The Undeniable Link: Phthalates, Inflammation, and Male Virility

Gentlemen, on this episode of the Fallible Man podcast, I'm talking to Dr. Tom O'Brien. Dr. O'Brien is not only a doctor, but teacher and an author. He's a leading expert in environmental toxins, autoimmune disease, chiropractic, and more. Today, specifically, we're talking about phthalates. I say that wrong every time.

And what they're doing to your testosterone levels and how how much exposure you're actually getting to this because you may have heard about it on the news, but you really have no idea how much exposure you're getting to this thing that is negatively impacting your testosterone levels. We're also going to dive into inflammation and what that's doing to your body and how it's more prevalent than you may even know.

By the end of the episode, you will be better equipped to make intelligent choices for your health and for your testosterone levels because we all worry about that, right? Check out this quote that Dr. O'Brien wanted to share with you, and let's get into this. [00:01:00]

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: The George Bernard Shaw poem, I think, uh, this is the true joy in life.

The being used for purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature. Instead of a selfish, feverish, little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion my life belongs to the whole, and it's my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort of splendid torch that I have a hold of for the moment and want to make burn as brightly as possible for passing it on to future generations.

D Brent Dowlen: Here's the million dollar question. How do men like us reach our full potential, growing to the men we dream of becoming while taking care of our responsibilities, working, living, being good husbands, fathers, and [00:02:00] still take care of ourselves.

Well, that's the big question. And in this podcast, we'll help you with those answers and more. My name is Brent and welcome to the Fallible Man podcast. Welcome to the Fallible Man podcast. You're home for all things, man, husband, and father. Big shout out to fallible nation. That's our longtime listeners and a warm welcome to our first time listeners.

Hey, I know there's a lot competing for your attention. So from my heart, thank you for giving us a chance. I appreciate that you're here. Be sure and connect with me at the fallible man on most social media, especially Instagram. That's where I'm most active. Let me know what you thought of the show and if you really enjoy it, share it with a friend who needs the show or leave us a review on Apple podcast that helps us reach more people.

My name is Brent. Today, my special guest is doctor, teacher and author, Dr. Tom O'Brien. We'll Dr. Tom, welcome to the fallible man podcast.

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Thank you, Brent. Pleasure to be with you.

D Brent Dowlen: Dr. Tom, we start off pretty light here. So how are your trivia skills?

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Trivia? Um, I don't know. I've never measured them.

D Brent Dowlen: Now for full [00:03:00] disclosure, I do go out of my way to find trivia questions that I don't think you'll get right.

So, you know, I'll be honest up front when I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary come to me is the opening line of which song.

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Let it be, of course. Um, there's a great story behind that song. Paul McCartney said that, uh, uh, he had a dream about his mother and it was after she died and, and she said, uh, you know, all those little things you're worried about, just let it be.

Let him be. And he wrote the song that morning.

D Brent Dowlen: There we go. So. The options were Nirvana, Daft Punk, or Guns N Roses with The Beatle. I'm not even gonna, like, try and challenge that. See, I was going out of my way to throw you a loop, and I totally just didn't get there. Oh, sorry, man. No, you're fine. You're fine.

That's great. Dr. Tom, I don't do huge accolades, because most people just really don't care. So in this [00:04:00] moment today, as a person who is Dr. Tom O'Brien.

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Oh, I'm in San Diego today. I live in Costa Rica, but I'm in San Diego, uh, for two reasons. The primary one is to see my son, which is wonderful. We'll spend the day together tomorrow and, uh, we work out together.

I'm still able to. Sort of keep up with him enough, uh, which is great. And, and the second reason was to see my friend who I'm staying with now, who houses my bike. And, um, I started riding when I was 12 in Detroit and, uh, I have a, uh, a bike that they only made 125 of them, uh, in the factory at Harley Davidson.

And, and, uh, uh, they're called the screaming Eagle. I have the original Screamin Eagle, the first one, from 2000, and so Reid takes care of my baby, and [00:05:00] so I went riding yesterday, it was great, great to be back on, back in the saddle again.

D Brent Dowlen: Wow, okay, well you just won me over right there, uh, I'm a motorcycle guy, heavily motorcycle guy, so.

Mine, mine's sitting out front and it is getting into season where that can run around again and I can get out of my car. Yes. I've ridden motorcycles so long and so often, like it's the majority of what I drive during the year, that I actually get to where I don't like being in cars. I

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: understand that feeling

D Brent Dowlen: Dr.

Tom. What's your favorite childhood memory

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: for childhood memory? Giving a donut to somebody walking by on the street when I was like three years old or something, just sharing, just giving.

D Brent Dowlen: I like it. Favorite ice cream, vanilla, any, any specific flavor. Are you French vanilla, vanilla

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: [00:06:00] bean, or no man, just straight down.

That's how you tell a quality ice cream. How's the vanilla because you, you can hide. Imperfections with flavorings and, you know, but when you're going after how conscious was this made and you know, how good is it for me, vanilla

D Brent Dowlen: will do it. I agree. My wife, my wife's best friend is a vanilla connoisseur.

She is incredible. I'd like to meet her. Oh, you

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: have some good stories. Batman or Superman. Superman. Okay. Any particular reason why? Yeah, there's a shadow to Batman and, uh, I lived with enough shadow growing up. And so I, if I have a model, it would not be,

D Brent Dowlen: um, a shadow. What purchase of a hundred dollars or less that you made in the last year that's had the biggest impact on your life?

David McCarter: Oh,[00:07:00]

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: well, that one threw me for a loop. Uh, let's see biggest impact on my life. Uh, the bubble machine that my three year old current now three year old, but when he was just over two and a half or something, the bubble machine that brings him so much joy in the morning. You turn it on and it blows out bubbles and we dance around together and laugh and play with it.

