Pollutants and agents of chemical origin in the air we breathe, in the food we consume, in the hygiene products we use, etc, have multiplied since the second half of the 20th century; as a result, today we are faced with an exponential increase in reactivity and intolerances.
You will have observed that the problem of allergies has grown exponentially in recent times. Currently, many women between 40 and 50 years old who have never had any type of allergy before now suffer from rhinitis problems when they catch a cold, dermatitis, allergic asthma and the list is extended with a long list of problems that many times we are not even aware. And not only women, of course, also men and children.
According to Dr. Alfons Malet i Casajuana, Medical Director of the AL-LERGO CENTER. “Allergic diseases are a worldwide public health problem. 30% of the world population is affected by one or more allergic diseases. In our country, one in four people suffers from some type of allergic disorder. And 25% of the child population suffers from some allergic process”.
Suddenly, our hair is greasy and falls out in an unusual way, or our head itches when we wash it and we think that it is due to the hormonal changes associated, perhaps, to premenopause conditions, or perhaps to the fact that we are stressed and that’s why we also have dandruff in our hair…
We do not stop to think that perhaps it may be because our shampoo contains very aggressive surfactants that are destroying the lipid layer of our scalp and that produce that over-greasing that causes us to get dandruff or to lose our hair.
And when our skin begins to itch and one day appears with redness and eczema, we think we have dermatitis and we go to the specialist, who will prescribe cortisone-based creams and chemical formulations, without stopping to think that maybe it could be due to some “expensive” cream full of paraffins and synthetic components that we have smeared, or some aggressive cleaning product with which we have come into contact.
As a result of what we have come to call “the toxic crisis”, by which pollutants and agents of chemical origin in the air we breathe, in the food we consume, in the hygiene products we use, etc, have multiplied in the lasts decades; today we are faced with this exponential increase in allergies and the reactivity or overreaction of our immune system, which is what allergies come to be, mostly.
We want to clarify that, although we are not at odds with conventional medicine, many times, our criteria may not be totally coincident. If you need medical advice, it is better to go to an allopathic medicine specialist. Our point of view, although it tries to unite both medicines under an integrative vision, opts for a holistic paradigm that is based on a vision of the universe as energy.
From this comprehensive vision of health, we want to dedicate this blog to the research and dissemination of a different way of living “in our skin” and in our environment. We seek a lifestyle more respectful with our natural environment and more in harmony with the natural cycles. Opening the doors, in this case, to a different life more in contact with the nature and with ourselves.
In this blog we will offer you recipes on health and natural cosmetics. Don’t stop following us!
WHY COSMETIC AND HYGIENE PRODUCTS WITH NATURAL INGREDIENTS?
Cosmetics and beauty products are a major source of chemical exposure for most of us. An average beauty product contains dozens of harmful chemicals, many of which have not even been tested on humans.
Fortunately, there are natural alternatives to every cosmetic product, and most work better than chemical-laden alternatives. I know what you may be wondering how you can find all the necessary ingredients and how much the investment will cost you.
It is true that natural ingredients cost more in advance, but they save us money in the long run because they are so versatile that can be used in multiple recipes.
Nor do you need so many ingredients to make a product that lasts a long time. And that is what I want to show on this page. It is possible with a few key ingredients to make plenty of recipes for homemade creams, shampoos, deodorants and gels.
What’s more, if you have reactive skin like mine, you will see that it is even necessary.
And if, on the other hand, you decide to buy a product from the parapharmacy to treat atopic skin, you may find yourself with the problem, as it happened to me, that after a while they change the product you were used to, or, worse still , its composition, in order to make it cheaper.
What I mean is that, with what you buy, it is impossible to control the process or the product, while what you prepare yourself can always be adapted to your real needs. And we can solve many of the hygiene needs of our skin and hair in a very simple way with products that we all have in the home pantry.
Thus, for example, it is very easy to hydrate and condition the skin of our face with a simple easy honey mask. To do this, we will spread warm honey on our faces and leave it for about 20-30 minutes. Perhaps with relaxing music. Afterwards, we will rinse it with warm water and, finally, cold water, to close the pores. Honey also works great as a mild facial wash that can be used every day.
To condition our hair, detangle it and give it shine after washing, we can simply mix one part of white vinegar with five parts of water (maybe less water if we use wine or apple vinegar that have less acid) and spray and rinse the hair. To the mixture we can add 5 to 10 drops of our favourite essential oil to give a good aroma to our hair.
If you have very dry or damaged hair and you want to condition it intensively, you can mix avocado and coconut milk or cream in a blender and apply it to dry hair. Let it act up to 30 minutes and rinse.
For oily hair, massaging baking soda on the hair before applying the shampoo and washing as usual can go a long way. Although, without a doubt, it is much better to prepare a shampoo for oily hair from the recipe we offer in a later entry. And it is not that complicated either!
