A close friend has been telling me about his girlfriend experiencing a lot of pain and discomfort in her abdomen over the past few months. Her doctor identified the condition as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Her condition progressively became worse to the point that she ended up in the emergency room over the past week. After a more thorough investigation, a mass was located in her lower intestine. The diagnosis came back as stage four cancer.
This is a young, female in her mid – late 20's with no prior ailments of the sort? How could something like stage four cancer develop in someone who, seemingly, has had no prior indications of major illness, No known exposure to prolonged forms of radiation or toxins, OR – wait a minute… “No KNOWN EXPOSURE to prolonged forms of radiation or TOXINS.
This is where traditional medical diagnosis and evaluation falls drastically short! We seem to think that humans are impervious to things that we can't see? I can only speculate without having a chance to do an in-depth evaluation with her. However, could it make sense to consider the possible reality that she may have been exposed, over an extended period of time to toxins? Which could have been introduced through her integumentary system (this is not the only possibility but just one I'd like to ponder for this post)?
How could toxins be introduced through the skin one might ask?
The movie, “Unacceptable Levels” examines the results of the chemical revolution of the 1940s through the eyes of affable filmmaker Ed Brown, a father seeking to understand the world in which he and his wife are raising their children. To create this debut documentary, one man and his camera traveled extensively to find and interview top minds in the fields of science, advocacy, and law. Weaving their testimonies into a compelling narrative, Brown presents us with the story of how the chemical revolution brought us to where we are, and of where, if we’re not vigilant, it may take us.
A look at the Personal Care/Health & Beauty Industry.
The majority of our population wants to look, smell and feel their best. It's only natural in our western culture. We buy products that, our senses, perceive as good and even therapeutically beneficial. We make purchasing decisions based on, first and foremost, our greatest perceived level of benefit. We also decide on brand and price. It's a proven fact that major corporations have a keen understanding of the psychology of our buying traits and they exploit to it's fullest extent. Advertisers and corporations really don't care about the quality or integrity when it comes to the ingredients they put in their products. Their number one goal is to maximize their profit margins – that is all!
Take a company such as Burt's Bee's. Burt's Bee's products started out as a very small operation with an owner who, to this day could care less about the ultimate return on investment. If you haven't seen the documentary about Burt's Bee's then, you may not know that “Clorox” took a serious liking to Burt's Shavit's products and bought the brand back in 2007. Why? Because chemical companies are no fools when it comes to understanding that people do want healthful ingredients. But, it's not the most cost effective thing in the big picture.
Back to Burt's Bee's. No one can say for certain if Burt's products have been modified to increase profit margins and production quantities (shelf life and mass distribution in retail chains like Walmart and Target).
The reason I can't know for certain is due to “Greenwashing”. It's a convenient loophole for corporations to be able to avoid disclosing all the ingredients in their products. As a result, I personally will no longer use Burt's Bee's products simply because I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT'S IN IT!?? Neither do you!
As a disclaimer, Burt's Bee's products could still be “all natural” just like the way Burt started out. However, I'll let you make the determination on what's best to go in and on your body. All I'm trying to convey here is, why did a company like Clorox take such an interest in a company like Burt's, when it seems pretty logical that, in order to produce the volume they do. It seems impossible when there's such evidence that our bee population is in rapid decline!
On the other hand, if Bee's are in such decline, why would a manufacturer exploit it – and how do they verify that they're actually being sustainable when Clorox company hasn't filed a sustainability report since 2012?? The world may never know? And it really comes down to you and I to become educated on what we are exposed to. It's a harsh reality when I say, “don't believe everything you see and hear in the mainstream. Because a lot of it is smoke and mirrors!
I can't say for sure what, exactly, caused my good friend's young and outwardly vibrant partner to contract stage four cancer. But I can assure you that a deeper look in to what products she was exposed to in her daily life is certainly the best place to start. Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean you aren't being exposed to harmful toxins on a daily basis.
