13: Everyday Toxins Messing with Your Hormones? What Midlife Women Need to Know

Did you know that your everyday routine could be silently disrupting your hormones? From your shampoo to your candles to your lunch container—toxins are hiding in plain sight, and they can impact your health in midlife.

In this episode of Midlife and Glowing, Alicia and Nicole break down what toxic load actually means, how it builds up in the body, and most importantly—what small shifts you can make today to support your hormones, energy, and overall well-being.

✨ This isn’t about fear—it’s about empowerment and progress, not perfection.

00:00 Introduction to Midlife and Glowing
00:28 Understanding Toxic Load
01:16 Biggest Offenders in Beauty and Personal Care
02:12 Home Products and Food Toxins
04:09 Practical Steps to Reduce Toxic Exposure
04:59 Personal Stories and Reactions
07:11 Importance of Clean Food Choices
12:36 Navigating Clean Living Challenges
21:30 Supporting Your Body's Detox Pathways
22:29 Gentle Cleanse Program
24:33 Common Questions About Detoxing
26:21 Final Thoughts and Takeaways

📌 Resources:
🧴 Everyday Toxins to Ditch Guide (+ contains a link to our Non-Toxic Favorites) → https://selfcare.dailyglowlife.com/toxins-to-ditch
📥 Free Daily Glow Rituals Guide → https://stan.store/thedailyglowlife/p/daily-glow-rituals-guide
🍓 Find the PaleoCleanse Detox Program we use here → https://dailyglowlife.com/ditching-everyday-toxins-clean-living-tips-for-perimenopausal-women/

🧽 Glow Bonus: DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Paste
We love an easy, affordable clean-living win — and this homemade cleaning paste is one of our go-tos for sinks, tubs, showers, and more.
Here’s the recipe:
½ cup baking soda
2 Tbsp dish soap
1 Tbsp hydrogen peroxide
Mix it up, apply to a sponge, scrub away, and rinse. It’s simple, effective, and safe for you and your home.

Transcript

Alicia: 0:00

Hey there. Welcome back to Midlife and Glowing. I'm Alicia.

Nicole: 0:03

And I am Nicole. And today we're getting into a topic that we know affects every woman in midlife, even if you don't realize it yet. Toxic load and how everyday chemicals in our homes, beauty routines, and food may be messing with our hormones.

Alicia: 0:18

And we're not here to scare you, but to empower you with information and small doable shifts that really do make a difference for your body, your hormones and your glow.

Nicole: 0:28

Let's start with the basics. Toxic load refers to the accumulation of chemicals your body is exposed to daily through food, water, air, skincare, cleaning products, you name it.

Alicia: 0:39

And over time, all these little exposures can add up and burden your liver, your gut, your detox pathways, and your endocrine system, which spoiler alert, this includes your hormones.

Nicole: 0:51

Especially in midlife, when your hormones are already shifting. Reducing that toxic burden can help your body function more smoothly and ease symptoms like fatigue, mood swings, skin issues, sleep disruption and more.

Alicia: 1:05

So where are these hormone disrupting chemicals actually coming from?

Nicole: 1:09

This is actually a really huge topic and it can be overwhelming. So we're gonna dive into just a few of the biggest offenders. So beauty and personal care. This is an important area to really reevaluate when it comes to exposure to toxins. Look for these on the ingredient lists of products that you have in your home or are considering purchasing. Fragrance, parabens, phalates, formaldehyde-releasing preservatives such as DMDM hydantoin, Imidazolidinyl Urea, Diazolidinyl Urea, Quaternium-15, like these are obviously ridiculous to even pronounce, and we don't expect you to memorize these. In the show notes, we're gonna have a link to a short list for you of toxic ingredients to avoid when you're purchasing products for your body, beauty, food, or home. It's simply called everyday toxins to ditch. But these ingredients I just mentioned are often found in perfumes, lotions, shampoos, deodorants, baby wipes, and personal wipes and makeup. And then for home products, things like synthetic air fresheners, and candles. Conventional cleaning supplies, plastic storage, especially when it's heated, it leeches chemicals into your food. Non-stick pans that are made with aluminum. PFAS, PFOA, PFOS, genX, PTFE, which is the generic term for Teflon.

