Cellular Toxicity: The Root Cause of Aging, Inflammation & Chronic Disease

0:005 a.m. I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink. Running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change, and head to work. Meetings, workshops. One more Celsius, no slowing down. Working late, but obviously still meeting the girls for a little dancing. Celsius. Live. Fit. Go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com.

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1:24We are living in a strange moment in history. We have access more than ever before to healthy foods, supplements, gyms, biohacks, and yet rates of autoimmune disease, cancer, infertility, brain fog, and fatigue continue to climb. And if you're wondering what's going on, the reality is this, we have to zoom way, way in to see what's actually happening. And here's the problem. Our cells are sick. The human body is made up of around 35 trillion cells. And if your cells aren't healthy, your organs and your entire body can't be healthy. And most people today, the average person is dealing with major cellular toxicity.

2:06We are constantly being bombarded and assaulted, at least our cells are, with environmental chemicals, hidden infections, everything from mold to parasites to long COVID. Metabolic waste and even our own lifestyle choices are constantly harming our cells, making them toxic and making them sick. Even if your labs say you're normal, by the way, oftentimes we're still dealing with cellular toxicity issues that are damaging our mitochondria, our cell membranes, our nucleus, our DNA, and turning on our genes, everything from MTHFR to glutathione genes. And when these are turned on, our body cannot detoxify properly, so you end up feeling sick all the time.

2:52And today I'm gonna walk you through how to heal cellular toxicity and go over the three big threats to our cells, causing them to be toxic, oxidative stress, impaired autophagy, and cellular senescence. And I'll walk you through the top foods, supplements, and detoxification protocols to heal your body at the cellular level. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Yack Show.

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4:32This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Break through the busiest time of year with the brand new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. With real-time guidance and endless ways to move, you can personalize your workouts and train with confidence, helping you reach your goals in less time. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.com. So what is cellular toxicity? Well, it is a chronic issue that is a low-grade buildup of harmful exposures that push yourselves into a persistent stress response. And it's rarely one dramatic event.

5:11Most often, it's the accumulation of numerous things, including environmental chemicals like herbicides, including glyphosate, which most of us are consuming on a daily basis via our food supply. Anytime you're eating a food that's not organic and natural, there are chemicals like glyphosate on those foods. That's one thing that's adding up. There are PFAs. There are forever chemicals in our food supply and our personal care products. There are heavy metals we're exposed to, biological toxins, mold, lime, viruses, parasites, bad bacteria like H. pylori and candida. There are metabolic toxins, especially from excess sugar and toxic food products.

5:54And there are lifestyle stressors, poor sleep, chronic emotional stress, unresolved emotional trauma from childhood, and ultra processed food. All these things add up and make ourselves toxic and sick so we can't function properly. You know, one thing that happens in particular I do want to mention is, is that these chemicals can block our cell receptor sites, which throws your hormone imbalance off. We see this with a lot of these bisphenol A and a lot of the chemicals in our food supply and personal care products. They will go and increase estrogen in the body. They'll block some estrogen receptor sites and then that lowers testosterone in men, increases estrogen in women, which causes infertility, can increase the likelihood of conditions like PCOS.

6:41Also for women going through menopause, that can affect them as well when those estrogen levels are off. So we know that's a major issue related to cellular toxicity. So most people think, well, if my hormones are off, that must be genetic or there's something else going on. Well, oftentimes it's a cellular toxicity issue. And here's what happens with all of these different toxins from our food and personal care products and even emotional triggers. These start to overwhelm our cells. Think about it like this. Each cell is a high-performing factory. Your mitochondria are the power plants sending energy out to every area of your cell and organ.

7:24Autophagy, this is your janitorial and recycling team, sort of repairing and waste management, getting rid of all the stuff that shouldn't be in there, detoxifying the cell. And then your senescent systems, these are like HR. They're offboarding the old and bringing on the new workers on a regular basis. And antioxidants are your fire suppression system. So if there's a fire or an emergency, they're putting out that fire. Now imagine this. The factory is receiving more toxic raw materials than ever before. Chemicals, pollutants, microplastics. At the same time, the waste removal system is partially offline due to poor sleep, nutrient deficiencies, and a sedentary lifestyle.

8:09And then what happens, the alarm system starts going off constantly saying, whoa, imagine a conveyor belt that can't keep up. Well, then the alarm goes off saying, hey, something's wrong here. And this is chronic inflammation, sympathetic overdrive. And here's what happens. The factory doesn't collapse overnight. it just becomes noisy and efficient, inflamed and air prone. And that's what's happening at the cellular level for millions of people. This is why you're getting issues like the brain fog and fatigue. Your body is just overwhelmed and overloaded. And this isn't a rare problem, by the way.

