About drugs that go through the skin

I wanted to write another post about this subject because I've been handling some of my contaminated belongings, and I'm having a reaction right now. 

People who use prescription drugs or herbal drugs usually do not know that many drugs can go through the skin.  People who grow herbal drugs in and around their houses are at risk of contaminating their belongings with the oils from these plants.  The danger is greatest when you are handling fresh growing herbs and their seeds.  Dried, processed herbs do not have as much of the drug-containing oils in them as the fresh plants do.  

Some drugs are known to go through the skin, and drug companies have manufactured products that use this ability.  For instance, nicotine goes through the skin, and there are nicotine patches available for people who want to stop smoking.  There are also St. John's Wort patches available at some stores that sell medicinal herbs. 

Not all drugs go through the skin easily, or perhaps, if they do, the reactions they cause are mild.  Other drugs go through the skin quickly and can cause a severe reaction about five minutes after you touch the drug - for instance, the seeds of the ephedra plant are covered with enough ephedrine to cause extremely dangerous reactions even if you only handle the seeds and do not eat any part of the plant. 

The reactions are not limited to the place where the drug touched the skin.  Many people are familiar with skin reactions to poison ivy or poison oak.  Those plants cause irritation on the surface of the skin at the place where the oils touched the skin.  Any other effects elsewhere in the body are not very noticeable, although there may indeed be effects.  But other drugs pass into the bloodstream and are carried around the entire body.  Many people believe that if something touches the skin, it might only cause a reaction at the place where it touched, and they are not aware that the substance is being absorbed into the skin and into the blood vessels and being carried around the entire body.

This also occurs with other substances put on the skin, such as soap, shampoo, lotions, medicines, dyes in clothing, laundry detergent, and even the water in the shower.  It is possible that some fluoride is absorbed through the skin when people take showers in areas that have fluoridated water, even if they only drink bottled water to avoid the fluoride. Other contaminants in water might go through the skin and also might be inhaled while a person is showering. But many people do not think of this possibility when they live in a place with poor quality water, or fluoridated water, that they do not want to drink.   

Extremely low dosages of some drugs are able to cause intense reactions.  Many drugs are like hormones in that respect.  Hormones are described as chemicals that cause potent reactions in many parts of the body even at very low levels.

Homeopathic doctors dilute substances with very large amounts of water. They usually claim that there is 'nothing left' of the original substances after the dilution; however, there are probably very small quantities left in the water.  Homeopathic medicine might actually work because people react to extremely small dosages of drugs.  The practice of homeopathic medicine might be taken as more evidence that only a few molecules are required to cause reactions. 

Some transdermal (through-skin) drugs are similar to perfumes or odors when they get into clothing:  they are very hard to wash out.  Just as some odors linger in clothing even after several washes, and just as some substances leave a colored stain on clothing that does not wash out, these drugs can become attached to clothing permanently.  However, because they are not visible, most people do not know they are there.  If you have experienced transdermal drug reactions before, then you become familiar with the sensations they cause, and you can often tell when laundry is contaminated with drug residues, even though you cannot see them.  Extremely small quantities of these drugs are released slowly from the clothing while you are wearing it, and because their effects are potent even at low levels, contaminated laundry can become very disturbing and uncomfortable and can cause severe mood swings and other health problems as your body reacts to the drugs. 

'Secondhand drugs' can get into your clothing as well.  If you take a prescription drug in the form of a pill, your skin excretes low levels of that drug in the oils and sweat all over your body.  These waste products contaminate your laundry, your furniture, and your belongings.  The drug residues can then touch the skin of other people who share your clothing, enter your home, or use your belongings, which will cause them to have a reaction.  Most people do not know that they are having reactions to invisible drug residues on the surfaces that they touch, and so they describe themselves as having 'unexplained mood swings.'  They can only observe that they have extreme mood changes and random health problems from day to day without knowing what is triggering them.  Transdermal drug residues and secondhand drugs are often a cause that very few people are aware of.

It is not only drugs that go through the skin.  Heavy metals such as lead can go through the skin if you touch objects made of lead or lead paint, for instance.  Some other chemicals go through the skin.  Heavy metals can even be in the soil in places like orchards where lead arsenic pesticides were used many years ago, and these can go through the skin of the feet if you walk barefoot in those areas or handle the soil.  There are many other ways that chemicals can be absorbed through the skin.

This information is useful for people who are trying to quit smoking.  Some people find that it's easier to quit smoking if they temporarily leave home and stay someplace else.  This might not just be because of 'breaking a habit,' but because the objects in their home are covered with tobacco smoke, which goes through the skin and causes people to repeatedly 'use' tobacco.  This causes cycles of use and withdrawal even when the person is not smoking.  Every exposure to tobacco will cause withdrawal symptoms to occur several hours later, and that makes the cravings keep coming back.  It is probably much easier to quit smoking if you are living in a clean location and wearing fresh clothing that has never been exposed to smoke or tobacco in any form.

This is all based on my personal experiences, and I would like to demonstrate it in a laboratory test someday so that it will be recognized as a real phenomenon.