Our morning routine is as casual as putting on our shoes. We hop in the shower, wash and shampoo then clean our teeth, use the latest formula in anti-perspirant deodorant and head to our first meal.
And this is before we even think about what we have for breakfast, what we dye our hair with, the daily toxins that we are exposed to, the fragrance we may spray or the fake tan that we may bleach ourselves with.
We are swimming in a sea of toxicity.
When you truly think about it our skin is an organ. A living, breathing and functioning organ that will absorb what you place into it. Indeed there is a whole line of administering drugs called ‘transdermal’ which literally translates to ‘cross the skin’. It allows for whatever you are taking to be given a free and quicker ride into the blood stream.
Taking this into account we expose ourselves to hundreds, if not thousands of man made chemicals on a daily basis most of the time even before breakfast!
The Endocrine Society recently outlined in its statement Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals that:
The key take-home here is that these chemicals are literally changing the way our hormones function. If you have been following my writings for long you will know that at the crux of health is hormonal health. At the crux of fat loss is hormonal health. At the crux of female and male health is hormonal health.
These substances tip the balance out of our favour leading to a wide range of chronic degenerative diseases.
There are literally thousands of studies now that demonstrate categorically that over exposure to these ‘xenobiotics’, which literally means foreign substances that have origninated outside the body but have an influence within.
It is like a intruder that has tricked its way into your house and is now wreaking havoc.
More specifically xenoestrogens are foreign substances that mimic and negatively influence our natural estrogen tipping the balance out of our favour. The end result? Issues such as reproductive disorders, cancers of the breast and prostate, low sperm counts, feminisation of males, body fat storage around the hips and buttocks in females and chest in males.
This intruder is now messing with particular items in your home rather than just tipping it upside down.
Where can they be found?
Common sources of these substances are
- Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides
- Car Exhausts
- Solvents and Adhesives such as those found in nail polish, paint remover and glues
- Emulsifiers and waxes found in soups and cosmetics
- Dry Cleaning Chemicals
- Nearly all plastics
- Phthlates that add flexibility to synthetic compounds such as rubbery toys and plastic tubes
- Industrial waste such as PCBs and Dioxins
- Heavy metals from Lead, Aluminium and Mercury
- Meat from livestock fed estrogenic drugs
- Waste from Sewarage treatment plants that contain the estrogenic breakdown of things like birth control pills and detergents (Adapted from Lee, J 1996 p.58)
So you see it is pretty hard to avoid. Our environment, our wildlife and us are all seeing the negative consequences of swimming with this.
In relation to your body composition consider what Ori Hofmekler and author of The Anti-Estrogenic Diet Book has to say about this:
“When in excess, estrogen promotes the growth of estrogen sensitive tissues, leading to an increased size of adipose (fat) tissues in the waist, belly and other estrogen sensitive fat tissues: for men, typically in the belly and chest; for women, in the belly, lower buttocks, upper thighs and sometimes in the back of the arms. In some cases, excess estrogen causes feminization of men’s bodies with conditions such as gynecomastia.
Estrogen sensitive fat tissues are also called “stubborn fat” due to their high resistance to fat burning. Generally, not even diet or exercise can help remove this estrogen sensitive tenacious fat. Excess estrogen works in a vicious cyclical manner. Estrogen promotes fat gain, and the enlarged fat tissue produces more estrogen within its cells, which then promotes more fat gain, and so on and so forth. The only solution is to attack the core of the problem, which is excess estrogen.
Excess estrogen can lead into overgrowth of other estrogen sensitive tissues such as the lining of the endometrium (endometriosis), or ovarian fibroids in women, and the enlargement of the prostate gland in men. If untreated, such conditions can lead into cancer” It becomes clearer that the more you focus your efforts on ‘doing more’ or the ‘calorie’ the more futile your efforts will become.
What can we do about it?
There are few action steps which you need to do to. Understand that estrogen has its role in the body and that there are elements in Mother Nature (“the good”) which help us maintain a favourable balance. But there are also elements in nature that are the bad and in some cases just downright ugly. Recognise the bad (see above) and attempt to up your exposure to the good.
The Good
– Up your intake of vegetables at every meal in particular the brassica family (spinach, kale, watercress, broccoli). If you can’t stomach them then toughen up or use a Greens Drink such as PRP’s Goodness Greens which has three of the most potent anti-estrogenic compounds in.
– Remove all paraben and solvent containing skin and washroom products from your bathroom and shoot for natural alternatives. Look for products that are organic and use only natural ingredients
– DO NOT microwave your food or even worse in a plastic container. Not unless you want a nice injection of gender bending chemicals.
– Ditch the Tuna – too much mercury
– Go green in your house – do you really need to keep spraying air freshener another xenoestrogen, all the time?
– Eat Organic Meat and Fish
– Drink Filtered Water
– Find a Deodorant that is Aluminium Free
– Perfumes and the carrier that contains your fragrance is another source of xenoestrogens. Think about where we spray it too. Most of us do so around the throat giving our Thyroid a nice dripping tap of these hormone mixers.
– Do you REALLY NEED to bleach your skin? Use an organic Fake tan product or use a sunbed 2-3 times per week for 3-4 minutes and get the added bonus of a Vitamin D boost. And yes, as studies in Norway have shown they are safe to use if you stick to this length of exposure.
Does this work?
Last time I looked it did! And over the last ten years I have a pretty big sample size! My hormones were optimal and testosterone levels at the higher end. For clients losing body fat off your legs and hips (tape measure) is a key indicator that this is working in the right direction.
More disturbingly though is the fact that this will not bite us know but more for the future generations. Already girls are menstruating 6 years EARLIER than they should be. This is not normal.
Being conscious of your environment is the first big step.
John Lark is owner of Sphere Health and Fitness Centre based in Maynooth Kildare. Check out the Bootcamp in Maynooth
www.yourhealthcamp.com
