Poison in the air, water, food, and uh, that baby lotion?

What do the lab of a mad scientist and your household cleaners have in common? What about those two things and cosmetics? Or all of those things and Johnson and Johnson’s last formulation of baby soaps and shampoos? You’d hope nothing, but unfortunately the truth is that they are all common sources of a known carcinogen and highly toxic chemical you are probably fairly familiar with: Formaldehyde. 

Have you ever been doing your nails or painting a room and thought to yourself that that burning sensation in your nose can’t be good for you? Whelp, you are right! Even a very low amount of formaldehyde is enough for an acute exposure. 0.03 ppm is enough to have a negative health impact on the body. Formaldehyde is toxic in nearly every form of exposure. In its gaseous form, it is toxic to inhale and can cause constriction and adhesion in the lungs. It’s heavier than air so inhaling it can even cause asphyxiation. Long term exposure can cause nasopharyngeal cancer and lung cancer. In its liquid form, it causes skin irritation and if you get it in your eyes, it can cause permanent blindness. This is something to consider when a number of hair products contain some amount of formaldehyde. It is found in larger amounts in products used to straighten or process hair. Some cosmetics also contain formaldehyde and you might remember the rather large stink that was made about Johnson & Johnson for having preservatives in their baby shampoo that released small amounts of formaldehyde when used. This was especially awful because it was in a product specific for babies who are more susceptible to most toxins, including formaldehyde. 

The EPA has taken some steps towards limiting the amount of exposure that is considered low risk but we are also seeing a significant amount of water contamination due to the use of formaldehyde in agricultural settings as well. One of the more efficient methods for removing formaldehyde is a combination of UV radiation and ferrate(VI). 

Formaldehyde is ubiquitous and some exposure is a given but there is no reason to be exposed beyond base environmental levels. Be a critical consumer and make sure that the products you are buying and using are doing their best to limit the amount of formaldehyde contained in their product. There are alternatives to almost every use of formaldehyde. Vote with your patronage and support products that prioritize safer components and ingredients. 

Resources: 

Personal Care Products with Formaldehyde

https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/formaldehyde.pdf 

Formaldehyde - WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality: Selected Pollutants - NCBI Bookshelf

Formaldehyde (EPA Profile)

6. ANALYTICAL METHODS (CDC Profile)

Formaldehyde And Formaldehyde-Releasing Preservatives - Safe Cosmetics 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479716307551

Happy New Year! Cheers?

New Years’ Eve is here and with it we round out the holiday season and prepare for an evening of cheer and toasting. However, with flu season and corona looming in the background, it might make sense to consider what the last party of the year might do to our precious, and possibly taxed, immune system. 

We’ve talked about eating well but let’s briefly dive into one of our favorite party guests, alcohol. Alcohol is undoubtedly popular and we all know it isn’t the most healthy thing to put into one’s body, but is it really all that bad? 

Beyond the impairment and dangers of functioning under the influence, alcohol itself carries a pretty heavy toll on our body’s immune system. Put simply, in any quantity, big or small, frequent or rare, it weakens us. Just one drink can suppress the immune system for as long as 24 hours. If you’ve ever had heavy drinkers in your family, you probably already know that chronic drinking carries a significant risk of several different forms of cancer. The risk of esophageal cancer, especially for those who do not process alcohol well due to an enzyme deficiency, is significantly increased by consuming alcohol, along with colorectal cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, and various cancers located in the head and neck. This increase in risk is measurable even when someone only has one drink a day or occasionally binge drinks. It’s also important to not that binge drinking here doesn’t mean getting blackout drunk. Binge drinking means having 4 or 5 drinks at one time and yes, a shot counts as a drink. 

Cancer may seem like it is just a scare word sometimes and almost everything you engage with can give you some form of cancer but that’s not all alcohol is tied to. It’s also tied to the degradation of your liver, kidneys, lungs, and heart. It impacts the brain as you might assume and most notably for this COVID plagued time, it significantly impacts the lungs. 

The immune system is suppressed by alcohol consumption and is more susceptible to infection by bacteria, virus and even physical injury. Injuries heal slower and alcohol especially stifles the healing of burns, hemorrhagic shock and traumatic brain injuries. It disrupts the microbiome in our gut which is involved in everything from breaking down our food to regulating our hormones. The system of organisms cohabitating in our gut also supports our immune system and just one serving of alcohol can throw that system into complete disarray. Frankly, the list of things not impacted in some way by that one ingredient would probably be shorter.

So, this New Year’s make sure you are considering all the risks and weighing them appropriately and keeping the very best of company before you partake of this literal bomb to the body’s homeostasis. Cheers!

Resources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590612/pdf/arcr-37-2-153.pdf

https://adf.org.au/insights/alcohol-immune-system-covid-19/ 

https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/alcohols-effects-body

Stay Well While You Stay Full!

This holiday season it is more important than even that we take care of our physical health. We are all excited to experience a more traditional holiday season but we should still approach this second Covid season’s greetings with caution! If you are traveling home to see your parents or away from home to see the kids, make sure you are still practicing excellent hygiene and getting enough sleep and exercise to support a solid, natural defense system against viral intruders. As this holiday often centers around shared meals, you might want to keep these nutrients in mind as they too will help your immune system stay battle ready!

First, as we’ve mentioned before, a big part of our immune system relies on the microbiome, a collection of trillions of microorganisms that live inside our gastrointestinal track and help with bodily functions from breaking down food to destroying harmful bacteria. Fermented foods like kefir or sauerkraut support this system with their probiotic content. Just as important are foods containing prebiotic material such as garlic, bananas and beans! Stock up on these microbiome happy nutrients to give your system that extra push.

It’s a given that vitamins and minerals support our immune system and the lack of certain vitamins and minerals can stunt our bodies ability to fight off infection. Sometimes, it is difficult to get enough of certain minerals and vitamins from one’s diet consistently but a well rounded and balanced diet increases that chance. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables can also help and there are some vitamins and minerals that you can focus on specifically to make sure your body has the ammo it needs to be ready for that one particularly snotty-nosed nephew you just “have to hold.” According to an article from Harvard’s School of Public Health those nutrients are zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, D, and E. 

Vitamins and minerals are everything though so do your best to limit your overall stress as much as is possible and as much as these two hints might seem counter intuitive, limit your alcohol consumption. Time with your family is amazing but make sure you prioritize time to reset and recharge so everything stays happy, healthy and whole! Happy holidays!!

(Chandra RK. Nutrition and the immune system: an introduction. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 1997 Aug 1;66(2):460S-3S.)

Shomali N, Mahmoudi J, Mahmoodpoor A, Zamiri RE, Akbari M, Xu H, Shotorbani SS. Harmful effects of high amounts of glucose on the immune system: An updated review. Biotechnol Appl Biochem. 2021 Apr;68(2):404-410. doi: 10.1002/bab.1938. Epub 2020 Jun 8. PMID: 32395846.