TRIGGERnometry - How Microplastics Are Ruining Your Health And What You Can Do About It

00:00:00.000 They're in our water, they're in our food that we're eating, they're in our personal

00:00:05.720 hygiene products. The other major source of microplastics is actually from the air we breathe.

00:00:12.120 Receipts are terrible. I have this funny story. Receipts? Yeah. Oh, yes. Well, like paper. Yes.

00:00:17.760 Oh, my gosh. You haven't heard about this? This is a public health crisis. It's totally a public

00:00:24.500 health crisis. Oh, my God. It's like time to wake up. Is there a connection between conditions like

00:00:31.200 ADHD, autism, and also other conditions as well, and these microplastics? Yes, there is. Pregnant

00:00:37.660 women that have the highest levels of BPA in their urine, they're six times more likely to have

00:00:44.380 a child diagnosed with autism by the age of 11. This seems far more rock solid in terms of its

00:00:52.200 evidence than Tylenol does. So why are we talking about this? I don't know. We need to be talking

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00:01:45.780 Hi. Rhonda, welcome to Trigonometry. I'm so excited to be here. Oh, it's great to have

00:01:51.200 you on. We can't wait to have the conversation. We're going to talk about microplastics, but

00:01:55.460 particularly we wanted to start with testosterone. We hear a lot of stuff about the fact that testosterone

00:02:01.220 in men is dropping with each generation. Is that true? There's definitely a lot of evidence

00:02:07.680 suggesting that testosterone levels are dropping and sperm quality, sperm levels are dropping as

00:02:14.400 well. I mean, you've probably heard that very famous statistic globally about, you know, it's

00:02:19.660 over the last few decades, men are making, you know, 50% less sperm. So, and that's obviously very

00:02:25.840 intimately related to testosterone as well. Yeah, it's definitely a problem. And the question is,

00:02:31.580 why is it a problem? And, you know, I know that's something that I've been interested in. Many people

00:02:37.460 are interested. Obviously, a lot of men are interested in this as well. But there's a lot of changes in our

00:02:42.600 environment that have happened over these few decades as well, right? I mean, we've got a lot

00:02:46.500 more chemicals that we've been exposed to. We're eating food. We're not as connected to our food

00:02:51.580 anymore. So foods are a lot more processed and packaged. And, you know, there have been at least

00:02:56.320 one study that I know about showing that if you take healthy young men and you give them like a large

00:03:04.180 bolus, like 80 grams or something of sugar, it drops their testosterone levels by 25%. And this is

00:03:10.160 like pretty immediate. Now, that's a lot of sugar, but like a donut and, you know, coke or something. I

00:03:16.200 mean, people eat that stuff all the time in a day, day after day. And, you know, that's just kind of

00:03:22.500 one example. But I think the larger problem here does have to do with a lot of the chemicals that

00:03:28.260 we're ingesting on a daily basis and aren't even aware of it, right? So these chemicals, I mean, we were

00:03:34.220 having this conversation a minute ago when you guys were pouring your water in your glass,

00:03:37.480 plastic bottle. We're about to get it telling off. Yeah.

00:03:42.900 We have a lot of chemicals that are in our environment that we're ingesting that we don't

00:03:45.800 know about. And these chemicals are often associated with plastic. So they're plastic

00:03:52.900 associated chemicals. And they're what are called endocrine disrupting chemicals, EDCs.

00:03:59.540 These are things like bisphenol A, BPA, or bisphenol S. It's kind of related cousin, BPS.

00:04:05.860 And they're in a lot of plastics. They're in plastic water bottles. They're in the recyclable,

00:04:13.040 reusable water bottles. They're in aluminum cans that have sparkling water or soda. They're lining

00:04:19.520 canned foods. You know, anything that's in a can, aluminum can, is lined with a plastic lining that

00:04:27.140 has this BPA. They're in to-go coffee mugs. So those coffee mugs that you're getting at your

00:04:33.140 Starbucks or your local bougie, you know, coffee joint, they're also lined with plastic that has

00:04:38.900 BPA or BPS. And, you know, these chemicals leach into the beverage. In the case of heating them,

00:04:47.260 it's even worse. So there have been studies that have shown if you add boiling water to this BPA

00:04:51.860 chemical, it increases the leaching by 55-fold into the water. So that's your to-go coffee or to-go tea

00:04:59.380 that you're, everyone's drinking, walking around drinking, is literally like you're getting these

00:05:03.260 plastic chemicals and you're also getting pieces of plastic as well. We can talk about later. But

00:05:08.100 BPA and BPS are endocrine disrupting hormones. And so essentially what that means is they're

00:05:15.260 disrupting our fundamental sex hormones like testosterone, like estrogen. And they do it

00:05:22.040 by a variety of different ways. You've probably heard of this xenoestrogens. So BPA is known as

00:05:29.060 a xenoestrogen. It's an estrogen mimetic. And the reason it's referred to that is because it

00:05:34.420 binds to the estrogen receptor. And the estrogen receptor thinks it's estrogen. So it kind of

00:05:42.660 confuses things and maybe your body will stop making the estrogen. So they also bind to androgen

00:05:47.220 receptors, which bind to testosterone and other androgens. And they do the same thing. So

00:05:52.240 essentially what happens is, you know, you'll have these chemicals binding to the receptors

00:05:57.380 and your body thinks, oh, I have enough testosterone around. I don't need to make more.

00:06:02.300 When really it wasn't testosterone binding to that androgen receptor, it was the BPA.

00:06:06.020 And this is why you can find studies that have shown everywhere from early development to

00:06:12.700 adolescence to adulthood. BPA and BPS to a lesser extent only because BPS has replaced BPA. So

00:06:22.320 there's fewer studies out there just looking at its effects on testosterone. But essentially BPS

00:06:28.060 is doing the same thing. And in fact, it might even be worse because it stays around longer in our

00:06:32.800 bodies. But essentially these chemicals are lowering testosterone. They're lowering sperm quality,

00:06:41.420 sperm morphology, the shape of the sperm. They're lowering the number, the quantity of sperm that

00:06:46.720 men are producing. So there's studies in adolescents showing that healthy young adolescents with the

00:06:52.760 highest level of BPA for every log increase of BPA. Now that's a lot. A log increase is a lot.

00:07:00.180 But for every log increase in BPA, there was almost a 50% reduction in testosterone, which is very

00:07:07.900 significant. That's a lot. Again, it is a log increase. It's not just a little bit. It's a lot.

00:07:13.240 But I think you get the picture here. And that is that you're seeing a dose-dependent effect here,

00:07:17.480 right? And that always strengthens the data. There's also studies with adult men showing, again,

00:07:22.960 bisphenol A is associated with lower testosterone levels. You know, at the end of the day, that's

00:07:27.700 obviously like a correlation data. You're saying, well, higher levels of bisphenol A is associated

00:07:33.000 with lower testosterone. We don't really know if that's causing it, right? Maybe they're just all

00:07:38.520 the sort of packaged foods and stuff that people are eating are, you know, the chemical BPA is

00:07:44.000 leached into that. And so you're getting an association when it's really the packaged foods

00:07:47.640 and all that. And so you can't ignore that fact that, you know, plastics and when you're eating these

00:07:53.120 like processed foods, they are packaged in plastic and that stuff does leach into your food,

00:07:57.720 particularly if the food is hot or acidic or fatty, that will cause the leaching of it even more.

