Toxic chemicals are found everywhere these days.
It’s frightening to know that they are in the air as well as in our food, water, cosmetics, skincare products and cleaning products. Besides contributing to air pollution, these harmful chemicals have been found to cause respiratory and eye infections, asthma attacks, skin irritation, hormonal imbalances, and cancer. Many chemicals mimic the hormone estrogen in our body. This is alarming because this causes many of us to become estrogen dominant, causing a wide range of negative symptoms including low sex drive, infertility, depression, endometriosis, increased body fat, fatigue, thyroid dysfunction and PMS. Estrogen dominance has also been implicated in in the rise of breast cancer in humans.
What to do:
1. Replace toxic household cleaning products with greener alternatives. Go back to the basics and try using natural cleaning products like baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar to clean surfaces in the home. Choose laundry and dish detergents made from plant-based oils (like canola or pal kernel oil) vs. petroleum, and choose detergents that are phosphate and fragrance free.
The Environmental Group has a good checklist you can print and use to go through your home. Go to : http://www.ewg.org/files/ewg-hht-checkilist.pdf
2. Choose healthier cosmetic and skin care products that are paraben, phthalate and petroleum free. Go to www.cosmeticdatabase.org to see how toxic your skincare and make-up products are. This is a wonderful resource that rates the level of toxicity in these products and also provides safer alternatives.
3. Join us for our Hormone Health Seminar (see events page for more information) to learn more about how hormone imbalances impact your health.
In Health,
Dorothy Lizak
Nutrition & Wellness Specialist
Resources:
“How Toxic Are Your Household Cleaning Supplies?” Organic Consumers Association. OrganicConsumers.org. n.d. Web. 5 March 2010.
Photo: thank you to: http://ourkidsnews.com/newssite/images/stories/users/springcleaning.jpg
