Chemical Sensitivity in the Womb

Lyle Hurd: Well again it’s a pleasure to welcome Dr. Gloria Gilbère Dr. Gloria Gilbère: Thank you. It’s nice to be here. LH: Dr. Gilbère, in our past conversations you talked about chemical syndromes and your body being poisoned and other things. When this whole thing with chemicals and what it does to the system start? GG: Actually, in my opinion, it starts at the time of conception…when you have a developing fetus, and that mother is exposed to either a lot of preservatives, food colorings, chemical material or, let’s say… pesticides. You know, being baby boomers, we realized that most of those synthetic chemicals were actually synthesized after World War II. And now we have so many. We have millions and millions of chemicals that are annually, literally being put out into products and into the environment that are not tested. And therefore, when the mother has conceived, and that fetus starts to grow, everything that she does affects that baby. I really believe that’s why we are having so much ADD/ ADHD. We’re having immune system disorders. We’re having more Multiple Sclerosis. We’re having more Down’s Syndrome. An example of that, Lyle, that I find… appalling is that most people are not talking about the toxicity of synthetic fragrances, for instance. LH: Um-hum. GG: So here you have a young woman, expecting a child, and she’s putting on synthetic body creams and perfumes and colognes and bath gels and everything that you can imagine. And the organ of elimination and absorption, the largest organ…is the skin! LH: Absolutely. GG: And people don’t realize that. They say, “Well that’s not an organ!” Yes, it is; it’s the largest organ. So if you’re absorbing all of that, it’s going right into the system; it’s going right into the lymphatic system, and it’s going into the fetus. LH: Now, weren’t you the one who told me that there was a survey that came out, that said something like 500 babies’ umbilical chords and the blood, after being examined—had an average of 287 chemicals, of which 70 or 80 were carcinogenic? GG: 170. LH: Carcinogenic? GG: Carcinogenic. Yes. LH: And some of that had to do with the fragrances? GG: Exactly, and…cleaning chemicals. And that’s why women, for instance, have more autoimmune disorders, fibromyalgia, lupus, and all those immune disorders that we didn’t hear of 20 and 30 years ago because women use more of those products. Women generally, not to exclude the men, but women generally are the ones that clean the house. They’re the ones that perm their hair, and we color our hair, and we wear make up, and we do nail polish, and all of those things are toxic. I mean now, I know ten years ago even, when I became ill, it was very hard to find a nail polish, for instance, that didn’t have toluene and formaldehyde. Now they’re all over; you can find a beautiful array of organic products that do not have synthetic fragrances. So, you may be paying 50 cents a bottle more for an organic shampoo but isn’t it worth it? Isn’t it worth the health of the baby and the developing immune system? And isn’t it worth it for you to be able to be healthy, to be able to enjoy that child? So, you know, I do a lot of teaching of pregnant women….and…we always talk about cigarettes and alcohol use during pregnancy. We need to place just as much emphasis on the chemicals that they’re exposed to. LH: Let me ask you question. There are a lot of people that would like to see us use bovine growth hormone much more than we’re doing. And now I understand that that bovine growth hormone gets in the milk. Most formulas are made from cow’s milk. GG: Yes. LH: What impact does that have—? GG: A tremendous impact. Number one, the human body was not meant to consume cow’s milk. As you know, I’m very proactive about goat milk products. And the main reasons are: one is that the protein molecule in a cow product, in a bovine product, is like the size of a marble if you’re going to compare. Let’s say that we have a metal sieve with the little, tiny holes in it that you sift the pasta in…If you try to put the comparison of a molecule of cow product, of bovine product, it’s like a marble. You take a goat milk particle—the molecular size is that of a grain of rice. Therefore…it’s also the closest in molecular structure to human breast milk. So the body delivers, the digestive system just kind of treats it like it is breast milk, and it’s able to go through the digestive system; it acts as a cleansing agent, and it doesn’t form mucous and flem. When you use cow products it forms mucous and flem; it’s a large protein molecule, right? And so everything that the body has to do to process that bovine product is putting it on alert. It’s overworking the systems of detoxification and digestion. So, no I don’t use…I have a little bit of cow product. Yes I do a little bit in my coffee, but that’s it, everything else I have is goat milk products. LH: That’s very interesting. GG: And goats are the healthiest animals on earth, so therefore they don’t get the growth hormones and they don’t get the antibiotics. LH: Well, I think that people should really give a lot of thought to what you’ve just talked about, particularly those of us that are grandparents, and particularly those of us that are parents, and you know, any of us who are considering having a child needs to be as educated as possible. GG: And I know how you feel about your grandchildren—how many do you have now? LH: We have three. Gilbère: And I have three, so we’re even. LH: Thank you very much. It’s always nice to have you with us. GG: You’re very welcome and thank you for bringing this up.