What do people mean by "energy medicine"—and how do we distinguish established physiology, traditional healing systems, personal experience, and ideas that remain scientifically unproven?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I speak with Dr. Jill Blakeway, author of Energy Medicine: The Science and Mystery of Healing, founder of the Yinova Center, and a longtime practitioner of acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

For her book, Jill traveled widely to meet healers, physicians, researchers, and practitioners exploring questions about acupuncture, bioelectricity, human connection, and experiences commonly described as "energy healing."

Our conversation moves through some fascinating—and sometimes highly speculative—territory.

In this episode:

• What Jill means by energy medicine

• How acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine conceptualize energy and balance

• What modern science can measure about electrical and biochemical activity in the body

• Jill's exploration of research she encountered at institutions including Stanford and Princeton

• Traditional ideas about stagnant or blocked "energy" and how they differ from established biomedical explanations of disease

• Claims that memories or experiences may be held in the body—and what remains uncertain about how literally such language should be understood

• Jill's concept of an energetic "blueprint" and the technologies she encountered that claim to visualize aspects of the body's energetic state

• Phantom-limb experiences and what they reveal about how the brain represents the body

• Jill's perspective on our own electromagnetic activity and practices she believes support well-being

• The role she believes connection between people can play in healing

Some of the concepts discussed in this episode—including energetic blueprints, cellular memory, blocked energy as a cause of disease, and person-to-person energy healing—are not established mechanisms in conventional biomedical science.

That doesn't make the experiences people describe uninteresting.

It makes the distinction between experience and explanation especially important.

Someone may feel calmer after acupuncture, meditation, touch, ritual, or time with another person. The experience can be real even when the proposed mechanism remains uncertain—or ultimately turns out to be different from the explanation we first gave it.

That question has become increasingly important to me:

What do we know happened? What do we think explains it? And how confidently should we connect the two?

Staying curious while preserving that distinction allows us to explore unconventional ideas without having to turn uncertainty into certainty.

Go deeper:

• Learn more about Dr. Jill Blakeway and the Yinova Center

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Explore the D-Tox Academy, Phase Two of the Ultimate Home Detox™, for ongoing guidance applying Practical Nontoxic Living™ across your home and everyday life

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

The energy-medicine concepts discussed in this conversation reflect Jill Blakeway's research, clinical perspective, and interpretation and should not be understood as established treatments or mechanisms for disease.

Special thanks to Chris Robertson, Practical Nontoxic Living podcast producer.

What does the research suggest about cell phones, wireless radiation, and emerging technologies such as 5G—and how should we respond when experts disagree about the risks?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I speak with Dr. Devra Davis, epidemiologist, author of Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, and founder of the Environmental Health Trust, an organization that advocates for stronger protections around radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.

Recorded in July 2019, our conversation explores Dr. Davis's interpretation of research on radiofrequency radiation from cell phones and other wireless technologies, why she believes existing exposure standards deserve greater scrutiny, and the precautionary habits she recommends for reducing everyday exposure.

In this episode:

• How 3G, 4G, 5G, and the expanding Internet of Things changed the wireless environment

• How radiofrequency radiation differs from ionizing radiation such as X-rays

• Research examining wireless exposure in relation to brain tumors, sperm quality, and other biological effects

• Why Dr. Davis believes children deserve particular consideration when evaluating wireless exposure

• Why scientific studies on EMFs can produce conflicting interpretations

• How regulatory standards and scientific evidence answer somewhat different questions

• Baby monitors, cell phones, Wi-Fi, and other common sources of exposure

• Questions about infrared saunas and EMFs

• Practical ways Dr. Davis recommends reducing exposure through distance, duration, and device habits

Dr. Davis takes a strongly precautionary position on wireless radiation. Other scientists and public-health authorities interpret parts of this evidence differently, and the health implications of long-term, low-level radiofrequency exposure remain scientifically debated.

That disagreement is part of what makes this conversation worth revisiting.

The useful question isn't simply, "Are EMFs safe or dangerous?"

It's: What does the evidence actually show? Where does uncertainty remain? How should we interpret disagreement among experts—and which precautions are easy enough to consider without allowing technology to become a source of fear?

Many of the simplest exposure-reduction strategies discussed here—using more distance from a device, reducing unnecessary contact with the body, and changing where devices are placed—require no specialized products at all.

A note from the archive: This conversation was recorded in July 2019. Wireless technologies, research, and the regulatory debate have continued to evolve since then, so I recommend listening to it as an important snapshot of Dr. Davis's perspective at that time rather than as the final word on the science.

Go deeper:

• Learn more from the Environmental Health Trust

• Explore Ruan Living's EMF Detox resources

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series.

