Office Hours: The Truth About Environmental Toxins (And How to Protect Yourself)

0:12Dr. Mark Hyman:Welcome to Office Hours. This is our dedicated one-on-one space to go deeper, get clear, and explore what truly moves the needle for your health. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman, and each week, we're going to pull back the curtain and share the insights, the research, the lessons that don't always make it into our conversations with guests. Because at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your own health. And for many of you, your family's health too. And you might not feel it all the time, but you have far more power and agency than you realize. I'm glad you're here. This episode is brought to you by Function Health, empowering you to live 100 healthy years with over 160 lab tests at just$365 a year.

0:49Dr. Mark Hyman:Sign up today at functionhealth.com slash mark and use code mark2026 to get$50 towards your membership. Most people are exposed to hundreds of chemicals every single day. Now, chronic disease isn't just about food or your genes. It's about your total toxic load. Something I never learned about in medical school, like zip, zero, nada. I mean, acute toxicity, yes, but the total toxic burden we have, definitely not, and certainly not how to diagnose it or treat it. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So this isn't about fear and making you scared. It's not about being perfect and getting rid of every toxin.

1:22It's about understanding what you need to do, have some clarity, what you should prioritize, and what you actually can control so you don't have to be ongoingly dumping toxins in your system. You're trying to eat well, if you've been taking care of yourself, but you still don't feel great, you're not alone. We're living in an environment that our bodies were never designed for. Personally, and sadly, I'm an expert in this because I lived in China in my 30s, and in the winter, the air was so thick that on a sunny, bright day, you couldn't see the building across the street and everybody wore masks.

1:57I breathed in all this soot. It was from raw coal, which is full lead and mercury. And I got mercury poisoning. So I get it. Every day, we're exposed to hundreds of chemicals in our food, our water, in the air we breathe, in the products we use in our homes, on our skin. And over time, this total toxic load just adds up. It's like kind of the straw that breaks the camel's back that finally makes us sick. It affects our hormones. It affects our weight and metabolism. It affects our brain. It affects our immune system. Their immunotoxins are called autogens. They're called xeno hormones or xenoestrogens.

2:30They're just bad news. But here's the good news. This episode is not about fear. It's not about perfection or living in a bubble. It's about getting clear. Your body already knows how to detoxify. You just have to help it. The problem isn't that your detoxisms are broken. You're just a little overwhelmed. So in today's office hours, I want to make sense of the science. I want to walk you through the most common environmental toxins we're exposed to every day and how they actually impact your body. And most importantly, the simple, realistic swaps you can make right now to lower your toxic load.

3:02No extreme cleanses, no expensive protocols, just practical steps to make a real difference for you and your family. So by the end of this episode, my goal is that you feel clear, you feel empowered, you feel confident about where to start because you don't need to do everything. You just need to focus on what matters most. You, my friend, are the CEO of your own health, and today we're going to help you take back control. So let's get into it. Here's the first topic, how environmental toxins actually affect the body. Now, before we talk about specific chemicals or products, I want to take a step back and simplify the science.

3:36Environmental toxins affect the body in a few core ways. First, they disrupt hormones. They're hormone disruptors. I read a book that blew my mind about 30 years ago called Our Stolen Future, all about the endocrine-disrupting chemicals that were ubiquitous in our environment that no one was talking about. Now, these chemicals, they're known as xeno-hormones or xeno-estrogens or xenobiotics. Xeno means foreign. They disrupt our hormones. They're endocrine disruptors. They interfere with estrogen, testosterone, thyroid function, fertility. I mean, everything. Sperm count, sperm function, sperm motility, they just are affecting every aspect of hormone function, and they definitely affect thyroid function.

4:21They also damage our mitochondria. Now, these are the important little organelles inside their cells that turn food and oxygen into energy and do a lot of other things we're learning. We are the most important foundation of your health, and when they're damaged, there's less energy. When there's less energy, everything in your body slows down. And it's not just a slow metabolism. It affects aging itself. It affects cancer risk. It affects Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, mood, autism, fertility. I mean, you name it, your mitochondria are involved in everything. So when you're sensitive to mitochondria, and they're very sensitive, my friends, don't work well because they're overloaded with toxins, you are sick.

5:02The next thing they do is they overwhelm our detoxification pathways. They're all built in. We sweat, we breathe, we poop, we pee. Our body has a system to detoxify. Our livers do a lot of the work. Our kidneys do a lot of the work. Our guts do a lot of the work. And we have a system of detoxification. It's one of the fundamental physiological systems of functional medicine. And it requires a whole series of things to help it work. The right nutrients, fiber, all sorts of things, amino acids. It's basically a biochemical set of pathways that need support. And these chemicals basically clog up all those systems.

5:41And our bodies just get overwhelmed and they can't properly detoxify. So really important to understand how to upregulate those pathways and to minimize the work they have to do by lowering your toxic load. The next thing toxins do is they drive inflammation. There's a whole book on this and a whole body of research on this that talks about how environmental toxins cause autoimmunity. They're called autogens, like antigens, like from infections, but they're autogens. They drive autoimmunity. They drive inflammation. They drive fatigue. They drive weight gain. They are called obesogens. They cause cognitive dysfunction, brain fog.

6:18I mean, I had that with mercury poisoning. And over time, you know, this just leads to chronic inflammation, fatigue, weight gain, brain fog. And as general says, your body just isn't operating the way it was designed. So just to recap, key systems impacted here are hormones. These are endocrine disruptors, particularly estrogens, thyroid, testosterone. Brain is definitely affected. Neurotoxicity, huge factor in all sorts of neurodegenerative diseases, in mood disorders, in attention disorders, just you name it. Anything that affects the brain can be affected by toxins. Gut and liver, huge, huge load on the liver for all the toxins we're exposed to.

6:56Toxins cause a leaky gut. That was for sure what happened to me when I had mercury poisoning. that makes your system even more inflamed and some vicious cycle. They affect metabolism. They have a huge impact on weight. We know that there's a whole class of these molecules that we now refer to as obesogens. They literally cause you to become obese independent of your diet. And they cause insulin resistance. They cause weight gain. One of the most common is bisphenol A, which is on a credit card receipts, bank receipts. It is in bottles, cans, plastics. It's in everything, even the newer versions of it that are, quote, safer, same thing.

7:34They affect the immune system. So they lead to autoimmunity, to allergens, to cancer, all sorts of things. So the big takeaway is here. Your body's designed to detoxify, but not given the load we're all exposed to today. So once you understand how these toxins affect your body, the next question becomes much more practical. What exposures matter the most? Because not all toxins are the same. Not all exposures really deserve equal attention. So now that you understand how toxins affect your body, I want to get specific because some everyday exposures are far more important than others to make sure you address.

8:07What are the top environmental toxins? What are the high-impact toxins that we get every day? The goal here isn't to worry about everything and become neurotic. The goal is to focus on exposures that matter most and that we can do something about. The ones we come into contact every single day, often without even knowing. The biggest contributors to our toxic load aren't rare exotic chemicals. They're everyday products we drink from, we store food in, we clean with, we put our... Let's start with the most common, most impactful sources of exposure, plastics and endocrine disruptors. So plastics and endocrine disruptors are common, things like BPA, phthalates.

8:39Many plastics contain chemicals like BPA and phthalates. BPA stands for bisphenol A. These mimic estrogen in the body. They also can cause insulin resistance, which are pretty bad, increase risk of obesity. They mimic estrogen in the body. They interfere with fertility. They disrupt hormones. and over time they increase the risk of weight gain in many hormone-related cancers. Now, where do you find them? Plastic water bottles, food containers, receipts, credit card receipts, bank receipts, gas station receipts, canned foods. They're lining the cans. Fragrances, which are common in a lot of skincare products.

9:14What do they do? Well, they make estrogen. They screw up fertility. They contribute to breast and prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer. They drive weight gain, obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes. The good news is there's some easy swaps. This is one of the easiest areas to reduce your exposure. So what do you do? Well, use glass or stainless steel bottles instead of plastic. Never, ever heat food in plastic. Never. Not a Tupperware that's plastic. Saran wrap. No microwave food in plastic. Just forget about it. Choose BPA-free cans or glass jars. A lot of them have other replacements, so better glass than not.

