Dhru Purohit Show - A Silent But Deadly Killer: How Poor Air Quality is a Driver of Chronic Disease and What We Can Do to Protect Ourselves Now

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers, Bon Charge, and Maui Nui. Every year, seven million people die prematurely due to poor air quality. While it may not be obvious, the air we breathe directly impacts our health—contributing to allergies, autoimmune conditions, lung diseases, and even neurodegenerative disorders. Today’s guest joins us to explain why air quality should be a key part of the conversation on toxin exposure and how to reduce our risk of toxic air. Today on The Dhru Purohit Show, Dhru sits down with Dr. Elroy Vojdani to discuss the critical link between air quality and the rise in severe health conditions. Dr. Vojdani explains why air quality isn’t discussed enough, how to monitor it, and how to adjust your daily activities accordingly. He also breaks down the best ways to support detoxification, the top supplements for recovering from toxin exposure, and practical tips for improving indoor air quality at home and in the office. In this episode, Dhru and Dr. Elroy Vojdani dive into: The conditions linked to poor air quality (00:28) Why air quality isn’t widely discussed—and what makes it so harmful (02:17) The link between diagnosis and uncovering the true cause of toxin exposure (09:25) Key fundamentals to minimize exposure (12:46) How to measure and monitor air quality to adjust daily activities (15:51) How poor air quality can contribute to autoimmune conditions (30:01) The after-effects of the LA fires and essential precautions (38:34) The connection between hearing loss and Alzheimer’s risk (45:29) How Bryan Johnson’s trip to India sparked a conversation about air quality (50:49) Evidence-based supplements for detoxification and the role of sweating (52:49) Avoiding misinformation and a ‘doom and gloom’ mentality (58:22) Why outdoor air is often cleaner than indoor air (1:02:22) Dr. Elroy’s advice on advocating for air filters in schools (1:04:32) Final thoughts (1:05:44) Also mentioned in this episode: Atmo Air Monitor Aware Indoor Air Quality Monitor Nithin Kamath with Bryan Johnson viral video AquaTru and Air Doctor Filters  IQ Air  Freakanomics Air Quality Podcast Dr. Elroy’s book - When Food Bites Back: Taking Control of Autoimmune Disease For more on Dr. Elroy, follow him on Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, YouTube, and his Website. This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers, Bon Charge, and Maui Nui. Go to bioptimizers.com/dhru now and enter promo code DHRU10 to get 10% off any order of Sleep Breakthrough and find out this month’s gift with purchase.  Right now, BON CHARGE is offering my community 15% off; just go to boncharge.com/DHRU and use coupon code DHRU to save 15%. Right now, Maui Nui Venison is offering my community 15% off your first purchase. Just go to mauinuivenison.com/DHRU or enter the code DHRU at checkout to get 15% off and up your high-quality protein today. Offer ends 2/28/2025.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Elroy Vigdani, welcome back to the podcast. You are here to put the spotlight on one of the most silent, deadly killers out there in the world. In fact, every year, it's estimated that 7 million people die prematurely from this major issue. Talk to us about how big of a problem air quality is and why our audience should care about it. Sure. Air quality should be, you know, in the upper parts of the conversation of environmental risks to us from a health perspective. You know, I think plastics, you know, metals, all these things that have been talked about a lot out there in the last few years, yes, they're concerning. But when you start to dive into the data about what living in a major city in the United States entails as far as risk is concerned and how many different ways it impacts you, it's quite alarming. So, you know, it's everything from what you expect, which is a lung-related risk, asthma, COPD, cancer, premature aging, to allergy and autoimmune diseases, to skin-related conditions like eczema. I mean, the list is really everything across the board. Neurodegenerative diseases are elevated in major cities thought to be related to air pollution. So we should be talking about this at the top of the list. Why don't you think

enough people. I mean, we live in Los Angeles and now everybody's talking about air quality right now in L.A. But when you look around the U.S., still, it's not as of a focus of a conversation as other areas. And then you go globally, there's a major lack of awareness. I'm from the country of India. It has 13 to 11 of the most polluted air quality cities in the world. It's estimated that in India alone, people die on average 10 years earlier from air quality. And on top of that, more people are dying early debts from air quality than even cancer. That's how bad the problem is. But why aren't people really having this conversation outside of a major incident of a situation like we're in, which was the devastating L.A. wildfires? I think here in the U.S., it's probably because we make

the assumption that it's so much better than it was than when you and I were. kids in the 80s and 90s, right? Like that was a time where major cities literally like you would live in a cloud of smog. And because of the measures in the automobile and industrial world to kind of reduce the pollutant release have improved so much, we don't see it as much. And I think we just assume that means that things are okay. And then, you know, something like this major fire in Los Angeles happens and it becomes top of mind again as, you know, as it should. But what I hope happens from that is, as we dive into this, it becomes top of mind for everyone in all major cities. And we bring the necessary awareness to everyone to really focus on it. You know, it's another part of it

is because we haven't talked about it because it hasn't been something that we've been forced to think about. And I do want to give props to a lot of cities in the U.S. things have cleaned up a bunch, especially here in Los Angeles. Los Angeles did, used to have really significantly bad air quality. And there were a lot of regulations that were passed and attention that was placed on it, some manufacturing that was moved away from the city, improvements in car manufacturing, like better catalytic converters. And it made a significant difference. People don't realize, but Los Angeles in the area that I live on the west side, we're not too far away from there, Santa Monica, it has way better quality of air than a lot of major European cities.

I was looking at like Santa Monica and other places in United States. The air quality is way better than cities like Paris and other European countries that people typically think of as being like, oh, like clean and better quality air. So I do want to give hats off to America for doing a lot of cleanup. There still are some things to be paying attention to. But the bigger issue for everybody listening today, regardless of where they live, is that most people don't realize that the EPA alone estimated that indoor air can be up to 300 to 500 times worse than outdoor air. So no matter how bad your outdoor air is, and that is

something that we should be paying attention to, I want to start the conversation first with indoor air. So why is our indoor air quality for so many people so bad? Well, the primary reason would be the construction material and the toxins that come off of the construction material and is also the furniture that we purchase. So, you know, basically chemicals being released from those things that we put in our house are a tremendous risk, I think, to us. So, you know, things like formaldehyde, other VOCs will be released from that aquiline. And they're incredibly toxic. And the secondary reason would be because an indoor environment doesn't have large amounts of outside to inside recirculation. So,

you know, you're in this environment where depending on the age of the house and your furniture and whatever it is that you used to build it, you've got internal sources that are permeating to you, and then you've got a situation in which if you're not, you know, filtering and have appropriate air systems built in, you're not getting a lot of fresh air coming in as well too. So it just kind of builds over time. So I want to take a step back. If you wouldn't mind, for those that haven't heard you on the podcast before, I believe this is your fourth visit. So it's an honor to have you back. What type of doctor are you? And also, where does air quality sit within the things that you see the people that you work with in terms of making them sick? Like, how do you think about air quality?

