Before we dive in, I want to talk a little bit about the toxins we come into contact with daily. Unfortunately, they're largely unavoidable. But our human bodies are designed to handle detox, and our bodies do a great job of filtering out what they need and what they don't. However, with all of the artificial chemicals and pollution in the air around us in this century, our bodies can sometimes use a little detox boost. There are alternative things you can do to both minimize and eliminate your exposure to toxins, and the ideas I'll present are pretty easy to implement!

Did you know that there are about 200,000 different toxins floating in the air around you? They may be from exhaust, cigarette smoke, fertilizers in the cornfields nearby, or other pollutants. Even if you were living in the far reaches of the rainforest, you'd still be subject to toxins in the air (although yes, better off than someone in New York City).

Since you can control some of the air quality in your home, why not begin detoxing that air with essential oils? This is as easy as buying a diffuser and a few key oils. Some great oils for air purification include citrus oils like Orange and Lemon, Peppermint, Lavender, Clove, and Ylang Ylang.

Simply place 3-4 drops mixed with water into your diffuser and let it run. These oils aid the liver in detoxification as the oil diffuses from the lungs into the blood steam.  They can also help promote a sense of calm and be energizing (at the same time).

We all love food but, as stated above, the food we're consuming contains over 300,000 toxins, which may range from soy and MSG to hydrogenated oils and artificial colors and flavorings. This is outrageous, but there are obviously things you can do to minimze this load. First of all, buy organic whenever possible. By doing so, you avoid many of the fertilizers and pesticides that your produce and other items often come in contact with. And wash your produce well!

Aside from the water flavoring ideas above, you can also bring essential oils into your cooking. Cardamom, Ginger, Thyme, Coriander, and Cilantro can all easily be incorporated into meals.

How about Thyme in your next soup recipe?  Click here to purchase Thyme oil.

Or Cilantro in your next guacamole dish?  Click here to purchase Cilantro oil.

Coriander is great for flavoring veggies, and Ginger is great in smoothies.  Click here to purchase Coriander and Ginger oil.  

There are so many ways to incorporate essential oils into your cooking, and this will accelerate your body's ability to detox from all of the harmful chemicals that are so unavoidable.

Not only are we exposed to all of the toxins above, but we're also exposed to many heavy metals that can do harm to our bodies. Heavy metals come from things like aluminum based deodorants, commercial toothpaste, aluminum cans, light bulbs, cosmetics, cookware, and even our mercury dental fillings. 

Of course, you can absolutely make sure that you're using safe deodorants and avoiding coated cookware. You can even try out some of the great natural makeup brands on the market or make your own! How about having those old mercury amalgams removed and replaced with new, non-toxic cavity fillings?

There are so many ways that you can decrease the heavy metal exposure in your home. One other that you can try is diffusing Zendocrine supplement oil. This oil is a natural chelator that can bind heavy metal toxins and remove them from your environment. This oil is also great when used daily under the tongue, when combined with other natural detoxification measures such as staying hydrated!

Hey everyone with the Dry Eye Show I'm Dr. Travis Zigler and I'm Dr. Jenna Zigler and we've got a special episode for you today. We were actually going to our Chiropractor in Toledo, Ohio when we lived over there with over until Temperance, Michigan. Actually in Lambertville we met Cheryl, Cheryl, was doing a Tuesday night seminar at the Chiropractic office that was all about essential oils for detoxification and so we thought that was a perfect opportunity to introduce you guys to essential oils. We've been using them probably for about five to ten years now and just hearing Cheryl speak about it it taught us even more about essential oils so we ended up writing an article about it. So, we're going to bring Cheryl on and let her introduce herself and then we're going to kind of ask her a couple questions and pick a brain about essential oils. So, Cheryl say hello to the Dry Eye Community and tell us a little bit more about yourself.

