Podcast appearances and mentions of nicole bijlsma

Listen to episode 129 of the ACA Podcast: The Impacts of Environmental Exposures on Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) with Dr Nicole Bijlsma.

How much do you know about your home's impact on your health? Dr. Nicole Bijlsma, environmental health expert and building biologist, uncovers the often-overlooked hazards lurking in our everyday environments. From the risks of mold and dust to the surprising health effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs), she offers actionable advice to create safer, healthier spaces. Learn why a simple change like removing shoes indoors or using fragrance-free cleaning products can make a profound difference for your family's well-being.How Long Will You Live? Take our quiz today and find out! Visit: ageist.com/longevity-quizThanks To Our SponsorsLMNT Electrolytes — Our favorite electrolytes for optimal hydration. Listeners receive a free 8-serving sample pack with their purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/AGEIST. Our Place – Our #1 cookware brand for non-toxic, PFA-free pots and brands. Use code “AGEIST” for 10% off at fromourplace.com Timeline Nutrition — The top supplement for cell support and mitochondrial function. Listeners receive 10% off your first order of Mitopure with code AGEIST at TimelineNutrition.com/ageist. Key Quotes"If you don't use a filter, your body becomes the filter.""Healthy homes are about biodiversity, not sterility.""Modern toxins are a complex problem, but the solution starts with small, intentional changes."Connect with Our GuestWebsite: https://www.buildingbiology.com.auBook: "Healthy Home, Healthy Family" AmazonFull Interview TranscriptConnect with AGEISTNewsletterInstagramWebsiteSay hi to the AGEIST team!

Nicole Bijlsma is a building biologist, bestselling author (Healthy Home Healthy Family) and founder of the Healthy Home (Building Biology) movement in Australia. She established the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. Nicole has lectured at tertiary institutions for 30 years, has published in peer reviewed journals and is regularly consulted by the media to discuss mold, electromagnetic fields and toxic chemicals, and lectures in Australia and abroad about environmental health issues. Her research explores the impact of environmental exposures on human health and their ramifications for clinical practice. Nicole's Links:Website: www.buildinbiology.com.auFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicolebijlsma1/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testmyhome/Dr Steph's Links: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drstephpeacock Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drstephpeacock/ Sunlighten: https://www.stephaniepeacock.com/Sunlighten-Affiliate Use code: DRPEACOCK AirDoctor: https://stephaniepeacock.com/affiliate-airdoctor AquaTru: https://stephaniepeacock.com/affiliate-aquatru Prolon: https://stephaniepeacock.com/affiliate-prolon Work with me: https://stephaniepeacock.com/ Subscribe to my newsletter: https://stephanies-newsletter-c410d1.beehiiv.com/subscribe

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I am joined again this week by building biologist, Nicole Bijlsma. In case you missed last week's episode, Nicole joined me to chat about creating a healthy low-tox home. You can listen to that episode here.Nicole is a building biologist based in Australia and the bestselling author of one of my favourite resource books Healthy Home Healthy Family. Nicole is also the founder of the Healthy Home (Building Biology) movement in Australia and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies. In this episode, Nicole and I will be chatting about electromagnetic fields (EMFs), where we discuss:What EMFs (electromagnetic fields) are and how they impact our children;The first thing Nicole looks at in a home when it comes to where beds are positioned in the home;How Wi-Fi affects our children; How EMFs alter melatonin production;The truth about baby monitors;Ways to reduce EMF exposure include:The benefits of texting over phone calls;Turning off Wi-Fi at night via a timer;Nicole shares a little more information about her best-selling book Healthy Home Healthy Family.Episode Links:Purchase Nicole's book Healthy Home, Happy Family on Booktopia. Check out Nicole's website here. Learn from Nicole over on Instagram here. Listen to Episode 144: Creating a healthy, low-tox home with Nicole Bijlsma

This week on the Natural Super Kids podcast I am joined by building biologist, Nicole Bijlsma. Not only is Nicole a building biologist, but she is a bestselling author (Healthy Home Healthy Family), founder of the Healthy Home (Building Biology) movement in Australia, and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies. In this episode Nicole and I will be talking about the impacts of toxins and chemicals in the family home. Nicole will also be joining me next week to chat about EMFs (electromagnetic fields) and their impact on our children's health.Nicole shares with us:The main toxins and chemicals that parents need to be aware of in the family home;The impact of trans-generational exposure to chemicals especially pesticides on our children;The steps you can take to reduce your toxic load in the home including the importance of not wearing shoes in the house, the reality of having a carpeted home, and why it's crucial that you invest in a good quality vacuum cleaner;The truth about our water quality, and what chemicals to be mindful of;The importance of using an air purifier in inner-city built-up areas;The four important household items to invest in to create a healthy home;Episode Links:Purchase Nicole's book Healthy Home, Happy Family on Booktopia. Check out Nicole's website here. Learn from Nicole over on Instagram here. 

Dr. Jill Carnahan, sits down with renowned biologist Nicole Bijlsma, a leading expert in environmental health, shares her expertise on how our homes can impact our overall well-being. She delves into the science behind electromagnetic radiation and its potential effects on our health. By understanding the sources of EMR and implementing practical measures, you can create a safer and healthier living environment for your family. Key Points Why environmental toxicity is the biggest threat to your health and what you can do about it Key sources of electromagnetic radiation in the home and why it may be causing sleep disturbances, fatigue or infertility How to protect your home from mold with basic maintenance tips

Are you wondering why you or your child can't seem to shake off those allergy or asthma symptoms? It's time to consider the possible role of an unseen culprit - mould. In this revealing discussion, I will be unraveling how mould could be igniting allergic and inflammatory reactions in many of us. In the final episode of our environmental allergies series, we will be diving deep into mould, and touching on:What is mould, where it can be found, and why mould is a bigger issue now than ever before;Why some people aren't affected by mould while others are significantly affected;Symptoms and potentially misdiagnosed conditions related to mould exposure including:Fatigue;Respiratory issues: recurrent colds/flu, asthma, bronchitis and more;Chronic Fatigue Syndrome;Brain fog, headaches, cognitive delay;Fibromyalgia, and muscle inflammation;CIRS - Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome;The cause of mould, and how to determine if your house or a building you attend is affected by mould;What leads to mould in a building, and common sources of water damage in a home;Navigating the complexities of mould testing in a home, and why it's essential to hire a building biologist or an IICRC Accredited Mould Remediator;Why we shouldn't use bleach on mould, and how to safely remove mould.Episode Links:Listen to Episode 131: Does Your Child Have A Dust Mite Allergy?Listen to Episode 132: Environmental Allergies: A discussion on hay fever and pollens.Listen to Episode 134: Breathe Easy: Controlling Asthma the Natural Way.Check out Nicole Bijlsma website here. Purchase Healthy Home, Healthy Families book here. 

Check out my online course, Bounce Out of Bed With Energy: The 5 Week Reset for Exhausted Women at www.drveeshealthhub.com, and use the promo code PODCAST15 to get 15% off at checkout!   Mold is a hidden hazard hiding in our homes that can cause extreme health problems. I'm joined by building biology pioneer Nicole Bijlsma to share her deep knowledge of toxin exposure standards and the disparity between standards and public health. Nicole and I dig deeply into the impact of mold, how you can combat it in your home, and health symptoms that may be linked to fungal exposure.   Get full show notes and more information here: https://mindbodymouth.com.au/55

Is your home secretly harbouring toxic health hazards? An extraordinary conversation with best selling author Nicole Bijlsma! After 10 miscarriages in 7 years Nicole sought deeper answers! Health and healing has defined the last 30 years of Cole's life! Nicole — is a building biologist, bestselling author (Healthy Home Healthy Family) and founder of the Healthy Home (Building Biology) movement in Australia. She established the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards (mould, allergens, chemicals and EMFs) in the built environment. Nicole has lectured at tertiary institutions for 30 years, has published in peer reviewed journals and is regularly consulted by the media to discuss mould, electromagnetic fields and toxic chemicals, and lectures in Australia and abroad about environmental health issues. Her research explores the impact of environmental exposures on human health and their ramifications for clinical practice. This is a fascinating, powerful and inspiring podcast - as a canary in the coal mine, I personally found this information extremely reassuring and highly educational! What REALLY causes mold and what to do about it, learn about the horrifying number of health issues linked to common household items and building materials, the scary truth about the EMF radiation coming from your cell phone, what every parent MUST know before buying a baby monitor, what wifi is *really* doing to your body, how to design and build your home to ensure it's as healthy and allergy-free as possible, what to do when there's a mold outbreak and how to ensure that your bathroom and kitchen aren't secretly hurting your health. There are LOADS of simple, doable, inexpensive things you can do to identify and fix toxic problems in your home — as well as to prevent them from taking hold in the first place. So in this episode, Nicole shares everything we need to know to ensure our living spaces are as happy, healthy and allergy-free as possible. Find Nicole: www.buildingbiology.com.au www.aces.edu.au IG: masteringmould FB: nicolebijlsma This podcast is proudly presented by the 4 PILLARS OF HEALTH! Created by me over 20 years of health lows and highs! Alkalise detox, nourish and fast your way to health, healing, harmony and happiness! Go to www.amandaallen.com.au and use code WHISPERS for 10% off today!

In this episode, we chatted with Nicole Bijlsma an absolute expert in her field, where we talked about the environmental challenges that come with living in a modern world, from EMFs, to mould, and the ways in which we can make decisions to help support us in creating a healthier home environment for not only ourselves but our families. Nicole Bijlsma, a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience changed her career pathway to become a building biologist. Nicole single-handedly established the building biology industry in Australia and is now the founder and principal of the Australian College of Environmental Studies (ACES). Nicole is a leading voice in building awareness of the unseen troubles that may be within our homes. She is the author of the book 'Healthy Home, Healthy Family' and is currently completing her Ph.D. investigating the effects of environmental exposures on human health and what doctors can do about it. In this episode, we talk about: Air Filtration/Purification Things to look out for when buying a home Environmental Exposures Wi-Fi & 5G Mould Key Moments: 2:50 - Gas or Induction Stoves 6:40 - Air Purification 12:00 - Things to look for when buying a home 15:00 - Environmental Exposure Standards 20:00 - The Effects of Pesticides 22:30 - Bacteria in the Home 28:35 - Exposure to Wi-Fi 34:05 - 5G 37:30 - Solar Energy 40:00 - Do Your Research and Make Informed Decisions 42:45 - Mould 48:16 - Become Informed. To find out more: Website: https://www.buildingbiology.com.au/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicolebijlsma1/?fref=ts Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colbijlsma/ Nicole's Book: 'Healthy Home, Healthy Family'

In this episode of Smarter Not Harder podcast, we are joined by Dr. Nicole Bijlsma.  She chats with host Jodi Duval about all things environmental medicine, including why these exposures are so crucial to health, how the environment effects health, what we can do to mitigate these effects, what an environmental exposure history questionnaire is, how to use it in practice, and so much more.   Dr. Nicole Bijlsma is a building biologist, bestselling author, Ph.D. candidate and the CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies. She has 30 years of experience lecturing at academic institutions and was formerly a naturopath and acupuncturist. She has written extensively for the Body and Soul newspaper in the Herald Sun, has articles published in peer-reviewed journals, and is frequently consulted by the media to discuss mold, electromagnetic fields, and toxic chemicals. She also gives talks about environmental health issues in Australia and abroad.   What we discuss:    00:00:22 - How Dr. Nicole entered into the environmental medicine space 00:09:34 - Environmental medicine's effect on people's emotions  00:11:48 - Environmental exposure to EMFs  00: 21:16 - Environmental exposure to molds 00:23:08 - Are we ever going to adapt to these environmental changes? 00:37:48 - What is the difference between living near the forest and near the ocean?  00:43:20 - Environmental exposure to toxic metals 00:47:09 - What is an environmental exposure history questionnaire and how is it used?  00:57:15 - What's next for Dr. Nicole Bijlsma?   Find more from Smarter Not Harder: Website: https://troscriptions.com/blogs/podcast / https://homehope.org Instagram: @troscriptions | @homehopeorg   Find out more about Dr. Nicole Bijlsma: Website: https://www.buildingbiology.com.au/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicolebijlsma1 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colbijlsma/   Get 10% Off Your Purchase of Metabolomics Module by using PODCAST10 at https://www.homehope.org   Get 10% Off your Trosciptions purchase by using POD10 at https://www.troscriptions.com   Get daily content from the hosts of Smarter Not Harder by following @troscriptions on Instagram.   

In this week's episode of the Summer Replay Series, we revisit our podcast ‘Case Taking for Environmental Toxin Exposure featuring Nicole Bijlsma with our ambassador, Dr. Michelle Woolhouse. Our Summer Replay Series has been curated to support your learnings in the natural medicine space, while respecting your need to relax, unwind and slow down over the summer period. You will find some of our more easy-listening podcasts featured in the series to allow you to listen while heading to the beach, the farm, at the park with the kids or unwinding at the end of a sunny day. We hope you enjoy our podcasts and look forward to sharing our new and exciting podcasts with you when we return to normal scheduling on January 24, 2023. Find today's transcript and show notes here: https://www.fxmedicine.com.au/podcast/case-taking-environmental-toxin-exposure-nicole-bijlsma***DISCLAIMER: The information provided on FX Medicine is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health care professional in the event something you learn here raises questions or concerns regarding your health.***

Today's episode Renee and Micka sit down with environmental medicine expert Nicole Bijlsma to discuss common factors around that household home that could be causing you and your family illness. She walks through treatment and preventative strategies and how you can make your home a safer environment.  Nicole was a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience who changed her career pathway to become a building biologist after noticing a strong correlation with many of her patients illnesses and health hazards in their home. Nicole is the author of the best seller Healthy Home, Healthy Family, was a columnist for Body+Soul (Herald Sun) and is frequently consulted by the media to comment on health hazards in the built environment (The 7PM Project, Sunrise, The Today Show, The Circle, Channel 7 News, Today Tonight, Channel 74, ABC radio, Fox FM, numerous webinars and podcasts).Nicole has thirty years experience lecturing at tertiary institutions in nutrition, Chinese Medicine and environmental medicine, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. Her extensive knowledge in environmental medicine has seen her speak at various conferences both in Australia and abroad (USA, Thailand and New Zealand). Nicole single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia, was the former President of the Australasian Society of Building Biologists and established the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. The college is the only institution in Australia to provide nationally accredited training in Building Biology and Feng Shui. Nicole is currently completing her PhD investigating health hazards in the built environment under the supervision of Professor Marc Cohen at RMIT.Learn more about Dr Renee White and Fill Your Cup Postpartum Doulas:Want to be nurtured and nourished after the birth of your baby, have a peek at our doula offerings.If you want to gobble up our famous Chocolate + Goji lactation cookies, look no further.

