34. Detox & Fertility with Dr. Christine Maren

Hello, GHT Squad, and welcome back to another episode of the Gut Honest Truth. The Gut Honest Truth is a functional medicine practice based in Kensington, Maryland, right outside of the Washington, D.C. area. For anyone who is new to us, I am your host, Katie Mora. I am both a registered dietitian as well as a functional medicine practitioner certified through the Institute for Functional Medicine. I do treat and see a wide variety of diagnoses in practice, but I specialize in gut health, IBS, SIBO, Candida, food sensitivities. If you have it, I probably treat it. But today, I have a special treat and a special guest for you all to talk about maternal health, reproductive health, and detox. So please welcome Dr. Christine Marin. And if anybody is not familiar, she is one of my favorites to follow. She's a wealth of information, and you can find her on Instagram at Dr. Christine Marin. So welcome. And please tell us a little bit more about you. I want you to introduce everyone to how you got into functional medicine and what you're doing with your practice right now. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, so I, I mean, I got into functional medicine for both personal and professional reasons. I mean, I went to medical school with a very holistic mindset. I mean, I actually went to osteopathic medical school, so I'm a DO. You know, kind of really interested in moral alternative, complimentary medicine, a group and Boulder, like that was all very familiar to me. And, you know, when I went to college, I had issues. I saw acupuncturists and they helped me. And so it's just really interested in that world, but kind of fast forward to when I was trying to get pregnant with my first child, I had gestational diabetes. And that made like zero sense to me, because I ate a pretty healthy diet, and I really wanted to understand why. So that's sort of when I took a deep dive into nutrition. And then, you know, several years later, my husband and I tried for our second. He had just gotten home from deployment. We were ready to have a baby. We eventually got pregnant, but went through recurrent pregnancy loss. And that was the point in time when I really took a deep dive into functional medicine, because I needed to figure out what was wrong with me. And at that point, my family was like 100% behind me as well. I just knew that there was something going on in my body. There was a reason I wasn't successfully carrying pregnancy. And so I needed to figure out why. You know, and I saw a functional medicine doctor, and then I became a functional medicine doctor, because there was really, to me, it just sort of helped to answer all of the questions. I mean, I also saw conventional doctors and a fertility specialist and an endocrinologist. And all of them had, I believe, my best interests that hurt, but they didn't have answers to my underlying issues. I think that's so common that people don't find those underlying issues, and they feel frustrated or put, you know, self-blame or it gets really, really hard, especially when it comes, I think, to fertility and starting a family. And I have so many people in my life, I see struggling with that, and which is kind of why I wanted to do this podcast is to help everyone who feels stuck and feels the pain and struggle around fertility and reproductive health. So I do try to talk to people often about detox and your own innate detox ability. But I do think that detox is a very taboo word, because a lot of people just don't understand what we're talking about. So I think it would be really helpful if you could kind of guide our listeners today on, what do we mean by detox, like the big picture overview of what that entails? Yeah, I mean, big picture our body was designed to, you know, kind of conjugate toxins and get rid of them. Like, that's why we have a liver and a gut. That's, you know, basically the way that we naturally detoxify things is through our liver and gut. So we poop it out. We also pee it out and we sweat it out. And it also comes out in our breast milk. And I think that last piece was what really got me interested in sort of pregnancy and pre-conception detox because when we're nursing our babies, it's a big deal. And we actually, some of the toxic burden that we have can get passed on to our babies, not only when we're pregnant through placental transfer, but then postpartum when we're nursing. And so it makes that pre-conception time frame really ideal if we can help to limit our toxic body burden. So it gets to be a little complicated in pregnancy, like for those people listening who are actively trying to conceive, now is not the time to upregulate detox. Now is the time to limit whatever's coming into your life. And so really to kind of help to identify what toxic exposures you might have and then take really proactive steps to limit what's coming in. So really when we think about our toxic body burden, it's about what's coming in and what's going out. There are times when we can really upregulate that detox and use certain supplements and sauna and kind of tricks like that to really kind of focus on helping our body excrete some of those chemicals more quickly. But it's a slippery slope. I always tell people with detox, it's like a simmer. It's a slow and steady kind of thing. And for a lot of people who are trying to conceive, they don't really have that time all the time. So that's where I really focus on like limiting exposures. But sometimes if women are listening and they are just kind of, you know, they're thinking one day I'd like to have a baby but I'm not trying. Well that's a great time to work on detox. I like that. I like the idea of limiting what's coming in and that really around the preconception time and while pregnant, I have never actually thought about it that way specific to pregnancy. And I think it's important for anybody who doesn't understand what we're talking about in terms of detox. We're talking about things that come in through the environment that get stored in our body. And our body is supposed to naturally write through our liver and our gut and our kidneys, our lungs, push things out of the body that really don't belong there. But we can have, which will go through some impairments genetically lifestyle wise that can, yeah, impair the way that we push things out of the body and detox. So, you know, every day