Toxic Time Bombs: The Pollution In You

Fatigue, allergies, joint aches or mood swings got you down? Although concern over the effects of pollution on the environment has held our attention for decades, new research is detecting chemical toxins in most people.[1;2] While industry furiously challenges the evidence, scientists argue that low-level chemical exposures are linked with these subtle but all too common problems, not to mention diseases such as autism, ADHD, and cancer, to name a few. Long term, low level exposures to chemicals cause an accumulation in the body referred to as “body burden.”

As we gain increasing understanding about the adverse effects of body burden on health what remains less clear is when the time bomb may go off. The medical community is trained to look to yesterday’s exposure to explain today’s symptoms. Yet, body burden, accumulations of toxic chemicals, may have more subtle but important health effects that are not seen for years, or even lifetimes. Because of this time delay, it is not uncommon for a chemical to be banned for safety concerns after decades of use — a real world experiment.

Studies link ZIP codes near waste sites with low-birth-weight babies, thyroid disease in women and female reproductive disorders such as endometriosis — even in regions with higher per capita income, less smoking, better diet and more exercise.[3] The same researchers have data linking living near waste sites to elevated risks for stroke, ischemic heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.

Our life support system: Better living through chemistry?
You don’t live near an industrial waste site? The truth is that even if you do, you probably get most of your toxins as pesticides and additives in your food or each time you apply various consumer cosmetic products. Your home, your cars and even the water you drink slowly leak chemicals into your life.

There has been a staggering proliferation of toxic chemicals produced without due regard for testing for long-term health effects of low level exposures. Thousands of new synthetic chemicals come into manufactured consumer products every year with little to no safety testing or public approval process. According to the World Health Organization, there are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals in use in consumer products today with 1,000 to 2,000 being added to the list each year.

We breathe these chemicals through our lungs, absorb them through our skin and ingest them in the food we eat and water we drink. We are soaking up chemicals that we'd be hard-pressed to spell or pronounce, if we could even find out what they were.

The body burden problem
Toxic chemicals know no boundaries. Chemicals contaminate not only wildlife and the environment, but people, breast milk and the unborn child yet most people are unaware that they carry chemical compounds in their bodies. Each of us has some load of industrial chemicals stored in or passing through our bodies. Human fat tissue sampled in the United States contained 700 contaminants that have not been chemically identified.[4]

According to Michael McCally, M.D. Ph.D., of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, “Current ‘normal’ body burdens of dioxin and several other well-studied organochlorides are at or near the range at which toxic effects occur in laboratory animals.” A recent Mt Sinai study found 167 chemicals in the blood and urine of volunteers; chemicals used in consumer products and found in industrial pollution.[2] Of the 167 chemicals discovered, 94 are toxic to the brain or nervous system, 76 are carcinogenic (cancer-causing) and 79 are linked to birth defects. None of the participants worked with chemicals or lived near an industrial facility. In other words, these toxins represent the average body burden of the ordinary American citizen.

This is not a uniquely American problem. A 2005 British study funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Co-Operative Bank found chemicals including banned pesticides like DDT, flame retardants and the PFOA chemical found in Teflon and used on nonstick pans and stain repellents.

If the body burden of adults isn’t enough cause for alarm, it is shocking to learn the effects on future generations. In 2005, the US Environmental Working Group [5] reported that umbilical cord blood samples taken from newborn babies were all heavily contaminated. A total of 287 contaminants were detected. Many of these were known or suspected carcinogens, neurotoxins or linked with birth defects if present in high concentrations. Meanwhile, an exhaustive review of the evidence points to prenatal exposures as a source of postnatal mental deficits.[6]

Scientists have never assessed the effects of exposures to the endless combinations of chemicals found in people. One reason why measuring such effects is difficult is that these chemicals are persistent (meaning they do not break down) and bioaccumulative (meaning they tend to build up in living things, particularly areas of the body rich in fat such as fatty tissue, brain and other organs).

Our understanding of when a chemical is toxic is changing and concerned individuals are calling for laws to regulate these compounds more carefully. However, because of their widespread use, tendency to persist and accumulation in body tissues — especially fat — even regulatory changes will not remove them from our world very quickly.

While we wait for industry, government and science to reach agreement, the vast increase of chemicals in our environment, foods, cosmetics and medicines puts an enormous burden on our bodies’ natural abilities to break down and remove toxins. With the exception of certain minerals, these chemicals do not belong in the body. While minerals are needed at low levels for normal function, some are now found measured at high or even toxic concentrations.