Is it enough to make people sick? Is it taking things that they're already dealing with and making it worse when people are exposed to sort of poor air quality? Like, help us contextualize a little bit. One of the number one complaints I hear from my community is that it's hard for them to shut their mind off at night when they're getting ready for bed. In fact, they often feel like their brain is filled with a bunch of what if thoughts they get turned on right when they're trying to fall asleep. If this happens to you, let me let you in on a little secret on something that can help you deal with it. You may have heard of magnesium breakthrough by bio-optimizers and how it's fantastic for a great night's sleep by promoting calmness and relaxation. What I found out is that the

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early detection, prevention of disease, and trying to use lifestyle as the primary way in which we influence, you know, positive health movements, right? So it's connecting all of the dots, being prevention-minded, and then, you know, looking at your environment, whatever that means is the primary way to make you feel better. I think air quality doesn't get, you know, discussed enough in the medical space and diagnostically as well as a big thing that kind of moves people in a negative direction as far as health is concerned. It's very hard to get a sense of how much is air quality causing this person's illness or disease or whatever it is we're dealing with because the environmental discussion is massive, right? You have to consider what's

going on with what they're eating, what they're putting on themselves, makeup, lotion, you know, and then you move on to what are they breathing. And, you know, each one of those areas is humongous. But, you know, I think you definitely get the sense that people who live in major metropolitan areas in the United States tend to have more of that chemical piece of things. So, it must be playing a huge part in it. It's impossible to be able to break up when you identify chemical toxicity for somebody. How much of this happened because of the dry cleaning solution that they've been exposed to, the plastic bottles that they've been drinking out of the groundwater contamination,

you know, there's no way to tell which is which here. So my take on it is always assume it's there and take the appropriate steps to protect that individual from the realities of living in a city like Los Angeles. So we have the data. We know that air quality, toxic air, especially indoor and outdoor air. It's not just the outdoor air. We know that it's filled with these 2.5, PM 2.5, which I'll have you break down in a second. and there's tons of data of how that gets lodged in blood vessels and plaque can develop around it. Yeah. It can get lodged in the brain. Mm-hmm.

And plaque can get lodged around it. It can get absorbed into our tissue. And it's just this volatile compound that can wreak havoc on us. But what I'm hearing from you is that it's hard. Even though we have all this data, it's hard for you as a medical doctor to look at an individual person and say, hey, this toxic burden that you're dealing with, this much comes from air, this much comes from water, this much comes from your cosmetics that are not clean, this much comes from diet. It all just kind of gets amassed into the body as one homogenized thing.

Yeah. Let's talk about that and then move into the two and a half fine particle mass. That's absolutely true. You can't, you know, look at all these individual areas and say, this is where this problem came from. That's where this problem came from. So what do you do about that? The first thing is understand that the goal of improving your health from an environmental perspective is not to be a perfectionist about everything. It's to make meaningful differences in the areas where differences can be made.

Right. So low hanging fruit, don't drink out of a plastic bottle, don't microwave things in plastic containers, right? There are equal things as far as air quality is concerned. Have a filter at home for your water, reverse osmosis if possible. Exactly. right? You know, so do the fundamental things. And when you do the fundamental things, you dramatically reduce your overall exposure. That's, I think, the best that you can do in these situations outside of, you know, clean eating and maybe taking supplements to protect yourself. But this is not a, you know,

a conversation in which I want people to take away from this, like, we're screwed. We're living in this like, you know, complete toxic mess. Yes, but that knowledge is very important because it gives you an ability to make meaningful changes. Yeah, it's kind of like plastics. Plastics are everywhere. Yes. You cannot avoid them. They're in plant and agricultural manufacturing. They're in even like wild grazing meat. They're in all sorts of different things, but you can minimize your total exposure, do the best that you can. Yeah. And so you're saying that the same thing is true with air quality. Yes. What are some really straightforward things that you can do? I think. you mentioned, you know, high quality air filters.

You know, I recently sent out a newsletter to all of our patients that, you know, essentially was trying to give everybody a little bit of a structure of what do you do in this post-fire, you know, L.A. environment because there was a lot of understandable fear about it. But what I wrote in the newsletter was, I hope at this point you have an indoor air filter. And the reason I wrote that is because for anybody who's been in the clinic, we've kind of been harping for a very long time, about like reducing your environmental exposures where you can, the plastic bottles, the microwaving, this, that, and getting a high quality indoor air filter. And people who walk into our clinic will also see that there are several of them walking around, which is, you know,

for many reasons actually meant to be a talking point for people. Like, oh, what air filter is that? Why do you have that here? Why are you doing this? And that's a way that we try to educate people about this is something that you should be doing for your own home. But absolutely, everybody living in a major urban environment in the United States and around the world should have a high quality air filter in place. And I think the secondary thing that a lot of people should be doing is they should start monitoring what their air quality looks like, both indoors and outdoors, and making a assessment about what their outdoor activity levels are going to be based on what those readings show. Let's talk about that. Let's segue into the two and a half micrometer

fine particle count, right? Because when we talk about measuring the air, we're going to talk about, you know, essentially an air meter that looks at four potential things. So there's particle mass 10, which means 10 micrometers. It's a size of the particle. There's particle mass two and a half, two and a half micrometers, which we call the fine particle mass. Air meters can measure volatile organic compounds and specifically can give you a measurement of how much formaldehyde is in the air. So if you have those, four metrics, right? With the particle mass 10 and two and a half, you're essentially counting the invisible particulates, things like, you know, exhaust particles, wildfire particles. The thing,

the actual thing that's carrying something toxic to you that can get lodged in your lungs, go into the blood, reach the blood-brain barrier, you're actually seeing a quantified amount of that thing that's carrying all the other bad things with it. With a VOC count, you're looking at the off-gassing of, you know, things like furniture or paint. And specifically, what we worry about the most is formaldehyde, which is one of the VOCs, especially with things like furniture. So if your meter looks at that specifically, then you get that other subsection. Like if you're moved into a new house, you're replacing furniture, carpets, tables, you're installing some new soundproofing in a podcast studio. All that stuff has these VOCs volatile organic compounds.

