S2:E5 - Acheiving Victory Over a Toxic World - Mark Ottobre interviews Mark Schauss

Hey, hey folks, it's Mark Ottobre here, ready to cut through the myths and the BS that is in the fitness industry. I am dusting off the old podcast show. That's right, folks, the Maximus Mark podcast show back in the day, circa 2011-2012, dusting off that show, re-releasing the best episodes. This one certainly is one of the best episodes I've done. This episode was with Mark Shouse. This was right at the time when I was really getting into studying xenoestrogens toxicity, reading Mark Shouse's book, Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World. Now, what makes this conversation, I suppose, fascinating, what makes Mark Shouse fascinating in the work that he did in toxicity, is that he also owns and runs a lab interpretation business. So, he was seeing, you know, with organic acid tests, hand mineral analysis tests, seeing what people were doing, seeing patterns and seeing trends and seeing what helped people detoxify certain elements in the body and seeing what, you know, helps, what causes accumulation of toxicity in the body. So he talks about it from a very pragmatic, real, and obviously he's had the experience. Now, Mark is absolutely genius smart. I can't remember which year, I'm going to say 2014, but my wife and I we did a course with Mark Schaus and actually showed him around Melbourne. So I spent some time with the guy, genius smart, amazing man, very nice, very humble, you know, really, really great guy. We actually sell the electrolyte products that he might refer to in this podcast, but he sells, he developed, he formulated a product, an electrolyte product, and it is the best of, if you ask me what my number one supplement is, it's the KTS Solutions electrolyte product that Mark Schaus formulated. It's an amazing product. We sell tons of it at Enterprise. It's one of the best products and it's one of the products I recommend in almost every protocol that I put together. And it's just Mark Schaus's electrolyte products. Now, this is the guy, like the guy I've got on the podcast, Mark Schaus, this is the guy who formulated it. So just crazy smart. So I hope you really enjoy this podcast. He's just got so much good content and things to say. And I really did enjoy the course that I did with Mark back in 2014 and the time we spent. Absolutely amazing man. Check out his book, Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World. Enjoy the podcast and I'll speak to you on the other side.

Hey, hey folks, it's Maximus Mark. I'm very pumped for today's show. Today I have one of the world's leading authorities in both the area of toxicity, detoxification, and a leading expert expert in lab data interpretation. Today's guest is none other than Mark Shouse. Mark Shouse is an internationally acclaimed lecturer on the effects of environmental toxicity on human health and the use of laboratory testing. While researching these fields for the past two decades, he has gained a comprehensive insight into a range of neurological disorders including epilepsy, autism, ADHD, and neurological degenerative diseases. As well as an array of other health problems. Dr. Shouse is currently the president of Lab Interpretation based in Reno, Nevada. Mark has also presented some of the courses in lab analysis for the Polyquin Institute. So with that said, welcome to the show, Mark.

Oh, thank you for having me.

Excellent.

So before we get in, what inspired you to write your fantastic book Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World?

Well, it was my young daughter. She was diagnosed with an advanced form of epilepsy that was supposed to be progressive, and the doctors told us that we should be prepared that by the age of 12, if she even lives that long, that we will probably have to institutionalize her because there's nothing that we're going to be able to do in order to save her from this form of epilepsy. She would have seizures seizure after seizure, sometimes hundreds a day, one lasting up to 6 hours. I said that was not acceptable to me and I was not going to take that kind of a diagnosis. And so I began my journey. I was already in the field of health, been in it since 1983, and I was already doing things like laboratory interpretations for doctors all over the world. I developed a system for it and I said, you know, I gotta use my tools. And then I also had a group of experts out there, people from different labs, osteopaths, MDs, NDs, chiropractors, the whole bit. I started questioning them as to what I could do to help my daughter and I gained so much knowledge from that. And when she first had it, she was 3 and a half. So we basically were told we have about 8 and a half years with our child. Well, I can tell you right now she's about to turn 15. She's in high school. The seizure activity is very rare. She doesn't have her drop seizures anymore, the grand mals. And she's doing quite a bit better than anyone had ever expected. And I needed to get that information out to people. I had to tell them that there were reasons why my daughter had this, and I believed firmly in my heart and based on the science that it was due to some toxic event when my wife was pregnant with her, some exposure, and I needed to tell people that there is hope out there and it's, you just can't take what the doctors tell you and then just lay over and play dead and say, well, we're just gonna accept things as they are. So I wanted to inspire people and I also wanted to scare them a bit because we do live in an increasingly toxic world that's really dangerous, especially for our children. It's very important that we make sure that we stay away from as many toxins as possible. Not possible for all of them, but as many as we can. And also that there are ways of detoxifying the body very gently, safely, and rationally that everyone can do, and it's not that expensive.

