Not Feeling 100%? Simple Steps to a Healthier Home (Part II)

0:02 Welcome to the Ask Good Questions podcast, broadcasting live every Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern Time on W4CY Radio at W4CY. com. This week and every week, we will reach for a higher purpose in money and life, as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now, let's join your host, Benita Bell Anderson, as together we start with Asking Good Questions. Hello and welcome to the Ask Good Questions podcast. I am your host Benita Bell Anderson and I'm so excited for you to be here. Today we are going to be revisiting something that kind of got shortened up because of technology issues last time. So we are back today to talk about toxins in the home and to really hopefully get some action steps going on how you should really think about this. So with that, I would like to invite my guest, Risa Suzuki, back to the podcast stage.

1:14 Hello, thank you so much for having me back on to finish up our conversation. Well, for those who didn't get to see you the first time, I'm just going to say a little bit about you. You basically had some unexplained health issues that were giving you fits, I'm sure, and they traced back to your own home. And so that was something I think probably very, very, very surprising to I know you've been passionate about helping others to take control of their environment. So this is really all about our personal space, our environment, and to protect that space. So she's on a mission to help women with past health issues realize that not feeling 100% or experiencing minor or mystery symptoms is not all in their head. And help them with a simple three-step approach to finally break free. So with that, Risa, thanks so much for coming back. Because I really felt like this was important to, you know, just to really flesh out what could possibly be something that we might not have thought about before. So if anyone did miss part one, what would you say would be the most important takeaway that you'd want them to know?

2:43 I think the most important takeaway is to, you know, just to understand how much our environment can affect us. And, you know, a lot of, you know, a lot of folks, you know, and I, you know, to begin with, never thought of my home as, you know, as having as much of an effect on me as I did. And, you know, just I think number one, it's such a huge mind shift, right, to think that our home, which is, you know, it's our safe place, right? And to think that there's things in there that, you know, could be triggering things in us or just kind of, you know, I call it just kind of silently, you know, kind of working against us even if we're doing all the right things.

3:34 Yeah. And to be able to come to that realization and because it's so easy to procrastinate or put things off or I'm stressed from, you know, the job or, you know, just life or, you know, whatever and brush the small things under the carpet until, you all of a sudden you're faced with something. And you go, Oh my gosh, I can now. Yeah. You can't, you can't rush it away anymore. Right. And usually it's, and I was gonna say, it's usually not a direct path. And so I think the biggest takeaway is to just, you know, take just, just to think about your home and think about the things that are, that are coming in. And, you know, are you, are you feeling like you're thriving or you're just kind of getting through the day? Because if you're not taking your home into account, That is a huge, huge gap that has so much of an impact on us.

4:28 Well, since the last time we talked, is there anything in particular that you see people talking about in regards to home toxins? Nothing that really stands out. So I guess what you're saying is there isn't any great, big, huge monster... It could be several little things. Correct, correct. Because usually you think of the big monster, right? It's going to be something like water damage or mold. Right, where it's very visible and in your face.

5:09 Something like air quality that might come up on your radar, but usually you. Kind of have to know about that. Same thing. You know, when it, when it comes to electromagnetic fields that usually gets on somebody's radar, you know, kind of through the back door, it could be something right. That maybe a. Practitioner mentions, or it could be something that comes up on your feet. Yeah. Right. Whereas the other stuff is very physical. So there's a, there's a, there's many different ways that things can come up. The big ones of course. Are very obvious, but it's. The little ones. And that's, That's why I always encourage people to just, you know, take a step back and think about, you know, how much time do I spend at home? Where do I spend time? Have I thought about how I'm being affected?

6:01 Right? My sleep, my energy, my eating coffee at three o'clock in the afternoon is all just dragging and I have, you know, brain fog and it's taking me two hours to do something that would normally take me 20 minutes. Why is that? You know, people. I think, I think we all get used. To just kind of getting through things like that. Yeah. And that becomes our new normal when, you know, you go on vacation and you go somewhere and, oh my gosh, you know, you're not reacting to the food or you're sleeping better or your allergies aren't as bad. It's, it's kind of like sometimes this is something that, you know, you're just not aware of. And if you're not aware of it, You don't know. You can't do anything about it.

