#1 Longevity Doctor_ 7 Toxic Products Destroying Your Health

Mel Robbins

Order your copy of The Let Them Theory 👉 https://melrob.co/let-them-theory 👈 The #1 Best Selling Book of 2025 🔥 Discover how much power you truly have. It all begins with two simple words. Let Them. — What if the products you use every day, the air you breathe, and the food you eat is making you sick?   Today, Mel speaks with Dr. Eric Topol, MD, one of the most cited scientists and researchers in the world, about the hidden toxins in your environment that are silently hijacking the health of you and your family.  Dr. Topol shares the alarming truth about the microplastics and forever chemicals that are all around you, and how they’re linked to skyrocketing rates of infertility, cancer in young people, heart disease, and even cognitive decline.   Most importantly, he will share the exact products and chemicals to watch out for, how to avoid them, and the simple changes you can make right now to protect you and your kids.   You will learn: -Why microplastics are showing up in your arteries, brain, and reproductive system, and what that means for you  -The connection between forever chemicals and diseases like diabetes, dementia, and cancer  -Which everyday products in your kitchen, bathroom, and home may be silently making you sick  -How to read labels so you know what’s safe, and what’s not  -And the 3 most important changes you can make right now to reduce your exposure and protect your family   This episode is both a wake-up call and a guide.   You’ll walk away not only understanding the invisible threats in your environment, but also the simple, practical steps you can take to safeguard your health and longevity.   For more resources related to today’s episode, click here for the podcast episode page: https://www.melrobbins.com/episode/ep...   Follow The Mel Robbins Podcast on Instagram:   / themelrobbinspodcast     I’m just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I’ll see you in the next episode. — Timecodes: 00:00 Meet the Guest 01:31 The Chemicals that are Hurting You Quietly 11:31 Simple Ways to Avoid Microplastics  15:24 The Everyday Items Harming your Health 23:36 How to Make Your Home Safer 29:32 Control What You Can 35:04 You Can Make a Difference — Follow Mel: Instagram:   / melrobbins    TikTok:   / melrobbins    Facebook:   / melrobbins    LinkedIn:   / melrobbins    Website: http://melrobbins.com​  — Sign up for Mel’s newsletter: https://melrob.co/sign-up-newsletter A note from Mel to you, twice a week, sharing simple, practical ways to build the life you want. — Subscribe to Mel’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/melrobbins​?s...  — Listen to The Mel Robbins Podcast 🎧 New episodes drop every Monday & Thursday! https://melrob.co/spotify https://melrob.co/applepodcasts https://melrob.co/amazonmusic  — Looking for Mel’s books on Amazon? Find them here:

Transcript

00:00what the heck is a microplastic and where is it it's everywhere it's so pervasive in our brain

00:06reproductive organs plastic water bottles plastic bags plastic everywhere you name it

00:11it's just a serious problem hey it's mel today on the mel robbins podcast we have dr eric topol

00:18he is one of the most respected scientists and medical researchers who's alive today

00:23his work has been cited in over 360 000 times in academic journals he's going to talk about

00:28microplastics and how there are seven toxic products that are in your home right now that

00:33are destroying your health what are forever chemicals yeah so pfas per fluoroalkylating

00:39agents there's over 10 000 of these chemicals whether we're eating breathing or drinking we're

00:44constantly exposed to these they are in you know microscopic minute quantities but it isn't like

00:50they go out i mean they just we just are accumulating these into our body a spoonful of microplastics in

00:57our brain we're seeing people in their 20s now with colon cancer women in their 30s young 30s

01:04with breast cancer the question is why they had no genetic predisposition is that your theory that

01:10the rise in cancer in young people is due to forever chemicals and air pollution and water when you take

01:16that whole mix they're all what you could consider as epidemics the problem we have is we're in a state

01:22of complacency we've just accepted this i think it's time to hit the alarm now

01:27dr topol welcome to mel robbins podcast i am thrilled that you're here thanks i'm so thrilled

01:37to be with you well i just want to start by congratulating you on a fantastic new best-selling

01:45book super agers i absolutely devoured this and i'm thrilled that you're here because

01:50i cannot wait to get into a section of your book about how environmental factors

01:57are impacting how we age our longevity and our health overall and so i'm thrilled you're here and

02:04what i would love to do is start by having you speak directly to the person who's with us right now

02:10and tell them what might change about their life if they take everything that you're about to share

