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The Inner Fire of Yoga
The Inner Fire of Yoga is where yoga meets real life. Whether you're on a personal yoga journey. Teaching yoga. Or looking to deepen your practice. This podcast unpacks the true power of yoga. Beyond the poses.
Hosted by Liz Albanis a senior yoga teacher and yoga therapist in training. Episodes explore topics such as how yoga supports mental health. Including ADHD, trauma recovery, and nervous system regulation. But we go beyond the mat! Diving into holistic well-being, From everyday habits that can impact your mental health.
Some episodes are solo explorations. Where I share practical tools and personal insights. Others bring in expert guests and fellow yogis. Offering fresh perspectives and real-life stories to inspire your journey.
Subscribe now and discover how yoga can transform your mind and body. Ready to dive deeper? Visit www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au for personalised yoga programs like Yoga Designed for You. or sign up for my emails for exclusive insights and offers.
The Inner Fire of Yoga
How to Reduce Hidden Toxins in Your Home & Body with Michelle Diener
Overview
Liz Albanis joined by Michelle Diener, to explore the hidden dangers of everyday toxins and their impact on our health. Including their role in hormone disruption, chronic illness, and breast cancer risk. She is naturopath, building biologist, and certified low-tox coach. Through 1:1 coaching, group education and in-home assessments, she helps people achieve better health and wellbeing, and reduce the risk of disease in the future. By working with them to reduce the amount of toxins in their home and body. To get the toxins out and keep them out and to support their body’s natural detox pathways. Michelle shares the heartbreaking story of losing her sister to breast cancer at just 38. and how that loss sparked her mission to educate others about low-tox living. Together, they unpack the science behind environmental toxins. Offer practical, affordable changes to reduce toxic load. Support mental health, and protect the body's natural detox pathways. Whether you're navigating perimenopause. Parenting young children. Or simply want to prevent disease and reclaim your energy. This conversation will leave you feeling informed and empowered.
Michelle’s journey began with the devastating loss of her sister to breast cancer. She now helps others reduce their risk through education and personalised assessments.
Key Topics Covered:
- The “Three Ps”—pesticides, plastics, and perfumes. Are major sources of toxins that disrupt hormones. And linked to breast cancer and other chronic illnesses.
- Emotional stress and guilt about past choices can also impact mental health. As Michelle reminds us, “When you know better, you do better.”
- More healthcare professionals are beginning to acknowledge the link between toxins, hormonal changes And diseases like breast cancer. A hopeful shift in mainstream medicine.
- Michelle offers 3 simple tips to reduce toxins in your home. That won't break the bank and are possible for those who are time poor.
Pot Plant Scientific Studies:
Cummings, B.E., & Waring, M.S. (2019). Potted plants do not improve indoor air quality: a review and analysis of reported VOC removal efficiencies. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 30, 253–261.
Wolverton, B.C., Johnson, A., & Bounds, K. (1989). Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement. NASA, John C. Stennis Space Center.
Air Filter:
Winix https://ausclimate.com.au/
Connect with Michelle:
Facebook Group:
If you’re interested in being a guest or know someone who might be head to my website: https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/podcast
Instagram: @lizalbaniswellnessau
Join the Facebook community: www.facebook.com/groups/yogaformentalhealthyinyoganmyofascialrelease/
Visit website for more about what I offer: https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/
If you're having a reaction like that, it's saying stay out of that place. 24% of the population don't have the enzyme that allows their body to deal with mould, so when they breathe in the spores from mould, they have no defence against it, and they're the people that generally go on to get very, very sick.
I wonder if there was something going on in that family's childhood or in utero before those babies were even born, something that they were exposed to that has led to cancer later on. It's a fine-tuning act in our body to get our hormones balanced and doing exactly what they're supposed to do at the right time.
So, any external interference changes that. And the downstream effect of that is disease or generally just not feeling on top of things. The fact that oncologists are starting to say that and to advise their patients about that just makes me really happy.
