The world of toxics and their relationship to our health is vast and complex. Humans have lived for millions of years on an unpolluted planet, where the only toxins to which they were exposed were natural toxins, such as eating certain poisonous plants or animals, or being attacked by them (bites, plants rubbing against the skin). In addition to these external toxins, there were also internal toxins, those produced by our own metabolism as waste products that our body has to eliminate, or those produced by our microbiota, mainly at the intestinal level. Thus, for years, our organism has been able to correctly manage exposure to these familiar toxins, as evolution over millennia and millennia has allowed it to adapt.
Detoxification takes place mainly at night, thanks to the function of the liver. A good night's rest is therefore essential for eliminating harmful substances. This detoxification takes place by means of certain biochemical mechanisms that allow toxic substances to become more water-soluble and then be eliminated by the kidneys in the urine, or more fat-soluble and eliminated by the bile in the faeces. This hepatic transformation of toxins occurs in two phases, phase I and phase II conjugation. But what happens if our body is suddenly exposed to thousands of new toxic substances that it does not know how to deal with? Most likely, the detoxification mechanisms will be overwhelmed. This is exactly what has happened in recent years.
The problem started in the industrial revolution, but spread on a large scale with the development of the oil and chemical industry in the 20th century. Since then, our planet and our bodies have been increasingly invaded by numerous substances that disrupt their functioning. When the detoxification mechanisms become saturated, toxins accumulate in the body. These accumulated substances will be stored mainly in fatty tissue and the brain, they will cause inflammation at this level and dysfunction of different organs, they will mimic or block the action of certain hormones or produce alterations at the level of the immune system. Moreover, as I have already explained, many toxins are eliminated in the faeces or urine, which is all the more reason to consider them dangerous for our bladder, in addition to the indirect involvement they may have in the dysfunctions of this organ through their effect on the nervous or endocrine system.
There are numerous mechanisms of action of toxins in our body. I cannot describe each and every one of them on this website, but in the following articles I will give a brief description of how some of them act in our urinary system, favouring the development of pathologies and, above all, infections or inflammation.
Alcohol and tobacco
The harmful effect of these two toxins on our health is well known. They are known to be the direct cause of many cancers, most notably urological cancers of the bladder and kidney, and are also thought to alter the bladder wall and microbiota, including urinary microbiota. In the case of the bladder there is controversy on this point. Several studies analysed the urinary microbiota of smokers with and without bladder cancer and found differences in composition, while another study analysed the microbiota of patients with bladder cancer, smokers and non-smokers, and found no significant differences. Tobacco and alcohol also alter immunity, cause us to consume vitamins and trace elements, increasing our requirements, and decrease the antioxidant and detoxifying power of the liver. Thus, directly or indirectly, these two substances ultimately have an effect on our susceptibility to infections, although there are no published studies directly linking these toxins to repeated urinary tract infections.
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