Page 15 - Self-Improvement

While there are many uncontrollable
factors in your overall health, through

good lifestyle habits and proactive health
care you can have significant influence

over your physical well-being. Proper
nutrition, exercise, rest, and stress
management are fairly self-explanatory,

but much less concern is generally shown
for practices that assist in minimizing toxic

load. That does not make them any less
important. Your health truly manifests itself from the inside out; proper
functioning of your vital organs and minimizing toxic load can influence your

health as much as any other controllable factor. With its Cleanse & Restore
Kit, doTERRA has created a system to help make toxic load reduction easy for

everyone.

Toxic Load
To understand the importance of minimizing toxic load, we must first define

some foundational terms and discuss how our natural detoxification systems
work. A “toxin” is any substance that causes excess stress to the body. “Toxic
load” refers to the volume of these substances that have been accumulated

in the body at any given time and the overall burden it places on the body
systems and vital organs. Toxins come from countless sources, many of

which we are not even aware of. Environmental threats, chemicals, and
radiation are three of the most common categories. Technically, every
substance that has a consistent chemical composition is a “chemical,” but in

commonly used terms, a chemical is any substance (natural or synthetic)
that can stress the body. Examples of chemicals we frequently come in

contact with are ingredients in processed foods such as artificial sweeteners
and flavor enhancers, automobile exhaust, cigarette smoke, solvents,
plastics, pesticides, xenoestrogens, and harsh cleaning products. Radiation

refers to high-energy particles that can negatively affect cellular structures
and DNA. The most common source of radiation we are exposed to is

sunlight. Our bodies are exposed to countless possible toxins every day,
many of the interactions being unavoidable, but we can take steps to
minimize their effect on our health.