October 19, 2025 • 53 mins
In this eye-opening episode of The Root of the Matter, Dr. Rachaele Carver continues the Detox Series with a conversation that goes beyond supplements and diet and straight into your home environment.
Joined by Kathy Cooke, holistic nutritionist and certified Building Biologist, they uncover the invisible toxins hiding in your home, from EMFs and mold to plastics, fragrances, and non-stick cookware.
Learn practical, affordable swaps to reduce toxins, improve air quality, and create a healthier space for you and your family. Whether you are just getting started or ready for a full home detox, this episode gives you the tools and motivation to make meaningful change.
In This Episode
- What makes your home “toxic” and how to tell if it’s making you sick
- EMFs explained: why your Wi-Fi and cell phone may be stressing your cells
- How to hardwire your tech and reduce EMF exposure without living off-grid
- The hidden dangers of fragrances, parabens, phthalates, and PFAS
- Mold, air quality, and the importance of regular dusting and purification
- Smart swaps: cookware, cleaning supplies, beauty products, and furniture
- Why endocrine disruptors affect fertility, mood, and early puberty
- Creating resilience through supplements, grounding, sunlight, and stress reduction
- Budget-friendly ways to move from toxic house to healthy home
Key Takeaways
- You can’t detox your body if your environment is toxic.
- Start small; one swap at a time adds up fast.
- Choose glass, stainless, ceramic, cotton, and essential oils over synthetics.
- Air purifiers and hardwired internet create a healthier home energy.
- Prevention is easier and more affordable than treatment.
Kathy Cooke is a holistic nutritionist and certified Building Biologist specializing in environmental health, air quality, and toxin-free living. Through her company Whole Home and Body Health, she helps families identify and remove hidden environmental hazards.
Website: wholehomeandbodyhealth.com
Instagram: @wholehomeandbodyhealth
Resources: BuildingBiologyInstitute.org
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Check the link in the show notes to book your personalized session and begin your journey to a healthier, brighter smile today.
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Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Carver (00:00):
Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode
of The Root of the Matter.
I am your host, Dr.
Rachel Carver, and today tocontinue our detox series, we're
gonna get into the nitty-grittyof how to detox our life.
We've talked a little bit aboutinfections and other things in
our body, but what about theenvironment?
I think this is a big piecethat people miss.
(00:21):
We try to clean up our body,but if we're not cleaning up the
environment, we're treadingwater here.
So I'm happy to introduceeveryone to Kathy Cook, who is a
holistic nutritionist and abuilding biologist.
And she's gonna give us sometips and tricks, talk to us a
little bit more in detail aboutall those different
environmental burdens that wecan when we create awareness, we
(00:45):
can do a little bit better andtry to clean up our environment
as best we can.
We all know there's we're nevergonna clean everything up 100%,
but having a little bit ofawareness and making better
choices can really help us andespecially our children.
I think the younger generationtoday, they're being born full
of toxins, and there are moretoxins than ever getting into
(01:07):
their body at an earlier age.
Seeing this as skyrocketingcancers in 20 and 30 year olds,
which has before now beenunheard of.
So welcome, Kathy.
Thank you for taking part ofyour Friday to share all your
expertise with us.
Maybe talk to us a little bithow you got into holistic
nutrition.
And maybe some people don'tknow what a building biologist
(01:28):
is.
Yeah, yeah.
Cathy Cooke (01:30):
Yeah, thanks, Dr.
Carver, for having me on.
I'm really excited to talk toyour audience about this and
glad that you're taking thisapproach of the environmental
piece because, like you said,it's often missed.
You talk about the diet andfood, and but air quality and
EMF, very important.
Yeah, so I have a similar storyas a lot of us alternative
(01:56):
practitioners, in that I wassick for decades and couldn't
figure it out.
And long story short, I wasworking in the nonprofit sector
for 20 something years, and thenmy health was getting worse and
worse.
So I said, I gotta just diveinto this full time.
So I started to study holisticnutrition.
(02:17):
And even then, when my I was mydiet was awesome, right?
I was detoxing, I was doing thecleanses, and I was getting
worse and worse.
And so it was around 200 maybe15 that I started to understand
the environmental piece.
And for me, it was EMF relatedmostly.
(02:39):
My cell phone and my Wi-Fi weregiving me a lot of very strong
symptoms (02:44):
tinnitus, anxiety, insomnia.
And when I mitigated those, Istarted to get better within
days.
And then I said, all right, ifthis is happening for me, it's
probably happening for a lot ofpeople.
So I decided to study at theBuilding Biology Institute,
which teaches us all things airquality, EMF, all toxins.
(03:09):
It's all about toxins that webring into our homes and how we
can build better and reducethose toxins that are in our
home already.
Yeah, so I've been doing thatsince 2018.
Dr. Carver (03:23):
Fantastic.
So you mentioned the biggestones for you were the EMFs.
And this is a hard thing for alot of people, I think, to wrap
their head around because youdon't feel it, you don't see it.
And this is modern life today.
Like we are glued to our cellphones.
I remember years and years agoand be like, soon we'll be able
to pay for everything with ourcell phones.
(03:44):
And sure enough, it didn't takelong for us to be able to, our
whole lives could be in thattiny little machine.
So maybe let's start there.
Why are EMFs so bad for us?
Cathy Cooke (03:57):
Yeah, you can't see it.
And I was a skeptic for a whilebecause I was like, what, you
want me to believe in thesewaves that are through the air?
And I didn't get it, but Ibecame so desperate after weeks
of not sleeping that I was like,okay, whatever, I'll do
whatever it takes.
So I just did a trial andturned off my phone and put it
(04:19):
in a drawer and unplugged myWi-Fi.
And like I said, within twodays, it was like, whoa, my
tinnitus is gone, my anxiety islifted.
I slept last night.
So it is very difficult becausepeople think that our life
depends on it, that we can'tcommunicate.
That how am I supposed to getin touch?
(04:41):
I can't make a phone call, Ican't do anything without it.
But I'm talking to you rightnow through my computer that is
hardwired, and I have no radiofrequency emitting from it.
You know, this is a wiredheadset, right?
I don't have to put earbuds,wireless earbuds in my ears.
So I'm not getting any radiofrequency from what I'm doing
(05:03):
right now.
I do have a phone and I use itto get directions to go to my
inspections.
Pretty much that's it.
I check it once or twice a dayfor messages, and then I make my
phone calls through myhardwired computer.
So I realize that that soundsreally cumbersome for a lot of
people, but I just want to showthat there are alternatives.
(05:24):
And if you have to make a phonecall on your cell phone once in
a while, fine.
But if you're gonna talk toyour grandma for two hours once
a week, do it through yourcomputer.
And there's ways todramatically reduce your
exposure while staying connectedto the world, and hardwiring
your internet is one of theeasiest, best things to
(05:47):
dramatically reduce that andavoid wearables.
It don't there's so many thingswe can do where our life stays
pretty much the same.
Uh, we just need to commit toputting in a little effort into
it.
But I think it's incrediblyimportant if we want to maintain
(06:08):
our health, especially with theyounger generation, as we've
got more anxiety and mentalhealth issues than ever before.
I have no doubt that theirphones and the radio frequency
and the EMF we're getting fromour devices are part of that
picture.
So I would just encouragepeople to actually take some of
(06:31):
those steps to mitigate.
We're not going to live in acave, we're just going to reduce
it where we can.
Dr. Carver (06:36):
It reminds me of last year I was in my children's
public high school in theauditorium and seeing all of the
routers and like they had two.
I was like, why do they needtwo?
There's a massive cell towerright behind the school.
And you wonder why the kids areso anxious.
The behavior is so issued.
Not only their phone, they'vegot the thousands of other kids,
(06:59):
the whole building, it's justit's tragic.
And my kids hate it, but I waslike, listen, at night, your
phones come out into thiscentral location, they get
turned off, they are not in yourrooms.
You cannot have wirelessearbuds.
I just, and of course, they'reteenagers, they're gonna fight
(07:19):
me, and whatever.
Um, everything in our house iswired, you know.
It like you said, okay, yougotta take a little bit of time,
but it's not that expensive,and it's so valuable.
And there's a lot of things outthere we can try to do to
mitigate that.
But I was talking in theprevious episode, we were
(07:40):
talking about frequencies andemotion frequencies, you know,
that's the same thing.
So, what is an EMF?
EMFs are there are naturalEMFs, right?
That are good.
Light is a frequency, but theseman-made EMFs that come off of
our devices have such highfrequencies, our body does not
(08:01):
know what to do with thesefrequencies.
And I relate it to it's as ifyou were in a teeny tiny little
room and somebody was blaringheavy metal rock at you all day
long.
That's what it feels like.
That's what our cells feel likewhen we're getting bombarded
with these man-made frequencies.
And any public place you go,airports, you know, all these
(08:23):
things, like you get you'regetting an extra dose.
So when you're doing thesekinds of things, again, like you
said, we're not trying toprevent you from being out in
society, but what are otherthings that what can we do to
build our resilience?
Because I travel for work, I goto a lot of conferences, and I
do speaking and stuff.
And I go to my kids' school todo whatever they need to do.
(08:44):
My kids are in school eighthours a day.
So for the EMF piece, we talkedabout the wired and all that.
Is there anything else that yourecommend to help us create a
little resilience for thosefrequencies?
Cathy Cooke (08:57):
Yeah, that's a great question because we have
to still live in the world.
And while there are movementsin the country to actually wire
schools, that is happening, mostof us aren't there, and it's
going to be a long time beforewe get there.
So, what can we do to protectour bodies?
There, there is supplementationthat I think it can be very
(09:19):
valuable for a lot of people.
One of the ways that EMFaffects us on a cellular level
is by artificially opening thevoltagecated calcium channels,
and then you get a flood ofcalcium ions into the cell,
which leads to oxidative stress.
While magnesium is a greatcalcium channel blocker.
So for those of us that are ina high exposure, supplementing
(09:42):
with magnesium can be helpful.
I also like to recommend thingslike rosemary tincture because
it's highly radioprotective.
Antioxidants, of course, aregoing to be helpful.
Your vitamin C, glutathione, uhmelatonin, which is
(10:02):
controversial.
I don't know whether you wantto take that routinely.
But there's actually formulastoo that will combine
resveratrol or green tea, alphapoic acid, some of these really
rich uh antioxidants that can bereally helpful as well.
(10:24):
There's one product called IonShield from Clinical Synergy,
which is it clinical synergy?
The same company that makespectasol, which I love.
So the Ion Shield is great.
I always take that when I haveto fly, or I'm gonna be in a
high radio frequencyenvironment.
(10:44):
So that can all be veryhelpful.
And then, you know, all of theother things that I know that
you talk about on your show tokeep the body resilient,
managing stress, movement,sunlight, grounding, all of
these things that just buildsthe body up so that we can
(11:05):
handle more exposure in the longterm.
Dr. Carver (11:07):
That was great.
Yeah, I like that.
I'm gonna look at that ionshield.
That sounds great.
