Ruminations

Detox or not to Detox : The Conundrum

"[This almost spiritual element to it -- an exorcism to get demons out of our bodies [by detoxing. But] there really isn't any science to support it [the idea that flushing and purifying our interior somehow can set a reset button's enormous public appeal]."
"[Even the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health concludes there is an absence of convincing evidence that fasting, juicing, colonics and other detoxes] actually remove toxins from your body or improve your health."
Timothy Caulfield, bioethicist, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta

Dr. David Juurlink, head of scientific pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook Well being Sciences Centre, on Feb. 29, 2012. Matthew Sherwood for Postmedia Information

"The idea that we're somehow poisoning ourselves and we need to atone for our sins seems to be part of human nature, which may explain why it's still a part of most of the world's religions."
Scott Gavura, pharmacist, Science-Based Medicine

"[The detox industry] founds itself on the notion that chemicals can be neatly divided into 'good' and 'bad' categories."
"In reality, it is the 'dose that makes the poison'."
Hosen Kiat, cardiologist, Macquarie University Hospital, Sydney, Australia

"Here's a toxicologist's explanation for how they [detoxes] work: They don't."
"We can all detect some amount of lead in our blood. It's the function of living on a planet where lead is around. And it does tend to accumulate in people exposed to it. But being exposed to something and being sickened by it are two very different things."
"I don't doubt that when people use cleanses or they go on these wacky diets or use enemas of various sorts that they feel different afterward. But it's not because these things have magically eliminated toxins."
"There will be people who will not be disabused of the notion that a detox is a good, healthy thing to do. But for those who are wondering if it's a good idea, the answer is an unequivocal 'No'."
David Juurlink, internal medicine specialist

Episode 1 of Timothy Caulfield's A Consumer's Guide to Cheating Death in which he dispenses information to arm consumers against believing 'detox' promises through assessing varied 'detox' strategies.

What people want to believe they will. People using detoxes will tend to lose weight; for example on the seven-day celery cleanse. It makes sense, since many of these protocols for cleansing the body and losing weight border on starvation; providing just enough calories for people to get by. If your body is starved of nutrients it will begin to feast itself off stored fat deposits and the result will be lost weight. Once that diet comes to an end, weight returns.

There are risks in many of the detox diets since extreme fasting has a biological cost. It can cause protein and vitamin deficiencies and place electrolytes out of whack through resulting imbalances. Detox dieters face the risk of overdosing on supplements, laxatives, diuretics, even water itself. Professor Caulfield thought he would conduct a very personal experiment by exposing himself to one of the detox diets and his experience was the loss then regaining of three kilograms from the Clean 21-Day Cleanse, detox program.

That program was touted for "achieving vibrant health and restoring the body's own natural ability to heal itself". This is a diet that consists of a shake for breakfast, lunch selections of approved foods avoiding dairy, sugar, gluten, soy, corn, red meat. And for dinner, another shake and the addition of approved "clean supplements" throughout the day. How did Professor Caulfield, his very own guinea pig come out of the experiment? "Crappy and grumpy", he said, attributing that condition mostly to caffeine withdrawal.

It "nearly killed" him, he commented wryly in a bit of an over-stated comment and then added: "You do get this high from the sense of accomplishment when you're finished". Presumably that the tortuous discomfort is concluded.

Dr. Juurlink explains that healthy kidneys and livers were designed by nature to rid our bodies of whatever it is that we don't require to thrive healthily and which presence may be transitory, introduced briefly for an affective purpose then flushed, whether the category is medication or toxins. Kidneys eliminate drugs and other chemicals that are water-soluble while the liver secretes unneeded chemicals into our bile and the intestines.

Laxatives are frequently contained within a detox which in itself can possibly lead to a low potassium or magnesium condition, leading even to dehydration, a situation that can become lethal when it arises in the wrong person. Colonic "hydrotherapy" (or irrigation), as well, boosted by many naturopaths has the potential to cause micro-tears in the colon.

It was an inversion therapy protocol that Professor Caulfield thought he'd give the benefit of the doubt; a therapy with claims of detoxifying and draining the lymphatic system and decongesting the organs -- so he hung upside down by his ankles, boots strapped to a bar while blood pooled in his cranium. He was devoting himself to this endurance test in the interests of defending real science against spoofs for an episode of a documentary series for Netflix: A User's Guide to Cheating Death.

He undertook as well to test a variety of diets and products laying claim to purge pollutants and poisons from our sorely tested bodies. Ionic foot baths, magnetic therapy, sweating in an infrared sauna, beer detox 'tea toxing' and detox trampolining (rooted in the fantasy that bouncing can release stored poisons and debris from human body systems).

Post-holiday celebrants who feel they have overindulged often look to commercial detoxes and cleanses to make themselves feel psychologically less guilty and physically less bilious. "Detox your way to a brand new you", seems to attract the gullible who want to believe that flushing and purifying will help restore body balance bent out of whack by flinging moderation to the winds and indulging without restraint at the sight of so many tempting holiday comestibles.

Detox purveyors are not quite precise in naming toxins or chemicals that must be removed to make our bodies wholesome and healthy. Authors of a 2015 study published in The Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics observed the nebulous nature of the promises inherent in detoxing "or the mechanism by which they eliminate them, making it difficult to investigate their claims".

Medicine qualifies toxins as drugs and alcohol and in the medical community to "detox" relates to abstaining from both alcohol and drugs until such time as the bloodstream shows clear of them thanks to the hard work of our internal organs designed to eliminate their presence. In the detox industry, however, the terms 'detox' and 'toxins' represent a dread condition and a threat to be addressed to become hale, comely and energetic.

As for exposure to chemicals; they are everywhere around us, both natural and laboratory-made. In the United States alone, some two thousand new chemicals make their way into foods and consumer products on an annual basis, according to Hosen Kiat and Alice Klein of Macquarie University. If we really want to do something positive for ourselves we would be well advised to avoid as much as possible foods that have been adulterated, by focusing on whole foods and eschewing the processed.