Reduce toxins in your personal and physical environments If you have been following the wellness challenges this year, you may be noticing a pattern, which is reducing the amount and variety of toxins going into your body.  It is much easier to keep certain toxins out, than to get them out once they are in your tissues. Each action taken by itself may not seem like much, but as they build on each other, the burden and risk to your body lessens, and the benefit to your health and the environment becomes greater. This month we will continue to focus on reducing substances that disrupt your hormones, alter your DNA, and put you at risk for a host of unpleasant mental and physical symptoms and illness. First, a brief recap of our January and February goals…

1. As much as possible, avoid and limit artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose. Add only small amounts of natural sweeteners to beverages such as stevia, a little raw organic sugar or honey, and lo han. The ultimate goal is to retrain your taste buds to enjoy the natural sweetness of foods and to minimally sweeten foods and beverages in need of a flavor boost.
2. Use BPA free refillable water bottles made of glass or stainless steel, water filtration pitchers or faucet filters instead of  pre-filled soft plastic disposable water bottles whenever possible because they are very expensive, contain chemicals, deplete natural resources, and create a landfill nightmare.

Reducing the chemicals in your environment and on your body is just as important as what you put in your body.  You inhale chemicals through your nose or mouth, which can irritate mucus membranes, and make their way into your lungs and bloodstream. Your skin readily absorbs what it comes in contact with. Your scalp alone is home to 20 blood vessels, 650 sweat glands, and 1,000 nerve endings. As a matter of fact, you may actually absorb more toxins through your skin than if you were to eat them-and it takes less than 30 seconds! Substances absorbed through the skin aren’t broken down by digestive enzymes.  They bypass your liver where a lot of detoxification takes place. Toxins pass through your skin into your bloodstream and tissues and may be stored in fat cells. Here’s your challenge: Commit to purchasing and using at least two non-toxic body or skin care products this month, and continue to replace others as they are depleted. Make a habit of purchasing only non-toxic products. Here as some suggestions. For your body:

• When you use up your regular soap, purchase unscented soap or soap scented only with essential oils. Synthetic fragrance oils often contain at least five different chemicals.
• Use chemical free shampoos, conditioners, deodorant, hair spray, moisturizers and bug sprays. Use bleach-free feminine products and fluoride-free toothpaste. Avoid shampoo with sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate (SLS/SLES), dioxane, diethanolamine or DEA, propylene glycol, parabens. Most retailers will not have these products, but your local health food store and on-line suppliers will. Experiment until you find a brand you like. Jason products work well for me.
• Replace your make-up, foundation, blush, lip stain, and eye shadow with products made from minerals. Or just let your natural beauty shine through.
• If you plan to be in the sun for long periods of time, invest in a good quality sunscreen that protects you from UVA and UVB rays. Most sunscreens contain chemicals that actually accelerate skin cancer and disrupt your hormones. Look for sunscreen with titanium dioxide and zinc oxide (not micronized or nano sized) as the active ingredients. Avoid products with chemicals as well as Vitamin A or its derivatives retinol and retinyl palmitate.

Around your home:

• Here’s an easy one: Open the windows once a week or more and give your home a good airing out. Indoor air pollution from outgassing vinyl, furniture and other products can make the air in your home seven times more polluted than the outdoors!
• Choose green cleaning products available in many stores. I love the plant based laundry detergents with real essential oils. They do a great job cleaning clothes and smell wonderful too. Ditto for dishwashing and general cleaning. You can get quite a lot of cleaning done with borax, white vinegar, washing soda, and/or castile soap. For disinfecting use tea tree oil, pine oil, thyme oil or hydrogen peroxide. And don’t forget the elbow grease – it’s good exercise.
• Make peace with weeds. Some, like dandelion and plantain, are good for you. Do not let your pets or people walk barefoot on freshly treated lawns.

If you’re like me, you may be tempted to go for the less expensive popular commercial products. Instead, remind yourself that your health is the most precious asset you have. Spending a few extra dollars on safe products now can save you a fortune in disease costs later. Besides, once you experience using natural products scented with real essential oils, you will never want to go back to those chemical scents. If you need a reminder of how damaging they can be to your health and how nasty these products smell, take a walk down the cleaning products aisle of your local store. You can smell the noxious chemicals before you even get to the aisle – and the products are sealed! Do feel free to ask questions and let us know how you are doing with the challenges in the comments section on our website under this article. Views:]]>