MODULE #10 - Lesson 2

Transcription

1 MODULE #10 - Lesson 2 Cellular Detoxiication The Cure-All?

2 Module 11 - Lesson 2 Cellular Detoxification The Cure-All? The Healing Principle The first thing we need to understand what I call the healing principle. The body knows how to heal itself. We can only remove the obstacles standing in its way. We are never remedying a disease or a condition. All we are doing is providing our body with the necessary ingredients for it to heal itself. We just have to get out of its way. 2

3 What is Cellular Detoxification? Cellular detoxification is actually a simple thing to understand. We are made up of about a hundred trillion individual cells, and each one of these cells, all have similar functions and properties. They all have a cell membrane, a nucleus, mitochondria, which are the workhorse, the power engines of the cells that produce energy, and all sorts of other organelles inside what s called a cytoplasm, in this yellowish area here. In order for you to be healthy you have to expel waste. You eat food, you take food in, you take in toxins your body takes what it needs, filters out what it doesn t, and you go to the bathroom. That s how you get rid of waste. That is on a macro level. Every one of your cells does the same thing. You bring in oxygen, you bring in nutrients, but the cell, as a by-product of what they do, produce waste. Naturally, the cell needs to get rid of that waste. That is what cellular detoxification is. We want good stuff coming in; we want to get the bad stuff out. Another process that occurs is this notion of by-products that are being created as a result of cellular respiration or energy metabolism. We create different types of waste, carbon dioxide, lactic acid, and free radicals. You cannot detoxify your body without ultimately detoxifying yourselves, but there are ways to do that that are much more effective and potent than other ways. If you just do a colon cleanse or if you do a master cleanse, you re not getting into the true cellular level. If you can heal your cells, you can heal your body. Remember, your entire body is going to be new in seven years. The great thing is that you can overcome your genetics and we ll look at how you can do that and really transform your body and your health, but it all starts with the cell. The cell needs to be healthy, and it needs to be eliminating what it needs to get rid of. All cleansing must impact the cellular level. 3

4 4

5 Imagine you have this bucket and it s full of water and the water starts to overflow. That s essentially what happens in a toxic body. We might ingest pesticides for 20 years, nothing goes wrong, and then all of a sudden we wake up with some kind of neurological disorder and we have no idea why it s happened. We have toxins coming in, physical trauma, emotional trauma, infections, and all sorts of chemicals inundating your cells. When this toxic load is reached and the cells can no longer support that load it starts to overflow. This is when we start to get chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation it initiates an increased amount of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide communicates with two very dangerous oxidant molecules. Superoxide and peroxynitrite are two examples of very powerful oxidants. These are the bad guys that do damage. These two specifically attack the mitochondria, the powerhouses in your cells that does two things: it decreases the amount of ATP each one of your cells produces, which basically means that you re not producing enough energy, so your cells can eventually die, and it reduces the amount of glutathione in your cells. Glutathione is the most powerful antioxidant in the human body. It s about 10,000 times more powerful than the most potent antioxidant food. Each of your cells produces this. Your cells have specific enzymes; for instance, superoxide dismutases (SOD). It naturally buffers or counteracts some of the effects of these oxidant molecules. The problem is that, with, for instance, peroxynitrite, it not only attacks the mitochondria, it also lowers the levels of this superoxide dismutases enzyme, which means that that enzyme is no longer able to counteract these oxidant molecules. The other problem with these free radicals is lipid peroxidation. Lipid peroxidation is where the cell membrane is attacked; its integrity becomes compromised, and this is, essentially, lipid, being fat, peroxidation, meaning that there s some kind of peroxide, in this case, peroxynitrite, that is attacking the integrity of that fat membrane and making it less effective. It becomes more permeable, it loses its natural fluidity, it s not able to keep things out and allow things to move out and bring good things in. 5

