Well with Arielle Lorre - 351: Endocrine Disrupters, Obesogens, Chemical Myths and How to Reduce Your Toxic Load with Dr. Vivien Chen

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Dr. Vivien Chen, MD (@platefulhealth) is a UK trained medical doctor with a passion for non-toxic living. She joins the show to discuss endocrine disrupters, obesogens and chemicals that we are exposed to on a daily basis, where they are found, and how to reduce our toxic load. She also explains how our bodies detox themselves, how to enhance detoxification, why she believes in the 80-20 rule, why not all chemicals are “bad”, easy swaps to lower exposure and more. She also wrote her thesis on botulinum toxin (aka Botox) so we touch on this, too!Subscribe to Patreon for exclusive weekly content: patreon.com/ArielleLorreThis episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Ads:Go to www.thelumebox.com and use code BLONDE for $260 offGo to helloned.com/BLONDE for 15% off.Visit article.com/BLONDE for $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. Visit nutrafol.com and use code BLONDE to get $10 off your first month’s subscription & free shipping.Discover your perfect shade of Weightless Skin Foundation at BobbiBrown.com.Go to openphone.com/BLONDE for 20% off your first 6 months. Visit origins.com or ULTA to discover the transformative power of apples in skincare and Youthtopic by Origins.Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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In a world of ever-changing wellness trends and information, what does it mean to truly be well? I'm Ariel Lorry and I'm going to explore this with you. I am bringing you candid conversations that will equip you with everything you need to live your best life and look good doing it. Think of well as your go-to resource for all of the latest in wellness and me as your internet bestie. Well, let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. Welcome to one of my favorite episodes that I have recorded recently, and I just want to put a disclaimer at the top of the episode here that if you are experiencing wellness fatigue or wellness overload, which I think a lot of us are

information overload, do not worry about this episode adding to that. So you may have seen the title and you may be thinking, I don't know if I want to hear more about all of the problems in our world and our environment and the things that we're exposed to and what it's doing to our health. This episode is very informative. It's not fearmongery. It's very moderate and my guest is very moderate in her approach. But it also has so many helpful tips of little swaps that you can make and just things to be aware of that you may be exposing yourself to. So I'm talking to Dr. Vivian Chen. You may be familiar with her as Plateful Health on Instagram. I first came across her because she has such incredible informative videos on swaps that we can make when it comes to our

cookware, our skin care, things that we are using in our households. And you guys know I'm very open about picking my poisons and I don't do like clean beauty necessarily and things like that. But after my experiences over the last few years, I am trying to be a little bit more diligent about what I'm putting in my body, what I'm putting on my body and the products that I am using. And I learned so much from this episode. And it's a really fun, light conversation. So not heavy, not gloom and doom. So Dr. Vivian Chen is a Western UK trained doctor. She was taught that genes dictate our health destiny and that there's a pill for every ill. And she practiced this way as an internist and a family physician until her own health and her family's health started to deteriorate. And it really changed the trajectory of how she views health and how she practices medicine. So in this episode, we are talking all about chemical exposure, endocrine disruptors, Obesagens. Like I said, we talk easy swaps to avoid exposures.

And then we're getting into like what exactly are BPAs and thallates and parabins. Where are these found? How to avoid these. We also talk about the 80-20 rule. So she's very practical about the fact that we can't avoid these things 100% of the time. And that stress and stressing over these things is a toxin. in and of itself. So I love that approach. She talks about how not every chemical is toxic and our body's incredible abilities to detox themselves and why we should be wary of detoxes. We talk about how to

optimize our bodies for detoxification because we all have different thresholds when it comes to these things. I also was fascinated by her take on Botox. She actually wrote her thesis on botulinum toxin. So you guys know I had to go there with her. We talk red light therapy. She has an incredible red light loom box that I have been using. And we're going to put a code for that in the show notes. So definitely, definitely check that out. It's amazing. She talks about what to look for in red light therapy and all of its applications. So I know you guys are going to love this episode. So please enjoy Dr. Vivian Chen. Welcome. Thank you so much. It's such a honor to be here. Thank you. Yeah, honored to have you. Really looking forward to delving into what we're going to be talking about today. I was actually thinking back when I was preparing for this to one of my most downloaded episodes, which was with Dr. Jordan Geller, where we were talking a lot about toxins, chemicals, endocrine disruptors, things like that. So I would love to delve into all of that with you today. But first, why don't you tell everybody how you got to this point? Oh, thank you. And by the way, I love that.

