He Said Vaseline is Gasoline?

So for the first Ingredients discussion –

I recently was with a family with young children who had chapped lips. The mom encouraged the kids to apply Vaseline. The Dad said no! Put on Chapstick…

I found this interesting, since both of these products are essentially the same – paraffin in different forms– The Vaseline a semi-solid or jelly and the chapstick - solid. Both will shield or protect the lips from wind, moisture, (licking the lips), etc. However, for healing, and the general health (prevention of chapped lips) of the tissues, maybe these aren’t the best of choices. I didn’t say much – I didn’t know what the deal was, I just said – hey- I will pick something up for the kids on my next trip to the natural foods store. (Another discussion, but I wanted to get them something with sunscreen, something for them individually that they would not share ….good luck with that).

So later on the Dad said he hated them to use Vaseline because petroleum jelly was “…like putting gasoline on their skin…”

OK….Petroleum Jelly sounds like petrol from the gas station, but actually, Vaseline is made from white petrolatum – notice the spelling? This stuff is in everything. Any ointment that you use from the pharmacy, most cosmetics, oils, makeup, you name it, it will probably have paraffin or petrolatum in it.

Why? It is abundant, it is cheap and it works like a charm. And yes it is derived from the petroleum you are thinking of. And it is refined and refined and refined…… and steamed and bleached and pressured and cleaned and goodness knows what else to make it “safe” for us to use…(there have been no studies showing a direct link to cancer or any illness from petrolatum or paraffin, or studies have shown no link…blah blah blah). Just don’t eat it.

You see, petroleum products – jelly, baby oil, and petrolatum -- are mineral-based and that makes them inert – meaning that organic matter cannot grow in them. So, bacteria, molds, etc don’t thrive in your Vaseline. Add some preservatives and you have a product that you can mass-produce and sell cheaply.

Petroleum products are also occlusive, making them perfect additives to “seal-in” water or moisturizing ingredients or the active ingredient in the pharmaceutical ointment. It is hard to argue with this logic!

All in all there are only a few real dangers from petroleum jelly that I have come across in my research -- from inhaling it into the lungs – as in when people use it to soothe the nostrils (Vick’s, Vaseline). Apparently, it can cause a type of pneumonia. Also, as it is occlusive, wounds that are not properly looked after can take longer to heal, but that is up for debate. The JAMA is studying whether Rx ointments are any better than plain white petrolatum ointment (Conclusion: probably not).

SO….would I use petroleum jelly on my lips? Or face? Or skin? No. Unless I was going out into a wind storm (the Santa Ana’s do not count) in the Himalayas, or in a ice storm…but I would use a nice organic moisturizer first….

In real life, say I went, Heaven help me, skiing…..maybe , I might if I had to, put some chapstick on my lips. But seriously, Vaseline is not water soluble! You can’t get it off of your skin without stripping it, there is no point to using it other than extreme measures of defense.
There you have it.

Below are some links and interesting stuff. Feel free to comment and add things to the discussion!!

Love and happy to ya!
Regine



Vaseline® Petroleum Jelly is a mixture of mineral oils, paraffin and microcrystalline waxes that, when blended together, create something remarkable - a smooth jelly that has a melting point just above body temperature. The result - it literally melts into skin, flowing into the spaces between cells and the gaps in our lipid barrier. Once there, it re-solidifies, locking itself in place.
Vaseline® Petroleum Jelly serves two functions: First it helps keep the outside world out - it protects skin from the effects of weather and exposure. Second, it acts like a sealant to help keep the inside world in - it forms an occlusive barrier to the natural water loss of our skin. So skin that is dry and chapped is protected from drying elements, enabling skin-softening moisture to build up naturally from inside the skin itself.
(Defined by Vaseline) PETROLATUM

Pure Vaseline Petroleum Jelly has been caring for skin over 130 years. It is an occlusive emollient that seals water within your skin and its cells. Petrolatum fills in for lost lipids to help restore skin's all-important barrier function - keeping the outside world out, and the moisture in.

http://www.vaseline.com/Product.aspx?Path=Consumer/OurProducts/PetroleumJelly

Active Ingredients: Petrolatum. Other Ingredients: Water, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, C12-15 Alkyl Lactate, Myreth-3 Myristate, Glycerin, Cetearyl Alcohol, Microcrystalline Wax, Tocopheryl Acetate Ceteareth-20, Carbomer, Tea, Ethylene Brassylate, Methylparaben, DMDM Hydantoin, Disodium EDTA, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate.

http://www.industrialnetworking.co.uk/mag/v8-1/med2.html
http://www.fao.org/docrep/W6355E/w6355e0p.htm

What I learned part 2

Never, Never NeverNEVERNEVERNEVERNEVER!!!!!!!!

