Dr. Arturo M. Volpe

About a year ago I attended a conference on autism at which a key speaker opened his remarks by asking what did breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, obesity and autism all have in common. Most of the audience, made up entirely of doctors and nutritionists, looked puzzled and there were quite a few blank stares as people struggled to find an answer. When the answer was finally given it came as quite a surprise to many: a faulty liver!

How can this possibly be? It is because the liver is the most metabolically active organ in the body. It is where fat and calories are burned. It is also where toxins from the environment and those the body itself produces are processed so that they can be excreted from the body. If the liver doesn’t do this job well toxins will be retained and, over time, cause damage to the brain, heart, breasts or any other organ or part of the body.
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Tags: Alzheimer's Disease, Autism, Cancer, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Detoxification, Liver Issues, Weight Loss | Comments Off on Your liver: the key to good health

In this piece I am going to discuss several specific brand-name products, something I have not done in the past in my newsletter to avoid appearing commercial. On the other hand there is no other way for me convey this information without sharing with readers the products I have used in some cases for years and that have worked for me and for my patients.

Rest assured that this is not commercially driven and that no one is paying me to promote their products, something I would definitely find objectionable and would never agree to do. Further proof of this is that the products I mention are from different manufacturers and reflect the brands I have found to be most valuable for each application. You can search for the products I am recommending under their respective names and I am sure you will find different sources for each one of them. At the same time, these products are all available from my office or online store, which is a supplement website I started for the convenience of people ordering supplements from out of town and those who prefer online ordering.

As I am sure you noticed when reading the email reprinted above, diet plays a big role in strengthening the immune system, breaking the cycle of illness and strange as it may seem even reversing allergies to airborne substances like pollen or dust.
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Tags: Allergies & Asthma, Immune System, Mercury in Medications, Natural Medicine Cabinet, Vaccines, Viruses | Comments Off on Natural Treatments for Allergies, Colds and Flu, and Bacterial Infections

We are all living through the same economic downturn even though each one of us is affected to a different degree. Some may have seen the value of their homes and investments go down but are relatively unaffected otherwise. Others may have been affected to a much greater extent, seeing their incomes go down or even losing their jobs.

This is an unfortunate situation and I hope that the recession will turn into a recovery very soon. Nevertheless, because of the depth and spread of this downturn, it is possible that some aspects of the crisis may be long-lasting. For example, even when we are well into a recovery our disposable income and access to credit may still not match what they used to be.

In terms of our health, an economic downturn will not, unfortunately, mean that we stop having health concerns. It also doesn’t mean that those of us who gravitate towards natural treatments will stop doing so. It only means that we may need to be more careful as to how we invest our healthcare dollars.
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Tags: Physicians and their Work | Comments Off on New Ideas and Projects

This is not the type of email I receive every day, but when one arrives it is always touching and it gives me a very good feeling about what I do. When I received this one I immediately thought I would like to share it with my readers. I emailed the author asking if I could do so, after changing her daughter’s name. She answered that I could share it with anyone I wanted, and there was no need to change any names, anyway she already tells everyone she meets. For privacy concerns I still changed the name. Here is her email:

”I’ve been meaning to write you for a while, but never seem to find the time to sit down and write when it is on my mind. If you remember we started the gluten-free casein-free soy-free diet in October. If I remember correctly we were probably on the diet for 2-3 weeks when she came down with a terrible sinus infection. We had a follow-up with you in early November, and she had just gotten over her sinus infection. I had taken her to our regular pediatrician, who is quite open-minded, but basically painted the picture that he has seen her situation (gigantic tonsils) many times over the years, and that he bet he would be seeing a lot of us that winter. He explained how the crowding doesn’t allow the ears to drain, etc. and that while she would eventually outgrow it, how much intervention would we have to do in the meantime? It was clear to me (without him saying it) that he thought tonsillectomy was the right path. That until we did the surgery, we’d be in and out of his office with illness like a revolving door, especially during the winter. I left feeling discouraged, but we stuck with the diet and supplements.
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Tags: Allergies & Asthma, Antibiotics, Autism, Diet, Food Allergies | Comments Off on A Mother’s Story

If you live in the Houston area you know that the mosquito season is just around the corner and, if you are like many of the parents who email me every year about this, you don’t feel comfortable using chemical-laden insect repellent on your child but don’t know what other options you have.

