Transcript #486 How Toxic Chemicals In Everyday Products Disrupt Your Hormones with Jenna Hua
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- Find out what’s in store on this Myers Detox Podcast with Dr. Jenna Hua, who joins the show to talk about hormone disrupting chemicals that are in everyday products found in your home. Dr. Hua covers how these chemicals affect your hormones, the different hormones that they can impacts, as well as how to test for these chemicals with at-home testing. She also covers important topics like how these chemicals affect fertility, your ability to sleep, mood, and are contributing to the obesity epidemic. If you want to take back control of your hormones and get the harmful chemicals out of your home for good, make sure to tune in!
- Find out how Dr. Hua’s fertility story lead her to becoming passionate about how chemicals are affecting our hormones.
- Learn about what Dr. Hua is doing at her incredible business called Million Marker.
- Find out some of the common sources that are exposing people to dangerous hormone disrupting chemicals.
- Learn about some of the dangerous chemicals you can be exposed to if you eat out.
- Learn about some of the most problematic hormone disrupting chemicals, and what they’re affecting in our bodies.
- Find out some of the symptoms of hormones imbalance.
- Learn about why fertility issues are on the rise, and the chemicals that are the main culprits for these issues.
- Find out how endocrine disrupting chemicals are actually hijacking your hormones.
- Learn about some of the best ways we can reduce our exposure to EDCs or endocrine disrupting chemicals.
- Learn about some of the things you can look out for on product labels to make sure you’re not being exposed to dangerous chemicals.
- Find out why you need to stay away from products that contain fragrance.
- Find out why “fragrance free” might not mean that there’s no harmful chemicals in the product.
- Learn more about how people can do hormone testing through Dr. Hua’s website Million Marker, as well her amazing lifestyle app.
- Read some of Dr. Hua’s final recommendations about reducing hormone disrupting chemicals in your life.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Hello everyone. I’m Dr. Wendy Myers. Welcome to the Meyers Detox Podcast. Today we have a great show with Dr. Jenna Hua, and she’s going to be talking about hormone-disrupting chemicals and how to do at-home tests for endocrine-disrupting chemicals and how they affect your hormones as well. And we talk about the issues with fertility. We talk about the issues with sperm quality these days and why one in four to eight couples are having issues with conception and infertility. And We’ll talk about where we commonly find these endocrine-disrupting chemicals, exactly how they’re affecting our thyroid hormones, our stress hormones, our sex hormones like estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. And what this is doing to our bodies, how it’s contributing to the obesity epidemic, resistant weight loss, your mood, your ability to sleep, has this huge cascade domino effect on our health, and we’ve got to start doing something about it. So Dr. Hua goes over how we can take back control of our hormones on today’s podcast.
And I know you guys are listening; you’re concerned about heavy metal and chemical toxicity. And so I designed a quiz you can take to kind of discern your relative body’s burden of toxins. You can take it at heavymetalsquiz.com, and this is a great way to kind of look at your body’s burden of toxin toxins in general and get a free video series about how to detox your body. So take it out; it takes one minute at heavymetalsquiz.com.
Our guest today is an environmental health scientist and dietician by training. Jenna is passionate about the environment, public health, and everything food, and she’s been frustrated by the lack of data on how harmful chemicals like BPA, phthalates, and parabens are from plastics in everyday products and how they affect our health and clinical outcomes and the absence of personalized approaches to mitigate harmful chemical exposures. And so Jenna set out on a mission to change these issues.
And from there, she found Million Marker. It’s a health tech startup dedicated to empowering everyone with the data and the tools to determine how the products they use, the food they eat, and the water they drink negatively or positively influence their health. Million Marker helps people understand what chemicals are inside them and then provides simple solutions for quickly reducing harmful chemicals through mail-in test kits, lifestyle audits, product recommendations, and counseling. And their mission is to get one million people to take their test, building the first-ever database on how environmental exposures like microplastics impact our bodies.
