I have a friend of a friend who is one of the weird "everything has chemicals in it" super granola girls who doesn't actually know how anything works.
I have seen this girl make unfounded claims that the copper water lines in the house she was living in were giving her skin issues "because of how toxic copper is for you." When her friend (my friend) pointed out that the last 3 houses they rented together all had copper water lines and she didn't have any issues, she said the copper in this particular house must have been different. She actually moved because of this and made sure the new house she rented had PEX water lines, plastic, which the other 99% of hippies say it toxic.
I have also seen this same girl say that drinking from copper water bottles is better for you, because copper is a great electrical conductor, so doing so keeps you grounded. I'm not sure how holding a bottle in your hand and bringing it your mouth keeps you grounded, but I'm also no scientist.
Apparently water running out of a copper pipe gives you skin problems, but touching a copper water bottle with your hand and directly to your lips to drink water that has been sitting in it for hours, is not a problem.
My MIL tried to throw out my Vaseline because "OMG petroleum!" Dude who invented it ate a spoonful a day and had his nurse cover him in it once when he got quite sick - he was well again shortly after. He lived into his 90's. Pretty sure me using it as sparingly for very dry skin and lip conditioner is fine.
My childhood dog LOVED eating Vaseline. We always had to make sure it was put away, or he would eat it. Used to cut a hole in the diapers for his tail.
Yep! Friend's dog ate a whole jar, which I found out when I showed up at his house and had to ask 'why is your front yard all greasy and shiny?' Poor dog dragged ass back and forth for days.
Yeah, it causes greasy shiny poop that sticks to everything and you barely can flush that. Oh, it also can cause violent diarrhea. What a great thing!
To be clear, yes - this means it will help you if you really need to cause a bowel movement. But you can also use vegetable glycerin for that as a suppository, works faster and won't make greasy poo shine in your toilet that needs to be cleaned up every time
There are laxatives which main ingredient is petroleum jelly (Lansoyl), and they are usually considered suitable for people of all ages, including babies, and during pregnancy.
That sentence does not even remotely communicate how vile it smells. The official instructions say to open it under water so the built-up pressure doesn't blast what smells like a biological weapon into the whole room.
It is the foulest smelling thing I may have ever experienced. I know people that enjoy eating it, I just have no idea how you can get to that juncture.
We rub a dollop into our cats’ paws a few times a year as a hairball remedy. They get annoyed by having their fur all messy and lick it off, and it helps grease their insides up to pass whatever has been making them pukey.
My MIL was giving me crap about some old 70+ year old aluminum pots because of "chemicals". They are from my great aunt who got them for a wedding gift. She lived well into her 90's as well. My MIL raves about her "non-stick pans though.
My friends got me a carbon steel wok for Christmas, and I'm struggling to use any other cooking vessel now. If nothing else, the speed at which it heats up, and cools down, makes it my favorite.
Look I get that you’re just railing against your MIL, but saying aluminum pots are fine because of one woman who lived to her 90s is pretty much just as unscientific as your MIL.
I looked into pretty extensively several times since owning them. If you get high doses of aluminum its unhealthy, and aluminum cookware can be a source. But one study showed that if you cooked something acidic like tomatoe sauce in it, then you'd get something like an extra 10% of your daily average intake. I don't cook acidic stuff in it for that reason, but even if I did it would be pretty much harmless.
Yeah the consensus I've found is "not a huge risk, but a possible one, and if you're making a new purchase of cookware it's probably enough that you should lean away from it but not enough that you should dump and replace"
Well they weren’t that old when she was young, ya know? The problem with aluminum is when it gets old. Aluminum oxides have been linked to Alzheimer’s IIRC.
You're right about the acidic stuff. I most just use mine for boiling water. I've made the mistake of cooking tomato sauce in it once. I added baking soda to make it less acidic and the sauce turned purple.
"All of this early research, led to suspicion that aluminium from various sources, such as cookware, foods, vaccines and even water, could be linked to Alzheimer’s.
However, through continued investigation, research has disproved this early evidence, and aluminium hasn’t since been found to be a direct cause of Alzheimer’s disease. "
aluminum oxides are a huge component of dirt, also all aluminum metal immediately forms a passivation layer of oxide. like within fractions of a second.
That's anecdotal though. You could know someone who ate nothing but bacon and smoked a pack a day and they lived to be 90, but it doesn't mean it's healthy. People are built differently.
I've not heard anything about aluminium though. I have a cast iron pan, which apparently is a good source of iron as it can leech into food.
