10. 5 Pillars of a Toxin-Free Lifestyle with Aimee Carlson

Aimee Carlson 0:03

If you start journaling your food, you'll start noticing a difference between how bloated you are and how non bloated you are, how much belly fat you have and how much belly fat you don't have simply by the foods that we're putting into our body.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 0:19

Welcome to the longevity blueprint podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Stephanie gray. My number one goal with the show is to help you discover your personalized plan to build your dream health and live a longer, happier, truly healthier life. You're about to hear from the toxin Terminator. Yep, that's what I said the toxic Terminator. She actually has lived in Iowa for part of her life as well. So today you're going to hear from Amy Carlson and she's going to talk about the dangers of toxins in our everyday products, how they can affect chronic disease and underlying medical conditions, how they can affect our gut health, how they can affect us physically, mentally, spiritually, and the good news, what we can do about it. Welcome to another episode. To the longevity blueprint podcast today I have Amy Carlson on for the show. She is a toxin Terminator. She's the host of the toxin Terminator podcast, a best selling author and featured expert guest on numerous podcasts and summits. Amy has spent the last seven years removing hidden toxins from her home to be free of chronic disease and has helped hundreds do the same. Through her podcast she has had access to some of the top doctors, healers, experts and industry leaders in the natural health and wellness field. Amy's passion is giving hope to those who are still suffering getting no relief from traditional medicine and ready to take control by detoxing and cleansing their health and environment. So welcome, Amy.

Aimee Carlson 1:37

Thank you. I love that introduction. It just reminds me I always get a warm fuzzy feeling of why I do what I do. Absolutely.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 1:45

Well chapter five of my book your longevity blueprint is all about toxins. So I was excited to bring you on. And what's in my blueprint analogy with my book I compare our laundry room in our home to the gallbladder and liver and our bodies. So we need a great washer and dryer we need to have good so do the job of cleaning our clothes so that that dirty laundry pile doesn't build up and build up and build up which can happen right with toxins in our bodies. So, today for the listeners, they may not be familiar with this concept of our toxic burden and what we can do about that kind of eliminating, or reducing maybe not eliminating, but reducing our exposure. So let's dive into the good stuff. Amy, tell us what toxins are and where are we exposed to them?

Aimee Carlson 2:24

Absolutely. So the the easiest way to answer what a toxin is, is anything the body does not perceive and can use for the good of the body. So anything that's entering into our body, that the body says wait a minute, this is not a good thing, whether it be bacteria virus, a toxin, it's something that's going to cause damage to our body. That's what a toxin is, right? So we're exposed to it can be so overwhelming, because there's so much out there. And honestly I'm in this industry and diving down these rabbit holes, some times is scary even for me, and I don't want it to be scary for people. And so what I talk to my people about is, we just will have control over. And you know what that is, that's the four walls of our own home. We can't control what's going on outside. We can't, you know, we don't have any bearing on that. So let's look at what's within the four walls of our home. And then let's break it down even further. And let's look at what we use every day. Sure, let's just get it really easy. And let's start there. And so that's that's what I do with people. I think we have to take things in bite sized chunks. If we try to do the big overall picture. It's too much for us to handle.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 3:49

Sure, I agree. It can be very overwhelming all of the changes that I'm recommending for my patients. We're going to optimize their hormones. We're going to have them change their diet and reduce stress and now we have to reduce to their toxic And sometimes they have that deer in the headlights look like, Holy smokes, are you gonna help me are so much. So many changes are gonna happen but patients transformations are wonderful. They feel better at the end. So I want to get in into the home what you mentioned. But first I want to go back to a concept that I mentioned a little bit of what this analogy in my home I was saying, as we open here that we don't want this burden of toxins or dirty clothes in the home to accumulate. So there's a there's a term called bio accumulation. Can you speak to what that is?

