Body Care Ingredients that Kill

Here are some of the toxic ingredients to watch out for when purchasing body care products (in no particular order):

Parabens (aka: Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben): These are preservatives that give your products (but not your body) a longer shelf life. If you're like me, and go through a bottle of lotion a month, you don't need preservatives. So get rid of 'em. Parabens are also known to cause estrogen dominance in rats. As I said before, estrogen dominance can lead to annoying conditions like melasma, and horrific diseases like breast cancer.

Synthetic Colors: These are the dyes used to make the product look good in the bottle, or match the label. Don't fall for the trick I did and assume that the lotion is the color of melon because it comes from melonballs. It doesn't. These colors are chemically manufactured and suspected of being carcinogenic. On top of that, they are typically deceptively listed as FD&C or D&C, followed by a color and a number (example FD&C Red No. 6). So keep your eyes peeled.

Fun side note: There is obviously synthetic color in lipstick/gloss. A few years ago, researchers estimated that women ingest approximately 2 ½ pounds of lipstick (along with their synthetic colors) over a 20-year period. So next time you see a gal with lipstick on her teeth, hook her up with some notice. You'll save a life.

Synthetic Fragrances: These chemicals, which are often made up of 200 or more ingredients in and of themselves, are designed to make your products smell good.

However, according to a 1986 report by the US House of Reps, Committee on Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences targeted synthetic fragrances as one of the six categories of chemicals that should be given high priority for neurotoxicity testing. The report states that 95 percent of chemicals used in fragrances are synthetic compounds derived from petroleum. They include benzene derivatives, aldehydes, and many other known toxics and sensitizers, which are capable of causing cancer, birth defects, central nervous system disorders and allergic reactions.

If you're someone who suffers from migraines, like me, you know this is true. One whiff of someone's synthetic floral perfume and I'm on the way to the ER.

A few years ago, I was on a flight behind a woman who doused herself before takeoff and I thought I was going to pass out. I was so pissed I kicked her seat for two hours straight.

Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate (SLS): This is the toxin that gives your products their lathering capability. It's found in toothpaste, shampoo, shaving gel/cream and definitely in bubble bath. SLS is one of the most dangerous ingredients because it can penetrate the skin easily and has the ability to live in tissues and organs (including the brain and liver) for a long period of time (see The Journal of the American College of Toxicology).

If that's not enough to convince you, it also causes hair loss and skin irritation.

When you switch over to non SLS-containing products, you might be annoyed at first because the lather is really convenient. Just remember that dying young is really inconvenient.

Phthalates: My healer always told me that if I couldn't pronounce an ingredient, I shouldn't use or eat it. This is an example of one.

Phthalates are chemical compounds that are used as plasticizers (and are most commonly found in fragrances). In multiple studies on animals, they were shown to cause endocrine disruption (this means thyroid and reproductive problems!), kidney problems and/or liver damage. Oh, and smaller penises.

In 2007, California banned the use of phthalates in toys and Congress followed suit in 2009.

Mineral Oil (aka: Liquidum Paraffinum, Paraffin wax, Petrolatum): Although it sounds quite herbal, it's actually a petroleum byproduct that serves as a coolant and lubricant. Manufacturers like it because it's really cheap.

The problem with mineral oil, however, is that it coats the skin like plastic, which inhibits its ability to breathe and detoxify the body. So essentially it's a double whammy - a toxin that traps other toxins. When the body is contaminated with too many toxins, a variety of conditions appear - from autoimmune disorders, to thyroid dysfunction, to cancer.

Moreover, mineral oil causes the skin to age prematurely, which results in more brown spots and wrinkles. It also causes severe acne because it traps bacteria on the surface of the skin.

So, mineral oil is clearly out.

Propylene Glycol (aka: Butylene Glycol): Propylene glycol is responsible for maintaining the base and consistency in a lot of potions, from deoderant to body cream. It's the most controversial of the ingredients because even popular all natural product manufacturers argue that it's non toxic. Plus it's all-natural counterpart - vegetable glycerin - is less than satisfactory for some users, although I don't mind it at all.

