It’s “detox season.” Here’s what you need to know.
Spring is classically thought of as the “detox” season. But is a detox or cleanse really the right way to improve your health? As a Naturopathic Doctor with some strong opinions, I’d like to chime in.
In this blog post I’ll share my thoughts about short-term detoxes and cleanses. Then, I’ll offer a completely different way to approach detoxing.
With the emergence of Spring (the OG New Year) comes a surge of new energy. Nature begins to shake off the slumber of the Winter months, to reawaken and reanimate the life force—what we call in Naturopathic Medicine the Vis, the healing power of nature.
There’s this collective and somewhat innate desire for lightness, movement, and expansion. I believe this is natural, and healthy, to want to feel reinvigorated during this time of year, and to build supportive practices into our daily routines. What is NOT healthy is the wellness industry’s hyperfocus on weight-loss and “clean” eating.
Spoiler alert: I generally do not recommend embarking on restrictive short-term cleanses unless there is a very necessary medical reason to do so.
First things first: reclaiming the word “detoxification”
The word detox is not synonymous or necessarily related to weight, weight-loss, or purification of the body.
Your body is naturally detoxifying 24/7 to keep your organs functioning. And you will never be toxin-free.
At some point in time, the diet industry claimed the words “detox” and “detoxification.” Everywhere you look, detoxing is paired with weight loss. And weight loss seems to be the number one goal of detoxes and cleanses these days.
I don’t support this detox-weight connection, because…
This reduces health down to a number on a scale, which is a wildly insufficient definition
Health (in my book) is determined by how the person feels along with a variety of objective data points (lab work, blood pressure, imaging, etc.)—without a hyperfocus on weight, and
Pedastalizing (this is a word, right?) weight loss as the main goal of improved detoxification takes the human out of the equation and turns you into a number. I’m more curious about how you’re hoping to feel, move, eat, express, and connect as a result of improved detoxification.
Detoxification 101
Here’s the simple scoop.
Your body has been detoxing since before you were born.
Your liver is constantly metabolizing harmful and unneeded waste products. The liver makes bile, and then your gallbladder squirts bile into your intestines. If your gut is healthy, the toxins will leave the body through your stool.
Your skin, kidneys, lungs, and other organs are also aiding in the natural process of waste elimination through their normal function.
This is happening 24/7, every moment of the day. When your organs are functioning properly (which is most often the case), this detox process is on.
But it is true that sometimes our organs benefit from support. Sometimes supporting these processes—such as liver metabolism of waste products—is a good step for improving health. So let’s talk about when this might be the case.
So...who needs a “detox”?
As humans living on an increasingly toxic planet, we’re all exposed to some amount of harmful plastics, pollution, metals, chemicals, and biotoxins such as mold and Lyme to name a few.
Some individuals are more sensitive to lower levels of these chemicals and benefit from detoxification support. For example, people with biotoxin illness or chemical sensitivity can react to low levels of toxins that a person without this illness would not react to. These patients’ pathways of elimination often benefit from receiving help through medications, supplements, practices, nutrients, etc.
Some individuals have higher levels of these compounds accumulating over time due to ongoing exposure, and these levels are contributing to liver disease, heart disease, and other conditions. Their bodies need help getting rid of them so they can heal (and avoiding exposure is key).
Other individuals may have been exposed to higher doses of a toxic compound and need urgent or emergent medical attention (such as with medication overdoses, carbon monoxide poisoning, chemical ingestion or inhalation, to name a few).
The average person with an average exposure to common toxins like air pollution and metals in drinking water, who doesn’t have any nagging symptoms, does not necessarily need detoxification support. But if this average person wants to put time and effort into preventing chronic disease through their lifestyle choices, then detox support will probably assist them in that goal.
It is increasingly clear that toxic exposures contribute to the development of many common chronic diseases that take years (or even decades) to develop such as atherosclerosis, dementia, and cancer. Unless we lived in a perfect toxin-free bubble, there is no way to completely eliminate our exposure and lower our risk of disease to zero. But if prevention of these conditions is important to you, then you can implement a few simple (or more complex, if you choose) measures to augment your body’s own natural detoxification pathways, which I will outline below.
The Bucket Analogy
In Naturopathic Medicine we like to use this analogy of the body as a bucket. We’re all exposed to stressors that fill our bucket - toxins, inflammation, traumas. We all have an open spigot at the bottom of the bucket to help empty the bucket. If your bucket fills faster than it empties, your bucket will overflow, and you’ll experience symptoms.
There are two solutions to this overflowing-bucket issue.
Decrease the rate of stuff entering your bucket—lower or eliminate exposure to the stressors
Increase the rate of stuff leaving your bucket—provide the stimuli and substrates that help move things through and out
How best to help the bucket empty faster? In my medical opinion, slow and steady wins the race; short-term cleanses are not the best route for most people. Here’s why.
A couple of reasons why I recommend AGAINST short-term cleanses:
Many cleanses involve strict eating patterns, meal replacement powders and shakes, and laxative pills. While these treatment may at certain times be medically necessary, this approach is not what I reach for—not for myself, not for my family, and not for my patients, because…
Your body is already detoxifying 24/7/365. A short-term cleanse isn’t going to magically or drastically turn up your pathways of elimination.
You’re always taking in toxins, every day. A 14-day cleanse isn’t going to make a huge dent. What will make a difference is shifting the daily routines that are most contributing to your bucket overflowing.
Food restriction and elimination diets are likely to worsen patterns of disordered eating in certain individuals. In some people, these disordered eating patterns are the biggest obstacle to better health, and cleanses make them worse instead of better. This is the opposite of healing. Disordered eating and eating disorders negatively impact not only mental health but physical well-being. Eating disorders can have devastating effects on a person’s overall health.
Disrupting your normal eating routine, if done improperly, can disrupt your digestion and regularity of bowel movements—which are essential for healthy detoxification.
Some cleansing protocols contain strong laxative herbs that shouldn’t be used for more than a few days, or up to a week, at a time because they can cause dependence.
Here’s what I do instead of a cleanse to support my body’s natural ability to detoxify
Movement of all kinds
Your lymphatic system plays an important role in your body’s pathways of elimination. Various types of waste products leak out of the blood within the tissues and end up floating through the lymphatic fluid (the fluid that exists outside of the blood vessels). This lymphatic system of vessels and nodes, and the fluid it contains, depends on the pumping action of your muscles to help push the lymphatic fluid up against gravity back to the heart. Once it’s back at the heart, that fluid dumps into the blood and can be filtered/cleansed by the organs of elimination (lungs, kidneys, skin, liver, bowels).
Incorporating more consistent movement into your regular routine will help mobilize your lymphatic fluid and the waste products it accumulates. I’m a big fan of short daily walks, stretching and shaking and dancing between meetings, and a pleasant before-bed yin yoga sequence.
Lymphatic drainage
This can include hands-on treatments like therapeutic massage and manual lymphatic drainage performed by a practitioner. Lymphatic drainage can also include variety of self-massage techniques. I often teach my patients this simple massage practice to help move congestion, tension, and swelling out of the head and neck. Shaking is another practice I enjoy to stimulate the lymphatic system—gentle, full-body shakes bouncing up and down with soft knees.
Belly breathing
While breathing might seem unrelated to detoxification, it actually has everything to do with your lymphatic system and moving fluids in the body.
A surprisingly large majority of your lymph nodes live right underneath your diaphragm—the main breathing muscle. The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that moves up and down when you’re breathing properly. This diaphragmatic movement acts as a pump (technically called the thoraco-abdominal pump), pulling lymphatic fluid up through the abdominal cavity, into the thoracic cavity, and back to the heart.
This breathing pump creates efficient drainage of lymphatic tissues in the lower body to help relieve bloating and swelling. Reminder to talk with your doctor before trying these exercises for your own health conditions.
Liver-supportive foods
While food is not enough to single-handedly “detox” the liver (it’s more complicated than that), food can play a role in supporting the innate detoxification pathways within the liver. See this blog post for a long list of foods that can, in various ways, promote healthy liver function. Remember to talk with your doctor before changing implementing anything new related to your health.
Limiting your toxic exposure
The extent to which you can limit your exposure depends on part where you live and your access to resources. But a couple of simple, easy steps you can take:
Take your shoes off in the house. Shoes pick up tons of toxins in the dirt. Avoid wearing shoes inside to limit exposure within the house
Check your water: tap water is known to carry varying levels of toxins. Use this link to find out what in your tap water according to zip code. I like the Berkey water filter—it sits next to my kitchen sink. If this doesn’t work for you or your budget, check out Clearly Filtered for a lower-cost good quality pitcher-style filter.
Prevent water damage: where there is moisture, there is mold. Eliminate sources of humidity and leaks from your home to avoid growth of toxic mold and other biotoxins like Actinomycetes and endotoxins. These cause biotoxin illness in people who are genetically susceptible.
Limit your use of plastic food containers. Never microwave in plastic.
Foundations of health
When your body is healthy, your pathways of elimination are healthy. Focusing on the basic health foundations goes a long way in helping your body detox.
Eating enough food, eating balanced meals, getting fresh air and sunlight, moving your body daily, balancing work and play, regulating your stress response, cultivating quality sleep, cultivating loving connections, and creating meaning in your life…All of these contribute to your body’s capacity to increase the healing, parasympathetic pathways.
Looking for individualized guidance around the topic of detoxification, creating health, and untangling these topics from the powers that be so you can reclaim your well-being as your own? I love helping people navigate this space. You can click the button below to inquire about working together one-on-one.
*DISCLAIMER: this information is not intended to be used as medical advice and is meant for educational purposes only. Speak with your doctor before adding or changing anything related to your health and medical treatment. This information is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your healthcare professional. Do not use the information provided in this blog to diagnose or treat any medical condition. Do not delay seeking professional medical advice or disregard professional medical advice because of something you read in this blog post.