Episode 7: How Chemicals In Your Skin Care Products Impact Your Thyroid (And What To Do About It!)

I wish I could tell you that supporting my liver was one of the first things I did when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism.

But I didn’t. I was totally unaware of the connection between liver health and toxins and thyroid health.

It wasn’t until I struggled for months that I came across the important information that I’m going to share with you today– that the things that we use in our homes and on our bodies have an impact on our actual HEALTH... especially how chemicals impact hypothyroidism.

In this episode, we’re talking about everyday toxin exposure, especially in our personal care routines… we’ll look at what chemicals impact our thyroid health and how they’re doing it… and, of course, I have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making a move towards non-toxic skincare.

Glad you're here,

Sarah

 

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Toxic Load & Liver Quiz: bit.ly/thyroid-checker

Products and Tools for Non-Toxic Skincare: bit.ly/thyroid-tools

Disclaimer: Information shared on this podcast and any referenced websites are not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or treatment plan for any medical condition. I’m sharing my educated opinions & experience but nothing shared here can be taken on a one size fits all basis and we always recommend you do your own research, talk to your own doctors and practitioners, and take full responsibility for any health & medical choices you make.

For More:

  • To subscribe: on iOS, go to the iTunes page and subscribe. On Android, click this podcast link and select your podcast app.

  • Leave an iTunes review. These are so helpful for me + the show! Every review increases the chances another hypothyroid warrior will find me!

  • Follow the podcast page on Instagram  for the latest updates and related information.

  • Share your thoughts! I’d love to hear more about the conversations you're having. Shoot me an email, or find me on social media.

  • Tell others. I truly hope this podcast empowers women to take control of their thyroid health- I’d be honored if you shared and encouraged others to listen in.

*Affiliate links used where appropriate. Thanks for supporting the podcast!

Want to read this episode instead? Here’s the transcript!

So I wish I could tell you that supporting my liver was one of the first things I did when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, but I didn't, I didn't know, I was totally unaware of the connection between liver health and thyroid health for sure. I, I probably had a clue that toxins and chemicals were connected to my liver, but may maybe not. I sure was not thinking about it or focused on it like at all. It wasn't until I struggled for months that I had come across, uh, important information that I'm gonna share with you today. And that is that the things we use in our homes and on our bodies have an impact on our actual physical health. In this episode, we're talking about everyday toxin exposure, especially in our personal care or skincare or whatever care routines. We're gonna look at what chemicals are impacting our thyroid health and how they're doing it.


And of course, I have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today. So grab a pen, grab a notebook, and let's get started with today's episode. Before we jump in though, this week, I've got a new quiz for you. It's called the Toxic Load and Liver Function Quiz, and I'm excited to share another quick assessment tool with you this week because these little quizzes are, especially for people who are working on thyroid health issues. So liver health is so important and so connected to thyroid health and simply making some changes to support your liver really can impact how you are feeling. This little quiz helps to give you an idea of how high on the priority list addressing your toxic load and incorporating some gentle detox practices should be for you. So you can head to the link in the show notes or go to bit dot lee slash thyroid dash tools to take the toxic load and liver function quiz and see where you're at. This is also, again, a great tool to come back to from time to time as you make adjustments and shifts, and start to see what gains you have made in resolving these symptoms over time. So again, head to bit lee slash thyroid dash tools to take the short quiz, assessing the symptoms that are perhaps keeping you from feeling good as you move through your days.


Welcome to the Natural Thyroid Fix. I'm Sarah Geisinger, a holistic lifestyle and nutrition coach and former hypothyroid mom who has reversed her thyroid disease using a natural approach to thyroid health. Trust me, I know what it feels like to move through the life in a brain fog, meaning a nap by mid-afternoon and constantly be cleaning the hair you've lost outta the shower drain. Do you know what I'm talking about? If you're here, I bet you do. So if you're ready to reject the notion that this tired hypothyroid life is as good as it gets and start implementing simple natural strategies to live a vibrant symptom-free life, then this is the podcast for you. Let's dive into today's show.

