Creating a Heart-Healthy, Non-Toxic Home | Ryan Sternagel

[00:00:00] Ryan Sternagel: On the, on the toxicity front, we talked about getting the toxicity out of your life, right?

[00:00:04] But then you also have to get it outta your body. And, people talk about detoxes and that sort of thing. Don’t focus on like what the, you know. What week long smoothie juice cleanse should I do? Or the Dr so-and-so’s five day detox and blah, blah, blah. Just live a lifestyle and you know, it’s kind of going back to Dr. Tom’s advice and to just live a lifestyle of detoxification. Right? And just do. And you could, I’d broaden that out to live a lifestyle of healing, right? And just do something to heal every day. Do something to detoxify every day.

[00:00:35] Every choice you make, like, we talked about what you purchase, it’s either contributing to healing or contributing to disease. Just start thinking really critically about that and making every choice a healing choice. And you’ll been living a way, way, way, way different life before you know it.

[00:00:50] And it’s a good one. It’s not a sacrifice or a burden either. It’s, you just, it’s just different choices. It’s not hard.

[00:00:57] Hey friends, this is Dr. Eric Zielinski. Most people just call me Dr. Z. Welcome to the Natural Living Family Podcast. 

[00:01:03] Dr. Z new: Together we’ll uncover biblical wisdom and practical tools to help you and your family escape the confusion of this toxic world and walk in the abundant life God has promised. This isn’t about chasing trends or doing it all. It’s about renewing your mind, rejecting broken systems, and embracing God’s design for healing and wholeness.

[00:01:24] The truth is God has a beautiful plan for your life, and yes, your health matters to Him. Are you ready to get started? Awesome. Let’s dive in.

[00:01:34] Dr. Z: All right, Ryan, thank you so much for being here with me. I really appreciate it brother. 

[00:01:43] Ryan Sternagel: Good to be with you as always, Eric. 

[00:01:48] Dr. Z: So we had a nice little pre-talk talk. By the way, folks, that’s one of the best things about doing interviews like this is getting the expert, getting the influencer, getting the man or the woman behind the scenes and captive audience. I always like having conversations before and after. And Ryan I and I were just talking about, heart disease.

[00:02:05] Heart attack, stroke, and heart events are the number one killer of cancer patients. And it just opened up this discussion. And like we could argue theoretically that quote unquote, cancer doesn’t kill anybody like the cancer cell itself.

[00:02:21] It’s what cancer does to the body that then leads someone to untimely death and the primary killer of cancer patients, next to well we can maybe argue chemo radiation treatments, is a heart attack, is stroke, is a heart disorder. And that I didn’t know that, Ryan.

[00:02:43] And so walk us a little bit through this experience for you, because you’ve recently learned this through what you’re doing.

[00:02:51] So kind of unpack a little bit about what you are doing the people, the doctors that you’re talking to, and this just cutting edge information. That you are uncovering because you just dropped a truth bumb on me that I should have known that just made my mind go down a wonderful spiral. So we’re gonna have a great very unscripted conversation here.

[00:03:09] So, go! 

[00:03:12] Ryan Sternagel: Rabbit holes are always fun, aren’t they? Yeah, I mean, your son gets diagnosed with stage four cancer at a year old. That’ll freak you out and lead you to really want to know what the heck it is that’s going on here. Why are people getting sick?

[00:03:26] Why is you know? Okay, I understand that uh, you know, cancer can develop in somebody 50, 60, 70 years of age that’s been smoking a pack of Marlboros a day for, you know, how many years. But my 1-year-old son just got it. What the heck’s going on? I mean that research process has been going on for the last 10 years. Fortunately that research is more on the wanting to keep him okay side, and also wanting to help others. Make it a lot easier for others than it was for us, right? Trying to figure all this stuff out on our own. And, information’s come a long way in 10 years and thank God for that.

[00:04:04] But yeah, that’s been our thing from literally the first second that diagnosis happened is what caused this and what can we do about it? Right. And cancer kind of forces you, I would say all chronic disease really forces you to be a generalist, right?

[00:04:21] Uh, you gotta figure everything out at once. You gotta figure out infection type stuff. You gotta figure out mitochondrial function. You gotta figure out inflammation, you gotta figure out mental, emotional, spiritual wellness, right? All the things. If you’re really going after it from a true holistic perspective, then, it’s not just about killing cancer cells, right? Same way as, you know, heart conditions if you’re really coming after them from a holistic perspective, it’s not just about the drugs they want you to take or the, stent they want you to put in or whatever it is. Right?

[00:04:55] It’s, trying to figure out what caused this and when you research chronic disease from that perspective, it’s… Really, I can’t find a true root cause of cancer that’s not also a true root cause of heart disease. That’s not also a true root cause of autoimmune disorders. It’s all kind of the same thing!

