025 - TOXINS, Our Exposures, and Autoimmunity

The Autoimmune Doc Podcast w/ Dr. Taylor Krick

Forget pathogens, TOXINS are scary. They are increasingly everywhere, and they are associated with virtually every disease process known to man - cancer, Alzheimer's, infertility, diabetes, and certainly most autoimmune diseases. That's because TOXINS are not supposed to be in our body. They have no role. They have no place. They get in there and they wreak havoc, creating inflammation, immune disruption, cellular imbalances, and the downstream effects that we call "symptoms" and "disease".
Toxins are all around us today, and in this episode I discuss the sources of toxins, including:

• Our Food - heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticides, nanoparticles, chemicals, additives, preservatives, dyes.....
• Our Air - industrial pollution, heavy metals, exhaust, smoke, farming pollution, indoor air quality.....
• Our Water - fluoride, drug residues, hormones, heavy metals.....
• Our Homes - "off-gassing" from electronics, furniture, formaldehyde, molds, VOCs, radon

IT'S PRETTY HARD TO AVOID THOSE 4 THINGS IF YOU ASK ME!

The body is pretty good at clearing toxins out, but what if these toxins accumulate faster than they are cleared?

• Toxins can suppress the immune system, which allows for "expansion" of pathogen burden
• Toxins deplete glutathione, which opens up the "barriers" that are supposed to keep bad things out, leading to leaky gut, leaky lung, leaky sinus, leaky brain - allowing more pathogens, toxins, undigested food particles to enter the body and sets the stage for autoimmune disease
• Toxins disrupt cellular functions like cell membrane integrity and mitochondrial ATP production, which supplies the battery power to your entire organism
• Toxins disrupt hormones and endocrine control, and are heavily linked to reproductive problems including infertility
• Toxins damage the BRAIN! Many toxins are neurotoxic.

I honestly believe that the increase in toxicity is the single-best explanation for the rise in autoimmunity, infertility, and chronic inflammatory diseases in the past 50 years. Even in the context of other "causes" or "contributors" of autoimmune disease, toxins could still be to blame. Gluten might not be a problem without toxins inflaming the gut and poking holes in the lining. Gut health might not be as big of a problem if our digestive tract wasn't exposed to so many toxins in the food supply. Epstein-Barr Virus might not be a problem if you didn't live in a toxic soup that has affected your mitochondria and cellular energy production. Stress might not be your flare trigger if your HPA axis hadn't been messed up by toxic stress affecting pituitary function and hormone balance.
IT IS ALL TOXICITY'S FAULT!!!!!
I think that, especially in the era of post-2020, pathogens are famous right now (especially one), but we've always had pathogens around. We co-evolved together. They generally aren't new.
Toxins are new. The actual toxins are new, the increase in exposure is new, and the total body burden is new to humanity. The toxins today literally did not exist a couple generations ago. Our bodies do not know what to do with them. For my kids and their future health, it's not about keeping them away from pathogens, in fact, it's quite the opposite for me, I encourage exposure to pathogens. But toxins are a different story.
I'm not scared of viruses as much as I'm scared of toxins. And you should be too.