Traditionally, categorization of environmental illness has been limited to Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), Electro-Hypersensitivity (EHS) and other conditions thought to be ‘idiopathic’. However, new research makes it clear that influences of the environment on illness go far beyond this limited number of conditions. In its simplest definition, environmental illness is any condition for which the cause has not been shown to be genetic, and environmental science has now evolved to a content complexity that supports that simple definition.
We now know that all environmental exposures – including external insults from air, water and electro-magnetic fields as well as internal insults from ingested foods and pharmaceuticals – provoke cell membrane level adaptive responses. Mal-adaptation leads to disease; constructive adaptation tends toward resistance and immunity. Differences in adaptive capacity define why everyone who smokes does not develop lung cancer and why everyone who diets does not lose weight. The key is that the complex interplay of genetics and environment, including epigenetic mechanisms, synergies and effect modifications, defines adaptive capacity and therefore defines disease, illness, wellness and self-realization.
Following from this new knowledge, it is clear that environmental illness in today’s world is more pervasive than generally acknowledged. Autism, conditions such as ADHD and ADD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety disorders and sleep problems all have significant environmental components. Most cancers, reproductive problems and infertility are considered to have environmental etiology. Heart disease, diabetes and circulatory problems are related to internal environmental insults derivative of dietary practices. All tolled, more than half of all illnesses being treated everyday can be classified as environmental.
Treatment and management of these conditions is difficult and success rates, irrespective of the public relations efforts of treatment providers proclaiming dramatic cures, are low. One reason is that consideration of the fundamental bio-energetic loop (BEL) that underscores the organism-environment interaction is missing in most treatment and management protocols.
Energy potential differences across cell membranes have long been known to play important roles in cell structure and function. As biological knowledge has evolved, it has also become clear that virtually all reactions in physiology are the result of energy transfer, including making and breaking of ionic or covalent bonds, free radical reactions, and osmosis. Thanks to the work of luminaries such as Drs. Fritz Popp and Bruce Lipton we now understand that light energy in the form of bio-photons are also integral to organism physiology and that the cell membrane is the focal point for cellular environmental monitoring. In addition, research shows that energy potentials across cell membranes are variable over time, depending on whether a cell is in a parasympathetic (relaxed) functional state or in a sympathetic (stressed) reactive state. When the cell is effectively ‘relaxed’ the energy potential and resultant kinetic energy is greater than when the cell is ‘stressed’. These collective findings have been critical to understanding the BEL.
Individual cells function in coordination with neighboring cells. The means of effecting this coordination is intercellular communication. We now know that intercellular communication is achieved through at least two distinct types of reactions. The first is an energetic communication that is bio-photon based. The second is biochemically mediated through gap junctions and connexins, depending on the type of cell. Most important is that the combination of light energy and chemical energy transfer makes intercellular communication effectively instantaneous.
The Bio-Energetic Loop is the means through which any external or internal environmental stimulus is able to instantaneously cause a cell membrane level reaction under certain circumstances defined by the characteristics of the person at a specific point in time. In short, the BEL is the connection between cells and the environment. Cells communicating with each other to effectuate joint function form tissues. Cells and tissues communicating with each other to effectuate joint function form organs. Organs communicating and functioning together form organ systems. Organ systems working together define the organism or in this case, the person.
At each level of coordination is a transfer of energy that effectuates a transition of cell membrane energy potential to kinetic energy. The sum-total of the kinetic energy scaling from cells to tissues to organs to organ systems to the organism forms a bio-energetic field that radiates a distance away from the corpus or body of the organism. This supra-organism or bio-field can be measured and in most cases it radiates from six inches to about three feet, depending on variables including the person’s health status, activity and level of sympathetic stress. Internally, the bio-field reaches across the digestive and excretory tracts.
Evolutionarily, the BEL is a multi-level protective system for the organism, with the ultimate protection aimed at keeping individual cells from being damaged. The first line of defense or the first level point of adaptive response is the bio-field – both external and internal. For example, a bio-field response explains why people can ‘feel the energy change’ in a room when an argument ensues (external bio-field reaction) and why people feel queasy in their stomach when they see something that makes them nervous (internal bio-field reaction). The purpose of this reaction is to provoke in the organism (person) a ‘protective response’, usually an avoidance response.
If there is no avoidance response provoked by the bio-field level warning, then the organ systems take over – for example, initiating an adrenalin release provoking cardiac and circulatory system changes to facilitate ‘fight or flight’. The protective layers scale down to the individual cell, where lipid peroxidase reactions effectively close cell membrane ion channels as the last line of defense. The protective cascade is a continuum where each insult impacts the entire BEL to varying degrees.
The key to applying knowledge of the BEL in treating and managing environmental illness is understanding that the BEL defines what level of the organism can be accessed with an intervention at a given time. Whether an intervention is physical, chemical or biological, the organism’s initial response is protection against a potential environmental insult. Thus, with any intervention, the BEL protective cascade is initiated. In addition, residual environmental insults present at the time an intervention is introduced play a role in determining the level of access within the organism.
For example, treatment and management of both MCS and EHS requires elimination of both chemicals (including fragrances) and electromagnetic fields from the person’s environment as well as other sympathetic stressors while the interventions are introduced. Cell membranes are the site of the operative pathology, and to reverse these conditions, cell membranes need to be accessed. If the person is in an environment where the bio-field avoidance response is not possible, organ systems and organ protections prevent efficient cell membrane access. Ingestible supplements to increase cellular energy, for example, would not be taken up by cells because cell membrane sympathetic stress reactions would reduce cell membrane permeability.
As a practical matter, addressing interventions over time from the outer layers of the BEL to the inner layers has shown the most promise in efficiently managing environmental illness. Outer layer interventions include many integrative approaches including acupuncture, network chiropractic, standard chiropractic, massage therapy, homeopathy, and Reiki. After a period of time, inner layer interventions such as nutraceuticals can efficiently be added. The goal is to achieve bio-energetic balance throughout the course of intervention and this is best achieved by using the BEL as a roadmap to intervention choices.