My Dental Arsenal

I gave Rupam’s booth a quick visit on Saturday and came home with some new material to work on.

On the first matter, Rupam simply gave me a thumbs up.  A week or so ago, I’d noticed that our boy’s teeth were looking rather yellow.  I must confess that I often question just how well we’re doing with his dental hygiene – does anybody else struggle with brushing a two and a half year old’s teeth ?!  But the yellowish color was a new development.  I decided to use baking soda.  He tolerated it like a champ and sure enough, his teeth were back to gleaming white.  I’m pretty sure that I’ve made the point before, that Rupam’s tooth soap doesn’t have anything abrasive in it.  This is much better for our dental health on a daily basis but it means that we need to give our teeth a good scrub periodically – if we want them to be nice and white.  I’ve been keeping up with my activated charcoal and now I’ve added in a little baking soda here and there.  But tending to the same needs in my toddler’s mouth was a new thing.  I feel like I might just be getting the hang of this.  My kid on the other hand still hasn’t figured out how to avoid swallowing his tooth soap.  But given it’s all natural ingredients, I don’t worry about that too much.

On the second matter, Rupam gave me yet another tooth brushing tip.  I must confess that I’m beginning to love showing her my teeth because she always has something worthwhile to say and as a result I’m becoming quite the tooth brushing fanatic.  On Saturday, she observed that I haven’t been doing a thorough enough job at my gum line.  Her expert eyes (she’s looked at thousands of mouths over the years) detected a sort of cottage cheesy line of gunk along the tops and bottoms of my teeth and some inflammation on the neighboring gums – ick!  This made sense to me because I worry about being too rough on my gums and having them recede, although I’ve come to understand that perhaps the receding has more to do with the fact that I clench my jaw while I sleep.  Anyway, Rupam recommended a soft and steady scrubbing all along the gum line each brushing, with a soft bristle tooth brush.  I’m also doing a better job of flossing everyday which I sometimes get slack with (for shame).  And, of course, I’m feeling cleaner and happier to smile having implemented these new tips.

Several years ago now, I gave my approach to personal care some lengthy consideration and realized that I was slowly transitioning to a preventative model of care.  To me this involves a consistent routine of engaging with my body:  I keep tabs on what is happening and I respond with some sort of action.  My current lessons in natural dental hygiene are one example of this.  I love that there is always another detail to address, another improvement to be made.  But the only way that I become aware of these incremental improvements to make is by visiting Rupam and having her look at my teeth.  Once again, I’m feeling very grateful to know her!

Here it is…the last resolution post of 2014.  Whew, what a relief!  Tomorrow marks something of a new beginning here and I certainly am glad to be starting with a sense of resolve – at least in one little corner of my life.  Other corners are teeming with the debris of homemade valentines, I’m still not sure what I was thinking…..

delicious and nutritious facial – really!

Okay, it bears repeating that I’m a cream junkie.  With my dry sensitive skin, there’s no other way.  Lucky for me, my obsession has led me to learn a lot and today I’m sharing what I know.  This is a follow up post to Why I Love a Good Facial.

I fell in love with Elina’s products in a short amount of time.  Given that Shelley and I were small business buddies, I would often pop into her space and I always would stand and gaze longingly at the display of products.  It wasn’t long before I was exclusively using Elina’s products and loving them all the more.  I haven’t strayed since.  Since I haven’t had a facial nearly three years, Elina’s products have really had a chance to prove their efficacy.  But first a little back story.  As a teenager who avoided the sun, I was mercilessly teased for never sporting a tan.  These episodes didn’t bother me much, for I had plans to have a beautiful complexion far into adulthood – perhaps the teasing fortified my determination.  Now that I’m in my late thirties, I feel satisfied with my action plan and thankful that I found the support of Shelley and Elina.

Over the years I got to know Elina and learn more and more about her products.  Given that her business is based in my home state, I’ve enjoyed many a treatment there.  I even attended one conference before my ability to travel became more limited.  The more I learn, the more I love what Elina offers.  And the more convinced I am that she has created a line of products that stands shoulders above all the rest.  As far as I can tell, there are three characteristics that set Elina’s line apart from the rest:  they are 100% high quality ingredients, organic or wildcrafted in all cases which change seasonally so that the body is always stimulated; they are 100% transdermal which means that instead of all that goodness resting on top of your skin it sinks right in where it will be best utilized;  and they have the added beneficial bonus of being bioenergized.

