What is this 'Detox' stuff I hear about?

I was asked yesterday, while at the bank, 'what is detox? what does it really mean'? Detox, is short for detoxification, your body's natural process of eliminating toxins. Your body detoxifies itself is by transforming toxins chemically into less harmful compounds and then excreting them via stools, urine or sweat.

A toxin is simply a poison that can affect the body by internal or external means. A toxin can be a chemical which occurs naturally or in synthetic form. More than 120,000 human-made chemicals have been introduced into the environment, in one form or another, and this number continues to grow each year at a phenomenal rate. Your body also produces its own toxins during normal functions. Ammonia is produced during the breakdown of protein. Heavy metals are a major concern a well. (For more on this, visit my links page and check out the Waiora-NCD section.)

The term 'Detox Diet' refers to a method of increasing the efficiency of your body's natural detox processes through what you ingest. There are many methods of doing this.

• A fast
  You can speed up your body's detoxification by limiting the amount of food you ingest. You can even eliminate food for short periods of time. This allows your body to focus more of its energy on detox, instead of digestion. Digestion of cooked and processed foods is a major drain on our body's energy use. A lot of new 'diets' are using a 'juice fast'. This is basically limiting your body's intake to juiced fruits and vegetables. This is a great way to introduce fasting to a beginner. Juiced greens are very easily digested and contain a large amount of antioxidants. This allows your body to focus on detoxing. Another benefit of juice fasting is that your body is getting a major amount of nutrients during the process, which lessons the 'hunger' you would normally feel. 
• Increasing the amount of absorbable antioxidants.
  This can be done with supplements, superfoods, and many other widely available sources. When choosing supplements, make sure they are plant based and not 'synthetic'. This ensures they are likely to be more absorbable by our bodies. Superfoods are a great source of absorbable antioxidants. Visit my superfoods page for a great list of recommended superfoods and algae. Antioxidants, or anti-oxidation agents, reduce the effect of dangerous oxidants by binding together with these harmful molecules, decreasing their destructive power. Antioxidants can also help repair damage already sustained by cells. I will post more on antioxidants at a later date.
• A cleanse
  Cleansing is a very controversial subject. I will say now, I am all for them, and have done them myself. I can say firsthand, I have felt a major difference after completing a colon cleanse.
  First of all, a 'cleanse' in my opinion, is not a colonic. Colonics have their health benefits, but an internal cleansing starts even deeper in your digestive system. A cleanse is basically a fast, accompanied by drinking some sort of 'toxin absorber'. A toxin absorber is usually a powder containing bentonite, an adsorbent that draws toxins to itself, adsorbs more than 40 times its weight in toxins, Psyllium seed husks, an absorbing fiber that scrubs intestinal walls, moves toxins and materials through the colon, and sometimes other beneficial herbs. These powder 'Shakes' are taken numerous times throughout each day of your fast and absorb toxins. Your body then excretes the clay+toxins in your stool. Not pretty, but a valuable method of detoxification.

Another great way to improve detoxification is through physical activity. When you exercise, your body produces sweat. Sweat is your body excreting toxins through your skins sweat glands. An interesting piece of information I found is this: In the book Beyond Antibiotics, Drs. Michael A. Schmidt et al. state the following: "Saunas are being used by some doctors to stimulate the release of toxins from the bodies of their patients. They have found that a lower temperature (105-110 Fahrenheit) sauna taken for a longer duration is most beneficial. These low temperatures stimulate a fat sweat, which eliminates toxins stored in fat, as opposed to the high temperature sauna, which encourages a water sweat." Either way, sweat removes some water from your body, so make sure you replace proportionate amounts with pure, clean drinking water. I recommend Smart Water myself.

So why worry about Detoxification?

Accumulating research suggests that a substantial amount of the chemicals we are introduced to daily can become deposited in our fat cells. These toxins accumulate over the years and growing evidence is suggestion that this can directly lead to illness, hormonal imbalances, nutritional deficiency, impaired immune system function, and much more health issues. Minor health concerns are also thought to be related like bad breath, fatigue, indigestion and more.

Depending on the intensity of your detox, and the amount of toxins in your body, it can be easy or a little tough. During an intense detox or cleanse, there may be times when you will feel sluggish, achy, or even a little disoriented. This is common and usually goes away within the first few days. Symptoms may occur in intervals throughout the process, but remember, these are temporary symptoms as the toxins are effecting you on their way out of you body.

Detoxification is a very important part of a healthy lifestyle, especially in the toxin-rich environment we live in. I highly recommend you look into some combination of methods. Feel free to contact me for advice about detoxing.

-Robert