December 17, 2024 • 52 mins
What if your beauty products were secretly sabotaging your health? Join me, Nika Lawrie, and Amanda Baca as we uncover the hidden dangers of chemicals like phthalates, parabens, and formaldehyde lurking in personal care products. Learn how these substances can disrupt hormones and contribute to conditions like PCOS and endometriosis.
We dive into “forever chemicals,” share practical tips for identifying truly non-toxic products, and explore tools like the Yuka app to help you reduce toxic exposure. Plus, we tackle the impacts of hormonal birth control, post-pill syndrome, and nutrient deficiencies, offering a holistic approach to achieving health, beauty, and confidence naturally.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nika Lawrie (00:17):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show.
I, of course, am your host,nika Lawrie, and today we are
flipping the script again.
I've invited one of my verybest friends, amanda Baca, to
the show, and Amanda is going toask me a whole bunch of
important questions aboutwomen's health and reproductive
health and kind of you know, thesensitive areas of our body
(00:38):
questions about that, and we'regoing to have some conversations
about health issues that we'vestruggled with.
So, amanda, welcome to the show.
I'm so glad to have you back on.
Thank you.
Amanda Baca (00:47):
I'm excited, I'm so proud of you.
Nika Lawrie (00:49):
Oh, thank you, I appreciate it.
I'm super grateful that you'regoing to come on and just ask
questions and we get to havethis really cool conversation.
So with that I'll hand it toyou as the host for today to
start.
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (01:03):
Ask away today to start.
Yeah, ask away, sure, um, youknow I have a lot of questions
on because, as you know, as oneof my best friends, that I've
dealt with a lot of reproductivehealth issues, women's health
issues, along withcardiovascular issues yeah, a
lot of things going on in my, inmy life that, um, you know,
just talking with you throughoutthe years, I've learned a lot
(01:24):
about you know, more naturalremedies, more natural causes.
But you know I am very intobeauty products.
I always have been, yeah, andit's always been a part of my
life and I just, you know, Ithink that there's just more to
it than going and buyingsomething that says it's organic
(01:46):
.
Yeah definitely so.
Like for me, my reproductivehealth has really taken a shot.
What would you say like, whatcommon beauty, like personal
care products, what effects doesit have on reproductive health?
Like what are these productsreally doing to me?
Nika Lawrie (02:09):
Yeah, so there's several ingredients that are in
a lot of personal care andbeauty products that we really
need to be aware of andconcerned about, honestly.
So the big three would bephthalates, parabens and
formaldehyde.
All three of those are commonchemicals.
And then fragrances let's sayfragrances are another big one.
(02:29):
So the four of those are foundin tons of different cosmetics
or personal care products.
You'll see phthalates andparabens in a lot of like
lotions and shampoos and thingslike that.
They tend to be eitherfragrances, or they help
fragrances last longer or theyhelp things stay shelf stable.
(02:54):
They're like a preservative aswell.
Formaldehyde is also used as apreservative and then, yeah, so
formaldehyde on your body.
Yeah, like so when people dieright and they're embalmed, we
use formaldehyde, so we'reputting that into our beauty and
personal care products and thenlathering that all over our
body on a daily basis.
Amanda Baca (03:15):
Are they putting formaldehyde for the same
concept as they do to use it toembalm people?
Yeah, to basically make itlong-lasting.
Nika Lawrie (03:24):
To embalm people, yeah, basically, make it long
lasting.
Yes, to make it long lasting.
That's exactly what it's for.
It's a, it's a preservativethat's used to make it last a
long time.
And then the other thing I'lladd to this this isn't going to
affect your hormones as much,but it can also be kind of an
unhealthy thing.
A lot of women will buy makeupbecause makeup is so expensive.
They'll hang on to it for avery long time, right, like you
buy a lipstick or a lip glossand it's your favorite, so you
(03:47):
don't want to use it all thetime, right, but you use it here
and there.
Well, over time, bacteria fromjust using it will grow in there
and then you can have issueswith the bacteria that's in the
makeup.
This happens in powders andfoundations and all kinds of
stuff too.
So it's not just the kind ofmore liquid or soft makeups you
have to be really careful about,you know, not keeping makeup
(04:10):
for a really long period of time, because they do go bad.
But going back to, you know,the phthalates, the parabens,
the formaldehydes.
There's some other chemicals aswell, but those are kind of the
most common ones.
What happens Sorry, go ahead, oh, common ones.
What happens is that thesechemicals can disrupt your
hormones.
They're known as endocrinedisrupting chemicals, EDCs and
(04:34):
so these EDCs disrupt yourhormones in your body, and so
what they can do is they canmimic hormones like estrogen, so
you have too much estrogen inyour body.
They can disrupt your abilityto produce hormones correctly,
so then you don't have enough ofthe hormones in your body, and
then they can also disrupt howthe hormones communicate
(04:56):
throughout the body, and so whenyour hormones are the messenger
system of your body right, andso when those are out of whack,
right and so when those are outof whack, your body is having a
hard time communicating withitself, telling itself what to
do, and this is especiallyimportant when it comes to
women's kind of reproductivehealth.
So things like infertility,pcos, different things like that
(05:21):
, can be caused or triggered bythese hormone disruptions.
Amanda Baca (05:33):
Yeah, I mean, as you know, I've suffered with
PCOS and endometriosis now foryears and I used to kind of
blame myself, like something I'mdoing is doing this to myself.
But I, you know, slowlylearning like I didn't.
I didn't purposely do this tomyself.
No, of course not.
No, and women are kind of not.
They're not allowed to think,they're not allowed to give
(05:58):
themselves grace when they haveendometriosis and PCOS.
You know, like there has to beanother cause.
Yeah, and to hear, well, it'sjust your body, it makes me feel
guilty that I did it.
I did this to myself, but it'snot.
Nika Lawrie (06:13):
No, absolutely not.
I mean, there are parts of itthat can be genetic, but usually
what's happening is that theseissues are being triggered or
disrupted by different chemicalscoming in your body.
There's other environmentalfactors too, so glucose or
(06:37):
insulin resistance can be a bigissue for PCOS.
So when your sugar is out ofbalance, your blood sugar is out
of balance, that can helptrigger not help, but it can
cause the trigger of PCOS aswell.
So there's a lot of differentfactors that play a role in this
, and so, even if you are kindof genetically predisposed to
these health issues, whathappens is that these chemicals
(07:05):
and different factors in yourlife can cause them to, um, get
worse yeah, and you know,growing up in the 80s, 90s,
early 2000s, what all the junkthat we ingested.
Amanda Baca (07:20):
I mean, yeah, but it was also because our parents
didn't know.
But you know they had nodifferent, they didn't know
better and but it was alsobecause our parents didn't know.
But you know, they didn't knowdifferent, they didn't know
better, and it was, it was whatwe were given.
And so you know, I waspredisposed to diabetes and my
A1C now is shot.
It's horrible and thankfullyI've made lifestyle changes to
to help that.
But you know, now I'm having towork twice as hard.
Nika Lawrie (07:44):
Yeah, the thing is that you can come back from
issue.
By making lifestyle changes andchanging what you're exposing
your body to, both on theoutside and inside, like the
things that you're eating anddrinking, you can bring your
body back into homeostasis andheal your body.
Amanda Baca (08:09):
I'm doing it so you know, besides like formaldehyde
and all those parabens andeverything, are there any like
other toxins in beauty products,like what else is in there?
Because, like I read the backof my foundations, the ones I
used to use, I mean the list waslike this and I couldn't
pronounce half of it.
Nika Lawrie (08:27):
Yeah, so there are tons of different ingredients
and chemicals that can causeissues.
So right now in kind of thegeneral chemical industry
there's about 90,000 chemicals.
Of those, about 42 to 45,000chemicals are in what's
considered active use, sothey're in products that are
(08:48):
being used kind of on a dailybasis, and that's a whole range
of things, you know, that can gofrom, like you know, oil for
your car all the way down to,like the plastic silverware that
you're using at a picnic to theproducts that you're putting on
your body right.
So there's tons of differentchemicals out there.
Of those about 45,000, very fewof them have ever been tested
(09:10):
for safety or efficacy on humanor environmental health, and so
we know that a lot of thesedifferent chemicals are causing
health issues for both humansand the environment.
But because the industry isprimarily regulated by the
manufacturers of the chemicalsthemselves, very few are being
(09:33):
tagged as a danger.
In the US there's only fivechemicals that have ever been
banned use because we know forsure that they are causing
health.
When you compare that to the EU, where there's about 1,500
chemicals that have been banned,and so we know that the EU has
much stricter regulations on theapproval of different chemicals
(09:57):
and how they're allowed to beused in different products that
you buy in the store in theshelves right and so in the US,
we're very bad about reallyputting human safety first and
so.
Amanda Baca (10:13):
Imagine, imagine.
Nika Lawrie (10:14):
Tons of different chemicals in these different
ingredients.
The easiest way to go about itis one you kind of just look and
see.
You know, do they havephthalates, parabens?
Usually the ones that don'thave it.
A lot of the products will sayparaben-free or phthalate-free.
But the easiest way to go aboutdoing that is actually just to
(10:35):
download some of the apps.
So there's Yuka Think Dirty.
The Environmental Working Grouphas an app as well where you
can just scan barcodes onproducts and it'll tell you in
like a red, yellow, green scaleor a zero to 100 scale of what's
safe and what's not.
Amanda Baca (10:54):
That's pretty cool.
Nika Lawrie (10:55):
Yeah, For me.
I try to stay completely in thegreen.
There are maybe two productsthat all sit in the yellow.
If it's a high yellow or red, Iabsolutely don't buy them at
all.
So that helps you kind ofnavigate which one's that one.
So Yuka is my favorite.
Y-u-k-a Think Dirty is theother main app, and this really
(11:16):
helps for beauty and personalcare products.
Oh perfect, the EnvironmentalWorking Group has two apps.
They have a beauty personalcare app and then they also have
a food app as well.
So that makes it as easy aspossible to scan those.
Amanda Baca (11:32):
So okay.
So like I get ingest in how Iwould ingest.
You know, if I go to a fastfood restaurant chain, I get how
I'm ingesting those toxins.
But like, if I'm puttingsomething just on my skin, how
is it ingesting into my body?
How is that affecting theinsides?
Nika Lawrie (11:48):
So your skin is the largest organ of your body,
right, okay, and your skin, yeah, and your skin.
