Buried in Plastic!!

In my last post I mentioned that plastic exudes an exogenous estrogen... This affects reptiles, fish, birds, mammals, and us.

In fact I was part of the original study based out of Shawnee National Forest to catch and study Leopard frogs and record anomalies (extra legs or other obvious physical mutations) and ratio of sexes. You can tell a male by looking at his larger.... ears. Seriously. At the time, I was a high school student volunteering, and certainly wasn't enlightened as to the seriousness of the research. I just knew it was great fun to skip school, wade through ponds, and play with froggies. It wasn't until I caught up with the state biologist years later that I found out the point behind those blissful, school-free days. We were studying the effects of exogenous estrogens, whether this was causing mutations, and if the populations were being skewed to female. This was in the 1980s! It has been known that plastic impacts health negatively for almost THIRTY YEARS!

What's the main component of plastic? Petrochemicals. What are petrochemicals? Chemicals made from petroleum and distillates. Can't imagine why plastics are endemic.

So... leaving politics, global economies, and social response behind... how do YOU eliminate plastic from your life and that of your family's? It is by far cheaper and not that much harder to start making your own products - future blog post might cover this if there is an interest. Below assumes all goods to be purchased and some of the best places to do so.

General house: carpets, upholstery, clothes, or other fabrics that are made from recycled plastic bottles are great from a recycling standpoint - but terrible for your health!!
Choose wool, wood, concrete, cotton, glass, metal for flooring, furniture, and building material.

Laundry room: Use glass milk bottles (save the cap!!) and refill from the bulk aisle (make sure you label). You can also buy decorative glass jars - but unless you spend some money and get a thick, SOLID jug, it will break easily. If you iron - use a glass spray bottle and make your own spritzer.

Bathroom: Use bar soap, wood toothbrushes, powdered cleaners. Many bodycare products only come in plastic: make sure the plastic is PET-, Paraben-, BPA, and PVC free, and always be on the lookout for alternatives.

Pets: Buy kitty litter and pet food in bags, use stainless steel bowls.

Living room: for candles or scented products, use a canning jar and poke holes in the lid - use a decorative square of fabric and screw on the ring (use wide mouth jars). Coasters can be ceramic, wood, or glass.

Dining room: Use only glass, wood, or metal to eat from. Use fabric placemats (easier to wash than those made from rushes) and fabric tablecloths.

Kitchen: Glass tupperware, canning jars, and parchment paper will be your friends. Textured olive oil bottles with a spout work for dish soap, dishwashing and most cleaners can be bought in powdered form, or in bulk.

When you buy goods: look at the packaging - many times it is indicative of the product quality. Use baskets, canvas bags, and cotton bags when you go shopping. Old pillowcases make great veggie bags. Eggs can be bought in cardboard boxes. If you can buy your meat from a butcher it will be wrapped in paper. Buy bread and keep it in a bread box (good ones available from King Arthur's Flour).

If you have any questions or would like suggestions of how to keep plastic out of YOUR house, feel free to post here.

Help the girls...

Breast cancer is such an emotionally charged topic for so many, please keep in mind these posts are only made public with the best of intentions and a sincere desire to help.

There are many possible culprits that can contribute to breast cancer. Among them are pure genetics, environmental toxins, individual health and lifestyle choices. These causative factors can be so interlinked and dependent on one another, it can be difficult to separate them. This post is a primer about breast cancer, how life style and environment can affect cancer growth, and some preventative measures that might prove helpful.

It seems that there are several genetic markers that can indicate an individual is more susceptible to cancer. BRCA 1 and 2 tumor suppression genes produce proteins that are the main two markers in use for breast cancer. A DNA profile array shows mutations in these tumor suppressor genes. If found, this means you are more susceptible to cancer, and more susceptible still if you have close family members that have had cancer. However, not a lot of research has been done to show what percentage of women present with mutations in tumor suppression genes, but do not have cancer. Genetically caused breast cancer has been around, and documented as tumors, from the 1600s by Europeans or as early as 1500BC with the Egyptians. However, even if someone is predisposed to cancer, there are many life style changes and choices that can be made to help mitigate cancer proliferation. Further, Myriad Genetics now owns these genes... making it difficult to get second opinions or other treatment options.

