A lot of detox products are pretty misleading, and while “detox” might be a marketing term, there are some ways that you can support your systems of elimination for optimal function.
In this episode, we will discuss the difference between a cleanse and detoxification, learn about the five systems of elimination, know the reasons to do a detoxification program, the appropriate testing of environmental toxins & heavy metals, appropriate ways to medically detoxify a person of environmental toxins, and learn some ways that our body is naturally doing a gentle cleansing and detoxing. We will discuss the importance of having consistent bowel movements and healthy levels of kidney and liver function before considering doing an actual detoxification program, and it is best to be medically monitored by a doctor who is trained appropriately to perform detoxification programs. If you want to learn more about how we can help you detoxify if you suspect environmental exposure to chemicals, schedule a Free 15 15-minute phone consultation.
Podcast 40 Transcript
Welcome to Physician Heal Thyself, the podcast empowering you to take a whole-person approach to your well-being, spirit, soul, and body. Join me your host, Dr. Ana Lara, a naturopathic doctor, entrepreneur, and a servant of Jesus Christ. We are not just a body. We are spirit and soul. It’s time to integrate medicine and spirituality into our healing. Let’s get started. Welcome back to Physician Heal Thyself, the podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Ana Lara. Today we’re going to talk about a topic. Are detoxes a scam? Some of them are unless you’re doing this. This is a conversation that you definitely want to listen to because we’re going to break down what is a detox and when do you use them and how? There are all these questions and there’s a lot of marketing gimmicks out there where they’re selling you these detox programs. I always tell people to be very cautious when you’re going to do a detox.
Chances are you really don’t know what you’re doing and you can end up in a serious problem. So there are a lot of detox products out there that, like I said, they’re very misleading. Detox is like a marketing term now, especially when the new year comes, everyone’s doing a detox. So, there are some ways that you can’t support the systems of elimination for optimal function. We’re going to talk about what those systems of elimination are. But first, let’s start with some definitions I want to review. There are two terms that I want to explain and explain the difference between what they are and when to use them. So the first one is duration, which is a process of cleansing and purifying. This process helps to promote the elimination process of the organs by getting rid of any waste products.
There’s a difference between a cleanse and a detox, and we’re going to talk about how Detoxification is a metabolic process in which we’re trying to aim for eliminating toxins, which will help reduce the toxic burden in the body. What kind of toxins are we talking about we’re going to discuss in this episode as well. So like I said, there is a difference between a cleanse and a detox of an effective detoxification process. What we want to talk about is first of all introduce the systems of elimination. In naturopathic medicine, we call them E monies. They’re organs that help to eliminate waste. I’ll discuss five of them, but there’s actually an extra one. The liver is a huge organ that helps to metabolize toxins and other substances that we consume to get them out of the body.
The kidney is another organ that helps to filter the blood to remove toxins and any waste products. In the way it does it, the kidneys will excrete toxins through urine. The other, some people will say the digestive system. Well, the digestive system does include the liver and the pancreas and the spleen and all the small large intestines, but specifically, the colon eliminates toxins and food waste by regular bowel movements. You want to make sure that you’re having regular bowel movements to help properly detoxify the lungs. The lungs help to remove carbon dioxide from the body, which is a waste product, and it helps to oxygenate our blood. Now the skin, while the skin is a protective organ of toxic substances from coming out, unfortunately, a lot of people put toxins on their skin. This is going to help eliminate toxins by helping us eliminate waste through the metabolic process of sweating, which is why exercise is so important.
In women, the uterus is an organ that also will sludge off waste that’s built up in a woman’s body. So every month, when there’s a regular monthly cycle, a regular monthly period, they’re going to remove the endometrial layer that tends to build up some toxins and it’ll shed, and that also creates detoxification for women. Think about that. Women on birth control, and I’m going to do an episode on that in the future on birth control, but we want to talk about, think about women who are not menstruating on a regular basis monthly. That’s a huge problem. So what is the purpose of a detox? You want to identify why we are doing a detox? Do you know what you’re detoxifying for? No, most of the time what people are alluding to is actually a cleanse.
