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Transcript
- 11:22 Products to avoid
- 14:25 Toxic ingredients
- 24:10 Parabens
- 25:10 Formaldehyde
- 31:10 Propylene Glycol
- 32:43 Fluoride in toothpaste
- 42:32 Recommendations for natural products
Wendy Myers: Welcome to the Live to 110 podcast. My name is Wendy Myers. You can find me on myersdetox.com. And my co-host, Cate Beehan is a pilates and Soul Cycle instructor and a fellow health coach. And you can find her on Fitness-broad.com. Hi Cate, how are you?
Cate Beehan: Great, Wendy. How are you?
Wendy Myers: I’m good. Today, we’re going to be talking about toxic beauty products and why you should be avoiding certain toxic products and which products that you know, I’ve been using for a long time and I recommend. I tried everything out there. And so, I just thought I’d shed some light on this subject today. But first Cate, why don’t you do our super annoying disclaimer.
Cate Beehan: OK. Please keep in mind that the Live to 110 podcast is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease or health condition. This podcast is solely informational in nature. Please consult your healthcare practitioner before attempting in any treatment you hear on the show.
Wendy Myers: Yes, do not use one of these creams unless you consult your doctor. So today, you know we’re going to be talking about toxic beauty products because many think, they don’t really realize that the chemicals in their personal care products are making them fat and is contributing to health problems and rashes and even cancer and all kinds of metabolic disorders. I just thought it was really important that we bring attention to this really important topic, which is an often overlooked aspect of healthcare. There are just too many natural alternatives out there to be bothering with all the toxic commercially available shampoos and soaps, deodorants and perfumes, etc. that are out there and you know so I just wanted to do a show about it.
Cate Beehan: Yeah, this is actually really interesting to me because I have been trying to incorporate more natural products into what I’m using. It is hard for me to use natural makeup, I find it harder. But, as far as the other stuff goes, it’s a little bit easier to find you know, face cream and all that kind of stuff. But, you know I’ve heard that some of the natural ones have been bought out by the big beauty companies and then they start reformulating the healthy natural products and make them toxic again.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, you know it’s really confusing. But you know, a lot of people don’t realize that some of their beloved natural brands like Burt’s Bees got bought up by a big huge company, I’m not sure which one, probably Procter & Gamble. And then, they start reformulating the products to contain toxic ingredients. I’m not saying Burt’s Bees has toxic ingredients. For the most part, they seem to have just maintained the natural ingredients and for the most part, maybe not the fragrance aspect of it.
Cate Beehan: I know that with Tom’s too, toothpaste.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, for sure Tom’s that was bought out, totally reformulated, has a lot of not so natural ingredients in it. But it is confusing. So today, I’m going to explain all the chemicals that you should be avoiding and what they do to your metabolism and health in layman’s terms so everyone can understand. And I’m going to recommend specific products that I’ve used over the years that I think are amazing products. So Cate, what’s your beauty regimen like? What natural products are you using right now?
Cate Beehan: I use as a toner; I’ve been using apple cider vinegar mixed with water.
Wendy Myers: That’s good.
Cate Beehan: It’s really, really good. It helps, because my skin gets a little red. I have like some Rosacea type of something. It helps a lot with that. And it’s not too drying and everything and I use…
Wendy Myers: I bet you smell like a peach after that apple cider vinegar. Haha.
Cate Beehan: It’s also good for deodorant too, actually.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, yeah.
Cate Beehan: Then, I use MSM cream. It’s good for like acne scars and stuff and it’s also good for your muscles. I actually got it because I have a pulled muscle in my quad. And then, I was reading up on it online and it was, all these people have this like this terrible acne scars in their face and MSM cream like totally made them look amazing so I’ve been doing that on my face and it’s been working really well too.
Wendy Myers: Really? That’s good.
Cate Beehan: Yeah.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I’ve heard of MSM. It’s a good sulfur-based product.
Cate Beehan: It does not smell like sulfur odors.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. It’s good for your joints too, some stuff to like rebuild your joints.
Cate Beehan: Right. Yeah.
Wendy Myers: So, are you using any kinds of like natural makeup at all?
Cate Beehan: I mean, not really. I just went to NARS yesterday.
Wendy Myers: They have amazing colors. They’re so luring.
Cate Beehan: I know, I did, I mean the foundation that I use is Koh Gen Do which is this Japanese brand that is all natural. But as far as makeup goes, that’s the only, like the foundation is the only thing that I use. It’s hard, it’s so hard to find a good beauty makeup product that is good enough and it’s all natural I think.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I know because I just spent so much money on all my damn makeup that I never use and the thought of replacing it all pains me so much because literally, I’ve spent thousands of dollars like on this huge makeup collection when I’m used to wear makeup every day.