you're using your platform to share this because I truly believe that environmental toxins is a silent killer of our modern times that not enough people are talking about. So thank you for using your platform to share this information. And I didn't learn any of this at medical school. So I am trained as a Western medical doctor in the UK at UCL. And after I graduated, I actually got certified in family medicine and internal medicine and I practiced for 15 years. So I was very kind of traditional, conventional. I prescribed pills for everybody's symptoms. But kind of during those 15 years, I started to have my own symptoms. So I had cystic acne. I had two rounds of racketane, which of course took care of it,

but the acne came back. I was fatigued all the time. I was anxious. I went to my doctors. they did blood tests and they told me everything's fine. You're just stressed. That's what they told me. So I kind of just carried on. But everything came crashing down when I had my daughter. So she was just eight weeks old when she had to be hospitalized because she completely stopped feeding. She was so dehydrated, she had to be tube fed. That was when my whole world turned upside down and I realized I didn't learn everything I needed to learn at medical school. I didn't know everything I needed to know because I couldn't even save the one person I wanted to save the most in the world. And that was when I started to look into the scientific papers and realized there are

so many studies on things we didn't learn at medical school, root causes of chronic diseases, environmental toxins, nutrition, lifestyle. These things that were contributing to my patient's symptoms that I never addressed with them. And I think it's one of those things once you realize you just can't go back. So when I moved to the state seven years ago, I decided to give up my prescription pad and instead to help people look at root causes of their chronic conditions. I'm curious what your experience has been like in the medical field because it seems like even to this day with all of this information that we have out

and all the information that's coming out, there is still kind of this hesitation to accept that these chemicals, these toxins that we're exposed to are actually problematic. And there's a lot of like, oh, well, you know, the dose makes the poison and these mantras. So how have you been embraced or not embraced in the medical community for kind of shifting your trajectory and your practice? I love that question because things have changed a lot since I started this work. And you know, there's a study that showed that it takes 17 years before. what's shown in medical research to translate into medical practice, 17 years.

So what's been shown in a study, even if it's confirmed, can take that long for a doctor to start adopting it in practice. And I feel like that's the situation we're in with environmental toxins right now. So back when I started talking about it, you know, 10 years ago, there was a lot of pushback from my medical colleagues. They were calling me quacks and things like that. that. So I had to show them the actual papers. And I feel like that's kind of my strength is that I can and I know where to look for these studies and I can show them. Hey, here's the paper. This is what's

been shown. And then they kind of go, oh, okay, but that's just one study. But slowly, because the body of research has emerged and rapidly increased, there is a lot more Western trained medical doctors talking about this now. I mean, the NIH is actually using the term endocrine disruptors on their website in their papers, in their publications. They recognize chemicals like obesogens that, you know, increase our propensity towards weight gain. So this is not woo-woo anymore. It's science. There are so many studies, not just animal, but human studies, that show chemicals in our environment can affect our hormones, make us gain weight. and contribute to chronic diseases.

What are some of the biggest offenders that we are exposed to? I mean, I'm sure it's coming at us from all different directions, whether it's just things in the air outside pollutants. We have pollutants in our homes. We have our beauty, our self-care products. We have food. We have the things that we are using to prepare our food. I mean, out of all of those, what are kind of the top ones?

