Unseen enemies: how endocrine disrupting chemicals are impacting your perimenopause

Are the products in your daily routine silently disrupting your health? 

Dive into the hidden world of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) and their stealthy impact on your health, especially during perimenopause. 

In this episode, we uncover the chemical culprits lurking in everyday items, from skincare to your kitchen, and explore their link to symptoms like headaches, mood swings, heavy periods and unexplained rashes. 

With practical advice and actionable tips, we guide you on reducing exposure to EDCs, choosing safer alternatives, and protecting your hormonal health, so you can navigate through perimenopause with more ease, and enhance hormonal and overall health for you and your family. 

Links mentioned in the show:

•  https://www.ewg.org
• https://www.endocrine.org
• https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine

Find out more about Sarah, her services and the Freebies mentioned in this episode at https://www.ThePerimenopauseNaturopath.com.au

• COMING SOON: Discover how to use food as your most powerful medicine, smoothing hormonal fluctuations and easing perimenopause symptoms naturally. (Yes, you have more options than hormone therapy!) Say goodbye to feeling out of control and hello to feeling more like your old self every day, with PerimenoGO (because who wants to pause anyway?!)
• The Perimenopause Decoder is the ultimate guide to understanding if perimenopause hormone fluctuations are behind your changing mood, metabolism and energy after 40, what phase of perimenopause you're in and how much longer you may be on this roller coaster for.
• Been told your blood test results are "normal" or "fine" while you feel far from your best? Discover the power of optimal blood test analysis with The Blood Test Decoder: Optimal Ranges for Women Over 40.
• For more, follow on Instagram at @theperimenopausenaturopath.

Transcript

Sarah McLachan: 0:03

Hey there, I'm Sarah McLachlan. Thanks for joining me on the Chaos to Calm podcast, a podcast designed for women over 40 who think that changing hormones might be messing with their mood, metabolism and energy and want to change that in a healthy, sustainable and permanent way. Each episode will explore topics related to health and wellness for women in their 40s, like what the heck is happening to your hormones, what to do about it with nutrition, lifestyle and stress management, and inspiring conversations with guests sharing their insights and tips on how to live your best life in your 40s and beyond. So if you're feeling like you're in the midst of a hormonal storm and don't want perimenopause to be horrific, then join me on Chaos to Calm, as I share with you how to make it to menopause without it wrecking your relationships and life. Welcome back to another episode of Chaos to Calm. This is episode number 38, and today I am taking you deep into a topic that sounds like it's straight out of a sci-fi movie, but trust me, it's really real and very relevant for you in your everyday life, especially in perimenopause.

Sarah McLachan: 1:21

Now you might be wondering or feeling frustrated sometimes about why you're eating clean. You're living well, you know exercising, moving your body, eating healthy, nourishing yourself, why some of the health puzzle is just not fitting. It's not falling into place like it should. Maybe things are not improving, no matter how well you eat or how many glasses of wine or coffee you avoid. Maybe you're getting more headaches more often than you'd like. Periods might be heavier, more PMS, more mood changes. Maybe your nose is being stuffier than usual, maybe lots of sneezing. Maybe you've got more hay fever, or maybe you've got hay fever for the first time in your life. And yeah, let's not even go there and get started on the sudden rashes or the sudden itchy skin that drives you nuts and appears out of nowhere. You can't really find the cause of it. You know, it's maybe not your washing powder or your clothes making you itch, but what is it? So it would be really easy to just chalk this up to it's part of perimenopause, because, yep, most of those things can go and happen in perimenopause, so they are part of the picture of perimenopause. But what I want you to know is that there's more to the story than just the perimenopause hormone changes, and I guess what I want you to know is that you don't have to just accept these things as happening. Oh well, you know I'm in perimenopause. It's just, it's part of what happens.