And starting with a few markers of harmful exposures, their vision is to discover over one Million Markers to inform and improve individual health and advance precision medicine. You can learn more about Million Marker and their testing for endocrine-disrupting chemicals at millionmarker.com. Jenna, thanks so much for joining the show.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Thank you so much for having me, Wendy. I’m very excited.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your story and starting the Million Marker company and how your fertility story prompted you to get into chemical testing and hormone disruptor testing?
Dr. Jenna Hua: How I got started, partially because you alluded to it, my fertility journey, and partially because of my professional career. So I was trained as a dietician and worked as an RD in a hospital; nobody listened to me. I felt there was such a lack of personalized approach and actually spending time with patients, educating them about the knowledge of nutrition and environmental health, and they were just such a lack of wait. When I was the RD, I would’ve spent 15 minutes consulting patients, and I would spend one-hour charting. You can’t change someone’s behavior in 15 minutes. That’s just not possible. So that prompted me to go back to school and study environmental health because I thought if we can’t actually change the environment, then I don’t have to tell people what to do. They would just be forced to change. Then I realized that that’s kind of a long shot because to change the environment, we have to change our policy. To change policy, our policy literally moved at glacial speed. It’s just really hard. And we have no personalized approach because, given you and I have the same environmental exposures, if we had different genes, we would’ve responded very differently internally. And we have no data to really know at the time when I started. We don’t really have tools to let us know what’s our personalized approach, how my body versus your body respond to environmental exposures, and so we can do something about it.
So, I felt there was a lack of tools for us to understand. And there’s also a lack of data in terms of research because we have been studying environmental exposures one at a time. If you think about it, we have a ton of research on BPA. We have a ton of research on air pollution, but we’re actually getting bombarded with multiple exposures all at once. But we have no idea how these exposures interact with each other. How do these exposures interact with our genes and cause disease? So we have no data. So that’s my professional quest. It’s like, okay, can we build a data set? Can we have the tools to really push science forward but also give people personalized tools to address these issues, especially for prevention purposes? Not until we got sick, then we started addressing these issues.
So that’s on the professional side. On the personal side, I had a lot of fertility struggles myself. After four late-stage miscarriages, the doctor just told me, good luck next time. I had no family history. I’ve done any kind of testing that’s possible, and there was no solution. So that kind of prompted me to start thinking about, okay, could it be some environmental triggers? Could it be this? Could it be that?
But when I went to the doctor to ask, can I actually do an environmental toxin, environmental exposure test to help figure out what could be the potential cause? The answer was, like, no. The routine test we do is heavy metal . Even when you want to do heavy metal, you have to specifically ask for it. It’s not even a routine check, which is really crazy to me because we have decades of research showing chemicals and environmental exposure impact fertility.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And they only test lead and mercury and arsenic, and that’s it. What about all the other ones?
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yep. So nobody’s really addressing this issue. So that’s really just mind-boggling to me. So after I finished my postdoc, I just figured since nobody’s reading my paper anyway, I should do something more impactful. That’s how I started at Million Marker.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And so what are you doing exactly at Million Marker?
Dr. Jenna Hua: So at Million Marker, we’re trying to; our first product is a mailing, a direct-to-consumer mailing urine test that allows people to understand their common hormone disruptor chemicals exposures. We test for 13 chemical metabolites, including BPA, BPA alternatives, phthalates, parabens, as well as oxybenzone. So all of these are common plasticizer chemicals and are common chemicals you would find in personal care products and household products. And that’s something people can do; if you know what your exposure levels are, you can readily reduce these exposures and eliminate them from your body.
That’s our goal to educate people, educate people through counseling education as well as personalized testing. So we can have this personalized approach to figure out, okay, where are your potential exposure sources, and what can you do to reduce these exposures?
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, it’s nice to always get a baseline, do testing where you’re getting a baseline, and then you can make changes and then see where you are, do some detoxification, or improve what you’re using for your personal care products or your cleaning products or what have you. And then do some testing again to see where you’re at again. And so I encourage people to do this as your own, kind of like, n=1, your own personal experiment, but also to really focus in on, it’s a reality check where you have all these different chemicals, and then you kind of see, oh, maybe I need to make some major changes here because I’ve got all this in my body and you’re testing 13 things. But that’s a good representation of probably the most common ones. We have like 100,000.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yep.
