The Central Nervous System Responds to Toxins

Research has proven disrupting chemicals that target our central nervous system can upset the communication between our endocrine and metabolic systems and organs including our skin and microbiome.

Why is microbiome important? “Gut bacteria produce hundreds of neurochemicals that the brain uses to regulate basic physiological processes as well as mental processes such as learning, memory and mood. For example, gut bacteria manufacture about 95% of the body’s supply of serotonin, which influences both mood and GI activity.” (1)

Here are 8 toxic exposures that can be found to be disruptive

1-Caffeine is undeniably a central nervous system stimulant and disrupts microbiome.” It stimulates the brain, increases the secretion of adrenaline and boosts heart rate.  It can cause “adrenal fatigue.”  Long-term use in excess of 250 to 300 mg daily may cause numerous health problems” according to Mark Mayell, author of ‘Off The Shelf Natural Health How To Use Herbs And Nutrients To Stay Well’  page 112. “Caffeine depletes the body of B Vitamins, which you need for proper brain and nervous system functioning and for converting food to energy, says Michael Murray, N.D., a naturopathic physician in Seattle and author of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Getting Well Naturally.”

2-Breathing in toxic scents can harm our central nervous system. These toxic scents include petroleum candles, incense or perfumes.  These scents can cause internal toxicity within our brain, microbiome, liver and heart heath.(2)

In the book “The Brain Wash” by Michelle Schoffro Cook, there are seven most common chemicals found in dryer sheets and their effect on the central nervous system. These include:

Alpha-Terpineol

Benzyl Alcohol

Camphor

Chloroform on the EPA’s

Ethyl Acetate

Linalool

Pentane

3-Exposure to mercury can cause negative effects to our central nervous systems, kidneys, microbiome, and cardiovascular health. According to Environmental Health Sciences Center,”the nervous system is the principal target for a number of metals. Inorganic compounds of aluminum, arsenic, lead, mercury, and thallium are well known for their neurological and behavioral effects in humans.”(3)

4-Gluten related products have a negative effect on good gut bacteria, our immune system, digestive system and nervous system and therefore affects the brain cells. Gluten also adds to an acid internal environment. More information can be found in the book, ‘Brain Grain’ by Dr Perlmutter.

5-Alcohol depresses almost every brain function, contracts brain tissues, shrinks the brain, and destroys brain cells. It disrupts microbiome, and interferes with balance and breathing.

6-Psychological stress and sugary foods, (that increase stress) affects the immune system, skin and  microbiome. “The microbiome-brain-gut axis is emerging which suggests that modulation of the gut microflora may be a tractable strategy for developing novel therapeutics for complex stress-related CNS disorders.”(4) The exciting news is we can use this information to fight Parkinson’s disease according to World Journal of Gastroenterology.(5)

7-Pesticides found in foods can disrupt our central nervous system and gut microbiome. The University of Washington, Department of Medicine explains how the brain is disrupted by pesticides and can be linked to most Central Nervous System Disease.(6)  The herbicide Glyphosate™ the active ingredient in Roundup® is also very disruptive to cellular systems throughout the body causing inflammation, neurotoxicity and increased risk for Alzheimer’s.

8-“Medications such as antibiotics are xenobiotics in humans.” (7)  have been noted to cause central nervous system toxicity.(7a) “For instance, Levaquin which was the best-selling antibiotic in 2010, faces thousands of lawsuits a year from people who have been seriously harmed after taking it. The reactions can be body-wide, impacting the central nervous system, microbiome, musculoskeletal, visual and renal systems, sometimes simultaneously.”(8)

“It is well documented that tricyclic antidepressant drugs act on 5-HT and NA receptors both in the central nervous system and in the cardiovascular system. Fluoxetine is also known to interfere with 5-HT receptors and/or signal transduction pathways in central nervous system.”(9)

Research  evidenced that Acetaminophen is found disruptive in the central nervous system.(10)