00:08:06.880 But there are animal studies that have now shown causation. So you can then give, for example,

00:08:12.080 rodents, male rodent mice, high levels of BPA. And yes, it decreases testosterone. It does the same

00:08:18.620 thing with the sperm quality, the sperm quantity, like it goes down as well. And so there's a sort of

00:08:24.920 causation that's established when you look at the totality of evidence. And then we have

00:08:29.000 mechanisms. So I mentioned that, you know, the BPA and BPS, these are xenoestrogens. They're

00:08:34.600 binding to the estrogen receptor. They're also binding to the androgen receptor that affects

00:08:38.300 testosterone. Well, they also affect the aromatase enzyme as well. And so you're just getting all

00:08:45.160 these combining factors here showing that essentially these plastic associated chemicals are dropping

00:08:51.120 testosterone. I mean, I think it's pretty, at this point, just looking at the totality of evidence,

00:08:58.000 it's pretty obvious that they are affecting our hormones. Well, we'll get into the plastics more

00:09:02.940 as we go on. But this, it occurs to me that there's an interesting question to ask you, because

00:09:06.840 as you might know, one of the things we've explored on the show is cultural and political changes that

00:09:12.060 have been happening in society for decades now. And I guess the obvious question is, is like,

00:09:16.280 what would we expect to see in a society in which men's testosterone was dropping in this way?

00:09:21.800 Like, what are some of the ways that might manifest itself? Well, I mean, there's a lot of,

00:09:25.520 I would say a lot of different health consequences of having lower testosterone. Obviously, one that

00:09:30.760 people think of right out the gate is, you know, lower libido sex drive, right? Like that's something

00:09:34.640 that's affected. Cardiovascular disease is another one that's also like bone health, you know,

00:09:41.100 brain, like your, your mental health as well. I mean, these are all connected energy, right? Lower

00:09:48.060 energy. Um, so yeah, I mean, there, there are downstream consequences to having lower testosterone,

00:09:54.800 um, everything from the brain to cardiovascular health to like, you know, sex drive, which is also

00:10:01.880 very fundamental. But is it also what I'm getting at is something else, which is also, is it likely to

00:10:06.120 be something that affects the way you view the world or the way you perceive politics or whatever,

00:10:13.080 everything? I mean, you know, I've, that's not really my area of expertise, but just sort of,

00:10:19.200 if I were to speculate, you know, I think that hormones very much affect the way we see the world.

00:10:24.260 They affect the way we feel, they affect our mood. I mean, those things all affect our view on things,

00:10:29.580 right? I mean, if we're feeling anxious, I mean, low testosterone does cause anxiety. If we're feeling

00:10:34.660 anxious all the time, that's going to affect our, our view, our, our view and outlook on a variety

00:10:39.680 of different topics, right? I mean, that's pretty obvious. I wouldn't say that I'm an expert in that,

00:10:44.800 you know, you could talk to a psychologist or something, but, uh, it seems pretty obvious to me

00:10:49.160 that it would affect, you know, people's viewpoints, just knowing that it's pretty fundamental to brain

00:10:54.080 function. Um, but yeah, back to the chemicals, like I talked about BPA and BPS, and those aren't the

00:11:01.120 only ones that are affecting testosterone. Um, it's just one of the variety barrage of chemicals

00:11:07.120 that we're ingesting, you know, on a daily basis. Another really important one is phthalates. Have

00:11:13.480 you guys heard of phthalates? No. So phthalates are something that are often, they're found in a lot

00:11:19.600 of plastics. They're added to like PVC piping to make them, to soften them a little bit. So they're

00:11:24.760 obviously in the pipes that our tap water is running through. And this is global. I mean,

00:11:29.880 it's not just in the United States. Um, they're in a variety of, you know, food packaging items as

00:11:36.620 well, but they're also in personal hygiene products. So they're in shampoos, shaving cream,

00:11:43.480 lotion, makeup, hair products, just, you know, women, women are definitely consuming a lot of these

00:11:49.840 through, through their hygiene products, but men as well. Um, and they're disguised under the word

00:11:54.400 parfum or, um, fragrance are the two things that will, they're, it's a proprietary sort of blend of

00:12:02.020 things. And phthalates will be in there to sort of extend the half-life of the fragrance, like to make

00:12:08.100 it smell good for a longer period of time. Well, phthalates disrupt testosterone on multiple levels,

00:12:14.560 one in the testes. So they actually directly, I talked about the androgen receptor with BPA.

00:12:20.180 Well, phthalates are directly disrupting testosterone production in the testes and they're

00:12:25.660 affecting, you know, the, um, hypothalamic, so the HPG access, the hypothalamic pituitary gonadal

00:12:33.360 access. This is the access that's regulating our hormone production. They're affecting that as well.

00:12:38.420 And phthalates, um, are also associated with lower testosterone at like every stage of life.

00:12:43.760 It's really important for development, um, that you're having, you know, normal testosterone.

00:12:50.180 And women that are pregnant that have high phthalate levels, for whatever reason, either

00:12:55.640 they're consuming it through their, their water, or it could be coming, the phthalates could be coming

00:13:00.180 from their personal hygiene products. But essentially, it's really important to realize

00:13:03.300 that pregnant women that have high phthalate levels are dramatically more likely to have sons

00:13:09.000 that have a variety of different sexual development problems. So for one, they have undescended

00:13:14.640 testicles. So these are, you know, the testicles aren't coming, they don't drop down like they're

00:13:19.200 supposed to. Um, this is a big problem. It causes fertility issues later in life, but a big,

00:13:24.300 a big thing it does is it dramatically, it's probably the number one factor that plays a role in testicular

00:13:30.880 cancer in like young, young, young adults, young adult males, um, undescended testicles. The biggest,

00:13:36.500 the biggest factor that, that plays a role in testicular cancer. So that's more likely to happen.

00:13:41.460 Um, hypospadia, which is the, basically the slit on the urethra on the, the penis is like further

00:13:47.120 back. And so, um, that's also disrupted. And then the anogenital desk distance, um, the distance from

00:13:54.280 the anus to the penis is like smaller. All these things affect fertility. They affect testosterone.

00:14:00.780 I mean, this is, they're again, affecting testicular cancer. Um, so very, very important. This all comes

00:14:06.480 down to phthalates, but even later in life, again, um, the phthalates are associated with lower

00:14:12.700 testosterone in adolescents. And also there's large, very, very large studies. These are

00:14:17.320 nutritional and health surveys that are done in the United States. They're called the NHANE studies.

00:14:20.940 You know, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people and participants in these studies,

00:14:25.340 men with higher level of phthalates have much lower levels of testosterone. So again, we're seeing this

00:14:31.080 trend of these chemicals that are put into plastic. They're put into our personal hygiene

00:14:36.100 products and they're affecting hormone levels. Um, and so I think that's, it's just a, it's a

00:14:42.120 recurring trend. There's other environmental factors as well that are affecting testosterone.

00:14:46.580 I think some of the glyphosate, you know, is, is, is known to as well. I'm, I don't know that

00:14:51.420 literature as well, but the plastic chemicals, I think, you know, they're endocrine disruptors.

00:14:56.820 They're fundamentally affecting hormones. It's pretty obvious to me that is a culprit in

00:15:02.720 declining testosterone levels and also affecting just basically, just basically hormones, right?

00:15:08.260 Estrogen and testosterone, both androgens. So not just testosterone.

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00:18:59.540 You make the case, and as you go through it, you're doing it beautifully. It makes me think,

00:19:03.960 as I listen to you, that this is a public health crisis.

00:19:06.500 It's totally a public health crisis. Oh my God. It's like time to wake up. You know, I mean,

00:19:12.540 the problem is we can't see these chemicals. We don't really smell them or not. It's just,

00:19:20.620 they're just insidious. They're there, I know. They're in our water. They're in our drinking water.

