Uncover Products That Disrupt Your Hormones

Introduction to the summit and guest 0:00

Hello, ladies. Welcome back to Mastering the Menopause Transition Summit. I'm your host, Dr. Sharon Stills. And I am thrilled to be here with you. You know how passionate I am about these interviews and bringing you information and changing the conversation about what menopause is and what healthy aging looks like. And so around here, we're all about having a red hot, sexy menopause. And we are going to have a great conversation today with Brian Vaszily. I love that. He's one of today's most renowned, respected natural health leaders, researchers, advocates.

He is the the face and the brains behind the art of anti-aging, which is a huge movement. And we are really lucky to have him here today. He we were talking before he we came live. You know, he's the creator of Purity Woods, which are these really pure face care products. And you know, because he wanted something and he couldn't find it, so he went and made it himself. And so he's a real mover and shaker and really gets things done and is really passionate about this cause and about the aging process.

And so we're very lucky to have him here today. And we're going to dive into a lot of things, but we're definitely going to dive into chemicals and your skin and how to avoid them because he he talks about, you know, we always think about what we're eating in our mouth, but we have to think about what we're eating via our skin. And I love that because that's not something that we often think about. But what we put on our skin gets absorbed. I mean, that is that is a route of how to deliver. You know, I deliver remedies and things via the skin.

And so we really have to be thinking about what we're putting on our skin. So welcome, Brian, It's really awesome to have you. Thanks for being a part of the summit. Well, I am excited to be here. Even more so with your wonderful introduction of me, which made me feel really good about myself, by the way. And I'm kind of excited to be here and have a lot of, you know, great insights to share. So again, I you're right. And I like to start by saying, if you remember nothing else from this conversation, remember this everybody, when you're pushing your grocery cart down and cosmetic and personal care products

Brian Vaszilyu2019s personal journey into natural health 2:37

while you're pushing it down a few now it is food. Just think of it the same way. And that's that's the real brief summary of things we'll dive deeper into here. But that's one visual that I love. People do not forget. That is a great visual and like take nothing else. That's like a beautiful thing to take with you. Start thinking about, you know, you're eating on your skin. What you're putting on is food, same as what you're chewing in your mouth. So I have to ask. I always ask, but I'm really curious as I'm just getting to know you better, too.

How did you get into the art of A.i.a aging and researching and creating skin care? Like what is it, a personal story? Just an interest. Like how did this all unfold? Yeah, that is a great question and there's a long answer that I'm going to make. Try to make it as concise as possible. So as you noted at the start, I've been in natural health, you know, deep research, working with other very well-known brands. Now today, they're well known, well known, and these and these others help a lot of people behind the scenes over the last 20 some years. Now and been in front of the camera at various points to, as you noted over the last five or so years, really the art of anti-aging and purity, which both these two organizations have become my my full time job, if you will.

But how that all came about? Well, I'm in my mid-fifties and you can kind of roughly cut my life down, down the middle. And the first half of my life, honestly, was really challenging, I'll put it that way. To make a long story short, I grew up very poor, inner city, you know, almost joined gangs, lost friends to gangs, things like that. But even rougher than that was So my dad was a very good man. Still around the age my age of nine years old, he turned severely alcohol slick, quite abusive, quite abusive to me, to my to my mother, to my sister.

And that persisted for a long time. And to his credit, he finally did kick the bottle. But he what he did not do was deal with a lot of trauma inside of himself. And now we're talking, you know, a long time ago and we're talking trauma that he had experienced long before that. We live in a wonderful time and that we're so open about addressing and dealing with trauma. And we have so many resources. Back in his day, you had to be a crazy person if you were going to talk, you know, to a psychiatrist, psychologist or anybody in that field.

So there was a lot of resistance. So we are we live in a we don't often see that, you know, but we live in a wonderful time where so many things are accessible to us that were not back then, including mental. So that said, and then he ended up dying a very long, painful, horrible death where, you know, he was in and out of the hospital for years. And we were right there with him. So there's a lot to this story to engage with. But I'll put it this way, I wouldn't be sitting here probably alive today if it wasn't for certain powerful women in my life.

This certainly includes an angel of a mother, my sister in later years, my wife today and and other certain teachers I had who really held me up and helped me push through a lot of the challenges that I now hold on to from a lot of the abuse and other things that I had faced earlier on. It's powerful women. So that plus the fact that I witnessed inside with my mother leading the way, how frankly, I'm not going to, you know, sugarcoat it. How inept today's medical system back then and still today is.

I saw it from the inside because I saw how inept they were with, say, you know, my mom had to, you know, take the reins with all of these doctors, basically, who were caring for my father after making mistakes with drugs, you know, that, you know, can cause far more serious damage than than was already. And I mean, it goes on and on. A lot of people know this story from their own version. So and then, you know, out of school, out of college, which I went to, even as a young man who had a you know, got married way too young, we had a wonderful new child.

