Clean Living

     So in the interest of helping others live a better more abundant life, I want to share a one of my experiences.

     I have been plagued by migraine headaches most of my life. If you are not aware, the migraine is considered one of the most painful medical conditions known to man. They are characterized by intense pain, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound. For me, migraines could get so bad that they would cause me to vomit. Any movement, odor or temperature change could make it worse. I have never found a medication that could make it go away. The only option was to sleep it off in a cold, dark, silent room.

     A migraine would come on fairly suddenly most of the time. I would usually be fine for most of the day, and then around early afternoon it would hit and I would have to leave work, try to make it home safely and just crash. Occasionally I might feel it coming on and take a double dose of ibuprofen and that would head it off. (Ha! Head it off!) Of course other times it would actually make it worse and add to the nausea. I would also go through spells of having them more frequently. I would have only one a month for two or three months followed by several weeks of two to five migraines each week. These times were very oppressive and depressing. The whole thing began sometime around when I was 12 years old, and they increased in intensity and frequency as I got into my mid 20's. At the time I'm writing this I'm 33.

     I never could figure out what the trigger was. Some people find relief by cutting out any food that contains MSG. Others by cutting out anything fermented like wine, beer, cheese, pickles, even peperoni. I've read that weather patterns can be a trigger, lack of sleep, too long without eating, not enough B vitamins and on and on... I tracked all these things over the years, with no real clues at all. Until one day just after Christmas 2012.

     My wife and kids were out of town for a few weeks visiting family so I was home alone enjoying my last few days of vacation and reveling in the total silence, when a migraine hit. Not a particularly bad one, but still not fun. This was one that medicine wasn't helping so I started with the tricks that had helped in the past. Drinking water, soaking my feet in hot water, eating salt, cup of coffee, cold washcloth over my eyes, cayenne pepper (believe me you would try it too). I got a small amount of relief and began to try to distract myself by doing some more research on triggers. I think I searched for something like "environmental migraine triggers." I ran across all the same things I had found before, then I saw something a bit different. I wish I could find it again. It was a post on a medical forum from a woman who had found her trigger. Antiperspirant.

"Yeah right" you're thinking. "That couldn't possibly have any merit." That's what I thought too, but after 20 years of this I was willing to try anything.  I got up, took a shower, washed my pits really good and put nothing back on them. 15 minuets later the migraine subsided to a headache, and within less than an hour was completely gone. I tested it the next day by putting on antiperspirant, and guess what? Migraine began to come back. Took another shower, migraine went away.

     Now it has been just over a year since I have worn any type of deodorant, and I have had only one, count em', one migraine, and that one wasn't very bad. I don't know why this has worked for me, besides the speculation that consistently rubbing a bunch of chemicals and laboratory created fragrance on an area of my body where the skin is thin, close to major arteries and lymph nodes/glands is probably not the best idea.

     Now you may be asking the question "Have you lost all your friends?" and I would answer, "only those with a sense of smell." (Bad joke there. Get used to them, they will be frequent and rarely that good.)

     The fact is, I don't stink. Not even through summer, and I work outside for a living, have a garden and live in Georgia if that means anything to you. I stay clean, I wash my pits well every day. After I shower I clean my underarms with a bit of rubbing alcohol to kill any stink producing bacteria, and I have no issues. And most importantly, I HAVE NO MIGRAINS!

     I'm sharing this with you to kind of make a point. Hopefully I can help someone out there to improve their quality of life by doing what Paul Wheaton over at permies.com calls a "toxin-ectomy."
We as a family have begun to work on this in small ways. First antiperspirant then commercially produced toothpaste. We make our own toothpaste out of peroxide and baking soda. We use only organic soap for our bodies, and make our own cleaning products and laundry detergent. And you know what? We are just as clean as everyone else around us. We don't stick out or come off as hippies. Our home is clean. We save money. Mine and my families skin and hair is healthier, softer and clearer than it used to be. We seem to not get sick as often. We certainly don't do it all perfectly, sometimes we still buy a few more conventional type cleaning products, but we try to get the "cleaner" cleaning products. Not only is this better for us, but also for the environment.

     I hope this helps someone out there to make their life better, and if it does please let me know. If you need any advice, help or support let me know that as well. Check out the forums at permies, there is a whole section called toxin-ectomy to help get you started on the path to clean living.

J.B.