Learn About Sun & Skin Care Products
Which are Solvent-Free & Safe

It was only 7 years ago that more than 80% of personal care products on the market contained toxic ingredients that we now know to cause cancer, alzheimer’s disease, reproductive difficulties and numerous other health concerns. Even now, in 2010, more than 20% of personal care products found in high-end health food stores contain toxic ingredients. In this interactive class you will learn exactly which specific products are safe and toxin free and which specific ingredients to watch out for and avoid. Additionally, you will learn where you can go to get more information on specific ingredients in order to expand your options for safe and toxin free personal care products. There will be no fee for this workshop.

Did you know that there is actually a scientifically proven way to have your body tested to see if personal care products are safe for you or if they will cause you health challenges? This workshop will include live demonstrations with participants and one-on-one testing of personal care products. Bring your skin care, hair care, body care, sun care and other personal care products! Additionally, you will be provided a list of solvent free personal care products, most of which can be found at Whole Foods Market in Novato.

SAFE SUN CARE & THE SKIN

The skin is made up of 3 layers known as the epidermis, the dermis, and the deepest layer called the fat layer. The epidermis is made mostly of dead skin cells that shed constantly. This layer thins as we age. 90% of skin’s thickness comes from the dermis. The dermis also weakens with age. It contains nerves, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, and blood vessels. Sweat and sebaceous glands secrete a thin layer of perspiration and oil that forms a protective acid mantle on the skin. With aging, sweat glands begin to dry up and sebaceous glands enlarge, disrupting that protective acid mantle covering, making the skin more vulnerable. The dermis contains collagen, which is a dense sponge-like matrix of protein fibers that give the skin strength and elasticity. Collagen thins with age. The fat layer, as its name implies, is made mostly of fat. In the fat layer, padding is lost and fat cells deteriorate as people age. This contributes to wrinkling, sagging, impaired healing, splotches, discoloration, flakiness, dryness, thinness, and coarseness of the skin.

At the base of the skin are fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are cells that produce a continuous supply of fresh collagen and fresh GAGs (Glucosaminoglycans) which, along with fat help keep the skin’s framework plumped up. Fibroblasts in aging skin still have the ability to manufacture new collagen and new GAGs.

FREE RADICAL THEORY

According to the free radical theory, toxins entering the skin or the lungs or any other part of the body, are composed of molecules containing an extra oxygen atom (03 instead of 02). This extra Oxygen atom can cause all sorts of problems by breaking off of the toxic molecule and then attaching onto some other cell or molecule and making it less stable and less healthy and possibly even contribute to killing living cells. This brochure will just touch upon this concept without going into depth on the subject. There are structural, chemical and emotional causes of free radical damage. This is discussed in more detail at the Triad Of Health 2 Hour Introduction. Anti-Oxidants are nutrients that are missing an oxygen molecule which allows them to attach themselves to the free radicals so that the free radicals then do not do any damage to the person’s body. This is a theory which has become very popular, very debated, and very controversial. However, we know that there are a variety of health benefits to certain anti-oxidants used for certain people who are highly toxic. Because the sun causes free radical damage, anti-oxidants found in the diet or in sun care and personal care products, can be quite helpful in combating the damaging rays of the sun. One can read about this in such books as “The Perricone Prescription” and from a variety of other books and sources.

Having proper hormonal balance protects the skin. When a person has a severe thyroid condition with low thyroid hormones, they suffer from a condition known as myxedema in which their skin has excess mucin. Mucin is a fatty-like substance found in the fatty layer of the skin. Other people with Thyroid disease suffer from dry flaky skin all over their body. It is more common for women’s skin to age faster after menopause than men’s skin ages with andropause. The reason for this is the rapid drop in estrogen because the ovaries are no longer releasing eggs. Many women have led such stressful lives prior to menopause that their adrenal glands are not able to withstand the new demand to create estrogen and other hormones and so menopausal type symptoms might develop as a result. Therefore healthy adrenal and ovarian health are very important for healthy skin.