Dr. Wendy Myers: There are 100,000, but there’s no testing for these things. There are very few companies testing for chemicals right now.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yes. And then a lot of these chemicals often commonly occur at the same time. So if you have a snap, at least minimally, if you have a snapshot of what your toxin levels and your body burdens are, then you can start making changes because they have common sources and they’re commonly used together.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And so, what are some of these common sources where people are being exposed to these chemicals that you mentioned?
Dr. Jenna Hua: Diet and products are the two biggest sources. So if you think about it, if you consume a lot of packaged food or canned food, you would definitely have both BPA and phthalate exposure, including parabens exposure too. And many times, it’s just one, and it’s hard to avoid because everything, most of the things, are packaged in plastic, and they leach. So, common things people want to detox. The number one thing we want people to do is to avoid packaged food, trying to do as many home-cooked meals as possible. If you can, please shop for organic. Organic frozen is also a good option if you’re on a budget and just limit going out and eating out.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And so, what are some of the problems with eating out?
Dr. Jenna Hua: Eating out, there are so many things you can’t control.
Dr. Wendy Myers: I mean, this is like a whole podcast.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yeah, this is a whole podcast.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Actually, I need a whole podcast on this. What’s the problem with eating out? But sorry to interrupt you.
Dr. Jenna Hua: The problem with eating out is you can’t control the food sources. You don’t really know what they’re putting in the food. And there are a lot of additives. If there is ready-to-eat food, there are more preservatives, and then there are more chemicals put in it. And even just if you use good sources, you still don’t really know what people cooked the food with. So, they could be using scratched-up Teflon pans, and you would then get PFAS exposure. And that’s also a whole different topic because right now, we test for more transient chemicals, meaning they can actually if you eliminate the sources, you can actually get rid of them. Your body will actually get rid of them. But for PFAS, for these forever chemicals, your body can’t get rid of them for a long, long, long time. So you definitely want to stay away as much as possible.
So when eating out, there’s no way of knowing what they’re cooking with or if they put, actually, say, a hot soup or hot sauce in a plastic can or container. And then by doing that, you would have all these plastic chemical leachings in it. And then one other thing is in restaurants, many times, a chef or cooks use gloves before preparing your food, and there’s no regulation with that glove. So you could have stuff coming out of that glove, leaching into your food. You just don’t know.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And they can also use aluminum cookware because that’s very cheap. It’s lightweight; it could be disposable. And so I think that’s really a big issue as well, is all that aluminum leaching into your food.
And so let’s talk about some of the most problematic hormone-disrupting chemicals because I think there are so many people, so women in menopause, so many people with thyroid issues, stress hormone issues, sex hormone issues, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and people are just, they’re just hormonally a mess, and they don’t know why. And this is something women start thinking about when they go into menopause typically. But women are having a lot of issues. Girls are having menstruation much earlier, and people are having a lot of menstruation issues. And then they’re also having a lot of perimenopause menstruation issues or going into menopause early. Our hormones are a wreck. What is going on?
Dr. Jenna Hua: A lot of research has been pointing to the chemicals that we’re actually being exposed to, namely the ones that we’re actually currently testing. We have a ton of research on BPA. So BPA is the poster child of hormone-disrupting chemicals. And if you think about how our hormones work, they work as a symphony, like an orchestra. And if you have one key out of sync that kind of has this whole salute of issues, it will keep triggering down. And hormones work in such tiny, tiny quantities. We literally measure these chemical exposures in nanograms. That’s like, you can barely even see it with your eyes. So we’re talking about one drop of water in 25 Olympic size swimming pools. That’s how much it requires for the hormone to actually make an action and then cause an impact on your body. So we’re like, you definitely don’t want to mess with your hormones.
And I think that’s one concept people don’t really grasp. Just this little tiny bit it requires to cause an impact. And if you think about how much these hormone disruptor chemicals were getting exposed day in and day out if you don’t eliminate these exposures, you just don’t know. You might not feel the next day how these things are impacting you, but because of this repeated day-in and day-out exposure, you just don’t know when your cup’s going to get full. And then, by the time you start feeling that you have this hormone imbalance or other issues like fertility issues and other issues, and it’s just a little bit, your cup is getting too full.
