Travel
Aerotoxic Syndrome: How Flying in Airplanes Can Affect Your Health
My guest today is Dee Passon, founder of the website Toxic Free Airlines. Dee was a Cabin Service Service Director for British Airways, and flew for nearly 25 years with four different airlines, until she was ill health retired in 2009 with a written diagnosis of Aerotoxic Syndrome. Dee now works as an unpaid advisor to passengers and crew affected by cabin air. In addition to her website, Dee also has a Toxic Free Airlines page on Facebook that posts the latest information and also set up a group on Facebook called Angel Fleet to pay tribute to and raise awareness of the number of British Airways crew who are passing away every year. In June 2014, Dee became a member of the Air Safety Group, an independent, unpaid and impartial group dedicated to improving all aspects of safety in aviation which reports to Parliament every year. www.toxicfreeairlines.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Aerotoxic Syndrome: How Flying in Airplanes Can Affect Your Health
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Dee Passon
Date of Broadcast: July 21, 2015
DEBRA: Hi! I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It is Tuesday, July 21st, 2015. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida and I don’t think we’re going to have a thunderstorm during the show. I think we’ll be just fine, but we’ll probably have one later on today. We’re having thunderstorms every day now here.
Anyway, today we’re going to be talking about something we’ve never talked about before on the show. Indeed, I suspected that this was a toxic problem, but didn’t know anybody was talking about until recently. The subject is toxic chemicals on airplane flights, what you’re being exposed to and how it’s affecting your health, but perhaps more importantly how it’s affecting all the stewardesses and pilots and people who are flying on planes every day. There’s actually a term now for the health effects that happen to this airline workers. It’s called Aerotoxic Syndrome.
My guest today is founder of the website, Toxic Free Airlines. That’s at ToxicFreeAirlines.com. She has information there about health effects that happen when people fly in airplanes, especially frequently and what you can do to be safer. That’s what we’re going to be talking about on the show today.
She has had her own experience in being made ill from the toxic chemicals on airplanes. She was a former Cabin Service Director for British Airways. She flew for nearly 25 years with four different airlines until she was “ill health retired” in 2009 with a written diagnosis of Aerotoxic Syndrome. So without further ado, hi Dee.
DEE PASSON: Hello Debra.
DEBRA: Hello. I just want to tell the listeners that we’re talking to Dee from the United Kingdom. So it’s a very long distance call.
DEE PASSON: Sorry. Am I sounding a bit faint?
DEBRA: If you could talk into the phone and talk up a little bit, that would be great.
DEE PASSON: Okay, I’ll try my best.
DEBRA: That’s better. That’s better. So anyway, why don’t you start off by us your story? What happened?
DEE PASSON: Like you, I haven’t heard of Aerotoxic Syndrome, but I kept getting lots and lots of things wrong with me and I was ill for many years. It was one thing after the other, constant flus and I was developing unexplained aches and pains, constant headaches. I didn’t know what was wrong. This went on for quite a long time.And then one day, I saw a headline in the newspaper over here that said, “Toxic Fuels in Jets.” Suddenly, it all made sense.
So I went and got myself tested. I had a very high level of toxins from the fume, from the engine oil and high levels of nickel, which comes from the engine. I’ve never heard this ever mentioned.
And then, once I started looking on the internet, I found that over here in Parliament, they’re discussing it in our House of Lords since 1999, but [inaudible 00:04:40]. And certainly passengers, most passengers still don’t know about this. They need to be warned that this could happen.
DEBRA: Do you think it’s because you and other flight attendants (and I’m assuming pilots and everybody who works on the planes) are being exposed to it more frequently than say me who doesn’t fly very often?
DEE PASSON: Yes, we are. We’re just getting chronic low level exposures. So every day, we’re getting a certain amount because the air we breathe in the cabin is completely unfiltered. But some people are more susceptible than others. So a passenger can get sick just for one flight. Some flights have more contamination than others. There are certainly a very high number of flight attendants and pilots that’s getting sick.
DEBRA: Tell us more about specifically what the chemical are that you’re being exposed to.
DEE PASSON: You’ve got all the chemicals from the fuel. You get things like hexane, heptane, methane, benzene. They’re carcinogens. And also, the organophosphates, which are the chemicals that are causing the most concern. I don’t know if you had a problem in America with farmers. Over here, our farmers actually dip their sheeps in organophosphate dips. And they’re all becoming very, very sick.
DEBRA: I didn’t know about that.
DEE PASSON: Oh, you don’t have that there. But you’ve got the Gulf War veterans?
DEBRA: Yes.
DEE PASSON: They were exposed to organophosphates. So it’s the same illness in fact. That’s why when you go on a flight, you get a feeling that you’ve got the flu. And everybody thinks they’ve got a virus, but actually, it’s chemical fume and it’s coming from the organophosphate. There’s organosphosphate in the hydraulics called tributyl phosphate. And there’s another one in the engine oil, the tricresyl phosphate.
Organophosphates were originally developed as nerve agents for warfare. So the governments and airlines are saying that they’re not harmful, that they’re not harming people. It’s complete rubbish. That’s what they were designed to do. They were designed to harm the human nervous system and that is exactly what they are doing.
DEBRA: I don’t even know what to ask you. It just seems incredulous to me. I mean, I’ve done a fair amount of flying in the past. I don’t even remember the last time I took a flight. It was probably across the United States, which is about 3000 miles to go from Florida to California. I know that when I’m on a plane, I can smell what I think is the jet fuel.
DEE PASSON: Yes.
DEBRA: The first thing I do when I get on the plane is – now I’m going to say this and you’re probably going to tell me that I’m doing exactly the wrong thing. But what I do is I get on the plane, I sit in my seat and I immediately open up the little air thing completely open so that I can get as much fresh air as possible.
DEE PASSON: Yeah, you don’t want the air that comes in. It’s unfiltered. So the airlines, in their little flight brochures, they’ll tell you the air is filtered. But it’s only the [inaudible 00:07:58]. All the air that you breathe comes off the engine and it’s unfiltered and it’s getting contaminated with all these chemicals. It’s only once the air has gone through the cabin and it gets recirculated that it then gets filtered.
So the sorts of symptoms you are likely to experience (nose irritation, eye irritation, cough, dizziness, vertigo, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), eventually, you’ll start to feel like you’ve got the flu, runny nose. Some people will also get tremors, which is the effect of having it on your nervous system. You’ll get chest pains, heart palpitations. Everybody gets everything.
Some people will get more major symptoms if they’re depressed or anxious. Obviously, they will have the physical ones. They’ll be in pain and they’re not working properly or they can’t walk after a flight. Other people will have heart attacks. These chemicals can make the brain swell, which is why you get these terrible headaches. It can cause brain hemorrhages. It can cause pneumonia. It’s really serious.
The reason why these things have been kept quiet is the airlines don’t want you to know about these problems because they’re not planning on fixing it. It will cost a lot of money.
DEBRA: But it just seems to me negligent to be exposing passengers to this. I mean, probably worse than negligent. I can’t think of the right word for it, irresponsible.
DEE PASSON: I know. It certainly is. It’s also illegal. The [inaudible 00:09:37] itself says that the passenger and crew compartments must be free from toxic fumes and vapors. That isn’t the case at the moment.
They keep saying fumes like those are rare. I got to see the reports from the UK and they’re happening every day. I don’t think something that happens every day is rare. And these are just the ones that are getting reported. There’s an awful lot that’s unreported. The average fume only lasts for less than a minute. So, by the time people have thought, “Have I smelt something or haven’t I?”, it’s gone, so they bother to report it.
And it affects your sense of smell, especially crews because they’re flying a long times. [Inaudible 00:10:20] I was told that the damage to my respiratory tract [inaudible 00:10:25]. You lose your sense of smell.
Some of the chemicals are odorless. The engine oil are odorless. But sometimes, it smells like sweaty feet. So then if you smell something, you don’t know what to do. Whoever will ever report that smell. [Inaudible 00:10:44] we just think passengers taking their shoes off.
DEBRA: I understand. We need to go to break, but when we come back, we’ll talk more with Dee about various toxic chemicals that you may encounter when you’re taking an airline flight and what to do about it.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dee Passon. She is the founder of the website, Toxic Free Airlines, which is at ToxicFreeAirlines.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Dee Passon. She is a former – what do you like to be called, a flight attendant?
DEE PASSON: We call it cabin crew in the UK, but flight attendant is fine. I don’t mind.
DEBRA: Cabin crew. I like cabin crew. I will call you in the UK term.
DEE PASSON: You can use that.
DEBRA: She is a former cabin crew member from British Airways who retired because she got sick from the toxic chemicals that she was being exposed to. We’ve been talking about that.
When I smell something, when I’m in a plane, there are definitely times when I smell quite strongly something that I think is fuel and it might be something else. But it seems to come and go. So I was really interested in you saying that these episodes are just so short that you’re not quite sure that you smelled something at all. I know that I smelled things and then it stops.
It never once occurred to me that I should report it because as a passenger – I guess even though I’m probably more aware of toxic chemicals in my environment than most people and I was aware it was going on, I just thought this is the way it is on a plane. I don’t know what the rules are for planes and I don’t like it, but I just thought this is just the way it is.
DEE PASSON: Yeah. But they’re not filtering that air at all. So on some flights, you will have a problem where you’ve got a thing in the engine that’s either worn or it’s got a hole in it. Then you’re going to get a very big contamination. And those are the flights where you might actually see the mists in the cabin although that’s quite rare. You will have other people possibly fainting or feeling unwell and you’ll hear the calls for doctors.
Even on ordinary flights, these fuels aren’t designed to fuel all the time. They’re kept in place by air pressure. They’re wet fuel. So you are going to get a certain amount of contamination. It’s a design flaw.
In 1962, the air used to be blown in from the outside. It didn’t go through the engine. But back then, they decided that they could save money by combining two. They thought, “Engines need warm air for propulsion and passengers need warm air to breathe, so let’s combine the two.” Unfortunately, it’s a flawed system and it’s not very good for people’s health.
The only aircraft currently flying that doesn’t use this system is the Boeing 787. That is the only aircraft that I would ever fly on now.
DEBRA: Do many airlines have that plane?
DEE PASSON: Yeah, more and more. At least Boeing had acknowledged the problem. They actually gave evidence to the British House of Lords and they originally said it was to prevent any possibility of cabin air contamination. And then, I think they realized after they shot themselves in the foot a little bit because they’ve still got lots of [inaudible 00:17:07] 767 planes, but they retracted that slightly. But that is the real reason.
But at least, we saw the Boeing 787 using a completely different system and the air doesn’t come through the engine. So you’re far less likely to have fumes in there.
DEBRA: That’s so good to know. That’s so good to know because that’s something that we can do.
DEE PASSON: Exactly! And if you have to fly on something else which personally I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t risk it.
Seven years ago, I couldn’t even change channels with the remote control. I was so fundamentally confused. I didn’t know what day it was. I didn’t have the energy to even go and have a shower. So I’m very scared of going back to being like that again, so I just won’t fly.
DEBRA: When was the last time you’ve flied?
DEE PASSON: I have flown since I stopped flying as a cabin crew, but I take a mask with me now, one that’s designed to screen their oily mist. I haven’t gotten sick when I’ve used that.
But then, I haven’t been on [inaudible 00:18:17] is when you get a lot of fumes in the cabin. The problem with that is from the time the pilots realize there’s a problem, they’re actually getting you down on the ground and getting those doors open, it’s going to be about half an hour. And the pilots has got full face oxygen masks. The passengers has got nothing. So you really do need to take something with you.
DEBRA: Okay. So you need a mask that’s specific for oily mists. Where do you get such a thing? I mean, you don’t know where in America because you’re getting it in UK. But where do you get it in the UK? Maybe I can look at that.
DEE PASSON: Yeah. Actually you can look on the internet. I have got one called SSP3, which are the best. They do screen out chemicals as well as bacteria and viruses. There’s an association called the Aerotoxic Association. That was set up an ill health retired captain, [inaudible 00:19:15] Captain John Hoyte. He’s done so much to help people.
His website is Aerotoxic.org. He sells masks on there. And he’s also written a really, really good book. I’ve been researching this subject for the last seven to eight years, but there was still a lot in it that I didn’t know. The book is called Aerotoxic Syndrome: Aviation’s Darkest Secret. It’s really, really good. It’s worth reading before you fly.
DEBRA: Yeah. So when did the term Aerotoxic Syndrome come about?
DEE PASSON: That came about in 1999. There were three scientists. One of them was American, one was French and I believe the other one was Australian. They have been looking into this problem and they’ve heard about passengers and crews complaining of getting sick. They looked into this and they found that it was a very real big problem. They called it Aerotoxic Syndrome.
It’s called a syndrome because it affects multiple systems of the body. You don’t just come off with one thing. It’s going to depend on your own health as well.
If somebody had chemo and wants to fly somewhere nice and warm to recuperate, that can be really dangerous because they already have a lot of toxic chemicals in their bodies. People on certain medications are much more susceptible than others. [Inaudible 00:20:43]. If an awful lot of chemicals are already in your liver, then you’re going to be much more affected than somebody who goes for a run every day and excrete these toxins.
DEBRA: Yeah, that makes a big difference, how much you already have in your body. Here in America, that’s called body burden. Do you call it that in the UK?
DEE PASSON: No, I haven’t heard that term.
DEBRA: The Center for Disease Control here in the US started calling it body burden and so now that’s what it’s referred to. There are numbers and they track what is the average body burden of the citizens of America. It’s actually pretty high. There are reports that show.
We need to go to break. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dee Passon from ToxicFreeAirlines.com. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dee Passon. She’s the founder of the website Toxic Free Airlines at ToxicFreeAirlines.com. She has spent more than 25 years flying with four different airlines until she retired because of ill health in 2009. And now, she helps people understand Aerotoxic Syndrome and helps people who have been affected by it and helps people prevent being affected by it as well.
You have on your Facebook page a group called Angel Fleet. Tell us about that.
DEE PASSON: Well, that came about when I was told if there was a problem, the company really would like to know about it. So I thought I’d find some practical figures then that I could tell them about. So I went through all the pictures that I could find online. They went back three years and I’ve discovered that a crew member has been dying every single month for the last two years.
DEBRA: That’s a lot.
DEE PASSON: Yeah, it was shocking. I sat up all night on my computer and got all these names and ages and dates. I compiled it into a list and I sent it to my company. I said, “There’s a crew member dying every month confronting a problem that you should be doing something about.” I didn’t get a reply to that letter unsurprisingly. They then terminated my contract very, very shortly afterward. So I do think the two were connected.
So I carried on compiling my list. It is very difficult to find out. This isn’t something that gets talked about very much. And then one day, somebody told me that the obituary board has disappeared as well. So now, nobody knew what was happening. I thought I think it’s time we have a place where we can actually remember these people and make sure that they aren’t forgotten and we found out just how often this is happening.
March of 2013, I haven’t got a clue how set up a group. I’m not very technically minded at all. But I sat at my laptop and I clicked on “Create Group.” I called it Angel Fleet because we’ve got the [inaudible 00:29:06]. And now we have the Angel Fleet as well.
Within seconds, I had people contact me and asking if they could help. And now, we’ve got over 7700 members. The list of the crew that has passed away, I’ve got over 500 names on it now. And that’s one airline in one country, which is tremendous.
So what we’re going to do now is we’re in the process of constructing a website. We want to invite all the other airlines in the world doing this. We will remember our former colleagues. We’ll also find out how often this is happening. We won’t let the airlines keep this quiet because they have to sort this problem out and not just keep pretending it doesn’t exist.
For a long time, they’ve all got away with lies basically. For a while, they said there weren’t any toxins [inaudible 00:30:06]. Even their own government tests have proved that all these organophosphate with toxic chemicals are there.
Then the next [inaudible 00:30:17] was there were no exposure standard. There’s a quote here from the World Health Organization and this is 25 years ago. In 1990, the World Health Organization said at least one of these chemicals, there’s one called tri-o-cresyl phosphate, there’s a considerable variation among individuals in sensitivity to TOCP. It is not possible to establish a safe level for exposure.”
So there are no exposure limits for these chemicals authentically. And even if they did exist, they would only apply to the workers. They wouldn’t apply to passengers. Passengers, especially pregnant women and children, the elderly and the sick, they must be exposed to nothing. The law says they must not be exposed to any toxic vapors or whatsoever. And so does the Airworthy Certification. If that isn’t happening, then the aircraft isn’t airworthy.
Passengers should be complaining because the airlines don’t really care what we’ve seen over the last few years. The airlines do not care how many of their crew died. They would replace them with younger and cheaper ones.
But what they will care about is if their passengers starts saying, “We’re not going to give you our money until you make that air safe.” That’s what we want to happen. We want passengers to complain to the airlines, to the FAAs, to their government representatives. I think some people, Senator [inaudible 00:31:45]. There was some law passed that the FAA is supposed to sort this out. So far, that hasn’t happened.
Another group on Facebook is called Aerotoxic Syndrome Voices. That’s run by an ill health retired American flight attendant. She keeps that updated as well. I’ve got mine on Facebook with Toxic Free Airlines. So between the two of us, there are lots of information. You’ll find out all the latest.
I mean we do have proof now. It isn’t just us claiming. There has been three post-mortems done on [inaudible 00:32:22] crew who recently passed away. All three were found to have information at the heart. [Inaudible 00:32:29] in all three, which is very, very concerning. So it’s a problem that we really do need to get sorted.
DEBRA: It absolutely is. And as I’m sitting here listening to you (and I listen to guests speak every day), as I’m listening to you, I just want to point out that what you’re talking about is people dying from exposure. That’s not usually what we talk about. What we talk about is people get headaches or cancer. All kinds of different symptoms can come from different chemicals. But you’re talking about documented evidence that people are dying from toxic chemical exposures in their occupation.
DEE PASSON: Yeah, they trusted their employer. They thought it was safe. And they’ve been really seriously let down.
The company I used to work for, they just had two deaths in the last week. Any other companies would get shut down. Any other building sites having these many deaths, something would be done about it. They wouldn’t just be pretending it isn’t happening.
They keep coming out with the same statement. We’ve seen [inaudible 00:33:47] in the cabin crew airways that would indicate a problem. We wouldn’t operate a flight if we believe it posed a health and safety risk. And no one is making them prove that. They’re just repeating these statements, but they’re not actually saying, “Show me. Show me how many crews you’ve got off sick today. Show me how many crews have died in the last 10 years.” They are absolutely keeping that secret. And this is one of the reasons the Angel Fleet. We’re now finding out.
Last year in just one company, there were 23 deaths of cabin crews and nearly 50 have retired. And some of them retired [inaudible 00:34:26] the ill health retired, the youngest was 39. And [inaudible 00:34:32], the youngest was 28. We’ve just lost a 23. This can’t go on.
This lie has to stop. Like I said, it’s people’s lives. They’re not just dying a few years early. They are dying decades before they retire.
DEBRA: Yeah. This is not right. This should not be happening. We need to go to break, but when we come back, we’ll talk more about this.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dee Passon. She’s founder of the website, Toxic Free Airlines, which is at ToxicFreeAirlines.com. She also has a Facebook page where she has lots of updates including – I was just there during the last break – including an announcement of this radio show and other interviews that she has done. You can just go to Facebook and type in “Toxic Free Airlines” and the page will come right up. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dee Passon. She’s the founder of the website, Toxic Free Airlines, which is ToxicFreeAirlines.com. You can go there and find out more about what we’ve been talking about, which is about the toxic chemicals that are on airline flights that you may be exposed to and also what you can do about it.
We’re talking before the break that people shouldn’t be dying on the job, that they should have confidence that they can go to work, get paid and live a long and happy life and not die prematurely. Here in the United States, we have something called the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It’s called OSHA. It has a lot of rules for what people can be exposed to on the job.
I think it only applies to people who are working with the chemicals and not necessarily the people who are working in offices and things like that. But I think that just morally and ethically, people should be provided with a healthy environment. I mean, we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness here in the United States. I think you have something similar in England. It just makes sense that if you value the people who are working for you, you should provide them good health.
DEE PASSON: Absolutely, yeah. We have the similar regulations in the UK. They’re called the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. Airlines are allowed to get away never doing these tests.
Anybody who knows that they’re working with chemicals, they have to do risk assessments and the work must be tested. If you know you’re working with organophosphate, then you’re tested regularly. I think it’s every month to see what your level of enzymes is in your liver.
None of that happens. I wrote to my airline and I said, “Can you tell me why you’ve never done a Control of Substances Hazardous to Health risk assessments.” And they said, “It’s because we’re not aware of any risks.” I said, “I think you’ll find this the wrong way around. You’re supposed to find out if there are any risks. You don’t justify that there aren’t any risks.”
DEBRA: Wait! This is an organization who’s supposed to be protecting you from hazards, they don’t know that there are associated with these chemicals? I mean, I am just a consumer. I am just an average citizen and I know there are risks associated with these chemicals and you know that. How come the agency that’s supposed to be protecting you doesn’t know that?
DEE PASSON: It’s because they don’t want to know. It’s the only enclosed environment that does not have chemical detectors. They’re saying that there isn’t the technology. Rubbish, we have chemical detectors on submarines in World War II. Mine shafts has them. How come an aircraft full of passengers has no chemical detector?
If I went out [inaudible 00:41:57], by law, I need to put a carbon monoxide detector in there to make sure the oxygen is safe. There’s nothing like that on an aircraft. So you can have [inaudible 00:42:09].
And nobody knows what’s happening. This could explain why you have incidents like the one you had a couple of years ago in the States where the pilot forgot to land. How can you forget to land in all your years of flying? I don’t see how that’s possible unless everybody is affected because you would have passengers saying, “Somebody’s waiting there. We could be landing soon.” But nobody noticed. They overflew their destination by an hour. How was that?
DEBRA: Oh, my God.
DEE PASSON: I think it was either to or from Hawaii. That was a major incident. They said they lost situational awareness. How is that possible? It’s only if they’re brains…
DEBRA: That’s chemicals. That’s chemical exposure.
DEE PASSON: Yes.
DEBRA: I mean they’re a neurotoxic. They affect your brain and your nervous system and your ability to think.
DEE PASSON: Yes, that’s one of the scariest things. It’s not just a health problem, it’s a safety problem because there may be passengers who are very, very healthy and they’ve got tons of enzymes in their liver and they think, “I’m alright, Jack.” But if you are a pilot suffering from Aerotoxic Syndrome (and there are many who do), then you are still in trouble.
So we have to get this sorted from the safety point of view. Pilots do have full face 100% oxygen on the flight deck. Passengers don’t. But one of the first things that’s knocked out is your ability to reason. You have to know that you need to put the oxygen on.
DEBRA: That’s exactly right. What happens is that your ability to think goes out and then you’re not aware that you’re not thinking properly. You just can’t think. And if your thinking goes out, you can’t do anything to help yourself.
DEE PASSON: Yeah, I’ve been on a flight where I couldn’t remember how to put someone on oxygen. It’s something I’ve been doing for over years. I was standing there and I didn’t have a clue. I was thinking, “What on earth was wrong with me?” Now, all of these incidents make sense.
DEBRA: You’re just making me speechless with some of these things that you’re telling me. Here in the United States (and then probably in the UK too), there are a number of chemicals that we’re being exposed to in consumer products. Not that deadly as what you’re talking about, we don’t know. People are dying in just great numbers. But we’re also not in enclosed areas like an airplane cabin.
But it amazes me that if you have something like formaldehyde for example, if you’re working with formaldehyde in occupational setting, there would be warnings and things about formaldehyde and that it causes cancer. But there can be formaldehyde all over consumer products and there are no warning labels needed at all.
And something that has just been alarming to me for very many years (because I’ve been doing this for over 30 years) is just that the same chemical can be in different situations. It’s not consistent about how that chemical is treated or what the warnings are or that it even needs to be required to be listed on the label.
An airline is, in a way, a consumer product. You buy it like you would buy anything else. You go into this environment (like buying a hotel room or something) that you’re putting your life in the hands of the person who’s producing that product. And people need to be more responsible. These businesses need to be more responsible. It’s not that we don’t know that the toxics exist.
DEE PASSON: Yeah. We have been trusting for years, haven’t we? We thought that the government had our best interest at heart and we just didn’t realize that the majority of these chemicals are untested. There are no detectors in an aircraft for a reason. They don’t want to know.
The minute we find out exactly how bad this problem is, they will have to pay compensation and they don’t want to do that. The laws exist, but they’re just not being implemented.
We have one in UK called the Civil Aviation Act . I wrote to my representative in the Parliament and he said, “Yes, you are protected under that. The Executive State is responsible for the welfare of all onboard a British aircraft.” But they delegate that responsibility to the Civil Aviation Authority.
So then I wrote to the Civil Aviation Authority and they said, “No, no, no. It’s not ours. It’s the Health and Safety Executive.”
So then I talked to the Health and Safety Executive and they said, “We have a memorandum of understanding [inaudible 00:46:51].”
Nobody is taking responsibility for actually making sure that the law is upheld [inaudible 00:47:01].
DEBRA: I agree. As you were talking earlier in the show, I just started having this picture in my mind of a movie (and there isn’t a movie like this, I’m sure. Well, I’m not sure). But what I got in my mind was to make a movie where…
DEE PASSON: Actually, one has been made. It had its premiere in February 2015. It’s made by an ill-health retired captain. He was probably one of the very first person to find out exactly what we’re being exposed to. He [inaudible 00:47:40] to find out everything. He’s been fantastic. He’s known as Captain Tristan Loraine and he has made a film called A Dark Reflection.
It’s available on the internet to watch on-demand now. It’s at ADarkReflection.com. It’s a fictional account of two journalists looking into this cover-up and finding out what’s in the engine or whether [inaudible 00:48:03]. It was pilots who did it. It’s really, really worth viewing. I’m in it very, very briefly for about two seconds as an extra.
DEBRA: Well, the movie I was seeing in my mind was that consumers would just get outraged and that there would be a massive strike that people would not fly. And the people would buy tickets and then not fly and the whole airline system would just get shut down for a day to bring attention to this because the passengers would refuse to fly on toxic airplanes.
DEE PASSON: Yeah, there were strikes in Germany of crews trying to highlight this. But yes, that’s just good. That would be brilliant. They need to know about this.
We’re all seeing aircraft now diverting and landing because passengers are complaining and they’re saying, “That is going to make me ill. I don’t want to breathe it in.” That’s what we need to happen. I think we’ve all been too passive for too long.
There are a lot of things you can do. You can take the [inaudible 00:49:13]. But ultimately, we need to sort this problem out and make sure that the air is safe for all of us to breathe.
DEBRA: The number one rule in the field of toxicology is to remove the person from the poison. That’s the number one thing to do. It doesn’t say, “Go ahead and poison everybody and then make everybody detox.” It says, “Remove the person from the poison.” And what we need to do is stop having poisoned planes.
Anyway, we’ve only got just a few seconds. Thank you so much for being here. This is important information.
DEE PASSON: Thank you.
DEBRA: And you can go to this website, ToxicFreeAirlines.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and you’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
Vermont Woods Studios
What a great place for furniture! Well-made, solid wood from USA forests, nontoxic finishes and you can customize the style to whatever you want. And free shipping! “High end, handcrafted, quality wood furniture that’s made to order just for you. We work with Vermont’s independent fine furniture makers to deliver top quality, real solid wood dining, home office, living room and bedroom furniture to your home. All of our hardwood furniture is built to order in New England—each piece is handmade in natural solid cherry, maple, oak, or walnut.”
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Listen to my interview with Peggy Farabaugh, Owner and Operator of Vermont Woods Studios |
Tico Shaving
100% USDA Organic all-in-one shaving solution that replaces pre-shave treatments, whipping shaving cream, aftershaves and moisturizers. Here’s a note from one of my readers, who recommended this product, “I just came back from the barber shop. I brought in the Tico* organic shave oil, and it was great. I showed it to the barber, Christian, and he said that he liked it. The organic shave oil was used in place of shaving cream, and it was a new experience, bringing my own shave oil. This is my first time with a new barber, and bringing the organic shave oil for the first time as well. Christian said that it is definitely better, and much smoother. It glides easily on the blades, for a smoother cut. No shaving cream. He said that the organic shave oil is great. I said that I will bring it with me, every time I get my haircut. Barber tested, barber approved. This is well worth trying out, Debra.”
Turtle Tree Seed
Biodynamic, open-pollinated flower, vegetable and herb seeds. Plus books on biodynamic gardening. “We are a small non-profit seed company that sells 100% open-pollinated vegetable, herb and flower seeds. They are all grown using biodynamic and organic practices both in our seed garden and by other farmers and gardeners who use biodynamic methods. All our seed is non-gmo, non-hybrid, never treated, and grown without the use of chemical inputs. We are part of a Camphill Village in Copake, NY, a life-sharing community which includes people with developmental disabilities. People of all abilities help with growing, cleaning and packing our seeds.”
Four Elements Herbals
Herbal wellness products “grown, created and packaged from our farm in the pristine Baraboo Bluffs of Wisconsin. We are dedicated to organics, certified since 1990, owing deep respect and gratitude for Nature, the source of our healing ingredients.” Products include bath soaks and salts, deodorants, body butters, natural perfumes, skin care, handmade soaps, herb infused body oils, herbal tinctures, insect repellants, lip balms, and more.
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Listen to my interview with Jane Hawley Stevens , Founder of Four Elements Organic Herbals |
A Greener Kitchen
Organic cotton kitchen accessories: aprons, cloth napkins, oven mitts and pot holders, resuable produce bags, table runners. Plain colors and delightful patterns.
HybridLight
Solar-powered flashlight, headlamps, lanterns and spotlights that “Put the power of the sun in the palm of your hand.” “The HybridLight™ Solar Flashlight with Battery Back Up uses revolutionary energy technology that generates power from any light source indoor or natural sunlight and stores it. When fully charged the HybridLight™ products can hold a charge for years. The HybridLight family of products offer huge cost savings while providing light when and where you need it – every time! ”
EarthKind Natural Pest Prevention
Botanical prevention for spiders, moths, ants and rodents, in handy-easy-to-use pouches. Also tips on how to control pests safely and effectively in your home.
Terrahue
Tableware and spice jars. Plates in seven sizes and shapes, made from fallen palm leaves. Colorful spice jars “are handcrafted by artisans according to Terrahue specifications from wood that are harvested in a sustainable manner. The jars are coated with shellac, an organic lac and colored using vegetable dyes.” Also dinnerware made of palm leaves and dinnerware made of sugar cane (bagasse).
YouCaring.com: Financial Help for People with Chemical Injuries
I just want to post this for any of you who are having financial challenges as a result of chemical injuries and need some help…or if you know anyone who needs help.
This is a crowdfunding site that focuses on “compassionate crowdfunding” to support humanitarian causes and bring kindness and community to those in need.
The organization does not charge anything for this service. 100% of the funds received are transferred to the person or organization in need as soon as they are received (the donation processor for funds transfer does take a fee, however).
The categories are: medical expenses, memorials and funerals, emergencies and disasters, adoption, education and schools, team fundraisers, pets and animals, volunteer and service projects, nonprofits, missionary work, and veterans.
Click on “Support a Fundraiser” and choose a subject to see the fundraisers that need support. You can also create a fundraiser on that category page.
Smoke Alarms
Question from Mira
Hi Debra,
I’m wondering what brand of smoke alarms are safest, both wired and not wired. I need some new wired ones for my condo.
In this article I was surprised to see a radiation risk associated with one type of smoke alarm. Evolving Wellness: Alarming Toxic Safety Risks Associated with Your Smoke Alarm
Thank you.
Debra’s Answer
I’ve been writing about this for many years. I just looked it up and I first mentioned this in my book The Nontoxic Home in 1986.
You should definitely get a photoelectric alarm, as the author of your cited article recommends. She did a great job of outlining this whole issue.
In years past these were difficult to find, but now they are common.
Here’s a list of photoelectric smoke detectors you can order from online or find these brands at your local hardware store.
Dust Prevention
Question from Jan Harris
Hi Debra,
We get a LOT of dust coming through our air-co. Is there something we can put over the air vents or any other thing to help have less dust? (Our air-co ducts are metal. Could that be a factor?)
Debra’s Answer
I’m not an air conditioning engineer so I can’t answer your question, but am posting it here so someone else can answer it.
The only solution I know of would be to use a freestanding air purifier to reduce the amount of dust in your home.
You may want to have someone check your unit to see if it is pulling in dust from somewhere other than your home living space.
GMO Soy: More Formaldehyde and Less Glutathione for Cell Detoxification
A new study published July 14, 2015 in the peer-reviewed journal AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES discovered the accumulation of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, in GMO soy, and a dramatic depletion of glutathione, an anti-oxidant necessary for cellular detoxification.
Formaldehyde in soy? Now isn’t this interesting, because there are many soy-based substance such as resins and adhesives that claim to be formaldehyde-free. Now since 93 percent of soy is genetically modified, anything made with soy is probably GMO soy. So does that mean it contains formaldehyde? I don’t have enough information for a definitive statement, but I would say this is another reason to stay away from soy.
Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be talking about basic principles pharmacists use to maximize the effectiveness of drugs in your body and how you can apply those same principles to maximize the effectiveness of supplements and other natural substances you take. Pamela has more than 25 years experience choosing and selling top quality medicinal supplements, so she’s seen it all. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
- Vaccines: Harmful or Necessary?
- Evaluating A Study and Testing a Test
- Seven Deadly Drugs
- The Hidden Dangers Affecting Your Heart and How You Can Protect It Naturally
- What We Can Do About Cancer
- The Power of pH
- How to Protect Your Health From Toxic Mercury Dental Fillings
- Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
- How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing With Supplements
- How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use—And How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and into Health
- How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
- Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
- See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
- Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
- Different Types of Detox
- Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
- Natural Alternatives to Sleeping Pills
- Natural Back Pain Treatment Options That Work
- How Toxics Age Your Body & What You Can Do to Stay Young
- You CAN Lose Weight—Even if You’ve Had Difficulty Losing Weight Before
- Calcium—Is There Really a Deficiency in America?
- It’s Cold and Flu Season—How to Support Your Immune System and Why You Shouldn’t Get a Toxic Flu Shot
- How Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help Your Cells Create Health
- Toxic Psychiatry and How to Have Mental Health Without Drugs
- Why You Should Take Fish Oil and How To Choose the Right One for You
- Medicinal Plants Can Replace Toxic Drugs
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld
Date of Broadcast: July 15, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It’s Wednesday, July 15, 2015, I’m here in Clearwater, Florida and we’re having a little weather pattern here. Usually the rainstorms, the thunderstorms (we have thunderstorms almost every day), usually, they come from the Atlantic Ocean across the state of Florida and hit us on the afternoon. And now, they are starting in the Gulf of Mexico and coming and hitting us around noon time. So, we may be having more thunderstorms this week, but we’re fine right now.
So today, we are going to be talking with my guest, Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist. She’s on every other Wednesday. So, she’ll be on two weeks from now again. And I have her on so often because we’re talking about drugs, prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, how they affect your body and what you can do naturally instead of taking pharmaceuticals.
She is a registered pharmacist. She has been a pharmacist over 20 years. She works in a hospital as a pharmacist. And what we are going to talk about today is actually something a little different. What we are going to talk about is how she applies what she knows as a pharmacist and what she knows about the body and how things move with the body and what happens on the body, how she applies her pharmacist’s training to giving people the natural remedies that she gives them. She also has a botanical pharmacy here in Clearwater, Florida where we both live.
So, that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. I asked her to do that because she keeps like throwing in these little things every time she’s talking about different natural remedies and the pharmaceuticals. I just wanted her to get all these ideas into one show so that we can learn how we can better take our natural remedies in a way that there has some intelligence and design behind it.
Hi, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Hey, it’s great to be here.
DEBRA: Thank you. So first, I want to tell you something and I’ll our listeners too as long as they are listening. No, but this is a personal message to Pamela.
I want to tell you. So, if you’ve been listening, listeners, if you’ve been listening for any period of time or have listened to other shows where Pamela is the guest, you know that she does consultations and anybody can call her. We’ll give her number during the show. But anybody can call her up and for free, she will find out what’s going on with you and help you choose some natural remedies.
So, if you can get them in front of her, she will look at your blood test. And so I took my blood test and I’ve been taking them in to her. A few months ago, I took in a blood test that showed kidney irregularity which indicated to her that I needed to pay attention to my kidneys now and not wait until the future when I have kidney failure. We did a whole show on kidney failure and how to take care of your kidneys naturally.
But I wanted to tell you, Pamela that I got another blood test and my kidneys are absolutely perfect.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s great!
DEBRA: Yes!
PAMELA SEEFELD: Good for you!
DEBRA: So, Pamela gave me, she gave me how many perfect remedy to detox my kidneys and it worked absolutely perfectly.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I can add things to that. Today is a very special day to me because my bichon frise, she’s going to be ten in October. She had a blood test. Her B1 kidney parameter was 40, which was high for her breed. Two months ago (and I told the vet), I said, “I’m going to treat her with some homeopathy and I need to have the blood test repeated. Yesterday, I brought her to the vet and I got the results this morning and she’s at 28. That’s’ only two months. She’s just completely reversed. I’m so happy! So, Vicky and you both have great results.
DEBRA: Yes, we do!
PAMELA SEEFELD: I’m just super thrilled. I’m super thrilled for you and I’m very thrilled for my pet because I love this dog very much. I’m very good with the animals as well. So, for your listeners, if they have their cat or dog has liver or kidney failure, these kind of things that there is really nothing in the veterinary realm, in medicines to take care of this, please call me because I have very good results with my own pets and other people’s pets.
DEBRA: And go ahead and give them your number.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. My number to the pharmacy here is 727-442-4955. I’d be very honored to help you with your family or with your animals with any concerns you might have.
DEBRA: And she’s excellent, she’s excellent. She has a very good reputation in Clearwater, Florida both with people with the community and doctors. I’ve said before that my medical doctor when I told him that Pamela has given me something, he said, “Just do whatever Pamela tells you to do.”
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s great!
DEBRA: Yeah. So, we’ve done so many shows, but I think way back in the beginning when we did the first show, I’d probably asked you this question. But I want to ask you again today because we’re talking about pharmacology. What made you interested in becoming a pharmacist?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, I always was very good in chemistry and I’ve always been interested in the chemical realm of nature and so forth. When I was in high school, I want to be an organic chemist and that’s what I wanted to do when I graduated. In my senior year in high school, my dad was an engineer and he told that I needed to get a real job.
So, the truth of the matter is I really wanted to be a chemist. He told me that’s too hard and being around dangerous chemicals, I’d be in laboratories all my life. That might not be the best suit for me.
So, one day I came home after touring the Pharmacy School of the University of Wisconsin and I came home and I said, “You know, I think I’m going to be a pharmacist because I found that it has lots of chemistry and I can help people.” I came home and my dad was all excited, he goes “You’re going to be a pharmacist?” I said, “That’s what I’m going to do.” And that’s exactly how it happened.
DEBRA: So, once you became a pharmacist, how did you get into your field of pharmacognosy? Details…
PAMELA SEEFELD: I was actually fortunate to study pharmacognosy at the University of Florida. They don’t have that anymore, but they did offer that and I did study that quite extensively as a side major to what I was working on. So, plant medicine is something that really most people probably aren’t paying much attention to.
You have people that do herbalism and they study the plants and how they react in the body, but that’s more wild crafting and I’ve studied a lot of that too. But I’ve been very fortunate. I studied a lot in Europe on homeopathic medicines. My formal training was in the University of Florida.
I’ve really made it my passion. I actually collected all the pharmacognosy books written in English all over the world. I’ve one of every volume. I’ve read them all.
I find plant chemistry very interesting, the primary and secondary metabolites of plants and how they act in the body and the fact that we could realize that the plants produce these for reasons of their own. It’s not just they’re producing them because they want us. A lot of these things were produced because to ward off herbivores and animals from eating them. But as a result, when we take them, they actually have different restorative properties in the body.
Understanding how this chemistry of the plants and the homeopathy work on receptors in the body, really, it is important for me to train the people and to educate them that this isn’t some sticks and twigs and hocus focus. There is actual scientific data that I can prove on the remedies that I am proprieting for patients.
DEBRA: So, now we know about your background. Now, I know that we have several different areas that we want to talk about today. We have just a couple minutes before the break, but let’s get started. What’s the first one you want to talk about in terms of what you can tell us as a pharmacist that will help us understand better how to take natural remedies.
PAMELA SEEFELD: So, what I like to look at is that certain things sequester your supplements when you’re taking them. So, we’re going to start to talk about that, introduce that subject. So, sequestering agents can somebody taking psyllium like Metamucil. A lot of people or a vegan, they’ll use Metamucil as a thickening agent. I know I used to make them like a crust, if you’re making a quiche that is vegan.
Fiber is also very sequestering. So if you have bran, flax, any of these things that have lots of fiber, when you eat them, they can act as a sequestering agent. So, say in the morning I have steel-cut oats and then I put a lot of flax there and then also some psyllium in there. And then I start talking all my supplements. Well, there’s a problem with that because if you don’t separate them by one or two hours, you’re probably not absorbing 90% of what you’re taking.
DEBRA: Well, that’s a very good thing to know because I just started eating a whole lot more flax and…
PAMELA SEEFELD: And the fiber is good, but separating it, it’s important.
DEBRA: Right. So, I see what I need to do because I do take my supplements. I eat my flax and then I take my supplements.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s just that it’s reducing some of the absorption because if you think about it, you’re taking these things and they sequester cholesterol, which we want. They kind of clean the GI tract to some degree. They’re taking things kind of whatever. They’re not supposed to be there and they’re taking it out with it. But at the same same time, when you’re doing this, you’re actually reducing absorption the supplements you’re taking.
DEBRA: That’s really good to know. We need to go to a break now. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. And today, we’re talking about how what’s she’s learned as a pharmacist can help us better take our natural supplements. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist, but in addition to being a pharmacist, she has a natural pharmacy where she practices a field called pharmacognosy. We’ve talked about the meaning of this word before. The root of this, ‘pharma’ is drug, but ‘cognosy’, it means information. So, plants actually have information. You want to explain that, the difference between plants and drugs?
PAMELA SEEFELD: So, actually what’s interesting is that two-thirds of all drugs come from plants. Originally, they’re found in nature. That’s what we have to think when people say, “Oh, you know, but pharmaceuticals, they’re so good.” They came from the plants. They find them in plants. And then, they synthesize them in a lab. That’s how we get medicines.
So, what’s interesting about plants though is that they have activity in the body almost somewhat to what they produce in the plants. So, I’ll give you an example. I think it’s pretty amazing that quercetin is ubiquitous. It’s really in two-thirds of plant. Quercetin works in plants. If quercetin was not in the leaves of the plant, the leaves will basically fall to the ground because quercetin works as a vascular stabilizer of the plant vasculature. It makes the nice and taut and tight and it allows for the nutrients to go to the vessels in the plant.
When we take it orally as people and humans, when we take it, it does the same in our blood vessels. So, I use it for eye problem with the blood, small capillaries. I use for people that are bruising. I use it for hemorrhoids. I use it for leaky gut. I use for a lot of different things where there’s a permeability of the blood vessels.
To me when we think about the wonder of nature that it is pretty intelligent and amazing that the plant, how something works in the plant works exactly the same in people.
DEBRA: That’s so interesting. But I see that in nature (I’ve done a fair amount of study about nature myself), there’s consistency in their order and design and…
PAMELA SEEFELD: And, the cytochrome p450, which are the enzymes in your liver are found in the plant as well. That to me was the craziest thing that I have ever read. The liver enzymes that we have to metabolize medicines and what’s called phenobiotics, which is a terminology for like anything that we consume, maybe a chemical or plant, the metabolism in our liver is inherently related to the metabolism in plants themselves.
DEBRA: Wow! Amazing!
PAMELA SEEFELD: It is. So, we have to have a great appreciation for plants and understand that they provide wonderful things.
And most people, even if they don’t want to believe in alternative medicine (which I would find really hard to not be able to embrace that), everyone’s like, “Eat your fruits and vegetables. Eat plants. Eat salads,” well, what are you doing when you’re eating plants? You’re absorbing these vital nutrients and they’re helping your body.
So, you can help someone’s diet just by how they’re feeling and how they’re doing. I think your 20s and your 30s are very forgiving. People eat a lot of junk and stuff and they can get away with it. When you start you late 40s and your 50s, that’s when you’re not taking care of yourself and you’re not eating salads and trying to do something (it can’t be every day probably for most people, but in general, the trend of what you’re eating isn’t as healthy), that’s when people start having health issues.
That’s typical when I see people come to me because they’ve been able to coast along and now all of a sudden, things have happened. So, eating the plants, consuming specific remedies that I can suggest to you at a very economical cost –
And that’s really important people to know, that this is not very expensive stuff that I’m suggesting. We keep a chart for you, it’s very professional. If you call me and say, “My liver enzyme parameter came high. My kidney parameter came back a little high,” the time it would take you to deal with these issues is when you first find these numbers. When you wait and see what happens and you’re like, “We’ll keep watching it,” well, “watching it” means they hope it doesn’t keep going up. The problem with that is that there are certain things in the herbal medicine realm that can treat very well whereas in regular pharmacy, they have nothing.
DEBRA: Yes, that’s part of the problem. I know, I know. I see the difference. I have to go to a medical doctor because many, many years ago, I started taking thyroid supplement and you can’t just stop taking thyroid supplement although I’m holding out the hope that one day, I’ll figure out how to do that.
So, I have to go to the doctor every three months. I have to get a blood test. I have to get my thyroid prescription, et cetera. I can’t just stop taking it cold turkey because I would go into a coma. I almost did once when I tried that.
But in terms of keeping my body healthy, the doctors, the medical doctors just don’t have anything to give me but a drug. And that doesn’t contribute to health.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, yeah, you’re right. It’s important to realize that we’re not saying everything’s good or everything’s bad. I like to think to myself that I’m very reasonable about straddling the lines. Okay, you’re on thyroid medicine. I have homeopathic T3 T4. Is it going to replace your Synthroid? I don’t think so. For somebody that maybe is a little low on the bell curve and their reading is a little bit lower and for some reason, the doctor doesn’t want to give them thyroid, but there having symptoms of thyroid and they are having symptoms of hypothyroidism and they want to use that, perfect situation.
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You maybe don’t want to be on as much medicine or the doctors not willing to accommodate your needs as far as adjusting it a little bit because you feel like you’re just very sluggish. T3 T4 can help a little bit.
But basically, when the TSH just keeps releasing it and it’s elevated and it’s trying to release thyroid and it’s not, that feedback mechanism is gone. And as a result of it, you really need medicine.
I think life is not about good and bad, black or white. It’s really about knowing that there are certain things you can treat well with herbal medicine. Then there are other things that I tell people, “No. This is the medicine that they should have given you.” I’ll write the name of the prescription down and I’ll say, ” Go to the doctor and this is what they should have ordered.”
So, you have to really look at that, that your knowledge, you use it in a very effective manner for your patient. That’s what really comes down to. It’s not about saying, “This is also good or bad.” It’s really about, “Let’s be reasonable and from the chemistry stand point, what you need…”
And many times, I can say, “Look, let’s just try and get rid of it” and it does work. So, really, experience matters a lot.
DEBRA: Well, I think one of the reasons why I like you so much (aside from that I just think you’re a wonderful person), one of the reasons why I like you as someone to have around to advise me on some of these things is that you do have both the drug background and the natural background.
And so many people who have natural background don’t have a drug background. So, you could bring both of those and say, “This is the one that will be most effective thing to do in this particular situation.” You can help people…
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s a very true. That’s why I’m very proud of what I do because it’s not about shaming medicines. It’s not about totally saying 100% of the time that herbal medicines are going to work.
I know from the repertoire that I use here what works and what doesn’t. Case in point, your pre-kidney failure for yourself and for my pet, I know that product works. I’ve actually given talks to the doctors on that and they were pretty amazed because I’ve seen some dramatic results.
DEBRA: Yeah. We need to go to break again, but when we come back, we’ll talk more about specific things that knowing will help you take your natural supplements better. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Pamela Seefeld. Her website is BotanicalResource.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who also knows about how natural remedies can work as well if not better than drugs. But she also, as we’ve been talking about, knows when we need to take a drug as opposed to a natural remedy.
So, Pamela, before, you told us that if we eat a lot of fiber, that can interfere with absorption. Is there anything else we need to know about food?
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s good, yeah. Fat and protein, when you take fat and protein in a meal, it delays the emptying, the gastric emptying. And so, it delays the [inaudible 00:27:25] of the blood stream.
Let’s give it two examples. Say you’re having a really bad headache and you want to take a homeopathic remedy, you want to take a vitamin that helps for fighting a headache. If you want a peak in the bloodstream, you want it to be high and immediate and not have a delay of at least 20 minutes to an hour. You would want to take it in an empty stomach or you would want to take it with something fizzy, something that’s carbonated because carbonation pushes it to the bloodstream and you’ll get a peak within three to five minutes.
DEBRA: Oh! I didn’t know that. This is just great. It’s just great to know these things.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That way, it’s absorbed through the stomach. So, even pain relief. Let’s say you sprained something, you hit your hand and you’re taking a homeopathic that maybe has Arnica in it (I like tea relief a lot, which formerly was called Tramil), if you wanted to have a peak in the bloodstream faster, instead of just taking it orally or taking it under your tongue, if you put it in something that’s carbonated like Perrier or some Sprite (of course, I’m not a soda person), something that’s got some carbonation in it, even just seltzer water, your peak in the bloodstream is going to be immediate. That’s a good little trick to get it to absorb to the stomach. Fat and protein delay emptying.
So, if you take something that’s time released or you want this to last over the course of the day, you want to take it with a meal. That’s how food affects absorption with these particular things.
DEBRA: Very interesting! The first time I realized that what I was eating was affecting my medication was I used to take soy protein bars for breakfast. I would take my thyroid pill and I would eat the soy bar only to find out that soy negates thyroid.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yup, you’re absolutely right.
DEBRA: And it just amazes me. I had no idea. I was just eating and taking vitamins. We don’t even think about these things. I was completely negating my entire prescription. So then, when I went back to the doctor, he asked me if I was eating soy. But nobody ever told me at the beginning that soy could do that.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s very important to know, that what you’re eating at the same time as you’re taking supplements, we were talking about fiber sequestering it, so your peak in the bloodstream is low and you might not even absorb the contents because it’s going to be sequestered in the bowel basically inside the fiber.
Also, if you’re taking something that has Vitamin A, D, E and K, which are the fat soluble vitamins, you need to take fat at the same time to have them be absorbed. The reason behind that is that the taste of fat in your mouth (even if it’s just a few almonds), the taste of fat in your mouth releases bile acids in the small intestines. And so when you have a vitamin that has these fat soluble vitamins, say, Vitamin E, you’re not going to absorb it if you’re taking it with pear. So, that’s important to know.
DEBRA: That is important to know. Now, but also, I think it applies to the vitamins in food as well like a supplement. If you’re eating those foods that would have those vitamins in it, then you need to eat some fat with those foods. It’s so interesting how to optimize all these things.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It is.
DEBRA: I think it’s all so new, but once we start understanding it, I think can actually apply this.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I was going to say, another thing to, say you’re taking a homeopathic to block acids, we know stomach acids peak between 10 pm to 2 am. So, that’s why a lot of people have indigestion at night, more heartburns are going to be in the evenings.
So, I used a lot of Reflux Rx because people don’t want to be in a proton pump inhibitor like Protonics and Prilosec and these medicines, we have to remember when you take Protonics, Prilosec, Nexium, any of those medicines that are proton pump inhibitors (and a lot of people are on those), when you take those medicines in a consistent basis, you absorb no calcium and no iron. And that is very important for people to know. You’re going to end up with anemia and you’re going to end up with very frail, brittle bones.
DEBRA: Another important thing to look at. See, this is why I wanted to do this show.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It is important!
DEBRA: You mentioned about time of day. I think there is more about time of day.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct! So, some interesting tidbits, the Wallstreet Journal had a really interesting article…
DEBRA: Very good article.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, very good. It’s about your body’s witching hours. It talks about the worst times of day for your health. And I think this is very important for your listeners.
Overnight, you blood pressure and your core body temperature and heart rate are at their lowest, which makes sense. But melatonin, of course, is at its highest. But the liver releases large amount of glucose and blood sugar levels rise between 4am and 6am.
Now, how is this important? It’s important for a person that’s watching their fasting blood sugar when they first get up in the morning if they’re a diabetic. It’s normally going to be elevated because the liver is dumping all this sugar.
So people need to take that into account when they’re checking their fasting blood sugar. They haven’t eaten all night, they take their blood sugar, if it’s high, it might not necessarily be pre-diabetes. It might be the fact that depending on how much glucose the liver has dumped, that might be pre-disposing you to inaccurate readings.
DEBRA: Especially if you get up at five in the morning and take it. That’s just the peak time.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right.
DEBRA: That’s the peak time. That’s an important thing.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Right. So maybe somebody that’s monitoring their sugars, maybe their fasting blood sugar is like in the 90s or close to a hundred. They have a glucose monitor. They’re really on top of things. They’re trying to figure out how to get their sugars down. They keep taking it early in the mornings and it’s registering high. But when they take it in the afternoon, maybe fix or six hours have gone and they haven’t eaten, then all of a sudden, it seems normal. They’re perplexed, they can’t figure out why. It’s important to realize what times of day sugar is being released at a higher amount.
So also, cortisol. Now, cortisol is a stress hormone. That increases in the morning when you first get up. The reason why that your body does that is it’s trying to prepare for the day. Your mind starts racing, “Oh, I’ve got to call this person. I’ve got to go buy groceries. I’ve got to go, do here.” Let’s face it, all of our days are filled with errands and things to do.
So, cortisol goes higher as a stress hormone. That’s why we know more heart attacks and strokes between 6:00 am and noon. Cortisol can be a pre-requisite to heart attacks.
DEBRA: Good, Good. So if anybody wants to look up this article, it’s called Your Body’s Witching Hour. Is that the title?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct.
DEBRA: You can just search for that, but I’ll put a link to it.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s Tuesday, June 2nd of this year, that’s when it came out
DEBRA: That’s a very good article. Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: So knowing what times of day heart attacks are more frequent. If you’re going to taking a baby aspirin or in place of a baby aspirin, if you want to be taking a 800 to 1200 units of vitamin E, you need take it in the day time, not in the afternoon because you’re most at risk for the heart attack in the morning. That’s important to know.
And as I was saying, if you’re going to take something for heart burn, for stomach acid, I used a lot of Reflux RX. It’s medical. It’s very good for people that don’t want to be in the proton pump inhibitors as I was talking about, the acid not being there to absorb those things. You want to take it at night.
DEBRA: Okay, good. And that’s why doctors tell you take this at night or take it with your meals or whatever. When we come from the break, we’ll talk more about when to take you take your supplements and how to determine your dose.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Pamela Seefeld. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Pamela Seefeld. We’re talking about what we can learn from a pharmacist about how we take our natural supplements.
So Pamela, there’s a couple that I can think go together that I’ve noticed and that is about dose and also, about taking your supplements throughout the day. Talk about what you tell about drinking water throughout the day? Knowing you has changed completely how I take things because I have my bottled with my liquid supplements in it. I also spread my solid supplements throughout the day, breakfast, lunch and dinner for the reasons you’re going to tell us.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Right, a very good question. So, a lot of times, when I give somebody homeopathic remedies, we’re putting it in a water bottle and you’re drinking it over the course of six to eight hours a day.
The reason why you want to do is that every time you take a sip, your body is taking a hit of the medication. It’s like getting an IV fluid. We think about the people in critical care at the hospital, you have them on continuous drip. There’s a reason behind that. We want this to be released continuously into the body.
When you take something just for one time, let’s say you take everything in the morning with a swig of water and you walked out the door and you don’t take anything else the rest of the day, depending on what you ate, whatever your breakfast was [inaudible 00:40:02], maybe you add a big bowl of All Bran’s extra fiber and you didn’t absorb any of it or maybe you had some fat and protein if you had some scrambled eggs and then maybe it’s delaying it for another hour, the peaks in the bloodstream are going to be a sudden peak. It’s going to be, in the bloodstream, let’s say, 15 to 20 minutes, maybe less than that. And then after that, there’s no medicine around.
So, if you’re trying to get a therapeutic outcome and you’re looking to have a result, if you’re not just taking them just because you just want to take them (and I respect people’s time and money ), if you’re going to take something and you really want to absorb it and you really want it to be effective for you, then as a result of that, you really need to look and see taking it through the day.
And a lot of people are taking the homeopathic supplements that are liquids because it is easy. Just throw it in your purse or put it on your desk, drink it through the day and you have much more consistent result because of that.
DEBRA: Yes, I just think that’s so important because I used to take everything in the morning. I would say, “I can’t remember this through the day. “ But after listening to your explanation about this it made so much sense to me that I now make sure that I take it all day long.
I actually have three little containers on my desk where I work. One says ‘breakfast’, ‘lunch’ and ‘dinner’. I can see them in front of me all day long. So, there’s no forgetting. I know that I’m just supplementing my body all day long and it does seem to make a difference.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It will. And the thing that’s important too. Like we were talking about the different times of the day, as another aside, I’m talking about this article here. Arthritic joints are stiffest and most painful between 8:00 am and 11:00 am. That’s because when you sleep at night, you have a rise in pro-inflammatory markers.
Now, why is this important? Because these rise and pro-inflammatory markers that takes place while you’re sleeping (it makes you have arthritis and stiffness in your joints when you first wake up in the morning. And of course, part of it is inactivity when you’re lying in bed), but a lot of this is these pro-inflammatory markers, if your c-reactive protein or your SED rate or your estrogen (there’s different things that the doctor can do) or your ANA, all these different tests, these numbers (the c-reactive protein is more associated with heart attacks. If they’re worried about your heart, they’ll do that, so they can be aware of what your number is), if those are mildly elevated, then you need to take some anti-inflammatory at bed time before you go to bed. It -might help the morning stiffness and some of the arthritis that may be associated for some of these individuals.
DEBRA: Good!
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s important to know. Those inflammatory markers, that’s probably part of the explanation we were talking about heart attacks in the mornings. This article doesn’t go into that factor. But heart attacks are more frequent in the morning, we know cortisol rises in the morning, we know that stiffness due to pro-inflammatory factors is from the evening when you sleep is rising, it would make logical sense that the c-reactive protein, these inflammatory markers that are elevated at night not only contributing to arthritis, but they’re also contributing to heart attack prevalence.
DEBRA: Yes, good.
PAMELA SEEFELD: So, taking these things, if you’re going to take an anti-inflammatory, arthritis or not, but maybe you’re worried about heart disease, maybe you have heart disease in your family, maybe your doctors are already giving you something for heart disease prevention, the time to be taking homeopathic or vitamin supplements for inflammation might be at your bed time.
DEBRA: Okay.
PAMELA SEEFELD: So, that’s important to know.
DEBRA: You want to take things at the right time of day, that’s so important. So, we only have few minutes, but I want to make sure that we just talk about dose for a minute.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah.
DEBRA: There’s a big difference between taking six pills or one pill. How do you what the right dose is.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, obviously, we’re talking about the dose. When we dose children, we dose it in so many milligrams per kilogram. So it’s done on weight.
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: If we’re not talking about [inaudible 00:44:01] and we’re not talking about smalls animals (like we were talking about this earlier in the show), then we are looking at what is the normal therapeutic dose for most individuals.
Most of the time, I’m very conservative. I start with a few things and I start with the lowest dose that I think is going to be successful. If you start on a dose that’s higher, first of all, you might be overmedicating. And secondly, if we do a dose that’s higher, you’re going to be more at risk for side effects. And there can be side effects for anything.
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: And I have to tell people too that when you’re talking about dose, when you see a product and it’s a vitamin product and it’s got about 20 different things in it and its says it’s herbal pain relief or just some kind of a generic product, when you have lots of different herbal products in one container, one capsule, there’s more chance for side effect than if you use one single agent at a time.
So, a lot of times, I use single remedies. I don’t use a bunch of combination remedies because if someone’s not responding correctly or they’re responding adversely, you don’t know which ingredient is causing the problem.
DEBRA: Exactly! I tried to take just single ones too. Right now, I’m taking an herbal blend because that was what I was given, but I’m actually doing really well on it. But usually, I just try to take single things and I tell people to just take single nutrients or herbs or whatever because that way, you’ll be able to tell what is the problem if there is a problem.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Also, I wanted to caution people. When you’re taking blood pressure, because a lot of people have hypertension, your blood pressure will peak at 9:00 pm at night. So, if you take it in the morning and you take it night and every single time, you take it in the evening and then every time you go back to the doctor, he’s looking at your numbers that you’ve been writing down and he says, “Oh, your blood pressure is going up at night. Let’s add another medicine,” (I’m just bringing blood pressure as an example. I can treat that homeopathically for your clients that are listening), but what I want to tell people is that typically, this is what they’ll do, they start somebody on a beta blocker or something like that at the doctor’s office and then instead of titrating that particular medicine up and bringing it to its maximum or near maximum dosage, just because the dose was too low, they add another drug. And then, they add another drug.
It’s not uncommon that I see someone with mild hypertension on three things, low doses of three different things.
So, you need to question that. If you take your blood pressure at night, it seems like it’s high, but it’s normally what it’s supposed to be. It’s important for you to look at those numbers and not be over-zealous in treating them.
And if their doctors are giving you two or three different things for your blood pressure, maybe it’s something that you can approach – unless you have another existing condition like congested heart failure or something else. But a non-complicated mild hypertension, please question whether you need to be on two or three medicines where they’re using low doses and they never really have used the correct dose of the first drug.
DEBRA: Well, also, I know from watching from other people around me that you can take care of high blood pressure just by taking magnesium.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes.
DEBRA: …that it can be just a nutrient deficiency. Just taking magnesium can take care of that. So, I’ve seen that happen over and over. It’s pretty amazing to me have a lot of people seem to have high blood pressure, but it’s not because they’re sick in some way. It’s just that they are not getting enough nutrition.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right. Magnesium makes a big difference in the blood pressure. But also, if someone has a mild hypertension – you know, people are stressed out a lot. Cortisol is a big driver of hypertension. And especially the top number, the systolic blood pressure, if you use 1500 mg vitamin C of time-released vitamin C and you do that twice a day (I use a 12-hour release Vitamin C called C-Max), that would lower it 20 points in four days. And that’s an easy way to get the top number down.
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: For the bottom number, I use Cartego Complex. It’s homeopathic Hawthorn. That takes that bottom number down nice and easy.
So there are things you can do. Blood pressure, and we were talking about kidney failure and different things, there are things you can do and you need to question whether you need to be on so many medications. Titrating up to the correct dose is really more important than keep adding in another medicine or another homeopathic remedy. We respect people’s time and money. You want to make sure that if you are not maxing out at the right dose of whatever product you are using or whatever vitamin, then you are not really sure what’s working and what isn’t.
DEBRA: How do you know what the right dose is?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Empirically, it will depend on the product that you’re using. But as a pharmacist, I can tell you – I’ll give you an example, Vitamin C. After 5g of vitamin C at any one time, you really don’t absorb it anymore. It basically spills out into the urine. So, if you’re going to give someone high dose of vitamin c, you would want to say, “Okay, maybe I should split that dose up through the day if I really want to absorb it,” so this person gets the full benefit of the C and it’s not necessarily going and being wasted. So, it’s important to know.
And these doses have all been determined by scientific method. So, now we know. And people can look those up. I wouldn’t just search it in Google, but if you look it in the National Library of Medicine, you can find all the medical data that’s been published on things.
Or I would just say to tell them to call me. I’d be glad to answer over the phone if there’s a question about, “Are you taking too much? Are taking too little? And what are you treating?” Sometimes people are just taking thing empirically just for their general health. That’s great. Other times, somebody actually has a real condition and they are trying to treat something. And if they are using sub-therapeutic dose, they are going to see any outcome.
I see this a lot where people say, “I tried that vitamin and it didn’t do like they said.” And then I’m like, “Well, what was the product you were using and what was the dose?” And then, they give me this glassy-eyed look. People don’t realize you just don’t take something randomly off the shelf and take it and think that it’s going to work. There should be…
DEBRA: I have to interrupt you, Pamela just because we only have seconds left. So, why don’t you give your phone number real quick.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, it’s 727-442-4955.
DEBRA: Okay, thank you so much! This has been a great show. You can go to the ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and find out about all the shows and there are transcripts. So, if you want to read the transcript of this show, it will be available next Tuesday.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well!
GMOs in Personal Care Products
Today my guest is Diana Kaye. She and husband James Hahn are co-founders of their USDA certified organic business Terressentials. They’ve been on this show together many times, but today Diana is here to talk about GMOs in personal care products. As an organic body care product formulator for more than 20 years, Diana knows all about what is going on in the industry. Diana and James are the husband-and-wife co-founders of the USDA certified organic business Terressentials. They own a small organic farm in lovely Middletown Valley, Maryland and have operated their organic herbal personal care products business there since 1996. Terressentials was originally started in Virginia in 1992. It grew out of their search for chemical-free products after Diana’s personal experience with cancer and chemotherapy in 1988. Prior to Diana’s cancer, they were involved in commercial architecture in Washington DC. Diana and James are proud to be an authentic USDA certified organic and Fair Made USA business. They are obsessive organic researchers and artisan handcrafters of more than one hundred USDA certified organic gourmet personal care products that they offer through their two organic stores in Frederick County, Maryland, through a network of select retail partners across the US, and to customers around the world via their informative web site. www.debralynndadd.com/debras-list/terressentials
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH DIANA KAYE & JAMES HAHN
- Toxics in Essential Oils?
- How to Restore Your “Virgin Hair”
- How to Read a Label on Organic Personal Care Products
- More About “Organic”: Politics and the Regulation of Marketplace Distribution
- The Challenges of Achieving Organic Certification
- What Organic Means — From the Experience of Being Organic Farmers
- Why One Couple Decided to Get an Organic Farm and Make USDA Certified Organic Gourmet Personal Care Products
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
GMOs in Personal Care Products
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Diana Kaye
Date of Broadcast: July 14, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It’s Tuesday, July 14th, 2015. I am here in beautiful Clearwater, Florida where I think it’s going to start having thunderstorm pretty soon, but I think we should be fine for the show today. We actually have thunderstorms here every day in the summertime. In fact, I’m not too far away from the extreme weather capital of the United States. We have a lot of thunderstorms and hurricane sometimes too, but anyway, thunderstorms are very predictable.
Today, my guest is Diana Kaye. She’s been on the show before. She and her husband are co-founders of their USDA certified organic business Terressentials where they make personal care products, which means that not only are the ingredients are certified organic, but the business itself and all the making of the product is organic as well.
She’s been in the personal care industry for more than 20 years and she knows a lot about what’s going on behind the scenes. Today, we’re going to be talking about something that is not usually discussed about personal care products and that is GMOs. Diana’s going to tell us what’s going on with GMOs in personal care products. Hi, Diana.
DIANA KAYE: Hey, Debra.
DEBRA: How are you doing?
DIANA KAYE: I’m doing fine. I think we’re going to have a thunderstorm here in any minute. So hopefully, we won’t have some kind of an electrical thing going on.
DEBRA: Oh, wait. I think I hear a thunder. I think I hear a thunder.
DIANA KAYE: You guys have rain every day. It’s coming into a tropical rainforest down here in Maryland because we have had so much rain this summer as well.
DEBRA: Yeah. We have a lot. For those of you who don’t live on the east coast or the south, this is the way it is. This is the way it is all over.
DIANA KAYE: I know I’m laughing about it. There are people that are not having enough rain and I’d love to give it to them.
DEBRA: I know.
DIANA KAYE: We’ve just had so much, but it makes the flowers grow.
DEBRA: It does, it does. And I love it. I love it. This is why I always just wear tank tops and Capri pants because I never know when I’m going to get soaking wet.
DIANA KAYE: That sounds familiar.
DEBRA: I grew up in Northern California and we hardly ever had thunderstorms. So I just love it. I just love it.
Anyway, this is not a show about thunderstorms. We’re going to talk about GMOs in personal care products. But first, would you just explain. I think this is a really important point and I’m seeing slowly. I’m starting to see more of the difference between using organic ingredients versus certified organic as a company.
DIANA KAYE: Debra, thank you for bring that up because that is a very serious issue and a concern of mine and my husband’s for many years. If you’re a business – this could be for anybody. I don’t care what kind of business they are. Maybe right now, I’m telling people how to cheat.
You could call a company that is a certified organic producer of the cocoa butter or vanilla. And you can say, “I’m interesting in buying your ingredients. Can you please prove to me that you’re certified organic?” And that company will hand you a copy of their organic certificate. Voila, you have it. You don’t ever have to buy the ingredient, but you have this company’s certificate in hand. So it’s unfortunate.
DEBRA: Oh, my goodness.
DIANA KAYE: We talked about correction in government a lot, but there is a serious lack of ethics just across the board in the United States for sure and probably this happens in other industrialized countries as well.
That’s very sad because many companies claim that their ingredients are organic and they boldly put organic in their company names. They put it on their website. They even put it on their packages in more than one place. But who’s verifying what these people say?
There are companies that I have seen that claim this and they are claiming they have organic ingredients that do not exist. And they claim that their products are organic and some people say their products are beyond organic. But here’s the fact. If you don’t have anybody, an independent authority verifying that, then, I repeat, you simply cannot trust somebody’s word. You just can’t. There’s a huge difference.
For example, we’re certified organic and every year, we have to submit what’s called an organic plan. For us, it’s a huge four inch binder. So we have to maintain not only organic certificates for everything we buy, but we have to maintain all the invoices, which show the quantities. And then we have to maintain production logs and inventory tracking for every single ingredient.
When they do an audit, which for sure at least definitely annually (and sometimes, they can do surprise audit), they have to track what you say made versus what you bought. It has to match up. And they make us track down to 0.01.
It’s tedious. It’s consuming. It’s highly technical. It takes a lot of effort to maintain this documentation to submit your organic plan every year and then go through this inspection.
That’s the difference. When we say organic, we mean it. And our facility, it’s not just ingredients, but your whole building. We have a crafting studio. It’s inspected and you cannot have chemicals, pesticides on site. They check your cleaning product. They even want to know how you’re trapping your insects and mice. You have to maintain your pest plan, cleaning maintenance schedule. These all have to be in writing, so everything is documented.
DEBRA: I just want people to know that there is a difference between what Diana is talking about being a certified company where she’s putting ingredients together to make her products, but her whole facility is certified organic. We really need to be looking at that now and not just looking at the word “organic” on the label or even asking for the certificate.
This is the new standard. This is the standard – the facility also needs to be organic. I say that because if it’s not, then there’s the opportunity for things that are toxic to get into the product.
DIANA KAYE: For sure.
DEBRA: We’ve actually talked about this on another show.
DIANA KAYE: Yes.
DEBRA: I wanted to bring this up because I have my attention on this right now.
DIANA KAYE: I’m so glad. Certificate isn’t good enough. That’s right. The company will send you a certificate for ingredients. That’s not good enough. You need to have a certificate for the product, their finished product because you can get an organic certificate anywhere. That means nothing without certification of the actual product.
DEBRA: Yes. So anyway, let’s talk about GMO’s because that’s what we’re here to talk about today. So I’m just going to let you take the subject and run with it because I don’t even know what to ask you.
DIANA KAYE: That’s okay because it’s a pretty complex issue. If you’re in the biotech world, it is because there are so many different protocols that are involved.
The thing that’s most important for people to know is in the world of certified organic under the Federal Law, GMOs are prohibited from being in certified organic products. So if people are concerned about these genetically modified organisms, your best bet is to go certified organic, USDA certified organic because it is one standard in the world that explicitly prohibits GMOs from being included in products that are certified organic.
Generally a lot of people today I think are familiar with GMOs. A lot of nonprofit groups have been up in arms in fighting some of the big corporations.
DEBRA: Wait. Let’s not assume that everybody knows what a GMO is because we hear about it a lot. But you know how sometimes you can hear about something and not know what it is and then you don’t ask anybody and you don’t look at it.
We actually are going to need to go to break in a matter of seconds. But when we come back, let’s start with what is a GMO and what kinds of things in terms of personal care products. We hear a lot about GMOs in foods, but we don’t hear about GMOs in personal care products. Of course, they probably would be there.
So we’re going to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Diana Kaye. She’s from Terressentials and they’re at Terressentials.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Diana Kaye from Terressentials.
We’re talking about GMOs in personal care products. Okay, Diana. Let’s start with what is a GMO.
DIANA KAYE: That really is an excellent point. Thank you for backing me up.
GMO actually stands for genetically modified organism or transgenic organism, which means any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. So GMOs are things that are created in a laboratory.
We have a variety of different types of GMOs. GMOs can happen in just simply a plant that might be used for fiber. There have been experiments where they have inserted jellyfish genes into different plant materials. They have played with species like cross-species, plants into animals. So there are genes from glowworm into a monkey. We have got all kinds of mad science going on out there.
The thing about GMOs is that they are all synthetically created. They use a variety of different types of chemicals to culture cells, to manipulate them, to alter them and to create things essentially that have never before existed in nature. So here you have men and women playing creator. The problem with this that a lot of people agree with in terms of people who are more environmentally inclined is that we’re unleashing on the world things that have never existed, that didn’t occur or evolve naturally.
This really has been going on, believe it or not, for about the past 60 years in small instances, mostly with plants by doing manipulation of plant cells from to another to create hybrids, to create plants and some woods for industry. But it’s now expanded beyond just simply hybridizing types of techniques for plants into some rather insidious forms of manipulation.
DEBRA: Yeah. When something is made from a hybridized plant, is that considered to be a GMO?
DIANA KAYE: If it’s performed with GMO techniques, not the centuries old implantation of pollen grains, if it’s done in a lab and in a Petri dish. And they may mutate something or create a mutation by exposing it to radiation. They may mutate something by exposing it to a very toxic petrochemical. These are not natural techniques. It’s not what occurs in nature.
Humans in the past would create hybrids and they might dip a feather in pollen from one flower and move that pollen with the feather to another plant, another flower. That’s how they might have created hybrid in the past. And humans have been doing that for centuries, maybe even thousands of years.
This is very different in the settings and the way that they are manipulating. They’re not just taking those pollen grains. For example, maybe they’re taking pollen or they may take a plan stem cell. We think, “Oh, plant stem cell. That sounds like that’s really beneficial.” Well, hold on. That’s another scary thing.
But they will react, that material, whether it’d be a plant stem cell or a pollen grain and they can react it in any one of hundreds of different ways to alter that genetic material.
DEBRA: But this is very different. I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I just want to keep it simple because there’s probably a lot we have to talk about here.
I think I was asking a question because a lot of times, you go to a nursery or something and you want to buy seeds to plant in your garden. It will say hybrid this or hybrid that. That’s not the same necessarily as GMO corn.
DIANA KAYE: It actually very well maybe.
DEBRA: Okay, that’s the question I’m asking you. If we’re talking about the bigger subject we are discussing here today, which is keeping GMOs out of personal care products, the GMO might be GMO corn for example. But if the ingredient is hybrid lavender, is that a GMO?
DIANA KAYE: There’s no way for you to know unless you specifically request in writing “Is this a GMO-free material?” It’s not scary. That’s how it is in our world today.
DEBRA: There are so many hybrids. I mean you can hardly go – I’m not a prolific gardener, but I’m a gardener enough that I have purchased seeds. And mostly, I like to purchase heirloom seeds and I don’t purchase hybrids. I want the pure strains. They grow differently.
Even when I lived in California, we had plants. I lived in a valley actually where it was enclosed and we had a lot of gardeners and we would all pass our plants back and forth to each other because we actually were creating varieties that were suited to our specific area. But we weren’t doing it in a lab with toxic chemicals and putting in fish genes and stuff like that.
Gardeners have been doing that forever and that’s not what we’re talking about. When I go to the store and I see seeds with big popular brand names on them, it’s all hybrids because that’s something that they can patent as opposed to something that a gardener grows in their backyard.
DIANA KAYE: Exactly. This is happening around the world with giant multinational corporations going to various countries and taking the traditional crops and taking them into their labs altering these traditional crops that people have owned for thousands of years that families and indigenous farmers have used. They have saved their seeds. They pass these seeds and plant them for generation.
And what’s happening in many countries is the corporations are manipulating the plant material inserting genetically modified organisms, changing the plant, patenting it and then excluding farmers from the material that they have owned. It’s their birthright. It’s a crisis in this country.
That’s been going on for more than 20 years and probably some people have heard about that. But now, it’s moved even beyond that. If it could get worse, it’s gotten worse.
DEBRA: We need to go to break, but when we come back. We’re going to talk more about this. This is a whole day subject to think about.
DIANA KAYE: It is.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Diana Kaye from Terressentials. They’re at Terressentials.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Diana Kaye from Terressentials. Okay. Now that we’ve established what a GMO is – did we finish that?
DIANA KAYE: Probably yes.
DEBRA: Now let’s talk about how you find out if there are GMOs in the personal care products or not.
DIANA KAYE: To reiterate from my previous discussion here today, how do you trust people? Today, if you are a personal care products company, many people would not even ask the question of their supplier. If you’re a company producing products, if you want to be ignorant or if you just don’t know enough, you’re not going to ask the right questions about your ingredients. And if you are not certified organic company, you’re at the mercy of whoever you’re buying ingredients from and whatever those ingredients might be.
I’ve seen today, there are always tends in the person care industry and we don’t really follow trends like that. We’re more of a traditionally herbal-based organic company. But there are trends and latest trends that sound really important and exciting, plant stem cell technology. And also we’re hearing a lot about peptides.
People, consumers buy these things and they’ll buy them often from health food because they think that these things are better than what is on the market, the wide open marketplace. However, many of the people again in the stores that brings these products. They have no idea. If it says “all natural,” that’s what they bring in and if it’s on the web, people say whatever they want because we don’t really have heavy oversight from any government agency over what personal care product companies are saying about their ingredients and their products.
I’ve seen a very, very large interest and movement into personal care products with synthetic GMO ingredients and also of course in the food world. But in our world, which is certified organic, a lot of our ingredients come from the food world. So we buy from food manufacturers.
One of the things that I wanted to mention and this is a rather new offshoot of GMOs is that there actually was a protocol, an agreement, an international agreement signed, the Cartagena Protocol back almost 10 years ago where a number of countries got together, the United Nations countries got together and made agreements about what GMO would mean and how we would protect the world and its citizens from economic harm and environmental harm and personal health.
But today, we have now a new twist on this. We have something going on called Synthetic Biology. My belief is that this is created by a lot of international corporations – we can talk about that – to go under the radar of the Cartagena Protocol.
If I can just read this quote from Friends Of The Earth…
DEBRA: Please do because this is a new term for me, Synthetic Biology.
DIANA KAYE: It’s really worth becoming educated about. Debra, it could be a whole other topic for a show, but this is frightening, very frightening.
“Consumers trust that when products are marketed as natural and sustainable, they will not contain ingredients produced via genetic engineering or synthetic biology,” as we already discussed, the certification or USDA organic certification. “However,” listen to this, “synthetic biology also known in the tech world as synbio is an extreme version of genetic engineering.”
Are you getting goosebumps? Instead of swapping genes from one species to another as in conventional genetic engineering – and this is Diana adding as if that wasn’t scary enough – synthetic biologists employ a number of new genetic engineering techniques. And I put emphasis on the word new.
One of the things that they’re doing is using synthetic human-made DNA to create entirely new forms of life or to reprogram existing organisms to produce chemicals that they would not produce naturally.
DEBRA: Why? Why? Why?
DIANA KAYE: So here is all about money. It’s about money. I’m going to give you an example of an ingredient. This has actually crossed our company’s path as a certified organic company.
Vanilla. Everybody knows about vanilla. It’s my favorite flavor. There are 49 flavors of ice cream and I’m going to go for vanilla. I love the flavor.
DEBRA: I love vanilla. I love vanilla.
DIANA KAYE: The thing about vanilla is that it’s a tropical orchid. It’s interdependent upon a forest environment to be able to grow. So you don’t really grow it in rows like you do corn and it’s been a plant that has been harvested for a really, really long time, centuries.
In order to cultivate this plant, which is a forest plant, the people have always maintained the forest. And you have to create a great balance there so that you would always have this beautiful vanilla orchid growing and to be able to sustain a farming community. They would then sustain the forest and then the world would have this delicious wonderful bean, this vanilla bean.
DEBRA: I just think that’s so beautiful, just that description that there needs to be a forest to have a vanilla.
DIANA KAYE: Yeah. Maybe that adds to just aroma and the incredible complexity of the vanilla. And it’s grown in several countries around the world, but it sustains communities and protects our tropical forests.
But it’s also expensive. If anyone has seen an orchid, it’s a very delicate plant. The production volumes are not high. So it requires a lot of labor and a lot of anchorage. In other words, we’re really maintaining a lot of our forests in order to produce vanilla. It’s a really wonderfully human compatible crop in my opinion. However, it’s costly to produce. If you have a problem with thunderstorms, too much rains, not enough rains, it’s such a delicate plant that that really can dramatically affect your harvest and your commodity in citrus markets.
Diet corporations don’t like widely fluctuating prices and they don’t like expensive ingredients because for them, it’s about “How can we bring something to market and make the most money, profits to make our shareholders happy this quarter or next quarter?”
DEBRA: I need to interrupt you right here just because we need to go to break. And then we’ll finish your story when we come back and I can hardly wait to hear what you can say.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Diana Kaye. She and her husband are Co-Founders of their USDA certified organic business Terressentials. When we come back, Diana will tell us more about GMOs in personal care products. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Diana Kaye from the USDA certified organic business Terressentials. Okay, Diana. Finish your story about vanilla. Hello?
DIANA KAYE: Sorry about that. Vanilla, it is. Buttons in our technological world. I wanted to talk about vanilla because I think it’s something that so many people are familiar with and it’s so wonderful and it’s so safe and so beautiful.
One of my problems today, one of my big concerns is that certain companies have taken this incredibly beautiful ingredient, the flavor that so many million, maybe billions of people love and they have transformed it using extreme synthetic biology. The frightening thing is because synthetic biology is not identified in the Cartagena Protocol, these corporations are flying under the radar of an agreed upon set of regulations, international regulations.
For example, the vanilla now, what they are doing is they are – again, I’m just going to read something from Friends Of The Earth because it’s just so clear. “Synthetic biology vanillin is different from the artificial vanillin already on the market.” Of course natural vanilla comes from the vanilla orchid.
For years, we’ve seen artificial vanilla or vanillin, which is reacted with petroleum chemicals of completely synthetic source. But today, artificial vanillin is a mix of chemical components. The new synthetic biology vanillin is synthesized by a genetically engineered organism, which is a GMO yeast engineered using synbio techniques.
So what they are doing is they’re using yeast and bacteria and they are re-engineering them so that the – there’s no delicate way to put this. But the excrements from the yeast and the bacteria are producing, depending upon how they manipulate these bacteria yeast and what they feed them, they are creating flavors that are in food and are being used as aeronautics and personal care products.
The frightening thing is that these synbio people are really clever. They associate with GMO because remember they’re flying under the international regulations. So they’re calling it synthetic biology. So when they re-engineer these yeasts, they’re saying, “Oh, it’s a naturally fermented product.” They’re actually now calling this synthetically engineered vanilla “natural.” That is frightening.
And the industry says, “Oh, it’s so environmentally friendly because we don’t need soil to grow the plant material. We don’t have to depend on rain or use water to irrigate the crop.” They’re completely excluding the fact that they essentially are going to be putting all these families out of business who have farmed this ingredient.
Let’s back up a second. What are they feeding these engineered yeasts, these bio-engineered yeasts and or bacteria? They’re feeding them sugar and sugar is something that is controlled. So they can clear or cut a rainforest to grow sugarcane and use the sugar to feed these yeasts and or bacteria to produce what they want. But the sugarcane can be cultivated like chlorine and rose and you can use machines to harvest and process. I can tell you the sugar is not organic. So is it genetically modified sugar?
But they’re using it to feed these yeasts and bacteria to produce this synbio vanilla. And the frightening thing is…
DEBRA: But it’s not going to say GMO on it.
DIANA KAYE: No. In fact, it is now being called “natural vanilla.” And the frightening is we got a product information sheet in the certificate from a company that sells in the food industry. We submitted it to our organic certifier.
The certifier’s job is to investigate certificates to make sure that they are legitimate. If there’s a question about a product, they communicate with the company because they have confidentiality agreement. So the company would not tell me or you their processing. If they claim to be organic, they’re supposed to reveal this information on a confidential basis under the trade secrets guide to anyone from the USDA and or an accredited USDA certifier.
Here’s what we found out. A vanilla being sold as organic under the USDA [inaudible 00:44:29] was included. It’s part of that component. You would expect a vanilla that’s organic to be vanilla beans steeped in grain alcohol if it’s an extract because that’s your traditional vanilla extract, right?
DEBRA: Right.
DIANA KAYE: Well, this vanilla included vanillin, a naturally fermented natural vanillin that was spiked with that, an organic ingredient. Is this frightening?
DEBRA: It is frightening, but it just reinforces what I’ve been saying for a long time. If you really want to know what’s in your stuff, you need to just start with the natural ingredient and make it yourself. After this story, I’m only buying vanilla beans.
DIANA KAYE: I hate to bring this up, but the fact is this is a company for whatever reason that shows to spike vanilla. And somebody told them, “Oh, use this. It’s naturally fermented.”
There are a lot of issues with that because under the 95 Organic Rules, if something is organic, that means 95% or more of the ingredients are certified organic. And if there’s any percentage like 5% or less, that material that you add to that organic product must be on the USDA National List of Approved Substances.
It gets gray there. Why in the world would you be spiking an organic vanilla with a natural vanilla?
DEBRA: I think they didn’t understand what it was.
DIANA KAYE: We’ll say that, but the thing is this is just one ingredient. In a certifier practice, if the product is not certified, who’s catching these things? That’s because they’re being sold as “natural.”
And the synbio, these GMOs, they’re doing all kinds of things, all different kinds of ingredients that are being used not just in the food world, but in the personal care world or a host of things. Sometimes, people would be so surprised to find out.
But the companies are getting behind this because these ingredients are cheap. They’re inexpensive. They’re synthetically created.
Debra, you may know this from being aware of so many chemically sensitive people that – this has been tested – you can expose people to something like a real plant, a real flower aroma. Actually put this flower under their nose and let them inhale it and they’ll be okay.
You can take that same person – this is almost like the folks who have lost their vision. Their other senses become enhanced. When people have been chemically compromised, some of their other senses and their sense of smell become tremendously enhanced. So a lot of times, people can smell. More sensitive individuals can smell the difference or taste the difference. But that’s not everybody. That’s not the whole population.
We’re more concerned about GMOs. Now we have something completely different that we’re going to have to start focusing on, which is synthetic biology masquerading as natural.
DEBRA: This is just incredible to be. I think there’s so much more we could say about this, but we only got about a minute left.
DIANA KAYE: How did that happen?
DEBRA: I know. I just don’t want to cut you off in the middle of the sentence because the show is ending. But we really got a minute and a half. It’s what we have right now.
This is new and fascinating informative and something that I need to look into because to have something be synthetic biology certainly isn’t natural.
DIANA KAYE: No, it isn’t.
DEBRA: And we need to know this and we need to know more about it. Wow.
DIANA KAYE: I can make a suggestion Debra.
DEBRA: Yeah.
DIANA KAYE: We just tapped into about one-tenth of [inaudible 00:48:59].
DEBRA: I think we need to have another show on this for sure. You and I will talk in the interim and we’ll make sure we [inaudible 00:49:07] all these out and get this information out because this is just…
DIANA KAYE: It’s tremendous, isn’t it?
DEBRA: It is. It is.
DIANA KAYE: It’s mind-blowing. I think people really need to know about this to protect themselves because these are things that have never ever existed on this planet before.
DEBRA: I just want to throw this in, in the last 30 seconds. There’s a lot of action now to get GMO labeling. If I understand correctly, GMO labeling would not cover this.
DIANA KAYE: No, that is a big issue. That’s why I’m talking to you, Debra because we need to get it out there. We need to make everyone aware.
DEBRA: All right. So I’m going to start you right there. Thank you so much for being with us today.
DIANA KAYE: Thank you. Thank you. It’s been wonderful.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
New York City Bans Styrofoam
New York City’s ban on Styrofoam products in food service establishments, stores and manufacturers went into effect July 1.
Products such as trays, cups, plates, clamshell containers and even packing peanuts cannot be used within the five boroughs.
Yay New York City! May others follow.
Styrofoam food service ware leaches toxic styrene into foods and beverages. Studies have determined that all humans have styrene in their blood.
Cotton Window Shades
Question from Melissa Mazer
Hi Debra,
I am having a hard time finding cotton window shades (I would prefer not to have anything made custom for a child’s room). I have found cotton roman shades with a polyester backing. These are not a cotton/polyester blend, but, rather two separate layers of fabric. Would you be comfortable with something like this, or will I still have off-gassing from the polyester layer?
Thank you very much for your help!
Debra’s Answer
The problem with polyester is not the polyester itself, but rather the finishes that are commonly applied to them.
Find out if any finishes are used. If not, there shouldn’t be any significant outgassing. Personally though, I would be more comfortable with a 100% cotton shade.
Sleeptek Mattresses
Question from Melissa Mazer
Hi Debra,
Thank you for your wonderful site! I am in the process of decorating my daughter’s bedroom.
What do you think of this mattress? (the Sleeptek Classic 1000). www.sleeptek.ca/products/classic-1000
I have seen others at the same price-point that are Greenguard certified (this one is not), but those others contain latex, which I am trying to avoid. I was wondering if you were familiar with sleeptek and would be comfortable with this mattress.
Debra’s Answer
This mattress looks good to me. I haven’t listed it on Debra’s List Beds Page because it’s in Canada and my policy is to list only USA websites, unless there is a site where the products are so unique they are not available in the USA.
I would be comfortable with this mattress.
Breathable Crib Mattresses
Question from Susan Quigley
Hi Debra,
What do you think about these “breathable” crib mattresses?
Is this something I really need to be concerned about?
Debra’s Answer
The thinking behind “breathable” mattresses is concern about risk of suffocation when the baby is lying face down. Years ago there were baby mattresses constructed in ways that were so flimsy that perhaps a baby could sink into the mattress face down and potentially suffocate. But today that’s not an issue, and certainly not with the better mattresses. The Consumer Product Safety Commission advises that all baby mattresses be firm and flat. When a mattress is firm and flat, it’s impossible for a baby to go head down into the mattress.
But there is certainly nothing wrong with providing extra air surrounding a baby, provided it’s done in a safe and responsible manner.
The problem I have with “breathable” mattresses is they allow the baby to breathe through the mattress cover and into the interior of the mattress, forcing the baby to breathe stale air that has been sitting inside the mattress. If baby has had an accident or milk has been spilled, and, for example, urine vapor has entered the interior of the mattress, then bacteria and mold would be inside the mattress, and the baby would breathe it.
One breathable mattress is constructed so you can wash it. However, this takes up to 6 hours to properly wash and dry the mattress completely, and meanwhile baby is without a mattress. Yes, it’s washable, but if I were a busy mom, I’m not sure I would want to be repeatedly taking the mattress apart and washing it and reassembling it. I’m just not willing to do that kind of maintenance.
And if any toxic chemicals were used in the construction of the mattress, baby would be breathing these as well.
Lullaby Earth (and Naturepedic) have a different solution. They offer a separate “air flow” pad that can be placed on top of a mattress, just like you would use a typical mattress pad. This pad provides fresh air from the room for baby to breathe. The baby doesn’t have to breathe into the inside of the mattress. The parents don’t have to disassemble the mattress and wash it by hand. Instead, the airflow layer can be removed at any time to be washed and dried in a washing machine, while baby still has his mattress available. This pad can be added to any crib mattress for an extra layer of breatheability. You can order the air-flow cover separately or on their lightweight crib mattress in white and four different colors at Lullaby Earth Breeze Crib Mattress.
Storage Facilities
Question from Susan Lander
Hi Debra,
Thank you for all you do.
I’m planning to move from NYC to Florida (West Palm Beach) and will need to put my belongings in storage for 6 months. I’m really apprehensive about how to protect my new White Lotus bed, part-soy sofa and all of my pristine books and other belongings if I put them in a storage unit. I have severe MCS and mold allergies, not to mention I’m sure they spray pesticides in these places. Or am I better off selling everything and starting over (very expensive and new item issues)?? What would you do?
Thanks!
Debra’s Answer
I have some experience with this.
- if they spray pesticides
- what the pesticide is
- how frequently they spray
- where they spray (some spray only around the outside of the units and not inside them)
When I put my things in storage, I put everything in big polyethylene bags, not garbage bags, but like big sandwich bags with ziplocks and handles. This is more airtight than putting things in cardboard boxes. And you can easily see what is in the bag. I had no problems with this. All my blankets and towels and everything came out perfectly after storage.
For the bed, I suggest wrapping it in Reflectix, which is aluminum foil sandwiched between layers of polyethylene plastic. Seal it with aluminum foil tape to be air tight. Nothing will get through this.
Be sure to tape the wrap with aluminum tape to make it airtight.
Toxic Drugs and Your Mental Health Rights
My guest today is Laurie Anspach, Director of Mental Health Rights. Laurie has spent 20 years as a mental health advocate in Florida, working side-by-side with legal and medical professionals to assist individuals in protecting their mental health rights. Well be talking about how individuals—particularly children and the elderly—are often given toxic drugs for mental health conditions that can be handled without them, and the rights we have to refuse such drugs. Laurie says, “Having helped people over such a long span of time, it is clear that when an individual gets full information of the facts, and specifically in regards to their situation, they are able to assert their rights.” www.mentalhealthrights.org
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Toxic Drugs and Your Mental Health Rights
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Laurie Anspach
Date of Broadcast: July 09, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Thursday, July 9th, 2015 and I’m here in a beautiful sunny day in Clearwater, Florida.
Today, we’re going to talk about our rights. This is something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a long time actually because we do have basic human rights and I think that one of them is the right to be healthy and happy and not have our health harmed by things. Let’s see. Health, happiness and – I’m trying to remember the opening of one of our famous American documents. I’ll think of it. I’ll look it up during the break.
Anyway, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” That’s it – Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Life, to be alive and to not be sick and to be able to function in life and pursue what you want to do and not be harmed by things around you, is one of our basic human rights.
Today, we’re going to talk about it in the realm of mental health. I’m going to let my guest explain this, but just to be brief about it. Many people in the world today are being given mental health – I don’t even want to say mental health because that doesn’t seem right. I think you got what I’m saying.
Anyway, many people are being given drugs to control their mental state, not understanding what these drugs can do. We have rights. We do have rights to not be given those drugs. We’re going to talk more about that. For me, I consider mental drugs to be toxic chemicals. So it’s just like being exposed to any other toxic thing that would affect your mental state and many toxic chemicals do.
So we’re just going to talk about these drugs. We’re going to talk about our rights to not take them. We’re going to talk about what’s going on in the world about people being forced to take them. For me, that’s much in the same way that we’re being forced to take toxic products. We’re being forced to use toxic products because we don’t have alternatives although there are many alternatives. They’re on the market. They’re polluting the environment. They’re polluting places.
We have rights and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
My guest is Laurie Anspach. She’s the Director of Mental Health Rights. She has spent 20 years as a mental health advocate in Florida, working side-by-side with legal and medical professionals to assist individuals in protecting their mental health rights. Her website is MentalHealthRights.org.
Hi, Laurie. Hello. Are you there? Hello, Laurie? Well, I’m not hearing Laurie. Let’s see. I just have to talk to the station for a second. Oh, I’m getting a message from the station. Okay. She’s being called back and we’ll have her just in a second.
So anyway, what can I say until she gets back? Mental health rights. So there are more things about Laurie. We’ll be talking about how individuals, particularly children and elderly, are often given toxic drugs for mental health conditions that can be handled without them and the rights we have to refuse such drugs.
Laurie says having healthy people over such a long span of time, it is clear that when individuals get full information of the facts and specifically in regards to their situation, they are able to assert their rights. That’s what she does.
Do we have Laurie on the line?
LAURIE ANSPACH: Hi Debra. How are you today?
DEBRA: I am fine. How are you?
LAURIE ANSPACH: Great. Thank you for having me on your show. I’m really honored.
DEBRA: Thank you. Laurie, I gave a little introduction. I’m not sure if you heard it because we were disconnected there. But why don’t you just go ahead and explain what’s going on in the world today with regards to mental health that requires you to be an advocate?
LAURIE ANSPACH: Absolutely I’d love to. There are different categories of people out in the world that there are those that run into problems with their mental health, behavior health, learning, educational learning problems area. And there are those that don’t run into it.
I can tell you, Debra in 20 years, it’s rare that I ran into an individual who hasn’t had some difficulty in asserting their rights or their position or their decision in regards to their own mental health, their child’s behavior health, in regards to learning difficulty in the school area. I can give examples of that, but just to let you know how rare it is that I ran into people that aren’t familiar with this to some degree.
Over the years, myself and many volunteers in the nonprofits I’ve been involved in, we’ve been out in community events, making known our nonprofit and our advocacy services. I can tell you one for one for one, typically 99% of the people that we would meet in a five hour period, which is anywhere from 500 to 1000 people – 99% of those people have a story to tell.
And essentially, all we do as advocates is provide the information that’s accessible to anyone but rarely given by the mental health or the medical community. That relates back to having full information. And it’s very much aligned with what you do as an advocate for toxic-free life.
DEBRA: Give us some examples for people who haven’t had an experience with this or people who have. Just give us some ideas and a couple of examples of this where people are running into a problem and they need your help.
LAURIE ANSPACH: For sure. The way that I got involved actually was I was running an art school here in Florida. Many parents who would bring their children into my school would apologize ahead of time for their child and let me know that the child was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or some other disorder and that they may not be able to learn in a class environment.
I had just moved here from New York and I was unfamiliar with these types of labels. I started to do some research at the library. This was long before the internet. I found that there were different diagnoses that were being handed out for children in the school environment.
One thing led to another and I ended up becoming an advocate because what I found was for example, most parents do not know that they have the right to decline the mental health medication. They don’t know that they have the right to report a school teacher, a school principal or any school personnel for pushing them to put their kid on ADHD medication.
DEBRA: I just need you to back up from there because I don’t have children and I’ve heard preferably about these kinds of things. But would you just give us more details about what is going on in the schools? How are these children being forced to be taking these drugs?
LAURIE ANSPACH: There are many factors in anyone that follows the educational arena in terms of how the schools are rating, the pressure to get the kids through the test and to have the school rate well in terms of how the kids are coming out in terms of their grade point average, their grades, their testing scores.
We’ll put an average of 25 to 30 students in a class. If a number of those students fail these tests or not doing well, it reflects poorly on the teacher and their job is at risk. Over the decades – this started to occur in the late 60s, early 70s, but it has now escalated to a point where a child, if they are not “keeping up” with the rest of the class, they will be again “offered” special education services.
Now with that recommendation or that offer comes testing. And the testing is supposed to focus on the child’s learning ability.
DEBRA: Laurie, I need to just interrupt you for a minute because we need to go to break. When we come back, we’ll hear more about this.
LAURIE ANSPACH: Okay, great.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Laurie Anspach. She’s the Director of Mental Health Rights at MentalHealthRights.org. We’re talking about our rights to not be exposed to toxic things today. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Laurie Anspach. She’s the Director of Mental Health Rights. The website is MentalHealthRights.org.
We’re talking about our mental health rights to not be given drugs against our will I guess is the way to say it. So Laurie, you were telling us about what happens in schools. So would you continue with that?
LAURIE ANSPACH: Absolutely. So if a child is placed in special education or even if they’re not offered a place in special education and if the teacher suggests to the parent, “Your child has ADHD. You need to take them to the doctor,” the parent is not obligated to do so. But unfortunately Debra, most parents don’t know that and they do take the suggestion. They take their child to the doctor. The doctor then diagnoses them with ADHD and prescribe the ADHD med, which carry very severe FDA warnings of heart risks, suicidal ideation, sudden death, cardiac arrest, just to name a few.
I’ve dealt with a lot of parents that didn’t know that there was a special law, a Florida law that prohibits school personnel from forcing them or coercing to medicate their child as a requisite to going to school. But we have parents that most often, the father and the mother, work and they need to keep their jobs and the kids need to go to school. So if the parent thinks that that ability to go to school is being threatened, they will automatically comply and go to the doctor.
Unfortunately again, they’re not given full information about the risks of mental health drugs nor are they given information about the alternatives. But most importantly and the crust of the issue or the problem is there are no medical tests to evidence in mental health diagnosis a learning disorder. They don’t use brain scans or chemical imbalance test, blood test to evidence what they then use as a diagnosis to prescribe the med.
DEBRA: So basically it sounds like you’re saying that a teacher or some official at the school can decide based on their observation I guess that a child has this condition. And then the teacher can tell the parent to go to the doctor and get these drugs. And the doctor just listens to the teacher?
LAURIE ANSPACH: The teachers have – yeah, go ahead.
DEBRA: If the parent comes in and says, “My child’s teacher said that I need to come to the doctor and that this child needs this drug,” then the doctor just says, “Okay. I’m going to give it to them.” So the doctor doesn’t give any medical test? The doctor has no diagnosis?
LAURIE ANSPACH: There’s no medical test ever because they don’t exist. Even the mental health community admits there is no medical test to evidence. The diagnoses are based upon the symptoms. So if the teacher shares her observations that the child is not sitting still, he doesn’t focus, he’s moving around, he’s fidgeting, that teacher-based observation goes to the pediatrician, the therapist and then it becomes a strong recommendation to the pediatrician or the psychiatrist to then prescribe the med.
The physicians themselves are adhering to this mainstream thought process of “Yeah, prescribe the med.” I know this firsthand because I do cold calling out to physicians across the state and sometimes out of the state. It’s a rare moment that I actually speak with a physician who will not quickly and immediately and firstly opt for the mental health med.
DEBRA: That’s what doctors do. That’s what they’re trained to do.
LAURIE ANSPACH: That’s what they’re trained to do. We are fortunate that there are medical professionals and there have been since the 1960s who are experts in the area of learning disorders, mental health symptoms and behavior health symptoms. And they can and will perform medical tests to evidence what potential underlying physical situation may be existing that would cause the child to not sit still, to not be able to focus, to fidget.
These same medical tests can be performed to help anyone who is experiencing life stresses or, as you cover in all your very good works, the stresses of toxic foods, toxic environments, nutritional deficiencies, food allergies, hormone problems, thyroid problems. All these things can be tested for no matter what individual, a child or an adult or a senior citizen.
And then when the physical situation is evident, they can use traditional medicine to help the person heal their body as opposed to putting toxic mental health drugs that carry severe warnings on them.
It’s a vested interest when you look at the fact that again these are voted into existence by physicians, psychiatrists who – a University of Massachusetts study showed that the majority of those physicians have financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. It’s a simple formula to follow the money.
DEBRA: Yeah. But as I said before, this is what doctors are trained to do. They’re trained to look at the patient and see what drug they should prescribe. That’s why you go to the doctors, to get drugs.LAURIE ANSPACH: Exactly. It’s a pharma world.
DEBRA: Yeah.
LAURIE ANSPACH: What we try to do as advocates is fill in the missing pieces. For example, back to the child in the school, when a parent is made aware either beforehand, during this type of situation or even afterward that there is a Florida and federal statutes that prohibit the school personnel from coercing to medicate their child, they can then make the decision not to medicate their child. They have the right. That’s the parental right.
Unfortunately, many of the hotline calls that I’ve taken over the years are from parents who did not know that there were those statutes in existence. They did not know the FDA warnings on the med. And they call after the fact when the adverse effects are taking place and their child is not doing well or has passed away.
There’s nothing more tragic than speaking to a parent whose child has passed away because of the FDA adverse effects of these drugs. So it’s a driving force for myself and advocates like myself to really get out to many parents and many individuals because I can give you examples of adults, but also senior citizens and the situations that they get involved in.
DEBRA: We need to go to break now. When we come back, I’d like for us to talk about senior citizens because I know that there are a lot of elderly people who are in rest homes or even at home who are being given high doses of drugs by their doctors for their family. We will talk about this when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Laurie Anspach. She’s the Director of Mental Health Rights and that’s at MentalHealthRights.org.
And you can also go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and learn all about the past guests. You can listen to all the shows. We have more than 200 shows in archives and all about things having to do with living in a less toxic way or being more aware of toxic issues.
So Laurie, we talked before about children and schools. But tell us about a typical situation with a senior citizen and where this might come up.
LAURIE ANSPACH: Most definitely. As I mentioned there, in Florida, we have a large majority of senior citizens here. It’s a great place to retire. And unfortunately, it’s also a great place to scoop up the elderly and put them into the mental health arena. It’s a terrible way to say it, but I’ve taken many, many, many calls from adults, children and also the elders themselves.
What typically happens Debra is that if an elder is living on their own or perhaps their spouse just passed and they were married forever, more than 50 years, they’re sad like real life grief and real life stress. And they’re visiting their physicians for whatever physical element they might have.
And they express the fact that they are sad or they might as well not continue with life or whatever expression that was used to be used before what’s going on now in terms of mental health. That will get interpreted that the elder person is unable to care for themselves, is potentially a risk to themselves and many times the elder will be involuntarily committed. In the State of Florida, that’s called the Baker Act.
Now because there aren’t typically family members close by, this all happens without the family knowing. The elder gets placed into mental health facility, gets placed under mental health drugs. Typically with forcing your citizens, what is used is a class of drugs called antipsychotics. The FDA placed a special warning on the antipsychotics for the elderly of increased mortality. In addition to that, there’s a black box warning of [inaudible 00:29:24] here.
Once something like this, this [inaudible 00:29:28] or this motion starts to happen, the elder is then reviewed for her or his ability to function in life. And often, [inaudible 00:29:41] incapacitated and unable to either take care of their own affairs or a segment of their affairs, whether that would be their financial, their property and their health. It’s an open door for the elder to start losing control over their life and what’s going on.
So it’s unfortunate, but it’s beneficial if elders, adults and children get this information ahead of time that we’re talking about. There are no medical tests to the mental health diagnoses. Life does have stresses. There are medical professionals that can test for underlying physical causes. Seniors often do have medical problems to start with, but the same traditional medical professionals can work with them to help them get through the stressful time such as the loss of a loved one without having to go into the mental health arena especially if that entails an involuntary commitment or the mental health med.
Most of the time, when I review medical records from senior citizens to find them on multiple mental health meds and up to as many as 15 of them. This has to do with no oversight and again lack of informed [consent?].
I always encourage families to stay connected to their elder and to really think about what they want to do in terms of power of attorney should the elders start experiencing some signs of dementia or a physical disability that makes it harder for them to get around. There are different things that they can consider doing that will help protect their elder family member and there are a few fantastic attorneys in the State of Florida that will help put in place the legal paperwork to make sure that that is never a challenge.
DEBRA: I’m just stunned. Stunned maybe isn’t the right word, but you don’t think that these things happen. You just go along in your normal life and you often don’t know that these things are going on in the world.
One thing that I wanted to mention listening to all this – I’ve talked about this on the show before, but I think it [inaudible 00:32:13] repeating here. I have a situation in my life where early in my life, I took a thyroid medication called Synthroid, which is a thyroid hormone, but it’s synthetic and it’s a prescription. My brother was also given that.
I decided that I was going to get off of it and not take it because it gave me side effects and I started taking Armour Thyroid, which is a natural product. My brother stayed on it and ended up in the mental ward of a hospital.
What happens is Synthroid can give you psychiatric symptoms and the antidote for them is to just give you psychiatric drugs. And that started him on being addicted to mental health drugs for the rest of his life until he died at age 58, which is very young I consider. He was just addicted to those drugs and nobody ever got him off of them.
LAURIE ANSPACH: I’m so sorry to hear that, Debra. It’s most relevant to what we’re talking about because that’s exactly the path that many individuals go on because many of these mental health drugs are highly addictive and the FDA warns of that. Again, the individual is never given that full information.
DEBRA: But it’s standard practice. The thing that [inaudible 00:33:48] is that it’s standard practice to give people Synthroid. It’s like, “Oh, you need some help with your thyroid. Here’s the Synthroid pill and here are your mental health drugs.”
LAURIE ANSPACH: Exactly.
DEBRA: It’s a package. It’s a package.
LAURIE ANSPACH: It’s a package and it deserves a closer inspection from where I sit because I’ve looked at many, many, many package inserts. I know exactly what you’re talking about. If you look at the package inserts or speak to an MD even and ask questions about a class of antibiotics called floral crinoline, you’ll see that psychiatric side effects are actually listed on those antibiotic package inserts.
DEBRA: But they don’t read them. They don’t read them and the doctor doesn’t make sure that they’re aware of it. Anyway, we need to go to break, but we’ll talk about this when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Laurie Anspach. She’s the Director of Mental Health Rights and her website is MentalHealthRights.org. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Laurie Anspach. She’s the Director of Mental Health Rights at MentalHealthRights.org.
Laurie, I’d like to bring this home so to speak. We’ve talked about different groups of people, children and elders. I think what I’m getting is that even if you don’t have somebody who’s insisting or coercing or whatever to have you take mental health drugs – as we were talking on the last segment, I started thinking about how frequent it is that people listen to their doctors. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t listen to their doctors or they shouldn’t comply.
I was interviewing doctors. I was looking for an MD just because I think I should have an MD. So I was interviewing doctors and I went to one doctor. We talked five minutes. He started yelling at me for not being a compliant patient. I just got up and I said, “Thank you very much. I don’t think you’re the right doctor for me.” And I walked out.
And he very much had this attitude that I was supposed to do everything that he told me without question. I have this idea that probably more doctors are like that than not. I think that the general attitude [inaudible 00:40:30] if my doctor tells me.
I’ll just tell you. My father, seven years ago, was lying in a hospital dying and I offered to bring him some fresh juice and he didn’t want it. He said, “I’m just going to do what my doctor tells me.” He did what his doctor told him until he died. And he wouldn’t do any life-affirming thing like drinking fresh juice.
LAURIE ANSPACH: Isn’t that amazing and shocking and appalling?
DEBRA: Yes.
LAURIE ANSPACH: It is.
DEBRA: I was amazed, shocked and appalled. And there are so many things that I know. I mean the kind of healthcare that I get for myself personally is not about treating illness with a drug. It’s about doing things that create life in your body, that create health.
There are all kinds of things that you can do on the positive side from taking supplements to eating organic food, to drinking enough water. There are just all these things that we can do, getting enough sleep, exercise. And people don’t do those things and then they go to a doctor and they want to get a pill. Then the doctor says, “Okay, I’m going to give you this pill.” And you don’t get the warnings that those can do to you.
LAURIE ANSPACH: That’s exactly right.
DEBRA: I mean I understand this because I came from a family that did that. That was given to me as a child. I spent 20 years going to a doctor and taking prescriptions until I decided that prescriptions don’t create health. They may alleviate symptoms, but they don’t create health.
We have so many things available to us that we could be doing that are life-affirming that restore our bodies, that give us what our bodies need in order to be healthy. And we’re not doing them.
LAURIE ANSPACH: That’s exactly right. And if we do come full circle to what can people do, first pay attention to your newsletter, your radio show. Debra, you do such a fabulous job. The amount of health that can be derived from all the things that you’re talking about is incredible. Also individuals who may have nutritional problems, any kind of physical problems, they’re going to only benefit from more healthy lifestyles and nutrition.
And then also get the information on what is happening in the mental health community, what is happening in the medical community because there are more substance abuses now really under the umbrella of mental health. Medical is really under and in conjunction with that same umbrella of mental health. Mental health insinuates in absolutely every profession all the way to veterinarian.
DEBRA: Wow.
LAURIE ANSPACH: They’re prescribing mental health drugs for animals, for illnesses as opposed to really treating the illness.
If individuals just took a little bit of time maybe a couple of times in the internet or just a conversation with an advocate to just get some basic ABCs of what are your rights, what is the information, what are some of the resources online where you could look up what your doctor is saying or suggesting.
For example, there are a lot of people who don’t eat well or don’t exercise or not taking care of themselves or having just too much stresses and don’t sleep well. It’s a big problem. So they go to the doctor and the next thing you know, they’re on the benzodiazepine and benzodiazepine is extremely dangerous and highly addictive. Yet, they may not think twice about it because like you’re saying, “Well, the doctor prescribed it.”
DEBRA: It’s because people trust their doctors. I’m not saying that doctors are not trustworthy, but we grew up – actually not everybody in the world grew up this way. But there are a lot of people who grew up and that the doctor is the one. You go to the doctor, you can trust your doctor and the doctor will give you something that will make you better.
The whole idea of the modern medical paradigm is to go to the doctor and get a drug. But drugs do not make your body healthy. Drugs can’t alleviate symptoms, but they can’t make your body healthy. If you’re not doing the health-building things, you’re not going to be healthy. That’s just the way it is. That’s just “Two plus two equals four.”
I think what I would want to say to my listeners after listening to everything that you said is you have the right to make your own decisions and that you don’t have to do something just because the doctor or a teacher or anybody else tells you that you have to do it. You have your own freedom of choice to decide for yourself if this is right for you. That would be number one.
Number two is if somebody that you go to for advice on your body or your mental state gives you the treatment, you should do your own research and find out if that’s the thing that you want to take. I take a lot of supplements.
I just started taking a new herbal product and stuff. These are all natural and healthy and things, but I don’t put them in my body until I check them up myself. I go to professionals because I trust them to have more experience and knowledge than I do in this field and that they can assess my body and figure out the right thing to give me. But I still look on those labels. When somebody gives me and puts a supplement in my hand, I look and then I see if it has any extraneous ingredients in it that I don’t want to take.
We all have the right to do this. And if more people would do this, if they would do it in their own lives, if they do it with their children, if they would do it with their elders, we’d have a lot less problem with drugs.
LAURIE ANSPACH: A hundred percent. It empowers the individual to really take control over their own health and their wellbeing and their loved ones and their friends and their neighbors.
And just as an experiment, each of your listeners can just ask one person that they know, “Have you ever had a problem with this? Have you ever been prescribed the med? Did you ever have any adverse effect?” I’d be very surprised if not every single one of us knows at least one person who has ran into trouble with it.
DEBRA: I’m sure because drugs have many adverse effects. I’ve had adverse effects with drugs, which is one of the reasons why I don’t take them anymore. And I’ve seen people like I already explained about my brother just getting addicted to these things. He shouldn’t have died at age 58. He just shouldn’t have.
Anyway, we’re almost at the end of the show. This has been so interesting. This has been so interesting. So I think we really need it because drugs are toxic substances. We shouldn’t be putting them in our bodies unless we really know.
It’s just a matter of not having the information and it’s so easy to get it. If somebody gives you a drug, you can just go online and type in the name of the drug and you will get pages and pages of information about what the health effects are. You can go to a site like WebMD. They tell you all the side effects and everything. All the information is there.
It’s just each one of us making the decision to exercise our right of choice and the right to find out about it and then say no if that’s not – if a doctor gives you a drug and you go online and you see all these health effects, you can then go back to your doctor and say, “Excuse me, but I’d like to have some other treatment. There must be another way to handle this than put this toxic stuff in my body.”
When I decided that many, many years ago, I started looking for other kinds of treatment and I found them. It has made all the difference.
So I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing.
LAURIE ANSPACH: Yeah. And I’m so happy you’re out there doing what you’re doing, Debra. I applaud you and commend you highly. You’re absolutely right. I’m so sorry for your brother because he should not have had to pass away so young and they could have been prevented. The drugs are highly addictive and they have severe FDA warnings.
Thyroid problem, in itself – when the medication is given, again like you were saying, go into internet. Just put the name of the drug and then put “FDA package inserts” because if you read it right from the package insert, there’s no interpretation. I do that for every single drug because then you know what the risks are, what the alleged benefits are.
And just as an added note, we’re in a country where there’s direct-to-consumer advertising on pharmaceuticals.
DEBRA: I need to just interrupt you because the music is going to come on in just a few seconds. I want to say thank you.
Laurie’s website is MentalHealthRights.org. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Tests You Won’t Find at Your Doctor’s Office
My guest today is Wendy Myers, CHHC, NC, founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. We’ll be talking about special tests that Wendy offers that go above and beyond what you can get from a medical doctor. Things like organic acids and neurotranmitters, and how these relate to your health and detox. Wendy is a certified holistichealth and nutrition coach in Los Angeles, Ca, She is also certified in Hair Mineral Analysis for the purpose of designing Mineral Power programs for clients to correct their metabolism and body chemistry. She is currently seeking her masters in clinical nutrition at Bridgeport University in Connecticut. Wendy hosts the weekly Live to 110 Video Podcast and the Modern Paleo Cooking show on her Live to 110 Youtube Channel. store.liveto110.com/functional-medical-tests
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH WENDY MYERS
- Toxics in Your Body? Tests Can Tell You the Truth
- Choosing and Using Home Saunas to Remove Toxic Chemicals From Your Body
- Deep Detox With Minerals
- Health and Nutrition Coach on Diet and Detox
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Tests You Won’t Find at Your Doctor’s Office
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Wendy Myers, CHHC, NC
Date of Broadcast: July 08, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio, where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It is Wednesday, July 8, 2015. I’m here in beautiful Clearwater, Florida.
Today, we’re going to be talking about tests that can you can have done on your body that you’re not going to find in your doctor’s office.
I go to a medical doctor. I go to alternative doctors. I go to practitioners that know about health but aren’t even doctors. The experience that I’ve had in the doctor’s office is that there are so many tests even that they could order through a lab that would tell you things like how much vitamin D is in your body, for example or testing other things like how well your kidneys are functioning and various kinds of things.
But they don’t order those things even though they are there and they’re available to the doctor to order. They don’t order them. Several months ago, I got a list of tests from Pamela Seefeld, who is on every other Wednesday. She’s a pharmacist. And we’re talking about how you can not be taking pharmaceuticals but instead, be taking natural remedies.
And so I asked her what are the tests that I should be taking, and she gave me a list, things that the doctor should be ordering. It was much longer than what my doctor was ordering, and I took it in, and I said, “We do order these.” And he said, “Sure.” And that was the last time he did it, only just because I asked him that one time.
So then I asked the receptionist about ordering and she said, “Well, the doctor can only order the tests that go with your diagnosis. He can’t order anything else and have it be covered by the insurance.” And I don’t have insurance but that’s another issue.
But the thing is that regular medical doctors are not necessarily ordering the tests that could be telling you things about your body that you might want to know.
So my guest today is Wendy Myers. She has a bunch of letters after her name which we’ll ask her about when she comes on. She’s the founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. And she is very trained in a lot of things that most people aren’t trained in. She has just started offering a lot of tests. And we’re going to talk about some of the different tests that she has available to you now, things that she can interpret that you’re not going to find in a lot of other places.
Hi, Wendy.
WENDY MYERS: Hi, and how are you?
DEBRA: I’m good. How are you?
WENDY MYERS: I’m doing fantastic.
DEBRA: Well, I have a bunch of letters after your name. CHHC, NC, and you now have FDN. What are all these things?
WENDY MYERS: The first one is a Certified Holistic Health Coach, this certification I got from this nutrition school I went to. The Nutritional Consultant I got when I got certified in hair mineral analysis. That’s my first love. I love hair mineral analysis. It’s such an amazing tool which I’ve done with you a handful of times.
And the next one is FDN, Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist. And I added that because I really felt that I needed to—I wanted to do all kinds of testing with my clients, testing that’s not typically done in a medical doctor’s office and testing which is needed.
I think that’s why a lot of people are going outside of their medical doctor and seeking the consults, the natural health professionals that are doing a functional diagnostic testing to get to the root cause of their illness, as opposed to covering it up with medications because that’s a doctor, they’re trained to do, and that’s what the insurance company would pay for.
So that’s what I do. I do functional diagnostic medicine to help unroot the cause of illness and to correct it naturally, to completely resolve the health issue at hand.
DEBRA: Why did you become a health coach?
WENDY MYERS: Well, I was having my pregnancy and I started studying nutrition and health, and cleaning up my environment, prepping for the baby and whatnot, and I just thought, “Why haven’t I studied this before?” I was so interested in this. And then I became very, very passionate about it. And then my father was diagnosed with cancer and really it was devastating, and he passed away within six months of his diagnosis. And I was angry about it. I didn’t understand why his cancer treatments made him so sick. I felt like he could have lived a few more years had he not undergone this treatment, radiation and chemo and whatnot. And I just started studying—I had all these questions. Why is everyone so sick? Why is everyone having cancer? Why was my father on 10 medications? And that contributed to his demise.
So I just started studying. And I started my blog, Liveto110.com, and I just wanted to share everything I was learning. And I just discovered about the underlying root cause of disease are mineral and nutrient deficiencies, and heavy metal and chemical toxicity.
When you blow it down and you look at all the disease labels, the majority of them are due to these two factors. So that’s my main message that I’m trying to get out to the world is that people need to do a foundational work that they’re not getting with their physicians. They need to mineralize their body with targeted nutrient therapy, like the sniper approach as opposed to the shotgun approach, of just taking a multivitamin. And they need to detox their body of heavy metals and chemicals.
You really don’t have any hopes of being healthy long term if you don’t address these two pressing health issues.
DEBRA: I completely agree with you. And I’ll just tell our listening audience that I figured out exactly the same thing before I even met you. So when we met, it was like, “Oh, here’s some agreement.”
We’re approaching it in slightly different ways, I would say, they were complementary, in that you know so much more than I do about how the body works and nutrition and all these tests, and you have all these certifications to do your nutritionist work. And I know more about where the toxic chemicals are and how they affect your body and what you can use instead. So I think that Wendy and I go together really well.
WENDY MYERS: Yes, we do. We’re like peas and carrots.
DEBRA: So let’s start talking about your tests. So what is the most important test that you think—now, before you answer this question, I’m on her page and it’s a huge page. Let me see how many tests are done on this page. There are 22 tests, I think, of all different kinds. And we obviously can’t talk about all 22 tests, in just this hour that we have together. So let’s start with which test do you think is the most important?
WENDY MYERS: Well, my favorite test is the hair mineral analysis. It gives me a picture of your body’s chemistry. But after that, an organic acid test is very, very important. That’s what gives me a tremendous amount of information about the acid that’s the ones gut bugs are producing.
DEBRA: Before we go on, tell us what the organic acids are because when I—I’m sure that most people listening have no clue what it is. I’m not even sure I know what it is.
WENDY MYERS: Basically, the gut bug too, what it is. It’s the waste products that your gut bugs are producing. And so by looking at these acids, we can tell what bacteria or families of bacteria you have in your gut. But it also tests other things in it as well. It tests your neurotransmitter metabolites. So we can see if there is an imbalance in your neurotransmitters. It tests amino acid absorption, so we can see if there’s possibly some reduced intestinal absorption, maybe some leaky gut, if you’re not absorbing proteins. It tests all your B vitamins. You can see if those are low. It’s just got so many different markers that it’s such a tremendous amount of information.
For instance, your ammonia levels, if those are high, we know you’ve got some liver problems going on. We’re going to work on that liver health. It will give an indication of your phosphoric acid and perhaps you’ve got some bone density issues, if that’s low. It gives a lot of information and it really helped me to work on someone’s gut issues. If they have bacterial infections or yeast infections, or it can show me potentially, you might have mold issues going on.
DEBRA: I need to interrupt you for a second just because we need to go to break and we’ll finish talking about this when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Wendy Myers with many letters after her name. She’s at Liveto110.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. And we’re talking today about a new set of tests that Wendy offers. If you want to go exactly to the page, you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, find today’s show, and there’s a link to the page that has the functional medical test. That’s the name of the page, functional medical test.
Wendy, if they go to your website, how can they easily find that page?
WENDY MYERS: You can go to Store.Liveto110.com, and then on the left hand menu, you go to functional medical test, and it will all be right there.
DEBRA: So we were talking about the organic acids test.
WENDY MYERS: Well, I was saying before that when I discovered what type of gut infections people have, almost every person I test has some sort of gut infection. I automatically assume that everyone has parasites. It’s kind of a given especially sushi lovers. Each square inch of sushi has 10,000 parasite eggs.
DEBRA: I knew there was something I didn’t like about sushi.
WENDY MYERS: It’s pretty gross when you think about it but it sure is tasty. I like it.
So the organic acids test does not show parasites but it will show yeast and bacteria. And then based on that, I can give people all natural biocidal. They work just as well as prescription antibiotics. You have to take them for longer though. I’ll give people a course for about six to eight weeks and start with the parasite, then do bacteria, then do yeast. That’s six to eight weeks for each of those protocols. And then we’ll re-test in about six months and see if we were able to clear everything up.
DEBRA: That’s good. I just want to mention that I’ve had some test with Wendy, and she found some things and gave me some things. And when we had the next test, there was an improvement.
WENDY MYERS: You had a lot of improvement.
DEBRA: Yes, I’m really happy about that.
So what about oxalates? First, what’s an oxalate?
WENDY MYERS: I forgot to mention that.
DEBRA: There are no organic acids tests.
WENDY MYERS: The main reason you want to do the organic acids test, in my mind, is to find out if you have oxalates. And the Great Plains Laboratory is the only lab that does the organic acids test, that shows oxalates. Genova does not—many of my clients coming to me that the organic acids test with their doctor, using Genova, but you are missing a key component of the test, a key indicator of oxalates, which are major impediments to your health.
Oxalates are these little crystals that form in your body, one, through dietary intake. High oxalate foods include cacao, collagen, [inaudible 00:17:07] or using lots of collagen. I’m not a big fan of that because it’s very high in oxalates. A lot of greens like spinach and Swiss chard, the green smoothie fanatics out there, extremely high in oxalates. So you need to be very careful about that.
That’s just one aspect of oxalate intake. The next is if you had gut infections or long term gut infections, those produce oxalates as well.
DEBRA: I actually looked at the oxalate diet, and I was on it for a while because it was high oxalate—I had high oxalates in my body. But I was going on a kale kick, and you read things and you say, “Oh, I should be eating more greens, more kale, more this, more that.” But you don’t often find out the other side of it. And so if your body doesn’t deal with oxalates, well, then they’re going to build up and you need to watch out for that.
And so there’s all these balancing things that we need to watch out for.
WENDY MYERS: It’s a big problem. I find oxalates in 9 out of 10 people that I test. It continues to amaze me how many people have issues with oxalates. And when you have these, they cause so many problems in the body.
Number one, an inability to detox. The oxalates, these crystals will bind in mercury and lead and can make people very, very toxic, if these metals would be lodged in these crystals, and then lodged in your body, and you can’t detox them. It interferes in your entire body’s ability to detox, your ability the methylate, which means creating your own transmitters, and just so many different processes in your body are involved in methylation. It really gums up your whole body’s metabolism.
Not to mention causing really tight, achy muscles. People out there, their neck is always hurting, or you’re getting massages and just nothing helps it. They’re taking [inaudible 00:19:16]. Perhaps they’re taking pain medication or you have fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue. These can be caused by oxalates.
And so I think it’s very important, especially for anyone who has long term GI issues or known gut infections or parasitic infections. Get tested for oxalates and address it because it’s a fairly simple regimen to remove the oxalates from your body. And what I do with a client is I address the oxalates and once those have been broken down to a significant degree in the body by taking a handful of supplements and doing the low oxalate diet, after that, then I see what’s still left over that we need to address. But it really solves a lot of problems and removes a lot of health symptoms in the body that are bothering clients.
DEBRA: And it’s so not wildly known.
WENDY MYERS: No, it’s not. I don’t know why, but it’s not.
DEBRA: But it’s so important, and especially if you want to detox. And if you’re having problems detoxing, this could be something to look into.
We’re actually needing to go to break in about 40 seconds, so when we come back, let’s talk about neurotransmitters. I think you mentioned that the organic acids test tells about the neurotransmitters, right?
WENDY MYERS: It always shows the neurotransmitter metabolites. So it will only give an indication of an imbalance of them. But I like to do a direct test for neurotransmitters, which is a urine test. That’s a little bit different than your organic acids, but at least it gives an indication of some issues that require further investigation.
DEBRA: Okay, we’ll talk about that when we come back from the break.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder and head writer of Liveto110.com, and she has a number of nutrition certifications that give information that is very different from other people that you will go to, including a doctor and other natural practitioners. Her website is Liveto110.com, and we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder and head writer of Liveto110.com, and has many nutrition certifications. She knows more about nutrition and especially about detoxing than practically anybody I’ve talked to. She always amazes me with what new things she has to say.
Let’s talk about neurotransmitters. First, tell us what a neurotransmitter is, and what can go wrong with it.
WENDY MYERS: Well, neurotransmitters are substances made in the body. They begin with amino acids, so you have to have proper protein consumption and intestinal absorption of proteins.
And so this is very, very important. A lot of different things can interfere with neurotransmitter production. The main neurotransmitters people have are serotonin, dopamine, other catecholamine, like norepinephrine, epinephrine. And most importantly is gaba. A lot of people are missing gaba and we’re so overstimulated today with stuff like the internet and even just the effects of EMF and wireless internet on our body. And always looking at screens, and we’re getting caffeine all day, and doing all this stuff that we’re so stimulated, we are depleted in gaba.
DEBRA: What is gaba? What does it do for our bodies?
WENDY MYERS: Well, gaba is the break. Gaba is a substance that turns all the stimulating neurotransmitters off. So the adrenaline, the norepinephrine, the epinephrine, gaba shuts that down, so you can relax.
So anyone with anxiety, anyone who can’t go to sleep or they’re constantly waking up, they probably need gaba. And for me, it was life-changing when I started taking gaba. And I recommend it to almost every single of my clients because they all usually some sort of issue with sleeping or falling asleep, et cetera, or anxiety. You do want to do neurotransmitter test first because if you just take gaba, it can make you depressed if you’re depleted in some stimulating neurotransmitters. So there has to be a delicate balancing act where you may need to supplement the amino acids to improve and upregulate the production of stimulating neurotransmitters or gaba can make you feel down or depressed or really tired.
Another really important one that was really life-changing for me was PEA, and PEA is found in chocolate. So for all of you chocoholics out there, like myself, you may just be—
DEBRA: I love chocolate.
WENDY MYERS: Any of you women out there or men that are—you’re going to murder someone if you don’t have your chocolate.
DEBRA: I used to be that way but my body’s calmed down about it. And now, I feel like I have a choice that I can eat chocolate or not eat chocolate, and I’m okay either way, whereas before, I had to have my chocolate.
WENDY MYERS: I was that way for a number of years. I had to have my chocolate. Where’s the chocolate? And I’d have anxiety if I didn’t have it. And I made the correlation that when I ate chocolate, I was really able to focus and work really productively for a few hours following the consumption of chocolate. I thought it was just the sugar. I was doing a sugar high. But what I found out when I tested my neurotransmitters is that I was deficient in PEA, and chocolate contains PEA.
And so now that I’ve supplemented the precursor the PEA, which is phenylalanine, kind of a mouthful, I don’t even think about chocolate. And I lost actually—yes, it called phenylalanine, and it’s just a simple amino acid that I take in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon if I feel I need a little more brain functioning or concentration or focus. And it completely took away all my brain fog, any kind of remaining brain fog I have left over. I can focus for hours. My thinking is still clear. My verbiage, when I speak very, very clear, and it just was really life-changing for me, just taking this one supplement, and following supplementation of the phenylalanine, I lost 20 pounds in about two and a half months because I no longer ate this gigantic chocolate bar. Literally, I ate a massive chocolate bar about 2 to 3 pm every day. I wanted some sugar and I wanted some PEA, and that gave me the focus to finish off the rest of my day.
DEBRA: Let me tell you, as I have a similar story. So I don’t eat chocolate bars because I don’t want the sugar and stuff, and so I figured out how I could make with organic cocoa. I would make what I would call “fudge.” And so what I would do is I would take about a heaping teaspoon of organic cocoa. I would put in coconut sugar and grass-fed cream, and butter made from grass-fed cream. And I would mix it all up, and sometimes I put walnuts in it or some kind of flavoring like orange extract or something. But I had to have this every day after lunch. I just had to have it after lunch as I couldn’t work unless I had this chocolate.
And now, I don’t eat it anymore at all. I haven’t lost 20 pounds but the point is that I must be doing something right in my diet and in the supplements that I’m taking because I’ve gone from craving specific foods to—in the past couple of weeks, it’s been so ripe that—I don’t even want to eat almost. Yesterday, honestly, I made this wonderful salad that was all vegetables. It was lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocadoes, and I put wheat-free soy sauce on it and olive oil. And my body loved it so much. I got so much satisfaction out of that that I had it again for dinner.
And that’s all I ate yesterday. And if you were to have said to me eat that a few years ago, I would say no. I want my chocolate. And I felt good all day long.
WENDY MYERS: One of those things where when you are taking the right supplements, especially minerals, and you’re nourishing your body, you don’t need as much food and you don’t have the food craving you used to have. Before I started taking minerals, I always craved salt and vinegar potato chips, and my body just wanted that salt. It just desperately wanted that salt. And as soon as I started taking minerals, I started having calcium and magnesium and zinc and a handful of trace mineral complex, et cetera, it’s amazing to me that I never looked at them again.
DEBRA: That’s very interesting.
WENDY MYERS: It’s just amazing to me. So a lot of women out there I know are struggling with certain cravings and things like that, and biology will always overcome will power. And so you have to listen to your body. Your body is trying to get a nutrient need or minerals or if you’re craving chocolate, maybe PEA, magnesium, copper. There are all kinds of things that your body is craving that you probably need something in that. If you’re craving carbohydrates, your body is trying to make serotonin. You need serotonin.
DEBRA: We need to go to break. So hold on. And we’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and today, I’m talking with Wendy Myers, founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Wendy Myers, founder and head writer of Liveto110.com, and holder of many certifications about nutrition that are far beyond what most nutritionists are going to talk to you about.
Wendy, so another test you have is the genetic test. Tell us about that and why should somebody get that done.
WENDY MYERS: Well, I love to do a genetic test on clients because it gives us a lot of information about nutrients people may be needing more of, should avoid. And it gives us a lot of information about—it explains to clients why they have certain health issues. For instance, if someone has a lot of GAD smith, or mutations in those genes, they’re going to have a lot more anxiety, a lot more propensity for drug and alcohol abuse, and it will explain why their family members or a lot of their family members have additions and things of that nature. It also will show someone’s propensity for certain issues, if they need to bio haggard, do a work around for.
Namely, if people have this one smith, they will need to really be worried about their estrogen. People that tend to have estrogen dominance and there are people that really need to worry about their liver health and be worrying about xenoestrogen intake and their environment or detoxing these estrogens because they’re at risk for estrogen-dependent cancers.
These are people that need to really maybe avoid hormone replacement therapy or birth control pills.
There’s a lot of different things that people learn about, about their health, and it can really help them to tailor their health regime or their supplement program, tailor it to their individual genetic needs.
DEBRA: So can there be information in this test that would help people understand how their body detoxes or doesn’t detox?
WENDY MYERS: Yes, exactly. It will tell me if people are having trouble making glutathione or if they have trouble with liver detoxification. It just gives a lot of different markers for detox issues. It also will give me markers for mitochondrial function or energy production, if they’ve got a lot of problems with their mitochondria and perhaps, it explains why they’re so tired all the time.
So again, it really helps me to really target their supplementation or get it more customized for their genetic issues. And that’s really, really important. There’s another pattern called the [inaudible 00:42:03] pattern, where these are people that cannot take flouroquinolone medications like antibiotics, certain antibiotics like Cipro and a handful of other family of antibiotics. And this will make them very, very sick.
I know there’s a lot of listeners out there that have taken Cipro, a round of antibiotics at the hospital with their doctor, and they were just never the same afterwards or it took them years to recover. So it can be very, very important to pinpoint if you have the [inaudible 00:42:36] pattern, but we call them [inaudible 00:42:38] because they need to avoid flouroquinolone medications because it can really kill them or make them extremely ill.
DEBRA: I’m actually really interested in the genetic test because I think that each of our bodies as an individual—we are like snowflakes. There are no two patters that are the same and our fingerprints are all unique. And I think that we probably all have unique genetic patterns that can tell us something about all these things that you’re talking about and where our strengths and weaknesses are. And we don’t know that if all we’re doing is taking drugs.
WENDY MYERS: Yes, exactly.
DEBRA: More and more I’m understanding the necessity to test whatever the test is, whatever method you use, to find out what’s really going on with your body because I see doctors just handing out prescription drugs. Of course, they do some testing but not as much as what you’re talking about and even natural practitioners whether they’re herbalists or homeopaths or whatever, it’s not that they’re not doing their own method—I’ve been to so many different people and I’ve never had a genetic test. And yet, that’s the basic blueprint of my body. And I didn’t even know that I could get one.
You hear about them on TV. Some character on a TV show needs a paternity test or something. But if you look at a hospital show or a doctor show, they’re not saying, “Well, let’s do a genetic test.” They just don’t do it.
WENDY MYERS: It takes a very special doctor to go outside his medical training, question his medical training and further their training even if they just have a personal interest or whatnot to be able to further their education and really want to provide their patients the very best care. Very few doctors that are cognizant of doing the latest test because it takes a lot of work. It’s a lot of reading and training, et cetera. Many doctors are overwhelmed with their patient load, especially if they work for HMO or whatnot, or at a clinic, a very busy clinic.
But it’s still important to learn about your genetics, your genetic weaknesses and propensities for certain diseases so you can do the work around for these, and the supplements according to your genes. But additionally, there’s a new field called pharmacogenetics where you can get a test done to find out what medications you should take and which ones you should avoid because every pharmaceutical company has to create a blueprint of the pathways that certain medications have to go through to be metabolized.
For a lot of people that have drug side effects or really bad side effects, it’s because they can’t metabolize certain drugs. So when you do this pharmacogenetic test, you can find out the drugs you should avoid or ones you should take. And you have to do this. I mean, I personally will never going to take medications but if you do take medications, which can be life-saving for many, you need to find out the ones you should avoid and the ones that work for your body.
DEBRA: Actually, I’ve never heard of that. That’s very interesting. But wouldn’t that also apply to—well, this test is designed for drugs, but to me, there should be a test like that for taking supplements. I just keep thinking about how so many people will take supplements or drugs or alternative therapies just on a shotgun approach, where you just take it and see what happens. And you’re approaching 180 degrees and absolutely opposite direction of saying, “Here are these tests and then I can give you supplements that are going to be exactly pinpointed for you.”
WENDY MYERS: And that’s important. It’s all about bio-individuality in supplementing according to you bio-individuality and taking medications based on your bio-individuality. And I have an article in my site about pharmacogenetics. It’s right on my homepage at Liveto110.com. I think it’s an incredibly interesting field that not a lot of people are talking about. You can get the testing with [inaudible 00:47:16] Laboratories. All those links and everything are on my website.
For me, I just think taking multivitamins are so 1990s. Today, it’s all about individual supplementation and medication.
DEBRA: I’m so glad to hear this. Now, we only just have about two minutes left. But I just want to mention that people can change their genetics. They can change their DNA. And so a test could be done before and then you could do things to improve your genetic situation. And a test done afterwards and see what happens.
WENDY MYERS: It’s very, very important.
DEBRA: Well, we only have a minute and a half left.
WENDY MYERS: So what was your question again?
DEBRA: I was talking about the genetic test and how we can change our DNA and that’s a whole show in itself about how we can change our DNA. I should probably do one on that. But we could take the test before and take the test after and see how we’ve changed our DNA.
WENDY MYERS: Actually, genes don’t really change at all. You want to do that test one time, which is great. But you can change your genetics or prevent mutation by detoxing your body and by eating a healthy diet. You have to be cognizant of this because many metals and chemicals cause our genes to mutate, and you can pass this down to your children, the future generation. So I think we’re becoming more and more sick as a population because of so many metals and chemicals in our environment mutating our genes, causing cancer, mutating cells, et cetera. But the gene mutations do get passed down to your children.
So it’s a paramount importance today to be thinking about your health, eating the right diet, avoiding chemicals in your diet, and thinking about a lifelong detoxification strategy which I talk a lot about on my podcast in the Live to 110 Podcast and on my website as well.
DEBRA: And I need to interrupt you again because we’ve only got several seconds now. So I want to say thank you so much. And everybody can go to Liveto110.com and Wendy has such interesting articles there and podcasts. Liveto110.com. You can also go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and find out more about the guest to come and the guest from the past. All of our shows are recorded and you can listen to the archives.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd.
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Advanced Nutrition Testing That Can Help You Detox
Today my guest is Lori Puskar DC, Client Advocate and Chief Technical Officer and on the Board of Directors of Ulan Nutritional Systems, Inc. (UNS) located in Clearwater, Florida. UNS is a training facility which teaches the nutritional technique known as Nutrition Response Testing®. Developed by Dr. Freddie Ulan, Nutrition Response Testing is a non invasive system of analysis which detects and handles the true cause of health problems without the use of drugs and surgery. The program includes testing for heavy metals and toxic chemicals and treating body imbalances caused by them. Dr Lori is the top Nutrition Response Testing health care practitioner in the country. She has delivered seminars and training on this technique to 1000’s of health care practitioners from every state for the past 10 years. She has directly and indirectly helped tens thousands of people improve their health with health situations ranging from fatigue to infertility. Dr Lori is a 1994 graduate of New York Chiropractic College and a nutritionist since 1996. Find a certified NRT clinician at www.unsinc.info/locate-clinician.html
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Advanced Nutrition Testing That Can Help You Detox
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Lori Puskar DC
Date of Broadcast: July 07, 2015
DEBRA: Hi I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
It’s Tuesday, July 7, 2015. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida. There’s no thunderstorm today, so bright shiny day and I hope we’re going to have a great show today.
My guest today is Lori Puskar. She’s a chiropractic doctor. She’s a client advocate and Chief Technical Officer and on the Board of Directors of Ulan Nutrition Systems located here in Clearwater, Florida and what they do with Nutrition Systems is – I’m going to let her explain. Hi, Lori!
LORI PUSKAR: Hey!
DEBRA: The reason why I invited Lori to be on the show and to talk about the system is because I’ve been to three different practitioners who do this. I should say that I’ve done this over a period of years, this system.
I started maybe 10 or 12 years ago and had a lot of success. But in that particular office, there was some stuff going on and they weren’t very organized which is no reflection of the system itself. It was just the office, it was having a problem and they were also very far away. I was traveling like an hour’s drive to go get this and I decided I needed something closer to home.
Then I went to another practitioner of the system, again had a lot of success. I stayed with her for a couple of years and then decided to work with someone else because I wanted work with that particular person who was not doing the system.
I decided after 5 years of not doing it that I needed to go back to the system. I keep going back to it because every time I do, I get good results.
LORI PUSKAR: Correct!
DEBRA: This is what we’re going to talk about today. It’s called Nutrition Response Testing. But first, Lori would you tell us about how the system was developed and how you became involved in it?
LORI PUSKAR: Sure, it was actually a personal means to an end for its developer Dr. Freddie Ulan who is also chiropractic-trained and graduated in the 1950s.
Unfortunately in the early 1990s, Dr. Ulan ran into a little bit of health situation of his own. That again was trying a very conservative method in cleaning up his diet and doing the best he could as most of us who are into health and nutrition, you know and understand how to apply the basics.
Unfortunately, the basics just weren’t doing the trick or turning his health around to the magnitude he needed it to. He basically started on his quest of finding who actually knew how to genuinely heal a body. His studies and research took him in and outside the United States in order to find the truth because there are many, many claims that are made.
They are saying of different techniques and products, systems of all kinds in the healthcare industry and he basically was his own guinea pig trying to find the ones that actually worked, that actually got the success and had the claims that they were promoting or preaching, etc.
DEBRA: Uh huh.
LORI PUSKAR: Out of that, he found that no one really had the “system”. Everybody had a little bit, but no one really had it in its entirety. And he would speak – we’re talking about medical greats here and…
DEBRA: Right.
LORI PUSKAR: He was like, “Why don’t you teach the whole system?” One for one everybody’s like, “No, we like the piece we’re teaching and that’s where we are going to stick to teaching.” And he saw what was missing is the really step-by- step process of the brilliance of everybody’s research and we’re going back all the way back to hundreds and thousands of years, all the way back to traditional Chinese medicine and beyond.
DEBRA: uh huh.
LORI PUSKAR: So it was not anyone in particular. It was all the brilliance of all the different healthcare models. So, what Dr. Ulan did is basically, since no one was actually teaching in a very systematic form is he took all the brilliance from all of the areas.
What he took for him to restore his health fully and completely because he was quite ill, and he put that in the most workable system in the exact sequence. To the point where to just do it the way obviously you’re saying we teach and what I’m a part of now, you can almost guarantee the exact same result case-to-case person-to-person again as long as you follow the sequence then you do it standardly.
DEBRA: I want to hear the rest of the story but I just want you interject this while I’m thinking of it; one of the things I’ve seen in other practitioners that they give treatments but the treatments are often diagnostic.
LORI PUSKAR: Right.
DEBRA: So they’ll say, “Take this drug” or “Take this supplement. We’ll see what it does and we’ll see if you get better.” I’m laughing at…
LORI PUSKAR: Right.
DEBRA: I’m laughing at that because that’s not the way you’re system is. So go ahead with your story and we’ll talk about…
LORI PUSKAR: No, it’s absolutely true.
DEBRA: We’ll talk about that later.
LORI PUSKAR: There’s too much trial and error at a high expense to patients…
DEBRA: Right.
LORI PUSKAR: personally and financially. So yes, that’s where Dr. Ulan’s brilliance came in. It was a very workable and proven system that if you did this and you did this in this sequence depending upon how severe the health situation, you can assume an improvement or a full success three, six, nine months or a year later. Depending on what it took but again the bottom line is following the sequence.
DEBRA: Right.
LORI PUSKAR: That’s what he did and word got out. Everybody was, “Dr. Ulan, what did you do?” and he’s like, “Well, I just created a system.” And they were, ” You have to teach that to others.” And he goes, “That wasn’t really the plan but okay.”
DEBRA: Yeah.
LORI PUSKAR: He definitely wanted to let others what he had done so his goal and purpose wasn’t to be a teacher per se but he had stumbled upon something that he knew his Chiropractic peers and everyone else needed to know. General public, etc. and hence the birth of what you said Nutrition Response Testing which is the actual system analysis that I just talked about that he developed in his personal health story.
DEBRA: So how then did you get involved in it?
LORI PUSKAR: Then what happen is I was traditionally trained as a Chiropractor, I was in Pennsylvania at the time and what I ran into–which is many healthcare practitioners are running into not only chiropractors, it’s everyone in the healthcare model-is that patients aren’t doing well as you hope or expect. Or you don’t get the results you wanted, like you sort of get some results even like you said in the different care.
You kind of got there, you got something, it’s better than nothing but you are still hanging like hmmm. You knew there was something that was missing and so…
DEBRA: Actually, what happened to me why I came back was that it wasn’t that I wasn’t improving. It was that–I’ll just say I just had my birthday a couple of weeks ago…
LORI PUSKAR: Oh great!
DEBRA: …and I just turned 60.
LORI PUSKAR: Wow!
DEBRA: When I tell people that they say, “Oh, no! You’re not sixty. You’re not sixty because I’ve looked like I’m about forty-five.
LORI PUSKAR: Right.
DEBRA: Also I’ve had ongoing health issues which I’ve had for a long time. Which I continue to improve so it’s not like I’m in spectacular health but I’m extremely functional…
LORI PUSKAR: Uh huh
DEBRA: But there were still things that–it’s not like I’m lying in bed or restrictions or anything like that–but I just want to keep optimizing my health and so even though I’m making progress with the other doctor, I just got to the point where I said, “We’re not solving these things. We’re not solving these specific items.” And I thought, “You know what I just need to go back to Nutritional Response Testing.”
LORI PUSKAR: Right and that is the key part of it like you’re saying the goal when the missing part comes in.
DEBRA: Right.
LORI PUSKAR: You could end up chasing symptoms. You can get into the Band-Aid care and even though you are using the natural methods like herbs, vitamins, teas, etc.
DEBRA: Yeah.
LORI PUSKAR: It still just to a certain degree chasing symptoms and not getting at the true cause. So that’s the brilliance of this because we’re talking about restoration. You’re not taking about systematic improvement…
DEBRA: Right, right.
LORI PUSKAR: …which is obviously widely spread in the alternative HealthCare scene to begin with. :
DEBRA: That’s exactly right.
LORI PUSKAR: That’s what he discovered and like I said I was really staying natural with the true cause in mind as being a chiropractor myself but wasn’t getting the clinical results that I hoped were expected even within the chiropractic-realm. So I had a suspicion there might be more to the big picture when it comes to how to truly fixing and handling a body. And maybe chiropractic, though a great component possibly was only just one of the many components that I had to take a look at.
Dr. Ulan just happens to be having a seminar teaching Nutritional Response Testing the state of Pennsylvania at the time and I said, “I’m there. I want to see, hear and find out if this is the piece that I’ve been missing.
Of course as a practitioner, it was. I went home and implemented it to the practice. It wasn’t the piece I was missing to all those chiropractic cases. Again, they were all seeing improvement to some degree as a chiropractic patient but I wasn’t getting the miracles nor the complete results of symptomatic relief that turned into a total change in the health of the patient. Nutritional Response Testing allowed me to fix and handle fully and completely any of those cases that I had last. It’s just that I could never get—and the patient as well, we as a team we could never really get them where we really want to get them.
DEBRA: Right. Let me take a break but when we come back, we want to hear all about this because – you really want to stay, because I’ve experienced these wonderful things myself. You’re listening to Toxic-Free Talk radio. My guest today is Lori Puskar and we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic-Free Talk radio. Today, my guest today is Lori Puskar. She’s a chiropractic but more importantly she’s a clinician of Nutrition Response Testing and we’re going to talk about more—she’s going to tell you how this works and the program is. But before we do that, this is a show about toxic chemical and health effects etc. So let’s talk about how toxics fit in to this program. I know that one of the things you test for is toxic chemicals, so tell us about that.
LORI PUSKAR: Sure. The absolute truth is that there are many barriers that a patient and the health of the body is running into. You talk about it in the show and everything in your book talks about is the key component to that is definitely all the toxins. I went through your book and the pytoxin is a poison, it doesn’t matter what the category. But of course, what is understood more by people are the chemicals. I’m seen that you have mentions, metals, etc. But anything that can be considered a toxin is or a poison to the body, definitely need to be ruled out ahead of time because if those barriers are not eliminated ahead of time then the health and restoration and symptomatic improvement and really going through the patient into a true definition as healthy, these barriers must be eliminated first and foremost.
DEBRA: I just want to emphasize is you said first and foremost because I’m always saying, and now you said it in your viewpoint, that you could do all these treatments but if you‘re in still being exposed or if there are still toxins in your body, those other things they’ll work for a certain degree but the toxic chemicals they’ll prevent you from getting well.
LORI PUSKAR: Absolutely true. They are the true barriers and if they show up in the patient’s case then obviously they have to be handled first and foremost. So let’s just say a great example so many people are concern about are heart disease and heart attacks and heart cholesterol. And you could be in the most perfect heart support program. All natural, all organic vitamins, diets, etc. but if there is a true chemical or poisonous barrier in the way to get in that nutrition really into the heart and the heart tissues, like you said, they will never work to the fullest extent until that barrier of the chemical or poison is removed and that’s absolutely true clinically what I’ve observed and physiologically as far as the body function and what you can hope to achieve from a true and medical standpoint.
DEBRA: Can you just –We’ll talk about the exact method when we come back from the next break but can you tell us some examples of the things you have observed when you have treated people for chemicals.
LORI PUSKAR: Sure. First of all, what I’ve noticed is that it’s not an absolute but there are chemicals, metals, poisons are not created equal. There the ones that definitely cause more harm than others. And the ones that are again environmental and that you can get from home. Your drinking water etc. that many of your listeners are familiar with. They’re the most common ones. They are the ones that I usually concentrate on the technique on the Nutrition response Testing because they’re usually the culprit, thank good ness, so it’s not complete mystery.
DEBRA: Which ones do you find the most common and the most effective?
LORI PUSKAR: One of the most common ones are definitely chlorine because it is being used everywhere. It’s being used to whiten all of our grains, breads, rice, etc. it’s in our drinking water. Especially living here in Florida it’s in everyone’s pool unless you have natural style pool. It is a very common used disinfectant across the board and every industry. So chlorine is a very common one.
On the heavy metal side, even though it’s a metal but seeing it toxicity, you’re seeing a lot of mercury poisoning and aluminum poisoning. A lot of women’s products have aluminums so it’s just rampant some of these main chemicals are everywhere. So they are the few of the top ones.
DEBRA: And so what kind of effects do you see in patients when they come in? like what kind of symptoms you commonly see in the results when people test positive for chemicals?
LORI PUSKAR: Interesting, we have talked about – briefly mentioned in the first statement was about the fear behind Nutritional testing and how that ties them to these chemicals and these toxins is that something that came out of these work and one of the monsters is that anything can cause anything first and foremost. So interestingly, to answer your question and I’m going to use that these poisons do everything. I have seen it a little bit of dark circling around the eyes all the way to any blown case of severe auto-immune disease. The answer is I have seen I have seen this cause about everything,
DEBRA: When I was writing my last book Toxic-Free, I did a completely new study as if I have never studied toxic chemicals before. I studied, studied and my conclusion was toxic chemicals have been associated in every single kind of illness there is.
LORI PUSKAR: Absolutely.
DEBRA: It doesn’t matter I mean when I first started 30 years ago, I have studied to this field because I had an immune system dysfunction that was caused by toxic chemicals and people didn’t have associations like they didn’t even know that chemicals cause cancer back then. Now you can go online and you can find studies associated anything that was wrong in your body. You can find study that associates toxic chemicals with it.
LORI PUSKAR: Absolutely true. Part of it say a biochemistry standpoint these chemical mimic or look like natural substances in the body. That’s part of it why they get to be so dangerous and they can end up like you’re saying can go across the board in any system. I don’t have them all memories but there’s a handful of chemical that can look like thyroid hormones like cholesterol or the female hormones. So when the body sees it coming, it’s not really sure if it’s the real thing or not the real thing.
DEBRA: I know.
LORI PUSKAR: Then it confuses the body, that’s how they’re saying, you can have a chemical mimicking the real thing and that body part or organs pulls it in and, “Ooh, this is what I need.” And then after 10 years, made of wrong thing.
DEBRA: Yeah.
LORI PUSKAR: Then you get the symptoms of that organ in distress regardless of what the mechanism that got you into trouble, your symptom pattern can be the same whether it was lead or mercury or arsenic or acetate or pesticides. Once the problem has occurred all you know is that the organ and their system or health situation and symptoms –there is a pattern of what the body does and our job is to go find out what got you into trouble in the first place.
DEBRA: Yes, when we come back from the break Lori will explain all of it because it’s a very interesting system and it works really, really well. You’re listening to Toxic-Free Talk radio. I’m DEBRA: Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Lori Puskar, she’s a doctor of chiropractic and a practitioner of Nutrition Response Testing which we’re going to learn in about a couple of minutes. Stay tuned.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic-Free Talk radio. I’m DEBRA: Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Lori Puskar, she’s a doctor of chiropractic and she practices of Nutrition Response Testing. So tell us about Nutrition Response Testing?
LORI PUSKAR: Okay, great! Of course, it’s fantastic. I’m a tad biased but…
DEBRA: It is fantastic! I want to say just one thing before start talking. One of the reasons, I came back for it now is because I have some long-term things going on that I have tried lots of things for and when I look at the cost of Nutrition Response Testing vs. the cost of going to other doctors, it’s immensely different because I was looking at—I talked to one doctor who said, “Yeah, I can totally tell what’s wrong with your body and it’s $2000 worth of tests for the first appointment.”
When you go to Nutrition Response Testing, the practitioner charges you for an office visit I paid $43.00 and for some supplements whatever happens to be. And the supplements cost $19.00 or $22.00 – it’s not thousands of dollars to do this.
LORI PUSKAR: Right. One thing definitely in this model is freedom in healthcare for everyone and there can’t be any barriers to getting a sick person well regarding the circumstance. So if you’re really going to get the truth about health out to the entire country at a cost they can afford. The average American family throughout the country could have the family on a program – yes, there’s a cost-affordable calculation that need to be looked at, something that is design inherently to the Nutrition Response Testing itself. So, yes you’re absolutely correct on that point.
DEBRA: Yes. So I wanted everybody to know who’s listening to this program about something that I’d like to do. You can just go to toxicfreetalkradio.com, look in today’s – description of today’s show and at the bottom there’s a link. Just click on the link and they’ll find somebody in your area who can do this with you.
LORI PUSKAR: Right, that’s a great thing it is across the country. So I know a lot of listeners and they have friends and family around the country…
DEBRA: Oh, this show is actually around the world!
LORI PUSKAR: Okay, wonderful! I wasn’t exactly sure how far we are talking and that’s fantastic!
DEBRA: We’re going around the world.
LORI PUSKAR: Yey! Alright, let’s talk about freedom of healthcare. Anyone in the world deserves health and at an affordable price. That’s fantastic to anyone who can get the message. Basically, there is hope and it comes in the form of health nutritionists and pharmacists. Excellent! I’m glad I know that.
DEBRA: Okay, so tell us about the program.
LORI PUSKAR: Okay, good! So, Nutrition Response Testing is derived from previous techniques and from – I’m sure everyone knows that it’s from Muscle Testing. It comes out of the world of traditional muscle testing. Another word that many listeners will be familiar with is applied kinesiology. Again, I’m sure you’re saying, “I already tried that and it didn’t work. Like many things in life, you may have tried something like it but I’m telling you, you have never tried Nutrition Response Testing.
DEBRA: That’s Right! The way you do it, it’s different from any muscle testing I’ve ever had.
LORI PUSKAR: Absolutely! Which we’re again part of Dr. Ulan’s discovery that muscle testing was a key part but not the only part to the Nutrition Response Testing accomplishes and workable principles but also workable principles from the other healthcare’s fields.
Again, it’s a non-invasive analysis based from muscle testing procedure. So you’re using your body as your answer key which I fantastic because this brings us back to the whole, “Anything can cause anything.
If I honestly don’t know and moving forward in the beginning of my full analysis, what exactly are we going to find? I only know the most common denominators that most people get themselves trouble with as we’d already talked about chemicals, toxins and poisons being one of the key areas via the muscle testing that individual patient’s body which one. Because argumentatively, what couldn’t be true—let’s say the patient does have acetate, arsenic and pesticide poisoning.
Not only do I need data, I also need to ask the body which one to handle first. The goal would be that we would get the domino effect that if I handle the arsenic that will handle the other two for me. So it’s really putting together a tailor-made, ultra-specific, nutrition program for each individual patient. So even if two had identical patients both experiencing chemical poisoning, my goal would be to isolate which chemicals, each poisons in each order and in the exact nutritional program for that patient particular toxicity itself.
DEBRA: Would you talk a little more regarding doing things in sequence because that such a key part of this – it’s that the body wants to handle certain things first. Can you explain more how that works?
LORI PUSKAR: Absolutely true! There’s a word that the health industry especially in the world alternative medicine is what we want to tap into is the innate intelligence of this body. Though I and the doctor have a priority order and even the patients have a priority order, the actual priority order that matters is the one of this innate intelligence. It is also called Autonomic Nervous system, it’s that part of the body that makes you want to survive or live despite any factors or barriers you throw at it. I want to talk to the guys in charge and that’ who’s in charge and again you have to do it in sequence. So I might think, it’s lead first and the body is like, “Nope I got it on the lead but however I need you to handle the arsenic first.” So it allows you then to get that domino effect.
It’s the exact same principle as opening a combination lock, I might have the numbers but if I don’t have those numbers in the exact order, that lock will never open.
DEBRA: Yeah.
LORI PUSKAR: So you’re innate intelligence, your autonomic nervous system has does that the same keypad and I had to have it in exact order, otherwise it will never open the case for full healing and health.
DEBRA: So I’ve just been having that experience when I went to my practitioner last week, I said, “I was having trouble with my eyes, would you give me something for my eyes” and he said, “No! Your body doesn’t want anything for your eyes. It doesn’t want to handle anything for your eyes right now.”
LORI PUSKAR: Exactly.
DEBRA: He wouldn’t give me anything. I walked in to his office with about 50, no not that many, about 35 bottles of supplements. And he says, “Why are you taking all these things?” And it’s because what we were talking about earlier, the diagnostic effects of supplements. That you just take all these things and see if it could handle or not handle the symptoms. My first visit I walked in with these bottles and he gave me two bottles.
LORI PUSKAR: Right.
DEBRA: Two bottles that nobody else had given me and this is what my body needed. One of them was a homeopathic remedy which nobody ever, ever in my entire 60 years has given me.
LORI PUSKAR: Fantastic!
DEBRA: And it was – I started feeling better right way.
LORI PUSKAR: That’s the whole key.
DEBRA: It was the right one in the right sequence.
LORI PUSKAR: Absolutely, and that’s the key and exactly what that innate intelligence wants to do.
DEBRA: Good and when we come back, we’ll talk more about those. I just think it’s so fascinating. You’re listening to Toxic-Free Talk radio. I’m DEBRA: Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Lori Puskar, she’s a doctor of chiropractic and a practitioner of Nutrition Response Testing which we’ve learning about and we’ll find out more when we come back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic-Free Talk radio. I’m DEBRA: Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Lori Puskar, doctor of chiropractic and a practitioner of Nutrition Response Testing. F you want to more information about Nutrition Response Testing or if you find somebody in your area, just go to toxicfreetalkradio.com, look for today’s show and at the end of the description you can click on right ahead and it will take you to somebody who can do this with you in your area. So, tell us more about then program.
LORI PUSKAR: Sure. So just to recap Nutrition Response Testing is definitely doing things in the exact sequence and then again communication directly with the person in charge which would I love to say the patient’s insides and the nervous system and the computer system in there that’s actually in charge.
So what’s wonderful about Nutrition Response Testing is they give the practitioner the opportunity to communicate to the control center. And what leads to is what I said earlier a tailor-made program for that’s exactly right patient. And that gives the practitioner certainty and confidence that what they’re doing will get the results that they’re expecting because that’s the key. All of that other stuff though it’s beautiful and wonderful but the bottom line: What is the results? How good is it? How fantastic and how good can good be? It’s one thing to be, “Oh yeah, maybe I think I feel a little bit better“ to “Oh my gosh!” that is the difference about the results.
That’s what I love with Dr. Ulan and why I still want to get in this work personally is because his standards and result is like nothing I’ve ever seen. If it’s not perfect and anything less than that is almost unacceptable. We are not detonating perfect in this world but the goal is ever is anything less than that. We totally painted the picture to our practitioners and patients is expect the best. Let’s work together as a team in cooperation with your body to get you there. So never expect less and that’s what I’ve seen Nutrition Response Testing stand true to in every single time and in every case I worked with.
DEBRA: Well, tell us what happens if somebody were to come in for their first appointment. What would it look like?
LORI PUSKAR: The first appointment takes in about an hour an hour and a half. There’s a lot of reading and training in getting a full understanding of what was to occur especially if the theory and the idea of muscle testing is new. And we do a full system of analysis based on Nutrition Response Testing. Also some tools to analyze how well you’re doing to start because one of the things we need to establish is baseline of how much work we have to do.
Not only that Nutrition Response Testing answers valuable but we need to what kind of prognosis can we expect. All of that data is gathered on the first visit. Our first visit is actually a two-part visit and what the practitioner would sit for a good 15 minutes to half-hour to an hour depending on the case to review all those materials, data collected and the analysis done.
And the part two you come you are sat down and go over with you all these again to make sure nothing is missed and layout for you this standard of care and this tailor-made program of what you could expect of what we would need of you in order to fulfill your patient roles and also what you could expect of us as a healthcare facility and from the practitioners. We really do not want to leave any stone unturned prior to you saying, “Yes, let’s get started.” We really don’t make sure and establish that we’re a team and we’re going to work on these for a long term.
Basically, it’s the two of us together and we’re going to do what it takes to get you there. That is really what you’re trying to establish that whole initial consultation procedures and what’s the situation and what is it going to really what it takes to handle that.
DEBRA: We also we want to be really clear, this isn’t an overnight fix. It takes some months and sometimes it’s like – I’ve been going this round for like two months and I’m still taking the same things I started with but in different doses. I’ve been going in every week and I get checked out if there are some changes and if I’m taking what I’ve been given. Now I’m going to start every two weeks. So as you go you don’t have to go every week. As you go the price goes down because you’re not going every week. It’s not that much to begin with. It cost a lot less than insurance I tell you that.
LORI PUSKAR: Exactly. We consider this an insurance. We consider that card in your pocket just-in-case-god-forbid insurance. But if we’re talking about true health, it comes from the diet you eat and the nutritional supplement that you’re on. That’s actually what’s going to restore by the real definition of health in any person.
DEBRA: Here’s a new thing that I’ve never seen any place else. Tell us about scars? Why do you check scars?
LORI PUSKAR: The interesting thing about scars come back to this control panel I was talking about. If you take a look at the body of the computer system and much of that computer if it comes out into the rest of the body. It starts obviously in the brain. But all of your nerves basically make out the communication system that goes from the tip of your toes and your fingertip.
Those nerve ending fibers are actually very close to the surface of the skin so when you get a scar prior, those nerve-ending fibers tend not to heal completely after that injury or trauma you received. So you have to get the entire body’s system communications as perfect as possible so if there’s a scar in the way hindering those fibers, we have to handle that specifically as a barrier.
It’s not because you necessarily need a vitamin K or vitamin c or a vitamin D. It’s the fact that the brain cannot communicate down to say, “Hey, we need it or we don’t need it.” It could be just a communication breakdown as opposed to nutritional deficiency.
DEBRA: That’s what is interesting to me that you know all the barriers are and different ways the body can affected that it can stop communication inside the body. It’s that you know and so many different practices don’t even include these kinds of things.
LORI PUSKAR: the goal is personally as practitioner is that I don’t like mysteries, I don’t like guessing, I don’t like doubt. Part of my goal is I wanted to practice as close to perfect as possible with the certainty and the confidence as much as possible. So that when you said, “Can I get you well?? I can actually truthfully and ethically say, “Yes, I can.” Now, that we’ve agreed to that how are we going about it? And Nutrition Response Testing allows us the path that’s going to take us from Point A to Point B.
DEBRA: So basically, what you’re treating with is nutrition, you give everybody a diet and nutritional supplement. There’s no medicines, there’s no drugs, there’s no anything that we associate with healthcare.
LORI PUSKAR: Yes, that’s correct! It’s really a stays natural solution. There are definitely no use of drugs and surgeries of traditional medical model of any kind. Also you’re looking at dietary supplements and nutritional supplementations.
So the whole point beyond this show is any of those barriers so there’s the environmental recommendation and implementations that would need to occur. So it’s not just a matter of dietary and taking the perfect nutritional program, it’s also handling those in your environment that would be poison and toxic by definition and making sure that they are part of the case. So it’s absolutely inherent and valuable and pertinent getting a sick person well.
DEBRA: Yes, yes we agree on that point. It’s just good to have you on to validate. But I’m educated in this field and read a lot and have my own personal experiences and I talk to people. And toxic chemicals really do come to that if you don’t handle them; they’re going to make you sick. Toxic chemicals will accumulate in your body and they’re going to make you sick and that’s the truth today. I’m so happy that you agree with me with background that you have and clinical experiences you encounter on daily basis. So we have less than a minute, so any final thing you’d like to day?
LORI PUSKAR: Yeah I’d like to thank all the listeners. Basically, what I’d like to tell everyone is that don’t give up there’s definitely hope if you have any health situation or medical reason of any kind for any reason. Just keep searching to the right practitioner. Ideally Nutrition Response Team practitioner to get to the true cause….
DEBRA: Thank you so much! You have come to the end of the show. You’re listening to Toxic Free talk radio, I’, Debra Lynn Dadd.
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Does Milk Paint Contain Radioactive Clay?
Question from Rebecca David
Hi Debra,
I recently painted my daughter’s room using “Old Fashioned Milk Paint. Later I heard that they add “radioactive Kaolin clay” to their paint as a filler. Do you think this is harmful?
Thank you.
Debra’s Answer
First of all, I’ve been recommending Old Fashions Milk Paint for so many years I can’t remember when I started. I have this paint on the walls of my house because it is completely natural and contains no VOCs or plastics, as most paints do. I love this paint.
I contacted the President, Anne Thibeau and asked her about this. She said, no, their paint is not radioactive.
“We use a blend of a few different clays that are proprietary,” said Anne, “And have actually had them tested for radioactivity (zero).”
“Our paint does not have, nor has it ever had, any radioactive or otherwise harmful materials in it. That goes against everything we stand for. Even our paint palette is limited because we have found many pigments are questionable as far as toxicity goes. But the colors we do make are easily blended to create hundreds of other beautiful colors, which many of our customers do on a regular basis. We are proud to have developed what we feel is one of the safest paints on the planet for the past 41 years.”
I did some additional research because the phrase “radioactive kaolin clay” just did not make sense to me. Here’s what I found.
Natural radioactive materials are present in all geological rocks in varying amounts, including clay. And also any other rocks. It is easily released into the environment.
A study was done on clay specifically to “measure the natural radioactivity due to the presence of radionuclides in clay and kaolin, used widely as raw materials in ceramics, bricks and cement industries, and to assess the possible radiological hazards associated with these raw materials.” The study concluded that while some natural radionuclides do exist in clays, “the calculated alpha index values for all samples are below the recommended upper level.”
Clays have been used since the beginning of humankind to make ceramic items of all kinds. Some clays may be more radioactive than others, or contain other naturally-ocurring metals or minerals.
But in general, clay is widely considered to be a safe ingredient. So much so that clay is recommended to be applied to the skin and taken internally as a means of removing radioactive materials from the body.
Radiation is present throughout the environment. You cannot escape it. Our bodies can accommodate the levels of radioactivity in the natural environment. The problem comes when we are exposed to levels beyond the natural ambient levels from human activities.
The bottom line is, clay is unlikely to contain more than natural levels of radionuclides, and Old Fashioned Milk Paint has had the clays they used tested for radioactivity, and none was found.
I don’t see a toxic danger here.
How Can I Find Safe Organic Clothing and Bedding?
Question from John Landau
Hi Debra,
I order clothing, sheets, etc. from so-called organic companies, and without fail, I’m always left disappointed. Organic clothing has arrived reeking of toxic perfumes and chemicals. Sheets are a nightmare!
I’ve ordered organic sheets from West Elm that came in a ‘duffle bag’. They smelled like perfume. I assumed it was because they were in the store exposed to God knows what. I sent a complaint to their headquarters, and alas, no response.
Fast forward. Someone gave me a gift card from there recently. I ordered (2) sets of organic sheets. These arrived in plastic. However, I’ve washed them a zillion times, and they still reek of some awful chemical smell.
I recently ordered organic t-shirts from a company out west. When they arrived they, too, had to be washed a zillion times. I finally just threw them away. The chemicals would not come out..
I’m going crazy because I have no clothes and sheets left and can’t find a company that is not being deceptive about their product.
I ordered a shower curtain (hemp) from another company. I had a severe reaction (MCS). How could they send something like this to someone and claim its “safe”? Is there such a thing as truly organic?
I’m beginning to wonder if it’s not just easier to order conventional items, pay less for them, and call it a day. I’m in the market for new pillows, but I’m afraid to order them and receive toxic smelling pillows. Any ideas? What to do, what to do? Thanks.
Debra’s Answer
I can understand what you are saying. “Organic” can refer to the raw cotton only, but not necessarily to the process of making the fabric or finishes applied. So it’s possible to get “organic” clothing and bedding that contain chemicals.
You didn’t mention the places you purchased all these items, except for West Elm. So I’m just going to comment on them. On their website, West Elm says, “west elm offers modern furniture and home decor featuring inspiring designs and colors” Hmmm, nothing in that statement suggests to me that their business is about providing safe anything for people with MCS. So even though they might sell something called “organic,” they really don’t know much about choosing a product that’s really organic.
I suggest that you try businesses listed on Debra’s List. And if you have any problem with products from those businesses, come to me. While obviously it’s impossible for me to inspect every product on every website (the idea behind Debra’s List is to POINT you to websites that have an underlying philosophy of having pure products, but you need to evaluate them for yourself if they meet your own needs), it’s more likely you will find what you are looking for on these websites.
And it’s perfectly fine to choose non-organic fabrics. I wear a lot of non-organic clothing because I can’t afford organic. And by the time the fiber is turned into fabric, there are little, if any, pesticide residues. Of course, there are environmental reasons why one should choose organic, but I find that if you choose the right clothing, non-organic fabrics are not toxic.
I stick with cotton or linen fabrics and cotton knits. Things without no-iron finishes that I can toss in the washer.
Engineered Hardwood Flooring
Question from Nancy Carew
Hi Debra,
We are considering installing Torlys engineered hardwood flooring in our new house. We are building on a concrete slab and are considering electric in-floor radiant heat. All Torlys floors and underlays are said to be “CARB compliant and meet the Healthy Home requirements set by the European (E1) and California (Section 01350) indoor air quality standards”. I have been concerned about engineered hardwood flooring in the past because of the glues and formaldehyde. These floors do not require glue for installation because these snap together. What do you think about this product? Also, any concerns about radiant in-floor heat?
Thanks.
Debra’s Answer
OK. When you see something that says they are “CARB compliant” etc, that does NOT mean zero emissions. It means it meets a low standard.
If you put this type of flooring over radiant heat floors, the heat will cause them to outgas formaldehyde and other chemicals that may be used in manufacture.
I have no concerns about the toxicity of radiant floor heat, however not sure about EMFs from electrical radiant.
There are three types of radiant heat floors: hot air, electric, and hot water. Air or water would have less of an EMF concern.
Here’s a good article about radiant heat flooring: Energy.gov: Radiant Heating
Padded Headboard
Question from Olga Mayers
Hi Debra,
I am looking to purchase a platform tufted bed. I noticed that it has been upholstered with fabric – polyester and linen and padding is made of a foam in the headboard. The frame is made of a solid wood all over including the headboard. Should I be concerned about any toxic off-gasing that could potentially harm me in the long run? I live in CA so this manufacturer does not use any fire retardant as well.
Thank you.
Debra’s Answer
I’m still concerned about polyurethane foam, even if it doesn’t have a fire retardant. You should check to see if the fabric has been treated with anything before you make a decision.
Personally, I wouldn’t choose this headboard. While it may be attractive, it may harbor dust and other pollutants. Since this is bext to your bed, where you sleep every night, I would keep the area as simple as possible, so it can be as clean as possible.
Miswak Club
A miswak is a natural toothbrush made from a tree branch. Picked specifically from the tree ‘Salvadora persica’ it has a unique chemical composition that works exceptionally well to naturally clean and whiten teeth. The Journal of Health says, “It it has been found that if a miswak is used correclty, then it is more effective in reducing plaque and gum disease than that of a toothbrush due to its antibacterial properties and brushing action.” Comes with two custom-designed carrying cases so you can brush wherever you are.
Urthware Cutting Boards
“Naturally safe cutting boards and kitchenware without the toxic, synthetic and/or petroleum based chemicals found in most cutting boards. From our organic finishes to our all natural gum tree rubber feet. We go out of our way to create products that are as natural as possible and healthy for your family to use. Why buy expensive organic food just to place it on either a plastic cutting board, a glue filled bamboo board (usually an untested glue) or a wooden board containing toxic glues (untested) or scrap lumber or lumber obtained in unethical ways? When you now do have a choice. Urthware, naturally safe kitchenware…ZERO glues and ZERO petroleum based coatings. They are the most natural and safe cutting boards we can possibly produce…We use North American Hard Maple for most of our cutting boards. Hard Maple has the perfect blend of hardness for durabilty and softness to not dull your knife blades. It also has been shown in studies to not harbor bacteria.”
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Listen to my interviews with Michal Gal, Founder of Urthware |
Mooseberry Soap
Organic soap and body care products made from ingredients that are sustainable and organic, including “bio-food-grade organic colors.” Many of their products are scent-free. Non GMO. They are a wholesale company, but they also sell retail on their website—both products and soapmaking supplies. They are a little sketchy about providing ingredients lists for all their products, but what they do show on the site demonstrates they understand the issues.
Imlak’esh Organics
A sustainable, intentional company that specializes in the import and distribution of superfoods ethically sourced from small-scale organic farmers around the world. They are committed to working directly with farmers, cooperatives, and like-minded companies to grow abundance for all people on the planet. “We want to promote a lifestyle of gratitude, intention, and integrity that centers around the nutrition we choose for our bodies.” These superfoods are sold individually, with all their nutritional benefits explained.
Sanctuary Organics
Whole organic fruit powders and extracts “made from the purest, most nutritious and highest quality fruits in the world.” Each has a description of the superfood and nutritional benefits. “All products undergo rigorous testing for purity and to ensure no contaminants are present. Various stages of testing are conducted throughout the process including third party testing. Analysis throughout the process includes HPTLC, UV, GC, HPLC, and/or USP analysis.”
Lifefactory
Mobile glass containers with protective silicone sleeves allows you take glass containers anywhere without breaking. Drinking glasses, oven-to-table square food storage containers with lids, water bottles, and baby bottles all come with a silicone sleeves in a variety of bright colors. Great for carrying lunches and snacks wherever you go.
Vegetabowls
Delightful earthenware that look exactly like fruits and vegetables! Slip-cast from molds made from real fruits and vegetables, the unique organic qualities of each fruit and vegetable comes through in each piece. Hand painted with nontoxic, food-safe glazes that reflect the bright colors of it’s edible inspiration. Made in the USA.
Zenbunni Chocolate
A very different and pretty amazing chocolate! One of the best if you want to eat chocolate in it’s purest form as a superfood. First they start off with artisinal stone ground biodynamic cacao and then handcraft bars using “a wide open range of certified biodynamic, organic, and wild foraged heirloom spices, herbs, leaves, flowers, nuts, oils, salts and minerals to soothe, inspire, amaze, delight, health and nurture you, all graciously provided by Mother Nature.” They have many astounding flavors, sold individually and in sets. Sweetened with a “proprietary mineral-rich sugar blend of biodynamic cane jaggery (whole cane sugar), and organic coconut flower nectar.”
