General Hygiene: Healthy and Conscientious Choices

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
-Mahatma Ghandi

In my last post I went over the do's and don'ts of dental hygiene, and for this post I'll try to go over the rest of the hygienic needs and my recommendations for healthy, beneficial, and ecologically responsible products that can meet those needs. Much like with the dental products, the main things to keep in mind are to find products that contain mostly organic, harmless ingredients, and are cruelty free/not tested on animals. Such products can easily be found in any natural health market, and even in the natural health section of most supermarkets.

The company I most recommend for shower and facial products is Sea Chi Organics http://seachi.com/. Especially
 http://www.seachi.com/lime-body-wash-4oz120ml-p-99.html for body wash, http://www.seachi.com/peppermint-shampoo-8oz240ml-p-102.html for shampoo, and
http://www.seachi.com/leave-moisturizing-treatment-hair-growth-formula-8oz240ml-p-44.html for conditioner. They have a number of other products that cover all kinds of things, all of which are worth looking into. Dr. Bronner's Soaps is definetely another highly recommended company http://www.drbronner.com/ and they have products that cover almost all hygienic needs. Giovanni Cosmetics is another wonderful company that offers very reasonable prices for all of their products http://www.giovannicosmetics.net/.

For deoderants, it's really important to get a brand that doesn't contain any aluminum (and all the other chemicals the mainstream brands use, for that matter). Aluminum-containing deoderants have been linked to causing many health problems, even cancer. Read more about that at http://suite101.com/article/aluminum-in-deodorant-a45498 and http://www.naturalnews.com/027624_deodorant_aluminum.html. My preferred brand is Alba Botanica http://www.albabotanica.com/body/deodorants.html.

For hand soap, I really like the antibacterial soap by Clean Well http://www.cleanwelltoday.com/our-products/hand-soaps/.

For body lotion, I recommend the MSM lotion by Sun Star Organics http://sunstarorganics.com/msmberryvanillalotion.aspx.

Here's a site that list's a huge amount of hygiene companies that don't partake in animal testing... http://www.leapingbunny.org/shopping.php

And of course any of the body and skin care products approved by healthy-living expert David Wolfe and featured on the Longevity Warehouse site at http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/category-s/156.htm.

Those are some of the brands and products that I recommend, but when choosing for yourself, always consider these two main things to keep in mind: No harmful and toxic chemicals, and no testing on animals.