Really thoughtful perspective highlighting an important principle in toxicology: context matters. As Paracelsus famously noted, “the dose makes the poison.” Virtually everything, including water, oxygen, sunlight, and essential nutrients, can be harmful under certain conditions, and risk depends not only on exposure, but also on dose, duration, and individual susceptibility. At the same time, I appreciate the reminder that acknowledging nuance should not dismiss legitimate environmental concerns. The goal is neither fear nor complacency, but evidence-based risk assessment that helps us prioritize the exposures that truly matter rather than becoming overwhelmed by the impossible task of avoiding everything. In an age of information overload and health anxiety, it’s refreshing to remember that good health is less about eliminating every potential toxin and more about understanding relative risks and focusing on what meaningfully influences long-term well-being. Thanks for sharing this insightful piece.
Enjoyed this perspective. All things are toxic. Fear can sharpen judgment or cloud it. Frightened audiences are attentive and dependent, and the capacity to amplify and monetize fear is real. Ask who benefits from your alarm and ask the same of others seeking complacency.Allocate time & resources where they reduce stress and uncertainties. Bark less, wag more. Be humble and kind.
Thank you. I think you’ve summed up quite nicely why I find these topics so difficult. There are people selling fear, but there are also people with reasons to minimise concerns. Trying to work out what is worth worrying about without becoming overwhelmed is the part in finding tricky! “Bark less and wag more” is a great moto for life in general!
A great article as always - the overwhelming nature of contradictory health advice - and the conflict between alarmist claims and dismissive reactions to modern health risks I think it's now so ridiculous - for me anyway - I tuned out of it - which is clearly not a good thing.
I really like that you advocate for focusing limited resources on foundational health habits - such as sleep and nutrition - while critically evaluating wellness trends, especially those linking weak evidence -
Thank you for the lovely comment, as always. It means a lot coming from a writer whose work is so honest about the realities of ADHD, addiction and life in general, and who has somehow overtaken Jane Fonda in the Health & Wellness charts despite (or perhaps because of) the generous use of F-bombs. Which I think is excellent 😉
😂 I think being overtaken by Jane Fonda is a fairly respectable way to leave the charts.
And to be fair, I never said I wasn’t a fan of the swearing, i get it’s not for everyone but I am honestly the last person who would be offended. I think it’s the contrast with thoughtful life lessons that makes it work!
Yes, that is very true, I took your words and made an implication. But loads of people don’t like it - but if I write any other way - its not authentic to me - with that said I have toned down on it because when I read it back it can be a bit chavvy - lol
I think that’s the key point: being authentic. It’s something I’m struggling with too, because I sometimes find myself trying to work out what people want to hear.
In the end, though, I think the best thing is to be yourself. The right people will find you.
Truly appreciated this article. As a toxicologist myself, I approach limiting exposure to environmental toxicants by prioritization. For example: I cook at home a lot, so I prioritize good cookware and washing my fruits and vegetables (more concerned about the microbes) and I use a good water filter for drinking water. But I’m less discerning with my makeup, instead opting to only prioritize hypoallergenicity. This is because I rarely were makeup, and when I do it’s for a few hours.
I recently started a newsletter called Everything is Toxicology. In this weekly newsletter I use pop culture and fun or interesting stories to breakdown the complexities of this discipline to help people make informed risk assessments for their daily lives.
Thank you, that’s really interesting, particularly coming from a toxicologist. I think I do something similar with prioritisation. Things we I use everyday like cookware, food, water and kitchen cleaning products, tend to get more of my attention than products I use infrequently.
I find that way of thinking much more practical than trying to optimise every possible exposure. Really looking forward to reading some of your work too, I’ve just subscribed!
I am not a medical professional but the spiraling over what to believe and what habits to adopt I totally understand (especially the collagen!). Just when I think I’ve fully formed a POV on something, I’ll see or read something new and the spiral starts all over again…
It’s so easy to get pulled into the spiral with all the overwhelming and contradictory health advice out there! The collagen debate is a great example. I swear every time I think I’ve made my mind up, someone publishes another study or posts another very convincing Instagram reel and I’m back to square one 😂
"I can be panic-Googling PFAS in cookware while stress-eating sweets" — that line is the sharpest summary of this dynamic I’ve read.