Yeah, that was an absolute—

you're absolutely right. It was definitely an inspiring read, and yeah, a little bit scary and dairy at the same time. But yeah, I remember reading through that, your book, it is absolutely a fantastic book and yeah, definitely.

Thank you.

So in a nutshell, what is toxicity? Can you explain to our listeners why would someone need to be concerned?

Well, there's a lot of different types of toxins we have in our environment. First off, things that are chemicals that are foreign to our body that can cause harm to it. Some, like botulism, you can have just a few molecules actually can cause severe reactions, and very minute amounts can cause death. But then you have other toxins which accumulate in our tissues, and while the initial doses don't seem to cause many problems, the accumulation over time can. These things can go from petrochemicals like benzene and toluene and xylene, things that are found in paints, paint thinners, and pesticide sprays, to heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, cadmium, a number of them that we see in our environment all the time. And also there's a few other ones. Stress is a toxin. When you have too much stress in your body, it causes chemical changes. So we have to be aware of all of those. Really there's a kind of a saying in toxicity, all in the dosage. Even water can be considered a toxin if you take too much of it. So what we have to do is be careful of what we're getting and how much of it we're getting. Now a lot in the chemical industry would tell you, well, many of these chemicals are very safe, they're found in very minute quantities, and they may be right in the minute quantities, but if you're taking it on a daily basis, one example is bisphenol A, also known as BPA. They're found in so many different sources that a little bit here and a little bit there, and pretty soon you have a lot of it, and then the dose, you start getting the effects. So the big thing with toxins is everything can be toxic, including nutrients, you know, vitamins and minerals, but it's all in the dosage. So we want to make it the correct dosage for the person, person when it comes to nutrients and also to make sure that we keep the least amount of these toxins from getting into our bodies.

With something like BPA, it's said that it acts more like a hormone than it does a toxin, therefore even a minimal dose can disrupt the whole ectoderm system. Would you agree with that or is that not quite the whole story?

Yeah, I would pretty much agree with it. The research that we're seeing, and it's still in some very early early stages. You know, there's a lot of evidence that BPA does act like a hormone, and just a little bit of it can affect you, but that can be a toxin as well. You have hormones, if you get in too many types of estrogens for a male especially, you know, you get problems. So it is something that's normal to our body, but again, in the dosage, if you get too much of it, you begin to disrupt the whole hormonal system. BPA is just one of those things that 'cause you find it in so many different sources. I think that every month we come up with something new. I didn't know 'til about 2 months ago that you can get it in the receipts that you get from stores.

Oh, wow.

And that your skin is a great place to absorb that. And so that was something that was kind of shocking to me, but it was just one more source of it. You know, we had the old Nalgene bottles, which supposedly no longer contain BPA was used to harden plastics. So many different places that we're getting it from, and it is considered the number one money-making chemical in the world, President. I believe the estimates are that it generates about $100 million per hour.

Wow.

That's kind of a staggering figure, which is why there's such a big backlash by the industry, obviously, trying to come up with studies that say everything's fine with it. That's a big chunk of change. So they're gonna kind of put down any of these negative studies, but BPA does raise a lot of concerns.

Yeah, definitely. I know there are still, unfortunate as it is, there are a lot of skeptics out there who don't, they're not believing what is out there about toxicity. So how would you respond to the statement when people say the body has its own detoxification pathways can detox itself?

