 I am James Swannick. This is Swannick Live and today we're talking about toxins. And we have a special guest who's known as the toxin terminator. So if you have toxins in your life, you know that there are toxins in your home, you know, you're probably eating or drinking or breathing in toxins. And maybe you're just curious, what are the toxins that I'm breathing in? What are the toxins around my home? And how do I get them out of me? Or how do I stop them from getting into me? Then the toxin terminator, Ms. Amy Carlson is going to give us her guidance and expertise today. Hello, Amy. Great to have you here. Oh, thank you so much for having me on James. I love spreading the message and really helping people know what choices they have so that they can improve the quality of health they have. Not only for right now, but golly jeepers, you know, we want to age gracefully, right? Yeah. And I'm assuming then that means that if we've got toxins in our system, then we're not aging gracefully. We're probably aging faster than we want to. We sure are. We sure are. And, you know, I look around and I just see how I think so much of our society has decided that this is normal, how we feel. We just have no idea how poorly we feel. We have no idea that it's actually possible for us to age without aches and pains. It's possible for us to age without disease. It's possible for us to age without being on, you know, carrying that little bag of medications around with us, right? You have grandparents that you watch and they're just like, I mean, it's like their purse, you know. Yeah. And what are the five pillars of our lives where toxins are inundating our bodies? Sure, you bet. So over the last seven years, I've been living this toxin-free lifestyle and I've had the honor to be able to interview and work with some of the leading industry specialists, some of the highest doctors, healers, practitioners, and as well as all my research I did in writing the book, The Toxin Terminator. And that confirmed that really we have five areas of sources that we have for the toxins to come into our lives within our homes. Now outside of our homes, you know, it's all over the place. But in our homes, we're looking at the air that we're breathing. We're looking at the water, not just that we're drinking them. We're really, we'll dig into that when we get into that pillar. We're talking about food. What type of toxins could we be getting in through our food sources and absorption? You know, our body absorbs what we put on it. So what is happening and being absorbed into the body? And then all of that is physical. We got to deal with the mental aspect of it, too. You know, we've got mental sources of toxins that I deem inside and outside. And we can talk about those. Yeah, great. So we've got air, water, food, absorption, and mental. Is that correct? Yes. All right. Great. Well, let's get into it then. So let's talk about air. Just before we do that, we're talking to Amy Carlson, who's also known as the toxin terminator. She's a public speaker and a published best-selling author and a podcaster. And you can find out more about Amy at amycarlson.com. So let's talk about the first pillar, that being air. Sure. So the scientists now know that the air inside of our home is five times more polluted than what we have outside. And we think, wow, you know, we get outside into nature and, you know, breathe that fresh air. There's a reason for it because so many of us are living in those high efficiency homes and everything is sealed up tight. So there's no breathing happening with our homes today. We keep everything sealed up tight. We've got those humidifiers running, which is, you know, just a petri dish for mold and bacteria and viruses to grow. And so the biggest factor inside of our air is fragrance. You know, we come into fragrance through, what do you think? You know, we'd have fragrance in. Perfumes. Yeah. Perfumes. Yeah. The biggest culprit for fragrance in our everyday use is what we clean with. Did you know that? Wow. Yeah. It's our cleaning products. Yeah. It's crazy. And so I tell my audience all the time, helpful tip in this category is buy products that say fragrance-free. And here's the reason fragrance is a number one toxin is because that word is literally hundreds of ingredients within that one word. And it has a proprietary trade secret that it does not have to disclose what all is included in there. So they can pull from over 3,000 different chemicals to be included in that one word. Now, most of them are just several hundred. But we just don't know what it is that's inside that word. So we want to be purchasing items that are fragrance-free. You know, a lot of people say they have allergies to fragrance, and I believe that they do. Synthetic fragrance are very damaging to our respiratory system and our neurological system. Yeah. So fragrance-free. And I'm assuming then that most cleaning products are marketing and promoting the fact that they have fragrances, right? They're probably saying lavender smelling, kind of, you know, table counter cleaner or something. Or maybe in the toilet, in the bathroom, it's probably got fragrance of stafodils or roses or something like that, right? Yeah. Well, and, you know, you walk into anybody's home virtually and you will find that they have some sort of a spray in their bathroom because, you know, sometimes the fan is just not enough, right? And so we've got a spray to take care of that odor. And, you know, all they're doing is masking the smell and they can be causing issues for us for our respiratory and neurological. I suffered from headaches every single day of my adult life. And towards the end, I had issues with migraines