Saturday, March 21, 2009

Spring Cleaning Your Home and Your Body

You probably have a pretty good routine for spring cleaning your home. Daily and weekly cleaning take place year round but once or twice a year, extra effort goes into getting rid of dust and dirt. Moving furniture to vacumn where you don't usually bother, clearing out closets and reorganizing cabinets, washing baseboards and door frames are common tasks we do in order to provide a healthy environment for living.

What about spring cleaning your body?

Daily and weekly I try to eat foods that help eliminate toxins in my body, drink plenty of water and exercise. I routinely do a lemon juice with essential oils cleanse so that my liver is not overloaded with toxins and can function well.

This year I am doing a spring cleaning for my body using a product with zeolite. Zeolites are a natural detox product, which help attract heavy metals from within the body on a molecular level. Eliminating toxins can cleanse the body and support a healthy immune system.

How do you spring clean?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Have you thought about your "Total Load" of toxins?

Very interesting article on accumulation of toxins in the body and how they may be passed on during pregnancy and affect the development of children.

http://www.bodyecology.com/archive/understanding-total-load-patricia-lerner.php

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on this.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Paraben information from Arbonne

Arbonne's newest skin care line - FC5 and the very popular RE9 anti-aging lines do not contain parabens. Some of the cosmetics do contain parabens. Below is information from Arbonne on parabens.

PARABENS - (Methyl, Ethyl, Propyl and Butyl)

question
Why does Arbonne use parabens Instead of “natural” preservatives

what are they
Parabens are esters of p-Hydroxybenzoic Acid. They are used as safe and effective reservatives in cosmetic, food and drug formulations and protect against yeast, molds and bacteria.

why they’re included
When it comes to complex formulations, Arbonne prides itself on safety as part of its pure, safe, beneficial philosophies. Preservatives are essential in maintaining the integrity of these formulations and we formulate with “broad spectrum” preservative systems to protect against oxidation as well as contamination.

When formulating with both oil and water based ingredients, you must use two types of preservative systems to ensure long term safety. Antioxidants, commonly known as “natural preservatives” protect oils from oxidizing or going rancid. Where many natural ingredients have some antimicrobial and antibacterial properties, they do not meet the stringent guidelines stipulated by the FDA for consumer safety.

Because Arbonne’s unique formulations are oil-in-water emulsions, we must use the parabens to offer broadspectrum protection from the yeast, molds and bacteria that are common in our environment and naturally occurring in water. It is absolutely necessary to support natural antioxidants, which protect the oils, with broad-spectrum preservatives that protect the water phase. Only these complex and safe systems ensure long-term safety for the consumer.

the facts
Parabens are practically non-irritating and non-sensitizing in the human population with normal skin and are safe for use in cosmetic formulations as outlined by the governing institutions, FDA, CTFA & CIR. However, paraben sensitization has been reported when paraben-containing medicaments have been applied to broken skin, specifically, or when used in concentrations exceeding 1%. Arbonne uses less than 0.5%.

for more information
Please refer to the following:
Cosmetic Ingredient Review Board @ www.cir-safety.org
Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association @ www.ctfa.org
U.S. Food and Drug Administration @ www.fda.gov

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Developing Healthy Children

I am concerned about my community and its future. Our children are our future and high poverty, teenage pregnancy, high school drop out and illiteracy rates cause me to wonder what our community will be in the future.

Through a couple of different organizations, I have heard about the 40 Developmental Assets and today in a email from Focus on the Family, I discover they are offering family assessments around these important developmental assest.

I encourage you to visit this website to learn more: http://www.parentingcompass.com/Home.asp

The 40 Developmental Assets are important for you as a parent of pre-teens or teenagers. In addition it is great information to you realize how you impact other children.