00:19:28.160 They're in our food that we're eating. They're in our personal hygiene products. And every day,

00:19:33.440 every day, we're being exposed to them. It's a public health crisis. And, you know, yes,

00:19:40.480 I get that there's other important public health issues to focus on, like obesity. Like,

00:19:45.120 that's a big crisis, right? Let's be real. Like, that's a big crisis. But this is also a crisis,

00:19:51.780 and I think it's just getting worse. And it is affecting our hormones, although obesity does also

00:19:57.820 affect our hormones as well. It is something that we need to pay attention to. And we need,

00:20:03.460 I think we just need more focus on it from, you know, everything from a public health standpoint.

00:20:09.620 We need our politicians to maybe help intervene here. Like, more regulations. Like, maybe we

00:20:16.100 shouldn't just be having, be able to have all these plastic chemicals, you know, so readily put in

00:20:20.780 our products in, you know, children's toys and children's, you know, you know, stuff that they're

00:20:26.480 putting their mouths and stuff and chewing on all that stuff. Because we've done numerous

00:20:31.200 interviews with demographers, and they're talking about there's a population crisis in the West and

00:20:35.840 across the developed world. And look, there's societal factors for that and etc. But you're looking,

00:20:41.640 you're going, declining testosterone. You know, men are going to be more anxious. They're going to be

00:20:46.240 less fertile. They're going to want sex less. You go, this is a recipe for disaster when it comes to

00:20:53.440 declining birth rates, isn't it? And it's not just men. These chemicals are affecting female

00:20:58.740 reproduction as well. In fact, there have been studies showing that BPA, bisphenol A, that plastic

00:21:04.080 compound, it's associated with women that are undergoing in vitro fertilization. If they have high

00:21:11.100 BPA levels, it reduces their success rate by 50%. Wow. 50%. It also, egg quality is reduced. So we're

00:21:18.540 talking about exactly on a very fundamental level, it is affecting human life, right? Our ability to

00:21:25.120 procreate. So, you know, both on the male and the female side. And these chemicals are, like I said,

00:21:33.880 they're everywhere. Heat really speeds up the process of it coming into our water, into our

00:21:40.860 beverages, into our food because the oxidation, it's like almost time passing. You know, it takes a lot

00:21:47.340 of time for oxidation, but when you heat it up, you're oxidizing it really fast. And so you're

00:21:51.120 getting just orders of magnitude more of these chemicals and plastics and stuff in your food.

00:21:55.720 And that's why the to-go coffee mugs are such a big, in my mind, it's like, why haven't we solved

00:22:01.720 this problem? All these, you know, cardboard plastic mugs are lined with these plastic, you know, lining to

00:22:08.100 prevent the beverage from leaching and breaking down the cardboard. But you can use other things.

00:22:12.880 You can use polylactic acid from sugarcane to do that. It's more expensive, but like, you know,

00:22:18.480 this needs to be done because adding the heated beverage to these, you know, plastic lining is

00:22:23.620 the worst thing you can do in terms of plastics getting into your beverage, but also these chemicals.

00:22:28.080 These chemicals are really getting into the beverages. BPA, there is a pretty short half-life.

00:22:34.600 It's like a couple of hours, two to three hours. But the problem is, is we're constantly exposed

00:22:39.940 to it. Just constantly, constantly. So it's just always in our body. There are ways that we can get

00:22:45.600 rid of BPA. Some does come out of sweat. Mostly we're getting rid of it through our urine. So if

00:22:52.340 you exercise or you're using the sauna, you can excrete a little bit more BPA through sweat, but that's

00:22:57.340 not the major route of excretion of this compound. It's actually through urine. And so there is an

00:23:04.300 argument to be made to increase your consumption of a certain compound called sulforaphane,

00:23:11.520 which is found in, it's found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, you know,

00:23:18.240 cabbage, that whole family. All the sexy, all the sexy greens. I know, all the ones that taste so good.

00:23:24.900 It's really high in actually broccoli sprouts, which is the young broccoli plant. In fact,

00:23:28.620 there's like a hundred times more of the precursor of sulforaphane in it. So sulforaphane is actually

00:23:35.240 formed once the plant is crushed or like chopped or something. By the way, it's actually a plant

00:23:40.060 insecticide. So the reason the plant makes this is because it's trying to ward off insects. And so when

00:23:45.740 we consume it, you know, we're chewing it and that's when we make, that's when the plant actually

00:23:49.420 makes the sulforaphane. But sulforaphane activates these enzymes that are involved in excreting BPA

00:23:57.180 and other harmful compounds that were exposed to like benzene from air pollution. And it will,

00:24:03.120 for example, in benzene, in the case of benzene, it increased the excretion by 60% after just 24 hours.

00:24:10.240 And again, this is like benzene is a carcinogen. It's found in air pollution, cigarette smoke,

00:24:14.220 the same enzymes that get rid of benzene are getting rid of BPA and BPS and phthalates.

00:24:20.720 And so there's a case to be made to eat your broccoli sprouts or supplement with a good high

00:24:24.600 quality sulforaphane supplement. I mean, obviously you want to try to avoid, you know, like I don't

00:24:29.660 like to drink out of plastic bottles, you know, but there's a case to be made to, you know,

00:24:35.680 supplement with this sulforaphane supplement as well. Here's the thing though, on the plastic bottles

00:24:39.140 thing, I don't know if you saw this, there was something that went viral the other day when they did

00:24:42.200 test on glass bottles and they found they actually have more plastics in them because of the lids.

00:24:46.540 Yes. Is that true? I'm so glad you brought this up. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that.

00:24:50.640 So there, there have been, that wasn't the only study, by the way, there've been other studies

00:24:54.780 that have done that have measured. So now we're talking about microplastics. We were talking about

00:24:59.220 the chemicals associated with those plastics, but part of the problem with microplastics is they

00:25:03.260 are a vector for these chemicals and they're in your body, right? So microplastics range in size from

00:25:09.900 like five millimeters, which is like the size of a grain of rice to like a hundred nanometers,

00:25:14.420 which is like a thousand times smaller than a grain of sand. So they're very, very, you know,

00:25:18.340 wide ranging. Size does matter. And that's why I'm bringing this up. Size does matter.

00:25:23.340 This is going to be a great clip, right? You go, size matters.

00:25:26.140 The bigger the plastics, the better, the better actually. So sizes matter. So the study did look

00:25:31.580 at microplastics that were shed in the beverage from plastic bottles or glass bottles. And as you said,

00:25:37.900 shockingly, the glass bottles had more particles of microplastics than the plastic bottles.

00:25:45.540 However, the size of the microplastics, because these microplastics were coming from the lid,

00:25:51.060 as you mentioned, they're coming from the paint on the lid, they were larger in size.

00:25:56.680 Why is that important? Because the larger microplastics less readily are absorbed in our gut

00:26:02.980 than the smaller ones are. So you're much better off still drinking more quantity of larger

00:26:09.800 microplastics than smaller quantity of the smaller ones, because the smaller ones are very,

00:26:15.760 very problematic. Those are the ones that are getting into our gut and getting absorbed into

00:26:20.380 our bloodstream. Once they're in our bloodstream, they're accumulating in organs, and then we can

00:26:24.900 talk about the damage they're doing there. I sort of feel like we've kind of got a deal either way.

00:26:29.520 Why are we drinking all this stuff in the first place? I mean, I think that the companies that

00:26:33.920 are making these glass, you know, whether it's a beer bottle or my Mountain Valley, you know,

00:26:39.320 spring water that I like because it's in a glass bottle, they can actually take action and do

00:26:45.280 something about the paint that's getting into the water, right? Like, it's easy to, like, rinse off,

00:26:51.180 blow air, like, get this stuff or don't use the paint. Like, why do we need the paint? Like,

00:26:55.760 I don't need to paint on the lid. I don't care. Like, you know, put it on the glass part, right?

00:27:01.500 Not on the lid. So I do think that there can be action that's taken by the companies themselves.

