#156 How Plastics Are Making You Fat, Sick, and Infertile with Dr Anthony Jay

Anthony Jay (0:00)

And then they assured everybody that BPA does not leach. You know, like plastic bottles don't leach BPA, that's what the scientists used to tell everybody. Like, it's okay, it doesn't leach.

And of course, now we know that's complete bullshit. And the problem with that is there's always free BPA, there's always monomers, there's always individual BPA molecules just sitting around in these plastics. And when you put that in contact with liquid, it comes out, especially if you heat it up. Especially if it's oily liquid. Now, the irony is now we have better technology to measure the BPA in the water or in the liquid. And it definitely leaches. There's no question you can't argue that anymore. But the funny thing is now they're saying that phthalates, which is another chemical in plastics that also acts like estrogen, now scientists oftentimes will tell you that those don't leach. They'll say, it's okay, phthalates don't leach. It's like the exact same cycle.

It's so absurd and it's such a crazy topic.

SPEAKER_2 (0:57)

Do you want to know what it is?

Siim Land (1:00)

Body Mind Empowerment.

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Get stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (1:08)

Everything the body needs.

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Control your mind.

Siim Land (1:14)

Welcome to the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast. I'm your host Siim Land and our guest today is Dr. Anthony Jay. Dr. Jay got his PhD in biochemistry from Boston University School of Medicine.

He's currently at the Mayo Clinic researching stem cells and epigenetics. Dr. Jay, welcome to the show.

Anthony Jay (1:30)

Thanks for having me, Siim.

Siim Land (1:33)

Yeah, I've heard quite a few other podcasts about your work and it's quite a fascinating topic that we're going to be talking today about. Before we get into that, can you talk about like what's your background as a researcher and scientist?

Anthony Jay (1:50)

Yeah, well, way back, I used to do HIV research, virus research, but that was, you know, in college, just learning the process of doing research.

But it became relevant because I started designing viruses as a consulting company and making I was actually making DNA, putting it into cells and then the cells would make virus form for me. And you can use viruses for useful purposes in research and actually, you know, like an animal model, you can inject them into animals and things and you can use them to do beneficial things. They don't always have to be bad things. You can just basically use them to put DNA inside an animal. So I used to do things like that. But then I went and got my PhD in hormones and fats and cholesterol.

And that's where I started recognizing the problems with these artificial estrogens. And obviously, the book came out of that, the book that I wrote, Estrogeneration. And then now I do stem cell research and epigenetics, which is also actually in my book, the topic of epigenetics, which is, you know, a really hot topic right now. So that's basically what I'm doing right now.

Siim Land (3:12)

Yeah, like it is like, as I understand, there's like this growing trend in society towards hormonal imbalances, especially in men getting like low testosterone and high estrogen. So that's that's basically the main topic of your book as well, Estrogeneration.

Anthony Jay (3:31)

Exactly. Yeah, it's a huge problem. I mean, if it was just one chemical, it wouldn't be such a big issue. But there's so many different sources of artificial estrogen chemicals, these chemicals that act like estrogen in our bodies. And it disrupts men and women. I mean, you know, the the thing about men's estrogen, it's usually around 20 nanograms per liter.

You can just ignore the units for now. Just remember the number 20 But women are also around 20

But then they go up to about 400 or 200 or 400, depending on the time of the month. They're not that different than men in terms of the estrogen.

Again, it depends on the time of the month. If they're pregnant, of course, it goes way up. It goes up in the thousands. But, you know, a lot of times, women are affected just as much with these artificial estrogen chemicals. It just depends what you're talking about, like depression or something like that, or infertility. You see a lot of those issues in women with a lot of these exposures.

Siim Land (4:36)

What are some other ways these chemicals affect our hormones? What's the main problems?

Anthony Jay (4:46)

I mean, they basically act on our estrogen receptors. So they communicate to your body that you've got estrogen, right?

Siim Land (4:57)