Proponents of the use of PG argue that people are confusing it with ethylene glycol, which is a known toxin and typically not found in body care products. Opponents of its use argue that it causes severe allergic reactions and acne.

Personally, since I don't mind the vegetable glycerin, and I'm trying to reduce the load on my vital organs, I'm ditching this one too.

Anyway, what's most fascinating and disgusting about my skin care discoveries is that the majority of the harmful ingredients we are using are actually banned in other countries, including most of Europe. But the products that contain them - the yummy lotions and trendy face creams - still exist in other places, just in a less synthetic form.

So why are we exposed to all the toxins? The answer is not because the products are more effective with the crap incorporated; they're just cheaper.

What's the point of saving money if you croak before you can spend it?

My Toiletries Are Killing Me

To say that I knew nothing about the hazards of body care would be an understatement. Not only did I work at a major body care store in college, since that time I had amassed a collection of scented goodies carcinogens so impressive, I was storing the toilet paper in the kitchen.

I even had a scent for every event - the cocktail party scent, the business meeting scent, the daily scent, winter, spring, etc. Of course, it didn’t stop there. I also had a cabinet full of wrinkle-busting face products - the makeup remover, cleansing wash (gentle), the scrubbing wash (exfoliation), the under-eye lotion, the antioxidants, the moisturizer, the toner, the night cream, the lip balm and the sunscreen.

And this is all before the makeup, which I used very little of until the health crisis made me look like a burnt cheetah.

Mind you, not one of these items contained an essential oil, bare mineral or product derived straight from nature. In fact, the closest I came to putting a real plant on my body was my Herbal Essences shampoo, which I suspected was really only herbal in title.

So when the healer suggested that my body care products might be causing my spleen some anguish, I knew it would be hard to pin down the culprit.

Or....culprits.

As it turns out, 90% of the ingredients in the potions I was using were causing my premature death. And I’m not just quoting the healer or my toxin list on this one. I personally know of at least ten people who got cancer before age 35 (my parents didn’t know any when they were my age), so it doesn’t take a genius to realize that something we’re doing today is a death wish. It’s obviously what we’re giving our mouths and skin to eat.

But even if you are lucky enough to make it to old age despite your lifestyle choices, I’m guessing that, like me, you just won’t feel well. I simply cannot stand not feeling well.

So the good news is that I’m now armed with information. The bad news is that my skin looks like s**t without all my chemicals.

I didn’t think finding organic, crap-free, worthy body care products would be so hard.

Detox, Round I - Chemicals

I knew that my spleen and liver were not going to get better until they were less burdened from having to filter out the chemicals I was feeding them. And since the melasma was connected to my spleen, I was on a mission to detoxify my surroundings, starting with my body care.

Don’t get me wrong - it’s not just that I wanted good skin (although believe me, that’s enough to green any girl), but I also wanted to balance my thyroid and avoid cancer, much of which is caused by what we eat, breath and absorb. In fact, studies now indicate that, on average, one quarter of cancer cases are the result of genetics. The rest are - you guessed it – lifestyle choices.

So, I sat down in front of my bathroom cabinets to start comparing labels to my toxin list. I placed a small trash can next to me, in case any of the items I had been using didn’t pass the test. I gave myself 20 minutes.

Three hours and much profanity later, the cabinets were empty. I was surrounded by the initial trash can and three large bags of toiletries, some still completely full.

It felt like I had withdrawn a thousand dollars from the ATM and set fire to it.

When it was over, I started to cry (stupid thyroid).

Caffeine, Adrenals and Hormone Balance

I knew my adrenals weren’t completely exhausted the day the healer told me to cut out caffeine. I flew into a rage so epic I thought cortisol might spew out my mouth.

The ironic part is that I was never really addicted to caffeine itself; I was addicted to the stuff it comes in, like soft drinks and lattes. And although there are decaf alternatives to these beverages, for whatever reason, they taste like dirt.

So since I’d already lost sugar, the hot tub and wheat (sort of, I wasn’t really faithful to that restriction), I had to plead my case for this latest vice.

Not surprisingly, that turned out to be waste of my already compromised energy.

