DIY: Make your own deodorant

Nowadays, we all try to be as healthy and focused on eating organic and lifestyle improving things, but we still use products that are harming us without our knowledge. In the spirit of being as health-conscious as possible, and trying to eliminate all the harmful toxins I've written about in my article "Deodorant Expose", I decided to show you this recipe for making your own deodorant. It's a hard deodorant, kind of like hard perfume, but it lasts a long time, is very refreshing and smells better than most of your store-bought deodorants ever will. The added bonus is that it's very healthy for you and you can't go wrong, you can apply it as often as you'd like.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Baking Soda

1/4 cup Arrowroot Powder (you can find this in health stores)

4 tablespoons Coconut Oil

10 drops of essential oil (any flavor you choose)

A jar with a lid

First in a small bowl, mix up all the dry ingredients. Then start to add the oils a little at a time. Mix with a fork or any other mixing utensil until you get the consistency that you like. If you put it in the microwave for about 15 seconds it will soften the mixture, of course this depends on how strong your microwave is. It makes it liquid consistency which is much easier to stir and put into your jar if you're having trouble doing it the other way. It will solidify as it cools off.

To apply to your armpits, you take a small amount in your fingers and kinda warm it up but rubbing your fingers together, then rub it in each armpit. You only need to apply it once! The other nice thing, no more deodorant marks on your shirts! Also, this is inexpensive to make and the ingredients won't expire on you for a long time.


Here are all of the ingredients you will need to make quite a few of these deodorants (you can give them away as party favors or gifts to your dearest friends):

Surviving painful neck spasms

I don't know if any of you have gone through this but I recently have been experiencing an onset of horrible neck spasms that include my trapezius, sternocleidomastroid and scalene muscles. It's a horrible experience to have to go through and I'm pretty convinced it's from a pulled tendon/ligament because it has taken me through the Christmas break and refuses to let up even a little bit. I've been using muscular rub, two different kinds of cervical collars, taking cyclobenzaprine as a muscle relaxant and diclofenac to reduce swelling. I've been to the doctor and she has advised me not to massage the area or see a massage therapist because rubbing the strained muscle will only cause it to spasm harder. So seeing as nothing is helping, I decided I would cover the ways to prevent muscle strains from happening, specifically in your neck because they take up to 6 months to get rid of and are extremely debilitating.

People who sleep on their stomachs, including myself, are very prone to this kind of a strain because in order to lay that way you must turn your head an extreme amount, this is also an injury common to those who have been in a car wreck. However, it can just happen on its own, during a workout, afterwards, or maybe during a brisk turn of the head because something caught your attention. Using a pillow that's too flat or thick can cause this type of strain but so can being around an air conditioner or an open window (in my case, I was outside on the rooftop patio on a chilly day after a work out when I felt the pull). If this happens to you, you can expect pain, stiffness, loss of range of motion, feeling like there is a hard bulge in your neck and numbness (because the sprain and spasms can pull on your blood vessels and nerves). My doctor suggested not working out again until the spasm is gone completely because you can end up tearing ligaments. Alternating ice or moist heat is said to make the pain go away, but it really only relieves the outside layers (such as your skin) and the pain will quickly return. Even taking oral medication hasn't proven too successful, aside from making me drowsy and forcing me to fall asleep and forget about the pain. The most practical improvement has been while wearing my neck collar because it supports my head and the muscles in my neck and back don't have to work to hold it up (they do this without you willing them to).

It's important to do a series of neck stretches whether you're sitting at a computer all day hunched over or going to the gym.

Smile Self-Esteem

It's time to get real for a second and talk about some issues that are pressing and prevalent in our society. I read this article in the Daily Mail (from the UK) and it said that 75% of all British women avoid having their picture taken because they have a negative self-image. I realize this may not be where you or I live but the point is that this is a global trend, women everywhere are more and more self-conscious by the second. If we're not striving to lose 50 lbs, we're obsessed with our makeup, the way we dress, our hair, our nails, the list goes on and on. The problem begins and ends with society, what do I mean by this? I mean that I can't walk out of the house without makeup on (and I've learned this since I was in high school) without people telling me that I look sickly and pale, or asking me what's wrong. That's just my face, guys, I wasn't born clowned-up, stuffed into tights, and pushed up by a bra (and neither was Kim Kardashian, for example).