00:27:06.860 But even at home, like, if you get open your glass bottle of water, you can rinse the lid off,

00:27:11.800 right, too. Like, so it's not continually shedding. But yeah, I still, I'm still drinking the glass

00:27:17.620 bottled water versus the plastic.

00:27:19.360 You know, as you talk, I'm thinking more and more. So when I used to teach, I saw year upon year,

00:27:27.420 more and more kids get diagnosed with ADHD, more and more kids get diagnosed with autism.

00:27:32.660 And I was looking at these kids and going, are we just over-diagnosing? Is there something

00:27:37.960 literally in the water? Is there a connection between conditions like ADHD, autism, and also

00:27:44.720 other conditions as well? And these microplastics? Yes, there is. And yes, it is something in the

00:27:51.080 water. It's called microplastics and the chemicals associated with them. Obviously, there is an

00:27:57.280 increased awareness and people are, you know, aware more. And I do think it's over-diagnosis. I mean,

00:28:03.480 like, kids are being diagnosed with ADHD. Boys are being diagnosed with ADHD. And really,

00:28:08.820 they're just boys, right? I mean, they're just boys. So aside from that issue, there are studies

00:28:16.700 that have now linked, again, back to the bisphenol A, BPA, and BPS. They've linked that to autism

00:28:23.820 and ADHD. So there have been studies with pregnant women that have the highest levels of BPA in their

00:28:30.080 urine. They're six times more likely to have a child diagnosed with autism by the age of 11

00:28:36.900 than women with the lowest levels of BPA. This is, I'm citing this one study because the statistic

00:28:43.980 is shocking, six times more likely. That's a very shocking number. But I want to, I just want to

00:28:50.140 sort of emphasize that there's not just one study showing this correlation. This is just the big

00:28:55.440 statistic number correlation. There's multiple studies showing this correlation between higher

00:28:59.920 levels of BPA and increased autism risk. There's also animal evidence. So if you give pregnant

00:29:07.280 female mice BPA, if you make them exposed to the BPA, they also are more likely to have pups that are,

00:29:14.680 you know, as much as you can, you know, correlate this autistic-like behavior in these pups,

00:29:20.000 that's what you're seeing in these pups, right? And again, this comes down to

00:29:26.500 the disruption of hormones. And it's particularly during a very, very important time during development,

00:29:33.200 brain development. And so I mentioned, you know, the aromatase enzyme. A lot of men are probably

00:29:39.160 like, oh, aromatase. Well, that's what causes my testosterone to be converted into estrogen, right?

00:29:44.500 You do want some amount of estrogen. I mean, biology is the way it is for a reason, right? And so you don't

00:29:50.320 want to be disrupting this delicate balance between hormones. Things are supposed to be, you're supposed to

00:29:55.000 have high levels of estrogen at certain points in periods of development. And it's actually, we were

00:30:00.080 talking about this earlier, it's counterintuitive because, you know, BPA is inhibiting that aromatase

00:30:06.200 enzyme. That aromatase enzyme is important for increasing estrogen, particularly during very

00:30:11.720 specific moments of brain development. And what happens is that estrogen is very important for

00:30:17.260 actually masculinizing the male brain. It's counterintuitive, but it's pretty well known

00:30:23.780 that estrogen plays a role in actually masculinizing the male brain. And so when you're not getting

00:30:28.740 those estrogen surges during brain development, what happens is the connectivity of the brain,

00:30:34.400 the wiring of the brain, the structure of the brain isn't quite right. And so that's, you know,

00:30:41.080 playing a role in, at least that's what's thought to partly play a role in the increased autism risk in

00:30:47.460 women that are having these, you know, high exposures to BPA. And then again, like I said, you know,

00:30:54.140 it's something that's been shown in, replicated in animal studies, which is nice. Again, going to that

00:30:58.620 totality of evidence when you're like, okay, I'm looking at the epidemiological observational data

00:31:03.220 with the correlation that doesn't equal causation, but now I have a mechanism here. I know that the

00:31:07.980 mice are also better exposed to it. We see the same thing. And then we look at the genetic data.

00:31:12.280 And if you look at genetic data in boys that have dysfunctional aromatase enzymes, guess what?

00:31:18.420 They're much more likely to be diagnosed with autism, especially if they also have an environmental

00:31:22.440 insult. So there's this gene environment interaction when you're already sort of vulnerable and then you

00:31:27.440 add in that insult and you just, you know, get that plastic chemical. So any sort of aromatase

00:31:32.060 function that they were having as low as it was now is like worse, right? And so that's like that

00:31:38.420 double whammy sort of effect. That's also known to be, to play a role in autism as well.

00:31:44.020 And then there's some interesting data on actually children with autism. This is really interesting.

00:31:49.740 They are, they have some sort of dysfunctional mechanism in excreting BPA. So children with autism

00:31:56.800 oftentimes have like 15 times higher level of BPA than non-autistic children. And it has to do with

00:32:04.720 like the excretion pathway I was talking about. And it's really, really interesting because this is

00:32:09.660 all connected. That sulforaphane supplement that I was telling you about. So this is extracted from

00:32:15.600 broccoli sprouts, the richest source of that compound, right? That sulforaphane compound has been now used

00:32:22.100 in two different clinical studies, placebo-controlled trials, one with children with autism spectrum

00:32:27.620 disorder and one with adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. And they were given this sulforaphane

00:32:32.080 compound or a placebo. And the children that got the sulforaphane compound, it improved,

00:32:37.480 you know, the whole battery of tests that they do for the autism, you know, array of tests that they

00:32:43.200 do to look at, you know, improvements and symptoms. And so it was in two studies that it was shown to

00:32:48.420 improve. And again, I mentioned that sulforaphane, it helps excrete BPA. Kind of interesting that the

00:32:55.820 autistics are having such high levels of BPA. And BPA also is disrupting the hormones, right?

00:33:01.620 Disrupting the hormones, causing oxidative stress and stuff. So I thought that was a very

00:33:05.560 interesting connection between sort of all these pieces of the puzzle that we're talking about,

00:33:09.720 like the plastic chemicals, the BPA, the hormone disruption, and then the autism. And by the way,

00:33:16.040 ADHD is another one that's associated with BPA levels as well. So it's all linked. And, you know,

00:33:21.480 there's a lot of underlying, I would say there's a lot of common denominators between ADHD and

00:33:27.400 autism spectrum disorder. I'm like, there's so many different commonalities between the two. I mean,

00:33:32.040 that's why it's a spectrum, right? You know, and I really truly believe that, first of all,

00:33:37.360 that there's overdiagnosis, particularly with ADHD. I think that's, you can't ignore it. I mean,

00:33:42.400 we were talking about studies that I, you know, read a few years ago where boys that were born in

00:33:48.440 July and August, you know, these are the youngest in the class, are three to four times more likely to be

00:33:52.960 diagnosed with ADHD. There's nothing about being born in July or August that makes you have ADHD.

00:33:58.280 You're just the younger boy. And so you're moving around more. You're, you know, the teachers are

00:34:01.940 comparing you to the girls or to the older kids that are a little more school ready, right?

00:34:07.380 That's crazy to me because, you know, we talked about this. I have a three-year-old

00:34:10.900 and I take him to football, soccer, you'd call it, every weekend. And if whenever there's an older

00:34:17.840 child there who's been brought by with a sibling or something like that, you've got the level of

00:34:21.760 distractibility in these two groups of humans is so vastly different. Yeah. And boys and girls are

00:34:28.200 so vastly different. It's become the controversial thing to say, but they are. Oh yeah. Very different.

