Health Hope and Happiness

Our Toxic World

Our Toxic World
September 2006, Lyle Loughry

Man’s pursuit of bigger, better, faster, younger and more convenient has come at a terrible price. The automobiles that shuttle us, the products with which we clean ourselves and our homes, the appliances that keep us cool and the recreational vehicles that help us relax, all pollute our environment. And let’s not forget the toxins found in the air you breathe, the chemicals found in the water drink, the pesticides detected in many of the fruits, vegetables and meats you serve your family, and the petroleum byproducts you apply to your skin. It’s not enough that you’re subjected to toxins everywhere you turn–the real issue is the number of years of exposure you face–exposure that starts even before you are born.

According to a 2005 study commissioned by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in cooperation with The American Red Cross on the umbilical cord of blood of newborns, 287 different industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides were found including mercury, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, furans, pesticides, and chemicals from flame retardants, PCBs, industrial lubricants, plastics, Teflon, Scotchgard, industrial bleaches, electrical insulators, coal-fired power plants, vehicle emissions, and wood preservatives,all of which are known to cause health complications in humans, to be toxic to the brain and nervous system, and to cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. Chemical exposures in the womb or during infancy can be dramatically more harmful than exposures later in life. Among the possible implications of mercury and other toxins cited by the EWG are major nervous system disorders, including autism, attention deficit disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. (1)

Once you’ve entered the world and you’ve taken your first breath, you can be reasonably sure it will include some unhealthy trace particles of air pollution. That’s true for every breath you take, thereafter, as well. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US facilities alone released 4.7 billion pounds of toxins into the atmosphere in 2002.

It’s in the Water You Drink

Currently, there are more than 850 studies, conducted by federal, state and local government agencies, US health organizations and major universities that conclusively prove that tap water is alive with deadly bugs that cause Hepatitis, E-coli infections, and Heliocobacter pylori, the bacteria that causes stomach ulcers. Additionally, monitoring groups from all fifty states have reported drinking water containing arsenic, asbestos, cyanide, lead, mercury, bug and weed killers, embalming fluids, and even radioactive wastes, all in addition to known killers like chlorine and fluoride! According to one study conducted by the University of Michigan, water into which oil spills find their way is pumped back into our water supplies, for our consumption. Increasing outbreaks of waterborne disease cause an estimated seven million people to become sick, and more than 1,000 to die in the United States each year. (2)

It’s in the Food You Eat

And, as if concerns about breathing and drinking weren’t enough, you also have to be careful with the produce, meats and fish you ingest. Herbicides and pesticides-used to keep bugs off of crops, inhibit weed growth and protect your lawn–are taking their toll on your health. Environmental chemicals have a wide range of effects on immune system function, ranging from a decrease in your body’s ability to fight infections and tumors toincreased allergies and autoimmunity, as well as dermatological, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, respiratory, musculoskeletel and cardiovascular problems. (3)

Source:
1. Body Burden, the Pollution of Newborns, Environmental Working Group, July 2005
2. www.mediasyndicate.com
3. Ohio State University School of Medicine

A new study reported in the July 2006 issue of Annals in Neurology found that the risk of Parkinson’s disease in those who reported being exposed to pesticides and herbicides increased by about seventy percent, ten to twenty years after initial exposure. The risk of Parkinson’s disease associated with exposure has been reported in many other studies. Another recent study was reported by Mayo Clinicresearchers who published their findings in the June 26, 2006, online issue of Movement Disorders. They found that men who had ever been exposed to pesticides on their farms or gardens were more than twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. Exposure to pesticides is likely to harm the brain, because the pesticides commonly used in the US have been shown to cause degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the brain. In postmortem studies, these pesticides are persistent in tissues years or even decades following exposure. Pesticides such as DDT have been banned in many countries, but they are still polluting the environment. Much of our produce comes from these countries that do not ban some of the most toxic agri-chemicals.

Home Sweet Home

But the toxins you’ll probably find most surprising are those found inside your home–where most of us think we’re safe. Many of the products that improve the look and scent of your home, like household cleaning products, have been linked to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other learning or behavioral disorders. Even the glue used to hold that new carpet down, contains the harmful ingredient, benzene, and the neurotoxin, xylene–one of the most unhealthy chemical combinations to which you can be exposed. Carpets can emit over 200 volatile organic chemicals. Faulty appliances can emit ozone, which affects lung health, and carbon monoxide, which is lethal at high concentrations. Also, mold, bacteria and other biological contaminants can cause or exacerbate asthma, allergies and infections.

