● GMOs
● Damaged fats and oils
● High sugar diets.
● Low-nutrient diets or an excess of “dead foods”.
● Food allergies and sensitivities.
● Underlying infections.
● Stress.
● Non-native EMF exposure.
Each of the factors above can lead to damage within the gut. Toxins pollute our food, water, air, household products, beauty products, and more. Along with this, factors like stress, EMF exposure, food allergies and a low-nutrient diet cause dysregulation throughout the gastrointestinal tract.
Toxins in the Air:
Sources of outdoor air pollution include coal-fired power plants, industrial plants as well as mobile vehicles and airplanes.
Figure 3. Number of deaths attributed to air pollution in the U.S. from 1990-2017 (Health Effects Institute, 2019).
Internal air pollution typically stems from sources like tobacco smoke, toxic chemicals in cleaning products, personal care products, and candles, building materials like asbestos, mold, and more (EPA.gov, 2020).
Sadly, most antibiotics prescribed kill both the bad and good bacteria in our guts. Along with this, regular antibiotic use can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria and severe illness.
While a large portion of the population takes prescribed antibiotics with some regularity, many do not realize they may also be consuming trace amounts of these through their water supply (Yang et al, 2017).
Toxins in Water:
Water frequently carries chemical, bacterial, viral, fungal, and pharmaceutical pollutants. These pollutants can include:
● Heavy metals.
● Chlorine & Chloramine.
● Trihalomethanes (linked to cancer).
● Fluoride.
● Pesticides.
● Herbicides.
● Pharmaceutical drugs (antidepressants, pain killers, etc.).
● Harmful bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites.
● And more (EPA.com, 2020).
All of these pollutants combined can lead to an overburdening of the immune system and detox pathways. This, in turn, can significantly reduce immune function.
Consuming high sugar diets along with “dead foods” leaves our immune system starving for energy and severely disabled. Studies have shown that sugar can reduce the immune system response by 60% for up to 6 hours after consumption (Shichao et al, 2018).
Furthermore, regularly consuming foods you may be allergic/sensitive to and not addressing underlying infections leads to systemic inflammation and impaired immune function.
Lastly, two commonly overlooked factors in gut health are stress and EMF exposure. I could write an entire article on these two alone. There are a number of ways that stress and EMF’s disrupt proper gut function. Stress reduces the production of hydrochloric acid (Esplugues et al, 1996).
If you recall, this reduction in hydrochloric acid can lead to poor sterilization of food, overgrowth of “bad” bacteria in the gut and a reduction of the good prebiotic and probiotic bacteria. All of these reduce our immune system response and allow pathogens to take root within the body much quicker and easier.
Along with this, non-native EMF’s (EMF’s from cell phones, computers, wifi, etc.) have been found to increase the growth of several strains of bad bacteria in the gut (Taheri et al, 2017).
Without reducing these “fuels to the fire”, our gut health will begin to deteriorate and our immune system along with it. Thankfully, there are many different ways to initiate healing of a damaged gastrointestinal tract and maintain this healthy gut lifelong.