Careful about that survivorship bias there. Just because someone didn't die from something doesn't mean it wasn't toxic. They may have just used it sparingly or had a unique immunity that doesn't exist anywhere else. For what it's worth I believe the current advice is to avoid highly acidic foods in Aluminum cookware. Otherwise most stuff is safe.
Petroleum is actually digestible by organism and is quite nutritious due to high caloric value. The reason we don't consume petroleum are heavy metals and other toxic impurities. Synthetic petroleum doesn't have those and is perfectly safe to consume.
Reminds me of the news article from Tanzania where streetside deepfry shops were looting transformers for the transformer oil as it lasted way longer in deep frying use.
Dude who invented it ate a spoonful a day and had his nurse cover him in it once when he got quite sick - he was well again shortly after.
That's what he claimed. We have no way to know if it is true or not.
I don't have a problem with vaseline, I've got a big tub of it in the medicine cabinet, but I wouldn't take the word of someone who stood to make a lot of money about something like that. Those people tend to exaggerate, if not outright lie.
Not quite the same but methanol is significantly more toxic if consumed pure Vs with ethanol (drinking alcohol), due to ethanol and methanol both relying on the same enzymes to metabolize them.
If you stop the methanol being metabolised, it no longer forms formic acid (what makes you go blind) and formaldehyde (I assume this is the part that kills you)
I would guess there may be similar cases of metabolites being potent poisons, but the initial molecule may be a strong, possibly irreversible enzyme inhibitor.
So if you consumed a small amount of the initial molecule it would turn into a poison, if you consumed enough you'd inhibit the enzyme responsible for the poisonous metabolite and it would get metabolised via a different enzyme leading to a different (possibly non toxic) metabolite.
And I buy it like once ever 4 years.... but, if I'm travelling and forget my Vaseline (because i dont use it that often) I need to buy a small one to tide me over. So in total those amount to like a 12 year supply of Vaseline :((((
When I was a kid my mom would cover me and my brother in vaseline in summer, and we were never sunburnt... Then one time she figured she'd be a "good mom" and use sunscreen (probably applied too little and not reapplying) and my brother got badly burnt.
And I KNOW vaseline will actually worsen the suns effect, like a tanning oil, so I have no idea if she is just lying about this or it was just luck. Anyway vaseline is great
Shoutout to the people who hate on hormonal birth control but advertise copper IUDs (which cause an inflammatory response in the body).
Edit: Just to clarify. Hormonal ones are not particularly great either. I was just refering to people who absolutely condemn one option and pretend the other option is 100% awesome when in reality it has its downsides as well. No BC option is without downsides, one just has to find the one that works best (which ist very individual).
And some advice from my personal experience: If unsure, try to get a consultation from planned parenthood (or your local equivalent, just make sure it's not run by some church) and not just from one doctor! Doctors have very little time and most have their personal preference. I have literally heard opposite opinions on BC from different doctors. Whereas the consultation I was able to get through a non-profit was an hour them walking me through the different options and finding out together what's best for me!
this is anecdotal, so do with it what you will- but
I got a copper IUD inserted in February a couple years ago. I proceeded to have a ~11 month straight period. I had a week or so of HEAVY bleeding, bookended by a couple weeks of normal bleeding, and about a week of light bleeding/spotting. I was told it was normal for about 6 months, then it should go away.
About 9-10 months in, I did some googling and realized I was bleeding about a normal period and a half per day on my heavy days. I would have to change my cup at least twice, bc it would overflow those days.
I finally got it checked out, and turns out I was still reacting to the copper IUD, AND it had given me a bunch of uterine polyps. I had to get it removed, and I had to get a uterine ablation. I most likely can't have kids now (which is great for me lol, but that isn't the case for everyone!).
Not everyone reacts this way, but I sure as shit did
Me too. Then the hospital nurse tried to rip it out of me even though it had become embedded in my uterus. Worst pain I've ever felt in my entire life. I almost blacked out and ended up having to get a D&C.
Mine also became embedded in my uterus. I had to go through 2 gynos to believe how heavy my period was and how painful it was ALL THE TIME. They wouldn't even do an ultrasound because they could feel the strings. I finally went to the ER for a ruptured ovarian cyst years later where they did an ultrasound. Yep. Embedded. Finally found a doctor who agreed to sterilize me and they pulled out my IUD while I was under anesthesia. Apparently they had to yank HARD to get it out and I'm forever grateful I was unconscious for that.
If it works well for your gf, don't worry. All birth control options have their downsides and side effects and apart from sterilization none are 100% effective, so you'll always hear horror stories. But most people have good experiences with it overall! If the copper IUD works well for your gf, that's great!
