Body products, perfumes and home cleaning products have been on my list throughout
the years to minimize, define and research. Early on I was told what to put on and keep off of my skin by a sincerely misinformed dermatologists. In search of core issues to my acne problems and what I should put on my skin I came across much needed insight from studies that revealed to me that my skin problems were not because I was an adolescent, not because my hair sometimes touched my face and not from sleeping on the side of my face on my pillow at night (surprisingly lines fed to me by qualified dermatologists). With all this informations, I have shed so much excess off our home cleaning products, what we use on our bodies and what we use for perfume.
Itchiness became something normal to my husband and I over the years, so much so, that I had hardly noticed it wasn't. There's nothing better than grading a freshly dried batch of laundry warm from the dryer, except if you washed it in commercial detergent and dried it with dryer sheets. You see these products most commonly contain SLS and other skin irritants and unnecessary toxins. The greater population are beginning to become very aware of these toxins and beginning to educate themselves on becoming for intelligent label readers.
"Putting chemicals on your skin or scalp, such as getting a hair dye, may actually be worse than eating them. When you eat something, the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help to break it down and flush it out of your body. However, when you put these chemicals on your skin, they are absorbed straight into your bloodstream without filtering of any kind, going directly to your delicate organs. Once these chemicals find their way into your body, they tend to accumulate over time because you typically lack the necessary enzymes to break them down. There are literally thousands of chemicals used in personal care products, and the U. S. government does not require any mandatory testing for these products before they are sold."-Mercola
Sodium lauryl sulfate is a surfactant, detergent, and emulsifier used in thousands of cosmetic products, as well as in industrial cleaners. It is present in nearly all shampoos, scalp treatments, hair color and bleaching agents, toothpastes, body washes and cleansers, make-up foundations, liquid hand soaps, laundry detergents, and bath oils/bath salts.
According to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews, 6 research studies on SLS have shown links to:
Irritation of the skin and eyes
Organ toxicity
Developmental/reproductive toxicity
Neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, ecotoxicology, and biochemical or cellular changes
Possible mutations and cancer
"Remember, your skin is your largest organ -- and also the thinnest. Less than 1/10th of an inch separates your body from potential toxins. Worse yet, your skin is highly permeable. Most items you rub on your skin will end up in your bloodstream, and will be distributed throughout your body. This is why I'm so fond of saying "don't put anything on your body that you wouldn't eat if you had to..." and a petrochemical is certainly not something you would eat! Putting chemicals on your skin may actually be worse than eating them. When you eat something, the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help to break it down and flush it out of your body. However, when you put these chemicals on your skin, they are absorbed straight into your bloodstream without filtering of any kind, going directly to your delicate organs. And once these chemicals find their way into your body, they tend to accumulate over time because you typically lack the necessary enzymes to break them down. When you add up daily exposure over the course of a lifetime, it really adds up!"-Mercola
"Skin is our largest organ—adults carry some 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) and 22 square feet (2 square meters) of it. This fleshy covering does a lot more than make us look presentable. In fact, without it, we'd literally evaporate."-National Geographic
Most perfumes, moisturizers, sunscreens, soaps and other body products have been know to be loaded with chemicals that disrupt your body's natural hormone balance which can lead to a multitude of unnecessary issues like weight gain, heart disease, damaged fetal development, heart failure, hormone disfunction, skeletal muscle failure. With skin being our largest organ, we need to do our best to nourish it with knowledge and protect it from mass product marketing with no consumer accountability. It's no longer a time to take big brand name's word for it.
"Researchers at the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based nonprofit, released their annual report claiming nearly half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products may actually increase the speed at which malignant cells develop and spread skin cancer because they contain vitamin A and its derivatives, retinol and retinyl palmitate. Furthermore, the FDA has known about the dangers of vitamin A in sunscreens since ordering a study 10 years ago, but has done nothing to alert the public of the dangers."-Dr. Mercola.
I used to love perfumes like Angel, Pink Sugar and a few more until I started detoxing common products out of my life. I became more aware of my sensitivities to certain things like a sneeze after a spray of perfume or itchy skin after scooping up a fresh load of laundry. Parabens and SLS were making themselves known and began researching them.
"Fragrances can be full of toxic or dangerous chemicals – or contain mystery ingredients you can’t discover. According to Style Bistro, perfume ingredients are protected under the U.S. Fair Packaging and Label Act because they are considered trade secrets, and thus, do not need to be disclosed. Fragrant colognes and scents are not the only products to contain toxic perfume chemicals. Scented items range from laundry detergent to sanitary pads, not to mention chemical mixtures such as Febreeze, scented candles and air fresheners that can contribute to toxic overload for our families. Let’s discover what sorts of toxins are hiding in fragrances and the damage they can do to your family."-Gina Badalaty
How much is too much?
On a daily basis, you can absorb almost five pounds of chemicals and toxins into your body each year. Daily use of ordinary, seemingly benign personal care products like toothpaste, shampoo and liquid soaps can easily result in exposure to thousands of chemicals, and many will make their way into your body and become "stuck" there, since you lack the means to break them down. This toxic load can become a significant contributing factor to health problems and serious diseases, especially if your diet and exercise habits are lacking.
So what can we do to simplify and detox our lives? Do you really need 30 products to get through your daily life? Work on finding products that have less ingredients and minimize your daily product routine. Purchase and store your products in glass as harmful chemicals such as BPA can leach out of plastics and into your products. Replenish your body with lots of water and fresh green juices to help your body detox daily.
Below is a quick way to detox your life and things we have implemented in our home that has seemed to serve us well!
Laundry:
White Vinegar
Whites-hydrogen peroxide
All purpose cleaner:
vinegar spray
hydrogen peroxide spray
Fragrances:
Essential Oils of your choosing. Be sure to read of safety as most of them need a carrier oil (we use cold pressed, unrefined organic coconut oil) for skin application.
Moisturizer:
Coconut oil
Olive Oil
Sunscreen:
Coconut Oil
One thing I always ask myself about what to put on my skin is, can I safely eat this? That helps me cut through the garbage served up on grocery shelves more efficiently as I shop. I really love that EWG’s Skin Deep database has a place where you can check out the integrity of products! I encourage you to screen everything you put your hard earned money to while supporting companies with integrity!
As you read you may plainly see the research goes on and on and I encourage you to look further into it. Take note of these crazy ingredients and look them up. See what science has unveiled of their attack on our bodies. Sure they are small doses, a constant drip into our DNA...but with most studies, you can see how they don't detox well, build up and can be passed onto our children.
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