The Toxicity of Personal Products and Hormone Imbalances
Episode 150
This month it’s all about toxicity. In the last episode on Integrative Wellness Radio, we dove into the toxicity found in our daily foods. Today we are piggybacking off of it and taking it a bit further to discuss and give you an insight into the correlation between toxicity and our day-to-day personal care products. With our markets flooded with cosmetics and other beauty products, it’s really difficult to navigate through which products are safe to use and which are not. Dr. Nicole explains how to better identify the toxins present in these personal care products and how to leverage better testing for them. Interested in working with IWG? Book a complimentary consult call to learn more using this link: https://bit.ly/IWRcall2022 Noteworthy Time Stamps: 02:28 Heavy metal testing 05:43 It’s about digging deeper 11:56 What happens when we overlook toxicity? 19:54 Estrogen dominance in young men 24:14 Aluminum found in anti percipients is a neurotoxin 34:05 Benzine & Chloroform Toxicity 39:05 Some myths that need to be debunked 44:00 Every product in a brand is not safe 50:57 Healthcare is about answers and solutions
Topics: products, toxicity, personal, testing, safe, hormone, care, using
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## The Toxicity of Personal Products and Hormone Imbalances
- Many personal care products contain toxins that can negatively affect hormone balance.
- Understanding ingredient labels and seeking out better testing methods are crucial for safe product selection.
- Overlooking the impact of toxicity from personal products can lead to issues like estrogen dominance, even in young men.
- Be aware of specific neurotoxins like aluminum in antiperspirants and other harmful chemicals such as benzene and chloroform.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine to learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey.
Welcome back. **Unknown:** Today's topic is, uh, piggybacking off of some of the things that we talked about last week, which was in relation to toxicity.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I've been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. Nick and Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine to learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on the- Hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome back.
**Unknown:** Today's topic is, uh, piggybacking off of some of the things that we talked about last week, which was in relation to toxicity. So today, specifically, uh, diving more into toxicity and how that is actually coming from a lot of the things that we are using on a day-to-day basis, uh, in the world of personal and beauty products. So I know that this is something that is getting a bit more press these days, uh, primarily because there's so many conversations about all of these different brands that are coming out, and there's a lot of lawsuits that have been happening against different types of products. Um, everything from, you know, baby products to different types of powders, makeups, et cetera.
**Unknown:** So I think people are starting to think a bit more about the products that they're using in order to best equip themselves to know what's good, what's bad, and also what is obviously gonna be the most, uh, beneficial for their kids. And this is really important for us to take into consideration because we are living in an epidemic of cancer. There are so many different types of cancers that are happening at younger and younger ages, and this is everything from breast cancers to lymphoma, lung cancers, and lung cancers in people that were never smokers. And one of the things that, you know, we'll shed light on tonight is how there are a lot of different, um, chemicals that are in these personal products that we are using that are classified as carcinogenic, meaning that they are known to cause cancer.
**Unknown:** So you might be thinking, "You know, why the heck are these things allowed to be in our personal products?" And I don't really have an answer to that, uh, because there is a lot of issues with how we regulate things here in the US, and there is a lot of controversy as to, you know, what is going into these products, how are they being tested, and, you know, how are we necessarily deeming them to be safe. Um, there is a lot of, um, gray area, and there is definitely a lot of issues with how these things are being tested and what it takes for them to get approved to be put into the products that we're using on a regular basis. Some of the testing that I did very, very early on in my practice was actually heavy metal based testing. And with the heavy metal testing, what I realized over time is that heavy metals like aluminum and mercury and barium and cadmium, these were just one set of chemicals that many people are dealing with as a burden to their body.
**Unknown:** These are chemicals that they do not have a, a congruent set of symptoms. Toxicity can cause immune issues. Toxicity can cause autoimmune issues. It can cause gut issues.
**Unknown:** It can cause headaches. It can cause, um, neurological issues, seizures. Like, literally the sky is the limit with how it can affect someone. So if we're looking to say, "Cadmium causes this," or, you know, "Aluminum causes this," it's not necessarily how it works because these toxins can affect everyone in an extremely different way.
**Unknown:** And one of the examples I can give you about this is that, you know, if you have a person who drinks a cup of coffee and they're wired for three days, you know, you have other people who drink coffee, and they can drink a pot of coffee and go to sleep. Like, it doesn't affect them. So that really comes down to genetics, and it comes down to how well that person metabolizes that specific compound, which is caffeine. So the way that we metabolize different types of chemicals and different types of heavy metals, it varies person to person.
**Unknown:** So if someone has a really strong liver but really weak kidneys, they might actually have a lot of issues, um, with these toxins affecting their cardiovascular system or even affecting their neurological system. But if there's a person who has a weak liver, then they might have these different toxins affecting their gastrointestinal system more so. So again, the point of me saying this is that, you know, you might be here listening, but it's not that I can give you this cut and dry, that expect this, this, and this and this symptom because you have this toxicity because it can definitely manifest differently across the board. So for myself and my practice, you know, we have always thought about the body in a very different way, and we've always chose to look beyond segregating out the systems.
**Unknown:** So we've always looked at the body as being an integration of systems. And we've realized that you can have a variety of different symptoms going on, but it doesn't necessarily mean that there's a million things wrong with you. Usually, there is one to two foundational problems that are causing the myriad of your symptoms. So sometimes the, the root or that foundational issue can be a toxicity problem.
**Unknown:** So again, when it comes to toxicity, there is a lot of limitations with how to test for it, and there's also a lot of issues with how, how much physicians understand about toxicity and how it affects the body.So for myself, I am classified as an integrative physician, and really what it comes down to is it's about looking at everything. It's about digging deeper, asking better questions, and using better testing to really decipher what are those root causes, what are those select few foundational problems. And because of that type of approach, I work with a variety of different types of patients because it's not really about the diagnosis. It's not even always about the symptoms.
