IN THIS ISSUE:
Book review: Disconnect
Creating healthier environments with newcomer women and families
Setting Intentions
Connect Beauty
2010 - WHEN's Year In Review
WHEN volunteers
This year WHEN led several important initiatives for our health and environment. Though your participation and your donations, we have been able to achieve great things! As you know, WHEN successfully uses film and accompanying resource guides, such as Exposure: Environmental Links to Breast Cancer, and Toxic Trespass: How Safe are Our Children? in community workshops and screenings (excellent resources available for sale on our website). In the spring, WHEN and Planet in Focus co-sponsored the Toronto premiere of Living Downstream, a film based on Sandra Steingraber's book by the same name, to great acclaim. In early 2011, Living Downstream will be added to our repertoire when it is released on DVD. WHEN will be partnering again with Planet in Focus in 2011, for the Toronto launch of Breathtaking, a film by Kathleen Mullen on another timely issue, asbestos.This year, WHEN raised the issue of the toxics in our everyday household and personal care products. The edgy WTF! Campaign (wannabetoxicfree.org) challenges the composition of these products, particularly the hidden toxins labelled as "fragrance". By combining information and action, this campaign encourages everyone to raise these issues with the policy makers who regulate these projects. Examining the full lifecycle of consumer products, WHEN also piloted a new collection program, Lower Your Doses, which raises awareness of the impact that discarding household and beauty products (and the parabens, phthalates, tricolsan, propylene glycol they contain) can have on our health and on our environment. Working with South Riverdale Community Centre, we introduced collection bins into two Toronto Grassroots stores, and disposed of this toxic waste at the City of Toronto's environment days. We hope to broaden the program next year and offer a year-round option for safer disposal, while at the same time encouraging municipal collection as household hazardous waste.
WHEN rounded off a year's work on these issues with Connect Beauty, an event promoting ethical, eco-friendly fashion through a partnership with Fashion Takes Action. The event was both beautiful and educational. Many of the chemicals that go into making clothing affect all of us, but particularly the production workers.
We also engaged individuals and groups in a very personal way. In partnership with Live Green Toronto, WHEN presented the Leaside Eco-Fair, a local example of how we can bring together organizations that offer alternatives to the toxic chemicals in our household cleaning and personal care products, and even teaching us how to "do it ourselves"! We also partnered with the Multicultural Inter-Agency Group of Peel, working with immigrant women in Mississauga and Malton to share practical information about environmental health risks and how to make better choices for themselves and their families. Also new in 2010, WHEN's Book Club offers another avenue for learning about the issues. Once a month, activists gather to discuss a new book on the environmental scene, such as, Slow Death by Rubber Duck, Not Just A Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, Pink Ribbons, Inc., Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, Living Downstream and Disconnect.
As always, WHEN welcomes your participation! Join our volunteer team. WHEN's work is largely carried out by volunteers - the more we have, the more we can do. And with social media, the possibilities for raising awareness grow and grow!
Another way to support WHEN is to become a monthly donor. Supporting us this way, a little at a time, may be easier for you to manage, and at the end of the year, you will receive a charitable donation receipt for the entire year's amount. This method of supporting us is efficient and cost-effective, as we have a more predictable monthly income to match our highly predictable monthly expenses!
In the spirit of peace and solidarity, on behalf of the WHEN Board, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and a good year in 2011.
Eating Through Your Skin: Sunscreen Safety
By Dr Mahalia Freed, ND Our skin is porous. We get this, intuitively, when we observe moisturizer being sucked up by our thirsty winter skin. The implication? Anything you put on your skin you are effectively “eating”, but without the benefit of the digestive tract’s extensive immune system and processing. Absorption through the skin is well-established scientific fact. Unfortunately, only 11% of the 10 500 ingredients in personal care products are tested for safety even by the industry’s own internal review panel.
There are still known hormone disruptors and carcinogens even in “natural” personal care products. And sunscreen is no exception. Indeed, because of the lack of regulation, many sunscreens on the market not only contain toxic ingredients, but may not even protect us from ultraviolet radiation. The US-based Environmental Working Group has analyzed sunscreens annually since 2007. Of 1,802 name-brand sunscreens on the market in summer 2009, “2 out of 5 sunscreen products offer inadequate protection from the sun, or contain ingredients with significant safety concerns”. Despite label claims, some sunscreen ingredients are found to actually break down in the sun, rapidly losing their effectiveness. As well, common sunscreen ingredients are known to absorb into the blood, and in some cases build up in our bodies and the environment. They are linked to hormone disruption, allergic reactions and oxidative damage. While consumer pressure has resulted in some improvements in sunscreen manufacturing in the past couple years, overall, only 8% of products tested in 2009 met the EWG’s criteria for both safety and effectiveness. Their criteria: “blocking both UVA and UVB radiation, remaining stable in sunlight, and containing few if any ingredients with significant known or suspected health hazards”.
