I started this project wondering if anyone had come up with a solution for the present massive toxic assault affecting virtually everyone in one way or another. I wondered if there was a quick fix, or a “recipe” to clear the body from these new invaders? Who was working with mold, MCS, brain conditions, Parkinson’s, and Parkinson’s-like symptoms? And what about cancer?

The older we become, the more time we’ve had to accumulate our individual toxic burdens; but when does it begin?

I have featured five of the top environmental doctors in the country: those professionals who have chosen to step out of a comfortable allopathic box and dissect the limitations of conventional medicine in order to find a way to deal with the new diseases and conditions clearly connected to the overwhelming environmental pollution of today.

Statistics have meaning, and there are several that jumped out at me in exploring the topic of “tox-sick.” The first is from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), examining the cord blood of newborns across the economic spectrum – babies who have not yet even tasted breast milk. Researchers found that newborns begin their lives with exposure to as many as 287 of the 413 toxic chemicals that were being studied. An average of 200 toxins was found per baby and 101 toxins were found in all babies. The 287 toxins included 180 chemical compounds that have been shown to cause cancer in either animals or humans. (Incidentally, all chemicals that cause cancer in humans were initially found to cause it in animals).

We know at this point that toxicity degrades the immune system by “eating” (my term) through the gut barrier wall like a tire that has shredded on the freeway, leaving the “bad guys” free to “leak out” (i.e., leaky gut) into the bloodstream. It doesn’t take much detective work to connect the dots from overwhelming toxicity to the present epidemic of ADD, ADHD, OCD, autism, asthma, bipolar, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and even schizophrenia. Throw in autoimmune diseases – lupus, fibromyalgia, MS – and then cancer, and the pathway is clear; toxins in the gut “leak out” through holes in the GI barrier wall and then invade the bloodstream, leaving them free to roam around and cause havoc wherever they choose to reside.

The cancer rate in children has risen 67.1% since 1950. The US has the fourth highest rate in the world. But have we considered this: toxins are passed from mother to child in utero, as does an imbalanced micro flora system. In other words, if the mother has a sick gut, then the baby is going to have a sicker one. Then factor in the rise of C-sections (approximately 1 million a year in this country), which deprives children of their very first microbial protection: that original journey through the mother’s vaginal canal. Our first “swallow” is not of air but of our mother’s vaginal flora. That is how we colonize. But what happens if we miss out on this natural birth function? If you are lucky and are working with a current-thinking doctor, they surely will understand that if this all-important step is missed, then replacement of flora by way of probiotics is essential – but how often is this happening in the delivery room?

So you have a newborn who has spent 9 months in a toxic, sick, imbalanced womb; a child whose GI system and immune system are now compromised and imbalanced and left without natural protection from disease and the environment, and then this same child most likely will be fed toxic breast milk. Couple this with being born by C-section to guarantee gut imbalance, and, “Houston, we’ve got a problem.”

And we wonder why our children are sick and brain disease is epidemic?

Holistically, we have to go to the source. Let’s think about the womb. The womb is the first “room” where we begin our lives. It has been designed by nature to be our first and safest shelter in which our human being can grow and develop. Surely we deserve a clean environment in here, but is it? Is there a healthy womb left on the planet? How can a baby develop a healthy system of its own when grown in a womb that is already toxic, a “room” fueled by imbalanced gut flora, being fed inferior “fuel” in the form of processed food, nonorganic food, GMO food (creating a virtual insecticide factory in the GI tract), then add in chemical vapors emitting from a house laden with toxic household cleaners?

The “baby gift” of lotions and baby powders given from the hospital has as its first ingredient “sodium laureth” code for chemicals, so let’s add this to the stew – these lotions are the smell that we associate with babies, so we liberally and lovingly massage our newborns, but what is happening is more toxicity.

The mothers of today are so accustomed to chemicals’ making everyday lives easier and more beautiful that they themselves soak in chemical lotions, cleansers, and toxic makeup, the result being for all, new and old alike, a toxic river that makes its way through the bloodstream, polluting the liver and ending up in the gut, where they now begin the war on health!

What will these negative pathogens decide to attack? Organs and glands are sitting ducks, unprotected and weakened by the assault; but the big kahuna is the brain: fat city, 65% fat, a favorite happy playground for the bad guys. In time, these toxins need more room to “play,” so the brain shrinks to accommodate, giving more room for the toxins to wreak havoc. Here’s your “initials”: ADD, ADHD, OCD.

Kids now wax poetic about their diseases: “I have ADD and OCD,” and the next one says “I have ADHD”! They are proud of it. Summer camps now have to have medical staff to administer meds to the kids. Obese children are being given statins. What is going to happen to a brain not fully formed when it is bombarded with antibiotics, amphetamines, and dangerous statin drugs? Then add in pesticides and environmental pollutants, and you can see the disaster that is here and growing exponentially.

