Christian Gonzalez, ND and Bonnie Nedrow, ND discuss a very important aspect of low-toxin living – toxins in your local community and environmental health. Dr. Nedrow is the president of the National Association of Environmental Medicine, which is a fantastic resource for more information on environmental health and where to find an environmental health expert to help you with toxin exposure. Dr. Nedrow shares how she helps both naturopathic doctors and the public to get involved in the movement to take action and move the process forward to reduce toxin exposure in your neighborhoods, parks and schools.
Where do you start? Dr. Nedrow says water is a good place to start when looking at toxins in your local community. She suggests you find out more about your local water quality. Ask about your municipal water testing? What do they test for? What do they not test? Their reports are only as good as their testing methods If you don’t like what you see, look at carbon water filters for drinking water and your showers.
What about food and toxicity? Should you buy organic? Is it enough? What about biodynamic farming? Dr. Nedrow explains the difference between biodynamic farming and certified organic and how each farming method impacts toxic exposure. She explains the value of small, local biodynamic farming methods. And, better yet she says, grow your own food. Whether you have a windowsill garden, you have space for your own garden or your buy food from a local consumer supported agriculture (CSA) farm, getting in touch with how food grows, makes a big difference in nutrition and toxin exposure.
Watch the Interview on Toxins in Your Community with Drs. Bonnie Nedrow and Christian Gonzales
Where can you find out more about toxins in your community?
If you want to find out more about how to lower your community’s toxin exposure, Dr. Nedrow is a wealth of information about local resources and how to start your own community movement. She says people have a right to say no to pesticide and herbicide exposure in your community and schools. Dr. Nedrow shared the following resources to get involved in your own community to take action:
National Association of Environmental Medicine
Education resource for this interested in learning more about environmental medicine and how to find a health provider to assist with toxin exposure health issues.
Home of the Clean 15®, recommendations for produce with the least pesticide residue, and Skin Deep®, a database for toxin exposure from personal care products.
Collaborative for Health and the Environment
This education-centered group informs, educates and connects affected and interested groups to support prevention-focused behaviors and policies, as well as economic and legal structures that protect public health and the environment.
MOMS Advocating Sustainability
Find a local chapter of MOMAS to take action to reduce your community and children’s exposure to toxins. Download school kits for reducing toxins in your children’s schools, join local campaigns or learn how to start your own chapter.
Toxins uses in landscaping and lawn are is primary source of toxin exposure. This non-profit works to eliminate uses of toxic chemicals to protect public health and the environment. Help advocate and educate about the benefits of organic landscaping in your community.
Communities for a Better Environment
This social justice non-profit provides residents in blighted and heavily polluted urban and low-income communities in California with the legal, scientific and technical resources needed to organize their community toconfront environmental threats to their health and well-being.
Lastly, why should you care? Supporting the health of the planet is an important and essential action to protect the health of our next generation of children. Small grassroots efforts make a big difference because they protect the people in your community, she says. Children deserve better and only we can make the types of changes necessary to improve the health of the environment and thus improve our health.
Bonnie Nedrow ND/ Dr. Nedrow serves clients of all ages in Ashland, Oregon, where she works as a primary care doctor and a leader of several wellness programs. She lectures nationally to the public and her peers on detoxification, impacts of environmental medicine on reproductive health, and preconception optimization. She has co-published The Cleanse Companion Cookbook and The Seasonal Cleanse Workbook, and is currently writing her third book, The Seven Strategies of Detoxification. BonnieND.com
Dr. Gonzalez/ With a personal history that touched his life in the area of Cancer, Dr. Gonzalez realized how important preventative, holistic solutions are to our wellbeing instead of trying to heal an illness after it has occurred. This led him to pursue a medical career that would focus on how to use nutrition, supplementation, movement, sleep, community, and mental and emotional healing modalities to maintain one’s overall health reset, as well as heal imbalances and illnesses.
A graduate of the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine, Bridgeport, CT, Dr. Gonzalez initially focused on cancer care and research. After seeing there was an opportunity to do so much more to help both prevent cancer, as well as treat it holistically, he went on to practice as a general healthcare practitioner. In a desire to empower people to take control of their health, he chose to take everything he had learned over his studies, with his patients, and in his clinical research experience and become an educator. You can now listen to the Heal Thy Self podcast with Dr. Gonzalez every Friday where he shares wellness solutions reviews the brands that work… and the ones that don’t!