Last summer I became aware of locally produced patches called “Don’t Bug Me” patch sold at some grocery stores that contained a dose of vitamin B1. I decided to see if they worked and asked a few mothers who happened to be around to try them on their children.

The consensus was that the patch worked, but was expensive, and patches often fell off or children scratched them off and then could no longer be used.
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Tags: Natural Medicine Cabinet | Comments Off on Toss that chemical-laden insect repellent! Vitamin B-1 does the job (I think)

As my nutrition practice turns ten years old, it is a good time for me to reflect on lessons I have learned about the effects of nutritional therapy on the mind. Though nutrition is a second career for me, and one to which I came relatively late in life, it is the realization of my lifelong interest in psychology and the mind in general.

While at an earlier point in my life I might have chosen to study psychology or psychotherapy, by the time I was finally able to embrace this field I had learned enough about the interaction between the mind and chemistry or nutrition to know that nutritional medicine held far more powerful answers than any type of talk therapy.

This interest led me to chiropractic school in a roundabout way, basically because I felt I needed some medical training and a license that would enable me to practice. In any case, while in school and in my first years of practice I took every seminar and advanced training I could find on clinical nutrition. However, seminars on nutrition for the mind are rare, when available at all, and consequently the field is replete with preconceived ideas and unsubstantiated theories.
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Tags: ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer's Disease, Anxiety, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Insomnia, Weight Loss | Comments Off on Nutrition and the mind: amino acid therapy for depression and much more

A few months ago I attended a conference where one of the speakers was Charlotte Gerson, daughter of the late Max Gerson, MD. Though Charlotte is now 85, you would never guess it by looking at her or listening to her speak. She walks erect, with no hesitation in her step and talks with the clarity and lucidity you would expect in a forty-year-old.

We could say that Charlotte is living proof that her father’s therapy works because she has been implementing it for decades.  Dr. Gerson’s story is well worth summarizing here.

When Max Gerson, as a young man, attended medical school in his native Germany, he suffered from debilitating migraine headaches. That was the turn of the century, before the development of the modern arsenal of drugs. Today he would be prescribed a drug or combination of drugs that might leave him feeling like a zombie, but would control the pain.
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Tags: Antibiotics, Cancer, Diet | Comments Off on Cancer politics, early detection, and alternative treatment options

For most of us, genetically engineered foods are just one thing too many to worry about. If we haven’t researched the topic specifically we might even believe that there is nothing new in these foods and they may be perfectly safe.

Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. Jeffrey Smith, who researched the topic and wrote two books about it, is spending his time crisscrossing the planet speaking to groups of health-conscious individuals to raise awareness of the issue. As he puts it, one Al Gore documentary or one Oprah Winfrey show could kill this burgeoning industry.

When the technology to remove genes from bacteria and place them in plants was first developed, companies like Monsanto saw a unique opportunity for windfall profits. For the first time in history seeds could be patented and sold for profit, and there was the idea that these new crops would give the US a huge competitive edge leading to booming international sales.

There was pressure to gain rapid FDA (Food & Drug Administration) approval with as little research requirement as possible. Actually, the FDA surpassed even the most optimistic industry expectations when it gave these foods blanket approval, ruling that no research was required because there was no reason to believe that foods derived from these processes presented any new risks.
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Tags: Diet | Comments Off on Genetically engineered foods: is this a problem you can afford to ignore?

