Exposure to environmental toxins can majorly impact health and longevity. Despite the growing body of scientific literature surrounding toxicity, health care practitioners are generally inadequately trained to deal with this growing threat. It is unlikely that your physician utilizes the latest scientific findings on environmental toxins. How then can he or she advise you about sources of toxic exposures and ways to enhance your body’s detoxification systems?
Staying vibrant, strong, and healthy in today’s polluted environment requires we pay attention to detoxification as well as other diet and lifestyle factors.
The management and treatment of environmental toxicity in humans is a growing component of healthcare. One of the United States’ leading associations of physicians and other health care professionals dedicated to treating patients with toxicity is the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM). This large not-for-profit group, dedicated to educating practitioners on the latest findings and emerging procedures in complementary, alternative and integrative medicine, sponsored an Education Summit on detoxification in early May, 2009.
A number of integrative medical doctors and naturopathic physicians from the northwest attended the course. These practitioners shared the goals of becoming better educated on the effects of chemical exposure on human health and of learning new strategies in evaluating and treating patients with environmental exposures.
A growing number of physicians today are learning to identify, diagnose, and treat medical conditions that may be affected by environmental exposures. The field of Environmental Medicine is especially focused on the following:
- Identifying sources of environmental lead and other heavy metal exposure.
- Explaining how body functions are altered by “endocrine disruptors”. These are toxins that act like hormones in the endocrine system and disrupt the physiologic function of your body’s natural hormones.
- Reviewing evidence for and identifying sources of electromagnetic frequency exposure.
- Determining the most common signs and symptoms of “environmentally ill” patients.
- Summarizing the effects of genetically modified foods on human health.
- Explaining how diet relates to inflammation and the role of inflammation in chronic diseases.
- Identifying sources of environmental toxins found in common household and environmental products and their effect on human health.
- Acknowledging the rising incidence of childhood asthma, allergies, and ADHD and the root causes of these conditions as they relate to specific environmental exposures.
My advice is to find a physician who addresses environmental medicine, who takes an integrative, complementary, or alternative approach to patient care, and who can empower you with information about integrative medicine treatment options.
For more info: Contact Dr. Kathleen Jade, Seattle-based naturopathic physician, via her website www.drkathleenjade.com.
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