Aimee Carlson 4:32

Yeah, think about it this way our body is created to naturally detox. It knows when God created the body, he knew there's going to be things that are going to be exposed to this body and we have the natural ability through our lungs, through our liver through our kidneys through excretion, you know, through sweat to naturally flows out of the body. Well what happens when we're exposed to toxins every single day is it's more than what the natural body can handle. And so that's where we get that bio accumulation effect. happening, you know, to our bodies, it's, you know, it's more than a liver can handle. It's more than where sometimes people will develop, say, a skin rash, right? You know, many times we're not identifying a skin rash as being, hey, I've might have been exposed to a toxin or I might have toxin overload in my body, because the skin is the largest organ in the body. And so many times, that's where we might first see things or we noticed a change in our body odor. Yes, out something different, you know, our body's trying to eliminate it. So those are some of the very first signs that we're in toxic overload is is a skin rash, something on our skin, this is all of the sudden, it's not something that's always been there and change of body odor. Both in our in our sweat, urine, you know, those are all signs and symptoms that we're starting to get into toxic overload. We need to start listening to our body because our body does such a great job of telling us a story to start listening, and I

Dr. Stephanie Gray 6:17

like that I like that sweating is so important. And I know certain religions don't consume certain food groups because like pigs don't sweat right? some religions don't eat pork because those animals aren't eliminating certain toxins. That's the theory. I I shouldn't necessarily speak to that. That's not my religion, but the theory is that sweating is a good thing. That's how we are eliminating and I personally can say, when I first was introduced to functional medicine, and I did a little did a liver detox, I sweat less. So I felt like this was like I used to sweat so profusely and I felt like this is a good thing. I must be eliminating more of this toxic burden because my body odor is worse than air is better and I'm not sweating as much as I used to. So I I totally agree with that. Other than rashes and body odor. So other than symptoms, how do toxins affect chronic disease, specifically, this podcast is all about longevity. So we want to reduce our risk of chronic disease. So how to toxins play a role there. So toxins

Aimee Carlson 7:13

are going to start that if they build up and continue to build up in the body, they're going to start damaging internal organs, they're going to start changing the cell structure within the body because it has to go somewhere. And toxins build up in the organs and in the fat, fatty tissue of the body. If we don't eliminate them out of body, that's where they start piling up. You know that dirty laundry, they start piling up in the body in our fat and in the organs of our body. So if the liver can't function right and the kidney can't function, right, then we have things happen to us, you know, like cirrhosis. I mean, that's long term effects. But you know, kidney disease, if we're building up toxins in our fat in our bodies, not getting rid of the fat, that When we start getting to the obesity and diabetes and so what all is cumulative effect in the body, and when it changes the cells, the actual cells within the body, you know, we know that cancer is cells that have gone mad, right? There's they're just crazy cells in the body. So if we're developing these toxins, that is leading to kind of triggering of the cancer cells to wake up or, you know, to start promoting and building more,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 8:28

I like how you mentioned obesity, obesity is a independent risk factor for all chronic disease. And I tell patients that when you when you have this incoming burden of toxins, your body has to store the toxin somewhere so it creates more fat to store cushion the toxins and then guess what, then that can lead to chronic disease. So one way to lose weight and get the fat cells to shrink is to get rid of the toxins. It absolutely

Aimee Carlson 8:50

is. And and and people don't understand that. You know, it's it's this vicious cycle and double edged sword with the fat when we want to get rid of the fat in for women, especially, you know, I know you deal a lot with hormones and I'm plus 50. So, you know we're in menopause, we start getting that that weight around the middle. And a lot of that hormones that a ton of is the way that we're eating and the food that we're feeding our body. If you start journaling your food, you'll start noticing a difference between how bloated you are and how and how non bloated you are, how much belly fat you have and how much belly fat you don't have simply by the foods that we're putting into our body. Hmm,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 9:38

that's good. So we know toxins can affect obesity. So they can affect us physically. What about mentally and spiritually? How can toxins affect our bodies mentally and spiritually?

Aimee Carlson 9:49

This is my favorite of all because honestly, the physical always thinks that we can change fairly easy, the mental and the spiritual side of things is that real personal journey that each of us have to go into ourselves. So I like to break it down to kind of two parts. You know, there's the energy. There's the stories that we tell ourselves the limiting thoughts that we have that negative stuff that just repeat in like a committee inside your head, right? You know, oh, I'm not pretty enough. I'm not smart enough. Simple things like I'm so forgetful. If we keep telling ourselves that over and over again, guess what? We're forgetful. If we tell ourselves over and over again, that we're disorganized, I'm not an organized person. I can't get this together. Well, guess what? You're speaking life of that over you. Sure. And that's what you're going to become. So there's this manifestation of our thoughts, internally of what we're telling ourselves that can be very, very toxic to some people.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 10:50

So you're almost saying our thoughts are toxins or thoughts can be toxic for us mentally