02:16with us and teach us today to heart and they put it to use in their life well i mean i think the

02:21principal things that we've been known about for years these lifestyle factors i call them lifestyle

02:27plus because it's much more than just diet exercise and sleep we have to now add in environmental

02:34factors we haven't paid nearly enough attention and the compelling evidence that has come forth

02:40on air pollution microplastics nanoplastics and the forever chemicals these things are having a big

02:48impact and we're not doing anything about it for starters i just want to understand them because i

02:54had never heard the word microplastics for example i think intellectually or common sense wise you of

02:59course go oh well you know air pollution of course impacts your health but some of the statistics that

03:06we're going to unpack in your book in terms of the connection between environmental factors

03:10and the diseases that people get and the health challenges that people are facing it's really scary

03:18dr topol it is scary and the fact that most people are not aware of the risks and that we're not doing

03:26anything about those risks you know certain conditions we are masked because like a heart attack we can't

03:32really say oh it's from this forever chemical or from the plastics or the air pollution can't really

03:39say because they're so common it's the number one killer but when you see the declines in fertility both

03:46among men and women and you know that these plastics and chemicals are invading the testes and the ovaries

03:53and the reproductive system right when you see young people as i've seen in their 20s and 30s developing

03:59cancer with no risk you say well wait a minute these are special groups of people that shouldn't have these things

04:05what is it in our environment that could account for this and you know until proven otherwise

04:10these are the things we have to consider are causal i agree with you you know as i was reading super

04:18agers dr topol and you're going through lifestyle plus factors it stopped me in my tracks as you started to write about

04:25how pollution how plastics how the environment that we're living in how there are household items that

04:32are in our homes right now that we use when we cook that we you know sit next to at home that also

04:40can impact our health and are playing a role in our longevity how big of a of a factor is this if we just

04:48talk about the forever chemicals and plastics they have links to all the adverse health outcomes now

04:56for example we know that more young people are developing cancer than ever before and it's not

05:02just colon cancer breast cancer all these types of cancers that were age related we're seeing people

05:08in their 20s now with colon cancer women in their 30s young 30s with breast cancer the question is why

05:14they had no genetic uh predisposition we have to think well maybe it's related to the chemical so

05:20some people say well you don't have cause and effect well others will say you know what we got this

05:25mechanism of inducing inflammation and being mutagenic that is capable of inducing mutations in

05:32our cells which could cause cancer and we have this new thing we haven't seen before and it just keeps

05:38getting worse it's pretty hard not to connect the two right well and you write about this like on page

05:43125 you literally say by 2050 if we keep going the way that we are the number of people dying

05:50from cancer is going to double yeah is that your theory that the rise in cancer in young people is

05:56due to micro plastics and forever chemicals and air pollution and water and contamination and add to

06:03that ultra processed foods which also are pro-inflammatory and injurious so just starting maybe with

06:09plastics uh plastic water bottles plastic bags plastic everywhere it's so pervasive and the problem is

06:18we have it in our bodies and it's in our organs one of the most important studies come out in years

06:25about plastics was one from italy where they looked at people's arteries these are the arteries in the

06:31neck the carotid arteries where there's atherosclerosis or cholesterol buildup and they found that more than half

06:37had plastics in their arteries and that those are the people that had over fourfold risk of heart

06:44attacks and strokes wait so hold on a second let me just make sure that the person heard that so

06:48in a recent study half of people have microplastic buildup in their carotid artery and of those people

06:58that had microplastic buildup they were four times greater risk for stroke and heart attack that's right

07:04and it was correlated with the fact that if you look at the arteries under the microscope not only did

07:08you see the microplastics like polyvinyl chloride but you saw profound inflammation around the plastic

07:15pieces the other one of course was the brain so this was in people who had died and they looked at the

07:21brain and they found plastics throughout the brain the spoonful of plastics in the brain full plastic in

07:26the brain yeah and wherever there was plastic guess what there was local marked inflammation just like in

07:32the artery wall so you you can't say that this innocuous right this is this is something that's

07:38very troubling and it means it needs action well i just want to try to translate to make sure i'm

07:44tracking with you so the reason why the inflammation is the problem is because if your arteries are inflamed

07:49that means they're going to get blocked which means they're not going to work yeah well it's not just

07:52even the blockage we're talking about even in the tissue of the brain outside of the arteries where the

07:57plastics can get in once they get into our tissue they incite a lot of inflammation this isn't good