Well, I would really challenge them to read the research. One of the things that I have to say, you know, when I wrote in my book, some of these toxins the body does have a pretty decent pathway to detoxify because there was some heavy metals the body does tend to excrete it, and the reason is because humans have been around some of these chemicals for 9,000 years. Since the dawn of the Iron Age and any time they used, you know, metals. But some of these toxins, I would challenge these skeptics, do you know how long they've actually been around us? Many of them for less than 20 years. Wow. How could the body all of a sudden have this great knowledge of how to excrete something that it's never seen before? And some of these actually have an affinity to get into fat tissue and stay there. And the research that's coming out was suggesting that many of these chemicals do reside in the body a lot longer than had originally been suspected. And the research on that is coming out fast and furious. And that's the kind of research that I think scares some of the corporations greatly. I mean, the European Union passed rules in 2006 called REACH that said that they're gonna have to start proving that these chemicals are safe. And not take for granted that they're safe and then prove that they're not. So it's a big change in the way a lot of countries around the world are looking at it. And if it was so, you know, easy for the body to get rid of it, why are a vast number of scientists getting more and more concerned about it?

Yeah, definitely, absolutely. Now you mentioned in your book glycine as one of the daily supplements that someone could take to detoxify themselves. Can you talk a little bit about glycine?

Oh, absolutely. It is one of my favorite topics and one I'm right now in the midst of writing my follow-up book called "Surviving in a Toxic World." One of the chapters is gonna be on glycine. And glycine is something that the human body has a desperate need for, for many different reasons. Glycine is found in collagen. Which is in your bone, your tissue, represents over 50% of your total protein makeup of your body, and the predominant amino acid is glycine. So there's an important thing there. But also glycine has this amazing affinity for petrochemical toxins and binds up with them very readily and just flushes right out through the urine. So it's a really nice effective means of getting into your system, looking around, finding those toxins, binding them up, making them non-toxic, and getting out. A couple of nice things about glycine: it's one of the least expensive nutritional supplements on the market, and it tastes good. So using it with children is a breeze. You just take, you know, a few grams, put it into their juice or water, tastes fine. You can even put it right on the tongue. You know, it's kind of a sweet little taste to it, so it's easy to use. But I think it's one that I've seen over the years more and more deficiencies in people as I run amino acid testing. I think it's— everyone should be getting, if you're an adult, at least 3 grams a day. Again, real inexpensive. It should just be part of the daily routine. Getting in— children can take a gram. Nice little thing about glycine also, is it converts to certain neurotransmitters in the brain that improve memory and cognition. So not just are you getting detoxified by using it, you're gonna sharpen your brain and you're gonna improve energy cycles, things like that, and help to build muscle and collagen that's gonna help your joints stay more fluid and pain-free.

Is it possible to take too much glycine and become toxic? Taking glycine at all?

Well, there's been studies that have used up to 30 grams per day without negative results. The only possibility, and this is purely hypothetical, and I presented it at a couple of conferences, is that it could cause people to shuttle heavy metals around.

Ah, okay.

Again, hypothetical. We're not sure if that really does happen or not, but, you know, for most Normal people who don't work out too much, 3 to 5 grams, you can be very safe. I haven't seen anyone with an issue except for one group, and those are people with diagnosed true Parkinson's disease. They have a specific inability to utilize and metabolize glycine properly, and it actually makes them shake even more. Whereas in a normal person, it's actually calming.

Okay. Alrighty, so what, what do you believe to be the most harmful toxins in our environment and why?

Oh boy, you know, I don't think there's— I would say there's anything particular. I think it's the combination of the multiple toxins that's the most concerning to me. If we go back 40 years, you will have cut— say if we could time travel, we go back, you would cut out about 90% of the toxic chemicals that you're being exposed to today, they didn't exist 40 years ago. But now we have 80,000 chemicals, especially in the United States, more so than most any other country, 80,000 chemicals, most of which we don't know what they do and how they affect the human body. So it's just the sheer number I think that is staggering. There are some that I think because of their prevalence that are disturbing like this phenol A. Another one is phthalates, and that's an interesting one to spell. It's P-H-T-H-L-A-T-E-S, and it's used to make plastics soft. It's also used in things like air fresheners, 'cause it holds an aroma, and then when heated or forced out into the atmosphere, it releases the scent, so you can smell things. And so these little plugins or Your shampoos, conditioners, different types of personal care products that smell good will contain these phthalates. And we know that phthalates disrupt testosterone in both males and females. There's been ample evidence that it can damage DNA in male sperm. It can cause shortening of pregnancies, which we know is very important to go to full term. We also know that it can cause insulin resistance in men and gut obesity. There's just so many different issues that it can cause. One problem I find, I sat in a lecture of a physician who does a lot of work in amino acids, and he also said there's two times in a young child's life where testosterone surges are critical to build brain neural nets, and that's just before birth and at about 3 years of age. Now if we know that phthalates depress testosterone, what effect is it having on our children and this increase in autism, ADD, ADHD? Well, really interestingly enough, the explosion of autism occurred about the exact time that phthalates were released into the consumer market.

