I wrote about this last week and got a few questions so here's my take on it.
One theory to the increasing numbers of couples who have difficulty becoming pregnant is the dramatic increase in environmental exposures we’ve had over the past decades.
In today’s world we are all exposed to toxins in our every day lives. We are exposed to pesticides and herbicides, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and heavy metals on a daily basis. Many of these substances can interfere with our health and hormone regulation and interrupt normal fertility. Pesticides and plastics in particular can interrupt the hormone function of the female reproductive system through various pathways, especially the ovarian cycle. We are exposed through our food, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the beauty products we use, the cleaning products we use in our homes, mold in older homes, and off-gassing of new homes, just to name a few. This may sound scary and there are many things we can do to avoid, or at least decrease our exposure, and improve the body’s ability to deal with these insults.
The first step to decreasing your body burden of toxins is to reduce your exposure, see last week's article on this.
Let’s talk about things we can do to improve our own ability to excrete the toxins we are exposed to. Like I wrote about last week, toxins in our bodies are excreted through our poop, pee and skin.
Make sure that all elimination channels are working well. The elimination channels, also called emunctories, include the GI tract, urinary tract, lungs, and skin.
- The GI tract: Let’s talk about poop. Humans are designed to have a bowel movement after waking up and after each meal. Optimally, poops are well formed and easy to pass. Fiber in the diet binds toxins in the GI, which come from the food we eat and toxins processed in the body and excreted by the liver, and that binding prevents initial absorption from our food and re-absorption from those excreted by the liver.
- The urinary tract: Humans don’t store water well and it's even more important for us to get water than food! There are many people who get enough water to get by but may still suffer from not enough to excrete toxins. Many toxins are excreted through the urine and it is important to keep your kidneys working well and that channel of elimination open.
- The lungs: For reasons beyond this article, I love working with the breath! Taking slow, 4-6 seconds in and out, belly breaths is a key to unlocking huge health potentials.
- The skin: Many heavy metals and other toxins are excreted extremely well in the sweat. Exercise is a great way to get your sweat on every day but to boost the sweating potential check out a dry sauna. There are many studies and a long history of use that praise the many health benefits of dry sauna. Also great for the skin is dry skin brushing.
Fiber … Water… Sweating…