**Unknown:** It's about what's causing it. And when you use the right testing, you can actually really uncover what is causing most of the symptoms that are going on because it's really, really important for, uh, physicians to understand the bigger picture about why so many people are struggling with chronic illness and how they can best help their patients. Because most doctors got into this for the right reasons, but they're working with limited tools and also with limitations in testing. So some of the things that we'll talk about tonight is what are some of the tests that we're using in order to figure out, you know, what is, what is the toxic burden on the body and how is it affecting the person.
**Unknown:** So just a side note about myself and kind of why I got into this in the first place is that, um, I relate to this toxicity conversation very, very much so, and I relate to it primarily because I was extremely toxic, and I had no idea. Um, I didn't get into this field necessarily because I had all these problems and I was really sick and then a functional medicine doctor, you know, was able to finally figure out what was going on with me and help me get back to health. I primarily had a lot of miscellaneous symptoms that I really classified as my normal. And with that being said, I primarily just settled for poor sleep, I settled for hormonal imbalance, I settled for occasional stomach aches, I settled for brain fog.
**Unknown:** I settled for all those things. And I know that many of you that are listening right now have also settled for those things, and you've settled because you think it's genetics or because you think you're getting old. But if I hear one more person that's under the age of thirty say, "Oh, I have all these problems because I'm getting old," like it's-- it drives me nuts because I'm like, "This is a terrible mindset for us to be in," because if you're in bad shape at thirty years old, where are you gonna be at sixty years old? Are you gonna be the person with dementia and Alzheimer's because you chole-chose to classify those things as your normal?
**Unknown:** So we need to get out of this mindset of thinking that everything is very normal just because everyone around us also feels like crap. Everybody complains about sleep. Everybody complains about their stomach. Everybody complains about headaches.
**Unknown:** And it's so interesting because I always manage to go to restaurants and sit next to the people that are complaining about their health, and I'm like, "Ugh, shut your mouth, Nicole. Shut your mouth. Shut your mouth." 'Cause I don't wanna be that creepy person. But, you know, I feel, I feel for these people 'cause they don't know what they don't know, and many of you listening today don't know what you don't know.
**Unknown:** And you don't know how many toxins you're being exposed to on a day-to-day basis just simply by putting lotion on your skin. So again, we're gonna talk more about this so that you have a better understanding that you can walk away and be empowered but also have some really amazing tools for how you can actually, you know, start to switch out some of the products that you're using. So first and foremost, as we go through this information, and you go, "Oh, my gosh. I never knew that.
**Unknown:** Holy crap. Have I been poisoning my children?" It is not your fault. It's not your fault that you knew these products were ba- or you didn't know these products were bad. It's not your fault that you've been using toxic products on your children.
**Unknown:** It's not your fault. Now you are here to learn this information. You can take this information, and you can make a change from here on. For those of you that have already developed a lot of symptoms, you might wanna consider, you know, what type of detox is best for you and how can you get better testing in order to figure out how you can detox.
**Unknown:** But don't sit here and feel guilty, and don't sit here and think like, "Oh, my gosh. I'm a terrible mother," because you don't know what you don't know. So a couple of basic principles that I want you to understand as we talk about this topic. And number one is that, you know, my personal opinion and one of the reasons why I do what I do for a living is because I was very tired of the way that the system has been set up.
**Unknown:** And what I mean by that is we look at the body as a bunch of separate systems. We assume that the brain is not talking to the gut, and the gut is not talking to the heart, and the circulatory system is not communicating with the neurological system, and we assume that everything is literally just working independently. So we go and seek out the specialists that are going to give us information about our skin or give us information about our immune system or information about our gut, and nobody talks to each other, and nobody is actually really, uh, taking into consideration basic physiology. And we're literally ignoring the fact that ninety to ninety-five percent of your serotonin is made in your gut.
**Unknown:** So you're easily treating an effect and not a cause. So this is the sys-the system that keeps us sick, that keeps us disempowered, and also keeps us thinking that our choices and our lifestyle play zero of a role in our health, which if you really think about it, if you go to a gastroenterologist and you say, "My gut hurts. My stomach hurts. I have bloating.
**Unknown:** I have diarrhea. And when I don't eat gluten, I feel a bit better." And they look you in the face, and they say, "That doesn't matter because nutrition has nothing to do with your irritable bowel syndrome." How the hell does that make sense? That doesn't make sense at all. So I think that you need to understand that regardless of their expertise and training, you also have to go back to common sense.
**Unknown:** It's very, very, very important for us to understand that we know our bodies best, and don't ignore it, and don't ignore it based off of the research and based off of the opinion of a health professional because chances are you know what's right for you, and if the gluten makes your stomach hurt, stop eating it.So anyway, there's my rant. But the biggest thing is, is that I find when we overlook toxicity, we easily do not find the root cause, and we're, we're, we're drawing at straws, and we're trying to deal with symptoms, symptoms, symptoms, when really at the end of the day, we need to get the toxins out, or we need to stop using the toxins altogether. So when it comes to toxicity, today we're talking about personal products, but you're getting exposed to toxins all the time from a variety of different places. There are toxins on your food, there are toxins on your lawn, there are toxins on your neighbor's lawn, there are toxins in your water, including the tap water that you don't drink but you use to cook your food, because when you boil tap water, it doesn't boil out heavy metals, it only boils out bacteria.
**Unknown:** There is toxins in your personal products, in your baby products, in your furniture, in all of the building materials. If you live in an old house, you deal with your lead and asbestos. If you have a new house, you deal with the off-gassing of all the new fancy cheap materials that they use. Then you have dental fillings, breast implants, cosmetic surgeries, and the list goes on.
**Unknown:** There are a million different ways that you are getting exposed to toxins. But today, we will talk all about personal products. If you're looking to understand more about food, that was last week. So you can check out our replay, which is available on our website.
