Right now, my brain feels like: "Bbblllaaaaahhhhhhh."
It has felt this way for the past 3 days. I've been uninterested in anything, not feeling up to taking on a project, and a little too bored to sit around doing nothing. This feeling is torment. I can't simply just "push through it" and get work done, because I'll just discover that I don't have the physical energy for it either.
What's causing this? I wish I could blame it on an MCS reaction, which can cause this type of prolonged brain fog, but that isn't the case this time. It's that my energy has been overspent, then my body was further taxed by the start of my period. Blah. I just want to melt into the floor and stay a liquid puddle there until I find the strength to put myself back together.
For most of my adolescent life, I had no idea that my periods were not normal. I thought every woman suffered tremendously each month. The older I get, the more comfortable I've grown talking about my monthly substantial torment, the more I've come to learn that my periods have not been "normal" at all. It isn't normal to suffer so much each month! Thankfully, I'm no longer suffering to the degree I used to. It's taken a lot of work and effort, but my periods are actually manageable now. I still can't go to work on the first day of my cycle, but I'm no longer staying in bed screaming for hours. I'm continuing to get better as time goes on.
I'm not up to writing "Menstrual Solutions Part 2." I don't have that kind of energy to spend. I do, however, want to talk a bit about PMS. I do not understand it, and this is not an advice-giving post.
PMS is stereotyped as "getting overly moody the week before a woman's period." I never thought I had PMS because this was hardly ever an issue for me. Of course, I have suffered terrible acne (as in so much acne that it was hard to see my face's skin color,) bloating, tenderness and skin sensitivities, fatigue, and chocolate cravings. I didn't know this through my teen years and early 20's, but those were all PMS symptoms. If I had to have PMS at all, I'm grateful that I had these type of symptoms rather than the mood symptoms. (I'll never be grateful for the amount of acne I've suffered, of course.)
That was then. About 3 years ago, when my menstrual issues got so bad that I was finally willing to see a doctor about it, my PMS symptoms had grown worse. I was feeling moody most of the month (both the very good moods and the very sour moods,) but I didn't quite recognize just how bad I was until my moods started to even out after getting help. My acne wasn't as bad as it was when I was 16, but I was an adult trying to hide teenage-like breakouts every so often. My breasts would grow so tender that it was painful to touch them. My bloat would get so large that I would need to go up a pant size on the day or two before my period started. I wanted chocolate all the time.
But after getting help from my Naturopathic doctor, my symptoms gradually changed. My periods slowly, but surely, eased up as the months went on. During this time, my PMS started to change. My chocolate cravings gradually went away, but my mood swings gradually got worse. I eventually got to the stereotypical point of being easily irritable the week before my period started. This lasted for several months, and then my PMS started to swing back towards being about acne breakouts and chocolate cravings again. And then it swung back to to being moody without the chocolate cravings. Let's fast forward to today. I now know that my PMS symptoms will either bring chocolate cravings or mood swings, but I don't know what type of PMS I'm going to get until I get it. Some months I get acne breakouts, other months I do not. It isn't in the least bit predictable!
What I have noticed, however, is that my acne breakouts have been big during both periods I've suffered since starting the Candida cleanse 41 days ago. My mood swings are substantially worse now too. I was so angry the week before the period I'm currently on that even my husband was feeling stressed about my stress levels.
And so I have a theory: Candida makes PMS worse, and causes it to fluctuate.
I hope to find that my PMS symptoms disappear after this candida overgrowth is gone. Please message me on Facebook or leave a comment here if you have a PMS story to share.
(I do appreciate all the Facebook messages I've received - I've had quite a few from readers who also suffer menstrual issues! While it's not normal for our periods to make us suffer, it's clearly a common problem among women.)
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Friday, May 15, 2015
Product Review: Safety Razor
And now for the post that several of you have been requesting for a while: A review of my new safety razor!
Let me begin this post by advising you not to try taking a pack of razor blades for your safety razor through airport security. You can imagine how that went for me. ;)
In looking for ways to reduce my use of plastic, I figured there must be a great solution to disposing my plastic Venus 5 blade razors every few weeks. I'm not the type to wax or have my hair removed with a lazer because both options are expensive and questionable. I've tried the fine sandpaper pads that rub away hair on your skin. They work very well for my upper lip hair, but not so great anywhere else on my body. I knew I needed to stick with shaving. Not knowing much of anything about safety razors, I decided to purchase one anyway.
