Today on the Gut Health Reset Podcast, we are talking about the toxins that you might be consuming daily without even noticing! These toxins, chemicals and heavy metals affect your gut and need to be addressed, and you need tips that you can take away immediately and begin applying.

 

In this episode, we will discuss how you may be getting exposed to toxins, why a gradual approach to changing your lifestyle is more manageable, how to know if you are suffering with toxin or chemical exposure, and more with special guest Dr. Wendie Trubow! 

 

We answer these questions:

– Where are you getting exposed to toxins everyday?

– What should we do to avoid mycotoxins in our grains?

– What should you look out for in beauty products?

– Why is the one big problem with most grains?

– What approach should you take to removing toxins from your life? 

– And more!

 

Still want to learn more? Schedule with Dr. Barter today!

 

Supplements From This Episode:

Liposomal Glutathione

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About Dr. Wendie Trubow:

Dr. Wendie Trubow is an obstetrician-gynecologist in Newton, Massachusetts. She received her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and has been in practice for years. Through her struggles with mold and metal toxicity, Celiac disease, and a variety of other health issues, she has a deep sense of compassion for what women are facing when they start seeking out help. 

Dirty Girl Book: https://amzn.to/3HQ8EdX
(disclosure: this is an affiliate link)

Free handout: https://FiveJourneys.com/promo 

Instagram @drwendietrubow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wendietrubowmd 

 

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Subscribe for more gut health content and share this podcast with a friend! Take a screenshot of this episode and tag Dr. Ann-Marie Barter:

http://instagram.com/drannmariebarter

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Dr. Ann-Marie Barter is a Functional Medicine and Chiropractic Doctor at Alternative Family Medicine & Chiropractic. She is the clinic founder of Alternative Family Medicine & Chiropractic that has two offices: one in Longmont and one in Denver. They treat an array of health conditions overlooked or under-treated by conventional medicine, called the “grey zone”. https://altfammed.com/

https://drannmariebarter.com/

 

Transcription:

Dr. Wendie Trubow: If you’ve handled all your foundational approaches to health and you’re not amazing and a million bucks, then we go, OK, well, you done everything right and you’re not amazing, then it’s a toxic issue.

Intro: Are you struggling with bloating, gas constipation and fatigue, but don’t know what’s causing these problems? The Gut Health Reset Podcast with Dr. Ann-Marie Barter dives deep into the root causes behind these issues that start in the gut. This podcast will give you the knowledge you need to heal your gut and reset your health.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: Today on the Gut Health Reset Podcast, we are talking about toxins that you might be consuming daily without even knowing it. How these toxins, chemicals and heavy metals affect the gut tips that you can take away immediately today and begin applying. Why a gradual approach to changing your lifestyle is more manageable and how to know if you are suffering with chemical exposure. Thank you so much for joining us here today on the Gut Health Reset Podcast. Before I get into introducing my amazing guest today will not want to miss this episode. I want to take a second and talk about the fires. We’ve gotten a lot of emails that have poured in. Think some of you guys know we’re in the great beautiful state of Colorado and the town of Lewisville in superior, burned and a fire here recently in December, which is pretty unheard of with hundred mile per hour winds? And it was. It’s just been a real tragedy to see people lose their homes, and other other people have expressed concerns about the toxins that are coming from the fires, burning the building material, metals that can get exposed, etc. things that you don’t want to be exposed to. So we have been asked to offer Austin air filters, and I want to explore that. I want to extend that to the podcast audience that’s been affected. And what we want to do is we’re offering 10 percent off of our Austin Air filters. If you have it in some way, been affected or live in Colorado here just to help the quality of your air. Our hearts go out to you, so please contact our office if you want to do that. That’s info at Alt Alt BAMF a.m. Med dot com and we hope that you and your families are okay. Today, my special guest is Dr. Wendy Trudeau. She is an M.D. MBA. She is a functional medicine gynecologist. She received her MBA from Tufts University in 2000 and has been practicing functional medicine since 2009. After all these years, she is still passionate about helping women optimize their health and their lives. There are so many different challenges in a woman’s life work, home relationship, spirituality, health and the whole matter. While her credentials show that she’s a solid medical backdrop to help women achieve vitality, her own health journey has been inspired and supported her methods of care through her struggles with mold, metal toxicity, celiac disease and a variety of other health conditions. She has developed a deep sense of compassion for what her patients are facing when she is not helping her patients in her practice. Five Journeys You can find her alongside her husband and their four kids, creating a eco system and their yard that provides nourishment to both their body and soul. Well, Dr. Wendy Turbo, I am so excited to have you here on the podcast today. I love to talk about environmental, health and the toxins that we consume, and I think that this is such a critical concern that that we should actually have that maybe we don’t pay enough attention to this. So thank you first off for being here.

