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Dr. Mark Hyman
Foreign.
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.
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This episode is brought to you by
Dr. Mark Hyman
Function Health, empowering you to live 100 healthy years with over 160 lab tests at just $365 a year. Sign up today at functionhealth.com, and use code MARK2026 to get $50 towards your membership.
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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. It'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. I breathed in all this soot. It was from raw coal, which is full lead mercury. And I got mercury poisoning. So I get it every day. We're exposed to hundreds of chemicals in our food, our water and the air we breathe and 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, affects our immune system. Their immunotoxins are called autogens. They're called xenohormones or xenoestrogens. They'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 detox systems are broken. They 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 cloak. No 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. Environmental 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 xenohormones or xenoestrogens 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. They also damage our mitochondria. Now, these are the important little organelles inside our cells that turn food and oxygen into energy and do a lot of other things. We're learning they 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 slower 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. The next thing they do is they overwhelm our detoxification pathways. They're all built in. We sweat, we breathe, we poop, we pee. Our bodies 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. All sorts of things. Amino acids, it. It's basically a biochemical set of pathways that need support. And these chemicals basically clog up all those systems, and our bodies just get overwhelmed and they can't be properly detoxified. 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. I mean, I had that with mercury poisoning. And over time, you know, this just leads to chronic inflammation, fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, and this general sense, 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 affects the brain can be affected by toxins. Gut, liver, huge, huge load on the liver for all the toxins we're exposed to. Toxins 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 seditious cycle. They affect metabolism, they're 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 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. They affect 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 what 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. Many plastics contains 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. Increased risk of obesity. They mimic estrogen in the body, they interfere with fertility, they disrupt hormones, and over time, they increase risk of weight gain and 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. What 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. A lot of 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 class then and not. And don't get the receipt or don't touch it if you can help it. That's a 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. A 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 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 squirted on their skin and we put a patch over it. And 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, phthalates, 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. I'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, you can use the app and you can scan products, you can search products and you can see how do they stack up. So EWG is a great job, not just by the way for skincare, but for 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 Welina products. I'll use Tom's toothpaste. I 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. 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, is 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 commensal agriculture. It 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 had been settled. I read a study recently where there were transgenerational effects, epigenetic effects. So 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. Leave it to say there's been billions of dollars of lawsuits against Monsanto that have been success 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. It's in processed food for sure. There's a box of Cheerios. It's kind of a, kind of a spoop, 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, I worry about it being used widely and we call it Roundup and they, they use it everywhere. So I, I'd be very careful about any exposure to this. It damages the gut microbiome, it impairs your detoxification enzymes, it increases inflammation, increases cancer risk, has changed generational effects, epigenetic effects. I 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 so 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.
Dr. Mark Hyman
The next time you go in for your anal physical, ask about lipoprotein or lp.
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Why?