Elaa
elää is a Finnish word meaning “to be alive”…”Just like a hummingbird or butterfly transforms and thrives with vitality and beauty from the drink of plant nectars, so shall you”. elaa products are made from living and highly active, transformational plant oils and extracts. With these precious nectars, you’ll soon fly. Soar to your highest height of aliveness, health, and beauty.” Pure, super active living organic skin, body, dental, and hair care products.
Peterboro Basket Co.
Handcrafted furniture-quality baskets for every room in your home, made from Appalachian White Ash. This is the same hardwood used to make baseball bats, snowshoes and axe handles. The wood is harvested from Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Solid brass nails and brass coated hardware. “Our baskets are made to last…All of our baskets are made on site at our factory in Peterborough, NH. We are the oldest basket manufacturing company still crafting our baskets right here in the United States” Baskets come with a finish, but you can choose “natural finish,” which is just plain, unfinished wood.
Keeping Babies Toxic-Free
My guest today is Laura Saville, one of three co-founding sisters of The Soft Landing, a comprehensive website with blog, safe product guides, and store for moms wanting to protect their children from toxic chemicals. Her years spent in business management prior to becoming a wife and mother helped her hone the ability to handle the fine details and mountains of research her job at The Soft Landing requires. Laura has a love of common sense and practicality, and finds great pleasure in helping parents on their journeys to reducing their family’s exposure to toxic chemicals in everyday products, one baby step at a time. www.thesoftlanding.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Keeping Babies Toxic-free
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Laura Saville
Date of Broadcast: : June 24, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It is the 24th of July, 2015. We’re having a thunderstorm today. So you may hear some rumbling in the background. It seems to be pretty close to right on top of me and I’m getting thunder and lightning. And usually, we don’t have any problem with disconnection of power or anything like that. So I’m expecting that we’ll be fine all the way through. But if you hear some noise in the background, it’s just Mother Nature cooling things off here. It’s really wonderful to have thunderstorms.
In fact, I live very close. There’s another lightning. Let’s see how far it is — yeah, it’s a mile away. Can you hear that? I don’t know if you can hear that. Anyway, I live very close to the thunder capital of the United States, extreme weather.
So we’ll see what happens.
Today, we’re going to be talking about babies and kids and how to keep them toxic free. My guest today is Laura Saville. She’s one of three co-founding sisters of The Soft Landing. It’s a pretty comprehensive website with a blog, safe product guides and a shop, online store, for moms wanting to protect their children from toxic chemicals.
Hi, Laura.
LAURA SAVILLE: Hey, Debra.
DEBRA: How are you today?
LAURA SAVILLE: Thank you so much for having me. I’m great. How are you doing?
DEBRA: I’m doing well, except can you hear the thunder in the background?
LAURA SAVILLE: I can’t. I was trying to hear it, but I can’t hear it yet.
DEBRA: Okay, there. Right now, can you hear it? No, I think it’s probably fine. I have one of those mics, it picks up bi-directionally. So I guess thunder in the background will be just fine.
So Laura, this is quite unusual that three sisters and their mother would be concerned about toxics. So how did you all get interested in this?
LAURA SAVILLE: Well, we’ve always been really close. But it actually happened when one of our sisters moved away from us for about a year. And she had a baby. She went to the doctor one day with a bottle and the doctor said, “What are you doing feeding your baby with that bottle?” And my sister said, “What are you talking about?”
It all started from there. He said, “There’s something called BPA in a lot of the baby bottles. And you have to stop using it right now.”
So being the researchers that we are by nature, it was within us to track down what this BPA was and figure out is it really that big of a deal or is this guy just crazy? Well, we found out it really was that big of a deal and it launched our entire company. For the last eight years, it was the thing that propelled us to find out about all of these toxins in every day products.
DEBRA: Yes, everybody has a story of what is the thing that made them actually realize that there are toxics in the world and that they should do something about it. That sounds like a good story. So tell us more about what your business does.
LAURA SAVILLE: Well, since we have our own families and of course, we want the best for them and we know that every other parent wants the best for theirs too, it it became really important to us to assist parents in finding their power, first of all, to figure out that they can make changes and really begin to grasp roots movement to empower parents to say, “Hey, this isn’t okay,” or, “We want products without these toxins.”
So we provide a lot of information. And that’s really what we’re all about, it’s providing information to help parents on their journeys to lessening their toxic loads.
DEBRA: Did you find, as you’ve been researching all of this, that – well, did you go about doing your research? I know that I’ve been doing this – we’ve been having parallel paths. I’ve been doing for the last 30 years. I got interested in it because I learned that I had immune system damage because of toxic chemical exposures. And, of course, I said, “What toxic chemical exposures?” I didn’t know there were toxic chemicals all over my home and in all the products that I was using.
And when I learned that that was the case, at that time, there was really no information available. I had to just start with going to the library.
So how did you go from – since actually, every consumer is actually, “This is our story, this is our path,” what we all need to do is become aware of the toxic chemicals, where they are and what to use instead. So how did that happen for you? What was that like?
LAURA SAVILLE: Well, we know very well that you, Debra, are the OG, original non-toxic ninja. And we’ve been aware of you for a really long time.
DEBRA: Thank you.
LAURA SAVILLE: And we love everything you do, of course. You are a huge resource for us, always has been. We were also shocked to know that there were so much toxic materials and ingredients that we were just absolutely being bombarded with.
So we have great resources like you. We started just cold calling manufacturers left and right, constantly telling them, “We need to know what’s in these products.” And for a long time, it was like pulling teeth. You couldn’t get this information out of them.
So we just kept doing that. The internet has been our friend, our best friend in finding information. Now, the information isn’t that hard to find because people like you and a lot of people have been trying to get this information out there for a long time now. So it’s really a better situation for all of us.
DEBRA: Thank you. That’s good to hear because I remember when I started, there was no internet. And so I was going to the library and looking in things like industry journals to see what they were talking about in terms of what chemicals they were using – and poison control centers and medical libraries and things like that. I had to get up, get in my car and drive down to the library and drive to another library and make photocopies.
LAURA SAVILLE: I just can’t imagine being in that situation. It’s hard enough for us to find the information that we find, but having to get actually down to the basics and figure out the nitty gritty about each and every ingredient without the Internet, that must have been extremely difficult.
DEBRA: It was. But you know, what I found (and I’m thinking that you probably have found this too), as daunting as it can seem in the beginning – and I’ll tell you, I just didn’t even know where to start. I did not know where to start. My father actually bought me a chemistry dictionary. And I still have it on my shelf. It has this orange cover on it. And so what I would do is I just started with what chemical (I think it was formaldehyde or something) and I just looked up formaldehyde in the dictionary. And then the dictionary says, “Formaldehyde is made by combining this chemical and that chemical.” And then I’d look up the other one. And every time I look up a chemical, I’d mark it with a highlighter pen. And so then if I came back to it again, I would go, “Oh, this is a familiar chemical.”
But what started happening very quickly was that as I started becoming familiar with the chemicals, I started seeing them in product after product after product. And it turned out at that time – there are more chemicals now, but at that time, I had my top 40 chemicals and I was just looking for those chemicals. And when I found formaldehyde in bedsheets, I went, “A-ha! I know that formaldehyde.” It was this moment when I said, “Oh, I know that formaldehyde causes insomnia and look, it’s in bedsheets.” You start making those connections and I know that it’s difficult – I never had petrochemistry in school.
The point I was wanting to make here is that we do see the same chemicals over and over again. There are just a lot of them. And as you just start studying these things, it becomes less and less difficult to more and more familiar like anything else.
LAURA SAVILLE: Definitely. And you definitely become familiar with the ingredients. It’s not hard after spending a little while just studying and reading to know what you need to avoid.
And like you said, you see it over and over again. If you read labels, you know what to look for after a little while and you can say, “Yes, I’ll buy that product,” or, “No, I won’t,” depending on what it’s made of. Manufacturers are a lot more willing and able to provide that ingredient information to people and since everyone is trying to find out nowadays.
DEBRA: We need to take a break. But we’ll come back and talk more about choosing products with Laura Saville, one of the three founding sisters of The Soft Landing. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Laura Saville. She’s one of the three co-founding sisters of The Soft Landing, which is a great website if you’re a mom. One of the things I really like about what you’re doing, Laura, is that you’re really focusing on a subset, a very important subset of the whole bigger picture of toxics, and that you’re really serving mothers and how they care for their children with regard to toxics.
Not being a mother myself, it’s not something that I have firsthand experience. And so I’m really interested that you’re doing this and really appreciating that you’re doing this because you know what mothers are facing.
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes. It always starts from the beginning. If we can greatly reduce or eliminate toxins from the beginning as infants, then we are raising a healthier generation with fewer health problems and things that they don’t have to face in the future.
DEBRA: That’s exactly right. And there are so many chemicals nowadays that actually are affecting children while they’re in the room. Can you talk a little bit about that? About some of the chemicals that mothers should be concerned about even before their children are born?
LAURA SAVILLE: Well, yes. It’s been shown that flame retardant chemicals have been found in infant’s blood right after birth. Flame retardants are everywhere. As you know, there are lots of laws that require companies to put flame retardants in their products. And nowadays, people are using less flame retardants because consumers are demanding it.
But still we have to try and avoid those. Chemicals in skin care are a huge one. As we all know, the skin is the largest organ of the body and it’s very absorbent. Anything that goes on to it goes right into your bloodstream. And of course, baby in the womb is connected to us in that way.
So we can avoid that by choosing safer products and thereby, protecting our unborn children from those toxins.
DEBRA: And something I’d like to just mention is that as adults, we are exposed to a certain amount of toxic chemicals that are making many of us sick and have the potential to make everybody sick that are exposed to them because they’re toxic. But then if you can imagine that same amount of exposure going to a child or to a baby in the womb, it’s just like their amount of exposure is 3 or 4 or 10 times more than we’re having because their bodies are so much smaller.
So it’s really important that any parent, any mother-to-be, any parent needs to be concerned about toxics. It just is. You’re really dealing with the most critical population.
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes. Thank you. And we do feel that way. And we want our children to be healthy. And this is the way that we can do it. But we always do say, even little tiny baby steps, little changes that you can make, even those will make a huge difference in the quality of your health and the way that your children develop.
DEBRA: Well, what’s the first baby step? What do you think is the easiest or most important baby step for people to start with?
LAURA SAVILLE: If we’re talking about with babies, I would definitely choose safe skin care products. There are lots of good companies out there right now that provide safe skin care for babies with no toxins at all. If you do that, you’re providing a way for your child to have a very little chemical body burden, which is what we’re going for here.
And then, of course, we want to avoid chemicals in the feeding gear once they start eating and their teething toys. Let’s see, there are all sorts of things that you can avoid but those few will make a huge difference.
DEBRA: So let’s say that somebody is listening who is a new mom and she’s just learning about this for the first time, what should she do now that she’s heard that she should use toxic-free personal care products for the baby? How is she going to find those? How can you help her?
LAURA SAVILLE: Well, on our website, TheSoftLanding.com, we have shopping guides. And on our shopping guides, we have safe skin care. We avoid ingredients, especially the ingredient called fragrance. As you know, Debra, there is over—
DEBRA: You can tell us about this.
LAURA SAVILLE: There are over 3000 ingredients that can be listed or used under that one term on the label of a skin care product. So you could imagine that if you’re using laundry detergent with fragrance, air freshener with fragrance, skin care with fragrance and dryer sheets with fragrance, you can be using 10, 20,000 different ingredients just in those right there.
So if you’re going to look on your labels and see a fragrance ingredient, I would immediately put that right down and find something without a fragrance ingredient.
DEBRA: And there are a lot of companies now who are aware of this. So there are a lot of unscented, fragrance-free products available for babies that weren’t available before. And The Soft Landing is a very good place to go to find out which ones you can choose, that we don’t have to—what’s so great is that we don’t have to all go through this process of starting at square one to find things out because people like you and me are sharing the information that we’re finding. And I think that’s so important. It’s just so important.
I so appreciate what you’re doing because it’s an area that I have no personal experience with, and you’re doing a really good job. I’m very pleased with that.
LAURA SAVILLE: Thank you. Thank you very much.
DEBRA: So we’re coming up on the break. So I don’t want to ask you a big, long question. Let’s see, something short we can talk about. I want to ask you—when we come back, I’ll ask you the comeback question. When we come back, I want to know what’s your greatest challenge in putting all this information together. What has been the most difficult thing? How did you get through it? Let’s talk about those things because I know that—everybody is running into things that are challenges, the things that are difficult every day. Not just toxic chemicals but how we’re going to pay the bills, what’s going on with our kids, whatever. And it’s just getting through that process that can sometimes happen.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Laura Saville. She’s one of three co-founding sisters of The Soft Landing. And that’s TheSoftLanding.com, lots of information for you.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Laura Saville. She’s one of the three co-founding sisters of The Soft Landing. And they have so much information for moms and kids o this website. And as we’re all—she and I and others are all looking around and evaluating all these products, we all learn from each other.
I was looking at your site during the break. I’ve been looking at it a lot actually. And I find products on there that I haven’t seen before. So this is good.
So before the break, I asked the question, “What has been your biggest challenge?”
LAURA SAVILLE: Well, there’s probably a couple of big challenges. One of the big ones is just the overwhelming nature of it all. We started from absolutely level zero and it looks like an unsurmountable mountain. And we really had to work together. It’s so nice that there are a few of us, my sisters and our mom, who support each other and are able to pick up where the other left off.
And we have to wade throughout that information and be careful that we’re really seeing it for what it is, if it’s dangerous, if it’s not. And the other thing is that when we first started out, and I’m sure this happened to you too, Debra, people call you crazy. And they say, “You guys are nuts. There’s no way. They would never do this to us. And I don’t believe this.”
And so that was another thing that we had to push through and get past. It’s good that we’re strong-willed and hard-headed because that’s what you have to be sometimes to get through it. After a little while, it becomes clear how important things are. So you just do it.
DEBRA: For me, once you have that a-ha moment, you see it and then it’s like you’re in a different world. What do you say to people who don’t believe it?
LAURA SAVILLE: Well, we just say, “Look at the evidence.” People like us and you have spent so much time and it really is like living in a different world. And you just can’t deny it once you’re in it. And you say, “We’ve got so much information. There are scientific journals. There are studies. There are lots of things that prove our point.” So we don’t really have to try to convince people if they are just willing to look at the evidence.
DEBRA: Yes, I think that’s it. The information just needs to get out more and I know for me, I can tell the difference. If I’m eating something toxic or putting something toxic or breathing something toxic, I get a response to it. And I think that a lot of people don’t understand that what they think is their normal state is actually less than they could be wonderful than they could be feeling.
There have been times when I stopped being exposed to toxic chemicals, particularly in the beginning. I always had headaches. But when I stopped wearing perfume, I suddenly didn’t have headaches anymore. And when I changed the sheets on my bed, I could sleep. I didn’t have insomnia anymore because I wasn’t sleeping in this cloud of formaldehyde every night.
And when you have those experiences of being able to see the cause and effect of the toxic product versus the toxic product not being there, that’s a lot of encouragement to continue to live in a toxic-free way.
LAURA SAVILLE: Definitely. You definitely get rewards from eliminating these toxins from your life, just like you said. People are having health problems that they can probably—sometimes they can address themselves, like avoiding perfumes that are made with toxic chemicals, changing your sheets and your skin care. All of those thing can increase your life, your health and people just need to know the information has got to get out there.
DEBRA: Well, let’s talk about some—you have so much information in your blog and in your product guides. Let’s just talk about some of the other things that you recommend. I see here in your blog, you’ve got how to naturally scent your home.
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes. Essential oils are a big part of our lives. Once we discovered those, we realized that they have tremendous abilities. They can scent your home naturally. They can treat certain types of external ailments and we incorporate them into almost every area of our lives. We also do our natural pet care with our essential oils. And there are all sorts of things that you can do with them including scenting your home.
DEBRA: And natural essential oils, ones that are pure essential oils, are very, very different. When we’re talking about no fragrance on the label of the product, that doesn’t mean no essential oil, it just means no synthetic fragrances, this synthetic fragrance that is really bad for you.
So here’s another one from your blog. Safe sunscreen.
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes. That’s a huge one for us. It’s in the same category as skin care. And we have to make sure that we choose safe things to put on our skin and that includes sunscreen. We use sunscreens sparingly. We use it when we know we’re going to be outside too long because we definitely don’t want to be burnt. We don’t want to damage our skin but we want to have some sun exposure just so that we can get the benefits from it.
But sunscreen is very important. We don’t do the oxybenzone which is highly toxic. We don’t do nanoparticles because they are too tiny and they get in places that they’re not supposed to be. And we, of course, avoid any product with fragrance in it.
DEBRA: Yes. Good. So here’s another one, five lessons your kids can teach you about living healthy.
LAURA SAVILLE: Isn’t that interesting? We love to pay attention to our kids. Like they say, “Out of the mouths of babes.” When your kids, they know and they do think so simply. And you can really find out some valuable information if you just pay attention to those little guys.
DEBRA: So what are the five lessons? Or what are two of them? Actually, we’re going to break in 45 seconds, so tell us one.
LAURA SAVILLE: You put me on the spot. I don’t think I actually wrote that article.
DEBRA: Let’s just go there. I’m right here and so I’ll tell you which one they are. Lesson one, when kids say, “I won’t eat that,” what do we learn?
LAURA SAVILLE: We learn that maybe they shouldn’t be eating it. And that their body is telling them something, just like you said.
DEBRA: So here it says, eat healthy foods that you like. And I think that’s something that we all should be doing. There are so many delicious foods out there especially organic foods are so delicious that I don’t think that you’d need to eat anything you don’t like to eat just because it’s supposed to be healthy, that I think healthy food is good food.
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes, exactly. And sometimes there are food allergies that you need to pay attention to.
DEBRA: Yes. So if somebody doesn’t want to eat something, find out why.
So we’re going to go to break. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Laura Saville. She’s one of three co-founding sisters of The Soft Landing. And you can go visit their website at TheSoftLanding.com. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Laura Saville from The Soft Landing. And I am looking through her blog here, for a blogpost that she wrote.
So tell us about safe and effective hand sanitizer gel. I think that this is an important one for kids because don’t they require kids to use hand sanitizer in school now or something like that?
LAURA SAVILLE: They do. And that’s—one of our initiatives is to try and change this default mentality inside the schools to the more toxic remedies that they don’t actually have to choose. You can choose—either you can make your own like we do and use essential oils and other safe ingredients like aloe vera. Or you can go out and buy some. I believe 7th Generation has some. There’s a couple of others too that I can’t recall right now.
But we just go ahead and make our own because it’s just so easy. We usually have all this stuff on hand and it’s quick. You just throw it in a bottle and mix it up and you’re good to go. Works the same.
DEBRA: So there’s this whole thing about making it yourself versus a commercial product. And I make so many things myself because I know what goes in them, and this is not to say that there aren’t a lot of good products out there were they’ve already made it for you. But do you find that you make a lot of things yourself?
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes. I am the DIY gal. I do it all of the time. Everything I can, I make. And to the hand sanitizer, a while ago, there weren’t any safe hand sanitizers out there, so we had to make our own. And it got to be like a second nature, so we just go ahead and keep doing it.
DEBRA: It really is so easy. It’s just a matter of knowing what to do and once you find out—I think that it’s probably a key thing in this whole thing of switching to a toxic-free life is just knowing what to do. Once you have the information and once you learn how to do it, whether you’re making your own hand sanitizer or learning to cook.
Let’s talk about food. Let’s talk about food because you have a lot about food on the website. And one of the things about living toxic-free is really learning how to cook, if you don’t know how, and even if you know how to cook, learning how to cook differently.
LAURA SAVILLE: Oh, yes. It’s a real learning experience. Now, I am not a natural cook; however, two of my sisters are. So I glean a lot of information from them. As far as reducing our toxins though, we have learned to use safer cookware. We use our cast iron skillets a lot. And there are other companies that make ceramic cookware that we use.
DEBRA: I use that too.
LAURA SAVILLE: And it’s great stuff, and we don’t have to worry about exposing ourselves and our families to those toxic chemicals from Teflon.
DEBRA: Yes. Do you find that this lifestyle is more pleasurable?
LAURA SAVILLE: I definitely find it more pleasurable. Not only do I get to control a lot of what my family comes into contact with, but I also get to help other people become informed too so that they can do it for themselves and their families.
DEBRA: I was just looking at your blog while you were talking. I’m listening and looking at the same time. And I came across—you didn’t write this one, about Crisco-certified organic coconut oil.
LAURA SAVILLE: That was a huge one recently. That was a [cross-talking 00:42:46]. We couldn’t believe it. It was like such a shock and it actually went viral that little picture that she took in the grocery story.
DEBRA: I haven’t seen that in my grocery story. I actually don’t shop in supermarkets. Here’s a point though, I shop in a natural food store and I do all my shopping in a natural food store or at the farmers market or something like that. But there are people in supermarkets and maybe what’s going on here is that Crisco is reaching out to those people who wouldn’t otherwise be seeing organic coconut oil.
LAURA SAVILLE: That’s exactly what’s happening. And we have run into a conundrum in the green or non-toxic community where a lot of people don’t like the big companies getting in on the organic, natural food, the real food movement. But we take a different approach on that. And we say, “The more, the better because there’s a lot of people, your average person goes into the supermarket and they see organic, they’ve heard about organic and they can suddenly afford organic.” And that is what we’re going for. So we’re okay with that.
DEBRA: I think so too. My only concern is that I think there is a difference in viewpoint between the smaller leading edge companies that are producing these less toxic products versus the established companies that in the past have been producing toxic products and many of them still are, in addition to getting into this new area. And I’m not sure about the integrity of the product sometimes. I’m not saying that it isn’t a good product. But I think that when I talk to the more natural folks that they have a greater understanding of what the product should be, I think.
So if this is certified, it’s got the certified label on it, it meets the same standard, I don’t see a different between the quality of product and buying it from Crisco or buying it at a natural food store. It’s just people should buy it as best they can.
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes. And we want to make these better choices available to people at large. However, for us personally, we prefer to shop at our farmers market and we get to know our local people who grow the food. And we really prefer to do it that way. We do shop at the supermarket too and we will buy the organic stuff there if we can’t get it from the farmers market. But we think this is a really good way for people to start on their own journeys to better health.
DEBRA: Yes, I think so too. I think wherever you are, wherever you’re shopping, that you should choose the least toxic thing that you can find.
LAURA SAVILLE: Exactly.
DEBRA: All right, so here’s another one, how to choose a non-toxic dishwasher. That isn’t by you either but can you answer that one?
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes. Like I said, before the manufacturers have a lot more information available to us now, we were able to call these companies and say, “We want to know exactly what materials you are using in these dishwashers.” And of course, we look for non-plastic. We avoid recycle codes number 3 and number 7, and we just ask them, “Please give us the name of the materials.” They did. So we listed them in our little guide here, how to choose a non-toxic dishwasher.
DEBRA: There is just so much information. Here’s another one, mystery chemical, “Is BPS the New Mystery Chemical in BPA-free Cans, Dishes and Kitchen Appliances?”
You’re answering all these questions that people have.
LAURA SAVILLE: Yes. That is something else that we’ve had to watch out for. BPS, they can say, “Oh, it’s BPA-free” because they’re on the bandwagon. Not everyone but some of them have replaced BPA with BPS. And it’s no better than BPA. The Eastman Triton is a clear, shiny hard plastic, and it has BPS in it. And so we avoid that.
DEBRA: There is just so much to know.
LAURA SAVILLE: There is.
DEBRA: You can just go page to page to page and find all these so much information. I just want to stop and read all of them. And toys, let’s talk about toys.
LAURA SAVILLE: Toys are the good ones, especially if you’ve got a baby that’s teething, that’s putting the toys in their mouth. Of course, you want it to be BPA and PVC-free. And like I said, a long time ago, there were no options at all. Now, there are lots of options. Natural wood with natural finishes, things that are made of polypropylene or the HDPE, which is the polyethylene.
So we’ve got a lot of natural things out there and acceptable options available in toys.
DEBRA: Yes, I see that too. So we only have a couple of minutes left. Any final words? Anything you’d like to say that you haven’t said?
LAURA SAVILLE: I’ll just reiterate that I would hate to overwhelm people with all this talk about toxins. But once you get started, and like you said, things are redundant. Once you know a few things to avoid, you’re going to be doing a lot of good for your family.
DEBRA: Yes. And once you’ve learned it, I still—one of the first things that I did when I started was just, I got rid of my toxic cleaning products. But it only took me an afternoon to go down to the natural food store, buy Dr. Bronner’s Soap and baking soda and lemon juice and vinegar and learn what to do with them and then I had my cleaning routine down. And I’ve been doing the same thing for 30 years.
It’s just figuring out what to do. Look at the resources like your website and mine and figure out what you need to do and then do it.
LAURA SAVILLE: Exactly. And a lot of times, it’s a lot simpler than going and buying some toxic chemical and you’re not putting in much effort than you would be doing it the old way.
DEBRA: I totally agree. That’s very good. Well, we’ve got to go now, 10 seconds left. So thank you so much, Laura, for being on the show. Again, she’s at TheSoftLanding.com. And you can listen to this show on Toxic Free Talk Radio again, or tell your friends. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
The Unique Properties of Violet Biophotonic Glass
My guest today is Maria Jindra, co-founder of Vita Salva Glass Works. She and her husband began the company in 2010. when they discovered the unique violet biophotonic glass manufactured in Europe. There are many beneficial qualities of the biophotonic glass, including long term preservation of organic products. The science of biophotonic glass includes actual enhancement of the biolife force of the organic product that is stored in the glass. The violet glass is elegant, sturdy, and reusable. The couple started their company after retiring from 35 years of cattle ranching and farming on the high plains of Colorado. Maria is an activist against Geoengineering and GMOs. www.violetglassjars.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
The Unique Properties of Violet Biophotonic Glass
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Maria Jindra
Date of Broadcast: June 23, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It is Tuesday, June 23, 2015. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida, where we’re having a beautiful summer day. We’re having heat. It’s so hot. It’s unseasonably hot.
It’s not usually this hot. It’s 95° in the day time. Actually, in my backyard, I’m looking at the thermometer, I can see it from my desk, it’s 89°. But in other places where there aren’t so many trees, you can imagine if it’s 89° here under my oak trees, it’s hot out there where there are no trees. Hot, hot, hot. And it’s 85° at night. We all sleep with an air conditioning but—
I wanted to tell you, I have this beautiful plant, this beautiful flower sitting on my desk. I have these two bushes that I put in my front yard called sweet almond bushes. And they have these beautiful, white [fronz] of little, tiny flowers and they smell like sweet almonds. And there was one that was just growing right over the pathway that you have to push it back in order to walk to the front door, so I cut it off with all its flowers and brought it inside. It’s just been sitting here for four or five days giving me this lovely aroma of sweet almonds. And so that’s what I’m smelling today as I’m talking to you.
And I had a great week last week. I took the whole entire week off because it was my birthday. I had a lot of rest and relaxation and did a little work. And now, I’m back all refreshed and rejuvenated and revived.
So today, we’re going to talk about something we’ve never talked about before, which is violet biophotonic glass. And what this glass does it actually helps keep food and herbs and water and any organic thing that you put in it fresher and last longer.
So we’re going to talk to the co-founder of Vita Salva Glass Works. Her name is Maria Jindra. Hi, Maria.
MARIA JINDRA: Good morning, Debra.
DEBRA: Good morning.
MARIA JINDRA: It’s wonderful to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me and thank you for everything you do for all of us and the planet. Thank you.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. Thank you for being here. I have one of Maria – she sent me one of her beautiful violet bottles. I just love it! I filled it with water and I put in on my desk. And in the morning, the sun shines on it to activate it. And we’re going to talk about all this. But then I drank the water and it feels different. It feels totally different.
So before we get into all those details, tell us how you came to be doing this.
MARIA JINDRA: Well, my husband and I had been cattle ranchers and farmers. I’ve been an x-ray tech and we finally retired from all of that after 30 years. We decided we needed to do something different and keep ourselves busy. And Jeff said, “You know, I’ve always wanted to learn how to sand etch on glass.” I said, “Well, that sounds like fun but I think it needs to be some really unique glass.”
So Jeff looked around and taught himself sand etching and I looked for glass. And synchronistically, I came across MIRON violet biophotonic glass. I thought, “Wow! That is beautiful glass.” And then I started reading more about the properties of biophotonic glass and was fascinated by what I found.
Bio means life and photon means light. I learned that all living cells emit light. And the research had shown that the quality of bio energy of food stored in violet glass is significantly higher than any of their counterparts kept in classical containers such as glass or plastic. This special-engineered glass demonstrated that an optimal protection of bio-information can be obtained in long-term storage.
And so I thought, “Wow! So we can be creative. We can sell this to people who want to keep organic substances and high end cosmetics and something that’s going to preserve the qualities of the product they’re putting in there.”
So I was excited. So was Jeff.
DEBRA: I’m excited too. So do you actually make this glass or do you buy the bottles made some place else?
MARIA JINDRA: Okay, well, MIRON glass was founded about 20 years ago. It was conceived in Switzerland. And they originally constructed this glass for a very superior spirulina product in Cyprus. And so that’s how it got started.
A gentleman by the name of Yves Klausur researched about 14 years on getting all the right ingredients to make this particular glass. Since it was conceived in Switzerland, it’s now moved over to the Netherlands, but they make the actual glass in Germany and Czechoslovakia. So it comes from Europe and it’s amazing.
DEBRA: So you buy the pieces already made?
MARIA JINDRA: That is correct.
DEBRA: And then you send them. So you’re not making glass yourself.
MARIA JINDRA: No.
DEBRA: That’s totally fine. I just wondered if you are making it like a glass blower.
MARIA JINDRA: No. That would be even more work. No. And their technology, it’s patented. I guess the Egyptians used to store their goods in gold and violet glass. So with that and other scientists, researchers in the field, especially the science of biophotonics, they found that storing things in violet glass that allows certain types of light and spectral ranges through is the best preservation method you can use.
DEBRA: So do you know anything about what goes into the glass?
MARIA JINDRA: No because it’s proprietary.
DEBRA: It’s fascinating to me that – and I got a lot of e-mails from a lot of people about different subjects and questions that they have. And I think that there is an impression that colored glass may have toxic color things in it. And so, it’s interesting to me to find that here’s a colored glass that actually has beneficial properties.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly! Like some glass may contain trace amounts of lead. I know that in the ancient times, they might have had some toxic materials, but I know that the amount of research that they’ve done at MIRON and the scientists that have worked on this, I think that’s the last thing they’d want to do is have any toxic chemicals.
DEBRA: Well, I would think so because they are so conscious of the life enhancing properties. And I think that generally in – I’ve done a lot of research on glass, and generally, there are no toxic substances in a glass. But there are sometimes with lead crystal. They put lead in that, but those are very clearly labeled ‘lead crystal’ because it’s a selling point. And with California’s Proposition 65, it’s required by law that it does have warning labels on them that say that this glass contains lead.
So I think when people are using just ordinary glass or glass like yours that isn’t labeled, then they necessarily have toxic things in it.
The only other thing that I’ve heard about toxic things in terms of glass is when you buy those glasses that have pictures painted on the side. It’s obviously a painted on design and not an etched design or part of the glass. But those often have lead in them.
MARIA JINDRA: Very good idea. Very good. I know this glass is very thick, Debra.
DEBRA: Yes, it is.
MARIA JINDRA: So when we sand etch, it could be purchased painted or not. But we do paint it. And it is beautiful. But it’s a very thick glass. You’ve probably noted that with your bottle.
DEBRA: I did. It’s very heavy actually. And so when you paint yours, is there anything special about your paint?
MARIA JINDRA: It’s not so much special. It’s just that when it is in contact with the bottle, the dark violet glass with bright colors, it’s just striking. But if the glass is so thick, and we don’t etch super deep, we barely etch the top of it, but the glass is very, very thick.
DEBRA: Yes, I can see that in mine. I’ll just say that the bottle that they sent to me is etched and painted. And there’s absolutely no odor to this paint. No problem with it. And unless there are some particles in it that I can’t perceive, but I don’t see a problem with it at all.
MARIA JINDRA: And if people are concerned, they would just say, “Don’t etch it. I just want the bottle naked.”
DEBRA: Yes, a naked bottle, I like that. We need to go to break. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Maria Jindra. She’s co-founder of Vita Salva Glass Works. We’re talking about violet glass and its unique properties. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Maria Jindra. She’s the co-founder of Vita Salva Glass Works. It must have been a passing toxic chemical from the outside (of course, not in my house).
Last week, I had my 60th birthday. And I’ve been doing this since I was 24 and I was 60 last week. So you have to forgive me for occasional senior moments. That’s just how it goes.
Anyway, Maria, on your website – and let me give your website. Your website is VioletGlassJars.com. And on your website, you have this great page that talks about the biophotonic science. And tell us about the tests that were done that you have on that page.
MARIA JINDRA: About the chives and the tomatoes?
DEBRA: Yes.
MARIA JINDRA: Well, they stored a little cherry tomato, one in a clear glass and one in the violet glass for seven months. And they exposed it occasionally to direct sunlight. But most of the time, it was sitting where ambient light came into the room. They noted that after seven months, the cherry tomato in the clear glass was moldy and the cherry tomato stored in the biophotonic glass did not have mold on it and was not greatly dehydrated.
So that proves the science of biophotonics that the light coming through the glass, it only allows violet light in the visible light spectrum like in a rainbow. It allows in a small amount of UVA and far infrared light. And these three forms of light that come through not only preserve the bio energy of what you have stored in there, but it actually stimulate – if I can use that word.
DEBRA: Yes, you can use that word. So something can actually be enhanced by putting it in the violet jars.
MARIA JINDRA: Yes. Now, they have Kirlian photography done with spirulina stored in the violet glass versus the clear glass. And the results are amazing. It had about twice the bio energy. And on the Kirlian photography – are you familiar with that, Debra?
DEBRA: Yes, yes.
MARIA JINDRA: What you’re looking at is a coronal discharge. And this couple in Russia fell into this when they were working with their equipment. They discovered it by accident. But some people would consider a coronal discharge an aura.
So the bio energy or the bio life of the product is enhanced. You’ll notice that with chives on the website. The chives remain green. The smell is still potent when stored in this glass.
So these light radiations coming through really do work. The field in biophotonics is amazing when you start reading it.
I read this little book called Biophotons: Source of Light for Energy and Wellbeing written by two ladies in Europe, Yvonne Sangen and Karin Tazelaar. And I’m telling you, there’s a lot more to know about the science of biophotonics than you can imagine.
DEBRA: There is! I’ve heard a lot of different books that talk about different things in the realm of things that we can’t see but are actually there such as we have all kinds of energy fields in our bodies and around our bodies that we can’t see but when you look at them through the proper instruments, you can see that they’re there.
And so things aren’t always—light you can’t see, except you can see the light but you can’t see the wave of the light. And things like that. And that energetic part is what makes that organic material, the things that we can see, alive.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly. Exactly.
DEBRA: And so when we have a plant or anything that’s alive, a cell, anything that’s alive, that doesn’t have that energy when that energy starts being depleted for various reasons, then it becomes less life-enhancing.
And so for example, when we eat something, say a plant, say a tomato right out of the garden, it’s got all that life energy in it. If you were to take a Kirlian photograph of a tomato right off the vine, it would just be beaming, for a lack of better word. And as that tomato is away from its life source plant, then it starts getting dimmer and dimmer and dimmer.
And so by the time you get a tomato that’s in the supermarket, that’s been sitting in storage, picked green and then cast to be red, there’s practically no life in it at all. And our bodies need to have that life force as well as the physical matter of the food.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly. And a lot of the light coming in to the tomato, that’s what gives it the energy, the biophotons.
DEBRA: That’s right. That’s right. And so most of the food that we eat, when we think of—the food that we’re eating, most of it has very little life energy in it because it’s been sitting around for so long or it’s canned or processed or whatever. All those things make it lose the life energy.
And also with our water, it’s the same thing. And we just need to have that life energy in order for us to be healthy. When I researched about things that are toxic, they’re looking at how—where are the physical—how can I explain this? What are the things that we can see in terms of toxicness? But I have not seen very much studies which talk about symptoms of not having life force. Do you understand what I’m saying? You understand what I’m saying. I hope the listeners too.
MARIA JINDRA: I kind of do. I do. In this book I was reading, it talks about people that are ill or have disease. If you, say for example, did a Kirlian photography on them, they would have maybe more light coming out on one side of their body because they are not coherent. Inversely, people that are very well, believe it or not, their cells do not emit a lot of light. So when the cells are emitting a lot of light, that’s a warning signal that they are not coherent because of their—if they’re well, it keeps the light inside of them because everything is functioning.
DEBRA: We need to go to break. But we’ll be right back and we can talk about this some more. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Maria Jindra, and she’s the founder of Vita Salva Glass Works. And that’s VioletGlassJars.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Maria Jindra. She’s co-founder of Vita Salva Glass Works, and their website is VioletGlassJars.com.
Maria, on the same page as the experiments about the tomatoes and the chives on your website, it talks about how sunlight helps plants grow, but what happens after they’re continued to be exposed to the sun after reaching maturity? Can you talk about that?
MARIA JINDRA: Absolutely. Of course, we all know that plants need photosynthesis to grow, and light, that’s what’s gives them their energy. But the minute they’re harvested, it’s just like a human being, they die. Light degradation begins to do just the opposite of what it did when they were growing.
So in order to capture their bio energy, you want to quickly store them, may it be a freezer or if you’re going to bottle it, it should be in violet glass because the visible light spectrum like the colors in a rainbow. That is helpful when the plant is growing but injurious when it has been harvested because it starts to break it down again. Just like if you pick a tomato and you put it on a ledge outside, it’s going to start to shrink and decompose. So you got to get it out of the visible light.
So visible light helps initially during the growth process but after harvest, you want to keep visible light, the reds, the blues, the greens, the yellows, off of your produce or your product so that you can try to maintain the bio life that it used when it was growing.
DEBRA: So there’s a sentence here. It says that MIRON violet glass works like a natural filter that only lets the sunlight that protects and improves the quality of premium and sensitive substances through. Well, that was interesting to me that some of the spectrum would make it decay and other parts of the spectrum would improve it.
MARIA JINDRA: Right. And they’ve done decades of research on this. One of the researchers was Fritz Albert Popp. He did a lot of research with this and tried different colors and found that violet light which most mimics the human nervous system protect it, it shielded it, but the reds, the blues, the greens, the yellows, the oranges was more damaging to it.
He also found that light we cannot see with the human eye, the far infrared and the very narrowband of UVA actually helps protect it as well.
So there’s been a lot of research on this. It’s true research.
DEBRA: It’s fascinating. It’s so fascinating to me. I think that nature is incredibly interesting to me. When I read books about the things like the energy fields of the body and light and all of these things, it’s so beyond what we normally talk about in our culture which is very physical-oriented. But then there are these other levels and there is so much of life, so much of what makes it alive is happening on those other levels and need to be nourished just like taking vitamins.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly. They say, you should wear sunglasses all the time because you need some of those biophotons from the sun coming in. Same on your skin. You can use sunscreen but it is somewhat toxic, correct?
DEBRA: Well, I actually don’t use sunglasses at all. And I don’t wear sunscreen at all. I feel like I need to go out and I do go out. I have several wide-brimmed hats. My great aunt, who was very beautiful, she was a model when she was young, she always—she lives in Santa Barbara, California. It was very sunny. She always wore wide-brimmed hats. She did not go out without it. And it was so frequently she wore it that it’s—when I see a picture of her in my mind, what I see is her in her wide-brimmed hat.
And that’s what people did before sunscreen. We had parasols and wide-brimmed hats. Nobody used sunscreen. Nobody wore sunglasses.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly. I try to get at least 30 minutes of direct sunlight a day. And like you, I do not use suntan lotion but I don’t stay out in the sun all day either.
DEBRA: Well, I think that that’s the key, is that people—I remember when I was younger and I lived in California, it was a big deal to go out in the sun and get this tan. We were all waiting for the first day. We could go lie out in the sun. And everybody would burn and we’d all wear sunscreen. This tan was a big deal. And I am no longer interested in how tan I get or don’t get. I’m a little tan now. I go out in mid-afternoon and I go for a little walk for 15 minutes. And so I get sun on my arms and on my face. And I get all those benefits of the sun.
But it’s not about getting the darkest tan I can get. It’s about getting the nutrients from the sun.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly, especially the D3. Especially the gals our age. And I’m going to be 60 this year too. And happy belated birthday.
DEBRA: Thank you. I have to say, I don’t feel 60. I just don’t feel 60. And I don’t look 60. People, when I tell them I’m 60, they go, “No, you don’t look 60 at all.” They tell me that I look like I’m 47 or something like that.
But I just don’t feel it. It’s just a number that relates to the age of my body.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly. And I feel the same way. I feel like I’m about 26 years old on the inside, don’t you?
DEBRA: Yes, I do. I’m just so interested in things and I want to go out and do things. And I don’t feel like an old lady.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly. Well, that’s because you’re toxic free.
DEBRA: That’s it. I think it has a lot to do with it. And especially—I’ll just throw in a little plug for being toxic free, is that a lot of skin care products have toxic chemicals in it that give you wrinkles. And I don’t use any of them and I don’t have wrinkles.
MARIA JINDRA: Wow. Lucky you. I live here in Colorado at a higher altitude so my 30 minutes a day in the direct sun, it’s been working on. But like you, I’m wearing a wide-brimmed hat now. We don’t want any more wrinkles.
DEBRA: No. It’s like all these sun products are all, what I call, consumer products. There are so many things that are on the market and a lot of toxic things that are on the market that we don’t even need it all for survival. We don’t even need to be happy. It’s just something that has been made up by industrial consumerism in order for companies to make more money.
MARIA JINDRA: Sure. Absolutely.
DEBRA: So before I ask you another question, we need to go to break. So I’ll just not interrupt you.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Maria Jindra. She’s the co-founder of Vita Salva Glass Works. And when we come back, we’re going to talk about all her beautiful glassware. You can go see it at VioletGlassJars.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Maria Jindra. She’s co-founder of Vita Salva Glass Works where they sell violet glass and their website is VioletGlassJars.com.
So Maria, let’s go on a little tour of the different types of glassware you have.
MARIA JINDRA: Okay. Well, the uses for this glass—here are some ideas. You can store essential oils in it, flower essences, sun remedies, massage oils, herbs, royal jelly, olive oils, organic foods, fine cosmetic, wine or for charging and enhancing your drinking water. And I don’t like drinking out of plastic bottles. I do not do that.
DEBRA: I don’t either.
MARIA JINDRA: So you’ll see on the website that we have square oil bottles but I really like to use those especially for the ladies for water bottle, the 500 milliliter square oil bottle. I use that for water. But we’re supposed to be all drinking a liter and a half to two liters a day. So if you’re really a water drinker which we all should be, the one liter water bottle is the best because then you know exactly how much water you’re drinking and it pushes you to drink a little bit more water.
DEBRA: It does. I have a bottle of water sitting on my desk every day. I sit at my desk and work all day long. And I think a lot of people do. And just having that bottle of water there starting out in the morning, I actually do this thing—I don’t even know—I’m looking at your bottle and this bottle. I don’t think it’s a liter. But what I do, the one that I drink all the time has an open top big enough to put ice cubes in it. And so I start out in the morning with being here in Florida, I start out in the morning with filling the bottle with water and other things that I put in it, with ice cubes. And as the ice cubes melt, I just keep adding more ice cubes all day long so there’s always this nice, cold, refreshing nutritive drink sitting on my desk.
And so I get nutrition, I get water, and it’s there all day long.
MARIA JINDRA: Absolutely. Did you try charging up some water in your MIRON glass?
DEBRA: I did. I could feel the difference.
MARIA JINDRA: You can, can’t you?
DEBRA: I can. It’s just—energetically. When you have tap water, the tap water is so dead. And you put it through a water filter, and what water filter does is it removes the toxic substances. But it doesn’t particularly restore the life force of water.
I’ve talked about this before on other shows but the most alive water I ever drank in my life was out of a spring in Mount Shasta, California. There’s this spring that is actually a city park where people go and they fill up their bottles with this exceptional, exceptional water. And when I drank that, it was just—tears came to my eyes because it was like, this was what water should be. And I could tell the difference. It just felt different in my body.
Drinking the water out of the violet glass bottle feels different too. It’s more alive. It’s got that charge in it.
MARIA JINDRA: Yes, it does. Are you familiar with Dr. Masuru Imoto and his work?
DEBRA: Yes.
MARIA JINDRA: That is fascinating. And there’s a really neat YouTube, it’s only about three minutes long and it’s entitled Water Consciousness and Intent. And if people would view that, they would really understand that intention and our thoughts, words, our actions, it’s all energy.
I did not know that until a couple of years ago. And it came to me in a flash. And I ran in and told my husband. I said, “I just realized that everything is energy.”
DEBRA: Yes, everything is energy. I know it’s not something that most people know.
MARIA JINDRA: Yes. So putting—getting the MIRON glass, putting your own personalized intentions into it or prayer, and when you drink the water after it’s charged for about an hour in the sun, it’s amazing. It’s palpable. You can feel it. I put an intention in once for a lot of love. And I totally forgot that I had put that intention in because I was charging a lot of different bottles. But when I drank from it, tears were flowing from my eyes. I felt so much love and I thought, “Wow. This really does work.”
DEBRA: And it does. It really does.
MARIA JINDRA: And I love Dr. Masuru Imoto. I remember right after the Japanese tsunami, he came on YouTube and he said, “Please, everyone, pray now for the water because water does have memory.”
DEBRA: Yes, it does. That’s been established.
MARIA JINDRA: I want to go to Mount Shasta and do what you did. That sounds neat.
DEBRA: I’ll tell you. This water is so beloved in California that people actually offered to bring me that water from Mount Shasta. They wanted me to have it when I would tell them my story. They would say, “Oh, I could bring you water from Mount Shasta.” And when people would go to Mount Shasta for the weekend or whatever, they would ask if they wanted them to bring water back to me.
If we look back in history, the most sacred thing in the past was the spring with water.
MARIA JINDRA: Exactly. Moving water, vortexes of water, eddies of water, that’s the healthiest water. Not water going through pipes and treatment plants and then fluoridated.
DEBRA: Especially not fluoridated.
MARIA JINDRA: Absolutely.
DEBRA: So tell us about your [product] of different bottles and jars.
MARIA JINDRA: Okay. So we have the cosmetic jars and you can put in lotions, cosmetics. We have bottles for wine. We have bottles for water. We have bottles for oil. I even store my rice in them. And I keep them on the kitchen counter so that some of the ambient light coming through the jar will enhance it. We have a beautiful apothecary set like the old time apothecary jars that the pharmacy sold.
DEBRA: I love those. Those were so beautiful.
MARIA JINDRA: They are. And they got the little glass sliding tea lid. So those make a wonderful canister steep or to store coffee in. If you want to keep your coffee really fresh-tasting, we like to use—what’s that?
DEBRA: Especially people who don’t want any plastic in their containers. These have the round glass lids. So they fit very nicely. But there is no metal and there is no plastic. It’s just all glass.
MARIA JINDRA: That’s right. It’s about as toxic-free as you can get.
DEBRA: It is about as toxic-free as you can get, yes. And it’s not only toxic-free, it’s actually life-enhancing which goes beyond toxic-free. For these products, it’s not just an absence of harmful chemicals. It goes beyond to have beneficial effects.
MARIA JINDRA: That’s right. It’s enhanced, and it’s energized, and it’s well-protected.
DEBRA: It’s so wonderful.
MARIA JINDRA: Absolutely.
DEBRA: So then you have all these little lids and things, droppers and different—
MARIA JINDRA: Right. If someone is interested in storing their essential oils, we have pump sprayers, we have the droppers, we have just pour caps. Now, the caps are not glass. They are plastic with a polyethylene fitting at the top. But that keeps in the freshness of it. And you don’t have to over-tighten these lids either. And you can wash the glass in a dishwasher or with warm soapy water but you don’t want to wash the lids. Just wipe them out with a little alcohol pad or something. We do get a lot of orders for essential oils and our clients love the glass. And they don’t get it etched. They usually have their own sticker that they put on there.
In fact, I’ve been out at other places where I’ve seen people selling their products. I’ve had a skin issue for some years and I picked up some salve that was kept in a MIRON glass. And just knowing that it was kept in a MIRON glass, I was already excited. And the salve really helped my skin issues.
DEBRA: Yes. Actually, the way I found you was one of my readers has taken it upon himself to find the best products, the best toxic-free products he can possibly find. He now has a list, I found out this morning, of 257 websites that he wants to share with me so that I can share them with other people. And yours was one of them but he found it from a company that was using it for their products.
MARIA JINDRA: How wonderful is that?
DEBRA: Yes. And he was very happy with their products too.
MARIA JINDRA: Absolutely. I’m telling you, it works. People have to just try it to believe it.
DEBRA: Yes. I just love it. Well, we only have about a minute left. Any final words?
MARIA JINDRA: Yes, I would strongly urge people to get familiar with biophotonic science with this book that I mentioned because it really will get you excited. And also, to be familiar with Dr. Masuri Imoto and thinking about drinking a lot more water and try their water in this bottle. It really is amazing. It starts getting you thinking about changing your healthy, your life, the way you speak to people, the way you think of people.
And I got to thank you, Debra. By contacting me and inviting me on to your show, you really charged me up.
DEBRA: Thank you.
MARIA JINDRA: I really delved into further study of the science of biophotonics and I am charged up. I really realized now that there’s a lot more that many of us don’t know in the unseen world especially the light spectrum and what it does for us and all life on the planet.
DEBRA: We have to go. There’s the music so we have to go. Thank you so much for being on the show.
MARIA JINDRA: Thank you, Debra.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Prenatal Vitamins
Question from Csöbi-Szabó Orsolya
Hi Debra,
I couldn’t find anything about prenatal vitamins on your website. Could you recommend me a good brand?
What do you think about these?
Debra’s Answer
Let’s look at all three.
Realfood Organics is “primarily made from real fruits and vegetables…We source only USDA organic ingredients to share with you” But it also contains maltodextrin (an industrial sweetener) and soy (plus some other ingredients I’m not concerned about.
Rainbow Light has a number of prenatals to choose from. Their Certified Organics Prenatal Multivitamin is made with a “Organic Fruit & Veggie Blend” but also contains nutrients not from whole food sources.
Vitamin Code is basically raw whole foods supplemented with their own
- RAW Food-Created Nutrients that are individually created through microorganism cultivation which typically allows for the natural creation of known and yet to be discovered Code Factors such as live Probiotics, Bioactive Glycoproteins, Bioactive Lipoproteins, Bioactive Enzymes, Glucomannan, SOD, Glutathione, Beta-glucans, Lipoic Acid, Essential Trace Minerals, Glutamine, Polysaccharides and CoQ10
- RAW Food-Chelated Minerals
- AlgaeCal RAW- a raw, certified organic whole food marine algae complex containing 73 naturally occurring minerals and trace elements.
Contains fermented soy.
From my viewpoint, each contains something I wouldn’t take, but may be fine for you. I stay away from maltodextrin, nutrients that are not whole foods, and soy.
Be sure to look at the Supplement Facts to see what it in the supplements.
If I had to choose one of these, I would choose Vitamin Code.
Readers, any suggestions? What prenatal vitamins have you taken?
FDA Phasing Out Trans Fats Over the Next Three Years
In 2013, the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) were not longer “generally recognized as safe.”
The FDA is now finalizing that action and feremining that PHOs are not generally recognized as safe for any use in human food.
PHOs are the primary source of industrially produced trans fat, found in many processed foods.
The FDA is providing a three-year compliance period to allow industry to gradually phase out PHOs from their food products.
Of course, fresh whole food ingredients would not contains PHOs.
Shower Filters
Question from Amy Vaughan
Hi Debra,
I have been researching shower filters. I only have chlorine not chloramine at my home. I read somewhere that KDF filters the chlorine, but that if you are chemically sensitive you also need a filter with some carbon to remove the VOC’s, THC, etc. Is that true?
I have also read different opinions on whether KDF works in hot water. Some say you need a filter with Chlorogon because it works better in hot temperatures.
And what is your opinion on Vitamin C shower filters at this point.
Thank you so much!
Debra’s Answer
First, a new shower filter will soon be available. I wish I could tell you about it now.
You can use a vitamin C filter if you want for chlorine removal.
Yes you would need carbon if you want to remove chemicals other than chlorine with KDF.
KDF in hot water…well shower filters are designed to be used with hot water, so why would they use something that doesn’t work? Don’t know the answer to that question.
Cortec Flooring
Question from Sheryl Fleishmans
Hi Debra,
We just had Cortec Flooring from the company US Floors installed. It is vinyl plank flooring that is “Green Guard Gold” certified.
Apparently “Green Guard Gold” is the strictest level of certification. The company told me that even though the product is made with virgin PVC (as opposed to recycled PVC), it is phthalate-free.
They even sent me their written position statement on phthalates stating that none of their products are manufactured with phthalates or chemicals that are harmful to the health.
What is your opinion of this product?
Thanks!
Debra’s Answer
It’s hard to tell.
Their website says their are a manufacturer of “Unique and Sustainable Floors”.
I’ve never heard of PVC without phthalates but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
The website says it’s made from recycled wood and bamboo dust, limestone, and virgin PVC. I know of a very nontoxic floor made from hard vinyl and asbestos: Armnstrong vinyl composite tile (now discontinued).
So this flooring may very well be fine. I haven’t seen a sample.
You Have a Right To Know About the Dangers of Cell Phones
Today my guest is Ellen Marks founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association, which focuses on prevention and on the wireless radiation issue being a possible cause of deadly brain tumors. Today we will be talking about their victory in Berkeley, California, where there is now a right-to-know ordinance regarding cell phones, and the recent death of Beau Biden from a brain tumor. Ellen entered into the cell phone/brain tumor world when her husband was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008. After examining her husband’s cell phone and medical records worldwide experts confirmed that her husband’s glioma was “more likely than not” attributable to his long term ipsilateral cell phone use. Ellen has testified before Congress on the health effects of cell phone radiation and has appeared on the Dr. Oz Show, Larry King Live, The View and many national newscasts. www.cabta.org
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
You Have the Right to Know About the Dangers of Cell Phones
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Ellen Marks
Date of Broadcast: June 11, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio, where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Thursday, June 11, 2015. And it’s a beautiful day here in Clearwater, Florida. We’re having lots of thunderstorms which is what happens here in the summer time. Right on schedule, we have thunderstorms. They are beautiful and cool us down. I love thunderstorms.
Anyway, today, we’re going to be talking about cell phones again. I want to keep talking about the dangers of cell phones and other wireless devices because I look around and so many people don’t know what’s going on. We really need to be talking about it. I hope that all of you will take what we’re going to say to day to heart and tell other people about it.
I ask people for landline phone numbers a lot and people often say to me, “I don’t have a landline phone number.” And yet, on the other hand, I have friends that if I call them on their cell number, they say, “Hold on. Just a minute. Can I call you right back from my landline?” And it’s so refreshing to hear that.
And so today, we’re going to be talking with Ellen Marks. She’s been on this show before. She is the founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association, which focuses on prevention and on the wireless radiation issue being a possible cause of deadly brain tumors.
And we’re going to be talking today about the new Right to Know ordinance in Berkeley, California and other things related to cell phones.
Hi, Ellen. Hello? Hello?
ELLEN MARKS: I appreciate it.
DEBRA: Hi, there you are. I can hear you talking, but I wasn’t hearing you. Now, we’re on.
ELLEN MARKS: Okay, I was thanking you for having me on. Thanks!
DEBRA: You’re welcome. So let’s start with—where would you like to start?
ELLEN MARKS: Well, it’s been an interesting couple of months in the cell phone arena. I don’t know, but your listeners might know that several years ago, San Francisco was the first city in the nation to pass what we call the Cell Phone Right to Know Legislation, which basically gives people information at the point of sale about how to use their cell phone as safely as possible.
What this did is it took language that’s already there, that’s required by the FCC, and instead of hiding it in the phone or hiding it in the manual that nobody reads, it would give this information to the consumer at the point of sale so that they can make an informed decision as to how best use their phone for themselves and their children.
But I think many of your listeners and you understand that after that passed unanimously in San Francisco, the cell phone industry, CTIA, Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, came in and sued. And their claim in San Francisco was that it violated their first amendment rights, that it was compelling speech that they didn’t want to give out.
And they didn’t win. That was the interesting part. They went to district court and the city did really well. And then it went to federal court and it was an unpublished decision by the federal judges that it did violate the first amendment, that it was controversial and not factual.
So it was going to go back to district court in about six months. This was back in 2013, I believe. And instead, the new mayor in San Francisco is very tech-friendly and he convinced everybody to repeal the law.
So that was very upsetting, and the industry is running around saying they won the lawsuit, which they really didn’t.
So what we did since then was we were fortunate enough to have Harvard Constitutional Law Professor Lawrence Lessig interested in this issue. And he’s just fabulous. I can’t thank him enough. He has offered his services and a team pro bono to any city or state that will take this on again.
So what we did was we worked with him and he brought in Yale’s Dean of Law School, Robert Post. And we crafted language that he feels will stand up in court. There were some things wrong with San Francisco that did go a little bit too far like telling people to turn their phones off when not in use and the children probably shouldn’t be using cell phones. So it did go a little bit too far.
So with the help of Lawrence Lessig and Robert Post, we crafted language that we hope will stand up in court and Berkeley did pass this a couple of weeks ago unanimously.
DEBRA: Yes, Berkeley.
ELLEN MARKS: Yes. We were thrilled. And I have to say, Max Anderson, the city councilman who had been working on this for three years, they had put it on the backburner when San Francisco was sued, is just fabulous. He was in tears after. He was so happy. They’re doing this because they really care about people and about their health and about their children and their community.
But unfortunately (well, maybe fortunately), we expected it, the CTIA filed their lawsuit the other day against the City of Berkeley. And even though the language is pretty much what they’re telling you in their own manual, they are suing. I thought it was funny. There has been a lot of media about this, which is good because the media, by Berkeley’s own law and then about the lawsuit, raises awareness for the public, which is what we are trying to do.
So one of the quotes by Max Anderson, the city councilman, in one of the articles the other day was, “It’s their own language. Maybe they should be suing themselves.”
DEBRA: I like that. I was just sitting there and thinking how could they sue you over simply taking language that they’ve hidden in their little pamphlet and just putting it out there where people can see it.
ELLEN MARKS: It’s mind-boggling. It really is and it makes you really wonder. I remember Senator Mark Leno when we tried doing this at the California State level (but that unfortunately lost out to campaign contributions to the democrats), he stated after getting to know this industry he’s more fearful on what they’re hiding from us. So that’s how we feel about this.
To make it really clear, the language isn’t exactly verbatim. Every phone is a little bit different. On an iPhone, you have to go through five or six steps on your phone to get to the language where it tells you not to hold it to your body. And then in the Blackberry, it tells you a little bit something different. It says, I think, to keep it 0.98 inches away from your body including the lower abdomen of a teenager and the abdomen of a pregnant woman. That’s a little frightening. So everyone is a little bit different.
So what we did, and I’ll read it to you, the notice that would be given on a piece of paper to the consumer at the point of sale would say, “To assure safety, the federal government requires that cell phones meet radiofrequency RF exposure guidelines. If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is on and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines to exposure to RF radiation. This potential risk is greater for children. Refer to the instructions in your phone or use your manual for information about how to use your phone safely.”
DEBRA: That’s it?
ELLEN MARKS: That’s it and they’re suing.
DEBRA: They’re objecting to that.
ELLEN MARKS: They’re objecting to that. And basically, every manual has to tell you that the phone must be kept away from the body because that is how they are tested and people do not know that. That’s why my colleagues and I do what we do.
The government accountability office had in-depth report on this in 2012, and they said that exposure and testing requirements for mobile phones should be re-assessed and here, I’ve got it right here it says, “Some consumers may use mobile phones against the body which FCC does not currently test and could result in RF energy exposure higher than the FCC limit.”
So most, I’m sure your listeners, many of them probably keep it in their pants pocket or in their shirt pocket. A lot of women are keeping it in their bra because of convenience and we have a study that came out (and we actually have a case series that came out on that) by several breast surgeons who are seeing this and there are some young women who kept it in their bra and they had tumors developed exactly in the shape of their cell phone, same exact size.
DEBRA: Yes, it’s amazing
ELLEN MARKS: It’s just incredible. So basically, that’s it. That’s what Berkeley was going to be telling people to point of sale. The industry is suing. And even funnier than that (or not funny really), they hired Ted Olson. Are you familiar with Ted Olson?
DEBRA: No, I’m not. But we need to go to break. And we can talk about Ted Olson and other things when we come back.
ELLEN MARKS: Okay, thank you.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ellen Marks. She’s the founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Ellen Marks. She’s the founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association, and we’re talking about the association between cell phone use and brain tumors.
Ellen, we’re going to pick up where we left off before the break. But I want to just tell you that about a month ago, I was having lunch with two of my friends, a man and a woman. They’re very intelligent. They’re very well-informed. And both of them suddenly started talking about cell phones.
I think one of them had a cell phone sitting on the table. It turned out that both of them – and I didn’t ask them this question. Both of them said by themselves, they said that they had had a negative experience with putting their cell phones in their pockets. They don’t do that anymore. They actually had a reaction in their body that caused them to no longer carry their cell phones in their pockets. Two people out of just the small number of people that I know, two of them had a response.
I don’t carry my cell phone in my pocket at all, ever. I carry it in my purse. But if I don’t think that I’m going to need it, I’m one of those people that don’t feel like I need to be reachable all the time. And so I carry my cell phone when I think that I’m going to need it for an outgoing call or if I know somebody is going to need to reach me and I’ve given them my number or if I’m traveling and it’s the only way to reach me or something like that. But most of the time, my cell phone just sits on a table.
ELLEN MARKS: It’s interesting. I have this conversation with people often about the need for cell phone use and as much use people are using it. And what your friends experienced, a lot of people tell me that. They tell me when they hold it to their face or to their head that they feel the heat. One woman told me the other day she had a burn on her face. I was actually shocked by that.
But you’re right. And people are experiencing different physical ailments, not just – I mean, brain tumors obviously are pretty awful and there are salivary gland tumors and breast cancer and damage to fetuses and all this stuff that we’re hearing now. There are lots of good science about this.
But another thing is called electro-hypersensitivity. And people who are around cell phones or around wireless radiation of any kind like Wi-Fi, cell towers and that, they’re becoming ill from it. And it’s a real thing. I think in Sweden they’ve made it a disability. But we need people in the United States to take action about this. We need our legislators to realize that this is a real problem.
DEBRA: I totally agree. Do you remember – I don’t know how you are. But when I was a child, all we had was a telephone. We didn’t have answering machines. We didn’t have answering services. And if you weren’t actually there sitting next to the telephone or in the house, then somebody could not reach you.
ELLEN MARKS: Well, you’re absolutely right. I just had that conversation with my 28-year-old daughter the other day. I said, “It’s so amazing.” And [inaudible 00:17:02] I mean, I know the ramifications of cell phone use. I’m talking to you now on a wired landline, not cordless. By the way, your audience should know that cordless phones are probably just as dangerous as cell phones. And my daughter is like, “Why do you guys still have one of those? Does anybody really call you on that?” I said, “Yes. I use it all the time.”
The third generation, they don’t have them. They don’t have landlines. But then, I even have a sister who is older than I am, she’s 70, and they’ve given up their landline. I was appalled when I heard that.
We rely on our cell phones too much. There are so many negative health defects from them. And I think historians are going to have a field day with this, 20 or 30 years from now. It’s just terrible what we’re doing to ourselves.
But many people have become addicted to this. And why is it that when you go into a restaurant, everybody’s got them on the table? Why can’t we detach from it? Why can’t we unplug for a little while? And why can’t we be by ourselves and think instead of looking at the phone all the time?
DEBRA: I think that’s a very interesting question. don’t know the answer to it. Well, first of all, I think that we are social people and we want to connect. But the balance to that, from my viewpoint, is that you also need to be alone. You need to spend time doing whatever it is you need to do for yourself, to think your own thoughts and then be able to be yourself and go and connect with other people.
And when you’re constantly at the effect of answering the phone, of receiving communication from anybody that wants to talk to you at any time, then you’re not being positive over your own life. You’re just –
ELLEN MARKS: Exactly. It’s a problem socially, but it’s also a problem health-wise. And I think it’s just going to take more science and more illnesses and all that for people to realize the health effects are real.
DEBRA: Unfortunately.
ELLEN MARKS: And then as far as the social ramifications, I’m hearing more and more about that. I’m hearing about marriages that are suffering because people are addicted to their laptop and to their e-mails or to their phones. I think it’s affecting a lot of people. I even see it with my own kids sometimes where they’re not really there. They’re texting underneath the table.
DEBRA: On the flipside of that, I know that I’ve heard husbands or wives say, “I have to take this call because it’s my wife or my husband” and that there is a convenience to be able to always reach the other responsible person. If a child is in an accident or something, you want to be able to reach your husband.
ELLEN MARKS: You’re definitely right. Cell phones definitely make our lives a bit easier. They do. There’s no denying that this is a good technology. However, we have to know when to stop. I go in and I speak to a lot of high school students and college students. We’ve been showing our movie, Mobilize, our documentary on this issue and we talk to the kids. And one of the first things I always ask is, “How many of you feel that you’re addicted to your cell phone?” Every hand goes up in the room.
DEBRA: Really, they feel that way?
ELLEN MARKS: Yes. And it’s surprising to me that they feel that way and that they admit it. And so I don’t think they’re liking it either.
DEBRA: Well, immediately, what I thought of is when you’re in a store and the phone rings and the clerk picks up the phone and talks to the person on the phone instead of talking to you – you know how that is –it’s like the person who is in front of you should be the person that you’re interacting with. You should just be able to give your time and attention to that person and have the telephone be secondary, I think. That’s my opinion.
ELLEN MARKS: Exactly. It’s a whole social problem. It really is. It’s a whole different issue.
DEBRA: We need to go to break again and when we come back, we’ll talk about Ted Olson.
ELLEN MARKS: Okay, thank you.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ellen Marks. She’s the founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association who educates and advocates about cell phone use. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ellen Marks. She’s the founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association.
Okay, Ellen, tell us about Ted Olson.
ELLEN MARKS: Well, it was interesting. Lawrence Lessig, who I told you was helping us with this case (he helped draft the language that Berkeley passed) and Robert Post, we knew that a lawsuit would probably be coming because this industry does not have liability insurance. They can’t let the cat out of the bag.
So anyhow, it came the other day and the first lawyer on there that is defending them is Theodore B. Olson. He was picked by Time Magazine, I think it was in 2010, as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
DEBRA: Wow!
ELLEN MARKS: Yes, he has been before the Supreme Court 60-some times. He was the one who supported legalized gay marriage before the Supreme Court. And also in Florida, he was the one that was responsible for George Bush to be president for eight years. He was involved in the Bush-Gore election issue.
So this man is quite well-known. He’s one of the top lawyers probably in the world. I think we scared the heck out of the CTIA that they went and hired him, which is good, because Lawrence Lessig and Robert Post have a team put together and they’re ready to fight him all the way to the Supreme Court on this.
He did lose. I was talking to Dr. Stanton Grant about this who has worked on tobacco issues for years. And Ted Olson did defend Phillip Morris against the University of California concerning Stanton Grant’s work on tobacco research. And he did lose that case. So he doesn’t win them all. We’re hoping that he doesn’t win this one.
So we do have many cities in the States who are on board to do what Berkeley has done. However, now, they’re going to put it away for a while and see what happens here. But we do want them to write damages briefs to support the City of Berkeley.
And it’s really nice to see. The tide is changing a bit. Legislators are starting to see that this really is an issue, that this industry is despicable, that this industry is hiding this information that people need to know, and more and more people are becoming ill and dying.
We’ve lost two of our wonderful advocates. Jimmy Gonzalez was an attorney in Florida, 40 years old. He died from a brain tumor probably about nine months ago. And Bred [inaudible 00:29:18] was an attorney in Palo Alto who recently passed away at the age of 50, left three small children behind, who died from a brain tumor attributed also to his cell phone.
So they’re just two of many. And there are concerns about [inaudible 00:29:33]. We don’t know for sure, but a GPM at the age of 46 is rare. And radiation is the one known thing to cause brain tumors. So we just wish some public figures who have been affected by this would go public about it. It’s a very, very serious matter.
DEBRA: One of the things that concern me just about the world at large is that it seems to be allowable for new things to come on to the market without knowing what their health effects are. I think that there probably are some laws in place for some products needing to be tested or following regulations. But it seems like instead of saying, “Okay, prove that it’s safe first, then these new technologies are allowed” and then people get sick and then we have to fight to have them taken away.
ELLEN MARKS: You’re right. Corporations run our country, unfortunately. In the case of the cell phone, you’re absolutely right. There was never any pre-market safety testing done on a cell phone. I think when they came out in the mid-80s, nobody had any idea. We’ll give them a little bit of slack here how ubiquitous this will become and that even children would have them and be sleeping with them and all that.
So there was no pre-market safety testing. What they did was because they had tested microwave ovens to be safe, they just used that. And it’s a bit different.
DEBRA: It is a bit different.
ELLEN MARKS: You’re not holding a microwave oven to your head and children are using it. So it’s shocking to me also that they can get away with this and that we have to prove that they’re not safe.
DEBRA: In the world of chemicals, there is something called the precautionary principle. I don’t know if you all talk about that in the cell phones.
ELLEN MARKS: Oh, we do.
DEBRA: Yes. And I think that there’s enough evidence – I’ve been doing this work for more than 30 years and many years ago before anybody started talking about any of this, I had to say, “Well, what do I want as an individual? How do I evaluate what’s going to be safe for me?” And because I got sick, I said, “Wait a minute. I can’t do things to my body. If I want to live and be happy and earn money and have fun, I need to do things that support my health and not things that are going to make me lie in bed sick every day.”
And so I had to figure out, draw the line, where was my tolerable line of what I was willing to accept? And what I decided for myself was that if there was any concern about the chemical at all, it didn’t have to be really proven without a doubt, if there’s any concern (this was way before the precautionary principle was written), if there was any concern, I wasn’t going to use. I was going to find another way.
And the thing that seems to horrific to me about this whole cellular technology (not just cell phones, but the whole thing) is there’s no place I can go where I’m not being bombarded by this technology. In my own house, I can’t shut it out. If I turn on my computer, it asks me, “Do I want to hook up to this Wi-Fi, my neighbor’s Wi-Fi?” because I don’t have Wi-Fi. There’s no place to go. The whole planet is surrounded by these waves.
ELLEN MARKS: It’s a terrible. It’s really a terrible problem. Children are being exposed to Wi-Fi at school. Then they go home, they’re being exposed to it. And no one is measuring the cumulative effect. You might have an exposure limit for a phone, an exposure limit for a router, exposure limit for a cell tower. But when you put it all together…
DEBRA: That’s right. That’s exactly the point.
ELLEN MARKS: You can’t get away from it. So it’s very difficult for people who especially are sensitive to it. It’s terrible. There are people that are having to leave their homes because of the smart meters that are being put on their homes and things like that. So it really is an awful problem. Like I said, I think historians are going to have quite a time with this. I think we’ve advanced too far, too fast. We have not used the precautionary principle.
And what’s really infuriates me is that there is so much science now, established peer-reviewed, published science about cell phones, about Wi-Fi, about damage to fetuses from wireless radiation. And it’s being ignored and the industry is going on and they’ve got this mantra that there is no established science.
Well, at this point, they’re lying. I don’t mind saying that because they are. There is established science. We have the data to show the correlation between wireless radiation and damage to fetuses, damage to the sperm and cancers all over the body.
So yes, the precautionary principle should be taken, but they are more concerned about their bottom dollar.
DEBRA: Yes, and we should live in a world where the precautionary principle is provided at every level. And it’s not. It’s there. We can choose it, but it’s not being applied. I think that is a big mistake.
We need to go to break. And when we come back, we’ll talk more about this. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ellen Marks. She’s the founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ellen Marks, founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association.
Okay, Ellen, what else would you like to tell us about brain tumors?
ELLEN MARKS: Well, I think that your listeners probably would like to know what they can do to protect themselves.
DEBRA: Good! Let’s talk about that.
ELLEN MARKS: Because this technology is not going to go away in the near future. And we don’t really want it to go away. We just want this industry to make safer equipment and fess up to what’s really happening.
One thing I try to stress to people is I love my phone and all that, but I try to limit my use. I think that’s something that we all need to do. If we all start limiting our use, maybe we won’t need as many cell towers and all that.
But another thing is just to keep it off when it’s on your body. You can even put it on airplane mode if you have it tucked into a pocket or in your bra. Just have it on the airplane mode which stops the wireless radiation from being transmitted.
And don’t sleep with them near your head at night. A few research did a study. Eighty-seven percent of teenagers sleep with them on underneath their pillows at night. That was very, very dangerous.
DEBRA: Wow. They want to be awakened in the middle of the night by having their cell phone?
ELLEN MARKS: They’re texting until all hours of the night. And then they use it for their alarm clock also. So this is a problem. I tell people if they have any control over their teenagers, get their phone out of their room at night.
And use the speaker phone, text more often, which is good. I think more and more people are texting a lot. Just don’t hold it to your head or body.
And as far as Wi-Fi goes, Ethernet is faster. So we have gone back to Ethernet.
And the other thing I’d like to stress is this is very, very real. The science is coming out of Yale, Harvard. It’s overwhelming. It’s coming from other countries also. There are very negative ramifications to wireless radiation. And it’s very real and when you hear otherwise, it’s the industry speaking that you’re hearing.
So we’re scaring people, I apologize. However, it’s something that people really need to know because everybody’s using this daily. Like you said, it’s hard to get away from it.
DEBRA: It is hard to get away from it. So I know that tablet computers are also – it’s any wireless device.
ELLEN MARKS: Right. iPads, I think in the manual it tells you to keep it at least eight inches from your body. And I know a lot of people fall asleep with those things. I have friends and family members who do that. It’s very dangerous.
I know a woman who did that and she did develop a brain tumor and she has passed away. And she was in her 40s. So it’s very frightening. So people need to be aware that—
DEBRA: Now, these new watches that people have, they’re putting it right on their wrist and wearing it all day long.
ELLEN MARKS: The wearable wireless devices are just horrendous. The Google glasses, I think have taken most to market now for other reasons, but it’s a horrible idea to keep microwave transmitter right by your brain like that all the time. And the watch too! It’s definitely not something that we think people should be wearing.
DEBRA: And e-book readers.
ELLEN MARKS: I really don’t know too much about that, but I would assume – I really don’t know.
DEBRA: I don’t know either that’s why I’m asking you.
ELLEN MARKS: Actually, I don’t so I’m not going to say because I really don’t know. I think if it’s not transmitting radiation, you’re okay. So I’m not sure if those do.
DEBRA: That’s something I want to find out about actually.
ELLEN MARKS: I think if it’s just downloaded, I don’t think that it is transmitting.
DEBRA: Well, I’m glad that I asked that because so many people read e-books now.
ELLEN MARKS: No, I think Kindle and things like that are okay.
DEBRA: I don’t have a reader but I have an iPad. And so if I am going to read an e-book, I read it on my iPad or I read it on my computer. Mostly, I read it on my computer.
ELLEN MARKS: Now, if you were to disable wireless on your iPad when you’re reading, would you still be able to read the book?
DEBRA: I have wireless disabled on my iPad anyway because an iPad, it comes in – it’s not a wireless. It’s like a cell phone.
ELLEN MARKS: So I think you’re okay. I really don’t know the answer to that.
DEBRA: Well, I’ll have to do more research.
ELLEN MARKS: Yes, please do and let me know. The other thing I’d like to say is we did make a movie. Dr. Joel Moskowitz of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and I and Dr. Deborah Davis who is a worldwide leading expert in this issue, we did make a documentary called Mobilize which has been showing around the nation – actually, around the world. It was shown in New Zealand last week. And if people would like a link to it to show it in their community, they can e-mail me. Can I give my e-mail out?
DEBRA: Yes, you can. And actually, during the break, there’s a website, MobilizeMovie.com. You can go to the MobilizeMovie.com and you can order a copy there. I think it has different levels of rights. So you can order one if you want to show it. It costs one price and if you want to have a DVD, so you can just watch it yourself, it’s $15 I think on the site.
ELLEN MARKS: And it’s well worth it. People are really enjoying it and they’re really telling us that they’re changing their habits after seeing it.
DEBRA: How long is the movie? How many minutes?
ELLEN MARKS: The movie is about an hour and 20 minutes.
DEBRA: So it’s a movie “movie”?
ELLEN MARKS: Yes. And we did win an award for it. We won the Slade Award for the Best Documentary. We were up against the Hollywood producer for their documentary at the California Independent Film Festival. So we’re excited about that.
It’s basically about the science, about the collusion between our government and this industry, and the industry corruption. And that’s what people need to know to keep themselves and their family safe. So I hope that more and more people will view it.
DEBRA: I hope so too. I will put that link on the website with the links to this show.
ELLEN MARKS: That would be great, thank you. And my e-mail is CA, for California, BTA, for Brain Tumor Association, SF, San Francisco, at Hotmail dot com. So CABTASF@hotmail.com.
DEBRA: Okay, good. So we only have a few minutes left. Anything else you’d like to add?
ELLEN MARKS: Well, we were talking about cell towers before. And one of the things that’s happening right now in California (it’s the first state to do this and it’s horrific), is one of the assembly men got a bill passed before the assembly and now it’s going to the senate to take away local authority and cellular facility placement. And that would be done at the state level.
It’s horrific because it takes all authority away from cities and it basically denies them the rights to concerns about aesthetics, concerns about environmental issues, about safety.
So if any of your listeners are from California or they are concerned that this could happen in their state, we encourage people to contact California state senators to vote no on AB57. It’s a terrible law and it’s just a power grab by the telecom industry to get things done quicker. They have more antennas in – for instance, in San Francisco, they want to put them on a utility pole, on sidewalks and things like that. It’s just a terrible idea not only for aesthetics, but we know for health reasons, which we’re not allowed to talk about because of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. But we’re really concerned about this AB57 getting through the senate.
DEBRA: Well, lots of going on in the world. We need to be vigilant. It seems to me that there is some basic goodness in the world that people want to do the right thing, for that they want to be healthy. And then there are all these other things going on and that we have to fight it. Even though it seems to me it’s like our natural state to be healthy if we’re not being bombarded by all these things. We have to fight to have our natural environment. We need to fight to have pure products, even the food we eat or the water that we drink.
It’s one thing that I’ve said many times in the past on this show is that I think that we should be able to buy applesauce, for example, and the label would say, “apples and water” and we would know that that was apples and water and nothing else. And that the ones that are not that should say, apples, pesticides, chlorine, all the things that are actually in it.
ELLEN MARKS: Yes, unfortunately, like we said before, corporations have the upper hand in our country right now. And that’s one reason that Larry Lessig took on this issue with the cell phones. He would like to see corporations out of politics. They shouldn’t be making campaign contributions and all that. It’s a huge problem. You’re absolutely right. And the American people are suffering because of that.
DEBRA: I think so too. I’ve done a fair amount of study about our founding fathers and the American Revolution and what they were fighting for. And freedom is a basic thing. The Right to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The first one is life. This country was founded on that we have the right to life and our very lives are being threatened. And we should all be standing up for this. We should all be standing up and saying let’s have life.
ELLEN MARKS: You’re absolutely right. It’s so sad to me because I’ve gotten to know these people who have been affected by cell phone radiation. There are young women that I know who have breast cancer that’s spreading throughout their body now because they didn’t know they shouldn’t keep their cell phone tucked into their bra while it was on.
And like I said before, I know people, men and women, who have died from this. And it doesn’t get much worse than that. And it’s so sad and this is so real.
DEBRA: I know that when I found out about toxic chemicals because I got sick, when I found out about it, I made a decision that I had to spend my life telling people about it because I can’t heal the damage these chemicals have caused my body and I didn’t know about it. And so I just dedicated to making sure people know.
We need to go. So thank you so much. It’s such an important subject.
ELLEN MARKS: Okay. Oh, gosh! Thank you for the work that you continue to do and for raising awareness. I really appreciate it.
DEBRA: Thank you. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
A Detox For Your Teeth
My guest today is Jessica Arman, mother of four and founder of My Magic Mud, “The Original Detoxifying Tooth Powder.” An avid entrepreneur, Jessica developed My Magic Mud after months of experimentation. She wanted to create an effective whitening and deep cleaning remedy for her children that was natural and safe. Although My Magic Mud started off as a simple home remedy, it has quickly turned into a successful small business that has impacted thousands of lives. www.mymagicmud.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
A Detox for Your Teeth
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Jessica Arman
Date of Broadcast: June 10, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It is Wednesday, June 10th, 2015. Today, we’re going to be talking about a very different way to clean your teeth. We’re going to be talking about a tooth powder. Most people use toothpaste, but tooth powders actually work. People use toothpowder all the time. I love toothpowder.
And this one actually detoxifies your mouth while you brush your teeth. Of course, I had to have the creator of this tooth powder on today to talk about this and tell us how this is different, what she’s done and why it’s important to be looking at detoxifying your mouth, what kind of toxic things might be in your mouth. Anyway, we’re going to talk to her today and learn all these things.
She’s Jessica Arman. She’s the mother of four and founder of My Magic Mud. Hi, Jessica.
JESSICA ARMAN: Hi Debra. How are you doing?
DEBRA: I’m doing fine. I’m hearing a little back thing in my microphone. Do you hear that? Anyway, I’m hoping that they will handle that in the studio. Anyway, I’m doing really well. How are you doing, Jessica?
JESSICA ARMAN: I’m doing excellent. Thank you so much for having me on. I’m actually very, very honored to be speaking with you today. This is excellent work.
DEBRA: Thank you. Thank you. You’ve done some excellent work too and I want myself to find out all about it today. So how did you come to do this?
JESSICA ARMAN: Actually, I was trying to find something to help my children that was nontoxic, very natural. I didn’t want to be dealing with a lot of chemicals. And my children frankly had problems with their teeth and regular toothpaste just wasn’t cutting it at all. My daughter had extremely sensitive teeth and even brushing was really difficult for her. It was painful. So it was always a fight to get her to brush.
Really, this quest that I went on was just really to solve a problem that I was having in my own family. So I did a lot of research on some natural ingredient and there’s quite a number to choose from. Basically my three goals that I was trying to solve were to fix my daughter’s sensitivity, to try and help strengthen her teeth, to get a better clean. And then also because my children were very young at the time, I wanted it to be something that they would use. So taste was really, really important.
And a lot of tooth powders and toothpastes out there, especially the natural ones, there are some great ingredients, but they don’t taste very good. So I couldn’t get my kids to use it. If they’re not going to use it, it doesn’t matter how great it is. It’s not going to work.
I just really did a lot of research and a lot of tinkering in my home and my kitchen, trying to solve these three issues. Thankfully, I came up with My Magic Mud and it actually did basically cure my daughter’s sensitivity. I do notice that if she doesn’t use it in a while, she’s start to feel that sensitivity coming back. But really if she does, then it’s such a fortification of her teeth and she can drink cold water.
We’ve gotten this from a lot of our customers, how it really does take away the sensitivity as well as detoxify and whiten the teeth. It’s pretty amazing and I’m so grateful that I stumbled on it.
DEBRA: Tell us. What was that aha moment when something is really different? I’ve never seen any kind of tooth product like this. What made you – what happened that you thought that it should detoxify as well as clean? You’ve got some ingredients in here that I don’t see in tooth powder.
JESSICA ARMAN: All right.
DEBRA: What led you to even think of this is the thing that is amazing to me.
JESSICA ARMAN: The interesting thing was I actually started looking into these particular ingredients because I also wanted to create a tooth pack. Every so often, you get food stuck between your teeth and you can’t get it out or maybe it starts to fester a little or bother you.
I really like try to do things the natural route first before we go to the doctor or go to pharmaceuticals of any kind. So I didn’t want to just get on a prescription drug or anything. So the reason why I looked into the bentonite clay and the activated charcoal was to create a tooth pack and that is for detoxifying.
So it really got me thinking. Why do we just use this in extreme circumstances? Wouldn’t it be better to do them more on a daily basis?
DEBRA: I’m smiling as you’re saying this because it’s so logical. It’s so logical.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yeah. So maybe I could stop this from happening if I was more proactive. Especially applying that to the children, I felt really, really good as a mother having that idea and wanting to prevent extreme circumstances like that in their mouth. That was really what led me down that path.
And then I did a bunch of research because I thought I should put them together. I think that it would be really good together. And it was mindboggling to me that these two ingredients have been used for oral care for thousands of years and there’s not one instance where somebody was like, “Hey, let’s put them together and see if they work synergistically.” I found that they truly, truly do.
DEBRA: That’s so amazing. I want to just skip back to something that you just said earlier and really reinforce this point about doing things proactively and not waiting until you’re sick or that there’s something wrong. I really came to that conclusion in my own life too. I had, until age 24 just lived the toxic, unhealthy way that everybody lives in, in the America culture, unless you do something different.
But the standard American culture, we all use toxic consumer products and each sugar and all those kinds of things. That’s what I did until I was 24 when I got really, really, really sick, like almost disabled sick. I looked like disabled sick. It was the experience of getting sick and then saying, “What do I have to do to not be sick?”
That led me to do my work and to change the way I ate and the way I lived and everything. And I found that there is a way to do it so that the things you do in your life support health.
But more importantly, as I started looking into different illnesses, the answers were always the same on what to do to cure the illness, which was remove the toxic chemicals, eat good food, give your body nutrition instead of bad breath and your body will get well. And why should I or anybody else – why shouldn’t we just do that to begin with and not have to get so radically ill that people can’t work and can’t live a normal life and things like that because of just lifestyle questions?
So you apply that basic concept of “Let’s do it right first” to a tooth powder. I think it’s amazing and wonderful.
JESSICA ARMAN: I love it. It’s awesome.
DEBRA: So anyway, we need to go to break fairly soon like in less than a minute. So I’m not going to ask you another question until we get back from the break. What’s the general response to your tooth powder? Did people like it?
JESSICA ARMAN: They love it. It’s weird. The first response is “I can’t believe this actually whitens. It’s black. There’s no reason why it should.” But the second that anyone tries it, it’s just overwhelming. It’s been such an overwhelming response.
I’m so happy that I have been able to touch so many lives and change so many lives. They’re just really happy. It’s weird and fun and it worked.
DEBRA: Well, I found about you from one of my readers who tried your product. He said, “You have to try this product.” And he thought it was one of the best tooth products that he ever used.
We need to go to break, but we’ll be right back and talk more about Jessica’s amazing tooth powder. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Jessica Arman. She is the founder of My Magic Mud. We’ll find out about it when we come back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Jessica Arman. She’s the mother of four and founder of My Magic Mud.
Jessica, in addition to wanting to proactively make something that your children needed with their particular needs, were there ingredients in regular toothpaste that you didn’t want them to be using?
JESSICA ARMAN: Absolutely. The filming agents, there’s just absolutely a bunch of things in regular toothpaste that are not necessary, that are toxic. The fluoride is just not necessary I believe.
Even the natural toothpaste, like I said, they didn’t really taste good. I couldn’t get my kids to use them. Some of them also had deforming agents or things that were in there that made it seem like it was more like regular toothpaste, but really truly unnecessary.
That was honestly one of the reasons why I stuck to a tooth powder. I didn’t want to put any glycerin or anything in there just so that it would be a paste.
DEBRA: I love how you stuck to your concept because I know one of the things that happen in the world, I am guilty of that in the past, is when you’re doing something that you’re accustomed to like using regular toothpaste.
In my case, I went through this when I was [inaudible 00:15:21] the way I ate. So I would say, “Well, I want to eat chocolate cakes, so I’m going to do something that tastes as to close to chocolate cake as possible but make it with better ingredients.” So I have always been trying to make the bad thing better.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yeah, I have done that on so many occasions.
DEBRA: Yeah. What I found was that if I just let go of the idea of what the old thing was and what I did was just say, “Okay, I have these ingredients. I have these lovely organic foods and vegetables that I got at the farmers’ market. And what am I going to do with them?” I would come up with things that taste so much better. I was ordering the ingredients and I was doing something that was real instead of trying to say, “How am I going to make this tomato taste like chocolate?”
JESSICA ARMAN: That’s excellent. I love it.
DEBRA: And that’s what we’re doing. This is what you’re doing. You said, “I’m going to start with my concept here. I’m going to do something good for my kids. I’m going to order the ingredients. I’m going to find those good things that work and I’m not going to make it be toothpaste.”
JESSICA ARMAN: Yes. And that was actually really difficult when I turned this into a business. That was one of the main things that I got from consumers. And even family members and friends were like, “Just turn into a toothpaste. It will be a lot easier.”
And I fought tooth to nail, just trying to educate people as to why I didn’t turn it into toothpaste. Once I told them the story behind it and that it was for their benefit, everyone was totally on board. They were like, “Thank you so much for doing that.”
But before they got the whole story, they’re just like, “Please, just turn them into toothpaste. Make this easier.” I would have loved to have done that, but I just couldn’t, in my conscience, do that. I couldn’t do it.
DEBRA: Yeah. Tell us more now about your product. I want to hear all the details about it.
JESSICA ARMAN: It does so many different things. It detoxifies your mouth. It really does basically suck out or pull. It has a magnetic pull and then also it has this absorption process as one of the ingredients.
There are really two ways that it detoxifies the mouth, which I find is the beautiful synergy because with whatever toxins are left behind with one process, I really find that the other process does pick up the slack. So you’re really getting that ultimate clean that you wouldn’t get with any other product that you’ve ever tried. That’s really what the feedback that I’ve gotten. It’s just that it gives you that dentist chair like cleaning.
It also remineralizes your mouth, your teeth and your gums. Not only is it taking out the toxins, the infections, the bacteria and really giving you an opportunity to have whole mouth health, but it’s also putting minerals back into your mouth. Excuse me. I’m sorry about that. It’s also putting minerals back into your mouth to help your immune system in your mouth to be at perfect health to fight off future bacteria, to fight off cavities and toxins. It really has a dual purpose.
It also gets rid of bad breath, which is excellent. And also I talked earlier about how one of the things was that I didn’t want it to taste bad. Stumbling on these ingredients, not only did I not get it to taste bad, but it doesn’t actually have a taste. Wouldn’t you say?
DEBRA: I know you sent me a sample, but it didn’t arrive in time for the show.
JESSICA ARMAN: Oh, I’m so sorry about that.
DEBRA: So I can’t answer that question. I really wish that I had it because I wanted to say, “I tried this and it’s really wonderful.” But I don’t have the sample.
JESSICA ARMAN: You will next time. So it is tasteless. It’s a totally flavorless formula and it’s incredible.
DEBRA: I can hardly wait to try it. I know the reader that recommended this to me. He couldn’t say enough how impressed he was with this and how he was using it and how his teeth felt better and just everything. He said it’s in a cause by itself. I really think it is because I haven’t seen anything like this before.
JESSICA ARMAN: I love that. That makes me feel happy. I love hearing people say those like that.
DEBRA: Yeah, he was really excited about it. And this particular reader actually sends me a lot of product recommendations. He is very appreciative of my work and wants to contribute to it. So he’s looking for the best of the best that he can find to give to me and here is one of them.
JESSICA ARMAN: What a great support. I love it. I love it.
DEBRA: Yeah.
JESSICA ARMAN: It’s such an honor.
DEBRA: So when we come back from the break, I want to talk more about the individual ingredients because I think that you have some unusual ingredients that people might not be familiar with.
JESSICA ARMAN: Okay.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Jessica Arman. She’s the mother of four and founder of My Magic Mud, a very amazing toothpowder. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Jessica Arman. She’s the mother of four and founder of My Magic Mud.
So Jessica, the thing that really caught my attention about what your product does is the detox factor. I want to ask you particularly about the bentonite clay and about the activated carbon. I think one of the things going on in general in the world today is that people don’t really understand the whole idea of detox and there are different things that one can detox that require different types of detoxes.
One of the most misused words that I’ve seen in the English language is the word toxin because there is actually a definition of the word toxin and people don’t know the definition. I’m not saying you don’t know the definition. I’m saying people in general don’t know the definition. So I see it frequently misused. So I just want to give the definition of toxin so that we can have a discussion and the listeners can listen.
JESSICA ARMAN: Excellent.
DEBRA: The actual definition of toxin is something that is produced in the body of a living organism. So a toxin would be a metabolic toxin like the wastes that are produced by cells.
I think that most people don’t think that all the cells in your body are little systems. They are like their own little bodies and they have inputs and they have outputs. So those outputs are the poops, so to speak, of the cell. I don’t know how else to describe it.
JESSICA ARMAN: That’s a great way to describe it. I think that’s really perfect.
DEBRA: Thank you. So the poop of the cell is in your body and it’s just floating around in the blood. And then your blood gets filtered through your kidneys and there are other detoxification processes that your body has. And that is supposed to remove all those things.
But what ends up happening – for example, like the kidneys that perform that function – the kidneys are now being exposed to all these toxic chemicals. They get overloaded. They’re not functioning right. They can be destroyed. So then what are the kidneys supposed to do with all these poops from the cells if it’s trying to get the toxic chemicals out of your body?
What’s going on in the world today is that instead of being removed from the body by our natural systems that are supposed to be doing that, we’re getting a lot of buildup. When you look at something like a detox diet or a juice cleanse or something like that, those are really designed and have been used for many centuries to remove these kinds of bodily toxins.
Now, there’s a whole other cause of things that are called toxics , short for toxicants. These are the actually toxicology words and those are the things like the toxic chemicals, heavy metals, all these things. These are things coming from outside the body into the body and are poisons. They’re both poisons. One is produced by the body and the one comes from outside. That ends our science lesson for today.
JESSICA ARMAN: Actually, I have to tell you that you taught me something. I love that. I love learning new things every day, so it’s exciting.
DEBRA: Okay. So now let me ask you my question.
JESSICA ARMAN: Okay.
DEBRA: Let’s talk about bentonite clay first and then let’s talk about activated carbon. If you’re saying that it’s removing toxins, then exactly what is being removed?
JESSICA ARMAN: Bentonite clay is negatively charged. So it’s going to be attracted to anything that’s positively charged. That would be your bacteria, infection, things that are foreign to the mouth that we pick up through less than perfect water or food that we eat, even just breathing air.
The air that we’re around these days unfortunately has foreign particles in it that get deposited into the mouth. And really just we’re bombarded with a bunch of different types of things that really shouldn’t be present in our body, especially in our mouth.
There was recently a study – I know that this has come out over the past probably 20 years, but it resurfaced again. A university did a study and over 80% of the issues that we have healthwise in our body can actually be linked to the health of your mouth.
DEBRA: My dentist told me that.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yeah. So I think that’s huge. That is really big when you think about it. I have talked to so many people who eat organic food and work out daily and drink the best filtered water that they can buy, but they forget to remove all the toxics and toxins from their mouth. That’s a huge part.
If 80% of the issues that we have in our body can be linked to the mouth, but we don’t focus on detoxifying our mouth, you’re not really ahead of the game. So that is really…
DEBRA: That’s why. I think a lot of people don’t focus on that. They think about cavities, but this whole idea of all the other things that – your body is a system, so if something’s wrong with one part of the system, then the whole system starts going down.
JESSICA ARMAN: Exactly.
DEBRA: So we have to be considering what’s going on with each part of our body.
JESSICA ARMAN: Absolutely. And I really feel like starting with your mouth is really the entry point for so many things into our bodies. I love that you changed your diet and really started focusing on what you were putting into your body.
So many people in today’s society don’t think about that. I mean it is starting to be more acceptable to be more picky and to really view what you put into your mouth. It’s very, very important. But I would say that really the general population, especially in America doesn’t really consider that. It’s all about the fast food and the soda and all that stuff.
Do what you’re going to do, but at least if nothing else, clean up the damage that you’ve done during the day. I would love for it to be more than that. But just focus on the mouth at all, just by doing Magic Mud one time a day. It makes me feel a little bit better that I’ve educated somebody and gotten them one step closer to having not only oral health, but good full body health really.
DEBRA: Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you. We need to go to break again. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd.
My guest today is Jessica Arman. She’s a mother of four and the founder of My Magic Mud. I just realized that I haven’t been constantly giving the website, which is MyMagicMud.com. You can go there and find out all about it and order it. We will be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. I’m here today with Jessica Arman who is the founder of My Magic Mud and they’re at MyMagicMud.com.
Jessica, the thing that I wanted to say particularly about bentonite clay is that yes, it handles those toxins that are in the body. Actually I was reading about bentonite clay and it’s so good if you put a pack of bentonite clay on your arm then it will pull the toxins out of your body.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yes.
DEBRA: So I can imagine that if you put it on your gums, even temporarily it will pull – and you recommend not just brushing for 10 seconds. You recommend brushing for – what is it? Two or three minutes or something? Four minutes?
JESSICA ARMAN: Absolutely, two minutes.
DEBRA: Two minutes.
JESSICA ARMAN: I would do it for longer, but actually your toothbrush bristles if you brush for longer than that can be harming to your enamel and to your gums. A lot of people brush really vigorously, so it’s not a good idea to do it for longer than two minutes.
But one thing that I really like to tell people is that you can hold this product in your mouth. You brush for two minutes. A lot of people – I hop in the shower and just hold the Magic Mud in my mouth for about five minutes and then rinse it out in the shower.
Like I said before, it’s flavorless. So it’s not unpleasant to hold in your mouth. You don’t really even notice that it’s there. And the longer that it’s on your gums and your teeth, the more toxins are going to be pulled out.
DEBRA: That’s the whole point of bentonite clay. I’m reading several websites here. It will also bind with heavy metals.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yes.
DEBRA: So if you’ve got mercury fillings, that’s going to take away some of that excess mercury and it also binds with aluminum, lead, arsenic, cadmium, all those heavy metals. It will also pull out pesticides, herbicides, formaldehyde, PCBs, chemicals, teflon, plastics, vaccines, chem trails. I’m reading this off of a website.
That makes sense to me because bentonite clay does have that absorptive quality that will just pull. It pulls and binds. So if you would have it in your mouth, it’s going to pull and bind whatever is in your mouth.
JESSICA ARMAN: And the great thing about the binding is that even if you were to swallow this product, you don’t have to worry about digesting any of that that you just pulled out of your mouth. It actually will further detoxify your intestines and in your insides and then you’ll just expel it.
That was one of the main reasons with the two ingredients, the charcoal and the bentonite clay that I love because I could safely know that everything would be okay when brushing my two year old teeth with this because if he swallowed any of it, it would just be actually internally beneficial to him.
I think that’s one of the great things about this product. It’s safe for all ages.
DEBRA: It is. And there is a warning label on toothpaste that says, “Don’t let kids swallow the toothpaste because of the fluoride.”
JESSICA ARMAN: Exactly, yes. Why would you put something in your mouth that you can’t swallow? Yes, exactly.
DEBRA: What’s wrong with that warning label is it doesn’t understand that it just gets absorbed right through your skin, right through all those mucus membranes in your mouth. It’s just very absorptive.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yes, very quickly to get some not good things into your body.
DEBRA: So would you tell us about the process of using it because I know you give some special instructions about how you’re supposed to use this tooth powder?
JESSICA ARMAN: Absolutely. So it is the finest granular charcoal out there. I know that there are a lot of people that say you can just go to charcoal capsules and bust them open and brush with it.
The only reason why I would advise against that is you don’t know how fine the granular, the charcoal is. So it really can scratch or wear away your enamel. That’s really counterproductive. You don’t want to do that.
Our product, all of the ingredients are ground down into a dust-like quality. So you do need to handle it gingerly. What I recommend is that you wet your toothbrush, take off any excess water so that it’s not too watery. You want to really get it into a mud consistent base so it has the ability to stick into all those places of your mouth. Then you just simply tap the top of your bristles to the top of the powder and that’s all you need.
This is really, really potent stuff, so you don’t need to have a bunch on there. And if you do, you’re just going to be wasting it. So just put a light layer on top of your bristles, brush for two minutes like we talked about earlier, getting all of the areas, the little crannies and nooks of your mouth.
You can hold it in there for longer, which I recommend, but you don’t have to. In fact for most normal cases, a two minute brushing actually does wonders. If you have more severe gum issues, I would definitely recommend holding it in there for longer.
And then you’re just going to simply rest it out and it comes out. You’re going to want to floss in between your teeth and then maybe do a little tidy up with your toothbrush afterwards. But it really does come out easily.
Then the only thing that I recommend is because it’s black, I tape a dark towel next to my sink and I use that for cleanup because a lot of people don’t want to look into their sink and have black splatter everywhere. That’s it.
DEBRA: I’ve had that experience with tooth powders.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yeah.
DEBRA: However, I haven’t used the black one yet.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yeah. So it is really simple to use when you know what you’re doing. So it takes a little bit of time to realize, “Okay, this is the powder. It’s a really fine powder.”
You don’t want to just brush with your lips open because you splatter saliva and toothpaste on to your mirror. You just really don’t see it that often because it’s white or clear, but with the black, you will see it. So I would recommend also while you’re brushing to keep your lips close if you’re around your toothbrush as much as possible. It is totally worth the extra effort.
People tell me all the time that they cannot believe that insane clean feeling that they get when they’re done with the hygienist. They get that every day with this product.
DEBRA: I can hardly wait to try this.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yeah. I absolutely love it. I would say I’m close to addicted to that clean feeling in my mouth. If I go longer than a couple of days and I start to feel that feeling that comes on your teeth after you’ve eaten something, it drives me crazy. So it’s really an excellent product and I know that you’ll love it.
DEBRA: I know I will too. So how long will it take to whiten your teeth using this?
JESSICA ARMAN: A lot of people see results in as little as one use to around seven uses. We recommend that you start by using it every single day, once a day at night instead of toothpaste. But once you get the desired shade that you like, you really can go to every other day or every three days depending on what you feel is best for your mouth.
DEBRA: We’re almost running out of time, so I’m going to ask you this really quick. If you’re only using the toothpowder at night, aren’t people supposed to brush twice a day at least?
JESSICA ARMAN: Yes. Well, we recommend that you use your regular natural toothpaste in the morning. A lot of people do use Magic Mud morning and night. The reason why I don’t recommend that everybody, besides the die-hard users, use it in the morning is because it is a powder and you do need to be very present when you’re using it and it is black.
DEBRA: That can wait.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yeah. So I’ve noticed, especially being a mother of four, that sometimes in the morning, that morning brushing is like, “Okay. Get it done and then get out the door.”
DEBRA: Right. At night, you can put a little more.
JESSICA ARMAN: Exactly.
DEBRA: Take a little more time to take care of yourself.
JESSICA ARMAN: Exactly. So that’s really the only reason why I don’t recommend that you use it in the morning. I would hate to have somebody who’s not quite awake to use it and spill it on their shirt that they just got dressed in or something. That’s really the only reason why I recommend doing it at night so that you can really be present and not be rushed.
DEBRA: Yeah. We’ve got only about a minute left. So I just want you to swing quickly about why all your ingredients are not organic.
JESSICA ARMAN: You cannot actually have organic bentonite clay and you cannot have organic activated charcoal.
DEBRA: Which is why you don’t have a 100% certified organic product.
JESSICA ARMAN: Exactly. But everything in there that can be organic like the mint and the orange peel, they are. But the two main ingredients physically cannot be organic.
DEBRA: I’ll just swing to my listeners who might not know this, organic refers to an agricultural product. So anything that’s not agricultural cannot become organic, but that doesn’t mean that they are toxic in any way. It’s just that they are not agricultural.
JESSICA ARMAN: Correct.
DEBRA: Yeah, good. Thank you so much, Jessica. I learned so much and I can’t wait. Maybe it arrived in the mail today.
JESSICA ARMAN: Yes, I hope. I do apologize for the delay in getting that to you. I can’t wait to hear what you think about it.
DEBRA: I will certainly let you know and I will try it as soon as I get it. I mean I don’t even think I’ll wait for the night. I think that as soon as it comes in.
JESSICA ARMAN: Awesome. Thank you so much Debra. This is so enjoyable and I really enjoyed talking to you.
DEBRA: Thank you. So Jessica’s site is MyMagicMud.com. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Magic Mud
“The Original Detoxifying Tooth Powder” contains certified organic and natural ingredients that detoxify your mouth and whiten your teeth with regular brushing. The powder turns to a paste as you brush. No flavorings are added. Because it contains activated carbon and clay, it’s a little messy, but it cleans your teeth really well.
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Listen to my interview with Jessica Arman, Founder of My Magic Mud |
BPA From Can Linings Can Have Immediate Effect on Your Body
A new study has found that drinking just two drinks from a BPA-lined can can significantly raise levels of BPA in your body—enough to immediately raise blood pressure.
Read more at GreenMedInfo: BPA-lined Container Hike Blood Pressure—Immediately
Another Reason To Filter Your Tap Water
A new study from the University of Sheffield, in the United Kingdom, has proved conclusively that contaminants can enter pipes through leaks and be transported through the pipe network.
The pressure in mains water pipes usually forces water out through leaks, preventing anything else from getting in. But when there is a significant pressure drop in a damaged section of pipe, water surrounding the pipe can be sucked in through the hole.
It had been assumed that only clean water from the leak would be sucked in, and that even if contaminants were sucked in these would simply be ejected once the pressure returned to normal. The new study has shown, however, that groundwater from around the pipe – which often contains harmful contaminants – can be sucked in, remain in the pipe and travel on through the network.
While most of the time the pressure in the pipes is such that no contaminants enter the water system, when the pressure is reversed, you have no protection from whatever comes in, unless you have a water filter.
The Story of Tris Flame Retardants
Here is a great video about the toxic flame retardant chlorinated Tris. 13 minutes. Well worth watching.
New York Times: A Flame Retardant That Came With It’s Own Threat to Health
Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be talking about your kidneys and how to keep them healthy in our toxic world. Your kidneys filter all your blood so they are constantly exposed to toxic chemicals that have made their way into your body. More than 31 million people in the United States alone are on dialysis because their kidneys don’t function. Learn what you can do naturally to protect your kidneys. Doctors have no drugs to help kidneys, but nature can protect and restore them. Pamela has more than 25 years experience choosing and selling top quality medicinal supplements, so she’s seen it all. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
- Vaccines: Harmful or Necessary?
- Evaluating A Study and Testing a Test
- Seven Deadly Drugs
- The Hidden Dangers Affecting Your Heart and How You Can Protect It Naturally
- What We Can Do About Cancer
- The Power of pH
- How to Protect Your Health From Toxic Mercury Dental Fillings
- Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
- How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing With Supplements
- How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use—And How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and into Health
- How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
- Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
- See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
- Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
- Different Types of Detox
- Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
- Natural Alternatives to Sleeping Pills
- Natural Back Pain Treatment Options That Work
- How Toxics Age Your Body & What You Can Do to Stay Young
- You CAN Lose Weight—Even if You’ve Had Difficulty Losing Weight Before
- Calcium—Is There Really a Deficiency in America?
- It’s Cold and Flu Season—How to Support Your Immune System and Why You Shouldn’t Get a Toxic Flu Shot
- How Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help Your Cells Create Health
- Toxic Psychiatry and How to Have Mental Health Without Drugs
- Why You Should Take Fish Oil and How To Choose the Right One for You
- Medicinal Plants Can Replace Toxic Drugs
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph
Date of Broadcast: June 03, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. It’s Wednesday, June 3rd 2015 and it’s, again, a beautiful day in Clearwater, Florida. It’s our sunny summer. And let’s see, I have a thermometer on my window. It’s 84° here. We’re having summer.
Today, we’re going to be talking about kidneys, our wonderful, valuable kidneys that do so much for us to detox and how we can end up with kidney failure.
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s on every other Wednesday. So she will be on again two weeks from now and every two weeks after that. And you can also, I should say, go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and you can listen to her past shows because what we’re doing is we’re talking about different parts of the body, different illnesses that people have, different drugs that people take and how those things can be taken care of with natural remedies. So if you’re just tuning in and hearing her for the first time, you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and listen to all her past shows.
So today, we’re talking about kidneys. I especially wanted to talk about kidneys because the way kidneys work is all the blood in your body passes through your kidneys and so all the toxic chemicals that may be in your body, the heavy metals and all those things, in addition to all the body waste that are floating around in your body all passes through the kidneys. Those toxic chemicals can damage the kidneys. And when your kidneys stop functioning, then your kidneys aren’t taking those toxic chemicals out of your body. And also, when your kidneys stop functioning, you end up on dialysis.
Pamela, I’m getting to you. I just want to say this because I just got this email yesterday with an ad for something and it said that the average annual cost of monthly dialysis treatments is $44,000!
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, I would believe that. In fact, in 2009, Medicare here in this country (and then of course, today, it’s even more, but that’s the last statistic), just on kidney failure alone, they spent $33.8 billion.
Debra: I looked at that and I thought, “I can’t have kidney failure.” That number really woke me up.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s a tremendous cost and it’s a tremendous disability to the patient as well.
Debra: Yes, because you have to go in – let’s see, it also said something about you have to go in for four hours three times a week or something like that.
So explain to us. If somebody is on dialysis, what’s going on with their kidneys or what’s not going on with their kidneys?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay, good. This is just kind of a lead-in to talk a little bit about what’s going on with people and kidney failure. What typically will happen is you have some common things that put you at risk for kidney failure. The most prevalent is diabetes. Diabetes can put you at risk because of the sugar going to the kidneys. Secondly is high blood pressure that’s not treated. So maybe somebody is in hypertension and they’re not taking something for it.
There’s something called glomerulonephritis, which is the inflammation of the glomeruli or the cells in the kidney themselves. And sometimes, people can have a hereditary disease. That’s the next thing. And then, also, there’s something called interstitial nephritis and pyelonephritis. That’s when people get urinary tract infection and the area keeps getting inflamed and infected. And sometimes, people have inflammation of the blood vessels.
So those are the ways that these can take place. But I can tell you from personal experience seeing people’s blood work that a lot of people are in pre-kidney failure and they’re not aware of it. And actually, nine out of ten people who have stage III chronic kidney disease, moderately decreased kidney function do not know it at all. This is what’s really bad because if they don’t know it, they can’t do anything about it. Dialysis really is the end means of everything. And definitely, you want to avoid that.
Debra: So you were telling me what happens when people go to the doctor and what doesn’t happen about kidney. Tell our listeners about that.
PAMELA SEEFELD: So what I see (and this is pretty typical) is that [beeping 00:05:32] nine out of ten people that have stage III kidney disease do not even know it. They’re not told about it. So what happens is you go through your physical, you have your blood work, your routine blood work [beeping 00:05:43] and they do what’s called the CMP, which has the kidney function as part of the panel. If somebody’s serum creatinine is mildly elevated (let’s say it’s 1.2 or something like that), most of the time the doctor doesn’t even mention it. And the reason they don’t mention it is because they don’t have anything for it. When you go to the physician, we’re really looking for medicine, right? There’s no medicine for that.
So what they typically will tell one of my patients is we’re going to send you to the nephrologist (who’s a kidney doctor) and then, when they go to the nephrologist, the nephrologist tells them, “I’ll see you every six months. And then when you go on the dialysis, I’ll see you every month.” I told one of my clients, “Are those the kind of odds you want?” That’s what they offer, dialysis. And unfortunately, in the pharmaceutical realm, there is really nothing that they have that’s efficient for preventing kidney disease.
So I would really urge the listeners that if they’re already having some elevation in their serum creatinine, they can call me. It’s a free consultation. I can tell them some things that they can do because I have had very good luck with some of the homeopathic products reversing the pre-kidney failure.
Debra: Yeah. I think the numbers are staggering. What did you say to me… 3.31 million people in the United States are on dialysis?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, chronic kidney disease, 31 million. Kidney disease is the 8th leading cause of death in the United States. It’s just something I tell people to take seriously.
All kidding aside, there’s a lot of different things – maybe someone has gastritis, maybe they have IBS, maybe they have diabetes, either chronic or ongoing hypertension. These are all ongoing problems and they can all add up to bigger problems as we can see.
But when someone has pre-kidney disease, their serum creatinine is starting to be mildly elevated, the time to act is now. That’s not one of these things that you want to just sit around saying, “Well, you know, let me think about it.” These things are very insidious and they can creep up on you. These can become extremely debilitating.
There are also some racial ethnic risks. It looks like relative to whites, the risk for African Americans is 3.8 times higher. Native Americans are two times higher and Asian is 1.3 times higher for a person to develop kidney disease. So knowing that almost 40% of all kidney failure cases are related to diabetes, it’s important to be using some homeopathic products that can prevent the sugar from increasing too much to start damaging the kidneys and also, to reverse the pre-kidney failure itself.
These are things that you can really look at. The statistics are really overwhelming.
Debra: And I just want to say again (and I’m probably going to say this twenty times during this show), toxic chemicals in your body that you’re being exposed to every day, if you’re not reducing your toxic chemical exposure, if you’re not reducing your heavy metal exposure, then all these things – the kidney is the filter.
Pamela, tell us how the kidney functions so that everybody gets that this really is a filter. So all these stuff is coming through your body, then you’re just damaging your kidneys. Your kidneys, every time, it’s having to deal with these toxic chemicals. And you can stop the toxic chemicals by not being exposed to them in the first place. So tell us more about how the kidney functions.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, the kidney regulates water and electrolytes and it also regulates protein. So when someone is in pre-kidney failure, they might be spilling out a lot of protein into the urine, protein that normally is reabsorbed and stays in the blood.
Also, sodium and potassium, the electrolytes are affected by a person’s kidney function as well. That’s why a person might be – what I like to say is that the electrolytes will get messed up. So many times, when a person is on dialysis, they have to put electrolytes into the dialysate to try and compensate for that.
So it’s not just that the kidney is filtering – and I want to tell people too that the best time that the kidneys are filtering your blood is when you’re sleeping. The reason why is your center of gravity changes and of course, the center of gravity and all the fluids in your body pretty much are going through the kidneys at a higher rate during that time.
That’s part of the reason why when you go to bed at night, you think you have to keep getting up and going to the bathroom. The reason why is because your body is really trying to clean up everything from the day time during that process while you’re sleeping.
So there are very different types of kidney disease and we can probably just break down each one. What I would say is you need to look at your risk factors. And if you don’t know your serum creatinine number, that’s very, very important. Call your doctor and find out when was the last time you had your blood work done and what was the number.
Anything above one, I start to be concerned. Most people are going to be lower than that. And then also, there’s something that we calculate in pharmacy and in medicine called creatinine clearance. That’s kind of basing your age and your weight. That calculation can be done and that’s also another indicator of how your kidneys are functioning.
But I really want to impress upon listeners that there’s a product…
Debra: Wait, wait, wait. Pamela, we have to go to break, so you can talk about this when we come back.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Oh, okay. Sorry.
Debra: It’s okay.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Thank you.
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who uses natural substances instead of drugs. We’ll be right back.
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. Her website is BotanicalResource.com. You should just call her up if you have any questions because she’s totally happy to talk to you. Pamela, why don’t you give your phone number?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. My telephone number here at my pharmacy is 727-442-4955. That’s 722-442-4955. I would be most grateful and honored if I could help you or your family with any of the things we talked about today or any other issues you might have about your medications or your health.
Debra: Pamela, she’s right here in Clearwater with me and she’s very well-regarded in the Clearwater community. The medical doctor that I go to, I told him that I was taking something that she had given me and he said, “If Pamela tells you to take it, take it.” She’s just very highly regarded.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Hmmm… that’s great. Yeah.
Debra: So creatinine, did I say that right?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. Correct, yes, the creatinine. That’s the magic number. You need to know where your serum creatinine normally lies. A lot of times, people look at the BUN, which is called blood urea and nitrogen. That’s another measurement. But the BUN sometimes doesn’t always correlate as much with the kidney as human creatinine. And that is pharmacy. When we dose medication, when we decide to adjust somebody based on their kidney function for their medications when they come into the hospital, a lot of its calculations are based on the serum creatinine.
So knowing what that number is – and I would really urge your listeners, if your serum creatinine is mildly elevated, anything above 1.0, I’d be glad to have a brief discussion as far as what they can do to get it down and prevent your risk.
But it’s interesting. Another statistic here says, “Dialysis patients have adjusted all-cause mortality rates 6.5 to 7.4 times higher than the general population.” So not only the fact that the debility, the fact that you’re spending hours a week sitting on a chair being dialyzed, you have a much higher chance of dying. And don’t forget too diabetes with it, not just the kidney failure, but just the complications of amputations and eye problems and so forth.
So all these things are all-encompassing and we really want to treat them. I think it’s important to mention that once you know what your serum creatinine numbers – and especially, I would urge anybody that has some pre-diabetes or diabetes, since that’s really a big, integral part of leading into kidney failure, you know what that number is. I have encouraged earlier that perhaps if that number is mildly elevated, I really would like to help you get the number down.
Most people will think of the kidneys as taking cranberry. I want to just focus on some of those things. What cranberry does, when you take it – and I’m not talking the cranberry juice a lot of times. You want to take the concentrated cranberry in a capsule because the juice has a lot of sugar. But when you take cranberry, what it does is it prevents bacteria from adhering to the bladder wall. So somebody that has urinary tract infections with frequency – which of course, also put people at risk for kidney problems. You want to make sure that this isn’t something that happens quite frequently, that you take some preventive mentions. Taking cranberry capsules would be one of them.
The Body Anew, we talked about this before, is the detox product. And your emphasis the prior part of the discussion on the chemicals and what’s it doing to your kidneys, I really would encourage and let people know that what happens with Body Anew is it goes to the liver and in the liver, it up-regulates what’s called glucuronidation and conjugation.
Those terms are how a fat-soluble drug like a pesticide or a chemical is changed into a water-soluble substance via the liver. And as a result of that, it’s able to be filtered into the kidneys and into the urine. So that’s how things leave the body. By up-regulating that process, you’ll probably have a much better outcome and less chance of having any damage.
Debra: It’s important to do that. And we can always just avoid them in the first place. But in today’s world, we really can’t avoid every single chemical or every single thing that’s harmful to us. We can do a lot and everything that we can do to reduce it, I think, everybody should do. I do as much as I can.
But we can do all these things in our homes. We can choose what we’re eating, we can filter our water. We can do all these things, but we’re walking around in the world. And when you’re walking around in the world and there’s all these toxic chemicals and you’re going to be exposed to something. And so the more we can do to reduce that home, the more we can do to detox our bodies, the better off our kidneys will be and every other part of our body.
PAMELA SEEFELD: And it also is important to mention some other things that people won’t probably think of as frequently causing some kidney issues. Dehydration is first and foremost a very important problem. We’re in the warm climate here. If you’re doing a lot of exercise, if you’re doing a lot of yard work and you’re not drinking enough fluids and you notice that your urine is really concentrated, that’s bad. When you have that situation, you’re not putting enough fluid and water through the kidneys to try and filter that out.
And also, I want to caution on doing too much protein. Protein, a lot of people, they want to lose weight. Everything’s got protein fortified in it now. I like to eat a lot of protein. I feel better because of the exercise I do. But protein, you need to compensate that with lots of water. So if you’re going to do a high protein diet, you’re going to do an Atkin’s diet, you’re going to eat a lot of meat or whatever kind of protein you want, but if your protein in your diet is 75 to 150 grams a day (you’re doing protein shakes and protein bars and all these kinds of things), you need to be making sure that you’re consuming enough water to clean that out.
The protein being too high can also lead to kidney failure. I’ve seen that before with people doing more of an Atkin’s type diet trying to lose weight and not drinking enough water at the same time. All of a sudden, their serum creatinine go up. Also, too, what you see with people eating too much meat, their calcium levels will go up in their bloodstream and that’s indicative of bone loss because calcium is a buffer and will go out into the bloodstream to try and buffer the elevated acidity. So you could actually end up with very bad frail bones and fractures too.
So those are some things I just want people to know. These are lifestyle things that you’d really want to take a look at. Make sure that you’re hydrated correctly. And if you’re going to eat a high protein diet, you’re drinking enough water to make sure that you can clean all that through your kidneys.
Debra: Yes, that’s very, very important especially in the summer time. Right now, it’s summer time. I know people are going to listen to this in the archives in different times of years. It’s just so important to get enough water, just so important because the water is flushing all those toxic things out of your body through the kidneys.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right. Water is the most important. And I would say too that when you’re drinking the water, check and see what your baseline is. You can look at your electrolytes and so forth, but a lot of times, people forget too that if they’re drinking a lot of water, they’re sweating. You want to make sure you have maybe some electrolytes in the water too.
Debra: Yes, I agree with that as well. We need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who has a natural pharmacy with many, many things to help with many different things going on with your body. We’ll be right back.
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances in her natural pharmacy in Clearwater, Florida. Her website is BotanicalResource.com.
Okay! Pamela, so tell us what we can do to protect our kidneys.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay, good. I want to talk a little bit too about hypertension. Say someone doesn’t want to be in medicines and their blood pressure is mildly elevated. We have the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. That’s the second leading cause of kidney failure. We’ll talk a little bit about the second.
What really works well to get the top number down if your top number is high is something called [Inaudible 00:27:31]. It’s a 12-hour release 1500 mg. time-released [inaudible 00:27:31]. If you take it every 12 hours, typically you’ll see that number come down about 20 points. It works on cortisol and the adrenals. And just this particular formulation seems to work the best. I’ve tried several different [inaudible 00:27:43], but this one brings it down the fastest. So if somebody has a higher systolic blood pressure, their top number, that’s what I would recommend.
[Inaudible 00:27:51] Complex is a homeopathic product. It’s a medical product. It will lower the diastolic blood pressure, the bottom number, probably 20 to 30 points probably between five to seven days.
Debra: That’s fast.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. This is really important. So if you know you have some borderline hypertension, you don’t want to take the medicines, you were on the beta blockers maybe before, you don’t want to take them, you’re trying to get off your medicines, whatever situation you might have, you definitely would be wanting to treat the hypertension and try these things first because these have no side effects and they’re natural alternatives to blood pressure medicine.
So treating hypertension is really important because like I said, that’s the second leading cause of the diabetes.
Now, cystitis is where there’s inflammation in the bladder. People that get cystitis, sometimes they see blood in the urine and sometimes they don’t. But they’ll find it painful to void. The people that have cystitis know about this. Interstitial cystitis is actually pretty common.
And what works great to treat cystitis – and of course, cystitis is actually number four as far as causes of kidney problems – is Quercetin. Quercetin works great just to close up those leaky membranes and the inflammation because Quercetin has anti-histaminic properties, it has vascular stabilizing properties and it can work really well in those interstitial spaces in the bladder to prevent some of these things.
Also, there’s a homeopathic product called Hamamelis. Hamamelis is a homeopathic witch hazel and it’s an astringent inside the body, so it can work on blood vessel swelling anywhere in the body.
Any of these are homeopathic, so when you take them, what happens is these products concentrate in the urine when you take them orally. So that’s just typically what happens with even medications. That’s why when we treat urinary tract infections – say someone is very sick and are in the hospital. They have a urinary tract infection and they’re getting IV’s. They can use a much lower dose of medication that we can for, let’s say, a lung infection.
So it’s important to realize that whatever you take is going to concentrate on the urine. And Hamamelis has high effects specifically for that. That’s why it’s important for people to realize that sometimes, you can use less homeopathic medicine if you’re treating kidney bladder than if you’re doing other areas of the body. It’s probably a little fact that many people don’t know.
Debra: I didn’t know any of those little facts.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah. Well, it’s kind of pharmacology 101. It’s like what we do in the hospital, but most people aren’t going to really realize that. So what you would want to do is you can concentrate them by drinking them. And that’s the great part because if you think about it, that’s where all things kind of end up. That’s the end result. So that’s very important for people to realize.
Now, the first leading cause (and we had talked a little bit about diabetes) is diabetes. Using some things that can lower the blood pressure is really important. So, all the time, I recommend people use the Body Anew just to get the chemicals out of their body. But you can add in the pericardium triple warmer to lower your blood sugar if that’s the cause.
And a lot of people perhaps that sees their fasting blood sugar in the 90 to the 110 range, that’s pre-diabetes and you might want to treat that especially if you see that your serum creatinine is starting to become elevated. I really have to impress upon to people. The take-home message today, find out what your serum creatinine is and find out what your fasting blood sugar is. Those numbers mean a lot.
Debra: Yes, yes, very much so. And let me just ask you a question about people getting blood test. I get a blood test every three months, but I think that most people don’t. I don’t even remember the first time I got a blood test, but it seems like I went through most of my childhood not having a blood test at all. Blood tests can tell you so much. Can you just talk about that for a little bit?
PAMELA SEEFELD: So the blood test, why it’s important – and typically, when we’re looking at these things, you can order what’s called a BMP, which is a basic metabolic profile and that will have the kidney function and it’ll have the electrolytes and the fasting glucose. It just has a few things.
When you do your physical or even if you’re doing it every year or every other year, you want probably what’s called the CMP, which is the complete metabolic profile and that has your liver function. It has all these other things that are very important to look at as well.
When people have the blood sugar – most people’s fasting blood sugar should be between 75 and 85. Well, that’s not going to hit the majority of the population, but that’s ideal. So any time where you’re starting to get into the 90’s and into the 100’s, you’re maybe not ready for medicine, but you’re getting there. I would just caution your listeners that if those numbers are already starting to creep up and then the serum creatinine number is starting to go up, you need to treat that.
And what I’d like to emphasize that the treatment for serum creatinine, mild elevation or even if it’s really high, if it’s over two is something called detox II. Detox II was designed specifically for the kidney and I’ve seen very, very good results with it.
There was another product they used to use called Renil that was out of Germany, but I’m not able to get that anymore. They’re only making it in Europe. But the Detox II is having the same result I used to receive with my patients for the Renil. This is a liquid, which is a lot easier to dose because the other one is a tablet, so you had to dissolve it in your mouth.
But what I’d like to emphasize (and this is very important), if somebody has a serum creatinine mild elevation, I have seen personally three patients in the last year that their serum creatinine went down dramatically. And one was really a great success. My point is that he came to me (and he had been a client for a very long time, he still is) and the doctor told him the dialysis, “You’ll get pre-kidney failure. I’ll be seeing you more often.” The kidney doctor was telling him how he’s going to have to go on dialysis someday. He came to me and I said, “I don’t want that.” I agreed 100%. This is not just an option we want to explore.
So he went on a Detox II for 30 days and his serum creatinine went from 1.9 to 1.3. Now, that’s a huge difference. Life is about like, “You know things I don’t know and I know things you don’t know,” but if you would know from a professional standpoint (anybody that’s in the medical field that knows what these numbers mean), for 30 days, to have that number drop that much – and he’s perfectly fine now. It’s a very big deal.
So I have to tell people that if you don’t do anything else, this is something that you really probably need to take with the body in order to clean this up.
Debra: Yes. Yes, there are things that can be done and we don’t have to – you know, I think that earlier in my life – and I don’t think this way anymore. I think a lot of people think this way if they haven’t changed their minds. It’s like you go through life and you just don’t do anything about your health until you have symptoms or you can’t get out of bed or whatever. And then you go to the doctor and it’s already too late sometimes or more difficult.
But if you can get these blood tests, if you know what you’re looking for, if you can catch it early, it’s a lot easier to turn things around.
We need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. Her website is BotanicalResource.com. We’ll be right back.
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist. Pamela, why don’t you give your phone number again for people who might want to call you to ask about their kidney problems?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. My number here at my pharmacy is 727-442-4955. That’s 727-442-4955. I would be grateful to help you with your kidney problem or any other issues you might have. And I have to emphasize that it’s really not about selling things. Debra knows that I do a lot of things outside of this. This is just more of something of my passion that I really know I can do very well. If your human creatinine is even mildly elevated, I really encourage you to try and get that number down and prevent some of the problems that are associated with kidney disease, which can be very debilitating.
Debra: Yes, and I know Pamela. She and I are friends. And so I know that she’s not doing this to make money. She doesn’t need to do this to make money. She’s doing it as a public service that she’s bringing her knowledge as a pharmacist.
And Pamela, I was just thinking so much as we’ve been talking that we should do the next show on Pharmacology 101 because…
PAMELA SEEFELD: Good idea!
Debra: Yeah. Because I think that people don’t understand about what a pharmacist knows and can do and how you have a different perspective. So let’s do that for the next show.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I think that’s an excellent idea. All these little tidbits are things that I can reveal of how things work in the body, where they go and how to…
Debra: Right. You know these things. You have a different perspective than anyone else I’ve ever talked to about how these substances go in the body, how they work. You were talking about dosing earlier.
Nobody knows anything about dosing, but you know as a pharmacist that things have to be dosed correctly.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, because once you know the dynamics of the vitamins or the things you’re taking, you can use that to your advantage to see that things are more effective. If you’re going to pay money for something, you’re going to take it, take the time and take it, count it out and take it, you really do want them to work well and you want to take it so they work properly and perhaps some thing that need to be with food, some things don’t, some things, you can concentrate more in a particular area of the body by doing certain select things. It is very important to realize that you have control over some of these.
Debra: Okay. So we’re going to do this for the next show. Now, two weeks from now, we’re doing a replay because it’s my birthday and I’m going on vacation.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Happy birthday!
Debra: It will be four weeks from today.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s great.
Debra: So I’ll tell you, it’s going to be my 60th birthday. Can you imagine that?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Oh, my Lord. That’s wonderful! I think you definitely don’t look it. I’m very happy for you.
Debra: Thank you, thank you. Listeners, she sees me all the time, so she knows what I look like.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, yeah. She looks great. You don’t look sixty at all. No, you look great.
Debra: No, no. People, sometimes they ask me how old I am and I always say, “How old do you think I am?” The other day, a man said to me that he thought I was 47.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I believe it. Maybe even younger. No, you have great skin and you look very healthy. You don’t have a wrinkle on your face.
Debra: Thank you. Alright! So let’s keep talking about kidneys. Go ahead.
PAMELA SEEFELD: So what I would like to emphasize in some of the things we were talking about is if you have any of these symptoms, if you’re dehydrated a lot because you work outside and you’re not drinking enough water, if you have diabetes or pre-diabetes and your fasting blood sugar is in the 90 or 100 range, but they haven’t diagnosed you as a diabetic yet, if you’re borderline hypertension that you’re either treating or not treating, that’s something that really needs to be addressed as well.
And I was talking about cystitis. People know when they have cystitis or some kind of inflammation in the bladder. That’s very important to treat.
I was talking about some simple things to use for those particular things. When we look at chronic kidney disease and we think about what’s happening, the fact that nine out of ten people don’t even really know that they have kidney disease yet because the doctors haven’t mentioned it to them (and I told you the reason why. By default, they don’t really have anything for it, so they kind of wait until things get bad), this is one thing –
There are a lot of things in medicine when you go to your physician that he’s really in control of the situation and monitoring these things and trying to make good decisions for you. But when it comes to your kidney, I have to really emphasize that you’re pretty much on your own.
You’re going to have to know what these numbers are. If it’s starting to elevate at all over the course of the year too, it’s time to take action and not wait because these people, the nine out of ten people that don’t realize they have pre-kidney failure, it’s pretty bad once the revelation that comes to light that they have this. This might be something that unfortunately is not being shared with you.
Debra: I want to say I know some people don’t even have doctors. And so if you don’t have a doctor and you’re not going to a doctor on a regular basis and you don’t have a medical professional who can diagnose and run blood test – especially I know people who go to chiropractors or massage therapist or herbalists or what, none of those people can order blood tests.
But here’s what you can do. There are places now. Just go online and type in ‘blood test’.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Good point.
Debra: I was just looking this up the other day because there are places where you can just walk in and you can get a blood test without a doctor’s order. They have a doctor on staff. You can walk in and say, “I want a creatinine test” and it will be $45 or something. I don’t know, I haven’t looked it up to know. But you can order these tests individually. You can order a panel. All these things that a doctor will order for you, you can order yourself now.
And then you can see what your fasting blood sugar is. You can see your creatinine. And whatever else you want to know about your body, you can look on the blood test.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right. And this is really great information for your listeners because it’s true. A lot of people are using alternative practitioners to MDs and NDOs. And as a result, they’re just not given access to this information. It’s really important.
If you have not done this, I really think having a baseline number is very, very important because once you know where your baseline is, you have a reference.
And if the person’s serum creatinine as I had stated earlier is anything over 1.0, that’s when I start to think, “Okay, it’s starting to come there. It’s starting to get a little bit worse.” Anything over 1.5, you’re starting to get closer to two, I’d seen people that they really hadn’t been to the doctor in a while, the serum creatinine was closer to two and they really had to try and get their mind around that they were starting to have kidney failure and was getting worse. The treatments that they’re offering are none. I mean, the doctor doesn’t have anything for them.
So really using the Detox II and Body Anew. And what I would do is I’ll tell people to do a month’s course and get the number repeated and see where it’s at. It’s going to be down. And hopefully, it’s going to be close to normal and then there can be a decision making time, “Do I need to continue this? Do I need to continue it for a few days a week?” I must emphasize too that I have used this on dogs. Animals will respond to the homeopathy as well. I’ve had two dogs that had some pre-kidney failures and the drops reversed it. And actually, one of them was my dog that I’ve treated before in the past. She had a mild elevation of her serum creatinine and I got it back down.
So it’s important to realize that even your pets might be at risk for these kinds of things as well. This is something that can be easily treated with, some simple drops to put in the water. I really would think if we had nothing else to summarize for the talk today, that you need to know what your baseline number is of your fasting blood sugar, you need to know what your serum creatinine is and you need to know your blood pressure.
And the blood pressure, you can even take these just at a drugstore. They have these little machines someplace. But knowing what your blood pressure is, if your blood pressure is high, this is something that you have to treat.
Debra: And it all comes down to awareness of what’s going on with our bodies. It’s not about focusing on illness. It’s just focusing on monitoring what is going on in your body. You want to know is something normal or is something cause for needing to do something about it. The earlier you can touch these things, if you just know to look at blood sugar, at blood pressure, at creatinine, whatever those basic things are and look at them on a regular basis especially if you’re going to an alternative practitioner who’s not a medical doctor, you’re not going to a check-up, a yearly check-up where they would check these things, then you need to check these things.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, this is really important. And I’m assuming there’s probably a portion of the people listening that really never had given second thought to this. And that’s okay.
Debra: I think so.
PAMELA SEEFELD: This is to reveal what’s really going on. Those numbers belong to you. Those numbers are indicative of something going on in your body that you don’t feel any difference. That’s the problem, you can’t tell. You can’t look and say, “I feel like I’m having some pre-kidney failure.” There are no signs and symptoms. All of a sudden, they’re going to come to you with this number, send you to the kidney doctor and that’s about it. And really, I think those are terrible odds.
Debra: I agree, I agree. It’s just like all of a sudden, we’re going to go to the kidney doctor. No, I’d rather know a little beforehand, so that we can do something about it. And that’s basically what we’re talking about today especially since our kidneys are just being bombarded with toxic chemicals all the time. It’s like poor, little kidneys. We need to take care of them. We need to be aware of what’s going on with them.
So Pamela, thank you so much for…
PAMELA SEEFELD: Thank you. I really enjoyed talking. And if anyone has any questions, please give me a call. I really would love to help you.
Debra: Yes, she’s really good. The doctors around here love her. The patients around here love her. She does really good work. She has many things to choose from and she knows what to tell you what doses to take and how they affect your body.
So I want to tell you more about Toxic Free Talk Radio. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and you can listen to all the past shows. There are more than 200 of them. I also have transcripts for many of the shows. You can go listen to past shows that Pamela has been, but I have a wide variety of people talking about different issues about living in a toxic-free way.
So thanks for listening. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
Wrinkle-resistant Poly-cotton Blend
Question from Cheryl Van Beek
Hi Debra,
I know Polyester is not the best fabric but I’m opting for a wrinkle resistant pair of men’s pants.
I’m trying to get rid of my husband’s slacks that say “wrinkle free” and 2 pair that actually have Teflon in them.
The ones specifying wrinkle free were bought quite awhile ago and I believe they were chemically treated to be resistant because they were all cotton.
Is it at least a step in the right direction to purchase pants that are cotton polyester blend because the manufacturer tells me they are wrinkle resistant but not chemically treated–just resistant because of the polyester?
Some pants need to be replaced because they are worn out and others could last awhile longer.
So, in general, is 60% cotton 40% polyester blend that hasn’t been treated w/wrinkle resistant chemicals a little healthier than Teflon and or the chemical wrinkle treatments?
And, in the case of the pants that have Teflon and or the treatments would they have lost most of their toxicity over years and are therefore safer than the new untreated cotton poly-blend?
Thanks so much!
Debra’s Answer
I’ve never heard of a cotton-poly blend that is not chemically treated. It’s common in the industry to treat poly-cotton with a formaldehyde-based resin to make it wrinkle-free. Who is this manufacturer? Let me talk to them.
To answer your question, yes, 60% cotton 40% polyester blend that hasn’t been treated w/wrinkle resistant chemicals would be a little healthier than Teflon and or the chemical wrinkle treatments.
And, in the case of the pants that have Teflon and or the treatments, yes, they would they have lost most of their toxicity over years and are therefore safer than the new untreated cotton poly-blend.
Equipment to Measure VOCs
Question from Gustavo Alves
Hi Debra,
I know there are devices that can measure Co2 in the air. Do you know any equipment that is able to measure VOCs in the air?
Thanks!
Debra’s Answer
Some years ago Will Spates from Indoor Environmental Technologies, Inc. came and tested my house for VOCs with an instrument that cost something like $10,000. The reading was very very low.
Now I see there are meters on online that measure VOCs in the $200 – $350 range.
I don’t have experience with any of these, but here are some choices.
Supco IAQ50 Wall Mounted Indoor Air Quality Monitor Supco IAQ55 Handheld Indoor Air Quality Monitor, 0 to 2000 ppm, 1 ppm Resolution, +/-75 ppm Accuracy
Honeywell Analytics IAQPoint2 ABS Touchscreen Analog VOC IAQ Monitor, Wall Mount, Relay, Display, 0-100 Measuring Range
You could also search for “VOC meter” and see what else you find.
Here’s another one in the $250 range: Eco Sensor C-21 VOC Detector
Let us know which one you choose.
How to Kill Invasive English Ivy
Question from Mary Ashmore
Hi Debra,
What is a non toxic way to kill English Ivy ? Everyone keeps telling me to spray it with Round Up. I think Round Up is toxic. Is that correct ? What would be the alternative ? thank you.
Debra’s Answer
Yes Roundup is very toxic.
One product I found for this use is Avenger Weed Killer. It’s the first EPA registered and approved herbicide for organic gardening and it has the Organic Material Review Institute (OMRI) seal of approval for use by certified organic farmers.
The Avenger website says: “Avenger Weed Killer is a non-selective, post-emergence herbicide that quickly and effectively kills weeds, grasses and broadleaves without causing harm to the environment. The active ingredient d-limonene (citrus oil) naturally strips away the waxy plant cuticle, causing it to dehydrate and die. University and independent testing results prove that Avenger® Weed Killer is as effective, but faster acting when compared against leading synthetic herbicides. Tested against non-organic ‘natural’ herbicides that contain vinegar (acetic acid), citric acid, clove oil or fatty acids (soap), it is more effective with quicker results.”
And here are some instructions for a do-it-yourself formula using vinegar, salt, and Dawn detergent: Garden Guides: How to Kill English Ivy With Dawn Liquid
Toxic Nail Salons
A few weeks ago the New Your Times ran an article about how workers in nail salons were being harmed by the toxic chemicals in nail polish and polish remover.
The article lists dibutyl phthalate, toluene, and formaldehyde as the three chemicals associated with the most serious health issues. Among worker advocates, they are known as the “toxic trio.”
Read what the cosmetics industry and other have to say about these chemicals and how workers are being harmed.
These are the same chemicals found in ordinary nail polish purchased by consumers.
The New York Times: Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers
I did a show about nail polish on Toxic Free Talk Radio, with the creator of one of the least toxic nail polishes available. Still, I concluded it wasn’t toxic free enough.
Toxic Free Talk Radio: Can There Be Such a Thing as Nontoxic Nail Polish?
Aluminum Art Work
Question from Stacey Santoro
Hi Debra,
I saw an interesting piece of art consisting of UV ink print on brushed aluminum. It seems safe to me, but would like to hear what you think. I don’t think aluminum outgasses, does it?
Thanks!
Debra’s Answer
Aluminum artwork is totally fine. Aluminum itself doesn’t outgass and any paint or coating is generally heat dried to adhere to the metal.
Killing Mosquitoes Outdoors
Question from Tara Atkins
Hi Debra,
I’ve seen products called Mosquito Bits and Mosquito Dunks.
I’m wondering if you think these are safe for use around the yard when we get standing water after heavy rains, for instance.
I’m having trouble finding something safe and effective to apply to our skin/clothing to repel mosquitoes, because I am very sensitive to fragrances, and even the essential oil based products seem to be bothering me.
But if we can have fewer mosquitoes outside in the first place, that would be a good start. I’ve also seen liquid applications containing garlic or cedar oil, but I’m wondering if the smell would be too overpowering for me.
Debra’s Answer
Living here in Florida, I know all about this and have tried a lot of different things.
Your Mosquito Bits and Mosquito Dunks are actually a biological mixture attached to ground corn cobs, so I don’t see that it would create any chemical fumes to be concerned about.
The website says they are nontoxic to all other wildlife, pets, fish and humans and is labeled for organic gardening by the EPA.
I think this is fine to use. I would use it in my garden.
But, I just go around and empty the containers that have standing water, or kept them upside down so they don’t collect water in the first place.
Polyurethane Coating On A Bag
Question from Elizabeth M.
Hi Debra,
Thank you for your informative site.
I have a question that i am hoping you can answer.
I bought a small metallic bag from old navy about 8 years ago and it has been in storage.
I pulled it out and the coating has started to peel.
I looked at the label and it says polyurethane over polyester.
Unfortunately, it was stored around two other bags and some of the chips stuck to the other two bags.
Do you think that there is a chance that there is anything toxic in the small pieces that are coming off? should i safely discard all three bags? Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!
Debra’s Answer
Polyurethane and polyester as raw materials are not very toxic to begin with. It’s usually the finishes that are toxic.
And plastics, such as these, tend to become less toxic over time.
I’m not concerned about this purse being toxic after 8 years.
Toxic Solvents and Vapors
My guest today is toxicologist Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, He’s a regular guest who is helping us understand the toxicity of common chemicals we may be frequently exposed to. Today we’re going to talking about solvents and vaports. This large class of chemicals includes all the chemicals known as “VOCs” which enter our bodies through breathing or absorbtion through the skin. We’ll explore how you are exposed to solvents and vapors and their health effects. Dr. Gilbert is Director and Founder of 
the Institute of Neurotoxicology and author of A Small Dose of Toxicology- The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. He received his Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1986 from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, is a Diplomat of American Board of Toxicology, and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington. His research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. Dr. Gilbert has an extensive website about toxicology called Toxipedia, which includes a suite of sites that put scientific information in the context of history, society, and culture. www.toxipedia.org
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH STEVEN G. GILBERT, PhD, DABT
- Toxics in the Air We Breathe—Indoors and Outdoors—and How it Affects Our Health
- How Pesticides Can Harm Your Health
- Why Do People Doubt the Science Behind Toxics?
- There is No Safe Level for Lead Exposure
- Fewer Chemicals Make Healthier Babies
- Why We Shouldn’t Have Nuclear Power Plants
- How Mercury Affects Your Health
- Nanoparticles
- Persistant Bioaccumulative Toxicants
- How Endocrine Disruptors Disrupt Our Endocrine Systems
- The Dangers of Exposure to Radiation and How to Protect Yourself
- Toxics Throughout History—Exposure to Toxic Substances is Not New
- The Ethics of Toxics
- How to Determine Your Risk of Harm From an Exposure to a Toxic Chemical
- The Basic Principles of Toxicology
- Meet a Toxicologist
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Toxic Solvents and Vapors
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Dr. Steven Gilbert
Date of Broadcast: May 28, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It is Thursday, May 28th, 2015. It’s a beautiful day here in Clearwater, Florida. The sun is shining as it usually does. We’re having very warm days. Let’s see, it’s 84° outside, beautiful day.
Today, we’re going to talk about solvents and vapors. My guest today is toxicologist Steven Gilbert and he is a regular guest. He’s on every month or so. And we’re going through actually chapter by chapter of his book called A Small Dose of Toxicology, which you can get on his website for free. The easiest way to find it is to just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, look for his show and click on the book and it will take you right there rather than give you the longer URL to get there.
Today, we’re going to talk about toxics and vapors. Toxics and vapors are those things that you smell like when you have a permanent ink marker and it has that smell – or glue when you’re making a model or all those things that smell like something. We’re going to talk about the toxicity of those.
Hi, Dr. Gilbert.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: How are you doing?
DEBRA: Good. How are you doing?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Good. We’re having a great day in Seattle here too. We have a nice sunny day. My solar panels are producing lots of electricity.
DEBRA: That’s so good to hear. So tell us about solvents and vapors.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Before we jump into solvents, I just want to point out that yesterday was the birthday of a very, very important person, Rachel Carson. She wrote Silent Spring. It was really instrumental in raising the issue of chemicals. She focused mostly on pesticides, and was really instrumental in the banning of DDT.
I actually have a couple of quotes I want to read from her. One of them is:
“If we are going to live so intimately with these chemicals, eating and drinking them, taking them into the very marrow of our bone, we had better know something about their nature and their power.”
Solvents are just one example of that, but she’s focusing on pesticides. But we do need a better understanding of the nature and power of the chemicals we are exposed to.
DEBRA: Absolutely.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Another one of her quotes was:
“As crude a weapon as the caveman’s club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life.” And we are hurling lots of chemicals in the fabric of life. We have thousands of chemicals that are produced over a million pounds per year. And a vast majority of them, we do not know a lot about their toxicity.
So I just want to point out and just remind everybody that Silent Spring is still a wonderful book. Rachel Carson’s birthday was yesterday in 1907.
DEBRA: Thank you very much. I totally agree with you, totally, totally, totally.
I didn’t read Silent Spring for many, many years even though I was interested in toxics because I thought it was an environmental book. But really, I think it’s the first general public book on toxics and the effect that they have on the environment and the effect they have on our health. I think everyone should read it. It just is I think the basic beginning of this whole issue about toxics that we’re discussing every day.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, it’s very, very important to think about this. Chemicals are toxic and the hazardous properties the many chemicals that we’re exposed to, how do we lessen our exposure to chemicals? And solvent is one thing we need to be mindful of and lessen our exposure to.
DEBRA: So tell us about the nature of solvents. Where do we find them, et cetera?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: We find solvents everywhere. For example, water is a solvent. So we got to think very broadly about solvents. I keep my hummingbirds here in Seattle. So I dissolve sugar into water. So you drink water as a solvent.
Actually, water is a very powerful solvent. When you heat it up, you depend on water being a solvent when you extract your coffee or tea and get the caffeine and other chemicals out. So you’re dissolving these chemicals into the water. Most people think of solvents as something that evaporates, that when it comes out of the water, you would inhale. But water is a solvent too. When you heat it up, it’s more of a solvent.
Another example of a solvent is alcohol. Many of us drink alcohol. We take it in orally through alcoholic beverages. But alcohol is a very powerful solvent. You can tell that by knowing that it is exhaled. When you exhale in a breathalyzer test, it’s alcohol that moves from the lungs out into your breath. And we calibrate that breathalyzer, so we can extrapolate it from the alcohol in our breath to the alcohol in our blood streams.
Alcohol is a very potent solvent. Even [inaudible 00:05:50] where you could inhale alcohol instead of drinking it. Alcohol and many solvents pass readily in and out of the lungs. That’s why solvents are so potent. You can take them into the lungs and they go right to the brain.
Solvents are very potent chemicals. They cause a lot of neurological disorders. You all recognize these problems with alcohol. Many people have been [inaudible 00:06:15] even and that’s due to alcohol being a solvent in their nervous system.
So those are just a little bit of examples of some of the solvents that we encounter every day in life and we bump into all the time.
And alcohol, just some of the more common alcohol. They’re made from yeasts. The yeasts produce the alcohol by chewing up sugars. It’s converting sugars into alcohol. And we depend on that. Washington state, for example, is a big wine-producing state. That’s where a lot of fermentation goes on.
The alcohol is actually toxic to the yeast. You get your alcohol concentration on wine or other beverages around 12% and then you can kill the yeast (although there are some varieties of yeast that can tolerate higher levels of alcohol). But that’s an example of it killing your cells. The yeast cells [inaudible 00:07:02]. So this is around and thinking day to day basis, our encounter with solvents.
DEBRA: Well, some places that we find solvents in consumer products are places like when we pump gas at the gas station or change the car oil or paint your house. There are a lot of solvents on glues and things like that when you’re smelling things, they are very volatile.
People are very familiar with being poisoned by eating or drinking something. But solvents go right into your blood stream and right to your brain. That can go right through any part of your body very instantly when you breathe them.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, usually a solvent is fat-soluble and basically, our brain is one big ball of fat. And one place where [inaudible 00:07:56] solvents (you mentioned glues and other things) is when you’re filling up the gasoline in our cars. You go in the gas pump, there are many solvents in gasoline. One of them is hexane, a rather potent toxic chemical. You can inhale those by filling your car up with gasoline.
Think about it. When it’s warm out there, it evaporates more quickly. And we’ve all smelled the smell of gasoline. The trick is to try to keep away from that odor. One thing you can do when you fill your car up is to get the gasoline pump started and step away from it so that you’re not inhaling those solvents.
One thing that’s always bothered me was in Oregon, you can’t fill the gas tank up yourself. They have an attendant fill the gas tank up. I think that’s a bad thing to do because those attendants are repeatedly exposed to solvents in gasoline. If you fill your own gas tank up, you’re exposed a little bit, but you’re spreading the exposure across a much larger number of people.
So I actually would argue from a top point of view that it’s really bad to have the attendants chronically fill your gas tank because of the solvent exposure from gasoline. And there has also been people that sniff glue and the solvent exposure, looking for the high from solvents.
DEBRA: I was thinking about what you just said about the gas station attendants. It just continually amazes me that we know these things about the toxicity of chemicals and yet that they continued to be allowed. Why aren’t those attendants saying, “We should be wearing gas masks” or something?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: It is amazing. Again, we’re not using the knowledge we have. It goes back – this will be history here. Ether was once used quite often as an aesthetic agent. It was discovered in 1275. Ether was discovered in 1275 by Raymundus Lullius. He discovered it, but wasn’t recognized as an anesthetic agent until the mid-1800s.
There were rumors that Paracelsus who [inaudible 00:10:07]. It was in the 1500. He enjoyed using and enjoyed the effects of ether. He was actually inhaling it for pleasure, some of the solvents that we discovered. So we’ve known about solvents for a long time in our history over almost 800 years.
DEBRA: I said this on a show this week already, but I want to say it again. I would really like to see the toxic products be properly labeled as toxic products. But if they’re going to be there, instead of having warning label on the back of the label, it should be just right on the front. There should be a skull and cross bones or something, so you can just walk down the aisle and see all the toxic products.
I think that a lot of the problem in doing something about this is that people just don’t know how to recognize these toxics. They look at a product. How are they going to know that it’s in there?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah. And do we really need it there? I think that’s a great question particularly with cosmetic agents. Do we need the solvents?
The New York Times just did a great series on nail salons and the poisons in the nail salons. We can talk more about that too. All the chemicals that are used, the solvents used in those nail salons. Who’s exposed and who’s vulnerable? You’ve got to ask who’s vulnerable to that exposure? Kids have a very important vulnerability. They’re going to eat more, drink more. They eat more than adults do. So if they’re breathing those solvents (and gasoline’s one of them), they tend to inhale more and can intake more into their lungs than adults though. Adults are also up higher, so they’re not breathing a lot of the solvents.
So it’s really important to remember our vulnerabilities to solvent exposure, our exposure to solvents.
DEBRA: When I go to the mall, I can smell the nail salon all the way down many feet away as I’m approaching it. But we need to go to break. Actually, I’d like us to talk about nail salons when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. We’re talking about solvents and the toxicity of solvents.
Tell us about nail salons. First, I just want to say I think that the New York Times is doing a really good job. They’ve had a whole series of different investigations into the toxicity of things. I think they don’t always tell us what could be done instead, but they’re doing a really good job of telling us what’s toxic.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah. I think the series on the nail salons is just excellent. I encourage your listeners to take a look at that in New York Times.
There are other groups that has done quite a bit of work on nail salons in the last decade trying to point out the hazards of these. And Women’s Voices for the Earth, they’ve done a great job too working on the nail salon issue. A number of other non-profits are really trying to bring attention to the solvents-using salons and the worker exposure.
But before jumping into that, I just want to point out a great example of solvents and the vulnerabilityof kids. Alcohol, again, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Effect is not uncommon unfortunately. That’s vulnerability of kids in utero. So they’re born with facial deformities, reduced IQ and neurological disorders. That’s because alcohol is a very powerful solvent and it essentially helps dissolve a little bit of the brain.
Many solvents produce neurological disorders and peripheral neuropathies. So you can have tingling in the toes, for example. And hexanes are a very powerful neurotoxic agents. Many of these solvents produce headaches, produce dizziness, lightheadedness. They certainly look a little bit like being drunk because they all are [inaudible 00:15:48] solvents to the central nervous system.
Nail salons are the same way. They use a lot of solvents to dissolve the nail polish like toluene. When you evaporate a paint in nail salons on your nails, you’re evaporating those solvents. So the workers are exposed to excessive amounts of solvents in the air. And that’s where the exposure comes from in nail salons.
So the nail salons often don’t have good ventilation systems and are commonly in industrial settings. You would expect that when you’re exposing solvents to the air, you would have something that would suck away the air around the solvent exposure and vent it outside. Now, I am not crazy about venting all these solvents outside either, but that’s to reduce individual exposure.
So if your nail salon is operated by women [inaudible 00:16:34] work many hours bent over fingers and toes with the solvents removing nail polish or applying nail polish. There are better ways. We have non-solvent based paints for polishes like paint colors in nail salons.
The other thing here with nail salons, they also have phthalates. They use phthalates, which are fragrance carriers. They help to harden nail polishes. It provides flexibility to the polishes put on the fingernails. It helps them not crack and last longer.
So we put all kinds of chemicals in these products and your point before, we often don’t know what’s in these products. It’s really important. We need better labeling. We need to move away from these solvents as best we can and provide proper ventilation for people that are chronically exposed to the solvents in the workplace.
And you got to ask people [inaudible 00:17:35] nail salon workers. If a woman’s pregnant, what’s happening to that fetus, what developmental disorders might result from solvent exposure? If you inhale those solvents, it goes right through the lungs and [inaudible 00:17:46] blood and into the placenta and into the child, developing child.
DEBRA: My great aunt owned a drugstore many years ago. She’s my great aunt, so this was 50 years ago. I remember as a teen when I first started wearing nail polish, she immediately grabbed my hand and she said, “Don’t wear nail polish.”
She told me that she would see women coming into the pharmacy who would hurt their fingers. Their fingernails were actually cracked and bleeding because they were wearing fingernail polish. She said, “Your nail needs to breathe.” And when you put fingernail polish on your nail, then it stops it from breathing and it actually harms the fingernail.
So I have never worn nail polish since I heard that because it made sense to me. It’s not about how toxic or nontoxic the nail polish. There are a lot of new nail polishes now and I don’t think that any of them are nontoxic enough for me. There’s that whole idea.
Do you remember? In the Wizard of Oz, I remember hearing a story about the actor that played the Tin Man. Actually, I think it was a different actor who was supposed to play it before. They covered his whole body with paint to be tin and he got really sick.
Our body needs to be able to breathe. Every part of our bodies needs to be able to breathe. And nail polish is just unnecessary. It’s toxic, unnecessary. It stops your body from breathing.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah. Like that 007 movie where they [inaudible 00:19:35] I think.
DEBRA: Yeah.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: You’re absolutely rate. We’re not built to be painted and covered up.
And remember, perfumes depend on solvents to evaporate. You smell the perfumes because the chemicals carry it and evaporate it. So you’re essentially applying solvents when you apply a perfume.
Phthalate is one of the carriers of the fragrances that come off from these products. So you got to ask what solvents are in perfumes and all cosmetic products that have some fragrances attached with them.
If you put fragrance things in your bathroom and they’re dissolving their solvents, they’re out-gassing those fragrances. And remember, they’re just dominating the other odors that might be in the bathroom. They’re not removing odors. They’re just overwhelming our sense of smell by throwing out a lot more solvent-based perfumes.
So really, solvents are everywhere. They are used in all kinds of things – paints, glues, gasoline. We touched on a few of them. Solvents are everywhere. You got to ask, “Do we really need them? Do we really need some of these solvents on our fingers and toes?”
DEBRA: I think probably there are some products that we probably do need and then there are other ones that we don’t need. One of the strategies about removing toxics is sometimes to find the less toxic products, but sometimes it’s to remove the product altogether.
We need to go to break again. We’ll talk more about this when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert. He’s the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology. He has a great, great, great website called Toxipedia.org that looks at toxics from all different directions. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is toxicologist Dr. Steven Gilbert. He has a wonderful website called Toxipedia.org. And he’s the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology, which you can get free and I really think everybody should read this book. It’s written in a way that is very easy to read and has a lot of great information about toxics.
Dr. Gilbert, I wanted to say, I remember when I was first studying toxics and looking up, I used to look up every ingredient in a dictionary. What is it called? The Condensed Chemical Dictionary. I’ve had that dictionary for 30 years. I used to look up every ingredient because I had no idea what any of this stuff was.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Good for you.
DEBRA: Thank you. That’s actually how I learned it, looking up each chemical in the chemical dictionary. And then, I started reading toxicology books and all these other things.
There is something that you’ll see in the label called petroleum distillates . I just wanted to mention what I learned about petroleum distillates because I was trying to find out what individual chemicals I am being exposed to.
The way they make petroleum distillates is that they just see the cheapest solvents that are available that week and they throw them all in a barrel. And it’s called petroleum distillates. So when you see that on the label of a pesticide ( maybe pesticides have petroleum distillates in them) you can never know what’s in that. You can never know.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: That’s a really great point, Debra. That’s really true. They’re in a lot of pesticides. And as you started, I was thinking that they’re called inert ingredients.
DEBRA: Inert ingredients, yeah.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: It’s just a euphemism for just a bunch of stuff, carrier agents for the active ingredients in pesticides. Most of the pesticides active ingredients are around 1% or less. It’s very small amount in pesticides. But they’ve got carrying agents which are mostly solvents or some chemical that helps the active ingredient penetrate the oil on the leaves of the plant or on the skin of what you’re trying to kill or harm.
So yeah, pesticides are horrible things. And just eliminating pesticides from using active ingredient is really important. But equally while you’re removing all those solvents and all those, as you pointed out, petroleum distillates because who knows what’s in them?
DEBRA: Yeah. It’s just another one of those things when I look at the whole situation about toxics. I’m being more philosophical today because I’m just thinking about these things in my life right now. I’m looking at the whole situation and saying, “I’ve spent 30 years just identifying these things” and telling people that they’re there.
But I’m getting to this point where I want everybody to be more active. I want consumers to be more active. I want manufacturers to be more active. I want the government to be more active. I want everybody to recognize there’s a problem and we all have to work together to handle the problem. We’re not recognizing there’s a problem.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, we’re not. And one of the problems is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA, it’s called, which was passed in 1976), there are efforts in congress right now trying to change TSCA to build Toxic Substances Control Act that would demand more testing of industrial-based chemicals.
We have a very precautionary approach when we put drugs on the market. So a lot of our drugs are very carefully tested. So we seem to understand the toxic properties of drugs and that’s required by the FDA. But we don’t have a similar program to test industrial chemicals.
The pesticides, for example. We test the pesticides and the active ingredients as required by an act called FIFRA, but we don’t test the product and all the solvents and other chemicals that are in the pesticides very well. So it really is a problem. We got to test more chemicals that we put out on the environment. And really, from an industrial standpoint, to come up with ways to reduce the use of solvents and then to use a solvent, we have to dispose of it. Universities, businesses collect this material. What do you do with it?
So the big challenge is reducing the amounts of solvents used, things like hexane, benzene, toluene, [inaudible 00:31:32], ether, chloroform and all these chemicals that are very toxic to the liver, to the central nervous system and to the peripheral nervous system.
How do we go about it? I really encourage less use even if so many solvents are really cheaper to use.
Just one quick story on this. When I was growing up in ’50s and ’60s, my dad worked on cars. I helped him worked the cars. And we use degreasers to clean the car parts with. I’m sure I was exposed to all kinds of solvents. And we got gasoline and at that time, we had a lot of lead. So who knows? I might have been a full professor if I hadn’t lost my IQ points to lead.
DEBRA: Yeah, absolutely. I remember when I was a child, when I would go to my grandparents, my grandfather drove a truck. He had his own business as a truck driver and he had his truck. So he was always tinkering with the engine on his truck. So gasoline cans are just sitting around there, degreasers and all these things.
Nobody paid attention to anything. I remember what that smelled like. I remember it’s just like this gasoline smell. How much did he get exposed to? And my grandmother died of cancer. And I was just walking around there as a baby smelling this stuff.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah. As you pointed out earlier, when you’re a baby and you’re walking around, you’re often closer to the source of the solvents. So you’re inhaling more because you actually inhale more if you’re younger. So you’re getting a bigger exposure, a bigger dose of those solvents when you’re young than you’re older.
We’ve done a little bit of a better job of cleaning up our use of solvents. I’m not sure [inaudible 00:33:20], but we’re a little bit more careful with them. But we could be a lot more careful.
One thing we have improved on though is we’ve moved away from oil-based paints, which are solvent-based products like paint. So use some more water-based paints, which is an important change. For example, we don’t have a good way to return our paints, what we do with old paints. So that’s a problem. We need a better way to dispose of our used products. We don’t have a policy where the paint manufacturers have to take these products back.
We can’t open up the paint can and let it evaporate because that’s going to bring solvents to the atmosphere. That has huge consequences. It can change the ozone, breathing patterns. It’s not good for the animals, in the environment, as well as humans.
DEBRA: When I lived in Northern California, in the San Francisco Bay area, in our local community, we had paint recycling. So if we had cans of paints that were half full or whatever, we could take it to the paint recycling place and then people could come and just get free paint. I thought that that was a great thing to do.
We need to go to break again. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert, author of A Small Dose of Toxicology. His website is Toxipedia.org. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert. And he’s the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology. His website is Toxipedia.org.
I’m making all these mistakes talking today. It must be too many solvents, but I don’t know if there are solvents in my house. Something’s affecting my brain today. Geez! My nervous system is not functioning well.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: You filled up your car today with gasoline and you got some solvent exposure or something.
DEBRA: No. I actually haven’t been out of my house today. But I do leave my house every day and go places. I’m exposed to solvents all over the place. But we can do all these things to reduce our exposure in our own homes, but then we go outside and the toxins are also there. I’m just getting more and more aware of the need to clean things up everywhere and not just say, “I’m going to stay in my house.”
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: That’s so true. I think when you go out – I just want to point this out about the things we can do. If you are using nail salons, getting your fingers and toes done, it’s important to patronize nail salons that are protecting their workers, that have ventilation systems and even look for those air purifiers – not purifiers, but air scoops that are moving air away from the solvents being used. It’s important to patronize nail salons that are working and protecting workers or investing in protective products.
DEBRA: What if we just eliminate nail salons altogether?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: I feel that way too, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
The other place where we’re really depending on solvents is anesthetic agents. They’re very important obviously for people having surgeries. It’s really critical. That has been going under quite a revolution in products.
And the way [inaudible 00:40:47]. It’s a commonly used anesthetic gas that we inhale that cause anesthesia. But I think the curious thing about these anesthetic agents, they really don’t know how they work.
As a toxicologist, I’m also a little hesitant about products that we don’t know how they work. We really don’t know. A lot of these solvents are broad-acting on the nervous system. But we really don’t understand exactly how they work, how they affect and change the iron transports in the nervous system, how they produce anesthetic effect. There are, in some ways, where obviously, anesthetic agents are very desirable. And yet when we drink alcohol as a solvent because we want to have the high from the alcohol, you’re depending, again, on solvents for that.
We use solvents and depend on solvents a lot. It comes back to trying to reduce exposure to solvents like benzene and hexanes. I remember industry agents use a lot of solvents [inaudible 00:41:53] around the country. They contaminate our drinking water. Carbon tetrachloride is one of them. They’re used in products to make printed circuit boards [inaudible 00:42:06].
So we never know. Solvents are used everywhere and we’re very careless with them.
DEBRA: Don’t solvents evaporate?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, they do. They evaporate usually very fairly readily and we inhale them. When you pump gasoline, hexane and benzene are evaporating from the gasoline. That’s what you’re smelling. It’s a whole array of different petroleum distillates and petroleum products, greases, glues and other products. One example is charcoal lighter for doing barbecue things.
DEBRA: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Try and move away from that. Use a plug-in electric device or use a little powered thing where you put your paper in. It takes a little bit longer to get your fire started, but I never use a charcoal lighter fluid because that’s just a solvent. It’s basically a watered down gasoline. It’s gasoline that’s less volatile, but you’re burning and releasing a lot of solvents in the area. You’re smelling the solvents from that as well as all the by-products when it’s burned.
So try to stay away from things like that and try to reduce our use. I think consumers have a big impact on things like that.
DEBRA: Yes, I absolutely agree. So you’ve actually got this little list here in your book of different products that contain solvents. We’ve got about six minutes left. So let’s just look at this and see what kind of suggestions that we can give for people to do something else besides use these solvents.
I’m looking at adhesives. Adhesives have a lot of solvents in it. So something like rubber cement has a lot of solvents. But white glue doesn’t. So you could use white glue instead of rubber cement.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Right, absolutely. Try to use ones that are more water-based products. [Inaudible 00:43:58]. They’re not dependent on these solvents.
[Inaudible 00:44:02] will be high like plastic glues. There can be a lot of solvents in there. That was one thing that people did. They put glues in bag and sniff them to getting the high of [inaudible 00:44:13].
So you want to be careful with some glues and adhesives and really go for the ones that are water-based. I think that’s huge, looking for water-based products. You’re evaporating water and hardening and that way, you’re not evaporating solvents.
DEBRA: And there’s another one on your list here, correction fluids. Listeners, these are all the things, when you smell, you can smell these solvents. These are all the smelling products.
So correction fluid. I think there’s actually water based correction fluid, but I use correction tape. I’m not typing, but I just have it on hand because sometimes I am writing with a pen and I need to cross something out. But those little correction tapes don’t smell like anything.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah. That’s right. Marker, I got markers on there?
DEBRA: Markers. That’s not on your list, but that’s the first one I said at the beginning of the show. I think that those are the worst things and they get advertised. Here are all these pretty colors and you can use them for so many things. They’re just poisoning people.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, my grandchildren, the parents bought a product that had fragrances in it. So you have different fragrances. I said, “[Inaudible 00:45:24]…” Really, if they have a fragrance, there’s a solvent involved because they have to be volatile, you have to inhale that and your olfactory system has to smell it.
If you’re smelling something, that means something else is evaporating, carrying that fragrant chemical, that chemical that’s stimulating olfactory system to your nose, so you’ve got solvents involved somehow.
DEBRA: Somehow.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: [inaudible 00:45:46]
DEBRA: Yeah. Let’s see. What else? We have on the list ‘spot removers’. What else can we do instead of spot removers?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT:Spot removers, because they have solvent, they tend to dissolve [inaudible 00:46:09]. But again, I think you want to start with simple things like cleaning up your spill with paper towels, things like that. So mop up as much as you can. You can revert to a solvent when we’re trying to clean up. You do have it, but don’t start with the solvent. Try to minimize the use of that material.
And you look again for other products. Know what you’re cleaning up. Do you really need to use a solvent?
DEBRA: I think one of the things we could just say in general is that the people often will just go for the chemical first thing. They just reach for the chemical and don’t even think about what else might be available. So there are so many ways to use spot removers.
I spill things on my clothes, so I’m always looking for spot removers and there are a number of less toxic spot removers on the market that you can just go to places like – oh, Bed, Bath and Beyond has some. Just look around. There aren’t chemical spot removers.
But you can just also go online. If you spilled red wine on something, look up red wine spot remover and things like that. There are a lot of tried and true home remedies for removing spots.
I do occasionally need to use a chemical spot remover to get something out if I want to save the garment. And if I do need that done, I’ll just take it down to the dry cleaners and hold my nose when I walk and don’t breathe and give it to them and say, “Here, take this spot out.”
We haven’t talked about dry cleaning at all, but we should say that solvents are used for dry cleaning. If you bring your dry cleaning clothes at home, take the plastic off. Hang them off outside. Then all those dry cleaning solvents will actually evaporate away. The problem is people get their clothes dry cleaned, leave the plastic on and stick it in the closet. And then they put them on and all those solvents just are right there.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, that’s the same thing with your shower curtains. When you get plastic shower curtains, you definitely air it out. I really caution people to get cotton shower curtains because they’re washable that way. The shower curtains have a lot of phthalates and chemicals that are volatilizing off of the product.
It’s really important to be thinking about products like that that do have a lot of chemical exposure. It’s the same thing with new cars. There are cars that have a lot of [inaudible 00:48:45] formaldehyde or glues are used. Formaldehyde outgases fairly readily.
With Katrina, the big kerfuffle about all that were these homes, these trailer homes where formaldehyde-based products and they’re very toxic – basically toxic for the people that were in there. They’re inhaling the formaldehyde which has long term health effects.
So we were still, as much as we know, being really careless with our solvents.
DEBRA: Yes. I think that more and more people need to be not only aware of the toxic dangers, but decide to do something about it. And even if you just take one simple step and find out about one thing, if you just don’t wear nail polish after listening to today’s show, then that’s a step to the right direction.
Thank you so much, Dr. Gilbert. We only have a few seconds left before we get to the end of the show. I always learn so much from you when you do these shows. It’s great to have you.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Great! Thank you.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and learn about other upcoming guests and also listen to all of the past shows. They’re in archives, many with transcripts. So ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. Be well.
Beantrees Gourmet Coffee
One of my readers told me about this website because it’s the only coffee she can drink, and it turned out to be the first company to sell only organic coffee. Beantrees started in 1993, at a time when nobody was selling organic coffee and nobody knew about it. And today, Beantrees is known for it’s gourmet organic coffees, including naturally-flavored coffees and mountain-water decaffinated. They have many celebrity clients and their coffee was even served at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Listen to my interview with Barrie Gromala, Cofounder and President of Beantrees Fine Organic Coffee |
All About Organic Coffee
My guest today is Barrie Gromala, Cofounder and President of Beantrees Fine Organic Coffee. We’ll be talking about coffee, why you should drink organic coffee, organic certifications, and more. Beantrees began selling gourmet organic coffee in 1993 through corporate “organic espresso bars,” and now sells beans internationally through specialty markets. They have many celebrity clients and their coffee was even served at the Cannes Film Festival. They have a comprehensive collection of coffees, including mountain water decaf and flavored coffees—all organic. www.beantrees.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
All About Organic Coffee
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Barrie Gromala
Date of Broadcast: May 27, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
It is Wednesday, May 27th, 2015. I’m here in the sunny Clearwater, Florida. Today, we’re going to talk about coffee. We haven’t talked about coffee on the show before. Coffee, while it has had some bad things about it that I think we all know, new studies are starting to say that coffee can actually be healthy for us.
Some of the health benefits of coffee that are coming to before now are – number one, coffee contains a lot of anti-oxidants. It has even been called the number one source of antioxidants in the United States. And antioxidants are really important if you’re being exposed to toxic chemicals because toxic chemicals destroy your body in a way that antioxidants counteract. Everybody should be taking a ton of antioxidants from all different sources. Coffee apparently turns out to be one of them.
Other ways that coffee benefits your health are it can help protect against type-two diabetes. It’s said to protect against Parkinson’s disease. Researchers say that it prevents against erectile dysfunction. So there are lots of benefits.
But there are also the downsides to coffee. Everybody needs to decide for themselves if they want to drink coffee, if it will help them. It can even be good for the heart. It can help prevent liver disease. So you have to weigh the benefits and the risks.
But one of the big things about coffee is that it is sprayed with a tremendous amount of toxic pesticides. So if you’re drinking regular coffee, you’re going to have the negative health effects of the pesticides. That might be part of the downside because we don’t know when people are doing studies on coffee, if they’re using regular coffee or organic coffee.
Today, we’re going to talk about organic coffee because if you’re [thinking?] to drink coffee, it’s best to drink organic.
My guest today is Barrie Gromala. He’ll tell us if I pronounced that right. He’s the Co-Founder and President of Beantrees Fine Organic Coffee. Hi, Barrie.
BARRIE GROMALA: How are you? Hey!
DEBRA: I’m great. How are you?
BARRIE GROMALA: Fantastic!
DEBRA: Good. How do you say your name?
BARRIE GROMALA: You got right. Barrie Gromala.
DEBRA: Good. I’m always very conscious about that because a lot of people have difficulty pronouncing my name. So I always want to make sure I do it right. So where are you?
BARRIE GROMALA: I’m out in sunny Sacramento, California.
DEBRA: That’s right. That’s right. I used to live in California.
BARRIE GROMALA: Not quite Florida, but it’s okay.
DEBRA: Good! So how did you get interested in selling coffee and why organic?
BARRIE GROMALA: I just want to tell you first that you actually hit the nail on the head. You’ve done your research and your introduction was very accurate.
DEBRA: Thank you.
BARRIE GROMALA: I started this company 22 years ago, 1993 believe it or not. There wasn’t even any Starbucks in California at that time. And nobody in the coffee trades had been here.
Before that, I was a Contemporary Art dealer. And I was on a plane back from an art show in Hawaii. It was a total accident. This was the early ’90s where we’re having a mini-recession. So a lot of clients weren’t buying the same amount of arts that they used to buy and a lot of my clients were corporations.
So this was again how things were back then. The gentleman I was with in Hawaii want to switch tickets so he could fly home with his girlfriend. We switched tickets. Back in that day, your ID didn’t have to match the ticket. So I was on the wrong airline. I was on Delta instead of Air United. I picked up their in-flight magazine and saw a woman who had a coffee card up in Seattle that was grossly $300,000 a year.
DEBRA: Wow!
BARRIE GROMALA: That seemed like a new interesting business. At the time, I didn’t even drink coffee. The only coffee I’ve had was probably [inaudible 00:05:30] out camping when I was a kid.
So reading about this, what I realized in California is that the only building mainly in the Bay area that have coffee cards, it was very heavy drug scene. It was Seattle. There were lots of dreadlock, lots of facial piercings. Nobody had really had more than a couple of locations. On that day, I decided I want to be the Nordstroms of that part of the business. And now I’d say we’re the Dolce & Gabbana.
What I decided to do is come up with an idea that I thought was a pretty good idea for a coffee shop. What I did was selling art to these big corporations like Hewlett Packard and Intel. I realized it was a very neat niche that had been explored. So I was the first guy to really put kiosks in corporations. You see them in the airport. So we started. Again, the way these things have folded was just all by accidents.
DEBRA: By accidents.
BARRIE GROMALA: One accident after another.
DEBRA: I know those kinds of things.
BARRIE GROMALA: Back in those days or even these days, the big food service companies are the ones who manage most of the food in the big corporations. So through a series of events, I was able to negotiate a contract to go into Hewlett Packard and we put a coffee kiosk in there.
My idea was, to have a business model, have a coffee shop that was Monday through Friday, no evenings, no weekends, every holiday off, completely secured environment. I didn’t have to pay a penny to get anybody to come into my shop because they were already there just coming to work.
DEBRA: What a smart business model.
BARRIE GROMALA: Oh, it was completely luck. I didn’t want to work evenings or weekends. I was selfish, but it seemed okay. And we happened to just hit the beginning of the .com.
So before I knew it, within three years, we had 18 locations with 150 employees.
DEBRA: Wow!
BARRIE GROMALA: Basically, all of our business – the flaw of my business model was that these things were lightly staffed because they weren’t full blown cafes. When we have people call in sick or drugged or hung over, there wasn’t a lot of back support to fill in the locations.
We have locations in Reno, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, then throughout the Silicon Valley. At one point, I had two business partners that didn’t work out. So all of a sudden, I was in charge of everything. I realized I was never going to grow to be an old man managing teenagers during the .com.
So I sold off all the locations through licensing agreement. And what I found is having a franchise system without all the regulation. Having people run these operations and have a financial stake in it as opposed to just to pay an hourly employee was like me doing it myself. They won’t call in sick, they won’t call in hung over and they have great customer service.
At that point, the business has grown up so fast that we were doing developments. We were operating. We were licensing and doing wholesale. It just evolved out of itself. So I got rid of all the businesses except for the wholesale and decided just to focus on that.
About six months into my business, my current provider – I guess the best way to say it is we had a business disagreement and instead of litigating, I just left and started learning more about coffee. I learned about organic coffee. Of course I never heard of that. After about three more months, literally everybody I talked to about it said the same thing. “Don’t do organic coffee because no one’s doing it.”
DEBRA: So you were one of the original people who started selling organic coffee. Yes?
BARRIE GROMALA: I actually started the organic coffee. I was a board member of the Organic Coffee Association, which is now defunct, but what was one of the originals. There were a few people dabbling in it. I was the only guy who had become 100% organic. A lot of people had maybe three or four organic offering.
Once I learned about it, I decided that I’m going to be the guy who steps off the edge and is purely organic. It was a big risk. There wasn’t a lot of really good organic coffee back then and what was, was quite expensive.
DEBRA: Yes.
BARRIE GROMALA: The reason that I made that decision is that what I came to find out is that coffee is the second largest commodity in the world.
