Dr. Aly Cohen: Killers in the Environment
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Why are chronic diseases rising and how do environmental triggers play a role?
Welcome to this week's episode of Critically Speaking, where we explore issues at the intersection of science and society, issues central to individual and societal health and well-being. I'm your host, Therese Markle. Well, the last decades have seen a continuing rise in really serious and often fatal health problems. The list is long, you know, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, infertility, autoimmune diseases, autism, just to name a few. And you know, while vulnerability to disease often has an underlying genetic predisposition, boy, there have to be environmental triggers to set these diseases in motion. So what's changed in our environments and lifestyles that might serve as triggers for illness? Actually a lot. Our environment, our lifestyles, they've gradually changed over the decades in ways we probably don't even notice. You know, in fact, we may even embrace some of these changes as they make life much more convenient. So where do the dangers lurk?
Well, it's great to have today Dr. Ailey Cohen, and we're gonna discuss where these dangers do lurk, how to identify them, how to protect ourselves and especially our children from the negative consequences. Dr. Cohn's an award-winning board-certified rheumatologist and integrative medicine specialist who's co-editor of the textbook Integrative Environmental Medicine. And she's also the creator of the Smart Human podcast and newsletter, co-author of the best-selling public guidebook, Non-Toxic, Guide to Living Healthy in a Chemical World. Dr. Cohen lectures regularly at educational programs and elementary schools, all the way as well as to physician training programs. So it's exciting to have her here to discuss what to look out for on a daily basis. Ailey, welcome. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Okay. So my first question for you, I mean, you're a rheumatologist. So how did you become interested in environmental toxins? Ah, that's a really interesting question. You know, well, first of all, I guess I got into rheumatology because I was always fascinated by the immune system. I mean, you have to really like the workings of the immune system to really kind of get into that kind of sticky field because it is quite complicated. And I think that's a really interesting question. And as I was moving through my training in conventional Western medicine, I also stumbled across integrative medicine. Integrative medicine, as many of your audience may know, really got its start with someone quite famous named Dr. Andrew Weil.
who really tried to show the world that you could have great health benefits from clean eating, from dietary, nutritional changes, you know, thinking about sleep and how that helps with human health and stress management, drinking water, and also environment, environmental health. And so I started a program with him, very limited sleep slots with lots of physicians, about 1200 people. total have graduated. And while I was in that program, my dog got sick. And I write about this in my introduction for non-toxic and really laid out how the dog got sick. Um, he was my first born. He was about four and a half golden retriever. And he, he developed autoimmune hepatitis out of nowhere, uh, which is unusual, not only for dogs, but specifically this breed. And of course I'm an integrated, I mean, I'm a rheumatologist. So
And I really wanted to know how and why he got sick with this unusual diagnosis. And so I began this journey thinking about what we put on his fur, whether it was, you know, flea and tick medicine, what we fed him, was it contaminated his drinking water, his air quality. And long, the short of it is the more I understood how little protects our pets, the more I really understood how little protects humans in this country and around the world. And so that was my entree into the curiosity.
into the idea that there is such a thing called environmental health, how environment affects human health and animal health. And really that began my journey over a nine-year period to understand the data, the literature on this major topic. Yeah. So isn't it interesting how our pets can open our eyes about things? And so then after thinking about your dog, you were really looking at environmental toxins and things. And so where are these toxins? Can you tell us where they are?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why are chronic diseases rising and how do environmental triggers play a role?
0:03–4:37
2
How did Dr. Aly Cohen become interested in environmental toxins?
4:37–9:14
3
What is the scale of chemical exposure in everyday products?
9:14–13:58
4
Which chemicals (like phthalates and BPA) are most harmful and where are they found in our homes?
13:58–18:29
5
Why does the U.S. regulate far fewer chemicals than Europe, and what are the consequences?
18:29–23:00
6
What practical steps can listeners take to reduce their daily chemical exposure?
23:00–27:55
7
How can people use resources like the Environmental Working Group to vet products and stay non‑toxic?
27:55–34:23
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Critically Speaking
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