What I mean by that is I never directly intended to heal the planet by changing my lifestyle. My lifestyle changes were always very selfish: I cleaned “green” because it reduced my asthma symptoms. I started drinking filtered water and stopped polluting water sources because I learned that water filled with the antibiotics I had previously flushed down to toilet was making me sick. I started eating organic meat and produce because I understood the long-lasting health consequences of ingesting toxins. I realized that my and my children’s symptoms of chronic illness were partially due to toxins in our environment.

I never really made these decisions with an eye on the planet, though I did understand that my efforts towards healing myself were also contributing to a healthier Earth. In fact, there were even times when I told people outright, “I’m not an environmentalist. I’m just a concerned mom who wants my children to grow up healthy. I’m just a woman who is sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

I wish I could say that my marketing campaign was strategic: I purposefully did not align myself with the green movement because I wanted to reach a population that was not going to be responsive to “healing the world.” I didn’t do it purposefully and yet somewhere down deep I think I understood that there was a group on the verge. People like me who didn’t necessarily possess an impulse to the “change the world,” but who were sensitive and rational and could understand the connection between healing ourselves, healing our planet, and healing humanity.

Perhaps I wasn’t operating on my plan, but a divine plan: To reach people through messaging they can access. Messaging that fits with their understanding of the world, which for many people is “Me.” Or “survive.” Or “feel better.”

I became a vegetarian in 1998  not because I thought eating animals was inhumane, but because I had a health scare and giving up meat seemed easier than giving up drinking and smoking.

I stopped eating sugar the following year because I was tired of getting yeast infections and I read a book that told me sugar addiction was connected not only to yeast overgrowth, but also to anxiety, IBS, and other chronic illnesses. That diet lasted about a month that first time.

I started doing yoga in 2000 because my therapist told me it was a way to deal with my anxiety. At that time, I practiced yoga, not instead of medication as I might now, but alongside. It took me a few more years to give up the crutch of medication.

In 2001, I got married and in 2002 pregnant: And from then on, my mission has been to know what I need to know to keep my family healthy.

In 2007, however, I realized (with the help of many friends and colleagues) that I had it in me to share my message of well-being and empowerment with others. As I said before, I never saw beyond health and wellness. I understood my mission of “healing my community” to be one that focused simply on personal health and wellness. My eyes were never set towards the horizon.

For many years, I ignored the fact that the Earth’s resources were being so exploited that one day it wouldn’t matter how healthy I was. Because the Earth would one day soon no longer be able to sustain even healthy beings.

Over the last year or so, however, my focus has shifted. My awareness has heightened. My awakening, which started in 1998, has reached a tipping point.

I understand that there is no divide between healing my planet and healing myself.

I understand that healing myself is healing my planet. And healing my planet is healing my family.

I understand now that I could work 24-7 on cleansing my body through detox or boosting it through vitamins and supplements, but that a dying world is not a world a healthy body can live on.

And I am worried that our world is dying.

I don’t mean to be an alarmist or a doomsday prophet. But as a researcher, as a thinker, as someone who has woken up already to wellness, I cannot ignore the signs that our Earth is sharing with us.

She’s unwell. And if we don’t actively and intentionally incorporate into our wellness initiatives the healing of the planet, our wellness initiatives will be for naught. This message is directed to others like me who blog in an effort to educate or spark dialogue; it’s a message for health and wellness practitioners who preach holistic and preventative care and yet still use toxic cleaning products to wipe down their examination tables; it’s a message for the health conscious, and for the unconscious.

It’s clear to me that the only way we will heal ourselves is to adopt a two-pronged approach.

Heal the planet, so that you may heal. Heal yourself, so that the planet may heal. One depends on the other.

But to do this, we need to change our messaging.

My recommendation to the spiritual and wellness gurus out there who have the ears of many more than I:

Stop speaking esoterically. Stop using words like “Oneness” and “Mother Earth” and “Gaia.” These are words only the awakened can understand. We need to be reaching a much, much larger audience. And we need to be reaching them NOW.

