Chemical-Free Living

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Most people know that what they eat and drink can have a direct impact on their bodies. (Easy examples: Drinking too much alcohol will make someone feel drunk, and eating too much sugar will spike blood glucose.) However, ingestion isn't the only way to impact health! Everything that is inhaled or applied topically will also get absorbed into the blood stream. Using "clean" products may seem like a benefit for the environment rather than personal wellness, but they support both.

Chemicals are added to personal care products, cleaners, and other daily staples for a variety of reasons. Some act as preservatives, some make the product more appealing (e.g. to give it a better smell), and some are meant to be antibacterial, among other things. Usually these chemicals are in such small doses that the FDA and EPA say their negative effects on the body are negligible. However their combined, cumulative effect is overlooked in research.

If a person were truly only getting a minuscule amount of a toxic substance from one product, the body might be able to properly neutralize and eliminate it. Using the product multiple times a day for years, on the other hand, is a different story, as is using many products with many different chemicals several times a day over a lifetime. 

The synthetic ingredients in cleaners, personal care products, makeup, and other day-to-day essentials can be allergenic (producing allergic reactions like skin irritations), carcinogenic (contributing to cancer risk), and endocrine disrupting (setting hormones off balance). The body already has to cope with a multitude of other stressors, and any decrease its toxic burden - the amount of buildup that it needs to detoxify - will help it manage.

Luckily larger companies have noticed the higher demand for products containing fewer synthetic chemicals and more natural ingredients, so finding healthier options is easier than it used to be. There are alternatives to almost every toxic staple out there, and many can be found at "normal" stores now or can at least be easily purchased online. 

The only downside to the clean living movement is greenwashing, in which brands try to trick consumers with packaging and claims made on products that still contain harmful ingredients. There are a few ways to avoid this trap:

• Check products individually on a trusted app or site like the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database
• Research companies to find ones that are trustworthy and exclusively use their products (e.g. Young Living has personal care products and cleaners that are not only plant-based but also infused with essential oils)
• Make products at home: White vinegar is a wonderful cleaner, coconut oil has moisturizing properties, arrowroot powder can be used as a substitute for dry shampoo, etc.

All of this can be overwhelming - it seems like there are chemicals in EVERYTHING - and living chemical-free might sound impossible. The key is to start small.

We tell our patients to begin by replacing the products that they use the most or the ones that they've discovered have the most harmful chemicals in them. For lesser offenders, we suggest swapping them for natural alternatives as they run out. Gradual changes will save both sanity and budget, and every small change means an improvement in overall health. A healthy lifestyle is a marathon, not a sprint, and living chemical-free is one more leg in the race!

This post was originally published in June of 2017 and was updated in October of 2025.