Conventional medicine tends to be skeptical of “new age” practices like body detox, but detox methods have been around a lot longer than traditional practitioners might realize. Many ancient cultures embraced natural body detox, with Native American sweat lodges and Indian Ayurveda (panchakarma) being just two of the methods that survive today. But if your conventional practitioner dismisses your questions about how to maintain effective body detoxification, don’t take it personally... Preventive therapy is still an up-and-coming idea in standard medicine, which centers on “rescuing” the body from illness. In effect, the conventional perspective says wait until you get sick, and then we can help you. But I know that most of my patients would rather stay well now than get well soon!
That’s why effective, ongoing detoxification is so powerful: it truly helps prevent illness later in life. Once you begin to support your detox ability, your body’s “normal state” tends to shift toward health instead of inching toward illness. Like most of my functional medicine colleagues, I believe that effective, natural detoxification can improve your quality of life and prevent many kinds of disease — and it’s particularly important in our stress-filled and toxin-laden world. There are practical, proactive steps you can take to support your natural ability to detoxify, and to keep toxins from entering your system in the first place.
Natural detox: your body knows how
Your body is detoxifying all the time. The natural processes of metabolism create streams of waste, and we’re also ingesting, inhaling, and absorbing pathogens, chemicals, allergens, and other toxins. Our bodies work continually to deactivate and eliminate these harmful substances.Natural detox is a collection of responses that occur throughout your body, literally without pause. And the human body is remarkably successful at disassembling and removing the majority of toxic substances and metabolic wastes.
Overloaded and overburdened detoxification systems
Usually, it’s only when our finely-tuned detox systems can’t keep up that we see problems. Diet and lifestyle choices can influence our ability to detoxify, but so can genetic make-up and extended exposure to toxic elements. If toxins build up inside the body, a wide range of effects are possible, with some potentially serious consequences. Possible symptoms of internal toxicity | |||
| fatigue | nausea | hives | coughing |
| irritability | indigestion | skin rashes | sneezing |
| fuzzy thinking | bloating | acne | wheezing |
| headaches | constipation | joint pain | chest pain |
| sinus congestion | insomnia or sleepiness | backache | allergy-like responses |
Did you know?
A common sign of detox imbalance is unwanted weight gain. The Women to Women perspective on detox
Because our modern world exposes us to new poisons and substances — both naturally occurring and manmade — I see an increasing need for efficient and effective detox. My experience with patients has helped me develop a comprehensive approach to supporting detox for women. Healthy detoxification is based on two simple principles:- Provide a steady supply of the raw materials your body needs (food, key nutrients, water, and other fluids).
- Create living and working conditions that enhance your body’s ability to manage toxins.
Toxins, toxins, everywhere
“Civilization is being poisoned by its own waste products.”
— William Ralph Inge, author
In addition to the old-school toxins we’ve encountered for years, we now have an array of allergens, by-products, wastes, chemicals, and organisms that our bodies simply do not know how to process. It’s true that the human body is amazingly adaptable, but our systems have not yet adjusted to these diverse “foreigners to life,” or xenobiotics. Instead, these outsiders become part of an enormous “toxic load” we carry indefinitely.— William Ralph Inge, author
Where are all these toxins — old and new — coming from? They’re all around us — in the air, water, food, and environment, and they may be disguised in some clever camouflage:
- Air, water, and environmental pollutants (including jet fuel residue)
- Food contaminants, such as pathogens and by-products of certain industrialization processes
- Chemicals we absorb, inhale, or ingest (from construction materials, furniture and flooring, clothing, cleaning supplies, personal care products, and more)
- Pharmaceutical medications (antibiotics, HRT, NSAID’s, etc.), recreational drugs, second-hand smoke, and alcohol
- Radiation and electromagnetic fields
- Heavy metals, aluminum, and toxic halides
- Hormones and endocrine disruptors
- Mold, mildew, and “superbug” pathogens
- Free radicals
“Resentment is an extremely bitter diet, and eventually poisonous. I have no desire to make my own toxins.”
— Neil Kinnock, Welsh politician
What’s surprising is that we ourselves generate some of the strongest, or most reactive, poisons and toxins. Many lifestyle factors have a grave impact on health, including poor diet, low water intake, lack of exercise, and inadequate rest. But emotions can be poisonous, too. Stress, anxiety, depression, and even “toxic” relationships affect you physically and add heavily to the load your body is trying to detoxify.— Neil Kinnock, Welsh politician
Some people have innate limitations in their ability to detoxify. In some cases, these factors can be “pathological” (leading to disease) when left unaddressed. Either they’re born with genetic traits that interfere with healthy liver function (such as a GSTM 1 polymorphism) or normal metabolism of nutrients (for example, an MTHFR polymorphism), or they develop detox issues as a result of lifestyle influences or hormone imbalance during perimenopause.
