Hidden Toxins in Everyday Life: The Risks of Cancer and Accelerated Aging

Hey friends, welcome back or welcome for the first time. This is a very special podcast, a shorter segment highlighting some of the most asked for played moments from a podcast fairly recently with Stephanie Gray. She's local. I'm in Iowa. She's in Iowa, and she's got a lot of statistics that are not so great about Iowa. So the one thing that wasn't lovely about coming home was the high cancer rates. So we talked about it, broke it down, talked about other agricultural states. If you live in the Midwest and/or you're a golfer and do a lot of swimming in chlorine, we will talk about your tap water, your exposure simply in your yard or going on runs or long bike rides and what all of this means to all of us. So you don't have to be a farmer spraying pesticides or fertilizers every day, but you might need to know of those 14 products. on average that a woman puts on in the morning. How great is your exposure? Stephanie Gray is a naturopath and she is a functional medicine provider who helps men and women build sustainable and optimal health and longevity so they can focus on what matters most to them. She is also a recent, uh, third-time bestselling author with her new book, The Hormone Blueprint. So in this episode, we recap some of the most highlighted and downloaded moments from a full-length episode. We'll link to that in the show notes too. You are in perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause, and you're not slowing down. You're just getting started. But the old rules don't apply anymore. The workouts that worked before, they're working against you now. The advice you've been given, incomplete at best. I'm Debra Atkinson, and I'm the founder of Flipping 50, the pioneer in fitness for women in midlife. For more than 40 years, I've been in the trenches with women just like you, and for the last 12, right here on this podcast, and, and the founder of Flipping 50, the Stronger Way app and membership. Welcome to Flipping 50 the Stronger Way, where science meets strength, where you'll find the tools, research, and real talk to build the body and the life you want in your second half. Each week, you'll get evidence-based exercise and nutrition strategies, conversations with leading experts, and honest answers to the questions your doctor didn't get answers to in medical school and doesn't have time to answer in an appointment. This is your show. Let's get stronger. Dr. Stephanie Gray is in the house, and she's across town for those of you that don't know it.

Across the state, but close enough.

I've recently moved back to Iowa, and I think it was like a week later, this statistic comes up and I'm like, ooh, you know, I was sharing all these winning, winning because the temperatures in Scottsdale and Iowa were like coming up. And then I was like, ooh, not winning on that one. So we'll unpack all of that. So as soon as I get to Iowa, I unpack. Pack all my boxes or most, and Iowa appears as the number one rated state for cancer. So let's talk about hidden reasons though, because not every listener is from Iowa or an agricultural state or worried about cancer. In fact, I think most of us think that happens to somebody else, you know, until maybe it gets too close to home. But let's talk about hidden reasons why health issues might at least be an obstacle, obstacle for health and fitness, and at the worst be contributing to rising health concerns like cancer. You know, toxins are not the first thing somebody thinks about getting in their way. We think diet and exercise, maybe sleep, and only until, you know, you've tried everything else do you really take a look at What is it we put on like 14 average products before we leave the house in the morning as females? Talk to me about this endocrine disruption. And I know you said something earlier, it's only a little bit. So if you only have a tiny little bit, you know, it's not like spraying your crops every day. However, you have a little bit of fragrance, you have a little bit in your shampoo, you have a little bit in your toothpaste, you have a little bit in your How does that cumulative effect hit us? And when are we going to see it?

