Our skincare products are exposing us to toxins that the body doesn’t have a way to process. This can result in inflammation and even hormone imbalances. That’s why I’m really excited to introduce you to Trina Felber. She’s an advanced practice nurse, mother of the Clean Beauty Movement, and founder of Primal Life Organics producer of natural beauty products. 

Trina empowers women to embrace natural beauty while achieving optimal health, and she does that by teaching women how to switch to skincare products that are safe for your hormones. 

Trina is also the best-selling author of the book “Beauty’s Dirty Secret.” In this episode, she’s going to be teaching us all about how to choose skincare products that help support your health instead of working against your health, especially for fertility and perimenopause and menopause.

This is such an important topic, especially when we’re talking about healing the body. If you don’t address the fact that you’re retoxing every single day, you’re not getting anywhere. You’re on a hamster wheel because you have to keep detoxing. You’re hoping that you’re detoxing faster than you’re retoxing. 

The question becomes: how do you stay ahead of re-exposure to toxins?

This is especially challenging in this day and age where everything is affecting us. We’re even being bombarded by electromagnetic fields or EMFs – things that 20 years ago weren’t a factor in our health, but today they play a huge factor. EMFs influence the way your body detoxes so we have to be extra careful today because of all the new ways that we’re being retoxed every day.

With skincare, it’s important to understand that you need to control what you can control. There are things that you can’t control – pollution, some of the EMFs with all of the different Wi-Fi and networks out there. There are some things that you just can’t control, which is why it’s really important that we control what we can control. This includes our food, water, and what we’re putting directly on our body, which would be your skincare products.

It can feel very overwhelming when people start to realize that they’re getting exposed to a lot of toxins, including electromagnetic toxins, every day. Sometimes it just feels so overwhelming that people give up completely. They say, “I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll just give up.” 

We are here to encourage you not to give up – there are a lot of things you can do. There are steps you can take that actually make a difference in your toxin exposure and your health. 

Why Skincare Toxins Matters for All Health Conditions

When asked which health issues can be impacted by skincare toxins, Trina’s answer is all of them. All of the above. If there’s a checklist, even the ones that you don’t have yet. Whether you’re in your 20s and thinking you don’t have to worry about menopause for 20 more years, well, yes you do, because what you do today affects your health down the road.

Fertility for those in their 20s and 30s is a big thing. Infertility is on the rise, and a lot of that has to do with our food supply as well as our water and our skincare products that are affecting us. Diabetes and any type of inflammatory disease are also impacted by toxin exposure. Heart health is affected by personal care products, including especially your dental products – your mouthwash and your toothpaste.

Your skin is your second gut. It absorbs about 60% of whatever you put on it within about 30 seconds. But that’s where the similarities between ingesting your food and absorbing it through your skin end. When you ingest food the normal way – when we think about eating a sandwich or a steak – the main difference is that when you ingest it through your mouth, your body has that pathway to detox.

The hepatic vein will send your blood to your liver from your digestive system to get rid of the toxins. Your liver will convert those toxins from lipid-soluble or fat-loving to water-soluble so you can excrete them in your urine, feces, breath, sweat, and other ways. 

However, when you ingest through your skin, the toxins will get into your venous blood. This venous blood goes back to your lungs on its way to be re-oxygenated, and then it goes directly to your heart so that your heart pumps the blood everywhere in your body.

It’s not going back to your liver first – it’s getting pumped throughout your body, including up your carotid to your brain. A lot of toxins are able to pass the blood-brain barrier and cause brain fog and other issues with our brain and nervous system. But they also get pumped everywhere else – to your reproductive organs, your thyroid gland. 

Understanding What You’re Really Putting on Your Skin

We need to remind ourselves that we absorb through our skin. Just stop and realize that if you put something on your skin or even in your mouth, it’s being absorbed straight into your bloodstream and not even going through the liver first. It’s going straight to your brain or circulating around your body. Remembering that can give us extra encouragement to pay attention to what we’re putting on our skin and in our mouth. It’s not just what we swallow.