you're exposed over 100 chemicals and over 700 per year are added to the marketplace without adequate testing. And there's about over 1 billion tons of pesticides that were used last year just in the US alone. So I think it's good to pertinent perspective how much exposure we're getting on a daily basis. This isn't like, oh, we live in the most toxic area and there's pollution spills and things like that. It's like every day, everything you're breathing, putting into your mouth is adding to our toxic burden. So I think that we're intimately. I mean, it really is very ubiquitous. It's impossible to avoid it all, but it is possible to limit it. So I always tell people like it's progress over perfection and just, I mean, between the plastics and the pesticides and, you know, maybe the silver filling center amount, like all of those things add up and our problematic. And so what are some signs and symptoms to the listeners out there that they might look for or relate to that might say, hey, maybe I should think about doing a detox or starting to like really limit what I'm putting into my body. So I mean, I think number one is if you've known to, if you know that you have some environmental exposure, if you've lived in a house where they're small, if you've tested high for lead, if you have a malgum, those silver fillings in your mouth, those can all be problematic. There are some sort of reproductive disorders with some certain chemicals that are implicated in those. So like endocrine disrupting chemicals are implicated in things like PCOS, premature ovarian failure, decreased ovarian reserve, uterine fibres, endometriosis. You know, all of those things can be associated with chemicals. If it's just speaking more general and you haven't even gone down that kind of rabbit hole, it could be that you're really sensitive to sense. Like you go down the target aisle for detergents and you just can't, you can't handle it. A lot of people actually have multiple chemical sensitivities, but if that kind of stuff bothers you, that could be a problem. Other signs are just like, you know, for certain people who have autoimmune issues or chronic fatigue or any of those kind of more chronic issues and you're young, that might be a sign that there's some issues with toxins. It's hard to know for sure, but it might, you know, be the kind of place to like start testing for that and start working on that with your provider. That's great. And I mean, it's such a wide range from, I see a lot of skin issues and bloating, constipation, headache, fatigue, that kind of, yeah, alongside this. I mean, definitely work with the, yes, for sure. And with the gut, I mean, for me, my personal sign of environmental toxins was gut issues. I mean, I had very like minimal IBS symptoms and then was exposed to a ton of mold and this is all part of my kind of recurrent pregnancy loss journey, but my digestive issues were the tattletail of all of that, you know, my digestive issues really picked up. So digestive issues themselves can be a sign of top and exposure. So the body will tell you we just have to listen, right? Yeah. So when you see patients come in, especially once that are coming in, being like, I'm trying to conceive or I'm thinking about it or I've been struggling with infertility for years, where do you start? Because I do find that detoxing, whether it's even just basic lifestyle or it's more advanced like metabolic detoxing, you would do a supplementation and, you know, sonas and things like that can be very overwhelming. So what's your go to in guiding a patient in the starting place? So I mean, where do I start is with a really good history and a timeline and sort of understanding if there's certain exposures that we need to work on. So if I'm talking to a patient, we talk about nutrition, toxins, digestion, infections, hormones, thyroid, sleep, relationships. I mean, we really talk about all of that stuff. And if they tell me, you know, yeah, I was living in this house. We had a bunch of water damage or I have six silver fillings in my mouth or I eat canned tuna every day. I'm immediately going to the toxin realm. But regardless, my encouragement with any patient I talk to is to limit your environmental exposure to toxins. And so that can be as simple as swapping out plastic for glass in the kitchen and using the vent hood in your kitchen when you cook or it can be more complicated like having a mold remediator come to your house and you know trying to investigate what we see there. It just really depends on sort of what their I guess risk factors are and for which kind of toxins that we're talking about. Yeah and for anyone who's listening, I believe I mentioned this on a previous podcast, but Godana's Truth does have a program called Detoxybody and Lifestyle. And this is really just like an hour long recording of a presentation that you get. And it really guides you, I would call it like a no product, no gimmick, no BS program where it guides you through like how do we you know check our water? How do we replace things like coffee and wine and different things that might have high mold content in our house and how do we eat right for this? So it's really just trying to guide you in that starting place. So if you need any support, we do have that program on our website go on astruth.com or you can work with a practitioner, especially if you are in Colorado, Michigan or Texas where Dr. Marin works look her up. But I think it's important like people are like where do I start? And it's like well it could be as easy starting to clean your coffee pot right where mold can. Yeah right. Fitching your coffee pot from a drip coffee to like a French press or yeah. So yeah, yeah I mean it can get overwhelming right but I try to kind of tell people like one month at a time like focus on one thing per month. So I mean you know clean water, a clean air, clean food is a lot more complicated than it sounds, especially the air quality issue which I think kind of gets. I think most people will switch to like eating organic but they neglect that you know their house has air quality issues that need to be addressed as well. Yeah absolutely and there's good I mean and another thing to know is what you are putting on your skin is getting absorbed just so you're eating it and I think that people it is very hard both personally and professionally just being to find skincare that isn't crappy. So it's