Why You Might Be Breathing or Eating Harmful Molds
NOTE: If you have not yet listened to the first two episodes of this five part series, we highly recommend that you get back to The Toxin Solution, Parts 1&2.
There are various ways toxins are introduced into our system and one inevitable factor is the environment that we live in. Listen to this episode as we discuss the toxic role of molds.
Donny Osmond: Hi, I'm Donny Osmond and welcome to The Brain Warrior's Way hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amen. Now in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amen.
Dr Daniel Amen: Welcome back everybody, to The Brain Warrior's Way Podcast. You're in a war for the health of your brain and body. I am here with Tana and also-
Tana Amen: Good morning.
Dr Daniel Amen: Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, the author of The Toxin Solution, phenomenal book that I highly recommend. We have talked about toxins in food, toxins in personal products.
Tana Amen: We've been somewhat horrified and horrifying.
Dr Daniel Amen: Now, we're going to talk about toxins in the environment. And why I got interested in this issue is at Amen Clinics, we've been using brain imaging for the last 25 years. We do a study called brain SPECT imaging. SPECT looks at blood flow and activity. It looks at how your brain works. And I first started scanning people as the director of a Dual Diagnosis Unit. It's a psychiatric hospital unit that takes care of drug addicts. Clearly saw the effects of toxins on the brain. Then, I started getting patients who are not using drugs, they were not drinking alcohol or smoking and their brains look toxic. It's at that point I went, "Why?" and I started learning about mold and other environment-
Tana Amen: Well, you even talk about how you had ... your very first scan looked a little bit toxic.
Dr Daniel Amen: It did. I had meningitis when I was a soldier, and also ate a lot of fast food-
Tana Amen: Diet Coke.
Dr Daniel Amen: I wasn't sleeping, and putting products on my body that I had no clue. So Joseph, talk to us about environmental toxins.
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: This is a big challenge. As a matter of fact, I just wrote a letter to President Trump on how to cure this sick healthcare system. And one of the points I brought up to him was that now the passive determinants of health have become unhealthy. And what I mean by that is we tell people to exercise more, lose weight, don't eat junk food. All these active participants or active ways in which they can promote their health, or if they're not careful promote disease. But, we also have to passive determinants of health and that is the air people breathe, the water they drink, the things that everybody has to do. There's not much you can do to make changes in this.
So, then we started looking at, what's in the environment and there's lots of reasons to become really concerned. So, while I'm a great believer in civilization, thank you. I mean it's made our lives much healthier and are much more I should say, comfortable. And in some areas, it's made our health better as well. But, there's been the side effect of all these chemicals and metals we're being exposed to. So, for example most people don't realize that 10% of the public water supplies in the U.S. have arsenic levels high enough that are known to increase the risk of a bunch of diseases. Particular things like cancer and gout and things of that nature.
Okay so, 10% of the public water supplies. Then you look at anybody living in a big city. So, in a big city you've got what are called PAHs or Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons. And these Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons is what you get when you're burning Fossil fuels. When you're on the barbie and barbecuing your food or if you're around somebody who's smoking. These PAHs are really toxic to us and they do many things, but the one which is most worrisome is they damage our DNA.
So as people are exposed to these PAHs. And as they damage their DNA, not only does that result in increased risk for cancer, increased rate of aging. But also means increased risk of a wide range of diseases because when you damage your DNA, you can't make your enzymes right? And since our bodies are enzyme machines, then when those enzymes machines start breaking down we get sick.
Tana Amen: Wow.
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: And there are lots and lots of examples of these toxins coming from us from every direction.
Tana Amen: So, I had read a study a while back, I don't remember where it's from, but there was in addition to everything you're talking about. How these environmental toxins are also something called Obesogens, which is a whole other issue we'll get into at another point. But they actually increase our ability to sort of metabolize correctly and make people more obese and people don't even know it.
And in the study that I read about was that people ... it was where they studied the most obese populations tended to be the on the Mississippi river and then spread outward. And when they tested their water supplies, the amount of chemicals in the water were horrifying. And when they tested the blood of the people who lived there, they had the same chemicals. And those were known Obesogens that were-
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: Yes.
Tana Amen: Actually making the problem worse. So-
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: Yes.
Tana Amen: Yeah. I don't know-
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: Yeah that- [crosstalk 00:05:09]
Tana Amen: Go ahead.
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: In the matter of what we are doing on this research, they are now calling many of these toxins were commonly exposed to, they're calling them Obesogens and diabetic gens.
Tana Amen: Wow.
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: And there's one side which really interesting. So, everybody knows that when you get obese you eventually get diabetes. I mean, everybody knows that. That's what happens. So, this group of researchers said, "Okay so, we know obesity is causing diabetes, but is it being obese that's causing the diabetes or is that how they became obese that's causing the diabetes?" So, they measured the chemical levels in obese people. And what they found was that the obese people with a bottom 10% of a body load of chemical toxicity had no increased risk for diabetes. So, in many ways the diabetes and obesity are the results of the chemical toxins.
Tana Amen: Wow.
Dr Daniel Amen: Yeah. You make that argument very persuasively in The Toxin Solution that it's not just kill the sugar, although that's a good thing. It's much more about the toxic load. Tell me about your experience with mold. One of the things we now routinely screen for when we see a toxic brain is mold exposure.
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: Yes. So, that's a very good point you're bringing up and I have to admit that I was not accu-sensitive to the problem with mold until about a year ago. And so, kind of as I was studying all these various toxins, I was starting to see these things called VOCs or volatile organic compounds. And these VOCs are pre-toxic as well. And I was looking at well, where are they're coming from? It turns out they are produced when mold grows on building materials. So, we have building material that's damp and the mold grows on it. It starts releasing these chemicals and the chemicals look like many of the other chemical toxins we're being exposed to like the herbicides and pesticides in our bodies. Then I look at well, how many people are being exposed to mold in their environment? And according to researchers One half of the homes and office buildings in the U.S have demonstrable water damage on those facilities.
Dr Daniel Amen: Wow.
Dr Joseph Pizzorno: So, then they start looking at people who are working in well documented mold contaminated working environments. You see a dramatic increase in neuro degeneration, immune diseases. There's a wide range of problems that start showing up. So, mold is a big problem and I'm now telling ... I wrote an editorial on this for my journal, IMCJ. Which is Integrative Medicine the Clinician's Journal. I wrote an editorial saying, "If you have a patient who comes in to see you with any respiratory problem, you've got to look for mold. And if you see an adult with adult onset asthma. 70% of the time is because they've been newly exposed a mold damage building."
Tana Amen: Wow.
Dr Daniel Amen: And adult asthma increases your risk of Alzheimer's disease 30%.
Tana Amen: Whoa.
Dr Daniel Amen: Which just shocked me. But you have to ask yourself, "Well why?" Why is the body's immune system over active that is causing something like either auto immune disorders or asthma? So important. When we come back, we're going to talk about detoxification. So, important and it's not just your liver. So, stay with us. We're here with Dr. Joseph Pizzorno. The Toxin Solution. You can learn more about his work at the toxin solution.com.
Donny Osmond: Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's Way. Why don't you head over to brain warrior's way podcast.com? That's brain warrior's way podcast.com where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show. And when you post your review on iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP visit to one of the Amen Clinics. I'm Donny Osmond, and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.