The main purpose of your skinis for detoxification.
So you think about your sweat.
(12:12):
Like your pores, the sweat'scoming out of that.
That's one way that your bodyis releasing toxins within your
body.
The other piece of that is thatwhen you put these chemicals
like lotion, for instance, likea high fragrance lotion you put
those chemicals onto your body.
Some of that not all, but someof those chemicals can then be
absorbed through the skin andeventually end up in your
bloodstream or moving throughoutyour body.
And the issue that happens isthat it's not like a one-time
thing, like, oh, this one time Iused it, and then you know I
(12:34):
didn't, and it's like fine.
What happens is it's acumulative issue, and so you use
, you know, lotion here and thensunscreen here, and then
eyeshadow here, and then lipgloss here, and then shampoo
here, and then eyeshadow here,and then lip gloss here, and
then shampoo here and perfumehere, like, yeah, right, and so
all of these products areoverlapping each other and it's
building up in your body andyour body can't detox it fast
(12:56):
enough, and there are somechemicals that are considered
forever chemicals that justnever leave your body as well.
Amanda Baca (13:02):
So I mean, it makes sense.
I mean, especially like, ifyou're using mascara, you're
directly putting that into dry,yeah, or you know, I think about
like, how many times do I putlip gloss on a day A day?
Yeah, and I'm literally eatingit.
Yeah, yeah, and I'm literallyeating it.
(13:23):
Yeah, yeah, or you know and itjust popped up in my head,
speaking of feminine productsand stuff that's going directly
either in you, on you,especially like feminine wipes,
feminine, you know, thoselotions and creams and washes
that are supposed to mask smellsand stuff.
Nika Lawrie (13:43):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (13:44):
God, I read those, those things like how much crap
is in that?
Nika Lawrie (13:48):
and you're like it's going, it's going right up.
Yeah, like, there's been a hugething over the last few months
talking about tampons and howtampons have, um, lead and
cadmium in them, how a lot ofthem will still have residues
from pesticides because, like,if they're made from cotton and
then they were sprayed with apesticide, then they're still
(14:08):
absorbing that and then that'sgoing up into your vag, you know
, and then your body absorbsthose chemicals and it has a
real impact on your health.
Amanda Baca (14:19):
You know, we've obviously we've talked about the
tampon issue before.
We've obviously we've talkedabout the tampon issue before.
I, like everybody else,everyone that's coming out of
the well, some stark ages of ourmoms and our grandmas, we've
been using the same brands overand over and over again and I
(14:41):
started to feel very, very illevery time I had to use them.
I was cramping, I was sick, mybleeding was very irregular.
And it was you, you, you know,made me try this, you know, and
you gave me a few brands to try,and I did, and I will.
You know, I no longer have aperiod anymore, but I'm fine.
(15:04):
But you know, having a preteennow girl, I am adamant about the
products she uses, Absolutely,because you really don't realize
it's not just cotton yeah,you're not you're not just no.
Nika Lawrie (15:19):
A lot of them have either a thin plastic wrap
around them or a plastic mixedin as well, and then your body
is absorbing the chemicals fromthe plastic too.
So, yeah, it can be a realissue yeah, um, it's just how,
and and speak.
Amanda Baca (15:37):
I mean.
So I, I go to the store and I'mI'm looking for feminine
products for my daughter, right,and you know she's not old
enough to use what I use, butshe needs something.
So I'm looking around andeverything says organic.
Now, literally everything, evenin beauty products lotions,
candles.
You know, everyone says organic.
(15:58):
How can I tell if it really is?
Because it says organic.
And then I turn it over andthere's that list of parabens
and all that stuff.
Like how?
Nika Lawrie (16:09):
can I tell?
So two things to consider whenit comes to that.
One is understanding a conceptcalled greenwashing.
So companies put logos or wordsor verbiage on their marketing
that'll say organic or naturalor you know some kind of thing
that sounds like it's healthywhen reality that's just
(16:31):
marketing.
That's just marketing speakthat they'll put on there.
Most of those terms are notactually regulated.
The only thing that you'll seethat is regulated here in the
United States is USDA approvedorganic.
You'll see a circle stamp on itand that means that it's met
the qualifications of the USD tocall itself organic.
(16:53):
So it's the only time.
Even that can still be slightlyquestionable, because they
usually only test the placeswhere those products are coming
from maybe once a year to provethat they are organic.
Right, that they did their duediligence Exactly.
Yeah, but it's the best we haveright now.
(17:14):
So if you're looking fororganic, you look for that USDA
approved organic stamp.
Otherwise, I would say again,refer back to like the Yuka, I
think dirty apps, because thosewill at least tell you, you know
, whether or not the ingredientsor the materials used to make,
(17:35):
say, the tampons or the pads orwhatever, are non-harmful to the
body.
But it is still kind of just acrapshoot when you go.
So it's, you know it's walkingthrough a minefield and doing
the best you can to you know,find the product.
Amanda Baca (17:53):
So you just kind of hope for the best, yeah and
yeah, but there are things thatyou can do.
Nika Lawrie (17:57):
I mean, even if it's not perfect, by reducing
your exposure, by buying theproducts that are as clean as we
can find and good, reducingyour exposure substantially, and
that's huge exposuresubstantially and that's huge.
Amanda Baca (18:13):
You know, and I think that's how I kind of got
started with you and in thiswhole journey of more of a clean
living is I didn't go fullthrottle.
You know, I do still allowmyself some junk, because I like
it, but adding those littlethings bits and bits, like
starting with tampons and then,you know, moving through my huge
(18:34):
vanity of stuff, you know, andreplacing them, like it was
easier that way.
Yeah, yeah, and some are not100%, and I just love the
product.
Nika Lawrie (18:45):
Yeah, and that's okay.
You know, like the idea for me,like I said earlier, you know
there's like one or two personalcare products that I use that
aren't like totally in the greenand perfect.
But it's taken me time but Ifound products for everything I
need that are in that cleanspace, right, and so you just do
(19:05):
the best you can for timereplacing things and then you
just get more and more diligentwith it as you start to
understand or find the productsand then eventually you just
find the products and thenthat's just the product you buy
because you just like yeah, youjust like I think you changed me
, I think you changed my mascara.
Amanda Baca (19:23):
I think you bought me mascara like five years ago,
just because you said you likedit, but it happened to be like
super clean and I got addictedto it.
Yeah, you're just sneaky inyour way.
You didn't find things that youlike and work and then you know
you can share them with peopletoo, definitely, yeah, yeah.
So you know, kind of gettingback onto feminine issues,
(19:45):
because you know we have a lotof them and this is something
that's really close to me andyou know that and we can talk
about my journey with it.
But what are your thoughts onyour role of birth control pills
In women's reproductive health?
What potential harm are thesepills doing to us?
Nika Lawrie (20:05):
So I could probably get on a total soapbox about
birth control pills.
Specifically Hormonal-basedbirth control is where I run
into an issue.
So let me first say I thinkbirth control is a really
important thing and women shouldhave access to it without
question, right.
Amanda Baca (20:26):
Any way, in any way , in any shape.
They need it.
Nika Lawrie (20:30):
Any way, in any way , in any shape.
They need it.
Yeah, but I think there needsto be a very, very clear, direct
conversation between women andtheir physicians before they get
on some type of hormonal-basedreproductive protection, right?
The reason being is thathormonal-based birth control, so
(20:51):
let's talk about the birthcontrol pill.
There's also an IUD withhormones.
There's shots that you can get.
There's different things, right.
Amanda Baca (20:58):
But let's just talk about the pills to keep it
simple.
Nika Lawrie (21:00):
So what happens is that these pills put these
hormones into your body.
They're synthetic hormones thatthey put into your body so your
body stops producing the samehormone in your body and so your
body starts dysfunctional.
It's not functioning the way itnormally would because of these
pills coming into your body andputting these hormones, these
(21:22):
synthetic hormones, into yourbody.
And now I don't have an issuewith synthetic hormones in
general, because I think as youmove into perimetopause and
menopause, having synthetichormones or bioidentical
hormones is really important.
It can really help women.
But on the other side of that,when you're using birth control,
when your body doesn't make itsnatural hormones and it's not
(21:45):
functioning the way it normallywould, a lot of health issues
can come from that.
One thing is it can actuallymask PCOS or endometriosis and
so women actually don't knowthat these issues are starting
to occur, where there could havebeen treatments and things that
could support these womenearlier on to help relieve or
(22:09):
eliminate the symptoms that comefrom those kind of issues.
The other thing is that becauseyour body becomes so used to
having these hormones put intotheir body opposed to making it
themselves, it can also lead toinfertility issues long-term.
So the irony is, you know,women get on birth control like
15, 16 years old, sometimes evenearlier, and they're on it for
(22:34):
10, 15 years because they're notready to have children.
But then they get into their30s and they're like this is my
time to have kids and then theyrun into infertility because the
body no longer produces thehormones the way it would have
had you not been on the hormonalpills.
And so that's the issue I haveis that, you know, birth control
(22:54):
can be a really great, powerfultool, but women need to be
informed Informed consent is thekey here of long-term
repercussions of being on thesehormonal pills or hormonal
inflammation, especially forthose who are using it for long
periods of time.
(23:16):
So yeah, and then the other sideof that too is is so women use
these pills, right, and thenthere's something called
post-pill syndrome.
When they get off of it, womencan experience that.
There's a whole host of thingsthat come with that.
So there's, you know,infertility.
Like I mentioned, you can havemood swings, you can have severe
acne issues, you can havesexual dysfunction.
(23:39):
So where you don't haveinterest in having, like your
libido is gone, there's weightgain or weight loss.
It's usually weight gain, butit can be different in different
people.
Amanda Baca (23:51):
It'd be cool if it was weight loss sometimes.
Nika Lawrie (23:52):
Yeah right, it's usually not, though.
Hair loss is a big thing.
Digestive issues Women can runinto metabolic issues.
So the metabolic issues arewhat kind of cause that?
Weight gain or weight loss, andso there's all these other
factors that come with it onceyou get off the pill too right,
(24:13):
and so women are just like it'slike a triple hit.
That I really dislike.
Amanda Baca (24:21):
It's just so not fair.
And you know we can, we, you're, you're, you're you're telling
my story, um, you know it's, and, but you're telling the story
of hundreds of thousands ofother women, probably millions
of women, million, yeah, forsure.
