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New Siding on Home

Question from Hannah Ellen

Hi Debra,

I am considering installing new siding on my home, partly for aesthetic reasons and partly for health reasons.

Currently my home has wood shingles that are covered with aluminum siding on 3 sides and vinyl siding on the fourth.

I don’t love the way it looks and would love to replace with fiber cement boards or wood.

Partly I would like to get rid of the aluminum siding for EMF reasons.

However, I assume that the wood shingles underneath have lead paint on them, though the lead inspector was not able to verify this because they were completely covered. So I am trying to weigh risks – some EMF issues with keeping the house as is vs. the potential disturbance of lead-painted shingles if they are removed.

We would certainly leave the house during the work and keep all windows closed tightly. However, with 2 children under the age of 6, I don’t take lead hazards lightly. Any thoughts and advice would be much appreciated as always 🙂

Thanks!

Debra’s Answer

What I would do is have someone remove one or two pieces of the aluminum siding so the lead inspector can really see what is underneath. Lead-removal professionals are supposed to remove lead in a safe way that doesn’t spread it around the surrounding environment.

So get more information before you make a decision.

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What are Toxic Free Tableware and Glasses and Earthenware?

Question from Joyce Kerkhoff

Hi Debra,

I am glad I found this site.

I am trying to make my home and that of my family as toxic free as possible.

I have recently bought glasses made by Libby; and table ware made by oneida, and have bought knives made by Henckles. Also earthen ware made in China exclusively for Williams-Sonoma.

The plates have colores of orange, green, yellow and background of white. I try to find out about the glazes used and the level of possible iron and cadium. I do not find this information.

I recently rid myself of inherited glassware from my grandmothers used back in 1940’s. and 1950’s. Was also gievn pewter steins made in Germany back in 1992.

Would appreciate your help.

Debra’s Answer

I wish I could give you information about all these items, but I don’t have it either.

I have never had any experience with knives being a problem.

I assume clear glassware to not be toxic, based on the ingredients used to make glass.

As for the ceramicware, get some Lead Check Swabs. If it tests positive it’s for sure toxic, if it tests negative, there’s probably no lead but we don’t know about other metals. I use clear glass dinnerware and ceramic pieces that I have tested safe with LeadCheck swabs.

I need to get some dinnerware manufacturer to test their dinnerware so we know it’s safe…

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Living Near Golf Course

Question from Jonathan

Hi Debra,

I found your site to be a wonderful source of information, and was hoping you might be able to help me with a question or two.

I am considering buying a country home, in Upstate New York. It is across the street from a golf course. (Given the acreage of the property, it’s reasonably far away.) There is also a gas station a few thousand feet away. I know that both of these are concerns, but how great a concern are they? I have three young children, and the entire point of the country home is to give them a place to play outside. Is that safe?

Thanks so much.

Debra’s Answer

Distance really is the deciding factor. I wouldn’t buy a house bordering on a golf course or next door to a gas station, but a few thousand feet away should be sufficient.

I would just check the prevailing winds. If they are blowing in your direction, you’ll get fumes from these sources.

Also I would check what pesticides are used to maintain the golf course. Many golf courses have switched to less toxic maintenance. If your golf course isn’t already with the program, you might suggest they look into it. Just search the interest for “IPM golf courses” and many websites will come up. IPM is Integrated Pest Management, a program that greatly reduces pesticides if not eliminates them altogether.

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Blocking /sealing Disintegrating Foam in Van Ceiling & Auto Air Filter

Question from Patricia Thomson

Hi Debra,

I recently was given a different vehicle to drive at work a 2005 Chevrolet Express Van. There is a disintegrating layer of foam on the ceiling of the front seat covered by a thin layer of cloth. The cloth had departed from the ceiling so there was foam dust falling into the dashboard. I taped up the cloth to the ceiling using duct tape and covered any exposed foam with duct tape and cleaned the vehicle. Is there anything else I can do to seal off the ceiling. It’s a work vehicle – I don’t have a choice in the vehicle I use but would like to be safe while driving it. I also thought about getting a good quality auto air filter. Has anyone had experience with one that was good?

Debra’s Answer

If I really want to block fumes I use heavy duty aluminum foil or foil-backed building paper if I need extra strength. I tape around the edges with foil tape. This works without fail. Not pretty, but it blocks and you can put something better looking over it if you want.

In the past I had an auto air filter by E. L. Foust. It worked very well. You just plug it in to the cigarette lighter.

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Why Do People Doubt the Science Behind Toxics?

steven-gilbert-2My guest today is toxicologist Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, He’s a regular guest who is helping us understand the toxicity of common chemicals we may be frequently exposed to. Today we’re going to take a look at a related subject: why people don’t believe there is a problem with toxics when there is so much scientific evidence. And how can we get this vital information more widely known? Dr. Gilbert is Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and author of A Small Dose of A Small Dose of ToxicologyToxicology- The Health Effects of Common Chemicals.He received his Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1986 from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, is a Diplomat of American Board of Toxicology, and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington. His research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. Dr. Gilbert has an extensive website about toxicology called Toxipedia, which includes a suite of sites that put scientific information in the context of history, society, and culture. www.toxipedia.org

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LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH STEVEN G. GILBERT, PhD, DABT

 

 

transcript

TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Why do People Doubt the Science Behind Toxics

Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT

Date of Broadcast: March 17, 2015

DEBRA: I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. Today is Tuesday, March 17, 2015.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day. I hope everybody is wearing green and not getting pinched. Actually, I’m not, but there’s nobody here to pinch me in this room right now. But I will remember to wear green, when I go out today.

We’re going to have a different kind of show today, which I think is very interesting and important. My guest is toxicologist, Dr. Steven Gilbert, who has been on every month. And I have him on because we live in a toxic world and we need to understand the issues of toxicology. And usually, we talk about things like how mercury affects your health, and things like that.

But today, we’re going to talk about something completely different, but needs to be discussed, probably more than anything there is in the entire field.

Dr. Gilbert actually suggested that we talk about this subject, and he sent me an article from National Geographic called Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?

Some of the things that it says in this article, I have things to say about them. And I’m sure Dr. Gilbert does too. I’ll just start by telling a little story, and then we’ll get to Dr. Gilbert. This is so apropos to me right now because in my work as a consumer advocate, I am writing about decisions that I make about products based on information about whether something is toxic or not toxic.

In the past, there weren’t a lot of studies, but there were things that people had written. Some of it was studies. Some of it couldn’t find the studies, et cetera, et cetera. And so I might right something in a secondhand context, and then I would take that secondhand thing instead of looking at the actual study. And I would use that information.

Now, I am making a huge point to actually gather the studies, and I’m working on actually, a new website that’s going to have the studies on there, so that you can go look at the studies, and that it’s not somebody’s opinion. And I’m running into something in my own work right now where a question came up about, in fact, do mattresses, inner spring mattresses, the metal in inner spring mattresses, amplify EMF’s? Is it more dangerous to sleep on an inner spring mattress?

When I started looking at, yesterday in fact, I gathered all the data that I could gather from all the different sources. And I found that there were a lot of secondhand comments about this. It came up because somebody actually measured the EMF’s spots of a mattress and said, “Hey, wait a minute. There’s no change in the EMF’s. I measured the EMF’s in the room. I measured the EMF’s coming off the matteress, and there was no difference. So what’s the big deal?”

It’s a very interesting place to be in time nowadays where we’re needing to make decisions about what’s healthy, what’s not healthy and where’s the data, and who’s saying what, and what should we believe.

Dr. Gilbert, Hi.

STEVEN GILBERT: Hi there. How are you doing?

DEBRA: I’m doing great. How are you?