Okay, so what do we need to know to protect ourselves from skin damage and prevent skin cancer?
Sunscreen Guidelines:
• Use EWG’s 2013 sunscreen report for a comprehensive guide to which products are both effective and safe, and what to look for.
• Read labels carefully for ingredients, but note that there is as of yet no regulation of label claims.
• Use your own judgment. If you or your children burn easily, limit exposure by wearing sun-protective clothing, avoiding midday sun, and looking for shade. Use sunscreen only when necessary, and choose carefully. If you have darker skin, build up a tan gradually and you may not need sunscreen as often, if at all.
• Weigh the risks and the benefits. Note that the relationship between sun exposure and skin cancer is not as linear as we are led to believe. Risk factors for skin cancer include fair skin, frequent sunburns, moles, and family history of skin cancer. While it is true that more sun exposure may be associated with more sunburns for fair skinned individuals, this is not true of everyone. Furthermore, vitamin D, which is produced in our skin with unprotected sun exposure, is known to be antiproliferative, as in protective against cancers. And indeed, there is abundant research linking higher vitamin D status to lower rates of cancers including lung, breast, colon, and prostate cancers.
• If you are fair skinned, or don’t spend much time in the sun, talk to your doctor(s) about supplementing with vitamin D.
This article was originally published in the Lifecycles Wellness May 2010 clinic newsletter.
About Mahalia Freed, Naturopathic Doctor
“I believe that within every person is an innate capacity to establish, maintain, and restore their own health.” Dr Mahalia Freed says, “My role as an ND is to help people access this potential by choosing treatments that support the body’s inherent healing capability.”
Mahalia Freed is a Naturopathic Doctor happily based at Lifecycles Wellness in Yorkville. In her family practice, Dr Freed has a special focus in endocrinology, mental health, oncology, fertility, and perinatal care. For more information on cancer prevention, spring recipes, and other topics, follow her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MahaliaFreedND or visit her website www.dandelionnaturopathic.ca
Setting Intentions For the New Year
By Dr Mahalia Freed, ND(Written and first published for January 2010)
Last New Year’s, a good friend and I spent a very long, snowy drive sharing and concretizing our intentions for 2009. It was an organic yet intentional conversation. We went back and forth, helping each other get more specific, as well as inspiring one another with our separate dreams. I wrote everything down while she drove. Sharing intentions in this way is something I truly value. Even if you do not have the same goals, this practice creates a context of support as you move through the year, giving you someone to check in with – someone who might notice if you, say, resolved to ski 3 weekends a month and haven’t been out once by March. This kind of social support can, for example, provide us with someone to talk to if we are frustrated by continuing to struggle with a relationship pattern we intend to overcome.
For example, one of the intentions we came up with – and enjoyed following through with during the year – was to cook dinner together on Sundays. The beauty of this plan is that it addressed a number of different intentions/resolutions in one: connection with friends, cooking nourishing food, and eating at home more often.
Without any plan to do so, the two of us ended up curled up together one night over the holidays, reflecting on 2009, and looking back at the intentions we articulated that day in the car, in order to see how we did with our goals. Both of us exceeded our own expectations for the changes we could accomplish, and what joy this could bring.
How did I do this? How did I exceed my own expectations? How did I finally stumble upon how to do things differently when I thought I had been trying to ‘do things differently’ for years? What changed?
As I considered these questions, my training as a naturopathic physician inspired me to broaden my investigation: What compels us to make substantive changes in our lives? According to some, we are inspired to change as a result of deep misery. But what creates our suffering? If we can identify the common denominators of unhappiness, can this also imbue us with the catalysts for change?
According to Dr. Bruce Lipton, cell biologist, “There is no doubt that human beings have a great capacity for sticking to false beliefs with great passion and tenacity, and hyper-rational scientists are not immune” (Biology of Belief, 2005, xiv). If our beliefs are key ingredients in the soup of our daily lives, then can changing our beliefs – our thoughts – create a tastier experience? A more nourishing, delightful, and stimulating existence?
Believing in Change, Being Ready to Do Things Differently
One thing that keeps coming up as I look back at the last 12 months or so is this devotion to doing things differently. For me, it was a year of responding to situations differently, making different choices, thinking outside the (belief) box; and reaping the many and unexpected rewards of the new storyline I have been creating.
Wow! What a relief! There have been measurable improvements in every aspect of my life. However, part of my mind cannot just accept this. I need to know what changed, what I did that finally got me to where I thought I had been trying to go for years. The so-called “scientific” part of my mind always wants a logical, detailed answer. And I found one.
