It took me months to read this book. Between the brain fog, fatigue, inflammation, and generally feeling unwell, I've been finding it very difficult to read at all over the past couple of years. I read this book faster than any others since I've become sick. It was very engaging for a book on health, and my brain was hungry to learn more about how to heal. I read a couple of chapters about 3 times before I understood what they said, but it was worth struggling through processing the words. Understanding this, I hope you forgive me if I forget something or misrepresent something in this review.
I highly recommend that everyone reads this book, even if you're not sick. It will open your eyes to how you can protect not only your health, but the health of those around you. If you care about and respect humans, you'll want to read this book. It's certainly not the only book with this type of information, but it might be the easiest to read and understand. The entire message of the book boils down to the dangers of environmental toxicity common in our every day lives, how toxins are the root cause of most chronic illnesses (even affecting genes that cause illness), and how to protect yourself in this toxic world we've created. It sounds like a conspiracy theory until you read about the actual science behind it - there's actually quite a bit of research, much of which even the CDC and WHO acknowledge.
As I first started reading I was a bit worried it wouldn't be anything new, other than her personal stories of mold and toxin exposure causing her cancer and bloating. She spends many many pages slowly prepping the reader for what's to come later in the book, gently asking you health questions and lifestyle questions to motivate you to want to change your habits in order to become healthier. Because so much of this long introduction wasn't new to me since I've already been living in an environmental health nightmare, I ended up skimming over the rest of it.
What was helpful to me in this introduction was her granddaughter's story. Her 14-year-old granddaughter went to a clinic in Florida that I had been curious about. I quickly found out that only celebrities can afford the clinic, but the way they treat patients is something I hope other clinics can learn from. Her granddaughter's story was heartbreaking, but she was able to recover because of this clinic.
The majority of the book is long interviews with doctors. She interviews Nick Gonzalez, M.D. (may he RIP); Sherry Rogers, M.D.; Stephen Sinatra, M.D.; Gary Gorden, M.D.; Ritchie Shoemaker, M.D.; and Walter Crinnion, N.D. While the topic of each interview might not be new to people with environmental illness, many of the details were. I learned quite a bit from each of these doctors, even though I've read up on some of them before reading this book. Each of these doctors explains some root causes they've found in patients as well as offering advice for recovery. I'll include a photo of a page from most of the interviews, so you can get a taste of what the doctors have to offer in these interviews.
Dr. Nick Gonzalez's interview made me want to see him as a patient, but sadly, he's one of the over 50 holistic doctors that have been murdered in the past year (you can read more about this on the link in the last paragraph.) As a cancer doctor, he talked quite a bit about organ health. He digs into gut health, especially the role of bacteria in fighting and preventing cancer. He explains how environmental toxins, especially mercury, messes with our gut bacteria and stem cells that we need to sustain our life, which promotes the growth of cancer cells. He digs into the concept of "leaky brain," which is an issue of a compromised blood-brain barrier. His suggestions for healing are mostly focused on liver cleanses, and so he's a big fan of bentonite clay and coffee enemas. I was a bit skeptical of these suggestions at first, mainly due to assumptions about lead in the clay and coffee enemas being harsh on the colon, but it inspired me to do further reading on the subject. I'm much less skeptical the more I read up on these treatments, but I think that's for another post.
After his interview she digs into the rising issue of gluten sensitivities, borrowing research from some of the leaders such as Dr. Perlmutter (author of Grain Brain.)
This leads into an interview with Dr. Sherry Rogers on Environmental Illness. Her back story is very interesting. She went into Environmental Heath after formaldehyde poisoning from working on cadavers in medical school. She later was told that as a 35-year-old her bones looked like those of a 78-year-old's. She found out that the only way to manage her chronic pain was to eliminate all nightshades from her diet, even the spices like paprika. She had been through a lot, and it lead her to writing the book Detoxify or Die, which I'm interested in reading. She digs into Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, thyroid lab tests showing normal results when the thyroid is sick, nutrition problems such as with magnesium, and more.
Next, she moves into a chapter on the heart. This is the chapter that many people are going to feel most resistant to because it gives advice that's opposite of what our government's nutritional advice says. She digs into the necessity of eating saturated fats and the role of cholesterol. But don't just take her word for it or the word of the research she borrows from, read her interview with Cardiologist and Psychotherapist Dr. Stephen Sinatra. He explains how the low-fat craze all started when President Eisenhower had a heart attack. Ansel Keys conducted his Seven Countries Study and found that people who consumed the lowest amount of fat and the least heart disease, and that Eisnenhower ate a high fat diet. Dr. Sinatra then explains that Ansel Keys cherry picked his data to draw this conclusion, not being fully honest in the study, in order to prove his hypothesis. George McGovern was the secretary of health at the time and decided to set into motion the low-fat craze across the nation, based solely on Ansel Key's "research." This is when margarine was invented and "heart healthy" oils like corn oils took over the market. Then the Framingham study came out, showing correlation between high cholesterol and cardiovascular events. The correlation caused a mass assumption that cholesterol was a risk factor in heart disease. Dr. Sinatra then explains that this is when drug companies first started making statins to lower cholesterol. Dr. Sinatra was a spokesperson for statins, being paid very very well to promote their use. He said after a few years of promoting them, he started to see problems.
