Detox: Friend or Foe?

The short answer is, for people with endocrine problems, detoxing is a foe.

Let’s talk about it.

Our endocrine system and our gastrointestinal system–that part of us we’re thinking of detoxing–are joined, in a manner of speaking, at the hip. You can’t affect one without affecting the other. Big time.

Your gastro system can cause your endo system to falter; your endo system can likewise do a real number on your gastro system.

Which makes it sound like cleaning things up can only be good, right?

Well, here’s the problem: Whenever your endo system goes south, the adrenals usually join the parade. If you have thyroid problems, you probably have adrenal problems. If you have a pituitary problem, you certainly have adrenal problems. And so on.

And the adrenals, specifically the hormone cortisol that they pump out, are a key to why detox can be a bad thing to do. Adrenal problems weaken the gastro system big time, and you’d be sending in the military to blitz a wounded soldier. And the rest of the troops, including your liver, get caught in the crossfire.

High cortisol levels destroy the mucosal cells lining your gastro system. Low cortisol levels interfere with normal cell turnover in the mucosal lining. Either way, you end up with a problem. Damage to the mucosal lining explains why endo people have problems absorbing nutrition.

Detox programs don’t take any of this into account. In fact, a lot of them are so focused on the job at hand, they don’t consider much of anything else. Careful science isn’t the name of this particular game.

So, at least for endo people–and I think most people–detox is a foe.

But there is a solution for a gummed-up gastro system. Get yourself on a good vitamin/mineral program, which helps with the mucosal lining, and eat a good diet, which helps with the gastro problem. Then you won’t need any of these detox programs.

A good diet, with added nutritional support, helps your body correct itself. Detox marches in and starts breaking furniture.

Do you really want to do that to yourself?