Was that the—

also— About 1970.

Does it also align with the vaccine theory where people are saying vaccine has helped that, or do you think it's all of the above type thing?

I think it's all of the above. And one of my chapters is the, you know, loaded revolver theory.

Yeah.

You know, we're all playing this game of Russian roulette, and the more bullets you stick in there, the higher the chances you're going to get something that's going to go off. And I think what we're doing is we add the vaccine to the phthalates, we add it to the BPA, to the heavy metals like mercury, to, you know, all the different toxins. And pretty much you're gonna just have every kid coming down with something. And I saw a study that was rather disturbing that said that by the year of 2012, we will no longer be having normal, healthy children born.

Where did you see that study?

It was just one of these that was, you know, passed on to me. I have to, you know, find the exact the study, not recalling it right now. But when it came across and I saw the statistics of the increase of things like ADD, like autism, like asthma, and all these other disorders and how they're growing, and then this, you know, they extrapolated things and said, you know, unless we stop this trend, we're not gonna see normal children because they will have one of these childhood disorders. When I was a child, I was one of 2 kids in my school that had asthma. I grew up in New York City. And about 5 years ago, I was talking to the principal of a school in Lake Tahoe, which is one of the most pristine environments in the US, and they said that 40% of the children in his school, his elementary school, had asthma.

Wow.

That's staggering, and the levels are going up dramatically all over the world. There's numerous studies that are being put out there on this staggeringly high level of asthma, and a lot of them have put it right at the feet of environmental toxins.

Do you think there is— people are able to have healthy children? I know you said after 2012. What can parents and normal people do to really make sure that they do give their child the best start in life? What's some things they can do today?

Yeah, that's a really great question. First thing is you want to test yourself if you can. There are certain tests out there. My company, Lab Interpretation, is starting to work with Charles Poliquin and making these tests available. We're going to be making them available around the world as quickly as we can.

They're not even available in Australia yet, are they?

Right, they will be soon.

Oh, excellent.

We're working on them. There are certain tests that It's gonna be difficult to do in Australia, but some of the toxicity testing they will certainly be able to do. So you know what you're getting. Then you can begin to look at what you have in your environment and what kind of products you use and how to get away from the ones that are toxic. I think that's the first thing. The second one is once you find out what you're being exposed to, then you can start doing some of the simple detoxification protocols, you know, that are mentioned in my book. Glycine, cleaning up your diet, things like that. We're not going to avoid all the toxins, but you can avoid a great deal of them and you can really lessen it. And so before a woman gets pregnant and before the man gets her pregnant, they both have to detox as much as possible. And you can actually have a much healthier, you know, better, you know, suited for life child. I have an 8-year-old right now who's You know, the last time I think she had a cold was about 5 years ago. You know, very, very healthy. We've worked really hard at trying to, you know, find all these different products that are causing toxic results to my children. You know, we've tested them on occasion and just to make sure that we're doing the right thing.

When can Aussies expect that your tests will come down to the rest of the world?

Well, that's a good question. You know, we're working on it. you know, we just— some logistics issues that are going, but I'm thinking that this summer that we'll have them all available. Oh, wow. I think they're really important. You know, they are doing them. There's more expanding in one of the labs that we work with to get more and more testing available. We also have to make sure that we stay within, you know, government regulations. And— but, you know, they'll definitely start coming out later on this year.

Well, the LEAP MRT test, available as well?

