With over 30 years in the field, Dr. Joe Nieusma is an expert in the field of toxicology. 

How toxic are you?

What are some common sources of poison within the home?

Plastic has become extremely unavoidable and could be the reason you're not feeling well.

Shampoos, pesticides, drinking water, plastics, and vehicle emissions all contain cancer-causing toxins that you are exposed to on a daily basis.

Children suffer a much greater burden of climate-related disease than adults.

Air fresheners are marketed with the promise of clean, healthy air. This is so far from the truth it almost could be a crime.

Everything from toxic cleaning products to poor indoor air quality can be making you and your family sick.

You may be aware of your exposure to toxic chemicals; but what about the products to which your kids are exposed?

Are your favorite fried and junk foods about to change? And for the better?

Is your health pre-determined by your genes? If cancer or heart disease runs in your family, are you destined to develop these conditions as well?

When there is an excess of any hormone in relation to the whole intricate system we call the"endocrine system", an overall imbalance develops, and health problems can arise. When there is too much estrogen and not enough progesterone to counteract its effects, the situation is called estrogen dominance.

Estrogen dominance is a multi-factorial situation and is caused by such things as exposure to excess environmental xenoestrogens, use of synthetic estrogens such as the birth control pill and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), anovulation (lack of ovulation during menstrual cycle, which is not uncommon among women older than 35), digestion issues (which tax the estrogen-detoxification process in the liver), unrelenting stress (which strains the adrenals and the thyroid), unresolved emotional issues, poor diet and negative lifestyle factors such as smoking and alcohol use.

How does estrogen dominance specifically alter women's health?

What impact does the environment you live in have on your chances of developing breast cancer?

Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is vegetable oil with bromine added to it. Brominated vegetable oil is used as an emulsifier in citrus-flavored soft drinks to help the flavors stay suspended in the drink and to produce a cloudy appearance.

Just look at Mountain Dew, for example. The hazy appearance within its very unnatural fluorescent color comes from BVO.

Patented by chemical companies as a flame retardant, and banned in food throughout Europe and Japan, BVO has been added to soft drinks for decades in North America. Now, some scientists have a renewed interest in this little-known ingredient.

Avoid artificial sweeteners at all cost – they have been linked to many adverse health effects.

Permanent and semi-permanent hair dyes contain dangerous chemicals that have been linked to serious health problems — including cancer.

Recent headlines have pointed to the existence of arsenic and other dangerous chemicals in certain foods. Should you be worried?

Are you ready to take Dr. Ginger's 30-Day Change-Your-Life Nutrition Detox Challenge?

If you're avoiding sugar there are a dizzying array of other sweeteners to choose from. Which ones are good? Bad? Even downright dangerous?

Dr. Ginger explains the many health benefits of infra-red saunas.

Learn how to limit your family's exposure to additives and chemicals that could be affecting your child's hormone levels.

Dogs that chew on plastic toys may be exposed to hormone-altering chemicals. Is your furry friend at risk?

Phthalates are found in food containers that you probably use every day. But could they be dangerous for your kids' health?

Learn which 5 dangerous ingredients may be lurking in your skincare products.

Your clothes may contain toxic additives and could be harming the environment. Learn what you can do to make a change.

Can the heavy traffic in your commute be affecting your health? No matter where you live, the quality of the air you breathe impacts you every day.

One of the biggest food safety issues right now involves the deliberate adulteration of food with biological or chemical agents.

The research is pretty clear: conventional home air fresheners are not a safe option. Fortunately, alternatives exist that are much safer and just as effective.

Do you truly know what is in our nation's food supply?

Learn which products contain hidden BHT, GMOs and other dangerous chemicals.

Learn how you can live virtually toxin free!

Clean up your beauty regimen with natural alternatives.

Before you grab those Popsicles and colorful drinks to help your kids cool off this summer, you need to learn the ugly truth about artificial colors.

Discover the truth about the potentially harmful ingredients in your toothpaste and the serious health problems they can cause.