Speak in a language that the average mother or grandfather or high school student or gym teacher or scientist or medical doctor or college professor or postman or construction worker can access. Speak to our awareness and our fear.  Speak to our logical minds. Speak to our preconditioned understanding of how to world is. Speak to our every day needs.

To speak this way is not to perpetrate negativity; it’s simply acknowledging that in order to speed up our global enlightenment, we need to turn the lecture into the Cliff Notes. It’s time to stop sounding elitist and academic and…well…weird. We can shift humanity. But to do this, we might need to stop using words like “shift humanity.”

There are many out there like me: People who will easily shift from thinking only selfish to thinking selfless. But without an easy onramp to the road of enlightenment, they will simply just keep driving down the road that’s familiar.

It’s been a year or two since I’ve had to think about diaper accoutrements. But today I asked my coworker for something to clean my computer keyboard with and she handed me a baby wipe.

I took it…reluctantly.

After wiping down my keyboard with the baby wipe, it was no longer sticky but it smelled like an eighty-year old women who forgot that she already sprayed herself five times with perfume. Not a smell I want to be spending my day with.

And, not something you want to be wiping your babies bottom…or hands with.

Before I had my first child, a friend of mine told me she made homemade baby wipes for her baby using paper towel and water. She said her daughter never had baby rash – never a one! Being the psychotic mom I was with my first (and by psychotic, I mean obsessed with doing things “right”), I made my own baby wipes, too, and taught my husband how to use them and make them.  And, just like my friend’s baby, my son stayed rash free for months!

The truth of the matter is poop stinks. But baby poop, especially breastfed baby poop, is NOTHING. My refrigerator smells worse than your breastfed baby’s poop! You do not need to be wiping her fresh bottom down with chemicals that are trying unsuccessfully to smell like the summer garden of St. Petersburg! Even if your baby is formula fed – trust me, those poops are nothing compared to what they’ll smell like once she’s eating meat. Even still, you really don’t need to wash your baby’s bottom with anything more than water, and a little natural baby soap. (We liked California Baby brand’s unscented baby soap for sensitive skin, but castile soap is great too, and a lot cheaper.)

Janelle Sorensen of Healthy Child, Healthy World recently posted this great article with tips for homemade baby products, including baby wipes.  If you are a new mom, or a mom with a new baby, please keep in mind that what you put on your baby matters as much as what you put in her.

And if you are a psychotic new mom-to-be like I was, just remember: If you’re reading this and thinking about it, you’re one step ahead already.

I flinched, waiting for it to sting, but it didn’t. I quickly rinsed my eye and felt fine.

Then I thought to myself, “Phew! That would have hurt like a M-ther F-er if that had been Clorox.”

But at least my eyeballs would have been ultra disinfected, right?

I haven’t used a harsh chemical cleaner in about five years. I think in that time, we might have used real bleach once or twice to get at some stubborn mold in our basement. But that’s it. For the most part, I clean with vinegar, baking soda, castile soap,  BonAmi, and a few Ecover products, particularly our dish soap, our floor cleaner, and a multi-purpose spray.

And, guess what?

You won’t believe it.

I promise you are in for a huge surprise.

Ready?

My house is just as clean, if not cleaner, than yours.

Yes, my house, wiped and sprayed with non-toxic, natural or plant-derived substances, is CLEAN.

In fact, I think my house is cleaner now than it’s ever been. Mostly, because now that I know what’s inside all those cleaning products my mom used when I was growing up and I used up until a few years ago (ie. Lysol, Pine Sol, Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, etc.) I think of houses cleaned with those products as DIRTY.

Not the kind of dirty you can see or swipe with your hands across a cabinet, but the kind of dirty the clogs up your lungs when you breathe it in. That makes your asthma worse.

That burns your eyes when it splashes back into them.

Those products no longer “smell clean” to me.

They smell like poison.

I’ve been…reconditioned.

I am a work in progress. I am a WELLNESS BITCH in progress.

A few of the areas in which I still need to work hard include “kicking my nasty sugar habit,” “giving up coffee forever,” and a very broad category known as “getting in shape.”

I am fit for many things. I am fit to eat a chocolate chip cookie. I am fit to write a blog. I am fit to talk smack about doctors, Big Pharma, and the FDA.

But I am not fit.

I am certainly not fit to ride my bike, which I just had fitted for new tires yesterday. My bike hasn’t seen the light of day in six years, since we moved from Tucson, Arizona to Northern New Jersey. This morning, however, with the sun shining here in Israel and the streets finally dry after a week of heavy rain, I hopped on my Huffy and rode like the wind down my street. What a glorious feeling…until it was time to pedal uphill.

[Oh. My. God. I. Can't. Breathe. When. Did. I. Become. An. Old. Lady?????!!!!!???]

Through sheer will (and the prospect of humiliation) I made it up the very steep hill. Not without feeling the heavy burn in my lungs and trembling in my legs following years of inactivity.

WAKE UP CALL: You can eat right. You can even look thin and young. But neither of these means you are healthy or fit. If my life depended on running a mile in ten minutes, I’d surely be dead….within the first five minutes or so.

Occasionally, you will find a minimally noxious ingredient inside an aerosol can, like olive oil, for instance.

But nine times out of ten, inside the aerosol can is a toxic substance set on kill. Air freshener, hair spray, deodorants, insecticides.

Isn’t it bad enough you’re killing me with your perfume, do you also have to attack me with your  industrial strength spray powder of death?

Yesterday, while sitting in on a sample Ulpan (intensive Hebrew language class), I decided to make a bathroom run. As I exited the ladies room stall, I almost passed out. The female janitor had just been through and sprayed something in the air. She might as well have put her raw-from-scrubbing hands around my neck and squeezed. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even stay long enough to wash my hands or scream at her, “Thou shall not kill!”

I had to hold my breath and run back up the stairs, praying the whole way that I’d make it. I did. But, now I’m seriously reconsidering Ulpan.

It’s one thing to sit for four hours in a stuffy room that reeks of B.O. It’s quite another to put myself in the Death Zone every time I go to the bathroom.

I wonder how much it would cost me to hire a tutor. Somehow I think I’d have to shell out a whole lot of shekels for a private tutor who promises not to wear perfume or deodorant, smoke, or wash his clothes in scented laundry detergent.

==

P.S.: If you can tell me what film I’m quoting in the title of my post (without Googling it…Honor system), I will be your best friend for the day. I wish I had something to give away instead, but my friendship for the day is a lot cheaper than shipping from Israel.

When I walk past your house, I hold my breath when your dryer is running. If I don’t I will die.

Okay, maybe not a sudden death right there on the sidewalk in front of your house. But you don’t see people keeling over from secondhand smoke, either.

Earth-lovers and people of this world who care about health — indoor and outdoor air quality are impacted by more than just smoke and car exhaust.

You’re contributing to pollution with your home care products.

And you’re killing me.

Thank you for buying a Prius; now get rid of the Tide.

Written by Rosemary Evergreen

Did you know you are part of a global science experiment? But unlike clinical trials or research studies, your permission was not required; there was no privacy policy to sign. 

In fact, this experiment began before you were born, and you received the first chemical inputs as a developing fetus inside your mother’s body — just as your children have or will.

You may be familiar with the term “body burden,” which refers to the chemical compounds that reside inside a particular person.  There are many ways in which man-made and naturally-occurring chemicals and possible toxins enter the human body.  They may be ingested in small quantities along with foods, as in the cases of pesticides or mercury in fish; they may occur naturally in the untreated water of a particular area, such as the arsenic that is causing health problems in Bangladesh; they can also enter the body through skin contact or by breathing polluted air. 

In 1992, the European Union adopted the “precautionary principle,” which states that government should exercise caution and err on the side of human safety if there is good evidence that a chemical may be harmful.

Sound like a good idea?  Well, it’s great if you live in Europe, but U.S. law is limited. 

According to the EPA, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) “provides EPA with authority to require reporting, record-keeping and testing requirements, and restrictions relating to chemical substances and/or mixtures.”

But you may be alarmed to know that “[c]ertain substances are generally excluded from TSCA, including, among others, food, drugs, cosmetics and pesticides.” (Emphasis added.)

Children are particularly vulnerable to pollutants.  They are growing and their metabolic rates are higher than those of adults.  While they are smaller than adults, they eat and drink more in proportion to body weight to support that growth.  Young children crawl on the ground and put their hands, and many other objects, into their mouths. 

Curious about what chemicals might be in your body, or that of your child?   Try this quiz or read about  chemicals found in umbilical cord blood.

Join a campaign to reform TSCA and, for crying out loud, stop creating a market for chemicals in food, cosmetics, and cleaning products!

Rosemary Evergreen explores wellness and simple, green living in beautiful Minnesota.   Trained as an engineer, she stepped off the corporate track to parent, write, and volunteer in the community.  Rosemary is passionate about healthy living, local foods, the outdoors, and preserving all of these for future generations

By Maureen H. McDonnell R.N.

I know some people like to wait until all the medical research has been done, the evidence is indisputable, and their physician conveys guidelines endorsed by the American Cancer Society or the AMA before making any changes to their lifestyle or diet. 

Personally, I don’t have the time or the inclination to wait!   Not when 1 in every 8-9 women is developing breast cancer, and not when good friends, colleagues and neighbors are being diagnosed way too frequently.

My sister (who has lost several close friends to breast cancer) lamented recently “it’s not a matter of ‘if’ anymore, it’s a matter of ‘when!’”  Being Irish, stubborn, and a strong believer in the idea that there’s always more we can learn and do to optimize our health, I refuse to accept this doomsday philosophy.  Knowledge about health is power, and being proactive about preventing illness (even when we and our physicians don’t have all the answers) is the smartest choice we can spend our time and money on.

Before I review what we can do to prevent breast cancer, I’d like to say to those women who have already developed the disease …Please don’t feel guilty.  First of all, illness is not always  preventable and second, other than the typical suggestions we read about (such as don’t  smoke, drink less alcohol, eat healthy fats), much of the information that is coming out now for preventing breast cancer we just didn’t have access to a short time ago.  

Additionally, despite billions of dollars spent on research, the medical establishment still doesn’t know the exact causes of breast cancer nor do they understand the specific interplay between genetic factors, environmental toxicity, hormones and diet and why some women are more vulnerable than others.

What comes to mind when you think about breast cancer prevention besides monthly self-breast exams and routine mammograms?  

I, too, had to think for a moment when I asked myself that question. Because although the above screening techniques are essential methods for early detection of an already existing tumor (and therefore can improve the prognosis), they only find the abnormality or problem once it occurs.  They don’t actually prevent breast cancer.

Given the current statistics, the question that begs to be answered is: What more can we do to prevent breast cancer from forming in the first place?

Let’s look at risk factors. 

Although 50% of women who develop breast cancer have no identifiable risk factors, there are several that we know of that increase one’s chances of developing breast cancer. 

• Gender (obviously women develop it more often than men)
• Age: the older you are, the higher the risk (to a certain age),
• Family or personal history of breast cancer
• Having dense breast tissue,
• Long term estrogen exposure (meaning you started menstruation early and or experienced a late menopause),
• Hormone Replacement Therapy (of the non-bio-identical type)
• Not carrying pregnancy to term (When a woman carries to term, she has higher levels of progesterone in the last 2 trimesters which cause breast cells to mature.   The more mature breast cells are, the less likely they are to develop cancer).
• Radiation ( including chest xray and mammograms )
• Heritage Ashkenazi  Jews (1 in every 300-600).
• A heavy animal based non-organic diet
• Environmental pollution
• Stress
• Smoking
• Genetics:  BRCA-1 gene mutation: > risk by 57% risk  BRCA 2: > risk by 49%

Sounds a bit dismal, but here’s the good news:

The American Cancer Society says that 33 percent of all cancers are related to diet and physical activity issues.  Other studies, however, have found that 50 percent of cancers are preventable with regular exercise and healthy eating habits.  An even more optimistic view comes from Dr. Elizabeth Vaughn, MD, an integrative physician from Greensboro, NC who estimates up to 90% of cancers are preventable.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that the information coming out of our leading cancer institutes such as the American Cancer Society is too vague and focused on early detection and not prevention. 

It’s time for women to look beyond these conventional guidelines to more cutting-edge research and concepts in order to develop effective strategies for preventing this illness.  Let’s examine the difference between these two perspectives by comparing a few of the suggestions from the American Cancer Society with recommendations from credible alternative/progressive health care providers who advocate prevention.

Statements from the American Cancer Society regarding chemicals, pesticides and the relevance of organic and genetically modified food:

“Whether or not environmental chemicals that have estrogen-like properties (such as those found in some plastic bottles or certain cosmetics and personal care products) increase breast cancer risk is not clear at this time. If there is an increased risk, it is likely to be very small. Pesticides and herbicides can be toxic when used improperly in industrial, agricultural, or other occupational settings. Although vegetables and fruits sometimes contain low levels of these chemicals, overwhelming scientific evidence supports the overall health benefits and cancer-protective effects of eating vegetables and fruits. At present, there is no evidence that residues of pesticides and herbicides at the low doses found in foods increase the risk of cancer, but fruits and vegetables should be washed thoroughly before eating.”
“No convincing evidence has shown that any additive at these levels causes human cancers.”
“At this time, no research exists to demonstrate whether (organic) foods are more effective in reducing cancer risk than are similar foods produced by other farming methods.”
“There is no evidence at this time that the substances found in bio-engineered (GMO) foods…. are harmful or that they would either increase or decrease cancer risk because of the added genes.”

Cutting Edge Approach: Compare this information with the concepts taught by James Biddle, MD (an integrative physician in Asheville, N.C.) in his presentation on breast health when he explained that there are over 80,000 chemicals in use in the US and less than 12% have been tested for safety in humans.  Some of these chemicals are referred to as Xeno-estrogens  (or “alien”) because they mimic our own estrogen in their capability to stimulate estrogen receptors in a dangerous way.  

Unlike the weak statement from the American Cancer Society, Dr. Biddle strongly suggests that women reduce their exposure to toxins (by using green cleaning and personal care products) and eating organically to avoid the damaging effects on breast tissue from hormone disrupting chemicals.

In addition to recommending adequate protein, he emphasizes the importance of eating more like a vegetarian (5 servings of veggies and fruit per day) along with healthy Omega 3 fats (flax oil, fish oil etc), high fibrous foods like whole grains and especially cruciferous vegetables including Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale.  He also suggests eating foods that have a lower glycemic-index (to avoid blood sugar spikes which can trigger an inflammatory response).  

It’s most important to eat organic dairy, Dr. Biddle, says because “every non-organic cow in this country has an estrogen pellet under the skin of its ear to get a 10 fold increase in milk production. The cows also excrete that estrogen into the milk.  To prevent infections of the udders, the cows are also given antibiotics.  So the resistant bacteria we are seeing that are not responding to even the strongest antibiotics are not just coming from antibiotics that physicians prescribe for humans, it’s due to the fact that 70-90% of the antibiotics used in the US are given to  livestock.”  (The overuse of antibiotics…that’s another article!)

Elizabeth Vaughn, MD suggests that the connection between toxins and breast cancer can’t be overemphasized: “Breast Cancer is the final stage of years of ongoing damage to the breasts from exposure to toxins and an impaired or overwhelmed immune system.”

The organizations we have placed in charge of our health are not responding quickly enough to the urgent need for cancer prevention solutions, and the recommendations they do give women are in many cases too weak, too vague, and too mainly focused on early detection.  It is up to us to reach beyond mainstream recommendations and seek out physicians, researchers and sources of information that emphasize prevention.   As women, we need to be better informed and proactive in our self-care so that more of us, as well as our sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts and friends, will be spared from developing this devastating disease.

This article is excerpted with permission from the author from “What More Can We Do Now to Prevent Breast Cancer?” originally published on www.sokhop.com

I think the best way to do that is to make it as interactive and as frightening as possible.

So, in addition to all the statistics I will be sharing about the damage you might do to your male child’s reproductive organs by inhaling certain chemicals during pregnancy, I’ll also be telling personal anecdotes about mistakes I’ve made over the years and the price I’ve paid.

Like when we bought our kids’ bunk beds at IKEA last year, but they couldn’t sleep in their room for two weeks while the mattresses had to air out.

Or that after years of not using Comet in the tub, I decided to try it one day to get out a stubborn patch of mildew, and my asthmatic son couldn’t stop coughing the rest of the night and next day.

Or the fact that we couldn’t sleep in my mom’s guest bedroom without the windows wide open in the dead of winter for six months after she painted it.

Fun stuff, right?

The more and more I learn about indoor and outdoor air pollution, the more I realize that the less I can smell something, the better it is for me. (The exception to that rule being homemade chocolate chip cookies.)

This goes for bath care products too, by the way.

I do have one anecdote with a silver lining.

The other day, my four year old got into my crafts drawer (Snap! The WB has a crafts drawer!)…

And found the rubber stamp pads…

And put his cute little palms down on the pads…

And decorated my living room walls and couch with his cute little four year old palms…

Those palms are a lot cuter when they come home on preschool projects.

However, I decided to put baking soda to the test. I whipped up a little cream paste: just a teaspoon of baking soda and water. I scrubbed the paste on the walls and on the couch. Let it sit there for about 15 minutes while the four year old was sequestered in a corner. Then wiped the paste off the walls and vacuumed it off the couch.

Voila.

Cute little hand prints gone. I kid you not.

Thank you, baking soda.

I just saved myself some cash and a lung.

There are some really disturbing scenes in the film Food, Inc. highlighting the emotional and physical toll on employees of the meat and farming industries. I’m thinking about the guys (many illegal immigrants) in the slaughterhouses who are exposed to toxic chemicals and conditions every day. Or those who have to ram chickens into teeny tiny cages or rip their heads off. That’s a crappy job.

But those aren’t the only crappy jobs. I think about my former cleaning lady who is exposed to harsh chemical cleansers every day of the week…and who cleaned houses during her entire pregnancy. (I was sad, but not surprised, when her baby started getting symptoms of reactive airway diseases as young as three weeks old.) At least at my house, she was using green cleaners, but I was the anomaly.

Or the guy who works the toll booth on the New Jersey turnpike…exposed to grimy air and noise pollution all day long. While many of the toll booth workers lament the success of EZ Pass (which reduces job openings for them), I hope they see the long term positive effects of leaving a job that, quite literally, stinks..

My friend Shan is a cosmetologist. It took a life threatening WAKE UP CALL for her to realize how her job was killing her. All that toxic shit in hair products and skin care? It’s bad enough if you are using it at the salon every now and again, but imagine the men and women who are exposed to it every day. (BTW, Shan is now waking people up to wellness by sharing her story and has created a non-toxic line of skin care. She’s also now known as the “holistic hairdresser.”)

Other people I feel bad for:

Carpet cleaners

Gas station attendants

Fast food clerks

Coal miners

Airport personel (what do you call those guys who wave planes in?)

Subway fixers

Oil rig guys

Exterminators

Pig farmers

And, of course, the people who work with, or for, an asshole.

Please feel free to add your crappy job to the comments section. We promise to feel bad for you.