We all make health choices every day. We make these choices both consciously and subconsciously. Why not take control of our health as best we can and decide that beginning today, we will make the best conscious choices that we can so that we can lead a healthy and happy life?
What kind of choices do we make, and how can we change them to increase our health?
Today, let’s consider the largest organ in the human body; our skin. We voluntarily apply a cocktail of chemicals on our skin every day. Starting with our morning shower, we lather our entire bodies with shower gels filled with a myriad of chemicals. Many of us then move on to applying deodorant, makeup and moisturizers with – you guessed it – more chemicals!
We all learned in our first year of high school chemistry that the mixing different chemicals together can cause dramatic unintended reactions. Now take those same chemicals, mix and store them in a human body and what we come up with is an unknown. With the plethora of various products that many of us use on a daily basis, it seems prudent to avoid as many chemicals as is possible and make more natural choices.
The U.S Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says “Most chemicals are readily absorbed through the skin and can cause other health effects and/or contribute to the dose absorbed by inhalation of the chemical from the air. Many studies indicate that absorption of chemicals through the skin can occur without being noticed by the worker. In many cases, skin is a more significant route of exposure than the lung.” You can read the full story here.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states “It needs to be recognized that emerging technologies such as nanoparticles may have unanticipated toxicological consequences following contact with the skin.” More and more skincare products are now coming into the market that have nanoparticles as an ingredient.
How can we both take care of our personal hygiene and drastically lower the amount of chemicals that we put on our skin? We need to become label readers. If our soaps, deodorants, makeup and moisturizers have a long list of chemicals in the ingredients, find other products that are more natural.
Also, unless you sleep in a bed made of garden compost, most of us really only need a good rinsing off in the morning to remove any perspiration that we accumulated during the night. Of course we will still want to use a skin friendly soap on the critical areas of the body like genitalia, underarms and feet. Thoroughly rinse off the rest of your body, and you’ll be as fresh as you were before when we covered every inch of our skin with soap. Most soaps also have a drying effect on the skin, which can lead to cracks that can allow easier entry for chemicals, bacteria and germs to enter into the body.
We also expose our skin to chemicals from our clothing and bed sheets. Laundry soaps can leave a chemical residue behind that stays in contact with our skin for twenty four hours. Again, let’s all be label readers and choose products that are more natural.
Many experts believe that absorbing chemicals through the skin is much more dangerous than it would be to actually eat them. The primary reason behind this thinking is that if these chemicals were ingested through the mouth, the enzymes in our saliva and the digestive power of our stomachs would partially break them down. Chemicals absorbed through the skin can enter into our bloodstream directly and end up residing in our internal organs without being broken down.
All of this being said, not everything that comes into contact with our skin makes it through all of our skin layers to enter the bloodstream. There are many unknowns about how and which chemicals can be absorbed, and ultimately what the effects are once they are in our bloodstream and internal organs. We believe that it is always best to err on the side of caution. Choose products that are more natural in their composition. Yes these products may cost more per item than those loaded with potentially harmful chemicals, but our health is more important than this small price difference. Think of this as an effective way to control your health costs. By paying a little bit more per item now, we may be saving thousands of dollars in future healthcare treatments and prescription drugs, and at the same time we’ll enjoy more healthy bodies all of the years in between!