So I, I was predisposed toendometriosis and and other
(24:42):
issues.
You know it's genetic, um, andwhen I started to experience
really horrible cramping andreally horrible periods early 14
, you know, my mom, of course,did what moms do took me to the
doctor and the cure washormonal-based birth control at
(25:04):
14.
Yeah, I didn't even know what asex was, you know.
Yeah, absolutely, but here Iwas taking hormonal birth
control and I stayed on itbecause, yeah, it helped.
And I stayed on it then when Iwas a teenager because I was
active and I didn't want to gopregnant.
(25:24):
And then in my 20s, but thenwhen it came down to, I mean, my
kiddos, uh, dad wanted to try.
I had a hard time yeah and kindof very common, yeah, yeah, and
got got the talk of it may notbe possible for you to have kids
, and I'm like I, how is thatfair?
Yeah, like you know, my momdidn't do this to me.
(25:47):
She just didn't know she thiswas the only option we had yeah
um, but no one.
Nika Lawrie (25:53):
No one took the time to tell us what else we
could do and the problem is thatwe know now we've actually
known we're a long time thedoctors.
You know the information wasout there even back in, like the
you know, the 80s and 90s whenall these girls put on birth
controls and birth control.
But you know, the informationis very much out there now and
(26:14):
these conversations are stillnot happening, and that's a big
deal.
One thing I wanted to add thatI didn't mention earlier too is
these birth control pills canactually disrupt nutrient
absorption too, and so vitamin B, magnesium and zinc are big
ones that are impacted nutrientsthat are often impacted by
(26:36):
these pills, and so you havethis inability to absorb the
nutrients and vitamin B,magnesium and zinc.
Do you know what?
They play a big role inDepression and feeling like crap
and feeling sad and blue, soweird all these women.
Amanda Baca (26:53):
So you mean us women aren't crazy?
Yeah, we're just, we'redeficient.
Yeah, and we're not even doingit to ourselves.
Yeah, but like it's a big issue.
Yeah, and we, you know, I I wasgiven these pills by a doctor
and at the time I trusted mydoctor.
(27:14):
My mom trusted my doctorbecause they were a doctor.
Why would a doctor give meanything that I don't need?
Nika Lawrie (27:20):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (27:30):
I have learned, doctors are people.
Doctors don't know everything.
Nika Lawrie (27:33):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (27:33):
And you as a woman, as a person, as a human, you
have the right to challenge thatAbsolutely.
But at that time back in the90s, we could never fathom that,
yeah, you know a doctor tellsyou to take this pill, you take
the pill, but no, I just don'tthink that there's a lot of talk
(27:55):
of advocacy for women to say,hmm, that didn't sound right, I
want to try something else first, and I think the shift is
happening that people like you,the other, you know people out,
you know doing the good workthey're inspiring women to say,
hmm, I want to hear my options.
Nika Lawrie (28:15):
Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing is that
the problem is is that it'sbeen put on the woman to have
that conversation and be youknow.
I think all people should beempowered when it comes to their
own health.
You should never just put yourhealth in the hands of somebody
else ever.
Because, to be very clear, whenyou go into a doctor's office,
(28:35):
you are a number on a list andthe doctor is there for a
business to make money.
That's how it works.
So it is your responsibility totake action with your own
health and to get somewhateducated on whatever it is that
you are dealing with, so thatyou can have a real conversation
with your doctor and get secondor third opinions if you need
(28:57):
to.
Amanda Baca (28:57):
Absolutely.
Yeah, with my healthcarejourney.
I have a gaggle of doctors Imean I just do, but they were
all placed there personally byme.
I have built my team.
I have made relationships withthese doctors, you know, and we
(29:24):
have the conversations and we,you know, I trust these people
that they will listen to me.
And if I didn't trust that theywould listen to me and take
what I didn't trust, that theywould listen to me and take what
I have into consideration, theywouldn't be on my team.
And people don't know that theyhave that.
They have that ability to sayno.
Nika Lawrie (29:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
They have the ability to say noand they have the ability to
find other people to help themon their healthcare journey if
they need to.
Amanda Baca (29:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, speaking of saying no toprocedures, hysterectomies, and
you are more than welcome tohave me talk about my journey
with this.
But you know what's the dealwith hysterectomies.
You know what information likewhat long-term effects can
hysterectomies have?
Nika Lawrie (30:07):
Yeah, so do you want to?
I mean, I can get on my wholesoapbox.
Do you want to share anythingabout your hysterectomy
journey-ish?
Well, sure.
Amanda Baca (30:19):
So, as I kind of expressed, like I have had a
lifelong journey withendometriosis, pcos, infertility
issues.
It got to a point where I washaving two-week, three-week long
periods.
I was bleeding heavily.
The pain was so excruciatingand you have actually seen me in
(30:39):
that pain.
I was on I don't know how manydifferent pain meds, from
oxycodones to Tylenol 3s,anything and everything.
I was just drugged when I wason my period and that's not the
life I wanted to live.
So I finally decided, afterdiscussions with my heart team
(31:03):
at because you know, I got toconsult them.
Yeah, um, I, I went and saw alocal in where we live.
I, I, I visited a local OBGYN.
Seemed to be a good gal and Iwent with her in desperate help.
Need of help.
Nika Lawrie (31:23):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (31:24):
And instead of well , let's start here, it was all
right.
Well, let's schedule you for ahysterectomy, yep, well, that
seems kind of heavy.
Like that you're taking a partout of me.
Yes, and at the time, at thetime I think it was only maybe,
(31:44):
you were probably 35, maybe,yeah, yeah yeah and was like I
think that's, that's something.
Nika Lawrie (31:52):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (31:52):
Like one.
Having a hysterectomy at 35seemed pretty drastic.
But offering me a hysterectomyas the first and only option,
yeah, did not seem proper.
So I I listened to you and Itook some advice and I decided
(32:15):
to get some other opinions.
So I came to a doctor here inSan Diego who knew my heart team
, who knew you know kind of myhistory and everything, and
she's like, well, no, let metalk to you about options.
You know, it was kind of one ofthose things where, okay, let's
you, you, you don't have to sayyes to the doctor right away.
(32:37):
If you don't feel comfortable,you can go get other opinions,
which I did, and I'm so thankfulthat I did because I um, we
explored the idea of doing uh,endometrial, um, shoot, an
endometrial ablation which isless invasive, it stops the
journey of endometriosis, itstops your periods, and it
(33:00):
sounded wonderful.
But unfortunately, with my hearttransplant, I would not be able
to properly heal from anablation.
So, okay, so, instead ofstopping there, my wonderful
team was like, well, hey,there's actually this new
medication that, although weknow you don't want to take any
(33:21):
more meds and I don't, but I gotto do what's going to keep me
healthy, right, yeah, so there'sthis new medication.
It's a specific endometriosismedication.
Why don't we start here?
And if it doesn't work out, weknow we tried everything before
we go something more invasive.
And Lord, I am four months outwith no cramping, no periods, no
(33:49):
issues.
I have.
My hormones have been balanced.
Nika Lawrie (33:53):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (33:54):
I go and get my hormones checked all the time I
have wonderful sex drive, I meaneverything is great and it's
all.
Because I kind of said, no,that just doesn't sound right,
like that's just not for me.
But yeah, there's.
You know, it was scary thatsomebody can just be like let's
(34:18):
just yank it out.
Nika Lawrie (34:19):
Yeah, well, I remember, so I remember you.
When that first happened, youtold me about it and the first
thing I said is, please don'tget a hysterectomy.
Yeah, and I was like, did youknow?
Yeah, and yeah, you were like,well, that's what the doctor
says I need.
And I said, yeah, but did theytell you all the side effects
and all the horrible things thatcan happen?
No, and they had not.
And so I remember specificallysharing with you several things
(34:43):
that could potentially come fromhaving a hysterectomy, and I
went oh yeah.
And then I'm so glad that youwent and got second and third
opinions, because here's whathappens is, women go into a
gynecologist office or theirphysician's office, right, and
they say I have endometriosis.
The doctor says, ok, here's ahysterectomy piece of candy,
right, they literally handed outa piece of candy their
physician's office, right, andthey say I have endometriosis.
And the doctor says, okay,here's a hysterectomy piece of
(35:04):
candy, right, they literallyhand it out like a piece of
candy.
And so all these women gethysterectomies like that.
And the problem with that isthat there are small cases here
and there where hysterectomiesare absolutely needed.
That's not that no hysterectomyshould ever be done.
I'd say probably 90% of thehysterectomies, even partial
(35:25):
hysterectomies, do not need tobe done.
And what happens is that thesewomen again are not informed
it's informed consent is the keyhere right Of all the side
effects that can come fromhaving hysterectomies.
So you can have things likehormonal imbalance I don't know
why I'm having a hard time.
(35:45):
Hormonal imbalance is one rightand like we've been talking
about hormones and why it's soimportant to make sure that
they're-.
And I'm trying to get away frommy hormonal imbalance Exactly,
or I'm going to go for more andso we're going to do more by
taking out our ovaries and allthe whole thing right, the
post-surgery side effects.
So women don't heal the same.
They can have pelvic floorissues.
(36:07):
So what happens when yourpelvic floor you have kind of a
disorder is other organs in yourbody like your bladder and
different things can move andthen that can cause really big
health issues like incontinence.
You can have constipation.
That is basically permanentconstipation.
You constantly struggle becauseall your organs have moved into
(36:30):
a different place and so thingsdon't flow and function the
same way.
There's different things likemood swing issues and weight
changes and sleep disruption.
Amanda Baca (36:42):
Because I need more of that.
I need more.
Nika Lawrie (36:46):
Right.
We're already struggling withall of those things you know, on
top of the fact that this ishappening to a lot of younger
women that are still in theirkind of fertility stage right
where they could stillpotentially have children, and
so a lot of them are told thatthey have to have a hysterectomy
because that's quote unquotethe only option, and then they
can't have children, and thatcan be a really devastating
(37:07):
thing for a lot of women,especially these women who are
getting hysterectomies in their20s or early 30s.
Options that can help treat someof these issues, like this
medication for endometriosis,pcos, can be supported by
balancing your blood sugar.
There's all kinds of differentfactors that can impact your
(37:33):
health overall and help you feelbetter without removing an
entire chunk of your body.
You don't need to just removeorgans from your body usually,
so there's different things thatyou can do that help support it
.