Dr. Wendie Trubow: My pleasure, Marie, thanks for having me on.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: Absolutely. So I think I want to just jump into it if that’s OK with you. Yep. And a common question that I get in practice, and I’m not sure if you get this is well with where am I getting exposed to toxins and things that I do every day? I mean, that can’t be the case, right?

Dr. Wendie Trubow: I think the question is, where aren’t you getting exposed to toxins every day? So let let’s let’s categorize it right. It’s easy. It’s sort of easy to think of it like this behemoth and get overwhelmed and freeze. So let’s not do that because that doesn’t feel good, let’s say. Let’s break it down. Things you put in your body. So food because you do it every day. Food is a huge source of potential toxins. Inflame inflammatory food or mycotoxins so you can get herbicides, insecticides, pesticides from your food. Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide in the world. It’s also known as Roundup, so people spray it, and it’s also sprayed on crops. It also gets under organic food because of drift. So they spray it in the field next to your lovely food and it drifts over to your food. So food is a tremendous source of getting toxins. There are any any processed food or grains contains often contains okra toxin, which is a micro toxin, which is the toxins put out by mold. And then if you’re drinking so funny, I had a patient say to me, What about my kombucha? What I get from those plastic bottles? I was like, I never thought about your kombucha. One, it’s a source of sugar which throws off the gut and can feed yeast and to its. A source of plastic, which you get BPA, which is an endocrine disruptors, so don’t do that. I don’t drink that unless you’re making it so that things are putting in our body in the form of food and drink can contain endocrine disruptors, chemicals, micro toxins, hormones. So that’s not so good, then the things we’re putting on our bodies. So the all of the products and the clothing, anything that our body is touching. Most women on average use like 150 products before they’ve left the house every day. And those are typically more endocrine disruptors. But anything that throws off the endocrine system also ends up throwing off the gut because the gut is what has to deal with the processed hormones. And so those throw off the gut and then we’re getting exposed to chemicals through other so. Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to mention when we’re eating food. If you’re eating high mercury fish, you’re getting exposed to mercury. And those are the predator fish, the ones that eat the little guys, they’ve aggregated all the mercury in them. So going back to the things that is around your body, that includes your cleaning supplies. That includes your furniture, so furniture is often treated with flame retardants, which can disrupt the endocrine system and hence the gut. There’s things that you’re spraying any construction materials people like. Oh yeah, I finished my basement in court in Koven. I’m like kind of chemicals. Are you getting exposed to so anything that off gases, plastics, the things you’re putting your leftovers into plastics. If you pump your own gas, you get exposed to HIV, which is from MTBE, which is a gasoline additives, which kind of adds up if you do your nails. I used to do my nails. They looked amazing. And then when I did my environmental toxins test, I was like, Oh, I’m really high for this stuff in nail polish. So it all, it all starts to aggregate in us. And so I would say, where aren’t we getting exposed by a new computer? It off gases, new clothes, they’re sprayed with chemicals. They ask us so kind of everywhere.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: Unfortunately, I think the one question that I get a lot is, what about our mattress? Yup.

