The Body’s Toxic Load

Understanding the “Body Burden” is Important When Choosing a Home

 

By Cesar Collado

The Toxic Load (sometimes called the “Body Burden”) is the accumulated amount of toxins affecting your bodily systems at any given time. Toxins are significant stressors to all bodily systems, the immune system, and even your mental state.  Every day we are bombarded with thousands of toxins.  We inhale them, eat them, and can absorb them through the skin.  

Toxins come from many sources in our industrialized world.  There are 80,000 chemicals known to the EPA and just a fraction of them have been studied to know their toxic effects.  Regardless, known or unknown toxins are utilized in the production processes for building materials, paints and finishes, flame retardants, household cleaners, personal products, air fresheners, candles, air pollutants, and even medicines and food products. Pesticides, preservatives and pollutants can contaminate the foods we eat and the water we drink, cook and bathe with. But, our bodies are equipped to metabolize only a fixed amount of toxins in our lives.  Then, when a person is overexposed to mold, their body can reach its toxic tipping point, and an immediate, catastrophic health reaction occurs. What happens then?  

Our Bodies and Toxins

Our body has natural abilities to metabolize and excrete toxins.  When exposed to toxins, our livers and kidneys are somewhat effective in metabolizing them and removing them via the digestive and perspiration systems. However, if the amount of toxins exceeds the body’s ability to rid itself from them, they can be stored in fat and tissues. This is particularly important for those of us that carry little or significant excess fat.  When we lose weight, these toxins are released into our bodies where they will continue to be circulated, absorbed, metabolized and excreted. In the event toxins reach organs or even the brain by penetrating the blood brain barrier, devastating disorders, including neurological and cognitive problems can result.

The “Body Burden”

Consider a bucket being filled with water.  Once it is full, water spills over the side and can go anywhere.  The body’s ability to metabolize toxins operates in a similar fashion. When a person is exposed to toxins from a variety of sources over time, their bucket fills until it cannot remove additional toxins.  Whatever is in your “bucket” is your Body Burden or Toxic Load. Since our bodies can only metabolize a fixed amount of toxins over our lifetimes, our toxic load can be reached slowly over time or rapidly and all at once by a significant exposure to any toxin. Depending on a person’s life choices, circumstances, medical and family history, and body composition, it is possible for a person to reach their lifetime limit in just an instant.

Not everyone is exposed to hazardous toxins in their lives.  Those who are exposed at work are trained to take necessary safety precautions, and workplace environments are regulated to manage the risk.  On rare occasions, when a worker may be exposed to a specific hazard, medical treatment and protocols are followed. 

However, many of the environments we live in contain toxic chemicals and pollutants that we will likely absorb in some manner over time.   The air we breathe outdoors can be polluted.  Chlorine and fluoride are present in our drinking waters. Some heavy metals are essential nutrients (typically iron, cobalt, and zinc).  Others, such as cadmium, mercury, and lead, are highly poisonous.

Pesticides are used in landscaping and farming. New construction is built with materials that are treated with flame retardants, adhesives, and other processes that involve toxic chemicals. Paints can have Volatile Organic Compounds (“VOCs”). Home furnishings, paints, and carpets often off-gas chemicals for a period of time.

The critical message here is that once you reach your toxic burden, your body becomes ultra-sensitive to many environmental elements.  Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (“MCS”) can make almost any environment toxic to someone who has reached their Body Burden or Toxic Load.  After your bucket is full, regular household and personal products become extremely toxic, even in miniscule amounts.

Why is Mold Exposure Critical to the “Toxic Load Discussion”?

Mold, albeit an antigen or pathogen, also triggers an immune response which is different than the histamine response produced by most allergens.  In an allergic response, antihistamines and steroids may be prescribed and effective.  The mold inflammatory response exacerbates debilitating conditions. To make matters worse, many common species of mold release potent mycotoxins (poisonous chemicals) that can impact the body slowly over time or severely, if they reach the many organs in the body, including the brain. 