And rosemary, I didn't knowthat about rosemary.
Cathy Cooke (11:13):
So rosemarinic acid.
There's some good data on theradioprotective abilities of
rosemarinic acid.
Pretty fascinating.
That's great.
Dr. Carver (11:21):
And I think we we underappreciate how much herbs
and spices really do for ourbody.
That's really where most of ourantioxidants come from, right?
Is these herbs and spices.
Cathy Cooke (11:31):
Yep.
Dr. Carver (11:32):
Do not be shy.
We all can love salt andpepper, but please don't be shy
with all the especially becauseso many of us, if we're running
around, maybe not eating themost balanced meals.
If you have some of these herbsin your in your pantry,
sprinkle a little bit on them.
Yeah, but grass-fed steaks.
Cathy Cooke (11:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Dr. Carver (11:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, so that's great.
So we know, okay, EMFs are aproblem, and like you said,
they're you know, we recognizethis, the science is there,
right?
The FTC, they lost that biglawsuit.
Okay, it takes so much time tomove bureaucracy.
So that's what we can do ascitizens, trying to protect our
kids and ourselves, which isgreat.
(12:12):
What's another really bigenvironmental toxin you think
that uh impacts us?
Cathy Cooke (12:19):
Gosh, there's so many, but often mold, of course,
is huge, but I really wantpeople to think about what
they're bringing into theirhouse.
I have a colleague who says thefront door is your biggest
filter in your home becauseyou're bringing you are bringing
(12:41):
in the furniture, the carpet,the nonstick cookware, the
cleaning supplies, the bodycare, all things that the
majority of what's on the marketcontain parabens, phthalates,
PFATs, all of these chemicals,which are endocrine disruptors
and other things that most of uscan easily change.
(13:06):
So I really want peoplesometimes the EMF might be
overwhelming, or going down themold rabbit hole is super
overwhelming.
But for those of us that arelike, I just want to make some
changes, cool, get rid of yournonstick cookware.
Please get rid of your nonstickcookware.
Use carbon steel, use stainlesssteel, use glass.
(13:30):
There's options.
You can even find, I have founduh glass cookware at the thrift
stores, uh cast iron, like youcan do it pretty inexpensively.
You can get a cast iron pan atWalmart for $10 or $15.
Like, these are inexpensive,easy ways to make immediate
(13:52):
changes.
I really would love for peopleto look at their body care and
see if it's got phthalates orparabens or fragrances.
There is a I am in a waragainst fragrances with
Americans.
It is not going well becausepeople do not want to get rid of
(14:14):
their fragrances.
Dr. Carver (14:15):
Anytime I post the worst, I'm like 100% kids, and I
was like, wait, I keep throwingthem away and they keep
reappearing.
Where are you getting thethings?
Cathy Cooke (14:24):
Yes.
I post a reel on Instagramabout fragrances, and you would
think that I said, I'm Satan.
Like the hate that I get ismind-boggling.
People don't want to do it.
But a clean home has no smell,and fragrances, cognitive
issues, asthma, endocrinedisruption, it's real.
(14:47):
And we can easily change this.
You can get shampoo withessential oils if you really
love that smell.
That would be way better, andit's easy to find.
The moisturizers, one of myfavorite moisturizer face care
lines is Anna Maria Skin Care,which is fat Anne Marie Skin
(15:08):
Care, which is fabulous, andit's all essential oils, and it
smells amazing, heavenly.
So there are better options.
So I want people to reallythink about what are they
buying, what are they bringingin?
Cleaning chemicals, a wholeother thing.
Cleaning chemicals is even moreof an issue because it's got
all of these chemicals, andyou're spraying it on the
(15:30):
counters, and then you'retouching the counters and you're
consuming it.
So not only are you inhalingit, but peripherally, you may be
ingesting it.
And kids walk on babies walkingon the floors, or your pets,
and then the pets are lickingtheir paws.
Like it is a very serious thingthat does not get attention,
(15:54):
like you said, and we can changethese things easily.
So I would love for people topay attention to that.
Dr. Carver (16:00):
I keep that important.
And I think again, start in thekitchen.
I like the idea of let's startin the kitchen.
This is where, like you said,the counters, the cookware we're
using.
This is we know nutrition is soimportant.
We want to try to minimize whatwe're putting in the body.
Not only getting rid of thenonstick, okay, these have these
PFAS, which are foreverchemicals.
(16:23):
There's so much informationabout there and how dramatic
they are.
I don't know all thestatistics, but you have one
little scratch in your nonstickpan and you're giving off
thousands and thousands of thesechemicals.
That's getting in these are thethings when they're called
forever chemicals, that'sbecause your body cannot, even
if you had the most robust detoxand elimination system, these
(16:45):
things, it's very hard.
I remember I did a test onetime and it showed uh DDT in my
system that was banned threeyears before I was even born,
and yet my body had overwhelmingamounts of DDT in my system 40
years later.
So it's run, and again, forchildren especially, their
(17:06):
immune systems aren't fullydeveloped until age three.
So any synthetic interventionsin that first three years, you
gotta be, and like I said, a lotof babies are already born with
their immune systems shotbecause of what us as moms we've
been living in this toxicworld.
So important, if you're makingyour own baby food or you're
(17:29):
buying baby food, please don'tbuy baby food and plastic,
right?
Plastics are terrible, they uhthey're another like these
forever chemicals, they are soconvenient, obviously.
But that's the second thing Iwould say is remove the
nonstick.
And there's some there's agreat company called Our Place.
(17:51):
I replaced all my nonstick withthis ceramic our place that has
been tested all up and down,and it's fantastic.
If I had another one that wasterrible, it was not nonstick,
but this has been really good.
But I no food and plastic ever.
When if we get takeoutsometimes, and I love Indian, I
immediately take it out of thatplastic and put it in glass.
(18:14):
If there's anything left overyet, it would it's convenient to
just put the top back on andput it on the fridge.
But no, no, if there's anythingacidic or fatty, that's going
to even more leach out theplastic even more.
Do not buy ketchup in plastic,mayonnaise in plastic.
So think that acidic and fattythings will leach the plastic
even faster.
(18:35):
So we'll replace all of thejust no more plastic.
You can buy so many likereusable stuff for kids, snacks
and stuff, reusable siliconestuff.
Cathy Cooke (18:45):
All there, there's so many, like so many elemental,
yeah, yep, yep.
So many easy options thatexist.
Dr. Carver (18:52):
Exactly.
Yeah, so those are my twobiggest things in the kitchen,
right?
Is it's uh no more plastic andand no more like the nonstick.
We don't even have a microwaveanymore.
It broke one day.
It was really interestingbecause it broke, and the one in
my office broke within a weekof each other.
And I was like, you know, theuniverse is telling me how we
(19:13):
create all these toxicbyproducts, and so my kids find
it annoying, but they're used toit now.
Okay, we have a toaster, wehave an oven, okay.
So maybe it takes a few extraminutes to cook everything, but
and no food tastes good in thefrom the microwave.
We all know that, and then andfor the cleaning, like you said,
things like baking soda, borax,vinegar, like there, you can
(19:37):
find a million uh recipes onlineto help you clean, less
expensive, less waste if you buya glass container and you make
your own.
And again, people like I'm toobusy for that.
I get it, I am a super busyperson, but one day I just said,
What is my goal here?
Like, if I really want to behealthy, I need to live this
(19:59):
way.
If I and I bought glasscontainers and I'll just make my
own.
And there's some companiesthat'll give you little
concentrates and you can you cando it that way.
But um, you also want to thinkabout the environmental impact
with all these things we'rethrowing, all the plastic we're
throwing.
Classic bottling, uh it's it'sterrible.
So reusable all again, allover.
(20:21):
And the beauty products.
So I think what you said isthat is my biggest pet peeve,
too, is the fragrances.
And it's and now you say it'seasy to find.
I find it actually verydifficult to find products
without because now and they'llhide it, right?
Cathy Cooke (20:38):
Because they'll say you might see parfum, parfum,
yes, they should fragrance.
Dr. Carver (20:46):
Anytime you see fragrance, and this this kind of
bothers me because sometimesthe label will say no
phthalates, but they listfragrance, and I'm like
fragrance like I'm not surethat's true.
Yeah, but it's interesting, andthen then they won't tell you
what the fragrance is becauseit's proprietary, they get
around the legal thingproprietary.
(21:08):
So again, I I find itchallenging.
One of the shampoos I like isShea Moisture.
That I don't some of them mighthave some, but in certain ones
I like that and looking for thefragrance free.
But for having teenage girls, Ihave two teenage girls, they
want all the they'll watch allthe social media and they get
all and yeah, I go into Targetand I'm like, oh my god, like
(21:32):
even the natural brands, yeah,yeah, right.
Yes, I just finished reading abook about Coco Chanel on her
Chanel number five, thepreeminent.
And I was like, I wonder,because I told my kids, I said,
I will, if you want to have somekind of perfume, like I'll buy
you a real one.
I will spend the money to buyyou a real one because I don't
(21:55):
I'm concerned about you guysdeveloping and all that stuff.
So but even and I was like, Iwonder if it's the original
formulation because it wasmanufactured in 1921.
And they said the reason why itlingers is because she had
aldehydes added to it, so itdoesn't have phthalates, but it
(22:16):
does have these aldehydes, whichmight not be perfect.
But then I did find, but thenagain online, yeah, I looked up
toxin-free perfumes, and I foundone that had a little sample,
so I ordered it because I waslike, well, if I can find one
that the my kids will like,maybe I can stop finding bed in
(22:36):
bed bath and beyond stuff.
So phthalates we know arerelated to fragrances.
What are parabens and why do wehave to be worried about that?
Cathy Cooke (22:50):
Parabens are put into a lot of products for the
consistency and uh preservativesto for the uh to keep the
product uh shelf stable and uhall mixed together and uh the
consistency of the product.
Uh, but they can be endocrinedisruptors as well.
(23:11):
And when we're talking aboutendocrine disruption, uh we're
thinking our that's ourhormones, right?
Uh for those that don't usefancy words.
So our thyroid who doesn't havethyroid issues and adrenal
issues, our sex hormones.
There's a big uh epidemic ofinfertility in this country, and
(23:38):
uh I actually teach some healthclasses at my local hospital
once in a while, and one of themis a puberty class, and early
puberty, early breastdevelopment.
It's almost normal, it's normalnow, it's common, it's not
normal, but it's very commonbecause we're exposed to all of
(24:02):
these endocrine disruptingproducts, so it's very
problematic.
Uh if especially once we becomethe age where we want to start
reproducing and have a family,and we have to go through IVF
(24:22):
and years and years uh trying toget pregnant, like that's
stressful, it's expensive, it'sheartbreaking.
And if your body's saying, Ican't get pregnant, it's
probably saying I'm not healthyenough to carry a child and
produce a healthy person.
So, of course, anyone who wantsto have a child, like I fully
support that, but it's stressfulbecause we're trying so hard to
(24:48):
force this to happen.
