Toxins: What Are They Exactly?

Does the answer to the question posed by the title seem self-evident? Perhaps it is: materials that when consumed alter biochemistry quickly and substantially. By substantial I mean "quite noticeable": one will feel ill, one will feel "high".

There is a reason these substances are frequently called intoxicants. Intoxicant consumption can feel good, it can be addictive.

But it's also complicated by the notion of "dose". Too much of anything will kill you...I've heard it said, don't know if it's true, drinking enough water will kill you. I kind of doubt you could breathe enough air to kill you, but hyperventilation does have an intoxicating effect.

Perhaps the simplest definition of toxin is anything that is not (real) food. This one is quite relevant, as toxic "food like" substances have created epidemics in the so called metabolic syndrome diseases: heart disease (stroke and high blood pressure in this category), cancer, diabetes, and the many and varied autoimmune disorders.

I realize the above is a contentious point, as we generally have not been exposed to the idea that the reductionist paradigm used in medicine is mostly counterproductive when it comes to the very desirable goal of reaching and maintaining the state of optimal health. Reductionism in medicine: "separate problems, each with specific and different treatments".

The alternative view to reductionism is simply that the body is a wholistic self-regulating biomechanical, chemical, emotional entity repaired most rapidly and effectively from the general state of disrepair most of us find ourselves in simply by removing toxins from our daily lives. In the most basic terms that means simply "stop putting them in your mouth".

Yes Virginia, it really is that easy on a logistic level...which is not to say it's that easy on an emotional level. But this knowledge is an excellent place from which to engage the emotional level, as it helps immeasurably knowing that terra firma actually does exist, and it's basic and simple. It is more than conceptual, it is bio-mechanical, and easily repeatable ad infinitum.

This health "terra firma" can also be metaphorically referred to as "True North", which is also, not coincidentally, the name of the well known health clinic in Santa Rosa, CA.

(Recommended reading on the general role of toxins in our lives: "The Pleasure Trap", written by two of the principles of The True North Health Center.)

Terra firma, finally found, feels good, safe, and solid. Most of us are unaware it even exists in reality. For those folks it can feel amazing.

Those brave souls who step outside the reductionist box to repair their health by discontinuing the ingestion of toxins tend to no longer "need" (or even want) the medications, supplements, and intoxicant substances that "make us high" or give us comfort...at the expense of our good health.