Cheryl: Good evening, everybody! Thank you and I'm very honored and I'm very pleased, very excited to be here. I am and I do because you came to the a Chiropractic which what we called teaching Tuesday workshop. Essential oil is absolutely a passion of mine and I didn't realize how much it would blend into my life but once I get something inside me that I know is good and right I just can't shut up about it.

Cheryl: Well, it's a funny story that I'll condense as much as I can. About six or seven years ago I was in a house fire and lost the job that I had and I was really seeking God and praying to show me what can I do to earn some additional income and he referenced a scripture to me about the woman who was a widow and she had widow's oil and that reference was exactly about go to your neighbors gather jugs get some oil and sell it. Then it also said to then you'd be prosperous. Well, I didn't really realize at the time that the represented in that particular scripture was going to really manifest in essential oils but once I opened up the possibility that this is it. I started about five years ago and I introduced it from a real estate agent friend of mine. That's what I was doing at the time and never looked back. It just kind of wonderfully exploded from there.

Cheryl: I think even just the topic that we're doing tonight which talks about over 200,000 over 350,000 over 80,000 segments of toxins that are in our life one essential oil used means you're not introducing another toxin into your body and we need that help today. I think we've been lied to a lot and we've entrusted a lot of our health care and a lot of our vitality into a system that really doesn't care about what we're putting into it. So, you have to be diligent and you have to be the watchdog and the essential oil portion of that allows your body to get well naturally. It allows your body to help eliminate all these additional toxins that surprise there everywhere and that's how it just mirrors.

Cheryl: Kind of debunking those myths a little bit too.  I think some of the myths are people think that any oil they get off of Target or Bath and Body Works or you know local Myers sells it well that's an essential oil that all essential oils are created equal and the truth is that is not. So, I like to parallel this with a cup of coffee, a cup of coffee that first cup of coffee in the morning that fresh brew it's nice, it's dark, it's aromatic and you cannot wait to drink it but what happens if you take those same coffee grounds and you brew another 12 cups through it it's not going to be the same consistency and that's kind of what happens to the oils that are out there in the market and at the stores at Target at Bed Bath and Beyond. It's not the same quality you want that first distillation you want that protected crop of greens and a plant-based material.

Dr. Travis: We talked about in this community all the time that it's not about what you're putting into your body but it's about the quality as well and a common thing that comes up in the dry eye space is omega-3s. There's a lot of inexpensive omega-3 fish oils out there and you just don't want to go with something inexpensive because it's usually more processed and you're not getting the pure triglyceride based fish oil and you just want to go with a higher quality as well.

Just know where your stuff comes from. It's essentially the lesson there and it's no different with anything from food to essential oils to your supplements. You should know where it's coming from.

She put out a great presentation that was all about numbers and the numbers were kind of shocking to me and that's when I asked you I think like a week after that that we needed to have you on the show and that was like 2 months ago. So glad we finally got you on there.

Cheryl: 200,000 is the toxins that are in the air that we breathe and that comes from more than just you know stepping outside it's actually toxins in your house, your air filter in your furnace, it can come from smoke, from milled, from mildew, from pet dander and I think that the list that you had on posted a while ago had had some of these listed as well but 200,000 things you are breathing in and they are going into your lungs.

Cheryl: They were filtered into our central nervous system and then stuck in our liver and our liver is like “What the heck? How am I supposed to take care of all of these?” and that's a big deal. So, what can we do to help us with all the toxins that are floating around in the air than 200,000 different toxins that are floating in the air I think the most important thing would be to create a safe haven in your home. You can't protect yourself as you go outside you're going to get exposed to gas fumes at the gasoline station and you're going to be exposed to that whatever the air pollution is but your safe-haven in your house and to do that you can absolutely diffuse.

A diffuser is a little unit that has water combined with drops of essential oils that puts a fine mist into the air and that mist will actually purify the air in your home. It can take out mold, it can take out bacteria, it can take out all of these toxins that are there and thereby allow you to breathe easier. The best thing about that as you're breathing it in that good stuff now is entering into your lungs and that good stuff now is getting into your nervous system and into your liver to help lend a hand to get rid of the toxins that are already there.