**Unknown:** But funny thing about this is that most of the lovely chemicals that are in our personal products here in the lovely US are banned in Europe. So when you go to Europe, this is congruent with food as well as personal products, you can go and buy a Kellogg's cereal in Europe, and the ingredients are completely different than the same Kellogg's cereal here in the US. In addition, if you go and buy Chanel makeup in Europe, that is completely different than the Chanel makeup in the US. So the point is, is that you have to be your own advocate.
**Unknown:** You need to understand what these chemicals are, and you need to have resources. So one of the absolute best things that you can do is get familiar with an app called Think Dirty, and you can also leverage a different database called Skin Deep. These are two different, um, ways that you can start evaluating the personal products that you are using and understand are they toxic, and if there are toxins in them, what are these toxins actually doing to you? Because one of the main things that you are going to see in most of your products, everything from makeup to shampoos, conditioners, dyes, et cetera, is going to be parabens.
**Unknown:** There are propyl parabens, there are methyl parabens, there are ethyl parabens, there are many, many, many, many parabens. It doesn't matter, they're all toxic. So if you see paraben, please stay away from it. Secondary to that, there are tons of derivatives of petroleum.
**Unknown:** Petroleum is the by-product of gasoline. Yes, what we put in our cars. So when you see very tricky things like mineral oil, that is actually a by-product of petroleum. It is carcinogenic, it is toxic, it causes cancer.
**Unknown:** So when we wanna talk about the level of skin cancers, and we wanna sit here and blame it on the sun, guys, think about it. We had hunter-gatherers, Indians. You think sunblock existed back then? These were people half naked running around under the sun with no shade that didn't have epidemics of skin cancers, but now with all the sunblock in the world, we all have the most skin cancer in, you know, ever.
**Unknown:** So we need to start rethinking what we're being told. We have skin cancer because of all the toxic crap that we put on our bodies, in addition to the fact that we're constantly blocking out our absorption of vitamin D through the sun. So it starts to... You really need to start looking at what are you putting on your body.
**Unknown:** The other really interesting thing about this too is for those of you women that either have done hormone replacement, when you are talking about bioidentical hormones or hormone replacement, most of this is in a lotion. So when women are sitting there and they don't wanna hear it about their, their personal products because, you know, their personal products are what make them beautiful and make them feel good about themselves, and then they're like, "Oh yeah, well, you know, my hormones were really off, and I went on bioidenticals, and I felt great." I'm like, "Well, how did you administer those bioidenticals?" And they're like, "Well, I-- it was a cream." And I go, "So you clearly put that cream on, and you felt a significant difference?" And they're like, "Yeah, I definitely did." Okay. So that shows you that that is getting absorbed directly into your bloodstream 'cause obviously it made you feel differently. So when you put lotion on and you put your gel nails on and you put your makeup on, that is absorbing directly into your bloodstream.
**Unknown:** So it's not that some of it absorbs and some of it doesn't, it all absorbs. So if you're putting things on that contain chemicals that are carcinogenic, and then we're wondering why there is so much cancer, we need to stop wondering. We need to start thinking about what are we actually putting on our bodies. So parabens are one piece of the puzzle.
**Unknown:** Then we have formaldehyde. For all of you women getting your lovely, uh, keratin treatments, hair straightening, Brazilian blowouts, whatever, dyeing your hair, all of it contains formaldehyde. In addition to that, uh, most of your furniture contains formaldehyde as well. Um, my lovely friend Brittany, if she is listening, I love her to death, but she kills me because she calls me the other day 'cause she has kids now, and she's like, "Can you believe that there is formaldehyde in my crib?
**Unknown:** Can you believe it?" And I'm like, "Brittany, you work in a salon. You deal with formaldehyde all dayAnd she's like, "Yeah, but this is my baby." And so it's interesting 'cause I know that it's like we disregard ourselves, and now we obviously put so much worry on our children. But formaldehyde is something that it, it's all around us. It's in a lot of the personal products that we are using.
**Unknown:** But we also need to be aware that if we as a mother are toxic, what does your amniotic fluid, what is that gonna look like? Amniotic fluid is what your baby floats in for nine months. Your amniotic fluid is going to carry all of those toxins, so your child is going to be toxic straight out of the gate. So it's not just about, oh, worry about your kids.
**Unknown:** You also need to worry about yourself because if your body is healthy, then you're going to obviously pa- not pass these different toxins to your baby. Because yes, that is how the body works. So in addition to that, we always get tricked by this k- idea of fragrance. So fragrance, um, can be anywhere between 10 to 300 different types of chemicals.
**Unknown:** Most of these chemicals are hormone disruptors. These are chemicals that are screwing up our estrogen levels. So we live here at the beach in New Jersey, and it's always fantastic people watching. But it breaks my heart because there are so many young men that are having very interesting body shapes.
**Unknown:** They're having female figures. Like, they're literally having fat deposits in their chest. You know, we can call it man boobs. They're having very large abdomen, and they're even having, like, fat deposits in their hips, making them have the shape of a female.
**Unknown:** And n- they're, these are kids that are probably super self-conscious. Their parents are putting them on diets, making them go to the gym, and trying to, like, you know, be proactive in this weight gain, when really at the end of the day, half of it is estrogen dominance. So boys are obviously not using the level that females are. You know, they're not, like, wearing makeup and things, but these are kids that are using Axe.
**Unknown:** You know, they're, they're using shaving creams. They're using shampoo, conditioner, sunblock, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So these are all things that are disrupting hormones in our children. So we're seeing young females getting their periods at, you know, eight years old.
**Unknown:** We're also seeing females that are eight years old with breasts looking like they're 18 years old, and then we're seeing these poor young boys that are, you know, look overweight with female shape. So we really need to start thinking, like, this isn't about they ate too many hamburgers. This is about a complete hormonal imbalance that is also going to compromise them going through puberty as well. So we need to start thinking beyond, you know, is it just about, you know, food, calories, ice cream, whatever else.
