I know I’m about to piss a lot of people off with this blog entry but let me just preface what I want to get off my chest by saying I am an environmentalist and have been for years. I live in the Pacific Northwest and as a community and personally we have been ecologically aware for decades. I know polluting our world is a serious problem and we all need to do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint, but I have had enough with the fear mongering, propaganda, and outright brainwashing the organic and natural skin care product lines throw at consumers. Even mainstream companies have gotten in on the act (L’Oreal actually advertises their Everpure hair-care line claiming it is better because it doesn’t contain sulfates, which is a bunch of crap because all of their other products from Garnier to Kerastase contain sulfates. Why didn’t they stop selling those if sulfate-free is so much better?).

Let me just say this up front: skin care products are not killing us, causing cancer, or any other dire condition. Women have no more higher incidence of cancer then men (breast cancer doesn’t count as men don’t have estrogen in the first place and women don’t get prostate cancer for obvious reasons as well). The insane, misleading information about mineral oil, petrolatum, parabens, and even toluene in nail polishes is just bizarre. The research doesn’t exist to prove any harm is being done, not even remotely. Not to mention natural and organic products contain problematic ingredients that effect the environment and our health as well.

I’m not sure how this all got started but the natural organic fanatics want you to be very afraid and, of course, only buy their products because they are pure and won’t harm you (forget the fact that there isn’t any research showing their products are effective and that many aren’t all that natural in the first place). Even more obnoxious is their blatant hypocrisy. I am fairly certain almost every single owner, employee, or lobbyist for any organic/natural cosmetic company in the world uses computers, talks on cell phones, drives cars, flies in airplanes, mostly lives in cities, and myriad other things that are far more problematic for the environment and health then any cosmetic could ever be. Breathing auto exhaust fumes and adding to landfills with outdated cell phones and computers (and all manner of outdated electronics) are where the concern should be, not the cleanser or moisturizer you are using.

But back to skin care. I want to remind all of you that I have a ton of research on my web site about all this, including these links:

http://www.cosmeticscop.com/skin-care-facts-preservative-problems-risks-benefits-of-parabens.aspx?filter=itemtype%3acontent

http://www.cosmeticscop.com/skin-care-facts-sodium-lauryl-sulfate-sodium-laureth-sulfate.aspx

http://www.cosmeticscop.com/skin-care-facts-mineral-oil-safety-nonirritating-moisturizer.aspx

If you want to send this rational, documented information to your friends and family that would go a long way to helping them make better decisions about what skin care and makeup products to buy. Right now I am just overwhelmed and the voice of reason is drowned out by the endless garbage (brain pollution) the natural/organic cosmetic industry can’t help spilling into the minds of women like an oil slick that can’t be cleaned up. Just in case you’re still not willing to believe that cosmetics aren’t killing us, below are some rational, voice-of-reason quotes from respected sources.

“FDA believes that at the present time there is no reason for consumers to be concerned about the use of cosmetics containing parabens.”

— Food and Drug Administration

“[The 2004 Darbre Study] did not prove that parabens cause breast tumors. The authors of this study did not analyze healthy breast tissue or tissues from other areas of the body and did not demonstrate that parabens are found only in cancerous tissue.”

— National Cancer Institute

“There is no sound scientific evidence that cosmetics as they are typically used cause cancer.”

“Parabens have a long history of safe use and have been specifically recognized as safe by the FDA.”

— American Council on Science and Health

“… The technical accuracy of the initial reports [linking parabens to cancer] have come under challenge,” noted Sandra Porter, Clariant. “Recent reports published and available in the public domain indicate that there is no conclusive evidence of harmful effects from parabens in cosmetics at typical usage levels.”

— Household and Personal Products Industry Magazine

I also want to share this letter I received from a physician on this issue; it succinctly sums up the manipulation we suck up like water in the desert without any benefit:

Paula,

First of all thank you for speaking up about a topic that has been very important to me for a long time. In fact I created a blog simply to address this issue: http://parabenmyth.lexli.com/
My frustration with philosophies such as this stem from the fact that I treat patients with breast cancer on a daily basis, and am very cognizant of what is good or not for them. I have spent a long time researching the paraben issue and found the same conclusions as you have. Such negative, panic provoking tactics against ingredients has almost become a norm for a number of “big beauty” marketers. Unfortunately, it works on consumers who may be unaware of the whole picture, and in many cases do not have access to in-depth scientific facts. To condemn an ingredient just because it might, possibly, might, remotely mimic, seem like, maybe etc. is incredibly unjustified. The evidence linking paraben absorption via skin care products, mimicking estrogen and in turn affecting breast cancer rates is extremely farfetched at best. I suspect your chances of taking in estrogen like substances is higher from food intake of animal and plant products, such as cow’s milk! But, obviously certain negative marketing, using scant scientific findings and manipulating it is much more potent at molding the human mind than presenting the facts. I applaud you on your ability to go against the flow and try to reach the truth.

