Some Handy-Dandy Online Health Resources

• Vaccine Scheduler  ...a program designed to help parents, adults, and healthcare providers on top of their vaccines/immunizations. (I actually attended a lecture by one of the lead researchers behind this tool last week!) This scheduler helps people keep track of what immunizations they've had, helps people to determine when their next dosage of a certain vaccine should be, determines a schedule of all childhood vaccines and helps parents keep track of what pathogen strain and at what age their child should be vaccinated against, helps catch children up (calculates a new vaccine schedule) if they missed or were late for an injection, and much more.

• Just Beautiful ...their mission is to "give the Canadian beauty industry a long overdue makeover". Why does make-up make us sick? Why can't it just make us beautiful? Sign the pledge featured on this website (I have!) to force cosmetic companies in Canada to fully disclose their ingredients. Another cool feature on this website is the pocket shopping guide (download it here) which features the top ten ingredients you should avoid when purchasing make-up and personal hygiene products. 

• Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep (aka the Cosmetics Database) ...a really cool database of all cosmetics, make-up, and personal hygiene products. Search the products you are using and see how they rank (every product is given a score from 1-10 with 1 being horrible and toxic, and 10 being very clean and safe).

• Toxic Nation ...awesome guides (all PDFs that you can download) to help you detoxify your life! Handouts with solutions and tips for avoiding toxic art supplies, cleaning products, plastics, children's school supplies, insect repellents, and more. 

Cleaner Cleaners

Some of my cleaner cleaners

Let's chat about cleaning supplies. You're trying to clean your house, but if you aren't using a cleaner cleaner, you may be making the place dirtier than it was before you cleaned. By dirtier, I don't mean muddy, grimy, or stinky; rather I mean that they dirty up the air quality and your lungs, as the majority of household cleaners are extremely toxic. If you find that cleaning products fumes hurt your lungs, irritate your skin, make your eyes water, or leave harsh smells that linger in your house for hours, then it's time to clean-up your cleaners!

A compilation of 10 of cleaner cleaners:

(in no particular order)

1) Eco-Vert: A Canadian cleaner supplies company, from Quebec
2) Ecover: I buy their dish soap and sprays (both shown above)
3) ECOS: I use their laundry detergent, which I buy at Costco
4) Nature Clean: I've tried most of their products and have had positive experiences
5) Seventh Generation: A popular cleaning supplies company among my peers
6) President's Choice Green: I've only tried their dishwasher tablets. I can't vouch for the other products
7) Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap: An awesome product especially if you want to make your own cleaning supplies (see #10 for recipes) and beauty care products
8) Mrs. Meyer's: Never used, but my local health food store stocks all their products
9) I do not recommend Green Works as this product is owned by Chlorox and I just don't trust a super toxic cleaning company to also produce a healthier, greener product. Their products also smell horrible: very synthetic-chemical smelling.
10) Make-it-yourself: Lots of recipes here and here. I've made homemade cleaners in the past and liked them, but due to time constraints of being at CCNM, I got out of the habit.

Wireless Wipes

Remember when I talked about gadget hygiene earlier in the month? Well, I recently came across a product specifically designed for cleaning your gadgets and electronics called Wireless Wipes. The product was created after the inventor developed a bad rash. He went to the doctor who said it was a Staph aureus infection. The doctor then proceeded to inquire about his gadget hygiene, saying something like "How often do you clean your cell phone? Don't you know that our cell phones are often dirtier than NYC subway seats!" (The actual story is written on the front of the wipe package).

Apparently, I was on to something when I talked about gadget hygiene. Dirty devices are a problem! While Wireless Wipes are specifically designed to (safely) clean cell phones, e-readers, tablets, laptops, etc, without harming the device, I still don't see the harm in using any sort of cleaning wipe or wash cloth to keep your devices clean.

Gadget Hygiene

Cleaning: a dreaded chore by many. 

Let's see, we clean our dishes, clothing (laundries), bathrooms, floors... but how often do we clean the devices we use each and everyday? I'm talking about our cell phones, laptops, tablets, music devices, and other technological goodies. I take my cell phone everywhere. It's been rested on countless dirty surfaces (desks, kitchen counters, dusty shelves, cafeteria tables, etc) and is always been touched by my grubby hands (I remember to wash my hands before eating, but do I wash my hands before calling someone, never!). I also use my laptop while eating all the time. There are likely many soup stains, fruit juices, and chocolate smudges all over my laptop (but it is hard to tell since it is a dark colored laptop...). The point I am trying to make is that we are a technology dependent society but I don't think we've learned how to properly take care of all of our devices, especially in the hygiene department.

So, here is my solution:

Biweekly, take out a hypoallergenic alcohol-free sanitizing wipe*, and give your cell phone, laptop, and other gadget you frequently use a little "bath". 

*See the picture above for my canister of Clean Well wipes, available at major grocery stores in the "Natural" aisle or at health food stores. The greener the wipe, the less you have to worry about the chemicals affecting the devices' functioning. 

I don't think we need to be soooo hygienic as to scrub our devices daily, but I think a "bath" every week or two is good to get rid of residue food, stains, bacteria, viruses, and other lingering microbes. One sanitizing wipe should be good enough to clean two to three devices as they are quite large. At that rate, one package of wipes should last you about a year if you use one biweekly...

...that's a good, clean, and healthy investment to me!