In episode 17, Dr. Larson discusses:
- The environment impacts health through the water we drink, the food we eat and the things we encounter in the air
- Chemicals in the US and around the world continue to increase, which impacts the exposure we have to things in our environment
- Environmental factors influence our brain through neuroinflammatory agents
- Neuroinflammation is a build-up of chemicals in the brain and are produced by various things that we are exposed to in our environment
- Long term neuroinflammation can lead to things such as neurodegeneration, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease and other brain-based illnesses, and, although they may take six to seven decades to turn to disease, they can be determined much earlier in life
- Environmental factors like chemicals and pesticides can lead to memory problems, brain fog, and other attention deficits early in life, and need to be dealt with early on by making daily changes to decrease the impact of exposure
- One of the key factors to brain and body health is the GI tract and the health of the gut microbe Your gut microbe has a clear relation to your health and brain function if your gut is healthy; it greatly influences your brain health
- One of the key influences on your gut health is soluble versus insoluble fiber To maintain healthy gut microbe, you have to have a diet that is rich in plants, including fresh vegetables and fruits, because that is what gut biome live on
- Choosing organic foods versus conventionally grown foods is imperative to health
- When studies were conducted on children who were changed from a conventional to an organic diet, chemical residue was all but nonexistent in their bodies within 48 hours of the switch, which means that every choice you make influences your health, and, also, that it is never too late to make healthy changes
- Organic foods have less pesticide residue
- It is the build-up of pesticides and chemicals in the brain that has a domino effect and might lead to brain disease and inflammatory problems long term
- EWG, a non-for-profit environmental group, makes a yearly list of the “dirty dozen”, if you are going to make organic changes, just changing the dirty dozen will impact your health significantly
- The dirty dozen changes yearly, so, be aware by staying on top of the list
- Pesticides work by bogging down the body and suppressing its ability to detoxify and disrupting the inflammatory system, so much so, that our bodies can’t keep up, which leads to disease
- The ways that you can decrease environmental exposure is through filtering your air and water
- Use an air filter in your HVAC at home and at work that has a MERV rating of 11, they might cost more, but by filtering out toxins, they are well worth it
- Air filters help to stop the recirculation of toxins through your environment
- Use a HEPA filter in the air around you to filter out floating toxins
- You encounter toxins everywhere, if you are in the country, it might be agricultural, in the city, it might be hydrocarbons. In every environment, there are free floating toxic exposures that need to be filtered out
- To filter your water, reverse osmosis is the best way to keep it contaminant-free
- Don’t use plastic water bottles, not only do they contain PBA, but they also have phthalates that leach into the water and create inflammation in the body
- Chemicals found in bottled water also contain endocrine disruptors that work by interrupting the way that the hormones work in the body
- Hormone imbalances in the body can influence both our body and our brain health
- Women need to be evaluated for estradiol, which aids the anti-inflammatory response in the body
- Men also need the proper balance of estradiol, but they also need to have a healthy balance of testosterone
- It is critical to evaluate hormonal balances for both your adrenal, thyroid and reproductive systems
- The best way to maintain health is through a healthy gut microbe balance, healthy hormone balance, and limiting exposure to the toxins that are found in our environment and things we eat and drink
- Choose organic when possible, and, filter as much of your environment as you can, to decrease environmental impact on your health
