After investigating the skincare industry for what it really is for several years, my eyes have recently been opened to the absolute reality of the skin’s porous, absorbing nature.  As in whatever we put onto our skin gets absorbed into the bloodstream and into our inner organs.  While this may have been obvious to the ‘common sense’ people out there, some of us have to be hit over the head several times before we absorb the lesson being taught.  Even as a medical esthetician.  No judgment either way, please. It is a proven fact that what we put on our skin becomes absorbed into the bloodstream and ultimately, into our bodies, where primarily based upon our diet, lifestyle and genetics (yes, in that order) will determine what gets eliminated as waste and what lingers.  Your body may or may not be in an optimum natural detox state to rid itself of potentially harmful unwelcomed, unwanted chemicals that now get to enjoy resort style living inside one’s very own bloodstream and vital organs.  But, a very big but enters the scene: but, our bodies are intuitive, intelligent, self-healing, self aware, self detoxing machines, when they are given appropriately needed tools to properly activate those mechanisms.

Dependent upon individual ingredients and each of its components and the area of the body applied, our skin absorbs 60%-100% of what is put onto it. According to NaturaKosmetik the sensitive areas are most prone to maximum absorption – the underarms are considered a sensitive area, deoderant, parabens and breast cancer, anyone?  Well yes, last year breastcancer.org reported that besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women.  And just under 30% of cancers in women are in the breast, with an estimated 1 in 8 predicted to develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime.  Allura Adelsen, author of a Breast Cancer and Parabens controversey article writes,

“Dr. Philippa Darbre, a molecular biologist, and the lead researcher of the study, and her colleagues at the University of Reading studied portions of 20 unique human breast tumors.  The team found traces of parabens in all of them. Writing in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, they say it seems the chemicals were absorbed by the skin after being applied topically.”  I note here that the FDA deems them SAFE to this day.  Darbre goes on to make the connection between the nicotine patch and birth control patch being absorbed into the skin. That makes sense to you, right?  Whatever we put on the skin winds up within our system.

If you research or undergo toxicology testing you may be alarmed and appalled to discover what the average teenager, older person or yourself is actually harboring within the body to a level that the Center for Disease Control considers unhealthy and hazardous to various organs and ultimately the body’s health.  Viewing a sampling of all of the commonly prescribed medication drugs quickly adds to the toxic chemical queue inside our bodies that contain those very hazardous chemicals that the CDC deems hazardous.  It’s perplexing to think ‘why wouldn’t we go after the source of the disease or undesirable skin condition’ and not simply try to cover it up with a cream that has the label Rx? In the long run, this approach is not gratifying to the body or to the skin because layers of toxins are now being added from the outside in.  Have you looked at any of the ingredients on a prescription insert before? Not only the active ingredient but all of the chemical emulsifiers, waxes, thickeners, colorants, etc.  They serve no skin benefit but do serve up a dose or two of skin or body imbalance and dysfunction over time.

Is there ever going to come a day in my lifetime where the latest news report reads:

“BREAKING REPORT: APPLES CAUSE CANCER”

My instincts tell me no. Although I did read on an Organic News Story about blueberries giving a man Hepatitis-  a blood born pathogenic disease; so in this instance anything is possible in this non-properly regulated food and drug industry that we are all defenseless against.  We have to take the labels’ word that a product or food comes from a safe and non-hazardous source.  They can say whatever they want.  We don’t know.  However, let us for sake of my one-sided argument pretend the answer is no.  Why then, I ask if there is so much available to us of: knowledge, research, education, information, clinical studies, toxicology journals, (news reports, ahh, eh, okay..) on and on and on the information highway goes that we are able and find whatever beseeches us…. why do the masses continue to ignore the obvious? Clearly the path has been there all along and the older we become we all hear that quiet call leading us to an individual journey for health.  For our lives.  We just have to brush off the leaves and start hiking on some rough terrain to reach what has been waiting for us our entire lives: healthy foods and ingredients and lifestyles that offer us the self-healing, self-regenerating properties our bodies yearn for, the properties our bodies were created for.  The path is not lined with synthetic, artificial detrimental to our health ingredients hidden behind the label, Rx.  I acknowledge in some cases prescription medications are needed, I am referring to the instances in which prescriptions are sold like bottled water at a sporting event.  Without even considering the inner workings of the body which may be functioning in an imbalanced state due to extra chemical toxicity.

After feeling alarmingly awakened from reading ‘The Body Toxic’ by Nena Baker, I realized that none of us are an exception to the toxicity effect, some containing only 20 to others housing hundreds.  This reminds me of the first time I learned of microscopic dust mites being everywhere in my home when I was 13, all I wanted was to vacuum every last one up, even though I couldn’t see them!  I went on a major vacuuming spree around my house.  It’s a weighing heavy thought but what if we learned the other way to live?  And if we absorb 60%-100% of what is applied to our bodies, why then would we not want a change of ways pertaining to our conventional eat-whatever is offered and upsold at the drive-thru, use whatever over made-up salesperson SELLS to me-lifestyles?  I encourage a change of ways to begin to take shape, such as a major vacuuming spree within our bodies!  Healthier skin is achieved through a healthier body which is rooted in a health-minded lifestyle. We will learn one step at a time what changes the body needs in order to be at its maximum healthy state to positively affect the largest organ of our body, our skin.