[00:05:15] You in that sense, it’s just manifesting in us, in us differently depending on, you know, what we might be more predisposed to and that sort of thing. So yeah, it’s been a wild ride, kind of putting all this stuff together and like I mentioned to you, it’s been the heart connection I didn’t come across that until, we started… we got right or better. We started documenting the story and everything we were doing out there. And that led to podcast stuff and then eventually the online summit stuff. And it was when we, like my first online summit that I was interviewing a bunch of cancer doctors and, all my favorite ones, kept referring to how closely they look at heart stuff.

[00:05:55] Right? Uh, d dimer levels, fibrinogen. And they’re the ones that started making this point that the number one killer of cancer patients outside of cancer itself. But then we were just talking about what does it mean to be killed by cancer? You know, we we’re not exactly sure, is indeed, heart conditions, um, strokes, heart attacks, so on and so forth.

[00:06:17] And that also, so I mean, they’re keeping a really close eye on those levels because obviously they don’t want their patients to die of a heart condition. But then also going back to that, root cause, it’s all kind of the same stuff, right?

[00:06:30] They also want their patients’ circulation to be in tiptop shape because they want oxygen getting to the cells. They want, toxicants moved out of the cells and, out of the body. And yeah so it’s, you know, again from a whole systems approach, treating the whole body from a holistic perspective, it’s just, it’s amazing how much crossover there is between cancer and heart disease, all the other chronic stuff. 

[00:06:59] Dr. Z: You mentioned the root cause. So inflammation is indicated in all of this, and that’s been a reoccurring theme of all the interviews that I’ve been doing. Yet, inflammation is not the root cause, it’s the mechanism that’s ultimately triggering the whole thing.

[00:07:13] But it’s like when we say cause, we’re using, it’s not it the best way I would equate it would be the wood that keeps the fire going. And the fire, is inflammation. So, when did you, in this whole journey, and we can dive in this road.

[00:07:32] Because my intent with this conversation, Ryan, one reason why I asked you to come on, by the way, thank you again, is to really make this super, super practical for people because we’ve heard from the doctors and the cardiologists and the experts and everyone about toxins, toxins, toxins. And toxicants, which actually is a difference. Toxin is, you know, more natural

[00:07:52] Ryan Sternagel: if you get stung by a scorpion or something. That’s a, that’s a toxin. That’s my, pet peeve. Yeah.

[00:07:57] Dr. Z: Toxicant is …. is that funny?

[00:07:59] You’re, you’re one of the few people to use that correctly. Toxicant is a manmade toxin. Right? So, I’m glad you said that.

[00:08:06] So it’s like everyone’s mentioning it and we get a little snippety here, but I’m really hoping, and I’m gonna challenge you and I to give a masterclass on what can we do at home. going back to your first summit about a healthy, toxic, free living space.

[00:08:20] But when was it in your journey with Ryder, that you’re like, whoa, we have a toxicant problem and we gotta fix this thing. Like, what was the light bulb? And maybe let’s try to shine some light bulbs on in people’s minds that like, look, we really gotta take this thing seriously. 

[00:08:40] Ryan Sternagel: I think that we, my wife and I were already, Teddy and I were already going, you know, getting healthy, whatever that could mean, in the months and even years leading up to conceiving Ryder because, you know, we’re starting to watch the health documentaries and listening to health podcasts and trying to take all that stuff more seriously. And, when you look at, our lives compared to a whole lot of other people out there whose children didn’t get cancer, it was, you know, a little bit of what the heck? Or are you serious? We thought we were doing, the best by our unborn son and that sort of thing. So, I mean, yeah, you could say in that sense that the light bulb had already been on.

[00:09:19] It just it got turned way up when, 11 days before his first birthday we found out he had stage four cancer. That being said, we were already doing the getting healthy thing. But then when it, when we actually got that diagnosis and the first day, we got home and started looking around the house with an absolute zero tolerance policy.

[00:09:43] Dr. Z: Yes.

[00:09:43] Ryan Sternagel: Right? Yes. We still filled up a couple garbage bags with stuff that we did not want in the house or anywhere near our son. Right. So yeah, it’s, you know, it’s a, ongoing spectrum, I guess, of, you can keep going deeper and deeper and deeper and figuring more stuff out.

[00:09:59] But yeah, at the end of the day it’s, there’s just, especially today, there’s really no reason to be, at least within your own home. Right? And, you can do a lot, outside of your own home as well. But there’s not a lot of reason to be exposed to toxicity if you’re just really intentional about it.

[00:10:16] And, and I agree. I’m not the expert doctor who is gonna tell you about all the different pathways and why they matter and these sorts of things. I’d make a point to understand as much as I need to. But at the end of the day, like I said, we’ve always just been coming at it from the perspective of, okay, I just, let me understand enough about what the problem is and then go crazy researching, every possible solution to that problem.

