Dhru Purohit Show
Hidden Toxins In Everyday Products. Top Toxins You Need to Avoid to Decrease the Risk of Cancer, Parkinson’s, and More
Mon, 02 Dec 2024
This episode is brought to you by LMNT, Manukora, and One Skin. Hidden toxins lurk in everyday products, increasing the risk of chronic diseases like cancer. These toxins aren’t just absorbed through the skin—they can also be present in the air we breathe and the water we drink daily. Understanding the impact of these chemicals and where they’re commonly found empowers us to make healthier choices, reduce exposure, and protect the well-being of ourselves and our families. Today on The Dhru Purohit Show, we bring you a special compilation episode featuring conversations with experts on reducing toxic exposure from everyday household products. Dr. Yvonne Burkart, a board-certified toxicologist, highlights the top sources of hidden toxins in products like cosmetics. She shares the latest research on toxin exposure, common toxic ingredients and where to find them, and her best tips for minimizing exposure and optimizing detoxification in the body. Neurologist Dr. Ray Dorsey delves into the root causes of Parkinson’s disease, focusing on how environmental toxins like trichloroethylene (TCE) significantly increase the risk of developing it. He provides practical steps to limit exposure—especially early in life—and explains how lifestyle interventions can help reduce the likelihood of this disease. In this episode, Dhru and his guests dive into: Toxic burden and the goal of reducing exposure (00:00:005) Hidden toxins in beauty products and expression of breast cancer genes (1:53) What ingredients cause this increase, and where can they be found (10:07) Why companies continue to use these ingredients (12:37) How the research is lacking (14:52) Fragrances and undefined sources and mixing of these endocrine disrupters (16:42) The impact of toxins on children and the increased risk of disease (21:37) What matters most in toxin removal: air, water, and food (26:27) How to live a low-tox life (29:57) 3 Toxins responsible for Parkinson’s disease (31:49) What is trichloroethylene (TCE), and how toxins impact mitochondria (32:37) Dr. Dorsey’s journey in learning about the role of toxins (36:47) The importance of both outdoor and indoor air quality for longevity (39:07) Testing and the importance of minimizing additional exposure (49:37) Final thoughts (52:07) Also mentioned: AquaTru and Air Doctor Filters Toxicologist Reveals the Top Sources of Hidden Toxins We’re Being Exposed to Daily with Yvonne Burkart, PhD Neurologist Reveals The 3 Shocking Reasons Why Parkinson’s Disease & Other Brain Disorders Are On the Rise Research on the daily use of parabens Research on the increase in cancer among younger individuals This episode is brought to you by LMNT, Manukora, and One Skin. Right now, LMNT is offering my listeners a free sample pack with any purchase. Head over to DrinkLMNT.com/dhru today. Upgrade to the creamiest honey, packed with antioxidants and prebiotics. Just go to manukora.com/dhru to get $25 off the Starter Kit and boost your energy, immunity, and digestive health today! Right now, One Skin is offering my community 15% off; just go to oneskin.co and use coupon code DHRU to save 15% and give your skin the scientifically proven, gentle care it deserves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the hidden toxins in everyday products?
Hi everyone, Drew Pruitt. You've seen the headlines and I've seen them too. They're all over the news. Our toxic burden is getting out of control. Forever Chemicals, PFAs, our water supply, microplastics, air pollution, you know just as much as I do, this is a serious issue. And it's a serious issue because these things aren't benign. They actually contribute to chronic disease.
Chapter 2: How do toxins in cosmetics affect health?
And they're also obesogens, which mean that they are pro-obesity. They make us gain weight. Environmental toxins are a huge contributor to all sorts of
problems that can go on in the body and the more that we learn about them the more that we understand that they can contribute to things like Alzheimer's dementia mental health disorders cancer Parkinson's disease even things like heart disease can happen earlier because of these toxins hidden toxins especially that are all around us and the thing is I'm not trying to share this with you to scare you
And believe me, sometimes when we see the headlines, it can feel scary. The goal is actually to raise awareness of what the highest priority toxins are for us to avoid. We're not going to tackle it overnight. We're going to tackle it in chunks and we're going to do our best to reduce our exposure. That's the name of the game. Increase awareness, reduce exposure.
