07/29/2024
🔥FIRE PROTECTION ESSENTIALS AND RESPIRATORY HEALTH🚒
If you live in an area affected by fires and/or reduced air quality due to nearby fires, this information is for you!
You're probably feeling it—a scratchy throat, dry cough, irritated eyes, or even a nauseous feeling from breathing in harmful air. It smells like a campfire out there, but with homes and businesses burning, we are exposed to much more than just wood smoke. The air and ash are laden with synthetic chemicals released from burning building materials and household contents. We're dealing with a toxic load of exceptionally harmful substances like dioxins, heavy metals, styrene, toluene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and acid gases. This is serious business.
Limit Your Exposure
The first objective is to limit your exposure as much as possible. Stay indoors and seal your house. Avoid drawing any air into your home from outside—limit the use of fans or dryers. Use towels around drafty doorways or windows. If you've been contemplating getting an air purifier, now is the time. If you must go outside, wear a respirator mask, such as an N95 or P100, preferably the latter. Your lungs are better equipped to handle airborne toxins than your oral mucosa and digestive tract. Breathe through your nose, not your mouth, and avoid eating or drinking in areas with compromised air quality. After being outside, rinse your nasal passages and lubricate them with aloe-saline, coconut, or sesame oil.
Enhance Overall Health
Improving your overall health by lowering your 'total load' will help you better detoxify the current dangers. Avoid inflammatory foods--anything that inflames you—food sensitivities, sugar, alcohol, etc. Stay away from fried, smoked, browned, and grilled foods, as these generate PAHs and inflammatory compounds. Consider a cleansing diet, focusing on steamed, raw, stewed, and poached foods. Eat as many vegetables as you can and use lots of aromatic herbs and spices, like rosemary. Contact me if you would like to learn more about our 10 week program to reduce inflammation and improve your overall health!
Mitigate Acute Effects
Lubricated membranes have better barrier function to inhibit toxin entry. For a dry, scratchy throat or lungs, I might suggest a natural throat spray with membrane tonics and anti-inflammatory herbs. When I take these herbs for lung irritation, I often feel the difference immediately.
Inflammation modulators like N-acetylcysteine (NAC), quercetin, and other flavonoids help protect inflamed tissues and promote barrier integrity. NAC helps maintain glutathione levels and is especially protective in highly vascularized tissues like the lungs. In California, where wildfires have once again been ravaging, patients are having great success with Th2 Modulator, which contains many of these nutrients. The capsule can be opened and mixed into applesauce for adults or children. Glutathione is also the body's primary antioxidant and is needed in increased amounts to support your liver and tissues when under extreme detox stress. You can find and purchase my Fire Detox Support plan here: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/angelagriffithsdc.
Your lymphatic system helps filter waste that ends up outside your bloodstream. Moving toxicants away from overwhelmed tissues can help neutralize them more effectively. Skin brushing, rebounding, exercise, and contrast hydrotherapy all help move lymph. Remember, no exercising outside!
Prevent Long-Term Effects
Glutathione is a key detoxification compound in the lungs, liver, brain, and kidneys, where it neutralizes reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, aka free radicals. It reduces mitochondrial damage and also plays a role in regulating cellular regeneration and differentiation. Glutathione can be easily depleted in the lungs, so it's crucial to maintain optimal levels.
Some foods naturally contain glutathione, such as asparagus, spinach, garlic, avocado, squash, zucchini, potatoes, melons, grapefruit, strawberries, and peaches. Glutathione is also generated from three amino acids: cysteine, glycine, and glutamine. Foods rich in cysteine, like garlic and onions, as well as brassicas such as kale, cabbage, broccoli, radishes, and turnips, are particularly beneficial. Glycine and glutamine are abundant in protein-containing foods, especially bone broth.
Several important cofactors are required for the synthesis and regeneration of glutathione: magnesium, several B vitamins, zinc, and selenium. For resources on which foods contain these nutrients, I recommend WHFoods. While getting most nutrients from food is ideal, supplemental support can provide additional protection when the toxin load is high.
In terms of supplementation, a high-quality multivitamin with active B vitamins usually covers all but the magnesium. If you have higher exposure or are vulnerable due to increased oxidative stress, N-acetyl cysteine can provide additional glutathione support, or glutathione can be directly supplemented in liposomal form. You can find and purchase my Fire Detox Support plan here: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/angelagriffithsdc.
Flavonoids and Antioxidants
Flavonoids inhibit inflammatory pathways and support our p53 pathway for cell cycle regulation and repair—this is your genomic guardian for cancer protection. Flavonoids are found in colorful foods, especially berries, grapes, pomegranate, garlic, green tea, artichokes, turmeric, rosemary, and most other spices.
Here are my top five flavonoid-rich herbs and a few mushrooms for supporting antioxidant and detoxification pathways and protecting us from cellular damage:
🧯Milk Thistle: A glutathione regenerator, known for its liver and kidney support. It can be ground up and added to foods or teas or taken as a capsule.
🧯Tumeric: An anti-inflammatory powerhouse with documented anti-cancer effects. Best absorbed with fat, turmeric can be taken as a paste or in professional-grade encapsulated formulations with enhanced bioavailability.
🧯Green Tea: An incredible antioxidant that tightens inflamed tissues and is one of the most researched anti-cancer herbs.
🧯Rosemary: A power-food full of antioxidants. It helps reduce the effects of PAHs from foods and inhaled substances. We excrete phytochemicals from aromatic herbs via our lungs, where they provide antioxidant benefits.
🧯Schisandra: Another glutathione regenerator and adaptogen for stressful times. Often consumed as tart tea or incorporated into tinctures.
Medicinal Mushrooms
For long-term protection, medicinal mushrooms contain complex polysaccharides with incredible immune-modulating effects. Two of my favorites are:
🧯Reishi: Both anti-inflammatory and stress-modulating.
🧯Cordyceps: Enhances respiratory function and oxygen efficiency in the lungs.
You can find and purchase my Fire Detox Support plan here: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/angelagriffithsdc.
Final Thoughts
Supporting your overall health helps you stay resilient amidst environmental insults. Now is the prime time to follow your self-care regimens diligently.
Stay safe, and take care of your health.