Nicole Bijlsma ND, BHScAc(HONS), Grad Dip OHS, IICRC Mold Remediation, PhD Candidate is passionate about environmental medicine. Nicole was a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience who changed her career pathway to become a building biologist after noticing a strong correlation with many of her patients illnesses and health hazards in their home. Nicole is the author of the best seller Healthy Home, Healthy Family, was a columnist for Body+Soul (Herald Sun) and is frequently consulted by the media to comment on health hazards in the built environment. Nicole has 30 years experience lecturing at tertiary institutions in nutrition, Chinese Medicine and environmental medicine, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. Nicole single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia, was the former President of the Australasian Society of Building Biologists and established the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. Nicole is currently completing her PhD investigating health hazards in the built environment under the supervision of Professor Marc Cohen at RMIT.Find us on Linktree, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,  TikTok and YoutubeNeed help navigating your mold injury without breaking the bank? Join our education group: patreon.com/exposingmoldWe'd like to take a moment to thank our sponsors: HomeCleanse, formerly known as All American Restoration, is a company that specializes in improving indoor air quality through proper mold remediation, offering services nationwide. You can visit them at homecleanse.com to learn more. The Mold Guy performs mold sampling and testing for homeowners, renters, and businesses. Please visit themoldguyinc.com to learn more. Black Diamond Services provides solutions to the unforeseen challenges that can affect homes and families with no out-of-pocket costs. Services include temporary housing relocation and mold test referrals for homeowners. Visit blackdiamondservices.com to learn more.Thank you again for your sponsorship, it is integral to our ability to serve our community and to improve the quality of life for all.Support the show

How healthy is your home? Do you have low-toxic materials in your spaces? And does it matter? Come listen to an important conversation with Nicole Bijlsma, a leading building biologist, who is passionate about educating people about the impact of materials in our homes. In this episode you will learn about the impact that mould, electromagnetic fields and toxic chemicals can have on your health, and well-being. This is an episode not to be missed. Get a free extract from my new bookhttps://www.nataliewalton.com/stylebook Podcast shownotes: https://www.nataliewalton.com/podcast/73 Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nataliewalton Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenataliewalton  

Is your home secretly harbouring toxic health hazards like mold, EMFs, and harmful chemicals? It's not nice to think that where you live could be hurting you and your family, but according to today's guest, Nicole Bijlsma — a world leading expert on building biology and environmental exposure — many of our homes are like ‘loaded guns' when it comes to the toxic burdens they place on our bodies.Luckily, there are LOADS of simple, doable, inexpensive things you can do to identify and fix toxic problems in your home — as well as to prevent them from taking hold in the first place. So in this episode, Nicole is here to walk us through everything we need to know to ensure our living spaces are as happy, healthy and allergy-free as possible.Tune in to hear what REALLY causes mold and what to do about it, the horrifying number of health issues linked to common household items and building materials, the scary truth about the EMF radiation coming from your cell phone, what every parent MUST know before buying a baby monitor, what wifi is *really* doing to your body, how to design and build your dream home to ensure it's as healthy and allergy-free as possible, what to do when there's a mold outbreak (all my Aussie friends MUST listen to this bit especially!) and how to ensure that your bathroom and kitchen aren't secretly hurting your health.Head to www.melissaambrosini.com/465 for the show notes.Join my newsletter: www.melissaambrosini.com/newsletterFollow me on Instagram: @melissaambrosini See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

#251 Nicole Bijlsma is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. Nicole was a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience who changed her career pathway to become a building biologist after noticing a strong correlation with many of her patients illnesses and health hazards in their home. Nicole is the author of the best seller Healthy Home, Healthy Family, was a columnist for Body+Soul (Herald Sun) and is frequently consulted by the media to comment on health hazards in the built environment (The 7PM Project, Sunrise, The Today Show, The Circle, Channel 7 News, Today Tonight, Channel 74, ABC radio, Fox FM, numerous webinars and podcasts). Nicole has thirty years experience lecturing at tertiary institutions in nutrition, Chinese Medicine and environmental medicine, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. Her extensive knowledge in environmental medicine has seen her speak at various conferences both in Australia and abroad (USA, Thailand and New Zealand).  Nicole single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia, was the former President of the Australasian Society of Building Biologists and established the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. The college is the only institution in Australia to provide nationally accredited training in Building Biology and Feng Shui. Nicole is currently completing her PhD investigating health hazards in the built environment under the supervision of Professor Marc Cohen at RMIT. For information about her research In this episode we cover What different forms of mould related illness exist The obvious and not so obvious signs that a house may be experiencing issues with mould What may someone experience physically/emotionally when they are exposed to dampness Mould - is it all bad news or does it serve a purpose? Why is it important to get to the source (water damage) itself rather than being focused on mould. Nicole's thoughts on Clove oil, vinegar, bleach, and air purifiers (how effective or ineffective are they?) Following a flood how long does it take for mould to take hold? And what can we do to prevent? When mould has been identified in ones home, car or working environment, what steps should one take? And so much more

What exactly is Building Biology? And how can you use it to improve your health and well-being at home? Today, we will learn everything about Building Biology from Nicole Bijlsma. Nicole Bijlsma is a woman driven by a passion to help the environment. Nicole, a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical expertise, switched careers to become a building biologist after discovering a clear association between many of her patients' illnesses and health concerns in their homes. Nicole is the best-selling author of Healthy Home, Healthy Family. She is also the founder of and the head of the Australian College of Environmental Studies. For more on Nicole Bijlsma head to her website: https://www.buildingbiology.com.au/ ----  CREDITS: Host: Dr Ron Ehrlich Guest: Nicole Bijlsma Producer: Amelia Navascues ----  You can also watch this episode at https://drronehrlich.com/  ----- TIME TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH? Join me in my online health programs.  ----- CONNECT WITH ME You can ask questions via social media using my Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or YouTube page. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kat and Bec sit down to talk Nicole Bijlsma, a building biologist, bestselling author, PhD candidate and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies (est.1999). Nicole is the founder of the Building Biology movement in Australia which was created to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. Nicole has lectured at tertiary institutions for 30 years, has published in peer reviewed journals and is regularly consulted by the media to discuss mould, electromagnetic fields and toxic chemicals, and lectures in Australia and abroad about environmental health issue Topics discussed:•Nicole's obsession with research and cancer research in particular from a young age, the start of her career as a Naturopath and Acupuncturist and how she moved into building biology.•Nicole's own personal health issues she attributes to the home she was living it at the time.•What is building biology and identifying health hazards within the home.•Significant environmental changes in the last 40 years.•Nicole's book Healthy Home Healthy Family - is your home making you sick?•The importance of taking a good exposure history when consulting with new patients.•Bec asks Nicole about Shungite and its effectiveness.•The health hazards of EMF's, household chemicals and allergens ( mould)•Potential health hazards associated with new builds.•Nicole's research into the effects of baby monitors and wireless devises. •Nicole's tips for optimising your health in your home.For 10% off products at Life Cykel Mushrooms head to https://www.lifecykel.com and use the codeword THEINTEGRATIVEDUO10 at checkout Connect with Nicole Bijlsma: Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/colebijlsma / website https://www.buildingbiology.com.au Connect with The Integrative Duo: Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/theintegrativeduo/ Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/theintegrativeduo/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcuPayhTFAtPSOkkP-ntN5gIf you enjoyed this episode and would like to show your support: 1) Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, give us 5 stars and leave a positive review 2) Subscribe, like and leave a positive comment on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcuPayhTFAtPSOkkP-ntN5gIf this podcast resonates with you please share your favourite episode on Facebook, Instagram, and Stories. Thank you so much for your support. It means the world to us.

We start our series on children's health right at the beginning, way before conception….back when our grandparents were preparing to conceive. Our experts, nutritional biochemist Dr Rhona Creegan and naturopath Jane Hutchens discuss why past generational environments are so influential on the health of the current generation. Founder of the Building Biology movement in Australia, Nicole Bijlsma details the myriad of environmental exposures we face in our modern-day world, including mould and the implication for child health. Respected women's health and fertility naturopath Leah Hechtman discusses flame retardants, the intergenerational microbiome and how we have to strike a balance with our patients, so they don't become overwhelmed and stressed. Sydney naturopath Emma Sutherland talks about her own experience of stress during pregnancy and postnatally, and how that impacted her daughter's health.

Continuing on from Episode 1... Our experts, nutritional biochemist Dr Rhona Creegan and naturopath Jane Hutchens discuss why past generational environments are so influential on the health of the current generation. Founder of the Building Biology movement in Australia, Nicole Bijlsma details the myriad of environmental exposures we face in our modern-day world, including mould and the implication for child health. Respected women's health and fertility naturopath Leah Hechtman discusses flame retardants, the intergenerational microbiome and how we have to strike a balance with our patients, so they don't become overwhelmed and stressed. Sydney naturopath Emma Sutherland talks about her own experience of stress during pregnancy and postnatally, and how that impacted her daughter's health.

How do we identify when environmental toxins such as mould, allergens, and pesticides are contributing to our patient's ongoing health issues? In this episode Dr Michelle Woolhouse is joined by building biologist and former naturopath Nicole Biljsma, who emphasizes the importance of taking a comprehensive environmental exposure history can be for our patients. Nicole discusses how to identify patients who are highly sensitive to environmental toxins and introduces us to her handy acronym, “PHOLD,” which covers all the different areas that can easily be overlooked when discussing environmental exposures during our consults.Find today's transcript and show notes here: https://www.fxmedicine.com.au/podcast/case-taking-environmental-toxin-exposure *DISCLAIMER: The information provided on FX Medicine is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health care professional in the event something you learn here raises questions or concerns regarding your health.*

In today's episode we are joined by Nicole Bijlsma, a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience who changed her career pathway to become a building biologist after noticing a strong correlation with many of her patient's illnesses and health hazards in their home. Nicole teaches us how to address health hazards in the home and optimise our health as a result. We look at potential hazards including mould, EMFs, meter panels, air quality, magnetic stress and geopathic stress. This episode will change the way you look at your home, your internet, mobile phone and baby monitor usage and so much more. Head to https://www.stephlowe.com/podcasts/332 for show notes, episode transcripts and more.  

Join us this week for a brief introduction to four summer reads that may help with your healing. Fiona lets you know her impressions and some of the ways each book touches upon your health and well-being.We discuss:The Magnesium Miracle - Dr. Carolyn DeanBreath - James NestorIn The Flow - Alisa VittiHealthy Home, Healthy Family - Nicole BijlsmaJoin us for an introduction to some aspects of healing that you may not yet have considered in your migraine journey. Support the show (https://www.facebook.com/MigraineXalone/)