Aimee Carlson 10:58

if you're constantly selling Speaking negativity over yourself over your children over your career over your life, that's going to have a negative impact on your health, on your physical, mental, spiritual health. So we have to learn what the pattern is in the first place. And then we have to stop it and change it. You can write a new story inside of our head and tell ourselves something new. Look at two different ways with this on when I was raising my children, if there was something that they were doing, I didn't want them to do. I didn't focus on that negative quote behavior with that. I focused on what they were doing that was good. And I praised that and gave that all kinds of attention. Will pretty soon they understood and realized that if I do this, I'm going to get the attention I want from mom. If I do this, I get ignored. And you know, so what I wanted, I praised We do the same thing with our thoughts. You know what we want to happen over our life what we want to have in our lives. That's the tension that we have to give.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 12:09

Not so good. I think the same is true with puppies even training a dog, you affirm them appropriately. But maybe we've had a problem with our Yeah, anxious little dog. But it's interesting how we'll use those those skills with children and with animals. But then what about for ourselves? are we are we praising ourselves? Are we affirming ourselves on a daily basis? Or are we just believing lies and, you know, speaking negativity over ourselves, because that's not good for longevity standpoint, either.

Aimee Carlson 12:38

Oh, my husband and I, and I had a horrible negative cycle that was going on inside my head for many, many years. And I actually incorporated Stop, drop and roll. Remember when we were children? Yeah, the firemen came to school and they taught you when you're on fire, you stop you dropped to the ground and you roll and that puts you edifier Well, the negative thoughts that we have in our head are our brains on fire. So I had doff, I dropped to the ground and I rolled physically did that to really stop that negativity now that's extreme. And thankfully I went home so don't worry about being out in public. But I didn't have to do it for very long. All I needed what I needed that physical action to really stop the cycle. And and how empowering is that to realize you have a choice, right? You have a choice. If you get up and it's an hour into your day and nothing is going right. You have a choice, you can reset that day. You know, you can start over again. It doesn't have to continue on and that and that's what I like talking about the toxins in the mind. We have a choice. We don't have to be victim to it. We have a choice and we can change that.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 13:58

So good. That put gives us back the power. That's great. Absolutely.

Aimee Carlson 14:04

Let's

Dr. Stephanie Gray 14:05

let's transition back from our thoughts to the the four walls of the home that you mentioned earlier that we have control over as well. So, and maybe there's overlap here with your five pillars of living and toxin free lifestyle. Can we go back to that and talk a little bit about those those pillars?

Aimee Carlson 14:22

Sure. Do you want to know like, so the five pillars of the toxin free lifestyle for me in the last seven years that I've learned is we have to pay attention to what's in our air. What's in our food? What's in our water, what we absorb on the body, and then our mental and we've talked about the mental Yeah. Yep.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 14:45

Let's talk about those others. Let's start with air.

Aimee Carlson 14:48

So air, here's my number one and I'll just give a number one out of one of those categories. So an air would for me would be fried grits. We have to get ready rid of the synthetic fragrances science now knows that synthetic fragrances are so toxic to the body. They are causing asthma, they're causing neurological disorders. They're causing even skin irritations if it's being labeled as the new secondhand smoke now, so we have to get rid of those synthetic fragrances out of the home and you can find that in everything on I'm not even talking about candles and plugins and air sprays. It's in your household cleaners, it's in your shampoos, it's in your laundry soaps. So what we can do is we can turn the the products around and read them and we want is fragrance free. Okay, the unscented is still being chemically altered to cover up the fragrance. So we want to shop for products that say fragrance free, easy thing to do. Now what about essential oils? Are you okay if the fragrance is essential oils That's not well not all essential oils are the same. You know what I can buy at Walmart or Walgreens or Bed Bath and Beyond is certainly not like what I get from Young Living or do Tara for and there's some other reputable companies out there too. So you just want to make sure that you have essential oils there are therapeutic grade. That means there's no fillers. They are what they say they are when that bottle of essential oil says it's lemon essential oil, that's all you're getting. Sure in the EU in the US. You can sell an essential oil in the store and say it's pure essence. It only has to be 5% essential oil

Dr. Stephanie Gray 16:44

five Why's that?

Aimee Carlson 16:46

Yep. So that now brand that you know they think people think all I'm purchasing this at a health food store. 5%

Dr. Stephanie Gray 16:56

Well, yeah, we try to educate our clients. are patients on the importance of buying the professional grade? So like you're saying that therapeutic grade essential oils supplements that's just good in general?

