If I had a dollar for every lupus (or substitute any other chronic disease) patient that tells me, “I’m not going to take medication. I hate pills. I am going to go organic (or green or natural),” I would be a rich woman today. I have to admit here, that was my first reaction, too! I did take my medication. 14 days in the hospital will scare you into doing that. But I dug out my copy of Nutritional Healing, certain that I would find the answer. The answer wasn’t there.

Avoiding chemicals in our food makes good sense. Our bodies, healthy or not, don’t need the added burden of having to deal with toxins. Most of us know that the plants we eat contain pesticides. Some of us realize that meat, chicken, eggs and dairy also contain growth hormones and antibiotics. Even fish are farmed these days. They too are given antibiotics. The ones that are caught in the wild will also carry pollution chemicals and things like mercury. An organic vegetarian diet eliminates a lot of the body burden of these chemicals. Those same patients who say they are “going natural” call six months later wondering why they aren’t cured. Could there be more to the story?

The same patient, who does not want to take drugs, does not realize that there are drugs in our water. Viagra, xanax, Prozac, hormones, antibiotics…you name it, it’s in the water. Discarded medications can end up in our water, but they are also excreted by people who take the drugs. You should know that while tap water in America is checked regularly for safety, bottled water does not have to meet the same standards. Yes, your bottled water could actually be worse. Check out www.ewg.org for more information. I have actually had several people tell me that drinking juice, soda, beer, or wine would protect them from the water!

Eating and drinking are not the only ways that chemicals get into our systems. We breathe in chemicals from household cleaners, synthetics (plastic, carpeting, fire retardant on clothes, paint, furniture, etc.), hygiene products, air fresheners, industrial pollution, and more. We absorb chemicals through our skin. Think about it…we have hormone patches, nicotine patches, and pain patches that deliver a slow and steady stream of medication through the skin. When we bathe, we are absorbing chlorine and other chemicals from the water. Body washes, hair products, lotions, cosmetics and other hygiene products contain endocrine disruptors.

Your endocrine system is made up of the glands in your body that produce hormones. These include the pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, reproductive glands, adrenal glands, hypothalamus, and pancreas. The glands make hormones. Hormones regulate body function and development. Other organs in your body have receptor sites for specific hormones. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that are close enough to hormones to attach to those receptor sites and prevent the real hormones from doing their job. In 2010, the federal government launched the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program. They are taking this seriously.

Is it any wonder that 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime? Is it any wonder that 23. 5 million Americans have autoimmune disease? Is it any wonder that 133 million Americans have chronic conditions?

Last week, I wrote that we are the canary in the coal mine. Our chronic diseases are a warning to the rest of the population that something is wrong, that something needs to change. While we can’t avoid all of these problems we CAN reduce the body burden of them by becoming informed and making different choices. I will write more about those choices in the coming weeks.

Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program http://www.epa.gov/endo/
Environmental Working Group on our water http://www.ewg.org/ourwater
Cosmetics Safety Data Base http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/