6 All of this comes as a result of having too many toxins overloading your cells, ultimately leading to oxidative stress, there s too much free radical or reactive oxygen species damage occurring at the cellular level. Over time this leads to symptoms and disease. You have to understand that with too much toxicity at the cellular level as a result of years and years of bioaccumulation, there s way too much oxidative stress inside our cells. It attacks the mitochondria, which lowers levels of ATP and glutathione and compromises the cell membranes. Very important. TWO Important Players There re two important players in this whole process. First is methylation pathways. This is probably one of the most groundbreaking areas of science. We re only going to scratch the surface here, but methylation is important for so many different things, and then there s glutathione as well, so we ll talk about of these. Methylation 101 Methylation is a process whereby methyl groups, which are one carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms, are the body s messengers. They join with other compounds to jump-start a reaction, almost like an enzyme. In many cases it could be turning on a gene or activating an enzyme or turning off a gene. However, when the methyl group is lost in a specific sequence or pathway or it s removed, the action stops or a gene is turned off or the enzyme is deactivated. Or when a methyl group is lost, a gene is turned on. If the methyl is lost or removed, it can either turn something on or turn something off, and, specifically, it can turn off and turn on genes, which is very, very important. 6

7 When the methylation pathway performs well, it produces various by-products, including biochemicals needed to perform other tasks. When the methylation pathway is not functioning, there are two principal results. First of all, key bodily functions will not be performed effectively. The second is that the byproducts of this pathway can lead to chronic inflammation. Here is a strand of DNA. As you know, DNA is really the life blood of anything living; it has our genetic code. It s the program that tells your body what to do, how to age, how to grow hair, how to do everything. Methylation is very powerful at the DNA level, and that s where there s a lot of promising research, in the area of epigenetics or nutrigenomics where DNA methylation is occurring. In this diagram we have a methyl group that attaches itself to the DNA strand. This can activate or repress certain genes depending on the scenario. 7

8 Methylation 101 Proper methylation can repair damaged DNA and the field of epigenetics studies this heavily. What this means to you is that you don t have to be held hostage by poor genes. It s becoming commonly known now that the nutrients you bring into your body directly impact your DNA. This is called nutrigenomics. It s fascinating stuff. The big thing that s happening is how these nutrients combine or provide the building blocks to support methylation or not. Methylation is essential for proper functioning of almost all of your body s systems, because it affects your DNA. It controls homocysteine, which is an unhealthy compound that can damage blood vessels. The methylation cycle is directly related to homocysteine. It helps recycle molecules needed for detoxification, it helps maintain mood and keep inflammation in check. Methylation Problem But there s a problem. It s been suggested that up to 40% of the American population has a genetic deficiency in their methylation pathways known as single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Therefore, many people suffer from poor methylation without even knowing it, and genetic testing is the only way 8

9 to know for sure. What this means is that your genetic code, there could be something that s just a little bit off that, as a result, is not allowing methylation to occur or part of it not to occur properly. Homocysteine; that compound that we don t want in high levels because it damages the blood vessels. Notice how that, with methionine is able to convert homocysteine with a number of different precursors into various by-products and it basically cycles away the homocysteine, which is a good thing. These green arrows indicate important nutrients that are needed to support these exact elements, these exact steps in this methylation pathway. For instance, we need methionine in this area; we need B12 between these two cycles; we need RNA and nucleotides in here. These are really, this is coming out of a lot of the research from Dr. Amy Yasko, who s one of the forefront leaders in methylation and understanding methylation. She specifically talks about methylation in respect to autism, which is very, very, really interesting. She mentions that these are very susceptible areas in the pathways that are often picked up on genetic tests as places where people have these SNPs, these single-nucleotide polymorphisms, with these genetic defects. These are where a lot of supplements and nutrients come in to support the methylation pathway. 9

