Neurotoxicity

Neurotoxicity is defined as the capacity of chemical, biological, or physical agents in your environment to cause abnormal changes in the nervous system.  It is well recognized that exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment can cause neurological and psychiatric illnesses.  We use the term environmental neurotoxicity to refer broadly to adverse neurological response to a wide variety of substances that cause injury to the brain including diet, alcohol, tobaccos, drugs, and other toxic substances in the air, water, and soil.  About 70,000 chemicals are in the environment.  Of these, only a handful have been evaluated thoroughly for neurotoxicity.  The picture becomes even more frightening when we consider that decades can pass between exposure to a chemical and symptoms.  This is called latent toxicity.  These chemicals saturate and reside in your fat cells in your abdomen, breast, buttocks, and the sheaths around your nerves.  These toxins gradually leach out into the system.  Many times when you begin to lose weight we find cases of neurotoxicity.

          Many of us are exposed to toxic chemicals in the environment.  It has been suggested that many signs of sub-clinical toxicity are more common than we think.   

These are the common signs of neurotoxicity:

  

• Weakness
• Insomnia
• Visual disorders
• Confusion
• Heart symptoms like palpitations & arrhythmia
• Headaches
• Irritability
• Tension
• Nerve disorders, i.e. Parkinson’s
• Chronic fatigue
• Chronic pain
• Poor memory
• Depression
• Nervousness
• Sleep disturbances
• Skin inflammation

  There are five major environmental toxins:

• Mercury
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Arsenic
• Aluminum

 

At the Mt Sinai School of Medicine in NYC volunteers were tested for the presence of 210 chemicals commonly found in consumer products and industrial pollutants in the NY tri-state area.  Tests on blood and urine detected on average 91 industrial compounds, pollutants, and chemicals in New Yorkers. 

 

          There is no way to avoid these chemicals.  This is due to where we live.  We must make sure through nutrition, diet, exercise, and any other method.  We must make our system that detoxifies these toxins efficient in clearing these from our body since we can’t avoid them entering. 

          Glutathione clears these xenobiotics, lipoic acid repairs neurons and neuronal membranes, and omega 3 oils repair cell membranes.

          It is imperative for us to take control of our health because no else is going to do it for us.  There are increasingly more and more toxins and chemicals being added to the environment annually.  We only have one liver to detoxify us and it may have difficulty in doing its job.  We must support it with lots of fresh clean water every day and lots of fruits and vegetables, especially cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, etc.