Change Your Brain Every Day - 10 Ways Toxic Products Are Poisoning You

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

In this second episode of a series on toxic products, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen give you tips to give the personal product supply in your bathroom a makeover. Learn the 10 ways that toxic products disrupt your health, as well as the most effective and easy way to make the gradual shift towards a healthier bathroom, and a healthier life.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back to Toxic Product Week. I'm just so proud of you for getting serious,

even more serious. And that's totally what scans do for people. Yeah. People get scans. They make you nervous. And they see it's not quite what you want it to be. You ramp up your brain. And that's sort of the whole idea behind the Brain Warriors Way podcast. You're in a war for the health of your brain when 60% of the lipstick in the United States sold has lead in it. It's a war. But here's the thing. Here's what I found. There's so many great products out there that they feel invigorating. They're all minty and they're nice and they go on nicely. You don't have to give into that. You can be a warrior. You can buy nice products that work that you don't have to give in to all

the department store brands. Well, and what's interesting, and then I want you to read the review, people go, oh, but it's expensive. It's less expensive. I can't afford it. And for example, I use Kiss My Face shaving cream. And yeah, it's probably three times more expensive than barbasol but it lasts 10 times longer because the can's not like always empty in a week this will like you know that my travel one lasted me months and so you can do this well and here's the thing it some of the products are more expensive compared to what though compared to chanel compared to sicily those products are really expensive so some of the natural products they might be more expensive than like a then say if you're going to a drug store

but they're not more expensive than department stores so they're actually a little less expensive and what does it cost right to have brain fog. And what does it cost to have brain fog? Right. Or what does it cost to have poison? And I just find myself using less overall. So read the review. And then I've got a couple of lists. Okay. So this is from Luke668.

I love these podcasts. They've been so helpful for me and my family to improve our life, starting with our brains. Between knowledge from the Amons books and their supplements, we have everything we need to succeed and become better for ourselves and children. I love it. I love it. I love it. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yes. So 10 ways toxins poison your brain and increase the incidence of mental illness. One, they decrease blood flow to the brain. They disrupt your endocrine system. That's a big one.

They impair your immune system. They disrupt the gut microbiome, resulting in leaky gut. They increase the risk of diabetes and obesity. In fact, you're the one that first told me about obesogens that often are common for people who live around the Mississippi River because of the poisons dumped into the river. From all of the plants, the chemical plants. The toxins damage your DNA, they impair your enzyme systems, they harm your organs, they alter gene expression, and they damage cell membranes.

And this is why this is serious. This is important. So how do you know if your brain is toxic? Like me and Tana, before we got serious about this, I do put toxic products on your body where you're not really reading the ingredients. Do you smoke? Are you around secondhand smoke? Do you smoke marijuana? Do you use conventional cleaning products and inadvertently breathe their fumes? That's why you had mentioned household products. And when you get hand soap that's not clean, every time you put it on your hand, it goes into your body. We think of the skin as a barrier to toxins, but it's not. Have you been exposed to carbon monoxide like exhaust fumes? Do you travel on planes more than six times a year? Both of us do that.

Do you pump your own gas? We do here in California. Do you live in an area with moderate to high air pollution? I grew up in the San Fernando Valley. We had smog days. Have you lived or worked in a building with water damage? Because that often goes with mold. Do you spray your garden, farm, or orchard with pesticides or live near pesticides here in California? We have the San Joaquin Valley. We produce more produce. I mean, I think eight of our counties produce more produce than almost anywhere in the world, which means we're also loaded with air, with pesticides. Do you paint indoors without ventilation? Do you have more than four glasses

of alcohol a week? I mean, the list goes on and on. And then the end of mental illness, I have this. But the last one is, have you had general anesthesia? And how many times? And what did you say? 10? I've had 10 medical surgeries. My goodness, girl. We have to work on your brain. Yeah. And so that's what, that was where I, and I, and the funny thing is, is when I was younger, I felt like I bounced back faster and And this time I just didn't. So I really felt it. But I wanted to say one thing too. This is really fun.

So when I, this time when I decided to do it, you know, Chloe is 16 and I thought, you know, why not get her started young? And she's, she finally was open to it. And so we bonded over healthy products. We went and bought some makeup together and I was explaining to her what hormone disruptors are, because it's important to me to get her doing it now. So she can avoid some of the health issues I had, but also because she can now start thinking about being healthy long before she starts thinking about babies, hopefully long before she starts thinking about babies, but she can be healthy, right? You don't want to start trying to be healthy three months before you have babies.