Most people wait too long to do something about it
The good news is that something can be done about the toxins in our bodies. Our livers, lungs, kidneys are constantly working overtime to remove the onslaught of chemicals. To function properly, these systems require broad nutritional support. When we don’t give our body what it needs to help it eliminate these chemicals or when we expose it to more than it can handle, it just can’t keep up. Symptoms such as fatigue, aches, allergies, asthma, mood swings, foggy thinking, and more set in. Before this happens — and even afterwards — the correct detoxification program can make all the difference.

The Maulfair Medical Center uses the Hubbard method of detoxification, the most thorough and scientifically validated regimen available. This precise regimen combines exercise, sauna bathing, and vitamin and mineral supplementation to increase the elimination of chemicals while rebuilding and repairing your body. Its safety and effectiveness in treating a wide range of exposures have been established for more than two decades.[7;8]

Originally developed by Hubbard in 1979, this program has been successfully used to aid individuals exposed during large-scale environmental contaminations, including those resulting from the 2001 World Trade Center disaster [9] and the 1986 Chernobyl incident [10]. Thousands of people have enjoyed relief from symptoms caused by more gradual build-up of toxins.

Sauna detoxification at the Maulfair Medical Center
Dr. Maulfair gets you started on your sauna program with a thorough medical examination and a series of key tests plus a complete physical exam. Tests may include a pre and post assessment of toxic body burden and some tests may be repeated periodically, to monitor your status while on the regimen.

Dr. Maulfair has over thirty years experience utilizing detoxification regimens to treat chronic disease. Join those clients of the Maulfair Medical Center’s program who have gained back their quality of life, enjoy restored energy, clear thinking, motivation and an overall sense of well being. For more information see www.drmaulfair.com

Dr. Conrad Maulfair
Maulfair Medical Center, Topton, PA

Reference List

1. Calafat AM, Wong LY, Kuklenyik Z, Reidy JA, Needham LL: Polyfluoroalkyl chemicals in the U.S. population: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2004 and comparisons with NHANES 1999-2000. Environ Health Perspect 2007; 115: 1596-602.
2. Environmental Working Group. Body Burden: The pollution in people [Web Page]. 2003; Accessed 2008 Feb 20. Available at: http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden1/ 
3. Baibergenova A, Kudyakov R, Zdeb M, Carpenter DO: Low birth weight and residential proximity to PCB-contaminated waste sites. Environ Health Perspect 2003; 111: 1352-7.
4. Onstot, J., Ayling, R., and Stanley, J. Characterization of HRCG/MS unidentified peaks from the analysis of human adipose tissue. Vol. 1: Technical Approach. 87. Washington DC, US Environmental Protection Agency Office of toxic Substances. 
5. Environmental Working Group. Body Burden: The pollution in newborns [Web Page]. 2005; Accessed 2008 Feb 20. Available at: http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/execsumm.php. 
6. Williams JH, Ross L: Consequences of prenatal toxin exposure for mental health in children and adolescents: a systematic review. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2007; 16: 243-53.
7. Schnare DW, Denk G, Shields M, Brunton S: Evaluation of a detoxification regimen for fat stored xenobiotics. Med Hypotheses 1982; 9: 265-82.
8. Schnare, D. W., Ben, M., and Shields, M. G. Body Burden Reduction of PCBs, PBBs and Chlorinated Pesticides in Human Subjects. Ambio 1984; 13(5-6): 378-380.
9. Cecchini MA, Root DA, Rachunow JR, Gelb PM: Chemical Exposures at the World Trade Center: Use of the Hubbard Sauna Detoxification Regimen to Improve the Health Status of New York City Rescue Workers Exposed to Toxicants. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients 2006; 273: 58-65.
10. Tsyb, A. F., Parshkov, E. M., Barnes, J., Yarzutkin, V. V. , Vorontsov, N. V., and Dedov, V. I. Rehabilitation of a Chernobyl Affected Population Using a Detoxification Method. Proceedings of the 1998 International Radiological Postemergency Response Issues Conference. 1998. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Chelation Therapy: Confused by claims of benefits? Oral chelation is not created equal!

Although oral chelation is promoted as “safe, fast and cost effective” by its manufacturers, it cannot produce the results of intravenous treatments given under the supervision of trained doctors who carefully monitor your progress with sophisticated diagnostics. And you may not want to guess when it comes to preventing or treating the main reason people have circulatory and heart disease, or other degenerative problems.