Right. And it's pretty hard to get around it unless if you use, if you get maybe vintage furniture sometimes is a little bit less. Sure. It won't maybe be as as volatile as like new furniture, but still you might have some. Sure. That'd be coming there. New fabrics, new curtains, new paints, as you mentioned. I think the bigger, you know, the biggest point is like just check, you know. Check. You don't know until you check. You don't know until you check. You don't know until you check, right? You know, now these days there are a lot of air filters that are coming, you know, number one, with the ability to filter something like a VOC, which is great. And they all include the ability to filter something like a two and a half fine particle mass. But they'll come with

the actual meters on the air filters themselves, whether they're actually like, you know, a separate screen on the filter or whether it's embedded in the machine and an app will actually give you those readings. Check, you know, have some idea of what your exposure internally is. Number one, obviously as a impetus to get the filter, but number two, to make sure your filters are working. Yeah. Is this actually working? Yeah. Can I give you the best example of this? So I'm pretty hardcore about monitoring the air quality inside of my home.

And then we had somebody that said, hey, listen, I'd love to send you guys this air monitor. And I know you've mentioned a few. We'll put some of these in the show notes. I have no relationship with any of these companies, just different ones that I've used at some point in time. But I think this one was called a tome. And it was a portable air quality monitor. And I would check it around my home. And I would also check it against the other ones that I had. I have a few of my home from a company called Aware. So I'd say, okay, what is one show? What is another show? And they all were pretty good. So I was trying to see. And I would take my air quality meter

from a tome and I would go like when you go on an airplane. Yeah. You know, sometimes the airplanes are starting. Yep. And there's this like back exhaust that comes in. Totally. there's actually an article that was written about this in like the New York Times that like the air airlines know this is a big issue but like there's no solution that they've kind of come up with about how to deal with this you're sitting in the airplane and you're like dude it smells like intense like this cannot be good for you and I would measure it and the air quality dipped like super low they have their own scale where they're measuring all these different things and they give you a number from zero to a hundred sure and I was like what else in my life besides my home is

like this. And at the time, I had just got a car for my wife. And we went to go pick it up after a trip. And we were sitting in the car and I was measuring the air quality. The air quality inside from that quote unquote new car smell. Horrifying. That's so many people are addicted to like kind of like gasoline. They like that smell. It was terrible. It was terrible. And we had already paid for the car and everything like that. And everywhere we drove, we would drive with like the windows cracked, which would make a significant difference. New air would be coming in from the outside. And the air quality would be, on average, when we didn't have the windows open, it'd be around

like 37, 40, which is pretty bad. And it would get back into like the 80s, 85, 90s. And then we realized that the car that we had, this is a splurge and I'm not telling anybody to have this sort of situation, but there's some cars now that have hapa filters. Yes, they do. And I turned it on. And immediately the air quality went from when we had the window shut 37 to 99 after a few minutes of it running. And it just showed me like, wow, I would have, you know, my wife and I, we want to start a family.

You know, we're in that phase of our life. We're both trying to protect our health. You know, I'm trying to pay attention to my health, as you know, because I've been working through some stuff that's there. And I was like, I would have driven around for two, three years with this air quality inside the car if I didn't have it. measured and known that this was an issue. Yeah. We did a few things that I can talk about to sort of accelerate some of the off gassing that was there based on some tips.

We would have it regularly sort of cleaned on the inside with clean things. But even then, it probably took a year before we could sit in the car and the VOC's PM2.5, PM10 was at a level where it would have been stable. But even still, we'll run the HEPA filter in the car. Can I tell you a little anecdote about the family that I grew up in? Yes. Tell me. And by the way, before you can jump in, I was getting in there and I was having headaches

when we first picked up the car. Absolutely. I would literally have headaches. And this is before I knew how bad the air quality was. When you become aware of VOC exposure specifically and you start paying attention to when you're in the exposure and when you're out, you absolutely will get immediate brain fog. Well, you sat in this podcast studio. No knock on our friend Chase.

Actually, they just put an air filter. And you immediately were like, I think I kind of feel the air a little stale in here. And we asked them and they were so kind. There's an air filter here. We turned it up. I mean, we have to because we're talking about that right now. I have to. So you're talking about your family.

You know, my dad. Yes. Aristo. You know, his thing is he's, I think, always been incredibly ahead of his own time. Super out of the times. I don't know how. It's like the guy has, you know, the ability to see the future and brings it back 30 years. Well, he's also up and up on the latest research.

He is, always. So he sees it before anybody else does. So me as a teenager, right, we get a new mattress at the, house, right? Most people will put their mattress on their bed and start enjoying it, right? My dad will unwrap the mattress, take it outside, and we'll leave it outside for two weeks before he lets anybody use it. Yeah. Okay. When he gets a new car, which he doesn't do very often for the specific reason, he will literally park the car outside with the sunroof open, the moon roof open, and with the windows down the entire time. Doesn't care if it's raining,

whatever. Like that is how the guy operated, knowing that a new car is going to off gas tons of VOC and it's harmful for you. Yeah. So I think honestly he drives like a five or six year old car now and I will still see it parked outside of his house with all the windows down and the sunroof open. It's just the way that he is, you know? Pretty ambitious in a place like LA where you have all these deaths and other stuff, but hey, it's working. It's working. So I was very fortunate to grow up in a household where there was somebody who had all of this stuff very top of mind. Yeah. I'm sure, though, when you were a kid, you were like, what the heck are we doing?

I had no idea what my dad was. All the neighbors think were crazy, right? But your dad, he was ahead of the curve. He was ahead of the curve. So, you know, I think it's time for everybody to kind of catch up, you know, that, yes, you know, the world today is not perfect. There are lots of things that are great about living in modern times. And like everything, there are negative.

of things that come with it. And with all of these lovely things that we have available to us at our disposal comes these risks. So that doesn't mean we don't enjoy them. That means we're smart about making sure we're minimizing the risks from them. So airing out your furniture or mattress or your car or doing whatever it is when you get a new one, I think is a very good idea. I don't know if you saw this viral video, but Brian Johnson, the longevity expert, was in India. and he was going on a little bit of like a business podcast tour, a little segment of it. But he was in the middle of an interview indoor in this town, I believe that was outside of New Delhi. So they were indoor.

