How Toxins In The Home Can Impact Your Child’s Mood and Behavior
Better Behavior, Naturally
My guest this week is Beth Greer, a sustainable and toxin-free living expert and award-winning journalist who eliminated a sizable tumor in her chest without drugs or surgery by detoxing her body and home. Known as the Super Natural Mom®, Beth is also the author of the bestseller “Super Natural Home” and named a Top 50 Health & Environmental Journalist to follow. Beth offers personalized in-home detox audits to identify and eliminate toxins. Her work has been endorsed by Deepak Chopra & Dr. Joseph Mercola, who recognize that toxin elimination equals better health. She offers Detox Your Home webinar courses, and 5 Day Group Detox Cleanses.
In this episode, Beth and I discuss different toxic household items and food products that can negatively impact children’s behavior and overall well-being. All families can benefit from learning more about the vast amount of toxic ingredients found in their daily household, personal care, cosmetic and food products. Beth shares simple practices to help eliminate these toxins and provides resources on how to take the first steps to create your toxin-free home. Learn more about Beth here.
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Where to learn more about Beth Greer…
Episode Intro … 00:00:30
Household, Personal Care, Cosmetic Items … 00:08:00
Dyes, Additives & Preservatives … 00:13:15
Fish and Meat Products … 00:19:20
Label-Reading … 00:22:18
Mold Exposure … 00:32:45
Electromagnetic Field Exposure … 00:34:32
Episode Wrap Up … 00:37:30
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Hi everyone, welcome to the show. I am Dr.Nicole and today we are going to talk about environmental toxins and how they impact our brain and bodies. Now, this is an issue that I think a lot of parents don’t really consider in relation to their child’s developmental kinds of issues or mental health symptoms but it’s a really important link to understand. Because the things we are exposed to in our environment, in our homes, and for our kids at school and the environment in our communities can have a major impact on brain development and also just out functioning in general. So I am excited to have as my guest today, Beth Greer, and she is going to talk with us about how toxins in our home can impact mood and behavior.
Let me tell you a little bit about Beth, she is the supernatural mom and she is a sustainable and toxin-free living expert, and award-winning journalist, who eliminated a sizable tumor in her chest without drugs or surgery by detoxing her body at home. She is the author of the best-seller “Supernatural Home”, endorsed by Deepak Chopra and Dr. Joseph Mercola and named a top 50 environmental journalists to follow. Beth offers personalized in-home detoxed audits to identify and eliminate toxins. Her work is endorsed by several doctors who recognize that toxin elimination equals better health. She offers ‘Detox your Home’ webinar courses and five-day detox group cleanses. I am so excited to have her on the show today to talk with us about this important topic. Welcome to the show, Beth!
Beth Greer:
Thank you! So great to be here.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
So you’ve got a really fascinating personal story about how you got into this whole realm of understanding the role of toxins in health and neurological functioning, all of those kinds of things. Tell us a little about that.
Beth Greer:
Yeah so it’s been about 17 years now, but I thought I was leading a really healthy lifestyle. I exercised, watched my weight, I even had a meditation practice, I didn’t smoke and so I developed this pain in my shoulder and it turned out through an MRI discovered I had a mass in my chest. It was the size of a tennis ball, it was pretty big and very painful and I got a biopsy and they said it benign and that it needed to come out and I went to 3 top surgeons and they couldn’t agree on how to access this thing.
One wanted to cut me under my collarbone in the front. The second one wanted to go under my armpit and the third one wanted to remove one of my ribs from the back and I just thought this is insane, let me just, you know, slow down here for a minute and figure out what I can do and why this occurred in my body. It was so strange like it came out of nowhere, it felt like. So it was like I started looking at first what i was putting into my body and I realized that I was eating out a lot and not really paying that much attention to myself. You know, I thought I was eating healthy but healthy is different for everybody and everybody is different, everybody’s body is different.
