Tuesday, February 28, 2012

#26 - How to detoxify our lives!!!

Well ladies and gentleman:

I am long overdue for a new blog entry.  So here it is.  This blog shares all the changes I have made and am still working on making.  But what's more important, it shares lots of information on all the CHEMICALS in our lives!

Did you know the average woman is putting over 200 chemicals on/in her body everyday between her shampoo, conditioner, soap, cosmetics, lotions, etc.  And I'm sure men are not far behind, even though they are fortunate to not be exposed to the chemicals in cosmetics, unless of course they use them as well.

As a quick note, before I get into the nitty gritty, I should note that I DO NOT suggest that you go gung-ho like I have and revamp your entire household in just a month or so.  Obviously, that would be quite expensive to do! 

The reason I am doing so is tied to direct health issues that I have been working very hard on improving through homeopathic medicine, acupuncture, chiropractor, energy healing (all of which I receive from my wonderful husband/wife team Dr. Robert Selig and his wife, Maria at Back Up Therapeutic located in Chicago, IL), improved diet (included no meat and limited dairy - i.e. hormone free diet) and most recently I have started seeing an "integrative internist", Dr. Danuta Hoyer at Comprehensive Center for Women's Health in the Raby Institute located in Chicago, IL (for a holistic and Western approach to my medical needs) and an "integrative gynecologist", Dr. Katherine Thurer at the Raby Institute located in Chicago, IL (for a holistic and Western approach to my feminine needs) and a "naturopath", Dr. Lik at the Raby Institute located in Chicago, IL (for a holistic approach to supplements I need) and a "body talk" specialist, Tom Flesch at the Raby Institute in Chicago, IL (body talk is used to verbally reprogram your brain, i.e. your body's computer, to do what you need it to do to help your body heal itself).  As you may or may not know from my extensive blog on "homeopathy" (see blog #17), I shared my story of my personal health journey with uteran fibroids and anemia........ hence all the doctors I am seeing to work together to compliment both Eastern and Western practices.  I know I am on the right path and already have been having great results over the past 2 years with the assistance of my homeopathic doctors (starting in March of 2010).  As of Jan. of 2012, I added all the other specialists that are located at the Raby Institute and "fired" my regular "internist" and I "fired" my regular OB/GYN.  It was time to find doctors that not only knew Western medicine but had gone back to school to learn about "nutrition" and "integrative healthcare" (i.e. - doctors that not only know how to prescribe drugs, recommend blood transfusions or surgeries - but doctors that have now also learned about natural supplements, testing hormones, intravenous iron in lieu of blood transfusions and know about an overall "holistic" approach to our well being first and foremost before pushing the typical Western methods as the only options out there).

So here we go............. LET's TALK ABOUT DETOXIFYING OUR LIVES!!!!

My suggestion for the average person is to start to "phase out" the chemicals in your lives.  How?  Well, next time you run out of shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, feminine products, laundry detergent, cosmetics, lotions, etc, as you run out of each, look into finding "toxic free" and "chemical free" products that you can replace them with.  Also, consider buying filters for your shower and your sink to eliminate the "chlorine" and if possible, also the "fluoride".

THERE IS A LOT TO LEARN HERE, so truly, I suggest you take your time and revisit this blog when you have the time to sit and read up on all the various toxins that are in our households and how we can eliminate them all.  Dr. Mercola's website offers a plethora of information and videos on all of his products explaining exactly WHY certain everyday items/products we use are bad for us.  Whether or not your purchase items/products from his website, you can definitely do the research needed by listening to his videos, reading his extensive information on each of these topics and then seeing where you can purchase those items online.  Some products he offers, I could not find elsewhere, but there are some products/items that I could find on eBay or other websites for a little less.  It's all about research and making sure that you UNDERSTAND what to AVOID and what you WANT to be in a particular item/product..... a lot of which you can learn through his extensive website.

Below is information on what I've done so far and what I'm still working on.  I've given links with wonderful videos and written information.  As of the beginning of 2012, I started making these changes.

