Transcript*

Defending Ourselves from Harmful Outdoor and Indoor Exposures

Hello dear friends.

With the chilly months ahead, it’s vital to keep our immune systems strong and our bodies’ stressors low. For the past few weeks, we have been exploring how nature’s aromatics can support us in staying healthy and resilient in the face of physical and emotional triggers. Her essential oils are a powerful defense against infectious agents and the ups and downs of life.

However, one aspect that is often overlooked for influencing immune, brain, and overall health is the exposure we get from the chemicals and toxins found in our food, water, personal care products, and cleaning agents. Their harmful effects can be a barrier to creating the vitality and healing responses we desire. By decreasing the impact of these detrimental substances, we can optimize our overall wellness and make our essential oils, supplements, and lifestyle interventions more effective.

So, in this clinical tip, I wanted to start reviewing a resource I created for non-toxic living. It provides an overview of how to clean up and green up our lives.

Initially, swapping out our products for safer options can be overwhelming. It is not my intention to give you brain overload, as emotional health is just as important as physical health!

This is why I’ve split up this topic into two (maybe three) parts. I am hoping this will help you get a better grasp of this concept and ease some of the trepidation of change.

In this first section, topics we will review include:

• a background on our toxic environment and key points to keep in mind
• how to nourish our bodies with clean and nutrient dense foods to decrease our total chemical burden
• how to take action without being overwhelmed

In upcoming tips in this series, I will discuss safer consumer products and cleaning agents and how to purify our drinking water.

As always, there will be links in the resource section for all the studies and articles references.

Let’s get started!

Living in a Toxic World

One of the key tenants in naturopathic medicine is to remove the obstacle to cure. This is important in the therapeutic order of treatment. For example, you can have the perfect intervention to treat a symptom or disease process, yet if you are continually exposed to toxins, their effects can block you from achieving lasting health.

Furthermore, these cumulative exposures increase the risk for chronic disease patterns. These range from cancer, reproductive issues, metabolic dysfunction, diabetes, body size changes, and more. (source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source)

Now, before we move on to what to do about this, here are some key points to remember about environmental exposures:

• First, we are suffering the effects of living in a world full of unregulated chemicals, whether we know it or not. Your symptoms may be managed right now, but the underlying triggers of environmental exposures could be a missing link to the resolution of them and/or contributing to more problems down the road.
• Second, there is an under-recognized economic and medical burden resulting from the negative effects of these harmful substances relating to the chronic disease burden.
• Third, toxins are ubiquitous and persist in the body. Thankfully, there are natural means to help remove them.
• Fourth, we cannot escape exposure to them. They are in our food, water, cleaning products, and consumer goods. Yet, we have the power to decrease our accumulation of them and their impact.

… So, all that being said, let’s talk about how to do that, starting with our diet.

Nourishing Your Body with Clean, Nutrient Dense Foods

As a naturopathic doctor, I uphold the naturopathic philosophy of food as medicine and that nature has healing power. However, when our nourishment is filled with toxins and chemicals, it makes it more challenging for our bodies to use the nutrients for their intended purpose.

For enhancing nutrient density and avoiding substances that can counteract the benefits of nourishing foods, here are some of my suggestions:

• Choose organic whenever possible. This will ensure the least amount of chemicals in your food. If finances are an issue, you can prioritize by avoiding the “Dirty Dozen,” the top twelve produce items highest in pesticides. This list changes yearly and is published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
• Consume low mercury fish, which is a neurotoxin. The best choices to get the benefits of seafood with a low risk of harm include sardines, anchovies, and small varieties of salmon.
• Use glass over plastic to avoid BPA and other plasticizers leaching into food. This is especially important if you use a microwave.
• Add into your diet delicious and medicinal foods to enhance detoxification based on specific exposures. An example would be to include cruciferous vegetables. Plants such as broccoli and cauliflower have compounds in them that enhance liver detoxification, aid in hormone balance, assist with heart health, and provide phytonutrients and fibers to feed hungry and happy gut bugs. Eating fiber-rich food also decreases levels of POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants).
• Sweat to reduce heavy metals and toxins that may accumulate from consumption. This can be through a sauna or movement.
• Consider the need for chelators and nutritional supplements to help relieve total body burden. These serve to bind toxins and aid in the release of them through the elimination pathways. Check with your doctor.
• Use essential oils in cooking for their antioxidant protection and for promoting detoxification. A toothpick to one drop is the amount that is best in most recipes. (Quality counts!)

Take Greener Living One Step at a Time

I know this can be overwhelming. Don’t let the knowledge of toxic exposures stress you out or scare you so much that you avoid taking responsible measures. All these interventions are not meant to control someone’s life or diet or make them more anxious. They are intended to promote healthy outcomes so that one can live with more freedom and not be bogged down by body woes.

Remember, you do not have to do things perfectly. I suggest you take these facts in doable chunks, not a water hose. Keep things simple and start with one thing at a time. In fact, you may want to bookmark this post as you make your way through various steps. You can come back to it as you are ready to learn more details and dive in even more.

I hope you can use this information to support your emotional and physical well-being.

In the upcoming tips we’ll cover how to make your personal care products, cleaning agents, and water supply safer.

Here’s to a happier, more rejuvenating life.

(Get the resource guide with references here.)

Feel free to share this information and comment below!

If you like this content, please help me spread the word by sharing the links to my YouTube channel and newsletter. This will help us reach more people and empower them with natural health information and safe and evidence-based essential oil education.

As a subscriber yourself, you’ll stay up to date on my latest clinical tips, blogs, news, and podcasts. You will also be the first to hear about the release of my upcoming brain health program!

If you haven’t yet checked out my free resources and additional educational tools, click here.

Resources

• My Four Favorite Essential Oils and Top Supportive Herbs and Supplements to Enhance Your Resiliency and Wellness During the Fall (My clinical tip with references)
• Four Ways Essential Oils Enhance Resiliency for the Fall – The Power of Aromatic Molecules to Support Healthy Immune Function (My clinical tip with references)
• Resources for Living a Healthy, Non-Toxic Life for Better Mind-Body Balance: Greener Living with Clean Food, Safe Cosmetics, Chemical-Free Household Products, and Quality Water (My article with references)
• Why Cleanse and Detoxify in Our Toxic-Soup, Chemical World? A HAES (Health at Every Size) and Naturopathic Perspective: Part II (My article)
• The Therapeutic Order (AANMC article)
• What Is Environmental Medicine? (National Association of Envriornmental Medicine article)
• Personalized Medicine: Why A One Diet-Fits-All Approach to Food Goes Against Naturopathic Principles (My article)
• Do We Really Need to Cleanse and Detoxify in Our Chemical World? A HAES (Health at Every Size) and Naturopathic Perspective on Shielding the Body from Toxic Insults: Part I (My article with references)
• The Unclean Truth That is Finally Spreading and Why We Should Know About It (Part 1) (My article on NaturalPath)
• Psst…The Dirty Little Secret That May Kill You! Is There Hope for a “Cleaner” Future? (My article on Natural Path)
• Science Daily. Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. 2021
• Health Effects of Chemical Exposure (ATDSR)
• Environmental Chemicals and Autoimmune Disease: Cause and Effect (Toxicology. 2002.)
• Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses (Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jan; 18(2): 704)
• Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: Implications in Human Health (Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2020 Aug; 8(8): 703–718.)
• The Dirty Dozen (EWG)
• Cruciferous Vegetables (Deanna Minich blogs)
• Saunas and Electrolyte Balance: Master These Tools for Ultimate Detox Support (DFH blog)

*Transcript has been edited for grammar and ease of reading.