[00:10:41] Right? And, and then trying to methodized it to implement it into our lives the best we can and to, now to help others do the same as well. So, uh, yeah. I’d definitely, definitely be up for the masterclass on what the heck to do about all this. 

[00:10:56] Dr. Z: And years later, Ryder’s thriving, and then you find out that Rocky has severe, what grade three? I, I forget. 

[00:11:03] Ryan Sternagel: You should know we did, we did an event on it together.

[00:11:04] Dr. Z: I mean, it was three years ago. Eczema, I forget the grades, I’m sorry, it… Was it grade…

[00:11:08] Ryan Sternagel: it was good. High high grade eczema.

[00:11:10] 

[00:11:10] Dr. Z: High grade, I forget the grade, I’m sorry. Stage four, grade three. Um, but high grade eczema and then you took it to another level.

[00:11:16] Which before we do this, a thought’s coming to me, which is the underscore. And I actually don’t think you give yourself enough credit, and that’s because you’re very humble. Super much. You’re super much, you’re very humble and I appreciate that super much. I’m an English major and I just said the most grammatically incorrect phrase, which is kind of humorous.

[00:11:34] Ryan Sternagel: I was an English major.

[00:11:36] Dr. Z: Isn’t it cute? So here’s the thing, buddy, you, during these experiences, especially with your first, with Ryder. Brand new, you know, new dad, um, baby, baby, 1-year-old. You had to be a patient advocate, a fierce patient advocate. So what I wanna do is just a couple things here. A lot of folks listening, their loved ones, have heart problems specifically, or cancer or a number of litany of things. And I’m thinking of my mother-in-law who’s going with my father-in-law to all of these doctor visits and not really knowing how to properly advocate for him. But whether you’re a woman or a man and you are.

[00:12:16] You have a loved one and you’re going to these doctor visits, or you don’t know if you should go to doctor visits with a loved one. Can you give us some tips on how to be a good patient advocate? And that is something that no one speaks about because ultimately when you, maybe, maybe not, are in front of the doctor prescribing something or sharing something or diagnosing something, it is really hard. Especially when you get dropped with a cancer diagnosis or a heart disease diagnosis or a whatever.

[00:12:47] It’s hard to think clearly. It’s hard to make educated wise decisions. Especially in the moment when they’re like; schedule surgery. Now take this drug. Now it’s like, what in the world?

[00:12:58] So can you give us some practical advice on how to maybe stop the clock, take a minute. How to help someone advocate or even advocate for yourself better?

[00:13:09] Hey, friend, real quick, if you’ve been listening and thinking, I wanna live this way, but I need help, well, that’s exactly why we created the Bible Health Academy. It’s our monthly mentorship and training hub packed with Bible health solutions, non-toxic living strategies, and the like-minded community you need to walk in the abundant life God designed for you.

[00:13:29] Dr. Z new: Whether you’re brand new to natural living or ready to go deeper, this is where transformation happens from the inside out. Visit biblehealthacademy.com to learn more. We hope you’ll join us.

[00:13:40] Ryan Sternagel: Uh, well my early days of being a patient advocate, but might not be the best example. We were pretty fiery in the hospital there. But you know, it’s, and this, this isn’t gonna be and entirely popular either a lot of holistic and alternative and, that sort of thing. Doctors don’t even really agree.

[00:14:00] But, my version of being a patient advocate or being a patient yourself was always just having a really, coming to peace with the fact that the conventional doctor that we’re dealing with has a training in a very small window of what it means, to understand health at a fully holistic level. Right? They know what they know, but they really don’t know what they really don’t know.

[00:14:28] And furthermore, if you’re researching all of this stuff from the holistic perspective and kind of seeking their approval on it, even if they were open-minded enough to look into it and say, oh, you’re onto something here, with the way that, the legality of the conventional medical system is set up, you’re asking them to risk their license. To risk their job, to actually agree with you on some of this stuff. Right.

[00:14:52] Dr. Z: Good point.

[00:14:52] Ryan Sternagel: And, and so it’s, I just, it doesn’t take long to look at the origins of the mainstream medical world and going back to the Flexner report and everything that transpired a hundred years ago that led to pharmaceuticals being the only thing the doctors are allowed to prescribe today. Right?

[00:15:10] Once you understand that, just come to peace with that. That that doctor is, yeah, they can help you out with some stuff, on the drug front. But when it comes to researching all the other stuff, it’s kind of a fool’s errand to like really be trying to get their buy off on everything you’re looking to do.

[00:15:25] And that being said, I’m also not saying to just go it alone.

[00:15:30] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:15:30] Ryan Sternagel: There are, you know, I kind of consider myself at least on the cancer side. But then again, I consider, holistic cancer doctors to be the best holistic, all around doctors because of, what I talked about earlier. You just, you do have to know about everything. There are really, really, really, really good holistic, integrative, and not just holistic, I’m going to teach you about probiotics and vitamins and stuff like that, but integrative doctors that know all about the drugs that the conventional guys are prescribing and when they might actually be warranted, versus when not. And when they are warranted, then okay, here’s modifications to think about and here’s things to take along with it so you’re not gonna get slammed by the side effects and so on and so forth.