8:46It affects tens of millions of people in the United States alone. And one study found that over 80 % of Americans have measurable glyphosate in their bodies. 99 % of Americans have PFAs or these forever chemicals in their blood, including 165 million people who have been exposed to them from contaminated drinking water. Heavy metals like lead and mercury and arsenic are also found in our tap water and in farm fish and even cosmetics and sugar consumption. is also through the roof, which drives toxicity in several ways. In fact, the Global Burden of Disease study attributes 184 ,000 deaths per year worldwide to sugar-sweetened beverages alone.

9:37Cellular toxicity is now recognized as a driver behind almost every modern disease, including heart disease, Alzheimer's, autoimmune disorders, infertility, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, diabetes, and many others. If you've been exposed to hidden toxins in your food, water, air, and even cookware, which almost 100 % of us have, they could be wreaking havoc on your cells. Cellular toxicity is real, and most doctors aren't running the right tests to catch what's actually going on. This new test flips the script. The future of interpreting lab tests is here. I'm currently offering a simple at-home blood test that actually tests for the right things, targeted biomarkers, including hormones, thyroid, and metabolism, plus a full hour with one of my senior health advisors to help you understand your results.

10:35If you want to check it out and grab one before they're gone, just go to mybloodwork.com now. And I want to mention, this is critically important, not everyone responds to the same way to toxicity. Did you know there are many people that have genetic variants that inhibit their ability to detoxify? And there's two in particular I want to mention here. The first being the MTHFR gene variant. Roughly 40 % of people have methylation variants, which impact how well their body utilizes and creates B vitamins that produce glutathione. And this variant makes it harder to detoxify and regulate inflammation.

11:17There's actually a very similar thing to MTHFR and it's actually a glutathione enzyme inhibitor, GST. And this glutathione S-transferase, if you have that genetic variant as well, which almost 50 % of people do, you also can't create glutathione as well, which is your body's master antioxidant for detoxification. And there are some people that have both MTHFR and GSD, and so their body really is inhibited at detoxifying. And so they need to be doing certain foods and supplements and other things to support their body's detoxification channels. In addition to those two variants, there's a third that an estimated 25 % of people have, which impacts the immune system and makes it harder for them to clear mold.

12:08I mean, I've seen more and more people coming into my virtual practice where people are dealing with mold issues than ever before and other things like long COVID, viral issues, a lot of these pathogens that act like toxins on the body. And that's why one person can walk into a moldy room and feel nothing. Well, another person is knocked flat out for several weeks with fatigue, brain fog, or autoimmune flares. You know, one example of this is a friend of mine, Michaela Peterson. She was exposed to mold, greatly impacted her and her health in a negative way. And then her father, the famed Jordan Peterson, right now is in a battle and dealing with mold toxicity, working to overcome that as well.

12:47But there are millions and millions of people that are sick, gaining weight, hormone imbalance, brain fog, and other issues because they don't realize they've had mold exposure or they've got a gene variant where they're not detoxifying as well. So where one person isn't affected at all, they are greatly impacted. And I want to walk you through three hidden threats to our cellular health right now. The first is this, environmental toxins. As we've talked about glyphosate, this is an herbicide and probable carcinogen sprayed on our food and found in water. Glyphosate remains today the world's most commonly used weed killer.

13:26It raises the cancer risk of those exposed by 41 % according to a new analysis. It disrupts gut bacteria, increases leaky gut, and damages the BRCA, BRCA, one and two genes, increasing the risk of breast cancer, also increasing the risk of infertility, endometriosis, and liver cancer. And it's still used today. Here's another big one, Forever Chemicals. These have been used since the 1950s in nonstick pans, food packaging, and even yoga mats. They don't break down, so they build up in the body, which is why they're called forever chemicals, and studies link them to a higher risk for certain cancers, obesity, and reproductive and hormone disorders.

14:11Research ties these PFAs in tap water to higher rates of digestive and hormonal issues and cancer. The American Red Cross Association found that newborns are born with over 200 synthetic chemicals in their umbilical cord blood, including flame retardants, pesticides, and forever chemicals. We have kids being exposed even before birth, and heavy metal exposure is becoming another problem with a lot of the food shipped over from China, a lot of the things shipped over from overseas, have a lot of these chemicals in them. And heavy metals are also found in farm-raised fish, tap water, shellfish, in some paint products and plumbing, even in certain pesticides, canned goods.

14:59There is a lot of exposure to heavy metals. We even know aluminum, right, and antiperspirant deodorant. We are also bombarded with those. So you can see here there are so many chemicals, even in our environment, that are making us sick today. And that's not even talking about food yet and other sources. And what these chemicals do to our cells over time is they start to damage our mitochondria, our membranes, and our cells as a whole. When this happens, it impairs detoxification. It disrupts hormones I mentioned earlier. Some of these heavy metals will take the place of mineral receptor sites like iron and zinc.

