Detox - The No Nonsense Guide

What is the best way to do a 'detox'?

The Detox Myth

There has always been this bizarre air of mystery that surrounds detoxing. Almost religious in its connotations. It is often portrayed as some obscure, dogmatic ritual that requires secretive knowledge and a whole array of exotic ingredients and gadgets, to allow your body to finally let go of these evil toxins. So, in light of this, the first point that we have to emphasise is that every second, of every day, our bodies are fully able to detoxify themselves. If they weren’t, we’d be dead! Every single day, our bodies are exposed to a million and one, potentially toxic compounds in our external environment. Combined with this, there are also vast amounts of ‘toxins’ created by normal biochemical activity of our bodies. To guard against the damaging effects of these, we have highly effective systems in place to process and remove such toxins.

The Liver

The liver plays a massive amount of important roles in our body, from assembling proteins, to processing nutrients, and of course breaking down toxins. Our liver is often the focal point for toxic punishment in our bodies. Everything that we eat and drink, will end up getting processed by this vastly important organ. The way in which the liver does this is extremely complex, but quite simply, it can be split into two distinct stages. The first stage is where the liver actually processes a toxic compound that may have come from our diet, environment, or our own metabolism. It converts this toxin into a compound that is no longer harmful to the body, or that is drastically less harmful than it was in its original state. Once this processing has occurred, the liver then needs to remove it from our body. This brings us to the second distinct stage. Our body has two main routs of excretion - via the kidneys and via the bowel. Depending on the original chemical structure, the liver will then make the harmless compound either water soluble, or fat soluble. If it is water soluble, it will be sent to the kidneys for excretion via the urine. If it is fat soluble, it will be carried away from the liver via bile, ready to be excreted from the body via the bowels.

The Lymphatic System

The lymphatic system can be viewed as being a giant filtration system that filters the fluid that bathes all of our tissues. Our tissues are bathed in lymphatic fluid, that is like a thin salty soup. This fluid contains minerals, vitamins, proteins, oxygen, and other nutritive compounds that are taken into our cells as and when they need them, for normal functioning. This fluid also contains normal waste products that are produced in the cells, and then removed, along with pathogens such as opportunistic bacteria and viruses. Its stands to reason that such a potentially hazardous medium such as this, needs regulating.

The lymphatic system itself is almost like a second circulatory system. It is made up of thousands of tiny vessels that surround every body tissue. Dotted along these vessels are small, spherical filters known as ‘lymph nodes’. These are the things that enlarge and swell when we get an infection (when our ‘glands are up’). These filters trap any waste products, viruses etc, and break them down, and send them on their way for excretion via the kidneys.

The Kidneys

The kidneys essentially regulate fluid levels within the body, and act as a means for water soluble toxins to exit the body. Toxins that have been processed and made water soluble by the liver, and that have been filtered via the lymphatic system, all exit via this route.

The Bowels

The bowels offer another major route of elimination of toxic matter. Processed toxins that have left the liver via the bile, are all deposited here for excretion, along with waste food matter, and old cells and broken down tissues.

The no-nonsense guide to effective detoxing

So, now that we are aware of our body’s own mechanisms to deal with toxins, there are several easy steps that we can take in order to maximise these and undergo a natural detox.

Minimise anything artificial

One of the biggest, and certainly most obvious ways of enhancing our body’s ability to detoxify naturally, is to reduce our intake of foodstuffs and products that would contain potential harmful compounds. The big one here is processed ‘ready meal’ type foods. These often contain obscure additives and preservatives, not to mention nasties like trans fats. Moving towards a diet based almost exclusively on wholefoods (fresh foods in their natural state), cooked freshly from scratch, with an emphasis placed upon vegetables, fruits, and wholegrains, will ensure that we keep our intake of external toxins to a minumum.

Ensure good bowel health

When our livers have processed certain toxins that cannot be sent away via the kidneys, it sends them to our bowels for elimination from the body. The bowels are also an elimination route for many other types of nasty waste products.

Constipation, and poor bowel habits, not only lead to low energy and discomfort. They can also lead to an increased toxic burden on our system. Why is this? We have to remember that our digestive tract is where our nutrients are absorbed from. If there is a build up of waste material, due to a sluggish bowel, then this waste can begin to go bad. The end result of this is that we absorb some of the nasty chemicals that have been created from the spoiling waste products in our digestive system. Lovely stuff!!

The best way around this really is ensuring an adequate fibre intake. Fibre actually swells up within our digestive tract and helps to move things along and to regulate and strengthen the natural rhythmical contractions that keep us regular. Obviously, good wholesome food should be the fibre source of choice, but in today’s modern and hectic world, this is not always easy to achieve. It is, therefore worthwhile considering a fibre supplement. This should ideally contain fibre sources such as psyllium husk and pectin. When using these types of fibre supplements, it is essentially to drink plenty of water in order to allow the natural fibres to swell up. When used in this way, the results can be astounding.

Stay Hydrated

The second most important route for toxins to leave our bodies, is via the kidneys and urinary system. Therefore it is of vital importance to make sure that we have a nice, steady, even urinary flow, to actively encourage the removal of water soluble toxins.

Despite the many claims that get banded around in the media, there is no real set amount of water that we should drink - we are all different! The ideal way to judge is to drink water until the urine runs clear. At that point stop. When the urine starts to gain colour again, drink some more. This way we stay hydrated, without disturbing the levels of our water soluble nutrients, such as the B vitamins.