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Who Decides What You’re Allowed to Know About Your Health? How to Take Back Control

Danielle Howley
Danielle Howley

The Deeper Healing Podcast

Robert Verkerk
Robert Verkerk

Founder, Executive & Scientific Director of the Alliance for Natural Health International

8 hours ago

PFAS in the water. Pesticides on the plate. Plastic in nearly everything. Rules about what you’re allowed to buy — and even what you’re allowed to read — that seem to change every year.

The more you learn, the easier it is to feel like nothing you do could possibly matter.

Dr. Robert Verkerk has spent roughly 40 years working where health, ecology, and policy collide. His answer isn’t to fix everything. It’s to start with the one thing you can reach: yourself.On this episode of The Deeper Healing™ Podcast, host Danielle Howley sits down with Dr. Robert Verkerk, founder and Executive and Scientific Director of the Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH), for a conversation that moves from the halls of regulators to your kitchen table.

Robert pulls back the curtain on what he describes as regulatory overreach — the restrictions he sees affecting natural health products, practitioners, and even access to health information — and explains why he believes informed choice is worth fighting for.

Then he brings it home. Using the familiar oxygen-mask analogy, Robert makes the case that caring for yourself isn’t selfish; it’s where every bigger change starts. “You can’t help someone else in that condition.” He walks through the basics he considers foundational — sleep, nutrition, movement, stress, food and water quality, and everyday environmental choices — and explains why trying to change everything at once tends to backfire, and why finding your biggest “levers” and building tiny, sustainable habits may get you further.

Robert also shares his framework of four foundations of health — energy, structure, environmental information, and gene expression — and how he connects them to resilience, adaptability, and our relationship with the natural world.The takeaway is a hopeful one: you don’t need a perfect environment to begin. You need a first step.

This episode shares professional perspectives, commentary on health policy and regulation, and general information about environmental health. It is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Individual experiences and outcomes vary. The discussion does not establish any environmental exposure, supplement, natural health product, dietary practice, or other approach discussed as a cause, prevention, or treatment of any disease or medical condition. No statement in this episode should be interpreted as a recommendation to start, stop, or change medical treatment.

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