We live in a toxic world. We are soaking into our skin, drinking, eating, breathing, and administering more toxins than our bodies were ever meant to handle. This includes manmade chemical toxins, as well as naturally occurring toxins in unnaturally high concentrations through unnatural modes of exposure. As you read this, keep in mind that a lot of money is involved in keeping a blind eye. If you simply Google or ask AI, you will be delivered the curated algorithmic information that is approved by the companies (paid advertisers on web platforms) who depend on preservation of the mainstream narrative. Learn to employ critical thinking, spot trends, avoid group think and “popular” opinion, and evaluate everything.
The mainstream media, the professional academies (American Heart Association, American Medical Association), the government agencies (CDC, FDA), and most “experts” are all captured by big industry who directly or indirectly finance the agencies and the salaries of their administrators.
Let’s explore the toxic soup of modern life so that, while understanding that we can’t avoid everything, we can be intentional about our exposures and we can support our body to handle them.
Our Skincare
Be mindful of what is in all of your skincare, haircare, and makeup products→ lots of chemicals and hormone disruptors lurk that don’t just innocently sit on your skin. Remember that our skin is our largest organ, and it is highly permeable. We have to consider that anything on our skin can and will be absorbed through our skin. Some of the worst are commercial sunscreens, lotions, face washes and serums.
Hormone disruptors should be of grave concern, as they interfere with the endocrine system- the body’s communication network. They mimic natural hormones (send false signals), block hormone receptors (block messages), alter hormone production (over- or under-production), and change hormone sensitivity (ability to respond to circulating hormones). The effect of this is nothing that any of us would want on our health report card: Reproductive and fertility dysfunction, Metabolic disease and obesity, Hormone-sensitive cancers, Neurological maturation and control issues, and Immune system dysfunction. No thanks.
An Inconvenient truth: Commercial sunscreen has an ingredient list with known poor health consequences. One would think that increased use of sunscreen would decrease the rate of skin cancer, but data show this to be all but true.
- One of many concerning ingredients. Oxybenzone– A common UV filter that is readily absorbed, can enter breastmilk, and is a known and very potent hormone disruptor.
- The FDA said in 2019 and again in 2021 that, based on the available information, only two out of 16 reviewed ingredients – zinc oxide and titanium dioxide – are “generally recognized as safe and effective,” or GRASE.
- The other other ingredients are not GRASE, either due to data showing true safety concern (PABA and trolamine salicylate), or due to insufficient data (avobenzone, cinoxate, dioxybenzone, ensulizole, homosalate, meradimate, octinoxate, octisalate, octocrylene, oxybenzone, padimate O and sulisobenzone). The agency has requested additional safety data on these ingredients, but they are still allowed for use in products sold in the U.S.
- FDA studies show that with even a one time application of any of these ingredients – oxybenzone, homosalate, octisalate, octocrylene, avobenzone and octinoxate – can be absorbed through the skin at levels well above the maximum concentration the FDA says may be found in blood without potential safety concerns.
- Not only do these commercial sunscreens contain toxic compounds, but they inhibit our body’s ability to form Vitamin D, a critical element in immune health and cancer prevention.
- Sunscreen use has increased steadily since the 80’s, due to skin cancer awareness campaigns, with the largest growth from 1990 to 2015, and continuing up since then.
- Melanoma incidence in the US has doubled since the early 1980’s, from 11.2 cases per 100,000 in 1982 to 23 per 100,000 in 2021, according to the CDC archives.
Wanting better for my tween daughter and for myself, I researched and extended my love for making food into a love for making skincare products a few years ago. Check out my blog about clean skincare, where I share my recipes, as well as my favorite brands for clean versions of makeup and other products that I don’t make on my own. At the very least, use my recipes to start making your own sunscreen, tallow balm, and Awesome Sauce Face Wash.
Our Food Supply
There are more toxins than we could ever imagine hiding in our food system. It goes far beyond the petroleum based dyes and artificial enhancers and preservatives in ultraprocessed foods. The non-organic grains like wheat and oats (white flour, wheat flour, oatmeal…) are typically sprayed with toxic Glyphosate (RoundUp), which is used as a desiccant in the United States (this use is banned in Europe!) to dry it out for a faster harvest. Read that again. Anything you eat with non-organic flour or oats in it has more than likely been doused in the known carcinogen, neurotoxin, and gut microbiome destroyer RoundUp! This practice is a major part of the industrial food and ag system, used to ensure high yields and affordable prices, but it comes with a complex set of trade-offs.
The strange irony of modern life: humans are the only species that intentionally sprays its food with poison to kill off other plant life and to keep other creatures away, only to consume the poisoned food themselves.
Just say no to ultraprocessed. If you are avoiding food groups like dairy, meat, whatever else, then please go all in and just avoid it. Don’t use substitutes that make a food-like substance to mimic the food group you avoid. Please realize that the extreme processing and additives required to turn something like oats into oat “milk” or to make an Impossible “Burger” out of plants ends with a food-like substance with minimal true nutritional value and a heavy toxic burden of additives required to impersonate the texture and profile of the real food. For example, the ingredient list of any oat milk I have ever seen includes inflammatory seed oils that have no place in a healthy diet, as well as a number of stabilizers and emulsifiers that have been causally linked to varying degrees of disruption the gut microbiome, intestinal barrier, metabolic syndrome, and certain cancers.
An Inconvenient truth:
- Seed oils are the darlings of the Big Food Industry, as they turn industrial waste into a profitable product, so big money has been poured into organizations like the AHA to give them a dishonest “Heart Healthy” seal based on industry funded false science
- The American Heart Association grew from a small organization to a national powerhouse in 1948, when Procter and Gamble provided nearly $2 million in funding.
- Since this funding, the American Heart Association used false industry funded science to blame saturated fat for heart disease, taking focus off sugar, allowing a boom in the food industry with highly profitable shelf stable and addictive sweetened foods and beverages.
- The AHA has also since promoted inflammatory canola oil as “Heart Healthy”, as well as any other ultraprocessed foods that industry funded science could be manipulated to support..
- Seed oils require an extraction process with rigorous refining, bleaching, and deodorizing with toxic chemicals that strip away all natural antioxidants and micronutrients.
- Seed oils oxidize in high heat, which creates very inflammatory by-products that are strongly linked to heart disease.
- Seed oils are high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which promote inflammatory pathways in the body
- Stabilizers and Emulsifiers are used to improve consistency, texture, and shelf life.
- Stabilizers and Emulsifiers have been causally linked to varying degrees of disruption the gut microbiome and intestinal barrier, metabolic syndrome, and certain cancers
This just scratches the surface. Beware of the Dirty Dozen of produce that consistently has high pesticide concentration in the conventional varieties. Grow as much as you can on your own, buy local when you can, buy organic when you can, eat animals that were raised on their natural diets, avoid ultraprocessed foods. Scroll through the What to Avoid section of my Nutrient Dense Anti-Inflammatory Diet blog to learn more.
Our Water
Water. We need it. We bathe in it, we swim in it, we boil our food in it, we drink it. Healthy adults are recommended to drink 3 liters a day.
IOWA!!! Our water is contaminated. The heavy use of chemical inputs on our farmland and the agricultural runoff from it is contaminating our waterways. The data does not lie. The correlation of cancer rate and the degree of use of Glyphosate (RoundUp) in agriculture is a giant red flag that we can no longer allow industry and politics to explain away. The advent of “RoundUp Ready” corn has brought with it a surge in Glyphosate use in the “corn belt”… we cannot and should not ignore the near mirror map of cancer rate surge and the highest Glyphosate use.
Is it the only thing? No, but it is a very large contributor to the toxic burden on our bodies.
