What is Diabesity?

Environmental Toxins, Obesity, and Diabetes

Continued from Yesterday

TREATMENT OF TOXIN BURDEN

A few simple clinical strategies can help reduce the body burden of toxins. Dietary phytonutrients, antioxidants, and nutritional supplements that induce phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification combined with exercise and hyperthermic therapy are safe and effective strategies for reducing the body burden of toxins. Medical therapy with heavy metal chelators may also be necessary to lower the body burden of mercury, lead, arsenic, and other toxic metals.

DIETARY SUPPORT FOR DETOXIFICATION

Plants have evolved many protective defenses against pests and infection in the form of phytonutrients. These defenses are better developed in organic foods because of selective adaptive pressures necessary to resist pests, infections, and variable climate conditions. Organic food provides higher concentrations of protective detoxifying, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients. Specific foods contain higher concentrations of unique phytonutrients such as glucosinolates or catcheins, which support detoxification. The most effective foods to support detoxification include cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, collards, kale, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, bok choy, arugula, radish, wasabi,
watercress, kohlrabi, mustard greens, rutabaga, and turnips), curcuminoids (turmeric and curry), green tea (increases glutathione-S-transferases), and sulfur-containing proteins and foods (eggs, garlic, and onions).

SUPPLEMENTS TO ENHANCE DETOXIFICATION

Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and phytonutrients from the foods noted above are needed as cofactors for phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification and to protect against the inflammatory, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial injury induced by toxins. The most critical endogenous molecule for detoxification is glutathione. Optimal methylation is required to generate glutathione through the methylation/transsulfuration cycle, making B6, folic acid, and B12 essential. Zinc and selenium also facilitate detoxification as cofactors in the enzymes metallothionein and glutathione peroxidase. N-acetyl-cysteine increases glutathione and historically has been used to treat depleted glutathione and liver failure from acetaminophen overdose.25 Milk thistle has long been used in liver disease and increases glutathione. Buffered ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is also critical in detoxifi cation and has been associated with a reduction in lead levels.26

HYPERTHERMIC THERAPY (SAUNAS)

Sauna and heat therapies are an ancient method of cleansing. The Native American sweat lodge was a tool for physical and spiritual purification. The Environmental Protection Agency has shown that sauna therapy increases excretion of heavy metals (lead; mercury; cadmium; and fat-soluble chemicals such as PCBs, PBBs, and HCBs).27

CONCLUSION

Global awareness of climate change’s impact on the environment must be linked to awareness of the impact of environmental toxins on human health and the global epidemic of obesity (>1 billion) and diabetes (280 million). The burden of social, economic, and personal suffering may be mitigated through coordinated global policy changes that reduce exposure to environmental toxins combined with funding for further investigation into effective diagnosis of and treatment for elevated body burdens of persistent organic pollutants and heavy metal toxins in individual patients. These toxins are not only obesogens but also carcinogens and autogens, which trigger autoimmune and infl ammatory disorders and cardiovascular mortality. They are also neurotoxic and have been linked to increasing rates of depression, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorder, and dementia. Environmental medicine can no longer be the neglected step-child of modern medicine; it must come to the forefront of clinical care for us to effectively treat the global burden of chronic disease.

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