How Toxins Cause Inflammation – The Root Cause Of Inflammatory Conditions
It has been well established that toxins cause inflammation by generating excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This in turn triggers a cascade of events, where macrophages, key players in the body’s innate immune response, signal their mitochondria to cease producing ATP and instead release toxic compounds. In addition, inflammation also disrupts important cellular processes such as nutrient and waste transport, as well as causing hormone resistance.
As a result, affected cells struggle with transporting essential substances across their membrane while experiencing insufficient energy production from their mitochondria. This creates a dangerous combination, leaving cells unable to properly handle metabolic waste and toxic buildup, leading to an overflowing bucket and a wide range of detrimental health symptoms.1
How Toxins Cause Inflammation By Triggering ROS Generation
In order to better understand how toxins cause inflammation, it is important to examine their role in promoting the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These highly reactive molecules have been linked to inflammatory diseases and are produced through the activation of cytochrome P4502E1 by various toxins such as heavy metals, pesticides, and air pollutants. This process disrupts normal cellular processes, inhibiting enzymes involved in antioxidant defense and allowing for an accumulation of ROS within cells.2
Toxins also directly induce the production of ROS through multiple mechanisms. Some toxins contain free radicals or other reactive molecules that can directly damage cells, while others bind to cell membrane receptors and stimulate the production of inflammatory mediators. Heavy metals like lead and mercury inhibit antioxidant enzymes, allowing ROS to go unchecked.3
The excessive levels of ROS produced by toxins causes damage to important cellular components such as DNA, proteins, and lipids. This oxidative damage has been linked to a wide range of degenerative diseases.4
How Toxins Cause Inflammation – Lowered Glutathione Production
Glutathione (GSH) is a vital antioxidant that plays a crucial role in maintaining cellular health and protecting against oxidative damage. It is involved in various physiological processes and helps neutralize ROS and free radicals. One of the key factors influencing glutathione production is the levels of cellular ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, commonly referred to as the “energy currency” of cells.
Multiple studies have established a direct relationship between cellular ATP levels and glutathione production. This is because glutathione synthesis requires ATP as an essential source of energy. When ATP levels are low, the production of glutathione is hindered, resulting in an imbalance between antioxidants and ROS. This imbalance leads to oxidative stress and damage to cells.
In contrast, high levels of cellular ATP stimulate the production of glutathione. This helps maintain a healthy balance between antioxidants and ROS, effectively protecting cells from oxidative damage. Therefore, it is crucial to restore optimal levels of ATP for efficient glutathione production and cellular detoxification.5
How Toxins Cause Inflammation – Cellular Membrane Inflammation
The presence of toxins has detrimental effects on cellular membrane health. Toxins like heavy metals cause increased inflammation in the cellular membrane, making it less permeable. This results in a hindered ability for nutrients to enter the cells and for waste products to be removed.
Visualize each cell as a city enclosed by protective walls. When the entrance gate becomes damaged or blocked, the city is unable to function properly and becomes filled with waste and debris. Without new supplies coming in, the inhabitants of the city will suffer from malnutrition.
Similarly, when cellular membranes are inflamed, cells become overloaded with metabolic waste and essential materials for cellular function and ATP synthesis cannot enter. This toxin-induced cellular membrane inflammation is exactly what leads to a decline in overall cell health, causing downstream health symptoms.
Toxins like heavy metals embed into the cellular membrane, reshaping the structure and inducing chronic membrane inflammation. Inflammation causes the permeability of the cellular membrane to change, significantly reducing cellular function.
The process of creating ATP requires an adequate inflow of raw materials into the cell. When this is impeded, energy production takes a nosedive. As stated before, the production of glutathione is directly dependent on adequate ATP production. Without enough glutathione, cellular detoxification comes to a stand still.
The process of creating ATP results in metabolic byproducts that need to be ushered out of the cell so it doesn’t fill up with its own waste products. Again, if cellular membrane inflammation is persistent, moving metabolic waste products out of the cell is impeded.6
Think of it this way, if you light a fire in a fireplace, but don’t open the chimney damper, the whole house will fill up with smoke. The byproducts of cellular energy production are similar to smoke and if we can’t move these waste products out of the cell, they slowly build up to toxic levels.
While this is bad on its own, these toxic metabolic byproducts also trigger undesirable genetic expression that turns on genes linked to degenerative diseases. Realize that your DNA is not your destiny. We have control over which genes are expressed.
In order to get well, we must fix the cell and specifically the cellular membrane. If we keep filling our cells up with toxins with no way to remove them, the result is mysterious health illnesses and eventually, degenerative diseases. However, it doesn’t have to be this way if we repair the cellular membrane, thereby restoring permeability and reestablishing normal cellular metabolism.
