Which Of These Toxins Are Playing Havoc With Your Body & Health? | Ep 80

Melissa Deally: 00:00:07

Imagine getting up every day full of energy is if you were in your 20s. Again, what would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system, or public health. As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today and all your tomorrow's don't wait for your wake up call

Melissa Deally: 00:01:07

welcome back to another episode of The don't wait for your wake up call podcast. My name is Melissa Deally. I am the host of the show and excited to continue this month's theme of talking about toxins and the impact they have on our health. And before I dive in, I would just love to share a another testimonial that I have received. This is from Anahita Cervini of North Vancouver, British Columbia. And she says before I worked with Melissa I felt foggy and tired all the time. I couldn't keep up with my day without the force of coffee. Within three days of my detox with Melissa, my energy shifted. And now I wake up energized and excited about my day. I can focus better and I'm not relying on coffee to get my day going. I can't say the detox was easy. And I'm glad I had Melissa on my side supporting me and making it easier on my body and brain. I wouldn't be able to go through the detox without her I highly recommend her. It is easier to become and stay healthier with her knowledge and support. Thank you so much and a heater for sharing that testimonial. And as we dive into today's episode, I first want to ask you as did you join me last week for episode 79. When I was talking with Justin Cranston in regards to EMF or electromagnetic fields, we dove into that in great detail in regards to his work with EMFs and how he has created products to help protect your body against the negative impact of EMFs. If you haven't listened to that episode, you want to go back and listen to it. And much of what I am sharing with you today comes from my mentor Dr. Steven Cabral and his book called The rain barrel effect. And so we're going to be talking about nine of the 10 toxins that he has listed in his book as being the biggest problem in terms of the decline in our health in the last 100 years. And the one that I'm not talking about today is EMFs. Because I talked about that last week in episode number 79. So these aren't in any particular order, I'm just going to dive in and start talking about heavy metals because they're one of the most overlooked triggers of reproductive problems, diseases in general cancers, etc, and neurological issues. And your medical doctor doesn't test for heavy metal levels in your body. But with my at home lab testing, you can actually test for five key metals led aluminum, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic. And this year, I've seen quite a few tests coming back with high levels of mercury, often due to mercury fillings in the mouth that have been in there for 20 3040 years, and the teeth is cracked or filling is cracked and they've started leaking into the body. That is definitely something you do not want happening because we know that is a neurotoxin. Aluminum is in can be in our tap water in our deodorants in our cookware in our pop cans, beer cans, et cetera, et cetera. There's so many places that aluminum is used in our lives. And guess what it gets into our body it is a toxic heavy metal and once it's in the body, the body doesn't know what to do with it because it's not a natural substance for the body to expect to have inside the body and doesn't know how to get it out. Which is why when we understand where our heavy metal toxins are based on the lab testing, we can then do a heavy metal detox using binders and detoxifying herbs that help draw Have them out of your cells, and then out of your body. I've seen cadmium being really high lately in smokers as well as those who no longer smoke because even though you quit smoking, that is a toxin that gets stuck and stays inside the body. And all of these metals are wreaking havoc at the cellular level on our body, and they cause massive inflammation, which if you recall from Episode 78, this triggers your genes to turn on disease, remember the science of epigenetics, right? When we reduce the inflammation on the body, then we're not triggering our genes to turn on disease. So it is really important to know what heavy metals your body has, is harboring inside and then be able to help the body get them out.

Melissa Deally: 00:05:55

Toxin Number two are GMOs or synthetic food. These are foods that are made in a laboratory by man in order to make the food better able to withstand high levels of pesticide sprays. So the food or the agricultural industry is trying to create, you know, bumper crops. And as a result, they want to get rid of all the all the pests, etc. And so over time, they've developed pesticides. But then the foods weren't withstanding all the spraying as well. So their crops, they were still weren't getting bumper crops. So instead, they start to change the food in order to be able to handle all that spraying. And that's where we get this synthetic food. And in order to do this new genes are actually inserted into the DNA of the natural food crops. The problem is that they have no additional health benefits, but they can be really harmful as these foods are absorbing all of this heavy spraying of the pesticides, and then we eat them. There is a lot of research now linking GMO foods to fertility issues, gut dysfunction and autoimmune diseases, it is best to simply avoid them. So read your labels. The top GMO foods to avoid are beets and beet sugar. 95% of beets and beet sugar crop are GMO. canola oils, 93% are GMO, just don't buy canola oil or canola products. cottonseed oil also at 93%. Soy also at 93%. So that's soy oils as well as tofu etc. You need to be buying non GMO corn is it 86% of all corn crops are actually GMO Hawaiian papaya is 80%. And so those are the top GMO foods that you want to be avoiding. But obviously reading labels making sure you're buying non GMO is really, really important. Next, we have pesticides and DDT. And we've known for years the damaging effects of pesticides on our health and the organic food industry has been created as a result. The problem is our governments continue to allow products like glyphosate roundup to be used, despite being aware of research showing its links to cancers such as leukemia, non Hodgkins, lymphoma, brain, bone, breast, ovarian, testicular and liver cancers. Glyphosate and other pesticides are really, really bad for our health, and they get sprayed on our food. And then you may try to wash it off, but it's really hard to wash it off some foods. And that's when you want to be looking at the Environmental Working Groups Dirty Dozen and clean 15. So the clean 15 or the produce that the pesticides don't get through the thicker skin, and that it's safe to buy it is non organic, but the dirty dozen or I think in 2022 they have actually come out with a dirty 15 You really want to be buying organic because it's impossible to clean the pesticides off these foods. Examples are raspberries and strawberries and blackberries. How do you get the pesticides cleaned off those very delicate berries, you can't and so you need to be choosing organic. But there's still even that isn't perfect, because really glyphosate and these pesticides should be banned globally. And of course they aren't but we all live in one atmosphere. So even if you're eating organic, which is awesome. Who's to say that some of that glyphosate ate or other pesticides haven't blown over to the organic farm and still got on the organic produce. I know this sounds depressing. But this is why I say that we are at a place today where we unfortunately cannot avoid all the toxins. And we instead have to choose to support our body and getting them out and take all the steps that we can to prevent them getting in. So definitely choosing organic is better than not choosing organic. But even when we choose organic, it isn't perfect. And so what more can we be doing to help our body eradicate these toxins that are getting in.

