Detoxifying the Body: It's About More Than Food

Every day I wake and take a handful of prescription medications that enable me to get out of bed. In the afternoon, I take more medication. At night, I take even more. Every now and then, I have to take different meds to get it back into normal mode.

Why? Because when I was in the hospital in 2007 for a systemic infection, I was given an IV medication, new on the market, in high enough doses that the medication blew out my pituitary. The pituitary gland is a small organ in the brain that controls the endocrine system: hypothalamus, adrenals, thyroid, pancreas, hormones and more.

Detoxifying Your Life: Organic Eating Isn't Enough

I hate taking so much medication, and know firsthand that medicine can be toxic and dangerous just as much as it can be helpful. I've reduced my meds, much against my doctor's initial wishes, to include only those I absolutely have to have and have turned to alternative health options that are more natural and in general safer than many of the traditional options. In order to be healthier and stay healthier, I also set out to remove toxins and chemicals from my life, which included unnecessary medication and healthier more organic foods.

But eating organic isn't the only thing necessary to detoxify your life.

Chemicals and Toxins Absorb Through Skin

Think about this: Doctors and drug manufacturers have long known that whatever we put on our skin is absorbed by the body and utilized. Some things absorb better than others, but everything that comes in contact with our skin is processed by the body similarly as if we had ingested it.

Don't believe the skin absorbs things like food and drugs are absorbed? Just look at the number of medications on the market that are made in patch, cream, foam of gel form. Stop smoking nicotine patches are sub dermal, placed on the skin and they release a slow, low-level of nicotine all through the day. What about the birth control patch that was out a few years ago?

Estrogen and Testosterone Skin Gels Harm Children and Pets

There are testosterone and estrogen foams and gels given to those who need a boost of hormones, where the patient simply puts a measured amount of gel or foam on their forearm. In fact, this method has been found to cause problems for people who hold children after using the product, because the child's skin comes into contact with the adult's skin that has the foam or gel on it and the children are then dosed with estrogen or testosterone too. You can read more about these occurrences at this link and also about how pets have been impacted by hormone gels here.

Medical Drama Knows Skin Absorption Has Real Risks

HOUSE, the humorous medical drama on Fox, even did an episode about a dad who played with his kids after taking testosterone therapy and how it impacted the kids. Just take a moment to search "estrogen transfer to kids" and you'll see more such reports all over the internet.

So if estrogen and testosterone can be so easily transferred to kids by just touching their parents who have used the hormone therapies, how easily can adult humans be exposed to toxins that come in contact with the skin without even realizing it? Pretty easily, if you think about it.

Chemicals and Toxins in Personal Care Items

After all, we use multiple products on our skin daily, at least, most of us do. Shampoo, conditioner, bath wash, lotions, hairspray, makeup, dish soap are all things most people come in contact with nearly every day. Other things might include air fresheners, carpet cleaners, household cleaners, and other fluids and chemicals. If these things get on the skin, the body ingests and absorbs them similarly to if we had eaten them.

Would you eat Windex? Would you drink a cup of bleach? How many times have you sat down to put on your makeup and taken a few bites of lipstick or licked the mascara? And yet, every time you use one of these products, you are adding chemicals to your body in low doses-granted much smaller doses than if you've eaten the same item-and the chemicals build up inside of you.

The National Safety Council released a report in 1993 called Accident Facts, and it listed over 900 chemicals that are known toxins in our personal care items that can cause health problems as severe as cancer and as minor as skin irritation. In immune compromised individuals, those with kidney problems, or those with autoimmune disorders, though, these chemicals at these small doses build up and can cause major health concerns.

Plant-based All-Natural Personal Care and Household Alternative Items

What about you? Have you considered the chemicals you put into your body every day? Sure, maybe you try to eat healthier and you use organic foods, but what about the other things you put into your body by putting them on your body?

If you want to live a truly organic, all-natural, toxin-free and chemical-free life, you have to look beyond food and medication and look at everything that is absorbed by your body. Some things you have no control over, like air pollution, but other things you can change by purchasing all-natural, certified organic products. There are 'green' plant-based household cleaners, and having certain antimicrobial and antibacterial essential oils in your first aid kit-such as tea tree oil and lavender essential oil-can treat minor scrapes, burns and scratches naturally.

There are even all-natural mineral makeups for foundation and all the usual cosmetics you wear. I even reviewed a mineral makeup foundation here, if you're interested to see how it holds up compared to the greasy, heavy, chemical-laden versions of foundation.

Alternative Living, Healthy Living, Your Choice

Going green and being healthy, pursuing alternative ways to enhance your life and improve your lifestyle isn't easy. It takes a conscious decision and awareness of all the dangers to your body around you and actively seeking to reduce those dangers. Your body will feel better, live longer and stay healthier if you take steps to cut out all these toxins and live more naturally.

SOURCES:

Personal Experience.

"Accident Facts", National Safety Council, 1993

Fox Broadcasting, HOUSE, MD, Season Three, "Act Your Age", Episode 65, 19

Critter Cures, "Hormone Gels and the Risk to Kids and Pets", January 13, 2011, Retrieved April 19, 2011

National Safety Council, "Estrogen exposure in a child from hair lotion used by her mother: clinical and hair analysis data.", Pub.Med, Guarneri, MP, et al., September 2008, Retrieved April 18, 2011