Nail Polish remover

Aajonus stated plainly that nail polish and nail polish remover together constitute "the most toxic available substance that is in an industrial situation," specifically within the context of commercially accessible products. He used the example of airline policy to anchor this claim in an observable fact: it is illegal to open a bottle of nail polish in an airplane or any closed environment. He described how flight attendants are trained to respond immediately if they detect the smell of nail polish being opened, descending on the passenger at once. His reading of this policy was not incidental. He used it to demonstrate that the toxicity of these substances is severe enough that even the institutions of conventional society have had to impose restrictions, which in his framework was a meaningful concession given that he generally regarded regulatory bodies as slow and often motivated to protect industrial interests rather than health.

The volatile compounds released by nail polish remover, when inhaled in a closed or poorly ventilated environment, were described by Aajonus as capable of producing damage to multiple body systems simultaneously. He specifically named the combination of hairspray and nail polish or remover fumes in a salon environment as particularly dangerous, warning that inhaling both together in a single space could "damage a lot of things in your system."

One of the specific mechanisms Aajonus identified for nail polish remover's harm was disruption of the intestinal bacterial environment. He placed it in the same category as aerosol hairspray in terms of its capacity to damage the bacteria that populate the digestive tract, including E. coli, which he described as essential to normal function. He stated that hairspray alone, inhaled in a salon, could disrupt intestinal E. coli for as long as three months. He treated nail polish remover as operating by the same or greater mechanism, given that he ranked it above hairspray in terms of toxicity.

The broader framework here is that anything which reaches the blood or the gut through inhalation carries the potential to alter the bacterial environment that governs digestion, mood, immune response, and detoxification. Aajonus connected depression, anxiety, and a wide range of systemic complaints to disruption of this bacterial environment, and he listed chemicals inhaled from products like nail polish remover as among the causes of that disruption. His phrasing was direct: "if you get depressed, if you feel anxious about anything, you can better believe that you've got a low bacterial environment in that moment," and atmospheric chemical exposure was one of the routes by which that environment could be suppressed.

Aajonus identified another specific mechanism through which nail polish on the nails, and by extension the remover used to strip it, damages the body: interference with the fat-based lubrication system. He stated that women who use nail polish "will prevent themselves from lubricating their entire body for up to two weeks from just one use." His explanation was that the toxins in the polish penetrate through the nails into the blood, and that once in the blood, the body is forced to deploy its available fats to neutralize and transport those toxins. This redirects fats away from their normal role of lubricating every tissue, joint, and cell wall throughout the body.

He described nail polish as "one of the most dangerous of all toxins" in this context, not because it causes acute dramatic symptoms in most cases, but because the metabolic diversion it creates is sustained and systemic, lasting up to two weeks from a single application. The implication Aajonus drew is that women who use nail polish regularly are in a state of chronic fat depletion at the level of tissue lubrication, even if they are consuming adequate dietary fat, because that fat is being continuously redirected to manage the chemical load from the polish. The remover, which must be used every time the polish is stripped, functions as an additional chemical insult layered on top of the existing burden.

In "We Want to Live," Aajonus gave a specific dietary protocol for addressing the toxicity of nail polish on the nails. He listed it under remedies for toxic substances with the parenthetical notation "very toxic!" The protocol consisted of three components: increasing fat intake by 25 percent, consuming 15 sprigs of fresh parsley daily, and applying coconut oil or olive oil to the nails instead of nail polish.

The 25 percent increase in fat is consistent with his general framework for handling chemical toxicity, in which fat serves as the primary buffer, binder, and transport medium for removing poisons from tissues and the blood. The fresh parsley at 15 sprigs daily was the specific binding agent he identified for nail polish toxins, placed in the same list as parsley for antibiotics, suggesting a shared mechanism by which parsley's compounds assist the body in sequestering and eliminating this class of chemical.

The topical application of coconut or olive oil to the nails was both a substitute for polish and a supportive measure. His broader guidance on nail health included a topical balm of five parts fermented coconut oil or stone-pressed olive oil to one part unsalted raw butter, rubbed into the nails two to three times daily. This same preparation applies in the context of someone transitioning away from nail polish, as it provides the lubrication the nails need and begins to support the tissue that has been penetrated by chemical compounds.

Aajonus was asked directly whether he recommended that women put nothing on their nails. His answer was that they can use olive oil or other oils, and he named butter as an option. He did not present this as a cosmetic compromise but as a complete alternative that serves the nail's actual biological needs, which in his framework are lubrication and mineral support rather than occlusion with a synthetic film. The oils he named, olive oil and butter, are the same fats he recommended for systemic fat support and for topical tissue nourishment throughout his protocols.

He made clear there is no such thing as a natural nail polish within his framework, because even formulations marketed as herbal or natural involve processing that destroys enzymes and converts what were plant compounds into chemicals. The same reasoning he applied to cosmetics generally he applied to nail products: the processing itself is what creates the harm, regardless of the starting materials.