Shocking Truth Exposed: Everyday Products May Be Sabotaging Your Fertility! - Dr. Jenna Hua

In our conversation today, Dr. Jenna Hua, an environmental health scientist and dietitian, delves into the pressing issue of toxic chemicals, such as BPA, phthalates, and parabens, and their impact on our health. Motivated by a blend of passion for the environment, public health, and food, coupled with a concern over the insufficient data on how these harmful substances from plastics and everyday items influence health outcomes, Dr. Hua embarked on a mission for change. To address this, she founded Million Marker, a health-tech startup aimed at providing individuals with essential data and tools. This initiative seeks to help people understand how their choices—regarding the products they use, the food they consume, and the water they drink—can have a negative or positive effect on their health, thereby promoting a personalized approach to reducing exposure to harmful chemicals.

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*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business or personal success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Dr Jenna Howe is not only an accomplished registered dietitian, but she also holdsa master's in public health and a PhD. Currently, she is at the helm of a remarkable initiative, serving as the founder and CEO of Million Marker, a pioneering platform that studies and educates on environmental chemical exposures and their impacts on our health, specifically fertility. Jenna's journey to this point has been deeply personal, driven by her own struggle with infertility that led her to discover a link between her health and everyday chemical exposure. Today, she brings to the table not just academic credentials, but also a passion born from personal experience academic credentials, but also a passion born from personal experience. In this episode, jenna will shed light on the toxic chemicals that lurk unsuspected in our everyday lives. She talks about the hidden impacts they have on our health and, again, our fertility. And, more importantly, she offers practical steps that we can all take to reduce our exposure to these potentially harmful chemicals. If you've ever wondered about the unseen risks surrounding us and what you can do to protect yourself and your family, I'm telling you this conversation with Dr Jenna Howe is not to be missed. This is a topic that I am extremely passionate about, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to connect with Jenna and talk to her about it. So stay tuned and be prepared to open your mind and be inspired by this conversation around environmental health with this wonderful guest, dr Jenna Howe.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie podcast. Welcome, I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you so much, nika, for the opportunity. Yeah, so we are going to speak about something today that is really near and dear to my heart and, even though it's not one of my favorite things it's actually one of my least favorite things it's one of my favorite things to talk about. We're talking about toxins today. I'm super excited.

Speaker 2: 2:10

Yep, it's definitely preaching to the choir, also my favorite subject, and education is really important because you know so many people are not aware, so always happy to talk about it so, so important.

Speaker 1: 2:22

So before we get into the toxins, though, I want you to be able to introduce yourself a little bit, share a little bit about how you got into toxins and why you're so interested in it, and just kind of your backstory.

Speaker 2: 2:33

Sounds good. So my name is Jenna. I'm the founder and CEO of this tech startup called Million Marker. At Million Marker, we're trying to provide everyone the tools to reduce their toxin exposures through mailing tests, counseling and education. How I got into this? I founded the company for two reasons. One professionally I was running into a wall in my research. I've done environmental health science research for the last 15, 20 years.

Speaker 1: 3:05

And.

Speaker 2: 3:06

I realized that we have no data to allowing us to study toxins and complex toxins or multiple toxins. So you're talking about these toxins. We get exposed to a very tiny amount, but day in and day out. So without the big data there's no way we can study it. So that was a frustration I ran into during my research.

Speaker 2: 3:28

On the personal side, I had a lot of fertility struggle myself and after multiple late stage miscarriages the answer from the doctors were just like good luck next time. It's not very satisfying and because I studied it, I knew these exposure could impact my fertility or it could be some trigger. So I wanted a sense of assurance, making sure you know I've done everything correctly so that I don't experience this and others don't experience this. But when I went to the doctor asking for such tests because we know we can test for genetics, can test for hormones, we can test for many things but I went to the doctor, they were like no, there's no such tests available. So I figured I doubted anybody's reading my academic papers Maybe it's time to do something else.

Speaker 1: 4:16

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's fascinating how you know. You asked me before we started recording how I got into the field and for me it was. You know. I said you know you asked me before we started recording how I got into the field and for me it was, you know. I said you know the typical story of I wasn't feeling well and I wanted to know what was wrong with me, and I started deep diving into how to heal my own body and it just kind of grew from there. So I relate to your story in that sense of you know, you see, an issue and AMA, even though they have some magical things that they do, aren't always there for you in that sense, and so it's.

