Funny, how ironic life can sometimes be. There I was sitting in the waiting room of my friendly neighborhood holistic dentist, waiting to get my mercury fillings removed. On a mission to eliminate my exposure to as many of the harmful toxins that I had learned about as I could, I was now down to the last few items on my hit list. While waiting my turn for the chair, I picked up a popular women’s magazine. Always on the lookout for new and useful information, I attempted to do a little multi-tasking while waiting. There was bound to be some good info here, after all, a top magazine doesn’t get to be a hit with the masses for nothing, does it?
As I flipped through page after page searching for something meaningful, I gradually came to the realization that my search looked futile. The only thing noteworthy seemed to be their outlandish quest to cram in as many pharmaceutical ads as they could. They were literally saturating the pages. I understand that a magazine’s advertising revenue is the bread and butter that allows them to spread their glossy covers across the nation, but I guess I just didn’t realize how influential those advertising companies might be over what lies inside that cover.
As I flipped through the multitude of pages touting everything from aspirin to birth control pills, I finally came upon a substantial looking article. It was about the increase in cases of ovarian cancer and what women can do to protect themselves against it. Under the headline “Prevention,” two of the ways suggested were the following: “Taking birth control pills,” and “having a tubal litigation,” which the article went on to claim, “can reduce your risk by 30 percent. Experts theorize that it stops environmental carcinogens from reaching the ovaries.” Fascinating magazine all right—the audacious irony of it almost made me fall over in my chair!
They were actually suggesting for women to not only take carcinogenic chemicals into their bodies to prevent a problem that can be caused by carcinogenic chemicals (see ’95 study by National Cancer Institute and ’96 Lancet Meta Analysis which found a 24 percent increase of cancer in users of birth control pills), but they were also suggesting that women should just go ahead and go under the knife with invasive surgery instead of simply trying to reduce their exposure to the environmental carcinogens, which, as they even suggest, can be the cause of the problem!
With a little common sense we can do much better than that—conscious awareness is the key. We need to stop burying our heads in the sand. Armed with knowledge and the awareness that we can stand up and take responsibility for our own health (instead of popping pills for quick fixes or having doctors just “cut it out”), we can live much more vibrant healthy lives.
Cutting Down our Exposure
Actively making an effort to reduce our exposure to carcinogens can make all the difference in the world. We need to do it not only for our health, but also for the health of the planet. It’s not always easy. It takes some thought and effort to do because harmful chemicals are everywhere: from the preservatives and pesticides we consume to even the shampoos we use; from the fire-retardant sprayed upholstery we touch to the Styrofoam containers that leach out into our food. Each one of us is absorbing enormous amounts of toxic chemicals on a daily basis—146 chemical ingredients from personal care products alone during the course of an average day. The more chemicals we can cut down our exposure to, the better.
Contrary to popular belief, the FDA doesn’t require safety data on ingredients used in personal care products, and over a third contain ingredients classified by the government as possibly causing cancer. If you ever took a look at the Material Safety Sheets for some of the most popular brands, you would be completely flabbergasted! Not surprisingly, this scourge of toxins is really starting to show up in our health statistics. For instance, just since 1994 when rbGH (growth hormone given to cows to increase milk production), was introduced into our nation’s dairy supply (other nations have banned it by the way!), lymphatic cancer has increased 2,000 percent—that’s right 2,000 percent! This is statistical evidence revealed by the U.S. Census Bureau. These figures may start making you wish you really could just bury your head in the sand—well, don’t—because at the end of this article you’ll find a list of some easy ways to help keep you from becoming one of the statistics!