Dr. Wendie Trubow: So unless your mattress is organic, it’s been sprayed with a flame retardant. Now here’s the caveat If you just bought a mattress, don’t buy a new one, right? Unless you’re really sick. In which case, yes, by anyone. But if you just bought a mattress, ignore everything I’m about to say because you just spent like a thousand bucks. So to Togo crazy with this. But if you’re in the mattress and there, if you’re in the market for a new mattress, then it’s a really good idea to look at getting a mattress that does not contain flame retardants because they disrupt the thyroid. And if you’re anything that throws off in the endocrine system will trickle into the gut. And and so we absolutely want to get that out of the system. And the reason it matters is if you it’s funny, I have a family member who just bought a house and they bought a mattress and they weren’t organic. And I’m like, Go nuts. And then I kind of took a step back and I went, OK, it’s for my kids, right? And of course, we do anything for our kids. I said, my kids are going to stay there twice a year, right? I don’t go crazy over this. So pick your battles. But because you spend six to nine hours a night in bed, if your primary bed has flame retardants, that’s not in your favor, especially if you’re someone who’s struggling with any kind of health issue, gut issue, autoimmune issue. You’re going to want to take that exposure off the plate just so you don’t even have to, so your body doesn’t have to deal with it.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: What about also a common question I get is about what about beauty products? So, you know, moisturizer and soaps that we’re using and things like that?

Dr. Wendie Trubow: Yeah, a lot of them, if they’re not naturally derived or organically sourced or if they say natural, but they’re coming from countries that may not have the. Most rigorous testing are most rigorous sourcing, and they can all be contaminated either with heavy metals or endocrine disruptors. And so the goal would be no, this can be really overwhelming in Ray, honestly, because when you think about what you do in the morning to get ready, it’s like the toner and the cleanser and the soap and then the moisturizer. And but maybe you’ve put some alpha glycolic acid on your face and maybe you use some oil. I mean, there’s a lot of products. So I would say go one at a time. And the goal isn’t to to build the Great Wall of China overnight. The goal is, OK, pick the thing you’re running out of. Look it up on Environmental Working Group EWG, dot org. And if it’s not highly rated, then look for an equivalent that’s within your budget and level up to that. And then you go along for another couple of weeks or a month and you go, Oh, I’m ready, it’s time to replace my mascara. Great. Go back to EWG, look and see level up again. Keep doing that systematically. But I would say as you run out of things. But definitely it’s worth sorting as cleanly as possible because your skin is a huge absorber of toxins. So anything it gets, it’s going to absorb. It’s also a huge source to detox, but that’s a different mechanism.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: Yes. And what the one other thing that I think is often overlooked in a lot of situations is, what about my water? Yep.

Dr. Wendie Trubow: OK, so water’s huge and it depends on the source of water. So a lot of people in, well, water, which is great because it’s local and it’s free. I would recommend testing the water. The upside to having local water? Well, water is that it may not be treated in quite the same way as municipal water is, but perchlorate is from chlorine, which is what we use to make our towels smell nice too. But it’s really bad for you, so it can it all trickles into the gut. So what you want to do is test your water and pick the biggest fight. So if you have if you’ve tested your body and you have high levels of perchlorate, you’re going to want to get a reverse osmosis filter at the point of use, you can’t. We’ve looked into it. There’s no we haven’t found one that does a whole house reverse osmosis, but it’s for where you’re where you’re drinking. You want to not drink it. Or if you have high levels of bacteria in the in the water, you’re going to want to get a filter that will remove bacteria or radiate it. So it depends what the problem is, but it is really important to test your water, know what the problem is, and then get the appropriate filter to address it. 100 percent.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: So many people struggle with bloating, bowel issues, brain fog, fatigue. You might not even have any gut issues, but did you know the cause of it could be food sensitivities or gut infections? What I have done is I have brought a talented functional nutritionist into my practice. We have very similar training in the nutritional world. And her name is Alexis Appleby. She is awesome. So you can head on over to our website ult. alti fam fam Med Medi- and have a consultation with her and schedule so that she can help you get to the root cause of your problems. Perfect. So that’s kind of a big overview, I’m going to I’m going to drill just back into a couple things. You mentioned something that I think when we talking about things that we’re putting into our body or we’re eating food wise. You mentioned something that I think a lot of people don’t know anything about, which is Mycotoxins being on grades. And I know that the work the World Health Organization actually did a study with food poisoning. And basically, they found that kids in different areas were being affected by mycotoxins in the tortillas and looks like they had food poisoning, which is incredible. It affected thousands of kids. But what? What should we look out for? What should we do? What what do we need to do to avoid this if we’re grain eater?