How Toxins Cause Inflammation – Is Cellular Membrane Inflammation Behind Your Health Problems?
Although blood tests to determine inflammation are useful for diagnosing certain conditions, they aren’t reliable when it comes to determining cellular membrane inflammation. This is because the levels of inflammatory markers in the bloodstream do not reflect what is happening at the cellular level.
Inflammation is a complex process that involves various cells and chemical mediators. When there is inflammation present in the body, immune cells release cytokines and other inflammatory mediators. These chemical substances enter the bloodstream, where they can be detected by blood tests.
One such example of a blood test used to measure general inflammation is the C-reactive protein (CRP) test. CRP is a protein produced by the liver in response to inflammation and infection. High levels of CRP in the blood indicates that there is some kind of inflammation present in the body.
However, it’s important to note that CRP levels are not specific to cellular membrane inflammation. This means that a person could have high levels of CRP due to an infection or injury, rather than inflammation of the cellular membranes.
Similarly, other blood tests such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and white blood cell count (WBC) can also be elevated in response to various conditions, making them unreliable for determining cellular membrane inflammation.7
The Urine Test To Determine Cellular Membrane Inflammation
There is an in-home test that is a highly accurate tool used to measure the level of malondialdehyde in urine, which serves as a marker for oxidative stress and cell membrane damage caused by free radicals. This test utilizes a substance that reacts with toxic aldehydes in the urine, specifically targeting malondialdehyde produced during fat metabolism. As such, the concentration of malondialdehyde detected indicates the extent of oxidized fat and cellular damage.
Compared to traditional blood tests, this test is 50 times more accurate. The degree of color change from yellow to magenta provides insight into the level of malondialdehyde present and therefore, the severity of cell membrane damage. A darker magenta color indicates a higher amount of cellular damage occurring. This test will tell you if you suffer from cellular membrane inflammation.8
This is why the first thing we do is send you this urine test so you can see for yourself if cellular membrane inflammation is driving your health conditions. After that, we develop a comprehensive plan unique to you that both targets and removes whatever factors are causing this inflammation on the cellular level.
To learn even more about cellular membrane inflammation and the at home inflammation test kit, join me in my free webinar.
References
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2 Guengerich FP. Cytochrome P450 2E1 and its roles in disease. Chem Biol Interact. 2020 May 1;322:109056. doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2020.109056. Epub 2020 Mar 18. PMID: 32198084; PMCID: PMC7217708.
3 Balali-Mood M, Naseri K, Tahergorabi Z, Khazdair MR, Sadeghi M. Toxic Mechanisms of Five Heavy Metals: Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium, and Arsenic. Front Pharmacol. 2021 Apr 13;12:643972. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.643972. PMID: 33927623; PMCID: PMC8078867.
4 Shields HJ, Traa A, Van Raamsdonk JM. Beneficial and Detrimental Effects of Reactive Oxygen Species on Lifespan: A Comprehensive Review of Comparative and Experimental Studies. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Feb 11;9:628157. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.628157. PMID: 33644065; PMCID: PMC7905231.
5 Kwon DH, Cha HJ, Lee H, Hong SH, Park C, Park SH, Kim GY, Kim S, Kim HS, Hwang HJ, Choi YH. Protective Effect of Glutathione against Oxidative Stress-induced Cytotoxicity in RAW 264.7 Macrophages through Activating the Nuclear Factor Erythroid 2-Related Factor-2/Heme Oxygenase-1 Pathway. Antioxidants (Basel). 2019 Apr 1;8(4):82. doi: 10.3390/antiox8040082. PMID: 30939721; PMCID: PMC6523540.
6 Minich DM, Brown BI. A Review of Dietary (Phyto)Nutrients for Glutathione Support. Nutrients. 2019 Sep 3;11(9):2073. doi: 10.3390/nu11092073. PMID: 31484368; PMCID: PMC6770193.
7 Menzel A, Samouda H, Dohet F, Loap S, Ellulu MS, Bohn T. Common and Novel Markers for Measuring Inflammation and Oxidative Stress Ex Vivo in Research and Clinical Practice-Which to Use Regarding Disease Outcomes? Antioxidants (Basel). 2021 Mar 9;10(3):414. doi: 10.3390/antiox10030414. PMID: 33803155; PMCID: PMC8001241.
8 Toto A, Wild P, Graille M, Turcu V, Crézé C, Hemmendinger M, Sauvain JJ, Bergamaschi E, Guseva Canu I, Hopf NB. Urinary Malondialdehyde (MDA) Concentrations in the General Population-A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. Toxics. 2022 Mar 29;10(4):160. doi: 10.3390/toxics10040160. PMID: 35448421; PMCID: PMC9024833.
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