Sarah McLachan: 3:03

I want to talk to you today about those invisible troublemakers Not really, you know, they're right there in front of us, but maybe we don't see them, and they are called endocrine disruptors or endocrine disrupting chemicals, edcs for short. Now, these chemical intruders could be impacting your perimenopause experience and exacerbating those symptoms that I just mentioned before, the ones that you might be just accepting as, oh well, they're just par for the course. You know, they're just par for the course, and I think that's a good thing to do. You know why I can't do much about that. We're going to talk all about them today and we're thinking about, you know, from the cosmetics that you might use to the water bottle that you carry everywhere, and they are lurking in not unsuspecting places, because they're actually right in front of us, but we just don't think about them so much. So you might be thinking about what you eat or how you move your body when it comes to your health and particularly weight loss in perimenopause or any phase of life, but you need to think about more than that. We need to think about the environment around us. So it is a massive impact on us. And if you, you know, if you've been wondering what is going on or you're feeling frustrated, you can't figure out why you're getting these newer symptoms, then this is the right place for you to be today, because we are going to talk all about them.

Sarah McLachan: 4:33

I'm going to tell you all about what EDCs are, where to find them, and what you can do to minimize their impact on your health, because understanding what's really going on with your body is the first step to taking back control, moving from chaos to calm. That's what I think. I know I'm not alone in that. There are a lot of other naturopaths thinking the same way as me because that's what the premise of our work is based on Finding out the underlying root cause of what's going on. And yes, perimenopause, hormone fluctuations and changes can be very much part of the problem, but usually there's a reason why your body's not adjusting or adapting to those changes, and that's what we need to work out. All right.

Sarah McLachan: 5:18

So let's start with a little bit of physiology today because you know who doesn't love a bit of education. And what is your endocrine system? Have you ever heard of that before? Do you even know what that is? Your endocrine system is responsible for the production of hormone messengers, so the ones that you might know about are estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone. H ormone messengers, or hormones, regulate various functions of your body by acting on different tissues, cells and organs.

Sarah McLachan: 5:50

So I like to simplify thinking of your endocrine system as part of your body's communication network. So it's like a team of expert couriers. So there you go hormones traveling through your bloodstream, delivering important messages to the different organs and tissues and cells in your body. Those messages, the hormones, help regulate every single thing in your body, from your energy levels and mood to how your body grows and processes food. So when it works smoothly, your body functions like the well- oiled, intelligent machine it is. But when there's a hiccup in the communication, let's say a courier gets lost or the message gets muddled and misinterpreted like Chinese whispers, or there are too many couriers sent to one spot, well, that's going to throw things off balance and our goal is to keep the lines clear and the message is flowing correctly, making sure your body operates at its best. And you know, in peri-vena pours the Kuriya numbers, they start to change for sure, but we can influence how they move through our body, how we process them and remove them once they're done, there's lots that we can do.

Sarah McLachan: 7:06

So the Kuriyas, with their messages, originate from different glands in your body, including the pituitary gland in your brain, your thyroid gland, your adrenal glands, those little triangle- shaped ones on top of your kidneys and your pancreas, among others. Of course, our ovaries are glands as well, so each gland produces specific hormones designed to target particular organs and tissues, orchestrating a wide range of bodily functions. So the hormone Kuriyas is stimulated or triggered by various factors, including changes in your internal environment so your blood sugar levels, are you eating that sort of thing? External factors like stressors, the outdoor temperature, pollen in the air all of that sort of thing, and other hormones or hormones can trigger other hormones. An example is a hormone from your pituitary gland that goes to your thyroid and stimulates your thyroid hormone to be produced, which then influences the other creation of the other thyroid hormones that actually bind to your cells and influence your metabolism and how you're feeling. So there's a lot going on.

Sarah McLachan: 8:22

It is a very delicate symphony and this is where those EDCs, the endocrine- disrupting chemicals, come in because I want you to think of them as the rogue Kuriyas in your body's communication network. They are not meant to be there. And so these chemicals, we either inhale them or we ingest them. They go in our mouth or they might be absorbed on our skin or some other way. They can impersonate. They can meddle with the production action or elimination of our own naturally occurring hormones. So they're going to add to our hormone numbers. They add to those Kuriyas that might be out of balance or too many in an area EDCs there's a lot of research on them. They're linked to a host of issues. They can impact your fat metabolism and your fat gain and obesity, infertility, developmental delays in children, and mood disorders. They are powerful and they send mixed signals in our bodies. They are imposters. Your child plays among us. They are the imposter and they confuse our bodies. That symphony, that orchestrated system that we've got going on there, they get in the way and they muddle around with it.

