Detox, Or Just Part Of Life? by Kim Crundall

When we think of ‘detox’, we tend to think of celebrities checking into famous clinics, and a week or so of an intensely strict regime. The celebrities emerge looking bright and clean, then, only a few days later, we read about their party lifestyles and can see them starting to add all those toxins back in!

In reality detoxification is part of everyday life. Some toxins are produced within our bodies via normal cell processes, such as lactic acid during intense anaerobic exercise, or ammonia as part of the urine waste cycle. Our bodies, of course, are equipped to deal with these natural toxins, breaking them down into harmless substances before their permanent removal, normally via urine or during a bowel motion. Our liver is the most important player in detoxification processes. It is our central processing unit, where the body takes toxins to be broken down, in a two stage process, before transferring the waste to the removal depots of the bowels or bladder.

Other toxins arrive from external sources. These can be from a wide range of sources, alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical and recreational drugs are the most obvious ones. But there are a whole host of other toxins that we are consistently exposed to. These include pesticides and chemicals used in intensive crop farming, which filter through our water supplies, as well as often being left as residues on the foods themselves. We know there are hormones and antibiotics left in our food from factory meat farming methods. We accumulate harmful metals, such as lead, aluminium and mercury, plus chemicals, used in industrial processes too. And there are even harder to detect toxins too, ones that may be more specific to us as individuals. This group includes parasites, viruses and having the ‘wrong’ types of digestive bacteria. Food intolerances too can be considered a form of toxin, as, where they occur, they insidiously undermine our health, and can cause a myriad of seemingly unrelated symptoms from joint pain and headaches to irritable bowel syndrome.

If our livers become over-burdened then we will often start to feel the symptoms, and the body may resort to other removal mechanisms. For a lot of people, this is where the skin comes in. Technically the largest organ of our body, the skin can, and will, be used as a method of toxin removal, and this can mean problems such as eczema, dermatitis, spots, and psoriasis. But we can see they are not actually ‘skin’ problems; they are in fact detoxification problems, and the skin is acting in exactly the way it should be, by helping to remove the toxins. So, if we want to resolve skins problems, we should be looking at our incoming toxin levels and our detoxification routes, rather than covering our skins with lotions and potions.

To give an example, a client recently came to me wanting help with her long-standing psoriasis. Other symptoms included regular heartburn, headaches and disturbed sleeping patterns where she woke during the night feeling hot and sweaty. At our first session I asked her to rate her energy levels, which she gave as 4 out of 10. Her case history and symptoms profile revealed a number of toxins, all of which were contributing to having a congested liver. These included mercury toxicity, parasites, having the ‘wrong’ types of digestive bacteria and an intolerance to cow’s dairy produce. Additionally, her nutrient profiling showed low levels of magnesium, zinc, vitamin B6 and fish oils.

To start the toxins removal, and support her detoxification pathways, we reviewed her diet, introduced some specific foods and juices, and used some high quality nutritional supplements.

On her return the following month, the psoriasis was already showing an improvement. It was starting to clear from her scalp and the ‘crustiness’ had gone, with her knees and elbows reducing in redness and showing some clear patches. At this stage we took the detoxification process deeper, adding specific supplements to remove parasites and restore the ‘right’ types of bacteria to the digestive tract.

Her progress was remarkable, within 3 months the psoriasis had almost completely cleared. Her scalp was completely clear, as were her knees, while only small isolated patches of redness now appeared on her elbows. She had experienced no heartburn or headaches since the initial session, and she no longer woke feeling hot or sweaty during the night. Her energy levels she described as “excellent”, saying she was now looking for additional things to do with all her new-found energy!

Detoxification, or rather reducing our incoming toxin load, is something that we should all be thinking about. Put simply, it means thinking about what we eat, and thinking about what we expose to our bodies to. It means looking at our diet, and increasing our nutrient levels to support toxin removal. It means looking at our lifestyles and making changes for the better. It’s not just for celebrities, it’s for you and me!

Copyright 2007 Kim Crundall, Balance Nutrition web site.