I went to Amazon.com and searched for one. As it turned out, the price range was huge. I could spend anywhere from $15-200! After some research I found out the more expensive ones were made of true stainless steel. The cheaper ones are made with metals that resemble stainless steel. Knowing how safe, durable, and reliable true stainless steel is, I figured getting one was the way to go. I really couldn't be sure that the cheaper fake stainless steel kinds would stand the test of time. I was also concerned about rust. Well, as it turned out, the reviews on the fake stainless kind were so positive, that I simply couldn't justify spending an extra $80 for true stainless steel. So I ended up getting this one: SimplyBeautiful Double Edge Long Handled Safety Razor - Chrome Finish.
I paid $15 for this, and it's lasted me about 3 months so far. It's heavy and feels very solid. It's not having any trouble with rust yet. It's very easy to safely take apart and put back together. As of right now, I don't see any reason to spend the extra money to get a real stainless steel one. My concern is that this one will break down over time and start to have problems, but only time will tell. If that happens, then I will invest a true stainless steel one.
For another $10 I bought a pack of 100 double edge razor blades. What I'm finding is that I get about 6-7 shaves out of each blade. I could probably risk it and get more shaves per blade, but since the blades are so cheap, I'd rather not risk nicking myself with a well used blade that could have rust I didn't notice. So, I'm essentially spending 10 cents per 6 shaves (not counting the cost of the razor, which will last years and years and years, and it was only $15.) The plastic 5 blade Venus razors I have been using for years cost about $4 per 5-6 shaves. MAJOR SAVINGS! The safety razor is so much cheaper, uses no plastic whatsoever, and, believe it or not, shaves way better!
Enough about which one I bought. Does it work?
Yes, it works very well IF I'm careful. Careful is the key word here. I cut myself in multiple places the first 7 or 8 times I shaved with it. I was beginning to question if it was the right type of razor for me, but I stuck to my anti-plastic conventions and kept working on mastering my safety razor. With a bit more practice, I started to figure out how to shave without cutting myself. I'll share tips with you later in this post. Once I got the hang of it, I fell in love with it. It shaves closer than the 5 blade Venus razors I was using. This single blade is able to get right on top of the skin and cut as close as possible, whereas I think using 5 blades in the Venus Razors actually kept the blades higher off my skin and caused more irritation. I'm finding that I'm shaving less often and my skin is softer with less redness or bumps, especially in my arm pits!
This is what I've learned in order to avoid cutting myself:
- Always exfoliate the skin first. I use a natural loofah and scrub my legs and arm pits well first. Any loose dead skin can disrupt the blade, pull at your skin, and leave you bleeding.
- Do not dry shave with it. Use a lubricant, whether you prefer soap or shaving lotion. I personally find that my favorite way to shave is in a bubble bath (using the very soft and moisturizing Every Day Shae Bubble Bath.) This lets my pores open up and skin soften. It also allows me to go slow and methodically. This eliminates the need for a longer shower or using messy creams outside of the shower or bath. The bubble bath leaves my skin baby soft too!
- Do not put pressure on the razor! Use the natural weight of the razor against your skin. I do this by holding the end of the handle from the top with my thumb, index, and middle finger. It's hard to create pressure when you're holding the handle gently.
- Go slow and steady, using one long stroke. I got into a bad habit of trying to shave quickly with my Venus razors, getting each stroke done as fast as possible, then going back over the areas that were still fuzzy in small quick strokes. I cannot do that with my safety razor, but I find that I get each stroke right the first time with this razor.
- Always shave against the grain. Sometimes the grain isn't up or down, but it's side to side. I have better luck getting the closest possible shave on my shins by going from side to side. Yes, this takes longer, but it works better for me.
- Use both sides of the blade. I get one stroke per side, then I rinse the blade in the bath water before starting again.
- Take the razor apart after each use. Wipe each part down and let it dry. This not only keeps it clean and sanitary, it also prevents rust (if rust is even an issue - I don't know.)
(Note: It might sound strange that I shave in a bath, because it means I'm sitting in water with tons of small hairs in it. I'm not bothered by this, and I've not noticed that I end up with lots of small hairs on me after my baths. I usually do rinse the soap off of me in the shower after the bath, which would take care of that problem if it exists. Also, and I will write a post about this, I wash my hair in that bubble bath. I find it's more effective than any shampoo I've used. I start my bath by soaking my hair for a while, then I shave without my hair in the water, then I rinse in the shower. It saves water for me, and I get more benefits from getting to soak in the heat.)
Conclusion:
I highly recommend switching to a safety razor! It's substantially cheaper, much more environmentally friendly, much healthier as it's free of synthetic chemicals, and does a much better job! Yes, there is a learning curve, and yes, you can cut yourself much more easily with it. Mastering the razor isn't difficult, and it is worth the benefits.