Yeah, yeah, I love that question. I think it can be a really overwhelming topic, right? I don't want anyone to switch this podcast off just because they feel overwhelmed at this point. There is a lot coming at us, but there is also a lot that we can do. And so getting educated is that first step towards reducing our exposure. And I'll give you, I'll share this study, which is fascinating to me that was published last year. So they looked at 40-something women and they looked at the cells and their breast tissue. And these women were using personal care products that,

contain thalates and paraben. And what they did was for 28 days that asked these women, hey, stop using these, switch to these other products that don't contain thalates and parabins instead. And after 28 days, they measured the thaliate metabolites in the urine, which showed a significant reduction, which is to be expected. But what was not expected was that in the breast tissue. They showed a reversal of genes associated with breast cancer development. Wow. Just after 28 days, that's how quick things can change. So this is what I want to start this kind of conversation with this is that there is so much hope. And even if you just can make one change from what you learn in this podcast, it can have significant benefits down the line. So don't despair from what we're going to

talk about because there is a lot. But I would agree with you. I think air is probably the first place I would start because we breathe 11,000 liters of air per day. So that's a huge volume. And then, you know, thinking about what's the next thing we're most exposed to is going to be food and water. And then personal care products would be the next one. But to put things into context, the CDC actually monitors these environmental toxins in Americans. And what they found is that 97% of Americans have the forever chemical PFAS in their blood. 93% have BPA. 90% have thalates.

So most Americans are walking around with these potent endocrine disruptors. And what endocrine disruptors mean really is that they interfere with how our hormones work. And, you know, for those who are not familiar with hormones, hormones basically are messengers in our bodies that tell our cells what to do. So if you think about blood sugar, that's governed by hormone, insulin, fertility, even our hair, our skin, our mood. All of those things are governed by hormones. So when we disrupt our hormones, there can be so many downstream effects. When you were experiencing the symptoms that you had, Did you make out some swaps that ended up having a big impact on your health?

Yes. So I would say personal care products is quite noticeable, but also food, because I had leaky gut. I didn't know I had it. I mean, back in those days, if I told my doctor I had leaky gut that would roll their eyes at me. They didn't believe me. But it was, gut healing was a huge part of healing my skin and getting my energy back. and of course what's exposed to the gut most is food, what I put in my body. So trying to reduce ultra-processed food and kind of pesticides and the food, those things really helped.

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Okay, so BPA, that's microplastics, right, or plastics, parabins and thallates. What is the purpose of those in products and how do those show up? Yeah. So BPA is actually one of. of I think around 100 chemicals called bisphenols, and they are basically used to harden plastic. So if you think about a water bottle or baby bottle that you put formula in, those usually have some kind of bisphenols. That's why they don't bend when you press them.

And BPA was back in, I think, 2008, the National Toxicology Program here in the United States, concluded that it is of concern for developing children, so the developing brain, particularly. And in 2012, it was actually phased out. So it was banned from use in baby formula bottles and sippy cups, so drinking cups for children, because of that concern. But they didn't ban the entire class, though. And what we're finding is that the replacements, BPF, BPS, they have the same endocrine disrupting abilities. And in fact, there are studies looking at babies who were exposed to BPF and PPS prenatally.

So moms were kind of exposed to these chemicals when they were pregnant. And these babies showed lower IQ at ages 2 and 7. Yeah, I wanted to ask you, I think we have an idea of what endocrine disruption looks like in adults. But what are some of the ways that might show up in babies and how does that affect them throughout their development? Yeah, it's very interesting because there are these windows where babies are particularly prone to and susceptible to these chemicals. They can actually switch on and off the expression of genes. So, for example, when a woman's pregnant, there are these certain timeframes where if a baby is exposed to certain chemicals, that it can switch on and off genes. and prenatal exposures to these chemicals have been associated with things like

increased risk of diabetes, increased risk of obesity, asthma, and neurodevelopmental issues, like behavior problems or hyperactivity. So if we can get to women when they're pregnant, we can actually change the trajectory of health for these children, and that's huge. Yeah, it's crazy because I feel like people look, so much at these other things that they can quote unquote control, whether it comes to diet, foods that we're eating, exercise, things like that. But yet we are drinking out of plastic water bottles and using plastic cutting boards and using nonstick pans and things like that.