So I'm always, when I hear awoman say I've been told I need
a hysterectomy, I will alwaysget on my soapbox and tell them
(37:55):
go get a second, third, evenfourth opinion.
Go talk to a functionalmedicine doctor first, or
somebody who is outside of thetraditional medical world,
because there's lots ofalternatives to help support the
health issue that that womanmight be dealing with.
Amanda Baca (38:13):
You know, it was kind of interesting because I
had this OBGYN here to tell melet's yank it out, obgyn here to
tell me let's yank it out, andI had called randomly.
I actually talked to myelectrophysiologist because I
just my mind was blown and hewas like he was the one who
(38:35):
absolutely no, no, um, but it itjust took me to talk, just
talking to other people, talkingto you, talking to my heart
team, a functional doctor.
I saw a functional doctor and Isaw two other GYNs.
Like, I did my research and youare allowed to do your research
(38:58):
.
Yeah, it's your body,absolutely.
Yeah, I've had enough thingsyanked out of me that I don't
want anything else, you know,taken out or put back in or
whatever.
Um, and I'm proud of myself forfor doing that because, like I
said, you know, four months now,I've never felt this good, yeah
(39:20):
, like in that arena, um,everything else is wrong, but
but that part of me is, you know, it's great and I'm entering
into my 40s just soon, but, um,it's one part of my life I never
thought that I would havecontrol over and now I do.
Nika Lawrie (39:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Amanda Baca (39:44):
And it's.
It feels good, it's not scary.
Yeah, you know this, thisperimenopause is cake.
Yeah, for me anyways.
Yeah, so you know.
So Go ahead, sorry, go ahead.
Nika Lawrie (40:25):
Sorry, there's things that come with it and I
don't think people understandhow much power our uterus holds.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean.
There's a lot of researchtalking about women who feel
grief or the fact that they feelless feminine after they've had
it removed.
I mean, that's like yourfeminine kind of soul, right,
like that's the mass that makesyou kind of a woman, and I mean,
obviously you're a womanthrough no matter what ever, but
(40:46):
that's, you know, societally wethink about women and having
children and that fertilitypiece and everything, and so
there's a lot of grief thatcomes with that, and then on top
of that you have, you know, themood swing issues, and then,
when your hormones are out ofbalance, depression and anxiety
can come in, and so there's aton of mental health factors
that go with that too, and so itcan be really, really
(41:08):
devastating for some women.
I know a couple of women who areolder, who are now in their
seventies and eighties, who hadhysterectomies years and years
ago, and every single one ofthem regrets it.
every single one of them says Iwish I had known more at the
time and done somethingdifferent and so you know, I
just want to reiterate likethere are certain situations
(41:30):
where hysterectomies are needed,but for the vast majority,
there are other things that wecan do to support um women's
health, outside of absolutelycutting pieces out.
Yeah, so I think we have timefor one more question, if you
have one.
Amanda Baca (41:48):
Yes, I want it to be a good one, so give me a sec,
okay, okay, okay.
So someone who's new to thenon-toxic living style.
Nika Lawrie (42:01):
Yes.
Amanda Baca (42:02):
And I was this quite a few years ago.
I was brand new.
I mean, I loved fast food, Iloved my sodas, and sometimes I
still do, but I was, you know, Iwas dead set on that stuff,
right, yeah, what's a goodstarting point?
How do you help people and whatdo you recommend?
Where do we start?
(42:23):
Where do we start by switching?
Nika Lawrie (42:25):
So I think the easiest place to start is
personal care products, becauseyou're the least attached to
those than anything else, right?
So food can be a difficultplace to start, because people
have really strong cravings orthey have cultural connections
to food, or they just havehabits that they are so
accustomed to.
Right, you go to the store andyou buy the same five brands for
(42:47):
your food over and over again,and so it can be harder to break
those habits.
Amanda Baca (42:51):
And some of us, every time we go to a certain
gas station we have to get acertain gas station chimmy.
Nika Lawrie (42:57):
Yeah, right, and I will not give that up.
Amanda Baca (42:58):
Yeah right, there's different types of food that
people really love, and I willnot give that up.
Nika Lawrie (43:02):
Yeah right, there's different types of food that
people really love.
So I think food is the harderspot to start, but probably,
honestly, it's the mostimportant spot to change.
So you have to get to thatpoint at some point.
Beauty, I'd say, is the secondhardest spot to change because
once you find makeup that youlike second hardest spot to
(43:23):
change because once you findmakeup that you like, you don't
want to change it, because womenbecome very accustomed to the
way the makeup feels on theirskin, on their face, right, like
how long it lasts throughoutthe day, and so it's a little
bit harder to change that.
So what I'd say is personal care, because changing your shampoo
or changing your toothpaste orchanging your deodorant, you
have that less attachment to,and so shampoo, conditioner,
(43:45):
hairsprays, deodorants,toothpaste, all of those things.
Start with that first and gouse those apps, start scanning.
Go to the store and startscanning.
Scan the products you have inyour house, and then you can
either make the decision to youknow, clean everything out, as
once I've done that multipletimes or you can use up what you
(44:07):
have and then, once you go tothe store, replace it with a
cleaner option.
But again, be very careful ofgreenwashing.
Don't just buy somethingbecause it's on the label.
Actually scan it and look atwhat the ingredients are.
The cool thing about the apps,too, is like when it red flags
an ingredient, it will tell youthis is crappy because of X, y,
(44:27):
z, like.
So you'll start to learn whatthese different ingredients are
and how they impact you.
So that's a big thing.
Toothpaste is a big one.
I would say get toothpastewithout fluoride.
That was my first one.
That was my first change.
Yeah, right, and so toothpastecan be easy, because most
toothpaste still sort of tastesthe same, no matter where you go
.
Right, there's nothing specialabout it.
(44:49):
Yeah, but get something withoutfluoride, and it is a big one.
For those who think fluoride isa big controversy, the issue
with fluoride is it actuallylowers your IQ, like it
literally is destroying yourbrain cells, and so that's why
there's this big fight overfluoride right now In the water
Fluoride in the water andfluoride that we put on our
teeth and fluoride in toothpaste.
(45:11):
And so the simple there'sactual data, there's real
research that shows thatfluoride is impacting Americans'
IQs, and so let's reduce ourexposure to it.
And then so, yes, yes.
And then shampoos andconditioners I mentioned earlier
, but that's a big one becauseyou lather that all over and
then it runs down your wholebody when you're showering and
(45:32):
that stuff can get absorbed.
And, um, those are big areasthat have a lot of phthalates
and parabens, shampoos andconditioners and big fat.
And then the last one I didn'tmention, which is really, really
important, is perfumes.
Um, perfumes are like supertoxic, and so I buy pretty much
only clean perfumes.
they're actually pretty hard tofind, um, but there, are some
(45:53):
out there, um, and then I dohave a few perfumes that I had
prior to um, cleaning everything.
But I use them only once in awhile, on very special occasions
, right, like if I'm going out,you know, for my wedding
anniversary, to a dinner orsomething, I'll spray one of my
favorite perfumes, but otherwiseI either don't wear perfume or
(46:15):
I wear a very clean perfume.
And then lotions are the lastbig one, and lotions are so key
because they have tons offragrances in them usually too.
Start with that, then go tobeauty and makeup.
Try to get all of your makeupclean as possible, especially
your foundations and yourprimers and the creams that
you're rubbing on your face.
Those are the big ones.
(46:35):
Moisturizers are really big.
And then move to food and waterand go from there.
There's a whole host of othertoxic things that we can talk
about.
You know, your air filters inyour house and your bed spreads
and the clothes you wear Likeit's a whole other thing that we
can get into my thing is the.
Amanda Baca (46:53):
I'm addicted to those things I plug in my wall,
so we get smell.
Nika Lawrie (46:57):
Throw those out.
I hate them.
Throw those out.
Amanda Baca (46:59):
Yes, but I'm so just, oh, I love them, but I get
it, and with the perfumes likeI you know which store, but I
used to work at a certainclothing store and I have always
worn this specific perfume.
Yeah, the smell brings me backto happiness, you know that, and
I'm not going to get rid of it.
(47:20):
But, like you said, I use itsparingly now and if I do use it
, I put it on my clothinginstead of my skin On your skin.
Nika Lawrie (47:36):
Yeah, that's a good way to do it too.
Going back to the airfresheners that you plug into
your wall, if there's one thingI could ask you to throw out,
that would be the biggest one.
Those things are so freakingtoxic.
They're horrific for yourhealth, including the ones that
you put in the car.
There are two options that youcan rent.
So you can buy a diffuser foryour house and it's got the
water and you put in a coupledrips of essential oils and then
(47:58):
it diffuses into your house andmakes your house smell great.
So that's a healthier option.
And then two, you can actuallyget little plug-in like they sit
onto your car air, like AC,like the little slits right
where the air comes in.
Oh, okay, okay, yeah.
So they clip onto that and youcan put drips of essential oil
(48:18):
on them.
And then you can put that onyour car too.
Yeah, so healthier option ifyou have to have the scents in
your house I know, but they'reso cute.
Amanda Baca (48:27):
But I know, I mean I can either be, I can either
care about vanity, and in mylife I have cared about vanity
biggie big time.
It's a big part of me.
Nika Lawrie (48:39):
But the thing is is that I can is that I wear
makeup all the time.
I still wear perfume.
I put, you know, hairspray inmy hair, you know, on and off
throughout the week, right, like?
I still do all of those things,but I figured out how to do it
without these toxic chemicals,so you can still have, you can
still be vain and care about thebeauty of things without the
(49:02):
toxic chemicals.
You just have to decide to makethat decision.
So why?
not prioritize your health andvanity at the same time.
They can go hand in hand.
Health does not have to excludevanity.
That's a misnomer that we needto get rid of.
Amanda Baca (49:18):
You know, I think, when people think here I live
organically and I use cleanproducts, they're expecting some
like dreadlock.
No, that's not the case at allanymore Like that's totally,
this is all natural stuff.
I am all natural right now,except my nails, and I will not
get rid of those, but like it's,like it's easy to do.
Nika Lawrie (49:43):
And it's okay.
You pick one or two things.
Like you know, I still get mynails done too, but everything
else is super clean, and so youjust make that decision to
prioritize your health alongsideyour beauty.
Amanda Baca (49:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Nika Lawrie (49:57):
Absolutely.
