Sunscreen

Posted on 19 March 2012 by Sarah

To be healthy our bodies need some time in the sun each day to get enough Vitamin D. It protects our skin from the sun as well as our bones from osteoporosis. Low Vitamin D levels have also been linked to about 16 different cancers including skin cancer, auto immune diseases, cardio-vascular disease, high blood pressure, poor cognitive function, dementia and predisposition to genetic or familial diseases. However, sunburn is never good and we need protection.

It is important to avoid sunscreens with Oxtinoxate, Octisalate, Oxybenzone or Homosalate. These chemicals are toxic and have high absorption rates through the skin. They work by absorbing UV rays before they reach the skin’s surface by converting it from light to heat energy. This is disturbing because if light is converted to heat in certain layers of the skin, it can cause damage to growing cells. These chemicals act as either irritants, allergens, hormone disruptors or carcinogens. Nothing good about any of those!

There are only a few active sunscreen ingredients that effectively block both UVA and UVB rays. The only ones that are both safe and effective for UVA and UVB protection are Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide, which do not penetrate the skin. They block or reflect the sun. No other sun blocking agents are both safe and totally effective.

Your best bet is an Organic Sunscreen which will provide a reflective barrier against sun damage using zinc oxide or titanium oxide and they are chemical free. They will not contain any chemical UV absorbers, synthetic preservatives, benzoates, petrochemical, artificial fragrances, artificial flavours or colour and other harmful chemicals. For great organic sunscreens with full UV spectrum and SPF 30+ protection, Soleo Organics All Natural Sunscreen, UV Natural Sunscreen and WotNot Organic Sunscreen are great choices.

Another option is to buy good quality zinc oxide at your local grocery store in the baby care section. Nappy rash creams are usually pure zinc oxide. You can mix this zinc oxide with your favorite body lotion or body butter for a safe and effective sunscreen.

We can still have fun in the sun as long as we minimise sun exposure, wear a hat, slip on a shirt and protect ourselves with chemical free sunscreen

Quest For The Right Face Moisturiser

Posted on 21 February 2012 by Sarah

I read through the looong ingredients list in my wonderful French face moisturiser just to see… and I was shocked! There were a few good things in there, but a lot of them were unnecessary chemical fragrances and things that were questionable and may be harmful to me. Enough of that!

We all know that finding the right moisturiser is imperative. You can not get it wrong! So when I started looking in to chemical free alternatives to the face moisturiser I was using, I was a bit nervous… there was a great chance of having horrible skin for a few weeks, which is never fun!

I would consider my skin to be a combination. There are some oily bits, some dry bits and I do have a few break outs at times. After researching the ingredients on many different face moisturisers, I started to try them. There were horrible ones!! But after working my way through them, I have found the one I love that is working really well for me. It is called Botáni Boost Balancing Moisturiser. It is so light and just soaks in to the skin like you have nothing on.

They say the following about it – and I can tell you first hand it is true!

pH balanced for optimal skin health
Non-clogging and non-oily
Ideal under make-up
Enriched with Australian Lemon-scented Tea-tree oil for its antibacterial properties
Antibacterial properties to help prevent blemishes
Locks moisture into the skin using Olive Squalene and Jojoba Oil
Soothes minor shaving irritations (for men)
Boosts skin elasticity
Softens the skin, smoothing fine lines

I use it day and night, it is a third of the price of my old moisturiser (don’t tell my husband!) and I think my skin is healthier than it has ever been before. Worth the switch!

My Healthy Home

Posted on 11 February 2012 by Sarah

I want to do as much as I possibly can to protect myself and my family from hazardous chemicals. Dr. Myron Wentz and his son Dave Wentz wrote the book ‘The Healthy Home – Simple Truths to Protect Your Family From Hidden Household Dangers’. It is a straight forward book, with interesting facts and simple solutions that will help me on my quest.

Going through the house, room by room, ‘The Healthy Home’ pinpoints surprising health risks and got me thinking about my own home and habits through the quizzes after each section. The solutions are basic, to minimize exposure to toxins, without foregoing convenience.

Wentz explains that taking care of our teeth and gums is very important, but each time we unknowingly introduce toxins directly into our mouths. Every tube of toothpaste containing fluoride, has a warning on it telling us not to swallow any and mouthwashes contain the same germ killers as our bathroom disinfectants. There are also warnings on their bottles telling us not to swallow, but they have already been absorbed though the soft tissue in our mouths! Luckily there are some natural and healthier alternatives out there for us to use.

Another example is plastic in every room of our home. Plastic is the common term given to a range of synthetic and semi-synthetic solids including nylon, PVC, polystyrene and polycarbonate. The most common materials used to make plastics are crude oil and natural gas and then they are modified with chemical additives to make them the right colour, weight, flexibility and heat resistant etc. These chemicals will leach out of the plastic and some are highly toxic. We are breathing them in, eating them and they are soaking into our skin all the time. It is important to learn how to use plastic in a way that will minimise toxins being emitted and try to avoid it where possible.