6:49 Right, right, because you don't know. Well, so do people need to, if they suspect something is going on, do they need to renovate? Not all the time. Yeah? No. The biggest thing would be move out and move someplace else, but you might have other issues someplace else. You know what? Yeah, exactly. Like you don't, you don't know what, you know, there is no such thing as a perfect house. So, you know, or a perfectly quote unquote toxin free house, just because there's just so much around us now, you know, right. You think about wildfires, especially, you know, you're, you're in the state of Washington. So, you know, the wildfires horrific.

7:36 Exactly. Yeah. And Spokane, Washington. Yeah. It was terrible. And even here in Seattle, we never really had huge wildfire smoke issues, at least when I was a kid, a long time ago. Whereas now it's much more common. So you have to kind of think about. Air pollutants or things in the water or just food, just everything. And it just keeps adding up in your body and you have to make sure to do the right things to detox or, you know, that your body can get rid of those things. But then also, what are the things in your environment where you spend a lot of time? Right.

8:19 Which we're not taught. That's what I want to really focus on today is some practical applications and, you know, some action steps that people can take away from this, right? Yes. So if you're not necessarily saying you need to renovate or something, What do you recommend? How really do you think that people should approach this? So I think the first thing is a lot of this. Is, I know you want to like, let's get into the to-do thing. But a lot of it is mental. And, you know, a lot of folks, you know, a lot of folks like we, you know, we don't want to know that our house is affecting us. So I think it's being able to take a look at your house.

9:06 How much is it affecting me? What are the things that I want? Do I want better sleep? Do I want to feel like I just am feeling more vibrant? Do I want to feel like I have more energy? What are the things where you feel like, gosh, this would be... How would it look like if I were to feel better? Everybody, it's different things, right? Right. And then think about... your home. Okay. If I'm, you know, if I'm not getting good sleep, what are the things that I'm doing? And then what, you know, like how many changes or what are you willing to change? Whether it's changing a habit or changing something, right?

9:50 Because once you're able to take a step back and look at your home, be really objective about it, then it comes down to how open are you to making a change? And not only you, but if you share, if you have a spouse or if you have kids. Yeah. Who might have a different mindset than you. Exactly. Exactly. And so a lot of people get stuck in this, oh, I need to do things in my home. And then they think, well, gosh, maybe my spouse doesn't want to, or my kids, or I'm going to have to change everything. So going back to that mental thing is you don't have to change everything.

10:31 Pick a few things. And that way it's easier for your spouse and your kids to get on board with. One thing I'm doing actually this week is I'm creating an essential oils sleep spray. That, you know, is something that, you know, I'm just, I've been doing lots of different things to have better sleep. So, I mean, that is something, a little teeny tiny little thing, but you never know. You know, it might be the thing, you know, it'll be a good thing along with a lot of other things. But I think that's what you're saying is little steps, baby steps.

11:12 Just take a step, yeah, take a step in the right direction. Okay. Something comes up in your feed. I always tell people, what is the problem that you're trying to solve? Because what I see so often is somebody will, they'll buy. Products because they see something. And then when they talk to me, the first thing I ask them is, when I look at a product or they ask me a question about something, it always comes back to what is the problem that you're trying to solve? And then what is the solution? Right? Because they have to match. So if you make a change, is that change addressing the thing that you want to address, right? Like your essential oils, right? Like there's some fantastic essential oils that help with sleep. But if you just said, well, yeah, I got into essential oils and I bought a couple of things and I hope it helps with my.

12:06 Sleep, rather than. I've heard and I've read that, you know, to say like chamomile or, you know. I do look at studies and things like that. Exactly. But you already know that you want to have better sleep. Right. Rather than saying, oh, essential oils are good for my house. You know, I'll just pick, you know, I'll pick a couple. Yeah. So somebody's going to be thinking, well, What would you recommend somebody do would be like a first step if they want to review? So I think the first thing is, so once you, you know, you have to get into the mental space, realize how much you're really truly open and your household, like what is truly realistic for making changes? And, you know, a lot of times if you have a, you know, spouse or other family members that if they are kind of resistant, what kind of information do they need and in what format so that they don't go, so they don't say no right off the bat, which they might, but yeah, but you can preempt that and say, you know what, I've, you know, here, here's some information, right?

