Understanding the Environmental Influences of Neurotoxins on Your Brain: Contaminated (Drinking) Water, Part II

by Pamela Costello MD PC

The best way to detoxify is to stop putting toxic things into the body and depend upon its own mechanisms.

~ Andrew Weil, MD

   Water is the necessary elixir of life. Safe drinking water is fundamental to healthy living. It helps maintain body temperature, removes waste from the body, and provides the basic component of all bodily functions, cellular processes, and all body fluids. It is a renewable resource, replenished by rain and melted snow. Overuse, new weather patterns, the toxic byproducts of geoengineering, spraying of Chemtrails, depleting aquifers, toxic spills, and shrinking glaciers, have all destabilized previously reliable natural water sources.

The human body is composed primarily of water, and it requires healthy drinking water to properly flush the kidneys and liver, as well as remove toxins and waste via the colon. Unfortunately, whether from a well or municipal source, most tap water is far from pure. Heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, aluminum, fluoride, radiation, pharmaceutical drugs, toxic halide products (chlorine), and a multitude of other disease-causing toxins, are all found in drinking water.

The toxicity of our drinking water spans back millennia. Lead toxicity in water was among the first heavy metals known to ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews. Through the centuries, toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic were studied, both as to their usefulness in industrial purposes, as well as to their toxicity in water, foods, and medicines. As their use increased, so did the awareness of their poisonous effects on the human body. The concept of illness resulting from bioaccumulation, or long term storage, of even low dose exposures to heavy metal toxins, was described by Paracelsus in the early 16th century.

Despite centuries of awareness of disease caused by toxicities in drinking water, we remain without safe water to drink, as poisons such as lead leach into our tap water from unsafe plumbing. There are more than 80 “regulated” contaminants and even more unregulated toxins present in most tap water, including silent poisons such as radiation from nuclear arms and energy industries.

When we drink tap water, we are actually consuming water that contains a mixture of toxic poisonous chemicals that are rapidly absorbed by our bodies, and stored in our nervous systems and bones. These stored toxic substances (such as fluoride, lead, mercury, arsenic, and aluminum), create a constant stimulation of the brain’s immune system, leading to chronic brain inflammation and excitotoxicity, which have been linked to abnormal brain development and to neuroinflammatory disorders.

Proper water filtration is necessary to create clean, pure drinking water. To be absolutely certain you are getting the purest water you can, you need to test water with sufficient, biological grade sensitivity, as well as to properly filter water. Caution is necessary, however, as when radiation toxicity exists; even elaborate sophisticated home systems are inept. Buying commercially filtered water by a conscientious source, not merely the bottled municipal water that most water companies deceptively market as ‘pure’, is critical.

Besides adequate water purification, it’s critical to drink “structured water”, the type of water found in all of your cells. This water has healing properties, and is naturally created as water from deep springs, as structured water is created under pressure.

Identifying accumulated or stored neurotoxins, as well as ongoing toxic water sources or exposures, is a critical step toward achieving maximum health and vitality. By cleansing your body and eliminating toxins from your environment, your body and brain can begin to heal itself, prevent disease, and achieve it’s maximum health.

Understanding the Environmental Influences of Neurotoxins on Your Brain: Contaminated (Drinking)water part 1

by; Pamela Costello MD PC

The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind
~ Paracelsus, Father of Toxicology, (1493-1541)

I had the extraordinary privilege of training in Neurosurgery under James Tait Goodrich, MD, PhD; one of the world’s leading pediatric neurosurgeons. He taught me a great deal of what I know about childhood neurological disease and its’ surgical repair, as well as honed my writing skills, as we coauthored numerous papers and presentations together. He notably held a second doctorate in medical history, providing me with a very rich training in that area as well. During our monthly Journal Club meetings, we reviewed scientific articles on various neurosurgical topics. His scope ranged from the biblical to medieval, to Renaissance, to the father of neurosurgery, Harvey Cushing, and to contemporary authors. This invaluable experience with Dr. Goodrich provided me with a deep understanding of the great scientific minds that came before, as well as taught me how to best access their fund of knowledge.