10 Methylation and Detoxification Methyl groups produced in the methylation cycle can help in the removal of toxic metals. For example, methyl groups bind arsenic and remove it from the body. Overall, having a functional methylation cycle can also help to reduce the bacterial or viral load indirectly, aiding in toxic excretion. This is interesting because bacteria tend to hold on to heavy metals, and there s a big correlation between the bacterial viral load in your body and the heavy metal toxicity that you might be incurring. Catch - 22 The very toxins that are removed by methylation also impair this vital function. For example, cadmium inhibits the methylation of phospholipids around that cell membrane, which affects your cell membrane function. Arsenic, nickel, and chromium can cause overmethylation of DNA, which can result in turning off important regular genes, such as tumor-suppressing genes. Researchers have also found that many children with autism do not make enough of the antioxidant glutathione, which is also crucial to removing toxins from the body. Toxic metals such as aluminum can decrease mitochondrial energy that same pathway I just showed you, whereby we have things attacking the mitochondria, lowering its ATP production and this contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction. Aluminum bacteria can interact and decrease mitochondrial function. Impaired mitochondria create a greater need for the antioxidant glutathione. However, due to impaired methylation, the body can t produce the glutathione that it needs. We ve got this catch-22 where we re trying to get rid of aluminum, but we can t because aluminum s impairing our ability to get rid of it. That s methylation in a nutshell. It s very powerful. We ll talk a little bit more about it in terms of repairing it just after we get through the glutathione area. 10

11 Glutathione Glutathione is a small protein composed of cystine, glutamic acid, and glycine. It s made by all the cells in your body and is provided by fresh fruits, however, it can t get to the digestive system easily. It is your body s most powerful antioxidant. It s also best known as the major detoxification compound in living organisms. If you remember back to the last lesson we talked about glutathione conjugation, which was one of the first steps in which it turns fat-soluble toxins and heavy metals into water-soluble toxins for removal. Glutathione is a very important thing. It s most abundantly found in the liver. It neutralizes and eliminates metals and chemicals, maintains cell proteins, regenerates vitamins C and E, activates the immune system, inhibits the replication of retroviruses, and more. The highest amounts are found in the liver and kidneys because they re the main detox organs. It s also present in high amounts in the lung lining, where it protects against airborne pollutants; and the intestinal lining, where it bars the absorption of industrial chemicals. Imbalances or deficits of glutathione generally increase susceptibility to oxidative stress and a host of related diseases. Oxidative stress is the stress that occurs as a result of oxidation. Oxygen is a double-edge sword. We need it to live, but too much of it causes oxidation in our body. Oxidative stress creates these reactive oxygen species. Low glutathione is also associated with many aging chronic conditions. When people talk about life extension glutathione is always a central theme in that discussion. Conversely, high glutathione levels have been correlated with better health in old age, as measured by the number of illnesses, blood clots, blood pressure, body weight, and general, physical, and mental health. Very important. 11

12 Depleting Glutathione There are a few ways in which a glutathione deficiency may arise or a low GSH to GSSG ratio. GSH is the reduced form of glutathione. This is the form that our cells need to use to sequester free radicals and oxidants. GSSG is the oxidized version of glutathione and is basically the representation of how much glutathione has been taken through that process of oxidizing those free radicals, for instance. There should ideally be a 90% to 10% ratio GSH to GSSG. If there s more GSSG present it s an indication that there s too much oxidative stress occurring at the cellular level. There re ways that we deplete glutathione: alcoholism; acetaminophen overdose, excess caffeine; drugs; intense exercise, UV radiation; and smoking. Sources of Glutathione Sources of glutathione. Diets that provide the most glutathione are high in fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats, but most dietary sources of glutathione is broken down in the digestive tract and eliminated. Remember, the cells produce this internally. All we can do is provide the building blocks. Those three amino acids that we just looked at, we need those in our diet in order for the cells to be able to produce glutathione. Since it s made within your cells, delivering these building blocks is essential. The hardest glutathione precursor to find in our diet is the amino acid cystine, which must be in the form that survives the trip from your mouth to the trip from your mouth to your living cells, which is not as easy as we might think. In nature this usable form of cystine is found mainly in raw eggs and raw meat, obviously neither of which is a very safe option; I would not recommend either one. The other options are whey and colostrums, which tend to be the 12