Podcast produced by Chris Robertson.

Are you interested in, but also intimidated by, meditation? Tal Rabinowitz, founder of Den Meditation, helps ease our way into finding a meditation style that can help us get grounded, centered, and soothed. Hear about different ways you can start. There are so many! But, they all share the goal of helping us learn about—and love—ourselves more fully. Don't waste one more day from discovering the depths and diversity within you.

Click here for podcast show notes.

Podcast composer: Chris Robertson

Is eye health only about prescriptions, glasses, and disease—or are there other ways to think about how we use and care for our vision?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I speak with Dr. Marc Grossman, an optometrist, author, and practitioner of integrative eye care, about vision therapy and his broader approach to supporting eye health.

Dr. Grossman combines conventional optometry with ideas drawn from nutrition, lifestyle medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, yoga, and other complementary practices. The evidence behind these approaches varies considerably, so I think it's useful to distinguish established treatments from the broader integrative framework he brings to his patients.

In this episode:

• What vision therapy is and why it may be used for certain visual-function problems

• The distinction between eyesight and the more complex ways our eyes and brain work together to process visual information

• How habits, visual demands, stress, light, and lifestyle may influence our experience of vision and eye comfort

• Dr. Grossman's approach to nutrition and eye health

• Why he incorporates Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, yoga, and other complementary practices

• Eye exercises and the kinds of visual skills they are intended to address

• How he thinks about genetics versus environmental and lifestyle influences on eye health

• Why different eye conditions require very different kinds of evaluation and treatment

Some of the practices discussed in this conversation have stronger scientific support than others. Vision therapy, for example, has recognized applications for certain binocular-vision and eye-coordination problems, but that does not mean exercises can correct every eye condition. Similarly, complementary practices should not replace appropriate ophthalmologic or medical care for eye disease.

What interested me most in this conversation was the broader question:

How much of health is something we simply inherit—and how much is influenced by the way we live, the environments we create, and the habits we repeat?

Our eyes offer another opportunity to make that question more nuanced. Genetics matter. Age matters. Disease matters. And depending on the condition, behavior, environment, nutrition, and how we use our visual system may matter too.

Go deeper:

• Read the original podcast show notes

• Learn more about Dr. Grossman's book, Natural Eye Care: Your Guide to Healthy Vision and Healing

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

Podcast music by Chris Robertson.

In the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were all trying to understand a new virus—and asking what, beyond avoiding infection, might influence how our bodies responded.

In this archival episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I speak with Dr. David O. Carpenter, a public-health physician and environmental-health researcher, about COVID-19, the immune system, air pollution, environmental exposures, stress, sleep, and the rapidly changing questions people were asking in 2020.

Dr. Carpenter also discusses his concerns about electromagnetic fields and immune function. Those views should be understood in context: the health effects of everyday low-level EMF exposure remain scientifically debated, and there is no evidence that 5G causes or spreads COVID-19. COVID-19 is caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In this episode:

• What scientists understood about the novel coronavirus during the early months of the pandemic

• How the immune system responds to infection

• Lessons Dr. Carpenter drew from earlier infectious diseases, including the 1918 influenza pandemic and tuberculosis

• Research examining whether air pollution and other environmental conditions might influence vulnerability to respiratory illness

• His perspective on chemicals, heavy metals, and immune function

• Questions being raised at the time about EMFs, oxidative stress, and immune health

• Why increased time at home raised new questions about Wi-Fi, cell phones, and indoor environments

• How to balance infection control with concerns about cleaning-product exposures

• The roles of sleep, nutrition, stress, anxiety, and relationships in overall health

• Climate change and the broader question of emerging infectious diseases

One reason I think this conversation remains interesting is that it captures how we reason when the science is moving quickly and certainty is scarce.

Some questions raised in the early pandemic became better understood. Others remain complicated. And some hypotheses did not hold up.

That makes this episode a useful reminder that Practical Nontoxic Living™ isn't only about collecting health advice. It's also about learning to ask:

What do we know right now? What is still a hypothesis? How strong is the evidence—and how willing should we be to change our minds as better evidence arrives?

A note from the archive: This conversation was recorded during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Scientific understanding, vaccines, treatments, public-health recommendations, and knowledge about COVID-19 have evolved substantially since then. Please listen to this episode as a snapshot of the questions and evidence being discussed at that time, not as current COVID-19 medical guidance.

Go deeper:

• Read the full podcast show notes

• Learn more about Dr. David O. Carpenter and the Institute for Health and the Environment

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

Podcast music by Chris Robertson.

World renowned public health physician, Dr. David O. Carpenter enlightens us on how to optimize our immune response to the novel coronavirus with four key strategies.