Yeah. So it's amazing to hear that, you know, if a woman is pregnant, she can kind of disrupt that cycle if she makes some changes. And this is why I'm so passionate about this because I, I, didn't make those changes and I wish I did, but there's no point regretting that. There's nothing I can change about what happened in the past. But I am at a point where I can help women who want to listen and who are open to this change the trajectory of their children's lives. Yeah, and of their own lives. I mean, I think that something that happens, though, is we get so overwhelmed, right, from this information. I love that you gave that disclaimer before we started really getting into this conversation of like, don't turn the podcast off now because there are so many things that

we can do that are in our control that don't feel like a burden. But I think that so many people just think, well, everything is going to make me sick and I'm going to die at some point. So I'm just going to live yolo, that kind of thing. Right. Right. Because, you know, I call that the fuckets where you just kind of get the buckets because it's just too much or you start to try to make some modifications and then you mess up. And so then you just get the buckets and you give up. Yeah. Do you feel like that's kind of some kind of protective mechanism too because it's so overwhelming and there's probably that element of blame or guilt and so it's kind of like I'm just going to block this off it's easier for me to block it off and not listen to you yeah I feel like that may be driving

a lot of this what yeah and I think that if we don't do things perfectly I can speak for myself sometimes I feel like you know I've failed so in that sense I think it is a little bit so protective because it's like, well, if I don't do it, then, you know, I can't fail or I can't make mistakes. And I think that everybody should just do the best that they can, right? But I think that sometimes people don't see it that way. They see it as they have to change their entire lifestyle. And it just seems like too much of a burden. So they just don't want to do anything.

100%. And I think that's the way to go. I feel like little changes. are the way forward because once you've made those little changes and you feel better, that's kind of your reward to go on and make more changes. And I actually go with the 80-20 rule. Like I don't think it's possible to be 100% non-toxic in this world anymore. And I feel like on social media,

this kind of low-tox or non-toxic living niche is becoming a little toxic almost. Yeah. Because it's stressing people out. And that's kind of the opposite of what I want to do because stress is a toxin in and of itself. It causes inflammation. And we don't want to be so stressed about trying to remove toxins that we stress ourselves out and cause more inflammation, right? That's not the point of this exercise. So do, you know, start with little steps. Well, that's what I love so much about your approach and how you educate. Because you don't feel. yearmonger. You just give the information and then you offer so many ways to make modifications and make swaps and you know, you educate the people who are following you and then they can make decisions based off that and you're not super dogmatic about it. I feel like the people that are really like loud and very disciplined where it's you have to do everything perfectly. Like I don't trust those people as much as I trust somebody like you. They're probably not doing it themselves. Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. Okay, so I want to go back to maybe we can talk about some things that we can swap out, but the other major categories that you said, thallates and parabins, where are those most often found? So, thallates think of anything that's scented. So fragrance products. Sorry. I know how you love your product. Because thallates help sense stick to products. So if you wash your hair and you're, hair still smells like your shampoo at 4 p.m. And you walk, you shampooed in the morning. That's probably thallates, helping it stick. The good news about thallates, though, is that it comes out of our bodies very quickly. So if you stopped using products with thallades, your body levels of thallates will drop to zero very quickly.

So that's why I encourage everybody to kind of make small changes where you can, because you can bring that level down very quickly. And the other place where thalates are found, again, is plastics. We talked about that with BPA. Well, plastic is actually made up of, I think, something like 10,000 different chemicals. And most of them are not declared. So you're not going to see in the ingredient list of plastic BPA of phthalates, but they're in there. And studies have shown, for example, bottled water, plastic bottled water, contain phthalates. and the thalates have leached in from the plastic.

And what was the third one we said? Parabins. Oh, parabins, yeah. So parabins are usually used as preservative. So we do want preservatives and personal care products, especially anything containing water, because otherwise it can have microbial contamination. But parabens have been shown to also disrupt our hormones.

So we don't want parabens, we want alternative preservatives. how can the layman, just the average consumer, figure out products that are safer to use and products that contain these chemicals? I'm thinking of a post that I've seen circulating around the internet for years, but my friend, Dr. Danielle Ballardo, just posted it. And she was talking about how there is a little bit of this toxicity in the wellness world where it's like, don't eat things that have ingredients that you can't pronounce. Don't use things that you can't pronounce. and then the image is of like a strawberry. And it has all of the chemicals, quote, unquote, that are in a whole natural strawberry. But I've seen this go around where it's like, would you put this in your body and it doesn't show that it's a strawberry?

