Body Burden - A Quick Education and a bit of Finger-Pointing

You may be reading this thinking 'Let me get this straight, you pretty much siphoned booze and drugs into your body for 20 years and now all of a sudden you care about burdening your body, or whatever this is?' Yep, that's right! I think I told you, I needed something to occupy my brain so that I didn't drink alcohol. I dare you to google 'body burden' - let me know how long it takes you to come out of it. It's INSANE if you're like I was and have no idea that this is, like, a thing. There's a whole army out there trying to educate the masses, but they're being shushed by corporate America giants like Procter & Gamble and S.C. Johnson who enjoy the dollars.

Body Burden is defined as the accumulation of toxic chemicals in your body over time; we ALL have body burden to some extent. Let's talk about our skin for a minute, did you know it's the largest organ in your body? For real, it's a living breathing organ, just like your heart or lungs! This surprised me - I studied accounting in college, I did not think much of my skin other than whether or not it was tan. The reality is your skin is a direct line to your bloodstream, and it takes seconds for a chemical absorbed into your skin to get into your bloodstream; the thinner the skin, the faster the absorption (think about the skin on your wrists versus the skin on your knees). I spent all of my teens and most of my 20's smelling like a walking Bath & Body Works ad...if you don't know, they are the epitome of chemical-based fragrance (I should have been tipped off by the headache I had when leaving the store, but I covered it with alcohol and didn't think twice about it).

When I first learned all of this stuff in my early sobriety, I thought I was doomed - what have I uncovered here? There's a freedom in not knowing! Take me back! But here's the thing: As soon as you begin reducing the number of toxins you use daily on your body and in your home YOU IMMEDIATELY START TO HEAL. Our bodies are magical that way.

As a population, we are sicker than ever; new studies on life expectancy have found that this generation will be the first to have shorter life spans than their parents and we are reliant on drugs - we've got medication for our medication! We use products that, unbeknownst to most, are harming us from the inside out little by little and the toxins accumulate over time; we see our medical professional and often get prescribed a cream or a pill to help with the headaches, or eczema, or breathing, or anxiety, and on, and on. I love medicine and I love doctors. I cannot imagine going through all of that training - years and years and YEARS before you can even see a patient; the stuff they see and do every day is heroic at a minimum. Their job is not to educate us on how to best take care of our bodies, their job is to save lives and fix what's bothering you and they do that with the tools they have available - drugs, surgery, treatment.

People are catching on to the importance of our skin and slathering it with lotion or soap that contains chemically created 'champagne supernova' scented product, can have some really gnarly side effects over time. There was a study that linked household cleaning to the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day because of the sprays and chemical cleaners used - that study took 20 years to do and was released in the past five years. THOUSANDS of chemicals have been created within the last 50-60 years without any consideration for long term health effects - it takes a a hot second to do the research needed to prove out long term effects, obvs. Another study that was first released in the 80's showed an incredibly high number of toxic chemicals that unknowingly passed to the fetus through the mothers placenta. This study has been updated throughout the years, with more evidence supporting the essential free flow between mother and fetus. There were many that thought the placenta protected the newborn from anything other than the nutrients it needs but that proved to be untrue.

Listen to your body. A headache is your body's way of saying it needs something (water, clean air, sleep, food, etc) and a cough is your body's way of saying it does not like what just went in. Spraying something in the air of your home will result in one of two things: either a human or animal breathing it in, or it ends up on the floor where many walk barefoot, pets lick, babies crawl. Our skin absorbs what it touches, sometimes quickly. I ignored my body's signs that it did not like the products I was using to clean my home, clothing, air and body. I ASSUMED if it was for sale on my local shelves that it was perfectly safe. I had an association between a certain smell and something being clean. I thought having a headache was just part of cleaning the freakin bathroom you guys!

Clean does not have a smell; if something is truly clean, it should smell like nothing. Think about that...

Nonetheless, I love a delicious scent in my home and I can't bake cookies every day to get it! There are tons of ways to allow a lovely scent in your home without breathing in toxicity - personally I use essential oils and incense. There are laundry detergents that can clean your clothing without leaving a layer of chem on top - I sell a great one that is quite affordable. There are clean label options for everything, and I encourage you to begin making safe swaps, one room at a time. It won't happen overnight, you don't have to spend a billion dollars today and throw everything away; make a decision that your next refill will be a cleaner option and start there. Read your labels, especially warning labels, join clean living groups to continue learning, ask your friends...start now. Ask me if you're not sure where to start - I am making a difference, it's my day job (and also my night job).