Detoxification... whats it all about?

From two completely different sources I heard about two articles which were both talking about the hoax of detoxing people and how the products are just a marketing gimmick. I think its time I put some facts straight for everyone on what detoxification is, as it is something talked about by many naturopaths and health practitioners.

The detoxification (extremely) simplified...

Detoxification is the process of removing toxins from the body which are harmful to help our bodies to function properly. This is done via the kidneys and the liver, but mainly the liver.

Picture our bodies detoxification processes like a conveyor belt. Items go onto the conveyor belt, then go along the production line and then at the end come out all packaged up and ready to be metabolised & used in the body, or disposed of via the bladder or intestines.

The liver consists of 2 conveyor belts, both performing different parts to detoxification. Both conveyor belts require different nutrients to work properly. Some nutrients speed up the processing, some slow it down. Unfortunately if the first one is moving too fast, the 2^nd one will have a back up of toxins to process, which can make people sick. I drew a picture to help explain this...

When would I need to detox?

When a body is overly ‘toxic’, certain signs and symptoms may be a result*, including:

•  Nervous System symptoms: depression, fatigue, mood changes, poor concentration, headaches with nausea
• Immune Dysfunction: allergies, asthma, eczema, sinusitis, hayfever, food sensitivities, fibromyalgia, recurrent viral, fungal or bacterial infections.
•  Digestive Problems: Indigestion, reflux, gallstones, intolerance to fatty foods, intolerance to alcohol, bloating, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome
• Blood sugar irregularities: sugar cravings, hypoglycaemia
• Hormonal imbalances: PMS, increased side effects to the OCP or HRT.
• Other symptoms: bad breath, itchy skin, dark circles under the eyes, excessive/offensive sweating, pale skin.

*This is not to say that the reasons for these symptoms are 100% result of a toxic liver, however it may be a contributor! 

You want both your conveyor belts working at optimum speed to ensure everything is getting processed and packaged quickly.

Anything we ingest or breathe in must go through the liver to be cleaned. Unfortunately, if we take in too many bad things (the toxins), our liver and kidneys can be overloaded.

So what are are toxins?

• Food additives, such as preservatives, colours, artificial flavours, flavour enhancers, added hormones, fatty foods
• Medications
• Environmental exposures, such as pesticides, petro-chemicals, heavy metals, gas clouds
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Stimulants, such as caffeine

If people are suffering from kidney or liver damage, this may also affect the way their body can remove toxins. This is why kidney patients require dialysis.

So what are these articles talking about??

These articles start by telling us about detoxification. Our bodies remove toxins from the body through the kidney and liver. They say that these organs are all the body needs to detox. In the perfect world, absolutely! In the perfect world, we all live off the land and eat healthy, nutritious foods and there is no pollution and there is clean water and everyone is healthy all the time. Guess what? We don’t live in the perfect world. We are exposed to toxins every day and the number of them is growing. Our bodies are not evolved to deal with this number of toxins!

The next point that the article raises is what are these toxins and no one can explain what they are... I think I covered that one! They then discuss the marketing ploys currently around. With this point I agree with them, to an extent. There are many products available which people can buy off the shelf, such as 48 hour Detox, or 7 day Detox and this is meant to make everything good. Do you really believe that years of exposure and intake of toxins can all be repaired over a 48 hour period? Hmmm, no. There is no quick magic bullet fix to all this and some of these supplements may be doing you more harm than good when self prescribed.

Surely the fact that Kim Kardashian is the spokesperson says something to you about this product!

Healing your body should be worked on every level – you should not simply take a pill then expect everything to fix up. Your exposure to toxins should be observed and reduced where possible. There are supplements which can assist in providing the right nutrients to get the conveyor belts working properly, however these should be provided by a health care professional and should not be self prescribed. Any detoxification program should go for at least 1 month and should be accompanied with a healthy fresh diet and plenty of water. There are detox diets available, but be careful – some of them may not be suitable for your current health situation.

I did a gentle detox with my husband last year for a month and it changed my lifestyle a lot. Read my blog here for the detox guidelines, some recipes and our experiences: http://detoxober.blogspot.com.au/

We are going to be exposed to chemicals no matter what. Using common sense and living healthy can reduce your exposure and keep your liver happy!

-Laura x