In my last email blog, I planted a few seeds that hopefully made you question some of the products you put into your mouths and on your bodies. See the Doctor’s blog section of our website if you missed it.
The average person doesn’t usually question the products they use on a daily basis. We assume there is someone looking out for us and that they do a perfect job of doing that. Well, the truth is we have to do some footwork in order to really feel safe consuming and using products in our environment, especially when we are bombarded with multimillion dollar ad campaigns at every corner that certainly don’t put this information on the front page.
Does it seem impossible to protect ourselves from all toxins?
Well, it actually is impossible to eliminate 100% of foreign chemical exposure.
But we can make some changes to minimize our daily exposure, decrease our overall toxic load, and enhance our own ability to remove these harmful chemicals.
Do the following to have a significant impact on not only how you feel, but how you age and your risk for disease as you age:
1) Eat Organic foods preferably grown from a local garden (or even your own!).
2) Purchase natural products for cleaning, washing, and for personal care. If there is a laundry list of chemicals in small writing, there is good chance that product contains chemicals that are not part of normal plant or human physiology.
3) Break a sweat! Enhance your natural detoxification processes by getting good exercise daily and even using saunas. Sweating is one of the most powerful methods of removing not only toxins absorbed from our environment, but also those that are produced as a normal part of metabolism.
4) Breathe! Slow deep breathing actually enhances the removal of toxins from our bodies. The rapid irregular breathing that most of us do as a part of our busy hectic stress filled lives only contributes further to blood ph and hormonal imbalances that leave us feeling exhausted.
5) Drink filtered water (not bottled water!) Avoid sodas (even diet sodas). Hormones, pesticides, chlorine among others are present in small amounts in our tap water. These small amounts are deemed safe by the powers that be. I beg to differ. Remember, each foreign chemical that we consume has to be removed and contributes to our toxic load.
6) Avoid too much alcohol, acetaminophen, or other medications that can slow down the liver’s detoxification processes.
7) Take good supplements: Optimizing cellular nutrition by using quality, pure, bioavailable supplements that have what they claim is of vast importance. If our cells (all 75 trillion!) are functioning properly and aren’t overloaded, they will remove toxins very efficiently. (Stay tuned for ways to spot good quality supplements).
8) Eat a diet for optimum Ph balance. Go high on fruits and vegetables that are alkaline and minimize large quantities of meats. For the most part avoid sugar and starchy foods. Each cell has inherent mechanisms that keep our Ph tightly controlled. The problem is that it takes energy to utilize these mechanisms. If our cells are constantly battling an acidic diet, your detoxification mechanisms will suffer and you will be left fatigued and at higher risk for accelerated aging and disease.
9) Get enough sleep. Studies are clear showing that at least 7 hours of sleep (optimally 8) are needed to maintain health. This is the time the body recharges and rejuvenates. Our immune system, cognitive function, and natural hormonal production suffer when sleep is not optimum. Many will drink several cups of java or suck down a Mountain Dew to get going after not getting enough sleep. This only masks the body’s true need for sleep and can contribute further health problems depending on what and how much of your stimulant of choice you consume.
10) Get quality sleep. Knowing that quality sleep occurs when the deep stages of sleep are achieved, it is of great importance that we watch what we are consuming to go to sleep. Substances like alcohol or sleeping aids can knock you out but lessen the likelihood that you will slip down into the deeper restorative stages of sleep. In addition, if you snore or stop breathing in your sleep, you may have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can not only disrupt deeper stages of sleep, but can also lead to Hypertension, Heart Disease, and lung disease to name a few.
11) Know your food intolerances and allergies. Food allergies, often asymptomatic, can cause a host of health problems including weight gain, hormonal decline, and even autoimmune diseases through a process called leaky gut syndrome. The intestines, when inflamed, actually become leaky allowing toxins and other larger proteins that normally don’t pass the intestinal barrier into the blood stream creating havoc on our bodies. A comprehensive blood test is available through our clinic that evaluates for food allergies and leaky gut syndrome.
12) Remove Mercury amalgams. If you have Mercury based amalgams, consider removing them. It is clear in the research that Mercury does enter the blood stream from these types of fillings. We know Mercury is poison, but many debate whether in small amounts it can contribute to health problems. Cancer, heart disease, and autoimmune disease are on the rise. One way researchers have tried to analyze the problem is to analyze the health outcomes of those that have had the amalgams compared to those who have not. This is a futile effort as there are too many confounding variables to make sense of it. Personally, I am not waiting around to recommend their removal to my patients.
I usually don’t recommend books, but I feel like the book, Never Be Sick Again, by Raymond Francis M.Sc, is worth mentioning. This is a comprehensive book on health but with a unique perspective. The book details the different paths that can lead to disease and how to reverse or prevent disease, including the subject at hand…Toxicity.
Send us an email or call and we can order the book for you at 25% discount.
As a biochemist, a physician, and practitioner of Age Management and Functional Medicine, I believe the book to be right on target!
I sincerely believe the information presented in this blog is of significant importance and while short and to the point can stimulate further interest and may in the end positively affect the health of someone you care about. Small changes can have broad effects!
Please forward to your friends, family members, or anyone you care about.