Cleansing Environmental Toxicity and Heavy Metals

Over the last several generations, we have seen the emergence of a new kind of disease mechanism: environmental toxicity.

At one time, diseasing-causing bugs and infection were our biggest public health concern. Scientists are now turning their attention to chemicals, pesticides, air pollution, plastics, and heavy metals.

This is because studies are finding that these substances play a large role in the development of many chronic conditions, including:

• Asthma
• Migraine headaches
• Depression
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
• Fibromyalgia (1)
• Obesity and metabolic syndrome
• Cancer
• Neurological degeneration  (like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease) (2)
• Autoimmunity (3)
• “Leaky” or permeable gut (4)

TILT: Otherwise Known as Toxicant Induced Loss of Tolerance

Chemical sensitivity, and the diseases associated with it, has a name. In the late 1990’s, Dr. Claudia Miller described the condition and mechanism as Toxicant Induced Loss of Tolerance (or TILT), and the name has stuck ever since. (5)

TILT explains why and how different communities from all over the world are affected by certain disease conditions. Dr. Miller and other scientists have determined that the one common element is environmental toxicity.

Most commonly, these toxins come in the form of:

• Heavy metals – such as mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead.
• Plastics – such as vinyl and those plastics that contain bisphenol-A (BPA).
• Pesticides – such as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
• Home care products – such as Teflon (found on cookware) and the triclosan that is found in many antimicrobial soaps.

According to Dr. Miller, the development of chemical sensitivity and its related conditions occur in two stages:

1. The breakdown of natural tolerance. For example, the inability of your immune system to respond to infection or environmental toxins.

2. An easily triggered immune response. This means that small quantities of a toxin commonly found in certain foods, smells, fragrances, gasoline, etc. will become unbearable and can even generate disease.

Not Everyone Will Respond to an Environmental Toxin in the Same Way

Have you ever noticed how one person may get a massive headache around a certain fragrance, while it may not bother you at all?

Or how certain fabrics will give some people a rash, while most other people never even look at what fabric their clothing is made of?

It also indicates whether or not the environment has worn down our natural tolerance. Increased sensitivity to foods, drugs, chemicals, synthetic materials, and air pollution is an indication that our natural tolerance to toxicity has been compromised.

Heavy Metals: Are You Being Protected?

Mercury

This past March, a federal judge ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not liable for approving a mercury-based vaccine preservative (such as thimerosal). (6)

While most vaccines given to children and pregnant women do not include thimerosal, the flu vaccine is one exception.

Rather than take a substance off the market until we know its level of safety, we allow a substance to be put into continued use until we can prove its levels of toxicity.

The problem with this model is that over years, sometimes decades, of litigation, a toxin can continue to build up and accumulate in the environment, in our soil, and in the body.

Aluminum

While on the subject of vaccines and neurotoxicity, aluminum is another toxic metal found in vaccines that has been shown to not only affect brain development but also healthy bone development in children. (8)(9)

In 2011, the Cambridge Journals released a study that explains why it is so important to limit the amount of aluminum exposure that our children receive. (10)

In spite of the data, several vaccines contain aluminum. This includes the Hepatitis B vaccine, which is routinely given to infants shortly after birth.

Are Chelating Agents Healthy for Detoxing the Body?

When we learn that our environment and our bodies are overloaded by an exposure to heavy metals, many of us want to remove those toxic heavy metals as quickly as possible.

There are two ways to chelate, or bind and remove, heavy metals from the body.

1. Use pharmaceutical grade chelating agents, such as DMSA, DMPS, or EDTA.
2. Use natural chelating agents, such as cilantro, chlorella, alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), and minerals.

While the FDA approved the use of chelation therapy in 1991 in order to pull toxic heavy metals out of the body, research has shown that conventional chelating agents actually redistribute heavy metals into the brain and liver. (11)(12)

This potential also applies to natural chelators.

This is why all chelation therapy must be done under the guidance of a physician or health care specialist. If you are interested in chelation therapy, remember that your immune system must be robust and well-balanced. This means do not chelate:

• When pregnant or nursing.
• When ill.
• When going through a period of stress or transition.

Safely Detox!

Remember, everyone responds to environmental toxicity differently, and we all have unique health needs.

Even if you know that you have toxic levels of heavy metals in your body (and many of us do), chelation therapy may not be an option for you. If this is the case, you can still safely transform the level of heavy metals in your body without chelation therapy.

To begin safely cleansing environmental toxins, try fermented foods and probiotic beverages.

Beneficial bacteria have the ability to metabolize and use heavy metals. (13) This means that they can reduce heavy metal toxicity without reintroducing these toxins back into the body.

Besides heavy metals, there are other forms of environmental toxicity that can severely inhibit the immune system, hormonal system, and neurological function.

Remember TILT?

Toxicant Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT) simply means that the immune system has been thrown out of balance from exposure to an environmental toxin. It turns out that beneficial microorganisms actually help to reestablish balance to immune system function. (14)

One study from Duke University investigated this phenomenon. Researchers found that in our effort to be clean and free of infectious disease (through the use of substances like antibiotics), we have harmed the very system that protects us from environmental toxicity. (15)

For example, the team of scientists found that beneficial bacteria have the ability to metabolize toxic heavy metals, like cadmium and lead, as well as aflatoxins (commonly found in peanut butter).

The Body Ecology 21-Day Whole Life Detox

Environmental toxins affect us all. While each person has unique health care needs, there are basic steps that you can take to support your body’s ability to cleanse and renew.