Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 085 // Are chemicals linked to autoimmune diseases?

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085 // Are chemicals linked to autoimmune diseases? · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast. My name is Esther.
• 0:03
  I'm so happy to welcome you here where you learn simple and sustainable things
• 0:07
  that you can do to improve your overall health.
• 0:10
  Of course, we're talking about Hashimoto's, we're talking about autoimmune stuff,
• 0:14
  but we're really talking about you and your journey.
• 0:17
  I am talking to every single person listening, but right now I'm in your earbuds or on your speaker.
• 0:23
  And so it's really a conversation between me and you, figuring out what you can do.
• 0:27
  And there's a lot of things that you can do for your health.
• 0:31
  So many. I talked to somebody just the other day and I said,
• 0:35
  you know, during this Hashimoto's Health Session, I can give you 500 different
• 0:39
  things to do, but that's not going to help you because it's going to overwhelm you.
• 0:43
  Instead, we have to focus on what is going to be simple and sustainable right now.
• 0:48
  What can you implement right now without increasing your stress?
• 0:51
  Let's move the needle forward in your health without overwhelming you because
• 0:56
  then then that's going to send you backwards.
• 0:57
  So that's what we're going to do on today's podcast.
• 1:00
  Today, we're going to talk about chemicals and what you can do,
• 1:04
  simple and sustainable.
• 1:05
  I'm not going to overwhelm you. We're going to talk about practical things you can do.
• 1:09
  So I was looking for some quotes and statistics for today's episode,
• 1:14
  and I came across this website.
• 1:15
  It is from the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
• 1:20
  They've been, quote, a world-class world-class center of excellence in medicine since 1978.
• 1:27
  They have this to say about chemicals and autoimmune.
• 1:31
  They say, since most autoimmune diseases are linked to our various hormones,
• 1:35
  most scientists believe that toxic chemicals may also trigger autoimmune diseases.
• 1:40
  They go on to say that, I have to scroll down a little bit, they say research
• 1:46
  suggests that only 30% of autoimmune immune diseases are due to genetics,
• 1:50
  and the remaining 70% are attributed to environmental causes.
• 1:54
  And they go on to describe those causes. That's a lot.
• 1:58
  And you know what? That's really nice. Because it means while we can't change
• 2:02
  our genes, we cannot change our lineage, what we can change is the things that
• 2:08
  we're exposing ourselves to. We might not be able to change everything.
• 2:12
  Now, can I change the air that I breathe outside?
• 2:15
  When I go outside for a walk, Can I change that air?
• 2:19
  No, I can't unless I move to another part of the country and I'm quite happy here.
• 2:24
  You can't change everything, but you do have control over a lot of things.
• 2:29
  Now, when I'm talking today about like chemical exposures, I'm not talking about
• 2:34
  going and cleaning up a toxic waste dump.
• 2:37
  What I'm talking about is like the low level daily things that we encounter. I'm
• 2:42
  There are so many, I cannot tell you all of them.
• 2:45
  Like there are thousands upon thousands, but a lot of them fall into categories like heavy metals.
• 2:51
  Heavy metals are chemicals. They're naturally occurring, lead, mercury, arsenic.
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  Those are naturally occurring, but when they're elevated in our bodies,
• 3:00
  they can cause autoimmune diseases, especially heavy metals have been linked
• 3:04
  to thyroid problems, autoimmune thyroid problems.
• 3:08
  And that's not cool. That's what we want to avoid, right? right?
• 3:11
  But other chemicals are things like mold.
• 3:14
  And then mold releases gases, and that's called mycotoxins.
• 3:18
  So together, mold and mycotoxins are usually put together because obviously
• 3:22
  the mycotoxins wouldn't be there without the mold.
• 3:24
  And those are a huge trigger in chronic inflammation and autoimmune problems.
• 3:31
  So mold and mycotoxins. And then there's pesticides.
• 3:34
  Pesticides are all over. And then there's just all of the chemicals like added
• 3:38
  to food, added to water, added to to plastics, added to everything.
• 3:42
  So many chemicals.