In my career as a neuroscientist and neurosurgeon, as well asthrough access to my own personal collection of historical works, I’ve been provided the unique opportunity to reflect on what came before modern medicine, including writings on neurotoxins dating back to the Romans. My writings on neurotoxins are therefore not a recent discovery of mine, but rather reflect a life-long study and increasing awareness of the toxicity of our environment on our nervous systems.

Our environment dramatically affects our health and, as our air, water, and soil become increasingly polluted, our lifelong exposures to those toxins lead to the bioaccumulation of toxic substances in our tissues. These deadly toxins accumulate in our brains, nervous systems, and bones, damaging cellular processes, tissues and organs, leading to inflammatory and degenerative processes, causing the vast majority of modern day health problems.

Understanding the phenomenon of bioaccumulation is critical to achieving your best brain health. The brain and nervous systems are composed by volume, largely of negatively charged fat or lipid-bearing tissue called Myelin, whose role is to provide the necessary insulation which facilitates electrical conduction through the vastly complex array of neuronal elements. Many environmental toxins are positively charged substances that readily gain entry into our bodies through drinking, cooking, and even bath water. Once these toxins enter our systems, their attraction to our bodies’ fat-bearing tissues and Myelin becomes a one way path to tissue storage, bioaccumulation, inflammation and tissue destruction.

Industrial and naturally acquired water neurotoxins include: Mercury, Methane, Nitrogen Oxides, Perchlorate, Persistent Organic Pollutants, Pesticides, Phthalates, Polybrominated/Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Polyvinyl Chloride, Propane, Solvents, Toluene, Uranium, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Acetone, Ammonia, Arsenic, Asbestos, Benzene, Bisphenol A (BPA), Cadmium, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Chlorine, Chlorofluorocarbons, Chromium, Crude Oil, Diesel, Dioxins, Endocrine Disruptors, Ethylene Glycol, Fluoride, Formaldehyde, Gasoline, Lead, radioactivity from atomic bomb/nuclear arms testing and nuclear power plant leaks. (NIH: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences).

What role does contaminated water play in aging you and your brain? Using only well-established, documented clean water for drinking, cooking, and bathing is the first step in halting the process of bioaccumulation and ongoing exposures. The next step is to have your current toxic burden assessed and a safe individualized treatment protocol developed.

A Healthier Brain for 2015

by Pamela Costello MD PC

The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around ~ Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

   As we begin the New Year, establishing an effective plan that will allow us to thrive should be predicated upon finding our best brain health. Furthermore,understanding that illness and wellness are definable at their most basic, foundational levels, provides us with just such an effective approach to achieve our best cognitive and physical function.

As a holistic physician, neurological surgeon, and a neuroscientist, additionally trained in biological and energy medicine, I provide a comprehensive healing approach to identify and correct imbalances in the brain and the nervous system. After completing a neurotoxin burden assessment, a customized repair program allows the patient to manifest their best brain health. In the process of restoring wellness, a path to long-term brain health maintenance and our ability to thrive is discovered.

For the New Year, I’d like to offer the option of health restoration to those who want to experience the highest health of their brain and nervous systems, as well as to those struggling with their health in general.

A list of considerations that are part of my treatment approach:

Healthy Diet. As far as the brain is concerned, it’s much more than just having a well-rounded diet anymore. Eat organically, and with the intention of providing the brain with good, safe, fuel sources, rather than short term energy fixes. Determine your greatest food intolerances or sensitivities. e immune system and nervous system are inextricably linked, and what antagonizes your immune system also affects your brain.

Good Water. Drinking and cooking with water are direct routes for toxins to travel to our brains. Therefore, establishing a clear, safe source of water is critical.

Neurotoxin Burden. Do you have mercury/silver fillings? Do you know the amount of heavy metals, pesticides, solvents, e-smog, radiation, etc, that is acting to prematurely age your brain?
Acquired toxins from conception, throughout childhood and adulthood, adversely affect your neurological and physical health.

Proper Elimination. Keeping the bowels emptied on a regular basis keeps excreted toxins from being reabsorbed, decreasing the level of neuroactive toxins in your system.