DEBRA: Wait a minute! I don’t want to interrupt you midsentence, but we need to go to break. And if I don’t interrupt you now, I’m going to have to interrupt you later. But when we come back, you can finish your sentence.
BARRIE GROMALA: Thank you.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Barrie Gromala. He’s the Co-Founder and President of Beantrees Fine Organic Coffee. Their website is Beantrees.com. They’ve got so many coffees. He’s going to tell you about this later. But really, just go to the website and look at it. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Barrie Gromala. He’s the Co-Founder and President of Beantrees Fine Organic Coffee, which is at Beantrees.com.
Barrie, tell us about what’s so bad about non-organic coffee. But first, finish your sentence.
BARRIE GROMALA: Where was I? I don’t even remember where I was.
DEBRA: Okay. Then let’s go on.
BARRIE GROMALA: We’ll move on. Basically coffee is the second largest commodity in the world today, second only after oil. But what most people don’t know is that coffee also one of the largest agricultural polluters because it’s all grown in the tropics.
So virtually or literally, for every pound of coffee that makes it to market – again, this is not the entire world encompassing. There’s always exception. But the majority of coffee that’s produced that’s non-organic is one of the largest agricultural polluters in the world.
Unfortunately, these are chemicals that we make in America that are strictly regulated or not even legal to use in America, but for some reason our government allows it to ship down to Central and South America, Indonesia and Africa without regard. These are chemicals like DDT, BHT, lindane, endosulfan, diazinon, sisulfoton, methyl parathion. It just goes on and on and on.
One of the most amazing things is that all the coffee in the world 80 years ago was organic, as was everything before World War II. There were no chemicals and no rail distribution in place.
So today, we’re dumping hundreds of millions of pounds and hundreds of millions of gallons of the most toxic chemicals on the most fertile places in the planet. All of the coffee is grown 10 degrees north or south of the equator and the tropical zones all the way around the planet.
Two years ago, organic coffee got named as the single largest imported organic product to America more than anything else. Additionally, for the last 10 years, the organic coffee market has exploded and grown in over 29% annually for over 10 years where the rest of the specialty coffee market has only grown 1.5%.
The other thing is that organic coffee does bring a premium to the growers. For the third world, any kind of premium is extremely beneficial. Twenty-five cents a pound for them translates to $2 or $3 a pound for me or you in the world we live in.
DEBRA: Yeah.
BARRIE GROMALA: In my opinion, there is no other product on the face of the planet that could be more to help the global environment and to raise the socioeconomic level of hundreds of thousands of farmers than coffee.
What hit me in the head was that if you can have a product that’s organic and tastes good or better than non-organic for virtually the same price, the question isn’t “Why?”, but “Why not?”
DEBRA: I agree with you.
BARRIE GROMALA: My goal was to basically mainline or mainstream organic coffee into regular parts of America and getting people to commit. That was the huge deal.
About 18 years ago, we got the coffee contract at Yahoo’s corporate headquarters down in Sunnyvale when we were just barely two year old company.
We’ve done all the coffee there for about 18 years. It was 100% organic for the entire campus that served over 3500 people every single day. So we were just, for the last 19 years, really focused on driving organic coffee because, literally, even though it may be a dollar a pound more than non-organic, since you get 50 cups per pound, that’s only two cents a cup.
Additionally, in the last couple of years (I think 6 out of the last 10) Golden Cup winning coffees throughout various countries have all been organic. Organic coffee is really on the forefront. There’s no reason not to drink organic coffee and it’s readily available through Beantrees and several other really great companies.
DEBRA: We have a couple of minutes before the break. Could you comment on a lot of different brands now? Obviously, you were in the beginning and you have a lot of experience and you may know more like I know that I know more than a lot of people who are talking about toxics now. So are there differences in organic coffees that we should be looking at, that we should be aware of?
BARRIE GROMALA: Not really. Unfortunately, in the coffee world like in a lot of the other parts in the world, there’s a multitude of actual certifications. Some of the ones that people are familiar with are Fair Trade, Shade Grown, Bird Friendly, ECO-OK, the Rainforest Certification.
The unfortunate problems with all of these certifications are that none of them are enforced by anybody except for the people who invented them. There are literally marketing advantages to help push their brands.
The OCIA, the Organic Standards through the federal government took over 10 years of development. They started after I had started. So for the first half of Beantrees’ career, there was no certification. So we were depending on the farmers, on the traders, on the buyers to make sure it was happening. For now, that’s the only certification that exists that has any level of enforcement, whatsoever.
There are a lot of companies who have all these different coffees and all these different certifications. And unfortunately, the majority of them are market ploys to help develop their brand. And a lot of companies will have an organic line. I think Starbucks has one organic coffee. I see a lot of the other major new and upcoming players adding an organic coffee in. So they have a line or a couple of offerings that are organic.
The problem with that, again, to me, is they’re giving to me is they’re not committing completely. They’re basically saying, “Hey, we want to take advantage of the expanding, emerging market, but only to the point that it makes us some more money. As a company, we don’t really care.”
DEBRA: Yeah. There’s a lot in the whole field of things non-toxic. That’s true in every type of product. There are companies who are dedicated like you and then there are companies who are just doing it because that’s what the market is moving towards. I think it’s really important for people to see the difference between those two things.
We need to go to break again. So we’ll be back and talk more with Barrie about organic coffee. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to Barrie’s website at Beantrees.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Barrie Gromala, Co-Founder and President of Beantrees Fine Organic Coffee. His website is Beantrees.com.
Barrie, I love it that you are not only doing organic, but that you’re also doing it on a gourmet level. You’re doing it with extra specialness, not just any old organic coffee, but in a way that really shows how wonderful it is as a food.
BARRIE GROMALA: We’ve been very lucky. In 20 plus years of the business, we’ve never paid a penny for advertising ever. All the marketing is word of mouth and referral.
Like any product or commodity, whether they’re wine grapes or coffee beans, they change from year to year, depending on the environment of the ground. Basically, coffee beans are wine grade, the flavor comes from the dirt. If you use more and more chemicals every year, initially or finally, depending on how many chemicals you use, the dirt becomes not fertile. It basically becomes inert and the only way to grow the coffees is with the chemicals.
You see all these beautiful pictures of the coffee trees growing, they’re in the rainforest. But the bottom line is when you get a little closer, you’ll see that there are no bugs in the dirt and there are not birds on the tree. It’s hard to artificially maintain environment with all these massive amounts of chemicals. Unfortunately, the farmers don’t have, a lot of times, the education or the ability to understand the chemicals.
When we were here in the dusk fall in the Midwest, after certain amount of years that we put on more and more chemicals, the ground just doesn’t produce anymore. That really affects the birds. They’re flying up and down from North and South America, back and forth. It’s just an atrocity that nobody really knows about.
One of the big things, because of all the chemical poisoning, it’s estimated that over 300,000 women and children die every year because of coffee production. And the reason that it doesn’t get out there is because it’s the third world. They don’t know they’re dying from cancer from these chemicals.
One of the things that happen, again, that goes unreported is that the majority of all the containers from DDT to you-name-it that come in end up being used in the kitchen to store drinking water. As the farmers say, “These containers never leak,” as they say. There’s nothing they can get that holds water better that’s free. In the third world, that’s a big deal.
One of the things we hit on a little bit that’s really, I think, important for people to know is that there’s a lot of greenwashing in America.
DEBRA: Right, there is.
BARRIE GROMALA: There are people who try to show they’re doing the good thing. And again, it’s all a marketing ploy and it’s all about unfortunately the dollar.
In my opinion, one of those biggest problems is the fastest growing certification in America, which probably almost everybody has seen called the Rainforest Alliance…
DEBRA: Yes.
BARRIE GROMALA: Well, that’s the one with the little green emblem and the frog in the middle. People associate Rainforest Alliance with another organization called Rainforest Foundation. The Rainforest Foundation was started by Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler. The two have nothing in common, just a similar name.
The problem with Rainforest Alliance is if you look on the symbol, in order to put the symbol on your package, only 30% of the product in the package needs to be certifiable. That means the other 70% could be anything.
DEBRA: That’s just such a small percentage. I think one of the things about seals – I just need to say – is that when you see whatever the seal is (not just Rainforest Alliance), when you see a seal, it just gives you the idea that somebody checked this out and it’s all okay. And most people don’t even ever go and look and see what the seal means.
BARRIE GROMALA: Right. Again, one of these things people say, “Why is the Rainforest Alliance the fastest growing seal in America?” It’s because anybody can have it for virtually nothing.
When big corporations say, “Oh, we need to be greener,” they go out and find almost anything they can put the Rainforest Alliance certificate on. The crazy thing is that the people at Rainforest Alliance are very open. They are honest, which I do appreciate, their candor. I said, “Well, that means you get the 30% certified product down there and the other 70% can be technified full sun-grown coffee with tons of chemicals?” They said, “Yes, that’s true. That’s not what we intend.”
In my opinion, the whole certification is not organic. It just says, “We still use chemicals, but they’re less toxic chemicals” or, “We re-circulate the water when it’s possible.” In my opinion, it’s just a bunch of fluff. When things aren’t right, then it doesn’t work.
I don’t understand how you can put a brand or a certificate on a product and then a tiny 1/16th inch letters around the edge says, “Only 30% of the product meets our certification” and the certification is pretty lax to begin with.
DEBRA: Yeah, I don’t understand that too. I don’t understand that too.
Barrie, we’ve talked about the chemical aspects of non-organic coffee. But could you just paint us a little picture of what an organic coffee growing plantation is like for people who aren’t really familiar with organic?
BARRIE GROMALA: Yeah, typically to be certified organic, we have lot numbers. Every bean, every bag is traced from the farm to the coop, to the shipping container, to the roaster, to me. So there’s a paper trail of all of it.
Again growing in the tropics is hard because there are funguses that are very hard to grow organically. But luckily in the last 20 years, especially in the last decade, a lot of information from Sta. Cruz, California has been developed growing organically.
By contrast to the chemicals typically used, organic as a culture focuses on building healthy soil through techniques like composting, inner cropping, tyrosine, the introduction of appropriate biological pest control, which basically means the good bugs will eat the bad bugs, shade trees such as mangoes and banana and basically a whole system of compatible, sustainable, agricultural farming techniques that have really been developed over the last decade.
DEBRA: So the result of all of that is that you have an ecosystem that can be sustained that also produces coffee.
BARRIE GROMALA: Correct! Sustained indefinitely.
DEBRA: As opposed to destroying the whole entire ecosystem and the soil and everything else. To me, when I eat or drink something, I’m really aware of all of these things. I can know that when I’m drinking your organic coffee (which is actually sitting on my desk right now and I’m sipping it while we’re talking), I know that when I’m drinking that, what I see in my mind is this beautiful ecosystem that is being supported by this cup of coffee. I think that if people could imagine what goes behind the product, I think they would make a lot better decisions.
We need to go to break again. When we come back, we will talk more about organic coffee. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Barrie Gromala. He’s the Co-Founder and President of Beantrees Fine Organic Coffee. The website is Beantrees.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Barrie Gromala. He’s the Co-Founder and President of Beantrees Fine Organic Coffee at Beantrees.com.
Barrie, tell us about all your wonderful coffees. The thing that really caught my eye first was that your decaf coffee is decaffeinated with mountain water.
BARRIE GROMALA: Right. The decaf coffee in history is very unusual. The number one chemical, which probably 95% of the coffee of America is decaffeinated with, is the chemical methylene chloride.
DEBRA: …which is toxic.
BARRIE GROMALA: And if you type ‘methylene chloride’ in the internet, the number one use in America for that chemical is to embalm people when they die. So, of course, in the process, it’s said that all of the chemicals are washed and roasted off during the process of making the coffee.
We have numerous clients across the country who are chemically sensitive who said they cannot drink even half a cup of the competitor’s coffee that are decaffeinated with that chemicals versus the water process.
In the past maybe 30 to 40 years, there was only the Swiss water process, which was counterproductive because the only place they did it was in Canada on the east coast. So all the coffee we want decaffeinated had to use all the field to ship all the way across the country and then all the way back.
About six or seven years ago, a group made a mountain water process, which is actually a three step instead of a two step Swiss water. The mountain water process is actually done in the border in Mexico before it comes up into California, saving a phenomenal amount of money for transportation and fuel and it actually makes a much better comp by adding it in as a third process.
Our decaf is 99.8% decaffeinated. A lot of people can’t taste that it is actually decaffeinated. Saving with flavored coffees, a lot of people say, “Flavored coffee is no good.” Real coffee drinkers don’t drink flavored coffee. Well, whatever coffee you love is a good coffee. And we actually have a lot of customers. Our hazelnut is actually one of our bestsellers.
Unfortunately, most of the coffee flavored in America is flavored with propylene glycol, which is a binding agent. It gives you the heavy [inaudible 00:41:13] taste on your tongue. In order to maintain the organic integrity and certification, we can only use basically organic fruit and extracts.
The only complaint we ever get with our flavored coffee is that it’s not sweet enough. That’s what we’re trying to say, “We don’t want it to be sweet.”
DEBRA: That’s exactly right.
BARRIE GROMALA: And the great thing is the flavors are still amazing. Then you add in the tiny amount of your favorite sweetener, it’s as sweet as you want and you still have all the flavor.
DEBRA: And you get the choice of how sweet you want it too.
BARRIE GROMALA: Right! That’s why we only have a hazelnut and a vanilla. We don’t have all these crazy flavors because they’re not available in organic products.
DEBRA: Give me an overview of all the different kinds of coffees that you have. I want people to understand that organic coffee isn’t just like one or two types of coffee that really, not only can you get any kind of coffee that you want, it seems to me and I’m not a coffee connoisseur, but when I go to your website, it looks like there’s more coffee than I had ever seen. And it’s also really, really, really high quality in terms of its gourmet-ness.
BARRIE GROMALA: Whether it’d be organic coffee or regular coffee, there’s cheap organic coffee and cheap regular coffee and expensive. And the price is based on quality. It’s literally wormholes, broken beans, cracked beans, sized. There is so much goes into the grading of the coffee. There are grades one, two, three and four. Everything we do is grade one, which is basically the top of the line, the best that money can buy.
It’s like one of the things we talked about in the Fair Trade certification. We don’t put a Fair Trade certificate on our coffee because every single one of our coffees exceeds the Fair Trade minimums at a default because of the level of quality that we are buying.
On the same bag, if I put a Fair Trade sticker on there, the farm will actually get less money because part of that is going to the transfer organization. First, it’s going all directly to the farmers.
DEBRA: Right.
BARRIE GROMALA: And we were doing this before transferring Fair Trade ever showed up. They had a good run. When they showed up, coffee prices were so low that it was a good thing.
Now, the only thing Fair Trade coffee really is relevant for is more the commodities, the Yuban, the Folgers, the Maxwell House, things like that, which are one of the things I was looking online. And Yuban has a Rainforest Alliance.
DEBRA: Okay, a Rainforest Alliance sticker?
BARRIE GROMALA: Yes, for Yuban.
DEBRA: Okay.
BARRIE GROMALA: So again, it just ranges the gamut. What we do is we try to buy the most expensive coffee that money can buy. That’s really what makes a difference. When people drink it, they turn around and they look at you and they look at their cup and they’re like, “I’ve never tasted anything like this.”
DEBRA: I agree. I’ve never tasted anything like this either. It has an entirely different quality to it. And I wanted to mention too what one of my readers told me about you. I have never heard of you before. But when she told me about it, she also told me how she brews it. I’ll just say really quickly that she does cold brewing, which I had never heard of before. I tried it and it’s so easy.
I use a French press. I grind the beans by hand and then I put them in the French press with cold water every night. And then in the morning, my coffee is ready. And I’m in Florida, so I drink it cold anyway. It tastes so different.
BARRIE GROMALA: In my opinion, the cold brewed coffee – I’ve never tasted coffee that tasted better than cold brewing.
DEBRA: Really? Me too.
BARRIE GROMALA: It was hard to do on a large scale because of the storage. We have places like universities that we serve all the coffee on campus for the majority of it. When we had done that, we have 10 or 15 gallons or 20 gallons that go through a day and there’s just not room for four or five gallon buckets to sit overnight. So we’re looking at putting it in canes and doing other things right now.
But that is hands down – if you just type in ‘cold brewed coffee’, I think the name of the company is called Tody, they actually have cold coffee brewers that you could buy for $25.
DEBRA: Okay. I’m going to look and see. My French press is working just fine.
For those of you who don’t know what a French press is, it’s a glass container with a handle in it and a holder. It’s got this little screen, a substantial screen with a plunger. So you brew your coffee or tea. I use it for tea too. I use it for everything. And then when you’re done brewing, you just push the screen down and it holds all the coffee beans or the tea leaves down at the bottom and you pour out your coffee or tea.
I just love it! I’ve had one for years and years and years, but it never occurred to me to use it for cold coffee. And it works just perfectly.
BARRIE GROMALA: Yeah. Another way you can do it is, literally, what they call cowboy coffee. You can get a big coffee filter, put the coffee in it, tie the top together with a piece of string and throw it in the water and let it sit overnight.
DEBRA: Yeah, that’s another good way too. Yeah.
BARRIE GROMALA: You don’t have to have a French press. There are always ways to get around that.
DEBRA: Yeah, absolutely. So tell us about your different types of coffee. Continue on with that.
BARRIE GROMALA: Basically like we said, coffee grows 10 degrees north or south of equator all the way around the globe. So we have coffee everywhere from numerous areas of Mexico to Peru, which is probably the largest producer of organic coffee to Nicaragua, Guatemala, over to Ethiopia, Sumatra and Timor.
And one of our coffees, we call them Mocca Java, which is one of my favorite bestsellers. A lot of people misconstrue Mocca meaning “dark chocolate.” You can see the Mocca is spelled differently. It’s M-O-C-C-A and then Java, so that’s actually a 50-50 mix of coffee from Ethiopia and Sumatra. So we took two coffees from two opposite sides of the world and blended them together.
Mocca is one of the ports in Java, the other port city that the coffee actually comes out of. Hence, the name Mocca Java.
I think people do buy it because they think it has – the funny thing is it does have chocolate undertones, but there’s no chocolate in it.
DEBRA: Yeah, I understand. Yeah.
BARRIE GROMALA: And so French roast and house blend and espressos, those are typically ‘always’ blends of coffee. And sometimes our French roast is Mexican and sometimes it’s Peruvian because different years, the coffees are of different quality.
That way, as one crop comes in that may be better than the other, we can basically roast it the same. It’s a little bit different, but we maintain the same quality when certain growing regions don’t have such good growing years.
DEBRA: Yeah. All these different kinds of coffees, they all taste different because as you said earlier, the taste of the coffee comes from the soil. So you just need to try coffees and see the different flavors and which one you like. A cup of coffee isn’t always the same cup of coffee.
BARRIE GROMALA: Right. Now, there’s a big movement for lighter roasts. For a long time, it was dark roasts. Now there are a lot of new and upcoming companies that say dark roast is no good because they’re promoting. All they do is medium or light roast.
It doesn’t matter what anybody says. The coffee that’s the best is the one that you tasted and that you like the most.
DEBRA: Yeah. We only have 30 seconds left. Are there any final words you’d like to say?
BARRIE GROMALA: I really appreciate this opportunity. I’d love people to really explore why organic coffee is so important. It really comes down to the last thing. It’s not why, but why not.
DEBRA: Yes. Thank you so much. I learned so much today. This has been Barrie Gromala from Beantrees. It’s Beantrees.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
Lead-free Dinnerware
Question from Teresa Venatta
Hi Debra,
We are in the market for dinnerware and was wondering about the safety of Crate and Barrels Roulette Blue Band dinnerware. We like the look, just want to make sure it’s a safer option for families…(it was made in Portugal and is one of the best selling items)
Debra’s Answer
I suggest at least getting a Lead Check swab kit and testing one plate before buying an entire set. You’ll have to purchase the plate but can return it afterwards if it doesn’t pass the test.
You can buy them in the paint department at Home Depot.
Taco Bell and Pizza Hut to Remove Artificial Colors and Flavors
An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal announces that the fast food chains Taco Bell and Pizza Hut plan to remove artificial colors and flavorings from their food.
Taco Bell is aiming to replace the ingredients with natural alternatives by year-end. They are also planning to remove additives like added trans fats and and additional artificial preservatives and additives by the end of 2017.
This is a great first step.
Back in 1978 when I first started considering toxics in my food, eliminating foods that contained artificial colors and flavors and preservatives was my first step. I’ve come a long way since and hopefully fast food chains will too.
The article says the companies are doing this “he face of changing consumer tastes.” We have power. Companies will give us what we want or go out of business.
This is a very good indicator things are moving in the right direction.
Wall Street Journal:Taco Bell, Pizza Hut to Remove Artificial Flavors, Coloring
Zabada Clean
A water-powered cleaning alternative that gets surfaces cleaner than ordinary cleaning methods. Specially-designed fiber products pick up solids and liquids and hold them until you rinse the cloth. It even picks up grease and 99% of bacteria. Made from toxic free synthetic fibers. It’s quicker, safer, and more effective than other cleaning methods. “What we have here now is a 21st century product that completely replaces chemicals and becomes the mechanical clean. It’s more effective. It’s quicker. It uses less water. It lasts longer. It’s healthier for you and healthier for the environment.”
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Listen to my interview with Damian Pike, Founder and CEO of Zabada Clean Inc |
Super Cleaning Without Chemicals
My guest today is Damian Pike, Founder and CEO of Zabada Clean Inc, an online retailer of fiber and microfiber cleaning products which eliminate the need for toxics. We’ll be talking about their “simple, water-powered cleaning alternative that’s quicker than home chemical warfare and safe enough for kids to use.” Not only are these products toxic free, they clean better than chemical cleaners—they even kill 99% of bacteria. This Australian company launched their product in the US market in February 2014. Prior to founding Zabada, Damian was co CEO of ENJO Australia Pty Ltd an Australian based direct sales organization for over 10 years. Damian began his career in corporate and international banking, working in Australia, the UK and Asia. He then went on to study acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and worked professionally as an actor for a number of years both in Sydney Australia and Los Angeles. www.zabadaclean.com | watch the 2-minute performance video
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Super Cleaning without Chemicals
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Damian Pike
Date of Broadcast: May 26, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It is Tuesday, May 26, 2015. I’m here in beautiful Clearwater, Florida where the sun is shining and we’re having wonderful, gorgeous thunderstorms every afternoon now, which means it is summer here in Clearwater. We spend all summer getting rained upon, but we love it because it lowers the temperature. That’s the whole point of raining here at least.
Anyway, today we’re going to be talking about cleaning our houses and not just cleaning our houses, but cleaning them easily without toxic chemicals. The first thing I just want to say about this product before I introduce my guest is that I was sent a sample of the product and I took it into my kitchen.
My kitchen is actually very clean usually by the standards non-toxic methods, but I had had a spill on my stove – you know something boils over and then it gets stuck to the stove. I had gone in there with my little scrubber and the scouring powder and stuff and I couldn’t get all these things off the stove. There are just pieces of it just left there.
So I took this mitt and I put water on it like the instruction said. I just gently rubbed it and these pieces of things I couldn’t get off my stove just came right off really. They just came right off. I was doing nothing, but touching it. It was pretty amazing to me. I just cleaned the whole top of my stove really easily. And I can see that this technology really works pretty amazingly.
So today we’re going to talk to Damian Pike. He’s the Founder and CEO of Zabada Clean. And they sell fiber and microfiber cleaning products which eliminate the needs for toxic chemicals.
You could buy these once. I’m saying that cautiously because maybe you need to find them and get them in 20 years or something. And we’ll ask him that. And you don’t have to go to the store. You’ll never run out of cleaning products. Well, not never, but for a long time, you won’t run out of cleaning products because you always have them right there.
So Damian is joining us from Australia. Hi, Damian.
DAMIAN PIKE: Hi Debra Lynn. How are you?
DEBRA: I’m fine. How are you?
DAMIAN PIKE: I’m terrific. Thank you.
DEBRA: Good. I think you’re in a whole different weather zone down in Australia.
DAMIAN PIKE: We are. We’re completely different weather zone here. We’re just coming into winter and you’re just coming into summer.
DEBRA: That’s right.
DAMIAN PIKE: Listening to your introduction here that you’re in Florida and you’re having thunderstorms and rain, all that water is exactly what we’re going to talk about today. That is in fact nature’s super solvent and that’s really all you need to effectively clean your house.
DEBRA: Good! But before we talk about that, tell us how you started this business. How did you find out about it or get the idea? What motivated you to do it?
DAMIAN PIKE: Okay. I came across these products 15 years ago. And like you, I was pretty amazed when I first heard about these products. You could just bring them home and using nothing but water, they would clean your house and get rid of all these toxic chemicals.
And my wife was pregnant at the time with twins. Of course, that’s a real life-changing event, so we’re in the process of reviewing everything we do. Then I gave them a go. And like you, I was absolutely amazed at what they do. And that really was the catalyst for the start of my journey with Zabada.
DEBRA: So these products already existed and then you decided to sell them?
DAMIAN PIKE: These products were brought into Australia 20 years ago by a business partner. Her son has actually suffered from asthma and she was a concerned bleach queen. Every Saturday, when she cleans their home with bleach, her son would promptly have an asthma attack.
She came across them when she went back to Austria and her mother-in-law was using them. And she brought them back with us to Australia. She got rid of the chemicals out of her house and her son’s asthma was [inaudible 00:05:38]. That’s how the business started in Australia 20 years ago and I became involved 15 years ago. So then, in the US, we’ve just started selling them about a year ago now.
DEBRA: In Australia, what is the response to this? Are millions of people using them?
DAMIAN PIKE: Yeah, absolutely. In Australia, it’s the leading brand and we sell a hundred different brands only in Australia. But it’s the leading brand in Australia.
Australians, for their part, they really get it. You can sell it for every mom who understands the importance of cleaning and yet the dangers of toxic cleaning chemicals in the home. It doesn’t take much to put two and two together.
With Zabada, you have a technology that is really 21st century technology. Now, more and more, the science that we get virtually every day is telling us to remove all manner of toxic chemicals from our home. One of the last bad things is toxic cleaning chemicals. We seem to take them for granted. We get rid of BPA out of plastic bottles. We’ll get rid of pesticides and herbicides in our foods. But we seem to completely ignore the fact that we bring very toxic dangerous cleaning chemicals in our homes.
DEBRA: I think part of that is that I know that a lot of people have an assumption that if it’s on the shelf, it’s safe because the government is protecting us. But that’s not true. The government isn’t protecting us from toxic chemicals. And unfortunately, we do have to watch every product that we bring into our house to see if there are toxic chemicals in them.
So it really is something that people don’t often think, as we said, about their cleaning products. I think that most people – myself excluded because I’ve been thinking this way for so long – is that they don’t think that everything can be toxic in our home. But one by one, when you start looking at this, everything has to be examined including cleaning products.
Here in America, we have warning labels on cleaning products. Do you have that in Australia?
DAMIAN PIKE: Yeah, absolutely. And in a way, Debra Lynn, that is the ultimate irony because the products – every one is the same as in the US, but nobody reads the back of the label.
DEBRA: Nobody reads them here either.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yeah, it’s the back of the label and the two-point print where all of those products say they’re harmful and they’re toxic. They can only be used on very fit circumstances, which are you’re going to wear rubber gloves, you have to wear breathing protection or ventilated rooms. And for them to be effective, you’ve got to leave them on the surface for up to 10 minutes for them to work, which nobody does.
Interestingly, the big caution on the back of them of course is a way to the potion hotline and what you have to do when you ingest them, inhaled them, breathe them, get them on your skin, whatever the case may be.
You’re right about the government of course. No, they don’t really legislate. The legislation is obviously very antiquated and a lot of these products are innocent until proven guilty. The challenge is they’re proven guilty time and time again all over the United States and Australia, globally.
And yes, it’s only when something really bad happens that people stand up and go, “Oh, my God! We’ve got to get rid of this stuff.”
So that’s really the educational component now. The other aspect of course is, we said, education. It’s about “Okay! What do we change to?” And now, in the 21st century (and as I say, the science is coming in), this load of chemicals that we’re exposed to everyday is becoming increasingly obvious that it’s a health risk to us.
In the United States, the FDA, as you’re probably aware, has only just recently come out after a 30-year study. And they said, “Okay, [inaudible 00:10:10] out of the cleaning chemicals by 2016 or 2017.” That’s a 30-year study. If government is going to move that slowly, then yes, I don’t think we should wait for the government to determine what chemicals are safe and what are not because we could be waiting for a long time.
DEBRA: I totally agree. That’s part of why I do this show because each of us needs to take responsibility for those own decisions and not wait for the government.
We need to go to break. When we come back, we’ll talk some about the toxic chemicals including products that you will not be exposed to if you use Damian’s products. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to Damian’s website, ZabadaClean.com to find out about what we’re about to talk about. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Damian Pike. He’s the Founder and CEO of Zabada Clean and their website is ZabadaClean.com. They sell fiber and microfiber based products that clean your home without chemicals.
So Damian, before we talk about your products, would you tell us about some of the chemicals that you know about, toxic chemicals that people would now not be using if they’re using your products?
DAMIAN PIKE: When you change to Zabada Clean, you will effectively eliminate 90% of the chemicals from your home, which is a pretty significant achievement.
The reason we only say 90% and not 100% is because you can still use your soaps, detergents or dishwashing and clothes and stuff like that. But when it comes to cleaning, you absolutely eliminate the need for any chemicals in the home. So it’s a pretty revolutionary kind of change.
DEBRA: So here in the United States, cleaning products are governed by the Federal Hazardous Substances Act . That’s how toxic they are. Do you have something like that in Australia?
DAMIAN PIKE: Yes, we do. Yes, we have the PGA as well. It’s similar. Interestingly, Debra Lynn, a lot of what Australia does is based on US regulations. In many ways, a lot of the Australian things, we take that hugely from the United States, so it’s quite similar.
And the same companies, the same multinational companies that produce a lot of these products in United States are obviously global and so the products that we get here are manufactured by the same manufacturers.
DEBRA: Very similar. Okay, tell us about your products. I’ll let you describe you them. I can describe them, but you describe them.
DAMIAN PIKE: Okay. So they are in essence simplicity themselves. It’s really a game-changer. It’s a technology to look forward in that you’re getting rid of all the chemicals and replacing them with fiber.
What we do is a very simple process. It’s just a simple wet-wipe-dry. So you wet the fiber. You wipe down the surface. And then you dry it with the marble cloth, the micro fiber marble cloth afterwards.
Now effectively what’s happening is instead of killing bacteria with chemicals, you are physically, mechanically removing them. It’s that simple. So instead of a chemical clean, you got a physical clean.
Now what happens in the process is all of the dirt, the grime, the grease and the bacteria are picked up and trapped in the fiber network of the product. And then it will not transfer to another surface. It will stay trapped in that fiber network until you throw it in the washer like your clothes. When your clothes get dirty, you just throw them in the washer, clean them and then the fiber is ready to be reused again.
It is quite extraordinary. And the good thing is now that we have more and more of the sciences coming in, we’ve had this tested scientifically by a number of universities and they always come up to top.
We also have a test that we do called the lumen tester because bacteria is a really big deal for people. The challenge is you can’t see it. So people look at the surface and go, “Well, it looks clean. But how do I really know?”
Now what the big companies have done very effectively over multiple decades is really to cautiously educate us in regards to what clean needs to be. That form of indoctrination had us believing that we’ve got to put toxic chemicals all over the house to kill all these bacteria. That’s not actually true.
What they’ve also done to make that work better is create a Pavlovian response if you like by then mixing it with lemon, pine or eucalyptus or whatever. When you smell those things, you get this Pavlovian response of, “Oh, well, that’s what clean smells like.”
DEBRA: Yes.
DAMIAN PIKE: So I can’t see the dirt, but if it smells like lemon or pine, it must be clean. That’s the real misnomer. That’s the great marvel of the records for the last few decades to convince us that that’s the case.
What we have here now is a 21st century product that completely replaces that chemical and as I said it becomes the mechanical clean. It’s more effective. It’s quicker. It uses less water. It lasts longer. It’s healthier for you and healthier for the environment.
DEBRA: When I was cleaning my stuff this morning not knowing many of the things that you just said, I had noticed for myself that the cloth picked up something off the stove just so easily, as I said before. When I looked at it, I couldn’t see that it was on the cloth. It just looked like it disappeared. And then I put it back on the stove, it didn’t transfer back to the stove like if you were to use a paper towel or regular cloth where you clean and you’re just moving the dirt around because it doesn’t have that pickup quality.
It was pretty amazing that I can just put the cloth over it and it would pick up the dirt and then it was gone. It was gone. And then I go to pick up more dirt and it was gone and I wasn’t just moving around. It’s pretty amazing.
So I understand what you’re saying about picking up the bacteria. It’s almost magnetic. It might not be the right word, but I think that that’s the sense that you have, that it’s just picking it up and holding it. That just makes your cleaning so easy right there.
If it wasn’t toxic-free, just from the performance value, I think people should use it just because it makes your cleaning easier. It actually gets it cleaner.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yes. And the interesting thing or the miraculous thing about it is your purpose is actually to stay cleaner for longer. The reason why is because there’s no chemical way to do this on the surface.
Your surface is actually naturally cleaner and then it stays cleaner longer because they don’t attract more stuff and it’s doesn’t get dirty as fast. So it preserves your surfaces, especially when if you’re talking about stainless steel and cook tops and cookware, anywhere where there’s food preparation.
People spend literally tens and thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of dollars renovating their homes with all manner of different kinds of surfaces, very exotic surfaces in some instances. And of course, applying chemicals to them just erodes them and damages them and dulls them, scratches them. It does all those kinds of things.
But Zabada actually keeps those surfaces looking new for longer. So the benefit is quite extraordinary. When you say it doesn’t transfer, we do a test when we sell the products to demonstrate it to people.
If you put some butter or grease on a bench (you will know what it’s like to have to remove that), you just wet the glove with cold water, wipe it over the Zabada and you feel the glove just stop as it picks it and then just takes off again. It just picks it up. If you walked around on the bench, it will not transfer to another surface. It’s the ultimate product test that’s quite extraordinary to watch.
DEBRA: We need to go to break, but we’ll come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Damian Pike, founder of Zabada Clean, founder and CEO. It’s at ZabadaClean.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Damian Pike. He’s the Founder and CEO of Zabada Clean. He’s all the way in Australia. I hear little clicks and things in the background of the transition, but it’s because he’s all the way from Australia and it’s winter time. It’s coming on winter time now.
So Damian, I want to hear about all the different kinds of products and uses and everything. But before we talk about that, what kind of fiber is this? What’s the fiber made out of?
DAMIAN PIKE: The fibers are constructed depending on the cleaning job. And as you would have noticed from the ones you’ve got, there are different combinations done in different ways and densities depending on the task you have to perform.
The kitchen one is really ideal for removing grease and grime and bacteria. The bathroom one is for soaps scum, calcium buildup, hard border stains and things like that. The dust or the moving one, they’re ideal for trapping dusts. That includes not just the big particles, but [00:27:53] dust that really hits the asthma and allergy sufferers.
And of course the floor products and window products. The floor products are amazing. They’re our award winning product in Australia. It’s one of Australia’s number one floor cleaners. So if you have hardwood floors or tiling or whatever the case may be, we have a floor fiber for each one of those surface types.
So yeah, we make products really very specifically to achieve a particular outcome.
DEBRA: They’re synthetic fibers as opposed to natural fibers.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yes, that’s correct. They’re synthetic. They’re nylon, polyester and polyamide. And they all come in different blends and wipes and densities.
DEBRA: Okay, good. I just noticed no odors to them. And nylon and polyester are safe and synthetic fibers. Something I want to say about synthetic fibers as long as we’re talking about them is that a lot of people get confused about the toxicity of synthetic fibers.
For example, polyester. Somebody just wrote to me the other day and was asking about polyester being toxic. But I actually did quite a lot of research on polyester. And polyester itself has very low toxicity, but what happens is when you buy a polyester shirt for example, they put a finish on it and it’s the finished that’s toxic.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yes.
DEBRA: Since you are interested in reducing the toxic chemicals, I’m assuming that your synthetic products are not putting more toxic chemicals into the air themselves. Was that something that you’ve looked at.
DAMIAN PIKE: Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely not. The other aspect to what we’re doing here is about zero waste. I’m so glad you brought that up because what we’re focused on as a company is we’re a zero waste company. That’s really important to us.
And also, we’re really committed to breaking the consumer cycle. One of the biggest problems of course that exist is we’re constantly down the supermarket and we’re purchasing a whole batch more of, in this instance, cleaning products. You know what that aisle look like in a supermarket.
DEBRA: It’s huge.
DAMIAN PIKE: It is extraordinary. And then if you walk down – nowadays, if I ever go down, I get a headache by the time I get to the end. You’re just assaulted by the different fragrances and everything else.
But these products, Zabada products will last you two to three years. In this day and age of rampant consumerism, that’s extraordinary. You don’t have to go down cleaning all for two to three years. So breaking that consumer cycle and then you think about all of the landfill that you would have saved when it comes to plastic bottles, paper towels, et cetera, that’s just amazing. And that’s something we’re really super proud of.
And our customers are super proud of the fact that, “Oh, wow! I’ve eliminated that out of my shopping basket.”
DEBRA: Yes. And that continuous cost over that time period. You were talking about the butter earlier and then we had to go to break. But I wanted to say that in addition to the stove, I also cleaned my sink.
My sink actually this morning had some grease in it. And usually what I would do is I would take the sponge and scouring powder in order to cut through the grease. I was using a mitt. I tried just wiping the mitt over the greasy edge of the sink and it came right off. Grease just literally came right off. I was so surprised because usually grease is just like this messy thing and it just came right off.
DAMIAN PIKE: It’s extraordinary, isn’t it?
DEBRA: It is. It was just like a magic thing in comparison to – I haven’t been using toxic chemicals for more than 30 years and I use things like baking soda and vinegar and soap and all of those things. They do the job, but this does the job easier. It really does the job easier.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yes, it does the job easier, simpler, less water, zero waste and then you don’t have to go and replenish. That’s the amazing thing. That is really the amazing part.
The beauty is – we have three children. They’ve grown up without chemicals in the home and of course they’ve got to their chores. They’ve done that since they were super little. And there were no qualms about giving them a chore that you would normally attach to toxic cleaning chemicals that you wouldn’t give a child because of the danger of it. They don’t know another way. And that’s what we’re about.
DEBRA: Isn’t that wonderful?
DAMIAN PIKE: We’re about educating people and creating generational change.
DEBRA: That’s so wonderful to hear you say, “They don’t know another way.” They only know the nontoxic way. They don’t know the toxic way.
I wish that that would be – as you’re saying that, I can just see a whole generation starting out from birth not having toxic chemical exposures like I did in my generation.
DAMIAN PIKE: That’s a relatively recent thing as you would well know. It’s really post World War II. Now all the [fudge?] is coming in and it’s related to ADHD and autism and all manner of stuff, whether it’s true or not. We don’t know because we are these undergoing human experiments in that sense.
But one thing we do know for sure is that it’s better to eliminate those chemicals out of our lives wherever we can. And this is an area where people as you rightly say have taken for granted that these products are safe when the truth is clearly the opposite because the products themselves are toxic and harmful.
DEBRA: Right. It’s right there on the label.
DAMIAN PIKE: It’s right there on the label.
DEBRA: I had this vision that every toxic product should be required by law to put a skull and cross bones on the front of the label so that as you’re walking down the aisle, you see toxic, toxic, toxic, toxic.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yes.
DEBRA: That’s what I would like to see.
DAMIAN PIKE: The funny thing is – it’s really interesting. I had just – you guys would be familiar obviously with Uber.
DEBRA: No.
DAMIAN PIKE: You’re not familiar with Uber, the ridesharing company out of San Francisco.
DEBRA: I’m not in San Francisco. I have been in San Francisco, but we don’t have it here in Florida.
DAMIAN PIKE: It just started here in Australia. It’s really interesting. I like what we’re doing and what Uber is doing. If Uber hadn’t gone to the government and said, “Okay, we want to start this ridesharing business.”
And they’d go, “They can’t do that because we’ve got taxis and we got a Taxi Control Board and we got to do blah, blah, blah.”
DEBRA: But I need to interrupt you just because we have to go to break. Hold on just a second. We have to go to break. It’s going to cut us off. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Damian Pike. He’s the Founder and CEO of Zabada Clean. That’s at ZabadaClean.com.
Okay Damian, go ahead with what you were saying. Sorry, I was so interested in what you were saying, I didn’t look up the clock.
DAMIAN PIKE: Oh, no. That’s not a problem. I was just likening Zabada’s and the government’s approach to basically a lot of the industries these days where it’s really important that we actually bypass.
Business or industry has a great opportunity to create change. And that’s by presenting options to the public that weren’t previously there. The government isn’t going to embrace them because government tends to legislate retrospectively.
So that’s what we need to do, to create change, we need to educate the people. We need to present an option that’s better than the status quo, which is better than the option they’ve got at the moment.
And that’s the truth with fiber technology cleaning. It’s a much better option that chemical cleaning. You get rid of chemicals out of your life, out of your home. You’re healthier, you’re happier. You’re happy to clean and you’re doing the right thing for the environment at the same time.
DEBRA: Yes, that has always been my philosophy for the past more than 30 years now that I’ve been doing this work.
I didn’t want to say everything is toxic. I was always saying from the beginning that we have to give people an alternative. That’s how I was able to make the change in my own life from having toxic chemicals in my home that were making me sick.
Then I had to find something else that I couldn’t just say, “I’m going to throw away all the cleaning products.” Then what have you to keep your home clean? Or “I’m going to throw away all of my pesticides or I’m going to throw away all my scented shampoo.”
You have to have something else. You have to have the replacement. And that’s what’s so great about what you’re doing. You’re giving people an option.
DAMIAN PIKE: You’re right. The interesting thing is – I know this is true in the US as it is in Australia. You see lots of magazines articles, loads of magazine articles, particularly women’s magazine articles saying, “Rid your home of chemicals. These are half killing you, your personal care items, blah, blah, blah.”
But in many instances, they don’t provide 21st century alternative as the case for the 19th century, so baking soda, vinegar or things like that, which is for me people are impractical. They can’t go home and mix up their own homemade remedies and things like that. And to me, people are not too keen to say, “Well, I’m going to give up my smart phone and go back to an analog phone.” In the 21st century, it’s just impractical.
But we’re excited because it takes the conversation forward and educates people. “These are 21st century alternatives that require no chemicals, that are quicker, easier and does a better job.” That’s what’s exciting for us.
DEBRA: Okay. So we only have a short period of time left before the end of the show. So I would like you to – when I go to your website, what I see is a whole lot of different products for different parts of the house.
So while I understand the concept of what you’re doing, I’m not quite sure what to buy. So could you explain the different products and where people can start to be using your products?
DAMIAN PIKE: You bet! Well, what I recommend is – funnily enough, over many, many years, I’ve learned that everybody – I mean everybody– has a clean thing. They have one thing in their house that they’re really obsessed about being clean. The rest, not so much.
In my personal instances in the kitchen, I’m really fanatical about the kitchen being clean. For my wife, she can’t leave the house unless the bed are made. So everyone has got their thing.
Basically what I do is focus on what’s your clean thing. If it’s kitchen, then I’d say start with the kitchen because you know what it takes to clean your kitchen. You know how you’re obsessed about it. And therefore, you will really notice the difference when you start cleaning with Zabada.
If it’s the bathroom, then establish the bathroom. If it’s the dust in the living, then start with the dust in the living. If it’s your floor, then start with your floor. If it’s the windows, start with the windows.
As soon as you start with your clean thing, pick a product that matches that, use it for a while and you will be amazed. And then once you know that it does the job on the area that you’re particularly concerned with, you know it’s going to do an amazing job in the rest of your home.
So pretty much that’s what we do, although we had people come on to our site and just buy the entire pack. People who get it really get it. And they’re looking for a 21st century alternative.
For many people, a lot of customers have friends in Australia or relatives in Australia who now go, “Oh my god, Zabada is in Australia. Just get on board and buy. You’ll be doing yourself a huge favor.”
So we get a mixture of people buying one or two products to try or they just buy the entire system and go, “All right, fantastic. I’m going chemical-free tomorrow.”
DEBRA: So I’m looking at your website and I see that over in the left hand side in the menu that you got kitchen care, you’ve got right down on kitchen care – so let’s see, kitchen care, bathroom care, living care, floor care, accessories. And then you can buy these things one by one or in bundles.
But they are not like buying $5 cleaning product. They cost some money and I’m sure that the costs of these are much less overtime than buying that $5 bottle of cleaning product over and over and over again.
DAMIAN PIKE: Absolutely, yeah.
DEBRA: Yeah. You’re going to end up saving money.
DAMIAN PIKE: You do. You’ll save your money and your health more importantly. But yeah, you’d definitely save money.
To be honest with you, we’ve still got products that we had for 12 years. We save two to three years because it’s important for us to be conservative and make sure we can deliver. But those products will keep on keeping on. But that’s up to everybody’s personal circumstance.
We also have on the website there, you’ll see the Reward Section.
DEBRA: I’m clicking on it right now.
DAMIAN PIKE: What we do there is basically we have a really generous rewards program. So if the cost is an issue for you, then buy the product that you’re most interested in. Use it and share it with your friends. Give us a testimonial. That will earn you points to get free products so that you can go about…
DEBRA: Oh, what a great idea.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yeah because what we’re most interested in is converting homes and getting people chemical-free.
So if you want to buy the whole lot, buy the whole lot. If the cost is an issue, then that’s no problem at all. You share it with your friends and help us get the word out and help to educate other people and we’re happy to reimburse you with products.
DEBRA: What a great idea. We only have about four minutes left. So is there anything that you would like to say that you haven’t talked about yet?
DAMIAN PIKE: I think overall from my point of view, I just want to thank you because education is really key. This is what it’s about.
We’ve been doing this for 20 years in Australia and in Europe. And we’re brand new in the United States. We’re excited that US is getting on board and more people in the United States are really, really questioning these products that you’ve grown up with. They stopped and said, “You know what? Actually these are dangerous and toxic and we shouldn’t be using them.”
That’s really what’s exciting to us that obviously we can come to you as we can share this stuff with people like yourself and customers and they get it straight away. That’s what’s exciting.
And just listening to you, I can really tell that you use those products and that you got that amazing result because I know what it’s like. When you first use them, it’s quite extraordinary because you’re so used to doing something else.
DEBRA: It was extraordinary. It really was extraordinary.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yeah.
DEBRA: It was doing things I wasn’t expecting it to do. Yeah.
DAMIAN PIKE: And you run around and try it on everything. You’re cleaning crazy. You do. It’s quite extraordinary.
That’s what I get excited about. I don’t know. That’s crazy. They’re super excited about cleaning. Isn’t a bit crazy? I know. But we are all going to do it since it’s a chore. Why not do it quicker and faster and better and healthier at the same time?
DEBRA: I totally, totally agree. I just want to tell our listeners that when you go to the site, it’s divided into these different areas, kitchen care, bathroom care, living care, floor care. And when you go to that section, there are videos so you can see in each section how the product outperforms the chemicals.
If you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and look for today’s show, I put a link to one of the videos. There’s actually on a different page where earlier in the show, we were talking about how it picks up the bacteria and holds on to the bacteria. They actually show in these videos the little machines that are measuring the amount of bacteria and how much is removed by the Zabada cloth and a standard cleaner.
It’s a fascinating site to look at and see what these cloths can do and how they truly do outperform the chemical cleaners. Even if you don’t care about toxic chemicals, which I don’t think is the case if you’re listening to this show, it’s just an amazing thing to look at in terms of the performance.
DAMIAN PIKE: Yeah. Thanks for mentioning that. That machine is called Loom Tester. And that is a food grade hygiene cloth test. It’s amazing because it’s now a handheld device.
We use that because as I said, no one can see what the bacteria can’t use. People take for granted what they see on the ad. When you do that head to head – and we use that with a raw chicken because raw chicken, obviously, in the kitchen can be quite dangerous – when we do that, raw chicken, we do the swab test afterwards and you see the bacteria count and how much more…
DEBRA: I have to interrupt you again, I’m sorry, because we’re at the end of the show. But please listeners, go to the site and see the video. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today has been Damian Pike from Zabada at ZabadaClean.com. Be well!
Decomposed Granite
Question from Paula Finn
Hi Debra,
Thanks again for all you do!
Would you be concerned about landscaping with decomposed granite? It may contain crystalline silica, which I believe is carcinogenic to breathe.
Debra’s Answer
I wouldn’t be concerned about this.
Crystalline silica is bound up in the granite. You would have to walk on it heavily and repeatedly for even a tiny amount to be released as the pieces of granite rub against each other. If it’s not in a walkway, this wouldn’t happen.
Even in a walkway, just a few people walking on it once or twice a day still wouldn’t be enough to release the silica.
Foam in Stool Seat
Question from Stacey Santoro
Hi Debra,
I saw a stool in Pottery Barn that I really liked; however, the seat is made of a padded leather seat. I called the main contact number, and of course they did not have detailed information other than that the seat is made of leather with a foam padded seat. Can I assume that any padding such as this is toxic and contains flame retardants? Thanks so much!
Debra’s Answer
The standard foam in padded furniture is polyurethane foam. With the new California flammability laws going into effect now in 2015, it’s unlikely that new furniture contains fire retardants, but it’s always good to check.
I’ve just been going through this, looking for a padded office chair. All polyurethane foam.
Think Those Chemicals Have Been Tested?
I remember, more than thirty years ago, when I believed that if a product was sold in a store it was safe. Because the government wouldn’t allow a product that harmed consumers to be sold.
Nothing is further from the truth.
Here’s an article from the New York Times that explains our current situation with regards to toxic chemicals:
Lumber Liquidators Tumbles After Selling Toxic Flooring
I find it very interesting that Lumber Liquidators is having troubles after a story on 60 minutes reported the store was selling flooring that emitted excessing formaldehyde.
There is now a federal investigation going on, their stock has fallen dramatically, their CEO has quit…
If this kind of reporting were to happen for other toxic products, it would greatly speed their removal from the marketplace.
Buckaroo Organics
Organic skin care products for moms and kids, made by a mom who “struggled to find products that weren’t full of harsh chemicals. Products that could actually heal skin issues and were safe for babies.” So she and her husband created a skin care line that is organic, simple, and safe…and even includes a laundry powder that are safe for your skin, made from soapnuts and natural minerals and wool balls to use instead of scented fabric softener sheets. Laundry products contain no fragrance and body care products are fragrance-free or scented with essential oils.
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Listen to Debra’s 2015 interview with Lindsay Herron, Co-founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics |
Skin and Laundry Products for Baby: Organic, Simple, Safe
My guest today is Lindsay Herron, co-founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics in Bozeman, Montana. She and her husband make products designed to prevent, heal and soothe skin irritation. “It is a dream job for me,” says Lindsay. “Feeling passionate and dedicated about the work we get to do is such a gift.” In her former career, Lindsay worked as a Mental Health and Licensed Addictions Therapist. She built two practices serving rural areas in Montana. Prior to that she worked as a bilingual counselor serving Hispanic women and domestic violence victims in Raleigh, NC. What she has learned through her work, is that at the core, she loves people. She learns new things everyday and appreciate lessons that are both positive and negative. She enjoys quality time with her family, skiing, and camping…”anything outdoors where I can unplug from technology and connect with the important things in life!” www.buckaroo-organics.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Skin and Laundry Products for Baby: Organic, Simple, Safe
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Lindsay Herron
Date of Broadcast: May 21, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It is Thursday, May 21st, 2015. It’s a beautiful day in Clearwater, Florida.
I’m feeling a little out of breath at the moment because I decided that while the opening song is playing that I would exercise. And so I’ve been sitting here doing arm exercises because one of the things about getting toxic chemicals out of your body is you just need to get your lymph system moving. Your lymph system doesn’t move unless you move your body. It doesn’t have a pump like your heart. And so your lymph fluid just sits there in your body, not moving waste out unless you move. And so I just decided that I was just going to move my body during the opening song.
Anyway, I’m here breathing now, but I think that that’s a good idea. I’m going to just continue to do this. And if you feel like you just want to get up and move while you’re listening to the opening song, when you listen to this show tomorrow or the next day and whenever, just do so. I’m just looking at different ways to get exercise into my life even if only a minute at a time.
But that’s not the subject of today’s show. Today, we are going to talk about skin and laundry products for baby, and my guest – this is a new business, my guest is a lovely woman who has three children. And she wanted to have some simple, safe, organic products that she could use that would be safe for her children’s skin. And so she created her own.
Her name is Lindsay Herron. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics in Bozeman, Montana. Hi, Lindsay.
LINDSAY HERRON: Hey. Good morning.
DEBRA: Good morning. How are you today?
LINDSAY HERRON: I guess it’s morning here, maybe it’s almost afternoon there.
DEBRA: It is just past afternoon here. But people are listening all over the world, you know? And so it could be anytime, anywhere.
LINDSAY HERRON: That is true. I am very, very honored to be here today.
DEBRA: Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me.
So tell us your story about why you started this and how it all happened.
LINDSAY HERRON: When we got started, anyone that starts something, it was an idea at least for us that came organically, to say the least. We had kids and with having children, I became aware of lots of things that I hadn’t previously been aware of – what kind of stroller I needed, what kind of food we should be eating. All of these things got thrown at me.
And what I really found was this hyperawareness to have the best environment for them to create a healthy environment for their bodies to grow. And so I dug in and started reading and doing research. And I also happened to be married to a chemical engineer that is also very health-conscious.
So by nature, we had that going for us before that. And then when we had babies and we started registering for things, we registered for cloth diapers and we were growing our own food.
We noticed that there were a lot of things that you had to do for cloth diaper care. And with that came detergents. And so our whole evolution of our product line and our mission statement and all of that really stems from our laundry detergent from being a cloth-diapering mom.
What we found is that we needed specialty laundry detergent and it couldn’t leave any residue and all of these things, this laundry list of things that came with that and all this care. And when I dug into the detergents that we need to be using, I found, first of all, that they are very expensive. I also became a bit knowledgeable of laundry detergents that are on the shelves and was also pretty shocked about things that were in it, and then also finding out a lot of health concerns that are linked to a lot of these chemicals that are on shelves that really, I didn’t feel like anyone was talking about in my circle.
And so we started there.
DEBRA: That’s an excellent place to start. So from that beginning then, how did you – I’m always interested to know how a person who isn’t a big business person, how do you start a small business like this to make a non-toxic product?
LINDSAY HERRON: Well, I’m on a learning curve every single day.
DEBRA: I understand.
LINDSAY HERRON: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was a counselor and just went to school to be a mental health and addictions counselor. My husband works in the energy industry. And really, I would say, everyday, what motivates us is our passion and mission to make a change.
And also, we had this idea. Our laundry detergent is very unique and we can talk about that at some point. But really, I feel like God gifted us this idea and then has opened a lot of doors along the way to help us get it started.
We’ve had a lot of people that are experts in the industry, a lot of lawyers and patents attorneys, and things that we are not experts in, come our way. And also, it takes a lot of initiative to do research and be knowledgeable about what we’re doing and passionate, and be able to answer questions, and connect the dots, and be willing to ask questions that I know a lot of people don’t seem very smart.
If I only have to ask them once, so when I ask a question that seems very ground-level for certain experts in this industry, I’m appreciative when I have people that are willing to mentor me and bring me along in marketing strategies and packaging industries and things like that where we had to bring it all together at the end of the day.
DEBRA: Yes, it really is a big thing. I’ve been in my field for more than 30 years and there are times when I think, “Oh, I should just create some products.” And then I look at what goes into creating products, and I think, “I think I’ll just write about products,” because it really is such a huge thing, and especially, you’re not just selling them online, you’re selling them to stores too?
LINDSAY HERRON: Yes, we’re in stores. The thing that I’ve learned too is there’s a lot that goes into it, but it is doable if it’s honest and authentic. So when we go into somebody’s store, there are strict regulations in a lot of these health food stores and coops and things like that. And if your product is true and if the ingredients are true and things that are in it and your labeling, it’s actually a reasonable process if the leg work has been done.
And so that’s also been helpful for us too. Each of our products, we’ve spent a lot of time on really making sure that they’re polished and ready to go. And once that foundation is laid, then things start moving – at least, that’s been our experience.
DEBRA: Yes, you’ve done a really good – not really good, you’ve done a really excellent job of your products. And we’re going to talk about your products. We’re coming up to the break, so I don’t want to start talking about them right now.
But you’ve done such an excellent job of ingredients – we’re going to talk about your ingredients – and your packaging and everything. There’s an excellence about them that even when I just went to your website, my first impression of your website has that excellence about it. I just wanted to call you right up and say, “Come on my show” because I could see the thought that went into the ingredients. And we’re going to talk about that.
Let me just ask you, your husband is a chemical engineer? Does he work developing chemicals?
LINDSAY HERRON: He doesn’t anymore. He works as a consultant in the energy industry for risk for energy and training in risk management. So at one point in college and right out of college, he worked with – I’m missing what it is, but it’s when you go into hospitals and you get a liquid nitrogen. That’s what it was.
So we lived in Houston for a while. And for almost six years, he worked in that industry with the liquid nitrogen for a private company and working with hospitals and then switched and moved into more of a consulting role for trading power. So he’s moved a bit in his career, but the basis is that chemical engineering part.
DEBRA: So he has – when you’re working on developing your products, you had the knowledge of your husband as a chemical engineer?
LINDSAY HERRON: Yes, and really that came in to play with our laundry detergent.
DEBRA: I want to hear more about that when we come back. We’ll talk about – I want you to tell us about laundry detergent chemicals and what you learned about what you didn’t want in your laundry detergent. And we’ll talk about how you came to develop your own formula.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Lindsay Herron. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics in Bozeman, Montana. They make skin and laundry products for baby that are organic, simple and safe. You can go to their website at Buckaroo-Organics.com. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Lindsay Herron. She’s the founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics and their website is Buckaroo-Organics.com.
Okay, so Lindsay, when you started making your laundry detergent, what did you not want to put in it and why?
LINDSAY HERRON: Well, the first thing I started with was sulfate and phosphates. But like I said, we started with that cloth-diapering detergent, and previous to that, I think over the years I haven’t been super tuned into my laundry detergent. I think for years, we spent so much time on food, our food sources and pesticides and things like that. And then, like I said, once we had babies and we started cloth-diapering, we really started to hone in on what are all these products.
And so when we started looking at water waste systems and residues that are left behind fragrances, things that when you smell your clothes, they smell good (and I grew up in a family where my mom had this laundry detergent that always smelled good, the sheets smelled good), then when I really dug in to that, I realized that that’s not necessarily a good thing at all. When there’s fragrance on laundry detergent or on your clothes that residue has been left behind and then cleans the fabric that’s sitting on your skin all day and then, obviously, not good for cloth diapers.
And so I started with fragrance and then moved into sulfates and phosphates. And then the list just started going on different chemicals.
And also, when I was reading ingredient lists, especially on liquid detergents, oftentimes, the first ingredient can be water and then it moves right into some kind of sulfate and they’re everywhere. And then phosphates too are being limited in certain states just because the toxic aftermath that they have on our water systems and ecosystems. It’s choking off different waterways and aquatic life too.
When we think about using laundry detergent, the amount that we use every single day, it’s insane on a massive level of what’s being wasted back out into septic tanks and different, various water exit systems.
DEBRA: Yes, it is. It very much is.
So then how did you go through the process of finding the ingredients that you then decided to use because they’re pretty unusual ingredients for a laundry product?
LINDSAY HERRON: I do have an unusual – yeah. And sorry, to the first question that you asked me, I think that was a lot of information. I’m just super passionate about everything that we’re doing, so I jumped in there if I’m overwhelming with some of this stuff.
So when we looked at all of that, I thought there has to be a better way. There has to be something different. I needed it to not be a plant-based detergent or a derivative of a plant-based that has been altered in some way because you can’t use that with the fibers in certain cloth diapers.
DEBRA: Let me ask you a question because I’m not a mom. I haven’t done the cloth-diapering thing although I totally believe in it and if I was a mom, I would do it. But since I haven’t done it, it sounds like you’re saying that when you’re doing cloth-diapering, they give you some instructions about what kind of detergent to use. Is that right? And what are those instructions? Where did they come from?
LINDSAY HERRON: Yes. Well, I’m not exactly sure where they come from. I’m imagining we also come from a town that is the founder here, her name is Kim, and she is the founder of GroVia diapers. And she’s done a brilliant job with her cloth-diapering business. They’re a very big brand in the cloth-diapering world. So she has also just testing that’s been done on her cloth diapers.
So this care list comes with how to wash them, how to strip them, which means that you clean the fibers because there’s an ammonia build-up, and then there’s a list of laundry detergents that have been deemed safe so far. And so then, these laundry detergents kind of post and then there are things that you shouldn’t use on these fibers because the residue clings to them and then clogs them, making them less absorbent for what they need to be functional for.
And cloth-diapering, even if you haven’t done it, moms that do know, it’s an investment. The cloth diapers are upfront, they’re an investment. And if you care for them, you can reuse them for our children. And we have three. And so they do last. And they’re so eco-friendly.
But yes, the instructions, they can be a bit overwhelming at first once you get started. And then it’s easy once you keep going.
So that’s where we started, not wanting that plant-based derivative that could potentially clog the fibers. And so I got a hold of the soap nuts. Have you heard of those before?
DEBRA: Absolutely! I’ve been using them for years. I think I used the first soap nuts that ever came out.
LINDSAY HERRON: Okay. Well, I get excited talking to people about soap nuts because it’s something that I think is a big part of talking about our laundry detergent. If people haven’t heard of them, they’ve been around for a long time.
DEBRA: Well, talk about them.
LINDSAY HERRON: Well, so the soap nuts that we get are grew in the Himalayas. We import them from Nepal. It’s where they come from. And then they’re certified organic here in the States. It’s a berry that grows on a fruit tree actually. So it’s not a nut. And the husk of the berry is made up of pure saponin or a soaping agent. And so once the berry is de-seeded and dried, you’re left with a husk or it looks like an acorn. I mean, you know, but just to talk about them.
And then that husk is pure soap and is biodegradable and works brilliantly to clean things without leaving a residue or a scent behind.
DEBRA: Brilliantly. I think brilliantly is the word because the first time I used soap nuts, I was shocked at how soft my cotton clothing was. It just was soft in a way that I’ve never experienced it before. And I think that one of the things that people don’t realize is how much detergent clings to the fabric. And so you have that whole residue just scratching your skin all the time.
When I first went to your website, I thought, “Oh, she’s doing the skin care products, but she’s also doing the laundry.” I didn’t really know that you started with laundry. I thought the laundry was so that you were focusing on baby’s skin and that the detergent wouldn’t scratch their skin. But you started with the laundry.
LINDSAY HERRON: We did start with the laundry. And our products, we’ve had a few people say, “They don’t just fit really all together.” and I’m like, “What our company has come about is when we found gaps in the industry and found gaps on the shelves, we sought to create something different.” So we have a respiratory rub, and we have a laundry detergent and we have things that we didn’t feel were super acceptable on the shelves including our packaging (it’s all biodegradable).
And so it doesn’t have maybe a sequential look when you look at our whole product line, but we’re really targeting that hypoallergenic skin care of products that are possibly not out there to fill those gaps.
DEBRA: I really got it that you were about hypoallergenic skin care. When I looked at your website I thought, “That’s what they’re doing. They’re looking at every aspect of what might help or harm a baby’s skin and providing something for that.”
And we’ll talk more about your products when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Lindsay Herron. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics in Bozeman, Montana. And her website is Buckaroo-Organics.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Lindsay Herron, co-founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics. And her website is Buckaroo-Organics.com.
So just to finish off about your laundry detergent, or laundry – what do you call it? ‘Laundry powder’, laundry something?
LINDSAY HERRON: Well, it’s called soap berry studs, but we just call it a laundry detergent.
DEBRA: Yes, I just wanted to differentiate that it actually isn’t a detergent. Detergent is less a specific word that has a specific meaning. It’s different from, say, soap. And even what you’re doing is even different from soap.
Anyway, what I want to say is usually, if you buy soap nuts, in the beginning when I started using them, you just bought whole soap nuts and you put them in a little bag, three or four of them in a little bag. And then you throw the little bag in the wash. That’s to keep the bits of soap nuts that start breaking down contained in the little bag.
But what you’ve done is you’ve made a laundry product (I’ll just call it a laundry product) that takes those soap nuts and adds other ingredients to them. So why did you do that? Why did you decide to add these other things and grind up the soap nuts and make it into this kind of product? Why should I use your product instead of just plain soap nuts?
LINDSAY HERRON: Wait, what’s different about ours? Okay, so yes, it is a powder. So what we did is we found that the soap nuts themselves weren’t working really well with our hard water system, our hard water, and so we made it something to break that surface tension of the water so that the water itself could do the job and the soap nuts could aid in that.
And so Brad reformulated it. He knows all of the chemical reaction when it hits the water. But I’ll do my best. So he reformulated it to powder it, so that it added those elements of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate to de-scale your machine, soften up water and be able to let the water itself really do its job in conjunction with those soap nuts.
DEBRA: That sounds really good. I can hardly wait to try it.
LINDSAY HERRON: He gets all scientific about it and I do my best.
DEBRA: No, you did really well. So then other laundry products do you have are wool dryer balls. And why wool dryer balls?
LINDSAY HERRON: Well, I have been using them for about 10 years. And then when our company really took off and we started filling these gaps, I thought, “Mine weren’t breaking down a bit,” I thought, “We should do something different.”
And as you said before, we were targeting that hypoallergenic market. And when people actually found us, we have been shocked that the amount of skin sensitivities and allergies that people have to laundry soap and laundry detergent and whatever they’re using. Then we’ve had people crying at our table at tradeshows about how they feel like they’re allergic to themselves and they haven’t found anything that works like our laundry soap.
And so then we found that people are using dryer sheets and still struggling. And so throwing in a fabric softener sheet that coats your clothes with all sorts of residues and your machine and your dryer wasn’t really effective. And so we thought, “Okay, let’s go back to work to really create this holistic laundry room that gives you a great laundry soaping agent and then also helps you to put in your dryer and reduce static all naturally. And then you can add essential oil to these wool dryer balls.”
Have you used them before? You guys probably know about this.
DEBRA: No, I know about them, but I haven’t actually used them. I don’t use dryer sheets either. I just throw things in the dryer. So how will they help my drying experience?
LINDSAY HERRON: Well, first of all, I’m going to send you some, Debra. You need to be on this wool dryer ball train with us.
DEBRA: I want to be.
LINDSAY HERRON: They’re coming your way today. So you use it in packs. We sell them in packs of three or six. And the way that you use them, they’re very low maintenance. You don’t have to care for them or do anything. You throw them in your dryer. Quantities of three would be smaller loads or medium-sized loads. And then the six is for TMA loads or the laundry that I do – you know, shove as much in there as I can and get it done. I would use six dryer balls for that.
So you’re tumbling them with each load of laundry to soften your clothes naturally, reduce static. They’re safe for people with wool sensitivities. They’re handmade with a felted center. They last a thousand loads. It’s also in our mission to create this chemical-free laundry room, we needed it to be affordable.
So our laundry detergent is 18¢ a load. And then the wool dryer balls last up to a thousand loads. So it’s something that’s really cost-effective for families – not just babies. You can use this laundry combination for anyone really.
DEBRA: Wow. I wonder how much you save using your wool dryer balls instead of those fabric softener sheets.
LINDSAY HERRON: I would have to churn some numbers. I haven’t used them in years just because we’re chemical-conscious, but a lot I’m sure.
DEBRA: A lot, just a lot.
LINDSAY HERRON: I know sometimes my mom even throws in two.
DEBRA: You want to get your mom some of those wool dryer balls.
LINDSAY HERRON: She switched over, but we’ve had a number of conversations of just [inaudible 00:32:30]. And like I said, a lot of times, people are – not addicted, but they really have those comfort feelings with your laundry smelling a certain way. But in fact, if we can shift that mentality a bit to understand that those chemicals are sticking on your skin all day, I’m hoping that that’s part of our goal too, to help create awareness about that.
DEBRA: This is just a really important point because one of the most toxic things – I think a lot of my listeners know that sound, but I’ll say it again anyway. One of the most toxic things we can be exposed to is fragrance. It’s an endocrine disruptor. It’s got all kinds of thousands and thousands of chemicals that go into these fragrances. They can disrupt your endocrine system.
And when they’re there in your sheets or your fabric softener sheet or whatever, on your clothing, it’s just going in your body as you’re sleeping all night. It’s going in your body as you wear your clothes all day. And it’s just one of those toxic exposures that we can just do without. Fragrance is not essential to life especially synthetic fragrance.
So if you could just replace all the fabric softener dryer sheets with your wool balls, I would be very happy.
LINDSAY HERRON: I’m working on it.
DEBRA: Okay.
LINDSAY HERRON: Yes, that is the point.
DEBRA: We need to have a fabric softener sheet wool ball exchange campaign.
LINDSAY HERRON: Yes. I’ll turn them in at the end of the day or something. It would eliminate so much. When you think about, like I said, the amount of laundry detergents that goes through homes every day and these fabric softener sheets –
I mean, we all wear clothes. It’s everywhere in our homes – our sheets, our curtains, everything we wash. I just thought this is one step in this laundry room alone that trickles out into our household. Every interaction that we have during the day is touching clothes, touching like if you wash your car, whatever you’re spraying. There are just a lot of things that, like you said, come from fragrance, but also come from directly from that laundry room. And so understanding what’s in there is so important.
DEBRA: It’s so important. We’re coming up on a break here, but I just want to say one more thing. Yesterday, I happened to be in a public place and I took a deep breath and I got this huge breath of somebody’s laundry fragrance who was standing in the room. And it’s just like you’re in a room with a hundred people, how much laundry fragrance is that?
So on to the break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Lindsay Herron, co-founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics at Buckaroo-Organics.com. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Lindsay Herron. She is the founder and CEO of Buckaroo Organics in Bozeman, Montana. Great website! Your website is beautiful as well as your packaging and your products.
Anyway, let’s talk about your skin care line because, again, you’ve just got these incredibly simple, pure ingredients. So tell us about the ingredients and also what you’ve made from them.
LINDSAY HERRON: Sure! Well, thank you for the compliments, by the way. And the goals with our ingredients were to pick intentional ingredients and group them together so that they were healing what we needed them to heal without all of the other chemical jargon in there that is potentially bogging down our immune system.
So the goal is to give the body something topically on the skin that helps boost the immune system and let the body heal itself. And so when I really, like I said, dug into some of these gaps on the shelves, I was thinking the first two ingredients that are definitely bogging down our immune system. It’s petroleum or petro atom based in some of these [inaudible 00:40:05].
So we sought out to pick ingredients. We looked for something different. And a lot of our stuff has essential oils in them. And so we did a lot of reading and research on essential oils that target skin irritation such as eczema, psoriasis, rashes, things that irritate the skin after wearing clothing, sunburns. And then, of course, being a pregnant mommy at the time, our Mother Hen, which is our organic body butter (which is probably one of our bestsellers) is simple ingredients, but are targeted to keep the elasticity in the skin using frankincense, myrrh, lavender and then shea butter based.
So does that answer your question?
DEBRA: Yes. But tell us more about the different products that you have in your line because I’m looking at a whole page of different, interesting things.
LINDSAY HERRON: Yes. Okay, so we do have that belly butter or body butter. And that is targeting again just stretching skin and/or it’s been – my brother who works with a lot of cardiologists that’s scrubbing water all day, these guys love that Mother Hen product just because it’s so nourishing to the skin and it isn’t water-based.
We have Tough as Nails, which is a skin treatment with antifungal properties as well. And that’s serum-based. So it’s an oil-based product that you use very little of. My husband had a big skin graft surgery and so he needed something for scar tissue on his hands and then in the inside of his arm. And so we created this product that’s also been used for a facial treatment for acne. I’m getting new feedback on this product every single day. This Tough as Nails product has been really great for a lot of people.
We have three different balms. We have a cloth diaper bottom balm, which would be something like a diaper sticker, something that you’d use, but it’s healing and then just really simple ingredients targeting that killing off yeast and then also sealing up the skin and letting it heal itself.
We have a Sleepy Spurs Rub, which is a unique rub in and of itself. It uses a blend of essential oils that relaxes the body. It decreases anxiety and helps increase sleep, originally created for colicky babies and getting babies to sleep through the night.
We’ve also seen a huge increase in women using this product on the insides of their arms, the inside of your forearms for hormone balancing or big hormone changes and maybe menopause times or sleep time. Stress triggers a whole different release of hormones too sometimes. The Sleepy Spur [cross-talking 00:42:55]
DEBRA: And then you have a respiratory rub.
LINDSAY HERRON: Respiratory Rub. We’ve had a lot of problems with respiratory rubs actually. When I dug into respiratory rubs, I learned a lot about essential oils even in some of the natural products. There are three different kinds of eucalyptus and eucalyptus can be really hard on infant kidneys. And so we used a form of eucalyptus that’s called Eucalyptus Radiata and it’s really mild on babies’ kidneys.
So that one is definitely targeted more towards – it’s definitely a baby product as well just because it’s dosed appropriately for infants using essential oils. It also uses a combination of – you know, when you’re talking about children, 12 months, there are only certain essential oils that are safe to use on them. And so it’s limiting in respiratory rubs and so. That’s that one.
DEBRA: And then you also have these fizzy things for the bath.
LINDSAY HERRON: Oh! Our Fresh Farm Fizzies, we live on a property and have chickens and animals. And so all of our products have cheeky Montana names. But the bath fizzies are a bath bomb that you drop into the bath and they fizz up. They come in an adorable, recycled egg crate. And there are little eggs inside. They’re individually packaged. You just drop them in. They all smell like lavender (again, being baby-safe). And they have also nourishing sea salts in them. And then, we use lavender for a calming effect and also lavender can be so soothing for the skin.
DEBRA: I’m just looking at all of these things. I’ve been looking at product labels and ingredients for 30 years and you just have one of these lines that is just so simple and pure. When I look at things that are more complex and synthetic, I just say, “This is so not needed because look, you can do it in such a simple way.”
And I had another guest on who had a similar line of products, but they weren’t baby-oriented. They were adult-oriented. It’s very simple. He just started out with soap because he wanted to make something that people could clean their skin with. They’re just really exceptional soaps. But then he went the next step and made soap nuts laundry product. His is different than yours. He’s just actually selling soap nuts because he wanted his customers to be able to not have their skin be irritated by the laundry. So it’s that same combination of caring for your skin by how you’re cleaning it and having natural things to put on it, to heal it, and also having that really pure laundry. I think it makes a huge difference. I think that people are having so many skin problems because just from their laundry products.
And so I think you have just an outstanding combination here, just really wonderful.
LINDSAY HERRON: Thank you so much.
DEBRA: Yes, you’ve thought it through really, really well.
So we only just have a couple of minutes left. Any final words you’d like to give us, something you haven’t said yet?
LINDSAY HERRON: I just appreciate you having us on. I also just want to let people know, we’ve just partnered with a new company. So we have a program online. It’s called Give 5 Save 5. And so in our effort to create eco-friendly products, we’re also donating 5% of our company profits to clean water projects specifically targeting children and families that don’t have access to clean water.
So we’re just really excited about some of the projects coming down the pipes being only a year old. We’ve had a lot of moving pieces going. This is a side of our business that I feel extremely passionate about. And things have really lined up in the last few months.
So the company that we’re partnering with is called One at a Time. They’re based out in California and I’m just so excited about what hopefully we can do as we start to grow to have an impact to get some people some clean water and families and then also help these youths, empower them to be better and do things in the world as well.
And so again, that’s our Give 5 Save 5 program. That never goes away. So when you check out, you enter Save 5, and we take off 5% off of your total and then we will match that 5% to clean water projects.
DEBRA: That’s so excellent. You just have thought of everything from every direction.
LINDSAY HERRON: I spent a lot of time doing this. I really, really love my job right now. And that’s just been such a gift. I mentioned that before. Just being able to do what I love each day and be creative with it and make it our own, and help people, it’s so much fun every day.
DEBRA: What’s your favorite thing to do with your kids?
LINDSAY HERRON: I mentioned that in my little write-up. I love to do anything outdoors. We live in what I feel like one of the most beautiful places. We live right in the heart of Big Sky Country in the mountains. We don’t have cable and we don’t have some of these technology distractions. And so we have animals and we try to do lots of stuff outside and just connect and keep our bodies moving. And I’m really trying to instill that in our children as well.
And so we try to camp and hike and go hunting and they’re shooting guns and doing all sorts of Montana things. And so I really love to spend time outside with them although we do live in winter most of the year.
DEBRA: Isn’t it cold a lot? We have here in Florida, it’s summer for six months of the year. And so do you have winter for six months of the year?
LINDSAY HERRON: We do! We have winter for more like nine months of the year. But we ski and we hunt and we do sled and snowmobile and do some of those fun things, just different kinds of outdoor things.
And growing up here, you get conditioned to. I mean, I’ve lived in a lot of different places. If you live somewhere warm, you get conditioned to warm weather. But you live cold, you figure it out. They play in their snow suits.
But I do love to spend time with my kids. They’re such a huge part of what we do and why do the things that we do. And we’re so grateful to have this opportunity to talk with you guys today. Just everything that’s come our way in the last year has been amazing.
DEBRA: Well, thank you so much for doing the work that you’re doing because you’re really setting a good example of what can be done. All the best to you! And we’ll keep talking about your products and see if I can send you some customers your way.
LINDSAY HERRON: Well, you’re getting wool balls. They are coming to you. You’ve got to try these things out.
DEBRA: I want to try your laundry soap too.
LINDSAY HERRON: Okay, I’ll send you a little care package and you can see what you think. I’m excited for you to try them since you haven’t before. And again, I just appreciate this.
DEBRA: Thank you so much. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and listen to all the past shows. I think we have more than 300 now. So ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. Be well.
How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing With Supplements
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be talking about our blood vessels today—what can go wrong and how to keep them in good shape to carry blood to all parts of your body. We’ll cover problems with blood vessels in the eye, the legs, and peripheral neuropathy experienced by diabetics. There are no drugs for these conditions, but they are highly responsive to supplements, and we’ll learn which to take. Pamela has more than 25 years experience choosing and selling top quality medicinal supplements, so she’s seen it all. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
- Vaccines: Harmful or Necessary?
- Evaluating A Study and Testing a Test
- Seven Deadly Drugs
- The Hidden Dangers Affecting Your Heart and How You Can Protect It Naturally
- What We Can Do About Cancer
- The Power of pH
- How to Protect Your Health From Toxic Mercury Dental Fillings
- Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
- Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
- How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use—And How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and into Health
- How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
- Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
- See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
- Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
- Different Types of Detox
- Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
- Natural Alternatives to Sleeping Pills
- Natural Back Pain Treatment Options That Work
- How Toxics Age Your Body & What You Can Do to Stay Young
- You CAN Lose Weight—Even if You’ve Had Difficulty Losing Weight Before
- Calcium—Is There Really a Deficiency in America?
- It’s Cold and Flu Season—How to Support Your Immune System and Why You Shouldn’t Get a Toxic Flu Shot
- How Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help Your Cells Create Health
- Toxic Psychiatry and How to Have Mental Health Without Drugs
- Why You Should Take Fish Oil and How To Choose the Right One for You
- Medicinal Plants Can Replace Toxic Drugs
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing with Supplements
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld
Date of Broadcast: May 20, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. It is Wednesday, May 20th, 2015. It’s a beautiful day here in Clearwater, Florida. The sun is shining. We’re probably going to have thunderstorms, but not during this hour. It’s a beautiful day.
Anyway, today is Wednesday. Every other Wednesday, my guest is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs.
She just has so much knowledge about things that can help your body that aren’t drugs and how to get off of drugs and how your body works. She just has so much information and she’s so healthy. She is the healthiest person I’ve ever seen. I can hear they are laughing in the background.
Pamela lives here in Clearwater, Florida with me. Not with me, but here in Clearwater, Florida just as I do and she’s very well-regarded in our community. The first time I met her face to face, I just thought this the healthiest looking person I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, I have her on every other Wednesday, so that she can just give us all her wisdom and knowledge. Hi, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Thanks for the great intro. It’s wonderful to be here.
DEBRA: Thank you. Today, we’re talking about vascular health. I’m just going to let you explain to our listeners what vascular health is because I think it’s something that most of us don’t even think about.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. And this is a really good topic to talk about because it encompasses a lot of the diseases and a lot of the issues that people face. Vascular health, I want to say in a simpler word, is all-encompassing. It can be explained. The blood vessel health and the ways the permeability of the blood vessels themselves are connected too.
I’m just going to just go through some of the things we’re going to talk about today literally starting from the top of our body, allergies, sinus infections, so on and so forth, glaucoma, eye problems, lungs, asthma, GI, colitis, Crohn’s, leaky gut, your legs, peripheral vascular disease, going all the way down to your body. Your blood vessels and how they’re functioning are responsible for a lot of the outcome of these particular states. So it’s really important that we focus on this.
What we can do to close up the leaky gut membrane, close up the vasculature and also improve the health of it in case things are impregnated and stuck in these particular areas? This is what’s really important.
If you think about it, all these disease states are directly responsible from the vascular health. That’s the very, very foundation of the problem.
DEBRA: That’s so interesting. Before you tell us everything you want to tell us, I want to ask you a question. When toxic chemicals come into your body, they get carried all around your body through the blood vessels, right?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct.
DEBRA: Yeah. So are they damaging the blood vessels as they’re moving around?
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s a very good question. I went and did a search in the library of medicine. We’ve known this, but there are really interesting studies.
The big thing is the chemicals themselves can cause genes to change and change the expression of them and can cause cancer. Of course, we already know that’s what does cause cancer, if the genes are expressed for cancer. They have to nudge it along, usually the chemical that we come in contact with.
But a particular concern as well is exposure to particulate matter constituents in the air. What we know is that long-term exposure to particulate matter – usually these things, you can’t see in the air because they’re copper, iron, nickel, potassium, sulfur, silicon, things like that, vanadium, zinc, moving [inaudible 00:05:04] around things, get tossed up into the air and these particulates.
And we’re not even talking about factories because we’re not really actually near factories here. But it does apply to other people that perhaps are.
You’re breathing these things in. It is directly associated with the increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Where’s the cardiovascular? Your vascular system.
DEBRA: Right.
PAMELA SEEFELD: So we know that for some reason it is directly correlated when people are exposed to these things, these airborne particulates that we breathe in. There are very poor outcomes as far as cardiovascular health. And this actually might explain why cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the country.
DEBRA: The EPA has said that air pollution, indoor air pollution actually is the number one health problem in the country.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes.
DEBRA: It’s just…
PAMELA SEEFELD: That would make sense.
DEBRA: That would make sense because we’re breathing all these gasses and particulates coming from consumer products that we have in our homes, unless of course you’ve been listening to the show and going to my website and taking all those out of your homes.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah. That’s true. It’s important that people realize that we have some control over these things, but also there are some things that are way out of our control. We have to be responsible and understand that most people are going to have an issue in their lifetime.
Maybe they have asthma. Maybe they have leaky gut. Maybe they have IBS. All these things are related to the blood vessels. That’s why we really need to focus on what’s the very bottom line. The basement membrane is where all these problems originally take place.
DEBRA: Okay. So go ahead and tell us about our vascular system because I learn so much from you with all I think take-in biology and things in school. I think that most people are not aware of what’s going on in their bodies when I ask people. “Do you know what your body systems are?” People would say, “What?”
The cardiovascular system is a very, very important system. But when we hear that word cardiovascular, I think most people don’t know that cardio means heart and vascular means your blood vessels. That’s why anytime you hear that now, just think heart and blood vessels. It’s the whole system in your whole body.
So tell us what the cardiovascular system does.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You have to think of it like the pipeline. All these blood vessels, you have these really small blood vessels, the capillaries, literally these red blood cells that are going through a single [inaudible 00:07:37], these large areas where the blood flow is massive and it’s fast.
The heart is obviously pumping the blood and it’s going through our body. And this is a closed circulatory system or it’s a closed piping system.
What we want to concentrate on is to say that the blood vessels themselves are made of cells, each individual cell and they’re all sitting next to each other, altogether and they form this particular means of allowing blood to go flow through the body and allow waste products, oxygen, these things, nutrients to bring to the cell.
So we know this is the exchange process taking place. What’s really interesting is that when you think about the blood vessel, you have to realize that our blood vessels are sensitive to things that can cause permeability issues.
Let’s talk about the sinus infection. Let’s just talk about that. Sinus infection or the runny nose allergies, when you have this, the fluid has to come from someplace.
What happens is there are permeability issues in the nose and in the sinuses. The fluid that normally is inside the blood vessel is allowed to escape to some degree and it goes into the sinus cavities and then you have to blow your nose. That’s how it happens. It’s got to come from someplace and that’s what happens.
We think about just the simplicity of it. If we use vascular stabilizers throughout the body, we can have the blood vessels in one area like the sinuses – maybe you have allergic rhinitis, you have the allergies, you can affect that. But there are also the other parts.
So I tell people, a good example is when somebody has spider veins or the blood vessels are breaking really easily and they have a lot of bruising. They have blood vessel problems elsewhere.
I see this too in the people that have hemorrhoid. Hemorrhoid, you’re going to have trouble with blood vessels in the eye. You’re going to have allergies. You’re going to have other things too because the blood vessels are swelling and the rest of them are also swelling in other areas as well.
That’s the thing that people really need to get their head around. Inflammation and swelling and permeability issues in one area of the body with the blood vessel can affect another, in fact even vice versa. In a person, in the GI tract, it can also affect our eyes because the blood vessels in the eyes might be affected as well.
This is what’s really important. These things are all interconnected. So if you are having one set of symptoms, you might eventually start having others.
DEBRA: It’s because the basic problem is your vascular system.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Right, exactly. And it’s not confined to just one area because it’s all connected. That’s what people should see.
Say somebody has asthma. We just talked about the [inaudible 00:10:18] and we talked about the sinuses. Maybe someone has glaucoma.
They might also develop having some GI issues as well. A lot of times, the alternative people could classify this like leaky gut. It can be IBS as what maybe the doctor would call it. And maybe the person has issues with – they have diarrhea, constipation. Or maybe they have [body?] cramping. Maybe they feel like they’re having allergies.
The hallmark of leaky gut is the person just feels low when they’re eating certain foods. The reason why is because the permeability of the gut has been compromised and particulates are allowed to go into the bloodstream and make antibodies.
DEBRA: Wait. We need to go break. We’re going to need to go to break. When we come back, I’ll have you just start right there and talk about what happens when particulates are going into the bloodstream. We’ll be right back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Pamela Seefeld. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd.
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. In fact, she helps people get off prescription drugs by giving them natural alternatives.
Pamela, before we talk about leaky gut syndrome as we started before the break, tell the listeners about how they can call you.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay, very good. Thank you. If you have any questions about your prescription medications or if you have health issues for not to be on prescription medications, you can call my pharmacy. My consultation is free and I will be glad and very honored to help you and your family. The number here at my pharmacy is (727) 442 4955.
DEBRA: Great. Now, tell us about leaky gut syndrome. The way you just started was so interesting because you explained exactly what was happening.
PAMELA SEEFELD: What’s happening is permeability issues in the leaky gut, the blood vessels are allowing space between them. They’re allowing the fluid to move back and forth more copiously and more exchanging than they should.
As a result of that, the foods that you’re eating, certain things are not supposed to be passing into the bloodstream. They’re going into the bloodstream and you’re making antibodies to them. So all of a sudden, they can make you think you’re allergic to banana or whatever.
That’s what’s happening because these foods are [priming?] the immune system. The immune system will see something in the blood and recognize it as foreign. When people have leaky gut, they have all these food sensitivities and different things like that. What is really happening? It’s the permeability of the gut.
So all of these issues…
DEBRA: Wait. When you say permeability of the gut, I think really what you’re saying if I understand this is the permeability of the blood vessels…
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct.
DEBRA: …in the intestines. So you have intestines…
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, the micro [colitis?]. The small areas there where the absorption takes place at that particular location, the blood vessels are inflamed.
They’re not just inflamed, but they’re compromised. They’re allowing things to come in and out and the exchange back and forth from the gut in an unreasonable manner. As a result of that, things are getting into the gut and then making people so sick. The case in point, when people eat something, then all of a sudden, they’re just not feeling well, that might be what’s happening and they might have this very issue going on.
And the great part about it is that this particular problem and the ones we discussed prior to that, they are heavy responses to supplements. So this is really a great thing.
I mean when somebody has a GI issue or even some of these things we’re talking about, I usually say the vascular health is highly responsive to supplements. It’s pretty inexpensive and easy to treat. And even just having GI issues, the first thing you should think of is permeability issue. And this applies to somebody that’s getting colitis, somebody that has Crohn’s disease.
Obviously, Crohn’s in some cases will need treatment in steroids and things like that. But most people, when they’re [in re-emission?] or have to prevent a reoccurrence, they can use the things that stabilize the blood vessels and the inflammation in the blood vessels themselves and have a great outcome.
DEBRA: What kinds of supplements would you give somebody for this?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. When we look at what supplements work for allergies, for the eyes, for lungs, for the GI, we can look at several different things.
What the studies show is that flavonoids are highly responsive. That would include rutin, quercetin and hesperidin. I tend to like quercetin quite a bit. But the studies show, especially in allergic rhinitis, that rutin is highly effective for that.
Now, resveratrol is another supplement that works very, very well. Actually the new studies show that when someone actually has a spinal cord injury or they have bulging or hernia or just any kind of back problems, it’s causing inflammatory changes in the body as a result. Believe it or not, it’s all encompassing. They can change the whole body chemistry. That resveratrol seems to help that and it helps the injury on the spine as well.
So that was pretty interesting. Both sequences have vascular stabilizing properties, but they also seem to have some neurological positive outcomes as well. That’s very important as well.
What I tell people too is that using the detox, the Body Anew is important because permeability issues, especially the sinuses or the lungs – when things get stuck in the area, the lung tissue and the sinus cavities and mucus membranes, when things get stuck in those particular areas, we know for a fact that moving it out makes a big difference.
If the area is constantly irritated with particulates like the gut, if the area is potentially irritated with particulates in different areas of the nose, the mouth, wherever the problem may be, especially the lungs of people with asthma, if you don’t get the particulates out, that’s where the problem is.
Remember we were talking about particulates in the air, things you’re breathing in? Well, they get stuck in those membranes and then they’re allowed to stay in there. They’re going to start moving in and out. That’s where some of the issues really are. You need to remove it.
DEBRA: What about bloody noses? What causes bloody noses?
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s a good question. Bloody nose, first of all, can be spontaneous, which means it just shows up out of the blue.
It can probably be something that’s going on with the blood vessel itself. Maybe the person was blowing her nose so much that it has actually broken a blood vessel, so it continued to bleed.
It could be the person’s platelets are too low. I always tell people that if they’re starting to show lots of bruising or there are lots of bloody noses, things like that, you really need to check your CBC with your doctor and just see where your platelets reside because you’d be surprised some people come out with really low their platelets.
The platelets of most people are probably going to be around 250. That’s the number when the platelets are taken. But you can also see people – quite frequently I see people in the hospital that have 100 and below. And you can have a spontaneous bleed if it’s below 20. I mean you’ll start bleeding anywhere.
Most people will probably don’t think about that. You have to look at it too. Maybe a multivitamin has a lot of vitamin E in it. There are other ways you’re getting blood thinning activity. A lot of people take a baby aspirin for cardiovascular disease and also for preventing cancer. Baby aspirin is excellent for both of those things.
It can really be other factors too. A lot of times, you need to look and see where the platelet count resides because that just gives you clue as to whether you need to look in that particular direction. The platelets will definitely affect whether it’s clotting or not.
DEBRA: Okay, that’s good. We only have a few seconds before we go to break. So I’m not going to ask you a new question.
I’ll just say during these few seconds that you’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. My guest is Pamela Seefeld and her website is BotanicalResource.com. You can go there and get her phone number and find out how to call her and get a free consultation.
We’ll be right back after the break and hear more about vascular health and what you can do.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs.
And she really does get a lot of people off prescription drugs and feeling healthier and happier. Her website is BotanicalResource.com. You can call her for a free consultation.
So Pamela, talk to us about peripheral neuropathy. I think so many people have a problem with that or so many diabetics in the world.
PAMELA SEEFELD: The peripheral neuropathy is the nerves being affected. When someone has peripheral vascular disease, they can also have…
DEBRA: Yeah. Let’s clear this up. Okay, go ahead.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s okay. It’s alright! [Inaudible 00:27:32] The peripheral vascular disease is important to focus on when we’re talking about vascular health. There are several different things that can cause it, diabetes, smoking, chemicals, those particulates that I was talking about, untreated hypertension.
And it’s really important for your listeners to know that when someone has hypertension and it’s not treated, it does damage the blood vessels. I’m not saying it’s going to cause permeability issues, but it could lead to that. The bad part about it is that it puts strain on the blood vessels themselves.
It’s very important if someone does have high blood pressure and perhaps they don’t want to be on a prescription, they can just give me a call and I can tell them what would work naturally and would be very effective. That’s very important to realize. There are a lot of options for that.
So a person that has abnormal cholesterol is another thing. Say someone is procrastinating and their cholesterol is 290 or 300. Trust me. I don’t think cholesterol is the big demon that they think it is. But most people, that’s how to check the cholesterols in the normal range. So this doesn’t really have anything to do with the cholesterol.
But we know that if the inflammation is there, permeability problems there in the blood vessel and then you add extra cholesterol in the bloodstream, you’re going to have a problem. And that problem will be that the arteries are going to start collecting the cholesterol and letting it form this peripheral vascular disease where it just narrows.
As a result of it, you have this terrible circulation in your legs. You can tell when people have peripheral vascular disease or vascular problems through their legs because they’ll be swollen, they’ll be red. It will maybe lead to what’s called cellulitis, which is an infection to the skin.
And many times, the people will complain of pain. That’s the most common thing. People would be walking and then all of a sudden, their legs start really hurting badly and they can’t walk stairs, they can’t walk across the yard, things of that sort. This is actually preventable.
When someone has a vascular issue, we would want to put them on those bioflavinoids that I was talking about. There’s also a homeopathic product that I use a lot for people that have issues with circulation in their legs. It’s called Circulation, no doubt. Yes, it’s a great name for it. This particular product increases blood flow down to the legs about 90%.
You can also use arginine, which is an amino acid that does have dilating effects on the blood vessels. And there’s a product from Thorne called Perfusia, which I use quite a bit. It dilates arterial blood flow and increases about 40%. So we can use that for the legs.
I also like to mention for our male clients that are listening on the radio today that using Perfusia or using arginine to increase blood flow in the legs also increases blood flow to someplace else. So we use it for erectile dysfunction.
And if you think your blood vessel issue is just delegated solely to your leg or to your eyes or to your sinuses, that might explain some of the other things that are going in the private areas of the body. I think it’s important for people to realize that that’s connected as well.
DEBRA: It’s so interesting to me that you keep saying that all these things are connected and that this one thing in vascular health can be affecting all these different areas of your body. And yet in the world of drugs, there’s a different drug for each of these different conditions.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You are the smartest woman in the world. Yes. Isn’t that amazing that they have a drug for each condition and they have a whole series of doctors for every single condition we’ve mentioned for some specialty?
But really what it comes down to it is the vascular health of your body can be reversed and can be improved simply by doing some simple supplements and realizing early on when you start seeing some of these things happening that you need to literally start treating it. And start treating it with vigor until it’s finished.
That is really important because when one thing crops up, something else is going to show up eventually. I can promise people that. It will lead to something else and to the next thing and to the next thing.
I think this really explains a lot of people, just their decompensation of their body and how, as they get older, they expect states would start showing up. And if they do, it’s like you put it out there and you get it.
Your vascular health is something that is heavily responsive, believe it or not, even to vegetables, eating vegetables in your diet because there are lots of bioflavonoids in your vegetables, having a big salad with lots of colorful vegetables. You can eat bioflavonoids. Those have vascular stabilizing activity.
That’s why people that have a vegetarian-based diet or having lots of plants in their diet have better vascular health and less of these chronic diseases. It’s directly functional to what you’re putting on the blood vessels and what you’re allowing them to be in contact with.
DEBRA: Does it make a difference if the vegetables are cooked or raw?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Not necessarily. In fact, some vegetables actually release more bioflavonoids when they’re cooked.
I want to believe it is carrots and broccoli that might release more than being raw. When they’re raw, digestion itself has to break all these down, especially for carotenoid vegetables. So we’re talking about maybe carrots and sweet potatoes. Cooking actually helps them to release their nutrients better.
But when you take bioflavonoids in a tablet, you would have to be eating a huge amount of produce to get the same results. If you actually want to do a treatment, you really would be best off to say, “I’m going to take some bioflavoinoids.”
The great part about bioflavonoids – resveratrol is pretty inexpensive. It’s not a big cost layout and the results are excellent.
DEBRA: What if the people listening to this are saying to themselves, “Maybe I should just take these supplements to help strengthen my vascular system and avoid problems,” would that be a good idea?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Most definitely. Prevention is really the key in anything. You’ve seen the way I have my practice here. You’re preventing problems.
You have to look at the crystal ball of your own life and say, “What am I at risk for?” You look at your family. You look at your blood work, which I do with people. I look at your blood work and say, “Look. I see this is coming. It’s not here yet.”
And if you can look at some of the leg health, if the legs are bruising really easily, if they have allergies that are just not seeming to get better, but then all of a sudden, they start ending up to hemorrhoids and other problems or a man gets erectile dysfunction – all of a sudden, you’re thinking all these problems are just new problems showing up and that’s just the way life is. It’s not because you’re doing things that stimulate and close up these permeability issues that are highly affective.
That’s why really taking some bioflavonoids everyday, especially for your eye health is really important. And it’s easy. Like the quercetin, I use quercetin in liquid quite a bit. And you can even just put it in water and it really has a great effect to fight allergies, hemorrhoids, things of that nature, but also probably ED to some degree.
DEBRA: Wow. This is so interesting to me. Every time we do a show, I learn new things from you.
This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, a registered pharmacist. But she likes to give natural substances instead. Her website is BotanicResource.com.
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, a registered pharmacist who dispenses natural substances instead of drugs through her pharmacy at BotanicalResource.com.
Pamela, this is our last segment now. We only have about 10 minutes left. I’m going to let you talk about whatever you want to talk about, about the subject.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. You’re so sweet. I would like to repeat my phone number if anyone would like to call me and has any questions in particular. I would like to help you. The number here at Botanical Resource is (727) 442-4955.
I like to talk a little bit about the supplements some more, about looking at preventing these vascular issues.
One of the things that you should probably be taking everyday – we were talking previously about the peripheral vascular disease and how fat deposits can go into the arteries. And there’s permeability issues associated with that as well. And then all of a sudden, there are areas narrow and the blood cells can’t go through there very well and you end up with very painful legs, trouble walking and in some case, you’ll really need surgery.
We can’t prevent the fatty deposits by taking pantethine which works very good to lower cholesterol or red rice yeast. I’m sure most people know about that. But the big culprit in a lot of these is elevated fasting blood sugar, which is causing the lipids to rise in the first place.
What I can tell people is you really want to know what your blood pressure number is. We were talking about hypertension causing some problems and causing problems in the blood vessels. Maybe you want to do some homeopathy if your systolic is a little bit high.
Case in point, if your blood sugar and your fasting blood sugar is anywhere around 100, if it’s getting up to that point, in the high 90s or 100, you need to look at that and say, “Am I at risk for diabetes? And is this elevated blood sugar in particular causing problems with the vasculature itself?”
DEBRA: Wait. Could you talk about that a little more?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, absolutely.
DEBRA: How could elevated blood sugar do that?
PAMELA SEEFELD: What happens is elevated blood sugar is doing several different things. It’s circulating cytokines, which cause inflammation in the blood vessel. It also increases blood lipids, triglyceride cholesterol and LDL.
In turn, when it’s increasing these lipids and there’s inflammation present from the cytokines when they’re enhanced and it was causing them to start up causing inflammation, what happens is the area becomes sticky and allows the cholesterol and the lipids to attach to the blood vessel lining. Peripheral vascular disease could set in, in these patients that are not treating the cholesterol itself.
So inflammation, it all comes back to your blood pressure and in your blood sugar. Those two things really are hallmarks. Remember I was talking to you and we were talking about vascular health and your platelets. You really want to know where they’re at and see if they’re on the low end of normal. That’s something to really watch for bleeding.
In particular, the sugar itself is causing several things. It’s causing increased inflammation. It’s causing increased lipids. And in turn, it’s causing the blood vessels to become occluded. So cardiovascular disease has lots of different tenets, but we know that blood sugar elevation allows for the other damaging aspects to take place.
DEBRA: Very good explanation. Okay, I interrupted you. Go on with what you are saying.
PAMELA SEEFELD: No, it’s good. I like that you have a question in between. What I would tell you are the things that people really should be on. You need to be on fish oil first and foremost. That lowers your triglyceride, 30% of them.
And fish oil does have lots of other effects in the body. We know it has central nervous system effects for cognition. We also know too that it has anti-arrhythmic effects on the heart. The reason why I bring this up is that we’re talking about the heart and we’re talking about the vascular system.
I don’t know if your clients and the people that listen on this show have heard about this. But atrial fibrillation is when the heart is quivering. It’s beating too fast. And atrial fibrillation shows up in a lot of people. This is something I see quite frequently working as a pharmacist and a lot of people are on Coumadin or on blood thinners. The reason why is they have what’s called as AFib.
AFib can show up from several different things. But really it commonly happens when someone has diabetes or is overweight. The ones that are at risk for it also, believe it or not, are people that are drinking. Alcohol can put them at risk for AFib. There are a lot of different things.
When you have AFib, you have to be on blood thinners. And a lot of these people are on it for the rest of their lives.
I would say taking care of your heart and taking care of your blood vessels is very, very important. That might be something that people are overlooking.
I was talking about the resveratrol, looking at improvement from spinal cord injuries, people with inflammation and also had blood vessel disease. Taking quercetin, these are very inexpensive. That would be very good. I think taking fish oil is very important.
And I think taking the Body Anew – we were talking originally about these particulates getting stuck, chemicals and pesticides as well, but also more particularly the things you’re breathing in the air in your house and outside. These things that get stuck in the mucus membrane, in your nasal passages, in your lungs – you want to take that out. And by removing it, you’re going to have a much better outcome. That’s first and foremost.
It’s the Body Anew with quercetin in the water and maybe an anti-inflammatory. I really like taking something called [Traumeel?] or you can use [Chronogies?]. There are different ones you can put in the water. If you drink that through the day, your inflammation will be drastically reduced. So those are very important.
DEBRA: Let me just insert here. Pamela has been talking about drinking things in water. One of the thing that she does with all her clients is that she has – I’ll say S because I’m one of her clients.
Start the morning with a bottle of water and then add things to it that are liquids like homeopathic remedies and things. And then drinking it through the day is being on an IV. Didn’t you say that one?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct.
DEBRA: Throughout the day…
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right because you’re getting continuous peaks in the bloodstream of the medication. That’s how medications are dosed when someone’s in a CCU or an ICU or something like that. It really changes the dynamics of how things work in your body.
When you take a pill and you swallow it and you get a peak in the bloodstream and then 5 to 10 minutes after that, it’s not around anymore, that’s the problem. You want to have something that’s released all day long.
DEBRA: Right. I’m kind of lazy about taking supplements. People will tell me, “Take one of these at breakfast, lunch and dinner.” And I go, “Yeah, I can’t remember this.”
For a while, I was just taking all my supplements in the morning. And then when I learned this from Pamela, I went “Oh, that’s why they say take it at breakfast, lunch and dinner.” I realized that I just need to train myself to do that because the best way to be taking supplements or medications or whatever is throughout the day.
I have my bottle here. It just sits on my desk all day long and I just keep sipping it. And I have my supplements sitting right here at breakfast, lunch and dinner. It gets rid throughout the day and then my body gets what it needs when it needs it instead of just having it all in the morning. I think that’s just a really important point.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It is. And the continual dosing of the medication and the homeopathic medicines in the water is really, really a hallmark of a lot of things to do here. If you’re just taking it or you’re having it just in the morning, you’re not going to get it all day long.
I’ve been treating some people that have cancer or if they have a really sever infection of some sort – we really want to have even a morning bottle and an afternoon bottle so you’re covered all day long. You don’t want to have it temporarily like you’re just getting a small peak in the bloodstream. That’s why liquids are really the way to go if you want to have a better outcome for patients.
And it’s the same thing with the quercetin. I know quercetin are tablets and I do use those here. But quercetin and liquid will be far more effective for somebody that’s looking for this type of outcome than someone that’s using it with the tablet and taking it three times a day.
You’re right. The compliance of somebody taking something sporadically through the day and capsules is very low. I see that most people don’t do the liquid and don’t drink it through the day and bring into their office, put on their desk. But taking tablets through the day doesn’t really work as well.
I can help people if they have questions about any of the vascular issues we discussed today, especially if that’s affecting you or your loved ones. You can really treat that pretty easily with some bioflavonoids in the Body Anew to really pull that out.
I would really tell your listeners that that’s something that they should really think about, especially we were talking about the peripheral vascular disease. And also allergies are extremely common. Most people realize that this is usually treatable.
And it’s treatable in your pets, your dogs and cats. If they’re sneezing a lot, if they’re scratching, you can use bioflavonoids for animals as well.
DEBRA: This is so interesting. We only have just a couple of minutes left, but I just want to say that one of the reasons why I have Pamela on so much is because she has a unique combination of understanding of how things work in the body because she’s a pharmacist and then she’s applying that pharmacist understanding to using natural substances. It just makes a combination that I’ve never seen any place else, but it makes so much sense to me.
Usually if people want to use something natural or a natural supplement, they just go to the natural food store, they read an article or something. And people are taking supplements not understanding how they work in the body.
Pamela does understand these things. That’s why I just appreciate her so much. Anyway…
PAMELA SEEFELD: I appreciate you. I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk to these people and help them understand.
Thank you.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Your vascular health is really in your hands. Believe it or not, there are some things you can’t control. There are some things that people come to me and I’m like, “You know what? This is better handled with medicine.” I’m very, very honest about that.
DEBRA: Yes, she is.
PAMELA SEEFELD: There’s not a lot, but this is one that medicine does not address.
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Really. Medicine does not address all these things we talked about, the sinus problem, asthma, the colitis, the Crohn, the leaky gut, the peripheral vascular disease. All these things to some degree are preventable and treatable pretty easily with some common supplements. And your outcomes are pretty much better than taking a bunch of medications for these things.
I would tell you that…
DEBRA: Wait. Pamela, Pamela, the music is coming on in two seconds. Thank you very much.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Thank you.
DEBRA: Until you’re back in two weeks on Wednesday. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Plant Air Purifier
Question from Noel Kehrlein
Hi Debra,
Do you know anything about this product?
www.plantairpurifier.com
Thanks.
Debra’s Answer
This air purifier sounds doubtful to me.
Here’s their explanation.
The Plant Air Purifier uses a common houseplant to clean the air. Plants have natural air-cleaning abilities, but to use plants as air filters is difficult due to the numerous houseplants necessary to clean air sufficiently and efficiently. This is the capability of the Plant Air Purifier; one Plant Air Purifier has the cleaning power of 100 standard houseplants. The Plant Air Purifier achieves this through a unique design that increases airflow past the root system which is the host of toxin consuming microbes.
Air containing toxic elements passes through the porous growing media and activated carbon by means of a high velocity fan. The activated carbon within the media attracts chemicals and holds them until the microscopic organisms (microbes) eat the toxins. The byproducts of the consumption process are nontoxic food and energy for themselves and the host plant. Over time microbes adapt to their environment and the chemicals they are exposed to; they quickly acclimate to the amount and type of toxins in the air, thus becoming more efficient at consuming these chemicals.
They aren’t using the plant technology at all developed by Dr. Wolverton (the basis of their advertlsing). The plant is just sitting on top of activated carbon and it’s the microbes in the roots that eat the toxins.
If you are interested in this type of technology, the O2 purifier that I recommend is much more specifically designed in terms of collection of the pollutants and presence of microbes. I don’t see any air testing here, and it just seems inadequate in size and power.
Obamacare Alternative Insurance That Includes Holistic Care
My guest today is Kari E. Gray, Founder of GreenSurance Natural Medicine. We’ll be talking about Obamacare requirements and some options for how to fulfill them, including her innovative new program that cove rs alternative medicine as well as conventional. A passion in Kari’s professional career left by terminal cancer, Kari’s determination to survive by exploring all options despite medical diagnosis of no survival, led a tenacious, driven mother to natural treatments that in time gave her a second chance at life. Twenty-five years later she has an even more amazing story and passion to lead the natural medicine healthcare mission. As an insurance professional, Kari’s knowledge of healthcare including first-hand experience of being denied coverage when choosing natural treatments, empowered her with a commitment to ‘pay it forward’ and help people with life saving healthcare. www.mygreensurance.org
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
ObamaCare Alternatives Insurance that Includes Holistic Care
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Kari E. Gray
Date of Broadcast: May 19, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Tuesday, May 19th, 2015 on a beautiful day here in Clearwater, Florida. Today, we’re going to talk about insurance, insurance, insurance. Oh, wow! I just want to say what a mess this is.
Okay. So I’ll just say that for the past – I don’t know how many years, four or five years, I had a wonderful little insurance – I’ll say “insurance” – that I pay $69 a month for. What it does is it pays for doctor visits. It pays 100% of labs and it gives a prescription discount. It’s $69 a month. Now, that is ending because of ObamaCare.
So I did my taxes this year. There’s this thing about having to pay the penalty if you don’t have insurance. What I saw in my tax return was that it just asks you, “Do you have adequate insurance?” And then you just get to answer yes or no. I just answered yes because I felt like that I had adequate healthcare. But it didn’t even have a definition of what that meant in the instructions with the taxes.
My guest today knows all about this. Not only does she know all about ObamaCare, but she has a new insurance program that qualifies for being your insurance for ObamaCare that also gives you holistic care. She’s going to tell us all about everything.
Her name is Kari Gray. She’s the Founder of GreenSurance Natural Medicine. Hi, Kari.
KARI GRAY: Good morning. How are you?
DEBRA: I’m good. And you’re in Hawaii. How is it in Hawaii?
KARI GRAY: It’s wonderful! It’s Hawaii. Is there more to say? We always have sunshine and we have rain. And it’s green and it’s always beautiful.
DEBRA: It sounds like Florida. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I’ve seen pictures and it’s a place I’d like to go one day.
KARI GRAY: Yes.
DEBRA: Tell us your story of how you got to establishing GreenSurance Natural Medicine.
KARI GRAY: This has been actually quite a long journey. But I’ll focus in on just the most recent part of it just because of the fact that it’s most relevant.
Basically, as you know, we have this ObamaCare legislation. I have written a patent actually for a natural medicine health insurance. Recognizing the bureaucracy of insurance – I’m a licensed insurance professional, so just recognizing how flow change is coming and recognizing that there’s also this love-hate relationship that people seem to have with insurance.
So really, just doing market testing, as we called it, kind of field of testing a product, people were very excited of the idea that there would be a product that would give them alternative medicine, but weren’t [inaudible 00:04:24]. It was kind of strange, the responses that we’re getting from people are strange.
And so continuing the research actually the legislation is how I actually came upon a different kind of application. The law basically said that there were exemptions to the penalty. So I really focused in on what the exemptions were. I won’t go into all of it now. Anyway, there were a number of different exemptions and organizations that qualified. It was a strenuous list and it seems really rather unusual that anybody could even pass this.
For example, they had to be in existence before 1999 and they had to have third party verification. There were just a lot of very ambiguous things. I was like, “Wow! I’m not for sure who else qualifies for this because who would have known in 1999 or before what was coming down the pipe years later.”
Anyway, as I continued to research, then I found that actually there were a lot of organizations to start with that applied for that exemption. But because of the criteria – there were more – they couldn’t pass. And what remained were just a handful of organizations that actually qualified.
That’s how this actually migrated from insurance to what’s called cost sharing. And cost sharing is an alternative. It’s like if you think about the difference between what a credit union offers and what a bank offers.
When you realize that there is a difference between the two, yet the service they provide to individuals feels the same, there is a completely different dynamic that goes into how they do and what they do. And that is for profit is what a bank does and for people or for members is what a credit union does. That’s really the similarity and difference that health insurance has with cost sharing.
We are a non-profit and we’re a coalition of non-profit. What we’re doing is using the federal law to provide something that’s really not done anywhere. And that’s what’s really exciting about this because what that has now opened up – we’re not inside, we’re not mandated by ObamaCare to have all of the kinds of coverage that ObamaCare requires for an insurance company to have, which is what skyrocketed the rate. For example, no one can be turned down. That’s a big problem. So that means everybody has to be insured.
The next problem is that you can have any kind of lifestyle and you can have any pre-existing conditions. All of those things are what are making it hard for all the other people, who, like yourself, may have had one small insurance policy. Now, those are no longer in existence because there are actually 10 different criteria that, according to ObamaCare, an insurance policy have to make. If it doesn’t make that, then that’s why they basically have to put some money to the policy or they can’t even reissue them. So that explains how your policy is lost because it just doesn’t qualify any longer.
There are a lot of people that are kind of thrown under the bus in all of this. Anyway, the great thing is that the cost sharing is a wonderful alternative. It’s not insurance, but it actually serves the same capacity and it gives people also what has never been given before. So it’s not just alternative, but it’s a conventional and alternative approach to medicine and it’s all under the same organizational services that are being offered now.
DEBRA: So now, there are a lot of details that you can give us and I want you to give all these details. But before we get to those, I want to talk a little bit more just because I think that I and a lot of other people don’t understand this. So what ObamaCare wants – and we’re going to run into the break, so you might not get to answer it all and then we’ll finish after the break. What Obama wants is for everybody to get insurance, regular insurance according to the guidelines that they have in ObamaCare. Correct me if I’m wrong. If you don’t, you have to pay a penalty. Am I right so far?
KARI GRAY: Yes, you’re correct.
DEBRA: Okay. So could you tell us about this penalty?
KARI GRAY: Yeah, sure. The penalty basically starts out small. It’s 1% of what’s called your AGI. That’s your Adjusted Gross Income. In other words, it’s not what your income starts out at. If you take some deductions, it’s that final number.
So it’s 1% of that number or $90. I think that’s how it starts. In other words, for a person who doesn’t even make enough that he would qualify for that, then it’s just $90. It’s not too bad, but basically what’s going to happen is time goes by, every year, that number goes up.
Anyway, it’s going to be a lot more significant. Of course, the more income the person makes, the more significant that’s going to become. So it’s going to actually be thousands and thousands of dollars as time goes by because I think by 2016, it will be 3%.
Just to give you an example and just to give your audience an example of what that really means. So if you just estimate what your adjusted gross income is, times that number, times 3%, you can just get an idea. Now that’s just what the penalty is.
That means you still don’t have any options really, but you’ve got to pay a penalty. That’s what it comes down to.
DEBRA: This year, when I was doing 2014 taxes, this is the first time that I saw that penalty. So it’s $90 for the 2014 taxes or 1%. Is that what you said? And then there’s 2015. By the time it’s 2016, it’s 3%. And then does it go up from there?
KARI GRAY: Actually, the legislation doesn’t go into it. This is where the…
DEBRA: Oh, wait! Wait! I have to cut you off because we have to go to break.
KARI GRAY: Okay.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. I’m talking with Kari Gray, the Founder of GreenSurance Natural Medicine about ObamaCare and what we can do to have alternative health as part of our insurance. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: We’re having some technical problems, but now we’re back. Kari, I hope you are still there with me. Are you there?
KARI GRAY: I am.
DEBRA: Yeah. Wasn’t that strange? I’ve been doing this show for two years and I’ve never had something like that happen. So I’m sorry that it happened on your show, but here we are again.
We were talking about – what were we talking about? I asked you a question. I’m sorry. My attention is on all this technical stuff. What were we talking about?
KARI GRAY: You were asking about the penalty. And I said that it’s going to be 3% by 2016 and you were asking if it goes up any further.
From anything that I’ve read, I don’t see anything expressing that right now, but it could be. I read a lot of information. I’ll let that be something that we can leave for another conversation when we have more time to research that. But I know that it goes up to 3%. That’s what I have seen.
DEBRA: So this is like forcing us to get insurance.
KARI GRAY: That’s the idea.
DEBRA: What if we don’t want insurance?
KARI GRAY: Then that’s what the penalty is to coerce a person into. I mean, that’s really what it comes down to. You can’t go to jail for it, but basically though they can seize some assets or freeze assets. Really the way they collect this is through refunds. That’s how they enforce it. It’s through an overpayment of taxes, then the IRS can take it from your refund.
DEBRA: I can’t tell you how unhappy this makes me because what is going to happen for me is that I’m either going to have to pay the penalty or I’m going to have to get insurance that I don’t even use or I can get something like your program.
KARI GRAY: Yes.
DEBRA: Your program is not insurance, but it qualifies under that other thing. So if I were to get your program – I don’t want to call it insurance, your cost sharing. But I guess people think of it as insurance anyway because it’s like [inaudible 00:19:01].
KARI GRAY: Yeah. It’s what most people think of it, but it isn’t and we don’t want to represent it that it is. That’s why we always clarify that it is not insurance.
Basically, I use the illustration about the credit union. Really cost sharing is where people come together with a united purpose. That united purpose is the fact that they basically are going to put their money together. It’s kind of an insurance called a risk pool.
Basically, when you pay premium, then that goes into obviously covering the cost of the insurance and all their salaries in the company and the profits and all that. But then a portion of it goes into what’s called the risk pool. When that claim is paid out, it comes out of the risk pool.
In cost sharing, it’s not the same, but it is similar in the fact that the person makes a donation to the community. And then those community resources are what actually in the end (because they’re combined with other people in the community as well), it actually is similar because it is what pays the medical cost that a person experiences at the end of the day. That’s really what we’re looking for. It’s a way to not go health care cost alone, which is what the penalty is all about or to try to encourage people or force them actually once it becomes more enforced.
It will become more enforced as time goes on. It’s written in the body of law, but it’s not really clear yet what’s going to happen.
But anyways, point being is that what cost sharing does is it gives people a way to really give themselves that protection, which is that they’re not going to be penalized and that they’ve got freedom. What we say is, “Freedom equals choice. And choice is power for medicine.”
If your choice in your health care is not just looking at things that potentially could be toxic. If you want to have some options outside of just the status quo of conventional approaches, then cost sharing actually is what you really need to look at because that’s the only way to get the freedom that, even under ObamaCare, will never be offered.
DEBRA: Okay. We need to go to break. We’ll talk more about this when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guess today is Kari Gray. She has found an alternative program for ObamaCare. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guess today is Kari Gray. She’s the Founder of GreenSurance Natural Medicine.
Kari, before we go on and have you to tell us all the details about your program, you have quite a dramatic personal story of how you got interested in this. Would you tell us your story?
KARI GRAY: Sure, yes. Actually that’s the true beginning of how this started. In 1988 – actually I’ll start with the funny part of the story.
We all remember – or we’re old enough to remember I guess I’ll say. When Oprah Winfrey evaporated in front of everybody when she throws this coat and there was this much smaller version of Oprah and it was shocking to everybody.
And then she followed it up with pulling a wagon that represented all the weight she lost.
DEBRA: I remember seeing that on TV. Yeah.
KARI GRAY: Yeah. It was an epic moment. Oprah had some real epic moments in her career as a talk show host for sure.
That motivated me because I always felt like I was overweight even though actually at the time, I really wasn’t. But anyway, it motivated me to go to my doctor because she had taken this miracle substance called Optifast. You had to go to the doctor and get a physical in order to get on it. That’s actually how I got started.
So I went to the doctor thinking, “I’m going to try this.” So I go and I have a complete physical. When I called to go back for my results, I didn’t even begin to guess where this was going.
I was given two diagnoses. The first one was multi sclerosis. I asked what the cure of it is. There is no cure, they told me. And the next thing was liver cancer. I said, “What?”
They said, “Yes. And the bad news is that you’re too far gone for chemo and radiation. Basically you didn’t have much longer to live. So I’m sorry. There’s really nothing we can offer you.” That was the news I was given that day.
That was very devastating needless to say. And 25 years old and I had a house full of kids and I was dying. It was very, very overwhelming. I was depressed, I was devastated and I was dying and I just went to bed.
So [inaudible 00:29:12] and I really didn’t know what I was going to do. But the one thing that I had the presence of mind to realize was that first of all, I needed to start exhausting options. Maybe there was something that the doctor didn’t know about. That was my first thought. I had no idea at the time what that could be.
And then the second one is I realized, especially when I got the second diagnosis, that the first thing I needed to do – I could feel what’s in me. I was starting to die. I could feel the process happening. It was like psychologically, I was starting the dying process. I recognized that the first thing I needed to do is I needed to stop listening to bad news because that really was creating quite a psychological mind play on my psyche and my will to live.
Anyway, that’s basically how this all got started. I don’t know if you can hear rain or not, but that’s what that is if you do hear it. Anyway, that’s how my story got started, basically just exploring the options.
I felt my eulogy to my children would be that, yes, I died young, but I exhausted every option for their sake. That’s what really pushed me to start reading and researching and talking to people. You got to realize this was before the Internet.
There was a lot of diligent effort on my part. And sure enough, it eventually got me to a practitioner who not only did she immediately, through her testing methods, find the cancer and again confirm that I was terminal with not much longer to live. But the good news for me was that – since I already knew, I told her she wasn’t breaking the news to me. So she felt better.
But she asked me if I believe that I had a chance. I said, “Well, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I had a chance. That’s why I’m looking for something other than my doctor and what they told me.”
She said, “Here’s the thing. I believe that you do have a chance because you’re young.” And she said, “But it’s going to require 100% diligence on your part. You got to be fully committed to everything I tell you to do. This is going to take a lot of change on your part.”
But she said this. “Your health insurance, you have insurance, right?” I said yes. She goes, “Your health insurance is going to pay for it.” I said, “Wow! Okay, let’s do it.” I didn’t know what other options I had and I really didn’t have any.
That’s how this shift started in my own personal story. I was just basically trying to survive, a catalyst, the soon-to-be death that I was facing.
What I was found was the problem. I found that there were a lot of things that I was doing wrong. That’s really what was causing the cancer.
Unfortunately, I had a lot of people. Every time we have a health issue, I just went to the doctor. And I usually ended up with a prescription like an antibiotic prescription. I did recognize how the overuse of antibiotics and all the other things in my life, too much sugar in my diet, too much stress in my life, birth controls. All of those things were contributing to setting me up to having a compromised immune system.
So I learned all the things that I was doing wrong. And I learned how to change all of those things, and it was a massive change. She was right when she said it’s going to take a lot of change, a lot of commitment on my part. It really did.
Anyway, here’s the interesting part. Eight months later, I’ve been spending thousands and thousands of dollars on all of this.
First of all, I submitted all my receipts. I thought this is [inaudible 00:33:19]. I submitted all my receipts. What’s interesting is the letter that I got back. They said that not only was I out of coverage for what I was doing, but it was unproven. So I was like, “That’s very interesting.”
I ended up going back to the doctor and I want to suggest seeing if I had made any progress. Now the way that the conversation went from here really again shifted my consciousness.
The first thing is my doctor was shocked that I was alive. “Okay, that was great. That was great news.” So I want to tell her why I was alive and what I was doing. And then I was shocked because she didn’t want to hear it and I was like, “What?”
She said, “Absolutely, I do not want to hear this.” And she said, “We are running new tests and you need to prepare for the works.” And I think she thought maybe I was delusional. I don’t know. But the point is that I spent a few more days anxious of waiting again, more bad news.
But this was where it all shifted for me because when she came in, she had my charts down and she didn’t make eye contact with me. So I sat there in silence for a while. And then I thought it was awkward. So I just decided to break the silence and started talking again about what I’ve been doing. And then she immediately stopped me. So we sat there.
And then finally, she looked at me and she said, “I saw what your original test was like and I see what these look like. And I’m here to tell you, the liver does not do this on its own. I don’t know what you’ve been doing and I don’t want to know. But I know this much, you’re cancer-free. Congratulations!”
DEBRA: We’re going to go to break there. That’s an amazing story, really wonderful.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kari Gray. When we come back, she’s going to tell us about her program that you can use instead of Obama Insurance so that you can get alternative health as part of your program and not just regular doctors. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kari Gray. She is the founder of GreenSurance Natural Medicine.
Kari, as we ended off before the break, you were telling us how you did all these alternative things to get cancer-free and that your insurance didn’t cover any of them. So I consider that would be a big motivation for you to come up with a program where people who are having catastrophic situations like you had would have a program where they can get some help and support with the financial and with those kinds of illnesses.
So would you tell us in detail now about your program and what people get and what they don’t get? What does it cover? What is it all about?
KARI GRAY: Sure. There are a lot of things. Basically we let people to be aware of it. Our website actually is a great source of information and it actually is always kept most up to date. So please, if I can mention the website.
DEBRA: Sure.
KARI GRAY: Okay. It’s MyGreenSurance.com.
DEBRA: Is it not .org?
KARI GRAY: Yeah, it’s both. We have .com and .org. Yeah, we own both. Anyway, basically that’s where all of the facts are up. Anything that I’m not covering that people still have, the FAQs is a great page to look at and so is the health plan. It just narrows it all down.
But basically what we’re talking about is this. The purpose of the community approach is that it’s to offer lessened basic treatment to people versus what conventional wants to do oftentimes. That really is nice. People don’t like to be having basic things if they can avoid that.
And it also offers things like it prevents more costly conventional treatment. That’s big because really now you’re getting into more proactive things that you can do for your health.
Just to give an example. In ObamaCare, it requires things like screening. They call that Preventive Treatment Screening. The problem with screening is that if the screening finds the disease, then it didn’t prevent anything. That’s the irony.
But we know more about ourselves, especially once we get educated and become in tune with ourselves. Providers do obviously. I mean their job is to figure it all out. But if we’re really in tune, then that really helps us to stay proactive and healthy.
That just gives you an overview of really what the criteria is. So it really opens up doors to things like acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal regimes, massage therapy, homeopathy, colonics, detox programs, Chinese medicine.
And then if you are talking about some of the bigger things like cancer for example, you have to understand that this isn’t a health plan for people who have cancer. It’s a health plan for people who are healthy who can get cancer for example.
The way to illustrate that is you don’t buy car insurance after an accident. You buy car insurance in case.
DEBRA: Yeah. That’s what insurance is for. It’s the in case.
KARI GRAY: That’s where we get – sometimes people will say, “I have cancer.” It doesn’t work in a cost sharing environment because we can’t keep the rates low if the people that are participating and donating to the cost sharing communities are coming in terminal already.
That’s the reason why unfortunately we can’t put them in the cost sharing. But we do have another program we’re working where they can have access to at least discount services.
Once a healthy member is diagnosed with some terminal illness, things like this will be very important, which is like intravenous vitamin C treatment or we have got things like [inaudible 00:43:32] technology. There are a number of them.
[inaudible 00:43:40] cream, hemp oil, there’s a lot of real specializing for cancer for example. Oxygen therapy, chelation, oxygen IV therapy, there are a lot of things for serious disease that really open up the door to recovery. That’s really what the bottom line is in all this.
It’s not the slow road and the most profitable road to an early to an early grave. It’s actually how to help a person recover their health so that they can have the optimum life. That’s really what we’re talking about, not a managed care or treatment mentality.
That’s really the difference, just the polar extreme between conventional and alternative. While conventional deals with symptoms, alternative deals with causes. That’s really what we’re talking about. It’s opening up this place for people now to start addressing causes so that they don’t have a lifetime dependent on a prescription because that’s actually not covered in the health plan, health insurance either. A short term is, but not long term.
That’s why we use the alternatives, then we can break the symptom dependence cycle, pill for every ill, which is basically often what happens when a doctor is limited only conventional approaches, which is what is part of ObamaCare.
DEBRA: So I just want to be clear because you and I have talked about this. I’m considering getting this program myself. I haven’t made a decision yet if it’s the right thing for me.
But one of the things that I learned about when I was talking to Kari was that it’s not insurance-like if you were to get insurance and then they pay for all your doctor visits and stuff like that. It really is for if something happens in the future that is a big thing like cancer or heart disease or something like that where you have a lot of medical bills, that it covers those kinds of things.
So you still have to pay for going to a chiropractor, going to a dentist, doing whatever. It’s not kind of plan. But when you need it if you need it, it’s going to allow you to get all these alternative treatments that insurance doesn’t cover.
And it’s a very low price. Tell them about the price.
KARI GRAY: Okay. Let me just clarify something here. Just to give your listeners an idea here.
We’re talking about things like accidents, ambulance, X-rays, lab work, emergency rooms, home health care, hospital services, surgery, [inaudible 00:46:27] outpatients, maternity care, prescriptions, surgery, therapy, on and on it goes. I mean it’s not just singular approaches with alternatives, but it’s actually the very comprehensive health plan.
There are a lot of things to understand about it. I know that it’s hard to digest a plethora of information all at one time, but just to give you an idea. This is really part of the excitement that people have when they realize how low cost this really is.
For example, if…
DEBRA: Before you go on, let me just tell you that we only have three minutes left.
KARI GRAY: Thank you for that. So if it’s a single person, it could be anywhere from $249.99 a month to around $380. If they’re married, it could be $349 to $580. If it’s a family, it can be anywhere from $499 to $680.
Those are estimates because everyone falls in those estimates based on their health questionnaire that they complete. So those are just lows and highs, but it’s very, very affordable.
DEBRA: It is very affordable in comparison. I’m so happy that you’re doing what you’re doing because whether it works for everybody or doesn’t work for everybody, you’re taking a step out of the old insurance idea.
And you’re looking at how to bring the alternatives, help people afford the alternatives when they need some help. I think that what you’re doing will grow in the future to have other kinds of plans as well. That’s the way I see it at least.
You really are forging a new direction. I really appreciate that.
KARI GRAY: Thank you very much.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. We do have still about a minute left. Are there any final words you’d like to say? Let’s give your website address again.
KARI GRAY: Yes.
DEBRA: It’s MyGreenSurance.org or MyGreenSurance.com.
KARI GRAY: That’s right.
DEBRA: It really has all the information there.
KARI GRAY: Yes. Really what we say is that GreenSurance is about people who are ready for change. GreenSurance is about people who want an alternative to ObamaCare.
GreenSurance has a lot of messages, but really what it’s about is about environment. So it’s about being able to finally start having some control over something as important as your health care. And really isn’t that refreshing?
DEBRA: It is refreshing.
KARI GRAY: Yeah, it’s very fresh and organic. And people are very really excited about that. We have the ability now to become the change that we want to see. How that happens is like-minded people get together for making change happen. That’s why we invite people to join us.
DEBRA: That’s great. That’s great. Again, I’m going to give the URL for the website. It’s MyGreenSurance.org. There’s so much more information there.
When I think about having to pay the penalty, why not take that penalty money and actually put it someplace so that I can get some help if I need that help? This sounds like an interesting place to put it. I’m looking for all kinds of alternatives for making sure I make the best ObamaCare choice.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Lyocell in Clothing
Question from Lanet Morales
Hi Debra,
I recently went to H&M since they are coming out with more of the natural fiber clothing like cotton, linen…. There is an organic cotton line (SUSTAINABLE-CONSCIOUS) which I notice is sometimes mix of 50% organic cotton and 50% lyocell. I have never heard of Lyocell before and I am not sure if it has been treated with toxic chemicals, if the material is natural and something I can wear and not inhibit toxins, comparing to polyester cheap clothing other companies sell.
I also noticed that high brand names of my clothing use Lyocell and Modal as well so I am assuming this is not something cheap like polyester.
Here is the link to one shirt that might help: www.hm.com/us/product/34134?article=34134-A
Thanks!!
Debra’s Answer
Lyocell is a type of rayon. Rayon is made from regenerated cellulose fiber of various types. In the past, rayon was usually made from cotton fibers too short to spin into yarn. Lyocell is made from wood pulp. I’ve not heard of any problems with it and it is used as a blend with many natural fibers to make them less expensive.
Non-Toxic Glue
Question from Cathy Loo
Hi Debra,
I’m wanting to make homemade ollas for my garden using unglazed clay pots. The problem is that I need to take 2 pots and glue them together to make the olla. I’m concerned about what would be the best glue to use to avoid any dangerous chemicals leaching into the soil or water. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Debra’s Answer
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is to not use glue, but instead use some type of cement to hold the pots together, like mortar for tiles.
You need to make sure it’s waterproof, and most waterproof glues are pretty toxic.
One that isn’t is TiteBond II, which you can get at Lowe’s or Home Depot.
Also EcoBond has nontoxic adhesives that might work for this.
Prepainted Fiber Cement Siding
Question from Nancy Carew
Hi Debra,
We are building a new house and considering using prepainted fiber cement siding. I inquired about the paint used and was informed it is Olympic PPG Machine Applied Coating. In the information I was sent it says “VOC 0.6 lbs/gal.” Can you help me understand what this means? Also, if there are VOC’s in the paint and it is painted prior to being installed do you feel this is a concern as it will be on the outside of house? Thanks.
Debra’s Answer
VOC’s are volatile organic compounds. These are the chemicals you smell in paint.
“Low VOC” is used to describe a product with a VOC content at or below 150 g/L.
“Ultra-Low VOC” products have a VOC content below 50 g/L.
Now we have to translate that. to your measurement of lbs/gallon.
That math is beyond me, however, it doesn’t matter.
It’s prepainted, which means the paint is applied and dried in a factory. The VOCs are gone by the time you get the product.
Triexia
Question from Jackie DeGayner
Hi Debra,
I was shopping for area rugs today and ran into rugs made with Triexia.
I looked it up and it looks good on paper.
What is your take on it.
www.rugsandcarpets.about.com/od/Carpet-Fibers/a/Carpet-Fibers-101-Triexta.htm
Debra’s Answer
I don’t have any personal experience with this fiber. It seems to have some pros and cons.
The chemical name is polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT). I couldn’t find anything on the health effects.
It is a subset of polyester, which by itself has low toxicity. It contains 20% to 37% renewable material from non-food biomass, which is a step in the right direction, but is still primarily petroleum.
This looks to be a fairly nontoxic material, though petrochemical. Check the rug for any toxic finishes, such as stain-resistance.
Off-Gassing and Shellac
Question from Jess Kidd
Hi Debra,
Thanks for a great website – really interesting.
I wonder if you could help me with a query. I have bought a 1940/50s plywood wardrobe from a furniture scheme. They have kindly sanded and prepared it for me to paint with eco paint as my daughter has asthma.
I would think the plywood would have off-gassed by now but could there be a problem from the shellac in terms of formaldehyde or VOCs?
I would be very grateful for your advice.
Debra’s Answer
I agree the plywood would have off-gassed by now.
Real shellac is made from insect bodies and alcohol. The alcohol would be long gone.
Sounds like it’s fine.
Die-Cast Metal Cars
Question from Toy Shopper
Hi Debra,
Do you believe die-cast metal toy vehicles are safe for children? I saw this SIKU brand and am wondering if it might be better than some of the others, since it is designed in Germany, where standards seem to be higher. Here is some info from their site.
“SIKU toy models contain no PVC and meet German and international standards and guidelines for the safety of toys. SIKU toy models comply with the European Spielzeugrichtlinie 88/378/EWG, which is based on the CE code and other standardized norms (toy safety in accordance with EN 71 und EN 62115). In addition to our compliance with high quality standards for all materials and the manufacture of our products, we are also committed to the protection of all employees working for us.” – from: www.siku.de/en/siku/company.html
That page also says: “The development, construction, sales, administration and production divisions are located at the company headquarters in Lüdenscheid. In addition, Sieper group has other production sites in Poland and China as well as its own sales subsidiaries in France and Hong Kong.”
And this page has info about their production process: www.siku.de/en/siku/production.html
Debra’s Answer
This is a really excellent example of how every company should show their production process. Lot’s of information here!
But unfortunately not a lot of toxics information.
To summarize:
- The body is made from cast zinc and plastic (but they don’t say what type of plastic)
- The body is then lacquered with a powder that is melted on to the metal (but doesn’t say if there are heavy metals in the lacquer or not)
- Printing of design details doesn’t say if the ink contains heavy metals (other printed products have been shown by testing to contain heavy metals)
Toys I list on the toys page of Debra’s List will often say things like “paint contains no heavy metals” and other such statements that indicate awareness of where toxics are in the materials. I don’t see that here.
I need more information to evaluate this.
Soapstone Counter Tops
Question from Donna Tecce
Hi Debra,
What is your opinion on soapstone counter tops regarding, outgassing, non porous etc. clean and green.
We were leaning to Quartz but do not want manmade and even though sealed contains resins/plastic etc. Soapstone seems to be the way to go. There is natural ‘talc’ but I assume that is contained within the product and a food grade oil to use on top. Thx for all your advice.
Debra’s Answer
I can tell you there is no outgassing or any other toxic hazard I am aware of. I have a set of soapstone cooking pots that I love.
Just from a quick search I found that soapstone is not porous, does not need to be sealed, is inert, and long lasting. It was the standard countertop for science labs and they make stoves out of it. Sounds perfect for a kitchen countertop.
How Do I Dispose of Toxic Sofas and Other Fabric and Foam?
Question from [NAMEOFSENDER]
Hi Debra,
Thank you for the good info. My question is, as we replace our toxic furniture, linens, clothing, etc, what do we do with the old toxic stuff? How do we responsibly dispose of flame retardant infused sofas, cushions, rugs? What do we do with the synthetics or conventionally processed cotton fabrics and clothing and bedding, laced with pesticides, petrochemicals, dyes, formaldehyde?
Passing it on to Goodwill seems callous. Throwing it into landfills only adds the chemicals to the environment…….. burning it??? What do we do with it?
Help!!
Debra’s Answer
This is a very good question.
There are such things as Household Hazardous Waste programs, and you should have one in your city. But these are for a specific list of toxic products that are immediate poisons, like pesticides and paints.
But the products you are talking about have toxic exposures with long-term health effects and I don’t know of any programs for responsible disposal of them.
Here’s an article about some possibilities for disposing of sofas with fire retardants, but no current solutions: www.greensciencepolicy.org/responsible-furniture-disposal/
I think what I would do is take all this stuff to the Household Hazardous Waste program in your area. Tell them it’s hazardous waste and ask them to dispose of it accordingly in a hazardous waste site.
This is a good example of why manufacturers need to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of the product they produce. It’s not OK to make a product that ends up polluting the planet instead of gracefully returning to the ecosystem.
Lead-Free Crystal Door Knobs
Question from Jane
Hi Debra,
I’m looking for replacement door knobs, antique in style, and have seen several glass knobs that I like very much.
Upon reading the descriptions, it seems that all the glass knobs are actually lead crystal knobs. I am aware that leaded crystal leaches lead if you drink from it, but NOWHERE can I find any information on door knobs.
While you cannot absorb lead through you skin, you could transfer it from hand to mouth and we have a toddler.
One company, Nostalgic NostalgicHardware.com sent me a report about all the ways we are exposed to lead and said they had not heard of door knobs leaching lead. But that’s not the same as them saying that they have tested their knobs for leaching.
Is there any reference I can access? Do you know more?
If I run one of those lead swab tests on the door knob and it does not test positive for lead, should I assume it is safe?
It seems I can no longer find just plain glass to match our other door knobs and I can only find leaded glass.
Debra’s Answer
Well, I think I can give you an easy answer.
Manufacturers add lead to glass to give it more sparkle when it is cut in crystal patterns.
Because it’s a selling point, you’ll see something like “12% Lead Content for added Clarity.” They are also labeled “lead crystal”
The solution is simple. Choose a glass door knob that is “lead-free”.
I searched on “lead-free door knobs” and found one, so there may be more.
www.houseofantiquehardware.com/lead-free-crystal-knobs-pulls
www.houseofantiquehardware.com/blue-lead-free-octagonal-crystal-knob
To answer your other questions, lead test swabs will tell you for sure there is lead, but may not be accurate as a measure of zero lead. They only measure down to a certain level. So avoid for sure anything that tests positive. Anything that tests negative would have very low levels.p>
You would need to test with an XRF gun to get a more reliable assessment for “zero lead.”
At least the test swabs will identify a positive reading inexpensively.
Are Toxic Dangers Internet Hype or a Genuine Health Crisis?
My guest today is Lara Adler, Environmental Toxins Expert and Certified Holistic Health Coach. Today we’ll be talking about the popularity of toxics in the news and online, the difference between sensationalism and truth, and facts vs editorial opinions from writers who don’t understand the subject. Lara trains and educates practitioners within the health and wellness community to better understand the links between environmental toxins and their impact on disease states—from weight gain and diabetes, to thyroid disease and developmental disorders—so they can better support their clients. Lara is deeply committed to peeling back the curtain and opening up the conversation about environmental toxins to people in a way that’s informative, accessible, actionable and totally free from overwhelm. She takes a practical, real-world approach to minimizing toxic exposure to safeguard our health. www.laraadler.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Are Toxic Dangers Internet Hype or a Genuine Health Crisis
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Lara Adler
Date of Broadcast: May 14, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic work and live toxic free. It is Thursday, May 14th, 2015. Beautiful day here in Clearwater, Florida. And today, we’re going to be talking about something a little different than we usually talk about.
This show started with an e–mail that I got because I’m on my guest list. And she was talking about her views about – well, maybe you’ve seen around in social media in the last few weeks or month or so, there has been a lot of criticism of an activist known as The Food Babe and the people who are criticizing her are criticizing her about sensationalism and does she know anything about science and things like that.
My guest wrote a very interesting commentary about that so much so that I asked her to be on the show so that we could talk about this. And she got so many comments from writing this e–mail and sending it to her list that she ended up giving a class about this very subject.
My guest today is Lara Adler. She’s an environmental toxins expert and certified holistic health coach. And I’m very happy that we’re going to be talking about this.
Hi, Lara.
LARA ADLER: Hi, Debra. Thanks for having me back on. I’m excited to talk about this stuff with you.
DEBRA: Yes. I should say that Laura has been on before. We talked about obesogens. And she gives classes and trainings and things for heath coaches. So she’s not working with consumers directly. She’s working with coaches who are then working with clients. And I’m very happy to see what she’s teaching coaches to do with their clients because we certainly need more professionals who are aware of what the toxic chemicals are and how they affect their bodies.
So instead of me giving the story, Lara, why don’t you tell the story of what you said?
LARA ADLER: Sure. And it’s funny because the e–mail that I wrote was one of those ones where I just said – I think I wrote it in about five or six minutes. I was just a little fired up about it. And so, I don’t actually remember all of what it said.
But basically, like you said, there’s all of these buzz going around about Food Babe at the moment. She’s actually not the only person who’s in the spotlight in this realms. Dr. Oz is also in the spotlight for making sensational outrageous comments. And he’s actually somebody who is very heavily credentialed.
And so there’s just a lot of – I don’t think swearing is allowed here. I’m not sure, I don’t know. But Gawker, the online magazine, Gawker, published an article, the subject of which or the title of which is Food Blogger Food Babe is Full of S–H–I–T.
And I thought that was pretty hard and unkind. I don’t imagine you or I would appreciate anything written about us with that subject line. It’s really unnecessary. But it just got me looking at what are the criticisms that are being made about her and her [inaudible 00:04:24].
For your listeners who maybe don’t know who she is. She’s a food activist who really looks at chemicals and ingredients that are in foods that shouldn’t be there. Her primary goal is actually transparency and truth in labeling.
There’s a lot about her approach that I don’t like, but I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water. And so this is why I felt like a bigger conversation should be had here about this.
But essentially, I feel that in many cases, the very sensational approach that she takes – she certainly has been guilty of making blanket statements and a lot of inaccurate statements like, “All chemicals are bad.” We can talk about whether or not that’s true if we want. What I found is that sensational approach tends to turn a lot of people off and it just leaves a really bad taste in their mouth. And then anybody else who attempts to have, whether it’s a measured fact–based conversation about it, it’s automatically going to be associated with that sensational fear–mongery kind of vibe and they’re just going to get dismissed.
So it does make it harder for those people who are trying to have the conversation in a very serious and measured tone. It makes it harder for us to be able to do that when they’re going to go, “Oh, you’re kind of like Food Babe, right?”
DEBRA: Yes. I think that it is unfortunate, but this is the way the world is today. What is happening is that there is media and newspapers (especially newspapers, the history of newspapers is that they sell from sensationalism) and so if one wants to be in the media, if one wants to get attention, one needs to be sensational in order to get that attention. I could send out something that says something in a very measured tone and everybody yawns.
And people are sending out scientific information all the time that doesn’t reported in the news. But then Food Babe comes along and she does something sensational and she’s a “babe,” not a scientist. And there are other sensational people on the internet who I won’t name particularly because we’re talking about Food Babe here, but it’s the same approach. They are wanting to make this sensational point. I think they get attention and I think that Food Babe has done a lot to make people aware that there are things in our food that shouldn’t be there. But she’s gotten that attention and the information isn’t always correct. And that’s what I find with the people who take a sensational approach, the information isn’t always correct.
And on other sites (not Food Babe’s, but on other sites), I see sensational things and they give sources and the sources aren’t even correct. I go and click through on their sources and they’re not even correct. The information just isn’t there.
And so I think that in a world where it’s so critical for us to be having this information and having people understand the truth about toxic chemicals that it’s really a disservice for people to sensationally put out wrong information.
LARA ADLER: Yes, and you know what? I think it’s interesting – and I spoke about this in the class that I taught the other day. I said this in the intro. I was so fired about this that I decided to teach a class, my audience about it. What I think is that for better and worse, so there are certainly are benefits to this. And the benefit is people are talking about it for better or for worse. We’re talking about it. This is us having a conversation because of something that she did. And that’s for sure has a tremendous amount of benefits. It plants the seed of thought in people’s minds and that allows for us to just springboard into conversations, which is great.
But like I said, the downside is a lot of people are turned off by that and they’re going to jump on any opportunity that they can to attack somebody like her. And the reality is, this has been going on for centuries. This is not a new tactic to discredit people. In the class that I was talking at the other day, I was talking about Rachel McCarson. The mother of the environmental movement was attacked. Her sanity was attacked, and she was attacked because her credentials – her research was attacked because her attackers said she couldn’t possibly understand the complex science around pesticides because she was a woman.
This is not new information. And what’s interesting to me – and this is where I really got rubbed the wrong way where it’s not about Food Babe, but it’s about, like you said, the sort of climate that we’re having this conversation in, is that even people that are heavily credentialed and have dedicated their lives to doing academic scientific research are also attacked in these ways. You have Tyrone Hayes. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Tyrone Hayes and his research, but he is the research scientist who’s been studying the effects of the herbicide, Atrazine, on the sexual development of frogs and the potential effects on women health. Sygenta, the company that manufactures that pesticide went to extraordinarily length to attack him and his credibility including taking out an ad. When you google Tyrone Hayes’ name, the first thing that comes up is an ad that was paid for – a Google keyword ad, excuse me, that was paid for by Sygenta that says Tyrone Hayes is not credible.
And so it doesn’t matter whether she’s a scientist or not, people are getting attacked to having this conversation which is just an interesting point.
DEBRA: That is interesting in and of itself. We need to go to break but when we come back, we’ll talk about this more. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Lara Adler, and we’re talking about Are Toxic Dangers Internet Hype or a Genuine Health Crisis?
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Lara Adler. She’s an environmental toxins expert and certified holistic health coach. Her website is LaraAdler.com. And we’re talking about sensationalism and truth in talking about toxics in the media.
Lara, in the first segment, you mentioned something that is often said which is there are no safe chemicals.
LARA ADLER: To the blanket statement that all chemicals are bad.
DEBRA: Right. So let’s discuss that.
LARA ADLER: So that’s a really fascinating point of conversation. We can’t make that statement. That is an impossible statement to make for a number of reasons. The first of which is we just don’t have a lot of data around the chemicals that are in commerce. There’s just no safety testing data because our federal policies doesn’t require that chemicals get tested prior to coming to market. So we can’t make a blanket definitive statement to say that, “God! If we don’t actually know anything about them…” And so that’s just a pretty obvious way to kind of counter that all chemicals are bad.
The reality is that we are chemicals. Everything is chemical. Our skins are chemical, our organs are chemicals, our hormones that fuel our functions, body functions, it’s all chemical.
Chemical, as a word, is neutral. It doesn’t have a good or bad connotation but at least within the realm of the Food Babe conversation, she has a tendency to just kind of lump it into that category that if it’s a chemical that it’s bad. If it’s got a long name and you can’t pronounce it, it must be bad for you.
DEBRA: That’s just not a true statement.
LARA ADLER: No, it’s not.
DEBRA: I’ve been studying toxic chemicals for more than 30 years and reading scientific data and looking at individual industrial chemicals. And even within the set of industrial chemicals made from petroleum, even not all of those are toxic. But people take words like chemicals, they take words like plastic, they think every single plastic is bad. And that’s not true. There are some plastics that are absolutely safe to use.
But people don’t know this information. They haven’t studied the subject and they pick up on some term like plastics are chemical and then it’s all bad.
LARA ADLER: Right. And again, I think it’s smarter to be able to have a measured conversation. People, for sure, are going to take you more seriously when you can actually say, “You know what? Those ones work fine. There is no data that shows that there’s any harm there, but these are the ones that you want to watch out for.” Rather than just saying, “Oh, my God! We have to live in a bubble.” My joke around that is if people say, “I’m going to live in a plastic bubble,” then I always say, “Well, what kind of plastic?”
DEBRA: Well, what kind of plastic, yes.
LARA ADLER: What kind of plastic is your bubble made out of because that makes a big difference. That I think is joke that very few people outside this world that we live in would laugh at, but there you have it.
And then to the other side of that whole “all chemicals are bad” thing is what happens on the other side of the argument? And this is where it makes me a little crazy. I always read the comments section of any news article that’s posted because that gives me a lot of insight into how regular people are thinking and responding to whatever is happening. I sometimes focus more on the comments section than the actual article itself. And what always happens when somebody is like, “Oh, you think all chemicals are bad? What about di–hydrogen monoxide? That’s a chemical. That’s bad for you.”
Well, dihydrogen monoxide is the chemical name for water. I’ve seen it hundreds of times where somebody who is trying to make it big will use that as an opportunity to say, “Oh, you don’t like chemicals? You better stay away from dihydrogen monoxide.”
And there’s a spoof website which is pretty funny that I stumbled across that talks about the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide, that the inhalation of it can kill you with drowning. And it’s just making fun of this whole conversation. And I don’t think that’s a helpful climate to have this conversation at.
DEBRA: I totally agree. Another thing that I just want to mention about toxic chemicals with regard to this is that even if you have a chemical that is known to be toxic, let’s say, dioxine, just to be extreme, where that’s just known to be so toxic, but whether it’s toxic to an individual or not – well, dioxine is probably toxic to everybody. But let’s say something is not quite so toxic. There are many chemicals that have some toxicity to them but whether or not an individual actually is poisoned by them, it depends on how much they’re exposed to, how often they’re exposed to it, the condition of the individual’s body, et cetera. And there’s a list of about seven or eight factors that go into whether or not you’re going to be poisoned by it. And that is completely separate from the inherent toxicity of the chemical itself.
And so it’s really, really difficult to ascertain – this is why this is such a confusing subject, is that it’s difficult to ascertain even if something is toxic, is the individual person going to be harmed by it?
And so if we can’t determine that, how are we going to – what’s the best route? So for me, I think that the best thing to do is the precautionary principle, which is to say, if there’s a question about it, don’t use it. You may not be harmed by it but if there’s a question about it, if it can be identified by science that there is a harmful component to it, then I stay away from that.
And then when you get to something like lead, for example, where it’s known that there is no safe level, that’s been established that there is no safe level, and then the government sets a safe level that is not even correct, what we should be doing is cooperating. We should be cooperating to get the correct information out in the world instead of making it more confusing.
LARA ADLER: I think the other thing about the effects of some of these chemicals because this is where a lot of people, again, people who are trying to discredit some others – I hear the break music coming in. Do we need to break?
DEBRA: We need to break, yes. You got that right. It’s the break music. So we’ll go to break and then we’ll continue when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Lara Adler. She’s an environmental toxins expert and certified holistic health coach. Her website is LaraAdler.com and we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Lara Adler. She’s an environmental toxics expert and certified holistic health coach. Her website is LaraAdler.com.
Okay, Lara, go ahead and continue.
LARA ADLER: So I think the point that’s important to make with a lot of these chemicals is that – and this is something that I see also both in articles and in the comment section of articles is that if these chemicals are so bad, why are more people in the hospital with x and y adverse reaction?
DEBRA: Good question.
LARA ADLER: And I think what people don’t understand is the latency period for the effects from these exposures can be 20 or 30 years. It can be extraordinarily subtle. A hormonal imbalance, for example, due to an excessive endocrine disruptor that are messing with the thermostat of your hormone isn’t something that you end up in an emergency room with. It’s something that makes you feel low level crappy for years and years that your doctors just dismiss because it’s not an acute symptom.
And so in many cases, the implications of exposures are really subtle and that’s hard to tease out. And they may not actually show themselves for 20 or 30 years.
And so when people throw around the word toxic, people are automatically assuming that there is going to be an immediate and adverse reaction like skin rash or something like that. In some cases that might be true but in other cases, you might never know and it’s just a matter of, “Oh, my child is having behavioral problems in school or is having a hard time learning.” There might be an IQ reduction issues.
That’s not a symptom that you notice. That’s just something that develops. Does that make sense?
DEBRA: I know what I’m about to say you know but I will say this for the benefit of the listeners. There are actually two kinds of chemicals. There are acute exposures and chronic exposures. And the acute reactions that’s why we have poison control centers. And that’s what people usually think of as a poisoning, is when you drink a cleaning product that’s under the sink. That’s why it says keep away from children or keep out of reach of children. And that the child starts choking and turning blue, and that’s what people think is toxic or poisonous.
And then there’s a whole other class of chemicals where the response is chronic, which means that it’s building up in your body day in and day out. And that you’re being exposed to it over and over again. And your body, it actually starts accumulating in your body. And this is what’s called body burden. And you can accumulate and accumulate and accumulate these chemicals for years, and then all of a sudden, you get to that right amount that is poisonous to your body. And it’s been accumulating and then your body gets sick and you get cancer, you get heart disease or you get impotence or whatever is your symptom. And it’s because of this build–up of these chemicals that don’t show themselves immediately.
And so after all these years of study, the only thing that I can say is that because we now know – and it’s Centers for Disease Control that came up with this word, body burden, I’m not making this up. This is science. And the Centers for Disease Control actually measures the blood of Americans to find out how much of these chemicals are building up in your body. They have tests. You can just go to your website and see how much toxic chemicals we’re all carrying around in our bodies.
LARA ADLER: I think the most recent report which actually has updates, it’s called the National Report on Exposures to Environmental Chemicals. And then the fourth report came out in 2009 and they just did an update earlier this year. They measured something 265 chemicals in people tested. They didn’t test for every chemical so there’s likely many, many more. But those are the ones that [cross–talking 00:31:00]
DEBRA: There are many, many more. I mean nobody can say.
DEBRA: Lara, can you hear me?
LARA ADLER: Yes, I can.
DEBRA: Can anybody hear me? Bret, can you hear me? Lara, are you there?
LARA ADLER: Yes, I can hear you.
DEBRA: Okay, good. So let’s go on. So I was saying about how there are measurable results that the CDC is measuring the blood. There are toxic chemicals, chemicals known to be toxic by scientific study in the blood of everybody in America and probably in the world unless you have done something to lower or remove those toxic chemicals. Just walking around, living your normal life, using normal toxic consumer products, everybody has this. And sooner or later, you’re going to get sick. The question is not if, the question is when.
These are toxic chemicals we’re all being exposed to unless we’re doing something to not be exposed to them.
And this is the state of the world today. And this is why I do what I do. This is why Lara does what she does because we have looked at the science. We know that these toxic chemicals exist, we know the health effects that happen from them, and we know that there are solutions.
LARA ADLER: Absolutely. And I think that’s the point. Food Babe, for sure, has a role in this conversation. Again, for better and for worse, and we don’t always have the opportunity to cherry pick who are allies are. I know that some people have distanced themselves from her because of all of this controversy and whatnot. And some of the people that are attacking her, and this is something that I’ve taught about in my class, some of the people that are attacking her are also making blanket statements that are not factual. And that’s happening on the other side of it which just makes me crazy because I’m like, “Well, you’re just doing what she’s doing. You know that, right?”
And so an example of that is the entire [inaudible 00:35:27] toxicology field of research is based on the assumption that all chemicals are everything is harmful just depends on the dose that’s given. And that the larger the dose, the more effect it’s going to have. And the smaller the dose, the smaller effect it’s going to have. At a certain point, if the dose is low enough, it’s not going to have any effects on you. And this known as the “dose makes the poison.” And it’s called out in just about every single article that’s attacking Food Babe and people like her.
And the truth is that that is an absolute statement, but not always true. There is a whole area of research that’s looking at chemicals that don’t follow that assumption.
DEBRA: That’s right.
LARA ADLER: Again, it’s an assumption. It’s not fact. And they are looking at very low dose exposures, far below what traditional toxicology studies test for and that they have a very dramatic impact at very low levels.
So when I see a critical article coming out, criticizing Food Babe but not knowing her science that’s making statements like, “Duh, the dose makes the poison.” I want to go, “Gee, you’re just as dumb as she is.”
DEBRA: This is the problem that I’m seeing exactly. Not that I know everything but I have been studying this for more than 30 years. And there are so many people who are writing today, especially in the mainstream media, where the reporters, they don’t have background information. I can tell from things that you say that you do have background information and that you are studying. And if a reporter assigned to write an article about the latest toxic chemical and they don’t know anything about toxicology, they’re not going to put it in the right context.
And unfortunately, a lot of what I read – and then there’s a lot of people who pick up and blog about things and they don’t know anything about either, and I’m not saying that’s true for everyone. I’m just saying that there’s a lot of that out there. And I read these things and I do, “This just isn’t right.” And I know that because of my background.
And there are some people that also have background and that are doing a really great job. But the general public has hard time knowing the difference because they don’t have any background either.
LARA ADLER: Right. It’s a challenge to try to sort that out. And it’s a task that most people just don’t want to take on. And what happens is, like you were saying, that sometimes the balanced, measured approach versus [inaudible 00:38:20] approach doesn’t land for most people. It’s not something that they’re going to enjoy reading about. And so we have to – and I hate using the term ‘dumbed down’, but we have to translate sometimes these really complicated subjects into easy to understand language.
And in some cases, it does require us to make a couple of leaps – not sensationalize. I mean, that certainly is one way. But I think sometimes we have to take a couple of leaps just to make it easier to read so that we don’t have to give so much background information because then we’ll lose our audience.
DEBRA: That’s right. One of the things that I do when I’m writing, I come across a lot of scientific studies. And so often, I will find out about them from an article in Environmental Health News or something like that where there’s an article written that simplifies the study. And so then when I put it in my blog, then I simplify it even further and just give the basic idea of what the study is about and what the result is, relevant to a consumer. And then I say, “Here’s a simple article. You can read about it. And here’s the actual study.”
And that way, it gives it different levels. And I think that’s really what is needed because it would be extremely difficult for a consumer to read the original study and translate that into an action they can take today. And there’s no reason why each one of us needs to go through that process. And so I think that it’s valuable for me to do that and it’s valuable for you to do that, and people who do that. I think it’s valuable for Food Babe to say, “Look, here’s this food additive and you shouldn’t eat it. And here’s another thing that you can eat. And here’s a recipe.”
All of that is really valuable.
LARA ADLER: And it’s interesting. The e–mail that I sent out that just shared some of my thoughts. Ninety percent of the responses that I’ve got or 99% of the responses that I’ve got from people were, “You know what? I’m so glad that you said that. I feel that for us that are out there trying to educate people, her approach really is a disservice. It makes it harder for us to be able to have this conversation with people.”
I also got a couple of people who messaged me some pretty nasty e–mails saying, “You shouldn’t hate on her. I can’t believe you.” I said, “Okay. That’s going to happen. And I’m not here, and nor is Food Babe, to please anyone.”
And she did a really interesting interview with Sean Croxton a couple of months ago where they talked about her being attacked. And she was like, “Well, I never anticipated in my life being in this position, but the reality is people need to know about this stuff.” And a lot of the people that are attacking her are on the industry side of the conversation. And that’s always going to be the case.
When Dr. Oz made his statement on his TV show about the people that were petitioning to get him removed from the head of either Columbia or wherever it was that he’s teaching, he did a little expose on some of those people and their ties to industry and GMO and Monsanto and that whole thing.
It’s a little bit part of what we signed up for, unfortunately, when we stepped into this realm. And I think that it is what it is. I think that they’ve handled it fairly well. And at the end of the day, I feel really bad for her because no human being wants to be in that situation where you thought millions of people calling you names and saying that you’re stupid and all of that. I don’t think she’s stupid. She doesn’t have a science degree or chemistry degree or toxicology degree but you know what? Neither do I.
DEBRA: And neither do I.
LARA ADLER: I completely self–taught in this area. And I think that what she has to share is totally valid. What I think she could benefit from or that her audience could benefit from is a slight shift in approach even if it’s just like you said – I mean, I notice that she does have a staff of scientist and advisers that review her material before she releases it to make sure that there are no inaccuracies, but I don’t know if they’re doing a very good job because making statements like “all chemicals are bad” and those kinds of things aren’t helping her cause or ours.
DEBRA: One of the statements that you put in your e–mail was that she says things like there is just no acceptable level of any chemical to ingest ever.
Well, that’s just not a true statement.
LARA ADLER: That’s not a true statement. And that’s [inaudible 00:43:43] of other examples of things that she said that aren’t true. But at the end of the day, I’m not infallible, you’re not infallible. We’re human beings. We make mistakes. We say wrong things. The hope is that we’ll correct them because we’re in a position where we’re speaking to a large amount of people, that puts us at a certain level of responsibility that we have. But at the end of the day, we all make mistakes. It’s just how we respond to them that I think makes the big difference.
DEBRA: I would love it for her to be a little more educated and know what are the messages, what are the truthful message to put out and use those messages instead.
LARA ADLER: Yes, agreed. But like I said, it is elevating this conversation. You and I are talking about this. If that was her goal is to get people talking about it, then I understand that ‘by any means necessary’ approach.
If this is what I meant – I mean, I don’t really want to throw away the baby with the bath water because there is some benefit in having this conversation. I just don’t like the aftertaste that it leaves for a lot of people. And I just wish that we could move to a – like I said, a more measured version of this conversation.
“Look, here are the things that are bad and that we need to look out for. Here’s how they’re bad. They may not be bad for everyone. Here are the populations that they’re going to be the worst for. Those populations, please listen up, here’s what you want to do. Everybody else? Here’s what you should.
And here are the things that we don’t need to worry about because we don’t want to be crazy people out in the world wearing face masks and gloves and not going in our cars because our dashboards are releasing toxic chemicals. We want to be able to have a normal life.”
DEBRA: That’s exactly right. And we can. You and I know we can. And it isn’t even about avoiding every single toxic danger but about knowing where they are and what they are and being able to choose wisely.
We only have a few minutes left of this show. The title of this show is, Are Toxic Dangers Internet Hype, or a Genuine Health Crisis, named after your class. And so I just want to make sure that we just talk about for a few minutes.
LARA ADLER: Yes, sure. Meaning the class that I teach?
DEBRA: No, meaning, are toxic dangers internet hype, or are they a genuine health crisis?
LARA ADLER: I actually thinking that they’re a little bit of both. You know what? What I said in my class was that it certainly feels like hype because of the climate of the conversation but unfortunately, the bulk of it is not. It is a genuine health crisis. You wouldn’t be doing this, have done all of this research in course of 30 years, if it wasn’t a legitimate issue. There wouldn’t be thousands of scientists all over the world researching the low dose exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals and the implications if it wasn’t a real, genuine health crisis. The CDC wouldn’t be monitoring the levels of chemicals in people’s bodies if it wasn’t a genuine health crisis.
So hands down, yes, it’s a big issue. It’s a big issue when we see the disease rate skyrocketing, when we see things like autism and learning disability and behavioral problems in children, cancers and leukemia in children, this is not okay. And these diseases and conditions are increasing at levels that scientists are saying cannot at all be associated with genetics. But there’s something environmental going on.
And so I would say absolutely hands down, it’s something that we all need to be aware of and that it is a genuine threat to our health. And our survival as a species, and not to get sensational about it, but that’s honestly what’s happening.
DEBRA: That’s not sensational. That’s the truth.
LARA ADLER: When our fertility rates are dropping, wouldn’t that impact the species?
DEBRA: It certainly does. It certainly does. When we look at – the world is so different, I’m going to be 60 years old in June. And I know I don’t look it or sound it but I’ve been doing this work since I was 24. And I got sick from toxic chemical exposure in my early 20s. And how different people’s health is from when I was a child to nowadays, you can just look and see in that short period of time that people are getting major illnesses at earlier and earlier ages. And children having illnesses that they never had before.
We can see it with our own eyes if you have that spectrum of viewpoint. And it has to be due to something and then you can go and look at all these studies of these chemicals that we’re using, and you can go look and find out where those chemicals in consumer products. And you see the association. You just see the association if you’re looking. It’s there.
I think there is internet hype about it but it is a genuine health crisis.
LARA ADLER: Yes, for sure.
DEBRA: Well, Lara, thank you so much. We have less than a minute left of the show so I just want to thank you so much for speaking out about this so that we could have this show today. And I think that it’s really important for there to be a lot more education so that the general public understands and can tell the different so that everybody knows what’s going on. I think that you’re doing a great job educating your segment of the population of your coaches so that they can go out and be helping more people. So thank you so much for being on the show.
LARA ADLER: Thanks for having me back.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Plastic or Paper??? The New Recycled Paper Bottles
My guest today is Julie Corbett, Founder of Ecologic, a company that makes “packaging the earth can live with.” We’ll be talking about their new bottl that is turning the packaging industry inside out. This new bottle is made from recycled paper on the outside, with a nontoxic polyethylene plastic bag inside. Cut the paper bottle open, remove the plastic bag, and everything can be recycled again. Prior to founding Ecologic, Julie was a Vice President at Jurika, Mills & Keifer, where she helped launch the Counterpoint Mutual and Counterpoint Select funds. Julie was also a Partner at Jurika & Voyles, Inc., where she led the firm’s institutional service and marketing efforts that contributed to asset growth of more than $5 billion before it was sold in 1997. Previously, Julie worked for RBC Dominion Securities and the Royal Bank of Canada as well as BBDO Worldwide in Prague, Czech Republic. Julie holds a B.A. in Economics from McGill University in Canada and was once a professional gymnast-in-training (a helpful background in an entrepreneurial world that often requires one to jump through hoops). Julie is devoted to her two active girls, serving as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Oakland Lake School for 3 years and as Girl Scout Leader for her daughters’ troops. When not hunched over new bottle prototypes, she is an avid skier and an ardent friend of the earth. www.ecologicbrands.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Plastic or Paper??? The New Recycled Paper Bottles
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Julie Corbett
Date of Broadcast: May 13, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Wednesday, May 13, 2015. It’s a beautiful day here in Clearwater, Florida. We had this big thunderstorm last night so the air is all clean. And it’s just beautiful today.
So today, we’re going to be talking about plastic versus paper, and particularly, in bottles. Bottles made of paper? Well, yes. There is new technology that they’re now making paper bottles for things like cleaning products and pet food and all those things that usually come in plastic bottles or jars or containers, whatever they’re called. And now, they’re being made out of recycled paper. And this, I think, is a brilliant thing to do because it very much lessens the amount of plastic that’s in the world. But it’s also much less toxic and toxic residues don’t get into the products inside from the container.
And we’re going to talk about all of that today with my guest, who is the founder. She actually developed these incredible things. And really, I’m sitting here looking at – I have four of these sitting on my desk. And I have never seen one in a store but I know that they’re there. And it’s something that you’ve never seen before, you can look at it on the shelf and go, “What’s that?” And it really is amazingly different. And I can see this being the future of what this is going to be on our store shelves instead of plastic bottles.
My guest is Julie Corbett. She’s the founder of Ecologic, and she makes this packaging that the earth can live with. Hi, Julie.
JULIE CORBETT: Good morning. How are you?
DEBRA: I’m good. How are you?
JULIE CORBETT: I’m very good.
DEBRA: Good. So I want to hear the story of how these bottles came to be first. How did you ever think of this and what motivated you to do it?
JULIE CORBETT: I think for many different perspectives, when you’re raising a family, at the time, I had two young children, they’ve grown up since, as they all do. But I had started when my children were very little, transitioning the family into basically buying food with better ingredients, more healthy ingredients, as you know, especially with babies. I started buying organic baby food, buying products with less sugar, ingredients that I could read on the back label that weren’t chemistry but really more akin to natural food.
So as you go through that transition, obviously, and I think most of America is looking for better, more healthy lifestyles, especially when it comes to their children, you’re a lot more sensitized to the environment around you because you realize whatever we grow in the ground, obviously, gets consumed by our beautiful babies. So I think it’s a natural evolution for a lot of new moms and mothers all over the world, actually. The minute you have children, you’re more sensitized.
So when my kids went to school, they go to school in Berkeley, always the hot bed of more radicalized and maybe more cutting edge thinking. Their school went to a way 3 lunch program. And when a school goes to a way 3 lunch program, they have a really great way to motivate kids. They were like the Biggest Loser, where the class had generated their least amount of weight in a given week. They would do a big weigh–in at the end of the day and they added it up over five days. So whatever class generated the least amount of waste won the ice cream party. So it doesn’t take much to motivate a bunch of kids.
DEBRA: I love that.
JULIE CORBETT: So what became very interesting is that it forced a lot of the families at the school that we go to, to really start thinking about how much waste they generate because a lot of the school projects were revolving around that. So we started measuring how much we generated as a family.
Now, what’s fascinating is that you go quickly into Tupperware, quickly into reusable bottles, clean canteen or [inaudible 00:05:33] bottles or camelback, whatever your fancy thermoses. I used to go to school with a thermos. All of a sudden, the thermos – you know, I bought a couple more thermoses for my girls.
So those were the easy things to do. But what happens is that you realize all the products you buy to put in your kid’s lunchbox, comes in a lot of packaging. So instead of throwing the packaging at school you start throwing it away at home.
So as we’ve gone through a month of this, I realized that we got to a point that it was really hard for us a family to reduce our waste. Now, the kids were doing great. I think my daughter’s fourth grade class won three weeks in a row. And we were getting to the point that I had to peel the banana before sending it to school so it would be weighed in with the rest of the trash.
But it was a big eye opener. So I started grocery shopping and buying – I’m always looking at buying better ingredients. But what was really quite striking to me and my children was that the choice in packaging, there was no choice. And it’s amazing. When you start thinking about it from a packaging perspective, just like you go down the aisle, call it the dairy/juice section in a grocery store, the amount of choices you have just in orange juice alone is a mindblow. I mean, no sugar, no pulp, mango–infused, organic, non–organic in a carton, in a plastic bottle. There are thousands of different options just when it comes to one orange juice purchase. The same thing for milk. Non–fat, 1%, 2%, 64 ounces, one gallon, small. It’s organic, non–organic, lactose 3, soy milk.
It’s just amazing. But when it comes to packaging, there were little choices. So I thought to myself, “Isn’t this amazing that we’ve gone to appoint as a society where we’re all understanding the impact of waste on the environment? And as a consumer, you want to have control – similar to you, you want to have control to the kind of ingredients you buy. And that choice is there. But when it comes to packaging, there was no choice.
So that set my thinking just understanding how big of a void there was. So I got an iPhone maybe about six months later, we’re well into this program, the kids are adapt. Everything is good. The school has seen a huge amount of not only waste reduction but they don’t have to pay as much money to get their waste taken away. So everybody’s winning. But our home trash and recycling had not changed.
So when I got this iPhone, I opened it. It was the first iPhone. This was in 2007. I opened it and inside, there was this beautiful molded fiber tray, a paper tray, that was molded just like a plastic tray would except it was paper. And it was the first time I’ve seen it – outside cartons, I started seeing this beautiful form factor and it really was clear that you could now – paper had evolved as a technology that you could shape it and make it look like platic but it wasn’t. And that’s really what’s amazing. It wasn’t plastic. It was paper.
So it set me down this journey thinking, “Gosh. I wonder if I can make a bottle out of this.”
So it turned me from an everyday working mom into speaking an alternative, and lo and behold, we came up with a paper bottle.
DEBRA: I think it’s amazing and it also goes to show that when you start to put your attention on something, then often solutions appear just because you’ve made a decision that you want to go in that direction. How many people opened those iPhone boxes but you were the one that said, “I can make a bottle out of this.” And I just think it’s wonderful the way that happens in the world. It’s a great thing.
JULIE CORBETT: It is. When you start drinking differently and I have to credit the school – schools are always an amazing anchor to change and thinking because schools all over America, children are so sensitive today to environmental issues, to health issues.
When I went to school, my mother gave me a little thing of Tang and I put it with water and I drink it. I’ve got nothing against Tang, but you know what I mean? But that wasn’t part of the conversation, right?
So schools do a good job and schools are doing an excellent job at raising the next generation. And that school program really changed our family’s perspective and sensitized us to how much waste we were generating.
DEBRA: I used to live in California. I was born and raised there and lived there for many years. And I was part of the founding of a company that made many environmental products that ended up in Wal–Mart. And it all started because somebody, a good founder’s daughter came home from school and said, “Dad, what are we doing to help the environment?” And we started a whole business. It still exists today.
So schools do make a difference.
We need to go to break but when we come back, we’ll talk more about plastic bottles and other solutions. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Julie Corbett, founder of Ecologic. And you can go to her website, EcologicBrands.com to see these wonderful bottles. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Julie Corbett. She’s the founder of Ecologic and they make bottles for packaging consumer products out of recycled paper instead plastic.
Julie, before we start talking about your bottles, could you tell us about the existing plastic bottles and packaging that you’re replacing? What kind of plastics are being used, things like.
JULIE CORBETT: So the company was founded in 2008. Once I had the bottles and quite frankly, what is interesting about packaging is that packaging serves a very, very important role in the distribution of products all the way from when the product is made, all the way to your pantry or your refrigerator. So it protects the product inside. America is a huge country and the world is a big place. So things are shipped far and wide.
So we had spent a fair amount of time at developing a package that we knew could withstand the shipping environment, the retail environment, the refrigerated environment, all the different environments that products endure before they get consumed.
So that took a while. But first, we had done a task with Straus Family Creamery that were instrumental in helping me move this technology forward. And Straus is the first organic dairy west of the Mississippi. Most of their milk is [cross–talking 00:15:23]
DEBRA: Actually, I used to live out there in West Marin, buy them, and I used to go to the farm. That’s great. It’s great. I love their place. I love what they’re doing. A long time ago, when they first became organic is when I lived out there.
JULIE CORBETT: Most of their milk is sold in glass, reusable glass bottles, like the old style milk van where you bring a bag and they resell. Anyway, we did a store task with Straus just to tell you how right the market is for sustainable packaging that people really care is that they sold 72% more milk in our container than they did the previous.
So we knew we’re on the right track. And what I wasn’t – I’m not a packaging person, obviously, by trade, and I don’t know the industry. At that time, I didn’t know the industry. There was an article published in Packaging Digest, which is the biggest periodical in the industry. And I got a call from Peter Swain at 7 Generation who saw the article. And 7 Generation has a very, very deep, very rooted in their DNA and their brand, the vision is sort of a reduction of virgin materials, specifically, a lot of their bottles were made out of recycled plastic, but also reduction in plastics overall.
And they were launching a new product, a new detergent product that used less water, so good for the environment. And they wanted to put in our bottle. They were our first customer and we developed a beautiful bottle for them. And it’s our longest selling product today. It’s been in the market for three–and–a–half, four years, sold all over the US. And they saw a 6% share in market gain and they saw a list in sales of – in the first years, almost 25% in our bottle.
And it’s been a good hero product for them. They also launched a baby detergent, baby laundry detergent in our bottle a couple of years later, a nice 32 oz. that you could find in specialty stores, specialty baby stores.
So it’s been a very, very big success. And since 7 Generation, we developed new products because think of the plastic bottle, it’s ubiquitous, it’s everywhere. So we developed a protein powder canister with the company called Body Logic. So you could see that in GNC, the vitamin shop, Walgreens. That is 75% reduction in plastic. It’s a beautiful bottle, different shape and size. And we have a lot of other customers around the planet who use our bottle. Our bottle sold in Austria. It’s sold in Germany, Holland. There are products in Australia, New Zealand. So it’s a very exciting time for our technology and company.
But we just launched our biggest launch and our biggest innovation today is with Nestle Purina. They launched a new kitty litter called Renew, which is non–clay–based. It’s a lightweight litter that’s made out of old corncobs and spruce. So again using discarded materials to make the world a better place and that just started selling in all the PetSmart around the U.S. and Canada, and that is 100% plastic–free, two sizes.
So it’s really exciting time. Very, very exciting time.
DEBRA: I have that new one, the Renew bottle. It’s sitting here on my desk. And one of the things about your bottles is that the other ones you sent me for samples, most of them have plastic lids. But the Renew one had a paper lid on it. And I thought that was very innovative. I really like that is 100% plastic free.
And also, it just makes sense that if you’re selling a product that has environmental benefits inside, the packaging should go along with that as well. It just makes everything in agreement.
And I have to say that I just think that I can just see in the future every product that is currently in a plastic bottle being in your paper bottles. I can see that.
JULIE CORBETT: I share the same dream. I share the same dream. Nobody tells you how hard it’s going to be. You come up with any idea where it was so intuitive with that d’oh kind of moment that a lot of people have in their life, I had the same.