00:34:33.520 To compare them on things like distractibility, ability to concentrate and then go, well, one has

00:34:39.500 it. That's not to say there isn't ADHD. It's just, it seems like if you start telling these myths about

00:34:46.400 how we're all the same and ignoring certain realities, you're going to end up in a bad place

00:34:51.340 in that way. Right. No, I mean, obviously there is such a thing as ADHD. Um, but you know,

00:34:56.840 the fact of the matter is, is that it's these, these, the kids are not just meant to sit still

00:35:03.580 for so long, especially when they're younger. And it does make it easier on the teacher to have

00:35:08.160 kids that just sit still and like pay attention. So to some degree, and I don't want to blame

00:35:11.820 teachers because like they're doing amazing jobs, but like to some degree, maybe they're not even

00:35:17.040 aware of it. You know, maybe they're not even aware of the fact that they're comparing them.

00:35:20.940 And I, there's, there's all sorts of things going on behind the picture, but you know,

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00:38:26.800 Back to the environmental chemicals and to your question, you know, they are definitely playing

00:38:32.120 a role. We have the data to back that up. We have the mechanism. You know, we have animal evidence,

00:38:37.200 just all the things pointing to it. And, you know, I don't think it's the only thing playing a role in

00:38:41.680 autism and ADHD. I think the reality... What else is playing a role in that?

00:38:45.520 I think other environmental, you know, chemicals... Because there's genetics, right?

00:38:49.640 Genetics is a massive factor. There's definitely genetics. And I think the genetics

00:38:53.000 is like the template. Like, it like sets you up for the environmental insults that we're all

00:39:00.520 exposed to now that make those individuals more vulnerable. And that's what we've seen with this

00:39:05.740 aromatase enzyme data. Whereas, like, the boys that have the defects in this aromatase are much

00:39:12.360 more vulnerable to the environmental insults. And so I think that, you know, the genetics you can't

00:39:19.620 ignore. But it's really an interaction between the genetics and the environment. And if you can...

00:39:26.300 There's some degree that you don't have control over your genes, right? I mean, you know,

00:39:30.680 obviously there's futurism stuff where you're going to, you know, be mating with the people and

00:39:35.820 you're going to be looking at your genes and doing all that. But like, that's not where we're at right

00:39:38.640 now, right? There's only so much control you have over your genes. What you do have control over is

00:39:42.880 what you put in your body, what you're exposed to. I mean, to some degree, right? Like, we were

00:39:47.700 talking about... I mean, like, you know, you don't even realize that your to-go coffee cup is like

00:39:53.440 a BPA factory. I mean, every time you... I can't even think about how many, like, hot teas. And by the way,

00:39:59.100 we got to talk about tea. But like, you know, the hot coffees and stuff...

00:40:02.080 That is sacrilegious. On a British show, we're going to talk about tea. You're going to ruin tea?

00:40:08.440 I'm going to ruin tea. But only tea bags. Tea and tea bags.

00:40:11.740 Oh, my wife is so onto this. Go on.

00:40:13.600 Yes. Yes. Because there have been studies now showing that the tea bags themselves,

00:40:19.220 particularly the ones that are like the pyramid-shaped ones, like the bougie teas,

00:40:22.800 billions of microplastics. And remember, the microplastics have these chemicals

00:40:28.300 associated with them. Billions, like, being released into your cup of tea. Even the ones

00:40:34.520 made of cellulose are releasing microplastics. So you have to use loose leaf tea. Or, I mean,

00:40:41.260 you can look for... There's some tea brands that are marketing themselves as plastic-free

00:40:46.400 or microplastic-free. I don't trust it. I go for loose leaf. And if I can't get loose leaf

00:40:50.980 at a restaurant, I ask them to give me fresh mint and lemon. And I just use that as my tea because...

00:40:55.300 So the question is this. From a political point of view, the evidence that you've outlined

00:41:02.260 seems rock solid. So from a political point of view, autism is at the forefront. We've seen RFK

00:41:08.060 Jr. talk about it. We've seen the conversation that has been had around Tylenol. And you go,

00:41:13.440 this seems far more rock solid in terms of its evidence than Tylenol does. So why aren't we talking

00:41:20.380 about this? I don't know. We need to be talking about this. We really do. Yeah, there is evidence

00:41:26.760 of acetaminophen. And, you know, the problem... And I've been looking, by the way, I've been

00:41:33.060 interested in this evidence, like, for the last 10 years. You can, like, go back and search X.

00:41:37.620 And I've, like, been tweeting about it. Like, at least eight years ago, I was tweeting about

00:41:41.220 acetaminophen linked to ADHD and autism. So I was interested in it before it became a political

00:41:46.040 issue. Just because I've published on autism, I've been very interested in autism for many years.

00:41:54.220 But I think that, you know, with the Tylenol link, and there is a link there, by the way,

00:42:00.080 and it certainly seems to be more predominant in males than females, which I think confuses the data

00:42:04.420 a little bit, because then you'll see that female fetuses that have been exposed to Tylenol in utero

00:42:10.280 don't seem to be as vulnerable. But again, they're not as vulnerable in general to any of the

00:42:14.980 environmental insults. And also, as well, it's much more difficult to pick up autism in girls.

00:42:19.780 Girls are much better at masking. That's another thing. True. True. That's a very good point. Yeah.

00:42:23.860 Very good point. But yeah, you know, when it comes to Tylenol, like, maternal fever is something that

00:42:29.800 is also very well known to play a role in autism. So women that have a fever are much more likely to

00:42:36.040 have a child with autism spectrum disorder. And so if you think about people that are taking Tylenol,

00:42:41.100 they're also trying to reduce their fever. In fact, there's some interesting data out

00:42:44.760 there that women that have a fever and take Tylenol actually have a lower risk of having

00:42:49.600 a child with autism versus the woman that's taking the Tylenol every day because she has the headache

00:42:55.580 or she has morning sickness. And it's the it's the chronic use of it, you know, that I think is

00:43:00.660 the more danger. The fever is like dangerous. So taking Tylenol for like a fever once or twice,

00:43:06.380 you know, is actually there's evidence showing that's beneficial, but it's the chronic use of

00:43:11.340 Tylenol. When it comes to the plastic chemicals, I feel like the evidence is so strong. We have the

00:43:17.580 animal evidence. We have the genetic evidence. We have the epidemiological evidence. I don't know

00:43:22.400 why it's not being talked about more. I'm I'm genuinely like wanting this to be a discussion.

00:43:29.280 So I'm glad that we're talking about it because I think it needs to be discussed. I think it needs to

00:43:34.020 be, you know, the thing is, is that it's also hard to get rid of. It's much easier to tell a woman,

00:43:40.300 hey, don't take Tylenol every day while you're pregnant. BP is in everything. It's it's so much

00:43:46.920 more pervasive and ubiquitous in our in our culture and in everything that we're eating and putting in

00:43:52.620 our bodies and our drinking water that it's it's it's harder to solve that problem.

00:43:58.540 Do you think and this is maybe the conspiratorial part of me? Is it as well governments going,

00:44:04.980 I don't want to open this can of worms because once we open the can of worms, then big business and

00:44:09.900 my donors are going to get upset and, you know, profits are going to go down. I'm going to be

00:44:14.280 the bad guy, et cetera. No, I mean, I've thought about that. I've thought about that. Well, I'm like,

00:44:18.860 I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but like I've thought about why isn't this being discussed?

00:44:24.640 And it's only it to me, the only solution that I've come up with is because it is in everything.

00:44:31.780 And so how do you how do you fix that? It's hard to fix. It's hard to fix.

00:44:35.980 So that being the case, and, you know, we haven't seen that politicians act quickly or

00:44:40.860 effectively lately. So in terms of what we have left as individuals, what are some of the key

00:44:46.780 steps that we should all be taking, in your opinion, to reduce our exposure to this?