Melissa Deally: 00:10:42

If you're enjoying my content, and someone that wants to step into being proactive in your health and learning more, I would love to invite you to join my membership community. There's a link in the show notes for only 1999 a month you get access to all of my content, and there's a lot as well as weekly calls that you can come and get your health questions answered. It's truly priceless. I'd love to see you join the community, check out the link in the show notes. Another source of toxins, believe it or not, is your very own tap water. And this can vary greatly from city to city town to town. But your municipal tap water often has chlorine added to help clean it as well as fluoride and aluminum. Now the problem is that chlorine is so powerful a cleaner that it will actually wipe out the good bacteria in your gut. And it's linked to low thyroid as it causes iodine to become depleted in the body. And we need iodine for good thyroid function. Meanwhile, fluoride is a known neurotoxin. Not to mention, it's also negatively impacting the health of your thyroid. And it has been linked to brittle bones weakened digestion, Zima, psoriasis and more. So we don't want to be drinking fluoride day in and day out. And yet it's in your tap water. And I know that it was added to the tap water for the benefit of the health of your teeth. But since then, so much more has been learned about the negative impact of fluoride on the rest of our health. And yet it is still added in many cities and towns across the globe. Pharmaceutical drugs are also ending up in your tap water as they go down the toilet and then don't get fully removed in the water treatment plant. So tests are now showing up low levels of blood thinners, blood pressure medications, hormones from birth control and more in your tap water. And we are told this is safe. It's a very small amount. But is it really safe if we are drinking tap water day in and day out for all of our lives? Has that testing been done? Or was the test done on a low level of these drugs over a short period of time? I'm thinking that's what happened, right? And then what happens when you have these toxins getting into your body? On top of all the other ones? Have they tested for that? No, they haven't they test for one thing at a time over a short period of time. There's no test that's ever been done on the deluge of toxins that were exposed to over time and how that impacts us. We are the test right now as we go through our daily lives, exposed to all of these toxins. And we end up with all the chronic chronic illness that we have today that we didn't have 100 years ago. That is the test and it's not turning out so well for so many people. So we have to take action to help remove the toxins from our body. And when it comes to our tap water looking at what kind of filter can you get in your house, either at the top level of the kitchen sink or maybe it's a filter to the water coming straight into your house, tap water filter for the shower because that chlorine and the tap water you're still getting it on your skin it's getting into your bloodstream, etc. What more can you be doing to help ensure that the water coming into your house and onto your body and that you're drinking isn't exposing you to high levels of chlorine, fluoride, aluminum, etcetera, etcetera. Now another toxin is stress and you might not think of stress as a toxin you probably think of stress as an everyday reality. We all have stress, there's good stress, there's bad stress. And then of course there's chronic stress when we get stuck in that state for for too long. And even before the pandemic the world was the most stressed out it has ever been. Everyone is in their doo doo doo mode trying to get it all done and stuck in a state of fight or flight, whether they realize it or not. The problem is that when we are in that stress state, the brain is trying to get us to safety pumping out adrenaline and cortisol so we can fight or flee. And to do this, the body shuts down other systems, in order to have the energy needed in that moment, and it shuts down our immune system, which uses a lot of energy, it shuts down our digestive system, which also uses a lot of energy, every time we put food in our mouth to eat, that's using about 30% of our energy to break down that meal.

