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- Illnesses result from an accumulation of toxic waste in the body and naturopathic protocols aims to cleanse and detoxify these wastes.
- Detoxification involves deactivating toxins and removing them from the body
- Some common sources of toxins include: personal care products, household cleaning products, food, drinking water, alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.
- Its essential to ensure the major detoxification organs – the liver and kidneys are functioning optimally.
- To detox the spirit: choose a supportive environment, let a few tears go and follow spiritual masters.
The simple daily detox
A major principle of traditional naturopathic practice is that many illnesses result from an accumulation of toxic waste in the body. Naturopathic protocols for many diseases include an element of cleansing and detoxification. Regular internal cleansing and supportive detoxification programs are also paramount to ongoing health and are part of any preventative health plan. Detox during the summer months can prevent colds and flus during the winter months. In fact, summer provides an ideal opportunity to cleanse.
Warm, long days encourage more activity and increase the likelihood of outdoor exercise and exertion. The season provides fruits and vegetables to fill us with antioxidant goodness. We eat less and lighter food than in the colder months, reducing the load on our digestive systems.
Additionally, summer often means holidays, which presents the opportunity to embrace a fundamental element of detox: rest, relaxation and respite from the usual stresses of your busy life.
What is detox?
Detoxification is what your body constantly does to neutralise and dispose of chemical toxins. When toxin levels are too high for detoxification processes, the body protects itself by storing toxins in fat and bone marrow cells.
Toxins result from normal metabolic activity of body cells and are by-products from micro flora and poorly digested food in the gastrointestinal tract. Toxins also enter the body via the air we breathe, the food, water and drugs we consume or from products rubbed into skin or used on hair.
Detoxification involves the deactivation of toxins and their removal from the body. The way we detoxify is individual. We each have a toxic fingerprint due to our toxin exposure; we differ in genetic inheritance, constitutional type, nutrition and lifestyle practices. All play a role in how we experience a detox.
During a detox, toxins are liberated from storage, into the blood stream. It’s not unusual to feel slightly nauseous or headachy during detox, though this should be limited if the correct supportive practices are adopted. Once the toxins are transformed by the liver and excreted, a feeling of lightness and clarity often replaces a stagnant heaviness. Detox can clear old rubbish from the body, leaving you with bright eyes, clear skin and a natural grin.
Toxic world
Our world is becoming increasingly toxic and, consequently, so are we. More than 80,000 synthetic chemicals have been introduced to the environment since the 1940s. This rapid rate of environmental change has exceeded the rate that organic life requires to evolve adaptation tactics.
Daily, we are confronted by synthetic chemicals. Personal care and cleaning products, air pollutants, contaminants in our washing and drinking water, bleach in our tea bags, pesticide residues and artificial additives to our foods and fire retardants on our furniture and new clothes are a few examples of what a ‘normal’ day exposes us to.
A group of chemicals referred to as persistent organic pollutants or POPs are of the biggest concern. The infamous DDT was one of the first POPs. Although banned by the US in 1972, it is still exported and used in third-world nations.
POPs have incredible resilience in the environment, surviving and reacting for long periods of time. What’s more, POPs have the tendency to bioaccumulate: that is, their concentration in living tissue increases as they rise up the food chain. Although the quantities we are exposed to at any particular time is miniscule, there are many different chemicals creating an unknown cocktail effect over extended periods of time.
In the early 1960s, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring detailed bioaccumulation, citing many scientific studies. A study at Clear Lakes in California showed that DDT sprayed at 0.014 parts per million (ppm) accumulated in the local Grebes (a type of duck) at 1600ppm. No trace of DDT remained in the water. The toxin levels were due to the grebes eating the fish that ate the weeds that had grown in the water that had been sprayed with DDT.
The scientific alarm about the effect of toxic chemicals was sounded again in Theo Colburn’s Our Stolen Future, which detailed the toxic effects on hormone systems.
There is little knowledge about the process of eliminating POPs from our bodies. Professor Marc Cohen of RMIT explains that there is little research to qualify effective detox methods from POPs.
“Detox is hard to quantify and study,” he says. “It is a complicated science due to the multitude of toxins, having multi-system effects on many different tissue types over long periods of time in individuals with unique toxic fingerprints and without any standardised toxin screening tests.”
Additionally, Professor Cohen explains, there is a lack of commercial incentives: “The chemical industry has huge resources to maginalise the toxin warriors.” Research involving this complexity is expensive. “We’re looking at multiple toxins at sub-lethal levels, unlike traditional toxicology, which considers simple toxins at lethal levels.”
Getting started
Naturopathic philosophy understands that a vital force works within our bodies to constantly move us towards balance and health. A naturopathic detox is a program involves three basic, equally important parts: minimising toxin intake, promoting toxin elimination and minimising harm throughout the detox process.
Making decisions about the duration and intensity of your detox is a good start. Your choice can range from a three-day nourishing, supportive retreat to a lifelong embrace of life-supportive practices. Enlisting advice from a health professional about how to construct your individual detox regime is particularly advised if you have never undergone a detox before.
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