13 best food sources of glutathione. A lot of people, they ll feed colostrum to their kids or they ll take colostrum even as they re adults, and this would be one of the benefits for doing that. Obviously, the colostrum needs to be from a very good source. NAC Quickly N-acetylcysteine, NAC, at about 1200 to 1800 mg per day is possibly the number one supplemental source of cystine for boosting GSH levels. This is personally, one of the supplements that I take. This is the brand that I use of N-acetylcysteine. I want to briefly show you the power of this, because for $27 I got 120 capsules in there; that s easily going to last me 60 days. There are some significant benefits that NAC provides a human body that we cannot get through dietary measures alone. One to two capsules a day or one to two tablets a day. I want to briefly show you what some of the research is showing with NAC. It replenishes levels of intracellular antioxidant glutathione, which makes sense because it is the essential form of cystine. It also regulates the expression of scores of genes and the pathways that link oxidative stress inflammation. It protects against avian influenza and more common seasonal flu symptoms. Reduces the frequency and duration of attacks of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and may slow the clinical course of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. It s powerful for bronchial-related stuff. In fact, on the bottle itself it says Relieves chronic bronchitis symptoms. It s a big precursor to glutathione. It s going to help these issues of bronchitis, COPD, IPF, any kind of lung-airway type of issues NAC could potentially assist with. NAC also protects tissues from effects of exercise-induced oxidative stress, adding value and safety to your workouts. It improves insulin sensitivity in people with some of the most difficult-to-treat metabolic disorders. It blocks cancer development at virtually every step of the process. It fights systemic infection helicobacter pylori on two fronts: it inhibits the organism s growth while reducing production of the inflammatory cytokines. That can lead to gastritis and cancer. And, though most individuals gain benefits from about 600 to 1800 mg per day, clinical studies have found that doses up to

14 mg per day are safe and effective. I would still err on the side of caution and recommend about 1200 mg per day. Start with that. This is really just a brief synopsis of just some of the benefits of N-acetylcysteine. And the real benefit, I believe, it s not the N-acetylcysteine; it s the fact that it s boosting glutathione levels within your cells, we are fortifying the cell, we are making the cell more resilient, more resistant to disease, and that is how it flourishes. The Cost of Energy Production Here s how exercise can be a bit of a double-edge sword. Glucose comes into the cells; it s converted into glucose-6-phosphate, into pyruvate, acetyl-coa. It goes into the Krebs cycle, shoots out some different electronic transporters, and, eventually, we go into the mitochondria, where it produces ATP. 14

15 A result of producing ATP, the mitochondria produce these by-products, these different free radicals pretty much. Harmful products, different reactive oxygen species, free radicals, and in nature, that s just what happens as a result of producing more energy. That s why when you work out really intensely your muscles need a lot of ATP but as a result, they produce a lot of the by-products that are harmful. Here we have this basic glutathione reductase pathway. We have two GSH, two reduced glutathiones. They will basically combine with one of these free radicals or harmful substances and literally render it harmless, turning it into water and oxygen or water and carbon dioxide in some cases and give off GSSG, which is the oxidized version of glutathione, and glutathione reductase is the enzyme that enables it to happen. Glutathione, the reduced version, which is the active form, if you want to think about it that way, is so necessary in mitigating the damaged that s caused by intense exercise. Obviously, I m not saying don t exercise; you definitely should. But it s really important to understand that as you exercise you need to take in more oxygen but the more of it you take in the more damage that occurs at the cellular level. The more ATP you produce, the more free radicals you produce, and the more glutathione you need. The ideal ratio of this GSH, the reduced version, to the oxidized version is 90% to 10%. 15

