Episode 74: 5 Ways to Reduce Toxins in Your Life

doTERRA: Your toxic load can seem like a daunting subject, but it doesn't have to be. Your toxic load can start to affect your health, but there are simple ways you can help reduce the toxins in your life. And that's what we'll share with you today.

Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you.

Today, we're excited to talk to Jennifer Keys about how you can reduce toxins in your life. Jenny, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about this really important topic.

Jennifer Keys: Thank you so much for having me.

doTERRA: My first question is what are the biggest ways that I am exposed to toxins in my daily life?

Jennifer: Well, I would say that really breaks down into two different categories. The category of environmental toxins that you maybe don't necessarily have, kind of, much ability to control, and then the other part is toxins that you are using in your daily life that maybe you're not realizing have such a negative impact on your health. And those are really the toxins that I think we should be focusing on because we might cause ourselves and go a little crazy if we focus on the other ones.

So yeah, just really the biggest way is what you are allowing to come into your life via putting things on your skin, what you're ingesting on a daily basis. And those really are the two: what you're putting in yourself and on yourself.

doTERRA: And as a follow up to that, are there simple ways that I can start to recognize things that are going to be bringing toxins into my life?

Jennifer: I would say a general rule of thumb is that—you know—if you're looking at, let's say, a package of something, whether it be a beauty product or something that you're going to eat, I would look for packages that have very few ingredients, to be quite honest. Very few ingredients and ingredients that you can pronounce. Right?

That is really the quick and easy way to look and see what's in your products and making sure that, you know, when you're talking beauty products, there's nothing like natural fragrances, phthalates (or phthalates), you know, all those kind of things that can be hurtful to your body. So really looking at the label is going to be key, whether you're putting it in your mouth or on your skin.

doTERRA: So Jenny, how can I spot the effects of a high toxic load in my life? If I haven't been paying attention to some of the products I'm using or the foods that I'm eating, how can I spot those effects?

Jennifer: Yeah. This is actually really common of people saying, “How do I know?” I think we get caught up in our lives because they're busy, and then all of a sudden, we get to a spot and we're like, “How did we get here?” Right?

And so, I would say that just honestly taking an inventory, sitting back and saying, “Really, how do I feel on a daily basis?” Sometimes we let things slide, like occasional head tension. Right? “Oh, that's normal. People have that all the time.” Well, no, you really shouldn't. I mean I maybe have that one time a year, if even that. Right?

So some other things to look at are digestive upset. A lot of times you find having unhealthy skin is something that's a big—you know, that may be the only sign that you are kind of toxically overloaded. Fatigue and just being really exhausted is something that often I find people are complaining about.

As well as, for women specifically it seems like women more than men, is kind of like the weight gain. A lot of my patients, “I can't lose the weight. I've been doing all this stuff, and I can't lose it.” You know, and in the meantime they're like slathering themselves in toxins every day.

And like mood swings, I mean really you name it. As far as something that makes you feel unwell, and it can be a sign of toxic overload.

doTERRA: Well and that just is kind of eye opening because no one wants to feel unwell. No one wants to feel less than their best. So we need to make it a little bit more of a priority maybe for some of us to reduce the toxins that we're introducing to ourselves. So how can I go about reducing toxins in my home?

Jennifer: So that is a big one, reducing the toxins in the home. I find that a lot of people just accidentally are bathing themselves in toxins without even realizing it. Because if you have never stopped and really thought, “You know, why do I buy this kind of detergent?” Then you likely are just going to buy whatever maybe you grew up with, whatever your mom used, whatever you found at the grocery store, it doesn't really matter. Right? Because you're just getting what you need and going home.

Switch to More Natural Cleaning Products

So I would say the biggest thing is how are we going to change what we're putting on ourselves in our home and what we're exposing ourselves to. And that would be thinking about switching over some of your cleaners and your cleaning products. If you think about, especially if you're one who takes care of the home you are in and around that all the time. And as we know with essential oils, everything absorbs through your skin or has the potential to. So it's really fun learning about oils and then you kind of go, “Oh my gosh,” when you first learn that everything can go through the skin.

So I would slowly start to switch over cleaning products. Right? It's super easy. Once you finish one out, you just simply replace it with one of the many recipes that you can make with doTERRA essential oils and other natural cleaning products like white vinegar, distilled water, hydrogen peroxide, things like that—not mixing those two, but individually—as well as our On Guard.

I use our On Guard cleaning solution for pretty much everything. I have one in the bathroom. I have one in the kitchen. it's my counter spray. I clean my house with it because you just have to add water, so when I'm out, I don't have to run to the store. I just can make some really quick and clean pretty much anywhere that I need to.

Begin Diffusing

Another one for in-home toxins is, you know, just start diffusing. Don't use the candles and the air fresheners. They're so terrible for you. And that's such an easy fix, as most of the doTERRA starter kits come with a diffuser and essential oils for you to diffuse.

Use Toxin-free Laundry Detergent

And then I would say as well as that laundry detergent is another big one that I work with people right away to switch over. Once again, it's just a switch. You're not necessarily even taking anything away or adding anything new. You're just switching what you're already buying and doTERRA’s On Guard laundry detergent works so fabulous for stains. It's really awesome. My husband loves it. And it's affordable and easy to put in any doTERRA order that you're getting. So those would kind of be the main things. I would just start off with the home. You could go really crazy, but if you're new to the idea of toxins, I do really encourage you to just kind of, you know, start slow so it's not overwhelming to yourself.

doTERRA: And I love all those ideas. And like you said, a lot of them—it isn't anything crazy. It's simple switches, easy things that you just switch out. So how can I use essential oils or doTERRA products to reduce the toxins in my everyday life?

Support Your Body with the doTERRA Lifelong Vitality Pack®

Jennifer: Yeah, so I would start with, first of all, really supporting the body on a daily basis. So I love our Livelong Vitality vitamins. They are so potent and pure that they actually have—can have for some people—almost a little detoxifying element to them. And I don't say that like, scary like you're going to be on the toilet or something. But when your body hasn't had nutrition and then it has really awesome nutrition, it can kind of go through a little detox as it comes back to equilibrium and can get even healthier. So that's number one especially if you're someone who's found yourself, “Whoopsie. You know, I've been using a lot of products that aren’t so good in my life.” I really would start with the LLV because that's just a phenomenal support.

Detox with Zendocrine® Products

On top of it, doTERRA has two more—well one supplement, one encapsulation—of the Zendocrine essential oil blend. And this blend really is to help keep the filters of the body healthy. Both of them, so that Zendocrine Softgels are our oil blend just encapsulated in a softgel, and the Zendocrine Complex is an encapsulated bunch of really phenomenal, high-quality herbs that are also known to help detox the body and support those detoxifying organs. And those actually together can make a really great pair. And I do recommend people take them together.

And that can help support the body with the LLV because it's so important to take care of the detoxifying organs, or the chimneys, as we like to call them. And I will say there is no other products like this Zendocrine Complex on the market because when we had a little snafu a little bit ago and couldn't get it, I looked high and low with all my naturopathic companies that I work with to help people with, and there was nothing that replaced it. So it truly does hit all the organs and filters of the body that help support detoxifying.

Use Essential Oils as Perfume or Cologne

And my last suggestion would be with toxins in everyday life, just go ahead and choose an essential oil that you'd like instead of your perfume and cologne. That is probably the number one thing, the first action step when someone's detoxing that I recommend. the colognes and perfumes are amongst the most toxic that really overload. And it's such a simple switch and oftentimes cheaper. You know, you buy your really expensive stuff at Macy's. You can get, you know, 10 bottles of oil for that. So I highly, highly recommend that.

And that's really where it would start for your daily life, along with your home switches. And just take a note. Do that for about 30 to 90 days. Usually it takes at least 30 days but up to 90 days to see just the difference in how you feel. And I would just kind of take an inventory, do a little journaling and see what those do. I bet that even those basic changes will really help you feel phenomenal in your everyday life.

doTERRA: Those suggestions are incredible, and I love the idea of keeping track of the way your body feels so you can recognize those changes as you go through this process.

Jennifer: Yeah, absolutely. You know, sometimes as we get to not feeling so great, it's a slow process over time generally—you know, unless we have an accident or something. And so that's why we don't recognize it right away. But it's also a slow process when we start to kind of support our wellness. And so, it's important to give our bodies time. We always want to get feeling better super quick, when it took years to get us to the place that we were at. So we just have to be a little patient. And by keeping track, that can kind of be that little hit of what you need to say “Oh yeah. I was feeling like this, and now I feel like this.” So you can have some comparison.

doTERRA: Absolutely. Well Jenny, thank you so much for sharing these ideas with us today and helping us understand a little bit better how we can reduce that toxic load in our life.

Jennifer: Thank you so much for having me!

doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.