We’ve been talking about Toxins and how they set us up for chronic illness and autoimmune diseases. They also keep us sick when we are trying to heal from chronic Lyme disease – they just complicate everything!!

As someone who sees people every day in my office with chronic Lyme, autoimmune illnesses and bothersome ongoing symptoms in their lives, I have to tell you that the subject of toxins cannot be underestimated. I try to educate people when I first start seeing them that especially in chronic Lyme disease, the presence of environmental toxins really makes it so much harder to heal from Lyme disease. We have to make detox a huge priority if we are going to make headway.

How to test for toxins

Let’s look at Testing for toxins for a minute. It almost seems like a mute point because mainstream doctors simply aren’t testing for, or looking for them at all. You won’t test for something that you aren’t even aware of. But for those seeking integrative medical care, testing for Heavy metals and toxins can be done in multiple ways.

Blood Testing

Blood testing will only tell you what you may have been exposed to in the last week or so. After a heavy metal exposure your body sees how extremely dangerous these toxins are and wisely deposit them somewhere in your body where it feels it won’t harm you as much. You won’t find them in blood because they simply aren’t floating in the blood.

Urine Testing

Urine testing will only show what a person is actively detoxing through their kidneys. For someone who detoxes really well, they may show some mercury, lead, aluminum etc in their urine test. For those who genetically don’t detox as well they probably won’t show much at all because their body is not detoxing it out! This is the great irony with testing. Those who are the sickest (because they’re not detoxing well) will show the least amount of toxins in their testing whereas someone who detoxes well and probably is not as sick will show that they have a LOT of toxins.

Hair Testing

Unfortunately, it’s the very sick and desperate who are mostly paying for these expensive tests and getting these marginal to negative results. Hair testing for heavy metals is the same way- the better you detox the more will show up. If you’re a poor detoxer ( making you the sickest !) then they may find nothing wrong on your test. So, in the end, the sickest person who truly needs the most help looks the best on paper. They are told, “ We can’t find anything wrong with you”. Consequently, there is a whole segment of very sick people out there who can’t get any care that they so desperately need because of so many misleading tests or lack of any relevant testing at all.

Misconceptions with toxin test results

Back when I was really sick most of my tests showed that I just did not have that much mercury, lead or aluminum or other metals in my body. But once I did some deeper level detox I just felt so much better!! The clients that I work with who are willing to trust me on this one and save themselves some money on testing will start to tell me in time that this symptom has improved and that symptom has improved. There is one worthwhile test called the DMSA urine challenge test. This Is where you take a medication that binds to heavy metals called DMSA and that helps PULL the metals out of your tissues where they’re stored. This helps to then excrete them so that it will even show up on the test, but I promise you, every single person who does this test finds some heavy metals in themselves. None of us are exempt. The irony again, being that if you are healthier and detox well your test may show up with higher levels of heavy metals, and if you are sick and don’t detox well your test might show that you don’t have much at all. The testing can be so misleading! But if you really just need proof, then this is the one test I recommend.

Pioneering doctors who are actually helping those with chronic illness get well are telling us that anyone living in this day and age has accumulated and stored multiple toxins in their body. If you read my last blog I talked about how we are simply born with up to 300 known environmental toxins. Studies are showing toxins in cord blood of newborns that are shocking. Babies are just coming into this world with mercury in them, in addition to hundreds of environmental chemicals, pesticides, insecticides and now – microplastics! They are also telling us that these very toxins are one of the major root causes (there’s always more than one cause)behind chronic, treatment-resistant Lyme disease, and autoimmune disease.

