Check Your Pits & Your Feet: 2 Easy Ways To Prep For A Healthy Spring

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Is it heating up where you live?

It’s warming up here, and as I got sweaty doing some spring gardening this weekend, it reminded me to put out my annual blog post urging you not to use antiperspirants.

 

Many of my readers don’t use anti-perspirant, but they do use a deodorant. So today I want to urge you to also double check that your deodorant is paraben free too, or it’s not much better than an anti-perspirant.

Here’s why:

 

 

 

Our armpits are not only covered in fully absorptive skin just like the rest of our body, but absorption in this area is basically a direct line into our lymphatic system.

So whatever you put on your pits not only enters your skin and your blood circulatory system, but also your lymphatic system.

With our breast tissue extending up into our arm pit (axillary) area and the lymphatic system highly active there as well, we want to make sure we don’t put anything carcinogenic or duct clogging anywhere near our pits.

I’ll be honest, last month I got some disturbing results from my breast thermography and while I figure out exactly what is going on there, I was incredibly glad to remind myself that I never use antiperspirants, I never ever wear underwire bras, and I nursed for many many years, all good things in terms of breast health.

I’ll focus more on the topic of breast health for you guys soon! But today I wanted to start with making sure you nix your antiperspirant and don’t be tempted to ever use it again.

Parabens are not something you want in your system.

Parabens are extremely inexpensive preservatives, with antimicrobial properties. And because they are so cheap and so good at preventing molds and yeasts from growing, they are widely used in cosmetics, body care products, and most notably, in deodorants.

 

 

 

 

But parabens are shown to have hormonal activity… and are also found sequestered into breast tumors. Parabens not only show estrogenic activity (mimicking estrogen and thus encouraging breast tumor growth) they also have anti-spermatogenic activity, interfering with the excretion of testosterone and disrupting the male reproductive system.

Particularly disturbing is the findings from a major study of parabens and children… showing that young children and pre-pubescent children have measurable quantities of parabens in their bodies as well. Paraben exposure has been linked to brain changes, thyroid issues, metabolic changes & obesity, behavioral issues, increased allergy and asthma risk, decrease in fertility, and so much more.

I find the use of parabens in deodorant particularly horrifying (worse than in sunscreens even) because of exactly where we are smearing the product — our lymph dense armpit areas. It is as if we are directly absorbing estrogenic chemicals into our skin, lymphatic system and breast tissue when we apply antiperspirants and deodorants to the armpit skin.

Antiperspirants have their own added horrors of aluminum… which we should definitely avoid… but many deodorants still use parabens as a preservative, even though they are not antiperspirants.

 

  • Antiperspirants work by clogging up your sweat glands with a physical block of aluminum or aluminum salt. This prevents sweating (and thus odor) by physically making it impossible for your pits to sweat.
  • This also makes it physically impossible for your pits to release toxins from your body through the sweat glands in your armpits… and to add insult to injury, you are not only preventing the release of toxins, but you are adding in two extra toxins (on top of the fake fragrances and countless other chemicals) — aluminum and parabens.
  • Not only are you loading aluminum and parabens into your armpit, not only are you blocking the excretion of said toxins, but you are also applying them to the one area that has direct access to your breast and lymphatic tissue, your armpit.
  • As a result, breast cancers and breast tumors are becoming saturated with concentrations of parabens.
  • Tumors are now being found to directly sequester and store these compounds that will directly promote quicker growth through its estrogenic properties.

 

Something is wrong here.

 

The problem with switching from an antiperspirant to a deodorant is that folks think they are being safer.

But with almost every single mainstream product on the market shelves containing parabens as a preservative, you are no safer from a breast cancer stand point.

For example, in a recent study examining random urine samples from a very large cross-section of the population, parabens were found in detectable quantities in over 97% of the samples.

 

 

 

So give up your antiperspirant for good, and only use paraben free deodorants. And you don’t have to resign to having smelly pits this summer, I promise!

 

Right now my favorite deodorant is Schmidt’s Charcoal + Magnesium deodorant. And to wipe out every last trace of pit smell, even in the hottest summer conditions?

No need to ever think twice about switching back to the toxic antiperspirant for those special occasions when you simply can’t stink!!!!

All you’ve got to do is take a deep breath… and wax your armpits!

 

 

 

That’s because the bacteria responsible for the odor thrives in the stubble in the hair follicle just under the skin. So remove the hair at the hair bulb, and no more smell.

I was absolutely astounded at how removing hair at the roots completely took away any last trace of pit smell.

I have waxed for several years now and I can say for sure the discomfort gets exponentially less the more you do it… the first one did hurt but I was still able to do it completely on my own and in a very inexpensive and eco-friendly way. And if I can do it, so can you.

 

One more tip for you today, this time to get your feet ready for barefoot grounding outside.

And that is this, a medically justified expense: splurge and get a pedicure

(or save your money and DIY!)

 

Did you know that thick dead skin, like the callouses you develop in winter thanks to dry indoor heated air, can block your grounding contact?

It’s true. A thick layer of dead skin on your feet can delay or even prevent you from being grounded. So make time for a pedicure ASAP — doctor’s orders!

 

Get ready for barefoot season, as the best way to get grounded is still to just go outside and stand directly on the earth.

 

  • Want to know if you are getting enough barefoot time?
  • If your feet properly aligned?
  • If the alignment of your foot is giving you knee, hip and back pain?
  • If the shoes you are wearing causing foot issues?
  • And how can you reverse damage shoes have caused your feet?

 

With the two very simple tests that I demonstrate for you in this video, you can test your own feet right now and you’ll know the answer to all of these questions!

 

A Quick Way To Know If You Are Going Barefoot Enough

 

 

(newsletter readers click here to watch this video on YouTube)

 

 

This video can be very motivating to get your loved ones to kick of their shoes and get grounded!

So if you have friends or family who you’ve been encouraging to get barefoot and grounding outside but they’ve been resisting… forward them this video and at least let them determine for themselves if they getting enough time barefoot!

If you are interested in grabbing some foot alignment socks that allow you to ground and correct your toe spacing all at the same time, you can find the exact socks I am wearing in this video right here.

 

To a healthy spring and summer full of barefoot grounding!

It’s blessedly just around the corner, so now is the time to get your feet and pits ready!

xoxoxo, Laura