And are we ha are we gonna havehealthy kids?
Like it's very difficult.
So just another simple chemicalthat they're putting in the
products that can unfortunatelyover time and chronic exposure
can lead to big issues.
Dr. Carver (25:05):
Yeah, and those are the things that are prominent
in the plastics too, which iswhy I'm like really against
those as well.
And I think you make a reallyimportant point.
Um both of my sisters hadfertility treatment, and they're
they're in their 40s, so Ithink it's getting, but now you
see the young, and I just likeall their friends.
(25:26):
It was like, yeah, it's justthe common thing now.
And it's my own daughter who Iknow all of this, and I've been
very good about stuff in myhouse.
She, my younger got her periodat 11.
11.
I was like, oh my god, and Iwas so not prepared.
My other daughter was 12 and ahalf, which is I think a decent
age, and again, frightening tome because I knew this and I
(25:46):
minimized all of this, but yetstill we live in this
environment.
We used to travel on vacation alot, so she was still getting
exposed to a lot.
But it yeah, again, verycommon.
And yes, we have Ivy and wehave all these great things, but
it is a signal to our bodies.
Yeah, it's something in this mydaughter said to me, Oh, mom,
(26:08):
you're so old.
I want to be a young mom.
I was 30 when I wouldn'tconsider myself old, but yes.
And I said, you know that youknow, all those that bad oils on
those French fries you'reeating, right?
It takes seven years for that.
If you never ate another Frenchfry, it would take seven years
for that to get out of yoursystem.
(26:28):
So I'm like, So you gotta thinkabout that.
If you want to get at 25, yougotta start right.
If she wants to be younger mom,you gotta clean up your act
now.
I was like, you may feel finenow, but I'm telling you guys,
you gotta clean up the act here.
Yeah, because these are theformative years, right?
When the hormones are alldeveloping, and this is when
they're into all the junk foodand all and all the products,
(26:53):
and oh my gosh.
I never knew any about thatstuff.
We didn't have social mediawhen I was a teenager, and yeah,
with makeup and then this andthen that.
And I'm like, I'm like, I getit.
I would like I'd rather younever touch that stuff, but if
you're going to, let's look forthe alternative.
Yeah, absolutely.
And like anything, the morepeople the reason I do this
podcast is I want to createawareness, and I think the only
(27:16):
way we make real change is withour dollars, right?
So you can go and you can fightbureaucracy all you want,
you're not gonna get very farbecause it's really at the end
of the day, it's all about thedollars.
So if we start buying more ofthese natural, look at all these
natural food brands that aregetting bought up left and right
by the big food companies everyday, right?
(27:37):
Because whoa, people aregluten-free industry, it's a
billion-dollar industry now.
It barely existed 10 years ago.
Yeah, people start demanding.
So if we start demanding lesstoxic products, we start using
our boats and buying these morenatural things, then there's
everything has to shift, right?
(27:57):
And but so many people againaren't really aware of how all
these things impact us.
And again, it's not the onething, right?
My kid, if they eat oh, it'sfine, but they eat the french
fries, then they have theperfume, then they have the
makeup, then they're on and on.
The bucket, that's how Iexplain it, right?
Your bucket is getting full sofast, and it's so much harder to
(28:21):
treat something than it is toprevent something.
Cathy Cooke (28:23):
Yes, yes, yes, prevention, it's all about the
prevention.
Dr. Carver (28:29):
And again, it's challenging, but again, the more
we're all aware of this and westart making better choices
about the foods we eat, theproducts we buy, the things,
then then we're gonna start tomake a real that's exactly it,
and that's what I really like tostress with people too, because
like you said, they get peopleare super overwhelmed.
Cathy Cooke (28:51):
Like, I gotta get rid of my whole house.
No, the next time you go to buyshampoo, get a fragrance-free
option.
But the next time you go to ifyou need a new pan, whatever,
get the carbon steel or whateverit is.
So one thing at a time, andthen a year from now, you're
gonna go, Whoa, I made a ton ofchanges.
(29:13):
So, you know, and then there'sthe people who are like, Nope,
doing it all today.
Awesome, do it.
But we don't, yeah, it's onestep at a time.
I don't want anybody to getparalyzed with overwhelm.
So we just do one thing at atime and it adds up fast.
Yeah.
Dr. Carver (29:29):
What about maybe furniture?
Let's say somebody'sredecorating a room.
What do they want to thinkabout?
Do they need to be consideredwhat type of furniture they buy,
what kind of flooring they buy?
What about feet?
There's a lot of differentthings.
Cathy Cooke (29:43):
Furniture's tough.
That's the toughest one,honestly.
Because you can get a mattressor well, mattress, uh couch that
has latex cushions and cottonor linen covers, but it's Gonna
cost you six thousand dollars.
If you can do it, fabulous.
(30:04):
Most of us aren't in thatposition.
I actually have a futon for acouch, which is a really decent
option.
It's cotton, it's all cottonfuton, and the frame is wood.
I totally understand thatthat's not gonna meet the
aesthetic for the majority ofpeople, but you can find some
(30:25):
that look very nice and fit witha minimalistic look.
Um, and you can put uh nicecovers on them for someone that
can do that.
Awesome.
So I honestly the couches andthe chairs, that's the biggest
challenge.
So we can do our best there.
Dr. Carver (30:48):
And then you know that is like letting it, let's
say you get it, let it sitoutside or in your garage for a
few days and really try tooff-gas it's that off-gas it.
Cathy Cooke (30:58):
Yep, yes, let it off-gas for a few days for sure.
And then you can also put alittle baking soda on it and
vacuum it or put little carbonpouches.
It's not gonna be a hugedifference, but it'll help a
little bit.
But mattresses, for some reasonin the last five, ten years,
(31:23):
the green mattress industry hasexploded, which I find very
interesting.
So you can find healthiermattress options all over the
place.
Why that hasn't extended fullyinto the couches, I don't really
know.
But there's a lot of reallygood options for mattresses.
(31:44):
Again, you could do if you'reon a budget, you can do
something like a cotton futon orwool.
Uh I have a latex mattress,100% latex, with a wool topper.
Uh there's um nature pedic,which is a very popular mattress
brand, there's avocado.
Uh there's a lot of options formattresses out there that
(32:07):
people can do.
And then uh otherwise, if wefocus on solid wood, tables,
desks, kitchen table, chairs,great options.
And then carpet.
Carpet is the other thing thatI would love it if people got
(32:30):
rid of.
I just actually moved into anew location and there's carpet
here.
That's I couldn't manage that.
But what I'm doing is buyingvery big area rugs that are
cotton to put over it so thatI'm minimizing what's in the air
and my skin contact, which canbe helpful.
(32:51):
And I have air purification,air purifiers.
So if you've got carpet and youcan get rid of it, that would
be one of the best ways toimprove your overall air
quality.
And then what you want toreplace that with hardwood,
always a great option, alwaysprobably the best option.
If you can't do hardwood, youcan think about something like
(33:13):
cork, which would be better thancarpet.
Cork is gonna have someadhesives in it, but it's better
than carpet.
Marmoleum is a great flooringchoice for bathrooms or
kitchens.
So marmoleum is looks likelinoleum or like an old vinyl,
but it's made with flax andnatural materials, so it's not
(33:37):
toxic.
And there's some really cool,really high-end designs, so it
can look really nice.
And then we've got like theengineered hardwood or the vinyl
planks.
They're better than carpet, notideal, but I would definitely
recommend them over carpet.
The vinyl planks are gonnadelaminate and flake off over
(34:00):
time, not great for theenvironment, but from a chemical
exposure point point of view,way better than carpet.
So depends on your budget andwhat you can do, but those would
be my options.
Dr. Carver (34:13):
So you mentioned air quality, which is a big
thing that and we spend so muchof our life indoors these days
that uh and air quality issomething we don't think about.
But maybe talk to us a littlebit about what you think.
Should we all have airpurifiers as their way to test
for our air quality and againwhy it's important?
Cathy Cooke (34:35):
Yeah, air quality is huge because we eat one to
three times a day.
We drink, I don't know, 60ounces of water a day, but we
breathe non-stop.
So uh it's awesome that we'repaying attention to our food and
what we're drinking, but whatwe're breathing is a much bigger
(34:55):
volume of toxins.
So uh air quality is uh hugebecause it's uh we're breathing
it in and it's going directlyinto our circulation.
I think most people wouldbenefit from having air
purifiers in their home if welive in a city.
If we live out in the woods andour house is built of wood and
(35:18):
natural materials, maybe we canget by without it.
But these days, most of us needit because our air is
unfortunately not great, and wehave all of these things in our
house that we've been talkingabout.
So there's a lot of airpurifiers out on the market, and
(35:38):
they may use some fancymarketing terms.
We've got ions andphotocatalytic jargon, blah,
blah, blah.
You don't need any of that.
You need a HEPA filter and youneed carbon.
That's it.
The more simple, the better.
HEPA is gonna captureparticulate down to 0.3 microns
(36:00):
or smaller, which would includeyour mold spores, some viruses,
bacteria, dander, the in some ofthe larger particulate dust.
What's in our dust?
Heavy metals, all of thesechemicals we're talking about,
mold spores, bacteria.
So we really need to do abetter job of keeping our dust
(36:22):
load down.
That was a segue, but back tothe filter carbon.
You want a large amount ofcarbon because that's gonna
capture the VOCs or the volatileorganic compounds.
So those are the only twothings that I recommend.
And then that's gonna help tofilter the air, especially for
(36:44):
people that are in wildfireareas or dense populations where
we need more of that.
Another thing that uh brings mea lot of hateful comments, but
I'll mention it anyway, is ourcandles and our our scented that
(37:05):
we just Febreze and such?
Yeah, the Febreze and the Gladeplugins and all of these things
that we're trying to do, thereed diffusers, but even the
candles, even uh your audienceprobably knows well, I don't use
scented candles, but I use onethat's made of soy and essential
(37:26):
oils.
But the problem is we're notsupposed to heat essential oils,
that's not great.
If you are using essential oilson a high ozone day, like
orange or a citrus, you cancreate formaldehyde.
And when you're burning acandle, you've got particulate.
You're burning particulate,which you are then inhaling,
(37:46):
which is not awesome.
If you want to do a candle oncein a while, fine, but don't do
them every day.
Incense, pretty toxic stuff.
So we need to be really carefulabout even the natural options
that we're choosing.
I prefer to limit those becauseof that particulate that we're
(38:10):
breathing.
So, yes, for all of thesereasons, air purification, I'm a
big fan of that.
Dr. Carver (38:19):
I agree.
I have them in definitely mykids' rooms with their uh all
their fragrances everywhere.
Um try to keep them.
We live in the woods, but Istill, again, because of
everything that they're exposedto, right?
You know, we try to keep theirwindows open as much of the year
as we can.
We're in the northeast, so itgets a little cold in the
winter.
But get it, and even though webuilt a new house, we have the
(38:42):
fresh air circulated, but Idon't need I don't think it cuts
it enough.
