Book Review! The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire...

So since my last miscarriage (brief moment of sadness allowed), I have checked out several books from the library concerning autoimmune disorders, purchased one that no library owned (to fulfill my need to sometimes highlight things), and done a fair bit of Internet research. I've also revisited two out of the 18 doctors on my Doctor Rundown List.

One of the books is The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance--and the Cutting-Edge Science That Promises Hope by Donna Jackson Nakazawa.

The gist of this book is that our autoimmune problems can basically be traced to the recent preponderance of chemicals, irritants, and pollutants we're exposed to on a daily basis. Early on, Nakazawa presents a snapshot of a middle-class mom cooking and running errands. Along the way, she uses a Teflon-covered pan, food from bottles and cans laced with BPA, sleeps on a mattress doused with flame retardant, walks on carpet lightly covered with stain-resisting-chemicals...you get the idea: "...over the past five years, they have begun studying pollution in people, and the findings are causing many researchers to reevaluate their assumptions about how successfully our bodies interface with the chemical-laden world in which we live..."

Some highlights:

In a 2003 study from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC: "each volunteer carried an average of 91 industrial compounds, pollutants, and other chemicals."

In a 2004 CDC study which tested blood and urine: "Researchers working through two major laboratories found an alarming cocktail of 287 industrial chemicals and pollutants in the fetal cord blood of ten newborn infants from around the country, in samples taken by the American Red Cross. These chemicals included pesticides, phthalates, dioxins, flame retardants, and break-down chemicals of Teflon, among other chemicals known to damage the immune system. Shortly after, investigators in the Netherlands turned up similar findings: they discovered an array of chemicals commonly found in household cleaners, cosmetics, and furniture in the cord blood of thirty newborns."

And as far as my thyroid goes: "Researchers now understand that a wide array of  environmental chemicals can act as endocrine disruptors, affecting us at much lower doses than scientists previously thought possible." Oops. This is why I despise it when people say that something is in 'too small' a dose to cause harm. I don't think we're f***ing sure what dose will or won't cause harm.

A Dr. Gerard Mullin is quoted as saying: "'Drugs alone no longer suffice as quality care...we know so much about the potential for special diets and supplementation to help modulate autoimmune disease and we have to help patients reap those benefits." Emphasis mine because I love these words.

And of course, in addition to chemicals and crap from the inanimate objects around us, what about what we're actually ingesting? Nakazawa mentions that too: "We've gone from a whole-foods diet--one in which we digested whole grains, fruits, vegetables, poultry, and livestock produced locally or on our own land--to a processed-food diet. This processed-food diet often consists of highly preserved bread products, doughnuts, prepackaged coffee cakes, and cereals laden with sugar for breakfast...what fresh foods we do consume...are sprayed liberally with pesticides and fungicides."

I wrote down some of the specific plastics and chemicals mentioned, but quickly became overwhelmed by acronyms: PFOA, PBDE,PCBs?

Admittedly, I need to reread* this book because I missed the 'promises' of hope part promised in the title. What I came away with is a) slight depression, b) the desire to grow my own food and build my own chemical-free house, and c) the understanding that (in many cases) we're screwing ourselves with our own technological advances. I don't know how to avoid these chemicals. They're on the couch I'm sitting on, covering my mattress, and have infiltrated my food either through packaging (plastic) or pesticides. Happily, I did find some PFOA-free pans at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. Maybe the tide is turning!

While this book is a good read from a causal standpoint, I'm beginning to think I wasn't mentally prepared for the overwhelming reality of the situation...

*Footnote: I will update when I've reread and can elaborate on the hope part!