Ever visited a big
city’s garbage
dump on a hot summer day? Just the smell can make you feel sick.
Removing that trash from urban streets makes a metropolis
inhabitable. Left on the sidewalk, trash decomposes, providing a home
for parasites, bacteria and other unsavory organisms.
|
| Toxic waste is
constantly
produced during normal processes like digestion and cellular
respiration. |
Sanitation of the Body
Well, the same basic removal process
goes on inside your body. Garbage – toxic waste –
is constantly
produced during normal processes like digestion and cellular
respiration. Damaging chemicals and other pollutants continually need
to be removed.
Allowed to accumulate in
tissues and
organs, toxins make you sick, the same way a garbage strike makes a
city odiferously unlivable. And that accumulation, researchers now
believe, lies at the heart of disease and is the moving force behind
illness.
The word toxin derives from the
Greek
word toxikon, a poison applied to arrows. In 1888, a Berlin doctor,
Ludwig Brieger coined the word toxin to refer to poisons created
within the body. Those poisons appear in your cells no matter how
pure a life you lead. The very act of living makes their presence
inevitable.
“We are constantly
taking in oxygen,
water and food for metabolism, and that process makes latent products
that need to be dealt with,” observes Leonard Smith, MD, of
Gainesville, Florida.
“Even if we lived in
a pristine world with no chemicals, no air
pollution, pure water, and pure food, still, with the passage of time
we would experience cellular toxicity.”
How
well is your body
coping with toxins?
For evidence of how well or
poorly your body is coping with toxins, Dr.
Smith says you have to look no farther than your skin. Is it clear and
glowing with healthy? Or does it look mottled, wrinkled and incorporate
a disturbing pallor? “Looking at people’s skin, you
get a good idea if
toxins are coming out or are slowed down. A lot of people
don’t think
of the skin as a detox organ but it is, it’s the largest
detox organ.”
Many parts of the body participate in the teamwork of toxin removal.
Dr. Smith recites a roster of organs that have to perform their jobs
well for the body to effectively dispose of toxins, “The
lungs, the
kidneys, the bladder, the small and large intestines, colon, liver and
gall bladder; all these organs eliminate toxins. When they
don’t do
their job, toxins get stuck in the organs and cause trouble for the
cells. Cells under stress tend to work less efficiently.”
|
 Researchers at the A.B. Hancock Jr. Memorial Research
Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have identified a type of
DNA damage caused by chronic inflammation as a probable risk factor for
colorectal cancer. 2
|
In addition to coping with the natural production of toxins within the
body, your body also has to deal with a constant bombardment of
industrial waste products. Today, in the US, more than one out of every
three rivers and lakes are unsafe to swim in because of pollution. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that in 2002 (the latest
year available) 24,379 U.S. facilities released 4.79 billion pounds of
toxins into the atmosphere. Of these pollutants, 72 million pounds were
known carcinogens.
These toxins impinge on health, during your entire life, even before
birth. A study in New York City shows that the genetic material in
fetuses still in their mothers’ wombs is damaged by air
pollution.1
“These results raise serious
concern,” warns
Frederica P. Perera, MD, director of the Columbia Center for
Children’s
Environmental Health. “Fetal susceptibility to DNA damage
from air
pollution, including motor vehicle emissions and secondhand smoke, has
important implications for cancer risk and developmental problems. And
it underscores the importance of reducing levels of air pollution in
our city.” Also underscored: the necessity for getting these
pollutants
out of your body.
Dangerous
Process
Toxic build up is a dangerous
process, some suggest that it can lead to
cancer. “When cells are stressed long enough either the
nucleus,
cytoplasm or membrane may respond (malfunction) in reaction to the
toxicity,” notes Dr. Smith. “If the cell reproduces
and makes other
cells that are all malfunctioning in similar ways an adenoma (small
growth) may form. When a few more form, you may have a carcinoma or
minimal cancer. But left long enough, it may progress to an
undifferentiated, highly toxic cancer.” Undifferentiated
cancers
consist of cells that are primitive in nature and do not resemble the
cells in the organs where they originated.
When this process moves into high gear, the results can be life
threatening. Dr. Smith adds that, “As the cell tries to
escape from
unhealthy metabolism, the genetic machinery (may malfunction) leading
to a whole spectrum of (undesirable) possibilities: cellular division
that forms polyps or becomes a well-differentiated or undifferentiated
cancer. Then, the cancer is likely to break into the lymphatic system
and spread throughout the body.”
Inflammation
can cause cancer
|
When
the body experiences oxidative stress, molecules called free radicals
are produced, and these free radicals can damage cells – the cell
membrane and the DNA.
Lawrence J. Marnett, PhD, director of the Hancock Research Center
|
This type of stress on cells
can result in inflammation, one of the
body’s defense mechanisms designed to facilitate healing.