Physical and Emotional Cleansing. Identifying and removing physical toxins is critical, and is most successfully accomplished when we emotionally release that which does not serve us. Our brain physiology and our behavior are interdependent.

Dental Health. Are chronic dental infections, toxic fillings, root canals, implants, or jaw malalignment compromising your best brain health? (See http://www.drwolfe.com).

Exercise. Regular exercise increases endorphins (natural morphine-like substances) as well as brain repair proteins. Exercise also strengthens the heart and cerebral circulation, mobilizing brain damaging toxins, which can be excreted via sweating. Even a gentle exercise program bene ts the brain. (See www.seanplakephw.com).

Healthy Home. Are your home and work environments clean of molds, solvents, and other threats to good brain function? Be aware that your personal hygiene, perfume, make up, hair coloring/products, laundry and household cleaning products contain solvents, heavy metals, and other toxic agents. Electromagnetic fields from electrical lines, indoor lights, computers, cell phones, and microwaves, as well as infectious opportunists and allergens, all burden our immune and nervous systems.

Healthy Attitude. Positive thinking strengthens the mind and the immune system and is a critical component to overcoming illness and achieving wellness.

Spiritual, Inspirational Support. Meditation and prayer raise your consciousness, bringing you a sense of well-being, peace, joy and inspiration. Having a spiritual focus, as well as creating music, art, speeches, lectures, or seeing plays which inspire you, reinforce the pathways of higher cognitive functioning, supporting the brain’s longevity.

If you’d like a comprehensive brain health/neurotoxin burden assessment and treatment plan for your best brain health, please contact my office at 505-503-8325.

Exercise for Your Best Brain Health

by Pamela Costello MD PC

   If the body be feeble, the mind will not be strong.

                                                    ~ Thomas Jefferson

Exercise is a critical component of creating your best brain health. Modern day neurotoxins, including heavy metals and industrial pollutants, as well as a genetically modified and adulterated food supply, radiation, and an increasingly contaminated water supply, are all factors which have brought our brains to a low point of neurologic health. When undertaking the process of identifying and treating your neurotoxic burden, physical movement through exercise is a key component. Your brain is under constant modification, both constructive and degenerative. This ‘plasticity’ provides us the opportunity to not only repair damage from lifelong neurotoxic burdens, but actually to improve our brain and neurologic function to a higher level, once the neurologic terrain has been detoxified and maximally supported.

Exercise in all forms stimulates the brain to work at improved capacity by promoting neurons to repair and strengthen their interconnections and provide protection from oxidative stress. Scientific studies have illustrated that during exercise nerve cells release brain growth proteins known as neurotrophic factors, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health, and has a direct benefit on cognitive function. Among elementary school students, 40 minutes of daily exercise increased their IQ by an average of nearly 4 points. Among 6th graders, the fittest students scored 30 percent higher than average students. At any age, exercise serves as a powerful tool to maximize our brain health and function. In more advanced age groups, exercise has been effective with Alzheimer’s disease, as even mild to moderate exercise can reverse normal brain shrinkage by 2 percent, effectively reversing age-related Hippocampal degeneration.

Whatever your current neurological health or physical functional level is, the healing of your brain and nervous system is best facilitated by an appropriate level of exercise. Exercise helps maintain healthy blood pressure and weight, improves circulation and lymphatic toxin drainage, strengthens the heart, increases the production of endorphins, improving energy and mood, and lowers stress and anxiety, all of which contribute to enhanced brain health and a heightened sense of wellness. Whichever exercise program you choose, commit to establishing exercise as a routine, as it is a medicine with a multitude of benefits, including achieving your best brain health.