Key questions discussed: Are toxic cleaning products worthwhile now because of the novel coronavirus? Homebound with wireless devices, are our EMF exposures undermining our immune response to covid-19? Is climate change going to make infectious diseases part of our new normal? Can air pollution make you more vulnerable to the coronavirus?

What can an air purifier actually improve—and what problems require more than filtration?

Following my conversation with air-filtration expert Vinny Lobdell Jr. in Episode 19, listeners joined us for a live Q&A about indoor air quality, air purifiers, HEPA filtration, and how to evaluate the air inside a home.

This episode gets especially practical: what can you measure yourself, what should you look for in a purifier, and where are the limits of filtration?

In this episode:

• Accessible devices that can help you monitor aspects of indoor air quality

• Which pollutants and particles consumer air-quality monitors can—and cannot—detect

• How HEPA filtration works

• Why air purifiers can reduce airborne particles such as dust and some allergens

• Experiences people report after using air filtration—and why individual health responses can vary

• How filtration may fit into managing airborne allergens and asthma triggers

• What an air purifier can do when mold spores are present—and why filtration does not solve the underlying moisture or mold source

• Questions about bacteria, fungi, and other biological particles in indoor air

• Vinny's perspective on Austin Air and other filtration technologies

• How to look beyond marketing claims when comparing air purifiers

One of the most important distinctions is that air filtration is not the same as source control.

A purifier may reduce particles circulating through the air, but it cannot repair a leak, remove an active mold source, eliminate combustion emissions at their origin, or replace appropriate ventilation.

That leads to a Practical Nontoxic Living™ hierarchy I still find useful:

Reduce the source when you can. Ventilate when appropriate. Clean what settles into dust. Then use filtration where it adds value.

Go deeper:

• Watch Vinny test three popular air purifiers—Intellipure, Dyson, and Molekule—in the podcast show notes

• Read about the air purifier I've used in my own home

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series

Podcast music by Chris Robertson.

How do you choose an air purifier when the claims, technologies, and specifications can be so difficult to compare?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I speak with Vinny Lobdell Jr., an indoor-air-quality and filtration expert who, at the time of this recording, was President of HealthWay Family of Brands and co-founder of Intellipure.

Although the Intellipure model discussed in this episode has since been discontinued and Vinny is no longer with the company, this conversation remains useful because we spend much of it breaking down how to evaluate an air purifier rather than simply which one to buy.

In this episode:

• Why indoor air quality deserves attention

• What fine and ultrafine particles are and why particle size matters

• How airborne particles can come from both outdoor pollution and sources inside the home

• What HEPA filtration means—and why the filter itself is only one part of an air purifier's performance

• Why airflow, room size, filtration efficiency, and how often air moves through the purifier all matter

• How to think about the square footage a purifier is intended to serve

• Why particles, gases, and VOCs require different filtration approaches

• What air purifiers can do about airborne allergens, mold spores, and other particles—and what they cannot do

• Why filtration does not replace fixing a moisture problem or removing an active mold source

• How ventilation fits into the indoor-air-quality picture

• Consumer devices that can help you monitor certain aspects of indoor air

• Energy costs and practical considerations if you plan to run a purifier continuously

• Questions to ask when comparing technologies and manufacturer performance claims

We also discuss the emerging research around ultrafine particles, which are small enough to behave differently in the respiratory system than larger particles. Research has associated particulate air pollution with cardiovascular, respiratory, and other health outcomes, although the risks associated with any individual person's indoor exposure depend on many factors.

One distinction I find especially useful is that air filtration is only one part of improving indoor air quality.

A purifier can't repair a gas stove that is venting poorly, stop a leak that is creating mold, or remove the source of a chemical being emitted continuously into the room.

So when I think about indoor air today, my hierarchy is closer to:

Identify and reduce the source when possible. Ventilate when appropriate. Manage dust and particles. Then use filtration where it adds value.

And when you do buy an air purifier, don't stop at the brand name or the words "HEPA" or "medical grade."

Ask:

What am I trying to remove? How large is my space? How much filtered air can this machine actually deliver? What happens to gases as well as particles? What will replacement filters cost? And will I realistically run it enough for it to matter?

Those questions remain useful even as specific products come and go.

Watch & read more:

• Visit the original podcast show notes, including the demonstration in which Vinny compares particle measurements while using Intellipure, Dyson, and Molekule air purifiers

• Read about the air purifier I've used in my own home

• Listen to Episode 20, the listener Q&A follow-up on indoor air quality, HEPA filters, and air purifiers

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series

A note from the archive: At the time of this recording, Vinny Lobdell Jr. was affiliated with HealthWay and Intellipure, and I later became an Intellipure affiliate partner. Vinny has since sold the company and is no longer with Intellipure or HealthWay, and the Intellipure model discussed in this episode has been discontinued. I'm preserving the episode because the framework for evaluating air filtration remains educational even though the specific product information is historical.