Facebook photos are so pathetic now, too. I look at my friends posted pictures and they're all posing like some hypersexed faux-supermodels, nobody is real anymore, everyone tries to be staged and perfect. In all honesty, I can't harp on others without admitting my own faults, I've done this plenty of times, I used to think that smiling made me look too young and imperfect so I would pout in every picture for years, what a goon. 36% of brides are anxious about their wedding day not because of the colossal decision they're making but because they will be the focus of attention and photographed extensively.

Despite the fact that a whopping 52% of women are scared to death of smiling in a photograph for fear of showing their yellowish or wonky teeth and smile lines, men appear to firstly be attracted by a woman's smile rather than her cleavage or legs. The article suggests that instead of saying 'cheese', women should be saying 'oats' to create a perfectly plump pouty smile, but I think this is absolutely ridiculous. If you can't even smile without faking it, whose to say you aren't faking your entire life away? I'm going to say that this issue runs so deep that it permeates every facet of our social interactions and it has got to stop with you. If we continue this deification of what a woman is supposed to be (and it's happening to men, too) we'll fall down a slippery slope where not only our mental image is warped but that of our children and their children's are going to be more disturbed than even ours.

There's no reason in the world you should try to control the way you smile, just brush your teeth regularly and see a dentist once every 6-9 months for a cleaning and you should be fine. Stay away from unhealthy things that stain your teeth such as caffeine and sodas, and bare your chicklets to the world without a care of what others will think about you. I'm going to let you in on a little secret, the most attractive thing about a person is their confidence, so if you can muster that you can pull anything else off. How could you even have time to have fun if you're always worrying about how yellow your teeth are, sucking in your stomach and hiding any sign of a blemish? God forbid we should just be who we are, right?

Q-Tips: a double-edged fuzzy sword of eardrum doom

Q-tips are useful for so many things: cleaning in between your keyboard keys, touching up your eyeliner, cleaning excess nail polish off your fingers, and for most of us, and most importantly, cleaning inside our ears. If this sounds about right to you, you should be alarmed. Here's a little Q-tip history for everyone, in 1926, these 'Quality-tips' were named 'Baby Gays' according to their website. Obviously, as time went on, people realized what a ridiculous name that was and changed it to just 'Q-tips'. Imagine what a marketing nightmare it would have been to leave the original name in our present-day society. Would cotton swabs, by any other name, have been as popular? Apparently not, because we use the name-brand as the genericized trademark for an entire category of cotton swabs now.




Did you know that Q-tips were never intended to be used inside the ear? Many ear, nose and throat doctors (also known as otolaryngologists) are furious at their patients because the majority of people do use Q-tips inside the ear as unintended. There is a big warning label on every package of cotton swabs that says not to insert the tip into your ear. If you must use it on your ears, only use it on your outer ear, or the external cartilage. Why is it that we've never been told this by our parents or grandparents? That's because, apparently, we've been doing this wrong for almost a century and what's worse is that we have been passing on this terrible habit to our offspring. We use it to get all that yellow gunk, also known as earwax, out of our ears and to get water out after we shower, and we tell ourselves it's so that we don't become ill when we go outside in the cold after a hot shower. This solution is doing us more harm than good. If you want to use something to clean out your ear, use the corner of a washcloth or your towel.

You may be asking yourself what all the fuss is about, what's the harm in using these little cotton buds in your ear? Well, the problem arises when you blindly start to push it into your ear, and we all do this because we can't see what's going on inside our ear canal. Oftentimes, people rupture their eardrum by pushing the swab inside too deeply. Our earwax is an important part of our physiology because it is the protection provided for our inner ear to keep water out and keep bacterial infections at bay. Removing all of our earwax can prove very detrimental to our health in the long-run. When using cotton swabs, you are actually technically pushing much of the wax deeper into your ear canal, helping to create a painful plug. If you find that your ears are itchy and you need to relieve yourself by pushing something in there, try and control yourself and abstain from doing so because the more you scratch, the more you will itch and eventually just break the skin.

So keep your Q-tips around for cleaning your computer, video game cartridges, fans, or anything other than your poor ears. If you find that you have an ear blockage that is bothering you, gently pour warm water into your ear slowly but constantly with something like a Nettie pot and this will soften up the wax and allow it to slosh out. If you want to dry out your ears, use a towel or your hair dryer and hold it a safe distance away (your ear should not become overbearingly hot).

