Oxidative Stress: ​8 Steps You Can Take to Fight the Root Cause of All Disease by 30Seconds Health

8 Steps You Can Take to Fight Oxidative Stress (the Root Cause of All Disease) by Dr. Thomas E. Levy

There's a lot of anxiety surrounding disease nowadays, as people seem to be getting sick left and right, and it's not clear why. Most of us know at least one person who has suffered a heart attack or courageously battled breast cancer or faced down some other formidable illness like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. While many of us stress and worry about falling victim to a deadly health crisis, we feel largely powerless to protect ourselves from such a scary fate. But disease is far less random than we'd like to believe – and there's  plenty we can do to prevent it. All disease comes down to a single factor: too much oxidative stress in your body.

Oxidation is a normal component of the body's healthy metabolic activity. But thanks to our highly toxic lifestyles, a state of highly increased oxidative stress (IOS) is becoming the norm. This is the source of all disease. Anyone who wishes to stay healthy should identify and eliminate all ongoing new sources of oxidative stress on a daily basis.

Surprisingly, the biggest source of IOS is the toxins caused by hidden dental infections, particularly infected teeth, infected gums, and infected tonsils. In fact, studies show that root canal-treated teeth and chronically infected gums cause at least 90 percent of heart attacks and 70 percent of breast cancers. Treating these kinds of infections in the mouth is a vital step in decreasing your toxic load (and thus decreasing IOS). But there are also lots of other ways to suppress the influx of toxins present in the body.

If you can better manage your toxic load and prevent new toxins from wreaking havoc in your body, you greatly decrease your risk of disease … all disease. Here are ways to decrease toxins and lower your levels of oxidative stress:

• Identify and eliminate chronic infections (usually in the mouth!). Infections of the teeth are a significant source of pathogen-related toxins. These infections are asymptomatic and often not seen on a standard X-ray. However, they can be seen by using 3D X-ray imaging. I recommend having a baseline physical evaluation and 3D X-ray of the mouth. Over time you can use this baseline result to indicate the presence of new infections in the roots of the teeth.

• Measure your C-reactive protein (CRP) level. C-reactive protein is a protein in the plasma that indicates the level of inflammation in your body. Though normal range for this test is usually 0-3, your CRP should ideally be well below 1. Anything higher is an indication of increased oxidative stress.

• Balance your hormones. Low estrogen levels in women, low testosterone levels in men, and low thyroid hormones in both men and women all result in an increase in oxidative stress. And when oxidative stress is increased throughout the body, any focal infections present in the teeth and gums are more likely to become metastatic. Therefore, it's important to keep these hormone levels well within the normal range at all times. Normal thyroid function is particularly important in preventing infected teeth and gums from producing increased oxidative stress throughout the body. Traditional thyroid testing reliably diagnoses only extreme thyroid problems and misses more subtle forms of dysfunction. Patients should request T3 and reverse T3 tests to correctly analyze their thyroid health. Many people need to supplement with T3 as well as desiccated thyroid to restore function.

• Assimilate micronutrients by consuming blended smoothies. The standard American diet consists of highly processed foods that lack beneficial micronutrients. Further, thanks to compromised gut health, many people fail to fully digest their food, which then putrefies and creates a host of toxins and toxic metabolic byproducts. To combat poor digestion and get the most nutrition from your food, I recommend pulverizing a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, into a nutrient-rich smoothie on a daily basis. This ensures that you take in as many micronutrients as possible, which defends against IOS.

• Stay away from calcium supplements. Despite its popularity for treating osteoporosis, calcium supplementation is simply never good for you and should be avoided. When your vitamin D level is properly adjusted, you get all the calcium you need through your diet.

• Avoid iron and copper as well. In addition to calcium, iron and copper are toxic nutrients. They are essential for life in a limited dosage, but become progressively toxic in larger doses. You should never take an iron supplement unless you have an iron deficiency anemia. Additionally, you should never eat foods that have been fortified with these nutrients. (Read your food labels; many processed foods contain added iron!)

• Use caution with fat-soluble vitamins. Unlike water-soluble vitamins, which demonstrate little to no toxicity in any dose, vitamins A, D and E can eventually be pushed to toxic levels as they become increasingly concentrated in the liver and fatty tissues of the body. I recommend exerting some caution when supplementing with high doses of them. Vitamin D supplementation requires some blood testing to make sure the dosing is correct. (However, vitamin K is the one fat-soluble vitamin that has no toxicity.)

• "Sweat out" your toxins in a far-infrared sauna. Sweating is a much too little recognized way to safely detox your body. Many chelating drugs pull toxins from your tissues but don't fully remove them from your body. This can cause a new toxic effect from the toxins as those toxins mobilize and travel to new tissues. But sweating gives you an enormous detox with little acute toxicity in the process. A far-infrared sauna is superior for removing toxins because of the way the sauna heats the body. However, aerobic exercise – and sweating caused by aerobic exercise – is also an excellent way to detoxify.

Chronically increased oxidative stress can be bad news if left unchecked. But luckily there are lots of great ways to combat it. In a few simple steps, you can lower your toxic load, stop oxidative stress that might otherwise become deadly, and remove yourself from the danger zone of disease.

The information on 30Seconds.com is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered medical advice. The information provided through this site should not be used to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease and is not a substitute for professional care. Always consult your personal health care provider.