Why I Went Low-Tox

I could take this story in many different directions because I don’t think one persons journey is ever very straight. I fell into the ‘non-toxic’ and natural world a few years back, when I was attempting to regain consistency with my period after years of absent or irregular cycles. It was during that challenge that I learned a lot. I really had no idea how my hormones could be affected by my environment, but I was open to learning.

There are so many reasons for hormonal imbalance in women, which is part of the reason it can be so challenging to overcome. But I was determined to find answers and began experimenting on myself. The more I learned, the more I realized that what I was putting on my body mattered just as much as what I was putting in my body. I was shocked to learn that many of the products I used daily contained endocrine disruptors, some of the biggest culprits you may be familiar with — triclosan, parabens, BPA, fragrance and phthalates. Endocrine disruptors function in a way that can interfere with the body’s natural hormones, which can often lead to over or underproduction while also interfering with production, release and elimination of the body’s natural hormones. And when you are trying to regulate your own hormones, you really don’t want anything unnecessary messing with them — especially when it is 100% avoidable.

Many of these ingredients are added to products, not for therapeutic or personal benefits, but rather to contribute to some of the ‘consumer traits’ we typically look for. For example, SLS is added to soaps as a foaming agent. Phalates are added to products to improve their consistency. Petroleum is added as a moisturizer. I don’t know about you, but if I were making a moisturizer at home, I definitely wouldn’t feel inclined to head on down to the gas station to stock up on DIY ingredients. The moral of the story being, we need to take ownership of what we bring into our homes because the FDA does not require safety testing nor do they require approvals before products hit the shelves. What’s important to remember here is that our skin is absorptive — meaning, whatever we put on it will most likely get absorbed into our bloodstream, very quickly. And if I wanted to bring my body back to balance, an overwhelming amount of chemicals getting absorbed into my bloodstream would not be helpful.

So I needed to detox. I switched the things that were the easiest to change first. I re-evaluated my laundry detergent, my body wash, shampoo and conditioner, lotions, sunscreen. Pretty much anything that came into direct contact with my skin. I also thought about the things I was breathing in— so household cleaners, candles, air fresheners. This may sound overwhelming, but when you don’t feel good and you have a lot on the table (hormones are no joke), it really doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice.

I find it nearly impossible to pinpoint my success in regulating my hormones to a specific change or a specific habit. It’s all cumulative. The more you begin to change, the quicker your body will begin to heal. I certainly cannot credit non-toxic living solely to balanced hormones, but it definitely played a role. And I’m still not perfect. But I don’t think that should be the goal. It’s unreasonable and it prevents you from making any changes at all if you believe it’s too much to tackle all at once. It’s baby steps, all the way, until you realize all of your baby steps led you miles and miles down the road.

And speaking from my current state of being, I’ve recently found another reason to re-evaluate my home and the products I use within it. In September, I landed myself in the hospital after having some rather severe asthma attacks. While the experience left me feeling incredibly grateful to be breathing, I couldn’t help but wonder what caused this reaction in the first place.

After getting allergy tested this year, I can be pretty sure that the asthma was triggered by ragweed, which I am allergic to. My second highest allergen was dust mites. And while both of these things are pretty hard to avoid, I at least feel inspired to figure out how to lower my allergic or asthmatic threshold. I have a lot to learn in this area, but I know that breathing in inflammatory chemicals should be the first things to go. So back to investigator status I go— trying to determine anything and everything in my home that could be causing inflammation in my lungs.

Here are a few quick facts related to asthma…

• Companies do not need to list their fragrance ingredients in the label

• 12,500 ingredients fall under the umbrella called “fragrance” on a label

• Fragrance are common triggers of asthma, migraines, allergies and sinus problems

• Fragrance can be found in our every day products such as perfume, cleaners, candles, body wash

These changes can happen as fast or as slow as you want them to. I am personally a slow learner, but I try to always make progress and move in a forward direction.

The good news is that time will be moving anyways, so we might as well make some good use out of it and just start.