We actually bought all thesemonitors and we're like, ugh,
still the quality can beproblematic.
I'm also a huge proponent ofclean air because, like you, I
really like how you said thatnon-stop, we're breathing stuff
in.
How many people I can't tellyou how many people I see in my
(39:04):
practice with enormous tonsils.
More than half, more than halfof my patients.
Really?
Yes.
And your tonsils is immunetissue, right?
That that if we're notbreathing through our nose for
whatever reason, if it's cloggedor we have allergies, right?
Tonsils have to collect andfilter.
And even if you aren'tbreathing through your nose,
(39:26):
that tonsil still is as afilter.
And I had a family, it wasinteresting, they all happened
to be in on the same day, andall four of them had these huge
tonsils.
And I was like, what's going onwith the air in your house?
They were using a wood-burningfire place.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So great, guys.
Yeah, you can use it, but open,get some fresh air going too,
(39:46):
maybe some air purifiers.
But again, that's a sign oftoxin accumulation.
When your immune tissue isgetting is that swollen, working
overtime, that's that that's aproblem.
And again, we dismiss it.
And again, we live so much ofour life indoors around all
these scents.
And yeah, in the carpet.
(40:07):
Yeah, carpet's one of the oneof the worst.
Even for my kids, we have woodflooring, but I'm like, no more
even rugs.
I'm like, you can have a woolrug, but or cotton, but I'm
like, yeah, too much of that isso much is too much, it's like
synthetic.
So I think that's a really bigone and should be high on the
list of making sure that the airis as pure as possible.
(40:31):
I also like what you said aboutthe keeping the dust down.
That's why I love my roomba.
I'm too busy to when I go towork, hit the on button.
I don't know.
So get it done for me.
Big proponent of those kind ofthings to help us when we're not
around to do it, because that'swhere a lot of the mold lace
(40:51):
and mold is such a problem.
We want to talk about a rabbithole, but it is a major immune
suppression and really a lotbehind chronic strep throat
infraction, behind when peoplehave worsening Lyme disease,
it's often because you havemold.
Yes.
So that's problematic.
So anything we can do again,the keeping the fresh air,
(41:15):
keeping the airs filtered,trying to minimize it.
Because a lot of times mold asa build-in biologist, you can
probably say a lot of mold'sinvisible.
It's obvious when you see theblack mold in certain areas, but
it's when it's behind behindthe walls, you don't know it,
you know, but you're stillreading it.
Cathy Cooke (41:35):
Which it usually is, and very difficult to find.
Even most my work, most of mywork these days is mold
inspections because there's nota lot of us, not a lot of us
willing to go into a crawl spacewith snakes and spiders and
rodents, and it's a dirty job,but it hides very well.
(41:58):
And yeah, you don't see it, andso it's a real problem, and
it's gonna continue potentiallyto cause you a lot of symptoms
until you find it and remove it.
And there's no magic spray,there's no magic fog, no magic
(42:19):
spray, no magic air purifierthat's gonna resolve that.
It has to be physicallyremoved.
Dr. Carver (42:24):
Yeah, and that's a thing I think a lot of us don't
really.
I mean, my husband used tofight me for years because
always in testing and things,all uh mycotoxins always come up
for everybody in my family.
And I was like, oh, mold'severywhere.
I'm like, I understand, butmold also becomes toxic.
Yes, it's everywhere and it'spart of our natural environment.
But now, because of all theother chemicals in our house,
(42:47):
mold creates mold is it'severywhere, but when it gets
angry and threatened orwhatever, it creates more of the
toxic.
So all these bacteria andfungus and all these, this is
all part of nature.
But it's when they get exposedto some toxic thing that they
become more toxic, that theirbyproducts become more
problematic for us.
(43:08):
So parasites, all these thingshave been around since
millennium beginning of time,but now they're much more
problematic because of all theseother toxins in the cumulative,
and um, and so that that's whatwe really need to think about
for years.
Like my husband painted ourwhole garage with mold-free
paint, whatever it was, which isgreat, but then the ceiling in
(43:30):
the garage, you can see with allthe scenes of the uh I was
like, Okay, and that's where ourcars are, and we're in the cars
every day.
And I was like, you know, canyou please that to fix this?
And so the borax and all thisup, but I'm like, uh, and
painted over it, but I'm like, Idon't know if that's really
(43:51):
gonna solve yeah.
Cathy Cooke (43:53):
I mean, it's not yeah, physical removal is the
only real solution, and um yeah,it's a beast.
The whole topic of mold is abeast, and it is everywhere.
And I I get that comments fromother inspectors or remediation
companies because they call meextreme and over the top, and
(44:16):
I'm like, I'm just followingindustry standards, yeah.
But it is everywhere, but notin those quantities we find it
in our house.
So you're not gonna see a wallfull of stachybatris out in
nature, so that's thedifference.
It's the quantity, and it's notregulated from the ecosystem.
(44:39):
It doesn't have sun and windand bacteria to manage it, so
it's growing out of proportionto what is natural, and that's
what people, a lot of peoplearen't really factoring in.
Dr. Carver (44:50):
Yeah, that's important.
Yeah, so we've talked aboutsome EMFs and our plastic
bookware and our fragrances andparabens and our furniture.
As we're wrapping up here, isthere anything that maybe we
missed that people should beaware of to think about?
Cathy Cooke (45:10):
Yeah, one thing that a lot of us aren't thinking
about is our clothing, which Ithink is really important.
Actually, everything I have onright now is cotton, all like
100%, 95% cotton, 5% Hispanics,whatever.
But these synthetic clothing, Iwould love it if people would
(45:30):
start making choices towardscotton or linen or silk because
they're microplastics and we'rewearing them, and we are getting
chemicals from them when we putthem on our skin.
And then when we wash them,they break down into
microplastics and put moremicroplastics into the
(45:52):
environment, into our waterways.
So that's one area that has alot of opportunity for
improvement.
And I'm not telling people togo get rid of everything they
own right now, but the next timeyou need a new shirt, maybe you
choose a cotton option versuspolyester or rayon or whatever
(46:13):
it is.
Dr. Carver (46:13):
So, yeah, a lot of opportunity that we could do
better there.
And I think the most importantthing, if nothing else, at least
let your undergarments be 100%.
100% like my kids, isn't it?
There are a lot of brands outthere.
My girls, they're teenagers,they want cute underwear, they
don't want granny panties.
There are a lot of companieswhere you can buy one.
(46:34):
I even got some on Amazon.
Just look for 100% organiccotton underwear.
If you're gonna spend money,you can't replace the whole
wardrobe just right.
Please buy the underwear andbras that are organic and
cotton.
Cathy Cooke (46:50):
100%.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's another industrythat's exploded randomly.
Like, why are we focused?
But a lot of options forundergarments.
Yeah, yeah, perfect.
Dr. Carver (47:02):
Yeah, good.
I'm glad you I'm glad youbrought that up because uh when
I I met a new gynecologist and Iwas like, I I want to find more
comments.
Do you know some more commoninitially?
She gave me a bunch of things.
One is oh, is it my heart placesomething?
I don't know.
If I'll find it, we can add itto the notes.
But again, yeah, you just typein to your Google search, right?
Organic content.
(47:24):
My husband replaced all of hisall the cotton and yeah.
It does, it makes, I think it'sthese little things that can
start to move the needle,especially if you're somebody
who's had a lot of healthissues, right?
And you've done the nutritionthing and the supplement thing,
you got to start looking at thebigger picture here.
You know, we talked aboutemotions too, but now again,
(47:45):
let's look at the environmentand what's thing.
So maybe you there's 12 monthsin a year.
So maybe your goal can be allright, this month I'm gonna I'm
gonna change out all the plasticcontainers and make everything
plastic.
Throw away all my plastic waterbottles, please.
Oh my gosh, drink out ofplastic water, yes, much water,
which is not acidic or fatty,but still over time, like it's
(48:09):
just not anytime it's exposed toheat, you know, it's going to
they're gonna start breakingdown.
Like you said, the impact onthe environment is just we need
to stop that.
Think about our futuregenerations and not making them
have to clean so much of thisup.
Use risk reusable bags, likewhen you go to the grocery
store, please, please get one.
(48:31):
It's great.
And I I have ones I give to allmy health coaching clients,
fold up into a tiny little balland granted you're gonna need
more than one, but at least youalways have if you're running in
to get something quick, youalways have that right there.
And then when you know you'redoing grocery, you take your
ones.
And I really wish the biggestthing for me is I really hate at
(48:54):
the supermarket, and everythingis still there giving you
receipts.
So that's another thing.
There's a lot of BPA inreceipts.
Most of the cycles, right?
Choose not to take the receiptif you can, right?
Take a picture of it if youmight like at a restaurant.
If you need the receipt, justtake a picture instead.
Do not idea.
Great idea.
I wish there was an option atthe supermarket.
Like, I don't want a receipt,but it's like a three-foot-long
(49:16):
receipt that I just put in thetrash, and I'm like, ah, it
makes me cringe every time.
I'm like, I just don't want thereceipt, and I'm making more,
and the trash can is full ofreceipts.
And I'm like, what a waste.
Or even I love going in thesupermarkets now where the they
have uh at Stop and Shop wherewe are, they have the little gun
and you can go around and bagstuff as you go.
I swear it saves about 30minutes when you shop.
(49:37):
That's cool.
Even they with produce, you canweigh your produce and you can
get a little sticker with metoo.
And I'm like, why can't I scanthat?
Like, I don't need the sticker.
Can we stop this stuff?
Because that's plastics, too.
But anyway, there are thesejust little things that we can
do to try to make an impact onour life and the greater global
(49:58):
society as a whole.
And the more that we are awareof this, like I said, like you
said, like all these industriesare exploding now because people
are demanding it.
And so that that is our power.
A lot of us think, what can Ido?
I'm just a little Joe Schwo inwestern Massachusetts.
But again, it it's these littlethings that do make an impact.
Yeah, and sure.
(50:19):
So anybody can do anything ifyou put your mind to it.
So yeah.
Thank you so much for takingyour time today to come and
teach us all.
I learned some good thingstoday and love it when I always
learn something new.
So I'm gonna go.
I've been growing rosemary onmy porch.
I think I'm gonna go grass.
Oh perfect, put it on my lunchfor my sandwich for lunch.
Cathy Cooke (50:40):
Excellent, excellent.
Good.
Dr. Carver (50:41):
Thanks everybody.
I hope you really enjoyed thiswhole detox series.
As always, you can always reachout and contact Kathy.
If somebody is looking for moreinformation or maybe learning
more about what a buildingbiologist does, and maybe
they're concerned with mold.
Like you said, there aren'tthat many building biologists
out there.
And I know I've searched forsome, and living in Western mask
(51:04):
in the middle of really hard tofind there.
What is a good resource?
Cathy Cooke (51:09):
Yep.
So building biologyinstitute.org is a great place
to go.
You can find many buildingbiologists.
There's not one in every city.
Um, many of us travel.
