Surviving Environmental Toxins

Although more than 25 years have passed since Beth Daly almost died from a sudden, mysterious, debilitating illness brought on by toxic environmental chemicals, her six months of suffering while bedridden are as vivid to her today as when they first occurred.

Failed by a medical system unable to identify either the source of her condition or any effective treatment, Beth finally began her long recovery thanks to her husband Richard’s fortunate discovery of activated charcoal in a health food store. Beth’s multiple symptoms included heart palpitations, night sweats, nausea, vomiting, low-grade fever, mental confusion, and hot and cold flashes that occurred within moments of each other. “I felt every part of me was trying to get rid of a poison,” she recalls, adding that at the time, neither she nor her husband knew what that poison was or how to eliminate it.

Finally, after several months of using over-the-counter activated charcoal, a seemingly miraculous anti toxin brought home by her husband, Beth’s symptoms began to disappear.

To this day, Beth continues to rely on activated charcoal whenever she feels it’s needed and at 62, describes her health as “excellent.” Richard, a long-time Life Extension^® member, credits his scientific background and lifelong interest in holistic health for his timely discovery and is grateful that he and their four young children did not lose a wife and mother at such an early age.

A Healthy Beginning And Early Life

Growing up in Indiana, Beth benefited from her mother’s vegetable garden, which provided much of their food. “We had fresh vegetables in the summer,” she recalls, “and canned vegetables in the winter.” Beth also remembers one neighbor providing home-grown grapes and apples, while another sold them fresh eggs. “I feel like I got a very healthy start in life,” she says.

Enrolling at Indiana University, Beth met Richard, a student of chemistry, physics, and computer science. They soon married and started a business manufacturing optical products, which continues to this day.

Richard’s keen, early interest in nutrition soon began to influence Beth, and they both became devoted to organic food, supplements, and keeping abreast of the latest findings through state-of-the-art literature, including Life Extension^® magazine. “Rich started taking supplements in his mid-20s,” Beth says, “and I eventually started reading articles about health and vitamins and taking them, too.”

The Health Crisis

 

Their life-altering incident occurred around 1989 when, as residents of Florida with four young children, Beth and Richard were taking a day trip to Orlando. Several things happened that day, but it was only much later, in retrospect, that they put together the evidence to finally identify several factors they now believe caused Beth’s prolonged illness.

The first was driving past a state truck on the side of the road that was spraying chemicals, which were shooting up in the air. Not long after, the family stopped at a restaurant. Beth’s daughter ordered a chicken sandwich, which she said didn’t taste right. Beth thought it tasted okay, and ate it. A little later, while waiting in the car for her husband, Beth smelled something bad and began to feel sick.

“By the time Rich returned to the car, I knew I was ill,” she explains. “We thought if we went to a mall and I walked around for a while, I would feel better, but I only began to feel worse and even had to lie down on a bench.” By the time they returned to their car, Beth was extremely ill, so they rushed to the nearest emergency room.

Sitting in the crowded waiting room with their children, Beth and Richard soon decided to leave because they didn’t want their children exposed to the seriously ill people surrounding them.

Upon returning home, Beth was bedridden for almost six months, suffering from all the symptoms previously mentioned, none of which she had experienced before. “I felt shaky inside and had brain fog,” she adds, “but the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. They couldn’t come up with a diagnosis or offer any solutions.”

After months of trying to figure out what had caused Beth’s illness, the couple finally contacted the Mayo Clinic and an environmental clinic in North Carolina. They never needed to go, though, because things finally started to turn around.

A Timely Discovery

A few months after the onset of Beth’s illness, Richard was in a health food store at lunch time and decided to walk around while waiting to be served.With his background in chemistry, when he saw a bottle of activated charcoal he thought it could draw out the toxins that he and Beth now believed were causing her symptoms. He bought the product and Beth began to take the charcoal pills—two at a time. She only took the pills every few days, since she didn’t want to deplete any essential nutrients in her body. “I slowly began to feel better,” Beth recalls, “and now I’m certain that Rich saved my life.

“Before that, I was not able to function,” she continues. “I was in bed, my meals were brought to me, and my husband had to take over care of the children and household, and even wash my hair, since my arms were aching all the time. I was pretty much unable to do anything. I felt so ill I honestly thought I was going to die.”

What The Dalys Discovered

Despite her extraordinary recovery using activated charcoal, Beth still faced other serious health issues. She mentions two miscarriages within the two years following this illness and says that for the last 10 years, she has been unable to sleep after eating meat from animals raised in America, including organic—a problem she didn’t have after eating meat in France and Switzerland. Although neither Beth nor Richard are certain of the reason, both believe it may be related to the way the animals are raised and/or slaughtered in each country.

Twenty-five years ago, it took months before Beth’s original debilitating symptoms disappeared completely, and while Richard wasn’t 100% sure the activated charcoal would work, he was convinced that Beth’s severe illness had been caused by environmental toxins and that the charcoal might well be able to remove these poisons from her body.

Today, Beth takes the charcoal whenever she experiences any of the symptoms she once had and says she typically feels better within a few hours. “I take charcoal when I feel symptoms coming on,” she explains, “and I take it before they become more serious.”

Over the years, Beth has also observed that her symptoms can resurface after encountering numerous substances, including pesticides, herbicides, glue, bleach, formaldehyde, cleaning products, ink, perfume, air freshener, exhaust fumes, smoke, and musty environments.

“After I saw the charcoal, I immediately thought it would help her,” says Richard. “I believe Beth’s problems occur because her liver doesn’t detoxify some chemicals and it’s nice to know that I figured out what would help her.”

Life Today

 

Many years later, the Dalys established a website, www.AnecdotalEvidence.com to tell their story and provide a forum for others who have also found natural, alternative methods to deal with various health problems, especially after traditional medicine has failed. Although Beth has never received a definitive medical diagnosis for her disorder or any scientific proof that her symptoms and prolonged illness were due to environmental toxins, the Dalys strongly believe in the importance of anecdotal evidence, which Richard calls “the precursor to scientific evidence.” In this case, at least, there are very strong reasons to believe that Beth’s condition came about due to exposure to such powerful toxins and was helped through the amazing properties of activated charcoal that removed them from her body and restored her health.

Beth’s traumatic experience set her on the road to taking better care of her health. Today, she and her husband eat about 90% organic food, which they obtain at an all-organic store and café close to their home. They also take many supplements, most of which come from Life Extension^®. Beth walks two miles, three or four times a week and hopes to live long enough that technology will advance enough to enable her to live even longer.

The Dalys are both devoted to Life Extension^® and say they’re grateful for the magazine, the high quality supplements, the diagnostic tests, and the research into increasing longevity. It is their greatest hope that their story will help others.

“One thing we like to do is talk to people about health and vitamins,” Beth explains, “and sometimes we run across someone who has had problems with the environment and has become ill, and we always mention activated charcoal or other supplements that we think could help.

“I feel that the real benefit for me is that vitamins can help prevent diseases that may not have symptoms until they become a major problem or are too advanced to have a good outcome.”

For more information about anecdotal evidence regarding alternative health and healing, please visit www.AnecdotalEvidence.com.

If you have any questions on the scientific content of this article, please call a Life Extension^® Health Advisor at 1-866-864-3027.