Saturday, October 24, 2009

Life after Cancer..

For many cancer survivors there is an overwhelming feeling of relief when a clean bill of health comes from the doctor.
The other side of the coin is the feeling of " what if" that comes along with the news.
" What if" it comes back? " What if" something else goes wrong. This type of thinking can become so distracting that your daily life can be consumed with fears.
The one thing I try to remember is that anything can happen to anyone at any time.
We have nothing but our ability to look at the best possible scenarios to get us through the days.
And a day with the people you love is worth smiling about.
Remember that cancer is a word, not a sentence, if you have been set free, start living.
You are not defined by your illness, but more in how you overcome it.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Toxins in our cosmetics

Apparently, there are ingredients found in cosmetic products that are possibly causing cancer. My friend Renee sent me this email & I looked it up on the internet wanting more information. Well guess what, there's tons of discussion on this topic. I'll sum up one link, breast cancer tissue was examined and found what could only be a build up of ingredients from topical products. I Googled 'paraben link to cancer,':http://www. health-report. co. uk/parabens. htmhttp://www. mindfully. org/Pesticide/2004/Parabens-Breast-Significance1jan04. htmhttp://www. mindfully. org/Pesticide/2004/Methylparaben-Deodorant-Cancer12jan04. htmThis is from the Health Report webite:'We have been warning people about the potential toxic effects of parabens for ages and how the increase in breast cancer and all cancers could be directly attributed to chemicals in the body. (This includes of course the shocking revelations that HRT was directly responsible for another 20,000 women to contract cancer recently.) Not just from using underarm deodorants either. Virtually all so-called 'skin Care' products have dangerous chemicals in them. Parabens are just one of a large bunch of toxic chemicals that no-one has any idea of what the long term effects are if you use them every day on your skin.' 'If you want to be free of all the toxic chemicals that vested interests tell you are 'good' for your skin and 'safe' don't use them! Period! The only safe products we recommend for use on the skin are Certified Organic products that are made to food grade standards. Yes you could eat them - because they are 100% free of all synthetic chemicals.'Just look in the ingredient listing of your lotions/washes and if you find words ending with 'paraben' it is probably a good idea not to buy this product. I looked at all the face/body washes, masks and lotion in my cabinet finding a few with the 'paraben' ingredient; expensive lines too! One product line in my cupboard didn't show the ingredient in the night-time lotion but had parabens in the day-time lotion. Check your deodorants and shampoo/conditioners too. When shopping you will find a couple product lines are even stating 'Paraben Free' on the front because this is a growing concern. If you shop or do your research online it is really easy to find paraben free products.Here is an excellent resource, where you can look up cosmetics to see how they score on various parameters (including paraben content): http://www. cosmeticsdatabase. com We have to take care of ourselves and each-other. If you have any info on parabens, please let me know.