Naturopath discusses hidden toxins in our lives and how to be rid of them

Posted by Elena del Valle on December 1, 2017

The Toxin Solution

Photo: Joseph Pizzorno

We are surrounded by invisible toxins that are making us chronically sick. They are in the food we eat, our tap water, household cleaning products and health and beauty aids. “They damage every aspect of our physiological function and play a role in virtually all diseases.” So says Josepth Pizzorno, N.D.

After years of research and clinical work in the medical field and nine months of writing he published The Toxin Solution: How Hidden Poisons in the Air, Water, Food, and Products We Use Are Destroying Our Health–and what we can do to fix it (HarperOne, $15.99) this year.

In his 280-page hardcover book with lengthy end references, written for a broad audience, he explains how toxins have permeated our lives and proposes a nine week detox program. The book is divided into eight chapters and eight appendices. He explains that toxins are not the only cause of illness, but that they magnify existing issues. They are linked to all chronic diseases such as cancer, dementia, diabetes, and heart disease, he says.

When asked if the average person may affect change to maximize their chances of getting rid of or not be affected by the toxins, he replied by email, “Yes. Paying attention can eliminate 90% of toxins.”

Readers following his eight week plan and a bonus week at the end, he says, may learn how to avoid toxins, boost their defenses by strengthening their detox organs such as the gut, kidneys and liver; and help their bodies excrete and release toxins and repair toxin damage. For example, in the chapter Clean Up Your Gut he discusses nonsteroidal anti-inflamatory drugs, alcohol, high fructose corn syrup and shares information on the correlation between soft-drink consumption and fatty liver disease.

To a question about the source of greatest concern when it comes to toxins the author said, “The surprising answer is arsenic. #1 according to the CDC, which I have independently confirmed looking at a lot of research.”

In the book he says that the average person’s detox capacity is severely diminished by the time he or she reaches old age. When asked about the best way to stay ahead of that issue he replied, “Avoiding toxins. Yes, simplistic, but they poison the actual systems we use to get rid of them. Also, optimizing nutritional status helps protect the detox enzymes by helping them work better and be less susceptible to toxin damage.” When asked if there is a facility or retreat he recommends for people unable or unwilling to follow the detox regimen he proposes he replied, “True North. healthpromoting.com/”

Pizzorno is a leading authority on science-based natural and integrative medicine. He founded and served twenty-two years as president of Bastyr University, among the country’s first and largest fully accredited universities of natural medicine. He is the coauthor of The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine and Textbook of Natural Medicine. He is a founder and board member of the Institute for Functional Medicine and founder and editor in chief of Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal, a peer-reviewed journal in integrative medicine. He travels world-wide, consulting, lecturing, and promoting science-based natural medicine.