I’ve been invited to fund-raiser after fund-raiser by well-meaning people to raise money to cure brain disease, brain cancer, autoimmune disease, Alzheimer’s. I always think, money for what? There’s no drug cure, but when you give them the answer it sounds too simplistic: change your diet, eliminate all chemicals that you can control.

For instance, research has shown remarkable results for brain health with daily consumption of virgin, organic, coconut oil. It heals inflammation, whether it’s the gut or the brain or the connection between both. But sadly, most people have been convinced that their only route to wellness is through the next miracle pill. TV advertising has us brainwashed, and as they read off the symptoms, there’s hardly a person who doesn’t associate with at least one or some of those symptoms; and so on the next visit to the doctor, the subject will come up and now the new “miracle pill” is added to your medical cocktail. It constantly amazes me; we go to our doctor like children, expecting a prescription, never asking questions and never making the connection to side effects until they are so in your face that another pill is added to that “cocktail” to take away the side effects … and so on and so on.

Mothers-to-be have long ago gotten the message not to drink alcohol or smoke tobacco during pregnancy, and almost across the board this is accepted as dogma. But no one is considering the womb health. Much time is spent in prepping for the nursery, but how much time is spent prepping the womb? How many doctors are encouraging this? Womb health requires a complete rethinking of the health of the home you are living in, the food brought into that home, probiotics to balance gut ecology, the proper diet to build up a weak and damaged immune system in order to prepare the gut and then the uterus. If these changes are not done in today’s world, you are not giving your baby a fighting chance.

You have to start at the beginning; at present, how toxic is your home? What outgassing is happening? How much plastic is part and parcel of your everyday life? We know from research that phthalates outgas from plastic bottles. An expectant mother understands the value of hydration and drinking lots of water, but if that water comes from plastic bottles outgassing dangerous phthalates, what are the effects on the developing fetus? Phthalates are a carcinogen, since they contain two benzene rings, known for starters to cause leukemia. Phthalates also bind thyroid receptors, adrenal, testicles, ovaries – in fact, any gland. Phthalates are also the No. 1 aggravator of breast cancer. So now you have breasts under attack, the same breasts that are going to be the place of comfort and food for the newborn.

What happens to an already toxic baby born in a toxic womb, drinking contaminated breast milk?

Doctors now need to be concerned and willing to educate expectant parents. There is an alarming rate of miscarriages as of late. Is this a form of compassion of nature, understanding that a womb so loaded with toxicity and contaminants is no place to house a developing human being? Perhaps it is the wisdom of nature in some circumstances to say that it would be better for this life not to take place at all than to grow in such an inhospitable place? Doctors today need to do more than deal with the circumstances of pregnancy; instead they must educate and prepare new parents long before the baby is conceived so that the child has a fighting chance to enter a planet that is already trying to work against them.

GMO foods, nonorganic foods sprayed with poisons, are eventually going to end up in the GI tract and find their way to a developing fetus. Toxic hair products, toxic cosmetics, toxic makeup, lipsticks with lead: start putting it all together and you can see the responsibility that new parents must assume. You want a healthy baby, then do the proper prep work. A baby living in this polluted house doesn’t have a chance at normal health. Our planet has changed and has become damaged. Never before has the mother’s internal environment been so crucial in order to give birth to a healthy human.

To avoid a lifetime of prescribed amphetamines for children and adults unable to think due to brain fog, to avoid a lifetime of gut problems, antibiotics, unexplained weight gain, depression, aggression, and the accompanying shame, changes must be made.

According to the Columbia University School of Public Health: “95% of cancer is caused by diet and the environment”!

There it is. No joke. Pretty sobering.

So, here’s what you can do and here is what doctors can teach parents to prepare for a next generation of children to be born healthy:

• Go to a qualified doctor and test to find your toxicity levels. Take the 7-day candida test from Great Smokies Diagnostic Lab. There are other labs that your qualified doctor can request. The important thing is to know what is going on inside your body.
• Begin taking probiotics every day forever.
• Eliminate poor-quality and GMO foods, and switch to organic foods only.
• Eat a diet of healthful fats rich in omega-3s.
• Test for mineral and nutritional deficiencies and then supplement until you essentially “fill your tank.”
• Protect yourself from EMFs (electromagnetic fields), Wi-Fi, and routers in your home.
• Get a Matrix 2 nanotechnology chip (LifeWave). It offers protection from electromagnetic radiation from cell phones by up to 98%. There is documentation to back up the claims from SGS, the largest and most respected independent lab in the country.
• Stop using all plastics if possible.
• Sleep 8 hours.
• Think good thoughts.

Make these simple changes, and in time your body will be ready for the most magnificent experience that we humans are capable of creating. Making a person is our most important job. Procreation of the species is why we are here. Perpetuation of sick and sicker people is a monstrous thought. We have it in our power to turn this ship around.

Imagine wiping out the brain diseases. Imagine children not on drugs. The thought of it thrills me.

This article was originally published in Townsend Letter, July 2016.