024 - How to Reduce Toxin Exposure in Your Everyday Life

Hello friends!! Happy 2020! I’m so happy to be back with you after taking a few weeks off for the holidays. Stepping away and letting my brain rest for a while was so helpful! If you are feeling burnt out, I highly suggest you try taking some time off or downtime in whatever capacity you can - I think it will really help! 

So for today’s episode, I want to talk to you about toxins we are exposed to in regular everyday life, what effect that the repeated exposure is having on our health, and simple ways to help reduce some of that. 

The reality is that there are toxins all around us, all the time, and it is easy to quickly become overwhelmed and frustrated as you start to learn about this topic. I first started learning about environmental toxins and their effect on our bodies during our fertility journey and oh, man - I remember feeling like I just needed to throw away everything in our house and live in a bubble! But something that I want you to remember as we start to get into this a little deeper is that the goal here is not perfection. None of us will ever be able to achieve a perfectly toxin-free existence, and our bodies don’t really need us to. They are designed to be able to handle some exposure - that’s why our bodies have detoxification pathways - we just need to keep them from becoming overloaded and performing at their best. And remember… stressing about your exposure to toxins is just as toxic for your body as the actual toxins themselves - so let’s not do that! Don’t go to either extreme of obsession and worrying about every little thing or feeling like you need to throw out every product in your home but also don’t just bury your head in the sand and ignore it because it feels too big. 

The best way to start the process of reducing your toxin exposure is to become informed.  

Let’s start with how environmental toxins affect our bodies. When we are exposed to something that is toxic to us - could be chemicals found in plastic or aluminum or synthetic fragrances in cleaning products or personal care products, they increase the toxic load on our bodies. 

Our bodies are designed to filter out toxins through our liver, gut, lungs, lymph system and skin.

Our gut, the first line of defense, filters out harmful substances with the use of our microbes and sends them to the liver to be further detoxed out. It’s easy to get into a bad cycle when it comes to toxins and our gut health. We need good gut health and a strong microbiome to help filter out and eliminate toxins we are exposed to, but the chronic exposure to toxins actually has a negative effect on our guts. Keeping our guts happy and healthy is something that takes ongoing attention. You can’t just take one round of probiotics and call it good. 

The liver, our main filtration system, has two detoxification phases, and each is very important. The Phase 1 pathway produces enzymes that change harmful substances and make them more water-soluble and/or oxidizes them. Although necessary, this oxidation process creates harmful free radicals associated with aging, cell damage and some cancers. These free radicals then must be rapidly acted upon by the Phase 2 pathway (conjugation) which uses antioxidants, such as glutathione, to cause them to be harmless. So we really need our livers to be functioning optimally to handle normal day-to-day exposures. If Phase 1 is overactive and Phase 2 is sluggish for any reason, we run a risk of a build-up of the toxic free radicals, which if left unchecked will adversely alter our DNA and can trigger a number of diseases. 

So, if our bodies are designed to “handle” the toxins, what’s the big deal with these environmental toxin exposures? Unfortunately, the number of environmental toxins that we are exposed to just by being alive has increased exponentially in the last several decades. As wonderful as industrial and technological advancements can be, they also have negative side effects. Our bodies, especially our livers, simply can’t keep up with the amount of exposure we are experiencing. There are so many people dealing with chronic health conditions or nagging symptoms that they can’t seem to resolve and a lot of times this is because their livers are overloaded and sluggish due to the number of toxins they are being exposed to on a regular basis. 

The most common toxins that affect us daily (at least that we have any control over) are: 

• Pesticides and herbicides 

These are chemicals most often used on crops (food sources, cotton, etc.) to kill insects or microbes that can cause damage to the plant. The issue with this is that those chemicals alter the quality of the plant which we then consume - and if they are designed to kill microbes, guess what they likely do in the body as well? The chemicals used in these products have been linked to cancer, hormone imbalance, and endocrine system disruption.

