Synthetic Fragrance - Endocrine Disruptor

Everyone wants to smell good, right? I get it - I do, too. But, did you know that all those synthetic smells affect your health? Have you noticed how many people have hormone-related issues, infertility, asthma, eczema, headaches, cardiovascular and neurological problems? The endocrine system is an essential physiological system that helps to keep you feeling healthy and well-balanced. Endocrine disruptors, or endocrine disrupting compounds, on the other hand, do exactly the opposite: they mess with the endocrine system and throw your body out of whack.

Fragrances and perfume/parfum disrupt our hormones. Hormones are responsible for keeping you healthy, looking good, and thinking clearly. When your body is in this state, it is called hormonal harmony. Endocrine disruptors threaten this harmony every single day. These toxins are constantly present in the environment around us and in our lifestyles.

Commonly referred to as the hormone system, the endocrine system is the collection of all the glands in the body that produce hormones. Hormones are responsible for growth and development, metabolism regulation, tissue function, sleep, mood, sexual function, reproduction, and many more things.

The endocrine system ensures that there is proper hormone balance, which is essential for the normal functioning of the body. When the hormones are out of balance, it leads to many health issues, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, adrenal dysfunction, low libido, pituitary malfunction, weight gain, diabetes, among others.

As the name suggests, endocrine disruptors are things that mess with the body’s endocrine system. They can lead to developmental, neurological, immune, or reproductive disruptions, or sometimes, a combination of these issues.

We encounter endocrine disrupting chemicals every day. A few examples include pharmaceuticals like birth control pills, environmental toxins like dioxin, pesticides like DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls, and plastic components like BPA.

Endocrine disruptors can be found almost everywhere. Plastics and plastic products are a major source, so are everything from plastic bottles to plastic cups and plastic food storage containers have them. Canned foods, cash register receipts, food additives, detergents, pesticides, synthetic fragrances, and cosmetics are other common sources.

Painful periods, heavy periods, painful breasts, thyroid issues, and EVEN WEIGHT GAIN can all be linked to synthetic fragrance use. Additionally, symptoms like PCOS or fibroids, headaches that won't go away, and digestive problems (such as gallbladder issues, gas, bloating, and constipation) can all be tied to endocrine disruption.

We are bombarded with fragrance everywhere now. Candles, plug ins, detergent, dryer sheets, perfume/parfum, sprays, etc. They all can have synthetic fragrance that can cause a lot of symptoms and lead to serious health complications.

My family and I have been getting synthetic fragrances out of our home for years. We have switched out Yankee and Bath and Body Works candles for quality essential oils to use in diffusers around the house. I was the queen of toxic candles and thought they smelled absolutely divine. What I learned after we stopped burning them was that what I had once thought were candles that made our home smell great actually put off a synthetic, terrible smell. I never realized it when I was burning these candles but once we got all of the synthetic stuff out of the house, our noses were able to recover from the barrage of toxins and then we couldn’t stand the smell of the synthetics any longer. This is called being nose blind which means that the toxins actually blunt your olfactory system and once you clean it up, you will be able to smell the difference.

We also swapped out our cleaning products (we used Windex, Comet, Lysol and more of the toxic-filled, chemical products), laundry detergent (this is a huge one because your skin is your biggest organ and whatever you put on it is absorbed quickly), dryer sheets (there have been studies showing how toxic dryer sheets are), plug ins, bathroom spray, and personal care products. I find that I can handle cleaners, etc. with essential oils, which are cleaner and not a synthetic fragrance, but many can’t even do that. I even like to put essential oils in with my sheets when I wash them.

There are so many of us with a fragrance sensitivity or allergy. About 1/3 of the population to be exact. As time goes on, more and more products are inundated with fragrance. This is adding to our toxic load and pushing our systems way over the limit. If you’d like to know what your toxic load score is, you can take my Toxicity Quiz here.

A few years ago, we had mold in our home that we could not see or smell. The only reason I knew something was wrong was because my health started to decline and I was scared. I was bed-ridden for a few months and could not drive at all because my brain was so foggy. My blood pressure was sky-high, my nervous system was shot and I could not think well at all. I did the at-home Hair and Saliva testing that I now offer my clients and it showed that I had mycotoxins in my body. Mycotoxins are toxic compounds that are naturally produced by certain type of molds. They can’t be seen and are like a gas put off by toxic mold.

I became more sensitive to smells once we got all of the toxic synthetic fragrances out of our home but after being exposed to mold, it triggered Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) in me and now I can’t be around synthetic fragrance at all. It makes me feel nauseous and get a headache. I have to decline going to people’s homes now if they have a lot of synthetic fragrances in their home. Our health is our biggest gift and must be protected at all costs.

My hope is that the more we talk about all of these added synthetic fragrances and the more we learn about how toxic they are, people will realize that they are directly related to so many health problems. The United States is one of the richest nations but has some of the sickest people and synthetic fragrances are definitely adding to the problem. In some cases, fragrance sensitivity can be considered a disability that may require reasonable accommodation.

Even if you don’t have a fragrance sensitivity, if you use products with synthetic fragrances, they are affecting you negatively.

Our rain barrels are overflowing from all of these accumulated toxins and the only way to get better is to reduce and remove these toxins.

To YOUR Health!

Jen

The information presented on this blog is not intended to take the place of your personal physician’s advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.  It is for informational purposes only.