The Bucket Model - A Simple Framework for Detoxification and Drainage

TL:DR - Yes, our environment can often be the biggest obstacle to health. Our bodies are like buckets, absorbing and storing toxins. But our bodies also have an amazing tools to detoxify and drain these toxins given the right signals and tools.

People are getting sicker even with all the breakthroughs in modern medicine.

We don't want to wake up every day thinking about how toxic our environment can be, but some of us have been forced to.

Sensitivities to food, dust, pollen, and chemicals show up as hives, chronic sinus and breathing issues, eczema, allergies, gas and bloating, swelling, electrical hypersensitivity syndrome (EHS) and brain fog. It is easy to blame a person for being "too sensitive" almost like it is an inherent moral failing.

Perhaps our environment is the issue and not the individual? Do we blame a goldfish for getting sick when we haven’t cleaned the tank in months?

Often the symptoms someone experiences can get dismissed as a personal flaw instead of seeing it as an appropriate self-preservation response to the environment.

My suspicion is that it is easier to just dismiss these symptoms as "something is wrong with you” than to face the overwhelming reality of our increasingly polluted environment that affects us all.

I used to be of those more sensitive-than-most people for a lot of my early and young adult life.

I was the peanut allergy kid that had hay fever and would get a wheezing attack if I spent too much time in a smoky environment. I was very sensitive to medications and alcohol.

I don't like to talk about it much because I don't want to be a victim to the genetics I've been gifted.

And I have worked with many clients that had similar stories.

We are the canaries in the coal mine

Canaries were used as an early detection system in the 19th century when the the canary would present symptoms of odorless and undetectable carbon monoxide before the miners did. Carbon monoxide poisoning happens gradually and then suddenly.

Today, we have carbon monoxide detectors in our homes for this very reason. But the challenge is that there are thousands more man-made toxins that are being introduced into our homes from clothing, furniture, building materials, cars, cleaning products, and industrial waste.

Our bodies are like buckets.

We absorb chemicals in our environment through our skin, lungs, digestive tract, mucous membranes, and maybe most importantly our brains. And as I've written about previously, we absorb electromagnetic energy via our eyes, brains, mitochondria, and all tissues.

Why is contamination and detoxification such a big issue today?

Patients are more prone to sickness than before — due to poorer food quality, environmental toxins, electromagnetic radiation, and suppressive medications.

- Dr. John Bastyr, ND

Dr. John Bastyr, the well-known Seattle doctor that my medical school was named after, was interviewed towards the end of his career in the early 90’s and shared this observation. It was very common to find families where he had delivered multiple generations of babies.

The story relayed to me from my teachers who studied directly under Dr. Bastyr was that it was becoming more complicated to help patients restore health and required more intervention than previous generations.

He was already seeing the patterns that are in full force today.

Since the industrial and chemical revolutions, there have been tens of thousands of man-made chemicals that have been introduced into our environments. Many are recognized as toxic but are so ubiquitous that it will take decades if not centuries to remediate. Many of the permitted chemicals used in industrial processes have been studied in isolation, but we know that they often become highly toxic when mixed with the countless other chemicals in our environment.

It does not come without real risk to our health.

Just a few days ago in Southern California, an entire town had to be evacuated because of a chemical tank that was on the brink of explosion or leaking its toxic contents into the surrounding, highly populated area. About 40,000 had to be evacuated as a precaution. Luckily, crisis was averted.

And within the same week, not too far from me in Longview, WA we experienced Washington’s "deadliest industrial tragedy." At least one was found dead and the remainder may not be recoverable. The contents of that imploded tank, a highly caustic chemical used to melt wood into paper, has now leaked into the neighboring Columbia River.

Studying environmental medicine and toxicology can be completely overwhelming and can make it appear that living on another planet is the only hope.

• Pesticides and artificial additives in our food

• Contaminated water

• Endocrine disrupting phthalates and microplastics

• Non-native electromagnetic field from cell phones, electrical wires, devices, and artificial lights

• Contaminated air

• Artificial fiber and chemical-soaked clothing

Many of our environments are becoming a toxic soup that is putting an excessive burden on the systems that help us stay healthy.

There is a feeling that everything in our environment is contaminated or will lead to cancer or illness.

There’s truth to this, but we can either stick our head in the sand or realize that there are reasonable and effective ways to safeguard our internal and external environment.

If you can’t tell by now, I don’t believe in having a defeatist attitude and instead want to find solutions I can apply on a daily basis.

The Bucket Model - The 80/20 Approach For Drainage and Detoxification

This is a simple model that has stuck with me and my of the patients I have worked with.