Don’t ignore this trend. Our health and that of our family depend on our ability to recognize indicators and employ critical thinking. Don’t listen to government regulators highly influenced and funded by big food and big ag lobbyists. Don’t listen to the mainstream media funded by big food and big ag advertisements. Don’t take your Google or AI searches on the matter at face value, as their algorithms are designed to protect the interests of the big advertisers and maintain group think. Make this an important issue in your state political decisions! Filter your water, not only because of ag and microplastic contamination, but because of the addition of industrial waste fluoride products — read more on this and water filtration recs in my blog on A Sobering Look at Water Fluoridation.
An Inconvenient truth:
As I write this, Paraquat is another herbicide that is still widely used in Iowa farming and weed control. I pray that the push to ban it will soon come to fruition.
- Paraquat is used in labs to induce Parkinson’s disease in animals for research.
- China, the owner of Syngenta, remains the largest world producer of Paraquat.
- The sale and use of Paraquat has been banned in China since 2017 to protect public health.
- Studies indicate that individuals exposed to paraquat are 2.5 to 5 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, as the chemical can cross the blood-brain barrier and damage dopamine-producing neurons.
- As I write this in 2026, the US EPA maintains that current scientific evidence is insufficient to conclusively link the chemical’s use to Parkinson’s disease. This regulatory stance, paired with aggressive industry defense and agricultural reliance on the chemical, has kept it on the U.S. market despite being banned in over 70 countries
This hits personally, as one of the most amazing men I have ever known, my father-in-law, developed early onset Parkinson’s in his 40’s, after a career of working in direct contact with Paraquat.
More resources:
- Glyphosate statement on genotoxicity March 2026, signed by multiple pHd scientists from numerous universities, etc:
- Listen to the Informed Consent podcast with toxicologist Alexandra Munoz to understand the mechanism of glyphosate’s harm on our bodies.
Our Exposure to Forever Chemicals and Microplastics
Modern exposure to these undisputable toxins is profound in modern life. I won’t go into detail here, but I urge you to look into credible resources on these further. They contaminate our food, water, food storage, nonstick cookware, commercial dental floss, laundry detergent, clothes, furniture, carpet… and so much more.
More resources:
- The Plastic Detox Documentary on Netflix The Plastic Detox | Official Trailer | Netflix.
- Modern toxins interview with functional health enthusiast Dr. Daniel Pompa. #5 Dr Pompa.
- Dr. Mark Hyman, MD’s episode on microplastics: The Latest Science on Microplastics — And What They’re Doing to Your Body
Our Exposure to Mercury in Dental Fillings
The old metal amalgam fillings have a lot of mercury in them. Mercury is a heavy metal that has no use in any of our bodily functions. This is another thing that adds to our toxic load. For some people, they have no issue. For others, this mercury exposure is the toxin that tips their toxic load bucket and fuels larger health maladies. Please see my blog post on The Art of Safe Amalgam Removal and Mercury Detox to more fully understand the exposure and the implications.
Our Overuse of Pharmaceuticals
Drugs always have unintended side effects. Always. Every single one of them. While I would never deny that some drugs have brought great benefit in the treatment of certain health conditions, they should never be the first and only thing you turn to in order to fix an ailment.
Some resources:
- Dr. Aseem Malhotra MD’s documentary, First Do no Pharm. As a leading cardiologist, his insight into cardiovascular health is inspirational.
- Wherever you stream your podcasts, follow Dr. Mark Hyman MD’s podcast The Doctor’s Farmacy or The Dr. Hyman Show..
- Read more in my blog on Tylenol and Critical Thinking about these matters.
Our medical system has in recent decades turned into a protocol-based system in favor of drugs in response to a symptom, with disregard for patient-specific toxicity and contraindications. I say this with 100% conviction after my family’s navigation through the preventable loss of both my father and my father-in-law within a year of each other in the metro’s Methodist hospital system,. Both were initially intended to be stays of a couple of days that turned into weeks of suffering and eventually death following protocol-based administration of clearly documented contraindicated drugs that were fatally toxic to their systems.
This is critically important for our kids. This portion comes more from Mindy, Max and Emma’s Mom, than from Dr. Mindy. I’ve spent the last 5 and a half years researching the science of this one, as it is so important for managing inflammatory immune triggers in our sweet, healthy children. With all that I discovered, I wrote a long and detailed separate report on The Toxic Burden on Our Kids, as I wanted to cover all of the bases.