It turns out that caffeine is one of the main contributors to adrenal fatigue. Because the jolt of energy it provides comes from the release of adrenalin (and with it, cortisol), every caffeinated beverage is a demand on the adrenals to do their job. If you have a few caffeinated drinks a day, you’re essentially asking these part-time, seasonal workers to go fulltime – something they aren’t prepared to do. Eventually, they give up and retire. But not before they send the rest of your body – your hormones, thyroid, immune system, etc. to hell in a hand basket.

On top of that, there is a lot of recent evidence that caffeine is one of the primary causes of too much estrogen (known as estrogen dominance) in women, which leads to annoying things like melasma, and very heinous things like breast cancer.

When my healer described the adrenals as the anchor that holds down the boat in the storm (as in, nothing can function properly without it), I knew I was destined to give up caffeine at some point.

Just not now.

Adrenals, Hormone Balance and Stress

During the height of the health crisis, I was exhausted almost every day. So it wasn’t shocking when, a few times after getting up out of a chair or off the couch (which I rarely did anyway), I got lightheaded and a little bit dizzy. Occasionally, I would have to sit right back down because I felt so faint. And this was before I got completely knocked over by the real vertigo.

I attributed this to temporarily low blood sugar, even though it happened all day, every day, and before and after every single meal.

So when the healer expressed his concern over my low adrenal functioning, I told him it didn’t bother me because I had no symptoms (other than the back pain, which I didn’t know was related).

But, as with everything I underestimate the value of (like a savings account or 401K), my adrenal functioning turned out to be really important.

The adrenals are glands that are located near the kidney. They have two different parts – the cortex and the medulla. The medulla is responsible for the production of adrenalin, which is the “fight or flight” hormone that is normally triggered in response to physical or mental stress. The cortex produces cortisol, which is responsible for a lot of things, including inhibiting inflammation, controlling blood sugar and strengthening the immune system. It is also triggered by physical or mental stress.

The more the adrenals are triggered, the more exhausted they become. Eventually, after an extended period of being burdened, they burn out completely and can’t do their jobs. The result is a blood sugar imbalance (which causes the feeling of lightheadedness upon standing), a weakened immune system, thyroid dysfunction, hormone imbalance, inflammation and a really fat stomach.

Of course, since I had symptoms of hormone imbalance and thyroid dysfunction (plus the pudge), I knew I had to get my adrenals out of the exhausted state and into proper functioning.

That didn’t seem so scary to me. I figured the healer would just have me relax more, work less, nap a lot, and possibly take a vacation to the tropics.

I was willing to do all of this.

Food Allergies

At my next appointment with the healer, I finally got explanations for some of the mystery symptoms I had experienced months and years earlier. For example, the nausea and vomiting were caused by food allergies and the lower back pain by exhausted adrenals (which are located in my lower back, not my mattress).

The food allergy thing was fascinating because I had never had allergies before. I never took over the counter decongestants, and had no problem going outside or playing with cats. But of course, as is the case with everything, over time things catch up with you. We discovered this during a routine appointment when I mentioned the nausea. Again, a packet of glass vials (each one representing a different food) was placed on my stomach in an effort to test my reaction to them.

In retrospect, he should have just closed the packet and prescribed me a life of anorexia, because the results were pretty ridiculous.

I was allergic to corn, wheat and soy, which pretty much ruled out any restaurant I might consider in the future. That last one - soy - really threw me over the edge because Jews love Chinese food, and I’m no exception. I’ve been to every Panda Garden, Inn and Express in town, and was now unsure as to what I was going to do about Christmas. I tried to under-react to this diagnosis (for fear of looking like a complete foodie in front of a guy who bites into uncut tomatoes for lunch) but I’m pretty sure I shed a tear. Then I was reminded that I also couldn’t have sugar and really started to twist off.

Fortunately, the healer can clear most allergies with a few laser treatments, but not the wheat allergy. I mean, he can clear an allergy to the real wheat (as in sprouted wheat), but he can’t reset our bodies to process the fake, enriched stuff (most of which is misleadingly labeled “whole wheat”). As you can imagine, all of the foods worthy of my mouth’s attention (muffins, flour tortillas, pasta, fancy restaurant bread) come from the fake stuff.

