Serenity and Fire with Krista

The Truth About Toxins and How to Protect Your Body Gently

• Krista

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If you’ve ever felt exhausted, inflamed, or just not quite like yourself—but can’t figure out why—you might be dealing with toxic overload. I know this firsthand.

In this episode, I’m sharing an overview something that’s deeply personal to me and central to Panacea’s mission: understanding how everyday toxins impact our health and taking small, meaningful steps to cut them out. From infertility to fatigue, brain fog to cancer risk—these hidden chemicals are quietly disrupting our lives.

I’ll walk you through:
 – What toxins actually are and where they hide (it’s wild)
– How they affected my own fertility journey
– The five major categories of chemicals to watch out for
– Why detoxing matters for everyone—but especially for our oncology clients
– And why you don’t have to be perfect to make a real difference in your health

This episode lays the groundwork for next week, where I’ll give you 5 practical, easy ways to start removing toxins from your life—no stress, no shame.

Let’s take the first step together. 💛

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Serenity and Fire, the podcast where wellness meets grit. I'm your host, krista Guageni, founder of Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. Join me as we dive into the intriguing world of biohacking, clean living, cutting-edge spa trends and the hustle, grind and grit of entrepreneurship. From my personal battles with weight management and infertility, through a 30-year struggle to create and launch my dream business, to building a sanctuary for those who have been touched by cancer, I'm here to share real talk, inspire big dreams and spark a passion for holistic living inside each and every one of you. So let's dive in. Today we're tackling a topic that's very deeply personal to me and central to the core mission of Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique eliminating toxins from your life. Because our deeper core mission at Panacea is our focus on oncology therapeutics and we want to do everything we can to help our clients detox their lives.

Speaker 1:

It is my strong belief that one of the reasons why we have such high rates of cancer, mental health disease, infertility because we are literally flooding our bodies with toxins. Toxins are everywhere they're in our food, they're in our skincare, our air and even our homes. They're quietly sabotaging our health, our energy and our vitality. In this episode, I'll share how toxins impacted my infertility journey, give you practical steps to help you reduce your toxic load and show how panacea creates a clean and safe sanctuary for our clients, especially those who are navigating cancer or other significant health conditions. I'll also touch on exciting clean living tools like hydrogen water that we'll explore even more in a future episode. So let's get to it.

Speaker 1:

Why do toxins matter? Toxins are substances that harm our bodies. Think chemicals in processed foods or synthetic fragrances and perfumes. These kinds of things can disrupt our hormones, weaken our immunity and fuel inflammation throughout the body, which is at the root of so many health conditions. For me, this really became real during my infertility struggles. I was honestly shocked to learn how things like BPAs in plastics or parabens in skincare could throw my hormones off and make it much harder or, in my case, impossible, for us to conceive. That revelation changed my life and has really truly inspired Panacea's commitment to providing clean, non-toxic services and products.

Speaker 1:

At Panacea, we're especially mindful of the presence of toxins because we know how increasingly damaging they can be for our oncology clients. Cancer treatments are tough enough, so we use clean products and therapies like hyperbaric oxygen therapy to support detoxification, but you don't need a diagnosis to be concerned about toxins. Cutting them out of your life can definitely be preventative and hopefully, by doing so, will help some of you and our future generations avoid ever experiencing something as awful as cancer, mental health diseases, infertility or the endless list of other significant health conditions that can be linked to toxic overload. Eliminating toxins can also boost energy, improve the health of your skin and sharpen mental focus, all to help you ultimately feel your absolute best. So where do toxins come from and how do they affect us? Let's break it down.

Speaker 1:

According to studies published in 2021, there are 84,000 chemicals in circulation today and only 1% of them have been tested in the US for safety. According to research by the Environmental Working Group, or EWG you'll hear me talk a lot about that throughout this podcast the average woman applies 168 chemicals to her body daily through cosmetics, perfumes, personal care products and feminine hygiene products. While men typically use fewer chemicals in their daily routines, but they're also still overloading their bodies with toxins. In fact, one of every five adults are potentially exposed every day to all the top seven carcinogenic impurities common to most personal care product ingredients. Those are hydroquinones, ethylene dioxide, 1,4-dioxane, formaldehyde believe it or not nitrosamines, pahs and acrylamides. The top most common impurity, ranked by number of people exposed, is hydroquinone, which is a potential contaminant in products used daily by 94% of all women and 69% of all men. It's really wild.

Speaker 1:

The five main groups of chemicals of concern for consumers. Those include pesticides, phthalates, flame retardants, bisphenols or BPAs and PFAs. So first of all, bpas this is a chemical compound used to produce polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. That's a mouthful, but these are found in various products, including hard plastics like baby bottles, water bottles and food storage containers, and even in the linings of food cans. Studies show that BPA exposure can affect male and female infertility. According to the Mayo Clinic, bpas may affect brain and prostate gland development in fetuses, infants and children, and other studies link BPAs to increased risk of certain cancers, obesity and other health problems. And I can honestly say, like we grew up with Tupperware containers, I'm sure my mom used baby bottles to feed me when I was younger and you know warm water bottles sitting in the car and drinking them all day long. You know no wonder that I had the issues that I had with infertility. So reading through some of this stuff is like super enlightening and alarming, honestly, but I digress. So PFAs, what are those.