Amanda Baca (49:58):
Well, thank you so much.
Nika Lawrie (49:59):
Yeah, thank you.
This has been a wonderfulconversation.
I'm really glad we've been ableto get this information out
there.
I really appreciate you sharingyour stories with us too.
I know it can be hard todiscuss all this stuff, so I'm
grateful, thank you.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show.
I, of course, am your host,nika Lawrie, and today we are
flipping the script again.
I've invited one of my verybest friends, amanda Baca, to
the show, and Amanda is going toask me a whole bunch of
important questions aboutwomen's health and reproductive
health and kind of you know, thesensitive areas of our body
(00:38):
questions about that, and we'regoing to have some conversations
about health issues that we'vestruggled with.
So, amanda, welcome to the show.
I'm so glad to have you back on.
Thank you.
Amanda Baca (00:47):
I'm excited, I'm so proud of you.
Nika Lawrie (00:49):
Oh, thank you, I appreciate it.
I'm super grateful that you'regoing to come on and just ask
questions and we get to havethis really cool conversation.
So with that I'll hand it toyou as the host for today to
start.
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (01:03):
Ask away today to start.
Yeah, ask away, sure, um, youknow I have a lot of questions
on because, as you know, as oneof my best friends, that I've
dealt with a lot of reproductivehealth issues, women's health
issues, along withcardiovascular issues yeah, a
lot of things going on in my, inmy life that, um, you know,
just talking with you throughoutthe years, I've learned a lot
(01:24):
about you know, more naturalremedies, more natural causes.
But you know I am very intobeauty products.
I always have been, yeah, andit's always been a part of my
life and I just, you know, Ithink that there's just more to
it than going and buyingsomething that says it's organic
(01:46):
.
Yeah definitely so.
Like for me, my reproductivehealth has really taken a shot.
What would you say like, whatcommon beauty, like personal
care products, what effects doesit have on reproductive health?
Like what are these productsreally doing to me?
Nika Lawrie (02:09):
Yeah, so there's several ingredients that are in
a lot of personal care andbeauty products that we really
need to be aware of andconcerned about, honestly.
So the big three would bephthalates, parabens and
formaldehyde.
All three of those are commonchemicals.
And then fragrances let's sayfragrances are another big one.
(02:29):
So the four of those are foundin tons of different cosmetics
or personal care products.
You'll see phthalates andparabens in a lot of like
lotions and shampoos and thingslike that.
They tend to be eitherfragrances, or they help
fragrances last longer or theyhelp things stay shelf stable.
(02:54):
They're like a preservative aswell.
Formaldehyde is also used as apreservative and then, yeah, so
formaldehyde on your body.
Yeah, like so when people dieright and they're embalmed, we
use formaldehyde, so we'reputting that into our beauty and
personal care products and thenlathering that all over our
body on a daily basis.
Amanda Baca (03:15):
Are they putting formaldehyde for the same
concept as they do to use it toembalm people?
Yeah, to basically make itlong-lasting.
Nika Lawrie (03:24):
To embalm people, yeah, basically, make it long
lasting.
Yes, to make it long lasting.
That's exactly what it's for.
It's a, it's a preservativethat's used to make it last a
long time.
And then the other thing I'lladd to this this isn't going to
affect your hormones as much,but it can also be kind of an
unhealthy thing.
A lot of women will buy makeupbecause makeup is so expensive.
They'll hang on to it for avery long time, right, like you
buy a lipstick or a lip glossand it's your favorite, so you
(03:47):
don't want to use it all thetime, right, but you use it here
and there.
Well, over time, bacteria fromjust using it will grow in there
and then you can have issueswith the bacteria that's in the
makeup.
This happens in powders andfoundations and all kinds of
stuff too.
So it's not just the kind ofmore liquid or soft makeups you
have to be really careful about,you know, not keeping makeup
(04:10):
for a really long period of time, because they do go bad.
But going back to, you know,the phthalates, the parabens,
the formaldehydes.
There's some other chemicals aswell, but those are kind of the
most common ones.
What happens Sorry, go ahead, oh, common ones.
What happens is that thesechemicals can disrupt your
hormones.
They're known as endocrinedisrupting chemicals, EDCs and
(04:34):
so these EDCs disrupt yourhormones in your body, and so
what they can do is they canmimic hormones like estrogen, so
you have too much estrogen inyour body.
They can disrupt your abilityto produce hormones correctly,
so then you don't have enough ofthe hormones in your body, and
then they can also disrupt howthe hormones communicate
(04:56):
throughout the body, and so whenyour hormones are the messenger
system of your body right, andso when those are out of whack,
right and so when those are outof whack, your body is having a
hard time communicating withitself, telling itself what to
do, and this is especiallyimportant when it comes to
women's kind of reproductivehealth.
So things like infertility,pcos, different things like that
(05:21):
, can be caused or triggered bythese hormone disruptions.
Amanda Baca (05:33):
Yeah, I mean, as you know, I've suffered with
PCOS and endometriosis now foryears and I used to kind of
blame myself, like something I'mdoing is doing this to myself.
But I, you know, slowlylearning like I didn't.
I didn't purposely do this tomyself.
No, of course not.
No, and women are kind of not.
They're not allowed to think,they're not allowed to give
(05:58):
themselves grace when they haveendometriosis and PCOS.
You know, like there has to beanother cause.
Yeah, and to hear, well, it'sjust your body, it makes me feel
guilty that I did it.
I did this to myself, but it'snot.
Nika Lawrie (06:13):
No, absolutely not.
I mean, there are parts of itthat can be genetic, but usually
what's happening is that theseissues are being triggered or
disrupted by different chemicalscoming in your body.
There's other environmentalfactors too, so glucose or
(06:37):
insulin resistance can be a bigissue for PCOS.
So when your sugar is out ofbalance, your blood sugar is out
of balance, that can helptrigger not help, but it can
cause the trigger of PCOS aswell.
So there's a lot of differentfactors that play a role in this
, and so, even if you are kindof genetically predisposed to
these health issues, whathappens is that these chemicals
(07:05):
and different factors in yourlife can cause them to, um, get
worse yeah, and you know,growing up in the 80s, 90s,
early 2000s, what all the junkthat we ingested.
Amanda Baca (07:20):
I mean, yeah, but it was also because our parents
didn't know.
But you know they had nodifferent, they didn't know
better and but it was alsobecause our parents didn't know.
But you know, they didn't knowdifferent, they didn't know
better, and it was, it was whatwe were given.
And so you know, I waspredisposed to diabetes and my
A1C now is shot.
It's horrible and thankfullyI've made lifestyle changes to
to help that.
But you know, now I'm having towork twice as hard.
Nika Lawrie (07:44):
Yeah, the thing is that you can come back from
issue.
By making lifestyle changes andchanging what you're exposing
your body to, both on theoutside and inside, like the
things that you're eating anddrinking, you can bring your
body back into homeostasis andheal your body.
Amanda Baca (08:09):
I'm doing it so you know, besides like formaldehyde
and all those parabens andeverything, are there any like
other toxins in beauty products,like what else is in there?
Because, like I read the backof my foundations, the ones I
used to use, I mean the list waslike this and I couldn't
pronounce half of it.
Nika Lawrie (08:27):
Yeah, so there are tons of different ingredients
and chemicals that can causeissues.
So right now in kind of thegeneral chemical industry
there's about 90,000 chemicals.
Of those, about 42 to 45,000chemicals are in what's
considered active use, sothey're in products that are
(08:48):
being used kind of on a dailybasis, and that's a whole range
of things, you know, that can gofrom, like you know, oil for
your car all the way down to,like the plastic silverware that
you're using at a picnic to theproducts that you're putting on
your body right.
So there's tons of differentchemicals out there.
Of those about 45,000, very fewof them have ever been tested
(09:10):
for safety or efficacy on humanor environmental health, and so
we know that a lot of thesedifferent chemicals are causing
health issues for both humansand the environment.
But because the industry isprimarily regulated by the
manufacturers of the chemicalsthemselves, very few are being
(09:33):
tagged as a danger.
In the US there's only fivechemicals that have ever been
banned use because we know forsure that they are causing
health.
When you compare that to the EU, where there's about 1,500
chemicals that have been banned,and so we know that the EU has
much stricter regulations on theapproval of different chemicals
(09:57):
and how they're allowed to beused in different products that
you buy in the store in theshelves right and so in the US,
we're very bad about reallyputting human safety first and
so.
Amanda Baca (10:13):
Imagine, imagine.
Nika Lawrie (10:14):
Tons of different chemicals in these different
ingredients.
The easiest way to go about itis one you kind of just look and
see.
You know, do they havephthalates, parabens?
Usually the ones that don'thave it.
A lot of the products will sayparaben-free or phthalate-free.
But the easiest way to go aboutdoing that is actually just to
(10:35):
download some of the apps.
So there's Yuka Think Dirty.
The Environmental Working Grouphas an app as well where you
can just scan barcodes onproducts and it'll tell you in
like a red, yellow, green scaleor a zero to 100 scale of what's
safe and what's not.
Amanda Baca (10:54):
That's pretty cool.
Nika Lawrie (10:55):
Yeah, For me.
I try to stay completely in thegreen.
There are maybe two productsthat all sit in the yellow.
If it's a high yellow or red, Iabsolutely don't buy them at
all.
So that helps you kind ofnavigate which one's that one.
So Yuka is my favorite.
Y-u-k-a Think Dirty is theother main app, and this really
(11:16):
helps for beauty and personalcare products.
Oh perfect, the EnvironmentalWorking Group has two apps.
They have a beauty personalcare app and then they also have
a food app as well.
So that makes it as easy aspossible to scan those.
Amanda Baca (11:32):
So okay.
So like I get ingest in how Iwould ingest.
You know, if I go to a fastfood restaurant chain, I get how
I'm ingesting those toxins.
But like, if I'm puttingsomething just on my skin, how
is it ingesting into my body?
How is that affecting theinsides?
Nika Lawrie (11:48):
So your skin is the largest organ of your body,
right, okay, and your skin, yeah, and your skin.
The main purpose of your skinis for detoxification.
So you think about your sweat.
(12:12):
Like your pores, the sweat'scoming out of that.
That's one way that your bodyis releasing toxins within your
body.
The other piece of that is thatwhen you put these chemicals
like lotion, for instance, likea high fragrance lotion you put
those chemicals onto your body.