And everyone's like, no, because I can't pronounce all of this. So everything has chemicals, right? But how can people determine which chemicals are okay and which to avoid? Yeah, I love that because not every chemical. is toxic. Water is a chemical. And I think that's where the nuance is so important, and that's why taking a science-based approach is so important. I can't pronounce some of the chemicals. That doesn't mean that it's bad for you. I don't, I think that's, I don't really know where that came from, but I think that there is no sense in that statement. But organizations, for example,

Environmental Working Group has done a lot of work in this area. Now granted, back in the days at the beginning of all of this. Most of the studies were done on animals. So, you know, the backlash was that, oh, it's animal-based studies, it's not reliable and all of that. But now we also have human studies, and the database is growing. So they have what's called a skin-deep where they kind of rate ingredients. And you can just Google, EWG Skin-deep database. And you can literally, usually just type the name of the product into the search bar and it will pull up, you know, what they say is the rating. Now, it's not set in gold, you know, because it's, again, there's no nuance.

They haven't necessarily looked at the concentration, the form of these ingredients, but it's a great starting place if you're just completely overwhelmed and you go into a store and you don't know what to look for. There's an app called Think Dirty, which you can download onto your phone and you can scan products in the store and it will tell you, you know, what are the ingredients of a concern? And so that can help you kind of shop better when you're in stores. You mentioned Obesogens earlier, and I heard you talking about this on another podcast. I thought it was fascinating.

So I would love to dive into that a little bit here. We know of things like carcinogens, right? But what exactly are Obesigens and where are they found? Yeah, it's a relatively new term, but it's now recognized by the NIH as a group of chemicals that can disrupt our metabolic health and therefore increase our propensity towards waking. And so again, we're going back to things like BPA, ballades, PFAS, and these chemicals are actually listed on the NIH's website. So cigarette smoke is a big one as well.

And I feel like most people probably know that already. But what they maybe don't know is things like forever chemicals from their non-stick cookware. And this whole kind of research came from a really huge study that looked at something like 30,000 people. And they followed them over 20 something years. And they found that adjusted for people nowadays are 2.3 BMI points heavier than they were 20 years ago. So it's not exercise, it's not diet what they're eating. Something else is making them. heavier. So that's, I think, equivalent to about 10% heavier. I heard you say that animals are as well,

right? Correct. Yes. Even animals in the wild, not just pets. So there is something in the environment that's making us more likely to gain weight. And so that's when a professor down at USC coined the term obesity to describe chemicals that animals and humans are exposed to every day that or increasing our propensity towards waking. So what do we do about those if animals are also getting heavier at something in the environment that we can't necessarily swap out, right? Like we can swap out our non-stick cookware and our plastic water bottles, but how do we manage that toxic load that we're getting exposed to?

Is that more like detox practices? Right. Yeah, I feel like that's a really important kind of other side of the coin. to this conversation, right? Because rather than just getting so overwhelmed and feeling stressed about trying to avoid everything, remember you have natural detoxification organs, right? So our gut, our liver, our kidneys, they're all helping to eliminate these toxins we're exposed to. That's why we're not dead, basically, right? Because we encounter these toxins and most of them are actually leaving our bodies, but we all have different detox capabilities. And so, you know, if your

diet is poor in nutrients that support detoxification, if your lifestyle doesn't support detoxification, then your detox capabilities are reduced and now you're more susceptible to these toxins. And that's maybe why children are more susceptible as well, because their detox organs are not as mature. But here, again, there's so many things you can do, right? And I really really, highly don't recommend these detoxes that people, you know, don't listen to this and say, okay, I'm going to go and buy a detox now or a cleanse because the way detox works in our bodies is that these organs have to work together to push out the toxins. And these cleanses or supplements, they often only target the liver, right? So they're pushing the liver really, really hard. And we know

the liver, you know, does phase one and two detoxification to break down toxins for us. But a really important place to start is the gut. Because once the liver has broken down these toxins, now they have to leave our bodies. And usually it's through the gut or the kidneys. Now, if your gut health is not optimized, you're not eliminating these toxins. So no matter how hard you push your liver, you're not going to detox. So think about diet and lifestyle strategies for detox before you jump in to like do a supplement-based. That's so interesting because when you hear about detox and detox pathways, you hear about the kidneys, the liver, lymphatic system, but not always the gut.