Endocrine Disruptors
Okay, so way, way back before I knew anything about thyroid health or any of the factors that impacted it, I literally had zero clue that everyday chemicals and toxins could possibly impact my life. Now, in my defense, I was in my mid twenties and just not even, not even thinking, you know, you're still in that like invincible, I'm going to just, nothing can keep me down sort of phase. It wasn't even on my radar. I wasn't thinking about different cleaning products that I was using on the regular, that were filled with all sorts of what I now know to be neurotoxins and synthetic fragrance and endocrine disrupting chemicals. I was using my favorite shampoos and conditioners from the grocery store and spraying on whatever Bath and Body Works spray I loved at the time without a care or thought in the world of how they might be actually impacting my body or my health or any of that stuff.


We were eating lots of packaged foods because my husband and I were both working full-time and just not really keyed into the idea of how food impacts our health, and we didn't have any kids and that really, I mean, just we ate out a lot more. We, yeah, just were not keyed into that at all. We were certainly not considering, um, buying organic food. We were rarely even thinking about the idea that there was any connection between literally any of those things and how I felt. And so I had no idea, like absolutely no clue. Totally not on my radar. And I would imagine that if you're listening today, that might be where you're at. Some of you, others are kind of like keyed into what is happening a little bit more. And I feel like also this was what the, the phase of my life that I'm talking about is like, I don't know, like 15 years ago, almost, maybe more, more 15 or more years ago, because it wasn't until I had a baby that I even started to think about chemicals and whatnot.


And, and I actually find that with many women, with, with many new moms, that can oftentimes be like a marker of reevaluating choices that we're making in our home and starting to think about it because, you know, it's not just us anymore. We now have like a little person that are food decisions, personal care, product decisions, cleaning product decisions. They have implications on those little people as well. And so, I don't know, it's something about motherhood that like, I think for a lot of women, something just sort of shifts and makes us go who maybe I should think about doing something a little different. That was certainly the case for me. I started reading a lot more about what was in different things and was learning so much from so many different, more experienced moms, some of whom were way more crunchy than I was at the time.


And I think that's a good thing. You know, I was learning about sleep schedules and foods to eat, to feed babies and, you know, nursing and cloth diapers and you know, that just a whole other realm that had me digging, you know, going down many, many, many different rabbit holes, the toxins in our home, chemicals in our home was certainly one of them. Well, you know, so had a baby, things are going along fine. And right around the time, right around that time after having my youngest or my oldest child, uh, I got sick, like all the symptoms of what would be eventually diagnosed as Hashimoto thyroiditis. But it was, I was still at that point when, uh, my oldest was just a few months old. I was still a few years <laugh> away from, uh, those dots being connected of the symptoms I was experiencing, being connected to hypothyroidism and, uh, ultimately Hashimotos thyroiditis.


I wish I could say that that was the point in which the lights came on and I started figuring out all the things, but it for sure took longer than that. Part of that was I was bouncing around from to so many different doctors and practitioners who weren't also, were not keyed into the idea that environmental toxins can actually have an impact specifically on thyroid health. And so bouncing from doctor to doctor to doctor that those were not the people who brought this to my attention and helped me start of reevaluating what I was doing in my life in this specific area of toxins and gently detoxing and personal care, household cleaner type of decisions. So it was ultimately not until I started reading and researching and digging in on my own that I really understood the way that environmental toxins gather in our body.

Everyday Toxin Exposure

For some of us, our bodies have a difficult time moving environmental toxins out of our body. We, we do have a system for detoxing, like we're designed with that, but some of our bodies have a harder time than others moving toxins out of our body. And as those environmental toxins gather in our body, they impact our health if we can't effectively move them out in a timely fashion, in an efficient fashion. It is, I I just wanna say again, it is not just marketing. I've had this conversation with some <laugh> with some people just kind of going like, blah, blah, it's just marketing. It doesn't matter. I use, I was raised using those cleaning products and I'm fine, you know, all those sorts of things. But it is not just marketing, it's not just clever selling of things or even just like fear mongering.