The worry goes where the content points, not where the exposure actually sits.
The one piece I’d add: the calm-down camp almost always argues single-compound thresholds. Your mixture point is the gap in that argument, and it doesn’t get made nearly often enough.
Excellent. This is what I needed - views on this stuff from both rabbit holes and papers but without adhering oneself firmly to one argument or the other and, very most importantly, without discount codes. I will be reading your posts. Thank you.
Thank you, I really appreciate that. You’ve captured exactly what I’m aiming for. I find both the rabbit holes and the papers interesting, but I think we often end up with far more certainty than the evidence really allows.
The "does this deserve my bandwidth" framework is so much more useful than another verdict on whether X is toxic. I think what I'll actually take from this isn't any specific answer, it's the four questions. That's a tool I can reuse on the next ten things that try to scare me, which is exactly what's missing from most health writing.
This is excellent advice - and pretty much where I ended up after a career as a pathologist working in pre-clinical safety assessment. I love your comment about being wary if the next step is a checkout screen. As for pesticide, some of them are best avoided but I am more concerned with their effects on biodiversity than us … at least, once they have been approved for use.
Thank you, I really appreciate that. You’ve made a really important point, and it’s something I think about a lot too. If I’m honest, being completely frazzled with young children means my bandwidth is often pretty limited, but I do care about the environment and try to bear that in mind when making decisions.
I really enjoyed this piece. As someone who is retired from FDA and has been in public health for 45 years, I think you have nailed the right philosophy. I was trained orginally as an economist and at FDA I constantly argued that we were not spending anywhere near enough attention on nutrition as opposed to food safety. Now they are intertwined as some argue for getting rid of food additives that include those designed to make food safer and last longer on the shelf. Consumers have difficulty distinguishing between links and causation and between hazards (from IARC for example) and risk, and not distinguishing natural and synthetic chemicals. A lot of what is on social media has the same issues. At times, there have been attempts at risk rankings (in EPA and CPSC, for example)) and I think it would be useful to be able to place issues on some kind of a risk ranking. What and how much you eat, stress, sleep, and exercise would be faily high up.
I think you’ve hit on one of the reasons I wanted to write the article. I often find myself disappearing down a rabbit hole about some chemical or additive, only to realise I’ve spent an hour thinking about something that is probably far less important than getting a decent night’s sleep or eating enough vegetables. The idea of risk ranking makes a lot of sense to me. Most of us don’t have unlimited bandwidth, so knowing what is actually worth worrying about feels incredibly valuable.
I think it is time to start thinking about risk ranking. EPA and CPSC have done them for their own risks but there is way too much misinformation out that mislead people when thinking about risks in their own life. I try as often as I can to remind people that "linked," "associated," and "correlated" all mean the same thing, this is a hypothesis that needs to be tested for causation.
I think the idea of risk ranking is incredibly valuable. There is so much information, and misinformation competing for our attention that it can be very difficult for people to work out what is actually worth worrying about!
This is a great article, and hits at the fact that so much of the science is unsettled, yet we are bombarded with people (often with a financial stake) repeatedly telling us why we should or should not care about something. I really liked your line about starting to get convinced after repeatedly hearing a claim, even when you have read the evidence that is more uncertain. It’s that old truism that when you hear a lie often enough, you start to believe it’s true. Thanks for putting words to this!
Thank you, I really appreciate that. I think social media can be surprisingly persuasive. Sometimes I’ll read a claim, look into it, decide the evidence isn’t particularly convincing, and then spend the next three months being relentlessly served content about it until I start wondering whether I’ve missed something.
Great piece! We need more voices of reason on the internet. I always love the idea of being just “good enough” or doing “B work” with my health goals. That helps me keep a balance so that my perfectionist tendencies stay in check hahaha.