08:04whether it's in the wall of an artery or in the tissue like the brain they're seen in testes they're

08:10seen in a semen they've been associated with blood clots uh they're in women's reproductive system as

08:18well i mean just as they're pervasive in the air in the water they are in our bodies and it's a cumulative exposure

08:26i i realize this isn't conclusive but you know what do you worry about as a scientist in terms of the

08:32implications of these environmental factors well the the two that are um especially troubling for

08:40our reproductive system and it's not just for women with fertility but we're seeing progressively

08:45lower sperm counts and sperm function in men and so we have a big problem with uh reproductive health

08:53but both forever chemicals which get into the reproductive organs and also the plastics nanoplastics

09:01they both can do this and so that's just one example you know people are thinking oh well

09:08more women are trying to have children at an older age both and having infertility no it's not just

09:14the aging it's the hit on healthy aging and so the same thing with men the more infertile men and so

09:21this reproductive health is just one dimension of the problem this is likely having an effect on

09:28each of the major age-related diseases uh and the the sad part about this is uh the lobbying against

09:37these so you know we know there's a big problem uh whether it's the air we breathe the water we drink

09:43or our foods and all the others in our personal items and cooking as you mentioned mel what are we doing

09:49about it essentially nothing it's amazing can you just start by explaining what the heck is a

09:55microplastic like i don't even know what this means and where is it is it in the air is it in water

10:01like is it in the bottles like what is a microplastic dr yeah well you know it's it's everywhere that's

10:07the sad part you can only see them under a microscope so yeah it's a plastic bag or the plastic bottle but it's

10:15coming out of these things and so these microplastics they are toxins they are not

10:21degradable biodegradable so once they come in to us we're stuck with them so for the person who's

10:27listening and me does this mean that there's just particles in the air and the water and in the food

10:35and all around us that we are absorbing through our mouth and through our nose and through our skin

10:42that that that's what you mean by microplastics yeah so whether we're eating or whether we're

10:47breathing or drinking we're constantly exposed to these uh they are in you know microscopic minute

10:54quantities but it isn't like they go out i mean they just we just are accumulating these into our body

11:00what are forever chemicals yeah so the the fancy term for that are uh per fluorocarbonated

11:07uh alkylating agents pfas pfas there's over 10 000 of these chemicals and the the key part is they

11:16have a fluorite to carbon f to c bond and that it makes them non-degradable so that's why they're here

11:24forever and so they are like plastics and by the way some of those chemicals are in the plastics that's

11:31how they're made they have the also pervasive presence 97 of us have uh pfas forever chemicals

11:39in our blood detectable at low levels some higher than than others so where exactly do the forever

11:46chemicals come from like what are they how are they generated in the air and the water and in plastics

11:51yeah well you know if you really want to get the the nitty-gritty on that there's a a famous new

11:59new yorker article from last year where uh a 3m employee uh chris jensen basically was the

12:08whistleblower and the company knew about the injurious effects of these chemicals but they

12:16didn't want to do anything about it and i mean it's pretty scary to read this article because it's

12:21from the inside and 3m that's kind of their thing they just everything is made with forever chemicals

12:27uh whether it's you know uh post-its or plastics or i mean you name it we've done nothing to reign

12:34this in which is extraordinary we know they have um a toxic potential and yet just like with the the

12:42big food industry with ultra process and like what we've seen with um the plastics industry that rely on

12:49them the companies that rely on these forever chemicals are doing nothing to make a difference and so

12:56we're stuck with these very serious risks with no action what are the top ways that you and i and

13:04the person listening are being exposed to microplastics and to the forever chemicals that

13:10are impacting our health well it is pervasive and you know like you said mel it's in our air

13:16and in our water but there are certainly things that we could do to lessen the burden i mean so for

13:22example uh wrapping things in plastic and it's not a good idea i have a feeling that i'm going to leave

13:28this conversation dr tobel and throw out everything in my kitchen is that what's about to happen no and

13:32hopefully not but if you want to be conscious about the burden of plastic intake which is

13:40it's an enormous amount of plastics we're taking in on a on a daily yearly basis anything we can do to

13:47reduce dwell time in plastic or better yet not plastic at all that would be an improvement in our

13:53family we've made some changes uh you know we're a lot less things that are being wrapped in plastic

13:58the things are sitting in plastic more likely to absorb some of the plastic material but you know cooking

14:04you can reduce uh water bottles no not in plastic water bottles so there's at least something you can

