020 Professor Marc Cohen – Understanding Toxicity and Extreme Wellness

Professor Marc Cohen shares with us his 10 toxic truths and the 5 B’s to help us process or eliminate the chemicals and toxins that we are exposed to. We also talk about extreme wellness, the Wim Hof Method, and the cold water hokey pokey.  Professor Marc Cohen is an absolute hero of mine and as he says, we are all connected so we are all affected.
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Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Hello, and welcome to Unstress. I'm Doctor Ron Ehrlich. Today, we're going to focus on environmental stress, and then move into extreme wellness and what that actually means. Now, I know we hear a lot about environmental issues, particularly chemicals and chemical exposure, but I think it's good to have some broad principles about how to think about this issue, rather than just tell you what to think about it.

My guest today is Professor Marc Cohen. Marc is one of Australia's pioneers of integrative and holistic medicine and has had a significant impact on education, research, clinical practice, and politics. I mean, I think in the world of health and wellness, he's a legend. Marc has been involved in research into wellness, as well as complementary and integrative medicine, for more than two decades. He's gone over a broad range of topics, including the environment and wellness. His research interests are integrative medicine, acupuncture, yoga, just to name a few. This is a really extraordinary conversation. There is so much here.

We do have transcripts available on my website, as we do for every episode, so please use them. There are often articles that we've mentioned or links to websites, they're also included. It's a great resource, so don't forget to go and visit the website, my website, DRRonEhrlich.com.

Now, when we think about stress, as you know, I define it as anything that has the potential to compromise your health. And if you're a regular listener, you'll know we look at environmental stresses from lots of different perspectives. What I love about today's episode is Marc gives us a framework for really understanding the issue in a very broad and holistic way. He refers to it as "The 10 Toxic Truths." Now, this topic can get a bit depressing and overwhelming but don't be. Don't be depressed or overwhelmed. In order to fix a problem, you've got to actually know what that problem is.

Now, when I asked him to give us some tips about how to deal with those toxic truths, listen carefully for The Five Bs. That's right, Bs. Oh look, I'm not gonna give anything away just yet, these are pearls you've gotta listen to.

Then after we deal with those issues, we go on to talk about extreme wellness. Marc has been following the work of Wim Hof, an extraordinary man who holds over 20 world records for doing some fairly extreme things around controlling his body's nervous system, temperature control, immune system, and much, much more. That's Wim, W-I-M, and I've been really interested going to his workshop in Sydney. It's gonna be a fascinating thing and Marc's talking about him.

Now, Wim has developed a new breathing method, and we've talked a lot about breathing on this show, but this is different. And in particular the confrontation with cold and its health benefits. Now, Wim goes to extremes, but there is some important lessons to be learned for us all. Particularly about dealing with stress, building resilience, boosting your immune system, and really taking control in ways you may not have even thought possible. So it's clearly an important message for us all.

As I said, there's so much in this episode. I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Professor Marc Cohen.

Welcome to the show, Marc!

Professor Marc Cohen:    Well, thanks, Ron, it's a pleasure to be with you again.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Marc, supermarkets and shops, pharmacies, they're full of products with a huge list of ingredients, which include chemicals.