• 3:45
  So many. I learned something new this week. I'm always learning things new.
• 3:49
  But this one I was not super excited to learn.
• 3:52
  And that was that phthalates are in our foods.
• 3:56
  Now phthalates are a chemical that is added to a plastic to make it a little bit more plasticky.
• 4:03
  It's literally called a plasticizer, I believe. leave. And they're to make it
• 4:07
  like more flexible, to make it more pliable, less brittle, and phthalates are not good for you.
• 4:14
  However, they are added to things that hold food.
• 4:18
  And then as the food goes through the food processing chains, it picks up phthalates.
• 4:24
  So phthalates are in plastics, and yet they've made their way into our foods.
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  Now, obviously, the more processed something is, the more of a chance it has
• 4:33
  to pick up those phthalates.
• 4:34
  If you go and pick an apple off of a tree and eat it, it's not going to have
• 4:38
  phthalates in it, right?
• 4:39
  But if you send that apple through so many different processes and then it comes
• 4:43
  out in a little fruit leather candy that's on plastic, you know,
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  they come rolled up in the plastic, well then is that one going to have phthalates
• 4:53
  in it, in the actual food?
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  Maybe. In fact, this is what I found in a different an article.
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  It says, many authors reported high concentrations of phthalates in soft drinks,
• 5:02
  mineral waters, wine, oil, ready-to-eat meals, and other products.
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  And they specifically say that it's probable that it comes from a consequence
• 5:12
  of their accumulation along the food production chain and the accidental release
• 5:17
  from packaging materials.
• 5:19
  But I am not happy to find out that there are little plastic chemicals or plasticizers in our foods.
• 5:27
  Yuck, that's just not cool. So really, there's chemicals all around us.
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  And we have these low level exposures every day.
• 5:36
  You know, if you bought new carpet or new couch or painted your house,
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  you know, inside or outside, if you have laundry detergent that has smells that
• 5:46
  have, you know, lovely floral, quote, clean smells, if they have smells,
• 5:50
  probably you're being exposed to chemicals from all of those things.
• 5:55
  You know, the carpet and the furniture, those have the fire retardant chemicals in them, the paint.
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  Now you can buy low or no VOC paint.
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  The VOC stands for volatile organic compounds.
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  And we don't want those. We don't want, you know, the things in our air.
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  We don't want them seeping out of the paint and getting into us.
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  So there's chemicals all around us, but there are things that we can do to lower our exposure.
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  So the first thing we want to do is we want to reduce as much as possible.
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  So I've said it a couple of times in the free mini course, Hashimoto's Decoded.
• 6:31
  I think I talked about, you know, switching over.
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  If you have smelly laundry detergent, switch over to something that is unscented.
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  If you have smelly soap, switch over to something that is unscented.
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  If you're going to paint the rooms in your house, look for something that is low or no VOC.
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  There's a lot of things that you can do to reduce your exposure.
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  And then obviously the more processed foods are, the more chemicals and toxins they have in them.
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  So that's just another reason to try to eat less processed foods.
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  There's a lot of other benefits to eating less processed foods,
• 7:04
  but that's a new one that I discovered this week. And then toothpaste.
• 7:08
  Let's talk about toothpaste.
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  One of the chemicals, one of the periodic table of elements,
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  can you picture that table?
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  Above iodine is chlorine and fluoride.
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  And fluoride is in your toothpaste and it is hard on your thyroid.
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  So if you're going to, next time you're going to the store to get some toothpaste,
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  look for one that doesn't have fluoride. There is a a different mineral.
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  It's actually the mineral that makes up your teeth is called hydroxyapatite.
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  And it's all over in toothpastes now because the makers of toothpaste realize
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  that we're trying to have a healthier lifestyle.
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  So if you don't want fluoride in your toothpaste, you want something that works
• 7:50
  better with less health consequences, then look for one that has hydroxyapatite.
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  And some people are like, well, if it's so good, then why isn't the American
• 7:59
  Dental Association talking about that?