Imagine your body is represented by a bucket. Every day, there are toxins from normal living and from the environment. There is also a spout that allows for normal emptying of the bucket. There will be fewer health problems as long as the bucket does not fill faster than the flow of contents out of the spout.

In simpler times, like Dr. Bastyr’s era, we could address a few things that may have filled our buckets—processed food, chronic stress, sedentary lifestyle, and basic hygiene.

But as time has gone on, we are facing even more environmental inputs—ultra-processed food, non-native EMF, glyphosate and pesticides in our food and water, spike protein from COVID and mRNA vaccines, a generation of children being born to parents living in a more toxic environment.

Illness shows up when the bucket overflows because the bucket is filling up too fast or the spout is blocked or closed.

One of my mentors, Dr. Nancy Welliver, would remind us, "discharge is good!"

Conventional medicine views discharge as something we have to suppress—it does not feel good to have congestion or stuffed sinuses or diarrhea or vomiting.

Most over-the-counter medications aim to suppress—stop the fever, stop the cough, stop the diarrhea, stop the runny nose.

A naturopathic approach aims to facilitate the discharge and let the body move through it so disease processes can resolve on their own.

The symptoms we experience are our bodies' attempt to discharge toxins and waste. It's a clear message that the body is overwhelmed with toxins and is trying to help you.

Nature has provided us with systems to deal with toxins that are produced as a normal byproduct of living or from our environment--drainage and detoxification systems.

Drainage is the physical removal of a toxic substances. For example, heavy metals like lead and mercury can be expelled directly through our skin via sweat.

Detoxification is the transformation of a toxic substance into another substance that can be excreted. Sometimes these transformed substances can be MORE toxic than the original, but it has to be transformed to be escorted out of the body.

We have a number of primary drainage and detoxification systems in our body to deal with a moderate level of contamination.

• Liver has many functions but in context of this newsletter, converts toxins in our blood stream into forms that can be excreted in our urine and stool

• Kidneys - act like a filtration system

• Lungs - expel carbon dioxide from normal respiration

• Skin - sweat carries toxins like heavy metals out via our skin

• Lymphatics - this is like the sewer system that runs alongside our arteries and veins

• Melanin - often known as the molecule that gives skin its pigment, is also acts as a shield for electromagnetic field (e.g. the sun) and even helps decrease heavy metal load

• Emotions - emotions also need a healthy outlet

The better these routes of elimination are working, the more resilient we become.

What does this mean in practice?

Prioritize total body burden and exposure

Start by becoming aware of your particular personal toxic exposure risk.

The National Association of Environmental Medicine has a comprehensive questionnaire to help you identify the most common sources of exposure that could be the root of your symptoms.

Work in layers, peeling one layer of the onion at a time 

A perfectly pristine environment is becoming more difficult to find, but we can start by using the 80/20 principle and looking at the 20% of inputs that make 80% of our exposure. This is often the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the substances and clothes that touch our skin.

Often making changes to each requires just one decision that you can set and forget. For example, deciding to drink filtered water and using your own stainless steel or glass bottle removes exposure to potentially toxic tap or plastic-bottled water.

Support the body's detoxification and drainage systems

Reducing exposure takes the load off the routes of elimination like the liver, kidneys, and digestive tract.

We can also support our detoxification pathways with nutrient dense food, sleeping enough, making sure to have regular bowel movements, exercise, sunlight, sweating with the help of saunas, balancing our nervous system, and taking care of our mitochondria.

For those that are very toxic, there are tools to identify toxins and help facilitate detoxification (like testing for toxic exposure and using specialty binders).

A few preventative steps will avoid the burden of dealing with finding a cure.

Is this worth wading through the messiness?

I can only speak for myself, and here’s my perspective.

I want to give my body the best odds to thrive and stay healthy. A body that does not function well costs you time.

It takes longer to complete tasks. Work is completed below standard. You are more likely to make poor decisions. Your mood is likely going to be more unstable.

And maybe the scariest thing is that time can pass without having an accurate memory of what even happened.

Our memories make up our life, so when our brains are foggy, those are chunks of life that just vanish.

For those who are also canaries in the coal mine, it is a blessing to have a physical response to a toxic environment because it gives us a clear signal that danger is present and gives us a opportunity to act.

P.S. Do you want help reviewing your completed Environmental Health Questionnaire?

Schedule a "pick my brain" session or book a complete Comprehensive Evaluation here https://l.bttr.to/Ce2hj or reach out via email.