Bonus Review:
Back to my tip on not trying to travel with the blades for your safety razor.
What are you supposed to do while traveling? Well, in this case, waxing might be the better solution (depending on how long you'll be away.) What I did on my last trip was go to Whole Foods and buy a Preserve brand razor. You can buy these online too. They are made from recycled Stonyfield Yogurt cups. Even though the razor is made from recycled plastic, it's still plastic. There is no guarantee that the razor will get recycled again at your recycling factory. This could easily mean that those Stonyfield cups just take longer to end up in the land fill. Do not be fooled into thinking that recycled plastic is a great alternative to plastic - it's only a slightly better alternative. Thankfully, it's designed so that you get a long life out of the handle by being able to replace the blade heads.
The Preserve razor has 3 blades, and the blade head is very narrow. I found that it worked well for a non-safety razor. It shaves about as close as my Venus razors. It's comfortable to hold and work with, but can hurt if you use too much pressure. Venus blades are padded with Olay moisture strips, these are not. The edge of the blade head hurts if you use too much pressure.
It did the job well enough for me on my last trip. I'm keeping it as my travel razor. The replacement blade heads are cheaper than replacement heads for Venus razors, and since they're just as effective, I might as well save the money!
Let me begin this post by advising you not to try taking a pack of razor blades for your safety razor through airport security. You can imagine how that went for me. ;)
In looking for ways to reduce my use of plastic, I figured there must be a great solution to disposing my plastic Venus 5 blade razors every few weeks. I'm not the type to wax or have my hair removed with a lazer because both options are expensive and questionable. I've tried the fine sandpaper pads that rub away hair on your skin. They work very well for my upper lip hair, but not so great anywhere else on my body. I knew I needed to stick with shaving. Not knowing much of anything about safety razors, I decided to purchase one anyway.
I went to Amazon.com and searched for one. As it turned out, the price range was huge. I could spend anywhere from $15-200! After some research I found out the more expensive ones were made of true stainless steel. The cheaper ones are made with metals that resemble stainless steel. Knowing how safe, durable, and reliable true stainless steel is, I figured getting one was the way to go. I really couldn't be sure that the cheaper fake stainless steel kinds would stand the test of time. I was also concerned about rust. Well, as it turned out, the reviews on the fake stainless kind were so positive, that I simply couldn't justify spending an extra $80 for true stainless steel. So I ended up getting this one: SimplyBeautiful Double Edge Long Handled Safety Razor - Chrome Finish.
I paid $15 for this, and it's lasted me about 3 months so far. It's heavy and feels very solid. It's not having any trouble with rust yet. It's very easy to safely take apart and put back together. As of right now, I don't see any reason to spend the extra money to get a real stainless steel one. My concern is that this one will break down over time and start to have problems, but only time will tell. If that happens, then I will invest a true stainless steel one.
For another $10 I bought a pack of 100 double edge razor blades. What I'm finding is that I get about 6-7 shaves out of each blade. I could probably risk it and get more shaves per blade, but since the blades are so cheap, I'd rather not risk nicking myself with a well used blade that could have rust I didn't notice. So, I'm essentially spending 10 cents per 6 shaves (not counting the cost of the razor, which will last years and years and years, and it was only $15.) The plastic 5 blade Venus razors I have been using for years cost about $4 per 5-6 shaves. MAJOR SAVINGS! The safety razor is so much cheaper, uses no plastic whatsoever, and, believe it or not, shaves way better!
Enough about which one I bought. Does it work?
Yes, it works very well IF I'm careful. Careful is the key word here. I cut myself in multiple places the first 7 or 8 times I shaved with it. I was beginning to question if it was the right type of razor for me, but I stuck to my anti-plastic conventions and kept working on mastering my safety razor. With a bit more practice, I started to figure out how to shave without cutting myself. I'll share tips with you later in this post. Once I got the hang of it, I fell in love with it. It shaves closer than the 5 blade Venus razors I was using. This single blade is able to get right on top of the skin and cut as close as possible, whereas I think using 5 blades in the Venus Razors actually kept the blades higher off my skin and caused more irritation. I'm finding that I'm shaving less often and my skin is softer with less redness or bumps, especially in my arm pits!
This is what I've learned in order to avoid cutting myself:
- Always exfoliate the skin first. I use a natural loofah and scrub my legs and arm pits well first. Any loose dead skin can disrupt the blade, pull at your skin, and leave you bleeding.
