The Cosmetic Story : Personal care products

by Annie Leonard
Director, the Story of Stuff Project

As a mother, I want to be sure that the shampoo, sunscreen, bubble bath and other personal care products my daughter uses are safe. If I stick to products in the children’s aisle at the drugstore — stuff that’s made and marketed specifically for kids — those should be OK, right?
The labels are reassuring: “Gentle.” “Pure.” “Natural.” “Free of Harsh Ingredients.” “Recommended by Pediatricians.” “Dermatologists Approved.” And of course, “No More Tears.”

But when you turn the bottles around, get out a magnifying glass and read the fine print on the back (and get online to do some research) it’s a different story: sodium laureth sulfate, diazolidinyl urea, ceteareth-20, PEGs, quaternium-15 — all these are typically contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals like formaldehyde or 1,4 dioxane.

Carcinogens in baby shampoo? Are you kidding me?

I asked some scientists what was going on, and what they told me was scary, and not just for our children. It turns out the average American bathroom is a minefield of toxic chemicals. Sunscreens, lipstick, moisturizer, shaving cream — many cosmetics and personal care products for babies, kids, moms and dads contain chemicals linked to cancer or other health problems like learning disabilities, asthma and even damaged sperm.

I got so mad about this I joined with the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to make a new video, The Story of Cosmetics.

It turns out that while you and I can choose to buy the safer products made by responsible companies, the really important decisions don’t happen when we take a product off the shelf. What counts is when companies and government agencies decide what should be allowed on the shelves.

Here’s just some of what I learned while making The Story of Cosmetics:

• All those sudsy products like shampoos and body washes that contain sodium laureth sulfate have as a byproduct 1,4-dioxane, a known carcinogen that’s suspected to also cause kidney, nerve and respiratory problems. Unlike many other countries, the U.S. government does not limit formaldehyde, 1,4-dioxane, or most other hazardous substances in personal care products. As a result, independent lab tests found these chemicals in dozens of brands, including Johnson’s Baby Shampoo and Sesame Street Bubble Bath. The companies claim that the chemical levels aren’t large enough to worry about, but I’d prefer not to have any cancer-causing chemicals in my daughter’s shampoo — or mine.
• Protecting yourself from the sun shouldn’t be dangerous. But a number of common sunscreen chemicals are linked to cancer, and may also disrupt estrogen and thyroid hormones. Well over half of all sunscreens contain the potential hormone disruptor oxybenzone that readily penetrates the skin and has been found in the bodies of 97% of Americans tested by the Centers for Disease Control.
• Dabbing on a little bit of lipstick seems harmless enough – if you don’t mind a little lead. Tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found lead in almost two-thirds of top-selling red lipsticks. Highest lead levels were in top-selling brands L’Oreal, Maybelline and Cover Girl. Lead, a proven neurotoxin for which there is no safe level of exposure for children, was also found in every brand of kids’ face paints tested.

You’d think the government would be working to keep hazardous chemicals out of cosmetics. Think again. The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t assess the safety of personal care products or their ingredients. Since the federal cosmetics law was written more than 70 years ago, the FDA has banned just eight out of the 12,000-plus ingredients used in cosmetics. The FDA doesn’t even require all of the ingredients to be listed on the label.

Instead, the government lets the cosmetics industry set up its own committee to self-police its products – and compliance with the committee’s “recommendations” is voluntary. The cosmetics industry is making the rules and deciding whether or not to follow them.

Women, parents, workers, people all over the country are demanding that Congress overhaul the outdated cosmetics law to give the FDA the power to make sure that our personal care products are safe. And Congress has heard them.

Today, Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) are introducing the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, which would close the gaping holes in federal law. It would phase out the most dangerous chemicals, set up a system to assess cosmetic ingredients for safety, require companies to be transparent about what’s in their products, and provide adequate resources for the FDA to do its job. It will also help small businesses in the cosmetics industry meet the new regulations, while spurring the development of greener chemicals that will help companies compete for customers who value safety and openness.

As you can imagine, the personal care product industry isn’t so excited about this. The big cosmetics companies have already spent millions of dollars trying to defeat real reforms and proposing meaningless alternatives. Pass The Story of Cosmetics around to family and friends and together, we can tell the industry it’s time to come clean.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com and www.storyofstuff.org/cosmetics

An Apple a Day

Its an old mother’s tale that, ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ — but new research shows interestingly that it may specifically be helpful in protecting against breast cancer.