Dr. Mark Hyman
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. An 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@functionhealth.com also
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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. It's 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. Heavy 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've 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 in China, because China uses so much coal burning. It goes up in the atmosphere, it comes over. It's not. It's not acid rain, it's heavy metal rain. Literally a lot of people are exposed. So if you eat fish like tuna or swordfish or almost any fish, unless really little, little fish or certain regeneratively farmed fish. And I like seatopia dot fish, not any relationship with them, but they're great. They, 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, to eat other fish are the ones that are highest in mercury. Shark, swordfish, tuna. If you're in an old home, there's plumbing, paint, homes built before lead regulations. Also cigarette smoke, one of the highest sources of toxins in general, but also can have chemicals and metals in them. So be careful. These metals can cause havoc. I experienced it personally because I had mercury poisoning. They affect your nervous system. They can cause brain fog, fatigue. I develop chronic fatigue syndrome from it, cognitive impairment, sleep issues. I develop muscular 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 I've. The next thing you want to do is filter your drinking water. I have a reverse osmosis filter at home. As long as you're taking a multivitamin renal, 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. So air pollution from the outside and indoor pollution of air is also common source of toxic exposure. Now, many of us spend a lot of time inside, and indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air because you get VOCs from furniture, from building materials, from mold, cleaning sprays, gas ovens. And poor indoor air quality can cause all sorts of stuff. Asthma, brain fog, headaches, immune dysregulation. I met a guy who was building the bank of America the New. It was a $2 billion building in New York City. And he was an architect patient actually. And 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. I'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 and VOCs. We would have carpets with all kinds of chemicals, paint with chemicals that we had proper air filters, we had water filters. And it was the healthiest space in the entire Cleveland Clinic. And when people went in there, they go, God, I feel good in here. I feel good at the end of the day, I don't feel 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 is called VOCs or volatile organic compounds. These are come from furniture, glues, adhesives, finishes, sealants, foams, padding, engineered wood products. So you want to try use natural materials. So if there's recently or newly manufactured furniture, 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. It for sure is even if you don't smell, can be in air vents and air conditioning and many other places. Cleaning products, all the household cleaning sprays, you know, 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 they can. 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. For example, I have a mattress that is 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, 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 antiques, 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 and 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 greenguard, CertiPUR 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. 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. So 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, like you can't do anything. And detoxification is 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. So. And I studied this extensively because I had to for my own health and also for my patients. Is there a real system for doing this? And there's a lot of ways to do it. You have to support all those systems. I call it the triple P system, the poop P and perspire. Right. And those are really important. But you also have to support your liver. So what are the pathways you have to support? Your liver is really important. And there's great foods that's upgrade your body's own detoxification pathways. My favorite of 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. I'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 requires amino acids, especially glycine, because it's part of making glutathione. Glutathione is the body's main detoxifying compound and comes from amino acids. So you need protein. B vitamins, really important. Methylation is a key step. B12, folate, B6. But all the B vitamins, really important. Zinc, selenium, also minerals, really important. And alcohol. Alcohol is just a liver toxin. So I would encourage you to. To not drink if you can. The next is your gut. It's how once the toxins get metabolized by the liver, they get excreted in the bile, they get dumped into your intestinal tract, and they have to get out. Now, if you're constipated or you're sluggish, you're not having regular bowel movements, guess what? You are going to recirculate those and they're going to get reabsorbed. So you don't want to do that. So fiber is really important. Pooping regularly is important. I had a patient, I said, do you have regular bowel movements? She said, yeah, regular bowel movements. I said, well, how often do you go? She goes, once a week. And I'm like, what do you mean that's not regular? She goes, yeah, it's regular for me. I go every week. Really, the idea here is that you should probably go at least once, if not two to three times a day. And I know it sounds crazy. But if you look at the studies by Burkitt and others from from England who studied a lot of the cancer risks, for example in Africa they found that if you were a hunter gatherer in Africa, your stool weight was about two pounds a day. If you were an urban dweller, same ethnicity, same genetics, it was about 4 ounces. So we want to have a lot of poop. Just saying fiber is the way to do that. And there's lots of different kinds of fiber. Fermented foods are great. Keeping your microbiome healthy is really important. Preventing a leaky gut, really important. Hydration, that's another thing. Kidneys really important. Also new metabolize toxins. They have to get out. So you gotta drink. Make sure you're drinking a lot of fluids. At least half your body weight in ounces every day. Electrolytes, minerals, all help your kidneys work. Sweat, perspire, that's the other one, right?
Dr. Mark Hyman
Sweating.