- Do not dry shave with it. Use a lubricant, whether you prefer soap or shaving lotion. I personally find that my favorite way to shave is in a bubble bath (using the very soft and moisturizing Every Day Shae Bubble Bath.) This lets my pores open up and skin soften. It also allows me to go slow and methodically. This eliminates the need for a longer shower or using messy creams outside of the shower or bath. The bubble bath leaves my skin baby soft too!
- Do not put pressure on the razor! Use the natural weight of the razor against your skin. I do this by holding the end of the handle from the top with my thumb, index, and middle finger. It's hard to create pressure when you're holding the handle gently.
- Go slow and steady, using one long stroke. I got into a bad habit of trying to shave quickly with my Venus razors, getting each stroke done as fast as possible, then going back over the areas that were still fuzzy in small quick strokes. I cannot do that with my safety razor, but I find that I get each stroke right the first time with this razor.
- Always shave against the grain. Sometimes the grain isn't up or down, but it's side to side. I have better luck getting the closest possible shave on my shins by going from side to side. Yes, this takes longer, but it works better for me.
- Use both sides of the blade. I get one stroke per side, then I rinse the blade in the bath water before starting again.
- Take the razor apart after each use. Wipe each part down and let it dry. This not only keeps it clean and sanitary, it also prevents rust (if rust is even an issue - I don't know.)
(Note: It might sound strange that I shave in a bath, because it means I'm sitting in water with tons of small hairs in it. I'm not bothered by this, and I've not noticed that I end up with lots of small hairs on me after my baths. I usually do rinse the soap off of me in the shower after the bath, which would take care of that problem if it exists. Also, and I will write a post about this, I wash my hair in that bubble bath. I find it's more effective than any shampoo I've used. I start my bath by soaking my hair for a while, then I shave without my hair in the water, then I rinse in the shower. It saves water for me, and I get more benefits from getting to soak in the heat.)
Conclusion:
I highly recommend switching to a safety razor! It's substantially cheaper, much more environmentally friendly, much healthier as it's free of synthetic chemicals, and does a much better job! Yes, there is a learning curve, and yes, you can cut yourself much more easily with it. Mastering the razor isn't difficult, and it is worth the benefits.
Bonus Review:
Back to my tip on not trying to travel with the blades for your safety razor.
What are you supposed to do while traveling? Well, in this case, waxing might be the better solution (depending on how long you'll be away.) What I did on my last trip was go to Whole Foods and buy a Preserve brand razor. You can buy these online too. They are made from recycled Stonyfield Yogurt cups. Even though the razor is made from recycled plastic, it's still plastic. There is no guarantee that the razor will get recycled again at your recycling factory. This could easily mean that those Stonyfield cups just take longer to end up in the land fill. Do not be fooled into thinking that recycled plastic is a great alternative to plastic - it's only a slightly better alternative. Thankfully, it's designed so that you get a long life out of the handle by being able to replace the blade heads.
The Preserve razor has 3 blades, and the blade head is very narrow. I found that it worked well for a non-safety razor. It shaves about as close as my Venus razors. It's comfortable to hold and work with, but can hurt if you use too much pressure. Venus blades are padded with Olay moisture strips, these are not. The edge of the blade head hurts if you use too much pressure.
It did the job well enough for me on my last trip. I'm keeping it as my travel razor. The replacement blade heads are cheaper than replacement heads for Venus razors, and since they're just as effective, I might as well save the money!
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Plastics
This is a post I've been gearing up to write for many months now. The problem of plastic has become one of my passions, because it is one of the most easily solved problems by the majority of people. Step one is educating the majority of people so that they have the knowledge they need to make their choice for or against the use of plastic.
Plastic certainly has its uses, and it is a revolutionary component in our modern technology focused world with advanced medical care. This post is not against all plastic, because in many cases is it the best, if not the only, material we have for certain important uses. For instance, many types of medical equipment, such as tubing, require plastic. Do you remember the commercials back in the 90's with the slogan "Plastics make it possible"? The reason for the commercial was to address the health concerns about plastic that many people were worried about. The commercial wasn't lying. Plastics do many many things possible, things that could even save a person's life. The problem is, yes, there are some serious health concerns with plastics. Those worried people in the 90's had very good reason to be worried.
Due to the importance of plastic in certain instances, my complaint is with plastics made from petroleum that are only made for a single use or that are used as a cheaper material to a more natural qualified material. Yes, plastic is petroleum product, though there are plant-based alternatives, but I'll get into this later in this post. By single use plastics I mean plastics such as water bottles, straws, candy wrappers, disposable utensils, grocery bags, etc. By cheaper material I mean clothing made from polyester instead of cotton, water bottles made from plastic instead of stainless steel or glass, etc. These are easily fixable problems.
