Lara Adler - Environmental Toxins Expert & Educator

Our tap water isn't as "clean" as it should be.⁠
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This is a *very* small snapshot of the kinds of contaminants that are commonly found in municipal water. ⁠
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Many of these chemicals - both regulated and unregulated - show up at levels beyond what is shown to be "safe." ⁠
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There is a whole body of research linking these contaminants to conditions that you're likely seeing in your health practice. ⁠
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Conditions like:⁠
- Cancer⁠
- Neuro-developmental issues⁠
- Diabetes⁠
- Heart disease⁠
- Reduced s***m count⁠
- Endocrine disruption⁠
- Thyroid disruption⁠
- Miscarriage⁠
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This is also a very small snapshot of health effects. ⁠
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Filtered water is not a treatment for these conditions but it is ABSOLUTELY an important part of reducing exposure to toxins that can contribute to them.⁠
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My mantra for finding the perfect water filter is: ⁠
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👉Just as there is no perfect diet, and no perfect fitness routine, there is 👏 no 👏 perfect 👏 water 👏 filter 👏⁠
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While ANY filter is better than no filter, being able to properly remove contaminants is entirely dependent on what contaminants are present in the first place. ⁠
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The water filter that your best friend has or favorite influencer promotes? It may not be the right filter for YOUR water. ⁠
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I developed the PURE course after YEARS of my students asking me "what's the best water filter to buy?" ⁠
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The course is packed full of research on contaminants, and how to remove them, and gives you easy-to-use charts to reference when reading through your clients' water reports. In short: this course gives you what you need to know in order to find an effective water filter for you and your clients!⁠
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💥💥 PURE (and my Talking Toxins course) is on sale thru the end of TOMORROW, 12/29 💥💥⁠
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This mini-course, comprised of 10 lessons, can be completed in just 3 hours but packs a punch of education and empowerment. ⁠
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Head to the link in my bio () to find the link to the PURE & Talking Toxins courses and use code BYE2022 at checkout!

While many folks in the health space have likely gotten rid of most heavily fragranced products, they are still likely to be found in the homes of your clients or patients. This is 100% worth addressing!⁠
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(Pssst, think this content is helpful? Check out my END OF YEAR SALE that starts TODAY! Details below!)⁠
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According to the NPD group, nearly 80% of consumers scent their homes. Their reasons? Consumers want to feel “relaxed”, “cozy”, and to “uplift their spirits". ⁠
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A study conducted by Statista showed that 15% of men never use fragrances (perfume & eau de toilette), compared to 8% of women. The inverse of these stats is that likely 85% of men DO use fragrances of some kind, and 92% of women DO use fragrances of some kind.⁠ But at what cost?⁠
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If you follow me, you probably already know that many products list “fragrance” on the label, but only a tiny fraction of companies actually disclose the specific constituents making up that fragrance. ⁠
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These ingredients are considered proprietary and therefore are not required to be disclosed. This lack of transparency does not help consumers make informed choices.⁠ (California passed a law requiring disclosure of these compounds, as of Jan 2022. This will likely spell change for the entire industry over time.)⁠
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There's plenty of evidence linking chemicals found in fragrances to a myriad of serious health conditions like cancer, reproductive and developmental toxicity, allergies, and sensitivities. ⁠
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The best and easiest way to avoid these exposures is simple: stop buying and using scented products!⁠
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This is an avoidance intervention that's available to ALL people regardless of resources. In fact, not buying these home fragrances and perfumes/colognes SAVES money. ⁠
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Scented home products can be hard for some folks to let go of - there's a strong emotional attachment that keeps people addicted. But understanding and articulating these bigger risks can help! ⁠
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This is a topic that I cover THOROUGHLY in my Talking Toxins course. This 5-week training for health professionals & health educators is currently ON SALE through 12/29.⁠
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Head to the link in my bio and use code BYE2022 at checkout to save $200!

