Update on Pepto-Bismol® as a facial mask 9/28/11

9/28/11:  Update on Pepto-Bismol® as a Facial Mask

• Artifical ingredients
• Natural products for the same price without the negative health concerns
• What I use for an upset stomach

On the 9/15/11 episode of The Dr. Oz Show, Dr. Oz talked about beauty secrets to take years off your look. Click here to read my blog post on that episode.

For dull skin, Dr. Oz recommended using, what he called, a common and inexpensive household product as a facial mask: Pepto-Bismol®. I was skeptical. On the show Dr. Oz said that the Pepto-Bismol® will do the same things on the face as it does for the stomach – remove toxins.

The first issue I have is that Pepto-Bismol® has never been in my house and second, Pepto-Bismol® contains artificial ingredients. Those same artificial ingredients that are not good for your stomach then, by Dr. Oz's logic, are not good for your face.

Watching Dr. Oz smear pink Pepto on the face of an audience member, I suspected that oh-so-recognizable-puke-pink color had to be attributed to artificial ingredients so I went to the super market to check.

Pepto-Bismol® saccharin along with red dye #22 and red dye #28. Not one but, three artificial ingredients. I knew that shade of pink, that for me is forever associated with nausea, did not come from nature.

Pepto was on sale the day I visited the super market and so was the generic form of it. The smaller bottles were on sale for just over $4.00 and there were 2 other sizes from there.

  

Buzzle.Com says this about saccharin: Saccharin causes toxic reactions and allergic response, affecting skin, gastrointestinal tract and heart. It may also cause tumors and bladder cancer.

Earlier in the same episode, Dr. Oz told an audience member to use sugar instead of artificial sweeteners due to the negative health effects associated with their use. The artificial sweeteners caused the woman to have loose stools in the morning. Dr. Oz explained that artificial sweeteners are not absorbed by the body and draw water into the bowels which was the cause of her loose poop.

In one segment, Dr. Oz is saying that an artificial sweeteners is bad and in the next he is recommending that people put an artificial sweetener on their face. On one hand he says not to use them and on the other he is recommended them. What?

My daughter is allergic to red dye – they make her go berserk – and we stay away from all artificial ingredients

There is no Pepto-Bismol® in currently in my house and there has never been any in my either growing up or as an adult. In college I did use it one time while staying with my friend at her father's house. We had steak for dinner and at the time I had been converting over to vegetarianism so red meat had not been in my diet for several months. That steak tore through me and raced out the back during the middle of the night. There's nothing so joyful as having diarrhea in the dark of night while staying at someone else's house for the first time. Pepto-Bismol® was in their medicine cabinet and it did save the day, rather the night. I consider it an acute care situation where my only other option was to camp in the bathroom all night.

I tend to think that the products that would calm the riotous chaos of intestinal over load and malabsorption of food are not the same one I would reach for when thinking about putting some shine and liveliness to my face.

The products I look to for facial masks usually contain green or red clay. The Now European Clay really is my favorite mask and I use it with castor oil as discussed in the blog for this episode of The Dr. Oz Show. The Now European Clay mask sells for just under $5 at my health food store.

 

Yes, certain forms of clay can be used internally for intestinal support and general detoxification. I think of food grade bentonite clay for internal use. Sonne's #7 and Now Foods Bentonite are both great products. Food grade bentonite clay can also be used externally from facial masks to hair clarifying masks.

Bentonite would be serve the same purpose as the artificially pink Pepto-Bismol® in the medicine cabinet – sooth upset stomach and brighten dull skin.

For stomach discomforts I look towards several different products depending on the situation.

• Plant enzymes to break down and process foods that may not going through the tubes all that well.
• Probiotics to flood the system with good bacteria, over power any bad bacteria that may be causing trouble, process the food through the system, and support the immune system.
• Homeopathic products can address the issue with a single remedy or a complex of ingredients. I like to keep a complex on-hand to cover all the possibilities. Hyland's Upset Stomach, Heel/BHI Stomach.
   

Skip the artificials, internally or externally, and go for products that support the entire system not ones that may do potential harm along with the good.

 

 

 

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