The cleanse is going to prepare those systems of elimination to be able to eliminate waste properly. I want you to know this: we always have a natural detox process in our body when we sleep. I know I’ve talked about the importance of sleep and other episodes and we’re going to talk about again today. We want to make sure that we understand why are we detoxifying? The purpose is to remove toxic chemicals like heavy metals or BPAs or anything that might be found in the body. In order to know if there’s a need for proper detoxification, we first need to test what is it we’re eliminating. Because the reality is that if you have high levels of mercury, you want to be tested. There are tests that we do pre and post-chelation, meaning we are giving you a medication that’s going to bring out more of these metals up to the blood to see how high is it when we provoke the body to release these toxins.
My disclosure is that we all have some level of metals and chemicals in our bodies. That’s usually not a problem. It’s when it’s causing illness and disruption of our systems. That’s when it’s a problem. We do a pre and post-test to check heavy metals and it gives us a before and after giving that medication to see you are high. An example would be if you have high levels of lead and mercury or cm, your little detox program that you got from some multi-marketing company or on the internet is not going to work. It’s actually going to make you sicker because if your kidneys and your liver and your colon are and your lungs and skin are not able to eliminate waste properly when you pull up these toxins up to the surface and they’re circulating in your blood, it’s going to make you feel very, very sick.
So you want to understand what it is? What is the purpose of what you’re trying to do with these herbs and supplements that are packaged together really nice and fancy for you to go do a detox? What are we detoxing? If it’s a heavy metal, these little products that you’re getting over at the stores or from someone else will not be sufficient. They’re not going to be sufficient to pull the lead and mercury. You want to make sure you’re pooping. If the person is not having consistent bowel movements and you do a detox, how are you pulling the toxins out if you can’t poop? Because all of that waste has to come out of your stool. You understand? So, if you have constipation, you cannot detox; you first need to do a cleanse, and you need to do things that are going to promote having healthy bowel movements and consistent bowel movements.
When you do a detoxification program, you’re binding those toxins and you’re pushing them out and it’s going out through the stool. A lot of the waste comes out through our stool. So if you have a history of constipation, you might want to get that checked out because you’re literally maintaining a lot of toxins. This is why people who have a chronic history of constipation have a higher risk of developing colon cancer. You want to make sure you’re having regular bowel movements, right? So, like I said, you need to know what you are eliminating. What is it you’re trying to remove? You might look at this stuff on the internet; a lot of people are turning to the internet for information, and there’s a good thing and a bad thing behind that. The good thing is you’re educating yourself, but you’re not properly trained to understand the whole body and how it functions.
So you’re probably thinking, well, what does this lady know about detoxification? Well, actually, as a naturopathic doctor, we have a whole course on environmental medicine and understanding all these toxic chemicals, heavy metals, where the sources, where they’re found, how we get exposed, how do we test, how do we safely, first of all, safely remove them and effectively remove them to the point that the person’s not symptomatic anymore. We need to know the purpose of a detox. The liver and kidneys need to be healthy to officially do a detox, not a cleanse. Most of you have done a cleanse, but if you’re going to do a detox where you’re binding metals and you’re binding these high chemical toxins, those kidneys and liver better be optimal because if you have kidney disease, you need to listen, you need to be very careful about detoxification because if your kidneys are not functioning optimal and you go try to pull more toxins to push him out through those kidneys, it will cause more kidney damage.
It would be pointless for you to do that. There are ways to gently, slowly, and safely remove toxins, but you first got to help the kidney. So if someone comes to me and their EGFR, their kidney function rate is at a 30, we’re not going to do detoxing. I’m going to help your body to, we’re going to do the diet and we’re going to look at the nutrition part of it. We’re going to look at sleep, we’re going to look at exercise, and what are the things we could do to support the whole person, but specifically this organ to bring it to higher optimal levels. And then if we see that there are metals and other things that are affecting the kidney function, then we can safely, slowly and gently start to detoxify that person. But we have to prepare the body by supporting those five systems of elimination in people.
Otherwise, if your liver kidney are not functional, like let’s say your liver enzymes are super high, it is not a good time to do a detox. If you’re just doing a detox on your own without knowing what these values are, like I said, it’ll make you sicker and it could lead to damage to these organs and life-threatening conditions. That’s my caution to you. Before you do the detox, you really want to prepare the body and also test for these toxins. You want to know what you’re trying to get rid of because there are different detox programs or different compounds that will help to remove those toxins or heavy metals. If I’m trying to remove plastics from the body, first of all, I need to talk to the person about removing those from their lifestyle. Very different chemicals are very different than heavy metals.
