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Detoxification (alternative medicine)

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This article is about alternative medicine approach. For the drug rehabilitation practice, see Detoxification.

Detoxification in the context of alternative medicine is an approach that claims to rid the body of "toxins" – accumulated harmful substances that are alleged to exert undesirable effects on individual health in the short or long term. Detoxification usually includes one or more of: dieting, fasting, consuming exclusively or avoiding specific foods (such as fats, carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, juices, herbs, or water), colon cleansing, chelation therapy, or the removal of dental fillings.[1][2]

Body cleansing has been described by scientists as "a waste of time and money" and there is no clinical evidence that it is effective.[3] The "toxins" are usually undefined, with little to no evidence for toxic accumulation in the patient.[4]

Background

The premise of body cleansing is based on the Ancient Egyptian and Greek idea of autointoxication, in which foods consumed or in the humoral theory of health that the four humours themselves can putrefy and produce toxins that harm the body. Biochemistry and microbiology appeared to support the theory in the 19th century, but by the early twentieth century, detoxification based approaches quickly fell out of favour.[5][6] Despite abandonment by mainstream medicine, the idea has persisted in the popular imagination and amongst alternative medicine practitioners.[7][8][9] In recent years, notions of body cleansing have undergone something of a resurgence, along with many other alternative medical approaches. Nonetheless, mainstream medicine continues to produce evidence that the field is unscientific and anachronistic.[7]

Types

Detox diets

Detox diets are dietary plans that claim to have detoxifying effects. The general idea suggests that most food is contaminated by various ingredients deemed unnecessary for human life, such as flavor enhancers, food colorings, pesticides, and preservatives. Scientists, dietitians, and doctors, while generally judging "detox diets" to be harmless (unless nutritional deficiency results), often dispute the value and need of "detox diets", due to lack of supporting factual evidence or coherent rationale.[10] In cases where a person is actually suffering from a disease, belief in the efficacy of a detox diet can result in delay or failure to seek effective treatment.[11] Detox diets can involve consuming extremely limited foods (only water or juice, a form of fasting[12] known as juice fasting), eliminating certain foods from the diet (such as fats),[13] or eliminating processed foods and irritants from the diet.[14] Detox diets are often high in fiber. Proponents claim that this will cause the body to burn accumulated stored fats, releasing fat-stored "toxins" into the blood, which can then be eliminated through the blood, skin, urine, feces and breath. Proponents claim that things such as an altered body odor support the notion that detox diets are working; this claim has been criticized for misinterpreting the body undergoing ketosis.[2] Although a brief fast of a single day is unlikely to cause harm, prolonged fasting (as recommended by certain detox diets) can have dangerous health consequences or can even be fatal.[1][15]

Basic Cleansing Diet[16][17]

The removal of these toxic foods will send your body into ultimate detoxification mode, and it will work hard on your behalf to eliminate the filth that keeps you from experiencing optimal health and wellness. Of course, usual offenders that must be eliminated in this cleansing diet are sugars, starches (enriched flour) and saturated fats. These include but are not limited to pastries, candy, white rice, white bread, soda pops, butter, frying oil, cheeseburgers, pizza, etc… Stay away from then for 7-14 days before you start fasting. If you are going to use this cleansing diet without fasting, you can follow it for as long as necessary; 30 days is average, although I have heard of people who stay on it for several months for continued weight loss and ultimate body detox cleansing.

Cleansing Diet: Banned Foods

Salt - most people get plenty of it from the foods that you eat. When I first started the cleansing diet lifestyle years ago, I was kind of shocked to see that salt was banned. I spoke against it actually.I have come to realize that the foods we eat all have sodium, and that a healthy adult really has no need for 'salt' except to make the food taste better. In addition, when I stopped using salt, I immediately dropped like 15 pounds. It was mostly water weight, but it showed me that I was retaining a LOT of liquids, and that was greatly due to my abuse of salt and seasonings.

Sugar - absolute trash, toxic to the body... good for nothing - stay away! I could write pages and pages about sugar. I am sure that you yourself can admit that this is one of our greatest (if not our greatest) enemy. I mean it. Enemy. Any prolonged return to sugar will, sooner or later, result in full-blown intoxication of the bloodstream and digestive system.