really hard and people find that product that they like and it might have fallets in it and it might have endocrine disruptors in it and an easy thing to start switching is I even look up on like environmental working group has a skin deep app that you guys can use and I'm sure you can also follow practitioners on social media that promote these things but they will be the most clean kind of rated things that you can find out there. So sometimes I think trying new products like that can be a really easy start for people. Yeah totally and then you know the EWG is a great resource too because you can look up cleaning products and all of that. Yeah and you can look up even for people who are like well I can't afford to eat all organic while you could follow their yearly updated you know clean 15 dirty dozen list and that dirty dozen is the ones that you have to focus on 12 things you can buy organic that would be it. Yeah but it is really hard without the guidance of someone to do a lot of this but I think there is a lot we can do in the household which is really really underrated people usually jump to that more aggressive metabolic detox which uses supplements or programs but but they are relevant right like some people are past the point and second off that supplements are a necessity. So I didn't know if you had some favorites you wanted to talk about today that you might use in practice and I know it yeah yeah I mean if I'm working with a patient who who's like in a good spot where they can detox are not trying to conceive they've got time we can do this like slow and steady detox some of my favorite supplements I mean number one the foundational stuff limit what's coming in and make sure your gut health is good so you're excreting it make sure you're well hydrated so you're peeing it out all of that but I think you know supplementation wise glutathione is a favorite I use that every morning I like to use NAD as well and you know vitamin C can be help us recycle glutathione I use a lot of vitamin C in my practice and then binder so sit things like charcoal and clay can help us kind of bind it up what you don't want to do is take like a bunch of glutathione if you're taking detox supplements it makes you feel worse it's because you're doing it too aggressively most of the time so let's tell people like slow and steady so you can take some glutathione that helps to kind of pull it from the tissues and then you want to bind it up so you can excrete it or poop it out and that's where some of the charcoal and clay can come into play so like you know again slow and steady like a couple pumps of glutathione in the morning on an empty stomach and then a binder like clay or charcoal on an empty stomach sometime in the afternoon be sort of a basic step I mean there's you know NAC and a subtle cysteine is a precursor to glutathione so sometimes I'll just use that so cysteine glutamine and glycine make glutathione in your body and then simple stuff like B complex vitamins can be really helpful liver support can be really helpful so milk thistle especially so really just kind of like limiting alcohol as well but focusing on you know really supporting your liver and then hand in hand with that is bitters so bitters are one of my favorite supplements to do before meals but it also actually helps with your detoxification processes where your gallbladder actually plays a big role too because bile can help conjugate in excrete toxins yeah I think that's so many women to have had gallbladder issues or gallbladder removal and I think that's really important to keep in mind when you're talking to your practitioner and wondering if detox might be something you need support in I also think it's important with the with the binders and with detox in general especially when you're doing supplements to upregulate your system is you always need to make sure you're pooping first because so many people are constipated and they're like detox and galore right and you're going to make yourself very very sick so you need to like unplug that train yeah they're at least one today before you can start throwing a bunch of supplements into the mix totally agree like I'd say if you're constipated like fix that piece first it's a magnesium citrate you know fix the constipation or treat the underling gut infection or whatever it is but always focus on your gut first and if you're doing well there then you can start to do more you know aggressive detoxification yeah do you think that this is a personal pet peeve of the supplement but do you think that people or the the patients you have seen over do charcoal and binders because I see that I feel like way too often that they're over doing it meaning right it's going to grab the good in the back so a lot of people yeah right you've got deficiencies because of it yeah I don't know if you find that to be a problem I don't feel like people are I mean typically with me I'm not seeing people who are using a ton of binders yeah I feel like so many people I've seen over the years do it and I'm always like you need to like they're great but yeah it's time and place yeah yeah we're going under the you know the recommendation of the provider sure so so another question so interesting for all the people listening right they're like okay oh this you got my attention I want I'm considering detox I'm definitely going to look into cleaning up my household and my products and maybe even some of these supplements but what's this timing for preconception when should I start thinking about that as soon as possible I think if you're in the if you're in the place in your life where you're like I'd like to have a baby one day but I'm not trying to conceive now's the time to start detox so you know I mean like well before you try to conceive again it's a slow and steady process so it's not like you detox for a month and you're all done it's a long process it's a simmer and you know so if you have like a good maybe three or six months to focus on detox but that needs to be ideally at least six months from the time when trying to conceive really three months is the bare minimum I would prefer longer I would prefer a year but you know as much as possible but it's really it's not safe to do if you're like within three months of trying to conceive I also have that kind of six month rule I guess a good question based off this is so for the individuals who are not