Heavy Chemical Toxicity NYC - Dr. Alicia Armitstead

As you will learn, the volume of chemical toxins that could be causing the symptoms are numerous in count, and cause different degrees of severity. I will share with you a list of the possibilities I will test to identify the cause of your symptoms.

-Dr. Alicia Armitstead

Natural Remedies for Heavy Chemicals at the Healing Arts NYC Health and Wellness Center in Manhattan NY 10017 and Connecticut

We are surrounded by toxins daily in ways we aren't even aware of. A lot of these toxins are chemicals that hinder our health. Heavy chemical toxicity includes:

• The toxins in the air we breathe.
• The lotion we put on.
• The food we eat.
• The clothes we wear.

Chemical toxicity is literally everywhere, and if our body can't detox it well, then the chemicals will stay in our system and lower our ability to be healthy. Please visit Heavy Metal Toxicity for information related to mercury and toxic exposure to other metals.

I muscle test heavy chemicals to see what toxins interfere with your health. Helping the body detox heavy chemicals and heavy metals has helped thousands of people with all sorts of health concerns, including digestion disorders, allergies, insomnia, fertility, fatigue, and anxiety. 

As you will learn, the volume of chemical toxins that could be causing the symptoms are numerous in count, and cause different degrees of severity. Here is a short list of the possibilities I will test to identify the cause of your symptoms.

What You Should Know About Chemical Toxicity In The Body

There are chemicals in our food, our water, the air we breathe, the clothing we wear, the carpet we walk on, the plastics that surround us, and so much more. Even if you’re living the healthiest of lives, it is estimated that the average American is exposed to more than 700,000 different toxic chemicals on a daily basis, and this doesn’t include the common poisons that GMO companies are introducing to the food supply. We test for:

MSG cannot be digested and enters our body as a neurotoxin. Some people can handle it and detox it out, but others have a hard time with it and can get headaches, migraines, numbness, flushing, sweating, weakness, nausea, quick heartbeats, or chest pain.

I my testing concludes this is a health concern for you, I will ask you to start reading food labels, and also look for natural flavoring. Natural flavors are an ingredient that you would think of as something other than a chemical, but unfortunately, there are about 3,000 different food additives that can be labeled as a natural flavors. When you start reading food labels, you will see it a lot. It's actually the fourth most common ingredient found in all food. 

Drinking Water

Besides the food we eat, the water we drink is also loaded with heavy chemicals. All city water is treated with fluoride to help with tooth decay. It was put in the water in the 1940s, but recent studies show it may do more harm than good. Fluoride is a neurotoxin affecting the nervous system and can cause headaches, weakness, irregular heartbeat, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, or diarrhea. 

Fluoride and Chlorine

Fluoride can also harden arteries, cause bone disease and hypothyroidism. Fluoride ruins the health of the thyroid because it comes into the body and acts like iodine. The thyroid loves iodine, but when fluoride is present, it picks up fluoride instead of iodine, and eventually, you have a thyroid full of fluoride toxicity instead of healthy iodine. Fluoride toxicity also comes from taking prescription drugs like Prozac. Fluoride is also in toothpaste, infant formula, and swimming pools. It is best to change your toothpaste to a fluoride-free brand.

Fluoride is not the only toxin in swimming pools and drinking water. Chlorine is also found in swimming pools and drinking water. Chlorine toxicity causes skin breakouts, irritated eyes, cough, trouble breathing, or stomach pains. Chlorine is also bleach, found in cleaning supplies, so switch to all-natural cleaning supplies. I ask patients not to even bleach their whites because I don't want patients wearing bleach and absorbing it into the body through the skin. 

Formaldehyde

The next heavy chemical that is important to detox is formaldehyde. It is found in new clothes, cars, carpets, mattresses, and furniture. The warehouses spray it on their products in case there is a fire. The formaldehyde will stop it from spreading. The only way to avoid it is to wash your new clothes once, and then you can wear them. When it comes to new furniture or a new mattress, you just want to air it out as much as possible. Leave the window cracked open for a while. Formaldehyde is a gas, and eventually, it will gas off. Formaldehyde is in hair dye, so talk to your hairstylist about using a hair dye that is more natural and formaldehyde free. 

Formaldehyde is also in artificial sweeteners like Equal, Sweet' n Low, and Splenda. The actual ingredient is aspartame. It's in chewing gum, diet food, and drinks. Aspartame turns into formaldehyde in our bodies, and studies have shown it causes cancer.