Cate Beehan: You have the best makeup.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, it’s all like old and full of bacteria now. And the problem, they just don’t make natural MAC, OK?! They just, the colors are so good and sometimes the natural makeup products don’t. But they’re having you know better and better lines. There’s a lot of stuff online and there’s pretty decent lines at whole foods. They just don’t have the color range that I like you know, I like really sparkly eye shadows and stuff like that that you don’t really find a lot in the natural lines. But I think that will be improving in the future.
Cate Beehan: Yes.
Wendy Myers: And for me, now I never wear makeup unless I’m shooting like a health video for the site, for myersdetox.com. And you know, I look like I belong in the morgue if I don’t put on some blush so I slather on the toxic sludge and smile for the camera and talk about health. Look, I’m a fraud, OK?! Haha. But basically, I don’t know. When I buy a new product now, I buy the natural one. I’m not buying the toxic products anymore. You know, most people, their bathroom and their makeup, it’s full of all the toxic products we’re going to talk about today. But it’s just about replacing everything one at a time. You’ve been using this stuff for decades so don’t worry if you feel like you have to just throw everything out and replace everything. It’s really expensive – a lot of these products that we buy. So just think about, next time you buy something, you know buy something natural, buy something that’s a healthier choice than your old stuff and just start the transition.
Cate Beehan: Depressing.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I know. I know it is.
Cate Beehan: If you had come to NARS with me yesterday. Haha.
Wendy Myers: Girl, I want to go nuts. I’m dying for a new blush. Haha.
Cate Beehan: I bought this Lip color, it’s like really, really bright, really unnatural.
Wendy Myers: So you look like a little tart when you go out in LA?
Cate Beehan: Yes.
Wendy Myers: You know.
Cate Beehan: (Singing) All the single ladies.
Wendy Myers: (Singing) All the single ladies.
Cate Beehan: So how’s your book coming along?
Wendy Myers: Really good. You know in preparation for this podcast, I actually started to work on the toxic beauty product section of the book and exactly how they make you gain weight and how it affects your metabolism and damages it. Obviously, that’s what my book is about, When Diet and Exercise are Not Enough: Eliminating Your Roadblocks to Weight Loss. And you know people just don’t realize that their shampoo is making them fat you know. So, we’ll get into that on today’s show too.
But, you know I’m also super pumped to announce that I wrote a weight loss book a few months ago that I’m finally able to make available on the site. So, if you go to the site it’s available to download for FREE and it’s called Live to 110 by Weighing Less©. Become as light as a leaf of arugula. And, it’s basically just a simple weight loss ebook/eGuide filled with you know science-backed tips from the latest research about dieting and exercise and other tips like cravings and stress, how to avoid cravings or how to conquer them. And so, these all will help you get started on the right path to lose weight. But you know, it’s pretty dense for a free eBook. It’s 33 pages. And, it’s going to be available on this week or next on the site so if you listeners go sign up to download it for free, if you’re interested you know in learning some basics on how to lose weight.
Cate Beehan: That’s amazing. OR you can just do 3 spin classes today which I sometimes have to do.
Wendy Myers: Well, not everyone has the superbooty to do that girl.
Cate Beehan: Well, fine, right. Let’s go into the show and stop narcissistically talking about ourselves.
Wendy Myers: Haha. OK, let’s do it. Let’s do it.
Cate Beehan: OK. So, you seem to know a lot about beauty products from what I saw and when I lived with you obviously. You had all kinds of like crazy products in the bathroom. How did you learn about ingredients and beauty products and how they’re toxic?
Wendy Myers: Well, as you may have gathered, I’ve always been completely obsessed with personal care products like shampoos and lotions and exfoliants and everything. And I don’t know why but, ever since I was a little girl, I was obsessed with skin and how to care for it. And I was just obsessed with preserving my skin and preserving my beauty and I thought that I needed to slather on lotions and potions to have a healthy youthful looking skin you know. And, I gave myself facials. I steam my skin, you know I went to really great lengths in my beauty regimen. And I’d literally in that process have tried every product on the market. I read every ingredient label. And honestly, I always had a feeling that those long chemical names and labels could not be good for me. You know, but it’s only during the last decade that I began studying what are those weird chemical names were on the labels because like most people, you know I never questioned the safety of the ingredients of these products. You know, I just figured the government protected consumers from toxic ingredients and automatically assumed that manufacturers legally and ethically could not put anything in these products that are harmful. But I’m afraid you know I was wrong.
Cate Beehan: Yeah, that’s crazy. Can you give the listeners an example of some personal care products that contain toxic ingredients that we should be avoiding?
Wendy Myers: Well, really you want to avoid all commercial popular brands of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, shaving cream, body wash, hand soaps, etc. These include all of our beloved brands like you know Dove, Finesse, L’Oreal, etc. Hopefully I won’t get any nasty letters from them. But, mostly you want to avoid anything with fragrance – which is everything – so anything with the smell to it you shouldn’t buy. But, we’ll get into why in a moment.
