Ep. 6: Detox Redux — with Dr. Daniel Kessler

Could the chemicals in your water, your kitchen, and even your relationships be quietly driving your heart risk? In this episode, Dr. Regina Druz sits down with functional and integrative medicine physician Dr. Daniel Kessler — a former CDC environmental-health researcher trained in European biological medicine — to explore how toxins act as “metabolic disruptors.” They cover the surprising discovery of microplastics inside artery plaque, why inflammation (not cholesterol) starts the fire, the concept of TILT (toxicant-induced loss of tolerance), and a simple, doable framework for lowering your toxic burden — starting with sugar, stress, water, and a “not-to-do” list.

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Episode Chapters

[00:00] Introduction & Meet Dr. Daniel Kessler
[02:30] From the CDC to European Biological Medicine
[04:30] What Is European Biological Medicine?
[07:30] The Patient Journey: Intake, Testing, Drainage
[10:30] The Top Toxic Burdens: Thoughts, Stress & Sugar
[17:00] TILT: Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance
[22:00] Microplastics in the Arteries & Cholesterol the “First Responder”
[29:00] Blood Pressure, Small Vessels & the Mouth–Lymphatic Link
[32:30] Microplastic Size, Water Filtration & Practical Swaps
[38:00] Hormesis & Cumulative Burden: The Balloon
[43:30] The Liver, Sugar & “Eat the Rainbow”
[46:30] Closing: The “Not-To-Do” List & Three Takeaways

Transcript

[00:00] Introduction & Meet Dr. Daniel Kessler

Dr. Regina Druz (00:00): Welcome to Own Your Heart Health. I’m Dr. Regina Druz, your holistic cardiologist. This week we’ll dive into common heart health concerns, uncovering root causes and unpacking scientific discoveries and controversies. The information provided does not constitute medical advice. Please contact your healthcare practitioner before making any changes that may impact your health.

Dr. Regina Druz (00:30): Welcome, everybody. Today I’m joined by a wonderful functional medicine physician I met on my own journey into integrative medicine — Dr. Daniel Kessler. Daniel, welcome. You have an interesting path into the medicine you practice; tell us about it.

Dr. Daniel Kessler (01:00): Thank you, Regina, and hi to all your listeners. I was born in Germany, where my parents led a multidisciplinary team for over 40 years and were known as ‘medical detectives’ — people came from all over the world. That was the seed. I came to the U.S. in ’95, studied biochemistry at Emory, then worked at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health analyzing people’s blood and plasma for environmental toxins. Unfortunately, we all have them — which was disturbing.

[02:30] From the CDC to European Biological Medicine

Dr. Regina Druz (02:30): I also come from Europe — Eastern Europe — where what we now call ‘integrative’ was just part of life. My first aha moment was seeing the New England Journal publish a photo of cupping for pneumonia; to me that was a daily routine growing up. Would you say Europe, especially Germany and Switzerland, has far greater adoption of the integrative mindset?

Dr. Daniel Kessler (03:30): Yes. After the CDC I ended up at the Mayo Clinic for my family medicine residency, because Mayo is known for team care and for figuring out the unknown. But what struck me is that people often still don’t feel well despite the best efforts — so we have to ask why the body is burdened. That led me to environmental medicine, and I did additional training in Switzerland and became certified in European biological medicine.

[04:30] What Is European Biological Medicine?

Dr. Regina Druz (04:30): So what is European biological medicine, what does it do differently, and what does the evidence look like?

Dr. Daniel Kessler (05:00): Ultimately we want to identify the burden. With sophisticated testing — looking at plasma and confirming with mass spectrometry — we can know what’s actually in the body. The problem is there aren’t great ways to get rid of it. The key term for your listeners is that toxins are metabolic disruptors: they disrupt how our systems function. Biological medicine views the body as systems — cardiovascular, endocrine, and others — that become dysregulated under toxic burden, and it has ways to assess what state a person is in based on their exposures and how long they’ve had them.

Dr. Daniel Kessler (06:30): Think of food poisoning: the first thing your body does is produce diarrhea to eliminate the toxin — and the worst thing you can do is immediately stop it. If a toxin lingers and gets deposited, tissue becomes inflamed, and we can measure inflammatory markers. European biological medicine has approaches to drain and support the immune system and to filter the blood, then show the patient that the burden has come down.