Mason welcomes building biologist Nicole Bijlsma, back on to the podcast today, to take a deep dive (pun intended) into the realm of water. The pair discuss the contaminants that lurk in the municipal water supply, the serious implications they can have on human health, and the things we can do in the home to reduce our exposure. Nicole delivers punchy truth bombs from the minute the tape starts rolling on this chat. Nicole is a woman who is fully loaded with information gathered from her thorough research and clinical practice. Nicole uses her insights as an arsenal against a system that is generally corrupt and ill-informed. Today's chat is juicy and eye opening. The speed and precision in which Nicole hits her target when sharing her knowledge is truly impressive. An important and informative listen for all. "If you don't get a filter, your body and your kidneys will be the filter." So a water filter is absolutely necessary. It's not a luxury. " - Nicole Bijlsma Mason and Nicole discuss: Nicole's upcoming 'Healthy Homes' 6 week e-course. The importance of water quality, not just quantity, in regards to health. Chlorine as an antibacterial agent, and the threat chlorinated water can have on microbiome diversity.  The use of Fluoride as a pharmaceutical drug, and the health implications associated with its use in municipal water supplies. Australia as a minority in comparison to 95% of the global community who do not fluoridate their water supply. The common contaminants that can lurk in your local water supply, and how to reduce harmful exposure. Water filters, the ins and outs, and what to look for when purchasing. The obesogen hypothesis; how the body responds to a high exogenous toxic load. The National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme, and the loopholes that allow international products to enter into Australia without chemical testing. The correlation between tank water and lead exposure. The diet, supplement and lifestyle measures you can take to reduce your toxic load. Detoxication, prebiotic foods and dis-ease prevention. The dangers of recycled water. Alkaline water and low stomach acid. Water as an energetic medium.   Who is Nicole Bijlsma? Healthy Home Expert, Nicole Bijlsma is a building biologist, bestselling author, PhD candidate and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies (RTO 21740) which she established in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. Nicole has published in peer reviewed journals, has written extensively for Body+Soul newspaper, is regularly consulted by the media to discuss mould, electromagnetic fields and toxic chemicals, and lectures in Australia and internationally at medical conferences about environmental health issues. Nicole's research involves identifying the impact of toxicants on human health, creating clinical tools to assist practitioners to identify health hazards in the built environment and investigating the impact of wireless technologies on brain and sleep function.    Resources:Nicole's Website Nicole's Book Nicole's Water Resources Australian College Of Environmental Studies WebsiteThe Australian Government Recalls Website     Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason: (00:02) Hey, Nicole, welcome back.   Nicole: (00:04) Thank you, Mason.   Mason: (00:05) Our favourite building biologist and we're going to jump into the Water series. We're kicking off the Water series. It's been a few years now since I really been having the water chats with the SuperFeast community. And so there's a lot of new people on board, lot of people trying to sift through all the information and sift through the sediment in the water and just trying to understand whether they need a water filter, to begin with. I don't think anyone here's really questioning whether they want or need a water filter on a municipal supply. But as a building biologist what you'd be recommending people get on their house for bathing, gardening, all that kind of thing. And then also then we're going to go into the beautiful murky waters of drinking water filtration because that's one of the most confusing areas. I always say you get eight experts up on a stage, you get ten answers. But before we do that, how are you?   Nicole: (01:07) Yeah, I'm really good. Thank you. I'm about to, next year February, launch my Healthy Home course for the public, a six-week course on how to create a healthy home, room by room. So I'm looking forward to getting some really good, solid information and dispelling the myths that exist about mould and water filters and chemicals and how people can reduce that toxic load and reduce their exposure to things like mould and, of course, electromagnetic fields.   Mason: (01:35) Mm. I mean, busting all the myths... It's something I like about talking to you, and it's something I like about your book, which you may know is regularly just sitting out there. And so you're basically taking that book and turning it into an online course?   Nicole: (01:52) Yeah. It'll be very much, "Here are the hazards," not getting too much into heavy technical research, which is what I do. I'm doing a PhD. I'm a researcher. But really making simple tips on how to create healthy homes from food packaging to cleaning. How can you clean the house and reduce the up allergen load, but while at the same time create a healthy home with fresh air, got some bacterial diversity. Why sanitizers are the antithesis of a healthy home. All that sort of stuff.   Mason: (02:24) Well, what I like about that cool stuff is, you knock the foundations absolutely out of the park, and that's why I wanted to chat with you about water filters because I'm someone that will like fly past the foundational necessities of what we would need to do in order to have just a consistent healthy home or water supply that's going to ensure that the major toxins or the major, say like, deficiencies in terms of a bacterial diversity in the home... Those building blocks, those basic kind of like in the Buddhist term, "Chop wood. Carry water." if you have these present in your home, or if you have this present or not present in your water, based on what we know traditionally and what the data's showing, this is going to give you the best possible opportunity to have a healthy family and have a healthy body in yourself. Sometimes I get caught off flying in the absolute nuance of conversation when it comes to water and all these things. So I'm really I'm really keen to dispel a couple of myths around water right away. Are there any favourites that you just want to dive into?   Nicole: (03:35) Yeah. And my saying in relation to drinking water is, "If you don't get a filter, your body and your kidneys will be the filter." So a water filter is absolutely necessary. It's not a luxury. It's necessary. And it really got me, that five years into working as a naturopath, why we only spent at one three-hour lecture on how much water we should be drinking and nothing on drinking water quality, which, of course, can have enormous impacts on human health. I remember once giving this $40 probiotic to one of my patients and thinking, "If they drink this with chlorinated water, you're going to kill most of it on the way down, because chlorine is the strongest antibacterial you could possibly expose yourself to. What am I doing?"   Nicole: (04:23) I spent eight years at university doing an honours degree in Chinese Medicine and naturopathy, and we didn't learn about air quality, as I've discussed before or drinking water quality. So why would I prescribed a $40 probiotic when they get a drink with chlorine and kill most of it on the way down? And that really got me thinking about, "Well, what is in our drinking water?" So it depends on the source of the water as to what contaminant is likely to be present. As a result of the research I conducted on that, I then wrote a subject, which is part of the building biology course called Water Pollution, and it's really looking at all the sources of pollutants in our drinking water supply, and more importantly what filters we should recommend to our patients. But it actually is a 120 hours. It's quite in-depth. There's a lot involved, because it depends on the source of water.   Nicole: (05:17) Now if you look at these Australian statistics, most of us drink tap water. Around 10% of us drink bore well water, and that's only in the rural parts of Australia, especially in Western Australia and South Australia. And, of course, at least 20% drink tank water. And they all are associated with different pollutants in the supply.   Nicole: (05:39) So we start with tap water. We all know, of course, fluoride is the big one. A recent study by the Hach in 2017 was the largest study ever conducted on fluoride, and it identified the significant decline in children's intelligence or IQ if they are exposed in utero to drinking water that had fluoride in it. So we know that it has significant impacts. It accumulates in the pineal gland, which is about the size of a grain of rice. It affects the thyroid. There is so much data now on thyroid.   Nicole: (06:14) And I think there was a fantastic quote that was provided by... That I put into my book which I'll read, "No doctor would consider prescribing a pharmaceutical drug for a patient that he's never seen and whom he or she will never monitor for adverse reactions. Yet, this is precisely what water fluoridation does." And this is because fluoride is a pharmaceutical drug, and it's classified as a pharmaceutical drug because it treats a disease called tooth decay and plaque. So as a result of this, we're now putting a pharmaceutical drug in our entire water system that no one's monitoring, which is really an act of insanity. And the reality is most countries don't fluoridate, have never fluoridated their water supply, because giving this to the mass population and not monitoring this is an act of insanity and, of course, because of the growing body of evidence, it's now associating it with significant adverse health effects, especially in utero to an unborn foetus.   Nicole: (07:13) So as a result of that, very few countries actually continue to fluoridate their water supply. What the data is showing is that drinking fluoridated water doesn't actually protect teeth or bones. In fact, it displaces calcium and could increase the risk for hip fractures according to research by Colet in Canada. So what we're now realising is that we need a topical application of fluoride through toothpaste can provide some protection providing you spit it out, and that's why children that aren't old enough, you know below five, shouldn't be having fluoridated toothpaste, until they're old enough to be able to spit it out, because of course it's contaminated. It comes from a toxic slurry from either the phosphate fertiliser industry, which contains radioactive nuclides, lots of toxic metals in addition to fluoride, mercury, radium, lead, et cetera. So it contains other toxic contaminants, which is not tested before it is actually put into our water supply, and that alone is just insane.   Nicole: (08:15) So for Australians, which unfortunately are exposed to fluoridated water, unless you in some rural parts of Australia that aren't fluoridated, really the only options here are-   Nicole: (08:24) Yeah. You're not fluoridated, no?   Mason: (08:24) No.   Nicole: (08:24) Okay. And the fact that most countries... We're talking five countries that still fluoridate, which means hundreds of countries have never fluoridated, including most of Europe. You don't see tooth decay rates change, because they've introduced it into their water supply. What you do see in terms of improvement in dentistry is actually an improvement in diet and better dental hygiene, such as brushing your teeth with a little bit of fluoridated toothpaste and, of course, flossing and a good diet. That is the most important thing to prevent tooth decay.   Nicole: (09:04) So I want to make it really clear, most countries have never fluoridated. We're talking over 95% of countries, but those that do, such as capital cities throughout Australia, the only way you're going to get rid of fluoride is either with aluminium filters or with a reverse osmosis filter. Everything else, like carbon filters, may reduce the level, but the problem with water filtration is that they're all certified through a national body called the National Sanitation Foundation in the U.S., And most of the water filters are only tested after 20 litres is run through the water filter. So you don't really know, after thousands of litres, how effective that filter's going to because most the money to stood up for short time that what has been put through that filter system. And we certainly know things like carbon reduce very quickly in terms of their effectiveness to bind to organic matter like pesticides. But I'm jumping the gun. I don't want to get to water filters yet.   Nicole: (09:58) So in terms of tap water, we have fluoride. That's a big one. We have aluminium, and aluminium is added say, for example, in my water supply, we get it from Yarrow Valley Water, which comes from the Yarrow River. There's high levels of sediment in it. And in order to get rid of that sediment, they add aluminium in order to add as a flocculating agent, which gathers and sticks to the sediment and then sinks to the bottom. So they just get the water off the top and get rid of all the sediment. So you will have acceptable levels of aluminium in your water supply that we'll see, certainly in my water supply from Yarrow Valley Water, acceptable levels. So the Australian drinking water guidelines allow that.   Nicole: (10:37) The problem is aluminium, is it associated with dementia? We think so. It is associated with adverse health effects. The other area people can get aluminium exposure, apart from in their water supply, is if they have a hot water service and it has an aluminium anode in it. So basically, if you have a hot water service tank, steel tank, it normally has a stick in it, and it would normally contain... Aluminium would be the most common anode, and aluminium sacrifices itself in the water in order to reduce the corrosion of the tank. Once that aluminium anode has worn, that's when the steel tank starts to corrode and within seven years, you've got to get a new tank. What most people don't realise is that they can replace the aluminium anode at least every three years, and the tank will go on for at least double, maybe triple its life. Of course, problem is [inaudible 00:11:29]. People aren't going to earn money if they don't keep that turnover, dividends shareholders.   Mason: (11:33) Yes. [crosstalk 00:11:34].   Nicole: (11:33) The problem with aluminium. Yeah, you don't want the aluminium. So the big thing there is never ever drink hot water from your tap if you have a hot water tank because it could have aluminium ions in it. And, of course, a lot of the elderly do this. They put hot water to save the kettle boiling and that energy. They put hot water into their kettle, and then they boil it up. Don't do that, because if you have [inaudible 00:11:56] tank, you could expose yourself to higher levels of aluminium.   Mason: (11:59) Mm-hmm (affirmative). All right. Great. I love that tip. Where else we going with this? What are the myths?   Nicole: (12:06) Well, yeah, the other one of course... And. of course, aluminium can be high in just some areas or where they're getting bore or well water, where it's actually contained in the minerals. So as it's passing through the geology, and it could be exposed to high levels of aluminium, and that can be a big problem.   Nicole: (12:22) And another one, of course, in our water is that aluminium is very high in the fluoride slurry. So when they add fluoride, you can actually get significant levels of aluminium in the water supply just because it's part of that fluoride slurry, and that can be quite common as well.   Mason: (12:37) I'm glad you brought that up because that's something I talk about here and there, but it'd been about five years since I clarified that that standard practise with of the inclusion of fluoride into municipal supply. I wouldn't have suspected it would have changed, that slurry containing all the metals and all the other... And it was fertiliser. Was that the fertiliser industry?   Nicole: (13:01) [inaudible 00:13:01] fertiliser industry or aluminium industry, yes.   Mason: (13:01) That's right. The other thing you brought up, which I think is really important is whether you're on well water or, obviously, rainwater and especially if you're in a municipal supply is just getting it tested. I went through Rhys, one of your building biologists up here. He just brought in the sample. He sent it off to the lab. Boom. I knew exactly what type of whole house water filter I was going to be needing. But we get spring water delivered, so I wasn't really concerned on that level. But I got it for the business and then got it for the... Because even if people are showering, having a shower here, that's one of the times when you're going to be looking at that dermal crossover of the aluminium falling down onto your skin and into your mouth, and it's one of those things that freaks me out about travelling. Every now and then, I just don't quite get it together where I travel with my shifter and my water filter. I get to the hotel or the Airbnb, and it just doesn't work and my filter's a bit too fat to fit on the wall and-   Nicole: (14:00) You're hardcore.   Mason: (14:03) ... and so I'm like... Sometimes I'm just a little bit too scungy. Don't have a beach nearby, so I have a shower in the municipal supply and... Kind of not as full-on as I used to be. I take some charcoal or zeolites if I'm in those situations. But that's a little drop in the ocean. When you're talking about... You're talking about the build-up. That's just something people who consistently be doing is going, "Oh, when I'm cooking pasta, I'm just going to turn on the hot water."   Nicole: (14:36) Don't do that.   Mason: (14:38) Yeah, well... And it makes me realise when doing a water tests as well, it might be useful to get a test of the hot water as well to see what's going on in that area if you're on the municipal supply.   Nicole: (14:48) Well, you mentioned an important point there. In terms of dermal exposure, you absorb more chlorine through your shower water in your body than potentially evening drinking it. And chlorine is the strongest antibacterial, which is why, for no other reason apart for fluoride and aluminium as I've mentioned, and many others I have mentioned yet, but chlorine's really strong antibacterial, which means it's an anti-human because you are more bacteria than you are human cells. So chlorine helped got rid of the waterborne epidemics which is great, but it needs to be sufficient in the distribution systems, so there's significant amounts of active chlorine by the time it comes out of your tap. And for that reason alone, you need a carbon filter. You don't want to be drinking, ingesting chlorinated water. We know chlorine combines with other organic matter to form trihalomethanes which are very strongly carcinogenic, and that happens a lot in the showers, and of course, you absorb a lot of chlorine in the showers.   Nicole: (15:44) Now when I started getting into naturopathy, I found over the years that it was cheaper for me to recommend a client to get a KDF filter for their shower than it was to give them $200 worth of herbs every month that tasted bloody awful and went on and on, and it didn't make much difference to their eczema, when, in fact, chlorine is a really strong skin and lung irritant. So this was surprised a $70 filter could make such a big difference in reducing eczema in these people, because all my eczema patients were saying, "I can't bathe. When I have a bath or shower, I'm always worse." Of course, they're worse. Chlorine is a strong skin irritant. So just getting a KDF, kinetic degradation filtration filter, not a carbon, because hot water will enable bacteria to grow on the carbon. But KDF filter, that made a huge difference to many of my patients with eczema and especially for the bath and the shower. So that is something I strongly recommend.   Nicole: (16:44) There's also data to say that drinking chlorinated water over 35 years or so could increase the risk for things like bladder cancer or colorectal cancer. Now, that's really not surprising when you think chlorine kills bacteria, and your gut microbiome is the most important aspect to your health. So that's why I'd say before you even look at your diet, get a water filter, because you should not be ingesting any chlorine whatsoever. Yep.   Mason: (17:12) I just did my microbial report. Just wanted to get a real scope of what was going on in my microbial kingdom or queendom, whichever way we want to go. And I mean, I-   Nicole: (17:23) You're talking [inaudible 00:17:25], did you go up the bum for this one?   Mason: (17:27) Well, it came out of the bum, and then actually, nothing went in the bum.   Mason: (17:32) Just to clarify. I think I've got it up. I think went Microba. So they're local. And I was in that healthy range, and even though I was in that healthy range, right up in the healthy range, as well.   Nicole: (17:52) Oh great.   Mason: (17:54) My biodiversity is still quite low, considerably low, compared to where, what is... But that's kind of like shooting for something pretty special, but, nonetheless, based on what's possible and what's been identified out there and what would be an ideal real biodiversity bacteria, I was quite low, and that's with all the healthy eating and the herbalism and all. And I also probably have gone pretty extreme on particular diets over the years that have been a little more restrictive, and so I'm on a big rebuild and still on my little discovery at the moment, but, nonetheless, for me who's kind of doing... I'm doing a lot for my health, and still on that low biodiversity, so if I was then adding in the consumption of chlorine and an antibacterial like several times a day, it just goes to show why we do have... Why that link between autoimmune conditions and eczema would be creating such immediate flare-ups in kiddies when they're so... And going into big, chlorinated, indoor pools as well. I know it was always a big one for people I'd talk to. I'd suggest same thing, get a filter, and then it would still be happening and I'd be like, [inaudible 00:19:10] investigate and, "Are you the swimmer?" And I used to be a swimmer, so now I remember the difference when I quit, and I didn't have to go in that chlorine biodome a couple of times a week, how much clearer I personally became.   Mason: (19:27) So yeah, I think it's one of those ones that as you said... And the chlorine one I think is, it's too massive to ignore. Don't freak out you have to have a couple of showers here and there, and there's a little bit of chlorine going on is what I normally would put forward. I don't know what your take is, but just think about the consistency, just how many showers and baths are going to be having in your home. And we'll write down those filter recommendations that you have. Might grab some links off you to who you're currently investigating or maybe a couple with just the name or type of the filter, so people can get on to that, because it's an absolute. It's a necessity. We can't muck around with this anymore. It's too much of a foundational element of health. Were there any others that you wanted to go into?   Nicole: (20:13) Yeah, copper. Copper can be a big problem. Especially with old homes where you've got copper pipes. So it's not so much that it's in the drinking water system. It's actually coming out from the domestic pipe under the home. So if you've got copper pipe... Especially in the first five years, you've got shiny copper. What happens is that it leeches and releases copper ions into the water supply as its oxidising. So once you've got copper pipe that's been laid, good quality pipe for more than five years, and it's got that black dullness to which means it's oxidised and it's less likely to leech.   Nicole: (20:46) Now I had one particular patient who came to see me. Who put on 20 kilos of weight within two months, and hadn't changed her diet, didn't change her relationship, her job, anything. It eventually came down to she'd moved into a flat with her boyfriend in Melbourne, and within weeks, she had an acute abdominal pain and bloating, ended up in the hospital, and her appendix was removed even though it wasn't inflamed. And when I asked her about when the symptoms began, it was when she moved into this unit with her boyfriend. And I asked finally, after asking all these questions about the house, "Tell me about your drinking water. When you're away from the house for a good two or three days or more, what colour does it come out." She said, "It's a greeny-blue colour." Well, I said, "You need to get Yarrow Valley Water... Who was her water supplier... Out to check the levels of copper and lead. Don't turn your water on in the morning before they come."   Nicole: (21:38) She rang them that afternoon after the consultation. She saw me as a naturopath, and she said, "Look, my naturopath make me sick." They were there the next day. It was a free service. This was 15 years ago. And he said, "Look, the levels of copper are off the chart. I can't even give you a reading, because it's off our chart. It's so high." And it was a new apartment, which meant that the copper pipe had only been laid. It was still leeching high levels of copper iron. And you look at the symptoms of high levels of copper that's ingested, it's an acute abdomen. It reflects a similar scenario to an appendicitis. So I said to her, "I need you to get to the doctor to check the copper levels." And within two weeks the results came back [inaudible 00:22:18] said, "I've never seen anything like it. You've got high levels of copper in your body. I don't know what to do. Get back to the naturopath." And the problem was, because she...   Nicole: (22:26) We've got this hypothesis now, the obesogen hypothesis, that the way the body deals with toxins is to dump more fat, dump it into the fat tissue in order to shunt it away from the vital organs. This is something that Professor Bruce Blumberg from the University of California coined years ago, obesogens. That babies now are much more obese in Western countries before they've eaten eat food, because their toxic load is high, and they're probably shunting it to the fat tissue away from vital organs. Unfortunately, the foetus, their fat is only in their brain, because there's no fat on them when they're born.   Nicole: (23:02) So she had to detox over 12 months, because if she did detox quickly, then that would have exacerbated all the symptoms, because it would have loaded it into the blood. And that was copper, and that was in a new apartment. So if you're going to have copper exposure, it tends to be [inaudible 00:23:16] at high levels, acute abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, et cetera, but longterm, it can lead to things like miscarriages as well, and, of course, Alzheimer's. There's more data on that. Copper is used as an algaecide in spas. It's a very strong antibacterial like chlorine but also kills algae as well. So that's why it's not ideal to have in the water system, and that's why, again, it's really important that you have a filter, especially if you have copper pipe.   Nicole: (23:42) Now copper pipe, once it's oxidised and it's that dull nature, it's actually a good pipe to have, because it lasts for decades in the system, as opposed to the other pipes that are now available, like you poly pipes and your PVC, which is only used for sewerage. Sometimes you find the people's houses and they're drinking water, which is a disaster because it contains [inaudible 00:24:04] chemicals. But galvanised pipe is another one that with the lead solder you're getting potentially lead exposure. So sometimes the water contaminants have nothing to do with the drinking water supply. It's actually the pipes under the house that is contributing to the toxic load of these toxic metals.   Mason: (24:21) And something that always blows me away about whether we're going to get over the line, it's often an indicator as a society for me or whether we're actually going to develop or going to come out of ignorance using things like an off-gassing, new plastics and copper pipes and these kinds of things. And now it's very well known we can't be using these things straight out of the factory. But we've got such a fast growth model, and we got such a model that everyone's gotten like, "You've got no time" and "You've got no time to do that" and "If you do that and your competitors aren't that, then you're going to lose your competitive advantage." Whether it's that kind of Western mentality or whether it's the mentality where we just don't have ethics because no one knows about it. You can just plead ignorance, and therefore, we have the subtle lack of ethics in industry that just continue to go and just continue with practises that throw people under the bus and then leave them, like this woman you were talking about. Several people, you as an investigative naturopath and Chinese herbalist... Chinese doctor or herbalist for yourself?   Mason: (25:36) ... would know how painstaking it is for people to have to go on this investigation, and all the years just going through this detoxification. Anyway, that's my little vent about is our society going to make it or not? Will we develop ethics. Yeah, okay. You've got me thinking there about someone I know, as well, living in the city. Not that I'm going to go, "Okay. It must be a copper overload, so on and so forth, but it's got me thinking a little bit outside the box. I feel like even I sometimes if someone's been going through something for so long, and you get a little bit of... Their little hopelessness comes in, and you can only keep on pushing so much, but then I kind of felt like as a supporter of them fell into, "Is this just too hard? Is this just accepting that new normal?" And then every now and then, I get my little kick up the bum to be like, "No, come on, keep digging. There's going to be a-"   Nicole: (26:28) There's always a reason why people are sick. That was my mentality from the moment I studied naturopathy. I wanted to figure out what caused cancer. That was my drive. [inaudible 00:26:37] I was obsessed with it, because quite a few of my parents' friends had died from cancer in their 40s and 50s, and I thought, "No, there has to be... There's always a reason you just need to ask more questions to get to the root cause." And what I discovered studying naturopathy and acupuncture is that the root cause is not often addressed. Yeah, naturopathy looks at diet, but that's only one small part of a big pie of root causes, and most of those recorded there in the environment, which is why I establish the building biology industry in the college.   