maybe maybe they're not necessarily super actively trying to conceive and they start sort of detoxing and they get pregnant what yeah that I mean it happens a lot yeah it happened to me honestly yeah with my third my third I mean part of my fertility kind of journey is like I got my health back and my fertility came back with it and I was like super fertile and accidentally got pregnant with my third which she's amazing and I can't imagine life without her but it really was like oh a bit of a surprise so I mean you know it's like what can you do at that point I mean yeah I mean it's what it is like how you stop any stuff yeah you stop taking your supplements when you're I mean and you just limit what's coming in as much as you can like once you're in that time frame you just have to really limit your exposures which I was already doing obviously before I got pregnant but yeah it's a it's a it's a tricky kind of I know it's a scenario and so tell everyone a little bit more about so why is it we're calling you said dangerous or you know worry some two detox while you're trying to get pregnant or during pregnancy like what are the no-nose around that well we can pass toxins onto our baby through placental transfer and through breastfeeding and then our egg is recruited you know ahead of time and so it's not like you know it's not like you ovulate in this egg hasn't I mean it's it's been in your body like it's we got to keep that stuff like sequestered into our tissues body smart, it takes our toxic body burden and sticks it into our tissues. And so by pulling it out, we're effectively making ourselves more toxic if we can't excrete it well enough. So it's a bit of a balance. But I mean, the reality is our reproductive health is influenced by toxins in a major way. And that's not just some kind of alternative thought. I'm going to read a quote from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. They say patient exposure to environmental chemicals and other stressors as ubiquitous and preconception and prenatal exposure to toxic environmental agents can have a profound and lasting effect on reproductive health across the life course. And so it affects our ability to get pregnant. So it affects fertility. Toxins can cause things like premature ovarian failure, decreased ovarian reserve, all that it affects our ability to carry a pregnancy. And then it really affects our baby. So babies are born with a ridiculous amount of chemicals. I mean, there was this 2004 study that showed 287 chemicals in the cord blood of babies. And it included things like mercury and PCBs and pesticides. I mean, it's just our world is pretty darn toxic. Like living in our modern day world, we've created a toxic soup. Yeah. It's hard to avoid. Yeah. And so, of course, you know, that can influence our children's health as they're growing. And they're a lot more vulnerable to toxins than we are. So it just, it becomes a bit of an issue. And I think sometimes we think of the placenta as this like shield. But it's not. I mean, it, this is, it's designed for exchange. And so we know that a growing fetus is really uniquely vulnerable to mom's toxic exposures through placental transfer. Yeah. I think it's interesting that kind of falling onto the common name made early, like last moment on what happens if you're detoxing and you get pregnant. But you know, usually you find out in the most cases I'm kind of generalizing. You find out you're pregnant a little bit before the placenta is formed. So that's probably or right around. So it's probably good. Yeah. The sooner the better, right? Be some mind for anyone that got word, comment that you will be able to stop everything prior to that formation. And I think it's interesting in the research just for anyone to know like where toxic overload and the research is, it's been shown to be connected to anything from like she mentioned earlier, diabetes and metabolic syndrome to infertility, of course, and behavior and mood disorders, allergies, different neurological conditions, cancers and things. So this is other stuff that can start the baby's life. Oh, yeah. Right. So, and even, you know, the endocrine society in, I think, is 2018. They presented research on how exposure to BPA during pregnancy, even at low levels can cause alter brain development and behavior in baby later in life. So we know it's influencing the health of our babies. We just have to do whatever we can to decrease what's happening. Receipts again, you know, yeah, I know. Well, my goodness. And BPS is probably not much better by the way. So just glass. It's our stainless steel, whatever. Jammed if you do, and if you don't, in this world. And so, so interesting. And so in your practice, it definitely, which I love, you do a lot of the lifestyle and what to kind of limit and avoid and what you can swap to. But do you ever use like toxic load testing before and after treating your patients, especially fertility patients? Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, it depends on their history, but, you know, like mold testing or microtoxentesting I will do before and after heavy metals testing again. And sometimes I'll do what the great planes toxin test that looks at things like styrene and sylene and just very common environmental toxins that we see. So I love testing that in a patient if they're willing and able. And if we have time and resources to do that. It's so interesting. I use it. I do have a lot of great tests out there to using the vibrant total toxic load. And I think it's like, it's an expensive test. So it really is like, talk to your provider if it's appropriate or not. Or if there's another test that might be appropriate. But I do find it interesting, you know, in the end, a lot of times the outcome of what you do with that patient is very similar, right? It's going to be the same unless there's like a ton of mold or something. But if there's a ton of environmental toxins, a lot of the supplements and lifestyle shifts you do. But the interesting thing of those tests is it can really tell you like, where is it coming in in your style? And like, what do we really need to focus up, right? Is it coming in through coffee every day or makeup? Because they really can differentiate where those toxic levels are coming in. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it can help you develop a strategy is how to limit those. So if you were to test heavy metals and you saw high mercury, like that can just be evidence that your silver fillings are a problem or that the can tuna you eat every day is a problem. And so you know very specifically, like, okay, that's where to start. You know, it just helps us kind of triage how to, how to limit exposures. But yeah, like you said, I mean, whether it's mold or heavy metals, it's detox protocols are pretty similar. I mean, there's some, you know, kind of unique things you might do for either, but, but really it's more about like avoidance. So, and especially if it's mold or that kind of problem you see, I mean, maybe it's your coffee, but maybe it's your house, right? So kind of just deciding before you bring a child into the world, like maybe you need a mold remediation team or a really good mold inspector to make sure there's not a problem. Do you have a mold for that? Do you have any like at home kits you use or recommend? Yeah, I do. So definitely having a really great mold inspector is top of my list. I have favorites in the states where I work. And they will come over with an infrared camera and with a like an ultra fine particle meter and a moisture meter and all these different kind of tools to really look. And then they have the trained eye to really see, you know, where there's issues. So common issues here, by the way, are like a crawl space can often be a big issue. But that said, for people who just want to sort of understand like what their equality looks like and if they have an issue, I like to do this test from real time labs called an Emma. It's E MMA and it tests the HVAC. So you basically take a HVAC filter, cut out a little piece, send it to the lab and they'll tell you if there's mold or microtoxin on that filter. And then you know, okay, the lungs of your home have an issue. You don't know where it is. That's really when you need an inspector to come in and tell you where the problem is. But at least it kind of gives you a hint as to if there's a problem. I also sometimes will use an Ermi test, which is like more of a cloth wipe that you can do for dust on the floor. That could be a little bit more specific until you wear the problem is potentially. Sometimes I'll use, I've had those little like the little Petri dish plates. Those have been telling for people. They're inexpensive. That's like a really inexpensive way to test. But I have had a few patients where I've said, like just start there, you know. So they've started there and they see like a certain mold come up. That's too numerous to count. And I'm like, okay, I know there's a problem in your house. They don't know where, but I know there's a problem. And so we found it that way as well. I'm going to do these tests now. I just thought our house like in the past year and it's old and I am going to order something. Yeah. It's good to know. I always tell people you meet all the organic food in the world, but if you're living in a moldy house, it's not going to fix it. You have to switch our age back soon. So maybe I'll do it at that. Yeah. Or do it before. So you know, how aggressive you have to do. Like, you know, if you have to treat the ductwork and stuff like that. And if you do find mold, especially like black mold in your house, do not do this unless you are a trained professional on your own. Because this is not a DIY. Yeah. So many people open walls and find it and they don't have any of the proper equipment and it gets them really sick really fast. Yep. My hand is raised high. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we recently did a bathroom model and I knew better that if anytime you're like knocking down a bathroom, I just would rather have a mold remediation person do it. So they put up containment because what you don't want to happen is like the HVACs running, you basically unearth a bunch of mold and the spores go all over your house and go through your HVAC and get everywhere. Yeah. There's just no correcting that one once it's there. Yeah. That's a good, you know, good tip. I like that. And so I guess another thing that I find, I'm going more and more passionate about. So there's so much for mom to think about, right? There's so much from what am I doing? What have I been doing for the last 20, 30 years and what am I doing right now and how am I going to prep my body on top of, you know, not just detox. They're having to think about their hormones and their thyroid and their food and their prenatals and all of that. But a lot of times people are overlooking dad, right? They're over 100%. And I think it's what? Is it 30% correct me if I'm wrong of infertility issues are related to the male? Yeah. So a third of all cases of infertility are because of a problem solely in the male partner. Another third, I think, is a combination of both male and female problems. But it's a big deal. I mean, it's just, you know, yes. Yeah. Like you said, Mike, this isn't all about mom. Spirum count and quality can totally be influenced by environmental toxins. So yes, dad needs to like get on this train too. And I feel like he gets brought in a lot very late in the game, at least what I've seen. Unless somebody's like on top of it or the provider's really on top of it, it can be hard to convince somebody else, right? What to do with their health care journey. But I do find, I just see women's struggles so much, like emotional and they're like doing every test and thing to their body under the sun to be like, "Why can't I get pregnant?" But we're taking years into the process sometimes to even look at the man. Yeah. I mean, if you have a good fertility doctor, one of the first things they do is they test the man's sperm. So, you know, we know that, but like not everybody goes to see a fertility specialist early in their journey. They don't go until it's been a year or longer. And sometimes, you know, maybe it would make sense to go sooner. So, would the term still be held true for a man in terms of like how soon it's a preconception, they can detox or is it not the same as a woman? Yeah, it is pretty similar. It's about the so 90 days is generally what I say for a man. Men too. Yeah. And I think there's so much that they can do. And even just starting with like diet and you know some proper supplementation for the male is always a great starting point, but it has a lot to do with sperm quality. And if those guys aren't swimming and doing their thing, it's going to be really hard, no matter how healthy mom is to get pregnant. Yeah. And how are we going to get that useful pregnancy? So, I do like the idea of like a couple detox programs. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And it's easy when you have a partner in crime doing that with you. Yeah. Makes it much more enjoyable to clean your lifestyle up together. So, any tips you can think of like I'd be interested to hear like your top three tips for women who are maybe don't have a partner in their trying to conceive or who are couples that are just like where the heck do I start? I mean, really I think it's you start with lifestyle and decreasing your toxic body burden. And I think it's so much more complicated than three tips. I think it's just like almost one month at a time or one week at a time or whatever, but tackle it. Make sure I think number one, like your air quality is good. Make sure there's no issues in your house. If you think there's water damage or you think you have other like environmental error issues in your home, I think those need to be addressed really early on. I think that I mean, water is obviously a really big deal. Like, I'm a big advocate for filtering tap water. I don't advocate for drinking bottled water unless it's in glass. And then I usually say do mineral water, but really like, you know, clean up your water. Even if you have a baby in the home, you're going to want to have clean water for your baby too, because they're even more vulnerable. So really making sure that you have the right kind of water filter that actually can influence your air quality as well because like your shower head filter, we basically vaporize a lot of the chemicals we get exposed to in the water. So I mean, I think tip one, two and three is just like minimize your toxins at home, minimize your toxins at home and minimize your toxins at home. I like all three tips. And so for anyone out there that's like, well, how do I know what's going on with my drinking water? The environmental working group that we mentioned earlier also has, if you go to a website, ewg.org/tapwater, you can actually check your water supply and find it in their system. And it will tell you like how many contaminants have been detected and what's like over the limit and what you can do about it. So I think that's like a great free starting point for people is if you want to check your tap water out and see, okay, like how bad am I even starting off? You can start there. And then there, I have some questions on what are, this is, I'm asking for a friend, it's a personal question. Yeah. The what, what is your favorite water filtration? Because I've read a lot of different things like I know a lot of people are into reverse osmosis, but I've heard a lot of bad things about that. Unless you're actually like re structuring the water, re mineralizer on it. Yeah. No one's doing that. Yeah. So aquasana, it's like standard, like all of their arrows come with a re mineralizer. So I tell people like, whatever, however you filter water actually really depends on what's in it. So to know like there's not a universal best kind of water filtration, kid or whatever, unless you actually know what you're filtering out. The thing is testing, so national testing laboratories is what I usually recommend. They have this test called city check deluxe. So for people in city water, that can be a really good one. But you know, it's not cheap. It's like I think 270 bucks or something. At the end of the day, water filter is about the same price. So I mean, I say, you know, what I have on my house is my burky. I think it kind of depends. I mean, I think it depends on what your problem is with your water. And then it also depends on what your setup is at home. So we had lived in a house that we were renting. I'm not going to put an arrow on my rental. So we got a burky. I now don't rent anymore. And what I did to this house is I have the burky from my drinking water. But we also have a whole house water filter. So that improves my water, my air quality really because like when I flush toilets and run the shower, I'm not like vaporizing some of the chemicals that are in the tap water. So I think it really depends. I do like aquasana as a company, like I think they have really nice water filters and they have a shower head filter. So like again, if you go back to renting, we put a shower head filter on that shower because I'm not going to put a whole house filter in that house. You know, and it's an inexpensive option. And burky. So burky is one I recommend for a lot of people. They also have a shower filter craft. Honestly, I don't know. I think that you have to double check that. But I'm pretty confident. The burky filter is a great option. It can take up some space. So make sure that suits you. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And again, it like sometimes it just depends on the mechanics of your house. Like I think whether it's a burky or an RO with a remineralizer, I think they can both work. But if you don't have room under your sink for the tank or whatever for the RO, I mean there's some, you know, some things you need to do to sort of adjust, you know, your faucet and stuff like that. Like you need a spout. And so, you know, sometimes the soap dispenser will work. But if you have to like cut away your countertop and it becomes this huge process that seems a little bit like it's not going to happen, then get a burky. Yeah. And so for water, I'm sorry, for air filtration, if you write you are maybe willing to go through that whole like mold inspector in each pack testing and all of that, is there one or two that you recommend putting in your house that are more portable? Well, I think the biggest thing really is changing out your HVAC filters often. So they always change say three months, I changed mine at two months and getting a really high quality. So don't buy the cheapest one. I like the, the filtrate and the purple package is what I use. So you know, one that has like a MIRV 12 or so. So you want to use a high quality HVAC filter. And then in terms of using an air filter for, you know, your bedroom or something like that. And then you have your own, you have your own, you have your own, you have your own filter. And then you have your own filter. The simple stuff with air quality is running your fan in your bathroom when you take a shower, because you want to get rid