The answer is both simple and paradigm-busting: I was finally able to change some of my beliefs. About myself, about my clinical practice, about the kind of relationships I can have. Bruce Lipton, PhD, is a proponent of New Biology, lecturer and cell membrane researcher. He is also the author of a powerful book, The Biology of Belief. Based on his research in Epigenetics, the book offers a detailed biochemical explanation for the ways in which our cells are affected by our thoughts.
According to his findings, our actual biology – the expression of our genes – is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages that stem from our thoughts. Yes, that is correct: mainstream, scientific research has proven that your thoughts impact your body from a cellular level up. While old school biology and medical training teach that the actions of the cell are controlled by the cell’s nucleus, Lipton proved that cells respond to information from their environment – that the organism’s behaviour, and even its fate, are determined by its perception of the environment (2005, xv). And a significant aspect of that environment is determined by our thoughts.
In talking about his own transformation resulting from his research, Lipton writes, “I was exhilarated by the new realization that I could change the character of my life by changing my beliefs…there was a science-based path that would take me from my job as a perennial “victim” to my new position as “co-creator” of my destiny” (2005, xv). How do we put Lipton’s ground-breaking research into practice in our own lives? We can begin by setting clear intentions about our desires for the New Year. However, Lipton’s research enjoins us to do more than create another sterile list of ‘resolutions’ that will become next December’s ironic status updates on facebook. My new year’s wish for all of us is that we may know this: the power of our thoughts can fundamentally and drastically improve our physical health, and endow our lives with the joy and satisfaction that results from surrendering what Eckhart Tolle has called, “our victim stories” (Tolle, 1999: 84). May being mindful of how we think – not just what we think – inspire us to begin to make the changes we are ready for. May you each set clear intentions, share them with someone you love and trust, and may the power to do things differently help you to have great health – physically, emotionally and spiritually, in 2010.
References
Lipton, Bruce (2008). The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles. Vancouver, BC: Raincoast Inc.
Tolle, Eckhart (1999). The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Vancouver, BC: Namaste Publishing.
About Mahalia Freed, Naturopathic Doctor
“I believe that within every person is an innate capacity to establish, maintain, and restore their own health.” Dr Mahalia Freed says, “My role as an ND is to help people access this potential by choosing treatments that support the body’s inherent healing capability.”
Mahalia Freed is a Naturopathic Doctor happily based at Lifecycles Wellness in Yorkville. In her family practice, Dr Freed has a special focus in endocrinology, mental health, oncology, fertility, and perinatal care. For more information on cancer prevention, spring recipes, and other topics, follow her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MahaliaFreedND or visit her website www.dandelionnaturopathic.ca
New Year, Turning Over a New Leaf
By Dr Mahalia Freed, ND “I hereby resolve…” Do your resolutions fit with your life? With the season?
A fresh start – like the start of the New Year – can feel great. There is the exhilaration of yet-to-be-realized potential, the excitement of what-may-happen, the drive to begin actualizing those resolutions. Yet there is also the letdown post-holidays, the cold, grey days, ongoing stress at work or at home. How can you honor and sustain your health resolutions this year? While the depths of winter is not the best time to do a liver cleanse or a juice fast, it is a fine time to renew your commitment to self-care. Winter is a yin time - a time for introspection and creativity, a time for invigorating skis and then cozy evenings in, a time to nourish with warm whole foods and warming tea. Why not integrate medicinal teas into your routine this season? Following up on the stress and digestion piece in the fall newsletter, this article highlights the wisdom of herbs as complex living medicines that cross body systems to provide us with just the support that we need. Did you know that there are herbs that soothe both the digestive tract and the nervous system? Did you know that there are herbs that decrease gut inflammation and are also antiviral? Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is one such herb. A common weed in the mint family, lemon balm is traditionally used to soothe indigestion, especially when related to emotional stress. The herb is helpful for relieving spasms of the gastrointestinal tract, gas pain, and flatulence. As well, it has a restorative, calming, and uplifting effect on the nervous system. Finally, laboratory studies confirm that the water extract (as in, tea) is antiviral, particularly against the cold sore virus and some types of ‘flu. For calming your digestive tract and nourishing your nerves, try the following tea: Nerve Nourishing Tummy Tea Combine loose herbs
1 Part Licorice root
1 Part Chamomile flowers
2 Parts Lemon balm aerial parts
Place herb mixture in a French press or teapot with strainer and add boiling water. Let steep 5-15 minutes, and drink as desired. Herbalist Rosemary Gladstar recommends this combination for heartburn, to be consumed 30 minutes before and after meals. Cautions: If you have an under-active thyroid, consult your naturopathic doctor or medical herbalist before regularly using lemon balm. If you have high blood pressure, consult your naturopathic doctor or medical herbalist before regularly using licorice root.
Mahalia Freed, ND, is a naturopathic doctor practicing and lecturing in Toronto. www.dandelionnaturopathic.ca. If you have questions or topic suggestions please email: mahalia@dandelionnaturopathic.ca