STEVEN GILBERT: Good. You’re absolutely right. It’s really hard to know what to believe anymore, and industry has preyed upon that.

DEBRA: Before we get into this, I want to say that I read this article that you sent me, “Why Do Reasonable People Doubt Science?” And I’ll put a link to it on the page with your show. But it starts with a story about, in the movie, Dr. Strangelove, this was in 1964, there was a whole scene at the beginning of this article where they are talking about fluoridation and that at the time, the health benefits of fluoridation had been established, and the anti-fluoridation people were already talking about why fluoride was bad.

And then in this article, by National Geographic, it says, “Actually, fluoride is a natural mineral that in weak concentrations, used in public drinking water systems, hardens tooth enamel, and prevents tooth decay. It’s a cheap and safe way to improve dental hygiene for everyone, which are poor conscious brusher or not.”

That’s the scientific and medical consensus, except they failed to say that it’s not natural fluoride that goes in our water.

STEVEN GILBERT: Yes. That’s quite a good example, and I think it raises some interesting ethical questions too. But that’s the only compound that I don’t believe they deliberately added to the water supply and expose everybody to it. We don’t even know how much people are being exposed because people drink different amounts of water.

And the product is actually not systematically active. As far as teeth goes, it has to be topically applied to teeth.

So it’s really curious how those whole issues happen where we have widespread fluoridated water on very flimsy evidence.

DEBRA: As a toxicologist, wouldn’t you say that there are a lot of studies showing negative health effects of fluoride?

STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, I definitely do. I’m opposed fluoridation of water. I think that there’s plenty of fluoride in toothpaste and other products that we have to be aware of and acknowledge, and there’s no reason to continue with fluoridated water given the potential neurological effects, effects on the bone and other problems with fluoride.

It causes a number of health effects that I think we should be very cautious of. And we should think of cautionary approach.

And they’ve ever done the back-up study, to really document the health benefits of fluoride at the doses they’re doing. And there’s actually some real efforts to reduce the recommendations in the water to 0.7.

In Europe, most move away from fluoridating water. We’re just, not addressing the facts.

DEBRA: So I think this is actually a perfect example. And I was actually shocked to read this when I read it in National Geographic because I thought that they were going to move towards saying there’s all this evidence that fluoride is bad for your health, and yet, people continue to fight to have it in our water. But they said exactly the opposite. So I think this is a perfect example of exactly what the subject is we’re talking about today.

STEVEN GILBERT: It is a good example. It is an example of how the Center for Disease Control and other reputable organizations have brought into this and not step up with the facts. I think that they refused to change with putting fluoride in toothpaste and other products, so there’s really no need to dose the water with fluoride and expose people all across the country to fluoride and drinking water at different doses and exposures, and not take accountable for the adverse health effects.

We’re getting the benefits of fluoride in our toothpaste. Fluoride works best when topically applied.

So it’s an example of not addressing the facts with the science.

DEBRA: Tell us more about this whole issue, about people doubting science.

STEVEN GILBERT: It’s a really important issue because [inaudible 00:08:35] with this climate change being a current big example. I just want to read a quote here. This is from 1969 from a tobacco executive. The company is currently owned by RJ Reynolds, but the quote is, and this is from Industries Logan for Industrial Disinformation Campaign. And the quote, “Doubt is our product. It is the best means of competing with the body of fact that exists in the mind of the general public.”

I’ll just say that again.

“Doubt is our product. It’s the best product they want to create since it is the best means of competing with the body of fact that exists in the minds of the general public.”

So when you’re trying to create uncertainty play on the doubt, and science is about asking questions as a scientist. I love science. You can explore your doubt. It’s what’s your trained in a sense, but we’re not addressing the facts and the body’s evidence that leaves the good decision-making.

In industry and many other groups that preyed upon that a delayed regulatory progress, degraded benefiting the public health by just emphasizing the uncertainty of the issue.

DEBRA: And we need to go to break. We’ll talk more about this when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. He’s the director and founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. And he’s at Toxipedia.org.

We’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is toxicologist, Steven Gilbert.

He is the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. If you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you’ll see the book cover. You can click right there. This is a free download, and it’s a book I’ve said many times that everybody should have. It just gives you the basics of toxicology in very easy language, and points out some of the most toxic chemicals that you should be watching out for in your daily life.

So Dr. Gilbert, before the break, we were talking about how companies use doubt to counter the facts.

STEVEN GILBERT: Yes. It started off in a Natural Geographic article that says why do many reasonable people doubt science. And that was really why I see this is as a topic because there are a lot of seemingly science doubters that are not looking at the science that is produced, and just going with their gut or they’re going with other interest.

Industry has been doing for a long time, playing on the doubt by delaying regulations. But why are there so many science deniers that are congressional representatives? Why do we listen to [inaudible 00:11:27] who brings a snowball in the senate floor and said climate change isn’t happening when the evidence says that it is and scientists around the world have been documenting climate change and the huge impacts that are going to happen in society if people turn away from this.

And to give you an example of this—and the other thing that I just want to quickly mention was that The Merchants of Doubt book that came out a number of years ago, there’s now a movie called Merchants of Doubt. I’ve watched the trailers. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I really recommend this documentary that looks at industries’ efforts to create doubt and delay regulation.

The tobacco industries are one of the classic examples, but there are many others such as lead that was involved in some of the early lead research. And when confronted with some of these facts, they just tried to confuse the issue and delay regulations, delay removal of lead from gasoline, which is probably one of the greatest public health measures ever taken when the worst public officers were putting lead in gasoline.

DEBRA: I think that it’s the same battle over and over. If we just look at lead in gasoline, removing lead in gasoline, it’s the same process and/or cigarettes, banning cigarette smoking in public places or things like that.

For every chemical, every toxic chemical in consumer products has to go through that same process of people understanding that there’s a toxic danger, and then deciding that it’s not going to be there anymore. That it’s not going to be there anymore for all of us.

In the meantime, each of us individually can do something, but each of us need to individually decide for ourselves that it’s toxic and it’s something that we shouldn’t do.

I was thinking earlier this morning that I think that everybody would agree that you should be careful when you cross the streets, so that you don’t get hit by a car. And although I’m sure there are people who don’t look both ways before they cross the street, but it’s something that we understand is a danger, and that people take precautions about that, yet many, many, many, the majority of people, do not take any precautions about toxic chemicals, that they don’t believe there’s a problem.

And I just can’t understand that.

STEVEN GILBERT: This is where industry really comes in because they create a lot of doubt about these issues. Their motivation is making money from the product. They create a lot of doubt about smoking, a lot of doubt about making [inaudible 00:14:01] a whole list of chemicals.

Flame retardants are is another reason where the industry hired a physician to tell this egregious story about a child being burned alive because of lack of flame retardants. Their [claim] was entirely false. But there’s a lot of money being made from these products, and they convinced people just to ignore the issue. We don’t often know what chemicals are in our products, and we should have a right to know.

I think industries had done a good job of not allowing chemical policy reformed, which is what some of this comes down to in our use of drugs, when we go to the drugstore and buy drugs, industry has done a lot of work and Food and Drug Administration, and all the government regulatory agencies require a lot of scientific investigation of the products. It’s not the same thing as industrial chemicals, and that’s what Toxic Substance Control Act comes into play, and not having good precautionary approach to any chemicals in the environment, the industries then take advantage of that and argues [the exposure] is not a big deal. And we don’t need to tell what’s in the products we use, and what we’re being exposed to is not a problem when it is.