Aimee Carlson 17:09

Yeah, if you're going to be removing toxins from your life make sure you get a good oil. Yeah because that's that's what happens to people oh well essential oils didn't work for me well what kind did you use and I and I won't get into a big you know, conversation there, but I use them every day in my home every day. And I love them. But there are still people even though it's a pure, it's not a synthetic fragrance. There's people out there that don't. They're just what do I want to say? not allergic, but they're there. They just have a sensitivity to any scent, no matter whether it's a pure scent a synthetic, synthetic center or not. You know what your body tells you to listen to.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 17:54

I want to briefly just mention on the topic of air quality here, it is summer in Iowa and we are surrounded by cornfields, the least both of us actually have lived in Iowa at certain times in our lives. So I do think that it, our air quality can be affected by those toxins, what they're spraying the crops with and whatnot. But it's also important for good airflow throughout the house. So it is important on nice days to open the windows and do to get the air circulating throughout the home. I think sometimes our homes are so energy efficient and so tight that we don't have great air circulation. And when we even think of mold living in I will we've had several floods here and so I have a lot of patients who have been impacted by unfortunately, mold from living in water damaged buildings are working in them. And so I've I've had so many patients test their homes for mold over the past several years turn, unfortunately, to find out that they did have mold However, their health has been dramatically improved by remediating the home and improving the air quality

Aimee Carlson 18:52

of the home. Right. Absolutely. And that's one of the things that the air quality inside of our homes is 10 times worse. And that outside so even though there's pollen count outside, there's pesticides in the air, you know, that type of thing. We do want to get those windows open. Like you said, not only are we shut in and that energy efficiency, but then we're also humidifying home. So we're just creating this little petri dish, you know, for our lives to get sick. And so we do want to have that fresh air circulating through.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 19:25

Good, good point for sure about food. So that's the next category here.

Aimee Carlson 19:30

Well, we just talked about pesticide and that's my big one on food on. It's honestly, that's the biggest thing you can do. And here's what I hear so many people say I can't afford to buy all organic, and I hear you. I understand. So this is what I tell you to do. What do you eat all the time? What is your go to? Is it apples is grapes is it lettuces? That's what you're going to buy organic and then Either rest, you know non organic, or go to the thin skin thick skin, you know, if it's got a thicker skin, that unhappy necessarily be organic. The ew g.org website has, you know, the Dirty Dozen and 15 so you can go on there and and you know make that your list of go to so there's workarounds with that.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 20:25

Yep. And the reasoning behind that I explained this in my book in chapter five also is that the thicker skin foods have more protective coats so it's more difficult for pesticides and herbicides to penetrate into those foods that thin skins are the ones you want to wash well or purchase organic. And the good news is that research studies have shown in several patients within weeks to months of changing the diet, ones internal kind of pesticide or herbicide burden can dramatically reduce so it's not too late to make changes, make the changes now your the amount of toxins that you've accumulated will start going Going down it's never true yes

Aimee Carlson 21:02

and in any for any of these you know I that's a question I get a lot you know have I waited too long? I had multiple chronic diseases when I made my changes so I was already into the disease state. Sure and I reversed that. So it's never too late to make those changes.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 21:22

Wonderful. Let's talk about water. That's another pillar of living on toxin free lifestyle. What can we do with our water?

Aimee Carlson 21:28

Oh, here's my big tip on waters there's lots of on toxicants in our waters from heavy metals to to fluoride to chlorine, which part of it is is runoff from the farm industry part of it is you know chemicals that are being treated to to sanitize you know the water, but we want good water in our homes. The best thing we want to be able to do is to have a whole house water filtration system because drinking water alone is not good. Enough, that's a good start. And to make sure that we are filtering out what we are drinking so you can get an under sink mount, you can get even a picture that you can fill up and it will filter out all of the heavy metals and the chloride and the water for you so that you don't have those toxins in the body. What we shower in is just as important, if not more so, because we're in hot water for 10 minutes. Let's just say the average person is in there for 10 minutes, and we're absorbing all of that into our skin. I had a guest on my podcast who was suffering from the nearest disease and other autoimmune disease. And just by changing what she showered in putting that whole house water filtration, 80% of her pain symptoms went away in short order.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 22:50

That's amazing. We need to get one of those I put reverse osmosis in my house when I built it. Before I was married before I had kids when that so i mean i which are Oh does To remove the good minerals, you have to make sure you're replacing those. But that's not that will not work on the shower water, right what's going on in the bathtub as well. And I have a son who's taking baths multiple times a week and I'm thinking, Okay, he's sitting in chlorine, he's sitting in chlorine, this is not good. So we need to get I have a little filter that I'll put under the faucet so I'm I'm trying to filter the water that's going in the tub. But I mean, in reality, it's not it's not filtering at all. So I need to get one of those old house water filtration systems.