13:21 Maybe they watch, maybe they're better with videos. Maybe they need studies or, you know, whatever format that they need. And then when it comes to, to changes, um, You know, again, it's what are you trying to solve, right? So let's say you live in a city that's, you know, the air quality is not that great. And you've got, you know, I'm not a doctor, but let's say you've got, you know, asthma or something like that or allergies. So maybe you would want to start with air. Okay, what are the ways that I can clean up the air in my home, right? There's things that air purifier products Products and stuff like that.

14:03 Exactly. And, you know, it could come, it also, how do you clean your home? What kind of products do you use to clean your home? Yeah. What, what things in your home, you know, do you have the, the plug in air freshener, you know, cause side tangent here, you know, anything that says fragrance, the fragrance industry is not regulated at all because it's considered intellectual property. So if they say, well, if I list all of the ingredients that I have in this air freshener, I'm giving them away my intellectual property. That's how they get all the toxins in the air. When you change something from a physical form, say like an oil, and it heats up, that's why you have to be really careful with candles. So it heats up, and if you have toxic elements in there, it turns into a gas.

14:58 So it changes form, and gas particles are much smaller. So you breathe in all of these things, and if the particles are small enough, 0.3 micron or smaller, they will settle in your lungs, and those particles are too small for your body, for your body's immune system, to capture and get out of your body. Crazy. Yeah. Well, it's... Is there some kind of test? Is there like a tool or a test that people could do before they would go calling a professional and might spend a lot of money? You know, tests for indoor air quality, it's pretty hard because they usually are very professional level tests. when you're dealing with gases and everything, when you are testing a home for a gas, if you hire a professional, you have separate cartridges or you have separate things that you test for. So each element that you want to test for is done separately and then sent to the lab.

16:07 So you kind of have to have a good idea of, say like formaldehyde or You know, like, maybe know kind of what you already want to test for. Otherwise, it can get very expensive. Right. Yeah, when is it a good idea to call in somebody like you? Because you're like, so, like, give us a little snapshot of what, if somebody calls you and says, I need your help, what are you, what's the protocol that you try to use? It depends on what they have. what they've already done and what exactly they need. So a lot of... Because this whole, the whole healthy home service industry or just the thought of healthy homes and toxins is still very new.

17:01 There's a lot of information out there. So sometimes... So a. Lot of clients who have had mold or just very challenging health conditions, they usually know something about their environment because of all the tests that they've run through. Or you end up doing a lot of detective work on your own because there's so much that goes into why am I feeling bad? Why have I plateaued? Why have I... you know, taken one step forward and two step backwards. So a lot of times, you know, those folks will usually have an idea of what, you know, these are my symptoms or these are my challenges, or I had this and, you know, I've already done X.

17:50 Y, and Z in my environment. And now I want to tackle EMFs because I've read enough, but I don't, you know, it's, it's, there's too much conflicting information on what to do or, you know, how to, how to handle them. And then there's, you know, other folks who are just saying, you know what, I've heard about this. I've dipped my toe in and it's a big world out there. So I just want to create as healthy of an environment as possible. For my family. And then we start from there. Right. So it depends on where the starting point is for folks. Because it can be, you know, they can already have gone down the road a bit or they could be just starting out.

18:33 It could be for everyone. Exactly. And every, you know, we all have different lifestyles and we all have different goals, right? Yeah. Different. And the different people that are in our house and pets and every, all kinds of things. Yeah. So, I mean, like I, I've had clients that say, you know, I, I want the changes to be as invisible as possible, um, where I'm somewhat open to making changes. You know, this is what I, you know, and I walk them through, right? Like, You know, kind of going back to that first step of, okay, how open are you to making changes? And sometimes it's not just how open you are. It's, you know, what is your house currently set up like?

19:15 Because some people want to make changes, but they just can't because of the way that the house is built and the way that they have. You know, things in there. Right. And then, you know, there's other clients, you know, in the past where they've said, I will change and do whatever I need to do to make, you know, to make things work. So it really depends on what they want to do and then transferring that knowledge to them as I'm working with them so that they don't become dependent on me. So that I can teach them, okay, these are the things to look for. These are the. yeah like it's it's it's like learning a new decision tree you know it's like you're reading a menu gosh you know I think I want a salad today okay now what kind of salad do I want nuts do I want fruit can you.