14:11do uh but it's mainly paying attention uh it's pretty obvious what the plastics are like for

14:17example you know when you go to the grocery store everything's in plastic bags it's true

14:21should be cloth you know there's there's many ways but it's mainly the attention to what things are

14:27being wrapped in or being cooked in or cooked with make a difference i mean like for example we used to

14:34have these teflon coated things like a spatula now we have wood unfortunately the what we can do on an

14:41individual basis is somewhat limited right because um you know very little has been done to change

14:48the environmental burden that all of us face i mean we're breathing in these chemicals and

14:53plastic nanoplastics and so it isn't like you can change that very easily so there's at least something

14:59you can do uh but it's mainly paying attention well one of the things that i think of immediately

15:04is that when i go to the grocery store if i put something in one of those plastic bags in the

15:09produce section i leave it then in my fridge for a week or two before i end up using it and cooking

15:14in it so that's an example of the thing bathing in it and it's true when i go to the farmer's market

15:20there's nothing in plastic people are using paper bags or i throw it into my basket and then i store it

15:25in the fridge without plastic and so you know what would be very interesting is did they ever have

15:29they ever done a study where like if i think two people ago my grandparents if they were to draw

15:34my blood versus grandma bippert or grandma schneberger's blood i bet that the plastic content in my blood

15:44versus theirs must be night and day oh no question because if you think about the fact that it's in

15:51virtually everyone's blood now and it wasn't you know 10 years 20 years ago detectable things have

15:58changed so much this has become just an enormous burden to us and we don't do anything about it so

16:05you know going back to your point about going to the market in in bags why aren't we using paper

16:12rather than plastic why isn't that the norm i mean we have become so dependent on this

16:18it's just it's so frustrating to watch this well i can also tell how impassioned you are when you start

16:23to make the case about infertility rates rising sperm counts lowering the spike in cancers that

16:31people are getting diagnosed with when they're young children middle school high school in their 20s that

16:38are not the rates that people were diagnosed just 10 20 years ago i can see why as a researcher

16:45medical doctor and one of the world's most respected medical researchers literally in the world that

16:51you're very upset and impassioned about this what if we go through a couple items one by one and have

16:59you talk about how they're either the free chemicals in this thing or the plastic in this thing can impact

17:07your health and what changes to swap out does that sound cool sure all right cool i'm gonna have one

17:11of my i'm gonna have our executive producer tracy bring over a box of things and you can't see this if

17:18you're listening on youtube you can watch this but i'm gonna narrate this as tracy puts a gigantic

17:24and now i'm afraid to have this stuff near me because now i'm like oh my god dr topal just said

17:29this is all very dangerous stuff so let's just start with i've got tupperware tupperware i've just got

17:38big you can hear it these are in my uh cabinets right now talk to me about tupperware yeah i mean you

17:45know the tupperware parties you think about that is like adding the plastic burden that we don't

17:52need at all we should be avoiding plastic containers which of course are everywhere if we're going to

17:58wait another 10 years before we finally have this cause and effect uh that's waiting much too long

18:03when we can do something now that's beneficial dr topal i microwave and plastic all the time

18:09is that okay hopefully that would be past tense because that is a double whammy here you've got

18:16not only the the microplastics that can get into the food from the plastic container but now you're

18:22heating it up so you're really promoting it we know if you heat up plastic that's the way to get

18:28more nanoplastic into whatever you're you're going to consume so that you don't want to be using these

18:34for microwave plastic swap out for glass yes because if your food is sitting in that even though

18:41it's convenient it is absorbing more plastic so the more time something spends in it and if you heat it

18:45up even worse it's a double whammy it's a double whammy because you're releasing more microplastics all

18:51right i've got hairspray here yeah most of these hairsprays are you know chock full of forever chemicals

18:58unfortunately so if they supply the ingredients and you see any fluorinated stuff in there oh my god

19:05it's the it's the second thing yeah i can't read half this stuff but this one has alcohol and then

19:11it's like hydrofluorocarbon 152a there's a methacryolate a beauty

19:21horrible really why is this horrible because you're basically spraying uh forever chemicals on on your head

19:28you know why would you want to do that okay that's going down there i don't want that i have a

19:32scented candle that is so like smelly that i can smell it from here bright blue candle ocean mist

19:41yeah it's troubling because it could be emitting forever chemicals just the fact that you can smell

19:48it without it being lit and the color of it right as well as uh lack of ingredients does it does it say

