Last week one of your clients sent us an article concerning indoor air pollution and its effects on those who suffer from chemical sensitivity and encephalopathy from the environment. As I read the article and understood the implications of indoor air quality on those who are affected, it also occurred to me the quality of indoor air is not the only problem making Americans sick.
I have often asked myself the question, “If there’s a permanent cloud of smog pollution covering Los Angeles, why do people live there?” Americans have known for better than a decade the air we breathe contains a mixture of petroleum exhaust, chemicals, pollutants and a myriad of other toxins which enter the blood stream and affect the liver and immune system. Natural health enthusiasts eternally encourage “detoxing” because it a well-known fact humans are affected by the quality of air we breathe often to our own demise.
Despite a wealth of information regarding the quality of the air, ozone levels, and chemical sensitivities (which are increasing due to intolerance level saturation) Americans do not as a whole appear to be all that concerned with air quality.
At one time Unum Life Insurance of America made a commitment to its employees to provide “clean air” and spent a few hundred thousand installing an air filtration system in its buildings. Unfortunately, the good ol’boys from Chattanooga brought in different perspectives and claimed the air filtration system too expensive to maintain. UnumProvident employees began to get sick at increasing rates.
It does not surprise me to learn that there are those who are so severely affected by our polluted air (inside and outside) that permanent disability is the only option. Still, “bad air” is not the only problem affecting the American immune system and making people sick.
Although I love to watch Guy Fietti’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, I wouldn’t seriously eat the food which contains disproportionate amounts of salt, sugar, fat and pork. Those ”baby back” ribs might seem tempting, but in the end Americans often are not aware of how detrimental these foods are, or if they are aware, really aren’t concerned.
Granted, Americans have become more “label conscious” in recent years, but the average shopper who reads food labels, shrugs and buys the package anyway. One of the most dangerous chemicals in our cosmetics is propylene glycol, an organic form of mineral oil (petroleum product) found in automatic brake and hydraulic brake fluid and industrial antifreeze. This substance along with ethylene glycol (used in acrylic paints) is a strong skin irritant and can cause liver abnormalities and kidney damage. Try an experiment and check out items in your bathroom such as soap, shampoo, conditioner etc. and locate propylene glycol in the label. What you find might surprise you.
What is most disturbing about our food it that much of what we eat has been genetically modified with “genetically modified organisms” (GMOs). GMO modification is a process in which changes are made to the DNA of the vegetable or food to make it more resistant to pests, herbicides (Roundup), and other problems.
The culprit seems to be Monsanto who continues to produce GMOs. American food has been genetically altered since 1996, and although the EEC requires labeling of GMOs, in the US GMO labeling is optional. Foods containing the most GMOs are soybeans, corn, canola products, rice, cotton seed oil, papaya, and farm raised salmon. What most people do not realize is that Aspartame is genetically modified with E. coli bacteria and probably shouldn’t be consumed by humans. How about that diet soda?
Would you prefer to eat a tomato which contain a gene from a fish, or a potato with DNA from an insect? Although Monsanto alleges genetically modified foods are safe, it is also known DMOs can cause gastrointestinal an immune system disorders, accelerate aging and infertility. Truth is, in this country we don’t really know what we’re eating, and it’s making us sick to the point of disability.
Finally, there is the issue of drinking water. To remain healthy, humans require 6-8 oz. of pure drinking water every day. Unsafe water is often the cause of many diseases including malaria, typhoid, diarrhea, hepatitis A and intestinal worms. Remember as kids when it was ok to drink water from a tap? Although authorities continually claim tap water is ok, many Americans purchase filtration systems and buy bottled water.
60% of the world’s 227 biggest rivers have interrupted stream flows due to dams and other infrastructure further reducing water quality. I am reminded of a small Maine water district who suddenly announced to the community it “forgot” to add chemicals to the reservoir for a year. Yikes! Do we really know what we’re drinking these days? Can Americans be guaranteed pure sources of water in the future? Perhaps not.
It is obviously the combination of polluted air, genetically altered food, and impure water which is causing Americans to be sick. This in combination with years of over-taking antibiotics,causes me to wonder how our immune systems are able to protect us from the environment at all. Have you ever run into a friend who tells you, “Gee, I’m not feeling well today. There’s nothing wrong in particular, I just don’t feel well.”
It is NOT only indoor pollution which exacerbates chemical sensitivities, but a long list of chemical food additives, sulfates, animal antibiotics, water pollution, and other unhealthy environmental factors weakening our immune systems to the point of permanent disability. Many diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, and Diabetes can be the result of impaired immune systems caused by the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink.