I travel pretty extensively forinspections.
If you can't find someonelocally, you might be able to
(51:30):
reach out to one that can travelto you.
But the Building BiologyInstitute has a lot of free
resources that are definitelyworth checking out.
You could look at my website,which is Whole Home and Body
Health, my Instagram page, whichis Whole Home and Body Health.
And I've got most of my reels,I try to provide tips for people
(51:53):
rather than oh my god, mold isgonna kill you or EMS is gonna
kill you.
Do this instead of this, ormaintenance tips for your house,
that kind of stuff.
Like you said, prevention iskey.
So yeah, those are goodresources.
Another one, uh, change the airfoundation.
I'm a strong advocate for.
(52:15):
They're a great resource forair quality and mold.
So yeah, that those are allgood places to start.
Dr. Carver (52:25):
Great.
It's a wonderful place to getstarted.
I know your um site has somereally awesome information.
So, again, thank you so much.
I hope everybody has a greatrest of your day, and we'll
catch you on the next episode.
Thanks.
Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode
of The Root of the Matter.
I am your host, Dr.
Rachel Carver, and today tocontinue our detox series, we're
gonna get into the nitty-grittyof how to detox our life.
We've talked a little bit aboutinfections and other things in
our body, but what about theenvironment?
I think this is a big piecethat people miss.
(00:21):
We try to clean up our body,but if we're not cleaning up the
environment, we're treadingwater here.
So I'm happy to introduceeveryone to Kathy Cook, who is a
holistic nutritionist and abuilding biologist.
And she's gonna give us sometips and tricks, talk to us a
little bit more in detail aboutall those different
environmental burdens that wecan when we create awareness, we
(00:45):
can do a little bit better andtry to clean up our environment
as best we can.
We all know there's we're nevergonna clean everything up 100%,
but having a little bit ofawareness and making better
choices can really help us andespecially our children.
I think the younger generationtoday, they're being born full
of toxins, and there are moretoxins than ever getting into
(01:07):
their body at an earlier age.
Seeing this as skyrocketingcancers in 20 and 30 year olds,
which has before now beenunheard of.
So welcome, Kathy.
Thank you for taking part ofyour Friday to share all your
expertise with us.
Maybe talk to us a little bithow you got into holistic
nutrition.
And maybe some people don'tknow what a building biologist
(01:28):
is.
Yeah, yeah.
Cathy Cooke (01:30):
Yeah, thanks, Dr.
Carver, for having me on.
I'm really excited to talk toyour audience about this and
glad that you're taking thisapproach of the environmental
piece because, like you said,it's often missed.
You talk about the diet andfood, and but air quality and
EMF, very important.
Yeah, so I have a similar storyas a lot of us alternative
(01:56):
practitioners, in that I wassick for decades and couldn't
figure it out.
And long story short, I wasworking in the nonprofit sector
for 20 something years, and thenmy health was getting worse and
worse.
So I said, I gotta just diveinto this full time.
So I started to study holisticnutrition.
(02:17):
And even then, when my I was mydiet was awesome, right?
I was detoxing, I was doing thecleanses, and I was getting
worse and worse.
And so it was around 200 maybe15 that I started to understand
the environmental piece.
And for me, it was EMF relatedmostly.
(02:39):
My cell phone and my Wi-Fi weregiving me a lot of very strong
symptoms (02:44):
tinnitus, anxiety, insomnia.
And when I mitigated those, Istarted to get better within
days.
And then I said, all right, ifthis is happening for me, it's
probably happening for a lot ofpeople.
So I decided to study at theBuilding Biology Institute,
which teaches us all things airquality, EMF, all toxins.
(03:09):
It's all about toxins that webring into our homes and how we
can build better and reducethose toxins that are in our
home already.
Yeah, so I've been doing thatsince 2018.
Dr. Carver (03:23):
Fantastic.
So you mentioned the biggestones for you were the EMFs.
And this is a hard thing for alot of people, I think, to wrap
their head around because youdon't feel it, you don't see it.
And this is modern life today.
Like we are glued to our cellphones.
I remember years and years agoand be like, soon we'll be able
to pay for everything with ourcell phones.
(03:44):
And sure enough, it didn't takelong for us to be able to, our
whole lives could be in thattiny little machine.
So maybe let's start there.
Why are EMFs so bad for us?
Cathy Cooke (03:57):
Yeah, you can't see it.
And I was a skeptic for a whilebecause I was like, what, you
want me to believe in thesewaves that are through the air?
And I didn't get it, but Ibecame so desperate after weeks
of not sleeping that I was like,okay, whatever, I'll do
whatever it takes.
So I just did a trial andturned off my phone and put it
(04:19):
in a drawer and unplugged myWi-Fi.
And like I said, within twodays, it was like, whoa, my
tinnitus is gone, my anxiety islifted.
I slept last night.
So it is very difficult becausepeople think that our life
depends on it, that we can'tcommunicate.
That how am I supposed to getin touch?
(04:41):
I can't make a phone call, Ican't do anything without it.
But I'm talking to you rightnow through my computer that is
hardwired, and I have no radiofrequency emitting from it.
You know, this is a wiredheadset, right?
I don't have to put earbuds,wireless earbuds in my ears.
So I'm not getting any radiofrequency from what I'm doing
(05:03):
right now.
I do have a phone and I use itto get directions to go to my
inspections.
Pretty much that's it.
I check it once or twice a dayfor messages, and then I make my
phone calls through myhardwired computer.
So I realize that that soundsreally cumbersome for a lot of
people, but I just want to showthat there are alternatives.
(05:24):
And if you have to make a phonecall on your cell phone once in
a while, fine.
But if you're gonna talk toyour grandma for two hours once
a week, do it through yourcomputer.
And there's ways todramatically reduce your
exposure while staying connectedto the world, and hardwiring
your internet is one of theeasiest, best things to
(05:47):
dramatically reduce that andavoid wearables.
It don't there's so many thingswe can do where our life stays
pretty much the same.
Uh, we just need to commit toputting in a little effort into
it.
But I think it's incrediblyimportant if we want to maintain
(06:08):
our health, especially with theyounger generation, as we've
got more anxiety and mentalhealth issues than ever before.
I have no doubt that theirphones and the radio frequency
and the EMF we're getting fromour devices are part of that
picture.
So I would just encouragepeople to actually take some of
(06:31):
those steps to mitigate.
We're not going to live in acave, we're just going to reduce
it where we can.
Dr. Carver (06:36):
It reminds me of last year I was in my children's
public high school in theauditorium and seeing all of the
routers and like they had two.
I was like, why do they needtwo?
There's a massive cell towerright behind the school.
And you wonder why the kids areso anxious.
The behavior is so issued.
Not only their phone, they'vegot the thousands of other kids,
(06:59):
the whole building, it's justit's tragic.
And my kids hate it, but I waslike, listen, at night, your
phones come out into thiscentral location, they get
turned off, they are not in yourrooms.
You cannot have wirelessearbuds.
I just, and of course, they'reteenagers, they're gonna fight
(07:19):
me, and whatever.
Um, everything in our house iswired, you know.
It like you said, okay, yougotta take a little bit of time,
but it's not that expensive,and it's so valuable.
And there's a lot of things outthere we can try to do to
mitigate that.
But I was talking in theprevious episode, we were
(07:40):
talking about frequencies andemotion frequencies, you know,
that's the same thing.
So, what is an EMF?
EMFs are there are naturalEMFs, right?
That are good.
Light is a frequency, but theseman-made EMFs that come off of
our devices have such highfrequencies, our body does not
(08:01):
know what to do with thesefrequencies.
And I relate it to it's as ifyou were in a teeny tiny little
room and somebody was blaringheavy metal rock at you all day
long.
That's what it feels like.
That's what our cells feel likewhen we're getting bombarded
with these man-made frequencies.
And any public place you go,airports, you know, all these
(08:23):
things, like you get you'regetting an extra dose.
So when you're doing thesekinds of things, again, like you
said, we're not trying toprevent you from being out in
society, but what are otherthings that what can we do to
build our resilience?
Because I travel for work, I goto a lot of conferences, and I
do speaking and stuff.
And I go to my kids' school todo whatever they need to do.
(08:44):
My kids are in school eighthours a day.
So for the EMF piece, we talkedabout the wired and all that.
Is there anything else that yourecommend to help us create a
little resilience for thosefrequencies?
Cathy Cooke (08:57):
Yeah, that's a great question because we have
to still live in the world.
And while there are movementsin the country to actually wire
schools, that is happening, mostof us aren't there, and it's
going to be a long time beforewe get there.
So, what can we do to protectour bodies?
There, there is supplementationthat I think it can be very
(09:19):
valuable for a lot of people.
One of the ways that EMFaffects us on a cellular level
is by artificially opening thevoltagecated calcium channels,
and then you get a flood ofcalcium ions into the cell,
which leads to oxidative stress.
While magnesium is a greatcalcium channel blocker.
So for those of us that are ina high exposure, supplementing
(09:42):
with magnesium can be helpful.
I also like to recommend thingslike rosemary tincture because
it's highly radioprotective.
Antioxidants, of course, aregoing to be helpful.
Your vitamin C, glutathione, uhmelatonin, which is
(10:02):
controversial.
I don't know whether you wantto take that routinely.
But there's actually formulastoo that will combine
resveratrol or green tea, alphapoic acid, some of these really
rich uh antioxidants that can bereally helpful as well.
(10:24):
There's one product called IonShield from Clinical Synergy,
which is it clinical synergy?
The same company that makespectasol, which I love.
So the Ion Shield is great.
I always take that when I haveto fly, or I'm gonna be in a
high radio frequencyenvironment.
(10:44):
So that can all be veryhelpful.
And then, you know, all of theother things that I know that
you talk about on your show tokeep the body resilient,
managing stress, movement,sunlight, grounding, all of
these things that just buildsthe body up so that we can
(11:05):
handle more exposure in the longterm.
Dr. Carver (11:07):
That was great.
Yeah, I like that.
I'm gonna look at that ionshield.
That sounds great.
And rosemary, I didn't knowthat about rosemary.
Cathy Cooke (11:13):
So rosemarinic acid.
There's some good data on theradioprotective abilities of
rosemarinic acid.
Pretty fascinating.
That's great.
Dr. Carver (11:21):
And I think we we underappreciate how much herbs
and spices really do for ourbody.
That's really where most of ourantioxidants come from, right?
Is these herbs and spices.
Cathy Cooke (11:31):
Yep.
Dr. Carver (11:32):
Do not be shy.
We all can love salt andpepper, but please don't be shy
with all the especially becauseso many of us, if we're running
around, maybe not eating themost balanced meals.
If you have some of these herbsin your in your pantry,
sprinkle a little bit on them.
Yeah, but grass-fed steaks.
Cathy Cooke (11:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Dr. Carver (11:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, so that's great.
So we know, okay, EMFs are aproblem, and like you said,
they're you know, we recognizethis, the science is there,
right?
The FTC, they lost that biglawsuit.