DEBRA: It’s just amazing to me that there’s so much. When I started many years ago studying the regulations of how different products were labeled, it was amazing to me how inconsistent the labeling regulations are. For example, there’s a whole different law for how you need to put a warning label on a sheet of particle board because of the formaldehyde. But as soon as you cut it up and make furniture out of it, it’s a different labeling law, and you don’t have to put the warning label on it.

And you don’t even need to say that there’s formaldehyde.

There needs to be one labeling law that says everything that’s in the product needs to be disclosed. Period.

STEVEN GILBERT: It’s a huge issue. Personal care products, from fingernail polish or other products, we don’t know what it’s in there. Fragrances often use phthalates as carriers. And phthalates are well documented as endocrine disruptors. Do we really need these products? Do we really need all these chemical exposures? Having antibiotics in our soap doesn’t do any good, but industry likes to sell it as the safe thing to do. And it has no documented advantage.

The list just goes on and on, and I think that we need to be really aware of this, and we need to push our representatives to enact regulatory policy that helps protect and prevent disease and not wait until we have a disease, and then have to try to cure it.

We need to be conscious of what chemicals we’re exposed to, and we have a right to know about these chemicals and what it is.

This comes back to how scientists played on this issue because science does like to ask questions. The industry takes advantage of that by not focusing on the facts, by not building consensus, but rather just tearing consensus apart. So then we do another study, and nothing gets done.

DEBRA: It’s like there are two forces. We could call them good and evil, but I’m not trying to say that industry is evil. But there’s the force that wants life to survive, and then there’s this other force that’s saying, “Oh, no.” And there’s this fight between these two things. It would be just great if everybody can say, “We should all be doing the things that make us healthy and happy and protects the environment.”

That just makes sense to me.

We need to go to break, but we’ll be right back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is toxicologist, Steven Gilbert. He’s at Toxipedia.org. It’s a very interesting website with lots of data on it. And he’s also the author of A Small Dose of Toxicology: The Health Effects of Common Chemicals. You can get that book for free as a free download. Just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, and you’ll see the book cover. Just click on it, and it will take you right to the page.

We’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert from Toxipedia.org. And we’re talking about what to believe with all these information on the internet and different points of view.

How do we know what’s true and what’s not when it comes to toxics?
Dr. Gilbert has sent me an article from the National Geographic, Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science, and I have to say that I’m looking at scientific articles all the time, and I’m assuming that so is National Geographic, but we have very different viewpoints. And this article from National Geographic is in favor of fluoride, GMO’s and saying that these are perfectly safe and fine. And anybody who is naysayer is, well, why are they doubting the science of it?

Dr. Gilbert, would you just comment on how there can be all this data and different points of view, such different points of view.

STEVEN GILBERT: Yes that’s a real struggle, and I think that the different points of view come from starting at different perspectives. I just want to come back to the saying that science is always incomplete. And I want to read a quote from Sir Austin Bradford Hill. This is from 1965. He did a lot of work on tobacco and the health effects of tobacco and smoking. He said, “All scientific work is incomplete whether the observational or experimental. All scientific work is liable to be upset or modified by advancing knowledge. That does not confer upon as freedom to ignore the knowledge we only have or postpone the action that appears [inaudible 00:20:22] at a given time.”

So he’s really saying we have to have a precautionary approach to take action even in the days of uncertainty. And what the industry does is play upon our uncertainty and delay action to this to their benefit.

So the one thing you have to ask is who’s benefitting.

In 2009 I wrote a book review for one of the books about this subject, Doubt is Their Product: Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health by David Michaels. This was published from an environment health perspective. It’s a great book. It goes right along with Merchants of Doubt that creates and, again, manufactures uncertainty.

So I encourage your listeners to at least read the review of that book. But pick one of these books and look at how industry has worked very hard, hired experts at communication to advance confusion about the subject.

There’s example after example. They just create uncertainty and that delays action because then people say, “Well, we need to study it more. We don’t know enough to make decisions.”

When I’d done a lot of my work on Toxipedia and other works, just trying to document and put our scientific information, the context, the history, society and culture, and say, “We have enough information to take action. We need to take a precautionary approach and take action even if we’re not 100% certain.”

So then science is very difficult to be 100% certain. There’s always advancing knowledge and advancing information.

DEBRA: One of the things that I’ve had to figure out as a consumer advocate, for those of you listen who don’t know, the reason I do this work is because I got very sick in my early 20’s to the point of being disabled. And I was able to discover a cause and effect between my symptoms and exposures to toxic chemicals and consumer products.

And so I didn’t start by saying, “Gee, I think I’ll go look up the science about toxic chemicals.”

I started with not being able to get out of bed in the morning, having symptoms all day long, being so sick that I was disabled and couldn’t work. I couldn’t function in my life.

And it was through my detective work and discovery of the toxic chemicals that I was being exposed to that I got my health back, and I got my life back.

And nobody was talking about it then, and I’ve decided that I needed to tell the people about this because there’s no reason for people to be sick. If you know where the toxic chemicals are, if you know how to replace them with safe things, then you can take that action for yourself regardless of what the government does or doesn’t do, and you can have a healthier life.

It was only after the fact, after I made this connection that I started looking for studies. I started studying chemistry, I started studying toxicology, I started studying health, and what I found out is that it’s very difficult to say that something is toxic to every single person in the world at every single time because there’s the inherent toxicity of a chemical, and there is what happens in your body as a result of the exposure.

And there are many things that affect that, how much you’re being exposed to, how sick or well your body is, what your age is, how many chemicals you already have in your body, burden in your body, et cetera, et cetera.

And so you can line up a hundred people and have them all have the same exposure, and they would all respond differently.

Did you want to say something?

STEVEN GILBERT: Go ahead.

DEBRA: But the thing is that there are toxicology studies which established the toxicity, the inherent toxicity of a chemical.

And to me, if you’ve got organizations around the world that are saying, “We’re studying these chemicals, and we’ve decided that they’re toxic, and they shouldn’t be in products.”

Why do we need to wait another 10 years for legislation? Why do we need to study them more?

The data is there. The data is there. Why not just be prudent about it?

STEVEN GILBERT: Because somebody is making a lot of money and keep that product in play. You can guess what that whole list of these things like, Atrazine, a herbicide. It’s widely used around corn. It’s banned in Europe but it’s used in the United States because the manufacturer is very good at creating doubt about the effects of that product, and some people say, “It’s a really great product, so I keep using it,” and the industry keeps promoting it.

So it’s just different perspective on the benefits and using it is making money from the product.

DEBRA: But why does the world run on that many gets to win? Why are we not running the world on how do we keep life going?

STEVEN GILBERT: Well, I think that’s the one thing that our society really needs to struggle with. Our industry is set up that their focus and their perspective, and tobacco industry is a great example of this, is they want to increase their profits and externalize their costs. And using the increase of profits by selling more products, reducing its cost, externalize the cost in one industry. The tobacco industry gave us an example, externalized the health cost of tobacco onto the public, onto the public health care system, but reaping all the benefits and the profits.

But it creates a strategy for many companies.

DEBRA: We’ll talk about that one when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert. He’s at Toxipedia.org, and we’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Dr. Steven Gilbert from Toxipedia.org, a fabulous site that, as he said earlier, puts toxics in the context of history and social, what’s the other component?

STEVEN GILBERT: History, society and culture.

DEBRA: History, society and culture. It’s a very interesting site to read. I really appreciate it a lot.

So before the break, we were talking about how toxic products stay on the market because businesses are making money, and making money, having profits, and minimizing costs, that’s what runs the world today. And so things like health and sustaining the environment are less of a concern.

But to me, what makes sense is that if you want to have good health, then you have to take the actions that create good health. If you want to have an environment which we all need to have in order for any of us to be alive, including all the corporations and manufacturers, without the environment there, then none of us would have life.