Mold and their mycotoxins make up a very small portion of the possible toxic elements to our bodies.  However, when humidity or moisture, due to a common roof or plumbing leak, humid weather, or poor water management meet any organic material (including dust, fabric, wallpaper, wood, and carpet), mold can begin to grow.  Mold reproduces at alarming rates and can proliferate throughout our homes to reach dangerous levels very quickly.  Any disruption of the mold can release billions of microscopic mold spores into the air we breathe.  (Mold most often is inhaled and then can reproduce rapidly in our bodies.)  Mold mycotoxins can be inhaled into our sinuses where they are microns away from our brains. Therefore, mold is likely the greatest threat to any normal person in a normal environment to push them to reach their toxic load immediately. The fallout is a debilitating ultra-sensitivity that can handicap their ability to enjoy life.

Exposure Possibilities

Any mold infestation where you can see it or smell it is likely a very dangerous situation for even healthy inhabitants.  If it is a minor infestation, any DIY person can take safety precautions like a N95 face mask and gloves and follow clear directions to remediate it themselves.  Larger infestations that penetrate walls or severely water damaged homes are health hazards. These should be remediated by a professional.  Also, musty, damp basements or crawlspaces can have an overwhelming amount of mold.  Without professional containment, and removal you risk disrupting the mold and releasing spores and toxins into the air. If this occurs, the mold can then be distributed throughout the home through the HVAC system.  Simply living in such environments can lead someone to reach their toxic load immediately, and have to deal with a lifetime of debilitating sensitivities when exposed to minimal amounts of mold or chemicals thereafter.  

When you are living in a home with mold, regardless of whether it is during a repair or while you have little control of the situation, there are things you can do to limit the toxic burden on your body:

• Treat the how’s with Haven Fog, a denser. smoke like fog, that rises and filled the entire space volume of HVAC to to flood the  ductwork and hair handler.  Read more about hot fogging HERE.
• Cold fogging with the Haven Mister and Haven Mold  Solution will easily keep the mold counts down while you await repairs or find another mold-safe home. You can also use Remedy Mold Solution Concentrate to do the job.
• Using Haven Spray on virtually any surface will also keep mold levels down. It is less efficient and time consuming than cold fogging; however, it works.
• Burning Remedy Air Purification Candles will quickly impact  your immediate environment will significantly reduce mold and mycotoxin counts from the air in the areas you relax or work in.

Other Factors to Consider

Modern Medicine Limitations

When we go to the physician when we are sick, we are diagnosed based on our symptoms and treated with medicines.  The medicines themselves could also be toxic.  Where we are particularly vulnerable is that many symptoms of toxic burden are similar to those of many chronic illnesses. These symptoms can steer us to many medical specialists who will have us cycling through many medicines. Most general practice physicians and practitioners see numerous patients each hour; and there is little time to investigate every patient’s individual exposure to toxins in their environments.  Unfortunately, most of the burden to recognize toxins in our environments and food falls on us, the patients.  The only way to address this is to educate ourselves and seek physicians or other health care professionals that diagnose and treat environmental illness.

The Modern Diet

Over the past several decades, the industrialization of the food industry has introduced toxins in exceedingly high amounts to our diets. You can read more about gut health in an earlier published article HERE. 

Ways to Ease Your Toxic Burden

• Eat Organic.  Non-organic foods expose you to pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones, artificial flavors and sweeteners.
• Avoid consuming fish that are high in mercury.
• Decrease your intake of sugars and other carbohydrates. These foods feed fungus and lead to fungal overgrowth in the body.
• Switch to green or all-natural cleaning products.  Avoid bleach and ammonia.
• Hydrate well with filtered water. Water helps to dilute and flush out toxins.
• Improve the quality of your air by cleaning for mold regularly and investing in an air purifier.
• Try to use glass instead of plastic containers with BPA.
• Choose natural, organic personal products.
• Use natural fibers, like wool or cotton when decorating your home. Also, limit use of carpet in favor or natural fiber rugs, hardwood floors or ceramic tiles.
• Service your HVAC regularly replacing HEPA filters every few months.
• Consider seeing a physician that treats environmental illness when suffering from a mysterious illness your general practitioner has trouble diagnosing.

© 2020, Cesar Collado, All Rights Reserved