• 8:01
  I heard one really good point. And they said, if the American Dental Association
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  admits that fluoride is causing a lot of problems,
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  the American Dental Association would be hit with so many lawsuits because of
• 8:14
  the damage that they have, you know, unwittingly.
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  Put on people because of how much they push fluoride. The person I listened
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  to, she was actually a dentist and a very, very high educated,
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  she went back for more schooling dentist.
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  She specifically said that they will never leave fluoride. They will never admit
• 8:34
  that fluoride is not good for you.
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  But what she recommends to all of her clients or patients is toothpaste with
• 8:40
  hydroxyapatite in them instead of fluoride.
• 8:43
  So there's little things that you can do like like switching out your toothpaste.
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  I feel like switching out your toothpaste is one of the simplest things that you can do.
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  And it's going to have a huge impact because every single day when you're brushing
• 8:54
  your teeth, you're exposing your body and you're absorbing the fluoride.
• 8:59
  So if you switch that out, super simple swap.
• 9:01
  All of a sudden you're reducing your chemical exposure every single day.
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  And there's other simple things you can do too, like get a water purifier that
• 9:11
  that takes out the chlorine if you have chlorinated water.
• 9:13
  Now, that one's gonna be a little bit more expensive upfront.
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  But it's gonna be something that you don't have to think about. It's like a one and done.
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  You're going to install it in your house, whether it's a reverse osmosis or
• 9:24
  whether it's just a purifier or a filter or something, and then you're gonna
• 9:28
  think about it when you have to change out that filter.
• 9:30
  But that's about it. Every single day, you're drinking water that doesn't have
• 9:34
  chemicals in it. So that's another simple change.
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  Expensive, maybe depending on what type you get, but simple,
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  yes, it's like a one and done thing.
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  There's other things that you can do too that will reduce your exposure.
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  So the first thing we want to do is reduce our exposure and then replace the
• 9:51
  products with more natural things or things that do not have those chemicals in them.
• 9:57
  And some of this you can do over time, like as you need new products,
• 10:01
  as you need new personal care products, you need new deodorant,
• 10:04
  you need new shampoo, you need new soap, whatever it is, you need new makeup.
• 10:09
  Like when you're going shopping, then they, okay, I'm going to look for one that is cleaner.
• 10:14
  And you can pull up, there's a couple different apps. There's one app called
• 10:17
  Think Dirty. And then there's another app from the Environmental Working Group.
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  I know that the app on my phone says EWG.
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  Both of those apps are really good. I like them both for different reasons.
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  I feel like the Think Dirty one is a a little bit better, but they're both really good.
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  They both have, you know, the capacity that you go to the store and you can
• 10:36
  look things up on your phone while you're standing in the aisle.
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  Now, one day I went to the health food store, I needed some shampoo and I,
• 10:44
  you know, I was totally out.
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  I stood in the aisle for so long and increased my stress.
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  And then they were all super expensive and they smelled horrible.
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  So what did I do? I don't even remember.
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  I just remember the frustration. preparation so make sure you budget a little
• 10:58
  extra time if you are going to look things up or look them up ahead of time.
• 11:03
  Personally for my family I love shampoo bars because they don't have any chemicals in them.
• 11:10
  It's just a bar soap except it's more lathery. It's specifically for shampoo
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  and there's a lot of places that now sell shampoo bars.
• 11:18
  Everybody in my house uses it. I use it for my first shampoo and then I use
• 11:22
  like a nicer shampoo for my second but all of my boys and my husband use the
• 11:27
  bar shampoos and they love it. Actually, that's not true.
• 11:32
  My boys are boys. I don't think they love any personal care product.
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  They use it and they don't complain. So maybe that would be a little bit more accurate.
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  My husband has never told me an opinion one way or the other on a shampoo bar.
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  I love it for them. I will say that.
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  I love that I am not buying something that is giving them chemicals every time they take a shower.
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  I use bar soap in the shower. That's what I supply everybody with.
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  And when my boys get older and they want to use their own money to make their
• 11:59
  own purchases, then we can talk about it.
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  But but right now I make the purchasing decisions and I will always choose to
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  not add more hormone disruptors to my kids' bodies.