So there it was, another one of my vices – this one closer to my stomach heart than the hot tub and sugar – gone forever. At least the lasers helped the nausea go away. I felt like a million bucks.

But I promised myself I’d dump him if he ever mentioned alcohol.

The Topamax Debate - Complicated Migraines with Aura

As I do with a lot of decisions in my life, I wrote a “pros and cons” list to taking the Topamax migraine medication. It looked something like this:

Pro: I won’t die before 40. Well, at least not of a migraine.

Con: Neurologist might be wrong about the death part anyway. Doctors are wrong about a lot.

Con: Alternative medicine man (Healer) might be able to fix it.

Pro: I have only known Healer a short time, and this seems like a pretty big problem for alternative medicine. Maybe I'm still skeptical.

Pro: Medical nickname for Topamax is Jenny Crank. Causes lots of weight loss.

Con: Street nickname for Topamax is Stupamax. Causes stupidity and brain fog.

I put the list on the refrigerator, and reminded myself to add to it as revelations occurred.

But five hours after writing the list, I had another migraine. This one caused aphasia and I wasn’t able to call 911, because I couldn’t remember the number.

So, despite the fact that I had a competent alternative healer at my fingertips – one who hadn’t even been given a chance to address the migraines – I starting taking the meds and didn’t tell him.

Worst decision…. EVER.

The Pushy Doctor - Migraines

As it turns out, ignoring a health problem does not make it go away.

Avoiding the doctor who diagnosed it is also ineffective.

I discovered this during one of my multiple trips to the emergency room for my debilitating migraines.

Fortunately, the first few episodes did not cause aphasia, so I was still able to communicate my symptoms to the ER doc. The only problem with being able to communicate, however, is that it causes my mouth to open, which leaves a lot of room for my foot to insert itself.

That’s exactly what happened in the ER.

Apparently there was a note in my file about the Topamax prescription, and I (under duress and without capacity) fessed up to having thrown it away. This remark was then communicated to my neurologist, who insisted upon seeing me immediately.

By the time I sauntered into his office a few weeks later, he was pretty pissed. Without saying hello, he walked in, plopped onto his roller stool, wheeled right up to my face and said, “This isn’t funny. Without these meds, you will die. Probably before your 40th birthday. The choice is yours.”

Then he got up and walked out.

Still recovering from the mention of my 40th birthday death, I decided to give his statement some thought on the way to the pharmacy. By the time I got to the front of the line, I still hadn’t made up my mind. I decided to fill the scrip but weigh the pros and cons for 48 hours.

The All Natural Patient - Melasma (Again)

Since the healer had solved the very tricky vertigo problem, I decided to broach the subject of my spotty skin with him. I had been doing some research on melasma and discovered a few theories out there that it was an internal problem, having nothing to do with the skin. Of course, this doesn’t stop women (including myself) from rushing out to buy every topical ointment or treatment on the market, as we all know that bad skin can make a gal seriously nuts. Nonetheless, since I now had access to a real internal medicine man, and this was maybe an internal problem, I decided to address it at our next appointment.

I brought him the printout of an article that I’d read online about melasma’s possible causes, one of which was the thyroid, and available treatments. He smiled as he thanked me for it and then blatantly didn’t read it.

Instead he stared at my face for a second, tested a few of my organs with some tugs on my arm and said “It’s your thyroid, which affects your hormones, and your spleen.”

Funny that the thyroid and hormone part matched the article he didn’t read. But the spleen issue was entirely new. I was fascinated. He gave me more supplements for the thyroid and said we’d try acupuncture in a few weeks for the spleen. In the meantime, I was supposed to rid my body of all unnatural ingredients and chemicals, as they can place severe pressure on the spleen, rendering it incapable of filtering out junk. This in turn can cause any number of symptoms, including but not limited to melasma. He told me the bulk of the chemicals we take in come through the skin, which absorbs a whopping 80% of what you put on it (gross).

I reminded myself to check my body care products, but based on what happened with the Jacuzzi and sugar, I knew I was destined for heartache.

I asked him if he thought he could get rid of the melasma. “It’s pretty distressing to have,” I said. “Western medicine doesn’t exactly know what’s causing it, but it’s permanent in a majority of people.”

