#64: Aly Cohen, MD

All you need to know about WATER! Sources, Regulations, Contaminants and CHOOSING Filters for your Drinking Water

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Description

Dr. Aly Cohen. MD and environmental health specialist (and very entertaining speaker), gives us the full low-down about our drinking water in the U.S.. She starts out describing how the 160,000 treatment plants in the US make up ~80% of our water sources and are bound only to the regulations, restrictions and testing from the Safe Water Drinking Act of 1974. At that time, and since, it's only federally required to test for 91 known toxic chemicals; 95,000 chemicals have been introduced into our environment since the 1950's, leaving 94,909 untested for in our drinking water, at least 1000 known to be endocrine disruptors (most others are not tested so, for the most part, we don't even know their impact). She reviews some of these in detail (including a review of why endocrine disruptors are called 'disruptors'. What is in our water is cumulative of everything that goes down our drain- pharmaceuticals, metals in pipes, dead animals and literally anything that gets flushed down your toilet or washes into sewers including industrial chemicals and farm run-off. When that is 'purified', it's often done with other chemicals- chlorine or fluorine, etc., that often isn't removed after it does its cleansing action. She also notes the variability of the wastewater quality can intimately depend on the day, including any climate events like floods, that also flood the wastewater plants. This is one way that climate change can directly, day by day, impact our water quality. So what to do?!? First of all, avoid chemicals in all ways possible. We then do the deep dive into water filtration with the highest recommendations for reverse osmosis (including how this is the minimum set standard for dialysis water used with patients). Listen in! It's not an option! This is information that we need to hydrate our bodies & grow & protect our babies' development, and age with grace. It's water!

Bio

Dr. Aly Cohen is a board-certified Rheumatologist and Integrative Medicine Specialist, as well as an environmental health expert in Princeton, New Jersey. She has collaborated with the Environmental Working Group, Cancer Schmancer, and other disease-prevention organizations, and is coeditor of the textbook, Integrative Environmental Medicine, part of the Oxford University Press Weil Integrative Medicine Library. She lectures nationally on environmental health topics for elementary/ high schools, colleges/ universities, medical schools, and physician- training programs, and she is a regular expert guest for television, print, and podcasts. In 2015, she created TheSmartHuman.com to share environmental health, disease prevention, and wellness information with the public and she is working to integrate environmental health information into high school curricula nationwide. Her TEDx talk, “How to Protect Your Kids from Toxic Chemicals” can be found on YouTube, and you can follow her health and wellness tips and recommendations on Facebook at The Smart Human, Twitter, and Instagram: @thesmarthuman. Sign up for The Smart Human newsletter, read her latest posts at thesmarthuman.com and listen to her podcast The Smart Human. Dr. Cohen lives on a farm in New Jersey with her husband, two sons and lots of furry friends.