Dr. Wendy Myers: What are some of the symptoms of hormone imbalance? I mean, we know weight gain. I mean, a lot of people struggle with their weight, resistant weight loss, getting fatter, fatter. They don’t understand why. They’re like, my diet is normal. And I think this plays into the obesity epidemic. It’s not just the food that we’re eating.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yep. Absolutely.
Dr. Wendy Myers: It’s not even close. It’s not as simple as just going on a low-carb diet, and people just want to look at their diet. It’s much more complex than that.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yes. So, we actually call these hormone disruptors, also obesogens as well as obesogens, because they’re associated with obesity as well as diabetes. And the reason is that this hormone cascades when it comes in. It messes with your hormones that govern your satiety, how you get full, and then how you get hungry, and also messes with your cortisol and all these things. And then they just work as a mash. So that’s how they impact. And then, if you have extra exposures, people might be eating more, and you might not be digesting what you’re eating well. So then that causes all the weight gain.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes. And let’s talk about fertility because there are some shocking statistics on fertility these days. One in four couples has a challenge getting pregnant or maintaining and carrying a pregnancy. Can you give us some information about that, some statistics and what’s going on there? What’s the problem?
Dr. Jenna Hua: Oh, one biggest thing besides one in four couples experiencing infertility is also we have seen the sperm quality has been decreasing like crazy. In the last 10 years, sperm quality and sperm count have decreased by more than half. So if you think about it, and then if you think about how these hormones work, for example, phthalates actually block testosterone. So, it particularly impacts male and male babies. And then, if you think about the exposure from phthalates, it is a lot of time a major plasticizer.
There are two kinds of phthalates. One is called low-molecular-weight phthalate, and another one is high molecular weight phthalate. So high molecules usually use plastic. It makes plastic flexible. So think about your saran wrap, think about a coating, and then think about any plastic stuff that you use. They could have a ton of phthalates in it. Some research has shown that certain plastic products can contain up to 80% phthalates or BPA by weight. So it’s really, really important to avoid that.
And then phthalates are also being used in personal care products. So think about fragrance in a lot of personal care products. Phthalates are what make that fragrance stick onto your body for a lot longer, this long-lasting thing. And there are more than just phthalates in fragrance. So one strategy is we tell people, okay, whenever you shop for a personal care product or household cleaning product or any product, avoid fragrance because you just don’t know what’s put in it. And most of the time, if you see fragrance on your ingredient label, most likely it’ll have phthalates in it.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And then, let’s talk about some of the other symptoms of hormone imbalance. What should people be looking for when they have a hormone imbalance?
Dr. Jenna Hua: Oh, a ton. So besides your weight gain, there could be women who could have irregular periods that could be partially hormone imbalance, and you could feel tired, fatigued, you name it, being stressed out, thinning of your scalp hair, your skin issues, all of these could be contributed by hormone imbalance.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And so that’s beautiful, ladies, is this affecting how you look? It’s not just your weight as well. So, let’s talk a little bit about exactly the mechanism of how these EDCs or endocrine-disrupting chemicals hijack your hormones.
Dr. Jenna Hua: So, if you think about how hormones work, they kind of work in lock and key. So one lock has to be put in the key. So when this hormone disruptor comes in, they just make this match. So then your hormone has this lock and key. You wouldn’t put in the lock and key. So it could be a receptor issue; it could also be blocking it. Because think about hormones as like your messaging system in your body, so it could be missed messages or could be the translation of the messages. And then these hormone disruptors can also influence your epigenetic meaning that before your molecule, your protein, everything gets made, it’s already changing before that happens. So then this makes your gene expression, which makes this protein also inaccurate. So there is probably the research I’ve shown; there are almost 10 different ways these hormone disruptors can influence our hormone signals. And then expressing the downstream. So just depending on yourself and then also depending on what kind of hormone disruptors, there could be multiple ways of impacting the downstream.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, and it’s funny because our hormones control so much going on in our bodies. Our thyroid hormones and our sex hormones are stress hormones, and it has this huge cascade effect on your body. When your thyroid isn’t working, you’re going to have depression and anxiety and weight gain, and other issues. You can have problems with pregnancy. Our thyroid has to be working to have a healthy baby. Your stress hormones, so many people have adrenal fatigue, or they have low cortisol, low epinephrine, those low get up and go hormones. You wake up in the morning feeling like a train wreck, just not motivated. Or you feel like you’ve been hit by a train rather. You can wake up like a train wreck too.
