Although the official season of Winter is still upon us, the current warm weather means early spring cleaning is already underway in some households. Why risk your family’s health and pay extra money for chemical household cleaners when you can use safe and cheap alternatives?
Here are a few reasons to choose simple alternative cleaning products
Your Health The list of potential health hazards goes on and on for household cleaners including central nervous system and brain damage, kidney and liver damage, reproductive damage, endocrine disruption, respiratory irritation, skin and eye irritation including potential blindness, cancer, and in some cases exposure to the chemicals can be acutely fatal (i.e. if you mix ammonia and bleach you create toxic chloramine gas).
Kids Health and Poisons If you have children in your home, their health will be more susceptible to chemical influences including development of respiratory illnesses such as asthma. If you have ever read the bottles of some common cleaners you may already know they can be poisonous if consumed; did you know that almost 90% of poison exposures occur in the home, and over 50% of those are from children under the age of 6. The National Capital Poison Center states “Most poisonings involve everyday household items such as cleaning supplies, medicines, cosmetics and personal care items”.
The Environment All the cleaners you put into the sink, toilet, bathtub or shower go into the sewage system, which means that vegetation, soil, and wildlife (including fish you may eat) can all be chemically polluted. Sewage can also end up in rivers and oceans that people swim in and drinking water must be treated to remove chemicals.
Bacterial Resistance Researchers from the University of Ireland found that when they added increasing amounts of disinfectant to the bacteria culture of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the bugs survived not just the disinfectant, but a commonly prescribed antibiotic (ciprofloxacin) as well, even without being exposed to it. This means that excessive use of chemical disinfectants may develop stronger harmful bacteria.
Money Locally you can buy a 1 gallon container of vinegar for around $4.00, a 1 lb box of baking soda for $2-3, and a 32 oz bottle of hydrogen peroxide for $2. You can make a bottle of your own window cleaner for about 50 cents versus $3 or $4 for the blue stuff.
Alternative Cleaning Products
Water
Distilled white vinegar
Baking soda
Hydrogen peroxide
Borax
Castile soap
Cornstarch
Tea tree oil
Elbow grease
Instead of bleach fordisinfecting just about anything from countertops to fruits and veggies use vinegar, then hydrogen peroxide. Get 2 separate spray bottles and fill one with vinegar and the other with hydrogen peroxide (do not mix the two). Spray the surface with vinegar first and wipe, then with hydrogen peroxide. In tests run at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, pairing the two mists killed virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and surfaces when used in this fashion, making this spray combination more effective at killing these potentially lethal bacteria than chlorine bleach or any commercially available kitchen cleaner.
Homemade glass cleaner is cheaper and won’t put ammonia or other chemicals into the air from spraying it. The simple recipe is:
1/4 c. rubbing alcohol
1/4 c. white vinegar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 c. warm water
Combine in a spray bottle, shake well, spray and wipe with newspaper. It’s okay if you are missing one of the ingredients, any variation of the 3 plus water will work very well.
If you have baked on grime from cooking on the stove or in the oven, or dirty grout then a combination of baking soda, water, and vinegar will do the trick (remember vinegar and baking soda will fizz). Mix the three components to make a paste, let sit for 10 minutes, then scrub away with a scrubby sponge or bristle brush! Not only does the concoction clean, it will also deodorize the surface. You can also follow your cleaning with a spritz of tea tree oil mixed with water (about 2 teaspoons oil with 2 cups water). Tea tree oil is naturally anti-fungal so you can slow down mildew from returning; plus your bathroom or kitchen will smell like a spa.
If you want some extra motivation to switch, go read all the caution labels for the products you are currently using (this includes “green” products, many of which can still be harmful). Why not take the extra few minutes to change for your health and pocket book? And most importantly, don’t forget the magic of plain old water and elbow grease.
Unfortunately, air pollution is a reality for all of us. It is produced by so many of the modern conveniences we use very day – cars, electricity and power plants (just to name a few). We are only now even beginning to understand how much of a health concern this air pollution is.
“Research consistently is finding that, when spread out over a given population, the quality of the air has a very significant impact on public health. When vehicles, factories, power plants, and other machines burn fuel, the chemicals they release into the atmosphere react with one another (and other compounds in the air) in ways that can amplify health hazards.
One major study, which followed subjects for 16 years, found that people living in cities with higher levels of fine particulates were at greater risk of cardiovascular death. A difference of 10 micrograms per cubic meter increased the risk of dying from ischemic heart disease (narrowed arteries) by 18 percent, arrhythmia by 13 percent, and cardiac arrest by 21 percent. It seems air pollutants incite processes that lead to high blood pressure, blood clotting, and electrical instability in your heart.
Air pollution might actually cause disease as well. Separate Children ages 9 to 16 who played at least three sports and lived in areas with high ozone concentrations had a 30 percent increased chance of developing asthma. And other work indicates that infants whose mothers were exposed to air pollutants while pregnant might be at a greater risk of low birth weight, pre-term birth, and even death.” – www.mercola.com
The good news is that with the use of Standard Process whole food supplements, we can assist your body in better handling the enormous number of toxins it is exposed to every day. If you are concerned about exposure to things like air pollution, please call our office for more information on the healthy, safe and effective purification programs we can help you with.
The Liver is the body’s largest organ and performs over 500 functions! Some of these functions include digestion, detoxification and storing nutrients. Supporting the Liver is critical, and Standard Process has a product specifically for that purpose called Livaplex.
“Livaplex is a special formula comprised of several Standard Process ingredients designed to support the liver. This product encourages healthy bile production and flow; the breakdown of fats, liver detoxification support, and the improvement of blood flow through the liver. All the above, in addition to zinc, copper and iron, enhance the ability of the liver to function normally.” – Standard Process Livaplex Product Detail
To find out more about Livaplex, please call our office or visit Standard Process online at www.standardprocess.com
Every day we are exposed to chemicals and environmental toxins. This might be from car exhaust, cleaning products, plastic water bottles, cosmetics or even from the food we eat! Unfortunately, many of us are effected by the cummulative build up of these chemicals in our body. Symptoms of high toxicity inlcude:
Stuffy head
Fatigue or difficulty sleeping
Digestion and other gastrointestinal problems
Food cravings and weight gain
Reduced mental clarity
Low libido
The good news is that Standard Process has developed an excellent Purification Program to deal with these issues. Below is a video about the Purification Program. If you have any questions about toxicity, or to find out if the Purification Program is right for you please call our office. You can also visit Standard Process online at www.standardprocess.com
Although the official season of Winter is still upon us, the current warm weather means early spring cleaning is already underway in some households. Why risk your family’s health and pay extra money for chemical household cleaners when you can use safe and cheap alternatives?