• BPAs 

Most of us are familiar with BPA. This is mostly found in plastics (like water bottles, plastic food storage containers, etc.). A lot of products claim to now be BPA free, however, that isn’t regulated, and unfortunately, BPA isn’t the only toxic chemical found in plastic products. These are known to be xenoestrogens (basically their chemical structures allow our bodies to perceive them as estrogens) and can lead to estrogen dominance and hormonal imbalance).

• Phthalates and Parabens

We hear quite a bit about these as well - usually in reference to shampoos, conditioners, hair spray, etc. These are known carcinogens and hormone disruptors, linked to breast cancer and banned in Europe - but unfortunately, not in the US. 

• Synthetic fragrances 

Ugh - this one is especially frustrating to me! If you look at the labels of just about anything, you will see the word “fragrance” or “parfume” - even a lot of “natural” products. The issue here is that there is absolutely no regulation on what those words mean in this context. The word “fragrance” can be used to describe over 4000 different ingredients and several of those have been found to negatively affect the central nervous system. 

• Triclosan

This is a synthetic antibacterial agent the Environmental Protection Agency registers as a pesticide. Triclosan disrupts hormones, can affect sexual function and fertility and may lead to birth defects. Triclosan has been linked to paralysis, suppression of the immune system, brain hemorrhages, and heart problems. It's widely used in antibacterial cleansers, toothpaste, and household products. 

Unfortunately, this list only covers the ones we are likely to encounter in our everyday lives. If you want more in-depth information, I encourage you to do some research on EWG’s website.

So we’ve now talked about how toxins affect the body and which chemicals we are exposed to the most and their specific effects on our health. Now let’s get into what we can actually do about it. 

As I mentioned before, it’s easy to get overwhelmed here so I want to just really focus on ways to get started. If you are like me, this will be a journey. Make one change and then when you are ready, move onto the next thing. A healthy lifestyle is built over time - not overnight. 

Get informed - do some research. 

The EWG is a great resource. There are also a few Instagram accounts that I love to follow for easy-to-understand info like Shawna @alittlelesstoxic, Karalynn @just.ingredients, and the girls over @branchbasics. These are great places to start and most have info saved to their highlights so that you can take in a little at a time, as you are ready.

Support your body’s natural detoxification pathways 

Things like eating clean, whole foods (organic when possible - especially for animal products and the dirty dozen), including plenty of cruciferous veggies(things like broccoli and cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kale for example) which increase your body’s detox pathways, taking detox baths, moving your body for 20-30 minutes every day, sweating regularly, and drinking plenty of water (half your body weight in oz). 

Focus on what you put IN and ON your body the most

IN Your Body

• Water (drink from stainless steel or glass. Best to use a water filtration system of some sort). 

• Organic for dirty dozen produce items

• Clean protein sources (organic and grass-fed best options / lean conventional meats if organic isn’t available to you.)

• Reduce or eliminate foods with artificial, chemical-laden ingredients as well as foods treated with pesticides and herbicides, antibiotics, hormones, or GMOs 

ON your body (Think Dirty or EWG apps make this so much easier!)

• Evaluate your home and personal care products that you apply directly to your skin looking out for the ingredients mentioned above. 

  • Laundry detergent, fabric softeners

  • Shampoos, dry shampoos, root lifters, etc.

  • Body Wash and lotions

  • Skincare products

  • Deodorant and perfumes/body sprays

Don’t stress about throwing everything out at once and buying all new stuff. Focus on becoming more informed and then as you run out of something, replace it with a cleaner, better option.

Ultimately, do what you can do - and what you WANT to do. It is not possible to shield ourselves from every single toxin - there are just too many; however, we can choose to focus on the things we have the most exposure to and are the easiest for us to control - our homes, our skin, our food. 

I hope that today’s episode has helped clarify why this is an important issue as well as helped you to feel empowered that you can have some control here! As always if you have questions feel free to reach out - leave me a comment or send me a DM on Instagram.