What Causes Toxicity? (Part 2)
The fifth cause of toxicity are pathogens in the body, causing waste byproducts to build up, eventually leading to cellular damage or even death. Pathogens excrete waste products, which must be filtered out to prevent further toxic buildup. Some pathogens include bacteria, viruses, parasites and candida (fungi), all of which can (and probably do) live inside you right now.
The sixth cause of toxicity is probably one of the greatest causes of ill health today: Mental stress and/or spiritual stress. This includes all types of mental stressors affecting your life, such as personality, problems with family, friends, job, health, finances, and memories. Spiritual stressors include fear, loneliness, feeling unloved, a lack of joy and peace, and a lack of a personal relationship with the Living God. All stressors cause excessive production of adrenaline, an extremely oxidative molecule which causes cell damage if secreted long-term, instead of the intended quick burst of energy in time of dire need. Adrenaline is the “fight-fright-flight” hormone that prepares our body to run or move quickly, as if a tiger were chasing us. The problem arises when we are stressed all the time, which causes adrenaline to fill the blood and start damaging cells, tissues, glands, and organs.
So toxins can be of two general groups: exogenous (“from outside the body”) and endogenous (“from inside the body”.) Exogenous toxins include air, water, food and most of what we described above. Endogenous toxins include regular byproducts from cellular metabolism: normal waste products from normal functioning cells, and waste products from pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi.
All toxins, whether from inside or outside the body, must be detoxified in the liver, filtered through the kidneys and excreted through bile in the intestinal tract or through the urine. So our first goal is to get the good in, through vital nutrients from predominately uncooked raw, living foods, pure water. Our second goal is to get the bad out, through regularly detoxifying the colon, liver, gall bladder, kidney, bladder and blood. This is our key to vibrant physical health.
The big question is “What can I do about toxicity?” You will find the answer in the chapters to come. But here it is in a nutshell:
1) Get the good in, and get the bad out.
2) Drink and cook in purified water (distilled or reverse osmosis).
3) Avoid all fumes. Breathe the cleanest, purest air possible.
4) Eat whole foods with no additives, preservatives, or chemicals. Eat organic fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, nuts, beans, and sprouts. Eat as much raw, living and uncooked food as possible. Read labels: If it’s unpronounceable or looks like a chemistry set, do not eat it.
The reason I stress toxicity so heavily is because we live in a toxic world quite unlike we did 100 years ago:
• Cancer has risen over the last century from the No. 25 cause of death to soon to be the No. 1 cause of death.
• There has been a 46% rise in the cancer death rate since 1950.
• Cancer is the No. 2 cause of death in children, second only to accidental injury.
• The EPA has set standards on only about seven of the currently used 70,000 toxic chemicals
• Every year over 100 billion gallons of liquid wastes are absorbed into our ground water
• The average American eats their weight in food additives every year.
What is going on with all this? We are killing our environment with chemicals, so we are also killing ourselves. Toxicity is deadly because it attacks all systems of the body, making them all vulnerable to disease. Your immune system fights cancer with its natural killer cells, cells that seek and destroy cancer cells. Toxins suppress the immune system, giving cancer cells a foothold so they can multiply and form a tumor. Chemotherapy and radiation are not the answer; they treat the effect, not the cause. Prominent cancer nutritionist Dr. Patrick Quillen stated if you miss enough cancer cells (through chemotherapy and radiation) to fill a pin head, they can spread like seeds and start growths throughout the body.
The answer is to treat the cause of the cancer, which also is the cause of most diseases. Get the good in and get the bad out regularly, and then let your body — the temple of God’s Spirit — heal itself. Getting the good in means not only the good vital nutrients from whole food but also the good thoughts through prayer, meditation and positive mental attitude. Getting the bad out means not only the physical toxins from one’s body but also the mental and emotional toxins which include fear, stress, frustration, anxiety, resentment, guilt and low self esteem. The Living God said cast your cares upon Him. He desires to take them from you because they are too heavy for you to carry. Through prayer and meditation, living in faith and trusting in God, one can be released from these toxic emotions and thoughts. Detoxification must be as much mental/emotional as physical to achieve total health=wholeness.