Cleansing Diet Sugar Banned I don't kid myself by thinking that "I'm cured." I still am susceptible to sugar and to binging. What keeps me free and clean is NOT to put sugar into my body... period. I can't draw the same conclusion for you, but I am certain that you probably have your own stories to tell about sugar and how it has affected your weight, life and health.

Fried Foods - Absolute filthy grease fest that leads to obesity and other diseases.

Cheese - Cheese is great but it has way too much fat. For the time being, steer clear. Later on, once you finish the cleanse, you will be able to have treats from time to time. So don't let the mind start telling you that your 'life is over' because you can't eat this or that. Just tell the mind to shut up and keep moving forward. Works like a charm for me.

Dairy Products - dairy has a lot of fat, is high in sugar content and has been known to cause digestive system inflammation. But I'm not totally heartless. Stick to non-fat milk, how's that? Anything above non-fat is banned during this cleansing diet.

Red Meat - I personally don't have anything against red meat. In fact, I have been known to eat a piece of meat on rare occasion. Right now, we are banning it because it has a lot of fat, and because I want your digestive system to be given easy food to digest. Later on you can have a piece of meat here and there if you want. Right now, for the purposes of this cleansing diet... it's banned.

Alcohol - Alcohol is packed with empty calories. Calories with ZERO nutritional value. And booze turns to sugar. Bad all over. If you drink frequently, cut it down to a minimum. You're doing this cleansing diet for your health and to reach a goal that is important to YOU. If you have to go a few days without drinking, your arm is not going to fall off. You'll live. A cup of wine with dinner is fine, but nothing more than that at this juncture.

Butter or Margarine - As they say in New York, "Forget about it!!!" Butter and margarine are pure fat and we don't want it.

Fruit Juices - If you read the label of most orange juice brands, you will see that the sugar content is through the roof. Yes, it is natural sugar, but sugar nonetheless. You can have one glass of juice in the morning during the cleeansing diet, but you need to water it down 50/50. Drinking straight juice at this phase is basically like injecting blubber directly into your belly. Stay away. Drink veggie juice instead...but make sure that it is the low sodium veggie juice. :-)

White Enriched Bread - That stuff is like dropping a ball of cement into the stomach. White flour, doughy garbage really is terrible for human health. I was going to ban all breads for the cleansing diet, but I remembered that the Ezekiel brand (green bag) is actually very good. You can eat one slice here and there as partial replacement to your carbohydrate servings. We'll get into all of that in just a minute.

Junk Food Banned Cleansing Diet

Junk Food of ANY Kind - I think that it definitely goes without saying that junk food is out. And not just out for a little while in this cleansing diet. Hopefully, junk is out of your life for good. That crap is like wearing a ball and chain. It enslaves us to cravings that are never satisfied and only get stronger and more violent.

  • Foods to Limit During Cleansing Diet'

Fruits (Stick To Strawberries or Cantaloupe) Tomatoes Peas or Corn Olive Oil

Colon cleansing

Main article: colon cleansing

Colon cleansing is giving an enema (colonic) containing some salt, and sometimes coffee or herbs to remove food that remains in the colon and rots, producing symptoms and general ill-health. However the colon usually does not require any help cleaning itself. The large amount of water with large surface contact to the bloodstream through the intestines will however remove toxins from the blood/body tissues through diffusion, as well as removing helpful molecules. The practice can be potentially dangerous if incorrectly practised.[1]

Heavy metals

Detoxification may be employed as a quack treatment to address the false notion that mercury poisoning arises from dental amalgam fillings – Quackwatch states: "Removing good fillings is not merely a waste of money. In some cases, it results in tooth loss because when fillings are drilled out, some of the surrounding tooth structure will be removed with it."[1]

There are many herbal compounds designed and marketed to help the body excrete toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury. Among those, a common basic ingredient is often the herb Cilantro (Chinese Parsley) and/or Chlorella.[citation needed]

"Detoxification" devices

See also: Energy medicine

Certain devices are promoted to allegedly remove toxins from the body. One version is a foot bath using a mild electrical current, while another involves small adhesive pads applied to the skin (usually the foot). In both cases, the production of an alleged brown "toxin" appears after a brief delay. In the case of the foot bath, the "toxin" is actually small amounts of rusted iron leaching from the electrodes.[18] The adhesive pads change color due to oxidation of the pads' ingredients in response to the skin's moisture. In both cases, the same color changes occur irrespective of whether the water or patch even make contact with the skin (they merely require water—thus proving the color change is not a result of any body detoxification process).[1]

