The Sky Is Falling: Everything Sucks and What We Can Do About It

I just came from my functional medicine appointment and I’m ruminating on a conversation my doctor and I had. We were talking about how there is an explosion of Lyme’s disease and celiac disease right now. We chatted over the potential causes of the recent uptake in chronic and autoimmune diseases. We talked about the modification of our food, the increase in vaccinations, the toxins in almost everything, and more. Our health is suffering from the cumulative effect of the all the toxins around us.

Let’s look at some examples of the current issues.

Recently there was an article circulating on microplastics in men’s testes. Yup, plastic in sperm. We’re constantly exposed to micro plastics from leaching into our food from their containers to inhalation from the clothes we wear to absorption through our skin as they are in the air. Some of the health effects of microplastics include (but are not limited to) oxidative stress, neurotoxicity, reproductive issues (cool it’s in sperm then, huh?), and metabolic disfunction.

We all want to smell good. But is smelling good worth it? Certain chemicals in fragrances are endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are effect the immune and nervous system as well as increase our cancer risks and cause developmental malformations. So we think we can just skip the perfume and we’re good right? Well, what about the fragrance in our laundry soap? The plug ins in our homes? The floor cleaner and dish soap we use? The candles we burn? The soap and lotion we lather our babies and selves with?

Let’s talk aluminum. We shouldn’t have any levels of heavy metals in our bodies, yet when I did heavy metal testing this year I had high levels of aluminum, which is very common for your everyday person. Where do we get exposed? Deodorant, vaccines, food containers and foils, and some foods contain aluminum. We can tolerate some, but toxic levels can cause neurological issues (hello crossing the blood brain barrier), anemia, respiratory issues, and bone and muscle problems.

Lastly, the uptake in ultra processed foods in the past 50 ish years has been detrimental to our health. Ultra processed foods are manufactured foods that have undergone so much processing that they no longer resemble their raw ingredients. Think pop, candy, hot dogs, cereal, ect. These foods are engineered to be highly addictive and cause a host of problems. The can cause cancer, obesity, diabetes, gut problems and more. Sure, it makes food cheap and shelf stable for those in need. But what is wild is while on Michigan shelves there are foods that look nothing like real food and are full of red dye 40, seed oils, fake meat, and “healthy” pasta with outrageous levels of pesticides in them, there is also a farm throwing out dumpsters full of raw milk products because they’re illegal to sell. A jar of peanut butter that’s just peanuts and salt costs more that the peanut butter with 8 ingredients. You can get beyond meat at the store but it’s illegal for your local farmer to sell a pound of burger to you unless they jump through hoops to get FDA inspected.

Y’all, this is so frustrating. And this isn’t even half of it! We’re constantly bombarded by toxins, and it feels like there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s overwhelming and discouraging.

But take heart! We’re not going to stay stuck on the negative! Here’s the 5 things we’ve done to lower the toxins in our lives.

1. First and foremost, breathe. It’s crazy and hard, but freaking out constantly about it is “toxic” too. Nothing is going to take you before God wills you to go, and no amount of healthy living will keep you when God calls you. We do our best, but some things are unavoidable.

2. Start slow! You don’t have to change everything in your life at once. Use up what you have of cleaners and food. Then opt for better options as you can get them and afford them. Get fragrance free, natural cleaning options and stick to whole foods as much as possible. Get an air filter eventually. Just know you don’t have to do it all at once.

3. Become your own (and kids!) advocate at the doctor. Do your research and know your rights. Find a functional medicine doctor or go more wellness routes if possible for the health issues in your life.

4. Get involved in politics. Maybe odd, but helpful. We can’t complain about raw milk laws or the like if we don’t do anything about it. As one of my favorite commentators, Allie Beth Stucky, says, “Politics matter because policy matters because people matter. Politics affects policy and policy affects people.” Voting at least is our right and duty (I know, I know it seems like it doesn’t matter but we have to try anyway). If you can get involved starting at a local level, that’s a great way to stand up for what’s right.

5. Eat most meals at home! It’ll save money plus you’ll know what’s in it. I get cooking constantly is hard. I find it dragging somedays. So when you cook, make extra meat or an extra meal to freeze or can for later so you have it when you don’t have time or are really dreading cooking.

6. Grow your own food or get to know your farmer! Start a garden if you can! If you can’t get friendly with the farmers around you. Go to the farmer’s market or reach out to farmers you know. Get a plug for meat, milk, eggs, and veggies. Shake the hand that feeds you.

There’s a lot to be frustrated at in this world full of things trying to destroy us. Truly, we cannot rid ourselves of all the toxins in our lives. But we can reduce them. We can do what we can and have faith that the rest will be okay. As we know better, we can do better. We can day by day make the best choice possible for us and our families.