Safety of Your Body Care Products

Many of my patients are extremely environmentally sensitive and conscious about living more cleanly. They make the effort to buy products that are supposedly cleaner, more conscious and healthier for their bodies.

Lately I’ve been researching some of these products trying to understand what is really clean. It’s been a bit discouraging because things aren’t as clean or healthy as you would think.

Your skin is your biggest organ, using products that are healthy is particularly important. It you put on a lotion full of chemicals, it will affect your whole body. If you wash with a soap that is full of carcinogens, they will be absorbed into your system.

Have you ever thought to question the standards of what is clean and natural or organic when you buy a shampoo or other body care product? You probably just assumed that it was what you thought it should be. Until recently body care products had no regulation. Now if you see that they have a USDA organic certificate, you can trust that most of what is in the product is organic. In spite of the new regulation any company can call a product organic and it may not have more than 20% organic ingredients in it. Companies like Avalon Organics state their products are organic but they have many chemicals in them. One of my favorite companies which is also gaining a lot of popularity is EO, they make a lot of body care products including shampoo, conditioner, hand soaps, and more. Their ingredient list is full of toxic chemicals. Jurlique is another company who claims that everything they do is organic. Once I began investigating the ingredients I found their products contain chemicals that can be hazardous to your health as well.

One common chemical in home care and body care products is Sodium Laureth Sulfate a foaming agent. For people with skin sensitivity, it can increase rashes, and skin break outs, and has been shown to increase canker sores in people who are prone to them. While it is not a cancer causing chemical itself, it has been shown to have contaminant called 1,4 Dioxane which is a pretty strong carcinogen. Even some of the supposedly healthier soaps such as Ecover, contain Sodium laureth sulfate and traces of 1,4 Dioxane.

If you have concerns about the chemicals in your skin care products, there is a wonderful web site to look at. The environmental work group, www.ewg.com rates almost all cosmetics available based on the safety of the ingredients and the chemicals in them. You can look up a particular product or you can look up a chemical to find out all the possible toxic reactions you would have. Another web site http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Ltoxiccosmetics.htm has a list of toxic chemicals in your body care products and explains what the problem is.

In some ways all this information is a bit depressing. What can you count on if you want to live a healthy conscious life? The best thing you can do is continue to look for high quality clean products for your skin and home care. The laws of supply and demand, work well.  If you keep searching for the best and only buying from companies that are really clean, you will encourage the manufacture of good products.