I think I was born to be a Naturopathic Doctor. 

Even at a young age, I was putting on my thinking cap and truly trying to “think things through”. You see, for a period of my childhood I was totally “into” having a parakeet as a pet. I would name them all names starting with “B” like, Bert the bird or Ben the Bird.  

The reason I had more than one (bird’s tend to live a long time) is because they kept dying. Every few months, I was dealing with a dead bird. I was devastated when I would come home from school and my bird was lying lifeless at the bottom of its cage. 

The devastation inspired my curiosity as to what the heck was happening. I started thinking about where the birds lived, what was the environment like? The bird cage (I would never cage an animal again, by the way) hung near the kitchen so I started to wonder what they might have been breathing that contributed to their demise. My inquisitive mind popped out the answer one day when my Mom was making dinner and smoke was filling the kitchen.  I asked her what kind of pans she was using to cook in. She stated proudly, “Non-stick Teflon. Easy clean up, they are the best!”

Well, they weren’t the best for my birds and they are NOT the best for us either. STOP USING THEM!! (Please.)

Cows milk, some see it is a wonderful calcium containing super-food. Others say it is a fattening, mucous stimulating, allergy causing disaster. Let's break this issue down by looking at the pros, misconceptions and cons of milk.

Pro: Milk is easily available.

Pro: It contains protein.

Pro: It is a food based calcium source.

Pro: It contains some Vitamin A, B6, Biotin, and Potassium.

Pro: May benefit teeth.

Misconception: Milk’s protein is easily accessible, and healthy? Milk proteins such as a hydrolyzed whey, or whey isolate have to be separated out of the milk, and than sold separately. So the muscle building, immune supporting milk properties are not necessarily available in the glass of milk you drink, but rather in the protein powder sold at the health food store.

Things to Put on Your Do-Not-Buy Checklist...

Bring this list to the store with you, or pull it up on your smart phone. Lets de-mystify the big chemical names and labels to know what to stay away from to protect you and your family’s health.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

The top of my do not consume list! Fructose can affect your brain and body by making you feel less hungry, and encourage over-eating. It is in almost everything sweet like soda, cookies, ice cream and more for one simple reason, it’s cheap. But this low cost to the pocketbook, may be destructive to your health. There is a reason why Mexico and Europe use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn sugar (HFCS) because of safety concerns.

Opt-Out: For non-obese and non-diabetics consider raw sugar, sucanant, or honey. For weight loss and diabetes consider using stevia. Avoid artificial sweeteners. (Read on, they made the list also)

Sodium Nitrate and Sodium Nitrite

This food preservative helps retain red coloring in processed meat products. Research demonstrates it contains carcinogens, which can accumulate in the body. Conditions and diseases they have been linked to include stomach, prostate, and breast cancers. Possible issues may include fetal deaths, miscarriages, and birth defects.

Opt-Out: Seek for nitrate or nitrite-free meat products.

We’ve talked frequently on YOU The Owner's Manual Radio Show about the feminization of male tadpoles when exposed to ponds with plastic bottles made with BPA.  

BPA is a plasticizer common in baby bottles in the plastic baby bottle era of 1970 to 2008, and is common in thermal receipts.  

It acts to disrupt testosterone function and maybe to mimic estrogen. Those changes are thought to be very powerful: it appears male infants function with certain brain structures more like females - more of the FOX2 protein, which leads to more chatter (I kid you not) when the mom has a high blood level of BPA during pregnancy.  And more asthma in such children too.

Now something even more serious.

Exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) and it’s cousin BPS in the womb or as an infant increases the risk of childhood learning disorders, by changing the function of a gene important to learning in kids (and even us adults.)

These genes produce a protein that gets chloride out of cells. Not enough chloride out, poor development of connections, which means poor learning.

Small amounts of BPA and BPS seem to interfere with brain development by blocking these genes.

Even worse, maybe this endocrine disruptor is responsible for some of the substantial increase in autism in the last two decades.