And he knows in advance, the team that he was traveling with that, hey, the air in India can get very dicey, especially around like the New Delhi area. So they bring their own air filters. They plug it in. So he's doing this interview. And the team tells him, look, the air quality is still pretty bad. So let's turn the air filter on high and put on an N95 mask on top of that. So even with all that, the air quality. index from their own measurable meter was around 165. And this is indoor in a place. It got so bad

and he's like kind of cultish about his approach, right? His whole don't die philosophy. You know, I'm cool with that. You know, he can do that. May not be for everybody else. He stopped the interview and he said, listen, I'm so sorry. I cannot do the interview any further, right? This goes against everything that's there. And he wrote this whole thing about how India would benefit, which I've felt for such a long time. Anytime I would go to India, such a beautiful country, right, love all my family and friends and everybody that's there, I would get so sick coming in there

and being around all this pollution and all the different cities. And he wrote this post about how if India put its attention instead of to like, not instead, it doesn't have to be either or, but the amount of effort and energy that goes into cancer, if we put that into sort of air quality, you'd actually end up saving even more lives because more people die from poor air quality in India because it's so bad than even early deaths.

that happened from cancer. Anecdotally, I felt this with my own family members. I would have family that would go to India would get so sick. And maybe their metabolic health is not that great, and there's already some blockage, or they're at a high risk of a stroke. But it always coincided that you'd end up in India, and that family member who was already sort of borderline

would end up having a heart attack there, would have a stroke there. Now, it's a multifaceted thing. There's a lot of trans fats that are in the diet, you know, there's, you know, a lot of other things that might be going on that's there. But air quality is definitely one of those things that factors into it. It's not to throw India under the bus. It's just an extreme example of being around that poor air quality 24-7 and the damage

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You know, you have that exposure. You're going to have an increased risk. You work with a lot of patients that are on the spectrum of autoimmune conditions. And then you deal with a lot of patients with chronic infections like Lyme and other things like that that are out there, amongst a lot of other stuff that you do at your incredible clinic. How do you see that poor air quality can make something like an autoimmune condition worse? What is it doing to the body? Like, how can it accelerate that? There's actually two specific mechanisms in which an environmental toxin can accelerate an inflammatory or autoimmune response.

The first is they represent an oxidative injury. They're essentially depleting the antioxidant reservoir, this like defense wall that we have built up against things like this. And when you deplete that wall to the point that it's no longer present, you get direct tissue damage. And the direct tissue damage will actually ignite the immune system in an inflammatory direction. Second way is that environmental toxins can actually bind to human tissue. And this was a study that was done by my dad and formed something called a neo-antogen. That means a new antigen or a new target for the immune system. So essentially, it changes the structure of your own protein to the point that your body doesn't identify it anymore as you and therefore starts attacking

it directly. So there's the indirect mechanism and there's the direct mechanism of inducing inflammation and autoimmunity. Like we mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, the health ramifications of that are literally the entire spectrum of diseases from cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative, cancer, allergies, autoimmunity, everything you can think of. You know, one of your tips was that if you care about this topic and you'd put it in the category as one of the top things for us to pay attention to, just like we filter our water. I think a lot of our listeners today, listening today, are filtering their water. We want to have that same approach to our air. Sure, you can get an air filter, but because air is more dynamic than water, water is a single

source, air is all around us. It's important to measure your air quality, both at home, or you might go to your office, or in the case of our situation, a new mattress, a new car. And these little meters, they're not expensive at all, right? I've seen some of them for like 50 bucks, 70 bucks, it's a great investment that are out there. Maybe 150 at the top of the line. 150 at the top of the line. So the second thing that you said is that especially in a major urban city, you want to be adjusting your activities throughout the day, especially if you're going to be outside,

based on sort of how the air quality looks. Talk to us about that. Like, we're here in Los Angeles. At this point in time, a lot of people are very worried about the air quality. Today's a windy day. There was an area the size of two Manhattans that burned down in Los Angeles. One, just a couple miles from here in the Palisades. One, the other direction in Altadena and a few other spot fires that were around.

Tens of thousands of homes burned down. Homes burning down, cars burning down, electric batteries burning down. Many homes that were built before 1950, so a lot of asbestos that was out there. and you kind of have a town that's freaking out and are saying, like, is it safe to be outside? So whether we're talking about LA, and there might be some specifics for LA, or whether we're talking about people in other urban cities, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, whatever might be, how would somebody approach their activities for the day? Like, what do you want them measuring?

What do you want them looking at? Sure. Well, they should be measuring exactly what we discussed earlier, which is the particle counts in the 10 micrometer range, the 2 and a half, and the VOCs ideally. So those three things. And what are the numbers that you're looking for to really identify what's safe and what isn't safe? Well, a lot of that depends on whether you have a preexisting condition or not. So, you know, somebody would COPD or asthma or some kind of like lung condition, you know, you really want to be on the lower limits of detection there as far as the particle counts are concerned. So, you know, let's say a 30 parts per billion range

on the particle count of two and a half, right, in that situation. You know, if you're otherwise healthy and, you know, doing it okay, you know, 30 to 50 maybe would be your upper limit of exposures there. But, you know, you have to get in the habit of checking what the outdoor exposure looks like and then making a determination of, is that a good day for me to go for a hike? You know, should I be running outdoors today? Should my kids be playing outside for three or four hours today? You'll find as you start checking,

that the overwhelming majority of days in major cities are actually totally fine. It's going to be a few days based on unexpected weather conditions or, you know, during points of the season where air gets kind of like trapped in urban environments, that it becomes really problematic. So what you're really doing in that situation is identifying the few days where it's in your health interest to skip that hike or that outdoor run or whatever it is that you were going to do and otherwise get reassurance that the days that, you know, let's say 90, 95% of them, things are clean. You're fine doing what you're doing.

And I think the other part of this that's important is that recognition that you are actually fine the overwhelming majority of the time. When people are looking at air quality, you know, if you have an iPhone or an Android, you go to the weather app, they'll often be a score that's there for today's weather. A lot of, you know, apps have added that in. And then there's, so if I look at it, look right now, it says our location in Santa Monica, it's actually saying today's 208. Yeah, because we had significant rain a couple of days.

Yeah, we've had rain earlier today. We had rain last night. Yes. What I found is that how trustworthy is that? Because that's an amalgamation of an entire city. There's online maps that are out there like purple air is one that I know. And then there's a few others that actually have like different outdoor meters from like citizen scientists or, you know, people that are like contributing to that research.

and then there's your own meter that you might have in your house that you might take outside. So it's a lot of data and it's a lot of information, but do you generally go off the weather app or are you using anything else more sophisticated? Well, in the case of Apple specifically, I think maybe two weeks ago, I don't even know exactly the date. They actually started adding from external sources what the actual particle counts are. So click on the AQI and you will see if you scroll down, pollutant details. So we get carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide. So that's basically, you know, having an old school discussion about smog and, you know, kind of the air pollutants.

