Fireworks: Your Thyroid and EBV Reactivation!

Fireworks Can Reactivate Your EBV and Affect Your Thyroid!

As much as it is wonderful to celebrate special events, I wish we could come up with a less toxic form of fireworks, they are quite hazardous to our health (while also toxic to the planet). I have concerns for your immediate health especially at a time when the whole country fires the fireworks on the same day! According to a Swiss study, the chemicals from fireworks linger in the air for the next 2 weeks! Not to mention that fireworks are full of toxins: e.g. strontium, aluminum, barium, ozone, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide, perchlorate and dioxins, many others…

Every single year, I remind our EBV community not to go out to the fireworks and to watch them from inside the house instead. Every summer I get reports back from people reactivating their virus after being outside to celebrate, especially when fireworks are in the immediate environment – e.g. from the neighbor!

Dioxins and Epstein-Barr Virus

According to scientists, dioxins are one of the most dangerous man-made toxins – although they occur in nature too, and research confirms that they reactive EBV (Lawrence, 2007). Plain and simple. You will inhale dioxins from the fireworks.

Other sources of dioxins:

While dioxins are caused by volcanic eruptions and wild fires, we also produce them during chlorine bleaching, paper production processes, waste incinerators, production of pesticides, and the burning of wood for fuel. Firefighters in particular are exposed to dioxins in burning houses and forest fires. Dioxins have been shown to cause autoimmune disorders and even atherosclerosis (Dalton, 2001). Rolf Halden, PhD, who specializes in research on dioxins states that they can cause chloracne, a severe form of skin disease, reproductive and developmental effects, liver damage, and cancer (Parsons, 2004). Cigarette smoke also produces dioxins, so even if you have second hand smoke, you will have exposure (Inoue, 2012).

What does this mean? Any burning debris is a potential hazard, and so is burning wood (your fire place/fire pit/bonfire/forest fires)…

What’s more: Grilling! How bad is grilling exactly? While backyard grilling won’t add dioxins to your food, it may release them in the air. A 2003 French study found that the typical two-hour backyard barbecue can release the same level of dioxins as 220,000 cigarettes.

Yes, all the wonderful things you may be doing in summer for fun
like camping by a bonfire and grilling every day…
could literally trigger your Epstein-Barr Virus reactivation!

Here’s what you can do about dioxins:

• Make sure you position yourself so that wind blows smoke from the grill, fire pit or a bonfire away from you. When forests burn in NW or California, we get reports of so many more people in our EBV community reactivating and not knowing why. Dioxins are the reason, so please be aware!
• Over the 4th of July weekend and over the next 2 weeks, make sure you are taking some lysine, selenium, Vitamin C NAC, licorice – Shop for supplements in our shop.
• I would also strongly recommend getting a few bottles of Ultimate Aloe Vera Juice and swooshing and gargling it or sipping it slowly, and it will help calm down the virus and turn down other pathogens for you while supporting your immune system as well – win-win. You will find it on our portal here.
• Wear the best mask you can get if you need to be out– remember that the dioxins can linger in the air for 2 more weeks!
• This is not the time to skip your EBV supplements!
• Stop grilling if possible, or keep away from the smoke. And if you would like to read more about other hazards of grilling and how to grill safely, read my blog here.

Perchlorate and Thyroid

We have an epidemic of low functioning thyroid (hypothyroidism). Perchlorate blocks iodine, the single most crucial nutrient for your thyroid from being available. You will also inhale it from the fireworks.

Other sources of perchlorate:

Many, including jet fuel. The bad news is that we likely all have some in our system…based on research. In one study, all women tested had jet fuel in their breast milk regardless of where they lived (Kirk, et all., 2003). perchlorate was found in each of 36 breast-milk samples taken from 18 states and in all but one of 47 dairy milk samples from 11 states. And this was 2003. We can assume safely that this has not improved since then, given the increase in flights since then.

Our planet is liberally sprinkled with jet fuel…if you just think about the air traffic. Unless grown in green houses, even organic produce will soak it up – from the air and rain and then the soil.

Here’s what you can do about perchlorate:

• If you have Hashimoto’s, you want to be very careful with any amount of iodine, so I would limit any supplementation to 100mcg a day max. You may be better off getting a little iodine from wakame seaweed in a miso soup. Here is a delicious recipe (only use organic miso paste). I find miso soup to be very soothing and healing. And no, miso soup will not cause damage if you have Hashimoto’s.
• If you have hypothyroidism but no Hashimoto’s, I recommend Detoxidine, a wonderful form of liquid iodine: 3 drops will provide the 150mcg that is needed a day for basic functions. Here is the link to the company that provides it.

You are probably guessing right:
to protect your thyroid
and prevent EBV reactivation,
enjoy the fireworks from the comfort of your home!

Get an Air Filter for Smoke

I am adding this paragraph in September 2023 as smoke from wild forests has become a seasonal recurrence, and while dioxins from fireworks are shirt lived and limited, wild fires are here to stay and it is hard to escape them. In fact, in WA state, where I live, air quality in summer is often affected by these fires, and it is much harder to enjoy being outdoors. Even worse, we have so called “controlled” fires, or planned fires here! And summer 2023 we also had Eastern Canada burning, seriously affecting many both easters US states. This problem is clearly not going away. it is only getting worse.

Since the smoke from these fires is so dangerous, and dioxins alone can reactivate EBV, it is now more important than ever before to invest in a top quality air filtration system for your home that can take on as close to 100% of smoke particles as possible (and mold as well). This way, at least at home, you can breathe easily. I spend hours outside almost daily in a sanctuary where 2 horses I adopted live, so I have to go home to clean air.

Our recommendation for the best air purification system that can remove almost 100% of smoke particles (as well as mold, viruses, bacteria, VOCs, etc.) is Austin Air. This is why we partnered with the company and they offer our community a hefty 10% discount with the coupon EBVHEROES10. Please use this link. The best quality to invest in would be the Bedroom Machine model.

This blog contains affiliate links and has been updated 9/13/2023.

References:

Dalton, T. P., Kerzee, J. K., Wang, B., Miller, M., Dieter, M. Z., Lorenz, J. N., . . . Puga, A. (2001). Dioxin exposure is an environmental risk factor for ischemic heart disease. Cardiovasc Toxicol, 1(4), 285-298. Retrieved from

Inoue, H., Mishima, K., Yamamoto-Yoshida, S., Ushikoshi-Nakayama, R., Nakagawa, Y., Yamamoto, K., . . . Saito, I. (2012). Aryl hydrocarbon receptor-mediated induction of EBV reactivation as a risk factor for Sjogren’s syndrome. J Immunol, 188(9), 4654-4662. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1101575

Kirk, A. B., Smith, E. E., Tian, K., Anderson, T. A., & Dasgupta, P. K. (2003). Perchlorate in milk. Environ Sci Technol, 37(21), 4979-4981. doi:10.1021/es034735q

Lawrence, B. P. (2007). Environmental toxins as modulators of antiviral immune responses. Viral Immunol, 20(2), 231-242. doi:10.1089/vim.2007.0013

Parsons, T. J. (2004). Researcher dispels myth of dioxins and plastic water bottles. News. Retrieved from https://www.jhsph.edu/news/stories/2004/halden-dioxins-two.html