In the last article Dr. Fitzpatrick mentioned some of the grim toxicities we, as a society have created, and how they are interfering with our health. Here she talks about the resiliency of our bodies and some guidelines for us as environmentalists.

Your gut also houses a certain amount of beneficial fungus which is in direct symbiosis with the healthy bacteria of your gut. The bacteria and fungi literally feed each other.  (That’s why if you take an antibiotic you are likely to get a yeast overgrowth in your system)

Your body wisely creates fungus to bind heavy metals that come through your system, particularly mercury and lead. If you have recurrent fugal infections, it could be an indication of heavy metal toxicity. In healthy balance, the fungi do not cause overgrowth because they are balanced by the millions of healthy gut bacteria that feed on them.

Your skin is populated by necessary, healthy bacteria that provide a barrier to harmful absorption of toxins through skin.

Antibiotic overuse poses a huge threat to our health. There are 21 million pounds of antibiotics in  animals in the US and nine million pounds of antibiotics in people. In response to repeated exposures of antibiotic laden environments, bacteria will change form and mutate. Bacteria and fungi can change and specialize 100 times faster than human cells.

The over use of antibiotics, the “war on germs ‘ is harmful for two reasons. The first is that antibiotics destroy the gut bacteria that are essential for good health. The second reason is that since all of us are exposed to antibiotics in dairy products, milk, and all meats, we are creating “super strains” of bacteria in our world that will disrupt all ecosystems at the core.

Next issue we move on to understanding our hormonal system

Biological Medicine

 for the Young at Heart (Part 2)

Since WWII we have released more than 80,000 chemicals into our environment. Very few of these have been tested for safety to humans. No woman on this planet has breast milk that is not full of chemicals. Pesticides were created from surplus supplies of chemical warfare developed during WWII. Not wanting to waste these toxic chemicals, scientists diluted these chemical warfare leftovers to create pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.  As it stands now, a chemical can be put into in our food, water, air or into cosmetics and skin care products until it is proven harmful.

Regardless of whether you yourself take pharmaceuticals (meaning medicines made by drug companies) there are detectable residues of more than 90 such drugs in all fresh water in this country.  Each of us is exposed, on a daily basis to antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, antidepressants etc. which are excreted by the people who use them. This is a profound reminder of how we are all connected.

The FDA allows cows milk to contain 4% blood from the cow herself, since in commercial dairies cows are milked so much that their udders bleed.  Yes, the FDA has a “ safe” limit  of the cow’s blood in the milk you may drink.

Contrary to popular belief, fluoride in toothpaste and in our water supply is extremely toxic. Again, after WWII there was an excess of fluoride containing effluence from chemical plants which was dumped into our water supply under the pretense of protecting tooth enamel. Fluorosis poses a risk to health and, in fact, fluoride is labeled on toothpaste tubes as a drug that should be avoided by children less than six years old.

Avoid exposure to heavy metals. These include cadmium, lead, aluminum, antimony, arsenic and mercury, to name a few. Sources of exposure include jewelry, aluminum cans and foil, paints, gasoline and other petroleum products, and DENTAL WORK!  Silver looking fillings in your teeth contain 45% mercury, and contrary to the statements by the ADA, mercury in fillings is extremely toxic, particularly to your immune system. Some dentists no longer place amalgam fillings. However, if your mother had silver fillings when she was pregnant with you, you probably have mercury toxicity. Studies of cord blood of newborn infants reports triple the amount of mercury as is found in the mother. Mercury is found in childhood vaccines and in many anti-infective agents as well in many eye drops. The trade name for mercury is Thimerosal. Avoid it! The list of dangers to life on earth is long, complicated and increasingly familiar.

There is an ancient Chinese idea which teaches how precious it is to live on earth in a human form.

Imagine a vast ocean, with clear endless water. There is one piece of wood, and only one piece, floating on the surface: it is a flat piece of drift wood with a single small hole through it.  In this vast ocean there lives a single blind turtle. This beautiful old creature surfaces only once every 100 years, and remember, she is blind. And so the teaching asks “ How likely is it that the blind turtle will surface so that her head sticks through the hole in the lone piece of driftwood as she surfaces once in 100 years? That is how likely it is to be incarnated as a human being.”

 In our modern culture, we do not grow up recognizing how precious our bodies are. We do not have a clear understanding of how to care for our systems, nor do we understand the internal workings of our beings.  Our bodies are  fine-tuned systems  as intricate and as interdependent as external ecosystems such as a lake, a rainforest or a swamp. Unless we learn to care for ourselves the way we care for the external environment, we cannot consider ourselves environmentalists.

It is a call to action to each of us as members of Bioneers to change the paradigm of standard allopathic medicine in keeping with the call for change in public policy, economic policy, social justice, farming etc.

 We cannot have healthy people without a healthy mother earth and likewise we cannot have a healthy earth without healthy people.

         Environmental insults run rampant, and everything that we do to the earth affects human health in one way or another.