Okay, it takes so much time tomove bureaucracy.
So that's what we can do ascitizens, trying to protect our
kids and ourselves, which isgreat.
(12:12):
What's another really bigenvironmental toxin you think
that uh impacts us?
Cathy Cooke (12:19):
Gosh, there's so many, but often mold, of course,
is huge, but I really wantpeople to think about what
they're bringing into theirhouse.
I have a colleague who says thefront door is your biggest
filter in your home becauseyou're bringing you are bringing
(12:41):
in the furniture, the carpet,the nonstick cookware, the
cleaning supplies, the bodycare, all things that the
majority of what's on the marketcontain parabens, phthalates,
PFATs, all of these chemicals,which are endocrine disruptors
and other things that most of uscan easily change.
(13:06):
So I really want peoplesometimes the EMF might be
overwhelming, or going down themold rabbit hole is super
overwhelming.
But for those of us that arelike, I just want to make some
changes, cool, get rid of yournonstick cookware.
Please get rid of your nonstickcookware.
Use carbon steel, use stainlesssteel, use glass.
(13:30):
There's options.
You can even find, I have founduh glass cookware at the thrift
stores, uh cast iron, like youcan do it pretty inexpensively.
You can get a cast iron pan atWalmart for $10 or $15.
Like, these are inexpensive,easy ways to make immediate
(13:52):
changes.
I really would love for peopleto look at their body care and
see if it's got phthalates orparabens or fragrances.
There is a I am in a waragainst fragrances with
Americans.
It is not going well becausepeople do not want to get rid of
(14:14):
their fragrances.
Dr. Carver (14:15):
Anytime I post the worst, I'm like 100% kids, and I
was like, wait, I keep throwingthem away and they keep
reappearing.
Where are you getting thethings?
Cathy Cooke (14:24):
Yes.
I post a reel on Instagramabout fragrances, and you would
think that I said, I'm Satan.
Like the hate that I get ismind-boggling.
People don't want to do it.
But a clean home has no smell,and fragrances, cognitive
issues, asthma, endocrinedisruption, it's real.
(14:47):
And we can easily change this.
You can get shampoo withessential oils if you really
love that smell.
That would be way better, andit's easy to find.
The moisturizers, one of myfavorite moisturizer face care
lines is Anna Maria Skin Care,which is fat Anne Marie Skin
(15:08):
Care, which is fabulous, andit's all essential oils, and it
smells amazing, heavenly.
So there are better options.
So I want people to reallythink about what are they
buying, what are they bringingin?
Cleaning chemicals, a wholeother thing.
Cleaning chemicals is even moreof an issue because it's got
all of these chemicals, andyou're spraying it on the
(15:30):
counters, and then you'retouching the counters and you're
consuming it.
So not only are you inhalingit, but peripherally, you may be
ingesting it.
And kids walk on babies walkingon the floors, or your pets,
and then the pets are lickingtheir paws.
Like it is a very serious thingthat does not get attention,
(15:54):
like you said, and we can changethese things easily.
So I would love for people topay attention to that.
Dr. Carver (16:00):
I keep that important.
And I think again, start in thekitchen.
I like the idea of let's startin the kitchen.
This is where, like you said,the counters, the cookware we're
using.
This is we know nutrition is soimportant.
We want to try to minimize whatwe're putting in the body.
Not only getting rid of thenonstick, okay, these have these
PFAS, which are foreverchemicals.
(16:23):
There's so much informationabout there and how dramatic
they are.
I don't know all thestatistics, but you have one
little scratch in your nonstickpan and you're giving off
thousands and thousands of thesechemicals.
That's getting in these are thethings when they're called
forever chemicals, that'sbecause your body cannot, even
if you had the most robust detoxand elimination system, these
(16:45):
things, it's very hard.
I remember I did a test onetime and it showed uh DDT in my
system that was banned threeyears before I was even born,
and yet my body had overwhelmingamounts of DDT in my system 40
years later.
So it's run, and again, forchildren especially, their
(17:06):
immune systems aren't fullydeveloped until age three.
So any synthetic interventionsin that first three years, you
gotta be, and like I said, a lotof babies are already born with
their immune systems shotbecause of what us as moms we've
been living in this toxicworld.
So important, if you're makingyour own baby food or you're
(17:29):
buying baby food, please don'tbuy baby food and plastic,
right?
Plastics are terrible, they uhthey're another like these
forever chemicals, they are soconvenient, obviously.
But that's the second thing Iwould say is remove the
nonstick.
And there's some there's agreat company called Our Place.
(17:51):
I replaced all my nonstick withthis ceramic our place that has
been tested all up and down,and it's fantastic.
If I had another one that wasterrible, it was not nonstick,
but this has been really good.
But I no food and plastic ever.
When if we get takeoutsometimes, and I love Indian, I
immediately take it out of thatplastic and put it in glass.
(18:14):
If there's anything left overyet, it would it's convenient to
just put the top back on andput it on the fridge.
But no, no, if there's anythingacidic or fatty, that's going
to even more leach out theplastic even more.
Do not buy ketchup in plastic,mayonnaise in plastic.
So think that acidic and fattythings will leach the plastic
even faster.
(18:35):
So we'll replace all of thejust no more plastic.
You can buy so many likereusable stuff for kids, snacks
and stuff, reusable siliconestuff.
Cathy Cooke (18:45):
All there, there's so many, like so many elemental,
yeah, yep, yep.
So many easy options thatexist.
Dr. Carver (18:52):
Exactly.
Yeah, so those are my twobiggest things in the kitchen,
right?
Is it's uh no more plastic andand no more like the nonstick.
We don't even have a microwaveanymore.
It broke one day.
It was really interestingbecause it broke, and the one in
my office broke within a weekof each other.
And I was like, you know, theuniverse is telling me how we
(19:13):
create all these toxicbyproducts, and so my kids find
it annoying, but they're used toit now.
Okay, we have a toaster, wehave an oven, okay.
So maybe it takes a few extraminutes to cook everything, but
and no food tastes good in thefrom the microwave.
We all know that, and then andfor the cleaning, like you said,
things like baking soda, borax,vinegar, like there, you can
(19:37):
find a million uh recipes onlineto help you clean, less
expensive, less waste if you buya glass container and you make
your own.
And again, people like I'm toobusy for that.
I get it, I am a super busyperson, but one day I just said,
What is my goal here?
Like, if I really want to behealthy, I need to live this
(19:59):
way.
If I and I bought glasscontainers and I'll just make my
own.
And there's some companiesthat'll give you little
concentrates and you can you cando it that way.
But um, you also want to thinkabout the environmental impact
with all these things we'rethrowing, all the plastic we're
throwing.
Classic bottling, uh it's it'sterrible.
So reusable all again, allover.
(20:21):
And the beauty products.
So I think what you said isthat is my biggest pet peeve,
too, is the fragrances.
And it's and now you say it'seasy to find.
I find it actually verydifficult to find products
without because now and they'llhide it, right?
Cathy Cooke (20:38):
Because they'll say you might see parfum, parfum,
yes, they should fragrance.
Dr. Carver (20:46):
Anytime you see fragrance, and this this kind of
bothers me because sometimesthe label will say no
phthalates, but they listfragrance, and I'm like
fragrance like I'm not surethat's true.
Yeah, but it's interesting, andthen then they won't tell you
what the fragrance is becauseit's proprietary, they get
around the legal thingproprietary.
(21:08):
So again, I I find itchallenging.
One of the shampoos I like isShea Moisture.
That I don't some of them mighthave some, but in certain ones
I like that and looking for thefragrance free.
But for having teenage girls, Ihave two teenage girls, they
want all the they'll watch allthe social media and they get
all and yeah, I go into Targetand I'm like, oh my god, like
(21:32):
even the natural brands, yeah,yeah, right.
Yes, I just finished reading abook about Coco Chanel on her
Chanel number five, thepreeminent.
And I was like, I wonder,because I told my kids, I said,
I will, if you want to have somekind of perfume, like I'll buy
you a real one.
I will spend the money to buyyou a real one because I don't
(21:55):
I'm concerned about you guysdeveloping and all that stuff.
So but even and I was like, Iwonder if it's the original
formulation because it wasmanufactured in 1921.
And they said the reason why itlingers is because she had
aldehydes added to it, so itdoesn't have phthalates, but it
(22:16):
does have these aldehydes, whichmight not be perfect.
But then I did find, but thenagain online, yeah, I looked up
toxin-free perfumes, and I foundone that had a little sample,
so I ordered it because I waslike, well, if I can find one
that the my kids will like,maybe I can stop finding bed in
(22:36):
bed bath and beyond stuff.
So phthalates we know arerelated to fragrances.
What are parabens and why do wehave to be worried about that?
Cathy Cooke (22:50):
Parabens are put into a lot of products for the
consistency and uh preservativesto for the uh to keep the
product uh shelf stable and uhall mixed together and uh the
consistency of the product.
Uh, but they can be endocrinedisruptors as well.
(23:11):
And when we're talking aboutendocrine disruption, uh we're
thinking our that's ourhormones, right?
Uh for those that don't usefancy words.
So our thyroid who doesn't havethyroid issues and adrenal
issues, our sex hormones.
There's a big uh epidemic ofinfertility in this country, and
(23:38):
uh I actually teach some healthclasses at my local hospital
once in a while, and one of themis a puberty class, and early
puberty, early breastdevelopment.
It's almost normal, it's normalnow, it's common, it's not
normal, but it's very commonbecause we're exposed to all of
(24:02):
these endocrine disruptingproducts, so it's very
problematic.
Uh if especially once we becomethe age where we want to start
reproducing and have a family,and we have to go through IVF
(24:22):
and years and years uh trying toget pregnant, like that's
stressful, it's expensive, it'sheartbreaking.
And if your body's saying, Ican't get pregnant, it's
probably saying I'm not healthyenough to carry a child and
produce a healthy person.
So, of course, anyone who wantsto have a child, like I fully
support that, but it's stressfulbecause we're trying so hard to
(24:48):
force this to happen.
And are we ha are we gonna havehealthy kids?
Like it's very difficult.
So just another simple chemicalthat they're putting in the
products that can unfortunatelyover time and chronic exposure
can lead to big issues.
Dr. Carver (25:05):
Yeah, and those are the things that are prominent
in the plastics too, which iswhy I'm like really against
those as well.
And I think you make a reallyimportant point.
Um both of my sisters hadfertility treatment, and they're
they're in their 40s, so Ithink it's getting, but now you
see the young, and I just likeall their friends.
(25:26):
It was like, yeah, it's justthe common thing now.
And it's my own daughter who Iknow all of this, and I've been
very good about stuff in myhouse.
She, my younger got her periodat 11.
11.
I was like, oh my god, and Iwas so not prepared.
My other daughter was 12 and ahalf, which is I think a decent
age, and again, frightening tome because I knew this and I
(25:46):
minimized all of this, but yetstill we live in this
environment.
We used to travel on vacation alot, so she was still getting
exposed to a lot.