Today you don’t need to be a specialist to have heard of endometriosis – or endo as it is often called – and it would seem that most women know someone who has it, if they don’t have it themselves. Yet, as recently as in the 1980’s, this condition was considered rare and most people had never even heard of it.

Doesn’t this sound just like a lot of other modern epidemics? Yet again, as in autism, ADHD, breast cancer, and a host of other conditions, the official medical position is that there is no epidemic at all, just better diagnosis.

In women who suffer from this condition, tissue that normally lines the uterus (the endometrium), and is replaced every month through menstruation, forms tumors or nodules in other parts of the body, most commonly the ovaries or other organs in the abdominal cavity.

This can lead to painful menstruation, but the condition is actually more complex. Most women who have it also report pain throughout their cycle, as well as fatigue, digestive or intestinal problems, low resistance to infections and, sometimes, a recurrent low-grade fever. Infertility is often an associated problem, as well as increased risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer; and, to a lesser degree, all types of cancer.
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Tags: Chemicals & Environmental Issues, Detoxification, Endometriosis | Comments Off on Endometriosis, another modern epidemic

I grew up by the sea and often tell people that the ocean is in my blood. Recently I came across some fascinating old research that made me think that this is true in a far more literal sense than I had ever thought possible.

The research dates back to the early 1900s and was conducted by French biologist and self-taught physician Rene Quinton. In analyzing the composition of human plasma and that of ocean water, and superimposing the two, Quinton observed that they are virtually identical – the only real difference between the two being that ocean water is three times more concentrated than plasma.

Quinton attributed this difference to the fact that, since life originated in the ocean millions of years ago, seawater has become more concentrated. His conclusion was that we all still carry original ocean water in our blood. Human (and animal) plasma, in his view, is a “marine environment.”

To prove his point Quinton carried out a series of experiments that later came to be known as the “dog studies.” Though we are no longer accustomed to studies being performed on dogs, in his day dogs and cats were often used for medical research.
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Tags: ADD/ADHD, Anxiety, Autism, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Eczema, Fibromyalgia, High Blood Pressure, Osteoporosis, Skin Conditions | Comments Off on Healing and the ocean

I was born in Italy and, though I have been living in this country almost thirty years, I still enjoy reading the online version of a major Italian newspaper, the Corriere della Sera.

Recently, the paper presented an in-depth investigation on cancer rates and their distribution in Italy over the past twenty years, reaching the conclusion that cancer rates have reached epidemic proportions. In comparing rates reported in the 1980’s to those from the early 2000’s, investigators found increases in every type of cancer. Even lung cancer rates that had initially dropped as people stopped smoking had started rising again.

Average rate increases were in the range of 20 to 30% although among childhood cancers the increases were more like 50 to 70%. Though these increases could be seen throughout the country, the paper mapped out areas where the increases were the sharpest and made an interesting – though not altogether surprising – correlation: they were all in close proximity to major petrochemical plants!
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Tags: Cancer, Chemicals & Environmental Issues | Comments Off on An epidemic of cancer

These days it is becoming almost common for people to come to their appointment with me carrying the latest article they cut out from a newspaper or magazine describing the dangers of this antioxidant or that vitamin. One might think that vitamins are becoming a major cause of illness and death in today’s world, when they are actually essential to life and that the modern diet is depleted of them!

Most of these articles do not present original research but statistical reevaluations of prior research, much of which was flawed to begin with. The fact that they even get published in respected medical journals is indicative of a bias against nutritional products, and it always amazes me how quickly the media picks up on this “news.”

By contrast, here are two studies you are not likely to hear about on the morning talk shows:
One happens to be the first study to show that a vitamin can improve memory. Researchers followed close to a thousand people aged 50 to 75 over a three-year period. Some were given 800 mcg of folic acid daily as a supplement, whereas others received a placebo. Those who took the supplement ended up scoring significantly higher on a variety of cognitive tests. As far as memory is concerned, their scores on average were equal to those of people 5.5 years younger who had not taken the vitamin (Neurobiol Aging. 2006 Feb; 27 (2): 334-43).

