What IS Detox Anyway?

Is that when you drink something really gross tasting or don’t eat x,y,z for 7, 10, or 30 days? A Detox program or diet is some sort of activity or way of eating that requires you to do something in order to ‘detox’. However, at it’s very basic level detox simply means detoxification, and your body does it all on its own everyday without any assistance from you in an active way.

Detoxification (detox for short) is the physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including, but not limited to, the human body, which is mainly carried out by the liver. That’s right, detoxification is a basic and normal physiological process that your liver, kidneys and skin are performing all the time. The liver is generally considered the principal organ of elimination, but the kidneys and skin are still important to the whole process.

Organs of Detoxification
The Liver
Key to overall digestive, metabolic, immune and hormonal health

• Performs multiple functions:
  • Balances cholesterol and blood sugar
  • Creates bile to aid in digestion
  • Produces clotting factors and various blood transport mechanisms
  • Breaks down old blood cells, bacteria, alcohol, and hormones
    

Kidneys

• Key eliminator of water soluble waste
• Sophisticated trash collectors
• Process about 200 L of blood daily, filtering out waste in urine such as drug by products
• Regulate electrolytes and acid-base balance
• Regulate blood pressure and produce hormones
  

Skin

• “The deposition centre”
• Largest organ of the body
• Filters toxins out through sweat
• Overburden of toxins, body can store toxins in the skin
• Window to the gastrointestinal tract: imbalances manifest in the skin (eg. eczema)
  

This is all happening without you needing to give it a single thought. That being said, like any other process in the body it can occur optimally, or suboptimally. Think of your immune system, there are people who get sick all the time and others who hardly ever get sick. They both have a functional immune system that operates without any effort on their part, but clearly the sick person’s immune system is not working well whereas the healthy person’s immune system is working well. This is the same case with our detoxification pathways, some of us can detoxify well and others cannot. There are many factors that contribute to you being a ‘good detoxifier’ or a ‘poor detoxifier’, but two main things I’m going to touch on are: exposure and inherent ability.

We are living in a Toxic world
We are exposed to all kinds of toxins every day of our lives. From the moment we are conceived, we are exposed to toxins through our mother.  At present, there are over 80,000 chemicals registered by the Environmental Protection Agency.  3,800 are ‘high-use’ chemicals and less than ½ have been assessed for toxic effects in humans.  Less than 9% of these chemicals have been assessed for toxic effects on children.

Symptoms of Toxic Overload

• Fatigue, headaches, muscle and joint pain
• Mood changes: anxiety, aggression and depression
• Cognitive problems: reduced memory and brain fog
• Neurological problems: nerve pain, tremors, and balance problems
• Immune alteration: chronic infections and/or severe allergic reactions
• Poor digestion: constipation, nausea, bloating and weight gain
• Hormone imbalances: infertility, PMS & premature menopause, and obesity
• Skin problems: allergies, eczema, psoriasis, and acne
  

Your Personal ‘Bucket Load’
 
To better understand what toxicity looks like in the body, the analogy I like to use is a bucket.
 
Personal toxicity = ‘bucket load’
 
We all have different buckets, some are short and fill very quickly, or have a spout that doesn’t drain effectively, or perhaps an average size bucket with a decently emptying spout. However your bucket functions, determines how quickly it will fill (accumulate toxins) or empty (eliminate toxins). Unfortunately, those of us with shorter buckets/poorly draining spouts are more likely to build up toxins quickly and/or not eliminate them quickly enough to avoid symptoms of toxicity.

What Can We Do About It?
 As we discussed above, your body is capable of detoxification or detox all on its own, but from time to time it’s a good idea to give a helping hand. This can take many different forms, from a glass of water with lemon to a more organized detox program, but the main thing is to do something for your body to make elimination that much easier at least a few times a year. Consider the following options:

Work with a medical professional to help correct problems

• Naturopathic Doctors can recommend herbs, nutrients, and various other substances as appropriate to optimize routes of elimination. For example, most bitter dark leafy greens that are among the first to come up in the spring (Eg. dandelions and wild lettuces) are great liver cleansers. Adding some of these greens to a salad makes for a happy functioning liver.

Regularly optimize routes of elimination

• Once to twice a year use easy focused strategies to optimize function of the liver and other organs of elimination (eg. kidneys) to prevent toxic overload. One such strategy I often suggest is a glass of room temperature to slightly warm water with lemon slices first thing in the morning. This helps to get the liver primed and ready to work optimally during the day.
  

Minimize exposure to toxins everyday

• Check labels on foods, cleaning products and personal hygiene products. Choose products with low/no chemicals. The majority of pre-packaged food products have some sort of preservative in them to help keep them 'fresh' on the shelf for longer, increasing your daily toxin exposure.
  

Have questions about these tips or how to optimize your own detoxification ability? Talk to me about it. I love helping people make gradual, positive changes that benefit their health and well being.



Note: Talk to your Naturopathic Doctor today about getting assessed and treated if needed, and as always talk to your health care provider before beginning any new medication or supplement. This information is not meant to replace the advice/guidance of a medical professional, nor should it be acted upon by individuals unsupervised by the appropriate healthcare provider.