So a way of connecting with my son. I

D Brent Dowlen: love it. That's a great answer. If you hadn't become a doctor, what would you have liked to be?

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Uh, martial arts. I, uh, started karate when I was 12. And, um, I was a deshi in the world headquarters for Aikido in Tokyo, outside of Tokyo, Shinjuku. [00:08:00] Um, what that meant was I got to clean the toilets.

But, you know, but I lived with, in the dojo on the floor. And, uh, the Grand Master, it was such an honor to be. In their world, uh, every day. And so I was going to do martial arts and full time for the rest of my life. And I was in classes in Ann Arbor, Michigan while I was an undergrad. And, uh, then, um, I met my future wife and I proposed and she said, yes.

And then I realized that I, Didn't want to depend on how many students came through the door on the street for raising a family. And my father was a firefighter and always worked jobs, sometimes three and really dedicated guy. And so the model that I grew up with was work hard. [00:09:00] And so I called the three top Asian studies programs in the United States and talked to, um, one of the deans there and said, if I get a double master's in physical education and Asian studies, what's the possibility if I'm really good that I could get tenure one day?

Because I knew tenure was guaranteed income for life, you

David McCarter: know,

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: and, uh, they all said zero. And so I said, all right, I'm not doing that for the rest of my life. And, uh, so then, uh, the next thing that really resonated with me was chiropractic. And so I went to chiropractic school and, uh, that launched my career.

D Brent Dowlen: All right. Wow. This is a big change from the dojo.

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Actually not. [00:10:00] Actually not, uh, Aikido is all about getting out of the way and letting the energy go where it wants to go. Guy's throwing a punch at you and, you know, that's energy coming at you. And so instead of blocking that energy and throwing energy back, you just kind of step into it and redirect it and break his elbow.

It's, so it's energy and getting out of the way. Chiropractic was introduced to me by a 70. Eight year old chiropractor who's just a beautiful human being and, uh, it was about getting out of the way. Chiropractic is about removing the resistance that's inhibiting the energy of the body from flowing the electrical energy in the spinal cord.

And so there were similarities, uh, that I found between the two and I could resonate with that. I was like, well, that makes sense. I could do that. [00:11:00] So the way I met this chiropractor, I had, um, my girlfriend, who later became my wife. She was in a serious car accident when she was 12 and had back problems all through her teenage years.

And she told me, you know, sometimes my back goes out. I'm in the hospital for like a week in traction. And, uh, it happened while we were together. So I called her orthopedic surgeon's office and the nurse said, doctor's no longer taking backs. He's taking elbows and knees. And I was a hot young stud kind of guy.

And I said, well, just a minute. All right. I just broke her elbow. Can we bring her in now? Right. And, uh, uh, but you know, I was just frustrated and didn't know what to do with that kind of an answer. But my friend at work had just taken his wife to a chiropractor. Who really helped her. And I said, well, what's a chiropractor?

I didn't know. So I called [00:12:00] the guy and he said, sure, come on in. And I carried my wife in and my future wife, and she walked out and I said, is she gonna be okay? She's gonna be okay. He said, well, take a day. Might take two, but she'll be fine. And that's how the guy I talked to, just very slow and present, very authentic.

And then he looked at me and he and I had hair down to my waist at the time, you know? Looked at me and said, you come back, Tom. You come back and watch. Oh, okay. Dr. S Swensson. And so I'd come back every once in a while and he'd welcome me in and patient would come in and he'd say, this is Tom he's going to watch.

And the patient, oh, okay. Hi. Hi. Thank you so much. And it'd be a woman with. Asma having difficulty breathing and, and he'd lay her down and he, um, palpate her back, feel her back and he'd say, Tom, put your hands here. And he put [00:13:00] my fingers on both sides of her spine and he said, you feel any difference between the two sides?

And I'd say, well, yeah, the one side feels harder. tougher than the other side. He said, that's right. And that affects how the bones can move. So I'm going to adjust that area and loosen it up because when the bones move better, the energy flows. Oh, okay. And he would make an adjustment and the patient would get off the table and say, Oh, wow, that feels so much better.

Thank you, Dr. Swanson. And she could breathe easier. And then he'd tell me that the nerves that come out from that area were the nerves that go to the lungs. Okay. And so we're going to try and take some pressure off of those, uh, bones where the nerves come out from the lungs. And, you know, he didn't have the science that we have today to understand, you know, the anatomy and physiology of what's [00:14:00] really going on.

And there's lots of good science on that. You know, when I talk about health with patients, there's, I recommend that you think about health from a pyramid. Perspective and a pyramid has four sides to it looks like it has three sides, but it also has a base, you know, there's four sides and the base is your structure and that's the home of chiropractic and massage and posture and exercises where, you know, people spend a lot of time, uh, unknowingly working on their health and knowingly when they're exercising, you know, they're working on their structure to one degree or another.

One side of the pyramid is your biochemistry, and that's where most of us spend the majority of our time and what we eat and drink and the pills we take, the vitamins or the pharmaceuticals, the air we breathe. That's all [00:15:00] biochemistry. It's really important. But there's a too heavy an emphasis just on biochemistry.

The next side is emotional or spiritual. And we lovingly refer to that as stinkin thinkin And it can cause any disease. Um, and there's lots of good evidence, lots of science, on how when you change your thought patterns, you change the dynamic of the imbalance, even if it's progressive. Disease that you have and the last side is the new kid on the block.