Welcome to The Inner Fire of Yoga, a podcast about transformation, resilience, and the power of yoga beyond the mat. I'm Liz Albanis, senior yoga teacher and yoga therapist in training. This podcast was born in 2024 after I survived my second fire. Fire has been a recurring theme in my life, not just in the literal sense, but as a metaphor. It has asked me to burn away what no longer serves me to transform and to rise stronger each time. This podcast is about that fire, the one that challenges us, but also fuels us to grow.
The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host Liz Albana.
The content shared in these conversations is intended for informational and educational purposes only, and it is not suitable for listeners under the age of 18. Please use discretion and consult a qualified professional before making changes to your health or wellness routines.
Hi everyone. Welcome to the Inner Fire of Yoga podcast. Today I have with me Michelle Diener. Michelle is a naturopath building biologist, certified low tox coach. Michelle has been an educator for most of her career in a range of settings, community health, the private sector, and in tertiary education. Through one-on-one coaching group education, and in-home assessments. She helps people achieve better health and wellbeing and reduce the risk of disease in the future by working with them to reduce the amount of toxins in their home and body, to get the toxins out and keep them out, and to support their body's natural detox pathways.
Welcome Michelle. Lovely to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for inviting me, Liz. So, Michelle, I just wanted to start with what got you into this career that you are in now? What started it off? Sure. Well, what started it was my sister Nicole, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 29.
Because she was so young and we were so close, we did a lot of exploration together around why she had cancer. Not in a self-pitying way, but in a, why has this happened? Why cancer? Why not another disease? Why breast not somewhere else? What's behind it? And in all the research I did, I kept discovering over and over again that while some cancers are genetic and some people's diagnoses are genetic, there's a lot that's going on behind the scenes that can contribute to people developing cancer.
And I started to look at the environmental impact that perhaps had contributed to her cancer. And I learned quite a lot through that exploration. And she and I both started going down the low tox journey, if you like, and, uh, trying to get rid of as many toxins in our homes as we could, as a, a prevention strategy really. So that was my starting point a long time ago now, and yeah, I've been doing it for quite a few years. Well, did you say she was only 29 when she got diagnosed? She was diagnosed at 29 and she died at 38. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. That is just, it's horrible losing someone to cancer. I lost my mother, but she wasn't so young. You don't expect to get breast cancer at 29. Women don't even usually get formally checked then. And really sorry to hear that. It's heartbreaking. Yeah, thanks Liz. She would be really pleased to know that her experience has kind of meant hopefully that some women are learning lessons and making changes in their lives to do, do all that they can to prevent it, because there is a lot we can do to help reduce our risk.
We can never take the risk away completely, of course, but there's a lot that we can take control of to reduce our risk, and I know that she would be really pleased that that movement is happening now. Yes, I'm sure she would. You've made the best out of a very sad situation, and sometimes the universe has a plan for us, I guess, and it can change the trajectory of our life.
Yeah, absolutely. In your experience, Michelle, what are some common environmental toxins found in homes that people just may not be aware of in building biology circles? I guess we talk about the three Ps, so we talk about pesticides, plastics, and perfumes. People more and more are starting to understand that these things in our homes are potentially toxic, but there's still so much we don't know and so many places that these chemicals hide.
So of course, if we look at pesticides, we use them to kill flies and bugs and spiders all the time in our homes. And the residue of those chemicals stays in our home, in our air, on the surfaces of our home. Really, really toxic to our bodies and also linked to breast cancer. So, pesticides is one of the big ones.
Whether you are using them in your home or whether you're using them in your garden from a low tox point of view, from a building biology point of view, it's a real no-no. And we always encourage people to look at other low to options for pest control. Plastics is the second one of the three Ps. The biggest source of plastic exposure for people is the plastics in their food.
So, in the packaging that the food comes in from the supermarket, whether that's plastic wrap over things like meat, vegetables, cucumbers have plastic wrap. Like why do they have plastic wrapped? So yeah, food that's wrapped in plastic, or even things like tinned food, lots of people miss that one. Tinned tomatoes, tins of tuna, tins of lentils.
