesive products. Proctor & Gamble, makers of the competing denture adhesive Fixodent still uses the mineral in 7 of its 9 Fixodent products (zinc allows better adhesion). Lesson overall...read the label; but let's back up a bit. In general, the users of such products are fairly advanced in age with both eyesight and perhaps comprehension or retention abilities diminishing; and their children (such as moi) are quick to think that they know it all especially since the product has been around for years is probably safe even if it is applied like toothpaste. But would I have discovered this during the course of my normal routine? And let's be honest, when was the last time you purchased a package of denture cream (if ever) and if so, did you read the instructions? Likely not...no matter for that sort of story could be applied to many such products, things that we take for granted since we've used them for most of our lives (ah, marketing at its best).
So, short story long, these posts might prove sporadic at best for a bit, at least as long as I remain somewhat motionless in the horse latitudes of my head. I'm dabbling in writing children's books (now there's an interesting side tale) and who knows what else. As long as my boat is just parked in the water, I may as well dangle my legs over the side and just ponder...at least for a bit (not sure if you remember the Star Trek Next Generation episode where the crew entered a "dark zone" where there was no light, no stars, no nothing, even as they traveled at warp speeds; it was exciting for them at first, but as weeks and months went by and still no light, the crew began to grow worried -- what was this section of space...of mind). For me, this pause of sorts is my still water and as of this date, is far from being a dark zone. One could say that at this point I am still learning, perhaps even still learning to swim...wait a minute, don't they put zinc plates on the bottom of boats to act as sacrificial anodes? I'd better dive off and check it out...
*For those of you still using the Fixodent products, here's how the coding works; should you see the random numbers such as 32426, the first number (3) indicates the YEAR of release (2003 or 2013), the second three numbers indicate the day of that year it was made (in the example above, the 242nd day of that year), and the last number...well, they wouldn't tell me.
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