Healthy Homes, Healthy Bodies

Stress accumulates in our body in many ways.

Our body does not care about the difference between financial stress, relationship stress, and stress from poor nutrition, posture or chemicals on our skin. It just adds it all up and produces a stress response, over producing stress hormones and creating poor health in the long term. So it makes sense to reduce the total load of our body’s, minds and souls sooner rather than later, to avoid stress buildup and the unwanted health effects. Cleaning up at home is an easy and effective starting point towards improved health for us and our families. Quite often if you have lived in a home for many years there are all sorts of old products deep in the kitchen and bathroom cupboards, garage, and laundry. Have a clean up and get rid of all the expired rubbish that you should not use. There are so many products in our homes these days, made from all sorts of chemical concoctions that can be carcinogenic, hormone disruptive and allergenic. And while there are also so many beautiful natural non-harmful products on the market, it is really worth changing our daily products over to those that are more in harmony with our health. The skin is the body’s primary defense against disease and infection; it also releases toxins, maintains temperature and prevents micro-organisms entering our body. Once thought of as an impermeable barrier, the skin is now used as a delivery systems for drugs, nicotine patches contraceptives and so on. So anything that we are putting on our skin once or twice a day, 365 times a year is certainly going to enter our bloodstream and affect our health. Soaps, bubble baths, moisturizers, make up, hair products, toothpaste, perfumes and after shaves, what we wash our clothes and dishes in, does not just stay on the surface of our body it soaks through our skin and affects our organs and overall health. If it is going on our skin, you might as well be drinking it!

You don’t need to go crazy and change everything all at once!

The average person can be using 10 to 20 products or more daily, so you don’t need to change everything at once. Simply replace each product as it runs out with a natural one. You will see that over a few months your home and your body will be much more eco-friendly, helping you and your family to reduce your total load on your health with a very small effort. Natural products used to be very expensive and hard to find, but happily those days are over. Now with so many natural products on the market they are competitively priced and can be easily bought at supermarkets, health food stores or chemists. Of course just like any product you can still pay a fortune if you choose. But there are many great cheaper versions which are just as good. Chemicals are so much a part of our daily life these days; we hardly give them a second thought. There are too many to list here, but here is one example of why it is important to be informed.

Propylene Glycol:

Found in everything from baby lotion to mascara. Used for: Delivery agent to drive products into the skin. Moisture-carrying agent and solvent. Concentrations in some deodorants are stronger than in industrial applications. Other uses: Anti-freeze, brake fluid, removing barnacles from boats. FDA regulations require protective clothing when handling this substance. Issues: Neurotoxin inhibits cell growth by directly altering cell membranes. Linked to contact dermatitis and liver abnormalities. Using things like this on our body’s everyday is devastating to our poor old livers detox duties.

Safe Products to Use

For natural skin care take a look at Sukin, Living Nature, Dr Hauscha, Natio Trilogy, and Akin Antipodes Bod. These are just a few brands that you will find many at supermarkets, chemists, farmers, organic or health food stores. Eco Store also has many lovely house care products, baby care, and gardening. GNLD has a great natural cleaning range also which you can find via www.hqh.com Google any of these products to find where to purchase close to you! Also check out the book “The safe shopper’s bible – consumer’s guide to Non toxic, household products, cosmetics and food!”  by David Steinman & Samuel S Epstein MD Environmental Working Group [[email protected]] Reference: Paul Chek, Holistic Lifestyle Coaching Level 3