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  I don't want them in mine either. So that's just an easy swap.
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  As you run out of something, you replace it with something that is a bit more
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  natural or a bit more healthy.
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  But what about if it's already in you, right? If you've had decades of exposure
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  and you're like, I know I have chemicals.
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  I mean, even babies fresh out of the womb, they have tested the cord blood,
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  the blood that's in the umbilical cord.
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  You know, it has not been exposed to anything outside just through mom.
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  And there are already dozens, if not hundreds of chemicals already in that brand new baby.
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  It's just sad. So what about if it's already in you? Then what?
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  Well, there is a saying, and it is this, maybe you've heard it before.
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  It's the the solution to pollution is dilution.
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  It's very catchy, right? But what does it mean for you? Obviously,
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  you're not going to dilute yourself.
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  No, it means that number one, you want to like make sure the blood is circulating
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  a lot so that each cell gets bathed in a lot of blood so that if there's nasty stuff in it,
• 13:11
  like it has more of a chance to get rid of it, right?
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  And of course, obviously, you have blood going to all of your cells all the time.
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  If you didn't, they would die.
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  But when you exercise or when you go in a sauna, you're increasing it.
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  And so therefore, it helps. That is one simple thing that you can do to help
• 13:32
  eliminate toxins from your body.
• 13:34
  Now, exercising is great, especially if you sweat, because sweating is one way
• 13:39
  that your body eliminates stuff.
• 13:40
  As a side note, if you don't need to wear antiperspirant, if you can just wear
• 13:46
  deodorant, it's going to be healthier for you.
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  You can get little pads that go in your your shirt to absorb sweat.
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  You can just sweat. You can do whatever, but that is going to be healthier because
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  one way that you get rid of nasty stuff is through your sweat.
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  So exercising or if you can't exercise or in addition to exercise, going in a sauna.
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  That is going to do the same thing. It's going to get your blood moving a little
• 14:11
  bit more. It's going to help you sweat.
• 14:13
  So both of those things are good. I have started using a red light therapy belt.
• 14:18
  My sister gave it to me and I love it.
• 14:21
  And it just wraps around me so I can put it where I need to.
• 14:24
  I have told you before that when I have a flare up, it's on my skin usually, and it starts on my legs.
• 14:30
  And it's affected me the last two or three winters.
• 14:34
  Well, I started to get a little patch of that on my legs. So I've been using
• 14:38
  that red light therapy on my legs.
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  And it is helping so much.
• 14:42
  I've obviously been doing other things so that I don't get that flare up this
• 14:46
  year. I've been addressing those root causes.
• 14:47
  And it has been been so much better this winter than any of the last winters. It has been wonderful.
• 14:55
  So the regular sauna or those infrared saunas, or like I said,
• 14:59
  you can even do the belts or the infrared lights.
• 15:02
  Now, obviously the light isn't going to be as much as the sauna as far as like
• 15:07
  sweating, but the infrared light has a few different health properties. So they are both good.
• 15:13
  And then And another thing you can do for getting things out of your body,
• 15:17
  again, the solution to pollution is dilution. Make sure you're staying hydrated.
• 15:21
  How much do you drink every day? That's something so simple,
• 15:24
  and yet it's so easy to neglect.
• 15:27
  Every single night, I try to fill up a couple, two or three quart-sized mason
• 15:33
  jars, because I know that if evening Esther fills them up, daytime Esther will drink them.
• 15:39
  If evening Esther forgets, or just doesn't even forget, it, just plain doesn't
• 15:44
  do it, then daytime ester is not going to drink as much.
• 15:47
  I just don't go and stand in front of the fridge where our little filter water
• 15:51
  thing is and fill up my water bottles during the day.
• 15:54
  If I do it at night, then it's no big deal.
• 15:57
  I will drink more during the day. And drinking more is one simple thing that you can do.
• 16:02
  Drinking more water, sorry, drinking more water or herbal tea is one simple
• 16:07
  thing that you can do to decrease your toxin load and you're You're decreasing
• 16:13
  it because you're giving your body more of a chance to get rid of stuff.