Yeah, the answer is we don't know, but this can't be good. And this has never really been researched, right, the cumulative effect of all these toxins. So maybe can I come back and list some? Most of your listeners, mine are too, probably from Iowa. I mean, I'm sure we have nationwide audience too, but I want to read some statistics because I had to look this up. I had a post go very viral on this topic and I thought, oh my gosh, people like Really care about this. This is, this is a good thing. And so I wanted to, you know, I looked up some statistics. So when I looked these up, we had the 2nd highest cancer incidence, but we're one of 3 states where cancer is actually rising, where it's falling in other states. So that I don't like. Yeah. So according to 2025 Cancer in Iowa report from University of Iowa, Iowa's cancer rate is 14% higher than the U.S. national average. And in 2024 alone, there were 21,000 new cases of invasive cancer. 61,000 Iowans died from cancer that same year, most common being breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer. Over half of Iowa's counties have cancer incidence rates higher than the national average. And people in Iowa are 10 to 15% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than the average American. But this is not just a rural problem, because I do think agriculture, which we're going to talk about, is a huge part of it. But it's not just a rural problem as far as Polk County, which includes Des Moines, like, you know, big city. also has rates above the national average. So I do think, um, our contaminated water could be part of the problem in our, I'll say, I'll say 82% of high glyphosate counties have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma rates above the national average. And half of those counties are what researchers call hotspots, meaning they're in the top 20% for lymphoma rates. And I know some people, when I, when I put, put this post about Iowa cancer rates, I mean, there were just. Probably thousands of people saying, that was me, you know, I sprayed my crops and I ended up with lymphoma, or my mom or my uncle or whatever. I mean, I don't, I don't think this is falsity. I think this is, this is true, and it's backed up by multiple agricultural studies. So, um, I think this is very scary, and I'm, I'm glad that kind of like HRT, people are now aware of, okay, we do have toxins in this state, and, you know, what are we going to do about it is the question. But So, question for you. Where did I— I went off on a tangent.

I asked you about 5 questions at once, so in fairness, you're doing great. So, I want to ask you personally this. So, you are an Iowa family, you have 2 young boys. I'm going to ask you a little bit here about what do you do at home for drinking water, the water you shower and bathe the kids in. What do you do?

Yeah, yeah. So, I've always had— when I built my house, which was like 20 years ago, I put in RO like back before this was a cool thing. I mean, I was in functional medicine, so I knew I was eventually going to want it. And so, I put an RO in my house for drinking water, which back then—

Can you say just to anybody who doesn't know, RO?

Reverse osmosis. Just think of it as removing everything, even the good things. It literally will remove everything including nitrates. So, all other water filtration systems out— I shouldn't say all, but many of them will remove like the pesticides, the hormones, these sort of things that are in our water, but they won't take out the nitrates, which Iowa specifically has a big problem with, which is not good. So RO is the only sort of system that can take that out. Now, you know, 20 years later, you can get an under-the-sink RO system. We have one here at our clinic for like $200, $300. So I highly advise for drinking water that that's You know, that's what you use. And, I mean, when I send my kids to school, I'm sending them with their water bottles with water from our home that I know is, you know, RO. Now, when I had my first son, bathing him, I actually live in Marion and the chlorine content in the water is very high and I can just smell it just bathing him. Terrible. I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't put this little body in this water. And so, I called Culligan at the time and they instilled a whole-house charcoal filtration tank. Which isn't going to remove nitrates, but it's going to remove everything else. So it's a big tank. I think it was very affordable. So all of our showering and bathing water is filtered. You can get small charcoal filtration, you know, I had these before I got the whole house filter, like little devices you can put on your shower head or your bathtub head, whatnot, to filter the water. But I just figured I might as well invest in it. And I had them pre- and post-test my water too. I wanted to know specifically that the chlorine was gone. Yeah. So I had, you know, at that time I had documented everything and I know that it's working. It had removed that. And, I know not everybody can afford a whole house system, but if you can at least get something under your sink for your drinking water, that's very appropriate. And, I will say, this is what's very scary about the nitrates. It's really important if you have young infants and if you're not giving them breast milk, if they're being given formula, that that formula is mixed with purified water. Preferably not a water that's been sitting in a plastic jug at Hy-Vee or something, but water from your home that is filtered of nitrates. So nitrates, long story short, for infants can essentially lead to suffocation. It can lead to very bad things. So you want to make sure— literally like an internal suffocation. Um, so you really want to make sure that if you have an infant, you are filtering their water especially. And you can look up, you know, what county you live in, how high the nitrates are. Just make sure you're using RO water. If you're mixing that water with their formula, given how bad our water is here in Iowa. Yep.

Yeah, yeah. So good. And thank you for sharing that and going down that rabbit hole, because I think, you know, we, we may think more about drinking water, but I think automatically a lot of people think they're upgrading by drinking out of plastic water bottles. So let's kind of— I want to, I want to visit that.