And there's a third bonus, which I'll get to here in a second. But on today's compilation episode, we're going to start off by sharing some incredible interviews. One with board certified toxicologist, Dr. Yvonne Burkhart. and another one with neurologist Dr. Ray Dorsey about the top toxins to avoid to protect your health and some of their tips on the ways to do that.
Let's dive right into my first conversation with Dr. Yvonne Burkhart about these hidden toxins and the role that they could potentially be playing when it comes to our risk of things like cancer. I learned that there's these hidden toxins in our everyday cosmetics especially, which we know that women use a lot more of them than men.
There's these hidden toxins that are in our everyday cosmetics that can actually turn cancer genes on inside of the body. My mind was blown when I came across this, and this is related to a study that you broke down on your YouTube channel. Tell us about this study and what some of the findings were.
This study is literally groundbreaking in that there's a long-held belief in common culture as well as through the cosmetic industry itself that beauty and personal care products don't contribute to our toxic load. They don't contribute adversely to our health and they don't increase rates or risk of disease. This study basically completely shut that down.
For the first time, we have been able to see exactly what certain ingredients are doing in the humans, in the human model. Because we ethically cannot study chemicals in humans. We can't subject people to toxic chemicals and see what happens. That typically happens in animals. Unfortunately, a lot of these chemicals are being released into our personal care products, into our consumer goods.
And it isn't until after decades of use that we start to see correlations and associations with disease. And this study basically asked 41 women to switch out their beauty and personal care products for a very short time, for 28 days, just 28 days.
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Chapter 3: What are the dangers of parabens and phthalates?
Chapter 4: How do environmental toxins contribute to Parkinson's disease?
Literally this morning when they wash their face, when they are putting makeup on, what are some everyday products that you see people using that are sold on the store shelves today, especially here in the United States, that would be an example of being similar to the types of products that women would be using in this study and would contain these ingredients like parabens?
This is an excellent question. And I set out to do research myself. I walked into a store and I picked up several products to see how many out there still have parabens. What are the major products that I see being promoted online that still contain these ingredients? One of them being CeraVe. CeraVe is one of the major brands out there right now.
Some of their face washes still have parabens in them. For no good reason, parabens are completely unnecessary. They're basically used to extend the shelf life. They're preservatives. They don't need to be used. There are plenty of other safer alternative preservatives out there. And it's basically because they're extremely effective in sheep. So they're not being phased out as of yet.
Other products that I found were Nivea body lotion, which I personally used for quite a long time. And the issue with body lotion is that you apply it generally over large parts of the body and you don't rinse it off. So the chance for toxic absorption is greater than any other type of product.
If there's these studies that are popping up, like the one that you mentioned, which we've linked to in the show notes, people can take a look at it. We've highlighted on YouTube for those that are watching there. Title being the reduction of daily use of parabens and phthalates reverses accumulation of cancer associated phenotypes within disease, free breast tissue of study subjects.
So we have the link to that. So if there's more of this type of research that's popping up, why are companies that are out there multinational, large conglomerates, why are they still using these ingredients in the products?
There could be several reasons for this. One of them is definitely profit driven, simply because of the effectiveness and the low cost, but also the higher cost of having to substitute their ingredients. but it isn't until consumers become aware of these problematic ingredients and demand safer ingredients that some of these companies will actually start taking action.
So that's really the purpose of why I felt it to be so important to share this information, because most people who are using cosmetics these days are young women. There was a study showing that up to 70% of young girls below the age of 12 are actually using cosmetics.
Being lotions, fragrances, makeup, any of those type of products that are to enhance physical appearance, those are considered cosmetics. And kids are starting to use them at younger ages these days. And this is something that we really need to pay attention to. since disease rates are skyrocketing among younger populations. So they're not disconnected, I think.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of the latest research on toxins?