But why are these plastics a problem? There are several issues: Plastic does not recycle as easily as we're lead to believe, plastic does not biodegrade, plastic is often totally unnecessary (it's not sustainable at all, yet it's used in place of sustainable materials anyway), and plastic is an endocrine disruptor (easily gets into our bodies and acts like estrogen.)
Yes, recycling companies do accept plastic to be recycled. But does it actually get recycled? For most of my life I was convinced that plastic sent to the recycling companies does actually get recycled, or else they wouldn't accept it. This is a difficult point to convince people of because it will shatter their view of the almighty Eco-friendly recycling programs. I encourage you to watch the documentary Plastic Paradise. It is currently free to view on Netflix. Even though the journalist who made the movie is inexperienced and a terrible interviewer, she does capture very important footage, interview some big names in the plastic industry, and takes part in a science experiment that went on to be an influential peer-reviewed published study. While she covers most of the very important points about the problem of plastic, what she did best with her documentary was give the audience a great visual idea of how much plastic is floating in our oceans. Plastic that may or may not have gone to recyclers. But let me give you evidence that you can read right now as well. China isn't accepting a lot of our used plastics anymore, and our recyclers in the country cannot support the amount of plastic that is put in recycle bins. What's worse is that only 6.5 percent of plastic that gets put into recycle bins actually gets recycled, and only 7.7 percent gets sent to waste-to-energy facilities. And so, recycling companies end up sending a lot of plastic to land fills anyway. Many of those landfills are in the ocean and countries like India. India has such a major plastic problem that there literal mountains of plastic. My friend's cousin is seeking funding for a project that would recycle the plastic in India into roofs. Please check out his project and support him!
The reason all this waste plastic keeps piling up is because it simply does not biodegrade. Organic materials biodegrade because the bacteria in the earth are able to break it down. Plastic is unlike organic materials, and therefore the bacteria cannot break it down. It does, at least, decompose in sunlight, but not all the way. The sun turns plastics into tiny little pieces... that don't go away. In the oceans, fish eat these tiny pieces. Then we eat those fish, meaning that we're ingesting the plastic we thought we "got rid of" when we threw it away or "recycled" it. I'll get into why ingesting plastic is a major problem later.
So why do companies use plastics when other materials could be used? I'm not sure that I really need to link to any sources to answer this question. It's cheap. Not only is it cheap, it has characteristics that other materials don't: it's versatile, flexible, doesn't break when dropped, is transparent, and can shaped easily. Plastic really is revolutionary! It provides convenience and new possibilities at the lowest price tag. There are non-petroleum plastics, though, such as hemp and corn plastic. You may have noticed in recent years that the plastic bags available in some grocery stores for vegetables and meat are now made from corn based plastics. More and more of the plastic air pockets used in boxes for shipping protection is being made from non-petroleum plastic that biodegrades quickly. There is hope for plastic to become less and less toxic as the years go on, but I'm not counting on it, and I plan to avoid plastic anyway. (...And then there's the issue of my corn allergy! I don't know if corn plastic bothers me, but if it's holding my food then there's the potential for it.)
Okay, you get it. Plastic pollution is a major problem. These reasons alone are enough to make you want to quit relying on plastic, I hope. But these reasons are only half the problem with plastics. This is a health blog, and I wouldn't necessarily bring up this topic if wasn't health related.
How plastics affect our health, and my personal plastic health story:
I'd like to start by sharing my story, because I believe having a concrete example of the health problems caused by plastics will help you understand the research I'm going to link to.
As you know if have been reading my previous posts, I spent about 8-9 years suffering from brutally painful and unmanageable menstrual periods. I was losing 10+ ounces of blood per month, not including spotting, when the average healthy woman loses about 1-2 ounces per month. The pain was so unbearable that I was taking up to 12 Ibuprofen on the first day of my period, and it often wasn't enough to manage the pain. I had PMS symptoms that were the result of hormonal and reproductive problems too: severe acne breakouts, oily skin, anger and mood issues, powerful cravings, bloating and inflammation, and more. I was told that I probably had endometreosis, but I did not go through with the surgery that would confirm this.