While I certainly believe that each of those three characteristics are essential for the high quality products that Elina makes, I have come to think that the transdermal quality is the most important.  Here’s the thing:  wax, a very common ingredient in skin care products (check your labels and recipes), is not good for our skin.  Like everything else in our bodies, our skin is designed to be constantly changing.  This change happens from layer to layer as materials pass through the layers of our skin.  When we put wax on our skin it feels good and smooth from the outside, but it severely inhibits that flow which is the basic function of our skin.  It may be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway, it doesn’t make good sense to inhibit the basic function of any part of our body.  And since our skin is our biggest organ and we spend most of our time fully clothed (unlike Joe Pilates), it makes even less sense.  If the products one uses have toxic ingredients this is a good thing because the wax is limiting your exposure to those ingredients.  But if you’re using products with high quality ingredients and wax, then you’re creating a case of double deprivation with each and every application.

Here’s something that happens when folks begin using Elina’s products, their skin feels different.  Often, dry.  This is because their skin is incredibly thirsty for real nourishment since the wax that is in most creams has been keeping all the moisturizing goodness from soaking into the skin.  Once the skin actually gets the opportunity for nourishment and proper function, there is repair work to be done.  So it’s reasonable to expect something of a gradual result when beginning to use Elina’s products.  It’s also important to use the ones that match your body, that’s why Elina’s products are sold through licensed aestheticians.

The transdermal quality of Elina’s products means that all the power of the ingredients can be absorbed and utilized by our bodies.  This is no small statement.  I remember when Shelley made the transition to using Elina’s products in her treatments and sure enough, the results were immediately apparent.  While I am certainly of the camp that respects and honors the power of nature, I have learned that a certain base of knowledge is required to fully exploit what mother nature offers us.  I believe that this is what is meant by the notion of advancement.  It’s not just a matter of developing new things, it’s also a matter of developing a deep base of knowledge about what is already here and putting the two together.  To me, that is the most exciting kind of innovation.  I believe that Elina is one of the few people in our time who works with this idea in the arena of skincare.

I realize that there is a movement toward making skin care products at home.  While I love a DIY project as much as the next person, after years of blemished skin, I am wholly committed to using more sophisticated products.  Elina has specialized knowledge as a cosmetic chemist, aesthetician, and herbalist, far beyond what we common folk can apply to making our own products.  Her Russian heritage gives her access to ingredients from distant places and the knowledge that goes with how to best use those ingredients.  Elina is also an incredibly generous and positive person, and she consciously infuses each and every batch of her products with that positivity.  Somehow, I believe that I sensed that all way back when I first started using her products, but now I know so much more about the how and why of what I’m using on my body (this book provided supplemental information on the topic, both Shelley and Elina were interviewed by the author).  And that has given me a real sense of appreciation and respect for the products that nourish my skin every day.

Just like Shelley, Elina has shared some tips:

• Your skin is your largest organ.  Use organic products on it that are good for your entire body.
• Develop a regimen and make it a habit (see my post on Shelley for some tips on what this ideally includes).
• Exfoliate! – make that a part of your regimen.
• Another thing to add to your regimen:  treat yourself to a facial, at the least every change of the season.  (see my post on facials for some thoughts on why)

Ahhh…facial

I’ve always been something of a health nut, perhaps that’s even more obvious these days what with all these resolution type posts showing up here.  Some examples from my youth: asking lots of questions during my check up visits to the doctor, looking up any symptoms I was experiencing in our copy of the merck manual, eating healthfully, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and generally taking care of myself have all been part of my MO since I can remember.  Since I got a serious sunburn as a kid, skin care has been a priority for me.  I was born with dry, sensitive, and fair skin so the importance of taking extra care has always been readily apparent.  Imagine my pleasure in learning just how much Joe Pilates was into the importance of healthy skin!  (So much so that I’m busy sewing my own clothes for exercise since I’ve found it increasingly difficult to find fashionable items in natural fibers that are reasonably priced and accessible given my lack of time for clothes shopping.)  Anybody who’s even glanced at the archival photos knows that Joe Pilates was into exposed skin, but his biographers uncovered more than a casual interest in nudist communities which I found interesting.  As an aside on that topic, anybody else out there found that once you’ve skinny dipped there’s no going back?  Yes, vacationing in Europe is a a bit more liberating, I think.  It would seem that for Joe, keeping the skin free of clothing was important.  He encouraged every client to scrub with a coarse brush and take a cold shower after their workouts, to exfoliate and then close the pores.  Interesting, eh?  Compare that to the contemporary practice of hermetically sealing ourselves in plastic exercise-wear that stays on from home to studio and back again, or sometimes all day – ick!  I’m compelled to point out that we may have lost a valuable element of the master’s approach to a healthy lifestyle.  Back to skin, skin was the point of all this.  In 2004, I had the good fortune to make friends with a lovely lady who shares my passion for health and our most superficial reflection of that good health:  beautiful skin.  Today, I introduce Shelley Brooks:

