Discussion Board

double post

I'm curious, too.

Hi Berry,



Sure, but with a little "edit" to my comment.

My comment is in relation not only to specific "chemicals" but also behaviors, as many of our behaviors are as toxic if not more so, then many chemicals.

1) Nicotine (including second hand smoke)
2) Excess Calories ( obesity is now second only to tobacco)
3) Inadequate Fruits & Veggies (and all the beneficial chemicals in them)
4) Inactivity
5) Alcohol (a known carcinogen)
6) Saturated Fat
7) Cholesterol
8 ) Hydrogenated Fats/Trans Fats
9) Sodium
10) Inadequate Fiber
10) Excess refined concentrated sugar/sweeteners
11) Excess refined processed carbohydrates.

The above 11 are responsible for more death than anything else.

In regard to specific chemicals I would add in (in no particular order)

- Benzene
- Toluene
- Acetone
- lead
- Chromium
- Auto Emissions
- Diesel Emissions
- Carbon tetrachloride
- Polycyclic organic matter (POM), of which benzo[a]pyrene is a member. Sources of air emissions are diverse and include cigarette smoke, vehicle exhaust, home heating, laying tar, and grilling meat.

I would be interested to see what anyone else would add to the list.

In Health
Jeff

We had a discussion in the Lounge Forum about this a while back. I came up with a list from research on the Internet. May or may not be completely accurate, I suppose, but it's a start.

http://drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic ... icals+life

Nettie

Many on our lists are similar and I tend to agree of the toxic nature of many personal care products, even those sold in places like Whole Foods. You have to be very careful when checking ingredients.

Thanks!!
Jeff

Freshman essays.
Sorry, it's just that time of year......

Looking at Nettie's list made me wonder, what do you think about aluminum? Do you think it's a good idea to refrain from using deodorants with it or to not use aluminum foil to wrap food or aluminum cookware? How about anodized cookware like Circulon? This is what I use, but I feel a little uneasy about it since it is aluminum.

If we're talking about chemicals that are often found in food, nitrosamines should definitely be on the list--very carcinogenic, yet found in many processed foods, especially processed meats.

Also, after reading Colin Campbell's "China Study" book I'd want to include casein, though maybe that should go in Jeff's first list of 12 common problematic items.

Also, dispersed through the environment we still have big problems with dioxins, very important health problem and most at risk are SAD eaters, eating at the top of the food chain where the dioxin accumulates.

Shouldn't mercury be on the list along with lead? They are telling pregnant women to limit their intake of canned tuna, for heaven's sake--that's really ominous!!!

Hi Jeff - I'm curious about your putting nicotine as number one. Are you really meaning nicotine as the individual chemical compound or a wider "smoking, including second hand smoke?" The reason I'm asking is that years ago when I was doing graduate research in neuropsych, I worked with a few people who did research into nicotine. We had a few conversations and I read a little about it, and from all that I ended up with the impression that nicotine (in isolation and as a component of smoking) is a psychoactive and physiologically active substance that increases concentration, enhances memory, increases heart rate and does a few other good and not so good things - but that it is fairly quickly broken down and excreted (assuming no overdose, which can be fatal). In other words, that in and of itself, it was not harmful in small quantities - in fact, it had many of the positive effects of small doses of cocaine with fewer of the negative ones - and that both were fairly clean drugs, physiologically. The delivery system (i.e. smoking) was the cause of the vast majority, if not nearly all, of the problems. The addictive qualities are a slightly different aspect.

I'm not advocating the use of nicotine or cocaine. Just puzzled by the gulf between my impression of nicotine (in isolation) and its position as number one toxic on your list. If you're using nicotine to represent smoking, then I'm not confused any more. Well, not about that, anyway.

Oh, and I've never smoked, so I'm not seeking to find evidence to support my habit!!

I mean tobacco and smoking.

In Health
Jeff

Thanks!

My list is based not just on chemicals or behaviors known to be harmful but those that are the ones that we can document are the leading contributors to death.

Mercury may be a concern, but I don't know of it killing anyone in significant amounts and in spite of the popularity of fish, Americans eat very little fish relatively speaking.

Casein is controversial as far as its actual impact on mortality, and while we nitrosamines are known to cause cancer in animals, again, the direct impact is on humans is not really known.

I would agree with and add Dioxin to the list.

In Health
Jeff

I thought that mercury compounds were among the most toxic and dangerous ones around...and since you have lead on the list (which also doesn't usually go around killing people, though it can, especially in compounds) it seemed to fit your list.

I'm sorry, I don't think I understood the question being discussed here.

Sorry, if it is confusing.

My point is to try and pinpoint those things (chemical/behaviors) that we know (and can document) are the leading causes of death.

Mercury is highly toxic but it is not killing many people or if it is, we do not have the evidence of it. Most of its harm is in isolated incidents (industrial) where lead is still prevalent in the environment.

"Of the heavy metals, toxicity by chronic lead exposure is the most commonly encountered. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) conducted from 1988-1990 found that 0.4% of persons aged 1 year and older had blood levels of lead of 25 mcg/dL or higher. The data also noted that, among those aged 1-5 years, an estimated 1.7 million children had blood levels greater than 10 mcg/dL. The syndrome of childhood plumbism caused by the ingestion of lead is believed to affect more than 2 million American preschool-aged children. Lead toxicity has a significantly higher prevalence among the African American population and in lower socioeconomic areas. Reliable figures for the prevalence of mercury and arsenic toxicities are not available. These toxidromes are usually encountered from industrial exposures. Arsenic exposure, however, often occurs outside the industrial realm because of its uses as a rodenticide and a commonly employed homicidal and suicidal agent."

In Health
Jeff

you give new ways to look at things. very helpful. thank you Mr. Novick.