Alicia: 2:34

POFA, PFOS, this all sounds like a bunch of BS to me.

Nicole: 2:39

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It definitely is we need to clue these companies in to stop putting toxic garbage in our products. So when it comes to foods, pesticides and herbicides found on non-organic produce. BPA in canned goods and plastics, artificial additives and preservatives like butylated hydroxyanisole, which might be abbreviated as BHA, and Butylated hydroxytoluene, which is abbreviated as BHT. Artificial colors like red 40, yellow five and blue one, and then aspartame and other artificial sweeteners like sucralose and acesulfame potassium. Again, we don't expect you to memorize all these chemical names. We'll have them all listed in our guide called Everyday Toxins to Ditch.

Alicia: 3:24

You don't have to toss everything overnight, but once you see it, you can't unsee it. And that's the first step towards reducing your exposure. I know for me personally, I just start with one thing at a time. When I need to repurchase something, I look at the ingredients, or I send the ingredient list to Nicole and she helps me figure out if I'm on the right track or if I need to choose something better.

Nicole: 3:47

Absolutely overhauling your whole life and home is overwhelming. So take it one step at a time, one product at a time, and it might take some time, but again, we come back to those 1% changes that make a big difference over time. So it might be a slow process in getting your home sort of clean, if you will, but that's okay. Take it one step at a time. So let's talk about what you can do because it's not about being perfect, it's about being mindful.

Alicia: 4:14

So when it comes to beauty products, swap to EWG verified or clean brands. You can also look at Organic Bunny's website as she lists only clean products on her site. So if it's on her site, you should feel pretty comfortable that it's a clean product.

Nicole: 4:28

Yep, and when it comes to your home, use vinegar or baking soda for cleaning. Switch to fragrance-free or essential oil-based products instead of candles or air fresheners, diffuse essential oils in your home. And actually if you don't have a diffuser, you can even just put some sea salt in a glass jar or bowl and drop essential oils into it to naturally diffuse. I've done that and it works beautifully. It's not as, powerful of a scent, but it still is effective and works. Swap out plastic storage containers for glass or stainless steel containers.

Alicia: 4:59

You know, that's funny. A few years ago we had gotten rid of our plastic Tupperware because I had gotten a glass Tupperware set for my birthday and, you know, I was pretty excited about it, but it wasn't, you know, just like, yeah. Right. Cool. You know, like another step in our clean living journey. And I didn't realize how invested my family was in this, but my son, who was, you know, probably 20 at the time, uh, this was a couple years ago, he was like, Hey mom, this is probably like the best birthday gift you've ever gotten. Huh? And it just cracked me up because again, I didn't realize they were so invested in this and, you know, it was kind of funny and really very cute that he thought that, but, do I think it was my best gift I've ever gotten? No, but I do like it.

Nicole: 5:52

Oh my God. I love that. That is so cute.

Alicia: 5:55

Yeah. So funny

Nicole: 5:56

Oh,

Alicia: 5:56

and

Nicole: 5:56

That's amazing.

Alicia: 5:57

Even now they pack a lunch for work and they are always taking my glass Tupperwares and they work on a construction site. So, I don't always love the fact that my glass Tupperware that I got for my birthday, are going on the construction job site, but they are very adamant that they need to have those Tupperware. My husband was like, you don't need to take those. You can take the plastic ones that, you know, we have hiding in the back. And they were not having it. They were all about the glass Tupperware. So it's, it's actually really funny, you know, sometimes you make changes around the house and it has gotten some really unexpected reactions, so I'm kind of having fun with it. Some things they're kind of just like, oh gosh, what now, mom? What have you changed now? The latest thing they really didn't like was, the dishwasher detergent that I had gotten. You know, it's clean and the thing they didn't like was the packaging, so it was hard to get into it. But I was like, who cares? You know what? whatever. Just so

Nicole: 6:59

Yeah.

Alicia: 6:59

need to get a different container. A glass container to put that in, so it's easier to take out. But yes, it's really funny, the reactions, That I've noticed.