“For more than 15 years, experts have known that NSAIDs increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Vioxx, a type of NSAID called a COX-2 inhibitor caused as many as 140,000 heart attacks in the U.S. during the five years it was on the market. Vioxx was removed from the market in 2004. The regrettable experience with Vioxx raised awareness about the cardiovascular risk of NSAIDs, and led to further studies by Harvard Health Publications showing that the risk is not limited to Vioxx but is associated with all NSAIDs.” (11)

“Corticosteroids have been used since the 50s as anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs for the treatment of several pathologies such as asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis. Central Nervous System side effects include, psychiatric and cognitive disturbances.”(12)

Humira is approved for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis but has several side effects including, congestive heart failure and neurological diseases.(13)

What can we do now to improve our health?

Ask your doctor about the side-effects from your prescribed medications.

Know your farmer. Eat more foods that are full of antioxidants. These include colorful organic berries and green leafy veggies such as spinach and kale. Organic Beets are good for our heart and central nervous system.

Ditch the toxic scents including perfume and dryer sheets.

Learn what heavy metals you are exposing yourself to. Mercury is found in foods, vaccines, cosmetics and dental amalgams.

Let’s not forget the importance of drinking more water for the health of our nervous system. The brain is about 75% water. Water is vitally important for communication to the central nervous system, microbiome and the skin. Dehydration can actually increase premature aging.

It may be time to visit your chiropractor. According to The Journal of Canadian Chiropractic Association, “scientific studies used animal preparations for physiological effects of spinal manipulation. Biomechanical changes caused by spinal manipulation are thought to have positive physiological consequences to our central nervous system.”(14)

Self care is important. Talk to your certified health coach. She can encourage positive ways to help you work through stress and eliminate toxins.

Connie Rogers is a Certified Integrative Holistic Health Coach and Published Author of Path to a Healthy Mind & Body

Websites www.bitesizepieces.net   and  www.thehealthguru.net

footnotes:

1- http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/09/gut-feeling.aspx

2- http://www.scsu.edu/news_article.aspx?news_id=832  see also https://nepis.epa.gov/Adobe/PDF/P1009BZL.pdf

3- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1474439/

4- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24281320

5- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588083/

6- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18032333  see also  http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0100-736X2011000700009&script=sci_arttext

7- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3552296/

7a- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24275175

8- http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm365050.htm

9- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1566050/

10- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11531168

11- http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/fda-strengthens-warning-that-nsaids-increase-heart-attack-and-stroke-risk-201507138138

12- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853679/

13- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16011443

14- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4045034/

The Central Nervous System Responds to Toxins

Central African Republic a surgeon"s diary from a nation on the brink

They come in ones and twos, sometimes a lot more. Some of the individuals have fresh bullet holes or machete wounds other people have wounds that have been neglected for days due to the fact of an inability to attain the hospital. Some are innocents caught in the crossfire, some the very ones who shoot.

And as is most typically the situation in civil conflicts, the majority of patients are not the ones immediately wounded but individuals who suffer the consequences of the disruptions of an previously-feeble health technique: intestinal perforations from typhoid fever pregnancies challenging by arrested labour significant skin and muscle infections that have spilled more than into the bloodstream, foremost to septic shock.

The Bangui General Hospital is a single of three primary hospitals working in the Central African Republic’s capital, with its population of some 1 million folks. Built in the 1960s by the Moroccan government, the big complex sits a few miles in one route from the relative peace of the Oubangui river, and in the other course from the chaos of Bangui’s violence-torn PK5 and PK12 neighbourhoods.

It is from the latter two locations that practically all of Bangui’s Muslim citizens have fled or been evacuated in the past few months as sectarian violence amongst Muslims and Christians threatens to tear the nation apart. Most have continued on to the north-west of the nation, or to neighbouring Chad or Cameroon.

I am part of a skeleton staff of expatriate physicians, nurses and support staff from Médecins Sans Frontières that functions with Central African physicians and nurses to give emergency space and surgical care at the hospital, although other teams focus on outreach in refugee camps and mobile clinics across the nation. From the hospital’s rooftop we peer across the city.