My my very first son who's grown today. I mentioned him to you before and he's he's a best friend today. But it was rough in those years. I was very poor, very poor. But nonetheless, my wife at the time and we still pushed through. We went to school. So I'm out of school. I got a job associated with. We'll just say the pharmaceutical industry was my very first real job out of college and I saw things on the inside here that we to do a whole nother interview about. But I won't. But whatever one suspects about the pharmacy industry, there's not bad people inside.

There's a lot of great human beings inside that. But as that system as a whole is everything people think it is and worse, it was all set. So I found my way out of that, got into natural health, and I'm really shortening the story here. And for years I again, I helped other very prominent individuals and organizations become far more prominent in a lot of natural health research. So I was at a crossroads about five or six years ago where I'm like, Wow, I could do anything here. And here's what I had been seeing.

These powerful women who were there for me were getting impacted. Even these very strong of will, strong of power, women were getting negatively impacted by a message out there in society that says that getting older equals becoming doomed, that says that getting older becomes equaling, becoming undesirable, incapable, doomed to suffering and disease and pain. And it's all as a joke goes downhill from here. And I'm like, this does not jibe at all with all of the knowledge that I've gained from all of these amazing experts that I've worked so closely with over the decades.

That's not true. The years of 40, 50, 60, 70, even beyond, ought to be the time of life when you strive physically, mentally, emotionally. I said, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to bring all of these facts forward, straight, all research based facts forward, and just show people this is the truth. This is what you need to do, because these are at a time of life where you can thrive, even if you're suffering now, you can far more quickly. Many people will leave, you know this, of course, switch that and get on that thriving track.

So that's the art of anti-aging and how it was born. So I'll give you the Midlands version of the answer. I love that. I love that we're in the right place because it is it just it makes me want to bang my head against the wall when I see you know, I always say women are told, you know, they go through menopause and now you're like a big fat cow and just go out to pasture and no one cares about you anymore. And and the truth is, and why I do this and why you do what you do is

Why menopause and aging deserve a new narrative 9:42

this is like we've gone through our twenties and our thirties, and by the time we hit our forties are fifties. We're in our stride. We know who we are, we're comfortable with ourselves and it's then this time we can really share our gifts and have deeper, meaningful relation and shifts. We're not so addicted to the drama and all of that. And so it is so important to change the conversation because I've been doing it for 21 years in my practice with patients and just seeing them get younger, get healthier, be so active.

You know, I have patients who are in their eighties on tour in the country on motorcycles and boats and dancing and just stuff, having great sex, you know, it's so it's such a fallacy. And like you said, it doesn't have to be so hard when you when you do the right things and you embrace the right things that change and gaining that vitality can happen quicker than you really realize. It doesn't have to be a ten year journey. It can really happen faster than that. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I mean, I really appreciate and and truly respect what you do.

I can tell you, I mean, as a man, you know, that myth has its teeth and it bites in the men too. But it's clear as a bell that it's far worse, frankly, for women, you know, And in every respect, this myth of aging, this myth that aging equals down the hill, it's just such utter nonsense. Because as you so eloquently pointed out, this really is the time, you know, the time where you have your S-H blank blank together more than ever. You know, most you know, for the most part, most people and it ought to be the time that you're physically thriving.

Of course, you're going to have experiences that, you know, are setbacks. But there's there's an answer to those. And so, you know, I love what you and I both are doing. As you can tell, I'm passionate about it, too. I love it. I love that you're a man and you're standing for women. I think that's really important. So I just want to dive in because let's talk about shopping down the cosmetics aisle and that to think about eating. So you you obviously this is an area of expertise for you. And, you know, there's a lot of listeners are from the US not all women are listening from all over but that that factoid that there's 600 chemicals banned or deeply limited in the European Union and then the U.S.

there's only 11. 11. It's crazy. That's just so let's talk about what do the women need to know when they are pushing that cart, when they are making decisions? What stands out, Some tips that they could like jot down right now and start improving their health? Absolutely. You know, aside from the toxin of, you know, there's this mindset that getting older equals doom. You know, I've spent now decades studying all toxins in general. And again, there are very, you know, mental emotional toxins. We briefly covered that on the physical side.

I now call the toxins that are incredibly prevalent in cosmetics and personal care products. The worst source of toxins, worse than the and there's a lot, you know, an indoor air, as many people know, worst and at worst and worse than others for several reasons. The first reason is because people are so unaware of how toxic these products are. We have this implicit trust that someone must be watching out to some extent for us with these products that people squirt and rub all over their bodies, whether it's moisturizers, creams, soaps, soaps that you're scrubbing into your face, hair, shampoo, deodorant, a terrible wash.