16 We have a high GSH-to-GSSG ratio, which is, essentially, 90:10. In this case, where we have a lot of glutathione, the reduced version, a good ratio, everything s normal, there are no problems, there s very minimal oxidative stress. As we move to the right we start to get into response pathways. Now we start to tap into antioxidant defense systems; so, that s where we re calling in vitamin C, vitamin E, and other antioxidants that are needed beyond glutathione, because now the oxidative stress is too much. Now we start getting into systemic inflammation or inflammation even at the cellular level. And if we get even more than that from not producing enough glutathione to deal with the oxidative stress, then we get into cytotoxicity or too much toxicity at the cellular level. In tier three we have apoptosis, which is basically programmed cell death. If your cells don t have enough glutathione your cell with literally hit the self-destruct button. 16

17 Steps to Cellular Detoxification So, let s look at four steps to cellular detoxification. First of all, we need to remove the source, or the inflammation and oxidation, we need to regenerate the cell membrane, we need to reestablish proper methylation pathways, and we need to restore the cell energy. That s essentially what needs to happen at the cellular level. Remove the Source First of all, we need to remove the source. This picture shows that there are compounds that create inflammation at the cell membrane, and that s why this cell membrane here is red, because it s inflamed. It loses its fluidity; it s become more rigid, waste cannot get out, good stuff cannot get in. That s not a good situation. We need to remove the source that s causing this inflammation, this problem at the cellular membrane. Reduce Inflammation/Oxidative Stress 17

18 Here are probably the ten most common toxins from food and environment. When we re talking about removing the source of the problem, we re talking about reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, because these ten sources are very problematic. Household cleaners, furniture off-gassing, poor-quality water, mold, pesticides, amalgam fillings, smoking, alcohol, drugs, plastics, toxic beauty products, bad foods and cookware. Cookware like Teflon is a chemical that gets into the body does not do good things. Bad foods, sugar, caffeine, all that other stuff. These are ten very common toxins that surround us on a daily basis. Remember that earlier diagram where we had the bucket overflowing of water, leading to chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, what that was doing at the cellular level? Well, these are all the things that are causing it. The reason that all these are causing it, like household cleaners, for the most part, unless 18

19 you re using organic, natural cleaners, you re using chemicals that are just brutal. Furniture off-gassing, if you ve ever bought a new couch and you ve taken it out of the package, it just smells for weeks. If you paint your house it smells. Unfortunately, the nature of the world we live in nowadays, we re just surrounded by chemicals. Nonstop toxicity. Here s that diagram, this overflowing of toxins leading to inflammation, oxidative stress, leading to these oxidants, superoxide, peroxynitrite, attacking the mitochondria, less ATP, less glutathione, we start getting symptoms. Regenerate Cell Membrane The second step was to regenerate the cell membrane, cause that s very, very important. The semipermeable membrane, which is the cell membrane, needs to be able to keep bad stuff out and keep good stuff in. that s essentially what it s supposed to do. And then, it s supposed to be able to expel bad stuff out of the cell and allow good stuff to come in. If it s not doing that, it s because the cell membrane is compromised. A healthy cell membrane is critical to the health of the cell. It would be like living in a house where you had holes all over the place. Holes in the walls, in the windows, wind can get in, rain, bugs, whatever. It s the same thing; you need to clean that stuff up. We need to remove, reduce bad fats and oils, and fortify. Other than the toxins, which directly impact the specific phospholipids in the cell membrane, very simply, in our diets, reducing the canola oil, all those trans fat oils, those hydrogenated oils. We need to replace them with omega-3s, monounsaturated fats like olive oil, and healthy saturated fats like coconut oil. It s a very simple process to regenerate the cell membrane. Restore Methylation Pathways Then we need to restore methylation pathways. To find out if your methylation process is optimal, you need to ask your doctor for the following tests. You need to do a complete blood count, and large red blood cells or anemia can be a sign of poor methylation. Red blood cells with a mean corpuscular volume greater than 95 can signal a methylation problem. If you just ask your doctor about that, they ll probably know what that means. You want to get 19