The pros and cons of teeth whitening kits

For those of us who have somewhat yellowish or off-color teeth, teeth whitening kits might be a consideration. It is a simple option, available at any nearby Wal-Mart or drug store that doesn't require a whole lot of patience or visiting your dentist. Many times, the effects of the options readily available to us are quite astounding and help to brighten our smiles and overall presence in a room.

Kits that you can use in your home will work for changing your smile anywhere from three to eleven shades of color. Whether it be in gel form, whitening trays, toothpaste or strips, each of these works in a very similar way and is much less invasive than what your dentist can do with laser teeth whitening procedures (and far less costly).  However, like anything else you're using, you have to think about whether or not you should, if there are more pros and cons out of it for you, or you could do some serious harm to your smile.

A simple solution is tooth whitening paste because it requires very little effort, it's really just about brushing your teeth as you do as always, merely replacing your current toothpaste with whitening toothpaste such as Crest 3D White. The price-point is just right, costing just a little bit more than regular toothpaste (by about a dollar or two), and there is no associated pain or adverse effects. If you have severe discoloration, you won't see much improvement, if any, from these toothpastes, but they have been proven not to affect the health of your enamel, so you don't risk anything from trying it out.


No matter what you are doing, if you're using a medicated or chemical agent, you should always follow the instruction precisely. Have a timer with you when you are whitening your teeth and make sure you do not leave the strips or trays on longer than the instructions say to or you can ruin the enamel coating that protects your teeth naturally. Some people can experience tooth sensitivity where anything that touches their teeth causes extreme pain and awful sensation. Obviously, if you have used teeth whitening methods and this happens, stop immediately and visit your dentist or use Sensodyne toothpaste. You should not be using tooth whitening kits if you have receding gums, sensitive teeth and gums in general, or are allergic to peroxide (active ingredient in tooth whitening kits), but you should discuss it with your dentist before you go ahead and attempt doing so on your own. It is also important to note what kind of teeth you have because brownish-tinted and grayish-tinted teeth do not bleach well and if you have obvious fillings, bleaching will do nothing for their color but make them stand out even more in comparison to the rest of your newly-whitened teeth.

An easy way to make sure your teeth are white is to follow a proper diet heavily infused with fruits, vegetables, and drinking plenty of water. If you drink red wine, pop, caffeinated drinks, or colored drinks, you will diminish the whitening result fairly quickly. It almost goes without writing that if you smoke cigarettes, you should quit for a myriad of reasons, one of them being that they stain your teeth permanently and whitening kits won't do anything for you.

You may have other, associated issues causing your teeth to change color, for example, if you suffer from Bruxism (tooth grinding) you will wear away the bottoms of your teeth and inside the chipped areas  you will see yellowness. You should go see your dentist if this is the case for you so that they will provide you with a custom mouth-guard to be worn at nighttime when you cannot control your jaw's motions.

Bacne: Back+Acne Treatments

Whether you're an athlete, a teenager, or just like everyone else, you may be afflicted with acne or pimples on your back. It is classified as zits that come up on your back, chest and shoulders inclusively. There are some mechanical ways to make sure that you don't breakout or contain your current breakouts. If you notice that you are starting to get some, you may want to wear loose clothing which is newly cleaned because you want only soft cotton fibers on your skin as they will remove excess sweat and skin flakes. If you're a girl and you wear a bra, try to wear a new one every day for this same hygienic reason. Your straps should fit well and not chafe against your skin throughout the day, but if you find that you get breakouts regardless, then try to switch to a strapless bra. Sometimes your acne can be an allergic reaction to your laundry detergent or the fabrics you are wearing, so try to eliminate any possible allergens. Bacne is formed when your pores get clogged by when excess sebum formed by your sebaceous glands and dead skin cells attracts bacteria. The reason why your back is so prone to acne is that there are more sebaceous glands here than most other places on your body.

