Green Living

Testing smoke detectors

Every year, on December first, we do a smoke detector check.  We know it’s a good idea to check your smoke detectors regularly, and we do it before we start decorating for the holidays.

It’s easy, all I do is reach up (I have high ceilings so I need the ladder) and push the button to make sure each smoke detector beeps to check the alarm capability. Then to really test it, I light two or three matches, blow them out and hold them under the detector so the smoke drifts toward it. If that doesn’t set it off, the smoke detector isn’t working. and the matches are a lot easier to test with than burning something on the stove!

It’s a great way to make certain all is safe for the holidays!

Safer, cleaner homes

Did you know that every 13 seconds a family calls a poison control center?

Like most people, you want a clean home. Yet, every day over 300 children in the United States require emergency medical care due to accidental poisonings by household items.

You’re busy, and on a budget, so you need cleaning products that bust through grime without busting your bank account. You want a safe home, but caustic chemicals like chlorine bleach around the house can be hazardous. Many  cleaning products are so harsh they can’t come in direct contact with your skin. they need to be stored high, out of reach of children, and they come with safety caps and warnings if accidentally ingested. Yet you are expected to slather them on your counter tops, sinks and floors. 

Harsh chemicals aren’t just hard on your skin, they’re also hard on your home and our planet. They contaminate water supplies, leach into the soil and have to be stored as hazardous waste. 

Cleaning your home shouldn’t involve putting your family at risk.
The first step is to educate yourself as a consumer, the next step is to eliminate toxins from your daily life.  Like they say, an educated consumer always makes smarter choices.

That’s why I decided to avoid the caustic chemicals and abrasives that are contained in so many cleaners. I was tired of seeing reddened hands and rashes every time I cleaned the house—not to mention th sneezing, coughing, wheezing and asthma attacks. It seemed that not only was I reacting to dust, I was reacting to the cleaning products!

I found a great group of American-made products with formulas  sourced from natural ingredients that won’t leave behind dangerous chemicals and poisons. All of my new products are free of chlorine bleach, ammonia, formaldehyde, phosphates, phthalates and other harsh chemicals. The best part? My side-effects from cleaning disappeared! Plus, I get the best of both worlds: effective cleaning, stain-lifting, deodorizing and disinfecting power without the danger of harsh chemicals. They also require NO child-safety caps!

Another bonus I discovered was my new brand  also reduces my impact on the environment with biodegradable ingredients and ultra-concentrated formulas. The smaller bottles result in less plastic, water and fuel waste, while still giving me potent cleaning power that lasts longer than grocery store brands.

With all these benefits, you might expect that I’m paying premium-prices. Instead, these products save me money. Their concentrated formulas offer more cleaning power at less cost per use than many national brands. So, I get better quality at a better price. But that’s not all. Get this, my laundry products can also cut more than $10 a month from my power bill! Heating water for laundry uses 90% more energy than washing in cold water, and these products are specifically formulated to get my laundry clean in cold water.

That’s another reason why I switched to products that are better for me, my family, my home and budget and, of course, they work. So I can spend less time, stress and money on daily chores, and do more of the things that really matter. Now I never compromise clean for safe.

B

Are you putting your health at risk?

This picture caught your attention, didn’t it? Seems crazy right?

Who in their right mind would let their kids smoke cigarettes?

Then, why would you let them in a house cleaned with Clorox, Lysol, and Windex? A new, independent study based on 20 years of research reveals a sobering fact: cleaning your home with national brand cleaners significantly damages lung tissue. 

How confident are you that these cleansers are safe? Nearly all of the national brand cleaning products you buy at the grocery store are made with a multitude of harmful chemicals. According to the study, some of the likely culprits are ammonia, chlorine bleach, and quaternary disinfectant compounds—among many others. Cleaning your home with products that contain dangerous chemicals as little as once per week was as damaging over time to respiratory health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years!