I decided to try an experiment about 7 months ago after getting diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. I had been reading up on endocrine disruptors in many common household products that caused me to react, and what I kept finding were warnings about plastic as an endocrine disruptor. I decided to see what would happen if I eliminated as much plastic as possible from my life, focusing on the kitchen and clothing. I switched to only wearing clothing from natural fabrics, like cotton and linen (yes, polyester, nylon, and spandex are all forms of plastic!) If I can get a body care product in something other than plastic, I buy it instead of something in plastic (for instance, Badger Balm comes in tin cans, and coconut oil from glass jars makes a fantastic lotion and make-up remover.) I choose to use natural bristles for my body brush and use a real loofa instead of the plastic imitator (and I just ordered a plastic-free toothbrush.) My make up brushes are made from wood and natural brush fibers. I purchased stainless steel and glass water bottles, glass storage containers and bakeware, and ceramic and stainless steel pots and pans. I do not use a plastic sack to hold my vegetables when I buy them at the store. I bought a half a cow and had the meat wrapped in paper, not plastic. You get the idea. I was unable to eliminate all plastic. For instance, I cannot get chicken, turkey, or fish locally that wasn't sealed in plastic. My doctor's herbs and supplements all come in plastic containers. My liquid soap comes in plastic. I did what I could to eliminate plastic from my life. What I noticed was that each month following the plastic elimination, my menstrual periods got easier and easier to deal with. Now, I need to be very clear on something: My doctor was already addressing my menstrual issues for a year between diet, herbs, supplements, tinctures, exercise, and progesterone cream. All of these things helped considerably, and my periods were about 40% easier to deal with. I still was dealing with horrific periods, though, and needed more help. The plastic elimination helped ease my periods faster and more dramatically than anything my doctor did for me (which I'm very grateful for and was very necessary!) Last month, I was down to only losing 5 ounces of blood with no pain at all. I still got dizzy, overly tired, and light headed. I still had to lay in bed half of the day to manage these symptoms. But this is better than spending the entire day in bed screaming in pain, unable to move without extra pain, on the verge of fainting every time I stood up, wondering how to make it to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. What's more, my PMS symptoms have lighted up too. My acne has been reduced to one or two pimples the week before my period (instead of covering my entire face and some of my back.) My mood is stable the week before. My skin hasn't had an oil problem in a year, but now it's actually staying the same each day of the month. My bloating and tenderness issues are greatly reduced (to the point of being ignorable.)
I noticed another amazing benefit from avoiding plastic clothing: I no longer have body odor! I used to have a few shirts and pants that made me reek after half a day of wearing them, and other shirts made me smell too, just not as badly. I never knew my clothes were causing the problem until I tried this experiment. The shirts that made me reek the most were 100% polyester. I also discovered that my body odor never fully washed out of those shirts. Now that I'm wearing natural clothing I don't really ever smell. Even after I work out and am sweaty, I don't really smell. Sure, my sweat smells a little musty (doesn't everyone's?), but there was nothing repulsive about it.
So how is it that I got these fantastic results with my health just by ditching plastic? How could plastic actually have that much power over our health? Well, like I mentioned earlier, it's an endocrine disruptor. The endocrine system is your hormonal system. An endocrine disruptor is a synthetic chemical that when absorbed into the body either mimics or blocks hormones and disrupts the body's normal functions. Plastic mimics estrogen in our body. To be clear, there are many estrogen like chemicals other than plastic, but I'm focusing on plastic because it is one of the most prevalent sources of estrogen like chemicals. By clearing as much of the estrogen-like chemicals out of body as I could, my estrogen/ estrogen-like levels went down. I never had these levels measured in a lab, but why else would my menstrual problems be clearing up after eliminating plastic? (I should also mention that I've never been on birth control pills and I haven't used "regular" feminine hygiene products in about 7 years. I also haven't had any soy products in several years, as I've developed an intolerance to soy. All of those also contribute to an estrogen dominance. My estrogen was seemingly mainly a plastic problem, but I'm sure there were other contributing factors.)
We can easily understand how estrogen mimickers could affect women, but what about men? I really like what this article has to say about that. Poor men. Don't lose your healthy testosterone level to xenoestrogens!
I could get into more detail, such as exploring specific chemicals in the plastics, like BPA. I might save such details for future posts. :)
I will leave you with this Story of Stuff video on the dangers of microbead plastics:
Plastic certainly has its uses, and it is a revolutionary component in our modern technology focused world with advanced medical care. This post is not against all plastic, because in many cases is it the best, if not the only, material we have for certain important uses. For instance, many types of medical equipment, such as tubing, require plastic. Do you remember the commercials back in the 90's with the slogan "Plastics make it possible"? The reason for the commercial was to address the health concerns about plastic that many people were worried about. The commercial wasn't lying. Plastics do many many things possible, things that could even save a person's life. The problem is, yes, there are some serious health concerns with plastics. Those worried people in the 90's had very good reason to be worried.
