In a previous post, Diabetes: The Roles of Toxins, Genetics, Micronutrients, Inflammation, Gut Health, Sleep, and More,  I mentioned that research on diabetes has revealed evidence that toxins appear to be a more potent cause of diabetes than obesity, which is usually considered the largest risk factor for diabetes.

6+ "Diabetegens"

The toxins (toxicants) below are six of those that have been identified as "diabetogens" (toxicants that generate diabetes):

1. Arsenic
2. Phthalates
3. Dioxins
4. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
5. Pesticides
6. Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs)

As you read the descriptions below, notice how difficult it is to avoid exposure to these toxins.

Arsenic: Arsenic exposure occurs primarily through diet (seafood, poultry, rice) and drinking water.

Phthalates: Phthalates are used in the manufacture of plastics and some health and beauty aids, fragrances, and cosmetics. These toxins have been found in milk, butter, and other fatty foods that are stored in plastic containers. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a common phthalate that is found in some plastics, including food and drink packaging and liners in cans containing canned food. Newer bisphenols like bisphenol S (BPS) are used in “BPA-free” products but may be just as bad or worse than BPA.

Dioxins: Dioxins are used in many industrial processes and make their way into food and water.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): PCBs have found their way into every corner of the planet, including the bodies of arctic whales. Although the manufacture of PCBs was banned in 1979, they are very persistent in the environment.

Pesticides: Pesticides are applied to conventionally grown crops to kill insects, rodents, competing plants (“weeds”), and more. Pesticide residues are found in food and routinely contaminate drinking water and the air around farms.

Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs): PFCs include perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These “forever chemicals” are used in a wide variety of residential, commercial and industrial purposes including nonstick cookware, stain-resistant fabric and carpet, some food packaging, and firefighting foam.

The toxins in the list above are also the usual suspects when it comes to other diseases like cancer. And more toxins are likely to be added to this list as research continues. For example, antimony, tungsten, and uranium have also been associated with diabetes.

The Most More Common and Important Toxin of All?

Another toxin that I expect to see added to the list at some point is bacterial endotoxin, which is typically in the form of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). I believe that endotoxin is probably the most common and important toxin driving diabetes, and it is already considered a driver of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is strongly associated with diabetes.

Endotoxin is produced in the gut by "gram-negative" bacteria when they are fed carbs that are not fully digested in the small intestine and soluble fiber. So if there are a lot of gram-negative bacteria in the gut (e.g. Escherichia coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae), even a healthy diet can promote the production of endotoxin.

And if there are other factors that promote intestinal hyperpermeability (leaky gut), such as glyphosate or food intolerances, then more of the endotoxin can get into the body.

Another Type of Toxicity Possibly Connected to Diabetes

Other types of toxicity could be connected with diabetes, such as excess of nutrient minerals only needed in small amounts. For example, high levels of manganese, chromium, and selenium  are associated with diabetes. And high levels of molybdenum are associated with elevated blood insulin, which could be a sign that molybdenum excess causes insulin resistance.

In fact, a client that came to me for help with insulin resistance showed very high molybdenum in one of the tests that we ran. She lives in a mining town, and molybdenum is a common water contaminant in mining areas.

Despite these apparent relationships between diabetes and high levels of certain minerals, we do not have enough information to know whether increased levels of these minerals in the body promote diabetes, or diabetes increases levels of these minerals in urine or blood, which is where the minerals were measured in various studies.

Why Do Toxins Cause Diabetes (and Cancer and Other Diseases)?

The main reason that toxins cause diabetes is that they bind to key enzymes (and other molecules) in mitochondria, impairing the ability of mitochondria to process glucose into the body's energy currency, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). When this happens, the mitochondrial energy generation process produces more oxidants called reactive oxygen species (ROS), which damage the mitochondria and further impair their ability to produce ATP.

As less ATP gets produced, the body senses the shortage of energy and elevates stress hormones like cortisol and glucagon, which then stimulate the liver to create and release glucose into the blood and stimulate fat cells to release free fatty acids as another fuel source for the mitochondria.

If enough free fatty acids accumulate in the bloodstream and enter the mitochondria,, they outcompete glucose to be converted to ATP. This competition between fatty acids and glucose is called the "Randle Cycle", and when fatty acids outcomete glucose, the result is called "lipolysis dominance".

When fatty acids predominate as fuel for mitochondrial energy metabolism, less glucose gets metabolized for energy, causing glucose to accumulate in cells. The accumulation of glucose in cells prevents more glucose from entering cells. As less glucose enters cells, blood sugar rises. As blood sugar rises, the pancreas secretes more insulin to try to drive glucose into cells. But since cells are already stuffed with glucose, insulin has less ability to drive glucose into cells.

These processes happen at subtle levels all of the time in a healthy person between meals as part of maintaining stable blood sugar. And the body goes through a regular daily cycle of becoming more insulin resistant at night and becoming maximally insulin sensitive during the day. But if these processes become more extreme and chronic due to mitochondrial damage, and blood sugar stays elevated above the normal range for abnormally long periods of time, it is considered "insulin resistance".

As all of this is taking place, the elevation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) damagess lipids, proteins, DNA, and other molecules. As this "oxidative stress" damages tissues and becomes chronic, inflammation develops as part of the body's self-heailng process, also becoming chronic. Inflammation also promotes oxidative stress, so it can become a vicious cycle.

Furthermore, certain inflammatory cytokines interfere with insulin signaling and/or promote the expression of proteins that suppress insuiln signaling. So inflammation is another mechanism driving diabetes. And inflammation can be caused by a multitude of factors, not just mitochondrial dysfunction. 