00:44:50.720 Yes, I think there are some very there's some heavy hitters here that can make a big difference,

00:44:56.600 get you a big bang for your buck. And this is also in terms of microplastic exposure. Again,

00:45:02.140 microplastics have their own problems and they have the chemicals that they're carrying with

00:45:06.920 them. But one of the first and foremost things that people should do is get a water filter.

00:45:13.200 The best one you can get is a reverse osmosis water filter. You can get a countertop one that

00:45:19.080 that filters out 99 percent of microplastics and it's filtering out bisphenol A, bisphenol S,

00:45:26.640 the phthalates, the forever chemicals, PFAS. It's filtering out all those chemicals that are

00:45:32.260 endocrine disruptors that are disrupting hormones that are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders

00:45:36.340 like autism spectrum disorder, like ADHD. So a countertop one is an easy solution for people.

00:45:41.880 You can get a whole house one as well. The caveat there is reverse osmosis does filter out

00:45:47.700 everything, including trace elements and minerals that we actually want in our water.

00:45:52.740 And so you can add those back with, you know, a mineral supplement or you can get these little

00:45:58.500 mineral drops to add back to your water that have these trace elements, you know, like

00:46:02.880 manganese and selenium and these things that like, you know, you want in your water. And so that is also

00:46:08.320 important to consider. Number one thing that you could do, easiest, easiest solution right there.

00:46:13.300 You're going to be doing so much by doing that. The second thing I would say is avoid

00:46:18.960 heating any kind of plastic. Okay. Whether it's like your Tupperware, like get rid of any spatulas,

00:46:25.680 all those plastic, anything that's plastic, that's going to touch heat. Don't, don't do that. And,

00:46:30.740 and, and I want to get to the coffee cups because that's the one you don't think about because it

00:46:35.040 doesn't look like plastic. It's very tricky because they're lined with plastic. You have to like,

00:46:42.060 I, I really want these companies like Starbucks and everyone to like start lining their cups with

00:46:47.100 polylactic acid. You know, why not? You can, you can do it. I know blue bottle coffee does it. It's

00:46:52.120 the only, only one that I know that does, but you can, you can get sugarcane and line them. But like

00:46:56.460 until then bring your own mug or, you know, I don't know, stop drinking to go coffee because it's,

00:47:03.520 it's, you're talking 55 fold more BPA into your beverage than if you were drinking just water from

00:47:09.480 like plastic bottle, 55 fold. Um, the other thing is shift from drinking out of plastic water bottles as

00:47:15.220 much as you can. Um, and certainly don't let them sit out in the sun, you know, to let them sit in

00:47:20.940 your car. Uh, because that's, that's again, accelerating the breakdown of the plastic and

00:47:26.240 the chemicals are going into the, into your. But when you say that Rhonda, and then I think,

00:47:29.880 well, look at the supply chain and a supply chain. These are not always going to be perfectly chilled

00:47:34.840 or room temperature. They're going to be thrown in a corner somewhere. They're going to get crushed.

00:47:39.240 They're going to get heated up. They're going to become warm. They're going to become cool and

00:47:42.840 warm again. Do you know what I mean? Yes. Yes. They're when they're on the, when they're on the,

00:47:46.920 the truck, they're in the, in the summer, they're being transported to where they're in the warehouse

00:47:50.940 or sitting. And yeah, the reality is don't drink out of the ball. Like just get rid of the plastic

00:47:56.260 bottles. Get rid of them. One thing we haven't talked about is tap water. Yes. Because, uh, the filter

00:48:03.300 covers that. Right. And what about hormones? Is there any truth to this idea that since the invention

00:48:10.580 of the pill, there's now more female hormones in the water supply? Is that, have I just got that

00:48:15.460 out of my ass or is that? I mean, I, you know, there's, I think there's some places maybe where

00:48:22.100 you live where the tap water is, you know, you can just say this is BS. I think the bigger problem

00:48:27.840 is the BPA that's disrupting our hormones. Yeah. If you want to focus, if you want to be angry at

00:48:33.020 something, you know, that's what you should be angry about because that's actually what's disrupting

00:48:38.180 our hormones. And it's really what's ubiquitous. So water filter, avoid coffee cups, avoid heating

00:48:43.580 plastic, avoid plastic bottles. Yeah. That's the, that's the major thing for the BPA. Now

00:48:48.220 microplastics, we're breathing them in, but like that. Okay. Um, anything else for the, for the BPA?

00:48:57.480 For everything to do with plastics, microplastics. Yeah. I mean, yes, I would say that if we're talking

00:49:03.240 about plastics on the whole, um, microplastics as well. So the major source is ingestion and, um,

00:49:10.040 I mentioned size matters. Well, it turns out fiber, dietary fiber also can help you excrete

00:49:16.300 microplastics. So both like the, you've heard of like prebiotics and fermentable fibers, soluble fiber.

00:49:21.980 It creates like a viscous gel in your gut and that encapsulates plastic particles and moves them out

00:49:26.700 through your feces. So you poop them out. So fiber is actually good for that reason. Um, the other thing

00:49:32.720 with, with the microplastics, so everything that I mentioned, reverse osmosis, water filter,

00:49:37.240 drink, not drinking out of plastic bottles, not heating them, all that also applies to microplastics

00:49:40.940 because you're ingesting them. You're also ingesting microplastics in your food. Um, so you want to

00:49:47.500 avoid like the oceans are polluted with them. So you want to avoid eating like fish that have their

00:49:51.740 intact gut and intestines, like shellfish, you know, eating like shrimp or things like that,

00:49:56.700 because they're, the microplastics are accumulated in the intestines of the fish.

00:50:00.120 I'm doing this episode now. I love prawns.

00:50:03.940 Yeah. Yeah. Prawns. Exactly. Um, but the other, the other major source of microplastics is actually

00:50:11.860 from the air we breathe. And so we are breathing in microplastics constantly. And that's also

00:50:17.780 because we live in a plastic world. So, you know, tires, if you're in a, you know, urban place,

00:50:23.240 that tires are made of rubber, but also a lot of plastic polymers. So the friction of like the tire

00:50:28.120 is like bringing it into the air. We have our clothes that are nice, cool, fancy clothes that

00:50:33.040 we wear. Microplastics are all in the clothes. So we wash them and they come, come out, they get

00:50:38.500 in the ocean, but also the dryer, they come out into our environment. They're, so we're breathing

00:50:42.960 these in our shoes. I mean, just everywhere. Okay. It's, it's in the air. And so, um, when we breathe

00:50:48.780 in the microplastics, they get into our lungs, which plays a role in respiratory disease, but also

00:50:52.940 this is very disturbing. Um, essentially. So have you guys heard about this study? This was done in

00:51:01.980 South, Sao Paulo, Brazil, uh, where they looked at a variety of different organs and microplastics in

00:51:08.800 those organs. And it was found that microplastics accumulated in the brain 10 to 20 times more than

00:51:13.080 other organs. They're, they're essentially everywhere. They're in a hundred percent of

00:51:16.780 semen samples that have been sample like measured. They're in testicles. They're everywhere.

00:51:20.780 All right. Placenta, but 10 to 20 times more in the brain, which is astounding considering we have

00:51:26.580 something called the blood brain barrier. It's supposed to not let stuff get into the brain

00:51:30.880 like microplastics. Right. And so part of that is that the nanoplastics, the size matters. So like

00:51:36.800 the small ones are getting in. But the other part is that when we are breathing in microplastics,

00:51:42.220 so we have something in our, in our olfactory, in our nose called olfactory neurons. And those neurons

00:51:47.400 have fibers that extend into our brain. And so essentially you breathe in the microplastics

00:51:52.400 and they can get into the brain through the olfactory fibers and then get transported to

00:51:57.660 other parts of the brain. A lot of scientists have sort of, I would say, um, they're using this method

00:52:03.440 to deliver drugs, to get past the blood brain barrier because it's a way to get past it.

