The Hype
You’ve heard it so many times over the past several years: our environment is toxic! Our food is toxic! Our water is toxic! Industrial chemicals are inside our bodies making us sick and we must detoxify ourselves to safeguard our health.
Then you hear the diet and product claims: Rejuvenate yourself, kick start your health, stimulate your liver, reset your body, get your energy back, look younger, lose weight, feel better, clear your brain, clear your skin, lift the fog, feel lighter, and the claims go on and on…
Well, all of that sounds just great. Who wouldn’t want all of those things? Sign me up! But wait — now that I am interested, there are so many detox or cleansing programs out there. How do I know which plan is going to rejuvenate me and take away my brain fog and give me more energy and ramp up my liver function and eliminate all those harmful toxins inside me that will cause disease? Well, I am here to ask all the questions and find the answers—if indeed the answers are out there.
The Science
Unfortunately there is mounting evidence that our bodies are full of toxic substances. The Center for Disease Control has an ongoing assessment issued every couple of years called the ’National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (National Exposure Report)’ (1). This report shows different industrial chemicals found in the urine and blood of the U.S. population. Take a look at it, there are a lot of chemicals included, and yes, they are finding their way inside all of us. But how?
From the air we breathe, the food we eat (additives, preservatives, coloring agents, GMOs, animal hormones and antibiotics, chemical sweeteners, chemicals used in food processing), the soil we walk upon, the water we drink, the body products we use (make-up, perfume, deodorant, lotion, nail polish, hair dye, etc.) the pharmaceuticals we take, our vices (cigarettes, alcohol, recreational drugs, etc.), the cleaning products we use, insecticides, plastics and styrofoam – to name a few. Whew! Now without going into too much detail here, there are studies linking many of these chemicals to cancer, autoimmune disorders, hormone disorders, neurological disorders, and more. You can find specific chemical-disease information on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website 2) and the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) website (3). Please note – my focus here is not the specifics of what chemicals cause which disease, but the detoxification process of the body and whether or not we can detoxify ourselves.
Okay, so there is evidence that we are exposed to LOTS of chemicals. And there is evidence that these chemicals cause disease. Living in a bubble is not an option. Not eating or drinking is not an option. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and out of control. What can we do to feel great and stay healthy?
At this point, I believe it is important to understand the basics of the body’s natural detoxification system. This finely tuned process includes the skin, the lungs, the digestive system, the kidneys, the liver, and the lymphatic/immune system. For our purposes, we will focus on the function of the liver and the intestines. It is the intestines’ job to prevent harmful substances from being absorbed into the body. It is the liver’s job to convert a harmful substance into a neutral compound suitable for safe elimination from the body via urine and stool.
Intestines: Functions are basically threefold: 1. Absorb nutrients. 2. Provide an immunologic barrier from harmful organisms and foreign material—Yes, the gut is directly linked to and affects the integrity of the immune system. 3. Excrete the waste. Sounds simple enough. I cannot stress enough the importance of a healthy and properly functioning gut. The intestinal walls are incredibly dynamic, designed so that they allow necessary nutrients to be absorbed into the bloodstream while preventing the absorption of non-nutrients and also neutralizing harmful microorganisms, preparing them to exit via stool rather than get absorbed into the body. Stool consists of dead bacteria, water, dietary fiber, sloughed intestinal cells, and any unabsorbed food components. A healthy gut will produce regular, large, soft, comfortable stools. Anything other than this is a signal to you that there may be problem/imbalance inside your gut.
You’ve heard of the good bacteria in our gut, those little probiotics? There is an incredible amount of research going on showing us just how huge and far-reaching the benefits of these little good bacteria are. (See previous post entitled Gut Organisms for more information). We are learning that the balance and health of these probiotic bacteria influence just about everything in the body, from inflammation to immune health to hormone balance and even anxiety and depression. Our diet will either enhance the quality of our gut and promote a healthy environment for the probiotic microflora; or it can strip the gut of it’s health and kill off our probiotic organisms, leaving a sour environment that promotes dysfunction and inflammation. It’s a big deal–. It has been shown over and over again that the health of the body is directly linked to the health of the gut!!
Liver: Technically the largest gland in the body. Primarily, it metabolizes protein, carbohydrate, and fat (metabolize = convert into functional form and send off to work); as well as synthesize other necessary fatty acids and amino acids not obtained from the diet. The liver synthesizes, stores, and activates vitamins and minerals. It also makes bile for fat metabolism, and filters the blood. The liver detoxifies ammonia, hormones, drugs, and alcohol. To ‘detoxify’ something, the liver has the ability to convert a toxin to a benign or inactive substance, which then can be safely excreted by the kidneys. There are many, many other functions of this major gland, however we will focus on the detoxification process.
