Toxicity and Disease

What most people don't realize is that the majority of diseases and conditions are a result of our toxic environment.  From the air we breath, to the water we drink, to the food we eat, they are all contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals.  Our industrialized society is producing more and more toxic chemicals every year.  They accumulate in our bodies wreaking havoc on our bodily systems and down to the individual cells.  Our DNA is being damaged!  If the USA spends the most on health care of any other nation, why aren't we the healthiest nation?  Why the increase in birth defects and autism?

“I can now very comfortably and definitely state to you,” says Rashid O. Buttar, D.O. of Cornelius, NC. “that, in my opinion, based on the evidence, every single chronic insidious disease process is related to one word:toxicity. You cannot address the issues of aging and dying unless you address detoxification.”

Dr. Buttar, board certified, and a diplomat in preventive medicine and clinical metal toxicology, and Vice-Chairman of the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology, contends that he only recently arrived at this conclusion. “Five years ago I wouldn’t have said this, even a year ago I wouldn’t have said it. But the more success we’ve had, the clearer it has become: All chronic disease is toxicity. You get rid of the toxicity and you put out the fire. You may need to rebuild afterward, but you must put the fire out! Conventional medicine is just covering your eyes so you don’t see the fire.”

Robert A. Nash, M.D. of Virginia Beach, VA.,  who is board certified in neurology, pain medicine, and chelation therapy, and is Chairman of the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology, concurs, though perhaps not 100 percent. “Most of the diseases of aging - vascular, most cancers, arthritis and others - have been shown to be associated with toxic metals and persistent organic pollutants. Vascular diseases, stroke, heart attack, plus most of the cancers and macular degeneration, have been directly linked to lead. That’s just lead,” notes Dr. Nash.

Walter J. Crinnion, N.D., chairman of the department of environmental medicine at Southwest Collegeof Naturopathic Medicine, Phoenix, wrote six years ago, “Chemical compounds ubiquitous in our food, air, and water are now found in every person. The bioaccumulation of these compounds in some individuals can lead to a variety of metabolic and systemic dysfunctions, and in some cases outright disease states.” (Altern Med Rev 2000;5(1):52-63) Dr. Crinnion wrote that some individuals appear to be less able to clear the daily chemical exposure from the body than others, leading to a total load of toxins that exceeds the ability of the body to adapt; and at that point, damage to certain organ systems can occur, including the immune, neurological, and endocrine systems.” Immunotoxicity, according to Dr. Crinnion, may be the major factor in the increasing rates of asthma, allergies, cancers, and chronic viral infections. But the effects are widespread: “Neurologicaltoxicity can affect cognition, mood, and cause chronic neurological illnesses. Endocrinetoxicity can affect reproduction, menses, libido, metabolism, stress-handling ability, glucose regulation, and other important functions.”

A 2003 U.S. study by the Centers for Disease Control revealed the presence of 116 chemicals - some of them banned for more than two decades because of toxicity - in people of all ages. The CDC report makes an important distinction: that the level of chemicals found within the body is a result of the cumulative impact of many different types of exposure, including air, water, food, soil, and dust, reinforcing the concept that environmental pollutants are omnipresent in our environment.

The implications of multiple-source exposure are disturbing. Britain’s Environmental Toxins Foundation (ETF) states that “more and more research [is] pointing towards mounting evidence of structural and genetic damage, potentially caused to the human morphology, through the huge influx of chemical agents found in the air, soil and water today. The influx of agents absorbed, ingested and inhaled from the food we eat, the water we drink and from the air we breath … is increasingly prevalent in our modern environment.”

In a paper published in Alternative Therapies, July/August 2005, “Metals in Medicine,” Dr. Nash sums up recent developments in his specialty, metal toxicity: Metals have been implicated in many of the diseases of aging as well as in neurodevelopmental diseases and autism spectrum disorders. The American Board of Chelation Therapy (ABCT) has formally changed its name to the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology (ABCMT) because of the new scientific association of toxicant metals with multiple diseases.” Dr. Nash also explains that with the advent of the industrial revolution, the presence of many metals, such as lead and mercury, in the environment has increased. “Tobacco, which tends to bio-concentrate cadmium, is a major producer of metal. Arsenic has been used in the past in agriculture.

Forest fires release metals, especially mercury, from stable seleno-mercurial compounds that are extraordinary stable in the tree during its life. Volcanoes also spew out copious amounts of mercury.Between nature and man, we have polluted the planet.  We are now paying a price for our environmental neglect. That price appears to be the increasing diseases of aging, such as vascular disease, congestive heart failure, and cancers.”

Evidence of the role of environmental toxins in disease continues to pile up. A report detailing new links between environmental toxicants and breast cancer, concluded that exposure to synthetic chemicals and radiation has contributed more than previously thought to the rising incidence of breast cancer. It contained new evidence from 21 research studies published since February 2003, adding to existing evidence linking toxicants in the environment to breast cancer, and was peer-reviewed by six leading scientists, including a noted scientist from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organization. The report says that “compelling scientific evidence” points to some of the 85,000 synthetic chemicals in use today as contributing to breast cancer by altering hormone function or gene _expression. According to Nancy Evans, a health science consultant for the Breast Cancer Fund and the editor of the report, “Medical X-rays, pesticides, household cleaning products, personal care products and some pharmaceuticals are just a few of the multiple and chronic exposures contributing to this epidemic.”

Dr. Buttar points to a July 2005 paper, released by the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org), that confirms the worst fear: that the average person does not need to spend years being exposed to environmental pollutants to be affected - nor does the average child. In “Body Burden-The Pollution in Newborns ,” EWG reports, “Not long ago scientists thought that the placenta shielded cord blood - and the developing baby - from most chemicals and pollutants in the environment. But now we know that at this critical time when organs, vessels, membranes and systems are knit together from single cells to finished form in a span of weeks, the umbilical cord carries not only the building blocks of life, but also a steady stream of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides that cross the placenta as readily as residues from cigarettes and alcohol…”

Specifically, says the EWG: “In a study spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group in collaboration with Commonweal, researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood from 10 babies born in August and September of 2004 in U.S. hospitals. The umbilical cord blood of these 10 children, collected by The American Red Cross after the cord was cut, harbored pesticides, consumer product ingredients, and wastes from burning coal, gasoline, and garbage, known to cause cancer in humans, are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. EWG goes on to explain why the presence of these substances in umbilical cord blood has such profound and long-lasting implications: Chemical exposures in the womb or during infancy can be dramatically more harmful than exposures later in life .

The article from which this information was derived goes on at some length, but it is apparent that the conclusion arrived at by Dr's Buttar and Nash at the beginning of this article has enormous merit.  Dr. Nash's statements that “Most of the diseases of aging - vascular, most cancers, arthritis and others - have been shown to be associated with toxic metals and persistent organic pollutants", and"Vascular diseases, stroke, heart attack, plus most of the cancers and macular degeneration, have been directly linked to lead," should be a cause of great concern for anyone pursuing wellness.

A Universal Problem: If polled,most healthcare  professionals,the AMA, researchers from the CDCand the FDA would generally agree that"the overwhelming majority of all disease affecting mankind is due to toxins in the body". Odds are overwhelming that you and your family are part of this "statistic". YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE!