Hormone-Friendly Products

Written By Brittany Leonor

One of my biggest tips for balancing your hormones is to be mindful of endocrine disruptors. I did a whole episode on The Anything Glows Podcast with so many other wellness rituals, Ayurvedic and yoga practices  that can support your hormones on a physical level and subtle body level. It’s a juicy one, so definitely give it a listen.

Now back to the endocrine disruptors. These are chemicals that interfere with the production, release, transport, metabolism or elimination of our body’s natural hormones. They can mimic hormones resulting in our actual hormones either over or under producing and could block the way natural hormones and their receptors are made or controlled. So yeah, not great.

Sadly, these little pests can show up in a lot of the products we use everyday - from our cosmetics, to our cleaning products, to our water, to our kitchen necessities. We’re calling them out right now:

  • Fragrance or parfum: found in literally everything, sometimes for no reason at all; and these are extra shady because companies don’t need to disclose their deets because it’s considered proprietary information

  • Parabens: found in personal care products

  • Phthalates: found in flexible plastics like packaging and unfortunately some children toys

  • Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS): found in nonstick pans

  • Bisphenol A (BPA): found in plastics

  • Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE): found as fire retardants in things like carpets and furniture

  • Triclosan: found in anti-microbial products like hand soap

The solution? Try to use household and personal products that contain better-for-you ingredients. Now I don’t want to sound alarms and make you panic here. In fact, I’ve stopped referring to products as “toxic” versus “clean”. I feel like those labels create unnecessary shame and stress which is also damaging for our endocrine systems. 

So consider my rule of replacement: when you finish one product, instead of re-buying it, replace it with something that has less or no hormone disruptors. No need to go on a frenzy throwing everything out and feeling stressed if not everything gets replaced. This is all about balance and not taking this “clean living” thing to an extreme and unhealthy level. Really embrace the 80/20 principle here: 80% of the products or ingredients you use are more chill and 20% are a little less chill. No big deal.

I’ve been curating my list of favorite products for years now, so I have lots of recommendations. Get ready to dive in:

 
 
Brittany Leonor
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