Dr. Aly Cohen
speaker
699 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard May 2025
Dr. Aly Cohen’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
which we use in everything, right? These are the plasticizer chemicals. Turns out higher rates of autoimmune hepatitis and autoimmune and hepatocellular cancer, so liver cancers, in occupational exposure, so people who work in these factories, higher than other people who don't work in these factories.
And so, you know, the studies really started to make me think that that plastic toy that he happened to be, you know, sucking on and sleeping with and it never left his mouth for four and a half years may have been one of the biggest triggers in terms of his immune system taking a turn. he may have been predisposed, right?
We all have our genetic predisposition, but that might've been the trigger in terms of the load and the exposure that put him into his condition.
I've been following the autism world for a long time.
Yeah, and I would say kids on the spectrum and from my perspective, immune and autoimmune and cancer, we're seeing lots of younger people getting exposed to things and having diseases that they have no family history of. And then again, to your question about in utero exposure, I want to start by saying, you know, I have such anxiety over in any way making moms moms to be.
You know, sort of, you know, blamed for things they may not even be aware of. When I was a mom and I had two kids, I was eating McDonald's every morning with my first kid. I mean, it probably explains a lot of his behavior, you know, being bad right now. But, you know, the idea is that like when you don't know, you don't know. I mean, I was rolling up and getting my pancakes every morning.
Exactly. And I think that that's one thing we have to sort of make sure we are clear about. There's no regrets. There's no blame. People shouldn't be blaming themselves. But there is interesting data showing that the in utero exposure to many of these chemicals The placenta, which we usually think is protective to a growing fetus, is actually really not that protective.
We know that when babies are born, when they cut the cord, that that cord blood, when it's sampled, has up to 200 chemicals, industrial chemicals. There was a 2005 study from Environmental Working Group that's always talked about because you don't have to recreate it. It's just, you know, we know that that's going on. And that was 2005, right, 20 years ago.
And we've only had more chemicals added to our exposures, you know, to our bodies in terms of where we walk through life. But that vulnerable period where brain development is going on, where sexual dimorphism in terms of how the brain turns into male, female, how the body's organs turn into male or female parts. We know how phthalates can participate in terms of changing parts.
male genitalia at birth in terms of how they develop. There's a lot that goes on from an in utero perspective where that is hopefully going to be where people can aim for the cleanest environment we can get.
So we do want to educate young girls and boys and, you know, people who are planning to become pregnant in terms of getting your body perhaps ready as much as you can for a growing, developing pregnancy. The brain itself, somewhere around 250,000 neurons a second are created during fetal development.
And so, you know, we know a lot about fetal alcohol syndrome in terms of which trimester drinking alcohol can affect the brain development. We now know a lot more also about these chemicals and exposure levels comparatively. So we want to just kind of work towards keeping that environment cleaner as best we can. To your point,
in utero exposure with all of the chemicals that are being you know in around our lives and moms are you know unfortunately unable to control for all of them that's an area where we want to really be thinking about the most in terms of taking care of our body in terms of how many
nail salon visits how much shampoo conditioner that we you know we can vet out as much as we can lotions that are geared towards new moms um you know or even babies when they come out you know you want to be thinking about all of that um in on and around exposures that you can control for as best you can and also cleaning your home what you breathe what you sleep on you know you know what your air quality is what your water quality is for everybody but particularly that um
you know, vulnerable population of pregnant women.
I can't say that for sure because, you know, it's complex. You know, we have genetic predisposition. We know that genetic changes take place from exposures from generation to generation independent of autism. So we have epigenetic changes from exposures. So we don't know what the setup is before, you know, pregnant women might be exposed in utero.
And we also have genetic contribution from both males and females, right? So it's not just an exposure-related issue. It's a dance between our genetics, our lifestyle, and our exposures. But do I think that it's a big problem? Do I think that we're going to get more data on this? For sure. And I do think... the growing rates of autism are pretty remarkable.
And we know that many of, say, the vaccines have removed thimerosal and have removed some of the more concerning adjuvants is what we call them. So I think we need to really be thinking about doing behavioral change, particularly in this population, for sure.
How about candles, incense, air fresheners, plug-ins? I want to call that out because I know we think of cleaning products as really cleaning surfaces and windows and drain cleaners. But I think some of the things we take into our homes that are considered more fun, just paying attention to those things.
I think is something we should be considering and swapping out to safer versions, beeswax candles that we know the manufacturers, safer places to buy them. Certain stores actually vet for these chemicals. But thinking about just what we do to keep up with the Joneses between fragrances on our body, fragrances in our home. Lawn care is another one I would call out.
Showing 661–680 of 699 · page 34 of 35
← Previous
Next →