From Sean Plake, Certified Personal Trainer (the exercise expert who brought me back to my best physical and brain health!): What is keeping you from starting an exercise program for improved health? Some people are intimidated by weights and the thought of sweat, or are unsure of their ability to participate in an exercise program. You should never feel intimidated by exercise, which is simply performing body movements at different rates. Television creates the illusion that exercise is only for ‘fit’ people, which could not be further from the truth. Exercise and movement are for EVERYONE! Exercise can be done at your local workout facility, outside at a park, in your home, and even in your office. When starting an exercise program with a qualified, Certified Personal Trainer, and after medical clearance from your physician, you should begin a program appropriate for your level of ability, and then slowly increase the intensity and volume as tolerated. You just need to start moving to see improvement of your overall mood, alertness, energy and general health!

For a comprehensive brain health/neurotoxin burden evaluation and individualized, comprehensive treatment protocol, please contact Dr. Costello’s office at 505-503-8325 for an appointment. visit us http://www.drcostello.com.

Neurotoxicity and Reversible Pain Syndromes

by Pamela Costello MD PC

In the last analysis, we see only what we are ready to see, what we have been taught to see.  We eliminate and ignore everything that is not a part of our prejudices.

~ Jean-Martin Charcot (1825 – 1893)
 Founder of modern neurology.

In my practice of holistic neurological medicine and as a neurosurgeon, I encounter patients daily with acute and chronic pain syndromes. My evaluation always considers such causes as nerve impingement, injured joints, discs, or lesions, and spinal malalignment, etc. In many cases, however, there is often a deeper, more elusive physiological cause to their pain syndrome involving neurotoxicity.

In the hospital setting, patients are seen acutely, often when trauma has occurred, or a physiologic process has reached a critical stage of crisis. These patients are managed according to standard emergency medical and surgical protocols. Conversely, in the office, most patients present with chronic pain syndromes, for which they are often desperate to find a remedy, as only palliative measures have been offered previously. Many of these patients have been suffering unnecessarily for varying lengths of time and have been economically and personally impacted by living with pain.

The good news is that pain syndromes are often reversible once the underlying structural and physiologic causes are identified.  Such reversible syndromes would include migraine, cluster, and tension headaches, occipital headaches and neuralgias, neck and low back pain, facial pain, (Trigeminal Neuralgia and TMJ pain), thoracic pain, Shingles (Herpes Zoster) and Post-Herpetic Neuralgia, Myofascial Pain, Fibromyalgia, pelvic and abdominal pain, including dysmenorrhea, bladder pain, stomach and bowel pain, upper and lower extremity pain (including Restless Leg Syndrome), Carpal Tunnel Syndromes, all forms of peripheral neuropathy, and Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (RSD), etc.

Neurotoxicity occurs when toxins accumulate in the neurological tissue of the body and undermine the functioning of the brain and nervous system. Long-term exposure to environmental toxins such as heavy metals, low grade infections, radiation, chemicals, food additives, pesticides, etc. can result in neurotoxicity. Chronic exposure to and bioaccumulation in the brain of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, iron, and aluminum, can lead to neurotoxicity, as can exposure to poisonous plants, animals, or molds.

The symptoms of neurotoxicity are largely reversible once identified and properly managed. Neurotoxicity symptoms resemble those of disease conditions such as the chronic pain syndromes listed above, but also of depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), chronic fatigue syndrome, the Autism Spectrum, as well as an array of autoimmune diseases, (Celiac disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and psoriatic or rheumatoid arthritis, etc.), all diseases notoriously unresponsive to conventional therapy. My experience in managing these conditions is that neurotoxicity is usually a contributing, underlying factor.

Once you’ve recognized that you might have a reversible pain syndrome, then what would be your next step for long-term cure and relief? Correct identification of all contributory, causal issues is required, and appropriate treatment undertaken. If the underlying cause of your pain or illness is toxicity, and your treatment plan does not include a detoxification regimen, your overall recovery is very likely to be incomplete and slower than it needs to be.  Standard suppressive pharmaceutical management of pain syndromes typically does not provide long-term relief and cure, and the side effects can be overwhelming. Having the underlying neurotoxicity issues identified and safely managed is a necessary part of your care to provide long-term relief and cure, with the additional benefit of elevation of your general health as well.

If you’re dealing with acute or chronic pain and would like a comprehensive holistic neurological evaluation and treatment approach, please contact my office for an appointment at 505-503-8325.