Your Body: A Toxic Dumping
Ground?
By Jordan
Rubin, NMD, PhD, Founder of Garden of Life
 Each
year people are exposed to thousands of toxic chemicals and pollutants
in the atmosphere, water, food, and soil. As a result of the
Industrial Revolution and post-World War II petrochemical revolution,
toxins have accumulated in the human system faster than they can be
eliminated.
People now carry within their bodies various
industrial chemicals, pesticides, food additives, heavy metals (like
lead), and anesthetics, plus the residues of pharmaceuticals. In
recent history, people have been exposed to chemicals in far greater
concentrations than were previous generations; over 69 million
Americans live in areas that exceed smog standards; most drinking
water contains over 700 chemicals, including excessive levels of lead;
some 3,000 chemicals are added to the food supply; and as many as
10,000 chemicals in the form of solvents, emulsifiers, and
preservatives are used in food processing and storage, which can
remain in the body for years.
James Dillard, M.D., assistant clinical professor at
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York
City, remarks about “detox” diets and fasting in this manner:
“Certainly, the human body carries huge loads of petrochemicals. We
know people usually die with the full burden of PCBs they’ve ever been
exposed to ‘stuck’ in their liver. DDT sticks around, too.” Can
fasting and detoxification help to remove these? Dillard responds,
“Theoretically, yes. When fat is mobilized, anything that is
fat-soluble should be mobilized, too.”
Our bodies have a built-in system for
detoxification. Here’s how:
- Lungs: The lungs take in pounds of
pollutants and eliminate toxic gases each minute.
- Skin: The skin is our largest eliminative
organ. Every pore of the body is an opening, an escape route for
waste material.
- Kidneys: The kidneys eliminate fluid
wastes from the body and purify the bloodstream.
- Liver: The liver is probably the most
important detoxifier of all the organs because it takes poisons,
neutralizes them, and what it cannot render harmless, it
stores—protecting the body from harm.
- Colon: The colon eliminates solid wastes
and absorbs water from foods.
Does the Body Need Help in Detoxification?
Chemical toxins move quickly from your blood into
storage sites—mostly fat tissue, organs, and bones—so blood or urine
levels severely underestimate our total toxic load. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) monitored human exposure to toxic
environmental chemicals from 1970, when it began the National Human
Adipose Tissue Survey (NHATS), to 1989. This study evaluated the
levels of various toxins in fat tissue from cadavers and elective
surgeries.
Five of what are known to be the most toxic
chemicals humans have created were found in 100 percent of all samples
(OCDD, a dioxin, styrene, 1,4 dichlorobenzene, xylene, and ethylphenol—extremely
toxic chemicals from industrial pollution that may cause harmful
changes in your liver, heart, lungs, and nervous system). Nine more
chemicals were found in 91 to 98 percent of the samples, including
benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, DDE (a breakdown of DDT, the pesticide
banned in the United States since 1972), three dioxins, and one furan.
Polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs) were found in 83 percent of the
population.
Where do these toxins come from? They come from two
places. One is the environment (external toxins); the other is our own
gut (internal toxins). The by-products of our metabolism (internal
toxins) need to be processed. All of them put stress on our livers.
Here are some basic steps to take to reduce toxic
load in the body:
- Use only organically-raised foods. They
are free of contaminants, synthetic pesticides and herbicides,
hormones, preservatives, dyes, artificial colorings, and
antibiotics.
- Get the poisons off your produce. Since
the Food and Drug Administration tests only about 1 percent of
produce for pesticide residues, cleaning your food is the only way
to ensure that your are not eating agricultural poisons.
- Maintain a household free of toxic chemicals.
Remove chemical contaminants and toxic household cleaners from your
home, or at least to limit your exposure to them.
- Breathe clean air. As the average person
spends more of his/her time indoors, the quality of indoor air
becomes crucial. Toxic substances are now commonly found in
tightly-sealed indoor environments. Ozone and ionizing air-filters
are now available for home use. Common houseplants can be used as
filters to remove pollution from indoor air, too.
- Filter your water. Tap water is a major
source of the toxic chemicals that the liver is required to process.
The practical solution is to get a water filter for the home and
office, or at least to start using commercially purified and bottled
water.
Note from Christine: For cleansing and
detoxifying the body, please visit our webpage on
Internal Cleansing Products and Programs. |
