Today we continue the 5 week challenge to rethink the toxins in your life. If you are part of my email community, you got to read this a few months ago. If you aren’t part my email posse (you totally should be btw), this is a VERY important topic….grab a glass of clean water and read on…

Ok, did last week’s email leave you with your head swirling?

If you are still with me, you are among those interested in figuring out how to live your life with a little less toxic-ness. It’s a word. I promise.

I’m glad you are here. This is one of my FAVORITE topics to tackle. It’s complex and yet simple. But not necessarily easy.

Changing habits or challenging thoughts we knew for certain is hard. Hang in there. I got you.

I know last week’s email was long but I hope you were able to read it despite the length. It is so important to me that you have all the information available that is necessary for you to make the health decisions best for you and your family.

With that in mind, today we turn to something we ALL consume…water.

Water makes up the majority of our body. Up to 60% of the human adult body is water. Our blood is 90% water.

According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry, the brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water. The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are watery: 31%.

Water supports digestion via our saliva, supports our joints, helps deliver oxygen to the cells, is needed in the brain for neurotransmitter production, and among other things, it is one of our main drainage pathways in the body to removal toxic byproducts.

At maximum, we can go one week without water. And honestly, going even several hours without will begin to negatively affect your health.

Being slightly dehydrated can impact your mood and energy levels. Tired? Cranky? Drink water first.

But I’m actually not writing to you to day to discuss hydration. I’m here to talk about the safety of our drinking water and why I think everyone deserves to have clean filtered water at their disposal.

If you saw my reel on IG the other day, you are likely becoming aware that “legal” water is not the same as “safe” water.

The Environmental Working Group tap water guide just released and what it reveals might shock you! Take 2 minutes to go pop your zip code into the database and see what comes up. I’ll wait…..

Shocked? You may be lucky enough to live somewhere that has naturally clean water, but many of us who live in urban or suburban areas are going to notice how tainted our water is.

The water source that feeds our home had contaminants anywhere from 13 to 650x the safety limit. Chloroform was 165x the safety limit. Yes, Chloroform, which is used as a solvent for lacquers, floor polishes, resins, adhesives, alkaloids, fats, oils and rubber. GROSS.

This is based on the work done by the EWG since the federal and local safety levels have not been updated or evaluated anywhere from 20 to 40 years ago, depending on where you live.

CRAZY.

These tests didn’t even look at other chemicals such as glyphosate, fluoride, or chlorine. I will argue that these chemicals are as dangerous as the ones above.

Let’s take fluoride, which is a known and well researched neurotoxin. It goes into the brain and camps out there.

I hear you. “But fluoride had reduced cavities!”

Maybe not.

That is the narrative, but there is another story. According to Harvard Public Health, which addressed this back in 2016:

“…scientific investigations on water fluoridation (most were conducted before 1975) were deeply flawed. “We had concerns about the methods used, or the reporting of the results, in … 97 percent of the studies,” the authors noted. One problem: The early studies didn’t take into account the subsequent widespread use of fluoride-containing toothpastes and other dental fluoride supplements, which also prevent cavities. This may explain why countries that do not fluoridate their water have also seen big drops in cavity rates.”

Here’s where we need to challenge the status quo. Remember, science and knowledge is ALWAYS evolving. Not only has this study has been supported by other studies, but there is an alarming connection between fluoride and cognition. It has been reported in the literature that there is a corresponding decrease in IQ scores in children exposed to an increase in maternal urine fluoride. Fluoride levels of 0.5 mg/L predicted significantly lower IQ scores in the children studied.

Interestingly, fluoride has a very high affinity for calcium. One might call them besties. If fluoride is in the system it will pull calcium and cause leaching of the bones. If you are at risk for osteoporosis or have it currently, it is EXTRA important for you to be aware of your water sources. More calcium is not necessarily the answer.

Hopefully I don’t have to explain why chlorine is dangerous for you to drink and I think I covered glyphosate well in the last email.

So let’s talk about options for reducing exposure to these toxins.

1. Water filters. Ok, but not your average Brita. Brita and other refrigerator filter mostly just remove the scent of the chemicals, not the compounds themselves. You will want to look into something that can utilize reverse osmosis (RO) to remove fluoride, the most tricky of them all. This requires a multiple phase removal that will also get lead, chlorine, nitrates, etc.

   There are LOTS of options here and they will cost a little money up front and some to maintain. However, this is SO worth it. Your body will LOVE you for it and the water tastes so incredibly amazing (even my brother says so, and he’s a tough sell on any of this stuff!)

   My two favorites are Berkey and AquaTru. They each have their different benefits and challenges. AquaTru just released an under cabinet version which I’m kicking myself for not waiting for! We use AquaTru in this house for cooking water, coffee machines, nebulizing, nasal rinsing, using the Almond Cow, etc. We also get RO water from the store in big 5 gallon jugs. Which is getting old, so i’m sure an under-counter version will be coming our way soon.

    

2. Okay, once you’ve tackled your drinking water, next up in your shower water. What?! I know, you aren’t drinking it…but your skin is your largest organ. And it absorbs everything you put on it. Everything. So if you are putting water on it that is loaded with the above chemicals, these toxins are bypassing your GI tract and are going directly into circulation in your body. No bueno. But there is something you can do.

   We just switched over to AquaHomeGroup, which makes a couple of different variations. I LOVE the water pressure and each shower head comes with a filter that also emits vitamins C and E into the water (and therefore onto the skin). These are wonderful antioxidants that are so good for your hair too! There are dozens of good brands out there so just do your research to find one you like.

Moral of today’s much shorter email: the water you put in and on your body is as important as the food you are putting into your body. If you can’t go big and get the big filtering systems, that’s ok! Start with getting RO water in jugs at the store. This is a non-expensive way to start. My advice here is to only invest in a few jugs because you don’t want the water sitting in plastic too long before you drink it.

And don’t beat yourself up if it’s not perfect. I still drink water at restaurants and take baths in water that is not filtered. The goal is progress.

I love the 80% rule: do your best to avoid the chemicals most of the time so that your body can process them when you do come into contact with them the other 20%.

Here is to your beautifully hydrated health!