An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study of chemicals found in human body fat through biopsy showed the wide array of toxic chemicals that each of us carries within. The “toxic load,” also known as “total body burden” or “bio-accumulation” occurs when the body exceeds the capacity of the organs of detoxification to reduce or neutralize toxins. Since the end of the Second World War, our planet has been experiencing a dramatic chemical revolution. Our existence, at the cost of our health and quality of life, now depends upon thousands of synthetic chemicals that are used to create virtually everything we associate with modern life—agriculture, health care, energy production, food supply, household and personal care products, and manufacturing all pumping tons of chemicals—most sold to consumers or dumped into the environment. A portion of these foreign chemicals, referred to as xenobiotics (foreign to the body), end up within the human body.
| “The contamination of our world is not alone a matter of mass chemical spraying. Indeed, for most of us this is of less importance than the innumerable small-scale exposures to which we are subjected day by day, year after year. Like the constant dripping of water that in turn wear away the hardest stone, this birth-to-death contact with dangerous chemicals may in the end prove disastrous. Each of these recurrent exposures, no matter how slight, contributes to the progressive buildup of chemicals in our bodies and so to cumulative poisoning…Lulled by the soft sell and the hidden persuader, the average citizen is seldom aware of the deadly materials with which he is surrounding himself; indeed, he may not realize he is using them at all.”
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring |
INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
With over 75,000 chemicals currently registered with the
Environmental Protection Agency, only very small fractions
are assessed for their toxicity in humans. In fact, only about
25 percent of commonly used chemicals have undergone
even the most basic toxicity testing— even fewer are tested
for their effects on the developing fetus, brain or the immune
system. Chemicals, like criminals, are presumed innocent until
proven guilty. Unfortunately, because of our lax environmental
laws, most of these toxic offenders never go on trial and are
presumed safe until widespread harm occurs or the public
demands accountability.
The use of mercury in dental amalgam fillings is a perfect
example of toxic chemical “grandfathers” that remain in
widespread use without any adequate safety testing required
of the manufacturers. I worked in dentistry for many years
prior to embarking on my career in natural health. I am one of
those victims of heavy metal poisoning as a result of not only
handling mercury in the course of dentistry, but also as a result
of a mouthful of mercury amalgam fillings from age seven to
eighteen. The only way we can preserve or repair our health
from these toxic saboteurs is through education and finding
safe alternatives.
Most of these untested chemicals make their way into natural ecosystems and end up in the human body. Because of this, we are unknowing victims in a giant, uncontrolled experiment
with billions of humans functioning as the experimental
animals. It’s making millions very sick. As a result of this toxic
exposure and buildup, we’re developing “invisible illnesses”
like fibromyalgia, arthritic disorders, chronic fatigue, lupus,
scleroderma, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Gulf
War syndrome, multiple skin disorders, a myriad of chemically-induced
immune system disorders, and yes, even cancer.
Future generations may look back upon this era with contempt
for the indiscriminate way we’ve allowed toxic chemicals to
pollute our world, erode our quality of life, and in general cause
disease and death.
A PHYSICIAN’S PERSPECTIVE
Dr. Claudia Miller, Department of Family Practice, University of
Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, believes we are on
the threshold of a new theory of disease— one that recognizes
the impact of toxic chemicals. In a paper discussing chemical
intolerance in Annals of New York Academy of Sciences, Miller wrote:
“In the late 1800’s, physicians observed that certain illnesses
spread from sick, feverish individuals to those contacting them,
paving the way for the germ theory of disease. The germ theory
served as a crude but elegant formulation that explained dozens
of seemingly unrelated illnesses affecting literally every organ
system.
“Today, we are witnessing another medical anomaly—a
unique pattern of illness involving chemically exposed people
who subsequently report multi-system and new-onset chemical
and food intolerances. These intolerances may be the hallmark
for a new disease process, just as fever is a hallmark for
infection.”
Miller and other prominent scientists believe this new
disease process is the key to the emergence of a totally new
type of chemically related disorders and undiagnosed diseases.
Disorders such as Gulf War syndrome, chronic fatigue,
fibromyalgia, lupus, environmental illness, chemical sensitivities
and multiple allergic response syndromes (MARS), are now
believed to have a common denominator, toxic overload.
