Hormone health and environmental toxins.. and what you can do!

I was teaching a private yoga student the other day and she had a yummy smelling candle on.. you know the ones, you like the smell of them but have a sneaking suspicion that the smell you like isn’t necessarily coming from essential oils or organic fragrances. We talked a bit how she kind of vaguely “knew” that these candles weren’t the best for her health and tried to cook organic for herself and family, but this was kind of the last forray into living a “cleaner” life.

I grew up in the midwestern part of the United States, where scented vanilla candles, sweet smelling lotions and hair products and car air fresheners are a plenty. I knew nothing then about the environmental toxins in these candles, fresheners, personal care and home products and the role they play in disrupting our bodies ability to detox or “clear” our own hormones (a whole other long winded topic). When I got DUTCH hormone testing done a few years ago after struggling with a few female hormone imbalance issues, I started to learn more (and in fact study functional nutrition and run and interpret these tests on my own.

If you are concerned about this for yourself or your family, read on for a few tips on how you can clean up your home and personal care products to support your overall and hormonal health. :)

Here are a few simple strategies to reduce your exposure to some common toxins and to enhance your body’s ability to handle them.:)

Cleaning up your air: First off, let the fresh air in at least 3 times a day for 5 minutes. I learned this in Germany as it’s not a regular, year-long thing to do in the U.S. Cleaners, deodorizers, aerosol sprays, room fragrances, paints and disinfectants can contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) . VOC can cause damage and irritation to skin and eye, sensitization, negatively effect our central nervous system, liver and kidney health (our purifying and detoxing organs) and are carcinogenic. Concentrations of many VOCs are up to 10x higher indoors.

Second, look at what you are using to “scent” your air — your candles, incense or diffuser scents. Unless they contain pure, essential oils or scents, they likely contain Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs are natural or man-made chemicals that can mimic, block, or interfere with the body’s hormones (which are part of the endocrine system). The body’s endocrine system has 7 glands: the hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid and parathyroid, adrenals and pineal body, the ovaries and the testes. Any small changes in one affects all. Scientists believe that even small amounts of EDCs can alter the body’s sensitive systems and lead to health problems including in growth, fertility, metabolism reproduction and healthy menstrual cycles.

To find “clean” air scents, I use Code Check App when I am in Germany or Environmental Working Group Healthy Living App when I am in the U.S. to scan for good non-toxic products and avoid bad ones. Take it a step further and buy some plants that can help clean our air - peace lilies, spider plants and english ivy are a few common plants that look nice and do a cool job too!

Cleaning out your kitchen:  Throw out the plastic storage containers, water bottles, cutlery and spice containers and replace them with glass or stainless steel. Chemicals in plastic can leach from the plastic and enter our bodies. These compounds are linked to serious health issues such as endocrine disruption (see above), weight gain (some chemicals contain obesogen qualities which are linked to weight gain as the toxins bind to fat cells), insulin resistance, decreased reproductive health, and cancer.

Cleaning up your personal care products:  Especially if you are a woman! The Environmental Working Group found that women tend to use a lot more personal care products on their person than men - in fact about twice as many as men.   Many of our deodorants, hair products, shaving cream, cosmetics and lotions contain phthalates, parabens and perfumes.  These are endocrine disruptors and can lead to hormone imbalance in both women and men.  I use the same 2 apps above for this!

If I had read this several years ago, I would have been totally overwhelmed, had no idea where to start and likely would have done nothing because that is where many of us go when overwhelmed. Or, in the opposite direction, go towards hypervigilence to the point of consumer paralysis. If you are going to either, take a breath! Stress and anxiety are also toxic. And doing nothing also won’t help. The goal is not reduction of exposure to toxic chemicals in your home, but to lessen the body burden.

Think kaizen. Step by step. I recommend starting with what is free and easy to do: throw out scented candles, diffusers and room scents. Open your windows and air out your home. Take your shoes off outside of your flat to limit outdoor toxins indoors. Dust and vacuum more frequently, especially if outdoors tends to be dragged indoors more easily through children or beds. This lowers your body burden already and will give a nice feeling of success minus the overwhelm.

Then move onto to replacing your household cleaning products one by one, or room by room. I started with the bathroom since it is smaller and I use fewer cleaning products. I replaced toilet bowl cleaners, sink spray, window wash and shampoos, conditioners and hand soap. One by one. Then the kitchen with food prep (pots and pans from Teflon to Stainless Steel, storage containers from plastic to glass, water bottles to glass. For me, this was probably a 3-5 year process and every step in the direction of cleaner living felt good. And my hormone panels show the difference it made!

Hope this helps! And reach out if you want to learn more about hormone testing, or any other functional nutrition work that I do. Hope to see you around, or at an event, soon!