I will tell you that I think there will be a day within the near definitive future where you’re going to walk down the aisle of the laundry aisle or the juice aisle or the condiment. So many aisles in the grocery story and you will see paper bottles. So the future is close. It’s just not easy. And that’s really the bottom line.
Every brand that has adopted our technology has seen huge growth in sales. And it just shows you how women, specifically 80% of all purchases in the retail environment are made by women at a household. So what women think is critical to the success of any product. And women, I think, across America, blue, red states, it doesn’t matter, I think people care about waste and litter and understand that we’re in a finite resource world.
The problem is that the industry is an old industry, and change is not easy. So that is what is going to take time. But I agree with your vision. I agree with your vision.
DEBRA: I love it. I love what you’re doing. We need to go to break.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Julie Corbett. She’s the founder of Ecologic and she makes packaging, she replaces plastic bottles with beautiful bottles made out of recycled paper. We’re going to talk more about that when we come back. Her website is EcologicBrands.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Julie Corbett, founder of Ecologic, and they make these beautiful, recycled paper bottles to replace plastic bottles.
So Julie, I do want to talk about plastic. Can you just tell us, what are the plastics that are used to make plastic bottles?
JULIE CORBETT: What process that we use. So at the end of each day, the backend of a grocery store, you have huge amount of cardboard waste because everything shipped into a supermarket, a Target, a Wal–Mart, or a drugstore, basically, it comes in a paper box. So at the end, they have this huge waste stream that they need to deal with.
So we take what they call old cardboard boxes, OTC. We take those cardboard boxes and we ship them to Manteca. And in Manteca, we have the technology that basically pulverizes the paper or the cardboard boxes and makes it into a blend like a smoothie blend. And then we have a technology that presses it into a paper shell.
So I like to say from box to bottle is really the process that we use.
DEBRA: A question that often comes up for me, people ask me about recycled paper is that you’re recycling the pulp but also whatever ink is on there. So does the recycling process remove inks or anything? I’ve never actually seen in person a recycling process, although I’ve read about it. So how does that happen? What happens to those inks?
JULIE CORBETT: Well that’s the beauty about paper. There’s what they call the inking processes. Ink separates pretty quickly from water. You don’t think it does but there are special enzymes that really separate the two. So that is an inherent part of paper recycling.
The reality about paper is that it’s one of the easiest materials to recycle compared to plastics. Plastics come in different colors and once you have a color in plastic, you actually cannot take out the color. So that’s what makes paper unique is it’s ease of recycle, it’s ease of convertibility. Once you’ve made paper – that’s why it’s the most broadly recycled product in the world today. It’s because it’s a natural product and all you have to do is re–wet it and it converts back into its fiber form.
DEBRA: Yes that’s pretty amazing. I love how that works. So would you describe the way your bottles are constructed because I think one other question that probably the listeners are wondering is if it’s just paper, how can you put a liquid in it?
JULIE CORBETT: If it’s just paper, how do you put a liquid in it? Well, some of our bottles, not all, but the ones that do carry liquid, we do have a very thin plastic pouch on the inside. Sometimes, at this stage, we don’t have a replacement for replacing it. But it is necessary evil in some ways because products once they are made have to fit on the shelf for sometimes more than a year. So you need what they call shelf ability to keep the product intact. And obviously waterproofing and plastic serves a good role for that at this point.
So our pouch has 70% less plastic than a regular bottle. So for liquid products that need that kind of stability, we do have a plastic pouch in the inside but the pouch is a separate – it’s really a separate thing. And it’s fully recyclable and it’s a lot less material. But it’s not embedded. The thing about paper is that the minute you coat paper with plastic – and you see that with milk cartons and the supras, for example – you know how you buy supras in those cartons, those laminated structures – once you coat paper with something like a plastic or any kind of petrochemical, it basically makes it impossible to recycle it. It makes it very difficult or very expensive to recycle. So we don’t embed the paper with plastic. We actually just have a little pouch on the inside. So two separate materials.
When you’re done, you crack it open and you recycle both of them separately or you can compost the shell.
DEBRA: I just think this is so brilliant because I can really see how instead of having this big plastic bottle that you can just – I have a house with a yard so I would just compost the bottle and that would be – and I have two little pieces of plastic to put in the recycling and done. It’s a white cap and I think it’s a clear plastic bag inside. And so this all can be recycled through the industrial system or through the natural system. And it’s just a brilliant design. Brilliant.
JULIE CORBETT: Well, thank you. I think when you talk about brilliant, you think about being an entrepreneur. What I’m finding is that our innovation has inspired many, many other inventors. Sorry, I have a cold. Sorry about that. And I think that you’re going to see more and move innovation in the packaging space. I think this has unlocked potential and it’s fantastic to see that an industry that has almost no [inaudible 00:32:27] no change in the past 50 years to see a renewed invigoration of the way people are thinking, the way people are thinking about the materials instead of plastic.
So I think if you could spark somebody else’s imagination, then you’re moving the pendulum in the right way.
DEBRA: I think so. One other thing that I see in this is that I’m always trying to think out of the industrial box and I know that you’re making these industrially, and I’m not saying that industry is a bad thing. But a natural material that can go through the cycle in nature of breaking down and going back into the ecosystem, et cetera. Then I’m always looking for that kind of solution. And most of your bottle is that kind of solution. We need to be moving in that direction so that we’re operating within the ecosystem rather than solely within the industrial system like most of what’s going on now.
JULIE CORBETT: I agree. And people are becoming more and more aware of these plastic islands that are forming in the ocean. Richard Branson just made out a call to the Billion Moms Call. Plastic, it doesn’t go into the right stream. It ends up in the ocean – our rivers, then through our ocean. It’s dramatically changing the system in the ocean. And the ocean is a very, very important – you live in Florida. It’s an amazingly important lung for the earth. So when you look at islands in the Pacific that are as large as a continent forming because of plastic waste, you know that anything that dissolves once it’s thrown away or it doesn’t make it to the recycling stream is a good thing.
DEBRA: Yes, absolutely. We need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Julie Corbett. She’s the founder of Ecologic. She makes these great recycle paper bottles that replace plastic bottles and her website is EcologicBrands.com. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Julie Corbett. She’s the founder of Ecologic and we’ve been talking about her recycled paper bottles that will one day replace all plastic bottles on the planet.
So Julie, I think I’m running out of questions here but I know that you have more to say that I can’t even think of. So what’s something that we should be talking about?
JULIE CORBETT: Well, I think what everybody needs – I mean, look, I think we’re a collective [inaudible 00:39:19] individual choices. There are 300 million Americans and I’d say 50% of them are probably going to be going to the store within the next 48 hours to buy something. I think that you can’t move the needle alone. You can’t. But I think when you have a collective of people making individual choices that are starting to align with what is probably better for the overall planet, I think that’s where the needle gets moved.
I really do encourage people that when they do go shopping and they do buy products, I think there are some really important things that they need to be looking at, assuming that most products in the market today are quality products. If you really want to make a difference, you need to look at your package and look to see one, if it’s a recyclable package. Now, just because it says it’s recyclable doesn’t mean that it gets recycled. Those are two different things. But if you live in a community where you’re not – easy access recycling is not that prevalent, then you could buy products made out of recycled plastics.
For example, I know that [inaudible 00:40:48] seven generation, there are a lot of companies who are, instead of using virgin plastic in their bottles, they’re using recycled plastic. Paper-based, you go down the aisle of the grocery store and you see cereal boxes. There are some brands that actually, their cereal box is made out of recycled paper.
So I think if we want to go into a world where we’re not taxing our precious resources so much, buying products made of recycled content is actually going to make a big difference. Obviously, our paper bottle stands alone but we’re not at a point yet where it’s prolifically available in all products that we buy. That day is coming.
But I really encourage people to speak with their dollars. I think brands are understanding it today that the ingredients – they’ve focused so much on baking goodness inside their product, now they need to bake goodness on the outside of their product. And I think that that is going to make a sea of change.
DEBRA: I agree with you. One other thing that I have been running into my whole adult life as a consumer advocate is just being able to get the information about the products that you can’t always get the ingredient information. And so I’m actually right now doing a big push to do more work about increased disclosure. And it occurred to me that if we want people to make better packaging choices, it would be great if there was a little symbol that manufacturers could put on the front of the package. If it’s made out of recycled –that they would put a recycled symbol or something and indicate that this is a package, that we’re talking about the packaging material.
And people, as they’re going along the aisle, they could just look and see that symbol and know that this is a preferred packaging kind of thing.
I can look at this and say, “This is obviously recycled paper because I know what it looks like.” And then I can look on the back and see that it’s recycled. But if we want to get people to be making better packaging choices, I think something on the front of the label that indicates that the packaging, there’s something special about it, I think would be a very good idea.
JULIE CORBETT: Yes. I agree with you. And we’ve done – consumers like you have really made the change. Look at now and they list how many calories, fat, sodium content, sugar content. We’ve become – and when I go internationally and I buy products and I don’t see that it drives me crazy. So we’ve done a great job because of your advocacy on the ingredient side. But yes, I think to see the same thing happen with packaging that would be a dream come true. And it would help everybody make the better choices. We’re free to make the choices we want. But if we don’t have informed choices, we’re buying blind.
So I agree with you. And I think the sustainable – and this is the problem. Just because something has a number one or a number two on it doesn’t mean that it actually does get recycled. And people like the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, the SPC, it has started really pushing for standards on disclosures on recycling and symbol that are authentic to where we really are as a society, that number two is not good enough. It has to have number two. You know colored plastic doesn’t get recycled as much as clear plastic. Even though they’re both number two’s, the chance that a milk jug gets recycled is far higher than a colored plastic bottle like a Tide bottle or something of color because it’s not as sought after.
So SPC, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, has really worked hard. But not every brand is part of the SPC. So that is the problem. It’s still voluntary disclosures because you’re seeing people like 7 Generation method, you’re seeing some of the products on the natural side participate in the SPC standards but it’s not – by far, it’s still a small segment of that market.
So I don’t know if the government has to jump in and make a mandatory the way they have with food labeling. But something needs to be done to educate the public for sure.
DEBRA: Yes, it’s my impression – and you can tell me if I’m wrong, it’s my impression that actually, all these changes are really being driven by consumers. And that companies are responding to the consumer interest, and then government will respond. I don’t think it’s a top down thing.
JULIE CORBETT: No, I agree. But for food label disclosures, for example, it took the government – I think companies started doing it for responsibility, to be responsible and to educate, to establish brand loyalty. But at some point, you need a tipping point where everybody has to be on the same page and that nobody is lying. That’s the other thing.
I’m not saying that the government is the only solution but at some point [cross–talking 00:46:26]
DEBRA: I see what you’re saying. What I would like to see is, one of the things I think a lot of people don’t know is that the labeling laws are different for different types of products.
JULIE CORBETT: Correct.
DEBRA: And I would like there to be a universal labeling law that applies to every type of products that says all ingredients need to be disclosed. Period. And it doesn’t matter it is. And for food ingredients, if you are labeling a food product, you have to put the greatest amount, the highest percentage ingredient first. And then it goes down in descending order.
And we just need to have that on every product. And it seems like a simple thing to me.
JULIE CORBETT: I agree. [cross–talking 00:47:14] Go ahead.
DEBRA: That’s a place where I think that the government will have to require it because I see a lot of companies, especially more natural products, are giving that kind of disclosure but other companies aren’t.
JULIE CORBETT: I agree. I agree. It’s like the GMO debate. There’s a huge, at least in California, there’s a huge push, and we’re seeing California – places like California, places like Washington State, New York, even actually Florida, there’s a movement big enough that politicians are listening. So this GMO debate has been a hot bed in California. And I think forcing to disclose whether you have GMO content, people resist because nobody – when there’s a perception that GMO is bad, nobody wants to put in on their labels.
DEBRA: That’s exactly right. I think that if it were mandatory by law that everybody has to disclose everything than people will have to say, “Oh, we’re GMO and we thought this toxic chemical and all the things that they’re hiding today will come and they’ll go out of business.” Or they’ll change their formula or whatever.
JULIE CORBETT: That is exactly, yes, changing formulas. Isn’t that what we’re all about and we’ve done so much good work over the last 10 years. And that’s because people like you have educated the people about the toxicity out there in the environment. But also you’re speaking with your dollars and brands that disclose and that are transparent are getting more and more consumers attracted to them.
So transparency is a good thing. You’re right. It is a great thing.
DEBRA: Yes, it’s totally good because if what you’re doing is a good thing, why not say it? Why not show what you’re doing? And I think that those products that are transparent are moving forward and I’m always looking for transparency.
Well, we’re coming to the end of our time. So thank you so much for being with me today, Julie. Do you have any final words you want to say? We’ve got about 20 seconds.
JULIE CORBETT: No. It was a pleasure speaking with you. And I think I really applaud the fact that when you think about your mission as a radio show to sort of offer not only the diversity of conversation around products and ingredients but also about packaging. I think it’s time that we start talking more and more about it. And I really appreciate the opportunity.
DEBRA: Thank you. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Wardrobe and Crib from Ikea
Question from Jessica Domich
Hi Debra,
I am pregnant with my first child and have been reading your blog for the ideas on non-toxic room paint, crib, organic mattress, clothing and anything I could find to minimize toxic exposure to the child.
I need to purchase a wardrobe for the nursery. I am looking at wardrobes from Ikea but I am not sure what would be the best choice and least toxic. My price range is $300 and I am looking from the following options: www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/bedroom/19053/
The nursery colors are white and pink so I would prefer the white wardrobe. 🙂
Also, are there any white cribs from Ikea that you would recommend? I have been looking at some on their website but I am not sure if the white acrylic paint will release toxins into my baby’s crib mattress and if the white acrylic paint is toxic on baby’s crib if kept outside for a while to air out.
These are their crib options: www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/childrens_ikea/18755/
Debra’s Answer
One thing I love about IKEA is that you can get a lot of stylish furniture made from unfinished wood.
Here in the Q&A I can’t look at the materials list for every wardrobe on this page (if you want that, I can do it as a paid consultation) . Just spot checking, eliminate any made from particleboard.
I see that HURDAL is made from solid wood, but it’s $499. You may be able to get a solid wood wardrobe elsewhere for less.
If you want white, I would get solid wood and paint it yourself with Ecos Paints. Most white furniture is particleboard under the paint.
My favorite crib is the Sniglar, solid wood, unfinished, and only $69. Again, if you want white, paint it yourself.
If you prefer to buy painted furniture, you can offgas the paint by placing the furniture in a heated room. Once paint completely dries, there are no toxic fumes.
Non-Toxic Baby Options
Question from Nicole Raineri
Hi Debra,
I’m so glad I stumbled upon your site.
I’m expecting in August and registering for non-toxic items is becoming a bit challenging but I’m doing my best.
I’d love to find a non-toxic pack and play, car seat, stroller but they seem to be few and far between. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Debra’s Answer
I’m not a mom so these are not products I frequently use.
Readers, can you help with recommendations?
Is Polyvinyl Alcohol Film Toxic?
Question from Kristen Conn
Hi Debra,
I’m wondering about the ingredient Polyvinyl Alcohol Film that is in many dishwasher detergent tabs. (Grab Green, Nellies, If You Care) Labels say it is completely biodegradable but the word “Polyvinyl” leaves me wondering if its going to leave something behind!
Debra’s Answer
Good question.
The thing that’s difficult about plastics is they are named in a way that can be confusing.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is very toxic, but polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is not. It is generally considered nontoxic and I see no information that would make me question that.
Steel Entry Door
Question from Karen Ann
Hi Debra,
A friend told me that you have a steel door on your house. All the ones i can find have polyurethane foam inside, or are solid steel (prohibitively expensive). Is yours a foam interior door, and do you know what kind of foam it has? have you ever had any problems with it out-gassing? Thank you so much for your help, in advance!
Debra’s Answer
Well, I don’t know if it has polyurethane foam inside or not. I’ve had it more than five years and there wasn’t anything on the label regarding this at the time.
The door is completely sealed. I can’t get inside to check without cutting the door open.
If it’s there, there is no exposure at all.
Felt Furniture Pads
Question from Catherine Triplettt
Hi Debra,
Hello, I have followed your advice for years-thank you!
I recently (one year ago) bought a nice Amish dining set as I have slowly replaced all my questionable furniture and toys with wood and domestic products.
My husband bought some felt furniture pads with the adhesive on them so the set wouldn’t scratch our 100 year old wood floors. They are the type bought at ace or home depot made oversees in China. It seemed a shame to stick these cheap pads with adhesive I am unfamiliar with on my furniture, but we did and they have been on for about six months.. He said he could find no other alternatives. I too have searched for a safe alternate. Do you think they are safe? I smell nothing, but I am afraid of the adhesive as I do not know what it is. Any suggestions would be great!
Debra’s Answer
I’ve used those too and smell nothing. I can’t evaluate them because I can’t get information on the actual materials. If I can’t get information, I go by if I can’t smell it and I feel fine when I’m around it, I use it. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s all I can do at the moment.
The only other thing would be to not use any product you can’t 100% verify.
It’s your choice.
Tales From Toxic Homes—A Household Toxicologist Shares His Experience
Today my guest is David Abbot, author of Healing Your Family With Practical Household Toxicology. We’ll be talking about his first-hand experience identifying toxic chemicals in homes, his observations of how these toxics affected the health of the home’s inhabitants, and ways everyone can reduce toxic exposures at home. David became aware he was sensitive to chemicals in the early 1980’s, but in retrospect he realized he had been chemically sensitive since he was a child. Like everyone born in the 1950’s, he had been exposed to DDT and many other highly toxic chemicals. A retired general contractor, David got formal training in a household toxicology program in the early 1980’s. The teachers included a PhD in toxicology, a mycologist for a public health department, a medical doctor who was board certified in environmental medicine and had a masters in public health, a chemist, an engineer, and various EPA experts. He also recieved informal training from a microbiologist, a few chemists, a nuclear inspector at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, and an electrical engineer. He studied household and industrial vacuum and air cleaning technology at the engineering library, as well as buying many vacuum cleaners and air cleaners and using them and taking them apart, so he could understand how they worked and how many of them are improperly designed, do not really work right, and expose people to toxins and allergens. He then volunteered for about three years, going to the houses of people whose health conditions did not respond to medical treatment. In every case he found chemical toxins and/or biological allergens that are known to cause those medical conditions. You may email David at David healthy.environment@frontier.com for information on how to order his book.
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Tales from Toxic Homes – A Household Toxicologist Shares His Experience
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: David Abbott
Date of Broadcast: May 07, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It is Thursday, May 7th, 2015. It’s a beautiful day here in Clearwater, Florida. The sun is shining, no rain, no breeze, just a beautiful sunshine. We’ve got a lot of sunshine here.
So what we’re going to be talking about today is household toxics, which we talk about every day, but from a little different perspective. My guest today is a household toxicologist. He’s written a book and he has many years of experience. He was actually trained as a household toxicologist and he’ll be telling us about that, how he got trained. But he also has worked on many houses in many places in many ways to reduce toxic chemical exposures. So he has a tremendous amount of experience.
He realized that after working for many years as a household toxicology consultant, he started getting the symptoms from exposure to toxic chemicals that were in his clients’ homes. He realized that if his clients had had some written instructions and guidelines, that 95% of them could have solved their own household toxicology problems without him even going to their house. So he wrote this book.
So he’s got a lot to tell us about toxic chemicals in homes, how people react to them, and what you can do to fix them. His name is David Abbott, and he’s the author of Healing Your Family with Practical Household Toxicology.
Hi, David.
DAVID ABBOTT: Hi, Debra.
DEBRA: How are you doing today?
DAVID ABBOTT: I’m doing well. And you?
DEBRA: Good. Very good. I’m very interested in having you tell your story about how you got interested in this and in particular, household toxicologist, I’ve actually never heard that term before. Is there a whole field of household toxicology that I’m just not aware of?
DAVID ABBOTT: Well, actually, I may have coined that phrase.
DEBRA: And it’s a very good one.
DAVID ABBOTT: There are not very many people who do this although in China, they have started training people to do it.
DEBRA: Wow.
DAVID ABBOTT: The government actually does that.
DEBRA: There’s a whole field of [inaudible 00:03:32] biology, which I think may be slightly different from what you do because I think that you focus on the toxic chemicals and [inaudible 00:03:40] biology includes all kinds of things, electromagnetic fields, molds and all these other things. They include toxic chemicals, but they aren’t as trained as I think you are or as trained as – I mean, I’m not trained by somebody. I’m trained by 30 years of my own research. So I think that most people don’t have that.
So tell us how you got interested in this on the first place.
DAVID ABBOTT: Well, actually, before I do that, I think very highly [inaudible 00:04:13] biology. It’s total common sense and very practical.
DEBRA: Yes, it does.
DAVID ABBOTT: And it works. Around 1973, I started noticing that I was chemically sensitive. I started putting two and two together, “When I used this product, I start to feel this way. When I use that product, I get sleepy or confused,” and that sort of thing. And I found that if I didn’t use those chemicals, I felt better.
So I started studying the toxins in building materials and building practices because I was a general contractor. I spent most of my time building houses and repairing or remodeling or maintaining them. And I started reading all of the fine print on the labels of the materials that I use, and the MSDS sheets, the Material Safety Data Sheets.
I spent a lot of time at the University of Washington Engineering and Medical Libraries, studying indoor air quality, air flow in and around houses, the Ashray textbooks, and that sort of thing. I studied with a guy who has a Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of Washington, [inaudible 00:05:36] to work for the Seattle Health Department and some chemists and biochemists, a physicist, electrical and biochemical engineers, medical doctors who specialize in environmental medicine and EPA department experts.
DEBRA: Yes, so you have lot of training. And you mentioned to me that there was a Household Toxicology Program in the 1980s that you were a part of. Do you know anything about how that came together? It sounded from your description there was actually a program or people were being trained to learn what you know.
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes, it was. And technically, I’m not supposed to mention it to you because they said they didn’t want anyone to use the training from that program to make money or to engage in other activities besides their program.
DEBRA: Okay. Is that program still existing because I’ve never heard of a program like that?
DAVID ABBOTT: Well, as far as I know, it is. I haven’t talked to them in some time. And I actually broke off with them because they were being funded by two groups that were using the program to collect data about homeowners’ use of toxic chemicals for their own studies. And so it turned out that that was actually the main goal of the program rather than teaching the program participants how to protect themselves from the exposures while they were doing the consultations.
DEBRA: Did you find that once you were trained – you had mentioned, I think, in your e-mail to me about your book that after you started doing these consultations that you became more chemically sensitive? Did you find doing the work actually affected your health?
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes, I did, very much so. Typically, when people have health issues that don’t respond to conventional or alternative medical treatment, they are being exposed to chemical toxins or sometimes mold and pollen and animal dander and that kind of thing in their own house. And sometimes their use of insecticides was so excessive as to be really frightening. Insecticides are usually neurotoxins and insects and human beings have brains and nervous systems that operate through the exact same basic biochemical mechanisms.
And so many insecticides that poison insects by attacking their brain and nervous system does the exact same thing to people. It’s frightening to use insecticides especially when we consider that most of the insects that we poison are not really dangerous to us.
DEBRA: That’s exactly right. That was something that I came to many, many years ago. I don’t remember the last time I used a pesticide because I’ve been doing this for so long. But I came to a point where I said, “Wait a minute. Do I really want to spray toxic chemicals in my house because I have flies?” I could put up screens. Are spiders so bad?
I think that we were trained to see insects as being pests that need to be eradicated by poisons just by watching television and general society. But when I started becoming more aware of nature myself, I started thinking, “Well, wait a minute. These insects, these are all part of the ecosystem. I just need to put up a barrier and say, ‘You stay out there and this is my house.’ I don’t need to spray them.”
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes. And you can get a spray bottle and fill it. What we have available here locally at the liquor stores is something called Diesel, which is not diesel oil or diesel fuel. It’s actually about 90% and under so pure grain alcohol. And so it’s the same type of alcohol that we drink in beer or whiskey or whatever.
But if you spray a fly or a bee or a wasp or a hornet with this stuff from one of those hand spray bottles, it just drops right out of the air. It’s much easier to deal with.
DEBRA: Much easier, much easier. And there are so many solutions. There are so many things that we can do instead of things that are toxic.
We need to go to break but when we come back, we’ll talk more. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. And my guest today is David Abbott. He’s the author of Healing Your Family with Practical Household Toxicology. And this is a brand new book. It’s just barely available. But if you would like a copy, you can e-mail David and just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. Look for the description of this show and you can get his e-mail address that way. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is David Abbott. He’s the author of Healing Your Family with Practical Household Toxicology.
David, could you tell us some stories about toxic exposures you’ve seen in homes and how they were affecting people?
DAVID ABBOTT: Sure. There was a girl named Amy, whose mother called and asked if I could help her. She kept getting lung infections and she had memory loss that was making her college work difficult. And her doctor said, “I don’t know why you keep getting sick because you have a good attitude, you have a good diet, you do 45 minutes of aerobics every day. You seem to be doing everything right.”
And he had her on a bronchodilating inhaler. It’s steroid inhaler. And she had to take cycles of antibiotics. But the lung infections kept coming back.
And in inspecting her apartment, I found a leaking furnace gasket and a leaking can of insecticide. And when she fixed the furnace and got rid of the insecticide, the lung infections disappeared. She started getting better grades in school with less effort, and her doctor took her off all of the drugs.
This actually makes sense because the carbon monoxide leaking out of the furnace is something that’s known to cause memory loss and the insecticide can make people more vulnerable to lung infections. It weakens the immune system. And so a lot of times, when people aren’t responding to medical treatment, it’s because they’re being exposed to toxins.
DEBRA: And I think that that’s a very important sentence that you’ve just said. A lot of times when people aren’t responding t medical treatment, it’s because they’re being exposed to toxins. Because I’ve been saying for a long time that right now, today, people are being so exposed. Everybody is being exposed and all these illnesses that people are having. You can do all the medical treatment whether it’s standard medical treatment or alternative medical treatment, and if you are exposed to toxic chemicals, you’re still going to be sick. You still are going to be sick if you’re being exposed to toxic chemicals. And that’s just the fact of it today.
And so if anybody wants to be healthy, the first thing is to address your toxic exposures because everybody has them. And people say to me, “But I’m not sick.” Well, it’s only a matter of time. It really is only a matter of time because they’re there if they’re making your body sick. And that’s just the truth of the matter today.
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes. A lot of times what I run into is one of the people in the house will say, “I don’t know why you say you react to this chemical because I don’t react to it at all.” And their assumption is that everybody is going to react in precisely the same way to the same chemical. But truthfully, we each have a different balance of health in our liver, kidneys, lungs, brain, endocrine system, and all the rest. And so it isn’t really possibly to predict how a given person is going to react to a given toxin.
DEBRA: That’s right.
DAVID ABBOTT: In fact, a friend of mine who has a doctorate in chemistry from Berkeley told me that no government or research institute or private clinic or hospital or an industry has enough time and money and technical expertise to determine how a specific person will react to a specific combination of toxins. And this incredible complexity of the issue actually simplifies it because as you said, if we reduce our exposure to chemicals simply as a result, it can only help us.
DEBRA: I did a lot of research in the beginning when I first learned that my body was getting sick from toxic chemical exposure in my home which totally shocked me because at that time, I thought that the government was removing toxic chemicals from everything. But that’s not the case at all. And I did all this research because I was trying to say, “Okay, here’s my list of symptoms. I have headaches, I have insomnia, I have depression. And what are the products in my home that are causing those?”
And so, I could see that if I sprayed hairspray on then I would get a headache. As I did my research, I learned that formaldehyde on bedsheets causes insomnia. I had to put those pieces of data together to figure that out. But I found out in separate books and I put it all together and I went, “Oh, my permanent-pressed sheets have formaldehyde and formaldehyde causes insomnia.” And I changed my sheets and I could sleep. It just solved that just like that.
And on a larger scale, you can’t always make those associations that are that precise. And what I found was that if I were to just remove all the toxic chemicals I possibly could, then it would make my body healthier just in general. And I think that that’s what people need to do instead of saying, “Well, I have cancer,” or, “I’m impotent.” Sure there are causes of chemicals that relate to these things but say we removed all the carcinogens in your life but you still have all the neurotoxins.
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes. And another thing that we often run into is when people start hearing about all of these toxins, they say, “I don’t feel safe. I worry all the time. I don’t feel safe in my house. I don’t feel safe going out in public.”
The thing that we need to remember is that we just do what we can do at the time and take steps other than getting rid of toxins such as eating a good diet, having a good attitude, meditating ,doing yoga, Tai Chi Gong, this kind of thing. Even just going for a walk every day.
And these things can be really beneficial.
DEBRA: Yes, and there are all kinds of detoxing that I write about. There are so many things that we can do. Actually, I was just writing in my one my blogs, Toxic Free Body, I was writing about – you know that old song, Accentuate the Positive? I even put a video of that song in the blogpost because so many times we focus on what is the negative aspect of things. But there’s always something positive. There’s always a positive and there’s always a negative in any situation.
And so the negative is that toxic chemicals are all around us and poisoning us. But the positive is, there’s a whole lot of other things that we can do that aren’t toxic and we can keep making those choices, keep accentuating the positive, keep doing the things that remove toxic chemicals from our body, take them out of our homes, help remove these toxics in our communities. There is so much we can do. There’s so much we can do.
DAVID ABBOTT: Definitely.
DEBRA: I think we’ve come up to the break. So this is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is David Abbott, author of Healing Your Family with Practical Household Toxicology. And you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and look for today’s show and it has his e-mail address where you can e-mail him and get information on how to order his book.
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is David Abbott, and he is the author of a book called Healing Your Family with Practical Household Toxicology.
So David, let’s talk about some things that you have some solutions to these problems. You’ve looked at so many houses. What is the most common thing that you find and what do you tell people to do about it?
DAVID ABBOTT: Well, the most common thing I found that I think is the most dangerous is insecticide use. But there’s also a lot of just really simple stuff that actually doesn’t take any effort or any money to solve.
For instance, a woman told me that she always needed to use her asthma inhaler when she was cooking dinner. And so she had a gas stove. And I said, “You cook on the front burners, right?” And she said, “Yes.” And I said, “Okay, let’s turn on the front burner and take a smell of the air when that burner is on.”
And I showed her how to identify the smell of the combustion fumes from the gas flame. And then I said, “Now, you’ve got a vent soaked or a vent fan here above the stove. Let’s turn it on.” And she turned it on and I said, “Now, pretend that you’re stirring a pot on this front burner. In fact, let’s put a pot full of water there and stir the water with a spoon.”
And when she did that she could still smell the combustion fumes even though the vent fan was on. Because to be honest, there isn’t any vent fan that would remove the combustion fumes from the front burners when you’re stirring something on the stove.
So I showed her just to cook on the back burner and when she did that she didn’t need her asthma inhaler when she was cooking.
DEBRA: Well, now, that’s exactly the kind of quick and easy and practical thing that everybody should know and we don’t know. I’ve been studying this for more than 30 years and I didn’t know that.
DAVID ABBOTT: In fact, I didn’t know it until she asked me.
DEBRA: But then you figured it out because you had a background.
DAVID ABBOTT: And I was thinking about how can this happen? Why would she need her inhaler? Well, the only thing she is being exposed to here could be combustion fumes because that’s the only thing that changes when she turns on the stove. So yes, really simple.
DEBRA: But you figured out – here’s the thing that you figured out, I think, is – I would figure out that she was being exposed to combustion fumes. But it would never occur to me that how the hood vent is pulling up the fumes or not pulling up the fumes from the front burners versus the back burners. It just would never occur to me. But that opens the door. Just knowing that opens the door to people who are listening to us. It opens the door to being able to use a gas stove maybe for some people who can’t use them.
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes, I actually use an electric stove for that reason. But a lot of people assume that just because they have a vent fan that it works perfectly. That in all the years that I’ve done consultations, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one vent fan that was properly maintained. And when they’re not working right, they don’t work efficiently. And even when they are working as they were specifically designed to work, most of them actually still don’t get all of the fumes out.
And so I’d say, “You know, you got to figure ways around this sort of thing.” And a lot of times, even the building codes don’t really protect people against a lot of sources of toxins. As you pointed out in your books and on your show about toxins in building materials and they’re approved by the building departments. They’re fine with them.
DEBRA: We need building codes that protect us from toxics. I love that.
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes. We need new building codes.
DEBRA: Maybe I need to write my own building codes.
DAVID ABBOTT: That would be good. I think typically, the building codes are quite a few years behind common knowledge and they only catch up with common knowledge when enough people say, “Hey, come on. This doesn’t make sense.”
There is actually a building code here where I live where, before you put the drywall in your house, you had to put a solid layer of plastic sheeting all around the stud walls and then put the drywall on. And what was happening is the moisture from the air that people exhale and from showers and cooking and laundry was going through the drywall which it does. It goes through the paint and through the drywall, it would hit the plastic and condense there because the plastic was colder than the inside air. And then it would create mold. And so there were mold infestations in virtually all of the new houses in this area.
And the city got sued for it and then they changed the building code. These building codes, a lot of times, they’re not really efficient.
DEBRA: So I want to go back to insecticides for a second. So if insecticides are the most common, then obviously, you tell people to stop using them. But what about the insecticides that are already in the home?
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes, that’s really an issue. And a lot of parts of the south where they would take – I forgot the name of it, but it’s a really potent insecticide. And they would take 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 pounds of it and just put it on the building site in the center of the house on the dirt, and then build the house over it. And their logic was this will kill termites or fire ants or whatever other kinds of insects that might get into the house. But the problem is it hurts people too.
There’s got to be other ways to deal with this stuff.
One of my clients’ daughters had a brain seizure and the doctors at a major university hospital didn’t know why and they didn’t know whether she would have more. They prescribed a potent psychoactive drug that had very serious side effects. And when I inspected the house, I found four insecticides in the house. Three in the lawn care products that they stored in the attached garage and one, a leaking can of bee spray in the laundry room. And what people need to understand is that all of those spray cans of insecticides leak even when they’re brand new.
And in fact, you can walk down the aisle in any hardware stores and you can smell the insecticide in that aisle because the valves leak. They’re made out of very soft thermoplastic and they simply don’t work properly.
And so the girl, for her own reasons, she didn’t like the side effects. She refused to use the drug that they prescribed. Her parents got rid of the insecticides. And when the doctors read my written report, they said, “Yes, this is true. These four insecticides can cause brain seizures.”
And now eight years later, no seizures. She’s healthy and happy. She has good friends and getting good grades in school.
DEBRA: That’s so good. See, what a difference this makes.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is David Abbott. He’s the author of Healing Your Family with Practical Household Toxicology. And if you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, look for his show and you can see his e-mail address where you can write to him for more information on how to order the book.
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is David Abbott, author of Healing Your Family with Practical Household Toxicology.
David, I want to hear more about some of these easy fixes like you just told us about cooking on the back burners of your gas stove.
DAVID ABBOTT: Well, keeping the furnace well maintained is really vital because all the air in the house pretty except for in the closets and in some corners is cycled through the furnace, if you have a four-stair furnace. And most people use those blue or green-colored, really loose furnace filters. And what they don’t understand is that those filters are specifically designed to keep large clumps of dust out of the furnace blower motor. They’re not actually designed to keep dust out of the house. And there has been studies and virtually all samples of household dust in America had the heavy metal lead and the long-banned insecticides, DDT, and lots of other toxins in them because dust is like a sponge for toxins.
And they make high efficiency furnace filters that really do a pretty darn good job of filtering out dust and pollen and mold spores, yeast spores, this kind of thing. But the key thing is not only to use these furnace filters, they have to be changed when they’re dirty. And so you buy two at the same time and you keep one in the plastic wrap and you check it every month or so until you’re familiar with how it’s going. And you compare the filter that’s in the furnace to the new one that’s in the wrap. And you can see the difference in the color between the new one and the one in the furnace. It’s time to change it.
DEBRA: Another thing I didn’t know. That’s a really good tip.
DAVID ABBOTT: And if you have asthma or any other respiratory or immune system disorder, when you change the furnace filter, you want to wear a good dust mask. And the kind of dust mask to wear is the same kind that most dentists and doctors use. It’s the accordion fold, very soft, almost cloth-like filter with the ear loops. And because those harder cone dust masks don’t really work. They led dust in around the corners, around the edges. So you simply put the used furnace filter into a garbage bag and put it in the trash and put in a new one.
But you don’t want to use the anti-microbial furnace filters because those contain chemicals that are registered with the EPA as insecticides. And insecticides are not safe for us.
DEBRA: We don’t want them blowing all through. What you don’t want to do is take insecticides and put them in our HPAC system and have them blow all around the house.
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes, that’s right. I found that a lot of people say, “I use so many toxic chemicals for so long that it wouldn’t make any difference if I stop now. So why bother being careful?”
DEBRA: Oh, good. Answer that question.
DAVID ABBOTT: That’s like saying, “I’ve hit my thumb with a hammer so many times that it wouldn’t make any difference if I stop. And in fact, I think I’ll hit my thumb with a hammer right now just to prove it.”
And no one would do that with a hammer. And yet so many people do it with toxic chemicals.
DEBRA: Why do you think that we still have so many toxic chemicals when there is so much evidence that they’re harmful?
DAVID ABBOTT: Part of the reason is that we are genetically hardwired to be afraid of flier, to be afraid of falling, to be afraid of abandonment, these kinds of really basic, visceral, emotional triggers. But toxic chemicals haven’t been around long enough for us to have a genetically hardwired fear or concern about them.
And so it’s basically information-based. And a lot of people don’t have the information. And then when you get into insecticides and some weed poisons and moss poisons and things, then there’s the neurotoxic effect to be dealt with because actually, I have seen people who I believe who were using insecticides to self-medicate in the same way that many people use alcohol or recreational drugs where they have these issues that are difficult for them to deal with and face. And they’re not sure what to do about them. And they found through experience that if they spray some bee poison or some ant poison or fly poison or whatever, that they feel better that those emotions disappear.
The reason they disappear or seem to disappear is because the insecticides attack the nervous system and prevent certain circuits in the brain from functioning properly.
It’s not the best way to deal with those issues.
DEBRA: No, it isn’t. I’ve heard that about painters in the past. The painters get addicted to the toxic chemicals in paint. And so they actually get withdrawals and things. And so they have to keep painting and then they just get sicker and sicker and sicker. Kind of like with any drug or cigarettes or anything like that. These are all related chemicals and that our bodies can get addicted to them.
I think that’s actually a thing that we should be considering more is how people are getting addicted to the toxic chemicals in their homes that all talked about much.
DAVID ABBOTT: And there’s a neurologist named Barry Sterman, S-T-E-R-M-A-N, and he found that when he – he was hired by NASA because the astronauts were getting exposed to rocket fuel, of course, when they were shooting up into the atmosphere. And the exposure to rocket fuel was causing epileptic seizures. And that’s the last thing you want an astronaut to be having.
And what Sterman found is that when he did neuro feedback on cats and then exposed them to that particular toxin, the cats didn’t react to the toxin. They had no apparent reaction whatsoever. And what he was training them to do was to exhibit strong SRM sensory motor brainwaves. And those are the brainwaves that a cat has when it’s sitting by a mouse hole and patiently waiting for the mouse to pop its head out. The cat’s totally relaxed but totally alert.
And that brainwave state helps people apparently to resist the effects of toxic chemicals. And I have found that to be true in my case. Although I certainly wouldn’t advise anyone to get neuro feedback and then say, “Now, I can use chemicals.”
DEBRA: No.
DAVID ABBOTT: But I would advise people who are having symptoms of chemical exposure to try neuro feedback and see if it can help them deal with the symptoms.
DEBRA: Well, I hear people saying, “I’m chemically sensitive.” Or that they’ve been poisoned by something and they say, “How can I be tolerant to be around these toxic chemicals?”
Now, I understand where they’re coming from because having been in that situation myself in the past. I understand that you want to just be able to be a normal environment and not react to it. But the thing that I think that most people aren’t realizing is that when they ask that question, they’re saying, “How can I be around poison and not have the normal reaction to it that would tell you that it’s toxic and you shouldn’t be around it?”
DAVID ABBOTT: Yes.
DEBRA: And I think that people are confused. There has been so much information about multiple chemical sensitivities and I did believe that there is such a thing as people being sensitive to a chemical. But if we think of it only as a sensitivity, we miss the whole picture that their poisons, and we’re all being poisoned. We’re all being poisoned.
DAVID ABBOTT: You are right. Yes. I have a friend that I’ve talked with a lot about this stuff. And he found for him the perfect solution. When I talk about this stuff, he says, “Oh, yes. You are chemically sensitive.”
And what I say is just what you said, “Now, wait a minute. These are actually poisonous chemicals. And even people who think that they’re not reacting almost undoubtedly are.”
I know a guy years ago when I was construction, he was 6’4″, built like a football linebacker, one of the most powerful people I’ve ever met in my life and just full of life. And he was exposing himself every day in his work to these toxic chemicals and one day, he visited me and he was skin and bones. And I say, “What’s going on?” And he said, “Well, I’ve got cancer.”
And a couple of months later, he was dead. And I found myself thinking, “That was a gamble that didn’t work.”
DEBRA: I don’t tell this story very often but when I was much younger and – actually, I’m not going to tell this story because we only have 30 seconds left. So thank you so much for being with us, David. And your book is very interesting. I’ve been reading bits and pieces of it. There’s a lot of information in there. Remember listeners, you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, get David’s e-mail address and find out how you can order his book.
This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be Well.
DAVID ABBOTT: Thank you, Debra.
DEBRA: Thank you, David.
How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use—And How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and into Health
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be talking about the latest studies that show how inactivity contributes to illness (and subsequent drug use) plus how simple exercise can help your body be healthy more than expensive drugs. Pamela has more than 25 years experience choosing and selling top quality medicinal supplements, so she’s seen it all. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
- Vaccines: Harmful or Necessary?
- Evaluating A Study and Testing a Test
- Seven Deadly Drugs
- The Hidden Dangers Affecting Your Heart and How You Can Protect It Naturally
- What We Can Do About Cancer
- The Power of pH
- How to Protect Your Health From Toxic Mercury Dental Fillings
- Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
- Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
- How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing With Supplements
- How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
- Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
- See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
- Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
- Different Types of Detox
- Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
- Natural Alternatives to Sleeping Pills
- Natural Back Pain Treatment Options That Work
- How Toxics Age Your Body & What You Can Do to Stay Young
- You CAN Lose Weight—Even if You’ve Had Difficulty Losing Weight Before
- Calcium—Is There Really a Deficiency in America?
- It’s Cold and Flu Season—How to Support Your Immune System and Why You Shouldn’t Get a Toxic Flu Shot
- How Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help Your Cells Create Health
- Toxic Psychiatry and How to Have Mental Health Without Drugs
- Why You Should Take Fish Oil and How To Choose the Right One for You
- Medicinal Plants Can Replace Toxic Drugs
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use and How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and Into Health
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld
Date of Broadcast: May 06, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It is Wednesday, May 6, 2015, and I’m here in sunny Clearwater, Florida. And today is every other Wednesday so my guest is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. She knows so much about how we can use natural substances to heal our bodies that I have her on every other Wednesday. And today’s the other Wednesday. And so here she is again.
What we’re going to be talking about today is inactivity, how inactivity leads to illness and drug use because when are inactive, as most people are in the modern world, then we get illnesses that lead to us taking drugs and then we start going down that drug spiral.
So today we’re going to be talking about how inactivity leads to illness, how exercise makes you healthy, and what we can do so that we can be drug free. For anybody who is still taking drugs or knows anybody who is taking drugs but is close to you, this is important information.
Hi, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Hey, it’s great to be here.
DEBRA: Thank you. You sound so bright and healthy. You always do.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I feel healthy. I feel great.
DEBRA: I have to tell everybody. I said this before but I just want to say it again that Pamela is the number one, healthiest-looking person I’ve ever seen. When I first saw her, I thought, “This is a healthy person. I want to be healthy like this.”
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, I feel really great. I really do. I’m very blessed. Great health.
DEBRA: Yes, you are. But you do so many things to be healthy. And so we’re talking about inactivity today. So I’m sure that sometime during the hour, we’re going to talk about how active you are.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. How we want to try and get America and everywhere else as well, try and get everybody to get up and start moving because the new statistics don’t look very good for what we’re actually doing right now.
DEBRA: So why don’t you tell us about this statistics? I think you have some studies to tell us about?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. The Wall Street Journal, two days ago, had a report and they published this, and they were talking about this brand new survey that took place that’s called the Physical Activity Council that took the survey, and it found that one in four Americans didn’t exercise at all in the past year.
So that’s one in four. That’s a lot. So that’s 25% of the population and we know that – and actually, it’s closer to 28%, it says here, but more than a quarter of the US population, 28% did not participate in a single physical activity last year as defined by the Council. And the definition of physical activity is simple stuff, even yard work, walking around the block. It’s not going to the gym and working out for an hour and running a marathon. It’s simple activities that people just are not doing even at all and these inactivities are not just because of people always so concerned about their weight. That’s a factor. But also the fact that it causes metabolic syndrome and allows for diabetes, hypertension and other things took place, even if the person is of normal weight.
So that’s very, very important to realize that it’s not just okay – I’m telling people to get active because I want them all to get skinny. It’s not necessarily about your body habit as in your weight. Though sometimes with activity, of course, that can help to lose weight. But the fact that these people are all going to be at risk for a lot of metabolic diseases is very, very dangerous.
DEBRA: I think about prior to the industrial age when people used to live out in nature and they had to get everything that they needed directly off the land. People were incredibly active that they were – there were no cars and so they walked everywhere. And if they wanted to eat, they had to go hunt a wooly mammoth or whatever they were hunting. And there’s this whole period of time that’s called the hunter/gatherers. And so the men were off hunting animal which they had to run after and chase and go to the areas where the animals were, and the women were to gather everything. They had to walk around and find berries and carry them home. And they were walking to the stream and carrying the bottles of water, the jugs of water I should say.
And people were just moving around all day long doing the basic stuff of life. And we don’t do any of that anymore. And I think that most people just sit at a desk and they go home and sit in front of the television.
PAMELA SEEFELD: This is what the Physical Activity Council is really saying. And they’re saying also that the number of Americans, whom we describe as totally sedentary, and that’s in quotations, has risen to its highest level since 2007. So we’re talking about the epidemic of lots of diseases and most of the people listening to this are probably interested in improving their health and doing some simple things. Obviously, not being on a bunch of medication is one of them. And if we’re totally sedentary, we’re not walking to do things and do the yard work, maybe go to the gym, it doesn’t mean you have to be working out, per say, on an exercise equipment all day long. That’s not what we’re talking about.
But even mild activities – and I really have to think that a lot of people I know really outsource a lot of the things that they used to do, their housework, the washing of the car. All these things that used to be activity we don’t want to do, especially in Florida. People don’t want to sweat so they hire people to do everything.
Look at everybody here in Florida. I have yard service. I have lawns. And I have a pool guy. You have people for everything.
DEBRA: Hello, I don’t.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You don’t because you probably don’t have a pool to take care of, a yard maybe. I have all these people doing all this stuff. Now, I’m still very active, but I see this everywhere I go. You look in Florida, how many yard services are out there? There must be a million. Everyone has a yard service.
DEBRA: I think part of it in Florida because it’s hot and humid most of the year that you don’t want to go out there. It’s hard for me actually in the summertime that it’s so humid, it’s difficult to breathe.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I mean, if people haven’t come to Florida, we can tell them from firsthand experience that it’s like walking into an oven.
DEBRA: It is. Or like walking around in a sauna all day long, all night long. If I don’t close my windows for six months of the year and run the air conditioning while I’m sleeping, I wouldn’t be able to breathe at night because it’s so 85 degrees and humid for six months of the year.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Absolutely.
DEBRA: And that’s what it’s like. So that’s why I think people aren’t doing their yard work. But some people are out there, really sweating and exercising. And they’re getting plenty of activity doing our yard work for us.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s right! Well, it’s true. [Inaudible 00:08:11] I’m always was like, “Can I offer you some water?” because it’s really hot.
But the thing about the sedentariness and really, I really do think the study is very valid. Wall Street Journal is pretty upfront about publishing things that are not bogus. We see this in activity level has gone to such a crisis level here in the United States. And in looking at physical education in schools has been really pretty much phased out in many cases. A lot of times, it’s just really not important to them to do these things.
I think it’s really important to look at little things that we can do in our daily live to increase our activity level and of course, going to the gym. And I think we need to focus on the fact that a lot of the medications that people are taking from high blood pressure, maybe for diabetes, for a lot of these different disorders are really related to inactivity.
And don’t forget too, exercise. When you exercise and you have your heart rate go up, what it does, it really boosts the immune system. And how this works is the white blood cells are hanging on to the side of the blood vessel just during inactivity. And then when you get this rush of the blood moving through, what happens is, you get this process called demargination of the white blood cells. And what this means is the blood cells come off of the blood cells where they’re hanging out and doing nothing and they become very active.
So if you’re sick (and you’re not definitely sick, I’m not talking about someone that’s really, really sick, but you maybe have a bad cold or something), you can really boost your immune system by just working out.
DEBRA: That’s so good to know. That’s very good to know because [cross-talking 00:09:45]
PAMELA SEEFELD: There’s a physical process involved and this activity, you will see a transit increase in white blood cells after a person has done cardiovascular exercise. And that’s why I always make sure that when I’ve been sick, unless I’m running a high fever, I used to go out and run all the time doing that because you cough all this stuff, you’d feel a lot better and your fever eventually would just go away because you have the transient boost in white blood cell activity that’s very reproducible and it also works for the differentiation of the different white blood cells like lymphocytes and macrophages.
They all have a little, special assignments. Some go after viruses, some go after bacteria. It’s really important to realize that even small amounts and burst of activity can increase your immune system tremendously besides fending off the fact that we’re talking about these metabolic diseases which a lot of it is a result of inactivity of people.
DEBRA: And we’ll talk more about this after the break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. And today, we’re talking about how inactivity leads to illness and drug use and how we can turn all that around by getting a little exercise.
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. She has a great, little shop here in Clearwater, Florida called Botanical Resource. And she also has a med spa there in the back of the Botanical Resource Natural Pharmacy where they do all kinds of natural facials and things like that.
And Pamela, tell us a little bit about what you do and tell us about your consulting services, your free consulting service that you can help people get off drugs.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, absolutely. I’ve been doing this probably 20, 25 years, at least. And my store here in Clearwater is a homeopathic pharmacy but we also do natural supplements. I actually teach this and I grant review for the National Institute of Health in Washing DC as well on alternative medicine.
So my consultations are free. You can call here at any time. My hours are normally here at the store is from 10 to 5, Monday through Friday, 10 to 2 on Saturday. But I’m always here pretty much between noon and 2 before I go to my other thing. And I would be very honored and happy to help your family if you want to get off prescription medications, if you’re interested in something alternative to narcotics, high blood pressure medications. And I also do a lot of veterinary work as well in the homeopathic realm.
But I would be very happy to help your family. My number here at the pharmacy is 727-442-4955, and I’m very sure that I would be very successful with you and your family. Any quick questions you might have about the medications you’re on or trying something else.
DEBRA: And she is very knowledgeable. She helps me and many other people here in Clearwater, Florida. Doctors send their patients to her. I once said to my medical doctor that Pamela had recommended something and he said, “Absolutely. Take it. Do whatever she tells you to do.”
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s great. I feel very assured that we can provide excellent service for you and you’ll be very satisfied.
DEBRA: Yes, I feel that way exactly too.
So Pamela, in that study from the Wall Street Journal, were there any other categories of how much exercise people were getting? Or were they just looking at that one?
PAMELA SEEFELD: They were looking at the one study and talking about the metabolic syndrome. But also, I have to think that – this is kind of an aside, but it’s really funny – apparently, we need to look to the fact that a quarter of Americans are completely sedentary. And if you realize, Chipotle will now deliver.
So if you can’t go and get your Chipotle, they will come to you, which is really to me, absolutely insane. And they were saying that there are 90,000 Chipotles in New York. And people can pretty much walk to any of them and they’re going to deliver your food for you now.
DEBRA: I don’t think there are 90,000 Chipotles in New York.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It does sound pretty [inaudible 00:16:43]. But the fact that people can really – they made things way too easy. I want to go back again to talking about the metabolic syndrome and what happens when people are sedentary.
The fact that detox is very important for having your body move. So you know how you feel really sluggish and you feel tired and not well when you’re sitting for long periods of time? The problem is most of our desk jobs are very sedentary. And so we can’t get around that. So it’s just important to stand up, move around, so on and so forth.
But what I would like to mention to the listeners is that when you start moving around, you’re not only moving the blood, but you’re allowing the fat to start mobilizing fat-soluble chemicals. And they go to the liver and they become metabolized, and they’re water-soluble, and they go out in the urine. And it’s really important.
If you think about the detoxification processes of a lot of people, if they’re sedentary, a lot of that process is not fully taking place and we now know that the study show that people, especially with diabetes, that they’re testing very high for urinary pesticides. And a lot of this might be because the fact that maybe their detoxification process to the liver and the way things are handling, the way the fat is releasing these chemicals is impaired to a great deal because of the sedentary activity of the person.
DEBRA: Well, that makes sense to me because I’ve actually studied, and I’m sure you have too, a lot about the detoxification system in our bodies. And one of the things that I learned is that if we’re not doing things like – we have to sleep. We have to sleep at night in order for the detox system to work. So it would make sense to me that we also need to move our bodies. One of the things I know is that the lymph system that carries a lot of these things around in the body in order to be detoxed, that doesn’t move unless you move your body. It just doesn’t move. It doesn’t have a pump like the heart. And that’s very important, the lymph system, to our whole detox.
And so I really, even though I grew up not liking exercise at all, I had one very positive exercise experience in my early 20s when I lived in Downtown San Francisco, and I went to Jane Fonda’s Workout. Do you remember that? Jane Fonda’s Workout?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes.
DEBRA: I went to Jane Fonda’s Workout and I had my own private trainer who was just adorably cute, a very cute, young man. And then I went to aerobics class and my teacher was a male ballet dancer, the aerobics teacher. And it was great because I went every day. I had professionals absolutely telling me what to do every minute, and I lost weight and I felt great. And it was the best shape I think I was ever in, in my entire life.
But then they closed. They closed and I could never duplicate that experience. So I just went back to not getting much exercise. But more recently, I’m really paying a lot more attention to exercise and one of the things that I started to do that was the easy thing was that I just got a little bouncer, mini-trampoline. And then I just get up from my desk once an hour, and I go bounce on the trampoline. And I could only do 20 bounces and I got up to a set of 300 bounces at once.
The next hour, I get up and bounce a little more. And it just gives you arrest and clears your mind, and gets your blood moving, and all of these things. And it doesn’t take a lot of time.
PAMELA SEEFELD: No, it doesn’t. I want to bring back a point. You were talking about the lymphatic. The Body Anew, the detox product that I use a lot, has a lymph gland drainer in the kit. And one of the bottles is specifically to increase the lymphatic drainers. And it’s about 40% increase, very significant, as far as moving things out.
So when we’re thinking about that maybe we have to spend a certain part of our day at the computer working, it’s important to maybe be taking the detox. And I used to have a lot of my patients drinking it whether there are their desk or even when they’re working out because [cross-talking 00:20:29]
DEBRA: I’m drinking it right now, actually, I got my bottle [cross-talking 00:20:59]
PAMELA SEEFELD: Good for you.
DEBRA: And it’s got Body Anew in it.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That makes a huge difference because what we want to acknowledge is that a lot of us have desk jobs and we have to be on the computer for certain period of a time for the day. Maybe it’s a significant time and we really want to move things out.
DEBRA: We need to go to break. When we come back, we’ll talk more about inactivity and activity, and how we can be healthy without drugs by being more active.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio, and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist and she has her own natural pharmacy, Botanical Resource. Her website is BotanicalResource.com, and you can go find out more about her. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. And you can go to her website at BotanicalResource.com.
So what else would you like to tell us, Pamela, about inactivity and activity and good health?
PAMELA SEEFELD: So exercise does some other things to the body that’s very important. When we think about atherosclerosis and we think about people trying to get healthy as far as preventing cardiovascular diseases, we know that cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and so forth, is the number one killer of people in the United States. That’s an epidemic problem.
And the reason why we want to label it as endothelial dysfunction – the endothelium is the inner lining of the blood vessel. Endothelial, the area, is sensitive to several things, and especially, it is sensitive to reactive oxygen species. They abbreviate that ROS. And reactive oxygen species, why this is important to recognize is that’s why you want to be taking antioxidants. You want to be using vitamin E, vitamin C, maybe a multivitamin with antioxidants. Reviratrol is a great antioxidant, grape seed extract and things like that.
Because when we have reactive oxygen species, which can be present in the body – and let me tell you where they can be present from. Fish oil that’s old, fat vitamins that are old, old olive oil, things you’re cooking with. You’d be surprised. Reactive oxygen species, especially in fats, are really prevalent in different areas. But the reactive oxygen species are necessary for endothelial damage. So when there’s a damage to the inner part of the blood vessel, then what we find is we start to get sticky, is inflamed, and as a result, the plaques are adhering to these areas. And then subsequently, we start having heart attacks when in fact, we don’t need to have them. Going in there and cleaning things up, so to speak, having a cardiac test.
So all these things are a process, and let me explain that when you exercise, reactive oxygen species are taken down significantly. So doing that has a huge effect on cardiovascular disease. It’s not the fact so much we have multiple things. It’s the fact that reactive oxygen species are happening. It supports the healing of the endothelium or that inner part of the blood vessel, and at the same time, remember I was talking about the immune system, how the white blood cells are being kicked off and basically saying, “You’re lazy. We’re going to make you start being active.”
All these things are doing, so there’s a lot more process. So when people think, “I guess I have to do all those heavy exercises.” But we’re not even so much that. It’s the movement and moving around and taking the antioxidants which are so important. When you’re taking these antioxidants, reactive oxygen species are made to a very, very small amount. And as a result, you really decrease your cardiovascular significantly.
So it’s important to think about this. I don’t want people to think, “Oh, my gosh. I have to go out and run. I have to do all these heavy, heavy execises.”
It’s really not so much about that. It’s about taking the antioxidants, doing the detox to make sure you’re getting these chemicals out of the body, and the pesticides that might be due to metabolic syndrome, and acknowledging the fact that these reactive oxygen species can be contained with exercise.
DEBRA: So I just recently changed my exercise a month ago. And I want to talk about a bit about that because it’s made a big impression on me. And I actually started doing this because I watched a friend of mine just get fit right in front of my eyes by going to the gym. And as I said earlier, I had this one good gym experience many years ago. Many, many years ago.And I saw such progress with him and when he got down to this – he looks like he lost 10 years, not just losing pounds. He just looks so much younger. And he looks fit and attractive. And he said, “You should come to the gym with me.”
And so I went and what I learned was that when you do certain type of exercise that it builds what’s called a lean muscle mass. And that you can do other kinds of exercise but they’re just burning calories and they’re not creating lean muscle mass. And what the lean muscle mass does is that it actually is burning fat while you sleep.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right.
DEBRA: And so if you put in your time building the lean muscle mass on your body, then – most people, they try to reduce their calories and whatever. But they’re not turning their bodies into fat burning machines. And I really didn’t understand this. I’m an intelligent woman and I really didn’t understand this until I went to this gym, and they started explaining to me about building lean muscle mass and how to do it.
And so I started going three times a week.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Good for you.
DEBRA: I do lean muscle mass building on the machines. I do four machines. It takes me maybe 15 minutes. And then I ride on the stationary bicycle. And when I started, I could do maybe 4 minutes, and now I’m doing 12 minutes. And when you do it on a stationary bicycle, you can push up the strenuousness and it just is a very organized thing.
But what I found was that I’m only doing – it’s not like I’m lifting these big weights. I’m only doing enough weight so I can get resistance. That’s all.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s what you need.
DEBRA: Yes, it’s just resistance. It’s not a big push. And you can push and it can be like pulling on a rubber band, when you’re not pulling it, it’s just clobby. I don’t know how to describe this. But then if you put a little more weight on, there’s a point where you have to push without straining. And all I’m doing is just doing this easy push and I’m doing my little 15 repetitions. And it’s not a big deal, it’s not a big sweat, I just go in with my shorts and my tank top, and my little tennis shoes. And I push these weights. And that’s it. I just go and do it for three times a week. And I’m starting to build muscle. I can see the muscle.
But the most interesting thing was that this past week, I’ve had a virus so – I should have continued to go to the gym, listening to you. But I didn’t go to the gym. And what’s happening is that I’m starting to feel like my muscles are actually burning fat while I’m not exercising. And I have more strength and it’s just like I can see the results for very, very little effort. And that was the thing that was amazing to me. So little effort, and I’m getting such a big result.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s what I’m saying to people. Physical activity, even small amounts, are really important. Now, I was looking here at a new study, and this is really important. Physical inactivity – and they have a diagram. This just really explains it really well. If we have physical inactivity, you get abdominal adiposity. So you start putting on weight around your middle. And what happens is the macrophages, these particular white blood cells that go after infections, they start going into the visceral fats. They actually start going into that area there and become chronic systemic inflammation. That’s what’s really happening.
DEBRA: That’s very good to understand. We’ll talk more about this when we come back from the break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist. And she has a natural pharmacy here in Clearwater, Florida. You can go to her website, BotanicalResource.com. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist, and she dispenses medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. She can help you get off prescription drugs. She can tell you what prescription drugs are coming up in your future by looking at your blood test. She’s just able to do so much around prescription drugs and natural substances that she can help you with.
Pamela, give your phone number again.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. So you can reach me here at my pharmacy. It’s 727-442-4955. That’s 727-442-4955.
DEBRA: Thank you. So what are some things that people can do that are small, easy to get started with movement things? How can people incorporate more movement into their lives?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, very obvious things like taking the stairs, parking your car a little farther away at the grocery store. Just looking for opportunities or physical activity maybe instead of having always somebody clean your house or do your yard work. Maybe you can do some of that at some time as well.
It’s important to find small amounts and we know that little spurts, if you’re going to go walking and then do a run, if you do small spurts of running between walking, it’s called interval training, that you get better results.
The thing that I wanted to focus on too is that if you’re going to do detox and do Body Anew, even regardless of your physical activity or if you’re physically active, it’s going to make it better. A lot of these things are going to start moving out and it’s going to facilitate your weight loss but also helping to get rid of the adipose amount that are in your abdomen, as far as how much it’s storing. That’s important because we now know that when we start having chronic inflammation and we have increases in visceral fat, we are at risk for breast cancer, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and also depression and dementia and colon cancer.
So there are so many diseases that are associated with the physical inactivity. And it doesn’t mean that you have to be at the gym. I really want to stress that because I don’t want people to feel – a lot of times, when people aren’t exercisers and they hear these types of talks, they feel overwhelmed and they get more depressed. It’s like, “Oh, my god. I have to do this now.”
That’s not what we’re trying to accomplish here today. We’re trying to say that I really think small burst of activity can be very helpful. I think getting up from your desk and walking around can be very helpful. And I think doing a detox to try to remove some of these things out of your body that maybe are in a static form, it’s very important.
DEBRA: I think so too. I constantly am saying that I think that detox is the number one most important thing anybody can do for their health because as long as you have those toxic chemicals in your body, you would do everything else and none of it is going to work if it’s the chemicals that are causing the health problems. And in many cases, it is.
Pamela, tell us how many years you’ve been taking Body Anew.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I would say 15, maybe longer, close to 16. Really, when you think about it, most of my clients – sometimes, they’re like, “Well, I only want to do it twice a year” and that’s fine. But I think it’s extra insurance. When you’re taking the detox on a daily basis, you’re not in a bathroom. It’s not laxative. It’s not the kind of a detox [cross-talking 00:42:11] body. And what’s important about that is you think you have control over everything. You have a lot of control on what you eat, but you don’t have control environmentally of things that you’re exposed to just randomly. Going to the store, walking along the road, you’d be surprised. Most people are saying, “Well, I’m all organic.” They’re very proud of all the different things they do but you really don’t control everything.
DEBRA: That’s right. I think that’s a really important point to make because I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years. And at first, I thought if I just remove all the toxic chemicals from my home, and I did a really good job with that, then my body would naturally detox. But I wasn’t considering all the things that I’m being exposed to outside. Unless you’re in your home 24 hours a day, and you removed every single chemical from your home, and you’re filtering the incoming air, you are being exposed to toxic chemicals.
And you do need to do something about those. And they’re getting built up in your body. In addition, there’s all the toxic chemicals that you’ve been exposed your whole, entire life until now. Everybody has what the CDC calls body burden. Every single person on the planet needs to be detoxing in some way.
Pamela likes Body Anew. I’ve been taking Body Anew since I’ve known her. It’s so easy to take. You don’t even know you’re taking it. You just put little drops of water in a bottle and little drops out of a bottle, into a bottle of water, and you just siphon it. It’s just easy. I have no detox symptoms from taking it and I know that it’s working every day.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s an easy, inexpensive way to detox in a long term basis without having to worry about not feeling well. It’s safe for children. I use it pretty much for everybody. I think the idea of increasing your activity in small burst, if people are able to do that and doing the Body Anew, and also realizing that when the chemicals are in effect, the cell signals are messed up. And as a result of that you get increases in circulating cytokines and these inflammatory components. These things feed on each other. We’re just starting to learn about cell signaling and different things that affect the way the cell signal each other, and they communicate with these little messengers. And these messengers definitely are very sensitive to the environment which they’re living in. And if they signal each other and there are other things that are in the way, that’s called extracellular matrix, the area outside the cell where things need to be drained out. And if you have the extracellular matrix that’s full of, I don’t want to use the word toxin so much but just full of chemicals, full of debris, cellular debris and so forth, you’re going to get congestion in those areas and you know what you’re going to end up with? Inflammation, pain, trigger point.
All of these things that are really very avoidable. You’d be surprised. The general body habit is in the health of the individual by moving these things out. Activity helps a lot. Massage helps a lot. But really, having a homeopathic product that facilitates the extracellular matrix kind of cleaning up and mopping up all the stuff with the huge difference as far as the trigger points and for pain for a lot of people as well.
DEBRA: Yes, I think that everybody should find some detox product that they’re happy with and just continue to take it.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I agree. The conversation here today is talking about inactivity, the fact that 28% of Americans really are doing no activity at all. None. Zero. And that the inactivity we know is associated with, obviously, gaining weight, but we have to think about these macrophages going into the visceral fat. They’re causing systemic inflammation. It’s chronic inflammation. And as a result, you get insulin resistance, you get atherosclerosis, neurodegeneration, tumor growth, and it puts you at risk, especially for these things that are – obviously, type II diabetes, breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, but realize that depression is also a side effect of this and dementia, which is a horrific problem here in the United States with all the people getting older.
These things are preventable to some degree. I understand genetics do play a role but the genes have to be turned on by something. And the something is the chemical.
DEBRA: Right. And then this exercise helps with the good genes?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, because when you exercise, there are thousands of genes that get turned on as a result of the cardiovascular exercise. And those genes have healing properties. When you are continually exposed to inactivity and to chemicals, you don’t have an active process of removing them out thoroughly, as a result of that the chemicals are what instigate and turn these things on. That’s why people when they get older, it’s not just because their genes are more active as far as turning on dementia and these sorts of things. It’s because the chemical compound and the net amount in the body is so much higher as you get older.
Think of a big tuna. That’s why we worry so much about tuna. It’s a huge fish. It has a time to accumulate all of these metals and toxins. Small fish like sardines don’t. That’s why they use sardines for the higher quality oil.
DEBRA: So we only have a couple of minutes left. Any final words you want to give?
PAMELA SEEFELD: The final words are that when you look at type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, dementia, depression, these are just some of the disease we know that having activity, increasing small amounts of activity can be actively prevent these things. If we can keep systemic inflammation down and off from the road, we’re talking about the endothelium inside the blood vessels, a lot of this is preventable by taking antioxidants, by taking the Body Anew, and also having some kind of activity every day.
DEBRA: Activity is just so important. And I think that it gets talked about a lot. But I think that people don’t really understand what’s going on. I know I’ve heard it my whole, entire life. But when you start getting older and you start seeing that things are getting older in your body, you just start saying, “What can I do?” And exercise is really the thing. I live in Florida where a lot of people are retired. And I see all these senior people walking around my neighborhood. They’re just all walking and walking every day. I see the same people walking around.
And it is great. They have on their little visor hats and their little shorts. And some of them walk their dogs and they’re just out there saying hello to their neighbors and walking around and getting some exercise. And I really see when I exercise more how much better my body feels. And it really cuts down on how many supplements I need to take, it increases how well I fell, and it’s just a matter of, if you can’t do it yourself, get a friend. Find a friend who is going to the gym or going for walks, or ask a family member to do it with you. Or just find a way to start moving. It will make all the difference and it just shakes up things in your body so those stored chemicals start releasing and then they can be detoxed. It’s so important to the detox process. I can’t even say how important it is because it’s just so important.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Immune system moving chemicals out. I’m talking about the white blood cell activity. All these things are intimately affected by what you do. And you have control over these things. It means walking to your car. It means walking upstairs. It’s some simple, simple lifestyle changes.
DEBRA: And I’m going to say thank you, Pamela, because the music is going to come on in about two seconds. Thank you so much.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Thank you so much. Have a great day.
DEBRA: You too. This is Debra Lynn Dadd with Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
A New Line of Products that Remove Fragrances, Tobacco Smoke, Pesticides and other Toxic Pollutants Throughout Your Home—Inspired By MCS
My guest today is Kyle Knappenberger, Director of Applications at Timilon Technology Acquisitions LLC, in Fort Myers, Florida. Today Timilon is launching a new product line called EnviroKlenz that removes toxic chemicals and odors all around the house. These products all use a unique technology that captures and destroys toxic chemicals by taking apart their molecular structure. We will be talking about harmful chemicals around the home and how to use EnviroKlenz products to eliminate toxics and odors from spaces, surfaces and laundry. For over a decade, Kyle has been working on using safe metal oxide technology for odor control and toxic chemical neutralization applications. He has a Bachelors of Sciences degree in microbiology from Kansas State University, and co-holds six patents related to the mitigation of chemical and biological contamination. www.enviroklenz.com
Toxic Free Talk Radio: How to Remove Toxic Chemical Odors Around the House
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
A New Line of Products that Remove Fragrances, Tobacco Smokes, Pesticides and Other Toxic Pollutants Throughout Your Home
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Kyle Knappenberger
Date of Broadcast: May 05, 2015
DEBRA: Hi I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It is Tuesday, May 5th 2015. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida where it’s a beautiful day. I think we’re going to have some rain later, but it’s a beautiful spring day. It’s getting warmer getting closer to summer.
Today, we’re going to talk about indoor air pollution and what you can do about it because indoor air pollution, it actually has been called the nation’s number one environmental health problem by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA.
Actually, we have more pollution inside our houses than we do outdoor air pollution, even in the smoggiest cities like Los Angeles. There’s more indoor air pollution inside homes than there is outside because we have so many more toxic products that are being used inside the home and they give off toxic chemicals and it’s an enclosed space.
We need to do something about these things. And most of what I talk about on this show is about how we can remove toxic chemicals at the source that are emitting various pollutants into the indoor air. But there are times when you can’t remove it. When you have something where there is an odor coming off of something.
An example I’ll give you is a lot of times people call me and say, “I live in a house where somebody had put mothballs in the closet and I can’t get that mothballs smell out and it’s making me sick“ or somebody wants to buy a car, but somebody’s used some kind of scented cleaner and they can’t get the perfume smell out.
These are the kinds of things that we are going to talk about today because now, there are new products that actually break down the molecular structure of the chemicals and odors, so that you use the product and it’s gone completely. The odor is gone completely, it never comes back. That’s it! It’s just gone. It doesn’t get absorbed into some carbon or something and then you have polluted carbon that you have to take to a hazardous waste dump or something. No, I’m kidding. You don’t really have to do that.
But carbon, when you use carbon, it can release the pollutants back into the air. And these new products that we’re going to talk about today, in fact, they’re being launched today right here on this very show. This is the first time that they’re available and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
So my guest today is Kyle Knappenberger. He is the director of applications at Timilon Technology Acquisitions LLC, in Fort Myers, Florida. Hi Kyle!
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Hello, Deborah. How are you?
DEBRA: I’m fine, how are you?
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Fantastic! Glad to be on the show today to talk about the EnviroKlenz line.
DEBRA: This new line is called EnviroKlenz. Kyle has been on the show before talking about another line called OdorKlenz that was also made by this company. But what’s really special about the new EnviroKlenz line is that it was specifically designed to remove certain chemicals. They have this great technology that he’s going to tell us about that can be tweaked and formulated to remove very specific chemicals.
But first, Kyle, tell me about how Timilon came to create this new line, EnviroKlenz.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: It’s a fairly long story, but I’ll give a shorter version of it here for you. As we got involved in this technology and acquired it a few years ago – we mentioned the OdorKlenz line of product, it was a broad line of products that we launched and wanted to really solve a wide variety of different consumer odor issues. That’s what it really came down to. We weren’t targeting folks with with chemical sensitivities or anything at that time. We know we were focused on pet or athletic odors, things that the average population is going to encounter on a daily basis.
As we we’re doing that, one of the interesting side benefits that we really started to see with these products is that folks dealing with environmental illnesses or multiple chemical sensitivity started to find our products, started to learn about them or using them and telling us all these wonderful feedback and testimonials about, “You know what, this is allowing me to live my life in a better way. I can now take my clothes to the laundromat or leave town because I don’t have to worry about having to wash my clothes in a family member’s laundry machine or washers.” We can use these products to mitigate some of these fragrances and perfumes and pollutants that we could encounter.
That was something that we set out with our original products, just to solve a broad variety of issues. But we really started to see, “Hey! There is a great need that these products, that if we design them in a way that is a more systematic approach and really hone them in to address different aspects that folks with multiple chemical sensitivity, folks that are afflicted with that, we can really design a program to really help them out and to hopefully make their daily lives a little easier.”
It’s one of those wonderful things that we stumbled on. And then, as that happened, we started working with people more in depth in this market to really hone the products for this new line of product that we’re launching today.
DEBRA: I think that it’s wonderful that you’ve done this because this is something that has been a problem for people with multiple chemical sensitivities for many years. And I’ve experienced this problem where there are specific chemicals that are the top three or four or five chemicals that we ran into all the time, things like fragrance specifically.
Let’s just start with fragrance because I think that is the biggest one that people are most concerned about. People want to do things like buy clothing at used clothing stores, for example, and yet, it’s got these fragrances on it that are from a detergent and you can’t get them out or like I mentioned earlier, that there’s mothballs in the house or maybe they want to buy a house that’s perfect in every way, except that somebody has been spraying perfume all over the bathroom.
And so trying to get fragrances out of any kind of product has been a huge problem in the past and your products are really designed specifically for this. That’s one of the things that they’re designed for. And people who are sensitive to perfume or just don’t like it can now get that odor out of products.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Yeah, they can . And that is one of the things that we obviously wanted to focus in on with this new EnviroKlenz line with our multi part system. Our laundry enhancer is key for that.
One of the very first call, if you don’t mind me stepping back a few years here, was with an individual who — and again, this was my very first exposure to multiple chemical sensitivity. It was a gentleman who came across our product and he had the exact story that you just told us about. They’re trying to live somewhat on a budget, he and his wife would try to pick up clothes in second hand stores when possible because they’re trying to save money, trying to live within their means. And they always have had difficulty with that because of the fragrances from who knows, from who owned that article before them. This gentleman says, “It would take us several wash cycle to get it out. And during that process, it may contaminate our washing machine and dryer as well…”
DEBRA: Yes, that’s exactly what happens.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: And when we realized that our products really could start to do this, we started investigating. And that’s, again, many years ago, looking into the aspects of multiple chemical sensitivity or environmental illnesses. And really over the course of quite a long time, but more so over the last year or so, we’re starting to understand to really have a product and a product line that could help these folks out.
DEBRA: Well, you do. I applaud you greatly for doing it and accomplishing it, having done such a great job with it.
We need to go to break, but when we come back, I want you to explain the technology because you’ve got this great technology that goes across all the products in your product line, and so I want you to explain this because this is so wonderful.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kyle Knappenberger. He is the director of applications at Timilon Technology Acquisitions. They have a new product line called EnviroKlenz, which you can see at Enviroklenz.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kyle Knappenberger. He is the director of applications at Timilon Technology Acquisitions. They have a new product line being launched today called the EnviroKlenz, which you can see at Enviroklenz.com.
Kyle, tell us about the technology. This is a basic technology that — listeners, this is a basic technology that is the core of all the products in the line. It does a very specific thing to chemicals that is quite wonderful. Wonderful is just the best word for me. So tell us about that technology.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: The technology is a metal oxide based technology. This is a process that is a patented process as well. Metal oxides are actually very common. They are earth minerals. They are basically a major component in dirt along with clays and other things. But the metal oxides inherently are safe materials, generally speaking.
They also have the ability in many cases to break down a variety of chemicals. But what we’ve been able to do with our technology through this patented process is make them far more efficient at neutralizing and what we call destructively absorbing pollutants, chemicals, all the different things that they may encounter.
And this technology is very non-discriminating in terms of what types of chemicals it wants to react with and break down. Our technology is also based off of different types of metal oxide compounds. We have multiple metal oxides where they each have broad capabilities, but they may have an area that they’re better at than perhaps another metal oxide. So that allows us to have a multi component product.
We can talk about those products in a moment, but in essence, by having these different compound we can, in different ratios, put them together to target specific —as we are talking about earlier, different types of fragrances or pollutants to make sure that we’re addressing the classes of chemicals or compounds that we need to for that particular application.
So if we have something like our EnviroKlenz mobile air system with an air cartridge, and we’ve got that in a home, we want to be addressing fragrances and VOC types of compounds. So we’ve got the right blend in the cartridge, so that we can best address those types of chemicals that may be offgassing in that airspace.
Other types of technologies that are out there may use different chemistries, but we really like to be able to use a broad chemistry, then we shift them toward the specific need or application. Multiple chemical sensitivity, it’s not just one or two chemicals. It’s a whole host of different things that can trigger folks. So yes, we want to point them in the right direction for the chemicals we need, but not limit to those chemicals.
DEBRA: So, I want to make sure that we say that this basic technology, you’ve mentioned the laundry product and you’ve mentioned the mobile unit, I want to make sure that the listeners know that you’ve actually created a line of products that address the three different areas of how it can be applied.
One is for airspaces. So there’s a mobile unit that is in a metal box and has wheels on it. I like that term ‘mobile unit’. Other people would call it an air filter, but I understand. This is the mobile unit for the technology delivery.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Yes, that is correct. It is a three component system. When you talk about your personal environment you’re living in, you’ve got the airspace and you’ve got the various surfaces, whether they’re carpet, rugs, just that content in your house, your laundry. That’s the three components — your airspace, your surfaces and your content. We wanted to address all of those things because surfaces, the contents, are all contributing to the air quality issues perhaps. And by utilizing all these products in harmony really, you can attack the different problem to build up a much better personal environment.
DEBRA: Yes, I think it was very wise that you did that because you do –when you’re looking at indoor air quality problems, you really want to look at the source. I was talking earlier about removing a source altogether by taking a plastic item that is offgassing VOCs out of the space altogether. But sometimes, you can’t do that. And so if you can then eliminate the odor right there on the countertop or whatever, it’s a lot better than having it emit and then running an air filter.
And so EnviroKlenz is giving you three different tools to be able to use whichever one is best to handle the odor that’s going on.
We’re going to need to go to break pretty soon, but I think I can ask you this question and you can answer it within a minute and a half. I want to ask you specifically — about one of the metals is titanium dioxide. I know some people are going to look at those and go, “Oh, titanium dioxide, we’re not supposed to use that” because of things that are going on in the world of personal care products and toxicity things.
But you said something interesting to me about testing things in different ways and that we shouldn’t always be looking at the MSDS sheets and expecting the product to be having the same – you go ahead, I think you know what I’m talking about.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Yes, yes. That is one question we do often get about different compounds. Metal oxides though, generally, they’re safe materials. The one that you mentioned there, the titanium dioxide, there are some titanium dioxides out there that some folks may have some issues with.
But what’s important is not every compound — even if it’s the same compound, it’s not the same. They come from different places, they come from different sources, they have different physical characteristics to them. All of these things (size, purity, form) impact the safety of a material. And we have gone above and beyond what most folks do with their compounds.
We’ve had independent testing done on these materials to verify their safety to all routes of exposure. But most importantly, the way the products are used, folks are not going to even get exposed to them anyway.
DEBRA: They’re not. Because first of all, you’re not exposed to the actual stuff. It’s mixed with other things. But also what happens is that it reacts with the pollutants. And then neither of them are there anymore. Right?
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Well, do we have some more time to talk about that?
DEBRA: You can answer after the break.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kyle Knappenberger. He’s here to talk about a new line of product called EnviroKlenz that remove toxic chemicals and odors all around the house. You can go see those products at Enviroklenz.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kyle Knappenberger. He is from Timilon Technology Acquisitions and they have a new product line being launched today on this very radio show called EnviroKlenz that removes toxic chemicals and odors all around the house by destructive absorption. I think I got that right. I don’t have it right in front of me.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: That is correct.
DEBRA: I had asked a question right before the break about what happens when the metal oxides come in contact with the chemicals.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER:That’s right! And I appreciate you letting me carry that over because I think it’s an important aspect of how our technology is different. I don’t know if 15 seconds would’ve done it justice, but…
DEBRA: Well, take your time.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: So the way the metal oxide work — and as you’ve just said, through our destructive absorption process — is our materials, when they come into contact with these chemical pollutants fragrances, they’re attacking different chemical functional groups on those particular compounds. And in many cases, it’s actually tearing apart those materials, again, by attacking those different functional groups and immobilizing them on the surface, the interior surface area of the metal oxide material.
It is rendering them useless in terms of the chemicals and the fragrances because now they are immobilized on the material. We have effectively taken them out of the air or the carpet or the item that’s being washed in the laundry through the destructive absorption process.
And there are a lot of different odor materials out there, different chemical treatments out there. And a lot of times, they’re working through the concept of encapsulating or covering it up. And in many instances, things like air fresheners or fragrances or even certain types of generators, they’re releasing things out to the environment. While with a product like our OdorKlenz mobile air system, through circulating that air through that air unit, bringing it through our cartridge, we’re breaking it down in our cartridge and not releasing anything back into the room or to your environment.
So what we want to do is mitigate those chemicals and take them out of your personal environment space. And that is what our product and technology can do.
DEBRA: It does, and it does it in a really effective way. I actually asked if there were some people who wanted to come on the show and talk about their experiences using these products and we have one of them on the line, Kathleen from Michigan. Kathleen, are you there?
KATHLEEN: Yes, yes.
DEBRA: What would you like to tell us about your experience with EnviroKlenz?
KATHLEEN: Oh, I’m going to tell you that George and Kyle saved my life. I had a laundry detergent that I used for 20 years and it had changed its formula. And now it has a perfume scent. I tried everything I could. Vinegar, baking soda could not get the smell out of the clothes.
I found OdorKlenz (now EnviroKlenz online), I talked to George and Kyle and they said this would work. So I bought some laundry additives and it worked in the first wash. And even when I went back to smell the shirts thinking that the smell is going to come back like it did in the vinegar, there was no smell.
So I called them back. I said I’m now in a condo where a lady who wore perfume and the carpeting in the bedroom reek, I said, “What do you got for that?” and he just said “We have source treatments.” So I used that on the carpeting and that worked.
So in the same condo, I now had an incinerator smell that seeped in from outdoors. I had to have a bug company come and spray for ants and both smells were overpowering. So I called them back. I said, “What have you got for that?” They said, “We have a purifier.” I said “Well, I’ve had purifiers in the past because my family smoke and after a while, they quit working.” And they very patiently explained to me, “Our purifier will absorb the odor and neutralize it.” And so the magic word was neutralize. He says, the charcoal filters will absorb it and then eventually offgas it. And I said “You’re right.”
I’ve used the purifier for everything from service men with aftershave to everything that comes into the apartment and it works perfectly. I can’t say enough good about them and how kind they were in explaining everything and calling me numerous times whenever I had any questions. So, I tell everybody about this.
DEBRA: Thank you so much for being on the show and telling everybody about it today. I know I’ve been using these products too. And I know that they’re the products that have been missing for years.
I had a situation where a friend of mine came to visit and all his clothes were washed in Tide with Downy. It got the smell out of the clothes. I mean, they were just horrible, horrible, horrible.
KATHLEEN: It’s a miracle.
DEBRA: Yeah it is, it actually is. I mean, this is just something that I know I’ve been waiting for for years. And so I’m really happy that they’re here. And thank you so much Kathleen, for talking with us today.
So were coming up in a break in a few minutes, but I’m going to tell you now, you can go to Enviroklenz.com and see these products. And they are giving us special discounts today. If you go between today and the following week, you can get 20% discounts on buying these products when you use the coupon code “toxic free 20” I’ll say that again at the station breaks, it’s “toxic free 20” If you have any problem with these fragrances and odors, these are the products to try. I‘ve never seen anything like these in 30 years. They’re very specifically designed to work on things like perfume, tobacco smoke, pesticides. Kyle, we’re getting close to the break, so tell us what chemicals this have been specifically designed for?
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: When we were – to take Kathleen’s example, she has used a lot of our different products. When we were looking at this, we really wanted to target those things that the people would generally describe as fragrances, perfumes. Pesticide is another one. But then also various VOCs and other components that are in things like cigarette and smoke. Those are the ones that, through our research and working with folks in this industry, knowledge from influencers and knowledgeable folks, those are the things that really trigger some of the issues for folks that are dealing with multiple chemical sensitivity. There are a lot of different compounds, lot of different classes, but those are the areas that we specifically wanted to target.
DEBRA: Yeah, and those are the ones that I hear about day after day too.
And we need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kyle Knappenberger. He is with Timilon Technology Acquisitions who has just launched today EnviroKlenz products at Enviroklenz.com. And if you go there and make a purchase today or tomorrow or any time between now and midnight next Monday, you can get a 20% discount on your next purchase by entering “toxic free 20” at checkout. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kyle Knappenberger and we’re talking about EnviroKlenz products. It’s a new product line they’re just launching today that removes toxic chemicals and odors from around the house — it’s not adding anything, just removing the toxic chemicals and heaters.
Kyle, here we are at the last segment. The hour goes by so fast. But I want to make sure that we talk about the mobile unit and the difference between using your technology and using carbon. Carbon has been the technology used in air filters for as long as I’ve known about air filters, for more than 30 years. But tell us why people should not be using carbon, the toxic aspect of it, and how your mobile unit is different.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Sure! I’d like to perhaps start with the mobile unit first here. Through the use of our metal oxide, through that destructive absorption process, we’re bringing in these chemicals and pollutants that are in the airspace. And we are immobilizing, breaking them down and retaining them on our cartridge, which will ultimately is what I think we all want to achieve in our personal environment space, get rid of all those chemical air pollutants.
And carbon is a number one thing that we often are going to be compared to because it is an absorbent material that has been around for quite a while. A lot of carbon based filters or even units that utilize often maybe a couple pounds of carbon granules in them are what people are used to.
And again, as I mentioned earlier, talking about metal oxides, you don’t want to always just lump them all together into one thing. I don’t want to do that with carbon either. But the way the activated carbon and the coconut shell carbon and the way these things work is they – again, this is a simplification. But a lot of times, they are working kind of like a sponge. And a sponge can be wrung out. It’s not a destructive process like our materials.
And the way that the carbon sometimes will try to overcome that is by adding chemical additives to their process to try to target different compounds or different classes, which may make them more effective against certain things or make affective against certain things. But then, they don’t have necessarily the broad efficacy that our metal oxide technology does.
But again, in order to do this, to have that chemical reaction mechanism, they may be adding something like potassium permanganate or various other compounds, which themselves may not be the safest things to be putting out in your environment or having them in your personal environment space.
So it’s kind of the thinking that, of course, that we all want to go with, “Let’s get rid of those things, lets break them down and let’s get them out of the home” or our workspace or wherever we’re living. And that’s what our technology is able to do.
It’s not going to wring them out. It’s not going to fill up and then want to offgas something to be able to take in the next thing. And that’s really kind of the key difference between us and the carbon technology.
We‘ve had a lot of experience with this even prior to EnviroKlenz and predecessor products and different lines because we really got this technology rolling into the home space through disaster restoration situations. Then that was a market that was utilizing a lot of carbon technology and that’s where we really started to bring out this air filtration technology. It was by looking at what folks are using in some of the most polluted environment .
What are the carbons they’re using there? How are they affective? Are they addressing all the different aspects of negative air quality on those jobsites which allowed us to, several years ago, help those situations, those disaster situation? Now, we’re bringing them into a different type of disaster situation, one that affects people that are affected by a whole host of different chemicals and have different chemical sensitivity.
So it’s been very rewarding to evolve that over time. And then you get to hear stories like Kathleen or others like her that are dealing with these things. We had an individual who contacted us here recently that got to utilize the air cartridge that we have that can actually go into a home air filtration system. She said “You know, I’ve kind of been so fatigued lately just due to all those chemical sensitivity.” She said, “I installed your HVAC Cartridge and I could feel,” she described it as “I could feel my head was clearing. It was no longer foggy after a period of time.” It’s just very rewarding to hear those stories and that’s why we want to do this with EnviroKlenz.
DEBRA: Well, it’s interesting to me, listening to the story about how you started in disaster cleanup, which is probably the most difficult place to be removing odors and then moving into, as you said, the disaster of indoor air quality. It is a disaster and people shouldn’t be breathing this. Nobody should be breathing these things, but you’re working with the most sensitive people. So if these worked for people with MCS, they’re going to work for everybody else as well.
And I just want to make sure that people who are listening understand that indoor air quality affects everyone. And these products are super for people with MCS, but also so useful for people with asthma or allergies or anyone who is affected. Children with autism are affected by toxic chemicals in their enviroqnment, all kinds of illnesses have now been associated with indoor air pollution problems.
And so, if you have any kind of illness and you want to be cleaning up your air quality, these products can certainly help you. And for many, many years, I was just always saying to people, “Clean up at the source, clean up at the source, clean up at the source,” but I do recognize that it’s sometimes difficult to – it’s always difficult, I should say – to identify everything that is toxic in your home and clean it up all at once.
And while you’re going through that period of time, products like these can really help. You could put in a mobile unit in your home and immediately have a lot of relief from your toxic exposure while you’re identifying what are the things, the sources that you need to be changing.
So I think that there really is a place for these products to clean up these chemicals. And if you’ve got odors, then you need to have some kind of odor remover that doesn’t put toxic chemicals back into the air. Air fresheners will either use toxic perfumes or they’ll actually use nerve deadening agents. The smell is so bad, but you can’t smell it because it’s so deadening your nerves. You don’t want to have that kind of stuff in your house. Things like these products are really working to destroy those toxic of chemicals and those odors, so that you can have a healthier, cleaner indoor health environment.
So Kyle, we’ve only got about three minutes left. Is there anything you’d like to say that you haven’t said yet?
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Well, I do want to thank you for letting me be on here to talk about these different products and the technology because I think you summed it up pretty nicely there. It’s about addressing the sources. It’s about attacking them. It’s about minimizing the different chemicals, pollutants, fragrances that are in the environment and utilizing these different things together, such as our EnviroKlenz Everyday Odor Eliminator or Odor Neutralizing Granules, using those on your different surfaces, washing your towels and your beddings and your clothing in our EnviroKlenz laundry enhancer.
By doing those things, you’re minimizing what you put into your home. Having something like the OdorKlenz mobile air system or HVAC cartridge filter, those products are going to work even better because you’ve got less than the air. You’re then removing them in all different ways that you’re living with these types of things.
So this really is a system where we’ve taken what we’ve learned many years of just dealing with general consumer odor issues and putting them into a process and a program to help folks that are dealing with environmental issues — multiple chemical sensitivity or just general pollution issues, maybe from the environment they live in.
Not everybody could afford to build a chemical free home or not chemical free, but a home that has surfaces and contents specked out to be perfect for them. Oftentimes, you live there because it’s close to work, it’s where you’re form or you’re moving into an apartment or a home and you have to make certain concessions. But you just don’t want to make concessions when it comes to chemical exposure and we’re here to help with that.
DEBRA: Well, I think that you’re just going to change the whole situation about indoor air pollution now because you’ve given us these tools to really take care of a lot of it. And as I said at the beginning of the show, the EPA said that indoor air pollution is the number one environmental health problem, number one. And so anybody interested in improving their health should be looking at what’s going on in their indoor environment. And as I said, you can just put in a mobile unit and immediately, you’re going to have better indoor quality and it’s going to be removing those chemicals so they never come back into your home.
Well, end of show. Thank you so much, Kyle.
KYLE KNAPPENBERGER: Thank you.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
Enviroklenz Odor Control Products
Products specifically designed to remove odors and chemical pollutants from surfaces around the home: counters, walls, floors…even car interiors! They were inspired by the special needs of people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), who require a home environment as free from toxic chemicals as possible. These products remove both natural and chemical odors. They do not contain perfumes or fragrances, but instead capture and destroy chemicals that cause odors for true odor and chemical elimination. They are made from safe, natural earth minerals.A unique and advanced manufacturing process greatly enhances the beneficial odor neutralizing properties of the earth minerals and retain their natural safety characteristics. The earth minerals include Magnesium Oxide (MgO), Zinc Oxide (ZnO), and Titanium Dioxide (TiO2). Safe for use around children and pets. Comes in liquid and powder form for all household needs. For a 10% discount on your entire purchase, enter coupon code “toxicfree10″ at checkout.
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Listen to my interviews with Kyle Knappenberger, Director of Applications at Timilon Technology Acquisitions LLC |
Enviroklenz Laundry Enhancer
Products specifically designed to remove odors and chemical pollutants from laundry. Yes, they remove scent and tobacco smoke from clothing, bedding, and other fabrics such as curtains and upholstery. They also remove scented detergent residues from the washer itself, allowing you to wash clothes safely in public machines in laundromats and apartment buildings (this product also prevents colors from running). They were inspired by the special needs of people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), who require a home environment as free from toxic chemicals as possible. These products remove both natural and chemical odors. They do not contain perfumes or fragrances, but instead capture and destroy chemicals that cause odors for true odor and chemical elimination. They are made from safe, natural earth minerals.A unique and advanced manufacturing process greatly enhances the beneficial
odor neutralizing properties of the earth minerals and retain their natural safety characteristics. The earth minerals include Magnesium Oxide (MgO), Zinc Oxide (ZnO), and Titanium Dioxide (TiO2). Safe for use around children and pets. Comes in liquid and powder form for all laundry needs. For a 10% discount on your entire purchase, enter coupon code “toxicfree10″ at checkout.
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Listen to my interviews with Kyle Knappenberger, Director of Applications at Timilon Technology Acquisitions LLC |
Enviroklenz Mobile Unit Air Purifier
The EnviroKlenz Mobile Unit is specifically designed to remove odors and chemical pollutants from air spaces in the home. It was inspired by the special needs of people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), who require a home environment as free from toxic chemicals as possible. The metal housing holds two filters: a HEPA filter to remove particles and a filter made from the EnvrioKlenz “core techniology,” made from safe, natural earth minerals that remove both natural odors and volatile toxic chemicals. This technology captures and destroys chemicals and odors for true elimination. A unique and advanced manufacturing process greatly enhances the beneficial neutralizing properties of the earth minerals and retain their natural safety characteristics. The earth minerals may include Magnesium Oxide (MgO), Zinc Oxide (ZnO), and Titanium Dioxide (TiO2). For a 10% discount on your entire purchase, enter coupon code “toxicfree10” at checkout.
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Listen to Debra’s 2015 interview with Kyle Knappenberger, Director of Applications at Timilon Technology Acquisitions LLC |
Chipotle is NOT 100% GMO-Free
7 September 2015
Four months later…Chipotle is being sued in a class action suit claiming that Chipotle has been using GMOs in their food despite advertising that is is GMO-free.
Eater: Chipotle Sued for Using GMOs After Declaring It’s Food GMO-Free
Last week the fast food Mexican restaurant Chipotle announced that they were “the first to cook only with non-GMO ingredients.” They did a great job educating their customers about GMOs at www.chipotle.com/gmo. They even said, in a big headline, “CHIPOTLE SHOULD BE A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE CAN EAT FOOD MADE WITH NON-GMO INGREDIENTS.”
But is it so?
First I want to say that I love Chipotle. The food tastes great and the ingredients are a lot better than other fast food restaurant chains. www.chipotle.com/food-with-integrity
And they have done a lot to remove GMOs from their food.
But no, you can’t walk into Chipotle and choose anything off the menu and have it be GMO-free.
About their GMO Ingredients they say:
The meat and dairy products we buy come from animals that are not genetically modified. But it is important to note that most animal feed in the U.S. is genetically modified, which means that the meat and dairy served at Chipotle are likely to come from animals given at least some GMO feed. We are working hard on this challenge, and have made substantial progress: for example, the 100% grass-fed beef served in many Chipotle restaurants was not fed GMO grain—or any grain, for that matter. www.chipotle.com/ingredient-statement
And then there are the sodas, made with GMO corn syrup.
Kudos to Chipotle for reducing their GMOs, and kudos for disclosure, but it’s deceptive to advertise they are gmo-free when they are not. And the disclosure was on a completely different page from the GMO claim.
As a consumer, I would have preferred a headline like “Chipotle Takes Another Big Step Toward GMO-Free” and then state what they did and what they are still working on.
Thanks to Max Goldberg for this consumer alert: Don’t Believe the Hype: Chipotle is NOT 100% GMO-Free.
Lead in Glass Canning Jars
Question from L Wallace
Hi Debra,
I use glass canning jars with glass lids for almost all of my food storage—I don’t actually can with them but I store lots of different foods in the fridge, pantry and freezer with them.
I came across a blogger who used an XRF gun to test these jars and found they had 142 ppm of lead. I called the company and when I asked if the jars were lead-free, they said that no glass is lead-free. They said their jars were tested annually, and that they were made.
In Germany where they said the standards are stricter, and they said that it would be impossible for lead to migrate into the food.
I am confused because I thought glass could be lead-free, which is part of why I was using these jars for my food storage. Is it true that no glass is 100% lead-free? And if this glass isn’t lead free (I believe it is soda lime glass) how can you tell what glass is lead-free, other than taking the manufacturer’s word for it?
Debra’s Answer
First. and this goes for everyone, if you tell me you read a blog or watched a video or whatever, PLEASE give me the URL so I can see it too.
I could not find the blog you mentioned so I can’t comment on it.
Here’s what I know about glass. It’s basically melted sand.
Here’s a website that describes the different types of glass quite plainly: www.cmog.org/article/types-glass
They say:
Nearly all commercial glasses fall into one of six basic categories or types. These categories are based on chemical composition. Within each type, except for fused silica, there are numerous distinct compositions.
1. Soda-lime glass is the most common (90% of glass made), and least expensive form of glass. It usually contains 60-75% silica, 12-18% soda, 5-12% lime. Resistance to high temperatures and sudden changes of temperature are not good and resistance to corrosive chemicals is only fair.
2. Lead glass has a high percentage of lead oxide (at least 20% of the batch). It is relatively soft, and its refractive index gives a brilliance that may be exploited by cutting. It is somewhat more expensive than soda-lime glass and is favored for electrical applications because of its excellent electrical insulating properties. Thermometer tubing and art glass are also made from lead-alkali glass, commonly called lead glass. This glass will not withstand high temperatures or sudden changes in temperature.
I just don’t see that lead would be added for soda-lime glass for any reason.
To the best of my knowledge, I have never heard of any glass containing lead except for lead crystal, which is clearly labeled. I see today online there are some speciality glasses that contain lead, but it’s not dinnerware, glassware, or food storage jars.
I don’t think it’s true that no glass is 100% lead-free, but I am doing more research on this, as it is possible there is something I don’t know about this.
What is the URL of the blog post you read?
Anyone else have any information on this?
Chemical Free Living
The E-commerce store of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation, a registered 501c3 non-profit organization. 100% of all net profits go to helping the chemical injured and neuro-toxic populations. All products on this site are chosen to be safe for these highly-sensitive people. Product categories include air filters and fresheners. Building materials, bath, beds and bedding, clothing, pet products, food storage, dinnerware and flatware, testing kits, water filters, and more.
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Listen to my interview with Angel De Fazio, President, Executive Director, and co-founder of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation (NTEF) |
How Toxic Chemicals Affect Your Brain and What You Can Do to Reduce Exposure
Today my guest is Angel De Fazio, BSAT, President, Executive Director, and co-founder of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation (NTEF). We’ll be talking about toxics that affect your brain, toxics activism, and what it’s like to have your brain affected by toxic chemicals. Angel, the NTEF, and other activists completed an onerous and highly contentious, two-year awareness campaign in 2013 supporting the right for Nevada’s energy ratepayers to opt out of the smart meter deployment. The campaign started in 2011. May is Toxic Encephalopathy and Chemical Injury Awareness Month. For over a decade, the NTEF has conducted outreach throughout the month including numerous proclamations from Nevada Governors, Las Vegas City Council, Clark County Commissioners, and the City of Henderson. In 2010, Las Vegas City Council participated by going fragrance and chemical free in support of creating awareness. Last year, in 2014, the NTEF was solely responsible for one of the Nevada State Offices going fragrance free. The NTEF is a non-profit organization whose core purposes are to provide education and services to the growing segment of the population who are adversely affected by everyday chemicals and toxins in our environment. NTEF-USA.Org | ChemicalFreeLiving.Com
The Toxins that Threaten our Brains
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
How Toxic Chemicals Affect Your Brain and What You Can Do to Reduce Exposure
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Angel De Fazio, BSAT
Date of Broadcast: April 30, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It is April 30th, I believe, April 30th, Thursday, April 30, 2015. And it’s a beautiful day here in Clearwater, Forida. We’ve had some rain this week, but today is a beautiful day.
And we’re going to be talking today about How Toxic Chemicals Affect Your Brain and What You Can Do to Reduce Exposure. There is an excellent website, and if you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you can see the description of today’s show and there’s a link there and it’s the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation. It’s a big word, ‘encephalopathy’. I had to look up that word, ‘encephalopathy’. It means brain. It has to do with things having to do with your brain.
This is a very well-organized, very well-written site. And if you want to know anything about what are the things that can actually damage your brain or have you not think so clearly or affect your nervous system, it’s all on this website.
And, in fact, I want to just mention right at the beginning of the show, there is an incredible article. There’s a link right on the homepage to this. It’s called The Toxins That Threatens Our Brains. And it’s so clearly written and it’s well-illustrated. You can just read this. It’s so easy to read. And it really shows you exactly what are the chemicals that are causing problems for our brains and our ability to think.
And in fact, our brains run our whole body. And our minds, and there are toxic chemicals that are affecting that. You can just read this article. It tells you exactly what the chemicals are, and so you can take steps to see where you’re being exposed to those chemicals and what you can do to reduce them. And this site also gives a lot of information on that as well.
So my guest today is Angel De Fazio. She’s the president, executive director and co-founder of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation. She’s going to tell us a lot about the chemicals, what her personal experience what and about activisms, what they do. This group does a lot of activism to reduce public health exposure to these toxic chemicals that cause brain problems.
And so we’re going to be hearing about the kinds of things that they do and hopefully, inspire some of you to take more civic action as well.
Hi, Angel.
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Hi, Debra. Thank you for having me on the show today.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. Thank you so much for being here. And I should also mention, also at the beginning that tomorrow, May 1st, is the beginning of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Awareness Month, and this is something that I know your organization does activities for. But also, we’re going to be talking. I’m going to have some guests around MCS during the month of May as well so that we can really be getting much more awareness about that specific way the toxic chemicals affect us.
So what is your background in education?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, as a kid, I was always playing doctor and my family doctor was pushing me, which I didn’t find out until he retired when I went for my last visit with him. I had told him I was going to become a pharmacist, and he said to me, “You’ll wind up in med school.” He actually offered to get me into his alma mater in Italy. And he had admitted that I was the only patient he would allow to call in because he trusted my diagnosis. He was very, very natural in his treatment.
So in the early 90s, I went to UNLV in preparation to get my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and planned on pharmacology school. I took one class and was hooked. I always had an interest in physical therapy.
Then in August of ’96, I enrolled at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Arizona to become a naturopath specializing in their version of orthopedic and rehab.
DEBRA: You’ve had injuries. So tell us about what happened with that. How did you get injured?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, I got injured in a cadaver lab three weeks into school. They were renovating the actual building, so they put us in a temporary building with a makeshift cadaver lab that used a plastic sheet. The formaldehyde was being vented into the courtyard and came into our lecture hall. And then when we got into the new building, the door to the wet lab, the cadaver lab was always open and our lecture rooms had the open door.
So all the formaldehyde permeated us during our class time and unfortunately, they used the cheapest building materials with the VOCs that gave me an ozone generator and in three weeks, my life was destroyed forever.
DEBRA: I understand. So did you notice anything that led you to becoming sensitive or did it happen all at once?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, I guess in retrospect, when I was at UNLV, one of my teachers came down with chemical sensitivity. We were in a new math building. Now, she has left for Colorado and I thought this was a very strange health issue.
So one year after I got sick, another student from that building who is a close friend, got sick. And when I guess, of course, the formaldehyde from the bio lab could have been the low level that started this, that it was under the radar.
DEBRA: Okay! So could you explain to us, in a simple way, what toxic encephalopathy is?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, basically, it’s any toxin that impacts the brain, also known as neurotoxicity. And it seems that the blood brain barrier becomes compromised and what was normally filtered out now seeps it in.
Now, on the website, I’ve got the best definition for neurotoxicity from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders, and it basically says neurotoxicity occurs when the exposure to natural or manmade substances, neurotoxicants, alters the normal activity of the nervous system.
So it can eventually disrupt or kill neurons, the key cells that transmit all signals in the brain, and it can result from substances like chemotherapy, drug, organ transplant, as well as heavy metals like lead, mercury, cleaning solvents, pesticides and cosmetics. The symptoms tend to appear immediately after exposure or they could be delayed. It’s more of when weakness, numbness, loss of memory.
DEBRA: We need to go to break now. But when we come back, we’ll continue, and I’ll ask you some more questions.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Angel De Fazio. She’s the president, executive director and co-founder of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation. We’ll find out more about that foundation and more about how chemicals affect your brain when we come back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Angel De Fazio. She’s the president, executive director and co-founder of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation, and they are at NTEF-USA.org. And you can also go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com at any show that you’re listening to and I’ll always have the URL of the guest’s organization or the personal URL or whatever. It’s always there. You can always go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and find out how to reach the guest. You can listen to the show again, you can read the transcript of the show. Lots of information at ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. And you can always find out who the guest for the week as well.
So Angel, what made you start the organization? When did you start it and why?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, we started in ’98 when I started discovering the impact of the effects to my brain and nervous system. And then, I saw that it was a direct result from [inaudible 00:15:11].
So in the beginning, I spent a lot of time learning and trying to abate symptoms while trying to get accommodations and creating awareness. In 2012, we went and became a 501c3 and the people I brought in with me either are injured or they deal with people who are injured. But I would like to [inaudible 00:15:49] because a lot of people [inaudible 00:15:58] with it, but they don’t see the connection.
DEBRA: Yes, talk about that.
ANGEL DE FAZIO: What I noticed is everybody is having cognitive issues. You feel like you’re drunk or stoned. You’re in a cognitive fog with exposures. You tend to have short-term memory problems in finding the right words, your thought processes are scrambled.
When I explain it to people, I use an umbrella as an example. If you open the umbrella, the top is toxic encephalopathy and what’s soaked underneath are things like autism, ADD, Parkinson’s, fibro, [inaudible 00:17:02] syndrome. They all have an impact on the brain, but they all have different labels. They are subcategories of it. And the problem is, you are always one breath away from becoming injured.
DEBRA: Yes, I totally understand that. What’s the main thing that you would want listeners to know about toxic encephalopathy?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, what tends to bother me the most is that people can’t understand the impact of indoor air quality on their health. They don’t realize that they spend most of their time indoors.
For example, if you need an air freshener in your home or office, don’t mask it. Find the cause of it. Everything you put on your body or you inhale, it goes into your system. There is no escaping it. So the cleaner and greener you can keep yourself, the better off in the long run you are.
DEBRA: I think that applies to everybody. We’re talking today about chemicals that affect your brain and specifically, the nervous system. But I realized many, many years ago that it doesn’t matter. As you’ve said before, these specific illnesses all come back to the main problem of it being the nervous system. I realize many years ago that the root cause of every illness is our toxic chemical exposures.
And even if we don’t know what a diagnosis is, if everybody would just start to live in a more healthy way, and more natural way with fewer toxic chemicals, regardless of what your illness is, it’s going to get better.
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Very true.
DEBRA: Yes, yes. Up to this point in time, what have you and the organization accomplished?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, last year, I forced a state agency to go fragrance-free. I filed the complaint with the Nevada Attorney General’s office and the attorney for the Public Utilities Connection thought she knew more than me about the ADA. And now they’re fragrance-free.
I’ve been working on trying to have stable people to appear telephonically at state meetings. I feel it’s time to stop overt and concerted discrimination of those with certain invisible disability. We have a right to reasonable accommodations. My approach now is either they comply or be prepared for a battle that they most likely won’t win.
Last year, we came up with a lab for people to go and order their own blood test at a discount – things like CBC and molds, allergen, environmental chems, adrenals, stress. My view was if the CBC has determined that pesticides, fragrance, air fresheners are problematic and they’re banned from all of their offices, then it should be enacted especially here in Nevada when everything they cite is the CBC for medical and health issues.
The question is what do they know because they aren’t making public. We created a safer lunch kit program for low income K-6 elementary students.
DEBRA: I need to interrupt you, I’m sorry. I need to interrupt you because we need to go to break. But we’ll be right back and we can continue talking about this. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Angel De Fazio. She’s with the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Angel De Fazio. She’s the president, executive director and co-founder of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation, which is at NTEF-USA.org.
I just want to say, again, Angel, just what a fabulous job that you’ve done with this website. It’s very professional and it’s very well-designed and easy to use and well-written. And there’s just so much information on it. I just wish that there was a website like yours for every body system. All of this toxic information all needs to be presented as well as you presented it.
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, thank you. That’s very much appreciated. We did spend a lot of time on what we wanted to cover and we wanted to make sure we get every area.
DEBRA: And you’ve done a fabulous job, just a very good example.
So since you’re in Las Vegas, what are you finding is the attitude towards people with chemical sensitivity issues?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, surprisingly, there seems to be more and more of someone who knows someone with the problem.
Now, I was at a state legislative hearing a couple of weeks ago and I was dying in the room. A guy took a bath in cologne. So I complained and the lady they sent over actually had a fragrance issue. So they had learned to deal with that issue. And now, they are accommodating by allowing me to testify by phone.
And we received communications from a lot of people who are in what we call the ‘beginning’ stages. They claimed they aren’t sick, but only a few fragrances bother them. It gives them a headache or they notice they only feel sick at work or their asthma kicks in.
But the problem is they’re really in denial. They thought what they’re showing is – I equate it to someone knocking at the door, a very light rap, and you don’t hear it. Then they knock harder and harder. They just do not want to accept the fact that they’re going to wind up like everybody else who is environmentally ill.
DEBRA: I understand that, I see that and I know over all the decades that I’ve been doing this work, a lot of times people will say, “But I’m not sick right now. I’m not one of those people.”
What I’ve learned is that the people with MCS or toxic encephalopathy, it’s not “We’re not those people.” It affects everybody. It affects everybody, every single person, every man, woman and child on the planet, every animal, every tree. Every living on the planet is being affected by toxics. It’s just a matter of degree and it’s a matter of recognizing it and it’s a matter of knowing that if you’re not being disabled by it now, or being made ill by it now, it’s coming. It’s coming.
What happens is these chemicals that you’re being exposed to build up in your body and they reach a certain tipping point and then you get sick. Or you can be exposed to a whole bunch at once or some over a period of time. I know that I first started having problems with my immune system when I was only 24 years old. That’s not very much of a lifetime to already have toxic chemicals built up so badly that your immune system gets affected by it – and then my endocrine. Even though I live a very toxic free life, there’s a lot of chemical exposure out in the world. There just is.
One of the things that I really admire about what you’re doing is that you’re going beyond saying, “Let’s clean my house.” You’re saying, “We need to go out in the world and make more people aware and make safe environments for everyone.”
So how do you do that? What if somebody wanted to be able to have a public space or the place where they work not have perfume, for example? What would you tell them to do?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, they have no protection because employers are only obligated to deal with the ADA. But if they had a diagnosis and they fit the criteria of being disabled, then they can go and approach HR, et cetera. But without a diagnosis or being declared disabled, all you could do is hope, speak to your fellow employees and see if they will accommodate you. But they’re not required to.
DEBRA: It’s so interesting to me that you say you have to show that you’re disabled in order to be able to do anything about it. Why do people have to become disabled? I’m just asking this as a rhetorical question. You don’t need to answer it unless you want to. But why do people need to become disabled before any action can be taken about these things?
You and I have seen piles and piles and piles of studies which show that these chemicals are toxic. Why can’t we just say, “Look, these chemicals are toxic. We don’t want them in the environment. It will help everybody. So let’s just remove them.”
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Because we cannot compete with [inaudible 00:33:19] and the advertising. All you see on TV is, “You must, in order to attract the opposite sex, wear this or that,” whatever. Your home has to smell like a foyer of all these products.
And so people buy into that. They do not want to have to stand out from the crowd. “Oh, I [inaudible 00:33:56] shower. Am I going to smell good when I deal with people at work?”
It’s just propaganda that they have bought into.
DEBRA: Yes, I would totally agree with. Well, we need to go to break again. When we come back, we’ll talk more about this.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Angel De Fazio. She’s the president, executive director and co-founder of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation. And their website address is NTEF-USA.org. And in particular, go there and take a look at this fabulous, fabulous article that they’d done about, and let me give you the exact name. It is the Toxins That Threaten Our Brains. And if you just go to the homepage in their website, it’s about halfway down the second column. It’s near the top of the second column. There are so many articles.
So we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and today my guest is Angel De Fazio. She’s the president, executive director and co-founder of the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation.
Angel, what is the organization doing for MCS Awareness Month?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, first of all, we don’t recognize MCS. It’s a catchall phrase. So what we do is we address it as Toxic Encephalopathy/Chemical Injury Awareness Month. And for over a decade, we received proclamations from the governor, mayors of various cities here in Nevada. We actually made the New York Times a couple of years ago when we asked the city to go fragrant-free.
This year, we’re going to concentrate on healthier pregnancies.
DEBRA: That’s good.
ANGEL DE FAZIO: With all of the research coming out about pregnancies, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, air pollutions, we figured pregnant women need to be educated. But we’re also reaching out to veterans because [inaudible 00:40:29] syndrome most of the time is chemical injury. And the problem is, the environmentally-ill appear to have psychological problems when in reality, it’s the chemicals that are to blame that are mimicking it. And once people identify the chemicals and eliminate them, all the so-called psyche issues tend to disappear.
We’re also going to be reinforcing that people need to avoid RoundUp along with using [inaudible 00:41:15] pesticide, pushing for organics in the diet and [inaudible 00:41:25] impacts health especially with air fresheners and pesticides because a lot of people who are injure at work tend to have what’s called pre-absenteeism, which means that they’re at work but they’re less productive.
We’re also pushing for people to eliminate the use of essential oils.
DEBRA: Good. So you have an online store. The organization has an online store called Chemically Free Living, where you sell some products that are not toxic. What kind of products do you sell?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, we walk the walk, and talk the talk about alternatives. So with everything about the EPA, we went for stainless steel kitchen storage containers for our lunch kit program, organic linens, mattresses, mattress toppers water and air filters. I even have incandescent bulbs. My favorite is the reusable ice cubes. I just love them.
DEBRA: What’s a reusable ice cube?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: It’s a stainless steel, one-inch square, filled with distilled water that should pop in the freezer, and then you throw in your drink. So it keeps the drink cold, but it doesn’t dilute it. And then you rinse it off and pop it in the freezer again.
As a kid growing up, we all had mothers who make us popsicles. And so, we found stainless steel popsicle makers.
DEBRA: I’ve seen this.
ANGEL DE FAZIO: I thought that’s some great idea. And even with my [inaudible 00:43:38]. I’m not going to have him get sick. They’ve been partially tested. No fragrances, no [inaudible 00:43:58]. The steels on the stainless steel containers are silicone. It’s just very healthy.
DEBRA: Yes, I see you put a lot of effort in research into this to bring together a collection of products.
We’re almost out of time here. But I want us to talk about the Vegas hotels going fragrance-free. Tell us what you’re doing about that.
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, there is one hotel, the Red Rock Hotel, that is not using any of the scent branding. They increased the number of air exchanges. Wow! What a novel idea. So I checked in there for two weeks. They had no idea I was there. I was able to stay in the room, room service was great, their linens had nothing on it. Even addressing my food allergies, their café was very airy, and I asked them to move me and they put me in a closed area. But the other hotels, no. They’re toxic.
A while back, I wrote as a press release that one of the high end properties, the Wynn Hotel, smelled like a well-maintained drier vent. And that was a quote from a travel magazine. They just pumped it in so heavy. They claim to be green, but that’s more towards water and energy conservation. In showrooms, you’re trapped because they close the doors, they pump in the air conditioner and even people who are not sensitive actually taste the chemicals.
But what they do is they use, “Oh! Well, we’re certified.” And so people think, “Oh, it’s healthy.” They don’t understand with re-certification, you can reach a platinum level and not have one single point on indoor air quality.
I even created a toxic hotel list on the foundation’s website.
DEBRA: I think that’s a great idea so that we know which ones are the most toxic. I would really like to see a hotel chain, especially one that has a lot of smaller hotels across the country that travelers are staying in really do non-toxic rooms so that a traveler, especially on business or going on vacations or traveling a lot, that they know if they stay at that hotel chain, they’re really going to have a clean room. And I’d really like to see that happen because it’s really needed. It’s really, really needed.
I used to think about years and years ago, I used to only think about myself. And I thought I have to put myself in this clean, little house so that I’m not being poisoned. And then I thought, “Well, I should tell more people about this so that other people, we can all share information.”
But now, I really think that the thing that needs to happen is that we just need to have a whole toxic free world where all the public spaces are not toxic and the people need to understand how we’re being poisoned, how all of us are being poisoned. And we can turn it around. We can all turn it around together.
ANGEL DE FAZIO: But people do not want to give up their products.
DEBRA: I know. I understand that. And that’s why you have your online store and that’s why I keep showing people that there are great toxic free products that they can use instead. And I know in my life that I needed to have things to replace the toxic products before I would give them up even though I knew they were making me sick.
I remember I finally found this shade of red lipstick that I thought was perfect and that was the last toxic product to go because I just couldn’t give up the color. It doesn’t make sense. But I knew that it was toxic, I knew that it could be making me sick, but I had to have that shade of red lipstick. And I finally gave it up and got to a point where the most important thing to me is health and I’m going to do whatever it takes to organize my life around having good health. And everybody can do that too and have a wonderful life.
So Angel, we’ve only got about a minute left. Any final words you want to say?
ANGEL DE FAZIO: Well, we’re considering this summer doing a fair with kids to teach them how to create their own non-toxic products. I figured teach them young. But the thing is never say never or it can’t happen to you. No one’s immune. And with the increase from olfactory chemicals assault that people in businesses they’re using, it’s not if, but when.
DEBRA: I totally agree. We’re at the end of our time. So thank you so much for being on today, Angel. And again, you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and find out how to contact Angel. Go to her website and get more information about this. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Thanks for listening. Be well.
Toxic Free Lifestyle As The New Medicine
My guest today is Naturopathic Doctor Tina Christie BSc, ND. She lives and practices in Ontario, Canada, and is producing a summit in May called “Lifestyle is the New Medicine.” I will be speaking about how the toxic free living as a lifestyle and how it can improve your health. We’ll be talking about lifestyle as medicine, what a naturopathic doctor uses for treatment, and how she incorporates toxics reduction and detox in her practice. Helping others through naturopathic medicine is Dr. Christie’s great passion. She was accepted immediately out of her undergraduate program at the University of Toronto (Bachelor of Science, Biology/Chemistry) into the naturopathic program at CCNM and graduated in 2001 at the top of her class. www.themindbodydoctor.ca
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Toxic Free Lifestyle as the New Medicine
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Dr. Tina Christie
Date of Broadcast: April 28, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It is Tuesday, April 28, 2015. You can probably hear I have a little stuffy nose. Well, there’s just stuff going around here, allergies, people coughing and sneezing. It’s raining today. But even though I have a little stuffy nose and a little sinus stuff going on, I’m still feeling good in here in doing my radio show and living my life. And even though stuff’s going on in my body, I still have the strength, the stamina and interest to be able to continue life and not just lie in bed.
I think that’s one of the benefits, one of the results of living without toxic chemicals because – sorry, I just got a little distraction there. That’s one of the benefits of living without toxic chemicals because your body gets strong, your immune system gets strong, all your body systems get strong because they’re not being destroyed and/or made weaker by toxic chemical exposures.
So today we’re going to be talking about actually living toxic free as a lifestyle. And we’re not going to talk about it exactly today. I’m going to be talking about it at a summit that’s coming up in May. I don’t have the dates right in front of me. I think it starts May 7th, but that’s a wild guess. And I’m going to be speaking on May 10th about a toxic-free lifestyle, what is a toxic free lifestyle?
We’re going to touch a little bit on that today. But what we’re going to talk about more is the whole idea of lifestyles as the new medicine. And when my guest contacted me and asked me if I would speak about lifestyle as the new medicine, how perfect, because that really is what I’ve been talking about for more than 30 years, is to look at how you’re breathing and how that affects your health.
And just like you take a medicine because you want to relieve symptoms or make your body healthier if you’re sick or whatever, you can do that with the choices that you make in your life, with the foods you eat, with the things that you have in your home, with the things that you’re exposed to. Everything has either a negative effect, a non-effect (it’s just neutral) or it has a beneficial effect. And choosing those beneficial things to create our lifestyles with I think is the perfect thing.
So my guest today is Naturopathic Doctor Tina Christie. Hi, Tina.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Hi, Debra.
DEBRA: How are you doing?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: I’m great, thank you. How are you? You have a little sniffle.
DEBRA: Good. I have a little sniffle. So as a naturopathic doctor, what would you tell me to do?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Well, if you’re feeling good, if your appetite is good, your energy is good, it should go pretty fast. Stay away from sugar completely.
DEBRA: I stay away from sugar all the time.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: That should boost your immune system by up to 50% for up to five hours. No sweeteners, no sugars, lots of water, lots of sleep.
DEBRA: I think what’s going on here actually is that my body is detoxing because on Saturday, I started taking a new homeopathic remedy for kidneys. It’s a kidney detox homeopathic remedy. And ever since that time, I had a headache and my nose is running. And all of those things I recognized as detox symptoms. So that might be what’s going on.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: It sounds like it could be. Are you drinking lots of water to help?
DEBRA: Lots of water, lots of water.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: The other thing that can help if you’re feeling good energy-wise, nothing too intense, but to get some exercise even if it’s just a nice walk. When you move, you drive more blood to your liver. And so you get more detox effects that way as well.
DEBRA: I didn’t know that. Well, thank you. I’m actually about to go sit in a car for six hours. I have to drive across the state of Florida sideways all the way to the other coast, pick up something and drive back. But tomorrow, I can go for a walk. That’s a really good idea.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: So much for that advice today.
DEBRA: So how did you get to be a naturopathic doctor?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Well, I always wanted to go into medicine. I was one of those little kids that said – I remember my grandmother saying to me when I was five, “Are you going to marry a doctor when you grow up?” And I said, I’m half-Italian so I said, “Nana,” which is Italian for grandmother, “Nana, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m not going to marry a doctor.”
But I grew up with a lot of health problems. I had a lot of infections, lots of antibiotics, tired all the time. My mom was always taking me to the doctor.
And then when I was 17, I started having a lot of stomach pain, higher up kind of stomach pain. And I got diagnosed with something called gastritis. It’s not an ulcer, but it’s an irritation of the stomach lining where an ulcer is a more of a hole. I was only 17 and I had prescription medication for bad menstrual pain, which I took occasionally. And that can cause it.
And so I thought, “Wait a second! I took one pill. And now I have this problem. And now, I’ve got another pill, and I’m 17 years old, where is this taking me?” And in a big, emotional moment, I said, “That’s it. I am not going to medical school. I am finding something different.” It was one of those huge, emotional reactions, but it really was a turning point for me.
And from there, as silly as it sounds, I went to the public library where I lived and took out a whole bunch of books on everything that I could find that had to do with natural healing. And that’s how it started.
DEBRA: Wow! I hear the story over and over and it’s always a different illness or a different symptom. But usually people become interested in natural healing because of something extraordinary that’s going on with their body and wanting to heal that. And so right there, at the beginning, you had this idea of lifestyle as the new medicine. But you didn’t say, “I’m going to take a pill. I don’t want to take a pill.” You said, “Let’s find out what to do.”
So tell us more about the summit and this idea of lifestyles as the new medicine.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Well, the summit is 22 speakers, all talking about different aspects of the way we live. The idea is that I see so many patients that are living in a way that they’re not eating healthy food or they’re stressed out and unhappy all the time or we want to lose weight, but watch four hours of TV a day. Their lifestyle is just beating their body down and beating their health down. And then they go looking for a solution.
If they come to me and they’re in that mindset of, “Let me just find a solution to compensate for everything I’m doing,” they’re probably coming to me for a supplement or that there’s a food they can eat. You read studies, “Oh, eat blueberries. They’re so good for you and they cure all these things.” But that’s not the way it works. It’s not the way it works.
One of the examples I like to give patients is to say, “What’s the one thing you could do to make your relationship really strong?” One thing. And just do that.
Well, there is nothing. It’s a constellation of things. And lifestyle is the same way. We’re living longer than ever today. Most people are going to live to the late 70s or early 80s. I think men, the average lifespan is 78, and for women, 83. But the difference is how are we going to live.
I saw my grandmother lived to one month before her 99th birthday. And for about 20 years before that, she sat on the couch. She was tired. She had arthritis, horrible arthritis in her knees. She did crochet a lot for the last couple of years. She had such bad arthritis in her hands and she couldn’t even do that. She took naps and she watched TV.
DEBRA: To me, that’s not the way to live. I’m older than I used to be and I’m looking at how many years do I have left, but how many good years do I have left? How many more years do I have to complete the work that I want to do in terms of toxics and all the things?
I want to go see the Aurora Borealis live. And how many more years do I have while I can still do that?
And so I’m really revving up my health care in terms of what I’m doing myself to make my body healthy and exercising more and really maybe giving more emphasis to doing things that I wasn’t quite doing as well as I could be doing to take care of my body because all of a sudden, you get to an age and it’s like, “Well, okay. Everything is going to start falling apart unless I do something.”
We need to take a break. But when we come back, we will talk more with my guest, naturopathic doctor, Tina Christine. And I’m at her upcoming summit called Lifestyle as the New Medicine. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is naturopathic doctor, Dr. Tina Christie. And she is hosting a summit called Lifestyle as the New Medicine, which is coming out in May. I’m going to be speaking on Sunday, May 10th, about Toxic Free Lifestyle as the New Medicine. And you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and scroll down the page and you’ll see a place where you can sign up. I’ll just tell you to go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you’ll see the place to go there. I’ve got a big picture there of me and Tina. And you can just click right on there and you can sign up to hear me speak about toxic free lifestyles as the new medicine.
So Tina, I know that toxics play a part in your treatment. As a naturopathic doctor, what kind of things are you seeing in your practice that are the results of toxic chemical exposure?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: I see a lot. One of the big things that toxins do is slow down thyroid. They either slow down thyroid function itself or they slow down how well your body makes active thyroid hormones. I see people being tired and sluggish. I often see people who want to lose weight and while that’s fine, they want to lose weight because they feel gross in their body, is often the word they use. I find that fat is a build-up of toxic chemicals. Because when I detox people, they don’t lose a lot of weight. They maybe lose a couple of pounds of fat and they say, “Oh, I feel great. I still want to lose some weight but I don’t feel gross anymore.”
So it was the toxin build-up. Just fatigue, sluggishness, for a lot of people, it causes skin problems as well. Eczema, psoriasis as well, but especially eczema and acne. Often your body is pushing a lot of toxins through your skin.
I find that it can affect mood as well. When your body is so burdened down by toxins, you’re really not running at your peak. And it’s the stress on your body, and that can pull your mood down. And it can also add or promote weight gain, just going back to the weight piece for a second. But I also see joint pains. Often, toxins, when they’re not really being pushed through our skin tissues, people can have body aches, joint pains, they can settle in our joints. And they can also disrupt our digestive system and cause digestive upset, bowel problems, poor digestion.
So it really runs the gamut and that’s actually one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the summit because if you’re overloaded with toxins, no matter what you’re doing, it’s going to pull you back down.
DEBRA: See, listeners. Listen to her say that because I say that every day. If you’re overloaded with toxins then you can be doing any number of treatments in order to try to feel more healthy, but the toxins are still pulling you down. You just can’t get well without addressing those.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: And that there exactly, Debra, is the thought process behind lifestyle being the new medicine. That it’s not the treatments you do. Yes, you may need treatment, but that’s not the crux of it. It’s how are you living, first of all.
DEBRA: And it’s so interesting to me. If you’re trying to empty a bathtub but you have the faucet on, you can’t ever empty the bathtub because it keeps filling you up and filling you up. And it’s the same way with lifestyle because if you’re having a lifestyle that’s a faucet just pouring water into the bathtub all the time, then when you’re trying to get well, which would be to empty the bathtub, then you just can’t because there’s all these stresses on your body of all the negative things that you’re doing in your lifestyle. And if you fix the lifestyle, then you actually don’t need so much treatment.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: It’s true. It’s absolutely true. And I see that, I’ll change someone’s diet, I’ll do some detox, I’ll get them sleeping better, and half of their probems or 75% of their problems sometimes, depending on what they’re coming in with, go away.
DEBRA: Yes because so much of it is just what we’re eating and what we’re exposed to in our home.
So what kind of things do you do for detox for your patients?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Well, first of all, the foundational stuff. So I get the chemicals out of people’s lifestyle. I get the chemicals out. I try as much as possible to have people switch to organics because there’s a lot of chemicals coming in.
Sometimes I do these tests and they show that organic food or regular produce, you test the outside of the produce and say, “Oh, it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of chemicals on there.” But these plants have had chemicals sprayed on them from the time they were sprout. It’s not just going to sit on the surface. It’s going to be absorbed into the inside of the plant.
So you can’t just test the outside and see what’s there.
DEBRA: That’s right. But also, they’ve done studies which show that if you stop eating regular food and switch to organic food, that it takes as little as three days for the pesticides to no longer be in your body. That there are some pesticides, it’s a whole group of, toxic chemicals on some of them last for a long time, but other ones, they flush right through your body.
So if you continuously are eating pesticides, you’re going to continuously have pesticides in your body. If you stop eating them, in three days, you’re going to have a lot less pesticides in your body. That’s all it takes.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Amazing.
DEBRA: I was really amazed when I read that. Because the changes can happen so quick. The changes can happen so quick.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: They can. It’s fantastic.
So I get the foundation going first. If there’s food sensitivity or food intolerance, I take those out. If people aren’t sleeping, you produce so much extra stress hormone when you don’t sleep. And that is a toxin in and of itself. The more toxins your body has to eliminate, the slower everything goes.
So it’s not the very first step I do with people in terms of doing a detox because I want to make sure, again, we’re turning off the bathtub tap before we try to empty the bathtub.
DEBRA: And let’s just stop right there because we need to go to break. And you’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is naturopathic doctor, Dr. Tina Christine. And she’s doing Lifestyle is the New Medicine Summit, where I’m going to be speaking on May 10th, and we’re talking about lifestyle and toxic chemicals, and what she does as a naturopathic doctor.
And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Dr. Tina Christie. She’s a naturopathic doctor and she is putting on a summit called Lifestyle is the New Medicine, which is coming up in May. I’m going to be speaking on May 10th about creating a toxic free lifestyle. And it’s a very good interview. At the summit, they pre-record it. The interviews are then played during the summit time. And it’s a really great interview. I was really pleased with how it turned out.
So Tina, so after you get the basics in about detox, then what do you actually do to help the detox process?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: For the detox process, I’ve bounced around between different things in the past. There is herbal detox. You can do homeopathic detox. But the one that I’ve settled on the most that I see some of the best effect is a detox that uses, it’s like a protein shake. It’s a powder that contains protein powder as well as a variety of nutrients that support the detox pathways.
Because there are two different pathways. Our detox pathway isn’t actually just one pathway, it’s two pathways that hook up.
DEBRA: Tell us about those.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: So they’re a little tricky. The first pathway and the second pathway don’t necessarily, and a good percentage of people, they don’t go at the same pace. And it’s not uncommon especially for people who are unwell into any degree that the first pathway goes either too fast. The first pathway goes really fast and the second pathway goes normally. Or the first pathway is normal but the second pathway is slow.
DEBRA: So what are these two pathways?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Pardon me?
DEBRA: What are the two pathways?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: They’re called phase 1 and phase 2. And in between them, whether the second one is slow or the first one is too fast, in between, stuff can build up. And the stuff that builds up in between phase 1 and phase 2 are very bad. It’s actually worse than the toxins before your body started detoxing.
It’s a little crazy. And the stuff in between phase 1 and phase 2 causes more damage than the toxins before we started detoxing them. So we still want to detox these toxins. They can’t stick around. But if they get halfway through, if they get through phase 1, and then they sit there because there’s back-up, phase 2. And phase 2 can’t keep up for whatever reason, it’s going to cause more [inaudible 00:29:43] free radicals, it can damage DNA, it’s associated with increased risk of cancer and just overall toxicity.
So the protein powder that I use are the protein shakes, let’s call it, has a variety of nutrients in them. And there are some different companies that make these. And they also have extra nutrients to support phase 2 and to make sure that phase 1 doesn’t go too fast.
DEBRA: So could you describe what phase 1 and phase 2 are?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: So phase 1 is, it takes the chemicals in your system, or the toxins, and it starts to break them down, but it only goes halfway. Before your body can actually eliminate them through stool and urine, they need to be broken down further.
DEBRA: Then that happens during phase 2.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Yes, and that happens during phase 2. But there can be a bit of a backlog, almost like traffic on the highway when there’s like a bottleneck. One lane is closed, so you get home 40 minutes late.
DEBRA: I totally understand what you’re talking about. So how would somebody know if that was going on in their body?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: They wouldn’t. There’s no specific sign that, “Oh, I have a slow phase 2.” Some people may notice but they just don’t seem to process toxins. Say they’ll do a detox that their friend did. And they got really sick right away. The friend felt amazing and they just feel really, really sick. Or they get a detox reaction and instead of lasting for a day or two, they’re two weeks into their detox and they just feel like they’re going downhill. They’re not getting any better. And if anything, they’re getting worse.
I have a slow phase 2, and if I try to detox and I don’t support that phase, this is how I actually got into really this way of doing it, I don’t support that phase 2. Anything that detoxes me, my skin breaks out in about an hour, two hours. And it does not slow down. It’s not one of those temporary healing reactions.
So people may notice that. There’s something going on when they try to detox. It just really doesn’t go well.
DEBRA: I have heard this from people. And I’m sitting here with this headache after I started taking this detox product and I know that’s a symptom of detox. But this makes sense what you’re saying. So what is the product that you like?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: The one that I like, it’s by a company called Metagenics. And it’s called Ultra Clear Plus. Lately, I also use Ultra Clear Plus PH. They put some extra potassium in there that’s alkalinizing. Because when you alkalinize, it helps your body remove toxins a little bit easier as well.
And there are other companies that make these detox protein powders as well but I got into this one years ago and I know that it works well, and I know what to expect from it. And it’s the one I use for myself also. So I also like to stick with what I know works and what I know is going to give a good, predictable result.
DEBRA: Good. Now, is this a professional product or is it something that people can buy and use themselves?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: It’s mostly sold just through professionals. Some health food stores have professional-run staff that bring it in. It’s not necessarily the best thing for people to do themselves, in case there’s another factor in the way. Remember how I talked about, to set that foundation for people first. If there’s another factor in the way and people detox, for example, if someone’s not having good bowel movements and they detox.
DEBRA: That’s a very good point. Another thing I say a lot. Go ahead.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: They’re probably going to feel worse because you’re dumping all these toxins into your colon and then you’re soliciting there and you’re re-absorbing it. I’ve actually seen people feel a lot sicker if they’re not having proper bowel movement. Or heaven forbid, if anyone is a smoker and they decide they want to detox anyways, and I’ve had smokers come to me and say, “Can you detox me? But I don’t want to quit smoking.”
That’s like having five bathtubs in one.
DEBRA: Wow. Talk about messing up the phase 1, phase 2.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE:Yes, no kidding.
DEBRA: Wow. Well, I would say if somebody wants to detox and they smoke, they first thing they should do is stop smoking.
We have to go to break. So we’ll talk more about this one when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is naturopathic doctor, Dr. Tina Christie. And she’s putting on a summit in May called Lifestyle is the New Medicine. And you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and sign up. It’s free. It’s free to attend the whole two weeks of 22 lectures by people like me who are talking about their special part of the lifestyle as the new medicine. And you can just go to Toxic Free Talk Radio and sign up for free and you can hear me on May 10th.
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Dr. Tina Christie. She is a naturopathic doctor and she’s putting on a summit in May called Lifestyle is the New Medicine. And I’ll be speaking on Sunday, May 10th, about toxic free lifestyles as the new medicine. But there will be 22 speakers in all who will be talking about different aspects of things that you can do to help your health yourself.
Okay, so before the break, we were talking about doing a detox and you were talking about a product that is only available to professionals. So I have two questions. One is, if somebody wanted to detox at home, and we’ve talked about on the show about different types of detoxes. But if somebody wanted to do something without going to a professional, what would you recommend?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Well, first of all, if they want to detox at home, to set that foundation. Go on your website, all the chemicals and products you mention. Just by having less chemicals come in, your liver detoxes, that phase 1, phase 2 that I’m talking about, 24/7. If that stops, you’re in liver failure.
So when you have less toxins coming in, now those processes in your liver have more resources to deal with the toxins that are sitting in your body. So a natural increase in detoxing what you’ve got in your body will happen, again when you turn that bathtub off. So switching out the toxic products, switching over to organics, and then something called dry skin brushing helps your skin draw off more toxins. Exercise drives more blood to your liver. Drinking enough water. There’s a lot of people who don’t drink enough water.
DEBRA: And how much do you think they should drink?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: It’s an ounce for every two pounds of body weight.
DEBRA: So I don’t know how much that would be. So you basically would take your body weight and multiply it by two, and that’s how many ounces?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: No, take your body weight and divide it by two. And that’s how many ounces. So for the average, 140, 150 or so pound person, you’d be looking at about two liters a day.
DEBRA: And how much is a liter? I’m asking these questions because I know the listeners, many of them are not going to know what a liter is.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: You know those regular-sized water bottles you buy for 99 cents or something like that at the, and I’m not a fan of plastic bottles, that you buy at the corner store? That’s half a liter. So it would be four of those.
DEBRA: So I just figured out if you divide your weight by two and then you get a number, and then you divide it by eight, that’s the number of cups you need to drink.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: I’ve never actually done that. I always have a one-liter bottle sitting on my desk at the office. So when patients say, “Well, what is that?” I’m like, “Okay, this is a liter. Drink two of these.” That’s a good conversion.
DEBRA: So you’re in Canada though. Don’t you have metric there? So everybody knows what a liter is?
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: What do you guys go in there? Ounces?
DEBRA: Ounces and quarts.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: I’m so sorry. I talk in pounds but I also talk in liters. So I’ve got one foot in each camp because we also do kilograms here for weight. But I don’t do that. So yeah, 140-pound person, let’s say, divided by two, that’s 70, so that would be 70 ounces.
DEBRA: 70 ounces. That’s right. And then if you wanted to know how many cups that is, then you divide it by eight. So that’s about, I’m doing it my mind here, so that’s probably nine cups. It’s four cups to a quarts, so that’s about a half-a-gallon.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: What I’d like to encourage people to do, let’s say you’re going to have 10 cups a day, is not to try to get 10 cups. If you got a fill a cup up to 10 times, most people aren’t going to do that. Unless you’re really diligent. But then I don’t know if that is really sustainable because it’s a lot of thought all day long.
DEBRA: I’ll tell you what I do. What I do is I have a big, I don’t even know, it’s more than a quart, glass bottle. And in the morning, I fill that up and then I drink that, and then I make sure that I drink two or three of these throughout the day. And I just have it sitting on my desk. So I’m just sipping water all day long. This is part of my lifestyle.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: And that’s perfect. That’s what I usually recommend. Get a big container, let’s say, it’s going to be about half of what you’re going to drink for the day. And then set a time. By lunchtime or whatever, it needs to be empty. And then you fill it up at lunch. And then it needs to be empty by the time you, if you work in an office, by the time you leave the office.
DEBRA: I think that’s a really good plan. It’s not about drinking water randomly. It’s about making sure that your body has enough water. And so once you figure out what that amount is, then if you set up a little program to do that every day, it starts becoming second nature. I don’t even think about it anymore. I just fill my water bottle. But you have to figure out how much water you need in the beginning and then do something so that it just becomes part of your lifestyle.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Yes. Perfect. It’s all about lifestyle. And once you start drinking, once people start drinking throughout the day, they’ll feel thirsty first thing in the morning and they’ll feel thirsty when they get home at night because once you have more water, your body also craves more water.
And we talked about exercise. Saunas are a great way to detox. I don’t want to tell people to go out and get certain products because people tend not to be the best, the clearest, shall we say, judge of where they’re at and if the detox is the right thing to do. And there are a lot of these things that are sold in health food stores like ‘three-day detox’. It takes three days when you’re using herbs, it takes three days to get your liver working to upregulate or to up those detox pathways. It takes three days. So a three-day detox is going to do nothing for you.
DEBRA: Well, I totally agree because as you mentioned before, detox is a 24-hour process for your body. For me, it’s not about are you going to do a three-day cleanse in the spring, go on a detox diet for a week. We need to be supporting our detox functions.
And so my next question is going to be, when should somebody get a professional involved? Because I think that there are things, I recommend the people to take liquid Zeolite because I know that it just takes toxic chemicals out of your body. It’s not about supporting your liver or anything like that. These zeolite particles just roam around and pick up the chemicals and they come out through your kidneys.
And so I think that there are things that everybody can do. Toxic chemicals can leave through your skin, and through your liver, and through your kidneys, through the lymph system. There are so many things and it seems like that at some point, if you can find somebody who knows something about detox like you, that maybe it’s a good idea to go to a professional to get help with the specific type of detox that your body needs and is ready for.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Yes. If you really want to get things done right, you should see a professional, and especially if someone doesn’t feel good. If someone is not feeling well, their health isn’t well, I would say, don’t mess around with. In the health food store, people who work in health food stores, they have some education but they’re often reading books. Someone with a good amount of experience that can really help you isn’t working in a health food store.
DEBRA: Good point.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: Because they just not. I went to school for eight years for this. I’m not working in a health food store for a minimum wage or whatever it is. That’s ridiculous. It’s just not going to happen.
And they don’t know you. They don’t know overall what’s happening with you and if there’s anything else to take into consideration. Sometimes people, they feel great and they’re just really healthy and they want to optimize and they tinker around with this, and they tinker around with that. As long as you’re not high risk for anything, that’s probably okay. But if you don’t really want to tinker, you just want to optimize and you want someone to set you on the right path, then find a good practitioner and find someone who is willing to education so that every time you want something, you don’t need to go running back to them because they’re the only ones that know what you’re doing. They’re educating you.
So many of my patients e-mail me. I haven’t seen them in a couple of years. “Oh, I wanted to do that detox again. Can I do exactly what you told me last time?” I will say, “Yes, has anything changed?” They’re like, “No, I’ve been feeling great ever since. I stuck to the plan you told me.” “Well, great. Go ahead. Do it again As long as there’s nothing else has come up.”
Because they understand how to read their body and what’s going on with their body.
DEBRA: Right. That’s absolutely important. So we’re getting to the end of the show. And I want to make sure that I don’t cut you off mid-sentence in about 45 seconds. So is there any final words you’d like to say? Tell us something more about the summit? Really now, we only have about 30 seconds.
DR. TINA CHRISTIE: The summit is across the board, what it looks like to live a healthy lifestyle. Society is not set up for you to live a healthy lifestyle. So it’s something you need to learn apart from looking out into society in general. And we also have a Facebook page. We’ve created a community of people that are also interested in this. So you can get a lot of support around your new lifestyle.
DEBRA: Good. Well, I’ll sign up for your Facebook page. And you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. And you’ll see the information there where you can sign up for free. And then you’ll be on the mailing list. That’s the end of our time so thank you so much, Dr. Tina Christie. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
Vulcanized Rubber
Question from M Carter
Hi Debra,
I use hermetic glass jars with glass lids to store dry goods in the pantry. The seal on these is vulcanized rubber. Is there anything to be concerned about with the vulcanized rubber—it doesn’t actually touch the food, but I have to touch it to open and close it, and I also wasn’t sure about offgassing. I was also looking at some shoes with vulcanized rubber soles, and wondering if that would be a safe shoe material. Thank you!
Debra’s Answer
Vulcanized rubber is natural latex rubber heated with sulfur. It’s used to make everything from seals on glass jars to rubber bands to automobile tires.
Here’s an article from the Centers for Disease Control about the health effects of vulcanized rubber:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/93-106/
I don’t use products made out of recycled rubber tires, but I do use glass jars with seals and rubber bands and don’t consider those to be major sources of toxic exposure.
Bed Frame
Question from Tania
Hi Debra,
Hi Debra! I had a quick question for you. We want to buy an affordable bed frame for my son’s mattress. What do you think about this one from Ikea? Many thanks!!
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S29011673/#/S99019576
Debra’s Answer
I actually love IKEA because they have so many great products with simple designs made from natural materials. But you have to look for them carefully.
Fortunately, they give you all the materials used.
Here is the Product Description for the one you chose:
Bed frame:
Solid pine, Stain, Clear acrylic lacquer
Slatted bed base:
Bed base slats: Beech veneer, Birch veneer, Foil
Ribbon: 100 % polypropylene
Slat holders: Synthetic rubber
Bed base: Beech plywood, Birch plywood, Solid beech or birch
It has a finish and synthetic rubber
Here’s another bed base called Tarva
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70261268/
It’s Product Description says: Solid pine. That’s it. Solid pine.
So check the Product Descriptions and choose one that is as plain as possible.
Non-Leaching Stainless Steel
Question from Shelly Pollard
Hi Debra,
Hi Debra. I’m wondering if you are familiar with S’well bottles. They are made in China although their site claims to be responsibly made there, out of “non-leaching, non-toxic, 18/8 stainless steel” and claim to be able to keep liquids hot for 12 hours and cold for 24 hours.
They appear to be a good company but my main question is around the stainless steel – can it really be non-leaching?
Many, many thanks for your help with this.
Debra’s Answer
To the best of my knowledge at the moment, it doesn’t make sense to me that some stainless steel leaches and some doesn’t.
Resolving this question is on my ongoing list of research questions.
I personally don’t use stainless steel for food or beverage storage. I can taste the metal.
Zippers on Clothing
Question from Stacey Santoro
Hi Debra,
So I was just washing some new sweatpants for my son, and I saw that both pockets have zippers. I only buy 100% cotton clothing for him, but it never occurred to me that other parts (buttons, zippers) could be an issue. Could the zippers and/or buttons be a problem?
This may really be a stretch, but could zippers (metal) conduct EMF’s? I think I read not to purchase a bed with metal coils, so should we avoid metal zippers on our body? Am I crazy?
The 100% clothing items I buy for my son are also Oeko-tex certified. Does this make the zippers/buttons okay?
Thanks so much!
Debra’s Answer
Well first, it turns out that metal mattress springs don’t conduct EMFs and I doubt zippers would either.
As for the Oeko-tex certification, it’s for textiles. Find out if the certification is for the fabric or the garment. If for the fabric, the accessories wouldn’t be certified. If for the garment, they would.
I don’t know if Oeko-Tex does garment certification. It’s more than a five minute search to find out.
How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. In celebration of Earth Day we’ll be talking about how popular pharmaceuticals pollute the environment and natural medicinals you can take instead that biodegrade. Pamela has more than 25 years experience choosing and sellling top quality medicinal supplements, so she’s seen it all. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
- Vaccines: Harmful or Necessary?
- Evaluating A Study and Testing a Test
- Seven Deadly Drugs
- The Hidden Dangers Affecting Your Heart and How You Can Protect It Naturally
- What We Can Do About Cancer
- The Power of pH
- How to Protect Your Health From Toxic Mercury Dental Fillings
- Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
- Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
- How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing With Supplements
- How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use—And How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and into Health
- Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
- See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
- Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
- Different Types of Detox
- Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
- Natural Alternatives to Sleeping Pills
- Natural Back Pain Treatment Options That Work
- How Toxics Age Your Body & What You Can Do to Stay Young
- You CAN Lose Weight—Even if You’ve Had Difficulty Losing Weight Before
- Calcium—Is There Really a Deficiency in America?
- It’s Cold and Flu Season—How to Support Your Immune System and Why You Shouldn’t Get a Toxic Flu Shot
- How Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help Your Cells Create Health
- Toxic Psychiatry and How to Have Mental Health Without Drugs
- Why You Should Take Fish Oil and How To Choose the Right One for You
- Medicinal Plants Can Replace Toxic Drugs
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefled, R.Ph
Date of Broadcast: April 22, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I am Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Fee Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It is Wednesday, April 22nd 2015, it is Earth day, so happy Earth Day. But it’s also the second anniversary of this show Toxic Free Talk Radio.
I’ve been doing this for two years. I counted it up and it’s 295 shows that I’ve done. Now there are the live shows and then there are also shows that are broadcast sometimes. Well, at least, twice a week. It’s a replay, usually it’s twice a week, not any more than that. But it’s 295 unique individual live shows in the last two years. I’m pretty proud of that and they’re pretty wonderful. If you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you can listen to all of them. They’re all right there and there will be more.
And I have this show booked up usually about three weeks in advance. I just have a steady stream of people either contacting me to be on the show or people that I’m finding just in my normal, everyday work activities. It’s really one of the highlights of my daily life, to come and be here with you on this show. I’m glad that it’s going so well and I’m glad people are listening and I’m glad that people are coming and being guests. It’s just wonderful activity for me.
So today my guest, since it’s Earth Day, we’re going to be talking about an environmental subject. Actually, all week has been environmental subjects. Some are replays. We had a new show yesterday about building soil in your garden and around the world actually, what you can do to restore soils around the world. And today we’re going to be addressing the subject of pharmaceutical pollution in the environment and how, when we take drugs, whether over-the-counter or prescription drugs, what happens to those drugs after they’re no longer in our bodies and how they go into the environment and what kind of harm that they cause.
Now before I introduce my guest who was going to tell us what we can do to reduce the amount of pharmaceutical pollution that we put into the environment, I want to just give you a little background about how much this really is a problem.
I’m looking at a document called Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater Streams: Disposal Practices and Policy Options in Santa Barbara which was done by Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This is a whole study that they did on this subject actually in 2007, but this is all still going on now.
What they said is – I’m going to read some of it and paraphrase some of it. If you want to know about this subject, this is a really good document to look at. They said, “Recent advances in analytic technology have lead researchers to discover trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in wastewater effluents,” that’s the water that comes out the other end of the wastewater, “…the wastewater effluents, rivers, lakes, and groundwater. They are finding pharmaceuticals in rivers, lakes, and groundwater.”
“Pharmaceuticals have also been detected in soil samples and fishes. Based upon this wealth of published occurrence data, it seems probable that most, if not all, urban wastewater is contaminated with pharmaceutical compounds differing only in the type and abundance of the substances present.”
And then I go on to talk about how this is a problem to the aquatic environment because pharmaceutical compounds are specifically designed to affect biological organisms. They said that if environmental concentrations are below acutely toxic levels – and what that means if something is ‘acutely toxic’, it’s something that’s going to cause harm right now today like you drink gasoline and it would kill you.
They say, “While environmental concentrations are below acutely toxic levels, the main concerns are the chronic,” that’s long term, “…or synergistic effects.” Synergistic effect is how things combine together and then what happens when you combine them. So I’ll tell you this sentence again.
“While environmental concentrations are below acutely toxic levels, the main concerns are the chronic that’s long term or synergistic effects of the cocktail of pharmaceuticals humans have created in the water. And occurring disruption is the most widespread and documented effect that pharmaceuticals have on aquatic organisms.”
And they talk about the feminization of male fish in waters treated with wastewater effluents and the development of antibiotic resistance and there’s a whole list of things here of how the aquatic environment is affected.
But they also affect us humans because the water that is coming out of our tap is coming from the environment, those environmental waters that are being contaminated, and so we get those pharmaceuticals, we get drugs, prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs in our tap water.
Now, you can remove those by using a water filter, but there’s no water filter on all the aquatic life. There’s no water filter that can protect the environment from these drugs. So while we can protect ourselves, we can’t protect the environment. The thing needs to be done is to not put them there in the first place.
So this report says, that “pharmaceuticals reach the environment be it two pathways, excretion from humans and disposal into the wastewater treatment system, which is not equipped,” the wastewater treatment systems are not equipped, “to remove pharmaceuticals.”
Now this particular study focuses on the disposal pf pharmaceuticals and what to do. But what we’re going to be talking about today is what we can do instead of taking drugs, so that these drugs don’t go into the environment and they don’t go into our water system.
And my guest, of course, is Pamela Seefeld who is a registered pharmacist and I have her on every other Wednesday because she knows so much about the subject. And so today, we’re going to be talking about some drugs and some natural things that we can do so that when they go into the environment after our bodies have excreted them, they don’t cause harm. Hi, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Hey, it’s great to be here. Congratulations on your show, this is wonderful. What a great anniversary.
DEBRA: Thank you, that was a really long introduction, but I had to explain why we’re doing this.
PAMELA SEEFELD: No, I think it was very, very timely and very good.
I stumbled on a list of what they’re seeing most often in the water. As far as what you’re talking about, the contamination, antibiotics and anti-depressants are at the top – and anticonvulsants and estrogen, beta blockers (from blood pressure, and cholesterol lowering medication). Those are the top six they see. But of course, the benzodiazepines like Xanax and Ativan, those are the particularly ones that are problematic.
Actually, when I was looking at the information about wastewater treatment, apparently, conventional waste treatment does not destroy the medications. These medications are also resistant to photodegradation, meaning that they persist in the streams, like you were saying, and in the rivers. So, they don’t degrade in the presence of light. Where some things will breakdown, they don’t because they’re artificial compounds and they’re not recognized in nature.
DEBRA: That’s a really important point. But before we talk about the drugs, it just occurred to me, would you explain to us what happens when you take a drug and it goes through your body. Why is it even coming out the other end? Isn’t our bodies absorbing them and using them?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct, right. So there are different types of metabolism routes when we swallow pill. It goes into the stomach, and there, you have those acids. It gets broken down and then it gets absorbed into the bloodstream. It goes to the receptors or the place of location where it’s supposed to take place. And after that particular period of time, it can go to the liver. Some drugs are actually eliminated unchanged meaning they don’t have any kind of metabolism. They are eliminated unchanged almost totally and they go out to the urine or the feces.
Other drugs go to the liver and they’re changed into, what’s called metabolized. What the metabolized are is especially when something is fat soluble like [inaudible 00:10:30] anticonvulsant, an anti-anxiety medicine, an antidepressants, they have to be eliminated with metabolism.
DEBRA: We have to interrupt you because we have to go to break and then when we come back, we’ll hear more about this.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll talk with her more when we come back about pharmaceuticals and how they affect the environment.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. And Pamela, we’ve failed to – hmmm, the music is still playing. Can you hear me, Pamela?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, absolutely.
DEBRA: Okay, good. It’s not you. I thought I’m not being heard.
PAMELA SEEFELD: No, no, no, no, no, no. It’s good.
DEBRA: Okay, good. So I just want to take a minute before we continue to talk about our pharmaceuticals, I just want to take a minute and really introduce Pamela because I didn’t do that at the beginning of the show. And as I said, I have her on every Wednesday because she knows so much about drugs and natural remedies and how things work in the body. I’ve never heard anybody explain things the way she explains them to her clients and to us on the show about how things work in the body. It’s just so fascinating to me.
So, she has a botanical pharmacy here in Colorado, Florida called Botanical Resource and she has a little med spa as well there. So you can get massages and facials and all those kinds of things. And her website is BotanicalResource.com. And she is very happy to talk to anyone at no charge about how you can stop taking your prescription drugs, so those.
Pamela, you want to tell us about that and give your phone number.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, so I’ve been doing this for quite a long time, probably 25 years. Basically, what we do here is we have natural products. We have homeopathic supplements that are medical grade. And if you have any questions about the prescriptions you’re on or if you want to transition off of those prescriptions into natural products or homeopathic medicine or if you are at the verge of needing to get on a prescription medication, I’ll be most honored and grateful to help you and your family address those issues especially even mental health, which I do quite a bit of it as well.
And you can contact me at my pharmacy here in Clearwater, 727-442-4955. I would be very grateful to help you with any medical concern you may have.
DEBRA: Thank you so much. She does a really good job. All the doctors around her know her. She’s very well-known and respected for the work that she does. I’ve just seen people just get off their drugs.
This is a show about toxics. But drugs, prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs, they are synthetic substances made from petroleum, the same substances that is used to make toxic chemicals and they have toxic side effects. And so I do consider that drugs need to be something that we remove from our lives in order to be toxic free.
All right, before the break, I had asked about what happens when a drug goes into your body, why is there something left that gets excreted and then goes to the environment?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct! So we have these different pathways. And let me explain, a liver contains enzymes, which you collectively call the cytochrome P450. Why is this important is because they have them all cataloged. They know exactly which enzyme metabolize which medication. And sometimes, actually, these enzymes, if you have one medication that you take in that inhibits the enzyme and another one that’s a substrate of it or it gets metabolized by it, you can actually change the way things are metabolized and that’s where the drug interactions come in where a lot of people end up very, very sick.
That’s why it’s important, if you have any questions, you’re taking multiple medicines, I will be glad to go and make sure that’s not a drug interaction if you’re not responding correctly or if you need to get off of them.
So what’s happening with these enzymes is that they’re very active. They’re upregulated for different people depending on their age and also just their genetics. But when the drug leaves in the metabolism, you take a fat-soluble drug (which something that goes to the central nervous system into the brain like all these psychiatric drugs), then this is the propensity of the drugs that we’re seeing – the antibiotics, of course, but the antidepressants. There are a lot of antidepressants in the water and the anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax and Ativan.
So these things go into the metabolism, they go to the liver. A lot of these live the Benzos, which is the Ativan and Xanax, they can eliminate pretty much unchanged. So you’re getting a lot of drug itself (not metabolites, but drug) into the feces and into the urine that is going into the wastewater systems. And that’s the reason why they can’t seem to get these things up because they really don’t have effective means to remove these medications out the water supply.
Of course, once these things are discharges, they go into the streams, they’re affecting aquatic life. But also, they’re affecting people because now they are testing it and it’s rampant in the water everywhere.
So what does this mean for people?
DEBRA: Yes, what does this mean for people?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, it’s a possible risk of cancer. That’s what I think.
DEBRA: Well, what about – I know that I said earlier in the show that the amounts that they’re testing are below the acute toxic levels, but they are in the degree that they can have a chronic effect. So what if we’re drinking in our tap water every day in addition to the chloramines and the fluorides, and all that stuff this, as I’ve said, a cocktail of unknown pharmaceuticals, how is that affecting our body?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay, that’s a very good question. Let me explain. I like to use the analogy of homeopathic medicine. I use a lot of homeopathy. And what is homeopathy? Small amounts of an agent that you’re using to treat somebody, that’s what it is.
So we’ve done it a hundreds of times. Well, what’s the difference between that and the stuff you get in the water? None. It’s the same thing. They’re getting drugged and you’re getting drugged because we know that these work on small, small amounts.
DEBRA: That’s right, but what people are getting are antibiotics and antidepressants and all of these things. They’re going into our bodies whether we want them or not. I just think that that’s such an important point because you have to get a doctor’s prescription to get these or you can just drink them out of your tap water.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct, and really, there’s no consent.
DEBRA: There’s no consent and there’s no control over dose, is the thing. No control over those.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct! These substances, when you have substances that work like estrogens in the body or work like drugs in the body, the have a term. The terminology is called xenobiotics. It’s something that you don’t expect to be taking into your bloodstream, into your body, but you are taking them in and is changing the way your hormones act. And also, it’s changing the way the dynamics of the genes fire off.
I wanted people to think about it. Maybe there’s someone who’s skeptical who says, “Oh, it’s just in the waters. No big deal,” but the fact that I want you to think about it is it’s a homeopathic medication, a medication you didn’t want to take that you now have to take because you earned the regular water supply. This is where the problems are.
There can be organ damage from prolong exposure. Some people do not tolerate medicine. If they’re getting these in the small amount and they’re getting it in a chronic level – acute means you have to go to the hospital, you’re very sick, you need medicine. Chronic is different.
DEBRA: It’s a long time building up, but it doesn’t have to take that long before it builds up.
We need to get a break and when we come back, we’re going to talk about some specific drugs that we’re putting into the environment that are harming the environment and what we can do instead so that we’re not taking and excreting those drugs out into the environment and into the other people’s tap water.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who, instead of drugs, likes to give natural medicinals. So we’re going to talk about what now are some natural things that you take instead of prescription and over-the-counter drugs? We’re going to focus especially on these top drugs that are the once being found in the environment. So take it away, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. Well, first of all too, I want to mention, if you want to pull the chemicals out and pull these drugs out, I’m a big fan of using Body Anew, which is a detox product that pulls out nickel, cadmium, lead, mercury, pesticides, and it removes chemicals out of the fat. You have to realize all these things here are fat-soluble. That’s why they’re able to come back into the body and cause these issues because if they’re water soluble, they wouldn’t keep coming back in. So that’s important for people to know.
DEBRA: Wait, wait, wait. Before you go on, I just want to make a point about this. Fat-soluble toxics, whether they’re drugs or anything else, they accumulate in the fat, correct?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct.
DEBRA: So then, when you do something like lose weight or exercise or do something that’s start melting your fats, then those stored toxics and drugs then melt and go back into your system.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right. And that’s when toxicity can take place. You can even get that with fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. If you’re taking huge, huge amount and they’ve been stored in the fat, you go on a crash diet, you lose a lot of weight, you can end up in liver failure.
So that’s why it’s important to really know the balance of the vitamins you’re taking, if you’re taking any medications.
And I’m a big fan of using Body Anew because we homeopathic detoxification, it goes to the fat and it starts dumping the fat, but it does it in the controlled manner that upregulates these functions in the liver. I was talking about these enzymes the P450 and also something called glucuronidation and conjugation, which changes the composition of the drug to remove it out of the body. These are really hallmarks of just taking these inside of your body regardless of whether you control what you’re consuming or not. That’s really important for people to know.
DEBRA: Yeah. It’s like we’re walking around – the CDC, the Center for Disease Control calls it body burden. And so it’s just like we’re carrying around this storehouse of toxic chemicals and drugs that we’ve taken in the past or drugs that we drink in our tap water. We’re just carrying them around until our fat releases them into our body in some unexpected that we don’t even know when that would be.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I think that’s right. If you think about it too, you know what, older people, why they get so much more cancer, the propensity is higher than younger people, it’s because they stored all of these for such a long period of time.
DEBRA: Yes, yes.
PAMELA SEEFELD: People need to realize that. It’s not like this person is elderly, she lived a long life, she’s 90 years old. Why do you think she’s ending up with these diseases? It’s because burden load in her body, in her fat is pretty high.
DEBRA: Yes. That’s what happens. The toxics accumulate until they get to be too much and then you get sick. Anyway, let’s talk about drugs, but I just wanted to make sure that everybody understood why this is so important. What we’re about to tell you…
PAMELA SEEFELD: These are really, really important points. So I’m just going to talk about antidepressants. We will just talk one drug class at a time. I just want people know that the average woman here in the United States is on five prescriptions and the average man is on four. That’s just average. That’s a lot of prescriptions. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that, “I’ve had things arranged with the hospital. I’m supposed to go talk to different groups.” Especially the colleges and things around here, their faculty is in so many medications. Their budgets are out of control. I’m trying to tell them there are other things they can do. It’s really a crisis.
So you have a huge amount of percentage of the population in antidepressants. Let me tell you, antidepressants, the serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the antidepressants, they have a response rate of less than 30%. So if there was any other category, let’s say it’s a heart condition, and the drug responded less than 30% of the time, would they even bother to use it?
DEBRA: No.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It makes no sense. But all these people are not on all these antidepressants. They’re accumulating in the water supply. They’re causing all these problems.
Antidepressants, if you look at what’s going on with serotonin in the brain, Omega-3 is specifically eicosapentaenoic acid. If you use a product like OmegaBrite, which is designed by Dr. Andrew Stoll who’s a Harvard psychiatrist, he did double-blind, placebo-controlled trials with Zoloft, the the trial is actually better than Zoloft using that particular fish oil, which is an EPA/DHA of 7.0:1.
So there’s things you can do other than these medications. You really need to look at that and think to yourself, “Can I possibly use something other than something that’s damaging the environment and also, might be even more highly effective?” That’s important. Let’s face it. If you’re taking a supplement or you’re taking a prescription, you want an outcome. You’re taking it for a reason you’re doing this.
And also, high dose folic acids, there are five serotonin receptors in the brain. It binds to four of them. These things are inexpensive and they’re pretty readily available and they’re very effective and the data’s there. It’s a no-brainer. And also, the cardiovascular benefits from taking both of those are superior. So you’re getting all other things as well.
And heart disease is the number one killer of women in the countries. You would be taking some of these things anyway, just maybe different amounts.
I think people need to realize there are options and it’s not all about medication. That’s really the hallmark of this. Antidepressants being rampant in the water supply is really preventable.
DEBRA: Yes, it really is preventable. This whole thing about drugs and the water supply is totally preventable. So tell us about another one.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. So, let me talk a little bit about anti-anxiety medications and specifically, the class of benzodiazepine. And this is where the Swedish study was done. This was very interesting with benzodiazepine. They found low levels of psychotropic drugs, specifically benzodiazepine, and they found that it changes the way the fish behave, affecting the balance of aquatic life.
And what they did is they found that this fish in Sweden, they were just charging the water like they do here and there’s high amounts of benzodiazepines, which the water dose here as well, the fish were swimming in the water and they weren’t scared of the predators. So they were just there basically waiting because they were chilling out because they were drugged.
This is really, really important. People need to think about this. If it’s affecting the fish, it’s affecting us too. You’re being drugged. And like I said, consent is not being given. You’re consuming these things and you don’t know if the toxicity, but also it’s affecting your mental health. You have a right to know what’s coming into your body. Fish were so equally affected. Go ahead.
DEBRA: I was thinking while you were talking that fluoride is another one. They intentionally put that in the water. It has a whole list of other health effects, but we don’t have any consent about that either. That’s something that we can filter out, but that fluoride is going into the environment as well from the wastewater.
That’s something nobody ever talks about. They talk about the health effects of fluoride, but we’re fluoridating all those fish too.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, we are. I think it’s really important that people realize – and there’s a common statement I said at the beginning of our talk here – that photodegradation, a lot of things in nature, if they’re not meant to be in the water, they will degradate in the presence of light. These drugs do not. That’s really important to know. That’s why the waste treatment products, they can’t use light and they can’t use other things to take it out. They have nothing to remove it.
DEBRA: Yeah, it just won’t biodegrade and it doesn’t biodegrade in our bodies and that’s why it makes us sick. Yeah, exactly.
Well, we need to go to break. wHen we come back we’ll talk about more drugs that are accumulating in our water supply and what we can take instead of these drugs, so as to be healthier ourselves and have a healthier environment. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. She’s here to tell us today about what we can do instead of taking prescription and over-the-counter drugs in order to solve whatever our health problems are without putting toxic drugs into the environment where they are accumulating and hurting aquatic life.
So Pamela, tell us more about different types of drugs that we can take instead.
PAMELA SEEFELD: All right, very good. So I’m going to focus on antibiotics for a minute because antibiotic resistance – and I still work in a hospital, so I can tell you that there’s big problem with resistance to antibiotics and having the good options for patients.
When people are on antibiotics – let’s just take an example like a sinus infection. The sinuses are very sequestered cavity and that’s why people that sinusitis, you keep going back and getting courses after courses of antibiotics and it doesn’t get any better.
There are certain infections in the body that just takes a long time to clear up. A lot of times, people have viral infections and they don’t need antibiotics at all. But what I will explain, let’s say you have a minor infection – I’m not talking about someone who has been in a car accident. They might need antibiotics because they have cuts. I’m talking about just routine stuff. You have sinus infection, you may have some bronchitis, you have a little cellulitis, some inflammation on the skin. In place of antibiotics or if you’ve been on antibiotics and they weren’t just responding, I’m a big fan of a plant called Andrographis Paniculata.
DEBRA: Can you spell that? Spell that, spell that.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Let me get the exact spelling here off the internet because I think people really should know about this. They haven’t used this plant before. Here we go, it’s A-N-D-R-O-G-R-A-P-H-I-S and the second word is, P-A-N-I-C-U-L-A-T-A, Andrographis Paniculata.
I use this almost exclusively. There’s a product from Cardiovascular Research called [inaudible 00:41:02] and that’s a medical version of this. I use this a lot. When someone comes to me and says, “Every time I travel, I get really sick… I’ve been two courses of antibiotics for my sinus infection and it’s just not getting any better,” what this particular plant does (and there’s a lot of clinical data behind it), it prevents cytokines or inflammatory components from feeding into the inflammation of the infection itself.
But what this does is it actually makes your white blood cells boost up and it goes after infections. So instead of taking an antibiotic, which they really are guessing and they don’t know which one’s going for what infection, they’re just like, “Oh, let’s just try this (most of them, they have no cultures), this particular plant is excellent alternative to medication because when you can take it – I usually recommend each capsule is like 500 milligrams. And so maybe two or three times a day, if you actually have an infection, you want to treat it.
But say you’re worried about getting sick, it’s flu season, it’s cold season, you get sick easily during certain times of the year, just take one or two a day just as a preventative, so you don’t get sick. But I use this routinely to treat urinary tract infection, sinus infections, bronchitis, where someone is just like, “I don’t want to be in the antibiotics,” or they’ve been at them and they just weren’t working. So this makes your own immune system go after the infection. That’s really what you want. You want to boost that up in an effective manner. And this is much different than taking vitamin C and taking [inaudible 00:42:20] and a bunch of other immune boosters. This acts like medicine.
I’m going to tell people they should really embrace this product. It works great.
DEBRA: Yes, yes. Well, I think it’s just that most people don’t know about it, but now they do.
PAMELA SEEFELD: The show is here to inform, right?
DEBRA: That’s right, we’re here to inform. I’ll just mention that if you’re having trouble finding this product and wherever you are, Pamela sells all these things that she’s taking about at her botanical pharmacy. You can just call them or you can go to a website, but they do orders over the phone.
So give the phone number again so that if people are interested in this product or anything else that we’re mentioning, she has all the correct brands that she’s been working with for over 25 years. She knows they work, she sees them working in her patients.
You can just give her a call and order tight over the phone. What’s your phone number again?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, the number here of Botanical Resource is 727-442-4955. That’s 727-442-4955. And as Debra had said, the consultation’s free. We do keep a charge [inaudible 00:43:31]. So if you want to have a quick call on the phone, you have an infection that you want to address or any other prescription medications you want to address, I can do it over the telephone. We just mail things out. I’d say 90% of my business is mail out. We do a lot of the work right over the telephone.
DEBRA: Yes, yes. And if this sound like, “Well, how can this work? It’s not a drug,” it never hurts to try. I always say these products don’t cost very much compared to drugs and you can save a lot of money if you find that they work for you and the only way to find out if it works is just try it. If it doesn’t, you only lost very little.
We still have about six minutes for the show so give us another alternative.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay, for medication, if people are taking the betablockers specifically, people are taking medication for hypertension –
Hypertension is a pretty common problem. I use some homeopathics that have cardiac glycosides. And then there are homeopathics that have hawthorne in them. And if we take that protego complexes, what I normally use, if you take that probably once or twice a day, normally it will lower the bottom number of the blood pressure, the diastolic blood pressure. It will lower at about 20 points.
So if people were trying to transition off their prescriptions for their hypertension and they’re looking for alternatives, also, time-released vitamin C, 1500 milligrams of a 12-hour release vitamin C twice a day will lower the top number of the blood pressure, the systolic blood pressure about 20 points as well. So a lot of times, people are like, “I don’t want medications anymore,” just taking those two simple things for about four or five days, you see a nice reduction of the blood pressure and it’s pretty consistent.
So there are really effective things. The data is there that really can bring the blood pressure down without taking the betablockers in all the different medications that they have for that. So that’s another thing that’s very, very effective.
DEBRA: Good. Give us another one.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Don’t forget about cholesterol medicines. If you’ve got everybody running around taking statin medication, you can use probably cosanol, which is really good. Red rice yeast works really very good.
And in a lot of people too who are taking this maybe in turn to get the triglycerides down, fish oil brings down your triglycerides 30% every month just taking Omega-3’s. So that’s an excellent alternative.
And don’t forget too, we were talking about the anxiety medications, the benzodiazepines, passion flower is an excellent, excellent, alternative to benzodiazapines because it works on the same receptor, but there’s no tolerance and dependence. They don’t become addicted to it. It has very, very good outcomes. And normally, we use here prescription quality in the label. It’s very strong. I used that to transition people off of the benzodiazapines and quite effectively. So that’s an excellent, excellent alternative too.
I can tell you too about estrogen.
DEBRA: Okay, tell us about estrogen. Yeah, keep going.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Estrogen, if you look at it, you can take wild yam, which works the same way as estrogen in the body. It does the same exact thing. It doesn’t have the side effects of taking an estrogen pill. That’s really important to know that. And also, taking wild yam will also help for the vaginal tissues as well.
So you don’t have to be in estrogen when you go into menopause and perimenopause and postmenopause. You have to realize, this estrogen, going into the water supply, is affecting the males in our culture a lot because they’re drinking this and they’re becoming feminized and their skin. They [inaudible 00:47:03], which is breast tissue. A lot of this can be related to the estrogen in the water. And this is really a dangerous possibility.
So I want to reemphasize that these things store in the fat and you might want to use a detox product to take them out. I can’t say that enough times. Not only that too, when you use something like Body Anew, you end up losing some weight sometimes too because it’s taking it out of the fat and of course the fat is where you’re storing all these things. It’s a depot forming your body. You want to facilitate this going on.
If you do any kind of exercises at all, even if it’s just walking, it even moves things out even quicker. That’s what I like. I drink it when I’m exercising in the morning. I think that that’s the best thing. But even if you didn’t exercise at all, if you drink it over a course of several hours a day, it’s just going to keep pulling all these stuff out of your body. It’s very, very efficient. And the good part about it is you’re not in the bathroom, it’s not that kind of a detox.
DEBRA: Now, I take it every day. Pamela takes it every day. You’re even taking it for 15 years or something like that?
PAMELA SEEFELD: A long time. Yeah, a long time.
DEBRA: I take it every day and it’s just like an everyday support for your body in a slow, but sure way to start getting those toxics out. It’s totally comfortable. I have no discomfort from it at all. Our bodies just have so much more toxic stuff in them than just our normal body systems can handle. Our bodies just can’t handle it. Everybody needs to do something to detox and Body Anew is a good homeopathic way to do that.
Also, Zeolite is a good thing to take. But these different things, these different products actually work on different things. Zeolite is really, really good for heavy metals and Body Anew takes out some other things. And if you just do different things, sauna, all these things, put them all together, we could end up being a lot healthier.
So we’ve only got about a minute left. Any final thing you want to say about this?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, I just wanted to let people know that these are things you can control. You can’t control what’s in the water you’re drinking unless you can filter and stuff, but you’re exposed to these things periodically through the day and through your life, but it’s important to realize that these things can be carcinogenic, they can cause disruption of the endocrine system and disruption in your body and taking them out of the saunas, with exercise, but really, with Body Anew, trying to get rid of some of these fat-soluble chemicals, not only for today, but I would tell you to look ahead in the future when you’re elderly, you don’t want to have these chemicals hanging around and putting you at risk for these horrible diseases.
DEBRA: Right, thank you so much, Pamela. And again, give your phone number again, so that if people want to get any of these products, they can just call you directly.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, please call me here at Botanical Resource at 727-442-4955.
DEBRA: Thank you. That’s all the time we have. You’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well!
Dish Drying Rack
Question from Lauren Carter
Hi Debra,
I am a big fan of your site and have come here for lots of valuable information on many occasions.
I am looking for a dish rack and would prefer to find one that is plastic-free or mostly plastic-free—I have seen stainless steel ones, but they all say they are rust-resistant. I don’t want the item to rust but I am concerned about what they did to make it rust-resistant.
I also am having trouble finding a wood dish rack that is unfinished (so I can finish it myself with an organic oil) and I am concerned about bamboo because of the potential formaldehyde I have read it could contain. Do you have any suggestions that might work? Thanks so much!
Debra’s Answer
I personally use a wood rack. Mine appears to be unfinished. I think the last one I bought was from IKEA.
I don’t think there is formaldehyde in natural bamboo. There may be formaldehyde in bamboo flooring from glues and resins used, but I’m pretty sure you are not going to have formaldehyde in unfinised bamboo.
Readers, any suggestions?
New homes vs. Older homes
Question from Stacey Santoro
Hi Debra,
I am looking to find a better neighborhood for my family. I love our house, but our street is right off of a 4 lane, busy, fast moving street.
Our house was built in 1985, and it’s a pretty well built home. I also like that the bedrooms have no ceiling lights so I assume this means less wiring or lower EMF’s (but I really have no idea if I’m correct about that). Unfortunately we do have oil heat, and abut a private golf course, but other than that, I’m happy with the house.