And yet, these two things are not generally at the top of the list of what needs to occur. And I’m not saying that that’s true for every business, but what I see particularly in more recent years because I’ve been watching this for 30 years and more, is that these issues are, or at least concerns I should say, are becoming more part of business in recent years.

And that I do see businesses thriving who are making non-toxic products.

I’d like to see everybody follow suit.

STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, I think it’s really critical that we have some regulatory changes. And I encourage all your listeners to engage in the legislative effort to modify the Toxic Substance Control Act, the Toxic Reform, Chemical Policy Reform. It’s really important. There’s build-up for congress right now about that. It was greatly weakened by industry.

The environmental community is now opposing the chemical policy reform bill as it currently stands. But that’s our only avenue to try to work through the legislative process, and we’re confronted by really well-paid lobbyists and communication experts that cloud these issues and create doubt.

There’s a great example, Merchants of Doubt, the book. It’s not a new book. It’s 50 years old, but the documentary is really new, and it just came out. And I urge you to take a look at that and get fired up about this issue to protect our health, to protect our children’s health because we are exposed to a [inaudible 00:29:32] of chemicals and it can disrupt. There’s a great example of that where they have a common mechanism of action. We’re exposed to many chemicals that affect our endocrine system. And you add all those things up. They might be very small exposures, but it can lead to a big effect.

But I think the other thing we’ve learned about toxicology in the last few decades is that small amounts of a chemical really matter. Lead is that way, Bisphenol A, other products that have chemicals that are in the products, do matter. The small amounts really do matter. It’s important to protect yourselves from being exposed to these things.

DEBRA: I read something about there’s a new bill that’s being introduced, but one of the things about a lot of these bills is they say that the EPA needs to regulate more chemicals, 10 over the next 20 years or something like that. And it’s just 10 out of 80,000.

You need to have some kind of action that happens faster.

STEVEN GILBERT: I think we have models for that. I mentioned that the drug industry takes a very precautionary approach putting new drugs in the market where we require industry to document the potential negative effects of drugs, as well as the beneficial effects.

We don’t have a similar policy when it comes to putting industrial chemicals out. Flame retardants is a great example of that.

We didn’t always use flame retardants. These flame retardants are bioaccumulative chemicals that are all over the environment, and showing up on women’s breast milk, and we’re now trying to move from one flame retardant to the next, when they’re actually showing that most of these things do not any good in the products.

But industry likes producing chemicals. That’s how they make their money. And they want to put flame retardants in products. It’s just not good for the long-term health of our society. And you just see this again and again. And industry would document that they do not support regulation, and we do see exposure of chemicals, do not support transparency, what chemicals and what products at what levels. And there’s book after book that goes through the industry’s work on this issue.

Another good one to look at is Lead Wars by Markowitz and Rosner. There’s a book by Deborah called The Secret History of the War on Cancer. And if you’re interested in endocrine disruptors and Bisphenol A, there’s a book called Is It Safe? by Susan Sarah Vogel.

There’s a lot of information out there, but what we really need is to force the legislative to make changes that will protect the human health, that put more emphasis on people’s health and not on the profitability of these corporations.

DEBRA: I totally agree. Another model that I thought of while you were talking is the whole organic model of organic food, where they have to go through this whole process in order to get certified and write a plan that says every single thing that they’re using, and it all gets reviewed to see if there’s anything toxic.

Now, why couldn’t we have the National Organic Product Program, and why limit it to food? Why not have this kind of scrutiny, and this review, and this intent to make a safe product be part of every kind of product that’s on the market.

STEVEN GILBERT: That’s a really good question. We should have more of that. We should have more transparency. We should not have to bend over backwards and have environmental groups trying to figure out what new flame retardants they’ve added to as product and what chemicals are in our products.

We should know if there’s phthalates in our products or if there’s fragnances or those other chemicals and not have to be forced to guess or do the research, to figure this out. We need to have the industry working with us and health to be a priority for them.

It’s really a difficult issue, and the only way it’s going to change is a legislative action that will shift in more of a precautionary approach taken and expected of the chemical industries and the product manufacturers.

DEBRA: Yes, I think that that needs to occur. Since I’ve been in this field for 30 years, I can see that consumer demand has played a large part in the past 30 years of people saying, “I want less toxic products.” And so whatever product isn’t toxic one day start showing more sales, then the larger corporations want to jump in and have something like.

Here’s an example. You can now buy Heinz organic ketchup. I don’t think Heinz decided that they were going to be the leader in organic ketchup. It was only after years of smaller companies saying, “We’re going to offer this organic ketchup, having enough sales,” and then Heinz saying, “Well, we better get into the organic ketchup market.”

And I see that in different companies deciding in a Wal-Mart selling organic produce, things like that.

STEVEN GILBERT: Yes, but how much more expensive those organic produce and the other products [inaudible 00:35:00].

DEBRA: Very much more.

STEVEN GILBERT: It’s an environmental justice issue. Who can afford these products that have fewer chemicals. Organic food is an example of that. Why can’t everybody have organic food? And that would be the norm and not the exception.

DEBRA: Exactly. In a society that values life that would be the case. Our legislature should be going to Washington and saying, “Okay, we want to make sure that everybody in our state can have organic food available to them at a reasonable price.” And that we shouldn’t even have non-organic food on the market at all. People shouldn’t even have that choice. Let’s just make all the food organic. What a different that would be?

STEVEN GILBERT: Well, it’s just the same struggle that occurs over labeling a product that use genetically-modified organisms. In food that’s GMO, the industry has fought labeling of that very effectively. They fought in California and they fought in Washington State. They poured huge amounts of money to make sure that we don’t label our products to know whether they have GMO or not. And that’s another example of industry saying, “Well, it’s just going to confuse the public.”

My view is we have the right to know what we’re eating, and what we’re putting in our body, and what chemicals we’re exposed to. The industry thinks that’s just going to confuse the public, and it’s not helpful for their bottom line.

DEBRA: Well, we’ve only got about a minute left. So any final words you’d like to say on this subject?

STEVEN GILBERT: I think that the most important thing to do is get involved and take a precautionary approach. We need to have the precautionary approach taken seriously in our products, and exposure to chemicals. And read more about these issues, get involved, write your legislative folks. I think the consumers have a super important role to play. And we need to be thinking about our children because our children have a right to reach and maintain their full potential, so that means they’re not being exposed to a [inaudible 00:36:56] of chemicals that they are now.

DEBRA: I totally agree. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today.

STEVEN GILBERT: Thank you for doing this, Debra.

DEBRA: You’re welcome. I just want to let everybody know that I’ve been doing some work on my website, and if you go ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, there’s a bar with a sub-menu, and if you have your mouse hover “listen to archive shows,” you can listen to all of the archived shows, but also my regular guests, like Dr. Gilbert have their own pages now, so you can just click on Steven Gilbert and it will take you to a page where all his past shows are linked on one page.

It’s worth listening to these past shows, and it’s worth educating yourself about toxic chemicals.

And we have to go. You’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.

