One of my goals with Kahunka is to provide regular fun and informative information that not only enlightens readers but inspires them to greater levels of health and fitness.

Being healthy and fit also means looking your very best and as such I will be sharing beauty tips as well as health and fitness stuff.

With that said here is a Kahunka health and beauty tip.

One of the least expensive and most effective ways to improve the appearance of your hair and skin is to buy and install a water filter on your shower.

Why is this?

It’s simple. Chlorine is a poison that is used to kill off harmful bacteria and other creepy characters in our water supply.

The problem is it does not distinguish between the good bacteria and the bad.

Why should this concern you? Take a look in the mirror. That reflection looking back at you is not a single living entity but rather a complex ecological system consisting of gazillions of individual life forms most of which all work together to keep you, you.

Yep it's true you are a mobile mountain of bacteria and cells which is why you should not only try not to ingest chlorine but you should not shower with it either.

“Chlorine itself is not harmful, but its byproducts increase the risk of cancer. Trihalomethanes are the most prevalent by-product, and they can be absorbed into the body through the skin or by inhalation. When THM is absorbed through the skin or into the lungs, they hold stronger carcinogenic properties because they aren’t detoxified through the liver, Villanueva and her team found in their research.” - Chlorinated water found to increase risk of bladder cancer –January 26, 2007 by: M.T. Whitney on NewsTarget.com

When you take those long hot steamy ( and wonderful ) showers, you are actually breathing in a host chlorine by-products like trihalomethanes and chloroform.

Inhalation of these gases are unhealthful and may pose health problems down the road not just limited to bladder cancer.

Chlorine is absorbed through the skin so in effect if you are avoiding chlorine by drinking filtered and/or bottled water but taking unfiltered showers, you still have a healthy dose of chlorine entering your body.

Your skin has a natural bacterial balance that is required to keep skin healthy and youthful. Chlorine can destroy this balance.

Chlorine is a known carcinogen and has been linked to a host of illnesses like cancer and asthma. For more information just do a search on the subject.

And of course……chlorine can dry out your skin and your hair causing it to look dull and lifeless….and who wants that?????

Anyway friends for softer skin and more beautiful hair, do yourselves a favor and go invest is a $30 shower filter, you’ll be glad you did.