Your Couch, Perfume, and Makeup Are Sabotaging Your Hormones

JESSICA One of the things I find often happening is, I'll start someone on hormone therapy and they feel worse. So then I will do a targeted hormone receptor detox, and then they're better. So sometimes it's not necessarily the hormone that's the problem, but it's the receptor that's the problem. And you only find that out through a detox. Well, I give them the hormone and they start getting these side effects and I don't start anyone at high dose hormones, so they shouldn't be getting those side effects. Then I know, well, your receptors are clogged.

MELISSA Health and wellness is confusing. There's a new trend every week. Everyone's got an opinion and half the time, you can't tell what's legit and what's just good marketing. And we get it, we're in it too. Welcome to Dialed In Health. I'm Melissa Goodwin. Every episode, we bring in the people who actually do this work, providers, practitioners, the experts who see clients and patients every day. We ask the questions you'd ask if you were sitting across from them so you can find the right people, make better decisions and feel confident about what's out there. Whether it's peptides, gut health, water quality, ADHD, biohacking or something you've never heard of, we're covering it. So let's get into it. Let's get dialed in.

MELISSA Welcome to Dialed In Health. We've got a special episode for you here today. We're gonna be talking about how to reduce the toxins in your life, especially those that may interact with your hormones and with your endocrine system. So today I'm sitting here with Jessica Morell who is a nurse practitioner. She's also the owner of Radiant Health and Hormone. She's been practicing functional medicine for over 15 years. So in this episode, we're gonna be talking all about how we might reduce those toxins and how they interact with our hormones and our endocrine system. So maybe Jessica, first of all, tell us, for those of us that aren't scientists or aren't steeped in this world, tell us what is our endocrine system and what hormones are in that system? What are we talking about when we say endocrine disruptors?

JESSICA So your endocrine system includes your thyroid, your pancreas, anything that has to do with hormone signaling, the pituitary, like insulin is a hormone. It's not just your estrogen. It's not just your testosterone progesterone. It's those signaling hormones that impact the metabolic system, impact the hormone system and the adrenal glands as well. Cortisol is a hormone.

MELISSA So insulin, I know insulin is it regulate your sugars, right, or somehow impacts your sugars? That's metabolism. But that is a hormone. That's a hormone. I wouldn't think about that. So when we think about endocrine disruptors, what is an endocrine disruptor?

JESSICA It is something that either mimics a hormone or pushes a hormone to signal too much or too little. If it acts like a hormone and it goes into that receptor, it's blocking that receptor so the actual hormone can't get in and do its job.

MELISSA Okay, so give us some examples of products or things that we might interact with that could disrupt our hormones.

JESSICA Plastics is probably one of the big ones. Pesticides, herbicides, non-stick cookware, fragrances, plasticizers, so a lot of those are put in beauty products or makeups or lotions, shampoos, flame-retardant chemicals. In the early 70s, we had pajamas that were flame-retardant just in case the childhood spontaneously combust, I don't know. Yeah. Those are all water-resistant, or water-resistant clothing like Gore-Tex. They're all made with these plastics.

MELISSA What about stain-resistant kinds of things?

JESSICA Yes, and textiles, there's a coating on it. All of our couches and the glue, carpets.

MELISSA Yeah. So pretty much everything? Everything. Wow, so if all of those things are interacting with our hormones, what are some ways that we, that sounds like a lot of things to tackle at once.

JESSICA You're not gonna tackle them all at once.

MELISSA Yeah, I would imagine not. So when you think about those products and things, are there some that you prioritize over others? What are the ones that you say like, okay, this would be the one that I would need to tackle first?

JESSICA I would tackle the things that you have control over. You have control over the products that you use in your home. You have control over the cookware you use. Get rid of the non-stick cookware, just don't use it. And the black spatulas that start to degrade after a while, just don't use them. And then as you are running out of lotion, you can go to Environmental Working Group, EWG.org, and they have a database called SkinDeep, and you can put your product in there, and it'll tell you the toxic load. So as you're running out of lotion, go there and look for better alternatives. As you're running out of shampoo, go find a different alternative or cleaning products. You can't do it all at once, that's just too much, and you're never going to get rid of all the exposures in your life.

MELISSA So I would imagine in your practice, you've run into people who have endocrine and hormone issues or endocrine disrupting issues all the time. How do we know that I have endocrine disruption, or I've got some issues, some things interacting with my hormones?

JESSICA Well, we all probably have some degree of it because there has been such exposure for so long. I would say the things that are most impactful are fertility, PCOS.

MELISSA What is PCOS?