Speaker 1: 4:48

It's amazing how many of us have similar stories like that. Absolutely yeah, so okay. So before we get into how you know toxins, how they affect us and how we can remove them and heal our bodies, can you give us kind of a you know 10,000 foot view of what are toxins, what are some of the common ones that we see? Cause I know that's a very broad topic. There's so many things that can be considered toxins, and especially from person to person, but can you give us just kind of a general overview of what it is and and where we might find them?

Speaker 2: 5:24

So so scientific definition for toxins the toxins are actually naturally occurring substance that could potentially harm us. So common toxins you can think about is like, for example, some of the heavy metal, so arsenic is a really big one. So arsenic, actually naturally occurring soil, so some of the rice that's grown in the US or abroad they have arsenic content and then arsenic have been linked to cancer and other problems, so that's a natural one. We also talk about like now people kind of use toxin, just generally. We also talk about synthetic chemicals that we also kind of generalize, talking about those as toxins. But these are like these synthetic chemicals.

Speaker 2: 6:07

In scientifically speaking they're actually called toxics but toxic is kind of like a mouthful, so we don't really say toxics, but these toxics are. We also call, just in general, call them toxins and they could be like a common chemical that people probably have heard of is BPA. Like a common chemical that people probably have heard of is bpa. You've seen, like your water bottle, plastic water bottle labeled bpa free. A lot of your personal care products sometimes you will see paraben free, like phthalate free, peg free, these are, and also pesticides is a is another common toxins that you know. That's why we need to. You know, eat USDA organic is that they're like having less pesticides. So these are like kind of like toxin toxics that we encounter in everyday lives.

Speaker 1: 6:54

Yeah, and it's amazing how many there are and how many different places they can mean it's when you get into it it's almost terrifying. It's like I don't want to go out of my bed because I'm scared, kind of thing. But and then even that, like if you really got into it, like your bed has toxins to the mattress, chemicals and all these different things. So it really is incredible. But you know how are, how are the ways that some of these toxins maybe don't make it quite as scary as I?

Speaker 1: 7:24

just made it but how are some of the ways that you know this might be affecting us? What are some of the issues that it could be causing in us?

Speaker 2: 7:32

So a common kind of like a toxin impact we talk about is this group of toxin called hormone disrupting chemicals or endocrine disrupting chemicals. A lot of them are have this property, meaning that they interrupt or they mess with your hormones. And this we can kind of backtrack a little bit to tell people you know why you even need to care about your hormones. Your hormones are actually, like, really really important for your metabolism, for growth, for your mood, for your sleep. They literally control every single function in your body and the hormones oh, go ahead.

Speaker 1: 8:10

No, I was talking about the messengers of our body, basically, Exactly exactly.

Speaker 2: 8:14

They're like the messengers and they also work in such sync. It's like a symphony, so you never want your keys to like out of sync. Right, Because then you know it would have trickled down like a lot of issues. So and then working very, very tiny amount You're talking about like some hormone action. It's like one drop of water in like 25 of Olympic sized swimming pools. That's how much you're required to cause any action. So you never want your hormones to be out of sync to cause any action.

Speaker 1: 8:46

So you never want your hormones to be out of sync. Say that one more time, because I think that is a really kind of mind blowing amount right there. Say the, say the metaphor. You gave one more time.

Speaker 2: 8:54

So it's like a one drop water in, uh, in 25 of Olympics size swimming pools. That's how much required to for the hormone to have any downstream impact. Yeah, so it's just such tiny, tiny amount, so you never want to mess with your hormones. What we're worried about these, these synthetic chemicals, these hormone disrupting chemicals. They're literally like in our everyday life, from plastics to personal care product, house cleaning products, as you also mentioned, like you know, even in our bed. Yeah, it could also be in the air we breathe, in the food we eat, so pretty much everywhere.