I didn’t have acne until my mid-twenties.  It was then that I got an unsightly case of constantly occurring acne around my chin and jawbone.  For 2-3 years, I tried everything to no avail.  When I bought my Pilates studio, I noticed that there was also an aesthetician’s office in the same building.  I quickly introduced myself and my luck changed for the better.  Apart from ridding my face of blemishes, Shelley became a lifelong friend and a small- business-owning buddy.  For years, I saw her monthly for a facial, but pregnancy and being a mom have cleared my calendar of that monthly ritual.  I’ll be back eventually, but these days I’ve been keeping my skin (mostly) clear with the tricks and tools that Shelley and others taught me during my first bought with breakouts over a decade ago.

Shelley is passionate about helping folks who have struggled with skin problems and she is always learning new techniques and finding new materials to use.  In 2005 Shelley met Elina and that was a game changer for both of us.  After years of searching, Shelley had finally found a line of products that exploited the powers of nature without compromise.  For my part, I had found a constant source of practical information and the necessary  supplies for my own personal obsession of caring for my skin.  In short time everybody on Shelley’s client list had enjoyed dramatic improvements from using and being treated with Elina’s products.  Shelley’s facials and Elina’s products are a potent combo.

Having completed a class on the topic shortly before our meeting, Shelley was the one who pointed out to me that my breakouts were related to my hormone levels.  Within a year of meeting her, my wild and wacky hormone levels brought me to my acupuncturist.  (Years ago, my interest in TCM were ignited by my studies of t’ai chi chuan and I’ve been receiving support from that ancient tradition ever since).  The relevant point here is that these days I use what happens on my face as one indicator of what is going on with my hormones and it was Shelley who taught me how to apply that holistic approach to caring for my skin.  Shelley is the sort of person who looks at the whole picture which is a wonderful gift in a practitioner of any kind.  But in the highly superficial world of skin care, when so much focus is placed on what literally floats on the surface of our bodies, Shelley’s whole-body-whole-person approach is refreshingly profound.

After having sent many folks for treatments with Shelley, I’ve come to realize that not everybody is looking for her brand of profoundly transformative skin care treatments.  Some folks are just looking for some good smells and a relaxing massage.  Shelley offers that for sure, but the smells are never the same because our natural world and our natural bodies are never the same.  I personally love being enveloped by the scent of the soothing herbal tea that Shelley uses to clean the skin between the different treatment applications, but I don’t expect it to be the same.  Since the products that she uses always reflect the seasons it’s not realistic to anticipate the same scent every time you visit Shelley, but I always looked forward to a new stimulating experience.  If you are the type who likes the same thing every time, you’ll have to find something else about Shelley’s treatments to keep you coming.  I’m betting that the beautiful glow of your skin will be enough.

I’m compelled to point out that even if you are only able to receive a facial occasionally, it makes good sense to find a practitioner who has extensive training and who uses high-quality, natural ingredients.  An aesthetician can employ more potent methods with all sorts of cool tools, and their products often include more powerful ingredients than the ones that we use in home every day.  Also, there is a lot to be said for having the eye of an expert with all their high tech tools within reach.  They can see and do more than we can alone in our bathrooms.  And those are just a few reasons why a good corrective facial is more than just an indulgence.

If you don’t live in our neck of the woods, Shelley has shared a few tips for your home skin care regimen.
A good skincare regimen is based on good habits.  Here are the things to do every day:
Wash your face at night (morning too), but especially at night to give your skin a clean slate for its nighttime regeneration.
Wear a zinc-based sunscreen, because the sun shines everyday.
Apply eye cream from the outside of eye inward, avoid tugging or pulling around the eyes.
Eat a healthy diet, drink lots of water

Hydration is key to healthy skin, here are some tips for keeping your skin hydrated:
Don’t use soap to cleanse, use a facial cleanser. Soap will dry out your skin.
Always wear a daily moisturizer.

And Lastly…
Don’t pick at breakouts. It will cause the spreading of any infection under the skin, not to mention scarring.

PS, if you are local and reading this post inspires you to visit Shelley for the first time, let her know that and she’ll give you an introductory %20 discount off her services.

This is my second to last resolutions post for 2014.  I categorized it as such because I achieved some dramatic improvements in my day to day health with a twice daily cup of warm bitters.  