[07:30] The Patient Journey: Intake, Testing, Drainage

Dr. Regina Druz (07:30): How widely is it practiced, and what’s the patient experience like?

Dr. Daniel Kessler (08:00): Primarily Germany and Switzerland, and there are three steps. First, the intake — we really listen to your symptoms. Second, testing: standard labs every doctor knows (blood count, kidney, liver, thyroid, cholesterol) plus testing that isn’t widely available — environmental burden, plastics, mold, and infection testing. The goal is simple: prove the patient’s burden and ask whether their symptoms can be explained by it. When patients finally get answers, there’s enormous relief — some cry. But it takes time, because these toxins have often been accumulating for decades.

Dr. Regina Druz (09:30): A quick note before we go on. The opinions on nutrition for heart health and longevity are contradictory and confusing — low-fat versus ketogenic, plus many voices for vegan or vegetarian eating. To cut through the clutter, my team and I created Holistic Heart University: on-demand courses and resources, open office hours, and a Q&A where you can put us in the hot seat. The link is in the show notes — use promo code OWNER20 for 20% off an annual subscription.

[10:30] The Top Toxic Burdens: Thoughts, Stress & Sugar

Dr. Regina Druz (10:30): There’s a strong relationship between cardiometabolic risk and environmental toxicity — not just particulate air pollution but things like microplastics, which I discussed with a pulmonologist colleague last episode. With the caveat that association isn’t causation and much of this is observational, what are the top toxic exposures you see, and what illnesses go with them?

Dr. Daniel Kessler (12:30): The CDC keeps a registry, dividing toxins into organic and inorganic — heavy metals, pesticides, industrial fallout like aluminum. But heavy metals aren’t the first thing I look at. The biggest thing I look at is sugar. I also divide toxins into mental, chemical, and physical burdens. When we feel uncomfortable, we reach for comfort foods — sugar and carbs.

Dr. Regina Druz (14:00): That’s exactly what I see: patients with an almost insatiable drive to carb-load — as if the brain isn’t registering fullness because the sugar is already driving it. They don’t choose to be ‘addicted to carbs.’

Dr. Daniel Kessler (14:30): Right, and the research on how addictive sugar is backs that up. With standard labs we can show insulin resistance or imbalanced blood sugar — sometimes ‘not bad’ but not optimal. In functional medicine we start with elimination: assess your environment, your stress, your food, non-judgmentally. My mom always said, ‘give me the real stuff — no excuses.’ Often, just cleaning up the diet brings in so much fiber that it pulls toxins out, and the right water flushes the system. If someone still isn’t well, then we do the fancier testing for heavy metals or pesticides. But in a nutshell: toxic thoughts and stress, sugar, then each person’s individual environment.

[17:00] TILT: Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance

Dr. Regina Druz (17:00): I love that you put toxic thoughts and relationships at the top. One of my functional medicine mentors, Dr. Robert Rountree, taught about TILT — toxicant-induced loss of tolerance — and I thought it sounded a bit out there. Then I rode in a friend’s new car with some air freshener or perfume, and within an hour I became violently ill. I realized I was ’tilting.’ Before that, when patients said they were sensitive to smells, I was skeptical. Now I know exactly how they feel — and it worsened when I was under stress.

Dr. Daniel Kessler (19:00): That makes sense. I first encountered TILT through a wonderful book, Detoxify for Life, by a Canadian physician and mentor of mine, Dr. John Cline. If you think about a toxic relationship, a moldy house — I had mold toxicity growing up — or plastic exposure, ask how long you can really handle being around it. Feeling comes from our nervous system, and many people have a dysregulated autonomic nervous system from exposures we never considered. I had a 68-year-old patient with uncontrolled high blood pressure and knees so bad he was told he needed replacement; I tested him, found mold, treated it, changed his diet — and within six months he was playing tennis four times a week, pain-free, blood pressure 120/80, off all blood pressure medicine.

[22:00] Microplastics in the Arteries & Cholesterol the “First Responder”

Dr. Regina Druz (22:00): Mold and Lyme are tricky, but some environmental triggers are everywhere — which brings us to that New England Journal study from early 2024. It looked at about 300 patients who had carotid endarterectomy — surgery to remove blockages from the carotid arteries. Daniel, what did they find?