Speaker 2: 9:37

And these chemicals literally have no business of being in our bodies. They does no good, they only do harm. So we should always try to avoid them. Um, but to your point is, like you can, you know, if you want to go down this rabbit hole, you can definitely like get overwhelmed. Um, so one thing we always tell people is, like you know, take really, really simple steps. It's impossible to get rid of everything out at the same time, but you should always try to reduce, reduce, reduce, and this is a this is like a life force, lifelong approach, rather than just like, okay, I can reduce today, but I don't have to do it tomorrow. It's literally. It has to become part of your lifestyle behavior. You have to do it all the time.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Yeah, I mean I love that you have to do it all the time. Yeah, I mean I love that One of the one of the things I do is I go into people's homes and help them literally identify where all these hidden toxins could be from laundry detergents to perfumes to you know different foods that they're eating, those kinds of things and really try to start to kind of clear out the homes, get rid of those those toxins. But to what you said, it really is like let's start room by room and figure it out and then you do the best you can. It's never going to be perfect, but you can reduce it substantially and just by making conscious purchasing shifts, like the products that you buy shift to healthier options, it really does make a big difference, I think, over time.

Speaker 2: 11:08

Oh, absolutely, and we also wanted people to understand that you know, by voting with their dollars, you know buying better product it's not only just good for your health, good for the next generation's health, it's also good for the environment.

Speaker 2: 11:21

Oh my god, yes, right. Like so much of these like toxin, toxics that we're using. They're like, literally, petroleum-based product that's horrible for the environment. Um, they're using plastic which we can never get rid of, right? Um, thinking about all the birds and all the sea turtles and stuff that was plastic, it's just like really crazy. So, by being making a conscious switch, um, you're really benefiting yourself and the planet.

Speaker 1: 11:48

Absolutely that. That's my biggest thing is is healing people also heals the planet. So a hundred percent, yeah. So we we've talked about a little bit about reducing toxins, but what are some of the tips you have for reducing toxins specifically in our body? A lot of tips.

Speaker 2: 12:05

share, please share so I think, exactly like you said, you kind of have to understand like where your toxins or toxin exposures are coming from, um, and we can go room by room. But some of that you can also buy, you know, by your behavior. So one uh example is fun the exposure source, fun food. So fun food is you know if you consume a lot of canned food. Canned food are usually lined. The cans are lined by BPA to keep the oxygen out, to keep a shelf life longer for food. So BPA is used and then we talk about that.

Speaker 2: 12:38

You know BPA is a hormone disrupting chemical. Bpa is. The structure of BPA is actually really similar to estrogen. So that means if you ingest a lot of BPA, it could your body actually would you know of. Bpa is actually really similar to estrogen. So that means if you ingest a lot of BPA, your body actually would mistake BPA with estrogen. So a lot of people could potentially get estrogen dominance. It can be good Lots of health issues related to that. So BPA is a big one. So always try to reduce canned food, always eating fresh if you can. Bpa because it's a plasticizer. It's also a chemical that used to make plastic shatterproof. It occurs in a lot of takeout containers, so that's another big one. So if you eat out a lot consistently, we have seen if people eat out a lot, they would have higher exposure to BPA. The last bit is that not only canned food, canned drinks too. So if you drink a lot of soda cans, if you don't drink regular water drinking regular water, you know, not from a plastic bottle or container right.

Speaker 2: 13:42

Like from a ceramic or stainless steel. If you drink a lot of canned drinks, uh, you would also have high exposure to bpa. So that's like thinking about food. Um, a lot of another category we kind of mentioned is pesticides. So pesticides have been used. Um, you also use a lot of hormone disrupting chemicals in them.

Speaker 2: 14:03

Um, so if you if you can can try to consume as much organic as possible, if you have limited resources, then you know the ones. Ewg, so environmental working group, always had these good education material on their clean dozen and dirty dozen. But rule of thumb is that you know if you're eating something with the skin or if you can peel the skin off, then you know. If you're eating something with the skin or if you can peel the skin off, then you know. If you can peel the skin off, then having something inorganic is okay. But versus, if you eat berries, for example, you eat the whole thing. Then try to choose organic and then two like one food. One veggie that we always tell people to go for organic um, is strawberry and spinach, and kale is also a big one.

Speaker 1: 14:51

So strawberry, always go for organic, because that's the head the most heavily like, uh, pesticide sprayed yeah, fruit yeah, and and it's it mean I think blueberries tend to be thrown in there too. Yeah, I and it's, it's funny. I go to the store now and I look at the regular blueberries, the non-organic, and all I can see is this toxin bomb, this little tiny toxic pill that I'm going to eat, and I'm just like I can't even bring myself to do it anymore. Once you learn what it is, it's like you can't unsee it, kind of thing, and yeah yeah, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:31

So for veggies, like you know, kale and also spanish, always go for organic, yeah, yeah, and then go ahead, go ahead. Oh, I was just gonna have two more with with food and there's, like you know, we can just kind of go on and on so forever. If I'm like talking too much, I blur out all this information. Um, another one I was gonna say is uh, uh, there, there could be also these chemicals in your drinking water. Um, so people might have heard in the news recently this forever chemical pfas a lot and it has been in our water source, yeah, quite a bit.