**Unknown:** The other interesting thing that's in literally all of our products is propylene glycol. Propylene glycol literally is the same exact ingredient in antifreeze. So propylene g- glycol is extremely carcinogenic, and it is in everything. Makeup, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, sunblock, body wash.
**Unknown:** Literally any personal product that you have in your house, chances are propylene glycol is in it. Um, another thing that's really interesting is coal tar dyes. So these are different types of, um, agents that they're using to create pigment in lipsticks and hair dyes and a variety of different types of products. But they are extremely neurotoxic, AKA toxic to your brain, in addition to being carcinogenic, again, cancer causing.
**Unknown:** So one of the ones that has gotten the most press recently is in the realm of talc powder, uh, baby powder, guys. So Johnson & Johnson, you know. How many of you that have kids have Johnson & Johnson in your house? Or how many of you still use it on yourself as an adult?
**Unknown:** So the, some of the, um, ingredients in these baby powders is it's a talc powder that literally the constituents or the molecules are very similar to asbestos. Asbestos, you know, how many of you see the commercials? Asbestos is toxic. It causes mesothelioma, which is a cancer of the mesothelium.
**Unknown:** Like, this is a huge problem, and we are putting this on our babies because it's being advertised as being safe. And Johnson & Johnson just actually lost a lawsuit and had to pay out $72 million to someone who was able to prove that her ovarian cancer was linked to the use of their baby powder or their powder in general. It is still baby powder, but she was using it obviously as, as an adult. So guys, this is no joke.
**Unknown:** This is not my opinion. This is not, you know, me making something up. This is the reality of it. The mineral oil I know was always the trickiest because that sounds great.
**Unknown:** Minerals, oh, fantastic, I'm getting minerals absorbed into my skin by wearing this makeup. So mineral oil, again, it's a byproduct of petroleum, and this is a known carcinogen. So this is found in most of our cosmetics in addition to our lotions. The other thing too is de- or I should rephrase.
**Unknown:** Antiperspirant. Um, for those of you that don't know, antiperspirant and deodorant are different. Uh, antiperspirant is designed for you not to sweat. Deodorant is designed to just help you smell better without necessarily blocking your sweat glands.
**Unknown:** So when you deal with an antiperspirant, you get two problems. You're blocking your sweat glands, AKA, you're blocking your armpit's ability to detox, which by the way, neurologically, your lymph goes all the way from your neck all the way down into your armpit. So your armpits technically are a drainage mechanism for your brain. So if you're blocking your sweat glands, you're not getting toxins out.
**Unknown:** Secondary to that, um, 99% of your antiperspirants contain aluminum. Aluminum is a knownTop neurotoxin, AKA it is toxic to your brain. And they have actually found a massive connection to dementia and Alzheimer's disease when it comes to aluminum. And this is something that we are all putting on our armpits for years upon years upon years on a daily basis.
**Unknown:** And for those of you that are listening, you're like, "I gave that up five years ago." If you used it for twenty-five years prior, chances are you still have traces of aluminum in your body unless you have made an effort to detox. So it's not just about giving it up, sometimes it's about actually helping your body to detox. Another one, sodium laureth. Um, this is also known as sodium lauryl sulfate.
**Unknown:** You guys have to be careful because they have a bunch of different ways of, um, labeling now because they know that people are starting to look at these ingredients. So it could be so- sodium laureth or sodium lauryl sulfate, but virtually they are the same thing. And this is one of the products that causes your shampoo to lather, so you get all the bubbles, and I know that everybody loves that 'cause it makes you feel clean. But anything that gives you that lather and those bubbles, uh, is gonna contain the sodium lauryl sulfate, which is actually known to be extremely toxic to your liver and your kidneys.
**Unknown:** So this is something that you really need to keep your eye on, but I will promise you, this is in every single one of your shampoos and conditioners. So the other big one is going to be your BHA and BHT. Um, these are known to be human carcinogens. Um, they are also known to create massive disruption to the reproductive system and thyroid issue or thyroid system, um, and this has also been linked to gut issues as well.
**Unknown:** This is found very regularly in a lot of our moisturizers and our makeup as well. So this is just going in a little bit more and breaking this down for those of you that want more of this information. But, um, another thing with this dioxin, um, dioxin is not just something that is found in shampoos, but this is also in tampons. So when we wanna talk about, uh, tampons, there are so many chemicals that are in your tampons.
**Unknown:** Your tampons are going into your vaginal tract, which is a mucus membrane, which is one of the most absorbent parts of your body. So your tampons contain everything from dioxin, to bleach, to fiberglass, to mold, um, in addition to other things that can cross-contaminate with cotton. So one of the interesting things, this actually came up, um, a couple of weeks ago, is that, um, tobacco was coming up as a massive irritant for this woman's cervix and, um, vaginal tract. And this was a person, she was dealing with a lot of reoccurring yeast infections, and we were kind of making a joke, and we're, uh, we're like, "Oh man, really, um, gotta be careful with, uh, with your vaginal tract being allergic to, uh, your smoking." And she was like, "What?" So the thing that you have to understand is that, um, cotton is the primary, the primary ingredient in a tampon.
**Unknown:** Cotton fields and tobacco fields are usually, uh, side by side with each other. So you can easily have a cross-pollination and cross-contamination when it comes to the way things are grown, which can then create very odd allergens within the body. So this is not necessarily about this person being a smoker or being around secondhand smoke, but it was the fact that she was using tampons that are cotton that were cross-contaminated with tobacco. So another big one that I see really, really often is actually toluene.
