Blog

January Table Hopping Article 2020

I am not going to start the year with an exhortation for exercise and changing your diet. Been there…done that. Rather, we start the new year together with an education regarding how to detoxify yourself from all of the foul chemicals you insist on slathering on yourself and ingesting. There is actually a national data bank that maintains fat tissue samples from patient’s all across the United States and based on an analysis of these fat tissue samples ( because that is where a lot of the poisons are stored… in your fat ) shows that 100% of Americans… that is every single sample that they tested , from all across America , tested positive for multiple contaminants/poisons.That is correct, 100% of the samples tested positive for stylene (a breakdown product of Styrofoam) 100% tested positive for xylene , 100% tested positive for ethyl phenol. Chloroform was found in 76% and benzene was found in 96% of samples.. That is not sick people, that is the average joe and jane, that is you and me. If the fish that lived for 4 or 5 years in the fairly clean waters here in Upstate NY have so many chemicals in them that the DEC warns you not to eat more than one a month, how likely is is that you, having lived much longer, would be free of contaminants? The answer is, based on the science available to us today, zero. We all have multiple toxins in us no matter what you want to think about how to clean your air and water are. The air in your house..yes, your house, is significantly more toxic than the air outside your house and most of you leave your house as little as possible. So it is fairly straightforward that we all have contaminants/pollutants in our fat stores. Thousands of chemicals are used in and found in all the processed foods we ingest daily as well as exposure to chemicals in your house, water etc. Don’t think because you are a vegetarian or eat organic that you are safe…most assuredly you are not.

Having all these strange chemicals in your body simply cannot be a good thing for you no matter how much you store them in your fat or otherwise. These chemicals; the heavy metals, the plastic derivatives etc affect the cell membranes, they affect energy transport, they increase cancer risk etc . All these risks are well documented in the scientific literature. Now what can we do about them?

Well, there are natural detoxification pathways in the body and detoxification is broken up into three phases. Phase one is where the chemicals are converted from fat soluble to water soluble thereby allowing them to be processed and transported easier for removal from the body. This involves oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis and epoxidation. This usually involves the cytochrome P450 system in your liver . This can be dangerous because you’re taking these compounds out of the fat and actually making them more available to the body and to possibly have more of a toxic effect so you have to move on to phase two. Phase two is where the compounds and molecules are made even more hydrophilic that is water-loving to again facilitate transport out of the body. This is done by glysine, glutamine and glutathione, acetylation sulfation and thiosulfation. Lastly , phase three is the process of transporting these chemicals to the sites of excretion primarily the bile tract and urine. Another way to look at it is to say that phase one is transformation phase two is conjugation and phase three is transportation.

This isn’t the time or place for a deep dive into the chemical details but it’s simple chemistry. And like all chemical reactions detoxification is very dependent on having the right chemicals and enzymes , vitamins and minerals like zinc, selenium, copper, etc. If you have a deficiency in these chemicals you are not going to be able to clean these poisons out of your body. How are you going to maintain the proper nutrient balance and minerals and vitamins with your McDonalds and Pizza Hut addiction, your donut and pancake habit, your soda and juice dependence? If you want the best chemical reactions to occur in that vast electrochemical bath that is your body you must provide the best chemicals and reagents. These pathways are very well known and so are the chemicals that compose them including glycine, certain B vitamins, glutathione, vitamin C , methionine, and cysteine to name just a few. You can get them from food and / or supplements. It’s still a wild wild world in the supplement market. Since everyone has toxins in them why shouldn’t we all be working on some detoxification on a regular basis.

Now, I am not talking about coffee enemas or the more aggressive detoxification using chemicals like EDTA and captomere…thats way above your pay grade but I am talking about eating health foods like garlic, artichoke, black and green tea, coffee, milk thistle and the whole broccoli family. If you want to maintain the most important pathways of detoxification I have been recommending a daily dose of Vitamin C, R Lipoic acid and Glutathione but many people also recommend N Acetyl Cysteine and Acetyl L Carnitine as well. Of course I am not going to give you doses etc…you have to do your own research or ask your own health care provider what they know about the toxics ever present in your body and how to detoxify yourself. Of course an excellent primer on this subject is Dr Sherry Rogers book Detoxify or DIe ! Maybe it’s too late for Christmas but it still makes a great birthday present. Of course I didn’t invent the term but “the solution to pollution is dilution” so keep the water intake up. Another great detox program is any multi-day fast. I know multi day fasting and cold water immersion are supposed to be very very healthy and I have seen study after study that supports both practices but I find the sauna and skipping breakfast so much more palatable.

I will be talking about other unfamiliar topics in the columns to come. My research into the very basic molecular nature of cellular function has me investigating the effects of light , electriciy and vibration and will be bringing you some interesting insights that modern medicine is ignoring because there is no big pharma behind it. Until then , eat your brocoli.