The extensive list of health implication that comes from prolonged exposure, prolonged exposure to everyday chemicals is well-researched and well- documented. And so I always encourage you to dig in and do a bit of research, and it's so easy to find, um, good information out there on the worldwide web. So one of my favorite spots to go is to the pub med website. And in this specific case, you can type in literally any health issue that you can think of and chemical exposure or toxin exposure or something along those lines. You can type in respiratory disease and chemical exposure, allergies and chemical exposure, lots, thyroid, <laugh>, thyroid disease, and chemical exposure. And you will see what research has been done and is published, um, o on on this topic and the impact that it demonstrates that it has on our health. Each of our bodies has a different, uh, ability to handle toxins.


We're all unique and have different genetic capacity for handling the chemicals that we are exposed to on the daily. And that is, it's important that it does that because we're all designed different. We have different, we are all completely different. And so there are some, some broad sweeping generalizations that we can say because the research suggests that people who are hypothyroid are likely at that point because of an autoimmune disease. And part of that autoimmune disease shows a decreased ability for the body to effectively move toxins out appropriately. So if you are someone who is dealing with hypothyroidism, then it is likely that your genetic capacity for moving toxins outta your body is decreased. It is less than ideal, less than the average. And I talk about this often, but the idea is that we all have sort of like a toxic load bucket. And the size of your toxic low bucket is dependent on your genetics.


It's dependent on your lifestyle, it's dependent on a lot of things, but for the most part if you’re hypothyroid then your toxic load bucket is pretty small. And so as we move through our days, as we, um, encounter different chemicals, whether they're just like, I mean, I don't wanna say like low level, but like if they're just walking through a waiting room at your doctor's office and there's like those plug-in air fresheners in the wall, and so there you go, you take a couple deep breaths of that, you're breathing in some chemicals, and so, you know, that's not, like, you're not, that's not a scenario where you're like living next to a nuclear power plant, right? That's different chemical exposure. However, it is a drop in your toxic load bucket. Then, you know, you wash your face and, um, brush your teeth with products that contain some less desirable ingredients, and you've got another couple drops in your toxic load bucket.


You eat food that is maybe sprayed in the growing process with chemicals. And that is gets into the food again, another drop in the bucket. All of these things, all of these drips, all these drops in our bucket. Once our bucket fills up, then our health is compromised and things start to fall apart along the way. There are little bits of damage that are occurring along the way with each little drip, but we don't really start to notice until the bucket overflows and the health problems really stack up. The goal is to clean out that toxic load bucket and stop it from filling up again. That's what we're gonna talk about today. When we're talking about toxic exposure. It's important to note that we are constantly exposed to chemicals all the time. Like all the time. We, it is not reasonable. It should absolutely not be a goal to live a chemical free life or a toxin-free life.


It's not possible unless you're living in a bubble. If you're living in a bubble, then yes, you can live a toxin-free chemical-free life. But for the rest of us non bubble livers, we are going to look to lower the amount of chemicals that we're exposed to because we know that we can't control all the things. We cannot control the cleaning products that are used in public spaces. We cannot control the coworker who is right next to us all the time, who wears super strong perfume and we're exposed to that. We're, we're not able to control all of these scenarios. We can't control the, the carpet that is used in some of our homes. It might not be financially reasonable to swap out all of our furniture for low voc furniture. It's just there's some limitations to both our ability to control things, the money that we have to invest, and the time that we have to, to focus on this issue.