Chickpeas often has a lining of plastic on the inside of the tin to stop the tin rusting, but that lining is plastic, and so it has B, p, a, and that's an endocrine disruptor, so that's often a hidden source of toxins. So, we've got pesticides, we've got plastics, and we've got perfume. So, every product in our home that has a fragrance in it, that's a synthetic fragrance brings with it a load of toxins.
Chemicals that are used to make the fragrance are then released into the air and stay there. And so once again, they go into the air and then they settle down and land on our surfaces. So, unless you wipe them away, but they're invisible, so you don't really see them unless you're being diligent about housekeeping and getting rid of all of your dust and wiping surfaces often.
Those chemicals just linger in your home. And if you've got toddlers and they're crawling on the floor, then they're absorbing them through their skin. They're putting their hands on the floor, then they're putting their hands in their mouth. So, they're not only absorbing chemicals through their skin, they're also ingesting them.
The hidden ones are the things that you don't see, like fragrances, pesticides, that we'll just take for granted and use in our homes. And plastics because convenience means that we buy things that are already made and they come in plastic trays and they're plastic wrapped, so it's a big problem. What about BPA free can, which you see sometimes?
Well, we would use the term greenwashing to describe that. BPA free doesn't mean low tox. BPA free means that the chemical BPA isn't in that plastic that others are. It's been substituted with something else, and it's called a regrettable substitution. Companies know that the community's onto them. They can't use BPA anymore, but they still need to line their tins with something and it still has to have plastic. So, there's B-P-C-B-P-S, all sorts of different bps that are still bisphenol and still toxic, but often more toxic than BPA. They have to have a very similar chemical composition to do the same job still as toxic. But they can say BPA, free and charge more. Yeah. And people think, oh, BPA free. Great. Because I know BPA a's bad, so are the other bps that are in things too. Oh dear. Well, I've known not to bother them with BPA free cans, but if you don't want to eat food from tins because you're worried about the exposure to BPA or BPS or any of the others, try to choose food from glass. Mm. Yes. I've got some glass tuna and mackerel. Yeah. It's sometimes more expensive, isn't it?
But it's an investment in our health. Yes. They say that organic produce is expensive and it is, but so is cancer. Exactly. So is, yeah. Treatment and being off work and worry and stress and the implications for your family and on and on, and on. Yeah, exactly. My mother was one of five, three have pretty much had cancer. Two have died and to me that's a lot. Five people, I believe her side of the family has got more of a genetic predisposition to it because my father's side larger, more people, less cancer. So interesting there and as a building biologist, I would think, okay, so three people from one family. We know that there are.
What we call critical windows of exposure. Particular times in your life where exposure to chemicals has a bigger impact. I wonder if there was something going on in that family's childhood or in utero before those babies were even born. Something that they were exposed to that has led to cancer later on.
Very difficult to find out because it's in the past now, but that's where my mind goes to look at the patterns and wonder what exposures happened, at what time of their lives. Ah, that's true. I didn't think of it like that. What about dust is that toxic dust is such a boring topic, but it's so important because what happens is that the chemicals in, say for example, you're bringing into your home and use sofa and it has flame retardant chemicals in the foam.
Those chemicals vaporize go into the air and then they settle. And they fall to the ground. They fall to surfaces. And so, what's on our surfaces is dust. So those chemicals that are in the form sort of get soaked up by the dust. So just because a big sponge, all of the toxic waste in your home environment.
It's gross, isn't it? So, the best thing to do if you don't do any other housework is to get rid of the dust at least every week or more regularly. If you've got someone in your home who has respiratory problems or any allergies, dust as often as you can by dusting, not with a feather duster where you just shoot dust away so it's not on top of your fridge anymore, but it's gone somewhere else.
Use a HEPA vacuum. And suck it up, and then to wipe with a damp bamboo microfiber cloth so that you actually trap the dust into the fibres of the cloth. And then you can wash it down the sink. Yes. Well, my mother was right to have an obsession with dusting to get rid of dust. But she did it your way, so that's good.
