Environmental Medicine

Environmental Medicine combines both the assessment and management of your environmental toxic burden. There are currently over 80,000 chemicals used in North America. These chemicals and toxins accumulate in your body as a result of the food you eat and drink, the air you breathe, the products you use on your skin and in your home and garden. They also accumulate based on the products used in businesses and industry such as plastics of various kinds, fire retardants and industrial chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides and bleaching materials and those that exist in the environment at large. In other words we are all exposed to thousands of chemicals on a daily basis.

Your environmental toxic load is affected by your exposure and your body’s ability to assimilate and excrete the toxins. Excretion is highly variable and determined by an individual’s genetics, nutritional status, antibiotic use, lifestyle and total toxic load. An environmental toxic burden is exhibited when the level of net retention exceeds physiological tolerance.

It is likely that toxic chemicals and heavy metals are a concern for you if any of the following apply:

  • Progressive immune problems (allergies, infections or autoimmunity) followed by neurological problems
  • Symptoms that don’t seem to resolve; such as nausea, difficulty breathing, change in mental thinking or senses (hearing and smell) and ongoing joint and muscle pain and weakness.
  • Adverse physical or mental reactions from exposure to ambient levels of chemicals (headaches, brain fog, fatigue, shortness of breath, asthma, muscle weakness, collapse)
  • History of adverse reactions to medications
  • Inability to handle caffeine: “Can’t drink after noon without insomnia”
  • Inability to handle medications “I’m very sensitive to any medication I’ve taken”
  • Non-responsive to therapies that have a high degree of effectiveness for your diagnosis
  • History of chemical exposure or obvious occupational, hobby related or residential exposures prior to illness.

Using a thorough patient intake form and specific lab tests, your Naturopathic Doctor will work with you to determine and address your environmental toxic burden.