Detoxification: An In Depth Look At Cleansing

The truth I most desire impressing upon my patients is that our body is only as healthy as its ability to eliminate waste. We all accumulate more waste in our body as we age, at the same time that our elimination organs become less efficient. Your liver and intestines are the main detoxifying organs. The liver is a highly functioning vacuum. It accumulates waste over the years and only gets “dumped out” if we cleanse. As our liver accumulates waste and our cells start accumulating waste, we begin getting diagnosed — fatigue, depression, headaches, acne, joint pain and any other diagnosis that you may have. Therefore, just like you change the oil in your car; it is essential to change the garbage bag in your body to keep your oil clean!

Having good eating habits on a daily basis and cleansing our bodies of toxins regularly are necessary for optimal health. Cleansing our bodies with each season is also important and prepares our bodies for change. You can purchase my cleansing and detoxification program at The Center for Natural Healing for $200. The program includes everything you need to complete either a 7-Day Detox Cleanse or if you prefer a more rigorous plan, the 30-Day Detox Cleanse. My program provides a detailed plan, recipes, and all of the recommended products and supplements to rid your body of the built up toxins. Call (480) 970-0077 for more information or to order the program.

In the world of medicine there are two ways to approach health, and both have a place in all of our lives. One approach is to be proactive. This means to do everything we possibly can to enhance our quality of life (and most likely quantity). Proactive effort includes optimizing nutrition, minimizing stress, exercising smarter not harder, sleeping a minimum of 8 hours each night without interruption, replacing declining hormones in a safe way and keeping our bodies clean (detoxification/cleansing) in this ever changing world with more and more industrialization.

The other approach is to be reactive. This means to react to a condition with a treatment that is most often suppressive in nature so that the symptoms go away. We can approach health conditions without suppressing, but it takes time, awareness and self commitment to be successful.

I have heard some physicians who practice reactive (with drugs and surgery) medicine say “the body naturally detoxifies itself and that cleansing the liver is all hype.” They are correct on one hand – the body does naturally detoxify itself — if it has the proper nutrients and if the colon is functioning well (having three bowel movements a day).
As we age, nutrient status depletes for a few reasons.
• Our food chain is becoming more deficient with over cultivation of the soil (unless you eat organically)
• Our load is increasing. “Load” refers to substances that pass through the liver every minute that need to be broken down and eliminated. The load is increasing because;
• The food industry allows ridiculous amounts of processing, which introduces dyes, preservatives and toxins to our body.
• The air that we breathe accumulates more pollutants daily. In fact, each year, 2,000 new chemicals are released on the market. Not all are fully tested for their effect on the human body.
• As we age, we also don’t digest as well, absorb or eliminate as efficiently. This puts us behind the 8-ball with eliminating waste and instead, we accumulate it. This accumulation opens the doors to our weak spots and we see degeneration and suffering unnecessarily with age – as well as unnecessary symptoms and suffering when we are young!
To go a little bit further, there is one diagnosis not uncommon to many Americans called “fatty liver”. It affects 50% of people over 50. On ultrasound or through biopsy, the liver has fatty infiltrates (almost like when you loose muscle mass and gain fat mass, you lose functional liver mass!) In addition, cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder) is the most common surgery performed in America. The job of the gallbladder is to store the bile that the liver makes in order to emulsify fat – break fat down. Without the storage of bile, the liver has more work to do on a daily basis and will either over or under produce bile, based on your biochemistry. So, I would think that most people, even physicians who don’t understand or respect Functional Medicine would have a very high respect for keeping our liver and other elimination organs as efficient as possible.

The picture below shows what the liver does to process anything that we take in by mouth to break it down in order to be metabolized or eliminated.

Nutrients needed for phase I detoxification (oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis, hydration, dehalogenation) are listed below with the food sources they are most commonly found in:
• B2, B3 and B6 — legumes, nuts, eggs, lean meats, green leafy vegetables, whole grains and dairy products (destroyed by exposure to light)
• Folic acid — legumes, citrus fruits, whole grains, dark green leafy vegetables, poultry, pork, shellfish and liver
• B12 — eggs, meat, poultry, shellfish and dairy
• Glutathione — asparagus, broccoli, avocado, raw eggs and garlic.
• Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine — dairy, red meat and eggs
• Flavonoids — colorful fruits and vegetables
• Phospholipids — soybeans and eggs
Nutrients needed to shuttle intermediary metabolites through to phase II are:
• Carotenes and Vitamin C — fruits and vegetables
• Vitamin E — wheat germ, nuts, seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables and fish oil
• Selenium — fish, shellfish, red meat, grains, eggs, chicken and garlic
• Zinc — meat, seafood, liver, eggs, dairy and whole-grain products
• Manganese — pineapple, legumes and nuts
• Coenzyme Q 10 — fish and red meat
• Thiols — sulfur containing foods that are vital for the catalytic function of several body enzymes; garlic, onions and cruciferous vegetables (arugula, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, watercress, bokchoy, turnip, mustard and collard greens, rutabaga, daikon radish, turnips and kale)
On the contrary, grapefruit will decrease phase I detoxification, which is sometimes needed to enhance the bioavailability of certain drugs yet is contraindicated during the use of other drugs. So, overall, grapefruit will slow down detoxification of the liver. I suggest focusing on increasing phase II metabolism through the use of nutrients listed below.
Nutrients needed for phase II detoxification (Oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis, hydration, dehalogenation) require amino acids that come predominantly from proteins — fish, meat, beans and dairy:
• Glycine
• Taurine
• Glutamine
• N-acetylcysteine
• Cysteine
• Methionine
To be specific, I think it would be great if we all took better care of ourselves by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables for phase I and to metabolize intermediary metabolites. In addition, if you are a vegetarian and lack the nutrients in phase II, consider taking them as a supplement. I personally take both antioxidants and detoxification powder on a daily basis and do an aggressive detoxification at the turn of each season. If you would like to be guided on a protocol for an intense detoxification which means that you are not eating and are rather taking in the nutrients necessary to enhance your liver and intestine to eliminate more aggressively, please call the office for more details. If you need a healthy breakfast alte
ative, the detoxification powder is perfect as a shake with added fiber if necessary.