It’s no secret that the world we live in is full of toxins. They’re in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. And while our bodies are designed to handle some toxins, they’re not designed to handle the sheer volume of toxins we’re exposed to on a daily basis. When our bodies become overloaded with toxins, it can lead to a host of health problems, from hormone imbalances and fertility issues to anxiety and depression.
So what can you do to protect yourself from the harmful effects of toxins?
This is what happened to our latest guest, Dr. Wendie Trubow. She is a functional gynecologist and is passionate about helping women optimize their health and lives.. Through her struggles with mold and metal toxicity, Celiac disease, and other health issues, Dr Wendie has developed a deep sense of compassion and expertise for what her patients are facing. Wendie got into the toxicity topic because it happened to her, which made her an amazing person to talk about this topic and help me bring this knowledge to you all!
How did the toxicity symptoms start to manifest itself? Did it happen while a doctor or a long time coming?
When I look back I can say, “Oh, I had these problems for a long time.”, we are talking back to childhood where I had zero understanding or awareness of it. The symptoms didn’t occur to me as problems, it was just how I thought I was supposed to be. I thought asthma was normal, I thought acne was normal, I thought not having good hair was normal and I just didn’t have any insight into any of it at the time. And I wasn’t sick… I just wasn’t at my optimal health.
It really hit me hard when I became 48 and that is when my mess became my message! I had different symptoms but it wasn’t really bad. Then we went on vacation in France and the month I came home I gained 9 pounds. My hair started falling out worse, and I had a rash all over my face that would not quit. Now, I have been doing functional medicine, so I started doing workup on myself. My thyroid was fine, my hormones were fine, the stool was ok.
Then I was listening to the radio about when Notre Dame Cathedral burned down, it released 500 pounds of lead dust into the air. I was there the week after the fire happened, and the entire time I kept saying to my husband, why is it so dusty here? But we had NO idea we had lead exposure! I got sick right after we got home. I did a heavy metals test on myself. (in the past I tested at a 9, then tested and it was 12… a 25% increase.) I knew after this test that it was a lead exposure that was making me sick.
I started a protocol and treatment and started another test where I tested positive for heavy metals, mycotoxins and other toxins, pesticides, makeup nail polish, etc. The numbers were so high and from this experience, my book Dirty Girl was written.
I had to get this information out there, I had to get my experience with this out there for others, because I KNOW that I was not the only person going through this. It was at that moment that this was how my mess became my message. This became my passion because a lot of us are working hard to be healthy, but can’t get to the way we want to look or feel, and often it is because of the toxins.
What do we mean by hidden toxins?
● Nail polish, the smell in the nail salon
● Hair dyes
● All these chemicals in the air we breathe in
● Plastics
● Stress and emotional baggage
● The way you think can be toxic
● Environmental toxins
It’s not just one thing that is the culprit, it’s a cumulation of things. What are we exposing ourselves to that are harmful every single day?
Ground rules…
Really quick, please remember that this is a journey, not just a process. You will not complete it overnight! You’re going to screw it up and get green-washed, white-washed, hog-washed! LOL! I have been there! But you need to move on and don’t be mad at yourself.
Take baby steps. Don’t just throw everything out because that is wasteful, but once you are done with one thing, swap it for something without toxins. Don’t just do it all at once, you have to balance it out a little at a time. All of this consumerism is really bad for the earth so if we are just throwing it out you are contributing to that problem. Don’t be wasteful, use it up and get a better product after it’s gone.
Let’s Talk Metals
If we think about metals, many of us don’t know a lot about it. So why should we care so much about being exposed to metals? Because they affect our bodies in many different ways that we may not even realize is because of the heavy metals in our bodies.
Not so bad symptoms..
● Hair loss, weight gain
To me that’s bad but for some, it may not be. But those things tend to catch people’s attention.
Bad…
● Heart disease
● Diabetes
● High Blood pressure
● Crohn’s
● IBS
● Autoimmune disease
● Hearing loss
● Chronic stomach issues
The worst consequences of long-term toxin exposure and other heavy metals.
● Cancers
● Degenerative diseases
● Alzheimer’s
● Parkinson’s
● Autoimmune disease
● Things that can cause your life to be shortened and quality be bad
How would I know if I should get a heavy metal test? Find a doctor like you? Do my own?
Look for a seasoned functional medicine doctor, one at a senior level. If you go to the conventional doctor they will do a blood test on you but you miss 99% of people who have heavy metal problems because it only shows what you were exposed to and is acute before you excrete it or store it. It doesn’t show what is stored in your body. Not a huge fan of this test unless you had a recent exposure. Hair testing isn’t the best either.
Instead, do a baseline for acute (recent) exposure, then do a urine test using DMSA. The DMSA attaches to and pulls out the lead, mercury, cadmium, thallium, arsenic & pulls out the nasty ones . Then you can measure what is in there.
Endocrine disruptors and WHAT are they?
For many of us, it is more of a problem than metals and is more prevalent in our lives.
