Am I killing myself through my hair?

Sodium Laurel (and Laureth) Sulfate are the topic of the day. A week ago I happened to catch the Oprah show as they were doing an Earth Day segment on hygiene and beauty products, and the chemicals used in common products. They brought up a number of issues (some of which I hope to post about at a later date) but one in particular piqued my interest. It's about Sodium Laurel Sulfate. Oprah's green guru pointed out this is an ingredient used in almost every toothpaste, shampoo and other product where foaming occurs. They cautioned to stay away if possible.

So the next time I was in my shower I peeked at my ingredient list for my Dove shampoo and sure enough, there was SLS as the second ingredient. Then I was dismayed to grab Delaney's Aveeno hair and body wash and see it as the second ingredient. I looked at the front of the bottle and noticed it was promoting itself as a "natural" shampoo and soap. Yikes! I reached for my other set of shampoo and conditioner and was pleased to see that my Giovanni shampoo did not have any SLS ingredient listed. I was now more curious than ever because the Giovanni shampoo foams up just as well as my Dove shampoo. So I decided before I started panicking about the idea that I was killing myself by washing my hair every day, I should do more research.

Here is what I learned.

Sodium Laurel Sulfate is a "sulfactant," which is essentially an agent that helps water be more effective. It is created by joining sulfate and lauric acid, two compounds widely found in nature. As mentioned previously it is what creates the foam in your products. From what I could learn there is a myth going around that says that SLS and it's cousins cause cancer. Sodium Laurel Sulfate is one form, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is another, as well as Sodium Laureth Sulfate.

I learned that these cautions against SLS were likely started by a natural products company and that the reason they can make this claim is that SLS is often used as an ingredient or component of cancer experiments. However it seems like this link was made without counting that SLS is what is being used to solubilize OTHER ingredients and is mixed before it is injected into animals or tested on humans. In other words they weren't doing tests to see if SLS was causing cancer, and instead it was an agent used to help experiments to learn about other ingredients.

The American Cancer Society has posted a number of items debunking the cancer link with SLS, one of which can be found here:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_2_1x_Debunking_the_Myth.asp

One claim made by anti-SLS websites is that sodium lauryl sulfate is carcinogenic because it produces nitrosamines when it reacts with formaldehyde. From what I could find, and you can do more searching if you like, it seems like this is chemically impossible due to the fact that neither compound contains a nitrogen atom (thus making it possible to create a nitrosamine).

It has been proved that SLS is an ingredient which causes skin irritation. But in most instances it's in very high quantities and in higher quantities than you would see in your daily hygiene products.

I visited a number of sites that will scare the piss out of you in regards to SLS and make you want to pour out every product you own that possesses it as an ingredient. A few of those can be found here:
http://www.healthy-communications.com/slsmostdangerousirritant.html
http://www.natural-health-information-centre.com/sodium-lauryl-sulfate.html

Then I visited some great sites that tried to look at both sides of the argument, found here:
http://www.tomsofmaine.com/toms/ifs/sls.asp
http://www.treasuredlocks.com/noname7.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/common_ecomyth_sls.php

Also most interesting is that this has made it all the way to Snopes, a site I visit regularly when someone emails me some crazy claim about some consumer product killing humans or pets. They have debunked the cancer link as well.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/shampoo.asp

So what is the take away from all of my research? It seems like high concentrations of SLS or any of it's cousins are not good for your skin and not enough research has been done yet to determine if there is any cancer link (really no research). My guess is that the concentrations we use on a daily basis are probably ok and won't kill me.

HOWEVER... I think I will be more wary of seeing where SLS falls into the ingredient list and if I can find a comparable shampoo that lists it as an ingredient further down the list, it seems like it would be wise to lower the concentrations whenever possible.

Kevin Perry, In Memoriam

I found out recently that my long time age group swimming coach, Kevin Perry, passed away from prostate cancer. It was terribly sad news to think that his life was cut so short (56) by such a terrible disease. As a teacher and mentor, it is comforting to know how many people he touched over the years and the lasting impact he had on his swimmers lives.

My brother and I bounced around to a few different swim clubs during our childhood, but eventually settled on Los Altos Aquatics (for the second time) around the time that I was in 7th grade. Kevin was my coach when I eventually moved into the senior group which was the summer before my freshman year. I swam under his tutelage for the next 5-6 years, including my college swimming breaks.

Kevin was a towering figure in that he was extremely tall in height and also tall in stature. I have a very distinct visual image of him standing on the deck with his metallic 80's style sunglasses and wavy, somewhat crazy hair that swooped to the back of his head. His Hawaiian roots were visibly obvious as he wore loose flowing Hawaiian style shirts on 90% of his days.

Kevin had brought the Los Altos Aquatic Swim program into prominence in the late 70s and 80's with a group of highly dedicated and talented swimmers. You didn't have to spend much time around LAAC to figure out that he had not only built a group of great swimmers but he had built a true family. A family, in fact, that still keeps in touch today. I know personally that whenever I see another member of the LAAC family I feel an overwhelming sense of fondness and closeness towards them and a period of my life that was very special.