You don’t have to be a smoker to be at risk and the same goes for cleaning products—you don’t have to be the one cleaning. Just because you can’t see it damage it can cause doesn’t mean the products aren’t dangerous to you and your family.

Usually what exposes us the most are the things we never see coming. What’s stopping you from making better choices?

When the study, which was conducted by 28 top researchers from nine countries was peer-reviewed and published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, it drew international media attention.
Here is a link to the study itself:

Cleaning at home and at work in relation to lung function decline and airway obstruction

After a thoughtful review of the study’s conclusions, I’m convinced you’ll see the urgency in removing national brand cleaners from your home and replacing them like I have, with the safer, more effective alternative products like EcoSense.

Something to think about

Next time you go to the store to buy ANY kind of cleaning product (including laundry detergents), here’s something to think about:
Why don’t big time manufacturers fully disclose the “other ingredients” NOT listed on their labels?
Have you noticed fine print that reads: “Precautionary statement: Hazards to humans and domestic animals” (as shown on this Mr. Clean label)?
Have you thought about what sort of hazards do they mean? It’s not specific.
Have you questioned how is this product could affect you and your family’s health over time? Are you really okay with this?
An informed consumer makes better, wiser choices…it doesn’t have to be complicated!
We can help you make better choices.

What disinfectant do you use?

Recently a pharmacist customer wanted to put the chemical-free, botanical disinfectant I use and love daily because of its safety and great scent to the test. She didn’t believe my natural products could beat the products she uses for disinfecting areas. I said, “Let the science experiment begin!”

So she ordered some petri dishes and swabbed the absorbent pad that comes under raw chicken when packed by the butcher for grocery store. The first dish was left untouched as it was to be the Control.
The second dish was sprayed with the Department of Health standard sanitizing mixture of bleach and water. The standard disinfecting ratio is a one-quarter cup (minimum) to a three-quarter cup  (maximum) cup of bleach to one gallon of cool water OR one tablespoon (minimum) to three tablespoons (maximum) of bleach to one quart of water. In this case, the later measurement amount (three tablespoons bleach to one quart of water was used.)
Finally, the third petri dish was sprayed with the natural, safe disinfectant I use, Sol-U-Gard.
The dishes were left in a warm spot next to our  pharmacist customer’s computer overnight.

The photo shows the results of both disinfecting solutions in comparison to the control the following morning. Are you as surprised as she was?

Her question after seeing the results was “Why am I still using harmful, unsafe products like Clorox in my home?”
When there are safer options that work better and are EPA approved for use in hospitals and schools maybe you should  ask yourself the same question. Isn’t your family and your health worth the safer options?

We thank our customer for sharing her test results and backing up what I know to be true, there are scientifically proven healthier and safer products available. 

Oh go take a cold shower

When someone tells you to go take a cold shower…they are doing you a favor! This infographic shows the many benefits of cooler showers

Shopping online for wellness

Fourteen years ago I took out a membership for an amazing online wellness shopping club. I was a bit skeptical at first, but friends were adamant that I needed this. Being that I had always been a catalog shopper and was enjoying shopping online, I decided perhaps I would give it a try. But only for a few months. If I liked it it would be great, if not, well I’d move on.

it’s now fourteen years later and I’m still shopping there. I love the products and I love the company and most of all I love what it’s done for my health! Some of the priceless benefits I’ve received shopping here include:
• Better nutrition and nutritional supplements providing me with more energy, better sleep,, incredibly regular  bowel movements (IBS has practically disappeared!)
• Weight loss. Greater endurance, stronger muscles and quicker recovery time from exercise. 
• Improved skin, dry skin relief, eczema relief, reduced allergic reactions
• Healthier teeth, reduced plaque growth, whiter teeth and healthy gums
• A toxic free home, healthier and safer cleaning products, reduction in asthmatic reactions and reduction in need for prescription medications.

Not only that, I’ve received more than $3000.00 in free products over the years and more from this great company.

So here it is 14 years later and I’m loving this way of shopping. Why would I ever give up my membership?

Can you say that about where you shop?

