kellithekhemist

🦶🏽 “Look at that brown water! My toxins are leaving!”

Baby… that water is not a lab report! 😂🧪

Before we credit our feet with a full-body cleanup, let’s ask: What was in the bath to begin with?

Depending on the product, you might find:

🧂 Epsom salt: magnesium sulfate, which dissolves into magnesium and sulfate ions.

🧂 Sea salt: mostly sodium chloride. Dissolved ions help water conduct electricity.

🥄 Baking soda: sodium bicarbonate, which can change the water’s pH.

🍎 Vinegar: contains acetic acid. Mix it with baking soda, and those bubbles are carbon dioxide from a chemical reaction, not toxins escaping!

🌿 Herbs or tea: can release plant pigments and other compounds into water, just like brewing a cup of tea.

🪨 Clay or charcoal, if added: can make the water cloudy or dark simply because those particles are now in the bath.

In an ionic bath, electrical reactions can also corrode the metal electrodes, producing colored compounds. The chemistry points to that as a likely source of discoloration—but identifying the contents and their source requires testing.

Color, cloudiness, and bubbles do not establish that heavy metals left your body.

“But Kelli, I feel relaxed!”

That feeling is valid! “Sit down and soak those tired feet” can be a welcome invitation to rest. Small studies suggest warm foot baths can support relaxation; that doesn’t establish detoxification.

Your feet deserve a break.
The detox claim needs evidence. 💙🧪

“Baby, get the ginger ale. It’ll make you feel better.” 🫶🏾

That was Granny’s advice when someone was sick. I like to think it connects to generations of care—and a long history of reaching for ginger root and warming spices.

Here’s a little Everyday Chemistry: ginger is a rhizome, or underground stem. Gingerols give fresh ginger some of its characteristic warmth. When ginger is dried or heated, some gingerols can change into related compounds called shogaols.

But ginger root and ginger ale aren’t the same. Ginger ale varies by brand, so check the label to see whether it contains ginger or ginger flavoring. The fizz comes from carbon dioxide escaping when the drink is opened.

Granny’s ginger ale may not be a cure, but her advice carried care—and gave us a great chemistry question: What’s really in the bottle?

What did your family reach for when you were sick?

🧪 EVERYDAY CHEMISTRY | THE CHEMISTRY OF WASH DAY

If water and oil don’t mix, why did wash day require water, leave-in conditioner, Blue Magic, coconut or black castor oil, a comb, a brush, and the patience of Job? 😂

Because textured hair was never “the problem.” Its curls, coils, and bends simply create more opportunities for strands to meet, wrap, and tangle. Every part of wash day had a function:

💧 Water hydrated the hair, temporarily changing hydrogen bonding within keratin so strands became more flexible and easier to reshape.

🧴 Leave-in conditioner added slip, coating the strands and reducing friction—so the comb didn’t have to fight for its life or take your edges with it! 😂

🥥 Oil or grease lubricated the hair, added shine, and slowed water loss. It coated the hair; it did not replace the water.

🪮 The comb and brush supplied the mechanical force needed to detangle, distribute product, align, and shape the strands.

Without enough water and slip? More resistance, more pulling, and somebody yelling, “Hold your head still!”

Monica Mikai 🜳 Author 🜳 Illustrator 🜳 Storyteller book “Wash Day with Mama” reminds us that wash day was chemistry, culture, care, and knowledge passed from one generation to another.

Mama may not have called it materials science but she understood the system. 👑

What was always beside the comb and brush in your house?

📘 Coming soon: a free Everyday Chemistry sampler and teacher-ready digital eBook.

🫁 WHAT DOES COPD HAVE TO DO WITH GAS LAWS?

More than you might think! 👀

Every breath is a real-life chemistry lesson.

According to Boyle’s law:

⬆️ Lung volume → ⬇️ Pressure → Air moves in
⬇️ Lung volume → ⬆️ Pressure → Air moves out

But with COPD, narrowed airways and damaged lung tissue can make it difficult to push air out.

The result?

💨 Air becomes trapped
🫁 The lungs remain overinflated
😮‍💨 The next breath becomes harder

COPD does not “break” Boyle’s law. The law still works—but airway resistance and reduced elastic recoil make airflow less efficient.

This is why I teach chemistry through experiences that connect science to health, everyday life and career possibilities.

👩🏾‍🏫 Teachers, parents and curious learners: Would you use this lesson?

Comment BREATHE below! My Everyday Chemistry digital book and teacher-ready lessons are coming soon with proceeds supporting hands-on STEM experiences through The Khem Lab STEM Project.

This is Kelli the Khemist with Everyday Chemistry—because chemistry is in every breath we take. 🧪

🧪 EVERYDAY CHEMISTRY | THE CHARLEY HORSE EDITION 😂🐎

Ever wake up out of a GOOD sleep and suddenly…

“OHHHHHH!!! MY LEG!!!” 😩😂

That Charley horse came GALLOPING in!

And depending on who raised you, somebody already had the remedy:

🟢 My momma: “Get the GREEN ALCOHOL!”
🥒 “Drink some PICKLE JUICE!”
🥄 “Get a spoonful of YELLOW MUSTARD! (My Auntie Pam)
🍌 And somebody is yelling: “EAT A BANANA!” 😂

But what’s REALLY happening?

🧪 HERE COMES THE CHEMISTRY!

Your nerves and muscles use charged particles called ions to communicate:

⚡ Na⁺ — Sodium
⚡ K⁺ — Potassium
⚡ Ca²⁺ — Calcium
⚡ Mg²⁺ — Magnesium

These electrolytes help nerves send signals and muscles contract and relax.

But here’s the plot twist:

❌ Charley horse = “I need potassium!”