that I had multiple times a week where I actually lost the vision on my left-hand side. And that was going on for several years for me in my adult life. And as soon as I got fragrance out of my home, I do not suffer from headaches and I do not have migraines anymore. So that was a big one for me. Is there something that you would use to replace a fragrance table, cloth cleaner or a bathroom spray or something like that? Is there something that you would use instead? Oh my goodness, there's all kinds of options for us to use that are safe. You know, look for plant-based products that you would be able to use. Simple soap and water, of course, you know, not synthetically fragranced. Vinegar and water, hydrogen peroxide is a good additive to put in there. I personally use a lot of essential oils. So I'll add in, you know, a lot of citrus essential oils or peppermint essential oil to help with the cleaning properties for what I make. And I, you know, I have products that that I purchased that are a plant-based cleaner. Got it. So yeah, there are lots of options available. Is that the first pill of air with the fragrances? It is. Great. I'm loving it. All right. So we move on to water now. So water, a lot of people think about, wow, you know, I know I need to drink clean water, right? You know, that seems to be becoming a common knowledge, right? Yeah, but I always talk to people, what we're bathing in is actually way more important than what we're drinking. Now I want you to do it all. I would like you to put a whole house filtration system on your home, but I understand there's a lot of people who are in an apartment or they're in temporary housing and they can't do that. So aquasanna, for instance, sells a shower head filter that is going to just screw on right ahead of the shower head and that's going to filter all the water coming in for you to shower with. And showering is way more important than what we're drinking because we're standing in that hot water, opening the pores of the body and we're absorbing everything in and usually we're taking a shower for, I don't know, five minutes at least, some people longer. You know, so this is being absorbed in the body. I had a friend of mine, she's actually featured in my book, her name is Bobby Shaben, who had Meniere's disease, which is a chronic disease and changing and putting a shower head filter on her water system actually got rid of 80% of her symptoms. Wow, it's incredible. Yeah, simple changes. Yeah, would it make any difference if people were having cold showers because now the pores aren't opening up as much? Your body absorbs what we put on it. So whatever we're putting on our body can actually be found and detected inside the blood within 30 seconds to two minutes depending on what it is. So even water is still going to be cold water going to be absorbed into our skin and into the body. And with all the heavy metals and the chlorine and the fluoride and the chloramine and the pesticides and herbicides and fungicides that are found in the water, that's just a no-go for me and my home. Yeah, got it. Okay, great. So with water, we're talking about what we're putting on our body and you said that that is more important than what we're drinking. Certainly in our home we have a water filtration system for drinking, for drinking water, but you would suggest that that is not as important, while important, not as important as the shower head filter. Right. Ultimately, again, get a whole house filtration system. If you can't do the whole house filtration system, then get the shower and then also then add in the under sink mount system. If you do that, there's even pictures that you can buy. There's Berkey water filtration devices that just set on the countertop you can fill and they have charcoal devices in there that clear out all of the toxins from the water. So lots of options for us. Okay, great. Just on water as well, let's just say we're driving along, we pull into the gas station or we go into the local 7-Eleven to get some water and the options we have is what you might see in a gas station. Is there a brand of water that is preferable to another brand of water in your experience? No, not really. I try to do my very best and I understand there's always going to be circumstances that come up, but I do my very best not to drink out of plastic. Number one, I want to save the environment. Let's not use the plastic. That's number one. Number two, we don't know that those cases of water could have been sitting outside in the heat. When they are heated up, then the toxins are leached into the water. We just don't know what we're getting. So there's really not a preference in brand with water. Just at all possible costs try to avoid buying it out of the plastic. Just if not for the toxins coming into your body for our environment. Yeah, got it. Okay, great. Now, we're talking to Amy Carlson, also known as the toxin terminator. Her podcast is the toxin terminator. Okay, so we've covered air. We've covered water. Let's let's deal with food now. Absolutely. So lots and lots and lots of things are in our food that I think the big thing I want to talk about is pesticides, herbicides and fungicide. So we find this in all of our food sources because so much of our soil has just been contaminated and we can even find some in our organic foods. However, organic is still the best option to do is purchasing all our produce in the the organics. Now, I know again, a lot of you are going to say, but Amy, I just can't afford to buy everything organic. And what I would say to you is what do you eat the most stuff? Are you having blueberries on your granola every morning? Are you eating a banana every day? Then make