Speaking of endocrine disruptors, yeah. I mean, so the plastic, especially if heated, Which, you know, it depends on where you're getting the plastic from, but more than likely that plastic water, whether it's in a huge old jug or small water bottles, has been subject to some sort of heat. And the heat is gonna allow the plastic to get into the water, which is an endocrine disrupting chemical, which means that can bind to your hormone receptors and cause hormone imbalances. So plastic is not an upgrade. It's a, yeah, downgrade. So drink outta glass or, you know, stainless. Stainless steel if you can. Um, yeah.

Okay. You alluded to something else that kind of in passing somebody might have missed, but the, the chlorine in water. So there's chlorine, even not swimming pool level, but there's chlorine in, in bath and tap water where we drink, just to point that back out to everyone. But let's talk about swimming. So we are just kind of coming to the close of a swimming season And I've had my one-year-old grandson in, you know, a couple times every week. And yeah, I'm very conscious about okay. I take him home and like you guys, he needs a bath right now. Please, like make sure you rinse that off. Don't just put it to bed as soon as clean. And you know, for myself, I think the same thing more so when I was training like three times a week for an hour at a time, and I was in it more. How, you know, and yet here I am on the other side saying exercise is good. We need you to do those muscles. We want that. Where do you weigh that? Here's the pros and the cons. What do we do? How serious is just swimming, you know, in a chlorinated pool?

I want to try to unpack all that. Hopefully, I can remember what I was going to say. Okay. So, first, let's just talk swimming. So, it's not just swimming in pools, but it's swimming in lakes in Iowa. So I would definitely caution the listeners about swimming in lakes near farmland because all those agricultural chemicals are going to dump into that lake. So I mean, my family has had a boat. We grew up water skiing. This summer I just didn't allow us to get in the lake water. I just, I just, it's been a weird summer. And you can actually, the DNR, I don't know what it's called. It's like DNR beach website or something will tell you, you know, if there's E. coli or like what the contamination level is of the waters. But There have been some lakes in Iowa that have had very bad contamination. So before you let your kids just go have a fun lake day, we need to be thinking about the agricultural chemicals. And we should probably come back to why these agricultural chemicals are bad too. So let's remember to go back there. But so really think about that before you just swim in a lake. Separately, the pool situation and the chlorine. Yeah. So it is important, I think, to rinse off immediately to try to rinse that chlorine off. These little teeny bodies that are going to soak in a lot of that chlorine, There are sprays that you've probably seen. Well, now that we're talking about it on Instagram, something will pop up across your feed about a vitamin C spray, something that will protect you from the chlorine. There is real research behind those, and we honestly didn't get in the pool a lot this summer. We played in our backyard and, you know, did a water slide and whatnot, but we didn't go to the pool a lot. But had we have gone to the pool more than once or twice, I would have gotten one of these sprays because you spray it on before you get in and it's almost— it will kind of I don't know how to describe it, but it almost neutralizes the impact of the chlorine. So you— and you can make those. You literally can just Google vitamin C spray. You can make it yourself. Another thing that can protect your skin is oils. So even jojoba oil or coconut oil. I mean, you might burn depending on what kind of oil you use. You may burn more, but the oils or the vitamin C spray can actually protect your skin against the chlorine. Now, back to the dose is poison thing. I don't think swimming a few times is really going to like Really negatively impact your children, but we do know they have, you know, they're a larger body compared to an adult, so we do need to be careful. Now, if you're swimming every day, let's say you're a swim instructor— I have patients who are, you know, swim instructors, or that's what they do for their exercise— every single day being in chlorine can impact, well, specifically your thyroid. So chlorine can displace iodine. Long story short, can— and you need iodine to make thyroid hormones, so it can lead to lower thyroid. So, that chlorine can be an endocrine-disrupting chemical. So, I do think back to the dose is poison, the more exposure you have, the greater likelihood that it's going to cause harm. So, maybe rethink how often you're in chlorine and/or at least use some sort of protective spray and/or rinse off after swimming.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, all things that, right, I would never have done until I began Studying this, you know what else do my clients need to be doing that could be could be getting in the way of them not getting results, and what could they do to be proactive?