How did you spend your time this year?? 🤪⁠
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I can tell you one thing: learning about environmental toxins takes TIME.⁠
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Hundreds and hundreds of hours of research to find out where toxins are hiding, how they are affecting us, and what we can do about them, and even more time learning how to communicate about them without sending people running!⁠
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And let's be clear: that’s time that most health professionals just don’t have. It pains me to see health professionals struggling to incorporate environmental toxins into their work without adequate education and support on the topic, or worse, trying and getting it wrong so it blows up in their faces (I've seen this happen many times, including on this app)⁠
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This is quite literally why I started my business. Learning about this vital topic needs to be approachable and accessible - and that's what I sought to do! ⁠
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The average medical school curriculum that addresses environmental toxins (most programs don’t at all) only offer seven hours of training on environmental health issues.⁠..⁠
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Meanwhile, allied health professionals typically receive 0 hours of training on environmental health issues.⁠
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I’m talking about health coaches, nutritionists, women’s health experts, chiropractors, etc., who work closely with their clients on daily lifestyle upgrades.⁠ I'm also talking about wellness bloggers, environmental health consultants, etc. ⁠
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The people who are most uniquely qualified to help people with minimizing daily exposures to environmental toxins!⁠
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🤯🤯🤯⁠
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If you want to set yourself apart in 2023 and become a leader in the environmental health and wellness space, this is your time. ⁠
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I am having an end-of-year sale that kicks off tomorrow. My two most popular courses are going on sale and they will save you SO. MUCH. TIME! All while giving you all of the information you need to help your clients, patients, and customers make meaningful changes!⁠
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Make sure post notifications are on so that you don't miss it!

The holidays for many can be stressful. Ease some of that stress with an Epsom salt bath! 🛀⁠
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Epsom salts have been used for hundreds of years to soothe sore muscles, help with insomnia, reduce inflammation, ease constipation, and soothe irritated skin. ⁠
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While the actual research on its benefits is very thin, it's been used safely for so long, and become a valuable tool for people around the world - there are mountains of anecdotal evidence to support its use!⁠
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While it's commonly stated that magnesium is better absorbed transdermally — as opposed to going through the GI tract, the research on this is quite thin too. (I've long thought this to be true, but when I looked for research to back these claims, I didn't really find any.) ⁠
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As I've said before though, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: ie, just because there aren't studies, doesn't mean we should throw out hundreds of years of practice! ⁠
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Since most people are low in magnesium, even if skin absorption is modest, it might help to raise magnesium levels, which is a good thing! ⁠
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Epsom salts are inexpensive (you can buy 25lb bags online for pretty cheap). I always try to have bags of Epsom salts on hand because I take Epsom salt baths pretty regularly as part of my mold protocol, and because I just love a good soak!⁠
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What are your favorite ways to relax during the holidays?
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Drop em in the comments!⁠
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PS: Who else wonders where Epsom salt got its name? Turns out it's named after the town of Epsom in Surrey, England, where it was first discovered!

Reminder: our problems are not always solved by money.⁠
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When we get caught up in paying the problem away, we alienate ourselves and others from some of the most accessible and impactful steps that we can take to reduce our exposures to hazardous chemicals.⁠
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The holidays generally revolve around buying people gifts which already puts so much pressure on individuals and families. It's nice to remember all of the things that don't require you to spend money on stuff that nobody needs!⁠
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I've shared about these before but I'll keep repeating it until I see as many people as possible taking their shoes off indoors, opening windows, vacuuming/dusting, and — for the love of god — abstaining from using candles, room sprays, air fresheners, etc!!!⁠
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What are your thoughts? Who is with me??

Not all toxic chemicals are the same, and not all exposures are equally "bad" or problematic.

One important lens to view toxicants through is their persistence or non-persistence as this can help to inform our behaviors and interventions.

We're ALL exposed to chemicals every day; some of these exposures are more worrisome than others, and not all exposures are avoidable - we're all just working towards doing the best we can to minimize what we can.

A lot of folks in the health space LOVE pushing detox protocols or products for ✨everything✨ - they have their time and place, but, when it comes to non-persistent chemicals, detox protocols and products aren't it.