Other purported methods include Juicing & Homeopathic Remedies.[19]

Criticism

Body cleansing and detoxification have been referred to as an elaborate hoax used by con artists to cure nonexistent illnesses. Some doctors contend that the "toxins" in question do not even exist.[1][20][21] Medical experts state that body cleansing is unnecessary as the human body is naturally capable of maintaining itself, with several organs dedicated to cleansing the blood and gut.[22] Professor Alan Boobis OBE, Toxicologist, Division of Medicine, Imperial College London states that

The body’s own detoxification systems are remarkably sophisticated and versatile. They have to be, as the natural environment that we evolved in is hostile. It is remarkable that people are prepared to risk seriously disrupting these systems with unproven ‘detox’ diets, which could well do more harm than good.[10]

The apparently satisfied testimonial and anecdotal accounts by customers can often be explained by astroturfing companies or individuals creating false anecdotes, legitimate customers who are experiencing the placebo effect after using the products, natural recovery from an actual illness that would have occurred without the use of the product, psychological improvements on illnesses that are psychosomatic or the result of neurosis, or the lack of a larger number of dissatisfied customers not posting equally applicable anecdotes about their poorer experiences.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Barrett, S (8 May 2009). ""Detoxification" Schemes and Scams". Quackwatch. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Detox Diets: Cleansing the Body". WebMD. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  3. ^ "Scientists dismiss detox schemes". BBC News. 3 January, 2006. Retrieved May, 2013. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  4. ^ Zeratsky, K (22 April 2010). "Do detox diets offer any health benefits?". Mayo Clinic. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  5. ^ Alvarez, WC (1919). "Origin of the so-called auto-intoxication symptom". JAMA.
  6. ^ Wanjek, C (8 August 2006). "Colon Cleansing: Money Down the Toilet". LiveScience. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
  7. ^ a b Ernst E (1997). "Colonic irrigation and the theory of autointoxication: a triumph of ignorance over science". Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. 24 (4): 196–8. doi:10.1097/00004836-199706000-00002. PMID 9252839. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. ^ Chen TS, Chen PS (1989). "Intestinal autointoxication: a medical leitmotif". J. Clin. Gastroenterol. 11 (4): 434–41. doi:10.1097/00004836-198908000-00017. PMID 2668399.
  9. ^ Adams, C. "Does colonic irrigation do you any good?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
  10. ^ a b "Detox press release". Sense About Science. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  11. ^ "Man dies after favoring detox and forgoing dialysis". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  12. ^ BBC Staff (23 July 2008). "Woman left brain damaged by detox". BBC News. Retrieved 23 July 2008. A woman has been awarded more than £800,000 after she suffered permanent brain damage while on a detox diet. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ "Change Your Life For The Bet­ter With A Detox Diet!". Probiotic Cleansing Diet. Retrieved 9 November 2012. {{cite web}}: soft hyphen character in |title= at position 29 (help)
  14. ^ Eisenbraun, Karen (14 June 2011). "A Detox Diet That Works". LiveStrong. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  15. ^ Moores, Susan (18 May 2007). "Experts warn of detox diet dangers". MSNBC. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Basic Cleansing Diet was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Johnston, Robert Dave (18 May 2013). "Basic Cleansing Detox Diet For Weight Loss & Improved Health". Fitness Through Fasting. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  18. ^ "Rusty results". Ben Goldacre. 2 September 2004. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  19. ^ ""Methods of Detoxification"".
  20. ^ Berg, Francis. ""Detoxification" with Pills and Fasting". Quackwatch. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
  21. ^ Mitchell, B (4 January 2006). "Scientists warn detox fads are a 'waste of money'". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  22. ^ Stamos, J (8 February 2007). "Colon Cleansers: Are They Safe? Experts discuss the safety and effectiveness of colon cleansers". WebMd. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  23. ^ Carroll, RT (24 April 2010). "Detoxification therapies". Skepdic.com. Retrieved 23 June 2010.

22

Johnston, Robert Dave (21 May 2013). "Cleansing Detox Diets For Quick Weight Loss & Improved Health". Fitness Through Fasting. Retrieved 21 May 2013.

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