Speaker 2: 16:05

So we have been recommending people if you can get any water filter is better than no water filter, but if you can get a reverse osmosis water filter, they usually go underneath your sink, so those are generally better. Nsf actually it's a certification body. Nsf has some criteria to certify, to making sure that these filter actually works. So we have also put together a blog post on selecting filters. So if anyone's interested in getting a filter, also check out the content that education materials that we put out. So filter is also pretty important.

Speaker 1: 16:40

Perfect and I can link to that in the show notes to just make it as easy as possible. I did want to ask you one thing, kind of bouncing back to the canned foods and the water bottles. So I think a lot of people, the general public, is starting to pick up on BPA, but there's not a lot of talk about BPF and BPS and I'm curious your thoughts on that because I still think that this is probably a big issue and I've seen a lot of companies they'll take out the BPA and just replace it with BPF or BPS.

Speaker 2: 17:11

Oh, yes, you're absolutely right. I'm glad you mentioned it because I was gonna say it but I forgot because I got carried off like carry on to say something else. But yes, so since BPA has been bannedurers have been using these replacement. Bps and BPF are the common ones. They can literally make a simple swap and they can swap something all the way from BPA to BPZ. This is also something that scientists have been urging government to make sure their policy cover BPA as a whole class, like bisphenol as a whole class of chemicals. So we don't have these regrettable substitute because BPS and BPF they do just as bad of a harm as BPA.

Speaker 1: 17:56

Right, and so the product is still labeled BPA-free, but it's basically the same thing, causing the same damage.

Speaker 2: 18:04

Exactly Also B. You know, bpa free is actually not regulated.

Speaker 2: 18:08

Any manufacturers can put that label on uh. In the EU it's regulated, but um many years ago EU literally changed their policy I think two, three days ago, so before. Eu had a BPA free label, um, listing as if uh a product have um, I think it was, uh, think it was four microgram per kilogram of BPA, then that's considered BPA free, so it's not completely free. It's kind of like our trans fat rule here. For a food product to label trans fat free, the content just need to be 0.05 per milligram per kilogram. But if you eat a lot of trans fat free food you're still getting that trans it's hidden there.

Speaker 2: 18:51

Oh yeah, and it built up like and it's a big deal. Yeah, exactly so. The eu literally slashed the bta um limit to like a hundred thousand. Now they're like like 0.04 um microgram kilogram. So they're like they have seen that this is, you know, causing harm, so they're changing it, but the US is still not changing it. Our rule is like it's like five, it's like a hundred more than a hundred thousand times more than the EU.

Speaker 1: 19:20

So this is like- the EU is always much further advanced on protecting us from these things than the US. It really is kind of heartbreaking when you start to do the comparison.

Speaker 2: 19:31

Yeah, well, we're hoping US will catch up and like we think, like ultimately, this shouldn't really be the burden on the consumer, like it should, you know.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Yeah, yeah. So what are your thoughts about, like, do you think it's possible to truly eliminate toxins from our body? Is it possible to really clear out our system?

Speaker 2: 19:54

I don't think we can clear out 100%, but we can definitely reduce dramatically if you eliminate the sources. This week I also talked about two kinds of toxins the persistent toxins and also transient toxins. So a lot of persistent toxins. One example is DDT. So you know DDT has been banned since, you know, the 70s. Ddt used as a pesticide has been banned since the 70s. But today, if you screen someone's blood to look at these persistent chemicals, we're all going to still have some DDT in us because they just have.

Speaker 2: 20:28

It just takes a long time for them to break down and you get rid of. So for those it's very, very hard to get rid of. So that means then you don't want to put any more into your body. This is the same thing as PFAS. Pfas is also a persistent chemical. Once you get exposed to it it's very hard to get rid of. So all of us have it. You just need to make sure you don't give yourself extra, even more exposure. The second one is the classes of the transient chemicals. So BPA, phthalates, paraben. These chemicals are transient chemicals. Theoretically speaking, if you eliminate the sources, your body will actually get rid of them within 24 to 48 hours, which is a good thing your body's doing what it's supposed to do pretty fast.