sure those fruits are vegetables or organic. If you don't have bananas, but maybe once a month, maybe not as important, right? Yeah, we, my partner and I, we shop at an organic market every Sunday morning and we only eat organics. And I get I get mocked and ridiculed by friends going, oh, did you take an extra hundred dollars with you? Or did they charge you a hundred bucks to walk into the organic markets? And I, I kind of look at it this way. It's like, I'm either going to pay for it now, I'm going to pay for it later with, with health issues. And the other way I kind of, the other way I've kind of rewired my brain around it now is I look at it as it's not that organic food is expensive. Organic food just costs what it costs. And everything else that being non-organic food is just cheap and nasty. That's kind of like the way that I, I've refrained my brain. So I just look at it as like organic food is just what food costs. That's just, that's the standard. And then any food that isn't that is cheap and nasty. I mean, it might not be, theoretically speaking, it might not all be nasty stuff, but that's just the kind of way I play a little mind trick in my, in my game to try satisfy myself or reconcile myself with the fact that, you know, I am paying a premium compared to, I mean, I am paying a premium for organic food compared to what most people pay for food. Well, and here's another way to look at it too. And hey, any way that we can look at it to understand it, you know, I love what you say we either pay for it or we pay for it later. That is absolutely 100% true. But the other way to look at it too is that these farmers are actually taking care of our food and making sure that they we're going to have good things coming into our body. And that costs more, you know, being able to just go on to those fields and spray them with whatever is cheaper, you know, to do. So, you know, we're supporting families, we're supporting, you know, good strong businesses and, you know, grow your own garden golly jeepers in my area where we're at, I can hardly find fresh produce. You know, we're starting to run short. So, you know, there's a lot of options. Yeah, we've actually started growing our own produce now. We do kale and spinach and bok choy and dandelion and tomatoes and, yeah, a few other things, a few other things there. That's an investment as well in the beginning because you got to buy some soil and pots and you got to take care of it. So, it's a time investment and a financial investment. But in the long run, it does pay off and it becomes a lot more cost effective than buying your produce every week if you can just grow it. Absolutely. And, you know, and then we talk about the mental aspect of that, you know, I mean, what is more nurturing and grounding to our bodies to go get our hands in the soil and get dirty and, you know, and how good that feels when you can go out and prepare your salad yourself and go harvest it right off of your deck or your backyard or wherever it is that you have your garden that just feels good. Let's move on to the fourth pillar, which is absorption. Yeah. So a couple of different things I like to talk about in absorption. Number one, we have parabens. Now, men are affected by this as well because you guys are using shampoos and deodorants and lotions and aftershave and all of those things that you guys use and toothpaste, you know, most of you guys are brushing your teeth as well. But women are highly affected by this one because we as an average use 14 different products and just getting ready in the morning. That gives us an exposure of well over 200 chemicals just as we get ready in the morning. So and parabens are endocrine disrupting. These are affecting our hormones and the studies have shown that they find parabens in every single blood sample that they test and they've also found parabens in every single breast tumor that they have tested. So this is not something that we want to be absorbing in our body. And as women, you might have seen them on your shelves as well. We're starting to see more and more products available out there that say paraben free. And that's a good thing. The consumers are starting to demand it and companies are starting to listen. I've often said to some people moisturizers. Most moisturizers, in my opinion, are just paraben filled creams. And I and I see these these commercials on TV with these celebrities promoting shampoos like L'Oreal and Neutrogena and all this kind of stuff. And I have a look at the ingredients and I like shake my head and I go, man, this is just a chemical plant. And a friend of mine is a big health leader, Ben Greenfield always said to me, he said, never ever put in your mouth what you wouldn't put on your on your on your body. And so they can't always stuck stuck with me. And he said, put extra virgin olive oil on your face as a moisturizer. So I started to do that. I also put a little bit of coconut oil on my time for a place. I now use a brand from a friend of mine named his name is Andy Nylo. He has a company called Alatura and Alatura, the moisturizer has honey, honeybee wax and olive oil and things like that. It's all natural products. And I look at it and I go, oh, I could actually drink this. It might be okay. Because I'm assuming that once you rub something on your skin, it absorbs into the body. And so you're taking on whatever like, yeah, yeah, whatever properties in it. Yep. Absolutely. And that's what I said. There was a test actually done by the environmental working group. Now you're in Australia, correct? Currently, yeah. Okay, so I'm not sure if you guys have access to the ewg.org. It's environmental working group. They did a study where they