Dr. Vivian Chen is a medical doctor with 15 years of clinical experience. She is board-certified in the UK in both internal medicine and family practice, and now lives in California with her family. Her world turned upside down when her daughter was hospitalized soon after being born with symptoms no doctor could figure out. Through doing her own research, she was able to help her daughter recover. She also realized that the many years of chronic fatigue, acne, and brain fog she had was due to environmental toxicity. This opened the world of root causes she had never considered before as a conventional medical doctor. When she moved to San Francisco, she decided to make it her mission to help people reduce their toxin load because she believes environmental toxins to be one important root cause not enough doctors are talking about. 

Sick of hearing the word detox and all the shame associated with it? Amanda sits down with Dr. Vivian Chen, UK board-certified internal medicine and family doctor, to unpack what detox actually means, behind all the marketing and cultural programming. Dr. Chen breaks down clear, actionable tips to support PMS, gut health, and lymph, and answers community questions about the best water filters, mold in the shower, and sneaky places PFAS hide.

Curious about a specific topic? Here’s what they cover:

  • What does detox actually mean (0:15)
  • Taking the shame out of detox (4:25)
  • Taking care of yourself vs orthorexia (5:25)
  • Strong guts can party (10:15)
  • How stress impacts digestion (11:20)
  • Our ancestors didn’t need to detox (14:05)
  • Food quality depends on mineral quality (14:50)
  • Fight or flight (16:17)
  • How light affects detoxification and digestion (17:00)
  • Tap water vs plastic water bottle (22:40)
  • How to detoxify endocrine disruptors (24:10)
  • What's in tap water (24:40)
  • Fluoride (25:50)
  • Chlorine and gut health (27:20)
  • Stress and gut health (28:05)
  • Endocrine disruptors and hormones (29:45)
  • Endocrine disruptors and pregnancy (30:35)
  • Top places to find endocrine disruptors (31:25)
  • Non-toxic (34:20)
  • Forever chemicals / PFAS (35:35)
  • Relationship between toxins and weight loss (36:40)
  • Period underwear (37:50)
  • Sneaky places PFAS are hiding (39:00)
  • Microplastics and IBD (43:20)
  • Microplastics in sea salt (44:20)
  • Is chocolate okay (45:45)
  • Sea salt vs Himalayan salt vs rock salt (48:35)
  • PMS help (50:20)
  • 3 things for your liver (54:05)
  • Poop everyday (58:15)
  • Magnesium and hormone health (1:00:50)
  • DIM supplements (1:01:40)
  • Moringa for detox (1:05:05)
  • Mold (1:06:30)
  • How mold affects mitochondria (1:09:30)
  • Mold in the shower (1:11:15)
  • Detox pathways in the body (1:13:38)
  • Crucial nutrients for liver detoxification (1:15:00)
  • Pooping, sweating, peeing (1:17:10)
  • MTHFR (1:08:04)
  • Lymph (1:22:45)
  • Best water filtration system (1:26:05)
  • How to clean the air in your home (1:28:35)
  • No shoes in the home (1:29:15)
  • Coffee cups (1:32:00)

Watch the full interview here or listen below.

Related Articles