Essentially, all the products that you buy that you see in your drugstore, department store, membership club, etc. are almost all owned by 2 companies. And this is really interesting. They’re owned by L’Oreal or Estee Lauder. And this is even if you’re on a fancy department store down to the 99 Cents Store. These are the parent companies of all the brands that you see. And you know, these companies, they have their little formulas down for preservatives, ingredients that make the product smell nice and that, give it the nice feel on your face. And, you know they’ve been using these formulas in all their products. It’s a tried and true preservative, tried and true fragrance and it’s just with different packaging and price range for different markets. You know for instance that $200 cream at a high end department store really has nothing in it to warrant that price. And it’s really the same thing as a jar of Oil of Olay face cream. It’s just marketed to a different crowd. This is a very expensive lesson that I have learned because one thing to remember is products do not have to be expensive to be good.
I did a huge research project. I had a degree in entrepreneurship from USC and I did a huge project on my thesis, whatever for my business plan. We had to create a business plan. Mine was a beauty cream that I marketed so I learn all about the behind the scenes stuff regarding beauty creams and who owns what and the products that they used and ingredients and yadda, yadda, yadda. So, it’s an eye opening experience for me that I can share with you that you just don’t have, there’s nothing in expensive products that warrant the price. There might be like you know certain little patents of L’Oreal or Estee Lauder who are constantly developing new little ingredients that they can patent and say, “Oh our cream is the only cream with this patented new ingredient.” But it’s all a bunch of marketing BS. I don’t buy it.
Cate Beehan: I’ve heard that. A lot of the reason they are more expensive is literally because of the packaging.
Wendy Myers: Absolutely. It is the packaging. You know it’s advertising, those big glossy ads in magazines. Those are 30 grand plus for each page. You’re literally paying for the expenses to market that cream. Haha. Yeah.
Cate Beehan: What are some of the toxic ingredients that you find in the majority of the products?
Wendy Myers: Well, you know let me preface our talk about toxins that we’re slathering on our bodies by mentioning one thing that people may not realize is that putting chemicals on your skin is far, far worse than ingesting them in food for instance because when you eat something, the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help break it down and flush it out of your body. But when you put these chemicals on your skin, they’re absorbed straight into your bloodstream without filtering of any kind so the toxic chemicals from toiletries and beauty products are largely going directly to your internal organs. So you have to be really careful about what you’re putting on your skin. And, this is basically why transdermal vitamins and medication works so much better than the oral versions. But you know, there’s literally thousands of chemicals used in cosmetics and only a tiny fraction of them have ever been tested for safety. In fact, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, nearly 900 chemicals used in cosmetics are known to be toxic. And it’s really impossible to list them all or talk about all of them. But really that main culprits that you want to avoid include:
- Phthalates. It sounds like phthalates. It’s really weird spelling.
- Parabens which is a preservative
- Formaldehyde
- 1-4 dioxane
That sounds like a nice little chemical put on your face.
Cate Beehan: Yeah, God. Is it formaldehyde what they preserves dead bodies in?
Wendy Myers: Exactly. And it preserves your skin beautifully too.
Cate Beehan: Oh my God.
Wendy Myers: Haha.
Cate Beehan: OK, well I’m glad that you said phthalates because there’s no way in hell I’d ever be able to figure out how to pronounce that if I saw it written down.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, well that’s a thing you know. Actually phthalates, you’re never going to see that on the label but I’ll tell you where you’ll find it. The main toxins you want to avoid on package labels are phthalates, which are actually a class of chemicals. Phthalates are ingredients used to hold fragrance and color in a product. They are used as plastic softeners and are found in any plastic product that is soft – think children’s toys. Phthalates are synthetic estrogens, capable of mimicking natural estrogens in the body. This can do a number of things like make you fat by interfereing with normal thyroid function and causing insulin resistance, absolutely contributing to our obesity epidemic. They also cause estrogen dominance related health issues like cancer. Phthalates also have anti-androgenic effects, meaning they counter “male” sex hormones and affect fetal development, particularly of male sexual function. They have also been linked to ADHD, breast cancer, decreased motor and mental development in children. They have also been shown to impair endogenous cellular defense mechanisms. In other words, they hamper our cells’ ability to detoxify. This is a big problem in our already toxic world.
Phthalates, they are also the most common toxin in the body at levels a thousand times the levels of other toxins. And the reason is because they are ubiquitous in our environment. They are everywhere. But the good news is that you can remove phthalates from your body by using an infrared sauna. This is something I talk a lot about in the podcast and on my website. It’s all about infrared sauna. You can do a near or far infrared. It doesn’t matter. Just get in there and start sweating because really…
Cate Beehan: …Soul Cycle classes sweat it out.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, absolutely. Sweating is good but the infrared sauna, the near infrared sauna penetrates 3 inches into your body or 6 centimeters and they are able to get out everything, the deep toxins that are embedded inside your body. So you know, regular sweating gets out some, that’s amazing. You need to sweat every day. But an infrared sauna does it a little bit on a deeper level.
