Rebooting the Body’s Ability to Detoxify: Detoxification Basics

Food

Individuals need to experiment with their diet to find what works best. Start by figuring out if any foods are directly harmful, which includes looking at allergies and mast cell activation. People experience a wide range of reactions to foods, from severe anaphylactic reactions to minor issues such as mild water weight gain. Gluten and dairy sensitivities are very common in my patients.

Once it is clear that a particular food triggers a reaction, it may not be necessary to distinguish true allergy from reactivity, since in either case, that food should be avoided. However, the luxury of “as much as possible” does not apply to a true allergy or, in the case of gluten, full-blown celiac disease, in which even a minute amount of gluten can cause a severe reaction.

For many patients, a low-histamine diet may be helpful. A small percentage of patients are unusually sensitive to foods that contain oxalates (such as kale or spinach), and this sensitivity will contribute to the global inflammatory process that is so central to their woes; a low-oxalate diet may be beneficial for these individuals. A few patients are sensitive to salicylates, and these may need to be avoided as well.

Other food-related considerations come into play as well. Eating organically grown and raised foods (and avoiding genetically modified foods or GMOs) can make a huge difference to sensitive patients. Admittedly, buying organic ingredients can be expensive. It can also be critical to healing. Other strategies that are often stressed as being helpful include chewing food slowly and thoroughly, avoiding overeating, and making mealtimes relaxing events (meaning, please don’t listen to the news or use electronic gadgets during meals!).

Hydration

The kidneys require adequate fluid to flush toxins, and I urge those who are not moved to consume much liquid to consider this point carefully. That being said, while many authorities insist that everyone should drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, this recommendation must be individualized. That quantity of water would make some people feel bloated and uncomfortable. There is a medical condition called water toxicity in which too much water can provoke serious disturbances, so each patient must tailor his or her liquid consumption to his or her own comfort level.

Try to avoid drinking water from plastic containers; many plastic components are xenoestrogens, which compete with estrogen in the body and interfere with aspects of metabolism. Our increasing awareness of the threat of microplastics makes this recommendation even more important. If possible, drink from glass or ceramic containers instead.

Some patients may need to add electrolytes to their water to optimize balance, especially if they are regularly using a sauna or Epsom salt baths, which can deplete the body of sodium and potassium, along with other minerals.

I also urge every patient to get their water tested to be sure that we are not being overly exposed to environmental toxins from that source. With that knowledge, we can add water purification systems to our home to be sure that our water intake is optimal.

Sweating

Sweating is an important part of detoxification. Unfortunately, some toxic patients have autonomic nervous system dysfunction that interferes with their ability to sweat. Many of my patients initially report that they are unable to perspire and notice that as their health improves, their ability to sweat improves as well. Sensitive patients may not be able to tolerate heat for very long, so individuals need to determine how much they can do without worsening their condition.

Saunas, hot baths, hot tubs, sitting in the sun—anything that encourages sweating may be helpful in moderation. Low-temperature infrared saunas have been particularly helpful for many patients, but their use should be limited to two or three times a week. Overdoing the sauna can lead to increased toxicity and the depletion of electrolytes and minerals. For especially sensitive patients, foot baths with Epsom salts can be useful as well.

Exercise

Movement of any kind gets fluids circulating and is of great benefit. Because many patients, as part of their illness, have post-exertional malaise (PEM) or myalgia (pain), exercise must be prescribed carefully. Any sort of post-exertional issue means that patients are using up energy reserves they don’t have. This is not a viable strategy. Well-meaning friends, relatives, and even physicians often say, “If you would only exercise, you would get well.” That is terrible advice. If you keep using up energy reserves you don’t have, you will become more and more depleted. Only when you have recovered to the point that you have reserves can you begin to exercise in earnest.

It is important to understand that we can exercise while sick, but only to the point that we do not get worse afterward. The amount of exercise we can do may be minuscule (e.g., walking to the mailbox and back), but as long as we incorporate some gentle movement without overdoing it, we can slowly improve.

Sleep

Restorative sleep is very important to the healing process. Unfortunately, most of my patients have a lot of difficulty both falling asleep and staying asleep. Even when they spend 12 hours in bed, they often awake unrefreshed (a cardinal symptom of fibromyalgia). Keeping to a regular sleep schedule, minimizing light in the bedroom, avoiding naps as much as possible, and avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bedtime are basic strategies to improve sleep. Supplements and medications may be needed to improve sleep to facilitate healing.

Our sleep cycles should take into consideration circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms refer to the optimal amounts of light and food that enter the body and especially the timing of these biological processes. The Circadian Code, an excellent book by Satchin Panda, provides clear guidelines and methods about how to improve these cycles, which adds another dimension to healing. Many of my patients have unrecognized sleep apnea, a condition that involves episodes during sleep in which a person stops breathing until the increase in carbon dioxide created by a lack of ventilation forces them to breathe again. Going without oxygen for variable periods of time is antithetical to health and healing. Any patient who snores should be evaluated with a sleep study. Because sleep apnea can be treated with the use of a CPAP machine or a dental appliance (thus improving oxygen supply all night long), sleep apnea can be an important area to evaluate early on in treatment.

