ekebodesign blog

It's mostly about knitting

July 2008
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Why not to use mineral oil in creams and lotions

Filed under: Health — knitter at 3:49 pm on Monday, July 14, 2008

http://diss.kib.ki.se/2007/978-91-7357-112-8/thesis.pdf

A recently published thesis from Karonlinska Institutet in Sweden shows that people who handle a lot of mineral oil (especially hydraulic oil) in their work, for example farmers and machine repair people, have 30 % higher risk of getting Rheumatoid Arthritis. These people are mainly men, but RA is mostly found in women.

(I’d like to know what’s special in hydraulic oil compared to other motor oils)

This study found no evidence of cases where people would have gotten RA from the use of creams and lotions containing mineral oils. But a study on rats showed increased rates of RA after using cream with petrolatum and other such mineral chemicals. Even a baby oil caused rats to develop joint inflammation.

I wonder how long it will take for researchers to find RA in people who have had mineral creams used on them from the diaper age.

I decided that I will no longer use such creams. The last finding was Ozokerite, which seems to be in use in lip balms. I looked it up, and it’s a cheaper substitute for beeswax, and a mineral oil. Beeswax is used to make the lip balm in stick form harder. Mineral oils clog pores and stay on the skin. They also create a dependency.

From now on, I’m going to make as much of my cosmetics myself. I’ve already made soaps and lip balms. The next one is going to be facial cream, then hair conditioner. Making a batch of shampoo and liquid soap is worth a whole day’s work, so that needs to be further investigated.

I want to know what’s in my food as well as what goes on my skin.

Found the cause!

Filed under: Health — knitter at 1:25 pm on Monday, July 14, 2008

Endast på engelska denna gång, vain englanniksi.

I’ve been very tired and lacking energy since mid-May. In June I caught a flu and had two weeks of slight fever and after that, the fever tried to return a couple of times. I also had a running nose and cough until last week.

On Thursday evening I started to think this can’t be normal. I merely have the energy to walk a mile with the dog, and then I’m ready for bed. No talking about cleaning the house or working or knitting or spinning… I’ve spun in May and I’ve knitted on one evening per week now. I took the product information from my prescription drugs, and found the cause. I got a new blood pressure medicine, an ACE-inhibitor, to take in addition to my original blood pressure medicine. On that information sheet, as the last side effect, it said: if you get odd infection symptoms with fever, immediately contact your doctor. There could be a loss of white blood cells going on!!!

It means that the medicine may induce weakening of the immune system!

I didn’t take the pill on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday I managed to do the long forest walk with my dog (that I had been dreaming about for two months and done in the spring), and after that, to finally plant my cucumber and tomato plants that had been waiting forever. I wasn’t even tired after that!

Today the doctor will be working. I’ll call him and tell I refuse to take any more of those pills.

Looking forward to a normal end of the summer and better health and condition.

Nearby beach in the spring