A short conversational transcript from Robert Whitfield MD and a second speaker discussing risks from chemicals in skin and household products, genetic differences in detox pathways (glutathione, methylation/MTHFR), and practical steps to reduce inflammation pre-surgery — including avoiding toxic topical products, checking resources like the Environmental Working Group, improving diet, and using simple pea-protein supplementation for cleaner ingredient profiles.
Chapters
And for a woman who applies products, you want to be extremely careful with what you put on your skin. Because I've seen astronomically high levels of antibacterials like triclosan. I've seen the most abnormal amounts of chemicals you could ever find in somebody because I look for them. And you miss 100% of the things you never look for, trust me. Things all the time. You counsel your patients, especially women. You have to put a product through. And I have no interest in the environmental working group, but. But at least type it in there to see if it's on their list. Has it been tested? And be just very careful of what you put on your body and in your body.
It's such a good point, because everything goes straight through our skin. And even I said, like sleeping on a mattress, it could get into your body. So it's like we're these invisible toxins. We think because they're invisible that they're not there, but they are there. And it's the only way we see it is when we do a urine test. Right. And then we can believe it then.
Yeah. I mean, we have the fortune of, you know, experiencing these things through training and seeing things. If, for instance, you're the person who gets really sensitive around odors, like chemical odors or smoke, then invariably, genetically, you have a problem in your glutathione pathway. And so, Dr. Donia, are not using smoke and mirrors when we're discussing this. This is a very common problem. And. And I think many people now understand that methylation and the MTHFR gene, which is just what, you know, become wildly popular in everybody's. That's just one component, the methylation pathway. There's multiple genes involved, and I have a methylation problem, and about 40% or more of the population has a methylation problem.
So I do, too. I have. Yeah, I'm a heterozygous compound. Heterozygous, yeah, for everybody listening.
So I'm constantly trying to lower inflammation in my patients prior to surgery. So if you're following along with how we think about this, obviously we're cleaning up the air, and we're being cognizant of the fluid we put on our bodies. And then when it comes to food and supplementation, you got to be. And scrutinize your food carefully. I put people on a very, very increased amount of dietary protein, and we use a pea protein, just because I have a lot of patients who don't intake animal products. And I think, you know, this just makes it simpler. For us to have a clean product that's in terms of ingredients, very minimal. So that simple.