19:55what there are absolutely no ingredients on this this this is troubling i mean it's possible that

20:00there's no uh pfas in it but my guess is is it's got plenty of them how is this scented see i love

20:07candles i do too but but how is a scented candle a toxin in the environment because now you're putting

20:15these right into the air you're breathing okay and so you're basically inhaling these uh forever

20:21chemicals that you don't really want to put into your body is there a slightly better candle like

20:27is like you see the soy based ones the can i don't have any candles that are a color the color might be

20:33an indicator that we're getting into artificial stuff okay but the question is why not put the

20:39ingredients like what you just had for the hairspray show us what's in it we deserve that and if it's got a

20:45a fluorocarbon in there we know it's it's non-degradable and it's going to get in our body

20:51and we can't get rid of it all right let's talk about deodorant so this is a deodorant this one

20:57it's got alcohol and ppg 114 beauty ether cybo i don't even know what the i see paula i is this is

21:06this an indication that this is problematic well if it has a fluorocarbon anything with fluoride and

21:12carbon in there or alkylating agents that's when you get the forever chemical so that chemical bond

21:18yeah is irreversible non-degradable and just we whether you eat something with it or or breathe

21:26something with it yeah you're you're stuck with it forever what about perfume so i've got perfume here

21:34that hydro i i like hydro okay i see a lot of method but benzoyl cement theminol i can't read this stuff

21:44yeah that is incriminating again at least it lists the chemicals some of them don't even list their

21:50ingredients right i don't think mine lists my ingredients but if if there's a forever chemical

21:55in there which it sounds like there might i would try to stay clear of that and stay with ones that you

22:00know have organic uh non-chemical stuff in them because you know then you know you're perfectly

22:07safe you know what's so interesting about this conversation is i'm so psycho about moving my

22:14body and getting sleep and eating whole foods like i call it my grandmother's diet i just try to eat

22:21local i try to eat whole foods as much as i can i don't eat out of bags and boxes whenever i can

22:27and so i'm not so about this kind of stuff and i'm just slathering chemicals all over my body and

22:33spraying it on me to make it like look good and then drinking out of my plastic bottles and microwaving

22:38my whole foods in my plastic containers it didn't even occur to me this was amazing when i did the deep

22:45dive in researching all the um evidence about this it became much more alarming i wasn't aware of this

22:51either and you know there's still some holdouts there's still some naysayers saying oh it isn't as bad as

22:57as you think but you know what when you put these things together all the these so-called

23:02epidemiologic studies large cohorts and showing the increase of exposure and how this is so much

23:09associated with bad health outcomes and acceleration of our aging process this isn't good you know i've

23:16seen a lot written recently about also these free chemicals and plastics that are in women's uh products

23:24for menstruation and also baby diapers and can you talk to me a little bit about that like what are you

23:30looking for the same thing and say the chemical again that we're all looking for well it's any per

23:35fluorocarbon unfortunately there's been a big review of menstrual products uh and they many of them have

23:42uh significant exposure of forever chemicals and so again our attention whether it's the manufacturer or the

23:52consumer is just not there i mean if manufacturers really want to be promoting health they could use

23:59different ingredients different components uh some of them are evidently but most of them aren't you know

24:06i also have this uh non-stick techno resistant pan here it says that it's got titanium in it it's

24:16plat it's coated with something why are non-stick coated pans a really bad thing to cook with that

24:22teflon or other plastics is getting right into the food the more you're using it the more in in

24:28microscopic quantities but you're basically you know getting into your digestive tract and yeah it's a

24:33problem well and plus i would imagine dr topol that as you're cooking something in here and using a

24:39plastic like cooking utensil and the heat is like heating up the plastic on the pan coating and on

24:48the utensil you're just releasing more microplastic from the utensil and the pan into the food that

24:53you're eating just like the microwave of the tupperware same thing heat is just going to increase the

25:00the load of the nano plastics into your body i'm going to be emptying out a lot of the drawers at home

25:05that's all i can say um what do you think about air filters in the house i mean should we all be

25:10having one is there a certain type of air filter that can help filter the air well we we do have

25:16a problem with bad air dirty air and so you know we saw this of course through covid uh and so had we

25:24at our home or our workplace had better air filtration uh we could have reduced the the spread

25:30of covid uh and it's the same with the respiratory viruses but it's also gets us to air pollution air

25:37pollution when you get down to the 2.5 particulate matter with the tiny uh amounts of uh air pollution

