Our toxic reality

…as infectious childhood diseases like polio, smallpox, rheumatic fever, and diphtheria have largely been controlled, chronic conditions of less obvious origins have taken their place.

Asthma, autism, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders (ADD and ADHD), childhood brain cancer and acute lymphocytic leukemia have all increased over the past 30 years.

That’s introductory part of article Human health problems on the rise, published by Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization, founded in 1993 to: 1. protect the most vulnerable segments of the human population – children, babies, and infants; and 2. replace federal policies, including government subsidies that damage the environment and natural resources, with policies that invest in conservation and sustainable development.

You’ll not find neither multiple sclerosis, nor any other autoimmune disorder included in this graph. Nevertheless, it’s safe to assume that no chronic degenerative disorder is an exception. Contrarily – such an assumption would be both unrealistic or even precarious.

Take a long hard look – you’ll definitely see the trend!

Conclusions follow:

Scientists cannot fully explain these increases, but early life exposure to environmental pollutants is a leading suspect (2005)

Fetal exposures lead to adult disease

Fetal exposures cause disease in future generations

Heaps of different already discovered aspects and separate facts about toxins and pollutants influence on health could be added, but the key message remains the same – for everybody:

Pollutants = Toxins = Poisons

Present toxic reality

Our bodies have become virtual dumping grounds for the hundreds of thousands of toxic compounds that invade our air, water, and even the soil that nurtures our food

More than 77,000 chemicals are in active production in North America. More than 3,000 chemicals are added to our food supply; and more than 10,000 chemicals in the form of solvents, emulsifiers, and preservatives are used in food processing, packaging, wrapping, and storage.

Every day, all of us ingest tiny amounts of these chemicals. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, USA) estimates there are more than 20,000 chemicals that our bodies cannot metabolize. Chemicals not metabolized are stored in the fat cells throughout our bodies where they continue to accumulate. As these chemicals build up, they alter our metabolism, cause enzyme dysfunction and nutritional deficiencies, create hormonal imbalances, damage brain chemistry, and cause cancer. Because the chemicals accumulate in different parts of the body and at different rates and in different combinations, there is a disturbingly large variety of different chronic illnesses that can result.

Today, our environment is toxic and the foods we eat, even the air we breathe and the water we drink is laden with chemicals foreign to our system.

Our body is designed to utilize natural substances, which includes foods, herbs and phytochemicals. Any foreign substance will serve as a stimulus to our immune system, which has the function of removing these substances.

Man has neglected one fundamental biological rule; to check and see if the organism is adapting to its new environment. We obviously are the first generation to be exposed to such an unprecedented number of chemicals. The work of detoxifying these causes serious deficiencies. This maladaptation in turn has resulted in chronic disease. But disease is not a drug deficiency.

Dr. Sherry Rogers, a fellow of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and a diplomat of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, says in her book Detoxify or Die that …

bio-accumulated toxic load in the human body is responsible for all disease not attributable to bacteria or virus

Probably the most accurate and up-to-date description of modern life realities has been presented in the article “Blood tests show chemical toxins“:

A number of toxic man-made chemicals were found in the blood of every person tested during a survey by an environmental pressure group.

Environmental pressure group WWF said long-banned substances such as DDT, which has been associated with cancers and nervous and immune system disorders, were still being found.

There is very little information available about the safety and health risks posed by the vast majority of chemicals in use

“We just don’t know what might be considered a safe level of exposure to these chemicals, especially when they persist in the body for long periods and react together inside the body in a potentially dangerous cocktail.”

WWF’s survey shows that our bodies are being used as toxic chemical dumps

Our contaminated blood is proof that it’s time for the government and chemical companies to phase out the production and use of these chemicals and develop new safe alternatives

Poisons, toxins and autoimmune diseases

An autoimmune condition evolves when the immune system for some reason cannot distinguish between self and other.

Conventional (orthodox) way to treat all autoimmune disorders has been suppressing the (deregulated) immune system, and afterwards treating the damage to the involved organ whenever possible.

Holistic medicine uses a different – much better approach.
The root of it always remain the same:

1. Remove the triggers that are deregulating (poisoning) the immune system so it starts damaging organs and/or tissues, causing the body to become “allergic” to itself
2. Relieve the inflammation caused by tissues damage and hyperactive immune system
3. Restore nutritional deficiencies that may be preventing the enervated immune system from knowing how to turn off hyperactivity once it is harmonized

Immune system is greatly complicated. Scientists are using hundreds of special (sophisticated) terms to describe it.

