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REDUCING YOUR BODY’S CHEMICAL BODY BURDEN:

What You Can Do

By Pamela Levin, R.N.

As people living in the modern world, we have become a walking experiment. For the first time in history, our bodies now contain an enormous mix of chemicals. Sources suggest Americans are daily threatened by over 100,000 different synthetic chemicals, with an estimated 1,000 new ones are introduced every year. Of those, only a couple hundred have been tested for their effects on our health, and of those, few are checked for their effects on pregnant women, developing infants and children.^. This fact alone means the health of the new generation already may be severely impacted. Does this mean it’s time to panic? No! What it means is that it’s time for constructive action.

What You Can Do

Luckily, you don’t have to wait decades for the scientific community to prove that the unique mix of chemicals in your body contributes to your cancer risk, for example. The following are ways you can reduce your toxic chemical burden yourself.

1. Make Healthy Food Choices Eat organic foods whenever possible, and always avoid processed “foods”. You not only do your body a favor by reducing the toxic load that enters it, you also are voting with your wallet and saying “no” to non-foods, fake foods and adulterated foods. It is especially important to say no to artificial sweeteners, not giving them to children and not consuming them if you are pregnant.

2. Load Up on Whole Food B Vitamins DNA depends on whole food vitamin B complex both to produce itself and also to repair itself. A great whole food source is Brewer’s yeast. Use 2 tablespoons a day in the morning (it might rev you up too much if you take it at night). Repeat around lunch time if you need it. But pay attention to the kind you buy: chemical companies are now buying up food companies and contaminating real food with fake vitamins. If you get a niacin rush from it, it means fake B’s are present. Throw it out, and try a different source (probably one in a can rather than in the bulk food section). Among other B vitamins, you will be getting Inositol, which supports the breakdown of fat cells that store the toxins and Choline, which is a physiological detergent and liver detoxifier. Choline makes the bile absorb the toxins so they can be eliminated. Don’t use synthetic vitamin B, as it can damage peripheral nerve plates and actually create heart arrythmias and other nervous system disturbances.

3. Bathe Your Cells in Generous Amounts of Anti-oxidants If you are concerned because so many chemicals can damage DNA, remember that a primary line of defense for DNA is antioxidants, especially vitamins A, C and E. Carrots and fresh carrot juice are a rich source of natural, whole food vitamin A. A great source of whole food vitamin C is the juice of ½ a lemon squeezed into filtered water. Don’t buy or use what government standards call vitamin C, which is only one part of the whole vitamin C complex nature made, and is a laboratory concoction made by boiling sulfuric acid and corn syrup together. Also drink positively charged, corn sweetener free juices such as real lemonade, cranberry, cran/raspberry, pineapple or orange. Whole food vitamin E, which is free of the negative effects being discovered by the synthetic isolates of vitamin E, is found in wheat germ oil as well as fresh nuts and seeds.

4 Keep Yourself “Well-Oiled” Since chemicals and radiation deplete your body of essential fatty acids (EFA’s, or vitamin F) resupply them. In the space of a month, you need roughly equal amounts of omega 3’s., omega 6’s and omega 9’s. Most food sources contain a mix of these oils, which can be found in flax, chia, walnut ,pumpkin and hemp seeds, dairy fats and legumes. An added benefit of providing plenty of these balanced fats is attaining and maintaining a normal weight. Avoid low fat diets; every cell and function of your body requires fats to function and stay healthy.

5. Keep Your Elimination Pathways Open Drink copious amounts of pure water to keep your system flushed. If you’re not used to it, take the time to train youself. Eight large glasses a day is excellent. Next, exercise. One of its numerous benefits is that it makes you sweat, and that flushes your system. Make it a point to sweat regularly and thoroughly. If you can’t exercise for some reason, sit in a sauna. Third, consume plenty of organic fiber. Fruits, vegetables and grains are an excellent source as well as numerous fiber products on the market. Many people find psyllium seed to be too harsh, and prefer more gentle fibers such as those made from apple or grapefruit pectin. Fiber acts like a broom to sweep away toxins as they are released into your colon. Probiotics (healthy bugs) are another way to support detoxification by making sure your colon has the right bacteria to help digest what comes through.