Good. These exposures to toxins, do you think they can impact your mental health as well as your physical health? Yeah, there is ongoing research into this area and what the research that's been done so far is showing is that there's a very strong likelihood that exposure to environmental chemicals can impact different aspects of mental health.
Heavy metals, for example, like lead and uh, pollutants, like nitrogen oxides that are in traffic pollution, for example. They have been linked to things like anxiety and behavioural issues, thought disorders, mania, and even depression as well. So that research is fairly conclusive. There's also some research that's being followed through to say that prenatal and childhood exposure. So, when babies are in utero, exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals like once again, like BPA and some pesticides can impact mood and emotional regulation.
But more research has been done to confirm this even more. But it's such a big rowing area because it just makes sense, doesn't it? That if we know conclusively that environmental toxins can impact our physical health, and often that's a hormonal thing, then there's no reason why it wouldn't impact our mental health as well.
That makes sense. Yeah. So, I guess it's part of looking at the whole exposome. So, all of the things that we're exposed to in our life. So, all of the other factors that contribute to mental health issues like job loss and grief and biological factors and social factors, all of those issues, but let's put into that mix environmental issues as well.
The worry and the guilt though, that comes with learning about toxic exposures. Often when people start to look at low tox options, they think, oh my goodness, I gave my kids food out of a can every day. They had baked beans on toast for two years of their life. Because that's all they'll eat. Oh, oh no. I've caused a problem that impacts mental health as well.
Worry and feel guilty about things. That's not good for your mental health either. So, I think it's really important that we remember you can only do what you know. I think it was May Angelou who said words to the effect of do what you can now with what you know, but when you know better, do better. When my eldest daughter was, uh, well she breastfed till she was two and then after that she had plastic cups. And she would suck on this cup all day for a good two years.
And it wasn't even BPA plastic because no one was thinking about that back then. And I feel, oh my goodness me, it's all my fault if she gets anything but. I didn't know. So, I can't feel guilty about that because that will impact my mental health. It will stress me out. I think it's really important that we remember we can only do what we can do.
Yeah, and my mother would've said mistakes were a part of learning. because she was a school teacher. I remember going into my fire damaged house last year. To collect contents that were full of sort and all that Moy smell. I'd come back to the Airbnb, because it's mostly in the first three weeks I did this.
After putting some washing on, I would have a histamine reaction. I would be red and itchy and I'd have a shower straight away. So, it made me wonder that there must be leftover chemicals with these smoke damaged houses. I mean, it depends on what they used to put the fire out. Like if they use water or powder.
I'm sure there'd be toxins that would be released or something that would go on after such a thing. Absolutely. Fire damaged homes would be a big sort of toxic soup because like you say, whatever it is that they're using to put the fire out is part of the problem. The other part of the problem is the things that were already in your home melting, so plastics melting and releasing chemicals.
We know that chemicals leach out of plastics most when things are heated or when they're cold, which is why we say don't store leftover food in that's warm in plastic, or don't freeze things in plastic. But if you apply that to the fire situation, yes, when things are warm, they're releasing more chemicals.
And there's also the fine particulate matter, so the fine little particles that are in the air from the soot. All of that is toxic and all of that is mixing together. So, there's not only the individual toxins from individual things, but there's the combination of those things mixing together and producing who knows what.
So yeah, if your body is telling you, if you're having a reaction like that, it's saying. Stay out of that place, which I know you did. But I went in there a bit and I had a mask on, but at least things were cleaned and lots of bicarb soda and lots of white vinegar and mm, some essential oils. So yeah, there are lots of soaking and sun, but I know some people who just don't salvage anything because of the toxins.
But then there's that sentimentality to things and money saving and all of that. Yeah, that's right. I guess because it is such an emotional thing, I imagine. I've not been through it, but I imagine it is incredibly emotional. You do have to make those hard decisions for yourself, and only you can choose what you're going to keep.
Anything that's porous. If you're thinking purely about your physical and your mental health from the toxins that you've been exposed to in that environment, then you'd want to get rid of everything that's porous. Anything that could absorb any of the chemicals that have been in the air from the flame retardants that have been released from the breakdown of plastics from the suit.
