Clinical Booster Course: Environment and Toxins

Welcome to Chapter 1 of this course! In this video, Hazel will introduce the course, explaining the outline, content and objectives showing clearly what you will gain from this course. There will then be a short review of the concepts of lifestyle medicine to set the wider scene.

Here, we explore what is meant by environmental toxins, introduce some examples and share some evidence demonstrating the link between these and human health. We focus on high quality, high impact journals.

In this chapter we will look at what is meant by chemical, physical and biological toxins and some examples of each. Routes of exposure are explored with insight as to how certain toxins relate to an impact on particular body systems and disease. We look at why often toxin exposure is problematic, especially for vulnerable groups. However, a positive note is that there is much we can modify, sometimes quiet easily, to limit negative impacts on our health.

We introduce and review some different groups and types of environmental toxin and highlight for each the link between them and human health. Using high quality research sources, we look at some of the detail behind how much toxins, where are they found, how we get exposed and the toxic effects they can have on individuals, and wider society. The economic burden of this is also discussed, highlighting the need for approaches to mitigate the staggering effects we see.

Here, we cover approaches to assessment when considering environment and toxins within a lifestyle medicine approach. This highlights the importance of frameworks, and tools that can be helpful to use when gathering information. Further, reflection on what sort of information that is useful to gather, and in which situation for which person is key.

We introduce the concept of Load-Unload as an approach to mitigating the reducing toxic load, highlighting key aspects to consider when supporting patients and clients. It is not all doom and gloom when it comes to toxins, as there is more we can do than just avoidance of toxins! We also look at things to consider when trying to limit toxin exposure in the food we eat.

In this part we review how to support reduced toxic load in self care products and some easy wins you can be inspired by when supporting clients and patients in limiting the exposure to toxins.

Here, we look at how enhancing biotransformation and excretion can help to reduce the impact of toxins and is an important part of the “Load-Unload” approach to toxins and environmental health in lifestyle medicine. Specific tips are covered to help support these functions and that can be useful when helping clients and patients.

The value of healing environments is reviewed, what is meant by a healing environment and some of the evidence showing how beneficial they can be on mental and physical wellbeing.

Here we zoom right out and look at the overall approach to applying this in your clinical practice.

IN THIS CHAPTER we meet Roger and Olive, two “real-life” cases that illustrated how we can apply the environment and toxins pillar of lifestyle medicine in clinical practice. We highlight the use of an example clinical framework, the Healthfinder GOCAT to show how information can be optimised to support more effective care.

Well done! We close of the course by explaining some next steps in how you can access your reference list, resource list and certificate of completion.

Make sure to read the material under the video player to complete the course and complete the final knowledge check and survey so that you can receive your resources, references and certificate!

We hope you have enjoyed the course and found it helpful, thank you for coming along!