[00:16:13] So that’s been a big part of what we’ve done the past several years is advocate for: One, learning all you can, right? But then also that’s why doctors are doctors is because they do have decades and decades of experience, seeing what actually works and what doesn’t. And be it a stage four cancer diagnosis or a serious heart issue, you’re not gonna know.

[00:16:33] You’re not gonna be able to catch up to knowing everything they know about every potential interaction and consideration and, all these things overnight, no matter how much research you do. And so that was always our thing. Right? It’s weird, I’ll listen to the conventional doctor and what they have to say, but I also knew that I was working with one of the best integrative, holistic doctors in the country slash world.

[00:16:54] And, so I’m gonna listen to these guys over here and, hear what they have to say. But then again, I’m listening to my integrative guy a lot more because he’s got this bigger perspective. And then I can bounce stuff off what the conventional guy said, I can bounce it off the integrative guy and, get their response and anyway. That’s, uh, that’s it.

[00:17:11] Just being at peace with the fact that never really gonna get a hundred percent buy off from the conventional guys and doing all the research you can and, working with experts slash professionals on the integrative side. Yeah. 

[00:17:23] Dr. Z: And question. You know, the Bible says test all things hold fast to what’s good. Hold fast to what’s true.

[00:17:28] I mean, we need to always be asking, always be wondering that second, third, it’s almost like a proverb now. Yeah. Second opinion. No. Like you literally should get a second opinion. It’s like, you really should go two or three times just to see. So thank you for that. I really do, I really appreciate that. 

[00:17:44] SternMethod.com. Love it. Love the resources. You got this really cool, tab here under what we use called The No Tox Life. You got a lot of things here, buddy. It’s a lot of things. And it’s daunting for anyone to go from toxic home to non-toxic home. It is.

[00:18:02] And I was having a conversation with Tom O’Bryan. And Tom’s, like Dr. Tom O’Bryan said, “Look. Just spend one hour a week doing one thing and over the course of week after week after week, six months, you’ll find yourself at a completely different place than where you were when you started.”

[00:18:22] And that really helped kind of break things down. Like tackle one thing, one hour, one week. And one week times six months, whatever math, I’m looking at 26 weeks. That’s a lot of change. You add that to one year, maybe two years. Whoa.

[00:18:37] You’ve been doing this what? Decade plus more and what? Go into this little masterclass idea that I want us to do here. Where’s the; think money, and think cost, think ease. What’s the quickest, lowest hanging fruit that gives someone the biggest bang for their buck?

[00:18:56] Thinking, this out of all the toxins, out of all the things that are putting you at risk of heart attack, stroke, heart disease, cancer, the whole gamut. This is the first. And then let’s go up the tree, so to speak, but what’s the lowest hanging fruit? Easiest, quickest, cheapest thing. 

[00:19:13] Ryan Sternagel: Change the air filter on your furnace. If you never have, that things horrifying. And, you’re breathing all that stuff in every time your furnace comes on. And 99 out of a hundred people I mentioned that too, have never thought about changing the filter on their furnace. So there you go. That’s the lowest hanging fruit I can think of.

[00:19:29] Dr. Z: I love it. 20 bucks at Home Depot.

[00:19:31] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah. Perfect.

[00:19:32] I I, I love Dr. Tom. The way he puts things makes a whole lot of sense. Right. And I’d kind of add to that, just chip away at it a little bit at a time and you’ll be amazed 

[00:19:42] What can happen in six months in a year. Another piece of that pie, I guess, is just whenever you’re considering, you know, speaking of money, whenever you’re considering purchasing something, be it food, or something for your house, or clothes or whatever, that’s a really good time to take a step back;

[00:20:01] And say, if you don’t know anything, or you’re just getting started on the journey to, non-toxic living and that sort of thing. That’s a great time to, okay pause. And say, could this category of item that I’ve been buying, the way I’ve been buying it, could there be some toxicity to it? Right? And, you are considering buying a new shirt and you’ve never thought about, could the shirt I’m wearing be toxic or not?

[00:20:25] And, you know, you can hop on, I used to say, hop on, an internet search engine and just type in: shirt, fabric toxicity or whatever it is that you’re doing. We were just talking before we started recording that, AI has been a lot of fun to, take this sort of research to the next level.

[00:20:41] And I would also, go back and add that into, the patient advocate discussion as well. Platforms like Perplexity, Consensus, Chat GPT is, you know, what everybody knows about, um. What is it? Yeah. I just found out about another one the other day. I think it’s just You.com.

[00:20:59] And you still have to double check, you know?