**Unknown:** Toluene is one of the primary chemicals that is extremely toxic to the respiratory system, and it's very, very common in hair treatments, uh, nail polish, as well as paint thinners as well. So paint thinners obviously is more in, in a different realm, but toluene is very, very toxic to the lungs as well as the nervous system. I see toluene come up consistently in a lot of my patients. Um, another thing too is, uh, triclosan.
**Unknown:** Triclosan is in toothpaste. It's in a lot of toothpaste. This is actually extremely harmful to your thyroid. So think about it, guys.
**Unknown:** You're brushing your teeth. Think about the proximity of your mouth to your thyroid. So all of the glands in your mouth can absorb the triclosan. That gets into your glands and then moves along your lymph nodes and then starts to affect your thyroid.
**Unknown:** So how many women are tr- uh, struggling with a thyroid issue? And we're not necessarily being told that it could be related to our toothpaste, it could be related to how many dental infections have we had. Do we get cold sores? Do we get canker sores?
**Unknown:** Nobody's necessarily connecting those dots. But doesn't it make sense that what's going on in our mouth or what we're using in our mouth can affect our thyroid just based off of how close it is in proximity? So we need to start thinking about anatomy, like how are these things connected? So I wanted to make note of like some of the professions that are the most at risk, because all of these products, we're obviously using these on a day-to-day basis, but then think about these people that are working in hair salons, they're working in nail salons, they're working as aestheticians, they're working as lifeguards and makeup artists.
**Unknown:** So I threw in lifeguards because it's very weird as I have embarked this month on talking about toxicity, but I've had two people in two weeks come up for, um, sunblockLike toxicity. They literally came up for a variety of different chemicals, zinc oxide being one of the main ones, um, at, as toxic levels in their body. So they're coming up for literally toxicity from all of the ingredients in sunblock, and it turns out both of those people were lifeguards when they were younger. So definitely when it comes to lifeguards, you're not only dealing with the sunblock, but you're also gonna be dealing with a lot of the chlorine, um, that is in the pools, especially if you lifeguarded at a pool.
**Unknown:** But I really wanted to shed light on these professions primarily because I just, um, specifically saw that, um, a-a... an acquaintance of mine was just, um, diagnosed with lung cancer. And, um, primarily this was a huge surprise because she went in for, um, an issue with her shoulder blade from... This is just based off of what I, I was told.
**Unknown:** Went in for her shoulder blade, and they told her that it was a tumor, and it was actually coming from, uh, it started in the lung, and now it has spread to a different part of the body. And this is a person that actually works, um, in the beauty industry and is working as a stylist. And, you know, I know that, you know, cancer is very scary, but nobody is necessarily having a conversation about how her profession is potentially been the culprit behind why she has developed the condition that she has. Because when you are constantly inhaling different types of sprays, um, and you are constantly having your hands in bleach, shampoos, conditioners, formaldehyde-based compounds, like these things are absorbing into your skin, and then there's a ton of things that you're inhaling.
**Unknown:** And I know this 'cause anytime I go get my hair done, I'm like thinking in my head, I'm like, "How do these women breathe this in all day between all of the different products that they're using on women's hair?" So it's very, very important for us to take that step back if, you know, we are dealing with some type of respiratory issue or are we dealing with a diagnosis of cancer of are there things that are happening on a day-to-day or, or is there something in our lifestyle that could potentially put us at risk for this coming back? Because the last thing you wanna do is go through the hell of chemotherapy, radiation, and a variety of other interventions, and then nothing has changed about your lifestyle, and then you get rediagnosed five years down the line with cancer coming back. And it's not because of bad genetics, it's because there was potentially some other piece of the puzzle that was completely missed. So I wanted to list out some of the most common things that I see in my practice, and definitely we've covered a good portion of them, but some of them we haven't.
**Unknown:** So one of the things that I see very often is the zinc oxide, which is the primary ingredient in sunscreen. Another one is called mang-manganese peroxide, which is in a ton of our cosmetics. Um, another one is anthraquinone. Anthraquinone is super, super, super toxic, and it is a lotion, or it's in a lot of our lotions or, um, blemish creams.
**Unknown:** These are like different types of face creams that are geared towards reducing blemishes or reducing freckles or balancing our complexion. If anthraquinone is the primary ingredient, stop using it. It is super toxic, it is neurotoxic, and it is also carcinogenic. Another big one that I see is dichlorvos.
**Unknown:** Dichlorvos is actually technically an insecticide, but for whatever reason, they have actually found traces of this insecticide in tampons as well. Um, another big thing is benzenes. Benzenes are, are in a lot of our like hair coloring and makeups, but it's also in our dry cleaning agents. So for those of you that are like, "You know what?
**Unknown:** I don't use any of those personal products," or, "I switched all my personal products," but you still get the majority of your clothing, um, dry cleaned, you could still be exposed to these different chemicals. Uh, chloroform I see constantly. Chloroform is actually coming from tap water, uh, primarily because when they take chlorine and ammonia to clean our water supply, it creates a compound called chloroform, and that chloroform becomes a vapor when you take a hot shower, so you are breathing this in. So this is something that is really important to just get yourself some type of shower filter so that you're not necessarily dealing with the absorption of the chloroform.
**Unknown:** Methyl methacrylate, that is another one that I see very often, uh, comes from cosmetics. Acrylic esters, that is gonna be your gel nails, your acrylic nails, um, and a lot of the different, uh, ingredients that actually are in nail polish. Another one too is for all of my nurses or people working in, um, you know, the healthcare industry, and you're constantly using hand sanitizer, hand sanitizer, hand sanitizer. Propyl alcohol is one of the primary ingredients in hand sanitizer, also can be very toxic to the body.
**Unknown:** And then we've already talked about formaldehyde, um, being part of keratin treatments and hair dyes as well. So these are all very, very important to take into consideration for the exposures. So the interesting thing is the European Union has banned over thirteen hundred chemicals found in cosmetics, and the FDA has only banned eight and restricted three. So we have a serious issue on our hands here, and we need to be educated, and we need to be our own advocate, and we need to be using the resources like Think Dirty, that application that I mentioned earlier on, and we also need to be using, uh, the Skin Deep app by the Environmental Working Group.
