Office Hours: The Truth About Environmental Toxins (And How to Protect Yourself)

Welcome to office hours. This is our dedicated one on one space to go deeper, get clear, and explore what truly moves the needle for your health. I'm doctor Mark Hyman, and each week, we're gonna pull back the curtain and share the insights, the research, the lessons that don't always make it into our conversations with guests. Because at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your own health. And for many of you, your family's health too. And you might not feel it all the time, but you have far more power and agency than you realize. I'm glad you're here. This episode is brought to you by Function Health, empowering you to live one hundred healthy years with over 160 lab tests at just $365 a year. Sign up today at functionhealth.com/mark and use code mark twenty twenty six to get $50 towards your membership. Most people are exposed to hundreds of chemicals every single day. Yeah. Chronic disease isn't just about food or your genes. It's about your total toxic load, something I never learned about in medical school, like zip zero, nada. I mean, acute toxicity, yes, but the total toxic burden we have, definitely not, and certainly not how to diagnose it or treat it. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. So this isn't about fear and making you scared. It's not about being perfect in order to every toxin. It's about understanding what you need to do, have some clarity, what you should prioritize, and what you actually can control so you don't have to be ongoingly dumping toxins in your system. If you're trying to eat well, if you've been taking care of yourself, but you still don't feel great, you're not alone. We're living in an environment that our bodies were never designed for. Personally and sadly, I'm an expert, and just because I lived in China in my thirties, and in the winter, the air was so thick that on a sunny bright day, you couldn't see the building across the street. And everybody wore masks, I breathed in all this soot, it was from raw coal which is full and mercury and I got mercury poisoning. So I get it. Every day we're exposed to hundreds of chemicals in our food, our water, in the air we breathe, in the products we use in our homes, on our skin. And over time, this total toxic load just adds up. It's like kind of the straw that breaks the camel's back that finally makes us sick. It affects our hormones, it affects our weight and metabolism, It affects our brain. It affects our immune system. Their immunotoxins are called autogens. They're called xenohormones or xenoestrogens. They're just bad news. But here's the good news. This episode is not about fear. It's not about perfection or living in a bubble. It's about getting clear. Your body already knows how to detoxify. You just have to help …