Herbalix Restoratives

Therapeutic body care products made with “only the finest…pure, potent ingredients…extracted in the most natural ways possible.” I’ve used these products and they really are potent!”There are no synthetic chemicals, parabens, phthalates, petroleum, aluminum or fillers used in any of our product formulations. We also go to great lengths to avoid refined, bleached and deodorized oils.” The products are made in the Pacific Northwest, on a property used for growing organic vegetables, flowers and herbs. The land is home to bald eagles, ospreys, swallows, and abundant wildlife. “Our manufacturing equipment consists of stainless steel tanks, stainless steel paddles, and stainless steel piping. All plastic, silicone, or other harmful components have been removed and each piece has been retrofitted to insure totally clean processing. In other words, none of our raw materials pass through plastic at all! All plastic packaging used is also known to be leach-free with no estrogenic activity so that your products remain free of phthalates and other second-hand synthetic chemicals.” Products contain a preservative that is 99% effective in killing all the major microorganisms required, and at the same time preserves the good bacteria. Deodorants, soaps, moisturizers, salves and haircare. Plus detox products that purge aluminum from your body, through your skin, while you sleep. Enter code Debra10 at checkout to get 10% off your purchase.

Listen to my interview with Elizabeth and Michael Fessler, Founding Partners of Herbalix Restoratives

Visit Website

Sinfully Wholesome

I found this website because a reader wrote and said, “There are only four ingredients in this soap. I think that’s the smallest number of ingredients I’ve ever seen in a soap. This soap was used by Cleopatra. I think it may be in a class of it’s own.” The website says “Beyond organic natural skin care…wildcrafted soaps and oils are 100% natural and handcrafted from wild and/or organic fruits and their precious oils.” I have to say that the ingredients used to make these products are among the purest and most extravagant I’ve seen…Nepalese soap nuts, cold pressed oils to retain micronutrients, natural spring water…even the wrapping is wildcrafted handmade lokta paper to preserve the potency of the precious oils. All soaps can be used head to toe, for bathing, shampoo, and shaving.

Listen to my interview with Ken McGowan, Founder of Sinfully Wholesome

Visit Website

Wire Shelving for Closet

Question from Nancy Carew

Hi Debra,

We are building a new house and I have multiple chemical sensitivities. I have a question about closet shelving. I believe you suggested wire shelving to someone else who wrote in. I read about Rubbermaid wire shelving and it says it is recycled steel with an iron phosphate coating and the finish coat covered with an epoxy-polyester powder coating. Closetmaid uses PVC coated steel. Would you feel the Rubbermaid is a safe choice? Thanks.

Debra’s Answer

Yes, you figured that out exactly right.

The epoxy-polyester powder coating is baked on and makes a “hard” finish that doesn’t outgas.

The PVC coating is a “soft” finish that outgasses.

BTW, all steel nowadays contains at least some recycled content whether noted on the label or not.

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What to Ask When a Label Says “Made in USA”

One way to find products that contain fewer toxic chemicals is to look for products “Made in USA.” While some foreign products can be less toxic than those made in the USA (particularly some products from Europe and especially from Germany), many many products on USA store shelves com from foreign countries that do not have laws that restrict the use of toxic chemicals.

While most organizations that support “Made in USA” products feel that manufacture of the product by USA labor in a facility in the USA is sufficient to warrant a Made in USA claim, federal and state regulations that apply to claims that products are “Made in USA” don’t agree.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a Made in USA standard that applies if a product makes a “Made in USA” claim. According to the FTC, “Made in USA” means “all or virtually all” the product has been made in America.  That is, all significant parts, processing, and labor that go into the product must be of U.S. origin.  Products should not contain any – or should contain only negligible – foreign content.”  (http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/complying-made-usa-standard)

The State of California agrees, requiring that every component of a product be made in the USA.

California law prohibits the sale or offer for sale of any merchandise that is labeled “Made in the USA” or similar words “when the merchandise or any article, unit, or part thereof, has been entirely or substantially made, manufactured, or produced outside of the United States.” (http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=17533.7.)

There is value in purchasing “Made in USA” products that refer only to USA labor and business ownership. This keeps our dollars in the US economy. But USA laborers can very easily assemble toxic materials from other countries. If you are wanting, for example, to avoid products made in China, a “Made in USA” label would be misleading and inaccurate if the materials being used came from China.

I’m in agreement with the Federal and California state law. To me, Made in USA means that the raw materials are sourced in the USA, and processed and assembled in the USA. From beginning to end.

If you are looking for “Made in the USA” products, it’s important to ask if the claim refers to labor, or labor and materials. Manufacturers should know the country of origin of their materials, as well as the source of raw materials and any processing done to them. They should know, but often don’t.

Just be careful when you see “Made in USA” and make sure the materials come from the USA as well as the labor.

 

Deep Detox With Minerals

Wendy-Myers-1My guest today is Wendy Myers, CHHC, NC, founder and head writer of Liveto110.com. We’ll be talking about her special long term “Mineral Power” detox program that purges heavy metals and chemicals from your body using minerals. Wendy is a certified holistichealth and nutrition coach in Los Angeles, Ca, She is also certified in Hair Mineral Analysis for the purpose of designing Mineral Power programs for clients to correct their metabolism and body chemistry. She is currently seeking her masters in clinical nutrition at Bridgeport University in Connecticut. Wendy hosts the weekly Live to 110 Video Podcast and the Modern Paleo Cooking show on her Live to 110 Youtube Channel. www.liveto110.com/mineral-power

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LISTEN TO OTHER SHOWS WITH WENDY MYERS

 

 

transcript

TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Deep Detox with Minerals

Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Wendy Myers

Date of Broadcast: March 12, 2015

DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. Today is Thursday, March 12, 2015. And today, we’re going to talk about detox. It’s a subject that we talk about a lot on this show. The whole show is about detox. We talked about it a little bit when we were talking about other things.

But I’d like to tell you different kinds of detoxes that you can do that have different purposes, so that you have a choice of detox. Detox isn’t something that you just do once like in the spring. A lot of articles are out now about doing your spring cleanses and things like that.

Your body is detoxing 24 hours a day. We have a detox system in our bodies and they are way overloaded with way too many chemicals. You also have to do a specific type of detox that actually remove toxic chemicals, heavy metals, radiation, those kinds of things because not all detoxes do that.

So I’d really like to talk about detox because it’s really so fundamental to having good health. We need to get those toxic chemicals out of our bodies as well as not put them in there in the first place.

So my guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder of Liveto110.com, which is a great website. Wendy and I are very common in our viewpoints in terms of what constitutes good health in terms of what constitutes good health – basically removing toxic chemicals and getting good nutrition in.

And so her background is different from my background, so we have different strengths in terms of what we talk about and what we know more about and she’s very – well, Wendy will tell you about herself. So hi, Wendy.

WENDY MYERS: Hi! Thank you so much for having me.

Debra: You’re welcome. Could you back up a little bit from your phone because there’s some static.

WENDY MYERS: Oh, sorry.

Debra: Okay, let’s see. Say something again.

WENDY MYERS: Is that better? Is that better?

Debra: Now, a little closer because now, I can’t hear you.

WENDY MYERS: Uh-oh. Okay, I’m nearer.

Debra: Okay, good. Let’s try that.

WENDY MYERS: Alright, perfect.

Debra: Okay, good. So tell us about yourself. Tell us what you do and how you got interested.

WENDY MYERS: Well, I started Liveto110.com shortly after the death of my father. He died of Cancer, of esophageal cancer and complications from diabetes, et cetera. It just really inspired me to learn more about why he died and why so many people are sick today and why so many people have Cancer.

I also have a young baby and I had been spending many years learning about health and nutrition and how to detox my environment for my baby. That’s kind of what motivated me when I was planning my pregnancy. So I’ve been really about health and detox, et cetera for a while.

But when my father died, I really hit the ground running and learned more about all the toxins in our environment and the most effective ways of detoxification. It just started my passion to teach other people about this really pressing health issue because the mainstream medical community just doesn’t talk about detox and how the 80,000 chemicals that we have in our environment and dozens of heavy metals, these are not converging in our bodies and synergistically producing health.

