ecoyear

This was the document on which we based the first presentation of the Modern Moms' Health Forum, in April 2011. This series of forums is presented by MOMAS (was: “Mothers of Marin Against the Spray”, now changed to “Moms Advocating Sustainability”) and thus is focused on the effects and avoidance of environmental toxins.

Our first presentation focused on water, and also on food, with special attention to the needs of families. The team that put this forum together is comprised of one pediatrician, one family physician, a public policy analyst, and three well-informed volunteers.

Future meetings will address issues related to the air we breathe, exhaust, volatile organic compounds, persistent organic pollutants such as flame retardants, fumes from cookware, pesticides, electromagnetic fields, GMOs, and whatever else is on your mind. Please let us know with your questions and comments.

A short word about our speakers:

Michelle Perro, MD, D.HOM. is a pediatrician and homeopath in private practice at “Down to Earth Pediatrics” in Fairfax.

Myrto Ashe, MD, MPH, is a family physician raising three boys in Larkspur. She graduated from family medicine residency at Brown University in 1990, and got her masters in public health at Berkeley in 1996. She worked in community health centers for about 20 years before quitting to focus on her boys 3 years ago. As it turns out, focusing on the boys also became focusing on local organic food and health issues such as environmental toxins. She will be opening a private practice in the fall specifically to help people with stubborn medical problems.  

Let’s first discuss the general topic of toxins.

A toxin is something that

- is taken into the body AND

- can cause damage to body structures

- and/or disturb normal physiological function

The body has a sturdy detoxification system, and one of our tasks is to learn to work with it. Why do we have such a system? Well, this is basically the body’s waste disposal system: every time a hormone is secreted, or a neurotransmitter is made, it is not reused. It is disposed of, and new hormone or neurotransmitter must be synthesized in the amounts needed. Also, the body produces waste in the process of creating energy from the food we eat, for example. All this has to be sent out of the body, through the breath, sweat, urine and feces.

For now, let’s consider a couple of types of damage toxins cause:

1. DNA damage: some toxins go up to the DNA inside a cell and can stick to it and turn genes on or off. This can lead to cancer, but also perhaps to diabetes or immune problems.
2. Cell death: some toxins cause cells to overheat.
3. Interference with the work of enzymes making proteins or neurotransmitters

 Now let’s look at what ways the body has of protecting itself:

1. Barriers: the skin, the intestine, and the lungs are three important places that come into contact with toxins, and where it’s best to let fewer things pass through. Some toxins damage barriers.
2. Binders: the body works with substances that stick to toxins and help them pass out of the body as waste products. Fiber is one important such substance.
3. Biotransformation: the body has substances whose job it is to chemically change toxins, molecule by molecule, so they can be carried out of the body.

WHY IS THERE A PROBLEM WITH TOXINS IN THE ENVIRONMENT?

If toxins are normal, and we are equipped to deal with them, what is the problem?

1. The problem is that there are too many. We have added 80,000 new chemicals to our environment since 1945. Also, we have moved things around so that for example mercury is now in fish we eat, and the air we breathe, instead of being safely bound up in rock.
2. Another problem is that our diet has changed, so we don’t necessarily get the nutrients we need to take full advantage of our detoxification system. Also the soil has been depleted, so that even “healthy” food potentially does not contain the nutrients it once did.

WHAT’S IN THE WATER

There are two major areas of concern when you consider water. First, the water we drink and cook with. Second, the water we bathe or swim in. But actually, Marin water (MMWD) is not too bad.

This is how it works: water gets contaminated either at the source (with pesticides, or radon), or at the treatment plant (MMWD uses disinfectant to fight germs), or in the pipes leading to your house or school (if they leak lead, for example). The major problem in Marin water is "products of disinfection", so MMWD is part of the problem. Several municipalities, including Sacramento and San Francisco, have far better drinking water than we do. The Environmental Working Group found that in Marin, 8 chemicals exceeded health guidelines, and 17 additional pollutants were found. This is mostly the result of disinfection and has been linked to cancer rates.

