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Most people think microplastics are the biggest threat from our plastic-saturated world, but they're completely missing the danger that's infiltrating our individual cells right now.

Today I'm pulling back the curtain and letting you into my brain to share the 5 rabbit holes I'm currently spiraling down. And trust me, they're not what you'd expect. I'm a creature of curiosity who loves a good deep dive into scientific research that maybe the public isn't looking at yet.

But here's something you should know about me first: I'm not an early adopter. I'm a hardcore skeptic who takes everything with a grain of salt until I've done my own research and my intuition tells me it's correct. This is especially important in the holistic wellness space where people love to talk about topics as if they're the end-all-be-all for everyone.

From nanoplastics that actually infiltrate our individual cells (way scarier than microplastics) to the incredible research on how specific microbes can literally digest these plastics out of our bodies, I'm sharing what's got me excited about the future of detoxification. I'm also diving deep into light therapy, structured water, and preparing for my first Northern Virginia winter with some interesting tools.

In today's episode, we're talking about:

• Nanoplastics vs. microplastics
• The emerging science of microbial detox
• Lux and illumination research
• My thyroid healing journey and why I'm working to get completely off medication
• Structured water skepticism turned curiosity

Resources Mentioned:

• How Plastics are Accumulating Inside Our Brains
• Smarter Tech Podcast
• Sarah Kleiner Wellness
• Mayu Water
• Glow Infrared Therapy Light

Mentioned in this episode:

Wyld Notes

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  📍 📍 Welcome to another episode of   📍 the Toxin Bridge Podcast. As always, I am your host, Wendy,  and today's gonna be all about the rabbit holes that I live in. I really thought it would be fun to let you into my brain for, you know. 📍 I don't know, 10 minutes, 12 minutes, however long this episode is gonna be, and share what I'm reading about, what occupies my brain during the day.

What are the rabbit holes that I am, you know, spiraling down into in the things that I'm studying? I am a creature of curiosity. I always want to learn more. I, I love a good deep dive. I also love a good conspiracy theory. Those are highly entertaining. But I definitely thrive more in finding like deep, deep scientific research that maybe the public isn't looking at or isn't getting any visibility.

But I am like, can obsess about it. And here's something that you should know about me before I jump into the rabbit holes that I am running down   📍 I am not an early adopter. I am a hardcore skeptic. It takes a lot to convince me of something. I really view the world in a very non-committal capacity. 

When I see things, when people tell me things, when I read things, I very much take all of those things with a grain of salt until not only I've had an opportunity to do my own research and think for myself, but also. My intuition is telling me this is correct, this is accurate, or this resonates with me because I do feel like a lot of times in the holistic wellness space, people like to talk about topics as if it is the end all be all, and it should apply to everyone.

And really we as humans. Are biologically so individual and so different that most of the things we're talking about can't be applied to everybody, and we all have our own journey. I personally am on my 📍 📍 thyroid healing journey right now, which is what is kind of the overarching theme of the things that I'm interested in.

I was able to heal my Hashimoto's, and once I was able to heal the thing that was causing my hypothyroidism, I really wanted to heal my thyroid. And those of you that have followed my journey for a long time know that I am doing phenomenal.

With the help of my functional doctor, who I absolutely adore, I have been able to dramatically reduce the amount of thyroid medication that I take. So that's just part of my journey. I'm gonna talk a little bit about that, but let's go ahead and jump into   📍 📍 the things that have me really excited about the future and the things that I'm really 📍 interested in... 

number one, I am absolutely obsessed with researching nanoplastics. I have listened to more podcasts than you could even imagine. The thought that we know microplastics are everywhere. We know what microplastics look like in our body. We have been talking about it for years. The European Union has done a lot about it.

The,   📍 📍 📍 the international community is rallying to try to kind of tackle this microplastics problem.  But last year. Really. And then earlier this year, for the first time, we really, as a scientific community started to understand nanoplastics, which is different than microplastics because nanoplastics get into our individual cells.

If you watched   📍 📍 the video of Dr. Matthew Campen, who has actual resolution,   📍 where you can see what Nanoplastics look like in our brain and in our organs,  there's a great YouTube video that shows it and I will share it. It's mind boggling. And here's the thing, microplastics don't infiltrate ourselves.

Our body, at some point will figure out like, what do we do with this? The bigger problem of microplastics is that it carries chemicals with it. So we get exposed to other things like PFAS and phthalates and all the things that these microplastics carry with them. Nanoplastics are the real threat. Those are the things that are literally getting into our itty bitty tiny cells, causing gene mutations, causing oxidation, causing all of these major health issues.

And it's really hard just like anybody else to kind of look at this problem and be like, oh my God, we're all gonna die. There's nothing we can do about it. But actually there's some really cool research going on and in the world of PFAS, which I was in for a very, very long time in my federal career, trying to figure out how we not only clean up forever chemicals out of our environment, but how do you clean up and detox forever chemicals out of your body?

