Enviro Mentality

A neighbor commented that her 8 year old granddaughter is ‘developing.’  I shook my head  & thought, ‘ That’s too early.’  because it doesn’t seem right that an 8 year old should be heading into puberty.  It should be  at least around 11 or 12 at minimum. Studies over the past 20 years confirm that girls are maturing at an earlier age.

African-American girls have earlier onsets of puberty than White girls do by a year or two.  Average age for the start of breast development are about 8.8 yrs. for African-Americans as compared to about 10 for Whites.A study done in 1997, Herman-Giddons was compiled from the journal, Pediatrics and confirms that the age trend is lower.  Doctors and mothers report that indeed, girls are entering puberty much earlier than they did 30 or 40 years ago.

Why is this?  Several indications are that the increased use of chemicals and pesticides over the last 40 years have played a role.  These chemicals are endocrine disruptors, which throw the hormone levels off by mimicking other hormones, fooling the body.

Increased use of plastics in food containers (phalates) and personal care as well as all aspects of modern human life have shown to impact hormone responses.  Artificial ingredients in food, personal care products all contribute to messing up one’s system.  One study even focused on the hair products that African-Americans use versus that of White girls revealing that ingredients in African-American hair products were more likely to contain estrogen or placental products, again affecting hormonal responses.

Our lives are changing and chemicals are playing a large part.  Do what you can to eliminate them whenever possible.

Sweating isn’t the only way to detox.  Many spa products: facial scrubs, aromatherapy, body scrubs, facial masks,  facial scrubs, bath tea blends and herbal tea blends can help do the job also.

Most people believe that you only start detoxing from the inside out. Yes, that’s true but you can start from the outside in.  By removing dead skin, stimulating the outer skin layers down into the deeper areas through massage or bath salts or herbal detox baths, the entire body system is invigorated and prompted to move out toxins.

Drinking herbal teas before, during and after your bath can assist in getting out toxins.  You’re detoxing from the inside (with the tea), from the inside TO the outside (with the removal of toxins) and from the outside in via your bath!

A massage before your detox bath also assists in moving out toxins. and is essential for pain relief.  By stimulation lymph systems, release from muscle and tissues it it very beneficial in detoxification.

Regularly bathing is a spa bath is a good way to keep illness at bay.  By strengthening your immune system, consistently removing toxins, your body already has a head start on fighting flu and colds during winter months. Using bath salts is a great way to help rid yourself of toxins and pain.

Toxins make pain.  It’s a well documented fact that the more junk you’re carrying around in your system, the more you’ll be in pain.

Again I use myself as a case study.  Years ago worked at Lowe’s in the garden center and inside seasonal department.  I was around the pesticide area constantly.  I swept floors, handled the bags for customers, restocked the shelves. (never without gloves)  I started experiencing pain all through my body.  Sometimes at night it would wake me out of a dead sleep;  I’d wake up screaming as if I were being stabbed!

After I left Lowe’s, my constant pain stopped.  I was being poisoned by pesticides!

Being more conscious of what I eat, I find that when my diet gets ‘junky’ with processed foods slipping in, and dehydration,  I start to experience more pain.  Toxins are building up.  My movement is restricted, I hurt more all over and I find myself reaching for the bottle of aspirin.

A good detox bath with either Epsom salts or Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath takes the edge off that.  It helps the cells release and rebuild. Damaged cells allow more toxins in.

Follow these rules:

• Go on a healthy, all natural (uncooked) food diet for a few days or a week.
• Eat enough fiber.  Elimination of toxins through waste is very important.
• Hydrate - Drink water, green teas, fresh juices - NO soda, fizzy water, juices with sugar or caffeine.
• Go for massages to help drain your lymph system and remove toxins and acids
• Take a detox bath using mustard bath and/or Epsom salts.
• Do what you can to eliminate stress:  learn meditation, go for walks outside; whatever calms you.

You can help your body heal, relieve pain and regenerate.

This is flu and cold season.  The best defense is an offense, and doing a detox with mustard bath is a good way to stay ahead of the germs and the H1N1.

A hot bath with Epsom Salts or other bath salts, coupled with Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath will detox your body. Eliminating toxins, which weaken the immune system, helps rid your body of potential bouts with flu and colds. The idea here, though, is to keep on top of it.  By regularly taking a hot detox bath - which raises body temperature - you are killing off germs.  That’s what a fever does where you’re sick.  It’s the body’s natural reaction to the virus.  Why not help it?

When my throat feels scratchy and I fear I might be bitten by some errant bug, I jump in the tub and ‘boil’ myself for an hour or two.  I guess, too, that I am blessed with a good immune system, but I never get sick.  I don’t get colds and haven’t had the flu in over 30 years.  (knock wood)

I’m not saying that Dr. Singha’s Mustard bath will cure the  H1N1 flu  or a cold once it’s gotten a good grip on you. No, it’s just a good cold and flu fighter and keeps your system running better to fight off illness.

This is my own testimony to the healing effects of detox baths and bath salts.

On Christmas Eve, I took a nasty fall on the stairs inside my home.  I missed the last step and went down like a ton of bricks.  Most of my weight landed on my right hand and knee, but my fall was broken (thankfully) by some boxes at the foot of the stairs.  As I was falling, and apparently by instinct trying to find balance, I yanked down the brass hall tree, which fell on top of me.  I got ’stabbed’ on the back by one of the arms of the tree, leaving a cut and nasty bruise.  My leg had a bruise that ran from my kneecap half way up my thigh!  (I’m gettin’ too old for acrobatics!)