Normally a
response to injury or infection, inflammation stimulates the formation
of cytokines, messenger proteins released by white blood cells that
alert the immune system to attack an invader or heal wounds. But when
chronic inflammation is ignited by toxins, the body can damage itself.
“Cancer can arise in sites of chronic inflammation: We
believe that
when inflammation occurs the body is in a fighting mode, ready to fight
off germs. But when this is an inappropriate response, (when toxins set
off inflammation), the oxidants produced (by the body) to attack the
bacteria instead attack our own DNA and lead to mutation,”
says William
Joel Meggs, MD, PhD, professor and chief of toxicology at the Brody
School of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, North
Carolina.
For instance, researchers at the A.B. Hancock Jr. Memorial Research
Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have identified a type of
DNA damage caused by chronic inflammation as a probable risk factor for
colorectal cancer. 2
“These
studies
suggest a direct link between oxidative stress, like that seen in
chronic inflammation, and genetic mutations that cause human disease,"
says Lawrence J. Marnett, PhD, director of the Hancock Research Center.
“When the body experiences oxidative stress, molecules called
free
radicals are produced, and these free radicals can damage cells
– the
cell membrane and the DNA.”
Heartbreaking Toxins
|
| Toxins can enter one
part of the body, the lungs,
but cause eventual disease in another, such as the heart. |
In a similar way, diseases like Alzheimer’s and heart disease
have also been linked to excess inflammation.
Until recently, medical researchers didn’t understand that
small
amounts of toxins that we encounter everyday can lead to these severe
problems. “(For example), small particulates (in air
pollution), 2.5
microns and smaller (given off by diesel engines), can trigger
inflammation at levels well below where they would be considered toxic
in a more classical sense,” Dr. Meggs warns. “At
the levels one finds
in New York City or Houston, it’s enough to double the heart
attack
rate. We don’t know exactly how this low level triggers
inflammation in
the arteries of some people that leads to heart attacks while not
happening in others.”
Confusing the issue, toxins can enter one part of the body, the lungs,
but cause eventual disease in another, such as the heart. “It
can start
when white blood cells detect these (toxins) and signal the body that
‘we have a problem,’” Dr. Meggs observes.
“That starts the inflammation
process. But then a process called switching occurs: People are
inoculated with something in one part of the body but then get an
effect in another. Still, it hasn’t been proven how this
switching
mechanism occurs when these small particles enter the lungs but result
in inflammation (and disease) in the arteries and heart.”
Toxic Complications
The large number of pollutants we encounter every day complicates our
body’s toxin-elimination efforts. “We’re
living in a toxic soup of
polluted air, water, food and electromagnetic toxins,” says
Dr. Smith.
“There’s no end to the toxicity coming in to the
body. So the
foundation of what you should do (to defend yourself) is drink filtered
water, eat organic food, use air filters, live around trees which are
natural filter of the air.” Dr. Smith says that water is a
crucial
detoxification tool. “Drink half your body weight in ounces
of water
every day. If you don’t give your kidneys enough water, they
will suck
it out of the material in your bowels. Your kidneys need the water to
hold toxins in solution and get them out. Urine can only be so
concentrated. Without enough water, toxins are reabsorbed.”
|
We’re
living in a toxic soup of
polluted air, water, food and electromagnetic toxins. There’s no end to the toxicity coming in to the
body. So the
foundation of what you should do (to defend yourself) is drink filtered
water, eat organic food, use air filters, live around trees which are
natural filter of the air.
Dr. Leonard Smith
|
Natural
ways to remove toxins
There are natural ways to support the removal of toxins from your body,
including herbal cleansing formulas designed to support the
body’s
seven channels of toxin elimination: the bowels, blood, skin, kidneys,
lymphatic system, lungs and the liver. Typically, these formulas
include herbs that have been used historically to assist different
parts of the bodies natural cleansing system. Many natural health
practitioners recommend 7-channel cleanses at the beginning of each new
season. Other daily cleansing support formulas include fiber, essential
fats, digestive enzymes and probiotics all of which can help the body
cope with its constant task of eradicating problematic toxins. Herbs
like Triphala, red clover, dandelion, artichoke leaf, turmeric and milk
thistle, also aid in toxin removal. In addition, lifestyle habits like
daily exercise and stress reduction may aid in defending your body
against toxins.
Even in a clean environment, the simple act of living is a sloppy
business. Like workers at a city’s construction sites, your
cells are
constantly tearing down and building up body parts. New tissue is
formed and old ones disposed of. To feed this kind of activity, your
cells absorb nutrients, produce energy, synthesize natural chemicals
and throw off waste products. Just as demolition debris and lunch break
leftovers at a construction site have to be disposed of, the body needs
to rid itself of waste products and metabolic scraps. Otherwise, like a
new building that’s had garbage buried in its walls, it rots
from
within. But if you help your body relieve its toxic burden, you
increase your chances of having a clean bill of health.
References
1. Env Hlth Persp, 6/04
2. Proc Natl Acad of Sci, 11/4/03 |