So this is where we can grab the low hanging fruit, do what we can, and clean out that toxic load bucket where we can control and actually, and, and have an impact. Because a hundred percent chemical free is not the goal. It's not reasonable. There are a few main ways that exposure to toxins impacts the thyroid specifically, and this is always what I wanna draw it back to, is the way these things, I I personally believe that everybody, everybody in the world, <laugh>, should be concerned about their toxic load, about the amount of chemicals that they are encountering each day. This is not just a thyroid patient problem, this is a human problem. If you are a person, you should actively be trying to reduce the number of toxins that you and your family, your children are exposed to. Because again, the number of health issues that can be, that are created from consistent, prolonged exposure to everyday chemicals, the research is there, the long-term health effects are there.

How Harmful Ingredients Are Impacting Your Thyroid
And so these are things that I feel very strongly that we can do something about, and I wanna encourage you to do something about it. If you're a mother specifically, to do something about it on behalf of your children while they are in your home and in your control. This is how we can affect their health over the long term. But I do always wanna tie it back to how specifically exposure to toxins impacts thyroid health as well for this episode, for sure. One way is by simply bogging down the liver, which the liver plays an incredibly important role in converting t4, which is the inactive form of thyroid hormone and converting it into t3. The liver is critical, a key player in that, and that active form of thyroid hormone is what makes your cells work well. It's the thing that your cells put to use, it gives you energy and has it so that your body isn't demonstrating the symptoms that we associate with hypothyroidism.


Another main way that toxins impact our thyroid health is that our thyroid actually will store some things like heavy metals or halogens, other toxins in the thyroid, and those things being stored in the thyroid, it kinda like scoops 'em up, tuck them away in the thyroid, and those things can eventually inhibit the, uh, thyroid's ability to produce thyroid hormone effectively. So that's another way that toxins can impact our thyroid health. And then the third, well, not the third another way yet. And yet another way that toxins impact our thyroid health is by binding to thyroid hormone receptors that are on our cells. And then it prevents the cells from uptaking fibroid hormone. It's kind of, I always like to think of the hormone receptors on cells as like little parking spaces that are specifically designated not for employee of the month, but for important hormones like t3.


And so if T3 s parking space on a cell is filled up by a toxin or well other things that can kind of clog up that can park in that parking space, then what that means is the parking space is full and the T3 has nowhere to park in that cell, so the cell doesn't get any t3. That's a problem because if it can't bring hormone into the cells, then it, this hormones can't actually do its work in the cells. So you hear me talk about these things over and over again because they have such an impact on thyroid health and they are so easy to make a change in. I cannot tell you this area of making small shifts in, in the toxic load of our life and also then supporting our body in gently detoxing each day. It can really impact how you feel when you're working through thyroid issues.


And ultimately we wanna feel better. I mean, it's great if your blood work looks good, but if you feel like crap, that's just silly, right? This can really impact how you're, how you feel when you're working through your thyroid issues. So I wanna highlight the top offenders in the category of toxins that are often in personal care products, and then I wanna encourage you to start making some changes in those areas. Specifically personal care is anything that you're using on your body. So really to take care of personal hygiene. It could be your moisturizing creams, your face wash, your makeup, your shampoos, your soaps, your toothpaste, your hand sanitizers, your, uh, what am I missing? I'm really, it's like anything that lives in your bathroom, open your bathroom cabinet. There's your personal care or your skincare. And that's the thing is that we don't often think of our skin as an organ, but it is skin's like a sponge for whatever we put on it.


And there are so many ingredients in skincare products that are endocrine disruptors. And if you've never heard the term endocrine disruptors, these are, these are things that can interfere with how hormones are supposed to function within our bodies. They often block those receptor sites that I mentioned just a few minutes ago where the hormones are supposed to attach. And so there are many, many different types of endocrine disruptors, and there are unfortunately quite a few that are commonly used in personal care products. According to a study done by the environmental working group. The average woman uses 12 personal care products each day. And in those personal care products, there are generally about 168 unique ingredients in Europe. There are, uh, about 1300 banned synthetic ingredients, which are banned due to their adverse effects on health. And so of those 168 unique ingredients, that's, that's a lot first of all.


