Archive | health

The paste is light brown – weird, I know – but it’s SLS free AND my teeth are so smooth after brushing – it’s like I had my teeth polished at the dentist every time I brush. I LOVE this toothpaste!! It’s main ingredient is neem, which is a type of tree bark that is very good for teeth. Research it and try it out. 🙂

So, for those of you who started following my blog and then wondered why there haven’t been any posts in a while, the truth is, I was being poisoned (for years) by a substance that is probably in several items in your bathroom right now. I found out about this stuff the hard way. I had been feeling run down for a while, and I kept getting sicker, without realizing I was sick. I was tired all the time.

I’d wake up with my hands throbbing in pain like they’d been run over by a few trains. I thought, “oh well, it’s arthritis – I’m getting old(er).” It was the worst bone achy feeling I had ever had. For the previous two years, I’d get some pain – achy dull pain – in the saliva glands under my tongue (I found out we also have saliva glands in our cheeks!). Just when I thought I should go to the doctor, the pain would go away. Back in August of 2015, my tongue would get sore. Sometimes the roof of my mouth would peel as though I’d scalded my mouth with hot soup – even though I hadn’t consumed any hot beverages. And sometimes my tongue would be rough and sore on top like it had been scalded. It altered how things tasted. Simple table salt felt and tasted like jalapeños. I also wasn’t producing normal saliva. We produce saliva all day long. I wasn’t. The only way I’d produce saliva was by eating or drinking, so I had to suck on lozenges 24/7. I wasn’t sleeping. I was so miserable. I could barely function.

This SLS-free body wash smells awesome. It is naturally anti-fungal. I had nasty nail fungus on one of my toes that gave me a serious case of homeless woman toe – and it’s completely gone (the fungus, not my toe).

The frenulum of my tongue (it’s that webby area right under your tongue that basically keeps it attached to the bottom of your mouth) was sore like I’d been hauling cars with it. My tongue would ache if I talked too long, so I had to limit conversations. Sometimes, I could not stretch my tongue out very far. You know how you stick your tongue forward and feel across your front teeth? I couldn’t do that. It was like I had gotten my tongue shortened – it literally wouldn’t stretch out that far, anymore!

I had all the symptoms of Sjögren’s Syndrome, an auto-immune disorder with no cure, but with some symptom treatment options. My doctor referred me to an Ear, Nose & Throat specialist. He was certain I had Sjögren’s. He also noticed angular chilitis (cuts in the corners of my mouth), which is a sign of a vitamin B deficiency. Blood work was done – I was negative for Sjögren’s antibodies and had enough vitamin B in my system to lease out to other individuals. The ENT was stumped and he referred me to a rheumatologist.

I relayed all symptoms to the rheumatologist and she reviewed all my lab results. She agreed – I had all the symptoms of an auto-immune disorder, but – she said, I didn’t have one. I had moments, sometimes for hours, where my symptoms would completely abate. Sometimes a hot soup I enjoyed at a local Thai place would alleviate my symptoms for hours. The doctor explained, auto-immune disorders simply don’t do that. She said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you specifically. You are being exposed to something. I don’t know what it is, but you will have to figure this out. In the mean-time, you will need to treat your symptoms as you’ve been doing.”

An honest answer from a physician – one that admits they’re truly practicing medicine and have not mastered it – I was very appreciative that this wasn’t chalked up to, “it must be anxiety or otherwise in your head – your lab tests show you’re fine.” But – the prospect of finding out what was making me so miserable were daunting. I don’t wear make-up. I had not changed my diet recently. I pretty much followed a routine – what could it be? Miraculously, I found out the answers fairly quickly.

This deodorant WORKS. It’s easy to apply. It doesn’t stain my clothing and the smell is dreamy! They have several scents to choose from including a scent-free version. I did get irritated armpits when wearing synthetic tops – but never with cotton tops. LOVE this deodorant! It’s not an antiperspirant, but unless you sweat like an unrepentant woman of ill-repute in church, you should be fine. It’s worth trying out on the weekend when you’re not at work!
Check out my new post on the aluminum-free and paraben-free deodorant I’m now using. I love the smell of Schmidt’s, but I couldn’t handle the burning it was doing to my armpits. I found a solution that works a full 24 hours and doesn’t burn sensitive skin.