Due to the importance of plastic in certain instances, my complaint is with plastics made from petroleum that are only made for a single use or that are used as a cheaper material to a more natural qualified material. Yes, plastic is petroleum product, though there are plant-based alternatives, but I'll get into this later in this post. By single use plastics I mean plastics such as water bottles, straws, candy wrappers, disposable utensils, grocery bags, etc. By cheaper material I mean clothing made from polyester instead of cotton, water bottles made from plastic instead of stainless steel or glass, etc. These are easily fixable problems.
But why are these plastics a problem? There are several issues: Plastic does not recycle as easily as we're lead to believe, plastic does not biodegrade, plastic is often totally unnecessary (it's not sustainable at all, yet it's used in place of sustainable materials anyway), and plastic is an endocrine disruptor (easily gets into our bodies and acts like estrogen.)
Yes, recycling companies do accept plastic to be recycled. But does it actually get recycled? For most of my life I was convinced that plastic sent to the recycling companies does actually get recycled, or else they wouldn't accept it. This is a difficult point to convince people of because it will shatter their view of the almighty Eco-friendly recycling programs. I encourage you to watch the documentary Plastic Paradise. It is currently free to view on Netflix. Even though the journalist who made the movie is inexperienced and a terrible interviewer, she does capture very important footage, interview some big names in the plastic industry, and takes part in a science experiment that went on to be an influential peer-reviewed published study. While she covers most of the very important points about the problem of plastic, what she did best with her documentary was give the audience a great visual idea of how much plastic is floating in our oceans. Plastic that may or may not have gone to recyclers. But let me give you evidence that you can read right now as well. China isn't accepting a lot of our used plastics anymore, and our recyclers in the country cannot support the amount of plastic that is put in recycle bins. What's worse is that only 6.5 percent of plastic that gets put into recycle bins actually gets recycled, and only 7.7 percent gets sent to waste-to-energy facilities. And so, recycling companies end up sending a lot of plastic to land fills anyway. Many of those landfills are in the ocean and countries like India. India has such a major plastic problem that there literal mountains of plastic. My friend's cousin is seeking funding for a project that would recycle the plastic in India into roofs. Please check out his project and support him!
The reason all this waste plastic keeps piling up is because it simply does not biodegrade. Organic materials biodegrade because the bacteria in the earth are able to break it down. Plastic is unlike organic materials, and therefore the bacteria cannot break it down. It does, at least, decompose in sunlight, but not all the way. The sun turns plastics into tiny little pieces... that don't go away. In the oceans, fish eat these tiny pieces. Then we eat those fish, meaning that we're ingesting the plastic we thought we "got rid of" when we threw it away or "recycled" it. I'll get into why ingesting plastic is a major problem later.
So why do companies use plastics when other materials could be used? I'm not sure that I really need to link to any sources to answer this question. It's cheap. Not only is it cheap, it has characteristics that other materials don't: it's versatile, flexible, doesn't break when dropped, is transparent, and can shaped easily. Plastic really is revolutionary! It provides convenience and new possibilities at the lowest price tag. There are non-petroleum plastics, though, such as hemp and corn plastic. You may have noticed in recent years that the plastic bags available in some grocery stores for vegetables and meat are now made from corn based plastics. More and more of the plastic air pockets used in boxes for shipping protection is being made from non-petroleum plastic that biodegrades quickly. There is hope for plastic to become less and less toxic as the years go on, but I'm not counting on it, and I plan to avoid plastic anyway. (...And then there's the issue of my corn allergy! I don't know if corn plastic bothers me, but if it's holding my food then there's the potential for it.)
Okay, you get it. Plastic pollution is a major problem. These reasons alone are enough to make you want to quit relying on plastic, I hope. But these reasons are only half the problem with plastics. This is a health blog, and I wouldn't necessarily bring up this topic if wasn't health related.
How plastics affect our health, and my personal plastic health story:
I'd like to start by sharing my story, because I believe having a concrete example of the health problems caused by plastics will help you understand the research I'm going to link to.
As you know if have been reading my previous posts, I spent about 8-9 years suffering from brutally painful and unmanageable menstrual periods. I was losing 10+ ounces of blood per month, not including spotting, when the average healthy woman loses about 1-2 ounces per month. The pain was so unbearable that I was taking up to 12 Ibuprofen on the first day of my period, and it often wasn't enough to manage the pain. I had PMS symptoms that were the result of hormonal and reproductive problems too: severe acne breakouts, oily skin, anger and mood issues, powerful cravings, bloating and inflammation, and more. I was told that I probably had endometreosis, but I did not go through with the surgery that would confirm this.