But in the United States, while in Europe there's 1300 band synthetic ingredients in the United States, there are only eight banded ingredients and there are only three that are restricted ingredients. The the beauty and personal care industry is highly unregulated. And oftentimes we believe that it's because it's on the store shelf that it's safe, that it's been tested, but it is not, they are not required to do these safety type tests in the United States, and it's really highly unregulated. Oftentimes it's on the company to do their own self-regulating. And generally speaking, companies aren't real great historically at self-regulating their own products. And so it's up to us as consumers to be able to know what ingredients are problematic and then choose wisely. So there's still so much research to be done on the exact effect of all of the different chemicals, but I wanna share with you the top five chemicals that are for sure known to affect thyroid function and also are commonly in personal care products.

5 common household chemicals attacking your thyroid
Okay, so the first one is probably one you've heard of. I feel like, again, because it is 2023, we are much more, a much more conscious consumer than 10 years ago, five years ago. Even. A lot of these you've probably heard of. So the first one is parabens. And so parabens are used in personal care products to prevent the growth and bacteria of mold in lots of different cosmetics. Parabens are known to be an estrogen mimic, which increases the chances of breast cancer and it can actually throw off actual estrogen levels in the body. There's a lot of studies that show that there's a correlation between adults who have low amounts of thyroid circulating in their body and having high levels of parabens measured in their body. And so parabens are something that we want to make sure that we avoid. And you can, you can read the labels to, uh, to see those things and fully they're honest labeling of the products that you're actually using.


But parabens are one that you just want to avoid because of the studies that show the direct correlation between low amounts of thyroid and high levels of paraben parabens in your body. This is one that you should, as someone who's dealing with hypothyroid issues, try to completely avoid. The second one is fragrance, and the word fragrance is on the ingredient list of products. I mean, you see it everywhere. It's usually like one of the last ingredients. But what that is is it's sort of like a blank check. Just the word fragrance or even natural fragrance is a blank check for a company to include a number of different chemicals in some, you know, highly protected proprietary blend. But it's a number of chemicals up to about 3000 different chemicals that companies use to get the right combination for their proprietary scent. And because it's proprietary, they do not have to share what chemicals are used to create that scent.


Now those things don't have to be revealed to consumers, but synthetic fragrances are commonly associated with respiratory issues, cancer allergy attacks and neurotoxicity in general. Uh, according to a report from 1986, so 1986, this was a long time ago, this is not new information, right? This has been around in 19 86, 90 5% of the ingredients used to produce synthetic fragrances come from petroleum and include carcinogenic, benzy derivatives and other chemino chemicals that are linked to a pile of health issues like so many health issues. That study was released in 1986. There is so much more research and so much more science with similar findings that has come out since then. But back in 19 86, 90 5% of the ingredients used to produce those synthetic fragrances were causing and linked to health issues. Just know that has not changed. And if you are still, if you are using products, uh, where you're not actively seeking to avoid fragrance, then your products include those things, okay?


That's an important thing to note. You are not actively seeking to avoid these things, then they are likely in your products. Okay? The third thing, the third group that is directly impacts thyroid health is something called phalates. Starts with a p though, a little trick ya, <laugh>. Phalates are a group of chemicals that are added to products to increase softness or flexibility of like the plastics that are in it. And so this is oftentimes used in things like nail polish, hairspray, cosmetics, to give them like a better feel. They're also oftentimes added to fragrance, to perfume. And what that does is it helps increase the staying power, uh, of a perfume. The length of time that you can smell the aroma throughout a day, uh, is likely as a result of added phs to that staying power. Talls are known endocrine disruptors. There's a good amount of research on that.


They're known to impact breast health and development, and they also are known to impact T3 and T4 levels. They're also known to increase tssh levels, thyroid stimulating hormone levels in thyroid patients. And so there's a number of problems there with phthalates. And so that is something that you want to make sure that you avoid. Again, these should be labeled, you'll be able to find products that say they're phthalate free. And I will also have a list here in the show notes of common phthalates. So phthalates are a group of chemicals. And so when you're talking about phalates, it's good to know what the specific chemical names are so that you can check the back of the ingredients of your, whatever, your nail polish or your hairspray or your perfume, and see if any of those contain what are known to be phthalates. So all of the names are really long and tricky and you wouldn't get 'em right by listening to me.