15:37So now your immune system and blood are weakened. some of these heavy metals and toxins will interfere with hormone receptor sites, increasing your risk of different types of hormone imbalance and cancer and diabetes and depression and anxiety. So we see this as a major issue when we think about all of these toxins and how they impact our cell receptor sites and damage our mitochondria, which are the energy factories of our cells. Now, the second hidden threat to our cellular health and our overall health are biological toxins. Now, not all toxins are chemicals per se. Many come from hidden infections such as Epstein-Barr virus, CMV, Lyme bacteria, mold, and parasites.

16:22These pathogens don't always cause obvious symptoms. They burrow into our tissues, hijack our mitochondria, and simmer quietly, draining energy and fueling inflammation. In fact, it's widely known that if you're exposed to certain viruses, everything from herpes to long COVID to a number of other viruses, they will slowly deplete your mitochondrial energy. In fact, as I've taken care of now hundreds of people with long COVID, one of the things they all suffer with is low energy. Okay, low on COVID equals low energy. part of what's happening is that virus is causing your blood cells to stick together.

17:05It's damaging your blood and it's actually damaging your mitochondria as well. So basically imagine a leech sitting on all of your cells, sucking out all of your energy from your body. That's what's happening with conditions like long COVID is your energy is just being pulled from your body. This is why we have to do things to support the mitochondria and also directly go and kill the virus so your body can finally heal. You know, in addition to these viruses, parasites are also a major issue and have also been linked to cancer. In fact, a 2021 International Journal of Cancer study found that T.

17:42Gandhi parasitic infection was associated with an up to 270 % increased risk of brain tumors like gliomas. And what happens is when you have these pathogens in your body like parasites. Now your immune system is having to go and deal with this parasite or this virus or whatever infection you have. Well, because your body and your surveillance and your immune system is going and focusing all this energy on this parasite, now cancer cells over here like, okay, well, now I can grow and proliferate because your immune system starts getting overwhelmed. And it gets even worse when you not only have a parasite, but you have a virus and you have H.

18:19pylori and you have candida, many people have multiple co-infections and their immune system and their cells get absolutely overwhelmed and fatigued because listen, most people have a pretty robust immune system. And if you're fighting one person, your immune system can handle it. But what if you had to fight not just one person, but two and three and four and five, that gets pretty hard to win. And that's what's happening to many of your immune systems today. and this is why you're fatigued. You get sick so easy. You might get a diagnosis like a cancer or immune deficiency or some other health problem is because your body can't handle fighting all of these infections at once.

19:00You know, one of my best friends, Dr. Pete Sulak, had a parasite infection for years because he was doing these missionary trips to India and all over the world. And he developed a brain tumor. He was given less than a 1 % chance to live. But instead of chemo and radiation, he chose a root cause approach focusing on detoxification, liver support, targeted nutrition, a ketogenic diet and protocols directly related to killing parasites in his body. He did everything from ivermectin to a lot of strong herbals and mushrooms and things like that to be able to kill off these parasites, which then allowed his immune system to thrive.

19:44And today, even though he was given a 1 % chance to live, he is still thriving and healthy as well. Praise God. But all that being said, if you want to heal, remember, it's always important to get to the actual root of the issue. And that's why, I mean, chemo and radiation, those are never getting to the root versus knowing this was originally caused by a parasitic infection, going and treating that and allowing the body to heal. That's the key. Now, the third threat to cellular health I want to talk about are metabolic toxins. Now, some toxins are made inside of us, especially from sugar overload.

20:19The average American today eats 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day. Teens eat 34 teaspoons of added sugar a day. That's more than 100 pounds of sugar per person per year. In 1822, it took five days to eat what we now consume in a single soda. Today, we eat that much sugar every seven hours. The International Diabetes Foundation projects that the number of people with diabetes will rise from 529 million in 2021 to 1.3 billion by 2050. Many cases are linked to environmental and dietary toxins driving insulin resistance. Here's the reality. Excess sugar is a toxin or acts like a toxin in the body.

21:10There's nowhere in nature where you're going to get that much sugar as an isolated compound in your body. Even things like maple syrup and fruit and honey, there's fiber, there's antioxidants, there's amino acids with them that are slowing the absorption. They're food. It's very, very different than isolated processed sugar. Sugar causes hypoglycemia, which is a form of toxicity when chronic due to the production of something called ROS, reactive oxygen species, which then causes oxidative stress on the body, which then damages your cells. Imagine your cells are all these healthy run cars zooming through your body, working well.

