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Healthy living: toxins
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Healthy living: toxins, healing, hospital Wi-Fi, and gluten-free beer
Chan’s father, also a naturopathic doctor, and her mother, a massage therapist,
ensured that she never had amalgam fillings in her teeth to avoid any leakage of
mercury, a known neurotoxin. The family selected household cleaning products
carefully, preferring greener alternatives over products laden with synthetic
chemicals.
“I was granted a lot of knowledge in the ways my parents raised me,” Chan said in
an interview at the Georgia Straight office. “I realized that wasn’t the way most
people looked at health.”
Nowadays, this seems like common sense, but it wasn’t the case in the 1980s. During
Chan’s lifetime, scientists have made enormous strides in understanding the impact
that synthetically produced chemicals have on human health. There have also been
great advances in determining how higher levels of mercury, aluminum, and lead can
interfere with brain functioning—and how to prevent this.
“The problem with lead and mercury is they both can cross that blood-brain
barrier,” said Chan, who works at Integrative Naturopathic Medical Centre on
Vancouver’s West Side.
SFU health-sciences professor Bruce Lanphear has devoted his career to researching
the effects of toxins on children’s brain development. In a phone interview, he
pointed out that lead, for example, impairs the formation of synapses, which allow
neurons to communicate.
He also said that lead, mercury, PCBs, and bisphenol A (found in plastics) are
“dopaminergic toxicants” because they alter the release, uptake, or metabolism of
dopamine in the prefrontal cortex.
Last year, he testified as an expert witness in a high-profile U.S. court case. Ten
California cities and counties sued five corporations that had sold paint and
pigments containing lead. Three were held liable in a $1.15-billion judgment that’s
now under appeal, according to Lanphear.
“First, they had to show children were still being harmed by lead in those
jurisdictions,” Lanphear explained. “Second, they had to show that the industry
knew their product was toxic when they were legally selling it, and that was pretty
clear. Then, there had to be some sense that the different companies were involved
in selling a product in that particular area.”
Lanphear said that more than 80,000 synthetic chemicals have been developed over
the past century. In many cases, he added, it’s still unclear how they disrupt the
endocrine system.
“At best, I can keep up with five or 10 of them—I mean thoroughly keep up with
them,” he said. “In the end, it’s up to the federal government to revise the
regulatory framework for these chemicals.”
“The most important thing is to avoid putting chemicals into our bodies in the
first place,” Lourie emphasized to the Straight over the phone. “It’s a lot easier
to avoid chemicals than it is to get them out of our bodies once they’re in there.”
Lourie writes about how he underwent various purification treatments and then
tested the impact they had on the levels of metals and chemicals in his urine,
sweat, and blood.
In the book, which he wrote with Broadbent Institute executive director Rick Smith,
Lourie describes how he drank water containing Zeta Aid crystals, ingested a
capsule of Phyto5000 said to contain 42,000 units of antioxidant power, underwent
chelation therapy to reduce metal levels, and used sauna treatments to sweat out
toxins.
“The idea that chemicals are not only harming our bodies but are in fact preventing
our bodies from detoxifying properly is critical,” Lourie writes. “If toxic
chemicals are compromising our immune systems, our bodies are constantly fighting
just to stay healthy and our major detox organs, such as our liver and kidneys,
can’t focus on their main job of removing toxins.”
Lourie also interviewed Edmonton physician and researcher Stephen Genuis, one of
Canada’s leading authorities on detox medicine. After reviewing detox therapies,
Genuis has concluded that “proven” approaches include chelation to address heavy-
metal poisoning and sauna therapy to rid the body of toxins through sweating.
Lourie told the Straight that when he tried infrared-sauna therapy, he ended up
passing out because he overdid it. The lab required him to collect 250 millilitres
of sweat and he allowed the heat to be set too high.
“I was literally sweating out plastic, which was quite fascinating,” he said with a
laugh.
His BPA levels shot up in the fourth week of his five-week sauna-therapy regimen,
which he attributes to eating canned tomatoes. Even though Lourie had avoided
scented soaps for a long time, his urine still contained metabolites of diethyl
phthalate and dibutyl phthalate.
Intriguingly, BPA was more likely to be expelled through sweating, while phthalates
were mostly excreted through urine.
Finlandia Pharmacy & Health Centre owner Harlan Lahti told the Straight by phone
that the infrared sauna at his facility works well as a detoxifying agent.
“It drives up the circulation, warms up the tissues, and, of course, produces
sweating,” he said. “Toxins are water-soluble; they come out in sweat. And then you
take a nice shower afterward.”
Lourie spent an hour in a sauna each day as part of his experiment, but Lahti said
Finlandia’s sauna can be booked for half-hour sessions.
“I had one young man who came in and we detoxed him from methadone,” he said. “He
used a sauna two to three times a week for two years. He eventually rid himself of
the residue.”
“The absolute evidence of how it removes mercury from your body is very, very
clear,” Lourie said. “So if you are someone that has been diagnosed with high
levels of mercury, chelation is, in fact, the best course of action.”
In her practice, the process begins with taking a hair sample followed by a urine
sample. Practitioners check that the person has intact kidney functioning to ensure
that the chelating agent can be excreted.
“It grabs more selectively for heavy metals, but not just heavy metals,” she said.
“So you are losing some essential minerals as well. The way around that is we…
recommend a pretty comprehensive oral multimineral supplementation.”
Lourie said the good news is that corporations are removing certain chemicals from
their products. But triclosan remains a major concern for environmentalists such as
Maggie MacDonald of Environmental Defence.
Over the phone from her Toronto office, she explained to the Straight that the
federal government concluded in 2012 that triclosan was toxic to the environment
but not to human health.
She noted that studies have suggested triclosan may have harmful effects on the
human thyroid hormone and may be contributing to the rise of antimicrobial-
resistant bacteria.
She also said that when triclosan is dumped in waterways, it breaks down into
dioxins, which pose a deadly threat to humans and marine life.
“Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble are committed to removing triclosan from
their products in 2015,” MacDonald said. “That’s a step forward.”
“I’m shocked it’s so high,” Humphrey is quoted as saying in the group’s report. “I
avoid buying antibacterial soaps with triclosan, but I did accidentally buy
antibacterial soap a couple of months ago and wanted to use it up rather than throw
it away. I’m amazed that one product put my levels at almost double the average. I
will be extra careful next time I buy soap.”
Chan said it’s inevitable that people are going to be exposed to these chemicals
while living in an urban environment. She explained that cosmetics, deodorants,
hair products, paints, carpets, and household cleaning products can all increase
the burden of toxins in the body.
“The bigger effect might not just be the accumulation and sum total, but the way
those toxins interact,” she said. “But we really don’t know the effects.”
Lanphear, whose research focuses on children, recommended the same website while
acknowledging the impossibility of monitoring everything they come in contact with.
“In terms of what parents can at least attempt to do, first, as a general rule of
thumb, if we didn’t evolve with it, avoid it,” Lanphear advised. “Things like
fingernail polish, we don’t need it. Avoid it. Some women, I know, disagree,
including my daughters.”