I think in today's world, we're really more interested in the particulates under 10 micrometers and then the particulates under two and a half micrometers. We don't get VOCs on here, you know, but it's a pretty safe assumption that, you know, in the two and a half range specifically, that's where the majority. of data or danger lies because things like lithium, arsenic, cadmium, you know, dioxins, benzene, they'll travel in that particle mass. So luckily, there are even without a meter, very publicly available, more precise data points that you can look at. The problem with something like an air quality index, which is just the number, is you don't know if they're basing that number,

based on the carbon monoxide or if they're basing it on the PM 2 and a half. So luckily, they've updated the apps and giving you really nice information on there. Yeah. And if you want to be more localized to your area, that's still where a meter can come in handy. For sure. For sure. And there are even government websites that will give you some of the publicly available meter counts outdoors. And then there are tons of private ones as well also.

Yeah, I know purple layer. I'm sure our community knows some others. They can drop it in the comments as well. Let's pivot to Los Angeles for a second. A lot of our audience is out here. I live out here. You live out here. And you've gotten it firsthand being a medical doctor, having a practice that's trying to look after people.

When the fires were happening, things were crazy. People were losing their homes. The smoke was all over. I had a friend who's a medical doctor at UCLA in the transplant department. and they were talking over there, that people are literally coming into the hospital and emergency room for like asbestos exposure. Yeah.

All sorts of things were going on. Yeah. Right? It was a crazy, it was a crazy, and the aftermath is still crazy, and I'm glad to see so much of the energy being focused on helping people recover and what that looks like. It's going to be a long way,

but we're all going to get through it together. Since that time period, there's been all sorts of conversation on the topic of Los Angeles Air Corps. some people are saying that it's so dangerous, you've got to think of it as a war zone, and you basically should be considering moving out of this area. And then other people are saying, hey, look, be smart, pay attention to the Air Index. And for the people that are more extreme, one of the things that I've heard is that they're saying,

look, all these houses and Teslas and other things that burnt down, that stuff is in the air, and it doesn't show up on your typical air meter or air quality index. So you're never going to know how much you're being exposed to. So the only smart solution, which is kind of a very privileged thing to say, is to like up and root your family and go move somewhere else. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to hold back here. I think that was one of the most unhelpful pieces of advice that you could give people in that situation.

And also not true. So, you know, metals, things like dioxin, benzene, the aquiline, the things that we're most worried about, they travel in that same two and a half micrometer particle mass or they will actually aggregate with the particle itself. So when you're looking at the two and a half micrometer particle mass, you're looking at all of those things when you're in a burn zone or in a neighborhood adjacent to a burn zone. To say otherwise that there's just this invisible exposure that everybody in the neighborhood is exposed to, you know, and you need to just pack your bags and get out of Dodge, it's just not the reality, right? So you can, you're not going to get a direct assessment of what's in the air,

but the indirect assessment is more than good enough to be able to judge what you should be doing with your life according to the conditions and whatever is happening that day. So that's my take on it for the surrounding neighborhoods of Altadena and the Palisades in Malibu and Topanga. You know, if you're in the neighborhoods of, you know, let's say Santa Monica Brentwood, where a lot of this fear, Marina del Rey, you know, has like kind of very specifically been focused based on those initial, you know, kind of things that started getting floating around, you know, WhatsApp groups essentially.

it's the same rules. The stuff that's going to hurt you is in that two and a half fine particle mass. Check it. Decide whether you're going to have some outdoor exposure or not based on that. And understand also that the more time that transpires between the burn going out and now means also less potential for toxin exposure because it's been dissipated into the air. And now that we've had rain, a lot of is being pushed down into the soil. That poses another set of environmental toxin concerns for those who are thinking about going back to

the palisades or Malibu. That's very, very local to those burn sites. But for the people in the greater Los Angeles area, just know that time is your friend in addition to measuring. Yeah. I feel like the rain's definitely kind of calmed everybody down. Not everybody. Not everybody.

Some people. I'm sure you see it all. But I feel like a lot of people who are really, really worried about it, feel like they can breathe a little bit easier. Yes. I have a sponsor, Air Doctor. People know it. They've been one of my earliest sponsors.

There's a lot of great air filters on the market. Anyone that you want to give a plug to? Oh, let's give them a shout because what they did for the L.A. community in the time of need by offering air filters to people at cost plus shipping was really incredible. And I heard they give away like a thousand air filters. Yeah. I have two friends personally that both. both their homes burned down.

And the company was so gracious, and they helped them out and they gave them air filter. It's been one that I've recommended for a long time. I think the other ones would be an IQ Air. And then Austin Air is the third brand that I typically recommend. Yeah. Generally, you're looking for HEPA Ultra HEPA filter. Yes, and carbon. And carbon.

So it can trap. And the carbon is the one that traps the VOCs. Correct. Yeah. And that's one of those where you really want to look around consumer reports, all the stuff. just make sure you don't end up with a budget air filter that's not really doing much. And then the secondary thing is bonus points for when it comes to water filters, when it comes to air filters, they're only as good as how long ago you changed the filter.

Correct. You need to be up on your filter changes. So setting a reminder and bonus points if the machine can actually remind you to change it. And be very proactive about changing the air filters on your HVAC systems. A lot of people leave those for years before. they actually end up changing those. Change those, you can actually get ones that also will filter out the two and a half micron range. So make sure you're doing it for your HVAC system as well, too. That's a good reminder.

I'm overdue for mine. I need to do that. And a lot of cars have filters now too. They do. And I have a Tesla and I just ordered new filters because we've had it for now two years. And it's gone through all the fires and everything. So it's now time to change that as well. I'd say consider that in your car shopping experience for sure.

You know, there are also cars now that have the two and a half meters built into them. Wow. And they will tell you what the outside reading is versus what the inside reading is after you turn the hephilultration on. Wow. I don't know of any models like that. Do you want to, is that any particular models that you want to shout out? I don't remember the exact brands. Okay.

We'll look at the moment. But there are cars that will do that out there. Yeah. So those are a few that are out there. Yeah. Take a look. Some of the meters, I know you wrote about one. We can look it up and put it inside of there.