Not necessarily! Muscle fatigue, nerve activity, hydration AND electrolyte balance can all play a role.

🥒 WHY PICKLE JUICE?

Yes, it contains electrolytes—but reported relief from some exercise-related cramps can happen too quickly to simply be from those electrolytes reaching the muscle.

That SOUR taste may stimulate sensory nerves in your mouth and throat that influence the nerve activity involved in the cramp.

Basically…

🥒👄➡️🧠➡️🦵

Your mouth may be telling your nervous system, “Tell that leg to RELEASE!” 😂

🥄 MUSTARD?
It may produce a similar strong sensory response, although the evidence specifically for mustard is limited.

🟢 GREEN ALCOHOL?
Massage may feel soothing, but rubbing alcohol on the outside isn’t replacing electrolytes on the inside.

🐎 WHEN CHARLEY COMES GALLOPING IN:

👉🏾 Gently stretch
👉🏾 Massage the muscle
👉🏾 Stay hydrated
👉🏾 Maintain a balanced diet with important electrolytes

And THIS is why I love Everyday Chemistry—our families were observing and passing down remedies long before we called it ions, electrolytes and sensory receptors.

👇🏾 What did YOUR people tell you to use?

🟢 Green alcohol? 🥒 Pickle juice? 🥄 Mustard? 🍌 Banana?

This is Kelli the Khemist—and this is Everyday Chemistry! 🧪

Why Did My Jheri Curl Turn Into a Fro After Washing? 🌀🧴

Who remembers that unmistakable Jheri curl smell? You could almost smell a fresh curl before you saw it—and when the light hit that shine, baby, the curl was curling! 😂✨

But here’s the Everyday Chemistry behind it.

Hair is made mostly of keratin, a protein built from amino acids. One of those amino acids is cysteine, which contains sulfur. When sulfur atoms from two cysteines connect, they form a strong covalent disulfide bond:

Keratin—S—S—Keratin

These sulfur bridges help hold the hair’s internal structure together.

During the Jheri curl process, a chemical softener temporarily opened some of those disulfide bonds, changing them into two sulfur–hydrogen groups:

S—S → SH + HS

With those bonds opened, the hair became flexible enough to wrap around rods and reshape.

Then came the neutralizer. It reversed that temporary change by removing hydrogen and reconnecting the sulfur atoms:

SH + HS → S—S

Because the bonds reformed while the hair was curled around the rods, they helped hold the new curl pattern. The bonds were temporarily opened, but the reshaped curl was designed to remain in the treated hair. New hair growing from the scalp was not chemically changed.

The activator had a different job. It did not change the disulfide bonds. Its water, humectants such as glycerin, conditioning ingredients, and oils helped keep the curls moisturized, lubricated, shiny, and grouped together.

When the activator was washed away, the strands separated and looked bigger and fluffier. The chemical curl could still be there—it just was not as moisturized and defined.

The softener opened the bonds. The rods shaped the hair. The neutralizer reconnected the bonds. The activator brought the shine and definition.

Now that’s Everyday Chemistry—because the lab is wherever you are! 🧪🤎

What do you remember most: the smell, the shine, the activator bottle, or the pillowcase? 😂

🦶🏾 “That gout acting up again?”

If you grew up hearing Granny talk about “the gout,” you already knew one thing: when it hits, IT HITS!

But what is happening inside the joint?

🧪 Purines → Urate → Crystals → Inflammation → Pain

Purines are natural compounds found in our bodies and in certain foods. When purines break down, they form urate. Normally, the kidneys help remove urate through the urine.

However, when urate builds up and exceeds what can remain dissolved, it may come out of solution and form sharp, needle-shaped crystals in a joint, often the big toe. The immune system reacts to those crystals, producing the sudden redness, heat, swelling, and intense pain associated with a gout flare.

Think about making rock candy. A concentrated sugar solution becomes supersaturated. The dissolved sugar then comes out of solution and forms visible crystals.

That does not mean sugar crystals and gout crystals are the same—or that sugar alone causes gout. Rock candy simply helps us visualize the chemistry concepts of supersaturation and crystallization.

Gout is also not simply the result of “eating the wrong food.” Genetics, kidney function, medications, hydration, other health conditions, alcohol, sugary beverages, and purine-rich foods may all play a role.

Granny called it “the gout.”
Chemistry explains why it hurts.

That’s Everyday Chemistry with Kelli the Khemist™—connecting the language we grew up hearing to the science happening inside our bodies.

🧪 EVERYDAY CHEMISTRY IS BACK!

Why did Granny put baking soda in the beans? 🫘

Growing up, many of us watched our mothers, grandmothers, and elders do things in the kitchen that we simply accepted.

“Put a little baking soda in those beans.”

But WHY?

Turns out… Granny knew the chemistry. 🧪

Beans contain carbohydrates called raffinose-family oligosaccharides that our bodies don’t completely digest. When bacteria in the colon ferment them, gas can be produced. 💨

Soaking beans can help remove some water-soluble compounds, while adding a small amount of baking soda (NaHCO₃) raises the pH of the water and helps break down parts of the bean’s cell-wall structure—helping the beans soften and cook faster.

But this story is bigger than baking soda.

🌍 Across parts of Africa, alkaline salts such as kanwa (trona) have long been used in traditional food preparation.

Our ancestors didn’t need the words pH, sodium bicarbonate, or oligosaccharides to recognize what worked.

They observed.
They experimented.
They passed the knowledge forward.

That’s science.

That’s chemistry.

And that’s why I love Everyday Chemistry.

Chemistry isn’t something that begins when we walk into a laboratory.

Sometimes it has been sitting in our kitchens for generations. ❤️🧪🌍

What did your Granny do in the kitchen that you now realize was actually science?