"Well, after a few years, we were realizing that something was wrong; we made all these changes to our diets, yet the incidence of heart disease was skyrocketing... Because of the food. Corn oil, margarine, and all the other new foods that were trans fats; we had not realized that these fake foods and poor quality oils were dangerous. What an irony; we gave up butter and steaks and got sicker and fatter! Then I had an epiphany relative to statins; I realized I was barking up the wrong tree. It was in 1993 when I read an article showing that statin drugs diminished CoQ10, which is a vital nutrient made in every cell in the body and is a major nutrient for the production of cellular energy. Also CoQ10 is critically important for the strong pumping action of the heart. I had started using CoQ10 with my patients a decade before, in the early 80's, and was very impressed; I was able to avert a heart transplant with a patient I put on CoQ10. So I had to ask myself this question: How can a statin drug that's supposed to be so good for the heart deplete it of CoQ10, the most vital nutrient for the heart to survive? It didn't make sense! Then I discovered that Merck Pharmaceuticals had a patent on CoQ10 in the same pill called Lovastatin or Mevacor, meaning they knew that statins would deplete the heart of CoQ10 but kept it hidden from the public. So I had to wonder, if Merck knows about this situation, why don't they exercise the patient? ...Probably because the drugs were selling so well, and the doctors had been convinced to believe they were so safe. ...Why alert people to a problem when the drug is the darling of the industry? ...Statin drugs are some of the top selling drugs in the world."
He then goes into much more detail on how to naturally treat heart disease and how fat is actually necessary to keep the heart healthy. VERY eye-opening interview!
Next, Suzanne explores the thyroid, digging into hormone replacement drugs too. This prompts an interview with Dr. Garry Gordon, a functional medicine doctor recognized for his expertise in chelation therapy and antiaging medicine. This interview, for me, was the weakest of them all because I've already done so much research into synthetic chemicals that are endocrine dispruptors (act like hormones in the body.) This is a fantastic interview for people who have not read up on this subject.
She then moves onto Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker. If you have been diagnosed with mold toxicity, I would be surprised if you haven't heard his name. He is behind the Shoemaker Protocol, and he is the world's leading researcher on mold toxicity. This interview made me angry, but more than anything it made me feel overwhelmed. The amount of energy and MONEY it takes to do follow his protocol is beyond what I can afford. Even if I had the money, how could I possibly do all the the work? What's going to prevent me from getting mold toxic all over again, when I'd then have to redo the entire program? Even though this interview left me feeling scared due to the reality check, I think it's one of the most important chapters in the entire book. Mold is a reality that every person faces today, and mold is not the same problem it was even 50 years ago. This is the first thing he says in the interview:
"Thank you, Suzanne. Well, that's a series of questions. The Leviticus discussion about indoor mold is one that people always will talk about, but we know that there were some rather dramatic changes in fungi (mold) beginning early in the '70's. The Pittsburgh Paint Company started adding a fungicide to paint so that it was easier to clean and therefore easier to maintain. The particular compound created mutations in fungi, and just about all the players that make people ill indoors now come out of this mutated line. The toxic compounds made by these mutated fungi I worry about having a different shape compared to the same compounds made my earlier generations of fungi. Our immune systems recognize this compound as foreign and create a much greater immune response to them than they did in the unmutatd form. So the simplest answer is no, the fungi we had then are not the same as they are now."
This interview is dense - very dense. He goes onto explain that 25% of the population have certain HLA genes that cause those people (of which I am one) to have a harder time detoxing from mold. He digs into how so many chronic illnesses are diagnosed as other diseases, like Parkinson's, but are actually caused by mold. There's so much information here that I can't possibly cover it well enough in this review. If nothing else, go to the library, find this book, and read this chapter.
Finally, she interviews Walter Crinnion, N.D. This interview focuses on how to clean up your home environment in order to heal. I read this chapter last night and I honestly can't remember enough of it, except that he's the scientific researcher for a certain enzyme brand that we sell at the store I work at. What really stood out to me in this interview is how he advocates colonic irrigations. Colinics have been my favorite therapy of all because they give me immediate relief and help my MCS more than anything else. I'm less reactive after a few colonics, until I accumulate more toxins in my colon. He really digs into the effect of toxins on gut health, the methodology of Natuopathy vs Western trained doctors, and how toxins affect the immune system. He explains the role of air purifiers, such as which types are worth it and which ones are not. He made a strong case against carpets:
The last pages of her book focuses on supplements she personally recommends, an appendix, bibliography and citations, and index. I skimmed over most of this since my doctor already has me on the supplements that are working for me, and I was very tired at that point.
I strongly encourage you to buy this book and read it. STRONGLY. There are some fantastic books out there that explain this information in better detail, but this book is so easy to digest and understand. It's so easy to share information from it with family members and friends. It's not daunting, and it's so packed with lots of valuable information.
Overall this book left me feeling depressed about the state of our world. What have we done to our world? It's horrifying! It feels like a 50's sci-fi movie in which humanity slowly dies off from a chemical invasion, except that it's actually happening. We're allowing it to happen. In fact, so many of us have bought into the idea that we're better off and healthier because of all the synthetics in our world today! Follow the money trail, and you'll find nothing but greed, not respect for humanity.
The book is also so important because it gives us this reality check. We need to understand the assault on human health so that we can protect ourselves from it. We need to learn the tools to recover our health, which is very hard to do when our environments are so poisonous. It all sounds like a conspiracy theory until you fall sick to chronic illness and no MD can treat you. I'm just one of too many people suffering poor health due to toxicity.
Have you read it? Please share your thoughts below!