Cate Beehan: OK.
Wendy Myers: Yeah and so, really the only way to get these phthalates out are to sweat them out. And like I said, I’ve got a blog post on infrared saunas on the site on myersdetox.com. If anyone is interested in learning more about infrared saunas, I also have a whole list of sauna places. You can go to one in Los Angeles or to find one you can go to Spafinder.com and find a place in your area that has infrared saunas. I also have a link to people that make them, manufactures; all these resources are there free on the site.
So phthalates, where are they found? They’re found in thousands of household products, from laundry detergent, to dish soaps, to candles, to air fresheners, to perfumes, by lotion or shampoo, dryer sheets, your hairspray. If it’s fragranced, its got phthalates in it. A bit stinky, get away from it. Do not put it on your body. They’re even using it in nail polish to keep the polish from getting brittle and you know chipping off your nails because no one likes it when we go get our manicure and it’s chipping off 3 days later. It makes a polished lady pissed off. But even polishes that are labeled phthalate free are lying because many were tested and found to still have phthalates. So, don’t be fooled. I’ve got some nasty unmanicured hand just for this very reason. Haha.
But you know being in so many products, millions of people are using phthalates every day. It’s really no wonder that they are the most common toxin found in our bodies. And they’re in everything because almost all personal care products contained fragrances – even the fragrant free ones – because I don’t know if you’re aware of it but fragrance free products actually really stink if they don’t have perfumes in them so they have to put chemicals, fragrances, in them to make them smell like they don’t have a fragrance just to cover up the nasty stinky other ingredients. So, that’s lovely, isn’t it?
Cate Beehan: Yeah.
Wendy Myers: And so, so here’s the problem with fragrances, you know fragrance recipes are considered trade secrets so this means these companies don’t have to disclose the chemicals contained in a particular fragrance. So the word fragrance can contain a hundred or more nasty chemicals that could be harmful to you. And the reason your clothes smell like your detergent or dryer sheets or the reason that you can smell your shampoo in your hair long after you’ve washed it is because phthalates have fixed that scent to the fabric or your hair or your skin. So needless to say, I recoil when there is some stinky lady next to me drenched in perfume in a restaurant or wherever I am. I just want to cry out to them like, ‘You’re going to get cancer!’ You know, drenching yourself in perfume every day.
Cate Beehan: No, I was going to say, my mom actually gets really bad headaches around anyone that has perfume.
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Cate Beehan: Like your body is smart enough to be like, “Don’t do it.”
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I did too. You know I walked in some restaurant or whatever some, Neiman Marcus and they’re just, I get this waft of perfume. It does give me a headache you know after a little while. A lot of people are really in tune with their bodies and sensitive with that. And there’s a reason because your bodies are telling you it’s not good for you, it’s toxic. So, you know really the best thing you can do to avoid phthalates is to avoid products with fragrance in them and, you’ll see these on the ingredient label mainly as the word, fragrance and perfume. Really fancy way to name a toxin – parfum, makes it sound French. Sometimes, you’ll see the word, phthalate on the label. But basically if a cosmetic is scented, it contains phthalates and that goes for soaps, lotions, deodorants, dryer sheets, laundry detergent, you name it. But if you’ve gotta have little stinky smells, then by a product with essential oils. Petty much any company that’s going to the expense of putting essential oils in their products are going to list it on the ingredient list. They’re not going to have the word, fragrance or parfum. There’s lot of natural products you’ll see in Whole Foods that have the word fragrance and that’s because it’s a synthetic fragrance – the exact ones we’re trying to avoid. So get the ones that say essential oils on them.
Cate Beehan: What about parabens? I’m literally reading this eye shadow I just bought and I’m noticing there are 3 different things that say paraben: methylparaben, ethylparaben, and propylparaben.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, and that’s the case with a lot of products. Most makeup and other personal care products all have phthalates because they’ve got to be preserved. Parabens are basically preservatives and these are why the products last for years on the shelf. Just think about it. You know L’Oreal or Estee Lauder makes all kinds of products, thousands of products. Many of which are sold all over the world and they have to put preservatives in them so they last for months in storage and shipping and at the retailer prior to its being sold. And then when you get at home, you want it to last for years on your shelf or in your shower. You don’t want your eye shadow disintegrating or separating or your shampoo just not working 6 months after you bought it – or a year. You want that sucker to last for years. So consumers have unrealistic expectation about how long they want their products to last. This is why manufacturers put preservatives in the products you know because you’ll probably pretty mad if you paid $100 for a face cream and it went bad in a year.
