In today’s world, chronic low dose exposures to environmental toxins can be overwhelming to our bodies. We face environmental and chemical pollution everyday simply by breathing, eating and living our lives.
As a Functional Medicine doctor, I’m incredibly interested in how these toxin exposures are affecting the health of my patients. I see my job as delving deeply into each person’s biochemistry and physiology and connecting the dots between someone’s symptoms and what is truly going on at a cellular level to cause the imbalances.
One of the questions I ask my patients is: “How close do you live to a highway or major road?” This might seem unimportant, but for some people it can give me a clue about their exposure to the toxins in air pollution.
You see, among other things, highway proximity is linked to inflammation, which can drive many chronic diseases.
It is well known that air pollution is linked with lung diseases (like COPD) and cardiovascular disease, but the connections are more widespread than that. Air pollution can affect all organ systems in the body, can increase cancer risks and is generally associated with increased morbidity and mortality. More and more, I’m also seeing air pollution as a trigger or contributor to autoimmune disease.
Instead of being alarmed by this information, let’s be informed. Once we understand where our toxin exposures are coming from and how they affect our health, we can make changes to our environment and support our body’s detoxification processes.
Air pollution refers to toxic chemicals in the air that pose a health risk. Air pollution can be caused by wildfires or volcanic eruptions, but most often is a result of human activity including mining, industry, agriculture, fossil fuels and more.
Air pollution can include gasses (carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone), volatile organic compounds or VOCs (from paints, solvents and molds link to mold/cancer article), heavy metals and particulate matter. The smaller the particles, often referred to as PM 2.5 and PM 1.0, the easier they are to get lodged in the lungs and not be able to be expelled out of the lung.
Breathing in these compounds directly affects the immune system.
Autoimmune diseases, including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and about a hundred others, occur when the immune system views a part of the body as foreign and begins attacking the cells and tissues.
The prevalence of autoimmune disease is increasing globally, likely due to environmental factors. Interestingly, about 80% of autoimmune cases are in women.
From a Functional Medicine perspective, there are 3 conditions that need to be met in order for autoimmunity to develop:
It is possible that air pollution triggers autoimmunity when the other conditions are in place. It can also exacerbate the autoimmune process once it has begun.
A 2019 study titled Emerging role of air pollution in autoimmune diseases links air pollution with autoimmunity by mechanisms that include:
We typically think of long-term exposures of toxins as contributing to autoimmunity, however, even short term exposures to air pollution have the potential to make autoimmune symptoms worse.
Studies have linked air pollution to several common autoimmune diseases including:
I believe the research on this topic to be only just beginning!
How To Protect Yourself From Air Pollution
If you have an autoimmune disease or a family history of autoimmunity, or if you are interested in prevention and longevity, here are some action steps that you can take to both lessen your exposure to air pollution and support a healthy immune response in your body.
My Paleo approach is also a helpful dietary starting place for anyone with autoimmunity. By eliminating many of the top inflammatory foods, including gluten, dairy and sugar, you can effectively cool inflammation and support the immune system with each meal.
Liposomal Glutathione is an incredibly well absorbed version of glutathione, the body’s “master antioxidant,” that works to protect cells from damage caused by toxins as well as support the body in getting the toxins out.
Paleo Detox Protein is a functional food – part food and part supplement – that provides more of the key nutrients, including antioxidants, that the body needs for optimal detoxification. It’s a great addition to your Paleo diet!
Clear + Restore Bath is a bath soak that combines clay, sea botanicals, salt and essential oils to help the body release toxins from your largest organ: the skin. Plus it’s a great way to relax and destress as well.
I find the connection between air pollution and autoimmunity to be an important one to keep in mind while working with patients and helping them to uncover their root causes to disease.
The role that toxins play in disease development and progression is very clear as I continue to stay up to date on the latest research and as I care for my patients.
Luckily, when we can understand the roots of imbalance in the body, remove toxins and support the body naturally, we have incredible capacity to heal.