9:52and don't get the receipt or don't touch it if you can help it. That's the hard one, but do your best because those often have a lot of BPA in them. The next big category where you can do something about toxic load is personal care or household products. These are products people use every day, sometimes many times a day. They often contain hidden chemicals like parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, formaldehyde-releasing preservatives. And because these products are applied on your skin, they can be absorbed in the body and contribute to hormone disruption, to headaches, migraines, skin issues, immune activation, lots of things.

10:28A simple rule of thumb I like to share is if it goes in your skin, it goes in your body. I mean, basically the rule is if you wouldn't eat it, don't put it on your skin. In other words, coconut oil, you can put it on your skin because you'd eat it. But some weird chemical and some cosmetic product, you probably wouldn't. And the reason I say this is as doctors, we know this. When someone comes into the emergency room and they have a heart attack. The first thing we do before we can even get an IV or anything else is we take a looks like toothpaste full of nitroglycerin, we squirt it on their skin, and we put a patch over it.

10:58And we know that works because it gets absorbed, right? We know about hormone patches, estrogen patches, and so forth, testosterone patches. They work. Nicotine patches, things get absorbed through your skin. So be aware what you put on your body goes in your body. So the hidden toxins are things like parabens, thalase, fragrances, formaldehyde releasers. They all affect you in many different ways from hormone disruption to migraines to skin issues to irritating your immune system, causing immune issues. And there's easy swaps, right? Go get the fragrance-free products or essential oil-based products.

11:31I'm on the board of the Environmental Working Group or EWG. There's a great app called Skin Deep. You can go on the website and use the app and you can scan products, you can search products, and you can see how they stack up. So EWG is a great job, not just, by the way, for skincare, but for a household cleaning products for food, for any kind of thing you can imagine, they have looked at. So, and also just use fewer products or just pick a few that are really well-made that you know are religiously made without toxins and that are good for you. I use Weleeta products. I'll use Tom's toothpaste.

12:06I use just products that I know are safer or better. I don't have any affiliation with them. So remember, if you wouldn't eat it, don't put it on your body. Pesticides, herbicides, next big one. And again, we can't control this completely. If you travel, if you don't eat at home all the time, it's hard to control. So do your best. Pesticides and herbicides are real big deals, especially glyphosate, which is the most common herbicide. It's used on 70 % of all crops. It's one of the most common ways people are exposed to environmental toxins through food. And glyphosate is used throughout conventional agriculture.

12:36It shows up in non-organic produce and grains, processed foods, pretty much everything. It's also used on lawns, landscaping, which means exposure doesn't come from what you eat only, but from the environment as well. So one of the biggest concerns with glyphosate is how it affects the gut. It damages the gut microbiome. It interferes with detox enzymes, increases inflammation throughout the body. And over time, it can cause digestive issues, immune problems, cancer. There's billions of dollars of lawsuits against Monsanto who make glyphosate for cancer that have been settled. I read a study recently where there were transgenerational effects, epigenetic effects.

13:10So if the grandmother mouse had glyphosate exposure, the grandbabies had all kinds of damage to fertility, to hormones, cancer risk, kidney issues. I mean, it was kind of frightening to see how they measured these effects. And so I'm highly concerned about this. It's, again, on 70 % of all products. It's one of the most toxic compounds out there. It should be banned. I'm leaving it to say there's been billions of dollars of lawsuits against Monsanto that have been successful because of this. All right. So where do you get exposure? Well, if you're eating produce, it's not organic. If you're eating a lot of grains, it's often sprayed on wheat at harvest to desiccate the wheat, meaning to get all the leaves off so that they can dry out and process the wheat.

13:49It's in processed food for sure. There's a box of Cheerios. It's kind of a spook, but it's accurate. There's more glyphosate in terms of pure quantity in Cheerios than there is some of the vitamins and minerals that they list on the link. So that's concerning to me. It's also on lawns and agricultural places. So I worry about it being used widely. We call it Roundup, and they use it everywhere. So I'd be very careful about any exposure to this. It damages the gut microbiome. It impairs your detoxation enzymes. It increases inflammation. It increases cancer risk. It has changed generational effects, epigenetic effects.