In recent years, due in part to the unavailability of necessary health care, Americans have had to take more responsibility for their own health and well-being. There is a great deal of information available on the Internet about GMOs and other health risks.
It certainly is worth your time to do the research and be well.
This is a very interesting subject to me, because it’s been on my mind a lot lately. Not just the air quaility, but those children that come down with “precpubescent puburty” supposedly requiring Lupron shots, the medication that made me sick, wondering if it’s actually caused by the stuff we put in our meats sold at the grocery store and wondering if there is a connection. After all these years, no long term testing has been done on the adults or the children of these adults that are still getting sicker by the day to see what the cause of it is, that was until the government got involved when the Drs were taking money from the samples and charging medicaid and other insurance companpies were cheated over the charges.
I also wonder about different medications, other than lupron, my Dr said something odd to me a couple of weeks ago, he said he never saw anyone get as many side effects and problems from diferent medications, which if he thought 2 seconds about it, he would remember that the lurpon made me sick and the horrible side effects I had from it and still do 12 years later. Going from someone that rarely took a tylonal unless absolutely necessary, to being in so much pain I barely get more than 3 hours of sleep at a time.
There are so many things in this world that I don’t understand, and so many things in the air, meat, mediations and other things, it’s a wonder many more of us aren’t sick, I get ill from spraying bug spay in my room and going back into it an hour later.
One more thint, off topic, I wrote to the De Ins. Comm. again, explaining that I’ve followed all the avenues I was told to, and to make a long stoy short, nothing happened, that the only time that something seems to be done, from UNUM to the Lupron shots I got sick on, nothing gets one unless the government is involved and owed money . It’s not right that people are sleeping in their cars, suffering and dying before they see a penny of the money that they put their hard earned incomes to cover themselves in case someting should happen.
Not sure if anything else will come of it, but got another email today stating that she was going to look into it further.
Will keep everyone up to date on what I hear, if anything, not getting my hopes up, but trying not to be too depressed either.
Keep your heads up everyone, something has to happen someday.
Lynnie
Linda-such a great blog post. I have often wondered why all of a sudden at age 51 my immune system became compromised and I developed Rheumatoid Arthritis. Many people don’t know that RA is caused by an over active immune system that causes joints to deteriorate and cause extreme pain every single day. I am definitely going to do more research as you have suggested. Thank you very much for the information. K
I lived in Los Angeles for several years (west L.A. where it is less smoggy due to ocean breezes) and ate processed foods all the time, because I didn’t know how to cook.
Now I live on a hobby farm in the middle of nowhere, with perfectly clean air, for many years now. I grow most of my own vegetables and fruits, without pesticides, eat venison that my husband or I shot and processed ourselves, and we eat very little processed foods. I eliminated most soda from my diet, and use glass containers for food storage. Yet I don’t feel any healthier than before.
Air pollution and chemicals in the food are concerns, no doubt, but sometimes I think when folks cannot figure out why they are ill, they turn to chemicals in the food, or GMO explanations, before they have exhausted other possibilities.
Clearly polluted air, food and water are not exclusive reasons why people are sick. I agree with you personal lifestyle choices are also important factors in maintaining a state of health. In general, Americans are unhealthy to some degree regardless of where they are. However, you have the best environment in which to live healthy.
Another interesting fact I forgot to mention in my last post-We changed to organic milk about 8 years ago when a doctor friend of mine explained that the hormones given to cows caused children to develop much earlier than normal. We also do not eat any farm raised salmon as it is totally disgusting how the salmon are raised. I feel much better that I have at least done a few things for my families health and plan on researching and doing much more. I don’t want my children to develop any of the diseases which I have had over the past 10 years. No one wants to be sick and have to be on STD or LTD. We would all much rather be healthy and working to the best of our ability each day.
I ask everyone I know if they ‘understand’ that up to 80% of the food at the grocery store has SOMETHING in it that has been genetically modified. To my surprise, I end up teaching 99% of the people exactly what GM food is and they just didn’t realize that this was happening to our food supply. I worry about he who controls the food, controls the world. Very unsettling to think about.
Thank YOU for bringing up this topic!
Many Thanks for your sharing of valuable knowledge that helps people who are struggling with the new concept of living with a disability.
I sincerely hope everyone also realizes the Food and Drug Administration works for the protection of the corporations who manufacture the food not for the protection of the people. This goes for pharmaceuticals as well.