Personal Care Item Dangers

Do you eat your moisturizer? How about your hair conditioner? Your body ‘eats’ everything it comes in contact with, whether you open your mouth and take a bite or not.

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. The skin on the human body is like a sponge. It absorbs everything it comes in contact with. This includes the chlorine in the swimming pool, or your bath/shower water as well as the petrochemicals and toxic waste used to make your foundation and lipstick.

Lipsticks are especially troublesome. We lick our lips, we bite our lips. Our food and beverages rub across our lips. How can we not imagine that some of that gets into our body? What are lipsticks made of? Many of them are loaded with cadmium, chromium, aluminum and at least five other metals. These ‘heavy metals’ have been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases. They can also contained lead, which is known to cause brain, cellular, and DNA damage. Since no level of lead exposure is considered safe for young children, this discovery is particularly concerning as many younger girls use lipstick with their friends when they play dress up and other childhood games. There are safe lipsticks on the market; you just have to know what to look for.

In the past, hair dyes have been linked to a host of cancers, including tumors of the breast, bladder, ovaries and the brain, and have been known to play a role in causing leukemia.

Besides the added cancer risk, scientists are concerned that an increasing number of people are becoming allergic to the contents of hair dyes, sometimes developing fatal reactions.

There are some natural hair dyes. We usually think of henna based products, but some of them are just as bad as the chemical versions.

Have you ever thought about the products that touch a woman’s most delicate and sensitive tissues on her body? Most women of child bearing age spend approximately one fourth of their lives trying to hide the ‘embarrassment’ of their monthly menstrual flow. Who can blame them? It looks like blood, and doesn’t always smell that great, either.

The problem lies in the products used.

Conventional tampons are typically manufactured using a blend of synthetic rayon and cotton because it's cheaper to produce than cotton alone and it has a higher capacity for absorbing liquid. Rayon is a cellulose fiber made from wood pulp. It has been associated with Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), a synthetic, potentially deadly, illness caused by bacteria associated with the use of tampons.

Conventional tampons and sanitary pads are bleached using chlorine dioxide. Conventional tampons contain pesticides. Conventional cotton, the most heavily sprayed crop in existence, is used in the tampons that women use each and every month. Tampons and pads with odor neutralizers and other artificial fragrances are nothing short of a chemical soup laced with artificial colors, polyester, adhesives, polyethylene (PET), polypropylene, and propylene glycol (PEG), contaminants linked to hormone disruption, cancer, birth defects, dryness, and infertility.

There are safer alternatives, but you need to do your homework.

Lubrication products, whether for the reproductive system, or just to make your hands and face feel smoother can have a big impact on your life, whether you are male or female. Parabens are found in most moisturizers. These are a petroleum product. They may alter hormones in women, specifically estrogen, and have been linked to breast cancer and skin cancer. They may cause or heighten allergic reactions such as rosacea and dermatitis. They have been shown to decrease sperm count in men. Parabens have been shown to contribute to problems in fetal development for pregnant women.

All natural oils, such as coconut or olive oil are great substitutes. Used in moderation coconut oil does not leave a greasy residue.

Soaps are another area of concern, including those used on your hair. Many contain a chemical called sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate. The lauryl version caused skin irritations. It has been replaced by the laureth version. Laureth cannot effectively be removed from the liver. Laureth can be stored stored in tissues and promote toxicity for a person's entire lifetime, draining them of energy.

There are lots of natural soaps and shampoos to choose from.

Many years ago the aluminum in anti-perspirants was linked to degenerative diseases of the brain, such as Alzheimer’s. Since then the chemicals in these products have gotten worse. The human body uses sweat as a method of detoxification. If we prevent this then we slow down the safety mechanism built into our bodies, and put more strain on the liver and kidneys. There are natural deodorants that allow us to sweat, but keeps the body odor away. There are even ones you can make at home. Try several because each one works slightly differently and some make work better for your body chemistry.

There are safer ways to do just about anything we are trying to do. We need to come out of autopilot at the store and begin to read labels and consider the long term effects of everything that touches our bodies. Some of them may be more costly, but how does that compare to the cost financially and emotionally of a devastating illness later in life?