Speaker 2: 21:16

But the issue here is that one you already have these persistent toxins in your body you can't get rid of. You definitely don't want to put more whether it's transient or persistent into your body. The second is because these transient toxins are also everywhere. If you don't make a conscious choice, you just get exposed to it day in and day out, all the time. So that's the trick.

Speaker 1: 21:36

You know some of the most common places that people don't even think about is like their shampoos. I know they're talking about. You know sulfates and parabens being removed now, but you know the the general, most common use shampoos have quite a bit of that you think about. You know scented lotions that people put on their body. You think about the hand soaps and the hand sanitizer and all these things that you know we're putting on our bodies all day, every day, and they they quickly absorb in absolutely so.

Speaker 2: 22:04

One tip we gave it to people is opting for fragrance free. Always check out your ingredient labels to make sure your the ingredients for any product that you're using doesn't have fragrance, doesn't have perfume. Now manufacturers trying to trick consumers by labeling not perfume, perfume, not a fragrance, but aroma.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:25

But it's like okay, it's the same thing, and also like a unscented is actually a scent. Yes, yeah. So make sure you're opting for fragrance free. Um, don't go, don't go, Don't go with unscented and then ditch the aroma.

Speaker 1: 22:41

Yeah, I've even seen them say like natural fragrances or natural perfumes, and for the listener to understand that when they use the term fragrance or perfume, that can be any number of like 80,000 chemicals, and most of these chemicals are completely unregulated as well. Right, yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:01

It's yeah. Out of the 80,000 chemicals, we actually only have about 1% of them with sufficient safety data. We just, we just don't know.

Speaker 1: 23:10

And then even that I think they're regulated by laws that were from the 1920s and the 1930s 's. It's pretty, pretty, uh, breathtaking in a bad way when you start to really be definitely, it's definitely outdated. Yeah, yeah, so how do you suggest we figure out our own toxin levels and and what kind of? What's the level for what's considered harmful or not?

Speaker 2: 23:35

there is actually no safe levels for these toxins, and then we also have seen there's a lot of individual differences. We actually, as a society, we don't have rules. We don't actually have safe threshold. Part of the reason we're trying to provide this test is so people can understand their own exposure levels and do something about it. And what we have seen is individual have differences. We have seen people with a relatively low risk profile based on the products that they use, the food they consume. Some of those people actually tested high versus some people you know didn't use super clean products and didn't have super good lifestyle behaviors. Their toxin levels are not that high. This just suggests, you know, everyone has different metabolism.

Speaker 2: 24:19

If you find out that you actually are slow at getting rid of these toxins, then by all means you need to reduce your exposure further. So this is why we develop our tests so people can screen their urine to see these toxins and then do something about it. For persistent toxin, though, these will have to be screened through blood. Not many people can do that and it's you know you have to go to a phlebotomist through, like getting your intravenous blood to get screened. We don't offer that service right now, but hopefully one day we could. So right now our service is a urine test that people can find out about their toxin levels.

Speaker 1: 24:59

And how quickly is the turnaround with the test results?

Speaker 2: 25:03

The test results from when we receive your urine sample to providing your report is usually between three to six weeks. We're trying to reduce that time Right now. We just we launched our product just a few months ago, so we're helping with volume. Then we can get that turnaround time down to even like shorter, to like less than two weeks.

Speaker 1: 25:25

That's pretty comparable to you know. Think about like Everly Well or something like that. It's still pretty similar in the sense of setting off, you know, any type of urine or blood results. That's still pretty quick, so I wouldn't feel bad about that. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:39

Yeah, yeah, we definitely have people like, because people are, you know, they're worried. Yeah, so once they submit the sample, they really want to know right away, right away. Yeah, you know, we're trying our best to actually provide that.

Speaker 1: 25:51

Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned it a little bit earlier. We talked about, you know I talked about my love for healing people and the planet, kind of putting those two together. Can you talk a little bit about the work that we can do towards eliminating environmental toxins?