Washing regularly
First and foremost, this should go without saying but it is definitely worth reiterating: if you want to get rid of your bacne, you must wash every day. Using anti-bacterial soap during your daily (and even twice daily if you have the time) wash will help eliminate the bacteria in your pores. Don't over-scrub or over-wash the area because you can irritate your skin and cause it to become too dry. If your skin is too dry it will go into panic-mode and release too much sebum to cover itself up, leading to more acne. You want to maintain a balance of moisture on your skin. Gently use an exfoliating sponge, loofah or washcloth during your shower (yes, you want to shower unless you are having a salt-water bath because soaking your skin in a pool of still water can increase your chances of getting more bacteria in your pores). Because the skin on your back is generally a lot tougher than the skin on your face, you can exfoliate gently every day and not just once a week, it is safe to do so as long as you're not worsening your irritation. Make sure that you wash your body with a medicated body wash that has two percent salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide, specifically letting it sit over the area which has pimples before you rinse it off.

If you can get near a beach - alternative treatment
The simplest method to get rid of your breakouts is to visit the beach. Having your skin submerged in sea salt water for approximately ten minutes can drastically help your skin. No cream or cleanser will help your skin the way the ocean can because it has natural anti-bacterial properties. The warm temperature of the water helps to cleanse the skin. Sand also can act as an exfoliating agent and improve your complexion if you gently rub it on your afflicted area. If you can't get near a beach, then you can achieve the same effect by boiling a mixture of salt and water and letting it sit to the side until it has cooled. Use this solution to wash your face and body to get rid of dirt and oil.

Infuse moisture
Use a moisturizer after you wash your skin to increase the hydration level of your pores. However, make sure that the product you use is oil-free and medicated if your acne is severe. If you are already using a medicated soap or treatment, then use just a regular moisturizer without medication in it that is highly hydrating and is noncomedogenic, which means that it does not block pores, because this will reduce the incidence of pimples and will not allow the salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide (pimple treatments) in your other products dry out your skin.

Medicated treatments
If you use medicated creams or gels, try to go for ones that say they contain benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid but do not use both. If you use both of these substances together on your skin they can have negative effects on your skin and may burn your skin pretty severely. The burns from these products can be worse on sensitive skin than any acne, so you may want to consult with your dermatologist if you have a history of negative skin reactions. It is important that you use a hydrating cream over top of these treatments or after you clean them off because your skin will be dried out. These treatments are also bleaching, so make sure you don't put your clothing right over top immediately because you won't be able to repair the color.

The rule-of-thumb is that if you're using one product that is medicated, whether it be soap, treatment or moisturizer, you want them to either be from the same line of products or stick to just one of them so that there are no negative interactions between the chemicals used. You don't want to overload your skin with chemicals, it may have an adverse reaction to this. Rather than experimenting on your skin with harsher treatments if you don't know how your skin might react, I suggest going to visit your dermatologist. Some problems are too severe to take care of with over-the-counter treatments and regular body washes. Some treatments may take weeks to work and others may have no effect at all on you so you may want to seek help especially if you have deep, painful cysts on your back. If you have a serious affliction or problem, you may need an aggressive topical treatment or antibiotics, to avoid scarring and for the best possible results visit your dermatologist.

"The Doctors" - Variety Show Review

For years now, I have been bombarded with strange tidbits of information regarding the daytime show "The Doctors" which airs all over North America on CBS. This show is a monster-baby of the long-running, recently ended "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Dr. Phil". I caved after many years of avoidance, and due to utter lack of willpower to find the remote and change the channel, and watched my very first episode today in its entirety.

The main host seems to be Dr. Travis Stork, who is a bootleg version of a Brad Pitt-esque leading man. There are numerous other co-hosts, I think I counted up to five of them, each of which has a different 'specialty'. One is a plastic surgeon, who obviously thinks that the solution to every problem is going under the knife for one of supposedly "simple" procedures (of which they never explain the full spectrum of side-effects). Another doctor who seems to be the most genuine of the bunch is an OB-GYN who speaks in a more matter-of-fact way. On top of that they even have Jillian Michaels who is a fitness-guru, constantly sporting her spanx, as if she doesn't go anywhere in regular clothing. Now that I think about it, none of them ever seem to be wearing regular clothes, the doctors are usually wearing lab-coats or scrubs, except for the plastic surgeon who dresses like a mob boss. These so-called doctors are extremely hard to trust because of their appearance, they are so overly made-up that you cannot see a pore on their skin and they don't come across as having a shred of humanity. They are cold, concrete and downright seem like they don't care at all about the information they're dispelling or the people on the show. Also, can you trust a host who first came into notoriety through participating as a love interest on "The Bachelor" TV series? That's a rhetorical question because you can't.