[00:21:00] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:01] Ryan Sternagel: Cross reference. And the best way to cross reference one AI platform is to check it against another one. Right. But, anyway, just hop on an AI platform and just ask, what are potential toxicity concerns with clothing fabric?

[00:21:14] And then you can find out that, if you’re wearing a polyester, then you’ve literally been rubbing little plastic fragments against your skin. Your skin is the most porous. You know, it’s what arguably, even worse to take stuff in through your skin than, than it is, eating it because there’s no digestive system to even handle it. A lot of this stuff’s going straight to the bloodstream. Microplastics and nanoplastics are arguably the scariest thing, the scariest development of all the scary toxicity stuff out there. I’m probably most tripped out by nanoplastics these days. Um,

[00:21:49] Dr. Z: mm-hmm.

[00:21:49] Ryan Sternagel: But yeah, find out that polyester is really not a good idea and, you should be using natural fibers and, that then, you know, you also find out that rayon, and it’s not just polyester, right? You find out that stuff like Rayon is, produced with a bunch of chemicals. So anyway, it comes down to what, what do you want? Wool, linen, cotton. And then there’s, you know, organic cotton versus not organic cotton. And, same reason you wouldn’t wanna be eating pesticides, you also don’t wanna be wearing the pesticides. Anyway, I could go down the list. Right? And, from a practicality standpoint, I’m not saying throw away all of your non-organic clothing from day one. ’cause that would be really expensive to try to place replace it all with organic clothing.

[00:22:31] Right. But, like underwear and just stuff you wear around the house. That’s kind of easy to just get a uniform of, okay, I’m gonna get a set of underwear, a couple pairs of sweatpants, pack of undershirts. That’s my uniform around the house is, organic.

[00:22:49] Organic, non-toxic undershirts and, some type of linen shorts or sweats or whatever in the winter. And that’s, you know, I’m at home way more than I am anywhere else, so I’m wearing organic stuff, at least at home all the time. So anyway, I mean, that, that’s just one example, right? But, I would say that’s the overarching kind of adding to Dr. Tom’s wisdom there.

[00:23:09] Is every time you’re about to buy something new… you need a new couch, same thing. Go to the the internet, go to AI, go to search, and just, “furniture, toxicity concerns”. And what do you know? If you’re just getting like, kind of the default furniture, then it’s offgassing formaldehyde into your face or, you know, into your body.

[00:23:29] The same with your bed, it’s your pillow, it’s offgassing and into your face. So, I’d say, you know, that just, step one is the easiest thing to do is stop buying anything that’s toxic from this day forward. And then you’re gonna learn a whole lot right about, what you already have that’s toxic.

[00:23:48] And then you can start, replacing stuff from there. What else should I say about, 

[00:23:53] Dr. Z: You, you’re underscoring something that seems really important. So this is, what do you do before you stop the bleeding? Like, stop cutting yourself. Right?

[00:24:02] I mean, the notion of stop the bleeding. Stop the bleeding. I get that. And that’s, okay, air purification, pure water. Like you said, throw away the polyester, but before you do that, stop.

[00:24:17] Ryan Sternagel: Stop bringing it in.

[00:24:19] Dr. Z: Stop cutting yourself.

[00:24:21] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah.

[00:24:21] Dr. Z: So you don’t need to even stop the bleeding to begin with. So imagine less cuts to put bandaids on and essentially, I’ve never heard anyone say that.

[00:24:30] I think it’s so brilliant and it’s so important because every purchase we make is a choice of whether or not I’m gonna add to or potentially take away from the toxic exposure. That ultimately will hurt our heart, our brain and every organ leading us to more heart attack, stroke, cancer, and the whole list.

[00:24:50] That is wonderful. And it’s just, and I think that right there is a takeaway enough to make people think.

[00:24:56] And I love, and any other little tips you’re giving and how to search. ’cause the big thing about AI, just like google, is proper input will give you the output that you want. So the query, the search, the command, whatever it is that you’re putting in AI, it needs to be specific enough to get you what you want.

[00:25:16] And I strongly encourage people, like I’ve said this so many times already, AI has leveled the playing field. What used to take me hours or days to research is now done in minutes. It’s like, whoa. I am, I’m so more unbelievably productive than I ever could have been 10 years ago, five years ago, whatever.

[00:25:34] It’s beyond human, right? It’s so, it’s completely augmented my ability to do things, which is awesome. In a good way. So amplifying, we’re all superheroes. There’s no language, there’s no knowledge barrier anymore. Y’all like, we are all, praise God. I do believe that. It’s a blessing. AI has really leveled the playing field and…

[00:25:55] Ryan Sternagel: For now.

[00:25:56] Dr. Z: For now,

[00:25:56] Ryan Sternagel: For now,

[00:25:57] Dr. Z: And let’s embrace it.