21:52Or again, they're factories, they're plants creating energy, helping your body function properly. And then you take a big sledgehammer and you just are breaking and damaging things. That's what sugar does. That's what these sneaky pathogens like parasites do over time in these environmental toxins is they literally are breaking and damaging your cells. And we all know if you have a piece of equipment that's running via electricity and you bash it with a sledgehammer, it's not going to work properly. Well, that's what's happening in our cells in our body oftentimes. You know, excess sugar damages your cells because one, it feeds the wrong gut microbes.

22:28Did you know that if you eat sugar, it's going to cause yeast and candida and H. pylori to grow? versus if you're having something, specific types of soluble fiber, for instance, from apples and pomegranates and avocado, those sort of, that type of fiber is going to feed a lot of the good microbes that you want that help you absorb nutrients and create nutrients and detoxify your gut. So what you eat is greatly going to affect your gut microbiome and cause certain types of bacterial strains or yeast to grow. So that's a really, really big deal, by the way, when you're thinking about what you're eating and what you're feeding your body on a regular basis.

23:13And also, if you're eating too much sugar, it dries leaky gut, which is the main reason why people get autoimmune disease. It overwhelms the liver. It produces toxic byproducts like uric acid, which then causes aging, which again causes oxidative stress, which is like taking a sledgehammer to your cells in your body. Now, when your cells get damaged, it accelerates aging, it depletes nutrients like B vitamins and glutathione, and hammers your mitochondria. And ages, as we talked about here, due to excess sugar, is directly connected to wrinkles and skin aging. And too much sugar leaves you fatigued with brain fog, digestive issues, and inflammation.

23:55There's a study that found that high sugar diets even increase non-alcoholic fatty liver disease risk considerably, even in children. And isolated fructose that you're going to find in things like processed fruit juice, like everything from orange juice to apple juice, it's highly processed. That fructose is primarily metabolized in the liver and can then be converted into body fat, a process known as lipogenesis. So that bad fat you have around your organs that increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes, that's the sort of fat that's created when you have excess sugar consumption, even if it comes from a fruit.

24:33And here's how many of these toxins start to age ourselves. Excess toxins drive free radical buildup. When antioxidants can't keep up, like glutathione, your cells essentially start to rust from the inside. Or imagine this, you take a bite of an apple, okay? You know where all the antioxidants are on an apple? on the skin, right? That dark red or green color you're going to see there. When you take a bite of the apple, what immediately starts to happen? It starts to turn brown. Okay. It starts to rust. It starts to decay. It starts to age. That same thing happens when your glutathione reserves run out or other types of antioxidants, the polyphenols, the biofly, the polyphenols found in things like extra virgin olive oil, the flavonoids found in berries.

25:16When those start to run out. Well, now all of a sudden your cells start to rust and decay. And this damages your DNA, your mitochondria, your cell membranes, leaving you sick, disrupting your hormones, and aging you more quickly. One of the things that also happens during this process is something called cellular senescence. It increases cellular senescence. And here's what that is. There's something called the Hayflick and Moorhead discovery. And this is where they found that cells stop dividing after about 50 divisions. Okay. So your cells divide, divide, divide over time. You want to do this by the way, to a degree.

25:53And this is a normal conservation process in the body of cell turnover. But what happens is once those cells multiply 50 times, they sit there and they don't function well anymore. Imagine, you know, once you've used something so many times, it just stops working. Okay. It gets worn out. That's what happens. And these cells are called senescent cells, which now many researchers called zombie cells, they secrete inflammatory chemicals called SASP that basically they secrete poisons that damage other cells in your body. So clearing out these zombie cells is critical for our overall health. And the process in the body that clears out these senescent cells is called autophagy.

26:36And this is where you have these things in your cells are called lysosomes. Okay. So we talked about the mitochondria, the mitochondria produce energy for the cell. Well, the lysosomes are the waste management and recycling company of your cells that go and clear out all of these senescent cells and toxins from your cells. And if your body's not doing that properly as well, you start to have shortened telomeres, which means you're aging more quickly. And the best way to take care of this is to practice fasting, exercise, and consuming very, very specific nutrient-dense foods like fruit and vegetables, omega-3 fatty acids.

27:16These are the things that are going to accelerate your autophagy. And so focusing on supporting your cellular health with fruit, with vegetables, with specific supplements, with infrared sauna, with a lot of these different techniques I'm going to get into in a minute, it's critical for your cellular health. Are you interested in functional nutrition tips to burn fat, reduce inflammation, improve your brain and energy levels, and heal naturally, then I want to encourage you to listen to my friend, Dr. Dave Jockers' podcast, The Functional Nutrition Podcast. This podcast is designed to help you with easy, actual steps to improve your nutrition and lifestyle, understand your lab work, and address the root cause factors that may be driving up inflammation in your body.