EVER

Take a job without a contract.

It does not matter how much you love this job, position, work, spa, clinic, people that you will be working with, etc..... You need to get it in writing! How, when, why, what is expected of you and - AND this is the MOST important part... What you can expect of you new employer.

Many employers will consider bodyworkers to be less intelligent than they are.... Or that we are lazy, easily manipulated or that money, schedules and other things that affect our lives can be overlooked. This is WRONG, quite obviously.

Dear spa, clinic, chiropractic, beauty school and salon owners: We are regular, bill-paying, home-owning, family-supporting, tax-paying, life-enjoying people like all other workers. We will not be ignored, lied to, looked down upon, less valued, manipulated nor have you take advantage of the fact that we care so much for our work and our patients, students and guests that we sometimes do work extra hard or long hours - it is for the love of the work and for the care of those in need NOT the money or the establishment nor for you dear boss-owner, sorry to say it.

We are not less intelligent. Most of us have more education than you do. We have realized that our specific talents and emotional intelligence far surpasses that of the ordinary job, and we use that savvy to become business people - usually finding ways to work far fewer hours and have more of a life than most people.

So when you decide to assume anything about someone who does bodywork for their living. Don't. Respect us.

Bodyworkers: Respect yourselves, your lifestyles, your passion for your work and your needs. Do not let your giving nature overtake your instincts. If it feels like you are being rushed into something, wait!
If you are unsure of anything, ask, then have it written down - and signed!!! Don't let anyone take your life away from you - It is yours.


I love my work. I want to do my work with passion and love and with compassion. If someone wants to hire me or contract me out of fear, control or lack of compassion, I will not work for them. I will work only with those whose values align with my own.


Thank you and Namaste.

Regine

This week's bodywork life lessons!!

This week, I learned so much from my practice.

I teach, I practice, I learn.........

I teach my students and my clients that we need to practice self-care. I always preach the adage that when we nourish ourselves first, then we are able to give more of ourselves -- even to give at all!

This comes back to myself as well. And I finally receive much needed massage from two wonderful practitioners and I begin to see that I am stretching myself too thin at times as my body releases.

Nourish your body, Nourish your heart. If you are feeling as if you need love and care. Give some love and care to yourself, then offer love to another. Even if it is to feed and care for your pets, release your needs and experience compassion.

I so appreciate my work, my body, all of this.

Namaste.

Spring is here and it is time for some work on those gardening and biking and hiking muscles!
Specials for MAY:

Come see me for your 1st massage and choose from the following:
* $25 off your treatment
* A deep-tissue Facial lifting massage
* A Foot Reflexology Treatment
* A Brow Wax


I am looking forward to seeing you!!

Thanks for your support, I love my work and I so enjoy my time with my clients! Don't forget, time spent on you gives you the energy and the strength to be productive and giving yourself!

Take time to breathe! Your body is your world....LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!!

Namaste,

Regine
206-595-5937
Regi@BodyUniverse.net
www.BodyUniverse.net

What is going on? New work.

It has been so long since I have posted, and I really don't believe that I have really "blogged" as of yet.

I have been inspired to try to blog away, as many others have, writing musings and tid-bits, etc. I don't know if I can be very faithful, but I might try now.

My 42nd year was a year of endings and beginings, figuring out that there is no time like the present to do what I want to do and to be true to myself.

I always wanted to go to massage school, and I did. I loved every minute of it , and I was sorry when it ended, even though it meant that I could begin to practice bodywork in earnest, trying to help other people as a few therapists have helped me. I love this work and I can't imagine doing anything else with my life, even though I somtimes wonder if I can, in reality handle the work physically.

I am so challenged with physical pain, I sometimes don't know how to get happy about anything. I usually do - get happy about something - but, I tell you (those of you who do not know already) chronic pain will make you a different person that you ever, ever, ever thought you would be. I don't know how else to say it, but the world sometimes seems like it just wasn't meant for me.

What exactly does that mean? Like when you go to a meeting, and you realize that everyone has read a memo that you should have read, but didn't get (by no fault of your own), and you can't even fathom what the agenda is, you cannot participate in the discussion, and you are ostracised for not "making a contribution" or worse yet, not even trying! to solve the problem. You KNOW that you are able to solve the problem and do it better than anyone knows you can, but sorry, too late, the intel is not available to you.

But, I keep on, I do what I can, and more that "I should" (whatever that means), and I just know this: If I did not have work that I loved, even if I can't really make enough money, or do it as much as I would like (or as much as I am expected to) I would shrivel up and die, like an unwatered house plant in the closet. A stinky laundry closet with old wet, moldey soccer gear that someone forgot to wash over the work week. Who wants to live there? Not me......

I love my chosen work, I just need it to love me back!