First, Detox The Big Three - Air, Water and Food

The logical place to begin to support your immune system is to remove the toxins that may be causing undue stress and damage to your cells. Otherwise known as aging.

The air we breathe, water we drink, and food we consume are the top entry points for allergens and toxins.

But don't despair! It's never too late to clean up your personal environment, and your immune cells will love you for it.

Air

What could be more important than clean air? It’s the very essence of life.

But it’s a source of toxicity - both indoors and out.

Our communities - especially urban or industrial areas - have big problems with air pollution from vehicles, businesses and homes. Rural areas, too, suffer poor air  from pesticide spraying, dust and pollen.

According to a US Environmental Protection Agency report, indoor air is 2-5 times more toxic than outdoor air!

And people on average spend about 90% of their time indoors.

Here’s a list of some of the substances that may be polluting your indoor air:

• Radon and tobacco smoke

• Gases from cooking and heating (carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, etc) from poorly ventilated heaters or stoves

• Candles

• Household products (cleaners, paint, air fresheners)

• Mold and mildew

• Toxins from carpeting, furnishings and building materials, such as asbestos and flame retardants

• Pesticides to control insects and fleas on pets

• Perfumed personal care products

Symptoms you may have if irritated by chemicals in your home or workplace:

• Burning eyes

• Sore throat

• Breathing problems

• Cough and congestion

• Palpitations

• Confusion

• Diarrhea or bloating

• Dizziness

• Headaches

• Fatigue

• Itchy skin and rashes

• Memory problems or brain fog

• Mood changes

• Muscle aches

• Sensitivity to light and noise

• Sleep disturbance

If you’re suffering from these symptoms, your immune system is on high alert. Your indoor air should be tested professionally and you should start to rid your home and/or office environment of potential toxic products immediately.

Recommendations

ELIMINATE

Avoid smoking or allowing smoking in or near your home.

Toss out scented home and body care products, air fresheners, and candles.

Buy unscented or naturally scented items.

Clean your air conditioners and dehumidifiers regularly.

Check that your oven, heaters, fireplace and furnace are properly vented.

If humidity and mold are a problem in your home, have an expert advise on natural ways to remove it.

If in the US, check with local officials about risks of radon in your geographic area, then have home/office tested every 5 years.

VENTILATE

Homes and offices need to breathe.

Open windows and doors regularly to let fresh air in and stale, humid, contaminated air out.

PURIFY

Use natural cleaning products or make your own with baking soda, vinegar and essential oils.

Use beeswax candles.

A good air purifier is a great investment for your home or office.

GET OUT MORE

Make a point of getting outdoors for a healthy amount of sunshine and fresh air on a daily basis.

MAKE AN INDOOR GARDEN

Bring nature indoors! House plants are a great natural and effective way to remove pollutants from the home.

Water

We’re encouraged to drink 1 to 2 litres of water daily for health and optimum bodily functioning. Every single one of our cells requires water to operate, which is why it’s so important.

Many people are "under-hydrated" meaning they don't drink enough water. Chronic mild dehydration causes such symptoms as headaches, dizziness, fatigue, dry skin and bad breath.

But what if our water supply is contaminated?

Toxins like microbes, pesticides, plastics, prescription medication residue, metals, chlorine, fluoride and others can poison our water supply.

Bottom line: we cannot trust our tap water to be safe to drink.

Many of us turn to bottled water - most often in plastic containers - that adds to the pollution burden of our planet - and may not actually be as pure as we think. Do we even know where bottled water comes from? It’s not regulated either, and there have been reports that some companies simply bottle tap water.

Water in plastic bottles may contain harmful chemicals like phthalates and bisphenols that can disrupt our hormone balance and gut microbiome - ultimately having a negative effect on our immune response.

Expensive, unhealthy, and environmentally unfriendly. Yech.

What to do? FILTER!

Recommendations

There are a dizzying number of home filter systems available, but I’ll cut to the chase.

Reverse osmosis systems are preferred for filtering tap water.

Until recently, these systems were only available as expensive ‘under sink’ systems that needed to be installed by a professional. But now, there is a countertop reverse osmosis filter system available.

This system, called AquaTru, will filter the chemicals out of your water, and even offers mineral drops you can add to make your tap water into a clean source of healthy mineral water!

Caveat:  if your water supply is a well, lake or - like for us here in Bermuda -  the rain water collecting tank under the house, you’ll still have to boil drinking water for 5 minutes to make sure it’s safe from microbes and parasites.

That works for me, as opposed to buying plastic bottled water!

Food

Our food supply is so toxic.

Preservatives are added to anything boxed or packaged. Artificial flavourings and other ‘fake’ ingredients (chemicals) are added to processed foods to cut costs.

Fish and seafood are contaminated with PCBs (perchlorinated biphenyls, an environmental toxin) and heavy metals.

Meat and poultry are raised in crowded conditions necessitating antibiotics, and are given hormones to stimulate growth.

On top of that, packaging food in plastic may cause leakage of phthalates (endocrine disruptors) and other harmful chemicals into our food.

These toxins can lead to a myriad of symptoms from digestive upset to headaches, difficulty breathing, neurological impairment and behavioural disorders. And worse, some of these harmful chemicals are carcinogenic (cancer-causing).

Many foods trigger allergic reactions in people. The top foods are: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc), peanuts, wheat and soybeans.

If you’re suffering from bloating, abdominal cramping, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines and other headaches, sinus congestion, cough, irritability or just feeling under the weather, it could be a food allergy or intolerance.

Whether you’re consuming toxic food or reacting to an allergen, your immune system is switched ON constantly, giving you symptoms of discomfort.

Here are some guidelines to help you eat clean:

• Avoid packaged, processed foods.

• Eat whole, fresh food.

• Eat organic produce whenever possible. The US Environmental Working Group has released The Dirty Dozen for 2019, its list of the most toxic produce, so do your best to avoid these items and buy organic ones.

• Avoid foods packed in plastic whenever possible.

• Choose humanely-raised grass-fed beef and dairy products, and free-range poultry.

• Choose wild-caught fish and shellfish.

If you are suffering from any of the symptoms listed above and think it’s your food, try an elimination diet - starting with gluten (wheat, rye and barley) and dairy.

Stick with it for at least a month, and please always work with your physician or health care provider when making health-related changes.

For a quick synopsis of what to eat, see my recent post on the topic.

For more detailed information, here are two groundbreaking books that I find very helpful:

• What The Heck Should I Eat? by Dr Mark Hyman (Director of the Center for Functional medicine at Cleveland Clinic)

• Undoctored: How You Can Seize Control of Your Health by Dr William Davis (author of Wheat Belly).

A last thought: Try not to be overwhelmed by all this information!

Make small changes and keep it up over time. Anything you do to decrease your toxic load will help.

I've been gradually making 'green' changes in my diet and household products for years, it seems. But over the past six months have made a pointed effort to eat organic, clean up my office air and home water situation, and now, I'm zeroing in on to the skin care and household cleaning products.

Take your time and do what you can within your budget and based on your exposures and where you live.

In Part 4...

 ...we’ll tackle gut and oral health in more detail.

And let’s not forget the skin as an entry point for toxins. It’s a big one!

There's much more to share in upcoming installments on protecting and supporting our aging immune system.