How to Analyze Your Toxic Load

As you may realize if you've been reading our blog posts for a while, your body is a pretty complex organism. It handles many thousands of tasks each day - many of which you’re completely unaware of. When something isn’t right, your body will start sending you warning messages.

The problem is that not many people understand that these warning messages come in the form of symptoms. When there’s an issue, your body tries to get you to address it by causing something to hurt, to swell, or by taking up more energy than it normally would.

Far too many people ignore these messages in the form of symptoms until they reach a point where they feel too poorly to keep up with the tasks involved in their day-to-day living.

Toxic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the reasons that your body can start sending out warning messages is because it can reach a point where toxins build up, leading to toxicity. By the time you reach that point, you’ll feel pretty bad!

You can do a lot to help your body stay in good health by checking to see if your mind or body have been showing symptoms commonly associated with a toxin build up (also called toxic load).

In the mind, the number one symptom is mental fog. When this happens, you’ll begin to experience trouble with the way that you think. You’ll lack the clarity that you once had.

At first, you might not even notice that your mind isn’t as quick as it used to be but as time passes and toxins continue to build up, the mental fog will only grow worse.

Mental fog can vary from one person to the next, depending on the level of toxins you’ve been exposed to and how your body reacts to those toxins. What can be kind of frustrating is that testing for toxins isn’t easy. In fact, many lab tests will come back within normal parameters when you actually do have a problem, because they're not really testing for the things that are causing the problems..

Your body will also show symptoms of fatigue when you have a build up of toxins in your body. This fatigue can reach the point where it leaves you unable to function. This type of fatigue is often attributed to other conditions, rather than looking at your toxic load.

When toxins stay in your body, over time, it takes away your energy stores and that’s why you feel drained of energy. Your body can only handle so much and when your toxic load is high, your system tries to get rid of them, but unfortunately, it often can’t keep up with the volume of toxins we’re exposed to on a daily basis in the modern post-industrial world.

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That’s why your body needs a detox. When you go through a detox plan, you can cleanse your body of all these toxins, even if the toxins have built up over time. You can restore clarity of mind and get the energy that you lost back. However, you need to do this the right way.

Some "cleanses" and detoxification programs can actually cause additional stress to the body - which is not helpful. This month, we'll be discussing some ways to cleanse and detoxify your system gently, and naturally reduce your toxic load. Be sure to check back next week, when we'll be discussing one of the best little-known ways to rid your body of toxins naturally!

In the meantime, grab a copy of our Free Report that discusses some popular means of detoxifying that are NOT healthy for you:

http://www.newholisticliving.com/request-free-detox-e-book-b.html

How Second Hand Smoke Can Harm You

Most restaurants, stores, and even entire cities in the US have recently banned smoking in public buildings.  That’s because we now know that you can not only die from smoking cigarettes, but also from breathing in smoke in the air around you.  Second hand smoke, whether from the burning end of the cigarette, or from the smokers mouth, is very toxic and can be a serious hazard to your health.

Here are just a few of the many problems caused by second hand smoke.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* Cigarette smoke contains over 60 chemicals that cause or may cause cancer. Thousands of non-smokers die of lung cancer from second hand smoke every year.
* Some of the toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke are: formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chlorine, arsenic ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide.
* Second hand smoke causes heart disease in non-smokers.  These heart disease cases account for tens of thousands of deaths every year. 
* Many non-smokers visit the doctor every year for lung related problems caused by second hand smoke.  These problems range from coughing to a drop in lung functioning.  
* The incidence of breast cancer may be increased by exposure to second hand smoke.

While adults generally have the option or ability to leave an area where someone is smoking, children don’t always have that luxury.  They are also more susceptible to the damage caused by cigarette smoke.  In addition to the above problems here are some of the issues caused by second hand smoke that specifically affect children.

Under the care of second-hand smoke (Photo credit: JorizDG)

* Second hand smoke causes over 150,000 lower respiratory infections every year, such as bronchitis and pneumonia, in children under the age of 18 months.
* Second hand smoke has been indicated as a cause of many SIDS deaths.
* Second hand smoke significantly increases the severity of asthma attacks in children. 
* Second hand smoke causes many children to develop ear infections.
* Pregnant women exposed to second hand smoke are more likely to have babies with below average birth weights. 

Smoking near your children can not only cause health problems now, it can impair them all the way through to adulthood.  While you should attempt to quit for the sake of your children; if you don’t quit, please smoke outside away from them. 

These are just some of the known problems associated with second hand smoke.  Cigarette companies have known that second hand smoke is dangerous for many years, but hid this information.  It’s disturbing to think what other consequences second hand smoke causes that we haven’t found yet.  Even the shortest amount of exposure to cigarette smoke can have dangerous consequences.

If you are a smoker, please quit or smoke outside in a private area.  If you know someone who smokes near you, convince them to quit or at least not smoke when they’re with you.

Is Your Perfume Toxic? Avoid These Common Chemicals

You may not realize that perfumes and colognes contain many chemicals, some of which may affect your health. Those who have chemical sensitivities and/or allergies often find that perfume will bring on symptoms - which can range from mild allergic symptoms such as congestion or sneezing, to more serious symptoms such as wheezing, rash, or difficulty breathing. Following is a list of some of the common chemicals found in perfumes and the health concerns linked to them.

Shelves of perfumes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* Benzaldehyde is used in many cleaning products and cosmetics such as deodorant, lotion, shaving cream, and shampoo.  It is said to depress the central nervous system and cause irritation in the respiratory and digestive tracts. Some studies suggest it may even cause kidney damage.

* Acetone, the chemical found in nail polish remover, is also in many perfumes. The US Environmental Agency (EPA) lists acetone as a hazardous waste(!). Breathing acetone can have a profound effect on the nervous system, causing dizziness, sleepiness, slurred speech, and possibly even coma in extreme cases.

* Benzyl alcohol is found in perfume, air freshener, deodorant, and fabric softener (to name a few). It can affect the respiratory tract and the central nervous system, causing headache, nausea, and respiratory irritation and even failure.

* Methylene chloride is a perfume ingredient that was banned by the FDA in the late 80s, but some claim the law is impossible to enforce. The problem with this chemical is that it is stored in body fat (many chemicals are fat soluble) where it is metabolized by the body into carbon monoxide. This can lead to symptoms of oxygen deprivation, such as headache, fatigue, and tingling in the extremities.

* Limonene is found in a lot of cleaning products as well as perfumes. It is considered carcinogenic, and is a skin and eye irritant. Inhaling the vapor of limonene is considered dangerous.

* Ethanol is also found in perfumes, as well as a host of other products. In fact, ethanol is in so many products that it's hard to believe it's on the EPA's hazardous waste list - from colognes to makeup, facial cleansers, toilet bowl and shower cleaners, and more. Whether ingested or inhaled, ethanol can cause blurred vision, drowsiness, and disorders of the central nervous system.

These are only a few of the toxic chemicals found in perfumes. If you are concerned about the possible health effects of perfume but still want to apply some sort of scent, consider making your own scented spritzer or oil, or buy a commercially-prepared, non-toxic scent - several companies now make non-toxic perfumes. (For help finding non-toxic beauty products, visit www.thenaturalproductdirectory.com.)

To make your own scent, mix a few drops of the essential oil of your choice with an ounce of rubbing alcohol and 2 ounces of water. Put in a small spray bottle and use as a spray-on scent. You can also blend essential oils into a neutral carrier oil such as sesame oil that can be rubbed on the skin.

Natural Perfumes & Information On Making Your Own: