Well,

good morning,

Dr.

Trubow.

Thank you so much for joining True Hope Cast

today.

How are you?

I'm great.

Thanks for having me on,

Simon.

Of course,

I'm excited to talk about all things toxins and

what we can do,

how important it is to recognize that they are

there.

We might not see them,

but they are definitely there and they are

definitely affecting us.

So I'm excited to talk about that today.

For those people who don't know who you are,

can you give us a little bit of an introduction,

who you are,

what do you do?

Sure.

I am a functional medicine gynecologist and I have

a practice in Newton,

Massachusetts.

And basically,

what that means is instead of just saying,

'oh,

okay,

you're supposed to have headaches,

here's a medicine' and everyone gets high blood

pressure,

here's a medicine or gut dysfunction.

What we do in our practice is look at what's the

root cause,

what's happening there?

Do you have too much of something like a toxin,

like we'll talk about today?

Or do you have too little of something like

something as simple as vitamin D,

that can alter your gut function and your mood and

your bone health?

So we look at sleuthing out what's really going on

so people can feel amazing.

Wonderful.

And in regards to getting into really getting

specific on toxins and that's being the core of

your practice,

do you have your own personal story getting to

there?

Because there's so many people who come on the

show,

everyone who comes onto the show who's in the

functional medicine game has their own experience.

They're able to share their own experience that's

led them down this kind of glorious path.

So would you love to share that?

Sure,

I will say Simon,

ignorance is bliss.

Knowledge is power,

ignorance is bliss.

And so I think my story has two major parts.

One is the fact that I was born to parents who

singly had sort of rough genetic profiles,

but then when you combine it in me,

it's terrible.

So I have two copies of the genes for celiac,

two copies of the AMTA-HFR gene,

which impacts methylation,

heart health,

mood health.

And then I have two copies of vitamin D deficiency

along with various other genetic things.

So that's the platform that we're standing on is

that my genetics weren't the best.

Then later on,

I was born in the seventies,

I was born in 1970.

And so that's before homes were required to not

have lead paint.

So I had a lead exposure my whole childhood.

And then I was a child of the eighties and we

had microwaves and plastic food and fast food.

And it was amazing.

It tasted great,

made me sick probably.

And then later on that I went to med school and

chose to do OBGYN,

which in the States is pretty challenging.

It's very stressful and stress is a huge component

for people's health.

And so by the time I was even,

I mean,

I was a little bit older.

I was a little bit older.

I was a little bit older.

I was a little bit older.

I was sick when I was 15,

but you know,

we didn't really talk about it.

So by the time I was 30,

I was sort of dysfunctional.

And by the time I was 35,

when I got diagnosed with celiac,

I was very dysfunctional.

So head-to-toe issues,

brain fog,

hair loss,

thyroid dysfunction,

heart palpitations,

asthma,

bloating,

gas,

diarrhea,

constipation,

fertility issues,

period issues,

wasting,

nutrient deficiencies.

I hurt,

like my joints hurt.

I was just achy.

And then I got diagnosed at 35.

So that's sort of part one,

because that's sets the stage for that underlying

foundation and that underlying stress and that

underlying way that my body was sort of primed to

respond.

And then later on,

by the way,

I had all these mercury fillings that I didn't

mention.

And then went into OBGYN after med school,

which was super stressful.

So we're piling everything on.

And what happens when you're stressed is you shut

down the detox pathways because,

you know,

it's not,

it's not life or death to get rid of it.

It's not life or death to get rid of it.

It's not life or death to get rid of that toxin

you were exposed to.

It's life or death to run from the lion that's

going to eat you.

And so because I was just always stressed,

I essentially shut down my detox system for years,

kind of lost track how many years.

So fast forward to when I was 48,

I had a lead exposure and I didn't recognize it

at the time.

I actually did recognize it,

but I just didn't recognize the significance of it.

So my neighbor took down his post-war pre-1978 lead

paint laden house.

And when you do construction on any homes that

have lead paint in them or any lead products,

you dust it and it gets airborne.

You breathe it in,

then you touch it,

you absorb it.

And I freaked.

I was like,

shut the windows.

You know,

it's summertime.

I was like,

shut the windows.

And my family was like,

you're crazy.

Like,

no,

shut the windows.

And then I kind of forgot about it because my

hair started to fall out after that event.

And I didn't draw the line between the two.

And then fast forward another eight months,

we went to Paris right after Notre Dame burned.

And about a month after I came home from Paris,

I gained nine pounds,

my hair loss accelerated,

and I got this rash on my face.

And I was like,

what's going on here?

It's really hard when you're in functional medicine

to treat yourself.

Like there's certain things I can do,

but there's certain things I can't do.

So I was really sort of,

you know,

I was like,

okay,

let's check my gut and let's check my food

sensitivities.

And none of that was positive.

And then three months later,

I heard a report on NPR that said that when Notre

Dame burned,

it released 500 tons of lead dust.

Into the air.

And the closer you were to Notre Dame,

the more you got exposed,

and then could sort of concentric circles out.

It got less and less,

but we spent a week right there.

And I said to my husband,

'I've got a',

'I've got a' lead exposure.

Like it was clinically relevant.

I was sick,

and it,

well,

I couldn't just,

I could no longer just chalk it up to

perimenopause because I'm like,

oh,

I'm just getting old.

So I'm getting fat hairless and rashy,

like whatever,

but it's not that it was,

it was actually a lead exposure.

That was enough to tip me over into clinical

symptoms.

You know,

sometimes the body can compensate.

I had shut down the systems and by the way,

MTHFR impacts detox,

and I have two copies for that.

And so it's shut down,

it's impaired.

So I did the lead test on myself and it was,

it was,

I had previously done it.

It was just a little out of range and I,

I didn't do anything about it.

Cause I was like,

oh,

how bad is it?

Right.

It's one point out of range,

but it was now 25% out of range.

It was 25%.

Higher.

And I was like,

oh,

you know,

in the setting of weight gain and hair loss and

rash,

I,

this is clearly relevant.

So I started the process to remove the lead and

then decided since I was there,

I would,

I also kind of knew about the mycotoxins that I

was sensitive to because I was sensitive from an

environmental standpoint.

So,

I figured out that I had four strains of those

and then said,

'Oh,

well,

I'm in for a penny.

I'm in for a pound.'

I'll check on the environmental toxins and the

pesticides and found that I had a lot of those

too.

And then I looked at my husband and I went,

'I'm such a dirty girl.' And then I said,

'That's the book we got to write because if I've

got this and,

and you know,

as a plant,

as a sort of background,

I've been gluten-free for now 16 years.

I don't eat sugar.

I don't eat processed carbs.

Like I'm like really boring.

I don't drink alcohol.

I don't smoke.

I try to get enough sleep.

I exercise.

I could do everything right.

Right.

Like I do all those check all the boxes.

I probably have too much stress and don't manage

it as well as,

as others.

Okay.

So that's in the negative,

but like really I do everything right.

And yet I have all this.

So if I've got this,

what does everyone else have?

Who's maybe not checking all the boxes in quite

that way.

So it was personal a hundred percent time.

Wow.

Well,

that's,

that's something that's a hand right there.

Um,

but amazing that you're able to,

and I'm sure just through that experience,

you've been able to have such empathy and

understanding for people who do come and see you

because you've been in,

you've,

you've been there and fortunate enough for you

being medically trained,

you're able to connect the dots,

you know,

going to Notre Dame,

seeing that,

um,

headline about the lead in the air and then

putting them together.

And then,

you know,

maybe then be able to do a test.

A lot of people would put it down to something

else or forget about it,

or just being a normal part of aging or a normal

part of just feeling not great.

Um,

just on the topic of,

in regards to,

you know,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

the,

in regards to that actual situation of going to

Notre Dame lead being all over in the air and

you're obviously breathing it in.

Can you kind of take us through the process of

that?

Um,

now you go there,

you go to this like lead zone,

and then a month later you start really getting

the symptoms of what's that metal doing in your

body.

And then,

cause it's interesting that it takes so long,

like where does it accumulate?

How long,

you know,

what's the kind of process there?

Cause it's not supposed to be there.

So can you take us through that please?

Yeah,

sure.

So the way you want to think about it is that

any toxin,

any substance can be toxic for you.

So if you go back to when I was 35,

gluten was my toxin at 35,

it's a food,

but it was acting in a way that was causing a

state of inflammation and dysfunction in the body.

So any substance can behave that way if it's too

much.

You know,

too much of a good thing can be bad.

So when you're exposed to things that the body

really needs to concertedly get rid of,

like heavy metals.

So the biggest ones are lead and mercury.

That's why those mercury fillings are so pertinent

because they expose us to mercury,

which can ongoingly,

they never stop.

They never stop off-gassing because they're 50%

mercury.

And so it just keeps exposing us on and on,

uh,

any pesticides,

gasoline,

fumes,

endocrine disruptors,

like plastic water bottles.

Whenever we're exposed to any of these toxins,

it goes down the pathway that your body needs to

break it down,

bind it,

methylate it,

sulfonate it,

get rid of it.

Okay.

And if your body is inflamed or busy or

overwhelmed,

it's not going to do that.

So at a very basic level,

your body goes,

basically,

I can't deal with you right now.

And puts the toxin in the fat cells.

So whenever,

you know,

super,

I only see women and it's super common for women

to say to me,

'I'm doing everything right.' And I'm like,

that's because you got toxins.

These toxins sit in the fat cells.

And until you get rid of them,

you can't get rid of fat because it's your

essentially safe storage depot.

So,

uh,

for me,

and let me just clarify over the month after

returning from France,

I gained nine pounds.

It wasn't like a month later.

It was like within the month,

I was like,

wait,

I'm nine pounds heavier than I was when I went on

vacation.

What's up with that?

So these,

these things all act like inflammatory substances.

So the body gets bogged down and the more you're

exposed to the harder your body has to work.

Most of the work is done by your liver and your

gut.

And the reason that matters is that if you're

stressed,

I mean,

who's not stressed,

right?

We're coming off a pandemic going into a global

war.

Like where's it going to end?

Those are,

those are just these constant states of stress.

And when you're stressed,

it says to the liver,

'Hey guys,

like I mentioned a few minutes ago,

we're about to be eaten by a lion here.' I know

you and I know we're not going to be eaten by a

lion.

We don't live in sub-Saharan Africa,

but the body is that primitive.

That's what the body thinks.

So even though it's your boss or the person who

cut you off or ran a red light,

or your child is annoying or they're sick,

whatever it is,

your body still interprets it.

Like you're about to be eaten by a lion.

And it says to the liver,

this is not a priority right now.

What we really need to do is focus on survival

and detox is not a survival event.

Detox is a thriving event.

So let's put it in the fat,

store it for now.

We'll get to it when we have a chance,

except because we live in the world and we're

constantly exposed to things.

It's like getting on the rat wheel and the rat

wheel starts to go faster.

And then we're like,

never get back to that,

right?

It's like that dirty closet.

We're never going to get back to that.

So what we're doing then is just sort of playing

catch-up like,

oh,

well,

here's the toxin I got to deal with today.

And here's the toxin and the stress.

So eventually if we can get to it,

we will,

but they're so inflammatory that we just can't cope

with it.

It shuts the system down.

We put that away to deal with later.

Yeah.

It's quite a brilliant mechanism in regards to

keeping us safe in the meantime.

I mean,

storing something in fat where it's not going to

be,

I'm sure the body's trying to take it out of

circulation.

So it's not just going to be,

you know,

it's going to be,

you know,

it's going to be flying around and getting stuck

in an organ,

for example,

and causing significant inflammation and damage.

So it's absolute genius in regards to what it

does,

because we are normally exposed to some sort of

level of environmental toxins,

be that from the environment or from the plant

world.

And we have these detoxification organs for a

reason,

right?

They're part of our evolution.

So we are,

you know,

it's not like we got lead and mercury and then we

started sprouting a detoxification method.

No.

But let's talk about that for a sec,

because,

you know,

a thousand years ago,

say pre-industrial revolution,

the amount of things that we were exposed to were

much more limited.

And so the body was able to deal with what was

coming at it and get rid of it.

But now,

I mean,

just even at birth,

babies have something like 180 toxins in their

umbilical cord.

And so they're able to deal with what was coming

at it.

And so the body was able to deal with what was

coming at it.

And so the body was able to deal with what was

coming at it.

And so,

we're exposed at the beginning of life,

through our life,

and at such a level.

It's really hard for the body to compensate for

we've just asked too much from the body.

And that's when it starts to - I call it acting

out.

You know,

it's like hungry and tired toddlers act out,

stressed and inflamed bodies react,

and that's where we get some type of dysfunction.

And people notice it in autoimmune disease,

or gut dysfunction,

or mood disorders,

pretty much anything that you find out say to me

i would say back to you yes simon that's that

could be toxins so our detoxification pathways are

related to our parasympathetic rest and digest

nervous system what you so what you're saying is

when we are when we're stressed and our biology

believes that we are running from a line but you

know and we switch on this fight or flight our

body doesn't really have the ability to worry about

things like digestion so it takes all its resources

away right from from our core and it puts it into

our um into our limbs to be able to fight or to

run and it's not a time to start thinking about

like you know taking this metal away and

detoxifying that in through a pathway so that's

that's interesting because yeah you obviously see a

lot of people's conditions be it autoimmune or or

not massively related to the amount of stress that

is in our lives and so much of that stress is

obviously it's palpable it's not something that

people can do anything about right so it's not

something that you can do anything about right so

it's not something about it's it's it's just like

there it's like we're kind of like slowly drowning

in it in

The air,

it's awful,

like you mentioned about what you said 180 toxins

that children are born with the umbilical cord,

I mean,

like these children are being born into a toxic

world from day one and they're immunologically

stressed from from day one.

It's really really awful,

yeah it is,

yeah we'll move on,

yeah let's move on from the sick compromised babies

because that's going to tear me up.

But um,

I did have a question in regards to the fat

storage so let's say you have a normal body and

you store fat in a normal way but then you are

exposed to,

let's say,

you go to Nurture,

damn a bad time,

and your body starts storing these heavy Metals

these toxins in your fat cell is that fat cell

now completely different,

like in regards to the way that it functions or

works because it's compromised by a toxin; um it's

more I don't know the answer to that Simon,

but let's sort of do a parallel conversation.

The presence of these toxins causes an inflammatory

cascade to occur and so what you find is that the

maybe not the fat cells in the periphery but

certainly the fat cells in the in the in the gut

area turn on a cascade of inflammation that leads

you down into insulin resistance,

diabetes,

cardiometabolic syndrome,

cardiovascular disease; it goes into this this Sort

of soup of inflammatory diseases,

and some people listening might be like,

'Wait,

insulin resistance is an inflammatory disease.' And

then the response is a hundred percent,

it's if you've doing everything right from a food

perspective and you've still got insulin resistance,

you need to be suspicious of toxins that are

creating an inflammatory cascade.

And so what happened that the fat becomes an

inflammatory behavior,

it's called angry fat,

and it starts off just everything for people that

that's unpleasant,

particularly cardiometabolic,

yeah.

And I have to assume I don't know the answer to

this,

this is Just a theory,

that the body knows where it stores these toxins

in these particular fat cells in these different

areas and it's like you know,

in order to,

break those down for whatever reason.

You know,

people lose a lot of fat when they get sick,

when they start certain diets or you know,

whatever.

But I presume the body doesn't want to break down

that particular group of fat cells because it knows

what lies within it and the the bombshell it's

going to get if it does break down those fat

cells and your body is again flooded with stored

toxins,

yeah!

And that's actually the the backstory for when

people say,

'I can't.' Lose any weight,

that's the reason it is; not the only reason,

right?

You know there's certainly what I'll call

foundational approaches you need to optimize your

food,

your sleep,

your stress reduction,

your movement that's the foundation of it.

But if you've optimized your foundation and you

can't lose weight,

there's that is often the explanation for what's

going on because the body; it's smarter than us;

it will not lose that fat if you're toxic,

you're going to hold on to that.

Wow,

we'll get,

we'll get on to how we're going to do that in a

moment.

Someone might remove that fat in a healthy way,

we'll certainly get.

Onto that,

and I'm sure that's the core of your book.

But how do you go about introducing the idea that

we do have a big problem with toxins?

Because I'm sure you get a lot of people coming

in to speak to you with you know who are doing

everything right or who are doing everything wrong,

and they need to have a conversation with you

about toxins because,

as humans,

we don't have a big 'um understanding or grasp of

things that we can't see.

We have a huge problem with that in our culture,

and it's the last thing we might contribute it to.

So when people come and see you,

it might be they've been trying for 10,

20 years to sort their health out.

And they can't figure out what it is,

but it's this invisible force that is around us.

So,

how do you go about introducing the idea of toxins

to to a client or a patient?

Well,

so I live in Massachusetts and and you know I'm

pretty blunt - I'm like,

okay,

you've done everything right if you do anything I

basically say,

if you're doing everything right and you're still

not losing weight,

you gotta have a toxin issue,

or that's okay.

So it's kind of blunt,

right?

You just let's just come out with it.

And we only have a half hour in our visits and

the follow-ups,

right?

So if I haven't covered it in the hour first

visit,

we only have a few minutes to really dive into

that.

So we have to be focused,

so a lot of people really know you know uh I

think if you're I mean if we go back to that,

that getting rid of toxins is a thriving behavior.

If you're in a place where you're committed to

functional medicine and you're looking at this type

of approach,

you often have a good sense that you're being

exposed to stuff and the question is like how,

how pervasive is it?

And that's the part where I come in because you

know I have patients who say to me,

'How about my kombucha that I get from Whole

Foods?' and I was like,

'Well what container is it in?' and she said a

plastic ball and I was like,

ding ding ding,

no more of those because' of the delivery system

and then the next layer is because of the sugar

because a lot of kombucha has like 25 to 30 grams

of sugar so you're not doing yourself any favor

around that as an aside sugar is in and of itself

very inflammatory and it'll it'll also throw off

the microbiome in the gut the function of the gut

the ability to detox it'll also make you bloated

gassy and difficult to gain weight so it's it's

yet another essentially toxin which is sugar and um

arguably toxic what's that arguably the most toxic

substance in our environment yeah yeah that and

alcohol those two both legal substances yes and my

husband we we

Have this company in Boston called Duncan Donuts,

which is like,

'If you say you're going for donkeys,

you're going for coffee and a donut,

okay.' And so they have these amazing drinks,

I don't remember the last time I had one honestly.

But they have these amazing drinks everyone I went

to high school with drinks them,

and they're the small ones,

um,

and then the first one is like,

I think it was 60 grams of sugar in the small

one.

And we looked up the big one; it was like,

150 grams of sugar in this drink!

It's just a drink.

Remember your RDA,

your recommended daily allowance for sugar,

is 40 grams.

So if you drink one of those small you're drinking

like one and a half times your rda for sugar and

if you look back 150 years ago people ate the

amount of sugar in a year that we ate in the day

eat in a day so people ate 40 grams of sugar

sugar in a year and we eat it in a day and so

that right there is like well let's get rid of

that because that's a huge it's acting in a lot

of ways that are very toxic for us so again like

a regular substance that can be toxic if taken in

too much that and alcohol are the two best

examples of food based ones yeah bigger and better

in america yeah that's great yeah yeah it's quite

it's quite phenomenal i don't know if you've got

just different rules over here

Like,

in the UK for example,

but you just you don't see the cup sizes that you

see yeah you see in America it's quite it's quite

remarkable.

Um,

in regards to having someone come in new patient,

um,

you are suspicious of toxins within the body and

within the environment of this individual.

Is there like a panel you would do,

like,

a screening first of all to like get really clear

because you know,

and and how what is that test and how useful is

it how accurate is that sure?

So let me back up one sec by saying it's it's

very rare that I will say to someone,

we need to deal with your toxins first because

because toxins is a thriving behavior,

you.

Need to fix the gut,

fix the adrenals,

fix the basic mechanisms of the body so if you're

super nutrient deficient I'm not going to head for

metals first because we need to replete you before

we stress you again.

It's hard to take these out so assume that we've

already done a lot of things: the first workup

which is your gut,

your adrenals,

your minerals,

nutrients,

food sensitivities.

We've optimized your food,

your sleep,

your stress,

your movement; we've done all that,

set it to the side.

Now we're now I said okay,

you're ready for round two: let's do the toxins.

So round two is...

and I say to people,

you know,

sometimes people can do all Of it at once,

and sometimes the data feels overwhelming,

so I try to gauge,

you know,

if if you're someone who struggles with the data

and has lots of questions and and really needs to

slow it down,

then I say there's four components here,

and we can do them all separately.

So,

the heavy metals is one component; it's urine,

we do a baseline urine test,

then provoke you with something called DMSA which

pulls encourages the metals to come out binds to

them so you can pee it out and then collect your

urine again,

so that's one test,

so sorry,

you then,

sorry,

do you say?

You do a baseline urine first,

yes,

and introduce this compound to get them to kind Of

leak it out to really kind of get an idea,

yeah,

and it's to make sure people aren't being on that

they haven't had some massive exposure,

like the kids in Flint,

Michigan when you test them they're positive they

haven't yet had the chance to secrete the the lead

away that they're getting exposed from the pipes,

so so we're testing the baseline just so that we

can say hey,

you're having some major exposures in your

environment that we really need to suss out or

versus this is an older exposure that your body

has been exposed to and you're having some major

exposures in your environment that we really need

to suss out and now.

We're pulling it out,

okay,

so that's the year that's the urine for metals,

and then the next three tests can be done

separately or together; they give you a little

discount if you do it together,

but if the data is overwhelming,

it's not worth the discount.

But that what we do is we give glutathione for a

week to ramp up the just the the systems for for

detox because if your liver's super shut down,

you're not going to show any of it anyway.

So,

can you explain what sorry glutathione is to our

listeners?

Yeah,

glutathione is a substance that the liver needs in

order to start moving toxins along; it's a

fantastic antioxidant and detox agent and it comes

from alpha lipoic acid and and acetylcysteine those

are the components of it and so we give people

the glutathione but if you're looking for how do i

detox ongoingly nac and alpha lipoic acid are

fantastic to use so we give people glutathione for

a week and then have them take a hot bath or

sauna or shower or steam for a half hour so it's

you know hot bath is fine but a hot shower for a

half hour you might use up all the hot water in

the house and get yelled at so maybe not the

shower but something that makes your body warm and

then you wait a half hour and then you pee so

it's a urine test okay excuse me and that's

Looking at mycotoxins,

which are the toxins that molds put out when

they're in your body.

It's looking at environmental toxins of I'll call

it 'other'

because you know lead and mycotoxins are

environmental toxins,

but these are more the man-made ones like the

things that from beauty products and and makeup and

clothing and plastic bottles and gasoline fumes,

all of those things pharmaceuticals all those

things.

The sources of them.

And then the last category is glyphosate,

which is the most commonly used herbicide in the

world.

It's also known as Roundup,

and so that's found pretty universally in all

grains,

even when they're Organic because there's drift from

farm to farm,

they spray on one farm and the farm down the

street gets the drifted glyphosate,

and also ironically chickpeas are all contaminated

even organic ones,

so eat your hummus if you like hummus,

eat the hummus don't worry about it but it is

contaminated so we're checking for how high is that

because things that you could do if you're buying

a home don't buy a home next to a golf course or

a farm that's not organic because they're spraying

and it's going to drift into your yard,

so things like that,

so we're looking at the four categories and they're

all urine tests,

you can use other ways.

Simon,

but we haven't found them to be the most valuable

in terms of accurate for what's being stored in

the body; it's accurate for maybe what your body's

getting rid of,

but voluntarily not what you're hanging on to.

Okay,

that makes a lot of sense.

So would you say that's important to note?

I mean if someone's got clear heavy metal toxin

issues within their body and it's causing a lot of

symptoms,

and it's like super super obvious,

and you do the test; it confirms it.

It makes sense that you wouldn't rush in

immediately to try and break all those down and

get rid of them because their body is most likely

not going to be in the best

State to eliminate,

yeah,

a hundred percent,

I would.

My vote is first to the platform: behaviors,

your food movement,

your sleep,

uh,

your stress reduction.

Do those first,

make sure there's no glaring nutrient deficiencies.

But,

yes,

occasionally I say to someone,

'I really think we should start with toxins.' For

you,

it's rare; you know it's it's usually someone who's

already done functional medicine for some time and

they're comfortable,

already,

their gut's pretty well optimized.

So,

when they come to me,

they're kind of halfway there,

and then we go to the toxins conversation.

So but yeah,

I mean,

there are people,

I say to them,

'You've got...' This,

but we have to get you a little bit healthier and

healthier otherwise you're going to hate me.

But it makes a lot of sense.

You don't someone you do not want someone to go

through that experience right away off the bat.

And you know,

you see it with you sit with like wild detoxes

that we see in like the commercial dieting world,

you know,

like and people feel awful and get like these

flu-like symptoms because their body is leeching

toxins all over the place and they're yet to

really put their body in a foundational place to

deal with it.

So it's kind of like it sounds like to me that

you help your patients um move into a

parasympathetic

Mode um through the things that they can very much

control in regards to their diet,

their sleep,

their movement,

water etc.,

then their body is like not constantly having to

you know fight or flight trying to deal with these

deal with these issues yeah.

And let's say a couple,

let's sort of delineate.

A hundred percent agree with you and what I would

say is that there are certainly things people can

do on their own and there are things that people

can do on their own to clean up their lives,

clean up their health,

get the systems flowing.

It's just that when you talk about really removing

heavy metals and you want to target the mycotoxins

You know,

I mean.

You could have eight different treatments for

mycotoxins so you don't want to do that.

You don't want to treat without knowing what you

have.

Certainly,

you could decrease your processed carbs and decrease

your gluten; your um glyphosate no problem with

that.

But you want to get the data if you think you're

toxic,

so you can do a reset; you can do a spring

cleanse; you can alter your that-your eating plan.

I don't know; someone said to me yesterday they

were doing a diet,

and I was like,

'Don't do a diet' because that implies that it's

temporary it's a temporary state.

You're going to do it for a period of time,

then you're going To stop and guess what you're

going to go back to your old ways,

and it's just going to reverse all the impact and

over time that's very harmful for your body.

So let's not look at doing something that's a

quick fix because honestly there are none that

work.

Let's do something that's sustainable that you can

maintain,

that works for your body,

and your body will eventually come along for the

ride if you feel like you're not in the right

weight plan or whatever it's gonna it's gonna get

there,

but first,

you have to give your body what it needs.

People can certainly people say to me,

'What do you feel about a juice fast?' I'm like

Go right ahead,

but it's not a detox; it's a cleanse,

it's a reset.

Dry January,

fantastic!

Don't eat,

don't drink alcohol for a month.

I'm psyched,

but it's not a detox; it's simply not a detox;

it's a cleanse.

It's not about toxing up; now that's an interesting

point,

the definition there is important,

yeah.

I did uh,

recently,

this is for fun,

but my health is really good and I take care of

myself um,

so I did,

I did a carnivore diet for 14 days just for fun,

I just wanted to see what the festival's about,

and I know two other people in my circle that did

it but they don't have quite the healthy lifestyle

that I do and they had an awful two weeks.

Whereas I felt amazing,

and I put it down to the fact that I do have

this foundational as you have this foundational yeah

sense of well-being in my body,

and I do obviously have stress in my life but

it's not not to the point where everything I put

in my mouth is immediately inflaming my body,

you know.

So it's uh.

But these other people who,

you know,

yo-yo diet and love to just jump on the next big

thing they have,

you know,

quite clearly their body was not ready for it,

and I I have to assume that with the massive fat

fat loss that comes with that with that type of a

diet they were certainly leeching something into

their body causing all sorts Of different symptoms,

yeah,

and it's not meant these programs I say to

patients,

'You're going to be tired,

your gut might be a little bit irritable.' It's

not meant to torture you; you're meant to feel

reason.

I really,

the first time I did the detox protocol,

I was like,

'God,

a truck ran over me!' Six weeks,

I had this just fatigue,

and then it lifted.

But that's about the worst it shouldn't...

it shouldn't be that you think you have the flu,

and you should not be having a full-on,

full-body detox.

You shouldn't be having a reaction if it is.

I'm like,

'Call me; we're gonna back it down because the it

works to at the point where you don't feel...' Bad

and then it's really working when you feel bad,

but you don't need it to work that fast,

it's it's harmful to you and it's upsetting and

stressful.

So the goal is not to torture you,

it's to just make you over time feel better as

we're taking these these toxins out.

Certainly,

and we of course have toxins from the outside

world coming into our bodies,

but we also actually create toxic material ourselves

just through like normal metabolism right?

So like when our liver turns ammonia into like

uric acid for example,

you know the body is doing that in a very

deliberate way so it can,

you know,

excrete something very very toxic again.

It's genius biology,

um,

so how can we go about making sure that our

internal organs,

which you know what,

and what are the more important organs I suppose,

because you know people would like when people hear

detoxification they probably just think,

like,

liver.

But we're talking skin,

lungs,

kidneys,

colon,

you know,

like these are very hugely important organs when it

comes to detoxification,

and that's when people can have symptoms kind of

all over their body,

but if they're not taking care of all of these

things like with with diet and exercise and things

like that,

then our detox pathways really suffer,

so how do we go?

About making sure that these organs are are doing

doing the right thing,

so the the big I mean in functional medicine it

all starts in the gut,

so the the big I mean in functional medicine it

all starts in the gut.

So your other organs will come along for the ride

if you can optimize I call it the holy trinity,

so the adrenals,

the liver and the gut because the adrenals will

say to the liver,

stop detoxing,

you know we've got to run from a lion,

and then the adrenals say to the gut guys,

it's not time to to digest your food,

it is time to be quiet because there's a liver

gonna a lion gonna eat us,

we've gotta run,

not a priority to spend energy on.

detox or or digestion so you shut everything down

now yeast don't get shut down when you shut down

digestion so yeast have a field day and then

anaerobic bacteria which are in your gut have a

field day because the food starts to rot and

that's when you get this bloating and gas,

so when you're really looking at how do you

optimize the system fix the gut make sure I mean

nobody likes to talk about this except for me but

I'm like,

'Are you pooping?

Do you have a bowel movement every day?

What does it look like?

Is it bunny poops?

Is it a nice long pipe diarrhea?

What do you got?'

Because any of those answers can indicate whether

the gut's functioning.