We don't need them. Non-persistent chemicals have very short half-lives in the body, which means their transit time in and out is very brief, sometimes in a matter of hours.

They can still exert effect though - even in that short time, which is why our #1 intervention isn't a detox supplement regime or punishing protocol; it's avoidance.

We also and especially practice avoidance when it comes to more persistent chemicals because we are often building these up in our bodies much, much faster than they can be broken down and excreted.

Some PCBs have half-lives measured in years or even decades, which means complete elimination may take a lifetime - given no new exposures.

So we prioritize avoidance first and foremost.

Next, we work to support our body's innate detoxification capacity by staying hydrated, pooping, sleeping, moving, and eating nutrient-dense foods that provide our livers with the compounds needed to facilitate detoxification.

And THEN, and only when needed, do we embark on a more targeted detoxification protocol.

I understand that those detox protocols are sexier and can feel like a more effective, proactive action, but if they're done in the absence of lowering exposures through avoidance, we're missing the point and potentially negating their overall benefit.

I would love to hear from the health professionals here; what's your position on when & where detox protocols should be used AND whether you're thinking through the persistence lense?

LMK in the comments!

Laughter helps, guys! I swear!⁠
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I don't know what you have planned for the holidays but I hope that you're not the one creating a toxic environment 🤪

Do you know the biggest mistakes I see health professionals making when talking about environmental toxins?⁠
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After doing this for 10+ years, I've seen A LOT of mistakes (and made plenty of them myself), but by far, the biggest mistakes?⁠
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Not listening & information dumping. ⁠
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It's one thing to be knowledgeable but when you share information, it absolutely has to relate to your client/patient and what's going on with them. And knowing how to relate information to their situation requires listening. ⁠
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This is often referred to as "meeting people where they're at" - if we want to connect, educate, and guide people toward health, we have to meet them where they are. ⁠
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Where they are completely informs your approach, what you share, how much you share, and how you share it! ⁠
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NOT meeting people where they're at often manifests as information-dumping, and can lead to shutting down, or shutting you out. ⁠
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There's an art to educating and empowering, and it's not just dazzling folks with how much you know. ⁠
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I've always said that it doesn't matter how much you know if you don't know how to apply it properly. Knowledge, without the ability to connect with people, is like an expensive electronic gadget that you don't know how to use. ⁠
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I quickly realized that offering education without teaching application is a missed opportunity to help people actually grow their practices and help more people. ⁠
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Most of my courses offer insights specific to practitioners and how they can integrate this information into their work. I host monthly Office Hours calls with my students - past and present - so we have a space for ongoing dialog about how to best apply what they know within their unique business. ⁠
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I'm working on bringing more of this type of content to my IG! ⁠
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If you're a health professional who's looking for more insights into HOW to share information in a powerful and relevant way without turning people off, gimme a 🙌 in the comments! ⁠
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If you've got specific questions related to how to best educate/share information, drop those in the comments too! ⁠👇👇👇

if you know, you know 😉⁠⁠
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Just think about this photo every time you look at your stained plastic tupperware as an incentive to swap to glass! ⁠⁠
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PS: if your plastic food storage containers look like this, that means molecules of tomato-stained oils have migrated INTO the matrix of the plastic. That also means that molecules of plastic have migrated into your food. We rarely physically see this happening, but stained plastic is an example that we can see - at least in one direction. ⁠⁠
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Swap for safer... swap for glass! ⁠⁠
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Happy Saturday folks 😁