I choose to see setbacks as an opportunity to learn. I’d much rather feel empowered to learn and make changes than to feel like I have no control over my situation. Maybe this speaks to my controlling tendencies (lol), but it’s the truth. I’d much rather experiment to see if it makes a difference than never know.

Disclaimer: it made a difference.

Coffee: How and Why I Detoxed

I stopped drinking coffee due to a combination of breaking my coffee pot and having an inner hunch that it was impacting my health negatively. Coffee has been my morning staple for the last few years, where I became deeply dependent on it after college when I entered the phase of life coined ‘adulting’. That morning grogginess (crankiness) didn’t go away without it.

It wasn’t always bad, don’t get me wrong. I loved my warm coffee on a cool fall morning, it was soothing to my soul. But the reality was it became a crutch I depended on to clear the morning fog and give me the energy to get the day started... and finished. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for me to have 3-5 cups of coffee a day, because lets be honest… my first “cup” was my entire coffee pot.

Doing away with coffee has been on the to-do list for a while now, but I honestly just haven’t wanted to rip the band-aid off. As of right now, I don’t know if I will give up coffee forever or if I’ll jump back on the Four Sigmatic bandwagon. Maybe I’ll stick to my one chai tea a day. Who knows. Life changes and that’s okay.

So besides from breaking my coffee pot for the second time (a sign from the universe?), it was learning about the biochemical effects of caffeine that finally pushed me to commit. (Can you tell I was a bio major in college, #ScienceNerd?)

In short, coffee (caffeine) triggers the production of stress hormones. And too many stress hormones for an extended period of time can impact the production of sex hormones, like estrogen and progesterone. Aka, the female body can go a bit bananas if hyped up on excess amounts of caffeine.

I write more about my journey with hormonal health in the post, My Experience with Birth Control and Life-Post Pill, but hormonal health is something that has always been a bit of a challenge for me. So learning that caffeine can lower progesterone, an anti-anxiety hormone responsible for period health and fertility, among other things, was eye-opening. Low progesterone can present itself in a number of ways like anxiety, fluid retention, low mood, unexplained weight gain and challenges conceiving.

For me, coffee is just another piece of the puzzle towards better hormonal and overall health. I am, by no means, saying this will be the magic piece that puts it all together, I’ve just realized that trying life without coffee is worth the effort.

A SYSTEM IN OVER-DRIVE.

We live in a society that is always turned on, but I’m sure this is not news to you. Very rarely can we disconnect from our work or our responsibilities, but instead we shoulder the effects of our ever growing to-do lists and diminishing hours of sleep.

As our body cannot differentiate between actual danger or lifestyle stress, our nervous system usually works overtime producing and then filtering stress hormones to “protect” us.

Adrenaline and cortisol, our stress hormones, are necessary and life-saving. They help us survive in both short-term and long-term stress, but when stress never goes away, their effects are no longer beneficial.

Take for example, adrenaline. It allows us to access fight-or-flight and gives us the energy to escape harmful and dangerous situations. But more often than not, too many commitments, financial stress, or caffeine can be the “impending danger” that increases our adrenaline production and forces our bodies into a state of long-term, chronic stress.

Adrenaline and cortisol are part of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the branch of our nervous system that is under subconscious control and is activated by stress. Coffee, which stimulates the production of adrenaline, can impair the balance between fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest, tipping the scales in favor of always being on ‘high alert’. This means that our body, whether real or not, sees itself in almost constant danger.

A DELICATE DANCE.

Estrogen and progesterone, our two main sex hormones, play a big role in our menstrual cycle, ranging from fertility to the degree in which we suffer from PMS, cramps, headaches, etc. If out of balance, we can experience heavy, clotty or painful periods, anxiety, sore/swollen breasts, to name just a few symptoms.

Progesterone, a hormone responsible for keeping our uterine lining intact, decreases if our bodies believe we are in stress and in a non-optimal state for conceiving. Cortisol, the long-term stress hormone that presents after extended periods of high adrenaline, decreases the production of progesterone.

The take-away message is that stress hormones are a very necessary part of our biology and our survival, but long-term artificial triggers, like caffeine, could contribute to or exacerbate an already existing hormonal imbalance, if not corrected.

DETOX COMMENCE.