Liver

The liver is the body’s major organ of detoxification. Especially for many of the toxins discussed in my book, it is the key player. Basic strategies of eating organic foods, steering clear of GMOs, and avoiding exposure to plastics, chemicals, and other toxins are important, since that minimizes the extra work, the liver must do when harmful substances are on board. For a variety of reasons, avoiding sugar substitutes falls into this same category. Having to process Splenda and/or NutraSweet is a burden on the liver, and both of those sweeteners stimulate the pancreas to make additional insulin, which adds to the common complication of insulin resistance. The cleaner our diet, the more energy our liver has to get rid of toxins.

Several supplements have proven to be of particular benefit for the liver. Milk thistle (one capsule two or three times daily) and alpha lipoic acid (ALA; 200 milligrams twice daily) are two of the most useful.

A variety of tinctures and combinations have worked well for my sensitive patients, who may need to start with a single drop and slowly increase the dosage as tolerated. My two favorites, both of which are taken twice daily, are Tox-Ease, either the capsules or the gelatin (a liquid formulation for very sensitive individuals), and apo-Hepat drops, which are a little stronger.

Gallbladder

For many years, it has been thought that the main function of the gallbladder is to concentrate bile to make it more efficient in the digestion of fat. Recently, however, a newer, more complex appreciation of the importance of bile has grown steadily. Bile is a primarily aqueous secretion (it is 95% water) that originates in the liver cells (hepatocytes) and is modified by absorptive and secretory systems in the bile duct epithelial lining. We now realize that bile is the major route of excretion for toxins (especially those that are soluble in lipids or fats) and helps protect the gastrointestinal tract by secreting immunoglobulin A and stimulating the innate immune system in the intestines. When these secretions are impaired (which is certainly relevant for those who have had their gallbladders surgically removed), as they are in the presence of many chronic inflammatory illnesses, the body’s ability to detoxify is significantly hindered, even when the correct binders are provided.

Efforts to improve the formation and secretion of bile, therefore, may be essential to the detoxification process. I encourage you to listen to Scott Forsgren’s podcast with Kelly Halderman, MD (episode 79 at www.better-healthguy.com/blogcast), in which Dr. Halderman does a brilliant job of describing this process and suggesting supplements to help the body make and secrete bile more effectively. These include milk thistle, pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), acetyl-l-carnitine, bitters, phosphatidylcholine, TUDCA, and Ox bile. I worked for many years with Wayne Anderson, ND, who often added the medication ursodiol (Actigall) to improve bile flow in his patients.

Dr. Naviaux reminds us that hepatocytes express purinergic receptors on their plasma membranes, meaning that bile secretion is partly regulated by the effect of nucleotides and nucleosides on these membranes. In his published research on autistic mice, he found decreased bile acid secretion that normalized when the mice were treated with suramin. While this information is highly technical for some readers, what it boils down to is that bile secretion is really important. When inflammation is not controlled, the body’s ability to make bile is compromised, and when inflammation is healed, the body’s ability to make bile improves.

I believe that integrating our new understanding of the importance of the secretion of bile into the treatment of toxicity will provide additional improvement for patients who are having difficulty with detoxification.

Gastrointestinal System

Because I have devoted a separate chapter to the gastrointestinal system in my book, I won’t review that information here, but this system needs to be included in our discussion of detoxification. Constipation is a particular problem for my patients because toxins that remain in the intestines longer than they should can be reabsorbed, which is clearly counterproductive to treatment. Therefore, constipation needs to be addressed early on in treatment. The toxins themselves stimulate the production of inflammatory cytokines, which in turn trigger inflammation in the central nervous system, especially affecting the vagus nerve and autonomic nervous system, which interferes with intestinal motility and causes constipation. Exercises to improve vagal nerve function, osteopathic cranial manipulation, and FSM can be helpful here. I have had a number of patients who had never fully recovered from a surgical procedure. When the appropriate FSM frequencies were used to “remove” anesthesia toxicity, several of those patients reported remarkable and rapid recoveries. Many of my patients benefit from taking additional magnesium and/or buffered, powdered vitamin C to enhance intestinal motility.

Kidneys

As described earlier, drinking adequate amounts of liquid is essential to flush out certain toxins. Some compromised patients benefit from intravenous preparations. My favorite supplement to assist the kidneys in functioning better is the homeopathic remedy Renelix, 5–10 drops twice daily (starting with one drop for sensitive patients). The use of FSM frequencies for the liver, intestines, kidneys, skin, and lymphatic system has also been helpful for many patients. Some practitioners emphasize the need to alkalinize the body by using an alkaline diet or alkaline water to promote detoxification, but I have not found this approach to be necessary.

Lymphatic System

The lymphatic system is a complete circulatory system that helps drain waste products and infectious agents from the body. The lymph channels drain into the lymph glands and ultimately into the superior vena cava on the left side of the chest, connecting with the circulatory system, which clears these toxins through the kidneys and liver.

An unusually high percentage of toxic and sensitive patients have sluggish or blocked lymphatic drainage. When flow is restored, many of them begin to improve. Referring these patients to therapists who are trained in lymphatic massage can be very helpful. I have also seen excellent responses to the homeopathic remedy Itires at a dosage of 5–10 drops twice daily (starting with just one drop for sensitive patients). Again, FSM using the lymphatic and lymph gland frequencies has been helpful. A simple exercise of flexing the feet and hands 10 times, several times a day, helps circulate lymph, and movement of any kind is beneficial for improving lymph circulation.

Skin

Sweating is really helpful for releasing toxins. Dry brushing is often beneficial as well. Applying a soft but firm brush over large areas of the skin once or twice a day helps remove dead skin cells and improves lymphatic flow.