Last week on Thrive, we talked about how we can use nutrition as a powerful first line of defence against air pollution. Today, I’d like to follow on from those findings and hone in on how our everyday consumables (e.g. plastics, body care products) and even our indoor air pollution can disrupt our endocrine system and cause hormonal imbalance.
The key to boosting our resilience against these toxins:
nutrition and a healthy digestive system.
So what toxins upset our hormones? Some of the more infamous ones are:
- BPA - found in cans, plastics and even receipts!
- Phthalates – found mostly in plastics & skin care products, especially if it has fragrance.
- Mercury – those of you eating sushi a few times a week, thinking it’s healthy. It aint! It’s a major source of mercury toxicity and one study has linked it to fatigue in adults.
- Pesticides – found in non-organic produce.
- P-dichlorobenzene – found in mothballs, anti-mould products, air fresheners and some tiger balms.
- Synthetic fragrance – found in paraffin (i.e. petroleum based) and other types of scented candles, as well as perfumes, body sprays, deodorants and antiperspirants.
This article provides you with a more complete list and this one gives you a comprehensive list of the sources of these endocrine disruptors.
How do these toxins affect your body? They can cause:
- Structural damage to your brain
- Chronic fatigue
- Hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, and impaired learning
- Increased fat formation and risk of obesity
- Altered immune function & autoimmune disorders
- Early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles, ovarian dysfunction, and infertility
- Increased prostate size and decreased sperm production
The likelihood of you being seriously affected by these toxins increase if you suffer from digestive issues.
You see, many of these toxins are highly reactive and if we are not pooping regularly and in a healthy way, then it will be hard for us to trap and bind these toxins to our poop so that we can eliminate them from our body.
How do you know if you’re suffering from digestive issues? Symptoms include:
- Eczema, psoriasis or other skin disorders
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Leaky gut
- Candida or frequent yeast infections
- Frequent viral infections, colds, flu's
- Constipation, diarrhea
- Any of the symptoms of toxicity mentioned above
Moreover, if you have hidden food intolerances – these foods will place a heavy inflammatory burden on your body, leaving very little energy to focus on detoxifying these toxins.
This burden is intensified if on top of this you are eating a diet high in refined sugar and carbohydrates, alcohol, non-organic products and unhealthy fats.
I have dealt with a case of a child showing signs of early puberty, tantrum-like behaviour and eczema as a result of toxic levels of a benzene derivative trapped in her system. She couldn’t detox this benzene and as a result, her estrogen levels peaked prompting early breast development.
By eliminating her food intolerances and adjusting her diet, we cleared the detoxification pathways so that her body could focus on detoxing the benzene and the estrogen.
Moreover, a few key supplements were crucial to support detoxification. In 4 months, her benzene levels dropped by almost 80% and in 6 months they were gone. Her early signs of puberty disappeared and the gut healing protocol also helped eliminate her eczema.
GUT HEALING IS KEY TO HEAVY METAL AND POLLUTION DETOXING.
I like to use the following self-testing kits from Biorna Quantics:
- Complete Environmental Pollutants Profile screens for 172 different environmental pollutants including organophosphate pesticides, phthalates, benzene, xylene, vinyl chloride and insecticides.
- GI MAP – my go-to comprehensive stool analysis to understand exactly what’s going in the gut and start people on the best path for gut health.
- Food Sensitivities IgG4 – the least invasive food intolerance test as it only requires a small amount of blood for testing of 95 food antigen, including Candida Albicans.
With these results, we can develop a gut healing protocol that will help support your detoxification pathways and keep you resilient from the toxicity you are subject to you daily.
Join me at Maggie & Rose on April 28th at 6.30pm for a talk on “COMBATING POLLUTION: Boosting Immunity using Nutrition & Natural Remedies”. I’ll be discussing:
- The key nutrients and foods that neutralize the harmful effects of air pollution and boost immunity.
- Natural remedies for respiratory infections that could help keep antibiotics at bay.
- The low-down on supplementation – which ones are truly important and how to choose them.
All participants will receive THRIVE’S LOVE YOUR LIFE e-booklet of family-friendly recipes specifically designed to strengthen your body against pollution.
Thrive Nutrition Practice focuses on digestive healing, blood sugar regulation & post-natal recovery. You are also welcome to join my Facebook Group "Thrive Nutrition Practice: Post-natal depletion" or "Thrive Nutrition Practice" for weekly articles, recipes & promotions.
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References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721310/
http://www.ewg.org/research/dirty-dozen-list-endocrine-disruptors
http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/wellbeing/candles-and-indoor-air-quality