I was enjoying a pot of tea with my friend Kristen when she told me a story about when her daughter was three years old and appeared to be drunk. It scared the living daylights out of her. After digging into the cause, she discovered that her daughter had gotten into a bottle of hand sanitizer, and it had soaked through her skin into her bloodstream!
Yep, our skin is our largest organ, and everything you put on your skin gets shuttled into your bloodstream, just as if you ate it. Pharmaceutical companies know this; that’s why they use topical patches and lotions to deliver medicine. In fact, many times medications are more effective as creams than as pills because they are so readily absorbed through the skin. And so are the ingredients in any product you put on your skin!
Your skin also sucks in the poisons that are found in cosmetics, moisturizers, self-tanners, and products like insect repellent. The skin delivers those poisons to the bloodstream, which takes them right to your liver. The liver’s job is to filter out toxins from the blood, and when toxin levels are high, the liver can become tired and congested. Your liver also governs your moods and controls how fast you lose weight, so a taxed liver can affect many aspects of your health.
Limiting the liver’s exposure to pollutants enables it to heal from prior abuse. I even had a client who got out of the danger zone of high liver enzymes just by changing her makeup and skin lotions!
The chemicals in our personal care products may also be interfering with our hormones. Phthalates (found in perfume and fragrances), parabens (found in cosmetics), triclosan (found in antibacterial soaps), and oxybenzone (found in sunscreen) are all endocrine-disrupting chemicals. One study found that in teenage girls, the use of products containing lower amounts of these chemicals for just three days caused the levels in their bodies to drop significantly—by up to 45 percent! In other words, what you put on your skin truly matters.
Dihydroxyacetone, or DHA (not to be confused with docosahexaenoic acid, the beneficial DHA fatty acid found in fish oil), is a potent chemical commonly found in self-tanners. Although it’s not absorbed through the skin, it does cause the upper layers of skin to be more susceptible to free radicals, cellular killers that wreak havoc by damaging DNA and altering cell membranes. Scientists now can prove that free radicals play a major role in the aging process, in addition to being associated with heart disease, stroke, cancer, arthritis, and possibly allergies, along with many other issues. To put it simply, think of your body as an apple: an apple turns brown once you slice it and expose it to air; your body basically rusts from the inside out when exposed to free radicals.
I wasn’t always aware of and didn’t always think about what I was putting on my skin. But just as I took baby steps to clean out my kitchen pantry, I realized that I had to take steps to clean out my bathroom cabinet and find safer alternatives for the topical products my family and I were using.
I started with shampoo and conditioner, then switched to a safer sunscreen, and over time my whole bathroom cabinet became something I was proud of, just like my kitchen pantry.
I suggest that you do the same. Think about all the products you put on your skin and gums:
• Deodorant
• Insect repellent
• Lotion
• Makeup
• Perfume
• Shampoo and conditioner
• Soap
• Toothpaste and mouthwash
Look at the brands you use and think about whether it would be a good idea to switch to other brands that use less harmful chemicals—or make your own! Some of my favorite homemade recipes appear on the following pages.
When it comes to perfume, there is a simple solution: put it on your clothes instead of your skin. I love Elizabeth Arden’s Green Tea fragrance!