Sarah McLachan: 9:49

So you might have heard of some really common EDCs. In the past 10, 15 years. They've been talked about a whole lot more than they ever used to be. Ones like bisphenol A, so BPA. There's also BPAF, bpas. There's polychlorinated biphenyls, pcbs, polybrominated biphenyls, pbbs Try saying all of these in a row, one after the other. Polyvinyl chloride, so PVC.

Sarah McLachan: 10:19

Phthalates, parabens, pesticides, herbicides yes, they are EDCs. Phthalates like trichloxan, dioxins or bleachers that are used in food and clothing, resorcinol and perfluoroalcohol acids are big names. We call that PFOA. Maybe you've noticed when you've seen some fry pans in the supermarket or for sale somewhere that they say they're PFOA- free. So this explains how EDCs work. So they come in and they are an imposter. They mimic our own hormones. Some EDCs, particularly BPA, PCBs and phthalates. You could call them xenoestrogens, so xenomening from outside, and estrogen is our own hormone, so they're estrogen from outside the body.

Sarah McLachan: 11:17

Xenoestrogens could be synthetic or natural compounds. So some natural ones are like the phytoestrogens in soy or flaxseeds. Now they could be beneficial, especially in perimenopause, but the synthetic ones are generally not. A lso, when you're deciding, is it friend or is it foe, think about is it natural or is it synthetic, and the size of the dose that you're having. So you might hear me talk another time about soy and say that yes, I think it's a valuable food for women in perimenopause, but it does depend on the dose. I'm not going to encourage you to go and chug down like as extra large soy latte multiple times a day or have it as on cereal for breakfast and then have a soy latte and maybe some tofu for dinner. No, that's too much and also too refined. So I'm going to say that, park that conversation there around the soy.

Sarah McLachan: 12:16

But what I want you to know is that some of the EDCs in particular act or mimic your own natural estrogen. So those synthetic center estrogens could be in processed foods, there could be in the lining of the cans and your processed food, in your skincare, and parabens most definitely are in most skincare products, cleaning products and plastics. So, like I said, they can mimic estrogen, which is, you know, you're one of your key hormones that makes you a woman. And in especially during the roller coaster ride of early perimenopause, when your body's estrogen levels might be surging higher than usual already, they can be very problematic because this mimicry, these inner estrogens, can exaggerate the natural estrogen to progesterone imbalance that we already have going on. So we have declining progesterone but our estrogen might be, you know, going really high.

Sarah McLachan: 13:14

So these inner estrogens are going to make that gap really big and that's going to contribute to an intense fried perimenopause symptoms for you. Like you know heavy bleeding might get worse, or PMS, or mood swings, hot flushes, that immune dysfunction you know, itchy skin, rash, stuffy nose those things might get worse for you or be exacerbated by the constant exposure to the EDCs. Because of these chemicals, you know they need your liver's attention. Your body wants to get rid of them and it can take the liver's focus away from what we want it to do, which is metabolising your hormones, making vitamins, and antioxidant compounds, and removing waste from your body. When your liver is overworked, you can feel sluggish and tired. You know, wake up feeling that way even if you've been sleeping. So you want to understand where these EDCs are and I want to help you make informed choices about your products so that you can reduce their impact on yourself and have a more balanced perimenopausal experience. We can talk all we like you know, about food and lifestyle, or maybe you'd take hormones to try and balance things, but if we're not addressing these sort of lesser acknowledged problems, then you're not necessarily going to feel any better.

