238-SYNCPodcast_Endocrine

[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today we’re diving into the topic of endocrine disruption and how we can make simple swaps in the things that go in, on, and around our bodies in order to improve our hormone health. This has been a personal focus for me in the last eight to 10 months or so.

[00:01:14] Jenny Swisher: So I wanted to share with you what I’m doing, how I’m doing it and why it matters. Let’s start though, by talking about xenoestrogens. I will link up a previous podcast that I did on this topic, but I want to give you a quick overview. Xenoestrogens are a type of xenohormone that imitates estrogen. They can be either synthetic or natural chemical compounds.

[00:01:33] Jenny Swisher: There are xenoestrogens in our plastic water bottles, our living room curtains, even in our mattress. Xenoestrogens are really everywhere. And in fact, researchers point to rates of younger girls beginning menses than ever before, and similarly, earlier ages of perimenopause, largely due to these xenoestrogens.

[00:01:51] Jenny Swisher: So much in our environment can add to the toxic load in our bodies, and it’s up to our liver dominantly to handle the excretion of those toxins. Recently, in my own journey, I learned that I have both an MTHFR and COMT gene mutation, which essentially means that my body has trouble methylating. This matters when it comes to environmental toxins, because without an efficient toxin removal system, I can actually be prone to estrogen dominance.

[00:02:16] Jenny Swisher: Estrogen isn’t just secreted by the ovaries. It can be simulated through synthetic materials in our environment that, for lack of better terms, absorb through our skin and in the air we breathe to contribute to our toxic load. I’ll use the example that I’ve shared before. In my 20s, after I had tried pretty much everything to treat my hormonally triggered migraines, a doctor prescribed bioidentical progesterone cream compounded by a local apothecary.

[00:02:42] Jenny Swisher: Within just days of applying the cream in a dime sized amount on my inner wrist, I started to literally feel the difference and eliminate the migraines. I remember thinking, if this tiny bit of hormone cream absorbs through my skin and makes this much of an impact in my quality of life, what is all of the body lotion, fragrances, and other stuff that I’m lathering on my body doing to me?

[00:03:04] Jenny Swisher: And that, my friends, is precisely the point. I will make sure that I link up for you in the show notes, a couple of credible sources that you can use to check your own household and skincare products so that you can see where they land on the toxicity scale. But for me, eight months ago, I wanted to make swaps in both avenues, the cleaning products used in my home and the skincare that I was applying to my face and body.

[00:03:26] Jenny Swisher: And I wanted to freaking keep it simple. Can we just please make it simple? When I learned about Hugh and Grace and when I did the research on the products, the ingredients, the sourcing and the formulations.

[00:03:36] Jenny Swisher: I fell in love with the idea that with one company I can entrust with non endocrine disrupting products for my household and my body. I’m excited to partner with them to be able to offer this to other women because I see firsthand daily the impacts of this on women’s hormone health. I review at least three Dutch tests per week because if you didn’t know this, I offer virtual health consults alongside Dr.

[00:03:58] Jenny Swisher: Paige Gutile, and I’m blown away by the number of women who are struggling with estrogen dominance. poor liver methylation, and even in some cases, breast cancer or female cancers. The impacts of endocrine disruption is worsening. And unfortunately, many women simply do not know what they do not know.

[00:04:15] Jenny Swisher: Now, my oldest daughter is seven and a half years old at the moment. She’s very into all the things girly and she’s been begging to go to Sephora or Ulta because, well, her friends are raving about it. Huh? Now I’ve never been a big makeup or cosmetics girl, but you’ve got to be kidding me. She’s seven. So one Saturday I took her.

[00:04:34] Jenny Swisher: Immediately when we walked in the door, she said, Oh mom, what’s that smell? I answered her honestly, chemicals, honey. We walked the aisles and we left with nothing. But when we came home, I introduced her to a skincare regimen that I could trust. I gave her the cleansing bar, the face serum, and the body oil from human grace.

[00:04:52] Jenny Swisher: And I even let her borrow my gua sha stone. I showed her how to use it. And ever since she’s been hooked and she does her skincare routine every night out of the bath. I feel good knowing I’m encouraging her to avoid as much endocrine disruption as possible with what she’s putting in on and around her skin.

[00:05:10] Jenny Swisher: This matters so much, my friends. So many women want to know what’s the best workout program to do, or how should I be eating or dieting in order to lose weight and feel good. All the while they’re lathering the Bath and Body Works lotions or the Sephora makeup all over their skin and loading their body with toxins.

[00:05:26] Jenny Swisher: This is not the way. It starts with eliminating the endocrine disruption that’s within our control. Maybe for you, it’s starting with skincare. Make the simple swap and then move on, maybe to household care. It doesn’t have to be an overnight fix, and it can be a gradual process. Much of our environment is out of our control, but we can step up and control what we can, things that are touching our skin, and that we’re living in in our house.

[00:05:51] Jenny Swisher: Let’s say someone asked me what they needed to do to eat healthier. If I said, well, just go buy some fruits and veggies and put them in your fridge, would that be enough? Well, I have enough experience to tell you that it’s not enough. Because in the pantry around the corner from the fridge, there’s Doritos and Oreos and all the packaged processed foods calling our name.

[00:06:11] Jenny Swisher: The first step then must be elimination. Removing the foods that aren’t serving us from our pantry and fridge before we restock with the healthy food. The same is true for endocrine disruption. Starting with eliminating what you can, and slowly starting to replace with a brand that you can trust. I will be sure to link up my Hugh and Grace link in the show notes so that you can check it out.

[00:06:32] Jenny Swisher: But the reality is my friends, this is the way for proper hormone health. Once you’ve made the swaps needed, then we can look at your unique supplementation, sleep routine, nutrition, and fitness. And one more sort of PSA, right? There are lots of products out there and brands that claim that they’re healthy and non toxic.

[00:06:51] Jenny Swisher: But in reality, they don’t pass the toxic test. And again, I will link up for you in the show notes, credible resources that you can use. to sort of vet your products, but greenwashing is very much a thing and that’s where products and brands use marketing to make you feel like it’s a healthy product for you.

[00:07:06] Jenny Swisher: But in reality, it can be quite toxic. So beware of those brands. The average woman applies 168 chemicals to her skin on a daily basis. Let me say that again. The average woman applies 168 chemicals to her skin on a daily basis. 168. The average man applies up to 85. This is absolutely insane. And that’s just skin care.

[00:07:34] Jenny Swisher: What about the under the sink cabinet that we all have full of standard cleaning products? Yeah, trust me, they don’t fare well on the endocrine disruption tests. So we can start here. This is something that we can control. And by doing so, we can ensure that we’re doing what we can when it comes to our hormone health.

[00:07:52] Jenny Swisher: This really is the first step, and I hope it helps you realize what needs to be done next for you in order to heal your hormones. It’s not a destination, it’s a journey, and with the right tools and the right mindset, we can truly start to regain that maximum energy. I’ve seen far too many women and men affected by things like infertility, and irregular periods, and thyroid conditions, and even dysregulated blood sugar cortisol imbalances.

[00:08:17] Jenny Swisher: And so much of it comes back to what we’re putting in, on, and around our bodies. But here’s the kicker, my friends. Guess who buys that stuff? We do. If we stop buying it, and instead we make those simple swaps with a brand we can trust, we can ensure that we’re doing the right thing. So I hope you’ve learned something today.

[00:08:35] Jenny Swisher: As always, my friends, I wanted to do a quick touch on just endocrine disruption as a whole. Keep it short and simple, but impactful. I hope you share this out with your friends, and until next time, we’ll talk soon. Bye bye.