The human race has been experimenting with petrochemical based personal healthcare products for about 80-90 years. Our skin, liver and kidney cells have been detoxifying our body fluids for tens of millions of years.
Today’s problem:
We are asking an ancient defense system which has evolved over millions of years to function against natural polypeptide, polysaccharide and lipidic agents to safely metabolise numerous new “never seen before” compounds. Complex halo-organic and aromatic compounds not found in nature are both primary components and “not reported” trace ingredients in all petrochemical based formulary.
When someone washes their hair or brushes their teeth, small amounts of the surfactants enter the skin through the gums or hair shafts, stratum corneum defects and simple passive diffusion. Skincare provides an even more obvious absorption with many products literally advertising their ability for rapid entry!
The entry of ingredients into the stratum corneum leads to eventual contact with epidermis, papillary dermal capillaries and subcutaneous fat. This subsequently leads to tissue/ blood contact and eventually a problem requiring detoxification.
The premise is simple .. If you can’t eat it you must excrete it!
Ingredients which are not basic food must undergo complex detoxification/ excretion reactions to allow the elimination of the by-products by sweat, breath, urination or fecal excretion. These reactions can take a totally non-toxic agent and convert it into a lethal toxin or carcinogen! Even small amounts of these agents can lead to long term problems.
Environmental factors, what we eat, breathe, put on ourselves and even wear appear to have a profound effect on our newly discovered Epigenes. These epigenes turn on and off our more well known genes associated with protein expression.
Don R. Owen Ph.D.
