JOHN COFFELTEditor

It’s not just what you put into your body that counts as far as living your most healthy life, but also what goes on your skin.

Wellness advocate Melissa Whaley said during a recent Toxin-Free Event held at Middle Tennessee Thermography and Wellness’s new location, 117 W. Main St., that many people are unknowingly exposing themselves to potentially health-harming chemicals by using their usual beauty products.

“My goal is to educate and provide (them) with products that are clean and keep us well,” Whaley said.

The average woman who wears makeup puts on 168 chemicals a day,” she said, citing CRUNCHI data.

Whaley said the skin is the largest bodily organ and absorption is a direct route for chemicals to enter the blood.

Whaley shared concerns that national brand cosmetics are laden with chemicals than overload people’s bodies and cause hormone deficiencies, high estrogen levels in women and can even cause low sperm count in men.

“They can contain lead, plastics – a lot of people don’t understand there are a lot of plastics in those makeups,” Whaley said.

“It can be Phenoxyethanol (2-phenoxyethanol) (a common preservative made from a reaction of highly corrosive phenol and carcinogenic ethylene oxide), a lot of heavy metals are in those too,” she said.

Whaley worries these chemicals don’t receive the same filtering as other pathways do.

“It just sits there and causes problems,” she said. “That why some people have eczema…rashes and in the long term cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

Whaley said that the brands she represents do not include a long list of questionable ingredients and are third-party tested to insure their purity.

She cautioned consumers to be aware of “greenwashing,” when a product label appears to be free of chemicals but it’s not.

“A lot of times when you see paraben-free (itself a barred ingredient in CRUNCHI products), that makes you want to question what other ingredients are in there,” she said. “Companies can be very sneaky and put other toxic ingredients, and you think you’re buying something really good.”

Paraben is considered a hormone-disrupting chemical that can be a carcinogen and could be related to reproductive toxicity.

“When you look at that, especially for our young generation when we put those types of items on them…we are causing them products down the road,” Whaley said.

Thermography and Wellness owner Brittany Keller, a registered nurse, said that women should not have heavy, painful cycles or tender breasts during cycles.

“That is all because of these estrogen disruptors,” Keller said. “A lot of people think that that is normal now.”

Whaley recommends looking at deodorant, toothpaste, body wash, laundry detergent, even Glade plugins or scented candles for potentially harmful chemicals.

“It’s not just about eating the organic foods,” she said. “If we would think about what we put on our bodies (and breathe) versus just what we eat, we’d be in a lot better place and I think we’d feel a lot better in the end.”

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.