Oh and did someone say heavy metals?
Our bodies are continuously regulating salt levels in our blood and so forth – that’s why you get thirsty when you eat that cinema popcorn. Our bodies have experience in deciding how much salt we might want to let in while swimming in the ocean, but do they have a similar mechanism for coping with bathing in chlorine?
Have you noticed that you stink and feel disgusting after getting out of these pools? Would you pour a bunch of chlorine in with your epsom salt foot bath? Probably not. So maybe you shouldn’t be swimming in them. Recall that some people go to the trouble of having natural/salt water swimming pools at home. This is why.
Remember what we are told about fluoride in our water supply – oh it’s in too small a dose to have any significant negative effect. Really? But having it briefly glance across our teeth in these microscopic quantities is going to help our teeth somehow? Right.
What happens when we heat that water up and get some steam going – oh yeah it opens up our pores even more.
So what can we do?
Start considering what you are voluntarily accepting onto (into!) your skin. Use the “would I drink it?” as a good starting point.
The ‘Iceman’ mob assassin Richard Kuklinski claims that he would ‘accidentally’ spill cyanide-laced glasses of liquid on people in nightclubs. He would leave, and they would keel over dead 5-10 minutes later of a heart attack and people wouldn’t connect the events.
Being vigilant about these things might seem like a hassle. Like all habits though it shortly becomes normal and it seems weird to think of going back to how you used to do it.
Your body is amazing, but it can only detox at a certain rate. The less poison that goes in on a daily basis, the more energy your body can put towards clearing out historical toxins that are sequestered throughout the rest of your tissues. Give yourself a break.
While I acknowledge it is easier as a guy, here are a few things I do for reference:
- I swim in the ocean, creeks, and rivers etc but never in chlorinated swimming pools of any size.
- I don’t use sun screen. I either get sun on my body (healthy) or if it is going to be too much, I wear a hat/t-shirt or go into the shade.
- I try to avoid rubbing artificial creams into my skin. If my skin gets dry I’ll use some organic shea butter or other natural substance (to be continued…).
- I have a reverse osmosis filter which I use for all drinking purposes at home. When I leave the house I use a glass bottle and bring some of this water with me. Even ‘distilled’ water bought in plastic bottles usually has chemicals added, and when compared with glass, clearly tastes like plastic. If I can taste the plastic, what does that tell you about the promises we are given about BPA free etc?
- When I shower, I fill up a camping bucket (20L) of reverse osmosis water from my kitchen filter (takes 10 minutes) then carry that bucket to my shower, and use a USB powered camping shower/pump combo to shower with. In the winter I will fill up a kettle or two of reverse osmosis water and pour that boiling water in.
Sounds a bit crazy, right? Especially the shower thing. Imagine that – recharging a camping shower every day and manually carrying a bucket back and forth to the bathroom just to avoid a little bit of chlorine.
Except, I’ve been doing it for years now. When I have a shower at someone else’s house I can feel the difference and it doesn’t feel as clean. Think about the feeling of your skin after getting out of an indoor swimming pool, except more subtle.
Almost much everything we do is a habit, and you are free to change yours as you choose.