The second study analyzed results of 63 prior studies in relation to vitamin D status and cancer rates, reaching the conclusion that adequate status of this vitamin was associated with significantly lower rates of several types of cancer, including colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. In their conclusions, researchers stated that “vitamin D supplementation could reduce cancer incidence and mortality at low cost, with few or no adverse effects” (Am J Public Health. 2006 Feb; 96 (2): 252-61).

Meanwhile the media continues to focus on “killer” vitamins.

Tags: Cancer, Vitamin D | Comments Off on “Killer” vitamins!

If there is one thing I learned a long time ago it is to beware of products advertised as being free of one ingredient or the other. Every time such a product comes out the first question I ask is: what did they use as a replacement? It may take years to find out, but invariably we discover that the replacement was worse than what it replaced!

It was this way with fat-free foods that turned out to be loaded with sugar, sugar-free drinks laced with harmful aspartame, and cholesterol-free margarines containing trans-fats later found to cause heart disease and, quite possibly, cancer.
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Tags: Diabetes, Diet, Food Additives | Comments Off on Trans fat-free margarine found to cause diabetes

Let me start by saying that the best way to approach the sun this summer is in moderation. Some dermatologists try to convince you that, for your health, every inch of exposed skin should be smeared with a thick layer of sunscreen every time you step into the sun. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, in a May 2005 article in USA Today Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a Harvard University professor of medicine and nutrition, laid out his case in a keynote lecture at an American
Association for Cancer Research meeting. His research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each one caused by skin cancer. “I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any factor that has such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D,” Giovannucci told the cancer scientists. “The data are really quite remarkable.”

The best source of vitamin D is from the sun. The body converts the perfect amount that you need and actually destroys any excess vitamin D. And unlike other parts of the country, we have the ability to use this wonderful and free resource for vitamin D almost year-round. It is a shame that most people block it completely at all times.

With this being said, it doesn’t give you free rein to fry yourself on a beach with baby oil. But “safe sun” – starting with 5 to 15 minutes or so every day of fully exposed skin without any sunscreen at the beginning of the season, and increasing it slowly – is actually very important for your health.

Back to the point of this article though: the fact is that there are some days or times that you may find yourself in the sun all day long. And if this is the case, you need to be aware what is in your sunscreen bottle; it may be more toxic than overexposure to the sun itself.

You want a sunscreen that has a sun blocker in it, like titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, or both. They should not be nano-particles or micronized, because this will allow the particles to be absorbed into the body instead of being kept on the skin as a barrier (and out of your bloodstream). The only issue is that a sunscreen like this will leave a whitish hue on the skin when applied. I think that is a small price to pay to keep the particles out of my body.

In researching this article, I have found different chemicals that should raise a red flag when seen on your sunscreen bottle. Many of these products become more harmful when
exposed to sunlight. Try to avoid:

Benzophenones (dixoybenzone, oxybenzone)
Propylene glycol
Cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl, p-methoxycinnamate)
Salicylates (ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate, octyl salicylate)
Avobenzone (butyl-methyoxydibenzoylmethane)
Digalloyl trioleate
Menthyl anthranilate
PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB, p-aminobenzoic acid padimate O)

The sunscreen I use for my family when it is necessary is Mexitan. I have to order it online, because there is not a retailer in this area. Another one that a lot of people recognize as a safe and natural sunscreen is from Aubrey Organics but I have questions about it since it contains PABA esters. The more research I do on PABA, the more conflicting reports I get. So I will leave that judgment call up to you.

My best piece of advice if you are in for a day at the beach or water park is to bring along a shade umbrella and a hat and spend short 20 to 30 minute periods in the water or on the beach volleyball court, and let the sun work its magic on your body as it should.

