How your body processes toxins
Many women are unaware that they have an extra exit route for toxin elimination – namely your monthly bleed. Yes, this only happens about once a month but it can be a handy support for all your other elimination organs.
So, what is going to happen when your periods start to go missing or get lighter and eventually stop altogether?
At this point it is imperative that your other elimination organs – the bowels, the kidneys, the skin (via sweating) and the lungs – are all working really efficiently. Once your periods start to dwindle these other areas have to take up the slack and if they are already working under par you can get all sorts of symptoms such as:
- Skin problems, including itching, acne, even eczema and psoriasis. These can suddenly appear or existing symptoms can get worse.
- You can suddenly get wheezy or congested.
- Digestive disorders can start to manifest – constipation, bloating, wind or general IBS
- Kidney or bladder infections can become more frequent.
How are antiperspirants involved?
Now our bodies are, on the whole, very clever and can adapt to many situations, so if our remaining elimination routes are struggling the body can get rid of extra toxins through our sweat, and sweating has the additional benefit of cooling us down… I expect you can see where I am going now?
One of the main areas we sweat from is under the arms and what do we do? We smother them in chemicals that stop us from sweating at all, and this risks keeping those toxins inside our bodies as well preventing us from regulating our temperature, which is even more important during the menopause!
So putting all this together, using antiperspirants could well be a contributory factor in body flushes/sweats, heat surges, skin rashes and much more!
What can you do to help?
Keep your cool by using natural deodorants such as Salt of the Earth Crystal Spring spray or stick, which don’t block your pores but are very effective for killing off the bacteria that cause odour. They also allow the skin to breathe properly whilst keeping you fresh as a daisy all day.
To help support your other elimination organs keep your diet clean, drink plenty of water (doubly important in the menopause) to flush out those toxins and improve bowel function, and get some daily exercise in the fresh air to clear your lungs.