Properly or not,

and then you know everybody downplays their

constipation.

So I'm like,

'Do you have a bowel movement at least once a

day?' It's not just 'Are you pooping?'

- it's 'Are you pooping every day?

And is it a good amount?

Do you feel like you've emptied out?'

Most people say to me,

'No.' So we really work on how do we get you

moving.

Think of all of that crap is in you and you want

it out of you.

Now,

for women in particular,

all this estrogen and progesterone that we have,

but particularly estrogen when the liver binds it

when the liver eventually takes it through two

phases and makes it a bound substance.

You put it in your gut and

If you're constipated,

there's this enzyme that comes around and

essentially recycles that hormone but it doesn't

recycle the bound hormone; it recycles the more

toxic unbound form of it.

So when you're constipated,

it's like the kiss of the devil.

So we always start with the gut,

the gut,

the liver,

and the adrenals that's really what we're focusing

on,

because the kidneys are more like a responsive

organ; the lungs are a responsive organ,

but the gut and the liver and the and the

adrenals are driving the boat; they're what's

driving it.

You can fix that,

and everything kind of falls into line.

The holy trinity - I like that a lot,

that's cool not religious no we're not trying to

be religious it's just the holy trinity of health

i think the biology of the human body is

incredibly religious it's uh it's something to be

uh praised upon that's for sure um is it expensive

to eliminate our exposure to toxins the the key

ones well it's so funny when i got my

environmental toxins testing i was high for some of

the metabolites for gasoline fumes and i said to

my husband i'm not going to pump my gas anymore

and we we have an option to get a pump our own

gas and it's like 10 to 12 cents per gallon

cheaper through through a big box store called

costco and so he always goes to

Costco and Costco's,

like 20 minutes from our house,

so a) it's out of the way,

b) it's cheaper,

c) you got to pump it yourself.

And I said,

'I'm not going to pump my gas anymore' and he

said,

'To me,

but it's more expensive.' So here's my response to

this question: Is it more expensive?

I think the question is,

how are you accounting for costs?

Because the flip side of where I was,

and I'm continuing to climb out of,

is that the cost of these toxins on our health is

so deep and broad and huge that the balance of

that 10 to 12 cents a gallon - now it's $1.50

because we're at war.

But the balance of that,

on the flip side of it,

I said to him: Either we're going To pay more

money at the pump for someone else to pump it

because I don't want you exposed to it either,

my husband or we're going to pay money to get it

out of me and pay for the health consequences that

are occurring now.

Remember these toxins put you at risk for

autoimmune disease,

cardiometabolic disease,

that means insulin,

cardiovascular disease,

cardiac issues are still the number one killer.

So,

so either we're going to pay at the pump or we're

going to pay to take it out.

So,

the products that are less toxic do cost more

often.

You know,

organic food it costs more,

better beauty products like Beauty Counter,

it costs more but What's the balance of it and

what's the lack of harm that you're doing so your

body can focus on getting well,

so you're going to pay somewhere; it's just a

question of where your priority is for payment.

Yeah,

how do you put yeah how do you put a price on

pain free,

how do you put a price on time and you know

feeling a lot better like vitality?

How do you put a price on vitality?

Yeah,

I don't think you; I don't think you can,

and that's the type of level of thinking that if

you were going to go into really putting a lot of

motivation and power behind making these changes,

that's the key of,

like you know,

keep keeping on it,

you know,

and Really,

really,

really staying diligent is like what is the expense

in the long term and yeah you can't put a price

on feeling amazing.

How um how close do you think people are to like

feeling really good?

Like do you see fast results with patients when

they start to safely and responsibly reduce their

toxic load?

Yes or is it...

is it yeah okay like I'm like I could probably

sort of draw that one out but yes a hundred

percent,

I mean really.

What people start to notice okay so for women it's

all about how they look.

Okay I can't speak to men,

I'm assuming that men are pretty invested in how

they look too,

but for women,

oh yeah when women when The hair starts growing

back when the rash goes away,

when the weight goes away,

when their brain clears up and the executive

function improves,

and they're able to like make a plan and stick

with it and get things done,

that it's life-altering,

you know.

Really,

you know.

When you have...

and when people say to me,

'You know my sex drive was really bad,

I didn't even have the energy for sex,' and now I

actually have desire; that's a huge transformation,

makes a huge difference for relationships,

because typically there's an imbalance,

and so when women's sex drive gets better,

relationships get better.

So,

yes,

great.

Can you...

can you excuse?

Me,

can you introduce the idea of safely chelating

heavy metals?

Sure,

yeah...

I mean,

I think we've talked and what is chelation?

Maybe you could...

You could...

You could.

So,

chelation is the term used for binding and removing

metals from the body,

and we've sort of alluded to the programs where

people have a rapid loss of fat and they get very

ill; that would be considered a non-safe chelation

method of removal.

And so what we're looking at is sort of a

multi-phase approach: one makes sure that the liver

and gut are optimized,

people are excreting their toxins able to move

that...

that as a result,

the bladder is working properly.

That's step one foundational,

and then when we get into okay,

you have high levels of metals,

and we're going to specifically remove them.

