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15Oct
2012

Recovering from Natural Health Anxiety

Paint Nail Polish Fumes Natural Health Anxiety

Nail polish is not the best thing to be sniffing when you have multiple chemical sensitivities and you get migraines in a room full of perfume.  It is also known to be a source of phthalate exposure, which can be absorbed into the body.  Phthalates from nail polish use have been found in the urine of pregnant women.1  Sounds like a big, bad, TERRIBLE idea to paint your nails!

I had a tiny case of natural health anxiety before I started my journey at Bastyr, but now that I’m almost done, it’s probably more like a disorder.  I confess – paint fumes, pesticide spray, perfume, and Resolve carpet spray, all give me hypervigilant bug eyes and obsessions about my astronomical levels of chemical exposure.  I haven’t been able to handle having non-organic celery in the fridge, let alone the fumes I would have to sniff to use nail polish!

But then I started getting the pretty nail polish itch, probably because I read every Joy the Baker post and she makes dazzling nails sound so fabulous!  I wanted fun nails, too!

I thought about elderly women in their 80s, who probably painted their nails a few times when they were 29, and they’re still alive!  Still breathing and laughing and smiling!  Maybe painting my nails wouldn’t kill me after all.

So I painted my nails “I’m Indi-a Mood For Love” pink (without pushing my cuticles back).  I survived!

Have you struggled with natural health anxiety?  What did you do about it?

 

References:

1.  Buckley JP, Palmiere RT, Matuszewski JM, et al:  Consumer product exposures associated with urinary phthalate levels in pregnant women.  J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol.  2012 Sep;22(5):468-75.

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One Response

  1. Diane Squyres

    Nice to see you took a little time for yourself and did something special. They look nice.

    Reply

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