This show has the makings of a reality soap-opera with a Gray's Anatomy fragmented plot. Basically each segment is a story about how one viewer or another has a medical issue and these doctors/hosts either defer to colleague or attempt to diagnose these very simple and obvious cases themselves. The majority of the information that is given on this show is extremely diluted for the audience and does not inform the public in a proper and intelligent way. Rather, after you've finished watching an episode you wonder if you've learned anything at all. You're definitely better off reading the Wikipedia article on a disease, or better yet, visit your doctor!

From the episode I watched, what I retained as information was that if you're unhappy with the way your face is sagging you should have plastic surgery, albeit you may even want to consider not even going under for the procedure (that's a disgusting thought, isn't it?). I also learned that if you have cankles, where there is no clear definition between your calf and your ankle, you should have liposuction to remove it or make your calf muscles bigger by bouncing up and down with really heavy dumbbells. What kind of advice is this? Am I dreaming? How can they actually be advising people to have plastic surgery when they haven't explored any other options? Why not focus on diet, water retention and sodium intake, why not focus on skin-care through natural means? This show exhibits little to no common sense.

Even if there's any shred of truth in this show, it is counter-balanced by the absolute recklessness of advising an entire demographic of what I assume to be mostly stay-at-home moms that they can be better looking and healthier through very little actual inconvenience by performing surgeries. Now I know a thing or two about surgeries, and if there's one piece of advice I can impart on my appreciated fellow readers, it is not to take any surgery lightly. The risks of secondary infection, scarring, drug addiction and a myriad of other factors are so large that I can assure you, you are much better off trying to diet and control your insignificant aesthetic problems naturally. Nobody needs a panel of uppity doctors to yell at them through the TV screen with sob-stories of people who have let their problems go on too long without ever visiting a real doctor. This show is one paternity test away from being Jerry Springer or The Maury Show.

Getting Thicker and Fuller Eyelashes

As we age, we inevitably lose a lot of our youthful allure, and along with this comes the thinning out of eyelashes. In a society that covets beauty and eyelashes that touch the sky, most women are highly concerned with keeping the drapes of your eyes beautiful. Eyelash loss can occur from aging because your lashes will shorten and wear at the ends and grow more sparsely, appearing thinner. Some people have allergic reactions or trichotrillomania where they inadvertently pull out their eyelashes because it feels good to them. Allergic reactions can be to various chemicals in the makeup you're wearing (specifically in mascara, eye pencils and eye shadows). One way to avoid makeup reactions is that Sometimes we have to be conscious of the fact that even the creams and cleansers we are using to keep ourselves looking 'young' may be causing hair loss due to allergy. Certain medical conditions, such as the reaction to chemotherapy for cancer treatment, alopecia (systemic hair loss due to autoimmune condition whereby the immune system attacks the host) and hypothyroidism can result in losing your eyelashes and all over the body.

Obviously if you are playing with your eyelashes, try to keep that down to a minimum or do not touch your eyes at all, if it can be helped. If there are products that you suspect are inhibiting the growth of your lashes, stop from using them. Make sure to stop using your mascara after every 3 months, replace it immediately. If you use the same exact one every day, you will probably want to replace it every month even if the bottle is not finished because there are contaminants on the brush and you don't want to be passing bacteria. You never, ever want to share your makeup with anybody under any conditions because eye infections and other diseases are highly transferable this way. If you suspect that you have a serious medical condition and that is why your eyelashes are falling out, make sure you visit your doctor and do a thorough investigation.

How to fake longer lashes

There are some beauty tips and tricks to use if you quickly want your lashes to look longer and fuller. Make sure you use a lengthening mascara with false fibers and volume that will add to what you naturally have. Apply your eye liner very close to the base of your lashes to give the appearance of fullness and to frame your eyes. You could place false lashes on your eyes if you feel comfortable with it, and if not, you can visit a cosmetologist to do it for you.

What can you do aside from wearing false eyelashes on a daily basis or tons of coats of mascara? These options are much more difficult and unnatural-looking than just having naturally beautiful eyelashes. So let's review the options for how to grow our own eyelashes more plentifully.