When we start to look at the ingredients, this is where it gets tricky. A lot of times on the packaging, the font is so tiny that you just kind of think, “Whatever.” The marketing is so good – it could be promising to prevent aging or do all this good stuff – so we end up just slathering it on our skin without really examining what’s in there. Unlike food products where it’s easier to see the ingredients, with skincare products it’s hard to find what’s in the product.

What companies are selling you is what you’re focused on – they’re selling you the promise that this is going to get rid of your fine lines and wrinkles and discolorations, or that it’s going to protect you from the sun. When you’re the consumer looking at that beautiful little bottle or the marketing on the website (because so many people buy things online now), everything is geared toward what they’re selling you. What you’re really buying and paying for is in the fine print of the ingredients.

We have to get in the habit of reading the ingredient list. Even if it’s super tiny, take a picture of it and then make your font bigger on your screen so you can read it. If you look at that ingredient list and you wouldn’t put that in your mouth to eat it, you shouldn’t put it on your skin.

The Skincare Industry Is Similar to the Food Industry

The problem today is that just like the food industry has evolved to be more chemical-based, toxin-based, or artificial-based over the past 20 years, so has the skincare industry. There was a product recently that was basically marketed as natural, claiming to use safe ingredients and clean ingredients. It was a deodorant, and they listed “fragrance.” Typically, fragrance is always a bad thing. 

Normally brands don’t disclose what is in their product because it’s a trade secret. But if they do, when you click on “fragrance” on their website, that one word can have 72 chemicals in it. They were calling fragrances “safe synthetics,” but you have to remember your body’s not synthetic, and anything synthetic is going to cause some sort of inflammation or irritation inside the body.

Just think, if you’re applying just that one product containing a fragrance, you’re being exposed to 72 chemicals. Then we have to stop and consider what other ingredients are in that product. There may be 72 in the fragrance, and then another 20 ingredients – that means over 90 ingredients that are toxic to the body in one single product that you use every day.

On top of that, the packaging – the plastic ingredients, the plasticizers, even if it’s BPA-free – will absorb into the product over time. Now you need to add even more chemicals to your toxic product. 

On top of that, if the very first ingredient is water – most water used in skincare is tap water – you’re being exposed to even more toxins. Tap water is polluted with drug waste (which includes birth control pills – hello, anybody out there trying to get pregnant and can’t, or hello ladies going through menopause wondering why your symptoms are so bad), but also antidepressants, heart medications, thyroid medications. 

Plus, in tap water, you are being exposed to heavy metals, environmental runoff, pesticides, and herbicides. Now you have to add probably 30 more ingredients that are toxic to that one single product. The problem is we’re overloaded with toxins in our body. 

The body itself is made to protect the brain and the vital organs, and when your toxin level in your blood gets too high and your liver can’t filter it out fast enough, the toxins are stored in the body. 

Here’s something interesting for women who are trying to lose weight and can’t: if your bloodstream has too many toxins in it, your body will produce fat because the only other way (besides getting rid of toxins) that it can make it healthy for your bloodstream, brain, and vital organs is to store toxins in fat. 

Your body will produce fat no matter what your diet is like, and no matter how much you exercise. Your body will produce fat to be able to store the toxins because it has to get them out of your bloodstream.

The Hidden Dangers of Common Ingredients in Skincare Products

There are several problems with water in skincare products. Tap water is very drying to the skin, so when water is listed as the first ingredient, it’s going to be a drying product. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s claiming to be a moisturizer or what else is in it – water listed as the first ingredient means the product is between 50 and 70%, sometimes as much as 80 or 90%, water. When you’re putting that much water on your skin, you’re drying it out over time. Water listed on the ingredient list is not hydrating – it’s dehydrating to the skin.

The next problem is that when water is listed as an ingredient, because water is in the product, it has to contain other ingredients like emulsifiers and heavy preservatives because bacteria will grow in water. 

There’s going to be fillers and thickeners – all of these are ingredients that are toxic to the body 99% of the time. They’re synthetic and they’re toxic. By the time you’re actually getting to the active or the good ingredients, there’s no way the good ingredients are going to do anything good for your skin or your body when there are so many toxins in the product.