That's going to take a little bit longer. Well, we do have— they're now working on some, you know, changes to LEAP, and so that way they can expand to other countries. The big problem is the sample has to arrive in less than 24 hours at the lab in Florida. So until we can get that done, that's going to be a problem. So if you're ever in the States, get it done. Definitely want to get it done when you're here. Absolutely. That might take about a year or so before they're able to find partners in other countries. Now there are some in Europe and definitely Australia is a place that they want to expand to.

Yeah, for sure. Something that every musclehead and fitness fanatic is worried about, including myself, is testosterone. This question is not, do toxins affect testosterone? 'Cause we all know unquestionably they do. The question is which toxins What are the greatest threats to the vital hormone for both male and female and where are they found?

Well, for me, number one is phthalates. Uh, this plasticizer which is found in a lot of personal care products and those are the ones I'm most concerned about because they're known as low molecular weight phthalates. These are the ones that carry the scents and aromas. That's one that will definitely depress testosterone. Uh, A good place to look for products is a website called ewg.org. It's the Environmental Working Group. They have about 40,000 different products and the chemicals that they contain. You get really surprised, they'll have companies that make two products. One is totally toxic-free and the next one is extremely toxic. A big thing is if it smells, If it smells really good, it's likely not to be good for you. You know, we're in this society where we always want to smell good, so if you're using aftershaves, you're probably putting it into your body. So that's a big one. The bisphenol A is another one to be concerned about, again, in hardened plastics. What I really like is that a lot of companies are coming up with bisphenol A-free products. And that's an important one. Also those receipts, and I love, I was with Charles Poliquin just a few weeks ago, and he says now he's kind of rejecting getting those receipts. And you know, when they ask him, would you like the receipt? He says, oh no, I'm trying to cut back. You know, so it's his little humorous way, it's a way of trying to get away from it, because you all are absorbing it right into your hands, and that one will affect estrogen receptors, So it's those two things I think are extremely important to stay away from hormonally.

And what supplements can help or things you can do to help detoxify phthalates if you've had exposure?

Well, one big one is sauna. That's really, really helpful.

Normal sauna or infrared?

Normal saunas, infrared. You know, it's interesting, I spoke at a conference once on this subject and In my audience were just some of the top guys in the United States on environmental health, and that question came up, infrared sauna or normal sauna? And one of the doctors, Dr. Klinghardt, said, you know, actually most of the research is on traditional saunas and being able to detoxify, but he also recommended, you know, the far infrared saunas, but you gotta be careful about them. Because some of these far-infrared saunas that are built use glues and resins and might have wood that was, you know, imported from China, which may be, you know, high in heavy metals. So you gotta be really careful. There are a few that are, you know, constructed with screws only, and they will advertise that. But with traditional saunas, something that heats the body and makes you sweat, because your major excretory organ the skin. So you can get it out of the skin, that's a big one. And another little tip is, if you start seeing people who have a lot of, say, eczema, psoriasis, a lot of problems with skin lesions, things like that breaking out, remember the body excretes a lot of toxins through the skin. So if you're not— if you're having these problems, it is, you know, not positively a toxic reaction, but it's very likely to be, you know, to be one. So doing things like keeping up your fluid levels, make sure you're drinking lots of clean fluid, try to stay away from those plastic bottles. I'm really not a big fan of people who buy large quantities of plastic bottles for water, because those plastics, they will contain phthalates, and whenever they're heated up or warmed up, they're gonna release it into the water. I prefer people to use reusable ones, you know, instead of, you know, taking the bottle and then throwing it away.

Definitely, definitely. And going into the sauna, do you need chelation therapy or you just, I would just go in?

Lots of fluids.

That's a big one.

And I'm a big fan of electrolytes. I know that Charles is going to be coming up with one that I helped formulate. I've been working with electrolytes for now 26 years and getting ones, you know, I don't like these sugar sugar drinks, you know, that claim to be an electrolyte replacement when they're really not. I mean, to be honest, any fluid that conducts electricity can be called an electrolyte. So you can have a cola, it can be called an electrolyte. But real good balanced electrolyte solutions are really hard to come by, and we're going to have it in a packet form where you're going to be able to just take it, pour it into a liter of water, and use that because then it'll help to pump the cells and make sure that when you're, you know, you have the sauna, you are gonna excrete some excess sodium, but you want to make sure that you replace it. So it's gonna be a great replacement form without having too much sodium in it. So electrolytes and fluids are really an important thing to have when you're going into a sauna.

