Excerpt from a Cracks Podcast episode (YouTube) featuring Oso Trava and Dra. Patricia Restrepo discussing the role of skin in health. In this passage they describe a personal case: the host’s son experienced marked improvement after removing synthetic topical products (cleaners, soaps, shampoos, sunscreens) and adopting a 'less is more' approach to skin care. They stopped using commercial sunscreen and instead relied on shade, hats, and natural sun exposure (the speaker emphasizes the sunlight spectrum). Dr. Restrepo reports a noticeable change within three months. The exchange frames skin as a key organ ('second brain') and highlights that environmental/topical exposures beyond diet can substantially affect health.
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What did change drastically in my home was everything else we used that wasn't from the kitchen. The cleaners, the soaps, the shampoos, the sunscreen. Until my son went through that, I didn't re evaluate my relationship with the son. Despite having started using ancestral medicines, I still didn't know why it hadn't happened to me. But when I recognized that my son's brain is directly represented by his skin, the. No, I don't want to interfere with his relationship with the sun. The sun is part of his healing process. And I'm referring to the spectrum of sunlight, not the sun itself, to what the sun gives us. So we stopped using sunscreen. None. Nothing. No, no. But it wasn't like he got burned either. And mind you, they play a lot of tennis and water sports. So we used what we've always used to protect ourselves from the sun, which is the shade that's always worked for us. And it was this part and explaining it to them in the hat. Perfect. When it's too sunny, what do you do? Look at me. The little animals. A little animal helps you a lot to solve problems that you can't figure out. What does a little animal do during the day? Do you have a dog? No, I have a cat, but it doesn't go out much. Go.
It doesn't go out much. Well, if you see a little dog, the behavior of a little dog, where does the dog go? Let's say. But before going to the shade, it's in the morning, there's a ray of sunlight. Where does the sun go? And when it's warm enough, the shade goes away. And that's what many animals do. And so we started to respect the skin as a key organ and we stopped putting things on it. He never liked it when I put things on it. I was the one who put things on it. And I started to respect not putting things on it. To start with, less is more for his skin, giving him the elements that have given us life for many years. And I can tell you that in three months, the difference in the bear was from the earth to the moon. I mean, the difference in him was shocking. So what changed the most were those other extra things, because food was already being made. And I'll also tell you, I.
Mean, the impact of these external factors that are not food, which is what you could attribute the greatest influence on this system to, was huge, huge, huge.
But it's another type of food. It's entering your body. When you smell something, it's already entered your body. It's already interacting with your bloodstream, with your microbiota, with your body. The same. When you rub something on yourself, it only takes seconds for it to start entering your bloodstream and you start having an interaction. So this recognition of the environment is very important because everything in your environment is having an impact on your health, just like food. I've dedicated a lot to food, but I have to recognize that today food isn't everything. It's just a little bit. We put too much emphasis on food. And I have my third child and it's a company that works with food to promote health. But if I tell you everything, it's not everything.