Natural remedies
First you may want to try applying Vaseline on your lash line while you're sleeping as the petroleum jelly may promote moisture in the environment and increase lash growth. Olive oil and vitamin E oil can have the same effect, just make sure you don't get it into your eye during application. Remember to remove anything you apply to your eyelashes at night during the morning before you apply your makeup. Brushing your lashes with a designated lash comb can improve circulation and promote hair growth, so do this as often as possible if you know that you do not have a rash or skin problem. Improving what you eat  and your overall nutrition can affect your body's vitamin balance which will promote hair growth. A deficiency can lead to thinning of hair all over your body and not just your lashes.

Is tattooing your makeup safe?

Lately, I have seen more and more people, mostly women, with recently-inked faces to mimic makeup such as eyeliner, lipliner and to fill in permanent eyebrows. It's no wonder that people choose to go that route, getting a tattoo is certainly less expensive than purchasing all of that makeup for years on end. However, it is a permanent application of something you may not always like or want on your face, and that should make you think long and hard before choosing to do it in the first place. Fads and makeup styles change and the last thing anybody would want is to look outdated and out of place. Also, when we age, our skin sags and our pores shrivel up in an irregular manner, so your makeup is bound to look abnormally placed and droopy, making for what I am sure to be a horrific scene. Our facial structure and composition is changing all the time and you cannot expect to put something static on your face and expect it to always look the same when you are constantly morphing.

There is a problem with the tattoo industry in general, unless you go to a place that you know without a shadow of a doubt practices perfect hygiene, you're likely to run into problems. The hygiene practices of many tattoo parlors is sub-par because there is no federal regulation (in the United States) that holds them to a specific standard of cleanliness. These rules are regulated on a state-by-state basis, with some being far too relaxed on these establishments. Infectious diseases (such as hepatitis, staphylococcus infections, and AIDS) can be spread through the use of instruments that are not completely sterilized and shops are likely to skimp on these cleanliness requirements to save money (or out of sheer incompetence at times).

It is also important to remember that you may be allergic to tattoo inks and your face will react in a different way than the rest of your body. You can have a tattoo done on your arm that does not get infected, but that same tattoo on your face could trigger a nasty rash or infection because the skin is far softer and more sensitive. Factors such as this can create intense and irreparable damage to your face. This is especially true if you ever want to remove a tattoo, because even though there are laser removal technologies, they are not perfect and it is impossible to remove a tattoo without some scarring (and it's expensive, too). Some inks used in tattoos are a health risk in and of themselves, regardless of contamination, because they can not go through a Magnetic Resonance Instrument because the metals in the pigments will be pulled out with the electromagnet of the medical imaging machine. So if you have a medical condition, your doctors will not be able to put you through medical imaging techniques that could potentially save your life and help in diagnosis and surgery.

Another point to consider is that if you do get this cosmetic procedure done, you will end up looking as though you always have makeup on and when you do, in fact, want to look special, you will no longer be able to make yourself up to be more attractive than you normally are. I know that my husband appreciates the effort I put into my appearance on special occasions, but if those occasions weren't rare, would he even notice anymore? I suspect, that like most things, people would just become accustomed to your face being completely made up all the time and you wouldn't get the attention that you seek from your makeup (clearly you must want attention if you're getting yourself tattooed to be beautiful, right?). I don't believe that we are robots, and we probably shouldn't always look the same way. I also can't imagine how incredibly painful it would be to have someone put fine-tipped needles in your face repeatedly, it would take someone with high pain tolerance to undergo such a procedure willingly!

Deodorant exposé: harmful chemicals on your skin

There is a big difference between deodorant and its subgroup antiperspirant, because of the function of the latter, there are chemicals inside of it that stop your body from producing and releasing sweat. Antiperspirants affect your sweat glands and are classified as a drug, they have even higher concentrations and more types of chemicals inside of them than deodorants. Bottles of deodorant have misleading advertising that leads consumers to believe the health and beauty products they are purchasing are safe and will improve their odor. It will shock you to find out that many of these antiperspirants and deodorants can cause cancer and allergic reactions with extended usage. Yet if you think about it, most of us will use these products on an extended basis, if you use deodorant every day of your life for the approximately sixty or so years that you'll be concerned about your body odor.