Chery: All of them! One of the most common ones it's a blend and it's called purification. It's only available by some brands not all of the higher end essential oils have this blend. So, if I were to pick single oils that would universally be on the main companies that produce therapeutic grade that would be lemon for sure. Lemon get that in the air also great for you grape fruit because it is a purifier as well and patchouli but that's an acquired taste not everybody likes that but it is a very good support for the nervous system and for the liver as well.

So, get some good stuff in the air and we're coming into the fall season so get some cinnamon in the air and get some tangerine into the air. Enjoy the aromas!

Dr. Travis: I think if they made a pumpkin essential oil, Jenna, would be all over that would be all that is year-round. So, my favorite is peppermint! I'm a big peppermint fan it helps me work during the day and helps me just breathe a little easier so I loved it! I know your favorite oil is lavender.

Dr. Jenna: I like lavender! I mean we do that more so at night than during the day/

Cheryl: The peppermint is a stimulant so that's a good thing to keep you alert and going in the morning. It's a great oil for that! If there's allergens in the air, peppermints, will going to wipe them out.

Cheryl: Allergies in the fall season you're dealing with the pollens in the air so peppermint is definitely going to attack that but if the allergen is highlighted like pet dander you can use any of the purifying oils. That will help into the air but absolutely resembling peppermint is my go-to in fact.

The first encounter that my daughter had with essential oils was allergies that were non-stop -nose were running eyes and everything and what I actually did was open a bottle of peppermint and let her breathe it in and instantly those symptoms went away.

Dr. Travis: So, toxins in the air- 200,000 different toxins in the air from your smoke, your dust mites, your pet dander just simply defuse an oil into the air is going to really help you out. I prefer peppermint and lavender she prefers them all. So, it doesn't really matter just find one that you like.

Cheryl: And the great thing is when you diffuse this and put these essential oils into the air they now become part of your house and they are embedded into the curtains, into the carpeting even into the walls and into the paint. So you have a benefit that is triple fold because it's while you are diffusing it you're breathing it in when it's in your bloodstream and nervous system there's benefits and cleansing properties and then it's left in your home and the frequency level and the benefits of that oil are still present and still there.

Cheryl: That’s what we have to do with drinking water. Water is necessary for survival just as much as air is and it's sad to say that you know unless you have your own bottling company and there are some options out there where you can bring in some great machines in your own home but your typical tap water has chlorine fluoride and pesticides that are coming off of the landfills that around us and about the farming agencies that are out there. The water is running off into our water supply or getting doused. It may be a liquid that you can see through but it's fulfilled with many many different things.

Dr. Jenna: You know our first tip with water which we talk a lot about hydration in our communities because hydration and water is so important for your eyes. If you're not drinking enough water at least half your body weight in water an ounce the water a day you know you could be suffering from dry eyes just because of that. But we want it to be filtered water and we use a berkey water filtration system at our home. It's absolutely awesome and we love it. We recommend it to everyone but aside from that there are some really great essential oils that you can use in your water to even enhance that detoxification more.

Cheryl: Frst, I would prefer is by saying that before you ingest any essential oil make sure that it is 100% pure. That it is therapeutic grade and that the FDA has actually approved for you to ingest it. Those are some safeguards for you and so you're not just throwing anything into your body. But these oils my favorites would be lemon and all the citrus like orange, tangerine or lime. The purifying qualities of those with the D linear component in them allows you to just not only going to drink more water because the water is much tastier but the benefits to your body the health benefits to purifying the health benefits to balancing the PH in your system is amazing.

Grapefruit is my favorite and if you like tutti fruity you do grapefruit, lime and tangerine and there's the tutti fruity.