THE FAT LAYER OF SKIN

In Chinese medicine, the skin is directly related to the kidneys. It is primarily the liver and the gallbladder that are responsible for fat metabolism in the body. The kidneys help with detoxification of toxic material along with the liver and gallbladder. Toxins are stored in fat cells and the majority of fat cells are in the Fat Layer of the skin. Therefore skin health is greatly determined by the health of the liver and gallbladder and kidneys. Dry skin is not a lotion deficiency!! Sunburn is rarely caused by excess sun, but by being the wrong race in the wrong part of the world with the wrong immune system. Nobody ever got sunburns 12,000 years ago. It was really only during the last several hundred years or so that people have suffered from skin cancers. People’s immune systems have become so weakened that instead of deriving energy from the sun, the sun actually weakens them when there is excess exposure. Humans have survived out in the sun for millions of years without having any skin cancer. When the skin is exposed to the sun, vitamin D is formed in the fatty layer of the skin. In order to transport the vitamin D to the cells where it is actively used, it must first be converted to an active form of vitamin D in the Liver and Kidneys (do these two organs sound familiar yet). There is a great deal of talk these days about Vitamin D deficiency. However, there is very little, if any talk about the cause of the vitamin D deficiency which is that people are very toxic and not able to convert the vitamin D that is created in their skin into active vitamin D due to kidney and liver toxicity. Vitamin D is actually a hormone very similar to cholesterol and the steroid sex hormones that has been shown to have numerous immune system benefits and help to regulate the immune response – especially in people with auto-immune diseases such as Hashimotos Thyroiditis, Lupus, Hepatitis C and severe chronic asthma patients. Americans are very toxic. In fact, Americans are so toxic that toxicity is the number 2 cause of death in the United States. Cancer is caused by excessive exposure to toxins that then causes cells to divide and proliferate abnormally. The cells themselves become abnormal. Cancer was the second leading cause of death in the United States in 2006 according to the centers for disease control. Hopefully, you can see how intricately connected the body is and the relationships between colon function, the liver, Vitamin D metabolism, kidney health, and the skin. (For more information about Vitamin D please sign up for the Health Tips Email Newsletter at the www.TriadOfHealth.net website and also review the www.docilya.com blog.)

Proper exercise helps the sweat glands to work properly and rid the body of toxins, which is good for the skin and the liver. A proper diet high in proteins and fats, which are needed to produce collagen and fat, are needed to help maintain and nourish healthy skin. Drinking plenty of safe and healthy water such as the 365 Every Day Value Whole Foods Spring Water is an excellent way to keep your kidneys healthy which also promotes healthy skin.

SUN AND THE SKIN

When you have a good diet which includes plenty of antioxidants from whole foods such as grass fed beef, fish from the sea, and green leafy vegetables, you do not tend to have a very bad reaction from a little bit of excess sun. (Of course, this is partially race dependent, and albinos are an exception.) You may react to heat from being in the sun which can be stressful, but the sun rays themselves do not tend to cause much damage to a really healthy person. Many people who have spent a lot of time in the sun do not wrinkle as early as other people who didn’t spend a lot of time in the sun. Why is this? While it may be partly due to genetics, the expression of our genes is determined by environmental influences and our thoughts and beliefs (Bruce Lipton, The Biology of Belief). So, a healthy diet can allow for healthy skin while an unhealthy diet can cause unhealthy, wrinkly, flaky and sickly skin. My patients who are really toxic have a yellowish tinge to their skin. If they are really, really toxic with very poor circulation, then their skin actually looks a little bit bluish purple.

Most sun care products are highly toxic, cause stress to, and congestion of the liver. Then, by using these toxic sun care products, your skin becomes even less healthy so that you are even more likely to be sensitive to the sun due to decreased antioxidant levels in the skin (because of the exposure to toxic sun care products).