I was recently in our local Nordstrom store, checking out some new philosophy makeup products. Because fall is upon us and lots of cosmetic companies are gearing up for big launches, the philosophy salesperson was eager to inform me of what was coming to the counter soon. Along with a new foundation and some other potentially intriguing makeup items was the claim she kept repeating: “…which will be paraben-free.” At one point I stopped her and asked what was so bad about parabens (I was curious to see what she’d say). Her reply was “Well, they cause cancer, especially breast cancer.” I replied that from the research I’ve seen there is no definitive link between breast (or any other type of) cancer and parabens. I asked where she got her information, to which she replied “That’s what they tell us in training.” Sigh. Cosmetic companies love using scare tactics to sell their products.

As I continued to take notes on the new makeup items, I asked her what was so bad about parabens. She admitted she didn’t know for sure, but philosophy is moving away from using them because “it’s just better for the products”. “Besides”, she said, “parabens aren’t natural.” Without wanting to further the debate since I was done with my research, I just smiled and nodded. So that’s what she was getting at all along. Never mind that parabens are, in fact, derived from a natural source (berries) the real theme is that philosophy is changing their marketing message to the familiar theme of natural = good, synthetic = bad, health-threatening, toxic, insert-your-own-unpleasant-adjective-here.

If I had more time to spend discussing this with her (she really was helpful and quite earnest in her fervor for philosophy) I would’ve mentioned that it would be far better if philosophy took an inventory of all the irritating ingredients in their formulas, many of which are natural, and removed those instead of parabens. But such a move would never happen because most consumers are convinced beyond a doubt that any natural ingredient is preferred to one of synthetic origin (often referred to as “chemicals” even though everything in our world is composed of chemicals). The truth is there are good and bad ingredients of either origin, not to mention that most cosmetic formulas wouldn’t be nearly as elegant or effective without the synthetic ingredients that play integral parts-and that includes parabens and other preservatives.

Every time I see a tanning salon I want to make a picket sign of some kind and parade in front shouting “Stay away, cancer lurks inside!” Very little has been done to protect people from what these businesses really have to offer. Campaigns to stay out of the sun for some reason rarely, if ever, mention tanning beds. Hopefully that will change since the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC a division of the World Health Organization, WHO) has re-categorized indoor tanning devices as being a carcinogen for humans. Tanning beds now share the spotlight with other dangerously high cancer risks.

I expect that this news will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes for those who are fans of using tanning beds. Those fans include 30 million people who tan indoors in the United States annually. Among that figure, 2.3 million are teens. According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AADA) research shows that the risk of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, increases by 75% when regular use of tanning beds and sunlamps begins before the age of 30. Sadly, melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for adolescents and young adults aged 15-29 years old.

As the AADA has stated in the past, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should ban the sale and use of tanning equipment for non-medical purposes. Unless and until the FDA bans the sale and use of tanning equipment for non-medical purposes, the AADA supports the following requirements for indoor tanning facilities:

• No minor should be permitted to use tanning devices.
• A Surgeon General’s warning should be placed on all tanning devices.
• No person or facility should advertise the use of any ultraviolet A or ultraviolet B tanning device using wording such as “safe,” “safe tanning,” “no harmful rays,” “no adverse effect,” or similar wording or concepts.

AADA, on this one you rock! And to my readers who still use tanning beds (and especially to parents of teens that visit tanning salons), I beg you to reconsider the risk you’re taking in the name of beauty (and by most standards around the world isn’t beautiful in the least). You may prefer a tan to your natural skin color, but what you perceive now as beautiful will lead to leathery-looking wrinkled skin and a very good chance of having a potentially life-threatening disease in the future.

I want to talk a moment about a comment from an article I read addressing end of treatment issues. It represents one of my pet peeves. Since I entered the cancer world, there have been certain things people say and write that annoy me, anger me and just piss me off.

I remember when I was going through treatment, there’d be all these articles in magazines showing firm and slim women in tennis whites happily leaping up for a serve as an example of successfully managing chemotherapy. And what about those women, thousands of women who weren’t “successfully” handling it? Who were sick to their stomach, losing their hair, had radiation burns, and other side effects? Where were they? It just pissed me off. I could go on and on, however, back to my point here.

