Trust Your Eyes and Nose, Total Body Burden from Avoidable Exposures

Trust Your Eyes and Nose, Total Body Burden from Avoidable Exposures (for breast cancer survivors)

Trust Your Eyes and Nose

Many other common consumer items are potentially harmful to our health and
vitality, from secondhand smoke, household cleaning products, air fresheners,
diesel fuel, house paints, building materials, furniture, flame retardants (PDBEs),
and dioxins to leather goods, dental sealants, glue, dyes, art supplies, dry-cleaning
compounds, and many more. Trust your eyes and nose to tell you what may be
hazardous: if it makes your eyes tear up or your nose run, if it smells artificially
strong, if it doesn’t look or smell right, then it probably isn’t right.

Total Body Burden

Although pesticides, plastics, and pollutants can already be quite troublesome as
single agents, the reality of our environment is that they seldom appear alone. The
concept of total body burden, sometimes referred to as total load, takes into account
the collective effect of all the toxins to which we’ve been exposed. And since we
have all been exposed, the question is not whether we’ve been exposed or even how
much, but what can we do about it? In the book Hormone Deception: How Everyday
Foods and Products Are Disrupting Your Hormones—and How to Protect Yourself
and Your Family, D. Lindsey Berkson (2000) did a groundbreaking job of alerting
us to our options for reducing our exposures. Refer to her book and use
suggestions from the EWG as your guide. Of course, a nutrient-dense, Eating for
Health diet goes a long way, too, in helping you lower your total load!