From Alarming Health Trends to Healthy Futures: How to Reduce Toxic Exposures

by Sophia Ruan Gushée

This is Episode 130 and Part 2 of Season 2: Forever Chemicals Detox 101 of the Practical Nontoxic Living™ podcast.

In this episode, I explore how our alarming health trends in children and adults can inspire us to make positive changes. The data is sobering, but it can become a healthy wake-up call. These patterns can stoke curiosity about tough questions like Which non-genetic factors—including toxic chemicals like PFAS (forever chemicals)—may be contributing to unprecedented health issues? Most importantly, Which easy changes can we implement immediately to reduce our lifetime toxic exposures?

Alarming Children’s Health Trends in 2025

Today’s pediatric health data speaks volumes:

• Obesity: Between 1990 and 2021, overweight and obesity in children and adolescents doubled, while obesity alone tripled (Lancet 2025). Globally, adolescent obesity has quadrupled (WHO 2025).

• Birth defects: Hypospadias, one of the most common genital malformations in boys, has increased dramatically (Scientific Reports 2023).

• Autism: Prevalence in the U.S. rose from 1 in 150 in 2000 to 1 in 31 by 2025—a 384% increase in just over two decades (CDC 2025; The Autism Community in Action 2025).

• Pediatric cancer: Pediatric cancer has continued to increased with an average annual percent change of 0.73. Cases rose to 18.9 per 100,000 children in the in 2010–2019 period, with "more pronounced" increases in leukemia, lymphomas, brain tumors, and more (PLoS One 2025).

Adult Health Trends and Projections

These troubling patterns don’t stop with children:

• Cancer: By 2050, new cancer cases worldwide are projected to increase by 77% to 35 million annually (WHO 2024).

• Autoimmune disease: Global incidence is rising by ~19% per year, with type 1 diabetes increasing 3–4% annually over the last 30 years (PubMed 2022).

• Environmental influence: Only 5–10% of cancers are caused by genetic defects. The other 90–95% are rooted in environment and lifestyle factors—diet, pollution, stress, inactivity, and toxic chemicals (PubMed 2008).

How Forever Chemicals May Influence Health

Emerging research connects PFAS exposure with multiple health outcomes:

• Leukemia risk: Children—age seven or younger—exposed to a mix of PFAS in household dust had a 60% increased risk of leukemia. (UC Berkeley Public Health 2025)

• Obesity: A study suggests a link between prenatal PFAS exposure and obesity risk in adolescence (Department of Population Medicine 2023).

• Immune system effects: Prenatal PFAS exposure shapes infant immunity (University of Rochester Medical Center 2025).

• Growth & puberty: PFAS in children’s blood has been associated with impaired growth and precocious puberty (CNN 2023; EWG 2024).

Genes vs. Environment: What Really Drives Disease

While genetics play a role in disease, the majority of risk comes from non-genetic factors:

• Around 70% of autoimmune disease risk is environmental, including toxic chemicals, dietary components, and infections (PubMed 2014).

• Only 5–10% of cancers are genetic—the rest come from environment and lifestyle. Lifestyle factors include cigarette smoking, diet, alcohol, sun exposure, environmental pollutants, infections, stress, obesity, and physical inactivity. (PubMed 2008).

• Studies estimate that 70–90% of chronic disease risk is environmental (PubMed 2016).

This is both humbling and empowering: we can’t change our genes, but we can change our environment and daily choices.

From Red Flags to Resilience

The data can feel overwhelming. But I want you to remember: awareness is power. By recognizing these trends, we can take small, meaningful steps to reduce exposures and support our body’s natural resilience.

At the end of Episode 130, I share three practical tips to decrease your lifetime exposure to forever chemicals. Even one swap—choosing safer cookware, eating more homemade meals, or filtering drinking water—adds up over time.

Go Deeper with the Forever Chemicals Detox Crash Course

This episode includes clips from my Forever Chemicals Detox workshop, originally recorded in 2022. Season 2 of the podcast is built around this training.

If you’d like to see the detailed slide presentation with citations, screenshots of sources, and a digital workbook, you can get special access through the Forever Chemicals Detox Crash Course.

👉 Join the waitlist here to be notified when it opens for podcast listeners at a special price.

Closing Thoughts

Our health trends should humble us, wake us up, and move us to action. But they should also inspire resilience. Every choice you make to reduce exposures is an investment in your health and your family’s future.

Thank you for being here—and for being part of this movement to create healthier, healing homes.

🎧 Listen to Episode 130: From Red Flags to Resilience →