When looking at other homes, does the age of the home matter? I found one that is the ideal location, however, it is 2 years older than my house (1983) and I wonder if I should not look at homes older than mine. Do I need to worry about pipes, older fixtures, etc., with older homes (possibly more lead, etc.)? I also worry about maintenance costs.
I thought homes built in the 1980s would be safe from lead paint at least, but I mostly see, “lead paint: unknown,” on the homes’ MLS/listing sheets even for my home and others built in the 1980’s. I also found another home in a lovely neighborhood that was built in 1994, which clearly states there is no lead paint. This home also has gas heat. So, what is important when looking at houses?
Of course my father states that older homes are better because they are built with better materials…I don’t know! I just want the safest house for my small children!
Thanks so much, again!
Debra’s Answer
This is a tough question because there are pros and cons regarding toxics in both older and newer homes.
I generally opt for the older home because they are better built and the problems are easier to fix. The hours I have lived in for the past 14 years was built in 1940.
The main problems with older homes are lead paint and gas heat, and sometimes mold. The benefits are good construction, it’s been around for a long time so materials are aired out, real hardwood floors, wood or old plywood cabinets in kitchen and bath.
In my current house, gas heat is not an issue because I live in Florida. We have a unit with an air conditioner and heat pump. There is a small amount of lead paint on the exterior window frames. But I would rather fix a lead paint problem than the problems of new houses.
New houses are just very poorly built. The contain a lot of particleboard in hidden places that reek formaldehyde. It’s in cabinets, subflooring, inside doors…to fix a particleboard house means ripping out almost the entire interior.
When I lived in California, my ideal time period for a house was the 1960’s. These houses still had hardwood floors, but had electric heat instead of gas. I don’t know if that holds true elsewhere.
If you don’t want gas heat, you can always remove it and install whatever you want. It’s just a lot more difficult to remove all the particleboard.
Old houses can require more repair than newer ones, but once you’ve made the repair you have a home that will last. Newer constrution is just not well built.
Fire Rating of Shelving
Question from Sou Belaidi
Hi Debra,
I came across your article regarding Ikea, today I am facing a wall with Ikea.
I am about my first store in London, I am a small business so i wanted to get some shelving unit from Ikea, the KALLAX series but I need to provide to the landlord the fire rating of the shelving units.
I have been calling customer service in Sweden and in the UK and no luck no one seems to know what is the fire rating of these shelves.
Without this information, I will not be able to open my store.
Do you think you can help?
Debra’s Answer
I think I know why IKEA can’t give you an answer.
It’s two things.
First, they probably don’t understand what you are asking for. Do you understand what this term means?
A fire rating refers to the length of time that a material can withstand complete combustion during a a standard fire test.
In the USA, Fire testing of building materials and components of buildings — such as joists, beams and fire walls — is required in mostplaces by local building codes (though I personally have never run into this). Fire tests for consumer products—such as appliances and furniture—are, for the most part, voluntary. Except for certain products such as children’s sleepwear, mattresses and sofas.
In the UK the national building regulations contain fire classifications for building productsYour landlord is probably referring to these.
Why does Ikea not know the fire rating of their shelving?
It may be that there is no fire rating for shelving.
It may be that they are an international company and don’t know the local regulations.
If it were me, I would go back to my landlord, find out exactly what he or she needs, and then go back to Ikea with an exact request rather than a general request. Tell them this is national building regulations in the UK.
One thing I don’t understand is why shelving would need a fire rating? Perhaps your landlord is asking for something that isn’t necessary.
I know this answer seems a bit off topic for this blog, but I wanted to look it up to see if there was a connection between fire ratings and chemical fire retardants. I don’t know the answer to that without a lot more research, but here in the USA flammability laws require sofas and mattresses, for example, to meet fire ratings, and therefore often toxic fire retardants are used. Don’t know about this in the UK.
How I Chose the Best Coffee
Hello Debra,
I really appreciate the legwork, searching, and research you do for all of us. It takes so much time, energy, and expense to check into products, etc… I also appreciate feedback from your readers with chemical sensitivities, or people that just want to live a healthy life as free from toxins as possible. Thus, I want to tell you about something I have found that has made my life a little more enjoyable.
Two of my doctors recommended I try drinking coffee for a couple of health conditions. I haven’t been able to drink coffee for 30 years. Dr C recommended a brand that advertises it’s coffee to be low in mycotoxins. I purchased the decaffeinated coffee, and didn’t feel good with it. Then purchased the regular and didn’t feel good with it. Not giving up, I found Bean Trees Organic Coffee at a local grocery store. I liked it and felt good when I drank it.
Due to multiple food sensitivities, etc., as often as possible, I have a health care practitioner, Dr W muscle test me for all my food, drink, and for actually everything I would use either internally or externally. Thus, I started testing coffees. I purchased several different Varietal Single Origin Organic Coffees and Blends from BeanTrees Organic Coffee. I also purchased other Organic Brands from large and small companies.
THIS IS THE INFORMATION I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT.
So far, I have tested 16 different coffees from 6 different companies, 12 sold as Certified Organic, and NOT ONE has tested good for me. Most of them caused a noticeable reaction, from just not feeling good to blowing blood out of my nose.
More importantly, I have tested 14 single origin varietals and 4 blends from BeanTrees Organic Coffee, all Organic, and ALL, EVERY SINGLE ONE, TESTED GOOD FOR ME. And I love them. I feel good when I drink them. Amazingly, they test I can have them every single day. Unbelievable!
I rotate everything. Dr W doses my foods, and most are every other day, or every 3 days, but BeanTrees Organic Coffee tests every day and tests very strong for me. I may also add, that Dr W never liked coffee, not even the smell. We tested the coffees on him, and likewise, most brands did not test, however he can have BeanTrees Organic Coffee. He now loves coffee with coconut oil and coconut milk in it. This is additional proof that the brand seems to make a HUGE difference.
He and I are both extremely impressed with BeanTrees Organic Coffee. I don’t know why it is better than the others that are sold as Organic. All I know, the ONLY coffee I can drink, and feel good with, is BEANTREES ORGANIC COFFEE. I absolutely love it. I look forward to it every morning.
Lately coffee has been in the news for its health benefits. Dr Mercola had an article March 16, 2015, “Daily Coffee Consumption May Help you Avoid Clogged Arteries”. One thing I learned is that “Coffee beans are one of the most heavily pesticides-sprayed crops.” Purchasing Organic and Sustainable “Shade-Grown” coffee is a must. However, I also learned it depends upon the brand.
I want to share this information with you so you can pass it on to your readers if you think it would also be helpful for them. It can take years to find good things that are not toxic, even though they are advertised as organic or being wonderful. Like I said previously, it takes a lot of time, energy, and expense. And it is so helpful when we can learn from others that have been through it!
I might also add that I make my coffee using the cold-brew method which reduces the acid in coffee by up to 70%. I like the taste better also. I grind the beans with a glass, and non BPA, Hario hand grinder and put the grounds in a large glass measuring cup. I pour structured cold water over the grounds. I stir it with a glass stirring rod, cover it with a glass dish, and leave it for 12 hours. I stir it in the morning, and strain it with cheescloth into a Visionware glass saucepan and heat it up. I prefer coffee heated, instead of iced coffee, and nothing is added. I love, love, love it!
Debra, I am extremely limited with foods I can tolerate, thus I was impelled to share this information with you.
By the way, drinking BeanTrees Organic Coffee has helped one of my health conditions 🙂
Best of Health to You,
Stephanie
Sofa Shopping
Just want to pass along to you a link to the first in a series of posts about choosing a quality, toxic-free sofa.
It’s written by the sisters at OEcotextiles, who know their stuff about organic natural fabrics. But this series goes way beyond fabrics, explaining in detail the different parts of a sofa and how to choose one that will last. (I’ve had my custom-built all-natural sofa for more than 15 years now and it looks like new).
Here’s the link to the sofa shopping blog post: Sofa Shopping.
And here’s a link to a radio interview I did with them on Toxic Free Talk Radio: Fabrics That are Nontoxic, Ethical, Sustainable…and Beautiful.
Eight Steps to Improving Your Food Choices
Today my guest Annie B. Bond, author of True Food: 8 Simple Steps to a Healthier You. We’ll be talking about why slow, local, organic, and whole food matters—for both your health and the Earth. I met Annie many years ago when her publisher asked me to write the forward to her first book Clean and Green. Annie is the best-selling author of five books, including Better Basics for the Home (Three Rivers Press, 1999), and Home Enlightenment (Rodale Books, 2008). Her most recent book True Food (National Geographic, 2010), is a winner of Gourmand Awards Best Health and Nutrition Cookbook in the World. She was named “the foremost expert on green living” by “Body & Soul” magazine (February, 2009). Currently Annie blogs and leads the selection of toxic-free products for The True Find. www.anniebbond.com | www.thetruefind.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH ANNIE B. BOND
- Toxics Then and Now: Debra Celebrates Thirty Years in Print
- Toxic Free Valentines
- Great Toxic-Free Holiday Gifts
- Cleaning for Your Holiday Party – Before and After
- Toxic Free Cleaning Basics
- Natural Solutions for Bugs
- Healthy Halloween
- Tips for a Toxic Free Home
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Eight Steps to Improving Your Food Choices
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Annie B. Bond
Date of Broadcast: April 16, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It is Thursday, April 16th. I got my taxes done at 9:33. I had to drive across the causeway to take it to the only post office that was open until midnight, but I got it in. There were all these cars and they’ve got people from the post office standing out to collect all the latecomers.
You would think they give us so many days, all of four months, you would think I could do it some time between January and April, but I ended up doing it on April 15th. Anyway, that’s all done now. I can put my attention on other things and so can you.
Today, we’re going to have a delicious show. We haven’t talked about food in a while. And my guest is Annie B. Bond. She has been on the show half a dozen times at least before. And we’ve been friends for very many years.
She’s written a book. She’s co-authored a book called True Food: Eight Simple Steps to a Healthier You. And I just heavily agree with every word that it says about the importance of these particular food choices that we’re going to be talking about today.
Well, we’ll just get right to Annie. Hi, Annie.
ANNIE B. BOND: Thank you so much for having me. I’m delighted to be here. And I think we’ve known each other for at least 25 years or something like that.
DEBRA: I think so too.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah, which sounds ages, but nonetheless, there we are.
DEBRA: Nonetheless, there we are.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah.
DEBRA: It just goes to show how experienced we are.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yes, it does.
DEBRA: Yes, it does. So I just love this book, True Food.
ANNIE B. BOND: Oh, I’m so glad. Thank you. That’s an honor.
DEBRA: Yeah. I should say that it’s an award-winning book. It won the Gourmand Awards Best Health and Nutrition Cookbook in the world.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah. That was quite a feat. I was very proud of that. That was great.
DEBRA: How does that happen? Did your publisher submit the book for the award?
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah, the publisher did. Yeah, that’s right. We were all invited to go to Paris to accept the award, but they didn’t fund us.
DEBRA: But did you go?
ANNIE B. BOND: No, I didn’t. It would have been a joy to go there.
DEBRA: Oh, what an incredible thing. But just to have the award is an amazing experience.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yes, it is. Yeah. And the book is an interesting book because – I wish I can tell you the history of the book at some point, but whatever you want to…
DEBRA: Just tell us right now.
ANNIE B. BOND: Oh, okay.
DEBRA: How did it get written?
ANNIE B. BOND: It started off as actually another. It started off as The Green Kitchen Handbook. Meryl Streep wrote the foreword to it. I wrote it with Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet. I worked with them in the early 90s and I actually was the founding editor of the Green Guide.
I guess the reason that I want to tell the story is just that Meryl Streep and Wendy Gordon got on the Today’s Show around Earth Day on 1989 and talked about Alar in apples.
DEBRA: I remember that.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah, exactly. It was the pivotal point. I mean, from that moment on, there was like a hockey stick of interest in organic food.
But Meryl Streep got pounced on like no other in terms of the science behind Alar in apples. It turned out that it wasn’t maybe a carcinogen, but it was a neurotoxin or something like that. It was really unbelievable how the industry came down on her. She was just trying to protect her four kids and was doing the best she could because she was feeding them apples three meals a day and that kind of thing.
So what happened is that Mother and Others for a Livable Planet, which is the organization that Meryl Streep and Wendy Gordon Rockefeller founded ended up getting scrupulous with their science around food. They trained me well at that time. I mean, it was really, really a valuable lesson.
Every single word that went into the Green Kitchen Handbook was vetted by all these food sites just because they didn’t ever want to go through what they went through with the alar in apple story. That’s the background about this book.
So then by the time we ended up pushing it out into a new version of the book, which became True Food, it was just great to know how well vetted the science was. That’s all I wanted to say about it.
DEBRA: I think that that’s really important and that’s something that I paid attention onto myself, to really make sure – and I’ll just talk about this for a minute just because it’s such an important point – really make sure what my sources are.
In the world of writing, there are first hand sources and second hand sources and third hand sources. And for our listeners, what that means is that the first hand source would be if I had an experience and I wrote about it or if Annie had an experience and she told me about it and I wrote about it. That’s first hand.
If you read something, say on my website, that is now second hand source if you were to then write it and say, “Debra Lynn Dadd says, ‘alar in apples cause…’” That is now second hand source. And it goes on and on and on.
Especially on the internet, what you see is a lot of information that has been pulled from other websites. That is actually really encouraged now. You can take courses in how to use other people’s information and repeat it on your site. And if you look up a subject, you’ll see that a lot of the websites say exactly the same thing almost in exactly the same words.
ANNIE B. BOND: It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?
DEBRA: It is because it’s just a waste of time when people do that. There is valuable information that people need to have. So I have been really careful in the past four or five years or something – more careful. Not that I wasn’t careful before. But before, I would sometimes be vague. But now, I know if I say this is toxic, I can show you the study. And often, if you look on my blog, you’ll see that I show, “Here’s the link to the study and here’s the link to a magazine article that’s easier to read about this study.”
ANNIE B. BOND: Exactly. That’s a really, really good solution for that. Certainly, in the news recently too is the value of science especially when talking about toxic. You need to be able to back it up so that you can hold your head up or you’re going to get attacked like poor Meryl Streep. I mean, that was really, really unbelievable and a very chilling message for people.
But you’re totally right about the internet. How many times have you been plagiarized? I’ve had an entire book almost plagiarized completely.
DEBRA: Many, many years ago, after my first book Nontoxic and Natural in 1984, in about 1986, I was watching TV and Ralph Nader was on and I know that he just took something right out of my book because I had written it in a very specific way and he just practically said it word for word on national television.
I was sitting there going, “What? What? That’s my formula. He’s just taking this information right out of my book and not giving me any credit.”
ANNIE B. BOND: Isn’t that something? Yeah.
DEBRA: It is something! I know and I can recognize when people have plagiarized my work. And I know you can too.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yes.
DEBRA: People just pick up this stuff and repeat it and don’t give sources. People really need to watch out for that and know what your sources when you’re reading something.
I think toxics are so important that if I say something is toxic, there’s got to be a study. There’s got to be some reason and not just because somebody said it and or it was on the XYZ blog. It’s because there’s actual science behind it.
And if there isn’t, then I say, “This person reported their symptoms were… “ or something like that. I don’t try to make it sound like…
ANNIE B. BOND: A fact.
DEBRA: A fact.
ANNIE B. BOND: For everybody or whatever.
DEBRA: For everybody, yeah. Anyway, we’re getting near to the end of the segment. We’ve already gone through a quarter of the show and we haven’t talked about your book.
ANNIE B. BOND: Oh, no. We haven’t even talked about food.
DEBRA: I know. But we said some other important things. So I’ll tell you what I want to do while we’re ticking down for the last few seconds here. First, I want to read something because this is just so wonderful. It just gives the flavor of what your book is about. This is a dedication I want to read for the listeners.
“To all people whose hands reached out to sow the seed, till the soil, pick the produce, snap the beans, remove the stems and make the meal.” I just think that that’s so beautiful. It really shows that food really is about all these hands and all these hearts doing these things to make the food that’s on your plate.
And we don’t often think about that. We’re going to talk about that today.
You are listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Annie Bond, author of many books. But today, we’re talking about True Food: Eight Simple Steps to a Healthier You. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Annie Bond. She’s the author of True Food: Eight Simple Steps to a Healthier You. And she also blogs and leads the selection of toxic free products for the True Find, which is at TheTrueFind.com.
Lest we go up in another tangent, I just want to say that I was looking at your blog the other day. There is so much good information in there. It’s so beautifully done.
ANNIE B. BOND: Thank you, Debra. Really, thank you so much.
DEBRA: It’s very aesthetically pleasing to look at the images and to see what you’ve said about all these different natural things. So good work.
ANNIE B. BOND: Thank you.
DEBRA: Anyway, let’s talk about the book. Let’s talk about the book because it’s so good. So there are eight steps here. Let’s try to get those eight steps in. So I think we just need to talk about each one of them very briefly. The first one is eat local food.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah. It’s interesting. Certainly we all hear about ‘eat local’, but there are some really interesting reasons why that many people don’t necessarily understand. One is certainly the amount of energy it takes to get a piece of produce to you. The [inaudible 00:15:19] further away in terms of gas and fuel.
One thing that a lot of people don’t quite realize is the difference in the nutritional value is the fresher the food is. So if you can go to a farmers market on a Sunday and the farmers will pick that food that morning, you’re getting much very, very vibrant energy that you wouldn’t be getting if it was two weeks old because it would’ve been shipped out from who knows where.
Another concern of food that’s shipped, especially from out of the country, is that they often carry what they call the circle of poison, which are pesticides and herbicides that have been taken off the market in the US and they’re still being used in third world countries. So we often then can get those pesticides anyway. They come in on the turnips or whatever that have come across the border.
So there are pretty good reasons to eat locally.
DEBRA: Today on my food blog, ToxicFreeKitchen.com, I wrote a post about heirloom tomatoes, just buying heirloom tomatoes, local heirloom tomatoes. Just over the weekend, there is a new market that’s opened here in St. Petersburg, which is about 45 minutes from where I live in Florida.
They have local organic heirloom tomatoes from local farmers. So I wrote a post about buying these tomatoes. And there is a little picture of the salad that I made out of them and some more information about heirloom tomatoes.
So having produce like heirloom varieties, which means that they’re ground from seeds that are passed down from generation to generation and not made by multinational corporations that make hybrid seeds, these are true tomatoes. Talking about the title True Food, these are true tomatoes. Whenever you see that world heirloom, that means it’s the true vegetable or fruit. You don’t get those at supermarkets where they’re being shipped in from other states or other countries. They’re just so beautiful. I love heirloom tomatoes. I use to…
ANNIE B. BOND: Well, they are just divinely delicious. One of my very best friends wrote the book The Heirloom Tomato and her farm is not far from mine. So I get basket of her heirloom tomatoes during harvest time. They’re wonderful. I’ll put the photos on the True Find.
I just want to tell a very quick story that might help people to understand the value of going for the heirloom plants. This woman’s husband actually is the one who has put the – if people have heard about the [inaudible 00:17:55]. It’s way up near the Arctic Circle. The seeds are being saved. So if anything, a catastrophe happens on the planet, all those seeds are saved there.
I want to just talk about the Irish potato famine quickly, which was when the Irish farmers depended on two varieties of potato or something. A blight hit and wiped out all the potato and they had this massive starvation. But if they had had a wide variety of heirloom potatoes, they would never have had the famine because at least one or two of these seeds would have been able to withstand the blight. And in fact, there is a seed in South America that happily withstood the blight of those potatoes, that potato blight.
So that shows, in a nutshell, how valuable and important the wider variety of seeds we have for any one species is unbelievably important because it could really stop a famine if you don’t wipe out. You’ve got resistant seeds to different diseases.
DEBRA: That’s so important. When I lived in California, I lived in a very local little valley where a lot of people knew each other. There was a woman there who was growing heirloom tomatoes and she had gone around to old families in the area and collected their seeds from the tomato plants in their backyards. And so we really had our own [inaudible 00:19:25] valley tomatoes. I had raspberry canes from my neighbors.
We were constantly swapping the vegetative materials between our gardens so that we could have just that local thing that was the exact plants that have been growing in our local area. It was just so amazing to do that.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah, that totally is. The other thing about eating a wide variety of tomatoes, for example, or a wide variety of food is that you get a range of nutrients that you wouldn’t get from those pink gas-ripened tomatoes that you can get on a grocery store in January.
DEBRA: What nutrients? There are no nutrients in those tomatoes.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah, I think there are zero nutrients. Right, exactly. My mother was wonderful at this. We had just a bounty of vegetables all week long, different every night. I always took that to heart, that that was really good for me growing up. I haven’t been as good as an adult, but I try to be especially in the summer and during harvest time.
But the more variety of vegetables you get, the more variety of nutrients you get and the healthier it is for you.
DEBRA: That’s right. That’s right. So I really want to mention that this book is not just about what we eat for our own health, but about supporting the environment, supporting earth and nature while we’re making our food choices which is so important because without the seeds being there and the plants and the soil and all of that, we would have nothing to eat.
I think that sometimes we forget that when we go to the supermarket and buy food and don’t have our hands on the soil and we’re not talking to the farmers and things like that. So this is just a very important book, very important.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Annie Bond. She’s the author of True Food – and it really is about true food – Eight Simple Steps To A Healthier You. We’ll talk more about the eight steps when we come back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. We’re talking about true foods today with Annie Berthold-Bond, author of – I’ve known Annie so long. I said “Annie Berthold-Bond,” instead of “Annie B. Bond” or “Annie Bond.”
ANNIE B. BOND: You’re never supposed to change your name mid-career. I’m sorry I did. Oh, dear.
DEBRA: Anyway, true foods. So now we actually touched on step two when we talked about eat a variety of foods. So let’s go to step three, “aim for organic.”
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah. Well you talked about how important the concepts in this book are not just for health, but also for the environment.
One of the big crises we have with food production is the damage to soil. The reason you want to switch – I mean outside of for health reasons, for the health of the planet, you want to switch to farms that know how to build and grow soil, so that it’s very full of nutrients and that you don’t have these horrible wash-off of all of your topsoil, which is so key for growing food.
So organic farms are very mindful of the health of the land. And that’s what you want to be. You want to be able to support any farm that is supporting the land.
And also, I find it very important for myself to – I mean, our next step is to eat lower on the food chain. But it’s very important in terms of eating if you eat animal products to eat animals that have been raised in a humane way and on farms where they’re able to eat grass, be outside, get the sun, don’t have a violent death, that kind of thing. Not violent, but they’re not all pent up in a horrible situation.
I do eat meat and I have vowed and I have been very rigid about this for a very long time that I will only eat meat that comes from an organic farm.
DEBRA: Yes, me too.
ANNIE B. BOND: But the truth is that also then for health reasons. It was something that we couldn’t say in the 90s. I was telling you how strictly we’re about what science was available. There was enormous amount of controversy in the 90s about whether organic food is more nutritious. We just couldn’t say it was more nutritious at that time.
Since then, of course, there have been many more studies to show that organic food is being proven to be more nutritious for us. And so that’s a very nice update, a good reason to eat organic food.
But step four, which was eating lower on the food chain was a really interesting chapter to me to work on because that was really about the fact that it’s about the predator-prey. So it’s how much toxic material is stored in our fat.
There are a lot of reasons why organic is important for – or not eating as much meat is important for the environment and that kind of thing in terms of water usage and things like that. But in terms of health, as we hear toxic chemicals are all the way up to the [inaudible 00:30:05] and things like that, is stored in fats. And so the lower you are in the food chain, the less fatty animal parts you’re eating, the less contamination.
DEBRA: That’s right. They just accumulate. They bio accumulate. The toxic poisons go from – I mean, obviously, eating a plant even if it’s not organic would have less accumulation of toxic chemicals than an animal who eats those plants and gets all that toxic accumulation and concentrates it in the fat.
That’s another reason why it’s really important to eat organic as we start moving upto the food chain. But you can also just eat lower on the food chain too.
ANNIE B. BOND: Because even organic – animal fat doesn’t mean that it’s not going to have contamination because everything’s contaminated. That’s the thing. Yes. But it would be better.
DEBRA: At this point in time, everything is contaminated. Organic is a lot less.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yes, exactly.
DEBRA: And it’s not because they’re adding chemicals. It’s because the whole environment is contaminated.
ANNIE B. BOND: Right, hence the blubbers on the seals that the Eskimos are eating.
DEBRA: Yes. Okay so then step five is to eat fresh food.
ANNIE B. BOND: And there, you’re going to get all the vibrancy of the enzymes and the nutrients. So if you have a farmers market as I said or community supported agriculture – those are springing up all over the country. They’re called CSAs. So those usually work where you give a certain amount of money at the beginning of the season. And then you get deliveries every week or you go to a farm to pick them up.
This comes back to that heirloom tomato and the flavor in the – I can’t emphasize enough the difference in the taste of fresh foods than non-fresh foods.
DEBRA: I belonged to a CSA for a couple of years until I move to Florida. And in this case, the food is not just picked this morning. It’s picked an hour ago. It goes right into the baskets. You can go to the farm. Like the one that I belonged to. I could go to the farm anytime I wanted and work and see what they were doing. I got to know my farmer really well.
One of the best experiences of my entire life was the day that we had a dinner for all the organic farmers in my little area. There were about 10 or 12 of them and some of us from the CSA. We went around in an afternoon and picked up the produce from all the farms. And then we did all the prep work in this beautiful kitchen at the farm where we did the CSA. And then we served the farmers who had been – I’m going to start crying. They have been serving us our food all season. We served the farmers.
ANNIE B. BOND: Nice, very nice. That goes back to the hands.
DEBRA: Yeah.
ANNIE B. BOND: You’re honoring them, which is really, really nice. Even nuts and seeds, the fresher they are, the better they can go stale and rancid.
But I think one of the great things for me – and I’m sure everybody has experienced this – the feeling of how you feel after you’ve had a meal that is just full of all the antioxidants that come out of this kind of food. I mean, your whole body’s sings. And that’s what we want to have happen, our bodies sing because it’s so healthy for us.
DEBRA: I love that, “our bodies sing.”
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah because you can feel it. You really can. I can just feel about an hour later just, “Oh, it does these things through my body. The Antioxidants are really great.”
But I want to say something about frozen food. If I have a choice in the middle of the winter of choosina non-organic fresh food that is theoretically fresh – I live in Northern Upstate New York, so my winters are really deep winter – I will buy frozen food that’s organic because it will have been frozen at the time of the harvest and it’s going to be the best way to have the most nutritious food.
So you can find the dates. There are places where you can go online and find dates of when food is frozen so you can guarantee that it was done during the harvest time. That, I think, is the way to manage, trying to get as fresh food as you can in winters.
DEBRA: That’s a really good tip. I didn’t know that. We have to go to break.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Annie Bond. We’re talking about true food. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Annie Bond, author of True Food: Eight Simple Steps to a Healthier You.
It’s really such a great book because it really describes in general and in detail – I mean, we’re talking very generally to get through the whole eight steps during the show. But if you go to the book, each chapter, each of the steps is thoroughly explaining with lots of details and recipes so that you can understand the concept and also understand how to apply it in your life.
And I just want to read just a little quote. This book is full of what are called snapshots of comments that individuals have made who eat this way. She says, “Since eating only fresh and all natural foods, I’ve gained more vitality and feel like the bodily aging process has slowed way down.”
I was thinking as Annie was talking earlier about fresh food that we tend to reach for drugs or remedies or nutrition pills or some manufactured product that’s sold to be healthy. But if we really just eat good food, it has everything in it that our bodies need. Nature has designed food to be everything that a human body needs.
We tend to not eat the food and then look for some other kind of remedy. But if we would get more fresh whole natural local organic food in our bodies, we would feel so much better. And we do. I feel so much better when I eat it.
ANNIE B. BOND: It’s interesting. This is a really good natural segue way into the next step, which is step six, eat whole foods. I have a body that just need unerringly needs whole, whether it be clean air, full air, true air, true food or whatever.
DEBRA: Yeah, me too.
ANNIE B. BOND: And so I find if I eat processed food, I finish it and I’m immediately wanting to eat. I overeat. I need something else because it’s not a whole food. It’s not giving me the complete nutrients of whatever that food is.
I’ve been very depressed. The media is overloading me with horrifying stories about the ingredients in processed foods. And it just solidifies more and more and more how off track we are to live on processed foods for people.
But just from my own personal experience, I know that I eat more because if I eat processed food, I need a fuller nutrient. But there is just something about – my point was that the other thing about processed food is that we’re getting a lot of chemicals that are affecting our endocrine system from food packaging too.
So if we eat food that has a lot of plastic in it or canned food that the lining has these bisphenol A, these endocrine disrupting chemicals, it starts falling down our thyroids and the different parts of our bodies that help us with metabolism.
I think that it’s a very, very important to actually really try to draw the line and understand and try to avoid processed food. I think the signs just added up where it’s that now incontrovertible that we need to eat whole foods.
So the other thing I just want to say on the high side about eating natural food is that I’m always astonished at how sweet fresh produce is. I just can’t even believe it. Sometimes I’ll eat a fresh pear or something like that. And I feel like I’m eating a watermelon. It’s so sweet. It’s not like we need to buy sweeteners. These foods are sweet if you buy them straight out and fresh.
DEBRA: That’s right, they are. I noticed that when I stopped eating sugar, everything tasted sweeter to me. I mean, on my food blog a couple of weeks ago, I had a raw asparagus salad and I said, “This tastes so sweet” because it does taste sweet to me. I don’t have sweeteners, especially refined sweeteners I’m not dulling my taste buds anymore. And so I can just really enjoy the sweetness of food.
I want to just say one thing that I thought of. That is that even if you’re buying something – I was at a farmers market and I was talking to somebody about their pasta sauce, which tasted really good. I tasted every sample. So I started asking them questions. It just says ‘tomatoes’ on the label. And I asked them. “What about these tomatoes?” They said, “Oh, they’re only the finest Italian canned tomatoes.”
ANNIE B. BOND: Oh gosh, yeah.
DEBRA: Even though it says ‘tomatoes’ on the label, it doesn’t specify that it’s a canned tomato, so you’re getting all that bisphenol A.
ANNIE B. BOND: Isn’t that something? Yeah.
DEBRA: Yes. That just really stuck home to me that if you’re going to buy a processed food product, even if it’s organic pasta sauce or something, you just really need to check with the manufacturer and see what’s really in it as opposed to what’s on the label.
And I don’t think that they’re trying to cheat you so much as that there are standard laws about how food products get labeled. They’re following the law, but the law doesn’t say that you have to say whether it’s in a can or not.
ANNIE B. BOND: Yeah. And then another example would be I was really pleased with this gluten-free bread I’ve been buying that was delicious. It was very, very high in fiber. It was well-made. It wasn’t full of just starches and that kind of thing.
And then all the story broke about emulsifiers really contributing to obesity and leavening agents too. It was really a breakthrough study about two months ago or something like that. I went and looked at those breads that I’ve been so, “Finally, I found a high fiber gluten-free bread that I didn’t have to make” and all that kind of thing. And sure enough, there was one of these emulsifiers in it. I got it at the health food store of course and everything.
It’s just, once again, an example of – just don’t even take the chance, but make things if you have to. Use these ingredients that are long term considered safe.
DEBRA: Yes.
ANNIE B. BOND: They call them the GRAS materials. And they generally are regarded as safe. And it’s hard to go really wrong when you use those. But I don’t know. It’s not that hard to click from scratch. There are more and more whole food products that are processed available. But you have to read labels like a hawk.
DEBRA: It’s just a matter of checking out the materials in the ingredients and then you know. Unfortunately, things are not labeled the way they should be in my opinion.
Anyway, let’s go on to step seven, which is stock your pantry.
ANNIE B. BOND: I think that if we’re going to be trying to eat more whole foods and move away from packaged foods, having everything at your fingertips just becomes incredibly important. So that means cooking healthy meals is always convenient and nutritious. It also means that you have fewer packaged foods and fewer packaging and all that kind of thing, which helps the environment.
So all in all, you’re just stepping up into your meat-making. You have a healthy diet. So during harvest season, all you need to go out at is get a few fresh vegetables – not few, an abundant amount or whatever. And then you’ve got all the staples at home to make a curry or whatever you want to do. It eases the whole thing.
I guess one thing I just really want to mention, a real issue though that includes this packaging problem is that your pantry is not going to be full of plastic foods that you can throw in the microwave. There is a lot of research that is showing that, especially hot fatty foods –
I used to go on picnics all the time back in the 70s and I’d have cheese that I would buy. It would be in the plastic packaging. I always tasted the plastic in the cheese. You don’t want hot fatty food and plastic combined at all under any circumstances because the plastic leaches into the cheese. We just need to avoid as much plastic in our food as we possibly can.
DEBRA: Yes.
ANNIE B. BOND: So your pantry is with whole foods and things. You go to the bin section of the health food store and you buy your – what I do is I buy a bunch of – I have a ton of glass mason jars. I buy red lentils and they go into the mason jars. And that protects them from the moss and all that kind of thing too. And all my dry goods are in mason jars in a big cupboard I have.
And this is so easy. If I don’t have anything in the house, oh, my gosh, I just open the cupboard in there and I could make a nice dough with the lentils and then I got the herbs and spices and that kind of thing. It’s a real help to speed up the whole process of cooking.
DEBRA: I do that too. I make sure that I have all my spices and the dry ingredients and things so that all I have to do is be shopping for the organic meat and vegetables. And then I can make whatever it is that I want.
And I want to say something that I think is going to sound funny. Before I started stocking my pantry, I would go to my kitchen and I would say, “There’s nothing to eat” and then I’d order a pizza. I know we’ve all been there.
ANNIE B. BOND: We have! That’s so common. I mean, that’s exactly the funny thing. Yes.
DEBRA: I know. And I eat pizza and pizza and pizza and Chinese food and all this delivery stuff because I had nothing in my pantry. But because I always have food in my house now, because I always have food, it’s like I always have cold chicken in the refrigerator. I always have garbanzo beans in the refrigerator, I have these foods that are just my staples. And they’re always there and I always make sure that I don’t run out of them because if I don’t stock my pantry, I’d call the pizza. What else are you going to eat?
ANNIE B. BOND: I overeat, I really overeat if I don’t have that exact same situation. It’s really something. Then I’ve got all these wonderful whole foods that satisfy me…
DEBRA: Oh, my god! I wasn’t even watching. The show is over. I wasn’t watching the time at all.
Anyway, number eight is green your kitchen. Go get Annie’s book, True Food: Eight Simple Steps to a Healthier You. Thank you so much, Annie.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Choosing and Using Home Saunas to Remove Toxic Chemicals From Your Body
My guest today is Wendy Myers, CHHC, NC, founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. Wendy highly recommends the use of home saunas for detox to her clients and knows all about them. We’ll be talking about how regular time in a sauna can benefit your health, different types of saunas and which work best for detox, how to use a sauna, and how to choose a sauna to purchase for home use. Wendy is a certified holistic health and nutrition coach in Los Angeles, CA., She is also certified in Hair Mineral Analysis for the purpose of designing Mineral Power programs for clients to correct their metabolism and body chemistry. She is currently seeking her masters in clinical nutrition at Bridgeport University in Connecticut. Wendy hosts the weekly Live to 110 Video Podcast and the Modern Paleo Cooking show on her Live to 110 Youtube Channel. liveto110.com | store.liveto110.com/brands/SaunaSpace.html
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH WENDY MYERS
- Toxics in Your Body? Tests Can Tell You the Truth
- Tests You Won’t Find at Your Doctor’s Office
- Deep Detox With Minerals
- Health and Nutrition Coach on Diet and Detox
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Choosing and Using Home Saunas to Remove Toxic Chemicals from Your Body
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Wendy Myers
Date of Broadcast: April 15, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Wednesday, April 15, 2015. I hope you all have your taxes done and out doing something fun. I’m still doing my taxes, but I’m doing something fun, talking to you right now. I love doing this show, I really do. And then I’ll finish my taxes.
Then a friend is visiting me today and it’s his birthday, and we’re celebrating his birthday. And so it’s a good day for me and I hope it’s a good day for you too.
Today, we’re going to be talking about saunas. We haven’t done a show on sauna before and people ask me questions about saunas all the time, and I don’t know as much as I should about saunas although I’ve spent a lot of time in saunas. I’ve even done some detox programs in saunas, and I read books where they talked about saunas. And so I know that a good way to get toxic chemicals out of your body is to use a sauna.
And a lot of people buy saunas for their homes, but there are different types of saunas, and they do different things. And lots of questions come in to me.
So today I thought we’d get them all answered by Wendy Meyers who has been on the show before. She’s the founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. And she and I are very complimentary in the work that we do. She does a lot of things about detox and nutrition and she really is trained and certified to do a lot of things in the healing end of it, where I am focused on reducing our toxic chemical exposure. But we both agree that toxic chemicals should not be in our bodies, we shouldn’t be exposed to them, and that they contribute to ill health. And getting them out of our bodies and our homes produces good health. In fact, we both agree (because I talk to Wendy a lot, so I know that she agrees with this), that if you want to get well, you really need to take the toxic chemicals out of your body.
So hi, Wendy!
WENDY MYERS: Hello, and how are you?
DEBRA: I’m good. How are you?
WENDY MYERS: I’m doing great. Thank you.
DEBRA: So first, before we talk about saunas, I know in my description of the show today, I put all these letters after your name. So you’re actually, Wendy Meyers, CHHC, NC and now, FDN, as of yesterday. So would you tell us about all of these letters mean and what you actually do?
WENDY MYERS: Yes. Well, I’m a Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist. So that means I can play doctor and I do all kinds of medical tests. And I do all kinds of testing, genetic testing, parasite testing, chemical toxicity testing, et cetera, et cetera. I also am a Nutritional Consultant. I got that when I got certified to do hair mineral analysis, which I’m big on, to discovery people’s heavy metals that they have in their body and their mineral deficiencies. And I am also a Certified Holistic Health Coach, which I got when I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
DEBRA: So Wendy has a lot of ways she can help you from her particular viewpoint, anything from detox to all these blood tests now that she can do – or actually, let’s just call them medical tests or diagnostic tests. I’m not sure I should call them medical tests or blood tests because they are more than blood. You’re not a doctor. But anyway, tests, she can do tests of your body and help you in a lot of ways once she knows what’s going on. She has a lot of training about how to use nutrition in order to help get at the root cause of what’s going on.
So let’s start talking about saunas. Tell us why it’s important to detox?
WENDY MYERS: Well, detox is my first love, and I think it is incredibly important to detox your body in order to be healthy. I personally believe that all the dozens of heavy metals and hundreds of toxic chemicals that are known to be in people’s bodies, we have to remove those in order to be healthy. They are one of the underlying root causes of disease.
And after some of your listeners have learned from you how to clean up their toxic environment and use healthier cleaning products and beauty products, you have to do something about the chemicals that are in your body. The EPA has established these studies and found that people have on average 700 chemicals in their body, and the World Health Organization did another study, and they found that we had over 200 chemicals in our body.
So either way you look at it, there are hundreds of chemicals in our body. They are obviously not creating health in your body. And I think that infrared saunas are one of the best ways to just sweat out these chemicals because our livers are so overloaded and most people’s livers are so toxic. They just can’t handle all these chemicals and they’re also being blasted with sugar and alcohol and all the other things that we put in our bodies.
So I think it’s wise to bypass the liver to detox and use an infrared sauna and just sweat them out through your skin.
DEBRA: I agree. One of the things that I learned from studying toxics is, well, first of all, the detox system (as I know you know, but we’ll tell the listeners anyway), the two main organs of the detox system are the liver and the kidneys. But what most people don’t know is that these are the two organs that actually get hit first because both the liver and the kidneys are actually processing the toxic chemicals that come in to your body. So the kidneys are filtering your blood in order to remove things which shouldn’t be there including toxic chemicals. And the liver actually has this whole process that it goes through to turn fat-soluble chemicals into water-soluble chemicals so that they can leave the body through the intestines.
So they get much more exposure because they’re getting all this concentration of all the chemicals that are coming through the body and they’re processing them. These are exactly the organs that we need in order to detox our bodies. And yet, they’re damaged, they’re overwhelmed, they’re overloaded and these poor organs.
And so what a sauna does is that it goes ahead and starts removing toxic chemicals from your body through sweat, through the skin and so they don’t need to be removed through these other organs, and you can start giving them a rest and they can start to heal. Did I explain that right?
WENDY MYERS: Yes, exactly. That’s perfect. I think it’s so important to do this because for a lot of these chemicals, there is no other way to get them out of your body except for sweating. And many people, if they have nutrient deficiencies, the detoxification mechanisms in our liver don’t work properly.
And not only that, but heating up your body with an infrared sauna, heating it up just naturally induces this faux fever, where you’re killing off bacteria, parasites and fungus. You’re killing cancer cells before they turn into tumors. If you have a tumor that you don’t know about or had been diagnosed with, tumors are very intolerant to heat.
So the heat works in a number of ways to kill off chronic infections and parasites and other things you have in your body, candida, et cetera. In addition to activating aspects of your immune system, it activates heat shock proteins. There is about 90 of those that are part of our immune system, and those become activated when you heat up your body. You release human growth hormone. There are just so many benefits infrared sauna has.
DEBRA: As I’m listening to you talking, I’m thinking about, here, we’ve just been coming out of winter and I remember there was a day not long ago and it had been cold here in Florida. Sometimes we get cold winds from the north. And then all of a sudden, the sun came and I was outside, and it was just that feeling of warmth on my body, I think, that we just like it. Our bodies like to be warm. That’s part of the healing process when we get sick. Our bodies naturally, we get a fever and it burns everything up. And as you said, sauna gives the same effect.
So we need to come up to break in about 15 seconds. So I’m not going to ask you any questions because I don’t want to interrupt you. But when we come back, I want you to about different kinds of sauna because I know that the kind that people are using at homes are not necessarily the same thing that you’re going to find in the gym, and why a sauna and how is that different from a steam room, for example. And we’ll talk about those when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Wendy Meyers. She is a CHH and CFDN, founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. And her website is obviously Liveto110.com, lots of information about detoxing and living healthy there. Go take a look. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Wendy Meyers. She’s the founder and head writer of Liveto110.com, which has lots of information about how you can detox your body and live healthier.
So Wendy, tell us about the different types of saunas.
WENDY MYERS: Yes, well this is the biggest source of confusion for many people. People think that they can just sweat with exercise and that’s not nearly enough. I get that question a lot. People cannot exercise and detox at the same time. When people are activating their sympathetic nervous system, they create this fight or flight mode and you do not detox in that mode.
So just sweating from exercise doesn’t cut it.
When it comes to the different saunas, we have a traditional sauna. This is what most people think of when they think of a sauna. It’s called a Swedish or Finnish sauna, and it consists of a small room or space that’s heated with a heater that sits in one corner. It can be electric or gas or a wood even that powers the heater. But it must be really, really hot to work properly. And this means you can’t tolerate it very long.
Many of these saunas are 200°F and above. I don’t know about you, but I can’t sit in a sauna for more than about 10 or 15 minutes. So you don’t get a ton of benefit. But you are detoxing a little bit.
DEBRA: Well, I once sat in a sauna for five hours. But you can’t sit in a sauna for five hours straight. You have to come out and take a shower in cold water and cool your body down and then go back in to the sauna. But it was a rigorous sauna program for detox. And I can’t tell you if I measured. I didn’t measure, but I know that sauna works to detox if you do it right. So go ahead with what you were saying.
WENDY MYERS: I love my sauna, but the most common infrared sauna that people know of is a far-infrared sauna. And these are the kinds of saunas you see at health spas or acupuncturist’s office, et cetera, beauty spas. Some beauty spas have them. And these use metallic ceramic or black carbon elements, kind of these black fabric panels that you see throughout the sauna. They’re usually in a wooden sauna. And they emit far-infrared energy.
DEBRA: And what is that? What is far-infrared energy?
WENDY MYERS: Well, these are rays that penetrate about one to two inches inside your body. And infrared rays are part of the spectrum that the sun emits. We also emit far-infrared energy from our skin. And that’s actually how night vision goggles work. It detects infrared energy coming from our skin. Yes, very interesting.
DEBRA: It is.
WENDY MYERS: And so these rays, they penetrate inside our body and they heat you up from the inside out. It’s the same mechanism behind how they heat up hamburgers at McDonald’s. They actually use these red heat lamps. They’re like lightbulbs. These are near-infrared saunas and they heat up the food from the inside out. And that’s what they’re doing to your body. They penetrate inside, heat you up from the inside out so you get a deeper benefit, and it vibrates your cells as they release their toxic contents.
So you can have all these toxins coming out from various stored sites in your body that otherwise wouldn’t be able to mobilize to be removed from the body.
DEBRA: Good. You just said far.
WENDY MYERS: Yes.
DEBRA: So the one that you like is near?
WENDY MYERS: Yes.
DEBRA: What’s the difference?
WENDY MYERS: That’s my favorite. Well, far infrared saunas definitely have a lot of benefits. They’re better than nothing. But my favorite saunas are near-infrared saunas. These are using red light bulbs that emit near-infrared energy. They just have many benefits over and above the far-infrared saunas. They penetrate your body about three to four inches. Some people claim up to nine inches. So they can penetrate far deeper, and you get some color therapy from them as well. Additionally, they are very inexpensive. And these light bulbs are even found at most hardware stores.
So they’re not expensive, people can build their own, and you can just put them in. I have mine hanging in my shower. And I just seal it off with a sheet to increase the heat. I think they’re a solution for most people because most people can’t afford $2000 or $4000 for the infrared sauna. And with the near-infrared sauna, you can set one up for as little as $100.
I have ones in my store. You can get at store.Liveto110.com that are more professional grade and will have a little canvass tents around them, or even have wooden near-infrared saunas. There’s a whole range of saunas that you can get. I believe in near-infrared saunas have a lot more benefits and are less expensive.
DEBRA: So you’re basically using these red lightbulbs. So if you just want to go into a hardware store, what would you ask for?
WENDY MYERS: Well, you’re going to get 250 watts red heat lamp. And Phillips carries them, other brands carry them. But they just say heat lamps on them. They don’t say infrared lamps because that’s not what people are looking for at the hardware store. But that’s what you get. You can get them off Amazon as well.
I have many clients that just create their own sauna at home. You can even buy a single bulb, just one bulb. While it doesn’t produce the sweat that you need to have a full detox effect, the one single, red heat bulb (I have those in the store as well), they just come with a fixture and you can shine those on any area of your body that needs healing like a sinus infection or a throat infection, a gut infection, a pulled muscle, toe fungus. You can kill toe fungus quite nicely with a red infrared bulb. And there are just lots of different uses for a single bulb as well.
DEBRA: How many do you need to make a sauna?
WENDY MYERS: Ideally, you want four. I’ve used saunas with just three bulbs and it wasn’t quite enough heat. So I really like ones with four. More is always better. But four is enough and you can add a little space heater to it to increase the temperature a little bit too. That’s what I do.
DEBRA: And so you need to have an enclosed area, right? So could you just have it in the bathroom?
WENDY MYERS: You can, but you need to have a little bit of a smaller space, just enough space to contain your body because if it’s any larger, you need about a foot or so from the bulb, but if it’s any larger than that, I find that it just doesn’t get hot enough. It’s hard to heat up a larger space. So ideally, you want to build an enclosure or get like what I have in my store, the tented enclosure.
DEBRA: The little tent. I’ve seen that, yes. We need to go to break again. So we’ll go to break and we’ll come back and talk more about saunas. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Meyers, and she’s from Liveto110.com. We’re talking about saunas, and you can go to her website and she sells all these things that we’re talking about to make your own near-infrared sauna. Actually, you don’t make it, but you set it up in your own home and get all the benefits of sauna. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Wendy Meyers. She’s the founder and head writer at Liveto110.com. We’re talking about saunas today.
Wendy, there’s a new study that was just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Finnish middle-aged men where the mortality rates and incidents of heart disease was drastically reduced in the group that was doing frequent saunas. Can you tell us more about that?
WENDY MYERS: Yes, well, this is a really interesting study because it basically showed that regular use of an infrared sauna can reduce the incidents of heart disease. And the Finnish study, it emphasizes the healing life extension benefits of frequent hyperthermic therapy.
DEBRA: I like that, hyperthermic therapy.
WENDY MYERS: I don’t think they were using a far-infrared sauna. I don’t know. I think they were just using regular, traditional saunas. But it still shows that the hyperthermia can kill off parasites and get bugs and increase your circulation and increase the health of your blood vessels, et cetera. There are additional benefits for the near-infrared sauna therapy that really aren’t addressed with traditional saunas.
DEBRA: Well, I’m very happy to hear that I can actually make one and then I don’t have to spend a thousand dollars to get one. I have people around me who can make those kinds of things. So as soon as we get off this show, I’m going to find out about getting a sauna.
So how long and often do you need to use a sauna? If you have one in your home, what’s the protocol?
WENDY MYERS: Well, when you’re starting out, you just want to do maybe 15, 20 minutes to start out because it can stir up a lot of stuff and have detox symptoms. That’s normal. Many people don’t feel great after using a sauna. Some people do feel good. It feels very good. But because you do stir up a bunch of stuff and it can take a couple of days for it to be removed from your system, some people do feel tired or can feel headache-y after a sauna, et cetera.
So you want to start slow. I do it for 50 minutes, 5-0 minutes. I recommend people do it about 30 to 60 minutes, five days a week because you do have to do it pretty frequently for about two to three years to detox the bulk of the heavy metals and chemicals and kill off chronic infections that everyone has in their body.
DEBRA: The first question that comes to mind after hearing you say that is, is that the amount that you need if you’re doing nothing else, but sauna? What if you’re doing sauna and you’d doing other kinds of detoxing or should you not be doing other detoxing? I mean, you know so much about detox, what about doing more than one detox at a time?
WENDY MYERS: Oh, you can do all kinds of things at the same time. The near-infrared sauna is definitely an adjunct to your current detox program. I think it’s the most effective detox thing that you can do. But I think zeolites, I use a detox foot pad that I have in my store as well. I do all kinds of stuff. I’m doing a parasite cleanse right now that’s on my site. I really like Global Healing Center products. They have an amazing line of products. It kills gut bugs and parasites, et cetera. I do coffee enemas. I mean, I do all of the above to help detox and clean out my body. So you can do all kinds of things at the same time.
DEBRA: I do a lot of things at the same time too. I take zeolite every day and I also take a homeopathic remedy. I definitely think that I need to add more sauna and more sweat to what I’m doing.
So now, let’s talk again about you were saying that exercise, the sweat from exercise doesn’t detox you. Can you explain more about that?
WENDY MYERS: Well, a lot of my clients ask me, “Does sweating from exercise count?” And of course, exercise is healthy. But the thing is, to detox, you have to be in your parasympathetic nervous system. And when are you in your parasympathetic nervous system? That’s when you’re…
DEBRA: I don’t know. When you’re asleep?
WENDY MYERS: Yes. That’s when you’re resting, digesting, and detoxing. So you have to be in that mode to detox. When you’re exercising, you’re activating your sympathetic nervous system, which is your fight or flight mode. And this actually draws blood away from your skin. It actually inhibits toxin elimination. You have to be in that calm, parasympathetic state to detox and release toxin.
So people do get benefit from sweating, but it’s just not the same thing as sweating in a near-infrared sauna.
DEBRA: What about sweating outdoors? I live in Florida as you know and the entire, from about April to October, you just walk outside and you sweat. When I first moved here, I used to change my clothes three times a day because I couldn’t go outside without sweating.
WENDY MYERS: Yes, I know! I’m from Texas so I experience that same heat. I know what you’re talking about.
DEBRA: Yes, are we getting detox benefit from that kind of sweat?
WENDY MYERS: Well, you definitely get a little bit. You do have a few toxins coming out of your sweat no matter what type of sweating that you’re doing. But it’s not going to be the same as these near or far-infrared rays penetrating deep inside your body because we need to get the toxins that are deep inside your body, not just from the surface of the skin. And so you need those rays to penetrate inside you to activate that detoxification that everyone so desperately needs today.
DEBRA: So I’m trying to understand technically how this works. So when we’re just walking around at the beach in the sun, the rays, whatever rays are coming from the sun, are just not penetrating very deeply into our skin, but the near-infrared goes much deeper than even the far-infrared. And so that’s why it’s so powerful.
WENDY MYERS: Yes, exactly. The sun does emit some infrared rays, but it’s just not strong enough to have the therapeutic effect.
DEBRA: So should you do something like – oh, we’re going to come up to the break in just a few seconds anyway. Well, let me ask you the question and we’ll talk about it when we come back. Should people do something like exercise prior to get things moving in their bodies? That’s the next question to talk about. So we’re going to be coming out to the break.
WENDY MYERS: I wasn’t answering the question. I’m sorry. I thought you were waiting for the break. But it’s a good idea. You can exercise right before the sauna at some point. It’s really not necessary because the sauna gets that circulation going real nicely.
DEBRA: Good. That was a nice, short answer. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Meyers. She is the founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. And we’re talking today about sauna. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Meyers. She is the chief writer and everything actually at Liveto110.com.
Wendy, are there any warnings that you want to give people about the use of near-infrared sauna at home?
WENDY MYERS: Yes, there are some people who are not good candidates for saunas. Children that are under seven years of age, they don’t have their mechanisms in their body developed to reduce body temperature. So we don’t want to heat them up. We don’t need to. They’re not super toxic just yet.
Some children I test are quite toxic because we inherit our toxicities from our mothers. So whatever toxins they have, you get into the child. Typically, copper and aluminum and other toxins are passed onto the child.
Additionally, other people that should avoid the sauna are people that are really, really infirm, maybe the very elderly. They may not be doing so hot with the sauna. Also, people with rosacea don’t do too well with heat. Also, people with metal fixtures like hip replacements, titanium fixtures. Those metal plates or pins. Those could heat up in a traditional sauna. But you can probably use just a single bulb lamp where you need to. And at least get some benefits that way.
There are some doctors that say, “You shouldn’t go on an infrared sauna if you have breast implants.” I don’t find that to be the case at all. I find that you absolutely can do use a sauna if you have breast implants.
DEBRA: Good. So after you do the sauna, is there anything that people should do like drink a lot of water or rest or anything?
WENDY MYERS: Yes. Well, I’m a big fan of using minerals, taking mineral supplements anytime you’re doing a lot of sauna use because when you sweat, you sweat out minerals. So number one, people definitely have to take magnesium and other minerals as well.
Magnesium is the number one mineral that’s lost when you have any kind of stress or excessive sweating, et cetera. So people need about five times their body weight in magnesium in milligrams. So that’s quite a lot. If you’re 150 pounds, that means you need about 650 milligrams a day. I’m sorry, it’s 750 milligrams a day of magnesium.
I take different forms. I take glycinate magnesium citrate and magnesium malate to cover my bases at a lot of different forms.
People also need to take a multi-mineral supplement. I like Designs for Health’s Multi-Min. That’s a nice. I also like Seeking Health’s Trace Complex II with no iron and copper. That’s a really nice one. I also take a trace mineral supplement. I like Anderson’s Mineral Drops. I have that in my store, but I graduated to Dr. Drucker’s IntraMin. That’s a fantastic product, carbon-based, carbon-bound mineral.
So I always encourage people to take minerals if they’re doing sauna use. But they can also drink coconut water. That has lots of really nice electrolytes in it. Eat lots of sea salt. Add sea salt to your water and what-not when you’re in the sauna and after the sauna.
DEBRA: And should you rest at all after you do the sauna or just continue your daily activities? And what time of day is a good time to do sauna? Like would you want to do it and then go to bed?
WENDY MYERS: Some people can be stimulated by the sauna. I can do it before I go to bed and I’m okay. But I’ve had a lot of clients find they have a little trouble sleeping if they do it at night. So everyone is a little bit different. But the morning and the evening time are probably the best times to do it. But everyone is a little different.
Really, any time you do a sauna is good as long as you’re getting into one. Just get in one. It doesn’t matter when, just whenever you can fit it into your schedule. And when people get out of the sauna, definitely you want to shower off right away because you’ve done all this work, to sweat out these chemicals and metals and toxins, shower them off right away.
Sometimes, I’ll run to the shower because I find that my sweat dries really quickly, and then I’m terrified that the toxins are going to get absorbed back into my skin. So run to the shower.
DEBRA: Well, they do! Yeah. No, I can see that. I think about when I take my shower (I don’t sit here and think long hours about when I take my shower), I consider when I take my shower during the day in relation to other things that I do. So if I’m going to do some exercise or go work out in the garden or something that’s going to make me sweat, I’ll wait and take my shower after I do that instead of taking a shower and then sweating, and then taking another shower.
And so it just seems to me that a good time to do it is before you’re going to take a shower anyway or just take a shower afterwards. But I think the shower component is really important to consider that you need to do that as well.
WENDY MYERS: Absolutely. And there are lots of places you can go to that have saunas. They all have the far-infrared saunas. I’ve never seen a near-infrared sauna facility. Those are usually only for home use. But there are places, there’s a franchise chain called The Sweat Shop. There’s another one called Planet Skin or Planet Fit, something like that. I have it on my website. If you search for infrared saunas, there’s an article called Infrared Sauna, and it has all the sauna places that you could go to.
You can go on SpaFinder.com and search for a place near you with your zip code that has an infrared sauna. And when you go to these places , they all have a shower in the stall with the sauna. Like the Sweat Shop, it’s got 10 saunas and each little unit has a shower in there as well for that very purpose.
DEBRA: Well, we only have a few minutes left, four minutes to be exact. Is there anything else that you’d like to say that you haven’t said?
WENDY MYERS: Yeah. Well, something I like to do right when I get into the sauna, I like to take a dry brush. It’s kind of those back scrubber or what-have-you. I take a natural dry brush and do a dry brush with my skin before I start sweating. This helps loosen up any dead skin cells and really more importantly, gets that lymph flowing. It helps your body to get rid of the toxins. Getting that lymph flowing, that’s where you’re going to be transporting a lot of these toxins, et cetera.
So I do that over my entire body, and it’s a really pleasant feeling and help to really stimulate your skin and your lymph system.
DEBRA: I do that too before I shower. It really does feel really good. I do feel stimulated. It makes the skin wake up.
WENDY MYERS: Yes, I love it so much and there’s really so many other benefits to saunas we didn’t talk about. People can improve their wound-healing. Human cell growth increases by 150% to 170% and wound size can decrease by 36%.
There’s a study done by NASA that found that wound-healing was increased. You can get pain relief. The penetrating heat from the saunas have been proven to reduce pain in joints and muscles and reduce inflammation and increase circulation to the area of discomfort. It reduces blood pressure. German medical researchers concluded that one session in an infrared sauna for an hour can significantly reduce blood pressure because it’s due to persistent peripheral vessel dilation. So this helps to reduce blood pressure. It causes a release of nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels.
There are just so many benefits. I can’t even go into it in this one hour that we have to talk about. It reduces radiated cells. So a lot of people are exposed to radiation. They get radiation poisoning from bomb testing and Fukushima Fallout and just living in urban areas. And one of the best ways to destroy cells that contain radiation is with an infrared sauna. These are weaker cells that can safely and easily be destroyed and prevent any cancers that they may eventually cause when they begin to mutate.
DEBRA: Wow! And everything I like about sauna is that it has a very long history and natural origin. And just during the break, I’ve been looking at different pages about saunas and here’s one that says that Indian Sweat Lodge has been in use continuously for 40,000 years. I mean, there’s such a history to sauna.
And here’s something that says that the near-infrared lamp sauna was actually invented by Dr. Kellogg a hundred years ago.
WENDY MYERS:Wow! I didn’t know that.
DEBRA: And it says that electric lightbulb had just been invented by Thomas Edison and he made the first infrared lamp, sauna, and it used 40 small, just regular lightbulbs. That was the first thing I knew. Nobody knew what to do with it or why you should have a sauna made with lightbulbs, but here we are.
Well, thanks so much, Wendy.
How Pesticides Can Harm Your Health
My guest today is toxicologist Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, He’s a regular guest who is helping us understand the toxicity of common chemicals we may be frequently exposed to. Today we’re going to talking about pesticides, which is a large class of chemicals with many different degrees of danger. Dr. Gilbert is Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and author of A Small Dose of Toxicology- The Health Effects of Common Chemicals.He received his Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1986 from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, is a Diplomat of American Board of Toxicology, and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington. His research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. Dr. Gilbert has an extensive website about toxicology called Toxipedia, which includes a suite of sites that put scientific information in the context of history, society, and culture. www.toxipedia.org
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH STEVEN G. GILBERT, PhD, DABT
- Toxics in the Air We Breathe—Indoors and Outdoors—and How it Affects Our Health
- Toxic Solvents and Vapors
- Why Do People Doubt the Science Behind Toxics?
- There is No Safe Level for Lead Exposure
- Fewer Chemicals Make Healthier Babies
- Why We Shouldn’t Have Nuclear Power Plants
- How Mercury Affects Your Health
- Nanoparticles
- Persistant Bioaccumulative Toxicants
- How Endocrine Disruptors Disrupt Our Endocrine Systems
- The Dangers of Exposure to Radiation and How to Protect Yourself
- Toxics Throughout History—Exposure to Toxic Substances is Not New
- The Ethics of Toxics
- How to Determine Your Risk of Harm From an Exposure to a Toxic Chemical
- The Basic Principles of Toxicology
- Meet a Toxicologist
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
How Pesticides Can Harm Your Health
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT
Date of Broadcast: April 14, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. It’s Tuesday, April 14, 2015 and today we’re going to be talking about pesticides. Pesticides is a very big subject, we’re not going to be able to cover every detail about every pesticide on this show. It’s an enormous subject. But we were going to talk about pesticides in general. How they can affect your health, different things about pesticides that you should be aware of and what you can do instead of using toxic pesticides. We’ll throw a few tips in there too.
My guest today is toxicologist Dr. Steven Gilbert. He, I think is the most regular guest on this show. I think he’s done more shows than anybody else He has so much information to share with us as a toxicologist who is dealing with toxic chemicals and their health effects every single day. He knows so much and I’m so grateful that he spends so much time doing shows on Toxic Free Talk Radio, so that we can have all that information.
Hello, Dr. Gilbert.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Hi good morning. How are you doing?
DEBRA: I’m doing well. How are you doing?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Very good, it’s a beautiful day here in Seattle.
DEBRA: It’s a beautiful day here in Florida too in Clearwater, Florida.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: [inaudible 00:02:26]
DEBRA: Okay, good, good. Let me ask you an off-the-subject question here because you have solar panels. Somebody wrote to my Toxic Free Q&A blog the other day asking me if there were EMF dangers associated with solar panels?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: No, the solar panels turn the sunlight into DC power. So DC power is converted to AC, which we use in our homes. At the size of the panels or down could be a box or a house column inverter. And then that energy is then moved over to your electrical box and passed back to the house as AC current. So there’s no EMF other than what you would normally have if you’re connected to the grid.
DEBRA: Yeah that’s what I thought the answer was too. She was really concerned about solar panels having more EMF dangers, but I can’t imagine that they would be worse than high intensity power lines.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: No, not anywhere near as bad as high intensity power lines. I think solar panels are very passive by and large. They’re great investment. I wish Florida to had better rules and regulations, better incentives. We have some of the most restrictive laws in the country about using solar panels, the most difficult ones.
DEBRA: Well, I wish we had better laws too because we have so much sunshine, it just seems natural. I was reading a book about the history of solar energy. At one time in the past, there was more solar energy used in Florida than anywhere else in United States like back in the 20s and 30s. The people had solar water heaters and all kinds of things like that. It was a very big thing in Florida. And now, I practically never see a solar panel.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: It’s really unfortunate that the government is not providing more incentive. The Washington state is very fortunate. They have very good incentives for using solar panels. So it’s a really excellent investment both financially and for the environment. It’s really unfortunate Florida hasn’t followed suite with providing incentives for [inaudible 00:04:30].
DEBRA: I agree and hopefully that will change.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Hey Deb, talk to me a little about that. Find out what politicians are thinking about solar power.
DEBRA: I will, I will. Okay let’s talk about pesticides. This is such a huge subject. And one of things that I want to say just right off is that I think that people who are not educated as much as they could be on toxic chemicals think that if they hear a word like pesticides or plastics or some of those VOCs, terms like that, they really represent a whole class of chemicals and not just one. There’s not just one pesticide. When you say pesticides, we’re talking about thousand, thousands of chemicals.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Thousands, tens of thousands.
DEBRA: Yeah, and so each one of those affect our bodies in different ways, infecting environment in different ways. And the thing that’s most interesting and I think important to me as a human being is that they have different degrees of toxicity, but they also stick around with different periods of time.
There’s something called the half-life. If you want to know, listeners, if you want to know how long it takes for a pesticide to no longer be there, what you want to look up is something called the half-life. It doesn’t even tell you like it’s going to last for 30 years. It will say, “It will just degrade half way in so many years.”
And so you really need to know, “Is this a short quick, biodegradable pesticide or is it going to last for 30 or a hundred years?” I think that’s one of the most important questions.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: That’s a really important question and a really important comment. And I want to point out, I just want to make a note that today, 1964, Rachel Carlson died. So really, it’s the anniversary Rachel Carson’s death and she’s the author of Silent Spring in 1962. She was born in 1907 and was a marine biologist. She was a brilliant writer and she received the Presidential Award medal of honor in 1980.
I just want to read a couple of quotes from Rachel Carson’s book. So one of them is, “We are rightly appalled by genetic effects of radiation. How then can we be indifferent to the same effects of the chemicals we disseminate widely in our environment?”
Another one is, “As crude a weapon as the caveman’s club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life.” And this goes not just for pesticides, but for a wide variety of chemicals that we’re exposed to.
Another one is, “The control of nature is a phrase conceiving arrogance, more a Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man.”
And lastly, “If we are going to live so intimately with these chemicals, eating and drinking them, taking the into the very marrow of our bones, then we had better know something about their nature and their power.”
And I think this last quote is most important because if we’re using pesticides (and pesticides do have a good function and purpose), we really need to know a lot about your nature and power and you define one of the most important ones is how much they bioaccumulate and biomagnify.
Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring was really about DDT, which bioaccumulates. In fact, it can be excreted in the breast milk and can be long lived. They live very long with the environment. It’s destroyed a lot of the birds and now it’s showing up in our whales, and other mammals that are in the oceans.
So bioaccumulation in pesticides, really important to be thinking about.
DEBRA: One other thing that I notice in looking at your pesticides chapter this morning, I should say – oh, I didn’t introduce you. I just said hello to you. Dr. Gilbert is the author of a book that I highly recommend called, A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. And you can go to his website, Toxipedia.org, and get a free copy of this book, a free pdf copy of this book.
And I was looking at the pesticides chapter this morning before the show and I notice that you have a little picture of an old ad for DDT and I had to smile because I did a two hour long seminar a few years ago and I started with a similar ad for DDT. The point being, that DDT used to be, before it was banned (and this is the pesticide that Rachel Carson wrote about in Silent Spring), it was advertised by the government to housewives, encouraging them to use it and spray it all over everything.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: It’s in our wallpaper. You buy impregnated wallpaper with DDT.
DEBRA: Wow, I didn’t know that. But yeah, it was I think, called the ‘housewive’s friend’ or something like that. It was an extremely toxic pesticide that does not break down quickly and so then it bioaccumulates. And when you have something accumulating in your body, it accumulates and accumulates, and then you get sick at a certain point. If your body accumulates enough and you get sick – except that DDT is extremely, extremely toxic, so it doesn’t take much.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, DDT is a classic example of bioaccumulative organochlorine pesticides. And the reason it got so widely used is it’s highly effectively. It’s highly effective against mosquitos (although they’re adapting to it a bit). But it didn’t appear to be toxic to humans and the animals because if you [inaudible 00:10:27] there are some classic pictures of people following a spray truck down and playing in the mist and they had DDT in it.
But then we found out that – and this is back to the in points, what in point you’re looking for. It was a disastrous for high predator birds and their bird shell eggs and destroyed huge populations of eagles. Now the birds are just coming back now. We were not paying attention to the other toxic effects including [inaudible 00:10:51] low level effects to humans.
DEBRA: We need to go to break but when we come back, we’ll talk more about pesticides with Dr. Steven Gilbert, author of A Small Dose of Toxicology. And you can actually just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and look for today’s show and you can click right on the title and it’ll take you exactly to the page where you can get this free book, which is very valuable. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert from Toxipedia. His website is Toxipedia.org.
Dr. Gilbert, you mentioned earlier that this was the anniversary of Rachel Carson’s death and during the break I just ran and got my copy of Silent Spring. I think it’s wonderful that we serendipitously chose this date because I didn’t know that this was her death anniversary. But I’d like to read some of my favorite quotes from Rachel Carson too in between.
So here’s one, “Storage of chemicals in human beings has been well investigated and we know that the average person is storing potentially harmful amounts. This situation also means that today…” and this is 1962, “…today, this means that the average individual almost certainly starts life with the first deposit of the growing load of chemicals his body will be required to carry, henceforth.”
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: That’s absolutely correct that you’re exposed to a wide range of chemicals, including other industrial chemicals as well as pesticides starting at conception and moving forward. We also know that kids are not little adults. They eat more, breathe more, drink more than the adults do and they’re smaller, so they’re exposed and they have a bigger dose, their exposure to chemical.
DEBRA: Yes they do, they do. One of the things that I was horrified to realize when I read Silent Spring – and you would think I would read Silent Spring many years ago because I’ve been doing this work for 30 years, but it was only about five years ago that I read Silent Spring. When I read in that book that they already knew in 1944 that pesticides were ubiquitous on the planet, that there was no place that you could go where there were no pesticides, they already knew that in 1944, that meant that I was born already polluted.
I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that when I was born in 1955, there were already pesticides everywhere. I’m sure you’re familiar with that study that the Environmental Working Group did a few years ago where they tested the blood of newborns and they found all those chemicals. I thought, “Oh, this is something recent that’s happening.” But no, when I was born in 1955, and everybody, all of us, we were all born already polluted because our parents already had toxic chemicals in their bodies.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: It’s really true. We really need to be more aware of that and paying attention to that issue because we’re exposed a lot of chemicals. And you can see the rate of disease, childhood diseases has also increased.
You made another really good point. Pesticides are just one thing. There are also other different classes of them. There are herbicides that kill plants, there are insecticides that focus on the insects, there are rodenticides that focus on rodent and fungicides that focus on other microbes and fungal material.
So there’s a wide range of chemicals. We’re not exposed to just one pesticide, we’re exposed to a range of different pesticides. They have different functions and different mechanism of action.
DEBRA: Well, like in a typical day, how many pesticides do you think we’re exposed to?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Oh, God! I don’t know. That’s a good question because if you think about what we eat – and there’s some really good study that show that eating organically grown food does reduce your exposure to pesticides. It is hard to get a hand on what pesticides are being used because there’s no reporting system for that, but they do look in metabolites.
So there are different classes of organophosphates, organochlorine and some of these pesticides have similar metabolites. And usually, you’re tracking metabolites of the pesticides, not the actual pesticides. When we’re exposed to a variety of them, they can cause reproduction effects a lot of times, intellectual deficits in brain development, cancers, there’s immunological diseases. So pesticides are something to be really careful of.
And I also want to mention that a part of my websites, I have a website called IPMopedia for integrated pest management, which really talks about trying to reduce the use of pesticides. Chemical pesticides should be the last resort in the management of any kind of pest, whether it’s a plant bug or a rodent.
DEBRA: I totally agree. So I would just like to think for a second and see how many pesticides I can identify that someone might be exposed to during a day.
So there could be pesticides that you’re breathing like household pesticides that you’ve sprayed for ants or flies or any kind of bugs. There might be mothballs, which is a pesticide. There might be in your food. Unless you’re eating organic food, there most certainly will be pesticides.
Let’s see, where else? Outside, you probably have some pesticides in your garden. And if you haven’t applied them, maybe your neighbors have or the city has applied them and that you’re getting pesticide drift. If you’re using natural personal care products, but not organic, there’s going to be pesticides in them. If you’re using not natural personal care products, that’s going to have other petrochemicals in them, but not pesticides because they’re not made from plants.
Let’s see, what else? Can you think of any others off the top of your head?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah. Well, if you are a worker, if you’re a farm worker, you’re exposed to a wide range of pesticides in much higher concentrations, if you’re a child out working in these fields, if we’re tracking pesticides indoors.
I think that’s another reason why we need to take our shoes off when we come inside. Modern pesticides break down the sunlight to track them indoors and into your carpets. And so they’re hand to mouth. They have their hands on the carpets, remember? These pesticides last longer indoors than they do outdoors. So it’s really important for you take out your shoes and wash your hands when you come indoors just to protect against pesticides.
Another curious modern type pesticide is a nanoparticle, nanosilvers impregnated a variety of products. They’re designed to control bacteria and funguses. These nanomaterials, including nanosilver, are in more products. They also should be considered as pesticides for that purpose.
And you have to think about the school environment for kids. We tried to get integrated pest management policies used at schools. We worked hard at that in Seattle here. Oregon’s got some good laws in there. I’m not familiar with what’s there in Florida. This is another very important area because children, remember, are small, they are exposed, but they have a bigger dose for their small size and their systems are developing and they’re more vulnerable. So the school and playgrounds are really important areas of exposure to pesticides.
And you mentioned diet, nutritional issues. Water supplies can be contaminated. So it’s just a wide range.
DEBRA: When we come back from the break, which we have to go to now, I want to talk about pesticide regulation. I know that’s something we don’t usually talk about except that pesticides have a lot of regulations and I want our listeners to find out something about this because that indicates to me how toxic they are.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert. He’s at Toxicpedia.org. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert who’s the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals and his website is Toxipedia.org.
It’s a very interesting website because he really looks at toxic issues not just from the health effects, but social, environmental, historical, all kinds of different viewpoints. He knew some things like today is the anniversary of Rachel Carson’s death and she wrote, I think, the first popular book on pesticides, Silent Spring. And here we are talking about Silent Spring today, pesticides today.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, I agree. Sheesh, I would nominate her being on the dollar bill.
DEBRA: What?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: I would nominate her for being on the dollar bill when we change those one dollar bills.
DEBRA: Good idea! Yeah, yeah, I really think that Rachel Carson was so pivotal and what she wrote was so important just as a foundation of what we need to know today. She really needs to be highly, highly honored and more. The new generations need to be introduced to her and she needs to be not be forgotten because she just was in the world of toxics, which I think is the number one most important issue in the world today. She has definitely laid the groundwork for where we are today.
So I want to talk about the regulations of pesticides.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Before we come to regulation, can I add more comment? You asked a really important question about our exposure. I want to mention that the nature has made a lot of pesticides. And when we drink a cup of coffee, the caffeine in it is actually a pesticide. We find it as a stimulant, but a very small bug would find it toxic because of their small size. A very small exposure’s a big dose.
The thing with nicotine, the nicotine is a actually a widely used pesticide extracted from tobacco plants. But nature’s been developing pesticides. In response, humans don’t have the liver to metabolize these unwanted chemicals that are really from plants. From [inaudible 00:29:02], from trees, there’s pyrethroid from chrysanthemums.
So there are all kinds of pesticides that are “natural“, they are grown up by nature because it is war out there, trying to keep the bugs from eating the plants and the plants dominating other plants.
The pesticides are both natural and we’ve develop a very nasty way of manufactured chemicals that go all the way up to producing inert gases, [inaudible 00:29:31] gases and others that are highly toxic. We sort of dumbed those things down to protect our plants.
DEBRA: Yes, I totally agree. I totally agree with everything you said. The reason I thought about regulations, I was thinking about it earlier before the show, but you mentioned silver, putting in nanoparticles of silver as a pesticide. And the two things that I want to say here are, “When is that?” I think that silver is a good example of a less toxic pesticide. You could have a pesticide that is airborne that’s very toxic and you’re breathing it in or you could have something like silver that is mixed into paint and then acts to control mold on a wall and you’re never really exposed to that silver because it’s just a particle that’s encapsulated in the paint, but it kills the mold.
But regardless – let me finish my sentence and then I’ll let you talk – regardless of the toxicity or what are exposure is, every pesticide, anything that’s considered to be a pesticide has to be registered with the EPA. I think that that, to me, indicates how toxic these things are.
I just had somebody write to me in my Toxic Free Q&A about a product that somebody had asked about a couple of years ago saying that the EPA had ordered them to stop distributing it because it was intended to kill mold, therefore, it contained a pesticide and it had to be registered by the EPA and it wasn’t.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: That’s right, yes. So the pesticide regulations are really interesting. The FIFRA, the Fungicide, Insecticide, Rodenticide Act, the Federal Insecticide Act goes back to 1947. I think it was 1972 that it was moved to EPA. So the EPA took over FIFRA, which regulates fungicides, rodenticides, insecticides, and herbicides.
This is really great. There are good regulation, pretty good regulations around the active ingredients of pesticides. They had testing done to them to try to understand their consequences to the organism as well as other ecological hazards, for example, to nematodes or frogs, some things like that. For example atrocy is an herbicide that appears to affect the development of frogs.
So the EPAs are required and the companies are required to do a lot of studies to assess the potential hazardous effect.
Now the problem is there’s also inert ingredient. So the pesticides, the active ingredient on the label is a very small amount. So what are these inert ingredients? Inert ingredients could be surfactants. It helps the herbicide, for example, to penetrate leaves, which can increase their toxicity to other plants and animals.
So understanding inert ingredients in that package of pesticides is also really important. That’s not as well managed as it could be. It’s hard to find out what these inert ingredients are.
DEBRA: Yes. It’s very hard to find that.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, it’s very hard to find out in some cases. So I think you have to be really careful with the regulation.
There is also the Food Quality Protection act. It gives a little bit more authority and try to move it more toward the precautionary approach especially when it came to child health-related issues and child exposure because children are the most affected class of people because of their detrimental effects in developing nervous systems.
And pesticides, many of the pesticides act on the nervous system. They act to affect neurotransmitters through these organophosphates and acetylcholinesterase. They inhibit metabolism of acetylcholine. Excessive acetylcholine cause death and other side effects.
So pesticides are hazardous and it’s really about how much you’re exposed to and the dose response of the pesticides.
DEBRA: One of the things that has been in the new the last week – I don’t know if you saw this about the family that went on vacation in the Caribbean and a nearby room was being sprayed with regulated chemical, regulated pesticide that should not be used indoor. A company, Terminix, the company that should know how to use a toxic registered pesticide applied this incorrectly and it turned out that they’ve been applying it for the past year and this family got so sick from it that they have to take them to the hospital and then airlift them to America. When I see stories like this, I just say, “These kinds of pesticides should not be on the market at all.”
We need to go to break, but I’ll let you respond to that when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. When we come back, we’ll talk more about pesticides.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert from Toxipedia.org and he’s the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals, which you can get for free. Every household should have one.
Okay, Dr. Gilbert, so what do you think about what had just happened with the family getting sick from pesticides in that hotel room?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, there’ s just no excuse for that kind of exposure to pesticides indoors. That comes back to just being a lot more cautious in the pesticides we use and know exactly what chemicals are being used. Chlorpyrifos is a very toxic, very useful pesticide in agriculture, but very toxic. It was banned from home-use in 2001.
You mentioned paint. Paints can also have pesticides in them. One of the use is mercury. They actually put mercury in paint because mercury is a very good fungicide. You paint mercury in woodwork. If a family painted the walls of a child’s bedroom with a mercury-based paint (mercury added to the paint), the child can be really affected by the mercury exposure because the mercury evaporate out of the paint.
So it’s very important to understand how these products work within paint. Do they evaporate out? What problems can it cause?
And remembering that, in the example you mentioned, pesticides sprayed in home, it’s in the air, it’s on the floor, on the woodwork. The child can easily get contaminated with pesticides and eat them or ingest them as well as breathe them in.
So we need to be a lot more careful and that goes back to integrated pest management where you really want to program that looks for the reason you have pest. One of the most important reasons is you’ve got food for the pest. You’ve got to take the time to understand the biology of the pest and how best to interrupt that and get rid of the pest that you’re trying to control the pest.
And there’s many ways to do it besides using strong chemicals. Having an integrated pest management particularly around school is really important because kids spend a lot time there and there are good ways to control the pest whether it’s a rodent or it’s an insect without resorting to toxic chemicals.
DEBRA: That’s totally right. I know that I grew up in a world which [inaudible 00:41:09] this. I’ve said this before, but especially people who were born around the time that I was born, we were born into this new age of – all these chemicals have been developed during the World War II, in the 50s, then we’ve got DuPont’s talking about better living through chemicals and suddenly, they’ve got all these chemicals and they’re saying, “Oh, let’s take all these war time chemicals and use them in our culture.”
And so everybody just like spraying pesticides and toxic chemicals all over everything, thinking that they’re fine and so we have that mentality of, “There’s a pest, spray a chemical on it, you’re sick, take a pill.”
And in fact, there are all these other things that you can do. We have to remember that our houses and our schools and our businesses, everything is built in these ecosystems where these things that we call ‘pests’ live. If we have some awareness that we’re living in an ecosystem, then we can get to know these other creatures who have a right to be living here and see how we can be sharing the space in a way that they get to have some space and we get to have our space in a way that they don’t.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Actually, one great example of that right now is the colony collapse of bees where bees are being infected. The latest study is showing that one of the pesticides may be a nicotinic-based pesticide that’s affecting the bees. Bees are clearly important pollination for the plants that we depend on for food supply.
So you’re absolutely right. We need to be thinking not just of ourselves, but also the whole equalizing of system. That’s what Rachel Carson really tried to bring out in Silent Spring. We do not live in isolation. I live in Seattle, Washington here. And at my desk this morning, I get to look at the window and I saw three bald eagles circling around [inaudible 00:43:01]. And that’s the result of our being more cautious with pesticides. Birds were able to recover [inaudible 00:43:09] DDT and got less exposed to DDT and other organochlorine compounds.
So it’s really, really important just to mention there’s been a great increase in disabilities in kids from 1997 to 2008, 17% increase in hyperactivity disorders, 78% increase in autism, child with cancers an increase 25% from 1975 to 2004, diabetes increase by 53%, now obesity has gone up a 131%. All these are due to not just pesticides, but pesticides are a big factor now. We really need to be cautious about all the hazardous chemicals that we expose ourselves to early in development.
DEBRA: Well, we have about six minutes left. Well, five minutes left. So let’s just talk about real quickly what are some alternatives. First of all, you could eat organic food instead of eating conventional food with pesticides. So what’s another thing people could do that’s quick?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Well, real quickly is don’t use pesticides around your house. If in doubt, do a little weeding and get some exercise if you’re trying to get rid of weeds. That’s what I do, I get out there. I enjoy being outside and do a little weeding. Do not use pesticides around your house. Some of the provinces in Canada, Ontario, I think British Columbia have banned the domestic use of pesticides. Forty percent of the pesticides we use are by home use, which contaminates our streams, contaminates our water supply. It gets into the lakes and rivers around our home.
Do not using pesticides at home. Look and take an approach where if you’ve got some kind of pest, ask where it’s coming from, ask whether you can tolerate little bit of it and then move on to and try to control it by removing food source. If you have ants, you have rodents, ask why the pest is there. You can do that with some landscaping too, even plant crops. There are plants that help control unwanted other plants.
DEBRA: I just want to tell a quick story about a success I had with pest control that was not toxic. I used to live in an apartment building in San Francisco, a small apartment building that had like 12 units or something and there was an ant problem. This was when I was still first learning about things and so they notified all of us that we were going to have an exterminator come and I said, “No, I’m not having my unit sprayed. That’s it, period,” but I knew that everybody else was going to be sprayed.
And so what I did was I just used my common sense and I took some Elmer’s glue and a sponge. I watched where the ants were coming in and I just wiped them up. And then I found like a little crack where they were coming and I filled it with Elmer’s glue. The next day, they came in again and I did the same thing. After three or four days, I had filled all the cracks with Elmer’s glue.
Now I want to tell you, honestly, this story I’m telling you is true, I never saw another ant. I never saw another ant. Everybody else who were having their apartments exterminated all still had ants. I was the only one that didn’t have ants.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, that’s a great, great story. You should write that little story up. In fact, that’s a great example of integrated pest management where you ask, “Well, how did the ants get in there?” and then you block the road. They’re going to go where they can get food and water and other nourishment for them. If they can’t get it, they’re blocked, they’ll go someplace else. So, that’s a great example of using integrated pest management.
DEBRA: Yeah, and you can use that for any pest because the pests need to stay outside in their environment and we need to, say, “This is our boundary” and we say that this is our boundary by filing in cracks, by putting out screens on the windows and things like that. And so it’s just a matter of claiming our territory and saying that’s your territory and this is our territory. We don’t have these very toxic chemicals all over the place, we don’t need to kill the pests. The only reason we think they’re pests is because they’re in the wrong place. So we just need to put them in their place and claim our place. It’s very simple.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Yeah, absolutely. And rodents are the same thing. Find out what the food source is. Don’t use rodenticides on rodents because other creatures will eat those rats or mice and they will get sick from eating that toxic material.
It’s really important thinking not just of the pest, but also the consequences of using chemicals on the pest. I love your example about those ants. That’s a great story.
DEBRA: Thank you, I love that story too. Anyway, we now just have about 2 minutes left, so is there any final thing you want to say?
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: I think the most important thing is not to use pesticide. They should be the absolute last resort whether it’s herbicide or insecticide or rodenticide or fungicide. Do that only as a last resort. Learn about the biology of the pest, get out there and do some weeding in your garden, hand weeding. I get my grandchildren out there and we go weeding. It’s very fun to do. It’s a good family thing to do and do not use pesticides.
Think about where those pesticides are going when they flow off your property and into the streams, what the consequences of those might be. Think about the other birds and the other wildlife that you might be harming by using pesticides.
So the important thing is take an integrated approach to management of the pesticides. Remember that we live together with lot of other creatures.
DEBRA: Yes, we do. We’re all interconnected as Rachel Carson said. I highly recommend that everybody read Silent Spring. It’s an excellent, excellent book. We just need to keep her memory alive and keep her message alive.
So my guest today has been Dr. Steven Gilbert. Thank you so much for being here, Dr. Gilbert. You can go to his website. Oh, you want to say, “You’re welcome,” but I keep talking. Thank you for being here today.
DR. STEVEN GILBERT: Alright! Bye bye.
DEBRA: Bye. He’s at Toxipedia.org. You can go there get A Small Dose of Toxicology. That’s his book, A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. If you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you can just look for today’s show and click on the title and it’ll take you exactly to the page where you can get this book. It’s a basic book about toxicology that should be in every household. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Toxic Products in Dollar Stores
February 2015, HealthyStuff.org released the results of testing done on 164 products purchased at four major discount retailers—Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and 99 Cents Only—in six U.S. states.
Eighty-one percent of the products contains at least one hazardous chemical above levels of concern, and 49% contains two or more such chemicals.
Some of the products with the highest level of chemicals included mini lights, rubber ducks, USB cables, adhesive gem strips, artificial nails. Click on product names to find out the brand, country of manufacture, and level of tested chemicals found in the products. Products were tested for arsenic, bromine, cadmium, chlorine, chromium, mercury, lead, antimony and tin.
Here is an article from a UK newspaper about this study that gives a more visual perspective of the toxic products:
Our Chemical Lives
Question from Emily
Hi Debra,
My Australian sister-in-law sent me a transcript of a wonderful TV program that aired a few weeks ago on Australia’s ABC, similar to our PBS.
The program is called Catalyst and the segment is “Our Chemical Lives”.
As an American I was surprised that a topic like this was allowed on mainstream media. I applaud their efforts of course and thought you would like to see this.
Debra’s Answer
Thanks Emily. This is a very good and simple presentation of the problem of toxic chemicals in our world.
Also see the links to other shows about toxic chemicals.
Beyond Organic Skin Care
Today my guest is Ken McGowan, founder of Sinfully Wholesome. He creates amazing luxurious skin care products, “handmade from wild fruits and their precious oils.” Soaps, oils, and even laundry products that will leave clothing and bedding soft against your skin. We’ll be talking about the importance of eliminating toxics from your skincare regime, why they chose their luxurious wildcrafted ingredients and special packaging material, and what it means to be social and environmentally responsible. Ken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur and the former Leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia. www.sinfullywholesome.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Beyond Organic Skin Care
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Ken McGowan
Date of Broadcast: April 09, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Thursday, April 9th, 2015. And today, we’re going to talk about a very interesting topic. I say that, but every time I say that, I say, “All the shows are interesting and they all are interesting.”
Today, it’s interesting in a different way. We’re going to be talking about soap, which we’ve talked about before. But this soap is so different. When I first heard about it from one of my readers, he wrote to me and he said, “I think this soap is in a class by itself.” And I got some and I tried it and I totally agree.
So we’re going to learn about soap, we’re going to learn about skin care, we’re going to learn about interesting ingredients and we’re going to have a great show today.
My guest is Ken McGowan. He’s the founder of Sinfully Wholesome. And that’s what these products are. They really are sinfully wholesome. He creates these amazing, luxurious skin care products that are handmade from wild fruits and their precious oils. Doesn’t that sound good? They even make laundry products so that your clothing and bedding will be soft against your skin and not irritate your skin. So this is going to be very interesting.
Hi, Ken! How are you?
KEN MCGOWAN: Hi, Debra. I’m doing well, thanks. And thank you for having me on your show. I admire all of the pioneering work you’ve done.
DEBRA: Thank you so much. I appreciate you being here. You have one of the most pure products that I’ve ever seen. And I’m always looking for the purest everything with the least amount of toxic chemicals.
So first, start off and tell us how you got interested in doing this.
KEN MCGOWAN: That’s a long story, but we’re going to try and keep it as short as possible. It revolves around in epiphany I had shortly after a heart attack in 2003. And the heart attack, by the way, almost killed me. I don’t really blame the heart attack, I blame my lifestyle before the heart attack.
DEBRA: Ah! Yes, that’s very good.
KEN MCGOWAN: Like most people in North America, I live the life that we all live and bought the products that we were all told to buy by the various advertising companies and chemical companies that are promoting a better life via this chemical or that chemical and “just add this to your detergent and you’ll have whiter whites… eat this food and you’ll be better.”
Well, none of that stuff really is true. It got me on an operating table. And afterwards, the epiphany I had was that I had to change my personal lifestyle and start integrating more healthy products that I both ate and washed myself in. I also started thinking about what sort of legacy I would be leaving behind prior to the heart attack to put a finer point on it.
One of my friend’s jokes, I was a running dog capitalist pig. I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my life and I’ve owned a number of difference businesses from the ’80s on. My primary goal was chasing after the economic dream almost to the exclusion of all else. That certainly wasn’t the healthy thing that I needed. That got me, as I mentioned, on the operating table. And it wasn’t the kind of legacy that I wanted to leave behind.
So after the heart attack, I became involved in politics out of a desire to change the world, and ultimately became the leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia and was involved in trying to convince people to change their behaviors both personal and how they interacted in the financial method on a worldwide scale. I quickly realized that politics isn’t necessarily the best way to go about doing that. Sometimes, you have to walk the talk and lead by example.
So shortly after resigning from the Green Party, I created a natural skin care product company. And it came about from a rather convoluted way insofar as a friend of mine who is originally from Syria (and owned a few small businesses in Nova Scotia) approached me with a bar of Aleppo soap. Aleppo, of course, being one of the major cities in Syria and perhaps one of the longest-sustained occupied cities in civilization.
DEBRA: Hmmm… I didn’t know that.
KEN MCGOWAN: He came to me and he said, “Try this soap out” because he knew I was interested in natural products, both food and personal care. I did and I went, “Wow! This stuff is pretty amazing. What is it?” And he said, “Well, it’s Aleppo soap, and it comes from my home country of Syria. And I’m thinking about bringing it into Canada. But I don’t know anything about imports and exports. Can you help me with this?” And I said, “Yes, I probably can.” So we started investigating the possibilities of importing Aleppo soap.
And this was just prior to the outbreak of the civil war in Syria. In fact, we got caught in the outbreak insofar as we had arranged to import some Aleppo soap from Syria at about the same time that both the Canadian and US governments imposed sanctions on Syria and shut down the whole trade between the two countries.
We lost a shipment of soap as a result. But not to be deterred, I decided that if I wasn’t going to be able to import this great soap, I would import the knowledge and reached out to the families that make the soap. It’s primarily a family or was primarily a family-run business in Syria where you had certain families that were making soap for up to a thousand years. One family was making the soap for more than a thousand years.
Aleppo soap is famous for a number of really compelling reasons. It’s the first hard bar soap ever made by humankind. Its recipe goes back unchanged almost 2500 years. It’s renowned in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, although it’s very little known in North America. It is so highly sought of in Europe that dermatologists frequently prescribe it to their patients who have skin conditions of a variety of kinds.
And so being stymied by the prohibition on importing goods from Syria drove us into the area where we were going to start actually manufacturing the products here in North America. Now, I have a degree in molecular biology so it wasn’t a big leap for me to figure out how to make soap and use the various ingredients to their optimum benefits.
And in fact, I invented a proprietary system of making soap. And let me explain. There are two primary methods of making soap. One is called the hot process. Very simply put, it involves a lot of heat. For example, when making Aleppo soap the traditional way, you would boil the oils and the two oils that are used in Aleppo soap. This has not changed for, as I said, more than two-and-a-half thousand years. The two oils are olive oil and laurel oil.
DEBRA: I need to interrupt you for a moment because we need to go to the commercial break. But when we come back, I want to hear all about this.
KEN MCGOWAN: Okay, we’ll come back and do laurel and olive oil then.
DEBRA: Good! That sounds great. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ken McGowan. He’s the founder of Sinfully Wholesome. They make these great soaps as he has been telling us about. We’re going to hear all about this. His website is SinfullyWholesome.com and we’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ken McGowan, founder of Sinfully Wholesome. And he makes these – he used the word, amazing soaps. And it is amazing soap.
Ken, before you go on, I just wanted to tell about my experience using this soap because I haven’t even told you this. But what happened was that I got the soap from you and it took me a few days to get it from my desk into the shower. But then I started using it all over my body, my face, and the rest of my body. And a few days later, I looked in the mirror at my face and my skin looked completely different. I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t trying to see what it was going to do. I was just using it.
I was surprised to find how different my skin looked within just a few days. And the way it looks different is that it seems to be – well, I don’t quite know how to describe this. It looks softer. My skin definitely looks softer. And it has a bit of glow to it that it didn’t have before. It seems to have a smoothness that it didn’t have before.
You know how when you do something and it’s so different in terms of your experience that you weren’t ever even trying to achieve that effect because you didn’t even know that it existed and then it happens? I’ve had experiences like that in my life where I was just so astonished when they happened because they had never happened before.
And this is one of those things. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with my skin. And then I used your soap and I saw, “Oh, my God! My skin could be so much better.” But you don’t ever see it. You don’t ever it. And so it’s not like I’m walking down the street going, “Oh, look at her skin. I’d like to have skin like that.” My skin is different than anything I’ve ever seen.
KEN MCGOWAN: Well, thank you. The reason that has occurred for you is because of the two oils that are in the Aleppo soap that you used. As I was mentioning to your listeners just before the station break, we were talking about different methods of making soap and then I touched on the ingredients in Aleppo soap.
The basic ingredients that you put in a soap is very, very critical to the outcome that you’re going to get for your skin. As you know, Debra, today, modern soap-making has been industrialized and we’re putting all sorts of things into our soap and we’re taking things out of it that we shouldn’t. And this has really at a profound level that it’s happened without them even noticing.
For example, it’s hard to take on specific brand names, and I’m reluctant to do so.
DEBRA: And you don’t need to mention any specific brand names. Just say whatever you’d like to say in general.
KEN MCGOWAN: Well, I’m going to mention one specifically. And it’s targeted at men. It’s a product line called Axe. It’s made by Unilever. The reason I mention this on air without any qualms is because the information I’m about to share with you is in the public domain anyway.
The State of California has sued Unilever for air pollution in their products.
DEBRA: Oh, my God!
KEN MCGOWAN: Yes.
DEBRA: I love hearing that.
KEN MCGOWAN: It sounds like a really bad joke and you’re going to wait for the punch line. The punch line is really very simple. There are so many toxins in the Axe product that the State of California sued them for polluting the air.
DEBRA: But are there more than normal?
KEN MCGOWAN: Maybe they picked on Unilever out of one of thousands of different companies they could have, I don’t know. It might have been a test case. I really don’t know the answer to that. But it’s in the public domain. All you need to do is, Unilever Fined for Polluting California Air with Axe Deodorant Spray. It’s out there.
DEBRA: And it’s so ironic that they’re suing about a deodorant spray that’s supposed to be reducing odors.
KEN MCGOWAN: It’s designed so that you don’t stink. And yet, California sued them for polluting their air. That’s how bad the personal care industry has become. We can do a whole show on personal care industry.
But the personal care industry, things like soaps and cosmetics, it is part of – and this is almost a joke too – a self-regulated industry, which essentially means there are no regulations at all. So these cosmetic companies and the companies that make all of these products that we put on our body every day, and the average person puts on nine different personal care products, with a total of about 126 different chemicals, every day, you put this on your body.
Now, each one of these products that you put on your body, all of the manufacturers claim that they fall below the areas where these particular chemicals become dangerous. Well, that maybe true for one product, but you’re putting nine of them on. And you get this chemical soup that you’re bathing yourself in on a daily basis.
And the skin is your body’s largest organ. It’s voraciously hungry. Sixty to seventy percent of the things we put on our skin are absorbed directly into our bodies.
And so for putting things on our skin that pollute the air in California, it’s no wonder that people’s skin doesn’t look as healthy as it should.
So when you eliminate these toxins that are in the personal care products and you start bathing in things that are actually good for you, there’s a profound change that takes place and you’ve noticed that.
DEBRA: And I should say that I already was using natural products for a good 30 or more years.
KEN MCGOWAN: I know you would have been. There’s no question about that. But not all natural handmade soaps are created equal.
DEBRA: No, I agree.
KEN MCGOWAN: And it comes down to the selection of the oils that you use.
DEBRA: Before you go on, I’m hearing the music so we need to go to break. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Ken McGowan, founder of Sinfully Wholesome. He’s at SinfullyWholesome.com. And when we come back, he’ll tell us more about soap and the ingredients. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ken McGowan, founder of Sinfully Wholesome at SinfullyWholesome.com. We’re talking about his skin care products hand made from wild fruits and their precious oils.
Okay, Ken, go on with your story.
KEN MCGOWAN: Okay, we were talking about the different kinds of oils that you can put into handmade soaps or natural soaps. And not all oils are created equal. I should mention right now, Debra, that before we actually went in to production and started making soap or even sold a bar of soap, we did two years of research into the various oils and their skin care properties.
We have two basic principles that we established our skin care line on. Number one, if you can’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin. Number two is that we wanted it to be as close to nature as possible. And that’s why we selected to go wild-crafted as opposed to organic.
DEBRA: Well, now tell me why those two are different.
KEN MCGOWAN: Wild-crafted is the art of harvesting, in our case, the fruits from nature and then hand-making the oils from them. And because we started with Aleppo soap, I’m going to continue on that one. We’ll talk about other oils. But for example, the laurel oil that we use in our soap is gathered from the laurel forests that still grow around the Mediterranean. And laurel, by the way, is something everybody is familiar with. And you all eat it whether you know it or not. Every time you make spaghetti and you put a bay leaf in your spaghetti sauce, bay leaf is a laurel leaf. So you eat it all the time.
You can make a sauce out of laurel berries. We make our soap out of laurel berry. You can get oils from various parts of the laurel tree, but the best oil for making soap is laurel berry oil as opposed to laurel leaf oil.
DEBRA: Now, let me ask you a question here. I know that some people are listening and saying, “That stuff sounds great.”
KEN MCGOWAN: I’m sorry, I’m not hearing you clearly.
DEBRA: Oh, can you hear me now?
KEN MCGOWAN: Yes.
DEBRA: So I know that some people are listening and thinking, “This soap has a fragrance.” And I’ll just say, there’s no added fragrance to this soap. But it does have a smell. I don’t want to say, I don’t know what word to use here, because I don’t want it to sound it’s an unpleasant smell because it isn’t at all. But the ingredients, the oils themselves have their own fragrance.
KEN MCGOWAN: That’s correct! And there are a lot of people that really enjoy the natural aroma from the laurel berries.
DEBRA: Aroma, that’s a good word. I like that. And so I just wanted to ask you, is what I’m smelling the laurel berry?
KEN MCGOWAN: Yes, that’s correct. With the Aleppo soap, you’re smelling laurel.
DEBRA: Good. I enjoy it very much. I have no problem with it at all. But it was very different when I first smelled it. I thought, “What is this?” Not in a negative way, but it was just a pleasant smell. And so it’s just the same thing that you would smell when you’re putting a bay leaf into your spaghetti.
KEN MCGOWAN: We don’t put anything in our soaps at all in the way of fragrances. If it’s not good for your skin, it simply doesn’t get into our soap. We add no colors, no fragrances, natural or otherwise, and we always use the minimum number of oils in order to achieve a desired outcome. And we’ll stick with Aleppo soap for the moment.
Those two oils are olive and laurel. And when we get our research into determining which oils that we would select to make our product line, we came up with what we believe are the three best skin care oils in the world. I’ll itemize them for you – olive oil, laurel oil and oregano oil. All of our products in soaps are made from those three oils and none other.
And when you mentioned earlier that you’ve been using natural products before, but you still noticed the difference when you used ours, it’s because of the oils that we’ve selected. For example, I’m going to mention palm oil. Palm oil is the most heavily used oil in handmade products of all. It’s used for two primary reasons by most people who make handmade soaps. Number one, it lends hardness to the bar of soap, and that’s a desirable outcome for a lot of people. And number two, it’s very inexpensive. But it has absolutely no skin care properties that are of any value. And that makes up the vast majority of a bar of soap that’s handmade today.
Unfortunately, the use of palm oil in handmade soaps is devastating the rainforests in Indonesia and destroying Orangutan habitat. And even though many people claim that they are using sustainable palm oil, only 1% of all the palm oil generated in the world today is sustainable. If everybody claims that they are using sustainable palm oil, so where’s the other 99% of the palm oil going, it makes you wonder.
But anyway, having said that, our philosophy is very simple. If it’s not good for your skin, it doesn’t get into our products. And so everything that you bathed in when you were using our product is good for your skin.
DEBRA: Well, I think that’s a key thing because I think that most people, when they’re buying soap, they’re thinking of cleanliness. Is it going to get the dirt off my hands or is it going to get the oiliness off my face or is it going to remove my makeup or something like that. I think that most people in the world today are not thinking about nourishing their skin any more than they’re thinking about nourishing their bodies.
KEN MCGOWAN: Soap is the single, best thing, if you use a good one, that you can use for your skin care regime. And if you think about it, it’s obvious. We use it every day. We shower from head to toe in it. We’re constantly washing our hands with it. And if you’re using a toxic product, the end result is that you’re going to be prematurely aging your skin or creating skin problems.
We have an epidemic in the western world of childhood eczema. Child eczema is at 22% in the west. When we were doing our research into Aleppo soap – and it was because of my background in science that allowed me to do what I referred to as a little bit of armchair ethnobotany insofar as I went and I read all the available published information.
DEBRA: Before you go on with your next thought, I need to interrupt you again because we have to go to our last break here. And we’ll be right back and you can finish your sentence.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ken McGowan. He’s the founder of Sinfully Wholesome. His website is SinfullyWholesome.com. And we’ll go to break and we’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Ken McGowan. He’s the founder of Sinfully Wholesome at SinfullyWholesome.com. And Ken, go ahead.
KEN MCGOWAN: Okay, I just want to pick up where we left off on the epidemic of childhood eczema in the west. And while researching the oils for soaps, and specifically, Aleppo soap, I did a quick PubMed research. And Syria, bear in mind, is the home of Aleppo soap. The study that I came across was July of 2010 where the incidents of childhood eczema in Syria are 3.3% to 4.2% versus 22% in the west.
DEBRA: Whoa!
KEN MCGOWAN: And it’s because most of the people, prior to the civil war (the civil war effectively ended soap production in Syria, which is a bit of a sad story, we won’t go there today), the 3.3% to 4.2% incidents of childhood eczema in Syria is directly attributable to the types of soaps that they use.
The 22% incidents of eczema in the west among children are also directly attributable to the kinds of soap that we bathe in and the chemicals that are in these soaps, these industrial, commercial soaps.
So it’s very small wonder that you notice the significant change when you use Aleppo soap. And the reason being is that olive oil is one of the greatest skin care oils ever. We look back over the centuries and if we look at Ancient Athens or Ancient Greek civilizations, they were using olive oil as a skin care product for the longest time. In fact, Democrates is famous for saying, “Let us bathe our insides in honey and our exteriors in olive oil.”
DEBRA: Oh, I love that.
KEN MCGOWAN: And the very first hand cream or cold cream ever invented was by Galen, a Roman physician of Greek origin who created the very first home cream, cold cream and he used olive oil, beeswax, and rose water. And that’s been going on since the 2nd Century AD.
Today, there’s this rush to put all sorts of other things into products, even homemade products or handmade products. We’re adding colors, we’re adding fragrances, we’re adding this oil and that oil for reasons that have nothing to do with skin care.
We made a conscious effort when we started creating our product line, “If it’s not good for your skin, it doesn’t go into our products. And if you can’t eat it, you don’t put it on your skin.” So those things drove us in the selection of oils and why we narrowed down that selection to the three oils that I mentioned to you earlier, olive oil, laurel oil and oregano oil.
Laurel oil is especially important in the Aleppo soap insofar as, and you mentioned cleanliness. Laurel oil is a deep cleaning agent. It also has antibacterial properties, antifungal properties and antiviral properties. It’s a very, very wonderful oil. Modern science now has a huge body of evidence to support the use of laurel oil with a number of different things and it’s great for a huge variety of skin care problems that include eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, all the tinea infections, which are fungal infections. It promotes wound healing and it reduces wrinkles.
DEBRA: Oh, is that why my wrinkles disappeared? No, I actually don’t have very many wrinkles for my age. But I’m sure that I’m very happy that this soap is going to even prevent wrinkles from appearing.
KEN MCGOWAN: Well, what we found is that our best customers are the people who have the worst skin conditions in the world. And when we meet a customer for the first time via the internet or wherever we do a show, the very first thing that I tell them is that if you want to improve your skin – and this is in keeping with your philosophy too – you have to do a lifestyle change. And that means you have to eliminate toxins from your personal care products.
But that also means that you must eliminate toxins from your laundry products. And people have scratched their heads and they wonder why we sell soap nuts on a skin care site. The reason is very, very simple, and it’s obvious, and everybody, they have dents in their foreheads from smacking themselves in the foreheads when I tell them it’s really simple. You wear your clothes all day. And you sleep on your bed linens all night. And if you are wearing clothing that’s impregnated with chemicals and you’re sleeping on it, especially your pillow, you are exposing your skin to these harsh chemicals that actually prematurely age your skin.
So simply stopping using those things automatically is going to improve your appearance, the elasticity of your skin, how your skin feels and it’s going to also reduce the flare-ups and many of the conditions and symptoms that people experience with eczema, psoriasis, et cetera.
So if you just simply stop using the industrial chemicals that are in commercial soaps and commercial detergents, your skin is going to improve. But if you then go the extra step and identify a product that is designed, and the oils are selected specifically for their skin care properties, then you get that little extra boost that you noticed when you used the Aleppo soap for the first time.
DEBRA: And that is a principle that I apply to everything because if you want to improve any part of your body, first, you eliminate the toxic chemicals that are causing damage. So then, right there, if that’s all you do, you’re going to have an improvement because you’re not being constantly bombarded with the toxic chemicals.
But then if you can go beyond that and then find something that nourishes and heals that part of your body, in this case, the skin, it has an opportunity to work because the toxic chemicals are not working against it.
I think that most people can’t quite see this yet. A lot of my listeners, I know must see this because I say it a lot. But you’re really doing all of those steps in your products and really, not to say again, I’ve been doing what I do for more than 30 years and this is not only the most pure soap, but the most nourishing soap I’ve ever seen.
KEN MCGOWAN: And it’s famous worldwide with the exception of North America for some reason. That’s slowly changing. I think we have a small perk in that insofar as we’re increasing the profile of Aleppo soap and specifically, laurel oil in the marketplace.
I hate touching on this civil war in Syria, but it effectively ended soap production in that country. Many of the people and the families that were making it are refugees now. Some of them have set up smaller soap-making productions in Lebanon and some in Turkey, for example, some of the outlying countries where they’ve gone. But for a very brief period of time, perhaps for a year or so, I think I was the only person in the world making Aleppo soap.
DEBRA: Well, I’m so glad you are. I’m going to cut you off here. I’m sorry to interrupt, but we’re coming very close to the end of the show and I don’t want to have to say, “Oh, stop,” mid-sentence. So we have about a minute left and I want to make sure that you have that time to say any final thing that you haven’t said that you want to make sure you get in.
KEN MCGOWAN: Well, the thing that I would like to reiterate for your listeners is if you’re experiencing skin care issues of any kind, if it’s eczema, psoriasis or simply premature aging of your skin, do a lifestyle change. Get rid of the toxins in your personal care products, get rid of the toxins in your laundry products, and you’re going to notice a difference. It will make a difference in how you feel the health of your skin and how you look. You can take years off your appearance simply by eliminating the toxins in your personal care products.
DEBRA: I totally agree with that. And I’d just like to thank you so much for being on the show today.
KEN MCGOWAN: Thank you.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. And I really appreciate your work. I really appreciate people who start with doing the right thing rather than starting with how we’re going to make millions of dollars. It’s not that I have anything against money, but I think that we need to always start with doing the best thing.
And again, you can go to his website, SinfullyWholesome.com. You’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and listen to other shows. And thank you for listening. Be well.
Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be talking about—as Pamela puts it—”the good, the bad, and the ugly” of supplements: adulteration, missing ingredients, manufacturing practices, contamination, quality, and more. Pamela has more than 25 years experience choosing and sellling top quality medicinal supplements, so she’s seen it all. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
- Vaccines: Harmful or Necessary?
- Evaluating A Study and Testing a Test
- Seven Deadly Drugs
- The Hidden Dangers Affecting Your Heart and How You Can Protect It Naturally
- What We Can Do About Cancer
- The Power of pH
- How to Protect Your Health From Toxic Mercury Dental Fillings
- Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
- Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
- How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing With Supplements
- How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use—And How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and into Health
- How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
- See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
- Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
- Different Types of Detox
- Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
- Natural Alternatives to Sleeping Pills
- Natural Back Pain Treatment Options That Work
- How Toxics Age Your Body & What You Can Do to Stay Young
- You CAN Lose Weight—Even if You’ve Had Difficulty Losing Weight Before
- Calcium—Is There Really a Deficiency in America?
- It’s Cold and Flu Season—How to Support Your Immune System and Why You Shouldn’t Get a Toxic Flu Shot
- How Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help Your Cells Create Health
- Toxic Psychiatry and How to Have Mental Health Without Drugs
- Why You Should Take Fish Oil and How To Choose the Right One for You
- Medicinal Plants Can Replace Toxic Drugs
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld
Date of Broadcast: April 08, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Wednesday, April 8, 2015. If I sound different than usual, it’s because I’m having technical problems with my computer and my microphone today, and I’m speaking to you via the old fashion telephone recorded from, not a cell phone, a corded phone, not even a cordless phone, but landline corded telephone. So there is no EMFs here on this phone at least.
So today, we’re going to be talking, it’s every other Wednesday for my guest, Pamela Seefeld, a registered pharmacist who talks about natural ways to handle health problems without prescription drugs. Even though she is a pharmacist, she prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural things. I have her on every other Wednesday. So it’s this Wednesday, two Wednesdays ago, two Wednesdays coming up, and we always have something interesting to hear from Pamela.
Today, we’re going to be talking about Hidden Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements. And did I say this is Pamela Seefeld? I’m a little bit distracted at the moment because of all these technical difficulties.
Anyway, my guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist. Hi, Pamela!
PAMELA SEEFELD: Sorry about your computer issue.
DEBRA: Me too, me too. It’s just technical things. This is now the second computer that I’ve had problems with in terms of plugging the audio in, so I just need to solve this. But we’ll do fine on the phone today.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, absolutely.
DEBRA: Okay, hidden dangers in common dietary supplements. There are so many things we could talk about with this. Where would you like to start?
PAMELA SEEFELD: I would like to start, and this is actually very timely…
DEBRA: Oh, wait, wait, wait. Before you talk about that, there is something else we were going to talk about.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s showing up everywhere for sure.
DEBRA: The thing that I wanted to talk about was that Pamela, a few weeks ago, told me about a recipe that she had tried and that she really loved, which was to make flax chips. Now, some of you may have heard of making flax chips, which is you just take flaxseeds and you soak them and then you put them in a dehydrator or a low oven. And when you soak flaxseeds, they turn into a little gelatinous mess. And so they stick together. Then when you dehydrate them, they make these great, crunchy chips.
But they don’t taste like much. I had made them before. And I thought this was a great way to eat flaxseeds. They’re so nutritious for you.
But Pamela makes them in a different way. She adds tomatoes, onions and all kinds of things. I made them her way this week and they were so good that I couldn’t stop eating them. So I have them. I put it up on my food blog. Just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and up at the top, just click on food and you’ll see Pamela’s Premium Flax Chips.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That is so cute. That’s hilarious. That’s funny. That’s really very funny.
DEBRA: Do you want to say anything else about your flax chips?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, I think everyone really enjoyed them. And what’s good about them is that they don’t have calories. They’re going to be negligible calories because really, flaxseeds when you have them whole, they pretty much go through you untouched to some degree. You do observe some omega-3’s somewhat. But what’s good about is that it’s a low-calorie, very filling snack.
I snack on those a lot when I’m working late at night because you don’t want to eat something really heavy, but you want to have something that satisfies. It really fills you up. And since there’s no calorie, this is a very good tool for weight loss.
And it’s just super healthy and super cheap to make and easy that I think your listeners will just really find that this is super, super easy. It takes me a matter of a minute. And then you put them in a dehydrator, the oven or whatever you want to do. It’s very quick. Anyone can do it, even kids can do it. It’s very, very simple.
DEBRA: I told a friend of mine about this recipe yesterday. I told him it was weightless. He said, “Weightless?” And I said yes because there’s no calorie, there’s no fat. There’s onions, there’s those fats, there’s those omega-3. It doesn’t affect your weight at all. And you can eat them and they’re so delicious with all the vegetables in it.
Again, just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and click at the top of the menu, it says ‘Food’, and today the recipe is right there on top for Pamela’s Premium Flax Chips.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I just love the name. I think it’s very cute. I really appreciate you doing that. I love to share that with everybody and I know that they’re going to really enjoy it.
DEBRA: Thank you, and I have a little picture. You can go there after this show and see my picture of the little flax chips on a little dish.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Oh, my gosh. That is so funny. That’s hilarious.
DEBRA: But what I want to mention out of this first, before we talk about the hidden dangers in supplements, let’s talk about why you should take supplements at all. Why can’t you get your supplements, all your nutrients out of food?
PAMELA SEEFELD: And that’s a good question. So people, a lot of times, you’ll hear these people making excuses saying, “Oh, I don’t need to take any supplements because I’m getting everything from my food.” We do get a lot of things in our food. That is true. Eating a varied, balanced diet of lots of fruits and vegetables, especially the vegetables, you’re getting a lot of phytonutrients that have high activity in all areas of the body, especially the fat-soluble tissues depending on what you’re eating them with.
But in many cases, the amounts that you’re getting, it’s going to be sporadic because you’re not eating the same thing every day. And also too, if you’re making green juices and so forth, you’re probably getting a lot more of the enzymes of the plant. But in most cases, you’re taking the supplements, you’re getting these things, but you’re not going to have high amounts of.
A good case in point, vitamin D. People think, “Oh, you go out in the sun, you’re getting enough vitamin D.” Well, we know that the amount of D you make in your skin is inconsequential. It really doesn’t matter. So your sun tanning is never going to bring up your D level very much. So supplements need to be employed in those cases.
Also too, resveratrol is a good example. How many gallons of red wine you’re going to have to drink to get enough resveratrol to have a really therapeutic outcome? It’s not going to be possible.
I’m still even a big fan of taking a quality multivitamin because you’re really just getting a little bit of everything. The vitamins you have to be careful of of not taking too much are vitamins A, D, E and K, which are the fat-soluble vitamins. You do need to use those to some degree, but those, when you’re taking them in really high amounts, can damage the liver. So those are the ones that you really want to be careful of.
But all the other vitamins, you’re not really getting as much as you think out of some of your food. And a lot of it depends on what you’re eating the food with, are you taking it with a lot of fiber. Fiber binds up nutrients too. There are a lot of other variables. This way, you’re going to be very consistent in what you’re getting.
DEBRA: So when you say fiber binds up nutrients, that means that you’re not absorbing as many as nutrients because of the fiber?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct! So I’ll give you a good example. In pharmacology, we tell patients if they’re taking psyllium husk, if they’re eating All-Bran extra fiber, really, just basically, the meal is mostly fiber. It binds up everything in its path.
So a good case in point is these people use psyllium powder in the morning to try and make themselves more regular. It’s a bulk-forming laxative and what it does is it brings water into the gut and forms this bulky, gelatinous stuff in the GI tract and it moves through. It binds up cholesterol in its way through and it moves its way to the GI tract. But it also binds up medications and supplements.
So if you’re taking a lot of psyllium or if you’re making – I know I was using a vegan recipe that use psyllium for a pie crust if you’re making a torte or something, you have to realize that you’re not going to be absorbing most of the nutrients out of the food you’re eating in the proximity of two hours of consuming that. That’s important to realize.
It’s the same thing with all bread, extra fiber. I just give that as an example. The point is it’s all fiber. That’s all it is. Eating that for breakfast with a banana and milk, you’re not going to be absorbing your vitamins. So you need to separate that by at least two hours.
So those are just some examples. Fiber itself, I’m talking about where the meal is mostly fiber. I’m not talking about a salad, which contains fiber. I had a pear this morning. It has fiber. That’s different. But something that’s specifically a bulk-forming laxative and it’s all that is, fiber in that particular meal. You’re going to really have impairment of absorbing anything, especially medications. That’s very important for somebody that’s on medicine from the doctor. You’re not absorbing them if you take it with that type of a meal.
DEBRA: I think what you just said is so important and especially when people are in what one could probably call an ‘alternative diet’ where they’re trying to avoid some kind of food product and so they substitute other things. But psyllium husks is a substitute ingredient that I see frequently in recipes. And if it has that effect, then you aren’t getting your nutrients from that meal. It’s important to know about these foods.
We need to go to break. But we’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be right back to hear more from Pamela.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She is a registered pharmacist who dispenses – I’m so distracted today because of all these. I’m so distracted because of all the technical things going on here. And there’s my page. So anyway, you know she’s Pamela Seefeld
PAMELA SEEFELD: You’re so funny. Oh, my God! Hilarious.
DEBRA: Pamela, tell us about why people should call you or give your phone number.
PAMELA SEEFELD: People should call me, Pamela Seefeld, clinical pharmacist, because I’ve been doing this probably 25 years. I specialize in medical homeopathy, so all the products that you will get from me will not be available at the health food store. I actually teach this.
And the things I’m using, I see children, I see adults and I can treat anything from ADD. I specialize in mental health, but also if you have high cholesterol, if you have low energy and fatigue, chronic fatigue, viruses, anything that’s going on in your body that you would like to address.
My consultations are free. I’m here in my pharmacy pretty much every day. You can call me here at Botanical Research in Clearwater, Florida. It’s 727-442-4955. I would be greatly honored to help you and your family with any medical need you might have. And also, if you’re actually inquiring to transition off of prescription drugs, I can assist you with that as well.
DEBRA: Yes, and she’s very good and very well-regarded. I say that all the time, but it’s true.
So Pamela, tell us about hidden dangers in supplements. Where do you want to start with that?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, we can start with the article that the front page of the New York Times today. When I was reading this this morning, this is titled, Study Warns of Diet Supplement Dangers Kept Quiet by FDA. Basically, what they’re talking about is that there is a chemical that they want to assign. It’s available in this acacia plant. But not necessarily, it’s what’s actually in the products. And this particular chemical called MBPEA acts like a stimulant. And a lot of these diet products that have been available, they’re actually containing these stimulants and that could actually be dangerous for patients. And the FDA really wasn’t keeping track of that because what was happening on the labels of these products is that they’re actually putting that this particular plant was in there, but actually, instead of using the plant, they were actually spiking the product with this MBPEA, which actually is a stimulant. And so that’s how people were losing weight with it.
So if you have a heart condition or you have high blood pressure, you wouldn’t be taking these things. But if you don’t have it labeled properly, you wouldn’t know that you’re taking these chemicals that are stimulants and are potentially very dangerous.
So it’s front page in the New York Times today. If you want to see that, I was reading the paper this morning and it was pretty bad. And I’m not surprised. Of course, it wasn’t even a month ago, I had come out talking about how that they tested several different herbal products that were available at major manufacturers that were at regular drugstores, even at GNC and what they were finding is that it did not contain what they said they were containing.
So that’s a part of it. That’s more of an adulteration in the fact that they don’t contain things. But some of the dangers, we’ll move beyond that, but this is just…
DEBRA: Wait, wait, wait. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question first. What is the law about labeling these things? I know that on food labels, if it’s a food product like catsup or something, they have to tell you – well, I was going to say they have to tell you everything. Let me just explain about food labels.
If you were in your kitchen and you put in sour cream and ground beef and flour, you would have to list on the label sour cream, ground beef and flour. But you wouldn’t have to list the ingredients of the sour cream. If you see on the label something like ham, for example, it would have all kinds of nitrates and coloring and stuff like that that you might see on the ham label if you were buying a ham. But if you’re buying a ham sandwich, it just says ham on the label, it doesn’t have to say all the ingredients that are in the ham. That’s the rule for food products. What’s the rule for supplement products?
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s a good question. The rule for supplement products is probably, most likely, you don’t have to be listing everything. The ingredients are in there, but what the problem is that it’s a voluntary process to follow good manufacturing practice and have the FDA inspect your facility.
Especially these wow-crafted products that people maybe do private labeling, you don’t necessarily know what it’s in there. But these things will be changing. That’s for sure. But now, the way the law stands, if you are a medication company, a pharmaceutical company, and you manufacture something, it has to follow good manufacturing practice, KGMPs. And this is a group of regulations, its rules, it’s a huge book and you pay the FDA to come in and inspect your facility.
If I’m manufacturing a pharmaceutical product, I don’t have a choice. I have to do it. I pay them to come in. They come in, they issue a certificate of authenticity, whatever you want to call it, of what’s going on in that particular facility, whether the machines are being cleaned, the product labeling, so forth and so on. That’s that process.
But with herbal products and supplements, that doesn’t take place unless you want it. So the whole idea is a cache of a company that manufacturers of herbal products to say, “Look, we have GMPs. We have the people inspect our facility.” And that’s what separates the poor products from the other products.
Like I said too, it’s very important to realize about private labeling. A lot of people that are practitioners might label like ‘Pamela’s Vitamins’.
DEBRA: I’ve seen that. Doctors have their own brand.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Doctors do that a lot. Chiropractors do that a lot. You don’t know necessarily what you got there because there’s some third party. Basically, how that works too is I’ll go to a company, say, it’s a private label. I go to them, they put my name on the label and I have to order $2000 worth of whatever. This is a minimum order. And I have all these products. The reason why most people do that is because you can use inferior-quality products, but it has this cache of like it’s a personal product. But it’s not really my vitamins. It’s somebody putting my name on whatever they’re manufacturing.
And that’s important for people to know. That’s why I’m not a big fan of private labeling because of that. The talk we have today is about hidden dangers, but you really need to know what you’re getting.
So the dangers that have been showing up in these articles that have been front page news should be really looked at seriously. They’re very dangerous. And just the fact that they’re now figuring this out, this thing has been going on for a long time.
And also you need to realize that good manufacturing practices, if they’re not being adhered to and the facility where the products are being made and privately labeled, you don’t know where that’s coming from. The machines might not be cleaned properly.
DEBRA: Okay, good. The thing that comes to mind is that maybe there is something you’re allergic to that might still be on the machine.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly!
DEBRA: And somebody who is allergic to peanuts or something like that, soy, a lot of things, you don’t even know if they’re in that.
We need to go to break. So you’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. And we’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. Today, we’re talking about hidden toxic dangers that may be in some of those natural supplements that you might buy in various different places.
So Pamela, go on with – let’s see…
PAMELA SEEFELD: We were talking about private label.
DEBRA: Private label, yes. We were talking about private label.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I’m not saying necessarily that they are going to be bad. It’s just that there are going to be inadequacies in analyzing the quality of it because this is really not that person’s vitamins. It’s obviously a company. And most of the time, when people private label, they shop these things around and they want to make the most profit off the bottle.
With my stuff here, I don’t even know what I paid for mine. I have a staff running these things. I don’t know.
But if you’re going to put your name on a product, a lot of times, people will do whatever they’re making the best profit on. So maybe the product is not going to be necessarily good.
And another thing for evaluating hidden dangers is when you see a product on the back of the label, it has all these little asterisks next to it with all the ingredients, I don’t like that. And the reason why I prefer not to use those types of products is because you cannot evaluate how many milligrams of each product is in there to make a dose.
So if someone brings me a product and they bought it at some place, at a health food store, and it’s got these little asterisks next to it, when you look at that, there’s no way to adequately evaluate what dose you’re getting of each product.
So typically, when they do this kind of things and they have these blends of all of this stuff and there are little stars next to each one so they don’t tell you how many milligrams, the majority of the time, the reason why is because they’re putting more of the less expensive ingredient and less of the more expensive ingredient if that makes sense to you. So that’s what’s really happening.
And so when you see those types of products, there are a lot of multilevel marketing products that fall into those categories. I have hesitancy in saying that they would be even safe because you really have no way of knowing. The real way to evaluate something is having faith that what you’re seeing on the label is something that you can determine if this dose is appropriate for the individual. And that’s where a pharmacy comes in.
But a regular individual could look at that and say, “I don’t really know what I’m getting.” That could be a problem, especially if there’s drug interaction or if the person has allergy. How would they know what they’re even getting in the product?
DEBRA: I agree with you. I think that a lot of times, people are taking these products because they want them to have a medicinal effect. And so if you don’t know what’s in it – I mean, part of getting the effect is knowing what you’re taking and what’s the dose.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. And so if you can’t adequately evaluate it because of the fact that they’re really not revealing it on the label, I have some problems with that. So that’s another thing.
Now, the fact that there are heavy metals in some of these things – and I like to point to calcium supplements and lead. They’re cleaning that up a little bit better than it was in the past, but if you look in consumer labs, there are a lot of different products. Almost 20% of the products that they reviewed had some small amounts of lead in them. And of course, lead is a neurotoxin. And that’s something that we need to be cognizant of.
And you have to think about too where the plants are grown. I mean, I have nothing against China, but I really would not be using a lot of any of these oriental products that are actually made in China. And the reason why is that the environmental pollution is so rampant there that if you’re growing the plants there in the soil and the air, the environment is pretty much destroyed as far as heavy metal contamination. When these plants are eventually put to a product you’re consuming, you might not really be aware of what you’re getting. And that’s very important.
In not only that too, the American companies, at least when you have plant material, they do genetic testing on it to make sure that’s what’s really in it. And that’s actually how they found that the products that were being carried by these various pharmacies and GNC did not have that particular product because they actually tested the DNA. What they said in the label was not what’s in the bottle.
So there’s lots of room for air. I personally use a lot of products with companies that I really like and I know follow a good manufacturing practice. A good case in point is if you go to the health food store, Nature’s Way, Nature’s Plus, they follow GMP. It’s what they’re saying in the label.
I actually went out to the Nature’s Way plant in Utah a long time ago and toured the facility. It’s very clean. The plant material was being analyzed and checked for fungi and bacteria.
And that’s really important to know. If you go to the health food store and you’re buying herbal products in bulk, maybe they’ll have bulk whatever herb you’re particularly buying, and it is in a bulk container, bacteria, fungi and bugs contaminate a lot of bulk, raw herbs.
So you got to be very, very careful about that. That would be something that if you have any issues with your immune system, if you’re immune-compromised because maybe you had a transplant, you have no business doing anything bulk. Those products need to be medical grade from a store that is specifically using products that have been tested to be free of bacteria.
And that’s probably important to know. I’m not sure what percentage of the population has immune issues. But even if someone’s been having chronic herpes infection, chronic Eipstein-Barr, any of that kind of stuff, your immune system’s already low and taking in bulk herbs that you’re buying from a container where you’re measuring out so many grams of it or whatever you’re buying, I would really hesitancy and advising against that.
DEBRA: So that would be true for culinary herbs as well.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct.
DEBRA: I mean, it’s all just the same herbs. They’re in [cross-talking 00:32:51]
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct, when it’s in bulk. So if you’re buying some of those in a container, that’s pretty much had been tested and is probably free of that. But mold too, if you just think about it, it’s plant material. And even if it’s been dehydrated, there still might be small amounts of water and that’s all it takes. These are the things that you can’t see with the naked eye.
DEBRA: Right.
PAMELA SEEFELD: But if you’re drinking or eating it, it could be a big problem, especially if you’re making an extract of it. Like I said, if the person is immune-compromised, you might not realize why you’re getting these infections and it might be because of the bulk products. And you’d want to have something in a capsule that’s been sealed, that the top of the label has been sealed. That would make a big difference as well.
Now, I’m going to switch over a little bit talking about mercury in fish oil products. The best way to have mercury removed from omega-3 is by molecular distillation, fractional distillation. You think about when they process oil in refineries, there’s columnar filtration and certain things come off at certain points. And that’s the same thing with fish oil. We want to make sure that when we have something, it has been filtered in that sense that the mercury has been removed.
I also have a problem too if we talk about hidden dangers that if you have a really big bottle of fish oil, you buy something in bulk, by the time you’re halfway through the bottle, there’s so much degradation of the product inside because of oxygen being affected. That’s another thing that you actually could end up with lipid peroxidation in coronary artery disease even as a result of taking omega-3’s just because of the fact that they become adulterated from the oxygen.
DEBRA: We need to go to break. So I’ll ask you this question when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. Her website is BotanicalResource.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She is a registered pharmacist who – I can’t talk. I’m just having one of those days. You know who she is. Okay, let’s go over to the question.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly, you know who I am. So we were talking about the large containers of fish oil.
DEBRA: And I had a question for you. Are you talking about large containers of liquid fish oil or fish oil in capsules?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Both.
DEBRA: Okay, so my question is, does the capsule keep the fish oil fresh?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Not necessarily. It’s just a more convenient dosing mechanism for some people. What we have to realize is that oils are sensitive to light, heat and oxygen in that order actually. We know that if something has oxygen coming into it in the bottle, what happens is each time that you open the bottle and take some pills out and then close the bottle, the oxygen is let in the bottle and it stays in there.
And so what happens is the oil itself can start having derogatory products as a result of it. It becomes rancid. You don’t really smell it because it’s not really to the point of – if you think about it, if you kept a bottle of fish oil and you kept the top off and you had it sitting out for weeks on end, eventually, it would start to smell.
But even though it’s just small amounts of oxygen that you keep letting when you keep opening the cap, there are some problems with that.
So a case in point, in Costo and Sam’s, they sell fish oil in these huge, big containers, that’s not good. People think they’re getting such a deal. It’s not a good deal because you really want to have a bottle of fish oil that has maybe 120 in it or 90 capsules or whatever the case may be. You use that up within a month and get a fresh bottle after that. Each time you’re opening it up and you’re letting the capsules out and you’re letting oxygen into the bottle, the derogatory products that are going to be present there in the liquid or in the capsules, either way, those are bad because they have free radicals. And so when you’re consuming those, those free radicals, depending on your anti-oxidants status at the time when you consume them can be probably detrimental to the blood vessels.
And I really wanted to talk a little bit, just briefly, about fish oil just really quickly. There is a study that came out maybe a few weeks ago. And it was talking about how fish oil is shown that the benefits were not really derived there for these patients that had heart disease and that it really didn’t protect the heart and everything. I want to point out something to your listeners. Those patients that were in that study (and it’s very important that we look at the study) had already had a heart attack and had heart disease.
So what I’m telling you is that if you’ve already had a major health problem, you’ve had heart attack or you have heart disease and I give you fish oil, are you going to be like you and me and you’re going to be completely fine? Probably not.
Look at the studies and look at the population of the people that they’re using in that. They didn’t use healthy people. They used people that have already been sick, were on a bunch of cardiac medicines. They gave them fish oil and we’re trying to see if it would protect against further cardiac damage. And the study showed that it probably didn’t.
What that means is that maybe it’s not just fish oil that’s needed when these people are very sick and have heart disease. Maybe they need to be on B vitamins, maybe they need to be on exercise, maybe they need to be on a different diet, all these other things. It’s not all or nothing.
I think that’s important for people to realize when they see this. I read the study and people come in and say, “Well, I guess fish oil really doesn’t do what it says it does.” All these negative studies that they think that they have, you need to look and see. If they were dealing with very, very sick people, you might not have the outcomes you’re expecting because the health of these individuals is very poor.
DEBRA: I think that’s a really important point to make. I think that people read just an article where a reporter who is not trained in these subjects write something and it’s his understanding of what the study is. And when you go and read the study, it’s sometimes completely different.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, it is. Many times, it is. And I think, let’s face it, if you’re trying to make a name for yourself and you’re a reporter, the sensational titles really catch people’s attention.
And maybe they really should have looked at what they’re trying their outcome to be. Is a person’s heart disease going to completely go away? Probably not. But maybe if they’re using homeopathic cardiac glycosides, maybe if they’re incorporating diet and exercise and some other things that we know has shown to be helpful, maybe the outcomes would have been different.
But when you deal with a patient population that already has some baseline health issues that are pretty severe, you might not always see the results that you want. Should this mean that the person who has really bad heart disease shouldn’t take fish oil? No, they need to be taking it. But there might be other things, other variables along with it, some lifestyle factors, that probably are influencing it. That’s really important.
So I don’t want people to stop taking fish oil. I think this is just, since we’re talking about, important to bring that up because it doesn’t mean fish oil doesn’t work.
DEBRA: Fish oil has a lot of other benefits as well. And that said, I’m really understanding in my own life very much lately that it’s a combination of things. Everybody needs their own individual combination of things in order to build health. And we’re exposed to different things. Our bodies are different. And it’s not just one thing. It’s not even just one thing of avoiding toxic. I think that everybody needs to avoid toxic chemicals. Everybody needs to get toxic chemicals out of their bodies as I think like a baseline thing. But then after that, there are still other things that are needed.
PAMELA SEEFELD: What you’re saying is these are inter-individual. And that’s why I like what I’m doing here because I can select these things for you based on your family history and what you think you’re more prone to or at risk for or what situations you have cropping up. It’s really important. I can look at your blood work with you and say, “These are things that I see that are coming. They’re not being flagged yet, but I don’t like these numbers and we need to try and reverse those.”
And especially if you’re dealing with anybody that has some pre-kidney issues or some pre-liver issues, those two things in particular are very, very bad because you don’t want to end up on dialysis and you don’t want to end up with a liver transplant.
So when you start seeing some things, some changes physiologically in the person in their chemistry, their blood chemistry, those you need to act on. And those people in particular would really want to be cognizant of what supplements they’re taking because you don’t want to be taking anything that’s possibly adulterated.
And another thing too, when you see these supplements and it says, “Genko, two for a $1” That’s not Genko because there’s no way they’ll be able to sell that. That’s a lot of these products that were private-labeled by these different pharmacies that were just really junk. They were picking them up because they were cheap.
That’s what really it is. They didn’t go and explore, “Is this an adequate supply? Do these people actually test these things?” We’re looking at that because the bottom line, if you’re a retail business and you’re a chain nationwide, it’s, “What profit am I making off of each bottle?” And that’s what a lot of people need to realize, that the practitioner and the integrity of who’s dealing with the products, that’s very important.
DEBRA: Well, I want to say on your behalf, Pamela, I want to say to the listeners that it’s really a very different experience working with Pamela because not only does she have the products that she’s investigated and evaluated for herself and has been using for many years and she knows the people who are making them and things like that, but she also has the skill and experience to know exactly which products to give you, exactly which natural substance is going to do the thing that your body needs.
And it’s very different in terms of just walking into a natural food store or a drugstore or any place like that where you’re just choosing something off the shelf without having the knowledge that she brings to this. And her knowledge is so great in a large sense. She’s so experienced that she can just choose the right thing and give it to you and it just cuts right through to having the right solution.
It’s very different. I’ve never been to any kind of store like Pamela’s pharmacy. She just does something completely unique that is, I think, so needed in the world.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I really appreciate that. I really pride myself that what we’re providing is a very valuable service here, that people, once they’ve realized that we’re really micro-managing their stuff and just looking at it and we’re doing it in a very economical way, that’s what it’s really all about. It’s making sure that people have quality choices and especially if they’re on prescriptions and they don’t want to be on them or they’re coming close to needing medicine.
I see a lot of people that are coming here and they may be are needing medicine in some time in the future. And I’ll tell them exactly what they’re going to eventually give them and say, “Do you want to just get rid of the problem now? We can address it today.”
But I respect people. If they want to triage something and say, “Okay, let’s check the blood work in another month and see where they’re at,” we can do that too. And if they’re still continuing to get worse, then you have to act on it.
I think people need to have choices. And especially, I keep bringing up the kidney thing because there’s some homeopath stuff that I’ve been using for people with kidney issues and starting to have pre-kidney failure and they’re reversing pretty significantly. I’m even astounded at the numbers. There’s a big, big difference in people’s [inaudible 00:48:48].
In fact, I’m doing some speaking next week, which is continuing education for the doctors. And I’m going to be providing some of the blood work (I only blocked out the names and everything). I’m showing the blood work of people that actually went on some inexpensive, simple, medical homeopathy and his pre-kidney failure was reversed in a month. And that, to me, is just unbelievable. I wouldn’t even expect the results to be that good. Huge differences!
So people need to know there are choices for that. And I’d be very grateful to help you in anything, especially if you have any question about a supplement you’re taking. We’re talking about these hidden dangers, but if you have questions about any kind of contamination or anything that’s going on with it, I’d be very grateful to look and see if we can find us some information, if there are some questions about some kind of adverse reaction that you’ve been having to a supplement you’ve been taking because there’s a lot of that much more prevalent than you would think.
DEBRA: Well, we only have about 20 seconds left. So why don’t you give your phone number again?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, absolutely. My pharmacy is 727-442-4955. I would be very grateful to help you in and your family if you have any questions you might have about your medications or your supplements.
DEBRA: And thank you very much, Pamela. We’ll be back again in two weeks with another show with Pamela Seefeld, a registered pharmacist. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Toxics in Schools
My guest today is Charles Levenstein, Ph.D., MSc , an economist, policy analyst and co-author of The Toxic Schoolhouse. We’ll be talking about chemical hazards endangering students, teachers, and staff in the education system of the United States and Canada. Dr Levenstein is Professor Emeritus in Department of Work Environment, retiring from teaching in 2003. He is adjunct professor of occupational health at Tufts University School of Medicine and one of the leading researchers concerned with social factors in occupational and environmental health. For several years he was co-director of the Organized Labor and Tobacco Control Consortium, funded by the American Legacy Foundation at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. 
He subsequently became a consultant to Dr. Edith Balbach’s NCI-funded research on tobacco industry relations with trade unions. He has served as member and chair of the environmental health and safety committee of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. He has been engaged in intervention research in immigrant communities and in the economic evaluation of occupational health and safety interventions. Until recently, Dr Levenstein chaired the advisory committee for United Steel Workers Federally-funded health and safety projects; he continues to chair the advisory board of The New England Consortium, an NIEHS-funded collaboration of health and safety advocacy groups, trade unions and academics. He is Editor Emeritus of New Solutions, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal of occupational and environmental health policy and is co-editor of the Baywood series on Work, Health and Environment. Dr. Levenstein is a recipient of the American Public Health Association’s award for lifetime contribution to occupational health.
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Toxics in Schools
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Dr. Charles Levenstein
Date of Broadcast: April 07, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Tuesday, April 7th, 2015. It’s a beautiful spring day in Clearwater, Florida. The sun is shining. It’s actually getting a little warm here. People here are here now on spring break. The beach is full of tourists this week and last week. Obviously, this is a beautiful time in Florida.
So today, we’re going to talk about something that we haven’t talked about before on this show, which is toxic exposure to children in schools. I think that this is a very important subject because first of all, children have a much more difficult time with toxic exposures than adults. It’s bad enough for adults, but children have a greater impact.
If you think about a child and an adult standing in the same room, having the same exposure to toxic chemicals, the child’s body is smaller and so the proportion of toxic exposure to body weight is much, much greater for a child. They breathe faster than adults do and so they’re inhaling more of the toxic chemicals they’re being exposed to in the air than adults would be inhaling.
They’re just more sensitive in every way to it. Their bodies, their detox systems are not fully developed. And yet, we send children to school every day right into a toxic environment. You might have a toxic free home, but it’s unlikely that your child has a toxic free school unless they’ve done something about it.
My guest today is an economist, a policy analyst and co-author of a book called the The Toxic Schoolhouse, which very thoroughly explains the problem and what people can do about it. This is something that every parent needs to know about and that every school should be paying attention to.
I’d like to welcome Dr. Charles Levenstein. Welcome to the show.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Thank you, Debra. I’m really glad to be on the show.
DEBRA: Thank you.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: I hope what I say can be of help to people.
DEBRA: I’m sure it will be. I’ve taken a look at your book and there’s just so much information in it. First, I want you to tell us about yourself, your background and how you got interested in toxic schools.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Okay. Well, I’ve been spending years – I was on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in a new department called the Department of Work Environment. In 2003, I was a Professor of Work Environment when I retired.
At that point, the union, which I have been a member of for many years, the Teachers’ Union asked me if I would help the union to develop environmental policies for the schools because they were greatly concerned about exposures to the children and to the teachers and other staff. So I got recruited.
At the time, I didn’t know much about schools. A lot of what I did in those years is to learn about what was going on in the schools, what the efforts were to deal with problems in them. So I educated myself about it and worked with the Environmental Health and Safety Committee in order to try to improve the situation.
The first work that we did was because there were a lot of complaints about indoor air in schools. There were dusts and fumes and odors that the teachers were concerned about and they were sure that the children were being affected by it. There also has been a great increase in asthma both amongst children and among adults in the society. So people were afraid that the indoor air pollution that was going on was having some impact on them. So that’s really the first issue that I became involved with. Shall I say more about that?
DEBRA: Well no, I just wanted to know briefly your background just to start with.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Okay.
DEBRA: And then, we’ll say that you ended up, the end of the story there – or maybe it’s not the end, but somewhere along the way in your story – you were the co-author of a book called The Toxic Schoolhouse.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Yes. I have been the editor of a journal called New Solutions. In the journal, what we tried to do is to get environmental activists, labor activists and public health people together talking about issues on not just about schools, but other places.
Madeleine Scammell who’s a professor at Boston University and I did a special issue of New Solutions on schools and health. We gathered material from a lot of different authors. When we went through it, we realized that this really was not comprehensive. We needed more information. We talked to the publisher of New Solutions, Baywood Publications and suggested that we expand this and make a book. So that’s what you’ve seen, The Toxic Schoolhouse edited by Madeleine and myself, but with authors from all around the country.
So we are hoping that this is not a definitive book of all time, rather it is a first, I think, important step in trying to talk about what the exposures are or some of the exposures are, what people have been trying to do about it and what the central problems are in the schools. That’s what we were after really.
DEBRA: I think that you really did a good job. Obviously, I haven’t read the whole entire book every single word because I couldn’t possibly do that with every guest.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Yes, sure. I understand.
DEBRA: But I’ve looked at a lot of it and you bring up some very good points. I just wanted to start asking you questions about things that you cover in the book.
The first question, chapter one, the first thing that you asked is “Who’s in charge of children’s environmental health at school?” I think that’s an excellent question. Who is in charge? Who’s looking to make sure that the children are not being exposed to toxic chemicals?
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Because I’m an academic, that’s also the most obvious questions for me to be asking. I want to get information. Who do I go to?
The Healthy Schools Network people wrote the chapter on who’s in charge because they also had that question. And the answer to the question is that no one is in charge. That’s very, very disturbing. We had thought that they would be either some state agency or some federal agency that would be concerned about the school environment. And we could not find any single agency that was in charge of it.
So if you were concerned about indoor air, that was one kind of problem. If you were concerned about the use of pesticides, how to control vermin in the schools, that’s another issue. If you were concerned about lead in drinking water, it was a separate issue. If you were concerned about asbestos, there were other agencies involved with it. But there was no coordinated overall agency that was in charge and that was thinking about this.
So we were concerned because we have been working on legislation in Massachusetts to improve indoor air. It was very receptive. The legislation was very receptive to this when we went to talk to them. We did a couple of hearings with them. The only block came when it came up to money. They would say, “Oops, what is this going to cost to deal with it, to improve the indoor air school environment?” And because there had been so much deterioration in the conditions in the schools, it was a colossal amount of money. That’s when our legislators’ support backed off and fell away.
There was not only no coordinated effort, even in the legislature, there was interest and concern, but resistance because of the financial aspect of it.
DEBRA: Well, that is entirely understandable. But I’m looking at it. I don’t have children, so I don’t have children in school. But if I did, my question would be – since I know so much about this subject – I would say, “Listen. There are all these chemicals in the school room that can cause things like neurological effects, which affects the brain, which affects the ability to learn. Exposure to lead reduces IQ for one thing.”
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: That’s right. Yeah.
DEBRA: “So how are the children supposed to learn in a toxic environment? It’s affecting their ability to learn.”
Before you say anything about this, we need to go to break, but we’ll talk about this more when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Charles Levenstein. He is an economist, policy analyst and co-author of The Toxic Schoolhouse. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Charles Levenstein, economist, policy analyst and co-author of The Toxic Schoolhouse.
Dr. Levenstein, before the break, I was bringing up about how children can learn if their school room is filled with toxic chemicals that are affecting their brain function. So I’m going to let you answer that. But also, let’s just talk about now what are the toxic chemicals that children are being exposed to at school.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: One of the major issues is lead in the water. It comes in schools all across the country. Some of it is directly from the pipes, but some of it is from the water fountains in which the pipes are welded together with lead-containing material.
What can you do about that? Well, one at a time, what you can do is you can run the water first. If the water has been standing around, then run the tap first for a while and then drink the water because that will get rid of some of the lead. But that’s a very small part of an answer to this problem.
Let me tell you. When I first got involved with this, I decided…
DEBRA: I want to ask you a question just about water.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Yeah.
DEBRA: So looking at it from my viewpoint, if I was a mom and my kid was in school, here’s what I’d say. I’d say, “Look. We can get a very effective water filter that will not only remove lead, but remove all other toxic chemicals from the water for about $300. Let us parents get together and get that water filter so that our kids don’t have to drink lead in the water or anything else.” Are people not saying this? Are our parents not looking for solutions for their children?
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Part of it is that parents don’t know because there is little monitoring of this problem going on. If the parents were informed, I think that they would be concerned and they would be raising these issues through PTAs with the administration of the school.
And also, the teachers don’t know. We’re also trying to educate the teachers about this. So if neither the parents nor the teachers know, then the administrators have a set of priorities to include things like lead or PCBs or asbestos for that matter.
All these problems are well-established. There’s not really a new need for new science on lead or on asbestos. There’s still need for science on some other materials. But nevertheless, for some of the most basic and ubiquitous problems, the science is out there and someone should be taking care of it in each of the schools, but also in the school system as a whole.
There is no systematic monitoring that goes along with these things. There’s no audit that’s required. On asbestos, it’s supposed to be – do you want to talk about that or you want to stick with lead?
DEBRA: Sure. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, go ahead. I’m so…
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: On the asbestos issue, there is a law, the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Law, which is supposed to be enforced either by EPA, US-EPA or by the state.
When we did a survey in Massachusetts to find out what was going on, we found that 90% of the schools were not in compliance with the law. For someone who has worked in the private sector, I was shocked because you don’t have standards that 90% of the business systempay any attention to.
So when we looked at it, we found what was it that they were not doing? What are they out of compliance with? The major thing that they didn’t do was they’re supposed to inform parents and they’re supposed to inform teachers and other staff about the conditions in the school.
Once a year, there’s supposed to be an audit. And the administration of the school is supposed to inform them about that. That’s what the key violation was.
If that information doesn’t go to the parents or to the teachers, then they don’t know. They assume that everything is fine, that the kids are okay and that they themselves are okay and nothing happens. So the violation of this information providing aspects of laws is really quite fundamental.
DEBRA: I’m just astounded to hear this, but I shouldn’t be. I guess I shouldn’t be because I’ve been doing this work for 30 years. I’ve been talking and talking and talking, writing and writing and writing and being on TV and on radio and everything. And still, the number of people that I think actually knows anything about this is a very small percentage. I meet people every day who have never heard of these problems.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: I am sympathetic to parents who are working all day long and count on the schools to take care of the kids and they count on the schools to be a safe place and they don’t really want to think about it too much. Unless some acute problem shows up, then they assume that things are okay.
The problem is a lot of these substances don’t have an immediate effect. They have long term effect. So it’s even hard to tell whether kids who are exposed when they’re little in school, 10 or 20 years later, develop disease or cancer or whatever. It’s very hard to keep track of that. It is easier to study the teachers because they are there day in and day out and they don’t move as much and they have longer term exposures.
So we have been arguing the need for the studies of cancer in teachers, mesothelioma, which is what you get from asbestos, there really needs to be serious attention to that.
Some of the parent advocates are concerned about that because they say, “Well, what about the kids?” Well, it is hard to do the studies of the kids because we have to track them over long periods of time. But the teachers are there.
When we started to look, for instance, at mesothelioma, the asbestos-related cancer in the schools in Massachusetts, we discovered that there were 19 teachers right off the bat who had that cancer. And when we pushed to the Department of Public Health and the State to look for more, we got it over a period of 10 years, we discovered that they were about 50 staff, teachers, administrators and custodians who have mesothelioma.
Now that rattled the leadership of the union for sure because they didn’t know that. No one was telling them that, but it meant that their members were getting really seriously ill from this stuff.
DEBRA: I need to interrupt you because we need to go to break, but we’ll talk about this more when we come back.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Okay.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Charles Levenstein. He’s the co-author of The Toxic Schoolhouse. It’s a very interesting book about how our children and teachers were being exposed to toxic chemicals. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Charles Levenstein who is the co-author of the book The Toxic Schoolhouse.
Before the break, we were talking about – what were we talking about? We were about to talk about something.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: What I was thinking about was the importance of providing information to parents and to teachers and to the people in the environment. I was thinking about how important that was because in the absence of pressure from either the workers there or from the parents of the kids, the administrators have pressures from school boards and from the community for other kinds of results and they don’t think about the impact, for instance, of lead on learning. It’s not at the top of their political agenda.
DEBRA: No, but I guess my viewpoint is different because I spent all of my adult life studying toxic chemicals in the home and in the world and their health effects and how they affect our bodies and our minds and our ability to think and learn and all of those things. But for somebody who hasn’t done that, I can see that something might be more important.
But to me, I can’t imagine that anything is more important than addressing toxic issues because toxic chemicals affect our ability to be healthy, our bodies to be healthy. They affect our abilities to think clearly, to be able to remember things. All of these different functions that go into learning or working or earning a living or being happy in life, all can be damaged by toxic chemicals and all are being damaged by toxic chemicals.
If schools are concerned about test scores, the first thing I would say to them is get the lead out of the school because lead affects IQ. It affects development. I mean, there’s no safe level for lead.
It just seems like that in the world – this is what I talked about in the summit. But in the world, people aren’t aware. I think everybody needs to be aware that these toxic exposures are going on, that they’re affecting our health, happiness and ability and they need to be at the top of the list.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: I agree with you. I think they should be at the top of the list. And I wonder why they were not at the top of the list.
One of the things I did was to look for whether courses on the management of facilities of the buildings were in graduate schools of education or the administrators and the people who run the schools and the people who are in charge of all this, do they know anything about this? I could not find one course on the management of the facility.
I finally found some things. The Association of School Business Officials has some short courses on that. But we really need the principals and the superintendents to know about this, not just the accountants. And there is no course. So part of the reasons why we’ve been forced to educate ourselves is because there is no place where that is happening already.
I’ll give you an example of a different kind of chemicals, PCBs. PCBs are endocrine disruptors. They’re carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. An endocrine disruptor means that they can affect your reproductive system. They can affect growth and the like over a long period of time.
Now if a school was built in United States between roughly 1950 and 1975, all those schools used PCBs in the caulking around the windows or in the fixtures, in lighting fixtures.
By the end of the late 1970s, there was so much concern about the health effects of PCBs that essentially, it was banned in the United States. It was not banned in the sense of pulling it out of the places where it existed, but it was the further production of it and use of it was banned.
So 1975 until 2000, let’s say, the caulking around those windows has been disturbed. It has dried up and it’s fallen out. It’s contaminated the earth around the school building. Some of it has gotten into the air filters. It went into the air system and the air conditioning. It’s a hazard!
We have had some people – it’s one of the chapters in the book – a guy from Harvard School of Public Health who have gone out and have done measurements to see how much of this is there. Is it a hazard? In some places, it is. In some places, it isn’t.
But the resistance of school officials to looking for it and to finding out about it is enormous. It truly would be expensive to deal with. There is no question.
One of the richer school districts in Massachusetts, they found out about it. They did the measurements. They changed all the windows over the summer and they dealt with the problem.
Less affluent school districts don’t want to know. This denial is a big problem. They just don’t want to know about it because of the implications for what they’re going to have to do.
So we got into trouble with some of them because one of our members forwarded samples to see whether there were PCBs in the caulking and the school said he was trespassing. There was a big scandal about it.
What are you going to do if the schools themselves are not doing the job and don’t want to know? But the state departments of Health are very concerned about school budgets and taxes, so there’s a resistance of knowing too much. We’re worrying because it does affect the teachers and it does affect the other staff in place and it affects the kids – long term effects on the kids. It is deeply concerning.
We had hopes that the control of asbestos was going to be a model for dealing with it. But then it turns out that they don’t enforce the asbestos laws. There are laws.
I initially thought that what I was supposed to do is share with the committee and to propose legislation to improve the situation. And then I realized that we have some laws, but they weren’t being enforced or they were being enforced in a lackadaisical manner because there was no pressure from parents or from the union to at least raise help about it.
So what I’m saying is that parents need to be informed about this and the PTAs need to be pushing to get the school systems to make changes.
DEBRA: I think that’s the place to start. We need to go to break. But we’ll talk more when we come back.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Okay.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Charles Levenstein. He is the co-author of the book The Toxic Schoolhouse. And he’s working to try to get these toxic chemicals out of our schools and protect our children, which is a very good thing to do. Stay tuned. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Charles Levenstein. He is the co-author of the book The Toxic Schoolhouse.
There are a couple of things I want to say. We’re coming to the end of our hour, but I want to get these two things in.
The first one is an e-mail that came in this morning. I subscribe to a lot of different feeds and different places. One of the stories that came in this morning was about fields of toxic pesticides surround schools in Ventura County, California. It talks about how this is an area that particularly grows strawberries and we’re coming in strawberry season now. They’re talking about all the different pesticides that are used on these strawberries and how the children are being affected and increased asthma, et cetera.
As they go to school, these strawberry fields, they’re being sprayed with all these pesticides that are going – I mean, not the children particularly. But if they’re spraying the fields that are right outside the school door, you know that’s going to come into the school room. And certainly, pesticides are used in most, if not all schools in addition to all these other toxic chemicals.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: That’s right. I mean, in terms of spraying the field, the danger is that it can also get into people’s homes because of the drift of the pesticides in the air.
In the schools, we actually were successful in getting legislation to require the schools to develop plans for Integrated Pest Management, which meant the reduction in the use of the most toxic chemicals.
So, one of the tasks in doing the book was to find out, well, we know that there are real problems with the asbestos legislation. What about this requirement?
It’s being enforced by the Department of Agriculture for the state, which is interesting. I hardly knew that there was such a thing in Massachusetts, but there is. We called them up. And they said, “Oh, it’s very successful. Ninety percent or more of the schools have filed their Integrated Pest Management plans.” So we said, “Well, are they actually doing it or they’re just giving you pieces of paper?” At which point, we were told there are no inspectors.
The answer is apparently, they’re in compliance, but as far as we know, we have no way of knowing if they are actually in compliance because there’s nobody going out and checking.
Now, maybe I’m just a nasty urban person, but I think that you have to check when you got a law. You have to know if it’s being enforced or not. I don’t think that parents think a lot about the use of pesticides in the school environment. But in fact, it’s inside and outside. Inside, there are animals that kids bring at lunch. There are insects. They get around. Frequently, they’re in cafeterias. And then outside on the grounds, there are small animals and pests and the like.
So it’s great to have a plan. It’s great to require the schools to have plans. But it is also important that these things be audited. They will not be audited unless the parents put pressure on it. It’s that simple.
DEBRA: That’s exactly right. Of course, parents could just go and audit the schools themselves. They could just go and ask what’s going on and find out why there are toxic chemicals there.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Yeah. I mean, it’s not exactly an audit to ask. But it is actually a good idea to ask because the parents asking means that the administrators are saying, “Uh-oh, we better pay attention to this.”
The other issue around this is the use of cleaning materials. And we have been very active in promoting green cleaners, that is the use of less toxic materials to clean the boards and to clean the classrooms.
I was watching a school system getting an award for being so good about introducing green cleaners. I went up to congratulate the guy who was in charge of that. He was a facilities director. I said, “That’s really wonderful that you’re doing this. Have you been working with the Teachers’ Union at all?”
And he said, “No. The teachers are a real problem.” I said, “What? What do you mean by teachers are a real problem?” He said, “Oh, the teachers bring in their own cleaners because they don’t like the green cleaners.” I realized no one had bothered to sit down with the teachers and explain to them what was going on and why they were doing it.
He said that the teachers are saying, “Well, that nearly doesn’t work so well. Who knows that that stuff works?” And the answer is you have to educate everybody.
DEBRA: You do have to educate everybody.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Including the staff.
DEBRA: Right. You do. Everybody, all along the chain here needs to be engaged in this.
I want to just bring up something else because we’ve only got about six minutes left and that is you talked earlier about doing studies. I just want to share with you and the listening audience who may be considering what we’re talking about here that I’ve been studying this subject for more than 30 years. I started because I got really sick from toxic chemical exposure. Once I figured it out, I said, “Well, I got to find out where the toxic chemicals are if I want to be well.”
There’s an idea called the Precautionary Principle. So I look at studies, I read a lot of scientific studies, but I’m not so reliant on having a scientific study come and examine my house to see if I’m getting sick. The Precautionary Principle says, “If there is evidence of harm, the precautionary thing to do is to not use it.”
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: It seems like a pretty straightforward solution to a problem. Now if you’re still sick after you stopped using it, then you know there was something else that caused the problem.
DEBRA: Right. That’s exactly right.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: But with the large numbers of kids being affected, I think you are – the Precautionary Principles should hold.
DEBRA: I think so too. And this is what I…
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: I want to experiment on the children of the country. That’s a crazy way to behave. We should be very, very…
DEBRA: Right! But that’s what’s going on. It’s like our children are the lab rats for finding out are there toxic chemicals in the school and how long do we need to wait.
I mean, if you’re telling me that there’s lead in the drinking water, I can tell you that there’s safe level for lead. There’s ample evidence to show the dangers of lead. There’s no question that lead is toxic and that it disturbs the way children think and feel and learn.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: That is also true with asbestos.
DEBRA: Right.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: There is no question that it is a serious health hazard for humans. There is no question. There is a question of exactly how PCBs work, but basically it has been established that it is a human carcinogen and it is an endocrine disruptor.
DEBRA: Yes.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Now what does that mean?
If you look at studies across the country, you will see that teachers are at a higher risk of breast cancer than one would expect. So when you ask the question why would that be, there’s no answer to that. They don’t answer.
So all of a sudden, you’ll say, “There are PCBs in all these schools or in a lot of the schools. Could it be that that’s a problem or could it be that the pesticides are a problem? Are there environmental exposures that are…?”
DEBRA: Could it be that combination of PCBs and pesticides are a problem and all the other toxic things?
I just want to throw in also to this discussion that toxic chemicals, like you have mentioned earlier, are not chemicals that you might see an immediate effect for. I think that what most people say is, “Oh, I’m not sick. There’s nothing bothering me.” But what the piece of information that people don’t have is that toxic chemicals get in your body by the various ways that you’re exposed to them and they start to accumulate and you don’t get sick until they accumulate to a certain degree. They have to accumulate and when you get to that level, then you get really sick. But just because you don’t have symptoms doesn’t mean that that accumulation isn’t going on.
This effect is called body burden. And these kids, I’m thinking of these kids sitting in schools, increasing their body burden of toxic chemicals. And when they get really sick, along the line, studies show that people have major illnesses that they use to not get until they’re 50s, 60s and 70s, they’re now getting in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: It’s a lot easier to mobilize people if there is an acute effect. So we had a discussion of PCBs with a group of teachers who are working and the first thing they asked, “Does it give you headaches?” And the answer is no. It doesn’t give you headaches. “Are there any symptoms in the short run of this?” And the answer is no, there are no symptoms. So we’re arguing for a control of an exposure and it’s going to cost money to do that to get rid of the stuff for which there is no immediate impact. It is a long term effect.
DEBRA: It is a long term effect, but people are not thinking about the long term effect.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Yes.
DEBRA: Anyway, we’ve got less than a minute here. I don’t want to interrupt you from talking about something.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: That’s okay.
DEBRA: I just want to say thank you so much. This is a very, very important subject. I think that we’re just scratching the surface here. But I’m going to talk about it more on the show and see what I can do to start spreading the word.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Okay. You should tell people that the book is available from Baywood either as an electronic form or in paperback. We would love to get people’s comments and criticisms and suggestions as to the direction on which to go to move forward with this.
DEBRA: And you can go to Toxic…
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Thank you.
DEBRA: You’re welcome.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Yes.
DEBRA: Thank you. If you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, I have a link directly to the book.
CHARLES LEVENSTEIN: Great, okay.
DEBRA: So you can get it there and listen to the show again if you want and other shows. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Thanks for listening. Be well.
New Refrigerator Off-Gassing
Question from Dee Downing
Hi Debra,
Your book Non-toxic and Natural became the cornerstone of the filtration system for “all things entering my domain” in my first home as a mother back in the early 90’s.
It is still my reference point as I evaluate products. The “alternatives” sections became the recipes that I still use. THANK YOU.
I have been in my current home for 12 years with the same refrigerator that was here when we moved in… I’m considering a new refrigerator, yet am stalling, due to the off gassing of new units. (I’ve been “considering” a purchase for 6 years!)
I have searched the web and found very little discourse and no refrigerators that are manufactured with materials that do not off gas.
Are you familiar with with any manufacturers addressing this issue? Frankly, I am blown away that with all the discourse (finally) about our polluted food system that no one is talking about how we put our “locally grown organic” produce in a toxic box whose vapors infuse this clean food with toxic gases.
I am considering purchasing a new refrigerator before my existing ‘fridge poops out. I thought I could set it in the sun for a few months–before I need it.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance and thank you for your enduring work.
Debra’s Answer
I wish I could give you the brand and model of a safe refrigerator, but unfortunately there are no “toxic free” refrigerators.
I bought a new refrigerator ten years ago. It’s a Kenmore “Trio” and I love it. I bought it new but it was a floor model so it had more time to outgas.
The best I can tell you with all appliances is to buy used or floor models that have had time to outgas.
And yes, putting a refrigerator outdoors in the sun with the doors open will help it outgas faster.
Pesticide Use in Hotels
This week a story has been in the news about a Delaware family who was poisoned by pesticides sprayed in their Caribbean hotel room.
Delaware family poisoned in Caribbean condo
The family began having seizures after methyl bromide was used to fumigate a nearby room in the condo complex. They were taken to island hospitals and then airlifted back to America for further treatment.
Methyl bomide is an odorless pesticide that can be fatal or cause serious central nervous system and respiratory system damage. Use of this pesticide is restricted in the United States and it’s territories, which includes the Virgin Islands.
It was applied by Terminix, a USA company that should know that the pesticide is not for indoor use.
While this is an isolated incident, it brings attention to the fact that pesticides are routinely used in hotel rooms, especially in areas like the Caribbean where there are a lot of insects.
Pesticide use is something to ask about when choosing a hotel.
Healing Through Nature’s Wisdom
My guest today is Dana Simpson, co-author of Journeys: Healing Through Nature’s Wisdom. This inspiring book of essays and gorgeous nature photographs follows two women as they discover nature as a healing force. Dana was diagnosed with Lyme’s disease in 2012, nearly a decade after a tick bite during a summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. For years, she felt “unwell,” with symptoms of 
fatigue, depression, and chronic pain. A daily practice of gentle walks and writing inspired a dialogue with nature that gradually allowed her to understand and accept her condition. Dana attended Bryn Mawr, Harvard and Columbia, and holds master degrees in Urban Planning and Art History. She lives in Santa Barbara where she works in the nonprofit sector, and cares for a beautiful garden with her partner. www.healingthroughnatureswisdom.com/
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Healing through Nature’s Wisdom
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Dana Simpson
Date of Broadcast: April 02, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
It’s Thursday, April 2nd. It’s a beautiful day here in Clearwater, Florida. I’m sitting here eating. I don’t know where you all are in different timezones. I know that people listen all over the world to this show, but my time zone is 12 noon and so it’s lunch time when I’m doing this show and I usually don’t eat, but today, I have to run out right after the show. Usually, I eat afterwards.
I made a salad this morning to take its picture for my food blog. It will be posted tomorrow. The salad has raw asparagus and cucumbers and celery and a little red onion for color in the plate. It’s so delicious. I have little olive oil and Himalayan peanut salt on it.
If you’ve never had raw asparagus, please. Your salad sounds delicious. I am going to pick up some asparagus at the market today and just eat it because it’s crispy and cool and wet and sweet and it didn’t taste anything like what you probably think it tastes like. It’s just great in a salad or just eat it by itself or dip it in something that you’d like to dip it in. I want to encourage people to eat raw asparagus because I love it so much.
Anyway, what we’re talking about today is a little different. My guest today is a co-author of a book that is about – the two co-authors found healing in nature. They both had illnesses, long-term, ongoing illnesses, but they found comfort and healing by being out in nature and reconnecting with nature and understanding more about nature’s processes. The book is called Journeys: Healing through Nature’s Wisdom. They wrote a book. It’s full of their essays and gorgeous, gorgeous nature photography. It really gives you an idea that nature is there and embracing us as part of the whole.
My guest is Dana Simpson. We’ll be talking about her experience. Hi Dana.
DANA SIMPSON Good morning, Debra. Oh, I should say good afternoon.
DEBRA: Good afternoon, yes.
DANA SIMPSON I’m on the west coast.
DEBRA: You’re in California, right?
DANA SIMPSON I am, and we’re having a windy day today.
DEBRA: Oh, good. I love windy days.
DANA SIMPSON Boy! That’s something I’m going to look forward today in the market.
DEBRA: So tell us your story of what happened that led to writing the book.
DANA SIMPSON Thank you. I must say that it’s an event in my life that I never saw coming. I know people talk about things that are life changing. Meeting Karen Roberts was truly a life-changing moment. We were introduced by the headmaster of my middle school who I had reconnected with in a meditation class. When I heard his voice, my heart just leapt, so I just followed that. I called him up and we met and I told him about my experiences with Lyme disease.
He recently had met Karen actually in a parking lot. They just had started talking thinking that they had known each other. This was their first meeting! He realized that the two of us were very similar.
[00:04:49 inaudible due to transmission problems]
In 2002, I was on a summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard and enjoying the beautiful landscape. I spent time hiking. Well, I shouldn’t say hiking, but walking the trails and enjoying the seashore and I was bit by a tick.
Fortunately, I discovered it. I did develop the bullseye rash, which we know is the telltale sign of Lyme. I was able to receive a short treatment of antibiotics, but it was a very short course. It was just about five days. Our knowledge of the treatment has expanded greatly and we know that it does require much more rigorous treatment upon detection.
So yeah, I must say, at that point, I really did think that I was cured and I put it out of my mind. But then, symptoms started to appear – migrating pain, a great deal of fatigue. I was a graduate student at the time. I was doing a master’s and planning to continue into the PhD program, but I just became very weak. And really, I found myself more or less sort of falling out of life.
That period lasted for about ten years.
DEBRA: I understand what that’s like. Are you hearing me okay because you’re kind of cutting in and out to me? I’m not hearing everything that you’re saying. Are you hearing me?
DANA SIMPSON I’m sorry. I am hearing you. I am on a landline, yes. The connection seems fine at this end.
DEBRA: Okay, good. I just thought I’d check because yesterday, we were having some problems with my guest from Sweden just with the transmission.
So what I wanted to do is just say that regardless of whatever illness that our listeners may have, what we’re talking about today is nature as a human force no matter what your situation may be. My guest is talking about Lyme disease, but I know for me, when I was very sick from toxic chemical exposure, I had the same experience of turning to nature for healing – not the same individual experience that she had, but the same general experience of saying, “How do I get out of this? How do I stop being sick from toxic chemicals?” The answer for me was to go without in nature and to get out of the city, get out of the industrial world and go be in nature. It was profoundly life changing for me to do that. It was also profoundly life changing for Dana as I understand from her book.
So go on with your story.
DANA SIMPSON And basically, Karen has multiple sclerosis. So that’s her chronic and lifelong illness. But yes, I think for both Karen and I, she had been a very successful woman on Wall Street pursuing a career and on a life path that was pushing her forward every moment of the day. I, as well, had finished one graduate program and was moving forward into another graduate program. I was living in the head. I was excited about the future I saw, but very disconnected. I was disconnected from my body and I was certainly disconnected from my environment.
I was physically, extremely active, but I never took time to rest and repair and recover. That was really one of the first lessons that I’ve learned by reconnecting with nature. It gave me the opportunity to take pause. I think that was one of the first gifts that enabled me to assess my situation, to assess my physical situation, my mental situation and my environment.
And once I did that, it opened me to asking questions about my own nature. Interestingly, perhaps, as woman, perhaps just as a product of our culture and society. I hadn’t taken time to think about my internal world, my system and also, the complements in nature, watching a flowing river or stream, thinking about the wind.
In Chinese medicine, for example, the winds were used as a way to assess the pulse. And that was just one insight. I started thinking about the rhythms of nature, the seasons of nature and how that was also present in my own body. And I think that was a very slow process of seeking, but that was really what nature first gave me to – as I said, to kind of tune in to my own senses, which I think is what nature provides, an opportunity to see colors, to feel textures, to see patterns, to touch.
DEBRA: Yes. Yes, definitely. We need to go to break. During the break, the studio is going to call you again and see if we can get a better connection.
DANA SIMPSON Oh, very good.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dana Simpson. She’s the co-author of Journeys: Healing through Nature’s Wisdom. We’re talking today about her experience with nature as a healing force. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. I was munching again on my delicious draw asparagus salad during the break. It was so good. I don’t often mention that I do have a food blog at ToxicFreeKitchen.com. I think there are no hyphens on that one. You can just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and go up to the menu and click on ‘Food’. It goes to my food blog. And tomorrow, this recipe and a picture of what I’m eating will be up by noon.
But we’re talking about nature today with my guest, Dana Simpson. She’s the co-author of Journeys: Healing through Nature’s Wisdom, an awareness of our connection with nature. I know for me that when I became aware of nature many years ago, one of the things that happened was that I wanted to eat actual food from nature, not food out of a package. There was a big shift for me around that in eating seasonally and locally. That’s one of the things that changed.
I’m so happy that we’re talking about this today, Dana because I know that I went through a similar shift that you’re talking about, living out in the natural world. I went and lived in a forest by myself in a little, tiny house for two years and it completely changed my orientation to life. You can see those similarities between our bodies, the body of our bodies and the body of the planet. They’re both systems, they both have flows going through them. Rivers of blood run through our bodies. It’s water. In our bodies, it’s blood, but it’s still a river. There’s bleeding going on and there’s organization going on, there’s eating and there’s waste and all the aspects of the system that go on. That bigger macrocosm is going on in the microcosm of our bodies. It’s so interesting to see.
I remember one of my early realizations was to understand that when I breathe in, when my body breathes in, I’m breathing in oxygen, which is produced by trees and plants. And when I exhale, I’m exhaling carbon dioxide, which is what plants eat. They need our carbon dioxide. And then they transform it into oxygen so that we then can breathe the oxygen that we need.
Just to see this beautiful exchange that goes on, how the plants are creating the very air we breathe, just to see those kinds of things really made me see all the interconnection. It really changed me from living in an industrial world to living in nature and seeing myself as a being of nature like a tree or an animal that were in the natural world. And then the industrial world is just kind of this other thing.
DANA SIMPSON That’s a breathtaking description, yes.
DEBRA: Thank you. Thank you. It really was. It was a shift for me out of the industrial world. Even though I still buy things at the stores and I have a computer and I’m using industrial everything to have this conversation, my awareness and my heart is in the natural world. And that’s why I appreciate so much what you’ve done.
DANA SIMPSON Well, thank you, thank you. Both Karen and I were discussing our healing journeys and the inner journey that complimented our process. It has been, as I said, just very life changing to get the affirmation in our connection and in our ability to share our stories first with each other.
We began with an email communication. So in writing to one another, we realized that we had this book that we wanted to present and share. Karen has traveled… for many years with an incredible photographer. She turned to photography as one way to sort of develop a new form of expression and creativity in her life. So we were able to capture images from incredible places including a few trips that I’ve taken in the last year as well.
I must say, hiking is a completely [00:18:42 inaudible due to transmission problems] begun to explore and enjoy. And one of the great gifts I received each time I take a hike is I’m reminded that I can choose the path I take. That’s been something, to be able to set aside the expectations we place on ourselves and to choose where we’re going to take ourselves that particular moment and day and to accept if we choose, perhaps, to sit and be still or if we choose to be more active. How we want to move through nature can then guide us in how we move through the world.
I appreciate what you’ve said about creating mindful choices that integrate everything from how you eat to the water you drink to the mattress you sleep on, to create an environment that is healthful and health-giving.
DEBRA: And I think about that. My mattress that I sleep on, it’s from a company called Shepard’s Stream. I’ve had it for a number of years. So I moved here in Florida for I think 13 years now, 14 years. And so the mattress I got when I was in California is even older than that, but it’s still like new.
But the thing was that it was made. The sheep produced the wool and it was made into a mattress within an hour’s drive of my house. I could go visit the sheet. I slept one time in the work room where the mattress was made. I could go meet the makers of it. I really am aware when I lie down at night that I’m sleeping on sheep, the wool of sheep and I know what their environment is like. That’s a whole different awareness.
When you sleep on a polyurethane foam mattress, what you’re sleeping on crude oil and we don’t even have those awarenesses for the most part.
I can look around on my desk and I can see I have this wooden desk and it’s oak and I know what an oak tree looks like. It’s trimmed with purple heart wood. I don’t know what that looks like, but I know it’s a tree. That’s the kind of process that happens in my mind nowadays.
We need to go to break again, but when we come back, I’d like you to tell us a story from your book. So during the break, you can consider which one you’d like to tell. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dana Simpson, author of Journeys: Healing through Nature’s Wisdom. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dana Simpson. She’s the co-author of the book, Journeys; Healing through Nature’s Wisdom. You can go to her website at HealingthroughNaturesWisdom.com.
So Dana, tell us a little bit about the book, what’s in it, how it’s organized and then tell us the story from it.
DANA SIMPSON: Yes! So our book is a collection of essays intended to be uplifting and inspiring. Karen and I talk about our process with our illness, but more importantly, we’ve tried in each of our essays to share a moment of joy that we experienced on one of our travels.
I’ve shared with you, Karen has travelled extensively with Tim Hauf who’s an incredibly acclaimed photographer. So the images of the landscape are meant really to be a journey as well as the written word.
My travels have been much closer to my home in Santa Barbara. I’m blessed to live in a beautiful natural environment. And speaking of your earlier comment about living in the industrial world, I had been living in New York City and desperately needed to get out of that environment as well.
One of the stories in the book is actually just about traveling to Ojai. Ojai is a very special, small community just south of Santa Barbara. It’s considered a spiritual place. Have you been there, Debra?
DEBRA: I’ve been to Ojai and I actually has a story about being in Ojai. There’s a restaurant there. I’ve forgotten the name of it, but you probably know what it is. It’s a pretty famous restaurant. They had this delicious pea soup. Do you know which one I’m talking about?
DANA SIMPSON I must say my trips were often just to my doctor’s office, but it sounds delicious. I have to find it.
DEBRA: Sometimes, I go to restaurants where it’s just a revelation the way they prepare the food. I just am so aware of all food being living creatures, plants or animals. It’s all life. And so when I get something that’s so incredibly prepared, that it really honors, enhances and celebrates, that the preparation really enhances the nature of the food – and this is one of those experiences. It was just this pea soup that just was amazing. And it was in Ojai. That’s what I remember about it.
DANA SIMPSON Wonderful, wonderful.
DEBRA: And you see, to me, that is really honoring nature in our daily lives. It is honoring nature in our daily lives.
DANA SIMPSON How we prepare our food, yes, yes. I have the great honor to be a caretaker of a wonderful garden. I must say, growing our own vegetables and having my hands in the dirt, in the earth, that was also something as I started just spending more time outdoors. I was visiting a park in Sta. Barbara frequently and I realized I wanted to give my service.
I think that’s another lesson that nature often stirs in us. It opens our heart to how we want to be in the world. And so I started asking myself, “What can I do?” At that moment, I didn’t know what tomorrow would look like, but I knew in that moment, I just wanted to start to touch the earth again. I remember taking my shoes off in this park, walking, just feeling the contact again.
