toxic environments

When we read lists of "what could be going wrong if you can't lose weight" I'm not sure if I've ever seen "toxic environments" as a possibility.  I think this might be worth pursuing....

I'm still in the Houston area, on my post-event visit to my daughter.  The day after I arrived I woke with some really uncomfortable inflammation going on.  One full day of fasting improved it but didn't solve the problem.  A week later, and I still have a soupçon of inflammation.  I haven't been eating "wrong" during this week, or doing anything significantly different;  I suspect that it's got to be something in this pleasant suburb that's getting me down.

The most likely suspect is the water.  L has an RO filter in her kitchen, but it doesn't perform well, so when we make coffee we usually get the water from a conventional filter, which isn't nearly as effective.  ...But I've used filtered water of this nature on many other occasions and not observed the systemic inflammation I feel now.

It IS springtime....  On my way south a week and a half ago the wild flowers and blossoming trees became more plentiful as I progressed.  In the backyard here, the lemon tree is in full bloom.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to find pollen counts being pretty high.  But why would my hands feel so puffy, my knee be visibly swollen, as well as my upper-respiratory passages more tender and prone to congestion?  I'm using benedryl and ibuprofen as usual (at least usual during allergy season), and Histame when I get acute symptoms.

I'm unconvinced that these customary springtime irritations are responsible for the discomfort i'm feeling.  I suspect something invisibly environmental;  Texas is notorious for official negligence when it comes to protecting the air and water quality.  The current political point of view here is that industry should be allowed to get away with all kinds of abuses ... so long as owners continue to pour money into the politicians' coffers.  It's called being "business-friendly."

Climate-change-deniers already have a great deal to answer for, along with their polluting friends.  Besides squandering water in drought-stricken California, polluting important water sources in West Virginia, and allowing petroleum to ruin many ecosystems from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaskan and Canadian wildernesses, I believe they're also responsible for less-obvious assaults on the air we breathe and the water we drink and bathe in.  I believe that they damage the health of the entire world.

Saddening....  MADDENING....  Damnable!