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About Meg
Hi! I’m Dr. Meg Christensen. I founded Interior Medicine in 2021. My mission is to help prevent disease by promoting healthier home environments.
I am a licensed, board-certified Naturopathic Physician, am WELL AP credentialed, have a Healthier Materials and Sustainable Buildings certificate, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics.
I’m as serious about humor, self-grace, and perspective as I am about non-toxic materials, research, and transparency.
You can read more about my story, mission, and philosophy here. Or, if videos and photos are more your style, click on each one below.
My Story
If someone had described my website to me 15 years ago, or told me I’d be a naturopathic physician focused on healthier homes, I would’ve rolled my eyes. Here’s how I changed, in five short acts.
I’m the daughter and granddaughter of engineers and scientists, and was raised in a skeptical and relatively conventional household, suspicious of organic food and natural cleaning sprays, and anything else that could be considered “fussy.” I can trace the earliest premonitions of changing my mind back to 2001, when I developed a trust in the power of invisible molecules to change lives. I was a high school student and worked as a cashier at the local pharmacy, totally fascinated by how microscopic chemicals in anti-depressants could change people’s moods and lives. I read Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert to learn more, and although I had thought I wanted to be an Interior Architect, I decided I would be a Biochemistry and Biophysics major instead. Spending four years learning about tiny molecules is likely what makes the abstract “toxins” more life-like for me to this day.
While in my last quarter of undergrad, I learned in an environmental medicine class about pet birds dying when people cooked with non-stick Teflon pans. Teflon is made of PFAS, and when PFAS were released into the air, the birds died. It was thought, even back then (!), that PFAS may also be carcinogenic to humans (which of course, now we know they are). Just after graduating, while shopping for groceries one evening, I saw a non-stick Teflon pan with a pink Breast Cancer Awareness sticker on it, the pan company promising to donate some amount of the cost to cancer research. I was shocked, and did the stop - head tilt - brow furrow sequence. In that moment, I learned most companies don’t consider our health when they make products, and that some may even deliberately mislead customers into thinking their products are healthy (also called healthwashing.) I didn’t know what to do with this at the time, but the memory was officially crystallized in my mind.
At that same time, I was studying for the MCAT and working as a clinical research coordinator at the hospital. After a short conversation with an elderly patient recovering from a stroke in the ICU (he was widowed and mostly ate Hungry-Man frozen meals) my boss prescribed Plavix, a blood thinning medication. Which is good! But for weeks afterward, I couldn’t stop thinking about the patient’s loneliness and his Hungry-Mans, both of which are stroke risk factors. This was the first time I saw the boundary between hospital and home blurring, and thinking that medicine should be a part of both places. I thought that drugs just weren’t enough. This was the most definitive experience that changed my mind about naturopathic medicine (and I also learned that Naturopathic Doctors were licensed and board-certified primary care physicians that could prescribe a full formulary of medications, but that’s another story.) I wanted to find a way to prevent strokes from happening, and a find a way treat them more holistically if they did happen, including nutrition and home in my treatment plan. So I applied to NUNM and became a naturopathic doctor.
After graduating, I was working in oncology at another hospital, this time helping people donate their bone marrow and stem cells to strangers with cancer. While there, I learned that early-onset cancer was becoming more and more common, and that researchers were finally warming up to the idea it might be related to environmental toxins. I also learned that less than 10% of cancer research funding in the US is used for prevention trials. When I asked if our department could participate in the few that did exist, I learned the trials generally didn’t pay well— focusing on new immunotherapies and chemotherapy combinations brought in more money. I get it, we all have bills to pay, even hospitals, but that concept made me so mad. Treatment and innovation are incredibly important, but I imagine if we invested as much into cancer prevention research as we did treatment, we’d save a lot of lives.
In the evenings during that time, I was taking online classes in Architecture and Interior Design. It was 2020 and lockdown gave me time to wonder about my Ghost Ship— the alternative life where I was an Interior Architect, focused on buildings and the feeling of spaces. While choosing materials for one of my design projects, I noticed that stain-proof couch upholstery was made with PFAS, just like that Teflon pan was. I wondered if I could more effectively do my small part to prevent cancer by choosing a couch made without these carcinogens for my (imaginary) client, rather than waiting for preventive research to become more lucrative. The more I learned, the more I was convinced I might be on to something, and I started Interior Medicine in early 2021.
About Interior Medicine
Interior Medicine is a mission-driven, woman-owned wellness company dedicated to preventing disease by promoting healthier home environments.
The average American spends 90% of their time indoors. We tend to think we’re separate from our homes, but the opposite is true: we inhale, ingesting, and absorb the air, light, water, and materials around us.
This near-constant contact makes the built environment a powerful but overlooked part of preventive medicine, and through Interior Medicine, my goal is to change that. Here’s how I aim to fulfill my mission:
Product Ratings
I analyze every product for its potential impact on your health with clear and consistent rating scales. You can use these guides when doing your own searching, as well.
Healthy Design Shop
I’ve gone hunting and gathering all across the internet to find home design that is truly healthier for you and curated it all in one spot.
About My Language
A quick word about how I use the terms non-toxic, chemical-free, and toxin:
I understand that there is no agreed-upon definition of the term non-toxic, and that everything, even water, is made of chemicals, so nothing is truly chemical-free. Likewise, I’m aware that toxin refers to a natural substance like a plant poison or venom, whereas toxicant is a more accurate term for the chemicals in products that have a negative health impact. I choose to use these words anyway because they are currently the most culturally agreed-upon, descriptive, and accessible terms that allow people to find the information they are seeking. Some people really care about this terminology, so I’m letting you know!