And it's really interesting how everything kind of comes back to gut or stems from. Yeah, totally. When I work with patients and clients, I actually start with the gut first because if you can't eliminate toxins through the gut, there is almost no point trying to. push on the liver, as we talked about. And in fact, if your gut is not eliminating the toxins, it's actually reabsorbing, pushing it back into your bloodstream. And now the liver has to do that work twice. So if you work on your gut first, you're actually reducing the amount of work you have to do in terms of detoxification. That's so interesting. So is that why it seems like each person has

their own kind of individual threshold for how they can manage toxins that they're exposed to? We were talking a little bit before we started recording about this. And it seems like some people are just way more affected by certain things than other people. And is that why? Because some people just have a stronger detox system in their body. Their gut is stronger. Their liver is more efficient, things like that. Yeah, definitely. Genetics play a role for sure. And your diet and lifestyle play a and how well you can detoxify as well. So we talked about stress earlier. Stress actually downregulates your detox pathways.

Because when you're stressed, your body is in fight or flight, trying to save your life. So diverting energy away from detoxification, which it feels is not life-saving. It's trying to divert energy to help you run away from, you know, the tiger that you might be faced with. So, you know, lowering your stress can actually help you detox better. So, you know, there are different genes involved as well, COMT, things like that, GST. So we have different versions of these genes and some expressions are weaker. So we have lower detox capabilities.

And then those people, it's especially important to focus on nutrition and supporting the liver pathways with the right nutrition. Because liver detox is actually a process that requires so many different nutrients, right? amino acids, B vitamin, zinc, magnesium, so many different things that you're not going to get from an ultra-process food diet. And that's partly, it's kind of like almost a two-hit process when it comes to toxins because, number one, we're exposed to more toxins in these foods. Number two, they lack the nutrients to help you detox. So now you accumulate them more and they affect you more. You guys all know that I was traveling for the last few weeks and I always say, this, but I really don't have that many wellness non-negotiables. However, when it comes to traveling and

things that I do every day, one thing that I never miss is my magnesium. So I have been taking Ned's mellow magnesium since they first came out with it. So I think it's been at least over two years. And I always say that it was kind of like finding this missing puzzle piece because of how it made me feel. It was so profound. It was like my body had been searching for this for so long. So first of all, why magnesium? 75% of American adults are deficient in magnesium. And it's a mineral that's essential to hundreds of functions in the body. We always hear about magnesium when it comes to things like muscle recovery, anxiety, sleep, but it also can help to boost your gut microbiome, strengthens immunity. It's responsible for a lot of our nerve and our muscle health.

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frazzled nerves and it just helps me to feel more relaxed at night and I have amazing sleep with my magnesium. It definitely contributed to my not getting jet lag when I was in Africa and when I got back. and it is truly my number one non-negotiable supplement. So become the best version of yourself and get 15% off Ned products with the code blonde. Go to hello ned.com slash blonde or enter the code blonde at checkout. That's H-E-L-O-N-E-D dot com slash blonde to get 15% off. If you are a business owner, you're probably always looking for ways to manage your business

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so isolated and unique in our experiences. Spoiler, we all have a lot more in common than we realize. So let's go on a journey down the rabbit hole. But I need you to remember one thing. It's really not that deep. Listen to it's not that deep wherever you get your podcasts out every Monday. What are some other ways that people can support their detox pathways besides the food that they eat? Exercise, obviously, I'm sure, is a big one. Exercise is huge. Sana, is that helpful? You mentioned binders?

100%. Yeah. So with binders, I would caution if your gut is not optimized, I've seen clients get more toxic from these binders. Because binders, they bind to toxins, right? So some of them contain high levels of heavy metals. Now, if your gut is optimized, then those heavy metals may not be reaching your bloodstream. But if your gut is not healthy and you have leaky gut, for example, these toxins could be leaking back into your bloodstream and you don't want that. So definitely optimize your gut health

before you introduce a binder. But exercise is huge. Exercise has been shown to boost the levels of glutathione. So that's the master antioxidant. our bodies, right? So they mop up the different toxins that's circulating in our bodies. So exercise can boost that. And exercise also make us sweat. And so we know that in sweat, we can excrete BPA heavy metals. So that's another way to detox. And sauna, I'm a huge fan of as well. And what about the forever chemicals? How are they different from the things that we can detox? They just live in your tissue? We don't know at this moment, honestly, because of, you know, the name Forever chemicals suggest that they just don't break down. Now, can they come out of our bodies? Probably. But we just don't know.