Podcast music by Chris Robertson.

Can the spaces we live in influence how stressed, calm, connected, or restored we feel?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I speak with Esther Sternberg, MD, physician-scientist, Research Director at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, and author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being and The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions.

Dr. Sternberg has spent decades studying the connections among the brain, stress, the immune system, and the environments we inhabit. Her work asks a question that feels increasingly central to Practical Nontoxic Living™:

How does the physical world around us shape what happens within us?

We explore how elements of place—from views of nature and natural light to sound, scent, art, memory, and opportunities for quiet—can influence stress, emotion, attention, and our experience of well-being.

In this episode:

• How the brain interprets the physical environment around us

• The connections among stress, the nervous system, and immune function

• Why views of nature and certain visual patterns can feel calming

• What fractals and labyrinths can teach us about the environments our brains respond to

• How places, tastes, scents, sounds, and other sensory cues can trigger powerful memories and emotions

• The role of natural light in circadian rhythms and well-being

• How music, singing, silence, and meditation can influence our internal state

• What Dr. Sternberg means by creating positive environmental cues for relaxation

• Why personal associations matter: the same environment may not feel restorative to everyone

• How small changes in our routines and surroundings can support greater calm without requiring a complete redesign of the home

The language of a "healing space" deserves some nuance.

A beautiful view, favorite piece of music, meaningful scent, or calming room is not a medical treatment for disease. But our surroundings can influence stress physiology, emotion, attention, behavior, and our subjective experience of safety and restoration—all of which belong in a broader conversation about health.

What stays with me from Dr. Sternberg's work is that our environment isn't simply a backdrop to our lives.

We are continually responding to it.

For years, my work focused heavily on what we might remove from our homes: chemicals, heavy metals, unnecessary EMFs, and other exposures.

This conversation raises the complementary question:

What can we intentionally add—nature, light, beauty, sound, memory, ritual, quiet—to create an environment that supports how we want to feel?

That idea has become even more important to the way I think about Practical Nontoxic Living™ today.

Go deeper:

• Read the original podcast show notes

• Learn more from Dr. Esther Sternberg

• Explore Dr. Sternberg's book Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series

Special thanks to Chris Robertson, Practical Nontoxic Living podcast producer.

What are EMFs, how is 5G different from earlier wireless technologies, and which everyday habits can reduce our exposure?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I speak with Daniel DeBaun, a former telecommunications engineer whose career included work at Bell Labs and AT&T, co-author of Radiation Nation, and founder of DefenderShield.

At the time of this conversation, 5G was beginning its rollout and raising new questions about how our increasingly wireless environment might affect the amount and types of radiofrequency exposure around us.

Daniel helps explain the technology from his perspective as a former telecom engineer and shares the precautionary approach he uses in his own life.

In this episode:

• What electromagnetic fields, or EMFs, are

• How radiofrequency radiation from wireless devices differs from ionizing radiation such as X-rays

• How 5G differs technologically from earlier generations of cellular networks

• Daniel's "bees in the room" analogy for thinking about multiple sources of exposure—and the limits of treating an analogy as evidence of health risk

• Why distance, duration, and device placement can substantially change personal exposure

• Practical ways to reduce unnecessary exposure from phones, laptops, tablets, Wi-Fi, and other devices

• Daniel's perspective on our bodies' own electrical activity

• What "grounding" means and the claims made about it

• How to evaluate products marketed for EMF shielding or protection

• Why reducing an exposure and proving that the reduction improves health are two different questions

The health implications of long-term, everyday exposure to low-level radiofrequency electromagnetic fields remain scientifically debated, and experts do not all interpret the evidence in the same way.

So the question I find most useful isn't simply, "Is wireless radiation safe or dangerous?"

It's:

What do we know? What remains uncertain? And when reducing an exposure is easy and doesn't meaningfully interfere with my life, is that precaution worth taking?

Many of the simplest strategies Daniel and I discuss—creating more distance from devices, carrying phones away from the body when practical, and reducing unnecessary wireless use—don't require buying anything.

Go deeper:

• Read the original podcast transcript

• Explore Ruan Living's EMF Detox resources

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Explore the D-Tox Academy, Phase Two of the Ultimate Home Detox™, for ongoing guidance applying Practical Nontoxic Living™ across your home and everyday life

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

Daniel DeBaun is founder of DefenderShield, which sells EMF-related products discussed in this conversation. Product claims discussed in the episode should be distinguished from independently established health outcomes.