#1 Longevity Doctor: 7 Toxic Products Destroying Your Health

What the heck is a microplastic and where is it?

(instrumental music plays) It's everywhere. It's so pervasive. In our brain, reproductive organs, plastic water bottles, plastic bags, plastic everywhere, you name it. And so this is a serious problem.

Hey, it's Mel. Today on the Mel Robbins podcast, we have Dr. Eric Topol. He is one of the most respected scientists and medical researchers who's alive today. His work has been cited in over 360,000 times in academic journals and he's gonna talk about microplastics and how there are seven toxic products that are in your home right now that are destroying your health. What are forever chemicals?

Yeah, so the PFAS, perfluoroalkylating agents. There's over 10,000 of these chemicals. Whether we're eating, breathing, or drinking, we're constantly exposed to these. They are in, you know, microscopic, minute quantities, but it isn't like they go out. I mean, (laughs) they just, we just are accumulating these into our body. A spoonful of microplastics in our brain? We're seeing people in their 20s now with colon cancer, women in their 30s, young 30s with breast cancer. The question is why? They had no genetic predisposition.

Is that your theory, that the rise in cancer in young people is due to forever chemicals and air pollution and water?

When you take that whole mix, they're all what you could consider as epidemics. The problem we have is we're in a state of complacency. We've just accepted this. I think it's time to hit the alarm now.

Dr. Topol, welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. I am thrilled that you're here.

Thanks, I'm so thrilled to be with you.

Well, I just wanna start by congratulating you on a fantastic new bestselling book, Super Agers. I absolutely devoured this. And I'm thrilled that you're here because I cannot wait to get into a section of your book about how environmental factors are impacting how we age, our longevity, and our health overall. And so, I'm thrilled you're here and what I would love to do is start by having you speak directly to the person who's with us right now and tell them what might change about their life if they take everything that you're about to share with us and teach us today to heart, and they put it to use in their life.

Well, I mean, I think the principal things that we've been, known about for years, these lifestyle factors, I call them Lifestyle Plus because it's much more than just diet, exercise, and sleep. We have to now add in environmental factors. We haven't paid nearly enough attention and the compelling evidence that has come forth on air pollution, microplastics, nanoplastics, and the forever chemicals. These things are having a big impact and we're not doing anything about it.

For starters, I just wanna understand them because I had never heard the word microplastics, for example. And I think intellectually or common sense wise, you, of course, go, "Oh, well, you know, air pollution, of course, impacts your health," but some of the statistics that we're gonna unpack in your book in terms of the connection between environmental factors and the diseases that people get and the health, uh, challenges that people are facing, it's really scary, Dr. Topol.