So I'm gonna put a list in the show notes that you'll be able to, to access. So check that out. Or you could also go to bit.ly/thyroid-tools and I'll have the list there as well. So either way you'll get it. Okay? The fourth one is something called sodium laurel sulfite or sls, or it's also another, another form of it is sodium lath sulfite, S L E S. And so these are two things that are in about 90% of personal care products, and what they do is they help make, um, foam better. So this is a lot of times in soaps or shampoos or cleansers because they make it really foamy. And so these chemicals, they are that that's what they do and they're sometimes really desirable also. Oh, also in toothpaste, it's oftentimes in toothpaste. These chemicals are suspected to do damage to the skin's immune system and trigger unnecessary immune responses.


And so, again, I bring this one up when we're talking about thyroid health, specifically because of the consistent connection between autoimmune thyroid disease and hypothyroidism. That likely, even if you've never been diagnosed with an autoimmune thyroid disease like Hashimotos thyroiditis, even if you've never been diagnosed with that, if you are hypothyroid, there is a 90 to 95% chance that the reason that your body is low on thyroid hormone is because of the immune system's, uh, response, the immune system attacking what's happening in your thyroid. Because of that, we wanna avoid something like sls, which is going to trigger unnecessary immune responses. And so that's how that can impact the thyroid. Okay, the last one that I'll mention is chemical sunscreens. And so chemical sunscreens, we've got some things like retinal oxybenzone pate, there's a couple other ones, but chemical based sunscreens, these are oftentimes found in lip balms.


They're often found in foundations, uh, like makeup foundation and then also obviously actual sunscreen. And these are shown in research that, that they have thyroid hormone blocking effects. The endocrine disruptors, they block the thyroid hormone receptor sites in cells and they also inhibit an important enzyme that is necessary for producing thyroid hormone. It just prevents it from doing its job. And so chemical-based sunscreens are really problematic and something that you want to look to swap. So if you're using just general, pretty common brand name sunscreens, you wanna make sure that you are avoiding these things like retinol and oxybenzone and palate. Those are for sure problematic. And you wanna switch to things that are like mineral based sunscreens, sunscreens that don't include oxybenzone or other chemicals, but do include nano zinc, sun protective ingredients like carrot seed oil, coconut oil, raspberry seed oil. Additionally, consider using non sunscreen options like sun protective shirts and hats and utilizing the shade.


Additionally, there are a number of foods and nutrition choices that can help your skin to be more protected from sunburns, like from the inside out. Things like vitamin D three, vitamin C, coconut oil, omega three s, and also avoiding foods that increase inflammation that reduces the chances of sunburn. So stuff like processed vegetable oils that would be like sunflower oil, canola oil, rapeseed oil, stuff like that. Processed grains, avoiding excess sugar. All of those things increase inflammation in our body, which makes it more likely that we are gonna get a sunburn.

Also, just a quick aside, this is more than just like our health problem. If you have, if you're not aware, sunscreen actually causes problems in the environment too. It's specifically harmful to ocean life, especially coral, like the amount of problems that are occurring within coral reefs all over the world as a result of people applying sunscreen and then swimming in the oceans is just a, I mean, it's just a real bummer to see coral reefs, these vibrant life forms underneath the ocean's water just dying as a result of that. So that's just, if you need another reason to make a switch outside of your own health, there's that too. And also just note that our bodies do need some exposure to the sun to formulate vitamin D properly. It's a necessary building block for proper hormone function to begin with. And so I'm not advocating not using sunscreen, definitely make wise sunscreen choices in terms of ingredients, but also know that you don't need to slather yourself with sunscreen every single time you have a few minutes out in the sun because that's actually not allowing your body to have access to the sun to be able to produce vitamin D that we need to be able to to thrive and be healthy. Those are just two little health asides. We can never not be exposed to chemicals. We don't have control of everything that's used out in the world that we live in.