So I went on a cleanse, I went on down to a place called the Optional Health Institute down in San Diego and they put us on raw juices, raw vegetable juices, organic and in just 3 days, I started noticing that the pain started diminishing. I thought, “Well this is really interesting, wow what’s going on here?” I noticed that my body started feeling better and I continued there, I was there a week. Then I went home and decided to continue this cleansing of my body by using just organic vegetables mostly, a little bit of fruit. And while I was doing that, so I thought — okay, what’s happening here? And the word came to me to ‘simplify’, I was simplifying what I was eating and I was taking out all of the foods that are inflammatory. I had been eating wheat and processed food, things like that. And then I remember thinking, well what else can I simplify?
And I was putting some lotion on my skin and I looked at the bottle and on the label there was a paragraph’s worth of ingredients, and I just thought, whoa! And I couldn’t read half of them. And my background is a journalist, I went and got my masters in journalism at NYU. And I put my research hat on, I started researching all these chemicals and their impact on body and brain and how fast they get into the body, which is so interesting for our skin, you know, it absorbs very quickly into our bloodstream, everything we put on there. So I switched out to all natural, so I put like coconut oil and I’m using baking soda as a deodorant for example. And then I thought, well what else can I simplify? And I was cleaning, I was spraying with Windex — I was spraying some countertops and I looked at the label on the back, most people don’t read their labels on household cleaners, they may be good at reading food labels but household cleaners? So I look at it, it says precautionary statement: Hazardous to humans and domestic animals. And I thought like “Whoa! This is interesting, okay!” These things are toxins over here that I don’t want in my body and so I switched that to using hydrogen peroxide and white vinegar and baking soda to clean with.
And so it took about 9 months of this sort of cleansing and clearing away of all the toxins that the pain went away and then I had the tumor scanned and it had disappeared. So about 6 months later I had it scanned. Yeah, it disappeared, it was a huge wakeup call to me that our bodies are self-healing and if we don’t gunk them up with all the stuff we’re being exposed to on a daily basis — so this was my message and so I started writing, I started writing articles for The San Francisco Chronicle, I had a column there for a while and then turned it into my book, Super Natural Home and it’s broken up into 3 parts: What goes in us, what goes on us and what surrounds us. It’s pretty simple and it’s all filled with solutions. And that’s the takeaway message, that start to take a look at these 3 areas and pay attention to some of the nasty chemicals that we’re exposed to.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Such a remarkable story, I mean amazing, really to think about the health condition that you had and then your journey of figuring out, kind of unraveling the pieces that we’re connected to that. And I think what strikes me in listening to you talk about that experience is how much we just take for granted that the things that we are buying, the things that we’re using — you know that these are safe and don’t pose health problems. That really struck me in listening to that. I mean — so let’s talk a little bit about that because most people think, “Hey! If this stuff is available on store shelves, if these cleaning products, these personal care products, ingredients in our food — then that means somebody has determined that they’re safe, right?”
Beth Greer:
Yeah, well that’s true — that’s the big misnomer, that everybody thinks that they have been tested for safety, and they have not — and that was a really eye-opening thing. So for example, the cosmetics industry is self-regulated. They can throw whatever they want in there, and they do! And so the makeup that we buy at the department store, for example, has a lot of awful things including mercury in mascara, you know? This is a heavy metal that we don’t want in our bodies, so it’s really important to buy clean, safe products. So for example, I like Beauty Counter as makeup and on my website, bethgreer.com, you can find a link to it and you can see. It’s not like just putting smashed avocados on your face but it’s makeup that works but it doesn’t have the nasty chemicals.
They have something called The Never List, and there’s probably 20 chemicals that most — you know Revlon, Estee Lauder, all of these are using, but Beautycounter is not using it, so that’s my go-to makeup and again, you start looking at your deodorant for example, I go into people’s homes and help them figure out what’s going on. Sometimes they have mystery illnesses, especially children who are hyperactive and all that. I remember going into a store with a client and looking at — they wanted a stick deodorant and we looked at Tom’s thinking it was natural, well the number 2 ingredient on it was propylene glycol, which is found in anti-crease, believe it or not.
