High blood pressure during pregnancy can be a major concern because it can lead to preeclampsia, a potentially dangerous condition. A recent study found that even very low levels of lead exposure—levels way below the standards set by the Center for Disease Control (CDC)—increased blood pressure in pregnant women.

The researchers did not expect to find an effect from such low levels of lead. The results suggest that pregnant women may be as sensitive to lead toxicity as young children. The best way to reduce lead exposure is to avoid it, but because lead can be stored in bone, even prior exposure could result in low levels of lead circulating in the body.

Over the years regulations on acceptable lead levels have lowered, but more lead restrictions are needed. For women it would be wise to support the body’s toxin elimination before getting pregnant. I recommend a total body herbal cleanse that supports the body’s seven channels of elimination (colon, liver, lungs, lymph, kidneys, skin and blood).

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Autoimmune disease involves a process whereby the immune system mistakes part of the body as a foreign invader, and mounts an attack against it, damaging tissue. The most common autoimmune diseases include type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, celiac disease, psoriasis, lupus, and Grave’s and Hashimoto’s diseases.

Prevalence of autoimmune disease is on the rise. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates as many as 23.5 million Americans may be afflicted with at least one autoimmune condition, up from 8.5 million in 1996. But even this estimate is low, since those numbers only consider 24 autoimmune conditions, when these illnesses actually number over 80.

Though genes do play a role in autoimmune diseases (they tend to run in families), environmental triggers are also involved and contribute to the increase in prevalence rates, according to Fred Miller, director of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences. “Our gene sequences aren’t changing fast enough to account for the increases,” Miller says. “Yet our environment is—we’ve got 80,000 chemicals approved for use in commerce, but we know very little about their immune effects. Our lifestyles are also different than they were a few decades ago, and we’re eating more processed food.”

Environmental triggers of autoimmunity include: chemicals, infections, stress, hormones, drugs, diet, weight gain and behavior. Of these, chemicals are particularly concerning due to their prevalence in the environment and to the lack of safety testing and regulation. The following toxins have been linked to autoimmunity: polyaromatic hydrocarbons (found in air pollution), heavy metals (lead and mercury), trichloroethylene (an industrial solvent that contaminates our water and air) and asbestos (found in building materials of older buildings).

Studying the link between environmental toxins and any illness is difficult, but because there are so many autoimmune disease, and because each one has different features, studying the link between chemicals and each illness is particularly difficult. Scientists are calling for better ways to link autoimmune diseases together, as occurs with cancer, to increase funding and understanding of what factors trigger this complex of diseases.

In the meantime, reducing toxin exposure, following a healthy diet, and supporting the seven channels of elimination—colon, liver, lungs, lymph, kidneys, skin and blood—with regular internal cleansing is recommended to help reduce toxic burden.

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I often blog about the widespread negative effects of chemicals and pesticides. We live in a toxic soup, and the more people realize that, the more likely they will be to make changes. Ultimately, the more natural products and services you buy, the more those products and businesses will appear until one day (in my perfect world) we will be able to live without all these toxins!

Take a couple of recent studies (out of many) on pesticide exposure—as it turns out, prenatal exposure to pesticides is linked to lower IQ in children at age 7. And people exposed to pesticides near the workplace are at increased risk for developing Parkinson’s disease. Everywhere I look is another study to add to the mounds of evidence that the toxins we are regularly exposed to in everyday life are destroying us. Literally.

In the prenatal pesticide exposure study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, for every ten-fold increase in organophosphate pesticides detected during pregnancy, the child experienced a 5.5 point decrease in IQ score by age 7. The study found a correlation with prenatal exposure specifically, suggesting that there is a critical time period to which the baby in womb is susceptible.

In the Parkinson’s study, researchers found that exposure to the three commonly sprayed crop pesticides—ziram, maneb and paraquat—while at work was associated with a three-fold increase in risk of later developing Parksinson’s disease. Working near a field (not necessarily in direct contact with the pesticides, as they tend to drift up to several hundred meters from the fields) was enough to increase risk.