But not to mention the sex hormones, your libido’s in the trash. So just your relationships suffer. I mean, this has this huge domino effect, and people just blame themselves, or they blame they’re getting older, or they blame their diet. And my big passion for communicating this message to people about the importance of detoxification is there are so many things going on with you that are related to toxins, not some innate problem with you or your genetics.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Absolutely. And I also think, if you think about your innate genetics and other things, those are actually harder to fix, or some of them you can’t even fix, right? You’re genetics you can’t change. But actually, detoxing is such an active way to make yourself feel better. And there’s also this whole prevention aspect. And it’s actually if you put effort into it, it’s actually not hard. It’s actually easy compared to other things that you have to change.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And so, what are some of the common ways we can reduce our exposure to these EDCs or these endocrine-disrupting chemicals?
Dr. Jenna Hua: So BPA, if you think about how to reduce these, we need to think about the sources, where they’re coming from, and then you mainly want to eliminate the source. So BPA is usually used in coding thermal receipts. So if you have a habit of taking receipts and touching receipts, make sure you have your receipt emailed to you instead of touching it because touching it will expose you to these bisphenols. And also, beware of product labels to say BPA-free. Because of BPA, we know that thanks to conscious mothers, we got BPA banned in baby products. But that doesn’t mean BPA is not used in other products. And also, even when a manufacturer says BPA-free, it doesn’t mean others are BP free. Because what manufacturers have gone smarter is once BPAs were banned, we started putting BPS and BPF; these are the common ones. Now there’s BPAF, you can literally swap a letter, and you can have any combination from BPA all the way to BPZ.
And many of these alternative chemicals are way more toxic than BPA. So BPS is more toxic, and BPAF is super toxic, and those aren’t labeled anywhere. And even for BPA that’s labeled, we actually have no compliance. It’s completely up to the manufacturer to label. There’s nobody there to actually check, do testing, or check whether, okay, this product is actually BPA-free.
Even in the EU, where there is a BPA ban, I think the policy is if you have less than 0.05 milligram per kilogram of BPA in your product, that’s considered free. That’s similar to our trans-fat-free label, even though that’s regulated, but .05 doesn’t mean it’s none, right? So if you consume a lot of it, you will still have that exposure.
So that’s where BPA is found. That’s one of the major sources. And the second is our canned food or canned drinks. So again, don’t be fooled. And many people think about canned food. If I didn’t eat that canned beans, I wouldn’t have exposure. But actually, any soda cans could also have a BPA coating. So anything can be canned. I know people like carbonated water, so for that, a soda stream is a better option. Or just drink regular water. That’s a better option than drinking that canned carbonated water. So that’s for BPA?
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, glass people. You need to start using glass, glass to store your food. I used to order food from this food service, it was organic food, and they delivered it in glass. It was just amazing.
Dr. Jenna Hua: That’s so good.
Dr. Wendy Myers: It was so amazing. I just love that. And you want to work with companies that really care about their consumer’s health that are using glass, buying things in glass bottles, water in a glass, carbonated water in a glass, or whatever the deal is.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Absolutely. And then for that, you can also, because I mentioned that a lot of these chemicals are, they have common sources. By eating in a glass, you can also avoid quite a bit of phthalate. So for phthalates, one is used as a plasticizer. So make sure in your kitchen, yeah, you use glass Tupperware. Ditch the saran wrap. If you want to microwave something, use a plate to cover it instead of Saran Wrap or use a beeswax wrap. One, it is more sustainable, and then secondly, you have avoided all these exposures already.
