Birth Control, Chemicals and your Liver

Did you know “the pill” and modern-day living exposes us to chemicals that overburden your liver?

Our exposure to chemicals and their effects on our bodies regarding metabolism, hormone health, and thyroid, to name a few, but our liver is one we never really consider in our health and fitness journey outside the adverse effects drinking has.

The liver is one of the organs that eliminate hormones the body no longer needs, including synthetic hormones from birth control, and produces sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), whose role is to bind excess hormones in your body. 

If you are a woman who takes birth control, you are more likely, according to research, to have higher levels of SHBG, and this will carry over for a few months even after stopping birth control.

SHBG also binds up to testosterone which will translate to a lifeless libido and lower energy levels.

Whether on the pill or not, women should consider our exposure to chemicals and their effects on their bodies. 

Things such as agricultural chemicals (herbicides/pesticides), antibiotics, industrial waste, heavy metals, hormone-disrupting plastics (think BPA), and flame retardants permeate our air.

Even uglier to know is that water, food, soil, clothing, furniture, body products, makeup, and cleaning products are all areas we can expose to these hormones disrupting chemicals.

These things are absorbed by our bodies and bind to cells in our immune, nervous, and endocrine systems, especially to sensitive tissue such as our thyroid, subsequently damaging their function.

They increase inflammation and oxidative stress, cause brain inflammation, and also alter gene expression through a process known as methylation.

Chronic low-dose exposure to chemicals dramatically increases metabolic syndrome risks, prediabetes, and cognitive decline, including impaired memory and attention. There is also a greater risk of Alzheimer’s.

If you are struggling to lose weight, and nothing seems to work, you might consider toxin exposure and supporting your body’s natural detox pathways along with hormone levels/balance.