I have one that I've used in my studios for a long time called Aware. And we can link to that. And again, a lot of these are really cheap and they're getting cheaper and cheaper. I can't wait till they're built into like the Apple Watch or something else. And then you will just know it's like that much of an issue that people should be aware of. No different than like on many people have an Apple Watch. My mom and dad, I got them both one for like their step count. It'll alert my dad, which is very helpful because he got.

hearing aids a few years ago it'll alert him when he's in an environment that's too loud above 80 decibels yeah and we know that's degradating to the ear absolutely and he has been exposed to a lot of loud noises over his lifetime which is part of what has you know challenged his ear he's okay but it's not just a benign thing that like oh you're you know your your your your hearing is not as good i don't know if you saw but there was some studies that came out last year showing that if somebody's quality is going down and they don't get a hearing aid, they're at a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. Absolutely. It's one of the first things we talk about with our patients who are starting to actually get some slow degradation in their hearing. People need to understand that the

processing center for sound is right next to the processing center for memory. So if you get shrinkage of that part of your brain because there's not enough auditory input going to it, it can leak into the memory part of the brain and you start getting unnecessary. shrinkage there too. We have a dear family friend and she was exposed to a very loud noise many, many years ago. And she saw an immediate sort of loss of hearing that was there, but just thought it was temporary. And then like a lot of things, you just get used to it. Yeah. I didn't know about this. And we were sitting down one day and we were chatting on a road trip. And she was sharing and I said, listen, this is something to pay attention to. I know you think of yourself as very young.

and the idea of getting hearing aids seems like, oh my gosh, like I'm not that old. I'm not a senior citizen yet. But let me show you the data. Like the Alzheimer's Commission or whatever it's called, they literally have put it as like one of the top eight things that people should be checked about. And it's a good reminder. I got to follow up with her and say, did you get the- The other one sense of smell. Talk about that for a second.

Same thing, right? You know, the processing center for those inputs are also next to the memory processing center. So when you start losing your sense of smell, it's another warning sign that the, you know, the neurodegenerative process like dementia might be kicking in. And restoring that sense of smell is actually something that you can see another way that people get their memory back. How do you restore smell? I have no idea about that.

You have to invigorate the nerves, the nerve endings basically in the nose themselves. So a lot of them can get damaged, die off. You know, we know that a lot from COVID, obviously, people losing their sense of smell temporarily. but many viruses can do that. Environmental chemicals can do that, breathing in all of the pollutants can do that. So eventually these nerve endings, just with all that exposure, can just die off. So what do you do to rejuvenate them? You know, you've got to give things that nerves like.

And luckily, because you've got direct access to it, there are some sprays that you can use, things like NAD precursors along with B12, that comes in the brand name of something called synapsin. And then there are some amino acids that you take. like carnacine that can really help specifically. And then a lot of people get a lot of benefit out of doing some kind of reprogramming. You know, we talk about, you know, like brain games, you know, you need to also think about that for your nasal sensing nerves as well, too. If you're losing your sense as well.

So, you know, like smelling very highly concentrated essential oils to kind of perk them up, that does work as well too. Yeah, but not perfumes. Stay away from that. Those are chemicals. Stay away from the glade. Those are not natural. Stay away from the glade and the febrize.

Please. Can we circle back to Brian Johnson for a second? Yeah, okay, go for it. So, you know, I actually hadn't seen that clip. But, you know, I've been thinking about that since you told the story. Yeah. What is the point of the ad nauseum amount of antioxidants that he takes and the extremely phytonutrient-dense diet that he consumes on a regular basis?

the point of it is to provide you protection, right? So when you're eating all those antioxidants that nature has to offer or maybe even taking them a supplement form, you're building up your defense mechanism against occasional toxin exposures. So what he should have been doing, instead of thinking about how this is going to impact his biological age clock, is, you know what, This is what I've been putting all of my time and attention towards so that when I have these exposures, my body's going to be fine. It has everything that it needs to fight back, you know, deal with this temporarily. And the next time I take my supplements and I have my whatever he calls the pudding and, you know, all the other stuff. Nutty pudding.

Noddy pudding. Have you tried? It actually tastes pretty good. It's delicious. You know? And the supplements that, you know, he takes are generally really wonderful things for the body. But the whole point of them is gives you a layer of protection against this environment that we're living in. So you have more of an ability to live your life without having to worry about what these things are doing to you.

That's an important point for everybody listening. You know, especially most of my listeners here, you're in the U.S. The air quality, generally speaking, in a lot of cities has improved dramatically. Some cities, not. And unfortunately, the poorest neighborhoods in the cities that are out there, even the ones with better air quality, often have the worst air quality, right? Because they have highways and other stuff

and, you know, 18 wheelers, regularly passing, and, you know, so many microplastics in the air because of tires and, you know, whatever it might be. So that's obviously a bigger issue that needs to be addressed here in America. But one reason that I do appreciate him leaving, and I'm not saying that this was his goal, it has caused, at least from what I can see, it's caused a major show, if I could say, in India.

Indians do not like Americans coming in and telling them what to do. And one of the things that's there, I mean, nobody likes anybody coming in. Just like Persians. Just like, I'm sure Americans don't like people coming in here, right? And in India, there's a little bit of a feeling of, oh, you guys are too fragile. We have this air quality. We're all fine. We're not sick.

We're living our lives. We're doing stuff. but a lot of the young people are starting to pay attention. Yeah. Because they're getting their information from different sources. Yeah. And they're like, I thought this was only an issue when it was the worst air quality, which tends to be the winter, because a lot of people, you know, another reason that the air

quality is bad is people burn a lot of stuff in India. They burn trash, but in the winter, they're burning fuel that are out there. And it's unfortunately that all goes into the air. But it's caused this divide amongst what I see to be sort of the older age range people. Yeah. like don't come in here and tell us. And the younger people who are like, guys, listen, this is actually an issue and we as a country should be paying attention to it.

So it's caused a little bit of a dialogue, which I appreciate that. That's good thing. Because my family were there when I would come in and I would literally blow my nose sometimes and it would be like black. Yeah. Oh, you sensitive American. We have a term. It's called ABCD.

I'm sure Persians have something similar. Yeah. So it stands for American born, which I wasn't born in America. I was born in Kenya. but American-born confused Dacey. Dacey means somebody from, you know, the Indian subcontinent. Yeah. And so like, oh, you ABCD, you're so fragile, other stuff, we're fine.

Just because they can, they're like, we eat street food. We drink the water here, other stuff. And, you know, we're not as sensitive as you Americans. But it's good that people have been talking about it because it is an issue. And I would love for people over there for their own health to pay attention to it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's such a huge population, so much to offer the world, such a beautiful place, you want the population to be as healthy as possible.