That's electromagnetic in the last 30 to 40 years has really become a problem. Although in my first week of my education, my very first week, this was January 1978 chiropractic college. Dr Sheldon deal. Mr Arizona was coming on [00:16:00] campus to give a talk. And I thought, Mr. Arizona, all right guy's, a bodybuilder.

He is a good, healthy guy. Like, you know, I've got time, I'll go hear what he has to say. And he had a color TV in the room and had it turned on. But volume off color, TVs were pretty new back then, you know? Said, oh, look at that. Oh, that's cool, Cutler. You know, you walk in the room and he walked over to a table, opened up his briefcase and took out a bar magnet the size of an iPhone.

And he held it up like a cop flashlight and he walked towards the television with it. The picture went upside down. He walked away and it went right side up. He walked towards it and it went upside down. He walked away and it went right side up. And he said, that's what electromagnetic pollution does to your body.

It's called neurological switching. Those are people that say right when they mean left. They write the number three backwards. They [00:17:00] put the E before I. You know, I before E, except after C. They put the E before I. They do things backwards. That's neurological switching, and that's often due to electromagnetic imbalances.

And at the time, what he was concerned with was, you know, this new era, this new trend. Watches having batteries in them. So putting a battery on your arm. Could throw off your neurological balance, which could manifest if it continued in eventual dis ease and disease. That was my first week in my education.

And I'm like, whoa, all right, this is very cool. This is very cool. I want to be like him and Dr. Deal practiced a technique called Applied Kinesiology, which is a lot of muscle testing to see what's out of balance in your body. [00:18:00] So I started studying AK my first week in my education and it turned out that the founder of Applied Kinesiology, Dr.

George Goodhart, was my first mentor. I had over 450 hours of study with him. We called him the Great Wazoo, uh, because, you know, you'd be out to dinner after, uh, you know, sitting in a chair with Dr. Goodhart teaching, and we'd say, Dr. Goodhart, tell us about the waitress. Well, she's a nice young lady and, no, no, no, no, no, tell us about the waitress.

Well, she likely has a history of bladder or kidney infections. You know, you know, and she'd come over the table and one of the guys would just start. So we're a bunch of doctors, you know, we're in the seminar. That's our teacher and our mentor, Dr. George Goodhart. And, uh, uh, how's your health? You know, come on.

Oh, it's much better. Now, you know, I had this kidney infection last [00:19:00] week and one guy go, he's taking a sip of something, you know, and how did you do that? Yeah. Well, there's muscles relate to different organs, and when an organ is functioning out of balance, often that associated muscle may function out of balance.

So he asked us, what's the muscle that relates to the kidney? And it's the iliopsoas muscle that's in the back and it runs down, hooks into the leg. And it causes, when it's tight on one side, it causes a tension that pulls on the insertion where the, it hooks into the leg and it pulls the leg out. So you see a person that's walking one foot straight, one foot out, one foot straight.

They're hypertonic in their iliopsoas muscle. And maybe she's got a kidney problem or a bladder problem. But, you know, he, [00:20:00] you see, you know, you can see a lot. In people, Dr. Goodhart would say, look with eyes that see, listen with ears that hear. And we say, yeah, yeah, whatever. Okay. Dr. Jordan, we didn't know what he meant, you know, but now, now I understand life is that way.

Look, do you look, or do you see, you know,

D Brent Dowlen: so Dr. Tom, what does our audience need to absolutely know about you before we go into the meat of the show?

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Oh, I'm a world authority on what I talk about. And if I rock your boat. Spend the time to research what I'm telling you on your own. So you say, wow, okay, that's okay.

I see that. That's okay. There's lots of evidence about that. So that because if you don't change your paradigm, you on how you take care of [00:21:00] your health, if you don't change your paradigm, you'll be one of the statistics. And the current statistics are the difference between a healthy lifespan, And your lifespan is getting bigger.

What does that mean? Healthy lifespan means you're fully functional, no medications. You're good to go. When you lose healthy lifespan, you've been diagnosed or you have dysfunction and disease that inhibits the quality of your life. And the current average is 10. 8 years difference for most men between a healthy lifespan and their lifespan.

It means the last decade of your life, you're in a wheelchair. Or you can't walk up the stairs, and is that the way you want to live? You know, if you don't want to live that way, you have to figure out how am I disrupting my health currently? Killing off cells, killing off cells, killing off [00:22:00] cells. While you feel fine because you're a Sherman tank going through life and nothing bugs you, I feel fine, right?

And so you have to figure it out for yourself. But with guidance, it's not hard at all. So it's, it's, I'm, I'm a wake up call, uh, uh, for people. And, uh, so I don't expect you to believe anything I say. Just check it out for yourself. And see what you find.

D Brent Dowlen: I like it. I like it. Especially in a time where we're being discouraged from checking stuff out ourselves.

It's nice to have someone tell us to actually do our due diligence. In the first part of the show, we were just getting to know Dr. Tom a little bit, what he's about, what he's like, who he is. And this part of the show, we're going to start talking about phthalates. I'm sure I'm saying that wrong. So please feel free to correct me on that.

Dr. Tom, there is so much going on that so many of us. don't understand.

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Yeah.

D Brent Dowlen: And you specialize in [00:23:00] a wide array of things that most people aren't even familiar with environmental toxins, autoimmune disease, so much more. What we as men, we're skeptical. It's just, it's part of our nature a lot of times. So what would you say to those who are skeptical about environmental toxins being responsible for our health?

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Wake up. Just wake up. So, first, we have to understand that the human body, um, it takes tens of thousands of years for genes to change. In the body, meaning what you pass on to your Children, those genetics you got from your father, from your grandfather, your great great grandfather. I mean, it goes back thousands of years.

