4 ms·

I live in the FWI, in a tropical climate. Outside temperature is quite stable around 30 celcius in the daytime and a little less at night, say around 25. Here,

by guylhem 16y ago

I live in the FWI, in a tropical climate. Outside temperature is quite stable around 30 celcius in the daytime and a little less at night, say around 25. Here, avoiding BO requires a minimum of 2 showers a day. I tried this for a week and went back to soap and shampoo. Maybe in the canadian winter that's possible? Also, why is there all this hype for paleo stuff? Is this the new fad after environmentalist concerns?

mathgladiator 16y ago
I think the paleo stuff is a simple rechecking/rethinking assumptions. For instance, after I went barefoot, I had significantly less back pain and have been able to triple my walking distance; furthermore, I'm able to run now. What is going to happen, we are going to learn a few things, uncover old ways of doing things, adapt them to modern time, or toss them back into the trash.
civilian 16y ago
It takes longer than a week for your body to adapt to the new soap/shampooo regiment.
- guylhem 16y ago
  I can't stay away from work more than a week. And I'm not sure I'd be welcome at work during a no-soap experiment..
  - puredemo 16y ago
    ... you were still showering, right?
    - guylhem 16y ago
      yep 3 times a day but that was not enough.
      - puredemo 16y ago
        Right on. It's interesting that people can have such radically different results.
Mz 16y ago
I live in Georgia, which can be a 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day in the summer (high 30's Celsius) and below freezing (mostly at night) in the winter. I and my two sons no longer use soap or shampoo. I also don't use deodorant. I have made quite a lot of dietary and lifestyle changes to get well when doctors claim that isn't possible. Giving up soap/shampoo was a very late game change, after a whole lot of other stuff happened first. My opinion: This isn't simple. The way you smell is due to a combination of chemical and bacterial/microbial influences and changing one of them can upset the balance, temporarily causing die-off, purging effects, etc. before some new balance is firmly established. For me, I first spent years getting myself healthier before it made sense to give up shampoo. Presumably, for those folks where this works, they don't have whatever chemical and/or microbial issue causes you to smell when you give it up. (My experience: The kind of stable temperature/climate you live in does a very poor job of killing off microbes. Drastic changes in temperature are hostile to microbes and make it harder for the same ones to be causing smelliness year round. Ridding your home of some microbe of that sort is quite challenging and you probably would not be willing to go to the lengths I have gone to in order to accomplish something like that.) EDIT: I will add that I do put salt in my bath water. So it is not like I am using nothing to kill stuff.
- guylhem 16y ago
  Thanks for the info. You had success in Georgia - wow. First report I saw of success in a warm climate. Maybe I could try your tricks if you are willing to share. The only thing I just don't use is deodorant. It gives me real skin problems (rashes on dried skin), so I just use soap and water at various intervals during the day. It is so weird - tried various brands, same problems every time I use it again. Honestly, that's why I thought it was worth trying in the first place: even if I never noted any side effect of using soap/shampoo, maybe I just don't notice them because that's what I consider to be normal. Still, it really sounds like a fad, but if it is helpful, why not.
  - Mz 16y ago
    1. I switched to a good quality, high brine sea salt. 2. I worked hard on reconfiguring my body chemistry, some of which is specific to my genetic disorder but my general understanding is most modern diets are too acid and high acidity promotes viral/bacterial growth. So check your PH balance and work on it if it is out of whack. 3. I embraced ascetism and I own very few possessions. It was a necessary part of getting myself well and we have found that if microbes are growing on us, then they are also growing on all the things we routinely touch. So you may not be able to break the cycle without some lifestyle changes of a sort that most people sternly reject.

by guylhem 16y ago

mathgladiator 16y ago

I think the paleo stuff is a simple rechecking/rethinking assumptions. For instance, after I went barefoot, I had significantly less back pain and have been able to triple my walking distance; furthermore, I'm able to run now. What is going to happen, we are going to learn a few things, uncover old ways of doing things, adapt them to modern time, or toss them back into the trash.

civilian 16y ago

It takes longer than a week for your body to adapt to the new soap/shampooo regiment.

guylhem 16y ago
I can't stay away from work more than a week. And I'm not sure I'd be welcome at work during a no-soap experiment..
- puredemo 16y ago
  ... you were still showering, right?
  - guylhem 16y ago
    yep 3 times a day but that was not enough.
    - puredemo 16y ago
      Right on. It's interesting that people can have such radically different results.

Mz 16y ago

I live in Georgia, which can be a 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day in the summer (high 30's Celsius) and below freezing (mostly at night) in the winter. I and my two sons no longer use soap or shampoo. I also don't use deodorant. I have made quite a lot of dietary and lifestyle changes to get well when doctors claim that isn't possible. Giving up soap/shampoo was a very late game change, after a whole lot of other stuff happened first. My opinion: This isn't simple. The way you smell is due to a combination of chemical and bacterial/microbial influences and changing one of them can upset the balance, temporarily causing die-off, purging effects, etc. before some new balance is firmly established. For me, I first spent years getting myself healthier before it made sense to give up shampoo. Presumably, for those folks where this works, they don't have whatever chemical and/or microbial issue causes you to smell when you give it up. (My experience: The kind of stable temperature/climate you live in does a very poor job of killing off microbes. Drastic changes in temperature are hostile to microbes and make it harder for the same ones to be causing smelliness year round. Ridding your home of some microbe of that sort is quite challenging and you probably would not be willing to go to the lengths I have gone to in order to accomplish something like that.) EDIT: I will add that I do put salt in my bath water. So it is not like I am using nothing to kill stuff.

guylhem 16y ago
Thanks for the info. You had success in Georgia - wow. First report I saw of success in a warm climate. Maybe I could try your tricks if you are willing to share. The only thing I just don't use is deodorant. It gives me real skin problems (rashes on dried skin), so I just use soap and water at various intervals during the day. It is so weird - tried various brands, same problems every time I use it again. Honestly, that's why I thought it was worth trying in the first place: even if I never noted any side effect of using soap/shampoo, maybe I just don't notice them because that's what I consider to be normal. Still, it really sounds like a fad, but if it is helpful, why not.
- Mz 16y ago
  1. I switched to a good quality, high brine sea salt. 2. I worked hard on reconfiguring my body chemistry, some of which is specific to my genetic disorder but my general understanding is most modern diets are too acid and high acidity promotes viral/bacterial growth. So check your PH balance and work on it if it is out of whack. 3. I embraced ascetism and I own very few possessions. It was a necessary part of getting myself well and we have found that if microbes are growing on us, then they are also growing on all the things we routinely touch. So you may not be able to break the cycle without some lifestyle changes of a sort that most people sternly reject.