A flock of birds floats languidly across the sky, the crimson glow of the sun setting behind the unlit spotlight towers of the main soccer stadium. The peaceful scene belies the spasmodic chaos below. At evening we hear scattered gunfire and grenade explosions in the distance and wonder how a lot of patients will come, and when.

Muslim in the P12 district of Bangui put together to flee the violence. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Pictures

A 23 yr-previous lady arrives one particular early morning, her body riddled with bullet holes. Numerous slugs have blasted via her limbs, shattering bones. Despite our ideal efforts, her gaping chest wounds portend a death that can’t be averted by restricted surgical capacity. I wonder – no more here than back house in the US – what prospects people to violence. The human physique is not meant to be torn apart by bullets.

Spasms of violence grip this country, whilst in the background regular societal structures unravel. Thirteen percent of the population is internally displaced, schoolrooms are usually empty and crops go unplanted.

A yr in the past, the overt violence in the capital was possibly worse aid workers who have been here described dead bodies lining the streets on the way to the hospital and extrajudicial killings happening everyday across the city, some even outdoors the paediatric ward down the street.

And what now? Regardless of the presence of some two,000 French troops and 6,000 members of an African Union-led peacekeeping force, the Central African Republic appears to teeter on the brink.

The UN just lately approved the deployment of 12,000 extra troops and police to support maintain buy, but they are not due to arrive right up until September. Meanwhile, the disorder in this former French colony continues.

While the war-wounded might be the most visible victims, the true and lasting tragedy could lay in the consequences of worsening malnutrition, estimated to impact in excess of two million citizens, many of them young children. A society broken at the centre is fraying ever much more at the edges.

A rebel fighter in the Central African Republic smokes during a patrol, near to the border with the DRC. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

From the northern village of Boguila, near to the Chadian border, information of the slaying of 16 civilians, like three Médecins Sans Frontières nationwide staff, chills our hearts and rattles nerves.

Unprovoked, and taking place throughout an armed robbery at a well being outpost clearly marked as a Médecins Sans Frontières facility, the killings have sparked a debate within the organisation, utilized as it is to working in challenging situations. Médecins Sans Frontières made a decision to decrease its pursuits during Central African Republic in protest for a quick time, though the function at the hospital continues unabated.

Final week, a 35-12 months-previous female in her 10th pregnancy arrives in the emergency room in shock, barely coherent. The shape of her swollen abdomen suggests a ruptured uterus and she is rushed to the operating space. The eight-month-old foetus has perished and the mother’s life hangs by a thread as we perform an emergency hysterectomy.

Uterine rupture occurs up to ten occasions more frequently in least-produced nations than it does in the most-developed nations. It can be a last blow right after the domino result of having several pregnancies, limited pre-natal care and obstructed labour with impaired entry to well being care services. Up to 90% of girls with uterine rupture die, as will this patient in a couple of hours.

There is too little that we can do, also late. The patient’s mom waits outside and receives the news, translated from French to Sango and back, with an unmoving face. A short while later on, as daylight breaks and the sounds of roosters and the waking hospital fills the grounds, I observe as she carries away the wrapped physique of her unborn grandson. She disappears behind a cement column painted a rusty red, bare feet padding along the floor. It ought not finish like this…and nevertheless it does.

David Rothstein is a paediatric surgeon at the Lady and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. He started operating with Médecins Sans Frontières in 2007 in northern Sri Lanka and has made month-extended journeys for MSF each 12 months because, working in Chad, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic

This report initial appeared on Warscapes

Central African Republic a surgeon"s diary from a nation on the brink

Ban Ki-moon: Schooling is central to ending FGM

Fahma Mohamed, the 17-12 months-previous pupil who is major the Guardian’s campaign to end female genital mutilation. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt

It has been deeply inspiring for me to hear that Fahma Mohamed, a 17-12 months-old supported by the Guardian, has attracted nicely more than 212,000 signatures to her petition demanding action to finish female genital mutilation (FGM). I applaud her want to enlist headteachers and attain each lady at chance of FGM, for this is also a British and European problem, with thousands of girls even now becoming taken abroad to be minimize. Headteachers, and governments, have a essential position to perform in assisting to persuade families not to send their daughters abroad and support those girls – some 24,000 in the Uk alone – believed to be at danger. The choice of the Scottish government to write to each headteacher asking them to train workers and educate mother and father is a key step forward.