To summarize, here are some of the main steps in the cascade of events that typically lead to diabetes:

• Reduced the ability for mitochondria to produce ATP from glucose (caused by diabetogens)
• Increased oxidative stress and inflammation (caused by mitochondrial dysfunction)
• Elevated stress hormones (caused by reduced mitochondrial energy production)
• Elevated blood glucose (stimulated by stress hormones)
• Elevated blood free fatty acids (stimulated by stress hormones)
• "Lipolysis dominance" (caused by free fatty acids outcompeting glucose for use in energy production by the mitochondria)
• Elevated blood sugar (caused by the reduced use of glucose in mitochondrial energy production)
• Elevated blood insulin (caused by the body's extra secretion of insulin to try to move glucose out of the blood into cells)

Once fasting blood glucose is sufficiently high on a regular basis, it is considered diabetes.

This process that begins with toxins binding to enzymes (and other molecules) in mitochondria is one way that toxins cause diabetes. Certain toxins also promote oxidative stress and inflammation via other mechanisms that ultimately impair mitochondrial function. And mitochondrial dysfunction is the main mechanism by which toxins cause cancer and other diseases. 

Low energy production in the mitochondrial alters many physiological processes (e.g. detoxification processes, immune system function, and more), and a downward spiral begins. Once mitochondrial dysfunction and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) reach a certain point, mitochondrial DNA and cellular DNA start getting damaged. And this can lead to other pathological processes. 

This whole cascade of events begins with the accumulation of toxins.

12+ Factors That Influence Your Accumulation of Toxins

How much of any toxin you accumulate depends on many factors, such as:

1. Toxin exposure throughout life, which affects mitochondrial function, liver function, thyroid function, kidney function, oxidative stress, inflammation, detoxification, and more
2. Diet and nutrient status, which affect microbiome balance, gut function,  liver function, kidney function, thyroid function, detoxification, stress response, and more
3. Microbiome balance and gut function, which affect nutrient status, inflammation, oxidative stress, stress response, liver function, kidney function, thyroid function, detoxification, and more
4. Mitochondrial function, which affects detoxification, oxidative stress, inflammation, liver function, and more
5. Oxidative stress, which affects mitochondrial function, liver function, thyroid function, nutrient status, detoxificaiton, inflammation, and more
6. Inflammation, which affects oxidative stress, liver function, gut function, nutrient status, detoxification, stress, and more
7. Liver and kidney function, which affects detoxification, nutrient status, stress, and more
8. Thyroid function, which affects mitochondrial function, liver function, digestive function, microbiome bqlance, gut function, detoxification, insulin sensitivity, and more
9. Insulin sensitivity, which affects (and is affected by) mitochondrial function, detoxification (e.g. glutathione synthesis), stress response, liver and kidney function function, microbiome balance, gut function, oxidative stress, inflammation, and more
10. Stress response, which affects insulin sensitivity, mitochondrial function, liver function, thyroid function, detoxification, nutrient status and assimilation, and more
11. Sleep, which affects stress response, insulin sensitivity, microbiome balance, gut function, liver function, kidney functoin, thyroid function, oxidative stress, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and more
12. Genetics, which affect nutrient assimilation and status, detoxification processes, mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, inflammation, and more

This is only a partial list, and obviously everything affects everything else. Untangling the web of toxicity requires looking at a variety of bodily systems to see what is influencing the accumulation versus elimination of toxins. It can look something like this ...

But before trying to figure out what factors may be affecting the elimination of toxins, the first step is learning which toxins are actually present. We must make our toxins (toxicants) "visible".

Making Toxins "Visible"

How can you know if you have elevated levels of the toxins mentioned in this post? You have to make them "visible". This means testing for them. Toxins are generally best tested in tissues like skin, toenails, blood, and hair. But some toxins can only be tested in urine at the moment.

Once you know what toxins you are dealing with, you can look for potential current exposures you might not have suspected and then eliminate them. As I mentioned earlier, a client and I discovered that she has very elevated levels of molybdenum, which most often occurs in people living in a mining area and drinking the local water.

The elevated molybdenum potentially explains my client's tendency toward insulin resistance and diabetes, as well as her gout-like symptoms that should not be caused by her relatively normal level of uric acid.

Once you know what toxins (or toxic levels of a nutrient like molybdenum) are present, then you can target detoxification methods to the specific toxin(s) involved. Some detoxification methods work better for some toxins than others. There is no one detoxification method that works for every toxin.

Detoxification Can Be Complex

Removing toxins from the body is often not as simple as taking the right binders and improving liver function, although that is a great start. You may also need to identify what conditions in the body are impairing detoxification. 

This can involve things like ...

• Alterations in mitochondrial function caused by things like toxins, obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes, chronic ketogenic diets, low thyroid function, a chronic Cell Danger Response in response to a chronic hidden infection, and more
• Microbiome imbalance in the gut causing inflammation in the liver
• Impaired liver function caused by microbiome imbalance, low thyroid funtion, or other factors
• Genetic vulnerabilities to low detoxification capacity such as low glutathione production, recycling, or conjugation

These are just a few of the most common influences on the ability to eliminate toxins that lead to toxin accumulation.

To learn more about the sytem we use for identifying toxins and condititions driving the accumulation of toxins, as well as how to effectively remove the toxins that your body has accumulated and to do so as gracefully as possible given your unique bio-individuality, download the Bio-Individual Blueprint Roadmap and watch the walkthrough video.