My last 2 articles focused on reducing inflammation and optimizing hormones, nutrients and trophic factors in your quest to improve your cognition. This article will be on decreasing toxic exposure and eliminating toxins from your systems.

It is a given that we live in a toxic world. I have read sources stating that we are exposed to 120 toxins before we leave the house every morning. The number may sound excessive until you start looking at how many chemicals we are exposed to in self-care products, building materials and food. Toxins are literally everywhere.

One of my colleagues questioned me on why we would ever need to do a “detox” because our bodies are constantly doing that very thing. It is a great point but if you have any amount of fat on your frame, and most of us do, you are going to have toxins stored in that fat.

The more fat that you have, the more toxic you are. The phase, “the solution to pollution is dilution”, explains what is going on with our fat cells, the more toxins in our fat, the more fat we put on to dilute it.

You may or may not think that you have an issue with toxins. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself when considering this:

·Have you had general anesthesia? And if so, how many times?

·Do you eat fish containing mercury like tuna, shark or swordfish? And how often?

·Do you live or work in a place that has mold?

·Do you eat processed or non-organic foods?

·Have you had a tick bite?

·Do you take any medications?

·Do you use make-up, hairspray or deodorants?

·How much alcohol do you drink?

·Do you sweat?

·Are you constipated?

·Do you drink at least 32oz of purified water daily?

These are a start to look at potential sources of toxins and ways to help reduce toxins. Some on the list are easily remedied by lifestyle modification, while others can require more testing and possibly procedures to rid your body of the toxins. Elimination and prevention are the keys.

If you are serious about digging deeper into improving cognition and memory, I would recommend the book by Dale Bredesen “The End of Alzheimer’s”. It is an in depth protocol on the topics I have discussed in this and the previous 2 articles on memory. If you have been following my articles over the last 2 years, many of the tenants of the Magnificent 7 are incorporated into his protocol, always remember, what we do today is the foundation for the next 20 years.

Stop by the pharmacy if you would like more information or need help with a detoxification protocol for improving your memory and cognition. Until next time, be vigilant about your health!!