From the whatever's used to put the fire out from the water itself. All of that is going to be in anything porous to some extent. But you're right, you can't throw everything out. You've got to decide what you need to keep and then clean it to the best of your ability. Something to think about those. If you've kept a lot of things from a fire damage home, is to use an air filter because those products might still be releasing chemicals back into your new air and you want to soak them up, either ventilate your home as much as possible, or use an air filter.
Oh, could you provide a link to any recommendations of air filters? Yep, I can do that. I'll give you them. Yeah, that'll interest me for the next house when I've settled into my next house and who knows what's been used in that house I've just bought. Yes, absolutely. When you are moving into a new house, particularly if there's carpets, because you don't know who's been in there for, how long have they smoked in there, have they had pets?
Have they, what habits have they had? Have they made lead light windows in the bedroom? And that's. Soaked into the carpet. There's so much that you just don't know about when you move into a new house, that if you can filter the air, it's a really good way to help make sure that it's just a little bit cleaner and a little bit fresher, and that your body's not having to deal with somebody else's load.
Because maybe they had diffuses in their home every day, or they use 'Febreeze', or they use those plugins or anything that's going to add to the things your body's going to break down and air filter is a great idea. Oh, fantastic. Looking to that. That's great. I will do that. And, also open some doors and air it out.
Yeah, something people are aware of that is toxic, is asbestos. Even a house recently in Canberra, that was heritage listed. So, a heritage listed house in Canberra means you can't fully demolish it. You've got to keep the front of it up. Because it's heritage only renovated inside or knocked the back of it down.
So, there was a house in Canberra that was a Mr. Fluffy house from the 1940s, and they actually let the owners fully demolish it because the Asbestos was out. It wasn't just steel, but I'm thinking is sealed asbestos still bad as well? If it's sealed and it's not touched? It can stay there because it can only harm you if the fibres because.
It's the fibres, the tiny little microscopic fibres that can get into your body and cause harm. If they're not being disturbed, then they're not being released and that it's okay for them to stay there. Oh, that's good to know. Yeah. Yeah. It's more common than people think with houses of certain eras before the 1990s, I think.
Yeah. And with the sort of DIY, uh, movement where people want to do their own renovations and just think, oh, it'll be okay. It probably won't be okay. So you really do need to get professional help if you're going to be fiddling around anywhere where there's asbestos or whether you suspect there's asbestos or you know, there is.
On the side of caution because it is nasty and all of those regulations, of course, exist for a reason. So, it's best not to take a gamble. Yeah. I know of a few people who died because of asbestos in their house. I've heard of people having a fire damaged house renovated and because the roof was not intact or there was water damage already because there needs to be water damage to put the fire out.
Yeah. They've moved back in and they've gotten sick and they found mould. So that's one of the reasons I'm glad my house ended up getting demolished because it sat there for nearly a year with the roof not intact and there would've been mould. Mm-hmm. So, it can mould be bad. I'm thinking it can. Mold can be absolutely devastating for people's health.
24% of the population don't have the enzyme that allows their body to deal with mould. So, when they breathe in the spores from mould, they have no defence against it, and they're the people that generally go on to get very, very sick. Yes, it is very bad for human health and it only takes 48 hours of something being moist for mould to start to grow.
And so, in a fire damaged home, it's very, very likely, like you say, particularly if you've not had a roof on, then you've not only got the water from putting the fire out, you've got rain. It's very likely that there's mould growing, and the trouble with mould is that it can often grow and be hidden. So, it can be behind the wall in the wall cavities, behind the tiles in the bathroom, underneath the shower recesses.
You can't see it, but it's there and the spores are so microscopic that they're being released into the air and they're what's causing the damage to human health. The best thing you can do is to get an assessment of your home by a qualified person who's who really knows what they're doing, because you need to do it very well.
Obviously, I'd say a building biologist, not me, because I don't live in the Canberra area, but there's lots of people who service that area. But it is important that you get it tested if you've got any concerns that you might have mould, because it's a long, hard journey to recover from mould illness. Are there any signs that it could be mould, potentially as a very beginning point is respiratory problems.
