Whether a person lives in the city or the countryside, exposure to toxins can be a concern. The healthcare professionals at the Environmental Health Center Dallas understand the toll that these toxins and frequencies can take on the body, and work to decrease their patients’ exposure and susceptibility while promoting clean living. Unfortunately, there are thousands of chemical byproducts that people come in contact with each day from air-pollens, smog, mold, carpets, cleaning supplies, and perfume, to name a few. Even the electromagnetic radiation from Wi-Fi is becoming a worry.

“Often, patients come to us after having seen many physicians and specialists to no avail,” says Elizabeth Seymour, M.D., a family and functional medicine physician at Environmental Health Center. “We work to get to the root cause—and we often find that the root cause is directly related to these everyday stressors.”

William J. Rea, M.D., founded the Environmental Health Center in 1974, and was a pioneer in pinpointing the correlation between human health and the environment. He saw that buildup from various exposures can cause a variety of physical and mental complications, including headaches, blood vessel abnormalities, asthma, sleep disturbance, learning disorders, inflammatory problems and even cancer. “I remember the first time I attended one of Dr. Rea’s conferences about mold and mycotoxins,” says Seymour. “He has saved so many lives and done phenomenal work, and I am so grateful to have learned from him and want to do my best to continue his legacy.”

Seymour conducts a variety of skin, blood and urine tests to gauge a patient’s sensitivity and inflammatory response to different substances. Some are more sensitive than others to certain types of foods, molds, heavy metals and other toxins, and by knowing exactly which substances are problematic to the patient, she can build an individualized, multifaceted detox program. In the event that a change in lifestyle is not possible, she uses treatments that help desensitize the patient to these stressors so they can live their lives with fewer symptoms and reactions.

The Environmental Health Center is founded on three simple tenets: clean environment, clean water, and organic, whole foods.

Clean Environment. While it can be difficult to control exposure outside, people have the power to change their home environment. There are many factors to consider: moisture in the bathroom, mold in the walls, pesticides in the garden, chemicals in the cleaning supplies, electromagnetic radiation from Wi-Fi, dander from pets, off-gassing from mattresses and carpets, and more. “It is so important to make changes where you can—and I always walk my patients through the steps for having mold remediated, leaks fixed, toxic garden and cleaning supplies replaced, and more,” Seymour says.

Clean Water. Many people are still drinking out of plastic bottles, knowing that plastic can leach chemicals into their water. “Imagine children playing sports and drinking from plastic while the bottle sits under the Texas sun; this heat increases the chemicals entering the water,” Seymour says. “Some patients also are misled by thinking BPA-free means toxin-free, and even buy BPA-free plastic baby bottles, but there are other chemicals that can make their way into water.” Seymour explains that city tap water can also be contaminated, and recommends instead drinking purified spring water from glass bottles, both of which are available at the Environmental Health Center. Another suggestion is a whole home reverse osmosis filtration system.

Organic, Whole Food. “This is a heavy, loaded topic, as people have to eat every day, yet so many of our food sources are contaminated—and these contaminants make their way into our bodies,” Seymour says. Animals are injected with hormones and antibiotics to grow faster and prevent parasites; fruits and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides to kill weeds and insects; and other food products are so processed, modified and filled with additives that there is not a shred of nutritional value remaining. “I try to educate my patients that food needs to be real, food needs to be organic—because the body needs minerals and nutrients and calories; cells depend on those nutrients, and many biochemical processes cannot happen without them.”

Many patients that visit the Environmental Health Center find that by switching to organic pproduce, reducing consumption of inflammatory foods, changing from carpet to ceramic floors, ditching plastic bottles for glass or powering off their cell phone at night, they can reclaim their health. Many symptoms and physical ailments subside when we make a conscious effort, with the help of their physician, to live a toxin-free life.

The Environmental Health Center is located at 8345 Walnut Hill Lane, Ste. 220, in Dallas. For more information, call 214-368-4132 or visit EHCD.com.

Gina Cronin is a writer for Natural Awakenings magazine. To connect, visit GinaImagines.com.