So something like baking soda, which is what I do — I put it in a salt shaker and sprinkle it on my palm and put it under my armpits after shower, you’re good for the whole day. Some people like to put it in the little container and then they take a makeup brush and they can dip it in and put it into their armpit. You know what? It totally works. And it’s the simplest thing, and so inexpensive. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on expensive deodorants, for example.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Right. So, so many simple swaps we can make once we understand that we need to start looking at ingredients and things. And I love how you separated that out and you said you talked about this in your book. The things that go in us, the things that go on us and then the things that are around us — and I want to have us talk about maybe some things in each of those categories because while many people are more aware now of the impact of food on health, behavior and their kids — those kinds of things, I think these other areas of the things that we’re surrounded by in terms of cleaning products or personal care products — it’s a big one.
And I’ve really seen in the clinic over the last 20 years, kids who are outwardly extremely sensitive to some of those things and then kids who maybe it doesn’t like things like perfumes or cleaning products or things bother them — but when we move those away and get some safer, better options, they do better. But I can think of several kids just off the top of my head who outwardly were having very, very negative reactions emotionally and behaviorally to things like — I’m thinking about one young man, his mom’s hairspray! It was very, very, very perfume-y, very heavy and that was a huge trigger for him in terms of the smell, the toxicity. So, important for parents to recognize that sometimes it’s as simple as looking at some of the things that we’re surrounding our kids with and making switches in things like hairspray or things like that.
Beth Greer:
Right, and scent — I’m really glad you brought that up, because when you see the word ‘scent’ or ‘fragrance’ on the label, it can mean there’s at least a hundred synthetic chemicals. I met a chemist recently that told me he did some research. He found over 400 chemicals in that one fragrance. It’s unbelievable. So you think about — you’re putting hairspray on, then you’re using scented deodorant. Then you’re using maybe some perfume. And then you’re spraying with an aerosol scent or cleaning with scent. Imagine all those chemicals in these little bodies — They’re really affected deeply.
So household cleaners, surface sprays, in particular surface wipes — you want to make sure it’s unscented. And I know some kids like teenage boys, for example, love to use Axe deodorants, Axe body spray? So toxic. And it impacts their hormones. I spoke in school to a group of 8th graders and I told them about — I told them about scent and I said, “Well how many of you here use Axe?” And a bunch of their hands went up. And I said, “Well you know those can really mess with your hormones. Hormones can make you short and fat.” The next morning I got a call from one of the moms at the school — she was like, “What did you say to my son? He threw out his Axe spray!” So sometimes you just have to talk to the heart, right? What’s important to him! I think It’s huge.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
That’s right. It’s a big deal. And let’s talk about some things that go in us. So let’s talk about a couple of things really into food because I know you’re big on advocating for parents, for families to look at reading labels for lots of chemicals and things that maybe in foods, but particularly food additives. Talk about what food additives are, why parents should be aware of those in their kids’ food.
Beth Greer:
Okay, so food dyes in particular — scientists have done studies and given children artificial food dyes and notice that they have temper tantrums, even in normal children. So if you’re kid is suffering from ADHD or Autism or whatever and then you are adding the food dye, it’s really exacerbating it. And so food dyes can be found in children’s medications like in children’s cough syrup, vitamins like Flintstone vitamins have food dyes in them. The blue yogurt tubes, you know — when you just start to look at the labels and not buy those colored items…
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Well it’s interesting and I know, I’m sure in the research that you’ve done, you’d know a lot more about this than I do — but I’m aware that even in other countries, like in Europe, they ban some of these ingredients. Like the foods that we are allowed to sell and purchase here in the US, the same brand of the same item over in Europe, for example, has very different ingredients because they recognized the connection of this and they don’t allow those dyes.
Beth Greer:
They have banned it for a while, but now what they’re doing is — I’m not quite sure why the change, but they are labeling it. So they do so on a product that has artificial food dyes, they can say it can cause emotional distress or whatever in children. But I do know when I was in the UK, I looked at Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, they colored it with Annatto, which is a natural substance. Where here it’s red dye #x and yellow dye #43. I want people to really become aware of glyphosate. It’s an additive. So glyphosate is a chemical that is found in roundup. It’s a weed killer and it’s very toxic. It’s one of the most popular weed killers in the world, basically.
