When we hear the word, “detox,” most of us think of drug or alcohol rehab or fad “cleansing” diets. But our body actually “detoxes” all the time, and it keeps us alive and healthy.
Imagine if your toilet backs up for a week or if your sink is clogged up for a few days. It’s not too pretty. The same things happen in your body if your detoxification system fails. If your liver fails, you can’t process waste and you end up yellow (jaundice) and needing a liver transplant. If your kidneys stop working, you can’t process water waste, get very sick, and will die in a week or two without dialysis. If your colon is clogged up, well, you get the idea!
Thankfully our biology is designed to process waste and toxins through our intricate detoxification system.
The process of detoxification can be hindered by an overload of toxic insults, such as processed food, too much sugar and starch, and environmental toxins, among many others. Your detoxification systems also require a host of nutrients to function optimally.
The scary reality is that most physicians are not trained adequately in this part of our physiology (I know first hand—I went to med school!). Many doctors will tell you that the body knows how to get rid of chemicals and other toxins, which is true, however, our detoxification system just can’t keep up with our onslaught of modern-day chemicals, toxins, and other insults we face at every turn. So, unfortunately, both the diagnosis and treatment of impaired detoxification are almost never made.
Many of our common diseases are linked to an overload of toxins including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. Environmental toxins have even been dubbed obesogens, which cause weight gain, and autogens, which cause autoimmune disease.
Sadly, many of us are toxic waste dumps. More than eighty thousand chemicals have been introduced into the environment since the industrial revolution, and most have never been tested for safety. They cause inflammation, oxidative stress, damage the mitochondria, disrupt our gut function, create hormonal imbalances, and overload our detoxification systems.
A study of 10 newborns spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), found 287 known toxins in the umbilical cord blood before they even took their first breath—pesticides, DDT, PCB’s, phthalates, parabens, flame retardants, BPA, mercury, lead, and more. We are born pre-polluted and a lifetime of ongoing exposures compounds our toxic load.
Our detoxification systems were not designed for such an overwhelming load of toxins.
In addition to air and water pollution, many toxins lurk in our food. Fatty liver is the number one cause of liver transplants. What causes fatty liver? Too much sugar and starch. Think about ducks force-fed corn to make foie gras (which is French for fatty liver). The biggest causes of kidney failure are high blood pressure and diabetes, mostly caused by too much sugar and starch in our diet.