There's this implicit trust that, okay, you know, maybe there's something a little bad in there, but somebody's watching out. No, they're not. No, they're not. I'm I'm going to start this way. The last time that there was any substance natural legislation about

Cosmetics, skin absorption, and toxic ingredients 14:10

this was in 1938, when the FDA mandated that the personal care products industry was on their own. This is this. I'm not this is not hype. I'm not making You're exaggerating this point. You're on your own self-regulate, what you do. And here is the fact, of course, these companies that create these aging anti-aging creams, moisturizers, deodorants and so on and so forth, they are not typically going to put anything in these products that can immediately be traced to them as negative. In other words, they're not going to put anything in there that causes you a rash or something right away.

They're careful about that. Because of what lawsuits? Of course, that's easy to trace, but there are today, since World War Two, there have been over 84,000 chemicals created, many of which are used in cosmetics and personal care. 84,001% of these have been tested. Really, 1% of these, as you pointed out, another statistic here in the U.S., only 11 chemicals have been banned from cosmetics and personal care. Like you said, in the European Union, over 1600 now have been banned. And there's many more on the docket that are being investigated to be banned.

So, you know, what's going on here. Another statistic I want to throw your way while we're on on data. In the US, the average woman uses 12 personal care products a day which contain 168 different chemicals. Okay. And there is a wild West. And these chemicals, the ones that have others outside the outside of the beauty industry that have been investigated by great organizations like the Environmental Working Group and others, those that have been and again, you're talking thousands of chemicals that they use.

So those that have been investigated because in some cases they're very prevalent. We used phthalates, for example, have been shown to be either A potentially or B, flat out dangerous. There's really five classes of dangerous chemicals that are widely used. They are direct carcinogens. In other words, it's known that they cause cancer. And then there's even more nefarious category of hidden carcinogens, which means they're also known to cause cancer. But it's also the combination that occurs. Remember, chemistry class back in high school, when you add one chemical with another chemical, it's not too different now.

It's become something else. And there's so many chemicals used that they have no clue what they what what's going on. It's a strange synthetic concoction. All right. So there's hidden carcinogens. Now, the one that is a most immediate importance to anyone going through or about to go through or post-market is menopause is our endocrine disruptors. I think many people understand the endocrine system is, you know, real layman's terms here. It's your hormones. And these disrupt by making by by acting like hormones, these chemicals.

And then there's allergens that that really prompt or exasperate allergies in people. And then there's penetrators really nasty class of chemicals added that take all these other ingredients and drive them even deeper into your body so that they work their so-called synthetic magic. So here's the thing. Let's use aging Creams as an example, so I could talk about this a little more in a more clear way. So most aging creams turn it around. You can see all kinds of ingredients there that you just can't even pronounce.

All right. They're loaded with these artificial ingredients in many cases, and they make claims. And the fact is, it's like fast food. Some of the claims are true. Meaning, yeah, they will moisturize your skin short term while they do immense damage. Ironically, to your skin and sadly to your health in many other ways, as we just discussed. And again, there is no real body watching over any of this. They want to, you know, cover their butts. So short term, again, they're not to put anything in there immediately, typically is traced to them.

But again, almost none of these gazillion different chemicals that they add have been tested in and of themselves, much less in combination with one another. But it is known again that they cause cancer, can potentially cause cancer. They screwed big time with hormones, which is not something you want, you know, during menopause really at any time, but certainly not during menopause. And that's what these chemicals in these cosmetics and personal care products do. So could I just ask, like maybe a naive question, but I understand, like they're monitoring themselves.

But what is it just that these chemicals are cheaper? Like, I'm like sitting here thinking, why use harmful stuff? Like, why not use some herbs or something natural or some coach? Like, why are they using such harmful stuff? Well, you nailed it. At the end of the day, it's profitable for them. I mean, it's it's shortcuts for them. You know, again, I mean, I researching this, I'm only more than ever a natural. It's I guess we'll call it after 20 some years of going deep on this than I was wasn't to start because nature has the answer for every single aspect for example, in skincare, much less in medicine, but in skincare itself, nature's offering up some amazing solutions like red maple leaf extract.

Back in 2018, they found nothing matches it for boosting the elastin in your skin because it's got some. So nature has these answers for all this, but it's more expensive to extract. It doesn't last as long on the shelf. Here's a really important one. It doesn't smell as pretty as fake smells that people have now become associated with with that effectiveness. So I'm kind of jumping around here, but people always ask me, Well, can you tell us what ingredients are especially bad to watch out for?

And I say, if you have about 3 hours and you can listen to a thousand different ingredients. Yeah. But nonetheless, for convenience sake, I will give you a few. And the worst, because it's telling of something even more is very simple to look for on the back of any product. Fragrance look for fragrance on the back of a product. What I do when I see it is I put it right back on the shelf and move on. Y Well, by the way, sometimes they get fancy on you and they instead called perfume because they want to sound French, and sometimes they're really basic and generic and they simply called scent.