You want to start trying to be healthy years before babies. And so because they're endocrine disruptors, because she's got all the eggs she's ever going to have, but it actually- So say that again. She was born- With all the eggs she's ever going to have. All of the eggs in her ovary she will ever

have. Right. But she's turning on or turning off genes that are either promoting disease or promoting health and wellness now. So she can actually affect what's happening to her child now, right? What will happen to her child now. And most parents don't know, and often I've heard with my addicted population, is, oh, I didn't drink or I didn't do drugs when I was pregnant. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I stopped. But the two months it took you to find out. And when does the baby's brain start to develop in utero? Week three, when they don't know. And so when the baby's brain is just starting, it could be bathed in drugs, alcohol.

Or now we know. I mean, who knew? I didn't know this. Toxic products that can be harmful to the baby's DNA. Well, and that's why there's a whole area of medicine, preconception medicine, that starts focusing on helping women become healthy like a couple years before they get pregnant. And one of the things they really focus on is hormone disruptors, avoiding hormone disruptors, including product.

So it's really important. The products you put on your body, the products you use in your home, they want you to get rid of all the toxic products in your house. The classes that I took at A4M, that was a big focus. So things like air fresheners, candles, they want you to get rid of all of that stuff. So where do our listeners start? So it can get really pricey if you do what I did and just go crazy.

Throw everything out. I told you when I saw my scan, I'm like, this is going to cost you a lot of money. Because I was like, I got a little freaked out. We just told them this was not expensive. Well, it doesn't have to be. So what I would do is start with the most toxic things. So that's why I'd recommend starting with getting the app thing dirty. Start scanning your products.

That's what I would start with. And the ones that score an eight or a nine, start with those. Now, you're going to be shocked at how many score an eight or a nine. So the ones that I would start with are the ones that you're putting on your body or spraying in the air, okay? Those are the ones I would start with. And if you keep the toxic ones, get the children out of the bathroom when you spray. Right. So hairspray, counter spray, sunscreen, those are the ones that are usually really, really toxic. So I would get rid of the ones that you put on your body or spray in the air,

then slowly start getting rid of the rest of them. So if they score a five or a six, hold off on those. You can hold off on those until you run out and then start replacing them. That's what I would do. So the number one thing we want you to do is read the labels. Start reading the labels. And I'm going to give you a list of things to look for that are toxic. And one is acrylics. So artificial nails, the acrylics are actually neurotoxins. Oh, and I need to say something about that. So right now, no, I have to, because this is really important. So right now, gel nails are a really, really popular thing, but I have to tell you something. When you start to see, a lot of women don't realize this. They soak your nails in the nail polish remover to get the gel off. They wrap

them, right? Women don't realize this, that nail polish remover, that acetone is really bad for you. And it actually, it should be obvious because what that does, it causes the nail bed to separate from your actual skin. It's like, hello, that's obviously bad for you. That's why they're wrapping it so it's not just like exposed. Those are really not good for you. Oh, and by the way, 100% pure. No, I'm excited about this.

They make a non-toxic nail polish. It's crazy. And they're really pretty and they work. Acrylates. Aluminum in your antiperspirant. Formaldehyde. I mean, you know, formaldehyde really that preserves things after you're dead. Fragrance.

Oxybenzone. It's an endocrine disruptor. Sunscreen, see? Parabens. Endocrine issues. Breast cancer. Developmental problems in kids. Reproductive problems. Allergies. Phthalates, which are actually banned in Europe, polyethylene glycols,

triclosan, it's an endocrine disruptor, lead should be obvious. I used the table in The End of Mental Illness with permission from one of my favorite books by Joe Pizzorno, The Toxin Solution. You can do this. It starts with information. But brain warriors, they're armed, they're prepared, and they're aware of the evil ruler strategies to increase the risk of mental illness. So two more brands that I like for makeup, Kosas and Elia. They're actually at Sephora. So Sephora does have a green section on Think Dirty. They actually have

a green section in Sephora because it's such a popular place to buy makeup. So this doesn't have to be hard. So share what you know about green products. Let us know what products you love for household products or makeup or skin products. And, you know, did you learn one thing? I mean, just like parabens. Post it on any of your social media channels. Hashtag Brain Warriors Way Podcast. post it on any of your social media channels hashtag brain warriors way podcast go to brain warriors way podcast.com leave us a review we'll enter you into a raffle we love as you can tell

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