Are there any evidence-based supplements that can support our body's natural detoxification for anybody that's feeling like, hey, I'm in an area where my air quality is not that great or post-Los Angeles after us all sort of navigating and rebuilding from the fires? Yeah, so I like to look for combinations of benefits from supplements. So in this situation, you want some type of protection. You want to help with detoxification pathways, and you also want to help support the immune system. That, to me, would be the holy trinity of what a supplement can do in the face of this conversation. So first on that list would be an amino acid acid acidine. We call it NAC.

For short, NAC is an amino acid precursor for glutathione. Glutothion being the major antioxidant of the liver, also very much responsible for pushing some of the detox pathways of the liver. more than that, it's a very potent, lung-specific antioxidant, as well as other barriers of the body. And the last thing that NAC does is it dramatically improves immune function. You know, there was a study published. There's many studies on NAC and overall, like, protection from respiratory viruses, but there was one recently published about influenza, and there was a massive reduction in influenza rates for people who proactively took an acetyl system.

that. That was wild. So, and that's something that we've seen clinically, honestly, for years with people who proactively took NAC during the winter season. So no-brainer, NAC is at the top of the list. You know, it covers the three things that you're really looking for. You know, other things that cover those three things, right? So sulfurophanes would be next on the list. You know, things that are taken from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli sprouts, you know, they have that same three pieces, antioxidant protective, supporting liver detox pathways, immune protective. We had the main researcher around the work around sulfurophane, Dr. Jed Fahey, I believe his name is. We had him on the podcast. And he's kind of the guy that was responsible for all this

research around sulfurophane, which is a compound. It's found a lot in cassiferous vegetables, but it has super high concentrations in broccoli sprouts. Specifically. So when you see a lot of the supplements that are out there by different companies that make it, you know, it's typically extracted from this broccoli sprout compound. And it's great for overall detoxification. It's very gentle in the system.

Well tolerated. Well tolerated by a lot of people. And so it's not just air quality, but even some people have that in their stack like Dr. Ronnapatrick for like your overall toxic exposure from like microplastics or the, this or that or whatever it is. I'm a huge fan. I'd take it every day. Yeah. But those two I would consider probably the staples as far as like long-term things that, you know, many people could take without side effects or issues. They would tolerate it very well. And it would have broad spectrum

benefits, you know, not just detox, but also on the immune system side as well too. So I'd say those two are number one and two by a long shot for me. Anything else that you put in tier two, that would be more specific to somebody who had more, I mean, one unfortunate thing is, You know, over the last few years, you've seen all up and down North America, even in Canada, we're seeing an increase of wildfires, some natural, some arson, right? That's a whole other issue that's there. So if somebody feels like they have exposure or if somebody feels like, man, you know, I just moved into, you know, my employer just moved into a new office.

And it's like, you know, crazy in here. There's new furniture. It's off gassing. They can't maybe not not be there. So anything else that somebody could do as an extra protection? Yeah, let's drop the supplements for a second and just go back to basics. You know, sweat is an incredibly effective way to release toxins. Whether, you know, it's metals or, you know, other toxins, that's a very robust pathway to get rid of things.

So whether you're sweating via exercise or there's, you know, heat-induced way like a sauna or a steam room that you're sweating, making sure that your sweat regularly is really important. And along with that, making sure that you're hydrating appropriately is really a good way to make sure that you're flushing things out of yourself, if you want to think about it that way. We process toxins through our liver, and then they exit either through urine or through feces. So, you know, another thing is making sure that your gut health is on point

and that you're having regular bowel movements and that that internal environment is as healthy as possible because that helps to support the steady event. evacuation of those toxins without having to worry about something like leaky gut allowing transportation back into the bloodstream. So gut support is also really important in that situation or, you know, fiber, you know, things that just probiotic foods are just going to make sure that you're having regular full bowel movements is really important for detox as well too. The fundamentals are don't forget them. Yeah, don't forget about just the basics of sweating.

Our body can handle a lot if we do what it was meant to do. And it It was meant to sweat. It was meant to get our heart rate up every so often. And so that could be done again, like you mentioned, through sauna or through working out. But a little bit of sweat goes a long way. Absolutely. Anything else on the topic of air quality that you feel that it's important for people to understand or think through. Yeah, I mean, you know, being a clinician, we're right at that junction of dealing with people's anxiety and questions about this and their uncertainty.

So to me, it's very important that the information is given to people. And at the same time, the message that I want people to take home from it is this is not a, you know, doom and gloom scenario. The information is meant to equip you to live the healthiest possible life. It's not meant to be something that, you know, you just like think about as, oh my God, you know, all these different dangers in my life. So these are actionable items. Use the information and just say, I'm going to shape the way that I live my life based on this information. And that is going to make my life and my health exponentially better than if I hadn't done that. And that's the most you can ask for in life, making your situation as good as it possibly can be. And yeah, I hope that's what people take from it.

The other thing that I'd mention too is that, you know, maybe somebody's listening today. there could be a lot of environments that you're around. For example, there's a lot of people listening that might be at an office or a gym. And now that more and more people are getting aware, you can ask nicely and you can write into people because they may not be aware and say, hey, have you ever thought about getting an air filter at the gym? Have you ever thought about getting an air filter at the doctor's office or your employer? And I've generally found that when people get a little educated on it, they think, wow,

that's a great thing. Yeah. That's a great thing for us to do for our staff. We have a newsletter that we wrote about the global impact of air quality on production in like an economy. Sure. And the cities that end up having a higher air burden, lower air quality day. And we found a lot of these studies covered in the podcast for economics, did a whole series

on this. Interesting. When the air quality gets worse, people are less productive. When the air quality is worse, this is a crazy one that I learned from Freakonomics, we'll link to the episode. When the air quality gets really bad outside and let's say, not let's say, this was actually, they looked at Major League Baseball and they looked at umpires. They are more likely to call a ball incorrectly when the air quality is worse. Wow. Think about that. They're more likely to call something a strike or a ball incorrectly.

when the air quality is worse. So that's the damage that it's having, the silent damage. And it's subtle. It is. It's not like they're all of a sudden, you know, acting like a crazy person.

It's a subtle thing. Your production, your focus, your ability goes down just a little bit. Yeah. Enough that when you tabulate that on a city level, a country level,

you can start to quantify the impact that a half, happens. So if your boss is resistant, send them that article. We'll put it into the show notes and the podcast. He's say, listen, we could have hit our Q2 goals if all we had was some air filters in the office. You don't need free coffee for everybody. Just air filter the place out. Just air filters. We'll be more productive. You know, you shared your takeaway that you wanted to share, which is that, look, we have to live our life. We can't live in anxiety. We want to be empowered by this. But these are all things that we're just trying to reduce our entire burden. I think the other message

that I want to add in that I think you'd agree with as well. We freak out so much about the outdoor air. But when I go with my meter into friends' homes or other people's homes, and I never tell them unless the people like ask, and I'm not pulling it out in front of them, right? It might be a conversation that I bring up, you know, outside of that space. But people's indoor air is often so much worse than their outdoor air. Yeah.