They all are the same thing. Well, the problem with well, first of all, the reason that all of many of these chemicals are added to products. One of several reasons to answer your question is to make them smell really pretty. So we think that they're working and somehow, you know, we've been well, the word is brainwashed, brainwashed into believing that if something smells, smells like fake musk, fake strawberries, fake whatever, it must be good. We have, you know, been programed to associate these truly fake smells when you really step back with effectiveness.

So many of these products do have fragrance, but they're not normal, healthy, essential oils or anything like that. They might add a few of those. They can be anywhere from dozens to hundreds of different chemicals hiding behind that word. And here's the thing They don't have to even disclose all the chemicals that go into what the fragrance is. So I mentioned the EWG, so they did some studies and found that typically behind that little shield of a word that sounds so innocent there plenty of dangerous ingredients.

The suggestion is and again, you know, I won't name names that a lot of companies even hide some of the worst chemicals in that. And the reason they don't have to tell you, why do they not have to tell you? Because it's a trade secret, how they get their special fancy scent. So they're not required to even disclose a lot of the ingredients that you're feeding your body through your skin. So when I see that on a like note, I will take something that smells, you know, so, so are pretty good, you know, or that like essential oil, you know, just fine or something that has neutral center no sense another reason lather.

You asked me why they had these ingredients they are they're shelf life. They are things like plasticizers to make the different chemicals mix more smoothly. They are, like I said, they're there for smell, but they're also for foam, you know, sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium lura sulfate. Again, I'll say those again, because those are two I watch out for sodium lauryl sulfate sulfate or sodium lower sulfate. These are agents added chemicals added just for foaming pretty much. And we have become, as you know, associated foaming with effectiveness.

Foaming doesn't change a thing in a product in a hand soap or a face soap or shampoo. But psychologically they got us believing it must be better because it's following. Those are fake chemicals doing that. And chemicals, by the way, that you don't want to feed your body. Those are potentially, you know, carcinogenic, for example, sodium laurel and sodium lower sulfate. So I can go on. You see, I'm passionate about this, but, you know, I'm. I'm loving this because, you know, when you were talking about fragrance, I'm thinking it's kind of the same thing in food.

Like you see natural flavors and you think, oh, that's natural, that's a flavor. But it's the same thing. They hide all this garbage in there and it's the same thing. And then going back to what we said in the beginning, like what you're feeding yourself, we need to be just as focused on what you're feeding your skin and what's being absorbed systemically. So keep going. I'm loving this. On that point. I mean, I challenge everyone to really step back and think how they think about their skin, because we are in a society and in an age where we don't even think about it, it's sometimes it's part of our body.

If you you know, if you consider what we do to it, we experiment on it constantly and we're raised at a young age. That's it okay to do that? But the fact of the matter is, this is one of the organs of your body. It happens to be the largest organ of your body. Not only that, it happens to be part of your immune system. And not only that, it happens to be arguably one of it's not the most important component of your immune system because it's doing the hard, it's the front line and it's doing the hard job of keeping a lot of stuff out.

Even in a world where we weren't overloaded with chemicals on stuff, in stuff in the air and everywhere, even in a normal, healthy your world where we're in so many chemicals, it's job is tough all day long, it's fighting off pathogens, etc., and keeping them out of your body. Now, we've decided somehow that it's more like a piece of clothing than than an organ on our body. I always challenge people like, listen, you know, would you just blindly take, you know, because some company told you it's effective?

Would you take a product and sprayed on your brain or your heart or your liver or any other organ? I don't think anybody in their right mind says yes. You know, they're like, Well, of course I wouldn't do that. But you're doing that with your skin, you know, and you're taxing its ability to protect your health, your your immunity. It's already got a hard enough job when you add on all of these products that are loaded with these toxic and potentially toxic chemicals you're making. It's regular job so much harder, you're basically compromising your immune system on top of it.

Not to mention the fact that as we've discovered in recent decades, the whole microbiome on your skin, and that's part of the whole process and part of the immunity. And they shared all those helpful little bacteria do not like and do not want all of these fake chemicals. They're not cheering when that happens, they're dying. So you ruining a part of your microbiome when you're feeding your body these chemicals. And this, as you could tell, is why I say this is the worst one of the worst sources of toxins today, because the knowledge on this is a good ten, 15 years, the collective knowledge behind where we are with food, you know, that we put in our mouths.

So, you know, most people if I said, you know, there's all these chemicals, I can name some for you, you know, there's phthalates, there's formaldehyde regularly, routinely allowed. It's in so many cosmetics, trickle sand is all over the place. That's a nasty endocrine disruptor. Very much in creams that people show all over their faces are parabens. I think a lot of folks have heard of that. When polyethylene glycol, I can go on. But the point is these are so prevalent. And if I said those are in your food that you're putting in your mouth, I think a lot of people would be like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

Really? Especially health conscious people. They're going to be like, no, I'm not. You know, I'm not going to put that in my mouth. And yet we so freely feed it to our bodies, like you said, through our skin. And please make no mistake, most of what you apply, there's numbers. There's there's 60% plus is a figure that I've most recently heard of. What you apply, your skin goes into your body, it penetrates and penetrates to the deeper levels of your skin at the very least. And in many cases, it penetrates all the way to your bloodstream.

