Take Your Shoes Off!

Pesticides, which also include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and bactericides, are widely used and we all have an idea that we should try and limit our exposure to them as much as possible.  Sometimes we feel powerless if we don’t have the access or resources to purchase organic foods, but aside from this, there is one thing you can do that’s completely free!

This one action will save you and your family from significant exposure to pesticides.  But first, why is this important?

It’s difficult to say how many people suffer from pesticide poisoning each year because it often goes undiagnosed, but the World Health Organization estimates somewhere between 1 and 25 million people. The most severe effect seems to be cancer, which is estimated to have been caused by pesticides in over 20,000 people a year.  Other symptoms of pesticide poisoning are: psychological disturbance, depression, migraines, pain for no apparent reason, breathing difficulties, impaired mobility, cholesterol disturbances, reproductive difficulties and a whole list of other symptoms.

In fact, pesticides target your brain and brain chemicals, and kill the hormones that produce “happy” chemicals. Could this be a link to the rise in depression? Probably.

Pesticides also affect the kidneys, heart, liver, lungs and reproductive system. The symptom list for how your body and organs can be affected is very long—pesticides cause chaos in your body, impair your nervous system, your metabolism, your organs, and your detoxification system. This is a slippery slope—your body becomes impaired at detoxifying, so you can’t get rid of the pesticides from your body and are also more susceptible to other toxins!

What can you do besides limit your exposure as much as possible?

Take your shoes off when you enter your home. You have walked through toxins and pesticides and tracked them onto your shoes, even if they look clean and you think you haven’t been exposed. Once you walk through your home with your shoes on, you’ve left a trail there and are now increasing the exposure of you and your family. In fact, when you track them into the house, their potency increases and they are more toxic than when they were originally applied. Beyond your own exposure, just think of your children and your pets, who are all closer to the floor!

Take ’em off!