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So saunas are great, exercise is great. Making sure you're actually getting your skin to excrete toxins. And breath also is another one because you're excreting toxins to your breath. Carbon dioxide, but also other toxins. So really important to make sure all these systems are working. And these are things that you can do through both lifestyle factors and also diet and supplements. So to sum it up like what are the five things you can do today to really reduce your exposures? First, don't heat your food in plastic. Two, filter your drinking water. Three, get the right skincare products and use skin deep as a great resource. Four, try to eat organic where it matters most. Use the Dirty dozen as a guide. The Clean 15 from the Environmental Working Group. Go to EWG.org that helps with your both personal care and your food. And improve your indoor air quality. Ideally get an air filter for your house. So you don't need everything, but you just need to do the right things. Now if you have kids and a family, there's a few more things you should know about. Kids are much more vulnerable to toxins. So make sure you worry about what you store your food in, what you heat your food in, the water you drink, where they sleep and what they're eating for lunch. Protecting your family isn't about fear, it's just about being informed. Now as we wrap up, I want to leave you with this. This isn't about doing everything perfectly. It's definitely not about trying to live toxin free, cuz that's impossible. It's about just being more aware. It's about making the right priority. It's about making a few thoughtful choices that add up over time. Your body already knows how to detox, so when you reduce the load and you support the systems to do the work, healing becomes much easier. So approach this with curiosity, not fear. You don't need to change everything at once. Start with one or two swaps if you doable and I want you to build from there. This isn't about living toxin free, it's about living toxin smart and I'd love to hear from you what toxins or product swaps you want help navigating next. What feels confusing or overwhelming right now? If you want to dive deeper into toxin smart living and building community around your health goals, you can join the Hymen Hive and let's tackle them together. We're going to leave a link to join the Hive in the Episode Show Notes so I'll see you next time.
Dr. Mark Hyman
Thanks for joining me for office hours. I love diving into these topics with you. Remember, you are the CEO of your own health and every choice you make can move you closer to healing and vitality. I want to keep these episodes as relevant and useful as possible. So tell me, what do you want to explore next? What questions are you wrestling with? What breakthroughs are you chasing? Share your ideas in the comments on the social media or through the link in the Show Notes. I'm listening. Until next time. Keep taking charge, keep asking questions and keep showing up for your health. When it comes to supplements, you only want the best for your body. The kind with the highest quality, cleanest and most potent ingredients you can get, that's exactly what you'll find at my supplement store, where I've hand selected each and every product to meet the most
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These are the only supplements I recommend
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and expertly vetted by me, Dr. Mark Hyman. So check out Dr.hyman.com because when it comes to your health, nothing less than
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That's Dr. Hyman.com d r h y
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m a n.com if you love this
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podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at rmark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the Dr. Hyman show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness center, my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health where I am Chief Medical Officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services.
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The Dr. Hyman Show: Office Hours
Episode Title: The Truth About Environmental Toxins (And How to Protect Yourself)
Host: Dr. Mark Hyman
Date: March 2, 2026
In this solo Office Hours episode, Dr. Mark Hyman dives into the pervasive issue of environmental toxins, their impact on health, and practical, empowering steps listeners can take to reduce their toxic load. Drawing on his own harrowing experience with mercury poisoning and his expertise in functional medicine, Dr. Hyman simplifies the science of toxicity, highlights the highest-impact exposures, and offers clear, actionable strategies for protecting both individual and family health.
Timestamps: 03:30 – 08:00
Notable Quote:
“These chemicals... are affecting every aspect of hormone function, and they definitely affect thyroid function... When your mitochondria are overloaded with toxins, you are sick.” (05:37)
Timestamps: 08:00 – 21:00
Timestamps: 22:00 – 26:00
Core elimination routes: “The triple P system – poop, pee, and perspire.” (22:45)
Key supports:
Notable Moment:
Timestamps: 26:10 – 27:20
Dr. Hyman concludes by reassuring listeners that perfection isn’t the goal; smart, informed choices are. By focusing on the highest-impact exposures and supporting detox pathways with diet and lifestyle, everyone can take meaningful steps toward resilience, vitality, and long-term health.
“This isn’t about living toxin free, it’s about living toxin smart.” (27:15)
For deeper guidance or community support, Dr. Hyman invites listeners to join the "Hyman Hive" (see episode show notes for link).