When you think about detox, choosing healthier foods, drinking green juice, and using cleansing tools like colon hydrotherapy, is usually where it all starts. But environmental factors can also really add up when it comes to your body’s toxic burden. From dyes in the clothes you wear to your household cleaning supplies, exposure to toxic chemicals is an ongoing issue for all of us. Detoxing your personal care and household cleaning supplies is a key when it comes to minimizing toxic burden.

Your skin is your body’s largest organ. Every day, you slather, spray, and scrub your body with an array of cosmetics and personal care products. And if you’re not choosing your products carefully, that’s a lot of potential exposure to toxic chemicals — day in and day out. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the term ‘fragrance’ listed on a product label can refer to hundreds of potentially allergy-triggering chemicals. Product ingredients such as parabens and phthalates are endocrine disruptors that may disrupt hormone balance. Additionally, sodium lauryl and sodium laureth sulfate are petroleum-derived detergents that can cause skin and eye irritation. Bottom line: There are thousands of potentially harmful chemicals in mainstream personal care products. And many of these get inhaled through your nose and mouth, and absorbed through your skin — which is highly porous.  

In addition to cosmetics and personal care products, it’s also important to reassess your household cleaning products. After reviewing more than 2.000 household cleaning supplies, the EWG found that chemical compounds found in many common U.S. brands may contribute to asthma, birth defects, burns, poisonings, and even cancer. Moreover, “Government agencies and independent research institutions have not adequately evaluated the safety of numerous substances found in cleaning products,” the EWG says. “Although government scientific and regulatory agencies have focused considerable attention on chemicals suspected of causing cancer, they have devoted far fewer resources to evaluating substances that may be toxic to the brain and nervous system, the hormone system and other organs. Investigating the full range of risks of cleaning products to public health and the environment should be an urgent priority. Yet the problem remains largely hidden from the view of the American consumer.”

Clearly, it’s not just the foods we eat that we need to think about when it comes to minimizing toxicity. In today’s polluted environment, it’s critical that we pay attention to the ingredients in our cosmetics, and personal care and cleaning products in order to stay healthy. If the products you use contain harmful chemicals — such as those from plastics, synthetic fragrances, colors, and harsh, carcinogenic compounds, those same substances can end up in your bloodstream, lymph, and fat tissues.

While it’s true that this information can feel overwhelming to process at first, know that there’s so much you can do to minimize the impact of toxic burden on your body. When you choose healthy products, eat lots of plants, and deeply hydrate and nourish your body with raw foods and green vegetable juices — while eliminating toxic foods, personal care, and cleaning products from your routine — your body’s innate ability to detoxify and heal really gets to shine. Right diet, sweating through infrared saunas and exercise, jumping on a mini trampoline, yoga, meditation, colonics, and dry brushing are all amazing tools to help you detoxify and thrive in a toxic world.