Speaker 1:

This stands for per or polyfluoroalkyl substances. This is a group of thousands of synthetic chemicals used to make products that are water, grease or stain resistant. Think like nonstick, cookware, cleaning products, paints or stain resistant fabrics. These products are extremely carcinogenic, they can increase cholesterol significantly and they can also decrease your immunity. They're known as forever chemicals because they persist in the environment for long periods of time and they can also decrease your immunity. They're known as forever chemicals because they persist in the environment for long periods of time and they can actually accumulate in the body.

Speaker 1:

Unfortunately, the five chemicals that I mentioned pesticides, phthalates, flame retardants, bpas and PFAs are commonly found literally almost everywhere. They're in canned foods and even receipt paper, like the receipts you get from a restaurant or the grocery store. They do contain BPAs in them. And think about that. Have you ever, like grabbed a receipt and like stuck it in your mouth, like because you had your hands full and then you stuck it in your pocket? So even just touching those receipt papers can expose you to those BPA chemicals. We also see these chemicals in cosmetics and unfortunately, in the cosmetic industry. That industry has no regulatory or governing body to require safety testing or monitoring and labeling of those products. So you won't even actually see labeling that warns us of risks of these products. So it's just definitely something else to think about us of risks of these products. So it's just definitely something else to think about. We even see pesticides on food, even after we wash it, and then, like vinyl, plastics and phthalates are used in building materials that we use for our schools, our hospitals, our churches, our homes and even in consumer products. We see flame retardants used in furniture, cars, electronics and, like I mentioned earlier, even in baby products like baby bottles, and this is not even a comprehensive list. This is just to name a few.

Speaker 1:

Additionally, these compounds are endocrine disrupting chemicals, or EDCs. These represent a broad set of chemicals known to affect the endocrine system. Edcs are man-made chemicals. Some common examples include flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenols, phthalates, bpas, lead, cadmium and many pesticides and herbicides, and even DDT used to be used, which is an insecticide that's now banned and completely restricted in many countries, including the US, and then also a product called atrazine. Atrazine is a weed killer, but it's actually been detected in drinking well water, particularly in areas where it's used on corn crops. I personally grew up with cornfields all around me and we also had well water. So when I read this I was like so alarmed by had well water. So when I read this, I was like so alarmed by you know how this affects your body and not at all surprised how I've been exposed to it over all these years.

Speaker 1:

These products are carcinogenic. They've been linked to reproductive dysfunction, behavioral abnormalities, birth defects, cancer, even organ damage in the liver, kidneys and the heart. These endocrine disruptors interfere with the function of our hormones by binding to the same sites and cells where the hormones normally bind, and then they interfere with the normal processing of those hormones. This becomes especially problematic as a disruption in hormones can cause many adverse effects, as we've already talked about. So now that you know all of that information, let's dive a little deeper into where toxins come from and how they really affect us.

Speaker 1:

First, as I mentioned, food is a big one. Pesticides on non-organic produce, artificial sweeteners and even preservatives and processed snacks all build up over time in our bodies. Then you have your personal care products like shampoos, lotions, makeups, which, like I said, often contain those phthalates or sulfates. These chemicals can all be absorbed through your skin and will disrupt your endocrine and reproductive systems. Items are another culprit, like cleaning sprays, air fresheners and even furniture treated with flame retardants can release what are called volatile organic compounds into the air that you breathe. Environmental toxins like air pollution or heavy metals in water are harder to avoid but, unfortunately, are just as real. And finally, don't forget lifestyle factors like chronic stress and poor sleep, which can increase your body's toxic load by impairing your body's detoxification pathways. So what's the impact? Fatigue, brain fog, hormonal imbalances and even chronic conditions. Studies suggest that exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, like the BPAs that I mentioned, is linked not only to fertility issues, but also obesity and, as we mentioned, certain cancers.

Speaker 1:

That's why going clean is so powerful. It's about taking back control of what you can change. Now let's get practical, because obviously, eliminating toxins is no easy feat, and I can personally attest to that, and it's something that I continue to work on every single day. I'm not 100%, totally non-toxic. It's almost impossible to do, but doing a little bit at a time can make such a big impact on your life, but it doesn't have to mean that you have to move to a remote island or throw away everything you own. It's about making smarter choices and steady changes, one step at a time. Next week, I'm going to share five key areas that you can focus on and give you some tips that you can start using right away to help eliminate those toxins in your life. So until next time, keep balancing serenity with fire. I'm Krista Guageni and I'll see you in the next episode.