I find so many health conscious patients do not have balance. They often struggle with extreme health anxiety and their pursuit of health is crippling them. And I have been there personally too and it’s such a scary, hard place to be stuck. Health goals should boost your life not consume it
Thank you! I completely understand what you’re saying. I really have to rein myself in sometimes because I know exactly what you mean about those perfectionist tendencies. The challenge is finding that balance between looking after yourself and not letting it take over your life to the point where you forget to actually enjoy it. Easier said than done, of course, and definitely something I’m still working on myself 😂
Great post! As a nutrition scientist I couldn’t agree more. Between news headlines based on a single observational study and social media influencers saying who knows what, it’s very easy to feel stressed about everything but also confused. I don’t see a way to stop the headlines, but at least when it comes to helping people have better information at the point of decision, there are evidence based options that work- like clear front of package labeling (exists in many other countries) or banning the use of health and nutrition claims on products that meet certain standards. The problem is there is too much money to gain by scaring people and/or creating problems that different products can “magically” address. So glad to see a physician in this space and looking forward to reading more of your content.
Thank you, I really appreciate that, especially coming from a nutrition scientist. I think you've made a really important point. We often talk about individual responsibility, but most people are trying to make decisions in an environment that is confusing by design. There is a lot of money to be made from both creating fear and selling the answer to it. I really enjoyed your article on food dyes and am looking forward to reading more of your work.
Slowly, over time, I made changes and developed good habits. I use a natural toothpaste, shampoo, and deodorant. I drink bottled water instead of tap water. I try to eat healthy and avoid sugar (but sometimes I slip up). Exercise, sunlight, walks, etc.
Regarding pesticides, it seems to be the case that residues in food aren’t so bad; however pesticides can be dangerous for the people spraying them and people living near them. Also there are urban pesticides being sprayed in parks and on pavements; and people can buy harmful weed killers to use in their gardens. So really, we should be looking to phase them out, as the EU is already doing. But this is a big-picture regulatory issue, and there are other things we can do in our own lives to improve our health, as you argue.
Really thoughtful perspective highlighting an important principle in toxicology: context matters. As Paracelsus famously noted, “the dose makes the poison.” Virtually everything, including water, oxygen, sunlight, and essential nutrients, can be harmful under certain conditions, and risk depends not only on exposure, but also on dose, duration, and individual susceptibility. At the same time, I appreciate the reminder that acknowledging nuance should not dismiss legitimate environmental concerns. The goal is neither fear nor complacency, but evidence-based risk assessment that helps us prioritize the exposures that truly matter rather than becoming overwhelmed by the impossible task of avoiding everything. In an age of information overload and health anxiety, it’s refreshing to remember that good health is less about eliminating every potential toxin and more about understanding relative risks and focusing on what meaningfully influences long-term well-being. Thanks for sharing this insightful piece.
Thank you, I really appreciate that and completely agree with everything you have said!
Enjoyed this perspective. All things are toxic. Fear can sharpen judgment or cloud it. Frightened audiences are attentive and dependent, and the capacity to amplify and monetize fear is real. Ask who benefits from your alarm and ask the same of others seeking complacency.Allocate time & resources where they reduce stress and uncertainties. Bark less, wag more. Be humble and kind.
Thank you. I think you’ve summed up quite nicely why I find these topics so difficult. There are people selling fear, but there are also people with reasons to minimise concerns. Trying to work out what is worth worrying about without becoming overwhelmed is the part in finding tricky! “Bark less and wag more” is a great moto for life in general!
A great article as always - the overwhelming nature of contradictory health advice - and the conflict between alarmist claims and dismissive reactions to modern health risks I think it's now so ridiculous - for me anyway - I tuned out of it - which is clearly not a good thing.
I really like that you advocate for focusing limited resources on foundational health habits - such as sleep and nutrition - while critically evaluating wellness trends, especially those linking weak evidence -
thanks as always 🙏
Thank you for the lovely comment, as always. It means a lot coming from a writer whose work is so honest about the realities of ADHD, addiction and life in general, and who has somehow overtaken Jane Fonda in the Health & Wellness charts despite (or perhaps because of) the generous use of F-bombs. Which I think is excellent 😉
Ha - Jane Fonda got her own back - she leaped all the way to no.11 and I disappeared lol. I’d love to say… this isn’t over Fonda… (but it is - lol)
I know you’re not a fan of the swearing - lol -
I’ve got better - there was only 2 in that one -
You don’t want to ever have a conversation with me in person 🙃🙃
😂 I think being overtaken by Jane Fonda is a fairly respectable way to leave the charts.