Don't shoot the messenger here - I'm a chocolate lover of the highest order, so this bums me out too. ⁠
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So here's the deal: Consumer Report scientists recently measured the amount of heavy metals in 28 dark chocolate bars. This is a small sample, and I don't know if they tested multiple of the same bars, or just one. ⁠
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But, they found lead & cadmium, both toxic heavy metals, in all of them at various levels. ⁠
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Lead & cadmium are *contaminants* not ingredients, and the chocolate world has known about this problem for many years.⁠
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The cacao plant takes up cadmium from the soil, whereas lead contaminates the cacao after harvesting & during processing. ⁠
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Dark chocolate appears to have higher levels because of the higher cacao content, and organic doesn't have any bearing on potential lead or cadmium content. ⁠
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CR used California's maximum allowable dose level (MADL) for lead (0.5 µg/day) and cadmium (4.1 µg/day) as the benchmark. California typically has lower threshold limits for exposure than levels set by other bodies.⁠
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These findings don't mean we can't ever eat chocolate (I was eating chocolate when I read the CR article!), but they do provide us with more information to hopefully choose chocolates that are lower in these metals. ⁠
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And this type of reporting definitely puts the spotlight on growers and manufactures of chocolate products, and hopefully pressures them to move faster to develop ways to lower lead & cadmium level. ⁠
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Check out the Consumer Reports article (linked in my bio - scroll to the bottom of my linktree) to read more about this, and see how all the bars they tested rated!

The average age that girls begin puberty is dropping!⁠
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This is concerning because multiple studies have found associations between early puberty in girls and increased risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, obesity, and even diabetes later in adult life.⁠
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(Not to mention the mental and emotional toll of starting puberty before all of your friends and peers! The research also suggests that there are psychological complications that can be associated with early puberty like substance abuse and depression.)⁠
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Researchers suspect that this is due to the prolonged and early exposure to estrogen from an active ovarian cycle.⁠
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While there are many reasons that could explain why young girls are starting puberty earlier and earlier, some research points to toxicants - specifically endocrine-disrupting ones.⁠
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That's right.⁠
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Phthalates, parabens, and phenols — all SUPER common ingredients in personal care products — have been linked to early puberty in girls. Certain chemicals in personal care and consumer products have also been associated with altered pubertal timing in animal studies.⁠
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This area warrants more research but we'd be remiss if we didn't push for it!⁠
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One study, in particular, tracked a group of pregnant women and their children for 13 years while monitoring and measuring the concentrations of endocrine disruptors in the participants' urine. ⁠
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Their findings indicate that the greater the exposure, the earlier the onset of puberty by about 1.3 months.⁠
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While this shift may not seem significant, a professor and chair of the department of epidemiology at UCLA, Karin Michels, said otherwise. What she pointed to were cumulative effects. These various hormone-disrupting chemicals are interacting simultaneously and it all adds up!⁠
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So if you are working with folks who are or are trying to get pregnant, families, and young children, this is something to educate your clients on!⁠
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What are your thoughts? Are you working with these clients on reducing their exposure to EDCs?⁠
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Tell me about it in the comments!

Millions of people paint their nails regularly, unknowingly exposing themselves to . ⁠
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As you're working with your clients & patients on their health issues, it's wise to ask them whether, and how often they do this (or if they work in a nail salon)⁠
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Many companies have removed the “toxic trio” - three toxic chemicals (formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate) from their polishes, but this does NOT mean that these "3-free" polishes are non-toxic. They are simply LESS toxic. ⁠
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Even 5-free, 7-free, and 9-free, etc polishes are simply LESS toxic. ⁠
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Anyone pregnant or nursing, and definitely infants should steer clear of these chemicals. ⁠
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A single application of polish can result in spikes of metabolites of a chemical called triphenyl phosphate in the bloodstream for nearly 20 hours. ⁠(PMID: 26485058)⁠
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This doesn't mean we can't ever get manicures or pedicures, but a natural buffed nail looks just as "together" as a shiny polish... just sayin!⁠
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My suggestion? Go polish-free! ⁠
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The issues with nail polishes are layered... this is a topic that inspires a lot of "what about ______?" questions.⁠
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Being informed about what the issues are with traditional polishes are, what alternate options exist, and how to engage with folks around this topic is important. ⁠
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Inside the Talking Toxins course, we have an entire lesson just on nail polish (as well as lessons on skin, cosmetics & personal care products, sunscreen, antiperspirants, hair dyes, and more inside Module 3! If you’re a health professional or health educator, and want to be able to better support the folks you serve, come check out this course!

If you’re looking for a great polish-free way to have beautiful buffed nails, check out