Expert Dr Aly Cohen on Integrative Medicine, Joint Disease and the Links Between Chemicals in and on our Food and Deteriorating Health

Pesticides and other chemicals have given human beings the ability to produce bountiful crops and ensure safe drinking water. This approach to what we consume everyday is alarmingly showing signs of being a key issue to our health and wellbeing.

Welcome to The Shift expert series with naturopath, nutritionist and author Katherine Maslen as she explores the state of human health, the dysfunction of the health industry and provides people with the tools, knowledge and understanding to make the shift in their lives. 

In the expert series of The Shift, Katherine explores deeper conversations with the world leaders featured in season one, the investigative docu- series on the gut. If you want to make the shift towards more informed decisions regarding better health, then this podcast is for you.

Dr. Aly Cohen is a practicing rheumatologist and integrative medicine physician in Princeton, New Jersey. She has been actively involved in the area of environmental health over the past decade. Her work has led to education collaborations with Environmental Working Group and several medical schools and physician training programs.

She recently co-edited the text, Integrative Environmental Medicine, through Oxford University Press/ Weil Academic Series. In 2016, she founded “The Smart Human” social media platform, in order to better educate the general public on topics in environmental health and prevention, and she is currently working to create curriculum on environmental health to be available to high school students nationally. 

She posts practical health and prevention tips and recommendations on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. She is also a mother of two crazy young boys and several adorable animals.

In this episode Katherine and Dr Cohen explore: 

• What exactly a rheumatologist is
• How deficient we are in our medical training when it comes to health and nutrition
• Why Dr Cohen combines traditional medicine and western approaches to medicine in her practice
• The different types of arthritis and how diet can impact these kinds of diseases
• Why gut health is becoming increasingly one of the key issues in overall human health
• What leaky gut is and some of the conditions that stem from this issue
• How the exposure to chemicals in our everyday life is significantly contributing to poor health
• The links between gut health and the microbiome and chemical use
• Why the way water is treated can be a health risk and the different ways additives in water, such as chlorine, impacts women and children
• How eating organic can be beneficial to you, especially in relation to avoiding pesticides and other harmful chemicals
• The drive behind Dr Cohen’s passion for health and well being