Many of these ingredients are hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, or they cause inflammation and potentially cancer. 

When asked what symptoms you might feel, Trina explains that it’s possible to experience all of the symptoms on the questionnaire when you go to your doctor: brain fog, fatigue, weight gain, inability to concentrate, inability to regulate your blood sugar levels. All of these symptoms are associated with toxin exposure.

For women specifically, infertility, irregular periods (and this could be even in your menopausal or perimenopausal years), mood swings, hot flashes, night sweats – these are all things that happen because the chemical hormone disruptors either mimic the hormones that you’re body is making, block them, or affect the potency of them. 

We have to take a step back and think, “Okay, just because I’m 45 or 50 doesn’t mean I should be feeling this way.”

Real-World Health Impacts and Success Stories

I asked Trina is she could share real examples of how dramatically changing your skincare can affect your health. 

She gave an example of one client who is a nurse. She was completing Trina’s program to change her skincare routine. She had autoimmune disease, narcolepsy, thyroid issues, and diabetes. 

She was shocked because the only thing she changed in her daily routine was her skincare. Three weeks in, she was able to reduce her medications for narcolepsy and her autoimmunity by half. Her insulin resistance was improving, and all of her symptoms were getting so much better. She was blown away at the impact that skincare products were having on her health because nobody had connected the dots before.

There are some practitioners who do address clean beauty to some degree, but often they still don’t understand the full impact of clean beauty. 97% of the products and brands on the market are not clean. Probably about 30% of those are claiming to be clean or natural or healthy brands (even though they are not), so the consumer is left confused.

There was a research article about hormone disruptors in skincare that went through all the horrible effects – all the things that we can assume and we know to be true about these hormone disruptors and how bad they are. In the conclusion, what they came up with is that the recommendation is that it’s up to the consumer to know and to do their homework on the products and the brands because it’s not up to the brands. 

There’s no regulation, and nothing’s going to change about that. The brands aren’t going to change their formulas – they’re only going to get worse. So the recommendation is to increase knowledge about skincare.

This is exactly what needs to happen – teaching women how to detox their personal care products. Because if you don’t shut the faucet off, then you’re just retoxing, increasing your toxic load, and then you’re checking all the symptom boxes. 

Now you’re on the hamster wheel, you’re in the system, and you’re in the cycle. It’s easier to literally shut the faucet off and stop retoxing your body every single day.

Problems with Current Rating Systems for Skincare Products

A lot of times people hear about the Environmental Working Group (EWG) as a place where they can go and research their skincare products and other products. There are also a couple other apps out there, but none of them are good. They’re all recommending products that are still toxic because they’re not disclosing hidden toxins.

For example, they don’t consider water toxic. So you can have a product in plastic packaging that has water in it, and these systems won’t flag the problems. Something that EWG would give a zero rating to (meaning you look at it and think, “Oh, it’s got a 0 rating, it’s good for me, I’ll buy it”), many experts would give that a 10 on a zero-to-10 scale of toxicity. Don’t trust it.

The good thing about proper education is that it makes the whole process very easy and quick. 

The process of detoxifying your personal care products doesn’t have to be expensive – it’s actually less expensive than what the beauty industry is selling you. It’s going to be better for your health, better for your heart, better for your head, and it’s actually very easy. 

You don’t have to memorize anything, and you never need to refer to the YUKA or EWG apps because you can get the information that you need so that you can make those clean, healthy choices for you and your family.

Getting Started: Simple Steps to Make Changes

It can be overwhelming when you start to think about how you’re going to do this because we have so many personal care products that we use every day, including what we put in our mouth and what we put on our skin. 

Trina’s recommendation is to start with deodorant and dental products because those are usually cheaper, and you are likely not as opposed to throwing away a less expensive product and replacing it as you would be with a $50 or $60 moisturizer.

The other thing is to start reading the labels and ingredients on your products. Ignore the marketing jargon and go directly to the ingredients. If the ingredients look like chemicals, if you don’t recognize them as food, you shouldn’t buy the product. Don’t waste your money – it’s only going to make you sick. 