Environmental toxins are widespread and endemic, they have been found in polar ice caps, breast milk, and infant chord blood. However, there are ways to help protect yourself. Do not subject yourself to environmental contaminates! Look at the ingredients of everything you come into contact with. Especially body care products, especially body products that go right on the girls. Avoid phthalates, parabens, triclosan, aluminum, denatured alcohol, propylene glycol, 'fragrance,' ethanolamine, etc. My husband likes to keep things simple, and reminds me that not everyone shares my weird and twisted hobby of looking up MSDS (material safety data sheets) on everything, so if you don't know what an ingredient is - don't use it on your body or in your house.

As far as plastic bottles or packaging causing cancer... I will say that in my lab cell cultures were grown on plastic petri dishes and did well. When those same cells were switched to glass dishes, the cells died out. It was surmised at the time that plastic supplied some kind of nutriment that glass (being inert) did not. Later it was discovered that plastic is an exogenous (meaning: a source from outside the body) estrogen. So plastic acts as an extra hormone to anything it comes into contact with...frogs, fish, reptiles, humans. There are many types of cancer that respond to estrogen. So...

Individual health and lifestyle choices are a little harder to nail down and change. For example there have been many studies linking women that work third shift to an increased incidence of breast cancer, or that having children gives you a protective factor over those that cycle every month, or the negative health factors associated with smoking. These are life style choices that might require more thought and effort to totally change.

On the flip side, there is good evidence that increasing lymph circulation to breast tissue helps tremendously and it is relatively easy to go bra-less while at home. The underwire bras are notorious for cutting circulation - go without them when possible. Breast exams are extremely important for early detection, but don't stop there! Do breast massage at home on a regular basis - 'Phluff the Girls' by Cheryl Chapman might be one of the easiest things you can do to help promote your own breast health. As soon as I can figure out how to post a pdf, I will share that directly on here. Diet is relatively easy to change - go Mediterranean and organic as much as possible. Look up super foods, circle your faves, and go to town. Carte blanche for extra servings? Ok!

Hope this gives you ideas and questions. Inform yourself.
Here are some of the links that might be helpful. Thank you and blessings.
 http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/organickids020303.cfm
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/night-shift-sleep







Disclaimer:
As with so many of these posts, they are birthed out of anger. And questions. And a continued search for answers. Please take all ideas with a grain of salt and do your own research, I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on t.v.

Running out of Time?

Ever feel like the weekend is never long enough? Or do you wish Monday morning didn't dawn so quickly?

Yeah, I think we all have been in that boat. Sometimes I am the Captain, first mate, and bo'swain.

So I started wondering, besides the fact that we are all working our buckets off and dealing with crazy families...jobs...debt...etc... Why are we all so T.I.R.E.D all the time? With a little research, I found some good information that seems valid regarding our time usage (or abuse?).

Did you know that we need different types of time off to feel fully refreshed and restored?
For real.

Its not enough to just veg in front of the TV or drink yourself senseless over the weekend. Neither of these (non)activities fulfill your requirements as a human being. Neither does staying home and working around the house.

The point of time off is to get prepared for your next work period and to be restored for life. So to do that you need a relaxation period, a rejuvenation period, and a recharge period. It doesn't seem to matter what amounts of time you assign to each type or in what order you approach them... as long as it feels right for your body.

1. Relaxation period is a time to veg - but withOUT external pressures. You may sit outside, get a massage, lay in your pool, stare out the window, meditate. This is for quiet time and to let your thoughts slide and sink down. To let your body completely relax, breathe deep, let your tummy pooch out... no thoughts... no holding yourself in. Some studies have suggested 4hrs a week. I leave the amount up to you. Tip: you know you need more of this when you can't be quiet or be by yourself.
2. Rejuvenation period is a time to do something you enjoy! Go for a hike, get in a yoga class, do something active that you like. Studies suggest an hour a day.
3. Recharge period is a learning activity that you want to do. This does not have to be a big deal - reading a new book, working on a new painting technique, trying a new recipe... just something new that you can take a small amount of pride in.