It just completely boggles my mind that most medical doctors don’t even look at heavy metals or toxins as the underlying cause of diseases. I personally feel that mineral deficiencies, nutrient deficiencies and heavy metal and chemical toxicities are the main underlying cause of disease.

Debra: I completely agree with you 100%. I mean, after 30 years of studying this subject, that’s the conclusion that I came to as well.

So let’s start talking about your detox program, your preferred detox program because it’s very different from other things that we’ve talked about on this show. There are products that we want to talk about today that regular listeners know that I talk about all the time, but I want to really focus on your program because it’s so different.

I think the thing I want to say upfront is number one, I haven’t done this program and the reason that I haven’t done this program is not because I don’t think that I should do this program, but it requires a commitment and it takes a while, you might not feel good, but I’m convinced from what I’ve learned from Wendy that when people do this, you’re not going to have toxic chemicals left in your body period.

WENDY MYERS: Yeah.

Debra: It’s very thorough. I’ll just start with that. And so tell us about the program, Wendy just like a basic overview because I want you to give us details.

WENDY MYERS: Well, you can learn more about the program at MineralPower.com. I developed this program over many, many years in an attempt to heal my own health and to feel better. It’s a very comprehensive program. It begins with a hair mineral analysis and there are four components to it.

You eat a healthy diet. My version of Paleo is called the Modern Paleo Diet and it’s on a full Paleo diet. You can eat berry and grains, non-gluten grains if you’re not sensitive to them. And it also entails targeted nutrient therapy. Based on a hair mineral analysis, I can find out what nutrients specifically that you need to heal your body. Many people need lots of minerals and they need the right amount in the right form.

I also have you do certain detox protocols like infrared saunas and coffee enemas. Coffee enemas are optional, but it can really be lifesaving to mitigate detox symptoms. And of course, people have to do lifestyle changes.

So it is a very comprehensive program. Some of my clients just spend all day doing it and some people just do what they can. They’re very busy. They’re working mothers and et cetera. But if you commit yourself to this type of program, it takes about two to three years to detox the bulk of heavy metals in your body.

And when you do this and remineralize your body and give your body the nutrients and the building blocks that it needs to heal itself, guess what? Your body heals itself. You regain your energy, your mental clarity. You heal your thyroid and your adrenals. Your libido comes back. Brain fog reduces.

That was a big one for me. My brain fog went from zero to 60 the first couple of years. It’s one of those things where if you follow this type of program, you can regain your health. I’ve had clients become pregnant. They overcame their infertility issues. They’re reversing autoimmune diseases. Their adrenals start working and start producing hormones naturally on their own. Their body just starts working again.

And if you’ve had really long-standing health issues (say you’ve had autoimmune Hashimoto’s for 20 years), it’s going to be a lot harder to reverse that, but you can at the very least, improve your symptoms.

Debra: Yes, I would agree that all of that is possible. All of it is possible.

We’re going to come up on break in about a minute, but I do want you throughout the show today to talk about all of these things you just said in greater detail – particularly about the mineral analysis and just all of it.

So until we get to the break, why don’t you tell us why we need to detox.

WENDY MYERS: Well, like I said before, we have 80,000 chemicals in our environment – very few have been tested for human safety. There’s thousands more being unleashed on our environment ever year.

The EPA has established that we have several hundred chemicals in our body. The World Health Organization has established that we have over 700 chemicals in our bodies based on very expensive studies. We have to get these chemicals out of our body, not to mention the dozen of heavy metals that are unleashed into the environment because of industry.

In countries like China, they have very few pollution laws and regulation scrubbers on their incinerators, et cetera. And all that toxic pollution comes over to us with the weather patterns. Even Inuit mothers in the arctic have 70 chemicals in their breast milk. So even if you live in what you think is the most pristine environment, you cannot escape toxins today.

If you plan to be healthy, you have got to have a daily detox lifelong plan.

Debra: Yes, I totally agree. We’ll go to break and then we’ll talk more about Wendy’s detox plan. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers. She is the founder of Liveto110.com.

You can find out more about her Mineral Power program there at Liveto110.com or go straight to MineralPower.com. We’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder of Liveto110.com. We’re talking about her special Mineral Power detox program.

So at the beginning of this program, of Wendy’s program is that you do an interview with her and fill out some paper work and a hair mineral analysis test. So let’s talk specifically about this hair mineral analysis test, Wendy because actually, listeners, I got as far as doing the hair mineral analysis test and it was different from what I thought.

Tell us what it is and why people can’t just get a hair mineral analysis and try to analyze it themselves.

WENDY MYERS: Well, I’ve been studying hair mineral analysis for many years. It really took me a couple of years before I really felt comfortable reading them. There is a tremendous amount of information in a hair tissue mineral analysis and there’s about 40 years of research behind it pioneered by Dr. Paul Eck and Dr. David Watts, Carl Pfeiffer and Hans Selye and many, many other pioneers in this field.

It’s not just looking at individual mineral levels as many doctors or other health practitioners think. They don’t really know any better. Many doctors and other health practitioners dismiss hair mineral analysis as not being accurate, but it’s because they don’t understand that we’re not necessarily looking at the individual mineral levels.

We’re looking at the ratios of certain minerals to each other and we’re looking at certain patterns in the hair tests that give us a tremendous amount of information. And this has been established with hundreds of thousands of hair mineral analyses done by Dr. Paul Eck alone. He corroborated and correlated the levels in the hair mineral analysis to certain health conditions. And so this is why we know that say, a low sodium and potassium on a hair mineral analysis course correlates to adrenal fatigue. There are hundreds of other examples like this.

So you can get a really good picture of someone’s body chemistry, their metabolic rate, thyroid functioning, adrenal functioning, immune functioning, liver and kidney stress. Many, many other health condition can be seen in a hair mineral analysis.

So I love to begin with that with a client just to get an overall picture of what’s going on with me. it also gives me a very nice blueprint in order to develop a targeted nutrient therapy plan for a client.

Dr. Paul Eck also spent many, many years figuring out what nutrients correct the levels in a hair mineral analysis. It’s very, very complicated because one mineral will affect another. When people have adrenal fatigue and they have low sodium and potassium, this will cause copper to build up in the tissues and calcium to build up in the tissues as well where it does not belong.

When you understand this concept, that one mineral level increasing can affect all the other minerals, it makes things very, very complicated and it just takes a long time to figure out how to read them.

Debra: Yes. It’s not just a matter of looking at the test and saying, “Oh, I have high aluminum.” I can see from talking to you and listening to this again now that it requires some expertise, understanding and experience to be able to get all the information out of it.

So can you give us some more examples of things that you’ve learned from hair mineral analysis? Actually, do you have mine in front of you?

WENDY MYERS: No, I do not. I can bring it up though.

Debra: Yeah. It’s okay with me to talk about my test.

WENDY MYERS: Yes, that’s fine. I’ll bring it up in two seconds here. Your test is not in your file, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I’ve been having some issues with files disappearing in my computer.

Debra: I understand. I’m having that problem too. It must be a new thing – more frequently than it used to be
Okay! Well then, let’s go on to the next part of your program. So after you do this test and you find out actually from a physical test – it’s not something that you’re guessing about. A lot of times, when I have gone to various practitioners in the past, they just kind of throw something at you. They determine that this is your problem from you just talking to them. And then they say, “Well, let’s try this.” And if it doesn’t work, they try something else and then they try something else. It just seems to me that to use something that is such a detailed test like this gives you much more accurate information.

WENDY MYERS: Yeah, it does give you accurate information. I understand how when you go to certain practitioners that they try one thing and they have to try another thing. The same principle can hold true with this program especially with supplementation. There are so many factors that affects someone’s reaction to a supplement.

