Do You Have a Weak Immune System or Are You Toxic?

We can’t avoid toxins nowadays. Even if we eat all organic foods, drink filtered water, and use non-toxic home and body products, we can still come in contact with numerous toxins and carry significant amounts of heavy metals and environmental toxins in our bodies.

Thankfully, we can combat these and lower the impact of these toxins on our bodies in different ways. One of which is a healthy diet that helps your body detoxify regularly and minimizes toxic exposure. That also includes anti-inflammatory protocols to lower the inflammatory effects of toxins in your body, supporting the pathways of elimination, including binders in your regular protocol to “sponge up” toxins in your system.

Anti-inflammatory diet
Toxins are inflammatory to the body. Having an anti-inflammatory diet is one of the best things you can do to reduce your inflammatory load. Even organic foods contain toxins these days due to air, water, and soil contamination. To avoid inflammation, choose foods that have not been produced with pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics will reduce your overall toxic burden.

Keep your blood sugar stable by lessening sugar and foods that are high in processed carbohydrates intake. Always remember not to let yourself crash from low blood sugar and not overeating into a food coma.

Avoid food that triggers your inflammatory response. If you have food sensitivity or intolerance, eating food that flares your immunes system will keep it in a state of constant red alert, stoking inflammation throughout your body. The most common immune reactive foods are gluten, dairy, soy, egg, and corn.

You can also minimize your dietary sources of inflammation with certain supplements that can tame and reduce inflammation.

Studies show that taking larger doses of the antioxidants resveratrol and curcumin can help protect the body from the damage of toxins, especially if you take them together in a liposomal form.

Glutathione that is liposomal or in another absorbable form is another way to lower inflammation and protect your body. In fact, the lack of glutathione intake increases your risk of developing chemical sensitivities. In addition to taking absorbable glutathione, you can also raise glutathione levels inside your cells with n-acetylcysteine, cordyceps, Gotu Kola, milk thistle, L-glutamine, and alpha-lipoic acid.

Binding toxins in your body
Taking nutritional compounds that bind with toxins for easy removal regularly is another way to buffer your body.

Binders can help remove heavy metals, environmental toxins, mycotoxins from molds, infectious bacteria, and fungal infections from your body.

Here are some examples of effective binders:

Modified citrus pectin: This is derived from citrus peel and processed in a way that it allows it to enter the bloodstream and bind with toxins for safe elimination from the body. Modified citrus pectin also serves as a great “prebiotic,” or a nutrition source for your good gut bacteria. A healthy gut microbiome is critical to protect you from toxins. Be sure to look for a source that is free of fillers.

Activated charcoal: Activated charcoal is a popular and affordable binder for toxins. It can also help soothe common digestive complaints.

Bentonite clay: Bentonite, montmorillonite, and illite (French clay) are used to bind toxins. When mixed with water, these clays develop a sponge-like quality and take on an electrical charge to attract harmful compounds. Be sure to look for a quality product that does not have lead contamination.

Zeolite: Zeolite is formed from volcanic rock and ash. It is a well-known binder for heavy metals and other toxins.
Chlorella: Chlorella is a blue-green alga that has an affinity for mercury and lead. It is rich in B vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. You may need to avoid chlorella if you take blood thinners.

Silica: Most people think of silica to improve their hair, skin, and nails, but it’s also good at binding metals that are harder to detox such as thallium.

You must support your pathways of elimination when you detoxify

Binders work great at latching onto toxins, but if your body’s pathways of elimination are faulty, you could make your body more toxic.

You also want to ensure you have sufficient minerals — heavy metals can bind to cellular receptors in the absence of necessary minerals.

Ways to support the elimination of toxins include; supporting healthy liver and gallbladder function, supporting healthy bowel elimination, staying hydrated and taking care of your kidneys and bladder.

Eating 25–38 grams of fiber a day, staying well hydrated, eating foods that are good for the liver (like bitters and greens), exercising regularly stimulates the lymphatic system, and regular are some examples of how to keep toxins flowing out of your body.

Avoiding chemical sensitivities
Although we want to minimize our overall toxic burden, we mostly want to avoid developing chemical sensitivities. In the end, your overall toxic burden may not matter as much as whether you have an immune reaction to these toxins. You can react to a toxin the same you can react to gluten or dairy. This is problematic as it’s much harder to eliminate a toxin from your environment than food from your diet, especially if that toxin is prevalent in the air, such as benzene, or in plastics, such as BPA.

This is why it’s so important to live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. If you already have chemical sensitivities, ask my office about methods to lower your sensitivity so you can go on with your day without dealing with this sensitivity.