The environment is a significant factor in overall health and affects underlying diseases. The health effects of environmental agents, either direct or indirect, are clearly evidenced to cause substantial damages to the body (Epstein and Sharp, 1993; Leaf, 1989, Bellinger et al., 1986).
Environmental illness and injury are nearly impossible to detect and pinpoint by general practitioners and non-environmental specialists. The heightened required evidence of modern medicine makes a diagnosis of environmental disease even more difficult and prone to misdiagnoses. Generally, general physicians do not consider environmental factors. Physiological influences go undetected by practitioners without undisputed evidence of a relationship between exposure and symptoms.
Environmental illness diseases may be rooted or influenced by genetics, epigenetic changes, lifestyle choices, and/or amplified by the world surrounding the patient. In children and adults, several studies over several decades (National Center for Health Services, 1989; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1991; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1991; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2019; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2020; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2008) continue to conclude the environment can have devastating effects on the human body. These studies have found neurotoxic levels of lead, mold, and chemical contamination causing cancers, asthma, inflammatory diseases, and other environment-agented illnesses, including:
- Autism
- Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)
- Lyme Disease
- PANS/PANDAS
- Chronic Neurological Disorders
Patients suffering from environmentally caused illnesses could experience epigenetic changes, multiple system inflammation, and neurological changes in gray and white matter areas of the brain. The multitude of effects of environmental diseases makes identifying the root cause incredibly tricky. Every person reacts differently depending on which genes are silenced, systems’ affected, and structural brain changes.
What is Environmental Illness?
Any toxin or substance from the environment can make a person sick and/or may cause an environmental illness. These natural and human-made hazards exist in homes, schools, offices, and outdoors. Symptoms may be as mild as a headache or rash when visiting the location. Or as severe as crippling multi-system deterioration.
Symptoms can be triggered by exposure to:
- Acrylamide
- Air or water pollution
- Algal blooms
- Biotoxins
- Building materials
- Dioxins
- Electronic and Magnetic Fields (EMFs)
- Glyphosate
- Heavy metals
- Mold
- Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS, including BPA)
- Ticks
- Toxic chemicals or gases
- Underlying bacterial, parasitic, protozoal, or viral infections (Nagalase)
- Unsafe drinking water
- Water-damaged buildings
BioNexus Health Clinic has seen patients sickened by homes, school buses, swimming pools, therapists’ offices, and many common locations.
Symptoms of Environmental Illnesses
Environmental illness does not have one set of symptoms because there is a multitude of causes and effects. In mild cases, the symptoms can include:
- Cough
- Fever and chills
- Headache
- Muscle aches
- Nausea
- Rash
More severe and perplexing symptoms typically indicate multi-system issues involving DNA/RNA transcription, system inflammation, neurological disorders, and more. Affected children may experience unexplained weight loss or gain or symptoms associated with:
- Allergies
- Asthma
- Attention deficit disorder/ Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ ADHD)
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Juvenile Arthritis
- Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS; formerly PANDAS)
Adults could suffer hair loss or unexplained weight loss or gain or be misdiagnosed with allergies, asthma, ASD, or:
- Alzheimer’s
- Ataxia: failure of muscular coordination
- Bell’s Palsy
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Diabetes
- Dilated Cardiomyopathy
- Epstein-Barr Virus
- Fibromyalgia
- Guillain-Barre Syndrome
- Hair Loss
- Heart Attack Symptoms
- Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS)
- Lupus
- Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)
- Multiple Sclerosis (M.S.)
- Narcolepsy
- Ongoing Sinus/Allergy Problems
- Parkinson’s
- Peripheral Neuropathy: tingling in arms and legs
- Respiratory Problems
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- TMJ
- Vasculitis
Environmental illnesses can be tough to diagnose without seeing an environmental illness specialist.
The variety of symptoms and causes could lead your doctor to mistake the cause of your symptoms for one of the illnesses above or any other potential illness. They might recommend you to a specialist for the disease they suspect.
That specialist may find that you do not fit the criteria for a diagnosis or find perplexing other symptoms and diagnosis you with X-disease-related. If the specialist cannot diagnose you, then you repeat the cycle with another specialist.
At BioNexus Health Clinic, this is a story we hear from nearly all of our patients. Our patients may see an upwards of twenty specialists and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars before finding us.
Yes. Exposure to toxic chemicals can cause sensitivities to chemicals. Environmental health necessitates a reduction in exposure and use of any and all chemicals. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) can be triggered by Teflon pan smoke, cigarette smoke, indoor air pollution, additive scents, and much more. From a health perspective, purchasing used and natural goods greatly reduces MCS reactions.
Yes. Exposure to mold, biotoxins, and toxic chemicals, including carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), can cause some to become ill. Long term health problems can arise from a person’s susceptible to everyday environmental hazards.
Sick building syndrome (SBS) means that the occupants of a building experience acute or chronic health effects linked directly to the building.
Begin tracking your exposure history because an environmental illness almost always has a cause and effect. Some physiological changes may trigger within minutes, while others might take a few days to become noticeable.
It’s time to play investigator and keep a journal:
1 ) If you feel environmental illness systems consider where you have been over the last week;
2) If one location always makes you sick, note the place and the dates. Then try to avoid it or prepare your body before arrival. Wear an N96 mask, goggles, long sleeve shirts, or whatever you need to protect your body;
3) Consider exposure to anything that may have triggered your symptoms;
4) Look for patterns of exposure and symptoms; and
5) Discuss your findings with your doctor.