2 Ways To Start Moving Away From Toxic Products
And so we have limits too on our time and our resources allow. And so this is why it makes it all the more important to reduce our toxic load where we can. So cutting out chemicals with these simple swaps to products that don't contain harmful chemicals, it just kind of like turns off the faucet, right? Turns off the faucet for those drips into that toxic load bucket and helps us to be able to clean those out. So as always, I wanna give you a few things that you can do today to start moving the needle in this specific area. And again, this isn't gonna be the end all be all to what you need to do to have massive impact, but when approaching thyroid issues and really any health issues from a holistic perspective, the way we handle them is by having a culmination of small steps combined together to create a massive impact.


And so that's what these are. All right, so the first thing that I would encourage you to do is take a look at your personal care products. Knowledge is power. You have got to know what is lurking in the products that are hanging out in your bathroom cabinet, waiting for you to use them and start to figure out where you can make a change if you had to bit Lee slash thyroid tools, I have a couple things for you there. I have one, I have lists of some things that you definitely wanna avoid in your personal care products. And so it's kind of the chemical, the specific chemical names of these groups of chemicals that I mentioned today. And so you'll find those lists there. You'll also be able to check out some of my favorite personal care products swaps. And so there are both bundles, uh, for like a skin care bundle or individual products for swapping out a chemical based perfume for like a really beautiful essential oil aroma that you can use instead.


And so if you're looking to do some making over of your personal care world without having to get bogged down in researching all the ingredients and what's this and what's that and what's good and it's that and what's that mean? Um, I totally get that. And so my goal here is to make it simple for you to just make some swaps without having to do all the research on the hard to say things that shouldn't be in the products that you use. So I've got some great options linked for you there at bit lee slash thyroid dash tools, as well as some lists of things that you for sure wanna make sure are not in your products. The second thing that I wanna encourage you to do is not get overwhelmed. Don't do it. Don't get overwhelmed. Literally, any moves that you make to reduce your toxic load are good moves.


You're moving in the right direction. It does not have to be a complete overhaul if you don't want it to be at a minimum as you start to run out of something like then just replace it with something better. Or maybe you feel really strongly or maybe you take my toxic load quiz and it sort of reveals this is like a big deal for you. So maybe then you're ready to just jump in and make some major kind of overhaul swaps, then go for it, figure out where you feel comfortable. Again, I would encourage you to take the toxic load quiz that you can find at bit lee slash thyroid tools and that will help you to sort of see what is your level of toxic load like, what are you potentially dealing with that could be connected back to toxic load. And then that might help you decide that this should be something that you need to prioritize in, uh, focusing on.


Okay? Either way, don't get overwhelmed. Just start making some slow moves in the right direction. So there we have it. Be sure to click on the link in the show notes to take that toxic load quiz and grab some of the recommended personal care products that I have linked up for you. You can find that at bit lee slash thyroid tools or down there in the show notes. And, uh, you can take that short quiz to just see how full your toxic bucket is and start making some simple swaps for your personal care today. I hope that you're able to apply some of these things and make small shifts towards feeling healthy and good, because I firmly believe that when you do it that way, when you focus on those doable lifestyle shifts, living a symptom-free life is totally possible. And I want that for you.


Real quick before you go, if this show has helped you in some way that I know that it'll help others too. So please head over to iTunes, subscribe, and then leave a review so that more women can find health and healing too, and you know that you can have an incredible impact on the women who deal with thyroid issues in your circle. Yep, that's right. All you have to do is take a screenshot of this podcast, tag me at natural dot thyroid dot fix, and post it in your stories. Let's light a path for all the other hypothyroid mamas looking for hope and healing, and to just feel like themselves Again, I'll look forward to connecting with you over on Instagram until next time on the Natural Thyroid Fix.

Sarah Geissinger