Dear daughters, let’s talk about toxins. No, not Shopkins… toxins.

[This is a message I felt compelled to write to my two daughters which you are welcome to read as well. My hope is that it will be a good reference for them (and you) to handle the increase in toxins in the world today]

I don’t know when you’ll get to reading or seeing this but it is pretty important, so I hope I don’t end up sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher.

They say the beautiful and the innocent have no enemy but time. This might be true but I feel that we can control, to some degree, how quickly the time comes.

That’s why I want to share this with you. You see, the world has changed. No longer do we live in a time where the air is fresh and the water is clean; where our food only contains the nutrients that are meant to be in it. Today, there are toxins all around us and there might be even more so in the future when you are adults.

Don’t be scared. The human body is an amazing and resilient thing. We are capable of healing and detoxifying without any effort.

But… I feel it is my duty as your father and someone who loves you unconditionally to help you navigate safely through our modern toxic world so you can thrive and not just survive.

What are toxins?

A toxin can be something found in a plant or an animal. So, don’t eat strange plants or play with dangerous animals, unless you become a field biologist, a game ranger or something like that.

The toxins that I want you to be more aware of are those that come from chemicals and are sadly sometimes found in our food and our environment.

Yes, sometimes the dose makes the poison.

Even an essential nutrient like water can cause harm when you have too much of it too quickly.

I’d also prefer if you never touched alcohol just like your father (cough, cough). But I’m a bit realistic too… You’ll likely have some drinks and even get drunk. Then, you’ll feel the effects of an acute toxin.

If you do this too often and too long, which I hope you won’t, you’ll end up noticing the effects of chronic toxicity. That’s no bueno.  You are better than that and I hope that we can raise you to take better care of yourself.

In fact, that’s the bottom line. You see, when you love yourself, you take care of yourself and when you take care of yourself, you’re more likely to love yourself.

Maybe when you actually read this or watch the video, all the healthy lifestyle tips we’ve taught you and made part of your life growing up will have resulted in you eating organic food, not drinking, not smoking, and generally, only putting clean things in your body.  I’d love that.

Then you might say, “I don’t ingest toxins so I don’t have a toxic overload. Right?”

I wish this was the case. As I mentioned before, we live in a world where we can’t escape toxic exposure.

I know this all sounds like doom and gloom but I want to prepare you and give you the knowledge to help yourself. I hope you’ve heard by now that knowledge is power. Well, taking action is wisdom and knowledge without wisdom is like knowing how to drive a car but not having any gas, or the keys, or the actual car, to get you anywhere.

Let’s start with some knowledge and then, hopefully, provide some wisdom.

Different types of toxins

Obvious toxins:

Things like alcohol, Drano (which is a drain cleaner), gasoline, turpentine and the like, are things that can kill you on the same day you ingest them. Easy. Avoid them. Except for perhaps, a little alcohol with the right intention, in the right location and with the right people.

Other pretty obvious toxins are:

• Air pollution or smog
• Unfiltered or unclean water
• Certain pharmaceuticals or certain ingredients in them
• Other contaminants that might be in our food and likely, in most processed food

Less obvious toxic exposure…

…is much more concerning though because can be harder to avoid. Today, we encounter toxic chemicals in our clothes, our furniture, our cleaning supplies, our personal care products, our cookware and kitchenware, and other places that they really shouldn’t be.  Many of these are endocrine disruptors -a fancy way to say they mess with your hormones. No Bueno!

There are also heavy metals, antibiotics and growth hormones found in places you wouldn’t expect like food. I know, crazy!

Sometimes this makes me mad. Hopefully, as more people become aware and vote with their dollars, there’ll be less expensive and more toxin-free products available.

Sadly, even fruits and vegetables can have chemicals from pesticides and insecticide that build up in the body and over time, take a toll on the liver and your natural detoxification pathways.

These toxins aren’t going to kill you like the first ones I mentioned but if they build up over time they lead to a sluggish liver, weight gain, disease and potentially, things like cancer.

It is my burning desire that you never have to face any of those challenges.

There are even less obvious toxins

Things that make it harder for your body to do what it can to clear these toxins out.

Some things in this list might sound a little woo-woo but I believe by the time you are my age now, this will be well-established science. It already is in certain cutting edge circles.

Things like:

• Artificial lights, in particular, blue light which looks white – found in smartphones, computer, and TV screens and most overhead lighting. (If you need the heavy science, here it is.)
• Non-native electromagnetic frequencies (nnEMF) – electromagnetic radiation that is manmade like microwave ovens, transformers, power lines, wifi, etc. (Again, more heavy science can be found here.)
• Noise above certain decibel levels and frequencies – see my article Sound Healing for a chart
• Fluoride – in many municipal water supplies; warnings on toothpaste tubes that contain it, say not to swallow. See this article for more info.
• The mainstream media – read this for more details
• Negative people – obvious, I think.
• And basically, anything that stresses you out in mind, body and spirit

Whether the above list is toxic on its own or just interferes with your potential to get rid of more obvious toxins, it’s still a list of things to avoid or minimize.

Okay, I told you I will give you some wisdom to put into action. It’s time to stop feeling like you’re trapped a toxic soup and put some of the following into play.

Ways to support your body’s amazing abilities to heal:

• Sweat – through exercise (preferably outside) or in a sauna (infrared, low EMF is best)
• Move – bouncing on a trampoline or rebounder like we have, walking, stretching (are good to get the lymph system going and bringing down blood sugar which aids liver function)
• Water – ideally clean, natural spring water drank in generous quantities. This was the filter you had growing up.
• Breath – deeply to calm you and exhale to get the toxins out (it also turns on the parasympathetic nervous system and improves vagus nerve tone – muy Bueno!)
• Poop – eating fiber, being hydrated and moving regularly to increase regularity (and get the toxins out)
• Nature – get away from the city, the cars, the lights, the news, the internet and be restored by the forest, the ocean, the stars and a place where you feel that great connection to the living organism, Earth, we are a part of – as much as you can. Otherwise, find a little slice of Nature in the midst of the concrete jungle and hold onto it. (You know THIS well, girls)

These are simple and easy ways to help your body be a toxin eliminating machine of wonder. You can do them pretty much every day and get great benefits in lots of different ways. These strategies will help you thrive in mind, body and spirit.

Please remember them and use them often.  Your mother and I have other things that we’d like to share with you about detoxification but we’ll save that for another day.