In other parts of the country, tap water can have the following issues:

-       metals: lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic

-       medications: antibiotics, hormones, antibacterials from liquid soap

-       radiation from old surface tests of nuclear missiles

-       rocket fuel

-       pesticides and fertilizers

The ones relevant to Marin County appear to be:

-       radon, which leaches from soil into the groundwater, but typically adds only a small fraction to your home level, and is more of a problem in the shower

-       chemicals left over from the disinfection process (trihalomethanes, or THMs)

It would seem like a good idea to get bottled water to drink, however,

Bottled water also has issues:

-       much of it comes from tap water somewhere else

-       it’s regulated less stringently – less frequent quality control

-       you are at the mercy of equipment malfunction at the bottling plant

-       it comes in plastic bottles, which leach out toxins

-       there are also social and environmental issues

Ideally you would test your water for lead, using a home kit or the state laboratory.

Then, you would decide whether to get a filter for drinking and cooking water. Most important for lead, but maybe also for THMs. Finally, you would test your home for radon, and then depending on the level, consider a shower filter for radon (carbon-based should work fine here). The effect of THMs in shower water are not known.

Water we bathe and swim in has the following issues;

-       some of the toxins, mostly radon, get inhaled when you shower, or pass directly through the skin – it makes most sense to have house tested for radon

-       depending on your level of concern, you can consider saline swimming pools (chlorine is definitely a respiratory irritant and carcinogen, though "saline" swimming pools don't just contain salt, so who knows how safe they are...) and more infrequent baths (to reduce THM exposure through the skin).

-       what you put in the water: triclosan (the ingredient in antibacterial soap) is a hormone modulator; fragrance (often listed in the ingredients) is a likely carcinogen, and can cause hormonal issues. Do you really need to use bubbles, soap, shampoo? Whether these are toxic or not, you introduce an additional load of chemicals to your baby’s body. We did find online recommendations for “least-toxic” bath products, but they are imperfect.

MORE ON THE BIOCHEMISTRY OF DETOXIFICATION

 I want to address the issue of whether substances are toxic or not. We hear a lot about chemicals being “safe’” and in my experience, that’s just simply an overstatement sometimes. First of all, only 250 out of the 80,000 chemicals out there have even been tested on humans. Even the ones thought to be safe have not been tested in combination with each other. Why is that important? Here are the results of a real experiment:

We know that lead and mercury are toxic. In sufficient doses, they are deadly to both humans and other animals. But this is how toxins work: in smaller doses, they are deadly to only a few individuals out of a sample of animals. In this experiment, they used the dose of lead that can be expected to kill 1% of the animals in the experiment. But they also gave the animals, at the same time, a dose of mercury that would be expected to kill only 1% of them. The result was death in 100% of the experimental group, within 5 days.

Tracey Woodruff from UCSF studied pregnant women, looking for any of 163 different chemicals. She found 43 of these chemicals in virtually all 268 women in the study. So let’s take something that would harm one in a million humans. Safe enough, right? Then let’s mix it with 40 other chemicals that would each only harm one in a million. Who only knows how many people will be harmed now? What we know is that allergy rates have tripled in 20 years, that autism is on the rise as well (by 600% in just 20 years, some say), and that breast cancer, here in Marin, is higher than elsewhere in the country despite the fact that some of our risk factors are less than elsewhere. Obesity and diabetes have skyrocketed too, and though we like to assume that they are simply due to soda and fast food, that’s really naïve, in my opinion. It just so happens that many chemicals we have been living with, from phthalates to pesticides, are hormone disruptors. They are likely to be disrupting hormones like insulin or thyroid hormone.

Here’s the positive side of this observation: each toxin you remove has a huge impact, because you remove the effect of the toxin, as well as the interactions with all the other chemicals. So obviously you won’t be changing your whole life overnight, but each change you make has a much greater impact than you think.

Obviously we are still here, and most of us function relatively well, so it’s not too late. Here’s a little more about our detoxification system:

Our system is made up of two major steps: Phase I and Phase II. They are sort of like two wash cycles – first you have to go through Phase I, then Phase II. But they have to be in balance. The worst thing of all is to have substances stuck in-between the two phases. Supporting Phase II is the most important strategy, and we’ll get into how you do that.

There are also other systems involved in dealing with toxins. One interesting one involves the bacteria that normally live in our intestine. As you know, we need a healthy population of gut bacteria. The “good” bacteria actually do some detoxification – they break down some of the toxins. The “bad” bacteria, do the opposite – they can take toxins away from glutathione, and send them back into the body. So another way to be an efficient detoxifier is to make sure you have a lot of healthy bacteria in your intestine.