took samples of, I believe it was 200 samples of blood and tested, they tested positive for well over 40 some chemicals inside of it. And these were umbilical cord samples. These were embryos. They hadn't even been born yet. This is babies in utero. And so what we absorb into the body is staying in our bodies and it's being passed down to our children. So it's really, really important to have clean, safe products. And so many of these companies are doing this, what we call greenwashing. And they're using things like natural, safe plant. And there's nothing plant based about them at all. And they're getting away with that. And so we almost have to become a chemist and a scientist to know how to read those labels, or align ourselves with the company that we know, love and trust, that we can get safe products from. So yeah, if in doubt, look at the ingredients. And if there's anything that you find challenging to spell or pronounce the name of, chances are it probably has something that you shouldn't put on your body. I use Tom's deodorant as well, which is, I think, almost all or if not entirely natural. And Dr. Bonner's shampoo and body lotion. Have you heard of those two brands? Tom's can still have some ingredients that I don't allow into my home. Again, it's all personal preference. There's an app. EWG.org has an app called Healthy Living. And so you can scan your product and it'll give you a safety rating. So to go from one to 10, one being the safest, 10 being, you know, danger, and they'll tell you why. And Dr. Bronner's, many of Dr. Bronner's product is very, very good. And there's some like he's got a like an everyday base for a cleaner that I turned the label around and it had sodium laurel sulfate in it. Now, sodium laurel sulfate is kind of a controversial one. Some people say it's safe. I say it's not. And, you know, so you get to decide sodium laurel sulfate is a surfactant. It is manmade. It is what creates the bubbles and suds in a product. And there are other plant derived ones that are better than sodium laurel sulfate. And they say it's okay because it gets rinsed off the skin. I say it's not because it's going to get absorbed into the body. So, you know, you get to decide on that. But there's a lot of Dr. Bronner stuff that is good. Again, we just have to learn to read the, read the labels. Yeah, great. Thank you. And you said the app from EWG. I'm looking here. I've got EWG's food scores and EWG's healthy, healthy living. Is it one of those two? Yep. The healthy living right there at the top. That's the one you want. Okay, great. Thank you. And it gives you exactly what the rating is, and it'll tell you exactly why. And so the more you use that app, the more you're going to get in tune to, oh yeah, I don't want that anymore. So it'll help you train yourself on what to be looking for. The EWG also has within its website, they have a place where you can test your water. So if you're on city water, you can type in your zip code and you'll be able to get your city's testing for the water and what's in it. Wow, great. Okay. And then the last one, last pillar we wanted to talk about was mental. We've talked about air, water, food and absorption. So now let's talk about mental. Absolutely. So mental, I like to go to inside, outside. So outside is stress, right? We have lots of stress out there in the world, in our jobs, and whatever it is, that's not going away. It's always going to be there. And so we have to learn how we can react to it and respond to that stress. And so I give tips on how to do that. And then also on the outside is our like, I kind of call it an energy circle that I surround myself with. So, you know, I like to look at it at about three different energy circles that I have around me. So if it's the outer one, you pretty much an acquaintance and you're not really affecting my everyday life. So if you've got a lot of negative attitudes, negative energy, it's okay, I'm not really associated with you too much. Then you come into another ring and I might have more socialization with you. So I'm going to be a little bit more careful about who you are. And then there's my inner ring. This is the people I'm with daily. And so I'm really protecting that energy and who they are and whether they're allowed into that inner circle with that energy ring. Because that's important to me. We become just like the five people that we surround ourselves with. And I believe that 100% and we have to protect that. Yeah. So just to summarize the mental pillar, what should we avoid and what should we run towards? So that's the outer. And let me just say on the inner, I'm talking about our words, thoughts and actions. We have a choice. Over what we're going to think, which is going to form our words, which is going to form our actions. And so we have to make a, you know, we have to learn how to stop that process if we're in this negative cycle and choose to look into things that are positive. We can do that through things like journaling. I do it through prayer. I'm a Christian woman. So I know that when I'm in a mode of feeling that everything is overwhelming, I'm trying to control people, places and things. And I've got no business trying to do that because I don't have any control over that. And I need to give it back to the guy upstairs that does have that control. Journaling is great. Meditation is wonderful. Getting out into nature and, you know, get those feet on the ground, get the shoes and socks off and just touch that ground and feel the energy of nature. When you go outside, utilize all your senses. What are you seeing? What are you smelling? Sometimes we can taste things. What are we hearing? What are we touching? Get those senses