Melissa Deally: 00:15:38

So when we're in that state, we are not in our state of rest and digest, which means our body is not in repair mode. So if your body is struggling with a high level of toxins, it now is not in a position to try and do anything about it as it can't repair itself unless we get out of the stress state. So being stuck in the stress state is another form of toxicity that adds to our inflammation levels in and of itself. What do you do every day to help your body calm and get into your rest and digest state. If you aren't sure what you should do, please reach out as I can definitely help you with this. It is something I had to learn after being let go from my corporate job. When I went into health coaching, as I realized I was that person stuck in fight or flight. And I needed to make some changes in my life to ensure that I was getting myself out of that chronic stress state. Another common toxin is homesickness. And I don't mean that being a child away from home having homesickness for the first time missing their parents, I literally mean living in a sick home or sick home syndrome. Too much of a good thing can actually be a bad thing, right. And that is now true with our home building technology. We've improved it so much. And we're at a point now where our homes are built so well they're sealed so tightly to stop cold air getting in that we're also not getting any fresh air in. And we are trapping in toxic chemicals that are used on our flooring, our couches, our beds, et cetera, et cetera. And it's trapped inside our home and we breathe it in all day every day. This can be can cause a myriad of skin issues allergies, brain fog, watery eyes and respiratory issues that very often aren't connected back to the home environment. And drugs are simply given to mask the symptoms. Because doctors don't know why it's happening. But here's a drug so that it mitigates it and makes you feel better. A study in the UK actually show that 15 point 3 million homes had over 900 chemicals in their air within their home. What about your home? Is it tightly sealed? Or do you open your windows to allow fresh air to circulate. Of course, if it's fire season, the air outside might be worse than the air inside, in which case you don't want to be opening your windows, but the rest of the year even when it's wintertime, opening your windows at some point during the day to be letting fresh air in and to circulate in your home is so important. Now, this was something that I experienced personally, many years ago, 20 years ago now actually, I was working in a hotel building and the building was being renovated. And I started getting migraines every day that I went to work. And I didn't understand why I always struggled with migraines. If you know my story, you know that they were hormonal, and now all of a sudden I'm getting them every day. And I was in the office one day when one of the construction workers came in and said, Oh my goodness, there is so much mold in this building that we've opened up and exposed this week. It's unbelievable. And I had a little bit of an AHA going, huh.

Melissa Deally: 00:19:29

I've had my migraines all of this week. I wonder if I'm sensitive to it and the mold and the mold spores have now been exposed because the walls have been open up. And because it's all in the building, through the air conditioning system, etc. It's been being blown all over the building, including into my office. And interestingly, I learned the hard way that that was actually very true and the renovation project was going to be going on for a year. And I just thought, you know what, I can't keep doing this. And I resigned and I gave a month's notice. The crazy thing is, is that very soon after resigning, they actually got all the mold out of the building, as they were, you know, clearing everything out. And, you know, continuing with the renovation project, they got all the mold out. And so guess what my migraines stopped. But I'd already given my notice. So I did leave that place of employment. But that was something really interesting to learn about myself, and how I'm impacted by mold. And how toxins in our working environment in our homes in our office buildings are can absolutely be impacting our health. But when we're feeling like crap, and we're going to the doctor, they're not necessarily connecting the dots between our working environment, our home environment, and our health, you're not looking at the toxins cetera. And so you don't always get to the bottom of it. But now that you know this, you can start asking some of these questions of yourself and start learning about it. Because perhaps, you feel the way you feel because of the environment you work in, or you live in. And maybe there's toxins there that are negatively impacting. And I can definitely help you release those toxins because now I've learned how, but also starting to understand the root cause is helpful too, because maybe you need to change jobs like I did, because for me, my health wasn't worth staying in that environment. And another source of toxins are your personal care products. This industry is an absolute nightmare. There are just so many chemical toxins in personal care products sold at your local pharmacies and grocery stores. You think because they're there for sale, they must be safe, someone's approved them, right? But they are not. What's worse is we put these onto our skin, and it only takes 26 seconds for them to be absorbed into your bloodstream. 26 seconds the average woman puts over 200 Toxins onto her skin before she goes to work in the morning, between using shampoos, conditioners, makeup, deodorant, face, wash, moisturizers, etc, etc. But the good news is that it's actually really easy now to find clean products or makeup on your own or even make your own. I make my own deodorant. For instance, my eye makeup remover is simply coconut oil. I buy all my personal care products from companies I trust that focus on bringing clean products to the market. Companies like doTERRA Young Living the beauty Arbonne and more, you can find my recommendations on my website at your guided health journey.com underneath the Resources tab. So check that out. And you don't have to throw everything out at once I've said this time and time again. But start researching products that you would like to try so that when you finish the products you have, you already have ordered the clean products to replace it. And you can just do that slowly over time. And within the next six months, you'll have changed a lot in your life and in your home products and done it in a really affordable way. Another toxin are pharmaceutical drugs. So these two are chemicals that are man made, right, they may have some plant based medicine in them but there's also chemicals added to it. And I've touched on this already is they do end up in our tap water.