Why is it that fragrance would be included in this list of hidden toxic things that are not just found in perfumes, but you see that fragrance is added to everything, dish soap, and then going back to what we previously talked about, even many of the cosmetics, lip balms, lotions that people put on their face. So how are fragrances made and what are some of the hidden
toxic ingredients inside of them that could be, and are most likely, incredibly problematic to our body. I've definitely noticed that my skin has changed as I enter into my 40s. I used to only be concerned about acne and acne prevention because I struggled with that a lot growing up, but now I'm focused on hydrating my skin and preventing wrinkles.
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Fragrances are generally not coming from the source that you think. So a lot of people think they see the word natural fragrance on their label. Oh, it's natural. It must be fine. Well, that just means that it wasn't synthesized from an unnatural source, but it doesn't come necessarily from a rose. If you have a rose scent, it doesn't have to come from rose.
So it can come from any other quote unquote natural source. A certain percentage has to be natural. And a certain percentage can still be unnatural. It's very ambiguous. There's a lot of gray area and there aren't strict regulations on it because the industry regulates itself. That's a whole other issue.
But some of the hidden toxins and the issues that we have with fragrance are number one, you mentioned how pervasive they are. They are literally in everything. Lip products don't need fragrance, in my opinion. A face lotion doesn't need fragrance, but people like them, people enjoy them because of the sensory stimulation that we receive.
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Chapter 6: How can you reduce exposure to harmful toxins?
They're trying to exercise and get away from this and be healthier only to be exposed to something that that they're trying to get away from. Some of the hidden toxins are endocrine disrupting phthalates. So the International Fragrance Association or IFRA is the industry self-governing body for the fragrance industry. They have a list of what they call the transparency list.
If you go on their website, you can actually search and see all the different types of chemicals that could be in the umbrella term fragrance. There are nearly 4,000 at this point. So the word fragrance can be any combination of nearly 4,000 chemicals, any combination. They include phthalates, those are endocrine disruptors. There are carcinogens in there.
Styrene, for example, that's a known human carcinogen. Nothing is being done to regulate these because the industry regulates itself.
When those fragrances come into your body, Again, you talked a little bit about it in the beginning, but just to connect it back to fragrances. So those phthalates are coming into your body. What is the potential consequence, right? We don't fully know, but at least we do know that phthalates have an impact on the body that are exposure.
So again, remind everybody what's actually going on physically in the body that these ingredients would be doing, especially if we're regularly exposed to them.
Well, phthalates have estrogenic activity. So xenoestrogens, meaning foreign estrogens that are coming into the body, they are not naturally occurring and they activate the estrogen receptor. And what that does is endless. You know, the human, let's say science has not yet fully established
studied exactly what's happening when the estrogen receptor gets activated but for example one of those components that we know is that when young girls are exposed to higher levels of estrogen they can get puberty they can get their period and hit puberty much earlier like you're talking about in some communities often it's the most disenfranchised communities you have doctors that have been on this podcast that are saying that we're seeing girls at eight years old
right, getting their period, developing breast, these other things, which is not what the body would normally be doing. So early puberty, there could be all sorts of disruptions for infertility that could be there. Are there any other examples?
Yeah, absolutely. There's actually studies on young boys that are being exposed that develop breast tissue gynecomastia in young boys. there's actually a shortening of the anal genital distance, which is a measurement of the distance between the anus and the penis. And the shortening is an indication of feminization. Wow. And that has been shown with phthalate exposure.
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Chapter 7: What are the best practices for living a low-tox life?
So simple things like opening your windows and reducing your exposure to these fragrance chemicals, those are going to go a long way. Second, we all need water to survive. Clean water, filtered water. Unfortunately, our water supply around the world is polluted. Just plain and simple, it's polluted.
with all different types of consumer products, pharmaceuticals, toxic chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, whatnot. We need to filter it. So the better water filter you can get, the better your health will be because we're mostly made of water, right? Third is we need food to survive. Food, when we eat food, unprocessed, ideally organic. It doesn't have to be all organic.