Dr. Travis: I've been doing your grapefruit juice recipe which is three drops of grapefruit, three drops of spearmint and three drops of tangerine per quart of water. So, I've been doing that every morning when I wake up and it's pretty good and it tastes pretty citrusy with a very kick of mint. I do  love mint it's stimulating so but I think that's why I like it.

Cheryl: I have many things to say and none of them are nice. Avoid it! Avoid! Avoid! You can get some wonderful protein if that's what you're searching for when you drink milk in almond milk and a nut based type of milk. So no, I'm not an advocate for cow's milk and I haven't had a gallon of milk in my house in over three and a half years. Challenge the viewers to buy some coconut milk or buy some almond milk and just try it.

Dr. Travis: Well actually in one of our private groups where we're doing a boot camp challenge we're in week five right now and week 5 is foods to avoid and dairy is one of our biggest foods to avoid.

Dr. Jenna: I think that's number one!

Cheryl: Toxins that would be from food! Those are toxins that are found in food which can be the pesticides. Soy has been accepted by an alternative but 90% of the crops that are out there growing soy are not mandated and so pesticides are flooded into these fields and we think we're doing something good by alternating soy into our bodies but it's huge on the hit list. It would be next select house mounts for sure.

White flour, fast foods, boxed foods and canned foods there's ingredients in there and these things our body was never meant to digest. It does not know I even had to break it down!

Dr. Travis: Yeah we 100% agree in foods to avoid. We always say avoid anything in a box or can and like you said any breads period and cow's milk dairy things like that just too many toxins in those.

Cheryl: Flour, salt, sugar and dairy.

Cheryl: Well the wonderful thing about the oils is they can definitely be used into the food. I would recommend using them more as a dressing because cooking food at high temperature it's going to take out their therapeutic value and it'll still add the seasoning but I love to use essential oils to make dressings with that. There's a lemon and a citrus dressing that I use with a little bit of vinegar. You can put them on a salad and you can marinate anything in it. It will also allow you to have the benefits the therapeutic benefits that you're ingesting and to some extent there's some protection because some of our foods have the parasites than them. Some of the foods have toxins in them and when you're using a therapeutic grade essential oil it's going to counteract those things.

Dr. Travis: And if you are going to cook with an essential oil it's best to put it in after you're done with the cooking process.

You can use like a cilantro oil in like a guacamole which you're not going to cook at all but if you're doing like a soup think about after you're cooking the soup taking it off the burner taking it off whatever you're cooking it with adding things like thyme to it or coriander or something like that at after the cooking process because then it won't degrade the oil quality quite as much and as a you know.

Dr. Jenna: We talked about earlier with adding it to your water make sure that it's an essential oil that is safe for ingestion in the first place. So be really cognizant about that. Most of them that you're going to put in your food are.

Cheryl: And be aware that is 10 to 100 times more potent so I made a mistake of making a potato salad at one point I am using dill oil thinking I could shake it on like I would dill flakes and it was a horrific experience to see. It's a lot of dill it is too much so useless because you can always add more and a drop or two goes a long way and these tend to last longer than your dried herbs anyway.

Cheryl: Well that is from parasites and microbes that are found out there? That's bacteria, yeast, parasites, amoebas, worms and disgusting stuff that we don't want and there. They're out there they're in foods that we get. Their even in fruits and vegetables that we grab off the market. These things are there and the most disturbing thing is that once they're in our bodies we now become their hosts we are now the local holiday end and they are feasting on what we have. Even worst is once they're eating they're now depositing their waste right back into our bodies so we've got a doubleheader going on and you might not even be aware of it.

Dr. Travis: So, this actually plays perfectly into the eye care so we talked about blepharitis all the time in this community and blepharitis is simply where normal bacteria that live on your eyelids overgrow and their waste product creates inflammation and red irritated eyes.

We actually have a product called Heyedrate Lid and Lash Cleanser that helps with that. It helps keep bacteria reduce and it helps keep it at bay so you can get rid of those blepharitis symptoms and it helps heal your skin naturally.