But it yeah, again, verycommon.
And yes, we have Ivy and wehave all these great things, but
it is a signal to our bodies.
Yeah, it's something in this mydaughter said to me, Oh, mom,
(26:08):
you're so old.
I want to be a young mom.
I was 30 when I wouldn'tconsider myself old, but yes.
And I said, you know that youknow, all those that bad oils on
those French fries you'reeating, right?
It takes seven years for that.
If you never ate another Frenchfry, it would take seven years
for that to get out of yoursystem.
(26:28):
So I'm like, So you gotta thinkabout that.
If you want to get at 25, yougotta start right.
If she wants to be younger mom,you gotta clean up your act
now.
I was like, you may feel finenow, but I'm telling you guys,
you gotta clean up the act here.
Yeah, because these are theformative years, right?
When the hormones are alldeveloping, and this is when
they're into all the junk foodand all and all the products,
(26:53):
and oh my gosh.
I never knew any about thatstuff.
We didn't have social mediawhen I was a teenager, and yeah,
with makeup and then this andthen that.
And I'm like, I'm like, I getit.
I would like I'd rather younever touch that stuff, but if
you're going to, let's look forthe alternative.
Yeah, absolutely.
And like anything, the morepeople the reason I do this
podcast is I want to createawareness, and I think the only
(27:16):
way we make real change is withour dollars, right?
So you can go and you can fightbureaucracy all you want,
you're not gonna get very farbecause it's really at the end
of the day, it's all about thedollars.
So if we start buying more ofthese natural, look at all these
natural food brands that aregetting bought up left and right
by the big food companies everyday, right?
(27:37):
Because whoa, people aregluten-free industry, it's a
billion-dollar industry now.
It barely existed 10 years ago.
Yeah, people start demanding.
So if we start demanding lesstoxic products, we start using
our boats and buying these morenatural things, then there's
everything has to shift, right?
(27:57):
And but so many people againaren't really aware of how all
these things impact us.
And again, it's not the onething, right?
My kid, if they eat oh, it'sfine, but they eat the french
fries, then they have theperfume, then they have the
makeup, then they're on and on.
The bucket, that's how Iexplain it, right?
Your bucket is getting full sofast, and it's so much harder to
(28:21):
treat something than it is toprevent something.
Cathy Cooke (28:23):
Yes, yes, yes, prevention, it's all about the
prevention.
Dr. Carver (28:29):
And again, it's challenging, but again, the more
we're all aware of this and westart making better choices
about the foods we eat, theproducts we buy, the things,
then then we're gonna start tomake a real that's exactly it,
and that's what I really like tostress with people too, because
like you said, they get peopleare super overwhelmed.
Cathy Cooke (28:51):
Like, I gotta get rid of my whole house.
No, the next time you go to buyshampoo, get a fragrance-free
option.
But the next time you go to ifyou need a new pan, whatever,
get the carbon steel or whateverit is.
So one thing at a time, andthen a year from now, you're
gonna go, Whoa, I made a ton ofchanges.
(29:13):
So, you know, and then there'sthe people who are like, Nope,
doing it all today.
Awesome, do it.
But we don't, yeah, it's onestep at a time.
I don't want anybody to getparalyzed with overwhelm.
So we just do one thing at atime and it adds up fast.
Yeah.
Dr. Carver (29:29):
What about maybe furniture?
Let's say somebody'sredecorating a room.
What do they want to thinkabout?
Do they need to be consideredwhat type of furniture they buy,
what kind of flooring they buy?
What about feet?
There's a lot of differentthings.
Cathy Cooke (29:43):
Furniture's tough.
That's the toughest one,honestly.
Because you can get a mattressor well, mattress, uh couch that
has latex cushions and cottonor linen covers, but it's Gonna
cost you six thousand dollars.
If you can do it, fabulous.
(30:04):
Most of us aren't in thatposition.
I actually have a futon for acouch, which is a really decent
option.
It's cotton, it's all cottonfuton, and the frame is wood.
I totally understand thatthat's not gonna meet the
aesthetic for the majority ofpeople, but you can find some
(30:25):
that look very nice and fit witha minimalistic look.
Um, and you can put uh nicecovers on them for someone that
can do that.
Awesome.
So I honestly the couches andthe chairs, that's the biggest
challenge.
So we can do our best there.
Dr. Carver (30:48):
And then you know that is like letting it, let's
say you get it, let it sitoutside or in your garage for a
few days and really try tooff-gas it's that off-gas it.
Cathy Cooke (30:58):
Yep, yes, let it off-gas for a few days for sure.
And then you can also put alittle baking soda on it and
vacuum it or put little carbonpouches.
It's not gonna be a hugedifference, but it'll help a
little bit.
But mattresses, for some reasonin the last five, ten years,
(31:23):
the green mattress industry hasexploded, which I find very
interesting.
So you can find healthiermattress options all over the
place.
Why that hasn't extended fullyinto the couches, I don't really
know.
But there's a lot of reallygood options for mattresses.
(31:44):
Again, you could do if you'reon a budget, you can do
something like a cotton futon orwool.
Uh I have a latex mattress,100% latex, with a wool topper.
Uh there's um nature pedic,which is a very popular mattress
brand, there's avocado.
Uh there's a lot of options formattresses out there that
(32:07):
people can do.
And then uh otherwise, if wefocus on solid wood, tables,
desks, kitchen table, chairs,great options.
And then carpet.
Carpet is the other thing thatI would love it if people got
(32:30):
rid of.
I just actually moved into anew location and there's carpet
here.
That's I couldn't manage that.
But what I'm doing is buyingvery big area rugs that are
cotton to put over it so thatI'm minimizing what's in the air
and my skin contact, which canbe helpful.
(32:51):
And I have air purification,air purifiers.
So if you've got carpet and youcan get rid of it, that would
be one of the best ways toimprove your overall air
quality.
And then what you want toreplace that with hardwood,
always a great option, alwaysprobably the best option.
If you can't do hardwood, youcan think about something like
(33:13):
cork, which would be better thancarpet.
Cork is gonna have someadhesives in it, but it's better
than carpet.
Marmoleum is a great flooringchoice for bathrooms or
kitchens.
So marmoleum is looks likelinoleum or like an old vinyl,
but it's made with flax andnatural materials, so it's not
(33:37):
toxic.
And there's some really cool,really high-end designs, so it
can look really nice.
And then we've got like theengineered hardwood or the vinyl
planks.
They're better than carpet, notideal, but I would definitely
recommend them over carpet.
The vinyl planks are gonnadelaminate and flake off over
(34:00):
time, not great for theenvironment, but from a chemical
exposure point point of view,way better than carpet.
So depends on your budget andwhat you can do, but those would
be my options.
Dr. Carver (34:13):
So you mentioned air quality, which is a big
thing that and we spend so muchof our life indoors these days
that uh and air quality issomething we don't think about.
But maybe talk to us a littlebit about what you think.
Should we all have airpurifiers as their way to test
for our air quality and againwhy it's important?
Cathy Cooke (34:35):
Yeah, air quality is huge because we eat one to
three times a day.
We drink, I don't know, 60ounces of water a day, but we
breathe non-stop.
So uh it's awesome that we'repaying attention to our food and
what we're drinking, but whatwe're breathing is a much bigger
(34:55):
volume of toxins.
So uh air quality is uh hugebecause it's uh we're breathing
it in and it's going directlyinto our circulation.
I think most people wouldbenefit from having air
purifiers in their home if welive in a city.
If we live out in the woods andour house is built of wood and
(35:18):
natural materials, maybe we canget by without it.
But these days, most of us needit because our air is
unfortunately not great, and wehave all of these things in our
house that we've been talkingabout.
So there's a lot of airpurifiers out on the market, and
(35:38):
they may use some fancymarketing terms.
We've got ions andphotocatalytic jargon, blah,
blah, blah.
You don't need any of that.
You need a HEPA filter and youneed carbon.
That's it.
The more simple, the better.
HEPA is gonna captureparticulate down to 0.3 microns
(36:00):
or smaller, which would includeyour mold spores, some viruses,
bacteria, dander, the in some ofthe larger particulate dust.
What's in our dust?
Heavy metals, all of thesechemicals we're talking about,
mold spores, bacteria.
So we really need to do abetter job of keeping our dust
(36:22):
load down.
That was a segue, but back tothe filter carbon.
You want a large amount ofcarbon because that's gonna
capture the VOCs or the volatileorganic compounds.
So those are the only twothings that I recommend.
And then that's gonna help tofilter the air, especially for
(36:44):
people that are in wildfireareas or dense populations where
we need more of that.
Another thing that uh brings mea lot of hateful comments, but
I'll mention it anyway, is ourcandles and our our scented that
(37:05):
we just Febreze and such?
Yeah, the Febreze and the Gladeplugins and all of these things
that we're trying to do, thereed diffusers, but even the
candles, even uh your audienceprobably knows well, I don't use
scented candles, but I use onethat's made of soy and essential
(37:26):
oils.
But the problem is we're notsupposed to heat essential oils,
that's not great.
If you are using essential oilson a high ozone day, like
orange or a citrus, you cancreate formaldehyde.
And when you're burning acandle, you've got particulate.
You're burning particulate,which you are then inhaling,
(37:46):
which is not awesome.
If you want to do a candle oncein a while, fine, but don't do
them every day.
Incense, pretty toxic stuff.
So we need to be really carefulabout even the natural options
that we're choosing.
I prefer to limit those becauseof that particulate that we're
(38:10):
breathing.
So, yes, for all of thesereasons, air purification, I'm a
big fan of that.
Dr. Carver (38:19):
I agree.
I have them in definitely mykids' rooms with their uh all
their fragrances everywhere.
Um try to keep them.
We live in the woods, but Istill, again, because of
everything that they're exposedto, right?
You know, we try to keep theirwindows open as much of the year
as we can.
We're in the northeast, so itgets a little cold in the
winter.
But get it, and even though webuilt a new house, we have the
(38:42):
fresh air circulated, but Idon't need I don't think it cuts
it enough.
We actually bought all thesemonitors and we're like, ugh,
still the quality can beproblematic.
I'm also a huge proponent ofclean air because, like you, I
really like how you said thatnon-stop, we're breathing stuff
in.
How many people I can't tellyou how many people I see in my
(39:04):
practice with enormous tonsils.
More than half, more than halfof my patients.
Really?
Yes.
And your tonsils is immunetissue, right?
That that if we're notbreathing through our nose for
whatever reason, if it's cloggedor we have allergies, right?
Tonsils have to collect andfilter.
And even if you aren'tbreathing through your nose,
(39:26):
that tonsil still is as afilter.
And I had a family, it wasinteresting, they all happened
to be in on the same day, andall four of them had these huge
tonsils.
And I was like, what's going onwith the air in your house?
They were using a wood-burningfire place.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So great, guys.
Yeah, you can use it, but open,get some fresh air going too,
(39:46):
maybe some air purifiers.
But again, that's a sign oftoxin accumulation.