And one of the essays actually does share with you what it was like when I took my shoes off and started to feel my body move again and feel the earth and feel that connection. Part of it was inspired by taking some Tai Chi classes at that moment, but it just was opening up a whole new channel, a rooted channel.
And in that park, I also started thinking, “Maybe I can be of help,” so I volunteered. Once a week, I would go down there and help garden. Doing that for my community also helped me start to think more about what I could do in the world in a professional way as well.
DEBRA: One of the things that I learned from nature was to think beyond myself.
DANA SIMPSON Yes!
DEBRA: I think that in the industrial paradigm, we think so much about me and we don’t think about where anything comes from. We think that things come from the store. We think that our survival is based on earning money. It’s all about, “How can I survive?”
One of the first things I got from nature was my survival is dependent on nature. Where does all the things from the store come from? Well, they come from nature. If we don’t have the raw materials to make all those things, we don’t have the things. If we don’t protect those environments, if we don’t regenerate our soil, if we don’t do those things, we don’t have anything that supports our own bodies.
And so our life is totally dependent on the integrity of the whole planet and of our local ecosystems. And until you realize that that ecosystem is there, that you’re living in an ecosystem, until that you conceive that nature is there, the planet is there, that there’s a cosmos, until you can be aware of that, you can’t possibly feel connected to it.
The first thing is just being aware that it’s there. I had so much attention on, “How was I going to earn money? What am I going to buy next? What’s playing at the local movie theatre?” that I wasn’t even looking at nature. It wasn’t until I actually went out in nature that [inaudible 00:33:21].
DANA SIMPSON Well, your experience with the forest is just so beautiful. I was reading an article recently about research coming out of Japan on ‘forest bathing’ as they have titled it and just the benefits of immersing ourselves in that green view, in that air, in that environment.
And living by the ocean, I spent many, many mornings at the beach. Often, I was too tired and in too much pain to walk, but just by sitting by the seashore and beginning to contemplate footprints, beginning to think about the tides and the shells and then asking myself, as you’ve explained, “Where has this water been? Where is it going? What are these broader cycles that support and sustain the earth?”
And interstingly, at the same time that I was asking these questions, I was asking about, “How do I support my body?” I really hadn’t done that. I just had always assumed that I push myself physically.
So yes, the awareness to ask about my food sources and then learning about integrative medicine and other options for healing.
DEBRA: This is so beautiful. I’m so glad you’re on so that we could talk about this today.
DANA SIMPSON Thank you.
DEBRA: We need to go to break, but we’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dana Simpson. She’s the co-author of Journeys: Healing through Nature’s Wisdom. Her website is HealingthroughNaturesWisdom.com. As with all shows, they all get archived. I’m also making transcripts now. We’ll have some of the photos from the Journeys book on her show page at ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com coming up next week. Make sure you take a look at those. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dana Simpson, co-author of Journeys: Healing through Nature’s Wisdom and her website is HealingthroughNaturesWisdom.com.
So Dana, let’s talk about some things that our listeners can do in their everyday lives to reconnect with nature. I want to tell a little story about an experience that I had many years ago when I wrote an essay about those called ‘seeing nature’, which was even published in a book.
What I want to say is that when I first met my husband, we were walking down the street in San Francisco in the financial district. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to this financial district, but it’s skyscrapers. It’s like New York. You look up and it’s very tall buildings and you just see this little piece of sky and it’s very cold because not much sun comes down in those spaces.
And so we were walking down the street and all of a sudden, he said, “Did you see that bird? What bird is that?” I had no idea that there was any nature there. I was looking at the cement, I was looking at the architecture, I was looking at the shop windows and he was looking at the birds.
I realized that he has like nature vision. We see things selectively. He sees nature no matter where we are, he’s going to feel the wind, he’s going to see the sunbeams, he’s going to look at the bird.
He recently did a cross-country trip. I said to him, “Well, how was your trip?” and he said, “Oh, I saw a flock of deer in Texas.” He didn’t say, “I went to a museum.” He said, “I saw a flock of deer.”
DANA SIMPSON Wow! He’s a gift.
DEBRA: He is. This is just the way he is. This was a whole new way of seeing the world for me.
I started to looking at things that way as well. One of the things that I occasionally do is take my cellphone – I hate to say this – take my cellphone when I go for a walk. I particularly look for things that I think are unique and seasonal along my path that I’m walking and I’ll take a picture of that.
Now that I know how bad cellphones are – I mean, really bad that you don’t even want to carry them anywhere near you – I think a better suggestion would be for me to mentally take a picture of something, to remember that this flower is in bloom. I can carry a little sketchbook or something.
Instead of walking blindly down the road, to see things, to see individual things, that makes nature more alive for me, just to be aware that it’s there as I’m going through life.
DANA SIMPSON That’s beautiful. That’s just beautiful. It makes me think also of when I was trying to listen to myself in a new way, trying to really hear my inner voice in a new way through this process especially when I was undiagnosed for so long and doctors were just puzzled by me and left me feeling so alone and I did start to meditate.
I remember sitting in this old house with a group of people who made this commitment to gather once a week and just making that commitment to each other. I remember I needed that feeling as I was trying to feel my own humanity again really.
I remember we sat in the silence and I heard an owl. I’ll never forget that meditation. Just being silent opens up this opportunity to connect with nature and in any moment of our day. Giving ourselves that quiet time when we turn off our computers and our cellphones and such is so vital.
I’ve been lucky in the sense that I must say, I don’t carry a cellphone and I’ve made a choice to try to live in as present a way as possible. But I know taking the time to remove those distractions will often open you to sounds and beings that you may not have realized that you’re sharing this space with and this journey with every minute of our day.
And yes, observation, I think that was one of the great gifts that I found. Through observation of nature, it opened this wonderful door to asking questions.
And I did start to study botany a little bit.
DEBRA: Yes, so did I!
DANA SIMPSON Oh, good, good. Yes!
DEBRA: You see the plants are there. There’s something there besides something made by a human.
DANA SIMPSON Exactly!
DEBRA: A plant is there and it’s alive. It’s a being with a body. You want to know more about them. You want to know what their names are, you want to know how they function just like you want to get to know a friend.
DANA SIMPSON It is, yes. That’s a beautiful way to put it. And as I was learning more about the systems as well, I also discovered really natural essences, plant essences, Bach Flower Remedies as one example and just was able to look at my emotions and then looking at the plants and looking at remedies.
I remember taking oak, for instance, for a period of time. I was so taken by that because I realized that the oak tree was speaking to me and I was spending time with a particular oak tree because it just felt so grounded and rooted. And then I realized I was taking this essence and what emotions it was helping me work through at that time.
So again, the connection was just amazing.
DEBRA: It is pretty amazing! It was pretty amazing. Wow! We’ve only got five minutes left. Doesn’t that go by fast?
DANA SIMPSON It does!
DEBRA: We’ve only got five minute left, so I want to make sure that you get to say whatever it is you want to say to make sure that you get your whole message communicated here.
DANA SIMPSON Well Debra, you’ve just shared so much today. I just have so enjoyed this conversation, thank you.
DEBRA: You’re welcome.
DANA SIMPSON Thank you. And I did want to share with you and your audience that I know that your incredible personal commitment to educating us about toxins was definitely part of my healing as well. The doctor who diagnosed me in Ojai was a doctor of environmental medicine and genetics. He taught me about food allergies. He taught me about heavy metals. I had very high heavy metal loads just from, I think, living for a very short period of time in some major cities. But just a few years had been enough exposure to lead and other heavy metals that.
I went through chelation treatment. I also benefited greatly from infrared sauna treatments and I did choose to do a cleanse. I continue to do juice cleanses, but I did it a fairly intensive cleanse, about 21 days and I must say it completely returned me to water. I realized that the taste of water is just divine.
DEBRA: It is! It is! I agree with you, I agree with you. And without going off to a whole other story, it was actually water that got me into wanting to be aware of nature. I went to Mt. Shasta and I drank water out of a spring in Mt. Shasta and it tasted so different than any water I’ve ever had. It felt so different in my body I just cried. I cried when I drank that water because I said, “This is the water I should be drinking. Why are we not drinking it? Where has this world gone that we’re not all drinking this water?” And that’s what started my journey into nature, drinking water.
DANA SIMPSON Ah, yes! Well, water has a vibration, I agree. There was a moment of great sadness when I realized that I had turned away, that I was drinking sodas and caffeine. I had certain addictions that were pushing my body to the point of depletion.
Going through the cleanse process was profound. And I think that yes, the toxins we carry in our bodies, even when we think we’re living in a way that’s very clean, it’s something that we need to do to support our health.
I appreciate so much that you encourage everyone to look at not only what they put in their body, but look at the things that they surround themselves with and how that interacts with our cells, this very fragile system that we have to care for, our beautiful body. We need to be very mindful of that. And feel so honored to have this to carry us through this world.
DEBRA: Well, I totally agree with that. I especially want to emphasized what you’ve just said about caring for our bodies. I think in our culture, it’s very common to just push our bodies and neglect our bodies and then we get sick and we go, “What happened? What happened?” not realizing that it’s our own lack of care.
So I’m going to end on that note because we’ve only got about 30 seconds left before the music comes on and I don’t want to cut you off. But thank you so much. Your book is beautiful. I’ll just give your website again. The name of the book is Journeys: Healing through Nature’s Wisdom. You can go to HealingthroughNaturesWisdom.com and see some photographs from the book and order it there.
Again, thank you so much, Dana for being with me today. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well!
DANA SIMPSON Thank you, Debra.
DEBRA: Thank you.
How Indoor Air Quality Testing and Inspection Can Help You Create a Healthy Home
Today my guest is Will Spates, president of Indoor Environmental Technologies, Inc. (IET). We’ll be talking about common indoor air quality problems and how testing and inspections can help you identify and solve indoor air quality problems. Will has been involved in environmental inspections for over 30 years, which has well prepared him for the investigation of building-related moisture damage and environmental health issues. Since starting the business in 1992, Will has done over 7,000 inspections of commercial and residential buildings. Will has studied microbiology, environmental testing and building science in graduate level classes and courses in the US and Germany. From 2000 to 2004 he was an instructor teaching seminars for the Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) and the Institute for Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) on mold remediation. He has recently been teaching continuing education classes for the Contractor’s Institute related to building science, moisture, mold and indoor air quality, as well as specialty classes for other clients. He and his firm provide expert services related to new healthy construction, building investigations, legal and insurance support and construction defects related to moisture intrusion and mold growth. IET is also considered expert in Chinese drywall investigation, spray foam insulation and mitigation as well as laminate flooring formaldehyde emissions. www.IETBuildingHealth.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
How Indoor Air Quality Testing and Inspection Can Help You Create a Healthy Home
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Will Spates
Date of Broadcast: March 31, 2015
DEBRA: Hi! I am Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Tuesday, March 31st 2015. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida where we’re having a beautiful, beautiful sunny day. Today, we’re going to talk about indoor air quality and specifically, about testing the indoor air in your home. What you might find out from doing that, why you might want to do that, what are some common indoor air quality problems?
My guest today is Will Spates. He’s the president of Indoor Environmental Technologies. He’s right here in Clearwater, Florida. I’ve known him for a long time. He does such inspections. He’s going to tell us all about it. Hi, Will!
WILL SPATES: Hi! How are you doing, Debra?
DEBRA: Good. How are you?
WILL SPATES: I’m doing fine. Thank you.
DEBRA: Good. Isn’t it a beautiful day here?
WILL SPATES: Yes. It is. Most definitely
DEBRA: Lots of sunshine and lots of flowers. So, you’ve been doing indoor environmental inspections for more than 30 years. And at the time you started, that wasn’t a very well-known thing to do. How did you get interested in this subject?
WILL SPATES: I moved into a home that I purchased and I started having allergic symptoms at the time. I was a merchant marine and I was spending a lot of my time at sea and I ended up having to start taking allergy shots.
When I left on after my first trip moving into this home, within a week of being at sea, all of my symptoms went away. I came back about three months later, they returned. I looked at the house. Then I [inaudible 00:02:47] carpeting. I don’t like the gas furnace. It’s 30 years old. It needs to be changed out. I started making some changes in it. And then, I got tired of going to sea and I figured I was going to start a business creating healthy buildings.
DEBRA: That’s very good. Tell us something about the history of indoor air problems and air quality as a field. I remember when I first started writing my books, I’m looking at toxics, there wasn’t actually a field of indoor air quality. How did that come to happen?
WILL SPATES: The terms ‘Sick Building Syndrome and Building-related Illness started to enter into mainstream, I would say in late 80s, early 90s. We started building very energy efficient homes in the 70s after the first energy crash. We wanted to reduce our demands on fossil fuels and our energy cost.
My approach to this is build tight, ventilate right and use healthy materials. And what we had is we were building very tight, we weren’t ventilating at all and we were using a lot of manufactured materials that contains a lot of false organic compound; formaldehyde being one of the most common ones. That was what I was noticing. The articles that I was reading seem to indicate that we were lacking ventilation in residential homes and it’s required in commercial building.
So it’s basically using material that can impact our health and then not having a way of ventilating them at the time that we’re using them. So, it just seems to be an issue. We’re circulating air over and over again and that’s not a healthy situation.
DEBRA: Yeah, I remember. At that time when energy efficiency changed everything and when I started writing, it was just about that time, they were talking about chemicals building up in newly energy efficient buildings and homes. It started to be called ’indoor air quality’. It started to be a field.
Whereas before, it wasn’t, because people lived in leaky houses where there was air exchange going on between the indoors and outdoors throughout those little cracks that got filled up, so that we could save on energy and then it became a toxic problem.
But I think that it was a blessing in disguise because other toxic chemicals were there before, but nobody was paying attention to them. And then the cracks got filled and people started seeing that they were building up and that we needed to do something about it.
Before we start talking about what you do exactly. Would you just give us a little overview of the problems that happen in indoor air for people that aren’t’ familiar with that?
WILL SPATES: Debra, I think I have sort of a bad disconnection. Could you repeat that question again, please?
DEBRA: Yeah. And you now what? During the break, we’ll reconnect in a few minutes. I will repeat the question because I’m getting a lot of static on my end. The question is, before we start talking about what you do, would you just give us an overview of what typical indoor air quality problems are?
WILL SPATES: If I understand it correctly, the air quality problems that we’re finding in homes are pretty much the result of just unconscious construction and bringing materials into our homes that aren’t healthy to begin with. The fiery curtains that they apply to pretty much every textile that comes into our home, the formaldehyde that they use as binders and building materials whether from medium density fiber boards to the rebound carpeting pad underneath your carpeting all contribute to this. We need to exercise a level of conscious construction and conscious decision making in what we bring into our homes.
DEBRA: What are some of the typical pollutants that you find like gasses and some particles and molds and things like that?
WILL SPATES: The testing, it depends on how technical you want the testing to be. Right now, we’re doing a lot of inspections on homes that have had spray foam insulation applied in order to make their homes more energy efficient and reduce their energy bills. Unfortunately, not all spray foams are created equal or applied with the same level of care that they should be, according to the manufacturer.
This has resulted in some very toxic homes that actually require healthy people to have to move out of them. I have an inspection tomorrow where this is a legal situation. We’re doing some very expensive testing using some of the best labs in the country and figuring out what’s going on in there and establishing a baseline. Then once we know what the baseline is, we know what the air exchange rates are in the home, we can figure that out by using a blower door test and checking the ductwork to make sure that that’s not leaking and drawing air in from the attic where they spray foam is located.
We come up with a mitigation strategy in order to bring this out back in the balance again. And after that simple method, we perform post remediation testing to see if the outside air that is coming in is diluting it enough so that it’s what we consider a ‘slight to no anomaly’ range according to building biology standards that I reference.
DEBRA: That sounds like that would be an unusual situation where somebody who would have that toxic insulation kind of problem. What are some of the things that people would find in a typical house?
WILL SPATES: Are you familiar with the lumber liquidators challenge going on out there right now?
DEBRA: Yes. Tell us more about that.
WILL SPATES: I did an inspection on that yesterday. The flooring was installed three years ago. It was a very tight home, but the family was also healthy oriented and they do open the windows as much as they can.
They do have two young children. I would say 80% of their home is covered in a brand of the lumber liquidator, St. James Laminant Flooring that has been implicated in this expose.
DEBRA: We need to go to break but we’ll hear more of this after the break. We’ll be back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dad and my guest today is Will Spates. He’s the president of Indoor Environmental Technologies here in Clearwater, Florida. His website is IETBuildingHealth.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening today to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Will Spates, President of Indoor Environmental Technologies. His website is IETBuildingHealth.com. So Will, before the break you were telling us about an inspection that you did on a house that had lumber liquidators flooring in it. What did you find?
WILL SPATES: Where we were going with this was I did the inspection yesterday and they had it over most of their home. It’s a three-story townhome and the floor was installed about three years ago.
A woman saw our blog on the internet and also an interview I was in related to the subject that is also on our blog. She gave us a call and she was very concerned. She has a two year old and a four year old. We went out there.
Fortunately, I was able to tell her that the levels for formaldehyde were in the slight to no anomaly range meaning that there really wasn’t any concern and they were doing the right thing by ventilating. She asked me, “What would have it been like when my children my born two or three years ago.” I said I really can’t speak to that. There are also other many forms of formaldehyde containing materials in a home.
But we do have the tools to make the invisible world more visible. We can sample for pretty much any type of analyte out there with what I’ve learned over the past 25 years. The technologies have improved dramatically where we can sample down to tens of a part per billion of VOCs for some compounds. It really is becoming a much more refined science. We can put names on things and make the invisible world visible to us and come up with strategies on how to minimize our exposure.
DEBRA: I like that the way you say ‘make the invisible world visible’. Now, I’m having trouble with my sound here. They just fixed it. I like the way you say ‘making the invisible world visible’ because all these pollutants, whether they are particles or gases, they are invisible. We can’t see them. So, it’s always good to be able to see, for you to be able to tell us what’s going on with it.
Why would somebody call you as an inspector? What would prompt them to do that?
WILL SPATES: They usually have a concern about their indoor environment whether it’s related to mold and moisture. We had a very damp last couple of years. We’ve had over 15 inches of rain since November in my house here in Clearwater. That’s unheard of. This is supposed to be our dry season.
It hasn’t been hot enough to cool. It hasn’t been cold enough to heat. So the air conditioning systems down warm long enough. The humidity builds up into the homes to the 60%-70% level. Homes become very clammy and they start supporting mold growth and this makes people sick. They call us and say “I don’t know what it is. This has never happened before, but I’ve got molds growing on my walls behind my sofa against the wall.”
I ask them if it’s an exterior wall. They say, “Yes.” I know exactly what’s going on and they need to go to home depot and pick up a supplemental humidifier and bring the humidity levels down. And then they need to clean their house very thoroughly. That’s one aspect.
Another aspect could be a remodeling. They just brought in a new cabinet, new flooring and carpeting. They move in and their eyes burn. This would be a chemical issue rather than moisture control issue.
So depending on the symptoms we come up with a proposal for investigation and based on the findings of the investigation, then we make our recommendations on how to improve the environment.
DEBRA: That’s very good. So, what are some of the different things that you look at when you go into a home?
WILL SPATES: So in Indoor Environmental Quality inspection, we measure total volatile organic compounds. We have equipment where we can measure this on site. We have real time measurement equipment that’s calibrated. We can measure down to parts per billion for total volatile organic compound. We can measure using another system called the Drager method over 300 specific analytes specifically. I use the Drager method for the formaldehyde testing within homes where we can measure down to 0.02 parts per million or 20 parts per billion which is pretty low.
Some of the particles, we use a laser particle counter to measure respirable dust 0.5 microns or larger. We’re worried about the smallest particles because they’re the ones that could penetrate deepest into our lungs.
We measure the supply air coming out of your air conditioning system and then measure the ambient. If the supply air isn’t reduced by 50%, we know their filtration isn’t working properly.
Then we measure room climate for temperature and humidity. We know what a healthy home room climate should be like and where 80% of the population feels it to be comfortable. We use those as our references.
We take air samples for mold and particulates. We analyze these in our in-house lab under a microscope. We can tell the particles, if there’s fiberglass being released from the air conditioning system. These are samples. When we’re looking at them under a microscope, we can actually see whether the house was close to the sea or not because of the salt crystals that are in the air from the sea spray. After looking at thousands of air samples, you get a feeling for what’s normal and what isn’t.
DEBRA: As you’re talking, I’m just getting this picture that there’s so much more in the air that any of us, except inspectors like you, ever even think about. Basically, we think maybe there’s some dust, maybe there’s some chemical gases, maybe there’s carbon dioxide from breathing out, is there enough oxygen? But I think that most people aren’t thinking about indoor quality on a daily basis at all.
WILL SPATES: I would say we live in an enclosed environment. We spend 90% of our time in our cars or in our houses. Those special few that do get outside and exercise on a regular basis, more power to them. But the average is 90% of your time indoors.
We just want to make it as healthy as possible. We want to use conscious constructive techniques. We want to make wise choices on what we bring into our homes. We want to take the same level of responsibility for our homes as we do for maintaining our car. You change out your tires, you change the oil but people will completely ignore the air conditioning system, which is the lungs of their home.
DEBRA: I like that. I like that the air conditioning system is the lungs of our home. We need to go to break, but we’ll talk more about this when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Will Spates, President of Indoor Environment Technologies and his website is IETBuildinghealth.com. And we’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening today to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Will Spates, President of Indoor Environmental Technologies and he’s at IETBuildingHealth.com. Will, there’s a whole field called Building Science. I’m sure that my listeners have no idea what that is. Can you explain that?
WILL SPATES: Sure. Thank you, Debra. Building science is a term that has been around for about 15, 20 years. It’s the conscious approach to creating an indoor environment that has not only the way a building works, but also the way that people react to the inside the building when they’re in these. It’s the interaction between the people and the buildings.
Building science has a lot to do with building pressures, ventilation rates, with air exchange. When you go into a hospital, they use different ventilation science techniques to isolate certain areas of the hospital from others through building pressures. In office environments, you’re required to bring in so much outsider per person.
There are standards for these. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers create standards. These are not codes or requirements, but they are the best practices. In the course of building homes, building science has been left out, unfortunately. They apply very well to commercial buildings, but not so much to residential environments.
DEBRA: It should be. Building Science should be applied to homes as well. This is something that I am totally not trained at, but I’ve been doing home inspections myself. I don’t do anything like what you do. Will, I will just say the difference between what I do and what Will does is that I can go into or a home or an office or a workplace and I can identify toxic chemicals that may be in the products that are being used or in the building materials simply because I can recognize them and I know what toxic chemicals are. There’s no measuring involved.
There’s a term called “organoleptic sensing” which means that you can smell something and identify it or you can have a reaction it and identify it. where you‘re using the senses of your body to find out that something is there.
But what Will does is he has this very expensive sensitive instruments. He goes in and will give you measurements.
I remember, some ten years ago, you came to my house and you took a measurement with one of your instruments. I think it was VOCs. Do you remember? I’m trying to remember what it is.
WILL SPATES: You were doing some remodeling, I believe, at that time.
DEBRA: I think so, yeah. But I think, if I remember correctly, there wasn’t a problem in my house. There was nothing that I needed to fix.
WILL SPATES: If I recall correctly, it was a rather older home. Older homes used more basic materials. I have a home that was built in the 50s and it’s basically concrete block, plaster walls, and exterior stucco with a barrel tile roof and a vented attic. It’s very, very healthy.
DEBRA: I have a very healthy house, too. Mine was built in the 40s. Mine is just regular wood and construction. I lived in older homes for exactly this reason. I have hardwood floors. I’ve got plaster walls. There’s not a bit of particle board in this house. There are none of the new materials. I’m very happy here. When Will came in with his instruments, there wasn’t anything to measure. No formaldehyde. Nothing!
So it was a really interesting experience to have Will come because I can see that all the things, all the decisions that I have made about what I put in my house were all working, to have it be a clean house.
After I started out with just looking at materials and using my knowledge to be able to identify things that are toxic, then along came this thing called Building Science. I think that it’s a really interesting thing. I think people need to be trained in it, obviously. But for me it’s about the whole relationship between the air coming in and the air going out and how that affects what the indoor air quality is.
There’s a lot of science behind it. I think that all buildings should be built with science, that it should all be considered. Somebody like you could come in to a residential building and retrofit it. I don’t know if that’s a right word, but you could make those adjustments for good building science after the fact, yes?
WILL SPATES: We do this all the time, Debra. We go in and we make recommendations. One of our recommendations is they introduce outside air filter and dehumidify it and tie it in the supply of their air conditioning system. It’s a free standing system. It can maintain 50% humidity and bring in a 150 CFM of outside air, one hour of every four hours. That’s six hours of fresh hour coming into your home every day. It’s filtered and it’s conditioned. So, it’s not the humidity and the heat that we have from outside. It’s great!
And I want to get back to your level of inspection before we go on. You do a wonderful job of dealing with people and their perceptions. My instruments are never going to be as sensitive as some of my most sensitive clients. I might not be able to detect anything and yet it’s still an issue for them. They’ll say, “It’s coming right out of these cabinets.” We’ll send a piece of a cabinet shelf off to a chamber, off to a lab to have chamber analysis done to see what the emissions are similar to what the lumber liquidators are supposed to do with their flooring to see what the emissions are coming off of that, what VOCs these are coming off. They come back normal yet the people are still having a reaction.
The best recommendation we can make is to introduce outside air and through dilution we reduce the concentrations.
DEBRA: Yes. I think that’s something that people don’t know that they can do. I know that I can open the window. I just had a situation at my house where somebody came in (who fully knew that they shouldn’t) and just accidentally wash their clothes in a detergent.
We need to take a break. I’ll tell my story when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Will Spates, President of Indoor Environment Technologies and his website is IETBuildinghealth.com. And we’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening today to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Will Spates, President Indoor Environmental Technologies at IETBuildingHealth.com.
So, what we were talking before the break was ventilation and the importance of remembering that we can always use ventilation. I had a friend come in who was wearing clothes that somebody else had washed – I’m going to say this brand name because this fragrance is horrible, Tide HE, specifically for HE. It has extra Downy fabric softener added to it. I don’t usually mention brand names like that, but I am having a very difficult time removing this from his clothing. Ten minutes in the house and everything smelled like this detergent.
I just went around opening all the windows and gave him something else to wear and started to process of decontaminating his clothes. We forget that we can open the window. We forget that there are very many technical things that you can advise us as well on what we can do to bring more ventilation to our homes while still retaining the heating cooling. There’s so much new technology about this now than there was 30 years ago. I think that most people just aren’t even aware it’s there for their benefit.
WILL SPATES: We have a lot of information on our website and our blog as far as reference to the Ashrae 60 2.2 standards for ventilation rates for residential homes. It’s been out there since 2003 and yet it’s not implemented. People just don’t want to spend the extra $1500 to create a properly functioning air conditioning system. But if you have a commercial building, you have to bring in outside air. It’s required by law.
DEBRA: Yeah. It’s so interesting how regulations of various types are inconsistent across the boards. This isn’t the only one. Anyway, this is one.
I want to make sure that we talk about new construction because people can hire you before they even build so that you can implement these building science things in their new construction. You can also go and inspect homes before people buy them. So, tell us more about those.
WILL SPATES: I’ve had some wonderful clients over the years and have been using the building biology precepts to work as an organization in the construction of their homes and they wanted the healthiest home possible.
We had the first healthy home ever published and documented in the state of Florida back in 1999 up in the Jacksonville Pontevedra beach area. It’s a beautiful home right on the Atlantic Ocean. It was a wonderful experience for me. I had the chance to work with the architect, the builder and the home owner. All four of us came together and worked as a team and created a masterpiece.
And then about five years ago, I did another home down Sarasota. It was the first lead platinum residential home, National Home Builders Association Emerald Award, it had more credentials than anything you could imagine. It was another great project working with a wonderful team of people. The whole lead certification process is a whole other depth. It is just very stringent and requires air quality standards, building material standards, using local materials, recycling your yard waste into your landscaping and all of these types of things for the various awards that we got.
That again, Debra, gets back to conscious construction. How can we make our yard our home have the lightest impact in the world that we live in? We want it to be healthy. We want it to support the wild life and contribute to the wellbeing of this planet.
DEBRA: Yes. I think all of our actions should be in support of the well-being of life, whether it’s our own bodies or the environment supports our bodies or our communities or our families. It should all be life supportive. You’re certainly doing that with your work.
Obviously, somebody in Clearwater, Florida or the surrounding area could hire you. If somebody was looking for somebody like you in their local area, what would they look for? How would they find someone?
WILL SPATES: Just Google building biology. It’s based on the German discipline Bau Biologie. It started in Germany in the 60s. Our mutual friend who has since passed away, [inaudible 00:44:41], was my mentor and a very dear friend. Some of the best friends that I have today, I’ve met through this organization. They’re colleagues of mine now. We’re all over the country, all over the world.
So Bau Biology is a great resource. Another great resource is the Indoor Quality Association, IAQA. And you’re looking for the designation of somebody with a certified indoor environmental consultant designation. That means that they’ve passed the stringent proctored test, maintaining continuing education credits (because the industry is constantly changing) and is maintaining adequate insurance to be able to demonstrate due diligence in their work. You can’t take a three day course and call yourself an expert. This is a lifestyle and a career commitment and it needs to have more regulation.
DEBRA: Well, certainly, I know you’ve been doing this more than 30 years. I know from my own experience that the longer that I do something, you just learning things from experience than somebody who doesn’t have the experience. They can’t possibly know because it’s not something that comes from textbooks. It comes from being out there in the field, seeing what’s going on, being able to sense thing and putting two and two together and all those kinds of things.
I really appreciate your experience. I think that that’s something that people need to look for as somebody who is well trained and also well experienced because you’re going to pick up things that people who aren’t experienced won’t even know about.
WILL SPATES: Yeah, I agree. We’ve done over 7000 inspections since 1992 when I opened my doors to do this type of work. We have large commercial clients that use us to maintain their campuses all over the Southeast, US and the Caribbean. Financial institutions, we work with a lot of realtors. We do a lot of pre-purchase real estate inspection so that people aren’t buying into an environmental nightmare that is going to have a negative impact on their health.
It’s a right action process. I really love what we’re doing. I feel that we are helping people. We’re helping them make informed decisions. We’re giving them the information they need to know whether the home or the building that they’re looking at, what it’s going to take to make it healthy. They can make a decision whether it’s worth it or not as far as their investment goes.
It’s not just your normal home inspection where, “Does the washer or dryer work or does the air-conditioning blow cold.” This is moisture mapping. This is air sampling. This is getting under the crawl space if it has one and trying to figure out how healthy can this building be. Is it going to be worth our while to make the investment?
DEBRA: Do you have information on your website, educational material that people should go look at?
WILL SPATES: Our website has a lot of information, but we don’t offer any classes or anything like that. I would highly recommend the Building Biology Association. They have seminars all the time. They teach people to be environmental consultants and that’s my first certification back in 1993, becoming a BBEC. I was in the board of directors for years and an instructor for them for years. But I’ve stepped back and I’m slowing down a little bit. I have a real good crew here working with me that go out and do most of the jobs. I try to sit back and relax a little bit more.
DEBRA: I totally understand. I do want to mention that I’m looking at his website right now and there’s a very good page here about common indoor air pollution pollutants. This is a really good summary. I think if you just go to his site and look around, you’ll get some ideas for different things.
Well, we’ve come to the end of our time. Thank you so much, Will.
WILL SPATES: You’re very welcome.
DEBRA: I learned a lot. It’s great that there’s a whole field out there of what you’re doing, you and others that can be reducing toxic exposure in people’s homes by testing and then having a solution for them. Again, Will is at IETBuildingHealth.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dad. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com to find out about the show and listen to other guests. Be well!
Couches Without Flame-Retardants May Still Contain Toxic Chemicals
Last week I received a new post from the O Ecotextiles blog regarding Environmental Working Group’s recent post about couches without flame retardants.
As the sisters who founded O Ecotextiles pointed out, while it’s good that California revised their law about flame retardants, shame on EWG for simply going along with the flame retardant free message being promoted, and failing to talk about the other toxic chemicals in the handful of sofas they mentioned.
This is exactly the problem with any claim of being free of a single chemical, whether it be lead-free, fragrance-free or flame-retardant-free. Products could certainly be free of one chemical but contain many others, as pointed out in the blog post from O Ecotextiles.
Of course, you can find the real toxic free sofas on Debra’s List on my Interior Decorating | Furniture page.
Read the post at O Ecotextiles blog for more info on toxic chemicals in sofas: The Environmental Working Group’s recent post about “five couches without flame-retardants.”
Low- or Zero-VOC, Non-Toxic Exterior Paints?
Question from Ellen
Hi Debra,
Can anyone recommend an good non-toxic exterior paint that is hopefully also durable? I’ve been putting off various painting jobs for fear of exposure to fumes. I’d be especially interested in hearing any experiences.
Thanks!
Debra’s Answer
Readers?
Mosquito Spray in Neighborhood
Question from TA
Hi Debra,
I live in an area where periodically a truck will drive through, spraying into the air something to deal with mosquitoes. I don’t know what they’re using but assume it’s probably toxic.
Do you know anything about this? Is it something that does its job right away and then dissipates by the next day (and thus I could just find out when they are going to spray and plan to stay inside for that day or two)?
Or is it something that continues to be toxic to us long after the fact?
I saw a mosquito control association website which indicated that those with chemical sensitivities can request that their property not be sprayed, but I am trying to track down how I would arrange for that here in our area.
And I’m wondering if it’s necessary to do so – to make a special request, I mean – since the whole neighborhood will be sprayed anyway. I guess they’d just turn off their spray as they approached our house? But that seems kind of silly, since it would be in the air all around us and our neighbors anyway!
Debra’s Answer
You need to contact your city mosquito abatement agency and ask them what they are using. Then leave me a comment here and I’ll be able to answer your question.
Toxics in Essential Oils?
Today my guest is Diana Kaye. She and husband James Hahn are co-founders of their USDA certified organic business Terressentials. They’ve been on this show together many times, but today Diana is here to talk about essential oils. On Tuesday Dr. Anne Steinemann talked about how she tested products containing essential oils and found toxic chemicals in them. So now we need to know: are all essential oils the same, or are some more toxic than others? Are they processed in different ways? What should we be asking when looking at products containing essential oils? As an organic body care product formulator for more than 20 years, Diana knows all about this first hand. Diana and James are the husband-and-wife co-founders of the USDA certified organic business Terressentials. They own a small organic farm in lovely Middletown Valley, Maryland and have operated their organic herbal personal care products business there since 1996. Terressentials was originally started in Virginia in 1992. It grew out of their search for chemical-free products after Diana’s personal experience with cancer and chemotherapy in 1988. Prior to Diana’s cancer, they were involved in commercial architecture in Washington DC. Diana and James are proud to be an authentic USDA certified organic and Fair Made USA business. They are obsessive organic researchers and artisan handcrafters of more than one hundred USDA certified organic gourmet personal care products that they offer through their two organic stores in Frederick County, Maryland, through a network of select retail partners across the US, and to customers around the world via their informative web site. www.debralynndadd.com/debras-list/terressentials
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH DIANA KAYE & JAMES HAHN
- GMOs in Personal Care Products
- How to Restore Your “Virgin Hair”
- How to Read a Label on Organic Personal Care Products
- More About “Organic”: Politics and the Regulation of Marketplace Distribution
- The Challenges of Achieving Organic Certification
- What Organic Means — From the Experience of Being Organic Farmers
- Why One Couple Decided to Get an Organic Farm and Make USDA Certified Organic Gourmet Personal Care Products
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Toxics in Essential Oils
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Diana Kaye
Date of Broadcast: March 26, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Thursday, March 26th, a beautiful spring day here in Clearwater, Florida.
And today, we are going to be talking about a subject that I know a lot of people are concerned about and It’s a very important one. When I say that, I always then say that all the subjects we talk about are important, they are, but some of them are more widespread than others and more dangerous and something that we’re all exposed to more than we should be.
What we’re going to be talking about today is fragrances. And particularly, we’re going to talk about essential oils because we know that synthetic fragrances have a lot of toxic ingredients in them. And I know that myself and many listeners, we’ve already decided to eliminate synthetic fragrances from our lives. But then that puts us into the realm of essential oils.
And on Tuesday, I interviewed Dr. Anne Steinemann and she was talking about her new study. You can listen to my interview with her to get all the details and read her papers on her website. What she does is she takes common everyday consumer products and she actually test them to find out what kind of toxic chemicals are coming off of them that are not necessarily on the label or on the material safety data sheets, but these are the chemicals that we’re being exposed to by using these consumer products.
She made a statement that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a scented petrochemical product or a scented organic product. The same chemicals that are found in scented are coming off both the natural and the synthetic products. And so I know that there are essential oils that are produced in different ways and that they’re used in many, many natural and organic products, both as active ingredients and added fragrance.
So, my guest today and I are going to be exploring exactly those because there are many reasons why you might want to have a naturally scented product both for the aesthetic pleasure of that, but also because they can have therapeutic benefits. So, all essential oils can’t be bad.
We’re going to find out today how to choose an essential oil that can be healthy for you and what are the differences in essential oils and what to look for on a label, what to ask for, so that we can straighten out this whole subject of safe fragrances versus the toxic ones.
So, my guest today, to help us with this is Diana Kaye. She’s been on the show before many times with her husband and she’s a cofounder of their USDA certified organic business called, Terressentials. They make a lot of gourmet personal care products that are lusciously scented with the fragrances. When I first opened one of her products, I thought, “This is the most wonderful kind of fragrance I’ve ever smelled because it was clean and clear and luscious and just a joy to be around.” I thought, “There’s something different about this fragrance.”
So, Diana has been doing this for more than 20 years. She’s an immaculate researcher. She’s totally familiar with multiple chemical sensitivities if that’s a concern for you if you’re listeningShe’s going to tell us all about fragrances in the products.
Hi Diana!
DIANA KAYE: Hi Deb! How is it going today in this lovely spring day?
DEBRA: It is a lovely spring day! I just feel like you get to the certain point in the spring time where you feel like everything is coming again anew. New things are happening in the world. All the plants, there are buds going on and flowers blooming and new leaves coming out and you just think, “It’s a whole new world now. We’re just starting over for the year.” I’m really feeling that in my life. New things are happening in my life and in my work and it’s a good day.
DIANA KAYE: That’s crazy here. We are here up in Maryland. It’s still gray and cold and we’re wondering really when spring is coming, but I took a walk to the garden and we’re finally starting to get greens and flowers popping up, the early ones. So yes, renewal, energizing. Spring is my favorite season of the year, hands down.
DEBRA: Mm-hmm. I totally understand. It’s so vibrant and an opportunity for renewal on every level.
DIANA KAYE: Absolutely! In fact, the later spring, the reason it’s my favorite is because that’s when all of my aromatics start to bloom.
DEBRA: Ah, yes! Yes.
DIANA KAYE: And that’s my big thing. I think the last eight, nine years I have, oh gosh! So many herbs and native plants, but I seek out plants that have fragrance and the heirloom ones are amazing because just like tomatoes, when they breed them, even if they are for organic, they often breathe out flavor in exchange for being able to ship something or to have it look pretty.
I was visiting a friend, a sick friend who’s in the hospital last week and I wanted to get her flowers. Of course, I would normally cut flowers from my garden, but there’s nothing blooming. So, I stopped at a flower shop and I was so disappointed because the roses had no smell.
DEBRA: Yes.
The reason I wanted to take her flowers was because I know, from all of the research that I’ve done over the years that there a many aromatic chemicals, they are called phytochemicals and this is just what they are once we identify them in flowers that make you feel good! They make you feel better. They make you more alert. They are ones that can actually slow your heart, lower your blood pressure.
I can’t imagine if I were really sick in a hospital, I would want to have flowers there with me, to have that.
DEBRA: Is that why people bring sick people flowers? Maybe they don’t even know all these technical things about why they could help people get well and it might just be a symbol of love to people. But then, there really can be a therapeutic benefit from these fragrances.
DIANA KAYE: Absolutely! And especially if they’re organic. They’re just a little note on the side. It’s also color. When our eyes perceive color that sends signal to the brain and certain colors actually again, make you feel better, stimulate serotonin production so, flowers are wonderful thing. Real aromas are a wonderful thing and we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of these things.
Just another little note on the side, I just read another research paper where they determined that in soil, there are these microbes that actually when our hands are in the dirt they stimulate, guess what?! The happy center in your brain!
DEBRA: Really?
DIANA KAYE: Yeah.
DEBRA: I’m not surprised.
DIANA KAYE: So many people are depressed and they live in cities and they don’t dig in them dirt. So everybody go out and dig in the dirt.
DEBRA: Good advice. Especially now, you can plant little seedlings and seeds and then you’ll have the joy of watching them grow and eating those nice little lettuce leaves.
DIANA KAYE: I can’t wait to start taking pictures again. I got my seeds everywhere and we’re ready.
I’m sorry, I digressed a little bit.
DEBRA: Totally fine. Where shall we start?
DIANA KAYE: I’ve been intrigued since you put out the topic here because for me, someone who had experimental double dose chemotherapy and became really sensitize to synthetic chemicals after that experience, at first, I was terrified of anything because I was having these bizarre reactions. I have never heard of chemicals sensitivity. Fragrance sensitivity, I’ve never heard of that.
All I knew is that I came home from the hospital and I was having weird reactions and they seem to occur after about a year and a half of this. We notice that it was when we used or I was around certain chemicals. So, I started freezing everything out of my life that had a scent. And it was such a shame because I really deprived myself of that.
But in doing my research, I learned that as you know (and many people that are listening know) that these chemicals or petrochemicals, it’s now an allergic reaction. We’re having a toxic reaction because we’re more sensitize, we’re more aware of things.
DEBRA: It’s a poisoning. It’s a poisoning.
If I could just interrupt for a second, I was talking to somebody who had me for a consultation this morning and I realize as I was talking to her that I was telling her 30 years ago when I was first diagnosed and learned about MCS — uh-oh! We need to go to break, so I’ll continue this when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Diana Kaye. She’s the co-founder of the USDA certified organic business, Terressentials where they make fabulous gourmet personal care products.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Diana Kaye from the USDA certified organic business, Terressentials and that’s at Terressentials.com. And she has wonderful fragrances in her products that I think are unique in terms of quality. So, we’re going to find out about that as we talk on the show.
Before the break, we were talking about MCS, Multiple chemical sensitivities and I started to say that I was talking to a client on the phone this morning explaining how this occurs. And the way we used to explain it was, it’s like filling a glass with water. Every time you’re exposed to a toxic chemical, it’s like putting another drop of water in the glass and it builds up and builds up and builds up until it gets to overflowing and then you get sick, you get MCS. That was 30 years ago that we’re saying this and that’s how I’ve been describing it since.
Well, many years later, the CDC, Center for Disease Control starts talking about body burden and they say exactly the same thing, that chemical exposures build up in your body and that creates what they call ‘body burden’ and at a certain point, you get to your threshold and then you get sick.
And what I explained to people with MCS all these last 30 years about this is that I would say, “When you eliminate toxic chemical exposures, what happens is that your body’s natural detox process or any other things that you do to detox start lowering the amount of water in the glass or chemicals in your body. And so, it’s below that threshold point and you don’t have symptoms. That doesn’t mean you have no chemicals in your body, but it’s below the threshold of being sick.”
And I just thought that it was really interesting to see the correspondence between what we had been saying all along about what occurs for people with MCS. And then the CDC comes out and starts saying exactly the same thing. And it doesn’t matter if the way you get sick is multiple chemical sensitivities or cancer or obesity or impotence or whatever it is, it’s because your body hits that threshold of too many chemicals in the body and then you overflow and get sick.
DIANA KAYE:Powerful stuff.
DEBRA: Yeah. So, when we inhale toxic fragrances made of synthetic chemicals or containing synthetic chemicals, it’s adding to that body burden. It’s putting more drops of water in the glass adding up to when you overflow.
This is exactly why this is so important. This I why I do this show, this is why my guests do what they do. It’s to keep us from getting to that overflow point and also helping us decrease the overflow once it’s reached. And that’s what this is about.
Okay, good. Let’s talk about fragrance.
DIANA KAYE: Well, you hit the nail in the head. It’s all about decreasing our body burden and also doing the things that will help us to heal our bodies…
DEBRA: Yes.
DIANA KAYE: … to help our internal organs to regenerate, to recover from being really stressed.
DEBRA: Exactly.
DIANA KAYE: So, in my research, that’s actually, what led to the founding of our company was all the research about how I could heal my body way back then. And the one thing I have to say right off, because we’re talking about essential oils and I want to say this and I’ll say this a couple more times to people…
DEBRA: Oh, good.
DIANA KAYE: Never ever buy an essential oil that is not certified organic. Okay, I’m going to repeat. Never buy essential oils that are not certified organic.
DEBRA: Tell us why because I was looking in my very first book that I wrote, Nontoxic & Natural in 1984…
DIANA KAYE: Oh, my God!
DEBRA: …and I had researched essential oils then (and I’m sure it’s very different now), what somebody had told me was that you can just use any essential oil because — I forgot exactly what I wrote. I forgot what I wrote. I’m sorry. But it was about pesticides. They don’t use pesticides on plants that are made into essential oils.
So, let’s start talking about what are some of the things that could be in an essential oil that’s not certified organic.
DIANA KAYE: Okay. Organic is typically about not adding any kinds of chemicals to your processing. There are minimal synthetics that are allowed on the national list. However, in the growing of materials, compared to conventional agriculture, the list of what you can add to the growing medium that you can spray on plants, that you can spray on the soil post harvesting things that are employed in the conventional industry, in the world of USDA certified organic, your list of what you can use is extremely limited.
And when crops are grown on the field and I don’t care if it’s mint or an apple or a tomato or if it’s an animal that is grown, in the conventional world, there are chemicals that are used. There are fungicides, mildewcides, not just pesticides. There are many ‘-cides’ that we have to be aware of.
And then of course, there are the chemical fertilizers, many of which are petro-chemically based or petro-chemically reacted. And by all means these things carry through to the plants in final harvest.
And a lot of people — hopefully this has been dispelled somewhat, but many people are under the impression that you can wash away pesticide as if water is a miracle solvent.
DEBRA: You can’t.
DIANA KAYE: You can’t because many pesticides, fungicides, et cetera, et cetera, soil amendments, they are added to the soil and taken up by the roots of the plant, into the plant and so then, they are in the plant material.
In steam distillation, which is the most common way to extract the essential oil from the plant material, these things definitely are carried over into the plant. And in fact, there’s been a lot of concerns for decades about — let’s use for example, oranges. Many oils from the citrus family are cold pressed. They are not steamed in the field. So, anything that was on the peel of that plant, including dye, might have been added to the oranges. Sometimes that happens post processing, but all of that is pressed into the oil.
DEBRA: Fungicides, fungicides are on oranges.
DIANA KAYE: Everything, yes!
DEBRA: I used to think that that smell, the way oranges smell, I use to think that that was the way an orange smelled until I smelled an organic orange and found out what I thought was orange smell was fungicide.
We need to go to break again, but we’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Diana Kaye from, Terressentials. It’s a USDA certified organic business completely through and through, USDA certified. So, she knows all about organic and all about toxic chemicals. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Diana Kaye from Terressentials, a USDA certified organic business and their website is Terressentials.com.
Okay, Diana. Let’s go on about essential oils.
Are you there? Hello?
DIANA KAYE: Sorry, sorry. Hello! Sorry about that. I didn’t want to make a lot of noise. I was ruffling some papers.
I think this information is so important to get out so I’m going to try to run down some numbers here at point, that is, and give people this information before we forget or it gets lost.
DEBRA: …or we run out of time.
DIANA KAYE: Exactly, exactly.
Essential oils, when they are produces and they are organic certified, and you choose to use these and purchase them – which you should (everyone, don’t buy non-organic) – there’s a tracking that’s involved from the field when they harvest the material. Everything is weighed and documented. And then when it goes from the field, it goes to the distillation.
And many times the people who distill are partnered with the growers. Sometimes the growers do the distillation and it’s done on site in the field. It depends on the material whether it’s done fresh or dried. Most things, I think are done though minimally dried.
So you have this tracking procedure and it has to be documented and your inspector reviews your documentation before you go on to the next step, which would be, if you’re growers and/or distiller, you would then sell your goods to a broker or commodities broker.
Typically, this is how it’s done on the world market. And these people bid and then purchase the whole lot or a portion of the lot that was grown and then their certifier, because remember, this is an organic chain, so the certifier for the broker who buys these commodity things, their certification would be as a handler, someone who was certified and inspected to handle or transfer the material. A handler or a broker who purchases the material may sell to a distributor.
A distributor in the organic chain would also have to be certified organic because the distributors might be the people who take a 270 gallon tote of essential oil or 55 gallon drum and break it down into kilos or they might break it down into a 25 kilo pack, which in the world of crafting products or manufacturing, these are typical container sizes.
So then, if you go to a distributor, a distributor may then sell the products to a retail company who, in the world of organics, if they are labeling their products as organic, legally they are required to maintain an organic certification as a handler processor if they are pouring oils into small bottles for retail sales, the one ounce, half ounce, two ounce, et cetera.
And here is what I have seen. Many of the retail companies that are out there, they are not certified organic and they are selling these sometimes what we see essential oils being sold as organic or natural without that certification and annual inspection and review of documents, the paper trail, you cannot say that that product is organic. And for the consumer out there, do not trust.
In our case, I want to get as close to that grower as I can. We try to search out relationships with farmer, grower and distillers so that we can eliminate the middleman. Every time we eliminate the middleman, you are eliminating the potential for adulteration. Adulteration can take many forms. It can be where you are adding invisible components or visible components to stretch your oil, to make it look like you have more volume for sale. You can try to boost the profile of that oil to make it smell sweeter, if that’s the case, by adding synthetic.
And I should add at this time that people who do this adulteration, these are professionals. They know what they’re doing and sometimes they work for fragrance houses. Many manufacturers, all they care about is that the scent is the same from a 30,000 gallon batch to 30,000 gallon batch if they’re making a lotion, a shampoo or whatever because people want everything always to be same. They want it to be consistent. They don’t want things to change because they have been born and educated in the world of synthetics and to believe that that’s what their familiar body care products should be. They should also be the same.
DEBRA: Before you say anything else, I want to put a big underline, italics, bold on what you just said because this is exactly why it’s difficult to do things in a natural way because nature is not exactly the same.
DIANA KAYE: No.
DEBRA: Nature is never exactly the same. No two snowflakes are the same. No two fingerprints are exactly the same.
Many years ago when I was first learning this, I went to a company, a major so-called natural company and asked them about coloring, the coloring that they put in their product. They said that, “Yes it was synthetic,” but they had to do that because they had to have a colored product and it had to be the same over and over and over.
And so, that was the end of me thinking that they were a natural company because they might have had other natural ingredients in it. People need to realize that if you’re dealing with anything that’s natural – like I just brought a new scarf the other day, it was made from natural fibers and it has a lovely little label on it that said, “There are imperfections because in nature, nothing is perfect.”
DIANA KAYE: It’s so true.
DEBRA: “…and that the color is going to be different throughout this scarf because this is the natural color.” There was this big disclaimer about how there were variations on the scarf.
But in personal care products and anything and anything that comes from nature, there’s always going to be uniqueness and differences and that you can’t make the same thing twice, you just cannot do it.
DIANA KAYE: That’s why many really large corporations don’t do organic.
DEBRA: Yeah.
DIANA KAYE: They do the natural, which means nothing. There’s no legal definition anywhere in the world for the word ‘natural’ so you can make it mean whatever you want. And in this case it means, “Well, we need that same aroma profile so we are going to manipulate this oil no matter what to get it to be what we want it to be, to match our recipe.” And that’s what they do.
So, with natural product and products that say organic that are not certified, this happens all the time because they want a consistent waxy white product that smells like their signature scent.
Well, in the world of organic and when we’re talking about essential oils, they differ not only in scents, but they differ in their gravity, they differ in the way that they reflect light and these are all things that can be measured to test oils whether or not they are authentic. There are many, many ways to test oils. Of course, though, this is not inviolable because first of all it’s done by human and machine, which can be tricked, so organic.
DEBRA: Okay, so let’s go to break and find out more when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Diana Kaye. She is one of the cofounders of USDA certified organic business called, Terressentials. They make lovely gourmet scented and unscented personal care products and that’s at Terressentials.com.
Well’ be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Diana Kaye. She is a cofounder of USDA certified organic business, Terressentials at Terressentials.com.
So Diane, since we’re now in the last segment of the show and you know how fast it’s goes by…
DIANA KAYE: Oh!
DEBRA: I want to make sure that we get a key question answered and that is, “What should consumers be looking for when they are looking at all these products on the market? How can they be sure that they have a certified organic essential oil in the product?”
DIANA KAYE: Okay, I think I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it again and I’ll keep saying it until I die. You’ve got to buy certified organic products and you cannot trust a product that just says, ‘organic’ because that’s meaningless. There’s nobody verifying the raw materials, the process and the facility. You cannot trust this.
And I know there’s a plethora of companies out there that are claiming this, but I’m sorry, I don’t care if it’s a woman and at with two children making things thing sin her children, if she’s not certified, you can’t trust it because of the raw materials.
And with essential oils, what would be uncommon is to find an essential oil labeled natural or pure or therapeutic grade that does not have some kind of adulterant in it, whether it is from the field, pesticide, herbicide, fungicide, chemicals like that or an adulterant or some kind of invisible stretching agent. There’s manipulation and this is done all the time. That is the norm in the industry.
And when you’re talking about essential oils, we want to use them number one, because we want the fragrances to make us feel good. There’s no question. Fragrances can make you feel good.
Now, there’s going to be somebody who’s allergic to anything. It can happen to anything at anytime, but in my experience, 24 years we’re celebrating in our business, I have found – and this still surprises me to this day because of the chemical experience I’ve had, the chemical sensitivity – that most people have no problems when they smell real essential oils. When they smell…
DEBRA: That’s my experience too.
DIANA KAYE: Yeah. And when they smell real lavender plant or a bunch of mint, that actually makes you feel good and that’s because human evolves on the planet with plants.
DEBRA: Oh! I just got it, about why I love your fragrances so much. Because when the first time I open the bottle and I smell your—what did I smell first? It was your lemon hand soap and the lavender hair wash. I just smelled them and I had this experience of it like you do when it’s an actual lemon or an actual lavender because it’s organic and it doesn’t have any adulterants and that it actually is the real thing and so, your body is going to respond in a way that it’s like the real thing because it is.
DIANA KAYE: That’s what we search out. There are always going to be exceptions because unfortunately in the world, there’s always going to be a dark person. The world is not a perfect place. But the best chances that anyone can have is to buy certified organic.
In this world that we live in that is corrupted by pollution and people with greed, we don’t have a lot to hang on to, but you’ve got to trust nature. These oils, when they are certified organic, when they come from reputable growers, reputable suppliers, they make us feel good. They smell good. If you look on PubMed, you will find many, many studies that show that these essential oils can beat cancer.
Simple things like lemon, I love eating my lemon peels, my orange peels, I cook with them because I know there are healthy components in them. When you add adulterant, it can change – and not just the physical property of that oil, but it can alter our human response to it.
DEBRA: Right.
DIANA KAYE: So, we’re not getting what Mother Mature created on the planet to help us humans survive.
DEBRA: And that’s what we want. It’s what Mother Nature created because that’s what our bodies are looking for, that they respond differently.
DIANA KAYE: Yes! Yes, we need these things.
DEBRA: We do in order to be healthy.
One thing I wanted to mention is that Dr. Steinemann said that, “Some essential oils are extracted using solvents.”
DIANA KAYE: Yes.
DEBRA: And so, that’s another way. So, if somebody’s looking on the label and they see essential oil of whatever, if it just says essential oil of and it doesn’t say that it’s organic and it’s not an organic product, then that’s probably an essential oil to stay away from. You can’t just look at the word essential oil and say, “Oh, that’s natural and totally safe.”
DIANA KAYE: In my opinion, my personal experience, I would never buy an oil that wasn’t certified organic for all the reasons that we just talked about because I cannot trust what’s in that bottle because in most cases there’s been no one overseeing the process or as I described earlier, the growing and the movement of that oil through the market place.
And in many cases, if it’s a conventional oil that is not certified organic, there were many, many people involved along the way with many, many opportunities to adulterate the oils. And unfortunately, I know a lot of aroma therapist love to use therapeutic grade, but there is no legal definition of that either.
This has always baffled me because if you’re someone using oils like an herbalist would be using herbs to help people get better, you want the absolute best. You want some guarantee that what you have is pure and natural and that those aroma chemicals, when we inhale them and they go into our body, into our bloodstream, that they are going to be beneficial for our body and not harmful.
To me, that’s why I’m in the world of organic because I need to heal our body. I want to find the best purest things that Mother Nature has out there because those are the things that keep me well, that will help my body regenerate itself and hopefully help me to live a long life that I was supposed to have.
That’s what I want to give to other people and why Deb, I love what you’re doing, giving the education and why I am so appreciative of this opportunity to try to get the word out there to people that we have so little in this world that we can hold on to. We have our families, we have our pets, but when it’s real nature, we have to bring that into our lives because what I just talked about earlier, how the microbes in the soil can actually — when you have your hands in the dirt, it can make your brain happy?
DEBRA: Yes, it’s all in our [inaudible 00:46:01]
DIANA KAYE: Exactly, this is the natural way of life on the planet and we should not deprive ourselves of these things. But folks, please don’t buy non-organic products because they’re not real and they’re not there to benefit you or us. And we don’t want to be putting all these chemicals in the waterways because it harms the fish, we drink the water, it harms wildlife.
I’m sorry, I’m on this role. It’s spring. I want to take back. I’d love to see – and I don’t know if it’ll happen in our lifetime – I’d like to get the ball rolling where we get people on board with organic so we can try to repair the damage that humans have done over the last 100 years.
DEBRA: I love that.
DIANA KAYE: When I go out there and I dig in the dirt and I plant seeds and I talk to the growers, I try to establish relationships as often as possible with people who are the grower.
I had a great conversation with a young woman who is working with folks in Africa and this is a free trade organic plantation and this is so sad. They were certified organic and now, they’re not. The government is spraying chemicals overhead for mosquito because it’s a huge problem in Africa. So now, all of these local community organic businesses are destroyed. They cannot sell their products as organic.
It takes three years and hopefully, some of those chemicals will have dissipated in three years. But here’s the irony, there are many essential oils – and again, I invite people to go on the internet. There are documents, you can go to PubMed, a very reputable place, you can find research about essential oils and how scientists are — because we made a disaster with antibiotics and pesticides, certain people are saying, “Well, maybe we need to step back.” They’re stepping back and finding out that essential oils can actually kill mosquitoes effectively without harm to other wildlife or humans.
DEBRA: Of course, of course we can.
DIANA KAYE: There’s quiet research that’s being done and that’s wonderful that there are some scientists out there and universities where people have a conscience and they are trying to repair things and that’s great.
And I think, Deb, what you do is wonderful because this is what we need. We need everybody to tell their neighbors, tell their friends to get on board because if we all do a little part, we’re rebuilding a little bit. And some people, to them it seems, “So hopeless. I’m only just this one person. What can I do?” but you know what? It makes a difference. It really does.
DEBRA: It does. It really does.
DIANA KAYE: Essential oils, it takes acres and acres of crop material, plant material, in many cases, to produce 16 ounces, a pint of essential oil. So imagine, if each person buys products that are certified organic, think of the acreage that we are helping to sustain as chemical-free or as close to nature as possible.
DEBRA: Yup, so much stuff.
Well, we have less than a minute so, I wanted to say thank you so much. This is exactly the information that I wanted to have us talk about on the show today. And I feel like I understand the situation a lot better now and that I can look at your products and evaluate what’s going on with the fragrances or not going on with the fragrances.
DIANA KAYE: Can I say one thing Deb? Sorry.
DEBRA: Yeah, we only have 15 seconds.
DIANA KAYE: Oh, people who have chemical sensitivities often can tell what other people can’t because they are atoned to the chemicals. They often can react and they can sense when something is not really natural or organic. You’re a good person.
DEBRA: And that’s all the time we have. Thank you!
DIANA KAYE: Oh, no!
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be talking about what causes eye problems and natural treatments, how to prevent eye problems naturally, and why many standard eye treatments fail. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
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TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph
Date of Broadcast: March 25, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
It’s Wednesday, March 25th, 2015.It’s nice and warm here in Florida, a lovely spring day. And we’re going to be talking about how we can see more clearly by taking care of our eyes naturally. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with our eyes and a lot of eye treatments.
But today, we’re going to find out what we can do naturally.
My guest is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and natural substances instead of prescription drugs.
She studied a field called pharmacognosy, which literally means plants with intelligence. It’s the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources. So she brings her training as a pharmacist in dealing with how the body works and dosage and how to take medicines and combines that with her knowledge of plants and other natural substances.
So she has a very interesting viewpoint and is very effective and very well-regarded here in Clearwater, Florida where we both live. So I have her on every other Wednesday because there is so much to talk about on the subject.
She regularly gets people off of prescription drugs and she just has a lot of knowledge. Hi, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s great to be here.
DEBRA: Thank you. So tell us what causes eye problems.
PAMELA SEEFELD: When we think of the eye, we think of a very unique area of the body. And why we say that is because certain areas of the body are very sequestered from the activity of our immune system. And so when you’re trying to get antibiotics or medications or you’re trying to even have the nutrients from your food or the antioxidants that you’re taking in the form of supplements get to a particular, the eyes are one area that you have to just realize that the penetration into those area from supplements and from medications is highly limited just because of the construction of the eye, the structure of the eye and how the capillaries bring the medications and supplements into the eye.
It’s important. We’re going to talk a little bit about the structure of the eye and how the sequestration of the eye from the rest of the body and the way self-defenses move will prevent something from getting there and how we want to try and supplement more appropriately so that these supplements get into a higher concentration into the eye.
DEBRA: Let me ask you a question. This may sound like a silly question, but I don’t know a lot about the physiology of the eye. Now, it seems that there’s an eyeball in a socket and that they are two different things.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Right.
DEBRA: And so is the eyeball just sitting there completely independent or is it attached with capillaries or what’s the relationship there? Do the eyeballs fall out?
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s funny. It’s not like that, but you’re right. I will give you an example. Say someone has an eye infection and we treat that with eye drops. And the reason why we do that and we don’t treat somebody with oral medications is because when you take something orally, if for some reason the eye wants to protect itself against invasion from species, bacteria, viruses from our body, so it actually has this way that it’s sequestered.
The blood vessels, the capillaries, each red blood cell goes in single file when they go through there. The immune system does not have high activity in the eye and the reason why that’s the case is because it’s protecting the eye against invasion from other species that might be in our blood if we’re septic and coming to the eye. That’s just the physiology of the eye.
So the socket and the blood vessel obviously are attached to our body and it’s there. But for some reason, the areas of the body that don’t have high concentrations of medication when you take them orally would be the eyes.
Another place is the sinuses, the sinus cavities. That’s why when people have chronic sinusitis and they’re on antibiotics, they never get rid of it. The reason why it doesn’t get rid of it is because the penetration into the sinus cavities just really isn’t that good with the blood vessels.
It doesn’t get the high enough concentration to kill.
And the same thing with the eye, that’s why we choose eye drops. And in the severe cases, when someone has an eye infection, we have to actually make concentrated eye drops with antibiotics [inaudible 00:05:41] in the hospital. And many times, the doctors have to inject them directly into the eye. So it’s important.
The reason why we want to lay the groundwork of the talk today is to understand that – some people say, “I’m taking my supplements to the eyes.” I want to talk about how to get it into the eyes and how to prevent capillary bad leakage and macular degeneration and things like that. And the reason why this is happening is because of the physiology of the eye itself. I think it’s important to lay the groundwork for people to understand that drugs taken in a pill do not get into the eye.
DEBRA: Well now, I am taking a supplement that’s designed to improve your eyesight, so I guess it’s not getting into my eye, but would it be supporting my body in some other way?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. It is getting into the eye if the concentrations are high enough. That’s really what’s to be said. A lot of it too is your baseline circulation. That’s why we’re going to really focus on the blood vessel.
DEBRA: Okay.
PAMELA SEEFELD: The health of the blood vessels determines a great deal of the penetration into the eye. Also, the supplements that work on the eye, many of them are fat-soluble. So if you’re taking the supplement and you’re having a pear for breakfast and you’re not having some almond or a little bit of olive oil in your food or something to that degree to help get the peak higher in the blood stream, you might not be absorbing a great deal on the medication or the supplement that you are taking.
DEBRA: Okay, good. So continue with the eye physiology.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. So I’m going to focus a lot on the capillary bed, the blood vessels themselves in the eyes because a lot of these problems that people have with their eyes are related directly to capillary permeability.
Capillary permeability is talking about the junctions of the cells. When you talk about a capillary, the cells there and blood vessels in general, the blood vessels are not contiguous. You have cells all packed next to each other and it forms a vessel. We’re all made of cells, all different cells. And these cells, sometimes they can be mildly irritated to some degree and this can happen from inflammation, it can happen from a lot of different things, environmental causes, pollution. What happens is the cells start to move apart slightly, ever so slightly and then fluids are allowed to go out into the area.
So what’s happening in those cases is that the blood vessels will break. And so, people are having lots of redness or irritation, maybe allergies, things like that where you have lots of redness in the eye. The reason when redness is there is because of histaminic release, but also because the blood vessels’ permeability is then affected.
The easiest way to affect gap capillary permeability in the eyes and also to the whole body is using bioflavonoids. The three bioflavonoids we use in my natural products pharmacy are rutin, quercetin and hesperidin.
Rutin was originally found in onions, but it’s so ubiquitous. It’s in two-thirds of all plants. Hesperidin was originally found in the pith around grapefruit. And rutin was originally found in buckwheat. We know that these are all very strong vascular stabilizers and you can eat buckwheat rose and get the vascular stabilizing permeability from a food if that’s how you want to take it. I eat those quite a bit and they’re very, very good.
DEBRA: I liked that too.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah. They’re excellent. And then also quercetin, I think, is probably even the most effective. Quercetin comes in tablets, but they have it also in liquid. I use liquids for a lot of people.
To give you some examples, if somebody has quercetin and they are using it in their detox bottle or they’re using it in their water every day and very often, what are some of the things that you would see difference in? Eye clarity, lack of redness. If you have allergies, histaminic release would diminish because it has anti-histaminic property. And at the same time too, you’re going to see that the puffiness underneath your eyes, that swelling that you get at the beginning and the end of the day, the darkness under your eyes, that’s capillary bed permeability.
That’s what causes the discoloration.
DEBRA: Oh!
PAMELA SEEFELD: You can treat with taking quercetin orally.
DEBRA: How do you spell that?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Q-U-E-R-C-E-T-I-N.
DEBRA: Perfect.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Quercetin. And I can tell you too, we’re talking about eye health, but just a side line, I am treating one of my clients right now that had very, very bad prostatitis, which is inflammation of the prostate. He called me and he couldn’t whole day sit. He’s an executive and he’s got to be at his desk all day and it’s just very, very just uncomfortable for him. And the quercetin, I told him, “You need to put this in your water all day long because quercetin will affect the blood vessels and the prostate too.”
Sure enough, not even a day, Larry calls me and says, “I’m feeling better.” Just keep taking your water and we’re trying to get the inflammation down. But this person has been on multiple courses of cipro and he wasn’t getting better. So it’s very, very important, quercetin. It’s excellent.
DEBRA: Thank you so much. We’re going to go to break. And when we come back, we’re going to talk more with natural pharmacist,
Pamela Seefeld. She’s a regular pharmacist also, but she loves to work in a natural pharmacy even more.
So when we come back, we’ll talk more about eye health, treatments, prevention and how you can treat your eye problems naturally. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. Pamela, continue telling us about what causes eye problems.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay, so the things we’re talking about that are causing eye problems, we talked a little bit about the groundwork about the sequestration properties of the eye, how things really don’t get into high concentration.
When you are looking at what you are eating, your food, obviously the nutrients in your food, the supplements you take, the fat-soluble components of your supplement are what affect the eye health most significantly. So it is important to make sure that the meal that you’re taking these with has some fat.
When you look at the eyes themselves and you are trying to think about what supplements you want to take and how you want to affect them most significantly, thinking about the capillary bed is the basis of your program. It’s very important.
And the capillary bed (we’re talking about the permeability of the capillary bed) will determine whether you see redness in the eyes, whether you have puffiness underneath your eyes because of capillary bed permeability.
And like I was saying previously, they’re ubiquitous to the body. They’re all through the body. So the capillaries, if they’re affected in the eyes and if you’re having eye problems, they also might be affecting the prostate, they might be breaking blood vessels, you bruise very easily.
These are outward signs that the inside health of the capillaries is not as good as we want. So it’s important to look at it.
So if you’re bruising really significantly more recently than you had in the past and your platelets are normal (it’s not something the doctor can check, so it’s not because of that), then there might be permeability issues with the capillaries. So let’s focus on the capillaries, but also the supplements.
Buckwheat, we were talking about that rutin was originally found in buckwheat. It’s important to realize too – now I don’t want to forget to mention the carotenoids. We think about carrots and these orange vegetables. They are very significant, carotenoids and vitamin A. They have great effects on the eye health. And this is something that is pretty simple to do because if you eat a carrot every day, you’re getting quite a bit just from that and that tastes delicious in our salad. I always have carrots.
DEBRA: And I love rainbow carrots. Have you had rainbow carrots?
PAMELA SEEFELD: No, no. Tell me about them.
DEBRA: Oh, you can get them at our local natural food store. They’re called rainbow carrots and they’re in all different colors. They’re yellow, they’re purple, they’re white.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s great.
DEBRA: They’re orange. I just love them.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, you do. That’s a great idea. I have to go get some today. That’s an excellent idea.
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Having varieties of these colors (I always say you want to have lots of colors in your salad), the variety of all these things contained lots of different phytonutrients that all have significant effects on the eye. So that’s really important to think.
And also too, I want to mention a little bit sunlight. It’s crazy, people don’t think about too much sunlight, wearing your sunglasses when you go out. Sunlight, the reason why light affects your eyes is your eyes basically are lipid. They’re fats. If you think about what it is, water and fat makes up most tissue. When you look at light and expose anything that’s lipid-base to light, it has oxidative properties. So these free radicals that can be formed not just from the eye, the dilation of the eye itself, but you want to think about the eye itself being exposed to the light, there definitely are some reactions. So that’s why it’s very important to have fat-soluble antioxidants in your diet.
So either a supplement, vitamin E is a great antioxidant too and not necessarily just for eye health, but generally to protect against free radicals (an unpaired electron that starts doing damage). We want to make sure that when we provide these healthy vitamins in our body and also in the food, when we have free radicals and we have antioxidants – and antioxidants give extra electrons and it squelches and stops that process.
It’s a pretty simple thing to do because you have to eat every day, so you might as well be eating some of these things that protect against these problems.
Think about it. When your eyes get affected, it really affects your quality of life significantly. So, this isn’t something you want to mess around with.
I’ll tell you too, talking about eye health, one of my clients that have had some problems with macular degeneration and some eye problems – and this is actually a younger lady. And she’s only in her late 40s, but she had some kind of other regressive eye disease.
There’s a product that DesBio makes called Eye Sarcode and you can use this for eye problems. It’s a medical product that they have developed. I had really good results with that with people. It’s really beyond just giving people quercetin and antioxidants and changing their diet. They maybe have some physiological problems there. Maybe their sight is starting to be impaired. This actually is a treatment for the eye.
And if somebody’s really concerned that there are lots of macular degenerations in their family that they are starting to have some trouble with the capillary bed. They’ve tried some bioflavonoids and they’re not really seeing the results. This product might hold some promise to them.
I only just thought about it during the break. We want to mention that there are some things that you can take orally that are homeopathic that actually are developed for eye problems that might be a little jumped up from just taking an eye supplement.
DEBRA: That’s good to hear because certainly homeopathics can change what’s going on in the body and start healing some of those things. So tell us also about what will the genetics play?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Good question! Genetics, of course, our genes are inherited from our parents. The genes that we have turn on and off depending on what we’re exposed to. That’s how the environmental component of the genetic influence play into favor here or against depending on what’s going on.
When you’re exposed to a lot of pollution, a lot of antioxidant – trust me, I used to run outside a lot. But running outside, you’re exposed to a lot of cadmium and lead and nickel and other things that are coming from the tire dust or maybe you’re running on the golf course and there are pesticides. So being outside and doing sports outside isn’t necessarily always the best, but it is definitely mentally and physically very nice and we enjoy it. So it’s not like I’m trying to tell people lto hide out in a bubble someplace because it’s not really a practical situation.
Just think about it. When we get exposed to these things, our body has these different genes and cells and they turn on and off depending on what we’re exposed to. That’s what causes cancer. That’s what causes any kind of problem when these genes are turned on and it’s a gene that we don’t want to have turned on.
Say we have a genetic propensity for macular degeneration. Your mom had it, your dad had it, aunt had it and your grandma had it or, say, a typical type of eye problem. The reason why genes play a role is because you have the genes that have a propensity to react and activate as a result of stimuli, things in the environment, emotions. And now we know that actually a big part of that (maybe not so much in the eye health) is epigenetics.
DEBRA: Well, let’s talk more about this when we come back because this is all very interesting about the genes turning on and off. And I want people to know more about this particularly in response to toxic chemicals and what happens with that.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be right back to talk more about eye health when we come back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld.
One of the things that she does is that she helps people get off of prescription drugs and find natural remedies to help whatever is going on with their body. And she does free consultations. You can call her up from anywhere and talk to her about this and she can help you with that.
She’s very successful at doing that. I know some people here locally and she has helped them very much and she has even helped me, not that I am on a lot of prescription drugs, but she has helped me a lot to choose natural remedies to improve things that are going on with my body.
So Pamela, why don’t you give your phone number? Listeners, really you can call her up. She loves to hear from you.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. Please call me. I would love to talk to you and I would be most honored to help you and your family if you want to get off of prescription, if you’re concerned about the health concern you have, blood pressure, cholesterol, whatever is going on, your eye health. I would be glad to help you and go over what you’re taking and decide to something that might be more effective in the homeopathic realm.
So the number here at my pharmacy is (727) 442-4955. That’s (727) 442-4955.
DEBRA: Great. Okay. Before the break, we were talking about genetics. And could you just start over with this idea that the genes turn on and off depending on what you’re exposed to and how you feel and all of that?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. So we were talking about the influences on the genes environmentally. The things, that we’re exposed to, have high significance as far as turning on the genes. And also we need to look at something called epigenetics and epigenetics is how our feelings and thoughts and the way we handle stress affect our genes. It has now been proven that if we’re anxious, if we’re angry that it affects our genes and makes them more susceptible to turn on illnesses and problems.
We’re talking about eye health today, but in general, I was talking about other things, especially coronary artery disease and influences on infection. We’re going to get an opportunistic infection. Maybe case in point you have five people in a room with one person has flu, not everybody gets the flu. So it just depends on where immune system is at that point.
And so our genes are affected a lot by how we feel, so it’s very important, stress control and diet and sleep and all these things people keep talking about all the time. It really does affect the way the genes are turned off and on and literally, you can worry yourself sick and they know that this is actually true now and they can see now that the genes actually change and if different genes are turned on and not favorably respond to chronic stress. So it is really important.
It’s probably the worst case scenario because I am always worried about things that I can’t control. But it is important to realize that this is the case and to really look at how we can make less of this impact on our bodies.
DEBRA: So say you’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals and you turned these genes on, can you turn them off?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. The things that affect the genes and we were talking about what turns them on and turns them off and stress of course affects that. But what we do know is that the supplements we take, especially the antioxidants and we were talking about that previously, make a huge difference as far as how we’re going to affect the way the genes turn off and on. That’s what’s really important that you take your supplements, your antioxidants.
If you’re worried about the eye health, the effects of quercetin – I’m really a big fan of taking ProDHA. ProDHA is a common focus in fish oil and that works extremely well for stress. And people that are stressed out are going to see much more effects as far as their genes not being accepted too much by stress because of ProDHA. So you want to take fish oil anyways, but that has a DHA, the BPA, the ratio of 4.5:1 and it’s just the right mix of reducing stress for influences of everyday life. And I use a lot of that for my patients. It works really well.
DEBRA: Yes. I take that every day.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, it’s excellent.
DEBRA: I’ll just say, we did a whole show about fish oil. Actually, I’ll take this opportunity to say that I now have, Pamela and other regular guests, all their shows are on a single page. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and see where it says “Archived shows” in the submenu and pull it down and you’ll see her name and you can just go look at all the shows that she has done.
One of them is about fish oils. I used to never want to eat fish oil or take fish oil. I don’t eat seafood. My body has never wanted fish since I was a child. And yet I can take this and it makes a difference. You don’t even know you’re taking fish oil. So if you are not taking it and not getting the benefits of it, thinking that you’re not going to like the way it tastes, just try it. Just try it.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, it is true because when you use a medical grade oil, all of the fish protein in the residue is removed. So you’re not taking fish, you’re not burping up fish. It’s not that kind of a product, but that particular ratio is found to be really effective for ADD, ADHD and I use it a lot for adults just because of chronic worrying and just worrying about everyday stresses and so forth.
It really reduces quality of life for everybody if they worry about things. There are things that you worry about that you can control and there are a lot of things that you worry about that you cannot control. It’s important to be able to turn some of that off and improve sleep as well.
And of course, we know that omega-3, EPA and DHA have significant effects for eye health and it really corresponds to what we’re talking about today.
The omega-3s and stuff make up all the membranes of cells and it is important to know that when you do that and the propensity is shifting with taking an omega-3 supplement that you have more of the omega-3s in the cellular membrane and less of the 6s, the actual functionality of the cell membrane is greatly enhanced. That’s where you really see that.
Fish oil turns on over 300 different genes. I’m talking about genetics and the activation of those genes is in an extremely favorable stand versus previously where the person has not taken it. So that’s a simple thing you can take.
The quercetin, the omega-3 and looking at bioflavonoids and saying, “Okay. Can I get them in my salad? Can I get them in a supplement?” I really want to emphasize that if someone has capillary bed permeability and they have eye issues, maybe dizziness and a blurry vision to some degree, redness in their eyes, strain in their eyes when they’re up at the computer. Quercetin has really the vascular stabilizing properties and it also relieves a lot of that puffiness under the eyes and the darkness under the eyes.
From a vanity standpoint, I think most women could appreciate that, it’s just about understanding why it’s dark under their eyes in the first place. It’s not because you didn’t sleep. People constitute that. The reason why you think this is, “Okay, when I get more rest, it gets less puffy,” but really there’s more chance for those vascular beds the time that you’re laying prone more time for that fluid to dissipate. That’s the reason why.
It’s kind of neat! I look at this product and what’s actually happening because when you think about it, you’re like, “Oh, okay. Now that makes sense.” And this is what this show is about.
DEBRA: Yes. Yes, things that make sense. We need t go to break.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes.
DEBRA: When we come back, we’ll talk more about natural eye health with our guest, Pamela Seefeld. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. In addition to her phone number – why don’t you give that again, Pamela? Hello?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. Can you hear me?
DEBRA: Now, I can hear you. So I was just to say in addition to calling Pamela, you can also go to her website, which is BotanicalResource.com. But give your phone number again.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. My phone number here at my pharmacy is (727) 442-4955. And please call me. I would be very grateful to discuss any of your health problems and suggest some alternatives that you might provide instead of medication.
DEBRA: So why do eye treatments fail?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Eye treatments fail many times because the person that’s treating them, whether an alternative practitioner or a physician, does not take into account the sequestration properties of the eye and the fact that things don’t necessarily go there in high concentration. That’s really important to think about.
Let’s say you’re getting lots of white discharge in your eyes. Maybe when you wake up in the morning and do you have that gunky feeling in your eyes sometimes if you’re sick?
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: What is that? What that is dead white blood cells. That’s it. So if you think about it. If the white blood cells actually had really good affinity for the eye, which they don’t, it would even be more than that. So when you actually see some and you see whites in the corners of your eyes and it’s white and sticky, that means that there’s even more of a process going on and these cells, these white blood cells will go there and in response to injury, in response to bad allergies, anything that’s calling in the troops to go there and see what’s going on. That’s what these cells are. They’re exploratory and they’re called in for a reason.
So we used to see that type of thing. You have to see and think, “Okay, if my practitioner is just handing me some antioxidants, but not telling me to take it with fat or if my doctor is handing me some eye drops that have steroids in them and telling me that I put this, two drops in the eye three times a day and not really explaining to me that when you use steroids that the eye drops…” – let me tell you about that. A lot of people do this, especially if you’re using it more than six or seven days consecutively in a row, you actually have a higher risk for infection because now, your immune system is not going there at all.
As a consumer, I really would caution taking blind faith in anything to treating your eyes because it’s such an important part of your body.
And any time there’s a question about what it’s giving you for your eyes or question about what you should be doing for your eyes, like I said, my advice is free and I can tell you if I think that they’re using it appropriately whether it’s in the pharmaceutical realm, which I am qualified to do or in alternative realm, which I’m also qualified to do. I think it’s important to realize that many times people make quick judgments as far as their treatment modalities and their thought process. I see in many different professions, either alternative or in regular pharmacy that you need to really think things through.
That’s why I think today’s talk and telling people how the eye is situated, how things don’t penetrate there well, how you need to be proactive about capillary bed permeability if you’re getting dark circles on your eyes. It’s maybe affecting the blood vessels in the eye themselves. All these things are important.
When you see this white discharge, what does it really mean? So my blood cells are going there for a reason. There’s something wrong. And if it’s excessive and continual over a period of time, maybe it is untreated allergy, maybe there’s baseline infection or maybe your makeup is contaminated. It’s important to think through the process of it because really life is like a little discovery, isn’t it?
DEBRA: It is. It is. So could you just tell us some eye problems, some common eye problems that people could treat in a natural way?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. The macular degeneration probably or eye sensitivity and they’re starting to have some vision issues as a result of it. Maybe the doctor said they had wet or dry macular degeneration. This is probably something that even the eye doctors are starting to [inaudible 00:43:19] eye vitamins as a result of it because they realize they can’t really turn their back on the data now that it’s showing that’s important.
It’s important to embrace the fact that if you have any types of issue or you’re worried about macular degeneration, if you’re starting to have vascular changes in your eye, when you go get your eyes examined, the doctor can look in your eyes and they can start to see if the blood vessels have been affected, that’s what they’re really looking at, the health of the blood vessels.
And I can say this, which I’m very, very proud because I’m 49 and I went to the eye doctor not that long ago and she looked in my eyes and said, “How old are you?” Again, she looks in my chart and she says, “I am so shocked because you don’t have the beginning of any cataracts and no problems with your blood vessels in your eye.” She says, “I never see that in a woman your age.” And I was shocked. This is unsolicited and you know what it is, it’s the antioxidants.
DEBRA: It’s the antioxidants, but I also think it’s because you take homeopathic detox everyday and that you’re in your sauna frequently and you’re detoxing your body just constantly.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You’re right. And you know what it is? Life is not only like, “All or nothing. Okay, I’m going to have a house full of vitamins today and then I’m not going to do anything else.” It’s not about that. It’s all these little things we do every day.
It really was reassuring and confirming that the things that I’m doing are helping and it’s working really well and the fact that she says she never sees it in people in their late 40s makes me think that obviously what I’ve done is I’ve got the right mix of things and maybe I stuck with this through enough for myself as well and I could do that for you and your clients too. That’s important for people to realize. There are things you can take other than just grabbing just a vitamin for eyes off the shelf and using blind faith, knowing that this issue is as far as how to increase the concentration.
I’ll tell you that there’s another homeopathic product that I like a lot. It’s called Circulation and it increases the concentration into an area of the 90%. So say you really have an eye problem or say you have problems in some place in the body and you want the things you’re taking to go there at a higher concentration. Using circulatory enhancers is an excellent trick. I utilize that frequently with patients all the time because I know that it’s going to really get there and it’s going to deliver it right to the area that I want at a high concentration because homeopathy is a secret medicine. It follows these little unique assignments to go and really deliver things and take care of it at the location you want. And regular medicine just never provides that.
DEBRA: That’s so interesting about these natural things, the way they act so differently. Well, I want to tell you this since you went to the eye doctor. I want to tell you that over the weekend, I went to the gym for the first time in 30 years.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Good for you.
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s so great.
DEBRA: A friend of mine figured out that what I really needed to do was lose weight, which is true and I haven’t been able to lose weight all these years. It’s not that I don’t try. It’s that there’s something going on with my body. He figured out that I needed to exercise because he had just started going to the gym and he got on a program with a trainer and he said, “You can do this too.” And you know what? He paid for my gym membership and took me down there personally.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Oh, my gosh. How wonderful is that? Good for you.
DEBRA: Yeah. But here’s the story. I went down there and I started lifting weights and stopped, and the trainer is just amazed and he says, “You haven’t been in a gym for 30 years and how old are you?” And he says, “You’re as old as my father.” He was just really impressed at how well I could just walk in and do it.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Oh my gosh, that’s just great.
DEBRA: Yes.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You don’t realize because you’re actively learning around doing stuff. Your baseline health is probably a lot better than you would think as far as your activity level. But that’s just really great.
You know what? The gym and working out is just a great way because when talking about vascular permeability, it decreases the permeability and the problems associated with blood vessels and it has demargination of white blood cells. When you do exercise, it makes these white blood cells start having high activity in the bloodstream and prevent infection. So it’s doing all kinds of great encompassing things for the body. I’m just so happy for you.
DEBRA: I’m happy for me too. My body felt really good. I felt like they gave me things that I can do, that it wasn’t too stressful and that I could just up how much I was doing. But I did a lot more than I thought that I could. I did more repetitions than I was able to do longer. I really thought that I was out of shape and it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
So I’m very excited about going to the gym now because I understand. I’m going to a specific gym where they really help you. It’s not just about walking in and saying, “Okay, here’s the machine you use.” They’re really helping me and that’s why my friend wanted me to go to that gym with him.
So I’m excited and I know that it will help release toxic chemicals so that they can detox out. And they have a sauna there, so I can go sit on a sauna.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Good for you.
DEBRA: Yeah. I’m so excited.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s just so positive. I’m telling you, if you take away my biking every morning, I will be like, “No, this cannot be happening.” Every day, when I’m biking in the morning and having my exercise, I thank God for the ability to be able to exercise and enjoy my time because it’s really a treasure.
DEBRA: Yeah. And it makes your body feel good. We’ve only got about a minute left for the show. Are there any final words you want to say about eye health?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah. I want to mention real quickly that GLA or gamma-Linolenic acid, found in evening primrose oil. It’s also found in borage oil. I don’t use too much borage by itself because there was some evidence a long time ago that it was shown to be linked to seizures by itself, so you don’t want to do that. But some evening primrose has been shown to be very, very safe.
And taking that increases the moisture in your eyes about 25% in about two weeks. So people with dry eyes, GLA is an excellent source to have this moisture and it works for any of the mucus membranes as well. So it works for vaginal dryness, things for menopausal women, hormone relief, things like that. But for your eyes, GLA could be an excellent addendum to your regimen for your vitamins for your eye health and I really encourage people with dry eyes that taking GLA orally will not only increase the moisture in the skin, but in the eye health as well. That’s something that we do have readily available at a health food store.
DEBRA: Good.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Like I said, it works for other areas of the body, especially dry skin because usually dry eyes and dry skin all seem to go hand in hand.
DEBRA: I’m going to interrupt you right there because we’ve only just now got a few seconds. Thank you so much. Again, if you go to Pamela’s website, which is at BotanicalResource.com and her phone number will be there. Give her a call. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
Surprising Hidden Toxics in Consumer Products
My guest today is Professor Anne Steinemann, who has for many years been a champion for those sensitive to toxic chemicals in consumer products. She tests everyday consumer products to find out what toxic chemicals are actually present in them, many of which are not listed on labels or MSDS sheets. In this recorded interview from Australia, we talk about toxics she found in both standard and natural/organic products, our rights to toxic free public places, and our power as consumers to change the marketplace. Anne Steinemann is Professor of Civil Engineering and Chair of Sustainable Cities at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is an internationally recognized expert in areas of engineering and sustainability including environmental pollutants, infrastructure systems, and health. Her recent research addresses indoor air quality, exposure assessment, consumer product analyses, drought planning and forecasting, hazard mitigation, and healthy buildings and communities. She serves as adviser to governments and industries around the world and has directed major federally funded research programs. Her work has resulted in new federal and state legislation, agency policies and industry practices. Professor Steinemann has received the highest teaching awards at the college, university and national levels. She has published over 50 journal articles and two textbooks. Professor Steinemann’s research and journal articles have received significant international media coverage spanning more than 1,000 major newspapers, magazines and broadcast stations across six continents. Dr. Steinemann received her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. www.drsteinemann.com | www.drsteinemann.com/publications.html
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Surprising Hidden Toxics in Consumer Products
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Dr. Anne Steinemann
Date of Broadcast: March 03, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
This is a very special and a little bit different show today because usually I do the show live. But today, my guest is Professor Anne Steinemann. She is calling from Melbourne, Australia where if we were to do it live, it would be 2:00 in the morning or something.
So I agreed that we could record it. If it sounds different than usual – and we don’t have our usual ins and outs with the commercials. I don’t know how this is all going to go. But I’m sure we’re going to have a great interview.
I’m so excited to talk to Anne because she really is a pioneer in the work that she does. What she does, I’ll say it simply and then she’ll tell us more scientifically what she does. What she does is she tests consumer products to find out what’s really in them. I want to just keep talking about our subject now, but I’ll wait.
So let’s introduce her, then she and I can talk together. This is Professor Anne Steinemann, Professor of Civil Engineering and Chair of Sustainable Cities at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
She has been internationally recognized in the areas of engineering and sustainability including environmental pollutants and structured systems, health and some other things that are not the topics of the show.
Hi, Anne. Thank you so much for being with us.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Debra, thank you so much. I’m such a big fan of you and your work. I think the website and the work that you do are just extraordinary. You’re the pioneer. You’re really the international leader on this. So thank you so much. I’m thrilled to be on your show.
DEBRA: Thank you. Thank you. So let’s just start out. Before we talk about your study – and actually, I’ve been talking to Anne for a number of years. She’s been writing different studies. She’s been doing different studies and writing papers. She’s just come out with her most recent study.
The whole basic idea of why she does this – I’ll say it and I’ll let her say it – is because there’s a problem. I keep talking about this problem and that is that there isn’t enough disclosure about what’s in products for us to really know what the toxic chemicals are.
And I say this over and over. It’s my work. It would be easy if somebody were to just say, “Here’s the list of ingredients and I can go look them up.” The problem is that we don’t get that list of ingredients as consumers.
So Anne, why don’t you just continue and talk about this?
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Thank you so much. I’ll tell you what motivates my work. We know these products have potentially hazardous chemicals in them because people are reporting adverse health effects. The effects can be things from migraine headaches to dizziness to seizures to breathing difficulties to rashes to even losing consciousness. So I really look at the human reports. It really motivates my work.
I started doing this work probably about 25 years ago. I started publishing the studies about a decade ago. I’m trying to figure out what’s in these products that’s making people sick. What is it?
As an engineer and a scientist, I really want to figure it out. If you look at the labels, they typically list a couple of very benign sounding ingredients. And these products that we’re talking about – let me just mention – they’re consumer products, things like air fresheners to deodorizers, hand sanitizers, personal care products, laundry supplies (which includes dryer sheets and fabric softeners and detergents), cleaning products (all sorts of cleaning products from window cleaner or floor cleaner, bath cleaner, multi-purpose cleaners). So these are common consumer products that are used everyday in our homes, our workplaces and our schools.
I was receiving e-mails from people. I have received over 3000 e-mails from people, telling me that they’ve been getting sick from these common products.
So along with this, I’ve also then worked in exposure assessments. So as an engineer, engineers are concerned with pollutants and health. So I was looking at what are the major sources of pollutants as we go through the day.
Well, it turns out it occurs indoors and the primary sources of our exposures are consumer products and building materials. Paradoxically, these are sources that do not need to disclose all their ingredients. This is so ironic because the primary sources of our exposure to toxic chemicals are precisely the sources that don’t need to disclose all their ingredients.
Anyway, that’s what really propelled me into doing these studies. It’s really trying to figure out what’s being emitted from these products that’s causing people to be sick and not just mildly sick, but very seriously ill. These types of effects can be disabling and life-threatening.
These types of products have also caused people with chemical sensitivity a significant hardship. The people can’t go into public places because of the use of air fresheners or scented cleaning products. I have received hundreds upon hundreds of stories that are just tragic stories. It just gets to my heart. People want to go visit their dying parents in the hospital, but they can’t because the hospital uses air fresheners or scented hand sanitizers, things like that. Your listeners know this very well.
So that’s the motivation for the research.
DEBRA: Thank you. I understand that because that’s pretty much my motivation for my research too, because I got sick and I knew other people who are sick.
When I found that I could at least identify as much toxic chemicals so that I can remove them from my home and I started recovering my health, I said, “Wow, if somebody hasn’t told me this, then I was being exposed to toxic chemicals. I wouldn’t be sick if I wasn’t exposed to them” I would have done something. I did recover my health because I eliminated toxic chemicals.
But here’s something very, very important. And that is they do damage. You can remove the toxic chemicals after the effect, but I spent my whole life – even though I’m no longer chemically sensitive. I’m no longer chemically sensitive because I live in a very non-toxic home. But my body is damaged. I’m struggling with the damage that was caused every day.
And we need to not be damaging people’s bodies, people’s health. It should be that everybody gets to live in a safe environment at home and not that we should be exposed to toxic chemicals and then have to recover from that.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Right, exactly. So I think my research is designed to help those people who are of course already sensitized and feel the effects, but also those people who may not be aware what they’re being exposed to. It’s to prevent the next generation of chemically sensitive people and to really try to help people.
I agree with you completely that if we live in a safe environment, people feel great. I’ve seen how if we get rid of the air fresheners, get rid of the scented cleaning products, people recover their health.
DEBRA: They do. They do.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Exactly! If you think from a workplace perspective, economically, it makes so much sense. You can keep people healthy and productive just by removing these products. I mean, what a benefit!
Another reason I did this research was I’m still trying to unravel the mystery of why fragrance products are so problematic. People who are fragrance-sensitive are not necessarily sensitive to natural aromas, things like a banana or something like that, but it’s the synthetic bananas exactly.
So I think there’s a synthetic chemical problem, a petrochemical problem. This is our alert to say, “The human doesn’t feel well with synthetic chemicals. Let’s try to figure out why this is.”
The other issue here is that – for instance, let’s say an employee or just a person is trying to talk to management saying, “Can you please remove the air fresheners from your restrooms?” and the manager says, “Well, I’m looking at the label. This air freshener just says that it’s all organic essential oils. What could be wrong with that?”
But what they don’t realize is first of all, that’s not disclosing all the ingredients. And second of all, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any potentially hazardous chemicals in there.
So I’m also trying to provide evidence for people to claim their rights to fragrance-free places, so they could say, “Well, that’s actually not the case. Believe it or not, these products do not disclose all ingredients. They don’t disclose all the potentially hazardous ingredients.”
DEBRA: Okay. Let’s talk about labeling for a minute before we go into your study. Tell us about how these things are not on the label and also about the MSDS. I’ve been studying your study and you have some very interesting numbers about how few ingredients are actually on the MSDS.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Okay. So here is the situation. There is no law in the U.S. or any other country that requires the disclosure of all ingredients in a consumer product.
Now foods do need to list all their ingredients. However, they don’t need to list ingredients in flavors. That’s a related story to fragrances because flavors and fragrances are essentially the same types of chemicals. But foods do need to disclose all ingredients.
However consumer products – when I say consumer products, I mean things like the air fresheners, the cleaning products, the soaps, the hand sanitizers, the cleaning supplies – they don’t need to disclose all their ingredients. In fact, they can just say “fragrance” instead of disclosing the ingredients in the fragrance.
And one of the problems here is the public risk perception. If you look at a laundry detergent label and it says something “Biodegradable surfactant,” if it was something on the label, you might mistakenly think that’s all the ingredients. “Oh, it just had biological surfactants.” That sounds benign and simple enough. But that’s very misleading because what’s happening is people are looking at – if there’s a couple of ingredients, they think they see all ingredients.
So anyway, back to the regulations. There is no law that requires disclosure of all ingredients of consumer products or any ingredients in a fragrance. So basically, it’s a non-disclosure law on top of another. So that’s the labels.
And the same with material safety data sheet, there is no law that requires the disclosure of all ingredients on the material safety data sheet. Even though it has that box that says to list ingredients, it doesn’t need to list everything.
While the companies are required to test their products for potential hazards, there’s essentially no follow up or monitoring. So it’s a self-regulating process. The chronic problem with material safety data sheets is there’s not really a way to check to make sure they’re accurately disclosing and testing all of their ingredients.
DEBRA: Yeah. My point about material safety data sheets is that I look at them, but I don’t look at them from the viewpoint of saying, “Well, if there is no toxic chemicals listed, then it means that they’re not there.”
I look and I see, “Well, if there are toxic chemicals there, then we really need to pay attention to that. We need to say, “There are toxic chemicals in this product and not use it.”
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: That’s right.
DEBRA: The problem is on the other side. So we can use MSDS sheets and labels as warnings, but we can’t use the labels of MSDS to say that the product doesn’t contain toxic chemicals.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: That’s right.
DEBRA: The only way we know they’re there is because you are testing them.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: It can rule a product out, but it can’t rule a product in. If it discloses something, so again, we rule it out, but you can’t rule it in.
One of the other interesting things about toxicity – this is again what I’m trying to investigate – these products are obviously causing hazardous effects because people are getting sick from them.
What does this teach us about toxicity? Well, toxicity is not just individual chemicals even though that’s the way we test and regulate individual chemicals (that’s what I’ve seen), but we have very little information and knowledge on the toxicity of mixtures. So we have synthetic chemicals individually in synthetic mixtures. These are mixtures not known to nature and chemicals not known to nature.
I say the ultimate tests are humans. If humans are having adverse effects, that means there’s something that’s toxic in them.
So I look it the other way around because traditionally the argument is “Well, the levels are within regulatory limits.”
Well, first of all, our indoor air environments aren’t regulated necessary for those chemicals. And the levels, they’re so generous, so you didn’t really say much.
But I look at the other way around, saying, “People are having effects. What are the levels? What should we be regulating for?”
So aside from the individual chemicals is the fact that there are mixtures of chemicals. And then there’s this whole area of secondary pollutants.
The chemicals that I’m going to get into the results of the study in a minute, the most common types of chemicals emitted from fragrance products are things like limonene, alpha-Pinene, beta-Pinene. These are called terpenes. There’s a lot of chemicals called terpenes.
Terpenes can have inherent toxicity and be potentially toxic in and of themselves. But then when they react with ozone in the air, which is readily available in the air, they immediately generate a range of secondary pollutants. It can be even worse – things like formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and ultrafine particles.
So in a way, you have a class of chemicals that may have toxicities. But then they react with air and they generate this whole host of additional types of pollutants.
So again, we’re really trying to investigate what is it that might be causing these effects are the mixtures. But again, I think taking a chemical-by-chemical approach to regulation isn’t really going to be – that misses the bigger picture. And I think maybe probably the bigger picture is the petrochemical problem, the synthetic chemical problem.
DEBRA: Many years ago, when I first started researching – I wish I had a copy of this study. I couldn’t find it. I remember in one of my early books, I wrote about a study they did on rats where they were studying different food additives.
When they gave the rats one food additive or a color – I think it was food color – then nothing happened. And then they gave the rats two food additives and they got sick. And then they gave them three food additives and they all died.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: That’s very interesting.
DEBRA: Yeah. I mean, I’ve never seen a test like that, but that’s the way we should be testing. None of us are being exposed to formaldehyde in isolation and with the other chemicals.
So you could look at – you’re going to tell us about what you found in these consumer products – a mixture. But we’re not just using one consumer product. We’re using 2 or 3 or 4 or 10. And then we’re going and sleeping in a bed, we’re putting on clothes, we’re going out driving our cars and we’re exposed to so many chemicals that you can’t ever really evaluate in a lab or in a study what those things are together.
And then you have all the different factors of what makes somebody be able to tolerate those or not tolerate those – your age and the condition of your body and how much you’re being exposed to it and how often you’re being exposed to it. All these factors, you can’t calculate it.
So my approach has always been to find whatever toxic and just eliminate it. The fewer toxic chemicals that we can have in our lives, the better off we’re going to be.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Right! I think the humans are the ultimate integrator. Human canaries understand the effects of these products. We may not be able to identify certain bad actors. But collectively, if people are reacting to it, there’s something going on. We really have to listen to people.
DEBRA: That’s really true.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Yeah, absolutely. I like to use a… I’m conscious of the time. I want to let people know where to get a copy of the article if they’d like one.
If you Google my name, Anne Steinemann, you’ll come up with my website. It has a lot of my publications on it that are relevant to this topic. Just click on Publications and it’s the first one in the list. You can get the full article with all of the data. www.drsteinemann.com, www.drsteinemann.com/publications.html
Debra, I don’t know if it’s posted on your site as well.
DEBRA: Actually, I will have it on my site. People can go to Toxic Free Talk Radio. It will be in the description of this show. I’ll have your links.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Excellent! That’s very helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. There are I guess two main piece of law, the results of the study, but also the broader implications of it. This study, why it’s different or a step beyond the previous studies that I’ve done where I’ve analyzed products, I looked at products called certified green and organic and I also looked at fragrance-free products in addition to the fragrance products and found some really interesting things.
DEBRA: Oh, good! Why don’t you tell us about the study?
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Okay, great. So this time, I analyzed 37 common consumer products – the same types that I mentioned, air fresheners, laundry products, cleaners and personal care products. I analyzed them for VOCs, volatile organic compounds. These are things like fumes.
I did not analyze them for SVOCs, the semi volatile organic compounds, petrochemicals like phthalates. So this is just the VOCs, which means there’s potentially more chemicals in these products than just what I found.
So of these 37 products, I found 156 different types of VOCs. Now collectively, that was more than 556 VOCs altogether from these products.
Now what’s interesting is of these 156 VOCs, 42 are classified as toxic or hazardous under federal laws. They were to be regulated for coming out of a smokestack or tailpipe, but they weren’t regulated in these products.
Now what’s interesting…
DEBRA: That is just astounding to me.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Yeah. Well, that’s the untold story here.
DEBRA: If something is regulated, why is it not regulated across the boards? I mean, this is something that I found when I was trying – I still am trying to find out what’s in consumer products – but I would go and I’d look at the regulation and I’d look at the label and I’d find out things. Formaldehyde coming off of a particle board is regulated if it’s in a four-by-eight sheet, but not if it’s cut up and made into a table.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: That’s interesting.
DEBRA: That’s ridiculous.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Very, very interesting. It’s the same thing with air fresheners. You’re looking at acetaldehyde, one of my study’s looked at acetaldehyde coming out of dryer vents. So it’s comparable to tailpipe emissions. The tailpipe emissions are heavily regulated. But when we’re looking at dryer vent emissions – actually, that’s my next study. We’re going to be analyzing even more extensively dryer vent emissions. So that one’s coming up. I’ll be doing that.
Back on the findings, these 37 products, collectively, they emitted more than 559 VOCs collectively. Those represent 156 different types of VOCs. And of those 559, 230 of them are classified as toxic or hazardous under federal laws regulated in other media and other forms.
Now what’s interesting is fewer than 3% of all these ingredients were disclosed anywhere on any product label or material safety data sheet and fewer than 6% of the hazardous ones, potentially hazardous ones were listed anywhere. Basically, we have no information on these products.
About half of the products were so called green products. They made some claims of being green, organic, all natural, non-toxic or with essential oils. They also had claims like organic fragrance, natural fragrance. Some of them were green certified by certifying bodies. And essentially the emissions of potentially hazardous chemicals were no different than their regular counterparts.
So this is something that your listeners probably already know. It’s probably the myth of green.
But the bigger story is that if it had a fragrance in it, it didn’t matter whether it was called green or whether it was regular. It emitted the same types of potentially hazardous chemicals.
So this is not to say that all green products are the same as the regular products. I’m saying green fragranced products were no different than the regular fragranced products. That’s an important point.
I’m not saying the truly green, natural ecological simple-based products from things like vinegar and baking soda. Those are green. I’m talking about products that call themselves green or green certified or organic or natural fragrance, but they have a fragrance in them.
There were no significant differences in types of potentially hazardous chemicals or the concentrations between the green fragrance products and the regular fragrance products.
One of the problems with that is the green certifying regulations allow fragrances in them. Actually, the EPA just came out with a revised version of their design for environment. I understand that there’s an option for fragrance-free, but this is just relative. You find a lot of these green certified products. I don’t want to name the certifying body or bodies.
The other big problem I see – and I didn’t really emphasize this in the article because I didn’t really want to go after certain organizations. They’re trying to do a good job. But there are all these green cleaning guides on the internet now like, “How do you evaluate your product? How green or safe is your product?” Well, those organizations do not analyze the products. They go off of labels.
I have talked to these organizations and written to them. I was saying, “How can you provide these assessments of A+ or A or the top rated? When I’ve them, I found potentially hazardous chemicals, ones that have no safe exposure level. And I know that people who are chemically sensitive react to these products and you rate them as the highest products.” They don’t analyze your products.
So I want to put a caution out there against using these green cleaning guides or product evaluation guides put out by a couple of organizations in the US. I’m very concerned that they put out ratings and they never chemically analyzed the products. Even though they may have very sophisticated algorithms for how they decide toxicity, they’re just going off of the listed ingredients, fewer than the 3% of the listed ingredients. I mean. How can you extrapolate doing all these analyses based on less than 3% of the real ingredients?
Anyway, that’s something I’m very concerned about. People are getting misinformation from these green cleaning guides because they don’t analyze the products.
DEBRA: I’m concerned about that too. I’m concerned about it too because it’s very difficult to give something a rating.
What I do is I look at as much information as I can get. I wish that I could just have you right next door here and analyze every product. And then I could say, “Okay. Anne and I have found the least toxic ones on the market.”
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: I know that I could find a way to bring a human experience because I find that – I’ll call them ‘my people’ or ‘human canaries’. They can say, “This is great. This is an A plus.” Or “This is really bad. This is a D minus.” They know what’s relatively safe, what they can be around and what’s not. So they’re really the ultimate toxicity testers.
Especially in the scientific studies, we can’t really do human subjects testing on people if we know the exposures are going to cause them to be sick. But at the same time, I want to be able to tap this expertise. There’s a wealth of expertise we have across the country with people who are chemically sensitive.
DEBRA: I think that if somebody who is chemically sensitive can tolerate something, it’s probably pretty safe for other people.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Exactly! The way I’d like to have green certifying process is if chemically sensitive have to say, “This is safe.” And then okay, it’s green. The same thing with the green building. “Yes, this building, I can handle. This is a good building.” And I’d say, “Okay, now we can call it a green building.”
DEBRA: I have to say because we’re talking about green that one of the reasons why – I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years, so I’ve gone through different phases in my career. There was a time when green things came out that I thought, “Oh, this is really important. We need to be green.”
But as I did the studying about it, what I found was that most people who were concerned about green or concerned about energy efficiency and resource use and all these kinds of things, which is a fine thing to do, many times the toxicity question was left out completely.
There was a point I think about five years ago now, four or five years ago where I said, “Wait a minute. I need to just put all that green thing aside. There are plenty of people who are working on green issues. And I just need to stick to the toxic issues.”
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: That is right.
DEBRA: If we don’t pay attention to what’s toxic, it doesn’t matter if we recycle or not because we’re all going to be sick and dead. I’m saying this bluntly, but this is actually true. If we don’t pay attention to…
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. There are a lot of green buildings that may be good for energy efficiency, but are not good for health.
DEBRA: Yes. And that’s exactly when the whole field of indoor air quality came from, some decades ago. When people started filling up their houses for energy efficiency, people got sicker and sicker and sicker and so people started investigating and finding there are all these toxic chemicals in people’s homes. They were not evident until people started filling them up for energy efficiency.
So if somebody wants something that’s not toxic, do not buy anything that says that it’s green and expect it to be that because that’s not the criteria.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: That’s right. Exactly! I want to make sure I cover two more things here while we have time.
People probably go, “Fragrance-free, what did you find in the fragrance free?” Well, I analyzed name-brand fragrance-free versions. So I analyzed the fragrance version of the laundry products and the fragrance-free version of that laundry product. And they were name-brands. I also analyzed fragrance-free green products.
Now what I found was that the fragrance¬¬-free products did not have the terpenes. So they didn’t have the fragrance chemicals, which can be problematic for people. But fragrance-free doesn’t necessarily guarantee non-toxic. That makes sense because the basic product can still have potentially hazardous chemicals in it. But then the added fragrance is a whole another level of potential toxicity and potential hazard.
So fragrance-free was not just simply fragrance minus – the fragrance version minus fragrance chemicals. I mean, there are some other things in it. But all that said, at least it didn’t have the fragrance chemicals.
And this is consistent with the reports I’ve gotten from people. I hear a lot, “I can handle it. If my neighbour uses fragrance-free detergent, then I’m fine. But I can’t use these name-brand fragrance-free detergents because I break out into rash.”
Maybe it’s something where you don’t have all the volatile compounds, so you’re okay around it if somebody else uses it, but you can’t really use it on yourself because it may have other things like nano particles or micro plastics or a lot of SVOCs or something else in it. And these are the name-brand fragrance-free products that I mentioned.
Also, this is on a tangent, but everything is related. I’m getting so many e-mails from people. I might also say that I’ve done this research on my own. No money for it from anywhere. I’ve done it because I feel it was just societal important. It’s giving me no conflict of interest. It’s exciting and at the same time overwhelming to get thousands of e-mail. That’s why I put my articles out there.
I just want to address the question that often comes to me in e-mail. If someone is getting sick from these fragrance products in some environment, what rights do they have? If they’re in the work environment…
DEBRA: Yes, let’s talk about that. Talk about that.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: I’ve dealt a lot with this, helping people get – I’m just one person, I wish I can help everyone. So I’m just going to give you the general advice.
If it’s in a workplace, you have rights. You do not have to be exposed to fragrance products. You have rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Don’t let anyone tell you, “Well, fragrance sensitivity isn’t a disability.” The ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act is symptom-based, not disease-based. So if you have disabling symptoms – and disabling is very broadly defined. I mean, if you get migraine headaches, difficulty breathing, dizziness, lots of cognitive function, feeling woozy, those are disabling.
So you don’t need to “prove” that fragrance sensitivity is a condition or that it’s classified as a disability. If you have adverse effects like the types I described, the types of typical fragrance exposure, it’s considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
All you need to get an accommodation is you have your doctor write a letter. There are lots of good – I want to give you some advice of who to contact. Write a letter saying, “So and so is my patient. And she has a disabling condition and here would be a reasonable accommodation.”
The other thing is you need to be a qualified individual, meaning that you can do your job if you have the accommodation. That means you can do the essential functions of your job, the essential functions if you have the fragrance products removed or you have some accommodations.
Now where to go for advice is a great organization called the Job Accommodation Network, JAN. If you Google them, you’ll pull them up. I think they’re partially supported by the EEOC and they help with workplace accommodations.
That’s for the workplace. In other venues, you are still covered under the ADA. JAN is for workplace accommodations.
So if you look with the Americans with Disabilities Act, there are several titles of them. Some are for public places, some are for private venues. But again, you are entitled to an accommodation.
For instance, if you’re trying to shop at a grocery store and they have an air freshener in their restroom and you can’t use the restroom because of it, you can talk with the management and say, “I am an individual under the American with Disabilities Act and I request a reasonable accommodation. Just get rid of the air freshener,” things like that. You have a legal right to be fragrance free accommodations.
Now it has to be reasonable. So it may not be possible for an entire building to become fragrance-free, but they can certainly provide you a bathroom that you can access that doesn’t have an air freshener just for an example.
DEBRA: All of this is very interesting because I’m thinking about going into a public building, that there’s a difference between what are the fragrances of the chemicals that might be there in the public building itself versus the fragrances or chemicals that people might bring in. If somebody wears perfume into a building, that’s different than having an air freshener in the bathroom.
There’s just no reason why any building cannot be fragrant-free. If all the products exist for everything that they need, it shouldn’t be considered a special accommodation. It should just be that all public buildings are fragrance-free.
Now when I was born all those many decades ago, people smoke in public buildings. Now people do not smoke in public buildings. We should be able to move things forward so that public buildings cannot have toxic chemicals in them no matter what it is, whether it’s fragrances or cleaning products or anything. Building owners should just get enlightened and say, “I’m not going to poison people who come in my building.”
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: I think it will get to that. I call it the the problem with second hand scents. It’s just like second hand smoke. So eventually, we’ll get to that.
But people need to speak up to realize you have rights. In America, you have good rights. So you’re very well protected with the laws in America. You have to speak up. And eventually, unfortunately, it usually takes a couple of lawsuits to turn things around, but things get turned around.
Employers and managers of buildings and public places have to realize that they cannot just say, “We’re going to put these products out there. If people have adverse effects, too bad.” No, you do have rights.
DEBRA: Yes. Yes. This is so interesting. I’ve seen so much change in the last 30 years that I really think that it is possible to change. I think that people are becoming more aware, not only of the problem, but the fact that we do have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness here in America. How are we supposed to have life or liberty or be happy if we’re being poisoned?
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Right. Yeah. Let me go back to what I was talking about before. How do you request an accommodation like the typical one, the air freshener in the grocery store restroom? How do you approach it?
There are many different ways. It really depends on the manager you’re talking to, but oftentimes, an informal gentle approach may work. Just say, “I have this condition and I can’t breathe. My throat closes up whenever I use the bathroom. It’s considered a disability under the ADA?” Let them know you have a legal backing too. It would be considered an accommodation if you could turn it off.”
I’ve never had a case, and I’ve been working in this area for 20 to 25 years, where they’ve refused to provide an accommodation for someone. And I had even gotten air fresheners turned off and removed from major places like airports. So sometimes, it just got through.
I’ve got on my list a lot of airports that have now disconnected or removed their air fresheners just because I talked to them and I go, “You’ve got a liability risk. You’re going to have people coming in here getting sick or having asthma attacks or seizures because of these air fresheners?”
Also explain to them giving them the data that are on my website (I have a fact sheet on air fresheners under my resources page) that air fresheners do not clean. They’re not designed to clean the air. They’re trying to mask an issue. So the best approach is ventilation.
But I think owners of buildings and managers of buildings and stores don’t want to have liability, liability under either the ADA or having someone having adverse effects there on their premises because that affects their insurance as well.
DEBRA: Yeah.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: So they’re all right. Sometimes a very nice approach works. If the nice approach is not working, then I often find a letter, just a letter.
Again, there are a lot of people out there who’ve had success with writing letters. I probably should develop some templates and put them up on my website. But the best approach really – because every situation is different and so there is no one right approach. But just do realize you have rights.
DEBRA: Good. So I just want to let you know we have just about 10 minutes left. So I want to make sure that you get to say everything that you want to say.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: You’ve been wonderful, Debra. I’m still trying to think if there’s anything that I haven’t yet covered. This is why…
DEBRA: Let me ask you a question while you’re thinking.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Great.
DEBRA: Okay. So what did you find in your testing? Was there a difference between scented products that were scented with essential oils versus products that were scented with synthetic?
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: No, no, no. Unfortunately, not. No, no. I mean essential oils, there’s been other studies on essential oils. I don’t know what the problem is. I mean, I’m going to get into the chemistry of essential oils, but they’re extracted many times with solvents or they’re diluted with solvents. So there are solvents and petrochemicals in essential oils.
But the other thing is that the product may say it has essential oils, but it may also have fragrances in it. So it doesn’t necessarily disclose that it doesn’t have other fragrance chemicals in it.
DEBRA: Yes. So when you’re testing – I know that for myself when I was first chemically sensitive that the synthetic fragrance that I knew was synthetic fragrance, that would always make me sick. One of the first clues for me was that if I put my perfume on, I get a headache.
And then I found a little place in San Francisco that would scent their shampoo with vanilla and mint. That was wonderful! As long as I knew it was a natural fragrance – well, I didn’t even need to know if it was a natural fragrance and it was high quality and there were other synthetic fragrances with it – I had no problem with it at all.
So it may be that the types of – I’m asking a question now. It may be that the types of products that you were testing had essential oils and something else. But might it be possible that some products that are very carefully made only with essential oils might be okay?
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Well, I actually tested some of those products, the ones that were the little homegrown shops essential oils. There’s been a lot of other research on essentials oils. So in their case, the people doing essential oils probably didn’t use solvents to extract some or dilute some, but maybe that the essential oils that these other products that I tested are using are essential oils that have the petrochemicals.
I mean essential oils, things like benzene and toluene, these are serious petrochemicals – I mean, benzene.
And even in the distillation process, just saying they’re distilled doesn’t necessarily guarantee that there are no solvents in it. I’ve talked with people who had done distillation and then in the end, they put in solvents to help the extraction.
So I think it’s important that people that are using a product with essential oils – again, listen to your body. Your body knows.
DEBRA: …because a lot of times, they are used therapeutically. That’s probably a different grade of oil than what you’re going to find in a cleaning product.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Right. If you listen to your body – what I’m trying to do too is to have – people often say, “This product is making me sick, but it shouldn’t because it has essential oils.”
I’m saying, “Well, listen to your body. There’s a reason that maybe it is.”
DEBRA: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What else would you like to tell us?
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: You’ve been great, Debra. I just want to thank you for the wonderful work that you do. As I mentioned in the beginning, I see your website as truly a go-to site. You’re the authoritative voice on this topic. So I really appreciate all the work that you do.
DEBRA: Thank you. I try to be very careful. I try to be very careful, but it’s very, very difficult. I think the most that I can do is – I wish I could test every single product and find out what’s really in it. But really, what it comes down to is that I can say these products don’t have a whole list – I don’t even keep a list. I really am looking at each thing individually. But if it’s obvious there are toxic chemicals, I eliminate those.
What I’m trying to do is identify the ones that are coming from reputable companies who have the intent of having things be as least toxic as humanly possible and that they’re really trying for that and that they’re testing their products themselves and things like that.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Right. Exactly.
DEBRA: I’m trying to educate people as much as possible so that we can all make wise decisions. But it’s really, really difficult when we can’t just get the information.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Absolutely right! I’m anticipating another question that your listeners may have. So why didn’t I disclose brand names?
So the scientific reason is that I didn’t need to disclose brand names for purposes of research, but there is a broader reason and that is I didn’t want people looking at brand names and saying, “Oh, I won’t buy brand A. I’d buy brand B instead that you didn’t test.” And basically brand B maybe just as, if not more, potentially hazardous as brand A.
But the point is that every product I tested emitted potentially hazardous chemicals. I didn’t find a single one that didn’t. So I don’t want people to run away from the products that I named to other ones thinking that they’re somehow better because it was this whole class of products.
There’s a third reason actually. That’s legal liability.
DEBRA: Yeah.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: I think I’m probably the only one doing research on this topic. There’s a reason for that. I have to be very careful not to be sued.
DEBRA: I think I’m the only person that is doing the kind of work that I’m doing. There are certainly other organizations that are working on toxics, making this connection between the toxic chemicals, the health effects and where it is in a product.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Exactly.
DEBRA: Where is your exposure? How are you going to reduce your exposure?
And there are, as you mentioned, lists that have been compiled. But those lists are just rating them. You could look up a brand and say, it will tell you, “This is really toxic.” I’m selecting and saying, “Go on this direction. These are less likely to hurt you.”
As I said earlier, whether or not something is toxic to you individually, it depends on so many factors about your own body, as well as the inherent toxicity of some things.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Exactly. Exactly.
DEBRA: There’s nobody in the world that can say any product is safe for everyone. Everyone needs to evaluate it for themselves. And that’s really the bottomline of it.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Right, absolutely.
DEBRA: Yeah. So how did you end up in Australia?
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: I’ll tell you. It was this position. It’s a great position. I’m here as a Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia, which is considered the best university in Australia. They want me to lead an international research program on healthy buildings. They’ve been extremely supportive of my research on this topic and so I thought, “Great.”
Yeah! No, it’s wonderful! It’s exciting. I feel like I can do research that will help people around the world. Again, they’ve been supportive. It’s a great university, great colleagues. They want to support research that’s going to make a big international impact and I said, “This will.”
DEBRA: This will, this absolutely will.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Exactly! So they’re very interested in healthy buildings, healthy products, doing research on that topic.
DEBRA: That’s right. If you are going to have a healthy building, you’ll have to put healthy things inside of it.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Exactly. Exactly.
DEBRA: It’s all one unit…
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Exactly. So I’m really hoping to make – exactly! I’m hoping to do the research studies and get them out there and do the international work that’s going to help people.
DEBRA: Well, you already are. You already are.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Thank you.
DEBRA: I’m just so pleased that you’re doing this because it really does show what’s actually going on. You show what the problem is and that we need to have better solutions. We need to have better labeling laws.
I would actually prefer having labeling laws to the laws that people are trying to pass about tighter regulations. I’d like to know what’s in a product so that I can choose to not use it.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Right. That’s right.
DEBRA: And I think that that’s the most important thing myself. It’s not that I don’t think that we shouldn’t have tighter regulations, but we have a right to know. We have a right to be healthy. We have rights to be able to make choices.
And we can’t do that with our consumer products, the things that we have in our homes day in and day out. We don’t know what they are. You’re shining a light on it and saying, “Look. Here, this is what’s in the product that’s not on the label.”
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Thank you.
DEBRA: I’m so proud of you.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Well, no. I’m so proud of you. And I’m so proud of everyone out there. People who are chemically sensitive, I just admire you so much for what you go through during the day. You’re the real heroes. You have strength that no one else does and no one else knows about. You’re trying to get through everyday life in society with all this stuff around.
That’s why I’m proud of all the work that you do because you’re really a pioneer. You’re a heroine. You’re out there, doing the work, but so are your listening audience.
DEBRA: Yes.
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: My hats off to all of them, yes!
DEBRA: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we’re down to the last minute now. And we can’t go over because….
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: We can’t go over. Debra, thank you. Be optimistic, be positive. Things will work out. We’re going to get information. Things will turn around. Things always get better.
DEBRA: Yes. And everybody should know that there are people working on this. Anne and I are working on it and other people. And you all as consumers have power. And now, we only have 20 seconds left. So I’m going to say thank you so much. You’re listening to Toxic Free…
DR. ANNE STEINEMANN: Thank you, Debra.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today has been Anne Steinemann.
You can go to Toxic Free Talk Radio and get all her links. Go to her website and find out everything.
Here we go! It’s coming down. Five, four, three, two, one. Be well. Bye!
New Siding on Home
Question from Hannah Ellen
Hi Debra,
I am considering installing new siding on my home, partly for aesthetic reasons and partly for health reasons.
Currently my home has wood shingles that are covered with aluminum siding on 3 sides and vinyl siding on the fourth.
I don’t love the way it looks and would love to replace with fiber cement boards or wood.
Partly I would like to get rid of the aluminum siding for EMF reasons.
However, I assume that the wood shingles underneath have lead paint on them, though the lead inspector was not able to verify this because they were completely covered. So I am trying to weigh risks – some EMF issues with keeping the house as is vs. the potential disturbance of lead-painted shingles if they are removed.
We would certainly leave the house during the work and keep all windows closed tightly. However, with 2 children under the age of 6, I don’t take lead hazards lightly. Any thoughts and advice would be much appreciated as always 🙂
Thanks!
Debra’s Answer
What I would do is have someone remove one or two pieces of the aluminum siding so the lead inspector can really see what is underneath. Lead-removal professionals are supposed to remove lead in a safe way that doesn’t spread it around the surrounding environment.
So get more information before you make a decision.
What are Toxic Free Tableware and Glasses and Earthenware?
Question from Joyce Kerkhoff
Hi Debra,
I am glad I found this site.
I am trying to make my home and that of my family as toxic free as possible.
I have recently bought glasses made by Libby; and table ware made by oneida, and have bought knives made by Henckles. Also earthen ware made in China exclusively for Williams-Sonoma.
The plates have colores of orange, green, yellow and background of white. I try to find out about the glazes used and the level of possible iron and cadium. I do not find this information.
I recently rid myself of inherited glassware from my grandmothers used back in 1940’s. and 1950’s. Was also gievn pewter steins made in Germany back in 1992.
Would appreciate your help.
Debra’s Answer
I wish I could give you information about all these items, but I don’t have it either.
I have never had any experience with knives being a problem.
I assume clear glassware to not be toxic, based on the ingredients used to make glass.
As for the ceramicware, get some Lead Check Swabs. If it tests positive it’s for sure toxic, if it tests negative, there’s probably no lead but we don’t know about other metals. I use clear glass dinnerware and ceramic pieces that I have tested safe with LeadCheck swabs.
I need to get some dinnerware manufacturer to test their dinnerware so we know it’s safe…
Living Near Golf Course
Question from Jonathan
Hi Debra,
I found your site to be a wonderful source of information, and was hoping you might be able to help me with a question or two.
I am considering buying a country home, in Upstate New York. It is across the street from a golf course. (Given the acreage of the property, it’s reasonably far away.) There is also a gas station a few thousand feet away. I know that both of these are concerns, but how great a concern are they? I have three young children, and the entire point of the country home is to give them a place to play outside. Is that safe?
Thanks so much.
Debra’s Answer
Distance really is the deciding factor. I wouldn’t buy a house bordering on a golf course or next door to a gas station, but a few thousand feet away should be sufficient.
I would just check the prevailing winds. If they are blowing in your direction, you’ll get fumes from these sources.
Also I would check what pesticides are used to maintain the golf course. Many golf courses have switched to less toxic maintenance. If your golf course isn’t already with the program, you might suggest they look into it. Just search the interest for “IPM golf courses” and many websites will come up. IPM is Integrated Pest Management, a program that greatly reduces pesticides if not eliminates them altogether.
Blocking /sealing Disintegrating Foam in Van Ceiling & Auto Air Filter
Question from Patricia Thomson
Hi Debra,
I recently was given a different vehicle to drive at work a 2005 Chevrolet Express Van. There is a disintegrating layer of foam on the ceiling of the front seat covered by a thin layer of cloth. The cloth had departed from the ceiling so there was foam dust falling into the dashboard. I taped up the cloth to the ceiling using duct tape and covered any exposed foam with duct tape and cleaned the vehicle. Is there anything else I can do to seal off the ceiling. It’s a work vehicle – I don’t have a choice in the vehicle I use but would like to be safe while driving it. I also thought about getting a good quality auto air filter. Has anyone had experience with one that was good?
Debra’s Answer
If I really want to block fumes I use heavy duty aluminum foil or foil-backed building paper if I need extra strength. I tape around the edges with foil tape. This works without fail. Not pretty, but it blocks and you can put something better looking over it if you want.
In the past I had an auto air filter by E. L. Foust. It worked very well. You just plug it in to the cigarette lighter.
Why Do People Doubt the Science Behind Toxics?
My guest today is toxicologist Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, He’s a regular guest who is helping us understand the toxicity of common chemicals we may be frequently exposed to. Today we’re going to take a look at a related subject: why people don’t believe there is a problem with toxics when there is so much scientific evidence. And how can we get this vital information more widely known? Dr. Gilbert is Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and author of A Small Dose of Toxicology- The Health Effects of Common Chemicals.He received his Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1986 from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, is a Diplomat of American Board of Toxicology, and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington. His research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. Dr. Gilbert has an extensive website about toxicology called Toxipedia, which includes a suite of sites that put scientific information in the context of history, society, and culture. www.toxipedia.org
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH STEVEN G. GILBERT, PhD, DABT
- Toxics in the Air We Breathe—Indoors and Outdoors—and How it Affects Our Health
- Toxic Solvents and Vapors
- How Pesticides Can Harm Your Health
- There is No Safe Level for Lead Exposure
- Fewer Chemicals Make Healthier Babies
- Why We Shouldn’t Have Nuclear Power Plants
- How Mercury Affects Your Health
- Nanoparticles
- Persistant Bioaccumulative Toxicants
- How Endocrine Disruptors Disrupt Our Endocrine Systems
- The Dangers of Exposure to Radiation and How to Protect Yourself
- Toxics Throughout History—Exposure to Toxic Substances is Not New
- The Ethics of Toxics
- How to Determine Your Risk of Harm From an Exposure to a Toxic Chemical
- The Basic Principles of Toxicology
- Meet a Toxicologist
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Why do People Doubt the Science Behind Toxics
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT
Date of Broadcast: March 17, 2015
DEBRA: I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. Today is Tuesday, March 17, 2015.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day. I hope everybody is wearing green and not getting pinched. Actually, I’m not, but there’s nobody here to pinch me in this room right now. But I will remember to wear green, when I go out today.
We’re going to have a different kind of show today, which I think is very interesting and important. My guest is toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert, who has been on every month. And I have him on because we live in a toxic world and we need to understand the issues of toxicology. And usually, we talk about things like how mercury affects your health, and things like that.
But today, we’re going to talk about something completely different, but needs to be discussed, probably more than anything there is in the entire field.
Dr. Gilbert actually suggested that we talk about this subject, and he sent me an article from National Geographic called Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?
Some of the things that it says in this article, I have things to say about them. And I’m sure Dr. Gilbert does too. I’ll just start by telling a little story, and then we’ll get to Dr. Gilbert. This is so apropos to me right now because in my work as a consumer advocate, I am writing about decisions that I make about products based on information about whether something is toxic or not toxic.
In the past, there weren’t a lot of studies, but there were things that people had written. Some of it was studies. Some of it couldn’t find the studies, et cetera, et cetera. And so I might right something in a secondhand context, and then I would take that secondhand thing instead of looking at the actual study. And I would use that information.
Now, I am making a huge point to actually gather the studies, and I’m working on actually, a new website that’s going to have the studies on there, so that you can go look at the studies, and that it’s not somebody’s opinion. And I’m running into something in my own work right now where a question came up about, in fact, do mattresses, inner spring mattresses, the metal in inner spring mattresses, amplify EMF’s? Is it more dangerous to sleep on an inner spring mattress?
When I started looking at, yesterday in fact, I gathered all the data that I could gather from all the different sources. And I found that there were a lot of secondhand comments about this. It came up because somebody actually measured the EMF’s spots of a mattress and said, “Hey, wait a minute. There’s no change in the EMF’s. I measured the EMF’s in the room. I measured the EMF’s coming off the matteress, and there was no difference. So what’s the big deal?”
It’s a very interesting place to be in time nowadays where we’re needing to make decisions about what’s healthy, what’s not healthy and where’s the data, and who’s saying what, and what should we believe.
Dr. Gilbert, Hi.
STEVEN GILBERT: Hi there. How are you doing?
DEBRA: I’m doing great. How are you?
STEVEN GILBERT: Good. You’re absolutely right. It’s really hard to know what to believe anymore, and industry has preyed upon that.
DEBRA: Before we get into this, I want to say that I read this article that you sent me, “Why Do Reasonable People Doubt Science?” And I’ll put a link to it on the page with your show. But it starts with a story about, in the movie, Dr. Strangelove, this was in 1964, there was a whole scene at the beginning of this article where they are talking about fluoridation and that at the time, the health benefits of fluoridation had been established, and the anti-fluoridation people were already talking about why fluoride was bad.
And then in this article, by National Geographic, it says, “Actually, fluoride is a natural mineral that in weak concentrations, used in public drinking water systems, hardens tooth enamel, and prevents tooth decay. It’s a cheap and safe way to improve dental hygiene for everyone, which are poor conscious brusher or not.”
That’s the scientific and medical consensus, except they failed to say that it’s not natural fluoride that goes in our water.
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes. That’s quite a good example, and I think it raises some interesting ethical questions too. But that’s the only compound that I don’t believe they deliberately added to the water supply and expose everybody to it. We don’t even know how much people are being exposed because people drink different amounts of water.
And the product is actually not systematically active. As far as teeth goes, it has to be topically applied to teeth.
So it’s really curious how those whole issues happen where we have widespread fluoridated water on very flimsy evidence.
DEBRA: As a toxicologist, wouldn’t you say that there are a lot of studies showing negative health effects of fluoride?
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, I definitely do. I’m opposed fluoridation of water. I think that there’s plenty of fluoride in toothpaste and other products that we have to be aware of and acknowledge, and there’s no reason to continue with fluoridated water given the potential neurological effects, effects on the bone and other problems with fluoride.
It causes a number of health effects that I think we should be very cautious of. And we should think of cautionary approach.
And they’ve ever done the back-up study, to really document the health benefits of fluoride at the doses they’re doing. And there’s actually some real efforts to reduce the recommendations in the water to 0.7.
In Europe, most move away from fluoridating water. We’re just, not addressing the facts.
DEBRA: So I think this is actually a perfect example. And I was actually shocked to read this when I read it in National Geographic because I thought that they were going to move towards saying there’s all this evidence that fluoride is bad for your health, and yet, people continue to fight to have it in our water. But they said exactly the opposite. So I think this is a perfect example of exactly what the subject is we’re talking about today.
STEVEN GILBERT: It is a good example. It is an example of how the Center for Disease Control and other reputable organizations have brought into this and not step up with the facts. I think that they refused to change with putting fluoride in toothpaste and other products, so there’s really no need to dose the water with fluoride and expose people all across the country to fluoride and drinking water at different doses and exposures, and not take accountable for the adverse health effects.
We’re getting the benefits of fluoride in our toothpaste. Fluoride works best when topically applied.
So it’s an example of not addressing the facts with the science.
DEBRA: Tell us more about this whole issue, about people doubting science.
STEVEN GILBERT: It’s a really important issue because [inaudible 00:08:35] with this climate change being a current big example. I just want to read a quote here. This is from 1969 from a tobacco executive. The company is currently owned by RJ Reynolds, but the quote is, and this is from Industries Logan for Industrial Disinformation Campaign. And the quote, “Doubt is our product. It is the best means of competing with the body of fact that exists in the mind of the general public.”
I’ll just say that again.
“Doubt is our product. It’s the best product they want to create since it is the best means of competing with the body of fact that exists in the minds of the general public.”
So when you’re trying to create uncertainty play on the doubt, and science is about asking questions as a scientist. I love science. You can explore your doubt. It’s what’s your trained in a sense, but we’re not addressing the facts and the body’s evidence that leaves the good decision-making.
In industry and many other groups that preyed upon that a delayed regulatory progress, degraded benefiting the public health by just emphasizing the uncertainty of the issue.
DEBRA: And we need to go to break. We’ll talk more about this when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. He’s the director and founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. And he’s at Toxipedia.org.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is toxicologist, Steven Gilbert.
He is the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. If you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you’ll see the book cover. You can click right there. This is a free download, and it’s a book I’ve said many times that everybody should have. It just gives you the basics of toxicology in very easy language, and points out some of the most toxic chemicals that you should be watching out for in your daily life.
So Dr. Gilbert, before the break, we were talking about how companies use doubt to counter the facts.
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes. It started off in a Natural Geographic article that says why do many reasonable people doubt science. And that was really why I see this is as a topic because there are a lot of seemingly science doubters that are not looking at the science that is produced, and just going with their gut or they’re going with other interest.
Industry has been doing for a long time, playing on the doubt by delaying regulations. But why are there so many science deniers that are congressional representatives? Why do we listen to [inaudible 00:11:27] who brings a snowball in the senate floor and said climate change isn’t happening when the evidence says that it is and scientists around the world have been documenting climate change and the huge impacts that are going to happen in society if people turn away from this.
And to give you an example of this—and the other thing that I just want to quickly mention was that The Merchants of Doubt book that came out a number of years ago, there’s now a movie called Merchants of Doubt. I’ve watched the trailers. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I really recommend this documentary that looks at industries’ efforts to create doubt and delay regulation.
The tobacco industries are one of the classic examples, but there are many others such as lead that was involved in some of the early lead research. And when confronted with some of these facts, they just tried to confuse the issue and delay regulations, delay removal of lead from gasoline, which is probably one of the greatest public health measures ever taken when the worst public officers were putting lead in gasoline.
DEBRA: I think that it’s the same battle over and over. If we just look at lead in gasoline, removing lead in gasoline, it’s the same process and/or cigarettes, banning cigarette smoking in public places or things like that.
For every chemical, every toxic chemical in consumer products has to go through that same process of people understanding that there’s a toxic danger, and then deciding that it’s not going to be there anymore. That it’s not going to be there anymore for all of us.
In the meantime, each of us individually can do something, but each of us need to individually decide for ourselves that it’s toxic and it’s something that we shouldn’t do.
I was thinking earlier this morning that I think that everybody would agree that you should be careful when you cross the streets, so that you don’t get hit by a car. And although I’m sure there are people who don’t look both ways before they cross the street, but it’s something that we understand is a danger, and that people take precautions about that, yet many, many, many, the majority of people, do not take any precautions about toxic chemicals, that they don’t believe there’s a problem.
And I just can’t understand that.
STEVEN GILBERT: This is where industry really comes in because they create a lot of doubt about these issues. Their motivation is making money from the product. They create a lot of doubt about smoking, a lot of doubt about making [inaudible 00:14:01] a whole list of chemicals.
Flame retardants are is another reason where the industry hired a physician to tell this egregious story about a child being burned alive because of lack of flame retardants. Their [claim] was entirely false. But there’s a lot of money being made from these products, and they convinced people just to ignore the issue. We don’t often know what chemicals are in our products, and we should have a right to know.
I think industries had done a good job of not allowing chemical policy reformed, which is what some of this comes down to in our use of drugs, when we go to the drugstore and buy drugs, industry has done a lot of work and Food and Drug Administration, and all the government regulatory agencies require a lot of scientific investigation of the products. It’s not the same thing as industrial chemicals, and that’s what Toxic Substance Control Act comes into play, and not having good precautionary approach to any chemicals in the environment, the industries then take advantage of that and argues [the exposure] is not a big deal. And we don’t need to tell what’s in the products we use, and what we’re being exposed to is not a problem when it is.
DEBRA: It’s just amazing to me that there’s so much. When I started many years ago studying the regulations of how different products were labeled, it was amazing to me how inconsistent the labeling regulations are. For example, there’s a whole different law for how you need to put a warning label on a sheet of particle board because of the formaldehyde. But as soon as you cut it up and make furniture out of it, it’s a different labeling law, and you don’t have to put the warning label on it.
And you don’t even need to say that there’s formaldehyde.
There needs to be one labeling law that says everything that’s in the product needs to be disclosed. Period.
STEVEN GILBERT: It’s a huge issue. Personal care products, from fingernail polish or other products, we don’t know what it’s in there. Fragrances often use phthalates as carriers. And phthalates are well documented as endocrine disruptors. Do we really need these products? Do we really need all these chemical exposures? Having antibiotics in our soap doesn’t do any good, but industry likes to sell it as the safe thing to do. And it has no documented advantage.
The list just goes on and on, and I think that we need to be really aware of this, and we need to push our representatives to enact regulatory policy that helps protect and prevent disease and not wait until we have a disease, and then have to try to cure it.
We need to be conscious of what chemicals we’re exposed to, and we have a right to know about these chemicals and what it is.
This comes back to how scientists played on this issue because science does like to ask questions. The industry takes advantage of that by not focusing on the facts, by not building consensus, but rather just tearing consensus apart. So then we do another study, and nothing gets done.
DEBRA: It’s like there are two forces. We could call them good and evil, but I’m not trying to say that industry is evil. But there’s the force that wants life to survive, and then there’s this other force that’s saying, “Oh, no.” And there’s this fight between these two things. It would be just great if everybody can say, “We should all be doing the things that make us healthy and happy and protects the environment.”
That just makes sense to me.
We need to go to break, but we’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is toxicologist, Steven Gilbert. He’s at Toxipedia.org. It’s a very interesting website with lots of data on it. And he’s also the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. You can get that book for free as a free download. Just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, and you’ll see the book cover. Just click on it, and it will take you right to the page.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert from Toxipedia.org. And we’re talking about what to believe with all these information on the internet and different points of view.
How do we know what’s true and what’s not when it comes to toxics?
Dr. Gilbert has sent me an article from the National Geographic, Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science, and I have to say that I’m looking at scientific articles all the time, and I’m assuming that so is National Geographic, but we have very different viewpoints. And this article from National Geographic is in favor of fluoride, GMO’s and saying that these are perfectly safe and fine. And anybody who is naysayer is, well, why are they doubting the science of it?
Dr. Gilbert, would you just comment on how there can be all this data and different points of view, such different points of view.
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes that’s a real struggle, and I think that the different points of view come from starting at different perspectives. I just want to come back to the saying that science is always incomplete. And I want to read a quote from Sir Austin Bradford Hill. This is from 1965. He did a lot of work on tobacco and the health effects of tobacco and smoking. He said, “All scientific work is incomplete whether the observational or experimental. All scientific work is liable to be upset or modified by advancing knowledge. That does not confer upon as freedom to ignore the knowledge we only have or postpone the action that appears [inaudible 00:20:22] at a given time.”
So he’s really saying we have to have a precautionary approach to take action even in the days of uncertainty. And what the industry does is play upon our uncertainty and delay action to this to their benefit.
So the one thing you have to ask is who’s benefitting.
In 2009 I wrote a book review for one of the books about this subject, Doubt is Their Product: Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health by David Michaels. This was published from an environment health perspective. It’s a great book. It goes right along with Merchants of Doubt that creates and, again, manufactures uncertainty.
So I encourage your listeners to at least read the review of that book. But pick one of these books and look at how industry has worked very hard, hired experts at communication to advance confusion about the subject.
There’s example after example. They just create uncertainty and that delays action because then people say, “Well, we need to study it more. We don’t know enough to make decisions.”
When I’d done a lot of my work on Toxipedia and other works, just trying to document and put our scientific information, the context, the history, society and culture, and say, “We have enough information to take action. We need to take a precautionary approach and take action even if we’re not 100% certain.”
So then science is very difficult to be 100% certain. There’s always advancing knowledge and advancing information.
DEBRA: One of the things that I’ve had to figure out as a consumer advocate, for those of you listen who don’t know, the reason I do this work is because I got very sick in my early 20’s to the point of being disabled. And I was able to discover a cause and effect between my symptoms and exposures to toxic chemicals and consumer products.
And so I didn’t start by saying, “Gee, I think I’ll go look up the science about toxic chemicals.”
I started with not being able to get out of bed in the morning, having symptoms all day long, being so sick that I was disabled and couldn’t work. I couldn’t function in my life.
And it was through my detective work and discovery of the toxic chemicals that I was being exposed to that I got my health back, and I got my life back.
And nobody was talking about it then, and I’ve decided that I needed to tell the people about this because there’s no reason for people to be sick. If you know where the toxic chemicals are, if you know how to replace them with safe things, then you can take that action for yourself regardless of what the government does or doesn’t do, and you can have a healthier life.
It was only after the fact, after I made this connection that I started looking for studies. I started studying chemistry, I started studying toxicology, I started studying health, and what I found out is that it’s very difficult to say that something is toxic to every single person in the world at every single time because there’s the inherent toxicity of a chemical, and there is what happens in your body as a result of the exposure.
And there are many things that affect that, how much you’re being exposed to, how sick or well your body is, what your age is, how many chemicals you already have in your body, burden in your body, et cetera, et cetera.
And so you can line up a hundred people and have them all have the same exposure, and they would all respond differently.
Did you want to say something?
STEVEN GILBERT: Go ahead.
DEBRA: But the thing is that there are toxicology studies which established the toxicity, the inherent toxicity of a chemical.
And to me, if you’ve got organizations around the world that are saying, “We’re studying these chemicals, and we’ve decided that they’re toxic, and they shouldn’t be in products.”
Why do we need to wait another 10 years for legislation? Why do we need to study them more?
The data is there. The data is there. Why not just be prudent about it?
STEVEN GILBERT: Because somebody is making a lot of money and keep that product in play. You can guess what that whole list of these things like, Atrazine, a herbicide. It’s widely used around corn. It’s banned in Europe but it’s used in the United States because the manufacturer is very good at creating doubt about the effects of that product, and some people say, “It’s a really great product, so I keep using it,” and the industry keeps promoting it.
So it’s just different perspective on the benefits and using it is making money from the product.
DEBRA: But why does the world run on that many gets to win? Why are we not running the world on how do we keep life going?
STEVEN GILBERT: Well, I think that’s the one thing that our society really needs to struggle with. Our industry is set up that their focus and their perspective, and tobacco industry is a great example of this, is they want to increase their profits and externalize their costs. And using the increase of profits by selling more products, reducing its cost, externalize the cost in one industry. The tobacco industry gave us an example, externalized the health cost of tobacco onto the public, onto the public health care system, but reaping all the benefits and the profits.
But it creates a strategy for many companies.
DEBRA: We’ll talk about that one when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. He’s at Toxipedia.org, and we’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert from Toxipedia.org, a fabulous site that, as he said earlier, puts toxics in the context of history and social, what’s the other component?
STEVEN GILBERT: History, society and culture.
DEBRA: History, society and culture. It’s a very interesting site to read. I really appreciate it a lot.
So before the break, we were talking about how toxic products stay on the market because businesses are making money, and making money, having profits, and minimizing costs, that’s what runs the world today. And so things like health and sustaining the environment are less of a concern.
But to me, what makes sense is that if you want to have good health, then you have to take the actions that create good health. If you want to have an environment which we all need to have in order for any of us to be alive, including all the corporations and manufacturers, without the environment there, then none of us would have life.
And yet, these two things are not generally at the top of the list of what needs to occur. And I’m not saying that that’s true for every business, but what I see particularly in more recent years because I’ve been watching this for 30 years and more, is that these issues are, or at least concerns I should say, are becoming more part of business in recent years.
And that I do see businesses thriving who are making non-toxic products.
I’d like to see everybody follow suit.
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, I think it’s really critical that we have some regulatory changes. And I encourage all your listeners to engage in the legislative effort to modify the Toxic Substance Control Act, the Toxic Reform, Chemical Policy Reform. It’s really important. There’s build-up for congress right now about that. It was greatly weakened by industry.
The environmental community is now opposing the chemical policy reform bill as it currently stands. But that’s our only avenue to try to work through the legislative process, and we’re confronted by really well-paid lobbyists and communication experts that cloud these issues and create doubt.
There’s a great example, Merchants of Doubt, the book. It’s not a new book. It’s 50 years old, but the documentary is really new, and it just came out. And I urge you to take a look at that and get fired up about this issue to protect our health, to protect our children’s health because we are exposed to a [inaudible 00:29:32] of chemicals and it can disrupt. There’s a great example of that where they have a common mechanism of action. We’re exposed to many chemicals that affect our endocrine system. And you add all those things up. They might be very small exposures, but it can lead to a big effect.
But I think the other thing we’ve learned about toxicology in the last few decades is that small amounts of a chemical really matter. Lead is that way, Bisphenol A, other products that have chemicals that are in the products, do matter. The small amounts really do matter. It’s important to protect yourselves from being exposed to these things.
DEBRA: I read something about there’s a new bill that’s being introduced, but one of the things about a lot of these bills is they say that the EPA needs to regulate more chemicals, 10 over the next 20 years or something like that. And it’s just 10 out of 80,000.
You need to have some kind of action that happens faster.
STEVEN GILBERT: I think we have models for that. I mentioned that the drug industry takes a very precautionary approach putting new drugs in the market where we require industry to document the potential negative effects of drugs, as well as the beneficial effects.
We don’t have a similar policy when it comes to putting industrial chemicals out. Flame retardants is a great example of that.
We didn’t always use flame retardants. These flame retardants are bioaccumulative chemicals that are all over the environment, and showing up on women’s breast milk, and we’re now trying to move from one flame retardant to the next, when they’re actually showing that most of these things do not any good in the products.
But industry likes producing chemicals. That’s how they make their money. And they want to put flame retardants in products. It’s just not good for the long-term health of our society. And you just see this again and again. And industry would document that they do not support regulation, and we do see exposure of chemicals, do not support transparency, what chemicals and what products at what levels. And there’s book after book that goes through the industry’s work on this issue.
Another good one to look at is Lead Wars by Markowitz and Rosner. There’s a book by Deborah called The Secret History of the War on Cancer. And if you’re interested in endocrine disruptors and Bisphenol A, there’s a book called Is It Safe? by Susan Sarah Vogel.
There’s a lot of information out there, but what we really need is to force the legislative to make changes that will protect the human health, that put more emphasis on people’s health and not on the profitability of these corporations.
DEBRA: I totally agree. Another model that I thought of while you were talking is the whole organic model of organic food, where they have to go through this whole process in order to get certified and write a plan that says every single thing that they’re using, and it all gets reviewed to see if there’s anything toxic.
Now, why couldn’t we have the National Organic Product Program, and why limit it to food? Why not have this kind of scrutiny, and this review, and this intent to make a safe product be part of every kind of product that’s on the market.
STEVEN GILBERT: That’s a really good question. We should have more of that. We should have more transparency. We should not have to bend over backwards and have environmental groups trying to figure out what new flame retardants they’ve added to as product and what chemicals are in our products.
We should know if there’s phthalates in our products or if there’s fragnances or those other chemicals and not have to be forced to guess or do the research, to figure this out. We need to have the industry working with us and health to be a priority for them.
It’s really a difficult issue, and the only way it’s going to change is a legislative action that will shift in more of a precautionary approach taken and expected of the chemical industries and the product manufacturers.
DEBRA: Yes, I think that that needs to occur. Since I’ve been in this field for 30 years, I can see that consumer demand has played a large part in the past 30 years of people saying, “I want less toxic products.” And so whatever product isn’t toxic one day start showing more sales, then the larger corporations want to jump in and have something like.
Here’s an example. You can now buy Heinz organic ketchup. I don’t think Heinz decided that they were going to be the leader in organic ketchup. It was only after years of smaller companies saying, “We’re going to offer this organic ketchup, having enough sales,” and then Heinz saying, “Well, we better get into the organic ketchup market.”
And I see that in different companies deciding in a Wal-Mart selling organic produce, things like that.
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, but how much more expensive those organic produce and the other products [inaudible 00:35:00].
DEBRA: Very much more.
STEVEN GILBERT: It’s an environmental justice issue. Who can afford these products that have fewer chemicals. Organic food is an example of that. Why can’t everybody have organic food? And that would be the norm and not the exception.
DEBRA: Exactly. In a society that values life that would be the case. Our legislature should be going to Washington and saying, “Okay, we want to make sure that everybody in our state can have organic food available to them at a reasonable price.” And that we shouldn’t even have non-organic food on the market at all. People shouldn’t even have that choice. Let’s just make all the food organic. What a different that would be?
STEVEN GILBERT: Well, it’s just the same struggle that occurs over labeling a product that use genetically-modified organisms. In food that’s GMO, the industry has fought labeling of that very effectively. They fought in California and they fought in Washington State. They poured huge amounts of money to make sure that we don’t label our products to know whether they have GMO or not. And that’s another example of industry saying, “Well, it’s just going to confuse the public.”
My view is we have the right to know what we’re eating, and what we’re putting in our body, and what chemicals we’re exposed to. The industry thinks that’s just going to confuse the public, and it’s not helpful for their bottom line.
DEBRA: Well, we’ve only got about a minute left. So any final words you’d like to say on this subject?
STEVEN GILBERT: I think that the most important thing to do is get involved and take a precautionary approach. We need to have the precautionary approach taken seriously in our products, and exposure to chemicals. And read more about these issues, get involved, write your legislative folks. I think the consumers have a super important role to play. And we need to be thinking about our children because our children have a right to reach and maintain their full potential, so that means they’re not being exposed to a [inaudible 00:36:56] of chemicals that they are now.
DEBRA: I totally agree. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today.
STEVEN GILBERT: Thank you for doing this, Debra.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. I just want to let everybody know that I’ve been doing some work on my website, and if you go ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, there’s a bar with a sub-menu, and if you have your mouse hover “listen to archive shows,” you can listen to all of the archived shows, but also my regular guests, like Dr. Gilbert have their own pages now, so you can just click on Steven Gilbert and it will take you to a page where all his past shows are linked on one page.
It’s worth listening to these past shows, and it’s worth educating yourself about toxic chemicals.
And we have to go. You’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Herbalix Restoratives
Therapeutic body care products made with “only the finest…pure, potent ingredients…extracted in the most natural ways possible.” I’ve used these products and they really are potent!”There are no synthetic chemicals, parabens, phthalates, petroleum, aluminum or fillers used in any of our product formulations. We also go to great lengths to avoid refined, bleached and deodorized oils.” The products are made in the Pacific Northwest, on a property used for growing organic vegetables, flowers and herbs. The land is home to bald eagles, ospreys, swallows, and abundant wildlife. “Our manufacturing equipment consists of stainless steel tanks, stainless steel paddles, and stainless steel piping. All plastic, silicone, or other harmful components have been removed and each piece has been retrofitted to insure totally clean processing. In other words, none of our raw materials pass through plastic at all! All plastic packaging used is also known to be leach-free with no estrogenic activity so that your products remain free of phthalates and other second-hand synthetic chemicals.” Products contain a preservative that is 99% effective in killing all the major microorganisms required, and at the same time preserves the good bacteria. Deodorants, soaps, moisturizers, salves and haircare. Plus detox products that purge aluminum from your body, through your skin, while you sleep. Enter code Debra10 at checkout to get 10% off your purchase.
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Listen to my interview with Elizabeth and Michael Fessler, Founding Partners of Herbalix Restoratives |
Sinfully Wholesome
I found this website because a reader wrote and said, “There are only four ingredients in this soap. I think that’s the smallest number of ingredients I’ve ever seen in a soap. This soap was used by Cleopatra. I think it may be in a class of it’s own.” The website says “Beyond organic natural skin care…wildcrafted soaps and oils are 100% natural and handcrafted from wild and/or organic fruits and their precious oils.” I have to say that the ingredients used to make these products are among the purest and most extravagant I’ve seen…Nepalese soap nuts, cold pressed oils to retain micronutrients, natural spring water…even the wrapping is wildcrafted handmade lokta paper to preserve the potency of the precious oils. All soaps can be used head to toe, for bathing, shampoo, and shaving.
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Listen to my interview with Ken McGowan, Founder of Sinfully Wholesome |
Wire Shelving for Closet
Question from Nancy Carew
Hi Debra,
We are building a new house and I have multiple chemical sensitivities. I have a question about closet shelving. I believe you suggested wire shelving to someone else who wrote in. I read about Rubbermaid wire shelving and it says it is recycled steel with an iron phosphate coating and the finish coat covered with an epoxy-polyester powder coating. Closetmaid uses PVC coated steel. Would you feel the Rubbermaid is a safe choice? Thanks.
Debra’s Answer
Yes, you figured that out exactly right.
The epoxy-polyester powder coating is baked on and makes a “hard” finish that doesn’t outgas.
The PVC coating is a “soft” finish that outgasses.
BTW, all steel nowadays contains at least some recycled content whether noted on the label or not.
What to Ask When a Label Says “Made in USA”
One way to find products that contain fewer toxic chemicals is to look for products “Made in USA.” While some foreign products can be less toxic than those made in the USA (particularly some products from Europe and especially from Germany), many many products on USA store shelves com from foreign countries that do not have laws that restrict the use of toxic chemicals.
While most organizations that support “Made in USA” products feel that manufacture of the product by USA labor in a facility in the USA is sufficient to warrant a Made in USA claim, federal and state regulations that apply to claims that products are “Made in USA” don’t agree.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a Made in USA standard that applies if a product makes a “Made in USA” claim. According to the FTC, “Made in USA” means “all or virtually all” the product has been made in America. That is, all significant parts, processing, and labor that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. Products should not contain any – or should contain only negligible – foreign content.” (http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/complying-made-usa-standard)
The State of California agrees, requiring that every component of a product be made in the USA.
California law prohibits the sale or offer for sale of any merchandise that is labeled “Made in the USA” or similar words “when the merchandise or any article, unit, or part thereof, has been entirely or substantially made, manufactured, or produced outside of the United States.” (http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC§ionNum=17533.7.)
There is value in purchasing “Made in USA” products that refer only to USA labor and business ownership. This keeps our dollars in the US economy. But USA laborers can very easily assemble toxic materials from other countries. If you are wanting, for example, to avoid products made in China, a “Made in USA” label would be misleading and inaccurate if the materials being used came from China.
I’m in agreement with the Federal and California state law. To me, Made in USA means that the raw materials are sourced in the USA, and processed and assembled in the USA. From beginning to end.
If you are looking for “Made in the USA” products, it’s important to ask if the claim refers to labor, or labor and materials. Manufacturers should know the country of origin of their materials, as well as the source of raw materials and any processing done to them. They should know, but often don’t.
Just be careful when you see “Made in USA” and make sure the materials come from the USA as well as the labor.
Deep Detox With Minerals
My guest today is Wendy Myers, CHHC, NC, founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. We’ll be talking about her special long term “Mineral Power” detox program that purges heavy metals and chemicals from your body using minerals. Wendy is a certified holistichealth and nutrition coach in Los Angeles, Ca, She is also certified in Hair Mineral Analysis for the purpose of designing Mineral Power programs for clients to correct their metabolism and body chemistry. She is currently seeking her masters in clinical nutrition at Bridgeport University in Connecticut. Wendy hosts the weekly Live to 110 Video Podcast and the Modern Paleo Cooking show on her Live to 110 Youtube Channel. www.liveto110.com/mineral-power
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH WENDY MYERS
- Toxics in Your Body? Tests Can Tell You the Truth
- Tests You Won’t Find at Your Doctor’s Office
- Choosing and Using Home Saunas to Remove Toxic Chemicals From Your Body
- Health and Nutrition Coach on Diet and Detox
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Deep Detox with Minerals
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Wendy Myers
Date of Broadcast: March 12, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. Today is Thursday, March 12, 2015. And today, we’re going to talk about detox. It’s a subject that we talk about a lot on this show. The whole show is about detox. We talked about it a little bit when we were talking about other things.
But I’d like to tell you different kinds of detoxes that you can do that have different purposes, so that you have a choice of detox. Detox isn’t something that you just do once like in the spring. A lot of articles are out now about doing your spring cleanses and things like that.
Your body is detoxing 24 hours a day. We have a detox system in our bodies and they are way overloaded with way too many chemicals. You also have to do a specific type of detox that actually remove toxic chemicals, heavy metals, radiation, those kinds of things because not all detoxes do that.
So I’d really like to talk about detox because it’s really so fundamental to having good health. We need to get those toxic chemicals out of our bodies as well as not put them in there in the first place.
So my guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder of Liveto110.com, which is a great website. Wendy and I are very common in our viewpoints in terms of what constitutes good health in terms of what constitutes good health – basically removing toxic chemicals and getting good nutrition in.
And so her background is different from my background, so we have different strengths in terms of what we talk about and what we know more about and she’s very – well, Wendy will tell you about herself. So hi, Wendy.
WENDY MYERS: Hi! Thank you so much for having me.
Debra: You’re welcome. Could you back up a little bit from your phone because there’s some static.
WENDY MYERS: Oh, sorry.
Debra: Okay, let’s see. Say something again.
WENDY MYERS: Is that better? Is that better?
Debra: Now, a little closer because now, I can’t hear you.
WENDY MYERS: Uh-oh. Okay, I’m nearer.
Debra: Okay, good. Let’s try that.
WENDY MYERS: Alright, perfect.
Debra: Okay, good. So tell us about yourself. Tell us what you do and how you got interested.
WENDY MYERS: Well, I started Liveto110.com shortly after the death of my father. He died of Cancer, of esophageal cancer and complications from diabetes, et cetera. It just really inspired me to learn more about why he died and why so many people are sick today and why so many people have Cancer.
I also have a young baby and I had been spending many years learning about health and nutrition and how to detox my environment for my baby. That’s kind of what motivated me when I was planning my pregnancy. So I’ve been really about health and detox, et cetera for a while.
But when my father died, I really hit the ground running and learned more about all the toxins in our environment and the most effective ways of detoxification. It just started my passion to teach other people about this really pressing health issue because the mainstream medical community just doesn’t talk about detox and how the 80,000 chemicals that we have in our environment and dozens of heavy metals, these are not converging in our bodies and synergistically producing health.
It just completely boggles my mind that most medical doctors don’t even look at heavy metals or toxins as the underlying cause of diseases. I personally feel that mineral deficiencies, nutrient deficiencies and heavy metal and chemical toxicities are the main underlying cause of disease.
Debra: I completely agree with you 100%. I mean, after 30 years of studying this subject, that’s the conclusion that I came to as well.
So let’s start talking about your detox program, your preferred detox program because it’s very different from other things that we’ve talked about on this show. There are products that we want to talk about today that regular listeners know that I talk about all the time, but I want to really focus on your program because it’s so different.
I think the thing I want to say upfront is number one, I haven’t done this program and the reason that I haven’t done this program is not because I don’t think that I should do this program, but it requires a commitment and it takes a while, you might not feel good, but I’m convinced from what I’ve learned from Wendy that when people do this, you’re not going to have toxic chemicals left in your body period.
WENDY MYERS: Yeah.
Debra: It’s very thorough. I’ll just start with that. And so tell us about the program, Wendy just like a basic overview because I want you to give us details.
WENDY MYERS: Well, you can learn more about the program at MineralPower.com. I developed this program over many, many years in an attempt to heal my own health and to feel better. It’s a very comprehensive program. It begins with a hair mineral analysis and there are four components to it.
You eat a healthy diet. My version of Paleo is called the Modern Paleo Diet and it’s on a full Paleo diet. You can eat berry and grains, non-gluten grains if you’re not sensitive to them. And it also entails targeted nutrient therapy. Based on a hair mineral analysis, I can find out what nutrients specifically that you need to heal your body. Many people need lots of minerals and they need the right amount in the right form.
I also have you do certain detox protocols like infrared saunas and coffee enemas. Coffee enemas are optional, but it can really be lifesaving to mitigate detox symptoms. And of course, people have to do lifestyle changes.
So it is a very comprehensive program. Some of my clients just spend all day doing it and some people just do what they can. They’re very busy. They’re working mothers and et cetera. But if you commit yourself to this type of program, it takes about two to three years to detox the bulk of heavy metals in your body.
And when you do this and remineralize your body and give your body the nutrients and the building blocks that it needs to heal itself, guess what? Your body heals itself. You regain your energy, your mental clarity. You heal your thyroid and your adrenals. Your libido comes back. Brain fog reduces.
That was a big one for me. My brain fog went from zero to 60 the first couple of years. It’s one of those things where if you follow this type of program, you can regain your health. I’ve had clients become pregnant. They overcame their infertility issues. They’re reversing autoimmune diseases. Their adrenals start working and start producing hormones naturally on their own. Their body just starts working again.
And if you’ve had really long-standing health issues (say you’ve had autoimmune Hashimoto’s for 20 years), it’s going to be a lot harder to reverse that, but you can at the very least, improve your symptoms.
Debra: Yes, I would agree that all of that is possible. All of it is possible.
We’re going to come up on break in about a minute, but I do want you throughout the show today to talk about all of these things you just said in greater detail – particularly about the mineral analysis and just all of it.
So until we get to the break, why don’t you tell us why we need to detox.
WENDY MYERS: Well, like I said before, we have 80,000 chemicals in our environment – very few have been tested for human safety. There’s thousands more being unleashed on our environment ever year.
The EPA has established that we have several hundred chemicals in our body. The World Health Organization has established that we have over 700 chemicals in our bodies based on very expensive studies. We have to get these chemicals out of our body, not to mention the dozen of heavy metals that are unleashed into the environment because of industry.
In countries like China, they have very few pollution laws and regulation scrubbers on their incinerators, et cetera. And all that toxic pollution comes over to us with the weather patterns. Even Inuit mothers in the arctic have 70 chemicals in their breast milk. So even if you live in what you think is the most pristine environment, you cannot escape toxins today.
If you plan to be healthy, you have got to have a daily detox lifelong plan.
Debra: Yes, I totally agree. We’ll go to break and then we’ll talk more about Wendy’s detox plan. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers. She is the founder of Liveto110.com.
You can find out more about her Mineral Power program there at Liveto110.com or go straight to MineralPower.com. We’ll be right back.
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder of Liveto110.com. We’re talking about her special Mineral Power detox program.
So at the beginning of this program, of Wendy’s program is that you do an interview with her and fill out some paper work and a hair mineral analysis test. So let’s talk specifically about this hair mineral analysis test, Wendy because actually, listeners, I got as far as doing the hair mineral analysis test and it was different from what I thought.
Tell us what it is and why people can’t just get a hair mineral analysis and try to analyze it themselves.
WENDY MYERS: Well, I’ve been studying hair mineral analysis for many years. It really took me a couple of years before I really felt comfortable reading them. There is a tremendous amount of information in a hair tissue mineral analysis and there’s about 40 years of research behind it pioneered by Dr. Paul Eck and Dr. David Watts, Carl Pfeiffer and Hans Selye and many, many other pioneers in this field.
It’s not just looking at individual mineral levels as many doctors or other health practitioners think. They don’t really know any better. Many doctors and other health practitioners dismiss hair mineral analysis as not being accurate, but it’s because they don’t understand that we’re not necessarily looking at the individual mineral levels.
We’re looking at the ratios of certain minerals to each other and we’re looking at certain patterns in the hair tests that give us a tremendous amount of information. And this has been established with hundreds of thousands of hair mineral analyses done by Dr. Paul Eck alone. He corroborated and correlated the levels in the hair mineral analysis to certain health conditions. And so this is why we know that say, a low sodium and potassium on a hair mineral analysis course correlates to adrenal fatigue. There are hundreds of other examples like this.
So you can get a really good picture of someone’s body chemistry, their metabolic rate, thyroid functioning, adrenal functioning, immune functioning, liver and kidney stress. Many, many other health condition can be seen in a hair mineral analysis.
So I love to begin with that with a client just to get an overall picture of what’s going on with me. it also gives me a very nice blueprint in order to develop a targeted nutrient therapy plan for a client.
Dr. Paul Eck also spent many, many years figuring out what nutrients correct the levels in a hair mineral analysis. It’s very, very complicated because one mineral will affect another. When people have adrenal fatigue and they have low sodium and potassium, this will cause copper to build up in the tissues and calcium to build up in the tissues as well where it does not belong.
When you understand this concept, that one mineral level increasing can affect all the other minerals, it makes things very, very complicated and it just takes a long time to figure out how to read them.
Debra: Yes. It’s not just a matter of looking at the test and saying, “Oh, I have high aluminum.” I can see from talking to you and listening to this again now that it requires some expertise, understanding and experience to be able to get all the information out of it.
So can you give us some more examples of things that you’ve learned from hair mineral analysis? Actually, do you have mine in front of you?
WENDY MYERS: No, I do not. I can bring it up though.
Debra: Yeah. It’s okay with me to talk about my test.
WENDY MYERS: Yes, that’s fine. I’ll bring it up in two seconds here. Your test is not in your file, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I’ve been having some issues with files disappearing in my computer.
Debra: I understand. I’m having that problem too. It must be a new thing – more frequently than it used to be
Okay! Well then, let’s go on to the next part of your program. So after you do this test and you find out actually from a physical test – it’s not something that you’re guessing about. A lot of times, when I have gone to various practitioners in the past, they just kind of throw something at you. They determine that this is your problem from you just talking to them. And then they say, “Well, let’s try this.” And if it doesn’t work, they try something else and then they try something else. It just seems to me that to use something that is such a detailed test like this gives you much more accurate information.
WENDY MYERS: Yeah, it does give you accurate information. I understand how when you go to certain practitioners that they try one thing and they have to try another thing. The same principle can hold true with this program especially with supplementation. There are so many factors that affects someone’s reaction to a supplement.
Sometimes, I have to switch out people’s supplements because it can be impossible to tell how people will react.
But there are a lot of times when you go to a health practitioner and they’re just kind of guessing it being this or they’re using more of a symptomatic approach where they’re covering up your symptoms or they’re even doing symptomatic supplementation where if you test low for calcium in your blood, then they give you calcium or they see that you have low copper and they give you copper. The body is not that simple. It’s much, much more complicated as people can probably imagine.
So there is a bit of a trial-and-error with this program as well. But most people, 85% to 90% of people do really, really well and don’t have to change out their supplements. And some people that are very, very ill, they’re typically going to be more reactive to supplements. I have some clients that can’t even take any supplements and they just have to do the detox protocols and the diet and they start detoxing just from that.
So everyone is a little different. That has to be considered. Every person is considered on an individual basis.
Debra: Yes, and that’s what’s so interesting about bodies and what makes it so difficult.
WENDY MYERS: Yeah! Oh, I have your hair test. I found your hair test.
Debra: Oh, okay. Alright! Well, when we come back, we’ll talk a little bit about my hair test. I’m glad you found it because it really was interesting to me. Yeah, we’ll do that.
We’re coming up on the break in about five seconds, so I don’t want to start talking about anything else. So you’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder of Liveto110.com. By the time I finish saying this, the music should come up and we’ll be on the break.
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers, founder of Liveto110.com. We’re talking about her very deep and detailed detox program. I like that, deep and detailed detox program. That’s exactly what it is.
So you found my hair analysis. So tell us something about what’s going on with my body.
WENDY MYERS: Well, most notably, your calcium is at 357 and the idea levels for that is 42. So I’ll tell you what the problem is with that. This is a result of many years of adrenal fatigue. What happens is when you have low sodium and potassium in your tissues, calcium from your bloodstream leaks almost and metastasizes into your muscles where it does not belong, into your tissues. Over time, this causes tight muscles, stiff joints, achy joints and things like that.
And additionally, what happens when you have a high amount of calcium in your tissues is it reduces cell permeability.
Just imagine a round cell. If there’s too much calcium around it, calcium prevents nutrition and thyroid hormones from getting into your cells and it prevents toxins from getting out.
So your metabolism is just at a screeching halt. So you’re not going to be able to lose weight. You’re not going to have energy. You’re not going to have clearer brain functioning because you’re not able to get adequate nutrition and also, glucose. This can be a precursor to diabetes and sugar control issues, insulin resistance because that glucose additionally is not able as efficiently to get into your cells. It just causes all kinds of problems in the body.
One of the main focuses with clients that have high calcium is to get that calcium down and you do that by taking essentially fatty acids.
Debra: I’m writing this down.
WENDY MYERS: Yes.
Debra: All the things that you’re saying are things that I struggle with to a greater or lesser degree. Aside from hearing it from you (because you told me my analysis), I’ve never seen this kind of information any place else.
I think that most people, if they were to look at a test and it says, “Oh, there’s a lot of calcium in your body,” they would think, “Oh, that’s good.” And yet it causes these other problems. This is the kind of example that essentially, [inaudible 00:29:39].
WENDY MYERS: Well, I think that we’ve been conditioned to think that calcium is this amazing thing we need for our bones. I’ve even fallen victim to that. Many, many years, I picked Viactive Chews because I was told that young women needs 400 milligrams of calcium a day. The problem is you actually need magnesium. Magnesium is the boss of calcium and magnesium tells calcium where to go.
There are not that many people that are severely calcium deficient. They need magnesium. And so this is kind of not generally well-known. We need magnesium for 3700+ processes in the body, but one of them is for bone health. The problem with taking lots and lots of calcium is it tends to build up in people’s tissues.
Most people are slow metabolizers. Eighty percent of the population has a slow metabolic rate and these people accumulate calcium very, very efficiently. So you do not want to be choking down thousands of milligrams of calcium every day. You need more magnesium. But people that have a fast metabolism do need a lot more calcium.
Every one is a little bit different. And again, recommendations are based on an individual basis.
Debra: Right! And this is why you need to do something like have this kind of test because otherwise, it’s just a guessing game. This will tell you what’s going on.
Tell us something that my hair test shows something good about my health.
WENDY MYERS: Well, it’s actually very good if you have a lot of heavy metals coming out. You would think, “Well, maybe that’s bad. That means I’m really toxic,” but this is actually very, very good because I get really worried when I have a client that doesn’t have any heavy metals coming out on the hair test. It’s not good. It doesn’t mean, “Oh, I’m toxin-free.” That’s not going to happen. Everyone has heavy metals and chemicals in their body, toxins. What it actually means when someone has no heavy metals coming out on their hair test is that their body is too tired to detox. It just does not have the energy reserve. It’s reserving energy for digestion and basic bodily processes and just doesn’t have anything left over. Detoxification takes energy. It also takes certain nutrients – glutathione and other master antioxidants in the body to escort the metals out of the body like vitamin C, alpha-lipoic acid, et cetera.
What’s very, very good about your test is you do have a lot of metals coming out probably because you take so much Zeolite. I love the Pure Body Zeolite myself.
Debra: Thank you. Yeah, I think it’s because I’m taking Zeolite.
WENDY MYERS: Yes, yes. And I take the Zeolite too. I love the Touchstone Zeolite. Like I said, it’s just very good you have lots of metals coming out. And where you see a rat, there’s usually a thousand more [inaudible 00:32:38]. So you probably have a lot more toxins coming out, but join the club. Everyone has lots and lots of toxins in their body.
Even if you do consistent detox or you’ve done a long detox program like Mineral Power, you still will accumulate them on a daily basis. You breathe them in the air. There’s mercury in the air unfortunately and it’s in the food.
Debra: Right! Let’s just put exclamation marks and make that bold and italics, what you just said. I think that people don’t really get this, that they walk around and the air looks clean. But when you start looking at what’s in something like car exhaust and how much car exhaust we’re exposed to on a daily basis just driving around town and sitting in traffic, it’s just, “Where does that car exhaust go?” It’s full of heavy metals. It’s just full of heavy metals.
You would have to stay in some pristine, little filtered room to not be exposed to these chemicals and that’s just impractical. That’s why we have to pay so much attention to supporting our detox processes in our bodies because otherwise, we just get overwhelmed, yes?
WENDY MYERS: Yeah, absolutely. And if you are not eating the healthiest diet, you’re eating lots of sugar and lots of gluten and things that prevent your liver from functioning (you’re drinking lots of alcohol or whatever your drug of choice is), if you’re doing that, your liver is too busy dealing with those toxins and it can’t detox all these metals.
Additionally, the liver doesn’t recognize a lot of the chemicals that we have in our environment. It doesn’t know how to process them. It’s never seen them. Some of these chemicals have only shown up the last hundred years or even in the last decades and the liver doesn’t know how to deal with them.
So I think it’s imperative that people use an infrared sauna.
Debra: Infrared sauna, okay. Well, we’ll talk about that when we come back, plus other aspects of your program including the supplements that you give and diets and even the importance of sleep. I’ll ask you about that too. We only have a very short period of time left now, but we’ll be right back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Wendy Myers. She’s at Liveto110.com.
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers from Liveto110.com. Actually, she’s the founder of Liveto110.com. We’re talking about her deep detox program.
So Wendy, before the break, you mentioned the saunas. So let’s just kind of put this in context. So people get the hair mineral analysis and then you make a program for them. So let’s talk about the different elements of the program that they might be given.
WENDY MYERS: Yes. Well, one of the main features of the program is doing detox protocols like infrared saunas, near infrared saunas and coffee enemas. The near infrared sauna is very, very different from what most people are familiar with when it comes to saunas. Most people typically think of the saunas at their gym, the dry saunas, Swedish or Finnish saunas. And then many people are familiar with the far infrared saunas that have the black carbon panels inside of it. Those are good. They penetrate about an inch or two in your body and they’re very effective for detox.
But even better and much less expensive (it’s very affordable, so that most people can get one in their home) is a near infrared sauna. I have amazing near infrared saunas in my store at store.Liveto110.com from SaunaSpace. These are the best near infrared saunas available.
The near infrared saunas penetrate your body nine inches. I was actually corrected by the maker. I thought that they penetrated about three to four inches. They actually penetrate nine inches inside your body and really heat you up from the inside out, so that your cells can release all their toxic content. It’s so amazing at mobilizing and sweating out hundreds of chemicals and heavy metals.
And it bypasses the liver. So even if you have a congested liver or toxic liver like many people do today, a third of people have fatty liver disease in the U.S., you can bypass that mechanism and just sweat everything out.
And by heating up your body, you also kill of parasites, fungus, candida, other yeasts, viruses and bacteria. You can heal gut dysbiosis. It’s unbelievable, the benefit that people experience using an infrared sauna.
Debra: Okay, so infrared sauna. And then also, the diet.
WENDY MYERS: Yes. Well, I created a diet called the Modern Paleo Diet. It’s not a strict Paleo diet because I think the Paleo diet – well, it’s great that cavemen ate that diet. Many people have adapted to new foods in our environment.
There’s scientific evidence for lactase persistence where many people still have the enzyme into adulthood that can digest the dairy protein or dairy milk sugars. Many people can eat potatoes, they don’t have a problem with that. Many people are fine with legumes (I’m not one of them, but many people do and are just fine with legumes).
Debra: I’m one of them. I love legumes. I eat garbanzo beans every day for lunch.
WENDY MYERS: Oh, yes. You have your [inaudible 00:42:04].
Debra: No, I just have a little salad of them.
WENDY MYERS: Oh, yum. Those, I can do. I think a lot of people, they can’t tolerate pinto beans, but they can do green beans and garbanzo beans and teas. They’re a little bit different. They have a little bit of a different effect on your body.
But many people can tolerate grains. Some people can even tolerate gluten if they have a very robust gut microbiome.
But the Modern Paleo Diet is a very detailed outline of a diet. I’ve got lots of little handy cheat sheets that people can use that tell them all the foods that are on the Modern Paleo Diet that they can eat.
When people eat these diets and remove gluten from their diet (I think most people don’t tolerate gluten well), when they remove the foods to which they’re sensitive (I always encourage people to do food elimination diets or I also now offer food sensitivity mediator release test that can identify 150 foods and food chemicals to which you’re sensitive), when you do that and you remove these foods, it’s amazing how many symptoms could just go away just from correcting the diet.
You just can’t constantly put garbage in your body and gluten, foods that you’re sensitive to and sugar and et cetera and expect to feel good. So it’s a big component of the program.
Debra: I totally agree! What about sleep?
