January's Causes and Effects

Each month of the year is designated as the (insert cause/awareness name) "Month". For example, January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month; Thyroid Disease Awareness Month; Glaucoma Awareness Month; andBirth Defects Awareness Month. There are a great number of shops who do their part to support those causes by offering items which bring attention to the particular cause or disease, donating a portion or all of their profits to an organization working to help people affected by the issue, or sometimes both.

To do my own little part in order to bring awareness to the forefront, I'll be doing a post sometime around the middle of the month featuring some of these generous shops. Please spread the word and support these causes by purchasing an item or two from these as well as the other shops who participate in similar promotions. Here are the shops I'm featuring for the month of January - thank you to them for their support of these causes and to you for helping by contributing to the positive effects of research or work in these arenas.


Cervical Cancer Awareness

LUXE Karma (Cervical Cancer Awareness) Emerald and Apatite Bracelet
from JulReDesignsLUXE**

From their shop - "January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month! JulRe Designs will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this item to The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation. For more information, visit the foundation at www.thegcf.org and the Women's Cancer Network at www.wcn.org or call 1-800-444-4441."


Thyroid Disease Awareness

Blue Czech Awareness Bracelet
from ChristinaG

Thyroid diseases, including Grave's disease, and Hashimoto's thyroiditis, affect the body's ability to maintain proper metabolism resulting in a variety of symptoms including weight gain (or loss), loss of concentration (confusion), rapid heart rate, elevated blood cholesterol, temperature intolerance, menstrual disorders/infertility, and generalized pain. A portion of all awareness jewelry sold at ChristinaG goes to that particular cause and/or you can also specify which cause you'd like the contribution to go to at the time of purchase. For additional information on these diseases, the following links are provided in the item description:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/search/search/KEYWORDS=thyroid disease
http://www.medicinenet.com/thyroid_disease/article.htm

Glaucoma Awareness

Glaucoma Awareness Bracelet

from ShadesofAwareness

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness, resulting of a build up of fluid pressure in the eye. Glaucoma cannot be prevented, but if it is diagnosed and treated early, the disease can be controlled. At this time, loss of vision caused by glaucoma is irreversible and cannot be restored. However, successfully lowering eye pressure can prevent further visual loss from glaucoma. For more information visit: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/glaucoma/DS00283


Birth Defects

March of Dimes Magnet
from BlackBrookShop

BlackBrookShop offers a lovely selection of jewelry, accessories, and items like the magnet featured above in support of the March of Dimes, with 20% of the sales price of each item being donated directly to this charitable research foundation working to prevent birth defects. Worldwide, one out of every thirty-three children is born with a birth defect - defined as an abnormality of structure, function or metabolism (body chemistry) present at birth that results in physical or mental disabilities, or death. This works out to approximately 6% of newborns or one birth every 4.5 minutes. The best steps to prevention are prenatal health and care. For more information visit the March of Dimes.

Help them help others!

xo,


**Denotes an undiscovered or underdiscovered shop!