Sarah McLachan: 14:38

So another thing I want to say is it's really important to remember that these chemicals, especially the Xenotestrogens, do not just impact you and perimenopause. They're impacting your kids and their hormone levels too. And it has been linked EDCs have been linked with wh ich is puberty, early puberty for our girls, but also can be damaging for the men and boys in our lives. As well as impacting us in our reproductive life I mentioned before, EDCs can be linked with infertility. So I think it's really important to address them and look at them and where they're hiding in your home and your office and anywhere you go. Once you start seeing them, you'll realize just how much they are around us. So if you can reduce your impact in your home, your car, even your workplace, where you spend most of your time, it'll lessen the impact when you're exposed to them, say, when you're out in the shop, in the supermarket or whatever. And yeah, I always think being informed is empowering and it helps you be in charge and in control and help you look after your body and nourish and nurture it.

Sarah McLachan: 15:46

So where are we looking for EDCs? Well, like I said before, processed foods, skincare, cleaning products or plastics. But think about your underpants, your clothing, your sanitary pads. Many of those that are non-organic will be treated with pesticides and herbicides, possibly darksons and bleach as well. So I always think about choosing. Actually, I'm going to go through alternatives for you in a moment. I'm just going to stay focused here on telling you where you might see them. So your non-organic cotton products Fly insect pest sprays.

Sarah McLachan: 16:24

If you are someone who has your house, you know, done for the spider spray, or you put flea bombs or any of those things in your home, then they contain a lot of synthetic compounds, EDCs that are really damaging to your hormones and also other health issues as well. I mentioned skincare always has parabens in it, or most do, unless it's organic or mineral- based, and beauty products there as well. I wish that I had looked this up, but there is an insane number of chemical products that women put on their bodies, their faces, each and every day, and you know that's something actually really interesting. That you can do yourself is count, like tomorrow when you're getting ready, or whenever it is that you're getting ready for your day. Have your shower, and think it through. You got your body wash, you got your shampoo, you got your conditioner, you got your face cleanser, exfoliator, eye cream, moisturizer, body lotion, perfume, I don't know. Having an account it's so interesting, it's quite shocking actually. And also think and look about the men in your life and what they're using. It's probably not the same we are conditioned and marketed to that we will buy all of these things.

Sarah McLachan: 17:49

Anyway, where else are we looking for EDCs? Well, plastic food wrap that is probably not surprising to you, but if you drink bottles, vinyl flooring, dummies, soft toys, plastic containers, disposable coffee cups, cans, or jars the lids are often lined with BPA and some might say they're BPA free, but they usually have BPAF or BPAs instead of their BPAA free. Okay, so also just a note please don't ever heat plastic containers because the chemicals in those EDCs will leach into your food from the plastic. So I'm not just talking about, say, if you're microwaving Definitely, you know, don't put the plastic on top and don't do it in a plastic container but I'm talking as well about things like water in plastic bottles. So maybe you leave it in your car and it gets heated up and then you drink it, or maybe in its transport to the shops and all that sort of thing, it's getting heated and then you're getting exposed to the chemicals in it there. So where else are we finding EDCs?

Sarah McLachan: 18:57

Cosmetics I mentioned that. Personal care mentioned that Washing powder or liquid, especially if it's scented, and other household cleaning products as well. They contain phthalates. Triclosan the antibacterial like in the soap and lots of those products as well, is really toxic there as well. Sunscreens with UV filters and other chemicals and EDCs in them as well. There's a whole bunch with really long names. I'm not going to talk to you and me by trying to say them.

Sarah McLachan: 19:32

So I mentioned before about nonstick or fry pans and how they might say that they're PFOA free, which is great Nonstick so Teflon coatings will generally have PFOA in them which can mimic estrogen, and interfere with your hormone balance. Also, aluminium cookware we don't want to go there because we don't want aluminium to pass into our food. We know that that can impact Alzheimer's and dementia and it's a metal we don't need in our body. That's why you're also choosing aluminium- free deodorants, please. So other things that you might not be thinking about when you buy new furniture, new flooring, curtains, couches, all those sorts of things or mattresses how much do they stink? So if you can leave those things outside and let them off the gas for a while, that is great. Also, the water- resistant coatings on them. They also have EDC. The stain- resistant coatings are PFOA, the same as your fry pan, and they use bleachers or dioxins and that will take years to stop off- gassing. But if you can leave it outside, like you know, get those mattresses in a box, unroll it outside, let it off the gas for a bit of time. If you get new sheets or curtains, can you wash them before you put them up, and that's you know.