The bottom line is that we are surrounded by toxins, pollutants, and synthetic (inorganic) chemicals. Many are invisible–colorless, odorless and tasteless–and most have never been tested for their effects on human health. And while there are ways to reduce the impact of some exposure, it’s just not reasonable to think you can avoid toxic exposure, altogether. Those who understand the increasingly deadly impact of environmental toxicity on our bodies also understand that there is no “quick fix.” It’s taken your entire lifetime to reach the level of toxicity and imbalance you now experience. To be as healthy as your body is capable of being, plan to fight this toxicity battle for the rest of your life!

More and more anti-aging practitioners, like Rashid O. Buttar, D. O., a diplomat in preventative medicine and clinical toxicology, and Vice-Chairman of the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology, and Robert Nash, M.D., who is board certified in neurology, pain medicine, and chelation therapy, and Chairman of the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology, are coming to the same conclusion . . .in order to maintain optimal health, and reduce the incidence of the degenerative diseases of aging, the health practitioner’s job is to detoxify their patients. Listen to what they, and others are saying:

“I can now very comfortable and definitively state to you,” says Dr. Buttar, “that, in my opinion, based on the evidence, every single chronic insidious disease process is related to one word: toxicity. A year ago, I wouldn’t have said it, but the more success we’ve had, the clearer it has become; All chronic disease is toxicity. You get rid of the toxicity and you put out the fire. You may need to rebuild the health later, but you must put the fire out, first. Conventional medicine is just covering your eyes so you don’t see the fire.”

Dr. Nash concurs, though perhaps not yet 100 percent. He says, “Most of the diseases of aging–arthritis, most cancers, vascular and others–have been shown to be associated with toxic metals and persistent organic pollutants. For example, vascular diseases, stroke, heart attack, plus most cancers, and macular degeneration have been linked directly to lead, and that’s just lead.” Dr. Nash also explains that, “Between nature and man, we have polluted the planet, but man’s pollution is by far the most toxic. We are now paying a price for our environmental neglect. That price appears to be chemical sensitivities, plus an increasing number of diseases of aging.”

Walter J. Crinnion, N.D., Chairman of the Department of Environmental Medicine at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, Phoenix, wrote six years ago, “Chemical compounds, ubiquitous in our food, air and water, are now found in every person.”

A 2003 US study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), revealed the presence of 116 chemicals–some of them banned for more than two decades because of toxicity–in people of all ages. In July 2005, the CDC released a major report that makes the important distinction that the level of chemicals found within the body is the result of the cumulative impact from all routes of exposure, including ingestion, inhalationand dermal absorption, as well as how the chemical is distributed in body tissues, transformed into metabolites, and eliminated from the body.

Britain’s Environmental Toxins Foundation states that “More and more research is pointing towards mounting evidence that structural and genetic damage . . . potentially caused to the human morphology through the huge influx of chemical agents that are absorbed, ingested and inhaled from the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe . . . is increasingly prevalent in our modern environment.” A paper entitled, Metals in Medicine, published in the July/August edition of Alternative Therapies notes that, “Metals have been implicated in many of the diseases of aging, as well as in neurodevelopmental diseases and autism spectrum disorders.” For example, mercury is known to affect the brain and has been associated with the causation or exacerbation of degenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, as well as neurodevelopmental diseases, vascular diseases, nephrotoxicity, and cancer. The paper notes that the effects of toxicant metals on human health have been reported in peer-reviewed literature with increasing frequency. A November 17, 2004, Wall Street Journal article described the high levels of mercury that are now being spread, particularly by massive industrial development in China. The article states, “Mercury and other pollutants from China’s more than 2,000 coal-fired power plants soar high into the atmosphere and around the globe on what has become a transcontinental conveyor belt of bad air.” An International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report says that compelling scientific evidence points to some of the 85,000 synthetic chemicals in use today as contributing to breast cancer by altering hormone function or gene expression. In the past 50 years, a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer has more than tripled in the United States. According to Nancy Evans, a health science consultant for the Breast Cancer Fund (the only national nonprofit organization whose sole focus is to identify the causes of breast cancer and advocate for elimination of the disease), and the Editor of the report, “Medical X-rays, pesticides, household cleaning products, personal care products and some pharmaceuticals are just a few of the multiple and chronic exposures contributing to this epidemic.” Lynn Tondat Carter, PhD., Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, writes in The Celestine Journal that, “Our very ability to think and feel normally can be drastically affected by exposure to toxins. It does not take a giant leap of logic to realize that we could soon be in such a state of toxic poisoning that we would be unable to ‘problem-solve’ our way out.”The Toxic Life, an article that appeared in an April 2006 TorontoStar newspaper was summed up by Life Writer, Nancy J. White, this way, “If you’re a walking, breathing Canadian, you’re polluted.” That’s the situation in Canada, and it’s much worse in the US!