[00:25:58] Google used to be a really good research tool for holistic health stuff as well until, you know, we know what it is now. But, Take it for what you got.

[00:26:06] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah.

[00:26:06] Dr. Z: Until, yeah. I’m gonna be positive and hopefully there’s gonna be, properly sourced, non-controlled avenues. But, all right. What else? 

[00:26:14] Do you wanna go from room to room? Product by product?

[00:26:17] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah. Let me just…

[00:26:18] Dr. Z: There’s so much to do, but anyway, just again, I’m thinking biggest bang for our buck. Things that people can do. Things that people really, really can save money on. That’d be wonderful.

[00:26:27] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah. So, I mean, the big, everybody’s heard to get an air purifier. You should get an air purifier. Start out with one. We got one for Ryder’s bedroom and then when he woke up in the morning, then we’d lug it across the house to the family room. And, then we got one for his bedroom and one for the family room and blah, blah, blah. So we just, we kept going from there.

[00:26:45] Um, water purification is, I’ve gone back and forth, a zillion times on what the quote unquote best purification method is.

[00:26:56] Dr. Z: Yeah.

[00:26:56] Ryan Sternagel: Right now I am, I’m a distilled guy because…

[00:27:00] Dr. Z: Okay.

[00:27:01] Ryan Sternagel: Um, That’s the only research that I can find on nanoplastics. Nanoplastics are so small. They’re passing through every known filtering, you know, carbon filter or even ro, they’re that small. However, there’s a few studies out showing that boiling water will at least encourage a good majority of the nanoplastics to condense and kind of fall to the bottom.

[00:27:29] And, so it is, they’re not studies specific to distilling. But I mean, that’s essentially what distilling is, right? Is boiling the water and then the steam, goes from over here to over here and then it condenses. And so that for me is all I really needed to see is, okay, this is, the only thing that’s even doing anything, for nanoplastics.

[00:27:50] So yeah, it’s distilled water for me now, and it is like a little more of a lifestyle modification because you can only make so much at a time. And, you gotta pour, you know, you pour the water in the tank and then it takes a few hours to, evaporate onto the other side, and then you pour in your, and then it’s hot and you pour it into, whatever you’re using to store it in.

[00:28:08] And, yeah, but you just kind of get used to it. Okay, I see that the distiller is, done. I’m gonna, dump the, the good water into some glass jars and we just have like a zillion, huge glass mason jars laying around now, like the big 64 ounce ones. And yeah. I just, every time I see it’s done, I’d fill it up and then get the distiller going in with the new batch.

[00:28:27] And, yeah. So that’s real. And there’s the whole, it’s going to suck the minerals thing out of your body. I honestly like drinking distilled water with no minerals in it because I kind of want it going through and pulling anything out that isn’t already in there. I don’t think that’s, going to completely deplete you of minerals day one. I mean, half the time I’ll drink just straight distilled water. And then the other half a time we have a bunch of different, of our favorite trace mineral supplements and we’ll just, add some trace minerals back into the water. Bada bing bada boom. Yeah, so there’s that on water. The air filter. The other, a big air quality thing. So as you know, we took living in a non-toxic house to the extreme and built a house in the middle of the woods with non-toxic materials and that sort of thing. Zero, EMF on the property. Not everybody is going to go to that extreme, nor should you.

[00:29:21] But one of the things we, one of the things we noticed, or, we found out about when we were building the house is just, like every default purchase if you’re not thinking about it, you would make at the grocery store or the furniture store or whatever else, it’s all toxic. Same thing goes with building materials for a house, right? If the default is, the whole thing is offgassing, formaldehyde and a whole slew of VOCs, it’s not good.

[00:29:48] What you can do about that if, you know, outside of going and building a new house from non-toxic materials in the middle of the woods is, there’s a brand of paint called, the brand is called AFM Safecoat. And, it’s what we used when we did build our house because one, it’s non-toxic. But it’s also designed to block that toxicity from the offgassing from coming into the house, right?

[00:30:11] So it just keeps it going the other way. Back outta the house. That’s kind of a little bit of a next level thing, but, next time you’re going to paint your house or if you, you know, if you doing the, going down the checklist of everything and like, what else can I do to make sure that this place that I’m living is the most non-toxic that it can be? Yeah, Throw a coat of safe coat on the walls and, you’re gonna be blocking all that off-gassing from coming into the house. That’s a pretty big deal.

[00:30:38] And again, I mean, the cleaning products thing, the personal care products… You can spend a long time on that or you can just i’d say don’t. And anything with a label, if it has one ingredient, that’s not a natural thing that is something you can’t pronounce, and it isn’t like just plain coconut oil or, whatever the ingredient is.

[00:30:58] Dr. Z: Yeah, exactly.

[00:30:58] Ryan Sternagel: If there, if there’s… And this is a lot easier now than it was 10 years ago when we were, trying to find replacements for everything and there was only really a couple natural personal care product or cleaning product brands or whatever.