I’m finally writing this post!  You see it’s been on the docket since November, but things just kept happening.  In getting to know Rupam Henry, I’ve become increasingly curious about her offerings.  I’m like this with self-care stuff, I get to know a practitioner and I become completely enamored.  Everybody falls for something right?  I fall for skin care products, body techniques, and herbal tinctures.  Back in the fall, I hatched the idea to give all Rupam’s a try and write about my experiences.

I’ve already written about her amazing, yes I really do mean A-MA-ZING, breast oil and tooth soap and together we decided that her Swedish Bitters were the obvious next step.  Bitters is a mainstay of what she offers.  And because of the things that were happening with my body.  Namely that I was beginning to have some symptoms of hormonal funny-business.  The idea was to start with her smallest bottle and see what happened.  I started when I had my NYC-in-twenty-four-hours-cold and I was pleased at how the bitters helped me with my symptoms.  It’s always a comfort to be able to do something when I don’t feel well, and even more of a salve when that something really seems to do some good.  Specifically, my cough was soothed by compresses and taking the bitters internally, and I found that helped me to sleep better.  I was on my way.

Once I’d recovered from my cold, I was feeling quite enthusiastic about the bitters and quickly upped my dosage to the more standard level – Rupam had recommended that I begin with a small amount because I am still nursing and it’s really best to take powerful medicine slowly and respectfully.  Given what I know of my tendencies around hormonal imbalance, I knew that taking bitters had the potential to help because they address the liver and the digestion.  Rupam, of course, corroborated this notion.  So I made a point of paying particular attention to the indicators that I am most familiar with and the symptoms that had been flaring up.  Mostly, I was sick of the pimples that popped up around my chin with ovulation and menstruation.  And sure enough, those have subsided almost completely since I’ve been taking the bitters.  When I do still get a hormonally related break-out it is significantly smaller and repairs itself much quicker than the ones that’s I’d been having before.  I know that this may seem like a small thing, but it’s big for my morale.  I really don’t like having pimples.

Things were looking good for a couple weeks.  I was sleeping through the night rather than having to wake in the wee hours to use the bathroom.  I had more energy and generally more motivation in the face of the day to day challenges that are commonplace for the small-business-owning-hands-on-mama that I am.  I was more resilient.  I was even enjoying some free entertainment in the form of creative dreams.  And I was pleasantly surprised to not experience nearly as much intestinal wind as I’d had previously – this was one of those things that I only noticed once it was no longer happening.

Another improvement that bears note, although I must confess that I believe that Rupam’s breast oil is a major contributing factor to this change, is that I haven’t had a case of mastitis since the fall.  My daily application of Lady Nada’s breast oil, along with the meditation that Rupam taught me paired with the liver support that the bitters gives me internally seems to have cleared mastitis from my slate.  I’ve come to understand that with me the cause of mastitis was always some stagnation in my breast tissues, usually too much pressure had been applied for too long, and it seemed that as the flow was slowing to a stop I’d suffer from mastitis more frequently.  I am so relieved to be free of that worry!

And then.  I told Rupam about all the good things that I was noticing.  She nodded and asked if I was noticing any irritability.  Upon her mention, I realized that yes, in spite of all those wonderful things, I had been operating with a rather short fuse.  From there, things seemed to get worse.  My next period was a doozy:  a serious case of PMS followed by a heavy flow that demanded a lot of attention.  At this point I realized that I was in the midst of some sort of liver clean up process and I was determined not to stop.  Somewhere in there, my husband noticed the notes that I was keeping about all this on the refrigerator and he mentioned that perhaps a heads-up would have been helpful.  Duly noted – because boy was I irritable for a spell!  Really irritable.

I started drinking Rupam’s daily tea too since it purports to work well with the bitters.  I was enthusiastic about the tea because now I felt that I was addressing my organs more completely with my kidneys and bladder both of which have gone through challenges what with the level of stress that I tend to maintain in my life and childbearing.  After only a couple months of drinking the tea regularly, I’m noticing more hair growth which is a real comfort since I’ve been frustrated by my thin hair for many years (my acupuncturist told me long ago that my kidneys were the cause of my thinning hair).

While I was in the midst of the seriously irritable stage of this introductory process (I’m guessing that it lasted somewhere between 4 and 6 weeks), it was all that I could do to hold on to my hat – my days were something of a wild ride.  And so I wasn’t too inclined to write about it all.  Hindsight is really the best view for some experiences.  Then the holidays happened and boy was I surprised at how much work goes into planning for a thirty-second nocturnal visit from a certain immortal.  Then my husband and I got flattened by a virus that keep us down for weeks.  Then it was the new year and business picked up in my studio.  And now it’s February.  I still take my bitters twice a day.  All the benefits of the bitters are still present and the liver clean up project seems to be done with – thank heavens!