20 your homocysteine checked. The normal level is less than 13; the ideal level is between 6 and 8. You want to look at serum or urinary methylmalonic acid. This is a more specific test for vitamin B12 insufficiency. Your levels may be elevated even if you have normal serum B12 or homocysteine levels. Just get this checked out if you want to. Specific urinary amino acids, this can be used to look for unusual metabolism disorders involving vitamins B6, B12, or folate, which may not show up just by checking the previous test or even homocysteine. You also may want to consider nutrigenomic testing to identify specific SNPs, those specific genetic kinds of abnormalities in the methylation pathway, and then get specific nutrients and supplements to circumvent them. That s essentially what Dr. Amy Yasko does with her approach. If you want to learn more about that, you 20

21 can go to this Web site: holisticheal.com/health-tests/nutrigenomic-testing. I have no affiliation with her. I don t even know her but I know her information is awesome. This shows the different parts of the methylation pathway lead to different things. I ll give you a couple examples. The proper functioning of DNA-RNA helps reduce risk of infection, cell disrepair, wrinkles, inflamed gut, lacking new brain cells. Proper functioning of methionine helps with energy and decreased muscle tone. Every part of this pathway is important, so if everything is working and then you ve got one part that s not working, well, you don t necessarily know that. You might have symptoms that you can t explain. Our health, the body is just so complex, and the more you learn about, the more you realize we ve got no idea, right? 10 Tips to Restore Methylation With that said, even if you didn t do the nutrigenomic testing, there are some ways that you can restore proper methylation, even if you ve got one of those genetic deficiencies. First of all, you want to eat more, dark leafy greens. At least one cup a day. Bok choy, escarole, Swiss chard, kale, all the dark-green, leafy vegetables. They contain such high levels of the different amino acids and sources that are needed for methylation. Get more B vitamins in your diet. This is very important. B12, B6, all the B vitamins are really important for methylation. Wheat germ, fish and eggs, beans and walnuts, the dark, leafy greens, asparagus, almonds, whole grains, and liver. Minimize animal protein, sugar, and saturated fats. They all increase homocysteine. Sugar and saturated fats deplete the body s natural vitamin stores. Avoid processed foods and canned foods; this should be pretty selfexplanatory. Avoid caffeine because it can deplete your B vitamins. Your B vitamins because it will make you lose a lot of water and B vitamins with it. Limit alcohol to three drinks a week or less or else you re going to pee out your B vitamins. Don t smoke; that s a general rule of thumb. 21

22 Avoid medications that interfere with methylation. You want to check with your doctor. I m not going to, obviously, advise you to stop doing what you re doing, but acid blockers, methotrexate, oral contraceptives, different medications for high blood pressure, these can all interfere with methylation. Keep the bacteria in your gut healthy. It s the foundation of health. Fermented foods, very important. Take a probiotic supplement just too really keep that healthy gut flora in check. And improve stomach acid. Whether you need to take a hydrochloric acid supplement or herbal digestives you want to consider anything you can do to improve your stomach function; it s going to be very, very helpful on so many levels. So, if we go back through this list, this is very similar to what we talked about in terms of reducing cholesterol or preventing heart disease, preventing cancer, it s all the same. Supplements That Support Methylation And then there s further supplements that support methylation. Again, you want to check with your doctor about this. Methylcobalamin, which is the real form of B12. You don t want to be looking at cyanocobalamin, which is in most synthetic vitamins. Methylcobalamin. You ll notice that it starts off with methyl; it s the methylated form, which means that it directly injects into that methylation pathway. Methyltetrahydrofolate, this is the best form of folate for those with SNPs, because a lot of people who have those genetic problems with methylation really don t benefit from folate from food, from folic acid as it s presented, so this form is generally the best; it s the methyl form. Pyridoxal-5-phosphate, this is another one. Glutathione or NAC is another one. You want to check with your doctor with these. By no means am I saying Go out and find these. They re pretty hard to find, for the most part; at least a couple of them are. But make sure you need them first. And phosphodiesterase. 22

