Your body may be as polluted as the environment. Government research has revealed that most people’s bodies contain pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, heavy metals, chemicals from plastics, industrial byproducts, and traces of secondhand tobacco smoke.

Long-term health effects of this pollution are being studied, but Donna Harris of Tahlequah said she now leads a different life because of her sensitivity to artificial ingredients and low-quality food.

“In order to live, I had to make huge changes in my life,” she said. “I had to change my house, my diet, and make my garden organic.”

Harris had been a healthy person. Then in 1960 she began to suffer from a variety of unexplained symptoms, including 12 years of depression. Doctors were unable to treat the problem. Harris says no physical or psychological treatment worked, but she has nothing against mainstream medicine.

“People have to question their doctors,” she said. “Sometimes it takes a lot of testing to get to the real causes. I think most of them have great intentions, and we have wonderful emergency care. But when it comes to the day-to-day diagnosis, they don’t have the time to learn some of this new information. They’re so busy doing what they’re taught to do.”

Harris was faced with chronic health issues and no information.

“It was 25 years ago when I experienced this,” she said. “Now there is so much health information on the Internet, on television and in magazines and newspapers.”

But at the time, Harris had to take charge of her own quest for a remedy. She began researching reports of other people with similar problems, and she read books about new or alternative medical ideas. That’s how she discovered she had a yeast infection in her body. She says that she healed herself by changing her diet to health foods and nutritional supplements.

“Some people don’t want to take the time and trouble,” she said. “But I’m living more consciously now. I had to take control of my health; that’s how I got to the cause of my illness.”

Harris said she believes chemicals in her environment contributed to her problems.

“We are literally bombarded daily by thousands of chemicals and substances that compromise our health,” she said. “Generally it is very slow and silent, and builds up in the body.”

Her statement about all of us being exposed to questionable chemicals and substances is backed up by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2005, the CDC released its Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. It described America’s exposure to 148 compounds found in consumer goods and manufacturing byproducts.

This mix of compounds in human tissue is referred to as a chemical “body burden.” The CDC report revealed that people in the United States are contaminated with pesticides, solvents, plastics and metals absorbed during the process of daily life.

The report may have only scratched the surface of the issue, considering that approximately 80,000 chemicals are registered for commercial use.