00:52:08.080 So essentially you're breathing in microplastics and those are getting in the brain. There's studies

00:52:12.020 now showing that people with Alzheimer's disease post-mortem, if you look at their brain,

00:52:16.720 they have 10 times more microplastics than post-mortem brain in people without Alzheimer's.

00:52:21.040 So that's playing a role in Alzheimer's disease as well. So you want to air filter. This is what

00:52:25.520 I'm getting to an air filter. You want to like, you know, any kind of HEPA filter. It can be,

00:52:31.080 you know, it doesn't have to be the fancy, like really like medical grade ones. It can be any kind

00:52:35.580 of HEPA filter. They really do work. I have a Honeywell HEPA filter in all the rooms in my

00:52:40.980 bedroom. I also have an IQ air monitor that measures the particulate matter. And you can

00:52:46.740 see the data. If you turn off the filter, the particulate matter goes up. And it's very,

00:52:51.220 very obvious. Like if I, if I'm traveling, I unplug everything. I don't like leave the filters

00:52:55.520 running. And you look at the IQ and it's like, oh, it goes up. So, um, an air filter is another

00:53:00.460 thing that I would say is a simple solution with, in terms of getting rid of the microplastics that we

00:53:05.240 didn't cover as well. Rhonda, and there's been one thing that I read about that was very

00:53:10.980 interesting, positively racist, which is black plastic, which is the worst type of plastic.

00:53:16.220 It is. So black plastic. So there's another type of chemical called brominated chemicals.

00:53:21.680 Brominated chemicals are a type of chemical that's flame retardant. So flame retardants are

00:53:27.340 often put in electronics because electronics, we don't want them starting fires. Right. And so black

00:53:32.720 plastic is often made from recycled electronics, hence the black color. And so these recycled

00:53:39.380 electronics have the brominated chemicals in them. And there was a very famous study that was published

00:53:43.860 in like 2018. Um, I think it was like the university of Plymouth or something that published the study

00:53:49.240 showed they looked at a variety of black plastic articles. So everything from black spatulas to like

00:53:56.440 spoons to like baby toys and found that they had 30 to 40 times higher levels of these brominated

00:54:04.100 chemicals, which by the way, are known carcinogens, then is considered safe. And so black plastic is

00:54:12.620 something you definitely want to avoid. I mean, you have you ever ordered like a rotisserie chicken

00:54:17.180 and it's like the hot it's the chicken still hot and the bottom of the thing is like black. And remember I told you heat

00:54:22.980 is it's accelerating the leaching of everything into your food, whether it's a brominated chemical or a BPA or

00:54:29.420 microplastic, it's all coming in and it's accelerating the process in real time. It's like it's almost like getting

00:54:35.540 something that was like over the course of 10 years, this is leached into your and it's just like minutes. Right.

00:54:40.880 Because that's what the heat does. It accelerates that that oxidation process. So you want to avoid

00:54:46.060 the black chemical, sorry, the black plastic as well. The black straw is like everything, the black

00:54:51.060 the black stuff. It's it's not good, especially heating it. So so get rid of all the black spatulas

00:54:55.760 because that's like the worst culprit is the heat plus the plastic. So that's that's also something

00:55:00.300 that's bad. And that's associated with cancer, the brominated chemicals as well. And but it's also the pans

00:55:05.140 as well, because let's talk about pans, because I never like when I was a kid, like there was a pan had

00:55:10.700 a few scratches on it. Who cares? I know. I know. Teflon. Yeah. So the Teflon that that's actually has

00:55:20.360 forever chemicals in it. So we didn't talk about forever chemicals are called PFAS. These for

00:55:25.860 they're called forever chemicals because they last in our environment for like years. So they're in our

00:55:31.720 bodies. I told you BPA is half life is about two to three hours. It's excreted through your urine.

00:55:36.300 Forever chemicals, the PFAS are in your body for like four to five years. So really a long time.

00:55:44.120 These chemicals are added things to make them water repellent, stick nonstick, oil resistant,

00:55:50.440 stain resistant, all those things. Right. And so you have these pans that are nonstick and you're

00:55:55.480 heating them. I can't I'm like, it's it's I probably have forever chemicals in me from like,

00:56:01.860 you know, when I was a kid. Right. Like I remember my mom bought all that nonstick pan.

00:56:06.780 You know, we were cooking with that. And so that's the worst thing that you can do is heat

00:56:11.480 that nonstick pan because you're getting those PFAS forever chemicals in you. And those are also

00:56:16.140 disrupting hormones. Those are also associated with cancer as well. So, yeah, that also in our

00:56:22.040 clothing. Right. So anything that's just like water repellent clothing. I mean, that stuff is all

00:56:25.940 forever chemical that you're getting and getting into your skin and absorbing. The worst is eating it,

00:56:30.760 though. The worst is eating it. And the forever chemicals are now, unfortunately, they're

00:56:34.560 attracted to their lipophilic. So they're attracted to fat and they're found in high fat foods. So

00:56:41.560 it's been shown now that that our water sources are contaminated with phthalates. They're contaminated

00:56:47.640 with forever chemicals. And so you have this sludge, this like, you know, this this fertilizer

00:56:53.080 that's used in farming and stuff. Even the even the organic farms are now contaminated with

00:56:59.580 forever chemicals and phthalates, which is in the sludge and which have all these chemicals.

00:57:04.820 And so the cows are eating it. And the way that the cows get rid of forever chemicals,

00:57:10.100 not like us, we don't excrete it through our milk, but they get rid of it through their milk and their

00:57:14.120 dairy. And so I don't know if you've have you guys seen these studies that have been done

00:57:18.320 where they've gone around. I've looked at milk like organic grass fed, like the thing that you think's

00:57:23.560 the best. Tons of forever chemicals in it because the cows are contaminated and they're

00:57:27.880 screening it through their milk. So dairy, milk, high fat butter, cheese. This all has the

00:57:33.300 phthalates and the forever chemicals because they're lipophilic and they're attracted to fat.

00:57:37.640 And so now even our fat foods are like sources for this chemicals. This is probably why no one

00:57:42.560 wants to address the issue because it's like, what do you it's everywhere. It's like you have to do

00:57:47.260 what you can. I call it like it's like imperfect avoidance because like like you have to eat,

00:57:53.740 you have to live. Right. But like do what you can to like reduce your exposure, whether it's,

00:57:58.540 you know, the reverse osmosis filter, you know, getting the air filter, doing not not cooking with

00:58:04.820 a Teflon pans and not heating the plastic and not drinking to go all those things. Do all those

00:58:09.060 things like because you're going to be exposed to it. Like you order takeout, you know, those like

00:58:13.320 if you go to a bakery and it's like the tissue paper, that's all lined with forever chemicals.

00:58:16.920 It's to prevent the grease. Or if you get pho, they give you a black plastic bowl. Oh,

00:58:21.960 the pho is the worst. I can't tell you, like during my 20s, like I love pho and I like to

00:58:26.740 take out pho and like the plastic, you know, container. I mean, I know like it's like.

00:58:32.220 And receipts. Oh, and receipts. Yes. Receipts are terrible. I have this funny story.

00:58:37.400 Receipts? Yeah. Oh, yes. Well, like paper. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

00:58:41.040 What's wrong with receipts? Drop it, mate. Oh, my gosh. You haven't heard about this? No.

00:58:44.560 So receipts are, you know, the printing that's on the receipt is done with thermal paper. And

00:58:52.480 essentially the way that you're able to get the ink, it's not ink, it's like the printing on it is

00:58:57.440 it's coated with BPA. Coated with it. Bisphenol A, that stuff that we're talking about. Now,

00:59:04.040 the worst insult is ingesting it. But unfortunately, if you have any kind of cream on your fingers or like

00:59:10.060 sanitizer everyone uses now ever since COVID, like the hand sanitizer everyone uses,

00:59:14.840 that causes the BPA from the receipts to go into your circulation a hundredfold, a hundredfold.