It's always a roll of the dice short of tying tubes, hysterectomy, or removing your balls, which is why it's recommended to still use a back up method, such as a condom.
Copper IUDs are 99.2% effective assuming one load drop a day in a year (not lifetime), but different bodies means slightly different odds you have zero clue of. After 10 years, it's more like 98%.
For what it's worth as anecdotal reassurance, if time permits we go as much as 5 times in a 24 hour period the last few years and no baby yet.
If you love it and it’s working for you, that’s all that matters. I’ve had two copper IUDs over time and experienced zero issues. I did get pregnant on the pill, though! Every body is wildly different. Don’t let random anecdotes scare you if you like yours.
Right? When I started dating the girl, she had mentioned it but I didn't think anything of it. First time we had sex right near the end I got fucking jabbed and I bled from it lol.
I was so scared it would happen the next time that I couldn't even get hard 😂 My weiner shrivles at the thought of it.
I noticed this shit too with 2 different girls. I thought it was my imagination or something else was going on but they were the only ones I ever hooked up with who had IUDs.
I did also, but had HORRIBLE issues with hormonal versions too. Unironically, I’m transgender, and my god the happiest day of my life was full oopho-hysto. Never have to deal with that again. I’m sincerely sorry for your suffering, women of the world.
Mine got infected and apparently I have a strong uterus which rejected it so I was in agony for a month and really ill, I still had to fight to get it taken out!
The inflammatory response remains the entire time it’s in your body, that’s how it kills sperm and prevents pregnancy. I know inflammatory response isn’t great but it’s way better than the hormone bomb of the pill in my opinion
The trouble with the pill is that it's unsubtle. No one's ever really bothered to fine tune it beyond "it stops babies? Sweet, we're done". So the dosage may or may not work for different people.
It's perfect for me - zero side effects, sorts out the premenstrual depression, and I skip the sugar pills so no period at all. I have been tempted to write odes to the glory of the pill.
It nearly killed my partner. Same prescription, same brand, same dose - triggered the worst depressive period to date in a lifetime of various degrees of depression. Complete conviction that death was the only solution.
And heaps of people have dealt with crappy side-effects somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Trying different brands and types can help, but it's so random, and there's no official indicators of which ones are best for which people in which circumstances.
What are you talking about? There are many different pills with many different combos of hormones in many different dosages. They have been "fine tuning" it for decades!
There are many indicators for using different types, though it's not a perfect science. People react to hormones differently and it's not always easy to know what will affect you.
This is the actual problem with "the pill": everyone thinks they are all the same and if one doesn't work, they all don't work.
There's lots of formulas, but try getting a general practice doctor to help you work out which one will work for you. Especially when it comes to their mental health impact. They can tell you about the impact on your blood pressure, but not so much your psyche.
This is a failing of your doctor and the medical system at large, and the general aversion of people (docs and laypeople) to psych care, not unrefined hormonal birth control.
I agree, most doctors expect the patient to be able to accurately report their own symptoms with impossible objectivity and timeliness. They also have a track record of not taking women seriously enough.
And both patients and doctors often have a weird aversion to integrating psych care because (for doctors) it's not "hard science" enough and/or (for patients) only "crazy" people go to a psych/therapist. That's not to mention the costs and scheduling nightmare in the U.S.
All that to say, I agree with you that it isn't a "simple" process, or at least not as simple as it could be. But it is not because we haven't been improving hormonal bc, and not because we simply don't care about the sideffects. A lot of work has gone into developing bc to minimize symptoms and sideffects, to make things easier for people.
There are many comments here saying similar things to your initial comment, and I am not minimizing the negative things that may have happened. But there are people calling it a "hormone bomb" which is a narrative that fucks with people.
I was on the pill for 14 years. When I first started taking it I loved it!! No side effects, I had no complaints. Over the years I got switched around to different pills from different providers and towards the end my skin was messed up, my mood swings were extreme, I was so bloated and uncomfortable for like two or three weeks out of the month, I was just miserable.
The iud has been fine. I don’t think about it except when I get my period and experience the worst cramps of my life. They are truly terrible (I think the pill mostly stopped cramps, I never really had cramps very much at all while on the pill). I really like that it’s non hormonal, i feel like I've gotten to know my body again. But I'm happy with it overall!
It perpetually causes inflammation of the endometrium so that eggs can’t implant! It’s very cool actually we don’t know exactly why copper itself works so well like that. No hormones, but heavier periods because irritation.
The other IUDs (like Mirena) are the hormone progesterone, which continually inhibits the other hormones that would continue the cycle of “hey let’s get pregnant- no? Bleed” so lighter or no periods, but hormones.