Speaker 2: 26:06

Yes, absolutely so. Reducing plastic is like the number one, because we just like, plastic is so persistent, so prevalent in our environment, it's just really hard to get rid of. And if you think about, like these toxins I have just talked about, like BPA, phthalates these are like major major plasticizers. Some of the plastic actually contains up to like 80% by volume of these chemicals, so they couldn't be made of these things. So by using plastic, you're actually exposing yourself to these toxins, like.

Speaker 2: 26:42

One other tip that we always tell people is, like you know one get rid of plastics because that's a simple swap, right, like, especially, your water bottle, your food storage container, so those are easily swapped. And also like never, ever microwave plastic, because because the heat will actually yeah, exactly, yeah, um. One other tip is, if you use like plastic serum wrap, uh, in your kitchen, try to switch that to a bee wax wrap, um. So that's another one. And if you're using Ziploc bags, we also recommend people to change it to. You know, use a glass with stainless steel container or use a silicone bag. Not all silicones are created equal, so make sure you use a platinum silicone or food grade silicone.

Speaker 1: 27:35

That was going to be my question for you there is because I know for me, a couple of years ago I made the switch to all glass and stainless steel, but we have a couple things that are silicone, and we've been very careful and very selective about the silicone. But some people are completely anti-silicone, and so I wanted to get your thoughts on that too.

Speaker 2: 27:54

So depending on how silicone is made. Yes, it's a little bit controversial because the make of silicone is kind of like just a better plastic, but silicone does like last so much longer and they're convenient. Uh, we can. I think we kind of have this complicated relationship with plastic. We can't really completely get rid of it right, so convenient, but at the same time because it's so bad. We should try our best, and silicone is kind of like a nice alternative in the middle. So just make sure you choose good quality silicone. So then one it lasts longer. Second, it doesn't have any potential health damage. Anything could damage your health.

Speaker 1: 28:36

Are there any specific labeling or things that we could look for on the silicone? That would be helpful to identify quality silicone.

Speaker 2: 28:43

So far we have not seen any, like you know, regulation when it comes to silicone. Just to make sure that you know if it's labeled as platinum silicone, that's just the manufacturing process that they use platinum to make the silicone. So that's a good one. If it's not labeled, a food grade silicone is always better. So two brands that we have endorsed one is Stasher. They're good. Another one is Zip Top. At least these two brands that we have done a ton of homework to dig into their quality and these two are pretty good.

Speaker 1: 29:16

Awesome. That's super helpful too. So before I get into the last few questions, I got some lightning round questions for you. First, I want to just recognize you for the work that you're doing. I mean, I know this topic is really near and dear to my heart, something that's super important, but I think it's just this incredibly important thing that a lot of people in the general public aren't really paying attention to or don't even realize, and so I'm so grateful for the work you're doing and making it available for, you know, anybody to figure out what's going on in their body and figure out how they can heal it. So I commend you for the work you're doing. I think it's really important.

Speaker 2: 29:52

No, thank you.

Speaker 2: 29:52

Like we like, we also appreciate the work you do I mean education is like so important and especially, we also feel that this has also a disparate health disparity issue around this topic.

Speaker 2: 30:05

Because, you know, for people who are already aware, at least for now, for all the people who are using our service are are, you know, the almost, you can say, worried. Well, um, that highly educated was good, disposable income, but if you think about who has the highest exposure of these chemicals you're talking about, you know, people probably cannot afford our tests right now, who might not be able to afford organic food, who might not be able to afford a good product. So I think mobilizing the entire society to you know, getting to know your numbers, voting with your dollars and also pushing the government to make better policy, I think that's the way to go and I hope one day we don't have to exist you know that we have just all the same product out there and we can really take prevention into our own hands, because there's, like, I think, a part of the reason we want to exist is to be able to provide people the tools that they can start preventing disease rather than treating.

Speaker 1: 31:08

yeah, because our health care system right now is focused on treatment rather than prevention you know, and and even treatment is kind of putting band-aids over things opposed to really fixing fixing the real issues that are causing all the health concerns. Yeah, absolutely, and I love what you said. I think you know. Vote with your pocketbook. That is a huge. I mean, my biggest thing is trying to get those who have the means to shift their daily behaviors, because they're the ones that have the power to make that decision, and if they make the decision to shift, the businesses and the companies, the multinational corporations, will shift to follow their pocketbooks and that not only makes life better for them, but it makes life better for the people who don't have the means to make those shifts. It drastically changes everything behind them, and so I love that you brought that up.