If it’s in plastic, that’s another big no-no. Plastic packaging is going to eliminate probably 95% to 96% of the products on the market right there. There are very, very few types of products that are okay with plastic – some hair products because they’re in the shower and there is risk of a glass bottle breaking, but there are other alternatives too. It’s very rare to find plastic as being acceptable for any products.

Start looking at what your products are packaged in and start reading the labels. This process can be very simple when you have the right guidance and information.

The Truth About Anti-Aging Procedures and Alternatives

We’re also getting tempted to inject things into our skin like Botox or fillers. This whole approach to anti-aging is being offered more and more, but there are definitely concerns about toxins in these products too. In fact, both Botox and fillers can actually be causing premature aging because of the toxic ingredients. Facelifts are the same thing – they’re not getting to the root causes of aging skin. 

Botox itself is a neurotoxin, so it isn’t just affecting your skin. It gets reabsorbed and migrates to other areas of the body, and it prevents muscles from moving. Botox, for example, is being associated with heart palpitations or heart arrhythmias. The muscles near the injection site will be most affected, but Botox can affect muscles in other areas of the body. If you continue to use Botox, the risk of heart arrhythmias or heart problems will increase because the heart is also a muscle. 

Because it’s a neurotoxin and it likes fat tissue, and your brain is nothing but fat and very close to where most of the Botox injections are given, there has also been a connection between Botox and early onset of Alzheimer’s. It’s so scary when you start to think about it and realize that this is being marketed and talked about as something we should be doing.

Toxins can stay in the body for decades once they’re in your body. They’re stored in fat tissue, and while we’re detoxifying all the time, some of these forms of toxins can stay in the body for decades. You can even go deeper than that – it’s not just the fact that they stay in the body, but even when they are detoxed, there is a vibrational imprint that is left in the body, and that’s very hard to clear.

When we think about skincare, it’s important to consider raising your vibration. You want to attract things that are better for you instead of attracting things that you have to get past. When you think about skincare, just like the clothing coming out (like Lululemon and other brands that use plastic and how we’re absorbing those plastics through our skin from our clothing), the same thing happens with skincare. Any chemical-based skincare, including water, is basically dead skincare and has a very low vibration. It’s going to bring your body vibration down.

But when you start using oils and essential oils that have a higher vibration, you’re going to bring your vibration up. A higher vibration has more energy, it’s better for cell life as opposed to cell death, and you’re just going to look better and feel better.

The Power of Natural Alternatives and Hope for Change

Vibration relates to structured water in our cells. We need to have healthy electrical signals keeping the water in our cells in an active, structured state. This happens through things like being in nature, grounding, drinking filtered water, getting sunshine, or using a sauna. These kinds of activities activate the water in our cells and increase our vibration. We want to be doing things that increase structured water, and we don’t want to be doing things that counteract it – because then we’re just working against ourselves.

It’s never too late. People shouldn’t feel like they’re doomed. Trina didn’t start this journey until she was in her 40s. Even after experiencing health issues like miscarriages, acne, and other health problems, it’s possible to turn things around in just a couple of years. 

Trina had severe acne all over her face, extremely oily skin, had gone on Accutane twice (once in her 20s and once in her 30s), and of course it didn’t work. She had brain fog, exhaustion, and didn’t look good. You can see when a person is toxic because it shows on their skin.

In Trina’s clean skin program, women take a before and after picture to compare the changes based on changing their skincare routine. When women go back to look at the first picture, they can literally see the toxic level in their skin. And the difference is remarkable just 30 days later. 

That’s the beauty of it – it doesn’t take long. Your body wants to be healthy, so it’s going to try to get rid of toxins. The detox process happens quickly if you shut the toxin faucet off. That is if you stop re-toxing all the time and every day, you will get rid of the toxins. Of course, it’s important to drink plenty of water, and you can take binders and some detox-type supplements. Sauna therapy can help but it’s not going to help if you are re-toxing with toxin skincare every day.

When you give yourself two to three weeks to take a break from all the craziness and all the toxin exposures, everything will look different. The concept of a beauty reset program is exactly that – to allow your body to reset. 