I want to make sure you understand that. Do not try to do a heavy metal detox on your own unless you want to take the risk of ending your life sooner than you should. Seriously, I’ve had people come to me; they’re buying these products online, which should be illegal for them to have access to only a prescriber. A physician should have access to these things and they’re doing these chelations on their own and then they end up, excuse my language, screwing themselves over and they end up worse than they were before. Then we got to clean all that up. Get someone who’s properly trained to do a detoxification program with you, and that includes that. If you have a history of drug abuse and you’ve had certain exposures to certain things, there needs to be a preparation for that, right? So don’t buy something from the store online or multilevel marketing from your friend who’s selling these items thinking that you’re doing a detoxification. It’s probably a cleanse. If you’re doing a gentle cleanse, that’s okay. And you can do that in many different ways.
There are many types of detoxes, and as I said, you really want to know what it is that you’re targeting. Because with some of these substances, heavy metals, we’re having to use chelators, which are binders. They’re strong binders that will take the metal and it’s being processed. A lot of it’s processed through the kidneys, some through the liver, and they’re being dumped into the gut. So it’s the small intestine into the large intestine out through the stool, they bind and they’re removed through the stool. Oftentimes, people will tell me ever since I started doing the detox, I have a weird smell. I’m like, yeah, it’s the binder. You need to make sure you’re drinking a lot of water. The thing with these binders is that they take metals, so they also remove your mineral content. And so then we as practitioners know safely how to chelate.
You’re not chelating for an ongoing 30 days. We’re cycling them on and off. We test people to see how much have we been able to remove? Where’s the kidney function liver function, is it still good so we can proceed? Then, instruct people like you to make sure you remineralize yourself because you will end up dehydrated. So I want to talk about some of the natural and safe ways that most people can do this. It’s not going to be a shocker, guys. It’s nothing new that I haven’t said on other podcasts is just now bringing it into this conversation. But hydration, assuming that kidney function is good for you, hydration is going to be very important because you want to make sure that you’re drinking plenty of water as you’re detoxing or even as a cleanse because it’s going to flush these toxins out if you’re doing a cleanse, but you’re not drinking enough water, it’s just going to sit in your body.
So what’s the point? You need to make sure you’re hydrating to support these organs of elimination and flush some toxins out the diet. We’re never going to walk away from diet and you can call it nutrition. I’m not talking about doing some fad diet. Eat healthy, eat whole foods and nutrient-dense foods, foods with fiber, we need fiber because fiber is what pulls those toxins out and helps eliminate them and remove them. Also, fiber is great for someone who has excessive estrogen levels. Fiber will bind excess estrogen and take it out through the stool so you can get the fiber from your vegetables, just eat the food. You don’t have to supplement with something unless you really need it. Your food and whole foods are going to have antioxidants and healthy fats that will help support liver function.
Your liver is a huge part of the detoxification process. So many leafy green vegetables and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and kale are always great options. If you’re going to do fruits, berries are great. The other thing that as part of the cleansing process of helping these organs is exercise. When we’re moving our body is the blood flow is just circulation is increased, right? Your lymphatic system, which is part of that process too, is increasing and it’s flushing toxins out. It’s promoting sweating. Your body is removing waste through your sweat and we’re exhaling. So we’re removing toxins through that. Do you know, by the way, I might’ve said in a previous episode that the number one way that we eliminate when we lose fat, that the way that the body eliminates is through exhalation? It’s mind boggling like you think it’s going to come out some other way, but it’s in our exhalation.
That means you got to move your body and exercise to promote that, to eliminate that kind of waste byproduct right from you. You want to make sure you’re exercising, it’s going to support all your organs and your brain. It’ll love it. Sleep. Okay? I mentioned earlier the importance of sleep when you’re cleansing and detoxifying, but we naturally detoxify every night when we sleep. So when we’re sleeping, your body does a lot of the detox work. When you’re sleeping, it’s going to reset the body, it’s going to repair damaged tissue, it’s going to regenerate during this time because when we’re sleeping, we’re preserving energy because we’re just laying there. But it’s preserving energy, using that energy to do this natural, gentle detox every night. So it’s important to sleep well. There’s also been a lot of studies that show what is doing to the brain.