I decided to try an experiment about 7 months ago after getting diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. I had been reading up on endocrine disruptors in many common household products that caused me to react, and what I kept finding were warnings about plastic as an endocrine disruptor. I decided to see what would happen if I eliminated as much plastic as possible from my life, focusing on the kitchen and clothing. I switched to only wearing clothing from natural fabrics, like cotton and linen (yes, polyester, nylon, and spandex are all forms of plastic!) If I can get a body care product in something other than plastic, I buy it instead of something in plastic (for instance, Badger Balm comes in tin cans, and coconut oil from glass jars makes a fantastic lotion and make-up remover.) I choose to use natural bristles for my body brush and use a real loofa instead of the plastic imitator (and I just ordered a plastic-free toothbrush.) My make up brushes are made from wood and natural brush fibers. I purchased stainless steel and glass water bottles, glass storage containers and bakeware, and ceramic and stainless steel pots and pans. I do not use a plastic sack to hold my vegetables when I buy them at the store. I bought a half a cow and had the meat wrapped in paper, not plastic. You get the idea. I was unable to eliminate all plastic. For instance, I cannot get chicken, turkey, or fish locally that wasn't sealed in plastic. My doctor's herbs and supplements all come in plastic containers. My liquid soap comes in plastic. I did what I could to eliminate plastic from my life. What I noticed was that each month following the plastic elimination, my menstrual periods got easier and easier to deal with. Now, I need to be very clear on something: My doctor was already addressing my menstrual issues for a year between diet, herbs, supplements, tinctures, exercise, and progesterone cream. All of these things helped considerably, and my periods were about 40% easier to deal with. I still was dealing with horrific periods, though, and needed more help. The plastic elimination helped ease my periods faster and more dramatically than anything my doctor did for me (which I'm very grateful for and was very necessary!) Last month, I was down to only losing 5 ounces of blood with no pain at all. I still got dizzy, overly tired, and light headed. I still had to lay in bed half of the day to manage these symptoms. But this is better than spending the entire day in bed screaming in pain, unable to move without extra pain, on the verge of fainting every time I stood up, wondering how to make it to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. What's more, my PMS symptoms have lighted up too. My acne has been reduced to one or two pimples the week before my period (instead of covering my entire face and some of my back.) My mood is stable the week before. My skin hasn't had an oil problem in a year, but now it's actually staying the same each day of the month. My bloating and tenderness issues are greatly reduced (to the point of being ignorable.)
I noticed another amazing benefit from avoiding plastic clothing: I no longer have body odor! I used to have a few shirts and pants that made me reek after half a day of wearing them, and other shirts made me smell too, just not as badly. I never knew my clothes were causing the problem until I tried this experiment. The shirts that made me reek the most were 100% polyester. I also discovered that my body odor never fully washed out of those shirts. Now that I'm wearing natural clothing I don't really ever smell. Even after I work out and am sweaty, I don't really smell. Sure, my sweat smells a little musty (doesn't everyone's?), but there was nothing repulsive about it.
So how is it that I got these fantastic results with my health just by ditching plastic? How could plastic actually have that much power over our health? Well, like I mentioned earlier, it's an endocrine disruptor. The endocrine system is your hormonal system. An endocrine disruptor is a synthetic chemical that when absorbed into the body either mimics or blocks hormones and disrupts the body's normal functions. Plastic mimics estrogen in our body. To be clear, there are many estrogen like chemicals other than plastic, but I'm focusing on plastic because it is one of the most prevalent sources of estrogen like chemicals. By clearing as much of the estrogen-like chemicals out of body as I could, my estrogen/ estrogen-like levels went down. I never had these levels measured in a lab, but why else would my menstrual problems be clearing up after eliminating plastic? (I should also mention that I've never been on birth control pills and I haven't used "regular" feminine hygiene products in about 7 years. I also haven't had any soy products in several years, as I've developed an intolerance to soy. All of those also contribute to an estrogen dominance. My estrogen was seemingly mainly a plastic problem, but I'm sure there were other contributing factors.)
We can easily understand how estrogen mimickers could affect women, but what about men? I really like what this article has to say about that. Poor men. Don't lose your healthy testosterone level to xenoestrogens!
I could get into more detail, such as exploring specific chemicals in the plastics, like BPA. I might save such details for future posts. :)
I will leave you with this Story of Stuff video on the dangers of microbead plastics:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)