That night I knew the best thing to do was to take a hot bath in Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath. This I knew from other ‘over-exertions’ would draw some of the soreness and pain out of my body.

Being injured produces a myriad of chemical reactions in the body.  Physical effects include stiffness wherein the affected area tries to immobilize itself to heal torn or stretched  ligaments or bruises.  We also react unconsciously, by limiting our movements. Taking a hot bath in salts or a detox solution helps to relieve pain and stiffness.  It draws toxins from the injured area away and out. Old blood that has pooled due to bruising is stimulated to move out, reducing more pain.

The next morning -  I could not believe how sore I wasn’t! I thought for sure I’d really be hobbling and unable to move.  Yeah, my knee was touchy and the immediate area where it was bruised was tender, but all in all - I truly believe the detox bath helped!

‘Tis the season for slipping and sliding on icy stairs and sidewalks.  A Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath and oil in your medicinal arsenal will do wonders to help with winter acrobatics!

The environment is tops on everyone’s list.  Browse the ‘new and notable’ tables at your favorite book store and GREEN jumps out at every turn.

You can help introduce your friends and family to environmentally friendly living, too.

Give them a GREEN GIFT of organic personal care,  or bath salts,    or perhaps some

mustard bath.   or a detox seaweed bath 

Henna hair coloring     is a great way to lessen a loved one’s exposure to possible carcinogens in chemical dyes.

You can promote sustainability, independence and encourage environmentally friendly business in impoverished nations by purchasing fair trade gifts.  

Artisans worldwide produce crafts and are paid a fair wage.    This also helps preserve ancient crafts which are rapidly disappearing as populations move to urban areas.

Another great way to introduce environmentally friendly living is to get a GIFT CERTIFICATE to start a friend sampling some environmentally responsible products.  Often people are a bit hesitant to give up what they know, but once they try things, they find they are doing TWO things at once:  saving the environment and being more environmentally responsible themselves!

This could be toward the purchase of a Sun-Mar composter  or   perhaps a rain barrel…,   or even for a composting toilet    or maybe for a portable solar powered battery charger,  which is great for travellers!

We also have unusual    art and   gifts like original art  

by local Virginia artists.

There are many ways that you can spread the word about sustainable, green and helping the environment!

Until a few years ago, only the most savvy spa worshiper had probably even heard of detoxing with salts.  Now, however, bath salts, aromatic bath salts, along with Epsom salts have become well known.

Salt has long been used as a purifier.  Salt was, and still is in some cultures, used as a preservative.  Now, however, it is used for detoxification and cleansing.

Containing many different minerals depending on its origin, salt’s healing properties have been extolled for centuries.  Its exfoliating action not only strips dead skin cells but actually draws out toxins upon contact with the skin.  When mixed with organic oils, which also have their own healing properties, salt promotes rejuvenation of the skin through many layers.

Bathing in itself is relaxing and healing, perhaps taking us back to our time in the womb…, who knows?

Tis the season for colds and flu which makes taking a hot detox bath even more important for overall health.  Add some aromatic bath salts and organic oils to your next bath and see if you don’t instantly feel better!

What could be more romantic for Valentine’s Day than to gift your sweetie with detox bath products and organic facial care?

It’s not just for the ladies, either.  Detox bath products are important for the guy in your life to use too. Doesn’t he deserve a good soak in a hot tub after a long day?  Doesn’t his face need some moisturizing from organic facial care?  Spa baths aren’t just for girls anymore.  Guys appreciate a bath, too, especially in the winter.

Spa bath products make everybody feel better.  They rev up your immune system which is important now that flu season is here.  Tired muscles relax in a aromatic bath.

Why not give your sweetie ‘a bath’ for Valentine’s Day?  He -or she - might really appreciate it!

With the market for beauty and health care products booming the way it does today, manufacturers are coming up with all sorts of innovations they can find. The term organic seem to be the catch word for the moment. Anything with the word organic in front of it gets the consumer’s attention. Organic food, organic fertilizer, and so on. But getting the most benefits from the term are organic beauty products.

Today, women seem to have an obsession for great skin. Skin care product sales are soaring. It is also very competitive.  But organic skin care products seem to be having the edge, organic skin care is being adapted by skin care clinics around the country and women are patronizing it, hence its popularity.

A healthy body needs to rid itself of toxins.  A beneficial treatment is a massage, followed by a detox bath using bath salts.

Massage stimulates the body physically, mentally and emotionally, assisting healing and enabling the body to heal itself.  One of the ways that you can help your body is to follow a massage with a detox bath using aromatic bath salts and herbal remedies.

Following a massage, your body’s entire system is in a cleansing mode.  Human touch itself is a basic need of life;  our body actually responds to touch in beneficial ways. Direct stimulation of muscles helps carry toxins out of the body which is why, following a massage, you should drink plenty of water to flush your body.

The evening after a massage, you can continue the benefits by taking a detox bath in aromatic bath salts or sea salts. The action of the salts further stimulate the circulation which draws out toxins.  Other remedies, such as a mustard bath, combined with the salts increases the effects of the bath salts.  Epsom salts, which are very permeable through the skin, also serve to enhance the action of the bath or sea salts.

The scent of the aromatic bath salts - or the mustard bath - acts as an olfactory stimulation which relaxes you, assisting further in detoxing.

Help your body heal.  Schedule a massage, then go home and soak in a good hot bath!