The Safe, Natural Approach

Fortunately, there are recent natural breakthroughs that make it a lot easier to accomplish “living well and being healthy in today’s toxic world.” Known as “the people’s company,” Liberty Health Net (LHN), a six year old International marketing company doing business in 64 countries. offers four, totally natural “breakthrough” products that assure that it’s now possible, Alligin, Tiaga Immune Tea, O2 Basic Essentials, and the newest antioxidant/anti-aging powerhouse,M-G-A-PLUS.

According to a recent book, Allicin, The Heart of Garlic, “we have known for a long time that allicin (found in Alligin) detoxifies heavy metals. There are many reports of water-based extracts of garlic also being used as a cleanser to remove poisonous metals from the blood. Recent work has focused on proving that allicin can reduce the absorption of toxic metals by farm animals.

Tiaga, a bracket fungi (mushroom) is a member of the Ganoderma family of beneficial fungi, the same as the well-known known Reishi mushroom. Tiaga tea promotes a strong immune system that is known to bring balance to the imbalance often found in the body’s internal terrain as a result of toxins, made possible by increased detoxifying activity. A healthy immune system also tones and strengthens the liver and gallbladder and promotes more efficient elimination of toxins, including heavy metals.

O2 Basic Essentials is the newest generation of super-oxygenation technology. The link between insufficient oxygen and disease has been firmly established, and it is strongly believed that all chronic suffering is caused from a lack of oxygen at the cellular level. Initial symptoms of oxygen deprivation range from acid stomach to various bacterial, fungal, viral and parasitic infections, and much more. Oxygen is the vital factor which gives our bodies the oxidizing “firepower” it requires to, among other things, repel disease, increase vitality, promote faster recovery and healing, and oxidize and eliminate toxic buildup in the body.

M-G-A-PLUS is an unmatched blend of exotic fruits and berries from Thailand, Brazil and the mountains of Tibet, synergistically balanced to promote health and long life. If you’re familiar with the health benefits of Mangosteen, Goji berries, Acai, and Pomegranate, you can only imagine the potential benefits available from a daily serving of 3,700 total milligrams of these phytonutrients.

You can’t find these extraordinary breakthrough products in stores, but they are available at substantial member savings from LHN. Membership is FREE! So please go visit, Liberty Health Net,  for more information, or to place an order.

