Donna’s Blog

Hi all. Welcome to my website readers and to my Amazon readers, who are now able to access my blog on Amazon.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Since The Autoimmune Epidemic came out I’ve heard from key scientists from around the country who wanted to make me aware of additional groundbreaking studies on the effects of environmental chemicals and pollutants on the immune system (in addition to the dozens I discuss in my book).

As with global warming, the evidence continues to steadily, quietly mount that as we toxify our environment we are toxifying ourselves. As we leave a carbon imprint on the world around us we leave an indelible chemical imprint within. Here are some recent findings on what top scientists are uncovering about the toll that chemical imprint is taking on our human health:

John Peterson Myers, Ph.D., chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences, and co-author of the classic book Our Stolen Future , has a fascinating — and disturbing — paper on low dose exposures and their effect on the human immune system:

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/sciencebackground/2007/2007-0415nmdrc.html

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Meanwhile, a recent international meeting of the Japanese Society of Allerology also focused on low level exposures to chemicals heightening immune system sensitivity and responses. Several papers — both of which describe heightened immune system reactivity far beneath levels of contaminants currently considered toxic — attracted a lot of attention:

http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/oncompounds/phthalates/2006/2006-1010takanoetal.html

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/newscience/2007/2007-0401naritaetal.html

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Dr. Joachim Mutter, MD, wrote to tell me about studies on mercury triggering autoimmune disease and writes:

“(a) In animal studies, mercury was found to trigger, accelerate, and exacerbate autoimmune diseases such as lupus-like syndromes (Via 2003)
(b) Higher incidence of diabetes among mercury poisoned individuals (Uchino 1995)
(c) Autoimmune development of Multiple Sclerosis can be provoked by mercury and other metals (Stejskal 1999b)

Constant low-dose mercury exposure, as is typical with amalgam bearers, has been considered as a cause for certain autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE), by many authors (Bartova et al., 2003; Berlin, 2003; Hultmann et al., 1994, 1998; Pollard et al., 2001; Prochazkova et al., 2004; Stejskal and Stejskal, 1999; Stejskal et al., 1999; Sterzl et al., 1999; Via et al., 2003; Sterzl et al., 2006).”

…and he says,

“These effects can occur with exposure below acceptable safety limits (Kazantzis, 2002)”

Here’s a trick on how to quickly read the above studies for yourself — and do your own research. You can look at these studies by going to Pubmed — via the U.S. National Library of Medicine at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ – and input the author + date + mercury in the following format (for example):

Bartova[Author] AND 2003[Publication Date] + Mercury

The study will appear if it’s still in the databanks (older studies may not be). This way, you can do a bit of your own research and read the original abstracts of many of these papers on mercury and the immune system and see what you think.
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Meanwhile, Dr. Arlene Blum, MD, is working on helping the public to better understand the health consequences of flame retardants. You can learn more at:

http://greensciencepolicy.org

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And one upcoming study, not yet published by a group of researchers from around the country, shows what may turn out to be the most startling news of all. While current tests to determine levels of chemicals and pollutants are done by analyzing blood, urine and hair, scientists are finding that the levels of toxins are significantly higher when they test for these toxins in our fat.

This isn’t really surprising since it’s in our fat that we store toxins. What is surprising is the tests these scientists have done which show that levels of PCBs and chlorinated pesticides found in our fat are, on average, one hundred times higher than what shows up in our bloodstreams and urine.

Blood chilling indeed.

Please also check out my website at donnajacksonnakazawa.com for more information about the factors that are combining in our 21st Century life and causing our immune systems to be overtaxed.

Let me know what you think of the gathering evidence that we’re outpacing our evolutionary ability to keep adapting to so many chemicals and pollutants in our world.