There have been a few things posted online about Kevin and I have exchanged emails with a few old friends to swap our own stories. I am thrilled to be able to go to his memorial on May 10 in San Jose. I am looking forward to hearing other stories and honoring a man who dedicated his time and energies to helping children become better athletes, and more importantly, better people.

I will sheepishly admit that I was always scared of Kevin. He could be downright mean and intimidating. My own immaturity at this stern behavior probably kept me from becoming closer with Kevin from a friendship standpoint. I know that many other swimmers kept in touch with him over the years, invited him to weddings and picked up the phone to share big news like children being born or starting swimming. I lost touch with Kevin after I stopped swimming likely because I never felt the closeness to him that others around me (and mostly before me at LAAC) were able to establish. I blame myself for this because I know that if I had reached out and confided more in Kevin I would have received a lot more in return. As it was he still provided with me principle after principle that helped me grow as an individual and solidified a lot of the work ethic that has endured throughout my personal and professional life.

Since his passing I have thought back often to the efforts he made to constantly have us thinking about the big picture, setting goals, visualizing, committing, evaluating, talking about what we'd learned. Nary a day went by in his workouts where he didn't espouse on some life topic that we should be thinking about or considering. A lot of these didn't even have to do with swimming. I can't even begin to remember them all. But at that age in life I have to believe that a lot of it stuck with me even if I rolled my eyes from time to time and thought he was a bit "new agey" and crazy.

In fact there were plenty of times where we thought he actually WAS crazy. And stubbornly opinionated on swimming techniques, training principles and character judgement. I remember when a somewhat legendary swimmer came to try out Los Altos because he had bounced around to several other teams with reckless abandon. This swimmer was legendary more because he was known for having insane talent without having to practice at all. I think this swimmer lasted about 4 days in our workouts. It was clear that his constant tardiness and showing up half-stoned was not going to mesh in Kevin's workouts, and we all snickered as we saw him very quickly being pushed out of the team. But plenty of other coaches in the bay area jumped at the chance for him to swim with his team. Even multiple times after being kicked off. Not Kevin. He didn't care. You had to be made of a certain fiber to survive with his workouts.

(My) Kevin and I talk often about our swimming past and what it did for us growing up. We are somewhat dreading the day that our children decide that they want to make it their passion and we are forced to juggle our lives around the intense training schedule that comes with being competitive. But the reality is that we both believe it was instrumental in bringing us endless positive traits and memories. It was as close as he and I have come to religion in our lives. We love swimming and all that it brought us.

I will close out this post with a final thank you to Kevin Perry. Kevin, thank you for all of your hard work, caring and wisdom. Thank you for being there to support me after my many failures. Thank you for pushing me to work harder when you could see that I needed it. And thank you for sharing in my many successes as a swimmer. I owe you more than can ever be repaid or acknowledged in a letter. You will be missed but not forgotten as your legacy lives on with thousands of swimmers across the world.

Sesame Street Lives

Recently Delaney has shown some interest in watching Sesame Street. She is not a big TV-watcher in general and most of the time she requires that you watch it with her, which ultimately is not always convenient when I'm about to cook dinner. But I like that she CAN occasionally be occupied by the TV for a few odd minutes when there is absolutely something I have to get done.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about Sesame Street that has finally grabbed her atention. Likely it's the combination of her fondness for Elmo (through the Elmo Potty video) and other funny looking puppets. Both Kevin and I have sat through several episodes with her to try and explain what is going on.

I was shocked and impressed to see that a lot of the human characters on the show are the SAME ones from when we were kids. Maria is the same, Gordon (although he apparently is not the original Gordon from 1969), Bob and a few others have been on the show for 30 some odd years. That's amazing to me! Imagine how many children those actors have touched over the years. I have to wonder when Maria took the job back in 1972 if she thought it would be this nice side-gig to help her pay the rent occasionally. Who knew it would be going strong nearly 40 years after it started.

Delaney's favorite part of SS is definitely Elmo's World. If she is watching it by herself she always comes and finds me to let me know that Elmo's World is on. My favorite part of SS are the funny guest stars and their songs. One of our Tivo'd episodes has REM singing "Shiny, Happy, Monsters" which Delaney has started to sing when the show isn't even on.

I think that for this age range (1-3 years old) this kind of television show is pretty much the best thing going. Sure a lot of the other animated and live action shows on Sprout, Noggin and Nick are educational and add value. But it seems like Sesame Street is the perfect combination of education, fantasy, culture, understanding, acceptance, etc. I appreciate that they make it fun to watch with your kids, especially since that's pretty much how we're going about it currently.

The teaching profession

This will be a mostly-lame update on my schooling progress and schooling future.