So, you can also help this with essential oils and so there's an immune boosting essential oils and can you talked about any immune boosting essential oils that are out there?

Cheryl: Well there are many out there and I would never put any of them near your eyes.

Dr. Travis: No I don't mean that

Cheryl: Hot oils I mean cinnamon is a hot oil and it is great for your immune system. Thyme is a hot oil great for immune system. Oregano hot oil great for your immune system and it just seems like I don't know if the reason they're hot is because they have a lot of energy to give. But those are some great oils that you could definitely put drops of them in your water and drink. It's going to be pretty potent at that experience in your mouth might not be so pleasing. So, some really simple easy immune boosting ways is to put that oil then slap it on the bottom of your foot because your foot has the biggest pore available and you put it there and within minutes it's in your bloodstream. And your feet are pretty tough they don't even feel it they won't feel the heat.

Dr. Travis: When you ingest some essential oils and if you don't mix it up well enough you actually might make your lips numb because they are so potent. I let my my sister-in-law try one last night she's like “My lips are numb” and I was like “Did you not mix it?” she said no.

So, we use them! You're a distributor for is a Young Living. And so Young Living is one of the big brands that I'd recommend. We're distributors for doTERRA and doTERRA is another big one that is very therapeutic base and they're very good quality. So again, make sure that you're using just those therapeutic base good quality oils.

Dr. Jenna: Do your research.

Cheryl: 130,000 that is the toxins from heavy metals. Heavy metals are everywhere from cookware to our deodorant. I taught in class a couple of years back about deodorant and at the time you could take a deodorant that you bought off the shelf of the store and on the back of it would peel open a warning label and if we buy it and we wear it and there is aluminum in it that's the thing that is the metal that is toxin to us. We put it on a very unprotected area on our body under our armpits where our lymph nodes are where. There's a whole host of things there and we just keep slathering on that aluminum and it says it's okay to use in small quantities but I mean I think I've posted this question at the class too that when you put your deodorant on in the morning, that's the first thing you do and you wear all day long you and you don't wash it off before you go to bed you don't wash it off until you get into the shower again. Now when you get after the shower, what's the first thing you do so put it back there. There are definitely ways I mean essential oils can definitely help you make homemade versions of deodorant.

The both companies that you mentioned sell different brands of different kinds of deodorant but simple ways just read the labels and don't buy anything that has the aluminum in it.

Dr. Travis: So, we actually have a good friend that makes deodorant for us and it's five ingredients and no aluminum and I actually switched to it in the middle of July in South Carolina and had no problem at all switching nice. It was actually instant and the nice thing about safer deodorant is when you get those stains in your underarms that's actually from toxins being released from your body due to the aluminum clogging your pores. And so, when you get an all-natural deodorant you'll actually eliminate those stains now.

Dr. Jenna: We're not saying that when you switch to a natural deodorant that everybody is going to have Travis's experience because me on the other hand I switched in February and it probably took around two weeks for my body to like really get used to this new deodorant but now I love it and I would absolutely never go back.

So, if you're using an aluminum deodorant you need to go to the store I know it's kind of late tonight but tomorrow morning and find a new deodorant order it on Amazon whatever you need to do. We've got some good recommendations for you.

Dr. Travis: Our friends brand on Amazon she sells it it's called Carolina Soap Works and just look at Carolina Soap Works Deodorant.

We use the coconut one and it's nice because we use the same deodorant now so we don't have to take one jar and if you do apply it definitely it's not a stick so you actually apply it like lotion.

Cheryl: When I switched I made the switch, I'm ashamed to say this, but it took about six months before I actually broke the sweat that's clogged. It's crazy I mean it took that long to continuously detox all of that out because at first I was like I don't sweat

Dr. Jenna: It's just all plugged up in there always.

