Body Detox Tips

You have cleared your diet of artificial additives and are starting to detox your body with a healthy liver detox diet, yet as you sit reading this article there are toxins all around you. They could be in the toothpaste and antiperspirant you used this morning, in the furniture you are sitting on, the carpet under your feet, and the cleaning products, paints and varnishes you have used all over your home.

In the garden, they are in the pesticides that stop slugs eating your plants as well as the creosote on the fence. You may not be able to do much about the toxins in the air you breathe - but for all the rest, there are safer alternatives you can use, and not just when you're on a body detox program either..

Playing With Chemistry

Twentieth-century chemists were extremely proud of themselves when they invented brand-new chemical compounds that could dissolve even the toughest dried-in grease in our ovens, make our laundry whiter-than-white, penetrate and plump out ageing skin cells, kill all known germs, and keep us odor-free all day long.

Synthetic materials, like rayon and nylon, were all the rage, carpets were treated to make them virtually indestructible, and timber was sealed so that it would never rot. Alternatively, you could buy brand-new particleboard products made of wood fiber and held together with synthetic resin. Life was getting better and better for us all - or was it?

None of these products make you keel over gasping and wheezing on first exposure (except perhaps the oven cleaner) but the toxins they contain have a cumulative effect with long-term exposure that scientists are still investigating today.

They are only now finding out that cosmetics and personal care items containing parabens seem to be linked to breast cancer - although it is hardly surprising, since parabens mimic the action of estrogen in the body.

It was long thought that mercury could not leach out of fillings once they were in place, but autopsies are finding a direct correlation between the amount of mercury in the brain cells and the number of fillings that a person has in their teeth.

Dry-cleaning solvents containing perchloroethylene (perc, for short) are excellent at removing stains without damaging the fabric, but they have now been linked to cancer, liver and nervous system damage, infertility and hormone disruption.