• 16:17
  Now, is this going to be like the best thing?
• 16:20
  No, it's going to be something rather small in the scheme of things,
• 16:23
  but it makes a difference.
• 16:25
  In addition to staying hydrated, you can also do lymphatic massage.
• 16:30
  I've talked about your lymph in other episodes, and it is your garbage disposal system of your body.
• 16:36
  Little tubes that run right alongside your arteries and your veins,
• 16:40
  except instead of carrying blood, they carry basically the waste.
• 16:44
  And so if you exercise, that moves the lymph. If you jump on a rebounder,
• 16:49
  technical name aim for a mini trampoline.
• 16:52
  Or if you do lymphatic massage, those are all ways to move your lymph.
• 16:56
  Now, is your lymph moving when you breathe, especially if you're using your
• 17:00
  abdomen to breathe? Yes. Is your lymph moving when you walk?
• 17:03
  Yes, it is. But those other things, the specific exercise, the rebounding,
• 17:08
  the lymphatic massage, even taking a bath, those are things that can increase
• 17:13
  how much your lymph is moving.
• 17:15
  And then two more things. Another thing is obviously where is everything going?
• 17:21
  Like what's your biggest elimination?
• 17:23
  It's when you go to the bathroom and you have a bowel movement,
• 17:25
  right? So make sure you're having a bowel movement at least once a day.
• 17:29
  You do not want a, like think of it when you go into a outhouse,
• 17:34
  especially a porta potty, how nasty those things are.
• 17:38
  Do you want that sitting in your body for days? No, gross.
• 17:43
  Please poop every day. Increase your fiber and with your fiber,
• 17:46
  Make sure you're increasing your hydration, your water, so that it doesn't constipate you.
• 17:50
  But increase your fiber because that is like it sticks to or it absorbs the
• 17:56
  things that you want to eliminate.
• 17:59
  Fiber helps you poop, and pooping is how you eliminate.
• 18:02
  So increasing your fiber is a good way to remove toxins. So poop once a day.
• 18:06
  Then the last thing is increase your glutathione.
• 18:10
  Now glutathione is like sticky flypaper. If you live out in the country like
• 18:14
  I do, you probably have used flypaper before.
• 18:17
  If you live in a city, maybe you've seen it in restaurants or something,
• 18:20
  which would be gross, but it's like these strips of basically glue that you
• 18:24
  hang from from where the flies congregate, and then they stick to it and,
• 18:28
  you know, you get rid of the flies.
• 18:30
  Glutathione is like that in your body, except it's sticking to,
• 18:35
  or the things that are sticking to it are the toxins.
• 18:38
  Glutathione is one of the things
• 18:40
  in your body that is the master detoxifier, and you can create more.
• 18:45
  And I've talked about it a lot of times, it's the NRF2 pathway.
• 18:49
  When you increase that NRF2 pathway, you increase how much glutathione your
• 18:54
  body makes, and you get rid of more.
• 18:58
  Specifically, the product I use is called Protandim NRF2, and studies have shown
• 19:03
  that it increases your glutathione production by 300%. That's huge. So much.
• 19:11
  And if you can increase that sticky flypaper and escort things out of your body, let's do it, right?
• 19:17
  You can get just plain glutathione as a supplement.
• 19:21
  However, it's not very bioavailable, meaning your body can't use it very well.
• 19:26
  Even if you get the IV form, you know, you're getting obviously some right into your bloodstream.
• 19:31
  But of course, what your body creates is 100% bioavailable.
• 19:35
  Like everything that your body creates, it creates for a purpose so that it can be used.
• 19:39
  So I activate my own pathway so that my glutathione production goes up by 300%. I hope this is helpful.
• 19:47
  If it is, please share this episode or an episode with a friend and come over
• 19:52
  to our brand new app and join our baby community so that we can build that community
• 19:57
  and encourage and support each other.
• 20:00
  Come over there, share your story so that we can build together. I'll see you over there.
• 20:05
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 20:09
  Please be sure to discuss any concerns and plans with your trusted healthcare professional.
• 20:13
  Music.