Well, let me speak to that point real quick. So I say this a lot to my patients: that toxins hide in fat. Your body will create fat and fluid to protect your internal organs from those toxins, and that's why all the time we see moldy patients who've had major mold exposure, which is another thing we've had in Iowa, especially in Cedar Rapids with all the floods. Swell up. I mean, they're just— they just are swollen because their body is creating that fluid to house the toxins to try to protect our internal organs. But in theory, as we help patients detox the body, fat cells release the toxins, fat cells shrink, patients lose weight, they're less swollen, right? So there is a huge connection between toxicity and inability to lose weight.

Talk about age a little bit. So we're at midlife, we're going through major hormonal changes, or we're, you know, 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. I'm not sure what the average Iowan age is, but how much is that a factor in, you know, cancer rates or our susceptibility to it? I would think the older we are, the more we're prone to— the body is not new anymore.

Yeah. I mean, absolutely. I, I do think age is a, age is for sure a risk factor. We see more, you know, this is why I say hormones don't cause cancer because a 90-year-old with low hormones is at higher risk of cancer than a 20-year-old with high hormones. But yeah, we know as we age, our detoxification capabilities are starting— they're just becoming impaired. So suddenly we can't clear out these toxins as best as we once could. And the toxins can literally lead to DNA damage, and DNA damage causes cancer. But not just— I think part of what you're asking maybe is not just if age increases our risk, but like, what about the perimenopausal and menopausal women? Like, are they more susceptible to these toxins? And I think the answer is— Absolutely, yes. Because these— this patient population is sleeping less. I mean, they're trying to sleep, but they can't sleep as well. And that's when our lymphatics kick in. That's when we're detoxing, you know, at night. And that's when we're making growth hormone and whatnot. So this population is already suffering from hormone imbalance, and now we're exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals that cause hormone imbalance. Like, that population, I just think in general, is very sensitive to the effects from these toxins. Um, but I, I'm gonna try to bring this back around, Deb. But I, I interestingly recently interviewed, um, Mark Atkinson. Any relation to you? He's—

Not that I know of.

Um, he is like medical director for, I believe medical director for StemRegen, which is a stem cell boosting supplement company. Anyways, he, I love how he talked about health. So he kind of said it's our load Versus adaptability and our capacity to adapt. So basically, some of us based on our genetic structure, what we've inherited, right, we just didn't win the genetic lottery. So we already are set up to not detox very well. And health boils down to, right, like the load that we're exposed to of all these toxins, and then our ability to reduce the load to adapt to that. And I think women, in this demographic don't have the best adaptive capacity, if that makes sense.

Yeah, totally does.

Which can make this season in life much more difficult, which is why it really needs to be well managed. We need to be detoxing them. We need to be optimizing their hormones so that we can set them up, swing odds in their favor so they have reduced risk of cancer later in life. I was trying to bring that all around. I don't know if I did that.

Yeah, you've done really well. It is a big topic. I mean, so first of all, just looking at, say, Where do you live and geographically, what are the specific risks to you? So I do have a question. So Iowa, really a standout in its field. See what I did there?

Yeah.

But what about local or, or other regional, Nebraska and Illinois? Are they also high on the spectrum being probably also agricultural states?

They are. I mean, atrazine, last time I looked at, so when we talk about herbicides, I think a lot of us are thinking of Roundup, we're thinking of glyphosate. But atrazine is another huge toxin, has huge endocrine disrupting capabilities. There have been studies that frogs— you probably heard these studies— that male frogs were feminized from huge exposure to atrazine. And when you look at a map, you could just Google atrazine map of the United States, the Midwest is hit really hard. Illinois and Iowa are hit really hard. Off the top of my head, I don't remember if Nebraska, Kansas, how hard they're hit. I just remember Iowa and Illinois being— Very high with atrazine. But it's not just atrazine and glyphosate, it's paraquat. It's— I mean, there are lots of other chemicals. And it's not just— back to even drawing this back to HRT, it's like the HRT has ingredients, right, that like surfactants to help drive it in. And same with these herbicides and pesticides. It's not just the herbicide, it's the surfactant. It's all the other ingredients that are mixed in with the herbicide and pesticide, if that makes sense. There's more to that story too. It's not my specialty.

You know, as a runner and a golfer, so I mean, notoriously you hear more and more about if you live in X proximity to a golf course, your risk or your exposures also increase. So, and I do, and I raised a golfer and I still watch that golfer. And so there is so much, you know, that—

You froze, you froze.