Conventional medicine has been using various intravenous chelation approaches since deployed troops were poisoned with the heavy metal arsenic during the First World War. Coined from the Greek chelè, meaning claw — to reflect their capacity to bind metals within a “claw-like” molecular structure, which is then excreted without further interaction with the body — the first medically-used chelating agent was developed at the start of WWII as an antidote to anticipated use of arsenic gas by the Germans. Today, chelation therapy is the recognized, U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved, medical treatment for heavy metal intoxication by lead, cadmium, aluminum, mercury, arsenic, and even iron.

Despite decades of medical use in response to large-scale heavy metal exposures along with overwhelming scientific rationale and evidence, chelation therapy is often overlooked as a solution to the adverse health effects caused by more gradual build-up of toxic metals. Why? you ask. There are a number of reasons:

1. The controversy between newer oral chelation supplements and the intravenous treatments used for decades is confusing. Because oral chelation is regulated as a supplement, it does not come under the same scrutiny as physicians offering intravenous chelation therapy in their clinics.

2. Well-done scientific research that supports use of intravenous chelation treatment is used to justify claims made by manufacturers of untested oral supplements.

3. Because most exposures are not large-scale, occuring gradually at low levels from living in industrialized nations, for most of us the exact cause of our symptoms is hard to pin-point, or our symptoms are subtle, or we may not have symptoms but are trying to prevent disease from occurring.

4. Subtle symptoms, or worse, diseases one is trying to prevent, are very, very difficult to study. This makes FDA approval for use with chronic degenerative diseases difficult (and very costly) as supporting research must show cause and effect. Keep in mind that chelation therapy is approved for use when someone has a known heavy metal exposure.

The fatigue, discomfort, and moodiness of low-level exposures
Ever-increasing use and accumulation of pollutants in general, and persistent organic pollutants in particular, have received recent attention for their long-lasting adverse health effects. Gradual exposure to hazardous toxins is becoming more prevalent especially in overpopulated and industrialized parts of the world. Such exposure contributes to increased health risks [1]. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix to protect or intervene against diseases associated with exposure to these insidious environmental pollutants.

Many pollutants, including heavy metals and persistent organics, bioaccumulate (pass up the food chain to humans) and build up in our bodies where they cause damage both locally to the tissues where they accumulate, including contributing to the formation of cancer, vascular disease, accelerated aging as well as altering the normal patterns of hormones — patterns that effect everything from energy level to fertility to mood.

Exposure to heavy metals can occur via many common sources: house paint (lead), dental fillings (mercury), vaccines (mercury), cigarettes (cadmium), food, drinking water and hazardous waste sites. Over 4000 articles in the medical literature connect small amounts of lead in the body and high blood pressure. Elevated mercury and antimony have been found in hearts of heart disease patients at autopsy [2].

Unlike many chemicals that can now be detected in the human body, the toxic effects of heavy metal exposures are well understood and many sources of exposure are regulated. Despite this, millions of Americans suffer from chronic, low-level, exposures to heavy metals, including lead, mercury, arsenic, antimony and cadmium.

A Center for Disease Control report states that 10% of American women of childbearing age (7 million women each year) have mercury in their blood at levels that are potentially unsafe for the developing fetus [3]. Clear evidence now links exposure to toxins such as mercury, lead, pesticides, and in utero smoking exposure to higher levels of autism and/or ADHD [4]. Despite the clear benefit to health of eating fish as a source fatty acids, many of us avoid fish because of its high mercury content — knowing that mercury is linked with cardiac disease [5;6].

Getting rid of unwanted contaminants
Many doctors argue — have argued for decades — that chelation therapy can address low level metal exposures and consequent degenerative diseases. Recent understanding of how pollution contributes to the formation of blocked heart arteries, by contributing contaminants — inflammation-causing molecules known as “free radicals” — many of which are heavy metals, has lead to investment in large-scale clinical trials to gather more data on the effectiveness of chelation therapy to treat our number one killer, heart disease.

The National Institutes of Health's alternative medicine center recently funded a large experiment — 2,372 heart-attack survivors. Led by Dr. Gervasio Lamas of the Mount Sinai Medical Center-Miami Heart Institute, the five-year study began enrolling participants at about 100 sites around the country in 2003.

