Oh Foo... we are under the weather

And I don't mean the rain! We are talking about the contagious nasty known as the flu, which is everywhere this time of year.

One of the greatest flu-fighters is soap. It sounds odd, I imagine, 'soap for health'... but in fact the act of hand washing with soap, is one of the greatest single advances in medicine.

Before soap and later, before the discovery of microbes and the idea of 'germs' became common knowledge, medical procedures from the common to the extreme were performed with no attention to cleanliness. Not only the environs in which treatment was done, but the hands of the healer were often filthy and doctors went from patient to patient without washing, as did the others who attended the wounded and ill. Little did they know that they carried with them the infection and contagious disease that often spread wildly among their charges. It was actually in fairly recent history that cleanliness became 'scientifically' accepted as a means of preventing disease.

You may have heard this anecdote: "Sometime during the 19th century, a doctor discovered that if he performed a simple procedure when assisting women in labor, their mortality rate was cut in half (this was at a time when childbirth was among the leading causes of death for women). He shared his findings with other doctors, who, much to his dismay, ignored his advice despite solid evidence that supported his findings. Only much later, after other researchers had come to the same conclusion, did doctors begin to adopt the practice... of washing their hands." (Thanks to Don Wangberg of Fair Oaks, CA. for contributing this).

More than two million children still die from diarrheal disease in developing countries every year. A review in The Lancet Journal suggests that "a surprising 42-47% of all diarrhea could be prevented if people washed their hands with soap. This makes hand washing more effective than water supply, fly control or sanitation improvement in preventing diarrheal diseases. There is growing evidence that hand washing also works to prevent acute respiratory tract infections, which are the biggest infectious killers in the world today."

And just last night on the National News, they capped the article on the current flu cases with a reminder that the best preventative is washing your hands several times a day.

"Most infectious diseases are spread by contact, either person-to-person, or by touching surfaces harboring germs," said U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona. "Proper hand cleaning is the best prevention against communicable illness."

What happens if you do not wash your hands frequently? You pick up germs from other sources and infect yourself when you:
* Touch your eyes
* Or your nose
* Or your mouth.
One of the most common ways people catch colds is by rubbing their nose or their eyes after their hands have been contaminated with the cold virus.
Yet in the United States today several studies have shown that 20% to 50% of us do not wash our hands after using public restrooms.

Doctors warn that it is critical to wash your hands before eating, when preparing food, when you or someone around you is sick, after touching animals, and after using the bathroom, and to do it correctly.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the following technique:
• First wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. Place the bar soap on a rack and allow it to drain.
• Rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
• Continue for 15 - 20 seconds or about the length of a little tune. It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action that helps dislodge and remove germs.
• Rinse well and dry your hands with clean towel.

The most recent CDC guidelines for hand hygiene for practitioners in health care settings basically sums it up: wash your hands with soap and water. Additionally, use other hand hygiene preparation as called for.
It appears the key is "additionally" use other preparations. It seems that if your hands are even slightly dirty the other chemicals are not as effective. Everything seems to indicate that plain old soap and water remain the best all around health tool.

Taking care of your health includes eating right, getting fresh air and exercise, and washing well to ward off those sneaky microbes. Soap is your ally on the road to a healthy life! See all our excellent soaps for your health and pleasure.

Swine flu update - April 30: for current information, go to the Center for disease Control website: www.cdc.gov or The California Department of Public Health: www.cdph.ca.gov,both have up to date information specific to many situations including for schools, healthcare, home and more.

Billions and billions...

We used to imitate Carl Sagan using that term to describe the seemingly infinite stars in the universe. Back then it seemed like the ultimate huge number and, like "millions and millions" came to express an unimaginably large amount, without anyone really understanding what that amount really was.

These days the world has changed. We now talk in terms of unimaginably large numbers to define real amounts that we still have trouble understanding. As of today, Feb. 16, 2009, the world population is estimated to be 6,706,993,152. That is: 6 billion, 706 million, 993 thousand, 152. Wow. The United States alone has 305,830,170 (305 million) people.

With all this economic bailout, recovery, and stimulus talk throwing around gargantuan sums like $787,000,000,000 (787 billion), folks are often lost trying to decipher exactly how much this is. This leads to comments you see proposing that if they just gave the money to the citizens we would all be millionaires. Not so. These enormous sums are not so enormous as that. Distributed to every person in America using the population figure above, that would only be $2573.32 each. Not so much after all.