20:02 Walk us through your three-step approach um tell us again what it's called uh Toxin-free home, is that what it was? Less toxins, better home. Okay. So the first thing is just collecting data. So I walked through a little bit of that, right, which is, you know, just taking a look at your home and, you know, being able to look through it through the lens of what are the things that are affecting me, right? So it's collecting data about your home, which is going to be, you know, the main categories, you know, are going to be your air.

20:42 Quality, your water, right? It's the water you drink, you bathe in. Um, and then the house structure itself, right? Um, and I can't remember if we, I can't remember if we talked about houses, you know, new houses versus old houses, but, uh, and their new houses have just as many problems sometimes as old houses. Well, um, Like, it's been a while, but we got a new couch. You can smell the new couchness. That's formaldehyde, by the way. It never breaks down.

21:24 Yeah. Yes. That's what I was afraid of. Yes. So you're in eastern Washington, so open up the windows. Let it breathe out. Yeah. Yes. Awesome. And fire retardant, too. That's also going to be in there. Okay. Yeah. So the first step was evaluating. Collecting data. Yeah. What's in your environment? Where do you spend your time? What things are around you where you spend your time? Do you have, you know, some people who have symptoms, like they know what their symptoms are. But, you know, going back to that, just think about, you know, how would you.

22:08 How would you want to feel if you were feeling like you were just vibrant and thriving? Would that be better sleep? Would it be just having more energy? Would it be brain fog? Maybe you don't think you. Have brain fog, but maybe it's, I just wish I had more clarity when I woke up in the morning. So that's part of the whole collecting data, which is very, I'll just say it's very boring. But, you know, you have to get data to know. What you're starting from. You have to have the data so that you can analyze it. Exactly, exactly. Okay, so step number two.

22:48 What was two? One was data, two is what? And so data, so just to include the other category to add to that is electromagnetic fields. So those are the three, those are the four basic big categories that you want to, you know, think about as you're evaluating your house and how you're being affected. And then the second stage is, okay, I have all this information about my home and where I spend time, the things that I want to improve. Okay. Now pick, you know, one or two things where you want to make an improvement. So you could have a big list already started and then you just go and pick two things. And the reason why I, the reason why I do that is because you have a huge list and then you go, Oh my gosh, that's, I'm never going to get through this.

23:42 Yeah. And I have to, and you know, How am I, you know, I'm signing up for this thing that is going to take forever. And then people usually shelve it because it's a lot of information to research, to find out, and then to try and prioritize something brand new. But if you pick one or two things, it's so much easier. And it's going to be a lot easier if you have a spouse or family. I want to make one or two changes. Great. That's different than I have this list. of 250 things that I think we need to do. And I know because I work with clients and I'm like, okay, let's just focus on, you know, let's focus on a couple things. Think about how you can reduce your exposure to these things, whether it's air or EMFs or, you know, whatever it is that you've chosen. And then go and make that change. So that's the third thing is actually deciding on what to do, how you are going to do it, And then you make the change and then you sit and then you wait.

24:49 Yeah. And you reevaluate. Yeah. Did it. So does, do I feel better? I mean, you're going to feel mentally better, of course. But you know, do you feel like you have more energy when you wake up? Do you feel like, um, just a greater sense of, you know, calmness or not as stressed. And that way you, you can get a sense of, yeah, I'm on the right track. And then once you have some time and space, then you can decide you go back and. You start over again. Okay, now I've got a list. It's a little bit shorter. What are the next one or two things that I want to do? Well, how long... I know what you're going to say, but how long do you think it would usually take before people would notice something?

25:40 You know, it depends on. I feel like I'm being set up here, Bonita. It depends. And the reason why it depends is because, you know, your immune system, your body's always changing. Yeah. And so, you know, sometimes, sometimes clients will feel an immediate change, like within, you know, a day or two. And then others, they'll just go, gosh, I don't feel anything. But I know what it's doing. And then maybe a week goes by or a month or, you know, I had one client and she was in Colorado.

26:20 And it was funny because I talked to her about a month after I worked with her. And I'm really good at just picking up on how much life or just, you know, you can hear in people's voice, you know, like how much life force they have behind it. And so when I talked to her a month later, it sounded like she just had so much energy and, you know, had just leaps and bounds. But from her perspective, because the changes can happen very slowly over time. So from her perspective, she goes, you know, I don't feel like I have, I know that it's improved. I can tell I feel better, but I don't feel like I've made huge changes. But she goes, and then she goes, but everybody says that, that I sound like a completely different person.