Reading the ‘The Healthy Home’ is a good start to making some changes. It will be too late if we wait for scientific methods to verify claims. We need to trust our intuition make changes for a better future now. Even small changes every day will add up and make an incredible difference in the long run… and it is worth it.

Slow Death by Rubber Duck

Posted on 5 February 2012 by Sarah

My eyes have been opened after reading the book ‘Slow Death by Rubber Duck – How the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health’. This is the first book I have read on this subject and I have begun to see the severity of the chemicals we are exposed to, that we are not even aware of.

The authors, Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, used their own bodies’ as laboratories as they ingested and inhaled a range of things that we are surrounded by at home and in our work places all the time. The outcomes of their experiments are surprising and just plain frightening. They test tuna, chemicals in clothes and furniture, toxins in plastics, kid’s toys and personal care products.

Phthalates are a class of more than a dozen chemicals used in vinyl children’s toys, sofas, personal care products and many other household products. Global phthalate production is estimated to be more than 8.1 billion kilograms a year. They keep things soft and rubbery, help lubricate other substances and make the fragrance in things last longer. So the bad news is that we definitely have phthalates in us and they are hormone disrupting and have been linked to a number of serious reproductive problems. The good news is that they do break down in our bodies and the environment, so we can get rid of them. Smith tried to clear his body of phthalates before his test and then for 48 hours he used shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, cologne, deodorant and anti-bacterial hand soap, all containing phthalates. To give you an example, Smith’s reading of MEP which is a phthalate connected to male reproductive problems, was 64 ng/mL before the experiment and after 48 hours it was 1410 ng/mL. We are using these things every day without even thinking!!

Most of us like to eat fish… especially tuna. I grew up on tuna mayonnaise sandwiches and I loved them! During his experiment, Lourie eats seven tuna meals/snacks in three days and he more than doubles his mercury levels in his blood. Although we don’t all eat that much tuna in such a short period of time. it is still a scary thought. Mercury is one of the most potent neurotoxins known – it attacks the brain. Too much mercury and people can get emotional, depressed, have loss of memory or ‘brain fog’, get irritable and unsociable… with no idea why! Without regulations on mercury emissions, this important food source will continue to be poisoned. It is important we take fish oil that has been mercury tested and try to limit the high mercury fish we eat.

So, the biggest thing I have learnt from reading ‘Slow Death by Rubber Duck’ is this…we cannot wait for our governments to impose limits on chemicals, it is up to us to stay informed and take control of what we expose ourselves to. As scary as the facts are, we can start cleaning up our act and make a difference in our own lives – it is that easy. I am not going to be a guinea pig anymore! I highly recommend reading this book.

Unnatural Need For Clean

Posted on 22 January 2012 by Sarah

Our bodies, when healthy, are beautifully designed to handle germs. This is because the germs in our homes are ‘our germs’ and there is no problem with the familiar. We don’t need to live in a scrubbed down sterilized little bubble.

Catching a cold can be inconvenient, but it is better than developing some sort of disease from the over use of antibacterial cleaners. We use sterilising products in our home to avoid a cold or flu, but those products don’t just go away in a few days. They are so potent – they have to be toxic in order to kill the germs and at the same time, the molecules you find on your skin and in your lungs. We come in to contact with this stuff, touching and breathing it in the name of our health! You would think our eyes watering and nose burning is enough of an alarm bell. These are natural warning signs and our bodies are saying “Step away, now!” We should not be battling with toxic fumes just to be certain that a product is effective.

We want to believe what the advertisers say because cleaning is a pain – it feels as though we are being punished and it takes away from our play time. We are always hoping that a new product is going to make cleaning less time consuming and less annoying. But why just because a product smells bad or it is bright blue or we have to use a mask and gloves, do we believe that it is more effective than what our ancestors used to use?

Chemical cleaning products add toxins to our homes and encourage the uncontrolled spread of resistant superbugs. We don’t even know how dangerous they are because there are too many chemicals to be tested for safety. Of course we wouldn’t want to slow advancement down by doing time consuming tests on everything! The government chooses economy over our health and future. These toxins are constantly building up in our bodies. We don’t have the time to wait for a scientist to figure out the actual effects these chemicals are having on our bodies. We need to make important changes now.

You might not be licking your bathroom tiles or drinking your window cleaner, but particles from the cleaning products you use are still entering your blood stream. They are absorbed through your skin on your hands as you scrub tiles or wipe the kitchen bench top, on your feet when you walk on the floors and on the rest of your body while you soak in the bath. We should be cleaning with ingredients that have been used for hundreds of years and have shown no known toxic effects. Simple.