And to be fair, I never said I wasn’t a fan of the swearing, i get it’s not for everyone but I am honestly the last person who would be offended. I think it’s the contrast with thoughtful life lessons that makes it work!
Yes, that is very true, I took your words and made an implication. But loads of people don’t like it - but if I write any other way - its not authentic to me - with that said I have toned down on it because when I read it back it can be a bit chavvy - lol
I think that’s the key point: being authentic. It’s something I’m struggling with too, because I sometimes find myself trying to work out what people want to hear.
In the end, though, I think the best thing is to be yourself. The right people will find you.
I agree
I think
Hopefully
lol
Truly appreciated this article. As a toxicologist myself, I approach limiting exposure to environmental toxicants by prioritization. For example: I cook at home a lot, so I prioritize good cookware and washing my fruits and vegetables (more concerned about the microbes) and I use a good water filter for drinking water. But I’m less discerning with my makeup, instead opting to only prioritize hypoallergenicity. This is because I rarely were makeup, and when I do it’s for a few hours.
I recently started a newsletter called Everything is Toxicology. In this weekly newsletter I use pop culture and fun or interesting stories to breakdown the complexities of this discipline to help people make informed risk assessments for their daily lives.
Thank you, that’s really interesting, particularly coming from a toxicologist. I think I do something similar with prioritisation. Things we I use everyday like cookware, food, water and kitchen cleaning products, tend to get more of my attention than products I use infrequently.
I find that way of thinking much more practical than trying to optimise every possible exposure. Really looking forward to reading some of your work too, I’ve just subscribed!
Well said. Enjoy your thoughts as always.
Thank you Mike 😊
Great piece, thank you for sharing. Love your informed and common sense 👍
Thank you 😊
I am not a medical professional but the spiraling over what to believe and what habits to adopt I totally understand (especially the collagen!). Just when I think I’ve fully formed a POV on something, I’ll see or read something new and the spiral starts all over again…
It’s so easy to get pulled into the spiral with all the overwhelming and contradictory health advice out there! The collagen debate is a great example. I swear every time I think I’ve made my mind up, someone publishes another study or posts another very convincing Instagram reel and I’m back to square one 😂
Lol - so, so true!
"I can be panic-Googling PFAS in cookware while stress-eating sweets" — that line is the sharpest summary of this dynamic I’ve read.
The worry goes where the content points, not where the exposure actually sits.
The one piece I’d add: the calm-down camp almost always argues single-compound thresholds. Your mixture point is the gap in that argument, and it doesn’t get made nearly often enough.
Excellent. This is what I needed - views on this stuff from both rabbit holes and papers but without adhering oneself firmly to one argument or the other and, very most importantly, without discount codes. I will be reading your posts. Thank you.
Thank you, I really appreciate that. You’ve captured exactly what I’m aiming for. I find both the rabbit holes and the papers interesting, but I think we often end up with far more certainty than the evidence really allows.
And yes… definitely no discount codes 😂
The "does this deserve my bandwidth" framework is so much more useful than another verdict on whether X is toxic. I think what I'll actually take from this isn't any specific answer, it's the four questions. That's a tool I can reuse on the next ten things that try to scare me, which is exactly what's missing from most health writing.
Thank you for the thoughtful comment, I’m really glad that’s what you took away as that is what I was aiming for with the article!
This is excellent advice - and pretty much where I ended up after a career as a pathologist working in pre-clinical safety assessment. I love your comment about being wary if the next step is a checkout screen. As for pesticide, some of them are best avoided but I am more concerned with their effects on biodiversity than us … at least, once they have been approved for use.
Thank you, I really appreciate that. You’ve made a really important point, and it’s something I think about a lot too. If I’m honest, being completely frazzled with young children means my bandwidth is often pretty limited, but I do care about the environment and try to bear that in mind when making decisions.
