How to Detoxify Your Body/Special risk to infants (2 Mercola articles))

HOW TO LIMIT YOUR CHEMICAL EXPOSURE
By Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
April 2, 2014

http://nhne-pulse.org/how-to-limit-your-daily-exposure-to-toxins/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/02/environmental-toxin-exposure.aspx

There’s no doubt that most people are being exposed to too many toxic
chemicals. The results are plain for all to see, as brain disorders in
both the very young and the elderly are skyrocketing; not to mention
that people of all ages are increasingly ravaged by chronic diseases of
all kinds as well. If you want to protect your own health, and the
health of your family, I believe you simply must become more vigilant
about the chemicals you come into contact with on a daily basis, and
this certainly includes the foods you eat.

Organically-grown, biodynamic whole foods are really the key to success
here, and, as an added bonus, when you eat right, you’re also optimizing
your body’s natural detoxification system, which can help eliminate
toxins your body encounters from other sources. Here are a dozen
recommendations that will help limit your family’s toxic exposure.
Please remember that all of these become even more important if you’re
pregnant or planning a pregnancy, since your toxic load will be
transferred on to your child.

1. As much as possible, buy and eat organic produce and free-range,
organic foods to reduce your exposure to agricultural chemicals. Eat
mostly raw, fresh foods, steering clear of processed, prepackaged foods
of all kinds. This way, you automatically avoid artificial food
additives, including dangerous artificial sweeteners, food coloring, and
MSG.

2. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often
heavily contaminated with PCBs and mercury, supplement with a
high-quality purified krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and lab
tested for purity.

3. Store your food and beverages in glass rather than plastic, and avoid
using plastic wrap and canned foods (which are often lined with
BPA-containing liners).

4. Have your tap water tested and, if contaminants are found, install an
appropriate water filter on all your faucets (even those in your shower
or bath).

5. Only use natural cleaning products in your home.

6. Switch over to natural brands of toiletries such as shampoo,
toothpaste, antiperspirants, and cosmetics. The Environmental Working
Group has a great database20 to help you find personal care products
that are free of phthalates and other potentially dangerous chemicals. I
also offer one of the highest quality organic skin care lines, shampoo
and conditioner, and body butter that are completely natural and safe.

7. Avoid using artificial air fresheners, dryer sheets, fabric
softeners, or other synthetic fragrances.

8. Replace your non-stick pots and pans with ceramic or glass cookware.

9. When redoing your home, look for “green,” toxin-free alternatives in
lieu of regular paint and vinyl floor coverings.

10. Replace your vinyl shower curtain with one made of fabric, or
install a glass shower door. Most all flexible plastics, like shower
curtains, contain dangerous plasticizers like phthalates.

11. Limit your use of drugs (prescription and over-the-counter) as much
as possible. Drugs are chemicals too, and they will leave residues and
accumulate in your body over time.

12. Avoid spraying pesticides around your home or insect repellants that
contain DEET on your body. There are safe, effective, and natural
alternatives out there.

………………

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS LINKED TO RISE IN AUTISM
Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
April 2, 2014

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/02/environmental-toxin-exposure.aspx

[Visit the link above to see the important references contained in the
original article.]

Three decades ago, when I was still in medical school, autism affected
one in 10,000 children. What changed between then and now to cause one
in 50 children to become autistic?

Mounting research — not to mention plain logic — indicates that brain
disorders are the result of excessive exposure to toxins from multiple
sources — including the mother, while in utero. One 2005 study by the
Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that blood samples from newborns
contained an average of 287 toxins.

Of these, 180 are known to cause cancer in humans or animals; 217 are
toxic to your brain and nervous system; and 208 have been found to cause
birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. Clearly, nothing
good can come from exposure to so many toxic compounds.

Genital Malformations and Autism – The Result of Overexposure to Toxins

A more recent study, published in the journal PLOS Computational
Biology, last month, found that every one percent increase in genital
malformations in newborn males within a particular county was associated
with a 283 percent increased rate in autism.

According to the researchers, genital malformations such as micropenis,
undescended testicles, and hypospadias (when the urethra forms on the
underside of the penis) are signs of exposure to harmful toxins. And the
correlation between genital malformation and autism in turn offer strong
support for the notion that autism is the result of parental
overexposure to environmental toxins.