You can avoid parabens by buying products with no preservatives or natural preservatives like grape seed oil and vitamin E. They also put vitamin E in foods to help preserve them because it does a really good job of preserving our bodies and preserving processed food and beauty care products.
And basically as far as the health concerns with parabens, they are estrogenic, contributing to our already estrogenic environment. And they basically mimic estrogens in our body the same way that phthalates do. And, excess estrogens promote obesity, cancer, estrognization of males especially in utero, deformed or poorly form male genitalia, which is a huge problem that a lot of people are not talking about. Infertility, female uterine issues like endometriosis and PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome.
And just think about these ingredients if phthalates and parabens are found in the same products. So, our environment has become so estrogenic because of these 2 ingredients. And you know, I also do the pesticides. That’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax we won’t get into. So you have to do whatever you can. Reduce your exposure to these estrogenic substances. So what you can do is simply avoid mainstream commercial products, all of which contain parabens like shampoos, conditioners, makeup, toothpaste, lubricant, your personal lubricant, shaving gel, moisturizers, sun screens.
It’s just amazing the range of products that have these parabens in them. But these are easy to spot because they are clearly labeled. They will show up on the ingredient label as propyl, ethyl, methyl, butyl and isobutyl. So, they’re not easy to spot.
Cate Beehan: It’s exactly what I just saw in my new eye shadow. What about some of the other toxic ingredients you mentioned, where are those found?
Wendy Myers: Well formaldehyde is one. It preserves dead bodies like you mentioned but it also preserves beauty products. Nice huh?
Cate Beehan: Haha. Yeah.
Wendy Myers: And this ingredient is carcinogenic to human beings. This is without a doubt, yet it’s used freely in personal care products and you’ll see it listed on the ingredient label as DMDM hydration, sounds like hydrating, right? This is a tough one to pronounce it’s, diazolidinyl urea. I can’t believe I said that. And then, the next one is 1-4 dioxane. This is a very problematic ingredient. And it’s even found in organic products unfortunately. So, it’s used to make harsh ingredients more mild, like detergent.
The health issues associated with 1-4 dioxane are that it is known to cause cancer. It’s also suspected of being toxic to the kidneys. It’s known to be toxic to the brain. It cause respiratory problems and according to the California EPA it’s also leading ground water contaminant so this is why you want to drink spring water, it doesn’t have these issues. So, a new study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association, the OCA found that many leading natural and organic brands of shampoos, body washes and lotions do in fact the 1-4 dioxane. And so, some of these brands that you want to avoid unfortunately are the ones that are probably sitting on your shower shelf right now if you’re health conscious about your beauty products:
- Jason
- Giovanni
- Kiss My Face
- Nature’s Gate Organics
Unfortunately, strangely a lot of these products have the word, organic in the product name, but they’re not actually organic. It’s just kind of a marketing term that they’re using. So, your product is not organic unless it has USDA 100% certified organic seal on the label. So, don’t be fooled by just the word organics in the product name. So basically to avoid the 1-4 dioxane, you want to avoid products with ingredient names including myreth, oleth, laureth. I sound like I have a lisp… Haha.
Cate Beehan: It sounds like you’re reading a Dr. Seuss book.
Wendy Myers: Yeah exactly. Green eggs and ham. And so, this means you want to avoid sodium laureth sulfate, ceteareth, any other “eth”, PEG, Polyethylene glycol, and polyoxyethylene or oxynol. You’re to see it in pretty much all of your chemical-based sun screens. That’s why I recommend mineral-based sun screens. Actually, I was going to add that to the podcast today but I forgot. I’m sorry. Sun screens are really big issue. We’ll do that maybe in other podcast.
But, there’s really so many more toxic ingredients but you know, we only have an hour so I just wanted to touch on the main ones. And I’m going to do a blog post about this soon too. And you can also look in the transcript notes. And you can get like the spelling of everything that I’m talking about here so don’t worry about it. It’ll be up on the podcast in a couple of days.
But there’s also one other ingredient that’s kind of controversial called Propylene Glycol. People like to get all work up over it. But it’s not nearly as bad as people think. It’s in a lot of underarm deodorants and like face creams that make some really slippery. I gives them like a nice little slippery smooth feel on your face. It’s a form of mineral oil. But it’s also called, antifreeze. It’s the stuff that you put in your car engine. Nice huh? And propylene glycol, the problem with it is it can provoke allergic reaction in people with asthma or other skin allergies or sensitivities. And, there’s some research out there conducted like you know 20, 30 years ago that documented toxic effects after repeated exposures to small doses of propylene glycol. Some studies show that it can cause cancer in really high doses but this is not the doses we’re getting using our natural deodorant. It’s also commonly found in a lot of like the natural products like I said. But, I don’t really worry about this ingredient as much but it can be a problem if you are sensitive. So, if you know get like a rash on your underarms or rash anywhere, just maybe skip the propylene glycol and see if it clears up.