Fragrance, sulfates, and hidden chemicals 28:38

And when it goes into your bloodstream, the problem with so many of these carcinogenic ingredients, these endocrine disrupting ingredients and so forth, is that many of them have a long, long half life, which basically means they last a long time and they get stored in your you know, they're not lot not all of them are water soluble. Even those that are water soluble were so overloaded that our body is having a hard time getting rid of them. But some of them, you know, gets stored in the fat and then they really start to harm you over time.

So I have I've had, you know, many people now over the years where I've said, listen, there are great, great products out there, But but try this. If you don't believe me, try this. Just don't use anything for two weeks. I know it's a little rough, you know, because because people women can be very, you know, almost religious about certain brands of of products that they use and makeups and and nobody wants to smell bad with the deodorant thing. But, you know, people who have for two weeks just not used anything all of a sudden, all of a sudden, quote unquote, you know, around that a lot of issues that they called mystery symptoms where they never quite nail what was going on disappeared, things like sinus issues, dizziness, You know, you can go on weird skin rashes and skin bumps and so many different, you know, all of a sudden they cleared up and I'm like, well, bingo.

Because now you you basically detox your body by not giving it a ton of toxins. You stopped feeding it all this crap. So, yeah, I'll pause there. But, you know, see if you a very good question. You know, you bring up so many good points. You know, I think about the skin and I think about from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, you know, your weight, which is your protective, your immune system, it runs right there below your skin. And so, you know, not only are you affecting the microbiome and the more tangible things, but you're also affecting the the energetics systems.

And, you know, the skin has so much information like I do computerized regulation thermography from Germany. And I'm using I'm taking temperature readings on the skin because there's a neuro reflex through the autonomic nervous system where the skin can report it to you and tell you the health of your organs. And I like what you said. Like we we just think it's a piece of clothing now. And and we actually it's like it's this one organ. You know, we can't see our livers, so we can feel symptoms and we can deduce what's going on and we can do testing.

But like our skin is like, hello, I'm here and it's giving you feedback. And rather than wanting to suppress that feedback, we need to look at that feedback. You know why is my skin dry? Why is my lymph not moving? Why am I getting puffy? What's going on? And so it's it just is we don't think about it as much. You're making me really think about it right now. But like with our skin, it's the same. And, you know, we talk about not suppressing symptoms and listening to symptoms, and we need to start listening to our skin and being kinder and the things you're saying about what's in it.

And we I, you made me think about like you see the guy with the pesticides coming and, you know, I'm always like, you are not spraying anywhere near me or my property. But like where I live, someone came to spray and I was like, Oh, no, no, no, no. You know, you're not doing that. You can just move along. And he was like, No, no, it's totally fine. I'm like, No, you know, we don't do that around. He's like, No, it's not dangerous, you know? And I'm like, says who? And it's also like when you think about not eating organic, I always say, like to my patients, if you were to go like it's very easy in the supermarket to go all the non organic, it looks pretty you know, the organic maybe is a little bruised and but if you were go to the farm where they were spraying the the pesticides and then they were like, let's have a picnic.

Right. You know, you'd probably be like, No, thank you, I'll pass. I don't need all the cross bone chemicals in my body. But because we don't see it, because there's this disconnect and because we're like you said, and I totally agree brainwashed. We think nothing of just. Well, it makes my skin softer. It smells nice. And we really need to to step up and have more respect for our skin and our bodies. Because I can tell you, when I work with patients who have been given a cancer diagnosis, you know, one of the first things I have to do is detox them and start taking away all the things that they've been putting in or exposed to that contributed to that diagnosis.

And so why not, you know, start and prevent? It's a lot easier to prevent and then to take out and really taking this seriously. I always say to patients like if it's advertised on TV or a commercial, like don't even think about buying it, it's not going to be good for you. I mean, that's, you know, just pretty accurate action. A good points, you know, and then, of course, I mean, a lot of people probably right now are wondering, well, what am I supposed to do? You know, what am I supposed to do?

I don't want to smell bad for my underarms. I don't I don't want I don't love these wrinkles necessarily. I want to have some, you know, lipstick, menopause, whatever it may be. And again, I'm going to go back and say this cosmetic personal care products industry is were food was with conscious this as well as revolution maybe 20 years ago. So that's where it's at today. And it's good news because this knowledge that I'm, you know, sharing today, for example, is getting out there. There is increasing pushback.

And so, you know, industry is responding by creating a lot of junk that they position as good. But then there's also some actually really good products out there. I do want to note that be careful. I'll just say straight of getting greenwash. So I mentioned, for example, one of many ingredients you want to be careful about is parabens and it's the latest craze. If I go look on cosmetics and personal care paraben free, I'm like, okay, that's greenwashing in most cases. What does greenwashing mean?

