I am so excited and proud to share with you my latest ongoing education accomplishment!

One of my Institute for Integrative Nutrition teachers, Dr. Andrew Weil partnered with the University of Arizona to create the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. I took “Environmental Health: An Integrative Approach” through the school (very proud of my completion and certificate shown above!), and am so exited to share about it! There is a lot of cutting-edge research exploring the link between chemicals in our environment and a wide variety of chronic diseases, including ones traditionally thought of as genetic.

Your body has many mechanisms to keep you safe and healthy. Your liver filter out toxins, your kidneys filter out waste, your skin flushes toxins out its pores, and antioxidants in your diet help combat oxidative damage from sunlight and the air you breathe. But in our modern world, we are exposed to so many different environmental toxins over the course of the day that it’s really important to limit the toxicity of things that ARE under our control!

So what can you do to keep your toxic exposure in check? Taking a look at your beauty care products is a good start. I’m also a big advocate of filtering your water and eating organically whenever possible!

Many municipal water supplies have levels of heavy metals well above the EPA’s guidance (which already allows more than “none!”) but they also can contain organic pollutants and medical by-products. In my home, we have an under-sink filter, a shower filter and a bath filter. You can also consider investing in a whole-house system!

Not only does organic produce have more antioxidants and micronutrients than conventionally grown ones, they have less pesticide residue and add less pesticide runoff to the water supply. It really is a win/win. If you can’t make your entire grocery store visit organic, at the very least check the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list (updated annually) and prioritize the things you eat which are most likely to have a high pesticide residue. In general, if you eat the skin (fruit/berries) it’s higher priority than if you peel or remove it, but the list is updated regularly based on sampled produce tested.

As far as skin care/beauty care, toiletries and make-up products go, I will be discussing that in much greater length in another post, so stay tuned!

So there you have it! 🙂 A few simple changes you can start making today! Clean up your skincare/beauty products, eat organic, filter your water and replace cleaning products and your medicine cabinet with natural alternatives! Does it help? Well, my doctor can back me up – I had my toxicity levels checked recently and despite living in the 2nd largest city in the country, my levels were super low!

How do YOU reduce your toxic exposure? I’d love to hear below!

In good health,
Abby