Today I am going to focus in a bit on a group of chemicals that affect all of us in this day and age- herbicides and pesticides. As I’ve mentioned multiple times, every generation is just getting more and more toxic accumulation inside their bodies. We are born with a load from our mothers, we get even more from vaccines, air, food, water, body care products, foam mattresses and pillows, flame retardants on clothing, carpet and furniture, toys children chew on, toothpastes and sunscreens and more- oh my! The list is so long. From the time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed we are putting SOMETHING artificial and toxic into ourselves. Everyone else we know is using and ingesting these things too! So we feel comfortable with the belief that IF something was truly dangerous then EVERYONE would know about it and stop using it right? Wouldn’t there be some warning on TV ? Wouldn’t the government tell us about it? Also, wouldn’t we feel bad soon afterwards? The truth is that just maybe the benzene and naphthalene in the foam pillow and mattress you sleep on 8 hours a day is not harming you too badly in and of itself, your liver can detox those things right? The problem is that you are never a clean slate! IF you took in microplastics in your water that morning with phthalates in your shampoo and conditioner and body wash, then you took in some glyphosate in your cheerios or other cereal, carrageenan and lead in the almond milk you drank, some more lead in your lipstick, some artificial colors or preservatives in your fast food or processed food, thallium from standing next to the gas tank when you pumped your gas and carbon monoxide from all the exhaust you breathed in while driving in traffic – that’s a lot of little toxins. When these “little” toxin exposures combine with each other in your body they can create bigger and more harmful things, which can make something in your body just not work right. Nine times out of ten your body will compensate and you WONT feel anything right away. IT may show up weeks or months or even years later when more of these toxins have accumulated inside you and provoked autoimmune antibodies . Once the autoimmune antibodies have flooded to the scene to try and rid you of these things you’ve take in, that’s when you’ll start to notice chronic headaches, anxiety, depression, IBS, allergies, asthma, eczema, Thyroid disease, or a neurological illness, or any other chronic illness. We are learning that autoimmune antibodies can be detected in humans for decades before your body stops compensating and symptoms start to show up.

Companies do studies on their own chemicals, giving us a false sense of security about using these products- but no one is studying what happens when these things combine and interact in our bodies. How would you even study that ? Our ancestors from 100 plus years ago just simply did not have the numbers and variety of toxins and chemicals and artificial substances that we have today. Think about that for a minute. They didn’t have nearly the level of complex chronic illness we have today either! Think about what would happen if you put a tiny amount of gum, water, baking soda and clay in your gas tank of your car every day. The car may not break down right away, but if you kept putting those things in every day what would happen to your car? Would the car then be diagnosed with failure to run syndrome? OR would a good mechanic recognize that things were put into the car that didn’t belong there and messed up
your engine?

Younger and younger people are suffering the complications of having all these various chemicals and toxins combining in their bodies- every-single-day. No generation in all of human history has had SO MANY artificial things wreaking havoc on their bodies. It’s no wonder we have statistically the highest levels of autoimmune disease, rare genetic diseases and epidemic diseases like Lyme disease than ever before. Autism spectrum disorders alone have jumped from one in 150,000 in the 1960’s to one in 59 in 2018. If you look at the CDC statistics you will see that number going exponentially higher every year. If we keep turning blind eyes to these statistics and doing nothing to change our ways, it is estimated that in the next 20 years we could have 1 in 2 boys on the autism spectrum. Why is no one sounding alarms about this? Why
do we all think this is just normal and go about doing business as usual?

As I do more and more Zyto testing on people I see patterns emerging. At least 50 % of people show up with pesticides, and herbicides, Round Up in particular in their top 10 stressors. 95% of
people show up with some kind of stress response to pesticides and herbicides and other chemicals. They are blown away. They had no idea that these chemicals were causing problems inside their bodies. 2,4 D is one specific herbicide that I kept seeing over and over in the testing and I kept thinking what on earth is that? Much to my surprise I later learned that it is the same chemical that was used in Agent Orange in Viet Nam! The evidence is still in debate as to
whether 2,4, D causes cancer, however, more conclusive is the proof that 2,4-D falls into a class of compounds called endocrine-disrupting chemicals, compounds that mimic or inhibit the body’s hormones. Laboratory studies suggest that 2,4-D can impede the
normal action of estrogen, androgen, and most conclusively, thyroid hormones. Dozens of epidemiological, animal, and laboratory studies have shown a link between 2,4-D and thyroid disorders. “That’s really important when we’re thinking about development,” says Kristi Pullen, a staff scientist in NRDC’s Health program. “Our thyroid works to ensure the proper timing and development of the brain.”