If you've got coughs and colds that just don't go away, sneezing, itching, sore throat, runny eyes, and they just don't go away for a few weeks, then it could be that mould's causing the problem or that you have those symptoms at home. But then when you go to work or to school or away for the weekend, you notice, ah.
Actually, I haven't coughed for a few hours and then you go back home, starts up again. That's a warning bit of a red flag to say, okay, perhaps there is mould. Let's get it tested. So, to get it tested, people, uh, a building biologist would look at the moisture. We can do testing to look at where is the moisture in the home, and to map the moisture and then do samples of the air and the dust and the surfaces.
With the approach of tests, don't guess. Actually find out if there's mould spores and how many and are, is it at dangerous levels? Move on to the next step of remediation, whatever that might be. Depending on where the mould is and how bad it is and how long it's been in the home, remediation is the next step.
But you can't remediate what you don't know, so you really need to know what's going on in your home first. True.
'Yoga Designed For You' brings yoga back to its roots. Before studios and group classes, yoga was traditionally taught one-on-one, tailored to the individual. This private session package honours that wisdom. Your body, lifestyle, needs ,is accessible and doesn't have to require a yoga mat.
Head to liz alban wellness.com au for more information. You briefly mentioned about fragrances in household products. So, my understanding is they contain endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with hormone function. That's right. Yep. And I know from myself in my forties, my hormones are changing.
That can really interfere with your mental health, not just your physical health. So, I'm thinking these products could actually make perimenopause and menopause more challenging. Or even if you're not going through that, they could cause other than breast cancer and other things, they could contribute to mental health issues.
Is that possible? Yeah, endocrine disrupting chemicals are chemicals that change the way that your hormones operate. So, either the way that your hormones are regulated so they can alter the function of hormones, or they can block the action of hormones, or they can just change the hormones. And so that means that the job that the hormones are supposed to do in your body get, and there's over 50 of them doing so many things, monitoring our breathing and our digestion, and our sleep.
So many different functions are hormone controlled. If the hormones are altered or blocked in any way. Then the way that those hormones are supposed to work is changed or altered as well. And so, it's a very, it's a fine-tuning act in our body to get our hormones balanced and doing exactly what they're supposed to do at the right time.
So, any external interference changes that, and the downstream effect of that is disease or generally just not feeling on top of things. And so of course when perimenopause and menopause is happening, and there's big hormonal changes anyway, your body can deal with it if it's left with its own devices.
But if you start adding extra things into the mix, like artificial chemicals that fiddle with your hormones, it just makes everything harder. So, fragrances is one of the very big sources of endocrine disrupting chemicals in our bodies. So it's fragrances that are in everything we use in our homes.
Shampoo, conditioner, the liquid. We wash our dishes with the liquids, we wash our clothes with the plugins that I mentioned before. You know the ones that you plug into your PowerPoint so that, yeah, horrible. The little dangly things you have in your car to make your car smell nice. Wherever there's a scent that isn't actually a flower growing in the garden or the trees outside, wherever it's an artificial scent, you know that it's chemicals that have been used to make that scent.
They're the ones that have an impact on our health. Hmm. Definitely mental health because if our hormones are confused and not doing their job well, and we have symptoms like brain fog and fatigue, of course, they then go on to affect our mental health as well. Sleep changes affect our mental health, right?
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Really. And they're all contributed to by endocrine disrupting chemicals. It's scary really. Indoor plants can be also useful for the air quality as well as those air purifiers you mentioned before. Oh, Liz, I'd love to say yes, because we all love household plants, don't we? But for them to do an efficient job, you need.
So many plants, oh, that end up living in a jungle. So really, it's not enough just to rely on plants. Yes, most definitely have plants in your home because they're pretty, and they, they make us feel good, which is really good for our mental health. But don't rely on them for air filtration because they're just not powerful enough.
So don't feel guilty if you're not a plant person like me. And you don't have any in the house. You just have other pretty things instead. No, absolutely not. No guilt guilt's bad for us anyway. No. Okay, that's good. because I've been like, oh, I need to become a plant person, but I'm an outdoor plant person, not an indoor one.