There’s something called the glymphatic system. It’s ggl cells and the lymphatic system in the brain and how it helps to remove toxins from the brain and move it out. Since we’re here, I want to talk about the importance of real brain health because these toxins and heavy metals, oftentimes people are being effective cognitively because it’s made it to the brain. And so when we’re doing these heavy metal detoxes, we have to remove that safely and people will feel effects to the brain initially, not in a good way, but then they start to feel better. And people with high levels of lead and mercury, other heavy metals, they feel like they’re having a psychotic breakdown. There’s something wrong with them, and these heavy metals are circulating in their brain and nervous system. The other way that you can naturally safely detoxify or promote the cleansing processes to avoid the toxins in general, make sure that you’re eliminating cleaning products and beauty products that have these ingredients and processed foods that have them.
So I did a previous episode on this. You want to check that out because these environmental toxins are detrimental to our health. One of the things with detoxing is some other things that we could do with detoxing or in cleansing. Let’s stick to cleansing. So what are some things you can do naturally to do in addition to whatever cleanse you’re doing, whether it’s a combination of supplements or herbs? Some of the things that I encourage is really exercise because you’re going to flush out those toxins. But there are things like sauna therapy, especially if it’s an infrared sauna therapy. We know that infrared light will blast the fat cells in people and eliminate toxins. A lot of a toxic burden is in our fat cells and it’ll help us to sweat that out more. But you want to make sure you’re hydrating.
If you have kidney issues, you want to be careful how long you’re in there, just listen to your body. But saunas are a great way to cleanse to get those organs to work and function more optimal. We do a lot of hydrotherapy as naturopathic doctors. Hydrotherapy is a many different technique, but it is the use of hot and cold water as therapies, whether it’s a cold plunge or the sauna. But there’s many other ways to do that. There’s things like hyperbaric chambers that can help also colonics, especially if you have a history of constipation, right? If you have a family history, personal history of colon cancer, this is it. You got to keep that colon clean. I remember sitting through medical school, and they explained the colon, right? How the whole digestive system, and when we eat and food goes through the small intestine, it’s pulling out all the nutrients.
Then the food makes it to the large intestine and out into the colon. And when it’s in the colon, it wants to get out the rectum, it’s going to signal to come out, the stool to come out. But if you don’t go to the bathroom and you hold it, that stool is still sitting in the end part of the colon and it’s still extracting. What should been pushed out of the body that has waste, the body will still extract things from the stool that’s sitting there. What that’s saying is that the body is pulling out toxins that should have left your body and it’s sitting there and it keeps extracting the fluids and taking in toxins back in through the colon instead of eliminating it. This is why when people have a problem with constipation, right? It’s like a plug. It’s really hard for it to come out.
I know this is not a conversation people want to listen to, but you really should listen to it because it’s nasty sick, but it’s part of who we are. The stool stays there and it’s hard because the body has extracted any fluid that was there, including toxins back into the body instead of having to just eliminate it. This is why it’s important that you have regular bowel movements. I know people don’t like to go out to the bathroom in public. You better get over that because if you constantly are holding your stool because you’re waiting to get home to poop, you’re in for developing colon cancer. And if you’ve known anyone who has colon cancer, it’s not fun. Oftentimes, they’re having a good amount of their colon removed, and it comes along with other therapies that P’S at it’s invasive, it’s hard on the body, they don’t like it.
This is a big reason why I encourage parents to educate their kids on having a good bowel movement. Like look at your stool, your stool, your poop in the toilet. Look at it. What does it look like? It tells us, it gives us information. So when I get patients in my office and I’m asking them, how many bowel movements do you have today? What do they look like? Is it whole like a banana? Is it little pieces? Is it brown? Is it black? Is it white? That’s right. Some people have weird looking colors of their stool. Is it floating? Do you notice any mucus? Do you notice any blood in your stool? So very, very important that before you start detoxing, you got to have a bowel movement and a cleanse will help you get there. Now, of course, the whole digestive system is very important to consider when doing these cleanses and these detoxes.