Nicole: 7:09

Oh my gosh. I absolutely love that. And then when it comes to food, buy organic when possible, especially the dirty dozen. So EWG, which stands for the Environmental Working Group. Every year they come out with the Dirty Dozen list, which is the 12 produce items that are the dirtiest, have the most pesticides and herbicides on them. And then they also have a Clean 15 list, which is a list of 15 of the produce that tend to be the cleanest, have the least amount of pesticides and herbicides on them. So it's a helpful way to prioritize buying organic. So if you're like, well, I can't do everything organic, at least focus on buying the Dirty Dozen organic, and then you could probably get away with the conventional versions of the Clean 15. So also avoid heating food in plastic. When you heat plastic, it leeches those chemicals into your food. So avoid heating plastic, and then ditch artificial sweeteners and dyes.

Alicia: 8:07

Even just replacing one product at a time, like your body lotion or your cleaning spray can lower your toxic exposure significantly over time.

Nicole: 8:16

Yeah. And I will say that there's a lot of people that are sensitive to these types of chemicals. When I think about fragrances, I remember when I was in practice, I would often, and this actually still happens, like if I walk through a store that has like perfumes everywhere. I will get a headache. And when I would be working on patients, if they had like a lot of perfume on or they had a lot of like products with a lot of fragrances in their hair and I'd be working on them, as a chiropractor doing massage or you know, your face is kind of close to close to the person, so you're really smelling in the chemicals that are on them with these perfumes. And I would definitely end up, you know, with a headache so these chemicals definitely have really significant impacts on people, especially people with chemical sensitivities.

Alicia: 9:03

Yeah, I know for me, I love scent. Like, I love perfume. I love smelling good, you know, like diffusor in my house or you know, whatever. So this was a really hard one for me at first to like get on board with. And I knew I needed to, you know, switch some things up. I knew it wasn't good for me, but I just loved it so much. So I have been on a journey to find clean fragrances and I found a few so we can link those for you. But I remember my son's third grade teacher, this was so long ago, but I still remember it. She had written a note before conferences saying, please do not wear perfumes, colognes, or any type of fragrance when you come in for the conference. And I'm like, oh gosh, that, you know, it was something I wore every day. So I'm like, I need to consciously make sure I don't wear it to the conference that day. So, you know, for her, she was allergic to it, you know, like probably the same thing gets the headaches and you know, whatever else. And then also that year we had to get him a scent free deodorant and again, this was years and years ago, so I cannot even tell you how hard that was for me to find a scent free deodorant for him that year.

Nicole: 10:16

You can definitely see the impact that these chemicals have on people. You know, if you are someone that has worn perfume and you go for a while without it and then you notice someone that has it on you do notice, and you might even notice that it doesn't make you feel great. You know, like I'll even just like get into an elevator with somebody that has, you know, seemingly poured on cologne or perfume and yeah man, it's almost like I wanna hold my breath because I just like, I don't feel good. Chris kind of picks on me like, oh my God, you're being so dramatic. I'm like, well, it really does make me feel terrible.

Alicia: 10:55

Yeah.

Nicole: 10:56

but like I said, like that's just proof that these chemicals are strong and potent and really are a factor in your health. So if we can be limiting them or avoiding them, I think it's gonna serve us best.

Alicia: 11:11

Right. And again, as a major girly girl, love all things, perfumes, makeups, all of that. This has been a huge eye-opener for me. And, you know, like, it was hard for me to accept for a while because I'm like, no, I love this. You know, I love all my perfumes and all my makeups and things like that. And, I mean, there's tons of great alternatives out there. You know, I do not feel like I'm missing out on anything, and I really do, like I said, I found the clean fragrances and, you know, I do stick with clean skincare and most of my makeup I would say is clean, but you know, I really do not feel like I'm missing out on anything. There are so many great alternatives to these chemical filled products.

Nicole: 12:02

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I just think about what the landscape looked like maybe 15 years ago and think about how much easier it is today to find, you know, non-toxic versions of a lot of these products. So we are in a good time where it's not as hard as it used to be. It does require effort and intention though. So, you know, if you're kind of in this rut of continuing to buy the things that you've always bought or you know, your grandma used x, y, z soap, so that's what you use, you know, like I get that, but if you just take a little bit of intention and a little bit of time and just.

