Naperville Integrated Wellness
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Functional Medicine Health Pyramid: Detoxification #2
WHAT IS DETOXIFICATION?
Basically, detoxification means cleansing the blood from impurities. A great deal of this removal of toxins occurs in the liver. The liver processes things in the blood via different phases of detoxification, which allows the toxins to be released from the body. The body also eliminates toxins with the assistance of the kidneys, intestines, lungs, lymphatic system, and skin.
If you looked at the Functional Medicine Health Pyramid you may have noticed that detoxification is the 2nd level of the functional medicine health pyramid. What this means is that detoxification is a significant fundamental step toward addressing the levels above it, namely levels 3-10. But there is 1 level below this step. The 1st level of this pyramid is the digestive tract and nutrition. You might ask, why would gut health and nutrients come before detoxification? The reasons are summed up below.
#1 Your body is constantly being exposed to toxins; some of these come from the environment and the rest are originating inside your own body.
#2 everything that gets absorbed from the digestive tract passes through the liver so it can be “cleaned” before going to the rest of your body. Your liver is the main organ of detoxification in your body.
#3 If you want to help your liver effectively detoxify your body, you can’t keep loading it with large amounts of toxins from the digestive tract.
WHEN SHOULD YOU DETOX?
Detoxing is not something you do for a week or two and then forget about it. Your body needs to be able to effectively detoxify itself every minute of every day. Doing an occasional detox would be like going to the gym occasionally. Will you get a better result if you went to the gym 3x/week or if you went twice in a year? The same applies to detoxifying your body. A functional medicine doctor who understands how the body works, understands this concept and would not only support your liver so it can detoxify your body, but fix your gut so that the burden placed on the liver is reduced significantly.
What are the benefits of detoxification:
- Reduce external toxin sources: this would include reducing your intake of foods laden with herbicides and pesticides, reduce/eliminate GMO foods, not using toxic chemicals in your home, don’t use toxic products on your body, don’t use toxic cleaning chemicals and reduce toxin sources such as mold.
- Fix your gut health: get your digestion problems fixed. If you don’t know how to do this, contact a functional medicine doctor in your area. For more information on your gut see my blog “Functional Medicine Health Pyramid #1 Digestion” and the other numerous blogs I have written about digestive health.
- Nutrients required for detoxification: the next piece of the detoxification puzzle is to make sure your liver has the nutrients it needs to take toxins and convert them into safe chemicals that can now be eliminated from your body. Nutrients are any vitamin, mineral, amino acids, etc. that your body MUST HAVE in order to function properly. Your brain, heart, kidney and yes, your liver all have specific nutrient demands if you want them to work properly. If you want to know more about the liver and the nutrients it needs, see my blog “Do you need to detox?”
Reasons to Detox…
Then answer? Today…tomorrow and every day for the rest of your life.
There is nothing wrong with doing a short detox program, but if you don’t change the conditions (1-3 above); then you only become toxic again and again…you will spend most of your life burdened with toxins. Detoxification is like scrubbing the inside of your body clean. How often should your brush your teeth or take a shower? These activities are scrubbing the outside and visible parts of your body clean. How often should you be supporting the scrubbing clean the inside of your body?
HOW TO DETOX…
Key steps for an effective detoxification process include the following. You must first start by removing the burden on the body and the liver. This begins with identifying and addressing the foods and substances that are causing the problem in the first place. Other considerations may include assessing and treating any problems with the digestive system. Another important consideration is optimizing functioning of the organs of elimination. This includes the liver, kidneys, lungs, intestines and skin.
How does functional medicine help you to detoxify?
For starters, just by fixing digestion and dietary problems you instantly take toxic stress off the liver, and you become less toxic. A good functional medicine doctor will not only help you to do this, he or she will address the liver and other organs of elimination and gut at the same time. It is important to note that if you neglect your digestive health, in favor of some sort of ‘liver cleanse’ you are fighting a losing battle against toxic overload and you will not get the results you are striving for.
Detoxing Safely
I highly recommend that you seek a qualified health professional to guide you through a healthy detoxification protocol. A qualified physician will consider your present health status and make appropriate recommendations on what would be a safe and effective plan to restore your health.
Find a functional medicine doctor near Plainfield, Warrenville, Lisle, Chicago, Orland Park, Frankfort, Aurora and other surrounding areas. Contact our office today!
You can’t avoid all of the toxins in the environment, but you do have the power to reduce that toxic load, fix your gut and support your liver…that is the most anyone can do on this planet right now.
Next week I will cover the importance of Blood Sugar management and how it can prevent you from reclaiming your health.
I wish you health, happiness and a better quality of life!
If you would like more information about functional medicine and integrative medicine or Dr. Borkowski, go to napervilleintegratedwellness.com
Do your own research, inform yourself and ask lots of questions. When collecting information, you MUST consider the source. There is no shortage of false, misleading, outdated, profit-driven and utterly biased information in healthcare today; even from the most respected sources and organizations.
This approach to healthcare is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease. Why? The FDA enforces its position that these words can only be used with drugs. This approach does not use drugs.