EP 142 WTH?!? The Doctor's Chat: Environmental Toxicants with Wendie Trubow

Hey, welcome back Everybody. I am Dr. Greg Eckel and this is what the health. I have Dr. Wendy Trubeau on the show today and we're talking about an upcoming summit that she has produced the Environmental Toxicants Autoimmunity and Chronic Disease. And I am excited to get this one out. I was also interviewed on this show and it's near and dear to me as a naturopathic physician charged with addressing root causes of illness. And this is a big one, Wende. This is a big one.

This is a huge one. Quite literally, you know, when you think about we're all trying to get slimmer and lose weight and look better and avoid diabetes and avoid heart disease and avoid degenerative disease, all of those things, when you look at it, the root cause of them is toxins. And so it's near and dear to my heart just because, you know, as you see, we read the book about Dirty Girl because that was my experience of life. But it's more than that. It's like how do we as a group get healthy? It's totally, it's pertinent. Everyone has it.

Yeah, it is that component of this topic. You know, we think of our health as an individual choice or our individual matters at hand. But ultimately you just interviewed what, 40 plus experts in different facets of care is it, you know, can you make a difference as yourself on just your own physiology, biochemistry, or what did you find? Were there any themes that emerged during this summit?

You know, it's amazing, Greg, because I don't believe that one size fits all, but I do believe that there are some foundational behaviors that we can all take on that will absolutely impact our risk of disease and our experience of disease and our ability to resolve it. So when you think about it, the things that cross all genders and ways of life and history and no matter who you are, if you are someone who can level up your food, that meaning eat fewer processed carbs, eat more vegetables, particularly the green leafy ones, minimize sugar and minimize or eliminate alcohol. That that's an approach that will serve you well. And the other layer to that is try to eat organic whenever possible. If you can do that, that is a huge step forward. Right? That's food. And that will, that will cross all belief systems right there. Okay, that's one. And then sleep has come out to be extremely important in how do you level up? Because if you don't sleep, you don't detox. Your brain doesn't drain of its toxins. So making sure you get adequate and sufficient Sleep and have good sleep hygiene every night, not just certain nights, but every night is, is also something that crosses all, all demographics. And then things like water quality. You know, the water we drink, how we're getting it, what is it in? Is it in a single use plastic, forever chemical water bottle or is it in a glass? Are there. I was just listening to the radio this morning and they were talking about PFAS in our water supply. And the amount, the amount that's, that's reasonable to be in your water supply is one drop in a swimming pool. That's the amount. It's 20 parts per trillion. That's actually, I live in Massachusetts. That's what they've mandated. And so if your water contains forever chemicals and you're drinking them, those are very harmful for you. So the water quality, are you moving your body? Do you move the lymph? Are you sweating? Are you exercising? Are you conditioning your body to move the toxins? And then what are you putting on your body for personal care products in your hair, on your face, what are you washing your hair with? Are you dry cleaning your clothes? What do you use for scenting your rooms and cleaning your house? It's kind of sprawling, but essentially all of the ways in which we impact toxins, it's across the board, will improve our lives if we move regularly, sleep properly, eat properly, manage our stress critical. Make sure we don't engage in toxic behaviors emotionally or physically. And all in those, those are impactful across the board. I mean, we explore this in the summit. Like, how exactly do you do that and what exactly does it look like and what impact does it make?

I love it. And so you have linked environmental toxicants with autoimmunity and chronic disease. So what were some of the big aha moments? You know, I definitely want to encourage folks to tune in. We'll have the links down below to sign up, get on board and view this summit. Because, you know, as a summit producer, you know, we learn a lot and I'm sure you learned a ton of doing these interviews, but the goal is for people to actually view it and then get into action. So I'm curious if we want to just maybe lob out some, some big aha moments that you're like, oh, in this interview there was some, you know, just some major revelations outside of yours, right? Yes.

You're on the summit, so all of the people who love you should totally listen. And by the way, it's free, there's no charge to attend. You can certainly opt into a program where you get long term access to the plan and, and get special bonuses, but you can just listen. It's free. So anyone can do that. So, okay, so there it's. I'm hemming and hawing on this, Greg, because there were seven, there are seven days of speakers and we had a really hard time placing people because every speaker is amazing. So the, the aha moments that stood out for me, Terry Walls, who used to have wheelchair dependent multiple sclerosis and was in discussions with her family about whether she would have a feeding tube or not, and is now someone who travels the country lecturing on ways to reverse multiple sclerosis and what that comes down into. That's one of those aha moments that we actually do have control over. This narrat narrative does not own us. We're not meant to be sicker, fatter, older, and less vital as the years pass. We are meant to be vital, vibrant, healthy, able and interested in intimacy until we're at least 100 and that every decade gets better. So that was one huge aha moment with Terry Walls. Another huge aha moment was with Brian Vasely who talked all about the, the, all of the toxins in our personal care products and how before we leave the house in the morning, we've been exposed to sometimes 250 different chemicals before we leave the house craziness. And then another aha moment would have to be, I mean, everyone, right? So I would say the next one that comes to mind is Deanna Minick, who talks about the power of the color of our food. You know, we, we think about the broad and the breadth of, of phytonutrients and the different ways in which they impact us. She gets into that and how to impact that. So I can keep going? Do you want me to keep going or should I stop? Because it just the.