25:45the tiniest what do you mean by that what do you mean when you get down to the tube i don't know what

25:48that means so there's breakdowns of the pollutants in our air the smaller you go the more toxic and again

25:55just like we talked about with the microplastics and the forever chemicals it's these small 2.5

26:03uh particulate matter um these are the ones that are throughout our body in inducing inflammation

26:10and so anything we can do to have higher quality air um particularly uh you know with good filtration

26:19so there are these hepa uh filters but even just exchanging the air a lot of people like a fan

26:25yeah well fans or you know normally in a workplace uh now we have the so-called merv 11 merv 13 these

26:33are just air filtration systems that uh are exchanging our air on a frequent basis the more exchanges the

26:39more filtration the better quality air last year the cdc for the first time said we're going to make a

26:45move towards healthy buildings and that sounded really good but what's actually being done that

26:51it that involves you know much better ventilation and filtration systems and uh there's a little

26:56action that's actually been taken so you know the reality is as i hear all this it makes perfect sense

27:02like i'm not one of those people who's like well there's not enough evidence i to me if you look at

27:07the rise in cancer and the rise of infertility rates and the rise of diseases that people are being

27:13diagnosed with at ages in their teens and 20s and 30s that they weren't being diagnosed with 20 30 years

27:21ago it makes a lot of sense like there's no denying to me the connection of all this but i feel like

27:29it feels out of control that oh my god there's teaspoons of plastic in my body that it's in my

27:36arteries that it's everywhere around me the air that we breathe has got god knows what in it every

27:44product that i'm buying is not labeled and so i don't know how to look for the free chemical if you

27:50were to say dr topol that there are three things that everybody can do and should do that would make

27:57the biggest impact in your environmental risks and mitigating against them what would they be

28:04well i think firstly it's to acknowledge that these environmental factors are very likely

28:10having uh inducing harm to our body so the first thing is you got to have awareness of these of these

28:17big three uh air pollution um the forever chemicals and the microplastics or nanoplastics so that's step

28:25number one the second one is that we need to what we can at an individual level family level reduce the

28:33hit there are many practical things that we can do that we've been reviewing and that at least is

28:40doing something active towards trying to reduce the burden the third thing is we need to start taking on

28:48the industry that is with the help of a government environmental protection that should be

28:56uh you know a strong factor in all this that these companies that are the most active in this space

29:03that are manufacturing you know knowing their products first not disclosing it in their in the

29:10labels secondly knowing that they're chock full like we talked about with the problem that was unveiled with

29:163m that why aren't they using other components that are not uh posing risk to our health because you

29:26know when you look at these factors like for example now that we know that you can look at all the layers

29:30of a person's data and say this is no reason that person would get pancreatic cancer there is just no reason

29:37for it or lung adenocin and it's not at all but oh by the way they happen to live in a place that's you

29:41know got very bad air pollution very significant exposure to these toxic chemicals plastics ultra

29:50processed foods well hmm what's going on here so the point is by diagnosis of exclusion the fact that we

29:57can look at all these other layers of data say this person presented in their 60s with pancreatic or ovarian

30:04cancer there's just no reason for it or lung adenocarcinoma in a very healthy you know young

30:10young woman why well all these things we're talking about here because they induce inflammation

30:16they induce mutations in our cells that could be carcinogenic that's terrifying yeah yeah i always like

30:24to you know have the hardest evidence to make a conclusion but this one here has a flashing yellow light

30:30especially when in context of not doing anything about it well when you and your work have been

30:36cited in 365 000 papers and you've got over 13 000 published papers yourself and you're alarmed

30:47i'm like defcon 10 over here thinking get the plastic out of my house um what would you say

30:53dr topol though to somebody who is listening like somewhere around the world because our audience

31:01is global yes and you know there is a person that is listening to this who is going to feel so

31:08overwhelmed by the chemicals and pollutants that they are surrounded by because of where they live

31:15and feel like well there's nothing i can do is there you know obviously there's always something you can do

31:22but what is the one thing that you would want this person who's feeling like well i live in a polluted

31:28area and i you know there is no regulation around where chemicals are dumped what's one thing to really

31:36take a look at for yourself well the things that we've been discussing yeah i think mel that that at

31:41least will reduce that person's burden or their family's burden to some extent and at least that raises

31:49awareness so that you know everything you're doing now is is a bit different that uh you know when