I am nearly finished with my first semester at CU in the teaching licensure Post BA program. I was not sure what to expect from this program or the classes, but I can say that by and large I have thoroughly enjoyed my classes. They have not seemed very hard to me, for the most part they are interesting, and I feel as though I am learning valuable information. I can say with certainty that they are nothing like any of the classes I took at UCLA. Some of it is due to educational changes with college classes in general, some due to the differences between UCLA and CU, and some due to the specific nature of education/teaching certification classes. Friends have insisted that the biggest change is the fact that I'm 35 now and not 22 and immature. I wish I could say that was the case... I don't feel significantly smarter now than I did 13 years ago (although certainly more mature), and I worked about 20 times harder at UCLA for sometimes meager achievements. If I had 4 years of classes like these at UCLA, I can surmise that I would have sailed through with close to a 4.0 GPA.

The licensure requirements for teachers is increasing at a rapid pace. Part of it is due to No Child Left Behind and some of the teacher qualifications listed as a part of that bill. Policy makers are also learning a lot about students and the best environments for learning. Elementary school is very different now than when I went to school, and some of the changes are huge improvements on some outdated, cookie-cutter curriculums.

A week before spring break CU announced that they were discontinuing my current program and making some drastic changes going forward. The state is changing some of their requirements and they have also done research over the years to see what graduating teachers found most useful in their first years of teaching. CU is not all bad here in making this change, but it comes at a very inopportune time for me. The worst news of the program switch is that they are discontinuing a number of the existing courses and there is a very short time period where I can take those classes. Since I am taking the fall off because of baby deux this affects me in a big way. Also I am a part time student and had hoped to stretch my classes out for a very long time. Now this will be much more difficult.

My advisor was very understanding and tried to make some accommodations for my situation. The bottom line is that I'm going to have to take some classes with the new program students and some of the classes I take may be repetitive from what I've already completed. The new program is called a "cohort program" where a group of students get accepted and have to take the same classes together at the exact same time. So there is no part time option for new students. And it will be strange to be in classrooms with a group of people who all know each other well, but I can get over that pretty quickly.

I am constantly amazed at the sheer number of courses and requirements I need in order to become licensed. This is one of the lowest paying professions in America. How can they make you complete a year of full time school, a half-year of student teaching (for no pay), and a national license exam for a job that often has starting salaries at $40k? I can think of a lot of other jobs (some that I've had) that paid a lot more than that and required no formal education. I know this is one of the most important jobs in this country but I feel like maybe the state regulations are overpreparing us from a coursework perspective. One of the largest intangibles in becoming a proficient teacher is experience and the ability to relate to children. How can you teach that in coursework? When I think back on my best teachers, I think about teachers who had passion, enthusiasm and an ability to relate to students. There has not been one mention of that in my coursework so far, and I don't see any courses titled "how to reach your students" or "how to motivate your students". Instead we focus on how much they should be writing, reading, learning about science, etc.

The financial stress of my schooling (and childcare) is going to weigh on the family heavily over the next year and a half. But I just keep telling myself that it's all going to work out somehow. I know it's a somewhat blind faith, but if I didn't have it I would go insane.

For now I have to write a few more papers and finish up a bunch of projects before my last day of school on May 1.

When I said MIA, I meant MIA!

I've been offline over two weeks now. Things have been crazy upon return from California/Cabo, and I just haven't had one spare moment. Ugh.

I figured I would start way back with our trip.

Highlights:
1. Getting to spend two full days with Joe, Janet, Lucy and Bailey. Lucy is amazing with tons of words and tons of independence. I was very impressed with her spirit, giving nature and intelligence. She was amazing in letting Delaney play with her books and toys all weekend.
2. Having the entire Thomas clan together for Easter weekend.
3. Sitting on Joe and Janet's porch and looking at their amazing view of the San Diego bay.
4. Being in warm, warm, warm weather for 9 days straight. Even when it seemed "cold" it wasn't really cold.
5. Watching Jo and Bob delight in our beautiful daughter, and how she had them wrapped around her little finger with every funny phrase and behavior (especially Pop-pop).
6. Getting to take naps and relax, both in California and Cabo.
7. Being around a VERY active but generally good natured traveler Delaney. She is SO much easier than she used to be.
8. Catching up on my reading in Cabo.
9. Going to the Wild Animal Park with Delaney, and getting to see Cory and her adorable munchkin Will.
10. Wearing elastic waist sweats and pants and feeling oh so very comfortable in them.
11. Feeling the ickyness of the first trimester slowly move out, just in time for our trip away.
12. Lots of tacos.

Some of the things that WEREN'T highlights:
1. Not being able to go in hot hot tubs.
2. Not being able to eat a lot of fish (especially hard in Mexico).
3. Not being able to have a Pacifico in Mexico.
4. Driving a tiny stick shift rental around crazy Cabo.
5. The wind in Cabo. We've had wind all winter in Colorado and I would have been ok if it weren't gusting every afternoon and evening.

That's about it. All in all a pretty perfect trip. We are currently planning our next one this July to DC and Maine. It's going to be a pricey trip, and I haven't booked it yet because I'm just not sure I can afford those darn plane tickets. Would I be insane to think about driving out with Lucy and Delaney?