of the moisture. When you cook in your kitchen, running the vent hood. So you're getting rid of some of the toxins produced by cooking. Opening your windows. If you live on a golf course and they're spraying pesticides that day, that's not a good day to open the windows. But most of the time, the air quality inside is worse than air quality outside. So really just kind of like opening up your home and purging some of the stale air. Most of our homes are built really tight now. And so there's really no natural ventilation. So we have to do something about the natural ventilation. And that's where just like opening the windows. You can also do like an HRV or an ERV on your HVAC system, which is a lot more of an investment. I mean, that's when I'm a professional in common, like basically pump in more fresh air. It just puts natural ventilation into your home. So you get more fresh air in your house. So so there's lots of kind of just simple air quality things like that. And then not using fragrance. Again, it's just like about avoiding stuff more than adding stuff sometimes. So you know, if you have fragrance candles or air fresheners or if you're spring for breeze in your house or something like that, like that's not good for anybody. So just trying to really kind of clean up the stuff that you use in your home. Yeah, and I'm really glad you said, because I think this is an unknown thing, is that the air quality in the toxic overload in burden is higher indoors than out, which is super relevant to the past year with COVID, right? Everyone is inside. Oh, yeah, totally. And I think that, you know, whatever you can do to get outside and especially if you're in an area where the weather is nice, opening the windows and circulating things, because a lot of people, especially clients, I've been working with, including myself, the allergen level and kind of response, like the histamine, everything has been going up in the past year, because it's stuck in door. So yeah, I've seen this in more than one person. Like more than one patient has said, like, you know, they started feeling a lot worse, kind of when COVID happened and we can attribute that to more stress or whatever. But for several patients, it's actually been, because they were home and they had a mold problem in their house. I mean, and again, it's not like everybody has a mold problem in their house. It's not like everybody has to test their HVAC and stuff. Like if you have, No, no, no, no water damage fine. But if you know there's an issue or you can kind of see some seepage or whatever, like that stuff has to be addressed. - Yeah, and a lot of my listeners are in the DMV area and this is just generally a swampy, moldy place. So it's very rare to not have houses with mold in this area. - Yeah. - So I think that keep that in mind also like geographically where you live. - Totally. - It's important. - Although in Colorado, I mean, the most people think in Colorado, you can't get mold, but you can anywhere there's indoor plumbing, you can have mold. - Yeah. - So much to think about and kind of sift through. One other question, which is a total loaded question. So just kind of looking at generalizations and this could be its own podcast, of course, is connecting, 'cause this is such a hot topic, but connecting detox to reproductive health and the thyroid. 'Cause I know that you do a lot as well as do, but with thyroid and how that all plays a role together. - Yeah, totally. I think that's super interesting. And yes, I love like one of my favorite kind of topics is thyroid and reproductive health. And so we know that our thyroid is really uniquely vulnerable to environmental toxins. And I think that is part of the reason that having thyroid disorders is so ubiquitous. 'Cause it's very common, especially among women. And so our thyroid can be really influenced by heavy metals like mercury, which we have in the dental amalgams, which are the solar fillings, pesticides. And then other, these halide chemicals. So fluoride or fluorine, chloride or chlorine, bromine or bromide, those are all halides on the periodic table, just like iodine. And so they can essentially bump iodine off your thyroid and take its place. And then you've got issues. So really like trying to limit your exposure to fluoride through your water. You don't want to ingest fluoride. I always tell people like there is evidence that topical fluoride can prevent dental curries or cavities, but there's a good suitable replacement for that, which is hydroxyapatite. So I always endorse a chief base with hydroxyapatite versus fluoride. And then with chlorine, we get a ton of chlorine exposure in our water if we're drinking from the tap. And then I mean, if you're like a lifeguard and especially if you're like in an indoor pool all day, like chlorine is probably a major issue. That's, you know, I don't like not let my kids go to the pool, but after they go to the pool, they're getting right in the bath kind of thing. And I'm not going to let any of them work at an indoor pool as a lifeguard. That would not be okay with me. But if those are exposures that people get, they can ultimately cause issues with the thyroid. - Yeah, and I think also just piggybacking off of all of these different heavy metals interfering with the iodine uptake for the thyroid. A lot of people are already just starting iodine deficient, right? - Yeah, pretty good. - It's a controversial kind of thing. And don't go by a bunch of iodine because then I see people who, you know, there's like two sides to that coin where I don't think we get enough iodine in our diet. We're not eating a bunch of sea vegetables and seaweed and stuff like that. So I think, you know, and we're not doing iodized salts. So I mean, there was a huge public health push to put iodine in our salt, but like most of us are not really consuming iodized salt anymore. It's like sea salt. So yes, we can be iodine deficient to start with, but for people who have Hashimoto's, like adding an iodine can be problematic. And then, you know, the other piece of it is just, it's complicated. It's like this Goldilocks nutrient where like too much and too little is problematic. And sometimes they see people who are taking too much and maybe a practitioner has even told them to take a bunch of iodine and they end up with a goiter because they cost thyroid issues because of that. So I'm pretty conservative about iodine. I