Throughout my years of learning to understand and care for my body, I’ve used herbs often and yet I’ve maintained something of a subconscious bias toward physical methods.  My recent experience with Rupam’s bitters has opened up a whole new world to me and I’m so very grateful for the support that they offer me.  Life certainly is better with Bitters!

Have I mentioned that I’m finally reading this book?  I’m around one quarter in and thoroughly enjoying it.  One of the mentions that I found interesting is the reminder of Joe Pilates’s interest in all aspects of hygiene, especially the skin.  (I have a couple posts about skin care in the works).   On the topic of holistic care for the body, I’ve been getting to know a lovely lady in our area, Rupam Henry.  Rupam offers our community a beautiful selection of herbal supports for optimal health.  Given Rupam’s professional experience in dentistry she has become a great support for locals who are interested in caring for their teeth and gums in the most natural, and appropriate way.  I’m eager to share what I’ve learned on the topic of teeth from Rupam and I look forward to learning more.

As has been the case for me with the use of natural products, the more I learn, the more zealous I become.  I’ve come to think that there is something particularly enriching about using naturally based products that truly honor and support the healthy function of our bodies because I’ve noticed that the more I know, the more pleasing the experience is.  In the case of brushing my teeth, the more I know, the more enthusiastic I am at every instance of brushing.  It seems a little funny to me that using Rupam’s tooth soap and learning from her has made me such a tooth brushing fanatic, but it’s true.

Let me try and sum it up.  Tooth soap supports our dental health by supporting the naturally occurring enamel that coats our teeth.  That’s great.  But there are a few things to bear in mind when switching from any other product (which by the way, seriously hinders, rather than supports, the naturally occurring cycles that support a healthy functioning mouth).

Apart from the ingredients that holistic folks consider to be harmful to our health, toothpaste consistently has two ingredients that are cause for concern:  abrasive material that breaks down our enamel, and some sort of wax-like material that gives us a false sense of our teeth being smooth and clean (this business of wax will come to bear when I discuss skin care as well, stay tuned).  Rupam’s tooth soap is completely free of abrasives which spares us the loss of our essential enamel.  Even though it goes with out mentioning, I’ll state the somewhat obvious, that tooth soap is full of ingredients that support our natural enamel.  Not only does using tooth soap arrest the enamel destruction that everybody using regular toothpaste (yes, even Tom’s of Maine) is unwittingly causing with each brushing instance; it actually supports healthy enamel, gums, and everything else important to a healthy mouth.

I think of regular tooth paste as a cheat.  Most products give us a quick and dirty, albeit false, experience of clean teeth.  When using tooth soap, one really needs to brush for a good long while, at least 5 seconds per tooth is Rupam’s recommendation if my memory serves me well.  This also means that we need to take extra-special care to keep our pearly whites.  Staining is something that can occur for many people.  While it’s unsightly to those of us who are rapidly becoming accustomed the the absurdly white teeth that are chemically bleached, it is not an indication of how clean our teeth are.  Depending on many factors, some of us are more prone to having stains on our teeth than others (smoking, coffee and tea, and ph level, all factor into the equation).  The important thing that I learned from Rupam is that there is a way to get rid of the stains that does not sacrifice our overall dental health.  Rupam recommends both baking soda on a cotton swab (once a week at most) and activated charcoal (beginning with an intensive course until the stains are gone and then weekly for maintenance).

Now, a word about plaque and brushing.  Plaque is sticky stuff.  Rupam likens it to olive oil on a porcelain plate.  Anybody who washes dishes regularly knows that the oil will come off with soap (no bon ami needed), but that it will take a little while.  The same is true when it comes to getting the plaque off our teeth.  When I brush my teeth for a good long while, yes I’ve become rather obsessive in that I’m probably well beyond the recommended two minutes by now, my teeth feel smooth and clean.  And while I would enjoy the same sensation were I to still be brushing my teeth with regular tooth paste, what I’d really be feeling would be a waxy coating that does more harm than good.  Just the thought of that is upsetting now that I know what I do!

I think that’s all I’ve got for now on the subject of dental hygiene.  I’ve got a feeling that I really ought to be using Rupam’s strawberry flavor on my boy’s teeth, up till now we’ve simply been using water.  And I really must increase my flossing from once or twice weekly to daily.  (Can you believe that I just admitted that in a public place?  Oh dear!).  There’s always some improvement to be made, but it is comforting to know that I’m on a healthy track.

Rupam has more information on this topic on her site along with dentists who offer holistic dental care.