involved and really be able to calm yourself down. And then the last thing is I'm very, very intentional. I do not watch news. I do not scroll social media. I don't have any kind of notification set on my phone. I'm very intentional with my time and what I allow to see and hear so that I can keep in the right mindset. Yeah. I think the earth has an energetic pulse to it called the Shuman Resonance, which is 7.83 hertz. I think it is. The earth actually behaves like a gigantic electric circuit. And so at least once a day, I will take my shoes and socks off and just put my feet on the grass and lay down on the grass. If the weather is permitting, obviously. That is actually a form of meditation for me, even if I'm not sitting there doing meditation. It's wonderful. We're energy. The higher our energy level, the better we're going to feel, the more productive we're going to be, the more cognitive thoughts we have. It's all we want to have that high energy level. The lower our energy level goes, the sicker we become until finally we're at death. So anything that we can do to help increase that energy level is fantastic. You mentioned not consuming news. So just if you could just clarify or elaborate on that a little bit, if you would, like what news do you consume or how do you know what's going on in the world? What do you absolutely block off? Yeah. How do you stay aware of certain things but unaware of other things? It's a great question because I get it I don't watch any of it. I don't listen to any of it. People tell you what's happening and what's going on. I own businesses for many, many years and I grew up in that business with the mentality that you had to know exactly what your competitor was doing. When I took over the business, I felt like I don't want to expand so much of my thoughts and energies on what someone else is doing but so much as to what I absolutely have control over. In watching the news, I don't have control over any of that. I don't. Not one iota of it. What I have control over is me and what I choose to do, what I choose to think, what how I choose to live my life and I can make informed decisions. I can go out there and be a part of the process and I can make a difference in my world and my community by what I choose to do which and that's what I focus on is what I have control over which is me and that's it. I ran my businesses very successfully by doing that same thing. I want to have the best teams I can possibly create and we're going to create the best customer experience that we can have. We're focusing on us and what we can do and not what everybody else is doing because what they're doing doesn't really matter to me. Great. So we've got the five pillars there, air, water, food, absorption and mental. I'm wearing a pair of blue light blocking glasses from our company Swannick and we're wearing swannies at the moment and so I'm blocking a lot of the artificial blue light that's coming off from screens. Are there any other things like that that you can suggest other than what we spoke about? Oh they're absolutely in fact they sent me a link because I'm wearing blue light protection glasses as well as I'm on the computer a lot and I'm like I want to try the Swannwick ones out you know see how they are. EMF you know we have all kinds of electronic magnetic fields that we're exposed to. There's actually circuit breakers that you can put on your house apartment you know wherever you are living that can block those EMF frequencies and they can measure the EMF frequencies that are inside your home. I just posted something up on my group I'm doing more exploration on that. Oh my goodness there's you know you could just disconnect the wi-fi at least do it while you're sleeping. You know if you can't disconnect from it I understand but at least shut that off while you're sleeping at night and put your router your wi-fi router at a far distance from where you are and where you congregate within your home. The more distance you have between it the less influence it's going to have on you. Yeah great. Yeah Wonderful well Amy Carlson thank you so much so appreciate you giving us your guidance here on Swannwick Live. If you are listening and watching you can learn more and reach out to Amy at amycarlson.com that's A-I-N-E-E Carlson-C-A-R-L-S-O-N dot com the podcast as well which is the toxin terminator you can follow that you got a pretty cool little icon there you're dressed up in like a protective coat with goggles and everything which looks pretty nice. A hazmat suit. Yeah that's right and you've been helping people restore and renew their health by removing toxins from their homes and their lives. Anywhere else where people should reach out to you? I've got a Facebook group called the toxin free lifestyle I pour into that each and every day that's kind of where I spread my love to you can get the book you can listen to the podcast through that website I've got a summit coming up August 17th it'll be going live so watch the Facebook page we'll really speak a lot about it on there but you know just I'm always happy to connect with people I'm always happy to answer the questions that I do have a free toxic risk assessment that you can get to right through my website if so if you feel like there might be things in your home and you're just not sure it's just 20 questions takes you less than five minutes to answer and and it's free to you and I'm happy to jump on a free call with you as well and help answer your questions. Wonderful well Amy Carlson the toxin terminator thank you so much for your guidance on today's call we so appreciate you. James I'm appreciative of being able to share my message with you all thank you so much.