Dr. Wendie Trubow: Yeah. Anne Marie, have we talked about that I am not always the good news bear.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: Yes. Talks can be terrifying yet on the environmental working group and

Dr. Wendie Trubow: you’re like, No, you don’t. So. So here’s what I’m going to say. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is level up. So what happens is in the processing of the greens, they get wet and they get moldy, and then the these mold strains grow. So it’s kind of endemic. Even organic greens have have these these mycotoxins in them. So here’s what I would say. If you’re eating a grain, it’s most likely in its processed form, and when you eat processed foods, it’s more inflammatory and that can irritate the gut and the immune system and the system. So the big picture goal would be try not to eat processed food at every meal. Let’s just start with don’t eat it three times a day and start to work in, OK, what are some other options I could do other than let’s let’s drill into it? Breakfast What do you have? Cereal, bagel waffles? Pancakes, oatmeal? OK. Have those twice a week. And then the other five days a week, maybe we rotate in some kind of either dairy or dairy free yogurt with some nuts and seeds and fruits in them. Or we rotate in a protein shake or a smoothie, or we rotate in eggs and some end and like a protein if you eat bacon or turkey bacon. So to rotate in other things. The goal is not is to try not to eat the same food every day. So pick a meal and start to minimize how often you’re eating that grain and then pick another meal. And then get to the third meal, so really start to level up on a systematic basis and you’re going to have times where you’re traveling or you’re at events and that’s what there is and you go, OK, cool, I’ll just up my detox behaviors later in the week. Now, but not not to go crazy over it, because it can make you nuts. You know, super anxiety provoking for some people so they don’t pick a fight with it. If you’re stuck, only pick a fight with it when you have the power to make the choice.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: And what I like about what you’re saying is the little steps and the level up, and you have made the point so clearly that people want to go and build the Great Wall of China immediately and people panic and they think their health is in complete jeopardy if they don’t build the Wall of China tomorrow. And you know, this has been a slow process. Getting there, it’s going to be a slow process to unwind. So I think that that’s real attainable goals.

Dr. Wendie Trubow: Yeah. And I would also say so. I’ve been in this detox process for hardcore for almost three years. And the thing that’s so noteworthy about it is even now. So I’m almost three years and Jeannette two and three quarters years, and I still make mistakes and it’s OK. OK, so the goal isn’t perfection. This is not a Hollywood movie where we’re going for perfection, and the scene is amazing and we’re not going for that. What we’re going for is, can you systematically consistently sustain something that makes you healthier today than you were three months ago? Have a win. Pick something manageable. And when you screw it up like you will, you’re going to screw it up. I legit screw it up all the time. OK. For example, I was so psyched I got these detergents for my little pods of detergent for my laundry, and I got the same thing from my dishwasher. I was so excited, like, look, it’s environmentally sustainable packaging. Look, it’s biodegradable, right? But it still wasn’t good for me. When I actually drilled into it, I was like, I screwed it up. We’ve only been using it for two and a half years, OK? And it was better than what I leveled up from. But then I was like, But you know, the problem is, as a human, we get snookered by marketing. And if you’re like me, I don’t always have the brain space to deal with that. I’m like, OK, that looks good. Those are OK. Check, check, check. The claim looks good. It’s biodegradable. Great, great. I’ll get it. And then it becomes a habit. And then one day you wake up, you go. I never check that. So it’s really important to have a sense of humor about it and compassion for yourself and and like, look, nobody died and it was still set unscented and it was better for the universe. And then I got even better for the universe. So it’s just just a process. You’re not bad and wrong. Just be nice to yourself.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: And it sounds like you got a passion in this space. About three years ago, or maybe it was previous to that. But what? What created so much interest in this in in basically clean living, which I think’s amazing, but what created the interest?