These companies that create these products are well aware that people are becoming conscious of this, but instead of going, you know, the full journey and what you can do, I'm testament to that because we do it. But instead of going the full journey and creating truly safe toxin free products that will, you know, do the things you want them to do their own going a short distance, a part of the journey because it's expensive, a lot of work, so on and so forth. So what they're doing is they're basically grabbing your attention with something that sounds good to you and hoping you don't turn the bottle around and look at the rest the ingredients.

But if you do, you will see, you know, often ten, 20, 30, 40 other ingredients in there that you still don't want to put in your body. You don't get greenwash. They they will say things like contains organic ingredients for food. Does this to that's a trick or a unless it's independently truly from an independent organization certified organic be super cautious because contains organic ingredients. You know when you're looking at you know a moisturizer for example, often means it has two organic or three organic ingredients and again, ten synthetic ones.

They just don't want you to think and, you know, draw your attention if that's greenwashing for you.

Why skin care choices affect immunity and the microbiome 36:38

So be careful of that. So people then say, all right, well, 1600 chemicals banned, you know, in Europe and elsewhere in over 40 countries, actually thousands, 80,000 chemicals out there that could be used. What do we possibly do? Nobody's going to be able to. There is not I will say this first, there's not a perfect solution, but there are very good solutions. Solution number one, you can always make your own, you know, But I realize not everybody is into that. But there there are there's a growing you know movement and body of people out there who are showing you how to create your own.

You fill in the blank, meaning your own moisturizers, your own toothpaste, your own deodorants, your own this and that. And some of them look pretty darn good out there. The DIY ers, the do it yourselfers, and they're where you choose and buy organic ingredients as the base and you create them yourself. And it's growing movement because some of these things really actually, you know can work really well Most people are not into that understand normal. We live again as I started this whole conversation saying from my perspective in a very good time, because increasingly even in the big box stores now, there are USDA certified organic versions of many not all, but many of our essential or not so essential cosmetics and personal care products.

They are companies. Conscientious companies really care about this. I'll be blunt. You're going to pay a few bucks more. You're paying more because of what's going into it. You know, truly toxin free natural products, whether it's a deodorant or toothpaste, orange purity was our my company's case. You know, the skincare products, it's hard work but it's when you see yeah I'll I'll put it this way please patronize and look for USDA certified organic cosmetics and personal care products. It doesn't have to be purity, which it could be our competitors, and there's a small handful of them out there who are also doing it right.

But please patronize those organizations. A number one, that's the closest thing you have when you see that independent certification that it does not contain any of these toxic chemicals and that even the natural ingredients used were grown organically, meaning not sprayed with pesticides, as you noted, and herbicides and so forth. In other words, the government does some things well and some things not so well. I give them credit in this area. They decided and this is interesting in telling and I always found this interesting sharing is that USDA certified organic was originally and still is for food that we put in our mouths.

Right. Why is it that they decided to extend it only to cosmetics and personal care products? It's an acknowledgment that that is also a form of food. So it's like, wow, government. You got that one right. Impressive, actually, on that. So look for you as if you're in the U.S. I must stress this. Look for USDA certified organic. What other you know, the cosmetic and personal care product. Maybe there's even it's a harder even thing to do with makeups, but they're out there and some of them I hear are pretty good.

You got to do your homework. USDA certified organic make up on Google in such phrases. Try them, patronize them. Because again, you can be sure because it used to be certified organic means zero toxins allowed. Technically, 95% plus of the ingredients have to be organic. The reason that there's a 5% margin and there's a list of all acceptable ingredients beyond that is because many of them are minerals. Minerals, by their nature, are grown. That can't be organic because they're minerals, you know.

But so 95% plus pure and clean and even the ingredients included must be grown organically free of pesticides, herbicides and so forth. There are equivalents since you got people listening all over the world, not quite as strict and stringent, but close is Equusearch. Equusearch, which is Europe and elsewhere. You know, that's pretty prominent. And then there are also some states have some pretty trustable, you know, vigilant designations as well for organics. But that's if nothing else. And you're hearing us look for those USDA certified organic products.

And it's kind of your cheap, you know, to to get past trying to hunt ingredients and say, is that bad for me? Is that bad for me? Because you can be sure it's it's truly natural, not greenwashing, fake natural. We're going to all be Googling after this year. I'm going to go because I never heard the term greenwashing, but I'm very familiar with that deceiving, you know, deceitful way of because they do it with food, like they'll say grass fed beef, but it will be and finished. And so like they know people know about grass fed but you know you can you can stretch the truth if you fed the cows from grass you don't have you know, but you also gave it all the antibiotics and the grains and stuff.