Aimee Carlson 23:29

Yeah, I need to get in there are there are filters that you can put onto the showerhead. There are filters that you can put, yep. You know, they're charcoal based. And you know, there's many, many different studies out there. I always tell people, you do your research and you pick out what's best for you. We do have a reverse osmosis system, our whole house system, and again, then then we replenish you know, minerals, or you know, all the bad has been taken out with the reverse osmosis.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 23:59

Wonderful. skin, we've talked a little bit about that. And obviously the water that we're exposing yourself to in the shower, the tub is going to touch our skin. But let's also talk about how we can avoid toxins in you're probably going to go the personal products route here like skincare, and that's probably where you're going with this, but I'll let you talk.

Aimee Carlson 24:19

That that is number one, especially for women. But I think about you mentioned your son, you know, what kind of soap is he using. So there's a couple of products that we want our ingredients that we want to learn how to read labels, there are apps out there, one is called think dirty, that ew G has one also called Healthy Living where you can type in your products and you can get a safety rating. They are a good starting point. But people I really want you to understand there are certain ingredients. All you got to do is turn that around and just start looking at it. So yeah, yep, sodium lauryl sulfate is that is a key one there's over 50,000 studies on PubMed alone on the toxic Have that ingredient. So it is found in our laundry soap. It's found in all of our personal care products. Anything that suds has sodium lauryl sulfate in it. So think about dish soap, think about shampoo, body soap, laundry, soap. And laundry. soap is key because we're putting those clothes on our body, we're sleeping in those sheets. So that's one of them. And typically, if it doesn't have sodium lauryl sulfate in it, it's not going to have a lot of the other stuff in it either. So if you eliminate that one ingredient, you're eliminating a lot of the other bad stuff too.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 25:34

Can I ask you what brands you use? Or do you make some of your own stuff? What what are your favorite

Aimee Carlson 25:41

brands? Okay, so I'm with a network marketing company. Okay, um, young, young living, I'm sure have lots of oils and personal care products. So I use a lot of theirs. But some people are like, oh, network marketing, I get it. You know, that's what if that's not for you, a company that I have found that you can get in Walmart's and targets as well as order online is called Shea Moisture. And they have all there's no synthetic fragrances, there's no parabens, no sulfates, there's no phalates there's so they are you know a good clean product as well. ecos is another brand EC o s that has good safe laundry products that you can use. So there gives you a couple of you know options. And again, I actually like Environmental Working Groups app overthink dirty, there are some things, label reader. There's some things on think dirty that they're giving a stamp of approval that I never would, you know, so ew g does just a little bit better a job and they've got a whole board of scientists behind them so sure. I like them better.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 26:55

Yeah, I like those apps as well. I'll post links in the show notes to the Dirty Dozen Foods, the foods that shouldn't be purchased organic, the clean 15 the ones you don't have to purchase organic. And then the links to the two apps that you mentioned the healthy Libyan and the think dirty, I have found two I'll just use them. So this the skin deep cosmetics database, you don't have to have a phone to use, you can just go on a website browser, I will look for you can actually look up certain ingredients so you can read about them and how toxic they are. The ranking that's provided also shows the the risk of causing allergies the risk of endocrine disruption mess with our endocrine systems. I think cancer risk is on there too. So I would encourage the listeners to really check out those websites because they are invaluable resources and there are lots of brands that are mentioned on those sites. I just always like to ask who is my guest because I want to know who you're using and I've used the Young Living laundry detergent I we sell their products also. So I do like that company.