Rain Gutters

Don’t forget to clear out your rain gutters before winter is in full force. We just did this at our home and it made quite a difference this last rainfall. As you know, when leaves fall, some collect in rain gutters and eventually clog the downspout, which will cause problems when it rains or snows.

You don’t want the debris getting so heavy that the gutter and downspout fall off! So make sure you clear out leaves, dirt and anything else that’s caught in gutters and downspouts before inclement weather hits.

Knee and Hip Replacements

Getting a knee or hip replacement is a big decision. It was for me.

I was always an active person and a cyclist. One day while out riding a police officer directed an SUV to make a left turn not realizing that the cyclist he had just driven past was still coming up on his right. The SUV slammed right into the cyclist who had the right of way.

My watch cracked the windshield, the antenna went into my left shoulder, my knees left huge dents in the vehicle. I was able to stand up all bloody from cuts on my legs a little winded from the impact.

It didn’t seem like much, just cuts and scrapes and huge bruises. At the ER they took X-rays and told me although nothing was broken or sprained, it didn’t mean I would have joint problems down the road. The next day I felt every bit of the impact.

A few years down the road, I started to have twinges in my hips and occasionally would have a slight limp. I followed my doctors suggesions  and began taking Replenex joint supplements to help maintain healthy cartilage and provide additional cushioning and soothing relief to my sore hip joints.

Replenex contains a number of ingredients vital to rebuilding and rejuvenating joints. Commonly found in other joint care products, Glucosamine works to aid in the rebuilding of cartilage. Bromelain works to decrease injury during recovery times. Ginger extract is claimed to have proven success in treating hip and knee joint pain. Lastly, the antioxidant properties of green tea are included to reduce inflammation in the affected area.

It helped and my hips functioned well for another 10 years. but the pain got worse. We tried conservative treatments like physical therapy, injections and exercise.

Unfortunately, the hip pain was significantly impacting my life, and my orthopedic specialist was suggesting that i might be ready for joint replacement surgery.

My orthopedic surgeon gave me this simple quiz to help me determine when it was time to consider joint replacement surgery:

  • Does the pain limit your normal activity?
  • Is it difficult to get up after sitting?
  • Do you have pain even when you’re at rest?
  • Does the pain affect your sleep?
  • Do you have chronic swelling/inflammation or stiffness?
    Have you received little to no relief from conservative treatments, such as RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), physical therapy, braces, footwear modification, over-the-counter medications like aspirin and ibuprofen, and cortisone/lubrication injections?

If like me, you can answer yes to most of the quiz questions, you may (like me) be a candidate for joint replacement surgery and should speak with an orthopedic specialist.

Eight years ago I had left hip replacement surgery. Three years later, I had my right hip replaced. Doctors were surprised that I was able to function as long as I did with my hips. I believe it was Replenex that helped my hips to last as long as they did after my accident.

I still take this supplement daily to keep the rest of my joints functioning at their peak ability and heartily recommend friends experiencing aches and pains to give it a try.

Tis the season for vitamin D3

I don’t know about you, but since the time change occurred earlier this month, I feel I’ve been dragging. Yes, I’m still getting 12,000 – 15,000 steps a day and rowing three times a week and swimming twice a week, but I feel tired. It’s probably because I’m not seeing as much sunlight as I was and the current rainy season hasn’t been giving me a healthy dose of sunshine or vitamin D either.

It’s time for me to add vitamin D3 back into my diet.  This is the brand I use to keep my vitamin levels up. I have come to trust this company’s  standards of  development and processed at only $7.49, it’s a bargain to stay healthy!
It helps me battle infections and elevates my mood and with the holidays coming I can’t afford a single down day. How about you? do you take vitamin D?

To learn more about vitamin D and a healthy lifestyle, check out some of my previous blogs on this vitamin supplement.
Vitamin D and the risk of breast cancer 

Sunshine in a bottle: Vitamin D3

Do you need to add vitamin D and calcium to your diet?