But we never chelate someone that is like our oath. We never chelate someone who has constipation, who has low kidney function or the liver is not working optimal. We do not chelate those people. We need to make sure their body’s prepared. And sometimes people are so eager to get in there and remove these toxins. As a doctor, we have to tell ’em, hold on. We need to prepare you before we do that. You need to work with a professional that knows what they’re doing. That is why detoxes can be a scam. Don’t fall for the marketing if you’re not doing them right. You could do a cleansing. There’s many ways. People ask, what about juicing? That’s a good way to do a cleanse. You’re giving the digestive system a little rest and you’re giving it all these nutrients in a juice form.
But that’s not a way to live life either. You don’t want to do that for too long. Your digestive system needs to be able to break food down and metabolize it and absorb nutrients. And if the machinery stops working, then it gets in a really bad habit and then you have to do all this other work because of that. I really also want to take time to just caution people when you’re looking online and they’re like key leaders like EDTA and DMSA and DMSO, and you can buy it and chelate yourself, that’s irresponsible. If you don’t know enough about it, don’t, like I said, I’ve had my fair share of patients who’ve done this on their own and they come in sicker than when they start it. Then we have to remediate some things there.
I hope this information has helped you. There are other things you need to take into account when doing a cleanse and detox, and that’s any other medical conditions that you have. It really does matter if you have autoimmune conditions. If there’s cancer, it’s probably not a time to detoxify properly. We have to depend slowly. The cancer depends on how advanced the cancer is and so forth. You want to take into account people who have diabetes, high blood pressure, any co-infections. So, our mitochondria are a big part of the detoxification process. Our cells have mitochondria, every organ has mitochondria, and that’s where we produce energy. And if you have mitochondria dysfunction, which many of you wouldn’t know if you had it because your doctors are not going to test you for it, and there isn’t really one or two tests that will indicate that there’s mitochondria dysfunction.
If those mitochondria cells are not optimal and you’re not feeling, you don’t have enough energy to detoxify because it takes energy to detoxify, then like I said, you’re going to end up feeling worse than you’re going to feel very, very lethargic. A lot of neurological symptoms can come up. These conversations were intended to explain the difference between the cleansing and detoxification phases. If you don’t know what you’re detoxing, you can’t. So don’t fall for the scams online this is going to help you remove heavy metals. And look, I get this question I asked a lot, so I will answer it here. Does parsley and cilantro help remove heavy metals? Studies have been performed on this. While it does help to bind toxins and, to some degree, some metals, it’s not sufficient, you’d have to be doing a lot of cilantro and parsley with lemon juices, and it wouldn’t touch the surface.
You want to be careful with the things that you’re doing because if you don’t know you have high levels of lead or say mercury, what will happen is you’ll start to, it’s kind of like dusting. You start to dust and the dust gets in the air and you breathe it in and you start sneezing. In the body, when you start doing a metabolic detox process, it brings up some of the waste up into the blood system. That’s why people have reactions. They have headaches and they feel tired, and they feel like almost flu-like symptoms because they dusted the cells enough to this waste to come to the surface. Then the body’s like, Hey, we got something foreign here. The immune system gets involved, and that’s why some people can even spike a fever when they’re cleansing and detoxing because this waste is in the body now, if we don’t have something effectively to bind it and remove it from the body, or if you have constipation, you’re not sweating, some people are not sweating enough, and so then it’ll just stay in the body.
You dust it, but the waist still stays inside of you. Hey, I hope you’ve enjoyed this conversation on detoxing and cleansing. This episode is just for educational purposes. I don’t your medical history. I’m not intending to treat you. You need to speak with a specialist. If you want to know how to test for these things and do a proper detoxification program, you can reach my office, go online, and schedule a free 15-minute consultation. I hope this information has been helpful to you. Please make sure you like this information and share it with someone. And until next time, be blessed. Thank you for listening to Physician Heal Thyself, the podcast. If you like what you’ve heard, please like, share, and subscribe, help this message, and reach more people who may need to hear it. Leave your comments. I want to know what you think. If you’re interested in learning more about Raices, visit our website. Until next time, be blessed.