31:55you go to the the grocery store or the farmer's market when you're cooking you know that you're you're

32:01much more conscious of these uh potential risks uh it isn't like we you know like you said defcon

32:08well you know this is not like you're going to die or you know you're going to wind up in the hospital

32:12but these are this kind of chronic yeah low level uh burden things that they're not helping we know

32:19that much well it makes you also wonder with the rise of autoimmune disorders and the massive increase

32:26in the last 20 years when you see the rise of infertility rates as you've suggested the rise in

32:33cancer diagnosis in young people when you see the rise of autism diagnosis it does make you wonder how

32:39are these environmental factors truly impacting people's genes people's organs the way the body

32:48metabolizes food and air the way that the immune system works and the fact that you're alarmed is

32:55very alarming to me yeah i think the problem we have is we're in a state of complacency we've just

33:01accepted this we've accepted this exponential rise of environmental toxins all of which we've been

33:07discussing induce inflammation in our body uh pose a risk of every organ system as you mentioned

33:14including the immune system and inflammation and we're just sitting here in some kind of denialism

33:21as if they're they're innocuous and they're not you know hear people doing cleanses whether it's going

33:27on like a heavy metal cleanse or doing something to reset you know their health once you have

33:33microplastics in your system can you get them out of your body the problem is the plastics and the

33:40forever chemicals are not degradable so once you it's a unidirectional thing you take them in and you

33:50know they're they're in residence they establish residence in our bodies who would want that who wants

33:55these foreign chemicals and and materials in our body especially when you see them when you see them in an

34:02artery and then you see surrounding the plastics is this intense inflammation of all these cells that

34:08come in that are just profound and then you look at the arteries that don't have the plastics in them

34:12and it looks you know okay you say whoa i don't want these in my arteries and i don't want these you know

34:19in my brain because they can't be doing anything good there uh so that's the problem is they get

34:25throughout our body and they are inducing local inflammation which is unhealthy so here on the one

34:33hand we have a lot of good things that we can do to promote healthy aging but we got this problem that

34:38we're basically largely ignoring and i i hope that's going to change well you know one thing that i am

34:46getting out of this conversation that i think is really important number one is that there are simple

34:50changes that i need to make that our family needs to make now that i'm aware of it in terms of how

34:56we cook the products that are certainly in our kitchen the way that i am heating up food the

35:02containers i drink water in you know i grew up in an area where there was a lot of uh manufacturing and

35:10there was not regulations related to the dumping of chemicals and lakes and there were when i was growing

35:17up clustering of different types of lymphomas and cancers which of course all then tracked back to

35:24the chemical dumping and so we know the connection between the environment and people's health and we

35:33know based on very bad things that have happened how chemicals impact people's health and so the fact

35:40i agree with you that we're not regulating this or protecting people from it seems profoundly unfair

35:47and frankly stupid totally stupid i also think if we're already on this hockey step stick upswing

35:54what's going to happen in 20 or 30 years yeah what's going to happen to our kids well i really

36:00appreciate that point because i mean the super agers book is you know brimming with optimism because

36:06we're going to be able to prevent diseases we have this newfound potential to do that and we have

36:11this problem is the overhang which is when are we going to get serious about environmental toxins and

36:17exposures they're there they're increasing that it's undeniable that they're having some posing some

36:24hazard in order to reap the benefits of this amazing capacity of prevention that we're going to have

36:32we've got to pay a lot of attention to this issue well i'm glad you brought up optimism because

36:37you know super agers your best-selling book which is an evidence-based approach to longevity and using

36:44the science of aging to your benefit so that you age well regardless of whether you're 20 or 30 or 40

36:52or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 and the lifestyle changes that you talk about in the book whether it's sleep

36:59or exercise or eating less processed food or stay staying socially connected are the evidence-based way

37:07to improve your health outcomes and you know i'm happy that you also were willing to laser in on a

37:14piece of your book that was about the environmental aspect because this is a piece that can feel very

37:19overwhelming and a lot of us frankly don't know about it and we've i've prioritized convenience over

37:25my actual health and i've prioritized just kind of being laissez-faire about it because i didn't understand

37:33the deep connection and the actual scary evidence that you've laid out today about how environmental

37:39factors are contributing to poor outcomes as you age regardless of how young or old you are and so

37:46you know i am so appreciative dr topol that you were willing to make the case and willing to talk

37:51to us about some of the simple changes we could make and to get us really revved up about the importance