[00:31:11] Now it’s, there’s so much out there that there’s just really no reason to have one chemical in anything you use. Personal care products, cleaning products, all that kind of consumable type stuff. There is a 100% natural solution for whatever you’re looking for there. It’s just that simple.

[00:31:32] And yeah, like you mentioned, we list a lot of our favorites on our site. EWG environmental working group.org, they’re great resource as well. They rank all this type of stuff. Although they rank ingredients, they don’t necessarily rank whether whether it’s organic, produced without pesticides or not for personal cleaning products or for personal care products.

[00:31:49] So we, that’s in our evaluation criteria. 

[00:31:52] I was gonna go somewhere else with the, after the personal care products. 

[00:31:57] Dr. Z: I appreciate what you said about Safe Coat. Because it’s, their advertisement here is brilliant. If you go to AFMSafeCoat.com, it is problems associated with sick building syndrome.

[00:32:11] And the only person that mentioned that, that I’ve interviewed so far, has been Dr. Peter Osborne and he’s uncovered the mold story and how mold has affected him and his family. He’s just, he’s coming out the documentary on mold and that’s a whole nother topic, but Sick What Sick building syndrome That’s something I wanted to leave everyone with.

[00:32:30] Sick building syndrome and it’s something that’s been around for a long, long time without a name. Now there’s a name to it. And then hopefully with all this awareness that we’re creating and people buying these products.

[00:32:43] So I just wanted to, you said something that I’m trying to understand with Safecoat. Of course, it’s not Offgassing, which is great. It there’s, it’s not emitting harmful, volatile organic compounds, those VOCs. But did you say, did I hear you right? Did you say that Safecoat prevents, it’s like a barrier of sorts. It prevents offgassing from inside the walls or from outside.

[00:33:07] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:08] Dr. Z: Whoa.

[00:33:09] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah.

[00:33:09] Dr. Z: Really. Okay. Just like this is huge. If you like… for mold. Again, I just got my mind blown about mold. How many homes have mold in it right now? Like, it’s really, really, really hard if you live in a home.

[00:33:24] Ryan Sternagel: That’s, that’s actually where I was going that

[00:33:26] Dr. Z: Go with it! I’m, I’m, I’m connecting the dots. This is a huge discussion.

[00:33:30] So you could actually help protect your home from mold without having to break down the walls and renovate your whole house. Just by putting Safecoat? Safecoat could help? Whoa.

[00:33:40] Ryan Sternagel: Well, Safecoat. I’m talking that they’re specifically for, it… 

[00:33:44] Dr. Z: yeah. 

[00:33:45] Ryan Sternagel: I’m talking for off-gassing formaldehyde VOCs, that sort of thing.

[00:33:48] I’m trying to think of how that would translate into mold. 

[00:33:52] Dr. Z: Mold behind the walls.

[00:33:53] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah. Yeah. I mean it, well,

[00:33:54] Dr. Z: That’s what I’m saying mold behind the sheet. Well, that’s where it is. You’re not gonna find, like Dr. Peter was very clear. Like most mold, you’re not gonna find in your.. It’s not obvious. You’re not gonna see it in your, shower, it’s like,

[00:34:05] Ryan Sternagel: It, it can also, it can form in your ducts as well, your HVAC system. So, that’s another thing to put on the checklist, right? I mentioned, cleaning the, a new filter for your furnace.

[00:34:14] But every three years or so is kind of a good marker for having a company come out and, clean your ducts. You can just search, you know, HVAC duct, DUCT, cleaning company. And that’s, another big deal is keeping those things clean when it comes to the air you’re breathing.

[00:34:30] But yeah, I mean that’s, you know what I was gonna say is now I’ll have to ask the safe coat guys. What they say about mold, ’cause I haven’t thought about that before.

[00:34:37] But yeah, I mean, if you’ve never had a mold inspection in your house. Get a mold inspection in your house. There are companies that you can, take air samples and, and dust samples and these sorts of things and send it in. My understanding is that’s great. And they catch a lot of stuff, but that most of the, it’s not a hundred percent right.

[00:34:58] Some people will do those kind of, sample, send in your sample tests and the samples are clean, but then they have somebody, you know, a local mold inspection company come out and the, local guy does find a mold. So, gold standard is still having a, having a physical inspection with a company that’s trained in finding mold in all ways.

[00:35:19] Yeah. if you’ve never done that before, put it on the list. our, you know, we built our house, what, 2000 18. And, it’s been standing long enough where I think it’s probably about time we get a mold inspection just to, we, we have had some water damage. Right? So, yeah, no, it’s a, that’s a really big deal.

[00:35:42] Completely random. And way off topic. But, the mold slash infection concern, I’m sure it’s been mentioned, but you know, maybe they didn’t listen to that interview. just going back to the shared causes of cancer, heart conditions, that sort of thing. You’re so if you’re building if you’re building a house, look for a building biologist.

