How Environmental Toxins Are Making Us Sick (And What To Do About It) with Dr. Vivian Chen

Apr 26, 2024

01:12:45

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Welcome to Radical Vitality! In this episode, I speak with Dr. Vivian Chen, founder of Plateful Health and Lumebox, to talk about how environmental toxins are adversely affecting our health and practical tips for managing them without feeling overwhelmed.

Conventional Western medicine trains doctors to manage disease states and symptoms but not necessarily to create health and vitality in the body by focusing on the root causes of disease. In Dr. Vivian’s experience, she encountered firsthand illnesses that couldn’t be resolved through her conventional medical training. She became fascinated by the often poorly understood root causes of disease and simple lifestyle shifts that can promote health and healing and pivoted to integrative medicine.

Detoxification is a natural human process happening 24/7, though we’ve been made to believe it's something to achieve only through pills or 10 days of juices or smoothie cleanses. The detox industry has tapped into our human nature of wanting a quick fix. Ensuring our bodies are detoxing correctly is the crux of Dr. Vivian’s work, but that has to do with what is going in and out of our bodies more than taking any miracle cleanse.

We discuss the role environmental toxins play in our bodies. Dr. Vivian emphasizes that people shouldn’t feel scared about environmental toxins or that they need to 100% overhaul their lives. Instead, the more you know, the more you can take small steps that add up to meaningful change! She offers several actionable tips for improving your body’s natural detox systems that you won’t want to miss.

Dr. Vivian is also the founder of Lumebox, an innovative red light therapy tool that improves skin conditions and decreases inflammation and pain. It is truly a fabulous product, and I swear by it! Lastly, we discuss the role of alcohol in our detox systems. She explains that when the body receives alcohol, it tries to break it down immediately, putting other functions on the back burner. This can lead other detoxification processes to slow down and show up as another symptom, like PMS or breast tenderness.

Episode Outline:

(03:42) On filling in learning gaps after medical school

(09:46) Detox fads

(17:46) The liver is in overwhelm

(20:31) Do toxins really matter?

(25:45) Toxins in the endocrine system

(31:28) “Things going in” tips

(40:46) Minimize toxin exposure through cookware

(45:55) “Things going out” tips

(53:32) Red light therapy and detox

(1:00:02) Alcohol and health

(1:04:12) Dr. Vivian Chen’s daily non-negotiable habits