But we (ones attacked by autoimmune diseases) are interested, how such disorders, including Multiple Sclerosis, occur. Probably one of the best and very understandable ways of action of healthy as well as unhealthy (deregulated) immune system has been described in a book “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Autoimmune Disorders: The Revolutionary Drug-free Treatments for Thyroid Disease, Lupus, MS, IBD, Chronic Fatigue, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Other Diseases”. This book is real eye-opener.

Stephen Edelson, M.D., author of the book, has practiced medicine for more than 20 years. As an autoimmune specialist and Founder of the Edelson Center for Environmental and Preventative Medicine in Atlanta, he has successfully treated thousands of patients using innovative and effective alternative therapies.

Excerpts from the book:

• Unfortunately, there are millions and millions of individuals whose immune systems do not respond normally to an attack. Instead of attacking foreign invaders with antibodies-substances produced by the immune system to fight invaders-the immune system components attack the body’s own healthy cells-perhaps bones, joints, blood, brain, nerves, or other body parts-as if they were the enemy. When the immune system reacts in this way, it is producing autoantibodies-substances that attack healthy cells instead of foreign invaders. This situation is known as an autoimmune response
• More than eighty separate medical conditions have been recognized as being the result of an autoimmune response. Some of them are quite common; others are rare. In this book we concern ourselves with the more common conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, type 1 diabetes, autism, chronic fatigue syndromes, autoimmune hepatitis…
• While conventional medicine simply treats the symptoms, we heal the body by going directly to the origins of the disease-the autoimmune response at the cellular level. To get a better understanding of how we do that, it’s first important to understand why autoimmune conditions develop in the first place.The reason, I believe, is simple: direct damage and free-radical damage to cells from environmental toxins (heavy metals and chemicals).

So, immune system starts offending a host body after it is detuned by environmental toxins!

Nothing in this world happens without a reason !

• More good details as well as controversial (although truthful) ideas can be found in an article Autoimmune Disorders.

• Another wise and easy description of the problem has been provided in an article “Autoimmune Disease: Are Conventional Treatments Working?“

Pesticides influence on health

Sad to say, but all man-made chemical pesticides by default are poisons.

Used correctly, pesticides KILL

You may ask: ‘How poisonous they are?’

Let’s take a look at one example:

Searching for pesdticides influence on health, I came across database with 700 listed pesticides and their induced health damages. Full pesticides database can be found in Basic Guide to Pesticides: Their Characteristics and Hazards.

Real problem:

• any single by default is pesticide poisonous and poisons it unique way
• what happens when several pesticides act at the same time (usual situation)?

Such type of research never performed, but common sense suggests it becomes extremely dangerous. So best and simplest solution -

Avoid pesticides !

If interested in minimizing pesticides exposure you can read educational article “How to avoid pesticides”

To health and wellness -

Dr. Czes Kulvis

The Dose Makes the Poison

• Included information has been known for over 500 years now
• Probably just after reading this short article you will change your attitude concerning:
  • food and food additives you eat
  • any drugs you take
  • any supplements you consume etc
• Most probably careful insight into what you put into your mouth could reduce health problems…

All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison

The right dose differentiates a poison….

Paracelsus (1493-1541)

A substance can produce the harmful effect associated with its toxic properties only if it reaches a susceptible biological system within your body in a sufficient concentration (a high enough dose). The toxic effect of a substance increases as the exposure (or dose) to the susceptible biological system increases. For all chemicals there is a dose response curve, or a range of doses that result in a graded effect between the extremes of no effect and 100% response (toxic effect). All chemical substances will exhibit a toxic effect given a large enough dose. If the dose is low enough even a highly toxic substance will cease to cause a harmful effect. The toxic potency of a chemical is thus ultimately defined by the dose (the amount) of the chemical that will produce a specific response in a specific biological system.

http://learn.caim.yale.edu/chemsafe/references/dose.html

Toxicology is the study of poisons or toxicants and their adverse effects on various organs and tissues of the body. The term “toxin” is often used as a synonym for poison, but some specialists prefer to reserve that name for poisons of biological origin, like snake venom or poison ivy.

With advances in imaging technologies and in chemical measurement technologies, the scope of toxicology is progressively broadening to subsume more subtle, subclinical effects of toxicants.

Paracelsus was a medieval alchemist who is often recognized as both the “father of toxicology” and the “father of pharmacology” because of his pioneering work in systematizing the study of effects of chemicals and drugs.

Paracelsus stated that

• all substances are poisons
• that only the dose differentiates a poison and a remedy.

This notion of dose is critical for understanding toxic effects.

At very low doses, even the most toxic chemicals known will cause no discernable effect on humans, while at very high doses, even essential substances like oxygen and water will harm or kill. In between, different amounts will cause different degrees of harm

http://www.lectlaw.com/filesh/tabcaus.htm

To health and wellness -

Dr. Czes Kulvis