Aura Cacia Essential Oil Diffusers Voted Best!

By Dr. Nicole Sundene

Okay it is not that often I get REALLY REALLY REALLY excited about something so simple and silly, but I just have to say that these new Aura Cacia essential oils diffusers are simply the best thing since sliced bread.

Traditional plug in air fresheners purchased in the drug store are basically just infusing synthetic toxic poisons in to your air. Certainly not a good thing for those with asthma or respiratory problems. Sure you can buy a bunch of spider plants and open the windows…but wouldn’t you rather just use some pure essential oils to scent your home instead?

I have always been a fan of Aura Cacia, having been in the natural medicine industry for 15 years, and the great thing about the “plug in” diffuser is that you just add a few drops of your favorite essential oil scent to the foam pad (that occasionally has to be replaced when it gets hard) and it makes your home smell WONDERFUL!

This is great for me because with all the pets I have I need to cover up some serious old dog stench (yes I do bathe them.) But, a few drops of the Aura Cacia essential oil on the diffuser is enough (I hope.)

To make an instant spa scene just grab your favorite essential oil and add a few drops to your bath, and a few drops to the plug in diffuser.

At nighttime I sleep like a baby by putting a few drops of their organic lavender on my bedroom diffuser. You can read “The Fifteen Most Fabulous Herbal Sedatives” for more information on how to use lavender to calm down.

I did a test with the car plug in and found that I was much less road ragey by using my favorite calming blend, “Panic Button,” a deliciously soothing blend of lavender, rose, and citrus. Until I have my own chauffeur, I will be heavily relying on panic button! Yay Panic Button!

They also make a battery operated essential oil diffuser option as my beauty editor Kat Lee mentioned in her article “Aura Cacia’s Lavender Harvest, Mommy’s Secret Weapon.” I like to place mine at the entry way so I can open the door to something that smells good.

These aromatherapy diffusers by Aura Cacia are great for traveling, office, placing by your entry way so your guests feel properly welcomed, or you can place a little of the Heart Song blend on your nightstand to set a romantic mood. Be sure to check with your co-workers and those around you that may be scent sensitive, but otherwise they will probably love them too! These are non-toxic scents at their finest!

Thank you Aura Cacia for giving us some great home scent options that aren’t poisoning the air we breathe!!!

For more information visit www.AuraCacia.com

Sincerely,

Martha Stewart…er I mean Dr. Nicole Sundene

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Chlorine Shower Filter: Anti-Aging

A simple anti-aging trick is to use a shower water filter.

I cannot more highly recommend the use of shower water filters for reducing chlorine associated aging and accelerated damage to healthy cells.

Chlorine is a toxic gas that destroys the healthy cells in our bodies on contact.Historically, chlorine gas was used as part of chemical warfare!

It is now used in our water to kill pathogens that may make us sick, however a side product of drinking “healthy water” is premature aging of our cells, especially that of our skin and lungs.

Why to use a shower water filter:

• Anti-aging
• Softer, more radiant skin that requires less moisturizers as chlorine is VERY drying
• Great for anyone with chronic skin conditions such as chronic itching, dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, and psoriasis
• Stronger healthier, shinier hair, with less need to touch up your hair coloring
• May reduce aging related hair loss
• Less dandruff
• Healthier lungs, a MUST for anyone with COPD, asthma, or other chronic respiratory ailments
• Reduce the amount of toxins your babies and children are exposed to

Before you spend any more money on health products for the INSIDE of your body, think about what should be done for the OUTSIDE of your body.

Visit Aquasauna to find a great shower water filter.

~ Dr. Nicole Sundene

Naturopathic Physician

www.KitchenTableMedicine.com

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Detoxify Your Home

General Measures

• Replacing toxic cleaners and pesticides with natural alternatives is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your toxin exposures.
• Leaving shoes at the door can reduce tracked-in lead, dust, and pesticides by a factor of 10-20.
• Maintaining good ventilation helps dilute toxins with clean air. Using a central vacuuming apparatus or HEPA vacuum will also help to minimize pollutants in the air.
• Temperature should be maintained at 65 F or below to reduce evaporation and concentration of toxic gases.
• Similarly, keeping humidity below 50% will reduce evaporation and mite proliferation.
• Filtering all public water is a good idea to remove toxic particles, chemicals, and microorganisms.
• Full spectrum lights reduce eye-strain and increase UV absorption.
• Reducing electromagnetic exposure from leaking microwaves, electric blankets, and other electrical appliances will also keep your toxic exposures down.