He laughed at my amateur assessment of it being “permanent” and assured me that he could fix it in time. “The skin is mostly a representation of what’s going on inside the body. And everything that is an effect has a cause,” he added with a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It’s my job to find and address the root cause. My guess is that this is being caused by different things in different people. In you, it’s the thyroid and spleen. And, like I said, I will be able to fix those in time.”

I was so happy my eyes welled up with hormones tears.

I was pretty sure he left the office that day grateful to be a man.

As I left, I thought about all the research out there on melasma, most of which is inconclusive and complete speculation. The frustration that can come from reading it is indescribable. It reminded me of a friend of mine whose child has autism, another who suffers from fibromyalgia, another with a mysterious kidney autoimmune disease, and another on her fourth year of mystery “infertility.” I now knew the frustration firsthand of having a condition that “has no known cause” or “no known treatment.”

I was so thankful to have met a healer who will never utter those words.

It’s all...so... logical. So why was I hearing it for the first time in my life?

Anyway, I sensed that this was just the tip of the iceberg, and looked forward to experiencing more of his magical powers in the future.

My Indecisive Thyroid

Four weeks later I returned to the healer for an updated assessment of my health, and was very surprised to learn that I was doing much better. Of course, the dizziness was gone thanks to the supplements, and my immune system had skyrocketed from a 1 to a 6 (no more three week respiratory infections for me). I guess he really was right about the sugar.

Bummer.

The only problem was that my thyroid was still out of whack and my liver/spleen combo was not quite cooperating. Plus I was even more depressed without the sugar highs. He assured me that these things take time, which sucks because patience isn’t really my strong suit.

It turns out that the thyroid is a complicated gland, but one of the most important in the body. As the healer describes it, “If your organs are an orchestra, the thyroid is the conductor. When it’s out, everything goes out.”

Figures.

When I asked him to confirm my suspicion that it was underactive (a traditional western medicine term), he laughed and said it was technically both overactive and underactive, although he doesn’t use those words. That explained why I had some traditional symptoms of each – frequent urination, thirst, insomnia, anxiety and melasma (overactive), weight gain, fatigue and depression (underactive).

It turns out that the thyroid is connected to the pituitary gland like a teeter totter. When one goes out of balance, the other brings the seesaw back in check. But the more damaged one is, the more screwed the other becomes – like a lot of my former relationships.

This imbalance can get worse over time. And it’s very difficult for endocrinologists to tell which came first – the chicken (thyroid problem) or the egg (pituitary problem).

I do know that the problem for me started with the pituitary gland, thirteen years prior when I began Depoprovera, the newly FDA-approved (never a good sign) injected birth control. Apparently, over a decade of this cocktail instructing my pituitary to “discontinue normal functioning” resulted in some serious consequences, the most current being a pot belly.

But in reality, it happened slowly over time. Initially, my pituitary was probably fending for itself despite the birth control. But then it got tired and wobbly as I continued to get the injections and my poor gland received years of mixed messages. Eventually, its instability threw its partner, the thyroid, off track (around age 30) and the resulting weeble-wobble was the mixed bag of overactive/underactive thyroid symptoms.

It had never been explained to me like that before. I finally felt informed, and maybe even a little empowered. I began to understand why thyroid medication, which I had so desperately been seeking months earlier, was not the solution to the problem. After all, it only takes over the responsibilities of the malfunctioning thyroid, like producing certain hormones, but doesn’t fix the underlying imbalance.

But when I told the healer that I liked my injected birth control because it stopped Mother Nature from visiting on a monthly basis, he lost his marbles.

I guess it didn’t occur to him that some women would choose to stop their cycles if presented with this attractive side effect.

“When’s the last time you had your period?” he asked.

“1997,” I said smiling.

The silence was deafening.

After he recovered from the news, he politely advised me to discontinue the injected birth control. “It would make fixing your thyroid – which can take years – go a lot faster.”

I said I’d think about it.

I’m pretty sure the door hit me on the way out.

Wakeup Call: Sugar is Everywhere

Here I was thinking that I could cut out the ice cream and be rid of sugar forever. Oh how naïve I was.