Aimee Carlson 27:53

Yeah. If you have little ones the Honest Company is another one and they Have all you know different different items to once you start using like an app, you'll start recognizing, like you said, they're gonna give you Why not only do they give you the safety rating, they're telling you why it rated how it did. And so you'll start tuning into, you know, this is what I want to avoid. This is what I don't want to have. So, lots, lots, lots of great companies out there, because the demand, we're demanding that our products, you know, for ourselves. Wonderful,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 28:29

great tips. Just have a few more questions here. So I want to talk we're going to divert here just for a minute, but how is gut health impacting mental health? I know we can expose to toxins in you know, the foods that we're eating, like we mentioned. So our, our gut health can affect our mental health. But can you expand on that a little bit?

Aimee Carlson 28:51

Absolutely. So there's a lot of scientists that that tell us our gut is really our brain, a second brain and depending on who you follow, It could be your first grade or your second brain, there's a biggest nerve that runs between the the brain up here and our gut. And it used to be thinking that the brain was out talking communicating out to the rest of the body. But science is finding that there's so much more communication going back up to the brain versus going out from the brain, which is really interesting to dig into that information. So if you have a gut that's inflamed, all right, so you don't eat appropriately. You're you've constantly putting stuff on your body that's just really inflaming the gut and you know, your gut inflamed by, am I eliminating going poop once a day? If I'm not, I probably don't have the best gut health. You know, do I have a lot of gas? Do I have a lot of bloating? You know, there's lots of symptoms right as an inflamed gut, there's leaky gut, there's irritable bowel syndrome, which is they put a disease on To a symptom, it's just

Dr. Stephanie Gray 30:01

a diagnosis of exclusion. It's the doctor say we don't know what's wrong with you. So you have IBS will put you in that category.

Aimee Carlson 30:07

Ah, sir, anyway, I'm not gonna go there. But here's the thing, if your gut is inflamed, guess what else is inflamed your brain and if it's inflamed, it's it's over worked. It's it's, you know, you can't process and you're always feeling like you're in the state of overwhelm. And some people call that oxidative stress. And so you can't think straight you're not processing information the way that you should you're reacting the versus being proactive. And, you know, and that's the state that most of us operate in and don't even understand that that's where we're, we're operating from, and we get out of it. Sure.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 30:49

So that's where I would maybe echo one of the most important pillars you had mentioned, the importance of cleaning up your air, your food, your water, your skin and your thoughts. Back to food. What's your Eating is impacting your gut health. So, Chapter One of my book is all about eliminating inflammatory foods and champions chapter one for a reason I'm comparing the foundation of the home to the gastrointestinal system in the body. So if you're listening, one of the best things you can do to start reducing your toxic burden is just change the way you're eating, start eating organic, getting inflammatory foods out of your life, which is not the topic of this particular interview. But other speakers will be speaking to that on this podcast. so wonderful. All right thoughts.

Aimee Carlson 31:29

Did I tell you this before we even got started, I was talking to somebody just a few days ago that were letting me know that your mucous lining in your gut changes every five days that those cells regenerate. So if you stop putting the inflammatory foods in the body, in a week's order, you can start feeling different.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 31:52

Those cells turn over that which is very encouraging you can start your body will start healing immediately. Our bodies are created To heal themselves, yep,

Aimee Carlson 32:01

we just have to take our hands off the fire. And that's what's removing the toxins is all about if we keep the hand on the fire, we can't heal. You know, because we haven't removed the fuel we haven't removed source. So we have to remove the sources in order for our body to find true healing.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 32:18

Speaking of healing, so you mentioned you had multiple chronic diseases How long did it take you? As you were taking your hand off the FOSS? I mean, how long did it take you? I'm sure you had a lot to learn to heal.

Aimee Carlson 32:30

Oh my gosh, you know, there are certain things that healed right away and there were certain things that took time because well I'm bullheaded. You know and food, like should have been one of the first things that I went to, but I didn't. I did all the other stuff first and food was one of the last things so healing my gut issues took quite a long time. It was a seven year journey. I'm still on the journey, you know on my neurological issues that I suffered from a fixed within the first 30 days. of removing all the fragrances from my home, I stopped having migraines I stopped suffering from loss of vision on the left side on and I haven't had that comeback ever, you know. So that went away in very, very short order. And that was simply by removing the fragrance from the home. So that was very quick.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 33:19

That's awesome. Yeah, that's so important. I've had patients come to see me obviously with multiple chronic conditions and their perfume stinks up the entire clinic and I have a headache while I'm seeing them and I'm thinking, Holy smokes, got a lot of work on this patient, but I have to kindly ask them to not wear I mean we have signs up that you do not wear any fragrance into our clinic. We have so many patients with multiple chemical sensitivities who do have neurologic symptoms. And we just we cannot have patients wearing perfumes and bringing fragrances into our clinic.