Dr. Daniel Kessler (23:00): They proved plastic particles were embedded within the artery lining. We’ve suspected this for a long time, but it takes a landmark study for it to catch on — and since publication, the field has exploded. Plastics cause inflammation in the artery lining, and that’s what matters: most people fixate on cholesterol, when inflammation, oxidative stress, and damage to the lining are the real culprits. Cholesterol is often a response to the initial injury.

Dr. Regina Druz (24:30): A quick note: many of us are seeing patients arrive with self-ordered labs, which too often create confusion. That’s why we created HeartWell Toolkits — curated at-home blood and genetic markers focused on heart and brain health, available at the holisticheartcenters.com shop. Use code TESTING10 for 10% off and free shipping.

Dr. Regina Druz (25:30): I tell patients cholesterol is a first responder — like a firefighter who shows up to put out the blaze. There’s some damage from the rescue effort itself, and sometimes that damage lingers; that’s when cholesterol stops being the first responder and becomes a perpetuator. But the root cause is usually inflammatory. In this study, the patients with microplastics in their plaque were younger and mostly men, with more high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease — yet their average total cholesterol was about 150 and LDL around 74–77, and roughly 95% were on statins. Their triglycerides, though, ran about 165–190, and their BMI was in the overweight range — so these were likely cardiometabolic patients, even though the study didn’t look through that lens.

[29:00] Blood Pressure, Small Vessels & the Mouth–Lymphatic Link

Dr. Daniel Kessler (29:00): My dad always quoted Thoreau — simplify, simplify, simplify. Patients just want to feel better and to know why they don’t. Among cardiometabolic risk factors, I think high blood pressure is the most important, because it’s silent. I explain the toxins’ effect on the arterial lining with physics: pressure is force divided by area. Either the forces in our life are too high — relationships, food, stress — or the area is too small. The arteries most affected are often the small ones; we call it end-organ damage — capillaries, the brain, the kidneys — and with the right testing we can see that damage decades early. So prevention starts with lifestyle: food, sleep, stress. If blood pressure stays high, then we ask about environmental toxins.

Dr. Daniel Kessler (31:30): One more crucial link is the mouth and the lymphatic system. Metals, infections, periodontitis, and gingivitis are bacterial and toxic burdens that have to be addressed. The lymphatic system keeps us healthy and runs very close to the arteries, with interchange between them — so it’s natural to ask how much of the plastic we eat and drink from containers and water ends up deposited there too.

[32:30] Microplastic Size, Water Filtration & Practical Swaps

Dr. Regina Druz (32:30): The article actually included particle sizing. Per the World Health Organization, not all plastics behave the same: larger particles generally aren’t absorbed into the bloodstream, but the tiny nanoscale ones — thousands of times smaller — can cross into the blood and the vessel wall. And the patients who showed those deposits did far worse: about four-and-a-half times the rate of nonfatal stroke, nonfatal heart attack, or death from any cause. Nanoplastics and microplastics are in food and cosmetic containers, so I’d have loved to see more women included. A listener question: would a water filtration system help?

Dr. Daniel Kessler (34:30): I don’t endorse particular products, but here are some tips, many from my mentor Dr. John Cline. The end goal is to decrease the immune system’s burden and improve the environment we live in — air quality and water quality. For water, people can go to the Environmental Working Group website and type in their zip code to see how bad their local water is. Avoid plastics — use glass bottles and containers. When choosing a filter, ask the company for proof it removes plastics specifically; some will provide it. Scientists testing water often find not just plastics but medicines and hormone-disrupting compounds — they’ve even seen feminization in frogs and insects downstream.

Dr. Daniel Kessler (37:00): At home we don’t use tap water, and we use shower filters too — chlorine exposure in the shower is underappreciated, and over years it can imbalance the autonomic nervous system. Simple stuff.

[38:00] Hormesis & Cumulative Burden: The Balloon

Dr. Regina Druz (38:00): This is the crux of functional medicine. Nobody lives in a bubble — we get exposures every day, from people, news, microbes, and toxins — and our biology is smart, it responds to defend us. There’s a concept called hormesis. I explain it like a rubber band: push on it and it bounces back, but stretch it too far and it snaps. When our total load of exposures overwhelms that hormetic response, the system stops responding favorably — and that’s the root of chronic disease.