I really enjoyed this piece. As someone who is retired from FDA and has been in public health for 45 years, I think you have nailed the right philosophy. I was trained orginally as an economist and at FDA I constantly argued that we were not spending anywhere near enough attention on nutrition as opposed to food safety. Now they are intertwined as some argue for getting rid of food additives that include those designed to make food safer and last longer on the shelf. Consumers have difficulty distinguishing between links and causation and between hazards (from IARC for example) and risk, and not distinguishing natural and synthetic chemicals. A lot of what is on social media has the same issues. At times, there have been attempts at risk rankings (in EPA and CPSC, for example)) and I think it would be useful to be able to place issues on some kind of a risk ranking. What and how much you eat, stress, sleep, and exercise would be faily high up.
Richard Williams PhD
Thank you, I really appreciate that.
I think you’ve hit on one of the reasons I wanted to write the article. I often find myself disappearing down a rabbit hole about some chemical or additive, only to realise I’ve spent an hour thinking about something that is probably far less important than getting a decent night’s sleep or eating enough vegetables. The idea of risk ranking makes a lot of sense to me. Most of us don’t have unlimited bandwidth, so knowing what is actually worth worrying about feels incredibly valuable.
I think it is time to start thinking about risk ranking. EPA and CPSC have done them for their own risks but there is way too much misinformation out that mislead people when thinking about risks in their own life. I try as often as I can to remind people that "linked," "associated," and "correlated" all mean the same thing, this is a hypothesis that needs to be tested for causation.
I think the idea of risk ranking is incredibly valuable. There is so much information, and misinformation competing for our attention that it can be very difficult for people to work out what is actually worth worrying about!
This is a great article, and hits at the fact that so much of the science is unsettled, yet we are bombarded with people (often with a financial stake) repeatedly telling us why we should or should not care about something. I really liked your line about starting to get convinced after repeatedly hearing a claim, even when you have read the evidence that is more uncertain. It’s that old truism that when you hear a lie often enough, you start to believe it’s true. Thanks for putting words to this!
Thank you, I really appreciate that. I think social media can be surprisingly persuasive. Sometimes I’ll read a claim, look into it, decide the evidence isn’t particularly convincing, and then spend the next three months being relentlessly served content about it until I start wondering whether I’ve missed something.
Great piece! We need more voices of reason on the internet. I always love the idea of being just “good enough” or doing “B work” with my health goals. That helps me keep a balance so that my perfectionist tendencies stay in check hahaha.
I find so many health conscious patients do not have balance. They often struggle with extreme health anxiety and their pursuit of health is crippling them. And I have been there personally too and it’s such a scary, hard place to be stuck. Health goals should boost your life not consume it
Thank you! I completely understand what you’re saying. I really have to rein myself in sometimes because I know exactly what you mean about those perfectionist tendencies. The challenge is finding that balance between looking after yourself and not letting it take over your life to the point where you forget to actually enjoy it. Easier said than done, of course, and definitely something I’m still working on myself 😂
Great post! As a nutrition scientist I couldn’t agree more. Between news headlines based on a single observational study and social media influencers saying who knows what, it’s very easy to feel stressed about everything but also confused. I don’t see a way to stop the headlines, but at least when it comes to helping people have better information at the point of decision, there are evidence based options that work- like clear front of package labeling (exists in many other countries) or banning the use of health and nutrition claims on products that meet certain standards. The problem is there is too much money to gain by scaring people and/or creating problems that different products can “magically” address. So glad to see a physician in this space and looking forward to reading more of your content.
Thank you, I really appreciate that, especially coming from a nutrition scientist. I think you've made a really important point. We often talk about individual responsibility, but most people are trying to make decisions in an environment that is confusing by design. There is a lot of money to be made from both creating fear and selling the answer to it. I really enjoyed your article on food dyes and am looking forward to reading more of your work.
Great article, I really enjoyed reading.
Slowly, over time, I made changes and developed good habits. I use a natural toothpaste, shampoo, and deodorant. I drink bottled water instead of tap water. I try to eat healthy and avoid sugar (but sometimes I slip up). Exercise, sunlight, walks, etc.
Regarding pesticides, it seems to be the case that residues in food aren’t so bad; however pesticides can be dangerous for the people spraying them and people living near them. Also there are urban pesticides being sprayed in parks and on pavements; and people can buy harmful weed killers to use in their gardens. So really, we should be looking to phase them out, as the EU is already doing. But this is a big-picture regulatory issue, and there are other things we can do in our own lives to improve our health, as you argue.