Do each type until you feel completed in that area. If you can manage this over a weekend, Monday shouldn't look so grim. Keep me posted with what you find out!

Livin' Fabulous with Fibro

For the longest time, I didn't want to admit that there was anything wrong with me. For even longer I hated, I mean HATED talking about it. Someone would sidle up to me in public, lean toward me, and talk out the side of their mouth like we were CIA spies or at least discussing something illicit. 'Psst hey buddy, the wind is out of the west and the birds are going home (subcontext: how are you feeling?)' Usually I would just grunt as raining a rant of swear words down on their head is considered socially unacceptable. Go fig. I guess this year has finally brought another layer of healing and I would like to share a little of my story in hopes that it might help someone else. 

As some of you may know, I have fibro (as in fibromyalgia). I may have contracted it during my graduate studies and as a side result of toxoplasmosis from overexposure to the birds I was using in my research... but we'll never know. I do know that the four years it took me to recover was the hardest and loneliest time of my life. My husband and I were baffled, angry, and at sea. 

Fibro is unique to each person and is usually coupled with another dis-ease, making it hard to diagnose - so they say. Mine was a definite grab bag mix that included advanced COPD, lethargy, depression, hot and cold flashes, flu symptoms, dizziness, severe GI distress (I mean... SUH-VERE), confusion, diminished appetite, rashes, tender skin, skewed menstrual cycles, (and as a result of medications) extreme weight gain, hair loss, and muscular tremors. Doctors weren't giving us answers and my professors thought I was shirking my work. Needless to say, I wasn't skipping exams because I was too busy partying. I lost my voice, and my struggle for each breath would fill the house. 

I can laugh at it now, but there were nights when I was so tired and scared to sleep I would pace and cry, lemme tall ya - kinda dumb when you can't breathe in the first place. Breathing was a colossal act of will, and if I didn't bring everything I had to the process of survival, I knew that would be it. 

You hear about these survival stories, where people recount heroic tales of their will to keep living - on a mountainside where their plane had crashed, or on a raft in the middle of an ocean after their ship had sank. Mine was fought on a couch, that was my humble, everyday raft, and those moments were... untranslatable to anyone who has not been there.

Flashforward seven years. I am completely off medication, I am training for my first 5k since I got sick. I work a full time (well over full time actually) physically demanding job. I am healthy and happy and driven again. There are so many things that I know now that could have made my road to recovery shorter and smoother. Here are a few of those hard won nuggets:

• Find a reason for your existence. I can hear ya now, 'Are you f#@%ing crazy? I can barely (insert blank) and I am supposed to go all metaphysical?!!' Short answer: yes. What else can you do but watch t.v. and think? This is the one part of fibro that I am thankful for. It allowed me time and space to completely change my life's course and find a path forward that makes sense. If you believe God made each of us for a purpose, great, here's where you get to discover that. If you don't believe in god, great, here's a chance for you to not waste your time here. Do it.
• Find something that you enjoy doing while stationary. I taught myself embroidery, knitting, and took up creative writing again. You might wish to blog or write letters, or start up a dog re-homing website. Whatevs. You need something to keep your mind active while your body is not. Sitting on your ass, doing nothing, is easy. But so much harder to come back from. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face (my mom's saying) and you aren't hurting anyone but yourself by being obstinate and depressed (my saying).
• Find something you enjoy doing physically. Could be walking your dog, gardening, using an elliptical machine. It needs to be something that you can do long or short, that can end abruptly as needed and that you love to do. I decided to go work for a small landscaping company. Bless her, I wasn't much help in the beginning - I couldn't even lift a bag of mulch, had to rest all the time, and never got all the crabgrass roots out. However, it built my strength up, got me outside, and kept me engaged. You must do this! It seems like 'normal people' can just do whatever, whenever with no planning - good for them. You are smart enough to figure this out and understand your energy patterns - promise.
• Lastly, try different therapies. You don't know if they will help until you have tried. Keep a journal of everything you do/don't do and learn about yourself. For me, I now know what I have to do to keep myself in working order - no excuses for when I slip up. Its like a teenager with diabetes, doesn't matter how they got it or who was responsible. Doesn't matter that it's not fair. When you skirt by what you 'should' be doing, that's a choice, and you will end up paying for it. Move on. Choose to move on. Massage, hydrotherapies, energy work, reflexology are modalities that I use regularly. When I travel I research the area and see if there is something else that I can hit up. (Hint hint, check with your CPA, some of this might be tax deductible as a health maintenance cost.)