When your immune tissue isgetting is that swollen, working
overtime, that's that that's aproblem.
And again, we dismiss it.
And again, we live so much ofour life indoors around all
these scents.
And yeah, in the carpet.
(40:07):
Yeah, carpet's one of the oneof the worst.
Even for my kids, we have woodflooring, but I'm like, no more
even rugs.
I'm like, you can have a woolrug, but or cotton, but I'm
like, yeah, too much of that isso much is too much, it's like
synthetic.
So I think that's a really bigone and should be high on the
list of making sure that the airis as pure as possible.
(40:31):
I also like what you said aboutthe keeping the dust down.
That's why I love my roomba.
I'm too busy to when I go towork, hit the on button.
I don't know.
So get it done for me.
Big proponent of those kind ofthings to help us when we're not
around to do it, because that'swhere a lot of the mold lace
(40:51):
and mold is such a problem.
We want to talk about a rabbithole, but it is a major immune
suppression and really a lotbehind chronic strep throat
infraction, behind when peoplehave worsening Lyme disease,
it's often because you havemold.
Yes.
So that's problematic.
So anything we can do again,the keeping the fresh air,
(41:15):
keeping the airs filtered,trying to minimize it.
Because a lot of times mold asa build-in biologist, you can
probably say a lot of mold'sinvisible.
It's obvious when you see theblack mold in certain areas, but
it's when it's behind behindthe walls, you don't know it,
you know, but you're stillreading it.
Cathy Cooke (41:35):
Which it usually is, and very difficult to find.
Even most my work, most of mywork these days is mold
inspections because there's nota lot of us, not a lot of us
willing to go into a crawl spacewith snakes and spiders and
rodents, and it's a dirty job,but it hides very well.
(41:58):
And yeah, you don't see it, andso it's a real problem, and
it's gonna continue potentiallyto cause you a lot of symptoms
until you find it and remove it.
And there's no magic spray,there's no magic fog, no magic
(42:19):
spray, no magic air purifierthat's gonna resolve that.
It has to be physicallyremoved.
Dr. Carver (42:24):
Yeah, and that's a thing I think a lot of us don't
really.
I mean, my husband used tofight me for years because
always in testing and things,all uh mycotoxins always come up
for everybody in my family.
And I was like, oh, mold'severywhere.
I'm like, I understand, butmold also becomes toxic.
Yes, it's everywhere and it'spart of our natural environment.
But now, because of all theother chemicals in our house,
(42:47):
mold creates mold is it'severywhere, but when it gets
angry and threatened orwhatever, it creates more of the
toxic.
So all these bacteria andfungus and all these, this is
all part of nature.
But it's when they get exposedto some toxic thing that they
become more toxic, that theirbyproducts become more
problematic for us.
(43:08):
So parasites, all these thingshave been around since
millennium beginning of time,but now they're much more
problematic because of all theseother toxins in the cumulative,
and um, and so that that's whatwe really need to think about
for years.
Like my husband painted ourwhole garage with mold-free
paint, whatever it was, which isgreat, but then the ceiling in
(43:30):
the garage, you can see with allthe scenes of the uh I was
like, Okay, and that's where ourcars are, and we're in the cars
every day.
And I was like, you know, canyou please that to fix this?
And so the borax and all thisup, but I'm like, uh, and
painted over it, but I'm like, Idon't know if that's really
(43:51):
gonna solve yeah.
Cathy Cooke (43:53):
I mean, it's not yeah, physical removal is the
only real solution, and um yeah,it's a beast.
The whole topic of mold is abeast, and it is everywhere.
And I I get that comments fromother inspectors or remediation
companies because they call meextreme and over the top, and
(44:16):
I'm like, I'm just followingindustry standards, yeah.
But it is everywhere, but notin those quantities we find it
in our house.
So you're not gonna see a wallfull of stachybatris out in
nature, so that's thedifference.
It's the quantity, and it's notregulated from the ecosystem.
(44:39):
It doesn't have sun and windand bacteria to manage it, so
it's growing out of proportionto what is natural, and that's
what people, a lot of peoplearen't really factoring in.
Dr. Carver (44:50):
Yeah, that's important.
Yeah, so we've talked aboutsome EMFs and our plastic
bookware and our fragrances andparabens and our furniture.
As we're wrapping up here, isthere anything that maybe we
missed that people should beaware of to think about?
Cathy Cooke (45:10):
Yeah, one thing that a lot of us aren't thinking
about is our clothing, which Ithink is really important.
Actually, everything I have onright now is cotton, all like
100%, 95% cotton, 5% Hispanics,whatever.
But these synthetic clothing, Iwould love it if people would
(45:30):
start making choices towardscotton or linen or silk because
they're microplastics and we'rewearing them, and we are getting
chemicals from them when we putthem on our skin.
And then when we wash them,they break down into
microplastics and put moremicroplastics into the
(45:52):
environment, into our waterways.
So that's one area that has alot of opportunity for
improvement.
And I'm not telling people togo get rid of everything they
own right now, but the next timeyou need a new shirt, maybe you
choose a cotton option versuspolyester or rayon or whatever
(46:13):
it is.
Dr. Carver (46:13):
So, yeah, a lot of opportunity that we could do
better there.
And I think the most importantthing, if nothing else, at least
let your undergarments be 100%.
100% like my kids, isn't it?
There are a lot of brands outthere.
My girls, they're teenagers,they want cute underwear, they
don't want granny panties.
There are a lot of companieswhere you can buy one.
(46:34):
I even got some on Amazon.
Just look for 100% organiccotton underwear.
If you're gonna spend money,you can't replace the whole
wardrobe just right.
Please buy the underwear andbras that are organic and
cotton.
Cathy Cooke (46:50):
100%.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's another industrythat's exploded randomly.
Like, why are we focused?
But a lot of options forundergarments.
Yeah, yeah, perfect.
Dr. Carver (47:02):
Yeah, good.
I'm glad you I'm glad youbrought that up because uh when
I I met a new gynecologist and Iwas like, I I want to find more
comments.
Do you know some more commoninitially?
She gave me a bunch of things.
One is oh, is it my heart placesomething?
I don't know.
If I'll find it, we can add itto the notes.
But again, yeah, you just typein to your Google search, right?
Organic content.
(47:24):
My husband replaced all of hisall the cotton and yeah.
It does, it makes, I think it'sthese little things that can
start to move the needle,especially if you're somebody
who's had a lot of healthissues, right?
And you've done the nutritionthing and the supplement thing,
you got to start looking at thebigger picture here.
You know, we talked aboutemotions too, but now again,
(47:45):
let's look at the environmentand what's thing.
So maybe you there's 12 monthsin a year.
So maybe your goal can be allright, this month I'm gonna I'm
gonna change out all the plasticcontainers and make everything
plastic.
Throw away all my plastic waterbottles, please.
Oh my gosh, drink out ofplastic water, yes, much water,
which is not acidic or fatty,but still over time, like it's
(48:09):
just not anytime it's exposed toheat, you know, it's going to
they're gonna start breakingdown.
Like you said, the impact onthe environment is just we need
to stop that.
Think about our futuregenerations and not making them
have to clean so much of thisup.
Use risk reusable bags, likewhen you go to the grocery
store, please, please get one.
(48:31):
It's great.
And I I have ones I give to allmy health coaching clients,
fold up into a tiny little balland granted you're gonna need
more than one, but at least youalways have if you're running in
to get something quick, youalways have that right there.
And then when you know you'redoing grocery, you take your
ones.
And I really wish the biggestthing for me is I really hate at
(48:54):
the supermarket, and everythingis still there giving you
receipts.
So that's another thing.
There's a lot of BPA inreceipts.
Most of the cycles, right?
Choose not to take the receiptif you can, right?
Take a picture of it if youmight like at a restaurant.
If you need the receipt, justtake a picture instead.
Do not idea.
Great idea.
I wish there was an option atthe supermarket.
Like, I don't want a receipt,but it's like a three-foot-long
(49:16):
receipt that I just put in thetrash, and I'm like, ah, it
makes me cringe every time.
I'm like, I just don't want thereceipt, and I'm making more,
and the trash can is full ofreceipts.
And I'm like, what a waste.
Or even I love going in thesupermarkets now where the they
have uh at Stop and Shop wherewe are, they have the little gun
and you can go around and bagstuff as you go.
I swear it saves about 30minutes when you shop.
(49:37):
That's cool.
Even they with produce, you canweigh your produce and you can
get a little sticker with metoo.
And I'm like, why can't I scanthat?
Like, I don't need the sticker.
Can we stop this stuff?
Because that's plastics, too.
But anyway, there are thesejust little things that we can
do to try to make an impact onour life and the greater global
(49:58):
society as a whole.
And the more that we are awareof this, like I said, like you
said, like all these industriesare exploding now because people
are demanding it.
And so that that is our power.
A lot of us think, what can Ido?
I'm just a little Joe Schwo inwestern Massachusetts.
But again, it it's these littlethings that do make an impact.
Yeah, and sure.
(50:19):
So anybody can do anything ifyou put your mind to it.
So yeah.
Thank you so much for takingyour time today to come and
teach us all.
I learned some good thingstoday and love it when I always
learn something new.
So I'm gonna go.
I've been growing rosemary onmy porch.
I think I'm gonna go grass.
Oh perfect, put it on my lunchfor my sandwich for lunch.
Cathy Cooke (50:40):
Excellent, excellent.
Good.
Dr. Carver (50:41):
Thanks everybody.
I hope you really enjoyed thiswhole detox series.
As always, you can always reachout and contact Kathy.
If somebody is looking for moreinformation or maybe learning
more about what a buildingbiologist does, and maybe
they're concerned with mold.
Like you said, there aren'tthat many building biologists
out there.
And I know I've searched forsome, and living in Western mask
(51:04):
in the middle of really hard tofind there.
What is a good resource?
Cathy Cooke (51:09):
Yep.
So building biologyinstitute.org is a great place
to go.
You can find many buildingbiologists.
There's not one in every city.
Um, many of us travel.
I travel pretty extensively forinspections.
If you can't find someonelocally, you might be able to
(51:30):
reach out to one that can travelto you.
But the Building BiologyInstitute has a lot of free
resources that are definitelyworth checking out.
You could look at my website,which is Whole Home and Body
Health, my Instagram page, whichis Whole Home and Body Health.
And I've got most of my reels,I try to provide tips for people
(51:53):
rather than oh my god, mold isgonna kill you or EMS is gonna
kill you.
Do this instead of this, ormaintenance tips for your house,
that kind of stuff.
Like you said, prevention iskey.
So yeah, those are goodresources.
Another one, uh, change the airfoundation.
I'm a strong advocate for.
(52:15):
They're a great resource forair quality and mold.
So yeah, that those are allgood places to start.
Dr. Carver (52:25):
Great.
It's a wonderful place to getstarted.
I know your um site has somereally awesome information.
So, again, thank you so much.
I hope everybody has a greatrest of your day, and we'll
catch you on the next episode.
Thanks.
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