Some of that not all, but someof those chemicals can then be
absorbed through the skin andeventually end up in your
bloodstream or moving throughoutyour body.
And the issue that happens isthat it's not like a one-time
thing, like, oh, this one time Iused it, and then you know I
(12:34):
didn't, and it's like fine.
What happens is it's acumulative issue, and so you use
, you know, lotion here and thensunscreen here, and then
eyeshadow here, and then lipgloss here, and then shampoo
here, and then eyeshadow here,and then lip gloss here, and
then shampoo here and perfumehere, like, yeah, right, and so
all of these products areoverlapping each other and it's
building up in your body andyour body can't detox it fast
(12:56):
enough, and there are somechemicals that are considered
forever chemicals that justnever leave your body as well.
Amanda Baca (13:02):
So I mean, it makes sense.
I mean, especially like, ifyou're using mascara, you're
directly putting that into dry,yeah, or you know, I think about
like, how many times do I putlip gloss on a day A day?
Yeah, and I'm literally eatingit.
Yeah, yeah, and I'm literallyeating it.
(13:23):
Yeah, yeah, or you know and itjust popped up in my head,
speaking of feminine productsand stuff that's going directly
either in you, on you,especially like feminine wipes,
feminine, you know, thoselotions and creams and washes
that are supposed to mask smellsand stuff.
Nika Lawrie (13:43):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (13:44):
God, I read those, those things like how much crap
is in that?
Nika Lawrie (13:48):
and you're like it's going, it's going right up.
Yeah, like, there's been a hugething over the last few months
talking about tampons and howtampons have, um, lead and
cadmium in them, how a lot ofthem will still have residues
from pesticides because, like,if they're made from cotton and
then they were sprayed with apesticide, then they're still
(14:08):
absorbing that and then that'sgoing up into your vag, you know
, and then your body absorbsthose chemicals and it has a
real impact on your health.
Amanda Baca (14:19):
You know, we've obviously we've talked about the
tampon issue before.
We've obviously we've talkedabout the tampon issue before.
I, like everybody else,everyone that's coming out of
the well, some stark ages of ourmoms and our grandmas, we've
been using the same brands overand over and over again and I
(14:41):
started to feel very, very illevery time I had to use them.
I was cramping, I was sick, mybleeding was very irregular.
And it was you, you, you know,made me try this, you know, and
you gave me a few brands to try,and I did, and I will.
You know, I no longer have aperiod anymore, but I'm fine.
(15:04):
But you know, having a preteennow girl, I am adamant about the
products she uses, Absolutely,because you really don't realize
it's not just cotton yeah,you're not you're not just no.
Nika Lawrie (15:19):
A lot of them have either a thin plastic wrap
around them or a plastic mixedin as well, and then your body
is absorbing the chemicals fromthe plastic too.
So, yeah, it can be a realissue yeah, um, it's just how,
and and speak.
Amanda Baca (15:37):
I mean.
So I, I go to the store and I'mI'm looking for feminine
products for my daughter, right,and you know she's not old
enough to use what I use, butshe needs something.
So I'm looking around andeverything says organic.
Now, literally everything, evenin beauty products lotions,
candles.
You know, everyone says organic.
(15:58):
How can I tell if it really is?
Because it says organic.
And then I turn it over andthere's that list of parabens
and all that stuff.
Like how?
Nika Lawrie (16:09):
can I tell?
So two things to consider whenit comes to that.
One is understanding a conceptcalled greenwashing.
So companies put logos or wordsor verbiage on their marketing
that'll say organic or naturalor you know some kind of thing
that sounds like it's healthywhen reality that's just
(16:31):
marketing.
That's just marketing speakthat they'll put on there.
Most of those terms are notactually regulated.
The only thing that you'll seethat is regulated here in the
United States is USDA approvedorganic.
You'll see a circle stamp on itand that means that it's met
the qualifications of the USD tocall itself organic.
(16:53):
So it's the only time.
Even that can still be slightlyquestionable, because they
usually only test the placeswhere those products are coming
from maybe once a year to provethat they are organic.
Right, that they did their duediligence Exactly.
Yeah, but it's the best we haveright now.
(17:14):
So if you're looking fororganic, you look for that USDA
approved organic stamp.
Otherwise, I would say again,refer back to like the Yuka, I
think dirty apps, because thosewill at least tell you, you know
, whether or not the ingredientsor the materials used to make,
(17:35):
say, the tampons or the pads orwhatever, are non-harmful to the
body.
But it is still kind of just acrapshoot when you go.
So it's, you know it's walkingthrough a minefield and doing
the best you can to you know,find the product.
Amanda Baca (17:53):
So you just kind of hope for the best, yeah and
yeah, but there are things thatyou can do.
Nika Lawrie (17:57):
I mean, even if it's not perfect, by reducing
your exposure, by buying theproducts that are as clean as we
can find and good, reducingyour exposure substantially, and
that's huge exposuresubstantially and that's huge.
Amanda Baca (18:13):
You know, and I think that's how I kind of got
started with you and in thiswhole journey of more of a clean
living is I didn't go fullthrottle.
You know, I do still allowmyself some junk, because I like
it, but adding those littlethings bits and bits, like
starting with tampons and then,you know, moving through my huge
(18:34):
vanity of stuff, you know, andreplacing them, like it was
easier that way.
Yeah, yeah, and some are not100%, and I just love the
product.
Nika Lawrie (18:45):
Yeah, and that's okay.
You know, like the idea for me,like I said earlier, you know
there's like one or two personalcare products that I use that
aren't like totally in the greenand perfect.
But it's taken me time but Ifound products for everything I
need that are in that cleanspace, right, and so you just do
(19:05):
the best you can for timereplacing things and then you
just get more and more diligentwith it as you start to
understand or find the productsand then eventually you just
find the products and thenthat's just the product you buy
because you just like yeah, youjust like I think you changed me
, I think you changed my mascara.
Amanda Baca (19:23):
I think you bought me mascara like five years ago,
just because you said you likedit, but it happened to be like
super clean and I got addictedto it.
Yeah, you're just sneaky inyour way.
You didn't find things that youlike and work and then you know
you can share them with peopletoo, definitely, yeah, yeah.
So you know, kind of gettingback onto feminine issues,
(19:45):
because you know we have a lotof them and this is something
that's really close to me andyou know that and we can talk
about my journey with it.
But what are your thoughts onyour role of birth control pills
In women's reproductive health?
What potential harm are thesepills doing to us?
Nika Lawrie (20:05):
So I could probably get on a total soapbox about
birth control pills.
Specifically Hormonal-basedbirth control is where I run
into an issue.
So let me first say I thinkbirth control is a really
important thing and women shouldhave access to it without
question, right.
Amanda Baca (20:26):
Any way, in any way , in any shape.
They need it.
Nika Lawrie (20:30):
Any way, in any way , in any shape.
They need it.
Yeah, but I think there needsto be a very, very clear, direct
conversation between women andtheir physicians before they get
on some type of hormonal-basedreproductive protection, right?
The reason being is thathormonal-based birth control, so
(20:51):
let's talk about the birthcontrol pill.
There's also an IUD withhormones.
There's shots that you can get.
There's different things, right.
Amanda Baca (20:58):
But let's just talk about the pills to keep it
simple.
Nika Lawrie (21:00):
So what happens is that these pills put these
hormones into your body.
They're synthetic hormones thatthey put into your body so your
body stops producing the samehormone in your body and so your
body starts dysfunctional.
It's not functioning the way itnormally would because of these
pills coming into your body andputting these hormones, these
(21:22):
synthetic hormones, into yourbody.
And now I don't have an issuewith synthetic hormones in
general, because I think as youmove into perimetopause and
menopause, having synthetichormones or bioidentical
hormones is really important.
It can really help women.
But on the other side of that,when you're using birth control,
when your body doesn't make itsnatural hormones and it's not
(21:45):
functioning the way it normallywould, a lot of health issues
can come from that.
One thing is it can actuallymask PCOS or endometriosis and
so women actually don't knowthat these issues are starting
to occur, where there could havebeen treatments and things that
could support these womenearlier on to help relieve or
(22:09):
eliminate the symptoms that comefrom those kind of issues.
The other thing is that becauseyour body becomes so used to
having these hormones put intotheir body opposed to making it
themselves, it can also lead toinfertility issues long-term.
So the irony is, you know,women get on birth control like
15, 16 years old, sometimes evenearlier, and they're on it for
(22:34):
10, 15 years because they're notready to have children.
But then they get into their30s and they're like this is my
time to have kids and then theyrun into infertility because the
body no longer produces thehormones the way it would have
had you not been on the hormonalpills.
And so that's the issue I haveis that, you know, birth control
(22:54):
can be a really great, powerfultool, but women need to be
informed Informed consent is thekey here of long-term
repercussions of being on thesehormonal pills or hormonal
inflammation, especially forthose who are using it for long
periods of time.
(23:16):
So yeah, and then the other sideof that too is is so women use
these pills, right, and thenthere's something called
post-pill syndrome.
When they get off of it, womencan experience that.
There's a whole host of thingsthat come with that.
So there's, you know,infertility.
Like I mentioned, you can havemood swings, you can have severe
acne issues, you can havesexual dysfunction.
(23:39):
So where you don't haveinterest in having, like your
libido is gone, there's weightgain or weight loss.
It's usually weight gain, butit can be different in different
people.
Amanda Baca (23:51):
It'd be cool if it was weight loss sometimes.
Nika Lawrie (23:52):
Yeah right, it's usually not, though.
Hair loss is a big thing.
Digestive issues Women can runinto metabolic issues.
So the metabolic issues arewhat kind of cause that?
Weight gain or weight loss, andso there's all these other
factors that come with it onceyou get off the pill too right,
(24:13):
and so women are just like it'slike a triple hit.
That I really dislike.
Amanda Baca (24:21):
It's just so not fair.
And you know we can, we, you're, you're, you're you're telling
my story, um, you know it's, and, but you're telling the story
of hundreds of thousands ofother women, probably millions
of women, million, yeah, forsure.
So I, I was predisposed toendometriosis and and other
(24:42):
issues.
You know it's genetic, um, andwhen I started to experience
really horrible cramping andreally horrible periods early 14
, you know, my mom, of course,did what moms do took me to the
doctor and the cure washormonal-based birth control at
(25:04):
14.
Yeah, I didn't even know what asex was, you know.