It is very important to me that everyone understand that I began my journey into parenthood in a place of complete trust for and full compliance with the recommended vaccinations for all healthy infants and children. In my healthcare education, I had memorized and regurgitated on tests the amazing things that these interventions were said to have accomplished with a reported unblemished safety profile. I was never shown the science or data to support these claims, but I had memorized the statement that mounds of science exist, and I believed it wholeheartedly.
Fast forward to today. My convictions have changed. After personally observing the real time manipulation of science in safety and efficacy testing of the COVID vaccine, I could no longer trust that the science existed as claimed for the childhood vaccine schedule that I had followed without question with my own children up until that point. I looked for myself at both the safety testing for the vaccines on the schedule, both individually and cumulatively, and at the true risk of the diseases for which they were being vaccinated. I was shocked by what I found. The truth that I discovered in science and historical data paints a much different picture than the mainstream rhetoric confidently and consistently declares. My only goal in sharing what I am is to make the information available that I so desperately wish I had seen and been able to consider prior making very consequential health decisions for my own children from the start.
An Inconvenient truth:
The Cliff’s notes version. You can find the detailed version in my report of The Toxic Burden on Our Kids. Listed below are truths and trends that are fully acknowledged and agreed upon in isolation, but somehow not allowed to be considered in correlation.
- The number of U.S. children with chronic health conditions (including asthma, obesity, neurological, and behavioral disorders) has risen dramatically over the last four decades, from roughly 10% (1 in 10) in the late 1980’s to nearly 50% (1 in 2) in 2025. That is a 400% increase!!
- Total prevalence of childhood allergies in 1981 was 7.0%. The total prevalence of childhood allergies in 2023, according the the CDC was 35%. Another 400% increase!!
- Aluminum adjuvants are used in many vaccines to ramp up the immune response to the weak antigen in the vaccine.
- Aluminum is injected into rats to induce allergies for scientific research.
- Aluminum is widely classified as a neurotoxin. It has no natural role in the body. Aluminum readily crosses the blood-brain barrier and accumulates in the central nervous system, where it can trigger oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and neuronal cell death.
- Injected aluminum is 100% absorbed, whereas ingested aluminum from food is only 0.1% absorbed, with the other 99.9% blocked by the GI barrier and excreted directly without any toxic burden to kidneys..
- When I was a kid in the 80’s, the childhood vaccine schedule was 5 vaccines in the first 12 months of life. The childhood vaccine schedule in 2025 is 28 vaccines in the first 12 months of life-a 460% increase
- The 1986 NCVIA act granted childhood vaccine makers complete immunity from liability for any harms from their products, as well as immunity to the practitioners that administer them, meaning that they cannot under any circumstances be sued for any harm from their product. This is the only product on the market with such protection.
- In 1985, the total childhood CDC schedule from In Utero to 18 years of age was 11 total doses. The 2025 CDC childhood vaccine schedule includes 72 total doses of vaccines from In Utero to 18 years of age- a 555% increase!
- The United States is BY FAR THE highest childhood vaccine schedule in the entire world. In utero to 18 years old…A child in the US receives 72 doses. In Great Britain, children receive 20 doses. In Denmark, only 11 doses. Even China gives their children less than a third of what the US does at 22 doses.
- The historically deadly diseases for which we vaccinate (diphtheria, measles, pertussis) had already experienced an 85 to 98% reduction in mortality prior to vaccines, thanks to sanitation, waste management, and refrigeration.
- The same rapid rate of reduction in mortality was seen for the other historically deadly diseases for which we have never had vaccines- typhoid, dysentery, TB, scarlet fever, cholera, yellow fever, puerperal fever- thanks to sanitation, waste management, and refrigeration.
On a personal note, to further understand how my convictions have changed… feel free to read a bit more in the section of my Tylenol blog about the experience of a family very close to me.
✌️
~Dr. Mindy