There are reports that 2,4-D can decrease fertility and raise the risk of birth defects. But even though fetuses, infants, and children are at highest risk of these, no studies have looked directly at the effects of 2,4-D on those groups. Despite concerns about potential health risks, in 2014 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the combined use of 2,4-D and the popular weed killer Roundup (also known as glyphosate, a whole other—and in many ways more worrying—story when it comes to health and the environment). Enlist Duo, as the combo is called, was already legal in several states. It is used mainly on big farms, where it is sprayed on genetically modified crops called Enlist soy and Enlist corn that have been engineered to be resistant to the poisons.

In other words, farmers can now douse their fields with high concentrations of the weed killer without worrying that it will also destroy their crops. Originally, plants genetically engineered to resist Roundup were sprayed with that herbicide alone. But when the weeds it was intended to kill also developed resistance, 2,4-D was added to make the mix more effective. As Pullen puts it, “These chemicals by themselves can be problematic, but when we start combining them with other toxic chemicals, we’re just creating a new problem in order to solve another problem.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that by 2020, the use of 2,4-D on America’s farms could rise between 100 percent and 600 percent now that it has been approved as part of Enlist Duo. Thyroid disease is growing so rapidly that certain thyroid medications cannot be kept on the shelf in pharmacies. Could it be that these herbicides alone are responsible for that alarming trend? Round Up itself has been in the news here of late. A man in California who had sprayed Round Up as part of his job was awarded millions of dollars when his Non Hogkins Lymphoma was linked to the Glyphosate- the main ingredient in Round Up.

Dr Stephanie Seneff, PhD and Scientist at MIT has been telling us for years that Glyphosate is a very dangerous chemical to human health. Not only was it patented as an herbicide, it is also patented as an antibiotic and has the ability to bind with heavy metals. We are learning that as it relates to human health, Glyphosate harms our ability to detoxify other chemicals and heavy metals. It kills off good bacteria in our gut which is the center of our immune system. It has the ability to form a tight bond with lead, aluminum or mercury and cross the blood brain barrier! Dr Seneff feels strongly that the introduction of Glyphosate into our food supply in the late 1980’s is
a strong explanation for the autism spectrum and Alzheimers epidemics we now have. She says that because it has been sprayed so profusely on so many crops – it has leeched into water
supplies and just gotten into everything. 100% of people they have tested show positive for Round Up in their body. Environmental Working Group or EWG did a study that found Glyphosate in most cereals and crackers, in fact glyphsate was found in 28 out of 28 Oat based foods it tested. This included oatmeal, granola bars and cereal like Cheerios.

The EWG is an independent lab that fights for us and helps us understand what kinds of chemicals are making their way into our food and water. They enable us to make informed decisions for ourselves as to what we choose to put into our bodies. Check out their website! You can learn so much from them. You can use the information to make better decisions about your food, water, and daily products that you use. www.EWG.org

We need to look into these matters and decide if eating organic, drinking water filtered with a Berkey filter ( the only one known to remove thyroid harming fluoride) avoiding plastics and
doing regular detox as part of our lifestyle are worth it to us or not. I am here to tell you that these things are not only worth it but essential for stopping or reversing the beginnings of autoimmune disease. I have a real passion to educate the next generation about all they can do NOW to avoid these autoimmune and other debilitating illnesses In their future. Prevention is the easiest and cheapest cure. Do your own research on this. Come back next week as I
discuss microplastics- another modern day plague that may be playing into your health.