Detoxing has become quite a buzz word.  Trends such as juice cleanses and colonic irrigation have gained popularity as people have become concerned with toxin accumulation in their bodies.  The best and easiest way to detox, and the most scientifically proven, is to reduce your household exposure to toxins in the first place.

Our bodies naturally remove toxins every day via the colon, skin, lungs, and liver.((http://www.webmd.com/diet/detox-diets-cleansing-body?page=2))((http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/05/detox-myth-health-diet-science-ignorance)) Even though our bodies are designed to remove toxins without the aid of special diets or pills, we are exposed to an overwhelming plethora of toxins over our lifetimes.  This accumulation of chemicals has been called our body burden. The Environmental Working Group reports:

In a study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, in collaboration with the Environmental Working Group and Commonweal, researchers at two major laboratories found 167 chemicals, pollutants, and pesticides in the blood and urine of nine adult Americans. Study results appear in a recently-published edition of the journal Public Health Reports (Thornton, et al. 2002) – the first publicly available, comprehensive look at the chemical burden we carry in our bodies.

None of the nine volunteers work with chemicals on the job. All lead healthy lives. Yet the subjects contained an average of 91 compounds – most of which did not exist 75 years ago.

Our body burden

Scientists refer to the chemical exposure documented here as an individuals “body burden” – the consequence of lifelong exposure to industrial chemicals that are used in thousands of consumer products and linger as contaminants in air, water, food, and soil. There are hundreds of chemicals in drinking water, household air, dust, treated tap water and food. They come from household products like detergent, insulation, fabric treatments, cosmetics, paints, upholstery, computers and TVs, and they accumulate in fat, blood and organs, or are passed through the body in breast milk, urine, feces, sweat, semen, hair and nails. (Easton, et al. 2002, EPA 2002d, OECD 2002, Rudel, et al. 2001, Thornton, et al. 2000, USGS 2002).

We know that:

• U.S. chemical companies hold licenses to make 75,000 chemicals for commercial use. The federal government registers an average of 2,000 newly synthesized chemicals each year.
• The government has tallied 5,000 chemical ingredients in cosmetics; more than 3,200 chemicals added to food; 1,010 chemicals used in 11,700 consumer products; and 500 chemicals used as active ingredients in pesticides (EPA 1997c, EPA 2002b, EPA 2002c, FDA 2002a, FDA 2002b, FDA 2002c).
• In 1998 U.S. industries reported manufacturing 6.5 trillion pounds of 9,000 different chemicals (EPA 2001), and in 2000 major U.S. industries reported dumping 7.1 billion pounds of 650 industrial chemicals into our air and water (EPA 2002a).((http://www.ewg.org/sites/bodyburden1/findings.php))

Even newborn babies carry a heavy body burden. In fact, scientists have found alarmingly 300 different chemicals in the umbilical cords of newborns.  Mother’s milk also contains chemicals.

According to the LA Times:

Virtually everything we buy, breathe, drink and eat contains traces of toxic substances…Every day, about half a dozen chemicals are added to the estimated 83,000 already in commerce. In the United States alone, about 42 billion pounds of chemicals are produced or imported daily.

With such a tremendous amount of chemical exposure, it is no wonder people are seeking ways to cleanse their bodies.  Detoxing has become something of a marketing term, and many in the medical community criticize it as a scam.((http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/05/detox-myth-health-diet-science-ignorance))  Although personal experience has led me to believe some detox methods may be effective, the best and most beneficial method of detoxing is to reduce your household exposure to toxins.

The best way to reduce your household exposure to toxins is to do research. Find out what is in the products you use every day.  How toxic is carpeting?  What’s in my paint?  One resource we were sent that I have found very useful is A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures by Sophia Ruan Gushée.

Health-conscious mother of three, Sophia Ruan Gushée thought she knew how to be healthy. Only after she became a mother did she become aware of an overlooked influence on health: toxic exposures. These pervade not just our outdoor environments but also our homes, bodies, and diet. Their impact on health can be most influential during periods of rapid biological development, which makes protecting children a top priority.

Inspired to become a truly conscious parent and to provide her young family with a healthy foundation, Sophia spent more than five years identifying practical approaches for reducing her family’s unnecessary exposures. In A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures, Sophia shares what she learned.

Created to be the only reference book that a head of household needs, it includes hundreds of tips, as well as ten ideas to implement today–Sophia’s D-Tox Strategy. These tips help increase the odds for more resilient health not just for individuals, but for our planet as well. This is an empowering resource that will lay the groundwork for leading a healthy life.

 A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures is a comprehensive reference book.  It is a book to be referred to often, as you make decisions for your family.  It is not a cover-to-cover read.

Randomly opening pages to this reference book, you learn many ways to reduce your household exposure to toxins.  I especially appreciate the chart showing the unique vulnerability of children in utero to toxic exposure.  This books is extremely thorough, not just looking at chemical exposures but how genetics and modern-day stressors interplay to affect our health.

The graphic layout of this book makes the information easily accessible. For example, the informative boxes on buying tips for the off-the-shelf cleaning products highlights unsubstantiated marketing terms found on labels, like “green”, “safe”, and “natural”.

Like many of our readers, Sophia made the choice to live a more environmentally and health conscious life after having her first child.  Reference books like this one can help people care and make informed choices prior to that first pregnancy. What we expose our bodies to before starting a family is just as important as after for health of our children.  This book would be great to give to a young adult/college student starting life on their own.

 A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures is a must-read for everyone concerned about how to reduce your household exposure to toxins.  Part IV of the book explains the “D-Tox Strategy”.   The 10 tips to focus this strategy are: