The Next Heath Craze: Get Rid of Chemicals for Your Body

Toxins hide everywhere, even in places you’d least expect.  Water and food can carry toxins.  The air we breathe can carry toxins.  Our own bodies might be storing toxins we ingest or inhale.  

There are natural toxins, and toxins we make.  Some toxins are pollutants while others serve a purpose in our ecosystem.  Some are only toxic in large doses.  All of them have an effect on the human body, and many contribute to diseases, both physical and mental.

As a result, many people are seeking ways to detoxify themselves from these hidden everyday poisons.  None of us will ever remove all the toxins from our bodies, but reducing the number of toxins you encounter every day can have a positive effect on your overall health. Here are a few of the ways toxins ninja their way into our homes, and what you can do to repel them!

Concealed in Cookware

Toxins hide in cookware we heat to cook our food.  This can be over the stove, or in the oven or microwave.  Cookware, especially pots and pans, might have various convenience coating on it, such as non-stick substances.  

Plastics are made with a substance called BPA, which can seep into your food or drinks if heated for long periods.  Over time, flakes of metal from normal wear and tear might also find their way into your food, and from there into your body.

When You Sleep

Certain flame-retardant chemicals used in clothing and bedding (such as pillows and sheets) is toxic, and we absorb it while we sleep.  Some of it gets in through our skin, while we inhale other toxins in the form of particulate matter (little microscopic particles in the air).  When we wash these items, the detergents might also have toxins in them.

In Your Food

Imagine you are eating a steak tonight.  Your side dishes might be vegetables - corn, carrots, broccoli - and maybe some dinner rolls or biscuits.  We take all of this for granted, and never really think about where it comes from.  The steak comes from a cow, who had to be raised and fed.  The cow makes waste, also, which adds pollutants to the air as well as around the cow.  The cow is an herbivore, so a portion of the grains and vegetables we grow for ourselves is given to the cow as well.  

Growing all of these takes a lot of land, and often we use chemicals such as pesticides and plant foods to get the best crops possible.  All of this stacks together like a 3-D puzzle to create a situation where all of our food, whether meat or vegetation, has traces of chemicals in it.  This also creates pollutants to our planet as well as ourselves!

Our Air and Water

Air and water pollution have long been considered a crisis by environmentalists, but the true impact of these pollutants is only now coming to light.  Carcinogens, industrial emissions, cigarette smoke, and car exhaust all dump pollutants into our air, resulting in suspended particles and acid rain.  We swim in this, breathe it, bathe in it.

What Can You Do to Reduce Toxins?

You can’t control the environment, but you can control your environment!  Reducing toxins in your body is as simple of being aware of them and where they come from.  Minimizing them in your home is a matter of the products you buy, and minimizing them in your body is as easy as it is natural!

Your Body Eliminates Toxins Naturally

Whenever you use the bathroom, you are eliminating toxins from your body.  The body is a biological machine made for this!  Other organs that contribute to excretion of toxins include the lungs, kidneys and skin.  The lungs filter our toxins from the air we inhale, and expel them when we exhale.  The kidneys act as a filter of the things we eat and drink.  Our skin excretes toxins in our sweat!

You Are What You Eat

As you can see, what we eat, drink, and breathe has a lot to do with minimizing everyday toxins.  The less work our bodies have to do at removing toxins, the more it can focus on other things.  In everyday life, this translates into increased energy and even a stronger immune system!  Boosting this can be a matter of diet and exercise.  Consuming organic foods rather than processed ones reduces the number of chemicals in the food.  Buying local produce also helps this because often pesticides and other additives are applied to food being transported long distances.

Get Sweaty

Exercise has a number of health benefits that are well-documented.  For detoxing, the idea is to sweat.  Whether it’s a cardio workout ort the steam room after some weight-training, the toxins will literally leak out your pores, as nature intended.  Bicycling, hula-hooping, martial arts - anything that makes you sweat is a natural cleanser!

Be a Conscious Consumer

It goes without saying that smoking is bad, but we inhale a lot of other pollutants as well.  Many of them come from products we buy, how we travel, and how we go about everyday life.  The best way to reduce toxins in your life (thereby reducing them in your body!) is to read the labels on everything you buy.  

Buy products--especially things like detergents, cleaning fluids, and soaps - that are green.  Don’t buy products with a lot of packaging, and avoid buying products that produce industrial waste.  Buy reusable products to reduce waste.  Our environment is a huge recycling center, and when we add toxins to the environment, they get added to ourselves as a result.  Being environmentally conscious is another great way to minimize toxins in your body!

There is no way to eliminate toxins entirely.  Some of them belong in our environment, and the best we can do is avoid or minimize them.  But for a stronger, healthier you, detoxifying from everyday life is an easy process that can restore your health and vigor for a long time to come!