23 Restore Cell Energy The final step is restoring cell energy, and the good news is that as you follow the previous three steps, your cells will naturally become more energized. Furthermore, glutathione support via N-acetylcysteine or whey or colostrum can be helpful. That s really the gist of restoring cell energy. Assuming you re eating a healthy diet, lots of greens, lots of whole foods, you ve removed a lot of the toxicity, you re allowing your cell to naturally rid itself of the toxins and oxidant damage, and you re looking at ways to get more glutathione into your cells, naturally, your cell is just going to have more vitality. Nutrigenomics, can be summed up as this: The foods we eat, the drugs we take, the toxins we absorb all directly talk to our genes. Eat an apple, the nutrients in that apple are going to do something to your genes, and that could be a good or bad thing. Nutrigenomics Briefly 23

24 Nutrigenomic studies how dietary factors affect the structure and function of our genes. Why do we respond different to the same foods? Why do some develop disease while others done? Nutrigenomics can explain a lot of that. Here s diagram of environmental influences: diet, lifestyle, pollution can affect us at the DNA which would be the study of genomics; RNA level, which would be transgenomics; protein level, proteomics; at the cellular level or metabolics, metabolomics. Everything we are exposed to influences our DNA or our body at some level. For instance, this is a cell. We have a signal coming in through a receptor. It instigates some kinases, which then lead to some transcription factors that get inside the nucleus, which then get expressed and kind of expose the DNA. And then the DNA, based on what went on, expresses a biological answer. It says Do this or Do that. This is just another way of saying this. Looking at the difference of oxidants, for instance, omega-6 fatty acids versus antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, and other chemicals on the right here. For instance, we have a signal up here. It leads to the membrane receptors, which we get a signal transaction 24

25 cascade, transcription factors does something to our genes and then different proteins are created for many functions. These oxidants, these omega-6 fatty acids or superoxide or peroxynitrite, these all kind of instigate problems with these different paths. And the antioxidants do the opposite. They turn things off where they don t need to be on, and they reduce a lot of damage that s happening at the DNA level. And from these genes we get, everything comes out of our DNA. It s like receiving a Morse code, and then from that Morse code, it turns it into a physical message. And then from that physical message, an officer would pick it up, and then that officer would communicate that message to his soldiers and the soldiers would go out and do the work. That s kind of an analogy of how all this works. 25

26 Conclusions The conclusions. All detoxification begins at the cellular level. A true detox requires all systems to be working properly while avoiding and minimizing toxic loads. It involves the methylation pathways, it involves glutathione, and it involves the stuff we talked about in the last lesson. Simple dietary things you can do that will cleanse your liver effectively cleansing out your cells when you do it properly. You can overcome your genetics through and supplementation and lifestyle, because as we ve seen and as we re going to see more and more of, everything that comes into your body directly talks to your DNA. If you re eating white sugar all the time, that s communicating a certain way. If you re eating leafy, green vegetables, that s going to communicate in a totally opposite way. 26

27 Your Assignment Your assignment for today or this week is: Go through your house and identify as many sources of chemicals or toxins as you can. Cleaners, mold, specific foods. Then I want you to remove them or replace them with a better alternative. If you re using some household cleaners, can you find some organic versions that are better? I d like you to share your findings in the comments. Share what are some of the things in your house that found, can you find some better alternatives? I think that would be really helpful for all of us to share. 27

28 Coming in Lesson 3 Coming in Lesson 3, we re going to be talking about heavy metal toxicity and its impact on human health and disease. We ll be talking about heavy metal toxicity. We ll bring in glutathione again, we ll bring in the methylation pathways again, and we ll look at its connection to a lot of problematic conditions that are now occurring and becoming pretty prevalent in our modern society. That s it for Lesson 2, cellular detoxification. That is where health starts. I hope you ve enjoyed this, and I ll see you in Lesson 3. 28