That ignorance is not surprising considering I don’t know how to cook (I’m Jewish) and have never really looked past the caloric value of an item to the actual ingredients. But now, as I cruised down the middle aisles of the grocery store, not quite ready to surrender to vegetables and poultry, I realized that everything has sugar in it – pasta sauce, salad dressing, cereal (which has a ton) soup, chili, yogurt, my favorite low fat gardenburgers and all the microwaveable meals that are mercilessly marketed as healthy by the diet companies. Even the couscous had 2g per serving. I was so defeated. Sugar was everywhere.

So I left with some vegetables and hummus. Unfortunately, the pita I intended to put them in had sugar too.

I called the friend who referred me to the healer and cussed her out.

Getting to Know My Healer

So it turns out the bright white healer is not thirty-five; he’s in his forties, with a teenage kid. Apparently his looks are inversely proportional to his years, like Benjamin Button.

Personally, I find this to be his number one marketing tool. I’m actually quite surprised he’s working on a website and brochure, as opposed to just walking around town with his business cards in hand and age written on his forehead.

That’s what I would do.

Oh Sugar, Sugar

Also during my first visit, the healer told me to stop eating refined sugar. Apparently, sugar does criminal things to the body, including suppress the immune system for hours after ingestion (thereby paving the way for cancer and other ailments to creep in) and cause a roller coaster of insulin production that tires the pancreas and increases appetite. It also feeds candida, which can result in an imbalance so severe it can make you crazy (literally, it affects the nervous system in most people) and throw off any organ, including a thyroid.

Basically, it’s a poison masquerading as a food.

I was told that none of my symptoms - not even the weight gain or skin problem - would improve without the help of a fully functioning immune system, thyroid and less candida. Since I was desperate to get better, I picked up a copy of Lick the Sugar Habit and vowed to avoid the stuff in the future, with a limited Vegas exception.

At first, this sounded like a small annoying sacrifice as opposed to a major life change, because I wasn’t really a “sweets” person to begin with; I was more of a “two dinners” person. Plus most of the stuff I loved was sugar-free, like non-fat lattes, diet soda and frozen yogurt.

There was a small note next to the sugar part that indicated I should also avoid artificial sweeteners, but since I didn’t really know what those were, I didn’t pay much attention. I truly thought he was referring to the packets my dad used in his coffee.

So at the end of my first appointment, I walked to the parking lot with an armful of whole food supplements, and something I hadn’t experienced in a while – optimism about my health.

I celebrated with a Red Bull on the way home. Sugar-free.

Straightening Out the Dizziness

I didn’t know where to begin with my questions for the healer, so I asked about the vertigo first, figuring it must be related to one of my organ failures.

Back down I went for another round with the kit. This time he removed a tiny vial of liquid from the packet and left it directly on my stomach. He then pulled again on my extended arm, but this time I couldn’t resist the pressure at all, not even for a second. I figured I was just weak from my recent distaste for the gym, but he gave me another chance – this time barely exerting any pressure - and I failed again. I knew this was a bad sign, so I was dying to know what was in the vial.

“No it’s not related. You have too much chlorine in your system, which is toxic. It's trapped in your head, and is causing your dizziness. I have to figure out where this is coming from so I can get it out. I’m guessing your shower water.”

Before I could even laugh at this assessment, my mind immediately flashed to the hours I spent in my dad’s hot tub, contentedly sipping wine, all while wading around the scalding water that contaminated my lungs and freestyled through my open pores. I had done this at least every night for two weeks straight. It was awesome. But now I was forced to fess up to the bubbles since the healer was so dead-on about the chlorine.

“I have taken a few brief dips in a Jacuzzi recently, but nothing major,” I white lied.

“Eureka,” he said. “The chlorine probably got trapped in your head by the junk from the upper respiratory virus, which then made you dizzy. Regardless, no more hot-tubbing for you. But don’t worry, I’ll detoxify you from this.”

Then he smiled.

And so it went. Two whole foods supplements and one week later, the dizziness was gone – poof. I was officially detoxified. I wouldn't be one of those people who "have it for life."

But I would lose the first of many vices forever.