Alicia: 12:36

Well, and I think that it's just such a shame that we're having to vet our products so closely. Like when I look at a label, I can't pronounce most of it, which isn't saying a lot because words are hard for me sometimes. But these words are like, what even are they? I don't even know. So I look at these ingredient lists and I'm totally lost. Most of the time. I'm learning. I'm trying to get better, but. Either I'll go onto EWG to see if they have products listed there. I mean, they have a feature where you can actually scan your product. And it should pull up that product if they have it in their database, to tell you kind of like where it scores on the EWG scale. You know, obviously EWG verified is the best and then, you know, one would be after that. So the higher the number, the worse the product is. So that is a nice tool to have. Another nice tool I use is calling Nicole or texting Nicole. She probably gets so sick of me. But I wanna make sure I'm making good choices. And, you know, it, it's not always easy and unfortunately some of the better products do have a bigger price tag, which is a shame. And they're not as easily accessible. I'm not saying they're not accessible, but you know, a lot of times you have to kind of go outside of your drug store or your grocery store and go to either a specialty store, or you gotta order it online. I like ordering online because then it just, you don't have to go out. But some people. They like to go in the store and get stuff, and sometimes you just don't have the variety to choose from that you do in, you know, the chemical riddled products.

Nicole: 14:20

Yeah.

Alicia: 14:21

it's not as accessible, but you have to be a little more intentional. And that's just how it is. I mean, it's the world we're living in right now, and as you said, yes, things are getting better and there's a lot more choices in the non-toxic realm and, and that's great, but. it would be nice to not have these horrible chemicals in any of our products. You know? And I think the scariest thing is that the products that have some of the worst ingredients are marketed towards kids. You know? So we're loading up our kids with these dyes and all of this junk and. Why are we, like we're setting them up for diseases and whatever else comes with all of these harmful chemicals.

Nicole: 15:02

Yeah.

Alicia: 15:02

And we're marketing it to these small children.

Nicole: 15:05

It's crazy. I was noticing when we did our, sun care episode, I normally, buy my sunscreen online. Just because the stuff that I buy, that, you know, doesn't have any of those chemicals or fragrances in it, they don't have at your typical drugstore. So I normally buy it online, so I really don't look even what they have at the drugstore anymore because I already know that, you know, typically what's there, I'm not super aligned with usually, usually sometimes there's things, but I specifically went there to look at what they actually have there and see what ingredients are in the products there. And I was just kind of disgusted when I looked at the products that were listed as for babies or children and the chemicals that were in there, they're known endocrine disruptors, and they're using those chemicals in stuff that you slather all over baby's skin and the shame of it is that the end user doesn't know that that's bad a lot of times. You know, unless they've heard something like our podcast or they've read something or they, you know, hear something from somebody that they follow or they're doing their own digging and research into clean products otherwise, they may not know that there are chemicals in the products that they're putting on their children. So it's really unfortunate that people don't even know that they're doing this. You know, like it's just kind of scary. But, um, and you mentioned a lot of these chemicals are like you, it's like they're hard to even pronounce. And I think that for me, a lot of times when I'm looking, if you send me something and you're like, Hey, is this clean? A lot of times that's what I look at.'cause I don't have all of the chemical names memorized. You know, a lot of times I'll have to look things up. But if I look at it and I see a lot of names that sound like, either something I can't pronounce or something I don't recognize that sounds like a toxic chemical. Then, you know, I'll be like, oh yeah, this is, this is a no-go. You don't always know that because sometimes they use the technical name for even something like olive oil, that you might not recognize that the ingredient is olive oil. So it's not always the case, but a lot of times if you can't pronounce or you don't recognize the ingredients on the ingredient list, or the ingredient list is like a thousand things in it, chances are, you know, probably not great. But EWG is a tool that I use too to see if something is clean and if the product isn't listed in EWG's database, what I'll do is I'll take each ingredient and put it into the EWG skin deep site to check and see what the rating is for each of those ingredients. So that'll give me an idea of, okay, if I find, um, like there was a tanning oil that I was looking at the other day that like came up in some ad and I was like, oh, it was from a company that's had a natural sounding name. So I was like, oh, that sounds interesting. And the picture that they showed looked fantastic. So I'm like, I'm interested. Tell me about this. And I looked at the ingredient list and initially I was like, eh, there's a couple things that I don't know what they are, you know, that sounded kind of chemically. But I took the actual ingredients and plugged them in. And there was one ingredient that was listed as a 10, and I actually had an idea in my mind about this company that they were more natural products. So. Unfortunately, you gotta use the tools and you gotta research the ingredients in the products that you're buying because you don't always know. And companies are really good at marketing their products. So you know, something can sound natural and great and have a chemical in there that's listed as a 10 on EWG site, which is the worst. So a lot of times, you know, if you can find an ingredient list that has less ingredients that you recognize what's on there, that's ideal. It's hard. It can be hard to do, but it's doable.