At Cornell University’s department of food science and Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, researchers randomly divided rats treated with a known mammary carcinogen into different groups, feeding them either low, middle or high doses of Red Delicious apple extracts (the equivalent of one, three and six apples a day in humans, respectively) or a control extract. Rats fed the strongest apple extract experienced the lowest cancer rate (40% developed cancer)… followed by the group fed middle-strength extract (43%)… and the lowest strength extract (59%). In comparison, 71% of those fed the apple-free control extract developed mammary cancer over the 24-week study period. The study appeared in the December 10, 2008, online edition of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

WHAT’S THE SECRET?

According to researcher Rui Hai Liu, MD, PhD, associate professor of food science at Cornell University, the study demonstrated not only that apple extracts effectively inhibited the growth of mammary tumors in the rats but that the more administered, the greater the anticancer effect. “Not only did animals treated with apple extract have fewer tumors overall, the tumors were smaller, less likely to be malignant and grew more slowly when compared with tumors in the untreated animals,” he said.

Why are apples so powerful against breast cancer, I wondered? Dr. Liu explained to me that apples are one of the best sources of phenolics and flavonoids, which are phytochemicals (bioactive compounds) that have powerful antioxidant and anti-proliferative (antigrowth) effects in the body. In two previous studies, Dr. Liu and his colleagues discovered that phytochemicals from apples effectively inhibited the growth of human breast cancer cells. In another study, Dr. Liu found that phytochemicals from apple peels inhibited an important inflammation pathway, NFkB, in human breast cancer cells, thereby reducing the proliferation of the cancer.

Dr. Liu told me that although other fruits and vegetables also contain phenolics and flavonoids, apples are one of the best dietary sources of fruit phenolics. In fact, of the top 25 fruits consumed in the US, apples provide 33% of the phenolics that Americans consume annually. “Americans love to eat apples, so it makes sense to encourage them as part of a balanced diet for optimal health,” he said, adding that this doesn’t mean anyone should forsake other fruits and vegetables. “It’s clear that regular consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains can help to prevent chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer,” Dr. Liu said.

Source(s):

Rui Hai Liu, MD, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of food science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Amino Acids May Improve Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Infertility

Amino acid therapy may represent a new approach to restoring ovulation and menstruation and improving pregnancy rate in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

In women with PCOS increased oxidative stress may inhibit oocyte maturation and ovulation by reducing levels of nitric oxide (NO), a molecule that plays an important role in healthy reproductive function.  Theoretically nutritional intervention with the amino acids n-acetylcysteine (a potent antioxidant) and arginine (the precursor to nitric oxide) should restore the underlying pathology of PCOS and improve the condition. This is exactly what a group from the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Italy set out to test.

In a small open label study, 8 women with PCOS who reported only 3 menstrual cycles in the previous year received 1200 mg n-acetylcysteine and 1600 mg arginine daily for 6 months. At the end of the study menstruation frequency increased, ovulation, as assessed by basal body temperature, increased and one woman fell pregnant on the second month of treatment and delivered a healthy child. An improvement in blood glucose and insulin control was also noted.

Comment:

PCOS may affect as many as 1 in 10 reproductive age women with many cases going undiagnosed. The central abnormality that results in the development of PCOS is arguably insulin resistance. Hyperinsulinemia increases testosterone production, conversely lowering insulin results in reductions in testosterone. Both arginine and n-acetylcysteine may act as insulin sensitising agents, an action that may explain these preliminary findings in PCOS.

To find out more about dealing with this problem, or if you think you may have PCOS contact us at www.1fitmama.co.uk

Source:

Masha A, et al. Prolonged treatment with N-acetylcysteine and L-arginine restores gonadal function in patients with PCO syndromeJ. Endocrinol. Invest. Published ahead of print April 15, 2009.

How Sleep Effects YOUR Hormones

This article is intended to assist mothers to be looking to get healthier, so that they can become pregnant, and also mothers who have got their little ones back into some sort of nightly routine. For those in between, don’t despair….it won’t be long till your back to top energy levels if you heed this advice!

An important lifestyle step to master is maximizing the rest and repair processes that are accomplished through adequate sleep. Although mothering is an inherently natural thing, we have in many ways separated ourselves from dependence on the natural world, but remember we are still physiologically linked to nature.

