Detox
Detox diets have become common in the land of alternative health and wellness. It would seem that everyone could benefit from one. Which program or cleanse is right for you? If you don’t detox are you doomed to be toxic?
People have many questions and hesitations about detoxification programs. Will it be painful? Will I have to fast? Will I be spending all of my time preparing food? Will I have to drink green juice all day long?
Here is some good news:
We are detoxifying all of the time, every day!
Our bodies are designed to detoxify in many different ways because our bodies create toxic substances every day, all day. It’s just the cost of doing business/being alive. And toxic can mean many different things, for example, hydrogen peroxide, a by-product of cellular energy production, is considered toxic to our cells, but it is a relatively harmless substance outside of the body.[1] On the other hand, formaldehyde is produced when our cells make DNA. That’s right, embalming fluid produced by our very own cells.[2]
How are we detoxifying every day? Through our organs of elimination.
LUNGS exhale volatile organic compounds[3] that cells create, such as fomate from formaldehyde, and nitrates and nitrites from superoxide dismutase reactions, as well as the most familiar carbon dioxide, which can be toxic to cells in certain doses.[4]
KIDNEY is a master excretory organ. All of the blood in the body passes through the kidneys throughout the day and many drugs as well as hormones are filtered out of the blood here and stored in the bladder for removal from the body.
SKIN is a large porous organ that contains sweat glands. Sweat is one way that our body can get rid of toxic materials that we may ingest, inhale, or be in contact with such as polybrominated fire retardants[5], cadmium, lead, mercury[6], along with drugs such as opiate and benzodiazepines.[7]
BOWELS are designed to both absorb and dispose of ingested items. The bowels also are intimately connected to our hormone and neurotransmitter production, our immune function, and our metabolic health. We collect toxins from our bodies in our bowels and then send them on their way with a good bowel movement, or two.
LIVER is involved in preparing material within the body for excretion through two phases of detoxification aptly named phase I and phase II. In short, the liver takes fat soluble toxins and makes them water soluble in order for them to leave the body in the stool, bile, or urine.[8] The liver also releases bile which helps rid the body of cholesterol, fat-soluble environmental toxins, hormones (both endogenous and exogenous), and heavy metals.[9]
LYMPHATIC system is a delicate and very hardworking system of vessels that capture extracellular waste (anything that leaks from our cells, which most often appears as swelling) and delivers it back to the circulating blood so that it may be processed through the above-mentioned pathways.
BREATHING, so simple, yet often so dysfunctional. Pause and take a moment to notice your breath. Where do you feel the rise and fall of an inhalation and exhalation? Ancient traditions, such as yoga’s pranayama, harnessed the power of the breath to both deliver oxygen to the body and to remove waste from the body.
DRINKING filtered water (yes, filtered) keeps the entire system of detoxification and elimination running smoothly. The body uses the pathways of detoxification in the liver to make toxins water soluble, so they need water to dissolve the toxins. Why filtered? There is an entire step in the liver’s phase I detox pathway dedicated to dehalogenation of materials, that means an entire step dedicated to removing fluorine, bromine, chlorine, and iodine from the body. The first three are routinely found in public drinking water.
SKIN BRUSHING is a simple activity that takes no more than 5 minutes daily to complete. It removes dead skin cells from the surface of the skin, as well as stimulating the blood vessels close to the skin’s surface, which in turn causes movement of the lymphatic system, and in most cases stimulating blood flow is a positive outcome as it allows the blood to more thoroughly deliver nutrients while the lymphatic system remove wastes from the area.
DAILY BOWEL MOVEMENT, or two. Bowel movements are so important to removal of toxic materials. Hormones especially are removed via the bowels and when they are allowed to sit too long in the colon (more than a day) a process of reabsorption takes place, and what is reabsorbed is more toxic than the original waste hormone![10],[11]
FIBER is one of the non-nutrients that keeps digestion moving along and even binds up the hormone metabolites. Adults eating a standard American diet often fall short of the recommended daily intake of fiber. Soluble fiber can remove cholesterol from the body, effectively lowering circulating levels of LDL (the pro-inflammatory cholesterol).
LIVER-LOVING foods are like oil in your liver’s engine. They contain minerals and nutrients that are required for the job of removing toxic products from the body. They also can act to stimulate the liver to work a little bit more, in a supportive and gentle way.
ALTERNATING HOT/COLD treatments are as old as time! They are also so simple to use on a daily basis. They stimulate the lymphatic system, helping to reduce swelling and stagnation of fluids near the skin’s surface down to the superficial muscle layers.