Oh, that's good. I know I put you on the spot. I put you on the spot just off the cuff. That was awesome. Thank you.

My pleasure.

The, you know, that component of environmental toxicity, you know, when I learned about environmental medicine as a medical student from Walter Crinion was my mentor in the naturopathic realm and he taught, you know, thousands of providers around the globe. And you know, it's kind of just part of the, the training and the understanding of, you know, we are actually in the universe and the universe is in us, quite literally. And so looking at, you know, some of these things that are far reaching, which I would call one a crime against humanity. Glyphosate roundup. You know, There are some, there are some chemicals out there that people think, well, they sell it at the grocery store, it must be fine. Or, you know, I get into an Uber or Lyft and they have those air fresheners in there and it's like, wow, I have to educate these drivers of like, you are, you're toxing yourself out. Like, you don't want to be driving with that clean air smell next to you all this time. So, you know, there are people don't, we don't really think about it that way, that, oh, well, these products are on the market, they must be safe for me.

You know, Greg, this, I don't, when you say the word glyphosate, it's literally like one of those hooks for me. And Stephanie Seneff talks about glyphosate on the summit. And it's also something that for me is, I'm particularly passionate about because I really believe that we are what we eat. And glyphosate was initially developed as a chelating agent and it's now used as an herbicide. It's the most common herbicide in the world. It's used on every crop imaginable. It's sprayed to get the ground ready to dry it out so that they can plant faster. It's sprayed to hurry the crop up, to harvest it. And it's sprayed on the crop at, throughout various stages of the plant cycle. And it was in 2010 patented as an antibiotic, which means that everyone knows what an antibiotic does. It kills bugs, it kills bacteria. But in our body, it does kill the bad bacteria. It actually interrupts the pathway for the good bacteria to make their needed essential amino acids. But the bad bacteria are psyched, they are not impacted by glyphosate in our body. So given that we are outnumbered 10 to 1 with bacteria, these, it's interrupting the very nature of our microbiome and it also not. I don't know if this is a passion point for other people, but we're huge gardeners and you know, it's toxic to bees and if we don't have bees, we don't have food. So even if you're not a gardener, if you don't, if you like to eat, which I do, it's toxic to the bees that make the pollen go from plant to plant to cross pollinate and it's toxic indirectly to the birds because it kills all the bugs that the birds eat. So I didn't, I don't know if you knew that you were opening that can of worms with me.

But oh, I totally did. I did it on purpose. You know, Professor Serolani is a hero of mine. He comes out of Europe and I saw his first lecture in North America and it was his research out of his lab that showed roundup actually is 99 times more toxic than glyphosate. The active ingredient that they call and that glyphosate is a known cancer causing agent. But 99 times more toxic than the known cancer causing agent is the rest of the inert ingredients in Roundup. And I mean for him to publish that research out of Europe, he got attacked, his foundation got, you know, basically listed on the Do Not Fund list. He, you know, Monsanto put researchers on the Journal of Nature to have him recant his research that showed it was 99 times more toxic than glyphosate. So I just want people to know that it's not just glyphosate like we in the medical field say glyphosate, but it is actually those inert ingredients, ingredients that aren't listed are 99 times more cancer causing than the actual known cancer causing agent. So like that is just the state of affairs of where we live right now of the regulation of these products. You know, these agencies have been captured and it is, you know, buyer beware, consumer beware of what are we doing, you know, topical, you know, a funny, I'll tell you a funny joke later about lipstick, but I'm curious what you found out about the personal care products. And you know, you said in the interview with, with Brian, you know, you know, he said like 250 chemicals before leaving the house, somebody might have been exposed to. And those, I'm guessing, were not tested for health on people, were they?

Well, let's go back to the EPA because the EPA is the organization in the United States that's responsible for overseeing chemicals. Now there's a couple of things about this. Companies have to report that they think there might be a problem with their chemical and request that the EPA evaluate it. Now who's going to do that? Nobody's going to do that because you're going to lose your way of life. So that's one issue with the EPA and the other is that it's really been defanged pretty, pretty significantly over the last 10 years. So the EPA and I are the same age. We are both 52 years old. It was born the same year I was. And in its history they can evaluate about 400 products at any one time. However, there's something like 500,000 known chemicals and toxins. Well, maybe not toxins. Right. They haven't been evaluated formally to see whether they're toxic. There are at least 500,000 chemicals with thousands being produced every year. And the EPA evaluates a sniff of those. And of the ones that the EPA has evaluated, they've banned nine now. Okay, quiz, quiz time. What do you think the last time the EPA banned a substance was? Do you have any guesses? Okay. Before or after 2000? Just hit it. Hit that.

