There are a large amount of toxic chemicals and pollutants in the earth's atmosphere, water, food, and soil. Each year people are exposed to thousand of them. These pollutants manifest themselves in a variety of symptoms, including decreased immune function, neurotoxicity, hormonal dysfunction, psychological disturbances, and even cancer. Detoxification therapy helps to rid the body of chemicals and pollutants and can assist a return to health.

  Detoxification is the body's natural process of removing or neutralizing toxins by means of the liver, the kidneys, the urine, the feces, exhalation, and perspiration. Yet, as a result of the industrial revolution and the post-World War II petrochemical revolution, toxins have accumulated in the human system faster than they can be removed. People now carry within their bodies a chemical mixture derived from industrial chemicals, pesticides, food additives, heavy metals, anesthetics, and the residues of pharmaceutical drugs, legal drugs (alcohol, tobacco, caffeine), and illegal drugs (heroin, cocaine, marijuana).

  Today people are exposed to chemicals in far greater concentrations then were previous generations: for example, over 69 million Americans live in areas that exceed smog standards; most drinking water contains over seven hundred chemicals, including excessive levels of lead; some three thousand chemicals are added to the food supply; and as many as ten thousand chemicals in the form of solvents, emulsifiers, and preservatives are used in food processing and storage, which can remain in the body for years. To worsen the situation, food and product labels do not always list every ingredient. When people consume these foods-especially seafood, meat, and poultry-they ingest all the chemicals and pesticides that have remained as contaminants accumulating in the food chain.

  Everyday products such as gasoline, paint, household cleansers, cosmetics, pesticides, and dry cleaning fluid also pose a serious threat because the body cannot easily break them down. At the same time, ecological changes in the environment are occurring faster than the human organism can adapt to them. As the earth becomes more and more polluted, the body inadvertently becomes a filter that "traps" these pollutants.

  Marshall Mandell, M.D., father of the field of bioecologic medicine says, the current level of chemicals in the food and water supply and the indoor and outdoor environment has lowered our threshold of resistance to disease and has changed our body's metabolism, causing enzyme dysfunction, nutritional deficiencies, and hormonal imbalances.

  According to Zane Gard, M.D., of Beaverton, Oregon, bioaccumulation (a buildup in the body of foreign substances) seriously compromises physiological and psychological health. Over the last ten years, hundreds of studies have demonstrated the dangers to health from toxic bioaccumulation.

  Leon Chaitow, N.D., D.O., of London, England states, a body with a healthy immune system, efficient organs of elimination and detoxification, and a sound circulatory and nervous system can handle a great deal of toxicity. But if they have been damaged from chronic exposure to environmental pollutants, restoring these functions, organs, and systems can be accomplished only through detoxification therapies, including fasting, chelation, and nutritional, herbal, and homeopathic methods, which accelerate the body's own natural cleansing processes. These therapies will dominate medical thinking in the years ahead.