WENDY MYERS: Yeah, sleep is huge. A lot of people shortcut on this one, but on the program, I really encourage people to sleep for eight to ten hours a night. I know some of you out there are going, “Yeah, right. I can barely get four or five” just because they keep waking up. This is a big problem for many women that are approaching menopause, they have a lot of night-waking and hormone imbalances and things of that nature. But if you can sleep eight to ten hours, great.
A big factor of that is going to bed at the correct time. You have to reset your circadian rhythm in order to get a good night sleep. So you’ve got to have good sleep hygiene. I give people lots and lots of tips on how to improve their sleep hygiene. That corrects a lot of people’s sleep issues. But if people are having trouble (because it does take quite some time to correct body chemistry), I give people lots of supplements that they can take like Ashwagandha or GABA.
Magnesium really, really helps for a lot of people. I give others supplement recommendations to help them get to sleep until they can correct their underlying issues that are promoting insomnia and night-waking.
Debra: Yeah, yeah. That used to be a big problem for me earlier in my life. Night after night, I wouldn’t sleep until I changed the sheets on my bed to cotton sheets instead of permanent press sheets. And actually, formaldehyde on the sheets keeps people awake.
WENDY MYERS: Yeah, mm-hmmm…
Debra: So that’s the first thing I always tell people to do. And then there are other things to do. But that’s just a basic thing that will affect a lot of people instead of people taking sleeping pills.
And so, I left the supplements until last because I want you to talk about the difference between your supplements and say, the supplements that people would buy in a natural food store or a drug store or a place that was just found to be selling supplements that have no supplements in them.
WENDY MYERS: Well, I’m a supplement freak. I’ve been taking supplements for a long time. I take a lot of supplements, I love them. And I’m a real stickler for supplement quality.
I primarily use food-based supplements on my program because I think they just have better synergy in the body and the body responds to them better, but there are some people that are so ill or have gut issues or so many food sensitivities that they can’t tolerate them.
So in those cases, I do offer very high quality synthetic supplements. And many, many people, most nutrients and supplements that you see out in the market are synthetics. And there are good synthetics and bad synthetic.
Debra: Well, what would be a good synthetic? How would you tell the difference? How do you define that, good and bad synthetics.
WENDY MYERS: Well, I have an article on my website called ‘90% of Vitamins are Synthetic’. We have a whole list of the different vitamins and the forms you want, the forms you don’t want. That can be very, very helpful. But it takes a long time. It took me a long time to learn this stuff.
It’s one of those things where you just have to do your homework. Let’s take an example, folic acid. Most people cannot convert folic acid to folate in their bodies especially if they have MTHFR genetic mutations or other of these issues where the body is just not working properly and you want to take folate. But for supplementation purposes, you want to see that word ‘folate’ or you want to see ‘methyl folate’ (that’s a methylated form of folate. That’s just one example.
There’s also B12. Most supplements have cyanocobalamin. That’s cobalt connected to cyanide. You probably don’t want to take that. Then your body has to convert that to methyl cobalamin. That’s the preferred form.
So there’s many, many examples like that. Most of the supplements that you see in the grocery store or Sam’s Club, many of them are China-sourced and has GMO ingredients, which you don’t want. It will not be on the label. And you many times will have cheap binders. So if you’re in a pill, they’re usually very, very cheap binders.
And there’s a really funny excerpt I have on one of my articles that talks about how the guys that run the porta potty businesses, in the bottom of the porta potties, when they’re cleaning them out, there’s hundreds of pills of supplements.
Debra: I’ve heard that, yes.
WENDY MYERS: Yeah, because the pills just pass right through them without being absorbed because there’s cheap binders in them. So you want to take supplements that are in capsules or just pressed pills. I don’t know if you know Chlorella water supplements, they’re just in a pressed pill.
So there’s lots and lots of details to think about. On Mineral Power, I only use the highest quality supplements, primarily food-based that you can find. And I’m always looking for the better and better and better supplement.
Debra: Yeah. Well, I’m always looking for them too.
Well, we’ve only got less than a minute left, so I wanted to say thank you so much for being here and telling us about your program. Is there anything very short you want to say?
WENDY MYERS: Well, my motto on Liveto110.com is to cess out and start working on your health before you develop health issues. You have got to add detox protocols like infrared saunas to your health regimen or eventually, you’re going to pay the price. The consequences are going to catch up with you by not eliminating metals and chemicals in your body.
Debra: Thank you so much. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to Toxic Free Talk Radio and find out more about the show and others by going to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be talking about commonly prescribed medications that have mental health side effects, which often go unnoticed by medical professionals. These side effects include memory loss, confusion, black outs, panic attacks, and more. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
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- Different Types of Detox
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- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
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TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Hidden Mental Dangers in Common Drugs
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld
Date of Broadcast: March 11, 2015
DEBRA: Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It is Wednesday, March 11th, 2015. I just actually was on another radio show this morning, on the Woman’s Radio Network, I think it was.
As I was talking – it was only for eight minutes – as I was talking, I was talking about detoxing our bodies and that we have toxic chemicals in our bodies and that we especially need to have a good source of water so that we can drink enough water and flush those toxic chemicals out.
I was talking about using Pure Body Liquid Zeolite in order to immediately, within 46 hours, start pulling those heavy metals and radiation and toxic chemicals out.
As I was talking to the host, I realized that you know what? There really isn’t anybody else talking about this. There are people talking about detox as cleaning out your intestines or something or getting off of drugs or getting off of alcohol. I’m talking about removing toxic chemicals from the body.
I can’t think of another website. I’m researching this stuff all the time. I can’t think of another website where so many options for removing different types of toxic chemicals were laid out and so many options for not putting toxic chemicals in your body in the first place by using toxic-free product.
There’s no other radio show like this. So you’re all very fortunate. You’re all very fortunate to be in the right place to getting this information because it really is the thing that is underlying all the health problems in the world today. It’s exposure to toxic chemicals.
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist and she’s on every other Wednesday. I have her on so much because she knows all about the health danger of drugs, pharmaceuticals and their addictive quality and the side effects.
I always have to smile to myself except that it’s so sad when I’m watching television. You can’t watch television for an hour without seeing how many drug commercials and they show you beautiful pictures and have nice music playing in the background and a very soothing voice tone and saying how they’re going to relieve your symptoms. It’s always about the symptoms.
They’re going to relieve your symptoms and then they start giving you the whole list of side effects. “By the way, it will damage your liver and you can die.” But all of this is going on with music playing in the background.
There’s just so much harm that can come from drugs and so much we can talk about that I’m just having Pamela on every other week so that she can really educate us.
And also, if you have been listening for a while, you know that my brother recently died from drugs, prescription drugs, not recreational drugs. So I think it’s one of the most important toxic exposures we can talk about.
Today, we’re going to be talking about some of those hidden things that can happen that you guys are taking drugs for symptoms with side effects. And we’re specifically going to talk about mental health dangers, mental health side effects that can be going on that you don’t even realize from taking these synthetic drugs.
Hi, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Hey. It’s great to be here.
DEBRA: Thank you. I gave just a long introduction today, but you’re the one that must talk.
Anyway, I’ll just tell you that Pamela is a registered pharmacist. But instead of dispensing drugs – she has a pharmacy, a natural pharmacy called Botanical Resource where she dispenses other kinds of things made from natural ingredients, medicines made from natural ingredients.
Pamela, tell us a little bit about your background on that so the people can understand the difference between a drug like a prescription drug and what you’re doing.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. Yes. My training originally was in Basic Pharmacology. I’m a clinical pharmacist here in Florida.
At the University of Florida, I also studied Pharmacognosy which is Plant Science. Actually, they don’t offer that anymore. So it’s basically the study of medicinal plants and the pharmacological properties.
It’s a little bit more than just Herbalism. It’s talking about where in the body they work in different receptors and the dosage and where the plants are found and what parts of the plant we’re using. They have specific indications.
My pharmacy here really concentrates on saying to people that prescription medications are now what we’re using here. I know this very, very well. I work still full time as a pharmacist in a hospital. I know all the IV drugs. I know all the chemo drugs. I know all the medicines and all the drugs as well.
So if someone’s taking a medicine for hypertension or for sleep or whatever they’re doing, I can suggest a homeopathic or a vitamin alternative because the products we use here are really medical grade homeopathic products that you’re not going to necessarily find at the health food store.
I can customize a regimen for you, free of charge. We keep the charge here for you. It’s very professional. I really would like to serve you and your family if there would be questions about medications that you want to get off of or avoiding them.
I also can look at your blood work and decide if there are maybe prescriptions that are lurking in the future that you don’t want to be on. And I can just honestly tell you where we can go with that with homeopathy at a very modest price.
DEBRA: And she’s very good and very well-respected. All the doctors around can know her. I said to my MD, “Pamela told me to take this.” And he said, “Take it.”
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah. It’s great.
DEBRA: Okay. So we’re going to be talking today about different drugs that are very common drugs and their hidden mental health dangers.
So I’ll just let you start.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay, good. When we’re thinking about what would be most logical to discuss about these hidden dangers in some of the medications?
I wanted to talk about the hidden dangers in the mental health realm of commonly used medications that in some case, the side effects of these medicines might be misconstrued as being a new onset development to some disease or problem.
These are things that the doctor probably won’t catch and maybe even the pharmacist won’t catch because you just have a keen eye to look at maybe these are what are causing the problem.
So I made a little list and Debra and I have talked about this. I really want to go through some of these because this is very, very important for yourself, maybe an elderly relative. You need to know that these are very, very prominent problems.
I wanted to start with the statin medications. Those are the cholesterol-lowering medications that are very commonly prescribed. I would imagine 25% of the population. A lot of people are on this.
What we’re seeing is that they’re given – we know about the liver problems and that’s associated with that. And that was called Rhabdomyolysis where you get muscle damage.
But what we’re going to talk about is the mental health realm of these medicines. And memory loss is actually a black box warning, which is a very severe warning that’s on the package insert for these medicines.
If you’re taking a medication to lower your cholesterol and you notice that all of a sudden, you’re starting to have some memory problems, these medicines may very much be the problem, especially in elderly people. I’ve seen this quite frequently.
When they put on a cholesterol-lowering medicine, they start showing some signs of memory loss. The relatives and the doctor think it’s because the person’s getting older and they’re having some cognitive decline.
Once the person gets what’s called – we call it drug holiday where you go off the medicine for a few weeks, all of a sudden, they start perking up and acting like themselves. This is very, very important.
Do not misconstrue people having memory problems and elderly people showing more fragility and cognitive decline. And if they’re on statin medication, somebody needs to really look at that.
DEBRA: Pamela, one of the things that came to mind when you were talking just now is you’re talking about that this is a symptom that is on the little insert in the package. I immediately thought, how many people actually read those?
PAMELA SEEFELD: People don’t. You’re not given that when you go and have your prescription.
Basically, you get a little flyer of some side effects. They’re not telling you that memory loss is really one of them. It’s probably buried in there someplace.
But it’s not something – most people aren’t going to read that. The healthcare practitioner and very astute family members need to catch this because especially like I say in elderly people.
I have even seen that in people. I had a client of mine that was probably mid-50s. He was a computer programmer and he came to me. He was telling me, “I need something for my memory. I’m having some trouble remembering things.” He writes codes at the computer, so he really needs to have his mind sharp.
I realized he was on statin medication. I looked at his med list. I said, “This is what’s causing the problem. You need to go off this for a few weeks and see if it improves.”
And sure enough, he came back and said, “You know what? My memory is better.” This is in a younger person.
So I’m more concerned too about these elderly people that are in maybe a nursing home. Maybe they’re in assisted living. If you have an elderly relative and they’re on these medicines, you need to be really, really careful that memory problems that you’re treating with medicines are not from the drug.
DEBRA: Well, it just seems like such a thing that – memory loss. No.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s terrible really, right?
DEBRA: No, I was going to say – I was just having memory loss. No.
It’s just a thing that it seems like memory loss is so common as people got older. So we don’t think twice about it.
People stop in midsentence. I hear people stopping in midsentence and they can’t remember what they were saying.
And then they go, “Senior moment.” And we all just laugh.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly.
DEBRA: So you’re not on the lookout for this. It’s not like your nose is bleeding or something like that. It’s just something that people accept those, “That’s the way it is.” But it could be a response to this drug.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah. That is my key concern. If we have elderly people that most of the time the people around them, the practitioner, the family member, maybe the little nurse’s aide that’s coming in to help, you either really look and see how the medicine is causing this problem.
Another medicine that’s pretty commonly prescribed and can cause some more problems is beta blockers. A beta blocker is for hypertension. There’s metropolol, atenolol, nadolol. There’s a bunch of them. And propranolol.
These drugs have been prescribed I would guess 50 years. Beta blockers have been around forever, but if you look at most people that have a little bit of hypertension – they’re using some newer drugs now, but a lot of these elderly people are on beta blockers.
And beta blockers block the beta cell or the beta receptor in the heart. They slow the heart rate down. They slow the blood pressure down.
So a lot of times, people use beta blockers if they have some mild hypertension. These are very, very commonly prescribed. I see this stuff all the time.
But they can cause confusion, memory loss and in some cases, I’ve seen where someone’s medication hasn’t been adjusted appropriately. This is pretty common.
The beta blockers can cause blackouts. So if somebody’s fainting, having their blood pressure goes to low, that can happen with people taking these things. They feel lightheaded and dizzy.
Especially in an elderly person, if they are on these medications and they’re having dizziness and lightheadedness, they’re going to be at risk for fall. And what do we think about falls when somebody’s having lightheadedness and having confusion? Fractures, right? Hip replacement, surgeries.
And then I can say this. When people are elderly and they have falls and they break bones, there’s a high morbidity in mortality associated with that because they’re elderly. They have had surgeries, then they go to the rehab, then they get an infection – you know what I’m talking about. There’s a whole thing that cascades along.
These things are avoidable. So if somebody that you know is on a beta blocker, they need to keep track of what their blood pressure and their heart rate are. And the doctor’s office can do that if they’re elderly and they’re having someone coming in to nurse.
But knowing where your blood pressure is, especially if it’s running on the low side and you’re on this beta blocker, they need to adjust it. That’s very, very important. But from a mental standpoint, we know that confusion can be other things.
Imagine, which is a very common scenario, a person in her 80s that’s on a statin medication and a beta blocker – I’m telling you it happens all the time. And they come in to the hospital. Altered mental status, they’re confused, they’re tired. And then they work these people up for all this stuff. And really it’s the medicine.
DEBRA: But they don’t – when these people come in, they don’t look and check and say, “It’s the medicine.” They put them through all these other things and maybe give them another drug.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right. It just depends if someone’s really on top of things. Most of the time, they’re not going –
This is what happens. Dr. X prescribed this medicine. Now, they go to the hospital and they have somebody else there. So they’re not going to check what somebody else’s medicines are. They usually leave those alone.
They just start looking and saying, “Why are they showing confusion? Why are they showing lethargy?”
And when they take their blood pressure, they might say, “Okay. Their blood pressure is a little low, but maybe that’s how they normally run.”
This is what’s really important. You need to be aware of your own body habitus. You need to be aware of what your blood pressure normally runs.
These are little things that you can probably find out even if you go to the Publix and put your arm in the blood pressure machine if you don’t know. But you should know what your normal results are so that if something looks strange or if you’re being placed on a medicine, you know where your baseline is.
Doesn’t that make sense?
DEBRA: It does make sense. First I want to say for people who don’t live in Florida, the Publix that Pamela just mentioned is a supermarket.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I’m sorry. It’s a grocery store. It’s a grocery store, correct. So whatever grocery store or the pharmacy, they have a little blood pressure machine.
DEBRA: You can go to the pharmacy. They usually have a blood pressure machine.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. Yes.
DEBRA: But the other thing that I’m thinking about is that there really – this whole thing about side effects. We’re talking about mental health side effects today. But the whole thing about side effects is so widespread with these drugs.
I started setting toxic chemicals because of toxic chemicals in consumer products. I didn’t start setting them because of drugs.
But drugs are made – most of them are synthetic. They’re made out of the same coal tar and crude oil that all the toxic chemicals are made of. It’s all made in the lab, the same way that they make the toxic chemicals in consumer products.
It’s just like you’re taking – we have things called Poison Control Centers. But all these drugs are just like taking poisons. They’re taking poisons.
Pretty much every drug you can find, here’s a whole list of health effects. I think that if I were taking drugs like these – there are so many online resources that if you don’t –
I know at the pharmacy, the pharmacists, they give a little pamphlet or something about the drug and make sure that you understand I guess how to use it. But maybe you don’t always get the health effects.
You can go online and look up any drug. It will tell you the health effects.
For me, if I was taking multiple drugs, I would just write down all the health effects for taking five drugs, which I wouldn’t do. But some people do.
I would write down – memory loss, memory loss, memory loss. I’d write down all the health effects and I’d see which ones cause the same health effects like memory loss. And I’d also really know what to be looking for that if I start having symptoms, I would already know if I made a list.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly. And just knowing that – we were talking about the statin medication. We’re talking about the high percentage of medications, the beta blockers.
In place of a statin medication, you can use Pantethine. I did it quite a bit. I have a medical grade Pantethine. It will lower your cholesterol about 20 points a month.
So why would you take a chance using a statin medication with the memory problem, the muscle damage, the liver disease, all these different things?
It’s the same thing with hypertension medications, the beta blockers that we’re talking about. I use a homeopathic product called Crataegus Complex. That will lower the heart rate and will lower the blood pressure. It’s pretty consistent.
I’ve used it extensively. It’s homeopathic. There are no side effects, but it contains homeopathic versions of Cardiac glycosides which have these effects on the heart, which are very advantageous for someone that got some mild hypertension, even severe hypertension. It can help augment the use of additional medication.
There are solutions to these instead of having these and taking a risk with your memory.
Also, I wanted to really talk a little bit about benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines are these anxiety drugs like Xanax, Ativan, Clonazepam, Valium. These medicines are highly prescribed.
If you work in a retail pharmacy and you’re a pharmacist, they are fast movers. We have a name for that. They’re in huge, huge container. They just put the bottle underneath it and they fall in there.
They put a number, 100 or whatever they want. They set it in a computer. They don’t even have timeouts anymore because there are so many that they dispense. This is really widespread. We’re talking about these mental health implications and what are some of the side effects of these.
If you put somebody in the benzodiazepine, this works in the brain. It was called the benzodiazepine receptor and it causes this Coleman effect. But the problem with that is that you get what’s called tolerance and dependence. So you need more medicine.
Take the same effect over a period of time and you become dependent on it. There’s psychological and physical dependence. So you think you need the medicine and physically, you start craving the medicine.
The problem with this in the mental health realm is that these medicines can lead to panic attacks. They can lead to confusion of the elderly and falls. And we were talking about elderly people fall.
It’s a high chance that they might have a very negative outcome as a result to those because they’re frail. They have to undergo the surgery. They have to go to rehab. There are a lot of secondary infections that happen.
It’s not easy pass for these people, even for younger people if this would be the case. So the impairment and the panic, if the person is not taking them consistently – they’re taking the medicine twice a day and they forget to take it or they need more medicine and they haven’t gone to the doctor increasing the prescription because now they’re dependent on it.
Panic attacks happen with these medicines quite frequently and that can be very dangerous. Can you imagine a person having a panic attack while they’re driving a car?
DEBRA: I wouldn’t want to be in a car around them.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly. These are hidden dangers of these medicines that I think people need to realize.
When you start taking these even just temporarily for sleep or for anxiety, you’re on a long term path of some problems.
That’s the danger with these.
Passionflower is a partial agonist to this receptor. It has no tolerance, no dependence. It’s very effective as an anxielitic without having these side effects. So really when you…
DEBRA: I need to interrupt you because we missed the last break. Didn’t that seem like a long one?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay.
DEBRA: So let’s take a break. I was listening to you and I completely forgot to look at the time.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Sorry.
DEBRA: Anyway, listeners. This is what it’s like when Pamela and I get together. We just talk and talk.
Anyway, you’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs.
When we come back, we’ll give you her phone number and you can call her up to [inaudible 00:21:49]. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd.
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She dispenses medicines based on plants and other natural sources. She has her own pharmacy called Botanical Resource in Clearwater, Florida.
Pamela, give us your phone number because Pamela will talk to you for free on the phone and help you figure out the drugs that you’re taking and suggest some natural remedies if you’d like her to do that.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. You can call me here at my pharmacy. It’s (727) 442-4955.
And I would be very honored to help you and your family get off any medication that you need to get off of or also avoiding medication. If you have any health issues or concerns, I’m very well-versed in all these different problems.
DEBRA: And she really is. She’s been doing this for more than 20 years. She’s very well-respected in our medical and alternative community here in Clearwater, Florida.
Okay. So tell us more about hidden dangers in medications commonly prescribed, hidden mental dangers in medications commonly prescribed.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. So we were talking a little bit about the benzos, how the benzodiazepines have this affinity for causing problems with confusion, with panic attacks, all these kinds of things that can result via the dependency on the medicine.
DEBRA: What are some common names for those drugs?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Ativan, Xanax, Valium, those are the ones that most people are on. They’re the most commonly used ones.
What I should tell people is that many times when you’re given these medicines, initially that discussion about dependence and tolerance never comes up. The doctor doesn’t hand this to you and say, “By the way, there’s dependence and tolerance with these. So there might be some problems down the road that you might become dependent on.” That’s not in the conversation. I think that’s pretty bad.
DEBRA: I think so too. So it shouldn’t – we recommend that if people are being given drugs that they should ask their doctor since they’re not going to be told. Ask their doctor about if they could become dependent on that drug.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Absolutely. Really you can look case in point the opiate addiction epidemic in this country, how you have a huge percentage of the patients on narcotics, long term.
When their initial – the new study shows, especially for back problems, that if you treat them with anti-inflammatory, physical therapy and maybe a low dose of steroids, you don’t need narcotics at all.
But I don’t think the conversation is really brought up to people when they have an injury that the narcotics after a short period of time, many people can be left in 10 days, that they already start becoming dependent on it.
So we need to really look at a very frank discussion before we start any of these medicines about some things that we can do in place of using these medications. Most people I don’t think really realize or maybe don’t grasp that these can be some long term problems.
And especially for the memory, you think about what’s the most important thing in your body. You want your health, but if you don’t have your memory and you can’t concentrate, it’s going to be very hard to go to your job and just do your activities in daily living and maybe you enjoy reading. All these things are going to go out the window. This is going to be very, very bad.
So you need to really think about what you’re doing. Nothing comes without a price. Isn’t that true?
DEBRA: Yes. I’ll just give you just some example from my life with regard to this question. I take thyroid supplement. I take natural Armour Thyroid Supplement.
But the reason that I’m taking it now is not because I decided in recent history to take it. It’s because when I was – how old was I? I think I was about 29 or something like that.
Of all people who you think would be natural, my chiropractor said, “I think you could use a little thyroid, just a little thyroid supplement that would help you.”
She didn’t really know me. I had just gone to her just because I have a little thing going on in my neck. Right at the first visit, she says, “I think you could use a little thyroid.”
And she sent me off to an endocrinologist who put me on Synthroid. Now Synthroid is the thyroid supplement that leads to people taking psych drugs because it gets them such mental health symptoms.
My brother who we’ve talked about before, who died recently, he was taking half a dozen drugs including some of these.
He ended up in a psych ward after taking Synthroid. This is just a thyroid medication, thyroid medication.
Here I am 25 years later or something, I’m still taking thyroid because once you started – I never took those psych drugs. They wanted to give them to me, but I wouldn’t take them.
What I did was I moved from Synthroid to a natural thyroid because once you start taking it, you can’t stop taking it for the rest of your life.
And my chiropractor, very sweet woman, very natural-oriented, she sent me off to the endocrinologist to get synthetic thyroid medication, which I now have to take for the rest of my life. There was a time period when – I’m watching the clock.
There was a time period when I couldn’t get my Armour Thyroid. There was a supply problem. I almost went into a coma. It’s like you get…
PAMELA SEEFELD: You’re right. No. No.
DEBRA: I mean this is a real life story. And I can’t choose to not take it. I think we need to be extremely careful when doctors or chiropractors or anybody are recommending taking drugs because you need to find out what are the long term things that are going to happen.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right. Knowing what’s going on and understanding that there are long term implications with anything.
I mean I have a stereotype, but a lot of Americans – we really want it easy to fix everything. I understand. We get impatient because we’re so used to everything just running so perfect. So we want a pill to solve every problem.
But really homeopathic things or vitamins that can mimic medications without having all those side effects, they really need to be embraced in a large scale operation so to speak. Maybe that’s not going to happen in this country. I’m okay with that. In Europe, a lot of people really embraced alternative medicine, maybe more so than here.
But this is really coming of age. You see a lot of people do spend a lot of money on supplements and want information.
I’m very busy because people don’t want to be taking all these. The awareness about the side effects is becoming more obvious now.
You’re right about the thyroid. The thyroid – they don’t tell you when they first put you on thyroid. If your thyroid is running a little bit low, you’re going to be on it for the rest of your life. They’re never going to take you off of it.
DEBRA: And every increasing doses too.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly. That’s exactly right.
DEBRA: People don’t know how much dose they’re going to take. But I have to go in and get a blood test every three months.
Anyway, we need to go to break. But I wanted to tell that story. When we come back, we will talk more about the hidden health dangers and hidden mental health dangers in common drugs.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld.
And quickly, what’s your phone number?
PAMELA SEEFELD: (727) 442-4955.
DEBRA: Okay, good. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist.
She mentioned at the beginning that she studied Pharmacognosy. I love that word. It’s a study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources.
The first time she was on, I looked up that the root of that word is pharma. Pharma is medicine. And cognosy is information and intelligence.
So it really is – Pamela, tell us the difference between a medicine that comes from a living source versus a synthetic source.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s very true. And when you think about it, two-thirds of all the medicines we have originally came from natural sources that they tested, the plants and so forth. They figured out that these compounds had activity.
When we look at it, it comes from a natural source. But the good part about it is that it’s more homogenous with our body because it’s not made in chemistry in a factory. These things the body recognizes and uses, I would say it more effectively medicates the system than the prescription medication. That’s the beauty of it.
A lot of people study Energetics and how things have energy in themselves and implicitly. But we know that something that’s coming from a plant will be highly effective and maybe even more advantageous for the individual and also you really see this a lot with animals.
With people, we have so much going on in our head that we many times don’t recognize the subtle nuisances. But with animals, they respond tremendously better to homeopathic medicine. And because things from plants, I think their energy is much different than people themselves.
DEBRA: Yes. I think so too. It’s the world that we’re designed to be in. Synthetic products come from digging up crude oil from under the ground where Mother Nature put it.
And of course there are places like the La Brea Tar Pits in LA where you can go and see it bubbling up out of the ground.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly.
DEBRA: Usually, it’s underground. If you look at non-industrial people before we have all these industrial machines that can dig it up, they didn’t use crude oil unless it was bubbling up. If you see…
PAMELA SEEFELD: I got the point.
DEBRA: Yeah. If you see where it is in the world, how many locations have crude oil bubbling up at the surface? Not many.
So I don’t think it’s really – nature didn’t intend this to be rubbing in our skin and eating it and drinking it and taking it as drugs.
Anyway, we have some more drugs to talk about.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, absolutely. I’m going to talk a little bit about the Diuretics. Diuretics are commonly used – Lasix, Hydrochlorothiazide, you have a lot of people on these medications to remove fluid off the body.
Diuretics many times, they lead to dehydration. People don’t realize it, but of course it’s removing fluid off the body. As we get older, a sense of thirst changes significantly. So we don’t realize when we’re thirsty.
And then these people that have kidney problems or blood pressure problems, the doctor is like, “We don’t want too much fluid. We want to take this out of the body.”
So what happens is removing the fluids off the body is going to be a problem because if somebody is dehydrated as a result of it, that can lead to confusion. So this can also be another course of someone having falls, someone having issues where all of a sudden, they’re losing their sense of direction, memory loss, things like that.
Dehydration, if you think about – have you been dehydrated before? It’s significant and it can cause mental problems.
If somebody is elderly or if they’re on new onset and they’re in diuretic and they can’t figure out why their memory is shaky, they’re having some trouble with just remembering things, they need to check and see. Are they being over [inaudible 00:42:57] or they’re having dehydration setting in. That can be a problem too.
So you’d be surprised how many people are on a statin medication, a beta blocker and a diuretic at the same time. It’s a lot.
DEBRA: Wow. You would know because you’re dispensing these drugs in the hospital.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly. Exactly. So this combination of medications is pretty commonly used, even with the benzos if you think about it. So all these medicines together, if your grandmother or your mother all of a sudden is looking particularly frail, she’s falling, she’s having memory lapses, she’s not remembering simple ordinary things, maybe forgetting people’s names, you need to look and see. Are these medicines causing the problem? I’m telling you, this is a very common issue where people are missing this very, very often.
Another medicine I was going to talk about is Lariam. This is a medicine that not so many people are going to go on, but I really want to mention them a little bit. It’s something that they use to protect against malaria. And if you go out of the country to an area, like when I went to India, there are times they recommend you take this before you go and while you’re there and for a short period of time afterwards.
So if you’re going to do any international traveling and there are areas that they’re endemic with malaria, this is something that they commonly prescribe.
Lariam can cause severe psychosis. This is something that you’re not going to be told about. So if someone is doing any international traveling and they’re considering going on this, you need to realize that the mental health problems that are associated with this medication are very significant. I don’t think they’re really relayed to the patients very often.
Have you ever traveled overseas that you were near with malaria?
DEBRA: I’ve traveled to Europe, but I haven’t ever traveled to Asia or South America or places like that where malaria would be something to watch out for.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I mean this is off to being passed, but I think it’s important to mention because it just depends.
You have a very diverse crowd that’s going to be listening to the show people all over the country. And there are people who are…
DEBRA: All over the world actually.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly. Exactly, very well put. So this is something that you really need to look at.
If you’re starting to have some mental health changes as a result of going on the medicine, you need to realize that it’s the Lariam. This is highly documented.
So it’s one of these things that maybe, we call it – in pharmacy, we call it an orphan drug. It’s not used a lot. But it’s something that if you’re going to do any traveling to areas where malaria is a problem, they will recommend that you go on some prevention.
And the other medicines really aren’t working as well anymore. This is the problem because we resist it and so forth.
But that’s just a side note. I just thought I would bring that up.
The things that really are going to be important the people that are listening today and in the future who are still listening to the show, are look at these commonly prescribed medicines that you have probably a good quarter of the population on, any of these at anyone’s time and look to see are these really the focus of the problem. Are the reasons why the person is having some memory loss?
And especially, may I say for the people that have relatives that are elderly or they may be the elderly themselves? Realize that it’s not your fault and it’s not your bodies declining that are causing these problems. Many times, it could be the medicines.
What we need to do is say, “Maybe they need to be stopped for a short period of time and see if the person improves.”
In many case, I have seen improvements in people when they just took a small period of time away from some of these medicines that were causing the problem.
These are common problems that you’re going to see. But like I said, it can be misconstrued as the person just having some frailty and becoming more elderly. Do you see what I’m saying?
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: And I think it’s important for people to realize…
DEBRA: Okay. Let me ask you. Is there any danger in – if somebody’s listening or they’re making notes or they’re going to read the transcript and they know say a parent or relative or themselves are on these medications, they say, “Let me just try not taking them and see if my memory comes back.”
Is there any danger of just stopping your medicine? I mean people are on medicines because there’s something wrong with them in the first place.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. That’s a good point. I mean I can give people direction or they can tell to their doctor and ask them, “Do you think this may be causing some memory problems?”
The easiest one to stop for a short period of time would be the cholesterol lowering medicine because two weeks of no cholesterol lowering medicine, that’s not going to make a big difference. That might be enough for you just to see a difference and then go back on it.
But I would suggest is that these things if they are having some problems or if it’s a new onset, there are things that are showing up with the medicine being initiated, maybe they use some homeopathic or some alternative. Especially if they’re monitoring their blood pressure, use some homeopathics.
I’m not saying that they just stop everything and don’t take anything at all. You would want to gradually switch over to some homeopathy or some homeopathic medical products and see how your blood pressure is working, but also see how your memory is improving.
The cholesterol would be the easiest because you’re only stopping it for a short period of time. It wouldn’t be threatening your life. It wouldn’t be a danger for a short period of time to take a drug holiday from that.
So yeah, it’s important that you don’t want to just be stopping things. And medicines aren’t the big evil person here. But it’s to say that maybe these problems that are showing up for the person are very much related to the combination of medicines or even just one of these medicines.
I don’t think that this conversation is really held quite frequently because I see quite a lot of people are very educated coming here on these things and they had no idea that this might be part of the problem. It’s pretty established.
There are a lot of new studies that show that things that I was talking about today are highly correlated with these medicines. This is important.
I’m more concerned about the elderly person that might be on these and they don’t really know how to voice what’s going on. But if you are a family member and you start seeing some changes in them, don’t think it’s just because they’re getting older. That’s my big take-home message today for people.
It’s not because it’s a senior moment like you were saying. It’s not a senior moment. Maybe it’s the medicine. And we need to rule that out before we decide that it’s just because you’re getting older. We’re all getting older.
But that’s really important. What if this is robbing this person of some real quality time in their life?
DEBRA: Yeah. Well, I do know that a lot of toxic chemicals that we’re exposed to in consumer products can also cause all kinds of mental effects including memory loss and not thinking clearly and depression and confusion and such. So it makes sense to me that these drugs will too.
We’re almost out of time. So thank you so much again for being on. Pamela will be on again two weeks from today.
And there is a whole list of shows from the past that you could listen to as well. Just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. I don’t have time to explain it.
Thank you so much.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Thank you.
DEBRA: I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
How to Have a Fragrance-Free Workplace
My guest today is Alison Johnson, Chairperson of the Board of The Chemical Sensitivity Foundation. We’ll be talking about something that affects the health of everyone: exposure to toxic chemicals in fragrances in the workplace and how your can eliminate the fragrance hazard from your workplace. Alison is a summa cum laude graduate of Carleton College and studied mathematics at the Sorbonne on a National Science Foundation Fellowship. She received a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, where she studied on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. In 2010 she received a Distinguished Achievement Award from Carleton College for her work on chemical sensitivity. Alison has produced and directed documentaries titled Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: How Chemical Exposures May Be Affecting Your Health; Gulf War Syndrome: Aftermath of a Toxic Battlefield; The Toxic Clouds of 9/11: A Looming Health Disaster; and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A Life-Altering Condition. Alison’s books about chemical sensitivity are Casualties of Progress: Personal Histories from the Chemically Sensitive; Gulf War Syndrome: Legacy of a Perfect War; and Amputated Lives: Coping with Chemical Sensitivity. www.chemicalsensitivityfoundation.org/fragrance-free-workplaces.html
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO How to Have a Fragrance-free Workplace
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd Guest: Alison Johnson
Date of Broadcast: March 10, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Tuesday, March 10th, 2015 and we’re going to be talking today about something that affects the health of everyone.
We’re all exposed to it and we’re all affected by it. And that is the exposure to toxic chemicals in fragrances. And specifically, we’re going to talk about being exposed to toxic chemicals in fragrances in the workplace because you go to work and you get exposed to all these things that you may be able to control at home. But what do you do at work?
What do you do about fragrances? What do you do about cigarette smokes? What do you do about cleaning products? Well, today we’re going to talk about Fragrances, How You Can Control Your Workplace, what you can do so that you can have a fragrance-free workplace. And that could apply then to all other types of toxic exposures you might have at your workplace as well.
My guest today is Alison Johnson. She’s the Chairperson of the Board of The Chemical Sensitivity Foundation. She knows all about this. And I want to say that the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation has a lot of information about chemical sensitivity and about this subject in particular. If you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, I have put the link to the exact webpage on their site where she just has a whole list of links relating to the subject that we’re going to be talking about today.
It’s just a wonderful resource for this exact subject. And if you want to go to their website, it’s ChemicalSensitivityFoundation.org.
Hi, Alison.
ALISON JOHNSON: Hello.
DEBRA: You have a lot of experience. I should also say that you produced and directed some documentaries, you’ve written books about chemical sensitivity. So tell us, how did you find out about chemical sensitivity and what is your experience with it that led you then to start this foundation and getting us to today’s topic of fragrance-free?
ALISON JOHNSON: Well, it all started years ago. When I was 35 years old, I suddenly started having migraine headaches. I never had them before. I was very quickly able to trace some to exposure to cigarette smoke. If someone had organized [inaudible 00:03:33], the committee was meeting in my kitchen in the evenings occasionally, I find out the next morning, about 12 hours later, after someone has smoked a lot in my kitchen, I have a migraine.
So I then pretty quickly saw that migraines were caused by exposure to cigarette smoke. I did find that occasionally, after I eliminated my exposure to cigarette smoke, I found that caffeine could also trigger a migraine in me. But I haven’t had migraines in over 35 years. I only had them for two years.
So I’m very much of the opinion that there are a lot of people, there are very specific triggers for migraines – not those standard red wine, chocolate, et cetera, that people list, but it can be very individual for every person. I would get headaches from chocolates. But at any rate, I think that there are many people living with…
DEBRA: And at least chocolate is worth eating.
ALISON JOHNSON: But I think a lot of people are suffering from migraines that [inaudible 00:04:43]. I also discovered that same time when I suddenly started getting the migraines, that year, I started having joint pain for when I wake up in the morning.
And it would be hard to [inaudible 00:04:58]. I have pain on my knees going down the stairs. I was able to trace that quite quickly to the fact that our furnace had just [inaudible 00:05:12]. It just gone on for the fall. And so we did change our heating system. We got an electric boiler to keep the water for our radiators. I never again had any arthritic symptoms.
To say over 35 years, I’ve gone onto a tremendous amount of hiking at the Rocky Mountains in the summer. And so, I’m very glad that I learned that there could be cause and effects and that a lot of health symptoms people have can be traced to exposures. So I got into it that way.
And then, all three of my daughters developed chemical sensitivity at widely-spaced intervals. It wasn’t any common exposure. But at any rate, because of that, I became very aware of what was going on in the field. That’s what led me to start writing books and doing documentaries. And then that led to organizing my foundation, which happened in 2001.
DEBRA: Well, I’m so glad that you do have a foundation and that you are doing the work that you’re doing and communicating about it. I love hearing your story because it really shows that people can have very specific symptoms and everybody’s chemical sensitivity is different. And I think that there’s a lot of people who may be listening who have symptoms and they think that it’s only just a headache or it’s only just arthritis or something like that and then they take a drug for those things – or just insomnia. In my case, well, I had a lot of different symptoms but then I used to be chemically sensitive.
And then I used to be reacting – as a chemically sensitive person, I should say, I think that if I went back to all that chemical exposure, I would probably be chemically sensitive again. But I don’t. So I’m not. But insomnia was one of my big symptoms. Just think about the people who are taking sleeping pills and all the people who are taking drugs for headaches.
They think that it’s one symptom and they don’t understand that it really can be our body’s response to a chemical exposure or multiple chemical exposures. It’s so important for people to know today about these chemical exposures. So tell us about fragrance because that’s the topic of the day. We just have a few minutes before we need to go to break. But let’s get started talking about this. Tell us a little bit about why fragrances are so toxic.
ALISON JOHNSON: Well, the best work really that’s being done in this field (as I’m sure you probably know) comes from Dr. Anne Steinemann. And she was on the board of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation when I first founded it. She has now moved over to Australia and has a wonderful new position at the University of Melbourne in Australia that allows her to work specifically on all of these issues. Dr. Steinemann had an engineering Ph.D. from Stanford University. While she was in the States, she was a professor at Georgia Tech, at the University of Washington, guest professor at Stanford.
Anyway, she has all of the tools to study these things and she’s investigated the chemicals in fragrances using things like – I’m not sure of all the terms, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to analyze the chemicals given off by these fragrance products.
She just published a new article in March, this month of 2015 in the journal, Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health. And in that article, she found, through her research, that 156 different VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) are emitted from the 37 products at this study. The 37 different products included the air fresheners, cleaning products, laundry supplies and personal care products.
So she’s just done so much to give the scientific underpinnings that we needed. It’s always been obvious for decades that certain people were reporting that they got very sick, various reactions to fragrance products. But it was easy for the fragrance industry just to say, “Oh, it’s just a psychological reaction,” et cetera. And Dr. Steinemann’s work puts it on a very firm scientific-based. So I think that as we move forward, we will see more and more fragrance-free workplaces. We’ve already seen fragrance-free medical facilities.
DEBRA: We need to go to break. I will say that I do know Dr. Steinemann and we’re working on a time for her to be on the show. It’s a little complicated because she’s in Australia and I have to record her. So we’re working out these details. But Dr. Steinemann will be on the show talking about her new study and her old studies, which are all very interesting. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Alison Johnson, Chairperson of the Board of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation. And when we come back, we’ll start talking about workplace issues.
DEBRA: This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Alison Johnson. She’s Chairperson of the Board of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation and they are at ChemicalSensitivityFoundation.org.
There’s a specific page for the fragrance-free workplace references, which you can see in our menu or you can also get by direct link on my website at ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com.
Okay, Alison, tell us about what the problems are with fragrances in the workplace, the troubles that people have with that.
ALISON JOHNSON: Well, people who are sensitive to chemicals who have a condition that a lot of us call multiple chemical sensitivity can react to chemicals in very strong ways.
For example, they may develop migraine headaches when they’re exposed to a co-worker’s perfume. For asthmatics, it is well-known that hypersensitive people with asthma react to fragrance products. In fact, in Anne Steinemann’s study that she did with Stanley Chris in 2009, they found that over 33% of asthmatics reported headaches, breathing difficulties and other problems from air fresheners and deodorizers.
And what I think employers need to realize is that the productivity of the employees is being reduced so greatly by exposure to fragrances because it not only causes breathing difficulty for many people and migraine headaches, it also just can produce what people sometimes call ‘brain fog’, loosely, but just people not feeling very sharp about what they’re thinking, slight memory problems, things like that. People are not as sufficient when they’re not feeling well. And I think too that this affects workers in general.
There are a lot of people that haven’t stopped to think of what might be causing their headache or something. And so if you reduce the number of products that cause these reactions, you’re definitely going to increase the productivity of your workforce. And also, it’s just essential for the people who are so reactive to those fragrances because a lot of them are just forced to drop out of the workplace.
This is really disastrous for the national economy because they have to eventually go on Social Security for supplemental income or Social Security Disability. And these people, the last thing they want is to be on a government handout, but they have no choice.
Otherwise, they’re just going to live under a bridge or something. And even the amount they get for those payments is ridiculously small. The most unusual case I ever heard of was a woman in New York City. And I met her and talked to her directly about this. She actually worked for the Public Health Department in New York City.
And she does fairly well within the accommodation for her sensitivity to fragrances because she would get very dizzy and could hardly walk when she was exposed to fragrances. And the one year, they put her on the floor of the building where she had access only to restrooms that had air fresheners in them.
And when she would go in to one of those restrooms with air fresheners, she would practically fall down when she tried to walk back to her desk. This woman actually had to go to the extreme measure of eating or drinking nothing that day that she went to work. So she would get up, not drink a drop, not eat anything, not eat or drink until she’s finished the workday just so she could avoid using the restroom.
Now, that was a really extreme case. And she actually got a certificate, a special award from the Mayor for the special service she had done as a computer expert. So we can lose some really good people in the workplace.
DEBRA: I agree. I think it’s important for employers to understand that. I remember, you and I have been dealing with chemical sensitivity for 30 years. I’ve been writing since 1982, but I was first diagnosed in 1978. So that was about 35 years ago too.
We both were beginning this at the same time period. And at that time, people weren’t talking as much as they are today about what’s toxic. And in fact, when I wrote my first book, nobody was talking about this at all. It was an unknown subject.
They didn’t know where to put my book on the bookshelves and I was the only person talking about it. But at that time, what we were talking about is we were saying, “These people are chemically sensitive.
Therefore, chemicals cause problems and health effects. People were asking for what seemed like special accommodations for people with MCS.” What I really, really want people to understand is (and I say this over and over, but I’m going to say it over and over, more and more and more) when I wrote my last book, Toxic Free a few years ago, I went through and I researched, researched, researched the health effects of toxic chemicals. And what I found was that every single illness can be associated to a toxic chemical exposure.
MCS is only one way that chemicals damage the body with chemicals damaging the immune system. Everybody’s system is affected by toxic chemical exposure. And so one person will get MCS, another person will get cancer, another person will be obese from endocrine disruptors.
It just depends on your own individuality. And I think that what I want to say to employers that it’s not about accommodating a few people who have visible symptoms, it’s about uplifting the whole, entire health of your entire workforce, which will, in turn, increase productivity and also reduce the amount you have to pay out on health care costs, less insurance, less health insurance, a healthier workforce. That’s really what we’re talking about here.
ALISON JOHNSON: Yes, absolutely. And speaking of reducing the cost for the business people, I’d like to recommend an article that someone pointed out to me last year. It’s called Fragrance in the Workplace.
DEBRA: Can you hold on just a second? We need to go to break and we’ll hear all about it when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Alison Johnson, Chairperson of the Board of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation, and we’re talking about how to have a fragrance-free workplace. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Alison Johnson, Chairperson of the Board of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation, and they are at ChemicalSensitivityFoundation.org We’re talking about Fragrance-Free Workplaces. So Alison, go on with what you were saying before the break.
ALISON JOHNSON: Yes. I just found a few months ago a very interesting article. It’s written by Christy Devader who is a professor at Loyola University of Maryland. It was published in the Journal of Management and Marketing Research and it’s titled Fragrance in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know.
She starts off in the abstract by pointing out that this situation is very parallel to the campaign against second-hand smoke or the campaign for smoke-free workplaces. The article is quite a long article. It’s full of useful information for employers. It’s got one section called Cost to Employers. She says there the, “The adverse health effects to employees cost employers billions of dollars annually.”
For example, in 2007, the Center for Disease Control estimated that 22.9 million people are currently diagnosed with asthma and they quote an article saying that research by the Institute of Medicine equated fragrance to second-hand smoke in triggering asthma in adults and children.
And they quote other studies that showed 72% of asthmatics have a negative physical reaction to perfumes. Then they go on to say in 2004 that migraine headaches caused American employers $24 billion in direct and indirect healthcare cost. And in 2007, asthmatics lost an average of 30 workdays to absenteeism, et cetera. So they say in addition to absenteeism and lost productivity, there are also losses from increased cost for medical and health insurance, and costs associated with losses.
And her articles pools very useful information, suggestions to employers about the best way to implement fragrance-free workplaces. So basically, she is saying to them – and she finishes it up with a statement quoting from the Occupational Health and Safety Act, she actually says, “The general duty clause of the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires employers to ‘take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of the workers.’” And she then finishes by saying, “Enough research demonstrates negative effects of synthetic fragrance that employers can no longer deny knowledge of what constitutes basic precaution.” First, she’s basically saying, “Watch out. You’re going to be liable to report to employers.”
DEBRA: Well, I think that’s an important point to make because I think that in different areas, when you are in a workplace, they’re supposed to provide a reasonably safe environment to work in. When you buy a house or rent a house, it’s supposed to be reasonably safe.
There are all these expectations of reasonable safety. It’s just common sense. And yet we have environment after environment. You can’t go grocery shopping without running into toxic chemicals. You can’t go to the mall without toxic chemicals.
You can’t go to school without toxic chemicals. And all of these environments need to be cleaned up.
ALISON JOHNSON: Yes. And speaking of schools, on our website for the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation, under the fragrance-free workplaces section, I list the American Lung Association.
They have a sample fragrance-free school policy. That shows how far we have come because I’ve been watching the American Lung Association for years wishing that they would get more involved in some of the chemical sensitivity issues. And all of a sudden, they have.
In fact, on this page, they say there are many people who experience unpleasant physical effects from scented products and a growing number of people who suffer more severe reactions to these types of products and chemicals.
This condition is known as ‘multiple chemical sensitivity’ and involves people who developed an acute sensitivity to various chemicals in the environment. That fact shows how things are moving because five years ago, you wouldn’t have even found the phrase ‘multiple chemical sensitivity’ in the American Lung Association’s website. DEBRA: No, you wouldn’t have. I know because I looked.
ALISON JOHNSON: So as I say, I’m delighted watching all of this. By the way, that professor that wrote the Journal for the Business School Magazine or the Workplace Magazine, she pointed out that it would take quite a while to get a smoke-free workplace movement really off the ground and really achieving anything.
And she says the Fragrance-Free Workplace Movement will move far faster because of the internet. And that’s absolutely true. We can all share information now like that fragrance-free, that whole list. When I went back to look at the webpage that I’d put up for the Fragrance-Free Workplaces, I was surprised. I’ve forgotten how many things I had discovered that are now available.
DEBRA: You wrote a great list.
ALISON JOHNSON: Yes, and it just gives some people a place to turn. And you’ll notice, I used just only reputable scientific statements. I avoid everything [inaudible 00:32:57].
DEBRA: Yes, I did notice that. We just have a couple of minutes to a break. When we come back after the break, I want us to talk about if somebody is in a heavily-fragranced workplace, to give us some ideas of what you can do to change that workplace and improve the workplace.
But I do want to say that as a possible alternative, many years ago, when I was faced with this situation, we didn’t have all these resources. And so I ended up choosing to just work at home and it was necessary for me to create my own business because I couldn’t go to work in the offices.
And I worked for a while in an office with an air filter. I had this big air filter and I sat it right on my desk. And I had to blow in my face in order for me to work in an office. And just because all the chemicals that were there anyway, plus it was in downtown San Francisco where everybody was wearing perfume.
But the funny thing was that at break time, people would come and congregate around my desk because the air was so nice.
ALISON JOHNSON: That’s amazing.
DEBRA: But I decided that I wanted to take control of my own work environment. And so for all these years, I’ve been working at home and I love it.
And so that’s always an option, is to just say you’re going to just take matters into your own hands and create your own home and your own business. But that’s really different from going and getting a job and to be an entrepreneur. But it is an option.
So we’re going to go break.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Alison Johnson, Chairperson of the Board of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation at ChemicalSensitivityFoundation.org. And we’ll be right back to find out what you can do if you need to eliminate fragrance from your workplace.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Our guest today is Alison Johnson, Chairperson of the Board of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation and they’re at ChemicalSensitivityFoundation.org.
ll these things we’re talking about are all on her website. So if you go to ChemicalSensitivityFoundation.org, you can see there’s a tab that says ‘fragrance-free’ and there are links to a very good resource list.
So Alison, if somebody is a worker and needs to keep their job, what can they do to reduce the fragrance in their workplace?
ALISON JOHNSON: Well, I think the best way to reduce it is to be able to convince our employees why it is that you’re asking for this accommodation. And one thing I would suggest to people is if they visit our Chemical Sensitivity Foundation website, they will see links that you can play films, the documentaries that I’ve made personally.
We’ve got an excellent one, the one titled Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Life-Altering Condition. It’s full of information on fragrances and how these have bothered gulf war veterans, 9/11 first responders, et cetera. Half the battle is convincing people that you’re not just an irritating, neurotic person trying to control people.
And so you need to gain their sympathy, so to speak. And it’s easier to do that by having them watch a film of other people. And some people like the Department of Labor in the State of Maine, they were going to institute a fragrance-free policy 10, 15 years ago.
They were using a short DVD I had. I’ve got 15-minute ones there that can be played online for free. They used that to educate employees because that’s the main exposure you’re going to get, from the people around you. Even if you have succeeded in getting your own office and could have an air filter or something’s there, you do have a certain risk of people coming in to your office to bring your reports or something. And sometimes you can ask for people to do that at a distance or something.
But still that becomes complicated. It’s really good if you can just get people on board doing it. But as I say, I’ve seen people be a little too confrontational about the way they approach it and they got their own employees mad, which meant that their employees wore extra perfumes, whatever their way to be mean. You can’t underestimate that. One of the cases in my book, Amputated Lives, I talked about a woman who was a nurse in the state nursing home for veterans in Vermont. It turned out she and several other employees became sick – the nurses became sick from cleaning products, fragrances. They became very sensitive to fragrances, period.
They actually found out through e-mails that some of their [inaudible 00:42:22] employees had tried to organize a special day when everyone would wear as much perfume as they could stand to try and make these people sick. They would just spray it in their bathroom these people used at the top of the stairway.
This woman had a terrible asthma attack that night and it happened to be the night her mother was dying in the nursing home. Her husband wanted this nurse to go the emergency room because her breathing was so awful and she went to the nursing home to be with her dying mother. So that’s an extreme case, but it is an example. Even though those people had not been confrontational, but [inaudible 00:43:00] employees got very angry about it. So you want to be a little careful. You don’t make enemies in the workplace.
Yes, you can try and control your own if you have a separate office and having an office with a window that can open, that can be useful. Air filters can be useful. And sometimes employers will actually pay for that. So it is a challenge. And as you say, occasionally, people can manage to work at home. With all of the change now toward teleworking, I think it’s a little easier for people.
DEBRA: I think so too.
ALISON JOHNSON: Especially in [inaudible 00:43:44] government, you can probably get permission to do that. I think as far as setting up your own businesses, you got the ground floor. I think I run into various MCS people that think, “I’ll set up a business doing non-toxic hand lotions and this and that.”
Part of the situation now too is now that the world is going mainstream with some of these ideas, there are excellent big companies making very good products. People are no longer are going to be looking for mom & pop operations manufacturing something in their kitchens. They’re going to go, “I can buy my hand soap from [inaudible 00:44:26] because I can trust them and I buy their toothpaste, et cetera.”
And I think in general, there are not a lot of possibilities for working out of your home. I did, I was lucky. I taught violin and piano in my home and did freelance editing for University presses. I was also raising my children and also, I could avoid exposure. But a lot of people will find it difficult I think to work out of their home, but it’s worth thinking about.
DEBRA: I think it’s worth thinking about. Another successful thing that I did, and this wasn’t in the workplace but just being a person out in the world. I spent seven years being really chemically sensitive. And I just couldn’t be around fragrances at all without having to worry about reactions.
Yet, I was young. This was when I was in my 20s, my mid-20s and single and dating. And so I would meet men who they’re wearing aftershave and they’d wash their clothes in scented detergent and all those stuff. And I had this thing where I would just say to them, “This is what’s going on. I’d love to go on a date with you but I can’t get within 20 feet of you if you’re scented.”
And I had this little write-up that I had one piece of paper that said, “Here are some unscented products that you can use and if you’d like to go out on a date with me, this is what I need.” And if somebody wasn’t willing to do that then I didn’t want to date them anyway.
But I had men do that because they would say, “Well, this makes sense to me.” And in fact, when I finally got married, my husband, he wasn’t chemically sensitive but he totally loved it that I wanted to live without chemicals.
That made so much sense for him and then he helped me do all those things. He helped me remodel my house in a non-toxic way and all those kinds of things. And so I think my philosophy in my work has always been not to ask people to do something, not to ask my readers or the world to do something, where I’m taking something away, but rather to say, here’s a toxic thing and here’s the non-toxic thing.
And I think that people are a lot more receptive when you’re needing to approach them one on one to not ask them to stop doing something they’re doing, but ask them to replace what they’re doing with something that’s healthier.
ALISON JOHNSON: Yes. I think absolutely. And sometimes you can even offer to pay for the new product. Tons of people do that. Now, I’m very healthy and I move out totally all around the real world. I travel and go to conferences.
DEBRA: I do too. You sound very healthy.
ALISON JOHNSON: Yes.
DEBRA: And I don’t want to interrupt you, but I just want to say to everybody who is chemically sensitive who’s listening, here are two people who recovered enough to be able to have normal lives. And I’m assuming that you lived in a pretty non-toxic home, but you go out in the world.
ALISON JOHNSON: Yes, absolutely. This last home I’m in, I built it without any particle board. There’s not a bed of particle board in my house and it’s all pre-finished hardwood floors or in rugs.
There’s nothing toxic in the house. I have a whole house water filter. But because of that my house is better than almost everybody around. People would say, “Aren’t you going to get a flu shot?” I say, “I never get the flu. Why would I need to get a flu shot?”
DEBRA: Me too! I don’t take those either.
ALISON JOHNSON: And I can walk more. I’m just way healthier than any of my friends. I can hardly remember a time when I said I couldn’t do something because I was sick.
DEBRA: Yes. Now see, I want everybody to hear her say this because I think a lot of times people with MCS think that it can’t be recovered from. And yet, here are two vibrant women who have come through to the other side of MCS by living without toxic chemicals, which is the way everybody should live.
Everybody would be healthier. It’s not limited to people with MCS.
ALISON JOHNSON: Yes. And just as a parenthesis, I have so much energy now that in the last five years, I’ve published biographies [inaudible 00:49:10], the writer, Henry James, and just this week, I’m finishing a documentary about Wallace Stevens that’s going to be very important.
It’s the first one in 26 years. I’ve been working eight hours a day, if not more, on this, for the last seven months. Even though I’m 75, I’m still working and at the top of my band despite that latent chemical sensitivity.
We have it very well under control now. I don’t go out and think, “Oh, this horrible fragrance here.” You don’t run into it as much anymore. I still would avoid being next to anyone with heavy fragrance.
DEBRA: I need to interrupt you because we only have 10 seconds left and I want to thank you so much for being on this show. This has been Alison Johnson.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com to find out more about the show and more about Alison. Be well.
Saatva Mattress
Question from Jamie Smith
Hi Debra,
I am looking for an organic mattress. I have never heard of this brand but it claims to be organic. From what you know, does this seem legit?
Thank you so much for all you do!!
http://www.saatvamattress.com/saatva-mattress.html
Debra’s Answer
There is a very specific definition of organic mattress. The only mattresses I know of that qualifies for this definition—established by the Organic Trade Association and the Global Organic Textile Standard—is Naturepedic. They now make adult mattresses as well as crib mattresses.
Saatva is not an organic mattress.
The cover is made from organic cotton.
The foam is “bio-based”. My understanding of bio-based is that it is basically polyurethane foam with a little vegetable oil added. It still would be flammable and require some kind of fire retardant, which is not mentioned.
The coils are made from recycled steel. That doesn’t make it organic, and all steel coils are now made from recycled steel. Virtually all steel in every consumer product is now is made with some, if not all, recycled content.
See Debra’s List: Beds & Bedding for more mattress choices.
Car Seat Cushions Toxic Free
Question from Beth Kant
Hi Debra,
Cannot find car seat cushions to sit on that are organic and toxic free any help finding or making what materials to use. Help.
Debra’s Answer
Well, I found one online pretty easily: 100% Natural Latex Seat cushion with Organic Cotton Covering
But that was the only one I could find.
If you don’t want latex…If I were going to make one I would get a sleep pillow filled with something I like (I like wool, but kapok or other fillings are fine), fold it in half and put it in a pillow case. Wrap the pillow case around and pin it if needed with safety pins. That’s actually what I did to make a seat cushion for my desk chair and it works great.
Experiences with LED Lighting Ballasts and Sound
Question from Angelique
Hi Debra,
Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with LED lighting ballasts and sounds? We are remodeling our kitchen and replacing the old fluorescent lighting ballasts. We thought of switching to LED lighting. My husband brought home an LED shop light ballast to try. The amount of light is fine, but when he turns it on, I feel like someone is stabbing me in the ear, as well as head pressure. I cannot HEAR anything; I don’t hear any buzzing or high-pitched whine. (And I head high-pitched whines ALL the time.) But I must be picking up SOMETHING. Any insights?
Debra’s Answer
Readers?
Home Security Systems
Question from TA
Hi Debra,
Hi Debra, I’m wondering if you have any advice about home security. I’ve wanted to avoid the wireless systems (though we do have wireless internet which I turn off at night, though I’d like an alternative to the wireless during the day as well). There are security cameras that are DIY installations, but those are typically wireless also, I think. And security systems that use the phone lines aren’t recommended, since the phone lines can be cut.
I recently saw a recommendation for this company which provides home security systems that use a cellular signal, and I’m wondering if this would be a reasonably safe option. I think the important questions to ask the company would be whether there is any constant transmission, or whether it transmits only in case of emergency (when the alarm is set off and notifies the security company and police, etc). It seems to me that could be reasonable, since we do have cell phones but I don’t wear it on my body or keep it beside my bed, etc. Here is the company site: http://smiththompson.com/how-it-works/
(It states “wireless” – but my understanding is that this cellular signal is a different type of monitoring than other wireless systems.)
Do you have any thoughts about what they are saying? Any suggestions for questions I should ask about this (or any other) security system? Any other alternatives for home security?
Debra’s Answer
I am not an EMF expert, but am posting this so anyone who does have a good answer can reply.
Thanks.
Organic Cotton Plus
Organic cotton fabrics, without dyes, natural color, or dyed with low-impact dyes. Knits, terry, twills, wide sheeting, plaid flannels, embroidered, and more. Prints from Harmony Art and others. Also organic cotton batting, yarns, lace, ribbons, thread and other notions. PLUS hemp fabrics, cord, yarn, thread and other hemp basics. Special page shows items Made in USA. They are a “fully GOTS certified business from our mill in India all the way through packing and shipping at our website, the only such certified company in the USA…The 100% organic cotton fabrics that we carry which are GOTS certified as finished goods are the Undyed Wovens, Undyed Knits, the dyed interlock in the following colors: Black, White, Pink, Light Blue, Lavender, Lime Green, Grey Stripe, Grey Melange, Pink Stripe, Baby Blue, Banana, Butterscotch, Dark Blue, Orchid Purple, and Plum, the dyed Jersey and Fleece in the following colors: Black, White, Pink, LIght Blue, Lavender, and Navy. The dyed Twill and Duck fabrics, all of the Daisy Janie fabrics, and some of the printed Muslin fabrics are also GOTS certified. All other 100% organic cotton fabrics that we carry have been made with GOTS certified organic cotton fiber but are not certified as finished goods. These are still 100% organic cotton fabrics regardless though.” Many of the fabrics are labeled GOTS-certified and come up when you search on GOTS with their search box. If you have any questions about which fabrics are GOTS finished goods, call them up and they will be happy to clarify.
Aloe Cadabra
The USA’s first FDA-cleared organic vaginal lubricant and daily moisturizer. Made from 95% organic aloe vera and organic essential oils plus other natural ingredients. Preservatives approved by Whole Foods Market for use in personal care products.
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Listen to my interview with Rinaldo S. Brutoco, Founder and Chairman for Seven Oaks Ranch. |
Sage Canyon Botanicals
Bath and body and other assorted products made with your choice of ten signature aromatherapy scents. “We formulate our products exclusively with premium botanical ingredients from responsibly harvested renewable sources, so they benefit both you and the Earth. These proven botanicals connect us directly to the wisdom and power of nature. Abundantly nurturing and grounding, they keep us in tune with the natural world, providing a comforting link to a less mechanized past.”
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Listen to my interview with Claudia Cusani, Founder of Sage Canyon Botanicals. |
Just So Natural Products
Features “products, recipes and tutorials, all designed to help you live a bit closer to nature.” Just simple basic personal care products. A lot of good DIY formulas for body and home care needs. Products contain fragrant essential oils.
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Listen to my interview with Andrea Fabry, toxic free blogger and owner of Just So Natural Products. |
Pest Control Naturally
This is my local “eco-friendly, safe, natural, and nontoxic” full-service pest control company, but I’m sharing it with you because they have a lot of good information on how to control household pests yourself, and well-chosen safe pest control products. Look under “Tips & Tricks” and “Store” in the main menu.
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Listen to my interview with Michael Piacenza, Owner, Certified Operator and K9 Handler of Advantage Pest Control |
Thrive Market
3000+ healthy, natural products, always 35-50% off, delivered free to your door. 15% off your first order. You can search by a variety of different choices such as manufacturer, special diets, made by hand, sourced direct from farmers, certified organic etc. It’s all packaged products you would find at any natural food store, they just cost less. Also personal care products and household cleaners, remedies and supplements. You have to register to look at the site (but it’s free), then with your first purchase you start a free 30-day trial membership. See how much you save, cancel at any time. At the end of the 30 days, it’s $59.95 to shop at Thrive Market for a year, but the idea is you should save much more than that. “We’ve curated the Thrive Market catalog to include each of the top products from hundreds of the leading natural products brands across categories like cooking ingredients, healthy snacks, nutritional supplements, natural home goods, and bath & beauty…What you will find: over 2,500 of the most popular natural products from the very best brands – brands that exude the values of health, sustainability, and premium quality.
Shepherd’s Dream
This company is about wool–sleeping on it and under it, cuddling with it, and loving the wool and the sheep and the land. Founder Eliana Jantz has been working with wool as long as I’ve been writing about natural products and her daughter, Sarah now owns the company. Eliana led the development of Eco Wool, “a collaboration which involves the sheep growers, wool processors, product makers and promoters in gradually developing an infrastructure which ensures environmentally friendly and sustainable practices and fair prices to the woolgrower.” All within a few hundred miles distance, the sheep are pastured, the wool is milled, and the products are sewn by local women in a renovated storefront, all in site of majestic Mt. Shasta in northern California. Outfit your entire bed with their unique heirloom quality wool mattresses (all-wool, latex/wool, and innerspring/wool), wool mattress topper, comforter, and pillows and you won’t need to count sheep to get a good night’s sleep anymore
! They also offer solid wood bed frames, an array of organic cotton sheeting and accessories for your natural bedroom. Shepherd’s Dream recently has expanded and now has a showroom in Ashland, Oregon. They love visitors and offer excellent customer service. Be sure to tell them “Debra sent me.”
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Listen to my interview with Shepherd’s Dream Owner Sarah Sunshine Smith. |
DIY Natural Bedding
“We are a bedding parts supplier. We are here to enable you to make your own chemical free, natural bedding, be it pillows, mattresses, blankets, comforters, etc.” Because they are a parts supplier and not a mattress manufacturer, you make your own mattress with the materials you choose. It’s as simple as opening a big zippered bag, filling it with materials, and zipping it up. Or you can make your own completely from scratch with very natural materials in hard to find sizes. Componentsinclude wool from local farms, 100% natural latex, and GOTS certified organic fabric. She also offers sewing patterns for those who would like to save even more by sewing their own mattress ticking, and custom fire-retardant-free latex cuts for any DIY furniture project.
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Listen to my interview with Deborah Brenton, owner of DIY Natural Bedding. |
Open Your Eyes Bedding
This innovative website sells a unique method of making mattresses, pillows, chairs and whatever you want by filling tubular organic cotton pouches or pods with certified organic buckwheat hulls. Very inexpensive and something you can do yourself.
60 Minutes Finds Formaldehyde in Lumber Liquidators’ Laminate Flooring
I’ve been writing about not using laminate flooring for years. Now 60 Minutes has verified that laminate flooring contains amounts of toxic formaldehyde that may not meet health and safety standards.
Watch 60 minutes video and read transcript
New Studies Show Water Fluoridation Associated with Hypothyroidism
A new study from England found that locations with fluoridated water supplies were more than 30 percent more likely to have high levels of hypothyroidism, compared to areas with low levels of thyroid in the water.
The Chicago Tribune quoted an American endocrinologist with this warning:
“Clinicians in the United States should emphasize to patients this association and should test patients for underactive thyroid,” said Dr. Spyros Mezitis, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
“Patients should probably be advised to drink less fluoridated water and consume less fluoridated products, including (fluoridated) toothpaste,” added Mezitis, who was not involved in the study.
This is a new study, but old news. I wrote about fluoride and thyroid just about a year ago. If you think that fluoride is affecting your thyroid, here’s what you can do to detox fluoride from your thyroid gland: Thyroid Problems? Detox Fluoride & Bromine
Dr Anne Steinemann Finds More Hidden Hazards in Green, All-Natural, Nontoxic, and Organic Products
Press Release
A University of Melbourne researcher has found that common consumer products, including those marketed as ‘green’, ‘all-natural’, ‘non-toxic’, and ‘organic’, emit a range of compounds that could harm human health and air quality. But most of these ingredients are not disclosed to the public.
Dr. Anne Steinemann, Professor of Civil Engineering, and the Chair of Sustainable Cities, from the Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Melbourne School of Engineering, is a world expert on environmental pollutants, air quality, and health effects.
Professor Steinemann investigated and compared volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from 37 different products, such as air fresheners, cleaning products, laundry supplies, and personal care products, including those with certifications and claims of ‘green’ and ‘organic’. Both fragranced and fragrance-free products were tested.
The study, published in the journal Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health found 156 different VOCs emitted from the 37 products, with an average of 15 VOCs per product. Of these 156 VOCs, 42 are classified as toxic or hazardous under US federal laws, and each product emitted at least one of these chemicals.
Findings revealed that emissions of carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants from ‘green’ fragranced products were not significantly different from regular fragranced products.
In total, over 550 volatile ingredients were emitted from these products, but fewer than three percent were disclosed on any product label or material safety data sheet (MSDS).
“The paradox is that most of our exposure to air pollutants occurs indoors and a primary source is consumer products. But the public lacks full and accurate information on the ingredients in these products. Our indoor air environments are essentially unregulated and unmonitored,” Professor Steinemann said.
The most common chemicals in fragranced products were terpenes, which were not in fragrance-free versions. Terpenes readily react with ozone in the air to generate a range of additional pollutants, such as formaldehyde and ultrafine particles.
At this time, consumer products sold in Australia, the US and around the world are not required to list all ingredients, or any ingredients in a chemical mixture called ‘fragrance’.
“Given the lack of information, consumers may choose products with claims such as green, natural, or organic, but those claims are largely untested,” Professor Steinemann said.
Professor Steinemann will continue to investigate how and why we’re exposed to pollutants and ways to reduce risks and improve health.
Additional Information:
- Products selected are commonly used in Australia, the US, and other countries in a range of environments (e.g., homes, schools, hospitals, workplaces, hotels, restaurants, stores, residential buildings, parks, child care and aged care facilities, gyms, homeless shelters, government buildings, airports, planes and public transport).
- Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) headspace analysis was used to identify VOCs emitted from 37 products, representing air fresheners and deodorizers (sprays, gels, solids, oils, and disks), laundry products (detergents, dryer sheets, and fabric softeners), cleaning supplies (all-purpose cleaners, window and surface cleaners, disinfectants, and dishwashing liquids), and personal care products (soaps, hand sanitisers, sunscreens, lotions, baby lotions, deodorants, shampoos, and baby shampoo).
- Ingredients in consumer products and in fragrance formulations, are exempt from full disclosure to the public.
- For laundry products, cleaning supplies, and air fresheners, labels do not need to list all ingredients, or the presence of a fragrance in the product.
- For personal care products and cosmetics, labels need to list ingredients, except the general term “fragrance” or “parfum” may be used instead of listing the individual ingredients in the fragrance.
- For all products, material safety data sheets do not need to list all ingredients.
- Fragrance ingredients are exempt from full disclosure in any product, not only in Australia and the US but also internationally.
The full article is available, free of charge, on Professor Steinemann’s website (under Recent Publications, “Volatile Emissions from Common Consumer Products”): http://people.eng.unimelb.edu.au/asteinemann/
Glyphosate Found in USDA Certified Organic Foods
Press Release
Tropical Traditions
Brian Shilhavy, CEO of Tropical Traditions, sent a letter this week to Tropical Traditions customers explaining why the company has had so many of its products out of stock or back ordered at the beginning of 2015.
Tropical Traditions found out in late 2014 that much of the USDA certified organic wheat supply in North America was contaminated with residues of the herbicide glyphosate. Tropical Traditions has been in the process of testing all of its products for the presence of glyphosate since that discovery. The products that have been tested for glyphosate and found to be clean are all listed on the Healthy Traditions website now.
Besides organic wheat and other organic grains that were tested positive for glyphosate and removed from the Tropical Traditions product line, they also tested and found glyphosate present in organic flax seeds, organic hemp, and organic freeze-dried strawberries. Products containing those ingredients are no longer available on the Tropical Traditions websites.
Shilhavy explained why the process of determining which products are contaminated with glyphosate and which ones are clean is not a simple process:
It might seem that it is a simple procedure for us to simply test all of our products for the presence of glyphosate, and know right away which products we can continue selling, and which ones we cannot. Unfortunately, it is not so simple. We have to carefully consider how the product is produced or grown, and how likely a sample taken from a certain batch is to represent all products grown or produced by that supplier.
If a product comes from a large company or supplier, just testing what we have in our inventory at any given time is no guarantee that this product will always test clean. This is especially true if the supplier is sourcing the product from many sources or many farms, and mixing it all together before packaging into retail sizes. Therefore, we need our suppliers to work with us in ensuring each sample that is tested is truly representative of a batch that can be traced directly back to the producer, ensuring that these producers are consistently producing and harvesting products that are testing clean from glyphosate.
Some of our suppliers have expressed a willingness to work with us on this issue, some have not. Hence, we will be dropping some of our product lines because we cannot be reasonably sure that we are selling you products that are not contaminated with glyphosate, and we would rather sell no products at all than sell products that are contaminated, no matter how small that contamination may be.
Tropical Traditions to Phase Out USDA Organic Certification on its Products and Switch to “Healthy Traditions”
Tropical Traditions also announced that it will phase out the USDA certified organic certification on its privately labeled products by the end of 2015. In its place, they will be using the “Healthy Traditions” approval seals on their products, which currently includes: Traditionally Produced, GMO-tested, and Glyphosate-tested.
The Healthy Traditions standards are explained on the Healthy Traditions website:
The purpose of Healthy Traditions is to define the standards of healthy food and products we use when producing or choosing products to sell in our network. These are not new standards for us, but the same standards we have followed since 2002, when we first started shipping virgin coconut oil to the U.S. from the Philippines. Today’s certifications and labeling have become so watered-down and confusing, that we thought it was time to define our own standards, so that the consumer can better understand the commitment we have to high standards that promote a healthy lifestyle.
The goal of the Healthy Traditions project is to eventually develop a nationwide network of producers and suppliers that meet a higher standard than current USDA organic standards, which currently allow for glyphosate and other pesticide residues to be present. Healthy Traditions maintains a ZERO percentage tolerance for the presence of glyphosate, GMOs, and other herbicides and pesticides.
Tropical Traditions asked its customers to be patient as they go through the testing process to determine which products are at risk for glyphosate contamination, and which products are clean. They hope that consumers will appreciate the extra work they are putting in to develop their glyphosate-tested and GMO-tested programs. They are believed to be the only company currently testing products for the presence of glyphosate.
Their goal is that consumer demand for glyphosate-tested products will grow and encourage other companies and producers in North America to start testing their products for glyphosate as well.
Read this article and comment at HealthyTraditions.com.
Brian Shilhavy is the CEO of Tropical Traditions and the Editor of Health Impact News.
Best Bottled Sparkling Water
Question from Adriana
Hi Debra,
I would like to know if you have any information on bottled sparkling water brands and which ones are the best ones to drink.
Debra’s Answer
I haven’t ever investigated bottle sparkling waters or still waters. I don’t often drink them.
I looked online for some ratings, but they didn’t rate what I think needs to be looked at.
There are a few major problems with bottled water.
First is the bottle itself, which can leach plastic into the water. Sparkling waters are usually bottled in glass so that isn’t a problem for your question.
Then there is the source of the water. Many bottled sparkling waters come from underground sources, which sounds pure, but they may be contaminated with unknown pollutants.
And finally, bottled waters are not “natural”—they are processed in a processing plant as they are bottled, so it’s not like drinking water from a natural spring./p>
It’s better to drink sparkling water than a soda.
But best is to filter your own water at home, which is why I use and recommend Pure Effect Advanced Water Filters.
Finding Organic Foods at Affordable Prices
Question from MaryLou Flake
Hi Debra,
I just want to thank you for sharing, I too have gout and fibromyalgia and arthritis they are coming onto thinking it rheumatoid. I am worried the next thing they will be saying is MS. I am trying to use diet to reduce inflammation and head off some of these symptoms and episodes. My husband receives our only income from disability due to seizures and back injury and it is imperative I stay within a food budget. Could you perhaps address the issue of finding organic foods at affordable cost? Thank You for sharing your journey with us.
Debra’s Answer
I’m going to give you a whole spectrum of answer, starting with the easiest and ending with what costs the least money.
First, if what you are looking for are organic packaged foods, then try Trader Joes. They don’t sell online but they are opening stores all over the country now. When I lived in California (where the chain started), they were always the hottest store. Everyone loves Trader Joe’s. They have a lot of fresh and frozen prepared entrees and packaged foods and packaged ingredients, some fresh ingredients, too. A lot of what they sell is organic. But the great thing that everyone loves is the prices are very low compared to natural food stores. I used to shop there a lot when I lived in California, now my closest Trader Joe’s is about 15 miles away. It’s the kind of store people drive to once a month if it’s not near by, and stock up.
Online Thrive Market has 3000+ healthy, natural products, always 35-50% off, delivered free to your door. You get 15% off your first order. You cans search by a variety of different choices such as manufacturer, special diets, made by hand, sourced direct from farmers, certified organic etc. It’s all packaged products you would find at any natural food store, they just cost less. Also personal care products and household cleaners, remedies and supplements. You have to register to look at the site (but it’s free), then with your first purchase you start a fress 30-day trial membership. See how much you save, cancel at any time. At the end of the 30 days, it’s $59.95 to shop at Thrive Market for a year, but the idea is you should save much more than that.
I don’t shop at either of those places because I don’t buy much packaged food.
You can immediately cut your food bill when you buy only fresh ingredients and prepare them yourself at home. Even if you shopped at Whole Foods (the most expensive place to buy organic food) you would still reduce your food bill by purchasing only fresh ingredients. And you will be eating the highest quality food. I just continue to be amazed at the ingredients in packeged foods sold at natural food stores. Even some packaged foods that have basic organic ingredients then have processed salt and flavoring ingredients to make them edible. It’s much better to learn how to cook.
Now once you are in the zone of preparing food yourself from fresh ingredients, here are some options.
Look for a local, independent natural food store. Their prices are often less than Whole Foods.
Shop at your local farmer’s market. Very good prices on local organic food and you can meet the farmers.
Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, where you buy a share in a farm and then get a weekly share of the harvest. These farms often let you work at the farm too and participate in harvesting and sorting and delivering the harvest. You get a variety of foods and learn new foods you might not know, but come to love. I loved my year eating out of my CSA basket when I lived in California. I wish there was one here where I live in Florida.
Grow your own. Seeds cost only pennies and gardening is great exercise. Nothing tastes better than food foraged straight from your own garden.
Toxic Chemicals and Autistic Children
Today my guest is Kim Spencer, Co-Founder and Vice President of Public Relations at The Thinking Moms’ Revolution. We’ll be talking about how mercury in vaccines and other toxic chemicals can contribute to autism and what she did to reverse his autism. Kim is a graduate of The University of Georgia and worked in Television, Telecommunications and Public Relations before her first child was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 1/2. After researching his condition, she discovered his autism symptoms stemmed from autoimmune issues exacerbated by his childhood vaccines. Through treatment for vaccine injury, mercury toxicity and PANDAS, his condition has dramatically improved and he is fully included in 8th grade. Since his diagnosis, Kim has been an advocate and activist in the autism community. She has spoken at the CDC, appeared in many media stories, worked as a patient coordinator and autism advocate at her son’s pediatrician’s office. The Thinking Moms’ Revolution began when a group of twenty-three moms (and one awesome dad) from around the world got together online to figure out how to help their children with developmental disabilities. Suspecting that some of the main causes might be overused medicines, vaccinations, environmental toxins, and processed foods, they began a mission to help reverse the effects. And now they are a thriving organization offering much-needed information to parents. http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Toxic Chemicals and Autistic Children
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Kim Spencer
Date of Broadcast: February 26, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
It’s Thursday, February 26, 2015. We have a topic today that we haven’t talked about before on this show, which is toxic chemicals and how they affect autistic children or maybe cause autism. Anyway, there is a connection between these two.
This is something that I’ve been hearing about for many years. But I haven’t really done the research about connecting them and have all the data to be able to talk to you about it or write about it.
Today, my guest is the Co-Founder and Vice President of Public Relations for an organization called Thinking Moms’ Revolution. This is a group of people who got together because their children were autistic and they wanted to figure out what was causing it and what they could do to improve their children.
So she’s going to talk to us today about her experience helping her son improve from being autistic by, among other things, removing toxic chemicals from his life. Her name is Kim Spencer.
Hi, Kim.
KIM SPENCER: Debra, how are you?
DEBRA: I’m good. How are you?
KIM SPENCER: I’m great. Thank you for having me.
DEBRA: Thank you for being here. Let’s just start with your story. What happened? How did you find out that your son was autistic? And tell us about the beginning of Thinking Moms’ Revolution.
KIM SPENCER: Well, my son is now 14. He is now in eighth grade class.
When he was born (first child, first grandchild), he had a pretty normal toddlerhood, but there were some things that just increasingly got concerning – not concerning enough because we just didn’t know what we were seeing until he was about two and a half. He was not putting words together. He had a lot of tantrums and some diarrhea. He filled diapers 14 times a day, just some odd things that just were not right.
No one pointed it out to me until we saw a friend at the pool. She saw one of his tantrums where he could wiggle himself out of my arms. He basically sent me to the chiropractor in no time at two years old. She said at two years, a child should put two words together. At three, he should put three words together. She had been a speech therapist in a former life before she was a mommy.
At that point, I thought that’s just a basic rule. At this point, I now know my 18 month old daughter has spoken a paragraph. So that was a very, very conservative way to look for children with issues.
So I went by my pediatrician’s suggestion to ask another professional speech therapist, one that was working. And within 15 minutes, she said that my son had PDD, which is pervasive developmental disorder,
It didn’t take me long before I got the computer (because I had no idea what she was talking about) to look that up and realize that it’s just another name for autism. At that point, that was just terrifying to me. All I knew was the movie Rain Man. That was all I knew.
Over time, I just really started delving in to what was out there on the computer to see what people were doing about this and what was going on here and what this was all about.
DEBRA: Let me interrupt you for a minute. So could you just explain to us what exactly autism is? I think that a lot of people have heard the word, but don’t really know what it is physically.
KIM SPENCER: Yeah. Technically and what the mainstream medical world would say, it’s a check list of behaviors. If you have certain number, say 6 out of 12 of these behaviors, you can qualify for a diagnosis of autism.It would be communication issues, speech issues, those kinds of things, behavioral and just not connecting with the world.
Over my years of experience with my own son and grandson, it’s really more of a medical diagnosis from what we are finding and what is helping our children. Behavioral therapists and therapies can go so far. But when medical issues are addressed, our children get miles and miles better.
For example, my son improves incredibly on just taking away certain foods, wheat and berry, out of his diet, he looked at me like he’s never seen me before about three days off of those foods. Later on in his life, we’ve discovered that pathogens were really an issue. His immune system was really just a mess. His body wasn’t handling pathogens like the typical child would.
For example, he would have these incredibly high numbers of strep in his blood, but not have a sore throat or a fever or a rash on his torso. He started biting himself and being aggressive and resistant. That was a sign that he had stress.
Many other children have displayed issues with yeast and with parasites, bacteria and viruses that lie latent in the body and cause a lot of trouble. So what we found is that a medical approach to what they call today as autism is often times a whole lot more successful than a psychological approach.
DEBRA: Yes, I would agree. Not having any experience with it, I would still agree.
So you got this organization started, Thinking Moms’ Revolution. How did that start? How did you get involved with that? Tell us about the history of that, what you’ve done and when it started.
KIM SPENCER: In the beginning of this, I found an underground of mommies and parents fighting this issue because we get very little help from mainstream and politically. We would connect through Yahoo! Groups. As technology advanced, we eventually found Facebook.
It was really easy just to find these other mothers that were networking with each other, sharing stories of what was working for their kids, sharing stories of what kind of testing and doctors there are out there that actually really truly know how to help and comparing some therapies, all those kinds of things – how to feed your kids when you know you can’t give them wheat and berry and oxalates anymore.
So eventually, through a couple of years of just networking on Facebook, a bunch of moms that I knew were all starting with a new practitioner. We all decided to make a little group to compare. That’s about him. We got to be really good friends. We started to really be just as much as of a social group and a group of sisters than we were mommies to these autistic kids. It was just an extra added layer of amazing friendship.
We all actually met in real life, a lot of us – not everyone, but a lot of us met in real life in an autism conference called Autism One that’s held every year in Chicago.
We all got ourselves there. While we were sitting around one night, one of our more industrious mommies decided that we should all write a chapter and put our stories in a book.
We decided on a deadline. Everybody that had their chapter in at the certain date, they were in. Everybody else, for privacy reasons or time reasons or just taking care of their children just bowed out. Twenty-four of us kind of filled up and shipped out from this little situation. We put our stories together in a book. And Skyhorse Publishing published our book last year.
Since then, we immediately discovered pretty quickly (like overnight) a blog and a Facebook page and a non-profit. All these things that we’ve done since then were going to help us get the message out, 0that there’s help and healing and hope for our kids. Even if your pediatrician or your speech therapists don’t know where that is, we can help you find that.
So it’s just gone from there. Our book is going to come out in paperback pretty soon. We’re planning a couple of other books.
We’re raising money for grants for families to use doctors that they might not otherwise be able to afford and buy things that they need for their kids that are very expensive like the monthly supplements or food or whatever it is they need. And we’re going from there. That’s a whirlwind.
DEBRA: That’s really wonderful. I totally understand. I totally understand and I’m very happy that you’re doing this because it’s a difficult thing and it’s strange. If you don’t know what’s happening, it’s so nice to have other people around that do know what’s happening and can be there to help.
We need to go to break, but we’ll be right back and talk more about this. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Today, my guest is Kim Spencer. She’s the Co-Founder and Vice President of Public Relations for the Thinking Moms’ Revolution. That’s ThinkingMomsRevolution.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kim Spencer, Co-Founder and Vice President of Public Relations at The Thinking Moms’ Revolution. Their website is ThinkingMomsRevolution.com.
So Kim, you’ve indicated already that there are a number of different environmental factors that can contribute to children being autistic. On this show, we’re particularly interested in the toxic chemicals aspect. Can you fill us in about that?
KIM SPENCER: Absolutely. So there’s so much that play here. We could just talk for hours, Debra.
The amount of scientific information that we found over the years of research and for me, the last 10 years is just there, being about how genes and environment are combining to really make a mess of America’s children. We really like to throw it out there. The Thinking Mom’s Revolution just want to make everybody stop in their tracks and think about this, that 54% of American children have a chronic illness. Why is that?
Some people like the claim that we’re looking and paying for the studies that we’re looking for genes and genes have to be at play here. So there’s got to be something that can be found that will just stop and change the world in that department.
So the argument again of that is that – I mean there’s no such thing as a genetic epidemic. What we’re dealing with here is this 54% of American children with chronic illness and 1 in 68, which is a low estimate for children with autism, 1 in 39 boys. It’s estimated to even increase to one in two about 2025 if we continue on this trajectory.
So if we can say no way can this just be a purely genetic issue, then of course the environmental trigger has to be there somewhere. But you look around and you think, “Oh, my gosh! What have we done?”
I remember in the early years of trying to get my son better, I swear I could just sit down and just write pages and pages and pages of things that could be concerning to his health and that can be contributing to making his “autism” worse.
So everything from toxic baby bottles to disposable diapers to chemicals in baby mattresses to what was in his formula – thank you very much, but aluminum. I breast fed for eight months, but when I switched server, there it was. What was in my body and my breast milk? Well, moms across America and other groups have discovered that tons of RoundUp is in our breast milk. So then you start talking about the foods and the GMOs and the pesticides and glyphosate, RoundUp and how that could be affecting our children.
And then on top of that, going back to genetic thing, we’re discovering that a lot of our kids, mommies and daddies too, have one genetic mutation, the MTHFR genes. It prohibits a good [inaudible 00:16:57] from being a good detoxer.
All these things are coming from new building materials, emissions from cars, your laundry detergent, your fabric softener, the fire retardant in our beddings and clothes. It’s just all over the place in our house. When all these things go in – and then we’ll add vaccines into that – when all these things go in, how do they get out? And the kids are not detoxing very well.
It becomes a very overwhelming situation, “How do I get my kids to detox better? How do I get the stress out of them? How do I protect them from all this stuff in my home without completely going broke and living in a bubble,” what do you do?
I did work from our pediatrician for about three years. I did a lot of intake on these autism advocates. I did a lot of intake from these families with children with these kinds of issues. I saw a lot of autoimmune diseases and bipolarity actually in the family histories. So that’s a part of it too, just in the family.
Here it comes with the genes again that your family is chronic non-detoxers. How does this play out in the body? Does it show up as autism? Does it show up as lupus? Does it show as bipolar disorder?
DEBRA: I want to ask you about something for a second, hold on. So you’re talking about the children and the families not being good detoxers. Can you give us more information about that, about bodies not detoxing well?
KIM SPENCER: Yes. That’s interesting. After 10 years, I finally started barking at this tree of these genes. There’s a company called 23andMe.com. You send them a little saliva and they send you back with a whole bunch of raw data. The FDA does not allow them anymore to interpret the results to you yet, but there are some websites out there that will interpret for you.
What’s showing up in so many of our family is this non-detoxing gene. Again, it’s MTHFR. It just is this thing sticking out there that’s just saying, “Okay, if you have a problem with this gene that’s mutated, then you are not going to detox, as well as the next person.”
For example, I’ll use my family as an example. When I worked at the doctor’s office, it just became quite clear that there are so many stories of families like mine. My mother has lupus. Her father had a mysterious disorder, lots of eczema, he had a glass eye, he became an alcoholic, was in pain a lot. Now, we look back on it, it makes sense that he probably had lupus too.
My husband’s mother developed epilepsy at age 30. And over the years from the drugs that she’s taken from that, she has also developed lupus. My husband’s father, his parents would take him to the beach when he was a kid in Florida from Illinois just to put him in the saltwater for the eczema all over his body.
My husband and I, weirdly enough, were the healthiest people in our whole, entire family. So we just didn’t really expect any cases. We just didn’t expect to have a child with any of these issues. It didn’t even cross our minds.
My sister has asthma and eczema. She was in the hospital for a week after the MMR. These things just pop up all over our family. This is just the common things that I’ve heard from the doctor’s office.
If we look into everybody’s genetic history, we could probably find this issue with this one gene having mutated with them too. But as we were saying, how does that play out in each individual’s body?
And in Thinking Moms’, on our blog, we started a blog series about this called Red Flag, what are some things that you need to look at in a family history or in a baby before you keep going on with vaccinating and even your typical everyday products from the grocery store for cleaning and et cetera?
DEBRA: We need to go to break. It’s very interesting, very interesting. We’re going to go to break and we’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kim Spencer from Thinking Moms’ Revolution. That’s ThinkingMomsRevolution.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kim Spencer from The Thinking Moms’ Revolution. The website is ThinkingMomsRevolution.com. They have so much information on their website. They have a great blog. They actually put conferences too, online conferences. Actually, the way I found out about them is they contacted me to come speak at their upcoming conference.
Kim, do you want to tell us about that? I don’t think it’s on the website yet.
KIM SPENCER: Absolutely! We’re announcing any minute now. So everybody can just keep an eye on our blog.
In the last year, we have started doing these online conferences. As much as we love to go to conferences and see each other, it is a real huge strain on families with specials needs for children – financially and to find care for your kids. I mean, the plane tickets are just way too much. So we decided, with the wonder of the Internet, why not put them online?
So we have one coming up that’s called Your Life Detoxified. It is going to be really exciting. We’re so excited. We’re going to have a lot of people from different states and professions talking about how to detox by your home, how to detoxify your body and what different methods there are out there and different things you can try and learn about.
When we go live, with the link to register, we’ll have all our speakers in there. At this point, we’re still juggling that out all around. But just so everybody knows, this is March 27th. It will go on all day. You can watch it live. We give lots of things away and have lots of stories and have all kinds of fun stuff like that if you watch it live.
Also if you sign up at $40, you can watch at any time over the next year on your own time. You can just download it and watch it at your leisure. So that also helps. Instead of being tied to your computer all in one day, you can watch it when you can.
We also have, at this point, conferences on foods where to talk to Stephanie Seneff for example, the MIT researcher who was doing so much about autism and RoundUp and glyphosate. We’ve done energy medicine conference. We’ve done a homeopathy conference. We’re just getting the ball rolling, getting really a good amount of experience under our belts and how to pull this off without a hitch.
It’s been really exciting. We’ve been really excited with the turn-out and with how everything is gone and how easy it is to present all this information to families on the comfort of their homes. So yeah, we’re excited.
DEBRA: I’ll have that information on my website as well. It will especially be on the page for this show at ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com.
KIM SPENCER: Great!
DEBRA: So let’s talk about what you’ve done, what are your successful actions that you’ve done and how they’ve helped your son and some other stories about children being helped by making these changes.
KIM SPENCER: Was it diet change or just health in general?
DEBRA: Diet changes, but also particularly, what are some things that you…
KIM SPENCER: Detox?
DEBRA: With detoxing, things you remove from your home, what kinds of detox methods have you used on his body, things like that? How have you changed the whole scene for him?
KIM SPENCER: Absolutely, yeah. Cleaning up the diet is monstrously huge, even bigger than I realized in the beginning when I removed wheat and berry out of Patrick’s diet.
I wasn’t even getting the whole big picture that everything needed to be really clean and pristine and as local and fresh and organic and as often as I could possibly make it. It’s such a big job, just the food aspect of this.
And there are so many different diets and so many different categories of foods that can cause behaviors in autistic children. Not just taking away wheat and berry, but we talk about the sugar. We talk about the oxalates. We talk about salicylates. We talk about so many different categories of foods that can be a problem.
So that’s just all one big thing on its own. And then on top of that, you’re trying to feed the rest of your family and feed yourself. It isn’t easy, but it’s easier than it was 10 years ago to go to a grocery store and find the ingredients you need for stuff like this.
And then on top of that…
DEBRA: Well, tell me what – I’m on a pretty similar diet, but for different reasons. Over the years, I’ve been looking at diet for a long time. I keep eliminating things and eliminating things. Basically what does your son eat?
KIM SPENCER: What are some – I’m sorry.
DEBRA: What are some of the foods that he eats? What is he eating today?
KIM SPENCER: Oh, the foods he can eat. Back in the day, we were milling our own flour from the organic rice, tapioca, beans. We would mill the flour and make our own waffles and hide stuff in it like green powders or mashed up fruits and that kind of thing so that he couldn’t see anything in there.
We do eat meat, but we keep it local and grass-fed and all of that. Even with chicken, you need meat that’s vegetarian-fed. That’s also misleading. Of course, that means they’re eating corn, which could be GMO and could be crap. So we’re watching out for that.
We’re watching out for the sea foods. We live on the coast. So we’re making sure that we know the source from the area.
We also are participating in local farm bag program where they drop off local and organic stuff every week. And then the farmer’s market, we’re getting to know the owners of the health food stores. We’re just really networking within the community.
There are so many people here really trying getting at what you’re getting at and often times, for different reasons like what you’re saying.
I’m sure diet has been important for my health too because of inflammation and different kinds of stress issues and pain. I feel a pain in my wrist, it happens immediately, just the craziest things. So we all need to be paying attention to this stuff.
On top of the food, Patrick was also mercury-poisoned. Three of his vaccines had 25 micrograms of mercury in it. When we did a heavy metal test on him, we discovered that the mercury level was really high. We detoxed him through IV chelation through his pediatrician.
Also at the same time, we were treating him for mercury poisoning, we were also spending many hours in the hyperbaric chamber for oxygen flooding in the body, which in our scientific looking it up and everything, the idea behind it was to pull out some metals and then flood the body with oxygen to clean up the mess that was left behind. Even if the metals are gone, there’s still a lot of dysfunction in the body.
As time went on, we realized like we talked about before that Patrick had a huge problem with strep. So again, his immune system and his environment were preventing him from handling pathogens as it should. So we started working on the PANDAS is what it’s called, Pediatric Autoimmune Neurodegenerative Autoimmune Stress. PANDAS is the acronym.
DEBRA: We need to go to break, but you can continue when we get back.
KIM SPENCER: Okay.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kim Spencer from the Thinking Moms’ Revolution. They’re at ThinkingMomsRevolution.com. There’s lots of information there at the website about natural things that you can do to help your child if they’re autistic.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Kim Spencer from the Thinking Moms’ Revolution, ThinkingMomsRevolution.com.
Kim, right before the break, you were talking about PANDAS. Tell us more about what that is.
KIM SPENCER: He has autoimmune issue. And the pathogen that’s in the body, they pick it up at school, they got it in vaccines, they got it from whoever (a recently vaccinated person). It goes into the body. And what we’re finding is that their bodies are not going to handle it like another person.
So as we were talking about before with the strep with my son, we’ve had this problem with clostridia before. Other people have this issue with any kind of virus, parasites, whatever. Pathogens are just wreaking havoc. You don’t really know they are there. Antibiotics aren’t really killing them, but they’re just chasing them back into the body.
And so what happened with my son is just this reoccurrence of incredibly high strep in his blood. We chased it back with antibiotics, and then it would come back. When it would come back, my sweet child would turn into an arm-biting, frame-breaking, hole in the wall maniac who would not sit down and do anything he was asked to do including homework or getting dressed or anything. It was just amazing night and day, Jekyll and Hyde situation.
We finally addressed it with homeopathy. We haven’t had [inaudible 00:40:26] in about five years, which has been great.
But we saw it so much at the pediatrician’s office that I was working at. When this started happening with my son, we keep hearing more and more proof of these kids with autism coming in all of a sudden with the sudden onset of really, really extreme, aggressive and resistant behaviors.
We just started saying, “Okay. Let’s just test them all for strep.” And there it was! The normal range would be within 100 to 200 and these kids would have these numbers of 700, 800, 900 of strep in their blood.
So at that point, I was working for a pediatrician, we were addressing it with antibiotics, but it was amazing how fast the symptoms would subside when the strep was chased back into the body.
It takes a lot of work and a lot of assistance to the immune system. A lot of different things can be tried to try to resolve this issue. It is definitely an autoimmune reaction to a pathogen.
Some doctors now are calling it PANS, Pediatric Autoimmune Neurodegenerative Syndrome. They’ve taken out the word strep because other pathogens really could be doing this just as usually as strep even if strep seems to be the most common at this point.
So anyway, it’s an interesting little side angle again to what’s going on with our kids. You’re looking at your food and you’re looking at your household toxins, you’re looking at these pathogens that could be an issue, you’re talking about your lack of detox ability from your genetic history. I mean, it just goes on and on with the things that we can talk about when it comes to what’s going on with our kids’ health today.
And I feel like I’ve been talking really fast. There’s a lot of this information out there. I’m really fast and being way too overwhelming for anyone who’s new to hearing this. So I apologize. But there’s just so much to it.
I’ve just seen so many…
DEBRA: There’s so much to it.
KIM SPENCER: … with so many kids in different ways.
There’s just no one – I wish there was one protocol. I wish there was one doctor that was getting it right 100% of the time. I wish essential oils would just fix it all, but it’s just not happening that way.
DEBRA: Well, we live in a world where there are so many exposures. I’ve been doing this, writing and researching about toxic chemicals for more than 30 years. I started because I got sick. What I really found was that it all comes down to the toxic chemical exposures that we have. Even though there are then other things that trigger symptoms, if we were just to rip out the toxic chemicals out of society and so we were not exposed to them any longer, a whole bunch of health problems would go away, just everything.
When I wrote my last book, I researched everything anew. And there are so much more information now than there has ever been. You can now associate every single health problem with exposure to toxic chemicals.
I know it’s a bold statement, but it’s true. It’s just true. You really can’t treat any illness or gain health without addressing the toxic chemicals. You just can’t. I wish that everybody would know this. I really applaud your organization for making it known in the realm of autism.
So we have about five minutes left. Now that you’ve given us a whole lot information really fast, why don’t you say something really slow for our listeners what you’d like them to take away from all of this that you’ve said?
I’ve just been scribbling notes here. I do make transcripts. So next week, we’re going to have a transcript. People who are interested can read about this more slowly. But what would you like them to know about toxic chemicals and autism?
KIM SPENCER: You made an excellent point when you’re talking about your own personal history. As I’ve gone through this in the autism community, I do have to say that there has been people like you that knew that they were sick and started looking for answers for themselves and really started seeing that it is in the environment, it’s in your grocery store and it is at the fast food places and there’s something you can do about it that’s really, really a lot of work and a lot of searching and digging for yourself.
But you guys are the ones that don’t have a dog in the fight, as we like to say, that don’t have the kids and have discovered this for yourself, but it’s the same across the board as it is for your health, as it is for my son that you guys are becoming our best and most amazing allies because first of all, you have a platform. Second of all, you’ve seen it in your own bodies, you’ve experienced it with your own health. What we’re doing with our kids is what you’ve done for yourself. You don’t have a dog in the fight that’s keeping you from 24/7 being able to spread the message and say, “I know how this feels. I know what these people are going through.”
For us in the autism mommy and parent community, that’s really amazing that people like you are joining us saying, “Uh-oh, we’ve been seeing this for years.” I mean, this is like the worst case scenario of what we’re talking about here just as if I was that toxic and I brought myself back, but I wasn’t and have autism. I did not stop from connecting to the world.
I mean, it might hurt, couldn’t figure it out and all that kind of stuff, but our kids in this generation is what’s really showing us that you were right and it’s only gotten worse. We need to buckle down and really, really start paying attention to this. It’s only getting worse, Debra. It’s really sad right now.
DEBRA: I totally agree with you. When I was a child, which is a long time ago. When I was a child, nobody even said the word autism. And we didn’t have all these commercials on televisions about kids with cancer. The amount of the condition of our physical health has gone down dramatically in my lifetime. And we, as individuals, need to do more than ever to make ourselves well.
You can’t take a drug for this. You can’t take a pill for it. It does nothing because if toxic chemicals are poisoning you on a continuous basis, 24 hours a day and you don’t do something about it, they’ll just continue to poison you.
KIM SPENCER: Yes. The drugs are the toxins themselves, exactly.
DEBRA: Yes. So it’s so important to be talking about these things. I really see – the thing that’s interesting to me is that it doesn’t matter what the illness is, but the causes are the same across the boards. And the solutions are the same.
KIM SPENCER: Yes. I agree with you 100%. Yeah. I mean a lot of times we don’t even need – like I’ll have friends that call me or acquaintances that approach us at Thinking Moms’ and say, “I need a diagnosis… where should I take my child? I think he has autism. I need this on a piece of paper.”
I just say to myself, “Why? Why do you need it?” You know what’s going on with your child. You see it with your eyes every day. Why do you need a label when you know what you need to do? You need to go home and really look at what you’re feeding, what you’re buying, what you’re putting into that kid’s body and find doctors that know what to do regardless of the title if it’s ADD or autism or this Oppositional Defiant Disorder, a new diagnosis.
It doesn’t matter. Your kid is toxic. You can do something about it without a psychologist writing on a piece of paper what the name of it is.
DEBRA: Yeah, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right.
Well, we only just have about a minute left. Let’s give your website again, ThinkingMomsRevolution.com. Do you want to just say something about what people can find there?
KIM SPENCER: Absolutely. So you can find our book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. We will be hosting a lounge at Autism One in Chicago on Memorial Day weekend.
We are also around the country, hosting showings of Trace Amounts, which is a documentary about mercury and medicine. We are putting out a survival guide pretty soon and a grandparents’ book, a group of grandparent stories.
We’d love to have everyone join us on our Detoxifying Conference on March 27th. The details of that will be on our website at ThinkingMomsRevolution.com very soon.
And we have a lot of stuff on Facebook, although we’re thinking about migrating over to a new more private platform called [inaudible 00:49:46].
So look for us in all those places. We’re everywhere. We want to be everywhere and we want to help.
DEBRA: Great. Thank you so much, Kim. Again, it’s ThinkingMomsRevolution.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well!
Different Types of Detox
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be talking about why it’s so important to detox your body and three different types of detox: liquid zeolite, homeopathic remedies, and sauna. Each method of detox works in different ways in your body and removes different substances, so it’s important to choose the right one. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
- Vaccines: Harmful or Necessary?
- Evaluating A Study and Testing a Test
- Seven Deadly Drugs
- The Hidden Dangers Affecting Your Heart and How You Can Protect It Naturally
- What We Can Do About Cancer
- The Power of pH
- How to Protect Your Health From Toxic Mercury Dental Fillings
- Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
- Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
- How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing With Supplements
- How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use—And How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and into Health
- How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
- Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
- See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
- Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
- Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
- Natural Alternatives to Sleeping Pills
- Natural Back Pain Treatment Options That Work
- How Toxics Age Your Body & What You Can Do to Stay Young
- You CAN Lose Weight—Even if You’ve Had Difficulty Losing Weight Before
- Calcium—Is There Really a Deficiency in America?
- It’s Cold and Flu Season—How to Support Your Immune System and Why You Shouldn’t Get a Toxic Flu Shot
- How Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help Your Cells Create Health
- Toxic Psychiatry and How to Have Mental Health Without Drugs
- Why You Should Take Fish Oil and How To Choose the Right One for You
- Medicinal Plants Can Replace Toxic Drugs
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Different Types of Detox
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld
Date of Broadcast: February 25, 2015
DEBRA: Hi. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic word and live toxic-free.
It is Wednesday, February 25, 2015. Today, we’re going to be talking about detox. We talk about detox a lot, but this whole show is going to be about different ways that you can detox your body.
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist. She prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances, instead of prescription drugs.
She and I both have a lot of experience with detox, but from different viewpoints. So we’re each going to talk about things that we’ve done and things that we recommend so that you can see the variety of options that you have and see that it’s not just a single detox.
You might want to do different kinds of detox. You want to do a specific kind of detox to remove what you need to remove from your body or you might want to be supporting your detox organs.
There are a lot of things that we can do to help your body, help get those toxic chemicals out of your body. That’s the subject of today’s show.
Hi, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Hey, it’s great to be here.
DEBRA: Thank you. It’s great to have you again.
Now, Pamela has so much great information to share with us that I have her on every other Wednesday. Today is Wednesday, so her next show would be two weeks from now.
You can also go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and take a look at her past shows. She has just so much information about drugs and their health effects and what you can do instead of taking drugs so that your body can be healthy, instead of just doing something about your symptoms.
So Pamela, let’s start off. I know that you do things to detox. Why don’t you give us a little overview?
First of all, out of all the possible subjects in the world, how did you come across the idea of detoxing for health? How do you incorporate that in your daily life?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. That’s a really good question. So detox, there can be two ways of looking at it.
A lot of people that are working in health food stores or in the natural nutrition, they use detox products that they think are going to help them. The majority of the products that you’re going to find are going to contain anthraquinone glycosides, which are cascara, senna, rhubarb. These things act as laxatives. They’re habit-forming.
I want people just to – before we even start defining detox in my own personal views about a lot of that, that’s not necessarily detox. If you’re in the bathroom pooping a lot, that’s not great. People come here to meet me and they’re like, “I want to detox.” If I start describing these things that they’re looking for, I’m like, “That’s not really detox, but that’s a bowel cleanse.” That’s something completely different because sometimes, people are not moving their bowels regularly or whatever the circumstances may be.
So it’s important to realize that when we’re talking about detox today, we’re not going to be talking about necessarily going to the bathroom and pooping a lot, and I’m going to give you a bunch of laxatives. That’s not what detox really is.
DEBRA: Yeah. That’s not what we’re going to talk about. We’re not going to talk about…
PAMELA SEEFELD: And I want people to know that because the people who are listening to the show are going to be like, “Oh, okay. I’m going to the bathroom.” That’s not really what it is about.
What we’re looking for in the personal and physical level in the body is that we know that the body, because of the fat soluble pesticides and chemicals that we consume, our subcutaneous fat and the fats around our organs, but most specifically a problematic is the subcutaneous fat (the fat right underneath your skin), this fat is a depot storage location for pesticides, heavy metals. Especially, we’re worried about fat soluble chemicals.
These people that actually spray lawns and things like, people that use RoundUp, people walking by the golf course, you take a walk with your dog at night, buying non-organic produce and not washing it properly, all these things – and even people that are really so contained in their diet, they still get exposed to things just environmentally.
DEBRA: Just environmentally, that’s right.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly.
DEBRA: I am probably living in the most nontoxic house in the world and I have for years. But as soon as you walk outside your perfect house, you’re going to be exposed to things.
So I do things to detox because living in today’s world, you cannot avoid chemicals and have a normal life. You just cannot avoid them 100%.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You go to a grocery store, you go shopping. They spray these places. That’s why you don’t see any bugs.
You have to think about it in a logical sense. It’s not like we have to be scared of this. We have to be embracing it. We have to understand it and move forward.
What I look at it is there are several pinnacles of detox and how to have them. We can just describe each one in great detail.
But what we want to do is we want to use something as a facilitator or some supplement. We want to use some kind of activity, whether it would be exercise or even if it’s doing house work, but ideally something that you’re working up a little bit of a sweat. And then we want to look at maybe even incorporating saunas. I’m a big advocate of that.
So there are different ways you can do that. These things can all work together or they can work singly on their own.
So for me, what I tend to do everyday is I do the Body Anew, which is a homeopathic detox that’s not laxative.
DEBRA: We’ll talk more about that later. You can give lots of details later. But just give an overview now.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. So let’s talk a little bit about these different things that we can do. And let’s just talk from the very beginning what we are looking at as far as chemicals.
There are water soluble and fat soluble chemicals. Water soluble chemicals will go out in the urine and they won’t be hanging around.
The fat soluble chemicals are the ones that cause cancer, the ones that turn on genes that cause dementia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, things that we do not want. We now know that the pesticides that are fat soluble are very damaging to the pancreas and might lead to type 2 diabetes.
So all of these things incorporated, looking at our body, we need to pull out these fat soluble chemicals. The body is very inefficient at removing them.
DEBRA: That’s right.
PAMELA SEEFELD: So that’s really the way we need to look at it. You need to tell people that it’s not about, “Okay. I want you to be in the bathroom. I want you to be sweating in the sun all day.”
It’s about knowing that these chemicals and your chemical load as you get older and you keep storing more and more of these chemicals in your subcutaneous fat, you have a greater risk of cancer. That’s why you see a higher propensity of cancers in older people because they stored.
DEBRA: There’s a word for this. The Centers for Disease Control calls this body burden. They actually measure it. There are reports.
You can go to Centers for Disease Control website. In fact, I’ll put the link to this on the page for this show. You can go and see what they tested, the chemicals that they found in people’s body.
The only way to get that out – I used to think that if I just avoided toxic chemicals that my body would then not have so much overload and it would work better and it would get rid of the overload. But it’s just too much especially if you’ve been exposed for many, many years throughout your lifetime.
You do have this build-up in your body. It needs to be removed in order for you to be healthy. It’s just the reality of today’s world.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly. We know that removing these things and measuring body burden is really important. It’s a good point that you brought up.
Our bodies will not take the stuff out by itself. The net amount that goes when it’s presented – let me explain this.
When it’s first presented to the liver, it’s a fat soluble chemical. Some of it does get bio-transformed. It’s called glucuronidation and conjugation. And the body takes these functional groups. That’s what the liver does.
And the enzymes add carbohydrates or a CH3 group onto this chemical. It basically mixes the water soluble. It changes it and it goes up in the urine. That’s what the liver does. That’s its process.
So let’s say there’s a net amount of 20%. Just to take a figure of one particular chemical, chemical A because each one is different. And 20% of it has a residual amount left in the body.
Once it’s passed to the liver, the body has to do something with it. So what it does is it stores it in the fat. That’s what the problem is, that 20% that didn’t get metabolized and didn’t leave. That’s where the real issues are facing people.
I tell people when I see them – they have cancer and they come to me. I’m like, “Look. We need to get the chemicals out that caused the cancer in the first place.” That’s really what it’s all about. You need to go back to the very beginning.
Those things are still around. That’s really scary for people that have had cancer.
DEBRA: I totally agree with you. It’s just logical to me that if you put things in your body that cause cancer and you have them build up, then eventually that’s what is going to happen. If you remove those things from your body, then there isn’t something there that will cause cancer.
If cancer is a concern, detox is a big deal about ways to prevent that. But just for anybody, if you just want to be healthy. Everybody needs to this. I mean we’re just too overloaded. If you want to be healthy, you need to detox.
So we need to go to break. When we come back, we’re going to talk about specific kinds of detox and about our detox systems because I want everybody to understand that our bodies do have a detoxification system. It’s at work 24 hours a day.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants instead of drugs.
There’s so much to talk about on this subject. Before we get into it, I want you all to know that you can call Pamela and she will help you choose the right products for you. She’s very happy to give you phone consultation for free.
You can call about yourself, your family and your pets. She helps people get off prescription drugs. She helps people choose natural solutions to best treat whatever is going on with their body.
Pamela. So why don’t you give your phone number?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. You can reach me at my pharmacy. It’s (727) 442-4955. That’s (727) 442-4955.
I would be greatly honored to help you and your family with any questions you might have, detox or otherwise. I handle all medical issues.
DEBRA: She’s really good, very well regarded in my community. She helps me a lot.
Before we actually start talking about the detoxing that we’re talking about today, would you just explain simply how our detox system works in our body?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay, good. So basically, the detox system in your body – there are several ways that things leave the body.
When you breathe things out, when you breathe out carbon dioxide, you might also breathe out chemicals as well.
A good example of that is when someone is intoxicated. They’d smell like alcohol in their breath. Actually, it doesn’t happen until about the second drink because of the fact that – it’s the metabolism.
Once it starts kicking over, it ends metabolism in the liver, and then you start breathing it out. I’m just trying to give people some ideas. So some things can come out volatilized in the breath.
Other things come out in the skin, especially heavy metals. That’s why saunas can be very important for that.
And other things that we’re really talking about and focusing on today, the fat soluble chemicals, the ones that we’re really concerned about because of all the disease-causing properties that they have. Those typically will be ingested either we know it or we don’t.
When they go into the stomach and they’re maybe down the food, then they get – immediately, the body takes this. When it goes through the blood stream and it gets absorbed, it gets to the liver.
Things go to the liver. And the liver is basically in our body to protect us against being stupid and ingesting poison. I just want to think about it that way. That’s what we really started doing this for.
When we were cavemen, we were eating things we shouldn’t eat. And the liver would take these poisons and change them and make them water soluble, and it leaves the body. That’s how the liver evolved.
So it’s a cleansing mechanism. And the liver is highly vascularized. It has a lot of blood vessels. You think about it. When you buy calf liver in the grocery store, it’s just all bloody.
So the liver contains the cytochrome P450. These enzymes are highly specialized. These enzymes are very, very smart. There are several different varieties of them. Actually drug metabolism, I specialize in that. I can tell you which drug is metabolizing, which enzyme.
But we’re talking about fat soluble chemicals. They come to the liver and the liver is like, “I got to do something with this.”
Remember we were talking about that net amount that might not be metabolized?
DEBRA: Yes.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Not all of it is going to be metabolized for each particular pesticide, chemical. In the general term, they call it xenobiotics, these general things, these chemicals we’re not supposed to be ingesting, but we do.
And some of it gets changed to water soluble chemicals. It goes out in our urine. We never even think twice about it. The rest of it goes and the body stores it in the fat. That’s what really happens. That’s what the problem is.
People are always concerned about the fish and the salmon and the tuna that they have mercury. You know what? They’re storing it because they’re big fish. They can hold these things for a long time. And they’re stored in the fat.
So it’s the same thing with us. We’re not much different than the fish.
DEBRA: And people are concerned about eating fish that have these pollutants in them. But our bodies have these pollutants in them.
PAMELA SEEFELD: We do the same thing. We store it. It’s the same thing.
DEBRA: Yeah. So one of the things that I think is really important is that people try to lose weight. When they start losing weight, it melts the fat. It puts these toxic chemicals right back in their body.
Instead of storing, they’re now running around in the blood stream.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That is very true. I’ll tell you something.
This transient and very significant increase in fat soluble chemicals launching into the blood stream, I have seen this for people who have lost great amounts of weight with very strict diet. Then they have a breast cancer diagnosis.
I’m not saying there’s a correlation. I’m saying it’s highly suspect. I told different weight loss doctors here in the area that I meet at various charity events and so forth, that you’re doing a disfavor to your client.
I understand. I’m okay with people losing a lot of weight. This is a person decision of theirs. I’m okay with that. But they need to be on a detox mechanism along with that so that they don’t get diagnosed for cancer.
DEBRA: Absolutely.
PAMELA SEEFELD: It’s really, really shameful to give people crash diets and then not tell them about the chemical situations that can arise from all of these being dumped into the bloodstream.
The liver can’t handle it. It eventually has a chance to go turn on genes that cause cancer. It’s a really, really dangerous situation.
DEBRA: It is. And it’s not spoken about enough within the weight loss industry and community. It’s a very dangerous thing.
Also, there’s the kidney as part of our detox system too.
PAMELA SEEFELD: The kidneys are really to flush out things. Let me explain something interesting about the kidneys.
The kidneys are most efficient while you’re sleeping. The reason why you – this is really important for you to be able to understand just the physiology of the body. When you sleep and you lay down, your kidneys are cleaning out all the debris from the daytime that it hasn’t already taken care of.
Your center of gravity changes. A lot of the fluids in your body, they have a tendency to go towards the kidneys. This is the dynamics of a person.
So the water with all the solutes and these things that are dissolved in there goes to the kidneys. That’s why a lot of times people have to keep getting up and going to the bathroom at night.
You feel like when you first get up in the morning, you’ll have to go to potty. The reason why that is – maybe sometimes, people in the middle of the night have to go to the restroom – is because all the water in your body pretty much is going to the center of gravity, which is your kidney, your back. So that’s your lowest point.
So this is a way of removing things out. But the kidneys will not be removing out fat soluble chemicals. They will only be removing out water soluble chemicals. The water soluble ones really don’t have propensity to cause cancer and some of the dangerous things that we were describing.
The kidneys are a good mechanism to get rid of these things, but I really want to focus on these fat soluble chemicals too and also the GI tract, removing these things out that are causative agents.
So this is why I really think – and this is my personal opinion, but I really think just from a physiology standpoint, people should embrace this.
I have done detox probably 15 years straight. I don’t take any time off a bit. I took maybe – about two years ago, I took a few days off because I thought maybe I’d give myself a break. I shouldn’t be doing it consistently. I was really tired. I worked 12 hours a day.
I could tell the difference in my normal body habit. So then I decided that this is just a long-term solution. This is what I’m going to do first thing in the morning.
DEBRA: Yes. We’re going to find out what Pamela does.
I’ve said this before when I’ve been interviewing her, but Pamela is the healthiest looking person I’ve ever met. She just glows with health. This is what you get after 15 years of detox.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist who dispenses plants rather than drugs.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs.
Pamela, give us your phone number again. Remember listeners that you can call Pamela. She’s very happy to talk to you and help you figure out which are the right natural substances to take for your particular physical condition regardless of what it is.
Pamela, what’s your number?
PAMELA SEEFELD: My phone number here is (727) 442-4955. Like I said previously, I would really be honored and happy to help you and your family if you had any questions about what supplements you’re currently taking or if you would like to transition off of any of your prescriptions so I can give you guidance in those directions.
DEBRA: Thank you. Before Pamela tells us about her detox, I’m going to just talk about for a minute about what I do to detox.
As I said earlier, I spent many years thinking that my body would just do it by itself if I reduce my toxic chemical exposure. But then a few years ago, my nutritionist gave me – many of you who listen all the time know that I say this all the time.
My nutritionist gave me liquid zeolite. When I first started taking that, it made a difference for me in the first week.
The first e-mail that I got from one of my readers about using this product was when she got it and she gave it to her father who was bedridden. Then all of a sudden, after about five days, he got up and out of bed, walked out into the kitchen and announced to everybody that he was going to the donut store.
This is bedridden father. He got out of bed and went for a walk to the donut store. And I thought, “Well, that’s just about what my experience is.”
The one thing that people say – they write to me and after about a week, they say, “I feel so euphoric.” They all use that word. I understand because I now call this zeolite euphoria.
I think that what is happening is it specifically works to remove heavy metals first and radiation. These are things that all of us have in our bodies. It’s very effective with that.
So it just goes into your body as a little particle, zeolite, as a natural mineral. You can take it in drops or in a spray. It goes in your body, and it just starts collecting these heavy metals and radiation.
After about a week, it’s removed enough that you just feel like something has lifted off of your body. That’s where I think this euphoria comes from.
Now of course, you don’t feel euphoric all the time. I’ve been taking it for three years or something like that.
But I just take it everyday because everyday, I’m going out in the world and breathing car exhaust and being exposed to radiation and all of these things that you can’t avoid when you leave your house. I just know that I’m protected. I’m going to take it for the rest of my life.
I also take other things. We’re going to be talking about saunas. I’ve done saunas. But everyday, I take a homeopathic remedy that Pamela takes everyday. She gave it to me. It’s called Body Anew.
So tell us about Body Anew because I don’t necessarily see the same. I don’t feel better in the same way that I felt when I started taking zeolite. But I know that it’s working to strengthen my body. I think it makes a big difference for me.
So tell us about how that works.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. So the Body Anew – and that’s the best support that I’ve been using for about 15 years. It has three bottles.
One bottle works on the GI tract. It’s not laxative, so you’re not in the bathroom. It does work on the GI tract. One works on the lymph gland, which is a 40% increase in the lymphatic drainage. And the other one works on the liver. It regulates the glucuronidation and conjugation, the things that I was describing earlier as far as how it works in the liver.
So these three bottles, you just drop – the prescription amount or the dose – the effective amount is 30 drops of each bottle. But I don’t start people with that. In fact, my daily maintenance dose is 10. We would want to start people with 10 drops of each bottle and then work up to 30 within a week or two.
If someone has cancer or you want to treat something that’s a severe illness, then we definitely want to start them up at a higher dose right away pretty much. But the average person, they start with 10.
What I like about it is – I was talking about the dynamics of the kidney when we get up in the morning. You have to think about it. In the morning, we’re starting fresh. The kidneys have done their assignments for the evening.
What I do every morning, my personal regiment that I really enjoy – the first thing I have when I get up in the morning is I squeeze a fresh lime. And I put it in water and drink it. I think that it just alkalinizes the body. If you try doing that, it’s just very refreshing. You feel great.
Then I take the Body Anew. I put 10 drops of each bottle. I put it into a water bottle. I am a fan of doing an alkaline booster because that makes the detox work even better.
So the normal pH of your water is going to be between three and a half and seven and a half, 7.8 or something like that. That’s the Zephyrhills water, the tap water, these kinds of things. People have special bottled water. Maybe you have a special water filter. That’s the pH of most of those waters.
Even Kangen Water goes up to nine. Alkalife goes to 13. That’s the highest pH I found for any product. I’ve tried several different ones.
So doing these and sipping it while I work out – I mean I’m an exercise fanatic. I don’t expect that of everybody, but I do 30 miles everyday on a stationary bike.
DEBRA: Wow.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, 30 miles. It’s a little over an hour. It’s a long time. I guess that I’m a cardio junkie, but that’s okay. That’s okay, right?
DEBRA: That’s okay.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, I know. So that’s my routine. I’m not expecting you listeners to embrace that craziness, but it’s something that I really enjoy. It’s the highlight of my day.
And I do have a very large sauna at my house, the five-person sauna, but I only have it for myself. I’m lucky I’m all by myself. I don’t have anyone telling me where to spend my money.
It’s a big sauna. It’s very nice. I go in there probably two or three times a week. I heat up while I’m working out. But you don’t need to have all this fancy stuff. You can even be doing stuff while you’re on the yard or in the house.
Most of my patients, I have them drinking the Body Anew over a course of several hours a day. I only do it over an hour, but I’ve been doing it for long. That’s the reason why I really think that this is a very effective tool to removing the fat soluble chemicals that we’re talking about in the subcutaneous fat.
I also believe because of the fact that this localizes to the fat and takes these chemicals out, it kept my weight down significantly, regardless if I work out. This makes a big difference in people’s weight.
Most people I see who started that, they normally lose about 10 lbs. just from doing that. The chemicals are in the fat. If you’re going to pull chemicals out of the fat, you have to take the fat out.
So that’s what happens. It starts dumping fat. So, it’s very specific.
DEBRA: We were talking earlier about losing weight without doing a detox or detox products. So when you start losing weight, it’s starting to handle those chemicals that might be coming out with the fat. It’s a much safer way to do it.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct, if you start a new year’s resolution or you’re going to a doctor that’s giving you a specific diet, any of these times, if you’re losing weight, trying to lose weight. But even if you don’t want to lose weight, this will help significantly.
DEBRA: We need to go to break. This is Toxic Free Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld.
She’s a registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants instead of prescription drugs. She does have a website, BotanicalResource.com, which also has a phone number on it if you missed it. You can go to her website and get that information.
Give her a call because she can help you with whatever is going on with your body. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. We’re talking about detox.
So these hours go by so fast. Before we get to the end of this show, I want you to talk about saunas specifically. I know saunas have been used for a long time.
Tell us what specifically a sauna does, why you should use sauna for detox. And also, how do you choose a sauna if you want to be using sauna at home?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Okay. Those are excellent questions.
Why I like saunas? It’s because the chemicals, specifically heavy metals – chemicals can come out from the saunas. There are two mechanisms that the saunas work.
When you are in a sauna, your heart rate goes up because of the heat, because you’re sweating. It’s the diaphoresis. That mechanism takes fat soluble chemicals out of the subcutaneous fat and dumps them into the bloodstream. As a result of that, your metabolism goes up.
If you’re in a 130 degree sauna, 130 or 140 degrees, if you’re in it for an hour – I don’t recommend doing that if you’re not used to it. But you can burn up to 600 calories in an hour. You burn up a lot of calories. How are you burning up the calories? You’re dumping the fat. That’s what’s happening.
So if you spend a significant amount of time in saunas, your heart rate goes up quite a bit. That’s why it’s not good for someone that has hypertension. So saunas are excluding people with hypertension that’s not controlled.
That’s important to talk about right now. No one that has hypertension, that’s not taking the medicine and taking the homeopathic or something for it, has any business being along through time in a sauna. I think I should just warn people about that.
It’s a very good way to detoxify on that standpoint. Then also, the heavy metals are stored underneath the skin. We know that in saunas, they measure the sweat. And they do an HPLC analysis of what’s in the sweat of people in saunas. There are a lot of heavy metals that come out to the sweat.
So there are two mechanisms in the sauna. We have the mechanism of the heart rates being brought up. It’s like bringing up your metabolism. It’s like you’re going for a workout. Your heart rate is going up because you’re sweating. As an effect, you’re also getting rid of the heavy metals.
You’re actually detoxing on two levels. You’re detoxing the fat soluble chemicals and heavy metals out of the sweat. We know this to be true.
I’m a big fan of infrared saunas. I think that they have higher penetration deeper into the fat soluble tissue into the skin. They’re much easier to take care of.
I’m sure they still probably do sell the saunas where you have to use the rocks in mill water and that sort of thing. But I have an electric infrared sauna. It’s really nice because all you do is just turn it on.
It has a CD player and a radio in it. So it’s nice to just relax because you hear music. You just relax and then fall asleep for a little bit.
So it’s a very good thing to do. I think working out prior to getting into the sauna makes it even more advantageous to have this detox really be significant. That’s a big thing.
So you have a sauna. You preheat the sauna. You go in there, and you just lay in there.
It’s not the same as if you’ve already been working out and then you already got a sweat working up. When you do that, going after you’re sweating, it’s taking over from where you worked out. And you really mobilize a lot more chemical at that same time.
Also, we know that if you’re exercising first and then you go into the sauna, you get into what’s called demargination of the white blood cells. You get a transient increase in white blood cell activity, which imparts a significant increase in your immunity. So it’s a good way to boost up your immune system.
DEBRA: So if somebody couldn’t install a sauna and work out equipment and whatever in their homes for whatever reason, a lot of gyms have saunas.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Absolutely.
DEBRA: People go and get inexpensive gym membership, go do their work out and then go be in the sauna. That would be a good way to detox chemicals out of your body.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Absolutely. We look at affordable ways for people to do this. A lot of gym memberships, they have, “Join. The first month is free.”
I’ve had my sauna 10 years. It was just something I bought myself a long time ago for the birthday present to myself.
It’s just one of those things that I really had wanted and had saved up for a long time, and then I decided to get it. It’s crazy because really, it takes a big area of my house. It takes the whole room, almost of one bedroom.
When people come over, they don’t know what a sauna is. People come over and they’re like, “Is that a playhouse?” I go, “Really? I don’t have children. What do you think this is? It’s a sauna.” They’re looking at it, “What is a playhouse in the middle of the room like though?”
This is a sauna…
DEBRA: I was thinking I could put a sauna in my garage. I don’t actually have an empty room, but I have an empty garage.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You could put it there.
DEBRA: Yeah.
PAMELA SEEFELD: The small ones almost look like a coffin. They’re tiny, and you can sit in there. Those actually are pretty reasonably placed.
And I can tell people too that a lot of people think about exercise equipment and saunas as house things. Sometimes people buy these things, but they never use them. I’m sure that happens.
I’m not next to the situation. How many people buy exercise equipment in the beginning of the year and never ever use it? It’s the place…
DEBRA: Many, many, many, many.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I would say probably about 75%. That’s a reasonable estimate.
DEBRA: Yes.
PAMELA SEEFELD: You probably can find a sauna used on the internet that was probably never even sweated in, that someone bought and had the – They were trying to do it. They really wanted to do it, but they didn’t use it.
That would be my best bet instead of paying a lot of money for a brand new one.
DEBRA: What a good idea.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I’m telling you that there’s a lot of saunas. Sometimes, people are like, “I have a medical spa here.”
I talked to the people into the licensing for this. These people open these different establishments. And then they go out of business. They change their mind and they close up. And they buy all the stuff, and then they have to sell it.
So you can definitely find these things very inexpensively. Someone had purchased and their plans didn’t work out for the massage establishments or whatever it was. That’s where I would steer your clients.
If you do the Body Anew and even if you’re doing house work and sweating a little bit and then get into the sauna, you’re going to see significant effects in the way you feel.
And what I like too is for rheumatism, there is no better treatment than a sauna. Several of my clients are with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. When they’re in the heat, they feel tremendously better.
I know for myself just from being a hard runner for a long time and biking a lot, when you go to sauna, all of your muscle pain goes away and your bone pain. It’s very significant. The heat is very nourishing to the body.
DEBRA: Yeah, I love that heat. I just love it. I loved the other day.
It’s been pretty cold here as you know because you’re just right down the street from me. Just all of a sudden, the sun came out. I’m just feeling that warm sun on my body. It was just really nice. And I love sitting in the sauna and just getting warm all the way through my body.
PAMELA SEEFELD: When you think about it, it’s going very deep into the body. It’s really heating up the subcutaneous fat and allowing things to be released.
It’s very helpful for the body to facilitate these other products to use this in conjunction with the sauna. Big difference in how you feel. Big difference.
DEBRA: What about rebounders?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Pardon me?
DEBRA: Rebounders.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, rebounders. Yes, of course. Rebounder as exercise is excellent because you work all the muscles in the body because basically, you’re working your core too.
You’re jumping up and down. You have to maintain balance so you don’t fall off. So rebounders are excellent.
I’m a big fan of low impact rebounders or low impact because basically, I like a little trampoline. Stationary bikes and regular bikes are really good.
I used to run a lot. I am not a big advocate of time people to run so much. I mean I think running is really fun. I really do miss it, but my knees are starting to bother me. I really think that you want to preserve your knees and your hips for when you get older so that you’re not ending up with lots of disability and pain.
So low impact exercise is worth – also swimming is an excellent form of exercise. Maybe you will do the rebounder and then you go into sauna. But if you do that with the detox products at the same time, as far as your energy level and your mental clarity, there’s no comparison to not doing it that way. The Body Anew actually goes into the central nervous system. It goes into the brain.
So if there are heavy metals in the brain – you people have read about people eating too much tuna fish and then having memory problems and so forth. This goes into the central nervous system. You really want something that penetrates into the brain and cleans up the body.
I’m telling you that I probably sell 100 kits a month. I have these excellent, excellent results. So people come back and say, I’ve never felt better in my life.
So it relates in the detox part. You were discussing the same situation, the zeolite. You really want to be using some of these tools because they are available for you. They work very well, and they don’t have side effects. That’s what you really want.
DEBRA: That’s exactly right. They don’t have side effects. I know what the zeolite – I take the Body Anew. I’m not as familiar with it as Pamela is.
But with the zeolite, anybody can take it. Even newborn babies can take it. Pregnant women can take it. If you’re planning on being pregnant, you should detox your body first so that you are not subjecting your baby to all those toxic chemicals.
Older people can take it. Anybody with any kind of illness can take it. I mean there really aren’t any limitations. And it’s affordable. It’s something that just anybody could do. The Body Anew is affordable.
When I’m talking about expensive treatments here, we’re talking about things that anybody can do. It’s just drops. You just take them. They don’t taste like anything. You put it in in whatever you want to put it in that you’re drinking, and you just drink it. Then it does its thing as you go about your day with a little or no discomfort. I say it that way because I have no detox discomfort on zeolite or Body Anew.
Some people do have detox symptoms from taking too much or not drinking enough water, but you can detox completely comfortably. Everybody should just do it.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Absolutely. Let me say to you that the detox products are coming at the base of the pyramid. A lot of times, I add other things. There‘s something called Radiation Plus that removes that radiation.
I use a lot of DesBio. There’s a thing called Detox III that actually removes out plasticizers. So people are really worried. They have a history of breast cancer in the family and they want to remove plasticizers out of their body, their incidental plasticizers.
Maybe they’re doing everything correctly as far as avoiding warming up in plastic or drinking out of plastic, but you still get…
DEBRA: I have to interrupt you because we’re out of time.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Oh, no.
DEBRA: I’m going to come see you. Pamela and I are having lunch today.
So I’m going to see you soon. Thank you so much.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Make Your Own Mattress
Today my guest is Deborah Brenton, owner of DIY Natural Bedding. We’ll be talking about how you can make your own custom mattress with the materials she provides, and why you should. Deborah is a foodie, a forager, and strongly believes in living a natural life. In 2010 she began looking for mattresses for her children, but the only type available contained a whole host of chemicals. Her Do It Yourself attitude kicked in and she gathered resources to create her own mattresses from scratch. She soon realized that other people share her natural living convictions but lack resources in the bedding market. DIY Natural Bedding was started with this goal in mind: to provide affordable, natural and chemical free bedding products. Deborah now offers natural components that customers can use to build their own mattresses, toppers and pillows. Her products include wool from local farms, 100% natural latex, and GOTS certified organic fabric. She also offers sewing patterns for those who would like to save a dime by sewing their own mattress ticking and custom latex cuts for any DIY furniture project. www.diynaturalbedding.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Make Your Own Mattress
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Deborah Brenton
Date of Broadcast: February 24, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
It’s Tuesday, February 24th, 2015. It’s February 24th already. This year is just going by so fast. It’s just so fast.
Anyway, we’re going to talk about beds and mattresses in particular and how you can make your own. I know that seems like maybe an impossible idea, but mattresses are such – they’re so important because we spend a third of our lives lying on a mattress.
If you have a toxic mattress, you’re going to be exposed to all those toxic chemicals while you sleep every night. They can really affect your health. So many, many people have been realizing how toxic regular mattresses are and looking for natural mattresses.
So when I first was starting looking for a natural mattress 30 years ago, there was no such thing. There were futons, very thin little futons. I managed to find a used mattress that was made out of not all the toxic things, but not natural either. It was in the back of a mattress store. Somebody had brought it in as a trade. And I said, “I’ll take that one.”
But I’ll tell you when I first started considering that I needed to get rid of my toxic mattress, the first thing that I slept on was – I went and got a roll-away bed that had a little pot that has springs on it. And then I piled up cotton thermal blankets on top to make it a little softer.
I rolled up a cotton towel and put it in a pillow case, and that was my pillow because I was not going to sleep on my toxic mattress anymore. I couldn’t just go down to the store like you can today and buy a non-toxic mattress or a natural mattress.
So what we’re going to talk about today though is the fact that you can make your own mattress, how you can do that and where you can get materials.
I know that some people are very sensitive to various different materials. And it’s difficult even to get a natural mattress that some people can tolerate.
So there’s no reason why you can’t make your own mattress, why you can’t choose the materials that you want and either put it together yourself or have somebody make it for you. So this gives you the greatest freedom of choice in terms of have a mattress. You get complete control over it.
So my guest today is Deborah Brenton. She is the owner of DIY Natural Bedding. We’re going to find out how she came to come up with such ideas making your own mattress and having a business around it. She’s going to tell us all about it.
Hi, Deborah.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Hi.
DEBRA: I should call you Deborah to distinguish you from me who is Debra.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yes. And my middle name is Lynn as well.
DEBRA: Really?
DEBORAH BRENTON: So I grew up as a DLD as well. My maiden name was a D. So I resonate with those initials.
DEBRA: And I have a friend, a man who is a friend, his initials are DD also. So when we initial things back and forth to each other in e-mails, it’s always DD and DD.
Anyway, it’s good. So how did you get interested in the idea of making your own natural bed?
DEBORAH BRENTON: Sure. We started with our family and our kids. We had two young daughters at the time and said, “Well, we get a chance to buy a new mattress.” We want to move them up into a bunk bed and mattress-buying purchases don’t come around all that often, “so let’s do this right.”
We didn’t know what right meant at the time, but we started researching. And we started looking around and looking at why people chose organic mattresses because they didn’t want to have some of the flame retardants that companies put in commercial mattresses.
So as we were looking at organic mattresses, we realized they were completely out of our price range. As most young family starting out, it’s difficult to make the choices you really want.
So we said, “Well, I can make anything in the kitchen. Surely, I can try my hand in other areas of our home.” So we said, “Let’s make our own.”
And we found some. At the time, there were available cotton futon cases and some wool bedding and some natural latex. We put that together. It was very easy to put together, to just zip everything in there.
We said, “This idea is really good. Maybe other people need this idea. We can’t be the only people out there who want to make these natural choices, but can’t afford it. What if we could enable people to have these natural choices at wholesale rates or upholstery rates? To do-it-yourself could save them a dime or two.”
DEBRA: Right. I think it’s just wonderful that you’ve done this.
So how did you start – I’m always interested in the aspect of you doing something unusual as a business. How did you get going doing that?
I’m hoping that other people will take the initiative to start businesses that fill in the gaps of things that are needed and not yet on the market.
DEBORAH BRENTON: We started very small. We had just refinanced our house. So we started with the one mortgage payment that we didn’t have to pay. That funded the first purchase of six inches of natural latex.
We worked out of our home to invite people to know us, to trust us, to suggest to them that we trust them to make their decisions as well. And part of that model has also enabled us to keep prices down or to keep our cost down by working in our space. We dedicate it to things that we show.
So lots of phone calls, lots of reading online. If you’ve never been on the Mattress Underground, I highly recommend that site for research.
DEBRA: Oh no, I actually haven’t been on that site. Okay.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yes. It’s just a forum that runs, but the leader of the forum is pretty knowledgeable. It’s a good place to start.
DEBRA: Good. I’ll check that out. So you’ve done a lot of research. Tell us about some of the toxic things.
I know I just spoke in general at the beginning. But what are some of the toxic chemicals that people should really – they haven’t already decided that they need a natural mattress. Why should they be using a natural mattress?
DEBORAH BRENTON: Okay. So with this question, we could just start with the burn test, right?
DEBRA: Yes.
DEBORAH BRENTON: So the story goes. Interrupt me if this gets too long, but the story goes that back in the 70s, everyone was lighting up lots of cigarettes in the house, in the bed and mattress. Fires were increasing.
The government said, “There are too many cigarettes. Big cigarettes need to make the cigarettes safe so that people don’t keep burning themselves down.
They said, “Well, let’s do something else.” All the big tobacco companies got together and formed their alliance and lobbied for burn test.
Now, all upholstery and furniture and bedding are required to pass a flame test. Two tests, cigarette test where they put a cigarette under a sheet and see how fast your product burns. And another test is the burn test where there’s an open torch on the top and the sides of the mattress. They see how fast it burns, how quickly the flame extinguishes, how much smoke it produces, things like that.
So because of those laws that were in place long ago, companies put things on their mattresses, be it directly putting, spraying the mattresses with chemicals or be it using a barrier fabric that is made of synthetics to pass the burn test.
So when we say you can buy everything in parts that have not been treated with any chemicals, what we mean is that we are selling you a part of a mattress. We’re not selling you a whole mattress. We are selling you just part of it. If you choose to assemble it that way, great.
That does mean that we don’t put any of the bromines, and we don’t put any chlorinated Tris. We don’t put any PBDE. We don’t put in Firemaster 550, no boric acid. We don’t put any of the bromines. The list keeps going because a lot of these flame retardants that are put into upholstery and bedding are proprietary. So we can’t really know all of them.
DEBRA: Yes. It’s just brilliant that you’re doing it that way.
We need to go to break. When we come back, we’ll talk more about natural mattresses and unnatural things that are in regular mattresses, not the natural mattresses. This is so interesting.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Deborah Brenton. She’s the owner of DIY Natural Bedding. The website is DIYNaturalBedding.com.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Deborah Brenton, owner of DIY Natural Bedding. That’s at DIYNaturalBedding.com.
So Deborah, if somebody is considering making their own bed, what should they consider as to whether or not they can do it or not?
What are the kinds of skills you need to have? Let’s start with that question.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Sure. Well, you’d be surprised of how simple it is. You need to pick out. You make a few choices. And then you need to zip them all together.
So the first choice you make is what you want to put in. We call the cases ticking. You unzip them. You can have one foot wool in it. You can have one foot of puddle pad on top. You can have just organic, get the organic cotton one. You can…
DEBRA: So you’re not just selling – I went to your website, but I guess I missed this point. You’re not selling fabric to make a mattress. You’re selling the case.
DEBORAH BRENTON: We are selling both.
DEBRA: Okay.
DEBORAH BRENTON: If you want to sew your own case, we have the pattern available. We have the zipper. Where can you find 300 inches of zipper in one piece?
We sell all our mattress quality fabrics by the yard so that you can make your own. If those are your skills, go for it. If you want us to sew it, we will sew it. We won’t assemble it, but we will sew that for you.
And then we saw the natural latex labs. We get all our wools from local farms around us where I can ask the farmers questions about how they treat their animals, what they feed them, where they graze and how they treat them when they have illnesses. So we like to support the local food movement that way, as well as to give our customers quality wool.
DEBRA: So then, you sell all the materials. So the very simplest thing to do would be to buy the case and buy the stuffing and have it arrive at your doorstep. And then you can stuff it with whatever it is you want. You stuff it yourself and that’s it.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yes. Put the ticking on your mattress. Lay your latex labs on top of it. Zip it shut, and you just made a mattress.
DEBRA: Wow. That’s so easy.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yeah. Those are great.
DEBRA: Yeah. I didn’t realize. When I looked at your website, I was thinking, “Okay. So here’s the fabric, and here’s the zipper. You can sew it up.”
You probably provide the thread too because it needs a special kind of thread. And then, you would do all that work. But no, you just zip it up.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Well, you can. Some people have those skills that not everyone does.
DEBRA: Not everybody does.
DEBORAH BRENTON: We put the DIY to the ones who can do it.
DEBRA: Yeah. I wouldn’t want to sew. I mean I can sew rudimentarily. I can’t say that word.
But wow, that is extremely appealing to me. If I didn’t already have a wonderful mattress that I love, I would immediately order from you because that’s so easy and so affordable.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yeah. And our wool mattress is neat. I shouldn’t say “our wool mattress.” We sell wool beddings, as well as what we call wool flakes.
So before the wool is aligned into the nice sheet, that cotton bedding, it’s in this fluff. And you can make a wool mattress by taking one of the ticking and some of the beddings on the bottom.
Throw in the wool flake in the middle because that’s the less expensive process. It hasn’t been combed yet. And then top it off with another smooth wool bedding and zip that shut. Then you pretty much made your own wool mattress. Then you’d have to tuft it.
There’s more than one way to use the supplies.
DEBRA: Well, it’s good. Why don’t you go over what the different materials are? We’re going to need to go to break, but you can just start with this question.
I was really impressed at how careful you were about choosing your materials. I’m aware of a lot of different mattress makers. Some of them are more or less stringent about the materials that they choose to make their mattresses even if they’re natural. But you have very, very excellent materials.
Of course, somebody could also buy your case and put whatever materials they want to buy from some place else in there as well. If they have their own local wool that they want to use, it’s all very – you buy whatever pieces you want, and then you do whatever you want with them. It’s just amazing to me.
So tell us. So you have three basic things. Start by telling us more about your role because you don’t sell cotton, but you sell wool.
DEBORAH BRENTON: You’re right. We chose wool to sell over cotton because it’s so resilient. Cotton can only bend so many times before it breaks. It gets very firm.
Wool is an interesting fiber. Microscopically, it’s a hollow fiber and it is spiral-shaped.
Its hollow shape is interesting because that where its leaking moisture comes in. It can absorb your body heat, your body moisture while you sleep. Then as you roll over, it now can let it dissipate into the air.
If you sleep under the wool, you will like it as a comforter or you will like a wool jacket. That hollow fiber can keep your heat next to you, thus providing your insulation.
Its spiral shape is really interesting because that makes it very flexible. As you compress it when you sit on it or lie on it, it doesn’t just bend causing a break in the fiber eventually. It just stretches. It can do that for a long, long time. So grandmother’s wool mattress can still be re-fluffed and reused because wool is so strong.
DEBRA: Yes. That’s been my experience. When I first started sleeping with natural beds, they actually were not wool beds. Nobody was doing wool beds.
I started with a pretty thick cotton futon on the floor. It was the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever slept on in my life. It was a cotton futon on a wood floor.
I think they’re designed to put on tatami mats or something I think in Japan, which are not as hard as wood. So here you have this Japanese technology coming over here to America. I put it on wood floor. It was horrible, very uncomfortable.
When the first wool beds came out, I got a wool mattress that was very thick, 10 inches thick. It was comfortable, but I couldn’t lift it.
And now, I have layers of wool mattresses on a wood slab bed. That seems to be the best thing to do as well.
We need to go to a break. When we come back, we’ll talk more about the materials that are available to make mattresses from. And you can make your own mattress.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Deborah Brenton from DIY Natural Bedding. That’s at DIYNaturalBedding.com.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Deborah Brenton, owner of DIY Natural Bedding. That’s at DIYNaturalBedding.com.
Deborah, I want us to keep talking about wool. Especially, you talked about the difference between farm wool and organic wool. I’d like you to talk about that because you say some very important things on your website about this.
By the way listeners, she’s got a lot of information on her website about the materials, far more than we can cover talking about it today.
Deborah, tell us about farm wool.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Sure. Let’s see. Farm wool.
When I pick my wool, I go around the farms in my area. I talk to the farmers and I ask them, “What nutrition do you give your sheep? Are they allowed outside in the sun? How are they’re treated when they’re sheared? Am I going to be finding an excess air in my wool because the shear was too quick when shearing it? Do you gather the Merino wool?”
That means that I should be on the look-out from using. Really, I just want wool that the farmer cares about the animal. So he gives them natural food, grasses, hays.
When they need deworming, do they give them diatomaceous earth instead of popping some other pills? What goes into the sheep affects what comes out of the sheep. The quality of the wool is affected by that.
We get our wool from all sources of different sheep. They’re all nice wool. These farmers do not grow short hair coarse wool crops. They grow wool that is nice enough to be spun into yarn. The wool is tossed. The fibers are long. There’s a variety of colors. There’s white, brown, black and grey.
It feels good. And it also has that satisfaction of knowing that this animal was cared for, maybe not quite like a pet. But yet, it was still very thoughtfully cared for and not just raised for money.
DEBRA: The thing that I so love about this is your personal connection with it. So often – on your website, you talk about that organic certification is useful when I can’t certify the farmer myself.
I wish you would just put that sentence in bold and have flashing lights all around it. I think that that’s so important.
The difference between you being there actually going to the farm, meeting the people who are growing the wools, seeing the sheep. The difference between that and looking – I’m not saying this certification is bad, but this is just a different level. It’s a different level of knowing that you went yourself and looked and that you didn’t rely on a piece of paper that’s certified.
Again, I’m not saying that certification is a really bad thing. They’re very useful for knowing that a product needs a certain standard. But it’s just that there’s something different about you going and checking it out.
I read all of these on your website. And I see and I listened to you, talking to me today. I see that you’ve done your homework. You know what you’re talking about. You know what questions to ask. You going and checking out the farmer is just as good as if that farmer had an organic certification if not better.
The questions have been asked. The farmers are doing the right thing. And you’re right there with your own eyes seeing that they’re doing the right thing. That all comes across to me.
My wool is actually from a similar situation where I bought my bed from Shepherd’s Dream in California. I’ve known Shepherd’s Dream for more than 20 years, from when they were first selling futon patterns like you. That’s how they started.
When they started their organic wool certification, I actually went with them. They talked to the farmers, and I sat with them – they have organic certification – in terms of what they thought that it should be.
So I know exactly where the wool comes from in my bed. It’s actually so nice for me every night to be thinking about those sheep. I know how they were cared for. I know where they’re from. It’s just a lovely thing. It’s just a lovely thing to have that level of knowing what your ingredients are.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yeah. In fact, the mill that provides them with all their wools provides much of the US with their wool. But they also provide our puddle pads from the sheep. So everyone knows where it’s come from.
DEBRA: Yeah. It’s a lovely way to make a product. It’s a lovely way to do this.
I’m going to look at the clock for a second. Okay. So tell us about latex. Tell us about latex in general and your latex.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Okay. So we work with natural latex. That means that it is a foam made from rubber or from latex.
Latex is – you see it everywhere. You go outside. You pick a dandelion, and you see the white stuff and you see latex. You see lettuce and you break it open, you’ll see latex [inaudible 00:32:50].
It’s just that those small plants are not generally commercially viable. There are different small amount of latex.
So the latex for Robert today is growing in the jungles where there is a particular tree, the Hevea brasiliensis. It’s a tall. It now had become known as the rubber tree.
There are ways to make synthetic rubber out of petroleum. That’s not the type of latex that we provide because we prefer to stick with as natural as we can.
So the foam that’s made from these rubber trees that we use ends up being 96% rubber and then 4% foaming agents. For a manmade product, I think that’s pretty good.
So natural latex, we have it inside of different densities. That means you can pick your firmness or you can combine firmness to create a pillow top layer or something firmer. Or you can put a soft layer underneath a firm layer to create a more contemporary spring-like feel.
But the five densities really give you a lot to work with. It lets you choose your height. It lets you choose how you feel. And natural latex is neat through the way it absorbs your pressure point.
So you lie on the mattress and your pressure points are where the deepest parts of your body. They create the most pressure. And because of the compression modules, the latex actually compresses underneath you to some extent.
It doesn’t spread out like if you were lying out on a water bed, the water would just go to your edges. But here, it actually creates the support underneath you. So it’s able to move completely out of the way where it needs to and then just keeps a fast response time up for the areas that don’t need to be pressured.
And this latex, it’s not like a memory foam. So we call it a fast response foam. So you roll over and the latex is ready to support you in a new spot.
You don’t have to crawl out of a valley that you’ve made because it’s not heat-sensitive foam. It doesn’t hold your heat and harbor it like a memory foam mattress would. So it’s a very different sort of foam.
DEBRA: Yeah. Good. So there is also – explain about the difference between Talalay and Dunlop.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Okay. So there are two processes or you could say there’s one process and a variation of it. The Dunlop process is the…
DEBRA: I’m sorry. I have to go to break really quickly I think. I get to talking.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Today, my guest is Deborah Brenton, owner of DIY Natural Bedding. That’s DIYNaturalBedding.com.
Before the break, we were talking about latex. Deborah, I like you to tell us about the difference between organic latex and natural latex.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Okay. The differences are very few. The differences are a label pretty much. The formula seems to be the same with the manufacturers. The product is the same. The plants are similar.
The difference would be that you have someone certifying that the company has been a responsible company in the way that they produced, that their water outflow has been reasonable, that they have treated their workers reasonably that they have been paid their wages and not required to work too much.
From what I hear, it’s likened to any papers. A dog of a true pure breed at papers is financially worth more money than the same dog without papers.
It produces primarily the same product. So we choose to go with natural latex because if the product is still 96% rubber – I mean you can’t get any less rubber than that, any more rubber than that and creates a foam. It still has to be light and airy.
Then why not choose just plain old natural? Why require an extra process that will take up more financial commitment on the company? Why not just give people what is readily available that is good enough?
DEBRA: Good. That’s a very good answer. So then, the other key part of what you offer in terms of materials is the fabrics.
Now, you’re selling GOTS-certified organic fabrics. So tell us why you made that choice and what that is.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Sure. There are few different standards out there for organic fabric, organic textiles. Most of them just require that the majority of the cotton used in the product have been growing organically. So 51% of the cotton could be growing organically.
The GOTS standard takes it away above that. Now, it says that not only the growing procedures have to be organic, the warehouse has to be certified organic, the processes used on the fabric, the dyes, the finishing, the weaving. Everything has to be certified.
India produces 60% of the world’s cotton. And ours is not – I mean I can’t just go over there. I can’t go over there and say, “Well, is there a pesticide running off in your crops?”
So I do rely on a certification in this point because I know that the certification requires the manufacturers to say that their product is only 95% organic.
Or is it like our cotton? Is it actually 100% organic and 100% cotton? The law technically says you can say it’s organic cotton even if it’s just the majority cotton. So it could be 49% rayon or something else.
So I like that the GOTS is clear. I like that I can talk to my suppliers and I can physically ask them questions. If I wanted to, I can actually trace where the cotton came from, what farm it was growing on, [inaudible 00:43:58] standards that it matches every ball of fabric with the grower.
DEBRA: I’m looking at your fabrics. One of the important reasons why it’s necessary for you to exist as a bedding supply place is that here you’ve got organic cotton for [inaudible 00:44:19] fabric that is 97 inches wide.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yes.
DEBRA: And first of all, you’re not going to go into any fabric store that I know of and find any GOTS organic fiber.
But secondly, even if you found GOTS organic fiber – and the only other place I know of where people can order GOTS fibers to do things themselves with it is from France.
So here you are in America, you’ve got GOTS organic fibers. It’s 97 inches wide, which is what you need in order to make a mattress.
I can’t imagine putting together a better collection of materials to make a bed out of. You’ve done a really good job.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Thank you. Yeah, we have to be very careful, like you said, about sourcing it. Just provide people with choices that we’d want to make ourselves.
DEBRA: So earlier, you were talking about – at the beginning of the show, you were talking about price. The price ends up being less than if you were to buy a mattress.
Of course, when you’re purchasing a mattress that somebody else has made, you’re paying for labor. Whereas when you make it yourself, then you put in the cost of labor as your time.
But also I think it’s most important for a lot of people listening not so much how much it costs, although I’m sure a lot of people are on a budget and want to get the most affordable mattress they can. The most important thing is to have these fantastic materials that are so organic and not toxic.
I forgot what I was going to ask. So does it end up – I guess the point I want to make is that people think that organic and certified and all those things are much more expensive.
If you’re going this route of doing it yourself, does buying all the mattress pieces and putting them together – does it end up costing more or less than an average toxic mattress?
DEBORAH BRENTON: I would say definitely it costs less. The DIY component is pretty big. It saves us a lot of costs, but we pass on the savings to the customers. So yeah, there’s a lot.
If you went on and bought the king size natural latex mattress – let’s say it was just a nine inch mattress. It would be surprising for you to pay $2500 for that.
Use our parts. Make your own. And you’re probably looking more like – depending on your choices of course – $1500, $1700. So that’s at least a 30% saving there.
DEBRA: That’s a big difference.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yeah, it is. I think it’s rewarding. I don’t think people can put a monetary value on the value of participating in your choices. I mean you’ve spent time, you’ve spent energy.
If you’ve found us, you have invested yourself into this purchase and then to actually assemble it. I mean that is rewarding to say, “I am sleeping on something that I have chosen.”
DEBRA: Yeah, I know. My husband and I – many years ago, we made shaker chairs, four shaker chairs for our dining table out of a kit. And we love the seats together.
And it’s just so – even to this day, I look at those chairs, and I remember the experience of making them when I sit on them and the love that goes in it. It’s so different to have something that you’ve made with your own hands.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yeah.
DEBRA: Yeah. I could just now imagine a couple making a mattress for themselves and how beautiful that would be. Gee, this is so lovely.
DEBORAH BRENTON: Yeah. It’s good to take your own space into your will.
DEBRA: Yeah. What a lovely thing that you’re doing.
We only just have about a minute left. So is there anything you’d like to say that we haven’t covered?
DEBORAH BRENTON: Well, I don’t know. We are a small business. That means that while we may not have certain systems in place that a large business might have, we do have a lot of personality here.
So you call. You will talk to me. You e-mail, you get me. We have showrooms that we set up in people’s homes. I have one in Minneapolis and one here in Lafayette, Indiana.
You come and you get to talk to us. We will answer any question we can. If we can’t, we will find you the answer.
So that’s one of the benefits of being a small business. We aren’t so far distant from you. We’re still people too and we can work with you.
DEBRA: You know the answers. One of the things that happens today is that you go into a big box store, and you got people who are cashiers and they know nothing about the product.
And dealing with a business like you, you’re an expert, you absolutely know your product and everything that goes in it, all the way down to the shape.
Anyway, thank you so much Deborah for being on the show. Again, the website is DIYNaturalBedding.com.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com to learn more about other shows, listen to this one again, read the transcript.
That’s it for today. Be well.
Dental Floss
Question from Matt Carter
Hi Debra,
I know you posted before that you use a Hydrafloss and I am looking into getting one, but in the meantime am looking for a safe dental floss option. I have found two types of floss that are unwaxed nylon (POH and Dr. Collins) would these be the safest options in terms of regular floss? I also looked into some wood pick options instead of floss but was concerned if the wood might have been treated with anything. Thank you!.
Debra’s Answer
All flosses I’ve been able to find are made from nylon, so these are as safe as any others. The things to watch out for with dental floss are the waxes and flavorings.
When I used to use floss, I tried using heavy cotton sewing thread. Worked just fine.
Plaster-Weld
Question from Beverly Shutes
Hi Debra,
The popcorn on my living room ceiling is cracked and falling down. I have found someone to repair the ceiling for me and they have stated that once the popcorn is scraped and removed, they coat the ceiling (which is poured concrete) with a product called Plaster-Weld. http://www.larsenproducts.com/plaster-weld-2.
They stated that it smells terrible for a couple of hours and request you leave, but then the smell goes away. It is necessary to bond the plaster to the concrete. After application, they skim coat, prime and paint (Benjamin Moore Natura no VOC paint).
The MDS for Plaster-Weld is here: http://www.larsenproducts.com/download/plasterweld_msds.pdf
I’m not sure of any alternatives, but I try to keep things as chemical free as possible for my baby and I. Do you have any thoughts on this product?
Debra’s Answer
The MSDS states that the health effects are minor irritation, but the product should be used in a well ventilated area.
My experience has been that many products have odors and offgas during application, and then when dry can be completely inert.
I agree you should leave while it’s being applied, but once it is dry, I don’t see a problem.
Readers, any experience with this product or alternatives to suggest?
Intellibed Mattress Again
Question from Jorjia Blom
Hi Debra,
This bed is supposedly non-toxic:
http://www.mommypotamus.com/favorite-non-toxic-mattress/
Have you heard any feedback from anyone with MCS regarding this product?
Debra’s Answer
Supposedly is right. Here’s what I learned about this bed: Intellibed Mattress
Has anyone with MCS purchased one of these beds?
Car Outgassing
Question from Chris Condon
Hi Debra,
I have a question about cars outgassing. Many people who are chemically sensitive buy used cars in preference to new to avoid the new car chemicals. Do cars that have been driven in hot climate outgas faster and better than cars driven in cold climates? And how about humidity? Do cars outgas better in humid than dry climates or vice versa? I imagine that if you want to buy an outgassed car you might be better off going to Tuscon or Phoenix, where they have fierce summer heat combined with low humidity, buying it there and driving it back home, provided Phoenix and Tucson are not too far away. I would assume a car driven in the Arizona summers would outgas its chemicals faster than anywhere else.
From past experience I gather than the chemicals put into leather are much more toxic than the chemicals put into cloth automotive upholstery. Worse still, based on my own experience, leather never completely outgasses its chemicals, so that buying a used car in preference to new is not a satisfactory solution with respect to leather, because no matter how old the car is, there are always some chemicals still coming out of the leather. (I once had a beautiful Saab, but was still having allergy problems while driving it even when the car was 7-8 years old and supposedly completely outgassed. )The best solution for chemically sensitive people is to avoid cars with leather upholstery altogether and stick to cloth. But if you can suggest some way to completely outgas leather, I might change my mind on leather.
Debra’s Answer
Car interiors outgassing is one of the most difficult challenges for MCS. I’ve written about this before, so will just answer your question and summarize.
Yes, a car in a hot climate will outgas faster than one in a cold climate. Your logic is correct.
I’m not sure I would agree that the chemicals in leather are worse than the chemicals in cloth. I much prefer the leather myself, but everyone is individual with MCS.
Things I have done to minimize exposure from car interiors are:
- Use an air filter such as the Foust Auto Air Filter
- Install a sunroof so the fumes can rise and escape without bringing car exhaust in through the side windows being open
- Reupholster (yes I’ve done this—reupholstered the bucket seats in a sports car with cotton canvas.
Filling Cracks in Concrete
Question from Suzanne Foster
Hi Debra,
I have removed the carpeting from my bedroom and bathroom. The concrete floor has several large cracks in it from where the building has settled. Is there any non-toxic product to fill the cracks?
I am very sensitive to smells and will not be able to move elsewhere while and after it is done.
Thank you so much for all that you do.
Debra’s Answer
First, here’s an article that outlines the basics of filling cracks in cement: WiseGEEK: How Can I Repair Cracks in Concrete?
It says to use a siliconized latex concrete caulk or concrete patching compound. Both are likely to contain some toxic ingredients.
But you can follow these instructions and just use regular concrete powder mixed with water for the patch.
A lot of concrete crack fillers are designed to fill concrete cracks outdoors, thus the toxic ingredients for waterproofing. But indoors you don’t need this.
If you need to, put a thin “skim coat” of concrete over the entire floor so the crack repairs will not be visible.
Wrinkle Treatments
Question from Kiki Li
Hi Debra,
I recently read your book Toxic Free and have been doing my best to transition into living a chemical free lifestyle. I work in the beauty industry and was an avid Botox and dermal filler client which I have stopped doing since reading your book.
I would like your opinion on the safety in terms of toxicity of treatments such as thermage and fraxel which uses radio frequency and lasers.
Also I assume without saying that Botox and dermal fillers are unnatural and toxic but I would like your confirmation as well.
Debra’s Answer
You don’t have to look far to find information on the side effects of botox injections. Just search on “botox health effects ” and you’ll get warnings from The Mayo Clinic, WebMD, drugs.com and other mainstream medical sites.
Botox is a drug made from a neurotoxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum called botulinum toxin. A neurotoxin. That means it’s toxic to the nervous system. When you get a botox treatment you are just injecting a toxic substance into your body.
There are three types of dermal fillers, each with their own health effects. Here’s a good article on WebMD that gives a breakdown of available wrinkle fillers, their basic ingredients, how they work, and their pros and cons: WebMD: What you should know about wrinkle fillers.
If you want to reduce your wrinkles, it’s best to use a natural product, such as Touchstone Essentials’ Super Serum I personally know people using this all-natural product and I’ve seen dramatic changes in their skin. You can see a before and after picture.
There are other natural skin restoring products that reduce wrinkles by nourishing the skin topically and from within. Better to choose one of those.
Natural Pest Controls by Professionals
My guest today is Michael Piacenza, Owner, Certified Operator and K9 Handler of Advantage Pest Control in Clearwater, Florida. We’ll be talking about natural pest controls offered by professionals, and simple natural pest controls you can do yourself in your home and garden. His business uses many green and natural approaches, including Integrated Pest Management (IPM); natural products such as minerals, oils, and biopesticides (botanically based); a mix of minimal risk (a classification for some of the safest products) and reduced risk pesticides (many are classified like essential oils) as the primary tool and then synthetics only where and when needed for a specific pest; and baiting wherever possible. Many types of baits are very safe and effective. This would include products that are boron based (think boric acid) and growth regulators (disrupts the molting process). Both are very effective in the battle against subterranean termites; compared to chemical trenching and drilling to create a toxic vapor barrier around the home. Michael is the Author of many articles in local papers and magazines on safer/eco-friendly pest control, education on pest behavior and control, use of K9s in termite detection, and more. In addition he is a licensed ship pilot and captain, he has held multiple senior level positions in multinational data and telecommunications equipment companies, and is an experienced public speaker. www.PestControlNaturally.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Natural Pest Control by Professionals
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Michael Piacenza
Date of Broadcast: February 19, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. It’s Thursday, February 19th, 2015. We’re getting some of that cold, winter wind down here in Florida, but we’re all surviving. We’re bringing out our sweaters instead of our shorts although I have seen people still wearing shorts in this cold weather. But I like it cold. I grew up in northern California and we had some coldness in winters. I kind of miss it when we have warm, palmy Florida winters.
But anyway, my guest today, we’re going to be talking about natural pest controls. My guest today is an owner of a natural pest control company here in Clearwater, Florida. So he helps people control their pests without using toxic chemicals, toxic pesticides. We’re going to be talking about if you have a pest problem, how you can have a professional come and use natural methods of pest control, non-toxic method pest control to control those pests and how you can do some of these things at home yourself too.
But I just wanted you to be aware that you can call a professional to come help you in a toxic-free way with your pest control, that that is available and we’ll find out about that today.
My guest is Michael Piacenza. He is the owner, certified operator and canine handler of Advantage Pest Control in Clearwater, Florida. Hi, Michael.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Hello! How are you today?
Debra: I’m great! How are you?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Marvelous, darling. I’ve always grown enjoying a little bit of a cool weather.
Debra: Yes. It’s probably easier for you to do your pest control when it’s cooler rather than 90°.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Yeah.
Debra: Well Michael, I was looking at your bio and you’ve been a ship captain and all kinds of other things. How did you get to being the owner of a non-toxic pest control service?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Well, I wish it was a more exciting story than it is. I was actually just having dinner with a friend of mine who was the founder of this company back in 1989. We were just talking and he said, “You know, I’m looking to retire in a few years. Why don’t you come onboard with me and take over the company in a few years.” I was, “Man! I don’t want to be around all those toxic chemicals.” He said, “Well, take a look at it.”
Well, I did. I did a little research and I found out that there were plenty of ways to do professional pest control without damaging the environment and the customer. So I took down the challenge and that was about eight years ago.
Debra: You’ve been doing this for eight years, so you must have customers who are interested in it. Do you find that it’s easy to make the sale or are people skeptical? How popular is it?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Well, it’s become very, very popular surprisingly enough. Over the eight years, it has changed considerably. Eight years ago, I would show up and it might be that the lady of the house would say, “I want it to be safe in the house,” then they’d call me off to the side and say, “But I want it deadly. Bring out the good stuff.”
I would put a little bit of Pyrethrum. The smell is terrible, the smell is toxic (but it’s really quite safe) and use that and they’d be happy.
And now, I show up and it might be the man of the house. Here he is, he looks like he just got off of a Harley and he says, “Well, it’d better darn be safe for my dog.”
It’s become a norm and everybody is becoming aware of the fact at we have to live in this environment that we create.
Debra: That’s right. And it needs to be safe so that we can be healthy. So there’s so many things that we can talk about, and we’re going to talk about a lot of things today. But let’s start with the canine unit. So what do dogs have to do with pest control.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: That’s Buddy. Buddy is a termite-seeking dog. There’s been a lot of research over the last decade or so that that is the best ways to detect subterranean termites. And they are the most destructive. They are the kinds that may [inaudible 00:05:53] and trying to find them is problematic. They don’t show themselves when they’re inside the wall eating. They stay inside the wall until that wall gives way and crack unlike drywood termites, the type that people [inaudible 00:06:13] sometimes. They will make a little hole and [inaudible 00:06:17]. So it’s a way of finding the termites before the damage is already done.
Research at the University of Gainesville, the test studies done with some beagles is that they can detect as little as termites.
Debra: Wow!
MICHAEL PIACENZA: They had them go head to head with methane gas meters and the dogs outperformed the professional meters. The methane is basically looking for termite, the blunt part. Termites give up more methane gas than any other creature on the planet earth.
Debra: Wow. So what you do is you go in with the dog and they sniff and find if someone has termites or not? So why would someone call you in the first place? What would be some evidence that would give them reason to call you?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Well, most of the calls we get are people that are buying a new home. They just want to know ahead of time whether they have a problem before they buy it. There’s an inspection that everybody calls the ‘termite inspection’. The technical name is the ‘wood-destroying organism inspection/report’. That’s for termites, [inaudible 00:07:54], wood decay and that kind of stuff. You’ve got to basically go up and crawl around in an attic and take a screw driver and punch around on the baseboard looking for a hollow spot.
That’s really how you’re looking for the termites. If you can get underneath the house, you’ll look for mud tunnels and something like that. That’s it! It’s pretty primitive.
I was then using something like a methane meter. Not many people use that. We actually have a radar designed for detecting termites on the wall and it can pick up on movement, but it’s a very, very simple piece of equipment and it’s really only good for isolating a small spot.
But having a dog, you could walk around the perimeter of the house and take them into the bathrooms and sniff behind the shower and that kind of stuff, he’s like having an x-ray for termites. If he finds them, he just turns around and sits as close as he can to wherever they are.
Debra: Wow! That’s pretty amazing, that they have that ability to do it and then that they can be trained and tell you where it is. Nature is so interesting.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: It’s amazing, yeah. It’s the same with bloodhounds, drug dogs or anything else because it’s getting him to pick up on a particular scent – in this case, live termites (not dead termites, not the molds that they leave behind or anything like that, just live termites).
Debra: That’s amazing. We’re coming up on break very shortly, but I’ll ask you. So then, if termites are detected, what kind of natural solutions that you have?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Oh, okay. Well, the traditional approach is then to build a trench around the outside of the house, drill into the driveway and around the pool deck and inside the locks and then pour or inject into the ground these noxious chemicals – the most popular one is Ciprinol, which I believe is banned in China. It’s that bad.
And the natural ways of doing it would be to put in a baiting system around the house and get the termites eating on the baiting system that they take down to the colony and disrupt the colony with something like an insect growth regulator or a neurotoxin or something like that. Even though we’re using toxic, if you use them just as a bait, you’re not expecting hundreds of gallons of it per house.
Debra: Right, right. We need to go to break. That’s what that music. And when we come back, we’ll talk more about termites and other natural pest controls. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Michael Piacenza. He’s the owner, certified operator and canine handler of Advantage Pest Control. Their website is PestControlNaturally.com. We’ll be right back!
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Michael Piacenz. He’s the owner, certified operator and canine handler of Advantage Pest Control in Clearwater, Florida and his website is PestControlNaturally.com.
He tells me that they sell some of the things that we’re going to be talking about on the website. So if you’re in need of some natural pest controls, you can order them online if you can’t get them in your local area or if you don’t have a professional –
Actually, before we finish talking about termites, Michael, if somebody wanted to hire a professional natural pest control person, is there a website where everyone across the country is listed. Is there an association of natural pest controllers or something like that?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: No, I wish there was. There are sites out there that will reference people to local companies, but there’s not a national site. I actually was considering starting something like that up. But business has been too good and I have been too busy.
Debra: Well, you know, Michael, that’s just the kind of thing I should do, so let’s talk.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Yeah, there you go. Yeah!
Debra: Yeah, I mean, that would fit right into the work that I’m already doing. So let’s go back to termites. So what would you do if your dog found termites in the wall?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Well, the first thing I would do is he pinpoints exactly where they’re at. He’ll pick up an activity area, but they live down in the ground. So the main colony could be 50 feet away, it could be underneath the next door neighbor’s house. So the best thing you can do is put in a monitoring system or a baiting system around the house and they’ll start eating that.
The way that the colony spreads, there are three ways. They’ll either swarm and start a whole new colony or they’ll send out foragers. They’re always sending foragers out looking for new wood. And once they find some new wood and they report back, they’ll build a tunnel to that. So the baiting system around the perimeter of the house is the best way to go.
We actually have apartment complexes that we monitor from north Florida down to southern west coast of Florida. So we use the baiting system and when we find activity, then we’ll swap it out with another type of a bait that has an insect growth regulator. They’ll take it down to the colony and eliminate it that way.
If it’s a really, really bad infestation, then we may need to inject into the wall in the area where they’re actively eating to get a quick [inaudible 00:16:52]. But then we’re using a couple of gallons of products instead of a 100 or 150 gallons on a house.
But we’re only talking here about subterranean termites. There’s an entirely different type of termite, which is called drywood. They’re in the south. And all across the southern part of the country, drywood termites are prevalent. And those are the kind where you see a tent over the house and they fumigate it, gas it out. That’s some pretty toxic stuff there.
Debra: It is, it is. Well, you’ve mentioned the couple of different kinds of methods. One of the things that I’d like to do on the show today is talk about – I know that you take multifacet approach. I know there’s several different areas of types of alternatives. I’d like us to cover those just so that our listeners can get an idea of when they go to a professional, the kinds of tools they have available to them.
And as you’ve already pointed out, just because somebody is doing it green or non-toxic, it doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily only using plant-based materials or things that are completely non-toxic, some of it has to do with the way that they’re used – as you said, putting things in very specific spots instead of spraying them all over the place.
So let’s just start with integrated pest management or IPM because that’s something that a lot of companies use. Could you explain what that is and what the basic philosophy is behind there?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Well, your standard pest control company, the philosophy is come in, hit it hard and hope you don’t have to come back. So they’ll use the most toxic stuff that they can legally use and hopes that this straightens out any problems and not get a call back.
At the other end of the spectrum is you’ve seen a variety of approaches like integrated pest management. Integrated pest management is you’re working with the homeowner to find points of entry and get those sealed up, educating the customer on what the pests eat – maybe not putting the dog bowl or cat bowl out overnight, so the ants don’t find it and in the morning, they’ve got an infestation. Put it down when they’re going to be there to eat and then, put it away, keeping thing sealed up.
Now, some companies, they claim to be safe and use an integrated pest management. They’ll go in and do those types of things. And then if they do have a problem, they hit it with toxic pesticides and they say, “Well, we use them more judiciously” and there’s some validity there. Our approach is to educate the customer and then use eco-friendly products that are either botanically-based.
Some of the safest things that we’ve used are inorganic minerals like lauric acid made from boron and born is half as toxic as table salt where we try to come in a regular basis (we do like a quarterly pest control) and using the safer products. And then we only go to a more toxic product if we have to – and then very judiciously and very targeted for a pest.
So it’s a little bit more time-consuming on our part, but it’s really what our customers are looking for.
Debra: It is! And sometimes, things do take more time. Toxic chemicals are usually like ‘hit it hard’ and have it be done with, but that doesn’t necessarily support life as a whole. It does require more care and more time.
One thing I want to ask you about, I actually don’t have a lot of pest problems because I do a lot of what you’ve mentioned like sealing up holes and things – oh, we need to go to break. I’m so glad I have this music. Sometimes, I get absorbed in talking and I forget to look at the clock.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Michael Piacenza. He’s the owner, certified operator and canine handler of Advantage Pest Control in Clearwater, Florida. His website is PestControlNaturally.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Michael Piacenza. He is the owner, certified operator and canine handler of Advantage Pest Control in Clearwater, Florida. His website is PestControlNaturally.com.
Now, Michael, during the break, I was looking on your website because I was about to ask you a question, but I found the answer on the website.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: I’m glad to hear it.
Debra: Yeah! So just for our listeners to know this, in addition to being a professional (so he could come to your house here in the local Tampa Bay area), he also has a lot of products and information on the website. And if you look on the menu across the top, it says ‘Tips & Tricks’ and you can find out how to control fleas, roaches, ticks, bugs, flying insects, spiders, bed bugs and ants.
I was just looking at roaches because the thing that I have the most problem with is what we call here in Florida ‘palm meadow bugs’. The first night that we moved here (we don’t have those in California), I walked into my kitchen in the middle of the night, there were these big, brown bugs all over the kitchen. It was just horrible and I screamed because I had never seen so many bugs like that and they’re big. They’re not real pretty.
So what I found was what we really needed to do was fill in the cracks. They were just coming in the cracks. It was just maintenance. The house maintenance wasn’t good.
But then they found their way. And again, I remember, there was a time – I’ve been in this house for 13 years and this is some years ago – they somehow got into the hall closet where I was storing a lot of things like soap with little additives in it, little flower petals and stuff and they were eating the soap because it had the flower petals in it. So they were nesting all over my hall closet.
And I know this sounds terrible. I’m sure I’m not the only person that puts stuff in the hall closet and starts packing it in and you never go in there, you never move things around. It just becomes this storage area. And then, one day, you go in there and you find that it’s full of bugs.
Once, I took everything out, we vacuumed everything out, we took all the bugs out and too away anything like flower petals and soap that would be a food source and I’ve never had that problem again. It totally handled it.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: That’s integrated pest management too. Part of it is eliminating food sources and harborages for the pest.
Debra: Right! So you want to eliminate the food source, you want to eliminate dripping water pipes that give them water and you want to eliminate things like piles of papers and stuff that provide shelter. And you also want to put screens on windows. And if you do those kinds of things, fill up cracks, if you just do that short list of things to make your house impermeable like that and nothing to attract them, that handles many, many pest problems, doesn’t it, just that short list of things?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear the last word you said.
Debra: Just that short list of things, doesn’t that handle many pest problems?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Yeah, yeah. it does. I’ve tried to tell people, you got to think of pest control in a couple of different ways. It’s called ‘pest control’, not ‘pest annihilation’. It’s not like you can eliminate every single bug. You just want to make sure that you’ve got it under control, so that you don’t have a full-fledge bloom of something in there.
You get one little cockroach in your house, well you probably don’t like that, but they’re going to die of old age, but they’re going to die of old age before they find another one to mate with. So if you can keep things clean and tight without anything for them to eat, you’re better off.