POISONS WITHIN
Toxic stress comes from more than the absorption of
environmental chemicals. A wide range of potentially toxic
substances are generated from processes at work within
our body. When the natural mechanisms of detoxification
malfunction, or when internally generated toxins are produced
in excessive amounts faster than the ability of the organs to
detoxify and neutralize, significant health disorders and disease
result.
For example, if a person does not have sufficient intake
of vitamin B6, B12, or folic acid to meet their body’s specific
demands, their cells are unable to properly metabolize and
excrete the amino acid methionine—an important nutritional
substance derived from protein digestion. When this occurs,
a normally harmless amino acid is broken down into toxic
homocysteine, a waste material that damages arteries and
causes atherosclerosis.
Even the processes within cells that generate energy from
food molecules and oxygen result in the release of toxic free
radicals — unstable molecules that have to be snuffed out by a
complex system of dietary and internally generated antioxidants.
If these complex antioxidant systems fail to perform properly,
accelerated aging, disease and eventually death occurs.
Toxins are also continuously generated from microbial
activity in the digestive tract. Everything we eat is either absorbed
into the body or it ends up in the colon where it is fermented
by over 400 different species of bacteria and several kinds of
yeast. Some of the fermentation by-products are harmless
substances like lactic acid, but a wide variety of more toxic
substances are also produced; ammonia, hydrogen sulfide,
methane, butane, cadaverine, and putrescine—a few of the
many microbial toxins generated in our own gut. Most of these
toxic by-products remain in the gut and those that are absorbed
are quickly neutralized by the liver. However, if unfriendly gut
microbes overgrow, or if liver function is compromised, serious
health problems occur.
Many individuals living with chronic health problems suffer,
in part, because of the condition commonly known as “leaky gut
syndrome,” in other words, autointoxication, meaning they are
being poisoned by the toxic substances within their body—the
condition does not have to be acute for the person to manifest
symptoms.
This condition, technically known as increased intestinal
permeability, occurs when the normally leak-proof lining of
the small intestine becomes inflamed or damaged and tiny
gaps open up between intestinal cells. In this condition, large
molecules from partially digested food and microbes pass
through the leaky gut and into the surrounding blood and
lymph.
When a person has leaky gut, every meal places an unhealthy
load on their immune system, particularly their liver, resulting
in an increase in overall body burden—often escalating into
multiple allergic response syndromes (MARS™). Once this occurs,
the allergic responses to food and the environment can escalate
to multiple chemical sensitivities and even anaphylactic shock.
As a recovered victim of leaky gut syndrome and MARS, I can
attest to the life-threatening and life-altering challenges that
a victim of these disorders endures. In order to achieve full
recovery, complete life-style changes must be implemented. The
best insurance against these disorders is knowledge. However,
knowledge without action is just as deadly as no knowledge.
BODY BURDEN—The Chemical Assault
The human race is now contaminated with hundreds of
synthetic chemicals, which were not found in our ancestors.
Exposure in the womb to these contaminants can cause birth
defects and affect our children’s future ability to reproduce and
their susceptibility to diseases, including cancer.
In some cases, developmental problems can result and
affected children may never reach their full potential. Put simply,
the integrity of the next generation is at stake. Protecting our
children from the legacy of these chemicals is a major challenge
and responsibility of modern society.
CHEMICAL TRESPASS?— Pesticides in Our Bodies
Many U.S. residents carry toxic pesticides in their bodies above
government assessed “acceptable” levels. “Chemical Trespass:
Pesticides in Our Bodies and Corporate Accountability,” makes
public for the first time an analysis of pesticide-related data
collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a
study of levels of chemicals in 9,282 people nationwide (2,644
of whom were tested for pesticides).
Many of the pesticides found in the test subjects are
linked to serious short- and long-term health effects including
infertility, birth defects, learning disorders, childhood and
adult cancers. Chemical Trespass finds that children, women
and Mexican Americans shoulder the heaviest “pesticide
body burden.” For example, children—the population most
vulnerable to pesticides—are exposed to the highest levels of
nerve-damaging organophosphorous (OP) pesticides. CDC data
shows the average six year-old sampled is exposed to the OP
pesticide chlorpyrifos (commonly known by the product name
Dursban) at four times the level the EPA considers “acceptable”
for a long-term exposure.
Future articles will discuss specific challenges and the
modifications necessary to live healthy in a toxic world
through nutrition-based medicine employing pluralistic health
principles, naturally.