Tags: Chemicals & Environmental Issues, Skin Conditions, Sunscreens, Vitamin D | Comments Off on Safe sunscreens

Yes, concludes a study recently reported by New Scientist magazine. The study was carried out at City University in New York where researchers used pulsed electromagnetic fields directed at the brains of mice for a period of five days.

At the end of the experiment, the mice were sacrificed and their brains analyzed under a microscope. What the researchers found was remarkable: compared to controls, the brains of treated mice had developed stronger connections between neurons, indicating better function.

This by itself would have been significant enough, but researchers found more: in treated mice the brains showed proliferation of stem cells in areas associated with learning, memory, and moods. It is now known that stem cells are present and divide throughout life in the brain, where scientists believe they play a determining role in preserving health and repairing damage. Therefore any therapy found to activate stem cells could also stimulate healing of the brain and, conceivably, recovery from conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and possibly even autism.

You can read about the study at http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg19426053.300-magnets-may-make-the-brain-grow-stronger.html.
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Tags: ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer's Disease, Autism, Electromagnetic Fields | Comments Off on Can pulsed electromagnetic fields make your (or your child’s) brain grow stronger?

Aunque tal vez podamos vivir más años en estos tiempos modernos, también estamos enfrentando una epidemia sin precedentes de enfermedades crónicas que pueden ser manejadas, en el mejor de los casos, pero no corregidas, con el uso de medicina convencional. Tales enfermedades abarcan todos los grupos

de edad y se extienden desde alergias, trastornos digestivos y condiciones como ADHD y autismo hasta el síndrome de cansancio crónico, dolor crónico, alta presión arterial, diabetes y cáncer, tanto como una variedad de condiciones neurológicas, incluyendo las enfermedades de Parkinson y Alzheimer.

Hoy en día la toxicidad es un factor mayor con respecto a la salud, y se necesitan otras herramientas, ademas de la dieta y los suplementos, para lograr los mejores resultados posibles con la desintoxicación.

A menudo he escrito sobre el impacto que las toxinas tienen sobre la salud, y planeo continuar haciéndolo. Los lectores interesados pueden encontrar artículos anteriores sobre este tema en mis archivos de boletines informativos en mi sitio Web. Un buen ejemplo sobre ésto es un estudio que recientemente se hizo público, en el cual los investigadores identificaron un conjunto de lupus (SLE) y otras enfermedades reumáticas entre personas que vivían en una subdivisión construída cerca de un sitio de desechos de un campo petrolífero, donde los niveles del mercurio y otros contaminantes en el aire estaban mucho más altos que los niveles en los vecindarios de alrededor. (http://www.ehjournal.net/content/6/1/8).
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Tags: Autism, Autoimmune disease, Cancer, Chemicals & Environmental Issues, Detoxification | Comments Off on Un programa completo de desintoxicación

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat flour
½ tsp stevia powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg replacement*
1 ½ to 2 cups coconut milk**
2 Tbsp melted ghee
1 tsp cinnamon
Blueberries to taste (fresh or frozen – I have also used the dehydrated organic bluberries from Just Tomatoes company, found at Whole Food Market or online)

Mix all ingredients and cook on hot griddle.

* Egg replacement:
1 Tbsp ground flax seed meal combined with 2 Tbsp warm water – mix and let stand until it thickens into a gel – 6 to 8 minutes.
or
Combine 1 Tbsp melted coconut oil with 1 Tbsp water and 1 tsp baking powder.

** Coconut milk:
I usually use Native Forest coconut milk and water it down until it is similar to the consistency of milk. Otherwise it’s a little too thick.

Mini Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups garbanzo bean flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ cup sunflower oil
¼ tsp stevia powder
1/3 cup honey (or ½ cup agave nectar)
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
2 egg substitutes
¾ cup mashed acorn squash, cooked**
1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium size bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oil and honey until well blended. Add the applesauce and eggs alternately. When they are well blended add the acorn squash. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low speed until well blended. Fold in the blueberries. Pour into a lined mini muffin pans. Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. Time can vary depending on oven, so start checking around 12 minutes. To check muffins for doneness, insert a toothpick into middle – if it comes out clean the muffins are done. Remove from the pan and continue cooling on wire rack.

