A Body's Saturation Point

One thing I have learned as I've gotten older is that there really is a point at which I cannot maintain things in my life. Whether it is 2 cats, but not 3 ... gardens in the front of the house, but not the back ... a vegetable garden, but not a vegetable garden and a pool. It's amazing how things move along so smoothly and then all of a sudden I feel overwhelmed and start cancelling things, handing off tasks, paying people to do some gardening and getting things delivered to the door instead of going out shopping for them.

This is the saturation point, a place that we never seem to reach when we are young, but somehow as the years go on, we wake up one day and find ourselves dreading watering the plants because it's just one thing too many to think about. It's times like these that we value our friends and our family because we can pawn off things to people who will cheerfully help us if we ask them!

But when the saturation point exists within our own body, we can't just hand our symptoms off to a friend or family member. Our organs, glands, tissues and fluids have a limit in how much they can manage, how many of their functions they can accomplish and how much they can tolerate. If they become overwhelmed symptoms begin because toxins are being set aside until there is time to deal with them. Mineral salts and cellular elements become too heavy to carry through our already overloaded fluid pathways forcing material to precipitate into the liver, kidneys and gallbladder as stones. The liver is overwhelmed and can't break down cholesterol from our food as effectively as it normally does, so we start developing lipomas (fatty cysts) and our blood cholesterol will go up. The body tissues are handing off or setting aside what they cannot handle because we have reached our saturation point. We see this with salt in water. There is only so much salt that water can dissolve before it starts collecting on the bottom.

Remember that every organ, gland and tissue has specific and unique functions that allow our body to work in harmony. For instance the liver is your main detoxifier cleansing and neutralizing material from the bloodstream and the digestive system. It uses a specific set of chemical tools to do this through processes like sulfuration and methylation. The kidneys, however, also filter the blood, but their toolbox contains chemicals to neutralize acidic compounds.

So if the liver is trying to manage a meal with fried chicken and mashed potatoes while at the same time there is a glass of wine in the mix and you're enjoying this wonderful meal outside in the grass in the spring when the pollen count is high, then you're asking the liver to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. This can be managed as long as the liver has enough chemical resources, has the time required to perform its tasks and isn't asked to do yet another thing on top of all of this. Just managing allergies can tie up the liver's capacity and resources, making it less effective in doing any of the other detoxification functions it is supposed to perform.

Once the liver reaches its saturation point it will do what we do ... it will begin handing off toxins by leaving them in the bloodstream forcing the kidneys to try to manage them. It will let things slide, set things aside, stop certain functions for periods of time. Since many of these are more complex than a simple acidic compound, the poor kidneys can actually experience inflammation and tissue distress by trying to deal with the onslaught from the liver. This can create higher blood pressure, urinary issues and pH imbalances throughout the body.

In our bodies just as in our lives, it is difficult when a co-worker cannot do all they are supposed to do. It is emotionally draining when a loved one can no longer do all the daily tasks to care for themselves. Keeping ourselves and our bodies from reaching saturation point means regulating how much we ask our body to do both internally and externally. This is why I rely on European Regulation Thermography. Using a highly sensitive temperature probe that touches over 50 points on the skin, can easily evaluate how close every organ, gland and tissue is to its saturation point. There's no better way to decide what course of action you need to take to truly regain your health and eliminate symptoms.

This knowledge also helps us make decisions about food, about exercise, about our job, about our life. There is only so much we can accomplish in a day without sacrificing healthy meals, time with our family, rest and relaxation. We have to realize that the inflow of "things to do" does not have a shut off. We have to be willing to restrict what gets laid at our door or on top of our desk. We have to pay attention to the signals that our body is sending us so that when symptoms begin we recognize that a saturation point has been reached and now our body function is being compromised to meet the demand. Then it's time to stop and take stock.

Karen Clickner, C.C.H.,  is a Nationally Registered Naturopathic Physician. She provides natural evaluations and treatment at Conscious Body Natural Medicine clinics in central Massachusetts. She has been specializing in autoimmune disorders for more than 35 years. You can get more information at www.consciousbodynatmed.com