That body of science is emerging as well, and. Nanoplastic researchers are looking at very similar things to the Forever Chemical researchers, which I find, you know, I like when they, things just kind of come together like that. So one of my favorite podcasts is called Smarter Tech. 📍 📍 , The guy who hosted his name is Nick.

He's better known as the EMF guy, and he has. Amazing guests. Like if you're a geek like me, absolutely highly recommend his podcast. I listened to a podcast episode. It was an interview that he did with Dr. Marco Ruggiero, and basically this guy is like at the forefront of nanoplastic research and he is studying how microbes can basically eat the nanoplastics. I mean, it's, it's not technically eating it, but it's, it's enzymatically, you know, digesting it. It's digesting it that these probiotics, these very, very specific microbes, specific strains, specific ways that they work, they will.

Actually digest the nanoplastics out of our body. And I've seen some cool research about how that works with forever chemicals as well. So I'm really down that rabbit hole. That doctor specifically actually does have a very pricey probiotic line, based on his research that I bought. And we'll see.

We'll see what happens. I'll report back, but I am very far down the rabbit hole of microplastics and nanoplastics. And it's one of the reasons why I added a whole clothing section to my toxin-free and three course. It's why I'm talking more about liquid plastics and makeup. I'm just really getting to the point where I feel like this is such an important topic in the holistic community.

So that's rabbit hole number one.

Rabbit hole number two. If you follow me on Instagram, you see me out on my paddleboard, out on my lake first thing in the morning. Minimum 20 minutes. Typically like to stay out there for at least 45. I am obsessed with Lux, Lux being the illumination factor of the lighting that is around you, and how important that Lux is to every single biological system in our body.

And I've talked a ton about getting morning sunshine. Morning sunshine triggers every hormonal metabolic. Everything in our body, we are plants with feelings we run on sunshine. If you are not putting morning sun in your eyes in the morning for 20 minutes, getting it on your skin, we, we as humans struggle, we biologically struggle and in our indoor lighting is absolutely terrible for us.

This is one of the reasons why I've been wearing these yellow glasses. While I'm sitting in front of a computer, because I work so much and I sit in front of screen so much, I try really hard to work outside. But it wasn't until recently that I started really getting into lux and lumens and illumination and indoor lighting versus outdoor lighting, and I'm just so down that rabbit hole.

I've been following Sarah Kleiner Wellness. 📍 📍 She talks about this all the time and how Lux and mitochondria, and I love her. She's an amazing follow. So if you wanna nerd out with me on light and Lex, go check her out. Rabbit hole number three. I am working so hard to heal my thyroid with the ultimate goal of being completely off of my thyroid medication. I take about. A fraction, I would say 70% of the armor thyroid that I used to take when I very first started and found out that I had hypothyroidism long before I had found out that I had Hashimotos.

So I had to deal with the Hashimotos first because the Hashimotos, the antibodies actually attack your thyroid and create your hypothyroidism. And so I healed that first, and now I'm really, really deep on my healing journey. And that's why I'm so interested in light and it's why I'm so interested in these other things, like

i'm trying to figure out what else is contributing to, you know, how long it's taking me to heal my thyroid and I have come so far, but I still have a ways to go before I can officially completely get off of my medication. I get asked a lot why I care and why I want to get off of my medication and I think that's an interesting question because.

Thyroid supplementation isn't just like a, like a multivitamin, right? I need it right now. But the more that I give my body, the more my body thinks that I don't need it and it doesn't need to make its own, which then impacts. Other systems in my body. So I am all about root cause healing. I want to heal the root cause, I wanna heal my thyroid, and that will help heal some of the other hormonal imbalances.

And especially as I go into perimenopause and menopause, I really just wanna make sure that my body is operating in its, you know, best capacity that it has. So I'm really focused on healing my thyroid. And recently the FDAI talked about this on Instagram recently.  The 📍 FDA tried to tell providers and pharmaceutical companies that were producing natural dissect and thyroids medication that they w had were giving them a year, and then they were gonna pull them off the market. 

Luckily, there was such a concerted effort to fight back against the FDA 1.5 million people rely on this medication. I'm one of them. I cannot take Synthroid. I cannot take a synthetic thyroid medication. I do terrible on it. My body rejects it. Outright. And so these medications are really important for people who do have hypothyroidism and do require thyroid replacement.

So I'm really happy the FDA backed off of that and I don't have to worry that the medication that I need isn't gonna be available for me. So very, very deep in my thyroid healing journey, which rolls right into my next rabbit hole.

Number four, structured water. And I know what you're thinking. I know you're thinking, wow. Late to the game, Wendy. Late to the game. I told you at the beginning of this podcast, I am a late adopter. I don't just jump into things. I have to research the crap out of them. Many, many, many years ago, I had a neighbor who was moving and she gave me a hydrogen water machine.

The ones that are thousands and thousands of dollars, and she talked to me endlessly about hydrogen water and the benefits of hydrogen water. And I know a lot of people who swear that hydrogen water. Healed, whatever, like, like it, it is the end all be all. And I drank hydrogen water for an entire year because she couldn't take her system with her to where she was moving to.