We love this activity. It's a lifelong activity, or going biking or hiking. I think the point to everybody here is that we are we are all susceptible. You don't have to be the farmer, and you don't have to live in Iowa. But if you're even trails, you know, building in every state, really making it easier to get in exercise. Go by fields, you know. And so during harvest or planting, all of us are exposed and we're breathing a little deeper while we're doing it, right? I mean, what, what do you wish that every Iowan, you know, particularly, or maybe agricultural state exposure, what do you wish they knew?

Well, definitely to filter their water because I don't think I don't think all Iowans truly know how important that is. Back to your— you froze there, so I'm not sure I caught your whole question, but I do want to go back to kind of what you're saying. Like, there are other things that we can do to protect ourselves from these chemicals. Like, I think you're saying if someone is out even jogging and they're spraying the field, well, by all means, pick a different time to jog. So like, if you can jog in the morning, always jog. If you're going to jog outside during spray season or even harvest season that just throws up so much gunk.

Yeah.

Really jog in the morning and don't, by all means, do not, if you know they're spraying, don't let your kids play in the backyard. Ideally, there'd be a rain and it would wash some of that out. Like, don't open your windows on those days. Normally I'm telling patients open your windows, but don't open them on those spray days. And be very cautious also. One thing we didn't talk about was golf courses, which are not just a state issue, that's a national issue, right? Golf courses, because they're spraying, They're spraying the grounds with all sorts of chemicals. Yeah. So I see kids fishing on the golf course, you know, and I'm like, I hope they're not eating those fish. I hope they're just fishing for fun because that would be a horrible fish to eat, you know.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. Um, so be cautious if you live near a golf course. Don't let your kids just play on the green. I mean, that green is just contaminated with all kinds of chemicals. So be cautious about that. And again, I've Lost your question. Oh, what you said, what do I wish Iowans knew? That to filter their water and to be aware of things like not opening your windows when they're spraying chemicals. I think maybe that's second nature to, to both of us, but a lot of people, I don't even think they realize what's happening. Um, but I, I also don't want this to be a dooms, you know, gloom doomsday podcast. I think this is to bring awareness to, yes, We have higher exposure than we probably were aware of, which can lead to higher cancer rate. But the power is still within us. There are things we can do to help our body rid itself of chemicals and to lower our load, right? Improve our adaptive capacity. So don't be discouraged. There's a lot that, a lot that we can do.

So much great information. We definitely, you just got yourself invited back. So we will, we will do this again for sure. And maybe locally and live. That would be fun too. But right now, I want— where can everybody find you and point them to the new book, The Hormone Blueprint? Where can they find that? And if they don't always all have the family of books, they may want to look at those too.

Sure. So my clinic is the Integrative Health and Hormone Clinic. We're in Hiawatha, Iowa, basically Cedar Rapids, Iowa. So that website is ihhclinic.com. We're taking new patients. We test patients. For these sort of chemicals. Like, this is what we do. We have a functional medicine in it, in an HRT, or I should say HOT practice. Yeah. I also have a separate website, yourlongevityblueprint.com. That was the first book. So that book talks about all the organ systems. But in this last year, I wrote 2 other books that focused on the endocrine system. So Your Fertility Blueprint is for young individuals trying to conceive. I have a whole fertility story that I shared in there in that book, which is available on that site. And all books are on Amazon too. And then my most recent book Your Hormone Blueprint, which we talked about today, launches September 29th. So I'd love to have your support on launch day. You can pre-order it now on Amazon. But that's kind of where you can find my podcast also is Your Longevity Blueprint. So I can find that there. And then on Instagram, Stephanie Gray DNP. If you follow me, you'll see links to everything I just mentioned there.

Fantastic. And we've got all the links in the show notes, guys. So we'll put those— I'll put a couple notes About the things she mentioned about vitamin C, you know, for swimming. If you're curious about that or just to jog your memory, you'll have a couple other notes there. So thank you so much for being here. Great to see you.

Thanks for having me on.

The information shared on Flipping 50 the Stronger Way is for educational and informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, Or treatment. Always consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider before beginning any exercise program, making changes to your diet, or adjusting any medications or supplements. Individual results may vary. Debra Atkinson and Flipping 50 are not responsible for any injury or adverse outcomes resulting from information presented on this podcast.