And phthalates are also, again, in personal care products. Definitely avoid fragrance. Also, pay attention to supplements because certain supplements still, the capsule of the supplement sometimes still use phthalates as a capsule coating. So make sure you read your labels and are making sure that your capsule is made of vegetarian cellulose rather than any other unknown chemical so that you can avoid phthalates that way.
And parabens are the same thing. Make sure you read the labels. One area with parabens we have not seen there’s much change in is the over-the-counter creams and ointments. So we have users who use these hydrocortisone creams for eczema or rash or for allergy. That’s one place we have not seen kind of a clean cream all almost across the board; they always have paraben in it. In that case, if you have to use it, make sure you use it sparingly, not all the time. And then also, still read your label because not all parabens are created equal. There are four kinds of parabens, starting from methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butyl. So the longer the chain, the more toxic the paraben is. So butylparaben is way more toxic than methylparaben. So when you choose that, you know, over-the-counter cream, if you can’t avoid the paraben, if two products, ones labeled methyl, ones labeled butyl, go with the methyl because that’s way less toxic than the butyl.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Oh, right. That’s good to know.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yeah. Oh, and also with paraben, this is another way why we want to avoid packaged food paraben, which many times is also used as a preservative in packaged food. It’s not even labeled as paraben; it’s labeled as a hydroxybenzoic acid. So, nobody’s trained as a chemist; if you don’t know that, then you just get that exposure without even knowing about it. So that’s another reason why we want to avoid packaged food.
And the last one, a really common one, is a chemical UV blocker. So, oxybenzone and also benzophenone are commonly used as a homosalate. Those are usually used as common chemical-based UV blockers. So try to choose a mineral based rather than chemical-based. And not only you’re saving yourself on this exposure, but you’re also saving the coral reefs. You’re saving the planet.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes. Yeah. I mean, it’s just amazing where people, they just don’t realize. They think they’re protecting their skin and protecting themselves from skin cancer when they actually need the sun. They need the sun to be healthy, and then they’re putting all these toxic chemicals in their skin. I mean, it’s just crazy. That kind of bill of goods that we’ve been sold when it comes to beauty and health in regards to our beauty products.
And some of the easiest things you can do is to avoid fragrance in cleaning products.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yep. That’s the biggest.
Dr. Wendy Myers: That’s cleaning products and beauty products, perfumes, et cetera. The fragrance is just, that right there, is more your number one rule that you should have.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yeah, we even have people ask about natural fragrances. People use essential oil. Oftentimes, the essential oil is not regulated. One thing, if you are a big user of essential oils, I would definitely first thing look for is to make sure it’s organic because at least there is some regulation there. Because for essential oil, you still don’t really know if they’re naturally sourced, or they’re actually synthetically made. And whenever there’s even naturally sourced, many times there could be contamination because you don’t know in a distilling process is actually using food-grade equipment or they’re actually using plastic-based equipment?
So if you think about it, you have this high heat for distilling, and if you use plastic components, all those chemicals will be just leaching into this beautiful essential oil that you would get exposed to that you think you’re doing something good, but you’re actually exposing yourself to more things. So pay attention to that. If you don’t know a lot, I would just avoid fragrance at all times. Even if they’re saying that it’s a natural fragrance, you still don’t know.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And what about the issues of fragrance-free products? There are a lot of conventional laundry detergents and things that say fragrance-free. What’s going on with that?
Dr. Jenna Hua: So, fragrance-free is better than not fragrance-free, obviously. One thing to look out, watch out for is the scent. So many products will be labeled unscented, but unscented is actually a scent. So don’t be fooled by that. It’s actually a scent that actually could have phthalates in it. Manufacturers have gotten smarter about using words like aroma rather than fragrance. So make sure you catch those. So, definitely go with no fragrance. I think that’s the best choice.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, because they just use these scents to kind of neutralize the putrid smell of the chemicals in the product, correct?
Dr. Jenna Hua: Yeah. Definitely-
Dr. Wendy Myers: So it might not just smell like lavender, but it doesn’t smell like chemicals either. So that’s what they’re trying to do there. Yes. And so let’s talk a little bit about the test again, the Million Marker test. So how do people go about getting a test? What does that look like, and what is your website?