The majority of BioNexus Health patients are several years into their environmental illness. Their bodies are typically ravaged by both their environment and modern medicine. Usually, their only path towards health requires a gentler approach.
You may also discover that you do not have an environmental illness. That is why it is essential to share your findings with your doctor. If your primary care doctor is resistant to your investigation, consider another doctor who is open to listening. It is your body (or child’s). You deserve someone willing to listen and bring their medical expertise to the investigation.
Early-stage treatment includes removing or reducing exposure, including lifestyle changes, improving overall air quality, and reducing mold exposure risks.
Advanced stage treatment necessitates removal or a massive reduction in exposure. People who move to advanced stages of environmental illness nearly always have a genetic disorder that prevents the body from naturally detoxifying itself.
BioNexus Health works with patients to set the course of treatment and individualized each family member based on lab results.
Typically, in dealing with environmental illness, if one person in a family is sick more often, other family members are too. Families engage in close quarters and share genetic make-ups. In some cases, if a mother is ill while pregnant, those issues can be inherited by the newborn.
Most patients who arrive at BioNexus Health are either chronically ill or in advanced stages of environmental illnesses. We work, in tandem, with primary care physicians and specialists to set a plant-based treatment plan based on our proprietary BioNexus Approach.
The success secret to the BioNexus Approach lies within its full 360-degree approach to biochemistry, physiology, nutrition, and lifestyle.
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” World Health Organization’s Constitution Preamble (2006) adopted in 1946
Chronic illness affects a patient’s life in a variety of different aspects. Formulating a complete plan of attack requires laying the foundation to address root causes and renovating the patient’s lifestyle to promote regenerative healing to improve health. Targeting underlying biochemical issues and monitoring biochemical and physiological changes throughout treatment allows for the treatment plan to adapt to the patient.
Plant-based medications inherently contain more active ingredients than pharmaceutical drugs. The natural ingredients synergistically function on several different biological levels and affect a multitude of biochemical changes.
These abundant factors create a treatment plan balancing act for the practitioner and an extended healing period for the patient. Under the guidance of a clinical herbalist, herbal medicine can be used without additional complications when regarding the full 360 of a person.
Self-treatment with medicinal herbs is just as dangerous as self-dosing with someone’s prescription. It is incredibly dangerous to self-diagnosis and self-medicate.
There can never be a “detox in a box” approach for environmental illness. The root causes and their greater effects range drastically. Every protocol must be tailored very specifically to the individual for maximizing efficacy.
Your friend may have neuro-inflammation, and you might be experiencing nervous system deterioration and gut issues. The medicine needed to reduce these root causes is different.
Each patient has their own set of symptoms, genetics, epigenetics, reactivity thresholds, and microbial and toxin load. Practitioners should review the individual biology of a patient before prescribing a medicinal herbs treatment plan.
Yes! We care for patients of all ages. We call ourselves a family practice because environmental illness typically affects more than one member of a household.
Resources
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/index.cfm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5377970/
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/mold/index.cfm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231989/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5377970/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231989/
References
Bellinger D, Leviton A, Needleman H, Watemaux C, and Rabinowitz M. 1986. Low-level lead exposure and infant development in the first year. Neurobehav Toxicol Teratol 8:151–161.
Centers for Disease Control. 1991. Preventing Lead Poisoning in Young Children. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2006. Mold Prevention Strategies and Possible Health Effects in the Aftermath of Hurricanes and Major Floods. MMWR, 55(RR-8). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr5508.pdf
Epstein PR and Sharp D. 1993. Medicine in a warmer world. The Lancet 432(8878):1003.
Leaf A. 1989. Potential health effects of global climate and environmental changes. N Engl J Med 321:1577–1583.
National Center for Health Statistics. 1989. Vital Statistics of the United States, 1987. Vol. 11, Part B. DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 89–1102. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Shoemaker, R. C., & House, D. E. (2006). Sick building syndrome (SBS) and exposure to water-damaged buildings: Time series study, clinical trial and mechanisms. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 28(5), 573–588. Retrieved from https://www.survivingmold.com/docs/Resources/Shoemaker%20Papers/Johanning_book_5_06.pdf
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. 1991. Healthy People 2000. DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 91–50212. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2019, January 27. Mold Course Chapter 2: | US EPA. Retrieved March 23, 2019, from https://www.epa.gov/mold/mold-course-chapter-2
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2019, December 18. Proposed Revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/proposed-revisions-lead-and-copper-rule
U.S. Government Accountability Office. 2008. Indoor Mold: Better Coordination of Research on Health Effects and More Consistent Guidance Would Improve Federal Efforts (GAO-08-980). Retrieved from https://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08980.pdf
World Health Organization. 2006, October. Constitution of the World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf
Other Notes
Some professionals believe environmental illnesses are a mental illness. Our advice is to find a practitioner who believes in your complaints about a suspected cause and effect.
The BioNexus Health staff is dedicated to sharing information about environmental illness and its related diseases.
If you are seeking a plant-based medicinal treatment for an environmental illness please reach out to the office via our website. We are a small staff so please follow the instructions located here: https://bionexushealth.com/message/.
Available for families and people of all ages!