The other way of looking at pest control, professional pest control, I tell people, “Well, think of it like getting your teeth cleaned.” You don’t wait until you have a cavity to go get your teeth cleaned, you have to get your teeth cleaned, so you don’t get cavities.
Debra: That’s right, that’s right. I want to just add (and this may seem like off the subject, but it’s related. I assure you). I recently read a little book. This book is actually is one of those life-changing books. It’s called – oh, I forgot. It’s called the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up or something like that. It’s written by a Japanese woman for women in Japan who live in very tiny spaces (not like people here who live in very big spaces).
What this book showed me was a different way of looking at how we handle objects in our homes. She was talking about how she goes into people’s homes and she helps them eliminate things – her criteria is only have in your home what you’re using and what you love. Everything else goes unless you store it in the proper way (if you even need to be storing). I started looking at my house in a whole different way.
There are so many things that just sit there and we never touch them. They’re just things that we think we should keep. And that’s where the pests want to live. They want to live behind those books and all those hidden places. And if you only just do the simple thing of having pure possessions and moving them around (because you’re using them) and cleaning the shelf and things like that, that’s a really big thing.
I can really see spiders and things like that that I don’t even see until I started moving things and deciding if I wanted all these stuff in my house even.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Yeah, I have a philosophy of ‘one in, one out’.
Debra: Yeah.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: If I bring in something, I make sure that it replaces something I’ve already used or I get rid of one or two things now. That’s the way I try to keep things to a minimum.
I’ll tell you, I get calls periodically from people saying, “My pantry is overrun with little, tiny bugs” and usually, it turns out to be weevils that have hatched out of a box of doggie biscuits in the back of the pantry that they bought three years ago that the dog didn’t like. They should’ve thrown it away.
Debra: That’s exactly the point. We buy something. And then we think, “Well, I don’t like this, so I’m going to put it in a cabinet.” And then it just sits there causing problems. It should go immediately out even if you have to lose $10 or whatever you paid for it. It’s better to not have it in the house. I’m finding things and I go, “Why did I even keep this?” It’s because I couldn’t bear to part with something that I had paid good money for. I don’t know where this comes from, but it’s much better to let things go.
Anyway, we need to go to – no, I thought I heard the music, but we need to go in 20 seconds, so I won’t ask you the next question. But to see something else on the website, PestControlNaturally.com, Tips & Tricks and there’s a promotion about services and – wow! There’s just so much information here.
We’ll talk more with Michael when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Michael Piacenza, owner, certified operator and canine handler of Advantage Pest Control in Clearwater, Florida. His website is PestControlNaturally.com and we’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Michael Piacenza, owner, certified operator and canine handler of Advantage Pest Control. His website is PestControlNaturally.com. It’s got a lot of information there. If you are looking for how to control a pest around the house naturally, this is a good place to look.
So Michael, we talked about integrated pest management, we talked about baiting. So if you’ve done all those things to remove the things that attract the pest inside your home, but you still need to use something like a powder or a spray or something in order to kill the pest, talk to us about natural products.
And also, I know that you also talk about using minimal risk and reduced ris pesticides. Let’s talk about those classifications of risks as well.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Alrightee! Well, the first thing I’d like to say is that a lot of people, when they’re trying to go safer and more natural, the first thing they want to jump to is a repellant. A repellant can be beneficial. We sell a snake repellant. And that’s great. You just sprinkle water in the outside of your house and it’ll repel snakes. It’s cinnamon and things like that. It overpowers the snake’s sense of smell.
But if you start using repellants in your house, you may just be moving the bugs from one place to another and exacerbating your problem. Most of the time, what you want to do is you want to use something that the bugs aren’t even going to notice like simple boric acid.
We sell BorActin, it’s called. It’s just a very safe boric acid. You sprinkle it very lightly. The bugs walk through it. They get it on their feet and their antennas like cockroaches or ants. And then they grew themselves and all that does is it shuts down their digestive enzymes or protozoas and then they just starve to death. It’s made out of salt and boron and boron is in your one-a-day vitamin with minerals. So it’s pretty safe stuff.
Then there are other products that are neurotoxins. And as soon as I say that, everybody’s hair on the back of their neck will stand up, I’m sure.
Debra: Yes!
MICHAEL PIACENZA: But there are different types of neurotoxins. There are some that will affect humans that don’t have long-term negative effects. Pyrethrum are not very bad for people. You wouldn’t want to just keep breathing it in all the time, but used lightly and in certain areas, it works pretty good. And it actually has a little bit of repellant in it.
But there are other neurotoxins that are plant-based that only affect neurons that are in insects. There’s some really good patented products by EcoSmart and [inaudible 00:42:07] – I can’t remember the name of that company off the top of my head. Essentria is one of the products. And that’s still safe. It falls into the classification of ‘minimal risk’. That’s a new a classification that it’s like the safest products. It’s so safe that it’s exempt from the EPA regulations.
Debra: Oh!
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Mm-hmmm… the EcoSmart product used to have a product line called the Exempt product line and that’s what it is. The Exempt products are in that minimal risk.
And then one step above that is what is called the ‘reduced risk’. That falls into the category very much like essential oils. Our essential oils are found super, super safe, but there are some natural products out there that can kill you too. You know what I’m saying?
Debra: That’s true.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: But it reduce the risk. They call up and they say, “Do you do all-organic?” I’m like, “Well, my safest products are inorganic minerals, but let’s get together and have a cup of organic hemlock tea and talk about it.”
Debra: That’s right.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: They’ll be like, “Hemp?”
Debra: Even water, even if it’s the purest water, you can drown in water, you can eat too much salt. Toxicity is a relative thing.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: So it’s just finding the proper gradient. What level do you need to take care of the problem and is the problem going to be – is the pest problem more toxic than the cure? These roaches and rodents, it can transmit all kinds of different diseases.
Debra: Yes, they can. And that’s actually a very interesting point because there are some insects, which are beneficial bugs and other insects which are toxic in and of themselves. You don’t want to have pests around your house that would cause you to get sick any more than you would want to have toxic chemicals around in your house. You don’t want to get sick.
So what are some of the household pests that people really do need to be concerned about controlling because you don’t want them to harm you?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: I get calls all the time from people saying, “I’ve got this terrible, terrible bug. It has these big claw thing in the back of it.” It’s just called an earwig. It looks really nasty. But they are very beneficial bug. An adult earwig can eat up to a hundred pinch bugs in one day. And pinch bugs are what kills off a lot of the grass here in the late spring and early summer by piercing the grass and sucking the juices out of it.
So you’re going to come in and put pesticide down on the lawn to kill of the pinch bugs because somebody put pesticides down too early and killed off all of the earwigs that would’ve eaten them anyway!
Debra: That’s a really good point because in our culture as a whole, we’re so ignorant of all these relationships in nature. We should know that earwigs eat pinch bugs and we should know how those cycles of life work and use them as part of our pest controls and not be destroying them. We end up destroying those cycles and then we want to spray toxic chemicals because we’ve destroyed the cycle.
If you’re moving away from using toxic substances in every area of life, there’s so much to learn on the other side about the possibilities of how we can do things better.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: It’s just a very delicate balance. People try to do things around the house themselves and I’ve got to give them a lot of credit for the attempt, but a lot of times, they end up doing more harm than good. They go out and they cut their grass too low. And now that they’ve cut it too low, so the sun can hit down to the soil. It dries out the soil, they need more water. Weeds could get in there and get germinated, so now you’ve got to spray it with herbicides. The grass is now [inaudible 00:46:45]. It’s susceptible to a few grubs, mole crickets or pinch bugs eating at it or if it was thick and lush and healthy and it’s got lots of good nutrients, it would be able to withstand that attack without having pesticides on it. And it all started with just cutting your grass too short.
Debra: Yeah. And those are the kinds of things that we don’t know in our culture. Those are like the wisdom things that we don’t carry around with us. We just have this other way of just spraying toxic chemicals on everything.
Having those points of wisdom of knowing the actions that we should take that give a result that leads to life-thriving is part of what’s so fascinating about the work that I do because it’s not all about just identifying toxic chemicals. It’s finding what the other solutions are. I think that as more people can see this different way of viewing life, then we’ll all be healthier and the planet will be healthier and all that.
You’ve done such a great job of putting all these information together. I know I’ve known you for a while, some years and I see more information. They’re well-presented and everything. I just think you’re doing a fantastic job.
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Oh, thank you.
Debra: So we’ve got about a little less than two minutes left. Any final words you want to give us?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: I would tell people, I would elaborate on what I was saying, try to do it yourself is very honorable, but you’ve got to do a lot of research. You might just be better off to hire a professional. Spend your time doing the research to get the right professional.
There are a few little things that you want to look for. When you call up and you are looking for a new pest control company, ask them lots of questions. If they’re not going to spend the time on the phone to answer these questions, they offer to come out and meet with you and discuss things, you’ve probably got the wrong people. They’re probably just going to throw toxic pesticides at it and just go for the bat.
If you’ve got a company that advertises once-a-year pest control, I’ll bet a dollar to a donut (that’s what my dad used to say) that they’re not using the eco-friendly stuff.
Debra: Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. If people want to call you up who live in other places – I mean, you’re my local natural pest control operator, if people want to call you for advice from other places, is that okay for them to do that?
MICHAEL PIACENZA: Yeah, I would say, first check out our website. There are many, many how-to videos on there that answers a lot of the frequently asked questions. And sometimes, after launching the video, they’ll see different products and they can actually buy the product right there on the website and be able to take care of the stuff themselves.
Debra: Thank you. We’re running out of time now. Thank you so much. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well!
Making the Switch from Toxic Light Bulbs to Natural Light
My guest today is Andrea Fabry, toxic free blogger and owner of Just So Natural Products. Following a health crisis in 2008, Andrea and her family discovered the wonders of natural living. We’ll be talking today about the health effects of artificial light, the healing benefits of natural light, and how to bring more natural light into your home and life. Andrea is a former journalist and the mother of nine children ranging in age from 29 to 13. She is also the founder and president of momsAWARE, an educational organization designed to empower others to live healthy in a toxic world. www.it-takes-time.com | www.justso.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Making the Switch from Toxic Light Bulbs to Natural Light
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Andrea Fabry
Date of Broadcast: February 17, 2015
DEBRA: Hi I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free.
Well, it’s cloudy outside today here. I’m in Florida and I know some of you on the east coast that are listening are going to have lots of snow today and so we’ll see. I love having a big storm but I know some of you—we have hurricanes here in Florida. And when that happens everything is down, so my sympathy is to those who of you who are going to be in a big storm and any damage that happens today, but here we’re just going to get a lot of wind and rain and it’s nice to see mother nature up there doing her thing.
Anyway, today we’re going to talk about light. Oh, it’s Tuesday, February 17th 2015 and we’re going to talk about light, the difference between artificial and natural light and how that affects your health and what you can do to get more natural light in your life and the health benefits of that.
My guest today is Andrea Fabry. She is a toxic food blogger and owner of Just So Natural Products. She’s been on the show before and you might want to listen to the previous show too in the archives at ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. She has nine children and they all live without toxic chemicals. I’m going to let her tell a little bit of her story and how she got interested in natural light and the toxicity of light bulbs. She and I are very parallel in our experiences and we had something happened to our health and then started looking around for the toxic chemicals. So she has done a lot of research as well.
Hi Andrea.
ANDREA FABRY: Hey Debra, how are you?
DEBRA: I’m very good. How are you?
ANDREA FABRY: I’m great. Thank you.
DEBRA: All right, good! So tell us a little bit, I know that on the other show that you told us your whole story about how you got interested in toxics, but tell us a little synopsis again.
ANDREA FABRY: I can do that, yeah.
DEBRA: Give us a little synopsis, but then take the story in the direction of how you got interested in natural light. Why are we talking about this today?
ANDREA FABRY: Great!
DEBRA: And what led you down that path?
ANDREA FABRY: Well, it started in a very dark place in our life ironically and that is we had a toxic exposure in our home. When we moved in to it in the year 2000 and didn’t figure it out until 2008. And at which time we’ve left we had some serious structural errors that led to this hidden amount of toxic mold at high, high level. We improperly remediated it and blew it all through the air vents and so on and so forth. But we did have nine kids living with this throughout that time and all of them were impacted including myself and my husband so we had a brand new start in 2008 an unfortunate one and ended up moving from Colorado to Arizona.
At that time I just had this desire to have my kids outside and we were seriously ill. I figured out within several months that just leaving our home would not go to result in full recovery. If that was even possible, I didn’t know. We were very drawn to the desert and the sunshine without really knowing why. And as I look back for us that was a very good move certainly not necessary in order to get healthy but that’s our story.
And in the last years so particularly I’ve been very intrigued about lighting and over all electromagnetic steels and the type of what electrification has done not only in our society but to our family. And then how do you live in a world like ours without just completely abandoning it.
We live with technology and it’s been great! Look what electricity brought us, but unless we’re aware of some of the health implications I don’t think we can be on the offense as much as we really need to be.
DEBRA: I totally agree with you.
I don’t remember the second when I started studying natural light but it was many, many years ago. Well we’ve been living with fluorescent lights from all the time and back in the days when I was first became aware of this we had old tubes that flickered and I just noticed that when I was in a room that had those kinds of lights especially public places that I didn’t feel as well as if I was outside in the natural light and then I noticed that different kinds of light bulbs made me feel better or worse and just putting them in the lamp at home.
And that the color of light even makes a big difference, like I really don’t like being around bluish lights and then I always kept the warm light bulb and I just started learning about it. And we’re going to talk more about this later in the show ‘cause we’ve both been reading the same books I found out and this is a very fascinating subject.
ANDREA FABRY: It is! Oh, go ahead.
DEBRA: Well, I was just going to say, let’s start with natural light because I know one of the things that you said to me this, that you wanted to about why you don’t wear sunglasses anymore and let’s just start with the sun, not the indoor lights. Let’s just start with the sun.
ANDREA FABRY: Yeah, good.
DEBRA: I did a whole read research project about sun protection and because people are always asking me what’s the best sun tan lotion. But it’s not just about sun tan lotion; it’s about being exposed to natural light. So you tell us Andrea, why is it important that we’re exposed to natural light?
ANDREA FABRY: Well it’s just natural which of course your whole program is about, and we have lived with the sun since the beginning and for many generations. Upon generations, we’ve lived well under the sun and with the sun. And I think we have an unnatural fear of it.
Now, I do have a respect for the sun and it’s not to be taken likely, no pun intended that it has hazardous qualities. Too much of a good thing can be too much of a good thing but the bottom line is natural light has a full spectrum of light and when we turned artificial we immediately cut some of that and what we’re most afraid of is the ultraviolet light.
But I think what we understand even intuitively, sometimes you go outside and maybe you’re not feeling well and you just sit in the shade and I feel better. Well there’s a reason for that, that’s it is nourishing even small amounts of ultraviolet light.
We had a baby who was jaundiced, one of ours and this was back in 1994 and of course, I knew nothing about any of this. But you know what is the number one recommendation or treatment for jaundice? It’s light. Put your baby near the window. And it’s the blue light particularly that kind of dissipates the chemical that gets stopped up by the liver and excreted so it’s a very healing thing.
And we know this, and this has been known for many years so when you stop and think and pull back, I think it’s not surprising that sunlight is a good thing. We just don’t know how much or how to do that at also because we just moved from outdoors to indoors and so we’ve needed to create light and build buildings without good windows and ventilation and all these.
We’re spending a lot of time indoors and then we get into a car that has glass and then we wear sunglasses. We have almost cut ourselves off from something that is inherently good and to erase the balance. We can talk all about that but I just think respect versus fear is a very different thing.
DEBRA: I totally agree with you. And if you’ll really think about—first I just want to say that the other day it’s been cold here. Well it’s winter of course, but still, it’s generally very mild here in Florida. And so it’s a big deal on a day like today when we get this big wind down from the north and it gets cold and we get a storm like this but which hasn’t happened yet but I see the wind rustling out my window. And it’s been kind the cold and then other day, just yesterday, I was walking down the street and I happened to be in a place where the sun would shine and like right on the spot I just stood there in the sun and felt the warmth and it felt so good.
ANDREA FABRY: Doesn’t it?
DEBRA: It does. You just go, Mmm sun and the light.
But I have something else to say about the light and sun which I’ll say right after the break.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Andrea Fabry and we’re talking about toxic and toxic free to light.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Andrea Fabry, a toxic blogger and owner of Just So Natural Toxic Products. Actually like me, she alerts people to toxic dangers and in fact the way I found out about her was because one of my readers put a comment on something I wrote that was a link to Andrea’s site where she has done some research, which I didn’t know that about toxic chemicals in immersion blenders.
ANDREA FABRY: That’s a fun topic, isn’t it?
DEBRA: It is. But it’s not light so we’ll keep that for another day.
Anyway, what I wanted to say about the sun is that if you look at life, any aspect of light and the basic of life like a seed. A seed will not awaken until it has the sun. It needs sun and water and then plants live on sunlight. Sunlight is just so important and so does it makes sense that our bodies needs sunlight too and will we have a benefit from that? Yeah.
ANDREA FABRY: Well, you know..
DEBRA: And to take that from the sunlight, well I don’t know what that is.
ANDREA FABRY: Right. Well what you just said is so intuitive. The plants depend on photosynthesis, we know and understand and just have it translated to our own bodies.
All life really does depend on the sun, just so many questions about how and how did that work out and that so I think, but the person that really inspired me is when he mentioned the plant is John Ott who lived in the age of 91 and died not too long ago and he really was a pioneer in this whole field and he came up on it.
Accidentally, he had discovered with one of the leaders in time lapse photography, Walt Disney utilized his photography for his efforts. He was so fascinated with how light impacted plants and especially got seeing it in time lapse form. But his own story was he had a weekly TV show, he’s very busy with Walt Disney in time lapse photography but he had arthritis.
One day, he broke his eye glass and found himself working out in a garden, he lived in the Midwest. He’s outdoors more, didn’t have his glasses because they were broken and he felt better. He noticed that his arthritis improved and said to his wife “We need to go to Florida next week. I want to see if what I’m thinking is true.” and she said “okay”.
And they spent the next week on the beach without his glasses. His arthritis dramatically improved and that really changed his career then towards light and health and utilizing all that he has understood about time lapse photography and just studying this and then writing about it in several books, but basing it on the idea that we’re not that unlike plants.
DEBRA: Well, I think I’ve been studying nature for about 30 years and people know me for saying toxics but in my free time I study nature. I’m really interested in nature. And what I see is this commonality that it doesn’t matter what species, whether it’s a plant or an animal, that there are common factors that are needed for life to exist and sunlight is one of those.
It completely makes sense to me that we need to have a certain base line of natural light. It’s like a fire, I mean really it’s like fire. Fire can warm you and cook your food and things like that. If harnessed and used wisely, it can be very beneficial but it can also be very destructive.
ANDREA FABRY: Yeah.
DEBRA: Even water is that way, you can drown in water but your body can’t live without water. It really is finding the optimal use of these natural elements, not too much and not too little,but just right.
ANDREA FABRY: Right.
DEBRA: Goldilocks and those three bears.
ANDREA FABRY: So true.\
DEBRA: Anyway, so tell us more about what you learned about natural light from the health effects of them, like health benefits of natural light.
ANDREA FABRY: Yes, and going back to John Ott and his glasses broke, I can imagine somebody say “What, we just can’t wear glasses?” No, again, they help us see but his point is that if you can spend some time just even sitting in the shade, without any type of any filtration in the form of glasses or sun glasses. And that’s of course if you refer to why I don’t wear sunglasses unless I need them for safety when I’m driving or such.
So it’s not an either or. It was just very new for me to think that it’s okay for me not to wear glasses and be outside And because again,your eyes just unencumbered experiencing natural light, that doesn’t mean you’ll look into the sun at two in the afternoon. But I can stand in the shade without any type of barrier and gain health. That was just really new for me and it’s funny because I had lost my glasses as well and I stopped wearing them around the house. I didn’t even think about it. Wow, I don’t think I need these as much as I thought I did.
And before I knew it I was only wearing my glasses to drive and even then hardly I was seeing much better and I didn’t need reading glasses. My eye sight has improved over the last four or five years. I still need glasses to drive at night there’s no doubt, but they’ve improved. And not by anything I’ve been trying to do, they’re just better and that was just kind of good fortune and I just tried living a little less with my glasses and found it beneficial but that goes back to John Ott and what happened with his arthritis, like I just wow!, so again, the benefit of just natural light. We do live with windows which are slight barriers but that’s better than complete darkness.
DEBRA: Yes.
ANDREA FABRY: So it’s all in degrees and just knowledge along this line can be helpful because it doesn’t mean you need to throw out your glasses or never wear sunglass. It’s just presenting that idea that could for 15 minutes I experience natural light even if it’s cold or even if it’s cloudy during the day.
DEBRA: Right. And I’ll just throw in that I live here in Florida, of course you all know that, and so we do get a lot of sunlight but I learned that it’s much better to wear a wide burned hat and be able to get the natural light than it is to wear sun glasses because the sun glasses block the beneficial things. So I don’t wear sun glasses either. I have one in a lifetime.
We need to go to break.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Andrea Fabry and we’re talking about light.
We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Andrea Fabry. She has a wonderful blog with lot of toxic-free and toxic information and is the owner of Just so Natural Products and you can go her blog at it-takes-time.com and her Just so Natural Products are at justso.com
So Andrea, we’ve established our need for natural light so then, when we go indoors, what happens when we start being exposed to artificial light?
ANDREA FABRY: Well again, there’s so many aspects to this, but one of the first things that introducing indoor light and electrification was enable us to be productive at night whereas before, it is just candle light and there wasn’t whole lot you could do. You just went to bed and you woke up with the sun.
Our bodies were very rhythmicly in-tune to the natural way of living and this presented an immediate hazard if you will, even though it enable us to do a lot more and be more productive and so forth.
So that’s probably the first thing that goes is that natural rhythm and so—but again, I’m grateful for shift workers and people who are able to work around the clock. It never means that I can’t do my job or I have to go back to that. It’s just having this knowledge helps you really live in a healthy way whatever your schedule.
So understanding that artificial light can easily stimulate the Melatonin, or rather suppress the Melatonin so during daylight, we don’t get the Melatonin. That’s very low during the day and then the Melatonin helps us sleep at night. That’s how the rhythm goes and artificial light disrupts this and so you can be wide awake at one in the morning if you’ve been around a lot of artificial light and probably you’ve noticed this, even with our e-readers, can emit this artificial light that keeps us awake. But we don’t necessarily make that connection.
And of course, we can talk more about the types of light bulbs, but understanding the rhythm and the Melatonin and so forth is huge in helping yourself at least adapt and create your own rhythm that will work for you.
DEBRA: It really is because everything in life—again we get back in nature—everything has its cycles. And things aren’t the same all the time. Even in the midst of summer, in the most part of the earth, you don’t get 24 hours of light and there’s always the other side of it, the balance.
And so for us to have so much light in the hours that should be darkness, and remember, there’s more light in the summer and less light in the winter, and our bodies have evolved being accustomed to that change in light so if we take away that cycle, how disruptive is that?
ANDREA FABRY: Right.
DEBRA: Yes. And we don’t even think of those terms. So the first thing you write is the cycle.
Now, considering that, after that then we’re looking at light bulbs in the house. What are the light bulbs?
ANDREA FABRY: Is there anything more confusing than the light bulb IO?
DEBRA: ‘I-O’ think so!
ANDREA FABRY: I get anxiety just walking, of course I am under fluorescent light in the store, but the fact of trying to figure out all these different light bulbs—the good news is, we have a lot of choice and there are incredible things happening with light filtrations in light bulbs so don’t discount that there are good options for you in whatever setting you’re in.
Just know, for those listening, if you don’t feel well under fluorescent lighting, there’s good reason for that and like you mention the flickering, it’s a whole different mechanism, fluorescent lighting than an incandescent bulb. And John Ott, in his research back when found that they were weakening to the whole system. So, you’re not crazy if fluorescent lights aren’t a good fit for you.
The good news is there are some full spectrum fluorescent lights available. For our family and our house, we’ve gone with just the old-fashioned incandescent bulb. There’s LED, there’s halogen. Halogen is an extension of an incandescent. LED is probably since—you know we’re phasing out of incandescent over all because they’re not energy efficient. I guess I would choose, personally just opinion, LED over fluorescent, but the…
DEBRA: I would too.
ANDREA FABRY: …full spectrum fluorescent lights are an option and then there are other ways to cope with fluorescent.
Just to know, the bottom line is that those are tough and they can’t create disruption in the system and you’re not crazy for that, but the way I view light bulbs is this. I just try to use a little artificial light if I can, which means I try to really be outside and I—grant it. I live in Arizona in the summer, that’s not easy and I don’t want to be out in 110 degree heat in the middle of the day, but it’s sunrise and sunset, those are great times to experience natural light and in the winter, I know you’ve got some listeners here and it’s like dark a lot and it’s really cold and I do empathize with that.
But you know, 15minutes all bundled-up, just giving your eyes some exposure to natural light can do wonder. And I think we know that from seasonal aspect disorder. A lot of people get more depressed in the winter. Well, there is reason for that.
DEBRA: There is, absolutely.
So I have taken the same strategy as you, which is to spend as much time outdoors as I can but I spend a lot of time working at my desk. And so, I’m looking at the behavior screen a lot of the time, but I really try not to do that 24 hours a day, that’s the first thing. But the other thing is how I use light in my house.
We’re going to be coming up on a break in less than a minute, but I’ll get started talking about this because I’ve vey consciously decided number one, no fluorescents. All the light bulbs that I have in my house are either incandescent or halogen and there’s these little tiny bulbs. I don’t even know what they are, but I need to look that up. I need to look that up and find about.
But the point that I tried to make in my house is to let in as much natural light as possible. So where I’m sitting in right now, even though I have this big 27-inch computer screen, it’s in the context of 17 feet of windows. And..
ANDREA FABRY: Yeah, that is such great point Debra.
DEBRA: And so I have this light pouring in. And I know that windows block natural light, but we’ve all been growing plants in the window. Everybody grows herbs in the windows so if they grow, there’s enough sun. There are some things coming through.
We’ll talk more about this when we comeback.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Andrea Fabry. Her website is it-takes-time.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Andrea Fabry. She’s the owner of Just so Natural Products and she’s got a great blog at it-takes-time.com
And before the break we were talking about what I do in my house. And I was trying to get as much as natural light in as possible.
One thing I do not like, I just do not like overhead lights and so I have very few of that in my house. And the lens that I have I rarely use. I use the hall light, but I mostly put just task lighting and I just put a light where I’m sitting or a light where the job is, like I have a whole row of halogens around my kitchen sink and I have a good incandescent light over the stove. But even at my desk I have my computer and I can see that, but I just have one task light. The whole room is not full of artificial light. It’s just light coming in from the outside.
And I also used skylights in my bathroom. I remodeled my bathroom and I put a big skylight over the shower, so if it leaks, it leaks into the shower. But it has never leaked. People are worried the skylights are going to leak. I’ve had skylights in several houses and I’ve never had them leaked, but it brings so much light into the bathroom that the only time I turned the light on is at night.
It’s just this judicious use of light bulbs also saves energy, but also you don’t have to illuminate every corner of your house, just where it needs light.
ANDREA FABRY: Ones idea in less can be more and just going to bed earlier, you’re just going to expose yourself best to artificial light.
With knowledge come a lot of power and a lot of change in the way you make decisions. And that’s huge to have a skylight light in the bathroom. It’s so needed when we have water, plumbing, and all those issues, how great is that? You just alluded to the one of the great things about natural light and that is disinfecting, and one thing…
DEBRA: Yes it is. It is!
ANDREA FABRY: Yes. And a lot of that is the UV that we’re so afraid of.
I just put laundry if I dry laundry in a dryer in a dark setting like that works, only the electricity that’s doing that versus putting my laundry after I washed it under the sun, it smells so much cleaner.
DEBRA: I want to ask you a question about that because I would love to put my laundry out, but every time I’ve done it everything just get stiff. Does yours get stiff? What do you do about that?
ANDREA FABRY: I don’t have the answer to that except that sometimes, I’ll just—right before it’s really totally dry. Put it in the dryer for maybe 10 minutes.
I have a friend and she doesn’t own a dryer and she got five kids. So, I’m where you are Debra, I’m like, “I’ll do it when it works for me and find a way.” But I have my dryer, but she doesn’t. And she said, “We just get used to the stiff when I fold it and that stiff inside it kind of loses up. I’m good with little technology here and there, but the idea of how much better it smells is the disinfecting property.
DEBRA: Yeah, I mean, bring sun in to anything and in the right amount and it’s going to be really good.
So any other tips about how our listeners can make the switch from toxic light bulb to natural light?
ANDREA FABRY: Well, again, I think the light bulb information is very valuable and I think that’s brilliant about overhead light, I agree with that.
Less is more and I think more is table lamp. But all that is to me is, that’s really fun to study and learn about and change. But in terms of taking this type of information and not being overwhelmed, I just go back to the basics of living, clean food, clean air, clean water, and I would take this —I’m just more drawn to the outdoors than I was before and that change was in me.
I was living in Arizona behind my computer writing about health for a long time before I really thought about that. Except that inside me, I don’t want to be at the computer this much. And every free moment and even in the evening, I just love what I do, I love the internet, I’m all about technology so…
DEBRA: I love it too.
ANDREA FABRY: Yeah. I love it!
So there’s a lot to be said about health and enjoying what you do so I think I found my calling in life and I love it, but I also knew that there was just a lack of balance. So, just the idea of 15 minutes in natural light, if that’s to take away for a discussion like this, that’s going to do so much. And add in, maybe I won’t have my contacts in or my glasses on for that 15 minutes is changed and just that alone.
I am convinced in John Ott’s book; he showed a progression of a little girl who had a tumor in her eye. She lived in the Midwest and it was the winter. And it took a year and they—there was a doctor, a friend of his, and he shared the case study and the photograph. And this is leading to answering your question here.
So Midwest, winter and this tumor, she moved away from processed food—this is I think the 70s or the 80s—more than what we have now, and just 15 minutes a day, 4 times a day, through the winter and all year, it took about a year but the progression or progress with her eye is pretty astounding and I find—well, I’m happy for her obviously, but for all of us to know that just small amounts of time in natural light can do that much to boost our health. I think that’s encouraging.
DEBRA: I think it’s very encouraging and I would add to your 15 minutes a day of sunlight, to use that 15 minutes to go for a walk. I think that even people like—I wear glasses and I know a lot of people do, but I think most people could go for a walk without their glasses especially when you’re wearing them for reading or driving or something like that. I can walk without my glasses and I think that that lets them in, your natural light, but then also it gives you a little exercise. It gives you a break, you get outside and if people would just do that—there’s just basics about health.
ANDREA FABRY: Yes, the simplest things, yes.
DEBRA: They’re basics. It’s like you need to drink water, you need to eat clean food, you need to have sunshine, you need to have natural light, but natural light is one of those.
And we have so much attention to healthcare costs and people are having these strange diseases at earlier stages and there’s so much health care cost, there are side effects of all these drugs, and yet people are looking to more drugs and what kind of technological things can they do when they’re not doing the basic things like getting natural light. And it’s just…
ANDREA FABRY: You know I have a couple of tips if you—if this is a new idea to go for a walk without your glasses, this is new for me. And one tip that I would give and I have read, and this is obvious too intuitively, and that is not to strain your eyes to be looking as far as you can look because it’s an adjustment to be without your glasses even for that amount of time outside. And my suggestion and this doctor also suggested don’t strain your eyes when you’re trying this. Look at what’s close to you. You’ll be able to see that. So that’s just a small thing that can make it more relaxing and beneficial.
DEBRA: Yes, yes. There are all these programs I haven’t done in and done with those, all these programs about how to give up your glasses by doing these eye exercises and things. And it just starts with—I’ve read over and over that your glasses actually make you not see as well and so I don’t wear glasses all the time.
In fact, I went to an eye doctor because I needed to get a pair of glasses for driving and of course, they want to give you glasses to wear 24 hours a day. And that’s like, “No, thank you.” I’m just going to wear my reading glasses when I need to read and the rest of the time, I can see well enough to be able to see what I need to see.
ANDREA FABRY: Yes.
DEBRA: I don’t have to wear glasses on 24 hours a day. Then I can just let my eyes rest and be in their natural state instead of straining to see through this glass. That’s part of health too.
ANDREA FABRY: They found like simple concepts but in today’s world they really aren’t like they’re foreign and when you…
DEBRA: They’re just not known, yeah.
ANDREA FABRY: Yeah, and the thought that I could through a day and not wear my glasses five years ago was so shocking to me. But something felt good about that or right, and it is. It’s like you said, sometimes it’s the simplest change.
DEBRA: This has been very enlightening. Good to talk to you Andrea. We’re at the end of the show we only got about 30 seconds left, so thank you so much for being on the show.
And again, I’ll give your website addresses, it-takes-time.com—with hyphens—it-takes-time.com is Andrea’s toxic-free blog and justso.com is her natural products website.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd…
ANDREA FABRY: And Debra, as always, I sure appreciate all that you do, all the pioneering you have done in this field. It’s just great, great to be with you again.
DEBRA: Thank you so much.
This is Toxic Free Talk Radio I’m Debra Lynn Dadd.
Be well.
Detoxing Aluminum Through Your Skin in a Simple Way at Home
My guests today are Elizabeth and Michael Fessler, Founding Partners of Herbalix Restoratives. They make exceptional skin and hair products, some of which detox aluminum from your body as you sleep. Their products are designed to support skin functions with pure, natural and organic ingredients that cleanse and revitalize, while feeding the skin and hair vital nutrients. Today we will be focusing on their detox products. We will be talking about how aluminum enters your body and affect body function, and how topical detox can free the body from aluminum so it can function properly. Elizabeth is Presdent and CEO of the company. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Degree followed by an MBA in Materials Management. She worked for over thirty years in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. Michael has an extensive background in science and engineering with a focus on creating healthy manufacturing and work areas. While studying at San Diego State University, he participated in a marine study of sea urchins as a food source with the National Science Foundation that has been added to the collections of the Library of Congress. While working in his family’s industrial chemical company in sales, engineering and management positions after college, he developed custom chemical formulations and detoxification procedures. Concern with the environmental impact of toxic materials in the workplace led him to start a contracting business that specialized in detoxifying both commercial and residential properties, including remodeling projects for persons with chemical sensitivities. He now develops safe manufacturing processes and pure ingredient formulas for Herbalix Restoratives body, hair and skin care products. www.herbalix.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Detoxing Aluminum Through Your Skin in a Simple Way at Home
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Elizabeth and Michael Fessler
Date of Broadcast: February 12 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. It’s Thursday, February 12th. The sun is shining here in Florida. I think that spring is on its way. We have a very interesting and different kind of show today because we’re going to be talking about aluminum.
Aluminum is one of those heavy metals. We all know about aluminum pans and things like that. I think we all have an idea that aluminum is toxic, that you don’t want to cook your food in an aluminum pan. My guest today has done so much research on aluminum. She sent me piles of information about aluminum – different types of aluminum, health effects of aluminum. But also, she and her husband make products that allow you to detox aluminum through your skin while you sleep.
This is a different way of detox that I have never heard of before, but it specifically detoxes aluminum and maybe some other heavy metals. We’ll find out as we talk to her. But even if the only thing it does is remove aluminum from your body, that’s a huge, huge thing as you will see. I just have never seen so much information about aluminum all in one place and they’ve done a fantastic job.
So I’m just going to introduce her right away, Elizabeth Fessler. She’s one of the founding partners of Herbalix Restoratives. I understand that her husband, Michael is scheduled to be on the show, but I’m not sure he’s there on the phone. Elizabeth, are both of you there?
ELIZABETH FESSLER: Yes, we are.
MICHAEL FESSLER: Yes. Hi, Debra.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: Good morning.
DEBRA: Oh, great! Hi! I’m glad you’re both there and I’m so happy that you’re on the show. I want to learn more, so much more about what you’re doing and I want all my listeners to know this too. Just really excellent research you’ve done. I just have to admire you for that.
So tell us, how did you get interested in – well, let’s just start with your company. You have a company that makes personal care products, but you didn’t always make what you’re making now I think. How did you get started?
MICHAEL FESSLER: Well, I’ll answer that first. Back in 1999, a retired neurosurgeon by the name of Dr. David B. Maline, he asked me to find products that he could use, body care products because he had allergies to soaps and lotions. He was desperate to find something he could use and he asked me if I would help him.
With the help of an herbalist, Judity Pillsbury, we developed a line of products that were without synthetic chemicals and petroleum. She also brought into the company a preservative that didn’t have any methylparabens. It didn’t use a paraben. We found this is one of the main problems for people with allergies.
So we developed this line of organic products. Everybody in the family could use it without having any chemicals be absorbed into their skin.
DEBRA: Well, 1999, that was a long time ago. Nobody was doing that then.
MICHAEL FESSLER: Yes.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: That’s absolutely correct. And there still isn’t a preservative that we know of out there that doesn’t have some form of a synthetic chemical whether it’s a paraben or carbomer. What they do is the keyword, they always look at buzz word being now. It’s the ‘paraben’. So they’ll try to replace it with something else. All of them are toxic and none of them are beneficial.
We are priding ourselves on being able to create this particular preservative that is not only 99% effective in killing all the major microorganisms required, but to called a preservative that is a living preservative that actually prevents the good bacteria from being destroyed.
DEBRA: So taking a look at your personal care products, even if you didn’t have the detox effects, the benefits, I should say, of someof the products that you created, you really have just about as pure a line of personal care products as I’ve seen. So you’ve done a really excellent job with that.
What made you then interested in being concerned about aluminum and creating these products that remove aluminum from your body?
MICHAEL FESSLER: Well, what we first found out, Debra is that we looked at the underarm and the antiperspirants and we decided to get into that market, making a product. We found these ingredients (the kelp, the coriander, the olive leaves) and in the developing, we actually found out it worked better to use at night time to clean out the underarm.
We actually did a clinical where subjects used this and compared it to antiperspirants. They used tape strippings to test the tissue. They were able to measure the amount of aluminum in each of our underarms. And from that, we understood we were really pulling the aluminum out of the body through the underarm with our detox deodorant because aluminum is a weaker salt than iodine found in kelp and thee alum salts are driven up into the body from antiperspirants. So while we were looking at this aluminum, we said, “Why is all these aluminum coming out of the underarm?” We kind of back tracked from that and that’s what developed our interest in looking at aluminum because it’s so plentiful in air, water and food.
So while we were looking at this aluminum, we said, “Why is all these aluminum coming out of the underarm?” We kind of back tracked from that and that’s what developed our interest in looking at aluminum because it’s so plentiful in air, water and food.
DEBRA: And especially, just about everybody in America (and all over the world probably) on a daily basis are just putting aluminum on our skin, under our arms every time we use an antiperspirant.
I don’t use antiperspirants and I’m assuming that you use your products, so you’re not putting aluminum under your arms. But everybody who’s using these standard antiperspirants are just giving themselves a nice, good dose of aluminum, which goes right into their underarms. It goes right to their body through their skin.
MICHAEL FESSLER: Right! And there’s actually more as we started to investigate. The underarm is connected to the brain, it’s connected to the subclavian lymph node from the thyroid. The gums under our teeth, drain out through the underarm including the breast tissue.
So when we stop the function of the body from draining, you’re backing up all these cellular waste back up into the brain, the thyroid and the breast.
And that’s what we started to see when we started to open up the underarm. We’re getting phone calls and people are saying, “Well, this is cleaning up. This is different. I don’t have the breast pain” or, “I don’t have the headache like I used to. Why is that?”
So we actually had to back track from the underarms. It told us how important the underarm is, to clean it out and not to use a foreign agent in the underarm.
DEBRA: I know a lot about sweat being one of the major pathways of how the body detoxes – of course, people sitting in saunas and things like that. I knew not to use antiperspirants so that you wouldn’t be stopping your body from sweating. But I didn’t know about these specific areas that you’ve just talked about.
And of course, the underarm where you’re sweating so much would be a major area that the body would be using for detox. I would’ve never thought of the underarm as being a major detox organ. You can sweat from any part of your body, but especially your underarm. That totally makes sense to me.
MICHAEL FESSLER: We just think of putting something on our underarm and being on our way. We’re kind of embarrassed by our odors. But those odors actually are indicators that there’s something going on in the body or of what we ate.
We actually use thermography to see some of the blockage between the breast and the underarms and we could see the changes in the circulation. So it’s really important.
In fact, we know the bottom part of the underarm is connected to the draining of the breast. And so when we put on an antiperspirant, it’s going to seep down and close off that area, which is really vital because the more and more we use a foreign agent like an antiperspirant, the more it’s going to seal off the ability of the breast to be able to force out the excess fluid that it doesn’t need.
DEBRA: This is amazing! You’re explaining this so well. I’m just astounded by your research and putting this all together. It’s exactly the right direction.
We need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guests today are Elizabeth and Michael Fessler. They’re the founding partners of Herbalix Restorative, which is Herbalix.com where you can find their exceptionally pure personal care products and also, the specific detox products that we’re going to be talking about later on this show. So stay tuned. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guests today are Elizabeth and Michael Fessler, founding partners of Herbalix Restoratives. Their website is Herbalix.com.
So let’s talk about aluminum now. Why is it such a concern? Most people think that it’s just found in antiperspirants and if they don’t use the antiperspirants, they don’t have to worry. And especially, I was looking at your material and it says the natural antiperspirants made from alum contain the same aluminum. So can you explain? You also sent me a very long list of all these different types of aluminum. Tell us about aluminum and the different types where people are likely to get it into their body.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: I would like to begin with is to say that we are now living in an era of aluminum overuse.
DEBRA: Yes.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: What that means is it’s ubiquitous in its use. It’s found in everything. Dr. Chris Exley is from Keel University and he’s the world’s foremost authority on the impacts of life on earth. There are no positive benefits to anything living (including humans) to have aluminum in their body. It’s an inorganic transitory metal. It comes in many forms and it’s the third most prevalent element on earth. It binds with other metals, as well as viruses.
What this really means is there’s no way of escaping it. You take anything out of the soil, you’re going to have aluminum in it. Once it’s out of the soil and we separate it from the ions, it becomes toxic. It’s ubiquitous. It’s found in air, food, water, fertilizer, body care products, automobiles, medicines and the list goes on and on. They keep using it – and more and more and more.
It binds with other metals as well as viruses and it depletes the calcium in the cell. It’s a pro-oxidant. And we all know what that means. The oxidative stress just by this metal damage cells and the tissues.
It bio-accumulates in the body. This is the most important piece. It bio-accumulates. We can’t get it out. It gets in, it goes into all tissues and it’s stored. And it’s not just from the antiperspirant as we’ve mentioned before.
DEBRA: I just want to say that I’ve been doing this work for 30 years, more than 30 years. And when I first started, my basic premise was, “Oh, there’s these toxic chemicals in consumer products. If I just find the consumer products that have the toxic chemicals and then don’t use those and the consumer products that don’t have the toxic chemicals and use those instead, then I’m going to be okay. I’m not going to have these effects that I was having from toxic chemical exposure.”
And now at this point in time within the last few years since I wrote my last book, it’s very, very clear to me that you can avoid and you should avoid as many toxic chemicals as you can identify and find and see that there are safe alternatives for.
But the way things are, we cannot escape toxic chemical and heavy metal exposure. It’s in everything. And detox is so mandatory because as you’re saying, these things get lodged in your body. Aluminum and lead and all these other heavy metals, they’re all bound up in the ground. Industrial process take them out of the ground, spread them all around and our bodies are not designed to be able to process them.
And so anyone who is not detoxing is becoming a storehouse for aluminum that we’re talking about today – and other heavy metal. That’s the way it is. And so it’s important. I cannot stress this enough. It’s so important to detox.
MICHAEL FESSLER: Debra, can I give you a couple of examples where most people don’t even realize – and I’m sure you’ve seen our partial aluminum list. Aspirin can contain 11% aluminum salts.
DEBRA: Wow!
MICHAEL FESSLER: We also found out that the genetically-modified corn and wheat is grown in soils that are full of aluminum because a regular corn or wheat seedling could not survive because the aluminum kills it so much. So that’s why the transfer of the aluminum into these plants now get into our cereals, they get into the pasta, they get into the pizza, they get into everything. Detoxing, as you’ve said, is the main way to kind of keep it from accumulating.
DEBRA: Yes, yes. Exactly. We need to go to break in about two minutes, so tell us about some of the health effects if people have aluminum in their body? How is that harming your body?
MICHAEL FESSLER: Well, probably the latest that we found is from the Canadian government. The cereals are probably the fastest way. They’re so full of aluminum in the corn and the sugar that the first place they found that in mice when they fed aluminum in the water with mice, it went to the liver.
So the liver is getting impacted. We’re finding everybody’s liver is probably the biggest storage unit for aluminum in our body. When that happens, the end result is we start to put on more fluid edema in our body, which translates into obesity.
So these are some of the ways that aluminum affects us. It’s over in three diseases like breast cancer. They found it in the cyst, in the tumor a large amount there. The prostrate is another area where heavy metals accumulate.
I think Liz want to chime in here.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: Yeah, I just have two more to mention. The National Library of Medicine has over 2000 references to the adverse effects of aluminum. And the National Institute of Health classifies aluminum as a neurotoxin, which adversely affects the blood brain barrier and may cause damage.
We also know that it’s used as an adjuvant in vaccines and there’s a lot of concern about this, that the amount in a vaccine impact the child much more rapidly and readily than it would an adult human. And because of that, there can be an imbalance to the amount of aluminum that’s actually getting into their brain.
DEBRA: Wow! It’s everywhere and I can see how it could contribute to so many different illnesses because it hits fundamental things. If the liver is so occupied with collecting the aluminum and then it just sits there in the liver, it’s not detoxing the rest of your body.
We’ll talk more about this when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guests today are Elizabeth and Michael Fessler. They’re the co-founding partners of Herbalix Restoratives. Their website is Herbalix.com. When we come back, they’re going to tell us about their specific detox products that will remove aluminum from your body while you sleep. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guests today are Elizabeth and Michael Fessler, co-founding partners of Herbalix Restoratives. That’s Herbalix.com.
And before we talk about your detox products, I just want to ask you how can people measure the levels of aluminum in the body. I know that a lot of times, I talk to people about detoxing, they say, “Well, I don’t have any heavy metals in my body. I don’t have this in my body, I don’t have that in my body.” They just don’t know. So if somebody wants to test, how do they do that?
MICHAEL FESSLER: Well, that’s a great question because when we did the detox deodorant, we used lab work that used mass spectrometry. And today, the doctors use blood, urine and hair analysis, but we found out it’s not really capturing the true amount in our body.
There’s a French company that is now just entering into the American market here that has developed a portable mass spectrometer that actually tests through the palm of the hand, the skin, the bioavailability of our minerals, our heavy metals. And it’s this actual machine that we’ve been finding if it houses how much aluminum.
Aluminum, for the French doctors who have been working with this is the biggest problem they’re dealing with. It’s even worse here in the United States. So that’s how, if somebody finds somebody with the Oligoscan. I think in the next year or two, you’ll see more and more of those come in because the blood and the urine, lab work is just not capturing these heavy metal.
DEBRA: How do you spell that, Oligoscan?
MICHAEL FESSLER: O-L-I-G-O-S-C-A-N.
DEBRA: That’s amazing! I think I should look for one of those.
MICHAEL FESSLER: Well, yes. And we can provide the information. The company found we were removing metals. They tested our products. So they sent us a machine to test on other people. They use it for clinicals, which is quite an exciting adventure for us lately.
DEBRA: Wow. Wow! So many new and wonderful things in the field of toxics. We’re finding out more and more. When I think about the last 30 years, now we know more than ever and people are more interested than ever and more research is being done than ever.
So tell us about your detox products. I’m sitting here on my desk and I’m so interested that you have a detox deodorant that people can just put it on like deodorant and while they sleep and it removes the aluminum that antiperspirants have deposited in your skin. And then you also have one, it’s a breast cream. And you have one that called Belly Freedom that you put on your belly fat. So you’ve got us covered here. And then we also have a soap. So tell us all about these.
MICHAEL FESSLER: Well, the night time detox deodorant. We call it Mrs. Plumber. You put it on at night time and you can actually put it on the feet because that’s another area. The feet get dried out, it can pull from the feet. So the feet and the underarms and actually, the hands are the terminal ends for getting rid of a lot of heavy metals and cellular wastes.
Now, we found out with thermography that with the Sentinel Breast Cream in conjunction with the Detox Deodorant where you could see the changes of the breast fluids being corrected and making it symmetrical in getting rid of the fluids and restoring the natural flow in the breast.
We’re not going to get into, but we can see some things like the amalgams in effect, that the can be pulled into the breast tissue. And so these are things that a little further, but knowing that the breast cream and detox deodorant work in conjunction with each other.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: Yeah. And it’s important to make certain before you use a breast cream that you have clearance in the underarm because there can be some movement that can be a little uncomfortable in the beginning if there’s no way for you to get rid of those released fluids.
What’s really great about that is actually what we’re addressing in the breast cream is the build-up of calcification, which becomes fibrocystic breast conditions. And we know through this ozonic effect, it’s the salting in and salting out, calcium has been displaced by the aluminum because it’s a higher form of salt and that’s why we have calcification.
And the other part of that is iodine found in kelp is a better salt and a higher form of salt than aluminum, so it actually gets rid of the aluminum and allows your body to opening up the channels to get rid of the aluminum. And behind that aluminum comes all the other toxins that are prevented from being released as it’s blocking or plugging.
DEBRA: So once the aluminum is removed, then do these products work for other heavy metals?
MICHAEL FESSLER: We do have indications that if you put it directly over an organ like the liver, we have detected throughout the whole body a reduction in nickel and cadmium and some other heavy metals. So it’s kind of exciting for us, but we’re right in the midst of a clinical on that one.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: Yes, and we use other ingredients that make it more potent. As you go down the list (first, the detox and the belly fat and the breast cream), they have a larger and larger list of ingredients. The deck is very large because it includes the anti-inflammatories, things like magnesium and selenium and dandelion roots and throw in the castor oil.
What we’re really doing is we’re creating the ability for the body to pull and also absorb some of these nutrients at the same time and get the blood flow going to the visceral fat areas where there is no water. And by creating this effect, we’re actually allowing the body to correct the condition that’s causing the visceral fat build-up and the toxic.
DEBRA: So did I understand you to say that you should use the detox deodorant first and then use the other two? Should you be using them like one by one or altogether? How do people use these?
MICHAEL FESSLER: We actually have a lymphatic chart and we usually start with the detox deodorant on the feet and the underarms for about three days to a week. And then when you put the others in, when these fluids start to move, they will get down to the feet, they will get out of the underarms because those are our main sweating areas at night time.
DEBRA: Good! And can you just explain briefly because we only have about – oh, no! We don’t. We’re going to go to break and then I’ll ask you another question. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. We’re having a very interesting conversation today with my guests, Elizabeth and Michael Fessler who are the founding partners of Herbalix Restorative. Their website is Herbalix.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guests today are Elizabeth and Michael Fessler, co-founding partners of Herbalix Restoratives. Their website is Herbalix.com. We’re talking today about how you can detox very toxic aluminum from your body.
I wanted to make sure we explain what is the process that is being used when the body is really moving – I think you call it skin chelation. How is that similar to what happens when you use a sauna to pull toxic chemicals out through the skin?
MICHAEL FESSLER: Yeah, actually, it’s very similar with a sauna, a swim in the ocean or some form of heat. It helps dilate the skin or it can sweat, artificially sweat and get rid of a lot. So it’s the same method of using the skin to pull the metals that are stagnated. There are 20 lbs. of skin in all of us approximately. And so using these products by osmosis with the kelp, it’s a better salt than what’s in our body. The weak salts would be like aluminum. So it will be attracted to go to the skin.
And at night time, you can wear it for six, seven or eight hours and it can keep working where we can’t stay in a sauna for eight hours, we can’t go swimming for eight hours because it’s just too much on the skin. This is a safe, convenient way to absorb the aluminum salt and to help the skin clean out.
DEBRA: When I think about putting lotion on or a cream on my skin, does it go into your skin? Does it get all over your sheets? I know what people are thinking, “Is it going to be gooey all over the bed?
ELIZABETH FESSLER: You know, this is what we suggest because we are creating poultices. Those are sticky and tacky and they remain on the skin. That’s one of the reasons why we say wear it at night. It also works better at night, but for some people, just to understand that it needs to stay and you don’t want to really have a lot of clothing.
So we suggest that you leave something on the cover of your skin, something light and something that will keep it warm and also something that you don’t mind if it got stained because a lot of the staining are going to come from what you’re pulling through your skin. That’s something that you want to happen, but you don’t want to ruin anything that you own that you like.
And then you’ll find later on in the evening if you’re uncomfortable, you can remove that clothing if it’s bothering you. But certainly, at the beginning hours, you want to have some kind of cover to protect.
DEBRA: That makes sense. So like a t-shirt. If you’re using the deodorant, wear a t-shirt. And then for the other ones, you could just wear a tank top or something just so that there’s something between your body and your bedsheets. That makes a lot of sense.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: Right!
DEBRA: Yeah, yeah. So what else would you like to say that we haven’t talked about. We still have about five minutes left to talk.
MICHAEL FESSLER: You know, the funny name we made for the belly cream, we view it as a detox, but this doctor actually discovered (she came into our building and helped us develop this product) that when you cover from below the rib cage and the whole stomach area, the belly cream helps to go and clean up the lymph nodes. We have a lot of lymph nodes in the stomach.
But the liver, because of the fatty liver, the fat is on the outside closer to the stomach wall. So it’s easier to do that, access it via the skin. So a lot of times, trying to internally cleanse, at first, this brings the toxicity back into the liver or the organ. So this form of ability to purge, it’s better to use at the skin. If it’s been night after night, we can actually get that liver soft.
We actually had people that we tell them to tuck it right into the right rib and feel the liver. If there’s tension in the liver, they’re a good candidate for that product. But it works throughout the whole body because once the liver starts to function its full function, it starts to remove a lot of fluids in the neck, the fingers, in the different parts of the body. So the liver, it’s very important to keep the aluminum out of it.
DEBRA: I totally agree with you. I think that certainly, Belly Freedom is a cuter name than “liver something.”
MICHAEL FESSLER: Well, if we said something like a ‘liver cleanse’, I don’t think anybody would figure that one out. We had to make it kind of…
ELIZABETH FESSLER: …cute.
MICHAEL FESSLER: …a cute name, a BFF to get people to – but once they use it, they understand.
DEBRA: Yeah, that makes sense to me because the liver is there and you can very much focus the detox on the liver by putting it in that area rather than detoxing your whole, entire body. Just say, “Go to the liver and put it just right there.”
So do people really get rid of their belly fat by using this?
ELIZABETH FESSLER: You know, that is a side effect, yes.
DEBRA: It’s a side effect.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: Yes. What happens is you’ll find that there are a lot of changes in the body – as I’ve mentioned, the inflammation. And it may not start with the belly, but it’ll start with other parts.
The thing about the brain is it decides for you where it’s going to work first. So you may notice maybe in the size of your joints, your knuckles, your fingers, your leg. You may have more flexibility. Certainly, sleep patterns will start to change. You may find that you’re going to the bathroom more than before and we want you to do that, all of those things.
Even bad breath in the beginning because you can express through your breath at night all of the toxins that have been stored in that tummy. What happens is many times, the build-up of fat actually interferes with our digestive process.
DEBRA: Wow! This is such a fascinating subject. So let’s see, what else can we ask you? There’s so much to talk about, wow! Let’s talk about aluminum some more so that people really understand more about the health effects. What more can you tell us that we haven’t already talked about?
MICHAEL FESSLER: I think that when we started to research aluminum – and we called Dr. Exley in England and he invited us to go to the aluminum conferences, we were able to sit and share the information about the aluminum toxicity and aluminum as an metal estrogen and how it interferes in so many different ways.
So collectively, we were able to and still do collect sources of aluminum from air, water, food and medication and we’ve effectively seen where it stores in the body from all these aluminum in folks because they’re telling us. What do we do because it’s not regulated by the government? There’s no way that we can harness it like we do mercury and lead. So it’s something that we individually have to address if we’re going to live with it.
So as you’ve said, the detoxing becomes a part of a daily routine, just like brushing your teeth. The fact that we have the Oligoscan and we can see our levels being reduced, so we know how effective it is that one has to detox because it’s just so plentiful.
So you just don’t want aluminum to stay in the body especially for women because they’re a little more acidic. And in physics, acid and aluminum likes to cluster a little bit more, so that’s where the alkaline really helps because it helps to break up the clustering.
And that’s why our products are on the alkaline side because they help the skin to break up the bindings of what aluminum can do.
ELIZABETH FESSLER: And one other thing, women has more fat because we have breasts and that is where we find breast cancer on the rise. It’s the toxins that hide. It’s the purpose of that. The brain says, “Well, I’m going to put the toxins there because it’s not as essential for living.” But eventually, the toxic build-up becomes dangerous to our health and that’s where we find the diseases start to develop.
Aluminum is stored in every tissue, in every cell of the body. It alters the function of the cell because it depletes the calcium in cells. And without the calcium, we don’t have the proper function in the cell because cells depends on sodium, potassium and calcium. Something as basic as this can have an effect and that’s where break down occurs.
DEBRA: Amazing! Everything that you’re saying, I’m just sitting here thinking, “I haven’t heard most of this before.” But it all makes sense to me based on other things that I’ve read about other chemicals. You just think of aluminum as being such a – you know, we wrap our food in aluminum foil and all these things.
I was looking at your list and so many of these different types of aluminum are used in food packaging. And I was thinking if people just didn’t eat packaged food, they would eliminate a lot of their aluminum exposure. And that’s just one thing right there.
Well, thank you so much for being on the show today. I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing all these wonderful information with us. Again, my guest today have been Elizabeth and Michael Fessler. Their website is Herbalix.com. Thank you again!
ELIZABETH FESSLER: Thank you, Debra.
MICHAEL FESSLER: Thank you, Debra.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. You’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com to get more information. Be well!
Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, R.Ph, a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. In our last interview, we talked about my brother’s death from prescription drugs. Today we’ll talk about how natural remedies can act as a bridge to move away from taking prescription drugs and their side effects. Pamela is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, where she studied Pharmacognosy (the study of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources). She has worked as an integrative pharmacist teaching physicians, pharmacists and the general public about the proper use of botanicals. She is also a grant reviewer for NIH in Washington D.C. and the owner of Botanical Resource and Botanical Resource Med Spa in Clearwater, Florida. www.botanicalresource.com
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH PAMELA SEEFELD
- Vaccines: Harmful or Necessary?
- Evaluating A Study and Testing a Test
- Seven Deadly Drugs
- The Hidden Dangers Affecting Your Heart and How You Can Protect It Naturally
- What We Can Do About Cancer
- The Power of pH
- How to Protect Your Health From Toxic Mercury Dental Fillings
- Pharmacology 101: How to Use What Pharmacists Know to Take Supplements to Best Advantage
- Are You Heading For Kidney Failure? Natural Remedies Can Help
- How to Keep Your Blood Vessels Open and Flowing With Supplements
- How Inactivity Leads to Illness and Drug Use—And How Exercise Can Get You Off Drugs and into Health
- How to Protect the Environment from Pharmaceutical Pollution by Using Natural Medicinals
- Hidden Toxic Dangers in Common Dietary Supplements
- See More Clearly with Natural Remedies
- Hidden Mental Health Dangers in Common Drugs
- Different Types of Detox
- How Natural Remedies Could Have Saved A Life
- Natural Alternatives to Sleeping Pills
- Natural Back Pain Treatment Options That Work
- How Toxics Age Your Body & What You Can Do to Stay Young
- You CAN Lose Weight—Even if You’ve Had Difficulty Losing Weight Before
- Calcium—Is There Really a Deficiency in America?
- It’s Cold and Flu Season—How to Support Your Immune System and Why You Shouldn’t Get a Toxic Flu Shot
- How Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help Your Cells Create Health
- Toxic Psychiatry and How to Have Mental Health Without Drugs
- Why You Should Take Fish Oil and How To Choose the Right One for You
- Medicinal Plants Can Replace Toxic Drugs
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Getting Off Prescription Drugs with Natural Remedies
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Pamela Seefeld, P.Ph.s
Date of Broadcast: February 11, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. It’s Wednesday, February 11th, almost Valentine’s Day. It’s February 11th, 2015.
We have a beautiful, early spring day here in Florida. My office is what’s called a Florida room here, which is a room that has big windows. It’s got 17 ft. of windows. I think it’s 17 ft. or something like that. And as I do the show, I just look out the windows into my beautiful backyard with oak trees and birds flying by.
In the spring time, I have this whole bank of beautiful azaleas right under my window and they’re starting to bloom. They’re just starting. So for the next two weeks, we’re going to have beautiful azaleas. And so spring is starting to be here. Even if you’re in the snow in Florida, it’s starting to be spring.
So my guest today is Pamela Seefeld. She’s a registered pharmacist who prefers to dispense medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drugs. She’s been on many times before. I have her on every other Wednesday because she has so much information and prescription drugs. Even over-the-counter drugs have so many health effects.
The last show we did – actually, two weeks ago, we did a replay because I didn’t do any live shows last week. But a month ago, we did a show about how prescription drugs just undermine your health over a lifetime of taking them. We did that because of the recent death of my brother from prescription drugs. So if you haven’t listened to that show, you might want to take a listen to that one.
But today, what we’re going to talk about is how to get off prescription drugs and also other types of drugs that are over-the-counter or even recreational drugs or psychiatric drugs that often, you can’t just quit. Natural remedies can be used as a bridge between taking these drugs and being off of them.
So welcome, Pamela.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Hey! It’s great to be here.
Debra: Thank you. It’s always nice to have you on. I always like talking about this. You are a – wait a minute, I have to find the word. I keep forgetting it. What’s the word? It’s pharma—
PAMELA SEEFELD: Pharmacognosy.
Debra: Pharmacognosy! That’s right. I have it here in the description somewhere. There it is right there. So I always love giving that word because I’m very happy to know that there is a whole field called pharmacognosy that is just about the healing power of plants.
The word itself, pharma-, that’s a drug, but cognosy means information, intelligence. It really describes what a plant does. A plant has its own intelligence. It can work with your body and all of the nature intelligence that happens between different kinds of natural things. it’s so different from what a drug is.
So with that said, let’s start talking about how people can get off prescription drugs with natural remedies. Let’s start with psychiatric drugs.
PAMELA SEEFELD: I just kind of picked a few different things and then we can just expand upon that. Anti-depressants, we’ll go through that category first. So if a person has some depression symptoms, they go to the doctor and the doctor give them most commonly something called an SSRI, which is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. These drugs include Zoloft, Paxil and Prozac. They’re very commonly prescribed.
And in fact, many times, in most cities here in the country, they test positive for these in the water supply because there’s so much of it.
It’s in the tap water now.
Debra: That’s just amazing!
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah, it’s in most municipalities – that and cholesterol lowering drugs and estrogen from birth control pills and from women taking estrogen. Those three things are found ubiquitously in water supplies around the country.
Debra: Another reason to get a water filter.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly! That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Well said.
So let’s say that somebody has depression and they go on these medicines. And then what happens is the original instance that they were depressed about maybe passes (maybe they lost a loved one or something like that) and then they end up staying on these things for long periods of time.
So to avoid this, basically, most of the time, the physician won’t re-evaluate at any point coming in the future. They’ll basically just stay on it and maybe even the person thinks that they need this medicine because they’ve gotten so accustomed to it.
The neurons, when you start taking these medicines away, there’s a process that takes place and it’s called neuronal retreat. What it does is the neurons start to retract from where they’re branched out. And so that’s what explains the transient amnesia for some people, the anxiety, the sleep problems, all these things that gets them anxious and make them think that they can’t get off the medicine
So there’s a physiological change in the brain that takes place taking these things that needs to be addressed before you take them away.
So a lot of the times when we look at the brain and we talk about taking away anti-depressants, first and foremost, we need to say, “Okay, what’s going on in the frontal cortex where we do our thinking and reasoning?”
The brain is folic acid and it’s made of omega 3 fish oil. So what I normally do for people if they’re trying to come off of these, what we normally would say is that, “Okay, to avoid these electrical impulses in the brain, this foggy thinking, the anxiety, all these side effects that happen when you first try and take the medicine away, what we want to do is we want to refurbish the brain. And at the same time, we really want to use Body Anew, a homeopathic detox to just clean out all the stuff in the body that might be contributing to it.”
So really, the hallmark of taking away an anti-depressant would be first and foremost is to say, “With the depression that you had,” you kind of go back and look, “was that issue resolved?” If there’s an underlying depression, that can be a problem.
But what clinically is shown (and there’s been studies with this) is that if you used a product called OmegaBrite – OmegaBrite is a fish oil, it’s a 7:1 ratio of EPA to DHA. It was developed by Dr. Andrew Stole. He’s a Harvard psychiatrist. He did a double-blind placebo-controlled trial with Zoloft, which is the anti-depressant we are discussing. And in the trial, it was actually better for depression than Zoloft. That’s very, very important for people to realize. Think about that.
There is a fish oil developed by a psychiatrist. He’s a doctor he lectures worldwide. He’s very famous. He’s at Harvard University. This is his product. He has a patent on it. He did the study, the clinical data that show that this works better than Zoloft. That’s very important for your patients and the people that are listening to this show. Don’t you agree?
Debra: I do. So explain why it’s better to take this natural remedy than taking the Zoloft. Why is it better for your body to do that?
PAMELA SEEFELD: So omega 3 fish oil, I’m sure there’s somebody perhaps listening to this on the computer or on the radio and saying, “Well, I take fish oil. I know about fish oil. I take that every day.” Well, there different concentrations of EPA to DHA. The 7:1 ratio that Dr. Andrew Stole has patented and he did the studies on is the one that shows to be the most advantageous for depression.
The reason why you would want to use a natural product instead of the anti-depressant is that the fish oil itself does not have these long-term side effects and you would want to be on omega 3 fish oils anyway because we know fish oil turns on over 300 different genes in the body, it works effectively against cardiovascular disease, cancer, anti-inflammatory. So it’s doing all of these other heart-healthy things.
We look at heart disease being the no. 1 killer in the country. We know that this is something that is really, very important. In fact, isn’t this American Heart Moms? They wear red…?
Debra: I think it is. I was thinking we should be talking about heart, but I wanted to talk about this…
PAMELA SEEFELD: It is! These all coincides with it because you only want to know that omega 3 fish oils, it’s imperative for the brain function, but also, it’s so significant for the heart.
In fact, when people do studies on omega 3’s and they radio-label it, so they can see it lighting up in the body and they do PET scans, in the very beginning, if you just started taking omega 3’s and maybe you haven’t been taking them in a long-term basis, the heart takes up quite a bit of it. It concentrates and it’ll light up. So it’s really important to know that sometimes you have to saturate these areas.
Debra: We’ll talk more about this when we come back. We need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Pamela Seefeld. She is a pharmacognocist, which is a special field of the study of medicinal plants. She’s also a registered pharmacist who can dispense drugs, but she likes plants better. She’s telling us today about how you can take plants instead of drugs. We’ll be right back.
Pamela, before we go on, please tell the listeners how they can reach you. Pamela has a business and website called Botanical Resource at BotanicalResource.com, but the best thing to do is to just call her up on the phone and she will talk to you about whatever drugs you’re taking and tell you what you can do to get off of them.
She can also help you with any physical condition you have or your children or your pets and she’s happy to do that free. So give her a call. Pamela, tell everyone how they can reach you.
PAMELA SEEFELD: The number here is 727-442-4955. That’s 727-442-4955. I would be greatly honored to help any of you or your family member with any questions you have about your medications. Perhaps you want to get off of medications or you know it’s coming and they want to prescribe you something. I would be most happy to help you with that selection and prescribe something that’s natural for you that would be very effective.
Debra: She’s very good and she’s very well-known here in this community where I live in Clearwater, Florida because she’s helped so many people here. All the doctors know who she is. All the doctors I’ve ever talked to know who she is and she’s just very well-regarded. So take advantage of the help that she can give you.
Alright! So let’s go on. We were talking about anti-depressants.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct! So we were talking about using something that has effectiveness. Someone might say they want to take 5-HTP. I think it’s 5-HTP is good. It turns into serotonin. Maybe they want to take other kinds of natural mood boosters. That’s fine. But if you’re really trying to get off of a prescription, you want to definitely have some kind of meditation that is really going to work.
The thing that you need to do is use specifically and foremost the anti-depressant fish oil by Dr. Stole if you really want to come off the medication. So I would tell you that that’s the most effective medicine that you could use .
And with that, we know that folic acid works specifically to remyelinatethe outside of the nerves. High dose folic acid (and I usually use 5 mg.) is very specific to – it binds to serotonin. There are five serotonin receptors in the brain. It binds to four of them. So you get natural anti-depressant activity with folic acid.
Most people know folic acid as being something that’s used when they’re pregnant and they’re trying to protect against neural tube defects. Why do we take folic acid when women are pregnant? Because they want to prevent these specific birth defects that take place and those are in the brain. We know that it has high affinity for the brain and it’s very specific to refurbish those areas.
So you would be taking this for a cognitive boost, so to speak, preventing against neurological decline, preventing against dementia, preventing against Alzheimer’s, all these other things that maybe someday, you’d be concerned about and that you’d be taking these same products as well.
So I think it’s just all-encompassing to take the high dose folic acid. Take the OmegaBrite and you take these at the same time as taking the anti-depressant for about two to three weeks and then you start breaking, just putting the anti-depressants away. I’ve done this hundreds of times and it works very well.
Debra: That’s so great. That’s so great. Well, let’s talk about pain because there’s so many people that are in pain. Isn’t this one of the top reasons why people start taking drugs in the first place?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. Pain is a very important subject and I think we really need to spend some time on that. So what happens is somebody gets in a car accident, they lifted something to heavy, whatever happens with this train or they doing backyard work, whatever happens. All of a sudden, they’re injured, they go to the doctor, they give them a narcotic and they start becoming addicted to the narcotic. We know opiates have tolerance and dependence, so after a while, you need more medicine, you need to take it more frequently and you need to get higher dose.
So that’s the problem. I think sometimes when people have an injury and if they were to realize that eventually, it’s going to set them up to this long-term addiction, they really would have second thoughts of embracing the medicine in the first place. I really think that’s true of a lot of people.
Debra: Yes.
PAMELA SEEFELD: But we look at it and we say, “Okay, there are different kinds of pain.” And actually, the new studies show that someone who has a back injury has a far better outcome if they use heat, physical therapy, massage and using anti-inflammatories, very specific doses for a period of time (maybe Ibuprofen or Naproxen). The trick with these kind of things if you have an injury is to take them three times a day with foods for let’s say five days, seven days or something like that.
This basically gets inflammation down. They found that the people that actually the anti-inflammatories on a scheduled basis for a short period of time have a far better outcome. They’re back to work. They’re feeling better.
We see a lot of this. I’m not against this. There are lot of workmen who gets comp, right, where someone gets injured. They go to the doctor and they get narcotics and there’s a high propensity for these people not to return to work. And so we lose a lot of productivity because basically, they’re not getting better, but then too, there’s an impairment issue with the narcotics, correct?
So they’re taking this on a long-term basis. It’s not going to be a week or two. They’re going to be on this for months, maybe years.
So if you have a back injury, I’m not saying you can’t be on narcotics. I’m sure a lot of people who are listening are maybe on pain medicines and want to get off of them, but you need to look and see where it’s working.
It’s working in the brain. It’s called a centrally-acting pain medication, right? And if you have a fresh injury and you want to have the highest outcome and get back to your regular schedule (you’re working out, you’re going to work), you really need to embrace some anti-inflammatories and maybe some muscle relaxants first and foremost before you ever touch a narcotic.
Debra: Because a narcotic only decreases pain. It doesn’t do anything to help heal your body, right?
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s exactly right. And when you take a narcotic (you’re taking oxycodone or hydrocodone, Vicodin, Percocet, all these types of things), when you take that, there’s no solving taking place – none, zero. What is it doing? It just blocks your perception of pain in the brain. So you still have the injury, you still are sore, it’s still inflamed, but your perception or your thinking of it is gone.
Debra: So then you might go out and play a round of golf or whatever or whatever activities you like to do and you’re just aggravating the injury.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly! That’s exactly right.
Debra: …because you’re not having the perception. This is one of the reasons why I don’t take pain pills. If I have a cold or something, I don’t take drugs because they cover up awareness of what’s really going on with your body and I want to know if my body is getting well, I want to have a real perception of what’s really going on in my body so that I can do the right thing to help support its healing. And when you take narcotics, that all goes out the window.
We need to go to break again, but we’ll be back and talk more about this. We’re also going to be talking about sleep aides. We’re going to cover it today. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants at her business called Botanical Resource. That’s at BotanicalResource.com. When we come back, we’ll tell you again how you can call her and get her personal advice. We’ll be right back.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, just call me here at my pharmacy. All consultations are free and I’d be very happy to look at what you’re taking and see if there’s something else, an alternative. I’ve been doing this for 25 years. The number here at Botanical Resource is 747-442-4955. Please let me help you, I’d be glad to.
Debra: Yes. And tell her that you heard her on the radio, so she’ll know. So we were talking about pain killers.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Correct. And your wording is really great, talking about you want to know and have the perception of the pain, so you know not to be reinjured or that you might be harming yourself. People really get their mind around that. Blocking out the perception of an injury is not the solution because what’s going to happen is first of all, you might become addicted to the medicine, which is highly likely. Secondly, you’re not really solving where the problem is because the pain reliever is blocking the signal from your brain to the injury.
So you really want to start using anti-inflammatories. If you don’t want to use Ibuprofen and Naproxen and these types of things that are over-the-counter, curcumin (standardized turmeric) works excellent. It’s a COX-2 inhibitor. It works like Celebrex. It’s a very strong anti-inflammatory. And don’t forget omega 3 fish oils. Taking these things on a scheduled basis three times a day, taking curcumin, which is a really great product with with boswellia and turmeric, these things work in tandem and are actually better than medication. You can do this.
Let me point out something else too with the narcotics. It’s not only with the addiction and the poor outcomes, which they see with an injury, also, if you’re losing lots of Ibuprofen (like a lot of these athletes are popping Ibuprofen for injuries because they have to keep in form, a football player perhaps), those have a high activity for damaging the kidneys and a lot of these people end up in kidney failure. So people need to realize these are not innocuous products.
Debra: No, but they do. They take them like candy.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yeah.
Debra: But I also want to mention that particularly for pain, if there’s been an injury or even – I’m trying to think. I’ve been in a couple of car accidents. But just in the everyday wear and tear of life, you can end up having aches and pains (you’re sitting in chair wrong for two hours and things like that), I think massage is great and it’s not even something you take. It’s so helpful for getting rid of those pains and actually healing and moving things back to the right place and getting the tension out of the muscles.
And so we could think outside of the box altogether here when it comes to pain. That’s why I like to feel my pain. That’s why I like to feel my pain, because I know it’s gone.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, yeah, exactly. The whole idea is that behind this, if you have an injury – you’re going to be injured at some point in your life, maybe not so severely, but you’re going to lift something heavy, you’re going to do something, you’re going to get in an accident. This is inevitable for everybody. Everyone’s got strains and pulls.
But it’s how you solve the problem and the methods that you employ and what you take, that’s where it’s going to improve your whole outcome. One time that you end up taking narcotics for a back injury or for something that happened, that may be could’ve been treated with some homeopathic muscle relaxants, with some fish oil, with some anti-inflammatories that have the same kind of data, that does show it blocks COX-2 or blocks eicosanoids that cause pain and doing this in a natural manner and having high effectiveness, there’s an empowerment to it as well. You’re not going to be addicted to these things and you’re not going to run the risk of having kidney failures as a result of taking too many of these what are called NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents) that are either prescription or over-the-counter.
These are real risks. People need to realize – even myself from a pharmacist’s perspective, I really have to question whether all these people really need these things and they wouldn’t have done better with some natural products in the beginning.
Debra: Yes, I agree. I totally agee. Okay, good! So should we move on to sleep aides?
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, I think that’s good. So, sleeping and anxiety. We just picked up two common problems that people have and that they might reach for a medicine during these issues.
Sleeping, a lot of people have sleep issues. That’s a pretty common thing. I still think people should rule out sleep apnea. Sleep studies are really important. The doctor can address that. Some people do not breathe consistently when they’re sleeping and as a result, they don’t get to REM sleep.
But say the person is pretty healthy, it doesn’t look like they have a sleep issue besides the sleep apnea and they want to go on something for sleep. They’d go to the doctor and he gives them Xanax or Ativan or Valium. The person is taking this drug (it’s called a benzodiazepines) and maybe they’re even taking some during the day for anxiety. When you’re taking these medicines, we know that these medicines have tolerance and dependence just like the narcotics. So sometimes, you need more medicine. After a while, you become addicted to it. There’s a physical and a psychological addiction. You think you need it and you also physically need it. I tell people, “Before you go down the road of taking benzos, you need to realize that this is a long-term game.”
You really can get away with using a medical grade passion flower, which is a partial agonist to the receptor, the benzodiazepine receptor. So when you have agonistic activity on there, it actually can take the place of drugs and it can actually take the drug off.
Say we have somebody that’s been on a benzo and they want to come off of it, what we’d normally use is a high dose folic acid to start repairing the brain. We would also use a calming fish oil. I normally use Pro-DHA and Pro-DHA 1000 because that’s going to start taking some of the anxiety away and it has a calming, focusing effect on the brain.
Those products typically are DHA to EPA, 4:1, some place in that range. And when we do that, with the passion flower, what it’s going to do is it’s going to start actually repairing the brain itself as far as the areas where you go into sleep. But the drug and the passion flower, they’re going to both hit the receptor and as a result of it, it kind of fakes out the brain and the brain is not going to know which medicine is actually on it. And that’s the beauty of it.
So you can take passion flower and tolerance and dependence are not side effects with it and you get the same outcome as in taking a benzo.
Debra: And I’ve experienced that because you’ve given me passion flower and I wasn’t taking any kind of sleeping pill drugs before that, but my ability to sleep is sometimes better and sometimes worse, but it’s getting better and better.
When I took the passion flower, I noticed that I just went to sleep right away and I slept all the night and then I woke up and I felt fine. And after a while, I just forgot to take it – and a while was maybe two or three weeks…
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes.
Debra: I just forgot to take it and I just kept sleeping. So something shifted by taking that for me. I think its’ a really good idea for people to get off sleeping pills.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, it is.
Debra: Yeah, yeah. Why don’t you tell us again your phone number? We’re coming right up on the break.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. So if you’d like to reach me here at my pharmacy, please call me at 727-442-4955. I can do any type of medication, not even limited to the ones we’ve discussed so far today.
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, a registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of drugs. Her website is BotanicalResource.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Pamela Seefeld, she’s a registered pharmacist who dispenses medicinal plants and other natural substances instead of prescription drug.
Pamela, since this is National Heart Health Month or whatever it’s called, let’s talk about what kind of medicines are people taking for heart problems that maybe they shouldn’t be taking and what they can take instead.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Well, elevated cholesterol. That would be something that would be important to realize. Cholesterol lowering medications, especially statin medications (Pravastatin and Simvastatin, all these different medicines), they have very specific side effects. When I see a patient that’s on these, the two things you have to really worry about liver damage and you have to worry about something called rhabdomyolysis.
Rhabdomyolysis isa severe attack on the muscles and it causes muscle weakness. Sometimes people don’t realize they’re having it. They feel like they’re just a little sore, maybe they overdid it.
I have clients of mine that used to like to golf all the time and they can barely lift up their arms now because the rhabdo, people don’t understand that in some cases, in many cases sometimes, the muscle damage is permanent.
What the medical establishment has done (and I understand their thinking behind that) is that when they put someone in a statin to monitor their liver enzymes, they see them every three months, they take a blood test to see if the liver enzymes have elevated. So most people have that comfort level that’s, “Okay, they’re checking my liver enzymes, everything is fine,” but actually, that’s not fine because by the time they catch the problem, sometimes the liver enzymes do not come back to baseline.
I don’t know if people realize it. There are two very important side effects with this medicine. I have seen people come in that are having severe muscle weakness and I told them, “You know, it’s probably your statin medication. You need to take what they call a ‘drug holiday’. Take a few weeks off from it and see how you’re feeling” and all of a sudden, the pain goes away.
So this is really important to realize that it can be overlooked sometimes and your healthcare practitioner might not cue into that because you might shake your pain with lots of housework, athletic activities and things like that.
So for cholesterol, most people know about red rice yeast. That’s really a very common medication. And that actually works. It’s a small dose and it works like a statin just like Mevacor, but it’s a very, very lose dose. But if somebody has a history of liver problem with the regular prescription cholesterol-lowering medicine, red rice yeasts, these are not candidates for that. And I’m not even a big fan of lowering cholesterol anyways.
Debra: Why is that? Why, why?
PAMELA SEEFELD: The reason why is because – and actually, there was a study I just read today that said that the different associations in this country are not recommending eat a low cholesterol diet. They found they don’t need to be taking cholesterol out of their diet.
The reason why is that cholesterol is made by every cell in your body. And if somebody has uncontrolled inflammation and their cholesterol level is elevated, then sure, they’ll have risks of cardiovascular disease because the inflammation allows the cholesterol to stick to the side of the blood vessel.
So if inflammation is controlled, then you really don’t need to be lowering the cholesterol because what’s happening is it’s an inflammatory process. Most people don’t realize that.
And also, too, a lot of people, blood sugar being mildly elevated (it could be in the 90s or even close to a hundred), it still says ‘normal range’. When they pull their blood draw, the doctor doesn’t really acknowledge the fact that the sugar is turning into cholesterol. So you have to look at two things. If you really think cholesterol is a problem, it’s not. The problem is uncontrolled inflammation or elevated fasting blood sugar and both of those things being present can put you at risk for a cardiovascular event.
People are looking under the wrong rock. We’ve got several rocks there. We’ve got the rock of the sugar. The next rock is is your cholesterol elevated and is there inflammation. For the heart to be healthy, we know that very specifically, we want to do some kind of physical exercise. I don’t care what it is. Walking is pretty good. And eating halfway decent. Mediterranean diet is what they’re really proposing most commonly now because they know there’s the nuts, the vegetables, the fish. All these things have heart healthy implications.
And really inflammation is the key. If people’s inflammation is not down (and fish oil can bring the inflammation down and turmeric can bring the inflammation down), what I would tell to see that you have the healthiest heart and have the best outcome, whatever you’re taking, make sure that your doctor, when he does the split draw orders some inflammation markers – a c-reactive protein, oestrogen, sed rate. There’s a bunch of them. You can just ask your doctor, “Please, can I have some inflammation markers on my blood draw.” And if you see that they’re elevated , you know you have to do something about it. That is very, very important.
And in fact, the doctors (or the cardiovascular doctors at least) are doing c-reactive proteins pretty routinely, but your regular doctor might not do it.
Debra: Well, I’ve never had anybody do those. I’ve never seen that on a blood test that I know of. And in fact, I just want to say this just because this just happened to me last month. I get blood tests every three months and I go to the same lab every time and cholesterol is one of the things that I get checked. And all of a sudden, I thought, “You know what? The doctor didn’t say anything about my cholesterol.” I went and I look at the lab test because I always ask for my lab test – and you know, I had them back for eight years.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly!
Debra: I looked on my blood test and there was no cholesterol on the blood test. Now, I know my doctor ordered it and the lab just simply didn’t do it. So you need to make sure when you go in and get your lab test that all the tests that were ordered get done.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Exactly!
Debra: That’s our tip for today.
PAMELA SEEFELD: That’s a very good advice. And if you are concerned, you have heart issues in your family since these things run in families, but also if you have a high stress job and you’re anxious all the time (a lot of people, their anxiety levels are pretty high nowadays, just people trying to get everything done), stress definitely increases inflammation.
We know that when people are stressed out, they start putting on belly fat. It allows levels of fat to be deposited much more effectively. And it elevates the cholesterol, it elevates the blood sugar. Knowing your inflammatory markers and to see if they’re elevated, that’s a very, very important piece of information. And if they’re not doing that, you can call me here and I can talk to you a little bit more about what it entails.
But I think a lot of people are being poorly served in that sense. If we’re looking at the heart health, folic acid and fish oil are very important – good diet, exercise every day. All these are so important. But you need to know if you’re dealing with inflammation. That’s kind of like a stealth killer.
If you have inflammation that’s so high – and these markers are non-specific, but they’re very, very indicative of inflammation that’s taking place in the whole body, but we’re particularly concerned about the blood vessels because when inflammation is in the blood vessels, they become sticky and it allows all these different things to start sticking to them. That’s what really causes cardiovascular disease.
If you can treat the inflammation with some natural products and if you know you have elevated inflammatory markers, you have tools to do something with that. I think most people are missing that.
Debra: I think so too. So if people need to lower their inflammation, how would you do that naturally?
PAMELA SEEFELD: If somebody has an elevated CRP, I would tell them that I usually use an anti-inflammatory called Tramiel. It’s a homeopathic product and that’s really good because it works for the muscles, but it works more on a cellular level. Omega 3 fish oils are excellent at lowering CRP. If you have an elevated CRP and you wanted to get it down quicker, you need to do it more than once a day, maybe even like with each meal or something like that, omega 3’s. And I would say probably 5000 mg. a day to try and get that number down.
And don’t forget turmeric. I’m a big fan of turmeric. Turmeric is an excellent anti-inflammatory, very specific. It works just like Celebrex, which is a prescription. It’s a COX-2 inhibitor. And some products even has boswellia in there. But fish oil can do quite a great job on this particular problem. But like I said, you need to just probably take it three times during the day to really have complete effectiveness.
Debra: Yeah. Yeah, good. Well, we only have a couple of minutes left. That is such good information today. You always give good information. I always learn something when I have you on this show and I’m sure my listeners do too.
So tell us again how you can help them and what your phone number is.
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes. So if you are interested in coming off of your cholesterol lowering medicine, your anti-depressants, narcotics or if you have any kind of an issue for you or your family or a loved one, I would be very helpful in helping you come off of these things and I’d be very grateful to be able to do that for you.
You can reach here at Botanical Resource at 727-442-4955. Let me help you look at your options and see what you can do. You can even email me your blood work and I’ll go over it with you and tell you if there’s something that I see coming now or in the future. You can triage these problems and avoid going on medicines altogether ever.
Debra: Yeah, this is a very interesting thing that Pamela does because she can look into the future, she can look at your blood test and tell you what is already developing. You might not see the symptoms right now, but you can see what’s coming in the future and what drugs that your doctors are going to prescribe for these things. She can stop these things with natural remedies before they happen by getting to whatever the disorder is in the early stages.
I think that’s really fascinating. I met someone else this week actually who can do that too by looking at blood tests. It’ s amazing what your blood can tell you.
She’s a wealth of information, a lot of help here. She also has a whole shop here in Clearwater. So she can ship to you whatever it is that you need if it’s not available to you locally. She can just take good care of you.
So we just have a few seconds left. So I’m going to just say thank you once again. Pamela will be on…
PAMELA SEEFELD: Yes, thank you.
Debra: You’re welcome. Pamela will be on again two weeks from now. And you can also go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and listen to past shows if you want to. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well!
DIY Natural Bedding
Question from cheseldm
Hi Debra,
I found this company on line and thought you and your readers would be interested. I am not connected with this company. Just interested in creating a non-toxic home.
P.S. Thank you for your wonderful website. It has greatly help me and my husband.
Debra’s Answer
Oh this is great! Thank you! I’m going to put this on Debra’s List.
DIY Natural Bedding is about letting you have your mattress and pillow your way. They have all the natural materials (including GOTS certified organic fabrics). They have patterns so you can get materials and make your own mattress at home, or they will sew it for you. You choose and control everything.
Mattress fill is latex or wool, more choices for pillows. They even sell the notions, like zipper by the foot.
I just spoke with Deborah and she’s going to be a guest on Toxic Free Talk Radio on Tuesday, 24 February 15. Listen live or play the archived recording.
Nontoxic dresser and night stand
Question from L Budin
Hi Debra,
I would like a list of furniture manufacturers who make furniture that is free of carcinagens and toxic odors. I am asthmatic and have gone thru two different sets of bedroom furniture that I now have to discard. Help!
Debra’s Answer
I don’t have a list of manufacturers, but you probably have some nontoxic wood furniture right in your own community.
Look in the yellow pages for “unfinished wood furniture.”
I have purchased most of my furniture at unfinished wood furniture stores. Most of the pieces still don’t have any finish on them—just bare wood. But you can finish them yourself with any nontoxic finish.
Everything I didn’t buy at an unfinished wood furniture store I bought used at auctions or salvage stores. My desk where I write every day is an old oak library table from Stanford University that was taken apart and was sitting in pieces at a salvage yard. All the edges were frayed but it was a beautiful table. My husband sawed the edges off and put an edging of purpleheart wood and a nontoxic finish. It’s the most gorgeous desk in the world. $50 for the desk and I don’t remember how much the purpleheart wood was, maybe another $50. So $100 and lots of love. I should take a picture…
Fumes from Maytag Gas Range
Question from sttlove
I purchased a new Maytag gas range, but have been unable to use the oven because the fumes make my eyes burn and give me a headache. I called the company and they said it is a coating and it needs to burn off, but it still hasn’t. I suspect that it is the insulation inside the oven that is bothering me.
Would an oven that doesn’t have self-cleaning be less toxic because it would have less insulation and coatings inside?
Are there any recommendations on a gas oven brand or model that is less toxic?
Or, should I continue on my hunt for a used one that has finished its off-gassing?
Debra’s Answer
You’re best bet is to get a used oven that has finished outgassing.
The last oven I bought was a Whirlpool gas range that was a floor model. It had been sitting there quite some time and when I brought it home there were no odors of any kind. I think it was because it had been sitting out on the floor for months.
Mattress fill is latex or wool, more choices for pillows. They even sell the notions, like zipper by the foot.
Safe Scents: It’s OK to Use Real Aromatherapy Products
My guest today is Claudia Cusani, Founder of Sage Canyon Botanicals. She makes bodycare products from organic botanical ingredients and her signature blends of real aromatherapy using essential oils—”curative plant essences that gently promote wellness.” We’ll be talking about how natural fragrances can be healing, unlike synthetic scents, which can be harmful to health. Claudia was a professional singer until fifteen years ago, when she took a detour from her music career to follow an avid interest in alternative medicine and the study of therapeutic massage. She obtained her license, set up shop, and built a practice where the use of soothing botanicals and essential oils became an important adjunct to hands-on therapy. She found they clearly enhanced her clients’ well-being and overall treatment results. The profound beauty of essential oils was a siren call for Claudia. Enchanted by their fragrances and intrigued by their vast clinical applications, she delved more deeply into the study and practice of aromatherapy and began to create her own essential oil blends. To someone like her, with allergic sensitivities who could not tolerate commercial skin preparations, candles or room sprays, these beguiling essences offered a fresh new world of possibilities. She decided to share her passion with others by handcrafting 100% natural and organic products using her favorite personal aromatherapy blends. And Sage Canyon Botanicals was born. www.sagecanyon.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Safe Scents: It’s Okay to Use Real Aromatherapy Products
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Claudia Cusani
Date of Broadcast: February 04, 2015
DEBRA: Hi I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
It’s Wednesday, February 4th, 2015. And today we’re going to be talking about fragrances and scents, and what’s good and what’s not good.
I know we talk a lot about synthetic fragrances and scented products and how they can cause a variety of problems and there are some people who, I know, are listening today are extremely sensitive to fragrances and there are other people who are wearing really strong fragrances and are probably making them sick and they don’t even know it.
Synthetic fragrances are something that we need to stay away from. But on the other hand, natural fragrances are something that can actually be beneficial to us. But on the other hand –
I remember many, many years ago when I first started learning about the dangers of synthetic fragrances and I started trying to avoid them (which was difficult, it’s a lot easier now than it was then), but at that time, I remember going to a little shop in San Francisco – I don’t think it’s there anymore – but what they did in that shop is they sold unscented products and then put custom fragrances in them for you and they were all natural essential oils.
I could make up any fragrance that I wanted. I was so excited because I knew what I was trying to avoid was this synthetic fragrance, and here are all these natural lovely natural things to choose from.
And so what I came up with my shampoo was a combination of vanilla and mint and it was so wonderful! So wonderful! I’ve never seen that in a commercial product that they made it for me and I just loved it. I realize that there were many fragrances that I could enjoy as natural fragrances and they didn’t make me sick.
Some people I know who are sensitive to fragrances do react to even in natural fragrances, but that’s their own, individual reaction. And I want to make sure that in a world where we need to watch out for synthetic fragrances, that we also aren’t throwing the baby out with the bath water and thinking that natural fragrances are harmful as well because they aren’t and in fact they can be healing. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
My guest is Claudia Cusani. She’s the founder of Sage Canyon and she makes body products from organic botanical ingredients. She has her own blends of real aromatherapy essential oils, curative plant essences that gently promote wellness.
Hi Claudia!
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Hi Debra! How are you?
DEBRA: I’m very good. How are you?
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Fine, thanks. And thank you for having me on your show today.
DEBRA: You’re welcome.
Tell us something about yourself. How you got interested in working with aromatherapy?
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Well, my story is sort of twofold. I started my life as a professional singer and music was my first love. After graduating from high school, I attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and then moved to New York City, which was my home base for several years while I gigged at various points on the map.
I enjoyed it very much. The music world is fascinating; the business, not so much. The ability to express myself musically and bring joy to others was wonderful, but there was a subtext to the story that was eventually to become one of the main factors in my journey to Sage Canyon.
And that is that I have always been a physically very sensitive person. I was a sickly child. I was constantly unwell with respiratory and ear infections, fatigue and intestinal problems.
I grew up in a home like a lot of people do where people smoked cigarettes and ate processed food. We had a wonderful dog that I couldn’t get near because he’d make me sneeze. The bed sheets were washed in Tide because that’s what everybody said made them clean, but all they did was make me itch; and on and on and on.
These problems carried on into adulthood with constant manifestations of what I eventually came to understand where reactions to unhealthy aspects of my environment. During my childhood, I had loving parents, but I was a child during a time when nobody was really connecting those dots, as you have mentioned, between our environment and what we ate and the state of our health. There was very little guidance as to the root of these ailments.
DEBRA: Yes!
CLAUDIA CUSANI: So in my early 20s, just on my own, as a way to try to heal myself, I started to try to connect the dots for myself and I began to utilize holistic medical approaches like acupuncture and massage therapy, and I made efforts to eat more healthily and tried hard to avoid environmental allergens to whatever extent that was possible.
But it was like a full-time job; it wasn’t easy for lots of reasons. We’re all surrounded by them. And especially then, at a time when there was less consciousness about it, you just felt silly talking about it.
And this was a time in my life during which I was singing in nightclubs all the time. It was just a challenging space for a singer with multiple allergies. People’s perfumes gave me a sore throat, cigarette smoke would drift up on the stage during performances, and the smell of the chemically-treated carpet would stuff me up before we even got started.
It was really sort of a landscape of unwellness for me, not just in those nightclubs, but in the world at large because there are so many toxic components in the environment.
So anyway, my passion for singing and songwriting carried me through to the year 2000. Then I finally decided that I’d had enough of the craziness of life in the music business, and decided to plant some new roots and began to study something that I had been fascinated by for many years, which was therapeutic massage.
So I sort of felt a calling to understand more about it, how massage therapy works beyond just the relaxation aspect, and how I could help others with it. And also there was an element of how could I perhaps help myself within the practice of massage. And you know what they say, you teach what you need to learn. It was a time for me to perhaps do some healing of my own and to set aside my lifelong occupation with music and let something else into my life that I felt might be very valuable.
So I enrolled in a massage school here in Los Angeles, where I had moved from New York in 1990. I studied lots of different therapeutic massage techniques, as well as aromatherapy and topical anatomy.
And after graduation I set up shop. I set up a small day spa. I built a practice where the use of pure botanical ingredients became a very important adjunct to the massages. It was in that context that I began to work with essential oils.
Discovering essential oils was for me like stepping into a wonderful, fragrant wonderland which I didn’t know had existed previously.
DEBRA: Yes. I have [inaudible 00:08:21]
CLAUDIA CUSANI: I’m like, “Really? I can smell these things?” And that’s because as a person with lifelong allergies, I couldn’t get anyone near scented candles, room sprays, moisturizers, body lotions, perfumes. Scented anything would just make me run headlong in the opposite direction.
And likewise my skin has always been very sensitive. I wasted more money over the years than I’d like to recall on face and body products that I had to toss immediately because they caused negative reactions.
And since it is estimated that 60% to 80% of what we put on our skin is absorbed directly into the bloodstream, I had to wonder exactly what was transpiring beneath the surface when these things were applied, and I felt defenseless. I didn’t know at that point prior to my discovery of essential oils what my alternatives were. So I didn’t use make-up, I rarely used body lotion, et cetera.
So the recognition of Mother Nature’s healing plant essences — essentials oils — and on the flipside of that, the realization that most of the scented products that I’d encountered previously were really unhealthful and unworthy imitations, this was truly life changing for me.
DEBRA: I could imagine that.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Yeah! And these were things I could actually inhale without fear of reprisal, and things that my body not only tolerated well, but actually benefitted from.
So that’s how it happened. I was really inspired by this discovery and also, by the use of other botanicals like pure carrier oils, et cetera. And the remarkable healing benefits of essential oils and these botanical ingredients and the fragrances, this just really turned me on so I began to seriously explore their uses within the context of my massage practice.
And I began to observe very consistently that the essences, the essential oils and the pure botanicals really enhanced my clients’ treatment results and even enhanced my own health. I was able to do a treatment without walking way going “Oh, now I’m all itchy and stuffed up from handling something…”
DEBRA: Yeah. We need to go to break. Hold on. Hold on, Claudia. We need to go to break.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Okay.
DEBRA: We’ll talk more when we come back.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Claudia Cusani. She’s the founder of Sage Canyon and she’s made some wonderful aromatherapy products that have safe fragrances in them. We’ll talk more about that when we come back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Claudia Cusani. She’s the founder of Sage Canyon and she’s made some wonderful body care products with safe fragrances as opposed to the toxic synthetic fragrances.
Claudia, I’ve read a lot of your website and so I know that you did some research in the past about these synthetic fragrances and that you make a very clear statement on your website that your product has contained absolutely no synthetic artificial or petroleum-based ingredients.
Can you tell us some other things that you found about fragrances, scented products that made you so adamant about not using them?
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Yeah. Well, one of the things that I found out is that these synthetic fragrances – let me back up here. There’s a lot of what they call ‘greenwashing’ that goes on in the health and beauty industry, where they say, “Oh, this is all natural… it has pure fragrance.” The bottom line is that there are no hard and fast regulations from the FDA that prevent companies from writing copy that is misleading in that industry, and a lot of that happens.
What it is is that a lot of times, people are buying these things that are called aromatherapy or aromatherapeutic, and they’re anything but. If they actually read the ingredients, they’ll see that they’re not made with pure essential oils. They’re made with catch phrases. They’ll use terms like ‘parfum’ or ‘fragrance’. And what these are, are synthetic fragrance molecules, which are basically chemicals concocted in a lab somewhere.
They’ll make one saying, “Oh, this one we want to smell like French Lavender… this one we want to smell like Himalayan Cedarwood.” They just make tons of these things, but they’re basically synthetic chemicals and lots of them have been tested and found to have suspected carcinogens and hormone disruptors. And some have never even been evaluated for safety. And that goes not just for the synthetic fragrance molecules that are used in these products, but lots of the other ingredients too.
Basically, these types of synthetic fragrance molecules have been known to cause the kinds of allergic reactions that people, they then think, “Oh, this is because I’m allergic to roses or I’m allergic to lavender.” But, they’re not…
DEBRA: Right. And they’re not allergic to those things. They’re allergic to the synthetic.
I just want to explain this word, ‘synthetic’. I think one of the things that happen is that a lot of words get used and people don’t really know what they mean. So whenever you hear the word, ‘synthetic’, what that really means is that this is made from basically, crude oil, the stuff they make gasoline out of the oil that they put in your car.
This petrochemical stuff that gets made into all these other products, what they do is they get that crude oil and they separate it out into different carts at different temperatures. And so some of it is very light and what is called as solvent. It’s very light and that they can make it into all kind of things. They’re just taking those molecules and combining them in different ways to make these things and they are things that our bodies don’t recognize. They’re man-made molecules. You put them in your body and your body goes, “What is this?”
Whereas our bodies have been designed and have the experience of millennia being around roses and lavender and all those things in nature and it’s designed by – I will just call it – ‘nature’s wisdom’ for lack of a better term as opposed to man-made industrial molecule that your body just can’t recognize. And so it thinks it’s a foreign invader. It causes all kinds of problems.
Some synthetic chemicals actually substitute themselves for other substances we actually need. Like fluoride for example will substitute for iodine I think it is (I would have to work that up) in your thyroid. So instead of getting the nutrition of the iodine, what you get is this synthetic fluoride molecule.
Things like these are happening with these chemicals all over our bodies all the time and so it’s really, really important. Anything that is synthetic. That’s what’s going on with this. That’s why it’s so important to know where the synthetic chemicals are and avoid them and know what the natural things are and use those because nature has very powerful human qualities. And if we bring those elements into our vibes, it helps our bodies.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Absolutely! And this goes to the issue that people are being led down the primrose path – no pun intended – with the term ‘aromatherapy.’ Although aromatherapy can literally be said to mean therapy through aroma or scent, in true practice, aromatherapy utilizes only pure essential oils. And today, there are about 300 different essential oils in general use.
So authentic aromatherapy for instance, it goes beyond the ephemeral effects of a pleasant scent. Thanks to the remarkable curative powers of those essential oils, aromatherapy yields a bounty of physical, mental and emotional benefits.
That is not happening if you’re picking up a bottle of lotion from the shelf that says, “Hey, aromatherapy!” and it’s just basically synthetic fragrance molecules. In fact, you’re really harming yourself even more as opposed to helping yourself. It’s very devious. It really makes me quite angry when I think about it.
So I say buyer beware, read labels, avoid synthetic ingredients. If it says ‘parfum’, or ‘fragrance’ or ‘natural essence’, none of those things are valid if you’re looking for true aromatherapy. And these are the things…
DEBRA: So what should people look for on a label that is valid?
CLAUDIA CUSANI: In terms of fragrances and scents, the only thing that’s valid is if it says, ‘100% pure essential oil’ or ‘therapeutic-grade essential oil.’ The point is, if it doesn’t say pure essential oil, if it says anything else, any other similar type terms, it’s not essential oil. And it happens all the time.
They now have this thing called ‘nature identical’ oils, which is another bunch of synthetic fragrance molecules that people are buying and putting in their products. I mean, it’s really insidious.
DEBRA: I really think one of the most difficult parts of my job over the years has been the difficulty in labeling and the terminology that people are using. And I just think that we should have the truth in labeling. Truth in labeling is what we need so that we can…
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Oh, I agree. I totally agree, and it’s not happening right now in this industry.
DEBRA: No, it certainly isn’t. We need to go to break but we’ll be right back.
This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Claudia Cusani. She’s the founder of Sage Canyon and we’re talking about safe scent versus toxic scent. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Claudia Cusani from Sage Canyon and that’s sagecanyon.com. It’s very easy to remember, sagecanyon.com.
Claudia, tell us, your line of products, you have bath and body products and then you have things for the home like aromatic sprays and then you have skin care and remedies. All of these are based around your signature scents that are all aromatherapy.
So first, tell us about the scent part, so that people can understand why a signature scents. What difference does it makes which fragrance they choose?
CLAUDIA CUSANI: First, let me say that most of the products are based around our 10 signature scents. A couple of them are not, like the Rosewater Toner, the Natural 10 Pain Relief Balm, the Full Circle Soap. Now these are all aromatherapeutic and they use essential oils, but they’re not part of the signature scents schema. But most of the products are — the oils, the butters, the soaps, the scrubs, the sprays.
The thing about our signature scents, basically – you know I’m an artist. I come from a place of liking to create aesthetically pleasing things, composing music. One thing I found when I started playing with essential oils, this was like a whole new avenue for me to express my compositional self, make these nice compositions.
And what it grew into for me was because I have both the side of me that wants to really help facilitate wellness in the world and the artistic part, the signature scents became the forum where I could deliver optimal healing synergy in a beautiful aromatic bouquet. We want to operate on both levels. We want people to be really pleased and go, “Wow! That smells amazing.” And also say, “Gee, and it really works too.”
The signature scents we have (there are 10), they’re more than just captivating fragrances because they each contain up to 15 different powerhouse essential oils, between 10 and 15. So they are synergistic aromatherapy blends.
And why that’s different is that most aromatherapy products – even when they’re using real essential oils – the blends are typically 3 to 6 different essential oils, more simplistic. We use higher numbers of essential oils and that does create a synergistic effect. The sum is greater than the whole of its part in terms of what it does. It creates a more compelling aromatic complexity and also enhances therapeutic value.
Then when you get to the actual scents, they break down into different emotional and physiological effects. The simplest way I could think of to describe it in our literature and on the website is in terms of what I call “mind/body benefits.”
Each signature scent has corresponding mind and body benefits. So let’s say, for instance, the Lavender Embrace, this has about 15 different essential oils. The main ones are lavender, neroli and rosewood, and the mind/body benefits there are calming, uplifting, and balancing.
And that applies both on emotional and mental levels as well as physiological, although that’s a big topic and really too much to get into. I could document that for anyone who’s interested in more information. I could go into detail about what that means.
And each one, let’s say the Mystic Rose, the mind/body benefits there are pacifying, heartening, and sensual; the After the Rain, stimulating, balancing and focusing. And again, each of these blends has between 10 and 15 essential oils. And they each have distinctly different scents from each other.
So it’s a really interesting collection of scents that have a lot of depth and have a lot of value therapeutically.
DEBRA: Are there any therapeutic oils that help your body detox?
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Yeah. There are many. When you say detox, you mean in terms of a mineral bath soak? For what type?
DEBRA: No, to help your body eliminate toxic chemicals.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Well, the reason I ask is because some aromatherapists (and mostly European ones) would say, “Hey, it’s okay to ingest essential oils.” I don’t recommend that. I’m not a proponent of that. Basically, the detox would come through application through the skin or inhalation.
So for instance, juniper berry is very clearing, very detoxifying. Patchouli is very purifying, basil is very purifying, bergamot, on and on. Lavender is probably the most therapeutic essential oil there is.
So let me ask you. What specific type of detox method are you referring to or do you have in mind?
DEBRA: Actually, there’s a lot of different ways to detox and we talked about different things about that and a lot of different things that could be detoxing your body.
There’s like metabolic detox where the waste produced by your cells in your body could get some support, but there’s also specifically, the way toxic chemicals get removed from your body that some toxic chemicals need very specific things. Other ways that you can support your body to detox toxic chemicals would be to support the organs and the system functions that help remove the toxic chemicals like for example, the liver.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: The liver, yeah.
DEBRA: Anything that you do to help the liver helps detox. Anything you do to help the kidneys helps detox. Anything that you use to help the lymphatic system helps detox. And so I was just wondering if there were aromatherapy scents that would help those things.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Yeah, there are. It’s a large topic, but of the top of my head, I would say that cardamom is really good for relieving indigestion, so therefore that might help the health of bile and therefore, the health of the liver. So there are a lot different things that could happen.
Carrot seed is also known as what they call a hepatic. That’s the type of oil that supports the liver function. Carrot seed does that.
These things are really very much put together in blends that aren’t necessarily – I don’t have a blend at this point, let’s say, that says, “Hey, you have a liver congesting problem, so use this above all others,” because these blends are a little less specific – a little less specific meaning, they’re not remedies, except for the Natural 10 Pain Relief Balm.
What I have coming down the pipeline soon, what we’re going to be releasing are more remedies and they are going to be much more condition-specific. They’re going to be basically roll-on remedies, a formulation of essential oils in a base of jojoba oil and they will address different conditions like liver congestion, insomnia, sinus problems, et cetera.
The signature scents themselves have various effects, but to the extent that there are lots of different oils in there, it’s sort of an overall effect of the type that is listed in the mind/body benefits as opposed to the remedy effect, which requires a higher level, a higher concentration of essential oils in the product. You know what I mean?
DEBRA: I do. And we’re going to go on break and when we comeback, we’ll talk more about this. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Claudia Cusani. She’s the founder of Sage Canyon and that’s sagecanyon.com. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Claudia Cusani. She’s the Founder of Sage Canyon and that’s sagecanyon.com where she has this delightful products with these wonder little fragrances.Claudia, I’ve been looking at your website. I read a lot of it before, but I also look at websites during the break. I’m looking at your Full Circle soap and it says that it’s made from recycled botanical ingredients. What are recycled botanical ingredients?
CLAUDIA CUSANI: This is an interesting story, and a true story. My significant other, my partner of 17 years, is a real ‘do-it-yourselfer,’ among other things. He makes his own biofuel to power his diesel car.
DEBRA: Claudia, I just need to say that you are so much like me because – I just can’t believe it – because we both come from being professional musicians, we both had sensitivities to chemicals and my husband and I had a bio fuel. He converted a Mercedes and ran it on vegetable oil. And then he took several trips across the United States in this car just stopping and collecting vegetable oil and then driving on to that as far as we could go and then fill up with more vegetable oil.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Oh, my God! That’s so funny! And we do have a lot in common. That’s really funny. Brian also has a…
DEBRA: And I sing and you sing and we both sing, you know.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Yeah! It’s great! I’m really glad that we connected. So Brian has, he has a Mercedes and he actually collects the oil from an organic café nearby where we live.
DEBRA: Oh, that’s wonderful! Organic vegetable oil.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Yeah! And they save it for him. He has a big, huge 55 gallon tub over there. They save it for him, he picks it up. He has a still. And I guess you know the routine since your husband did it.
DEBRA: I know it, yeah.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: It’s great! And so as you probably know then, the actual natural distillate that’s produced through that biofuel process is glycerin, and in this case, it’s 100% pure vegetable glycerin because it comes from vegetable oil that this café used. And then…
DEBRA: Oh, this is so cool! Wait, wait. Let me interrupt you for a second because this is so funny.
Remember earlier we were talking about what synthetic is and how they take the crude oil and they distill and it makes all this different parts of it.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Right.
DEBRA: Now, what we did is we just took straight vegetable oil and put it in the car, but what you’re doing is you’re actually making bio fuel. And so in the same way that that industry takes crude oil and distills these things out, you’re taking the organic vegetable oil that’s left over from French bars and stuff and he’s distilling it and purifying It and all that and then you’re using it to make soap. How brilliant was that?
CLAUDIA CUSANI: It’s so cool! I mean, it’s great! He filters it several times. And so it’s purified. And then what happens is that the glycerin goes into a separate container. It‘s like this big block of gelatinous brown stuff. It looks like brown Jell-O.
And with that, he adds distilled water, we eventually add essential oils. We do have to add potassium hydroxide because you can’t have soap without potassium hydroxide, but it’s okay because none remains after the soap saponifies. It’s saponified for 12 weeks.
The bottom line is that it is so amazing, this soap. Because it has such a very high glycerin content – glycerin, as you know is a humectant, so it actually draws moisture from the air to the surface and it leaves your hands really super clean, but yet utterly soft, hydrated.
I use this soap all the time. Sometimes I don’t even feel like I need to use any lotion or body butter afterwards. It’s 100 % biodegradable. It’s 100 % synthetic-free. It contains no detergent, foaming agents, dyes, artificial colors or fragrances. It’s great for sensitive skin. It has no fillers.
I mean, it’s really amazing stuff. It’s really, really effective.
DEBRA: I love this! I love this story. I just love this. I wish you would put this on your website because it’s so cool.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: I’m going to do that. I’m going to do that in the form of a blog post. I have a blog page which right now is a little too hidden. It’s on the bottom left.
DEBRA: It’s hidden. I had a hard time finding it.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Yeah. I’m going to have the site redone a bit so that things are a little more accessible. I’m going to put that story on it, because I know it just sounds very mysterious from the little blurb that’s on the product page.
DEBRA: And make that you put a link to that blog post right here where you’re selling the Full Circle soap.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Oh, yes! I will, I will. That’s a great Idea. It’s really amazing stuff.
You probably can relate to this. Sometimes I tell this story to people and women might go – especially women, I hate to sound sexist, but they go, “Eeew, how is that good? It comes from gas.” Well, it’s not gas, but it’s hard to understand. A lot of this stuff like everything else about this topic is about education. It’s about educating people.
DEBRA: It is, it is. And that’s why we’re here. That’s why I do this show, to have education and to show all the different ways where you can be toxic free. It takes a while to learn this stuff.
I remember when I first started learning it more than 30 years ago, I just sat down with a chemical dictionary. That’s where I started.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Wow!
DEBRA: I would look up some chemical that I knew like formaldehyde and then it would tell me that formaldehyde was made from blah-blah-blah, and then I can look up those chemicals. I’d look on product labels and I would say,”What’s this? What’s this? What’s this?” That’s how I came to know all this stuff after 30 years. It’s just because I can’t stop saying “What’s this?”
CLAUDIA CUSANI: That is a huge undertaking, but we’re so glad that your did undertake it and work with it because we need people like you out there who are advocates and willing to bring this stuff to everyone’s attention on a very consistent basis.
DEBRA: Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
So we only have about five minutes left. The shows always go by so fast. I want to make sure that if there’s anything that you haven’t said then, that you got the time to say it.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: One of my favorite taglines for our company is, “Satisfy your mind as well as your senses.” What that means is that, yeah, you want a good smell, you want a good skin feel, you want to feel nice after you use the product or after you smell it, but you also want to know that what you’re actually using is helpful and not destructive.
And to that end, read labels, educate yourself and try to raise other people’s awareness whenever possible also, and make informed choices. Basically, if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t spray it in the air. Essential oils notwithstanding — I don’t recommend eating those.
The point is, everything else that you use, it should be like whole food in a way. It should not be a list of unpronounceable ingredients that are really not doing any good. They’re doing more harm than good.
So I would say read labels, educate yourself, make informed choices because this is really a serious problem. The level of toxicity in the world is a problem for each and every one of us as individuals, it’s a problem for the planet and we need to raise our consciousness together to make a dent and get this down to a manageable level. Hopefully one day, we won’t be living in a toxic world.
DEBRA: That’s my goal. So let me ask you one last question about your products. This question actually came up.
I have ToxicFreeQA.com. People, my readers and listeners ask questions about products. And one of the questions that came up was, “Should you use body oil or a body lotion or body butter? How do each of those affect your skin in different ways?”
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Well, here’s from my point of view in term of our products. We have two products right now, a bath and body oil and a body butter.
The body butter is a more concentrated skin treatment for really dry skin areas. It can be used on any dry skin area. It provides a barrier. It’s incredibly nutritive and emollient and it works beautifully. But that’s something you don’t necessarily need all over, more for the areas that you identify as being dry skin on your body.
Bath and body oil, on the other hand, here’s why I make the body oil, which can either be used in a bath (and I know a lot of people aren’t bath takers), but you can also use it when you get out of the shower. while your skin is slightly damp. You put the oil on, very little. A little goes a long way. Because there are no fillers, it’s fairly concentrated.
The difference is that, when you’re using our product, the body oil, it’s just a few, very pure, very high grade botanical oils – avocado, jojoba, sweet almond, there’s some natural vitamin E in there. And these are extremely highly nutritive oils that are absorbed really, really well, so you don’t get that sense of oil just sitting on your skin.
I don’t recommend using any lotion or any oil that contains mineral oil because it’s just occlusive. It just sits on your skin and your skin doesn’t breath. It’s not all bad, but it’s not bringing any benefit to your skin. So all the ingredients we use are actually beneficial in various ways.
Now the only other thing I’ll say about lotion versus oil is that we’re currently developing a lotion, but it will be what’s called anhydrous. All of our formulas are anhydrous. That means we don’t mix oil with water in any of our formulas. The reason we don’t do that is because we don’t believe in using artificial preservative systems, which are just another collection of chemicals that are added to products.
DEBRA: Claudia, I need to interrupt you. I’m sorry because we’re coming to the very, very end of the show and I just wanted the time to say thank you so much.
CLAUDIA CUSANI: Oh, Thank you.
DEBRA: Claudia’s website is sagecanyon.com
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com to find out about another shows, listen to past shows, listen to the show again and read the transcripts. So, ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
Which Is More Important to Use on Skin: Organic Moisturizer/Lotion or Organic Oil?
Question from Craig
Hi, Debra. This is Craig. I contacted 3 USDA organic companies regarding the question: “For the skin, is it more important to use a organic moisturizer/lotion, or an organic oil?”
Badger Balm: http://www.badgerbalm.com/
Terressentials: http://www.terressentials.com/
Herbal Choice Mari: http://www.herbalchoicemari.com/
Hi, my name is Craig. I have a question. My skin is more of a dry/sensitive type.
For the skin, as a man, what products would work for skin that is a dry/sensitive type, and is it more important to use a organic moisturizer/lotion, or an organic oil?
Thank you for your time.
Craig Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 7:55 PM
Hi, my name is Craig. I have a question. My skin is more of a dry/sensitive type.
For the skin, as a man, what products would work for skin that is a dry/sensitive type, and is it more important to use a organic moisturizer/lotion, or an organic oil?
Thank you for your time.
To: Craig
Hi Craig –
Great questions! In return, I have a few questions for you. What kind of skin products are you interested in? Ones that moisturize? Cleanse? Products used for shaving? Sunscreen? The reason I ask is because we have a large selection of skin care products that work a little differently from one another. As a whole, I would say that anything in our Unscented line would be great for dry/sensitive skin. Also, given that it is unscented, it lends itself to being gender neutral.
In regards to lotion vs. oil: with lotion there are the added ingredients for product stabilization as well as for the lotion itself. With oil, you’re basically cutting to the chase and using the base ingredients for moisturizing your skin: oil + essential oils. In our Body Oils, the main ingredient is Jojoba Oil, an oil that most closely mimics our skin’s oil, thus allowing the body oil to be absorbed into the skin fairly quickly.
Hope this helps! Feel free to follow up with any additional questions.
Your friendly Badger,
Caity
Caity Stuart – Customer Service
W.S. Badger Company, Inc.
custserv@badgerbalm.com | 800-603-6100
www.badgerbalm.com
To: Cust Serv Inbox <custserv@badgerbalm.com>
Thanks for the reply. I’m more interested in moisturizing.
Cust Serv Inbox <custserv@badgerbalm.com> Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 2:00 PM
To: Craig
Hi Craig –
Again, I would stick with the Unscented line. If you’re wanting something for the face, the Unscented Face oil is a great everyday moisturizer. It is best used when after a shower or cleansing of the face. It is also beneficial to use at night before bed as an overnight treatment.
For the body, I would go with the Unscented Body Oil.
Let me know if you have any additional questions!
Your friendly Badger,
Caity
Caity Stuart – Customer Service
W.S. Badger Company, Inc.
custserv@badgerbalm.com | 800-603-6100
www.badgerbalm.com
#2 Terressentials:
Craig Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 7:51 PM
To: terrehelpdesk@mailworks.org
Hi, my name is Craig. I have a question. My skin is more of a dry/sensitive type.
For the skin, as a man, what products would work for skin that is a dry/sensitive type, and is it more important to use a organic moisturizer/lotion, or an organic oil?
Thank you for your time.
terrehelpdesk@mailworks.org <terrehelpdesk@mailworks.org> Sat, Jan 17, 2015 at 4:55 PM
To: Craig
Hi Craig —
Many people with sensitive skin just rave about our Fragrance-free line
of products (http://www.terressentials.com/fffacialcare.html). You
could try the Fragrance-free Gentle Bath Gel (made with organic olive
oil castile soap and moisturizing oils) for washing the body and the
Fragrance-free Facial Cleanser for the face. For daily moisturizing, we
recommend our Fragrance-free Facial Lotion and Body Lotion; for deeper
moisturizing of face and body (perhaps overnight), the Fragrance-free
Moisture Cream (pure, organic shea butter) is great.
Our organic Cocoa Butter Body Oil is great when your skin is warm and
damp, right out of the shower. Whether you use a body lotion or oil (or
our super-moisturizing Body Cremes) depends on your personal preference,
but the lotions do have certain healing herbal extracts (such as green
tea and lady’s mantle) that are not contained in the oils. Check out
all of the ingredients on our website.
I hope this information is helpful. Thanks for your interest in our
products.
Mary
Terressentials
Last is Herbal Choice Mari: Nature’s Brands:
Craig Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 7:37 PM
To: Service@naturesbrands.com
Hi, My name is Craig. I have a question. My skin is more of a dry/sensitive type.
For the skin, is it more important to use a organic moisturizer/lotion, or an organic oil?
I’m looking at the organic jojoba oil. http://www.naturesbrands.com/hcm/organic-jojoba-oil.html?gclid=CMGxsaXimcMCFdcUgQod8jMAGg
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Natures Brands <Service@naturesbrands.com> Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 11:12 AM
To: Craig
Hello Craig,
Thank you for your inquiry. The organic jojoba oil works very well for dry skin; however oil seeps into the skin very quickly and a cream will slowly release its moisturizing oils. It is good to try both to see which one will work best for your skin.
Hope this helps,
Customer Service
Over 150 Certified USDA Organic health and Beauty Products
Natures Brands
www.NaturesBrands.com
Service@NaturesBrands.com
Toll Free 1-888-417-1375
Tel 210-599-1109
Debra’s Answer
ADHD linked to pesticide exposure
From Debra Lynn Dadd
New research from Rutgers University has now associated a common pesticide with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
Apparently, pyrethroid pesticides may alter the development of the brain’s dompamine system, which is responsible for emotional expression and cognitive function.
Read more: Environmental News Network: ADHD linked to pesticide exposure
Pyrethroids now constitute the majority of commercial household insecticides. Heretofore they were considered to be generally harmless to humans in low doses.
There is No Safe Level for Lead Exposure
Toxicologist Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, a regular guest who is helping us understand the toxicity of common chemicals we may be frequently exposed to. Dr. Gilbert is Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and author of A Small Dose of Toxicology- The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. He received his Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1986 from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, is a Diplomat of American Board of Toxicology, and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington. His research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. Dr. Gilbert has an extensive website about toxicology called Toxipedia, which includes a suite of sites that put scientific information in the context of history, society, and culture. www.toxipedia.org
LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH STEVEN G. GILBERT, PhD, DABT
- Toxics in the Air We Breathe—Indoors and Outdoors—and How it Affects Our Health
- Toxic Solvents and Vapors
- How Pesticides Can Harm Your Health
- Why Do People Doubt the Science Behind Toxics?
- Fewer Chemicals Make Healthier Babies
- Why We Shouldn’t Have Nuclear Power Plants
- How Mercury Affects Your Health
- Nanoparticles
- Persistant Bioaccumulative Toxicants
- How Endocrine Disruptors Disrupt Our Endocrine Systems
- The Dangers of Exposure to Radiation and How to Protect Yourself
- Toxics Throughout History—Exposure to Toxic Substances is Not New
- The Ethics of Toxics
- How to Determine Your Risk of Harm From an Exposure to a Toxic Chemical
- The Basic Principles of Toxicology
- Meet a Toxicologist
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
There is No Safe Level for Lead Exposure
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT
Date of Broadcast: February 03, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
Today, I’m juggling things technically because I’ve been having some technical problems with my main computer where we usually do the show. I’m trying to hook this up on my laptop. Right now, I’m on the phone, but during the break, we will try to go on the laptop. I think I know what the problem is.
Anyway, it’s fun doing Talk Radio live and having to deal with all these things. But we’re going to have a great show today.
It’s Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015. And we’re going to talk about lead today. We probably should’ve done this show way back when I started doing this Toxic Free Talk Radio because there is no safe level for lead exposure. We’ve mentioned that I know on different shows.
But today we’re going to be talking with my favorite toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert, author of A Small Dose of Toxicology and he also has a wonderful website called Toxipedia.org with just so much information about toxic issues from all different directions.
So hi, Dr. Gilbert.
STEVEN GILBERT: Hi Debra. So you’re having trouble this morning with your computers. That’s a lot of fun!
DEBRA: You know what? I can hardly hear you, so maybe the studio needs to turn you up a little bit but just speak up a little bit. We’ll fix all this during the break.
STEVEN GILBERT: Is this better?
DEBRA: That’s a little better. I will just listen very closely, but I’m sure you’re fine to all our listeners.
Okay! So Dr. Gilbert, tell us a little bit about your background, Toxipedia and your book.
STEVEN GILBERT: So the book, A Small Dose of Toxicology is a free e-book off the Toxipedia website. You get to it through Toxipedia.org or ASmallDoseof.org for the book. And on the book, there’s a chapter on lead. There’s a lot of other chapters. You can download them chapter by chapter if you’d rather do that. There’s also a Powerpoint presentation that summarizes the health effects of lead.
You’ve got two resources there, a chapter on lead. We also have a big section on the website about lead. You can download the Powerpoint presentation and learn more about lead. There are a lot of other chapters on nicotine and pesticides and bit of little toxicology.
We try to put information in the context of history, society and culture to explain the issue behind the scenes of all the toxic agents that we’re all exposed to.
DEBRA: I think the work you’re doing is very interesting because there’s a lot of toxicology books that are academic, dry and boring. For all listeners, this is actually a very easy book to read. It’s got a lot of information and Dr. Gilbert really knows what he’s talking about. It’s a good book for everybody to read. It’s a good starter book, a good beginner’s book. If you don’t know anything about Toxicology, you’ll learn about toxicology from this book.
STEVEN GILBERT: It’s also been translated in Chinese and we’re working on German and Arabic right now. There’s a little poster called The Milestone of Toxicology which summarizes the history of toxicology.
DEBRA: That’s a very interesting poster. I liked reading that poster about the history. It has things that have happened in toxicology on this date. So what has happened in toxicology on this date, today in toxicology?
STEVEN GILBERT: Not too much has happened on this day. I tweeted a little bit about peace issues. They’re trying to reduce exposure to chemicals and nuclear weapons. Toxicology is not a big deal today.
DEBRA: Oh, okay. Well, there are many other days with a lot of interesting things happening in the world of toxicology.
STEVEN GILBERT: We try to know when people are born like chemists and toxicologists [inaudible 00:05:41] principle was first conceived and things like that. We try to put things into perspective.
DEBRA: Yes, I find that very interesting. Let’s talk about lead.
STEVEN GILBERT: Lead is a really, really interesting compound that’s widely used. And it’s spread all over the environment by putting lead in gasoline and in paint. And this has done tremendous damage to our children and to society as we developed because there’s so much contamination that really harms the developing nervous system.
There’s a great lesson in toxicology. What they will point out is that Europe banned lead-based paint in the 1920s, the League of Nations. The United States didn’t ban lead-based paint until 1978. This caused enormous damage to our children. So we really should take a more precautionary measure to lead. Lead is still an important issue in our society.
My granddaughter just had her fourth birthday and we took her to the arena park we have nearby here in Seattle, Washington. It happened that at the entryway, they had a thing called the Bouncy House, this big, inflatable toys. I’m sure many of your listeners have seen those. Kids can bounce around them. And the sign outside the bouncy house said, “All Arenea Sports offers lead-free inflatables.”
So they’re really pushing that they have lead-free inflatables. So how would lead get into inflatables? Well, they recycle plastic and lead is used as a stabilizer in plastics, in PVCs, in garden hoses and other plastic items. So you can get lead in your recycled plastics, which are what bouncy houses are made of. It’s interesting to see that they’re making a big deal out of the fact that they have lead-free inflatables.
We’re still dealing with lead on a day to day basis and trying to protect our children from lead exposure. Artificial [inaudible 00:07:42] was another big one where lead shows up.
DEBRA: Wow! But you said on another show when I was asking about lead on electrical cords, I think and people touching lead. Tell us about what are the routes of exposure that lead can get into your body because it doesn’t get in from every route?
STEVEN GILBERT: The big route of exposure is hand-to-mouth. And this is a really important route of exposure particularly for kids that are crawling around on the carpet because you can track lead into the home.
If you’re in an area with an old smelter for example or where a lot of pesticides are used like in Eastern Washington’s apple orchards, you can get lead on the dirt and track lead in the home. Kids crawl around on the carpets and you’ve got lead build up in the carpet through hand-to-mouth behavior. It contaminates them also with lead.
And also with lead, lead’s slightly sweet. So if they’ve been to a window sill, they can get a little bit of lead passed to their hands and ingest the lead that way.
And this is really serious for kids because kids are not little adults. Children absorb 50% of the lead that they ingest, whereas adults only absorb about 10%. This is because lead substitutes for calcium. Kids are growing, they need calcium in their bones and lead is readily absorbed in exchange for calcium. So children absorb about 50% of what they ingest and adults about 10%, which means children are a lot more vulnerable to the health effects of lead, as well as their developing nervous system makes their nervous system more vulnerable.
This has also been a serious issue with lead-based paint and also with lead gasoline. Lead levels dropped precipitously after lead was banned from gasoline in the 70s. [inaudible 00:09:34] gasoline until the mid-80s. But in Washington, you can still get lead in gasoline. So putting lead in gasoline was probably one of the worst public health decisions ever made.
You can also be exposed to lead from toys. Two years ago, there was a big deal from China with the lead-painted toys coming from China. They can be in jewelry. There are a lot of cheap jewelry manufacturers. The lead’s great because it has a low melting point, so it’s easy to make jewelry with it – lead-based jewelry, pottery. So there’s just many points of exposure.
Any house painted before particularly the 60s, you really have to be thinking it might have lead in the paint. Remember, lead wasn’t banned from paint until 1978.
You can get it from fishing lures, from hunting shotguns and bullets. Firing ranges are a great source of lead contamination. There have been some serious cases of lead contamination from firing ranges that are not properly ventilated. So people using these ranges, kids that come in and use these ranges, they’re contaminated with lead. The list just goes on and on.
DEBRA: And even lead in lipstick. And we’ll talk more about this when we come back because we need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is toxicologist, Steven Gilbert, author of A Small Dose of Toxicology and publisher of the Toxipedia.org website. And we’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. If I sound so much gloriously better now, it’s because I learned how to hook up my microphone to my laptop. Isn’t technology wonderful?
Okay, Dr. Gilbert. Let’s go on with talking about lead. I’m kind of in this strange position of talking on the laptop, but looking at the desktop. I’ll get it all sorted out. Can you hear me, Dr. Gilbert.
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, but you’re a little soft. That’s good.
DEBRA: Okay, okay. Can you hear me now?
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, that’s better.
DEBRA: Okay, I’ll talk right into the mic for you.
Alright! So let’s go on about lead. Tell us more about the health effects. There are different types of lead, isn’t there? Industrial lead is different from lead that naturally occurs in the environment.
STEVEN GILBERT: Well, there’s a little bit difference in lead, but lead is a heavy metal, so it’s pretty widely distributed from concentrated lead mines. And as far as lead mines, we’re actually at about 6,500 B.C. So we’ve had a long history of using lead.
The Roman Empire used a lot of lead for plumbing actually. They used for wine. Different types of lead are used for that.
But the lead that’s distributed in the environment is mostly related to the properties of the metal and its substitution for calcium.
What’s really interesting, that Romans knew that lead makes the give away. There’s a great quote from a Greek physician in 2 B.C that lead makes the mind give away. So we’ve known for two millennia that lead is toxic to the developing nervous system.
For kids, it lowers their IQ. That’s the most sensitive measure. But in the 60s and even before that, many kids would die from excessive lead exposure. Then they’d have brain encephalitis where the brain would swell up and the kids would die. They actually would drill a hole in the skull to release pressure on the brain.
For a long time, we thought, “Well, this is not a big deal, no long term health hazards.” But we learned, we only studied how it affects life [inaudible 00:16:16] cause reading difficulties and drops in IQ scores. And this is really serious for future generations of children. Every child has a right to reach and maintain their full potential. But when they’re exposed to lead early on, they cannot do that.
So lead has a variety of effects. It has effects on the adult. We’re trying to limit exposure in adults. It’s primarily used paint, stripping of paint and smelters. So it’s widespread exposure to lead in many forms.
DEBRA: Even now today?
STEVEN GILBERT: Even now today. For example, in Nigeria, there was mining for gold. And in some of these villages, they would smelt. The dirt and some of the materials from these mines, they’re heavily contaminated with lead. Four hundred children died from exposure from Nigerian mines. So this stuff goes on.
We tried to limit the lead importation into the United States of lead painted toys. We just keep coming up with lead exposure. Children are exposed to lead in candies because there are these wrappers in these candies because lead was used in the dyes of the paint. Kids would un-wrap the candies like the lollipops and get the paint on their fingers and ingest the lead from candies.
Lead in jewelry, if kids swallow the jewelry or they touch them with their hands, again, they’re being exposed to lead. And as I said before, lead ingestion in kids is really serious because lead is readily absorbed.
So it’s really an insidious product. We really need to be on top of control here. Across the United States, particularly like in Idaho and the big smelter operation they have, large areas [inaudible 00:18:03] particularly in little orchards where arsenic and lead were used in orchards.
So lead is still everywhere. We’re still trying to [inaudible 00:18:15] lead-based paint in older housing.
DEBRA: What happens when lead gets in your body? Does it just stay there and build up, or does your body excrete it?
STEVEN GILBERT: Lead is primarily sequestering bones, so there’s an exchange of calcium. The half-life of lead is about 25 days in the blood. So you ingest the lead and it drops relatively quickly. If your blood level is up about 20 deciliters, which should be very high, maybe it’ll drop to about ten in roughly a month.
The lead, it can also go into the muscle, but it’s sequestering the bones. So this is a serious and important point If you’re exposed to lead while you’re growing up (and particularly if you’re a woman), for this lead to be sequestering the bones.
And then during pregnancy, the developing child needs a lot of lead – or not a lot of lead, sorry. It needs a lot of calcium. The bone de-mineralizes in the woman and then mobilizes the lead that’s in the bone. And then that lead then moves to the fetus.
So you can pass this on from one generation to the next. In excessive levels of lead exposure, that means [inaudible 00:19:25] the bone.
Otherwise, for women, post-menopausal women, as your levels drop, there’s more de-mineralization of bone. You can mobilize the lead that’s in the bone. And that’s the primary source of a lifetime exposure, bone lead. The half life of lead in the bone is measured in years, like 20 years because bone turnover is really slow. Unless there’s [inaudible 00:19:50] or broken bone or anything where you’re de-mineralizing the bone, the lead stays pretty sequestered in the bone.
DEBRA: That’s just amazing to me, how over such a time period, you are exposed to lead today and then it takes so long for it to go through your body system and then you’re exposed to it tomorrow and there’s more and you’re exposed to it the next day and there’s more. So it’s pretty easy for lead to build up in your body and then release when a time comes that would make that happen.
STEVEN GILBERT: Lead’s pretty fascinating, how it moves around the body and how it’s distributed in the environment. We take it in. We can also handle it a little bit. You should never remove lead from your home by using heat. The EPA has a lot of restrictions on lead removal now from the home environment, which I think is very important. The lead removal has to be done by certified workers that know how to move the lead so you’re not contaminating the home.
If you have an older home, you can test it for lead. You can get a test kit to do that for a more qualitative than quantitative test.
But they also have a way to easily test for lead. It’s called an XRF. You can use it for paint or a toy to find out if there’s lead contamination. These things are very available now. You can find them even in your local cities.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest for today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. Usually, I do a lot better. On this show, I have so many mishaps, but it’s okay and we’ll go on. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. My guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. He’s the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology and he is the founder, director, publisher of Toxipedia.org. Both the book and the website are fantastic sources of information about toxic chemicals of all kinds and how they affect your health.
I want to mention that many years ago, people started asking me, “What are the most important toxic chemicals that I should be removing from my life?” And of course, the way to assess that is by finding out what the health effects are at different levels. And there is no safe level for lead. We can keep saying that over and over because there are many chemicals that have so called “safe levels” established, but there is no safe level for lead.
And if you want to know where all the sources of lead are, you can search for the terms, “sources of lead exposure”. And if you do that, you’ll see that the Center for Disease Control, WebMD, the National Institute of health, as well as the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have pages on it. You can just go down the list and see that everybody is telling you, “Here is where lead is and you need to not be exposed to it.” It’s probably the number one chemical or metal to be concerned about. Number one toxic exposure because there is no safe level for it.
Dr. Gilbert, in your book, you have a very interesting chart that has the effects of lead in children and adults. And what was interesting to me about that is that you have the blood level, and then you show what the symptoms at that level are for children and for adults. And it really shows that how much you’re being exposed to it and how it might accumulate in your body makes a big difference in what the symptoms are. Can you tell us a little bit about that chart?
STEVEN GILBERT: One of the reasons that I prepared that was that when you try to compare adults to children, it really shows that children are more sensitive to the health effects of lead. Frequently, it’s a lower of lead exposure. But it goes through all the different symptoms. It affects the blood spike, for example. [Inaudible 00:29:32] neuropathies in adults. And the most devastating for children is IQ dropping, and learning and hearing disabilities. So it’s a wide range of effects
But the big message from that chart is that children are more susceptible to the health effects of lead. The Center for Disease Control has another chart that I’ve put together that shows historically how we got more sensitive to the health effects of lead and the Center for Disease Control gradually dropped its concern levels for lead. In 1981, it got stuck at 10 micrograms per deciliter.
Two of the important things that happened in the last 10 to 15 years were that measuring blood lead levels got a lot easier to do with new instrumentation. On the average, blood lead level across the United States is usually below 2, around 1.3. But then that does not mean that there are not places across the United States where there are kids with higher blood lead levels.
Just a couple of years ago, the Center for Disease Control lowered its blood lead level to five micrograms per deciliter. In 2016, [inaudible 00:30:39] should be two.
I really encourage listeners to have your children get tested for blood lead frequently around the ages of two and three, and see if they have any kind of exposure to lead. If it’s above two, it really means you have some kind of environmental exposure to lead, which should be eliminated.
So the most important thing to do is find that source and try to eliminate it and keep your blood lead below two micrograms per deciliter.
DEBRA: Good advice, good advice. So, one of the things that you can do for lead exposure, depending on where your lead exposure is that you’re trying to control is that you can either eliminate it (like if you have lead paint chips, you can call someone in and pay people to remove it) or you can encapsulate it. And it’s a lot less expensive to encapsulate lead paint.
If you’re living in an older house and you have lead paint, you can paint over it and encapsulate it. It won’t go through the paint because it’s a metal particle. So you can just paint over it and it’ll stay there as long as the paint stays there.
There’s more information on lead than we can possibly cover in this show, so I just want to make sure that all of you just have the idea that this is something that really needs to be paid attention to. You need to find out what those sources are.
Again, you can search for “sources of lead exposure” on your favorite search engine and there are just plenty of websites that have lists of where the lead is. And then you can see if you have those things in your home and see what you can do about it because this is really something that you want to make sure you have the lowest possible exposure to.
STEVEN GILBERT: If you’re buying a home or renting, the laws require that the seller or rental owner declare if there is any lead in the home. It’s very important to have your home tested for it, especially if you buy a home that is older than 1978. Have them tested for lead particularly if you have young children.
And you can encapsulate the lead and paint over it, but it still does not eliminate the paint chips. You’ll still have to deal with that lead as the house ages and as the paint chips. If you have window sills that open and close, you can get a little bit of lead dust. Even if you paint over it, they drip off the window sills when they’re moved up and down. And when kids pull themselves up on window sills, they get lead dust on their hands. And because kids are small, a small lead exposure means a big dose for the child.
So really, like you said Debra again and again, there really is no safe level of lead exposure. Any source of lead exposure, you really want to eliminate. It’s important to vacuum, to clean well, and find out if you have lead in your home by testing for it.
DEBRA: You do. Now, here’s another source. I’m looking at the WebMD website where they have an article called Five Surprising Sources of Lead Exposure. And the last exposure that they have is lead in water pipes. They say that 10-20% of childhood lead poisoning is contaminated drinking water, and that’s old plumbing. They say that pipes from 1930 or earlier can contain lead. And some pipes were actually made of lead and brass fixtures, so there can be lead in your water faucet itself. And lead solder was also used to join pipes.
But even if your old house doesn’t have lead pipes, it could be the supply pipes that could still be very old. We’ll talk more about this when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and our guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. He’s the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology and his website is Toxipedia.org. We’ll be right back.
= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Our guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert from Toxipedia.org, author of A Small Dose of Toxicology, a book that I’m constantly saying is wonderful.
If you want a direct link to get that book, just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and look for Dr. Gilbert’s listing about this show you’re listening to right now. If you click the cover of his book, it’ll take you exactly to the page on his website where you can download the book. It’s in English and some other languages.
So before the break, we were talking about lead in water pipes. And the article from WebMD was talking about how pre-1930, water pipes have lead in it. But then they go on to say that what’s surprising is that new homes have a greater risk for lead because some plumbers still use lead solder to join copper pipes. This exposes the water directly to lead.
They say that the risk is highest in houses that are less than five years old. After that, mineral deposits build up on the pipes that insulate the water from the lead in the solder. The EPA says that you should assume that any building that is less than five years old has lead contaminated water. This is where you really need to have a water filter, if you’re in a new home that’s less than five years. For this reason if no other, you need to have a water filter to keep your children safe.
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, they have lead in solder for plumbing pipes, but the fixtures can have some lead in them too. It’s rather astonishing that we still allow lead in our water supply. In Seattle, it showed up that a school had lead contaminated water from some of the valves and switching mechanisms. And at Washington, DC, there’s another case of lead exposure. Some of the really old homes will have lead coming from the water mains into the homes that are made out of lead. We’re still dealing with lead and water.
I’ll give you another source of lead. If you live near an airport, the old propeller-driven planes use leaded gasoline. It’s not the jet engines, but the [inaudible 00:41:18]. If you live near an airport that uses these and they fly over your home, they’re spewing leaded gasoline out of those engines. They’re contaminating the environment with lead.
NASCAR just got rid of leaded gasoline a few years ago, which always astonishes me because the bowls where they have those racetracks would just be a source of lead. Those cars just get a few miles per gallon and they’re contaminating their whole field with lead and kids are there.
So [inaudible 00:41:45], we still have not address lead contamination.
DEBRA: So this is where we need to protect ourselves as consumers. I would love to live in a world where all the products are non-toxic and we wouldn’t need to protect ourselves. But the reality is that each one of us needs to take responsibility for reducing our exposure and reducing whatever chemicals are already in our bodies by detox, drinking a lot of water, eating a lot of vegetables, and all the other things I write about on my website.
STEVEN GILBERT: That’s a really important point. I think you’re right on, Debra because we’re not only exposed to lead, we’re exposed to a whole variety of contaminants from pesticides to mercury in our fish, to a wide range of materials that we need to reduce.
DEBRA: One of the things in the field of toxicology is the synergistic effect of chemicals. Does lead combine with any other chemicals that we know to make them worse?
STEVEN GILBERT: There’s no [inaudible 00:42:53] that combines chemicals too much, but if you take something like mercury, it also affects the nervous system.
So if you have multiple chemicals (pesticides in the same way), when you’re exposed to a little bit of pesticide and a little bit of lead, it all adds up together to create a bad environment for children who are trying to reach their full potential.
We really have to take a more holistic approach to this. There was an article in the paper today documenting that mercury in tuna fish is rising in the Pacific Ocean. A lot of this could be laid on China, which has mercury coming out of coal. There’s a little bit of lead and a lot of arsenic in coal waste from coal-fired plants. We’re continuing to contaminate the environment which affects our food supply and water systems.
DEBRA: Yes. Now, I want to talk about lead in dinnerware because that’s a question that I get a lot. And so people are concerned and they want to buy lead-free dinnerware. The thing about lead in the dinnerware is that there is some lead in dinnerware and especially in imported, brightly-colored dinnerware. And there’s a lot of dinnerware that doesn’t have lead. And there’s dinnerware where lead is not added into the glaze, where it’s usually found.
But the manufacturers don’t want to say they’re lead-free because there’s ambient lead in the environment. And so as has been told by these manufacturers, you can’t make lead-free dinnerware because there’s lead floating around in the air.
STEVEN GILBERT: That’s probably true, but the FDA is more concerned about lead leeching out of the dinnerware. And there was quite a problem about this a number of years ago where lead in pottery-based materials, like you mentioned the glaze is contaminated with lead because lead makes a great colorant. It’s really good in paint and dyes. It dries hard and very brightly. It really makes a great additive to paint, that’s why it keeps getting used as well as in glazes.
But the leeching out of lead from dishware is the big question. And most of the time, it’s not leeching out, but you really don’t want lead in your mouth through your dinnerware because we are using them as spoons. You are going to get some lead exposure that way. It’s really important to pay attention to that and to have the least amount of lead in your dinnerware and your home to reduce exposure.
DEBRA: And if you’re unsure about a glazed pottery-type dinnerware’s lead level, you can check it with various testing methods or you can just get clear glass dishware. Glassware does not have lead in it. And so that’s always safe, anytime you see that. But you know, I really wish that somebody would test all the different dinnerware and say which ones are safe. So that everyone won’t have to go and test them out for themselves.
STEVEN GILBERT: Another important thing to test are children’s toys. Some of the environmental groups have these XRF guns that let you easily test materials. You just point it at the product, material, or wall, and it gives you a reading of how much contaminants are present in it. They’re very efficient and fast.
Ask around in your local environmental group if they have lead XRF and some of the local health departments will also have this equipment to make lead testing very simple. This has been a huge change in our ability to monitor products with lead in them. It really helps to easily keep track to make sure they’re not just redistributing the lead.
One way it gets redistributed is our electronic products, which have a little bit of lead in them – some of the older televisions, in particular. It’s very important to recycle these stuff and make sure it’s going to a good recycler who’s going to be aware that the lead contamination is an important thing to deal with and disposed of properly, not being shipped overseas to be broken down by kids and contaminating the environment as well for children.
Lead contamination from old electronics is another source of lead exposure. Another one is that people will manufacture those fishing lures and lead wastes were used around the wheels of cars to balance wheels. They were just banned in Washington State.
But they will be collected off roadways where they fall off the roadways. So when you’re walking down road, look for the lead wheel ways. These will be smelted down by people to make bullets or fishing lures. This is another potential for contamination for lead in our home environment, all these important sources of lead. You really always have to be on the lookout for potential sources of lead exposure.
DEBRA: And they are very well-documented, so just go online and search on “sources of lead exposure” and they’ll all come up. So we have only about a minute left, is there anything else you’d like to say that you haven’t said? I know you’d probably have hours of it.
STEVEN GILBERT: I think the important thing for us to do is to watch for lead. It’s an environmental justice issue. And people that live along roadways or in old homes, really watch out for old homes and really try to sequester the lead. We’re trying to get our society to clean up their lead, we’re trying some court cases, trying to get the paint manufacturers to invest in lead removal from these old homes. It really is in older, dilapidated homes that end up with lead exposure.
The other thing is getting your young children tested for their blood lead levels. If they have high levels, find that source and eliminate it.
DEBRA: And can parents just ask the pediatrician to do those blood tests?
STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, you can ask pediatricians and it’s covered by Medicare and MedicAid. Yes, you can definitely do that. It’s much cheaper than it used to be. Definitely ask your pediatrician to test your young child for blood lead. They’re going to get a little bit of blood out of them that you can do with a finger prick, so it’s not too bad. It’s definitely worth it. If you find they have high blood lead, track down the source of that lead exposure.
DEBRA: Thank you very much for being with us.
STEVEN GILBERT: Thank you, Debra.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.
GOTS Certified Organic Mattress
Question from Vivian
I found a Natural Sleep Shop in Cranberry township, PA 16066 whose mattresses are certified both by GOTS and GOLS. They have some beds set up to try out so you can determine what firmness you want before you purchase. I took me forever to find this place and thought others my be interested in knowing there is a store like this.
Debra’s Answer
Yes, they do carry mattress certified by both GOTS and GOLS, but only their Naturepedic brand mattresses are so certified. Their other mattresses are not.
Sams Club Organic mattress
Question from Bonnie Johnson
Hi I was surfing the on line Sams Club page for some organic products and noticed they carry an organic mattress set. It is called American Sleep Organic Mattress. It says it is composed of ;atex and wool. Just wondered if you have heard anything about it?
Debra’s Answer
I went to http://www.samsclub.com/sams/american-sleep-organic-mattress-full/prod865238.ip to take a look at this.
There are a few errors. Clearly the copy was written by someone who doesn’t understand mattresses.
First, there are no certifications mentioned, so “organic” is just a claim.
Second, “organic mattress” is a defined term. Though it may use organic components, the mattress as a whole is not certified organic, so there is no third party inspection that the entire manufacturing process meets any kinf of standard.
Third, it says that their “components” come from the USA. Well that’s just untrue. There is absolutely NO latex grown in the United States. All latex components of mattresses are imported.
If you are considering purchasing this mattress, ask them for their organic certifications.
Linen Bedding
Question from sue
Hi,
I’m thinking of buying linen bedding. They are pretty expensive so buying them organic is not possible for me. I do buy organic sheets otherwise. My question is if you may know if they are free of chemicals? I’m looking into buying them from H&M as they are well priced. I will try to get info from them but I wondering if anyone here would know about Linen Bedding as well.
Thank You!!!
Debra’s Answer
I did a wonderful interview on Toxic Free Talk Radio with Tricia Rose, Founder of Rough Linen. On this show she talks about how linen is grown.
Here is another good article about linen production: How Products Are Made: Linen
Some chemicals may be used, such as herbicides, but much of the linen supply is still produced by traditional methods that don’t involve chemicals. This is not usually labeled.
In general, though, fewer chemicals are involved in the production of linen than cotton.
Sweet Chemical Smell in the Drum of my new Speed Queen Washer
Question from Jane Burkhouse
I had my new Speed Queen top loader washer delivered today and the smell from t he drum is making me very ill.
I was told to wash 4 tubs of clothing and t he smell would disapate or get less nauiating. It hasn’t and right now I’m rinsing the tub with white vinegar, letting it dry and rinsing it again, letting it dry, etc., etc.
I have severe MCS and was worried about getting a new washing machine. I was told that a Speed Queen would smell for a few days and then the off-gassing from whatever is in or coating the drum would go away. Not so it just seems to be getting stronger and stronger.
Do you have any ideas as to how I clean the drum to get rid of the smell? It was suppose to go away as soon as I cleaned the drum and removed the finishing wax. Not so. It just seems to keep right on smelling.
Would Zeolite help. I would put Zeolite in the drum and let it set for a few days. Them remove the Zeolite and rinse, rinse, and rinse again with a strong bleach and vinegar solution.
Any help would be most appreciated.
Sincerely, Jane Glora Burkhouse
Debra’s Answer
Here are a couple of things you might try.
1. contact odorklenz.com about this and see what they recommend
2. contact nontoxic.com and see what Daliya recommeds
3. There is a product you get at the supermarket called washing machine cleaner. www.clorox.com
It’s strong chlorine bleach, but the cholorine dissipates and this worked for me to get an odor out of my new washer.
Debra 🙂
Floor Model Organic Mattress and Air Mattress
Question from Lauren
Hi Debra,
Thank you for taking the time to answer readers’ questions—I can’t tell you how many times your website has been a valuable resource!
My question is we found an organic mattress from a reputable company and the only way it is affordable for us is if we buy a floor model. Do you think this is alright? The mattress is completely organic wool, organic cotton and natural latex with no flame retardants.
My second question is that we are seeking to get an air mattress to pull out when we occasionally have guests—I found one called the Kelty Sleep Eazy that is PVC-free and is made of TPU Laminate and 70D Nylon—would this be a safe temporary mattress for guests (and for us to sleep on until we get a new mattress)?
Thank you!
Debra’s Answer
I think it would be fine to get a floor model if you check and make sure it doesn’t have any perfume or other contaminants that might have been picked up on the showroom floor.
As for the air mattress, there are some red lights flashing for me. Nylon may have a finish on it, and “laminated” may involve glues. So you need more information. Ask them if it’s heat-laminated or if glues are used. Ask them if it has an odor.
Stainless Steel Eyeglass Frames
Question from Cheryl3
Hi Debra and all,
The eyeglasses my husband is considering are stainless steel front, with a zyl temple that contains a stainless steel core, silicone nose pads. I’m told by the manufacturer they contain no nickel or copper. They are covered partially by our insurance and are nice looking. However, I guess there are some concerns about stainless steel.
We could look further at places where we’d have to pay fully out of pocket to see if we can get all zyl frames since that seems the least toxic but my concern is with his schedule being so tight and it being very difficult to get info from manufacturers about specific frame composition we might not end up finding any he finds aesthetically appealing while the whole “get glasses” project is dragging on and if we end up opting for the stainless steel pair, they may no longer have them. Then we’d need to start all over again. Most of the plastic frames just say “plastic” and I have to contact each manufacturer to confirm what type of plastic. A lot of times they don’t get back to me.
Do you think these stainless steel frames are pretty safe? He has no known allergy to stainless steel, but we are trying to avoid heavy metal overexposure for some health issues he has.
Thank you so much as always,
Cheryl
Debra’s Answer
I had to look up what “xyl” is…short for xylonite, it’s just a new name for old cellulose acetate, a plastic made from plant cellulose.
Stainless steel is fine if you are not cooking food in it or putting it next to your skin for long hours.
So stainless steel front with zyl temples and silicone nose pads sounds fine to me. I don’t see any toxic exposures there.
Make-It-Yourself With GOTS Certified Organic Fibers
My guest today is Stephanie Abgrall, founder of the Only Organic Fabric Shop website. Based in the Brittany region of France, they sell only full GOTS certified organic fabrics where the yarns, spinning, weaving, washing, dyeing are all GOTS certified. And they ship worldwide. We’ll be talking about the GOTS certification for organic fabrics and the certified fabrics that are available for your fabric needs. Stephanie is a 47-year-old mother of three, who studied in a French Business School and worked for 15 years as an executive in different companies, then decided to create her own business. She wanted this business to be close to my beliefs, so of courseit had to be organic-related and crafts-related. In 2009 she founded Biotissus, which is the mother business of Only Organic Fabric Shop, It is dedicated to GOTS certified organic fabrics and sells to individuals as well as to large fashion companies in France. In late 2014, they decided to expand their business and dedicate a website to their english/american speaking customers, and developped the Only Organic Fabric Shop website. They also are developing the first GOTS certified sewing workshop in France for their professional customers. [Stephanie’s website is no longer available.]
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Make-it-Yourself with GOTS Certified Organic Fibers
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Stephanie Abgrall
Date of Broadcast: January 22, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free.
If I sound a little different today, it’s because I’m having this technical difficulty not with my microphone and with my headset. I have two headsets actually, which I have to wear. I can’t just talk into the mic, I have to listen on the headset, otherwise there’s feedback. So we’re doing this on a telephone today. Fortunately, we have multiple ways to communicate. I’ll figure out what’s going on with my headset and hopefully, we’ll be back to better quality tomorrow.
Today is Thursday, January 22nd 2015. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida on a still winter day. I love this time of year when one day, it’s winter and the next day, it starts to be spring. And then it goes back to winter. So we’re having cold weather next week, but it’s just kind of this in-between the seasons time that I just think is so wonderful. Orchids are blooming in my backyard. I have this bank of azaleas under my window where I look out where I’m sitting here doing the radio show and the first one bloomed yesterday. So wherever you are, spring is on the way.
Today, we’re going to have a very interesting show, which I think is very important. All the shows are important, but sometimes, there are individual things that are very unusual. The unusual thing that we’re doing today is we’re going to be talking about certified organic fabrics that are certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard. We’ve talked about that before, but what’s unusual about today’s show is that my guest is the owner of a small shop in France actually where all they sell, the only thing that they sell is GOTS-certified organic fabrics.
She has recently opened an online website where you can purchase all of these certified GOTS organic fabrics. You can purchase them online and you can sew with them. I didn’t check, but I think possibly, there’s upholstery fabrics and we’ll talk about that, but she’s got all kinds of fabrics. These are fabrics that are certified organic at every step of production. These are the purest fabrics in the world and you can now order them online. And prior to this, these were not available to the general public, but they are now.
So we’re going to talk today with my guest about these fabrics, why they’re so special. She’s going to tell us about what are the different types of fabrics that she sells. So if you sew, this is really important. If you don’t sew, it’s so important because you could buy these fabrics and have someone sew them for you into anything that you want, any textile product that you use in your home. Sheets, curtains, table clothes, clothing, anything you want can now be GOTS certified fabric. This is a big breakthrough.
Usually, I’m not talking to businesses that are based in other countries, but my policy is if there isn’t a similar business in the United States, I’ll promote the business that is in another country if it’s as exceptional as this one.
Before we get started, I just want to tell you that in addition to our technical problems, my guest speaks English as her second language and so, we’re going to be talking slower. Just listen careful. This is all going to be transcribed next week. We’re going to get a lot of good information today and I’m very excited to be doing this show.
So my guest today is Stephanie Abgrall. I hope I’m saying that right. She’s the founder of Only Organic Fabric Shop, which is Only-Organic-Fabric-Shop.com. She’s based in the Brittany region of France and as I’ve said, they sell only full GOTS-certified organic fabrics where the yarns, spinning, weaving, washing and dying, everything, every step of the way is GOTS certified.
Hi Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Hi Debra.
DEBRA: Or I should say bonjour.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Thank you for broadcasting my interview. It’s very nice of you.
DEBRA: Thank you. Thank you for being here. So just tell us, how did you get interested in selling something as unusual as GOTS-certified organic fabrics.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Well, this is a way of evolving in my personal life. After graduating in finance, I had been working as a manager in a major French company and I was tired of our way of life that meant long transportation time to [inaudible 00:06:20], sometimes unethical treatment. And so I longed for a job, which could make me happy every day and help out our cities and feel better.
I was always interested in organic products, organic food or other products and also creative activities such as sewing. So when I created the French business, the mother business in 2009, there were no organic fabric available in shops or online shops in France that you could buy the yard. You could only buy the roles and by huge quantities. So this was the beginning of our online shop in France, which is called Biotissus, which means organic fabrics.
DEBRA: That’s so wonderful, what you’re doing. So what was the response when you opened your shop? Do you have a physical shop or are you just online in France?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: We’re also the only full GOTS fabric organic shop in France – small, little shop. And
DEBRA: What was the response when you opened your shop?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: It was in Brittany, [inaudible 00:07:33].
DEBRA: And did the customers flock in or did you have to explain to people what you were doing? How did people respond and started learning about GOTS?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: I’m going to say that in the first time, people looked at me as a stupid person because they told me, “Organic? What is organic fabric?” “It’s made from cotton, it’s natural.” And so I had to explain that conventional or non-organic fabrics are toxic. There was much education time for the customers to discuss this.
But there were some small brands and small professionals that were very, very interested in buying by small quantities. And so the business developed very quickly. We are now the leader on the French market for organic fabrics as well for individuals as well as for professionals.
DEBRA: And I understand that you’re also developing the first GOTS-certified sewing workshop in France for your professional customers?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes. Yes, we are developing – we have a workshop and we are developing GOTS certification on this workshop in order to meet our customers’ needs to get organic fashion with GOTS certification.
DEBRA: That’s so wonderful! That’s so wonderful! We’ve only got about a minute until we need to go to break, so I don’t want to start asking you all the big questions. But tell us just briefly is there a difference in how organic fabrics look and feel?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Organic fabrics are grown organically and don’t need pesticides or are not issued off GMO seeds. That’s the basic definition of organic fabrics, but it’s much more complicated.
DEBRA: No, we’ll talk about it after the break, but I’m just asking does it look different. Does organic fabric look different than a standard fabric?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: I’m going to tell you, it’s much softer.
DEBRA: That’s in my experience too because I have some organic clothing and it is much softer. One of the first things that I had that was organic, you may be familiar that here, we have naturally colored organic yarn, cotton. I have a sweater. I found a sweater that had been hand-knitted out of this yarn. It is so soft. It’s so soft. It feels completely different than the standard cotton, so it really is a treat.
Well, let’s go to break, so that we’ll have plenty of time to talk when we come back. What we’ll talk about when we come back is what’s toxic about fabrics that is leading you to wanting to do organic. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Stephanie Abgrall, founder of Only Organic Fabric Shop and that’s at Only-Organic-Fabric-Shop.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Stephanie Abgrall. She’s the founder of Only Organic Fabric Shop. The website, that’s Only-Organic-Fabric-Shop.com. All she sells, 100% GOTS-certified organic fabrics, which you can buy by the yard. She started her shop in France and she’s speaking to us from France today, from the Brittany region. She has now opened online a shop where we can buy these GOTS-certified fabrics by the yard ourselves for our own use at home. And she ships worldwide. So any of you living anywhere can now have GOTS-certified organic fabrics.
So Stephanie, tell us, the point here is not just that cotton is organic-certified, but that the whole process. So can you tell us about the process of turning fabric into – I mean, the fiber into a fabric and where the toxic chemicals are in that process, so that my listeners can understand why the GOTS certification is so important.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: So let me explain quickly how ordinary fabrics are manufactured. First, they are grown using mainly GMO seeds. GMO seeds have tragic consequences. They increase the resistance of pest, so they increase the use of pesticides. This is nonsense because they were aimed at killing the pests, but it’s not the fact. For instance, growing cotton represents 2% of the cultivated field, but 25% of the pesticides used in the world.
DEBRA: Wow! Wow!
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes, that’s huge. And this is the only first step in fabric processing. Then the fibers in the ordinary fabrics are processed with chemicals. For instance, bamboo fabrics are made by using hydrochloric acid and caustic soda. And then they are dyed with heavily toxic products. Moreover, most often, to be working, environment conditions are poor.
That’s why some manufacturers decided to develop organic certified fabrics. And now, the Global Organic Textile Standard Certification is recognized worldwide as the most serious certification for organic fabrics because it’s specification cover the whole processing of the fabric and the entire perfect traceability of them from the field to the shop.
DEBRA: Yes, it’s quite a process. And one of the most important things to me being most interested in toxics is that the standard actually has a list, I believe, of toxic chemicals that cannot be used.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes, exactly, exactly. The list is very, very long. But shortly, let’s say that there should be no chlorides, no phthalates, no [inaudible 00:17:19] agents, no nickel, no lead and so on.
DEBRA: Yes. And also, they don’t allow GMOs.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes, they don’t allow GMOs because the fiber must be natural, that is mostly cotton, flax, silk and they must be grown according to organic agriculture specification, that is no pesticides and no GMO.
DEBRA: And is that difficult to find?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: It was difficult to find 20 years ago. But now, especially in Turkey, the cotton agriculture has turned to organic agriculture. So they are a specialist in organic fabric and the factories, the spinning, weaving, knitting factories are maybe 40 miles away from the field. So it’s really, really ecological.
DEBRA: Oh, that’s wonderful to hear. That’s wonderful to hear. Good, good.
So when you buy the fabric, who are you buying it from? Are you buying it from the finished product at the end, you’re buying it from a manufacturer who has been certified. Tell us about the certification from the field to getting into your hands. What are the steps that need to be certified?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: We are manufacturing our fabrics with certified factories and so every step is traceable. That is to say that every actor in the list must be certified. The cotton grower or flax grower must be certified according to organic agriculture needs. And then the spinner, the washer, the dyer, the weaver, the knitter, the printer must also be certified. And so there is a certificate at every step and this certification are inspected every year.
DEBRA: And so, when you as the seller, the retailer, when you get the material, the fabric, do you get one certificate or do you get a number of certificates all down the line or does that one certificate that you get at the end represent all those other certificates are there?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: We are a manufacturer and we get a certificate for each production. The certificate describes very precisely the number of roles, the type of fabric. The roles are numbered and so are traceable just to the field because if there is a problem on the production, then we can know where the missing point was.
DEBRA: This is so incredible. I think every product in the world ought to have this kind of accountability.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yeah.
DEBRA: One of the problems that I run into in the past is that I’ll call a manufacturer and I’ll ask a question about what happened in this point of production and they don’t know anything about it. Contrast this, listeners, contrast manufacturers who know nothing about their product with this where Stephanie and other GOTS-certified people can just look back, it’s all documented, it’s all traced, so they can know exactly what has happened at every point of production.
We’re going to go to break. And when we come back, we’ll talk more about GOTS and more about Stephanie’s beautiful fabrics. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Stephanie Abgrall, founder of Only Organic Fabric Shop. And that’s at Only-Organic-Fabric-Shop.com where you can order GOTS-certified organic fabric by the yard for your own personal use at home. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Stephanie Abgrall. She’s the founder of the Only Organic Fabric Shop website, which is Only-Organic-Fabric-Shop.com. She’s talking to us today from France where she actually has a shop, a physical shop where she sell GOTS-certified organic fabrics that you can purchase by the yard in small amounts, which we can too now anywhere in the world. Anywhere in the world that you’re listening to this show, you can go to this website and get GOTS-certified organic fabrics by the yard to make things in your own home and Stephanie will ship them to you.
So Stephanie, I’ve been looking at your website during the break. I’ve been looking at it prior to also. You have so many different kinds of things that people can choose from and I want you to describe them to us. But first, I just want to say that this website is designed to be international. And so if you go to the website and you see that the prices are all in pounds, sterling or something, you can go in the upper right corner where there’s a little currency dropdown menu. I’ve chosen the dollar sign, so I can look at the prices in U.S. dollars. So that’s just something to keep in mind when you go to the site.
Okay! So tell us what you’ve got.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Sorry?
DEBRA: Tell us about your fabrics?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: We sell only cotton and flax. We have a wide range of cotton. We have woven cotton, such as veil, poplin, denim, French terry, velvet, muslin, twill. We have also wide width fabric for bad linen or home furnishing. We also have a wide range of knitted cotton, which goes from jersey to suits, stretch terry, cotton fleece, lambstyle plush and so on. And we also have woven flax and a very valuable linen jersey, which is just wonderfully soft.
DEBRA: Ooh, linen jersey. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: It’s a wonderful fabric. Our flax is grown and woven in France. This was very important for us. We funded an association with the growers. That means that I shake hands with my growers every year and so I can precisely tell who grew the seeds of flax that are in our linen fabrics. It’s quite unique I think.
DEBRA: It is very unique. But again, I just want to say that this is the way every product should be. We should be able to know what’s going on. I’ve given the example before that when I used to live in California, I belonged to a community supported agriculture program, which is where you buy shares in a farm and then every week, you get a share of what the harvest is. The one that I belonged to happened to – well, not far from my house, but I had to go down the hill and up another hill. But if I could just fly from my house to the farm, it’s a very short distance. It was just that there wasn’t a road directly from my house to the farm, so I had to take this circuitous route.
But the thing is that I could go to the farm any time I wanted to. I could walk around the farm. I could ask them what they were doing. I could look at the goods growing. I could participate in the growing of the food. I could know everything about the food that I wanted to know. It was practically in my backyard. I think that that kind of transparency should exist for every product. And that’s just a simple example.
You know your growers, you know the people that are processing the fibers into the fabric and that’s just the way it should be. It’s just a very beautiful thing.
So, I noticed that there’s not a lot of colors. My first question might be, “If I were to click through on some of these, say, are they going to come in different colors, yes?”
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes, we can get every color in organic fabric. We can dye with organic dyes, which doesn’t mean it’s systematically digital dyes, it can also be chemical dyes, but with no known toxic components in these dyes. We can get any color.
What you have to understand is that the Only Organic Fabric Shop website was created shortly, late last year. And so there will be new products very, very soon. We have a lot of colors on our French website. And so other colors are coming.
Tomorrow, for instance, there will be two colors for French terry. We received them today in our shop, so tomorrow, you can buy them on our online shop.
DEBRA: So how can we look at it? Do you have a link on the Only Organic Fabric Shop to your French site? If I wanted to go look at the French site, could I then say to you in French [laughing]…
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: There is a very poor English translation on the French website. That was the main reason to create the English American speaking website. But of course, you can have a link to the French website. We have about 250 references on this site.
DEBRA: And is there a link to the French site on your English-speaking Only Organic Fabrics website?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: There will be one very, very soon.
DEBRA: I think that will be a great idea. And so another thing I want to point out is that people can order samples of your organic fabrics.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes.
DEBRA: I think they’re only ¢39. Is that right?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: That’s right, yeah.
DEBRA: That’s what it says, ¢39. That’s great! So for people who are concerned about if you tolerate fabrics or whatever, you can get samples from her before you even order. That’s also another excellent point that you’ve done.
So, I’m trying to remember. Part of my attention is on the technical things going on today, talking on the phone instead of all my other things, so I have attention elsewhere. But tell us about – I’m looking at this section called “batting, wadding and quilt fibers.” I see padding and wadding, but I don’t know what either of those things are.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: I’m not sure I used the right terms for this type of fabric. In fact, it is cotton fabric or whole fabric. It’s non-woven fabric in fact.
DEBRA: Okay! We’ll talk more about it when we come back because we need to go to break. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. My guest today is Stephanie Abgrall from the Only Organic Fabric Shop where she sells all these great GOTS-certified organic fabrics, Only-Organic-Fabric-Shop.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is – oops, I just lost the page. Stephanie…
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes.
DEBRA: I try to make everything sound like it’s totally perfect behind the scene and I’m just sitting here clicking on tabs on my browser here and I just closed the tab that has her name on it, Stephanie…
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Abgrall.
DEBRA: …Abgrall from Only Organic Fabric. That’s Only-Organic-Fabric-Shop.com. I want to get back to this page that’s got the cotton padding and the cotton wadding on it. One of the things that I love about this site is that it has unusual things on it that we don’t find here. And so I was looking during the break and so I want to explain and ask a question.
So cotton padding, it says is for quilting and blankets and clothes. So it’s this like a cotton fabric that is like a fabric because you say blankets? Could you just buy some of these and make a blanket from it?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Basically, it’s non-woven fabric. It’s just mechanically processed to get a thick fabric that you can use in batting or wadding, for example, for quilts or blankets or even for tossing clothes that you want to be warmer.
DEBRA: Okay, but you couldn’t just take this non-woven fabric and make a blanket with it, not hold together? You need to put it in between other fabrics?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes, it needs to be quilted between two fabrics like just the cotton you use for washing yourselves. I don’t know the word in English, but it’s just like a hydrophil cotton. It comes like that. So you have to put it between two other fabrics.
DEBRA: I see, okay. So then that’s the padding. But then you have something wadding, which is fluffier. So that would be like if you wanted to make a stuff toy or cushions or a mattress or something like that.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Exactly! That is just cotton that is just in bulk.
DEBRA: Yes, yes. Now, the important thing about this, I want to say is that – and you can correct me if I’m wrong and you have different information. I’ve heard from numerous sources that there had been tests done which show that the pesticides, by the time a piece of fabric is processed, even though the pesticides are bad for the environment that there’s no residue of pesticides in fabric, but that they are present if you’re buying cotton. We call it batting here, but you’re calling it wadding because that’s just like the raw cotton. And so it’s especially important to buy this organic if you’re going to be putting it on a pillow or a mattress or something like that because it’s going to be full of pesticides.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Exactly, exactly. Because we are living on fabrics every hour in our life and so it’s really, really important to have safe fabrics and safe home linen or safe furnishing and safe clothes. The fact is that when you use organic fabrics, you not only get no pesticides, but also, you get no allergy to the fabric. It’s really, really important.
DEBRA: Right! And there’s also no toxic finishes on them either. I’m always looking at – the first thing that people are exposed to are the finishes like the permanent press finish or sizing and things like that and your fabrics don’t have anything of those things on them.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Of course not, of course not. They are only natural finishing, that is to say maybe our washing is made with natural washing methods and no phthalates or any toxics in it. And moreover, our prints and dyes are also non-toxic.
You can often find fabrics, which are made from organic cotton, but then the processing and finishing are not certified. That is nonsense because the most toxic part of it is the dying and finishing and printing of the fabric.
DEBRA: I just want to really, really underline that, put it in italics and put exclamation marks on it and bold what you just said. So many times we see fabric products that are called organic cotton or whatever the fabric is. But it’s not GOTS-certified. And if you don’t see GOTS-certified organic cotton, then only the fiber is organic, but not the rest of the process.
This is why it was so important for me to have you on today because of that point, that there’s so many and consumers need to separate out and understand that if it doesn’t say GOTS-certified organic, then just plain, old ‘organic’ only refers to the fiber itself and not any of the rest of the processing.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes, that’s it. The consumers should be very vigilant to this. I must say they should ask the retailer where the fabric comes from, where is the certification, can I get the certificate, can I see who is certificated, which step is certificated? And by this way, you can be sure that your fabric is safe.
DEBRA: Yes. And I think that we’re just now at this point in time in the very first baby steps of just a few people doing this that this is really the direction that it’s going. Don’t you see it expanding as time goes by in terms of more and more fabrics being certified?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Yes. Many of our customers, they came to us in fact when they have their first baby because they were concerned about the security and the safety for the baby’s clothing. For instance, we have a lot of customers who are making clothes, diapers. And then they are making the baby’s bed linen or clothes. And then the baby grow and then they made children clothes and so on. It’s a way to help people be aware of the qualities and the non-toxicity of this fabric.
DEBRA: That’s so wonderful! Now, all of your fabrics are made in Europe, correct?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Excuse me?
DEBRA: All of your fabrics are made in Europe?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Most of them are made in Turkey, which is very close to Europe because it is the only place where we can grow cotton. Our flax is grown and woven in France. Our denims and chambrays are also woven in France. As well as our wide width fabrics, they are also woven in France. We try to have the smaller transportation as possible.
DEBRA: Well, I just want to reiterate that the reason that we’re talking today is because in America, it’s my understanding that there are no GOTS-certified fabrics. Number one, they are not produced in America and number two, they’re not sold in America by American businesses. There’s not even a website, a single website that I know of like yours by an American-based company that is offering what you’re offering. So I so appreciate that you are doing what you’re doing and that you’re really a forerunner and it’s a very important thing.
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: Thank you. Yes, indeed, there are no factory in the United States that has the whole GOTS-certified process. You can get fabrics, which are made from organic fibers, then the process is not certified.
DEBRA: Right, right. And so I think that we’re going to start seeing a change towards the GOTS certification because if more people find out the difference, then they’ll be choosing the certified products – at least I will be telling them to.
So we only have about a minute left. Is there anything else you want to say that you haven’t said?
STEPHANIE ABGRALL: First of all, I want to thank you for the time you took to talk with me because it’s a really important moment for me. That’s all. Merci.
DEBRA: Well, merci to you. Thank you. So I’ll give your website address again, Only-Organic-Fabric-Shop.com. There’s hyphens in between each one of them. And again, you can get woven cottons, printed cottons, cotton jersey and knits and organic flax and linen and stuffing for your pillows and mattresses and quilts and especially wide width organic fabrics, which are often very hard to find. You can get samples. Every single bit of it, 100%, you don’t have to read the description, every bit of it is 100% GOTS-certified organic, which is the strictest standard in the world for fabrics.
So again, thank you so much, Stephanie for being with me. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com to listen to other shows or listen to this show again or read the transcripts (we have a transcript). I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. Be well.
Study Finds Harmful Chemicals in Swimming Pools
From Debra Lynn Dadd
Chlorine in public swimming pools has long been a concern, but now a new study by Purdue University has found even more toxic chemicals in swimming pool water.
Previous research has shown that urine in pools can react with chlorine to create potentially hazardous chemicals.
Now there is the same concern about pharmaceuticals and personal care products.
“There are literally thousands of chemicals from pharmaceuticals and personal care products that could be getting into swimming pool water.”
Of the 32 chemicals investigated, researchers found that there were three which showed up more often:
- Deet (found in insect repellants)
- caffeine
- tri(2-chloroethyl)-phosphate (TCEP) – a type of flame retardant
Read more at
Huffington Post UK: Harmful Chemicals Found In Swimming Pools, Including Flame Retardants and Insect Repellant (scroll to the bottom of the article for a wonderful slideshow of 11 Natural Swimming Spots Around the World)
Study Shows BPS Might Be More Harmful Than BPA
From Debra Lynn Dadd
Just last week The Washington Post reported on a new “groundbreaking” study, which shows that bisphenol-S, an ingredient in many products bearing “BPA-free” labels, causes abnormal growth surges of neurons in an animal embryo.
“The same surges were also found with BPA, though not at the same levels as with BPS, prompting the scientists to suggest that all structurally similar compounds now in use or considered for use by plastic manufacturers are unsafe.”
Read more at …
Also read…
Scanner
Question from green-earth
Hi Debra,
I need a scanner for my office. I was thinking of getting a portable one because it was smaller, however I need to scan books and the smaller ones wouldn’t work for that purpose.
I am scanning a sketchbook, which has drawings in it (and I don’t want to rip out the pages of the sketchbook). If you move the scanner a little bit, the drawing might be distorted. I am importing my drawings to the computer which I will be drawing on top of, so there can’t be any distortion. So I need a flat bed scanner.
Have you or anyone else found a brand of scanner that doesn’t smell strongly of glue or plastic?
Thanks
Debra’s Answer
Readers?
Mold Remidiation
Question from Bonnie Johnson
After a peak up into the attic crawl space it was discovered that there is some mold up there on the wood panels. The roof was done in 06 and have not been up there since then. I will get it tested and removed. I was wondering if anyone has ever been in a house that had that done or what the process is. Do I have to move out to get it done and how soon can I return…etc.
Debra’s Answer
Readers?
decals
Question from jenny
Hi Debra,
Is this a safe alternative to the vinyl wall decals? We’ve heard about -water based adhesive backed fabric material for wall decals that is ‘CPSIA tested and it is compliant’. Thanks for your confirmation.
Jenny
Debra’s Answer
Well, one site I read said, “FABRIC WALL DECALS are made out of fabric … a polyester weave with a water based adhesive which means : NO PVC’S, ECO-FRIENDLY and NON TOXIC. The advanced water based adhesive allows them to be re-used so no need to throw them out when your kids pulls them off the wall… just re-apply them.”
Polyester isn’t toxic, only the finishes applied to them are toxic. But if they have no finishes, I don’t see a problem.
Anyone have any experience with these?