We carry the same genes. We have our bodies function the same as your [00:24:00] ancestors. 10, 000 years ago, the kidneys work the same, the bladder, the gallbladder, the immune system, everything works the same. We have creature comfort now that we never had before in history, but our genetics are the same and our ancestors, the immune system, Mrs.

Patient, the immune system is the armed forces in your body. It's there to protect you. There's an army, a Navy, an Air Force, a Marines, a Coast Guard. We call them IgA, IgG, IgE, IgM, cytokines. They're all different branches of the immune system there to protect you. So when your immune system gets activated.

It produces inflammation to kill the threat that's come in because the only threats our ancestors had were, aside from predators, were bugs, [00:25:00] parasites, viruses, mold, fungus, and bacteria. That was it. There was no red dye number 42, or polysorbate 80, or lead, or mercury in the fish, you know, there was none of that.

So humans developed, with their response system to threats, highly capable of dealing with bugs, parasites, viruses, mold, fungus, and bacteria. That's the immune system you have today. And so when your body senses a threat that's coming in or on the body, we respond as if it's a bug, a parasite, virus, mold, fungus, or bacteria.

Those are the only options. So, when you're exposed [00:26:00] to lead in the air, and you inhale it, all your body can do is respond as if it's a parasite. So it does. And you get inflammation in your lungs to kill the parasite. And there's different levels of exposure and different levels of response. You know, it's not, it's not cookbook, but the result is that you get inflammation in your lungs because the immune system can't kill or get rid of lead.

It binds onto the tissue and it stays there and your immune system keeps going after it as if it's a bug, parasite, virus, mold, fungus, or bacteria. It's all it can do. So the world that we live in today is so foreign to the human protective mechanisms, the human [00:27:00] immune system protecting you. But the stuff that it's having to protect you from, we're not equipped.

To really deal with it efficiently, we're just not equipped, which means that we carry this inflammation in our body all the time. We carry this systemic inflammation. And the Center for Disease Control tells us that 14 of the 15 top causes of death in the world today are chronic inflammatory diseases.

It's always inflammation. Everything except unintentional injuries, everything, accidents, everything else of the top 15 are chronic inflammatory diseases. So we think, well, we'll just shut down the immune system. No, you, you can't shut down. It's there to protect you. It's going to keep trying to protect you from whatever.

The threat is that it's recognized [00:28:00] when you understand that big picture for you and your family, and you check it out, you know, for yourself, you'll see, well, well, he's actually right. I mean, this is basic one on one. This is basic. And you understand that. Then the rational approach to health is how do I reduce the things that activate my immune system trying to protect me?

If it's food, like gluten, you do the right tests and you find out, wow, my immune system's really fighting gluten, but I feel fine when I eat meat or when I eat wheat, I feel fine. Who cares how you feel? The ratio in medicine is eight to one for every one person. that gets gut symptoms when their immune system is fighting wheat.

There are eight people that don't, they get brain symptoms or your child's seizures. [00:29:00] Look in the journal gas and neurology, they published a paper that 50 percent of drug resistant epilepsy children. What does that mean? Well it means they've tried three different medications and your child's still getting, having seizures.

The drugs don't work. They're drug resistant. 50 percent of children with drug resistant epilepsy go into complete remission, no more seizures, on a gluten free diet. What? Well, how come my neurologist didn't tell me that? Because your neurologist doesn't read gastroenterology journals, they read neurology journals.

They don't know. They don't know. So the most common source of triggers that activate your immune system are what's on the end of your fork. That is most common. And you think, well, I feel fine. It doesn't matter how you feel. You got kidney stones. [00:30:00] That's inflammation. That's triggered by inflammation. So you have to find out where is the inflammation coming from that manifested with dysfunction of my kidney, ureter, bladder system.

Where's that coming from? And you, of course, deal with the symptoms. That's important. But then you deal with the trigger. Is it gasoline or kerosene? Where's it coming from critically, critically important concept. Well, so I'll, I'll pause there for the moment and let you

D Brent Dowlen: see, say there's a whole lot to unpack right there.

Um, you know what guys, let's say on this line, we'll get to fail late since third part of the show. Yeah. Inflammation for a minute. We were, we were going to get to it anyways. I was just gonna do it in the third part of the show. So that's okay. We'll just switch parts. I'm totally flexible on that. Like I said, my biggest problem getting ready for this, uh, episode was like, You have so much [00:31:00] wisdom to unpack in these various things, like where, where do I even start this conversation?

So we're already into inflammation. Now, you were one of the early doctors, if not the first to go. Gluten is an issue for a lot of people. If I did my research correctly, why, why are we seeing, is it just our understanding of things that we're seeing more? food related like resistances and illnesses with people or is it the way we grow our food?

Uh, help me out here. I, I don't understand. Cause I, I, I know from my perspective, right? I've seen people have more allergy food allergies. Like there's way more people who have different allergies to food than when I was a kid,

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: right?

D Brent Dowlen: Is that a difference in, we just didn't understand it before or a difference in the way we're putting our, taking care of our food.

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Really good question. Um, it's a combination of things. The quality of the [00:32:00] food's gone down. There are more pesticides, insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, glyphosate, antibiotics on the food than ever before in history. So people, I'll give you an example that will relate to some of these guys here. Um, Harvard published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Uh, and the editors of the journal wrote a comment. They said, this is an elegant study using sophisticated biomarkers to demonstrate their point. Now the editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association don't say that very often, you know, give a stamp of approval like that. So I knew this was an important study.

They looked at couples going to assisted fertility centers. And as you know, your friends have gone through that, you know, they're spending tens of thousands of dollars and tremendous amount [00:33:00] of stress trying to have a baby and start a family. So in this study, They ruled out all of the known risk factors.

