At Julian Healthcare, we help many women who struggle with hormone imbalances. I have found that many women don’t even realize that there are so many things in their daily environment that are affecting their estrogen levels. Toxins and estrogen do not go well together! We are exposed to things such as plastic, soaps, cosmetics, lotions, and hair products every single day without even understanding how much they are affecting our hormone health.
I want to tell you more about the relationship between toxins and estrogen. Hormones are a topic near and dear to my heart. I want to help as many women as possible to be able to help themselves to be healthier and fix their hormones when they’re out of whack. For the purposes of this article, I want to talk specifically about high estrogen levels. Some of the symptoms of high estrogen include periods that are heavy with heavy cramping, a lot of clots, and things like breast tenderness, weight gain, anxiety, and endometriosis.
Plastic
Some of the things that can contribute to high levels of estrogen come from our environment. Plastic is a big factor. Think about things that have BPA in them. Then there’s also a broader category called phthalates, which includes BPA’s. It’s a broad classification of chemicals that we find in all kinds of things. Some of these things include:
- Food containers
- Water bottles
- Baby bottles
- Sippy cups
- Old flooring
- Wallcoverings
- Cosmetics
- Fragrances
- IV bags
- The tubing from IV’s
Basically, anything that’s plastic. We are around plastic all the time, it’s hard to avoid, so much stuff is made from plastic. Even our computers are made of plastic. We breathe it in too. It’s in vinyl floors so that new construction smell is plastic as well.
If we are heating food in plastic or if we leave our plastic water bottles in the car to get hot in the summertime, that plastic leeches into our food and drinks. So, when we eat that food or drink the water after it’s been heated, we are then ingesting that plastic.
Bathroom Toxins
Most of us are very aware of the chemicals and toxins in some of our food and we are cautious to not put those chemicals in our body. We know we should eat organic and grass-fed when possible and always wash our produce when we bring it home. But how often have you thought about the chemicals you are putting ON your body?
We are always slathering things on our skin – soaps, lotions, cosmetics, and hair products. It’s estimated that women put over 150 different chemicals on their bodies in the morning before they even get out of the house. Have you ever read the back of the can of hairspray you use every day? If you don’t know what it is, you may not want to put it on your body.
Xenobiotics
Xenobiotics are a chemical compound (such as a drug, pesticide, or carcinogen) that is foreign to a living organism. These kinds of chemicals trick our bodies. When we are exposed to high levels of xenobiotics, our body starts to think that it’s estrogen.
So, the xenobiotics hook into the estrogen receptors, the same receptors that are in all our tissues that our body’s own estrogen hooks into. After that happens, we now have not only our body’s own estrogen, but we have all these chemical toxins that make our body more prone to the symptoms of high estrogen.
Consequences of High Estrogen
Two of the most severe consequences of high estrogen are endometrial or uterine lining cancers and breast cancers. These are very serious consequences so it’s an important thing to discuss and know about. That’s why I’m going to be teaching you how to get some of those chemicals away from your body so that your hormones can be more normalized, and you can feel healthy and happy!
In this article, I only briefly touched on the different kinds of chemicals that we are exposed to in our environment daily. I really encourage you to do your own research (this website is a great place to start) and really dig into the things that you are surrounded by every day to make sure they aren’t causing you harm. There are some toxins that are just going to have to be a part of our life. The point is to avoid the ones you can so your body can better handle the load of toxins that you are unable to avoid. Check back in with us next month, I’m going to begin to help you replace some of your everyday items that are toxic to your hormones!
Susan Julian, NP, IFMCP
We have exciting news!!!
Becoming a patient at Julian Healthcare is an investment in your health. So we understand that you may be nervous to take the leap! Because of that, I have decided to open up my schedule for Discovery Calls.
You will get a complimentary 15-minute long Discovery Call with me, Owner and Nurse Practitioner of Julian Healthcare. We will discuss how functional medicine can help you, you can ask me any questions you have, and together we will decide if we are a good fit to work together.
If you’ve been interested in functional medicine and thinking about working with me, this is a great opportunity to get to know me!