Dr. Daniel Kessler (39:30): My dad taught me the balloon analogy. Blow up a balloon and it adapts to the stress — force divided by area — just like our body, and our blood pressure, adapts. But blow it up too much, and with one tiny needle and the right amount of pressure, it pops. We were told not to sweat the small things — until you realize everything is small. Add up all the small things in every area of life over time, and that’s why a blood pressure that used to be 120/80 is now 130 or 140. We have to look at the whole cumulative burden.

[43:30] The Liver, Sugar & “Eat the Rainbow”

Dr. Regina Druz (43:30): That ties right back to a question I always get: how much weight do I have to lose to normalize my blood pressure? Patients silo things — ‘I exercised, I lost weight, why isn’t my pressure normal?’ Losing weight for blood pressure is a ‘known known,’ but there are ‘known unknowns’ too — cardiometabolic health, toxic exposures, hidden infections we have to test for. Personalized medicine means fitting what we know to the individual and uncovering those known unknowns. I recently had a patient reverse his fatty liver disease that way.

Dr. Daniel Kessler (44:30): Nice transition — the liver is our metabolic factory, and detox is about decreasing its burden. The liver handles everything that comes in. From a cholesterol standpoint, when patients are hit with infection, stress, or toxins, they need to adapt their hormones — and hormones are made from cholesterol — so the liver makes more. And when we reach for comfort food — alcohol, soda, ice cream, excess sugar — the body turns the excess sugar into cholesterol that has to be stored, so it becomes a storage problem like fatty liver. The first step in European biological medicine is elimination: change the environment to stop the inflow, and help the body burn stored fat with a low-sugar approach. Dr. Cline took it further: eat all the colors of the rainbow — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet — everything except white, every day. The fiber and polyphenols help the liver handle the burden, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and let you eliminate. It’s the simplest thing anyone can do at home.

[46:30] Closing: The “Not-To-Do” List & Three Takeaways

Dr. Regina Druz (46:30): So true — the simplest things are often the hardest, because everyone knows they should do them yet keeps looking for a magic bullet. Eating the rainbow — more polyphenols, more fiber — is the foundation of any detox. Let’s close with your top three pieces of advice.

Dr. Daniel Kessler (47:30): People remember the last five minutes most, so: one, understand TILT — toxicant-induced loss of tolerance. Draw your life as a line, make a pivot in the middle, and ask what you must remove that’s toxic — and be unapologetic. Make a ‘not-to-do’ list, not a to-do list. Staying in the same environment and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity. Two, as my mother said, cut the excuses — your body knows what the toxins are, so listen to yourself, the way Sir William Osler said the patient will tell you the diagnosis. Three, stop talking and do it — be 1% better every day, and you’ll be 365% better by the end of the year.

Dr. Regina Druz (49:30): Beautifully said. I tell patients there’s a list of non-negotiables — your not-to-do list — then reassess your environment, and finally, consistency and compliance. In one patient we actually avoided a defibrillator because restructuring his environment helped his heart failure recover — and it wasn’t what you’d think; not mold, but something very different, for another episode. Medications for blood pressure can prevent and limit damage, but none of them reverse why the blood pressure rose in the first place. Daniel, it’s been a delight — thank you for introducing us to European biological medicine and to reducing the toxic load behind cardiometabolic risk.

Dr. Regina Druz (51:00): And to the professionals listening: if you’re thinking of launching a cardiometabolic or integrative cardiology program in your practice, we can help you expand into hybrid or concierge services. Head to the show notes and click the application link — your intro call is free. Ready to schedule a practice review? Use code DOC10 for 10% off our Practice Power Hour, a 60-minute coaching session. Thank you for tuning in to Own Your Heart Health with Dr. Regina Druz. This podcast is powered by Holistic Heart Centers. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review us on your favorite platform, and visit holisticheartcenters.com. See you next week.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “detox” really mean, and is environmental-toxin testing legitimate?

In this context, detox isn’t a juice cleanse — it’s the medical idea of reducing the body’s cumulative burden of environmental toxins, which can act as ‘metabolic disruptors’ that interfere with how our systems function. Laboratories can document toxins in blood or plasma using techniques such as mass spectrometry, and the CDC has long shown that essentially everyone carries some body burden. Functional and European biological medicine approach this in steps: a thorough intake, standard plus specialized testing (for example heavy metals, mold, or plastics), and then strategies to support elimination. It’s important to keep expectations realistic: much of the evidence linking specific exposures to disease is observational rather than from randomized trials, and reputable clinicians start with the basics — diet, stress, sleep, and water — before pursuing expensive testing. Work with a qualified physician, and treat dramatic claims with healthy skepticism. This episode is educational and not a substitute for personalized medical advice.