It was too big for the kitchen that she was gonna be in. Anyway, so she handed it down to me and I used it for an entire year. And I, there was zero difference. I felt zero difference. I had to maintain it. It was taking up a bunch of space on my counter. And like I was getting blood work regularly and just nothing like it did nothing for me, and I just stopped because it was irritating.

I know that's blasphemy in some circles that I just said that I don't think hydrogen water is bad and I don't think it is harmful. And I don't think that, the people that have had incredible testimonies are fabricating. I actually know some of them, and they're absolutely not. It just didn't do anything for me.

And if it's not gonna do anything for me, then I'm just not gonna keep doing it. So I have been super skeptical because of that experience of structured water and the structured water movement. But the more I studied it, the more it made sense to me. And so I have jumped in now a little bit late, I will admit, but   📍 I got a myu.

Picture, the little swirling, magnetizing, mineralizing, thing.  I don't know what you call it. It sits on my counter. It's beautiful. And I get to sit and watch my water swirl into circles, and my whole family's been drinking it now for a week. And we all agree it tastes amazing. Like it's, I call it fluffy water.

It tastes like aerated. Fluffiness. And so I like the taste of it, so that's a good thing. But yeah, I'll report back structured water is something that I will see. We'll see if it does anything. If you are somebody who loves and swears by structured water, I'd love to hear from you. It feels like a very, I like ancestral things.

I like the way that nature made them. I like. The way that God made things to be on this earth and the structured water, the idea that water requires movement to be fully hydrating and healing just makes sense to me.

Okay. Number five, I am prepping for Northern Virginia Winter. I've really struggled since moving here. I get very deep. I wouldn't say depression. I really struggle. Maybe. Maybe it's seasonal affect disorder. I mean, it's not like I can't function, I don't get up and I don't live my life. I just. I really have a hard time getting up and just being my normal happy self and working out and going outside when it is dark and it is cold and it is snowing and there's ice on the ground, and I even struggle just, I don't even wanna shower and get dressed.

I just wanna live in fluffy, organic cotton sweats and just do nothing. I think a lot of people feel this way and the research I've done on Lux I think will help me, right? I'm still gonna go outside. Even if it is cloudy and dark and miserable outside, you are still getting at least a thousand lux out of that crappy day outside versus only between 105 hundred of your indoors.

So definitely now have in my head that even when it's cold and dreary, I still need to go outside and it does make a difference, but. I for many, many years have had an infrared sauna from the company Sauna Space years. I think it's been like five years now that I've had it. My chiropractor is the one that recommended it.

I used to go into her office and use it. I have my own, I have for a long time, and I recently got a single bulb, actually, I think if you're on YouTube watching me up, there it is. It's behind me right there, and it is a full spectrum. Bulb incandescent, which is very different than my red light devices. I love my LED Red light devices.

The high quality. I know there's a lot of people talking crap on the internet about LED, red light, that's all garbage. PS we have so much data showing how amazing these high quality, no flicker low EMF red lights are for healing. The difference here with the sauna space light, the incandescent light, is you get the warmth and you get the full spectrum.

So an LED red light that is intended for very specific therapeutic purposes has two spectrums that are the most healing spectrums that come from the sun, and they've reproduced 'em, which is phenomenal. It's. I put my red light device on my thyroid every single day, and that has been a big part of me healing my thyroid.

We have a lot of studies that show that that freaking works. So if you're working with a high quality device, so I have a Loom Box. I love Fringe, fringe heels. I've had the owner on the podcast multiple times. And then   📍 Sauna Space, it's different. It is a full spectrum. Minus the UV of the sun. So it's something that I really believe is gonna help me in those winter months. 

In those darker months, it has the warmth that comes out because it is the full spectrum. And I'm gonna use it and I'm really excited about it. So I'm just getting used to having it on my desk, turning it on 10 minutes at a time. Because it's full spectrum. You do wanna just use it for 10 minutes at a time.

But I'm really excited to report back how much of a difference that it makes for me throughout the winter. Her.

Okay, so that's it. Those are my rabbit holes. That is what I am spending my time studying and thinking about. Welcome to my brain. I'm super interested in how we can detox, nanoplastics. Me getting daily Lex is a big deal. I actually think even when it's dark and cold, I'm still gonna go out on my paddleboard because that is like the best line of sight to the sun that I have here where I live at the lake.

I am gonna continue to support my body, wean off of my thyroid medication, heal my thyroid, and figure out 📍 better ways to support my body to do that naturally

I'm only a awake into the structured water situation, but I will report back on that. And then with winter coming up, you know, the idea that I have this full spectrum bulb that can really help me when it's dark and it's deep winter, I'm really excited. So I feel like in the spring, after we've come out of deep winter of next year, I'll circle back on all of these rabbit holes and I will report back how it is all going.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my brain, and if you enjoyed this episode and you have some other rabbit holes that you would like me to go down and check out, hop on over to my Instagram or leave a comment.

right, friends, go get your morning light and I'll see you next week.