I consider my illness and that of many with protracted psychiatric drug withdrawal syndromes to be, in large part, one of environmental toxicity…drugs and all the crap in the air and processed foods we eat…etc…leading to chronic illness, yes. Pharmaceuticals put me seriously over the edge…but this can happen to people who’ve not taken massive doses of prescribed neurotoxins too. I have come to know a lot about those with chronic illness through my networking online. Pharmaceuticals often make people’s issues much more complicated.
This is why I write so much about food and the environment. This is how we are deeply holistic and part of the ecosystem and all that which is around us. Like I like to say, everything matters.
There was an important article in Scientific American interviewing Linda Birnbaum
Birnbaum has pursued a broad vision of environmental health that incorporates gene–environment interactions along with the impacts of disease, diet, stress and other factors.
How much of human disease is due to environmental exposures?The estimates vary, and it depends on how you define environment. People often say it’s about 30 percent. I think that’s defining environment fairly narrowly, considering only environmental chemical exposures, but your environment includes the food you eat, the drugs you take, the psychosocial stress you’re exposed to and so forth. After all, what’s the difference between a drug and an environmental chemical? One you intentionally take and the other one you don’t. Considering all that, I would say then the environment is much more than 30 percent.
We also know—especially from studies of identical versus fraternal twins—that for many different diseases, genetics is not the whole story. Actually, I think it’s time to stop asking, “Is this caused by genes or is this caused by the environment?” because in almost all cases, it’s going to be both. (continue reading)
One part of my healing strategy involves minimizing toxins from as many sources as possible. That means avoiding pharmaceuticals whenever possible, eating organic non genetically modified foods, filtering my tap water, avoiding plastics in the kitchen, eliminating body products that are loaded with toxins that absorb into the skin, using natural non-toxic household products…the list goes on…
Related:
Eating wholesome whole read food is important for body/mind/spirit health and well-being. I’ve written a lot about my adventure with diet and healing here: Nutrition and gut health, Mental health and diet
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