They ruled out, um, alcohol, cigarette smoking, exercise, no exercise, socioeconomic class, race. They ruled all those things out in an elegant way that you can't argue with how they did it. And they looked at one factor, how many servings of fruits and vegetables is the woman eating a day during the attempted implantation period, right?

And the results were shocking. They divided these women into quartiles, the lowest number of servings per day, the next, the third and the highest quartile. And we all know more fruits and vegetables, the better. Thank you for your time. [00:34:00] Not in this case that those women in the highest category of servings per day of fruits and vegetables compared to the women in the lowest category of servings per day of fruits and vegetables, those in the highest category had an 18 percent less likelihood of successful implantation.

Wait a minute. What? What? Wait, wait, what? The more fruits and vegetables they ate, the worse the outcome? Yes. And if they did get pregnant, they had a 26 percent less likelihood of a live birth. They lost the baby to miscarriages and stillbirths. 26 percent more often. Wait, what? The more fruits and vegetables they ate, the worse the outcome?

for implantation. [00:35:00] And if they got pregnant, they lost the baby 26 percent more often. The higher the number of servings of fruits and vegetables. Yes, paradigm shifting. What paradigm shifting. But then there was a group of women who are eating organic. And in that category, the results were the exact opposite, complete opposite.

The more fruits and vegetables, the higher the success rate. And, this is the good news in this study, women were put in the category of organic consumers with these results being so much better if they ate three servings a week of organic vegetables, not three servings a day.

And here's, I think, the reason why. If you're eating organic whenever you can, [00:36:00] you probably bought organic shampoo that's in your bathroom, in the shower. You know, and you've got organic soap at the kitchen sink and you're using cleaner detergent to wash your clothes. And you're on the path, you're moving in the right direction of trying to have healthier alternatives.

And that's why I'm my opinion that the authors of the study didn't address that at all. But that's why it only took three servings a week. It meant that they had made a paradigm shift. They, they were doing the best they can with what they've got available. Because I think, actually, this I don't have any science for, and I'm always careful to say that.

I think the most sensitive tissue in the human body to inflammation, the most sensitive tissue, is a fertilized egg. It has no defense whatsoever, is completely dependent on [00:37:00] mom and mom's environment where that fertilized egg is going to grow. And if that environment is an inflammatory environment, they don't have a chance, right?

So it means mom is loaded with chemicals, toxic chemicals that have accumulated. Now, now let's get down to phthalates. Phthalates are the chemicals used to mold plastics. You know, and there's lots of them. They're the most common chemical in our environment is called BPA. Bisphenol a, uh, millions of that.

I don't know the number now, but millions and millions of tons a year of this stuff. You, um, take a credit card receipt at the restaurant. And you hold it in your hand, fold it up, put it in your pocket. Within a few minutes, your phthalate level in your bloodstream has gone up over a hundred percent [00:38:00] in a couple of minutes because the BPA in the credit card receipts that make the implantations, it's not ink, it's BPA.

That stuff goes right through your skin. Every time you walk into a store and you hit that hand sanitizer stuff and you do this, Your phthalate levels go through the roof in your bloodstream that this stuff is not inert. Wait, wait. Hand sanitizer. Yeah. Yeah. It's supposed, isn't it? It's what? It's supposed to be helpful, isn't it,

That's what the companies tell you, right? Yeah. And this stuff accumulates. It just accumulates anybody. So give me. Um, Chicago, 2016, 346 pregnant women in the eighth month of pregnancy. They did urine analysis, looking for phthalates in the urine, chemicals used to mold plastic. [00:39:00] And they put the women results into quartiles, the lowest, the next, the third, and the highest.

They then follow the offspring of those pregnancies. And when the children turned seven years old, the researchers reached back out and said, Hi, it's time to do that test now. And they did Wexler IQ test, the official IQ test on all these kids. Not much in medicine is all or every. This was every. Every child, every child whose mother was in the highest category of phthalates in urine in pregnancy compared to the Children of the mothers who were in the lowest category, every child in the highest category, their IQ was seven points lower, 6.

7 to 7. 4. Points lower than the IQ of the kids whose moms were low in Phalates. What now? That doesn't mean much to anybody until you understand a one [00:40:00] point difference in IQ is noticeable. A seven point difference is a difference between a child working really hard, getting straight A's in school, and a child working really hard, really hard, getting straight Cs.

That kid doesn't have a chance in hell of ever excelling. Now just go to Google and type in phthalates and neurogenesis, brain cell growth. Here come the studies. The higher the phthalates, the more inhibition of brain cells growing and developing properly. So moms who were high in phthalates during pregnancy, their baby's brains don't develop to whatever their potential is.

Now give me a five year old girl that paints her 10 little fingers and 10 little toes once a week. for 25 years. When you put nail polish on your fingernails, the phthalates are in your [00:41:00] bloodstream in four minutes. There's no evidence that the amount of phthalates that leach into the bloodstream from applying nail polish is toxic to humans.

There's no evidence. And that's how the industry chemical industry got away with this crap. They paid off the senators. to pass legislation called the Toxic Substance Control Act, TSCA, that you have to demonstrate the amount of chemical exposure you get within 24 hours harms human cells. It doesn't.

There's no evidence. But this stuff accumulates in the body. You can't get rid of it very easily. It accumulates. So now 25 years of 10 little fingers and 10 little toes. Now she's 30 years old. She's pregnant or trying to get pregnant. She's at infertility center and, uh, she's lots of fruits [00:42:00] and vegetables.

But The implantation doesn't work. Why? Because she's accumulated all these chemicals and there's this low grade inflammation throughout her entire body. And the most sensitive tissue, in my opinion, I don't have any science for this particular fact, the most sensitive tissue is a fertilized egg. It's got no protective mechanisms.

