If this topic interests you, you might enjoy the Todd Haynes movie [SAFE] (1995).
Is the World Making You Sick?
21–30 of 57 posts
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#22The reflexive lay dislike for "chemicals" is a bit weird to me, because everything in this world is made up of chemicals. If anything, the ostensibly healthy foods like fruits and vegetables probably have more chemical complexity and heterogeneity than processed foods. In terms of pollution and the presence of bad chemicals, it's nothing new. Burning any organic matter releases thousands of chemicals, and for all the…
Honest question: given the incredible variety of chemical compounds in nature, if one wants to describe specifically those that are directly harmful to health, or that trigger an immune response in some persons, what is the optimal umbrella term? ("Toxin" is every bit as overloaded and fuzzy as "chemical" in common parlance.)
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, this was pretty much my opinion. But then my wife got sick. Spent 5 years with myriads of specialists, who all did their testings, and threw their hands up in the air. So guess where we eventually land, when traditional medicine gets us no where? Within months of removing these effect-less "toxins" from her diet, I have a wife back. So believe what you want -- I'd do the same if it hadn't radically effected my o…
Can you back up your anecdote with more facts? What kind of sick was your wife? What was her recovery like? What were the toxins you removed?
Sure, I could write a book.
She presented with the most useless of symptoms: fatigue, caused by nearly every disease ever according to her specialists. She also had GI symptoms, but she's had those most of her life, though they got worse when the fatigue hit after child #4. GI specialist (and every other specialist) gave her a clean bill of health, not celiac disease or a known autoimmune disease, though she had a positive ANA.
Years into this, she went gluten free. That helped a bit. Then she went dairy and egg free. She saw a nutritionalist, and took out several other foods. More improvement, but still so fatigued that 3+ days a week she was out of commission.
She saw a naturopathic doctor who ran quantitative tests (stool and blood sample) and advised my wife to do what the tests indicated (food sensitivities and candida, another quack diagnosis according to traditional medicine). My wife continually got better over the next two months. Today, she's active in the family again with only the rare flare-up -- less than one day a week.
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#24What makes me sick is this fear-mongering. Go back to the industrialization in England if you want to see real pollution. We have made astonishing advances when it comes to increasing air quality. Catalysts in cars, all kinds of regulations about emissions. We are constantly trying to remove harmful substances from our lives - but that requires evidence, we can't just randomly blame 'chemicals'. It's far from perfect…
The author isn't really arguing for widespread policy changes, that would be for society to decide and like you said, in total maybe the chemical exposure has a net benefit in avg lifespan anyways. But there is a classification of health issues that is not explained by traditional medical views, other than to say that it's a neurological issue. If there is a physiological component at play, research in that area could really help treat suffering patients, or provide opportunities for them to manage their illness. I don't know whats considered fear mongering about that.
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#25If this topic interests you, you might enjoy the Todd Haynes movie [SAFE] (1995).
Also related is Katie Couric's Fed Up (2014).
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you back up your anecdote with more facts? What kind of sick was your wife? What was her recovery like? What were the toxins you removed?
Sure, I could write a book. She presented with the most useless of symptoms: fatigue, caused by nearly every disease ever according to her specialists. She also had GI symptoms, but she's had those most of her life, though they got worse when the fatigue hit after child #4. GI specialist (and every other specialist) gave her a clean bill of health, not celiac disease or a known autoimmune disease, though she had a po…
What were the toxins?
I see gluten listed, and I know it's commonly believed by some to be a toxin (I don't hold an opinion fwiw), and otherwise it looks like diet changes.
Glad to hear she's feeling better, though.
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#27I run a hospital lab, and I see requests for testing for all sorts of bizarre things, largely by naturopaths, deriving from the "philosophy" expressed here. We refer to people who believe this stuff as being on the "Quest for Purity", a quixotic drive to remove all "toxins" from their bodies. Regardless of whether or not there are substantiated examples of low doses of chemicals causing effects, the worry about this…
Yep, this was pretty much my opinion. But then my wife got sick. Spent 5 years with myriads of specialists, who all did their testings, and threw their hands up in the air. So guess where we eventually land, when traditional medicine gets us no where? Within months of removing these effect-less "toxins" from her diet, I have a wife back. So believe what you want -- I'd do the same if it hadn't radically effected my o…
But is what you observed an actual ... chemical process, or is it the placebo effect? Can we even tell?
The placebo effect is just as real as any other medical phenomenon. It's just very hard to measure.
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you back up your anecdote with more facts? What kind of sick was your wife? What was her recovery like? What were the toxins you removed?
Sure, I could write a book. She presented with the most useless of symptoms: fatigue, caused by nearly every disease ever according to her specialists. She also had GI symptoms, but she's had those most of her life, though they got worse when the fatigue hit after child #4. GI specialist (and every other specialist) gave her a clean bill of health, not celiac disease or a known autoimmune disease, though she had a po…
> What were the toxins?
Fantastic question, actually. Besides removing the test-indicated food sensitivities from her diet, she also went to eating "real food" -- as much as possible, pure fruits, vegetables and meats. Without additives -- preservatives, anti-caking agents, food colorings, and processing.
Of course, with this many variables changed in her diet, it's impossible to know whether she's feeling better due to removing foods she's sensitive to, the various additives (toxins?), the medicine for the candida, or psychological changes. Humans are complex things.
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#29I run a hospital lab, and I see requests for testing for all sorts of bizarre things, largely by naturopaths, deriving from the "philosophy" expressed here. We refer to people who believe this stuff as being on the "Quest for Purity", a quixotic drive to remove all "toxins" from their bodies. Regardless of whether or not there are substantiated examples of low doses of chemicals causing effects, the worry about this…
As a scientist, wouldn't you want to perform extensive formal experimentation before reaching your definitive conclusions? Your dismissive attitude on this topic seems a bit closed minded.
Re: Is the World Making You Sick?
#30I predict many of the additives in our food and other products will be dimly viewed in retrospective, similar to how we view asbestos & lead paint today. The preservatives, anti-caking agents, food colorings and other profit-enhancing additives are basically used with an "innocent until proven guilty" mindset. As usual, you need only follow the money; who profits from adding these things to our food? Pretty much ever…
Because of market forces and some of the documentation regimes, the end cost to the consumer is higher without these things. One might think it's because the-products-without are less mainstream and less subject to economy of scale, or just because shopping at Whole Foods signals caring. That does not make Whole Foods a scam; it's complicated. Not picking on Whole Foods ( I've never even been there ) - they're just a visible metaphor for this phenomenon.
There's something in our Values Map that seems to put profit at cross purposes to "human values" or "caring". It may also be that food "made by hand" is actually of higher quality since the producers have more control and are interested in it more as an... art statement(?).
Maybe it is profit; maybe it ain't.