Definitely. Can you comment on the worldwide— I know that there World Health Organizations lowering what is considered normal levels of things. So say for example, the normal level of testosterone is now lower than it ever was. What's considered normal to doctors these days is actually low, is that right?

Yeah, that's kind of an interesting situation. It's happening in so many different fields. The American Medical Association wanted to lower the average body temperature of a human to what is normal, from 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to 98.0. And the reasoning was not because it's healthier, it's because they were seeing fewer and fewer people with normal body temperatures. So they wanted to redefine normal. The thing with thyroid, there's something called ultrasensitive thyroid stimulating hormone. And the reference range is 0.5 to 5.5 in most labs. Well, the problem is 35% of the people they're testing are hypothyroid and are abnormal. So they skew the results, and so, you know, they want to keep more people in the normal range when actually the range should be somewhere between 1.1 and 2.5 for optimal health. They're lowering the standards of life, and that's a disturbing trend. You know, they're just saying, well, geez, you know, everybody's being found with styrene in their blood. So let's change the amount of what's normal. Styrene's a toxin. It should not be in the human body. It's not normal to it. It's not what they call an orthomolecule. Why should any level be tolerated? It's because there's a lot of business interests involved, and because we're just getting to the point where many toxicologists are overwhelmed with the amount, saying, well, you know, That's part of what we have to deal with in life. So let's change the norm.

Change the norm, hey. So is there anywhere that people can go? Like, I mean, is doctors' normal blood testing, is that now, I guess, becoming obsolete because of the reason, I mean, for lowering what's normal? Like, where can people go for good testing?

Well, the testing's available. It's just, it's the interpretation that's the important part. And that's where, and though I've spent I've spent the better part of 26 years. When I developed my first interpretive reports back in 1985, developed a little simple method of doing it, and it's pretty much evolved over the years, and now these interpretive reports are available through a company called Health Director and healthdirector.com, and it's available primarily through healthcare practitioners. It doesn't matter where they're from, anywhere in the world. And they can access this and then find out what they need, you know, and how to interpret it. And what they do is they give the proper reference range, the one that's for optimal health, you know. So we see a lab where, you know, the reference range for cholesterol starts at zero. I hate to tell you, as your cholesterol level approaches zero, you're dying. You know, it's— there's a kind of a— strange humor that says, you know, the person did die, but at least their cholesterol was in the normal range. You know, it's just low cholesterol gives you risks of a lot of diseases, including cancer and stroke, accidents, suicide, depression, all are higher in people with very low cholesterol. So we have to make sure that the reference ranges we use are correct and actually reflect health and not the lack of disease.

Yeah, exactly right, exactly right. And you've got a number of good quotes in your book about that as well that definitely point that out. So apart from glycine, are there any other supplements that people can take to survive a toxic world?

Yeah, there's quite a number of them. One I really recommend, and this is coming from the work of Dr. Linus Pauling, And that's vitamin C. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant, but it also helps to build another amino acid called glutathione. Glutathione does protect the body against oxidative stress and, you know, the different chemicals, especially things like phthalates. Taking glutathione is a mixed bag. We don't know if it really gets absorbed very readily in the gut. A lot of evidence says that it doesn't. But you can do things like N-acetyl cysteine, which is also part of the glutathione molecule along with glycine, and it helps to scoop up a lot of toxins. Another one is glutamine because it helps the gut, and if you keep a healthier gut, then your body can, you know, not absorb some of these toxins that are coming in through your digestive tract and will allow it to get out, so it makes your gut barrier more, you know, protective. Again, fluids. Taurine is another amino acid that I really love. It's what's known as neuroinhibitory, so it's a calming amino acid, but it also seems to have a lot of detoxification capabilities within it. You know, there's other ones, antioxidants, using broad-spectrum ones, you know, good quality vitamin E and A and D. That's another big one I think is very important, helping your body detoxify.

How much do you think is optimal vitamin D?