And scientists — there are over a hundred studies that have shown that it is very, very damaging to us. And so what parents need to know is glyphosate will be in non-organic food, but also, they’re spraying it on wheat, on non-organic wheat as a drying agent, a desiccant. So if you’re buying your kids, like I used to with my daughter, a little Goldfish or anything that ’s not organic, they’re getting a big dose of glyphosate and it’s something to really pay attention to because it really does impact the brain and the whole nervous system. So it’s something that you really want to avoid.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
And that’s been linked to cancer and things, I’m aware of a large lawsuit recently over particularly workers who are out spraying those things and cancers, and so we’re not talking about a theoretical concern here. We’re talking about people really getting sick from this stuff.
Beth Greer:
Absolutely and there is a bunch of doctors who are getting behind it and so there are ways to help remove glyphosate from the body. There is a urine test to kind of measure your levels of glyphosate. If people are interested, they can contact me and I can direct them to that. It’s not that expensive, the test is not that invasive and then there are ways to get it out. So there’s that and then — so yeah, the food diets and then preservatives are another one that can be problematic, and those also are banned in Europe. So BH2, BHT, BHA. Yeah, if you see mold retardant, things like that on the label — you just want to avoid it. I remember I used to do show and tell kind of talks where I would bring food items to show people what’s in this box of cereal or what’s on this loaf of bread. I remember I had this loaf of bread with me. It was not in a refrigerator or freezer, it was in my pantry. It was there for 8 months and there wasn’t a spec of mold on it. I was like, “What is….” I looked at the label and it said calcium propionate and then I looked that up online and it said causes ADHD behavior in rats. So if you’re buying bread, and the bread is like — Pepperidge Farm has it, Safeway Bread and all these common breads that people think are okay, but you really want to avoid calcium propionate as an additive or a preservative. Very toxic.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
So people should be reading labels. One of the things that I say to parents is: If you’re reading things that are hard for you to read, these are not things that you would cook with or you have no idea what it is, then it’s probably some sort of toxin or ingredient that is not necessary for the body and may actually cause problems.
Beth Greer:
Right. That’s good advice. I know people don’t like to read labels, it’s a hassle but I think you have to start to get used to that idea. And it’s time-consuming but your health is important and if you can find some things that are possibly triggering your child’s behavior or skin conditions, you know — children will breakout, very often it’s some of these additives that are the culprit.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Right, right. Let’s talk a little bit about farm-raised fish because I know this is also something that you educate people on and make recommendations for. So people might be thinking, oh, fish? That’s a great, healthy thing. Trying to get more fish in my family’s diet, in my kids, I know there are benefits to that. What should they watch out for with that?
Beth Greer:
So people should know that farm-raised fish are fed — they’re not in the wild, they’re not out in nature, they’re not foraging for themselves, so they’re fed fish food and it’s generally not organic. So the farmers are feeding them soy and corn, which is genetically modified because about 90% of the soy and corn in this country are genetically modified.
So you got those two elements and if your child does have a soy allergy, they will pick it up from the flesh of that fish. So you think that you’re avoiding soy, but meanwhile, you’re really exposing them to it through the fish because we are what our animals eat basically, so we need to understand that. And the other thing that the farmed fish are fed are growth hormones to fatten them up quicker and also antibiotic because these containers can breed diseases, so they’re given anti-parasitic drugs and they’re also given food dyes, food coloring. So especially if you’re buying salmon — if they’re just feeding salmon the corn and soy, they’re not going to turn that beautiful orange color that we all like. So what do they do? They give them food dye. Isn’t that amazing? So that’s what we’re ingesting, they may taste good but there are secret ingredients going on in that fish that people need to be aware of.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
So from a health state or a nutrient density standpoint, fish that are farm-raised like that don’t have nearly the health benefits for us as fish who are in the wild the way that they are supposed to be, but also there is the toxic element of what they’re putting in this fish, and the feed — all of that. And assuming that this same argument goes then for any of the kinds of animals that we might consume whether it’s beef, chicken, pork, those kinds of things.