Nicole: (27:09) One thing I want to mention is that copper can often be in brass faucets and taps. And, in fact, in 2017, 1200 brass [inaudible 00:27:17] were found to have very high levels of lead in the Children's Hospital in Perth, in the new Children's Hospital in Perth. So these are things that you know... Lead can be... Sorry, lead can be in the brass taps and stuff, especially if they're imported overseas, because NICNAS, National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme, who regulates industrial chemicals, doesn't regulate imported goods. They're massive loopholes. That's why I wrote it in the book. You know, it's all very well to have your manufacturers in Australia that have to follow legislation and get rid of some toxic chemicals like formaldehyde and other things like this, but you can import those furnishings loaded with formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen because that's not a regulated imported good. Most people buy stuff from overseas and Asia, so... This is the ridiculousness of the whole process. So even brass taps can be high in lead, and that's why it's really important that you don't have brass taps, or at least that they're tested or all have been in manufactured in Australia.   Nicole: (28:16) PVC pipe... So people drinking tank water and they have PVC, polyvinyl chloride, pipes from the tank to their domestic water, they could expose themselves to lead, because a lot of PVC uses lead as a stabiliser, not just phalates the chemicals I mentioned before with PVC, but also lead stabilisers is a big problem. Kettles have been largely the cause of kettles that have lead in the element that exposed people when they were buying and using these kettles [crosstalk 00:28:47]-   Mason: (28:47) You mean electric kettles??   Nicole: (28:49) Yeah. It's not such a problem now. It was a big problem 10 years ago. But if you just look at, there's a website by the government on recalls, and I like to look at that from time to time, to go, "Hmm, a 150,000 toys recalled from lead exposure accidentally that were imported. That's a problem." And that's not the only ones. They're the ones they've checked. Most of them they don't check. So I'm always saying to people, "Buy things that are made in Australia, because these toxic metals and chemicals are less likely to be present in our furnishings, in our toys and other things like that."   Nicole: (29:24) The other thing about lead is that if you... In Melbourne, the city of Melbourne or Sydney, they could still have pure lead pipe under the city, because that's what they used in early 1900s up to 1930. They used pure lead pipe. Now this is what they thought was the demise of the Roman Empire was the use of lead pipe, because it makes the men infertile, it affects their prostate, it make them mad, and, of course, drop their IQ. So this part of the reason, because they used lead as a seasoning, as a salt on their food, if you were in the upper echelons of the Roman Empire. They were exposed to very high levels of lead. And, of course, in your crystals... Could be lead crystals, your fine crystalware that you have for your port or your expensive wines, et cetera, that you keep in your crystal decanters. That could be very loaded with lead.   Nicole: (30:14) So lead is a big one, especially with ingestion and drinking water and, of course, the biggest exposure to lead happens in tank water. And time and time again in Australia, they're finding high levels or elevated levels of lead in people's tank water, simply because they're gathering the water from the roof catchment area where there's lead flashing around the chimney or anything that's poking out of the roof. They used lead flashing in the past. And, of course, if they're getting their water from this roof catchment area with the lead flashing, then it's going to increase the lead levels in their tank.   Nicole: (30:48) The second source of lead in tank water is the fact that we use thousands and thousands of leaded petrol for decades in Australia, and that lead dust, as the result of the car exhaust, is sitting along all our roads, all our major freeways, still. So if you've of tank water, and you're close to these major freeways, you could have significant or elevated levels of lead in your drinking water, because it's sitting as dust on the tank and getting into the tank that way.   Mason: (31:16) Just a little sidestep from water... Just curious, because lead's always been one of those ones in the back of my mind, knowing it's ever present. And if I ever get really present to the actual reality of how much there is in the environment, it can get a little bit overwhelming at times, so I have my little things, whether they're placebo or effective that I do to try to ensure that I'm... Whether I'm chelating or just keeping my detoxification channels open. But do you have a couple of little things that make you feel, whether they're clinically proven and you feel that you've proven them in clinic with clients, whether it's a supplement you're taking or a practise that you have to ensure that you're maintaining an ability to remove lead inevitably coming into the body?   Nicole: (31:59) Well, the main way I reduce is to avoid exposure, so I'm very cautious about the type of fish I eat. I don't eat fish more than once a month. Like the Nordic countries state for a woman of reproductive age not to eat fish more than once a month, because it's loaded with PCBs and mercury and other things like that. This is especially the larger fish.   Nicole: (32:18) Supplements very important. Supplements are critical, especially your antioxidants, because they help you deal with a lot of the toxins that we're exposed to, and let's face it, every generation is born with more pre-pollution, so our toxic load has increased significantly. So supplements is something I take every day. I get a compounding pharmacist to make those supplements, multivitamins and minerals for me, because I react to the reagents and the binders and the fillers in them. So they tailor it for my height, my weight, where I am in my hormonal cycle, et cetera. So that's an absolute, critical thing for me.   Nicole: (32:54) I also eat a lot of prebiotics and a lot of fermented foods. My parents are Dutch, so we were brought up on wog food like sauerkraut, which we used to hate, but you know it was normal food for us. Fermented cabbages and other things like this and yoghurts, et cetera, and Karnemelk, which was like a yoghurt, but it's very sour. It's like fermented milk. We were brought up on all that. And I think fermented foods and bacteria is now found that it's more effective than the liver at detoxing.   Nicole: (33:25) So the weight in detox chemicals is fermented foods, and especially prebiotics as opposed to probiotics. I've moved our way up to going to all these medical conferences that I've spoken at around the world, a lot of them, especially specialists in probiotics are saying they can cause ulcerative colitis and other colonic-related problems. You're much better off to focus on the food that the bacteria need for the short-chain fatty acids, butyrate for example, for this bacteria in the gut. So prebiotics, fermented foods are really, really important, and I think that's probably the most important advice I can give to help you detox... Support the bacteria to produce the B vitamins and to toxic chemicals at the same time.   Mason: (34:06) Yeah, after I did a podcast just recently with a mate of mine, Dan. We basically just went diving into that. He's learning off that... He's a naturopath that's, basically, really spearheading a lot of this research and presenting on that shift towards prebiotics. He's down in Tasmania. I can't remember his name right now. But it's gotten me-   Nicole: (34:27) [inaudible 00:34:27]?   Mason: (34:27) Yeah, that sounds about right. After a while I realised if anyone's been studying this stuff, they're studying with him. He's one of those guys. Got me really thinking about taking at least an aspect of my diet towards building up, obviously, as I said, the microba report, building up that biodiversity. And it's got me challenging a couple of my own belief systems around food. I'm kind of gonna go in that direction, because after looking at the research and looking at the practicality and the fact that just my own instinct and my own survival Instinct around building and eating for a strong biodiversity there in my microbial kingdom. I'm with you. It just seems like it needs to have just as much focus now as the liver would or the colon would and way more than the colon would and its flushing or anything like that. Just create that system that's going to keep you singing along. It's like your own health insurance. You could-   Nicole: (35:29) Absolutely. And that's why a water filter is critical, because you don't want to be ingesting things like copper or chlorine that you know are very strong anti-bacteria. You want to make sure it's not going to do the opposite to what you're trying to do with your diet by enhancing your bacterial diversity in the gut. And what we now know with the healthy home is that the more diverse the bacteria is and household dust, the healthier the kids are and far less likely they're going to develop asthma allergies. That's why using sanitizers in the home is an act of insanity, because it's the antithesis of what the research is saying. The kids in the Amish community have very low rates of asthma and allergy, and they have very high bacterial diversity, because they have farm animals and pets. They have big families. So they're shedding [inaudible 00:36:14] to 37 million bacterial genome copies. Every person sheds that every hour into the household dust. And the more diverse that bacteria is the lower the risk of asthma and allergies.   Nicole: (36:24) So I don't want to be starting to use the sanitizers all over the house et cetera. If you've got any gastro or someone's sick, you're much better off to get a microfiber cloth and wipe those surfaces like your handles, door handles, fridge handles, et cetera with a microfiber cloth just to reduce the load and lift it off the surface. You don't want to chemically mutate by using chemicals and sanitizers that are high in these petrochemical solvents and, of course, potentially hormone disrupting chemicals to the family.   Mason: (36:55) That's a good tip. And what you were saying just using that cloth to reduce the load, the bacterial load that you're potentially going to take it in with-   Mason: (37:03) Mm.   Nicole: (37:08) Which is unusual. Most of the time people don't have gastro, unless I've got a cold or flu and I want to reduce cross infection, then you're using a microfiber cloth on your high-usable areas, like your door handles, for example... especially your fridge handles, to prevent cross-contamination. But the most important thing is why is it that you could swab that entire family, and they've all got the virus or the bacteria, but only one person has symptoms? Because they're run down. So the big question is, "Why's everyone got that?"   Nicole: (37:39) Potentially, we all have coronavirus, but very few of us will show the symptoms. And that the real question is, as naturopath, "What is it that enables you to be exposed but not develop symptoms?" So how much sun exposure do you have? What is your diet like? How much clean air and clean water do you ingest? And what is your attitude like? And what's your stress levels like? And that's really the important questions to stimulate good health. It's a combination of all those issues.   Nicole: (38:06) You know Epstein-Barr virus, glandular fever, 90% of all [inaudible 00:38:09] to be exposed to the virus. I didn't get Epstein-Barr virus. Have you had glandular fever?   Mason: (38:13) Uh-uh (negative).   Nicole: (38:15) No, exactly. And I'm not sure if they swabbed you, they'd go, "Yeah." If they took your blood samples, they'd say, "Yeah, you've actually got the antibodies." Most people were exposed. The very few, a very tiny percentage actually develop it, and it's normally when they're immunocompromised because they're doing BCE or high school, year 11 and 12, because they've had a major stress. Someone's died. They're separated or a major trauma or poor diet or something like that that made them susceptible to that bug that their immune system couldn't get over it. And that's the reality of the viruses.   Mason: (38:45) Yeah, the fact that these questions... I understand why they're not being asked on a larger level of if we want to... People are going, "It's such a mystery why some people aren't presenting any symptoms," and I'd assume that's terrible science if they just going to leave it there and then shrug their shoulders and go, "All right. Move on." They're not doing any tests on what's going on hormonally, what kind of level of health you're seeing in the nervous system, as you're saying, some exposure. It's all a bit ridiculous, and some would say that viral exposure and bacterial exposure is somewhat how we've evolved to become who we are today. So changes [crosstalk 00:39:19]-   Nicole: (39:19) Yes, well, mitochondria are bacteria, so we are bacteria.   Mason: (39:23) Yeah, that's [crosstalk 00:39:24].   Nicole: (39:25) And there's some things we haven't discussed, like pesticides in our drinking water supply are really common in our tap water, for example. In bore well water, you don't know how much pesticides. My big concern with bore well water, which is only a small proportion of Australians who drink from bore water and a very high proportion of the U.S. that do. That's why they've had all those problems with the Love Canal, and towns in America where they're being exposed to all these flame retardants and other things like this... Is that with bore water you have to test on a very regular basis, because what the contaminants that could be, it can be naturally dry, because it's gone through rock that's highly radioactive or has high levels of arsenic, for example, in it. So you need to test. Or it could be upstream from a farm 200 kilometres away, but it's going into the aquifers, and it's now affecting the water supply. So with bore water, you really have to have a filter, because you don't know the fluctuations of what could be in it from any given moment in time, especially [crosstalk 00:40:22]   Mason: (40:22) Yeah, that's the reality of spring water as well now, unfortunately as well, but I think we've got the ability to test, so we might as well do it. Yeah, the pesticide factor's a huge one. I don't know where it's at in terms of... Again, I've stopped mentioning where the data is at, because I don't understand, you know, via each municipal council as well, where the pharmaceutical levels are, I know at one point everyone was saying, whether it's the radioactivity of people... Whether it's the recycling of water from the people on chemotherapy and radiotherapy and antidepressants and all that kind of stuff staying in the water supply. How much truth is there to that still?   Nicole: (41:06) Well recycle waste water. We know we can't get rid of phthalates and antidepressants and a lot of pharmaceuticals they can't get out of it if it's recycled. So I'm very anti-recycling water. Britain's water supply, most of that is recycled, and a lot of Arab countries also have recycled water, because they're water poor, in so far as water isn't common in their countries and deserts, for example. It just shows that the antidepressants in a lot of the pharmaceutical drugs and the pill, for example, you can't actually filter it even with reverse osmosis filter, which is considered to be the queen of all the filters. So that is certainly a problem and continues to be a problem. So you would be having detectable levels of antidepressants in Britain's water supply by drinking their water, because you actually can't filter a lot of those pharmaceuticals out of, and many of them are things like antibiotics, from contraceptive pill, antidepressants, anti-inflammatory drugs and, of course, you mentioned chemotherapeutic drugs which are highly toxic medications that are found in small levels, but they're still found in recycled water. That's why I would not ever drink recycled water.   Mason: (42:12) No. It must be why they're so happy, all those antidepressants in the water. So lets some jump into water filters. So would you suggest we talk about in a two-tier in terms of what we would use potentially on the house and then what we'd use for drinking water?   Nicole: (42:29) Sure. So it depends if you've got tank water, then you needed UV filter, because microbes in the tank and the mosquito larvae and the animals getting the tank, can cause E. coli and faeces and you don't want that, so they definitely need the UV filters as part of the water filter system. But the main thing is that... Water filter, it's not magic. It's proper, hardcore science.   Nicole: (42:53) If you have a particle filter, like what we call a "sediment filter," it will filter down to about 20 microns or so. So it gets rid of all your dirt and your sediment and your sand and other things like that. And that's normally the filter you would use prior to then going into a carbon filter.   Nicole: (43:10) The carbon filter is mainly filtering organic matter, like pesticides and petrochemicals and chlorine. So that's getting rid of a lot of the chemicals that have a carbon as part of their atomic structure. That's what we call organic, so we mean "organic" in scientific terms. That means it contains carbon, not that it's free from pesticides. So sediment filter, which is normally a white, pleated filter, will get rid of the larger particles and dirt, and then it protects and increases the service life of the carbon filter, which it'll move next going through. Depending on how the granulated activated carbon is activated as to what micron size it is, as to how small these sediments can pass through, and how effective it is at filtering organic matter, like pesticides and petrochemicals and chlorine. So you can get different types of carbon filters, depending on whether they're one micron, five microns, ten microns. So one micron is going to be 10 times more forgiving than 10 microns, because the pore sizes are much smaller in the way that it's been activated in a oxygen-free environment when they're creating these carbon filters. So carbon is really, really important. In fact, it forms the two or three stages of carbon in a reverse osmosis filter.   Nicole: (44:29) Reverse osmosis is normally a five or six stage filtration system, contains pre-sediment filters, which is the particle filters I mentioned, then a carbon filter, I believe at least one or two carbon filters, and then ultimately it'll have an ultra filter membrane, which is in the angstrom, which is less than microns. It's so tiny that it will get rid of the smallest atom, which is fluoride, out of the water supply. But that ultra filter membrane costs about a couple hundred dollars to replace every five years or so, as opposed to the pre-sediment filter which might cost you $10 to replace every six months. Carbon filters you might replace every six months or so.   Nicole: (45:10) So yeah, water filtration is not rocket science. It's about physically removing the particles and then chemically removing the particles, so you sediment filters for particles, and then you use carbon filters to get rid of the chemicals, and then the ultra filter membrane will get rid of the very small atoms like all your toxic metals and your things like fluoride.   Nicole: (45:32) You also have alumina or aluminium type of filters that will help or iron exchange, that will attract toxic metals that will reduce them out of the filter. I don't like iron exchange filters, because they can impart the resins back into the water supply.   Nicole: (45:48) The other issues with all water filters, especially if they have carbon is that once the chemicals are sitting on the carbon filter, if that's full, it starts putting it back into the water supply. So you have to replace the water filters. I don't like water filters that say you never replace them. You need to replace the sediment filter. You should replace your carbon filter, because once those sites are taken up by those chemicals, you need to get rid of it and put in a new water filter.   Mason: (46:15) So you're starting off, basically, with a reverse osmosis with that triple action, or is that third microfilter something additional?   Nicole: (46:27) Ultrafilter membrane? No, it's a part of reverse osmosis filtration system. I think reverse osmosis, it's the best in terms of physically getting rid of all the contaminants. There's no doubt about that. Some people would argue that it leaves acidic water. I would argue that everything in nature is acidic. If you look at the ocean, if you look at the lakes, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air from carboxylic acid and hydrogen ions, which actually makes everything in nature is slightly acidic.   Nicole: (46:54) I am really not into alkalizing the water, because your stomach has a pH, depending on before or after eating, of around 3, pH 3. And it needs to be to activate intrinsic factor, proteins to be able to create hormones and in order to digest proteins is really important. I don't want to alter that by drinking a whole lot of alkaline water and creating a buffer system in my gut, because most adults have low stomach acid, and their ability to digest proteins is already compromised, let alone drinking heaps of alkaline water and affecting your stomach acid even more. it doesn't make sense scientifically to drink alkaline water and equate that to alkaline blood. Blood alkaline is a very narrow range and to alter between it means you're probably going to be dead.   Nicole: (47:45) The only way to slightly alkalize your body in the blood is to go to a vegetarian diet. It's not by drinking alkaline water. So I'm not into alkaline water for that reason. I think most adults are low in stomach acid, and they need to be higher, and that's why apple cider vinegar, again, another fermented food is very useful and very useful for people with arthritis, because they don't digest proteins, so the apple cider vinegar helps them digestion helps them digest proteins, and suddenly their arthritis is better, because they're not absorbing proteins and polypeptides. It breaks it down into amino acids.   Nicole: (48:19) So I don't think we need to add another filter to the RO system in order to alkalize it at all. I think our nutrient should be coming from our food, not necessary from our water.   Nicole: (48:30) Now, of course, I haven't discussed the whole thing on the energetics of water, Masaru Emoto's research and all that stuff. You're at least 70-80% water, probably closer to 90%, now that we understand that we're bathed in this fluid. And I do believe how we think can affect the vibration of the water within us, without any shadow of a doubt. So in terms of the water and putting love and energy to it... I think we need more love and energy. We can take a lot more of that in the world-   Nicole: (49:00) ... But I think it's very hard to quantify that.   Mason: (49:02) It's one of those funny ones that it's not it's nice to... In order to be a real integrated person in this world, you need to have some real reality underneath your feet in terms of what you're saying and looking at the data and being able to actually back up your actions with some like, "Well, I'm using these filters in order to actually get these toxins out." But then otherwise, you're going to become a boring, stale, mental person if you just stay in that world altogether. And that's when you get like that... You shower it with that Earth poet love vibration that we can bring into us, just sending a little prayer into our waters before we drink it and appreciation for the fact that we've got access to water like this. I'm with you on that.   Mason: (49:45) And I'm also with you on the alkaline water. I've never been into alkaline water. And I've been an advocate for spring water for so long, and spring water's generally always acidic, and river water's always neutral, generally. And so, you've absolutely knocked it out of the park in describing why that's not such a great idea long-term. I can't say for sure that it's not good in short-term healing protocols, but I actually... I wouldn't be going there first, as you said, there's other ways to do it... And breathing as well. Breathing is one of the most effective ways to alter alkalinity in the body, whether or not you're doing that so fast or not.   Mason: (50:28) So do you go... Because the other argument around reverse osmosis is that it's demineralizing, it strips everything out and therefore, you need to go and add the things back in. It's one of the narratives around reverse osmosis. And sometimes I get a sense of it where if I've ever been in the city and getting those cartons of pure water that's reverse osmosis, sometimes feeling like it's... I feel like sometimes I'm left a little bit more... I'm wanting. Do you have any other strategies that you go-   Nicole: (51:00) Yeah. That's certainly an argument, and I think that's valid. I think adding a bit of salt, really good quality sea salt that's naturally full of lots of electrolytes and minerals are great way to enhance that. Yeah, it is something that you can do just by adding tiny little bit of really, really good quality salt to remineralize the water that way, especially when you're cooking. So, most of my water comes from... I do drink a lot of water... Would be I cook a lot of soup. So I'm adding all the minerals that are naturally in my organic veggies, et cetera, to the water supply and then really good quality salts to it that way. And I think that's where I mainly get a lot of those nutrients, just in the foodS that I'm cooking, and in the fact that I do it a lot... We eat a lot of soup here at home. So yes, I would certainly encourage people to maybe consider that, providing they don't have blood pressure, to add a really good quality, a little bit of salts to their water supply, especially if you're going to keep it in the fridge, too.   Mason: (51:57) Yeah. Good to hear. That's normally what I travel with. I travel with my little sea salt, and I just splash that in there to keep me going book. Just kind of bringing it home. Do you have anything in terms of a whole house filter or maybe just a shower filter as a minimum requirement that people could go and investigate?   Nicole: (52:17) Yeah, absolutely. So on my website, buildingbiology.com.au, there's a list of water filtration systems that I recommend. With the showers filters, I don't sell them, but you can get them through a lot of the plumbing stores, Arcadia Showers. I do have a list of water shops that people can go to, and they're everywhere really, but KDF, mentioned in the book, is a really good one. It's about seventy odd dollars, and you put it to your shower. The only problem is, it screws into the walls. So you may not have [inaudible 00:52:45] in your shower to be able to do it as you mentioned, but that's a really simple one to stop the water... to get rid of the chlorine, so it's not irritating your skin.   Nicole: (52:54) Obviously, a whole-house system is ideal, and there is an Extreme Wellness whole-house filter system that I'm about to get involved with, which it looks fantastic. And you're not changing the filters as often as the ones that I've had before. I've had whole-house filter systems before, and every six months I have to replace these massive filters that are $50 each, and that's the wholesale cost, which shows me how clogged our system gets very, very quickly. As I said, "If you don't get a filter, your body's going to be the filter." So it's really important as often as you can is to filter the water system, especially what you're drinking, because you don't want to put that extra burden on the gut and certainly onto the kidneys. So there's the list there online, on my website and, of course, my book describes the different types of water filter systems.   Mason: (53:42) Okay. We'll put that in the show notes. Jump over to the website. Always get the book and it's one of those books, I think I say it every time we talk, get a couple of them, because it's one of those ones, "Yeah, Healthy Home Healthy Family..." When you've got friends coming over, especially if it's... I think it's that pivotal time like when a mum or dad when they're starting to awaken to everything that's going on in terms of the toxic load within the house, and it gets really overwhelming... It's a really good book to just be able to go to your bookcase and just give them a copy. I highly recommend that. I've done that with [inaudible 00:54:20] couple, and I've done that, and I think everyone should... I got that habit from my mum years ago. She used to have a clinic, and then every now and then, someone would come in and start crying about the fact that they couldn't.. They were addicted to this or that, and she'd always have her favourite book to help him get over their addictions, and I always remember that. And those are the few books that sit in the back of my mind as one of those and yours definitely is.   Mason: (54:45) Now is the best way to get informed of when say you... It would be great when you're working with the whole-house filter, people to be informed of that or just when the course is going to be launched. Is the mailing list the best way to do that?   Nicole: (55:01) Yeah, so I'll let you know. As we discussed prior to this interview that I'm developing a six-week Healthy Home course for the public, which will be really affordable and to dispel a lot of the myths, how to reduce the toxic load in the house, how to clean, simple things like how to get rid of mould that doesn't use [inaudible 00:55:17] and how to reduce exposure and prevent mould in the first place. Exposure to wireless technology, how to live technologically without exposure. So yeah, I'm really excited to launch that, a lot of simple tips for mums and dads and to dispel a lot of the myths that are out there on all of these things in the house.   Mason: (55:36) That's so good. Yeah. I'm going to... We're going to Make sure we blast that out there to the SupestFeast crew aswell, because it's one of those things as well, we're doing tonic herbs and medicinal mushrooms and trying to look for immunological sovereignty, and building back Kidney. You know everything about that. And Jing deficiency in this world, but at the same deal, it's why we like having these chats, because... That's Goji in the background, coughing up a lung... A dog, not a human coughing up a lung.   Nicole: (56:01) I'm just glad you clarified it wasn't your backside.   Mason: (56:05) Sneezing, sneezing out a lung, weren't you, Goji. Sorry, I don't want to misrepresent you.   Mason: (56:10) If we can match all these beautiful things we're doing with herbalism and food and movement with... And something, it's really... It's underrepresented, ramping up creating bacterial biodiversity in your home and getting the chemical out of your home with these very simple tips. Understanding how to remove mould. It's huge and it just takes us to another level. So we're going to stay in the loop, make sure everyone goes and jumps on the mailing list over at buildingbiology.com?   Nicole: (56:38) .com.au   Mason: (56:40) .au   Nicole: (56:41) Beautiful. Thanks so much for coming on again-   Mason: (56:43) Thank you.   Nicole: (56:44) ... and learning us up about water.   Mason: (56:46) Thank you so much for inviting me. Anytime.   Nicole: (56:49) See you next time.