Food allergies and diet
According to this same doctor Alfons Malet i Casajuana, Medical Director of the AL-LERGO CENTER, the allergies that have increased comparatively the most in recent times are those of food origin.
Montse Bradford also refers to this problem in her page (www.montsebradford.es): “More and more people are daily affected by some digestive disorder such as gas, diarrhea, constipation, long and heavy digestions, poor intestinal flora, incompatibilities with certain foods, weak intestines, heartburn, candida, indigestion” … Have you ever wondered why this list is getting longer and longer?
We have asked ourselves. As we have been talking about, dermatitis is due in large part to the use of creams and hygiene products with synthetic components that end up in our bloodstream. Allergic asthma is mainly due to pollutants and toxins in the air we breathe. According to this same reasoning, don’t you think that food allergies will have a lot to do with the diet of processed foods loaded with preservatives, thickeners, dyes, etc … that we consume today?
Expert Spanish allergists have published the following study: According to these experts, in 2050 “half of the population of developed countries will suffer from an allergy”.
Currently, one in four Spaniards is already allergic. A figure that is increasing and that will skyrocket between now and 2050, when experts predict that half of the population of developed countries will suffer from some type of allergy, that is, twice as much as now.
The study also describes a new profile of allergy sufferers in Spain: someone who is getting younger and younger (the lower average age is 16 to 12 years), with more rhinitis-conjunctivitis, less asthma and more food allergies. In addition, women are more allergic than men (they are 58%), except for allergy to hymenoptera (bee stings and other insects), in which they are seven out of 10.
Six out of 10 patients suffer from rhino-conjunctivitis: Nasal mucus, sneezing, nasal congestion and itching, in addition to tearing, itching, stinging, congestion and redness of the eyes are the main symptoms of rhino-conjunctivitis, the first disease and the way in manifested by six out of 10 allergy sufferers in Spain. Its prevalence has grown since the 2005 report from 55 to 62% of cases.
The second most common diagnosis is bronchial asthma, which however falls from 28 to 23.4%. The third reason is hypersensitivity to some medication, with 17.7% of cases, plus 10% in the case of food allergies. These also grow from the 14.4 and 7% of the cases they represented in 2005.
Food allergies double: In little more than a decade, food allergies have doubled, from 3.6% in 1992 to 7.4% in 2005 and 11.4% in 2015. Milk, fruit, eggs and nuts are the main allergens in the case of the little ones. Milk is the cause of 60% of allergies in children under two years of age (compared to 51% in 2005) and fruit in children slightly older (seven out of 10 allergies between seven and 10 years old, when in 2005 there were only three out of 10).
Children are more allergic than adults, since the prevalence of 20-25% of the general allergic population rises to 25-30% in the case of the smallest. Especially in the case of certain diseases, as the president of the SEAIC has underlined: “One in 10 children in Madrid has bronchial asthma, which has become the most important chronic disease in the Community of Madrid.” Despite this, asthma has generally decreased compared to 2015, while rhinitis and food allergies have increased.
According to this same study, it is added: “The cure of allergies, for now, is only possible in some cases and temporarily through vaccines. For its treatment, the most common formula is antihistamines, followed by topical nasal corticosteroids ”. We want to point out that this treatment is based on conventional allopathic medicine.
As we have discussed previously, our opinions are based on naturopathy and holistic medicine and it is very likely that they do not fully coincide. Our advice is that, if the reader is faced with a problem of this type, a good idea is always to consult, first, all the possibilities and, finally, decide which one is the best for us.
And not only food allergies, the type of diet we follow and our hygienic habits are increasingly being seen to have a huge influence on many chronic diseases increasingly more frequent in our current society such as irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, fibromyalgia, celiac disease and other intolerances …
And if instead of allergies, dermatitis and other intolerances, it is cancer that worries us, it will be good for us to read the recommendations of the WHO (World Health Organization) in this regard:
“Eating processed meat such as sausages, hamburgers or cold cuts increases the risk of cancer, as concluded today by a panel of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO). The opinion considers that this type of food is “carcinogenic to humans” and includes it in the group of substances most dangerous to health along with tobacco smoke, alcohol, plutonium or polluted air, among others more than 100 compounds previously analyzed ”. And they include it in risk group 1.
This organism also considers that red meat (beef, pork, horse, lamb, goat…) is “probably carcinogenic”, especially in regard to colorectal cancer, and considers it a type 2 risk factor.
REFERENCES IN ENGLISH:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(15)00444-1/fulltext
In our book, we intend to provide more information about the dietary implications of some of the most common allergies and skin conditions.
According to Clark therapy: Disease is not natural, but is the result of a toxicity crisis that occurs when the level of toxins in our body is overflowing. At this time, the disease occurs in an attempt by our body to rid itself of toxins and regain internal balance or homeostasis.
Toxins can have both external and internal origin. Toxins can originate from chemical additives in food, environmental pollutants, trapped metabolic waste, or poisons generated by bacteria that break down food debris from our guts.