Beth Greer:
Same thing, same thing. They’re all fed antibiotics, growth hormones, all of that stuff — yes. And they’re also fed — most cattle that are raised in these confined environments are fed corn and soy. They’re not fed grass. And then if they’re not raised organically — are the farmers spraying the grass? Let’s say, are they spraying the grass with weed killer? Are we getting the glyphosate through that? Same with dairy. So you want to look for organic, it’s really important.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
So organic is something important that parents can look for on a label. Are there things that can simplify this for parents, if they’re thinking — oh my gosh, I have to be in the grocery store like, how do I know what’s good, what’s not good? Are there certain things on labels or some things that parents can watch for to know — okay, this is going to be a better choice? Okay, so if it’s labeled organic, for example. Is that a good Indicator that there is a reduced amount of toxins in it?
Beth Greer:
Yeah, there won’t be glyphosate for the most part on organic produce. I would shop at farmer’s markets, places like Trader Joe’s and Walmart and Costco have organic food now, you can look for that. So there’s no excuse, basically. You can grow some of your own herbs in a little window box, there are little planters — you don’t really need a big garden to do it. But yeah, organic will guarantee you that there are no genetically modified organisms and it’s not going to have glyphosate, it’s not going to have pesticides, that sort of thing. So you’re pretty safe there. So yeah — I would say that and at a farmer’s market, sometimes they are not certified organic, but if you talk to them and get to know them — they’ll tell you we don’t use sprays, they just haven’t bothered to go through the process of getting certified, which can be expensive.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Yeah, and I like what you said — there’s not really an excuse anymore. I mean this has gotten markedly easier in the past several years, especially with more and more companies and consumers becoming aware of these issues. I have found that there is a lot more available now, even in some of those mass-market grocery stores that you mentioned, interns of organic things than there used to be. So certainly consumer demand, it seems, is driving for more of these food companies to produce things that at least there are options for organic.
Beth Greer:
Right, and I was blown away — I went to Costco recently, and they’re just… No, they had so much organic produce, so it was lovely to see.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Awesome. So that covers some things for parents to be aware of in terms of toxins and the things that we put into ourselves and our kids. You touched on some personal care product issues. Things that we might put on our bodies. You talked a bit about deodorants, cosmetics, what are some things that parents should be aware of there? Because as I think about kids, you know — we’ve got stuff that we’re bathing them with, maybe things in clothing, in toothpaste. There’s actually a lot of things that we put on kid’s bodies even though they’re not wearing maybe cosmetics and stuff like that yet. So what are your thoughts on that?
Beth Greer:
Well, okay — sunscreen. I know a lot of parents are slathering their kids with sunscreen, so you want to make sure you buy the safest type of sunscreen. I have those listed in my book. I even have a recipe for making your own sunscreen with vitamin C powder and it totally works, even on fair skin, it doesn’t allow you to burn. And then anything that’s like — I know most children love getting into a bath, but I remember I went into one woman’s home and she said, “My kid screams, hates the bath.” And I said, “Well let me see what kind of soap you are using.” And she had this bubble bath that she thought was great, the child was allergic to it and that’s why he was screaming, his skin was burning. It’s awful, so pay attention to the things that you use most frequently, like if you’re putting lotions on or if your child is still in diapers and you’re using wipes — you want to make sure it’s the most gentle, without fragrance for example, without preservatives and all that stuff.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
It’s a really important — it’s just when you were talking, it was reminding me of a little 7-year-old girl that I worked with a couple of years ago who had pretty profound ticks, and parents had done a lot with cleaning up the diet and things like that, but as I got to know them and talking about different things that could be impacting or exacerbating the ticks — one of the things that I discovered is that she was doing a ton of sunscreen, and these ticks were getting a lot worse in the summer too, that was another clue of what might be going on. Tons of sunscreen all day long at the day program, the summer camp that she was at, she was going in the chlorinated pool multiple times a day and then putting lotion on after because her skin would get so dry.