**Unknown:** These are great, great resources that you guys can use in order to figure out, you know, am I getting exposed to these different types of toxins?So, um, an interesting thing is that, uh, we had a patient, she was presenting to us with memory loss, brain fog. Um, she actually was dealing with an autoimmune thyroid issue as well, um, and she was a hairstylist. So, um, obviously we wanted to look at the whole picture, make sure that there was... you know, we wanted to rule in or out if there was infections.
**Unknown:** But we obviously wanted to make sure that we took into consideration were there any types of toxicities. So it was very interesting because what was happening is she went through a course of care with us, and she did really, really, really well. But throughout that duration, we were obviously doing detox- detoxification, and we were-- we gave her different topical agents to detox her glands and her lymph nodes to really help the thyroid and help her neurological system. So, um, as we were monitoring her, like, all of her levels were, were really well.
**Unknown:** Her thyroid was healing. Her, um, her thyroid antibodies were coming down. Things were really looking good. So then, um, she was feeling great.
**Unknown:** She ended up going on a vacation, and she came back, um, she went back to work, and at this point, um, we put her down to a maintenance plan, so she was only coming, like, once a month. And, um, she went back to her endocrinologist, and her antibodies skyrocketed. So then we were-- I was like, "Okay, that's interesting." So then, um, she went on another vacation, and her antibodies dropped. Went back to work, her antibodies skyrocketed.
**Unknown:** So the point of me saying this is that there was clearly something that was a trigger, and what we realized is that the big trigger for her was everything that she was inhaling through her profession, and this was everything from the hairsprays to, um, the formaldehyde in the keratin treatments, the hair dyes, et cetera. So this is, you know, this is a difficult thing because this is this person's profession, and what are they gonna do? Are they gonna wear a mask as they work, um, or are they going to continue to compromise their health by staying in the industry? So this was a person that, you know, she realized that she was gonna just continue to spend a lot of money on her health in order to keep her s- her symptoms at bay, um, or she was gonna have to choose a different route for her profession.
**Unknown:** And I'm not saying that this is the case for everyone, but this was a person that became immune-compromised, and once she crossed that threshold, that her body was reacting very, very severely to all of the different chemicals that her body tolerated at one point. So it really gets to a point that, you know, sometimes that tolerance goes down, and it's really a matter of you really have to change your environment. So the biggest myths that I think that we've touched on already is that your baby products are safe. They're not, because all of the chemicals that we talked about tonight are also in the products that are being geared towards your children.
**Unknown:** Everything from your baby oils, to your baby powders, to your, your diaper rash, uh, creams, all of those products have to be evaluated. You need to use those apps in order to figure out are these baby products safe. And, you know, if you think that by, you know, you are excluded from this conversation, that these products are not gonna affect you or, you know, you wear, you know, you get your hair done and have tons of makeup and, you know, you, you do yourself up all the time and you don't have any symptoms, you do. You just are ignoring your symptoms or your symptoms are your normal.
**Unknown:** So it's very important to understand that these products and chemicals will catch up with you. Sunblock is safe. Guys, it's not safe. There is so much crap that's in sunblock.
**Unknown:** What kills me is that we talk about sunblock being the thing that's gonna protect us from skin cancer when fifty percent of the ingredients in your sunblock are carcinogenic. They're cancer-causing. We need to stop using crap sunblock and start to really educate ourselves and start using better options that are actually safe and not carcinogenic. The other thing too is technology.
**Unknown:** Uh, one of the interesting things is that they have actually now connected the blue light that come from your devices to actually be damaging to your skin. So all of you women out there that are spending tons of money on your facials, you're spending tons of money on your laser treatments, tons of money on filler, Botox, blemish reducing, I don't even know. I don't do any of this stuff, so I don't know anything about it. But whatever.
**Unknown:** All the things that people are doing, you're spending all this money, and you're literally... you're addressing an effect. Literally the blue light from the phone being attached to you all the time because you're taking your selfies and you're doing all the things and you can't get off social media, that is damaging your skin. And then when you fall asleep with your phone attached to your face, that is damaging your skin.
**Unknown:** It's all damaging your skin. Literally look it up. Don't take my word for it. It is damaging your skin.
**Unknown:** The blue light is accelerating the aging process. So you need to understand that this is not even just about personal products, it's also about your screen time. The other thing too, natural does not mean it's safe. Don't fall for it.
**Unknown:** Don't fall for natural sunblock, natural shampoo, natural ingredients. They are slapping natural on everything. It doesn't even mean anything anymore. You actually need to bust out your app.
**Unknown:** You need to look at the ingredients, and you need to then figure out what you like, what you don't like, and then be able to just be like, "Okay, these are my set products." Side note, I had a person, they told me about a company, it was called Pureology. They were like, "Pureology, it's great. Fantastic shampoo, conditioner."It's so good. It still is like, you know, you're gonna make your hair really nice.
**Unknown:** It's not like those natural shampoos that make your hair, you know, not so nice. I was like, "Okay, great." So I, um, I got the Pureology, and the only reason I questioned it is because when I got the shampoo, it was purple. So I was like, "Hmm, that's really interesting. How, um, how great can this be or how non-toxic can this be if it's purple?" So I pulled up my Think Dirty app, and what I found out is that the Pureology Hydrate Shampoo was an eight out of nine toxicity, but the conditioner was a three out of nine toxicity.
**Unknown:** So three out of nine is fine, safe. Really was odd to me that the shampoo was toxic, but the conditioner was fine. So the point of me telling you this is that you cannot take a brand and assume that everything in that brand is safe, and that actually is gonna fall for all of these products that I'm telling you. But, um, the same thing goes like Beautycounter.