Many deodorants use a combination of many, not just one, toxic chemicals, including (but not limited to) aluminum, propylene glycol, TEA/DEA/MEA, FD&C colors, talc, and parabens. These can be causes or catalysts for breast cancer, numerous allergies, and even Alzheimer's disease and associated neurpathies. Research is indecisive about whether or not there is merely a correlation as to the heightened incidence of these diseases in users or if they are the direct cause. Regardless of which of these scenarios proves to be real, both point towards the detrimental effects caused by the toxins in deodorants. 

Talc

Talc is a mineral that is used in many products throughout the beauty industry to absorb moisture and add color to products. It is a well known carcinogen because it has asbestos-like fibers found inside as impurities. It is important to note that although society is incredibly outraged with building code regulations of the past not controlling asbestos levels, we are actively consuming beauty products in which the asbestos content is not regulated. Since this asbestos concern looms in the concentration of talc, there is no safe way for a consumer to check the concentration of asbestos in talc products. You are better off staying away from it rather than risking the usage of this irritant and carcinogen. Inhaling these fibers can cause lung cancer, an asbestos-specific restrictive lung disease, and myriad of other lung-related disorders.

Colors

The chemical colors used in the food, drug and cosmetics industry which are so-called "approved" for mass marketing by the Food and Drug Administration are classified as FD&C. It is important to note that these are entirely man-made and synthetic, they are not naturally occurring colorants even though your beauty products and deodorants might suggest that they are. The 'green apple' or 'fruit fusion' flavors you are smelling and the colors you are seeing were mimicked in a lab to look and smell exactly like those you would find in nature. These often cause allergic reactions in people (some people are allergic to a particular dye) and have long been suspected as being carcinogenic because they are derived from strange substances such as coal tar.

TEA/DEA/MEA

These chemicals are solvents used in beauty and makeup products such as shampoos, conditioners, and skin creams because of their ability to cleanse. The function of a cleanser comes from their ability to adjust acidity and they are used to create salts which are then parlayed into cleansers. DEA comes from coconuts and can be found in pesticides. Long-term health effects are allergic reactions, immune-system damage, and liver/kidney tumors. This is just an example of one of their effects but they are all damaging and detrimental to human and animal health.

Propylene Glycol

If the name of this toxin is familiar to you it's probably because you've come across it in your everyday life in the form we're used to: anti-freeze. This chemical keeps substances from becoming dry and is therefore categorized as a humectant. The beauty industry has included it in deodorants for profits because it would stop their products from being adversely affected by temperature changes. There's a laundry list of diseases it can cause such as kidney/liver damage, neurological disturbances, skin rashes, and depression. It's no surprise that inhaling what you would put in your car can so adversely affect your body.

Parabens

These synthetic chemicals, found in almost every single deodorant out on the market (unless they are marked otherwise), can seep through the sensitive armpit's pores and increase the risk of breast cancer. This is known because the concentration of parabens is found to be higher than normal in many tumors found in breasts. The chemical nature of parabens is that they are copycats of estrogen and have similar functions in the body. If you are a woman, it is bad to be intaking more estrogen than your body requires as this is associated with higher breast cancer risk, and if you are a man you can be adversely affected by this estrogen as well because it will offset the hormonal estrogen to testosterone balance. You can spot these in your deodorant if you see names that end in -paraben (such as butylparaben, propylbaraben, and many more) and are used as preservatives widely in the beauty industry so that the products don't expire quickly. 

It is important that we are educated about these substances and do not actively purchase products that we know are poisoning us in time. If we allow the cosmetics and so-called health industry to release products with these chemicals which become fast-selling profit-boosters, they will never cease to release toxic waste under the guise of self-improvement. So go green and seek deodorants that aren't full of all of these chemicals to put on your sensitive armpits, after all, if you don't have your health you can never be beautiful.  Stick to brands like Crystal naturally fresh deodorant and pay more for your deodorant so you're not forced to be smearing your 'pits with a chemistry lab.