Sometimes, I have to switch out people’s supplements because it can be impossible to tell how people will react.

But there are a lot of times when you go to a health practitioner and they’re just kind of guessing it being this or they’re using more of a symptomatic approach where they’re covering up your symptoms or they’re even doing symptomatic supplementation where if you test low for calcium in your blood, then they give you calcium or they see that you have low copper and they give you copper. The body is not that simple. It’s much, much more complicated as people can probably imagine.

So there is a bit of a trial-and-error with this program as well. But most people, 85% to 90% of people do really, really well and don’t have to change out their supplements. And some people that are very, very ill, they’re typically going to be more reactive to supplements. I have some clients that can’t even take any supplements and they just have to do the detox protocols and the diet and they start detoxing just from that.

So everyone is a little different. That has to be considered. Every person is considered on an individual basis.

Debra: Yes, and that’s what’s so interesting about bodies and what makes it so difficult.

WENDY MYERS: Yeah! Oh, I have your hair test. I found your hair test.

Debra: Oh, okay. Alright! Well, when we come back, we’ll talk a little bit about my hair test. I’m glad you found it because it really was interesting to me. Yeah, we’ll do that.

We’re coming up on the break in about five seconds, so I don’t want to start talking about anything else. So you’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers. She’s the founder of Liveto110.com. By the time I finish saying this, the music should come up and we’ll be on the break.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers, founder of Liveto110.com. We’re talking about her very deep and detailed detox program. I like that, deep and detailed detox program. That’s exactly what it is.

So you found my hair analysis. So tell us something about what’s going on with my body.

WENDY MYERS: Well, most notably, your calcium is at 357 and the idea levels for that is 42. So I’ll tell you what the problem is with that. This is a result of many years of adrenal fatigue. What happens is when you have low sodium and potassium in your tissues, calcium from your bloodstream leaks almost and metastasizes into your muscles where it does not belong, into your tissues. Over time, this causes tight muscles, stiff joints, achy joints and things like that.

And additionally, what happens when you have a high amount of calcium in your tissues is it reduces cell permeability.

Just imagine a round cell. If there’s too much calcium around it, calcium prevents nutrition and thyroid hormones from getting into your cells and it prevents toxins from getting out.

So your metabolism is just at a screeching halt. So you’re not going to be able to lose weight. You’re not going to have energy. You’re not going to have clearer brain functioning because you’re not able to get adequate nutrition and also, glucose. This can be a precursor to diabetes and sugar control issues, insulin resistance because that glucose additionally is not able as efficiently to get into your cells. It just causes all kinds of problems in the body.

One of the main focuses with clients that have high calcium is to get that calcium down and you do that by taking essentially fatty acids.

Debra: I’m writing this down.

WENDY MYERS: Yes.

Debra: All the things that you’re saying are things that I struggle with to a greater or lesser degree. Aside from hearing it from you (because you told me my analysis), I’ve never seen this kind of information any place else.

I think that most people, if they were to look at a test and it says, “Oh, there’s a lot of calcium in your body,” they would think, “Oh, that’s good.” And yet it causes these other problems. This is the kind of example that essentially, [inaudible 00:29:39].

WENDY MYERS: Well, I think that we’ve been conditioned to think that calcium is this amazing thing we need for our bones. I’ve even fallen victim to that. Many, many years, I picked Viactive Chews because I was told that young women needs 400 milligrams of calcium a day. The problem is you actually need magnesium. Magnesium is the boss of calcium and magnesium tells calcium where to go.

There are not that many people that are severely calcium deficient. They need magnesium. And so this is kind of not generally well-known. We need magnesium for 3700+ processes in the body, but one of them is for bone health. The problem with taking lots and lots of calcium is it tends to build up in people’s tissues.

Most people are slow metabolizers. Eighty percent of the population has a slow metabolic rate and these people accumulate calcium very, very efficiently. So you do not want to be choking down thousands of milligrams of calcium every day. You need more magnesium. But people that have a fast metabolism do need a lot more calcium.

Every one is a little bit different. And again, recommendations are based on an individual basis.

Debra: Right! And this is why you need to do something like have this kind of test because otherwise, it’s just a guessing game. This will tell you what’s going on.

Tell us something that my hair test shows something good about my health.

WENDY MYERS: Well, it’s actually very good if you have a lot of heavy metals coming out. You would think, “Well, maybe that’s bad. That means I’m really toxic,” but this is actually very, very good because I get really worried when I have a client that doesn’t have any heavy metals coming out on the hair test. It’s not good. It doesn’t mean, “Oh, I’m toxin-free.” That’s not going to happen. Everyone has heavy metals and chemicals in their body, toxins. What it actually means when someone has no heavy metals coming out on their hair test is that their body is too tired to detox. It just does not have the energy reserve. It’s reserving energy for digestion and basic bodily processes and just doesn’t have anything left over. Detoxification takes energy. It also takes certain nutrients – glutathione and other master antioxidants in the body to escort the metals out of the body like vitamin C, alpha-lipoic acid, et cetera.

What’s very, very good about your test is you do have a lot of metals coming out probably because you take so much Zeolite. I love the Pure Body Zeolite myself.

Debra: Thank you. Yeah, I think it’s because I’m taking Zeolite.

WENDY MYERS: Yes, yes. And I take the Zeolite too. I love the Touchstone Zeolite. Like I said, it’s just very good you have lots of metals coming out. And where you see a rat, there’s usually a thousand more [inaudible 00:32:38]. So you probably have a lot more toxins coming out, but join the club. Everyone has lots and lots of toxins in their body.

Even if you do consistent detox or you’ve done a long detox program like Mineral Power, you still will accumulate them on a daily basis. You breathe them in the air. There’s mercury in the air unfortunately and it’s in the food.

Debra: Right! Let’s just put exclamation marks and make that bold and italics, what you just said. I think that people don’t really get this, that they walk around and the air looks clean. But when you start looking at what’s in something like car exhaust and how much car exhaust we’re exposed to on a daily basis just driving around town and sitting in traffic, it’s just, “Where does that car exhaust go?” It’s full of heavy metals. It’s just full of heavy metals.

You would have to stay in some pristine, little filtered room to not be exposed to these chemicals and that’s just impractical. That’s why we have to pay so much attention to supporting our detox processes in our bodies because otherwise, we just get overwhelmed, yes?

WENDY MYERS: Yeah, absolutely. And if you are not eating the healthiest diet, you’re eating lots of sugar and lots of gluten and things that prevent your liver from functioning (you’re drinking lots of alcohol or whatever your drug of choice is), if you’re doing that, your liver is too busy dealing with those toxins and it can’t detox all these metals.

Additionally, the liver doesn’t recognize a lot of the chemicals that we have in our environment. It doesn’t know how to process them. It’s never seen them. Some of these chemicals have only shown up the last hundred years or even in the last decades and the liver doesn’t know how to deal with them.

So I think it’s imperative that people use an infrared sauna.

Debra: Infrared sauna, okay. Well, we’ll talk about that when we come back, plus other aspects of your program including the supplements that you give and diets and even the importance of sleep. I’ll ask you about that too. We only have a very short period of time left now, but we’ll be right back.

You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Wendy Myers. She’s at Liveto110.com.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

Debra: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Wendy Myers from Liveto110.com. Actually, she’s the founder of Liveto110.com. We’re talking about her deep detox program.

So Wendy, before the break, you mentioned the saunas. So let’s just kind of put this in context. So people get the hair mineral analysis and then you make a program for them. So let’s talk about the different elements of the program that they might be given.