Furniture and Toys

Much of the furniture made today is made of composite materials, such as wood chips stuck together with toxin-containing glue and other chemicals. As attractive and useful as they may be, if furniture containing pressboard or plywood is less than a couple of years old, they’re contributing formaldehyde, a carcinogen and the substance used for embalming, into the air you breathe. There is a simple short-term solution: keep your house well ventilated. Also, bring lots of houseplants, especially spider plants, into areas where you have new furniture and carpet.

On the bed, used a spring, foam, or waterbed mattress. Wash sheets with very hot water and dry on the hot cycle to destroy mites. Use a plastic-type enclosed dust mite casing on mattresses, box springs, and pillows. Use hypoallergenic synthetic pillows instead of feather pillows if you are not using the dust mite encasements. Use only washable non-wool blankets. Do not use down comforters.

Floor Coverings

New carpets can be heavy contributors to toxic load, especially if they’re in an area where you spend a lot of time, like your bedroom. As with carpets–furniture, children’s toys, and mattress covers made of plastic also out-gas toxic fumes. Sometimes you can even smell the fumes if you sniff them very closely.

One way to significantly reduce (though not eliminate) their out-gassing is to set them out in strong sunlight for a day or two before bringing them into your home or giving them to your children. Thoroughly washing plastic toys and furniture can also help.

If you’re considering a new carpet and haven’t bought the carpeting yet, investigate the purchase of a natural fiber carpeting or other natural floor coverings. Hardwood flooring finished with a nontoxic coating is attractive, durable and safe. So are tile floors, which are easy to damp-mop and very durable. Area rugs in strategic spots will keep your feet warm and soften noise.

If these alternatives don’t work for you and you’re still convinced you want carpeting, select nylon carpet with jute backing. Better yet are natural carpets made from untreated wool, cotton, sea grass and sisal, with natural latex backing. Also, ask for “rag pad” padding (a standard carpeting industry term), made from recycled rags and polypropylene felt. Have the carpet installed in the summer, when you can leave the windows open more often to let those fumes out when the carpet is newer and more out-gassing is occurring.

If you live in a manufactured home, or a newly built conventional house, you’re probably experiencing a lot of out-gassing from plywood within the walls, the cabinets, as well as under the flooring. Depending on your state of health, and your ability to ventilate your home, you might want to consider a high quality air filter. Make sure furnace and air conditioning filters are replaced regularly.

Resources
1. www.emagazine.com
2. www.detox.org
3. Pearson, David. The Natural House Book. Fireside Pub. 1989.

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Decreasing Home Pollutants

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

How much of your day is spent indoors? Inside your own home? If you’re like most Americans, you spend up to 90 percent of your life in an enclosed, indoor location – and more than half of that inside your own home. Strangely enough, our concern for environmental health doesn’t always translate into a concern for a healthy indoor environment in addition to a healthy outdoor environment.

The overall health of a home is usually affected by not one, but many sources of pollutants. Heat, humidity, and modern-day, energy-efficient construction practices dramatically increase the concentrations of existing pollutants. In an effort to save energy and make our homes energy-efficient, we’ve tightened them up, which means we’re sealing in the indoor pollutants that can make us sick. The good news is that the process of detoxifying your home is simpler than you might think. While larger environmental problems loom all around us, preventing and reducing the risks associated with exposure to pesticides, household cleaners, and other sources of toxic chemicals can be done by anyone, at any time.

Cleaners, polishes, and pesticides are significant sources of toxics in the home. When these must be brought into your home, be sure to use and dispose of them according to directions on the label. Chemicals in cleaners and polishes are often a mixture of complex, unnamed compounds. Some contain strong acids (drain cleaners) or bases (oven cleaners). Others may contain petroleum distillates known as “grease cutters.”

Avoid detergents with mercury, phosphates, and heavy metals, such as arsenic and zinc, which can cause persistent problems in both indoor and outdoor environments. As with personal care products, unless you’ve already made the switch to naturally-derived, nontoxic products for housekeeping, the products you’re using are toxic. Your skin and lungs absorb those toxins.