And again, if you have it, a meter, you can look and check, but many cities people live in where just even opening your windows, even if you don't have a filter, the outdoor air is cleaner than the indoor air. Yeah. So just ventilating a little bit by opening the air, getting new fresh air in can make a huge difference. And you feel it. That's why it's like so many times people feel like they go outside for a walk and they feel

better. It's like, yeah, the sun is important. It's good to have it. And it's good to move. But how much of that is just you getting fresh air? Yeah, absolutely. and feeling like you all of a sudden can focus. One of the meters that I use,

aware, A-W-A-R-E, again, no affiliation with them, they have a mode that is a score that's designed for when you're working. So it'll tell you that, hey, listen, there's too much carbon dioxide in the room. Like, there's not enough fresh air that's coming in. When the carbon dioxide gets above a certain level, it's harder for you to focus. Then it'll say things like the temperature,

might be at not the ideal level. Sure. So it's working that into it as well. Sure. And so, you know, sometimes you go into a room or a place and you're trying to get worked on, you just feel like stale. It actually could be that the air is super stale.

And you need an air filter or you need to open up the windows and you feel a massive difference that's there. 100%. I'm particularly, I'm really trying to get my friends who have young kids to pay attention to this. Young people, young kids, their brains and bodies are not as resilient. as people who are fully developed human beings.

And I think that a lot of the health issues that we're dealing with is an amalgamation of a lot of toxins that are there, but air quality is going to be one of those things that's going to make it more difficult. Absolutely, which means we also have to get schools to be on board with us as well. Any advice for that? You have young kids.

What have you done since the fires? What are your kids' schools done? Any advice to parents who want to engage your school in a way that they don't get written off as being the tinfoil hat parent, but, but, you know, that they're checking air quality. Let's start off with your kids. Are your kids in school right now? Yeah, they're in school right now. You know, I think we're very fortunate that we have ahead of school that is actually very open to these conversations and is very proactive about it.

So I want to acknowledge that maybe that's not the case in every single school. But in our situation, actually, our head of school has been at the forefront of the conversation actually saying. These are our policies, you know, these are what we're doing as far as our indoor environment is concerned. These are our policies about outdoor exposure. This is what we're doing, you know, to make sure that the outdoor environment is as clean as possible. It's what we're doing to make sure the indoor environment as clean as possible. I think the most important thing is just approach them, you know, approach the people who are in the leadership positions of school in a friendly manner, just kind of saying, listen, I want to make this situation as good as it possibly

can be. Offer the resources. And I think what helps a lot is when the parents offer to provide the things like air filters in certain situations. And, you know, I think when it becomes something like, hey, we want to bring this in to kind of like help the internal environment, almost every school situation is going to be very open to that. Yeah. Because a lot of schools also, So don't have the resources, don't have the manpower. For sure. And, you know, you get 10 parents together and, and, you know, pitching a little bit of money each. And it could be a very, you know, that's very easy to get a high quality air filter in that situation for the room.

So advocate for your kids at the same time, offer to help and come to them with information and material and just say, hey, listen, we want to help this situation. We want to provide the filter if you're okay with that. Yeah, that can make a huge difference. And a lot of times it's just schools, they're just dealing with so much. And like that request, they have 1,500 other requests that they're getting from parents about this thing or that thing or other stuff. So if you can just go in and just plug it in for them, nobody's going to pay attention. And then just set a reminder to change the filters every so often.

Where are you here every three months? And you're like, oh, just checking on my kid. Elroy, Dr. Vajani, this has been great. I think that, you know, we're dealing with something very unique here in Los Angeles with the aftermath. And, you know, we've had so many friends, family members, so many of your own patients have been rocked and devastated by these fires that are there. It's horrific. It's heartbreaking. And now even the whole rebuilding process is going to be a whole thing, you know, take many, many months to years to figure it out.

The silver lining of it all is that the community has all showed up very strong in many areas, and there continues to be support being poured in to the Palisades and Altadena and some other communities that were impacted. So that's the silver lining and the beautiful thing that's there. But this is, even for people who are not in Los Angeles, this is such an important topic that sometimes it takes some situations like what we dealt with, that more people are aware that it's not just a wildfire thing. This is a modern human thing. Our buildings are less breathable. They're more energy efficient, which actually makes them worse off for air quality.

You can have a gold star, platinum star, energy building. Like so many of my friends live in these new beautiful apartments and condos that are the highest energy grade. But I tell them that basically that means that your home is not good at leaking or or letting in air from the outside. So you have to protect yourself. 100% from the air quality that's out there. And it's a topic that deserves attention. To go back to something that you said earlier,

you know, there's a lot of things that, yes, we are very mindful of and people are paying attention to like the microplastics that are in all of our food and testicles and this and this and that. But there's actually more evidence about the damage of PM2.5 that's out there. So that's a known issue. and yet still so many people are not taking it seriously. So I hope this podcast gives you the education and the support you need to pay attention to something that is a very serious issue. But with a few small changes, doesn't have to overtake your life or take your health in the wrong direction.

Any final words you want to add in? I just want to say thank you for having the conversation and, you know, continuously being a place where we can be on the forefront of these medical discussions and sharing, you know, all of these thoughts with all of your wonderful listeners. Yeah, well, I appreciate you. Do you want to mention how people can check out or find your clinic or your work? And you also have some books. Sure, sure, sure. All the clinic information is on our website, which is regeneratical.com. We are currently taking patients if anybody's interested. You have an amazing team, by the way. I appreciate it. You have an amazing team. Everybody's so awesome. And it's really tough, even in a city like L.A. to find fantastic practitioners. And you guys are one that I always recommend to people. That means the world to me. Thank you very much, true. And if you're looking for a book that discusses food-related autoimmunity, I wrote

When Food Bites Back, that's available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Nice. Your dad's on social media, right? Neither of us are really on social media. Okay. But he is definitely not on social media. Okay, okay. So if they want to follow anything that he's up to in the future, they should really just subscribe to your newsletter on your regenerative medical website? Yeah. I mean, we try to update people as much as possible.

You know, I think if you want to follow what's going on with him, I try to kind of give everybody nuggets about his latest developments. Yeah, he's awesome. And you're awesome too. So thank you for coming back on the podcast. Super appreciate you, brother. My pleasure.