WENDY MYERS: Yes. Well, one of the main features of the program is doing detox protocols like infrared saunas, near infrared saunas and coffee enemas. The near infrared sauna is very, very different from what most people are familiar with when it comes to saunas. Most people typically think of the saunas at their gym, the dry saunas, Swedish or Finnish saunas. And then many people are familiar with the far infrared saunas that have the black carbon panels inside of it. Those are good. They penetrate about an inch or two in your body and they’re very effective for detox.

But even better and much less expensive (it’s very affordable, so that most people can get one in their home) is a near infrared sauna. I have amazing near infrared saunas in my store at store.Liveto110.com from SaunaSpace. These are the best near infrared saunas available.

The near infrared saunas penetrate your body nine inches. I was actually corrected by the maker. I thought that they penetrated about three to four inches. They actually penetrate nine inches inside your body and really heat you up from the inside out, so that your cells can release all their toxic content. It’s so amazing at mobilizing and sweating out hundreds of chemicals and heavy metals.

And it bypasses the liver. So even if you have a congested liver or toxic liver like many people do today, a third of people have fatty liver disease in the U.S., you can bypass that mechanism and just sweat everything out.

And by heating up your body, you also kill of parasites, fungus, candida, other yeasts, viruses and bacteria. You can heal gut dysbiosis. It’s unbelievable, the benefit that people experience using an infrared sauna.

Debra: Okay, so infrared sauna. And then also, the diet.

WENDY MYERS: Yes. Well, I created a diet called the Modern Paleo Diet. It’s not a strict Paleo diet because I think the Paleo diet – well, it’s great that cavemen ate that diet. Many people have adapted to new foods in our environment.

There’s scientific evidence for lactase persistence where many people still have the enzyme into adulthood that can digest the dairy protein or dairy milk sugars. Many people can eat potatoes, they don’t have a problem with that. Many people are fine with legumes (I’m not one of them, but many people do and are just fine with legumes).

Debra: I’m one of them. I love legumes. I eat garbanzo beans every day for lunch.

WENDY MYERS: Oh, yes. You have your [inaudible 00:42:04].

Debra: No, I just have a little salad of them.

WENDY MYERS: Oh, yum. Those, I can do. I think a lot of people, they can’t tolerate pinto beans, but they can do green beans and garbanzo beans and teas. They’re a little bit different. They have a little bit of a different effect on your body.

But many people can tolerate grains. Some people can even tolerate gluten if they have a very robust gut microbiome.

But the Modern Paleo Diet is a very detailed outline of a diet. I’ve got lots of little handy cheat sheets that people can use that tell them all the foods that are on the Modern Paleo Diet that they can eat.

When people eat these diets and remove gluten from their diet (I think most people don’t tolerate gluten well), when they remove the foods to which they’re sensitive (I always encourage people to do food elimination diets or I also now offer food sensitivity mediator release test that can identify 150 foods and food chemicals to which you’re sensitive), when you do that and you remove these foods, it’s amazing how many symptoms could just go away just from correcting the diet.

You just can’t constantly put garbage in your body and gluten, foods that you’re sensitive to and sugar and et cetera and expect to feel good. So it’s a big component of the program.

Debra: I totally agree! What about sleep?

WENDY MYERS: Yeah, sleep is huge. A lot of people shortcut on this one, but on the program, I really encourage people to sleep for eight to ten hours a night. I know some of you out there are going, “Yeah, right. I can barely get four or five” just because they keep waking up. This is a big problem for many women that are approaching menopause, they have a lot of night-waking and hormone imbalances and things of that nature. But if you can sleep eight to ten hours, great.

A big factor of that is going to bed at the correct time. You have to reset your circadian rhythm in order to get a good night sleep. So you’ve got to have good sleep hygiene. I give people lots and lots of tips on how to improve their sleep hygiene. That corrects a lot of people’s sleep issues. But if people are having trouble (because it does take quite some time to correct body chemistry), I give people lots of supplements that they can take like Ashwagandha or GABA.

Magnesium really, really helps for a lot of people. I give others supplement recommendations to help them get to sleep until they can correct their underlying issues that are promoting insomnia and night-waking.

Debra: Yeah, yeah. That used to be a big problem for me earlier in my life. Night after night, I wouldn’t sleep until I changed the sheets on my bed to cotton sheets instead of permanent press sheets. And actually, formaldehyde on the sheets keeps people awake.

WENDY MYERS: Yeah, mm-hmmm…

Debra: So that’s the first thing I always tell people to do. And then there are other things to do. But that’s just a basic thing that will affect a lot of people instead of people taking sleeping pills.

And so, I left the supplements until last because I want you to talk about the difference between your supplements and say, the supplements that people would buy in a natural food store or a drug store or a place that was just found to be selling supplements that have no supplements in them.

WENDY MYERS: Well, I’m a supplement freak. I’ve been taking supplements for a long time. I take a lot of supplements, I love them. And I’m a real stickler for supplement quality.

I primarily use food-based supplements on my program because I think they just have better synergy in the body and the body responds to them better, but there are some people that are so ill or have gut issues or so many food sensitivities that they can’t tolerate them.

So in those cases, I do offer very high quality synthetic supplements. And many, many people, most nutrients and supplements that you see out in the market are synthetics. And there are good synthetics and bad synthetic.

Debra: Well, what would be a good synthetic? How would you tell the difference? How do you define that, good and bad synthetics.

WENDY MYERS: Well, I have an article on my website called ‘90% of Vitamins are Synthetic’. We have a whole list of the different vitamins and the forms you want, the forms you don’t want. That can be very, very helpful. But it takes a long time. It took me a long time to learn this stuff.

It’s one of those things where you just have to do your homework. Let’s take an example, folic acid. Most people cannot convert folic acid to folate in their bodies especially if they have MTHFR genetic mutations or other of these issues where the body is just not working properly and you want to take folate. But for supplementation purposes, you want to see that word ‘folate’ or you want to see ‘methyl folate’ (that’s a methylated form of folate. That’s just one example.

There’s also B12. Most supplements have cyanocobalamin. That’s cobalt connected to cyanide. You probably don’t want to take that. Then your body has to convert that to methyl cobalamin. That’s the preferred form.

So there’s many, many examples like that. Most of the supplements that you see in the grocery store or Sam’s Club, many of them are China-sourced and has GMO ingredients, which you don’t want. It will not be on the label. And you many times will have cheap binders. So if you’re in a pill, they’re usually very, very cheap binders.

And there’s a really funny excerpt I have on one of my articles that talks about how the guys that run the porta potty businesses, in the bottom of the porta potties, when they’re cleaning them out, there’s hundreds of pills of supplements.

Debra: I’ve heard that, yes.

WENDY MYERS: Yeah, because the pills just pass right through them without being absorbed because there’s cheap binders in them. So you want to take supplements that are in capsules or just pressed pills. I don’t know if you know Chlorella water supplements, they’re just in a pressed pill.

So there’s lots and lots of details to think about. On Mineral Power, I only use the highest quality supplements, primarily food-based that you can find. And I’m always looking for the better and better and better supplement.

Debra: Yeah. Well, I’m always looking for them too.

Well, we’ve only got less than a minute left, so I wanted to say thank you so much for being here and telling us about your program. Is there anything very short you want to say?

WENDY MYERS: Well, my motto on Liveto110.com is to cess out and start working on your health before you develop health issues. You have got to add detox protocols like infrared saunas to your health regimen or eventually, you’re going to pay the price. The consequences are going to catch up with you by not eliminating metals and chemicals in your body.

Debra: Thank you so much. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You can go to Toxic Free Talk Radio and find out more about the show and others by going to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well.

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