JESSICA Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. So the ovaries are, when they actually look at them, usually they look really pockmarked or full of cysts. And it can cause infertility, it really impacts insulin. So a lot of people with PCOS end up with abnormal weight gain, acne, hair growth, they have high androgens. That has been very much linked to endocrine disruptors. Cancers are linked to endocrine disruption. Metabolic health obesity is linked to endocrine disruptors as well as diabetes.

MELISSA But can you test for this? Is this something you can test for?

JESSICA I mean, you can, but you're only getting what's being excreted at that time. And there are calculations you can do for a total body burden. But again, it's not something you're ever going to fully get away from. So it's not like you have a bacterial infection and I'm gonna give you an antibiotic and it's gonna clear it. We have to ensure that the liver is always happy. When these endocrine disruptors come in or these forever chemicals, the body doesn't know what to do with them because they're not natural compounds. So it's like somebody you live with, maybe it's a kid, maybe it's a spouse, if they bring home, they've gone somewhere and they got all these trinkets or goodies and they don't have a home and they don't know where to put them. So they just kind of set them around the house and you don't know what to do with them. So you just kind of slide them away, but they say, don't throw it away, I might want that. But nothing has a home. That's what these endocrine disruptors are.

MELISSA My seven-year-old does that with lots of things during the course of a week.

JESSICA So one of the things the body does with them is stores them in the adipose tissue in the fat cells. And then protects that fat cell because it doesn't want it released to go to the brain. It's protective. So they can really stimulate waking.

MELISSA That's so crazy. So I wonder as you think about all these different chemicals and things we're coming into contact with, especially plastics are in everything. Everything. Everything from your Saran Wrap to, would you ever use Saran Wrap? Do you use Saran Wrap?

JESSICA I will use it, but not on anything hot and never heat it up.

MELISSA Okay, good to know. You know, it's interesting because I mentioned earlier, when we were talking, when my kids were little, I was very diligent about all these things. And as you get older, you're like, "Well, I can't, there's so much." It's not just the food that we're eating, but the skincare, the air we're breathing, the water we're drinking, the pesticides and herbicides on our lawns. The stuff our food comes in.

JESSICA Yeah, it's a lot. Bottled water. You don't know if that bottle has been on a truck that's driving through a hundred degree weather. And those plastic bottles have been heated up. Well, there's definitely microplastics in that water then.

MELISSA So are there some toxins that you can, the liver can get rid of, and then others that are forever? What are the ones that are forever that we're trying to do? Those microplastics. What is a microplastic? Small plastic.

JESSICA Small plastic. It's just a sign of a small protocol of plastic.

MELISSA So I'd heard somewhere that we were getting the amount of a credit card, like in our systems, like is it like every year or something?

JESSICA You can measure it in infants. Infant just born already has microplastics in its system.

MELISSA That's depressing. So what do we do?

JESSICA Decrease your exposure as much as you can. Which will never be 100%. And part of the reason is you are carrying generations before you their exposures. Because when a pregnant woman is exposed to a toxin, they are carrying their child. But if that's a female child, they are also carrying their grandchildren because the ovaries exist. And it has been found that if you have a toxic exposure during pregnancy, you are impacting 20 future generations. So it may not be anything that you have done, it is something that already happened.

MELISSA Wow. Likely something probably in the last 100 years, so 50 years probably more likely than, I mean, it'd be nice if I could blame it on my great-great grandparents, but I don't think they lived the way that they do.

JESSICA The early 1900s is when it's really started to increase in the 1950s.

MELISSA So I'm curious when people come into your practice and you might suspect maybe they've had a large weight gain or they're struggling, are there levels that you see in tests? Or is it more the story that they tell you that makes you think, maybe we should look into the toxins in your home?

JESSICA It's more the story that they tell me. And we ask about history, how did you grow up? What kind of work did your parents do? What kind of exposures have you had? What are you using in your cookware, in your homes? And then it's really, how do we make your liver happy? How much fiber do you eat? Fiber is a huge binder for toxins. What's your diet like?

MELISSA That's interesting, because right now we're being told to just eat protein. Eat protein, eat protein, eat protein, and not a lot of talk about fiber.

JESSICA You have to have both. You do. Protein is important, it really is, but really fiber, minimum 25 grams daily is what we should be getting. And if somebody's really trying to detox something, I'll increase that slowly, you can't do it all at once. I would say the average American, I think gets around eight grams a day. So if that's you, don't go from eight to 25, or you're really gonna have some GI issues, but work your way up to 25 grams a day.

MELISSA Help me visualize what is 25 grams of fiber look like.

JESSICA So if you're getting, I don't know, I think there's probably around four or five grams a day.