00:59:22.140 So you don't want, you don't want to touch receipts. And if you're someone that's working in like

00:59:26.820 your, you know, but the cash register or anything like that, you have to use nitrile gloves. Like

00:59:32.360 you don't want to be touching that every day. Latex gloves don't do it. It has to be nitrile and

00:59:36.380 latex doesn't filter out the BPA. But it's funny. I was in the San Diego airport and this,

00:59:42.200 this guy was there and I just couldn't help myself because he was like, I saw him like the

00:59:46.480 person in front giving receipts. And I was like, he's giving all these people receipts. And finally

00:59:49.640 he came to me and I come up with my Yeti glass. And I was like, Hey, can you put my like latte in

00:59:53.940 my Yeti? You know? And he's like, Oh yeah. Cause I didn't want the to go cup. And I was like, Hey,

00:59:57.860 by the way, you know, you shouldn't be handling those receipts because they're coated with BPA. I'm

01:00:04.340 like, do you know what BPA is? And he goes, Oh yeah. Something like endocrine. I was like, yes,

01:00:08.420 it disrupts your hormone, testosterone. Um, and it's funny story. I was, I was in the airport. I

01:00:13.860 was going on Chris Williamson's podcast and I talked all about some of this stuff. And then I

01:00:18.040 went, you know, I don't know, a month later, I was back at the same coffee place and he was there

01:00:21.840 and everyone working there. I told him to wear nitrile gloves. Everyone working there was wearing

01:00:25.360 nitrile gloves. Nice. I know it was awesome. But, um, so that's a kind of a funny story. Yeah. But

01:00:30.640 receipts are terrible because they have the BPA. And like, I freak out if like my son somehow will

01:00:35.700 like get the receipt, get ahold of receipt, you know, because it's disrupting the hormones and

01:00:39.020 do you know what this conversation reminds me of? Have you seen that a seriously good place?

01:00:43.840 No, no. A long story, very short, but basically it's about people, uh, who end up either going to

01:00:49.760 hell or to heaven, depending on the total sum of their actions that they've taken throughout the

01:00:53.500 course of life, that they do good things that they do bad things. And what they find is that

01:00:57.520 society gets technologically more sophisticated. Everyone goes to hell because every decision now

01:01:03.140 is so complicated and has so many trade-offs because, so if you eat a tomato, some poor guy

01:01:08.080 somewhere has had to grow that in some terrible circumstances. And it sort of feels like this

01:01:12.400 with everything that we're consuming now. Well, like you're having to make choices between these

01:01:17.100 two terrible options. Like either you drink out of a plastic bottle, that's really bad for you drink

01:01:21.680 out of a glass bottle and that's just bad for you. You know, it's just so complex now.

01:01:27.040 So I guess you having given us some like big hitters is where people should start really,

01:01:32.380 isn't it?

01:01:32.820 I think the big hitters is really, like I said, it's, it's the water filter. If you can,

01:01:37.620 if you can just get water from your faucet and have a reverse osmosis filter on that,

01:01:41.980 that's the best thing that you can do. Travel around with your own, you know, to go with Yeti

01:01:47.160 or whatever your favorite brand is, a hydro flask or something and drink out of that water. That's,

01:01:51.940 that's one of the big things. And then just avoid the heating. You know, those,

01:01:55.500 those two things will make such a big difference in terms of your exposure because a lot of it is

01:02:00.620 coming from our water and heating our, heating the plastic stuff that we're consuming, whether

01:02:07.500 it's like to go coffee cups or to go food items as well. You know, I guess it's an argument to be

01:02:13.540 made to like cook at home too. You know, I mean, it really is because it's all in the, it's all in

01:02:19.020 the restaurant industry. I mean, they're using all these, you know, containers and who knows what

01:02:24.400 they're, are they using Teflon nonstick? Probably. It's easier to cook with. I mean, much easier to

01:02:29.020 cook scrambled eggs on a Teflon pan than like cast iron or something. Right. So you just never know

01:02:34.660 what you're getting when you're eating out as well. But I think at the end of the day, you know,

01:02:39.080 obviously I don't think, I think there are other things that are very important to focus on with

01:02:44.100 respect to health. But I think this is a topic that needs to be discussed because I do think it's

01:02:48.920 affecting, it's affecting hormone levels, but it's affecting fertility and it's affecting

01:02:54.860 neurodevelopment. And I think that is so important. You know, I think it's so important because we have

01:03:01.140 all these insults and we have to try to like, at least do something as much as we can, you know, to,

01:03:06.440 to help decrease some of that insult that's, that's really kind of affecting, like you said,

01:03:12.560 our ability to procreate. I mean, that's crazy. It's kind of important. 50% reduction,

01:03:18.660 you know, in sperm, um, in, in sperm, uh, production over the last few decades. I mean,

01:03:24.180 that's a lot. So, well, thank you for ruining it. Everything that we used to love, including tea,

01:03:29.640 including tea. I mean, that really was a lot of love. And gum. And gum. Yeah. Gum is gum base is made

01:03:37.540 of plastic polymers. It wasn't before world war two, but after world war two gum base is plastic

01:03:42.940 polymer. So you have to look for microplastic. That's another thing crossed off the list. I know,

01:03:46.740 but, and, and the, of course the plastic free gum taste, it's like, it's, it's made of like plant

01:03:51.360 sap and stuff. And so the texture is awful, but yeah, there we go. Well, before we head on over to

01:03:57.700 our sub stack, where we ask you questions from our audience, thank you so much for being here. The last

01:04:01.480 question we always end on is what's the one thing we're not talking about other than plastics that we

01:04:06.060 should be. I think, I think a really important thing that we're not talking about that we should

01:04:10.600 be is omega-3, the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and seafood. They are hugely important for

01:04:19.380 brain health and for overall health. In fact, there's studies showing that, you know, if you

01:04:24.120 can, if you can supplement with two grams, about 1.5 to two grams a day, um, people that have that

01:04:29.940 high level of omega-3 that you can achieve with that 1.5 to two grams a day have a five-year

01:04:35.160 increased life expectancy, um, uh, 90% reduced chance of having sudden cardiac death. I mean,

01:04:42.140 it's, it's the easiest thing that you can do is take a pill and it really has a huge effect on

01:04:47.220 depression, mental health. Um, all these things are affected by omega-3 neurodevelopment, very

01:04:52.160 important. And it's, again, why do I think we should be talking about it? Because it's the simple

01:04:56.520 solution. People like to take pills and it's the, it's the one pill that really is having a big

01:05:01.540 impact on not only your, your health, your overall health, your life expectancy, but your

01:05:05.700 mental health as well. So I think that's something people should be talking about. And it's one of

01:05:09.880 my favorite things to talk about. Awesome. All right. Head on over to Substack where we ask

01:05:13.980 Ronda your questions. Why is it that we focus so much on the adverse effects of smoking, but we

01:05:21.900 don't talk about, you know, sugar, excess carbohydrates, alcohol.

01:05:25.700 A claims program for harmed Canadians has begun as a result of a landmark tobacco settlement.

01:05:55.700 If you smoked regularly before November 20th, 1998, and were diagnosed with lung cancer,

01:06:02.880 throat cancer, emphysema, or COPD, you may qualify for a significant payment. To learn more,

01:06:10.260 call 888-482-5852 or go to tobaccoclaimscanada.ca.

TRIGGERnometry - February 18, 2026

How Microplastics Are Ruining Your Health And What You Can Do About It - Dr. Rhonda Patrick

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