Alicia: 18:48

Yeah, and you even have to be careful with some products that are marketed as clean. They specifically say clean. Unfortunately you might wanna take another look at the ingredients and not just trust that is clean because they're marketing it as clean, because some of those products really are not, you know, they have some harmful chemicals in'em. So definitely don't always trust marketing, and do your own research and, Again we're not talking about this to scare you, but just to help you make more informed decisions because it's tough. You know, like for me, like I said, I'm kind of just have been diving into this journey the last few years of trying to lessen my exposure. I mean,'cause you're gonna have exposure no matter what you do, you're gonna have some type of exposure. Whether it be from other people or, you know, whatever the case is, you're gonna have some exposure. So I'm just trying to limit my exposure for myself personally and for my home, my family members. because it really, it's not that hard once, you know kind of what to do. And once you know the tools and tips and tricks, you know, like I recently needed a new body lotion, so I went on Organic Bunny and kind of looked through what she had there to offer and I picked one and I got it. I love it. So, you know, it's just like with the items you can buy in the store. Some items aren't always amazing. You know, you're gonna have products that unfortunately don't meet your performance standards. But there are really great products out there that are non-toxic, that are actually clean and we'll share some of our favorites with you to maybe help make this process a little easier for you. If you're just starting this journey as well.

Nicole: 20:34

Yeah. definitely. All you can do is control what you can. And you know, you're right, we just have to know that you know, we can't always control what we're exposed to. You know, you can be as clean as you want and still step outside and you've just walked into what feels like a cloud of Roundup. And you can't always control that. That's gonna happen and all we can do is. Control what we can and, you know,

Alicia: 21:00

When you know better, do better.

Nicole: 21:01

Yeah, exactly. With the products that you have control over in your environment that you have control over, you know, do do the best you can. And this isn't about being perfect, it's just about making intentional choices to reduce your toxic burden so that you can be as healthy and feel as great as possible and enjoy a long health span. And not just a long lifespan. Right.

Alicia: 21:21

Right.

Nicole: 21:22

Live healthy, as long as possible. Let's answer some of the most common questions women have when it comes to detoxing and clean living.

Alicia: 21:30

Do I need to do a full detox?

Nicole: 21:32

Well, not necessarily your body already detoxes. Your liver, kidneys, skin, your lymphatic system, it's all designed to work efficiently. But reducing your toxic input gives your body a better chance to do its job. Because like we've talked about, we do have a long list of toxins that we're commonly exposed to. Now I do like occasional dedicated detoxes, like maybe a few times a year to help your body get rid of some of the toxin overload. But I also love the idea of doing daily things that support your body in efficiently detoxing what you're exposed to every day. Things like dry brushing, drinking lemon water, eating greens, eating sulfur rich foods like eggs, garlic, onion, cabbage, and other cruciferous veggies, green tea, staying hydrated, sweating. These are all great ways to support your detox pathways on a daily basis. Okay. We wanna pop in quick and tell you about a 14 day cleanse we're doing. Now this is not one of those miserable juice cleanses or crash diets. It's a gentle food-based reset designed to support your liver, reduce toxic load and help your body naturally detox.