Biological Clocks

Our link to nature is clearly seen in our sleep patterns and in our hormonal system. Our hormones are intimately linked to several natural rhythms or biological clocks. These biological rhythms are based on the twenty-four hour cycle of daylight and darkness as well as the monthly cycle of the moon.

Twenty-Four Hour Adrenal Hormone Cycle

Just like the monthly biological clock in females, both men and women, have twenty-four hour cycles, or daily clocks. While fluctuations in female hormone production vary with a monthly cycle, the adrenal hormone cortisol varies with a twenty-four hour or daily cycle. Cortisol levels peak in the early morning hours as the sun rises and taper off as the sun sets, reaching their lowest levels three hours after dark. This daily rhythm of cortisol dictates when we should be our most active and when we should rest.

Any time you fly and change time zones, the importance of this twenty-four hour biological clock becomes clear. Even a time change of a few hours can be enough to throw off one’s normal sleep cycle. Cortisol not only dictates our sleep and wake states; it is also the primary hormone involved in directing immune system functioning.

Immune Trafficking Cycle

Have you ever wondered why your cold or flu symptoms get worse at night? It’s because the twenty-four hour rhythm of cortisol production regulates your immune system as well. As cortisol drops at night, our immune cells become more active. These cells leave the bone marrow and spleen to protect you while you rest. During this highly active period of immune function, immune cells kill bacteria and viruses. This basic immune activity relies on appropriate levels of cortisol. As cortisol drops at night, our immune system activity picks up, killing bacteria and viruses in large numbers leading to greater mucous production. This leads to more congestion and coughing at night as your body attempts to get rid of the mucous created from destroying bacteria and viruses. At daybreak, cortisol rises and immune cells return to the bone marrow and spleen to rest and recondition in preparation for the next nightly cycle.

Natural Sleep Cycle

If cortisol is out of balance, this normal immune function is compromised. As mentioned earlier, cortisol levels rise at daybreak giving us the energy to begin the working day. As cortisol drops naturally at night, we enter into rest and recovery, physical repair and psychic regeneration. Our immune system functions optimally if we to go to sleep by 10 p.m. As we sleep, physical repair takes place, immune cells patrol our bodies, eliminating cancer cells, bacteria, viruses and other harmful agents. However, if cortisol is elevated at night this immune function is compromised. If cortisol levels are normal during sleep, then true rest and recovery takes place thereby enhancing physical repair and immunity.

During sleep we also enter into stages of psychic regeneration. During these times, the brain releases chemicals that enhance our immune system. All during the night, we are going into Rapid Eye Movement (or REM) sleep states and non-REM sleep, alternating between light sleep and deep dream states. This is how we process the mental and emotional events of the previous day and refresh our minds for the day ahead. Most people need seven to eight hours of sleep to accomplish all these tasks. Without sufficient sleep, the immune system is hard pressed to keep up with its repair work and this creates the opportunity for disease processes to begin. If you miss out on proper rest, your physical repair and psychic regeneration will be compromised.

I’ve read that I should ‘boost’ my immune system while I’m pregnant? How?

Q I’ve read that I should eat to “boost” my immune system while im pregnant.  Is this right and how can I do this?

A. What you eat during pregnancy can help support your immune system. Eat a balanced diet to include fruit, vegetables, dairy, whole grains, a variety of meat and fish. Limit your intake of bad fats and sugary foods such as crisps, chocolate, cakes, non wholegrain cereals (unfortunately all the things we like). Your baby doesn’t need these food types to grow and be healthy and your waist line will thank you for it after you have had your baby to.

One of the first things you can do to boost your immune system is essentially easy and you can do this by eating prebiotic-rich foods such as tomatoes and bananas as they may help to increase the friendly bacteria in your stomach and stop you getting constipated too, which can often occur during pregnancy.

Stats Just In – Mums How Old Are We?

STATS JUST IN Mums how old are we?

According to the office of National Statistics 690,000 babies were born in the UK in 2007.  Here is the age-group breakdown

Under 20 = 7%

20 – 24 = 18%

25-29 = 26%

30-34 = 27%

35-39 = 16%

40-44 = 4%

45+ = 2%

I’m worried about developing pre-eclampsia. What symptoms should I look out for?