Even under such challenging conditions, toxicity is not your destiny. There is a tremendous amount you can do — right away — to limit and offset the effects of toxins. And of course, stopping poisonous substances from entering your system in the first place should be a top priority.
Natural detoxification systems — the whole-body concept
Detoxification is accomplished by many internal systems and organs working in unison to identify, deactivate, and eliminate toxic substances. These mundane reactions help clear out toxins and purify your internal environment.- Respiration: breathing (gas exchange), coughing, sneezing, clearing mucus
- Skin: sweating, sebaceous (oil) gland secretion, tears
- GI system: liver function, intestinal tract function (our “first line” defense), including stool excretion
- Kidneys: acid/alkaline balancing, urination
- Circulation and lymph systems: blood flow, lymph circulation, node function
Let’s take a closer look at how the job of detoxification is divided up.
Liver
The liver is the powerhouse of detoxification, since one of its primary functions is to isolate and biotransform toxic molecules so they can be eliminated. With its ability to create various enzymes and chemicals, the liver quickly deactivates most poisons you take in or create. Our special page on liver function shows how you can provide support to keep this critically important organ functioning well.Kidneys
Your kidneys act as an advance filtering system to catch wastes and toxins circulating in your blood and eliminate them through urination. If this process becomes sluggish or begins to fail, poisonous substances build up, and your health can deteriorate rapidly. Supporting kidney function involves eating an alkalizing diet, with mineral-rich fruits and vegetables, and drinking plenty of pure water (distilled, filtered, or spring). Alcohol, particularly in excess, can be very hard on the kidneys.GI tract
When the gut isn’t healthy...
“Leaky gut syndrome” occurs when the lining of the GI tract becomes porous, allowing food particles to directly enter the bloodstream. Such particles are considered toxins by the immune system, so leaky gut can be the starting point for some food allergies and systemic inflammation.Your GI tract is lined with a mucous membrane that, when healthy, forms an “intelligent” barrier that helps prevent toxins from entering your bloodstream and allows escaped xenobiotics to pass back into the intestines for elimination (called “antiporter” detox). Good GI health through proper diet can help keep this membrane intact and functioning well. A healthy supply of “friendly bacteria” in the gut helps you handle the food you eat and wards off any pathogens lurking in your food. Gut flora can also stop pathogens from re-entering your system until your body can dispose of the intruders.
Detox and hormone balance
When you follow a detox diet, you create better health in two of your most active hormone-balancing locations — the gut and the liver. A detox diet eliminates top food allergens and foreign substances to which your body may be reacting adversely. (These irritants disturb hormone balance by ramping up the immune response, spending raw materials better used elsewhere, and clogging the liver’s detox pathways.) A detox diet also fosters beneficial bacteria in your gut and de-stresses your liver, which together can dramatically improve the body’s ability to handle its own hormones.Reference for detox and hormone balance.
Respiration
We breathe in life-giving oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide, a waste product, when we breathe out. But the nose, lungs, bronchial tubes, throat, and sinuses also filter, process, and remove airborne toxins and inhaled pollutants.Supporting respiration-related detoxification is clear-cut: don’t smoke; avoid “congesting foods” such as red meat, refined grains, and sweets; and get regular exercise. Yoga and other practices that emphasize deep breathing help you inhale more oxygen while massaging your internal organs.
Skin and dermal function
The saying “Don’t sweat the small stuff” does not apply to detox. The skin is very porous, so perspiring is a great way to get rid of toxins. You can work up a good sweat when you exercise, or enjoy a session in a sauna, steam shower, hot bath with Epsom salts, or traditional Native American sweat lodge. I also recommend dry-brushing the skin to keep pores open and remove dead cells. Sebaceous glands and tear ducts help mobilize toxins out of the body too.Because your skin covers so much territory, any poisons or allergens on your clothes can generate toxic reactions, so choose laundry and personal care products without harsh chemicals to help with sensitivities.