Alicia: 22:46

As someone that has done an absolutely miserable cleanse, I can say this one is by far the best and most easy to follow. We're using the Paleo Cleanse Plus program, which we've both done several times and totally trust. You still eat real nourishing food, just no ultra processed junk, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, grains, or dairy. And you take detox supporting supplements that actually work.

Nicole: 23:09

The star of the show is the bone broth based protein shake. It's rich in collagen supporting amino acids, easy on digestion, and gives you 18 grams of clean protein per serving. It fuels your liver's detox pathways and helps maintain muscle while you reset. And it's actually delicious. We both enjoy the strawberry vanilla flavor, but it is available in chocolate as well.

Alicia: 23:31

You also take capsules that support phase two liver detox so your body can safely process and eliminate toxins without feeling awful. The whole program is designed to be effective but gentle with zero extreme measures. As someone that doesn't have a gallbladder, I find this particular cleanse to be super helpful and necessary because there's naturally more stress put on my liver, and I always feel amazing after I do this.

Nicole: 23:54

Yes, you'll likely notice benefits like more stable energy, fewer cravings, better digestion, or even a little weight loss. Just from taking out the inflammatory stuff and supporting your body's natural detoxification process and eating whole healthy foods. As you can see from what we've talked about in this episode, there are a lot of toxins we're naturally exposed to on a daily basis in our environments. So periodically giving your body a little extra detox support is a great way to eliminate some of these toxins from your body

Alicia: 24:25

If you're interested in supporting your body with a gentle cleanse, check the show notes for a link to the exact products we're using. Now back to the episode. So next question, where should I start if it all feels overwhelming?

Nicole: 24:37

Start with what you use daily and what goes on or in your body. Skincare, deodorant, food storage. You don't have to overhaul everything. Just start somewhere.

Alicia: 24:48

Do I really need to worry about toxins if I feel fine?

Nicole: 24:52

Yes, these kinds of things are sneaky, and they often creep up slowly with common symptoms like fatigue, hormone imbalances, and inflammation, which are sometimes also symptoms of other things. So you may not even realize toxin exposure is partially to blame. Even if you're feeling fine now, yes, it matters. And the sooner you can reduce your exposure, the better you're gonna feel in the long run.

Alicia: 25:14

How can I reduce my toxic load without spending a fortune?

Nicole: 25:18

Yes. When you think about swapping out so many different aspects of your life, that can sound a little spendy, as one of our aunts likes to phrase it. But taking it one product at a time helps and using practical swaps and habits like filtering water, avoiding fragrances, and choosing glass over plastic. But the best way is to just take it one product at a time. Yes, there are definitely things that are gonna be more expensive, but when you think about the long-term cost of keeping these toxins in your life, it's a no-brainer when it comes to food use, things like the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists to prioritize which produce you buy organic, and honestly, for cleaners using baking soda and vinegar is effective and they aren't expensive.

Alicia: 25:59

What's the first swap you'd make if you were starting over?

Nicole: 26:02

Definitely my food. What you're putting in your body is gonna have the most significant impact on your health. So if it was me and I was just starting fresh, I would definitely start with my food and clean that up first. And then again, as you are purchasing new products, just try to do better with each new purchase that you make. The takeaway is that reducing toxic load is one of the most powerful things you can do to support your hormones in midlife. It doesn't have to be scary or extreme, just intentional.

Alicia: 26:31

And remember, this is about progress, not perfection. Every clean swap, every label you read, every product you toss, that's a win. You're supporting your future self, one decision at a time.

Nicole: 26:42

We will link our everyday toxins to ditch guide in the show notes, including a few products we've personally vetted and love.

Alicia: 26:48

And if you haven't yet, grab our Daily Glow Rituals Guide because True detox starts with daily self-care habits that nourish your body from the inside out. Thanks for hanging out with us on Midlife and Glowing.

Nicole: 26:59

If you love this episode, it would mean the world to us. If you'd follow the show, leave us a review or share it with a friend who's glowing through midlife right alongside you.

Alicia: 27:07

Let's make it our best era yet. We'll see you next time.