Toxic: Heal Your Body from Mold Toxicity, Lyme Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, and Chronic Environmental Illness

I have interviewed well over 100 integrative doctors and practitioners in my work as a medical researcher and writer, and I believe Dr. Nathan to be among the most wise, well-studied, experienced and humble. He is also honest and truly cares about his patients.What I love about Dr. Nathan's most recent book is that it isn't based on a fad theory in medicine, but Dr. Nathan's extensive experience in working with some of the most challenging chronically ill people around the world.The book is easy to understand and presents only the most vital and evidence-based information for those looking for better answers to the rampant problems of environmental illness, mold toxicity, Lyme disease and related conditions. It is backed by science but brain-fogged readers won't get stuck trying to wade through pages of research and scientific terms. Dr. Nathan writes succinctly, providing only essential information, and that I love.The work is also comprehensive, addressing every aspect of illness in people with mold illness, Lyme disease and related conditions. Yet it is not overwhelming, and the solutions Dr. Nathan provides are clear and easy to follow.What's more, he gives readers hope that they too, can overcome sickness caused by infections and toxins, because he has had incredible success in treating many sick people that other doctors had given up on, and the book contains testimonials of such people.Finally, and one of the things that I love most about this book - is that Dr. Nathan discusses WHY many chronically ill people fail to heal, despite apparently having received the best treatments, and provides some amazing cutting-edge tools for getting past the roadblocks to full healing. For instance, he describes how the body can get stuck in a protective mode called the "cell danger response" which occurs when a person has been sick for a long time, and how, by rebooting the various systems of the body after the toxins and infections have been removed, health can be fully restored. This is a novel topic that I haven't heard discussed much elsewhere, and it provides a solid reason for why people who have received years of treatment for Lyme, mold and related illnesses fail to fully heal.Oh, and the book contains lots of beautiful and informative diagrams, which makes for a delightful reading experience. If you battle a toxicity related illness, or undiagnosed chronic health condition of any kind, I highly encourage you to check out this book - it will change your life.- Connie Strasheim, Author, New Paradigms in Lyme Disease Treatment

We live in an ever-changing and increasingly complicated world that contains chemicals and technology that didn’t exist a couple decades ago. Commercial food production has changed drastically. Accordingly, patterns of illness change as new symptoms and syndromes appear.We are now in an epidemic of chronic illnesses that have in common various features of inflammation. This book describes how sensitivity and toxicity may result from a combination of genetics and the environment, and the cumulative and synergistic effects of the environment. In “Toxic: Heal your body from Mold Toxicity, Lyme Disease, Chemical Sensitivities, and Chronic Environmental illness”, Neil Nathan, MD presents valuable and new information about symptoms and causes of chronic illness. Many people have been ill for years not knowing why. This book is for them, their families, and their doctors. He ties together features of clinical scenarios with biochemical processes, which can become impaired due to toxins. He attempts to show what can be done to return these processes to approach normal.He refers to and draws from a groundbreaking paper from 2013 called “The Cell Danger Response”. He illustrates how basic biochemistry at the cellular level can get “stuck” due to toxins, and then relates that to what we may see or experience clinically. And how to think about fixing a chronic and maladaptive response.“Rebooting” is a concept he uses to address a feature of chronic illness that is central. Often the original triggering event causing the illness is no longer operative, yet the patient still suffers with symptoms. We begin by dealing with the toxins and infections, and then we find that the body has “somehow lost the ability to turn off the process that started the illness”. So, he looks at rebooting via systems such as the neurological, immunological, gastrointestinal.The sweet last chapters of this book deal with the importance of addressing mental, physical, spiritual and emotional issues to be addressed in conjunction with getting better. They “can promote or inhibit healing”.And the appendices and suggested reading are helpful.As both a physician, and a patient who deals with mold and other toxins, I am thankful to have this book to clarify and tie together the basic concepts of these complex issues. This is so far off the radar of what I learned in medical school; everything I know about this was learned 25 years post-education, and I believe it should be widely shared.