These are two small—yet significant—reasons to try to eat organic when possible, and to support your seven channels of elimination—colon, liver, lungs, lymph, kidneys, skin and blood—with regular cleansing and detoxification.

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Brenda and I have been talking for years about the toxic soup that we all live in. It’s in our food, in the water, in the air and in our own bodies. It’s impossible to completely avoid toxins, and that’s a problem, especially in light of the scientific evidence that shows environmental toxins are destroying our health.

Many recent studies have looked at air pollution and its many harmful effects. It has been known for some time that exposure to air pollution is associated with health conditions like asthma, cardiovascular disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In fact, polluted air can even create serious ventricular arrhythmias.¹ Also, the incidence of heart attacks in rush hour traffic in the United Kingdom are thought to be due to the polluted air. In support of this is a quote from the August 2005 Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) referring to particle laden dirty air, “Ultrafine particles < 0.1 µm (UFPs) dominate particle number concentrations and surface area, and are therefore capable of carrying large concentrations of adsorbed or condensed toxic air pollutants. It is likely that redox-active components in UFPs from fossil fuel combustion reach cardiovascular target sites. High UFP exposures may lead to systemic inflammation through oxidative stress responses to reactive oxygen species and thereby promote the progression of atherosclerosis, and precipitate acute cardiovascular responses ranging from increased blood pressure to myocardial infarction.”²

The studies on this topic keep rolling in. The latest issue of EHP published a study on the link between prenatal exposure to air pollutants and subsequent behavioral problems in children.³ Children with the highest levels of pollution exposure had more attention problems, anxiety and depression at age 5 to 7 than those children with the least exposure. It is also known that exposure to organophosphate pesticides found on foods is linked to ADHD symptoms, by the way. And we wonder why ADHD is on the rise.

Other new studies continue to support just how air pollution affects health. One study in animals found that chronic inhalation of polluted air triggered inflammation that spread throughout the body.⁴ To quote one of the researchers, “Our main hypothesis is that particulate matter stimulates inflammation in the lung, and products of that inflammation spill over into the body’s circulation, traveling to fat tissue to promote inflammation and causing vascular dysfunction.”

This comes as no surprise to me. Inflammation is involved in most every disease, and certainly plays a role in all chronic diseases. Inflammation can be triggered by a number of factors—toxins, stress, illness, digestive imbalance—and it can travel throughout the body causing disease.

Another recent study, again published in EHP, found that short term exposure to air pollution damaged areas of the brain associated with memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease in mice.⁴ Guess what the study found? The brains affected by air pollution showed signs of inflammation associated with premature aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

Finally, the New England Journal of Medicine showed that reductions in air pollution accounted for as much as 15% of the overall increase in life expectancy in the areas that were studied!⁶

It’s difficult to know just how to avoid all this pollution, but there are things we can do to reduce toxicity. First, use high efficiency particulate air filters (HEPA filters) throughout your house (or at least your bedroom), and in your car cabin. According to Carla Kalogeridis at the Filter Manufacturers Council, only 40 percent of North American vehicles have cabin air filters despite the ongoing concern of consumers regarding cabin air quality.⁷ Others say as many as 80% or more now have cabin filters. I couldn’t find a clear answer from the www.epa.gov site, but did find where they recommended a portable cabin filter.⁸ In any case if you have a cabin filter they generally need to be replaced annually or every 15,000 miles. The filters can be easily bought from the dealers or online⁹ with instructions on how to change them at home.

If you can avoid daily bumper-to-bumper traffic jams, that’s a good start, and if you can’t it would be very wise to change your cabin air filter. If your vehicle doesn’t have one there are portables available.⁸ Eating a healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats and lean proteins will help your body get many nutrients and fiber it needs. Reduce inflammation with omega-3 oils, and quell gut inflammation with probiotics. And support the body’s seven channels of elimination: colon, liver, lungs, lymph, kidneys, skin and blood with nutrients that promote the healthy function of these channels, plus periodic colon hydrotherapy, and infrared sauna. Lastly, find stress-reducing activities including exercise and meditation to round out a healthy lifestyle. All of the above strategies will help to keep your detoxification pathways open.