A Reset and a New Routine

You don’t have to go to extreme places to do it. You can do it from home where you can reset and say, “Hey, let me learn, let me replace, let me learn how to do this differently and see how I feel and experience that kind of reset.” Then it’s integrated into your routine. Now you’re not even going to think about it anymore because you have a whole new routine going on.

Most women when they think about natural beauty products or healthy products don’t feel like they’re going to get results. That’s the biggest thing the beauty industry tries to brainwash us with because they don’t want you to believe otherwise – everybody would switch. They want you to believe that you need chemicals in order to look beautiful, but the opposite is actually true.

Think about when you eat McDonald’s – most of the skincare on the market is just like McDonald’s. It’s literally McDonald’s in a bottle, in a pretty bottle. Whereas if you’re eating organic food, you feel good. If you eat McDonald’s for even three meals straight, you’re already deteriorating. They did that show “Super Size Me” where the guy ate McDonald’s all the time, and you just watched him deteriorate over several weeks. The same thing is happening with our skincare – we’re just not attuned to it. We didn’t know that skincare could cause that much trouble.

You don’t have to feel bad. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. You don’t have to do complicated things. You literally simplify your life. You don’t need to use many products at all. You don’t need to spend much on your skincare routine. 

You can do a couple of key things, and it keeps your skin looking beautiful. People in their 50s can have skin that looks better than it did in their 30s – by far it looks so much better than it did in their 30s. This can happen for every woman.

Women who make these changes are literally shocked at how much better their skin looks, how much healthier and fuller it becomes. It’s not even just the skin, but it’s the tissue – everything feels better and looks better.

So many women are struggling with health issues like fertility (and you would think skincare has nothing to do with fertility, but now you understand why it does), perimenopause, post-menopause, and these changes will help prevent other health issues down the line like dementia, heart disease, and diabetes. It’s worth it to learn how to use products that are going to help your skin and not work against you by putting toxins into your body.

The most important thing to remember is that anytime you detox the body, if you don’t get rid of the toxins you’re putting on your body, then you’re always going to have to detox. But the easiest way to detox your body is to stop using toxic skincare products in the first place. That is way easier than trying to constantly detox.

It’s never too late to start, and the changes can happen faster than you think. Your body wants to be healthy and will respond quickly when you stop overwhelming it with toxins every single day.

Conclusion: Your Health Is Worth the Investment

Thank you so much for learning about this incredibly important topic with us today. So many women are struggling with health issues we’ve been talking about – whether that’s fertility (and you would think skincare has nothing to do with your fertility, but now you understand why it does), perimenopause, post-menopause, and even preventing other health issues down the line like dementia, heart disease, and diabetes.

 It’s worth it to learn how to use products that are going to help your skin and not work against you by putting toxins into your body.

What we’ve learned today is that this isn’t just about getting hives or allergic reactions to skincare products. That’s only a small piece of it, and allergic reactions can happen because of the toxin content as well. 

Allergic reactions are just the tip of the iceberg – what we’re really looking at is the whole big picture of toxic load in your body. It’s not just about what’s showing up on your skin, it’s more about what’s showing up on the inside of your body.

Remember, nobody’s connecting the dots between your skincare routine and your health symptoms. When you go to your health practitioner,  they’re not likely to look at your diet or your skincare to see if they are causing your symptoms. They don’t address the root cause. Instead, they go right to blood work, pills, creams, and tests, and now you’re just in this cycle of treating the symptoms without getting to the root cause.

The beautiful thing about making changes to your skincare is that it simplifies your life. You don’t need to use many products at all, you don’t need to spend much on your skincare routine, and you can do a couple of key things that will keep your skin looking beautiful while supporting your overall health.

Next Steps: Taking Action for Your Health

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all this information, remember that you don’t have to change everything at once. Here’s how to get started on your journey to cleaner, healthier skincare:

• Start Small and Smart: Begin with your deodorant and dental products. These are usually cheaper than moisturizers and serums, so you’re not as opposed to throwing something away and replacing it. These products have a huge impact because you’re using them every single day, and they’re not as expensive to replace.