[00:36:05] If you’re getting dental work done, look for a biological dentist. Yeah, the cavitations slash infected root canals. Really big. You know, probably the least talked about cause of cancer and probably the least talked about cause of heart disease. So I always try to throw that in there as well.

[00:36:25] But yeah, yeah, on the mold front really get rid of your carpets. If you still, if you have carpet. There’s, you know, you, you talk to construction guys and, every time I meet, any kind of home remodel, construction type guy, that’s the, I always ask him the same question.

[00:36:38] Have you ever, have you ever ripped out a carpet? And there wasn’t just horrible, nasty stuff growing into that carpet. And I’ve never met. I’ve never asked that question and had somebody tell me, “Yes there was one time that I ripped out a carpet that didn’t have horrible, nasty stuff growing under it.”

[00:36:56] It’s, it’s been the same thing every time. So, uh…

[00:36:59] Dr. Z: It’s just one spill. Right? And I have seven kids, right? One spill.

[00:37:02] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah.

[00:37:02] Dr. Z: And that’s just 1, 

[00:37:03] Ryan Sternagel: 1 pee from the dog, one pee from the kid, 

[00:37:07] Dr. Z: One, whatever. Yeah. It’s whatever. Uh, this has been awesome, man. Like, I can’t believe this is, we’re already outta time. We’ve covered patient advocacy, creating a heart healing, non-toxic home.

[00:37:18] How do you use AI to fast track your health journey? That’s a really big thing. Really look into that more and more and Sick Building Syndrome, like this whole concept. And chances are you’re suffering from Sick Building Syndrome.

[00:37:31] Folks, It’s not a shameless plug. You have to go to the SternMethod.com. You’re gonna get a cornucopia of information; guides, step-by-step, podcast interviews, whatever medium it is that you like. There’s a membership that you could subscribe to, newsletters, all kinds of things, blogs, product recommendations.

[00:37:51] Just spend a little time and literally just take advantage of the blood, sweat and tears that Ryan and Teddy had poured into this, to heal their own children and themselves and be a light. They’re helping just hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Millions at this point. So man, unfortunately we’re outta time, buddy. And I would love to do a part two, part three masterclass, but I know you do this as well. So, what parting words would you like to share with everyone before we go?

[00:38:18] Ryan Sternagel: Yeah. On the, on the toxicity front, we talked about getting the toxicity out of your life, right?

[00:38:22] But then you also have to get it outta your body. And, people talk about detoxes and that sort of thing. Don’t focus on like what the, you know. What week long smoothie juice cleanse should I do? Or the Dr so-and-so’s five day detox and blah, blah, blah. Just live a lifestyle and you know, it’s kind of going back to Dr. Tom’s advice and to just live a lifestyle of detoxification. Right? And just do. And you could, I’d broaden that out to live a lifestyle of healing, right? And just do something to heal every day. Do something to detoxify every day.

[00:38:54] Every choice you make, like, we talked about what you purchase, it’s either contributing to healing or contributing to disease. Just start thinking really critically about that and making every choice a healing choice. And you’ll been living a way, way, way, way different life before you know it.

[00:39:08] And it’s a good one. It’s not a sacrifice or a burden either. It’s, you just, it’s just different choices. It’s not hard. 

[00:39:15] Dr. Z: And it can be fun. It can be exciting if you’re a problem solver. If you like puzzles, you’re gonna love it too because, the layers of the onion, as you peel them off it, it gets really exciting.

[00:39:24] It does. It’s a fun life. I’ve been living this now for 23 years, and I can’t wait for the next 23 years. And one of the reasons why I love these interviews and talking to people like you as I get little tidbits like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and that’s what this is about, y’all.

[00:39:36] This is about the community, what I call my Natural Living Family. Just people that wanna live a natural living lifestyle and we support each other. So get plugged into the Stern Method and Ryan and Teddy Sternagel. Love and appreciate you, Brother. I thank you so much for your work and for everything that you’ve done. I really do. ’cause freely you have received and freely you have given so much.

[00:39:55] And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. And folks, thanks so much for tuning in. As always, this is Dr. Eric Zielinski, my hope and prayers that you and your family truly experience the abundant life. God bless. We’ll talk to you soon.

[00:40:06] Thanks for listening to the Natural Living Family Podcast. Hope today’s conversation encouraged and challenged you to live a healthier, more abundant life. Tune in next week for another life transforming discussion. 

[00:40:17] If today’s episode blessed you, please share it with a friend and leave a review. This helps more families discover the hope and healing found in God’s word. For show notes, transcripts and resources from today’s episode, visit natural living family podcast.com. And as always, this is Dr. Z. My hope and prayer is that you and your family truly experience the abundant life.

[00:40:38] God bless. Talk to you soon.