Environmental Toxicants & Fertility, with Dr Carmen Messerlian, PHD

Interview with Dr Carmen Messerlian, Assistant Professor of Environmental Reproductive, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

An environmental toxicant is any toxic substance produced by humans or introduced into the environment by human action. A lot of people throw around the term "toxin"  nowadays. Toxins are substances created by plants and animals that are poisonous to humans, such as muscarine from poisonous mushrooms. Most of us are talking about are hormone disrupting chemicals, environmental chemicals or toxicants when we refer to toxins.

In this interview, Dr Carmen Messerlian, describes the main classes of toxicants: phthalates, phenols, flame retardants & teflon, where they are found, and how they may impact our fertility and ability to make offspring. 

Topics covered:

The meaning of epidemiology
Sources of toxicant exposure in the natural, social and built environment
Classes of environmental toxicants
Biomarkers for exposure
The risks of personal healthcare products
The importance of lifestyle factors

Our fertility is decided not just by our own actions in the present, but it extends two generations ago in the past to the actions of our grandparents

We both agree that the key lifestyle factors, such as sleep, diet & physical activity are most important to having a healthy life. Focus on these. The stress of worrying about man-made chemicals in the environment that will always be there will do more damage than good to your life.

The blue zones are areas around the world where people seem to live longer with a large portion of centenarians. In Okinawa, they consume rice in almost every meal which contains arsenic, as well as fish, which contains mercury. Could it be that the benefits of the fish outweigh the negatives of the chemicals, or something else ?

Something the blue zones all have in common, is social connection. For example, in Okinawa, they have the moai. A social support group that forms in order to provide varying support from social, financial, health, or spiritual interests.

Vietnam, a country I used to live in, also has an incredibly long life expectancy, despite the heavy population and contaminated food. Perhaps, it's their happiness which helps them to live on. They even have the phrase ""Ăn bẩn sống lâu" (word by word means "Eat dirt live long")

First get the small things right. But, as discussed in the episode small steps to eliminate chemicals from our lives is needed. Consumers through their actions can encourage companies to adopt more safe materials.

Aim for progress rather than perfection. Even tiny steps can help. For example, instead of wearing cologne seven days a week, use it five days a week, or three and apply it to your clothing not skin.

More about Carmen: Professor, Reproductive Epidemiologist, Public Health Leader, Fertility Expert, Scientist, Mentor, Teacher, Lifelong Learner, FemTech Entrepreneur. 

Carmen's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmesserlian/

SEED Program instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seed.program/

Carmen's Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/DrMesserlian

Harvard Seed Page: https://seed-program.org/

My related articles: 

https://patrickraizerov.medium.com/common-things-in-our-daily-lives-which-are-poisoning-our-health-2a2c2cd6c883

https://patrickraizerov.medium.com/where-to-find-sulforaphane-63d51206c399

https://patrickraizerov.medium.com/superfoods-to-supercharge-your-body-2974e97f0dc7

Note: Whilst introducing Dr Carmen Messerlian, I made a small mistake with her undergraduate university. I apologise for this mistake. I will work on this, and this will not happen again. 

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