Cheryl: I love this question because one of my favorite oil is copaiba. Copaiba is a single oil and it is something that you can absolutely wear topically and you could ingest it as well. They have an FDA approved one that's ingestible and there's a main ingredient in there called beta-caryophyllene in copaiba and that just goes after the inflammation. It is amazing so that's my go-to oil. My home always has that here.

Dr. Jenna: I love that one too

Dr. Travis: And that's a good one for anxiety too.

Dr. Jenna: That's what I use it for and it works very well.

Dr. Travis: Do you want to tell them how you use it?

Dr. Jenna: I mean I just put a little bit under my tongue just like one like a little bit on my finger I turn over the bottle and that's how I use it. It's not like great tasting but that's I've tried it once it's weird neutrally weird oil.

Dr. Travis: Yeah filthy is what I'd like to say about it!

Cheryl: Well, in a comparison in essential oil and we'll use lemon as a comparison in a five milliliter bottle of lemon oil which has about a hundred and fifty traps it requires 50 lemons to produce that so when you're putting one drop of lemon oil into your water that's probably the equivalent of five to six maybe even seven lemons.

So, although the PH balance can help with just adding some lemon and changes the flavor a little bit that therapeutic value is exponential with the essential oils used.

Cheryl: It's still milk!

Dr. Jenna: We've had people ask about I think it's called a2 milk or something. I think it's a new type of lactaid milk that comes out and they're trying to make it fancy and like it's good for you and it's still cows milk pesticides which is still not good.

Dr. Travis: Yes we 100% agree with that statement. We actually are very careful because we have a nine month old and so when we actually he has a diffuser in his bedroom and we put two to three drops of lavender oil in it’s diffuser for the night.

Dr. Jenna: And so, that's all we really ever have used with him because  you really have to be careful especially with young children about the oils that you're using around them. It can lead to allergies and all different types of things like that.

Cheryl: Lavender is one of those that is a really you can start to use that around an infant. That's one of the most gentlest oils and it is good to be used. You're right for pets and I have two cats and I have a dog at home as well the dog is pretty tolerant of any of the oils. Here's what I do is a rule of thumb for all of them I never lock them in a room with a diffuser. So, it's in my bedroom and I'm diffusing they have the doors open and they can leave. Their sensitive enough and they'll know that they can leave it especially cats because cats are more sensitive than your dog even.

Cheryl: Copaiba C-O-P-A-I-B-A. I like it and isn't it like a distant relative of CBD oil it's a very similar acting to that because the beta-caryophyllene which is the main constituent is what a lot of people are drawn to with the CBD oil for sure.

Cheryl: Have you used your cell phone today? Have you used the microwave today?

Dr. Jenna: I put down my cell phone today

Cheryl: It's a lot like there's a lot of things- your hair dryer or your computers those things also will contribute to them.

When I was doing this research what I found the most astounding was microwaves and I shared this story that it was actually invented by mistake because a gentleman was working around on the radar transmitters way back in the day and he noticed that as he walked close to these transmitters that candy bar that he had in his pocket was builting and so he kind of put this together and he built this first microwave which was over five foot or seven foot tall and it cost over $5,000. But what's happening is there's a violent activity that's happening and it's attacking or dressing or seeking out the water and the moisture and any of the food that we put in there and it causes huge vibrations. In fact I think it even said that there's violent vibrations and that's how we made up foods and that's how we're eating it.

I don't know about you but I'm good with warming it up on the stove or in the oven.

Dr. Travis: And there are some things that you can do. There's a recipe that you can put on top of your microwave and I think I have it right here in front of me it's fill a wooden bowl with peat moss and hazelnuts and putting ten drops of tea tree oil, rosemary and clove into it

Dr. Jenna: Yeah but there it's different because young living actually has I think it's melrose

Cheryl: Yeah

Dr. Jenna: And that is  a combination of those basically. But that's an interesting one I know we need to try it.