{"id":30523,"date":"2022-10-24T09:19:59","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T14:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=30523"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:47:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:47:56","slug":"the-chemical-swill-in-your-body-and-what-to-do-about-it-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/24\/the-chemical-swill-in-your-body-and-what-to-do-about-it-2","title":{"rendered":"Protect Yourself From the Chemical Swill In Your Body and All Around Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The American Medical Association estimates that 80,000 to 100,000 people will die unnecessarily every decade because of our government\u2019s failure to respond quickly enough to the harsh EPA rollbacks that occurred during the Trump administration. Things are getting better but not quickly enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, just a few days ago The Guardian uncovered<\/a> documents about the pesticide industry\u2019s efforts to hide the toxic effects of the herbicide Paraquat when it was found to cause Parkinson\u2019s Disease. During the years Paraquat was owned by the Swiss company, Sygenta, the policy was to \u201cDeny Everything!\u201d. When Sygenta sold it to Chevron, they suggested that customers avoid exposure because the product was indeed toxic (one teaspoonful taken orally will kill you in 30 days), but to this day they deny that it causes Parkinson\u2019s. In the meantime, Paraquat is banned in the European Union, the UK and China even though it is manufactured there and shipped to the U.S., where Parkinson\u2019s Disease has been on the rise for the past four decades. Farmers still literally bathe in the mist and we are bringing it home into our corn and soybean products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if we talk a lot about chemicals found in our food, in our air, and in our water, we also wonder what we can do. The total number of chemicals is mind boggling: we intentionally add 2,500 chemicals to our food as additives, preservatives, and coloring agents. These are the \u201cGRAS\u201d chemicals (\u201cGenerally Recognized as Safe\u201d). But then, 12,000 more chemicals find their way into our food supply by processing, packaging, pesticide residues, and medications given to animals. Over 700 chemicals have been found in drinking water, and don\u2019t even ask about air, especially in urban areas and near factories, or what we inhale from our furniture, auto fumes, sprayed herbicides and pesticides, plastics, treated wood, and formaldehyde in everything from flooring to pillows to mouthwash to furniture polish. In addition, we\u2019re seeing more problems with naturally occurring toxins, like mold biotoxins–people getting sick from water damaged buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A most interesting phenomenon, is why some people get quite ill (\u201cMultiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome\u201d) and others don\u2019t notice anything. What we don\u2019t know, of course, is if this symptom-free group might suffer shortened life expectancies because they aren\u2019t getting any warning signs of daily symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony about all this is how the medical profession may do a lot of hand wringing about environmental pollution of air, water and food, but there\u2019s actually very little progress in how this affects patients. If you\u2019ve been feeling chronically ill and have been told \u201cyour tests are negative\u201d, have you ever been tested for your accumulated environmental pollution or your accumulated food additives? These tests are available, unfortunately not covered by your insurance (but not expensive considering your health is at stake). Anyway, if you ask your doctor, you\u2019ll probably be told some variation of \u201cwe don\u2019t know what to do with the results anyway”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because conventional doctors are taught virtually nothing about detoxification. However, Functional Medicine Practitioners know a lot about pollution exposure, testing, and detox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people are certainly affected more than others. Some get disabling chronic illnesses, others nothing at all. This leads to a real mess among genuine victims who are disbelieved by doctors, coworkers and family members. Physicians can be especially hard hearted, insisting the victim is \u201cjust depressed\u201d or \u201cseeking financial reimbursement\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason for this disparity is an increasingly recognized genetic susceptibility in detoxification pathways. Every doctor, with a lick of common sense, knows that Patient A will do just fine on one medication and Patient B will suffer nausea, mental confusion or even failure of major organs like the liver or kidney. Tests are also available to uncover these susceptibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An increasing number of patients have been found who start out with sensitivities to one or more relatively innocuous substances but get more and more sensitive with the passage of time, adding newer chemicals and more intense reactions. This is termed the \u201cspreading effect\u201d of the Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (a\/k\/a Environmental Illness Syndrome).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Symptoms of environmental illness (EI) and multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) can affect any and every organ in the body. The most common symptoms are neurological (fatigue, lethargy, headaches, insomnia, brain fog, blurred vision), musculoskeletal (muscle aches, joint pain), gastrointestinal (nausea, vomiting), heart\/lung (chest pain, shortness of breath, wheezing), ENT (sore throat, hoarseness), dermatologic (rashes, flushing, dry skin), and immunologic (increased susceptibility to viruses, swollen lymph nodes, candida). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Functional Medicine Tests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Here are some Functional Medicine tests we use in the process of diagnosing and treating EI and MCS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n