• Read Your Labels: Get in the habit of reading ingredient lists. Even if the font is super tiny, take a picture of it and make the font bigger on your screen so you can read it. If you look at that ingredient list and you wouldn’t put those ingredients in your mouth to eat them, you shouldn’t put them on your skin. If the ingredients look like chemicals and you don’t recognize them as food, don’t buy the product.

• Avoid Plastic Packaging: If it’s in plastic, that’s a big no-no. Plastic packaging will eliminate probably 95% to 96% of the products on the market right there, but that’s actually helpful in narrowing down your choices to truly clean products.

• Don’t Trust Rating Apps: Remember that apps like Environmental Working Group (EWG) and YUKA aren’t disclosing hidden toxins. They don’t consider water toxic, and they’re recommending products that are still toxic. A product EWG rates as zero might actually be very toxic.

• Educate Yourself: The key is getting the right information so you can make clean, healthy choices for you and your family. Consider investing in proper education about clean beauty that teaches you what to look for and what to avoid. A good program should be affordable, give you lifetime access, and provide simple recipes to make your own products if you want to, or teach you what brands to trust.

• Be Patient but Hopeful: Remember that this detox process happens quickly when you stop applying toxin products every day. Many women see improvements in their skin and symptoms in just 30 days. Your body wants to be healthy and will respond when you stop overwhelming it with toxins.

• Remember the Bigger Picture: This isn’t just about looking better – though your skin will improve dramatically. This is about supporting your fertility, having an easier menopause transition, preventing chronic diseases, and feeling energetic and healthy. When your toxic load decreases, your body can focus on healing and thriving instead of just surviving.

If you have any questions about anything we’ve discussed today, please feel free to write in to us, and I’ll be sure to address them. The most important thing is to start somewhere, even if it’s just reading one ingredient list today or replacing one product this week. Every step toward reducing your toxic load is a step toward better health.

If you would like to learn more about Trina you can find her on Instagram @trinafelber and Facebook @Trina Felber.
 
If you would like to learn how to naturally revitalize your health, elevate your beauty, and embrace self-love by detoxing your skincare, makeup, dental care, and body products you can check out Trina’s program “THE HOLISTIC HEALTH & BEAUTY RESET” here. You can also get her FREE Clean Beauty Checklist here.
 
If you are looking to do a cleanse or you feel like you would like to detoxify your body to improve your overall health and wellness I definitely encourage you to check out my New 14-Day Detox Program. This program includes two protein shakes per day with 18 grams of protein, and two meals per day with a meal plan that I created based on making sure you get at least 20 grams of protein in each meal.

Register Now

It also includes antioxidants, and videos from me to teach you to use mindfulness, as well as to replace toxins in your food and home. In this way, you can reset your diet, lifestyle and cell health all carrying on with your daily activities and routine.
 
As a Naturopathic Doctor, midwife and women’s health expert, I have also been helping women with HPV, fertility and pregnancy, prevent a miscarriage, peri and postmenopause, and preventing other health issues  for over 25 years. I am available to provide one-on-one support, I offer consultations via Zoom or phone from anywhere in the world. 
 
I have developed a miscarriage prevention protocol which allows me to address MTHFR and methylation issues, as well as progesterone, and other common causes of miscarriage, and to then support women through early pregnancy. 
 
You don’t have to figure it out on your own. My team and I are here to help guide you step by step on your journey. My approach is to look at you as a whole person – mind, body and spirit – and to identify imbalances that we can address which can then allow your body to become healthy again.  
 
If you’re struggling with HPV, fertility and/or have had a miscarriage, peri and post menopause symptoms I welcome you to reach out through my website doctordoni.com. 
 
You can schedule to become a new patient so we can talk through what you’re experiencing and help you know your next steps. Please know that if you’re struggling and frustrated and hoping there’s another way, there is, and I’m happy to share that with you and help you find that path to transform your health and your future.
 
Thank you all for joining me for this fascinating discussion with Trina. Remember, your body knows how to heal – it just needs the right tools and support to do so. 
 
If you found this information helpful, please make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes of How Humans Heal. 
 
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