In the liver, there is a two-step detoxification process that converts a harmful substance into a neutral substance. This process requires many nutrients to support it. To illustrate, check out this link form the Cleveland Clinic:
To sum it all up, toxins go to the liver, and the liver does it’s best to safely remove anything that can be harmful to our cells. The liver works hard to keep us healthy. What happens if this system is not optimal? What happens if we have more toxins inside than the liver can handle, or if the liver isn’t functioning properly due to lack of nutrients? What does the body do if the liver cannot properly prepare toxins for safe elimination? Simple – they get pushed aside, out of the way. When the body cannot use something or eliminate it, and it needs to get put out of the way, it gets stored inside fat cells. I like to think of our body’s fat cells as the closet or the garage. It’s a place for things to go when they are not being used. This does not mean that the toxin is safe; it has not been neutralized by the liver and has the potential to inflict harm on our cells.
Skin – I would briefly like to mention the skin as elimination pathway via sweat. It has been shown that we do sweat out arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury, which are all considered toxins (5). Perhaps there really is something to sweating considering that many cultures throughout history have been using heat therapy and sweating for good health. Currently, there is a study going on at Bastyr looking to see if sweating can be an effective treatment for metal toxicity, and it will be very interesting to see what else they find in the sweat of the study participants (6).
Kidneys – Maintains a constant filtration of the blood. Urine consists primarily of nitrogenous waste, due to protein metabolism. After breakdown in the liver, the kidney filters out the by-products of metabolism for excretion via the bladder.
I think that covers what we need to know as it pertains to what goes in and out of the body. Here is a question: How can one scientifically prove that toxins have been removed from the body? The answer is via sweat, urine, and stool. So, unless you want to start taking samples of these things and sending them off to labs, the results of detox diets are highly subjective. This is likely one reason that we do not have any scientific evidence (yet) that detox diets actually benefit one’s health. This is not to say that detox diets to do or do not work, but that each person is different and may have different results.
My Two Cents:
What you find online, of course, is everything under the sun. Some doctors purport we should cleanse annually. Some doctors say it is a bunch of bunk. Others claim detoxes have cured them of ailments and saved their lives. While it is true that many of the popular detox programs and cleanse programs out there are bunk, I am interested in seeing if there is a legitimate way to detoxify oneself of harmful stuff that would otherwise cause health problems.
Throughout my research, I viewed a webinar about detox diets from a registered dietitian with actual scientifically sound health information – imagine that! According to her, most people should be able to detoxify naturally; however if we have overexposure to toxins or the digestive system is compromised, our detoxification process could be impaired. This could lead to fatigue, low energy, and frequent illness. She also stressed that detoxification is nutrient dependent (effective only if all nutrient requirements are met). Her website is www.marypurdys10daydetox.com. (7). She made sense to me and I could verify the information she gave, which is something you cannot do with most detox products/companies out there.
If you are interested in a detox diet, I encourage you to find a plan that is known to be safe. Know what you are putting in your body. Don’t believe everything you hear or read. Websites with only customer testimonials are not valid evidence that something works or is safe. Have an idea of why you are doing it and what your expectations are. Do not follow a detox program if you are pregnant or nursing. Do not do one if you are in cancer treatment. If you have liver disease, work with your doctor. Don’t buy into quick fixes and miracle claims.
If we are indeed picking up toxins and pollutants all over the place, this is what makes sense to me: 1. Remove everything potentially toxic and pro-inflammatory as much as we can control, 2. Put in everything we know that is required to promote optimal function of the intestines and liver, 3. Exercise and drink lots of water, and 4. Assess. Viola.
This is what does not make sense to me: fasts or anything low calorie, laxatives, anything claiming a miracle, spending lots of money on something I don’t know anything about, putting something in my body that I don’t know anything about, strangers online telling me what I need, and yucky tasting stuff. (Please note – fasting is never a good way to lose weight – you alter your metabolism right away and you only lose water and muscle).
The results of detox diets are purely subjective at this point. With the increased attention cleanses and detox diets are getting, hopefully we will be seeing more scientific research to test if this is an legitimate method to reduce illness and disease.
I am going to give it a try, why not. I feel confident that I have enough information to put together a safe 7-day detox diet. I have not tried this before, so it will be a new experience for me. I will follow this up with a post about my detox protocol and my experience. Let’s see what happens…
References:
http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/pdf/FourthReport_ExecutiveSummary.pdf
- http://www.epa.gov/research/healthscience/
- http://www.ewg.org/research
- Mahan L.K., Escott-Stump S. Krause’s Food, Nutrition, and Diet Therapy, 10th ed. 2000 W. B. Sounders Company
- http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2012/184745/
- http://www.bastyr.edu/research/studies/sauna-detoxification-study
- Mary Purdy, MS, RD http://www.nourishingbalance.com