They're so new kind of on the scenes of toxins that I don't think anyone specifically studied. We know that it comes out in poop, but we don't know exactly how they come out of our bodies and how much they actually accumulate. Ashley, you're going to hate this. But I won't tell my story, but I think this will be really fascinating both for me and for the listeners. So we were talking a little bit before we recorded as well about Botox. And you brought me the loombox, the red light, which is amazing. I can't wait to use it. But you actually wrote your thesis, is that correct, on Botox? So can you tell us about that? Because I'm for everybody listening. At UCL, I actually did an undergrad in neuroscience. And that's kind of what my paper was on was on botulinum toxin.

And we know there are medical uses for it, right? Now it's being used for migraines, for example, and it can be very, very helpful. But, you know, I wrote about the downsides. And if I was using it, you know, if there was a better option to get me the same results, I wouldn't be putting that into my body, right? I understand if somebody is suffering and they really need Botox to help with their symptoms for medical indications, absolutely. but how many people are kind of willingly getting it injected in their bodies, right? The tox, part of Botox is toxin.

It's a toxin. And this toxin acts by paralyzing your muscle. And when I kind of learned about it, you know, you have to be very careful. Because if it gets into your bloodstream and it becomes systemic, it's affecting a lot of other nerve endings as well as not just, it doesn't just stay in your skin. And so, you know, if you have a great detox capability, you're probably breaking it down fine. And most people probably have no issues, but there will be people who are affected by it systemically. Yeah, we were kind of talking about where does it go? How does it get broken down? And I guess maybe this would relate to what we were just talking about, how some people

have different thresholds. And for me, who knows? I mean, it seemed to go systemic. I had all the symptoms that they list on, you know, the box and in commercials and everything. And it's kind of interesting listening to you talk because I did try to get it again after that happened months later because I kind of gaslit myself. I was like, no, it wasn't the Botox or something else because I was in denial. And everything kind of started again. So whether I developed a sensitivity after that or what. But things that I've noticed, this is almost a year ago, but I still get flare-ups. And something that I noticed is like when I was traveling and I was having some gut stuff going on, the symptoms kind of flared up again. So when you were talking about how sometimes like if it's

in your gut, it can kind of re-spread or be like reactivated if it's something like that. Yeah. I mean, we know that the gut is so central to our health. So who knows? I mean, that could be what's happening. I mean, we have studies showing that people with Parkinson's, for example, when you do red light therapy on their gut, the symptoms, the motor symptoms improve. That's incredible. Talk about the red light therapy and how it works. Sure, that's my passion. So, I mean, light is not new to medicine.

Before we had TB treatment, the doctors used to put patients out into sunlight. And, you know, it used to help them. But what we realized was that within the kind of, light spectrum, they're these specific wavelengths that are particularly helpful for ourselves. So that's the red and infrared range. So red and near infrared range. So these wavelengths actually can penetrate our skin and reach down to the mitochondria. Mitochondria is like kind of the powerhouse inside of all of our cells with the exception of red blood cells. And the mitochondria basically take the food that you eat and turn it into energy. And when your mitochondria doesn't work well, now you're

feeling fatigued, you're getting brain fogged, you're not detoxifying as well, because detoxification is very energy dependent. Almost all cellular processes are relying on energy from the mitochondria. It's called ATP. Now, the toxins that we just talked about, they can impede our mitochondria. They're huge suppressors. They damage our mitochondria. And we've seen studies that show that phallates, for example, can reduce the amount of ATP that a mitochondria can produce. So that may be one way these endocrine disruptors are working to impact our health is through our mitochondria. And that's why I'm so passionate about it, because I feel like that's kind of like the root of all root causes.

