Learning so much - freaking out how i've abused my body for so long

beingfrugal

Since January (new year resolution) I have come a long way in changing things for the better. I changed my diet, take suppliments, quit the contraceptive pill and take regular exercise - school run, walk 4 miles a day instead of the car - everyday rain or shine.

I'm feeling more comfortable and very proud of my efforts and it's time to move on now. Last night I wanted to make 'me' healthier all round and embarked on a journey to educate myself about natural skincare - that developed very quickly into a hate for toxins/falling for advertising and annoyed for allowing myself to abuse my body while adding to the so called 'beauty' business.

I've been up since 5am reading up on toxins and now i'm left feeling so scared. finding out about bleached sanitary wear has pushed me over the edge. For 15 years every month for a week i've allowed my body to come into contact with dangerous toxins... and didn't have a clue - thought it was the norm.

I just don't know what to say now, don't know where to go from here - I just want to throw all my products out, clear my little girls so called children friendly products and buy new but i can't afford to do that.

I need a plan - I need coconut oil as moisturiser first up and a shampoo (looking on sosorganic and feel ok with spending a little extra money) Girls need need shampoo and bodywash.

What do I do? Waste money and just throw it out now and buy a bulk order that I can't afford? The thought of the nasty stuff filling my environment is getting me down to an little internal panic of some sort.

I don't think i'm asking for any advice, just emptying my head and hopefully find some sort of support I guess. I do actually feel quite alone and lost now, this is so alien to the way I have been forced to live the past year (£1 shop cleaning products, own brand nasties - my whole being has had to be as cheap as) Now i'm in the position where I can begin to rebuild financially but don't want to jump on any expensive bandwagon as I have learned the value of money and I will never fritter it away again... that'swhy throwing these products out is as painful as relising what is in them

Ken68

Soap and water...... and the exercise will clean your blood.
De-branding is also a mental stress, will all come good in the end.
You're on the right path, look at me, since I gave up lipstick, a new man.
:-)))) hope you realise that a joke.

esalad

Hi and well done! Its quite an eye opener when you find out about what goes into things and how consumers get conned into buying the same repackaged items over and over again.

But never fear you will get help here! Heres one or two suggestions I hope will help:

Ditch sanitary towels and get yourself a mooncup. Takes a bit of practice but will last you years and is so much better for you and the enviroment. I am allergic to the bleach in towels so this has helped me a lot.

Aqueous cream is a water based cream you can use instead or soap and moisturiser and its cheap and cheerful available at any chemist. A big pot costs a couple of quid and is gentle on all types of skins.

Avocado, Arachis (peanut) or almond oil is great as a bath additive for dry skins. Be careful that anyone that comes into contact with it does not have a nut allergy. Also dirt cheap and goes a long way.

For a good hair conditioner try an old fashioned egg and lemon treatment. Just mix egg and lemon juice together and slap it on. Particularily nice for blonde hair.

Hope this helps Ill add more as I think of them :beer:

ceridwen

Just to wish you luck with this.

I read those articles too and thought "Agh! 60% of this stuff is heading straight through my skin - surely not:eek:". But then I remembered that that is actually how some medicines are applied - ie put onto the skin to get absorbed into the body that way. So - er...yep.....or rather "Oh no".

One thing though - errr....how have you managed to give up taking the contraceptive Pill? Have you given up sex for Lent...and summer....and winter....and next Lent etc etc?

I didnt want to have to keep taking the Pill ad infinitum all those years back - but knew there was nothing else failsafe - so...got sterilised and that was an end of it:D. Is that what you have in mind? or are you going to trust to luck that Life wouldnt do that to you (ie an unplanned pregnancy)? - errr...yep...Life would...without summat suitably effective as a precaution otherwise...:cool:

Just a bit concerned ...and wondering whether you might need to revisit the idea of getting shot of taking that particular "bunch of chemicals" because needs must...

McKneff

Go down that road, by all means but please dont get obsessive about it.

beingfrugal

Hi all, thank you for your replies. I have calmed down somewhat. My main concern is the sanitary items so will begin my journey on that. I agree Mcneff, no need to make it into an obsession, will not do me anygood.

Hi ceridwen, about the pill. Well I decided that I had had enough of the pill altering my personality, my moods were bad enough but the anxiety and anger was getting too much. I've been free from the pill for 6 monhs now and will never go back to it.

I'm a married stay at home mum so should I fall pregnant it won't be the end of the world but I do not wish to no. We use condoms all through my cycle as it's not too regular just yet because of the pill. When things calm down and I have a fair idea of when i'm likely to ovulate i'll chart and follow natural charting/testing to check for ovulation and during the danger time we'll abstain just to be extra careful. We've vowed to use a condom everytime no matter where in the cycle I think I may be just to be sure and avoid altogether during ovulation.

This may be a fix for now but I can't find any other way than putting hormones into my body... I just cannot do it. Sterilising is not an option for us. Yes, what will be will be but i'll be damn careful and try to prevent it.

Ben84

While I do wonder about the contents of some household products, I'm quite sure that most products like bars of soap, shampoo, washing powder and hair styling products contain pretty harmless ingredients. The only hazard you're likely to encounter is a possible allergic reaction.

The claims that they contain toxins that collect in the body and cause seemingly unrelated illnesses are very questionable. Toxins in this sense is not a medical or scientific word, so what, if anything does it mean to call something a toxin? Besides, if the evidence that we're being poisoned by for example typical shampoo ingredients was anywhere as compelling as they usually suggest, these ingredients really wouldn't be in it.

