RSS Feeds: Colon Cleansing, Toxins and the Levels of Dangerous Chemicals in Humans
Our overall health seems to be improving over the past twenty years. We are living longer, growing taller, are obsessed with Yoga, and are blogging about the latest colon cleanse and body detox diet. That being said, however, many illnesses and diseases are on the rise. From 1980 to 1999, the number of cases of autism rose ten times; from 1970 to 1998, one form of leukemia was up 62%, birth defects in males doubled, and brain cancer in children was up 40%. Some scientists suspect the cause is the abundance of man-made chemicals that permeate our food, water, and air.
Over the years, a chemical which was thought to be benign turned out to be toxic, even deadly, after further investigation. The classic example scenario is lead. The Surgeon General put out a report in 1971 which said that levels of lead up to 40 micrograms per deciliter were safe. Now it's understood that any detectable presence of lead in the body causes, amongst other things, neurological damage in children, ticking off IQ points.
DDT is another example. Widely used to as a pesticide to spray crops, homes, and streets, it is now banned because it causes birth defects, brain damage, affects the nervous system, and destroys the liver.
From DDT to PCBs, the chemical industry has released compounds first only to discover the harmful effects to both people and the environment, later. In some cases, much later.
Every year the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) receives 1,700 requests for new chemical compounds that industries want approved. These compounds are anything from fire retardants to chemicals which make shampoo creamy. The greatest bit of irony comes from The Toxic Substances Control Act (1976), which requires that chemicals be tested for any harmful health effects only if there is any evidence which suggests they may be harmful. So if no one thinks they're bad, they aren't tested. Only 20,500 of the 82,000 chemicals in use in the U.S. have ever been tested for harmful health effects.
David Ewing Duncan, a writer for National Geographic Magazine, recently published an article titled The Pollution Within. It's about the alarming number of harmful chemicals present in humans, including him.
Duncan grew up in a small town outside of Kansas, City in the 1960s. His childhood wasn't so different from the rest of us. His summers were filled with adventure, going with his fiends to the local swimming hole, chasing girls between the rows of corn, and foraging through the dump searching for treasures that only little boys could possibly want.
This dump in particular was not required to follow any guidelines, regulations, or health codes. It has since been on the National Priority List for hazardous places and deemed as an EPA Superfund Site. As it happens, this dump is located a half mile from the swimming hole and from the county's water supply, which is the source of drinking water for over 45,000 homes.
The contamination continues as Duncan went to school at Vassar College in the city of Poughkeepsie, NY in the 1970s. Poughkeepsie sits on the edge of the Hudson River, downstream from Hudson Falls. Hudson Falls is the site where General Electric decided to dump all of its PCB waste. The main source of water for the town of Poughkeepsie is the Hudson River, as it is for many other cities. Even as far down as Poughkeepsie, PCB levels are way into the hazardous area. PCB was found in the soil, the water, and the local wild life, and of course, people.
PCBs used to be used as heat-regulating coolants and electrical insulators, amongst other things. Due to its extremely high toxicity, PCB production was banned in the U.S. in 1976. PCBs aren't going away. They will linger in the water, air, and environment for decades. PCB destroys liver function in animals, as well as raises their blood lipids and causes cancer. Who knows what it's doing to us.
Duncan's next step in unknowingly increasing the toxin levels in his body was to drink water after his daily workout from a water bottle, which contained Bisphenol A, an ingredient in rigid plastics from everything from water bottles to safety goggles. Bisphenol A causes reproductive system abnormalities in animals and produces harmful effects in hormone production levels in humans.
Bathing, driving, and heating up his lunch in the microwave contributed, as well. All exposed him to lethal phthalates, which are present in everything from lotions, to car dashboards, to plastic wrap. (As an aside, never microwave your food with plastic wrap on it.)
While doing the research and writing his article for Nat Geo, Duncan had a highly specialized, toxicity test performed on his body (it's not available to individuals so National Geographic paid the chunky $15,000 bill). His body was chock full of toxins, including dioxins (found in paper mills and incinerators), PCB, phthalates, fire retardants (which airplanes are covered with), and mercury, a neurotoxin that can permanently impair memory, learning centers, and behavior. (Coal plants produce the most of it, belching trillions of mercury particles into the air annually. That puts the "clean coal" argument to rest.)
Mercury is also present in seafood. The higher up the food chain a fish is, the higher the levels of mercury. Swordfish eat other fish, which contain mercury, accumulating larger and larger amount into their own systems.
When the test results came in, the toxin levels in Duncan's body were off the charts. All of these poisons were introduced into his system via the environment, the foods he ate, and through the absorbing power of his skin. There is nothing uncommon about the reporter's life. He swam in a pond as a child, he flies on airplanes, drinks bottled water, and uses scented shampoo.
With all of this information about the harmful effects of these and myriad other chemicals present in absolutely everything, why are they still in production? Why are they still being used?
For some reason, the United States is decades behind the rest of the world in the chemical banning band wagon. Many chemical substances which are illegal in other countries are still widely used here. For example, last year the European Union (EU) banned phthalates, a chemical found in virtually every type of plastic. So now in China, where many plastic items are made, a batch of phthalate-free plastics is produced for Europe, and a separate batch of phthalate plastics are made for the Untied States.
In 2004, both Europe and India banned penta- and octa-BDEs, extremely harmful toxins found in fire retardants. They cause mental illness, birth defects, and behavioral problems. They are still widely used in the U.S.
Few of us realize how many poisonous chemicals we come into contact with on a daily basis. We may order french fries for lunch, but we know we are putting trans fat, artery-clogging, supersaturated, oil-laden starches into our bodies. But bottled water we drink after jogging? A fillet of fish for dinner? Absolutely everything we do introduces some kind of toxin into our bodies.
The severity of the effect these chemicals have on us depends on how much is present in our system. Mere traces of these chemicals in our blood stream are relatively benign. Most people probably feel quite healthy. But once these chemicals build up in the system, their destructiveness increases.
One way we can get rid of some of these toxins though body detoxification – either through a detox diet, colon cleanse, body cleanse, orcolon hydrotherapy. By taking colon cleanse pills, go on a colon cleansing diet by eating certain foods with cleansing properties, drink colon cleansing teas, use natural herbs for colon cleansing, we can decrease the poisons in our bodies. A body detox or colon cleanse should be done annually and be a part of our health routine, such as exercising and yearly check ups.
With the power of the internet, more and more information is spreading about the harmful effects of chemicals. This is good in many ways, one of which being the availability of chemical alternatives and products which do not contain these toxins, such as phthalate-free water bottles and DDT-free pesticides.
Even if becoming a reclusive, organic farmer were an option, we still couldn't escape breathing polluted air or drinking contaminated water.
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