Happy Hormones Day 5: Detoxing
For the past 4 days we have focused on looking at endocrine disrupting chemicals that can negatively impact hormone health in multiple aspects of daily life. However, it is not surprising to realize that not all of these variables can be completely eliminated even by making swaps in daily lives. For example, you go to a dinner party that has normal candles lit or eat out for dinner for date night. These are a part of balance in life and there should be room for these things in our lives without sacrificing hormone health. This is where detoxification becomes such an important step for many people. Detoxing is how your body naturally releases built up toxins. in the body including endocrine disruptors to help prevent long term hormone deficit.
There are many approaches to detoxification, some are much more simple than others. The first easy step according to the NIH is to achieve adequate water intake daily. This supports healthy kidney function and helps to quickly eliminate excess waste in the body. On average 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated on a daily basis and as such their body retains these chemicals for longer. In addition, maintaining adequate hydration daily helps to reduce overall inflammation levels in the body overall.
The second easy step to daily detoxification is to sweat it out. Keep in mind this works best once you have made the switch to aluminum free deodorant! Aluminum in deodorant serves as the active ingredient that prevents you from sweating through your natural underarm sweat glands and therefore prevents detoxification through sweating. For those who have physically demanding jobs sweating may be a daily part of your work but for many it is not. Take a walk, if you have access to a sauna that is ideal, or do a workout that makes you sweat. All of these are great ways to promote detoxing through sweat. Keep in mind sweat not only detoxes endocrine disruptors, but is also highly effective at ridding the body of heavy metal build up.
The third weekly addition that many find really effective is a detox bath a few times each week. A generic detox bath is to add epsom salt, baking soda, and bentonite clay to a hot tub of water and mix until dissolved. Then sit between 15-30 minutes in the detox bath. This bath often forces many to sweat so be aware of this and make sure to keep a bottle of water nearby as anytime you detox rehydrating is an essential step.
If you find that taking steps to detox daily is making a large improvement in your health it could be worth looking into the benefits of doing a more targeted detox approach. My personal favorite that I see results from is the IonCleanse. This is a foot detox that is administered under supervision from trained specialists in functional medicine and works by assigning charges both positive and negative to a foot bath that then pulls toxins from your body via the pores in your feet. Locally Whole4Life is a great place to have this detox and over time the results from it are truly amazing.
Detox Essentials:
LMNT electrolytes https://amzn.to/3Nnvb6E
Aluminum Free Deodorant https://amzn.to/3U6nbuh
Bentonite Clay https://amzn.to/3BBr8AQ
Epsom Salt https://amzn.to/3BSfqSr
Research Links:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35410004/#:~:text=Abstract,can%20sweat%20through%20many%20means.