The end of treatment means what? In truth, once you’ve diagnosed, there really isn’t an end. Everyone around you wants there to be an end, but only those who have survived know that it lurks in the recesses of your psyche always.

Doctor’s schedule you for a check-up in three months, with no promises, no cures. You’ve been through diagnosis and treatment and now it’s a waiting game. Your breast cancer is now just yours. Your army has disbanded. No more directed team assault with friends and family at your side. You go to the next mammogram by yourself just like every other woman. Now there’s only the quiet of just you.

We want to rush back to our old life, but for many, if we look inside the old life just isn’t there anymore. Along with the uncertainty about recurrence, after treatment, there’s also the uncertainty many women feel about just how to get back to normal, whatever that is, was or will be. Uncertain about how to feel, to think, how to get back to life and how much life can you count on going back to.

You’ve learned that bad things do happen to good people. That life can change in a heartbeat. Routes you’ve chartered can be swept away. Events you’ve anticipated can get drowned out without warning.

Now you have to anchor your life given this new reality. The reality that you’re never promised a cure. You’re handed an appointment card, a prescription for aromatase, and a handful of statistics. In this way, hope and uncertainty will weave themselves into the fabric of your survivorship forever.

The good news… This actually opens up new worlds for us, new possibilities, rich with opportunity. Dealing with any trauma, illness, or loss gives us the opportunity to become freer. To be glad to just be alive. To drop a lot of the baggage we carry and to gain new priorities with meaning and joy. Talk about not sweating the small stuff.

There’s a remarkable freedom possible in this. A remarkable opportunity for transformation.

To do this often takes courage. The courage to examine our lives, our relationships, our past, our future. It means the courage to get really intimate and honest with yourself. It means the courage to step out of your comfort zones, to do things that are new, challenging and perhaps even, threatening.

I want the days of my life to be jam-packed with excitement and hope blended with the recognition that I have no control over the parts of my life I want most to control and that is all at once scary and freeing. Recognizing that nothing is certain or permanent, opens us up to so many possibilities.

I’ll tell you a little secret. Although the what we do is indeed key, it will always get lost if you don’t pay attention to the how. How you notice the burst of red that the sun shoots through the clouds as it sets. How you breathe in the sweet musky scent on the back of your husband’s neck when you kiss him hello after a long day. How you walk out of here today noticing the world around you, how you get into you car and drive home. Just pay attention. And notice how the transformation unfolds.

It’s been twelve years and I’m still here. Hope is about letting go; about understanding the fragility of life and moving forward, not in spite of it, but along side it. Hope is the courage to be joyful in the face of the inevitable and the ability to notice the moment and allow its perfection to touch you. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in our soul and never stops singing. So next time you go to your mammogram, take a friend or a loved one and make it a celebration.

Last week, a woman I know told me that she was really worried about getting her annual mammogram. I asked if she had any risk factors such as family history. She said, “No, but with so many women getting diagnosed these days, she said, I guess my risk factor is being a woman.”

Even though more women die of heart disease, it is breast cancer we seek out. Breast cancer is the only cancer we’re supposed to look for with dedicated regularity. We’re supposed to have a built in search and destroy protocol for our breasts. Every month we’re supposed to examine our breasts. Hey! It’s time to look for cancer. Let’s look for a lump. Who needs that in their lives? After all, our breasts are meant to be about life. But they’re now also about fear. And many of us live with the fear no matter what side of breast cancer we’re on.

But early detection, which we all know, is the key to survival, means looking for cancer. Now that’s scary but it’s also hopeful, because we can do something about it. All of us diagnose, live with the threat of recurrence or metastases, even if we have an excellent prognosis. An excellent prognosis is still a prognosis, which isn’t a good thing. We don’t know if we’re in the 5% or 95%; the 80% or 20%. Living with odds is so bizarre. And ultimately, irrelevant for any single person, because, as one woman said to me, for any individual it’s binary: you get cancer again or you don’t, my personal odds are 50/50. So, we remain vigilant for signs and symptoms.

And there will be things that trigger your fears for the rest of your life. It’s normal. You feel good, you feel great, you’re three years past treatment, you feel healthy and cured. Then you get a backache that you can’t explain and the terror hits like a tornado. Surviving breast cancer leaves you with a fear that the ordinary can become a life threat. We find again a resting place in hope until the next time and then go on with our lives.