MELISSA Gosh, that's a lot of apples, okay. You have to look it up.

JESSICA All right, but if you are eating five servings of vegetables a day, and maybe some nuts and seeds, and a piece of fruit, you're gonna get there.

MELISSA It's so hard with all of, I know we're supposed to eat as close to the natural source as possible, but that's really where you get the most fiber. It is. Can you take fiber supplements and have the same result from a cleansing perspective?

JESSICA From a cleansing perspective, yes. You won't get the antioxidants or the vitamins from it. But from a cleansing and a detox support perspective, yes, you can.

MELISSA Go grab some fiber one or whatever that might be.

JESSICA Acacia fiber, psyllium husk. Okay, maybe something a little healthier than a fiber one.

MELISSA Okay, fair enough. All right, so how do I know, one of the other things we talked about, I love perfume. When I had children, I started breaking out from perfume. Is that something you hear a lot or is it something you've heard before?

JESSICA Yes, and even to people who become sensitive to metals. There's something during pregnancy, the hormone shift does impact the immune response. Pregnancy is almost an autoimmune condition. And so the immune system is a little bit on edge. And so if there's any type of imbalance, you can get those inflammatory responses where you get a rash.

MELISSA Yeah. Well, and since then, I haven't been able to wear some of my favorite stuff. I have sprayed on the outside of my clothes or something. There's a few like roll on things. I'm curious and I've heard now, just the amount of chemicals that are in fragrances. So are fragrances things that also affect your hormones?

JESSICA Yes, because they are an endocrine disruptor. So it would be better to try and use an essential oil-based fragrance that doesn't have a man-made compound in it.

MELISSA Right, anything synthetic. You mentioned also with makeup plasticizers. How do I know if I have a plasticizer in any way?

JESSICA So the EWG site would tell you, but plasticizers are what make liquid, or if you have like a cream-based makeup, it makes it stable. So it doesn't separate and then it goes on really nice and smooth. So it looks great.

MELISSA Yeah, so any kind of like oil-based kind of maybe foundation or something might-- Powder maybe.

JESSICA Likely has a plasticizer in it. Yeah, if it's a liquid-based like a--

MELISSA Oh man, you're ruining my whole vibe here. I love makeup. That's a bummer. I'm assuming there are some natural makeups out. Do you have any favorite brands or things? I know you got some skincare here.

JESSICA We do have some, we don't have makeups. There are several out there.

MELISSA Yeah, now your skincare obviously would not have plasticizers in it. I'm assuming it all passes the EWG standards. Yes. Okay, you've got a cool one with exosomes. I'm excited to learn more about that one. So how do I know, one other thing that we talked about too was just, and this is something I had not thought about much until we talked with a water expert recently, but just the water that we drink. We bathe in it, we cook with it, we drink it, wash our clothes in it. And so sometimes we're always consumed with organic foods but we don't think about all the other stuff that's around us.

JESSICA Right. Yeah, the water supply, particularly in this geographical location because of all the agricultural runoff. Conventional farming practices, they have to use chemicals or their plants will not grow because that's how they're designed. So there's a lot of runoff from that. And the standard brittle water filter is not going to clear that.

MELISSA How have you seen water affect hormones? Is that something you've seen in your practice?

JESSICA It's not something that you can just, if somebody drinks this water and then two weeks later drinks this water, all of a sudden there's this symptom unless they have a true allergy. So it's just one of those things that because we know the studies on it, it's something to recommend that you need to be careful with what you're drinking, especially if they are one of those irregular cycles, PCOS, dealing with fertility issues. Premature ovarian failure is another very common endocrine disruptor problem where women go into menopause in their early thirties.

MELISSA Oh wow. So those are hints for you like, hey, we need to start looking at the way you live, to actually as--

JESSICA Much as we can.

MELISSA Quick break, this episode is brought to you by Vitality Growth Labs. If you're a health or wellness practice and you're wondering why your phone isn't ringing in the way it should be, Vitality Growth Labs builds the systems to fix that. Get found, build trust, fill your calendar. AI authority stacking, videos that connect with your clients, real tools, strategy and execution that results in real revenue. Visit VitalityGrowthLabs.com or check the provider directory at VitalityGrowthLabs.com slash the directory to find a trusted wellness provider near you. All right, back to the show. Yeah, so cleaning products. That's a whole other thing. This is like a whole snowball Jessica. It is.

JESSICA As I said, you have to as you are running out of things, look for a cleaner option.

MELISSA Okay. So what kinds of cleaning products would you recommend? Vinegar is amazing.

JESSICA Vinegar. Vinegar and baking soda are great cleaning products. That's true. There's also, you know, there's Branch Basics, there's Norwex, there's a ton of clean options.