Lamas said he decided to design the study when one of his own patients asked about chelation. "While my answer, as a very conventional cardiologist, was initially, 'No, that's silly,' as I looked into it I realized I didn't really have the evidence base to say that," Lamas said. With hundreds of thousands of people seeking chelation therapy annually, "now we'll see what the real truth is."

The efficacy of chelation therapy has been clinically demonstrated with positive results in hundreds of thousands of cases where this treatment was utilized [7]. In one smaller study, the results with intravenous chelation were so pronounced that the control group was taken off placebo and given chelation therapy so as to not withhold beneficial care [8].

The safety of this therapy, when properly administered, is also well known. It is estimated that over 500,000 patients nationally have been safely treated with this therapy by physicians utilizing the protocol developed by the American College for Advancement in Medicine without a single fatality attributed to I.V. EDTA. Surgical procedures or even taking aspirin have a much greater fatality rate.

Effective chelation therapy is administered in I.V. form over the course of several hours. Although thousands of websites promote oral chelation agents — it is important to understand why this approach does not work:

1. Effective chelation therapy depends on whether the chelating agents are able to remove heavy metals that are circulating in the blood or deposited in cells in the body — the chelator must get into the blood and cells.

2. Only about 5% of the oral chelation agent, EDTA, gets into the bloodstream.

3. Further, oral chelation may prevent absorption of certain nutrient metals that are required at low levels for proper nutritional health.

4. Oral chelation agents do not effect the build-up of calcium, iron, or copper within the cells – a build-up that can lead to stiffening and hardening of tissues and other degenerative diseases.

The ABC’s of Chelation Therapy
Maulfair Medical Center gets you started on your chelation program with a thorough medical examination and a series of key tests. The necessary laboratory tests vary from patient to patient, but there are a few tests everyone will need. These tests include: toxic metal and mineral status, comprehensive metabolic panel and a complete blood count.

Other tests may include a pre and post-provocative challenge for heavy metals. Some tests will be repeated periodically, to monitor your kidneys efficiency in removing metals.

Dr. Maulfair relies on thirty years experience utilizing chelation therapy to treat chronic, degenerative diseases including hardening of the arteries, coronary heart disease, carotid artery disease, peripheral artery disease, diabetes, arthritis. Clients of Maulfair Medical Center’s comprehensive chelation program have gained back their quality of life with improved circulation, restored energy, motivation and overall sense of well being.

Dr. Conrad Maulfair
Maulfair Medical Center, Topton PA

Reference List

1. Environmental Working Group. EWG || Human Toxome Project [Web Page]. Accessed 2008 Feb 12. Available at: http://www.bodyburden.org
2. Mottet NK, Body RL: Mercury burden of human autopsy organs and tissues. Arch Environ Health 1974; 29: 18-24.
3. Schober SE, Sinks TH, Jones RL, et al: Blood mercury levels in US children and women of childbearing age, 1999-2000. JAMA 2003; 289: 1667-74.
4. Curtis LT, Patel K: Nutritional and Environmental Approaches to Preventing and Treating Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Review. J Altern Complement Med 2008; 
5. Bouzan C, Cohen JT, Connor WE, et al: A quantitative analysis of fish consumption and stroke risk. Am J Prev Med 2005; 29: 347-52.
6. Landmark K, Aursnes I: [Mercury, fish, fish oil and the risk of cardiovascular disease]. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 2004; 124: 198-200.
7. Olszewer E, Carter JP: EDTA chelation therapy in chronic degenerative disease. Med Hypotheses 1988; 27: 41-9.
8. Olszewer E, Sabbag FC, Carter JP: A pilot double-blind study of sodium-magnesium EDTA in peripheral vascular disease. J Natl Med Assoc 1990; 82: 173-7.

Reduce Stress

In these turbulent times we want to invite you to do all you can to improve a good night’s sleep, insure you have a strong immune system, are feeling well enough to exercise and know that the quality of the food you eat has everything to do with your health and happiness.

YOU NEED EVEN MORE… you need the knowledge that our medical center stands at the top of the heap with regards outcomes and results. We help the toughest cases and those who know how to avoid developing health problems in the first place. We are sending you this notice to summarize the benefits we offer. Our first recommendation to you is to avoid pharmaceutical drugs of all kinds. If you must use them use them the way we do: use the smallest amount for the shortest period of time.