**Unknown:** Beautycounter is a fantastic line for natural makeup, and they do a really good job. Their makeup is really, you know, trying to compete with your Chanel, Bobbi Brown, you know, all of these higher-end brands. But Beautycounter, I think it's actually the bronzer that is actually not super great. It's not, it's not...
**Unknown:** It's definitely not super toxic, but it's not clean at the same time. So I would definitely say as you explore these different brands and these different products, do not assume that everything in that product line is safe. So some of my favorites is going to be, um, this is definitely more in the cosmetic realm, Vapour, V-A-P-O-U-R, ZuZu Cosmetics, uh, Nu, N-U, Cosmetics. But RMS Beauty, that's actually one of my personal favorites.
**Unknown:** Um, they have beautiful makeup, beautiful lipsticks. They're all very safe. Um, so RMS is definitely one of my favorites. Beautycounter is one of my favorites.
**Unknown:** Tarte is definitely one that I like a lot as well. Um, and then when you get into some of these other brands, this is going to be everything from your shampoos, your conditioners, your lotions, your makeups. These are a little bit more broad spectrum lines, but, um, Beautycounter is one of those. Badger is a great sunblock option.
**Unknown:** Beautycounter also makes sunblock. Um, Burt's Bees has definitely really stepped up their game from chapsticks to cosmetics to lotions. I think they actually make baby clothes, which is crazy. Um, Terre Mere, if I'm saying that right, uh, T-E-R-R-E M-E-R-E.
**Unknown:** Um, another one is called One Hundred Percent Pure, Coco Kind, Supergoop! Guys, there's a lot, a lot of options. There's a lot of companies that are coming out providing really, really good quality items. So if you haven't realized this by now, um, you don't know what you don't know.
**Unknown:** Uh, it's impossible for you to know a- about all of these different chemicals and what they are potentially doing in your body. Um, but I am here to be that resource for you guys because I cannot bear watching a mom put chemicals on her, her baby without knowing. No woman knows and intentionally wants to harm her child, but we're literally being marketed these products that are extremely toxic and extremely harmful. So we need to really be better equipped to be able to navigate around this and to choose better options, look for better brands.
**Unknown:** So we really need to stop accepting that cancer is in our future, that dementia is in our future, Alzheimer's is in our future, skin cancer runs in my family. We need to stop thinking that these things are normal. We need to stop thinking that it's just based on genetics. It's ba- based on bad luck, you know, bad things happen to good people.
**Unknown:** That's not how this works. There are so many things that nobody is talking about. Nobody is talking about the crap in our food. Nobody is talking about the crap in our products.
**Unknown:** Nobody's talking about it, and this is what is keeping us disempowered, and it's keeping us in this fear-based mode of when am I gonna get the diagnosis. Every time I get that mammogram, oh my gosh, is this gonna be the time when they tell me I have breast cancer? And it's sad because I see it every day. I have conversations with people every day how they have just been living in fear, and we need to know that that does not need to be our fate.
**Unknown:** That doesn't even need to be our reality. And we also need to understand that this is literally not about everything looking like a textbook. Like you don't get, you know, formaldehyde toxicity and you're, you know, doubled over and you can't function, and you have a fever and, you know, like you're presenting like you were, like, poisoned. It doesn't look like that.
**Unknown:** It could look like brain fog. It could look like a bad respiratory issue. It can look like memory loss. It can look like I have to read this, this page three times 'cause I can't comprehend it 'cause my brain is so foggy.
**Unknown:** So I want you to understand that you are probably already feeling the ramifications of these toxins, but you don't know what it is. You're just thinking that it's just, "Oh, I'm getting old. I'm getting older. Well, my mom has memory loss," or, "All my friends are talking about memory loss, so this just must be it for me." So another big thing too is like, okay, how do you-Fantastic.
**Unknown:** So I will totally can't give you the blanketed detox for, for formaldehyde or for aluminum because that's just not how it works. The same example that I gave earlier today about the, the coffee. So one person drinks a cup of coffee, and they're wired for three days. Another person drinks a pot of coffee and is not even fazed.
**Unknown:** They can go right to sleep. So that actually is a true representative of your genetics. So some people over metabolize the coffee. Some people under metabolize the coffee.
**Unknown:** The same thing goes for chemicals, for, um, different types of foods, for medications, et cetera. So same thing goes, like the woman who takes birth control but gets pregnant while she's on birth control. That's because this person is over metabolizing the birth control, so it's actually not even able to do its job 'cause the liver is chewing it up and spitting it out. So when it comes to these chemicals, you might need more liver support to get them out of your body.
**Unknown:** Some of you might need more kidney support to get them out of your body. Again, everybody's extremely, extremely different. So when it comes to how do we figure it out and how do we help, I call functional medicine the old model, and I call integrative medicine the new model. And I do that because functional medicine is where I started, and it's fantastic.
**Unknown:** Tons of, of great testing, gives you a ton of information, really allows you to decipher, you know, is this person toxic? Does this person have, you know, formaldehyde or aluminum or heavy metals in their body? But what I found is that the functional medicine route was limited tools in the toolbox. So there were a lot of issues with, you know, is there...
**Unknown:** Like, what can this person do to actually help their body get better? Because functional medicine's very focused on diet and supplements. So if you have a bunch of toxins that are built up in your tissues or in your lymph nodes or in your kidneys, you might need more strategies outside of just using supplements and an elimination diet. So that's really what integrative medicine is, is it's all about expanding upon that and using more tools in order to help your body to get better.
**Unknown:** So the ways that we do that is we take time, we do way better testing, and we ask a boatload of questions. So because we off- or we do a, a variety of different types of tests, and in addition to that, we spend a lot of time with you, and I think it's really important that we start to remember that healthcare is supposed to be about answers and solutions. This is not about, "Oh, we don't know what's wrong with you. Uh, your blood work looks good, so it must be in your head.
