We live in a world where toxins surround us every day, wreaking havoc on our cellular functions, hormonal pathways and energy sources.
In my years of practice as a family medicine doctor at Evoke 5 and other practices, I have seen that the majority of chronic diseases stem from ongoing inflammation and cellular toxicity, along with mitochondrial dysfunction. What does that mean in plain English?
- Inflammation is the body’s process of fighting against things that harm it, like infections, injuries and toxins, in an attempt to heal itself. When something damages your cells, your body releases chemicals that trigger a response from your immune system. This response includes the release of antibodies and proteins, as well as increased blood flow to the damaged area. Acute inflammation — like getting a cut on your knee or dealing with a cold — is totally normal and usually lasts for a few hours or up to a few days. But when inflammation is ongoing – or chronic – it can cause serious, ongoing health conditions.
- Cellular toxicity is damage to the body’s cells that affect their overall function. This is mainly caused by environmental toxins, such as mold, heavy metals and chemicals.
- Mitochondrial dysfunction is when the mitochondria in the cells become damaged and reduce the efficiency of cellular respiration, which is basically the process of breaking food into a form that the cell can use as energy. This leads to cellular damage. Mitochondrial dysfunction can happen for many reasons, but with my patients, I focus a lot on the environmental toxins that can cause damage.
When I first see a new patient at Evoke 5, I like to start by getting a detailed personal history: where have they lived? What possible toxins have they come into contact with? What stressful events have they gone through that may have set off chronic disease? What are their sleep habits, dietary habits, exercise habits? What vitamins or supplements do they take? How is their G.I. (aka gut) health?
Next, I’ll order an in-depth lab panel to look at hormones, vitamins, genetic factors, adrenal function, autoimmune markers, thyroid function, kidney and liver function, and blood panel. These are labs that I typically will get for every patient, regardless of age. If someone comes in with a history of environmental toxicity, we can do initial testing for various types of toxins as well.
I also recommend for everyone do a food intolerance test and a gut microbiome test to look for pathogens and to gauge the inflammation level in the body.
I spend quite a bit of time talking with my patients about inflammation because it’s very important to understand the process of looking for inflammation, identifying inflammatory agents (what’s causing the inflammation), and how to mitigate inflammation.
The majority of inflammation I find in my patients stems from the gut. This makes sense since our gut is the portal to everything else in our bodies. Did you know that the majority of our immune system (an astounding 70% to 80%!) resides in our gut? This is why much of my focus with my patients is on gut health.
We have trillions of bacteria in our G.I. system/gut and the majority of these live in a symbiotic relationship with our bodies. The word “bacteria” has gotten a bad rap, but in fact, good bacteria are crucial for our health! The bacteria in our gut help us break down food, and relay information about what’s going on from the outside world (from the food we’ve eaten, to the toxins we’ve ingested, to the stress we’re in). Bacteria also help turn on genetic factors through messenger RNA (mRNA), relieve us of toxins, and break down decaying tissue. So yes, most bacteria are good and are in your body for a reason!
When we see certain types of bacterial overgrowth and pathogenic adaptation through pleomorphism (in other words, when a bacteria changes to its environment, like a pathogen adapting and replicating to fight a toxin), we can assume that these bacteria have been stimulated to clean something up in the G.I. system. Typical antibiotic use in this instance can cause worsening cellular damage and bacterial resistance.
When we find pathogenic overgrowth with things such as candida/yeast, parasites and “bad” bacteria, this can be the result of “surface inflammation” in the gut. Surface inflammation in the G.I. tract is an acute response from your immune system that causes inflammation. This happens when pathogens are detected in your gut and your body reads this as danger and initiates an immune response. Food intolerances can also cause surface inflammation. Both of these situations can cause systemic inflammation throughout the body and set off chronic diseases and autoimmune disorders.
We have to clean up this surface inflammation throughout the gut before we can dive deeper and get into cellular detoxification. This is because it is very important to have pathways and channels clear and open before fully trying to detox from intracellular toxins, such as mold, metals and chemicals. When working with new patients at Evoke 5, I typically spend the first one to two months of treatment making sure everything is flowing properly throughout the lymphatic system, urinary system, vascular system and G.I. system.
After improving any abnormalities found with the blood testing and initial gut testing, I like to take a deeper dive into cellular detoxification and ridding the body of toxins. This can take anywhere from four months to a year, depending on the severity of symptoms and levels of toxins. Some people are very sensitive to initial treatments and have to take detoxification very slow. Within the first week, we can usually determine how someone will respond to initial treatment.
Throughout the course of detoxification, I check in with my patients once every three to four weeks to see how progress is going.
After about four months of cellular detoxification, if the patient is feeling 100% improved, then we’ll consider a maintenance protocol. Like treatment protocols, a maintenance protocol is still very individualized to the patient. In most cases, it typically consists of a probiotic, a digestive enzyme, the prebiotic and a light biotoxin binder.
After several months of detoxification, if the patient has felt improvement but is not quite 100% and has a history of environmental toxin exposure, then I like to run a toxin panel to find out more specifically what we are dealing with and at what level.
By taking this approach, the majority of my patients within months have turned their lives around. They have more energy, sleep better, have better sex, have better moods, are more productive at work, have maintained a healthy weight, and have been able to get off of many medications.
At times, we cannot avoid the environmental toxins that we are around – but we can be proactive in the steps that we take to heal ourselves. At Evoke 5, I believe that getting in the habit of cellular detoxification and maintaining this process helps with mitigating chronic disease and improving quality of life. By looking at these processes, we can better understand the environment that we live in and make changes to improve our individual lives – and our communities – for the future.