Sarah McLachan: 20:56

Choosing a fragrance- free sensitive wash powder or liquid is a good idea because that's going to reduce your chemical exposure. That EDC is there, okay. So now I want to get started. I'm going to get up on my soapbox here and talk to you about fragrances. So fragrances in perfumes, air fresheners, scented candles, those awful stick things Throw them all in the bin and you know, even your expensive perfume. They are full of synthetic fragrances. They are full of chemicals and EDCs.

Sarah McLachan: 21:34

One of the best things that you can do for your health is get rid of perfume air fresheners and your scented candles Sensor everywhere. Your poor body and brain are overloaded and within those scents are often EDCs. So you know like rubbish bags, pens, the car fresheners, the laundry detergent, everywhere. Count how many different ways the scent chemicals are coming at you. It's awful. Walk down that laundry aisle. It's terrible. It's like so heavily scented, all right, so that's where you're going to have a look around the house and find all of those EDCs lurking in the corner or the cupboard and now I'm going to give you some swaps because I don't just want to leave you with like, well, don't use any of those things. What do you use? What are you looking for?

Sarah McLachan: 22:32

So we want to try and avoid as much as we can. You may not be able to avoid everything, but you know there's a fair bit that you can do. So wash your produce. If you're not buying organic produce, then that's fine. Try and wash it to reduce the exposure to pesticides and herbicides and any chemicals that might be used in the packaging or during processing. Of course, buying organic food or growing your own is going to be great to avoid that, but washing it is good.

Sarah McLachan: 23:01

Personally, I try to avoid imported fresh, canned or frozen produce because a lot of countries like China have poor pesticide regulations so we don't know what they're putting on the food, and so I try and buy locally grown or Australian grown and canned and yes, sometimes that does cost me more. Pineapple is a great example. Buying the Australian grown and processed pineapple is more expensive than the one from overseas, and that Australian product will still have some kind of BPA. It's not. I don't eat, tend to eat, or my family don't eat, tinned products every day. That's one way that we try and avoid that contact as well. So now you spend all that time and effort getting the nice, fresh or local or Australian- grown food or you've grown it yourself.

Sarah McLachan: 23:59

Don't cook it in the endocrine disruptor- laden pans. So choose stainless steel, cast iron, glass, ceramic, the enamel coating, or, if you must have a nonstick pan, choose a PFOA- free one. We're not doing Teflon, okay, not ever. There are so many great brands available in terms of cookware. I love solid technique. It's an Australian one, it's made of iron. It's going to last longer than me and my kids and their kids, I'm sure of it.

Sarah McLachan: 24:29

I have a scampan set that I've used daily to feed six people since 2010. It still looks relatively brand new. Even the glass lids have not broken on it, okay. So, avoid plastic, please try and avoid it when it, especially when it touches your food and water. So, thinking about those sources where it was before, use a reusable coffee cup. Take your glass containers with you to the shop. Many butchers or other stores are okay with doing that now. Taking your jars Even if you're using a glass jar, just be mindful that the lid itself is probably lined with plastic and BPA. So if you're cooking or storing food in it, just keep the level down a bit so it's not touching the lid of it there.

Sarah McLachan: 25:18

I mentioned before about not heating your plastic containers and the same with your water. There, in terms of your cupboard and pantry, I use glass. You could use stainless steel for your food or drink containers as well as glass or porcelain. Think about what's in the pantry. There. I use big recycled jars that did contain pickles at one point. We love pickles, so they're like two- litre jars. Or you can buy mason jars. You only have to go to Kmart these days and there's a whole bunch of beautiful, nice looking glass or porcelain or stainless steel containers to hold all of your nuts and seeds and flowers and grains and things Beeswax wraps. You can make them yourself or you can buy them. They're kind of everywhere. And glass storage containers IKEA came out also everywhere. Many of them will have plastic lids, but sometimes you can buy a bamboo lid for it if you are happy to invest in that. But again, as long as that food is not touching the lid, then that's okay. So don't overfill it like I always want to do Now, if you avoid plastic products that have the number three or seven in the recycling triangle.

