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For most of us taking care of our bodies, including personal hygeine, is a daily routine in which we take great pride. The knowledge that we are doing something for ourselves is somewhat gratifying, especially when busy modern life affords little time to attend to such personal care. Sometimes we even extend to a little more luxury and 'pamper' ourselves with a long soak in a hot bath to which we add salts, oils, essences etc., or we purchase a really expensive shampoo that supposedly lathers |
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better and gives more body and shine than the other brands. The reality is, however that we may not be 'pampering' ourself at all. In fact in many cases we may be doing the opposite.
Our skin is our largest organ and the main barrier between the external and internal world. What is it for? To hold everything internal together, of course, and to protect it. With this in mind you would think that we would consider it an extremely important part of our body and take care what it comes in contact with. However, many of the products we use to 'take care' of our skin, hair, face etc. may in fact be doing harm. Often these products contain potentially harmful chemicals. For instance some products contain derivatives of petroleum and petroleum products, others (such as head lice treatments) contain pesticides. These products were only allowed on the market because laboratory studies (sometimes involving tests on animals) have shown no ill effects for the small amounts of the chemicals used in the product. Is this a good reason for us to believe that these products are safe? - NO! We must remember that a lot of what we put on our skin is absorbed into our internal body environment (including the blood stream).
The scary thing is that no one really knows whether there are any long term effects of the use of such chemicals. It may be that they are relatively safe in the small amounts used in particular products but what if residual amounts stay in the body and build up over time maybe to a more harmful level. Another issue to consider is the affect of combining particular chemicals when we use a variety of products that contain a myriad of chemical concoctions.
Even with all this in mind there is still reason to be optimistic. Nature has, in fact, provided us with a bounty of ingredients that are harmless to our bodies and have many invigorating and health enhancing properties. There are many businesses that have realised the harmful nature of many chemicals and have turned to natural alternatives for their products. Because of this there are now a multitude of products available to the consumer which are made solely with high quality, pure, natural ingredients. There are also many books and resources (such as the internet) available providing information on natural Personal Care.
The Health & Happiness For You Personal Care section is one such resource. Current articles discuss the following topics:
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