Yeah, absolutely, but here Iwas taking hormonal birth
control and I stayed on itbecause, yeah, it helped.
And I stayed on it then when Iwas a teenager because I was
active and I didn't want to gopregnant.
(25:24):
And then in my 20s, but thenwhen it came down to, I mean, my
kiddos, uh, dad wanted to try.
I had a hard time yeah and kindof very common, yeah, yeah, and
got got the talk of it may notbe possible for you to have kids
, and I'm like I, how is thatfair?
Yeah, like you know, my momdidn't do this to me.
(25:47):
She just didn't know she thiswas the only option we had yeah
um, but no one.
Nika Lawrie (25:53):
No one took the time to tell us what else we
could do and the problem is thatwe know now we've actually
known we're a long time thedoctors.
You know the information wasout there even back in, like the
you know, the 80s and 90s whenall these girls put on birth
controls and birth control.
But you know, the informationis very much out there now and
(26:14):
these conversations are stillnot happening, and that's a big
deal.
One thing I wanted to add thatI didn't mention earlier too is
these birth control pills canactually disrupt nutrient
absorption too, and so vitamin B, magnesium and zinc are big
ones that are impacted nutrientsthat are often impacted by
(26:36):
these pills, and so you havethis inability to absorb the
nutrients and vitamin B,magnesium and zinc.
Do you know what?
They play a big role inDepression and feeling like crap
and feeling sad and blue, soweird all these women.
Amanda Baca (26:53):
So you mean us women aren't crazy?
Yeah, we're just, we'redeficient.
Yeah, and we're not even doingit to ourselves.
Yeah, but like it's a big issue.
Yeah, and we, you know, I I wasgiven these pills by a doctor
and at the time I trusted mydoctor.
(27:14):
My mom trusted my doctorbecause they were a doctor.
Why would a doctor give meanything that I don't need?
Nika Lawrie (27:20):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (27:30):
I have learned, doctors are people.
Doctors don't know everything.
Nika Lawrie (27:33):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (27:33):
And you as a woman, as a person, as a human, you
have the right to challenge thatAbsolutely.
But at that time back in the90s, we could never fathom that,
yeah, you know a doctor tellsyou to take this pill, you take
the pill, but no, I just don'tthink that there's a lot of talk
(27:55):
of advocacy for women to say,hmm, that didn't sound right, I
want to try something else first, and I think the shift is
happening that people like you,the other, you know people out,
you know doing the good workthey're inspiring women to say,
hmm, I want to hear my options.
Nika Lawrie (28:15):
Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing is that
the problem is is that it'sbeen put on the woman to have
that conversation and be youknow.
I think all people should beempowered when it comes to their
own health.
You should never just put yourhealth in the hands of somebody
else ever.
Because, to be very clear, whenyou go into a doctor's office,
(28:35):
you are a number on a list andthe doctor is there for a
business to make money.
That's how it works.
So it is your responsibility totake action with your own
health and to get somewhateducated on whatever it is that
you are dealing with, so thatyou can have a real conversation
with your doctor and get secondor third opinions if you need
(28:57):
to.
Amanda Baca (28:57):
Absolutely.
Yeah, with my healthcarejourney.
I have a gaggle of doctors Imean I just do, but they were
all placed there personally byme.
I have built my team.
I have made relationships withthese doctors, you know, and we
(29:24):
have the conversations and we,you know, I trust these people
that they will listen to me.
And if I didn't trust that theywould listen to me and take
what I didn't trust, that theywould listen to me and take what
I have into consideration, theywouldn't be on my team.
And people don't know that theyhave that.
They have that ability to sayno.
Nika Lawrie (29:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
They have the ability to say noand they have the ability to
find other people to help themon their healthcare journey if
they need to.
Amanda Baca (29:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, speaking of saying no toprocedures, hysterectomies, and
you are more than welcome tohave me talk about my journey
with this.
But you know what's the dealwith hysterectomies.
You know what information likewhat long-term effects can
hysterectomies have?
Nika Lawrie (30:07):
Yeah, so do you want to?
I mean, I can get on my wholesoapbox.
Do you want to share anythingabout your hysterectomy
journey-ish?
Well, sure.
Amanda Baca (30:19):
So, as I kind of expressed, like I have had a
lifelong journey withendometriosis, pcos, infertility
issues.
It got to a point where I washaving two-week, three-week long
periods.
I was bleeding heavily.
The pain was so excruciatingand you have actually seen me in
(30:39):
that pain.
I was on I don't know how manydifferent pain meds, from
oxycodones to Tylenol 3s,anything and everything.
I was just drugged when I wason my period and that's not the
life I wanted to live.
So I finally decided, afterdiscussions with my heart team
(31:03):
at because you know, I got toconsult them.
Yeah, um, I, I went and saw alocal in where we live.
I, I, I visited a local OBGYN.
Seemed to be a good gal and Iwent with her in desperate help.
Need of help.
Nika Lawrie (31:23):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (31:24):
And instead of well , let's start here, it was all
right.
Well, let's schedule you for ahysterectomy, yep, well, that
seems kind of heavy.
Like that you're taking a partout of me.
Yes, and at the time, at thetime I think it was only maybe,
(31:44):
you were probably 35, maybe,yeah, yeah yeah and was like I
think that's, that's something.
Nika Lawrie (31:52):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (31:52):
Like one.
Having a hysterectomy at 35seemed pretty drastic.
But offering me a hysterectomyas the first and only option,
yeah, did not seem proper.
So I I listened to you and Itook some advice and I decided
(32:15):
to get some other opinions.
So I came to a doctor here inSan Diego who knew my heart team
, who knew you know kind of myhistory and everything, and
she's like, well, no, let metalk to you about options.
You know, it was kind of one ofthose things where, okay, let's
you, you, you don't have to sayyes to the doctor right away.
(32:37):
If you don't feel comfortable,you can go get other opinions,
which I did, and I'm so thankfulthat I did because I um, we
explored the idea of doing uh,endometrial, um, shoot, an
endometrial ablation which isless invasive, it stops the
journey of endometriosis, itstops your periods, and it
(33:00):
sounded wonderful.
But unfortunately, with my hearttransplant, I would not be able
to properly heal from anablation.
So, okay, so, instead ofstopping there, my wonderful
team was like, well, hey,there's actually this new
medication that, although weknow you don't want to take any
(33:21):
more meds and I don't, but I gotto do what's going to keep me
healthy, right, yeah, so there'sthis new medication.
It's a specific endometriosismedication.
Why don't we start here?
And if it doesn't work out, weknow we tried everything before
we go something more invasive.
And Lord, I am four months outwith no cramping, no periods, no
(33:49):
issues.
I have.
My hormones have been balanced.
Nika Lawrie (33:53):
Yeah.
Amanda Baca (33:54):
I go and get my hormones checked all the time I
have wonderful sex drive, I meaneverything is great and it's
all.
Because I kind of said, no,that just doesn't sound right,
like that's just not for me.
But yeah, there's.
You know, it was scary thatsomebody can just be like let's
(34:18):
just yank it out.
Nika Lawrie (34:19):
Yeah, well, I remember, so I remember you.
When that first happened, youtold me about it and the first
thing I said is, please don'tget a hysterectomy.
Yeah, and I was like, did youknow?
Yeah, and yeah, you were like,well, that's what the doctor
says I need.
And I said, yeah, but did theytell you all the side effects
and all the horrible things thatcan happen?
No, and they had not.
And so I remember specificallysharing with you several things
(34:43):
that could potentially come fromhaving a hysterectomy, and I
went oh yeah.
And then I'm so glad that youwent and got second and third
opinions, because here's whathappens is, women go into a
gynecologist office or theirphysician's office, right, and
they say I have endometriosis.
The doctor says, ok, here's ahysterectomy piece of candy,
right, they literally handed outa piece of candy their
physician's office, right, andthey say I have endometriosis.
And the doctor says, okay,here's a hysterectomy piece of
(35:04):
candy, right, they literallyhand it out like a piece of
candy.
And so all these women gethysterectomies like that.
And the problem with that isthat there are small cases here
and there where hysterectomiesare absolutely needed.
That's not that no hysterectomyshould ever be done.
I'd say probably 90% of thehysterectomies, even partial
(35:25):
hysterectomies, do not need tobe done.
And what happens is that thesewomen again are not informed
it's informed consent is the keyhere right Of all the side
effects that can come fromhaving hysterectomies.
So you can have things likehormonal imbalance I don't know
why I'm having a hard time.
(35:45):
Hormonal imbalance is one rightand like we've been talking
about hormones and why it's soimportant to make sure that
they're-.
And I'm trying to get away frommy hormonal imbalance Exactly,
or I'm going to go for more andso we're going to do more by
taking out our ovaries and allthe whole thing right, the
post-surgery side effects.
So women don't heal the same.
They can have pelvic floorissues.
(36:07):
So what happens when yourpelvic floor you have kind of a
disorder is other organs in yourbody like your bladder and
different things can move andthen that can cause really big
health issues like incontinence.
You can have constipation.
That is basically permanentconstipation.
You constantly struggle becauseall your organs have moved into
(36:30):
a different place and so thingsdon't flow and function the
same way.
There's different things likemood swing issues and weight
changes and sleep disruption.
Amanda Baca (36:42):
Because I need more of that.
I need more.
Nika Lawrie (36:46):
Right.
We're already struggling withall of those things you know, on
top of the fact that this ishappening to a lot of younger
women that are still in theirkind of fertility stage right
where they could stillpotentially have children, and
so a lot of them are told thatthey have to have a hysterectomy
because that's quote unquotethe only option, and then they
can't have children, and thatcan be a really devastating
(37:07):
thing for a lot of women,especially these women who are
getting hysterectomies in their20s or early 30s.
Options that can help treat someof these issues, like this
medication for endometriosis,pcos, can be supported by
balancing your blood sugar.
There's all kinds of differentfactors that can impact your
(37:33):
health overall and help you feelbetter without removing an
entire chunk of your body.
You don't need to just removeorgans from your body usually,
so there's different things thatyou can do that help support it
.
So I'm always, when I hear awoman say I've been told I need
a hysterectomy, I will alwaysget on my soapbox and tell them
(37:55):
go get a second, third, evenfourth opinion.
Go talk to a functionalmedicine doctor first, or
somebody who is outside of thetraditional medical world,
because there's lots ofalternatives to help support the
health issue that that womanmight be dealing with.