I'm gonna say before 2000.

You'd be right now. 1990. Before 1990. Before 1980. Before 1970. Well, they couldn't have been before 1970.

Before 1980, you're close.

1984 was the last time the EPA banned a substance. I know. So when you think about. When you think about. Oh, well, someone should have figured that out. The problem is there is no someone. There is no someone. We are responsible for ensuring our safety. Now, it's not all doom and gloom because there's tons of brands that have taken it upon themselves to keep you safe. Like the Environmental Working Group. EWG.org has an app. You can visit their website and they evaluate products. So if you're someone like me who gets greenwashed, meaning it says all National Natural, you get psyched. You buy it, in fact, because you have a big home. Maybe like me, you've got a bunch of kids and it's mayhem in your house, maybe you buy six months worth because you like to be prepared for every eventuality. Hypothetically speaking, of course, Maybe you buy a lot and then you get it home and you open it up and you realize you did not go to your trusted EWG source. And then you do and you find that it has a really nice package but lots of toxins in it. I hypothetically might have done that a bunch. Right, because we're human and we get excited about things. So if you're someone like me, then what you want to make sure you do is anytime you're buying a product and you're not in that greenwash haze, go to EWG or think dirty. Those are two great apps. Go to either one of them and look the product up. And EWG is my favorite. And they rate it. And it can be based on toxicity, cancer causing allergy, inflammation, scent, there's irritability, there's tons of things they evaluate it for. So go to EWG before you buy something. Now, here's a nice thing. You might have hit something out of the park and not known it. I found this brand, I loved it. It's mineral fusions. And I found that when I looked it up, it was actually highly rated. So I was psyched. I was like, okay, I did something right. Right. I don't have to redo that line, but I did need to redo some of the other cosmetic lines that I was using that were not healthy and not safe and were pro cancer causing, might contain heavy metals, other toxicants. So because a lot of these things have come from other countries, the soil and the evaluation process there is much less rigorous. So you really want to make sure you're utilizing companies that test their products. That goes for supplements too, actually. So go to ewj. What's a girl to do? Go to ewj.

Love it. I love it. And that's actually an organization we've supported here at our centers for over 10 years. It is an amazing resource. Anything else that you would like to share on the summit? About the summit?

Yeah. What was amazing? So we're just about wrapping up all of the interviews and it was such a privilege to interview these people. You think about getting the top experts in the field of anti aging, living younger, mitochondrial health, toxins, you name it, we got the top experts. And it was a privilege to record this. And, and there are times that we'll come across our recording because we have to look at it for something. I'm like, oh, that was fascinating. I forgot about that. What's amazing is there's fun facts that just go through the whole, the whole recording and it's just chock full of amazing. And not just amazing, but empowering, inspiring and educational. Right to our job and our goal. The way I see it is to inspire, empower and educate and give you the tools that you need in order to make a difference in your daily experience of life so that you can be vital, vibrant, healthy, alive, able and interested in intimacy till you're at least 100. Right? That every decade gets better. That's our job. So the thing that was so striking about the summit is I think that we were able to provide experts who could do that, you know, I mean, you were. It was amazing.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I am so excited to share this with our listeners and followers. And I am on it. I'm honored to be part of that expert panel talking about brain health and longevity and what the, what's the environment got to do with it. That was a very fun interview. So thank you so much. Everybody click on the link below the video. Get signed up, get in the queue. It is free. But I am going to encourage you just to buy it because it's a low price and you are going to want these resources because my guess is, and correct me if I'm wrong, you've got actionable items on each of those interviews.

We do. We have actionable items on each of the interviews. And what I was saying to my husband, who's my partner and recording with me often, that you could take notes for every interview and still miss stuff. It's, I mean, people, Terry Walls, I mean, she's, she's a goddess. And so we really have just amazing speakers and, and it's, you're going to want to listen to it more than once because the, there's just nuggets and pearls that, that run through it. So. Yeah, I totally second that. And we have lots of cool and amazing gifts for the people who opt into the VIP packages. You're going to like them. It's fun and it's worth, I mean, it's just fun.

Yes. Thank you so much for producing it. I know there's a tremendous amount of work that goes into the production of these things and for sharing that information out with folks. This is what the health I am Dr. Greg Eckel. If you like today's show, give us a five star rating and tell people what you learned. What are you going to put into action or what was an aha moment for you? Share it with your friends and family and community because that's how change happens. Everybody, we will see you soon on the next adventure of what the health. Thank you, Wendy, for coming aboard.

My pleasure.