Q  I’m worried about developing pre-eclampsia.  What symptoms should I look out for?

A  Pre-eclampsia is a kind of hypertensive (high blood pressure) disorder found only in pregnancy.  The causes are unknown, but there are several warning signs – high blood pressure reading (which is why your midwife or doctor takes your blood pressure regularly during pregnancy), presence of protein in your urine (known as proteinuria and tested each time hence you giving a sample upon each visit), in severe cases women can experienced visual disturbances (seeing flashes).  Sensitivity to light, headaches, pain across the top of the uterus and occasional vomiting and the “not feeling well.”

If untreated it can lead to eclampsia, which is a serious and potentially fatal condition.

Be assured that as long as you attend all your antenatal checks you should be fine as you are continually monitored for this.

In mild cases of pre-eclampsia you will attend the hospital for monitoring by the antenatal day unit and you will have your blood pressure, urine and blood taken to asses the severity.  Most women don’t go onto have the serious complications; all that is required is close monitoring.  Symptoms usually improve enough to allow the pregnancy to continue naturally but in very severe cases your labour may be induced or the baby delivered by caesarean section.  Once the baby is born the pre-eclampsia disappears.

Are We Infertile For A Reason?

One in seven couples has difficulty conceiving, and many experts in the field predict this could double over the next decade. That infertility rates are rising suggests that specific factors in modern day living are responsible. Pinpointing these reasons is essential, since there is always a good reason why someone cannot have children. Natural health care can help couples get to the root of why they cannot conceive and help them have the child they desire.

Increasingly, would-be parents are turning to natural medicine when faced with fertility issues. Science is beginning to prove its validity, and people are not only producing their dream child, they are also improving their own health and optimizing the chances of having a healthy baby. Natural medicine is safe, effective, and the main side effect is improved well being! Holistic therapies benefit both men and women since infertility seems to touch both genders fairly equally.

We all know the benefits of a healthy diet but it is imperative that both partners eat the right foods when trying to become pregnant. Food intolerances put stress on the body, leaving fewer resources for conception. The most common foods linked to infertility are gluten, wheat, alcohol, and caffeine, although there are others that may be the culprit. Having a food intolerance test is a wise idea for anyone wishing to become pregnant, especially those who are having difficulties. Generally, the diet should consist of fresh, home-prepared meals containing a variety of vegetable and fruits. Organic foods should be used where possible, since they have a higher mineral content, and pesticides may be another unwanted stress on the body.

There is a wise saying that zinc puts lead in the pencil! It is vital that vitamins and minerals are plentiful in both men and women when working towards conception. Deficiencies can cause a variety of problems in the body, infertility being one of them. Taking a good quality multi-vitamin and mineral is advisable. A vitamin and mineral screening can help to establish if there are any deficits that need an extra boosting. Some of the most important nutrients for a fertile system are the B vitamins, selenium, iron and Vitamin E.

There is much evidence to suggest a connection between heavy metal toxicity and subfertility. Lead and cadmium are particularly related to conception issues in addition to miscarriage, pre-maturity, and low birth weight. Other heavy metals such as mercury or aluminium may also be involved. Cigarette smoke (first hand and passive), unfiltered water, tinned tuna, and old paint are some of the instigators of heavy metal toxicity. Again, a screening through hair analysis or kinesiology is recommended so that the appropriate nutrition and lifestyle changes can be determined for detoxification.

Acupuncture and reflexology have gained recognition for assisting many couples to conception. These therapies work on the energy systems of the body to create harmony and allow the body to heal itself. Other energy therapies that have been praised by new mums and dads are tuina, reiki, and bowen technique, which fight stress and bring the body back into balance, increasing the chances of conception.

The radiation from mobile phones has been linked to low-sperm count and other infertility issues, especially in men. Remember to keep mobiles away from trouser pockets and off when possible. Other factors that may result in subfertility are candida, hormonal imbalances, infection, endometriosis, and ovarian cysts. A practitioner of natural medicine can advise on how to individually treat these issues, often with the use of herbs.

Natural medicine identifies the imbalances of each unique body, then repairs and nourishes the system, leaving it sturdy, balanced and ripe for conception. If this were achieved for everyone, then the trend of infertility could be reversed and more babies conceived naturally, as they are designed to be.

Contact Guy by email guy@successfulhealthcoach.com for your Natural Fertility Program.