Your environment is aging you
Your Environment Is Aging You
A number of the conditions associated with aging can actually be considered the effect of long term exposure to toxins. From our drinking water to pesticides and even the food that we eat our bodies are under constant assault from compounds that are intended to help us stay healthy.
Drinking water now contains flouride in order to help calcify the teeth and prevent cavities. While this is a noble effort on the part of municipalities, there is also a dark side to this practice. Flouride accumulates in the pineal gland and also calcifies it, thus limiting the ability of this gland to produce melatonin. In fact, all of the members of the endocrine system are very vulnerable to calcification, especially the pituitary, thyroid and adrenal glands. The problem comes not only from drinking the water, but flouride is readily absorbed through the skin. Bathing, swimming and other activities that bring the skin into contact with flouridated water contribute to the accumulation of flouride in the body. Some conspiracy theorists may claim that this is an intentional act aimed at killing off the population in order to sustain the social security system; the reality of the matter is a lot less sinister. The discoveries about long term exposure to flouride and links to calcification in other organs of the body were simply not known at the time that the decision to flouridate water was made. Consider this: if flouride is good for you, why does OSHA insist that persons handling flouridating agents wear respirators and full body protection?
Pesticides can also interfere with the endocrine system. Even though the chemicals used to keep insects off of our crops and out of our homes are considered "safe" or having "no toxicity to mammals", there are other long term effects on the human organism which are not considered at the time these products are labled. Some insecticides can actually block receptors for hormones within the body, thereby sending the endocrine system out of control. When a product is considered safe or its toxicity is established, the manufacturer relies on the "LD 50" list. This is a list of products and how much of a dosage is required to kill 50% of a test population of rats. Altough a product may be very low on the list as far as toxicity is concerned, it may still have disasterous effects on the living human organism. If any compound can occupy or hijack the cell's receptors for hormones, the endocrine system cannot function properly to produce healthy amounts of other hormones and enzymes. Remember, aging is a decrease in beneficial hormones and an increase in undesirable enzymes.
In recent years the general population has been avoiding exposure to sunlight for fear of skin cancer. This has caused an unfortunate scenario in which people are not recieving enough vitamin D3 and are therefore suffering from other forms of cancer, increased aromatase activity, and a host of other health risks. Luckily, vitamin D3 is available at most drug stores and is very inexpensive.
Artificial lighting itself is also helping to age our bodies. The pineal gland's activity is linked directly to the amount of light stimulating the optic nerve. In nature, the circadian cycle is determined by the rising and setting sun, thus signalling the pineal to go to work. Unfortunately, artificial lighting can actually throw the body's critical timing off, diminishing the amount and quality of sleep the average adult recieves. Since the pineal gland sits at the top of the endocrine pyramid, it seems only natural that we keep this gland as happy as possible. As your melatonin levels drop, so does the youthful attributes of your entire endocrine system. This is not to say that you should go to sleep when the sun sets and rise when it does (although this would be ideal); it is, rather, indicating that we should get a full night's sleep in complete darkness as often as possible.
Interestingly, all of the threats to youthfulness outlined here are also contributing factors to weight gain, i.e. obesity and therefore diabetes and other illnesses associated with weight gain.
While it may not be practacle to completely remove all of the negative stimuli outlined here, it would serve the individual well to limit exposure as much as possible.