It's totally dependent on mom. But if mom is chemical toxic, And she feels fine, you know, whatever, you know, a little anxious, but she feels okay. She doesn't have any diagnosable disease right now. Then mom may have a really hard time with being successful at assisted fertility centers. I've just given you two studies, both from Harvard, that just, just to open up this world, and there are hundreds and hundreds of studies like this.

Everybody knows about the kids in Flint, Michigan, and the lead in the [00:43:00] water, and their brains are permanently damaged. That is happening to humans across the board, but it's not happening in six months of drinking the water in the school. It's happening over 30, 40, 50 years of my new amounts that accumulate your body.

It's like, wake up, man, wake

D Brent Dowlen: up. Let me, let me ask. What about, cause I I'm of the age, I remember this big push, right? Where all of a sudden. Some study came out and they're like, oh my God. Yeah, BPAs are bad. So what about like BP, a free P plastic? That was, that was a huge thing When I was growing up, we all had to switch our water bottles or whatever to get BP right to

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: B-P-S-B-B-P-S.

And that's more toxic. That's more toxic. It just doesn't, hasn't had as many studies. They published, let's see, it's about 10 weeks ago now, they published a paper, one of those that rocks your boat, again, [00:44:00] um, new, new technology has come out, laser technology to identify the amount of plastic. And in water microplastics.

And now they can identify nanoplastics, that's a billionth of a gram. And they use this new technology and they looked at three different companies, a liter of their water, their bottled water in plastic bottles, and the average of the three. Was just over 240, 000 nanoparticles of plastic in a liter of water that's in plastic bottles.

It's like, wake up world, wake up. And these nanoplastics, these billionth of a gram plastics, they get in your bloodstream really easy, really easy. And when they're in the bloodstream, they get into the brain really easy. And they accumulate. [00:45:00] They accumulate there. Now, you're, you have four different immune systems in your body.

One in your gut, the main one, one in your bloodstream, one in your liver, and one in your brain. And the one in the gut, I like to think of them as the sheriff in a cowboy town. He's got a couple of six guns on his hip walking around keeping the peace, right? He fires cytokines, destroy whatever comes into the gut.

The one in your bloodstream is special forces. They've got high powered laser rifles. They're very specific about what they go after in the bloodstream. But the one in your brain, oh my god, they fire bazookas. They don't mess around. Anything gets through the blood brain barrier, you activate the glial cells, they fire bazookas.

Which is great, protects you every single day. The problem is that when you're drinking water [00:46:00] in this example out of plastic water bottles and you're getting hundreds of thousands of nanoparticles of plastic, they get into your bloodstream, they get into your brain, you're firing bazookas every day. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

And the collateral damage that occurs in the brain from firing these bazookas constantly is accumulative. So what does that mean? Blue Cross Blue Shield published a study in February of 2020. Nobody read it because that's when the virus came out, so no one paid attention to it at all. But they said, we've got a real problem.

In the previous four year period, There was a 407% increase in the diagnosis of early Alzheimer's in 30 to 44 year olds. [00:47:00] 407% increase in four years. In 30 to 44 year olds diagnosed with Alzheimer's. We've got a huge problem. This is the pandemic. That no one's talking about, you know, but this is it because all of these toxic chemicals, they get into your bloodstream and then they get through the blood brain barrier into the brain and your immune system trying to protect you thinks it's a bug, parasite, virus, mold, fungus or bacteria creates inflammation to kill it and then you damn and you get collateral damage, damaging the brain cells and you've got an automatic system of your immune system to get rid of the old and damaged brain cells to make room for new brain cells, which is really good.

But the result is because there's constant influx of a threat, constant influx of a threat with immune response, immune response. Now you've got constant inflammation in your brain, killing [00:48:00] off brain cells, killing off brain cells, killing off brain cells. And the result is You're 38 years old. You say, I'm getting old.

I don't remember the way I used to. Well, how old are you? I'm 38. No, man, that's not supposed to happen. You're not supposed to walk out into the parking lot and say, what road did I park my car in? That's not supposed to happen. You're killing off your brain cells. It's like, wake up. Wake up, do the tests.

There's a test called the neural zoomer plus most accurate test that I know of in the world to identify as your brain on fire. And if it is, it's a wake up call that you figure out how do I stop or how do I reduce the inflammation in my brain?

D Brent Dowlen: Dr. Tom, just to drive it home because guys are sensitive.

We're, we're a little slow about a lot of things. We're a little protective about our testosterone and we know that testosterone levels in men are record lows. The last study I read said that men in their 20s have [00:49:00] less testosterone than their current grandfathers who are still alive. One third, one third, uh, men have

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: one third.

The average is one third of the testosterone level that your grandfather had at the same age. Less than one third. Wake up, wake up. And nobody's like in your face talking to you about this. The average guy, I think the number was 84 or 86, but somewhere up there. The average guy puts 84 different chemicals on his skin before he leaves the house in the morning.

Between the shampoos, the soap, if you're using conditioner, the shaving cream, the underarm deodorant. Some guys are putting lotion on their arms, you know, because they've got dry skin. But the average is 84 different chemicals are going through your skin into your body before [00:50:00] you leave the house in the morning, wake up, you can't do this without having the effects.

You just can't do it, man. It's going to catch up with you and it's catching up with people at earlier and earlier ages because they were born from mothers who are ready were quite toxic.

D Brent Dowlen: So some of us are a little protective about, you know, this portion, um, like When we start talking about testosterone, I'm 44. I intend to keep lifting until I drop. Uh, this is something like I, I asked my doctor, I won't name names. I asked my doctor back at 33 because a lot of regular weight lifters actually have lower testosterone because our body absorbs the free testosterone, testosterone faster.

