Get These Toxins Out of Your House

Hey, everybody. Welcome to my weekly house call. Your chance to ask me your questions. And this week's question is. Dr. Hyman, I recently started reading about these things called endocrine disruptors. They're environmental toxins that I heard interfere with your hormones, and I'm really freaked out. I feel like my house is full of toxins. Can you help? What should I get rid of? Well, this is a very important question that's not taken seriously by most of our healthcare practitioners or most people. The increase and the environmental toxic burden and obesity and the link between the two of those, they have to be addressed on a policy level and in the clinical treatment of diabesity and many, many chronic illnesses. Environmental toxins interfere with glucose and cholesterol metabolism. These toxins induce obesity and insulin resistance through lots of mechanisms, including inflammation, oxidative stress, damage to the mitochondria, which is your low energy factories, altered thyroid metabolism. They even screw up your central appetite regulation. The most recent example of how toxins induce obesity is the dramatic increase in obesity in babies. In 2006, scientists at Harvard School of Public Health found that the rates of obesity in infants less than six months old have risen by 73% since 1980. I mean, this epidemic of obesity in six months old is not related to diet or lack of exercise. Babies live on breast milk or formula and love. They don't say, hey, mom, take me out for a 1200 calorie McDonald's breakfast or a giant tub of buttered popcorn. Right? Clearly, watching too much television is not a risk factor for these kids. So what's the cause? It appears that it may be linked to a load of environmental toxins in their little bodies. Evidence points to a unique, unappreciated trigger for obesity. Exposure to trace amounts of environmental chemicals in the environment. The average newborn baby has 287 chemicals in the umbilical cord blood, 287 chemicals. That's before they take their first breath. And 217 of those chemicals are neurotoxic. See, chemicals that these infants exposed to include a whole range of things like pesticides, phthalates, bisphenol A or bpa, flame retardants, heavy metals like mercury, lead, arsenic. These chemicals have a broad range of negative effects on our bodies and our brains. So let's talk about these toxins and how we look out for them and how we get rid of them. I want to take you through a few of the Environmental working group. That's EWG's Dirty Dozen Endocrine disruptors. These are the hormone disruptors that can lead to some of the huge challenges we see in health. So you want to really look out for them. Number one is bpa. BPA, or bisphenol A is found in plastic water bottles, canned foods, and it's also found in credit card receipts, ATM receipts, gas station receipts, all that stuff that we touch every day that all has BPA in it. It's a synthetic hormone that imitates estrogen in the body. It also triples your insulin production, leading to obesity and diabetes. But it's been linked to breast cancer, to reproductive challenges, to obesity and heart disease. So you want to stay away from this stuff, and that means staying away from plastic. Use stainless steel or glass instead of plastic and look for canned foods that are BPA free. You should be able to find them at most health food stores and online. The second endocrine disruptor to look for is phthalates, which is spelled P H T H A L A T E S. These are also found in plastic food containers like, like plastic water bottles, but they're also in children's toys that they chew on. So you want to be careful if your children are young and they're teething. Also, makeup products have been known to carry phthalates. If your product says the word fragrance, you want to avoid this. Stick to all natural products with only a few ingredients that you know and you understand. You see, phthalates are known to cause hormonal havoc and been linked to cancer, to birth defects, to thyroid issues. Also, I want you to check out EWG's website, EWG.org, because they have amazing resources like the Skin Deep database where you can put in your cosmetics and see how it ranks on the toxicity scale. Basically, if you wouldn't eat it, you shouldn't put it on your skin because everything gets absorbed into your body. Next, let's talk about glycol ethers. Now, you might not have heard of these before, but they can be found in household cleaning products as well as cosmetics and paints. Again, check your products, especially your household cleaners and cosmetics. Glycol ethers can damage fertility. They can lead to birth defects and allergies and asthma. There's other toxins out there too, things like organophosphate pesticides. These are found in produce and perfluorinated chemicals, Also known as PFCs or fluorinated carbons hydrocarbons. These are found in nonstick pans and in furniture. And you should also look out for mercury that's found in large fish. Talked a lot about that arsenic which can be found in your drinking water and rice or chicken or even pressure treated lumber decks and even wine. Also watch out for lead which is common in old paint and leaded crystal and old pipes. And avoid fire retardants which are on all sorts of couches and soft like you know, things in your car. Perchlorate, which is another toxin and pesticide, atrazine which is a banned pesticide. These are found in drinking water which is why you want to filter your water every day. Also dioxin. Dioxin is present in meat and dairy and eggs. All these toxins have been known to cause major diseases, so they really should be avoided when possible. That's why it's important to eat clean food if you can things like organic or grass fed foods. This might sound like a lot, but a few simple strategies can really help you reduce the body burden of toxins. First, here we go. First, maximize detoxifying phytochemicals or phytonutrients by eating whole real foods, especially cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, bok choy, brussels sprouts. I eat about two cups of those a day. Be also sure to eat foods with plenty of antioxidants like dark green leafy veggies and berries. Also garlic and onions help with detox. Rosemary, lemon skin which is limonene. All sorts of great detoxifying phytochemicals. Also, stay away from plastics. I like to use stainless steel water bottles and glass containers like Pyrex to store my leftovers instead of buying water in a plastic bottle. I recommend filtering your water at home. I like reverse osmosis filters but you can find great ones online and I'll link to them right below. Next, detox your house. Whether it's cosmetics or household cleaning products, stick with natural simple products. Thrive Market, which is a great online market. It's my favorite online market. They they carry the best cleaners from seventh generation to other eco friendly non toxic companies. So if you're looking for the best cosmetics, check out EWG's Skin Deep Guide at EWG.org also EWG has a great guide to reducing toxic household cleaning products and there's some fantastic brands out there. You can even make your own body products using coconut oil and other ingredients you can find in your kitchen. Now if you can eat it, you can put on your skin. That's good. Okay, so also I want you to stop eating mercury. Stick with small cold water fish like salmon that has lower levels of mercury. Sardines Eat organic when possible and choose organic fruits and veggies because guess what? That's going to limit your exposure to environmental toxins. EWG also has a great list of fish that has low levels of mercury. Be sure to eat organic when you can to reduce the load of pesticides in your diet. You can use EWG dirty dozen or clean 15, lists of fruits and veggies that have the most and the least pesticides to help you cut out toxins from your food without breaking the bank. Next, exercise and sweat also are great detoxifiers. They help get rid of toxins in your body through getting them out of the sweat. So get moving and also try steam or sauna. You can also try supplements that help support detox like selenium, zinc, vitamin C, B complex vitamins, as well as special glutathione boosting supplements like N acetylcysteine, alpha lipoic acid and milk thistle. Now for some people, they need to be treated by a doctor if they have lots of heavy metals. You use heavy metal chelators. They can really help lower the burden of mercury and lead and arsenic and other toxic metals. But you'll want to work with the functional medicine doctor if you're suspecting heavy metals are really an issue. And finally, address toxicity in your home. If you suspect lead or any of these poisons are in your paint or floors, you want to consult an expert to remove these safely from your house. So as you see, you can absolutely make choices today that reduce your exposure to these endocrine disruptors. All it takes is a little bit of investigative work and switching out your products for safer alternatives. Once you get the hang of it, you can live clean and green without a lot of effort. Now I want to hear from you. How have you detoxed your home or gotten rid of toxins in your cosmetics or household cleaning products or in your food? Please share below or on my Facebook page. And if you like this video, be sure to share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter and submit your questions to drhyman.com and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you.