And what we found that her toxic burden just from personal care products during those summer months was huge, much more increase than the rest of the year. And then washing the hair more frequently because of the chlorine and even the things that they were putting on to try to mitigate the dry skin, it was all making it worse. And when we cleaned all of that up, her ticks dramatically went down then in those summer months. It’s like that buildup effect. Maybe lotion by itself isn’t that big of a deal for a kid but when you’ve got all these different things going on, it can really build up.
Beth Greer:
That’s true and there’s something called the body burden. This is what doctors talk about, that with what you’re saying — you have so much input with all these chemicals from everywhere. It creates a huge burden on the liver. The liver is a detoxifier, so if it stops detoxifying, we are just going to become a toxic suit. So yes, it’s sad but I think once people understand that toxins are the source and the real cause of many of this, then they can take steps to clean things up and have a healthy life.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Yeah, and again, I think there are so many products available in the personal care arena than there used to be. It’s not difficult now to even go to a Target or a Walmart or some of the mass stores and find at least a few options for things like bath soaps and shampoos and toothpaste and deodorant and things that do have safe ingredients in them — and I know it’s a big deal for us personally as a family. I have a son who has really, really bad eczema and we have to be very mindful of not only what goes in his body, but what goes on it. And so over the years, I have found that it’s getting easier and easier to find options and certainly that online there are lots of options too. So are there things on the labels that people should be watching for? Like free of certain ingredients, free of dyes? Or what kinds of things can people look for that might be…
Beth Greer:
So parabens are a big one, but here is my caution. Is that sometimes you’ll see paraben-free but then they’re putting in something else. And just like BPA free water bottles, Bisphenol A has been found to be an endocrine disruptor and so manufacturers — I have kind of been hearing from people: We don’t want this in our products, so now they’re putting labels that say BPA free but what people don’t know is that the manufacturer has been substituting BPA for BPS, which is just as toxic, but they’re not talking about it. Nobody is really explaining to them what the problem is. So use glass containers for example or metal. But in terms of the things on the personal care products, again — look for fragrances. You don’t want that. You don’t want nanoparticles, that could be problematic.
Things like propylene glycol — sometimes it’s just called PG or something called PEG, polyethylene glycol — anytime you see these letters like DEA or MEA, those are definitely things you want to stay from. And petroleum byproducts, those are [inaudible 0:30:09] those come from gasoline, basically and then triclosan, I just want to mention, is found in antibacterial soap — and doctors say it’s just best to use plain soap and water, it works just as well and you just want to stay away from the antibacterial products because they can be skin irritants and cause problems as well. It’s just unnecessary.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Yeah, it’s a great point — we could do a whole episode on just how over sanitized we’ve become and how that’s a big problem for our gut and everything else, but yeah — I think avoiding that triclosan and any of those antibacterial kinds of products, it’s great. Let’s touch just briefly, because you alluded to this in your story in the beginning about household cleaning products, you talked about Windex and realizing like — Oh my gosh, this has a warning on it that it’s not safe for people or animals. So obviously reading labels on these things. What are some simple things that parents can use or should be looking at on labels or maybe things that they can use that are safer to coal with so that our kids and our families aren’t exposed to all these chemicals through cleaning?
Beth Greer:
Right. Yeah, so when I go into homes, I look — so I went into one woman’s home who they eat all-organic, 100% organically while she was cleaning with Clorox wipes and a Swiffer, which are highly fragranced and the whole family were on antihistamines. So we got rid of the scented products and you know — I got her to use baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, white vinegar. Simple things, they clean just as well and I have some personal recipes in the book — it just cleans, they say 99.9% on Windex, but this is the same thing. You have the same amount of cleaning power and you’re not going to be poisoning yourself.
So yeah. That — and I wanted to touch on mold a little bit. That many of my clients have been exposed to mold in their homes and that can be a huge trigger for many things. It can exacerbate all kinds of illnesses. So if you’ve had a leak in your home — you don’t disregard it and think it’s not important. One woman who is very intelligent and very aware but she said she saw this sort of black area in the corner of her carpeting and she would just cover it up with the drapes until it got to the point where it started to smell. And that smell is a true giveaway that you’ve got mold. She just didn’t want to deal with it. We get busy, it’s overwhelming — I don’t want to look at it. But if you see black stuff in your carpeting or on your ceilings, you really need to deal with it quickly.
