Endocrine Disruptors, Environmental Toxins and the Link to Infertility and Chronic Disease with Dr. Jenna Hua

Jenna Hua is the founder and CEO of Million Maker. A company dedicated to educating about and reducing, if not eliminating harmful toxins from our lives. Jenna is on the show today with Laci and Ellen to discuss the uses of toxins and plastics in our lives and healthcare and how it affects us, especially those trying to conceive. She is also giving us tools and resources that we can use today to reduce our toxin exposure. This is such an important topic because we all know someone with autism, ADHD, infertility, testicular cancer, breast cancer, and/or diabetes. All of these conditions have been linked to environmental toxins. This episode is packed with so much valuable information! 

 

Jenna started in healthcare as a dietician. She grew frustrated that no one would listen to her about how these toxins we are exposed to every day affect us. She states that toxin exposure results in 70% of chronic disease risk vs 30% by genetics alone. Unfortunately, the healthcare and research world does not have a test to determine which environmental toxins could be impacting an individual’s health. Jenna suffered miscarriages, and her frustrations with not knowing how to deal with and fix any issues she had led her to found her company Million Maker that strives to help others with just that. Environmental toxins and endocrine disruptors are significant issues that must be discussed for the sake of our health, and Jenna is here today to get the word out!

 

Main products and chemicals discussed in this episode that are known hormone disruptors: 

 

• Top endocrine disrupters that impact fertility and what you can do about it.
• BPA: mimics estrogen, where your body will recognize and treat it as if it were estrogen. Plastic is the major culprit of BPA. Also, BPA-free does not mean it’s safe. Often manufacturers create a slight structure change, like BPF, and it is approved for sale. Avoid plastics and receipts altogether. BPA is known to cause infertility, child development issues, and decreases in-vitro fertilization (IVF) success.
• Phalates: a chemical that blocks testosterone. Mainly effects males. Decreases male sperm count and quality. 
• Paraben: a preservative in beauty care products. It can be found in packaged foods and is not labeled as such. 
• Oxybenzone is in sunscreen and can also be in food.
• Heavy metal- wash and soak your rice. Fish can be high in mercury and is greater in fatty fish.   
• Baby rice and cereal.  
• PFAS (Teflon)- a “forever chemical.” Not just in cookware but also in any weatherproofing materials and products. Green Policy Institute lists safe outdoor gear. 
• Household and personal care items: shampoo, conditioner, detergent, and perfumes are the top disruptors. 
• Water: a reverse osmosis system is best at filtering out toxins. Look for the NSF symbol. Please refer to Jenna’s site - www.millionmaker.com for a list of approved water filters. 

 

Jenna’s product is a mail-in urine test. That’s it! Just fill out an exposure survey and mail that in with your urine sample, and in two weeks, you will get a personalized toxin report. Her company looks at every product you use, combines it with your urine sample of toxins to give you recommendations for a change you can make immediately.  

 

Other resources to use to avoid toxins:

EWG 

Made Safe

Midori Earth chrome extension. 

Jenna has a list of curated products on her site (Million Maker) to help you get started.

 

About Jenna Hua: An environmental health scientist and dietitian by training, Jenna is passionate about the environment, public health, and everything food. Frustrated by the lack of data for how harmful chemicals (like BPA, phthalates, and parabens) from plastics and everyday products affect our health and clinical outcomes, and the absence of a personalized approach to mitigate harmful chemical exposures, Jenna set out on a mission to change these.

 

She founded Million Marker, a health-tech startup dedicated to empower everyone with the data and tools to determine how the products they use, the food they eat, the water they drink negatively or positively influence their health. Million Marker helps people understand what chemicals are inside of them—and then provides simple solutions for quickly reducing harmful chemicals through mail-in test kits, lifestyle audits, product recommendations, and counseling. 

 

Dr. Hua is a US Fulbright Fellow and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship with Stanford University’s School of Medicine.

 

Follow Jenna:

www.twitter.com/million_marker

https://www.facebook.com/MillionMarker

https://www.linkedin.com/company/million-marker/

 

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