Lymphatic system
Your lymphatic system is your body’s best-kept detox secret — I call this amazingly complex network of channels and nodes the body’s “sewer system.” It interfaces with the rest of your internal systems at regular points throughout your body, circulating lymph fluid in one direction as it carries away metabolic wastes and poisons. Silent, percolating lymphatic flow is stimulated by exercise, deep breathing, and regular body movement. Problems occur if lymph fluid does not flow freely, which traps toxins instead of ushering them out of the body.What detoxification is not
We recommend avoiding extreme detox regimens
such as
Typing the word “detoxification” into an internet search engine will return almost five million results. In 2008 alone, we were introduced to 54 new products with the word “detox” in their names. Crafty advertising may tempt you, but be careful! Many products and procedures are not based in science, and some may be downright unsafe.such as
- Prolonged juice fasts
- Colon cleanses
- Colonics
- Coffee enemas
- Hours-long saunas
- Excessive doses of antioxidants or minerals
- Foot detox pads (Kinoki)
- “Mucoid plaque” removal
- Extreme or “amateur” chelation
When products simply don’t work, you’re out the money you spent. But I worry most about ads for radical juice fasts and extreme colon cleanses. Using methods like these to compensate for poor diet and lifestyle choices can take a tremendous toll on your body without delivering on the rapid weight loss and “body purification” claims made in the advertisements.
Fasting is an age-old practice associated with many religious and spiritual traditions, and I believe that under planned and controlled circumstances, it can be fine. But extreme fasting is almost always bad for you, and can unleash toxins too quickly, making you feel awful. And if you’re considering fasting to lose weight, my advice is simple: don’t.
The most elegant way to detoxify: naturally
Support your ability to detoxify!
DON’T:- Smoke or knowingly take in other poisons or toxins
- Use toxic cleaners and beauty products
- Eat processed foods
- Eat sugar, gluten or refined grains, artificial sweeteners, or trans fats
- Take unnecessary drugs
- Expose yourself to noxious chemicals and poisons
- Eat right and reduce red meat consumption
- Exercise to the point of sweating and to keep blood and lymph circulating well
- Get enough rest
- Address long-term emotional issues that cause tension, stress, and worry. Try support groups, therapy, or targeted techniques like Byron Katie’s The Work and the Hoffman Quadrinity Process.
- Try yoga to encourage deep breathing and improve elimination
- Keep your skin clean
At Women to Women, we talk a lot about a woman’s burdens. If your “load” is too heavy, it can be a tipping point for your detox systems. In my own quest to detoxify well, I found that mercury-laden fillings in my teeth were causing problems. When I had them replaced, I felt better almost immediately.
I urge you to do the same sort of toxic burden inventory for your own life, to improve the balance between the demands being placed on you and the amount of support you provide your body, mind, and spirit. With the help of your healthcare practitioner, you can create a “detox profile” that isolates the toxic elements that might be affecting you. Food sensitivities and alcohol and caffeine use are a great place to start.
Once you begin to detoxify, stored toxins and substances are released into the system for removal — so you may feel worse for a short period. But if you wait it out, this sensation passes and you will soon feel much better, and be rewarded with clearer skin, more energy and vitality, better sleep, fewer aches and pains, better bowel health, improved mental clarity, and loss of excess “toxic weight.”
How to support your natural ability to detoxify
Basic support for natural detoxification is like many things — simple, but not always easy to accomplish. You need to provide proper nourishment, with extra fruits and vegetables; avoid processed, refined, and fatty foods; ensure steady hydration; and get lots of rest.For additional support, consider some of these foods and supplements: a high-quality multivitamin/mineral complex, a probiotic supplement, antioxidants (vitamins C, A, and E, but never in excessive amounts), glutathione, amino acids (methionine, L-cysteine, tyrosine, taurine), tea (all kinds), and essential fatty acids.
A wide variety of herbs also are known to support “natural cleansing” and detox ability, including garlic, red clover, Echinacea, dandelion root, sarsaparilla root, parsley leaf, goldenseal root, senna or Cascara sagrada, clove, eucalyptus, and peppermint.
Marcelle’s Super 6: bonus tips for detox
- Pay attention to your overall detox capacity. Be mindful of “clearing out the clutter” of toxins that may interfere with your body’s metabolic conversation.
- Your body isn’t “dirty” — avoid aggressive colon cleanses, prolonged fasting, and other extreme detox activities.
- Heal your gut first and foremost, starting with becoming aware of sensitivities and allergies. Your body makes its first pass at detoxifying in the GI tract and the more you can ditch then and there, the better.
- Detoxify your emotions, through therapy, acupuncture, massage, and/or exercise. Try to resolve toxic relationships and choose enjoyable social activities as often as you can.