Get it measured, there are tests that you can do on your own — you don’t have to hire expensive firms to come out. People can contact me and I can tell them how to get these little test kits — the lab will send them to you for free and then you can test and then I think they charge you around $130 to get a report. And one woman’s home I went into, I smelled the mold as soon as I walked in and she said she doesn’t smell anything. That’s what happens after a while, you get acclimated. And I thought it was bad enough and she got the test results back and sure enough — very high levels and she wound up moving. So there’s that. And the last thing I wanted to mention was electromagnetic fields. You have to pay attention to that and unplug your wi-fi router at night when you go to sleep. And what I’ve been doing is actually unplugging everything in my bedroom when I go to bed now. Lamps, everything. It just creates a very peaceful environment. So often we have so many things plugged in. I didn’t even realize I had 2 lamps, air purifier, a diffuser, charger for my cellphones — like whoa! And then when you unplug it all, everything sort of gets very quiet. Because even though it’s turned off, there’s still a field there when that plug is in the wall.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Yeah, and that can create toxic effects in the brain and the body and I think kids are especially sensitive to this stuff, whether we’re talking about the EMFs from devices, which is why I tell parents “No devices in the bedrooms.” Or if a kid does need one in there — airplane mode at night, and susceptible to mold, you know you’re talking about that and I’m thinking about a little guy I was consulting on recently who parents had seen all kinds of practitioners, they were doing everything right and this kid’s behavior was getting worse, his respiratory problems were getting worse and it turned out the building they had moved into had had a leak and it wasn’t until they started seeing the black specs show up on the ceiling above the kid’s bed…
Beth Greer:
Ugh.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
…that they realized something was there! And that was really key for him. Getting that remediated and getting him out of that bedroom just made a world of difference. So it’s all these things that we don’t necessarily think about or realize but they are a big deal. I think especially for kids because their bodies are just smaller and they’re more susceptible to the buildup of this stuff and it really does impact them — not just physically, but also neurologically and in terms of their mental status and behavior.
Beth Greer:
Right, and I just want to add one other thing about that — yeah, it’s important to get all of the things out of the bedroom, the devices and all of that but I want people to start thinking about what’s on the other side of the wall of where they’re sleeping because I can’t tell you how many homes I go into — and the crib is next to the wall and I have a meter and it measures a very high field and the other side of the wall is a refrigerator. Or another home, on the other side of the wall, they had their wi-fi router right next to the kid’s head. And it goes through the wall. It’s not like it’s going to blocked right there. So something to think about there. It’s an important, easy thing to start to pay attention to.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
So many helpful things that you have brought our awareness to and given for people to be able to just take a look around their home and the things that they are using and start to think about what their putting in, on and around their kids and then some simple changes they can make. So super helpful. I want to make sure that people know where they can find you online because you’ve got a ton of resources and things available there.
Beth Greer:
Great, just go to bethgreer.com. If you get on my mailing list, I won’t bombard you with things but I do have some great information and I teach a course every quarter or so on how to detox your home, it’s a 4-session course, it goes into detail on all the areas: In, on and surrounds. And I also do group cleanses for adults on just 5 days of eating real food. There’s no potions or powders. It’s just eating unprocessed food. No dairy, gluten, sugar — and people have had remarkable transformations, they’ve given up their sugar cravings. I’m surprised even that only 5 days can make such a big difference. But it does and it’s fun to be in a group. So I have one in the spring and then I’ll do one fall and winter again.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Awesome, and your website has such a great wealth of resources and things for people, so I really encourage our listeners to check that out. Beth, thank you so much for being here with us today and sharing your expertise and practical suggestions. We really appreciate it.
Beth Greer:
Thanks, great to be with you!
Dr. Nicole Beurkens:
Okay, everybody — that’s it for this episode, we’ll see you next time on The Better Behavior Show!
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This document was last updated on May 30, 2016