Excuse me,

we look at it as a three-pronged process: one

prong is ensuring that the liver is properly doing

its job; one prong is ensuring that the liver is

properly doing its job,

so that's glutathione N-A-C alpha lipoic acid

vitamin C things that help the liver do its job.

This is again against the backdrop of don't drink

alcohol,

it's really bad for you; don't eat sugar,

it's really stressful for you; and make sure you've

managed your food sensitivities,

that kind of stuff,

and manage.

Your hormones right because if you have well,

that goes back to the gut.

So one prong of the metals is ensuring that the

liver is properly doing its job,

one prong is specific binders so that gets into we

use silicone,

we use uh DMSA,

we use EDTA,

we use DMPs,

and so using uh and did I see EDTA?

So we're using a number of specific binders for

metals,

some of them are IV.

Patients who have really high levels,

we send them like it's sort of this interplay

between time,

cost,

and pain in the butt-ness because the programs are,

are pain in the butt,

yeah you know.

So you got to do stuff kind of ongoingly,

and then the third prong of it is replacing what

gets pulled out because as you pull out the heavy

metals,

you inevitably pull out your minerals and nutrients

so replacing what's inevitably pulled out so that's

the triad of them and the chelation portion occurs

with the specific binders like as I mentioned the

silicone,

EDTA,

DMSA,

DMPS,

so okay,

so,

and so when you're pulling when you're attempting

to pull these out your own like nutrients coming

for the ride do you supplement during that course?

Yes,

yeah,

that's the third problem treatment; we 100%

supplement with the minerals and nutrients that get

pulled out during the treatment because it's just

balancing it out.

And what are some of those key nutrients?

Zinc is the biggest one,

but magnesium.

We also supplement B vitamins and make sure that

people are doing okay,

basically,

you know.

Support methylation,

support zinc is the biggest one that we're paying

attention to.

Amazing,

that's great!

Um,

have you seen those um skin patch things that you

put on,

leave it overnight,

and then you pull it off and it's really gross

and disgusting?

And apparently,

it's like a detox.

I just liked a pimple patch,

like the little ones or something else.

No,

it's kind of big,

like that.

I've seen them advertised on my feed a few times.

You clicked on it once right?

I mean,

I thought about it.

It looked kind of gross.

I think they were like these big patches and I

think they're on the someone's feet and they're

like,

'That's it.' Back in the morning and I was like,

'I got discomfort from the pod kilos coming after

where are we at 13 coins organ?' So you're going

to remove toxins through the skin so sweating is

fantastic.

Anything you can do to improve that is great but

I haven't heard of those patches; they sound

interesting,

yeah,

interesting is the word.

Um,

tell us about it.

Tell us about your book?

Sure,

it's called 'Dirty Girl: Ditch the Toxins,

Look Great and Feel Freaking Amazing' and it was

it it started because

Of my story with with all these toxins and how,

I mean,

I just i felt awful and so in it.

What we're looking at is what are the things that

we put in our bodies,

on our bodies,

and that are surrounding our bodies,

and how are the ways that we can really have a

roadmap to pull off what are we getting exposed

to?

How do we start to impact all the things that

make a difference for us and thereby improve our

health,

feel better,

look better,

live longer?

Yeah,

that's the goal,

right?

That's fantastic.

And I believe you've got something for our

audience,

our listeners out there.

Would you like to share that,

please?

I'd love to,

so you know it.

Can be a little bit overwhelming as you go through

this process because you're so when you lift your

head up and go,

'Whoa,

there's kind of everything I need to address in

terms of my surrounding and my food.' It can the

natural response is to go,

'Well,

I don't really know where to start.' So,

my team and I have put together a guide for

non-toxic living.

So,

if you're using pans that contain harmful

ingredients,

what pans are the best to use?

What beauty products should you be using?

What do you want to use to clean your house?

All of those questions,

so we've tried to answer as many of those

questions as possible in the guide and that's found

on our website at fivejourneys.com forward slash

promo it's f-i-v-e j-o-u-r-n-e-y-s.com

forward slash p-r-o-m-o and it's uh it's a free

pdf that you can download once you put your email

in so it helps it helps when you start the

process that's amazing yeah obviously giving people

a little bit of information right off the bat is

wonderful and i will make sure that that link is

available in the show notes but is that that

website the best place to connect with you the

best place to connect with me i'm on instagram at

wendy trubo md and that's actually my handle on

instagram twitter facebook linkedin it's w-e-n-d-i

-e oh i almost

gave my middle initial so w-e-n-d-i-e-t-r-u-b-o-w-m-d

and that's on all the different platforms that you

can find me,

beautiful.

I'm going to certainly make sure that people have

got the ability to connect with you.

But thank you,

I'd really love to um give you my gratitude for

coming on the show today.

Really,

really interesting,

I learned a lot about toxins,

detoxification and and the process.

And I'm so happy that um there's people like you

out there that are you know trying to avoid people

going through what you went through.

I think that's really incredible.

So thank you for that.

My pleasure,

Simon.

This has been great.

I'm so grateful to be on the show,

thank you.

Wonderful!

That's great.

Thank you very much.

Well,

thank you very much for listening,

everybody.

This is True Hope Cast Official Podcast of True

Hope Canada.

Don't forget to check out the show notes for all

those links and uh,

we'll see you next week.

Bye.