I had been taking gummy vitamins for years because I’m too much of a wuss to swallow pills every day – but excessive gummy consumption causes gastro-intestinal upset (this is the most delicate way I can describe the nuclear fission that was happening in my bowels), so I had switched to gum-like chewable. I read the ingredients (which I always do before I even purchase anything) and the only thing in there that didn’t sound terrific was High Fructose Corn Syrup. I figured – heck, let me stop taking these for a few days. Maybe there’s a nutrient in here I’m taking too much of? In a few days, it was like the dial on my symptoms had been turned back by at least 30%. They were far less severe. I was on to something! I had this angular chilitis thing – cuts in the corner of my mouth (and I was not sucking on razor blades to make this happen), which is a sign of one thing: vitamin B deficiency. However, my blood work showed ample amounts of B in my system. Online research revealed that the liver processes B so it can be properly used by the rest of the body. Without proper liver function, you can have lots of B, but not be using it – it just passes through your body like a tourist and leaves. So – I googled “liver” + “high fructose corn syrup” and BINGO. When you consume regular cane sugar, only 5% of your liver is involved in getting it through your body. When you consume HFCS, 100% of your liver is involved. Granted, I was not taking handfuls of these vitamins. I took the prescribed dose. I was not taking in HFCS in any other medicine or food product. SO – half of the mystery or perhaps 30% of it – was solved. HFCS was compromising my liver function, which was exacerbating my symptoms. So what was my liver battling so hard that it was knocked of its rails by some chewable vitamins?

As I was trying to troubleshoot my issues like a boot sequence on a computer, I thought about my daily routine. I had contemplated going to fluoride-free toothpaste for years, but never got that serious about it. I figured I would do that, next. I went online to order Toms of Maine (a toothpaste I had used for years), but read some not-so-favorable reviews of recent formula changes, so while I did online research for possible alternatives, I stopped using my regular toothpaste. I literally brushed with warm water for about a week… and my symptoms STOPPED.

This shampoo is great! It smells wonderful, but does not have an overpowering scent. My normally tangled hair combs through easily when I shampoo with this product. It leaves no residue and it’s SLS free!

My hands no longer ached in the morning. Not just a little – not at all. My tongue didn’t hurt. AT ALL. My saliva glands weren’t sore. I wasn’t as tired. Woohoo! It was my toothpaste. But which ingredient in my toothpaste? I didn’t want to order something new that had the same troublesome ingredient. Since fluoride is also in our drinking water, I was pretty sure that was not the culprit… so I researched every ingredient on the back of my store-bought, regular everyday brand I’d been using for years. Every single ingredient seemed pretty innocuous (fluoride being a neurotoxin not withstanding) except one: SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE. What is this stuff? Why is it in every toothpaste they sell at the grocery store? EVERY SINGLE ONE! Why? The FDA considers SLS to be ‘safe’ and I don’t want to get sued by anybody that profits from its manufacturing. I am not a scientist (exactly), although I did watch a lot of Quincy when I was growing up. I cannot scientifically prove that SLS is poison. I can tell you, it’s not good for ME. With it, I was in agony. Without it, I was cured. You be the judge. From online research, it would seem SLS has a cumulative effect – so it’s not like I had symptoms the first time I used it. I’ve probably been piling this stuff into my body and damaging my poor liver for decades with it. Your liver is a filtering organ you cannot live without. Maybe that’s why they call it a LIVEr? 🙂

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is an emulsifier. It’s in most shampoos, conditioners, body soaps and toothpastes – and probably other stuff as well. I have no idea if SLS can get into your system via shampoos or conditioners, so I changed everything. I’m using a new body soap, a new shampoo and a new conditioner. All are natural. They work. They are SLS free. Just for grins, I even changed to a natural deodorant just to cut down on aluminum and that’s been great, too. I had to test out a few brands of SLS-free shampoos to find the one that made my frizzy hair easy to comb when it was wet, but finally found a great one. The body wash I’ve switched to has tea-tree oil and just a few applications and it completely killed off my toenail fungus (yes, TMI!).

Fast forward – I was symptom-free for months until I was at a Christmas party and had ginger ale. The next morning, my hands ached and my tongue was sore. Oh yeah – HFCS was in the ginger ale. Oops. I know better now. At restaurants, I now get either unsweet tea or water only.

This conditioner smells great, but doesn’t smell overpowering at all. Does a great job at conditioning my hair and making it easier to comb through – AND – it’s SLS free.

I’m including links to the products I’m now using to replace my previous deodorant, shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste. These products work really well for me and are SLS free!

So for legal purposes (and I’m not a lawyer, either, but…), I am not claiming this stuff to be poisonous. I am presenting my own personal experiences and I will leave you to make your own informed decision based on my personal story. I just saw a local news story in which people are getting sued for leaving negative Yelp reviews – so call me paranoid.

Now that you know more about the state of my liver than most people ever have, you now also know why I’ve been MIA. I will be adding posts to my blog and reviewing/sharing cool geekery on a regular basis, but not at the daily clip as I was doing before. I just honestly cannot keep up with that previously self-imposed schedule. I will now be sharing cool stuff when I find it instead of trying like crazy to cough up a cool story on a daily basis. Feel free to shoot me a message on my FB page if you have any cool items you’d like to share.