| Your Health: Eliminate Toxins in Your Home and Body |
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| Written by Suzann Kale | |
 Although we can never know what our future contains, we can take certain actions to direct it along a specific probability path.What can we do to keep our bodies free of toxins? Toxins can cause all sorts of problems, from allergies to cancer, so we're talking about a huge range of topics. But we might as well do the best we can. We may not be able to dodge all the toxins out there, but why not protect ourselves from the ones we can?
In Your Home
1. Test your home for radon. It's a colorless, odorless natural gas, but it can cause lung cancer. The good news: it's easy to test, and not difficult to eliminate if you find it. Details at http://www.epa.gov/radon/.
2. Use cleaning products in a well-ventilated area. If you're scrubbing the tub, open the bathroom windows. Never use spray-paint indoors. Open your home on a regular basis, so fresh air can blow through it. 3. When purchasing a new carpet, new furniture (which may release gases like formaldehyde) or painting interior walls: *do it in the spring when you can keep your home ventilated
*do it before you move into your house, or have it done while on vacation.
4. Keep a clean home. There's no need for mold, dust, or ill-kept food items. Keep the fridge clean and put a date on your leftovers using a label or masking tape. You might also try hepa filter-based vacuum cleaner bags and ac filters. 5. If you have a furnace, get it professionally cleaned and checked annually, especially if your furnace burns propane, butane or oil. These are possible sources of carbon monoxide from which you'll want to protect your family. 6. Find out all you can about bisphenol A. According to Scientific American (12/16/07, Fighting Toxins in the Home by Mark Alpert), bisphenol A may be a "component of the light plastics used in baby bottles and many other consumer products." It can "leach from the plastic lining of canned foods," according to Wikipedia, and can get into infants who are "fed canned formula with polycarbonate bottles." Accordingly, many physicians are recommending that pregnant women not drink from plastic bottles. 7. Keep those phenols out of the house, and away from your body. These carcinogens can be found in some disinfectants, perfumes, glues and air fresheners. The best way to freshen the air in your house is to open the window. If weather is an issue, consider installing a fan-based ventilation system. Don't spray things willy nilly into your home's air, like they do on television commercials. In Your Body
1. Men, women, and children all need to be selective about personal care products. Something as innocuous as shampoo can contain all kinds of toxins, from methylisothiazoline (which may cause damage to children, infants, and fetuses) to diethanolamine, or DEA (which may be carcinogenic or cause a reaction in other shampoo ingredients that may become carcinogenic). Sunscreen, soap, deodorant, cosmetics, and body lotion are all better purchased at the health food store or from a brand that has ingredients listed and explained on its website.
2. For more information about cosmetics and toxins, see: http://www.mymakeupmirror.com/lipstick.html 3. More and more people are giving up alcohol. If you take more than two drinks a day, you may want to look into it. 4. I'm not going to mention smoking, because you already know that. (I guess I just mentioned it.) 5. Becoming a vegetarian is thought by many experts to be not only healthier, but also easier on the environment. It's certainly easier on the animals. Something to consider and read up on. Whether you're vegetarian or not, eating wholesome, locally grown foods, or products you trust from the health food store. Any "food" that has no nutrition should not be considered edible. 6. Keep heavy-duty killer items out of reach of children and pets. We're talking rust removers, automotive products, solvents of any kind, spray cans, paint, pesticides - you know the drill. It's not that we don't know to do this, it's that we may be putting off cleaning the garage. Don't procrastinate cleaning and organizing the garage, the basement, the tool shed, and any storage areas. 7. One problem with reading an ingredient list from a product's label is that they sometimes change the name of a wayward ingredient slightly, or may substitute another chemical for a popularized carcinogen, with that substitute ingredient being of unknown toxicity. The best way to read a list is to do it front of your computer and Google each ingredient. The second best way to read a list (and a quicker way) is to use products that have their ingredients laid out on their website, easy to read, and explained. Most natural food lines, vitamin companies carried in reputable health food stores, earth-friendly products, and wholesome cosmetic brands, will do this. Copyright (c) 2008 by Suzann Kale. All rights reserved. Do not copy without permission.
Photo is by Jamie Woods of stock.xchng
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