27:12 And I sound like I have so much more energy, but from her perspective, right? Cause it seems like, gosh, the changes happens so slowly. Sometimes we don't, we don't notice it. So it really, yeah, that it just sounds like. That. I mean, that's basically a story of somebody who, Yeah, I think they'd need to step back and listen to those around them because maybe they're so immersed in it that they can't see it. Exactly, exactly. And even, you know, like I always tell, you know, when I work with folks, I always say, okay, this is, you know, we're going to move, you know, this or, you know, like rearrange your office. This is, you know, this is how it's impacting your body. So these are some changes that, you know, just to keep an eye out for and just see, you know, what, what changes.

28:08 And sometimes, you know, like I said, sometimes it's immediate within a couple of days. And then sometimes, you know, I was working with a lady in Texas and I want to say it took like a couple of weeks for her. And it was interesting because she's got a, you know, a medical background, but she said, okay, I feel it now, but it took, it took a couple of weeks. Yeah. And yeah. And the funny thing is that her husband, So her husband was not sensitive at all, but she noticed that his sleep had gotten better and it actually was showing up in his sleep scores.

28:49 Oh, interesting. Even though he didn't feel anything, he's like, well, I know it's doing something because my sleep scores are in my 80s now or something. Right, right. Well, so, you know, there's a good possibility that there's a listener or two that are thinking about downsizing or moving into a new home. Yeah. Would there be something that they would, like a little list of some of these big areas that they would want to check? Yeah. Just thinking. I think the first, you know. Water would be easy. That would. Testing the water would be an easy thing you could do.

29:33 Water, but I, you know, mold is, and maybe it's just because I've you know, been doing a lot of mold things lately. Mold is such a huge thing. So I, you know, test, like knowing what the climate water intrusion, like what that history looks like. And I would also say that, you know, whenever you do an inspection, you know, inspections typically don't cover mold specifically. So a lot of times mold is. Very hard to see because it'll be like on the inside of the wall. Right. Right. And that's where, that's where if you can find out any, you know, find out any past history, um, and just looking at the geography, right.

30:22 Is it, is it, On a hill, how old is the building? There's building science is, you actually can get a certification in building science. But building, yeah, building scientists, they look at the structure of a building and where are, where's the main points of failure going to be in this particular structure, which is going to be, maybe it's like a gap somewhere or, you know, like something where air can come through where, If air can go through, then water can come through. Or, you know, certain types of insulation and, you know, the ventilation and things like that.

31:04 So that's a really good supplemental service. You know, if you just find a reputable building science person or even a mold inspector, that can do a pre-inspection. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not sure how much, you know, I haven't double-checked to see how much that would cost, but can you think of some low-cost changes or low-cost things that you could do to set yourself up for success? For buying a place? For buying a place, maybe, yeah.

31:46 I think the most important thing is to, like I said, like get... get any previous reports for like, you know, water damage, flood, and you can pull things up, right? Like if there's been flooding in the area, like if you're moving to a completely different area, um, and then, you know, visual inspections, right? Do you see, you know, walk around the outside of the house? Is it on a hill? You've got lots of hills here in Seattle. So, um, if. You were doing that, then, uh, just ask a lot of questions. ask some good questions of the home inspection guy. Exactly. Right. And yeah.

32:27 And if you, and if you see things right, like you look around, you look around the windows is the, does the wood look like it's rotting? Is it splitting? Cause it's dried out, you know, go kind of going back to the health thing, right? If you, if it's like a half basement, right, that's on a hill. What is it on the inside? Do you see, you know, water damage things or does it smell? Um, what are, you know, like what, what's around there? Are you, are you right next to, you know, huge power lines or a substation or, you know, gas stations are. Terrible and so are dry cleaners. Yeah. So all the, all the, you know, or, um, the other thing that's happening too, it's like, you know, they, especially around here in the Seattle area, um, you know, there's a lot of construction.