I know some people may have differences in what they can access, but just eating whole unprocessed foods is already going to be a huge reduction in toxic chemicals through your food.
especially ultra-processed foods. I believe there are some studies to back this up. We'll have to look it up afterwards. I didn't prepare it for today's podcast. There tends to be a higher concentration of phthalates, chemicals, carcinogens in ultra-processed food, which includes a lot of the fast food that people are eating that's out there. Exactly.
Processed meats that come from that sort of category. There's just going to be more exposure, more processing done at scale. Sure, it's super cheap, but it's in chemical plants and it's preservatives and it's this and it's that. So just even stepping away from ultra processed foods as the foundation of your diet, I'm hearing you say that's a major step in the right direction.
Absolutely. food processing so any anytime you process every step that you add to this process of making ultra processed foods you're adding some other unknown undesirable chemical in there for example solvents food packaging plastic chemicals that are leaching into the food so on and so forth so if you can cook your own meals at home whole unprocessed foods that's going to be huge
Next, in order of what we actually need, some people need things like oral care products, right? A lot of people use oral care, personal care products. So the very basic necessities, things like toothpaste, body lotion, things of that nature, deodorant, if you choose, try to make those as low tox as you can. Low tox meaning not trying to be non-toxic, zero toxic, because that doesn't exist.
Low toxic just means choosing the better option as best as you can, as frequently as you can. And I hope that gives hope to the listeners that we don't have to dump everything and run and hide. It's not about living in fear. It's really about making conscious and intentional informed decisions about what we're buying and applying to our skin. So that would be number four.
And number five, if someone chooses to have makeup in their lives or cosmetics or some kind of product to that effect, then again, trying to choose the least toxic option as much as you can, especially for products that go on your lips since there is some ingestion involved.
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Chapter 8: Why is air quality so important for our health?
And maybe we could work backwards with also some good and recent news that came out recently that the EPA is exploring about trichloroethylene in particular.
So trichloroethylene, or TCE, is a really, really simple molecule. So your listeners all know that water is H2O, which means it just has three atoms, two hydrogens, and one oxygen. Trichloroethylene is very simple. It's got six atoms. It's got two carbon atoms in black, one hydrogen atom in white, and three chlorine atoms in green, hence its name, trichloroethylene.
This chemical was initially developed in 1864, so I think at the time of President Abraham Lincoln was the president, and it's been used since the 1920s, so since shortly after World War II. And it's been used in everything. It's been used to decaffeinate coffee. It was found in Senko or other decaffeinated coffees in the 1970s.
It's been used to degrease metal, and it's been used to dry clean clothes. It's found in carpet cleaners. It's found in gun cleaners. It's found in typewriter correction fluid. It's found in a wide variety of consumer goods. And this chemical is known to cause cancer. There's no question about that. The EPA says it's carcinogenic by all routes of exposure.
The World Health Organization says that it causes cancer. And yesterday, the EPA long-lasted proposed a ban on nearly all uses of trichloroethylene in the United States. And this ban would go in effect in a year. And I think by taking that action, they are preventing generations of individuals from developing cancer in the future.
And I think they're also likely preventing generations of individuals from developing Parkinson's disease in the future. However, the Problem is not just the use of trichloroethylene, which in the 1970s, it's estimated that 10 million Americans worked with this in semiconductor industry, in mechanics, in printers and painters and taxidermists and varnish workers all worked with it.
But there are numerous thousands of contaminated sites, including contaminated sites in Newport Beach, California, where I went to high school and not too far from where you're sitting right now in Southern California. and in sites in Woburn, Massachusetts, north of Massachusetts, north of Boston.
There are dozens of dry, at least a dozen dry cleaning sites in Rochester, New York, that are contaminated with this chemical and a closely related chemical. So these sites are all around us. But the good news is EPA has banned future uses of it. This proposed ban would go in effect in a year, is my understanding.
But we still have more work to do to contain, remediate, and clean up these contaminated sites throughout the country.
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