How detox therapy cleanses our body?

Detox therapy becomes an established alternative medicinal practice in many western countries in recent days. But many health-conscious people have a query about how it works to cleansing our internal physiological system. Whereas, some have doubts that do detoxification therapy works to remove toxins from our body or not! Readers go through the content to clear your doubt on detox therapy.

Detox therapy is not a new concept. The sauna bath was the ancient detoxification rituals among native Americans. The profuse sweating during sauna purifies and cleansing the body both internally and externally. Bloodletting, fasting, and enemas were also different detoxification process which medically legitimate until the early 20th century. [1] In Ayurveda, Panchakarma also followed the detoxification principle. [2] But in recent days, people reconsidered the self-detoxification process to deal with the increasing release of xenobiotics like emerging pathogens, smoggy air, chemical loaded water supply, harmful metals in different usable items, etc. Exposure to all these harmful substances leads to adverse health effects, such as hormonal imbalance, neurological disorders, and reproductive disruption, increasing incidence of chronic fatal diseases like cancers, autoimmune ailments, and cardiovascular diseases. [2] 

What is detox therapy?

Detox therapy is a set of interventions to intoxicate acute toxicity or detoxify the body after exposure to harmful substances. Detox therapy also applied to rescue from substance abuse. [3] Even continuous metabolic process inside our body also generates waste products which unable to eliminate through the excretion process and increase toxic load in our body. [2] Detox therapy has the aim to reduce the toxic load from the body by eliminating existing toxins and avoiding the loading of new toxins to improve the natural healing process of the body. [4]

Principle of detox therapy

Therapies that help to decrease the burden of toxic chemical in the body include hydrotherapy, exercise, fluids, herbs and

nutritional supplements that support liver detoxification pathways and

chelation’

The primary principle to conduct the detox therapy is to support liver and gut functions for the complete elimination of toxic load. 

Evidential Support

Although many research papers questioning the efficacy of detox therapy due to the lack of trial results. [5] But some clinical data showed positive responses like food supplement with modified diet had found improved metabolic functioning. Moreover, a long-term research study reviewed report also supported good or great self-rated results among 83% of people who had followed a properly designed detoxification protocol. [2]

What are the different detoxification processes followed in detox therapy?

The following are different detox therapies recommended to reduce the toxic load from the body. 

• Promoting intake of cleansing foods
• Increase the intake of fruits and vegetables
• Supplementation of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants
• Incorporating organic wholesome food items
• Probiotics intake  
• Reduce polluted environmental exposure
• Increase intake of fibers to bulking the stool
• Reduce intake of food amount
• Avoid intake of animal foods
• Incorporation of cholagogue herbs, lymphagogue herbs, and laxative herbs
• Sauna
• Chelating agents’ intake
• Skin brushing
• Hydrotherapy
• Breathing exercise
• Increased intake of protein-rich foods
• Colonic irrigation
• Combination with other alternative medicines like homeopathic remedies, massage therapy, nasal irrigation, etc.
• Fasting

 The naturopath experts recommend the above-mentioned processes alone or jointly for generalized detoxification. [2]

Which health conditions require detox therapy? 

Being a naturopathy doctor, I suggest to start detox therapy in the following health conditions: 

• Disease prevention and generalized cleansing process
• After exposure to a hazardous environment for a prolonged period
• Gastrointestinal disorder
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Liver diseases
• Premenstrual syndrome
• Menopause
• Hormonal imbalance
• Infertility
• Weight loss
• Depression
• Recovery after radiation therapy or chemotherapy
• Heavy metal toxicity  
• Pre-conceiving 
• Unexplainable Chronic body ache
• Depression

Which indications indicate to start detox therapy?

Healthcare expert recommends detox therapy based on some sign and symptoms usually occur due to an increase in the toxic load, which are as follows:

• The poor complexion, skin rash, greasiness, lesions
• Taste disturbances, bad breath, digestive abnormality
• Fatigue, concentration problem
• Muscle pains, and ache
• Hyper-reactivity to medicine
• Decrease tolerability on the external environment    

Most of the detox therapies are harmless, but it is always suggested to diagnose the underlining condition before initiating any intervention.

Why herbs and superfoods side-benefitted detox therapy? 

Different types of detox therapy are established in natural therapy to cleanses the body, but few research studies were conducted to check their efficacy and safety. Some of these study results showed positive outcomes in terms of weight loss, fat burn, maintenance of blood glucose level, regulating blood pressure. The efficacy and safety of long-term outcomes of detox therapy are debatable due to the lack of high-quality research data. [6] I prefer to include herbs and superfoods in daily diet to promote a safe detoxification process because the process only gives you side benefits without any side effects. 

What herbs and superfoods used in detox therapy?

Cabbage, broccoli, turnip, kale, cauliflower are examples of Brassica vegetables that induce detoxification enzymes and helps in the cleansing body. These vegetables are also a rich source of antioxidants and help to lower down oxidative stress. [7]

Beat root and dandelion also cleanse the body system. [2] The potent antioxidant property of beat root protects from xenobiotics induced liver damage. [8] One glass of red-purple beetroot juice can detoxify your body by upholding liver health.

The liver plays a vital role in the detoxification of the body, but it is one of the vulnerable organs towards injury due to its anatomical location and function. Antifibrotic, antioxidant, antilipidemic, and anticancer properties of dandelion make this plant a promising hepatoprotective agent. [9] I suggest you drink a cup of dandelion tea every day to detoxify your body by protecting your liver naturally. For preparing dandelion tea you can use the leaves, flowers, and roots of this plant. Thoroughly wash these plant parts and chop them into small pieces and add 1 to 2 teaspoon in a cup hot water and cover the lead for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy this detox tea during your detox therapy. 

Cranberry helps to breakdown excess fats and promotes transportation through lymph vessels. Promoting lymphatic circulation helps the cleansing body. [10] Therefore, I suggest drinking fresh cranberry juice regularly to detoxify your body naturally. But you may not like unsweetened cranberry juice. I recommend cranberry lemonade to solve this problem. You can prepare it in your kitchen by mixing unsweetened cranberry juice with stevia to flush out toxins by free lymph movement into the lymphatic vessels and also detoxify the liver and kidneys. 

Use Triphala powder that is a mixture of equal quality of ground Chebulic myrobalan (Terminalia chebula), Bibhitaki (Terminalia belarica), and Indian gooseberry (Emblica officinalis). This formulation is effective in cleanses your gut due to its laxative property. This combination acts as a detoxifying agent and rejuvenates the body system. [11]

Detox therapy is not a tough task, but small dietary changes can clean your system effectively and prevent you to fall ill. 

References

1. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-dubious-practice-of-detox
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3239317/
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64119/
4. https://crimsonpublishers.com/ntnf/pdf/NTNF.000571.pdf
5. https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/101/1/33/262537
6. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/detoxes-and-cleanses-what-you-need-to-know
7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23631258/
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425174/
9. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302959005_Hepatoprotective_properties_of_Dandelion_Recent_update
10. https://cybermedlife.eu/index.php/health/2-how-to-detoxify-and-heal-the-lymphatic-system
11. http://www.bioline.org.br/pdf?pt06008