Cate Beehan: Yeah. What about toothpaste? I mean there’s a lot of controversy about fluoride in toothpaste. Does it prevent cavities?
Wendy Myers: Well, you know most toothpaste and mouthwashes contain fluoride. They also contain triclosan and saccharin and petroleum-based artificial colors and things that you really don’t want in your body. And I actually just did a podcast about it with Carol Vander Stoep, author of Mouth Matters. You can find the book at Mouthmattersbook.com. And it’s an amazing book about all things about biological dentistry. You know, you can check that out on the podcast. And she said that it does strengthen the enamel, the fluoride does strengthen the enamel or you know outside layer of the teeth. But this dense outer layer, it makes it kind of tooth thick and strong. So it prevents dentists from being able to detect cavities until they’re really large. And so, it’s kind of backfiring.
There’s also a lot of studies that show that since fluoridation of the water began, cavities have only increased. I mean, this could be also due to the large increases in sugar that we have in our diet. But, you know the studies are showing that the fluoridation of the water is not reducing cavities. It does not prevent cavities. It prevents dentists from detecting cavities on your x-rays until they’re really large and much more problematic. And, it’s really one of the biggest myths out there that fluoride prevents cavities.
Fluoride is very toxic. It absolutely contributes to cancer, osteoporosis, thyroid disease which in turn contributes to the obesity epidemic. And there’s so many health issues and I can’t even mention them all. It’s insane. And you know, people don’t realize that fluoride is a halogen. It’s a chemical that, just like chlorine and bromine. Bromine is found in all the bread. It’s a dough softener. And these halogens can be compete with iodine for absorption in our bodies and suppress thyroid function. They compete against our thyroid hormones which are made out of iodine. But when you’re exposed to too much fluoride and other halogens, which you are every time you take a shower, drink tap water even if it’s filtered and brush your teeth with fluoride toothpaste, you are blocking production of thyroid hormones. And without adequate thyroid hormones, you know metabolism nose dives and you get fat and this is exactly my problem right now. I just have 20 pounds lose, but I can’t. It’s really difficult because my thyroid isn’t working because I have spent you know 40 years being exposed to all this halogens and brushing with fluoride toothpaste and yadda, yadda, yadda. So I try to reduce my exposure as much as possible to halogens like fluoride.
But sadly, I have never seen fluoride free toothpaste at a drugstore or grocery store except maybe Tom’s. They’ll usually the whole line of Tom’s but not the fluoride free versions. So, you’ve got to go to a health food stores, Whole Foods or online to get it, lots of great toothpaste online.
So also, you do not want to get fluoride treatment from your dentist. You know especially you don’t want to pay the extra money to get this toxin put in your body on your teeth. So, I really don’t know why so many dentists are clueless about the absolutely known health risks of fluoride ingestion. And, I think the premise is that most think that small exposures occasionally are fine but this is not what’s happening in the real world with exposure to halogens like fluoride. And there’s a reason that 1 of 5 people are on thyroid medication. So you know you just want to avoid all these toxic ingredients by purchasing natural fluoride free toothpaste and mouthwashes – preferably organic.
At home, I personally use Essential Oxygen Organic Brushing Rinse. But you can also make this exact mouthwash at home with water, baking soda or sea salt, of course you want to use aluminum free baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, you know and a drop of peppermint or tea tree oil, which ever you prefer. But be sure like I said, the baking soda is aluminum free because this does not include arm & hammer brand. It’s full of aluminum. Basically, it serves to neutralize acid in the mouth and actually prevent cavities because it’s the acid that either way enamel can cause cavities. And, you can even just put baking soda in water and rinse your mouth out with this mixture. This is what I do after brushing my chompers.
Cate Beehan: It sounds like a good alternative.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, it’s cheap too.
Cate Beehan: What about deodorants? How do you expect us to live without our deodorants every day? I sweat a lot, OK.
Wendy Myers: I know. This is a tough one. My problem is I really don’t sweat very easily so I don’t get super stinky or super sweaty so I was fine parting with my antiperspirant. But most people really don’t like to be stinky and sweaty for obvious reasons. But I just, you know have to get myself used to kind of being a little sticky in my pits and maybe smell like some funky chicken soup here and there. Haha. But, you know others are not so fortunate, some really get really stinky.
The reality is you want to avoid all deodorants that you can buy at a grocery or drug store or Target even the natural ones like the crystal. A lot of people think they’re doing themselves some favor by using the crystal. But it contains lots of aluminum just like the regular deodorant so I don’t know how it has became so popular. Probably because it works and because people think it’s natural, it works. Haha. But it contains aluminum which is what is sucking up all the moisture.
Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that causes all kinds of problems in our body. Breast cancer tumors are full of aluminum and this is not surprising since you know, we’ve been rubbing this stuff on our armpit for decades. But, just because it’s present doesn’t mean it causes breast cancer. I could be a contributing factor. It just happens to be in a lot of breast tumors. It’s also one of those heavy metals that has an affinity for your neurons and your brain and it get stored in the fat tissue of the brain.
My daughter is as many listeners know is mildly autistic and I did a hair mineral analysis on her and it showed that she was aluminum toxic. And this is really a common occurrence in autistic children or children on the spectrum or have any childhood developmental delay so this stuff is no joke. It is absolutely toxic to the brain and it prevents children from being able to learn and have their brains develop.
And, it also contributes to Alzheimer’s. Many and many studies now show that aluminum contributes to Alzheimer’s. There’s a reason that the majority, 50% plus people experience dementia in the form of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s and unspecified dementia. So it’s a huge, huge problem.
And, deodorants and antiperspirant also contained dangerous chemicals that we’d already talked about including the phthalates, the parabens, the artificial colors, talc, a lot of people don’t realize, talc is not good for us either. When we breathe it in, really these tiny particles can get stuck in our lungs and cannot get out so you do not want to be having talc around if you have any respiratory problems.
As for me, the deodorants that I use that I really like are the natural ones called Lavilin, I really like that brand. It absorbs moisture like a toxic commercial deodorant but it also kills bacteria that cause odor for 7 days so some people can get away with putting it on just every few days. And you can get that one online. I love Nourish Organic Deodorant. It’s the vanilla almond scent is really nice but they’ve got 4 other scents. And I really love all of their products.
Cate Beehan: Where did you get that, from the Whole Foods or…
<<< Buy my favorite, recommended natural brands in the Live to 110™ Amazon Store
Wendy Myers: Yeah. I have seen the other products like the hand washes and body washes at Whole Foods. I don’t know. They may have the deodorant. I’m also have an Amazon store that you can buy these products on. I have all the products that I’m recommending here today on the Amazon store. You can get them online to Vitacost.com has them.
But you know sadly, you’re not going to find a natural antiperspirant that stops sweating. You’re only going to find deodorants because the antiperspirant aspect of you know underarm stick is aluminum so that’s, you’re going to find them in every single commercial product. So unfortunately, that’s why it’s all in the antiperspirant products so you just have to learn to deal. You have to just learn to deal with being a little bit sweaty or go bum style and wash your pits in the sink a few times a day. You got to do what you got to do. You know, people manage. People manage without deodorants. You can also make your own natural deodorant by mixing coconut oil, baking soda and shea butter. You know I’ve never tried but it sounds like a good idea, it sounds like it might work.
Cate Beehan: I want to try that.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I need to try it. Just to check out how it works.
Cate Beehan: Can you give the listeners some other recommendations for good, natural alternative products like what do you use other than that deodorant stuff?
Wendy Myers: Well first, let me go over some of the general rules when buying products. Realistically, most people just need to buy organic products. Remember that pesticide and synthetic toxic chemicals will be in your natural shower and shaving goodies unless they’re organic. And these organic products, they cannot be made with synthetic ingredients, pesticides or the weird chemicals that you see in most personal care products on the store shelves. And unfortunately, they’re not always cheap but you can get reasonable prices at places like vitacost.com that I mentioned. A lot of times, the products were 30% or even 50% less than they are in whole foods or other health stores. But beware, like I mentioned before, of products that say organic on the package but not on the ingredients. A product should be 100% organic and have USDA green circle logo on the product.
Cate Beehan: It’s so messed up.
Wendy Myers: I know.
Cate Beehan: I thought they shouldn’t be able to do that. It’s so crazy.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, unfortunately with these products, there’s not a lot of government regulation or oversight. Marketers can pretty much do whatever they want. The new ingredients and chemicals that come on the market are not tested for safety. It’s just, it’s really messed up so as a consumer, you’re going to be a smart consumer and protect yourself and take responsibility for your health and that’s what exactly what the Live to 110 podcast is about. It’s about teaching people how to do that because no one is looking out for you, only you are.
So you know unless the product is 100% organic, you’re likely going to be getting some synthetic toxic chemicals in the product. I see a lot of marketers doing some sneaky stuff like they have 70% organic or mostly organic ingredients but it sounds good but that gives them leeway to stick some synthetic toxic ingredients in the rest of the product so, just go organic. Just do away with all that marketing BS. Don’t be fooled.
You can also just buy straight up single ingredient products like olive oil to wash your face or coconut oil to condition your hair and your skin. I love coconut oil as a moisturizer. It’s kind of a dry oil. It’s really nice. Yeah, I use it on my face too. Yeah, it’s really great. You can get shea better or almond oil to moisturize your skin. And this way, you know you’re getting an all-natural product. And of course by 100% organic.
