Courtesy of HealthKeepers Magazine

Dr. George Carlo is Chairman of the non-profit Science and Public Policy Institute based in Washington, D.C. Over the past thirty years, he has been at the forefront of researching and developing strategies for managing
environmental illness.
Dr. Carlo was among the first scientists on the scene at the infamous Love Canal chemical crisis in Niagara Falls, New York in 1978 that led to the Superfund law addressing hazards from abandoned hazardous waste
sites. He was integral in writing the enabling legislation that established the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry within the Department of Health and Human Services, a primary group addressing the effects of environmental contaminants.
He served for ten year s on the U.S. Congress’ Of f ice of Technology Assessment Agent Orange Advisory Panel, providing advice to Viet Nam Veteran’s suffering from the effects of the dioxin-laced defoliant program.
During the 1990s, he headed Wireless Technology Research, the world’s largest program to date addressing the health impacts of wireless technology related to electro-magnetic radiation.
Among his more than 200 peer reviewed publications are papers addressing environmentally caused reproductive effects, infertility, tumors, cancer, electrosensitivity, autism, and multiple chemical sensitivities.

The Bio Energetic Component
A primary purpose of health science research has always been to learn enough about a disease process in
order to manage and control it. As new knowledge emerges, clinical observations are the most important
tools for verifying and modifying research findings so that those who are suffering can be helped.
It’s worth noting that the politicisation of science has made perfection the enemy of usefulness in a number of arenas and, as such, has served to keep useful interventions from protecting the public . Most recently, a United States Senate hearing held September 14, 2009 included witnesses presenting data on the link between cell phones and brain cancer as a ‘novel ’ concept that is far from decided.

More than 2,000 published studies are now in the published scientific literature regarding this link, with the
weight of that evidence supporting precautions. Yet the outcome of the hearing was referral to a government
agency to assess the need for more research. All the while, more than 4 billion people worldwide put cells
phones up to their heads every day. The purpose of this article is to present a summary of scientific findings regarding environmental illness and its bio-energetic component. The hope is to both provoke further clinical observation research by those treating these conditions and provide new tools to be tried for more effective case management.

More than Half of All the Illnesses Being Treated Everyday Can be Classified as Environmental
The extent of environmental illness in today ’s world has expanded. Traditionally, categorisation of
environmental illness has been limited to Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), Electro-Hypersensitivity (EHS) and other conditions thought to be ‘idiopathic’. However, new research makes it clear that influences of the environment on illness go far beyond this limited number of conditions. In its simplest definition, environmental illness is any condition for which the cause has not been shown to be genetic. Environmental science has now evolved to a content complexity that supports that simple definition.

We now know that all environmental exposures—including external insults from air, water and electromagnetic fields as well as internal insults from ingested foods and pharmaceuticals—provoke cell
membrane level adaptive responses. Put simply, mal-adaptation leads to disease; constructive adaptation
tends toward resistance and immunity.

The differences in adaptive capacity define why everyone who smokes does not develop lung cancer and
why everyone who diets does not lose weight. The key is that the complex interplay of genetics and
environment, including epigenetic mechanisms, synergies and effect modifications, defines adaptive
capacity and therefore defines disease, illness, wellness and self realisation.

As a result, it is clear that environmental illness in today ’s world is more pervasive than generally acknowledged. Autism, conditions such as ADHD and ADD, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders and sleep problems all have significant environmental component s . Most cancers ,reproductive problems and infertility are considered to have environmental etiology. Heart disease, diabetes and circulatory problems are related to internal environmental insults derivative of dietary practices. All told, more than half of all illnesses being treated everyday can be classified as environmental.

Treatment and management of these conditions is difficult and success rates, irrespective of the public relation efforts of treatment providers proclaiming dramatic cures, are low. One reason is that consideration of the fundamental bio-energetic loop (BEL) that underscores the organismenvironment interaction is missing in most treatment and management protocols.

The Bio-Energetic Loop: The Connection Between Cells and the Environment
Energy potential differences across cell membranes have long been known to play important roles in cell
structure and function. As biological knowledge has evolved, it has also become clear that virtually all reactions in physiology are the result of energy transfer , including making and breaking of ionic or covalent bonds, free radical reactions and osmosis.