Mason welcomes Nicole Bijlsma onto the podcast today. Nicole is building biologist who single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia. After 15 years of clinical practice as a Naturopath and Acupuncturist, Nicole switched things up, changing her career pathway after noticing a strong correlation between the ill health of many of her patients and the health hazards they were exposed to in their homes. Nicole is a ball of passion, knowledge and insight, delivering the cold hard facts about environmental hazards such as 5G, EMFs, mould and more! Truly a woman on a mission, Nicole has great zeal for raising awareness and educating individuals on how they can create health in their body, homes and general environments. Mason and Nicole discuss: Building biology, what it is and what a building biologist does. The concept that the home or building we spend our time in, being like a third layer or extension of our skin. New home technology and exposure standards; human safety vs profit. The health impacts of EMF exposure. The relationship between immune deficiency and mould, EMF, chemical  sensitivity. The importance of taking a full case history when working to identify the root of chronic disease, and how the mainstream medical system fails us in this regard - "taking a thorough environmental exposure history is the most important thing a doctor can do, and none of them were trained to do it" 5G and why the configuration of the network is problematic for health. The origin of 5G technology, why it was developed and what it was used for.  The data on heavy metal load and electromagnetic sensitivity in humans. Identifying health risks in the home. The myths around EMF shielding equipment and technology. The importance of a healthy lifestyle and home environment in cultivating resilience against EMF exposure.  Who is Nicole Bijlsma? Nicole Bijlsma is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. Nicole was a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience who changed her career pathway to become a building biologist after noticing a strong correlation with many of her patients illnesses and health hazards in their home. Nicole is the author of the best seller Healthy Home, Healthy Family, was a columnist for Body+Soul (Herald Sun) and is frequently consulted by the media to comment on health hazards in the built environment (The 7PM Project, Sunrise, The Today Show, The Circle, Channel 7 News, Today Tonight, Channel 74, ABC radio, Fox FM, numerous webinars and podcasts). Nicole has thirty years experience lecturing at tertiary institutions in nutrition, Chinese Medicine and environmental medicine, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. Nicole's extensive knowledge in environmental medicine has seen her speak at various conferences both in Australia and abroad (USA, Thailand and New Zealand). Nicole single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia, was the former President of the Australasian Society of Building Biologists and established the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. The college is the only institution in Australia to provide nationally accredited training in Building Biology and Feng Shui. Nicole is currently completing her PhD investigating health hazards in the built environment under the supervision of Professor Marc Cohen at RMIT.    Resources: Nicole's Website  Nicole's Book Australian College Of Environmental Studies Website Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason: (00:00) Nicole, thank you so much for joining us.   Nicole Bijlsma: (00:02) Good to be back, Mason.   Mason: (00:04) Yeah, it's been about three years. We're on the SuperFeast Podcast and well it's been three years since you were on the Mason Taylor Show. Now we're on the SuperFeast Podcast, really stoked to be introducing to a much wider audience at this point. So I'm just really excited to share the work around Building Biology, the amount of people who have given me feedback around your book, and just how much it's become a staple for them, and just with really great grounded information. I really want to get this whole community and crew onto it. So let's just dive into it. It's a crazy time in the world. What's taking up a lot of your world and your focus at the moment?   Nicole Bijlsma: (00:54) Well, mould and electromagnetic fields take up most of my time, but I'm currently in the last year of my PhD, and I'm doing a randomised, controlled crossover study that's double-blind, which involves exposing 14 healthy adults to a baby monitor for two weeks. So it's second and fourth week during the intervention weeks, and they don't know if it's on or off, and seeing if it has an impact on their brainwaves, their heart rate variability and their sleep function. So we're currently crunching the numbers as we speak and hopefully by the end of the year there'll be a paper out of it.   Mason: (01:30) So immediately what I'm thinking is, "How long have baby monitors been a thing?" Here's a technology that was willy-nilly introduced and allowed and encouraged to be put next to newborns. Yet how many decades are we down the track, and have there been many studies like this that have been double-blind placebo and empirical?   Nicole Bijlsma: (01:51) Very little. Very little like this.   Mason: (01:54) So I mean this immediately throws us into a huge conversation around, as you were saying, being the focus of EMF. Everyone's in their home and that's why I wanted to have this conversation. A Building Biologist locally in the area, Rhys, when he first came to our place and we were dealing with some mould. That was four years ago when he came and chatted to us about the house being that third layer of skin and he was teaching us about Building Biology a little bit more. Since then he's come and done an audit of our new warehouse in Mullumbimby in-   Mason: (02:25) Definitely recommend people tune in with a qualified Building Biologist for commercial reasons as well. But it is a third layer of skin, our skin, our clothes, and then our house. And everyone's in the home right now and everyone's looking around and everyone's trying to rest and relax and finding there's some blockages in their way, and looking, "Oh wow, we're living in this plethora of technology." Yet, you're talking about something as simple and as innocent as a baby monitor, and yet there's a reason for you to be studying to see if it has ill effect on an adult and their brainwaves, and I'm sure in other variables. What's going on here with the need to review a technology decades down the track, rather than there being a watchdog or an Ombudsman to ensure that this technology isn't detrimental as it's being rolled out?   Nicole Bijlsma: (03:20) Well, that's a good question in relation to exposure standards. Exposure standards are not health-based standards. They're developed in compromise with industry to see what's practicable in a work place. There are no standards for residential settings because you can't suit yourself living in your own home. So unfortunately consumers wrongly assume when they go to the Telstra stores, Optus stores, et cetera, that because it's on the shelf it must have been tested, when in fact that couldn't be further from the truth. The way in which exposure standards are developed is manufacturers can put, whether it's telecommunications or agriculture, pharmaceuticals, not so much pharmaceuticals. But chemical industries can put products onto the supermarket shelf with very little testing because the burden of proof isn't on them to prove its safe. It's on researchers like me to spend their life to prove if it's dangerous.   Nicole Bijlsma: (04:14) And of course we have lots of examples in history where public health doesn't exist. Asbestos. We had potters from hundreds of years ago, with lung related diseases, exposed to asbestos because it's naturally found in the ground when they were cobbing, you know, using pottery et cetera. Whitman was a good example, where people were exposed to all of these asbestos fibres. And of course the latency period is 37 years or so. So it's the same with electromagnetic fields. We actually know how electromagnetic fields affect the human body at a cellular level, but we don't know what it is about the field that's triggering this type of reaction.   Nicole Bijlsma: (04:55) So with exposure standards, they're not health-based. Public health in this arena does not exist. They are waiting to see, and this is where they hide, that, "Until it's conclusive we're not going to do anything about it," because there's too many trillions of dollars to make. And that's the problem. Consumers probably think, "Oh, it must have been tested and it must be safe before it's there." In fact, it's the opposite, and that's why I set up the Australian College of Environmental Studies, a registered trading organisation, to train people to educate the masses that they can't make informed choices because they don't understand that these exposure standards are developed in consultation with the industry that's selling the product.   Mason: (05:37) So where do you focus in Building Biology and for yourself now? Here and now, what are you focusing on in the house? Some staples to ensure that we're at least not overly exposing ourselves. What's in our control?   Nicole Bijlsma: (05:54) Yeah, so basically if anybody just goes in and identifies other hazards in a built environment that are affecting their health. The first thing a Building Biologist is trying to do is to take a thorough exposure history, an environmental exposure history. So we look at the client's symptoms, and the symptoms will guide us as to what to look for in the house. So we know, for example, with asthma and allergies we're looking at dust mite load, we're looking for cockroaches, we're looking for rodent droppings and urine. We're looking for the pets. We're looking for things like mould, which is one of the biggest triggers for asthma and allergies. If they've got fatiguing syndrome, autoimmune disease, it is again mould. It's huge. I think at least 40% of the housing stock in Australia has some degree of water damage, whether it's a smaller degree of water damage being small risk, higher degree of water damage means high risk. So, yes, this is a huge part.   Nicole Bijlsma: (06:46) With electromagnetic fields I expect to see symptoms of specific headaches, palpitations, awareness of the heart beating, inability to sleep is a big one, fatigue, fibromyalgic type of symptoms. You know, these are the common symptoms. And ironically, once someone becomes mould sensitive, more often than not they become electrically sensitive. Once they become chemically sensitive they become more electrically and mould sensitive. I actually don't see the three of them as different because they all perpetuate each other. So the Building Biologist might be called in because a client has a concern about the smart metre, but we'll go in and see the visible mould, smell the damp odour, and we know that's going to affect their immune response to such a degree that they'll become more sensitive to other hazards like chemicals, electromagnetic fields from wireless technology, and of course, mould.   Mason: (07:39) With electromagnetic fields, is this at all creeping into the mainstream, or are you finding resistance to your work? Just for instance, like Lyme disease, right. You might go to a hospital in Sydney, someone will laugh you out and just say, "It's in your head." Here in Byron Bay, going to a hospital that will give you Doxycycline because they'll be able to recognise the eschar. So it's creeping up in the awareness and the acknowledgement. Do you know where the acknowledgment is at within the, for lack of a better word, mainstream medical system?   Nicole Bijlsma: (08:15) Well, they're not taught to take an exposure history, so if you don't ask the right questions you're never going to get the answers. And this is the problem. I published a study a couple of years ago with Professor Marc Cohan, interviewing the top environmental doctors in Australia and New Zealand who specialise in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and environmental sensitivities to see what are the best tests to identify toxic load. And the only thing they agreed on was that taking a thorough environmental exposure history is the most important thing a doctor can do, and none of them were trained to do it. They had to develop it themselves as a result of listening to their patients over many decades, to come up with their own exposure history.   Nicole Bijlsma: (08:55) And what we find with people, by the time they're diagnosed with an environmental sensitivity like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome... MS, I would say a lot of the patients I see with MS have significant mould related issues and biotoxin issues from Lyme disease et cetera, or stealth infections, is to take a proper, thorough history. And this takes 90 minutes. Now the medical system isn't geared to actually doing that. So for them to do it they could risk being deregistered because Medicare, really, they're geared in their trade to deal with acute diseases, which is great. But when it comes to chronic illnesses it's failing miserably, as everyone knows. And even across health industries, whether it's Naturopathy, Kinesiology, Chiropractics, we're not training them to take an environmental exposure history, so we don't understand that a lot of fibromyalgia and fatiguing syndrome we see is actually due to health hazards in the built environment.   Mason: (09:51) I mean it's such a symptom of our reductionist mentality that we're not a part of the environment that we live in. And it's one thing to be like what the medical system would see as just being a hippy, thinking you're going to be connected to the natural environment around you. But just the concept that you're not even going to be affected, no way, by the environment of the room that you're sleeping in every night, it gets a little bit ludicrous. And to think that that could be a mentality and that could be a way that you see the world. But it's understandable, as you say. They just don't get taught it. It's just not in their training, is it?   Nicole Bijlsma: (10:24) Well, that's the thing. A lot of the data on electromagnetic fields, mould, and chemicals is actually not in medical journals. When I went to publish this study about how the doctors assess toxic load, it was rejected by the medical journals as not relevant. So it got published in an environmental journal, where the doctors don't read it. This is the conundrum. They're not interested in getting to the root cause of the illness because it doesn't provide dividends for shareholders. And unfortunately, the longer I'm in this industry the more I realise it's about money.   Mason: (10:59) Absolutely. It is about money. So the big topic going around at the moment is 5G. And I feel pretty cruisy. We did a podcast about it recently and the one thing I share about most of these things is I like keeping a level head about my reaction and the way that I'm relating to EMF in my environment, or if there's going to be toxic exposure. As long as I can be really level and cool and chill about it so I'm not causing more endocrine and nervous system stress through my reaction. Then I'll kind of go forth and start considering. So I like having level conversations about 5G because it seems like in the extended internet world or Murdoch press world, is if you even mention it in any kind of questioning of 5G, then immediately you're in the camp of thinking that 5G causes COVID and all that kind of thing, which I just don't even want a part of that conversation.   Mason: (12:02) The part of the conversation I'm really interested in is in the context of what's going on now with yourself studying baby monitors, rather than testing 5G layered on top of 4G, or just for that matter, any new technology. How about we just slow down, think of a way, test it on humans, get it greener if possible. As you said, I know that's not a realistic thing to ask of a big conglomerate because all they want is money. Nonetheless, just to kind of reiterate, or I'd like to hear from your perspective. What is the stance of Building Biology, or the request or where you're trying to move in the direction of as these new technologies get introduced into the environment?   Nicole Bijlsma: (12:57) Yeah, well, 5G of course is very different to the other four generations because it's going to involve near instant connectivity, ultra low latency, so there's virtually no lag. I mean because who doesn't want to download 600 feature films a minute? Sarcastically.   Mason: (13:18) Yeah. Oh, yeah.   Nicole Bijlsma: (13:21) You know, 50 times bandwidth compared to the 4G, and connects billions of devices on the internet of things. The problem is that this generation is very different to the previous four insofar as that the infrastructure's very different. You need antennas every 50 to 200 metres from your home, because they're using millimetre wave radiation, which is incredibly small waves. And the reality is I don't even think it's going to work in Australia because a Eucalyptus tree will block the frequency. So unless you have a direct line of sight it's going to be difficult. And if you've got a lot of metal in your home that could reflect it as well, which could be a good thing, providing you don't have internet connection inside.   Nicole Bijlsma: (13:58) In terms of health effects, this is the contention. It's because it's high millimetre wave radiation, it's a different frequency, and that means there's actually very little data on its impact on health. The research that has been conducted has shown that it affects the skin temperature. It does alter gene expression. It does promote oxidative stress, which is what we know about all the other forms of electromagnetic fields, whether it's AC magnetic fields from current or radio frequencies from all your wireless devices. It causes oxidative stress. It acts on voltage-gated calcium channels, results in calcium influx in the cell, which results in all these free radicals. And once that overwhelms the cell, and there's not enough antioxidants then the mitochondria become affected and eventually the cell dies.   Nicole Bijlsma: (14:44) But in terms of the physical diseases, only the research that's conclusive says that it causes eye damage and cataracts. That's been really thoroughly studied in rodent studies since the 1960s, that it causes cataracts, because it hits... Because the eyes lack sufficient blood flow they can't dissipate the heat quick enough so it causes oxidative stress and cataracts. It also acts on the sweat ducts in the skin. And this is why it was developed by the military for crowd control. When you have 5G or high millimetre wave radiation projected towards a human it affects the sweat ducts because they act as helical antennas. It vibrates the two to five million sweat ducts and causes to heat from the inside out, which is really uncomfortable, which is why when you use it for crowd control people disperse very quickly.   Mason: (15:34) Wow. And that's like an actually proved in-use measure for crowd control?   Nicole Bijlsma: (15:42) Yeah, and that's what it was developed for. It was a [inaudible 00:15:46] device for the military. Absolutely. That's the problem. So long term exposure, we're not really sure, because this is the thing. We introduce a product like asbestos and we go, "There's no side effects." It's the poor dog defence. "My dog doesn't bite. 5G doesn't bite." You telecommunications say to us, "You prove it's dangerous, but we're going to keep it and expose it to the population for decades until you prove conclusively." That's freaking ridiculous.   Mason: (16:15) Yeah.   Nicole Bijlsma: (16:15) They should be required to prove conclusively that it's safe. And yet this is not the way capitalist society works. And unfortunately that's the problem. So there isn't a lot of data. I hear there's some coming out more and more, certainly in related studies, that it has significant adverse health effects at an animal study level. But of course the telecommunications will use animal studies to prove that something is safe for them, but then dismiss it when you show that it's dangerous. So that's the problem.   Nicole Bijlsma: (16:44) Now, as I mentioned, with existing radio frequencies in our wireless devices we know how they affect the body at a cellular level. You know, they suppress melatonin from the blue light. They increase oxidative stress. They cause permeability of the blood-brain barrier, et cetera. That's really well established. They increase the risk for glioma and acoustic neuroma brain tumours if you use them on one side of the head for five years for two hours or more a day. That's really well established and we've all moved on from that. The problem is that we're introducing millimetre wave radiation that was developed by the military for crowd control. There is quite a bit of study since the 60s on rodents and the impact on skin and of course cataracts and eyes.   Nicole Bijlsma: (17:28) And the problem with skin is that it's so high in mast cells. Olle Johannson was one of the first researchers to show that exposure to VDUs of computers in the 80s in Sweden causes this skin rash, because there's so many mast cells in the skin, because that's your immune system. It's that line of defence. This millimetre wave radiation stimulates the degranulation of our cells and a sympathetic nerve response, which is your body going, "Oh my God, something's attacking me. Quick, fight or flight." So we do know that that's how it reacts. But unfortunately we need a lot more research on this, which is why they should be delaying the roll out until they prove conclusively that it is safe, which they won't be able to do.   Mason: (18:10) You see, this is the funny backwards propaganda driven brainwashing that occurs. And you bring up the fact of asbestos a couple of times, and I had an uncle who passed away from a proven asbestos-based lung cancer through working on the brakes of jets. And it got to that point where it was like, you know, and a bunch of his buddies as well that were working on the tarmac as well, they went down. And so you go to try and get a little bit of cash to help you support your family from a particular airline and they've got a whole sector of lawyers within the company just ready to defend themselves to make sure that they're not going to have to pay out one iota to any of these people. They're just trying to find anything to prove that they're not the ones that need to be held accountable, when it's quite obvious.   Mason: (19:05) And that kind of thing has impacted many people, whether it's DDT, it's lead paint, whatever it is. It's cigarettes being promoted to pregnant women. Whatever it is, the company is just able to go ahead with it. And everyone can look back into the past with now 20/20 vision and see that, "Yes, that was probably something we should have curbed and maybe got a little bit proven before we'd just given free rein to the marketers." But just here in Mullumbimby it's been interesting with the 5G going up.   Mason: (19:35) There's of course a part of the population, you know the ones, which people would label as the trippers who, you know, they can go out there. They're imaginative and they're trying to be off in their mind trying to pull all the different, the web of things that are going on in the world, but they're going and they're doing their thing. They're a small part of the community that's been standing up against 5G rollout, and we were lucky enough to have one of the shires that said, "You know what, Telstra? No." There's been so much backlash of people just requesting, "Hey, can you prove this technology is safe before you roll it out?" because, as you were saying, like many things, we don't want decades down the track to have to roll that back. Now in order to-   Nicole Bijlsma: (20:20) Thank God for the people like you and a minority of the population who are actually making informed choices and taking the time to actually critically think and question what they've being fed, and look at the data and the research.   Mason: (20:34) Well, what's very sad is that if you oppose it, immediately what you're going to get painted as is an absolute paranoid tripper that thinks 5G is causing COVID-19 and you're off on another planet and you're just a basic scallywag and you're a dirty hippy, is the way that it's literally being painted here.. I feel like it's the design, right. It makes people scared to stand up and just say, "Hey, excuse me, I've got a reasonable request here," as our council did, and then I think on a federal level it got overrun.   Mason: (21:11) So surprise, surprise, Telstra just shows up and goes, "We're putting it up." And thankfully we've got a crew that really got onto the ground quickly. And we're starting to talk about PR wise, "Hey, guys, what are we actually talking about here?" Exactly what you're saying. "Listen, please just prove your technology that you're going to make billions of dollars out of is really safe. That's all." That's all. Prove us wrong. It would be amazing, which they won't be able to do, as you said. It's interesting how that very grounded request, there's enough brainwashing to make people think that you're absolutely batshit crazy for doing what should have been done with asbestos, right.   Nicole Bijlsma: (21:54) Oh, absolutely. Look, and in terms of the relationship to COVID, look there's very little data to support at this point. Maybe there is. I haven't seen it, and I haven't really got a comment on it, because I haven't read or seen anything credible that I can comment on the relationship between exposures to COVID-19 and electromagnetic fields. What does concern me is that we know people sensitive to electromagnetic fields have more metal in their body. Now where does the metal come from? It comes from amalgams and dental work. It also comes from eating high levels of fish, and aluminium and Thimerosal from vaccines. So it's interesting that a lot of these people, like kids on autism, have very high levels of aluminium in their body. A recent paper showed very high levels. And it isn't coming from their deodorants because they're only four when they're diagnosed. So where is it coming from? This is what we need to start thinking about.   Nicole Bijlsma: (22:48) For me the most important thing we can do as consumers moving forward is to keep as healthy as possible. Get out into the sunshine. Keep your house as clean as possible insofar as fresh air. A healthy home smells like fresh air. It's devoid of any artificial fragrances and smells, that you live in a bushy environment. Your house is like a dry mediterranean environment, so there's no moisture or dampness in the house, and that you have a healthy, preferably organic, diet, that you know your farmers. You know where the food is coming from so it's as clean as possible. Regular exercise, good mental outlook. I mean that's what health is. You don't need to wait til you're sick to get all this other stuff. I mean nature cure has been around a long time, and I think if people just follow basics. And they know in terms of their diet if they're crap or not. They need to act on that. They need to do exercise, et cetera. Keeping healthy is the most important way to reduce your exposures to infection and of course to deal with environmental changes in your environment, whether it's electromagnetic fields.   Nicole Bijlsma: (23:51) I want to make a point about EMFs. Certainly 5G, I'm completely anti because I can't prove it's safe. I get it. And the infrastructure is really concerning. But what we find, as Building Biologists, is that exposures happen the closer they are to the body. So people might have an issue about something outside of the house, but the reality is their highest exposures happen from devices inside the house closest to their person. That's the cell phone. That's the digital device. People often don't want to hear that. They're too busy wanting to blame someone for something else when in fact their exposures are happening in the highest power output from their cell phone, from their iPad, from their wireless device, from their speakers, from their printers right on their workstation.   Nicole Bijlsma: (24:32) So as Building Biologists, 95% of our role is to educate people. Yes, that is an issue, the smart metre, but look at the power output. It's very low at your favourite couch or in your bedroom. What's very high here is that you've got your phone under your pillow at night time and this is what it's doing. And that's going to have a far greater impact on your health than what's happening outside of your house. So let's start with common sense, what's closest to your person, and work our way out, because that's where the greatest harm is going to happen.   Mason: (25:06) I love it so much. I love that you focused on your health and your sun exposure and your great diet and all the things. Hydration being the number one place where you're actually going to be able to make a difference in your own life, rather than going, "Which EMF blocking device do I need to go out and buy in order to block me?" I like that as a fun extension and cherry on top when you can be kind of speculative, because from what I understand it's very speculative, that field at the moment, of what's-   Nicole Bijlsma: (25:37) Oh my God, there's so many people out there. Big rule of thumb. If someone comes to test your house and shield, don't do it. They might only charge $200 and have all the fandangled equipment, but they'll charge you thousands in shielding that you probably don't need. That is a massive conflict of interest for someone to come in, test your house for EMFs, and then con you into tens of thousands. We find this all the time. There's a company out there doing four-day courses and now everyone's an EMF expert, using instruments that aren't actually that great. And then testing for electric fields, which aren't even a problem, and conning people to spend $20,000/30,000 on shielding. Shielding is a disaster. Shielding is a last resort. And the reason is because when you start using shielding paint to attenuate radio frequencies you will often magnify the electric field. With people with electrical sensitivity, that's going to make them worse.   Nicole Bijlsma: (26:29) I find many of these people have spent thousands of dollars with this company and all their graduates, and they can't live in their house anymore. That is the big problem. So shielding doesn't work effectively 100%. Certainly, it often makes other things worse. So that's a problem. And that's why you always, whoever's testing your house should never be the one selling you the shielding stuff, because then you'll get an independent opinion and the $600 or $800 you spend on testing properly could save you tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary shielding.   Mason: (26:59) That's something that's always evident. I've chatted to yourself and had interactions with Rhys and then my friend, Damien, over in WA, and SuperHealth is a big promoter of Building Biology as well. And the ethics are through the roof. It's something I've been having a conversation about a lot in different fields, in different expertise and in businesses, and definitely in government, the voidance of ethics, because when you're in like a quick fix you want systemic change and you can project your apathy onto your desire and your blame of everyone else because you need systemic change. And you know unless that happens then you're going to be a victim. "Poor little me," versus going, "Well, yes, I'm going to work for that, but I'm also going to work for that personal change massively and start actually taking responsibility for this." There's a huge difference there.   Mason: (27:54) And I think it's sometimes boring for people to hear that the onus is on yourself and the biggest thing is that you can go and whinge about 5G all you want. And I am definitely not saying that because you use technology you don't have a right to say, "I think we should improve things a little bit." I think that's not a valid conversation. But nonetheless going, "How about I learn how to responsibly use the technology that's in my house," and acknowledge the fact that it is probably going to be causing more damage than that that's outside systemically.   Nicole Bijlsma: (28:33) Oh, absolutely. Definitely. And that's a hard one for some people to swallow. Like I have my cell phone and I love my cell phone, but I know how to use it and reduce my exposure. So I will never put it near my head per se when I'm making calls. It's always arm's length away, normally with the earpiece, for example, loudspeaker and text as often as I can, because there's no way I'm going to put high frequency radio frequencies right near my head, for that reason.   Nicole Bijlsma: (29:03) So I'm making an informed choice, and that's the thing I train my Building Biologists in the Advanced Diploma is that, "Your role is to educate people. What they do with that information is up to them. If they don't want to follow it that's not your business. They're paying you for your time. You give them the information. Now they can make an informed choice." If they continue to use their devices, like me, I love this, that I don't have to be in my office. I can be from home to work et cetera. I love it. But that's an informed choice. I dye my hair. That's an informed choice. I know exactly what risks are involved.   Nicole Bijlsma: (29:35) So that's really ultimately what my goal is when I set up the college and the Building Biology industry, is to help people make informed choices because most people can't even do that because they don't understand the system is flawed. The exposure standards, which we started with, are not health-based standards. And that's why it's important that a lot of the work we do is to actually educate people. And simple things like move furnishing around. If you have to have a wireless router, let's put it in the room that's not being used and attenuate it by reducing the radiation by 95%, by getting onto the manufacturer's website and this is how we can reduce this. Yeah, you've got a wireless router, and use it in a way that you can use the internet on two or three rooms in the house so it's not bathing the whole house.   Nicole Bijlsma: (30:20) So we look at what the client's lifestyle is and go, "Okay, what are you willing to accept as a risk? This is what the hazards are. Now let's work together to reduce your risk in light of what you've just told me." It's not saying, "Slap on the wrist. Everyone get to Nimbin in a hamtent with bare feet and that's all you've got. There's no other choice." No, of course not. I choose to live with risks, get in a car knowing that it could be a coffin on wheels, et cetera. But at least I make an informed choice. That's what consumers don't understand is, most of them can't make an informed choice because they don't understand that the system's flawed and it's certainly not geared for public health.   Mason: (30:55) Absolutely not. And it's funny because I feel like it's quite common knowledge and everyone knows that a huge business only gives a shit about its profits, and the government isn't there to keep you really safe. I feel like it's an increasingly small, baby boomer kind of portion of the population that still really full-heartedly believes that the government's there to really keep you safe with integrity. Yet, this hasn't clicked over. And I feel like we're getting there, the fact that there are no standards for health here. And I think something you bring up, sometimes people just don't want to hear it. It's a little bit too much. I think that's a huge part of it as well. Acknowledging the fact that there's no standard for the fact we're heading towards smart cities. We're heading towards these huge technological rollouts and hey, we haven't paused and actually checked whether these are safe, and maybe they don't care and you've got to burden that. That's a huge one.   Mason: (31:57) And then your distinction, I think, is something for everyone to take here today, is like informed consent. At least when I know that I go in my car, if I take my phone off aeroplane mode I'm in a big metal box, and just having Rhys explain that all that is, is it's just bouncing around inside. And that's okay, but I'd probably recommend you don't stream YouTube or podcasts if you go in there. Huge. Huge thing. And I don't find myself being hypocritical if I'm doing it and I'm still asking for upgrades, and for everyone to slow down. But if I'm not comfortable with the decisions I'm making and I don't have integrity with my own decisions and I'm complaining externally, it definitely lands the responsibility back on my shoulders.   Nicole Bijlsma: (32:52) Absolutely. You mentioned a confined space like a metal carriage - tram, bus, truck, car. Imagine that as a house. You've built an energy efficient house with a metal roof, metal cladding around the side and a steel concrete slab. There's no way you should have wireless technology in there because it creates, like you said, the microwave oven effect. So it's reflecting and refracting off all those surfaces. So how you build that house is really important. That's why Building Biologists can be very useful. There's only a handful of Building Biologists that actually have the skills because it's an elective in the course on how to build healthy homes and work with architects.   Nicole Bijlsma: (33:33) But if you've got a lot of metal in the house then you should not be having any wireless device in that home because it will be bouncing off and creating hotspots in that space. So hardwired would be your best option. So understanding the interaction between the built environment and its impact on the electro climate of the house is really important. And that's something that we think about at the design stage, based on the client's lifestyle, whether they're willing to have hardwired or whether they only want wireless devices. That's fine but then it comes at cost. And that's what we educate them so they can make an informed choice.   Nicole Bijlsma: (34:03) And that's the thing. It's the synergistic impact. And, as I said, when people are in a damp environment, mould, now they could become more electrically sensitive, more chemically sensitive. So this is why we have to integrate. Well, you shouldn't be using pesticides in the house because you're exposed to a lot of that, that you've got to get rid of it and dry up that mould and get to the source of the moisture and get rid of all that fungal particulate, that exposure to that EMF.   Nicole Bijlsma: (34:27) So more often that not it's this accumulation effect over a lifetime, whether it's a combination of a tick bite early on in life, very poor diet throughout their teens or recreational drugs, and things like being exposed to high levels of electromagnetic fields because they're an electrician and then they go into a damp house and now they're sick. Well, that threshold has built up over years. And that's typically what happens before people are actually diagnosed with environmental sensitivity. So as Building Biologists, even though we say we can do an EMF audit, a mould audit, the reality is we could come in with the whole toolbox because the client doesn't know what they don't know. So when we walk in, based on their symptoms I know what to look for that I need to exclude, and it could be any one of those issues.   Mason: (35:10) It makes sense. It makes absolute sense. It's annoying when you're in a western go, go, go, go kind of way of living to be like, you know, all that stress you're going to accumulate and potentially... Of course, we know stress and pathogens and mould infection and that kind of stuff is going to eventually cause compromisation within the immune system and the endocrine system. And if you've got that from a robust teenager, 20-year old, don't really notice it. A little bit more when you're in your 30s, 40s, oh, it's getting a little bit harder. All right, now we start.   Nicole Bijlsma: (35:49) Oh, 40s and 50s it catches up with you, all the stuff from your 20s and teens.   Mason: (35:52) Got to pay your debt, yeah.   Nicole Bijlsma: (35:58) Pay your debt. Exactly right. Exactly right. But the more you can address those issues the more resilient you'll be for the environment. Now the environments change enormously because of the EMFs. We've talked about mould potentially. Chemical exposures, with each generation it's just worse and worse. Our immune systems are getting really bogged down with a lot of these hazards, which is why we have all these autoimmune diseases, fatiguing syndromes, et cetera. But the message is always to go back to basics, which is what I've mentioned before in terms of your stress, lifestyle, good diet, good attitude, and a relatively dry and healthy home that's free of chemicals.   Mason: (36:33) The dry and healthy home, I think, is the one that doesn't land on that. "You guys know how to stay healthy. Drink your water, get lots of sunlight, have a dry home." That's like-   Nicole Bijlsma: (36:44) Healthy home. Filtered water, very, very important. You don't want chlorine in your gut microbiome. Yeah. You could do a whole podcast on water, Mason.   Mason: (36:54) Well, I've actually got a water series coming up and that's something that I [crosstalk 00:36:58]   Nicole Bijlsma: (36:57) Oh.   Mason: (36:58) And I thought about you. So I will. We'll book in another podcast and we can go all through that because I think water filters is a thing you get 10 experts and you get 12 answers as to what the best filter is going to be. So I mean having a podcast where our aim isn't to give the recommendations, just to give all the knowledge, so then they can take that and run with it.   Nicole Bijlsma: (37:20) Yes.   Mason: (37:20) And what you're saying, hydration, sunlight, a dry... What was it? A dry, cool home?   Nicole Bijlsma: (37:26) Mediterranean-like environment, yeah.   Mason: (37:28) Mediterranean-like environment. What I like about that distinction of you're going to accumulate that, whether it's the permeability of the brain barrier, I think you were saying, through EMF exposure is one of these things. And let's try and get these studies in the show notes as well so people can go and cross-reference them themselves. Just like that exposure being accumulative and immunosuppressive potentially, or definitely, on the other side of the coin you get to accumulate all those benefits with all those exposure to the natural elements and all that you're doing for your health. What I like about this approach is that it's always going and then you can head in this direction, and it's just as good as it gets just as bad over there.   Nicole Bijlsma: (38:21) And how amazing is the body? It's so resilient to deal with all these onslaughts. So by the time it hits that threshold there's been a lot of onslaughts. And of course with genetics that does play a role. But we now know, since they've mapped the human genome in 2002, that genetics loads the gun but the environment pulls the trigger. Most SNPs and gene variants some people have and MTHFR would be completely irrelevant if they weren't exposed to toxic environments, because they've been in the gene pool for thousands of years. So that's the thing. It's the environment that's changed that's brought it out. Oh, you've got SNPs, heterozygous SNPs or homozygous SNPs in these detoxification pathways, so you're far more susceptible to these chemicals. But three generations ago no one was exposed to those chemicals so it wasn't important. Do you know what I mean? So that's why you've got to reduce the exposures to the electromagnetic fields and the mould and the chemicals and the perfumes and the air fresheners and the pesticides and plastics and the four Ps, which I talk about in the book.   Mason: (39:22) Yeah, I was just going to say, I was going to have the book to hold up, but someone had checked it out of the SuperFeast library, which is good. It's one of the ones that yeah, healthy home, healthy family-   Nicole Bijlsma: (39:32) I think another one for your library.   Mason: (39:32) Yeah.   Nicole Bijlsma: (39:32) I think it's through Booktopia. Yep.   Mason: (39:32) Booktopia?   Nicole Bijlsma: (39:32) Or my website.   Mason: (39:38) I'm going to get another one because I need one for my house as well as in the office. It's one of those ones. It's one of those ones, guys, that's like mandatory reading and presence. And it's one of those fun ones as a coffee table book because it's not paranoid. It's just practical. And so it's a really good gift as well for someone that's just opening up. It's just calling a spade a spade, which is what I like about your work, I like about Building Biology, I like about the book, because it's approachable. So thanks for that.   Nicole Bijlsma: (40:10) Thank you. Thank you. I'm currently developing a Healthy Home short course for the public, so videos and things like that. It will be very reasonably priced and it will be your room by room analysis of how to create a healthy home, room by room. So it's going to be a very practical series that will enable people to digest what I've got in the book, because you know this is quite evidence-based and there's quite a bit of scientific research on EMFs. I like the text but I'm going to simplify that and do it as a room by room analysis to help people with videos. Okay, how do we actually have food packaging that's healthy and drinking water and things like that? So that will come out within the next six months.   Mason: (40:52) Okay, cool. Where's the best place to get on a newsletter list so they can be informed as soon as it's out?   Nicole Bijlsma: (41:00) My website, buildingbiology.com.au. Lots of videos, lots of good content there that's very-   Mason: (41:07) Yeah, and it's a good site. I haven't been on for about a year or so. But yeah, it's like super, super rich with resources. The interesting thing is that there's like, you don't have to invest anything to start out with this kind of stuff.   Nicole Bijlsma: (41:24) No.   Mason: (41:24) You don't have to go out and buy the $2,000 device in order to be doing the right thing, blocking EMFs.   Nicole Bijlsma: (41:32) Absolutely. Absolutely. Knowledge is key. Absolutely.   Mason: (41:35) Amazing. Are you, yourself, Building Biology, on any social media platforms as well?   Nicole Bijlsma: (41:43) Well, I have a Facebook site where I post things from time to time, bit slack on that. And of course the Australasian Society of Building Biologists has a Facebook site for the public as well. And of course the college, I've got quite a bit of information there as well and the Australian College of Environmental Studies where people can do individual courses. Like there's this fabulous subject called Children's Environmental Health and it's really good. If you're really loving my book then it's like a snippet of everything, the Building Biology course, like allergens, electromagnetic fields, all of that sort of thing. So that's a really good place to start for people who actually want to get more detail and videos and things like that.   Mason: (42:21) I think it cut out just a tiny bit there. Is there a college website that people can check out?   Nicole Bijlsma: (42:26) Yeah.   Mason: (42:26) Because if you want to do this as a career, if you're young and listening to this or want to consider this kind of path, this is on. This is a legit career path.   Nicole Bijlsma: (42:39) Yeah, yeah.   Mason: (42:39) So where are they going to get that information?   Nicole Bijlsma: (42:42) So it's called the Australian College of Environmental Studies and the website is aces.edu.au. It's an Advanced Diploma of Building Biology, two years full-time, four years part-time. But there are individual subjects people can do. Like if you want to come here as a mould testing technician, that's one subject, four days, 12 weeks online, and you're earning up to a $1,000 a day. So that's amazing compared to what most naturopaths earn doing a $60,000 degree. It's the same with electromagnetic field testing technicians. Four days on campus, 12 weeks online, [inaudible 00:43:17]. And Children's Environmental Health, a great subject on looking at the health hazards in your home thoroughly in order to make informed choices about what's going on.   Mason: (43:26) And it's been cool to see so many practitioners branching out and making that a part of their expertise as well. It makes sense. As you're saying, it makes sense to be able to like get into the home. A lot of the time the practitioner in that really comprehensive 60 minute/90 minute consult isn't going to be able to actually tell you what's actually going on in their environment.   Nicole Bijlsma: (43:44) No.   Mason: (43:44) So I love it. I appreciate your work, and I'm really excited we've connected on the water thing. So we'll have you. Yeah, that should just be a month or two. Phone wants you so I'm going to let you go.   Nicole Bijlsma: (43:55) Thank you.   Mason: (43:58) Yeah, thanks so much. We really appreciate you.   Nicole Bijlsma: (44:00) Thank you so much for having me on.

I thought I had a handle on green cleaning, but today’s chat with Nicole Bijlsma has really opened my eyes. The author of Healthy Home Healthy Family, Nicole is also a building biologist, owner of Abode natural cleaning products and an expert on everything non-toxic cleaning, including mould! I love Nicole’s no-nonsense approach — she tells it like it is as we discuss greenwashing in the natural cleaning industry as well as just how dangerous mould can be in our homes. She also talks me through her very popular range of products. I had no idea that to clean your kitchen you need a formula that breaks down grease and to clean your bathroom you need a formula that is acidic to break down E. coli and bacteria! Nicole is an absolute wealth of knowledge and in this episode, she is so generous with her tips and tricks to help us use fewer toxins in daily life. I was so surprised when she mentioned how crucial a good vacuum cleaner is! She’s so knowledgeable in fact, that she has created a “Building Biology” course to train people to identify hazards in interior environments. Open a window, get some fresh air and enjoy our amazing chat!   Key takeaways: Most supermarket laundry powders have binders and fillers that make them cheaper, but you need to use more to achieve the desired results. Many cattle stations across Australia use Abode cleaning products as their food grade cleaner, which means that they are safe for the animals and the environment. Abode are bringing out a body range featuring hand wash, shampoo and conditioners formulated for people with skin sensitivities, allergies and asthma. To combat bathroom mould, you should wipe down wet surfaces with a microfibre cloth to eradicate mould-creating moisture. Nicole recommends turning off all phones and routers at night to ensure you’re not exposed to electromagnetic frequencies.   Links and resources: Abode on Nourished Life Building Biology   Connect: Listen to other episodes of Talking Clean with Irene Join my private podcast Facebook Group Follow Nourished Life on Facebook Follow Nourished Life on Instagram

Nicole Healthy Home Expert. Environmental impact on your health!! The importance of the environment for our health needs to be brought more to our attention. This conversation will give you insight into next steps and possibly some answers for your health that you may have been looking for. Healthy Home Expert, Nicole Bijlsma is a building biologist, bestselling author, PhD candidate and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies which she established in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. Nicole is a former naturopath and acupuncturist, has lectured at tertiary institutions for 30 years, has published in peer reviewed journals, has written extensively for Body+Soul newspaper (Herald Sun), is regularly consulted by the media to discuss mould, electromagnetic fields and toxic chemicals, and lectures in Australia and abroad about environmental health issues. Nicole has conducted almost 30 interviews on every major television network and numerous radio interviews. Nicole and her husband Mark manufacture the Abode cleaning product and Its Your Body personal care range which was developed for people with skin and chemical sensitivities. Nicole's book: Healthy home healthy family Where to learn more: Australian College of Environmental Studies @colnijlsma @aust_college_env_studies

This week we chat to Nicole Bijlsma from Building Biology about mould and all things healthy homes.In this episode we:● Challenge your thinking around what makes a healthy home ;● Encourage you to be more aware of mould in your home;● Give you some tips on how to reduce the impact of mould and dust in your home; Things mentioned in this episode and other helpful links:● Australian College of Environmental Studies● 10 Top tips for a Healthy Home● What is a Hygrometer?Thanks to Troubled Clef for the Apple Podcast review! Join our community ● Become a Patron with Patreon – your monthly donation makes a huge difference to us being able to producethis podcast. Donations can be as little as $1 a month!● Follow us on Instagram● Follow us on Facebook● Join our Facebook group● Leave a review on Apple Podcast Thank you to our sound engineer, Jarred from Four4ty Studio Productions. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we chat to Nicole Bijlsma from Building Biology about mould and all things healthy homes.In this episode we:● Challenge your thinking around what makes a healthy home ;● Encourage you to be more aware of mould in your home;● Give you some tips on how to reduce the impact of mould and dust in your home;● And so so so so much more...We hope from this conversation we all learn something and puts a smile on your face! Things mentioned in this episode and other helpful links:● Australian College of Environmental Studies● Healthy Home, Healthy Family Book● 10 Top tips for a Healthy Home● Listener Survey● What is a Hygrometer?Thanks to Troubled Clef for the Apple Podcast review! Join our community ● Become a Patron with Patreon – your monthly donation makes a huge difference to us being able to producethis podcast. Donations can be as little as $1 a month!● Follow us on Instagram● Follow us on Facebook● Join our Facebook group● Leave a review on Apple Podcast Thank you to our sound engineer, Jarred from Four4ty Studio Productions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nicole Bijlsma is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. Nicole was a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience who changed her career pathway to become a building biologist after noticing a strong correlation with many of her patients illnesses and health hazards in their home. Nicole Listen In The post UC 348: Building Biology with Nicole Bijlsma appeared first on The Wellness Couch.

How much health are we willing to give up in the pursuit of better, faster technology? Are we about to be sacrificial lambs in the global human experiment of 5G technology? These are big questions which need comprehensive investigation and transparent answers beyond progress and convenience. Who better to help us navigate through the quandary of 5G technology than Nicole Bijlsma who lives and breathes the research connected to environmental influences on health. Nicole expertly navigates us through the knowledge gaps in research when it comes to 5G and why we all need to be aware of the potential biological effects to human health as well as the impacts it poses to our privacy and security. Find todays transcript and show notes here: https://www.fxmedicine.com.au/content/5g-technology-risk-worth-reward-nicole-bijlsma *****DISCLAIMER: The information provided on FX Medicine is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health care professional in the event something you learn here raises questions or concerns regarding your health.*****

Building Biology: How the Human Environment Affects Human Health.We take care of our biology and our human skin.But what about the skin that we reside in, that we live, work and sleep in!The skin of a building that most of us spend 20+ hours a day in!"In the last three decades we have significantly increased our exposure to man-made EMF one trillion times higher than when our grandparents were children.And that's before 5G network has been turned on.What is about to happen has never been seen before."*Note there is a silent audio fault gap between 31:05 and 32:44. Then the podcast continues.*ABOUT NICOLE BIJLSMA:Healthy Home Expert, Nicole Bijlsma is a building biologist, bestselling author, PhD candidate and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies which she established in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. Nicole has published in peer-reviewed journals, has written extensively for Body+Soul newspaper, is regularly consulted by the media to discuss electromagnetic fields and toxic chemicals, and lectures in Australia and internationally at medical conferences about environmental health issues. Nicole and her husband Mark manufacture the Abode® cleaning product range which was developed for people with skin and chemical sensitivities.IN THIS EPISODE WE EXPLOREThe biological impacts of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF)How to reduce EMF5GPersonal care products, chemicals, everyday household items.Mould.and much more...Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=y_kaqK9wLLV2hJsCYl7mFwBcEPNGyuzRIZuHMW5dxoRj2vyQJPvcov1xOO9ZUsn_lG-6Km&country.x=AU&locale.x=AU)

#110 Nicole Bijlsma is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. Nicole was a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience who changed her career pathway to become a building biologist after noticing a strong correlation with many of her patients illnesses and health hazards in their home. Nicole is the author of the best seller Healthy Home, Healthy Family, was a columnist for Body+Soul (Herald Sun) and is frequently consulted by the media to comment on health hazards in the built environment (The 7PM Project, Sunrise, The Today Show, The Circle, Channel 7 News, Today Tonight, Channel 74, ABC radio, Fox FM, numerous webinars and podcasts). Nicole has thirty years experience lecturing at tertiary institutions in nutrition, Chinese Medicine and environmental medicine, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. Her extensive knowledge in environmental medicine has seen her speak at various conferences both in Australia and abroad (USA, Thailand and New Zealand).  Nicole single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia, was the former President of the Australasian Society of Building Biologists and established the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. The college is the only institution in Australia to provide nationally accredited training in Building Biology and Feng Shui. Nicole is currently completing her PhD investigating health hazards in the built environment under the supervision of Professor Marc Cohen at RMIT. For information about her research In this episode we cover What electromagnetic fields aka EMF’s are we exposed to in the home Why the exposure standards of radio frequencies in Australia are so high in comparison to other countries How electromagnetic fields affect the body Why the symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity is almost identical to multiple chemical sensitivity and biotoxin (tick/mould illnesses). The signs and symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity Who is susceptible to electromagnetic hypersensitivity How we can establish our patients as well as our own exposure to EMF 5G - should we be concerned or are there benefits And most importantly how do we reduce our exposure

Nicole Bijlsma joins me to discuss the importance of establishing a healthy home and work environment. As one of Australia's leading Building Biologists Nicole has a wealth of knowledge on how our homes can help or hinder our health. This is an incredibly important topic that is often overlooked by patients and practitioners. You can also watch this episode at www.DrRonEhrlich.com. For more information visit Nicole Bijslma website ----- WANT TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH? Join me in my online health programs. ----- CONNECT WITH ME You can ask questions via social media using my Instagram or Facebook or YouTube page.