33:16 And so, right. So one of the places that I lived, um, there used to be a gas station, like not across the street, but maybe down like just a tiny bit, but they were, and they were doing, they were actually. Building a huge apartment building over that. And all I could, yeah. And of course, you know, they, they take out all, you know, everything, but all I could think of is, gosh, you know, there's, there's probably still you know, just leeches under the soil everywhere, not just, not just where it was. So you can, you can find out a lot too, just by doing research to see what's around there and what has been in the area. So I'm thinking if, if you have somebody who's really attuned to this and saying, I really want to set up my home to be the cleanest that it can be, but you have family members who are saying, this is crazy. Um, how can you start that conversation? Or I'm feeling like maybe you lead, uh, maybe you have the conversation with, uh, showing studies that have been done on whatever it is that you're concerned about. Um, where would you go to find stuff like that?

34:30 Um, well for studies, you, you can just Google, right. Or search for specifically for studies. Um, The other thing, like if you're looking at specific toxins, you know, Europe has such strict regulation around toxins. So if you're looking at things, you know, if you're looking at things inside of your home, say products, right? You can even do this for your couch, right? Go find the manufacturer. Go look at the technical specifications where they list everything, you know, that's in it. and then you go find, um, you know, you have all like all of the, the good things and the bad things, right? All the toxins, but that let's say, let's say you bought a couch that's, um, organic cotton or linen or something like that, but it's still going to have everything else in there somewhere in the specs. Um, there's all the, you know, the toxins, um, and all the health effects, if you use the European list, it's going to be much, much, much longer.

35:39 Oh, wow. So that's going to be a good way to just kind of get an idea. It also gives you an idea of the things that are allowable here in the States versus in Europe too. Wow. Well, let's say somebody is talking to their doctor and there's some mystery problem that nobody can figure anything out about. How does somebody advocate for themselves with their doctor? That is really hard. So it's going to be dependent on how open that particular doctor is. Because most of them don't know about the environment, unfortunately. And the ones that do, their knowledge isn't going to be as deep. So a lot of times they'll... If they do know about it, they're not going to be able to say, okay, go do X, Y, and Z, right? Right.

36:36 It's usually something... So. Usually what I see is I see naturopaths or functional medicine doctors, and they will run the tests, and then the tests show what type of toxins that person has. Oh, okay. Right, because you can't start addressing the symptoms or, you know, clearing up the detox pathways to get things out of your body until you know what's inside the body. Right. And so usually the environmental piece will come up with that, especially if there's, you know, mold or metals, you know, that kind of stuff. But I would say it's hard because, you know, If you have a doctor that doesn't know about all the environmental things that can affect you, then you do have to advocate.

37:30 You have to do some research. On endocrine disruptors, right? Like from plastics. Like that's very well known. So that's a great example that they can talk about and say, I'm sure there's other things in my home. And it might be that you go work with another doctor to help figure out what is going on. Right. Because, you know, chronic illness, it's, I want to say it's like one, it's more than 50%. Uh, uh, you know, in the U S percent of what, um, people over, I think it's the age of 40 have one chronic condition.

38:13 And then, yeah, but it, but it went over 50% recently. I want to say like within the last six months. but I saw the data. But then of that, and most of these folks are women, and then of that 50%, then it goes up significantly where you have two chronic conditions. And when you're. Managing a chronic illness, it usually takes at least a couple years up to like seven and a half to diagnose. Right. So it's very... Yeah, it's very, yeah. And so, and usually what happens is, you know, people are like, gosh, I don't feel very good.

38:58 I don't know why, but it's nothing so obvious. So it's, you know, if you're not working with a practitioner that is, you know, familiar or specializes in that, it can take a long time. And even if they, even if they do have the training in the background, it can still take a while, but, you know, it's a lot of tests. It's, and it's trial and error. So that's why I'm so passionate about look at your house, see what you're surrounded by. Include that as part of your health plan because. These small things, whether it's headaches or you're not sleeping or it could be things that your body is trying to warn you about. And then it's so hard to get better after you get sick.

39:49 What are the four big areas? It was. Air. Air. That's your air quality. Water. Water. EMFs. EMF is the. Electromagnetic fields. Electromagnetic. Yes. So that could be. And the building itself. Yeah. How is it built? How structurally sound is it? What kind of things are in it, right? Is it. Built before the late 70s where it could have asbestos somewhere. If it's even older, you can have asbestos in the tiles. You can have lead, right, on the windowsills or the paint. And then just everything else, right?

