Renew You Challenge

Let’s start this week off right!

Weekly challenge (I mean opportunity!) to help set you off on the right foot and in the right direction for bringing health to your week. You could even add it to your calendar. Join us!

I came upon some disturbing news the other day and thought I should share it. Do you ever eat organic strawberries? As fruit goes, berries are lower in sugar content, so I usually recommend that people on a sugar-limited diet eat berries in moderation as a way to satisfy that sweet tooth. And, due to the high level of pesticides on strawberries, it’s best to eat them organic. Well, as it turns out, even organic strawberries might not be as toxin-free as we’d like.

To be considered organic, strawberries must be grown for three years without synthetic pesticides. In California, strawberries are grown over a five-year cycle, often beginning as nursery plants. During this phase, before they begin fruiting, virtually all strawberry plants are treated with fumigants and other synthetic pesticides.

Because an organic version of this process is not “commercially available,” it is seen as an allowable practice. A small group of organic strawberry growers (who actually do grow organically from start to finish) and the Pesticide Action Network have sent a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture demanding an end to the current regulations which allow strawberries to be grown with chemicals that should never be allowed to touch organic produce.

This week, if you like organic strawberries, let your strawberry producer know you want strawberries that are organic—start to finish. Here is a link to the New York Times article I read on the topic so you know what you’re talking about when you call. Who knows? It might make a difference.

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An unexpected toxin was recently found to have a strong association with intellectual ability in children — manganese. Where is this manganese coming from?  Surprisingly, from tap water that contains manganese concentrations below the current guidelines for safety. Kids with the most exposure to manganese through tap water were found to have lower IQs than those children who were not exposed.

Workplace manganese exposure has been known to have neurotoxic effect, but this is the first study to look at lower concentrations of manganese from drinking water and food sources and its effects on cognitive function. 

Manganese is a naturally occurring toxin found in soils in certain regions, which can then leach into groundwater sources.  This is especially true in parts of Canada where this study took place.  Hopefully more studies will be done and awareness will be raised about filtering this toxic element out of our drinking water.

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“It is possible for a person to be too clean for their own good.” This is a recent quote from Allison Aiello, visiting associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard, who is studying the effect of frequent handwashing with antimicrobial soap containing triclosan, or 2,4,4’-trichloro-2’-hydroxydiphenyl ether. Her research has shown an increase in allergies and hay fever in children and teens with chronic use of soap products containing triclosan.

Handwashing with a powerful soap containing triclosan brings up two questions:

1. What is the effect of chronic removal of hand bacteria? We know where these hands go, especially in children (the mouth, for starters).

2. What could this chemical be doing to our body from a metabolic/hormonal perspective?

My input:
1. Science has now discovered that people normally have over a 1000 different species of bacteria not only in our intestinal tract, but also on our skin. This fact points out the normal symbiotic balance with microbes that we have evolved with for millions of years. The human/microbe symbiosis is especially important in childhood immune development. Research and clinical observations support the “Hygiene Theory,” which states that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious and symbiotic microorganisms and parasites increases susceptibility to allergic diseases (like allergies, asthma, dermatitis, and autoimmune diabetes) by disrupting the natural development of the immune system. Children living in non-industrial countries and closer to nature generally don’t have these problems.

2. Triclosan is also used in toothbrushes, ice-making machines, and in pesticides! This type of exposure has led to research by concerned individuals who have now shown significant evidence that it is yet another toxin with hormone-disrupting qualities which could majorly affect immunity. Due to the increase in negative evidence, the FDA has decided to thoroughly investigate triclosan, but not until 2013—a decade earlier than previously planned!

So what are the solutions? First, take a high quality probiotic and also make your own cultured foods. We may soon find topical probiotics could be beneficial, as well. Second, find safe soaps and use them mostly after exposure to public places. Safe soaps (or hand sanitizers) can be found at www.ewg.org, under cleansing products – hand sanitizers. Third, get involved in social networking by joining “green”groups to help educate and promote the changes we desperately need.

http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/triclosan_fs.htm

Leonard Smith, M.D.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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The other day I read about a recent study that really got me thinking…about toxins. True, I probably think about toxins more than the average person, but this was interesting—especially since when most folks think about environmental toxins, they imagine giant factories polluting the air in big cities. But this study really proves that no matter where you live, dangerous contaminants are probably tagging along!

After analyzing more than 40 homes in California, some of which were in low-income industrial areas and some in higher-income coastal areas, scientists found “similarly high levels” of a particularly hazardous type of toxin called an endocrine disruptor. EDCs include things like phthalates and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that act like hormones in the body and can have damaging effects on healthy reproduction and growth in humans. They are also used in many commercial pesticides and even cosmetic products.

What’s more, after testing indoor/outdoor air samples and indoor dust samples for the presence of over 100 different compounds (70 of which were known EDCs), researchers also found also that the number of EDCs was higher indoors than it was outside the homes in both areas. Yikes! Freeloading toxins!

Still, the really interesting part is that the scientists were “surprised” to find high levels of EDCs present in all the homes they tested…but not me! In fact, this just proves what I’ve been saying all along—that our modern world has become more and more toxic in the last few decades, and whether you live in a big city or in the middle of the desert, we can no longer ignore the truth: toxins are everywhere.

How Toxic are YOU? Take the quiz at www.detoxstrategy.com and read more about how to safeguard your body against harmful toxins!

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Here’s something I thought you might find interesting: researchers at Harvard University Medical School recently discovered that bacteria in the gut can trigger the autoimmune response associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

In simple terms, an autoimmune response means that there’s an immune response in the body that goes astray, causing the body to attack its own tissues instead of a foreign invader, in this case causing the breakdown in healthy joint cartilage seen in people with rheumatoid arthritis.

So what does all this mean when it comes to the trillions of bacteria living in your digestive tract every day? It means that they can affect your whole body, sometimes even causing conditions nowhere near the gut, and it’s something I’ve been saying for years! Not only that, but more and more studies these days are proving me right, showing that many autoimmune conditions begin right in the gut.

This isn’t surprising, since more than 70% of your body’s immune defenses are found in the gut—and when things like digestive problems, gut bacteria imbalance and toxin overload put a strain on the immune system, it often leads to the development of autoimmune conditions. 

The folks at Harvard are planning to look at the effects of intestinal bacteria on other autoimmune conditions as well, including type 1 diabetes, so stay tuned! And remember to take good care of your gut!

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Pesticides…it’s a scary subject folks! And it’s one that comes up a lot these days thanks to modern industry. Pesticides and herbicides are among the more than 80,000 chemicals being used in America today, most of which have been shown to cause serious health problems in humans—even in small amounts. So when I heard recently that the Environmental Protection Agency is finally taking steps to ban one of the most harmful pesticides in use today, I couldn’t help but celebrate!

Last month the EPA moved to ban the use of endosulfan once and for all in the U.S., and I wasn’t the only one doing a happy dance. Health advocacy groups like the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) have been trying to remove endosulfan from the market for years because of its widely documented health effects in humans.

Banned in more than 60 countries worldwide, endosulfan is used most commonly on vegetable crops and cotton and has been linked to birth defects and delayed sexual development in children, as well as an increased risk of developing autism. And even though it’s not considered a carcinogen (a cancer-causing toxin), research shows that endosulfan may also contribute to certain types of cancer, in particular breast cancer.

Right now the EPA is working with the sole U.S. manufacturer of endosulfan to establish a timeframe that would allow farmers to come up with effective alternatives to endosulfan use—bravo! My only hope is that other countries will follow suit, and pretty soon we can phase out the use of endosulfan for good.

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