- Talk to a functional medicine practitioner about special testing to determine if you have a genetic polymorphism that affects your ability to detoxify. Take steps to support your liver function as necessary.
- Keep your house clean, and consider investing in air and water purifiers and filters. Change vacuum cleaner bags often, and use “green” cleaners and food storage.
The digestive benefits of herbs in the mint family derive largely from the aromatic oils and phenols that accumulate within tiny, hairlike glands — trichomes —that lie scattered along their fuzzy square stems and leaf surfaces. The use of essential oil of peppermint as a digestive aid probably dates back to ancient Greece; several thousand years later, a body of scientific research now exists that supports its use, particularly in the form of delayed-release, enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules for symptomatic relief of irritable bowel syndrome. An enteric coating on the capsule allows for the oil of peppermint to pass undegraded through the more caustic upper regions of the GI tract to the lower intestine, where, as reported in The Lancet nearly 30 years ago, it has the effect of a gentle smooth-muscle relaxant, calming digestive spasm, inhibiting GI contraction, relieving gas, and reducing pain and discomfort.
Chamomile is another botanical nervine that is popular for digestive symptoms, used singly or in combination, as a tisane, tincture, or homeopathically. Sometimes referred to as “mother of gut,” chamomile has traditionally been prescribed in the treatment of both acute and chronic gastric distress, such as inflammation and cramps of the digestive organs. Though scientific studies on humans are limited, there is research on extracts of dried chamomile flowers demonstrating spasmolytic (spasm-dissolving) and anxiolytic (anxiety-dissolving) effects, and together with chamomile’s antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties, these actions may explain its overall soothing effect on digestion.
Often formulated into combination products, lemon balm, rosemary, and valerian are three additional botanical nervines that are used to help dispel digestive spasm, relieve gassiness, calm queasiness, and diminish pain. There is somewhat limited clinical evidence to support their use, but based upon observation and available research, these herbs are generally well tolerated and can be taken orally to help reduce symptoms of GI disturbance.
Lemon balm, also known as bee balm or Melissa, is another member of the mint family used internationally for centuries to allay gas, spasm, and dyspepsia, as well as to increase “calmness.” Rosemary is noted for its antispasmodic effects, and the German Commission E has approved the use of rosemary leaf for the treatment of dyspepsia. Research into the active constituents of medicinal plants often turns up biochemical similarities between different species. Rosemary and lemon balm, for instance, share 
the polyphenol compound known as rosmarinic acid. While valerian is better known for treatment of restlessness and nervous sleep disturbance, and is often formulated with other herbs such as hops or lemon balm for use as a mild sedative or anxiolytic, one of its nicknames is “all-heal,” and historically valerian has been used for a wide range of gastrointestinal indications, including constipation, GI cramps, flatulence (gas), colic, nausea, IBS, and viral gastroenteritis.
With origins in traditional Ayurvedic, mid Eastern and Mediterranean basin medicine, preparations of fennel leaves and seeds are noted to help prevent and relieve gassiness and diminish bloating, heartburn, and constipation. Fennel is also believed to promote the secretion of digestive enzymes and to improve a weak appetite. To infants with colic, fennel has also been traditionally given as a tea, in combination with other medicinal herbs, or as a fennel seed emulsion. In one small trial there was significant relief of colic symptoms noted, with no side effects reported. Fennel is generally recognized as safe but may rarely cause an allergic reaction. It is not recommended for use in pregnancy.
Ginger root has been used and studied extensively for a range of biological activities, but people have been using it medicinally for so long we’re not even sure of its origins. One of the oldest known written records dates back to at least 2000 BC China, where its use was first mentioned in the herbal compendium of the Divine Plowman, Emperor Shen-Nong. Some 4000 years later, there is considerable experimental data, collected by scientists worldwide, regarding ginger root’s ability to strengthen and mildly stimulate the stomach and intestines, as well as to calm nausea and vomiting. The active constituents are thought to be chemical compounds called gingerals, which function as inhibitors of proinflammatory chemicals called prostaglandins. Ginger formulations have been relied upon to soothe travelers’ queasiness both on land and sea — even (experimentally) in space! — as well as by women in first-trimester pregnancy to quell morning sickness. Some of the diverse “stomachic” qualities attributed to ginger include antiulcer, gastric secretory and antisecretory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, antinauseant (antiemetic), and anti-motion sickness. It can be used in the form of fresh gingerroot or ginger juice, in teas or decoctions, gingerale, or dried and encapsulated gingerroot powder.