Once the level of tolerance to toxins has been reached by our body, the alarm goes off and we begin to notice the first signs of pain or discomfort. Congested emunctory organs and elimination systems such as the skin, lungs, liver, intestines, kidneys, lymphatic system, and immune system come into play.
The immune system can even mobilize autoimmune cells and antibodies in order to reduce toxicity levels. During this reactive stage of the toxicity crisis, one may feel weak and without appetite as when having a fever since the body is using all its energy to rid itself of toxins.
But unless you manage to eliminate the factors that have led to this crisis, the toxins are likely to accumulate again and the problem will escalate again. If the causes are not revealed, the most likely result is that new toxicity crises will reproduce that end up leading to a chronic disease.
Hundred years ago only 10% of people suffered from chronic diseases. Today, chronic diseases account for 90% of health problems.
In a more optimistic manner, think also that nature (mother nature) has a cure for every ill. This feature is a built-in necessity to sustain life on the planet. If nature were not able to cure itself from disease life on earth would have vanished millions of years ago. All the forms of vegetation, including the trees, flowers, fruits and vegetables, as well as all the animals and insects down to the smallest amoeba and bacteria, are equipped with highly sophisticated defence mechanisms to maintain their own and the planet’s existence.
Man’s immune system is the most sophisticated among all species and can develop immunity to any invading organism. The power of our healing system, however, depends on our thoughts, feelings, the foods we eat, the quality of the air we inhale, the water we drink, the environment we are in, and the things we choose to do, see and hear.
If all or most of these various influences make us feel good, our immune system remains efficient. Even one lingering depressing thought or fearful emotion is sufficient to suppress the immune system, which may make our body susceptible to invading microorganisms.
Many natural ways are available to acquire immunity. “The best vaccine against common infectious diseases,” according to the World Health Organization, is “an adequate diet.” Unprocessed, unrefined foods, including plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, help a child to build up natural immunity and help the adult to maintain it.
To support your immune system in its fight against disease or infections, you can use natural remedies known in the traditional forms of medicine (Ayurvedic Medicine, Chinese Medicine, and Homeopathy) because they do not interfere with the mechanism of healing in the body, as is the case with drugs. Instead, their cleansing procedures and immune-stimulating medicines make it easier for the body to rid itself of toxins or deal with pathogens.
If you suffer from an infection or any other illness, instead of succumbing to this weakening influence, decide to take positive steps to support the body in its healing efforts. Trust that there cannot be a better doctor in the world than your own body because it is equipped with the best pharmacy that could ever exist. It is best to use natural cleansing remedies before taking antibiotics or other drugs. The latter are useful and necessary only in life-threatening situations.
And, as current authors of relevance on the subject of natural health such as Mercola, A.Williams, or Andreas Moritz himself affirm, we are electrically connected with the planet.
In the environment we live in, electromagnetic fields are everywhere, but they are invisible to the human eye. Electric fields are produced by the accumulation of electric charges in certain areas of the atmosphere as a result of storms. The earth’s magnetic field causes the compass needles to be oriented in a North-South direction and is used by birds and fish to orient themselves.
We have all heard about the dangers of electromagnetic interference. Household appliances, telephones, computers, televisions, antennas, generate magnetic fields of very different intensities. The scientific community has raised doubts about the possible effects produced by exposure to these fields in general and by exposure to mobile phone frequencies in particular and, although it has been suggested that there could be subtle effects on cells that could influence in the development of cancer, possible effects on excitable tissues by electrical stimuli that could influence the function of the brain and nervous tissues have also been hypothesized.
At the moment there are no unanimous scientific conclusions, but, at a particular level, think that there are people who have suffered from insomnia and other disorders simply due to an interference or crossing of the energy lines of the planet and who have solved it by turning the bed or walking it a few steps, sometimes even with the help of the dowsers who locate the sources of water under the Earth following these same energy indications of the planet.
Think about all this, and if you feel that any of these magnetic fields (whether natural or artificial) may be conditioning your health, remedying it is not so complicated. Electromagnetic disturbances can cause us a lot of health problems and even chronic insomnia if we do not solve the cause of the disturbance.
As the author on natural health Andreas Moritz very well argues, electromagnetic disturbances in the body can also be caused by overexposure to chemical pollution.
It’s a fact that the degree of indoor pollution in most modern homes and workplaces is many times higher than the outdoor pollution. Add to these pollutants the harmful chemicals contained in cosmetics, deodorants and perfumes, clothing, food, water and air that enter our bodies every day, and even a normally healthy body will succumb to overdosing on such forms of stress and duress.
Although many of us cannot completely avoid living in a polluted environment, we can still try to reduce our direct exposure to it as little as possible.
And this is what we try to do through this blog, we provide recipes on health and natural cosmetics that help us overcome the “toxic crisis” in which we are all immersed in one way or another.