During a habit shift, one behavior usually gets replaced with another, more favorable, behavior. In my case, I replaced my morning coffee with tea as a way to avoid caffeine headaches and gradually wean myself off.

To give some perspective, one 8oz. cup of coffee has about 95 mg caffeine. Green tea, as an alternative, has about 30mg of caffeine per cup. I was typically drinking 2-3 cups of coffee a day, so that’s almost 300 mg of caffeine daily. Switching to ~30-60 mg daily consumption from green tea, it is understandable why on day 2, even with 2 cups of green tea, I had a headache. But thankfully, that would be the one and only headache.

The intention of this post is not to tell you to give up coffee. It’s to continue to share my journey with you and see what works and what doesn’t. Stress is hard to avoid and it’s something I personally find challenging to manage. But in terms of perceived stress, or situations that elicit physical stress responses to emotional situations (embracing conflict, having difficult conversations, budgeting finances), saying no to caffeine seems like an easier and less invasive first step to reducing stress.

I’m hoping that reducing caffeine will allow me to respond better in stressful situations, improve my monthly cycle (in terms of PMS symptoms), and impact my energy levels and mood in a positive manner.

WHAT’S CHANGED?

So far, so good. Outside the normal rush of life, I don’t feel any more tired than I did on coffee. I no longer have my mid-afternoon slumps, but those definitely didn’t disappear right away.

It’s been about 6 months since my last cup and I really don’t miss it much. In the beginning, I missed the smell and the comfort of a slow Sunday morning coupled with my morning coffee. But at the moment, I alternate between green tea or chai as substitutes, and those work plenty fine.

I honestly kind of expected this transition to be harder. But the headache only lasted for a day and I experienced no noticeable symptoms otherwise. Mentally it hasn’t been that difficult either. This may be because my morning routine hasn’t changed: my AM beverage still exists, it’s just been replaced with tea.

I’m currently consuming about 10mg of caffeine daily, which is a pretty sizable reduction compared to upwards of ~180 mg that was my norm.

Sleep

This improvement felt almost immediate. I’ve never had any issues falling asleep, but would typically wake at least once or twice throughout the night tossing and turning. Less caffeine yielded restful nights without any waking. Most mornings I wake with my alarm feeling well rested, given I went to bed at a decent hour the night before.

Energy

I get a sense of clarity and energy from drinking tea, but it seems to be longer-lasting and without the inevitable crash that comes with coffee. I am semi-convinced that sipping any beverage would benefit my alertness though, as the act of making and consuming a drink prompts movement.

Throughout the afternoon or evenings I usually just have water. I rarely have mid-afternoon slumps anymore, but if I do, I try to counteract them with a quick walk or step outside.

Hormones

This is the most exciting improvement, in my opinion.

As I mentioned, one of the primary reasons for this detox was coffees potential impact on progesterone levels. By both personal observation and tracking my cycles via temp charting, I had an inkling that my progesterone levels were low. One of the indicators was pre- and post-spotting. A second indicator was swollen and sore breasts during the two weeks leading up to menstruation.

I have had many cycles since going coffee-free, many of which I experienced no spotting or sore or swollen breasts. It’s too early to say whether or not this trend will continue, but this cycle’s improvements were impossible to ignore.

Overall health 

Giving up coffee has forced me to take better care of my body on a basic level. I no longer have the crutch of reaching for heavy doses of caffeine when I stay up too late watching TV or eat too much junk and enter a food coma. By eating my best, sleeping well and reducing stress as much as possible, I find it is easier not to rely on the caffeine.

The plan for now is to just stay in-tune with my body. If I feel driven to give up caffeine completely, I’ll try it. If I am happy with the improvements and feel good with tea, then I’ll stick to it. I find it liberating to try things as I see fit and truthful.

ACTION STEPS: 

• Get the coffee out of the house. If I hadn’t (accidentally) broken my coffee pot, I would always gravitate towards coffee over tea in the morning.

• Switch to a beverage with less caffeine to prevent headaches (which will cause you to reach for the coffee). My choice was green tea.

• Know why you want to reduce your coffee/caffeine consumption in the first place!