MELISSA Okay. So if there's something I want to, I see a lot of, so I'm in some of the crunchy mom groups, right? And there's a lot of everything from parasite cleanses to all kinds of cleanses out there, right? So how would you say to someone who says, "I want to detox, I feel like I need to detox, I want to do it naturally."

JESSICA Well, you should be detoxing every day.

MELISSA What do you mean by that?

JESSICA So the best way to detox is good deep breathing, elimination and sweating. That's how your body detoxes. So if you are eating good fiber, you're exercising, you're getting good hydration, you're going to detox. If you want to support, and it's not a bad idea to cyclically, like a few times a year, do a detox where you eat really, really clean and you do some liver support, just to give your liver some cheering effort. That's not a bad idea at all. In fact, I do recommend that for a lot of people. But you're never going to clear things out once and for all. You're not going to reset to zero because you're constantly exposed, you're constantly releasing things from the body, but to give the liver some support and a little bit of a break, that is helpful, but you're never going to get to zero.

MELISSA I guess in many ways, it lowers the barrier a little bit because you can't do it all, but every day just a little bit. You mentioned psyllium husks earlier. What do you do with psyllium husks? What do you tell people to do?

JESSICA So the psyllium husk powder, you just put it in water and drink it or put it in food. Same with acacia fiber. Metamucil has psyllium husk in it. It just has a bunch of other junk too. So just get the psyllium husk.

MELISSA If I switched to all non-toxic products and I drink filtered water, get rid of all my Teflon, get rid of all the Saran Wrap, take my kids all their plastic toys and toss them out. Don't donate them because you don't want anybody else's kids to have them now.

JESSICA Well, that's another problem we have with our environment is these plastics that we throw away because everything's disposable now. They don't break down. So now we have these landfills full of these plastics that are then gonna get in the groundwater. That'll be a different episode. That's a different conversation.

MELISSA So for your patients, what have you seen for those that have come in and maybe had that PCOS or another condition when you've detoxed? What have you seen as a result of doing some of these detoxes?

JESSICA Cycles go back to normal and that is the flag we're looking for because that's a litmus test. Cycles are regular, the body's happy. You are in a reproductive mode. So animals, the goal of animals and we're mammals is to reproduce. And so when the cycles are back, that is a very good indicator that health is on the right direction.

MELISSA Now, if you're in perimenopause or menopause, it can be a little harder to understand if cycles are normal because they're all normal. So if that's the issue, how do I know if it's an endocrine issue or a perimenopause issue or something else?

JESSICA Well, they're intertwined, so you're not gonna be able to separate them. But if your symptoms are managed, your weight is staying stable, you're sleeping, mood and anxiety are pretty good. That's an indicator that you're probably detoxing fine. You don't have a big overload.

MELISSA So you mentioned we live in an agricultural area where we use a lot. And I've seen some cancer maps. I don't know how accurate all of these are, but it looks like there's a big red blotch right over Iowa, Nebraska, parts of South Dakota that is high incidence of cancers. So do you think that is also related to toxins and things in our agriculture? I do. Are there special things that we need to do since we live in these areas to protect ourselves and our homelands?

JESSICA Yeah, I mean, you're never gonna avoid it, but as much as you can, it'd be really great if the agricultural companies could come up with an alternative. Your roundup is banned in most European countries, and we are still using it. Until then, if you live in one of these areas, maybe-- If they're spraying overhead, do not have your windows open and don't let your kids be outside. You have to do what you can do. If you are living here, and most of us can't just up and move, you aren't going to avoid it 100%, but you have to take whatever precautions you can and really try not to have it in your home.

MELISSA Well, I've got a few things that I would love for you to tell me if this is true or false. Okay. So if something is sold in stores, I'm gonna give you a few things. Tell me of this myth or fact. If something is sold in stores, it's been tested for safety.

JESSICA No. Maybe safety on a blatant obvious scale, but not in the area that we are talking about.

MELISSA Yeah, so maybe safety in terms of like, you can't swallow it or light it on fire.

JESSICA Like it hasn't been shown to cause cancer in 100% of people who've used it.

MELISSA Switching to clean products is enough to protect your hormones.

JESSICA No, but it helps.

MELISSA Yes, okay, so partially true.

JESSICA Partially, I mean, it definitely will help because the less exposure you have, the less your body is working to get rid of that. And the less mimicry you'll have and the less receptor filling of the wrong things you'll have.

MELISSA My tap water is fine. The city tests it. I get those reports, so I shouldn't worry about that.

