We all want beautiful skin, but we spend loads of money making sure we won’t have it. You see, your skin is a reflection of your liver. If your liver is gunked up and unable to get the toxins out of your body, then your skin will tell you about it through premature aging, acne, rosacea, etc.
But we don’t usually consider that our skin as something that is reflecting our insides. Rather, we see our skin problems and seek to fix it with external applications of soaps, creams, and all sorts of other products. These are supposed to keep us looking younger, feeling softer, and free from spots, but here’s the catch: Those youth/clear skin potions we use are often toxic, and not only do they harm our skin by way of overloading our liver, but they also put us at greater risk of cancer and other diseases.
In the 2010 President’s Cancer Panel report, the panel stated, “With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are un- or understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread. ” That’s cancer people! Your quest to look better might be making you look worse and putting you at serious risk. It’s time to rethink what we put on our bodies!
Thankfully, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has done a lot to help us understand what we are putting in our body. They have found that women are typically exposed to 168 unique ingredients daily from the products they use, 85 for men. In their evaluation of the common 60,000 products listed on the back of labels, the EWG found that 34% of products have chemicals associated with cancer, 45% have chemicals associated with reproductive or developmental toxins, 60% have estrogenic chemicals that will mess with your hormones and cause everything from aggressive puberty in little girls to breast cancer.
The good news is that consumers are getting better informed and asking Congress to update policies regulating these chemicals. In the meantime here are some things you can do to reduce the toxins you are pouring into your skin.
Tips
- First, check out those things that you put on your body like shampoo, soap, makeup, laundry detergent, and sunscreen. Do they have any of these chemicals? Anything that goes on your body that has an added fragrance is highly suspect.
- Second, download the Environmental Working Group app so you can make better choices when buying new products by scanning in the item or searching by the name. I geeked out when I downloaded the app and ran around scanning all my products. It’s a good time!
As always, I hope this series has helped you feel empowered to reduce your toxic load so that you can feel and look your best!
Helping you get past all the stuff that is holding you back! 