The next time you run out of one product or another, whether it’s floor cleaner, window cleaner or bathroom cleaner, replace it with something less harmful. The replacement could be something very simple such as white vinegar or baking soda, available at any grocery store.

BATHROOM

• For tile and bathroom fixtures, use baking soda dissolved in water, applied on a damp cloth.
• For cleaning your toilet bowl, use baking soda and vinegar or lemon juice and borax. Cola that has gone flat can be poured in the bowl, left to sit for one hour, brushed, and flushed.
• Pour boiling water directly down your kitchen drain, not into the basin, twice weekly to prevent clogs. Use a drain trap/strainer to catch food or hair.
• To clear a clogged drain, use a metal snake or plunger.

KITCHEN

• Clean your oven often with baking soda (mix three tablespoons soda with one cup warm water). Rub gently with steel wool. Use oven liners or tinfoil to catch spills. Sprinkle salt on spills while oven is still warm. When the oven cools, scrape and wipe the area clean. Borax is also a good grease cutter.
• Mop with one cup of white vinegar mixed with two gallons of water to remove dull, greasy film. Add a small amount of skim milk to the rinse water. This will shine the floor.

LAUNDRY AND FURNITURE

• Use dry bleach, borax, or washing soda to whiten clothes. Chlorine bleach gives off toxic fumes that are irritating to the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. Bleach also burns the skin. Never combine bleach and ammonia together, as they produce a toxic gas.
• To clean windows, apply vinegar and water (two teaspoons vinegar to one quart water), squeegee off, and dry with a soft cloth or newspaper.
• Club soda works well as a stain remover, as does a solution of water and vinegar (1/4 cup each).
• Combining 6 tablespoons of mild soap flakes, 1 pint of boiling water, and 2 teaspoons of household ammonia can make upholstery shampoo. Mix and whip the mixture with a beater. Brush only the foam into the soiled upholstery. Be sure to wash kitchen utensils completely after use.
• Polish furniture with one teaspoon lemon oil or almond oil dissolved in one pint of baby oil. Wash wood furniture with oil soap or Castile soap and water.
• For spots, use club soda to remove fruit juice, tea, gravy, ketchup, and mud; cold water immediately for blood; lemon juice for ink, and perspiration; beaten egg whites for spots on leather.
• Use the oil from crushed walnuts to conceal nicks and scratches.

SHOE AND METAL POLISH

• Avoid shoe polishes that contain trichloroethylene, methylene chloride, or nitrobenzene. Instead, rub shoes with lemon juice and buff with soft cloth.
• Metal Polish (Aluminum, Brass, Copper, Silver): Soak silver in one quart of boiling water with one teaspoon baking soda or cream of tartar, one teaspoon salt, and a piece of aluminum foil. Polish with toothpaste and rinse. Pour lemon juice or vinegar and salt over copper and rub. For brass, use one-half teaspoon salt and one-half cup white vinegar with enough flour to make a paste — let it sit 25 minutes to 1 hour. Wipe clean. Soak aluminum in one quart boiling water with two teaspoons cream of tartar.

INSECTICIDES

• For an effective insect spray, blend six cloves of crushed garlic, one minced onion, one tablespoon dried hot pepper and one teaspoon pure soap in four quarts hot water. Let the mix sit one to two days and then strain it before using.
• To control roaches, place bay leaves around cracks in the room. Set out a dish of equal parts baking soda and powdered sugar or equal parts of oatmeal flour and plaster of Paris, or chopped bay leaves and cucumber skins, or crushed tobacco and water.
• As for ants, pour a line of cream of tartar, red chili powder, paprika, or dried peppermint leaves at point of entry.
• To control fleas, give your pets brewer’s yeast, garlic tablets, or vitamin B and wash them regularly in herbal baths prepared with fennel, rue, or rosemary to repel fleas from animals.
• Cedar chips, newspaper, and dried lavender are good substitutes for mothballs.

Resources
www.anr.state.vt.us/ecosolutions
www.detox.org
Pearson, David. The Natural House Book. Fireside Publishers. 1989.