Nicole Bijlsma is a household name for the Low Tox Life community and in this week’s show we deep dive into the concerns over 5G technology and how you can protect your family. We also take a look at common questions about reducing your exposure to EMFs in the home - especially when you have solar, metal furniture or a steel roof. If you haven’t come across Nicole’s work before, you’re in for a treat. Nicole is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. Nicole was a former naturopath and acupuncturist with 15 years of clinical experience who changed her career pathway to become a building biologist after noticing a strong correlation with many of her patients illnesses and health hazards in their home. Nicole is the author of the best seller Healthy Home, Healthy Family, was a columnist for Body+Soul (Herald Sun) and is frequently consulted by the media to comment on health hazards in the built environment. Nicole has thirty years experience lecturing at tertiary institutions in nutrition, Chinese Medicine and environmental medicine, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. Her extensive knowledge in environmental medicine has seen her speak at various conferences both in Australia and abroad (USA, Thailand and New Zealand). Nicole single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia, was the former President of the Australasian Society of Building Biologists and established the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. The college is the only institution in Australia to provide nationally accredited training in Building Biology and Feng Shui. Nicole is currently completing her PhD investigating health hazards in the built environment. Enjoy today’s show and head to the podcast show notes for resources and this week’s show supporter offer. www.lowtoxlife.com/podcast

Geomedicine. Sounds like a futuristic medical term…and maybe it is. We're now learning that our geographical environment can have dramatic impacts on our health, particularly when dealing with chronic, insidious and recalcitrant conditions. To truly understand what geomedicine is, we are joined once again today by leading Australian building biologist, Nicole Bijlsma. From putting on her detective hat to find the issues facing patients with chronic conditions, to teasing apart the research to reveal deficiencies and cover-ups, Nicole knows how to peel back the layers to find the real culprit plauging those with chronic health issues. A pioneer for this field of medicine, Nicole has a wealth of knowledge to share. Find the full transcript and show notes here : https://www.fxmedicine.com.au/content/geomedicine-nicole-bijlsma *****DISCLAIMER: The information provided on FX Medicine is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health care professional in the event something you learn here raises questions or concerns regarding your health.*****

Stu: This week we welcome Nicole Bijlsma to the show. She is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. Nicole is an accomplished naturopath, acupuncturist, IICRC accredited mould remediation technician and building biologist who began clinical practice in 1989. Nicole is the author of the best seller Healthy Home, Healthy Family, was a columnist for Body+Soul (Herald Sun) and is frequently consulted by the media to comment on health hazards in the built environment (The 7PM Project, Sunrise, The Today Show, The Circle, Channel 7 News, Today Tonight, Channel 74, ABC radio, Fox FM, numerous webinars and podcasts). Nicole has thirty years experience lecturing at tertiary institutions, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. Her extensive knowledge in environmental medicine has seen her speak at various conferences both in Australia and abroad (USA, Thailand, New Zealand). Nicole single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia, was the former President of the Australasian Society of Building Biologists and established the Australian College of Environmental Studies (RTO #21740) to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. The college is the only institution in Australia to provide nationally accredited training in Building Biology and Feng Shui. Nicole is currently undertaking her PhD investigating health hazards in the built environment under the supervision of Professor Marc Cohen at RMIT. Questions we ask in this episode: What are the top 3 culprits that create an unhealthy home? What health symptoms might we experience from an unhealthy home? https://shop.180nutrition.com.au/ This week, I'm excited to welcome Nicole Bijlsma. Nicole is an accomplished nutripath, acupuncturist, mold remediation technician, building biologist and author. She explains how our home health affects our own health, and outlines the simple steps we can take to create a healthy, low-allergy home. In this episode, we discuss the fundamentals of creating and maintaining a healthy home. We cover tap water, wireless devices, personal care and how selecting the right cleaning products can significantly impact our health. 01:15 Now, I personally got a huge amount out of this episode and had a great time, too. She is a great character, so listen, enough from me. Let's get over to Nicole. 01:27 Hey guys, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition and I am delighted to welcome Nicole Bijlsma to the show. Good morning, Nicole, how are you? Nicole 01:34 Morning, Stuart. Good thanks. Stu 01:36 Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Nicole. And I know we're gonna get into some real gems today about healthy home living and everything as well that that means, but just for our audience that may not be familiar with you or your work, I just wondered if you could tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do and perhaps why you do it. Nicole 01:57 Sure. Well, I'm a building biologist, which essentially means I go into people's homes to determine if their house is making them sick. For full transcript and interview: http://180nutrition.com.au/180-tv/nicole-bijlsma-interview/  

In this episode, Nathan talks to leading expert in the fields of environmental medicine and building biology, Nicole Bijlsma. Nicole is a Building Biologist, Author, Naturopath, PHD candidate and founder of the Australian College of Environmental Studies. She joins Nathan to discuss the sometimes controversial subject of electromagnetic field exposure. What are the greatest sources of EMFs? How do they affect our physiology? And how can we help to minimise EMF exposure and build resilience?

In this episode, Nathan talks to leading expert in the fields of environmental medicine and building biology, Nicole Bijlsma. Nicole is a Building Biologist, Author, Naturopath, PHD candidate and founder of the Australian College of Environmental Studies. She joins Nathan to discuss the sometimes controversial subject of electromagnetic field exposure. What are the greatest sources of EMFs? How do they affect our physiology? And how can we help to minimise EMF exposure and build resilience?

Does living in a 'westernised' country put you at greater risk for allergy and atopy? The science and statistics are saying yes. The major drivers for allergy and atopy are multifactorial and complex but indeed, almost all circumstances relate back to modernisation and the industrial revolution. Society's obsession with sterilisation and being 'germ-free' has put us at risk. Now, in Australia, 25% of the population can expect to be diagnosed with allergy at some point in their life. Today we welcome back Nicole Bijlsma, author of "Healthy Homes; Healthy Families" and leading environmental health expert who takes us through these varied risks and how we can intervene in practical ways to minimise the incidence of allergy and atopy in our modern lives. Find today's show notes and transcript here: https://www.fxmedicine.com.au/content/practical-interventions-allergy-and-atopy-nicole-bijlsma *****DISCLAIMER: The information provided on FX Medicine is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health care professional in the event something you learn here raises questions or concerns regarding your health.*****

Is your home making you sick?  Nicole Bijlsma is the founder of Australian College of Environmental Studies and she joins us in this episode to discuss building biology and how you can make your home a healthier environment. With our focus on food, Nicole has really enlightened us on the environmental inputs in the home that Listen In The post AQJ 107: Building Biology and Healthier Homes appeared first on The Wellness Couch.

10 Miscarriages later Nicole Bijlsma began to wonder if her home environment was to blame. In a quest to sort out her fertility she revealed a minefield of information that supported her fears. From EMF's to mould and bacteria she learnt how these factors may be leaving us nothing short of a hot mess. Now Nicole, a Building Biologist knows a LOT about this big topic. In this episode hosted by Cecelia Ramsdale and Nat Kringoudis, you'll learn what may be to blame and very simple solutions you can implement to improve your health today. Find The Wellness Collective on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/nataliekringoudis Follow The Wellness Collective on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/natkringoudis/ Follow The Wellness Collective Twitter - https://twitter.com/NatKringoudis Nat's Website - www.natkringoudis.com Find PodcastOne Australia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/podcastoneau/ Follow PodcastOne Australia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podcastoneau/ Follow PodcastOne Australia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/podcastoneau Download the PodcastOne app from the Apple and Google Play app stores See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicole Bijlsma joins me back on the show to chat about water quality, plastics and what it means to have healthy homes, healthy people. Did you know that aluminium is added to the water supply? And what does it actually mean that we are fluoridating our water? What else can be found in our water and what impact does it have? You can also watch this episode at www.DrRonEhrlich.com. ----- WANT TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH? Join me in my online health programs. ----- CONNECT WITH ME You can ask questions via social media using my Instagram or Facebook or YouTube page.

Did you know that every 60 seconds another 20 chemicals are registered for use on the world’s largest database? There are over 144 million chemicals registered. But are these chemicals tested? And how about the synergistic effect of different chemicals? Building biologist Nicole Bijlsma explores what these chemicals can mean for you and your health. We question whether your home is making you sick and what you can do about it. You can also watch this episode at www.DrRonEhrlich.com. For more information about Building Biology visit www.buildingbiology.com.au ----- WANT TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH? Join me in my online health programs. ----- CONNECT WITH ME You can ask questions via social media using my Instagram or Facebook or YouTube page.

In the last Episode of my Podcast for 2017,  I have saved one of the best for you.  Meet Nicole Bijlsma, Nicole is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. Nicole is an accomplished naturopath, acupuncturist, IICRC accredited mould remediation technician and building biologist who began clinical practice in 1989. Nicole is the author Listen In The post WAY 45: Nicole Bijlsma – Healthy Home Expert appeared first on The Wellness Couch.

Me and Nicole Bijlsma dove right into the super pertinent environmental factors that are dominating most homes and human habitats in the West including EMFs (electromagnetic fields), household chemicals, mould and heaps more. If you're planning on being on this planet for along time then listen to this and take notes! It's time to bring the biology to the home and ensure we're living in an environment that is living and breathing, because most people are living in houses that promote disease.  In this podcast you will learn all about: Nicole's journey into discovering the modern health toll of environmental toxicities The synergistic burden of chemicals on the human body Wireless technology and the blood-brain barrier Heavy metal toxicity The rapid rise in Autism & behavioural conditions in Western societies Shareholder dividends VS public health & safety Glyphosate and it's deleterious effect on our gut microbiome & intestinal barrier Reducing exposure to electro-magnetic-fields (EMF's) Mould & Biotoxin illness Tools we can apply to minimise environmental toxicity Bio: Nicole Bijlsma is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. Nicole is an accomplished naturopath, acupuncturist, IICRC accredited mould remediation technician and building biologist who began clinical practice in 1989. Nicole is the author of the best seller Healthy Home, Healthy Family, was a columnist for Body+Soul (Herald Sun) and is frequently consulted by the media to comment on health hazards in the built environment: The 7PM Project, Sunrise, The Today Show, The Circle, Channel 7 News, Today Tonight and Channel 74. Apart from her extensive experience lecturing at tertiary institutions for over twenty years, and as an invited speaker at various medical conferences both in Australia and abroad, she has also conducted numerous radio interviews, podcasts and webinars about her work. Nicole single handedly established the building biology industry in Australia and is the founder and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies (RTO #21740) established in 1999 to educate people about the health hazards in the built environment. The college provides nationally accredited training in Building Biology and Feng Shui. Resources: www.buildingbiology.com.au  www.aces.edu.au Links and show notes can be found at https://www.masonjtaylor.com/podcast/ This podcast is brought to you by SuperFeast, the online store bringing you the greatest immune enhancing, hormone balancing and performance lifting tonic herbs. Enjoy!

There are so many stores behind why people pivot on their careers. Nicole’s is one of the most poignant I’ve ever heard. From being a clinical naturopath she moved into researching all that she could on Building Biology - how our homes can help or hinder our health, becoming a pioneer for education in this space with globally recognised certified Advanced diploma certified courses allowing many to be trained in identifying homes for systemic dampness, mould, EMR levels, dirty electricity and more. In today’s chat we focus on a topic that causes people great confusion: Electromagnetic radiation / electromagnetic fields. By the end of today’s show, you’ll feel more empowered than confused; more able to put great and simple things in place, than continuing to wonder how you can do anything in our built, tech-driven world. Enjoy the show, and for show notes with all your resources and sponsor offer details, head to https://www.lowtoxlife.com/podcast/ 

Electromagnetic fields (EMF) are produced by anything with an electrical current running through it and they have a real, yet invisible impact on human health. In today's podcast we welcome back naturopath and building biologist, Nicole Bijlsma, to share her wealth of information on the topic of EMF and electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). Nicole takes us through the history of EMF and expertly separates fact from fiction. She also discusses how to recognise and explore EHS and provides guidance on risk minimisation for potential sufferers. *****DISCLAIMER: The information provided on FX Medicine is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health care professional in the event something you learn here raises questions or concerns regarding your health.*****

By world standards, Australia has excellent air and water quality, a fact which most of us take for granted. But leading expert in environmental assessment and building biology, Nicole Bijlsma, poses the question "Can we afford to be so complacent?" In this podcast, Nicole takes us through the extent of these environmental hazards and highlights for us the enormity of the health consequences.*****DISCLAIMER: The information provided on FX Medicine is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health care professional in the event something you learn here raises questions or concerns regarding your health.*****

After seeing countless chronic fatigue patients, plus a harrowing personal experience with repeated miscarriages, she became fascinated with a common link: mould. Nicole now specialises in health hazards in the built up environment, including mould, allergens, water and electromagnetic radiation, to name a few. In this episode, you will discover: The risk factors for developing Listen In The post SHY 25: Nicole Bijlsma – Healthy Home Expert appeared first on The Wellness Couch.

Is your home or workplace making you or sick? Headaches, nausea, gastrointestinal upsets, respiratory ailments and mood changes...all these symptoms and more may be explained by Sick Building Syndrome. Nicole Bijlsma is a naturopath, acupuncturist and pioneering researcher in the field of building biology. Nicole joins us today, ahead of her speaking engagement at the upcoming AIMA/CMA Annual Conference (September 2016) on the topic of Geomedicine. Nicole takes us through the many, often invisible, environmental culprits behind a plethora of chronic health conditions. She leads listeners through identifying the symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome, testing and risk-minimisation techniques. Sick Building Syndrome may be something to consider in confounding health conditions that aren't being resolved through traditional approaches.

This week The Wellness guys welcome back building biologist Nicole Bijlsma to talk about an important topic that is often overlooked in the health and wellness sphere, MOULD. In this episode Nicole shares with us why mould has become such a big problem in our modern world and the plethora of health problems that are Listen In The post TWG 208: The health implications of mould with Nicole Bijlsma appeared first on The Wellness Couch.

This week on IAQ Radio we will be discussing Baubiology & Electromagnetic Fields (EMF's) with Nichole Bijlsma. Nicole is the founder of the Australian College of Environmental Studies in Melbourne, Australia. She is an accomplished naturopath, building biologist, writer and author who conducts lectures to doctors, natural therapists and builders about the health hazards in the home. Apart from an Honours degree in Acupuncture, she completed further training in Guangzhou TCM hospital (China) in the early 1990s and has extensive experience lecturing in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Naturopathic philosophy at various universities and institutions. Nicole is the author of the best seller - Healthy Home Healthy Family - which attracted numerous radio and television interviews in addition to numerous articles in print and online media. Her book is available through the school at www.aces.edu.au. Nicole is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. She first became involved in healthy homes as a result of two events in her life; firstly experiencing ten miscarriages after moving into her first home from what she now believes to be exposure to a high level magnetic field (from the meter box) and secondly, when she began to notice the extent to which the environment was causing illness in many of her patients particularly children. LEARN MORE on IAQ Radio with author, naturopath and building biologist Nicole Bijlsma!

This week on IAQ Radio we will be discussing Baubiology & Electromagnetic Fields (EMF's) with Nichole Bijlsma. Nicole is the founder of the Australian College of Environmental Studies in Melbourne, Australia. She is an accomplished naturopath, building biologist, writer and author who conducts lectures to doctors, natural therapists and builders about the health hazards in the home. Apart from an Honours degree in Acupuncture, she completed further training in Guangzhou TCM hospital (China) in the early 1990s and has extensive experience lecturing in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Naturopathic philosophy at various universities and institutions. Nicole is the author of the best seller - Healthy Home Healthy Family - which attracted numerous radio and television interviews in addition to numerous articles in print and online media. Her book is available through the school at www.aces.edu.au. Nicole is a woman of passion, and her passion lies in environmental medicine. She first became involved in healthy homes as a result of two events in her life; firstly experiencing ten miscarriages after moving into her first home from what she now believes to be exposure to a high level magnetic field (from the meter box) and secondly, when she began to notice the extent to which the environment was causing illness in many of her patients particularly children. LEARN MORE on IAQ Radio with author, naturopath and building biologist Nicole Bijlsma!