Vitamins to keep you looking and feeling beautiful

Vitamins for a beautiful lifestyle
There are vitamins that protect the skin against damage from the UV rays of the sun and skin cancer and can reduce wrinkles from aging and sun damage. These are antioxidants that eliminate free radicals which are the leading cause of wrinkles. They speed up your metabolic repair systems and inhibit the production of more free radicals and reduce the rate of further aging. You may be wondering how to get these vitamins, well we easily ingest them in our every day diets, and if you do not, you should consider increasing the amount of antioxidant-rich foods you consume.

Vitamins C, E and Selenium are crucial to your skin's repair systems and can be found in creams but they are in very small quantities, so you should supplement them in your diet, either as pills or directly from the food source. Vitamin D is needed to protect your bones and joints but it is also a potent anti-oxidant, and enhances the absorption of vitamins A and C. It can reduce the chances of developing dry and flakey skin, and ultimately protects against psoriasis (painful, itchy dry reddish skin which can happen anywhere on your body especially during cold weather). Some people swear by the effectiveness of Coenzyme Q-10 and it is a matter of scientific fact that it reduces the appearance of wrinkles, but you should speak to a doctor before consuming it because it increases the rate at which your cells reproduce, which can be negative if your cells are reproducing incorrectly (such as in cancerous cells).

B-vitamins are necessary for your entire body and you should eat foods rich in these vitamins such as eggs, enriched grain products and greens leafy vegetables. You will want to stock up on these because prolonged lack of them can cause dry skin which can promote redness and itchiness which will make it difficult for you to wear makeup. This issue is very personal to me, as I have lack B-12, and the major effects of this deficiency are that the body does not produce enough red blood cells, which slows down the skin's healing, circulation and not enough oxygen is provided to tissues which need it the most (such as the brain which requires it for healthy function). I find myself feeling lethargic, confused, dizzy and it eventually can destroy your nerve endings, resulting in numbness in your fingers and similar symptoms. Although we are often over-concerned with our appearances, it should be noted that vitamin-consumption should be taken even more seriously when it comes to personal well-being and health. If you suffer from various ailments and disorders it is even more important to maintain your body's ideal vitamin concentrations because they will help you maintain a level of health that would otherwise probably rapidly degrade.

You can achieve softer and smoother skin from consuming green tea and chocolate, that's right ladies, so stock up on hot cocoa that is high in flavinoids and or have a daily bite of  dark chocolate. There are also many vegetable-based extracts which have positive effects when consumed or rubbed topically onto your skin. So claims that your mother/grandmother makes about eating foods with tomato paste, rosemary, pomegranates and grape seeds are true. It may very well be that a combination of all of these in your diet can do nothing but help your skin and internal organs. The key to living healthy is everything in moderation, it is never a good idea to completely cut out one food group or another, as you will find that each provides benefits and is wholly important to your skin's hydration balance, elasticity (resistance to stretch marks), hormonal balance (which controls your sabaceous glands, which in turn control your skin's oil production - too much or too little causes acne).

If you stay away from foods that are very high in saturated fats and trans-fats you will be helping your heart stay healthy, but make sure not to cut out essential fatty acids because they help move vitamins A, D, E and K throughout your body's tissues to where they are needed most. Essentially, if you're not consuming omega-3's and essential fatty acids, you will not be receiving the benefits of the fat-soluble vitamins you have in your diet. Fat is essential to maintaining healthy skin as it helps you have younger-looking supple skin by making it glossy and firm. This is because omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids help make the cell membrane stronger and actively eliminate toxins in cells. It makes your skin (the dermal layer) release elastic fibers, which are nature's collagen, and as we all know these will remove wrinkles on your skin.

Here is a useful list of vitamins and their natural sources:

• Omega-3 -> Salmon and other cold-water fish, olive oil, walnuts
• Vitamin B-2 -> Eggs, milk, enriched grain products
• Vitamin B-6 -> Chicken, halibut, nuts, turkey, pork, spinach, baked potatoes
• Vitamin B-12 -> Clams, enriched cereals, liver, caviar, lobster, beef, cheese
• Vitamin C -> Oranges, lemons, bell peppers, guava, fresh thyme and parsley, broccoli
• Vitamin D -> Milk, fish oil, catfish, herring, orange juice, soymilk
• Vitamin E -> Sunflower seeds, paprika, whole grains, almonds, peanuts, pine nuts
• Flavinoids -> chocolate, hot cocoa, green tea extract
• Selenium -> turkey, shrimp, snapper, cod, tuna, brazil nuts