37:58of this as as a species frankly particularly with children here they're exposed to lots of plastics

38:08and these chemicals and of course it's the duration of exposure throughout a person's lifetime that also

38:14plays a role and uh i went on a field trip with my 11 year old grandson uh last friday a marine biology

38:23field trip and during that trip the kids all had lunches and it was really interesting that their

38:30their parents typically their mothers of course had many of them had packed things in their lunch no

38:36plastic at all i said wow you know this is really impressive so some people are getting the memo you know

38:45some people are figuring out that there's ways to work around this plastic um pervasiveness and that's

38:51reassuring we all can do better well you know you just mentioned kids and i was just sitting here

38:56thinking that if i if i take all the research that you've laid out and i think about my own life

39:0256 years old and you talk about the rise of this in the last couple decades i probably for the first

39:1020 25 years of my life was not exposed to microplastics it's only been in the last couple decades

39:16that i have been but when i think about my kids who are now 26 and 24 and 20 they've been exposed to

39:24this for their entire life and you know we love to point the fingers at social media which certainly

39:31has its upside and massive downsides especially in the development of young brains but it makes you wonder

39:37is the rise in adhd especially the early diagnosis and other neuro divergent issues also partially because

39:46of these environmental toxins and again don't know but when you really look at the research and the

39:53evidence it's hard to deny that it's got to be a contributing factor that's where i see it mel because

39:59there's no way these things are good for us and when you see the rising incidence of these things there

40:04is no other explanation it's hard to point away from this as a root cause these things can't be good

40:11for us and let's assume that they're bad for us and do something about it dr topo if the person listening

40:18does just one thing when they're done listening to all this that you've shared with us today what would

40:26the one thing be well i still want to leave a person with a very optimistic outlook yeah we we have a

40:34capacity to prevent diseases that's more powerful than ever before in medical history but we have

40:42to pay attention to the problem that is happening at the same time which is steadily worsening which is

40:49that we have these unwanted foreign toxin toxins in our in our environment in the things that are being

40:57manufactured we're we're taking them in on a daily basis and that has to get on track we just can't

41:06keep going on and expect to reap only the benefits without the concurrent risks that that exist today so

41:13i i do hope that um while we are in prevent mode we pay more attention to this other issue which is

41:22that we have a few layers of environmental exposures each of which

41:27we can do something better with them to reduce them but it's also going to take a collective

41:34population-wide attention to really make a difference what are your parting words dr topo

41:41well i couldn't be more excited about the ability to prevent the age-related diseases

41:48the ability for us to take a huge dent out of cancer out of alzheimer's and parkinson's

41:55along with cardiovascular disease that being the number one killer uh throughout the world there's

42:02never been better prospects for that uh and we have many ways we're going to achieve that but let's

42:08not forget that alongside has been a creeping up of our environmental factors that are getting in the way

42:17so let's make sure that we pay attention to that and and take it seriously from here on in well what

42:23i really appreciate about you is that underlying that message is the environmental factors aren't

42:28your fault but now that you see them you can do something to protect yourself against them and now

42:34that you understand the bigger picture and how this is accelerating you can be part of a solution

42:39that helps resolve these environmental factors for future generations dr tobel thank you thank you

42:45thank you for writing such a remarkable book super agers thank you for hopping on a plane and thank you for

42:52making this extremely compelling and alarming case and empowering us to make simple changes to protect

42:58ourselves thank you and thank you thank you for taking the time to listen to something that could

43:05absolutely change your life and there's no doubt in my mind that dr topol's research and his new book

43:10super agers has all the information and the simple changes that you can be making in your life in the

43:17life of the people that you care about that will add yours to your life and i really hope you take

43:22everything that you learned today to heart and in case no one else tells you i wanted to be sure to tell

43:26you that i love you and i believe in you and i believe in your ability to create a better life

43:31thank you for listening to something and for wanting to learn from somebody as smart and as

43:38researched and as respected as dr eric tobel thank you for sharing this and i'll see you in a few days

43:44i'll be waiting to welcome you in to the very next episode the moment you hit play i'll see you there

43:50and thank you for watching all the way to the end was that not extraordinary i feel so inspired and moved

43:57i know you do too thank you for sharing this with people that you care about thank you for

44:01hitting subscribe because that's one way you can support me as i'm supporting you and i know you're

44:05like mel what do i watch next i want you to check out this video you're going to love it and i'll be

44:10welcoming you in the moment you hit play i'll see you there

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