Well, you don't have you can, you know, lead by omission. So that's I love that term. And yes, it is totally happening. You know, you see like gluten free is a big thing in food, right. So like they put gluten free on your yogurt and like, oh, this is healthy to eat. And you're like, well, there was no gluten in there to begin with. I would say. Absolutely free is a big one. So that is true. You can't just see the one thing. They do it on cookware. They do it on everything. So. So Google, USDA certified, make up any other tips or solutions you'd like to see.

You're going to make up cosmetics if you Google us. User If I were going to anti-aging cream, for example, I hope purity was comes up. I don't even know. Yeah, I really just want to remind, you know, a couple of things actually come to mind. So, you know, it's interesting because the name of

Greenwashing and how to choose safer products 42:58

our information organization is the Art of Anti-Aging. And there's you know, there's a little bit of tension with this word anti-aging. Well, in our sense, what it means is anti the false myth that aging equals doom. In other words, you know, it's really pro aging because this is a time, as I mentioned at the start, to thrive, you know, But there's also this there seems to be two camps developing where many people want to try to look younger in the sense of their they may be 52 and they want to look 22.

There's something a little unhealthy about that because, you know, you can look your very best and be beautiful, handsome, whatever, you know, at age 52. And then there's the other camp who said all this nonsense about being against wrinkles and age spots. You know, it's terrible. And the truth is, is actually something in between. And let me explain this before before we go, because this is really important. I will be blunt and I will say that I'd fathom to say that most people today look considerably older than they ought to look right.

That's good news. It's not bad. It's now the culprits. The reasons why I just spent time with you discussing one of the big culprits, which is all these toxins we're feeding our body, and then all the other usual suspects like your The skin is an organ. Like you said, it's pretty much a billboard, in a sense, for our health. So all the other culprits that poor diets, you know, the sad diet, typical American diet, for example, lack of exercise, not drinking enough water, all the usual culprits that are causing health issues for us on other fronts, you know, chronic diabetes, chronic cancer cases, etc., etc., etc..

There is the same things, you know, to blame, you know, for the fact that most people look considerably older than they ought to. So when you look in the mirror, you shouldn't feel guilty for feeling like I don't want those wrinkles, I don't want older age spots, because you're right. And in most cases, the beautiful thing is when you reduce, it's just about, you know, continually reducing. You don't have to get paranoid. And so every single product away just keep moving toward reducing. But when you reduce this toxic exposure and when you take steps to instead do the right things for your health, many of which you of other sorts, you've certainly, you know, shared with people a beautiful thing happens.

Like I said, it's your skin is your largest organ is also probably and I always like to check myself but probably the fastest to respond positively to change. It's a beautiful thing because when you do reduce, reduce, reduce all these, you know, this toxic affronts, you know, to to your health and well-being while you feed your body good stuff both through your mouth and through your skin and do other right things. The more right things you do, the skin is faster to respond positively than other organs in your body, typically.

In other words, the brain is pretty fast too, but your skin quickly does start to look younger, young, and by younger I mean as it's supposed to look, you know? So if you are 52, it starts to look quickly. Like a 52 year old skin ought to look. And you're amazed at that thing. It's a beautiful thing. So, you know, these toxins because far worse things than just wrinkles and fine lines. But but people are bothered by those aspects of things. So I wanted to address that. It's a wonderful thing. Reduce these toxics.

Don't over worry this and throw everything out tomorrow. I have a little rule for people if you're going to take steps and I can conclude with it. If you're going to take steps to reduce the cosmetics and personal care products in your life, that they're likely causing damage. Again, if you're in New York, look for the USDA certified organic as much as possible. There are other worthwhile certificate issues out there. And B, if you must take it step by step, think about the products you're using that sit on your skin all day or for a long period of time and start there because they're sitting on your body for a long time.

They're feeding your body what's in them for a long time. I'm not saying that shampoo is not, you know, something to be cautious of, but if it's a choice between a moisturizer or an aging cream and a deodorant versus a shampoo that you rub in, and most of which you rub off, you know, wash off some residue remains, you got to choose one or the other because of your budget. Choose the one that's sitting on your skin all day or all night. Make the change there first. Make the change under your arm first, you know, because it's sitting there, a very sensitive spot all day.

And sometimes all night choose those first. And so it's kind of common sense in that sense. But of course, we need to draw awareness to make things, you know, common sense, you know, apparent to us. And that's that's the little rule I have for people on that. That's great advice and really helpful So it doesn't become overwhelming. And yes, I'm going to echo the you know, you can't be putting antiperspirants with aluminum and toxins. That's one of the biggest issues I see when I run thermography scans and women have issues in their breast.

It's always in the lymph. We've always got to clean out and move that area. And I just want to, you know, appreciate what you said because I was just having this conversation with a friend the other day. I'm 55 and, you know, my hair is I'm a redhead, so my hair is going like blond. We don't really go gray. We blond first. And so I was saying, you know, and I've always looked younger than my age. And I was saying, you know, I notice lately that when I tell people I have grandbabies, they're not as shocked as like they used to be.