** I cook and mash acorn squash in. I bake until soft, then mix in a little ghee and cinnamon and sometimes honey, to taste. Then I mash. You can make a big batch of this and freeze for future use.

Tags: Recipes | Comments Off on Recipes with Blueberries

Ingredients:
2 cups garbanzo bean flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ cup sunflower oil
¼ tsp stevia powder
1/3 cup honey (or ½ cup agave nectar)
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
2 egg substitutes
¾ cup canned organic pumpkin
½ cup pecans (or walnuts), chopped
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium size bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oil and honey until well blended. Add the applesauce and eggs alternately. When they are well blended add the pumpkin. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low speed until well blended. Fold in the nuts and raisins. Pour into a greased and floured bread pan. Bake at 350Ëš for about 1 hour. Time can vary depending on oven, so start checking around 40 minutes. To check bread for doneness, insert a toothpick into middle – if it comes out clean the bread is done. Cool on wire rack for about 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and continue cooling.

Variation:
I use cooked and mashed butternut squash in place of the pumpkin. I bake until soft, then mix in a little ghee and cinnamon and sometimes honey, to taste. Then I mash. You can make a big batch of this and freeze for future use.

Tags: Recipes | Comments Off on Pumpkin Bread

I always find it very rewarding when people I see share my passion for reading and learning about health and healing. Recently, I was asked to make a presentation at a conference on autism, and afterwards a number of people were asking me for names of books they should read. A mother even told me she had printed and read more than seventy pages from my newsletter archives! Clearly people have figured out they have to find their own answers.

With this piece I plan to start a series of short articles in which I will review a book or a couple of related books that have in some fashion influenced my thinking about diet or health in general.

The first one of these is more of a booklet than an actual book, but the information in it is fundamental to my way of looking at health. It is entitled “Pottenger’s Cats” and describes experiments carried out by Dr. Francis Pottenger on cats in the 1940’s.
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Tags: Allergies & Asthma, Books, Diet, Eczema | Comments Off on Interesting books: first in a series of articles

I must admit that I have basically ignored this aspect of living healthy. Sure I buy the Whole Foods 365 brand or other health food brands when they are on sale, but what I didn’t realize is that many of the personal care products that are stocked on the shelves of health food stores are nothing more than chemical soup. The more research I did, the more I was convinced that I could find some good products that I could use on my hair and body, and still be willing to go out in public. I am happy to say that not only did I find some, but after an adjustment period of some really bad hair days, my hair is healthier and softer than it has been in a long time.

So lets get down to business. What is lurking in these products that give cause for alarm? The following list is not all-inclusive, I am not a chemist, and have to rely on others for my research, so if you know of another super scary ingredient, feel free to share those with me.

The following are some of the dirty ingredients in your soap and shampoo; they range in concern from skin and eye irritant, to allergen, to hormone disruptor, to carcinogen, to even damage of vital organs:

Cocamide DEA or MEA; lauramide DEA or MEA; phthalates; cocoamidopropyl betaine; olefin sulfonate; PVP copolymer; methyl, propyl or butyl parabens; diazolidinyl urea; triclosan;

D&C colors; synthetic fragrance; sodium myeth sulfate; formaldehyde; propylene glycol; and sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate (SLS)

SLS has had a lot of press, so I will explain it in more detail. It is a surfactant widely used in shampoos, toothpaste, and soaps to give it a good lathering or foaming quality; and that includes most health store brands. Labeling regulations allow “derived from coconut oil” which makes one think it is very natural. But in reality it is drying to skin and hair, irritating to eyes, and can cause damage like cracking, inflammation, and allergic reactions. This damage to the skin can also allow other chemicals to penetrate deep into the skin and reach the bloodstream easier. But the even bigger problem is that it has the potential to become contaminated with carcinogenic nitrosamines when manufacturers add chemicals to make the product less irritating so it won’t cause the problems listed above. So although sodium lauryl sulfate is not a recognized carcinogen by itself, the chemical is frequently combined with TEA (triethanolamine), DEA (diethanolamine), or MEA (monnoethanolamine), which can produce the formation of the carcinogenic substances known as nitrosamines).