14:29I worry about all of that. What do you do about it? Well, do your best to eat organic when you can. Again, the Environmental Working Group has a great list of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. Here's the Dirty Dozen, for example, strawberries. You never want to eat if they're not organic, whereas if it's a banana, it's fine. And you can kind of make a list. You don't have to buy everything organic, and you can lower your costs, but you make sure you don't eat the things that are really the most exposed, like celery. I would not eat celery, but it's not organic.

14:57Dr. Mark Hyman:The next time you go in for your anal physical, ask about lipoprotein little A or LP little A. Why? Because it promotes plaque buildup in the arteries and inflammation and can silently increase your risk of heart disease for decades and you don't know it. And here's the surprising part. Most people have never even heard of it. Your doctor won't order it on a standard cholesterol panel. And because it's inherited, you won't know your own risk unless you specifically test for it. But this is exactly why we built Function, so you don't need to ask or get permission for what matters. With Function, you get access to over 160 lab tests, including an advanced cardiovascular panel, plus your hormones, metabolism, nutrients, toxins, and more.

15:37Dr. Mark Hyman:And all in one check for your entire body. Designed by the world's top doctors and trusted by hundreds of thousands of members. For$365 a year, that's a dollar a day, get your data, own your health at FunctionHealth.com. Also, wash your produce thoroughly. There's ways to do that to get rid of chemicals. And don't use lawn chemicals. Like, I just don't use toxic lawn chemicals at home. Just don't need to expose yourself to that. The next big category, and one, unfortunately, I'm an expert in, is heavy metals. Mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic. These are a big one. And often, this is not well understood.

16:10Heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, these are all naturally occurring in the environment, but they're usually buried. Like coal has a lot, but that's buried under the ground, right? Modern exposure levels can be harmful because we basically dug up all this coal. We burned it in cement plants, in energy coal burning plants, and it's created huge amounts of pollution. In fact, Seattle has really high mercury in its environment. Why? Because of China. Because China uses so much coal burning. It goes up in the atmosphere. It comes over. It's not acid rain. It's heavy metal rain, literally.

16:44A lot of people are exposed. So if you eat fish, like tuna or swordfish or almost any fish, unless really little fish or certain, or generally farmed fish. And I like Zootopia.fish, I don't have any relationship with them, but they're great. They have really great sources. There's some heavy metal, but much lower than other fish. And you have to be careful because it concentrates up the food chain. So, you know, fish that eat other fish, that eat other fish, that eat other fish are the ones that are highest than mercury. Shark, swordfish, tuna. if you're in a home. There's plumbing, paint, homes built before lead regulations, cigarette smoke, one of the highest sources of toxins in general, but also can have chemicals and metals in them.

17:23So be careful. These metals can cause havoc. I experienced it personally, anxiety, mercury poisoning. They affect your nervous system. They can cause brain fog, fatigue. I developed chronic fatigue syndrome from it, cognitive impairment, sleep issues. I developed muscular damage, neurological damage. It was bad. In children, it can have a huge effect because it affects developmental learning and development of the brain. So a lot of kids have problems. One in six kids today have some neurodevelopmental disorder. It's very concerning. And heavy metals play a role. And the next thing you want to do is filter your drinking water.

17:57I have a reverse osmosis filter at home. As long as you're taking a multivitamin mineral or you're replacing minerals, having electrolytes, you're fine. Really important because there's just so many, not just metals, but also other pesticides and chemicals and all kinds of things in water. I think there's 38 different chemicals on average in the average drinking water that are concerning. And if you're living in an old house, make sure you test it for lead and take care of it. All right. The next big source of toxins, and most people don't think about this, is the air you breathe, especially indoor air pollution, which is one of the biggest problems.

18:29So air pollution from the outside and indoor pollution of air is also a common source of toxic exposure. And many of us spend a lot of time inside, and indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air. because you get bocs from furniture from building materials from mold cleaning sprays gas ovens um and poor indoor air quality can cause all sorts of stuff asthma brain fog headaches immune dysregulation uh i met a guy who was building the bank of america the new it was a two billion dollar building in new york city and he was an architect patient actually and he he told me that they invested a huge amount of money in making the indoor air quality great and doing environmental friendly and no off-gassing.