Or like when I would tell people I have kids, they would always think my kids were my brothers or my husband if I was alone with one of them. And I said, you know, it's just something I've always been used to and I'm stepping into because just like you said, you know, I am 55 and I own that and I'm glad my hair is changing colors. I have earned that. I have earned the gray, you know, smile lines, you know, the laugh and get some lines or my wrinkles. And, you know, I've overcome a lot. And so it really is it's it's a mindset.

You have to change with that. Like, okay, you know, maybe I do look like a grandma now and that's okay. You know, being a grandma is my favorite thing in the world. And so I think for, you know, you ladies listening, it's like you really have to get real with yourself and see what's really you know, if you look in the mirror and it's like ruining your day and ruining everything, you probably want to one, explore what's underneath that. But to take some natural steps to to alleviate it. And, you know, so you have to see, you know, what do you feel good about?

What do you like? Yeah, heck yeah I earned this or and so it's different for everyone, but it's I'm glad you brought open that topic because it's just a conversation we start we need to start having internally, first of all, and then we can have it outwardly with our friends and our partners and so forth. But it's something to start thinking about because you know, I started saying I practice pro aging medicine and and I love what you said because it is anti-aging about the way we think about aging.

I'm very against that. So I love that you defined that. And so we really you know, it all comes down to this conversation of we're all, you know, if you're listening and you're human, you're getting older. That is inevitable. So when can you come to this peace within yourself that this is just the human condition and we're all marching that way? And how are we going to march there? What's our mindset going to be? How are we going to embrace? Because it truly is a privilege to age. Not everyone gets that honor.

And so how are we going to fill our days and times and how are we going to be present with the beauty and the knowledge and the wisdom we have? And who cares if my hair is blond or fire engine red the way it used to be?

Pro-aging mindset and closing recommendations 51:18

Like I'm me. I have all my experience and knowledge and that's what I'm grateful for. So thank you for bringing that up. I hope this opens up for everyone listening. Just a window to contemplate or journal or meditate on or start discussing and thinking about because that is part of the the conversation I want to see change and the experience of aging. There's nothing wrong with aging. It's it's inevitable. So let's rock it while we while we're doing it. So where can people learn more about you, Anger and Charity Woods, which I was telling Brian before he came live, You know, he sent me some samples graciously and and I saying how much I love it and how I had like a little bit of congestion under my eyes.

And the ice cream is just like magical. And so where can people find out more? Yeah, well, I'd like to take full credit for how amazing you look, but I'll take a little credit and go out there. Yeah. You know, we get that feedback for the age from ice cream age. Fine dream cream. It really does tend to work wonders around, you know, everyone's got different bio, you know, chemistry, etc.. But really does work fast magic round eyes. I hear a lot. Anyway, thank you for asking that question. The answer is Purity Woods. So puritywoods.com.

Simple as that. And we don't have, you know, we don't have 40 different products. Instead we have five or six are really the best you know products because I'm passionate about it, as you can see. I mean I'm, I do I geek out on this and you can tell I can talk with youth probably for an hour or two and a half hours here. I geek out on, you know what, it is important to try to leave out of our bodies a lot of the toxins we talked about a lot of the emotional mental toxins that we've also covered here in there.

And I get out and what really works the best for putting into your body. So when you go to Purity Woods and you check out, you know, the age defying ice cream, you will see some very cool and different ingredients than you probably are used to even in natural products. That's not just to be cool. That's because they work. I mean, you know, and again, I've been studying this stuff for ever. I brought up red meat maple leaf extracts, for example. That's in the age defying dream cream. And and second, just talk all day with you.

But I'll, I'll by saying something very specific for people you know there are multiple aspects but really three you want a heavy duty focus on a make sure any product if you are trying to eliminate wrinkles fine lines, age spots you want to make sure that you got real i.e. naturally natural ingredients that help your college in the other protein called elastin, which doesn't get the attention it deserves. Actually, if I was going to choose one, that would be the one. But we don't have to choose one.

But college in a last stand. And then what a lot of people are familiar with, which is hydration and moisture, hit those three areas and you're going to do a lot for your skin. The age defying dream cream, the age defying night cream, they're all about some very cool ingredients that do that, including red maple leaf extracts, which I like. I told you, I've seen nothing out there. And I go down to the chemistry level, nothing out of that contains such powerful compounds for the last. And so in our next discussion, I can geek out for another hour and have a couple ingredients, but I know I.

Would love that. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Your passion is infectious and I love it. And just really, really important topics. I'm just pleased to know you and thank you for all the amazing work you do in the world. And you know, this was I told you this was going to be a good conversation, ladies. So there's so many little nuggets that if you weren't taking notes, I highly recommend listening again and going back and taking notes. And you know, sharing this information like you may not have all your friends or colleagues or family members listening to the summit with you, but start talking to them about this like we need to change and open up the conversation.

And this is one that's not being had enough. So I appreciate you being here for the conversation and helping to spread the word.