Other Types of Chemical Sensitivities

Other chemicals in our food that causes cancer are pesticides and herbicides. The most widely used one that causes the most harm is Round Up, scientifically known as glyphosate. To avoid glyphosate, avoid the primary GMO foods, including soy, corn, canola, and the animals that eat it too. So eating grass-fed or pasture-raised meats, poultry, dairy, and eggs are important. Also, avoid all non-organic cereals and grains which are harvested with glyphosate, including wheat, barley, buckwheat, millet, rice, oats, and rye. 

Organic Food

It is important to buy organic food as much as possible. I know it's not always possible, so at least stay away from the Dirty Dozen. The Dirty Dozen is the Environmental Working Group's list of the top 12 produce highest in pesticides, and it comes out every year. For 2023 it includes strawberries, spinach, kale, peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, grapes, bell peppers, hot peppers, cherries, blueberries, and green beans. So unless these are organic, please do not eat them.

Food Preservatives

Another heavy chemical I help detox is food preservatives and food colors. When reading ingredients, if it ever has any color listed like red #5 or blue #7, don't ingest it. We might think of food coloring in candy, potato chips, and icing, but it can also be in pepperoni, which is not red, and seaweed salad, which is not bright green. 

Food preservatives we want to stay away from are nitrates found in lunch meat and bacon. There are nitrate-free ones that you want to buy instead. You also want to stay away from sulfates found in the dried fruit and wine. You can find sulfate-free dried fruit at health food stores and low-sulfate wines or Biodynamic wines. All wine has naturally occurring sulfates but drinking low-sulfate wine will help.

Radiation

Now there is a heavy chemical that we cannot avoid, radiation. Radiation toxicity can cause headaches, skin rashes, fatigue, and trouble sleeping. Sara was a 42-year-old who came into my office with internal tremors and anxiety for about a year for no particular reason. Anxiety was keeping her up at night, and the fatigue was the worst. She started to see a therapist when it started, but it didn't seem to help, and anti-anxiety medication was suggested, but Sara didn't really want to take them. 

It turns out that the muscle testing showed radiation toxicity and two weeks after detoxing, she was sleeping better, and there were no internal tremors. Once the radiation was done detoxing from her body, there was no more anxiety either.

Radiation, also known as EMFs or electromagnetic frequencies, we cannot avoid with our constant use of computers, cell phones, iPads, Bluetooth headphones, Bluetooth everything we are bombarded with EMFs. To help Sara, we needed to support her body to detox the radiation that was stuck in her body, and she also had to purchase EMF blockers to protect herself. Everyone should have one on their cell phone and computer. Also, your Bluetooth headphones and watch if you use them. There are a lot of EMF blockers out there on the market. The company I think works the best is www.emf-harmony.com. Also, try not to use the microwave and unplug the wifi at night.

Petroleum Products

We also absorb toxins through the skin, and the lotion we put on, so don't use anything that is petroleum based. Petroleum jelly is from the leftover petroleum material from oil and gas production. Common signs of petroleum toxicity are skin redness, burning, or irritation.

If petroleum isn't enough, commercial sunscreen and bug spray contain petroleum plus a heavy load of toxic chemicals. For a healthier sunscreen, use Badger's Sunscreen. Its lotion base is organic sunflower oil and organic beeswax. For a healthy bug spray that works, I like Babyganics Insect Spray. It's safe enough to use on babies. Its base is soybean oil and not petroleum with essential oils.

Nail Polish

Everyone can relate to the toxic smell of paint when putting on a fresh coat on a wall, but we don't think of it when walking into a nail salon. Unfortunately, the paint in nail polish is just as toxic, and sitting in the nail salon is awful for the body. There are nail salons that specialize in using clean nail polish, and I go out of my way to use those places. 

Air Quality

Air quality is something the average person does not think about, but if you want to stay healthy, it is important for everyone in NYC to have an air filter in their bedroom. The cleaner the air that we breathe, the healthier we will be. Any air filter with a HEPA filter does a good job. Having plants at home and in the workspace can create healthier air by giving off more oxygen.

The health benefits of breathing in more oxygen are so helpful to the body and are the reason why we have nasal insufflation at the office as a service. You will sit, taking deep breaths of ozone in through the nose. When the extra oxygen enters the body, the toxins break apart, and stress is taken off the lungs and sinuses. 

Another service we have that helps the body with poor air quality is our salt booth. You sit in a booth where the air is filled with fine salt particles that, when inhaled the salt bind to toxins to get them out of the body. Salt therapy also helps your skin detox. As the salt hits the skin, it binds to toxins there as well, which is good for eczema, psoriasis, and hives.

Additional References

• The “Natural” vs. “Natural Flavors” Conflict in Food Labeling - National Library of Medicine
• Benchmarking the in Vitro Toxicity and Chemical Composition of Plastic Consumer Products - American Chemical Society