So you think your some sort of super hero able to take on any and all things that come your way? Guess again! you might think you are strong and virile healthy as a horse, but the burning reality is that we are all becoming increasingly sensitive to all sorts of things. From food, to scents, lotions, potions, lubes. Cosmetics, clothes, fabrics, fibres and skins, right down to your darling sex toys! Allergic sensitivities are popping all over the place, environmental allergies, compound allergies, chemical allergies, household dust, mould, and dirt.

In the quest to get products to the masses at alarming rates that would rival the speed of light, companies will do almost whatever it takes to produce, market, ship and sell it! How do they do that you may find yourself asking? By cutting corners, that’s how. They introduce cost cutting measures that generally involve the introduction of chemicals, chemicals to make plants grow faster, stronger, more colourful. Chemicals used to fill voids, solidify products, soften products, stabilize products. Chemicals that have never even been tested before. What looks like a good idea to the product companies; ideas that generally equate to dollars and cents is not usually good for the animal kingdom and this case the human body.

So here we are eating, lathering and slathering, inserting, smelling and breathing things that just haven’t truly been tested, and if they have, squeak by with the barest minimum to pass barley there standards. Standards that don’t observe the long term effects on the environment or our own bodies. We are so happy to blindly go where no one has before trusting the advice of complete strangers that tell us we’ll benefit so profoundly if we just do as we’re told. Even if we do question, the bottom line is it is almost impossible to avoid these ingredients with names so complex we can’t pronounce them.

I pride myself on trying to live a happy, healthy lifestyle, but even I can’t avoid everything, (as I sit in a room filled with wall to wall plastic). My point is we need to make the right choices for ourselves on what we like to eat, use, and play with, of which a little research goes a long way. A place I like to go is to the folks at Environmental Working Group and look up their consumer guides for toxic ingredients that I find in some of the products I like to use. A great resource! Another resource book I found, to get you thinking is  The Non-Toxic Avenger by Deanna Duke, it truly got me thinking!

With all theses chemicals out there, it is easy to understand how toxins can build up in your body with some that never leave it, EVER! Take teflon for example, one shot and your dosed forever. Attaining toxic overload is easy, but there are ways to avoid it or at least be more conscious of it, and stave it off as best you can. Don’t forget about compound allergies, the aspect of one chemical in contact with another that produces a reaction usually less than favourable. Trust me I had the unfortunate experience on a recent trip involving certified organic lube with latex condoms that required medical attention, NOT FUN!

What do I recommend? Wherever possible try a sample if there is one, and if your worried and not to sure about getting right to use on those sensitive nether regions, test it on the inside of your elbow. You’ll know fairly fast. The body reacts pretty quickly in that spot, so if you have no reaction, pretty much good to go. A burning or rash, you may want to think twice. However that is not to say that some products don’t produce redness such as Blossom Organics sensitizing lotion, a product I LOVE for added effect. It’s designed to do that and the redness fades out after 10-20 minutes.

I am not trying scare you, to the contrary merely empower you with some sound advice encouraging all you to test the waters a bit before you dive in and discover a school of piranhas. It can happen to anyone and at anytime. What you have been used to before could change as we mature in life and to be honest sometimes does!

Here are some interesting details to consider and what ingredient exactly it is that makes that lotion of choice react the way it does.

Osmolarity, what does it have to lube and lube safety?

Osmolarity is the measure of the concentration of the soluble components present in a solution. Products can be iso-osmolar, hypo-osmolar, or hyperosmolar, Products that are iso-osmolar have the same osmolarity as normal cells. Hypo-osmolar products tend to make cells swell up with water which can lead to cells bursting. Hyperosmolar have a have a higher concentration of solutes than normal cells making them shrink in size much like a sponge absorbs water and can cause tearing of the cells. In both of the latter cases making the cells susceptible to infection.

How do we know what the chemicals are that do this in our lubes? We don’t, but my point here is that companies do go to great lengths to sell something with not so good ingredients and money talks.

Just saying!