Speaker 2: 32:01

Absolutely, absolutely. The reason the BPA is even banned is because mothers demanded to get BPA banned from the kids' feeding bottles.

Speaker 1: 32:11

Right, yeah, and I think about the food babes. She got crafts to remove the yellow dye from the macaroni and cheese and it was like it was already gone in Europe. Why is it okay for American kids to eat it Like moms have so much power and we've got to really speak up and ask for those changes. Absolutely, yeah, Love it. So where can listeners connect with you? Where can they get the uh, the access to the tests if they want to do? Um, the uh, toxin scans, those kinds of things?

Speaker 2: 32:42

So people can find out. Uh, find us on our website. We're our wwwmillionmarkercom. Uh, we named it just to throw it out there. You know we named ourselves million marker because one day we're hoping, with the data uh we're collecting, we'll be able to discover over a million biomarkers to help people understand their health and do something about it. We're also pretty active on Instagram and Twitter. So just million underscore marker. People can also join our mailing list to get news. We also have created a ton of content on our website because education is a key, is a mission to us. So we have a ton of content. We have a toxin-free guide. We also have a list of approved products that we did all the homework so you don't have to do it. So listed all the good products as well as, like water filter, personal care product, house cleaning products. So check it, check those up.

Speaker 1: 33:41

Love it. I will link to as much of much of that as I can in the show notes, just to make it as easy as possible. So, jenna, are you ready for the last few lightning round questions? Yes, okay, perfect. So the first of the three is what is the most impactful book you've ever read and why?

Speaker 2: 34:01

impactful book I have ever read, and why, I guess. One thing came to mind is I guess it's uh, um, steve jobs bibliography, because since I started to um becoming an entrepreneur, it's. It's quite different from being a researcher in academia and then learning learning how he built product and then how you know how he run the company. That's pretty inspirational. Yeah, so I would. I would say that that's like kind of like related to my current state.

Speaker 1: 34:39

Yeah, and that's okay. Yeah, whatever, whatever is connecting with you right now, yeah, so go ahead.

Speaker 2: 34:49

Yeah, I was just going to say. Another book that I read before I thought it was quite interesting is a food politics. I'm a big foodie, I love food If I'm not doing Million Marker right now, I wish I'm a chef but also understanding how our food system and our medical care system all these have so much influence on the industry. It was also quite eye-opening. That's why having like consumer action voting with your dollars is really important.

Speaker 1: 35:22

Metabolical is a great book that recently came out. If you haven't read that one, stick to that, but it's phenomenal, Okay ready and done Dr Robert Lutwig, I think, oh, okay, yeah, he's at UCSF, right, yes, okay, yes, it's very, very good, but along those lines. So to anybody listening, go listen to Metabolical. It's phenomenal, but okay. So my next question for you is and you've already given a ton, but if you have one more, what is your best tip for living a toxin-free and or eco-friendly life?

Speaker 2: 35:58

I think I would go back to plastic, because that's something that the easiest for people to think about. People are already aware. If we talk about you know some pox and names that oftentimes people just don't remember. They're also usually a mouthful, but plastic is something everyone can relate. So please like reduce, reduce, reduce, reduce your use of plastic, reduce your exposure to plastic. Recycle doesn't really work, so it's complete greenwashing, but that's. I guess that's another different topic.

Speaker 2: 36:31

Yeah, A whole other story, but yeah, but try to reduce your use and reduce your exposures. But try to reduce your use and reduce your exposures.

Speaker 1: 36:38

Absolutely Okay. And then my last question for you what does living consciously mean to you?

Speaker 2: 36:47

Oh, I love this question. I think that living consciously to me is to be aware of everything around you, so the environment around you, the air we breathe, the food we eat the air we breathe, the food we eat, the product we use, and also people around us, like caring for the people around us, or, you know, get rid of all the toxic people around us. That's also important. Yeah, yeah, um. So I think living consciously is, you know, just to be aware of everything around you. Um, because I always feel that what goes around comes around. Everything is connected. So I think living consciously is, yeah, absolutely be aware.

Speaker 1: 37:28

Man, you are speaking my language now, right? Now I totally, totally agree with you. Well, Jenna, this has been absolutely amazing. I could speak with you for hours and hours, but I won't this time. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing all of your knowledge with us today. Thank you so much, Anika. Until next time.

Speaker 2: 37:46

Thank you.