Immunity in a Toxic World

[claire_58]

 

A question on JMG’ covid open post about how to address bird flu using herbs and alternative health practices started me on a series of posts about the basic practices for building and maintaining a strong immune system. Having finished my musings on food, I was going to moving on to water this week but a few comments on the Covid open post https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/287066.html?thread=49752922#cmt49752922 has made me decide to shift gears a bit and talk about the immune system. 

 

To be clear this is for those of us who glaze over when the conversation shifts to IgG4 and ACE receptors. It’s a simplified overview of how it works and what it needs to do. If you have better information or can offer a clearer explanation of anything I mention I’m happy to refine my understanding. Please share it in the comments.

 

A couple of points before I begin. First, I don’t like mechanist and militarist metaphors for the living world but I do use them. They work because they take systems that are mind bogglingly complex and reduce them to simple ideas that are easy to express. They are metaphors not realistic descriptions. 

 

Second, it is impossible to actually separate the “immune system” from the “digestive system” or the “circulatory system” of any of the other systems that contribute to the functionality of a living body. This separation is entirely artificial. It’s another way to simplify talking about a complex, interrelated, and indivisible whole. 

 

Many other organs and systems are involved in maintaining good immune function. All the body surfaces inside and out have ways of defending us against pathogens, allergens, and parasites. The digestive system keeps pathogens and incompletely digested food particles that trigger the allergy response out. The lungs and sinuses physically trap pathogens in mucus and coughs and sneezes get them out. The  muscles, bones, and thymus are involved in producing immune cells. The liver, the blood  . . . it goes on and on.

 

Fighting off pathogens, that is, mounting a defence against infection, is only the immune system's most obvious function. It also responds to external damage like cuts and scrapes or burns. It controls the inflammation response in sprains and strains and other soft tissue injuries. It mops up and disposes of cells, including immune cells, that have been damaged by toxins or pathogens. 

 

Immune cells constantly circulate through the blood to every part of the body looking for viruses, parasites, and body cells gone wrong. They signal other specialized immune cells to come and deal with the problems and they signal when the problem is solved and the special forces can be dispersed. Immune cells remember invaders and can match newer versions of common pathogens to the older profiles for a quicker response.

 

The high toxic loads we carry means there are little fires everywhere. The toxins themselves need be neutralized and eliminated. The damaged cells need to be destroyed and the toxins released in this process must be mopped up, neutralized, and eliminated. Then the neighbouring cells must be evaluated for damage and processed if necessary.

 

The sheer volume of xenotoxins we have to deal with on a daily basis creates havoc in our bodies (literally; many are hormone disruptors) and reduces the effectiveness of our immune response. The signals become confused because there is so much going on; inflammation doesn’t resolve and becomes chronic; things that should get attention are missed and pre-cancerous cells are able to proliferate; or the immune system becomes hyper-reactive and starts attacking healthy cells. In this chaotic situation the resources available to fight off infective agents are reduced; the immune response is sluggish and poorly coordinated.

 

Clean water and foods are important firstly, because we want to minimize the toxins coming into the system. Secondly, good food provides the valuable micronutrient resources needed for all these operations and water plays a central role in the process of detoxification. 

 

The liver is the central processing unit for all substances coming into the body and a variety of micronutrients are needed to keep the system going. Anything that comes through the intestinal tract is conveyed to the liver via the bloodstream. The liver produces glutathione from specific micronutrients. The sulphur rich amino-acids cysteine and methionine and the mineral selenium are essential here. Glutathione is our main internal antioxidant (we produce it rather than getting it from food.) It protects our cells from being damaged by a variety of toxic substances. The liver also makes “decisions” about what to do with toxins that need to be processed.

 

The process of detoxification has two phases. In Phase 1 water and specific micronutrients are used to break down the toxins. In Phase 2  they are bound to other specific nutrients in order to neutralize them. This is why water fasting is dicey in the modern world. Water supports Phase 1, the break down of toxins, but some of the chemicals produced are even more reactive and dangerous than the original toxin. Without the glutathione to protect the surrounding body cells and the additional nutrients needed to neutralize these toxic by products (Phase 2) and extra support for elimination you can make yourself quite sick. 

 

The other issue is that many of the most dangerous and difficult toxins are fat based not water based. Some xenotoxins  are impossible to deal with effectively especially if elimination is sluggish. They get packed into lipids and stored in body fat. Persistent belly fat that just will not respond to diet and exercise programmes likely contains toxins that are easier to store than process. Body fat that is storing toxins is the absolute last resort for energy demands.

 

There are four ways to get the toxins out: the bowels, the urinary tract; the skin; and the lungs. The role of water in the urinary system is obvious. The kidneys specialize in filtering water, water soluble toxins, and excess minerals out of the blood and accumulating them in the bladder for elimination. Kidney stones form when there isn’t enough water to keep the minerals in solution. They can result from excess mineral consumption, chronic dehydration, or poor kidney function. Nettle and parsley, mentioned in my posts on superfoods are good sources of minerals and kidney tonics. Both are very safe herbs for daily use and prevention.

 

The bowels are the main elimination channel for fat-soluble toxins. The lower bowel reabsorbs the water from food wastes. Any water soluble toxins that haven’t been fully processed are send back into the blood stream for a second pass through the system. Insufficient hydration or lack of dietary fibre can slow bowel transit time, increasing the possible reabsorption of fat soluble toxins as well as giving parasites a chance to take hold.

 

Parasites are a drain on the system and they contribute the toxic by-products of their own metabolism into the system. Hot peppers, native to S. America have become ubiquitous in cookery throughout the tropics in the last few hundred years because they provide an adaptive advantage in reducing parasites. The capsaicin in hot peppers is anti-parasitic and eating them increases bowel transit time decreasing the chances that parasites will be able to settle in. If you live in the world, even if you aren’t anywhere in the tropics or sub tropics, you likely have parasites.

 

The lungs and skin are a secondary pathways for eliminating toxins. (More about lungs in the post on Fresh Air.) The skin is capable of both absorbing and excreting toxins and sweat is unique in conveying both water based and fat based substances out of the body. Chronic acne that persists beyond the hormone rollercoaster of puberty, or affects the back and arms as well as the face, persistent body odour, and bad breath are all signs of toxic of overload and/or sluggish elimination.

 

One more comment on skin and sweat. If you wear synthetic exercise clothes, it’s a good practice to strip them off as quickly as you can once you’ve finished your workout. Like pesticides and herbicides, the plastics in clothing  are hormone disruptors. You body heat speeds up the outgassing of these xenotoxins from the clothes and the open pores on your skin will readily absorb them as you cool down. 

 

So that’s it. We live in toxic soup. Doing the best you can to avoid additional toxins and supporting your body’s natural detoxification processes is one of the ways maintain a high functioning immunity, increase your resistance to infective agents, and free up resources for your immune defences. 

 

Next time, water.

 

 

 

Comments

[temporaryreality]

I've found A Midwestern Doctor's substack to provide helpful information to help me parse the world of autoimmunity, which I have recently found that I inhabit. Particularly the posts on the Cell Danger Response have been educational for my understanding what may be behind the body's targeting of its own cells.

Not sure if that's helpful here, but just in case...

[claire_58]

Thanks, I'll check it out.