As UN secretary basic, one particular of my priorities is to aid to empower ladies and girls, by marketing their health and defending their rights. We ought to strive to preserve the best in any culture, and leave people that harm behind. I hope that Fahma’s campaign is taken up elsewhere in the globe.

There is no developmental, religious or well being purpose to cut or mutilate any lady or female. Despite the fact that some would argue that this is a “tradition”, we should recall that slavery, so-named “honour” killings and other inhumane practices have been defended with the same weak argument. Just since a dangerous practice has lengthy existed does not justify its continuation. All “traditions” that demean, dehumanise and injure are human rights violations that need to be opposed till they are ended. FGM leads to grave harm to people. The overall health consequences contain depression, insecurity, soreness, infections, incontinence and deadly problems in pregnancy and childbirth. Mothers should not be terrified of providing birth to daughters.

The practice is declining in virtually all nations, but it is still frighteningly widespread. Although company statistics are challenging to acquire, it is estimated that more than 125 million ladies and ladies alive these days have been cut in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, in which FGM is most prevalent. If trends proceed, a additional 86 million young girls around the world are very likely to knowledge some form of the practice by 2030. Asia, Europe, North America and other regions are not spared and must be equally vigilant in addressing the problem. An estimated 60,000 women and ladies have been victims in the United Kingdom alone.

The good news is there are good indications of progress in our international push to end this dangerous practice. Women themselves instinctively recognize the dangers of becoming minimize, and numerous mothers who have observed or knowledgeable the trauma want to shield their daughters from suffering. It is encouraging that an growing variety of communities are agreeing publicly to end FGM and make sure a much better life for their girls.

Not too long ago, Uganda, Kenya and Guinea-Bissau adopted laws to end FGM. In Ethiopia, people accountable have been arrested, attempted and penalised, with complete media coverage more raising public awareness.

The UN and our partners are engaged in worthwhile, culturally delicate pursuits that aim to stop FGM without scolding or shame. In Sudan we are seeing social modify from a campaign known as Saleema, the Arabic word that implies total, intact, whole and untouched. One particular father, who was moved by the work and made a decision to depart his daughters uncut, explained simply: “A girl is born saleema, so leave her saleema.” Hundreds of communities have embraced this initiative, expressing their assistance through songs, poetry and clothes in the campaign’s trademark vivid colours. Other countries are emulating the Saleema campaign, or coming up with options tailored to their nearby needs: in Kenya, for example, Meru local community elders have prohibited FGM and vowed to impose a fine on anyone who conducts or abets the practice.

In addition to prevention, the UN is functioning with partners to assist people who have been affected by FGM. Pioneering medical advances now allow physicians to repair women’s bodies and restore their well being. I recall the phrases of 1 doctor in Burkina Faso who described “the relief that overwhelms girls” following the surgical procedure, which she mentioned is 100% effective. The several women who lack the sources they need to travel to get entry to the appropriate services and the programmes that offer you suitable treatment deserve generous support.

The standard assembly’s landmark resolution proclaiming our latest International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM was sponsored by each nation in Africa and embraced by the entire membership of the UN. This breakthrough demonstrates the fantastic worth of the UN in increasing as one particular to defend universal human rights. The result on people will be profound, sparing them horrible struggling and discomfort. So thank you, Fahma, for what you are undertaking to aid make this come about.

Ban Ki-moon: Schooling is central to ending FGM

New Oregon Data: Expanding Medicaid Increases Usage Of Emergency Rooms, Undermining Central Rationale For Obamacare

Emblem for the Oregon state lottery (not to be confused with the Oregon Medicaid lottery). (Photograph credit: Wikipedia)

For many years, it has been the quantity one talking point of Obamacare supporters. People who are uninsured end up receiving expensive care from hospitals’ emergency rooms. “Those of us with wellness insurance coverage are also paying a hidden and expanding tax for those with out it—about $ 1,000 per year that pays for [the uninsureds’] emergency area and charitable care,” stated President Obama in 2009. Obamacare, the President informed us, would remedy that difficulty by covering the uninsured, thereby driving premiums down. A new study, published in the journal Science, definitively reaches the opposite conclusion. In Oregon, people who gained coverage by way of Medicaid utilised the emergency room forty percent a lot more than those who have been uninsured.

The “free rider” argument was usually bunk

Just like the “if you like your strategy, you can maintain your plan” guarantee, the guarantee that Obamacare would make well being care much less pricey by expanding coverage was usually a crock. Nationally, it’s estimated that we spend about $ 50 billion a year on uncompensated care for the uninsured. But Obamacare spends $ 250 billion a year of taxpayer funds on covering the uninsured. Only in Washington is investing $ 250 billion to address a $ 50 billion issue considered “savings.”

In Massachusetts, beneath Romneycare, the math worked out in a equivalent way. The Bay State spent $ 661 million on uncompensated care in the yr ahead of Romneycare went into result by the 2009 fiscal 12 months, that figure had decreased to $ 414 million: a financial savings of $ 247 million. But in 2011, the cost of the state’s insurance coverage subsidy system was $ 830 million, and that does not even count the tab paid by the federal government for the state’s growth of Medicaid.

Did emergency-room usage in Massachusetts decline since of all this further cash? The opposite. ER visits really rose by seven percent among 2005 and 2007, and the state’s costs for caring for ER patients rose 17 % between 2007 and 2009.

And one particular of the huge holes in the myth of uninsured “free riders” is that the uninsured only account for 15 % of the population, 14 percent of complete ER visits, and 12 % of aggregate ER expenditures, in accordance to a review by the Kaiser Family members Basis. Medicaid beneficiaries, by contrast, accounted for 9 percent of the population, 15 % of visits, and 9 percent of bills.

Provided all of this data and experience, it was evident that expanding coverage via Obamacare would improve taxpayer fees, not lessen them. But predictably, the professional-Obamacare “fact-checkers,” like those at PolitiFact, have been nowhere to be located.

The latest information from the Oregon Medicaid experiment

Along come economists Amy Finkelstein of MIT and Kate Baicker of Harvard, who have been participating in the now-well-known Oregon Medicaid experiment. Regular readers of The Apothecary will recall that this research in contrast a group of Oregonians who were uninsured, and stayed that way, to a group who had “won” a lottery to enroll in Medicaid. The research identified that Medicaid “generated no important improvement in measured bodily well being outcomes,” a finding that reinforces in depth published investigation. (I also discuss this investigation in my new guide, How Medicaid Fails The Bad.)

Finkelstein and Baicker, in their new Science article, looked at records for 24,646 residents of the Portland, Oregon spot who had participated in the Medicaid experiment. They found, as they had previously, that the subgroup that had gained coverage underneath Medicaid showed no improvement in the management of their chronic health-related difficulties, such as substantial cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

They also found that people on Medicaid utilized the emergency area forty % much more than the uninsured did—1.43 ER visits per Medicaid enrollee, as against one.02 for the uninsured. Much more to the level, a vast majority of the emergency area visits had been pointless, because they involved circumstances that could simply have been managed outside of the ER.

Of the .41-per-man or woman improve in visits, .18 have been “primary care treatable,” meaning they didn’t demand ER care. .twelve did not even qualify as emergency care. .04 did qualify as emergency issues, but could have been prevented by ample major care. The Medicaid-driven increases in every single of these categories was statistically significant, that means that the variations were big enough that they are extremely unlikely to be statistical noise.

New Oregon Data: Expanding Medicaid Increases Usage Of Emergency Rooms, Undermining Central Rationale For Obamacare