And if we can get to that, then that's why red light therapy is now. like a snake oil because, you know, you're going to see studies on it, helping with skin, with wrinkles, with collagen production. You're going to see studies showing that it can help with wound healing. Now we have studies just last year from where I went to university, UCL, showing that it can help improve blood sugar as well. Because when you can help that mitochondria work better by stimulating it with red light, now you have more energy in the cell. And that cell can do its job better. So how do we use red light? I mean, because it sounds like it has so many benefits, but it also sounds like we would have to walk into, you know, a booth that's filled with red light. So how do we use it

as like a targeted treatment? I love that question so much. So how you use it kind of depends on what you, what your goal is. Because if it's just for your skin, which is on the outside, you can have a light, you know, from a distance shine at your. skin and it will help your skin. And usually the red kind of red near infrared range is what has been shown to help with wrinkles, spine lines and boost collagen. But if you actually want this light to penetrate into your tissue, let's say you have a sore joint, you have pain, you want to help reduce inflammation in a joint. Now you want that light much closer to you because light that's far away from you scatters, right? Doesn't enter, penetrate as well as light that's closer to you. And also,

now you want to kind of preferentially go towards the near infrared range because that's the wavelength that's been shown to penetrate tissue much better. So my favorite two wavelengths are red, near infrared, because they basically combine kind of all functions. And that's why I put those two wavelengths into the loom box. And I made it extra powerful because I know that the more powerful it is, the more irradians, the better it can penetrate. So that's why a lot of people who've used RELI therapy before, when they use Loonbox, they say, how come this thing just works so much better? And it's because of that irradiance. Amazing. Well, I'm going to be using mine tonight. Let me know. I definitely will. This is so fascinating. I know we're kind of jumping around a little

bit here, but I'm sure the listeners are thinking this. What are some of the biggest takeaways? like if you had to say switch these things out and you have all of this information on your page too so everybody go follow her but thank you just for the sake of this podcast like biggest endocrine disruptors obeseogens chemicals toxins that we are exposed to that we can easily swap out number one I would say is and I'm sorry for egrance products I'm talking about air fresheners things like that I mean I just took two Uber rides this morning and I you know my throat is itchy from the fragrance that they put into the cars because my body's not used to it now. It just reacts when I encounter it.

But think about if you're kind of on a daily basis dealing with that. I mean, your body's almost kind of subdued into just acceptance, right? And it's not until you remove it that you realize, gosh, what was it doing to me? But like I said earlier, fragrance products are a huge source of thallades. So when they tested 170 products, they bought 170 products in a store in New York, tested it, and fragrance products, 100% of them had thalates. And that's a skincare? Skin care.

I think most of them are actually skincare. Yeah. So, yeah, that study didn't look at air fresheners. So, yeah, personal care products. try to, you know, if you like sense, essential oils are probably better. And then particularly products that you leave on your skin. So in that study, they found that products that were washed off, they contained less thalates.

You know, your body lotion, for example, you want to make sure that that doesn't contain the thalates. Okay. So that's number one. And then number two is damp dust. I know people don't know this, but dust, can actually carry so many of these endocrine disrupting chemicals. So studies have found that dust can contain BPA, thallades, PFS.

And when you're kind of just walking around, you're kicking up that dust and breathing it right in. And that's kind of like a really easy route of entry for these chemicals. So if you just wet and wipe the surfaces, so don't dust with the dusters because you're just moving it around. you actually want to pick up the dust and remove it. That can actually really help. And then if you can afford it, invest in a high quality air purifier. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. And like I said, everybody listening, go follow her because your page is so informative without being scary. Oh, thank you so much. People aren't going to walk away being anxious. So tell everybody where they can find you. Thank you. My Instagram handle is at plateful.com. that's P-L-A-T-E-F-U-L-H-E-L-T-H.

I also have a website with a lot of information, so that's www.com. Thank you so much. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked the episode, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes such a long way in supporting the show. Follow the show over on Instagram at well.

You can also follow my personal Instagram at Ariel Laurie. I'm always sharing great clips from the episodes, and we also have full episodes on YouTube as well if you want to watch in entirety. Thanks for listening. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.