**Unknown:** It must be you're depressed. You should probably go to a psychiatrist and get an antidepressant." No, it's because you work in a salon, and you're inhaling chemicals all day, and that's why your brain sucks. So it's important for us to not just be like, "Oh, well, you know, I must be depressed because my blood work looks good," because that is just a linear test. That's only, like, that's a snapshot in time.
**Unknown:** It's not even giving you close to the amount of information that you need. And also, we need to stop settling for thinking, like, "Oh, well, you know, we don't really know why, and there's really nothing you could do about it, so we'll just wait until your symptoms get worse, and then we'll go from there." So we have actually just amped up how we work with our patients. So, um, with that being said, we actually have, uh, when you become a patient and you go through all of your testing, you not only get designated a doctor, so either myself or Dr. Nick or Dr.
**Unknown:** Phil, you also get a designated health coach. You get a designated nutritionist, and then you get a variety of different tests that fall under our onboarding, uh, bracket. So you get everything from a DNA pace- based test called the bioresonance. You get a test evaluating chemical allergies, food allergies, environmental allergies.
**Unknown:** We look at heavy metals, mineral deficiencies. We do comprehensive blood work, and then we also do something called autonomic response testing. So this is actually my favorite test. Um, the reason why we do this thing called autonomic response testing is because we do not guess, we test.
**Unknown:** So when you wanna know, "What should I eat? What should I not eat? What supplements should I take? How can I detox?
**Unknown:** What's best for me? What's best for my body?" We test all of those things. There's no guessing. There's no, like, cookie cutter protocol, "This is how you detox from aluminum." We actually figure out, how does your body detox from aluminum?
**Unknown:** So everything's extremely customized to you, which is pretty amazing. The other big thing too that I wanna say is about this healing process. So w- when you come in from a detoxification perspective and say, like, we do find toxins, you-- a lot of people wanna go from, like, chronic symptoms to healed. Yeah, some people it might be the case, but in a video game, you have to master every level.
**Unknown:** You don't go from level one and be like, "Ah, screw it. I'm gonna skip to level twenty-seven," because you have to master and complete each level. It's the same thing for your healing process, is you have to really kinda figure out what are the layers here and then be able to work on those layers to really peel back and get your body to a good place. So when it go, when you go from the chronically ill person with thirty-five symptoms and then you say, you know, "I should be cured in two weeks," that's not really how it works.
**Unknown:** We're very good at what we do. We usually get, resolve most people's symptoms within three to six months, but I'm making this disclaimer because I do feel like there's somewhat of an unrealistic expectation for some people because they're used to the instant gratification. We are all programmed the same way. You take a pill, your problem is solved.
**Unknown:** You find the magical vaccine or medication, and then all your problems are gonna go away.That doesn't work that way. Um, all you're doing is really covering up a symptom. When you're really trying to fix the root, it's going to be about peeling back those layers in a really, really, really strategic manner. So some of you are here because you don't know what the heck's wrong with you.
**Unknown:** You feel like crap. You can't think. You, you know, you're wondering, is toxicity maybe part of the puzzle? But you have maybe been on a merry-go-round, and you've been to a lot of places, a lot of doctors.
**Unknown:** You're not getting any answers. Maybe you've gotten some answers, but you haven't had many, uh, effective solutions. You know, really what it comes down to is, depending on your journey, depending on your goals, what you can achieve once you actually know what the problem is and you have specific testing that tells you your exact strategy, I don't know if you can really put a price on that, is really what it comes down to. Because so many people go months, years, without knowing what the heck is going on with them, and they spend a lot of time and a lot of money on wasted protocols that do not get them to where they're trying to go.
**Unknown:** And this is honestly sad to watch because people get exhausted, and they give up because they just are like, "I just can't do this anymore. I'm so tired." So with the right tools, the right testing, you can easily eliminate out that level of heartache. We have people come through our doors that we see miraculous changes with, and they can go out into the community, and they can talk about what they're doing, and people can be like, "Wow, that's weird," and, "I don't get it. That can't be, that can't be possible.
**Unknown:** That can't work." All that it matters is that person's getting better. And the truth i-i-- or, or the proof is in, in the pudding, I guess, is what they say. But really overall, it's just because it's the common belief does not necessarily mean that it's true. So if the common belief is you can only hear through medication-- heal through medication, that's not always true.
**Unknown:** There's many people that have fell flat with that strategy. But I really appreciate you guys being here. I love doing these webinars because, uh, really education is key. It's power.
**Unknown:** It helps you to take action in your life, and it helps you take that first step into the healthier you or making positive changes for your family. Obviously, you know, when you have the ability to get testing and figure out exactly what's going on in your body and what your body needs, that's when this shifts from being an educational experience to a breakthrough experience. So, you know, especially if you're someone who's been struggling, and you've been dealing with symptoms that nobody can figure it out, it's really, really important for you to know that there are options out there. There are better tests.
**Unknown:** There are, you know, better strategies that will help you get to your end goal. So just know that, um, Integrative Practices exist. Um, we are here for you. We have your back, and, you know, the answers are really right around the corner.
**Unknown:** So if you want more information about who we are, what we do, if you wanna listen to some awesome podcasts, definitely check out our website integrativewellnessgroup.com. We have tons and tons and tons of information there. And also, you can also access a strategy call through our website as well. Um, we have tons of information, uh, there as well.
**Unknown:** All right, guys, I really appreciate you being here with me. Uh, we're gonna be talking more about toxicity for the rest of the month. Um, and then actually next month, we're gonna be talking about allergies as well. So, um, so I hope you enjoyed it, and I will see you next week.
**Unknown:** We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com.
**Unknown:** All night, no sleep. 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. Wide awake, that's okay
Related episodes
About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
Further reading
Listen and read the full episode →