There are so many more chemicals…way too many to list. And some chemicals go by multiple names. And if you rush to your shampoo and soap bottles, you will probably see
many of these as well as many others on the ingredient list, as I did. So I set out to find the cleanest soaps and shampoos and test them on my family. These were my results. (I
wish I could say that I was being paid by these companies to promote them, but sadly I am not)

Shampoo
Any truly natural shampoo is going to irritate the eyes. A no-tear formula shampoo has simply added multiple chemicals to neutralize and offset the burning sensation to the eyes; this doesn’t make the chemicals safer. So when using any of these natural shampoos, keep it out of little eyes (and yours for that matter) because it will sting.

For my son, who has a buzz cut and is also the one I want to have the safest products, I was able to use the extremely pure products from Terressentials (clay based – no
detergents), as well as Burt’s Bees Rosemary Mint Shampoo Bar and Tropical Traditions Shampoo Bar. I am thankful for these products because he also likes to sit in the bath water and play, and sometimes without me seeing, sip on the water. I finally feel comfortable that he is not poisoning himself. Although these are the best shampoos I have found, I am afraid they didn’t work so well for my hair and my daughter’s hair. I would definitely try them to see if they will work for you though.

So the next best option I found, and am very pleased with is Aubrey Organics Shampoos. The worst ingredient in this line of shampoos is hydrolyzed soy protein and carrageenan.

And although I wouldn’t eat these ingredients (although many people do), I feel okay with them on my scalp. With the natural shampoos, my daughter and I have found it necessary to use a conditioner, and Aubrey Organics conditioners are also very natural.

A few other brands are also worth mentioning. Although they contain a few skin irritants (cocamidopropyl betaine, olefin sulfonate) they are relatively clean and include Burt’s Bees liquid shampoos, Kiss My Face Organic Whenever Shampoo, and Desert Essence Organic Shampoos.

Soap
Your best bets are bar soaps. There are many brands that make a good clean bar soap. Check out Dr Bronner’s, Aubrey’s, Burt’s Bees, or check out local farmer’s markets, or do a
search on the Internet for natural soaps, just watch for added synthetic fragrances. For a shower gel try Dr. Bronner’s, these soaps are very pure and have very interesting reading material on the bottle. Aubrey Organics also makes an everyday herbal body soap gel.

If you are like me, you would prefer to have a pump dispenser of liquid hand soap at the sink. Liquid soaps are trickier when trying to avoid chemicals. Dr. Bronner’s liquid soaps are excellent, and I use them as a shower gel, but they have clogged up every hand dispenser I have. Tropical Tradition’s foaming hand soaps are great, and they don’t clog up nearly as bad. They are pretty pricey, but if you check their website periodically they will put them on sale often, and their tea tree oil hand soap is nice to have by the kitchen and bathroom sinks for killing germs.

The next best thing I have found for liquid hand soaps with only one or two chemical skin irritants are once again Burt’s Bees and Kiss My Face Organic Foaming Hand Soap (it has
to be this part of their product line, many of their other products have multiple chemical problems).

Remember, if you try these products and you are highly sensitive, some of the essential oils used in the natural soaps might be irritating to your skin. If that is the case try unscented varieties.

Now that I am done reducing chemicals in family’s personal cleaning, I am working on other ways to lighten my home’s chemical load, and have found some great alternatives to chemical home cleaners. Stay tuned next month.

Tags: Chemicals & Environmental Issues, Natural Medicine Cabinet, Personal Care Products | Comments Off on What is lurking in your soap and shampoo?