The hidden dangers of your morning shower

Most people fail to realize that taking a typical shower can expose you to nearly ten times more chlorine than you would receive by drinking unfiltered tap water all day long.
Tests show that your body can absorb more chlorine as a result of a 10-minute shower than if you
drank eight glasses of the same water. A warm shower opens up your pores, causing your skin to act like a sponge.
As a result, you not only inhale the chlorine vapours, you also absorb them through your skin, directly into your bloodstream-at a rate that’s up to six times higher than drinking.

• Chlorine: Added to most municipal water supplies, this disinfectant hardens arteries,
  destroys proteins in the body, irritates skin and sinus conditions, and aggravates asthma,
  allergies, and respiratory problems.
• Chloroform: This powerful by-product of chlorination causes excessive free- radical formation (accelerated aging!), normal cells to mutate, and cholesterol to oxidise. It’s a known carcinogen!
• DCA (Dichloroacetic acid): This chlorine by-product alters cholesterol metabolism and has been shown to cause liver cancer in lab animals.
• MX (another chlorinated acid): Another by-product of chlorination, MX is known to cause genetic mutations that can lead to cancer growth and has been found in all chlorinated water for which it was tested.
• Possible cause of bladder and rectal cancer: Research has indicated that drinking chlorinated water may increase the risks for bladder and rectal cancers.

In terms of cumulative damage to your health, showering in chlorinated water could be one of the greatest risks you take every day. In the short term, chlorinated shower water irritates your eyes, your sinuses, your throat, your skin, and your lungs. Long-term risks include excessive free-radical formation (which makes you age faster!), higher vulnerability to genetic mutations, difficulty metabolising cholesterol, and hardened arteries. When chlorine reacts with the organic matter already present in water (humus, the organic material formed from plant decay), toxic by-products can form. Chloroform, for example, causes cells to mutate and cholesterol to oxidize. Once used as an anesthetic, chloroform was banned by the FDA in 1976 when it was discovered to cause cancer.