There are many other things that I do, some more subtle than others. Hope this provides help and inspiration to my fellow fibs out there. Any suggestions, questions or comments?

Therapeutic Uses of Aromatherapy

Lavender is a great oil to have around.

Hand sanitizer + lysol + flu vaccines =  super bugs...
Evidence underlines this simplified equation as the CDC categorized the last part of 2012 to be above the level of an epidemic due to flu outbreaks, with the highest amount of public provided sanitizers. Obviously I am not saying don't ever use hand sanitizer again, I am saying there are better ways out there to stay healthy.

 What does this mean for me and my family? Are we doomed to hacking, coughing, and shivering our way through til spring? Or potentially (and more seriously) encountering a fatal outcome?

Absolutely not! However, it does mean that you should be looking for alternatives for you and your family's war on bugs. Don't know anything about aromatherapy besides the fact you like the candles at BodyShop?  

No problem. This blog post will be a quick crash course in essential oils to help protect you from bugs, naturally and effectively. Rosemary, Lavender, Tea tree, Eucalyptus, Clove, Thyme, Lemon, Cinnamon, Ginger (fresh source), and Oregano are the heavy hitters when it comes to germ murderers. (Let me mention two caveats here: internal use of essential oils is not recommended without extensive research and is beyond the scope of this blog. Also, make sure you buy your essential oils from a reputable source, organic or wild harvested are best. Unfortunately some companies are now using the term 'Therapeutic Grade' to dupe newbies, so educate yourself about the company and the founder, it will reveal worlds.)  

Some businesses like ours will mix oils to your direction so you don't have to buy each individual oil, or suggest a blend based on what you want. Its important to use the correct concentrations, so don't hesitate to ask for numbers!

• Rosemary and Lavender are used in French hospitals in place of our standard sanitizer, because it works better and lasts longer! However, they fall short on yeasts and fungi (so get a good mix.)
• Thyme has been shown to be effective against e.coli and salmonella.
• Eucalyptus, Lemon, and Cinnamon have been shown to be effective against some fungi and viruses, and many bacterial strains (some deadly). This is also the base of the 'Thieves Blend' - worth another blog for its pros and cons.
• Oregano effective against anthrax and penicillin-resistant strains.
• Clove most effective antioxidant known, also effective against 60 kinds of bacteria.
• Tea tree has been shown to be effective against viruses, fungi (also molds and mildew), yeasts, and bacteria in concentrations greater than 4%.
• Ginger is effective against salmonella and parasites.

Try this easy list to incorporate essential oils into your life and home:

1. A whole home diffuser is a great idea ~ don't set it up close to expensive wood, otherwise this is the best investment for your money.
2. Use the cup on top of your humidifier to hold a blend of oils ~ cheaper alternative to the diffuser and more localized.
3. Try your own spritzer 'sanitizer' ~ definitely worth it, cheap, easy to make, and lasts a long time.
4. Make your own wipes ~ use handkerchiefs, cut squares from old sheets or towels, make sure you include one in your child's lunch box or coat pocket (put it in a ziplock bag to keep moist). 

I hope this blog article gives you enough of a base to start using aromatherapy for your health, rather than just pleasing your nose! Essential oils are incredibly safe, cheap, accessible, and come with fewer negative side effects than most chemicals on the market. If you have any questions, feel free to visit our facebook page.

Rather than post all my sources and making this article super long, look them up yourself at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed