Health Advice for Women

Plumber, tiling,  clogged drains and raising the kids.

Is that what my life boils down to?

I went to college thinking I’ll make lots of money and hire someone to do home improvements and home repair when I’m older, but I have come to find great joy in doing some of the work around the house!

You may have read my articles on “killing your carpet”. Carpets are really bad for your health. When they are new the chemical off-gassing is enough to fry your brain, but over time they collect ever germ, dust ball, food spill in your house.

I ripped out every carpet in my house and installed tile and wood flooring. My allergies and chemical sensitivities improved more than they’ve ever improved in my life!

So last month, I moved to a few house and ripped all the carpets out. This time I decided I was going to learn how to tile. It was hard work but not that difficult to learn. The best part is that I get constant gratification walking on these floors, knowing I took part in the creation. So be it tiling or a plumbing repair job, take heart, you can learn new skills! Here’s another one of my favorite websites for home repair. http://www.louisvilleplumbingandheating.com/

Are you one of those women that turns over any home repair job to your husband? Toilet clogged, put it on the honey-do list.

Well honey, it’s the 21st Century! Home repair jobs are not that hard, it’s just having someone show you how to do them. Believe me, now that I’ve learned a few new skills, I’m wanting more. I find a lot of my information online.

We have used the longmontplumbingandheating.com website many times and they have consistently had reliable, trust worthy and great information. When we have a plumbing, heating or air conditioning problem we always check this website to get the issue fixed. Look for their eco-friendly advice on clogged drains.

There are lots of sites like to to give you step by step advice on repairing heating, plumbing, etc. Good luck ladies!

Do you do your part to live an eco-friendly lifestyle? How many checks do you get from the list below?

1. I recycle paper, cans and glass

1. I drive a hybrid or electric car

1. I buy organic food

1. I have reduced the chemicals in my life

1. I consume less water and electricity than before

Not too many of us are eco-saints and can honestly say they do all 5 from the list above. The trends on recycling are great, many people are moving to hybrid cars and organic food but there has not been as much progress with reducing the amount of chemicals, water and electricity we consume.

Are you thinking “I don’t consume chemicals”? Let’s review some of the common chemicals we consume in our daily life.

• Fertilizer for your lawn is about as bad as it gets, start using an organic fertilizer. This is a big one!

• House-hold cleaners can be a detriment to your indoor air quality and our environment. Have you switched to eco-friendly cleaners that are not toxic to you or the water supply they enter?

• Have you made steps to reduce your water consumption? Try looking into a tank less water heater which saves water and lowers your utility bill.

Each year I try to review what new changes I can make to improve my indoor air quality, reduce the chemicals in my house and in general reducing my footprint on this earth.  Try going “greener” one step at a time and before you know it you will have a much healthier environment.

It’s finally spring in Colorado, I think. Our spring weather is very moody with one day in the 70’s and the next day it’s snowing. It’s around this time every year that I get rambunctious to get my garden planted, spring cleaning, store away the extra winter blankets and about 20 other things.

This year I’m doing things a bit different. I’m taking a new look at how I can do all my old tasks in a “greener” way. If we each continue to make new eco-friendly choices we can do our part to help make our world a better place.

So here are my top 5 eco friendly things to do this spring:

1. This year I’m eliminating any chemicals from my garden and planting all organic plants. It’s a little more expensive and a little harder to find, but it’s a lot healthier for your kids if they play in your yard to get rid of those awful fertilizers full of chemicals.
2. My spring cleaning will be done with lots of vinegar, baking soda and plant derived cleaners. Get rid of those old cleaners that are made with petrochemicals, unnatural fragrances and use products that bring a healthier environment to your home. Did you know that your indoor air could be causing health issues to you and your family?
3. Open your windows and let the fresh air in. Wash your windows with a mixture of half vinegar and half water, usually this will improve your indoor air quality and leave your windows spotless.
4. Is it time to clean out a few clogged drains? Here are some helpful tips for a more natural way to clean drains. Throw away those chemicals; they go straight to our water supply.
5. Time to go green with your hot water heater; your water heater uses a lot of energy to keep water hot 7/24. Check out tankless water heaters or called hot water on demand systems.

For starters just do one task in an eco-friendly way and then pass this list on to a friend and encourage her to do the same. We can create a better planet one step at a time.

We would all be better off if our body gave us a strong signal when we were exposed to toxins. Toxins cause so much damage to our bodies that have long term effects. I have developed the fortunate or unfortunate “signal” when I’m exposed to toxins…I fart. Now you may be laughing but this is the truth. I didn’t always have this “detector” so to speak, but animals do adapt to their environment and I guess I’m evolving.

If I’m on the forefront of this new evolution, we have two choices…reduce the amount of toxins in our indoor and outdoor air or invest in nose plugs

I was thrilled to go to a little deli yesterday with my daughter and see that they stated on the meno “No MSG”. It seems like most chain restaurants we go to load up their food with MSG, artificial flavors and artificial food dyes. I don’t only want food to taste good but want to feel good after eating the food. MSG, artificial flavors and dyes are not good for the body, unless you are in to head aches, stomach aches, hyperactivity and restless sleep.

I lived in Northern California in the 80’s and 90’s and every little Chinese Restaurant had a sign in the window “No MSG”. This was because the locals didn’t want their food laced with MSG and the restaurants that didn’t use MSG got much more business. Sooooo, if we all start asking our waiters “Do you add MSG to your food?”, or telling your waiter “I don’t want any MSG, or artificial additives in my food” the restaurants will start to get the message, hopefully, and stop using MSG and all that other crap!

We can each change the world and make it a better place. It starts with you making that extra little effort and then others will follow suit. If you influence just one other person to start demanding better quality food or less toxins in our food, this is a great start!

We need a slogan for this campaign, please send in your comments, we love to hear from you!

Can one person save 86,000 barrels of oil in a day. Yes! If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25oz petroleum-based diswashing liquid with a plant-derived product we would save 86,000 barrels of oil. This is enough oil to heat and cool 4,900 U.S. homes for a year.

That’s inspiring to think of how much power we have with our purchases! So here’s my challenge to you. Convince one relative or neighbor to do this and ask them to do the same. Don’t just replace your dishwashing liquid, replace your laundry detergent, shampoo, liquid soap, and household cleaners with a plan-derived product! Think of how much oil we will all save then. We could end the oil crisis with our choice of purchases. To top it off, plant-derived products are much more healthy. It’s all I have in my home, in fact there are no products in my home made with petrochemicals. It’s time to move into the 21st century, get rid of those petroleum based products and help save our world!!

I went online and sent my sister a complete array of personal and household products that are plant-derived versus made with petrochemicals. Go to mothernature.com and the shipping is free.

Once I realized I had multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) I was relieved, but not for long because finding treatment for multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is really difficult. The best treatment you will find is to improve your environment, I’ve benefited strongly from lifestyle changes I’ve continued to make for the past 7 years. Unfortunately, there is no immediate cure. Removing the toxins from your environment will allow your body to heal and this is what I started working on immediately. There was a lot of trial and error in my process. I hope in this website I will be able to give you my insight to my process, and that you can benefit from what I learned along the way.

I’m not a doctor, but luckily I have a mind that loves problem solving. Not to sound ultra dramatic, but I was problem solving to save my life, at least a life worth living. My major symptoms were chronic fatigue, headaches, sinus congestion, joint pain, allergies, stomach indigestion and depression. I had about 2 good hours in the day when I felt decent. I had dealt with allergies and stomach indigestion most of my life, but the list of symptoms started getting longer and chronic fatigue was the final straw. I didn’t have the energy for normal functions, much less to exercise and I’ve always loved exercise. Stay tuned for my next article on “How to treat MCS”.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity as described in wikipedia.org:

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is described as a chronic condition characterized by adverse effects from exposure to low levels of chemicals or other substances in modern human environments. Suspected substances include smoke, pesticides, plastics, synthetic fabrics, scented products, petroleum products, and paints.

Biochemist Martin L. Pall says that that MCS sufferers “report being exquisitely sensitive to a wide range of organic chemicals,” and from 100 to 1000 times more sensitive to hydrophobic organic solvents than normal people.

MCS has also been termed toxic injury (TI), chemical sensitivity (CS), chemical injury syndrome (CI),^[3] 20th Century Syndrome, environmental illness (EI), sick building syndrome, idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI), and toxicant-induced loss of tolerance (TILT).

Could low levels of the substances above be damaging your health? Most people don’t believe it until they are so sick they will try anything. The first time I read this description of multiple chemical sensitivity it was an OMG moment. Below are the symptoms of MCS.

Symptoms of MCS may be mild to disabling. The symptoms are essentially any symptom which the patient finds distressing and attributes to this cause. A partial list of common symptoms include anaphylactic shock, difficulty breathing, chest pains and asthma, skin irritation, contact dermatitis, and hives or other forms of skin rash, headaches, “brain fog” (short term memory loss, attention deficit), neurological symptoms (nerve pain, paralysis, weakness, trembling, restless leg syndrome, etc.), tendinitis, seizures, visual disturbances (blurring, halo effect, inability to focus), extreme anxiety, panic and/or anger, suppression of immune system, digestive difficulties, nausea, indigestion/heartburn, vomiting, diarrhea, food intolerances, which may or may not be clinically identifiable (e.g., lactose intolerance, celiac disease): commonly wheat and dairy, joint and muscle pains, extreme fatigue, lethargy and lassitude, vertigo/dizziness, abnormally acute sense of smell, sensitivity to natural plant fragrance, natural pine turpines, insomnia, dry mouth, dry eyes, and an overactive bladder.

It’s daunting reading through this list, but realizing I had MCS and taking action has enable me to live a sorta normal life. Check out this list below, if you have any of these in your enviroment, get rid of them!

Food

• Tartrazine (a.k.a Yellow #5 or FD&C E102), and other Azo dyes (True allergy must first be excluded)
• Caffeine (may cause migraine headaches apart from MCS)

Environmental

• Petrol or gasoline, diesel and exhaust fumes
• Petroleum-based products, including petroleum jelly, tar, asphalt
• Tobacco or any form of smoke
• Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and other agricultural chemicals
• Industrial cleaning chemicals, such as dry cleaning fluid
• Formaldehyde and aldehyde
• Glues, varnishes, polishes, paints, solvents, paint-thinners, and volatile organic compounds (VOC’s)
• Bleach, fabric softeners, wool-wash, and laundry detergents
• Perfumes, lotion, after-shave lotion, nail polish, or skin care products
• Air-fresheners, deodorizers and scented candles
• Shampoos, hairsprays and hair care products
• Household cleaning chemicals
• Dishwashing liquid and dishwasher detergent (may cause migraine headaches for those without MCS)
• Marking pens, such as highlighters (significant exposure will cause headaches for anyone)

Houseplants can improve indoor air quality and remove pollutants and toxins, counteracting outgassing and balancing internal humidity.

Research has shown that these 10 plants are the best for indoor air quality.
* Reed palm
* Dwarf date palm
* Boston fern
* Janet Craig dracaena
* English ivy
* Australian sword fern
* Peace Lily
* Rubber plant
* Weeping fig and Areca palm

Start with a few plants in your house or office, and if you love flowers and plants like I do, you will end up with a house full! So treat yourself with a new houseplant, get a Potted Peace Lily from JustFlowers.com.