The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

Toxic personal care products are a major cause of inflammation, leading to the onset of degenerative diseases, said anaesthesiologist Dr Sy Pierre, a guest speaker at a recently held public lecture at Doctors Hospital. Dr Pierre spoke about the advances being made in anti-aging treatments and the treatment of degenerative diseases.

“It has been called many things: anti-aging medicine, interventional endocrinology, orthomolecular medicine and the list goes on. But what does it mean?” said Dr Pierre. Anti-aging treatment means the provision of the correct substance for the correct disease at the correct time, he said.

Cancer, now the leading cause of death in the western world, is a chronic degenerative disease. “It has recently over taken heart disease. Also, the diseases of the heart and blood vessel, diabetes, thyroid disease, hormonal dysfunction, hormonal menopause, andropause, arthritis, autism, lupus, Parkinson’s Disease, all of these are now what we call chronic degenerative diseases,” said Dr Pierre.

Dr Pierre showed a graph depicting the normal aging cycle. “Basically you’re born and somewhere between 25-35 you level off, and out here at 75-80, you go rapidly down to pass on to the after life. Some people go up to maybe 21 to 25, and maybe they are okay for a few years and then they go chronically downhill. They start with the hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and eventually cancer or some other disease. So the time that they are actually healthy is a lot shorter,” said Dr Pierre. 
“People are asking what is going on: is it genetics, is it toxins, maybe were are changing. But it seems like we are in the midsts of an inflammatory crisis,” said Dr Pierre.
What is causing the inflammation? Dr Pierre said poor diet, lack of proper supplementation and lack of exercise. “The big one here is toxic personal care products, environmental toxins, electrical pollutions, and others,” he said.
When the immune system is attacked by free radicals, Dr Pierre said people get diseases such as lupus, arthritis, Crohns Disease, and eventually cancer. He said if the endocrine system is attacked, people see diseases such as diabetes, thyroid disease, ovarian cysts, hypertension, heart attacks and eventually strokes.
“Exercise increases the amount of oxygen to tissues, it optimises the immune system function and it is extremely good in detoxification, which is interesting. We all need to sweat and sweat is probably one of the best methods of detoxification there is, and also sensible sun exposure. Without sun exposure, you do not form Vitamin D. Vitamin D is the most important vitamin,” said Dr Pierre.
He described dark skinned Bahamians avoiding the sun “like the plague.” Dr Pierre said the darker your skin, the more you need to be in the sun, as it is also a method of detoxification.
Moving on to personal care products, Dr Pierre said a woman in the morning getting dressed might use shampoo, conditioner, relaxers, and if they are wearing hair weave some of them are using glue, which is probably one of the most toxic things known to man, he said.
“They are using mascara, eyeliner, lipstick, gloss, facial creams, lotions, perfume, shaving cream, mouth wash, soaps. All of these things are very toxic. When you have all of these substances going into your breast tissue, it is no wonder that breast cancer is so high. Any of these substances by themselves, are probably not that bad because our body can take quite a bit of abuse. But once you start adding 5 to 20 substances for 20 years of your life, your diet is poor, you don’t exercise, you don’t sweat, I am surprised that the rate of breast cancer isn’t higher. And it will go higher if we don’t stop,” said Dr Pierre.

However, Dr Pierre said there are non toxic personal care products out there that people can use. He said it is good to use substances like baking soda. “It is a very good deodorant and antiperspirant. It is a very good toothpaste and it is also a very good foot power,” said Dr Pierre.
With environmental toxins, Dr Pierre said you cannot do much with them, as they are in the air. As simple as driving behind a bus, Dr Pierre said a person can inhale it.

“Another one is electrical pollution, people are in front of the television, computers, cell phones and all these other digital devices. So obviously you should pull your kids away from these things unless it is absolutely necessary, and don’t spend excessive amounts of time in front of it,” said Dr Pierre.