Lipophilic means, tending to mix with fats. Over the last 100 years,
we have flooded our environment with thousands of lipophilic toxins,
including pesticides, herbicides, and toxins from building products,
household products, furniture, carpets, and industrial waste. (1)
Lipophilic
toxins enter your body through the food chain, and through the air you
breathe. To avoid acute toxicity, the body lodges the toxins in adipose
tissues (fat cells). From there they leach into the bloodstream in slow,
continuous poisoning.
The high levels and increasing contamination of human breast milk in
the US and Canada provides ample evidence of widespread distribution of
lipophilic toxins in our environment.(2-4) I will take the example of
just one of them, the much used flame retardants, PBDs (polybrominated
biphenyls).
In North America, levels of PBDs in breast milk, are now
among the highest in the world,(4,5) higher than levels in Europe or
Asia. To put it in perspective, PBDs in human breast milk in North
America are much higher than the legal limit for any other form of milk.
So it is not surprising that PDB levels are higher in our newborns
and infants than in adults. Damage by these toxins to the developing
brains during early childhood has become a massive health problem.
Elevated PBDs in breast milk are linked with lower birth weight, and
smaller heads in newborns.(6) In the Netherlands, high blood PBD levels
in the mother at the 35th week of pregnancy correlated with defective
motor function, defective cognition, and disordered behavior of the
child measured up to age six.(7) In New York City, prenatal PBD exposure
(as indicated by cord blood PBD levels) was linked with lower scores on
tests of mental and physical development at the ages of 1–4 and 6.(8) A
recent controlled study in Spain (9) reports decreased attention, and
decreases in cognitive and motor scores in infants and children exposed
to PBDs.
Neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, attention deficit
disorder, and mental retardation, have increased astronomically over the
last 20 years.(10-12) A new official review published yesterday, 10
September 2013, shows a five-fold increase in prescription of Ritalin
and other drugs used for these disorders during just the last 10
years.(13)
Unfortunately, this problem has not received much political
attention. No one wants to take responsibility for it. Few even want to
speak about it. Government agencies spend billions each year to reduce
toxins. They are largely unsuccessful because rapid industrial growth
(and its toxicity) is deemed politically essential for the economy. So
it wins out over health every time.
The evidence against PBDs is now so strong that the EPA is phasing
them out. But, just like DDT, which took Rachael Carson’s 1962 book,
Silent Spring, to get it banned by 1972, PBDs will remain in the
environment for our lifetime. Bald eagles in California still show high
levels of DDT even though they were all born decades after the ban.
Again, like DDT, the PBDs they can persist in the body for decades,
slowly damaging the brain and shortening lifespan.
The ray of hope is the miracle of the human body. As a living,
constantly renewing organism it is eminently cleanable. Regular
cleansing routines, emphasizing a high intake of clean water, and
alkaline nutritional regimens, together with reductions in body fat,
enable the body to excrete most of the toxins. You clean your teeth
daily in order to maintain them. Your health will benefit a great deal
more if you also clean your body daily, from the inside out.