There you go. So, you get your green fix from being outdoors. That's good. Good for your health. Exactly. So, a friend of mine, Michelle, has a rare form of white blood cell cancer. It's been linked to Roundup exposure because she lives on a farm and she used Roundup as a lot of farmers do, spraying it on her property without adequate protection, and I've long believed that pesticides are harmful.
I avoid using weed killers in my backyard and I try to buy mostly organic produce, but many people believe this is fake news. No such thing as organic or that they pretend it's organic and it really isn't. But even my friend's oncologist, so someone in mainstream medicine actually advised her to avoid non-organic fruit and vegetables unless they can be peeled, which I thought was interesting.
And another friend of a friend whose husband survived cancer, was told at a cancer clinic in Melbourne, stop using microwaves, especially if you're heating up plastic. Do you think this reflects a shift in mainstream medicine? Oh, I hope so. I really, really hope so. The evidence is there. There's decades of research in highly respected journals that show that this is true.
We know that there's a link between pesticide use and breast cancer, for example, that it increases your risk unequivocally. The fact that oncologists are starting to say that and to advise their patients about that just makes me really happy because it is an important message to get out there, and it's particularly about using organic food is a fabulous way to reduce your exposure to pesticides because I know it's more expensive, but it just makes such a difference.
Because if you're not ingesting them, it's just a huge toxic load your body doesn't have to deal with. Especially with certain things like berries and leafy greens. They've got a huge amount of pesticides. One of my riding instructors lived next to a berry farm, Uhhuh, and she stopped eating non-organic berries, but she saw the amount of pesticides.
It really showed the truth to her. Hopefully more people become aware of this, looks like they are. So, I'm pleased and I know as someone who got diagnosed with breast cancer and was told to stop wearing antiperspirant deodorant, fabulous. So that's another positive thing that's coming out of all this research.
That's right. The expectation is that it's 17 years lag from when research is done and. In a scientific professional journal to when, um, health professionals actually can give that information to their patients. Because when people are taught their professions in university, they're taught the same thing over and over again.
But to add new things to the curriculum, takes alignment, takes lots of reviews and lots of approvals. So, there can be a 17 year average gap between finding out something like, okay, we know that pesticides can increase the risk of breast cancer. 17 years might pass until doctors actually start saying that it's fabulous.
That finally, now it's starting to happen, at least in Melbourne. It's great. I didn't think of that time lag, but that makes sense why it would take so long for that to come out. There's so many levels of approval to change a, a curriculum that have to happen. Yeah, it's a slow process. You've talked about fragrances being toxic.
Does that include essential oils? Because when I was salvaging things, especially clothing, oh, and some ornaments to get the so out. To make them smell better. I used white vinegar, bicarb soda, and some lemon myrtle essential oil better than other things. I'm thinking it was a whole lot better than what was in those articles before.
It's one of those yes and answers because essential oils I think have a huge place in people's homes and they're not all created equal. So, there are essential oils that you can buy from big supermarkets and there are essential oils that you buy that might be from organic plants and that have been distilled carefully and that don't have anything else added to them.
Choose ones that are as pure as you can possibly afford. Go for organic if you can, and that are just pure essential oil with no fillers. Look at the ingredients and the brand. Do some research and make sure you're buying from a brand that really knows what they're talking about. Not mass produced essential oils, which are probably just have the same base with a little bit of fragrance added to it.
Because often essential oils, they might be called essential oils on the label, but they're not essential oils. They're just fragrance. Good point. Because people think essential oils, oh, they've got to be low tox. But when you said fragrance, I thought, hmm, maybe not. Hmm. If you've got lemon myrtle, you want to know that it's come from lemon myrtle a tree.
Not lemon myrtle that's been produced in a laboratory. Yes, I will have a look. What would be the three things you could do that would cost you the least and a time effective, but have the biggest impact to reduce the toxins in your house and your life? I would say number one thing that's completely free and easy to do is to open your windows every single day to ventilate your home.