19:11I'm like, why do they spend all this money? And he said, because the productivity was so much higher in their employees. When we built our Center for Functional Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, I insisted that we hire an environmental firm and we follow strict environmental standards for the products in there. So we wouldn't have off-gassing, formaldehyde, VOCs. We had our carpets with all kinds of chemicals, paint with chemicals. Then we had proper air filters, they had water filters, and it was the healthiest space in the entire clinic. And when people went in there, they thought, God, I feel good in here.

19:43I feel good at the end of the day. I'm tired. It's quite amazing. So it's often overlooked. So what's, one of the ways you might not know you're exposed? Well, one of the things that's called VOCs or volatile organic compounds, these come from furniture, glues, adhesives, finishes, sealants, foam padding, engineered wood products. So you want to try to use natural materials. So if there's recently or newly manufactured furniture and synthetic materials, it can be an issue. Mold is another big one. Make sure you check your home for mold. A lot of times it's hidden and people don't know if it smells musty or moldy.

20:14It for sure is. Even if you don't smell it, it can be in air vents and air conditioning and many other places. Cleaning products, all the household cleaning sprays, we'll talk about how to avoid those and use safer versions. Gas stoves, they're a big deal. A friend of mine is the CEO of an appliance company and he told me all the research they've done on gas stoves and how potentially harmful they are. And what can they do? They can cause asthma, brain fog, they can disrupt your immune system, many, many other things. So what can you do that's easy, that's high impact? Keep your windows open, especially if you're getting new furniture, but better to get furniture that's more made with natural products.

20:50For example, I have a mattress that is a great mattress. It's a latex mattress that's made from natural materials. It's from Essentia. It's kind of like a Tempur-Pedic. I did have a Tempur-Pedic once, and when I bought it, I was like, oh my God, this thing just stinks. And you could smell all the off-gassing of all the chemicals. I didn't really know what I was doing at the time, but it was pretty bad. Have an air purifier. I have an air filter in my bedroom and in all the rooms I spend the most time in the house. You want a HEPA or ultra-HEPA air purifier with activated carbon. And listen, if you can get older furniture where most of us off-gas are rentees, if you can and afford it, I would encourage you to get furniture and bedding and couches and other, you know, build public products that are non-toxic.

21:37And you can find those. And especially if they're in bedrooms and nurseries, be careful. So when you buy new furniture, look for solid wood instead of particle board. Get antiques if you can. Choose low VOC or non-VOC finishes like paints. And there's certifications you can check out like Green Guard, sort of Pure Us for foam. FSC certified wood. There's a lot of things you can do out there to reduce your exposures. Next topic, and this is one of my favorites, is how do you support your body's own detox system? Because none of us can reduce our exposures completely. None of us can live in a world like we did a thousand years ago or even 200 years ago where there were no toxins in our environment that weren't naturally occurring that were pretty rare.

22:19So how do you support your body's own detoxification system? A lot of doctors go, well, you know, your body just does it. You don't have to worry about it. It's like no big deal. I can't do anything. And detoxification as a therapy is just stupid and unscientific. Well, that is absolutely wrong. It's extremely scientific. And if you look at the literature, you'll find it. The problem isn't there's no evidence. The problem is that they haven't looked at the evidence. And I studied this extensively because I had to for my own health and also for my patients. It's a real system for doing this. and there's a lot of ways to do it.

22:54You have to support all those systems. I call it the triple P system, the poop, pee, and perspire, right? And those are really important, but you also have to support your liver. So one of the pathways you have to support, your liver is really important. And there's great foods that's upbreaking in your body's own detoxification pathways. My favorite are the broccoli family, you know, broccoli, collards, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, et cetera. Also garlic and onions are great. Certain herbs and spices are great, like turmeric. There's a whole list of supportive compounds that you can use to help detoxify yourself.

23:25I've written a lot about this. Protein. Yes, protein is really important. And if you look at a lot of the pathways, and there's a whole series of biochemical steps that happen in your liver when you detoxify things, it requires amino acids, especially glycine, because it's part of making glutathione. Glutathione is the body's main detoxifying compound, and it comes from amino acids. You need protein. B vitamins. Really important. Methylation is a key step. B12, folate, B6. but all the B vitamins are really important. Zinc, selenium, also minerals, really important. And alcohol, alcohol is just a liver toxin.