Sarah McLachan: 26:28

That's going to help reduce your exposure to BPA and phthalates. Now let's talk about skincare and makeup. So choosing something fragrance- free, natural for your cosmetics, mineral- based and say sensitive, or natural personal care products like body wash and lotions and things like that, that's going to help reduce a massive amount of EDCs. Sand goes for your washing powder, or liquid- sensitive and fragrance-f ree is great. Household cleaning products. There are so many available these days, without the triclosan or antibacterials, that are really low tox as well. Co is one of them. This for all is another brand as well. There are quite a few of them as well. I just want to say the environmental working group has a website that allows you to search the cosmetic and personal care products and get a rating on their body friendliness. So that is EWGorg and I'll pop a link to that in the show notes so you can find that there as well.

Sarah McLachan: 27:35

When it comes to personal care stuff like there's all those beauty bars, shampoo bars and conditioner bars, or you can use Castile soap, which is nice and pure, and for cleaning your face I just use a plain cognac sponge, or sometimes I used to do an oil cleanse with Rosehip or jojoba oil, but I don't even bother these days. I just use the plain cognac sponge and water and I just use a rich natural moisturizer as well. I use the same one day and I don't use any eye serums, nothing like that. Like what you eat and drink plenty of pure, filtered water. It's a massive step towards having nice, lovely skin. So I focus on that and I don't need a lot of other stuff, and that helps avoid all those EDC, so that's great. Yeah, so the health of your skin comes from within the nutrients you absorb, from the basis of your hormones and the structures for the healthy, happy skin there as well.

Sarah McLachan: 28:36

Now let's talk about soap because there's all those. You know, the pump soaps. They're all antibacterial, marketed like it's a good thing. Just use natural soap, plain soap, castile soap and water for your hands. Research actually tells us that they do. They decimate your natural microbiome to trichlacan and the antibacterials and they can be linked with autoimmune and other chronic illnesses and they're actually no more effective than regular soap anyway. So why not use a bar of soap and some water? It's much cheaper and it's just as effective.

Sarah McLachan: 29:11

I've talked about air fresheners, your cleaning products. Please really think about what you're spraying into your air. You know how there's those auto air fresheners that they're. You know it's set to spray. Most things are like the devil for EDCs and terrible for your body, your brain, and your immune system. So please skip out on those synthetic fragrances. If you want to do a room spray or an air freshener, please choose one that's really simple, with essential oils and not much else in it. You might diffuse some essential oils but do be careful because, especially in perimenopause, when your immune system's all wiggity whack already because of the hormone changes, can actually sensitize to the oils. You might develop an allergy to some of the scents. So just, you know it's not something to do all day, every day, but it might be something you do occasionally. Same with room spray there as well.

Sarah McLachan: 30:06

Oh, one thing, of course, I forgot to mention to you, if you're making cleaning products, you can make your own. You know vinegar, bicarb, castile soap. There are lots of recipes on the internet. I'll leave you to find some wonderful ones. Yeah, so body sprays I was trying to remember the name of the one that was around when I was a teen and I cannot, for the life of me remember it. So if you know the one I'm talking about, you know the body spray is to spray it all over ourselves. I think it might still be around. Actually, gosh, it's really annoying to me that the little tin Pressured cans of it and spray them everywhere and spray each other.

Sarah McLachan: 30:45

Anyway, those body sprays, even your perfume, even your expensive one full of EDCs, why not use essential oils like in a carrier, or like jojoba for perfume? There are lots of people making essential oil perfumes and selling them online or in the health food shops, you know, in the little roller bottles. So it's a great option if you don't know much about essential oils and there are some that can. Essential oils that will increase your skin's sensitivity to the sun and Change the pigmentation. So it is really important that you either Understand that and learn about it or buy from someone who's considered that.