In building biology circles, we say the solution to pollution is dilution. Let the air flow through. That's a really important one. Another one that I always advise people to do is to take their shoes off before they come inside. That way, all of the toxins that you are walking through every day on the streets stay outside.
So, you can imagine if you walk through a park, the council have sprayed pesticides and herbicides on the grass, and then that gets onto. And there's traffic fumes, and there's absolutely everything. Leave all of them on the bottom of your shoes outside or by the front door. Don't walk them through, particularly onto carpet because it's so much harder to get out.
And once again, it's pollution that you don't see and it's just. Seeping into the carpet, and then every time you step on the carpet again, it walks up into the air. So, shoes off before you come inside. And the third one is to think about your food. The reason you need to think about your food is our biggest source of exposure to the chemicals in plastics comes from our food, but if you can minimize the amount of plastic that you use around food, you're going to be so much better off.
So, getting rid of plastics for storage. Don't store your leftovers in plastics. Buy some glass, buy some stainless steel, buy some bamboo and use that for straw food in the fridge or in the freezer, or food grade silicon as well. But number one glass, except with little five year olds. I've been scared of using glass, but So bamboo.
Yep. Bamboo is good. Stainless steel. Yep. So, I would say open your windows, leave your shoes outside, and think really carefully about the amount of plastics that you're being exposed to through your food. And think about the way that you store food and the way that you buy food. Can you reduce the amount of plastic in the food you're buying in the first place?
And also think about the way you're cooking food and absolutely not putting plastic into the microwave oven. Some people don't even use microwaves these days. Yes, exactly. That would be absolutely my first choice. Don't use them, but I think we know that people rush, but people do use microwaves because they're fast, but if you can avoid microwaves.
Yes. Okay. Michelle, I did forget to ask you, have you heard of an experiment where they microwaved water and they fed it to a plant and the plant died? Yes, microwaves kill everything that's living, which is why they're so good for sterilizing baby bottles. because they kill all the bacteria, so they're killing all the living things in water.
So, the plant's got nothing. That ring a bell for me as well. Microwaves just kill off all of the goodness, the good bacteria in the food, and so you're missing out on the nutritional value of the food. Oh, so they actually kill the bacteria, right? Yeah. Yeah. I knew they destroyed the nutritional value, but it's because of the bacteria they destroy.
Yeah. Ah, we need that in our gut. Of course. Absolutely. Michelle, thanks for being a guest today, and I just wanted to ask you what services you're currently offering at the moment. I am offering services online. There's lots of things in the pipeline.Sso if you would like to be involved in any of them or just come and say, hi, I'm my social media channels.
I'm on Facebook and on Instagram. You can find me there, follow along. I have a Facebook group that's a private group for people who just want to ask questions. But hang around people who are interested in these things, and so I'd love you to come and join the Facebook group. I also do in-home assessments. Obviously not in Australia, because I don't live in Australia, but I do assessments where I go into people's homes and help to identify toxins that might be hidden and help people to come up with ways of reducing them or taking them out completely. And that's for people who want to have an assessment as a prevention tool to have a cleaner, healthier home.
Or for people who have a specific health issue that they're concerned about and they want to know is there anything in their home that might be contributing to that. So, there's lots of ways to work with me, and yeah, I'd love to see you on social media. Put links to all of your socials and your website. Michelle and I look forward to hearing things you've got in the pipeline.
Like me. I've got some things in the pipeline too. Thank you so much for being on my podcast. You've given everyone so much valuable insight into this and I've learned so much. I'm so pleased. Thank you so much for inviting me, Liz.
Thank you for joining me on podcast. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired and informed and empowered to take meaningful steps towards your wellbeing. If there's a topic you'd like me to cover, or if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you. Just fill in the form on the podcast page of my website. Your voice is an important part of this journey. I want this podcast to reflect the conversations that matter most to my listeners. If today's episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might benefit from these conversations. Don't forget to subscribe. It helps grow this incredible community of resilience and support. Until next time. Take care of yourself and never forget the power, the possibilities of a regular yoga practice. See you soon.