The lowest hanging fruit would be plastic water bottles, don’t buy those! They are so toxic for you! Bring extra reusable water bottles and fill them and just make sure you are prepared. We are so busy and run around so much that we think we need easy fixes like that case of water bottles in the car. Ditch that right away! Another is perchlorate. It is in a lot of our water systems, to keep it from being a toxin. It is an endocrine disruptor, so any organ in our bodies that make hormones will be thrown off by this. It is very important to filter water so you do not drink that chemical.
One thing that was hard for me was the nail polish, this breaks my heart… every Sunday night I do my nails.. But beauty products, nail polish, shampoos, lotions, they all contain substances that can disrupt the endocrine system. It binds to what our hormones are and we have to process 2-3x as much. There is just far too much in the body.
Environmental Working Group (EWG) you speak on this a lot.
The more you know the more you can do better! There are two sites that I love to use to check the cleanliness of the products I am buying. They rate it for cancer-causing, allergies, and endocrine disrupting. And those are EWG.org https://www.ewg.org/& the ThinkDirty app. https://thinkdirtyapp.com/ (both have phone apps) These give you a rating system. 1-2 for EWG is the best and cleanest, so go for the green rating when searching for products.
Let’s think about this… The EPA has only banned 9 chemicals in the last 40 years. 50 years of being around and that is all they are able to ban. Unfortunately, there is not enough funding for them to research the rest and ban them too. So with the 500,000 chemicals, they have only been able to research enough to ban 9. There is so much we do not know about in our products. We have to do our due diligence when it comes to looking up things for ourselves.
They may say 1 in a billion measured exposure is okay. But when you combine that 1 in 1 billion parts of chemicals with the other few hundred things that are exposed to at a time or in the course of a day, they cannot determine all of the damage it causes to our bodies. Take a look at the disease over the last 50 years; cancer, autoimmune disease, chronic diseases, degenerative diseases, cancer. They have all increased in that time and those 4 categories are what catch our attention. That is the epidemic.
How would I go about picking and choosing our battles?
No woman is on an island alone, don’t go on this journey alone. Get someone in your corner to cheer you on. A integrative functional medicine nutritionist, a naturopath, a functional medicine MD. It doesn’t matter who you choose just as long as they are senior enough to know what they are doing, they are on your side and you resonate with them. Recognize that this is a process and you are never really done. This is a constant improving process and there is tons of stuff you can do on your own.
● Level up your food.
Make better choices with foods. Where they are from and what is in or on them. Shop local and buy organic if you can.
● Level up your beauty products.
● Look into your house, furniture, Air and water quality
○ 1 in every 6 deaths is directly attributed to air and water quality.
○ Fix air quality. Try to get the air as clean as possible. If you live near a highway or industrial plant you cannot change that, but you can change the indoor quality and keep out.
● Get a filter for water at home.
● Pick your battles and see how you feel.
How to detoxify. What are things people can do to help your liver?
You are what you eat! Choose foods that are easy for your liver to utilize and don’t give your liver food that stresses it. Alcohol is really nasty for you. If you can get away with it don’t drink because it is bad for you and stresses your liver.
Make sure you get cruciferous vegetables. Vitamin A, E, C, polyphenols, turmeric, and carotenes, are all things that help liver phase 1 and some phase 2. If you eat animal products, eat flesh because you get critical amino acids that are supporting detoxification. Eggs, cilantro, parsley, gelatin, bone broth, all things that support the liver. Eat the rainbow and eat bright colored foods and just be mindful of where your food is coming from.
If you want to take a deeper dive into what we talked about on the podcast and in this blog, you have to get her book, Dirty Girl: Ditch The Toxins, Look Great And Feel FREAKING Amazing. This book is really eye-opening and touches on soooo much more than we can talk about in an hour. (Linked in show notes below)
Also, if you want to work with Wendie, she has a functional medicine and wellness practice in Newton Massachusetts and they do telemedicine too. (they also do take insurance.) They also have nutritionists people can work with and it is called Five Journeys.
She will be holding a summit on the things we talked about in April 2023. Environmental toxins, autoimmune disease, and chronic disease. All about how to prevent and reverse it, so check out her website to learn more about this and how you can attend.
What is one thing that makes you feel magical?
What lights me up?…. The thing that comes to mind is when I see my kids have a breakthrough in something they have been struggling with and get to that next level of who they are in their performance. That lights me up.
LINKS
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach
Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/
Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661
Cracking The Belly Fat Code:
https://www.fitgirlmagic.com/bfc_masterclasswait/
Wendie Trubow Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WendieTrubowMD
Wendie Trubow Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/wendietrubowmd/
Website:
www.fivejourneys.com
Podcast: The 5 Journeys Podcast: Live Like You Matter
https://fivejourneys.com/podcast/
Dirty Girl: Ditch the Toxins, Look Great and Feel FREAKING Amazing!
https://amzn.to/3fWxj7W
