Your Biggest Organ

It’s your biggest organ. It holds all the rest of the organs in. What is it?  Your skin!  Many people already know this, but if you did not, yes, your skin is an organ – just like your heart, brain, kidneys and more.

Some skin fun facts: (http://science.nationalgeographic.com)

• Adults carry about 8 pounds of skin around.
• A adult has about 22 square feet of skin.
• Without our skin we would literally evaporate!
• Toxins absorbed by your skin go directly into your blood stream and other organs.

Your skin is there to guard your body from extreme temperatures, the sun, the elements and more.  So why do we continue to treat it so bad?

Our skin is our biggest organ and yet we over-expose ourselves to the sun, elements, and so much more.  Some things we have control over, other things we do not.  For instance, we cannot control what is in the air around us that may be entering our bodies through our skin.  However, we can control and protect our skin from what we are putting on it.

I could write a library of books (and there is already a library worth out there!) on toxic skin but in an interest of time and space…here are just a couple things to think about.

There are different numbers depending on where you look, but the general rule of thumb is that your skin absorbs up to 60% of anything you put on it.  But there are a few areas, such as your arm pits, groin and temples that absorb 100% of what you put on them!

So what are you putting on your skin? Everyday you may wash your face with a cleanser, maybe use some aftershave or perfume, moisturizer, shampoo, conditioner, soap and so much more.  As you go through your day, try to pay attention to everything your skin touches throughout one day.  You may be shocked how much you skin has to deal with!  No wonder people have acne, eczema, psoriasis, skin cancer and a host of other skin problems.   

The key is paying attention to what you put on your skin that you do have control of.  The soaps and cleansers you use, shampoos, conditioners, perfumes etc. What toxins do these items contain?  You may be shocked to discover the truth!

Our body sweats through our skin.  It does this by design to help the body cool off.  So of course, since we don’t want to be all stinky, we spend a lot of time washing and trying to cover up this sometimes really smelly bodily function.  How? One of the biggest ways, that you may have done this morning, is to use an antiperspirant or deodorant.

(Reminder – your armpits absorb 100% of whatever you put on them!)

What is in antiperspirants and deodorants? Parabens, zirconium and aluminum as well as other aluminum compounds, such as aluminum zirconium and aluminum chloride, propylene glycol, triclosan, TEA, DEA, FD&C colors, and Talc, among others are all common in these products.  The aluminum ingredients have been highly scrutinized for causing a variety of problems including breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.  Some antiperspirants have warning labels stating that if you have kidney issues you should not use the product.  Hmmmm….makes one wonder.

As with everything else, you need to make sure you read the ingredients labels!  There are many toxic-free antiperspirants and deodorants on the market that are much better for your skin and will take care of that icky smell!

For women, moisturizers, anti-aging products, makeup and so much more has come under attack lately due to the amount of toxins in these products.  Again, be an informed shopper.  There are non-toxic versions of these products that work just as good as some of the toxic ones.  

Hopefully, you got dressed before you left your house today!  Did you know that your clothes can be toxic?  Think about it.  What are your clothes made of? What were they washed in?  Did you bring your shirts to a traditional dry cleaner to be cleaned?

Why do you think they recommend washing a newborn baby’s clothes in special detergent?  Because the baby’s skin can’t quite handle all the toxins in the regular detergent.  And yet you are washing your clothes in it.  Anyone with a perfume allergy or a sensitivity to certain laundry detergents knows exactly what I am talking about.  For those of us that do not have these sensitivities, we generally just don’t think about it and use whatever we think gets our clothes the cleanest or maybe smells the freshest.  But these products can be highly toxic and they are being used on the clothes that you are wearing that touch your skin all day!

Once again, there are many non-toxic options these days to choose from.

Did any of this information scare you?  It should!  Why do we have an increase in autism, Alzheimer’s, ADD, ADHD, cancers and more?  A lot of it has to do with what we are putting into ourselves every day.  This includes everything that your body is absorbing through it’s largest organ – your skin.