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH FOOD

There’s a whole separate presentation we will be putting together concerning toxins in food: pesticides, food additives, flavorings, colorings, genetically modified foods, irradiated foods, problems introduced by cooking techniques, and so on…

But we already discussed some bad news with the water. So I would like to focus instead on what food to include in the diet, instead of giving you another list of headaches.

The general guideline is this: the body has two modes, really. One mode is rest and relaxation, the anabolic state; the other is fright or flight, known as the catabolic state. In fright mode, the body needs quick energy. It does not bother with non-emergency functions. For example, it does not bother to repair damage, or detoxify. The opposite functions, building muscle, repairing organs, feeling happy, and detoxification belong in the relaxation mode. Ideal parenting is also best done in relaxation mode – building connection, responding instead of reacting to events. So as you will see, the 10 habits of the master detoxifier are basically the activities that put the body in the relaxation mode:

10 HABITS OF THE MASTER DETOXIFIER

1. Avoid toxins – You get to choose where to focus: this presentation focuses on filtering water, but the others will continue to help you transform your immediate environment: perhaps organic food, pesticide-free home and garden, safer consumer items, etc…
2. Exercise – works on many levels to return the body to an anabolic state
3. Stress reduction, lots of it – most powerful technique is deep breathing: five deep belly breaths lasting 5 seconds, repeat 5 times per day. Yoga, dancing, friends, singing, hobbies, journaling, meditation, prayer, psychotherapy, support groups. Building community is huge here, as well as finding something that keeps you engaged – the sort of work volunteers do at groups like MOMAS provides that outlet for us.
4. Stress avoidance – this becomes a way of life; opting out of the rat race; considering stress in making decisions, doing less; simplicity parenting
5. Foods that encourage Phase II; one or two daily for everyone; more if you are working to overcome health issues. See list below.
6. Fiber – crucial for binding toxins, and for feeding healthy bacteria; this means plants.
7. More foods that encourage healthy bacteria – yogurt with probiotics, fermented foods; pu-er tea. Raw milk and cheese also contain probiotics (not recommended in pregnancy, though).
8. Diet low in sugar, white flour, processed foods – the effects of a bad diet are multiple. Basically it results in a fright mode, or catabolic state.
9. Diet low in foods that encourage inflammation; There’s a bit of a controversy here between Weston-Price and the Mediterranean diet. They do both agree on a few foods to absolutely avoid: corn oil, soybean oil, factory meats including fish.
10. Whatever it takes to keep the body’s elimination going smoothly: 8 glasses of water, regular bowel movements, sweating.

The food list: Garlic, onions, rosemary, green tea, flaxseed, turmeric, berries, cruciferous vegetables (especially broccoli sprouts and watercress), folate and B vitamins, chlorella. Eggs are an important source of sulfur for supporting Phase II.

In my picky family, this means I serve 1-3 foods from this list every day. I sneak them in to other foods if I need to. Smoothies and burgers are places where I do a lot of sneaking in. For myself, I have about 3-5 foods from this list every day. I sneak in onions and garlic in most meals and green tea and flaxseed in smoothies.

Supplements, maybe. If any, then probiotics perhaps are at the top of the list, or maybe eating fermented foods like kefir and kim chee is enough. I think a good multivitamin is also important, though what is meant by “good” will be open to debate.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

We are faced with choices when it comes to living with toxins in the modern world. The first choice is to ignore the situation. For some of us, this is impossible. We are already dealing with learning differences, or immune symptoms.

Another choice is to become mindful of the consumer choices we make every day. This is for each of us to decide, knowing that the choices we make sometimes even impact each other’s environment. Most likely you won’t change your life overnight, but keep at it.

Some of us have chosen to become activists, to help the government with its mandate to protect us. When we are successful at getting BPA out of baby bottles, or lead out of toys, it is a sweet feeling of accomplishment.

Another choice is to become empowered in taking good care of the tools our body already possesses to deal with our environment, and I hope we have given you good tips on doing that. This should be fun– celebrating delicious food, enjoying nature, having fun with friends.

Simple approaches you can take out of this talk:

1. Filter the water
2. Enjoy a steady diet of natural detoxifiers
3. Incorporate exercise and stress reduction
4. We’ll tackle more environmental toxins next month!