Toxins Are Everywhere
Environmental toxins are everywhere we go, and simply we cannot escape them. Pesticides and herbicides are at the stores, on our food, at the bank, park, roads, and highways and even found in our neighbor’s yard. We live a world of environmental toxicity, faced with air pollution, disinfectants, additives and preservatives, perfumes, heavy metals, exhaust from our own home appliances, building construction plus emissions from cars, computers, cell phones and cell towers. The list of environmental toxins in our world is exhaustive and as molecular makeup of substances advance, the list of toxins continues to grow.
The Body’s Reaction to Toxins
When we encounter a toxin, our bodies try to excrete the toxin through our urine, feces, sinuses, eyes, saliva or sweat. This is our immune system defending the body and trying to keep balance. In a properly functioning immune system, it will address the invasion of toxins and destroy them, which may result in a brief illness – a natural detoxification as the body repairs itself.
With continued or increased environmental toxicity exposure or the introduction of a high potency toxin; the immune system can become overloaded. The body may respond slowly to a toxin or even fail to respond. This is when inflammation will set in sometimes resulting in those diseases like colitis, sinusitis, or other illnesses the end in an “itus,” which means inflammation. When the body continues to struggle with the toxins, the body will try to keep other tissues and cells safe by storing
toxins up in fat cells, benign tumors or cysts and work at fighting the toxins in a piece meal fashion, a little bit at a time.
The Immune System and Toxins
If the immune system still cannot keep up with and handle the toxin, the body will create additional storage spaces outside of the cells in which to hold the toxins. In this manner, the body does not allow the toxin inside the cell where it could do irreparable damage. These spaces also function as holding tanks so the body can deal with the toxic invasion a little at a time. Examples are cysts, engorged fat cells, and benign tumors.
Every exposure to toxins, triggers a receptor and sets off a stress response in our system. The more toxin exposure, the more times a “fight or flight” response occurs.
The Stress Response to Toxins
The stress response system is essential for our survival; however, the reaction is intended to only be used for brief emergencies, not extended periods of time. When we remain in this heightened state too long it becomes degenerative. The body prefers to be in the parasympathetic state, where it is regenerative.
When the body is in fight/flight, there is a cascade of physiological and psychological events that take place in the mind and body. Blood pressure and our heart rate go up, digestion shuts down, metabolism and circulation are impaired, blood sugar rises which leads to elevated levels of insulin, hormones are disrupted, neurotransmitters are drained, detoxification is impaired, sleep is interrupted, memory and cognition may be diminished, immune function is weakened, and we can suffer from elevated levels of anxiety and fear.
These elevated levels of toxins tax our physical and emotional health and speeds up our aging process. All the organs and systems may become affected, and the body begins to break down in several areas. Symptoms, conditions, diseases, and syndromes begin to develop like multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue – adrenal fatigue, insomnia, high blood pressure, circulation disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, heart disease, headaches, addictions, panic attacks, ulcers, autoimmune disorders, anxiety disorders, depression, and more.
The Toxic Threat
It is not just external toxins that trigger threaten our health, internal toxins as well including candida yeast, Lyme, bacterial overgrowth and parasites and other organisms emit toxins that set off the physiological response. Even naturally occurring toxins like ammonia and by-products of estrogen can trigger toxic exposure if the body is not addressing toxins correctly.
Conditions Associated with Toxins
Environmental toxins are linked to almost every psychiatric and physiological health condition you can think of on one level or another. Following are conditions that have the greatest connection:
- Alzheimer's
- Anxiety Disorders
- Arthritis
- Autism
- Autoimmune Disorders
- Behaviour Disorders
- Mold Illness
- Parkinson's Disease
- Cancer
- Chronic Fatigue
- Chronic Pain Syndromes
- Cognitive Disorders
- Cognitive Disorders
- Depression
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Fibromyalgia
- Gulf War Syndrome
- Hyperactivity
- Lupus
- Insomnia
- MCS- Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
- Neurological Conditions
For answers or to make an appointment, call us toll-free at 800-923-7878 to speak with a Patient Care Team.
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