The Dr. Hyman Show
The Dirty Truth About Environmental Toxins (And How to Protect Yourself)
Mon, 17 Mar 2025
The pervasive presence of microplastics and environmental toxins in our daily lives poses a growing threat to human health, with impacts ranging from hormonal disruption and metabolic dysfunction to immune system compromise and chronic inflammation. These contaminants, found in food packaging, water supplies, personal care products, and even the air we breathe, accumulate in the body and contribute to the rise in chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune conditions. Understanding their far-reaching effects is essential, but the good news is that the body has powerful detoxification mechanisms that, when properly supported through dietary choices, lifestyle adjustments, and targeted supplementation, can help mitigate their damage. In this episode, I discuss, along with toxin-expert Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, why we need to take action to reduce toxin exposures, reverse existing damage, and build a foundation for long-term well-being. Dr. Joseph Pizzorno is a transformational leader in medicine. Through half a century of work, he has helped establish and advance the academic, scientific, and clinical protocols for natural, functional, integrative, and environmental medicine. As founding president of Bastyr University in 1978, he coined the term “science-based natural medicine” and led Bastyr to become the first-ever accredited institution in the field. He has set worldwide standards of practice by authoring or co-authoring six textbooks for doctors, including the Textbook of Natural Medicine (over 100,000 copies in 4 languages across 5 editions) and Clinical Environmental Medicine. He is Editor-in-Chief of PubMed-indexed IMCJ—the most widely read, peer-reviewed journal in the field (25,000 copies each issue). He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Functional Medicine, where he served three terms as Chair. A licensed naturopathic physician, educator, researcher, and expert spokesman, he is also the author or co-author of eight consumer books (most recent, Healthy Bones, Healthy You! with his wife Lara). This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN10 to save 10%. Full-length episodes can be found here: Microplastics: What They Are, Why They are Dangerous, and How to Protect Yourself Environmental Toxins: How To Eliminate the Silent Killers with Dr. Joseph Pizzorno How To Reduce Your Environmental Toxin Exposure
Chapter 1: What are microplastics and why are they a concern?
Microplastics are easily ingested by wildlife and then they bioaccumulate up the food chain, which then of course negatively impacts wildlife and human health because we're at the top of the food chain. So what impacts microplastics? do microplastics have on human health?
Well, in the CDC's National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, scientists analyzed urine samples from 2,517 individuals, a six and above, for BPA, and they found almost every participant contained BPA. That's bisphenol A. Now, exposure from the time we're in utero is also going on. It's not just what we get when we're alive outside the womb, it's inside the womb.
A recent study published in Toxological Sciences analyzed 62% of samples and microplastics were present in all of them with polyethylene, what plastic bags and water bottles and food containers are actually made of. These account for most of the nano and microplastics. Also, these microplastics affect our immune system. They drive inflammation.
Now, when they're inhaled or ingested in our food, they often will cause what we call dysbiosis or imbalances in the gut flora. They'll cause oxidative stress and inflammation, which just drives further inflammation. And chronic systemic inflammation is associated with every known chronic disease.
In fact, a new study in mice found that microplastics have been shown to penetrate the gut barrier causing a leaky gut, which then creates more issues, right? We get more inflammation. And the food particles and bacterial particles then migrate into the bloodstream and the inflammation from there affects every organ, such as our liver, kidneys, brain.
And they also affect our metabolic health, causing insulin resistance and worse. So this just screws up your whole liver-gut axis and increases the risk of prediabetes and diabetes and insulin resistance. So they affect every aspect of our biology. They also disrupt hormones. These are also called endocrine disruptors.
And many plastics contain chemical additives like phthalates or bisphenol A or BPA and brominated flame retardants, which are just a few of the main ones. So let's look at BPA. BPA is structurally similar to estrogen and actually mimics estrogen in the body, which is why it's known as a xeno or foreign estrogen.
It binds to the estrogen receptors and then it alters hormone signaling, which is not a good thing. BPA causes epigenetic changes. So it literally changes the way your genes are expressed by something called DNA methylation. And then that causes all kinds of other issues, reproductive issues, cancer, metabolic issues, weight gain, and It also affects reproductive system function.
So when you have exposure to these microplastics and chemicals, it impacts your ability to reproduce. BPA, for example, impacts the female reproductive system and fertility by effects the maturation of eggs in the beginning of your menstrual cycle. And BPA is also associated with PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis, which by the way, is an autoimmune disease.
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Chapter 2: How do microplastics affect human health?
Well, we can basically remove the toxins, but we also have to upregulate our detox system. So the first thing is avoid plastics wherever you can. Try stainless steel products. Like containers, I have those or glass containers for storing food in your fridge, stealing some water bottles, glass containers are great for leftovers. Don't buy water and plastic water bottles, get a water filter.
I like reverse osmosis and you can actually get a water bottle, bring it with you. Make sure you detox your home. Get simple cleaning products, laundry detergent, cleaning products for windows, for counters, for dishwashers, stuff, everything. And there's a great source, Thrive Market. It's an online grocery store, basically.
You can get all the best cleaners from seventh generation and other eco-friendly, non-toxic food companies. And now, of course, check out AWG's guide on household cleaning products, on skin care products. They're great. So I think... Make sure that you just are diligent about getting toxins out of your home. Second is mercury is a big one. And often we don't pay attention to what we're eating.
And people eat tuna fish, swordfish, sushi. Sadly, all the oceans have been polluted. And no matter where you get your fish from, it's pretty much pre-polluted. Because microplastics, mercury, and other toxins, PCBs, farm fish can be just as bad. So there are a few kind of ways to get around it. One is to eat very small fish, sardines, mackerel, herring, anchovies.
Small salmon can be okay, but still that can have mercury. Also, there's a great regenerative aquaculture company called Seatopia.fish, and they actually provide fish. beautiful, delicious, clean fish that you can get frozen, sent to your home. It's amazing fish actually. And, um, also reduce your exposure to, uh, the, the problems that are from, um,
You know, all the chemicals in your environment by having an air filter in your house that reduces their airborne pollution. Indoor air pollution is a real thing, whether it's mold or whether it's other things, contaminants, off-gassing from furniture, rugs. I mean, you want to obviously try to have a clean home and not full of products. But, I mean, you buy a Tempur-Pedic bed and it smells awful.
It's off-gassing. Those are called VOCs, volatile organic compounds. You really want to avoid those in your house. And then you wanna start to learn about how to actually upgrade and increase your body's own detoxification system. And the best way to do that is by using a couple of strategies that are really important. One is maximize your intake of phytochemicals.
Plant-based compounds, these nutrients in plants, work on upregulating different pathways in the body, including a lot of detox pathways. There's amazing cornucopia of phytochemicals that work on boosting glutathione and boosting our detox pathways and increasing our ability to get rid of stuff. So the biggest category is the cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, collards, cabbage,
kale, Brussels sprouts, they really upregulate lutefione in the body and help to maximize the main detoxifier. Also, there are amazing things like garlic and onions that also contain sulfur that are great for detoxification. Also, things like rosemary, curcumin, Ginger and the skin of a lemon, like if you grate lemon into a salad or something, the skin of a lemon has limonene.
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