The Future

The Future
In the last three decades we have seen several viral and bacterial
epidemics take place at a time when we would have expected the
eradication of many infectious diseases. Some people say this is due to
the over-use of too-potent antibiotics, which eliminate protective
infecting agents. Others believe it might be the widespread use of
vaccines. There are even conspiracy theorists who believe they may be
the results of terrorist acts or leakage of viral mutants from research
laboratories.
Whatever the cause, globalisation and the increasing availability of
long distance flights is making the global spread of infections far
easier. In the 21st Century we have already identified a number of
infectious organisms that can and will present a major problem to
patients, physicians, health care workers and administrators the world
over. These include:
MRSA
MDR Tuberculosis
VRE Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus
VRSA Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
VISA and GISA (Glycopeptide intermediate resistant
Staphylococcus aureus)
All these have proven to be sensitive to allicin and a sixth – PRSP
Penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumonia – though not yet tested, is
very likely to be.
With MRSA now reported in the ‘healthy community’ (cMRSA
community-acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) the
writing is already on the wall. We need something that can take on the
superbugs. We need to reduce our dependence on pharmaceutical
antibiotics, or at least make them more effective, by reducing the
extent to which they are used. By not doing that, these powerful
microbes will take over. Already infectious disease is a bigger killer
than heart disease or cancer. The species above cannot be treated by
anything the pharmaceutical industry has to offer. Even the latest
antibiotics, yet to reach the market, are unable to kill certain species of
bacteria. We have seen international panic over SARS, Bird Flu,
Clostridium difficile and MRSA spreading. Bad enough and quite
worrying when you realise doctors routinely encounter organisms
such as E. coli, Helicobacter pylori, Tuberculosis, Herpes virus,
Acinetobacter, Cryptosporidium, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Cholera,
Streptococcus Pyogenes flesh-eating bacteria and others that are
becoming multi-drug-resistant. It is estimated the number of bacteria,
virus and fungal pathogens to be found either in or around every
human being is so large as to be virtually infinite. This is why still,
after 70 years of producing pharmaceutical antibiotics, recent surveys
indicate that 90 percent of visits to doctor’s surgeries are infectionrelated.
It is also why more than one million metric tons of antibiotics
have been dispersed into the biosphere in the past 50 years – half for
human use and half for animal use which means that the indigenous
bacteria of all living species are richly populated with resistant bacteria
we cannot get rid of. Is it any wonder that public health physicians are
so worried?
Why are we losing the battle?
Recent reports indicate that bacteria may send messages to each
other about resisting antibiotic poisoning (Medicine Today, June 2002).
In fact, bacterial signalling is going on all the time, all over your body,
but especially in your mouth and guts. Finding ways of interfering
with this signalling process is the latest objective of researchers who
are waging the antibiotic arms race. Major results of these bacterial
conversations are bacterial communities! Among the more
extraordinary sights visible through the latest confocal laser scanning
microscopes, which allows objects to be viewed almost in 3D, are what
have been dubbed ‘slime cities’ – armoured defensive communities
where bacteria live and reproduce, safe from antibiotics, your immune
system and other predators. Known technically as biofilms, they are
currently the target of intense research now it is becoming increasingly
clear they are at the root of some of our most intractable conditions.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 65
percent of human bacterial infections involve biofilms. Not only are
they responsible for tooth decay and gum disease but they also cause
many of the problems associated with cystic fibrosis, ear infections and
infections of the prostate gland and the heart. They cause an estimated
$6 billion a year of expenditure in the USA by causing hard-to-treat
infections around catheters, artificial heart valves and other medical
implants.
Similarly, irrational prescribing results in over-use of the very
agents used to remove these infectious organisms. It is estimated that
every year in the States, 10 million adults seek treatment for acute
bronchitis and most are given antibiotics even though the pathogens
involved in most cases are viruses, which antibiotics aren’t designed to
work on. We tend to think of bacteria as primitive single-cell creatures,
but when they are organised into a biofilm they differentiate,
communicate, cooperate and deploy collective defences against
antibiotics. In short, they behave like a multi-cellular organism.
Bacteria from biofilms were among the first ever to be seen
through a microscope when pioneer Antony van Leeuwenhoek looked
at plaque – a biofilm – scraped from his own teeth in the late 1600’s.
But it wasn’t until the 1970’s that scientists began to appreciate just
how complex these micro slime cities are. Plaque, for instance, is
founded on a base of dense opaque slime about 5 micrometres thick.
Above this, vast colonies of bacteria shaped like mushrooms or cones
rise to between 100 to 200 micrometres. Enclosed within their highly
effective defensive wall of slime live communities of a variety of
bacterial strains. One researcher described them as ‘cities’ permeated
at all levels by a network of channels through which water, bacterial
garbage, nutrients, enzymes, metabolites and oxygen travel to and fro.
The bacteria inside a biofilm, comprising 15 percent bacterial cells and
85 percent slime, are 1000 times less likely to succumb to antibiotics
than bacteria in a free-floating state.
The notion that bacteria can talk to each other was first proposed
more than 30 years ago by scientists studying ‘glow in the dark’