40:35 You've got all the different finishes, insulation, all the things that, you know, the caulking, everything you use to build a house. Yeah, I was intimately involved with that because when we downsized about five, six years ago and built like a mother-in-law casita place on my daughter's farm, we were taking down an old farmhouse. We're... Wearing masks and everything because we're, you know, lead poisoning is an issue. Oh, my gosh. It was so much work because the cost to have a professional come in and do that for us was astronomical.

41:27 Yes. Same thing with asbestos. Yeah. Because they have to dispose of all these toxic chemicals, but they. Also have to, you know... They have to get rid of it the right way. Yeah, I know. Yeah, because when we took it, when we took all the bags of stuff to the landfill, there was a specific place in the landfill where they wanted us to put it. Uh-huh. Yep. Yep. Yep. So we are, you know, I'm always amazed because we run out of time so quickly. So we're at that point. Where we're going to start wrapping up. Wrapping it up. So I'm going to come back, Risa, to some action steps, right? Okay.

42:09 What can they do? So what's one simple change, again, that a listener could make this week if they were concerned about this? Gosh, just one? There's so much though. There's so much. All right. Okay. So I would say, so one thing, um, go find out, go find out what's in your tap water. Yeah. You can go to the EWG site. Um, we used to be 2019. I think they updated it, but you can go there, see what's in your tap water. Make a change, right?

42:49 Even if you just get, you know, there's some good countertop filters now. Reverse osmosis is the best. Yeah, and I'm thinking about reverse osmosis, right? Is that seems to be the place to look? Sometimes. So reverse osmosis. So, and so I know it sounds, it sounds so flaky. Well, it depends, right? Because reverse osmosis, it pulls out all the minerals. So you have to remember your body needs minerals to survive. So if you're going to rip everything out of the water, then you need to put stuff back in there that your body needs. Okay. And so that's why I said it depends. I'm kind of a control freak.

43:35 So, you know, I have reverse osmosis and I don't trust the machine to put the minerals back in or that they're good. So I buy, you know, I buy minerals and I put them back in the water. But if you do reverse osmosis, then you get into questions. I have clients who are asking, well, is hydrogen water better than oxygen water? So it's a huge rabbit hole. So that's why I said, just go find out what's in your tap water. See what the contaminants are. Because here's the thing, if you're on municipal or city water, when it goes through the sterilization process, you know, pulling all the bacteria and virus, all that stuff, it leaves trace chemicals that are, you know, linked to cancer and all sorts of things. So you want to find out what's in there so that you can decide how you want to clean up your water.

44:32 Yeah. Okay, so water. Same thing with air. start, start, start doing research. On your air quality and you know, if it's good, then that's great. Go open some windows, let, let all that stuff air out. Right. Um, and then electromagnetic fields. So that is, um, I would say reduce your exposure to EMF fields. Maybe it's your phone, maybe it's your router, maybe, um, you know, something next to your bed or, um. So those are the three things. That sounds like a whole nother podcast episode to do on EMFs. Oh my gosh. Yes.

45:13 I'm actually coming out with this, with a self guided EMF course in the next few weeks because of this, because it's just so crazy. Yeah. And it's confusing. Yeah. So we need to wrap up. We do. We do. We talk a lot. Yeah. Where do, where do people find your three-step guide? Risasuzuki.com. So R-I-S-A-S-U-Z-U-K-I. It will also. Be in the little information that I have on my website where I have guest downloads. And so people can also look there for that.

45:54 And I did start a YouTube channel, by the way, since we last talked. Okay. Awesome. Yes, so one is specifically about building biology, healthy homes, what it is, all the things we talked about. And then I've got three that are on EMFs, what they are, health. Stuff, and yeah. Okay. Well, for now, we need to wrap it up. So thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you. This was very informative, and I hope that this has spurred some to– take some time to take a look and do some of these things that could be impactful.

46:36 You never know. Me too. Anyway, so thank you so much for joining me today, Risa. And thank you to all of our listeners for joining us on the Ask Good Questions podcast. We will see you next time. Today's episode is over, but we did ask good questions again, didn't we? Don't miss out as we broadcast live every Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern Time on W4CY Radio at W4CY. com. Join Benita Bell Anderson next week for more conversations with experts on finances, retirement, behavioral finance issues, health and wellness, and more.

47:19 Until then, remember to ask good questions.