Typically I find lists of the ingredients commonly in personal/household products with brief lists of the dangers associated with them. However, I seriously doubt a few of the claims, for example vitamin E by its alternative name is sometimes claimed to be toxic. As for the others, they can't just say that ingredient does something without telling us at what concentration, what application method and in what amount. It's meaningless without these extra details.

Acids are a perfect example of this. Acetic acid in low concentrations is a popular condiment commonly called vinegar, while at high concentrations it's a dangerous industrial chemical. The hazards of the concentrated stuff are not however reasons to stop enjoying vinegar or suspect it's bad for you.

I have not seen any 'toxin' claims that stated the concentration, quantity or amount that caused the adverse effect, very few that had sources of any type for the claim, and none that gave any evidence that typical products contained these ingredients at the levels associated with adverse reactions.

In the absence of this information, it's no more or less true or helpful than stating that an ingredient in vinegar, acetic acid dissolves skin or that vitamin C can kill you. True in a sense, but hardly rational representations of the situation or relative dangers/health effects of either compound in their typical forms.

I suspect a lot of the toxin claims start with companies who want us to buy expensive alternative products, and that they are further propagated by people who have become misled by the original claims.

Now I can certainly say a lot about the environmental impact of a typical packet of washing powder or face wash, from raw materials used to make it to what it does when you wash it down the sink, but for personal health impact these products are I'm sure safe to use.

ceridwen

One of the main concerns, as I see it, about chemicals in everything is that of the "cocktail" effect - where maybe one or two chemicals in isolation might be okay - but, in our everyday life, we are exposed to numerous chemicals in virtually everything. We have to watch the cosmetics and household cleaners we use, the food we eat, etc. Unfortunately - there is nothing much we can do on an individual level about the air we breathe and the water we drink (fluoride anyone?:eek:). Hence we need to minimise our "chemical load" in whatever ways we can and being careful what cosmetic products we use is one of them.

It might be all well and good if we could trust firms/the Government to look out for our interests. Well - we've just seen some "blinding" examples of various members of the Government turning out to be completely untrustworthy...

Also re firms - they will look out for their profits first and us only as a secondary consideration (if at all). As long as they can sell us their goods - they don't care. Obviously there are the really huge ones - like M*nsanto - determined to flog g*netically-m*dified produce off on us. But - I think we need to watch out for our own interests as consumers at every stage of the game even from many smaller ones.

...... ...whilst mentioning g*netically-m*dified food you might be interested to read an article on the www.gmwatch.org website:

http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/334-interview-about-attacks-on-gm-watch

(NB; the quickest way to get into this new website of theirs is via the link - its a lengthier process to get in the direct way via website name. Their old website was . . . . . . . destroyed by mysterious hackers.......... .........)

NualaBuala

Hi beingfrugal, no need to freak out. I think the easiest approach is just to make small changes as you go and find out what works for you.

I've beome more and more interested in this subject over the past 6 months.

I started making changes for environmental reasons but as I've read more I've come to feel it's a good thing for my health too.

I need to investigate further but I'm taking a cautious approach and minimising my contact with everyday chemicals unless I find evidence that they are safe in the quantities we're exposed to. I'd like to know more about how toiletries are assessed for safety - as far as I know, the cumulative effect isn't taken into account, as well as the fact that there are multiple sources for most chemicals - e.g. SLS is in shampoo, handwash, shower gel, washing up liquid, toothpaste, etc etc. And of course all the "natural" stuff is made of chemicals too but it's a lot easier to know what you're using and how much of it as it's just a single ingredient e.g. sodium bicarb. Another concern I have is labelling; because companies don't have to declare what they are using as perfume in their products, we don't know exactly what's in them.

I've found washing my hair with sodium bicarb and using vinegar as "conditoner" works fine. Coconut oil is great as a leave-in conditioner or for dry skin. I use olive and castor oil to clean and moisturise my face (OCM). I use very little shower gel when washing - water does the job fine really. When I've used up what I've got I'll probably use real soap. Soap nuts are great for laundry and I'll probably use them in the dishwasher once I've run out of commercial stuff. I'm looking into making my own deodorant but often just use a dusting of bicarb which seems fine - it doesn't stop me sweating but there is no smell. I think it might inhibit the bacteria that cause nasty odours. Am looking into toothpastes but in the meantime am using up what I've got.

I feel unsure about the menstrual cups - not sure of the environmental impact of manufacturing silicone. And even though they have a long lifespan, I have concerns about disposing of them. I haven't found anywhere to recycle them and obviously they are not biodegradable. And although they seem safe to use, I do have a few lingering doubts. I have the naturcare organic unbleached tampons for now which I can compost but I am looking into sponges, home made pads and tampons.

Edit: I really like your new siggy Ceridwen

alixia

Hi, well done!

I have done same think last March! I am living (almost) chemical free for 1 year:T! It is not cheap go this way.
I think that now I have found a middle way.

I am using chemical free soaps (you will be suprise what additives are in ordinary soaps!:eek:) from Pure nuff stuff.
Shampoo from Pure nuff stuff (and I love it)
toothpaste from Organic children
face cream - virgin coconut oil
make-up - from internet shop - Naturisimo (favourite is Lavera)
make-up remover - virgin olive oil
washing up liquid from bio D
washin liquid - bio D
for all cleaning I am using microfibre cloths
and off course I have Mooncup:T!

If I want to buy something I first put ingredients in google.
I just cant do it with my favourite chocolate:D

ceridwen

ALIXIA

Bit off topic here - but I see you are down as setting £15 per week for a food challenge and I would imagine you are planning on eating healthily (as in "really" healthily:D) for that. It would be interesting to have some links as to where you are posting about this to see how you manage to do this:D