In all, 100 million American medical records were analyzed, and rates of
genital malformations and autism were assessed by county. Deviations
from the nationwide baseline were interpreted as being the result of
local environmental factors. According to one of the authors, Andrey
Rzhetsky, Ph.D., professor of genetic medicine and human genetics at the
University of Chicago:

“Autism appears to be strongly correlated with rate of congenital
malformations of the genitals in males across the country. This gives an
indicator of environmental load and the effect is surprisingly strong…
We interpret the results of this study as a strong environmental signal.”

Interestingly, every additional $1,000 in income above the county
average was also associated with a three percent increased rate in
autism. Could this mean that those with higher incomes buy more
household, personal care, and beauty products that turn out to be toxic?

11 Brain-Harming Culprits Identified

Last month, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai published a report identifying
one dozen common chemicals (listed below) known to disrupt brain
development and cause brain damage, neurological abnormalities, reduced
IQ, and aggressiveness in children. The authors call for the
implementation of urgent preventive strategies to quell the trend of
brain damage, stating:

“We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered. To
control the pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity, we propose a global
prevention strategy.

“Untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain
development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must
therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity.

“To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science
into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international
clearinghouse.”

What many don’t realize is that there are literally tens of thousands of
chemicals in use that have never been tested for safety. When the US
National Toxicology Program was enacted in 1978, some 62,000 chemicals
that were already in use were simply grandfathered in, even though
they’d never been tested for toxicity.

The ramifications of this action is now becoming increasingly evident,
and with regular intervals we realize that yet another prevalent
chemical is causing harm that no one ever suspected. Bisphenol-A (BPA),
used in plastic products, is just one of the most recent examples.

400x-toxins

Organic Diet Is Part and Parcel of a Less Toxic Life

A recent article in The Atlantic, which is well worth reading in its
entirety, discusses this Harvard report and offers a number of excellent
quotes from the researchers with regards to how we can protect ourselves
while regulatory wheels keep turning at a snail’s pace. James Hamblin
writes:

“‘So you recommend that pregnant women eat organic produce?’ I asked
Grandjean, a Danish-born researcher who travels around the world
studying delayed effects of chemical exposure on children. ‘That’s what
I advise people who ask me, yes.

“It’s the best way of preventing exposure to pesticides.’ Grandjean
estimates that there are about 45 organophosphate pesticides on the
market, and ‘most have the potential to damage a developing nervous system.’

“Landrigan had issued that same warning, unprompted, when I spoke to him
the week before. ‘I advise pregnant women to try to eat organic because
it reduces their exposure by 80 or 90 percent,’ he told me. “These are
the chemicals I really worry about in terms of American kids, the
organophosphate pesticides like chlorpyrifos.”

Fluoride and Glyphosate – Two Toxins That Need to Be Urgently Addressed

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88pfVo3bZLY[/youtube]

When you consider how pervasive those 12 toxins are (not to mention the
thousands of others, which we still know little about), it’s no wonder
so many children are born with severe health problems and disabilities.
Fluoride alone, which is still being added to many public water supplies
around the US, can contribute to a seven-point drop in a child’s IQ
score, on average!

Why in the world are we still adding fluoride to water supplies? Even if
ingesting fluoride had a benefit on teeth (which it clearly doesn’t), is
it really worth sacrificing intelligence for fewer cavities? Fluoride
isn’t the sole culprit, of course. According to a 2012 paper published
by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Americans have collectively
“forfeited” a whopping 41 million IQ points as a result of lead,
mercury, and pesticide exposure.

All of these brain-harming toxins also take a massive toll on aging
Americans. According to recent research,16 the annual death toll from
Alzheimer’s disease (a severe form of dementia) is now estimated to be
503,000, making it the third most lethal disease in the US.
Approximately 200,000 of these deaths occur in those under the age of
65, who develop early onset of Alzheimer’s.

Recent research has also linked exposure to the pesticide
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) with an increased risk of
Alzheimer’s. The use of DDT began during the second half of World War
II, when it was liberally sprayed to control diseases such as malaria
and typhus. Once the war was over, it began being used as an
agricultural pesticide. (Monsanto was one of more than a dozen companies
that manufactured the chemical.) It was eventually banned in 1972, when
the health risks revealed in the book Silent Spring led to public outcry.

The suggestion that DDT exposure may contribute to Alzheimer’s, decades
after exposure, hint at what the ramifications of glyphosate are likely
to be in the years to come. According to Dr. Don Huber, an expert in an
area of science that relates to the toxicity of genetically engineered
(GE) foods, the harmful effects of glyphosate actually surpass those of
DDT! It’s quite clear that the toxicity of this weed killer has been
grossly underestimated.

Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) was approved in 1974 in
the US, and has been aggressively used since then. An estimated ONE
BILLION pounds of it is used on crop fields each and every year. As with
DDT, we’re now seeing research linking glyphosate exposure to dramatic
jumps in disease rates, including autism. The primary difference is that
the effects are showing far sooner, and appear more evidently linked
than in the case of DDT.

Soy Formula Associated with Seizures in Autistic Children

In related news, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has
found a possible link between infant soy formula and increased rates of
seizures in autistic children. According to Medical News Today:

“The study found excess seizures among girls and in the total sample of
1,949 children. The soy-seizure link reached borderline significance
among boys, who comprised 87 percent of the children described in the
database under study. Seizures — caused by uncontrolled electrical
currents in the brain — occur in many neurological disorders including
epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Down syndrome, and autism…

“[C]hildren with autism who were fed soy formula had 2.6 times as many
febrile seizures as the children fed non-soy formula in the database…
[T]hat increase is worrying, [Cara] Westmark says. ‘The prevalence of
autism is increasing and currently affects one American child in 88. Soy
is a widespread ingredient in many food products and 25 percent of
infant formulas are soy based, so this is something that needs to be
studied. If the child is lactose intolerant, there are alternatives that
a pediatrician can recommend.'”

Parents Beware: Infant Soy Formula Can Cause Severe Harm

This certainly isn’t the first time infant soy formula has been linked
to health risks. It’s often touted as an ideal alternative for colicky
babies or those who are unable to tolerate milk based formulas, but
evidence actually suggests that soy formula may be one of the absolute
most dangerous foods you can give your child, whether he or she is
autistic or not. For starters, it’s been estimated that infants who are
fed soy formula take in three to five birth control pills’ worth of
estrogen every day, depending upon the particular batch of formula and
whether your baby is a big eater. As a result of such astronomical
amounts of this female sex hormone, infants who are fed soy formula have
an increased risk of:

• Food allergies
• Thyroid disorders
• Behavioral problems
• Early puberty and fertility problems
• Asthma Cancer

Infants who are fed soy formula are also at increased risk for
developing behavioral problems due to the phytates found in soy, which
block the absorption of essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium,
iron, and zinc, all which are crucial to the proper brain and emotional
development. Phytates also cause poor bone development. Besides that,
soy infant formula also contains another dangerous element: manganese.
While manganese is an essential nutrient found in soil and ground water,
it becomes highly toxic when consumed in excess, and can adversely
affect your child’s intelligence if consumed during the stage of early
brain development. Last but certainly not least, the vast majority of
soy grown in the US is genetically engineered soy, which has its own
health risks over and above those associated with Roundup.

Other Environmental Factors That Likely Contribute to Autism

Besides overexposure to the environmental toxins already mentioned, I
believe there’s a variety of other important factors that also
contribute to the rise in autism spectrum disorder, including but not
limited to the following. The countless possible combinations of these
and other factors could help explain why there’s such a wide spectrum of
autistic behavior:

• Gut dysbiosis, especially in combination with vaccines and their
additives like mercury (thimerosal), aluminum, and others, which are
known to damage your mitochondria — the powerhouses in your body’s
cells that produce energy. Your gastrointestinal system is often
referred to as your “second brain,” containing some 100 million neurons
— more than in either your spinal cord or your peripheral nervous
system. Research by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride shows that children
born with severely damaged gut flora are at a significantly increased
risk of vaccine damage, which may help explain why some children develop
symptoms of autism after receiving one or more childhood vaccinations
while others do not.

• Vitamin D deficiency. The link between vitamin D deficiency in
pregnant women and the proportionate jump in autism has been highlighted
by Dr. John Cannell. Vitamin D receptors appear in a wide variety of
brain tissue early in the fetal development, and activated vitamin D
receptors increase nerve growth in your brain. I believe vitamin D
deficiency during pregnancy is a MAJOR contributing factor to autism,
especially when you consider that vitamin D also helps in the
detoxification of mercury. Without sufficient amounts of vitamin D, any
subsequent toxic assaults — regardless of the source — will be further
magnified.

• Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from cell phones, cell towers, Wi-Fi
devices, which can trap heavy metals inside of nerve cells, accelerate
heavy metal toxicity, and hinder natural detoxification processes.

• Microbial toxins, such as mold. Children with autism not only have
overwhelmed detoxification pathways and often heavy metal toxicity, but,
according to Dr. Klinghardt, their bodies are also frequently beset by
toxic microbes.