Part of the confusion arises from there being two scales for determining ridiculously large numbers. To paraphrase the Wikipedia page on this: The long and short scales are two different numerical systems used throughout the world:
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Short scale refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000 times the previous term: "billion" means "a thousand millions", "trillion" means "a thousand billions", and so on.

Long scale refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000,000 times the previous term: "billion" (from bi and million) means "a million to the power of two" or "a million millions", "trillion" (from tri and million) means "a million to the power of three" or "a million billions", and so on.
The difference between the two scales grows as numbers get larger. Million is the same in both scales, but the long-scale billion is a thousand times larger than the short-scale billion, the long-scale trillion is a million times larger than the short-scale trillion, and so on.

For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United Kingdom uniformly used the long scale, while the United States of America used the short scale, so that usage of the two systems was often referred to as "British" and "American" respectively. In 1974 the government of the UK abandoned the long scale, so that both countries now exclusively apply the short scale interpretation in mass media and official usage.
So, one billion = 1,000,000,000, and 1 Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000.
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Fortunately, unless we are astronomers, other scientists, or government economists, most of us do not have to wrap our mind around numbers like this every day. But it is important we do have some sense of the scale they convey when following and voting on projects that effect us all.

The White House team promises to have a website where we can follow the expenditures of all this money. I plan to keep an eye on it. While I have faith in the intent and intelligence of President Obama's administration, I sometimes feel that a large sum of money given to the legislative branch is like a Pinata with kindergartners. They tend to get a little crazy with it.

UPDATE: 2/18/2009 here is the page on the White House site with the State by State information on the Recovery & Reinvestment Act

UPDATE #2 - Here it is, the official site: www.recovery.gov. If nothing else, this administration is keeping it's vow of transparency in Government. I'm impressed.

Perfumery...an Olfactory Harmony

Harmony: the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole.

I love the aspect of my job that encompasses perfumery – mixing blends of exotic essential oils to develop a new fragrance for our soap. While some would argue I become rather a mad scientist when mixing my olfactory potions, I think more of it as a kind of spiritual artistry, linked by history to temples and Gods.
Consider that the first use of fragrance was aromatic plant matter burned ritually as incense to the Gods and ancestors. Even the origin of the word, 'perfume', comes from the Latin 'per fumum' meaning "through smoke". The fragrant smoke was believed to carry prayers aloft, connecting people with their deities.
Early bathing, too, is linked to religion as a means of purifying oneself, linking both soap and fragrance to the spiritual process.

Mixing the various aromatic oils is much like composing a painting or piece of music. Balance and harmony can be achieved in a good composition. Deep, heavy scents such as Sandalwood or Patchouli form the base note, the dark elements that ground and fix the blend. The middle range is held by solid, but even, entities including Lavender, Jasmine, and Clary Sage. The bright, but fleeting, top notes are played by delicate oils like those from citrus. They are first to catch your nose before they give way to the aromatic melody that follows.
The trick is to find the balance between these aspects that plays the sense of smell as a chord of beautiful music tantalizes the ears. A true master creates olfactory symphonies and, indeed, the workplace display of essential oils is called a “perfume organ”. But, unlike music, the fragrant blend takes time to mature for all its harmony to become evident. When you first mix the essences the result can be harsh – the notes distinct and sometimes discordant. It takes time for them to meld and mellow and reveal their true character.

When making soap this need for patience in perfumery is magnified, as the chemical reaction and essence of the soap itself can mute or change the flavor of the blend. You make a wonderful aroma and yet, when added to soap, it becomes dull and listless. So you consider the notes which have dampened and accentuate or compliment them and try again, waiting the long time for the soap to make and cure. Needless to say, when you finally refine one to the point where you are pleased, it is a grand moment!

We hope you enjoy the fragrant melodies we have created for all our soaps. The ones which have required the most work, and of which we are proudest are: Aloe Vera/Kelp; Apricot Poppy; Forest; Lemon Shea Butter; Sweet Herb; Rose Clay; and now Oatmeal Spice.
See them on our soap page.

To read a brief history of perfume, see my article here.

Out with the old, in with the new...