JESSICA The city does not test for the plastics levels. I don't think it gives pesticide counts. It is not going to give you an immediate urgent GI infection. It is also not 100% clean. And then there's thresholds of how much arsenic can it have to be safe. I mean, I don't really want any arsenic, but how much lead can it have to be safe? You know, as long as it's under the threshold, then it's considered clean.

MELISSA The amount of toxins in everyday products is too small to actually affect you.

JESSICA No, because they add up. I think there was a study once that said by the time a woman leaves the house in the morning, on average, she has already applied 150 different chemicals to her body.

MELISSA Wow, that's amazing. So it's a compounding effect. You can detox your body quickly with a cleanse.

JESSICA No, it helps. And it will maybe give a little push, but you're never going to get rid of the exposures, so you can't detox completely.

MELISSA Is there a time, and this isn't on the Mythbusters, but is there a time in your life that you really should be paying more attention to toxins than others?

JESSICA Before you want to get pregnant. Women who are thinking about pregnancy for the year prior should be very diligent about what they're using, what they're taking, how clean their water is, how happy their liver is, because that is going to directly impact the baby.

MELISSA Okay, if you had a billboard to tell everybody about the toxins and how this is intertwined with your hormones and your health, what would you want to tell them?

JESSICA Oh, that's a very long answer for a billboard.

MELISSA Okay, you can give the long answer, and then we'll try to make a billboard out of it.

JESSICA So one of the things I find often happening is I'll start someone on hormone therapy, and they feel worse. So then I will do a targeted hormone receptor detox, and then they're better. So sometimes it's not necessarily the hormone that's the problem, but it's the receptor that's the problem. And you only find that out through a detox. Well, I give them the hormone, and they start getting these side effects, and I don't start anyone at high-dose hormones, so they shouldn't be getting those side effects. Then I know, well, your receptors are clogged. So then we'll do a gentle receptor detox that really just supports the liver, clears out those receptors, and then the hormone fits it correctly, and then they work much better.

MELISSA So the billboard might be, it might not be your hormones.

JESSICA It might not be your hormones. Well, it might be your hormones, but you can't utilize them. It's the utilization of the hormone.

MELISSA Can it actually get to where it needs to go? It might be your hormones, but it also might not be your hormones. It might be the plastics. All right, anything else you wanna let us know about toxins and how that affects your hormones or other things that we should know?

JESSICA I think you can get really doom and gloom when you think about all the toxins in our environment. It's overwhelming. It is overwhelming. It'll be interesting to see, I mean, I won't be around for it, but in the next 50, 75 years, does the human species actually evolve in a way that it can clear these or figures out how to get rid of them? I don't know, but I hope so because of those 20 generations ahead of us that we have now impacted.

MELISSA Or will there just be a bunch of credit cards and Saran raffling on? Who knows, wall-E, I love that movie. Yeah.

JESSICA You have to do what you can do. You have control over what you have control over, so if you're doing the best with what you have control over, that's what we can do. Try not to make yourself crazy. Don't make yourself crazy about it. But do the simple things that you can control. Because getting yourself anxious and worked up and overwhelmed about this is not helpful either. Now you're raising your cortisol and then we have other problems.

MELISSA That's a whole other system. Yes. Maybe, is that still-- It is still endocrine system, yeah. Okay, well that's also an endocrine disrupter, so we don't wanna do that either. All right, well thank you so much, Jessica. I appreciate having you on the show here again. If you wanna get a hold of Jessica and her team at Radiant Health and Hormone, how do they find you?

JESSICA radiantht.com is the website. We do have an Instagram page, Radiant HT and Facebook page. I'll recall the office at 605-6040-200.

MELISSA And you've got some amazing skincare lines that I need to check out after we're done talking. Go check that out as well. Yeah. Thanks, Jessica. Hey, that's our show. If someone came to mind while you were listening to this, if you thought, hey, my sister needs to hear this or I should send this to my mom or my buddy would get a lot out of this, please share it with them. Just hit the share button and send it their way. You never know what one conversation, one episode or one piece of information can do for someone who's been looking for answers. And if you haven't subscribed yet, please do it now. It takes two seconds, it's free and it means you won't miss an episode. We've got incredible stuff coming up and I don't want you to miss any of it. And if you're a health or wellness provider and you wanna be on the show, we'd love to hear from you. There's a link in the show notes to get in touch. We're always looking for people doing interesting work who wanna share what they know. And one last thing, I get asked all the time about the products and brands I actually use. So I put together a list of sponsors and favorite products that have worked for me and my family. If you're curious, that link is in the show notes too. Thank you for being here and I really mean that. I'm Melissa Goodwin, the line is open. See you next time.