Infusion therapy is offered in our center because most people have poor digestion and do not eat foods that are healthful. While we educate you on proper dietary choices we offer treatments that deliver nutrients needed to fight disease and prevent problems in the form of intravenous treatments. WHY? you ask. Results. Delivered directly into your blood stream a trouble free intravenous treatment (IV for short) is supervised by our talented nurses while you read or sleep or work on your computer or watch you personal DVDs. Nutrients and other infusions speed recovery to normal function and help prevent symptoms of all kinds from developing to begin with.

If you have cancer and are undergoing treatment we support you with nutrient IVs and also high dose vitamin C. Well tolerated, high dose vitamin C is given in amounts you could not take by mouth. No need to be digested it is immediately available to your body for nutrition but also to combat cancer directly. Cancer Centers of America are doing an IRB on high dose vitamin C in their Chicago facility. We have been offering this treatment to our patients for years. Although we do not treat cancer directly we support your immune system and help you fight that much harder. People report fewer side effects from chemotherapy combining the use of both fields of medicine.

Vitamin C intravenous treatments also fight viruses and used pre and post surgery enhance the healing process. St. Agnes Burn Center uses IV vitamin C for this very reason to help burn victims, it speeds healing and helps prevent infection. People with influenza, mononucleosis, upper respiratory infections, Lyme disease and liver disease all benefit under our care. You can also use these infusions to remain healthy during high flu outbreak months.

If you suffer from migraines, muscle spasms, asthma, heart rate irregularity, angina, menstrual cramping, constipation, Raynaud’s syndrome, esophageal spasm, back muscle spasm and intestinal spasm, you will benefit by infusions of magnesium. The health giving properties are abounding in the medical literature and you will find many reasons to use magnesium as you research its uses. Low energy, fatigue, weakness, inability to sleep, anxiousness, nervousness, irritability are also improved with mega doses of magnesium. You could not take the amount in an IV by mouth as you would get diarrhea due to the muscle relaxant properties of magnesium.

Glutathione is essential for normal liver function. It is minimally absorbed when taken orally but when you give infusions of glutathione it supports liver function. If you are a past drug abuser or medical drug over user this is a very important treatment to help your liver function better. People with cancer typically have stressed liver function and benefit from this treatment. A series of infusions of glutathione can be used in conjunction with vitamin C. There is evidence mounting that people with severe drug reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics benefit a great deal by the use of glutathione.

The king of the hill remains chelation therapy. It is under attack again by people who are trying to stop the NIH national study which will clearly show its benefits. The last gasp of criticism is printed by our biased media who do not understand the science of chelation therapy nor the ways it helps the body heal and prevents circulatory problems. Inflammation lies at the bottom of most symptoms of aging, inflammation caused by heavy metals picked up and stored in the body disrupting normal function. We have tons of clinical evidence of the benefits of chelation therapy. We have scientific studies, pre and post treatment, of our patients that clearly shows the benefits and healing properties of chelation. Without a doubt the benefits are known by medical scientists as a whole, but the business interests of big pharma and big medicine will not give way without calling every doctor using alternative complementary medical treatments a quack. So be it… if it gets the results, if it changes and reverses circulatory problems, as documented by diagnostics commonly used, then it must be EFFECTIVE AND HEALTHFUL!! We have reversed circulatory problems due to diabetes that could have resulted in amputations, we have successfully treated wounds that were slow to heal, heart problems and we have helped thousands of people slow the aging process and enjoy their active lives.

Billions of dollars spent on invasive procedures could be saved if the public was able to avail themselves of chelation therapy and other IV therapy for prevention and treatment of existing disease processes. You do not change or stop the process of heart disease when you have a bypass surgery, the disease process continues. Spend some time in our reception area and read the hundreds of benefits people have experienced in our center. Patients themselves are the best testimony to health restored.

Dr Conrad Maulfair, Osteopathic Physician

Planning To Party For The Holidays?

Be your "Best Self" with our Anti-Stress Holiday Program

Our nutrient and glutathione infusions boost your immune system to give you that extra zest you might be looking for. They provide the body with crucial nutrients that quickly burn up with increased stress levels. Infusions bypass your digestive system — ensuring you receive maximum benefits.

Glutathione is added to our nutrient infusions if you anticipate imbibing more than the usual amount of alcohol. It is ESSENTIAL for liver detoxification.

Contact us today to schedule an appointment. We will make the holidays easier on your body.

610.682.2104

http://drmaulfair.com