How Toxins Affect Hormones and Immunity

Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, the father of science-based natural medicine and founder of Bastyr University, returns to The Randy and Christa Show with new information on toxins.

In our last show, we talked about toxins in general – where we find them, how to stop ingesting them, how to prepare the body to cleanse them, how to do a proper and safe detox once the body is prepared, and how to make sure they don't find their way back into your body.

Today he gives a quick recap, and then we jump right into discussing how toxins are connected to and affect the endocrine and immune systems.

Dr. Joe explains how toxins damage the immune system by not allowing it to kill off infections as it normally would. He uses the example of how breathing in benzene from pumping gas impairs our white blood cells from doing their job or how eating food high in pesticides prevents us from making antibodies, an essential part of our immune system that enables us to kill off the harmful organisms that try to get into our bodies.

He says researchers are just starting to become aware of toxins' role in autoimmunity. In utero, we learn what normal proteins are. The problem comes when we're exposed to high environmental toxins that are binding to normal proteins. This process changes what normal proteins look like to the immune system, which leads to autoimmune disease. The immune system becomes so compromised and confused and ends up using its extra energy to go after our own bodies.

He goes on to discuss the toxic role of mercury, lead, and cadmium to these two systems and alerts us on where they typically come from.

Dr. Joe and I completely agree with the sentiment that all health is actually quite simple. Get into people what they need by filling in their nutritional deficiencies, and get out of people what they don't need, meaning toxins, and the body will heal itself.

This is the case of a woman cited in The Toxin Solution who had lead toxicity when she was younger. At that time, her body did what it was supposed to and scooped up the lead to store in her bones to keep her safe from its effects.

In her later years when she started going through menopause, she experienced bone loss congruent with this phase of life. With the bone loss, the lead got released into her blood stream and caused a tremor in her hand, or the beginning of neurological damage. She also had a mouthful of amalgam fillings, which are 55% mercury. After working to detox both metals, her tremor improved tremendously.

Toxins and Thyroid Health

Even though PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls) were banned after 1979, Dr. Joe sees them as the biggest threat to the thyroid because they poison the production of T4 (inactive thyroid hormone). They also poison the conversion of T4 to T3 (the thyroid hormone we use for energy).

Breastfeeding allows us to eliminate PCBs by up to 40%, but because we want to keep baby safe, the best way to release PCBs from the body is to up your daily intake of dietary fiber to 35-50 grams. As your body allows, you want to continually increase your fiber up to 100 grams daily so that your body can pull out PCBs and many other toxins.

Toxins and Infertility

Long before we want to conceive a child, Dr. Joe recommends to start taking NAC or N-Acetyl Cysteine which will promote the production of glutathione, the master antioxidant detoxifier in our bodies. Glutathione plays a huge role in the protection from toxins and also helps eliminate them quicker and better, especially mercury.

He also recommends taking oral liposomal glutathione or topical glutathione but says only do IV glutathione after a blood test for mercury so that it doesn't force it to circulate to the brain.  

Note, there is no need to concurrently take NAC and glutathione.

Men’s Health and Toxins

Most common health and beauty aids are high in phthalates, which poison testosterone receptor sites, decreasing testosterone in the body.

The average man who uses six products daily will have 300 times the phthalate levels in his body than he should. These phthalates will also block insulin receptor sites in addition to testosterone sites, which can lead to Diabetes and weight gain.

Up until 35-40, there doesn’t seem to be a strong correlation between toxins and disease. It’s 40-45 where accumulated toxins can really be connected to disease, as well as accumulated DNA damage. By this age, our bodies can no longer get rid of them or adapt to the toxin load, so the only option is to detoxify from them or get sick.

This is why I love Dr. Joe’s final message:

“There is a huge burden of unnecessary disease happening right now today. It’s normal to get sick because that’s what everybody’s doing, but it’s not necessary.”

Please keep yourself informed and healthy. Read and apply what you learn in The Toxin Solution.

Did you learn something new from this show? We’d love to hear your thoughts and inspirations in the comments below.