do use it in certain patients, but I use it at a pretty low level. And again, it's sort of like with detox. It's like just simmer, just simmer it in. Nothing that's like-- - I definitely try to do it through food or like kelp or Goldilocks or something and recheck the levels, but yeah, definitely if you're deficient. It kind of like iron to and it's influenced on thyroid health, like get your levels checked first to make people willing to grow that supplement. And it's absolutely like right to higher iron's going to cause too much of a problem. And that's going to negatively impact your thyroid, your pretty productive system, everything. - Yeah, so definitely check and work with a practitioner for all of this. I know it's not always a possibility for everybody, but highly recommend you can get those labs like very easily drawn just through primary care and like a lab core quest versus some kind of functional medicine test if you need. - Yeah. - And there is for iodine for people listening, like the best test for iodine as a 24-year in iodine up for the most accurate. So we, like that's obviously really cumbersome. Some people, including me, will do a spot serum iodine check but it's not perfect and your primary care probably will not order that. Yeah, yeah, I rarely ever see that ordered. So there's a lot of different moving parts with fertility, but I do feel like this is very hopeful for people who have been stuck and maybe haven't thought about how much the stuff is influencing them. Especially when, right, you've seen fertility specialists and you've seen your doctors and all the labs are coming back normal. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's something to look at. I think one of the important things to know is in September of last year, the FDA actually announced that Mercury and Malcolm fillings are problematic for potentially a problem for certain high risk groups. And those high risk groups include women who want to conceive, women who are pregnant and women who are nursing. That's a lot of women. So I think, you know, if you have a Malcolm fillings or solar fillings in your mouth and you're well before the time when you wanna conceive, get them out with a trained professional, like somebody who's certified through an organization called IAMT. So it's basically the safer removal of Mercury and Malcolm's. Otherwise, it can be more of a problem. So just if you're pregnant, you have them. I would actually just leave them put and wait until, you know, later when you're not pregnant or nursing. But for women who have the time, either before or after pregnancy, I do encourage people to have them removed safely. - And if you do have whether you're listening and you're trying to conceive, you're pregnant or your man doesn't matter, if you do have Mercury and Malcolm, so you'll see solar fillings in your mouth, do not actively start like growing all these crazy supplements into this plan. - No, yeah. - Just like that Mercury out into the body and make yourself very sick. - Yes. - For sure. - You can't, yes. Sometimes you have to really kind of pause on detox if you have those in your mouth. - Yes. And so too many people just started going on all these supplements and like, well, that's probably, that might be part of the issue, right? - Yeah. - In your cell feel like crap. So definitely work with both a trained dentist as well as a trained functional medicine physician or practitioner that can kind of guide you on the appropriate timing for all of that. And I do want you to mention, so on top of being the owner of a virtual functional medicine practice, so as we mentioned, if you're in Colorado, Michigan, or Texas, definitely look up Dr. Marin. But you're also the co-founder of Pay Mommy, which is, I'm newer to and following you guys, but I've not formed dedicated to helping women navigate a healthy and happy motherhood. So tell me a little bit more about that and how people should, what they can look for and kind of follow you on. - Yeah, so Hey Mommy is H-E-Y-M-A-M-I. So like Hey Mommy. And I co-founded this with another physician and BFF, Alex Carrasco. She and I are both mothers of three and have had her own kind of issues with the fertility journey. And we're frankly just kind of sick of reading crap because I think when it comes to sort of preconception and reproductive health online, sometimes it's really fear-based. And so we have a ton of great content. And if you're in a preconception space, I would say go look at our definitive guide to preconception. It's literally like all the things you need to know from lab testing to understanding your cycle, to a fertility diet and fertility supplements to gut health, environmental toxins, common causes of infertility, all of that. I mean, it's a really legit resource and it's free. - Yeah, it's so great. I've been following it recently and I'm like, this is like, I feel like it's not there. It doesn't exist in the functional medicine world. Like people are very, unless you specialize or have treated just tons of fertility and pregnant women, people are scared to treat pregnant women. So if you haven't worked in that field, there's not that many people specialize in it. So I think it's really amazing that there's all this free content out there by two well-known trusted practitioners that people can find. Very easy. - Yeah, yeah, thanks. I love that and I'll definitely be sharing that in our information for anybody who wants to follow it. And but this has been so great. I've learned stuff for myself and my own journey here on top of being able to really hopefully guide a lot of men and women that have been struggling or don't want to be struggling when they kind of get around to it. So is there anything I'm missing or you wanna mention to our listeners? - I don't think so. I think we covered it. I mean, I think if you're listening and you wanna learn more, you wanna sort of get a summary on my website. I have an article that's called Why You Should Detox Before Pregnancy and you can also link to the research there. And then like I said, that preconception guide on, hey, mommy, we have some really good resources there too. - It's amazing. So I can't wait to get this episode out. I think it's gonna be so helpful for people. And I really, really appreciate you coming on. You know I've wanted you on here since I basically started my business. My pleasure. Thanks, girl. Thank you.