EXERCISE is the ultimate detoxification aid. While exercising you create increased blood flow throughout the body, increased lymphatic flow, increased sweating, increased breath-rate, and you begin to break down stores of fat, which releases material to be detoxified into the body.
REST and SLEEP is imperative to detoxification. It is when we are sleeping that the body does almost all of its repair work. We rest our digestive system, we rest our nervous system, we rest our brains. There is debate as to how much sleep is enough, and to stay on the conservative end, 8 hours is a good goal to set for yourself.[12],[13], [14]
What are you already doing on a daily basis that supports your body’s innate detoxification system?
There are ways to enhance and enliven the detoxification system. Beware of the one-size-fits-all cleanse. Beware claims that you will feel terrible, and that is why it’s working. Beware the fasts as a cure-all.
There are times when you may need extra support for the detoxification of your body. Have you had any toxic exposures to heavy metals (paints, cigarettes), volatile compounds (new carpet, shower curtain, dry cleaning), taken oral contraceptives, use a lot of plastic water bottles or food containers, use makeup every day, had undue amounts of STRESS, and poor sleep for months? Are you experiencing new allergies, skin eruptions, mood swings, irregular menses, intense food cravings, foggy thinking, intense fatigue? These may be signs that your body is dealing with a heavier than usual burden of toxins. Seeking the counsel of a naturopathic doctor for these exposures and symptoms can set you on the path to restored health. Naturopathic doctors are able to tailor and fine-tune a treatment plan for you to optimize your body’s detoxification function.
[1] Lennicke C, Rahn J, Lichtenfels R, Wessjohann LA, Seliger B. Hydrogen peroxide – production, fate and role in redox signaling of tumor cells. Cell Commun Signal. 2015;13(1):39. doi:10.1186/s12964-015-0118-6.
[2] Burgos-Barragan G, Wit N, Meiser J, et al. Mammals divert endogenous genotoxic formaldehyde into one-carbon metabolism. Nature. 2017;548(7669):549-554. doi:10.1038/nature23481.
[3] Popov TA. Human exhaled breath analysis. Ann Allergy, Asthma Immunol. 2011;106(6):451-456. doi:10.1016/j.anai.2011.02.016.
[4] Marteus H, Törnberg DC, Weitzberg E, Schedin U, Alving K. Origin of nitrite and nitrate in nasal and exhaled breath condensate and relation to nitric oxide formation. Thorax. 2005;60(3):219-225. doi:10.1136/thx.2004.030635.
[5] Genuis SK, Birkholz D, Genuis SJ. Human Excretion of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Flame Retardants: Blood, Urine, and Sweat Study. Biomed Res Int. 2017;2017:1-14. doi:10.1155/2017/3676089.
[6] Sears ME, Kerr KJ, Bray RI. Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury in Sweat: A Systematic Review. J Environ Public Health. 2012;2012:1-10. doi:10.1155/2012/184745.
[7] Kintz P, Tracqui A, Mangin P, Edel Y. Sweat testing in opioid users with a sweat patch. J Anal Toxicol. 1996;20(6):393-397. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8889674. Accessed September 17, 2018.
[8] Grant DM. Detoxification pathways in the liver. J Inherit Metab Dis. 1991;14(4):421-430. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1749210. Accessed September 17, 2018.
[9] Boyer JL. Bile formation and secretion. Compr Physiol. 2013;3(3):1035-1078. doi:10.1002/cphy.c120027.
[10] Gorbach SL. Estrogens, breast cancer, and intestinal flora. Rev Infect Dis. 6 Suppl 1:S85-90. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6326245. Accessed September 17, 2018.
[11] Yang J, Yu J. The association of diet, gut microbiota and colorectal cancer: what we eat may imply what we get. Protein Cell. 2018;9(5):474-487. doi:10.1007/s13238-018-0543-6.
[12]Everson CA, Henchen CJ, Szabo A, Hogg N. Cell Injury and Repair Resulting from Sleep Loss and Sleep Recovery in Laboratory Rats. Sleep. 2014;37(12):1929-1940. doi:10.5665/sleep.4244.
[13] Mazzoccoli G, Pazienza V, Vinciguerra M. Clock Genes and Clock-Controlled Genes in the Regulation of Metabolic Rhythms. Chronobiol Int. 2012;29(3):227-251. doi:10.3109/07420528.2012.658127.
[14] Zmrzljak UP, Rozman D. Circadian Regulation of the Hepatic Endobiotic and Xenobitoic Detoxification Pathways: The Time Matters. Chem Res Toxicol. 2012;25(4):811-824. doi:10.1021/tx200538r.