Sarah McLachan: 31:22

I briefly mentioned deodorants before and Avoiding the aluminium salt ones. So some that I love. There are three mummars is an Australian brand, no. Pong, black chicken Woohoo, there are heaps of options. Now there's slow is another brand, SLO. So there's heaps, heaps and heaps and heaps, and, of course, you could make your own as well. I know people who are doing that too. Now sunscreen I mentioned before. Sunscreen has a host of EDCs in it. You could use sunscreen with physical blockers like zinc oxide. Some brands that I like are really easy to apply and kid-friendly. To what not? Little urchin and Sun butter? Sun butter is my current fave. I do love it a lot and little urchin has one that my kids really love and I don't mind as well as on my face. So yeah, those are some things that I would do.

Sarah McLachan: 32:22

Water I haven't talked about water. I Really encourage you, even though we have pretty good water in most places of Australia Perhaps not Adelaide, if you know, you know but I still want you to filter it please, because you want to avoid the dioxins, pesticides, heavy metals and other contaminants that might be in that water. So I suggest either using a reverse osmosis system, like we have a whole of the house when it makes it super easy, you can drink out of any tap them and then when you're shower, you're not getting, you know it's showered with all of those chemicals and toxins in the water. So we use a three- cartridge system and it should include a 1.0 micron pleated sediment Pre-filter and one- micron or less activated carbon block filter in that there as well. I also have another filter in our house that takes the flu right out as well, so that's something that's harder to do on the whole house, but we do have one dedicated drinking tap that has a fluoride filter on it as well, so you can get more information about EDC's and Allogens and other toxins like EMF how to reduce your exposure at the endocrine Society's website, which is endocrineorg, there are lots of great books written by some wonderful Australian women. There's Healthy Home, healthy Family by Nicole Billmer and low tox life by Alex Stewart. There's also the National Institute of Health Sciences website. I will pop the links to each one of those in the show notes, so do go check them out.

Sarah McLachan: 34:07

A s we wrap up today's episode of chaos to calm, I hope that you understand what your endocrine system is and how important it is for your overall health and well-being. What those endocrine disruptors? What they are, where they're hiding in plain sight and you know. Think of them as those rogue couriers of your body's communication or delivery system, taking too many messages, to places where we don't necessarily want them and messing with your body's delicate hormone balance there as well. So they are lurking everywhere, from your skincare to your kitchenware, in your water, and they will impact your perimenopause experience. They do amplify the intensity of the roller coaster and impact your hormone ratios and levels. Really intensifying your symptoms there, and you might have brushed it off as just part of the process. But hopefully, this is something that you can do now that you have the knowledge and I've given you some alternatives there so you can make some mindful choices to shield your and your family's hormonal health from these unwanted foes.

Sarah McLachan: 35:17

So it's not just about dodging toxins. It's really about being proactive towards maintaining your hormone harmony and helping make it easier for your body to move through this phase of life and really support your overall health and well-being, and of your children's as well. So, as I mentioned, if you want to go deeper into the world of EDCs and for this reason, all the resources that I've mentioned today, please do visit the show notes at www. chaostocalmpodcast. com. Don't forget the dub, dub, dubs. Your health journey is unique and understanding these disruptors is a really powerful part of it.

Sarah McLachan: 35:56

Now don't miss the next episode, where I'm going to be joined by the incredible Rowena Jane and we will be discussing Mindset, self-coaching and how to navigate the emotional landscape of anxiety, shame and self-criticism. It's a massive episode. We go deep into lots of different insights and strategies to help you foster a healthier, more compassionate relationship with yourself. Once again, thank you so much for sharing your time with me today and I look forward to talking with you next time as we continue our journey from chaos to calm. It's really common for women over 40 to experience the chaos of changing hormones, mood, metabolism and energy, but I hope you know now that common doesn't have to equal normal for you or them. You can help others understand they aren't alone in feeling this way and that perimenopause doesn't have to be horrific, by subscribing, leaving a review and sharing this podcast with other women in their 40s and beyond. Thanks so much for listening and sharing your time with me today in this chaos to calm conversation.