First, I started phasing out all the crap I put on my skin.  I got rid of ALL the lotions for face, body, eyes and replaced them with all natural oils (blends of oils such as: apricot kernel oil, organic castor oil, sweet almond oil, organic sesame oil, organic lemongrass essential oil, organic eucalyptus essential oil, organic lime peel essential oil, organic tea tree essential oil and organic sandalwood essential oil - I buy this blend from my homeopaths office and I use it all over my body, face, feet, etc.... and I also use magnesium oil on any areas that I have health issues with and/or pains in my body.... and I sometimes slather myself with organic coconut oil which smells fabulous but can't be mixed with other oils as it changes it's state depending on temperature so in cool room temp it will be hard but in warmer room temp it will be soft and/or liquid.).

So now I moved onto the next phase of changing what I put on my skin and I just got all natural shampoo, conditioner, soap, body soap, organic cotton tampons and organic cotton pads/liners (did you know the stuff they sell us in the stores is NOT made of cotton, it's made from "wood".... oh yeah, hence it's actually agitating our system - watch Dr. Mercola's video on it, it's shocking), shower filter (eliminates chlorine) and sink filter (also eliminates chlorine) .... though my next filters will come from "Omica" instead of Dr. Mercola because Omica carries filters that eliminate not only chlorine but also fluoride.

Here's a link to Dr. Mercola's goodies (just scroll down past the banner on the top and click on "personal care" to see all the products I talked about above:  http://products.mercola.com/

BTW, have you ever Googled "fluoride and Hitler".... um, interesting stuff there, check it out.... and if you didn't know, you should know that all of our water system has fluoride in it and so does all the name brand toothpastes (except for the children's brands, go figure, cuz it's BAD for you).... I buy "Tom's fluoride-free" toothpaste but will be trying Dr. Mercola's fluoride-free toothpaste soon.  Dr. Mercola is amazing and he's local to us in Aurora, IL.  He's been featured in numerous top magazines and is a plethora of knowledge on whole health care, supplements and getting rid of toxins in our life.... and he sells many products to help us do so.

Here's a link to info on "fluoride and Hitler" (things that make you go hmmmm..... so why, do they have fluoride in our water supply in the US???):


The next phase was cleaning products, so I did a lot of research on how to make your own cleaning products and then also found some chemical free products that include essential oils ("Method" is a mainstream brand you may have heard of that states that are chemical free but as I read through the detailed listed, at first very excited, then I found there were some questionable things such as using possibly GMO (genetically modified) corn and I forgot one of the acronyms for a particular chemical that research hasn't quite proven that it's bad for us..... yet.... so I prefer to stay away from all "maybes" and stick with basic, all natural, plant derived products). 

Here's a great website on how to do-it-yourself (DIY) with some very basic natural products that most of us already have in our homes: http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm

I haven't tried making my own yet to be honest, instead I've started out with this all natural, plant derived (with essential oils) line of cleaning products: http://www.goldcanyon.com/Shop/All-Products/pl/262

And then I found all natural leather cleaner and moisturizer: http://www.bee-natural.com/cgi-bin/web_store/web_store.cgi?product=furniture&category=yes&cart_id=6602433_5407

I got the "furniture amour" and the "leather finish" from the website above.

While I haven't tried making my own leather cleaners here's a great website on how to DIY: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/homemade-leather-cleaner-and-conditioner.html

My next step to well being is working on changing my bed linens to 100% organic wool and changing my cookware to ceramic.  I found great information on both on Dr. Mercola's site.  Expensive, but I have a plan.......... gonna sell a bunch of stuff around the house I no longer use that I know others will and viola, I'll have at least half my budget for this next investment.

Just scroll past the banner and click on "household" to see the many options: http://products.mercola.com/

From Dr. Mercola's site, I have already bought the "sun alarm clock" (that video is sooooooooo worth watching, I actually got the clock on eBay for $20 less, btw) and I've bought his water and shower filters (but like I said, next time I will be check out "Omica" for their filters that also get rid of fluoride, not just chlorine.  I also bought and air purifier that gives off negative ions (found one for much less on eBay) and it is making a big difference to how my air feels when I breath it in my bedroom.  I've also bought his laundry detergent, bath care, hair care, feminine products and numerous supplements like: melatonin, vitamin d, probiotics, etc.  Love his website and all his videos and tons of info.

My next mission, as I mentioned, is to buy the ceramic cookware and the wool bedding from his website and the "aroma turbo oven" that you can use instead of horrible microwaves. 