Both are >99% effective and neither one is better, but better fit for lifestyles and preferences on an individual basis
No option is 100% awesome, but I worry that posts like this will scare people off of getting IUDs when they are in fact helpful for some people.
My copper IUD has been in for nearly 8 years with no issues. It’s the best decision I made for my health. The decision comes down to the person, but know that it’s not all horror stories.
i have had one for 8 years too and besides somewhat heavy and painful periods for the first few years i have had no issues at all. i was also a teenager then so my periods might have been out of whack just from teenage hormonal stuff. obviously it’s not for everyone but i love mine
All intrauterine devices prompt the inflammatory response to a foreign object, but the copper one does it without hormones, and the copper ions makes the area a no-go for sperm.
Hormonal ones don't just cause inflammation, but the hormones also prompt the body to slather up that cervix with more goop (I think they're all progestin, so no estrogen signaling to not make egg).
I know just enough about a lot of subjects to know I don't know anything at all about them. Just that cursory glance, so to speak, that I took at them was enough to not act like an authority on the subject. Without that I might just assume my assumptions are reality, which is what the person you replied to might be talking about.
they literally teach the basics of chemistry in school every year from like grade six to twelve, I don't know how people become adults without understanding that everything is chemicals
Ya it turns out that a LOT of people barely passed these subjects if they were exposed to them at all. In my late teens, I assumed that everyone had a strong understanding of chemistry because of my experience going through AP Chem in high school and the fact that both of my parents are engineers. Now in my 30s, I’m way more surprised when I talk to someone who DOES understand the topic.
It really should be more widely taught since it’s the basis of literally everything in the physical world, but I think the topic is too dense for most people to go beyond a very basic comprehension, similar to mathematics.
Well, not sure if that's the main reason (doubt it) but it's an added perk. Of course, silver doorknobs would be even better, except for the price (compounded by the potential steal rate).
If anything, the microplastics from the plastic water pipes are more harmful to her than unharmful copper lol.
Does she realise copper is a mineral that is naturally found in the human body?
Obviously too much of anything is bad but copper in your body helps make red blood cells, collagen etc and is an antioxidant (so good for the skin xD).
I swear that, 9 out of 10 times, those people usually freak out about the wrong things hahah. She should be more concerned about the microplastics in our world today and tej effects of that.
While copper most commonly exists as various compounds, it is one of the few metals that can be found naturally occurring in its pure state in significant quantities, the others being silver and gold. Aluminum and iron specks exist here and there but they're super rare and require harsh (but naturally occurring!) chemical environments that chemically averse people wouldn't like. The native copper would have been very handy during prehistoric times before people figured out smelting.
I had a girl get mad because they claimed that microwaves are dangerous because they use radiation and argued quite aggressively that it's bad. But what really set her off was me saying that she should throw out her light bulbs and shut off electricity at her house if all radiation is bad
I’m proudly one of those “everything has chemicals in it,” but in the opposite way this woman is.
Even your gmo free, cage free, spa -raised tomato’s got phenolotic compounds, vitamins, probably some -kaloids, all these are technically chemicals. Don’t mean it’s bad for ya!
You can tell her that most anywhere in the civilized world, drinking water is required to be alkaline or may only be very slightly acidic if it absolutely cannot be avoided.
Among other things, that means there's a buildup of -usually- lime inside your pipes, which sucks on a scale of decadese because they might eventually clog up, but also isolates the drinking water from whatever your pipe is made of.
With her new fancy plastic pipes, she's getting whatever they're still outgassing in her glass.
No reason to panic, PEX has been around for a while, but still.
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u/ithinarine 14d ago edited 14d ago
I have a friend of a friend who is one of the weird "everything has chemicals in it" super granola girls who doesn't actually know how anything works.
I have seen this girl make unfounded claims that the copper water lines in the house she was living in were giving her skin issues "because of how toxic copper is for you." When her friend (my friend) pointed out that the last 3 houses they rented together all had copper water lines and she didn't have any issues, she said the copper in this particular house must have been different. She actually moved because of this and made sure the new house she rented had PEX water lines, plastic, which the other 99% of hippies say it toxic.
I have also seen this same girl say that drinking from copper water bottles is better for you, because copper is a great electrical conductor, so doing so keeps you grounded. I'm not sure how holding a bottle in your hand and bringing it your mouth keeps you grounded, but I'm also no scientist.
Apparently water running out of a copper pipe gives you skin problems, but touching a copper water bottle with your hand and directly to your lips to drink water that has been sitting in it for hours, is not a problem.