And so I asked him, it was like, Hey, can we check my testosterone levels? Feel less energetic. I, I feel, You know, like there's a decline. I don't sleep as [00:51:00] well. I tried some herbal testosterone boosters I bought from someone who's supposed to be reputable. And I know I slept better when I was on those, uh, you know, what steps can we take as men right now to start?

Making the changes we need to we need to wake up. What what are the steps? Give us give us three steps to start implementing today to start fixing this as much as we can

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: get educated You can't take testosterone and think everything's fine You start taking testosterone when you have low testosterone levels, and that's all you do is take the drug.

That's like putting a 454 engine into a rambler.

Wake up. Well, my testosterone will have taken, I feel so much better. Yeah, but your system can't handle this extra testosterone because it's adapted to a system [00:52:00] of lower levels. You need to rebuild the body. You can't shotgun in. Just imagine, take, take a 454 out of a Vette and put it in a Volkswagen and drive it at Vette speed.

You're gonna blow out the trans, you're gonna, the drivetrain's gonna go, the shift lever, you know, you're just gonna blow the car up. Well, he had good testosterone until he dropped. There's no simple cure. You need to wake up and learn how to rebuild your body. Exercise, weight, speed. Critically important component of that strength training.

Critically, but it's a component. It's just a component. You need to rebuild the entire body. Well, how do I do that? What do I take? You take your hands and you put them on a book and you let your eyes follow. You turn your head back and forth while you're [00:53:00] reading the book, you know, or listen to podcasts, you know, but you need to get educated on how to take care of this machine.

You need to be your own mechanic. And nobody's given you permission to do that. I mean, when you go to a doctor, it's only because you've got some symptoms that you don't like. I mean, how many of you go to a doctor for a tune up? If you treated your car, the way you treat your body, Your car won't last very long.

It'll run like a dog after a while, but that's the way we treat our bodies. We're too busy to take care of our bodies. I, I like this show. I'm talking to guys here. It's like, wake up. You can't continue like this. You need to start the journey. That starts, you know, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

All right. You're listening to this podcast way to go, but there's no shortcuts. I never recommend men [00:54:00] take testosterone and do nothing else. Are you kidding? That's putting a four 54 into a

D Brent Dowlen: Volkswagen. How do we start getting, I've, I've limited research, right? I've, I've heard people talk about failings being in clothing these days.

Oh yeah. You said, yeah, I'm thinking about all the receipts I stick in my pocket. How do we start phasing that crap out of our life?

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: By education, education. You can't have plastic blinds on the windows in your house. They outgas phthalates into the air. Well, my air is clean. You ever see the sunlight coming through the window at that angle and you see the dust in the air?

That's what you're breathing. And what is that? Well, it's the phthalates. And it's mold spores. And you, you have to test your air. You have to test your water. Uh, you, you have to test your body. And say, alright, this is where I start. This is where I begin. Alright, I'm on a journey here. I don't want to get too [00:55:00] overwhelmed.

I'll take one thing at a time. And a good place to start is with water. That's a really good place to start. Pinch the back of your skin. If it doesn't drop down immediately, you're dehydrated. You're dehydrated. Everyone, almost everyone I meet is not drinking enough water. It's a third of an ounce per pound body weight.

And if you're sweating a lot because you're doing saunas for detox and or you're working out ways where your shirts are drenched afterwards, it goes up to a half ounce. But at minimum is a third of an ounce per pound body weight. Because you can't start detoxing these chemicals out of your body, most people's body right now, you know, when, when you drive, uh, in the interstate.

Usually it's two lanes in each direction, and as you come in towards the city, it opens up to three lanes. [00:56:00] It opens up to four lanes, sometimes five lanes. Great. You're cruising along. You're doing 60 to 70 cruising along. Now you're coming into the city. That's why the late traffic's it's opening up.

There's more traffic, but there's more lanes. But now you see a bad lights and oh, they're doing some construction and the left lane is now merging into the next lane and then it's merging again and your five lanes are down to two lanes in the city. Now you're driving 20 miles an hour because it's five lanes of cars that are down into two lanes.

That's constipation. You're backed up and the first step is hydrating well enough to escort the toxins out of your body. That's just the first step. And when you do a third of an ounce per pound body weight, you see how much water. Oh my God, I'll be peeing all day. Well, that's the plan. We've got to get this stuff out of you.

And so you [00:57:00] mobilize. You know, I'm sure guys are of different age brackets, uh, who are watching this. Um, but you mobilize the magic number 9846 steps per day. That's in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They followed 75, 000 people for over 30 years. Those that were walking 10, 000 steps a day, 9, 8, 4, 6, 10, 000 steps a day, had a 54 percent reduction in dementia.

More than half that do not get brain dysfunction and dementia. And they did nothing else. This was the only common link. They walked, you got to mobilize. So when you mobilize and you hydrate, that's the first step. You've got to get your system able to flush out what's accumulated over a lifetime. [00:58:00]

D Brent Dowlen: Forgive me as I'm looking down, I'm taking notes.

Yeah. And guys, I did the math really quickly. A third of an ounce is, is way less water than I thought I had to drink a day. So like that, it was actually exciting for me. I thought I was supposed to drink a whole lot more than that. And I'm not a huge fan of drinking a lot of water. So that's great news for me because I thought I would need to sit down at least a gallon,

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: which there's a book.

There's a book by my friend, Dr. Joe Pizzorno is called the toxin solution and it's just the Excellent how to guide in how do you start this process? Where's the solution to all of the toxins we're being exposed to? The Journal of Pediatrics published an article. This was from the board of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

And they [00:59:00] published this. And they said, we've got a real problem here. We're failing to protect our children. And they talked about the amount of chemicals in the environment. And it was 27 trillion pounds of chemicals being imported or manufactured into the U S every year. That number doesn't mean anything to me.

So I took it, that number I divided, but divided by 365 days. and I divided it by 300 and I think it was 54 million people, whatever the population was in the U. S. It comes out to 247 per person per day of chemicals being manufactured or imported into the U. S. Five 50 pound bags per day for you [01:00:00] and for your wife and for your kids.

That's what we're being exposed to in the air, in the water, in the food. Remember what I said about pesticides, insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, glyphosate, antibiotics that are in the vegetables and the fruit that you and your kids are eating. That's why you have to head to organic. You find the farmers and you support the organizations that are bringing cleaner food to you.

You want to stop the progression of disease at earlier and earlier ages and the Alzheimer's in 30 to 44 year olds. This is terrifying. Yeah, we said the same word. It's terrifying. It's terrifying. But this is what it's going to take. You have to wake up and you start to transition. NASA did the studies that showed Two six inch house plants in a [01:01:00] 10 by 10 room absorb 74 percent of the toxins in the air.

So until you can afford to get whole house air filtration systems, because indoor air pollution is worse than outdoor in most places. Until you can afford that, you get houseplants in every room and say, Oh, I don't have a green thumb, they'll die. Then you buy more, but these are in your kids bedrooms.

These are in the family room. These are in the kitchen where people hang out because they're absorbing toxins all day, every day. It's all the little things you do. Every time I sign a book. It's always the same. I ask the person their name, write down their name, and then I write base hits, win the ball game, Tom O'Brien.

That is the only way you're going to be vital and alive. Do you remember how we started this show? Healthy Lifespan versus Lifespan. If you want to be, avoid the wheelchair and avoid the nursing home, [01:02:00] sitting around in a wheelchair all day. This is what you do now. You get educated on how to take care of your environment for you and your family.

That's why we did this event called the Inflammation Equation. I've interviewed, um, over 80 world leaders. I went to seven countries and, uh, interviewed the people that are writing these research articles that are, What? What did you say? You know, those people and, and you hear them, you hear them talk and you, you say, wow, I'm glad to know that.

Okay. Okay. I get this. So what do I do? Okay. House plans. Okay. You know that you start figuring out how to transition and protect yourself and protect your family because these, these are sleeper diseases, you know, my brother, okay. I had a, uh, [01:03:00] we were born and raised in Detroit. I grew up with muscle cars and my brother got the Chevy Impala, uh, top sleeper.

It had a 454 in it, you know, and it was, it just looked like a regular Chevy Impala. I think it was a, uh, 2000, uh, no, a 98, 1998, something like that. I don't know. And his daughter trashed it, totaled it, but, um, it was a sleeper, but it was the fastest car. I take out vets and Jaguars and Lamborghinis, just blow them away.

You know, you want to be a sleeper in your seventies and your eighties and your nineties. You know, you, you want to be able to perform. I mean, my goal is that, uh, I'm going to shake it up on the dance floor at my son's wedding. You know, I'm 72. [01:04:00] My son is three, you know, but I'm that's my goal. And in order to do that, I need to take care of this body now and you guys, you don't have the time that you think you have.

The damage that's going on is extensive. in your bodies. Just do the tests. You find out right away when you do the test, when you do the right test, not don't go to your doctor and say, tell me how healthy I am. Their blood tests are all to see what disease you've got. They don't look for health markers.

They're not measuring inflammatory markers. That are killing off brain cells, killing off brain cells, killing off. They don't measure that because you feel fine. So they do what insurance pays for. That's all you get. You want to figure out what to do. You know, there is a panel of seven tests. I'm, I'm doing this with a group now in Croatia.

Uh, they reached out and wanted, you know, what do we do to get healthier? And I said, well, I don't [01:05:00] know. I don't know. Uh, I don't have the time. So no, we'll do whatever you want, wherever you want. So I said, do these tests and then we'll talk. And they all did seven tests, and the result is they're all their jaws have dropped for every single one of them with the amount of mold in their body, the amount of toxic chemicals in their body.

They're all sense. Not all, but almost all of them are sensitive to wheat. Many are sensitive to dairy, and that's the food. That's gasoline on the fire, causing the inflammation that's manifesting in the symptoms that they're getting. Here's your starting point. You know, so you do the right test and you find out, reality check, this is what, well I feel fine, well we'll put that on your tombstone.

He felt fine until he didn't.

D Brent Dowlen: Exactly. Dr. Tom, we've, we've unpacked a whole lot today and guys, I highly encourage you go follow him on Instagram. I already do, but I will have all of his links, all his connection points down in the show notes down in [01:06:00] the description, whatever platform you're following us on today.

We've unpacked a lot here, but as we land this plane, if our audience heard nothing else today, what's the last thing you want to leave them with?

Dr. Tom O'Bryan: Uh, the George Bernard Shaw poem, I think, uh, this is the true joy in life. The being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature instead of a selfish, feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion my life belongs to the whole. And it's my privilege to do for it, whatever I can. Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort of splendid torch that I have a hold of for the moment and want to make burn as [01:07:00] brightly as possible for passing it on to future generations. That's George Bernard Shaw.

It's

D Brent Dowlen: beautiful guys for Dr. Tom myself. Thanks for hanging out with us today. Be better tomorrow because what you do today, we'll see on the next one.

David McCarter: This has been the fellow man podcast. You're home for everything man, husband, and father. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a show. Head over to www.

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