Oh and I cook with Himalayan salt all the time and start my day off with it every day.  Check out my blog entry on table salt vs. sea salt vs. Himalayan salt, check it out, quite fascinating: http://www.sunshineandvitality.blogspot.com/2011/04/table-salt-mortons-vs-sea-salt-vs.html

As an added bonus, I go and pump my own FREE spring water from a spring right here in Chicago (it's closed for the winter now, so for now I get the water from a machine at Whole Foods, but I'd prefer fresh spring water that hasn't been processed in any way).  Check out how to "find a spring near you" which will help you find a spring ANYWHERE across the ENTIRE NATION: http://www.sunshineandvitality.blogspot.com/2011/04/6-find-spring-near-you-get-free-water.html

So now we get to cosmetics, did you know how many toxins are in the average cosmetics and even companies like Mary Kay who claim that are offering non-toxic or better options (who are not necessarily doing so). 

I've done lots of research, so check out what I've found below.  Of course, I know the average consumer has not realized yet and therefore has no concern for the fact that the majority of cosmetics we use are very harmful to our health, but I feel, we should all be educated about the toxins found in cosmetics.  Luckily, I rarely wear make up, only for special occasions, so I can honestly say I might buy one new item of make-up once every 1-3 years and I might wear make up at best, 1-5 times a year, whereas the average woman wears it 5-7 days a week, so this should be of even greater concern to the average woman.

So here's a lot of info. I've found on the topic that I think will interest most of you and enlighten you about how much toxins there truly are in most cosmetics.

This is a great article that enlightens us on how many chemical toxins we've put in our body on average per day from all of the lotions, creams, shampoos, conditioners, body scrubs, cosmetics, etc, etc, that we use regularly, it's quite alarming: http://toxicfreeawareness.com/2010/09/11/organic-and-toxin-free-cosmetics/

This website has great information on what toxins to avoid in cosmetics and how/where you can find toxic-free organic cosmetics: http://www.essential-organic-living.com/organic-makeup.html

This is a blog entry I found that has some interesting info:
http://www.healthy-communications.com/8coschemicals.htm


This article talks about the "Campaign for Safe Cosmetics" that was started in 2001 and guess what, Mary Kay doesn't want to sign it.  So obviously, they are not making a complete effort to be toxin free as per the guidelines that Europe established long before the US decided to start this "campaign" to get cosmetic companies on board in following the same guidelines:  http://safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=281

This website lets you look up different cosmetic lines and check the amount of toxins in their products.  Here's the main website page to check all cosmetic lines on: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/search.php?hq=Mary+Kay&search_group=everything&ptype2=

Here's a link to an amazing website with all sorts of essential oils and other great natural products: http://www.livinglibations.com/

Article re top cosmetic companies resume cruel animal testing: http://www.naturalnews.com/035078_cosmetic_companies_animal_testing_cruelty.html

So where am I going to get my replacement toxin-free, organic cosmetics from???  Well, gonna do more research but here's some links I've found so far: http://www.google.com/search?q=toxin+free+cosmetics&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADRA_en

The link re "Make-Up Junkie - Top Toxin Free Beauty Brands" is probably the first one I will search on that list in the link above.

Here it is, I've done lots more research and am about to do another blog entry on all the goodies that I have tried so far for my hair, make-up and nails.  But as a quick reference, here's some GREAT websites to check into (if you check out my blog #28 you will see more details on all the products I have bought so far from these sites):

http://www.justnaturalskincare.com/hair/thick-ALL-products.html

http://www.100percentpure.com/

Here's info on my new favorite website for ALL NATURAL, completely CHEMICAL-FREE and TOXIN-FREE make-up, make-up remover, nail polish and nail polish remover (the only products I do NOT suggest from their site are ones that list "hydrogenated oil" as an ingredient as truly that's a modified oil that is one step from "plastic" so if we're trying to be all-natural, why would we want that on our face? The rest are fabulous).  http://www.suvarna.co.uk/

The above is a UK based website, so if you'd like to check out how much you would actually be paying in dollars, here's a convenient link to convert pounds to dollars (no surprises that way): http://www.unitconversion.org/currency/british-pounds-to-us-dollars-conversion.html



Hope you enjoy all the info. I shared.  As consumers of the free world, we need to stick together, support each other and always enlighten each other as well.  I hope that the info. I have shared here has done that for you.

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