How could environmental toxins affect my heart and blood pressure?

The leading theory is that many toxins promote inflammation and oxidative stress in the lining of the arteries — the same processes that drive atherosclerosis. A landmark 2024 New England Journal of Medicine study found microplastics and nanoplastics embedded in the carotid-artery plaque of some patients, and those individuals had roughly four-and-a-half times the rate of heart attack, stroke, or death on follow-up. Toxins may also dysregulate the autonomic nervous system and damage the body’s smallest blood vessels (the capillaries in the brain, kidneys, and elsewhere), which can show up years before obvious disease. In this view, cholesterol is often a ‘first responder’ to injury rather than the initial cause. None of this replaces standard cardiovascular care — blood pressure, lipids, and metabolic health still matter enormously — but it adds environmental burden as another lever to address with your physician.

Which “toxic burdens” should I tackle first?

According to Dr. Kessler, the most powerful starting points usually aren’t exotic heavy-metal panels — they’re the everyday burdens. He highlights three categories: mental burden (chronic stress and ‘toxic’ thoughts or relationships), chemical burden (notably sugar and ultra-processed comfort foods, which drive insulin resistance), and physical/environmental burden (mold, plastics, water and air quality). The functional-medicine approach begins with elimination: honestly assess your environment, stress, and diet, then remove what you can. Often simply cleaning up the diet adds enough fiber to help carry toxins out, and better water helps flush the system. More advanced testing for heavy metals, pesticides, or mold is reserved for people who remain unwell or have significant disease. The recurring theme is to start simple and be consistent rather than chasing every possible exposure at once.

What practical steps can I take at home to lower my toxic load?

Several low-cost habits came up in this episode. Make a ‘not-to-do’ list — identify the most toxic inputs in your life (a relationship, a food, an exposure) and remove them, unapologetically. ‘Eat the rainbow’: aim for all the natural colors except white each day to boost fiber and polyphenols, which support the liver and elimination. Favor glass over plastic for food and water, and avoid microwaving in plastic. Check your water with the Environmental Working Group’s tap-water database (by zip code), and consider filters — including a shower filter for chlorine — asking vendors for proof they remove plastics. Address indoor air and possible mold, and reduce aerosols and synthetic fragrances. Most importantly, be consistent: aim to be 1% better every day. As always, personalize these steps with your own physician, especially if you have existing heart disease.

Show Notes & Resources

Guest: Dr. Daniel Kessler, DO

Dr. Daniel Kessler is a functional and integrative medicine physician and the founder of the KADAN Institute in Northeast Florida. Born in Germany — where his parents ran one of Europe’s leading functional medicine practices — he studied biochemistry at Emory, then spent two years at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health researching environmental toxins before earning his DO at Nova Southeastern University and completing his Family Medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. He is double board-certified in Family Medicine and Integrative Holistic Medicine, an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner (IFMCP), and trained in European biological medicine in Switzerland.

KADAN Institute — functional & integrative medicine, Northeast Florida

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

New England Journal of Medicine (2024) — microplastics/nanoplastics found in carotid-artery plaque, linked to ~4.5x higher risk of heart attack, stroke, or death
Detoxify for Life — book by Canadian physician Dr. John Cline
Environmental Working Group (EWG) Tap Water Database — check local water quality by zip code (ewg.org/tapwater)
CDC / ATSDR — National Center for Environmental Health toxicological profiles and substance registry
Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) — root-cause, systems-based medicine resources
Holistic Heart University — on-demand courses and resources (use code OWNER20 for 20% off annual)
HeartWell Toolkits — at-home heart and brain health lab panels (use code TESTING10 for 10% off and free shipping)
For clinicians: Practice Power Hour coaching with Holistic Heart Centers (use code DOC10 for 10% off)

Holistic Heart Centers

holisticheartcenters.com
HeartWell.ai — AI-powered cardiovascular risk assessment
Address: 55 Bryant Avenue, Suite #6, Roslyn, NY 11576
Phone: 877-511-5166
YouTube: @reginadruzmd
Instagram: @dr.reginadruz
Podcast: Own Your Heart Health — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms

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