Think your immune system’s got your back no matter what? Think again! Check out this excerpt from Detoxify: The Everyday Toxins Harming Your Immune System and How to Defend Against Them, Dr. Aly Cohen's new book where she shows you how everyday chemicals could be messing with your health—and how to fight back with a simple, empowering 21-day plan.

‍

The bathroom was spinning. Or, I was spinning, standing in the middle of the room, a sea of skincare sprays; bottles of moisturizer, creams, and shampoos; and tiny tubes of makeup and lip gloss, many so colorful that it looked as though someone had upended a candy store on my white-tile floor—except nothing here was sweet or appealing. These were all my personal-care products—cosmetics, creams, shampoos, serums, deodorants, and perfumes—alongside an array of household cleaners I had pulled from other areas of our home, including detergents, disinfectants, air fresheners, insect killers, mold killers, and all-purpose killers strong enough to annihilate whatever was left. 

‍

From our kitchen, I had collected cans of soup and tuna, along with boxes of cereal and cookies that may have had enough glyphosate—an herbicide used on wheat and other crops—to earn a place on the ingredients list. There were also things to drink in my pile, including bottles of water, diet sodas, and a jug of cow’s milk that had started to sweat through the plastic container. If this sounds like I was assembling goods for a fallout shelter, you’d be only partially right. But these weren’t the products I wanted with me in the unlikely event of an apocalypse. These were the products I was worried would cause an apocalypse—not in a far-fetched, end-of-existence movie kind of way, but in a slow, insidious way, quietly harming my health, the health of my family, and the health of everyone else I knew. 

‍

That’s why I spread out all these products on my bathroom floor: I wanted to know exactly how many chemicals I was exposing my body to on a daily basis. Over time and with more research, I realized I had many more things to add to this pile, including most of my cookware, clothing, electronic devices, furniture, flooring, and other common household items that contain dangerous environmental toxins. Before I go any further, know that I’m not trying to be dramatic. Professionally, I can’t be. 

‍

For the last twenty-plus years, I’ve worked as a clinical rheumatologist, which is a doctor who diagnoses and treats inflammatory diseases. In my work with patients, many of whom are critically ill with conditions other doctors don’t know how to treat, I’ve had to remain evidence-based and factual. There’s no room for drama when you’re trying to help people with crippling conditions, for which neither they nor their doctors have any answers. At the same time, I’ve spent the last two decades reading, researching, and writing about how environmental toxins affect our health. As I’ve done this, I’ve also watched this research play out in real time, as the rates of chronic illnesses have climbed steadily among my patients—patients who have been getting diagnosed at younger and younger ages and, most strikingly, without any trace of a family history of their disease. 

‍

Let’s go back to what was on my bathroom floor. What most people don’t realize, including myself at the time, is that more than ninety five thousand chemicals are currently used in US product markets and those chemicals are found in everything from our food, water, and personal-care products to our household cleaners, furniture, electronics, toys, construction materials, and more.1 In short, if something is manufactured in our modern age, it probably contains at least one synthetic chemical, if not hundreds. Environmental toxins, including some that were banned decades ago, are also present in the air we breathe, the soil in which we grow our food and from where we source our water, and the oceans, lakes, rivers, and ponds where we swim and fish. 

‍

Even though environmental chemicals are allowed to be used, many have been indisputably linked to serious health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. Environmental toxins are also associated with troubling ailments like chronic pain, fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, gastrointestinal troubles, and premature aging.2 What’s more, the majority of the chemicals used today—we’re talking tens of thousands of toxins—have never been tested for human safety. Like never.3 As in, no safety testing ever. And if past history is any indicator of future outcomes, many chemicals may be problematic if they were to be tested, given the results of those toxins that have already been analyzed.

‍

In my thirties, after I took stock of my daily chemical exposure in that bathroom, I started making small tweaks to my diet and lifestyle. Not big, sweeping, move-off-the-grid changes, but simple, sustainable adjustments to my routine that could lower my risk of what are known as diseases of civilization, or conditions like cancer, heart disease, and obesity that are largely preventable by lifestyle change. Since then, I’ve done a pretty good job at reining in the toxins I can control. I also recognize that no one can ever be perfect, and that my journey, like that of anyone else’s, is ongoing.

‍

I haven’t made every change possible. I still dye my hair (chemical free hair color just doesn’t do it for me) and occasionally I eat foods with problematic toxins, since it’s difficult to avoid all chemicals in all foods. While I examine almost everything I buy, I’ve learned how to be time-efficient about it while also saving money. I won’t lie: eating mostly organic foods and buying chemical-free consumer products can be expensive, so I’ve come up with some hacks and tips to save money while making safer choices.

‍

This result reflects my overall ethos: limiting your exposure to environmental toxins is about making smart, strategic choices, not grave sacrifices or break-the-bank purchases. The truth is, you can’t avoid all environmental toxins—it just isn’t possible. You also can’t live in fear. Instead, I want to empower you to take control of your health so you can increase your chances of not only living longer but also living better.

‍

Excerpted from Detoxify: The Everyday Toxins Harming Your Immune System and How to Defend Against Them by Aly Cohen, MD ©2025 Dr. Aly Cohen. Reprinted by permission of Simon Element, An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC. All rights reserved.