1. M.S. Link and D.W. Dockery, “Air pollution and the triggering of cardiac arrhythmias.” Curr Opin Cardiol. 2010 Jan;25(1):16-22.
2. R.J. Delfino, et al., “Potential role of ultrafine particles in associations between airborne particle mass and cardiovascular health.” Environ Health Perspect. 2005 Aug;113(8):934-46.
3. F.P. Perera, et al., “PAH/Aromatic DNA Adducts in Cord Blood and Behavior Scores in New York City Children.” Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Apr 4.
4. T. Kampfrath, et al., “Chronic Fine Particulate Matter Exposure Induces Systemic Vascular Dysfunction via NADPH Oxidase and TLR4 Pathways.” Circ Res. 2011 Mar 18;108(6):716-26.
5. T.E. Morgan, et al., “Glutamatergic neurons in rodent models respond to nanoscale particulate urban air pollutants in vivo and in vitro.” Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Apr 4.
6. C.A. Cope, et al., “Fine-particulate air pollution and life expectancy in the United States.” N Engl J Med. 2009 Jan 22;360(4):376-86.
7. http://www.ehow.com/about_6404803_hepa-cabin-filter_.html#ixzz1JnfTQzQA
8. http://www.epa.gov/nhsrc/pubs/TISPortableMotorVehicleCabinAirPurifier.pdf
9. www.filters-now.com

Dr. Leonard Smith is a prominent Board-Certified, general, gastrointestinal and vascular surgeon who had a successful private practice for 25 years. In addition to his active surgery practice, he also incorporated lifestyle, diet, supplementation, exercise, detoxification, and stress management into many of the therapies he would prescribe. Many of his patients with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other serious illnesses did so well under his treatment regimes that he began to devote most of his career to foundational health care and preventive medicine.

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‘Renew You’ Challenge – Ever just get weighed down by life and feel… well, stuck? Maybe you’re not feeling right physically, or maybe you’ve been out of sorts emotionally or spiritually, or you could just have an everyday case of brain fog. The truth is, there are a lot of ways to feel stuck, but one of the best ways to feel un-stuck is to get moving—your bowels, that is!

When you’re constipated, not only do your insides feel sluggish, but it can affect other aspects of your life too, like whether or not you have the energy to exercise or go to work, and it can even lead to emotional “blockages” in relationships. The bottom line is that constipation can lead to a vicious cycle of stuck-ness, which is why maintaining good bowel function is so important to your overall health. 

This week, if you’re not having at least one good bowel movement per day (and sorry for getting a bit graphic here, but that means about one foot long or more), then you need to get things moving—and cleansing is the answer!

A comprehensive total-body cleanse can get things moving by helping to support the body’s 7 channels of elimination—those are the liver, lungs, lymphatic system, kidneys, skin, blood, and of course, the bowel! Look for a 2-part formula with herbs like cape aloe, rhubarb root, and slippery elm in the evening colon cleanse component. These are gentle laxative herbs that help to jumpstart a sluggish colon, and they aren’t purgative like cascara sagrada and senna, which should both be avoided. 

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As if smoking isn’t bad enough for your health, researchers recently discovered that cigarettes are “widely contaminated” with hundreds of species of infectious bacteria… yuck! Not only that, but they think those bacteria are somehow able to survive the smoking process, which means it’s not just smokers who are affected, but people exposed to secondhand smoke may be at risk too.

Talk about an eye-opener! When I heard the story I can’t say I was shocked, but it was interesting to learn that even though scientists knew they were going to find bacteria in cigarettes, even they were surprised that most of those bacteria are infectious to humans—like clostridium, klebsiella, and pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause damage the lungs, urinary tract and kidneys… holy smokes!

More research is planned to find out just how these bacteria affect human health, so it will be interesting to see what they learn. And in the meantime, do you really need any more reason to quit smoking???

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