Oh, that's the million-dollar question today. You know, I really think that most people today, and this is coming from the data that I'm seeing over the past 40 years, I personally take about 4,000 to 6,000 units 1,000 units of vitamin D a day. My daughter who's just about to turn 15, she gets about 3,000 units a day. Some people, if you're obese, you're gonna have to take between 10,000 and 20,000 units a day. And the big thing you have to do is measure. In our units here in the States, optimal level is somewhere around 70 for vitamin D level. Mine was 74 at the levels I'm taking. I see a lot of people in the 20s, in the teens. These people take quite a bit of time. I mean, the body uses it up as it's being absorbed, so they're going to need a lot to, you know, start catching up. So some people it's 10,000 to 20,000. Others they've actually used in people with different types of arthritis, they've given them injections of 100,000 units at a time. Every 6 weeks, and then adding 5,000 units a day as a supplement. You know, the Institute of Medicine in the United States, you know, was saying you have to be cautious because of some studies showing anything over 1,000 units a day is toxic, yet they don't cite anything to show that that actually is the case. So it's kind of a bogus claim. I think there's too many people who think that you can just get it off a supplement. Sun, we're not seeing that. People in Florida, Australia, places where they have a lot more sun are showing low levels of vitamin D. So sunshine is your answer and people are getting it, something's going on. And since 1970, the levels of vitamin D amongst people around the world has been plummeting. And we do have a lot of evidence of how important D is in preventing a lot of different disorders.

Yeah, like colon cancer.

Absolutely.

Yeah, yeah. And vitamin C, what do you— what would you think the optimal dosage for vitamin C?

You know, going again from personal experience, you know, I'm 6 foot tall, 180. I use about 2,000, you know, milligrams a day. You know, bowel tolerance is a great way to test. You know, take it up to a point where you begin to get diarrhea and then back off a little bit. Humans don't make vitamin C, so I think it's important that we get it regularly. And, you know, we have all these dietitians coming out and say, "But you can get it from your diet." Yeah, 40 years ago you could.

Yeah, exactly.

Because it was in the foods at the time. From one study that I saw, and it was by a group of rogue, you might say, registered dietitians here in the States, they said that people to get the recommended daily allowance of all their nutrients would have to eat around 5,000 calories a day. Because it's just not in our food. What we used to get is an orange, which would have 120 milligrams of vitamin C in it. Some of them, they've tested, have no vitamin C in. Yeah. So we can't count on our food to have it anymore. It's— the evidence just isn't there.

Well, another example of that would be with zinc. Foods containing zinc now at an all-time low and pretty much what is it, only seafood now actually contains any zinc and combine that with the copper in our environment, which is depleting zinc, everyone's becoming zinc deficient.

Oh, and magnesium. Yeah. You know, in the United States, it's the number one deficient mineral. 68% of Americans do not get the recommended daily allowance. And that RDA is to prevent magnesium deficient diseases. Has nothing to do with the beneficial qualities of magnesium in preventing heart disease, a number of other ones, and to top it off, phthalates bind with magnesium and zinc and basically chelate them. So if you're having a magnesium deficient diet to begin with, or zinc, and then you compound it with this toxin that's removing the magnesium and zinc, you can become very functionally magnesium deficient, and many people are. And so, you know, you have to go to the supplements.

Definitely, definitely. All right, and I'm just switching gears a little bit. Are there any certain companies that are the worst toxic offenders than others? If so, what action can be taken to keep these guys honest?

Well, that's a dangerous question. I've gotten, you know, I was in Bogotá, Colombia, and I was doing doing a lecture on environmental toxicity and its link to obesity. And I was interviewed by the national television station there, and it had to do with pesticide spraying by the US government on coca leaves, you know, and on the cocaine-producing areas. And they said, what do you think about this? And I went, oh gosh, I don't wanna get my government angry at me, or the drug cartel, or the pesticide manufacturers. They're one of the groups that I think we have to be a little careful of. So basically I was as politically correct as possible saying I just wouldn't be there when they're doing the spraying, you know, just to be a little cautious. But yeah, pesticides, you know, that's a big thing. It's nice to have a green lawn, but do you really need it? Do you really need to use the pesticides when there are a lot of natural products out there? So companies that make these pesticides are the ones that I'd be concerned about. And we can go out and protest, we can become active, or we can do one thing that's really powerful. We can vote with our wallets and purses and say we are not going to buy products that contain these chemicals in them. And I gotta tell you, that is your biggest hammer, and it works. You know, in the States we had companies, you know, would put trans fats, you know, hydrogenated oils in a lot of their different foods, people said we don't want it anymore. The amount of foods now with trans fats in them have decreased dramatically. It's because people wouldn't buy their products, and now they're all saying trans fat free. If we were to go out there and say we're not gonna buy your product if it contains, you know, if it's using pesticides like, or has genetically modified organisms like made by Monsanto, and we go out there and say we're just not gonna buy it anymore, they're gonna have to listen, you know, eventually. I know it's a slow way, but it may be our most powerful means of doing it. We have to stop buying the chemicals in our things. We have to stop buying the sweet-smelling shampoos. We gotta stop doing all of this stuff and spend the money on the products that are better for us, that are safer, and they will listen.

Yeah, definitely. Same thing happened in Europe with genetically modified food. The market just simply didn't accept it, so they had to drop it completely. And I believe genetically modified food is allowed in Europe, but they choose not to use it because consumers have simply rejected it.

Right. They seem to be a whole lot more advanced than, you know, my country, where our government is actually saying we're not going to let you label that you're not, you don't contain genetically modified foods. So we don't want the people to know, and that's just so disturbing. Yeah, but let us make the choice. You know, you can say, well, the research isn't there. No, that's fine, you may think that, but I don't care. I still want to be able to make an educated choice. I think keeping us in the dark is the worst thing they can do for us.

Absolutely. Any final thoughts today?

Well, just the big thing is that we do live in a very, very toxic world, but I think it's very important that we can do a lot to really, you know, reduce the amount of toxins that we're getting into our bodies. We should know what we're being affected by and do what we can to avoid them. That's the big thing. It's nice to be able to detoxify ourselves and do things like that, but it's best never to get them into your system in the first place. Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much, Mark, for taking your time out of your busy schedule to chat with us on the call today. I'm sure all the listeners out there will be very much appreciative of the, the great pearls of wisdom you're able to offer in how they can reduce their toxic load. So thank you for tuning in. Links to Mark's book, Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World, will be both on my website as well as go onto Mark's website, www.markschauss.com. I'll provide links up on my site as well and also buy the book from Amazon.com. I can't recommend it enough. It is an absolutely brilliant book. It is a very, very entertaining read as well, so it's easy to read as well as packed full of fantastic information. Thank you so much for today, Mark.

Oh, thank you for having me.

You're welcome and keep up your great work.

Thanks.

So there we have it, guys. That was Mark Shouse in Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World. Absolutely epic interview right there, giving you the information you need to know to decrease your toxic load. So please feel free to share this with your friends. Let them know, your parents, loved ones, whoever is close to you, we really need to know how to reduce our toxic load because this is one of those things that is very, very important. So feel free to share this interview and also, while you're at it, purchase Mark's book, Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World. You can go onto Amazon or even on my website, www.thomasmarck.com. Just click the store button and you'll be able to find it there in the books section. Also guys, just to let you know, I've got 2 more massive interviews coming up this month. One is with Meryl Dorey, who's from the Australian Vaccination Network. There'll be an epic interview right there. And another massive interview, I'm not going to let you know who the guest is just yet, but it'll be all about industrial farming. And also we will be covering a little bit about vegetarianism as well. So that will be another massive interview right there. Hope you like this stuff. If there's any topics you want me to cover, just go on to MaximusMark.com, hit the Mark, Ask Mark tab, shoot me an email, and I'd love to hear what you guys think. Till then, train hard, eat well, and supplement smart.

So I hope you enjoyed that one. That was one of the oldies but a goodies with Mark Schaus. So I pretty much wrapped it up there. So again, folks, if you like this stuff, please share it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all those places. Subscribe to us on YouTube, Enterprise Fitness. And if you need help with your health and fitness, please reach out, Enterprise Fitness. So shoot us an email, info@enterprisefitness.com.au. Look, you know, if you're struggling with your health and fitness, you know who to call. We can definitely help. Enjoy the podcast, share the good information, because that ultimately is what, what changes lives and gets people thinking differently. And I suppose when enough people start thinking differently, that's when the world starts to shift. So I'll leave you with that thought.