6. Provide Plenty of Sulphur Sulfur is essential for detoxification. Your liver has two metabolic pathways it uses to detoxify anything your body needs to eliminate, and both those pathways use sulfur. A good food source is garlic. It protects against damage from free radicals that damage body tissues, helps maintain normal cholesterol and triglyceride levels and a healthy flow of blood through the circulatory system.

7. Use Herbs That Support Detoxification A great variety of herbs exist that support detoxification in various ways. In choosing an herb, first make certain that it is organic. Many herbs (such as some imported from China ) have been found to be contaminated with metals, and many from this country have been sprayed. If you use these, you will be spending your money to add an additional source of contamination. Next, choose the right herb for the job. For that, you may require the services of a holistic health professional who has access to whole organic, therapeutic strength herbs and knows how to evaluate whether you need to detox from pesticides, food additives or what. Some herbs, Chlorella, for example, can help detoxify your body of environmental pollutants from food, air and water because its cell wall attracts and binds with hydrocarbon pesticides and insecticides such as DDT, PCB and Kepone, thus enabling them to be carried out of the body. Organic Spanish Black Radish is a good colon detoxifying herb that is also good for liver congestion, diarrhea, virus, and constipation. It's high in sulfluothane, which grabs cancer cells. Still other herbs are immune system boosters, blood cleansers, liver function supporters, bile production enhancers, promoters of cellular health, and so on. They have names like Echinacea, Turmeric, Andrographus, Ginger and Dandelion Root. "

8. Homeopathic Remedies These are far ranging in their ability to help the body release toxins. Many are formulated specific to the toxin. For example, remedies exist for cellular release of tobacco, dust, hydrocarbons, molds, radiation (such as U.V., microwaves, radon, cobalt, x-rays, TV’s video display terminals and geopathic disturbances), sulfur dioxide, sulphurous acid (the principle ingredient in acid rain), heavy metals, residual toxins from infections (bacterial, viral, yeast, parasite,or nematode), food additives (food colorings, flavorings, preservatives, sweeteners, acidulents, bleaches, emulsifiers, humectants and thickeners, hormones, leavenings and solvents such as acetone and hexane), insecticides, phenolics and dental materials (alloys containing chromium, copper, nickel, silver, tin, zinc, mercury, cements, resents, chlorine and fluoride.

9. Know When to Get Competent Help If you are currently having symptoms of toxicity, it may be time to seek the services of a competent health professional. You can get yourself into a lot of trouble by trying to detoxify yourself by yourself. Cloudy thinking, inability to make good choices, lassitude, lack of motivation and inability to follow through are all symptoms of toxicity. When you’re already in that state and then stimulate your body to release even more toxins, you can become profoundly ill, especially when releasing very damaging substances such as heavy metals and certain chemicals. A competent professional can assess your particular state of toxicity, monitor how quickly or slowly you need to detoxify and from what, choose the right products, whether herbs, homeopathics or whole food concentrates, determine your food intolerances and help you avoid further toxicity.

Nobody knows for sure whether a higher chemical body burden means a higher risk of cancer, but most health professionals would warrant that the dramatic rise in cancer rates and the dramatic rise in chemical toxicity are related. By systematically detoxifying, you’ll definitely think better, function better, have more energy and feel better. And, you may lower your risk of a variety of health problems, not just cancer. And that’s worth a lot.

Pamela Levin, R.N. is a local health practitioner specializing in clinical nutrition. She wrote “Perfect Bones, A Six Point Plan to Promote Healthy Bones” to detail the process she used for herself and her clients to rebalance the body and regain bone health. Published by Celestial Arts, it is at amazon.com, www.perfectbones.com. She can be reached at (707) 462 2217.