Amanda Baca (38:13):
You know, it was kind of interesting because I
had this OBGYN here to tell melet's yank it out, obgyn here to
tell me let's yank it out, andI had called randomly.
I actually talked to myelectrophysiologist because I
just my mind was blown and hewas like he was the one who
(38:35):
absolutely no, no, um, but it itjust took me to talk, just
talking to other people, talkingto you, talking to my heart
team, a functional doctor.
I saw a functional doctor and Isaw two other GYNs.
Like, I did my research and youare allowed to do your research
(38:58):
.
Yeah, it's your body,absolutely.
Yeah, I've had enough thingsyanked out of me that I don't
want anything else, you know,taken out or put back in or
whatever.
Um, and I'm proud of myself forfor doing that because, like I
said, you know, four months now,I've never felt this good, yeah
(39:20):
, like in that arena, um,everything else is wrong, but
but that part of me is, you know, it's great and I'm entering
into my 40s just soon, but, um,it's one part of my life I never
thought that I would havecontrol over and now I do.
Nika Lawrie (39:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Amanda Baca (39:44):
And it's.
It feels good, it's not scary.
Yeah, you know this, thisperimenopause is cake.
Yeah, for me anyways.
Yeah, so you know.
So Go ahead, sorry, go ahead.
Nika Lawrie (40:25):
Sorry, there's things that come with it and I
don't think people understandhow much power our uterus holds.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean.
There's a lot of researchtalking about women who feel
grief or the fact that they feelless feminine after they've had
it removed.
I mean, that's like yourfeminine kind of soul, right,
like that's the mass that makesyou kind of a woman, and I mean,
obviously you're a womanthrough no matter what ever, but
(40:46):
that's, you know, societally wethink about women and having
children and that fertilitypiece and everything, and so
there's a lot of grief thatcomes with that, and then on top
of that you have, you know, themood swing issues, and then,
when your hormones are out ofbalance, depression and anxiety
can come in, and so there's aton of mental health factors
that go with that too, and so itcan be really, really
(41:08):
devastating for some women.
I know a couple of women who areolder, who are now in their
seventies and eighties, who hadhysterectomies years and years
ago, and every single one ofthem regrets it.
every single one of them says Iwish I had known more at the
time and done somethingdifferent and so you know, I
just want to reiterate likethere are certain situations
(41:30):
where hysterectomies are needed,but for the vast majority,
there are other things that wecan do to support um women's
health, outside of absolutelycutting pieces out.
Yeah, so I think we have timefor one more question, if you
have one.
Amanda Baca (41:48):
Yes, I want it to be a good one, so give me a sec,
okay, okay, okay.
So someone who's new to thenon-toxic living style.
Nika Lawrie (42:01):
Yes.
Amanda Baca (42:02):
And I was this quite a few years ago.
I was brand new.
I mean, I loved fast food, Iloved my sodas, and sometimes I
still do, but I was, you know, Iwas dead set on that stuff,
right, yeah, what's a goodstarting point?
How do you help people and whatdo you recommend?
Where do we start?
(42:23):
Where do we start by switching?
Nika Lawrie (42:25):
So I think the easiest place to start is
personal care products, becauseyou're the least attached to
those than anything else, right?
So food can be a difficultplace to start, because people
have really strong cravings orthey have cultural connections
to food, or they just havehabits that they are so
accustomed to.
Right, you go to the store andyou buy the same five brands for
(42:47):
your food over and over again,and so it can be harder to break
those habits.
Amanda Baca (42:51):
And some of us, every time we go to a certain
gas station we have to get acertain gas station chimmy.
Nika Lawrie (42:57):
Yeah, right, and I will not give that up.
Amanda Baca (42:58):
Yeah right, there's different types of food that
people really love, and I willnot give that up.
Nika Lawrie (43:02):
Yeah right, there's different types of food that
people really love.
So I think food is the harderspot to start, but probably,
honestly, it's the mostimportant spot to change.
So you have to get to thatpoint at some point.
Beauty, I'd say, is the secondhardest spot to change because
once you find makeup that youlike second hardest spot to
(43:23):
change because once you findmakeup that you like, you don't
want to change it, because womenbecome very accustomed to the
way the makeup feels on theirskin, on their face, right, like
how long it lasts throughoutthe day, and so it's a little
bit harder to change that.
So what I'd say is personal care, because changing your shampoo
or changing your toothpaste orchanging your deodorant, you
have that less attachment to,and so shampoo, conditioner,
(43:45):
hairsprays, deodorants,toothpaste, all of those things.
Start with that first and gouse those apps, start scanning.
Go to the store and startscanning.
Scan the products you have inyour house, and then you can
either make the decision to youknow, clean everything out, as
once I've done that multipletimes or you can use up what you
(44:07):
have and then, once you go tothe store, replace it with a
cleaner option.
But again, be very careful ofgreenwashing.
Don't just buy somethingbecause it's on the label.
Actually scan it and look atwhat the ingredients are.
The cool thing about the apps,too, is like when it red flags
an ingredient, it will tell youthis is crappy because of X, y,
(44:27):
z, like.
So you'll start to learn whatthese different ingredients are
and how they impact you.
So that's a big thing.
Toothpaste is a big one.
I would say get toothpastewithout fluoride.
That was my first one.
That was my first change.
Yeah, right, and so toothpastecan be easy, because most
toothpaste still sort of tastesthe same, no matter where you go
.
Right, there's nothing specialabout it.
(44:49):
Yeah, but get something withoutfluoride, and it is a big one.
For those who think fluoride isa big controversy, the issue
with fluoride is it actuallylowers your IQ, like it
literally is destroying yourbrain cells, and so that's why
there's this big fight overfluoride right now In the water
Fluoride in the water andfluoride that we put on our
teeth and fluoride in toothpaste.
(45:11):
And so the simple there'sactual data, there's real
research that shows thatfluoride is impacting Americans'
IQs, and so let's reduce ourexposure to it.
And then so, yes, yes.
And then shampoos andconditioners I mentioned earlier
, but that's a big one becauseyou lather that all over and
then it runs down your wholebody when you're showering and
(45:32):
that stuff can get absorbed.
And, um, those are big areasthat have a lot of phthalates
and parabens, shampoos andconditioners and big fat.
And then the last one I didn'tmention, which is really, really
important, is perfumes.
Um, perfumes are like supertoxic, and so I buy pretty much
only clean perfumes.
they're actually pretty hard tofind, um, but there, are some
(45:53):
out there, um, and then I dohave a few perfumes that I had
prior to um, cleaning everything.
But I use them only once in awhile, on very special occasions
, right, like if I'm going out,you know, for my wedding
anniversary, to a dinner orsomething, I'll spray one of my
favorite perfumes, but otherwiseI either don't wear perfume or
(46:15):
I wear a very clean perfume.
And then lotions are the lastbig one, and lotions are so key
because they have tons offragrances in them usually too.
Start with that, then go tobeauty and makeup.
Try to get all of your makeupclean as possible, especially
your foundations and yourprimers and the creams that
you're rubbing on your face.
Those are the big ones.
(46:35):
Moisturizers are really big.
And then move to food and waterand go from there.
There's a whole host of othertoxic things that we can talk
about.
You know, your air filters inyour house and your bed spreads
and the clothes you wear Likeit's a whole other thing that we
can get into my thing is the.
Amanda Baca (46:53):
I'm addicted to those things I plug in my wall,
so we get smell.
Nika Lawrie (46:57):
Throw those out.
I hate them.
Throw those out.
Amanda Baca (46:59):
Yes, but I'm so just, oh, I love them, but I get
it, and with the perfumes likeI you know which store, but I
used to work at a certainclothing store and I have always
worn this specific perfume.
Yeah, the smell brings me backto happiness, you know that, and
I'm not going to get rid of it.
(47:20):
But, like you said, I use itsparingly now and if I do use it
, I put it on my clothinginstead of my skin On your skin.
Nika Lawrie (47:36):
Yeah, that's a good way to do it too.
Going back to the airfresheners that you plug into
your wall, if there's one thingI could ask you to throw out,
that would be the biggest one.
Those things are so freakingtoxic.
They're horrific for yourhealth, including the ones that
you put in the car.
There are two options that youcan rent.
So you can buy a diffuser foryour house and it's got the
water and you put in a coupledrips of essential oils and then
(47:58):
it diffuses into your house andmakes your house smell great.
So that's a healthier option.
And then two, you can actuallyget little plug-in like they sit
onto your car air, like AC,like the little slits right
where the air comes in.
Oh, okay, okay, yeah.
So they clip onto that and youcan put drips of essential oil
(48:18):
on them.
And then you can put that onyour car too.
Yeah, so healthier option ifyou have to have the scents in
your house I know, but they'reso cute.
Amanda Baca (48:27):
But I know, I mean I can either be, I can either
care about vanity, and in mylife I have cared about vanity
biggie big time.
It's a big part of me.
Nika Lawrie (48:39):
But the thing is is that I can is that I wear
makeup all the time.
I still wear perfume.
I put, you know, hairspray inmy hair, you know, on and off
throughout the week, right, like?
I still do all of those things,but I figured out how to do it
without these toxic chemicals,so you can still have, you can
still be vain and care about thebeauty of things without the
(49:02):
toxic chemicals.
You just have to decide to makethat decision.
So why?
not prioritize your health andvanity at the same time.
They can go hand in hand.
Health does not have to excludevanity.
That's a misnomer that we needto get rid of.
Amanda Baca (49:18):
You know, I think, when people think here I live
organically and I use cleanproducts, they're expecting some
like dreadlock.
No, that's not the case at allanymore Like that's totally,
this is all natural stuff.
I am all natural right now,except my nails, and I will not
get rid of those, but like it's,like it's easy to do.
Nika Lawrie (49:43):
And it's okay.
You pick one or two things.
Like you know, I still get mynails done too, but everything
else is super clean, and so youjust make that decision to
prioritize your health alongsideyour beauty.
Amanda Baca (49:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Nika Lawrie (49:57):
Absolutely.
Amanda Baca (49:58):
Well, thank you so much.
Nika Lawrie (49:59):
Yeah, thank you.
This has been a wonderfulconversation.
I'm really glad we've been ableto get this information out
there.
I really appreciate you sharingyour stories with us too.
I know it can be hard todiscuss all this stuff, so I'm
grateful, thank you.
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