The Ingredients of Success

Labels provide important clues about the products we use, but more research is always important.

In California, most buildings and many individual products have a warning about unspecified carcinogens. It’s required by a 1986 law called Proposition 65. It’s such a ubiquitous part of their environment that most people tune it out as meaningless. If everything is a risk, then nothing is a risk. But a more careful reading of the contents of our environment and some research provides useful clues of how we manage those risks.

Some risks are important, others are not.

I was reminded of this recently by my dogs. I have two small dogs who spend most of their time indoors, and both have skin sensitivities that led to a series of experiments with commercial and home brewed shampoos. We recently resolved it by avoiding shampoos altogether. They’re now washed with Dove soap — they no longer itch, and their hair remains silky and shiny.

I had similar experiences myself, but was slow to relate my experiences to my dogs. I had always used the typical commercial (human) shampoos, and suffered dandruff and persistent itchy scalp. I couldn’t wear black suits or shirts. Wiping my shoulders became a habit.

Then, a few years ago, I decided to skip the shampoos and perfumed “antibacterial” bath soaps, and tried using Dove soap exclusively, hair and body. No more itchy scalp. No more showers of dandruff flakes. It took me a while to see the same problems for my dogs, and the same solutions.

A look at the labels of shampoos shows the typical word salads of incomprehensible chemical names, which we see so often that we ignore them. More importantly, no one knows how that chemical immersion will affect our own unique chemistry. We, and our dogs, and all living creatures, are each a structure of chemicals, which interact chemically with every chemical were exposed to, either in our external environment, or consumed in food and drinks. When everything works well, we see those reactions are amazingly complex. When things go wrong, solutions can be even more complex. Simplifying those exposures simplifies our reactions.

Here's what one popular shampoo brand, Head and Shoulders, admits to:

Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocomidopropyl Betaine, Cocamide MEA, Selenium sulfide, piroctone olamine, zinc pyrithione, Dimethiconol, Dimethicone, Bis-Aminopropyl Dimethicone/Amodimethicon, Behentrimonium Chloride, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Glycerin, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Parfum, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Hydrozycitronellal, Limonene, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Hydroxide, Hydrochloric acid, Sodium Citrate, Citric Acid, Sodium chloride, Sodium Xylenesulfonate, Glycol Distearate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Sodium Salicylate, Tea-Dodecylbenzenesulfonate, Trideceth-10.

Even the milder Dove soap is more complex than we might imagine.

Sodium lauroyl isethionate, stearic acid, sodium tallowate, sodium palmitate, lauric acid and sodium isethionate, water, sodium stearate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium cocoate, sodium palm kernelate, sodium chloride, tetrasodium ETDA, tetrasodium etidronate, maltol and titanium dioxide.

But that shorter list is less concerning if we dig in a bit more. This description gives additional information that shows more about those ingredients. Some might cause reactions in a few sensitive people, but it seems consistent with the observation for me and my dogs that it is milder than the shampoo.

I have discovered a lot of my own sensitivities to foods by careful records of everything I eat, and of medical symptoms. Then the detective work can proceed of searching for clues in the data, then developing theories of cause and effect, then tests to stop and possibly re-start likely problem ingredients to pin down what actually affects me. Standard scientific method, actually, though different from what we have been misled to believe recently.

We can’t eliminate all exposure to every chemical in our environment, but we can reduce them to manageable proportions. Those chemicals naturally occurring in our environment are what we’ve evolved to accept. Adding other chemicals to that mix increases our risk of bad outcomes. The biggest problem is we have constant exposure to so many chemical concoctions it becomes difficult to isolate the ones that cause us problems. And, of course, some effects won’t become visible for many years.

It is wise to minimize exposure to unnatural chemicals. Organic natural foods avoid most of them. Concoctions we bathe in, or wash our clothes with, or spray into our air and water, or cook with, should be viewed with suspicion. The first step is to read those labels. That starts a complex journey of inquiry of what those chemicals do.