Dr. Jenna Hua: So people can simply order it on our website. The reason we wanted to do a direct-to-consumer test is so everyone has access to it. People can simply go to our website. Just www.millionmarker.com, and you can simply purchase a test. We do ask you to complete an exposure journal before you submit your test because this way, we can personalize your report. You can also just know your results and then get a test only just getting your levels without the personalized feedback.
But I think this is why people are actually getting the biggest bang for their buck; we spend a lot of time actually auditing your product because we want to pinpoint and give you this personalized report letting you know where your potential sources of exposure are. So you can then either need to change your lifestyle, touch fewer receipts or change your Tupperware or do any of these things. But also any of the products that you’re using, we will audit not only the chemicals that we are testing but any other problematic chemicals that we have seen in the literature that have an impact on your health; we let you know. So then the next time you buy a product, you can buy a better one
Dr. Wendy Myers: Right. Fantastic. And I love the app that you have, and you can use the app without even taking the test, correct?
Dr. Jenna Hua: So we initially wanted to offer that, but we also felt that it’s not changed yet on the website, but we felt that’s still not good enough compared to testing.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Of course not.
Dr. Jenna Hua: So, ideally, you can do the testing and then also have your lifestyle audited.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Okay. Yeah. So then the app you can audit your lifestyle is essentially what you’re doing there.
Dr. Jenna Hua: Exactly. So the app is basically a journal allowing people to easily document because when we first started, we literally had a long survey on the web, having people fill it out. But snapping a photo is a lot easier. So using the app, you can simply snap a photo and then upload it to the app, and then we’ll be able to audit based on the photos that you send. Because product formulation changes all the time too.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes.
Dr. Jenna Hua: So unless we know exactly what’s in your product, we can’t; it’s really hard to pinpoint what’s going on.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Okay, fantastic. And so you can mail in a test, it’s a urine test. And then, how long does it take to get your results?
Dr. Jenna Hua: Right now, we say four to eight weeks, but we’re trying to deliver less than four weeks. The reason is we have to batch-process all the tests. So there’s a bit of a delay. There could be a bit of a delay there. And I also do all the auditing right now. Still, this process is fairly manual.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Okay, great. Yeah. And so anything else that we’ve left out of this conversation or anything you wanted to add?
Dr. Jenna Hua: One thing I want to add is that we also talked a lot about the transient chemicals. Everything we test and everything I just said to ask people to avoid, these are transient chemicals. So, I definitely want people to pay attention to persistent chemicals. The PFAS, a huge part of our exposure besides plastic, is through our water source. So, I would highly recommend people get a reverse osmosis water filter at home. If you have the ability to have a filtration system for your entire house, great. But minimally, if you can get a water filter in your kitchen because we do drink a lot of water, and water actually helps with detoxing. You want to make sure you actually are hydrated. So, that’s one of the recommendations I would make, even though we don’t test for that. But that’s something that people should be looking out for.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. I mean, water is one of the top sources of contamination, so it’s super, super important.
Well, Dr. Hua, thank you so much for coming on the show. And guys, check out millionmarker.com to take your test, and you want to look at this stuff because I think people are shocked when they see the levels of chemicals that they have. They’re not expecting it, and then it really can push someone to action when they actually see real results in their hands and they have some actual data. It can push them to make better choices in realizing the stuff that they’re using is maybe not as green as they thought or not as healthy as they thought.
So, thanks for coming on the show, and everyone, thanks so much for joining me. I’m Dr. Wendy Myers. Thanks for tuning in every week. It’s such a joy to be able to do this every week and bring you guys all these experts from around the world because I know that educating you on detoxification it’s going to help you to take action to remove these toxins from your body and dramatically improve your life like I’ve been able to do with mine and the thousands of clients that I work with. And so I really want that for you. I really want you to add a detox to your daily health regimen, and I think that’s the key to a longer, healthier medication, disease-free life. And that’s why I do this, do what I do every week. So thanks for tuning in, and I’ll talk to you next week.