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Common Household Pollutants

• Formaldehyde off-gasses (evaporates) from cushions, cosmetics, insulation, plywood, disinfectants, particleboard and adhesives used to manufacture most inexpensive wood-based products. Carpets and carpet cushions may also off-gas formaldehyde, causing eye and upper respiratory irritation. According to the EPA, formaldehyde may even cause cancer.
• Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., warns the Surgeon General. Radon is a natural, radioactive gas that can seep into homes through cracks in the basement, the surrounding foundation, and in well water. It enters the body quietly through the ai  
• Lead, at levels once thought to be acceptable, is now known to contribute to learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Lead is found in paint in older houses, old plumbing, and soil near highways and busy roads. It can cause neurological and kidney damage, high blood pressure, disrupted blood cell production, and reproductive problems. 
• Carbon monoxide will kill an estimated 660 Americans this year. The biggest culprit is the unserviced furnace burning propane, butane or oil. Attributed effects are headache and nausea. 
• Arsenic is still laced in many household pesticides and is used as a wood preservative (“treated” wood for outdoor use). Low levels of inorganic arsenic “may increase lung cancer risk,” according to the CDC. The Department of Health and Human Services agrees added arsenic compounds to the list of known carcinogens.
• Vinyl chloride is the source of “new car smell”: The plastic interior of a new car off-gasses this known carcinogen. Water sitting in PVC pipes overnight may be steeping into a toxic tea. Very large exposures can lead to “vinyl chloride disease,” which causes severe liver damage and ballooning of the fingertips.
• Hydrofluoric acid can cause intense pain and damage to tissues and bone if the recommended gloves happen to have holes in them. This highly corrosive substance is the active ingredient in many household rust removers.
• House dust can include lead, cadmium, bacteria, mites, flea eggs, pesticides, asbestos, mold spores, and dust mites. Allergies including sneezing, itching eyes, runny nose, asthma, and headache can occur due to dust exposure.
• Asbestos is a fiber particle used in insulation that is linked to lung and stomach cancers.
• Methylene chloride in hair spray, decaffeinated coffee and insect spray can cause cancer.
• Electromagnetic fields emitted by electric cords and appliances can cause miscarriage.
• Volatile organic compounds have well-documented adverse effects.
• Solvents, disinfectants, antiseptics, perfumes, mouthwashes, glues and air fresheners can contain harmful phenols and other chemicals.
• Cleaning agents irritate skin, lungs, and eyes, and throw off the ecological environment of waterways that wash them away.
• Pesticides are poisons used to control insects, fungi, weeds, and rodents. Attributed effects are nervous system depression and childhood leukemia. Pesticides such as chlordane, aldrin, dieldrin, though all banned for nearly two decades, continue to show up airborne in older houses.

Resources
1. www.emagazine.com
2. Pearson, David. The Natural House Book. Fireside Pub. 1989.

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Plants That Promote Clean Air

 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has done studies indicating that indoor air pollution is a more consistent threat to your health than outdoor pollution. This pollution comes primarily from volatile organic chemicals (VOC) like formaldehyde that are present in new building materials such as carpeting, paneling, cabinets, fabrics, etc. This pollution can be reduced with proper air filtration by an electronic air filter, by certain plants, or both.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has spent two decades researching plants that remove toxic chemicals from the air for use in space stations. The following five plants have been found to be particularly effective in clearing the air of formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene.

Plants Effective at Clearing the Air of Volatile Organic Chemicals:

• Mass cane (Dracaena Massangeana)
• Pot mum (Chrysanthemum Morifolium)
• Gerbera daisy (Gerbera Jamesonii)
• Warnecki (Dracaena Deremensis “Warneckei”)
• Ficus (Ficus Benjamina)
• Rubber tree (Ficus Elastica)

Other plants that are effective at general air purification are as follows:

• English ivy (Hedera Helix)
• Marginata (Dracaena Marginata)
• Mother-in-laws tongue (Sansevieria Laurentii)
• Peace lily (Spathiphyllum “Mauna Loa”)
• Chinese Evergreen (Algona “Silver queen”)
• Banana (Musa Oriana)
• Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea Seifrizii)
• Heart leaf philodendron (Philodendron Oxycardium)
• Green spider plant (Chlorophytum Elatum)
• Janet Craig (Dracaena Deremensis)

If you have children or pets, please note that many of these plants are poisonous when taken internally. Give special consideration to placement of these plants in your household.

Resource:

www.epa.gov

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