bacteria such as Vibro fischeri, which inhabit ‘light organs’ of certain
squid and marine fish. The bacteria don’t glow as individuals
swimming freely but when enough of them form a group, their
illuminations are switched on. So they must have some way of letting
each other know when enough of them have gathered. It wasn’t until
the 1980’s that researchers identified the chemical they each put out –
AHL (acyl-homoserine lactone). The more of them in one place, the
higher the level of AHL released. Above a certain threshold the
concentration of AHL triggers the luminescence in a mechanism
usually referred to as Quorum Sensing.
Gradually a better understanding of how biofilms fight off
antibiotics is emerging. The bacteria benefit from pooling their effects.
For instance, in a biofilm some bacteria produce an enzyme that
inactivates the antiseptic hydrogen peroxide, but a single bacterium
can’t make enough to save itself. Another factor is that even if an
antibiotic does get through and kills off some bacterial inhabitants, a
substantial number are likely to survive. This is because bacteria exist
in a spectrum of physiological states from rapidly growing to dormant.
Antibiotics usually target some activity such as cell division, and that
means the dormant ones will usually live to fight another day. Dr
Richard Novick found that Staphylococcus aureus can be divided into
four types, each with slightly different signalling molecules. The
molecules used by one type stimulate activity in its own group but
inhibit it in the others – an example of the way bacteria compete with
each other. This particular bacterium is a worry to every healthcare
establishment in the western world. It has developed a number of
strains resistant to all pharmaceutical antibiotics, even Vancomycin, a
toxic parenteral drug usually reserved as a last resort.
Bacteria are sufficiently well organised to find ways of avoiding
the immune system. For instance, in Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that
causes cholera, the same genes involved in regulating quorum sensing
also turn on the toxin production (Proc Nat’l Acad Sci, 5 March 2002).
The value of this strategy is that a few toxic bacteria might alert the
immune system and be rapidly engulfed. By waiting to turn on
toxicity until there are enough of them, they have a better chance of
overwhelming the host’s defences. It has been estimated that 40
percent of proteins in bacterial walls differ in ‘slime city dwellers’ from
those that are ‘free ranging’. The implication is that some of the
proteins identified in cultures and targeted by antibiotics simply aren’t
there in city dwellers. Most of the work on quorum sensing has
concentrated on chemicals which allow members of the same species
to talk to one another. However, while Dr Bonnie Bassler at Princeton
University was working on the luminous bacteria that led to the
finding of quorum sensing, she made the remarkable discovery that
signals from other bacteria could also turn on their lights. It seems that
bacteria have some sort of Esperanto – a common language (Nature, 31
January 2002) – which involves a protein known as A1-2. Exactly what
this system is used for isn’t clear yet. However, among the bacteria
that infect humans, those found to produce A1-2 include Escherichia
coli (food poisoning), Haemophilus influenzae (pneumonia and
meningitis), Helicobacter pylori (peptic ulcers), Yersinia pestis (bubonic
plague) and Staphylococcus aureus (pneumonia, meningitis and toxic
shock syndrome).
ALL of these bacteria can be killed
by low concentrations of allicin
Allicin, mother nature’s defender, is an agent that can break up a
biofilm, destroy a wide range of bacterial species, wipe out fungal
infections, boost an under-active immune system, reduce cholesterol
and blood pressure levels, prevent viral infections, kill off parasites,
remove protozoal organisms, vasodilate when necessary, prevent the
release of histamine, and even prevent mosquitoes from attacking. All
this from an agent that can be produced from fresh garlic!
Work is currently underway, using the latest technology, to allow
us to blast apart a bacterial cell and detect exactly which proteins and
enzymes it can produce. Then the same species is treated with allicin
liquid or powder, blasted apart again and analysed to see which
proteins and enzymes have been disabled and are unable to infect.
We already know that allicin is capable of penetrating bacterial cell
walls and preventing the release of many enzymes that are toxic to
humans. Allicin formulations are also effective against a wide
spectrum of bacterial species, viral infections, fungal and protozoal
disease as well as a large number of parasite problems.
Conclusion
In this book you have read how allicin, ‘Nature’s Antibiotic’, can
kill TB, smallpox, MRSA, Streptococcus species and many more
troubling micro-organisms, with the additional benefit of
strengthening the immune system to prevent further attack and yet not
disrupting or destroying the existing healthy bacteria. There’s a great
deal going on in terms of research and clinical trials. Barely do I finish
a draft of this book when I immediately have to revise it as many
studies on allicin, added to a wide range of other active raw
ingredients, are underway. Aside from this crucial requirement for a
natural antibiotic/antifungal/antiviral, allicin therapy is nolw being
evaluated for the prevention and treatment of the world’s two biggest
killer diseases: cancer and coronary heart disease. In those nations
where garlic consumption, both cooked and raw, is a strong part of
daily life, much lower coronary death rates and significant protection
from cancer are evident. Obviously, there are many other factors
involved but this book, for the first time, considers the broader picture
of medically approved studies and confirms what great physicians,
herbalists and healers have suggested for thousands of years. Namely,
that something garlic produces is good for human health. Now at long
last, after 80 years of trying to release the ‘mother substance’ – the
HEART of garlic – allicin is finally available in sufficient quantities to
act as an effective, natural antibiotic in your body.