Dr. Wendie Trubow: Well, I was a hot, toxic mess. Like I was a total mess. We actually. So I have been out of whack from a health standpoint and working on it for 16 years. I got diagnosed with celiac when I was thirty five. I’m 51 now just to make the math easy for people. And I started working on my health journey, but I was way out of whack for at least 15 years before that. And so what happened almost three years ago was that I was doing everything right, and yet I gained almost 10 pounds. I lost a significant amount of my hair to the point where my hairdresser agreed with me like, Oh yeah, you really lost a lot of hair. And I had a rash on my face that I couldn’t seem to get over. And that was a point where I said, OK, I’ve healed the gut, I’ve done the Candida. I have done, you know, the biofilms. I’ve done everything in my gut. I’m gluten free, dairy free, sugar free. I don’t drink alcoholic what’s going on here? And my hormones were fine. And so what I really drilled into was it was toxins and that opened the door. And that was really the point where I did all the testing and I said to my husband, Such a dirty girl. And then we kind of write a book about that because I had been the poster child for healthy living. But this was like the next cut. How do we take the next step and make it even better? And that was the point because I was I was really not feeling well, and I subsequently figured out what toxins I was struggling with. It was heavy metals both lead and mercury for different mycotoxins and multiple environmental toxins, not glyphosate. Amazingly, not eating greens for a long time is really that was the one thing. I was like, OK, I can see one difference, but I had a lot of toxins and that started the journey of we got to clean stuff up because it certainly affects gut health and it affects skin and weight. But it also impacts brain health. And I’m really committed to living long and living well and being able to see my great grandchildren be born. And so I really wanted to make sure that anything that could impact my brain was not going to. We got rid of it.

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: Absolutely, I think that I think a lot of people can relate to your story. I’ve been eating like this. Why aren’t these issues going away? What I mean, hair loss. Our women were very concerned with the way we look right? And so why are we losing hair? Why can’t we lose weight? And it comes down to toxins. But I think one of the hardest things to to convince someone of is that maybe they have been exposed to mold. Maybe they have been exposed to toxins in their house because it’s almost out of sight, out of mind. It’s those. And so how do you how would you talk to somebody that’s like, Oh, I don’t really think that this is me?

Dr. Wendie Trubow: You know, that’s totally fine. I’m so not about persuading anyone to do anything. What I usually say is, OK, here’s the things you’ve told me, and I will acknowledge in my functional medicine practice, I rarely jump to metals, mycotoxins or environmental toxins first, because you have to get the gut in order and you have to get the adrenals in the endocrine system functioning properly. Because if you jump right to toxins, people feel worse. So it’s not the first thing I’m looking at. It’s it’s the, I’ll call it, the foundational work, which includes endocrine and gut. And what kind of food are you eating? And are you sleeping? And are you moving your body regularly? And are your relationships intact? Those are the foundational things. If you’ve handled all your foundational approaches to health and you’re not amazing and a million bucks, then we go, OK, well, you done everything right and you’re not amazing, then it’s a toxic issue. So it’s like a process of elimination. And by that point, you know, and I say to people upfront, my mom is always tease me. I’m very linear. You know, go A to B to C, and maybe we’ll go jump to ask if we need to. But if I see two people in front, we need to get you optimized. And if that doesn’t get you 95 percent of the way there, then it’s a toxins issue for people I’m suspicious of. I say to them, Look, you have a toxins issue, but we really need to evaluate this first group of stuff, get you on the right path and get right into toxins. So it depends how sick people are and what’s what sort of cueing me and triggering me. But by the point they get to my office, they’ve gone to six doctors and they’ve they’re tired of being told there’s nothing wrong with you or you’re just anxious, you know?

Dr. Ann-Marie Barter: Well, thank you so much for being here and thank you to all our listeners. Please let us know what you want to hear more of and we will get that out for you. Thank you so much. Take care.

Dr. Wendie Trubow: Thanks, Ann-Marie.

Intro: Thank you for listening to the Gut Health Reset Podcast. Please make sure you subscribe, leave a rating and a review. More people can hear about the podcast and hey, take a screenshot of this episode and tagged Dr. Anne Marie on Instagram or Facebook at Dr. Ann-Marie Barter. And for more resources, just visit Dr. Ann-Marie Barter.com.