Seven top takeaways from the Integrative Practitioner Summit on environmental medicine

6. Practitioners should test their patients regularly for arsenic levels, and avoid the substance to help prevent disease.

Arsenic is a metalloid, which means it has properties of both metals and nonmetals, said Joseph Pizzorno, ND, founding president of Bastyr University and editor and chief of Integrative Medicine: A Clinicians Journal. It’s naturally distributed in soil and water, however, it is also used industrially, commercially, residentially, and in food, leading to significant environmental contamination.

According to Pizzorno, arsenic is associated with a higher risk for several health conditions such as fungal infections, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. In recent years, molecules that protect the body from arsenic have been removed from food due to chemical farming techniques, impairing detoxification and increasing the arsenic body load.

The main sources of arsenic are water, most commonly groundwater, food, including rice, chicken, and fish, as well as smoking and old forms of treated wood. According to Pizzorno, it can be avoided through limiting consumption of poultry, drinking clean water, and choosing low-arsenic fish. When eating rice, Pizzorno suggested boiling it for five minutes, then discarding the water, and cooking it again.

Arsenic levels can be assessed through urine and toenails. If arsenic measures are above 12 micrograms of arsenic per gram (ug As/g) creatinine during a random or first morning urine test, there is a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory problems, cancers, and neurological dysfunction indicated, Pizzorno said. A first morning urine test that is lower than 7.0 ug As/g creatine indicates a normal environment. For a toenail test, historic arsenic exposure is seen in test results lower than 0.5 ug/g. According to Pizzorno, testing for arsenic and lead are leading methods to help predict disease.

“There are more predictive of disease than any of the standard blood measures that we're currently testing people for things like CBC [complete blood count] cholesterol and sed rate [Erythrocyte sedimentation rate],” he said.