But you know before purchasing a product, you can see how your products rate and the substances that they contain in the Environmental Working Group Skin Deep Guide. You can find them in Ewg.org. And, they also have an app coming out soon where you can scan your desired product in the store and see the toxic ingredients that it might contain and how that ingredient rates in their database. They have like a little grading scale I think like 1 to 8 where you can see if that ingredient is really, really toxic or carcinogenic or if it’s OK. And so, it’s really an incredibly comprehensive database that, and it’s one that I referred to again and again before spending the money to buy a product.
And as far as the products that I used and recommend, there’s one line called Primal life organics and you can find them on the Primalorganics.com. I’ve tried several of their products and they’re amazing. And they are a great paleo line of skincare. It’s all natural. It’s organic. It’s paraben and fragrance free. It’s vegan you know – not that we paleos care about that. But you know, it’s not tested on animals.
I also love locally made brand and it’s locally made in Los Angeles called Zatik. And they make each batch when it’s ordered so it’s really, really fresh. And you can find it at Whole Foods in Los Angeles. I’m sure you can order it online. Just search for Zatik Natural Products.
I also love the Fresh brand line. They have stores all over the country in malls, but their products don’t have any preservatives. Love them.
I also use the Nourish brand of organic products. They have shampoos, body lotions, body wash and hand washes and deodorant. Love them all.
Then there is Griffin Remedy. I love their omega 3 body lotion and their shampoo and conditioners. They might be my favorite line.
I also used the whole line of Aubrey face lotions, shampoos and conditioners and some of them have kind of medicinal smell which I like because I feel like it has kind of a medicinal clarifying effect on my skin. Some people don’t like that. They want more of like smell like flowers or a rose or something. I tend to like the more clarifying one so it’s up to you.
I also love Dr. Hauschka’s but you can also find it at Whole Foods and online. They’re all natural and they also use a lot of botanical herbs in the formulas. They also have a really stringent manufacturing rules to create pharmaceutical grade products. They’re very, very meticulous about how the products are processed and created. And, they’re also kind of medicinal smelling but they’re fantastic. They are a little on the expensive side too but they’re totally worth it.
For the hair, I love Alterna’s Bamboo line of organic spray hair oil, shampoo and conditioners. One thing I found is it’s really hard to find a really good deep conditioning organic conditioner that works well enough for long hair because I need some deep conditioning going on in this hair. And also, it starts looking like straw and I look like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. But Alterna’s Bamboo, it’s totally organic. It just says Bamboo on the label. You don’t see the word, Alterna. But it’s the word, Bamboo. They’re amazing. Alterna also has a hemp line that’s really good. They have good conditioners.
But there’s really so many good lines. You just have to kind of poke around your health food store and shop online for natural organic products. Like I said, vitacost.com is great. Like I said, I also have the Amazon store for all the products I recommended. And there’s a lot more on the Amazon store what I recommended here. And all ones that I’ve tried that I really like. And believe me, I have tried a lot of the products and there’s a lot of stuff I really don’t like. There’s a lot of the natural products or they’re really stinky or they’re sticky or they’re just nasty worthless ones that will not be on the Amazon store, I promise. And I’m also about to add natural cleaners on there you know for the ones that I found that actually work because some of the natural cleaners are pretty crappy out there. But others work really really well. So, if you want to find all of the products I mentioned on the show, just go check out the Live to 110™ Amazon store.
Buy my favorite, recommended natural brands in the Live to 110™ Amazon Store >>>
Wendy Myers: But that’s it, that’s all I got. We got our first show together in a whole, done. Hello. Cate, are you there? Well, I think we lost.
Cate Beehan: Yes, yes I am. Sorry.
Wendy Myers: You are? You have the mute button on?
Cate Beehan: Yes, I didn’t realize I had it on.
Wendy Myers: No.
Cate Beehan: Sorry. Yeah, I’m so excited. That was fun and very informative. I feel like I learned a lot too.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, there’s a lot to know about this subject. I mean, I’ve been literally studying these products since I was a little kid ever since I can remember even before I was a teenager. So, I know lot about the products and I’m still learning. There’s a lot to know so I thought I could give the listeners a nice little overview of what they should be looking out for.
Cate Beehan: Yeah. Amazing. Amazing.
Wendy Myers: Yeah and I also wanted to do this show because you know I have a lot of people asking me about what products they should be using and you know, I thought it was really important to scare the crap out of everyone to stop using all the toxic commercial garbage out there because it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you know, eat a super healthy paleo diet and then get cancer because you like the smell of your shampoo, you know. So Cate, everyone, it has been an honor spending this hour with you. Thank you so much for listening to the Live to 110 podcast.
Cate Beehan: Thank you everyone and remember, please give us a good review in iTunes to help us get on the search engine in iTunes and go check our websites. I can be found at Fitness-broad.com and Wendy is at myersdetox.com™.
Wendy Myers: Bye everybody. We love you.