We start the year with a new soap... more about that further down.
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The dawning of the new year is often a time for house cleaning, literally and figuratively. It amazes me how many things have bypassed earlier attempts to toss out unnecessary stuff. I can find something I haven't seen, used, or missed for a decade and immediately think I cannot live without it!??? How silly!

Discarding those things we no longer need is good for our home, our space, our spirit and, depending on what and how, often good for the someone else. There is often need for those things we no longer regard as necessary to our own lives, be it gently used but wrong size or out of fashion clothing, to that extra pillow or kitchen gadget (I am famous for keeping clothes long past a time I could even fantasize fitting in them again).

Before you purge your closet and cupboards, see what charities and resources are in your area and what they need, you may be inspired to donate even more (and get more taken care of) that you may have thought when you began. And it is important not to take a bunch of stuff that is as useless to the recipient as is it is to you. Often there are even places that are willing to reuse old cardboard boxes or packing peanuts as well as more ordinary household items and clothes.

Needless to say, you should recycle everything that can be recycled. Some things are obvious and easy: aluminum, glass, and paper. Plastics are trickier and electronic equipment, from cell phones to televisions, trickier still. These items are hard to recycle in a way that is environmentally friendly and, in some cases, it can be downright dangerous. While paints and motor oil and such have a special day or method recycle as hazardous waste, as far as I know, they have the method down. Electronics are perhaps the trickiest. Our sleek machines seem to contain a lot of deadly toxins, not least of which is the lead in the Cathode Ray Tubes of old TV's and computer monitors. Many of these get shipped abroad to countries where people are so desperate they think nothing of breathing toxic fumes and polluting their homes and children's environment (all the environment, actually) as they dismantle and melt old components to get the parts of value. Poverty eliminates concern for health and safety.
So please, ask your recycling center how they dispose of this waste and if they have knowledge of where it goes and how it is handled.

On the other hand, we enter the year with a new soap - Sweet Herb. Actually we have had it out since November 2008, but it is still the newest in our family of soaps. enriched with organic hemp seed oil and a soothing blend of essential oils.

This soap has met with rave reviews from our test crew (friends and family), as well as those customers who have tried it, for it’s fresh herbal fragrance, superb silkiness, & luxurious moisturizing qualities.

Hemp seed oil is a rich source of both Omega 6 and Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's), and Vitamin E. These healing enzymes can be absorbed directly into the skin to replenish missing oils, so they are ideally suited for many cosmetic & skin care products.

You can really feel the effects of the hemp seed oil in this soap. It is emollient, and has rejuvenating properties for the skin. Rich in vitamins and minerals, Hemp Seed Oil’s benefits are easily absorbed through the skin, resulting in a more vitamin and mineral enriched soap. See it featured on our web store.

Dawning of the New Year...

túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.

See this video for a condensed bit of time-lapse sky gazing. And know that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.
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Today ends 2008. Tomorrow a new day, a new year, full of possibilities. What governs this calculation of time is literally our place in the universe, something I was thinking about last night as I gazed at the glorious crescent moon and opulent Venus.
If you do not sky gaze, make it one of your New Year's Resolutions to begin.
The sky is always amazing and always a source for reflection on beauty, the cosmos, on things bigger than ourselves and wholly detached from the petty goings on down here at human level. The universe is pretty grand, and that's all there is to it!
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As we are just human, wandering on the surface of our lovely planet, our thoughts for the New Year tend to have more terrestrial roots.
Given that, I hope you are all looking to toast the turning of time with the universal toast: "To your Health". That is probably the best toast - and the best New Year's resolution we can all make.

Our health is one of the few things that we can truly change through our personal actions (or inaction, as the case may be), and it is by far the most precious thing we own on a personal level. Each of us knows deep in our being what we are lacking and what we need to do if we can summon the focus to accept it. Be it exercise or eating healthier foods, quitting smoking or other addictive behavior. Working on our health from within.

There are also the things that are outside of us that influence our health negatively and it is up to us to moderate those as best we can. Try to remove toxins from your lifestyle, be they chemical air fresheners, super toxic cleaners or moldy furnace filters. And always try to use the safest, least harmful products available - which, of course, is why we are in business. We hope you choose the soaps and basic body care products from Simmons Natural Bodycare for 2009 and beyond!