A YouTube video by Dr. Diane Mueller discussing how external environmental toxins (example: BPA) affect gut microbiota, promote inflammation and autoimmune processes, and thereby influence mental health. The speaker links toxins to leaky gut, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation, fatty liver and impaired detoxification, and offers practical advice (e.g., replacing household products gradually using the Yuka app) to reduce exposure.
Questions this video answers
BPA (bisphenol A).
Yuka (spelled Y U K A), rates products on a 0–100 scale (100 best, 0 worst).
Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4).
Chapters
Hey everybody, Dr. Diane Mueller here. In this video, we're going to talk about the environmental factors that we really need to consider when it comes to a healthy gut and the influence that these sorts of things play on mental health. So some of you guys are watching this because I ran a summit recently, I was a host of a summit called Microbes and Mental Health. So this month I'm going to do a series of videos that are directly related to questions that have come from that summit and tie this all together from mental health to Lyme to mold, to other environmental toxins to gut issues and so much more. So that's what's happening in this month to come. Now, one of the things that I think we should really be aware of is when we're talking about environmental factors and their influence on the gut microbiota, I want to focus in this video on external environmental factors, right? So we could also say there's internal environmental factors because in the things that are happening in our environment, in our environment, for example, the toxins we are exposed to, those toxins can actually change our genetics. So when we have genetics that are associated with certain disease processes, for example, environmental triggers such as toxins or infections are some of the key things that can actually turn on disease promoting genes in our body. So while we're talking, in this video, while we're going to be talking largely about external factors and their impact on the gut, their impact on the mental health, their impact on us as, as beings in general, we want to also make sure that long term, another component with these environmental factors is we can get into this vicious cycle where these disease promoting genes are turned on. And that's where it can get a little bit complicated and really become a big game of getting to the root cause to reverse things. So there's a lot of environmental toxins out there and anything from toxins, from things like infections like Lyme and Bartonell anaplasma. So these types of infections can create situations where we have problems in our gastrointestinal tract because of the toxins that are released that can affect our normal flora. But from a standpoint of environmental toxins, we're really talking about metals, we're talking about glyphosates that come from GMOs, we're talking about organophosphate pesticides, we're talking about a lot of different things. And in this video, I'll just focus on an example which is a commonly known toxin called bpa. So BPA is a toxin that's been known to come and be seen in plastics. So in plastics is one of the main places we get BPAs. And this particular toxin has been shown to cause a lot of gastrointestinal dysbiosis, proliferation of bad microorganisms, suppression of the good. And another thing that we see with BPAs, there's a couple other really important things to realize is that BPAs will actually cause leaky gut. So when we have leaky gut, one of the things that happens is that food molecules that are not totally broken down can get into our bloodstream because our gut is leaky. And that can cause a lot of inflammation to our brain. We can start creating autoimmune processes, right? And so when we're creating autoimmune processes that could be coming from BPA causing leaky gut, causing our immune system to react. That can create a process where our immune system reacts over. It's hyperreacting. And when that happens, we start attacking our own tissues. Sometimes our brain is those is one of the tissues that gets attacked. And so we can start attacking different components of our brain. And that's one of the connections to mental health issues right there. We also see BPAs increase a inflammatory process called the toll, like receptor 4 process. And when this receptor gets activated, we see that that is a. It creates this huge cascade of inflammation in the body. Again, inflammation can cause a lot of different problems, anything from depression, anxiety, bipolarism, so much more from a mental health perspective. But then also insomnia and fibromyalgia and a lot of other things. And another interesting component about BPA is BPA will actually cause our liver to slow down, right? So we can get a slowing down of our liver. We can actually get fatty liver from bpa. Now, when that happens, we can have a huge process of turning down detoxification our liver, so important for regulating detoxification. And our liver does this by creating bile, by putting the toxins in the bile and getting the toxins out, right? But if we have fatty liver, what's essentially happening is the liver is not doing its job of processing fats well, that's where toxins tend to live in stores in fats, right? So if our liver is not doing our job, its job, those toxins can build up and store even more. So follow me on this vicious cycle that can happen with BPAs. So BPA causes the liver to become fatty, to not be able to detox as well. And then because BPA is a toxin, all of a sudden, BPA starts building up more and more and more in the body. Because the liver is slowed down. And when that toxin gets higher and higher and higher levels, well, guess what, it's going to affect the gut more, it's going to cause more inflammation, it's going to change the neurology, it's going to create all this, like downstream havoc. So that's just one example I wanted to give you here. And there's a lot of other examples just like this. So we really want to start going through and saying what toxins can we control? And it can get a little bit crazy, you guys, to be like, okay, we hear a video like this and sometimes it can be really almost overwhelming to feel like we have to eradicate all the toxins from our house at one time. So what I would invite you to do is this. Every time you are out of a new product or of an old product, I mean, so whether it's laundry detergent, whether it's makeup, whether it's some sort of other cleaning product, whenever you're out of a product at that point in time, when you are at the store, get an app on your phone called Yucca. It's Y U K A. It's a very easy to use app. And what you do with this app is you essentially have it on your phone and you just take your phone and you just scan products at the store and it will rate them for how good or bad they are. From a chemical perspective, 100 is good, 0 is bad. You want as close to 100 as possible so that way you can begin to replace your products one at a time. Prevent waste, prevent overwhelm. You've been using them for a while. If you use them up, it's not going to make that much of a difference to use them for a little while longer. You can totally go crazy and like revamp your house all at once. But what I've seen for a lot of people is that can create a lot of overwhelm. So it's easiest to take this in strides. And just every time you're out of something, use Yucca Y U K A and start replacing your products with better things so you're slowly getting your the chemicals out. And just remember in the meantime, when it comes to things like plastics, just because something's BPA free does not mean it's better. Right, because there's other chemicals in there. Phthalates are another common chemical in plastics and they cause also a lot of problems that we're talking about here. So BPA is only one chemical. So you really want to like use plastics. You know, limited. They can have their value in their place. Like they're great for throwing trash in like plastic bags, right? Throw your trash away then. That's great. It's trash, you know, that's a great use of plastic. But just be very careful about putting your food in plastic, especially if it's hot, especially if it's acidic. Because if hot and acidic food or heat applied to something, even if you're not warming it up, for example, a plastic water bottle sitting in a car or sitting on a delivery truck to get to the store, that's going to get hot. Right. Even though you're not microwaving that plastic water bottle. Right. But, but in general, you want to keep heat and acid away from plastic because those are the things that are going to leach into the food from the plastic perspective the most. And just be, you know, just go through and start realizing that your gut can really be affected by environmental toxins and work to get things out one at a time. Remember the normal flora of your gut. The good guys. This is your immune system. This is your immune system. Staying strong is keeping the normal floor of your body strong. So the good bacteria provide the majority of the immune function in the body. Of course, not the only part of the immune system, but they supply a huge portion of it. So when we're talking about chronic infections and we talk a lot about Lyme disease on this channel, we need to make sure the gut is healthy because we got to get our immune system working totally up to par. So let me know if you have comments or questions. Make sure you please post things as your comments are coming up. That helps me continue to curate information that is useful for you guys. And please subscribe to this channel if it's helpful. You'll find information in the show notes about how to get a hold of my clinic if you need any support and help in your life. And thank you for being here.