Thanks to the work of luminaries such as Drs. Fritz Popp and Bruce Lipton we now understand that light energyin the form of bio-photons are also integral to organism physiology and that the cell membrane is the focal point for cellular environmental monitoring. In addition, research shows that energy potentials across
cell membranes are variable over time, depending on whether a cell is in a relaxed functional state (parasympathetic) or in a stressed reactive state (sympathetic). When the cell is effectively ‘relaxed’ the energy potential and resultant kinetic energy is greater than when the cell is ‘stressed’. These collective findings
have been critical to understanding the Bio-Energetic Loop (BEL).

Intercellular Communication
Individual cells function in coordination with neighboring cells. The means of effecting this coordination is intercellular communication. We now know that intercellular communication is achieved through at least two
distinct types of reactions. The first is an energetic communication that is bio-photon based. The second is
biochemically mediated through gap junctions and connexins, depending on the type of cell. Most important
is that the combination of light energy and chemical energy transfer makes intercellular communication effectively instantaneous.

The Bio-Energetic Loop is the means through which any external or internal environmental stimulus is able to instantaneously cause a cell membrane level reaction under certain circumstances defined by the characteristics of the person at a specific point in time. In short, the BEL is the connection between cells and the environment. Cells communicating with each other to effectuate joint function form tissues. Cells and tissues communicating with each other to effectuate joint function form organs. Organs communicating and functioning together form organ systems. Organ systems working together define the organism or in this case, the person.

The Bio Field
At each level of coordination is a transfer of energy that effectuates a transition of cell membrane energy potential to kinetic energy. The sum-total of the kinetic energy scaling from cells to tissues to organs to organ systems to the organism forms a bio-energetic field that radiates a distance away from the corpus or body of the organism.

This supra-organism or bio-field can be measured and, in most cases, it radiates from six inches to about
three feet, depending on variables including the person’s health status, activity and level of sympathetic stress. Internally, the bio-field reaches across the digestive and excretory tracts. From an embryonic development perspective, the digestive and excretory tracts are ‘external’ to the organism, the result of internal folding of ectoderm and endoderm. Thus, it follows that the bio-field is the result of cumulative energy radiating outward.

The First Line of Defense
Evolutionarily, the BEL is a multi-level protective system for the organism, with the ultimate protection aimed
at keeping individual cells from being damaged. The first line of defense or the first level point of adaptive response is the biofield— both external and internal.

For example, a bio-field response explains why people can ‘feel the energy change’ in a room when an argument ensues (external biofield reaction) and why people feel queasy in their stomach when they see something that makes them nervous (internal bio-field reaction). The purpose of this reaction is to provoke in the organism (person) a ‘protective response’, usually an avoidance response.

If there is no avoidance response provoked by the bio-field level warning, then the organ systems take over, for example, initiating an adrenalin release-provoking cardiac and circulator y system changes to facilitate ‘fight or flight’. The protective layers scale downto the individual cell, where lipid peroxidase reactions effectively close cell membrane ion channels as the last line of defense. The protective cascade is a continuum where each insult impacts the entire BEL to varying degrees.

Using the Bio-Energetic Loop in Treatment
The key to applying knowledge of the BEL in treating and managing environmental illness is understanding
that the BEL defines what level of the organism can be accessed with an intervention at a given time.
Whether an intervention is physical, chemical or biological, the organism’s initial response is protection against a potential environmental insult. Thus, with any intervention, the BEL protective cascade is initiated. In
addition, residual environmental insults present at the time an intervention is introduced play a role in determining the level of access within the organism.

For example, treatment and management of both Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS ) and Electro-Hyper sensitivity (EHS) require elimination of both chemicals (including fragrances) and electromagnetic fields from
the person’s environment as well as other sympathetic stressors while the interventions are introduced.
Cell membranes are the site of the operative pathology, and to reverse these conditions, cell membranes need to be accessed. If the person is in an environment where the bio-field avoidance response is not possible, organ systems and organ protections prevent efficient cell membrane access. Ingestible supplements to increase cellular energy, for example, would not be taken up by cells because cell membrane sympathetic stress reactions would reduce cell membrane permeability.

Achieving Balance
As a practical matter, addressing interventions over time from the outer layers of the BEL to the inner layers has shown the most promise in efficiently managing environmental illness. Outer layer interventions include many integrative approaches including acupuncture, network chiropractic, standard chiropractic, massage therapy, homeopathy and Reiki. After a period of time, inner layer interventions such as nutraceuticals
can efficiently be added. The goal is to achieve bio-energetic balance throughout the course of intervention
and this is best achieved by using the BEL as a roadmap to intervention choices.

Click here for more articles on environmental illness

First Published in November 2009

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