Aimee Carlson 33:51

And, and here's the thing, too. I just think there's so many people that don't understand what feeling good feels like. And I was one of those big proponents I wore the perfume, I went to bed, bath and Bodyworks and bought all of the lotions when they went on sale. And, you know, now I can't even get near it. You know, I can't walk down the laundry aisle of the grocery store because it just is overpowering that off gassing that happens is is overwhelming to my system. And when we get on the other side, and we start to have some healing, we really understand, wow, this is what it looks like. And this is what it feels like to feel good. And that's when we can get a quick result. That's when we want more, you know, and that's why I like to try to get some quick you and I'm sure you guys do to get a quick result. So then they'll want to choose the better options. Absolutely.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 34:49

So I have to ask you, where did the name toxin Terminator come from?

Aimee Carlson 34:54

You know, I actually took a class on doing a podcast so I launched my podcasts A year ago and it was just kind of a sitting there thinking what do I want to call the podcast? I'm all about removing toxins from the home. And then all of a sudden it was just like, I would be back, you know, toxin Terminator let's terminate those talks and so it just stuck and I absolutely love it because that's what we're doing is terminating all those toxins.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 35:23

Yeah, I love it. It does stick I will always remember that you are the toxic Terminator. I like that. Okay, lastly, tell me what your top longevity tip is.

Aimee Carlson 35:34

Top Oh my gosh. You know what my top longevity tip that I would say is sleep. Oh my word. If you are not getting good sleep. We can't we just you know we can't even function when we're not getting good sleep. I used to not have focus. I didn't have energy. And I didn't know Is it because of this or is it because I'm not getting sleep it you know so my top longevity is And my top tip for all the listeners last week is get all of the electronics out of the bedroom, all of them. You shouldn't have a TV in there. You should not have your cell phone in there not a computer or a laptop, anything. disrupt because it all disrupts your sleep.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 36:19

Totally agreed. Totally agreed. Well, I'm sure our listeners want to know more. So tell us you have some exciting announcements, a book coming out in a summit. So tell us about those and where listeners can find you.

Aimee Carlson 36:29

You bet. So this summer we have a book coming out called the toxin Terminator, and I dive into more of the information that we've covered today in this podcast. In August, August 17. We're launching my first virtual summit is called restore, renew, rejuvenate, and Dr. Gray is going to be a part of the the summit where we're just we're sharing our stories of how the body works, and how we can create that healing environment for people. And we all have our personal stories to share there in that summit. You can find this information on my website, which is just my name www. Amy Carlson COMM And my first name is spelled AI m e, and I have links to the podcast have links to when the summit goes live and the book will have all those links right there in the in the website. You can also connect with me on social media through there too.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 37:21

And we'll post all those links in the show notes. So I encourage listeners to connect with you. So Amy, thank you so much for donating so much of your life Your mission is really sounds like it's educating others on how they can improve their health and health and longevity by living a toxin free lifestyle, which is what we all need to be doing. So thank you for being on the show.

Aimee Carlson 37:40

I'm so honored to be here and part of your show. Dr. Gray Thank you so much.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 37:46

That wraps up another episode of the longevity blueprint podcast. I hope you learn today from Amy how important it is to clean up toxins in our air, food, water skin. And even in our thoughts. Yes, even our thoughts can be toxic For our bodies and for our overall health and longevity, be sure to check out the show notes where I'll list all the resources that we discussed in this episode. Be sure to check out my book your longevity blueprint. And if you aren't much of a reader, you're in luck. You can now take my course online where I walk you through each chapter in the book. Plus for a limited time, not only is the course 50% off, but you also get your first consult with me for free. Check this offer out at your longevity blueprint calm and click the course tab. One of the biggest things you can do to support the show and help us reach more listeners is to subscribe to the show. And leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I read all the reviews and would truly love to hear your suggestions for show topics, guests or how you're applying what you've learned on the show to create your own longevity blueprint. A podcast is produced by the team at counterweight creative As always, thanks so much for listening and remember, wellness is waiting

The information provided in this podcast is educational. No information provided should be considered to be or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your personal medical authority.