Detoxification 
[ Getting rid of body toxins ]
By Walter Sorochan Emeritus Professor San Diego State University

Posted December 15, 2011 updated October 18, 2021.  Disclaimer  The information presented here is for informative and educational purposes only and is not intended as curative or prescriptive advice.  

We now live in a very much different world compared to 1950.  Before 1950, humans were exposed to only a handful of poisonous wastes and toxins, making it easy for the human body to naturally detoxify the toxins from the body.  But in today's 21st century we are surrounded by plastics, industrial wastes, agricultural chemicals, medical prescriptions and processed-junk foods.  Pollution  Pandemic environmental pollution   Our polluted environment and lifestyle puts a big burden on our body, causing many health problems:  Davidson article no longer active.

Lymph symptoms

The body’s lymph system is probably one of the most under-studied, least understood, and most ignored system in the body. When you are feeling fine, your lymph system just gets pushed to the wayside.

One can make a strong argument that one of the essentials of staying healthy in today's world is knowing how to help your body to get rid of toxins in a natural way.  Detoxification is just as important as eating a good diet, exercising and practicing good health habits. This article explores the process of detoxification and ways of helping the body detoxify in a regular and natural manner.

The Lymphatic System By John Thomas:  Length 2:41 mns.

Source: Thomas: Lymphatic system

"A peak functioning lymphatic system is key to health and vitality, but this critically important part of the body is one that most people don’t appreciate or know much about. Your lymphatic system is your body’s built-in sanitation center, the plumbing that carries away and filters out poisonous waste products from every cell, tissue and organ. It absorbs fats and fat-soluble vitamins from the digestive tract and delivers them to the cells of the body. It is also an essential part of the immune system that maintains fluid levels, fights infection and produces disease fighting white blood cells. Twice as extensive as the arterial blood supply system which brings oxygen and nutrients to the cells, the lymph is the take away garbage collector and is the largest circulatory system in the body. But, the lymphatic system needs your help to move the fluid through the body because it doesn’t have an automatic pump like the heart, which moves the blood in the circulatory system" Davidson article no longer active.

Some readers may be skeptical that humans today have toxins in what appears to be a healthy body.  Viewing NBC news video below show provides evidence that you carry a lot of poisons. The short video summarizes the chemical toxicity in our bodies: [ 2.21 mns long ]


 Source: Video: Body Pollution, Chemical Toxicity

Toxic substances are everywhere. The body is not only exposed to toxic chemicals in the environment, but also to toxins produced by the body. 

We call the process of eliminating toxins, "detoxication" or "detoxification," which is the opposite of "intoxication." Different tissues detoxify in varying ways:

  • Lungs can detoxify by removing gases (gas anesthetics are removed from the body by the lungs).

  • Skin can detoxify by reducing the penetration of toxic substances [ toxins in water don't get in through the skin well; however, toxins in oils do penetrate easily ].

  •  Digestive System can detoxify by eliminating toxic foods, by either vomiting or diarrhea.
  •  
  • Kidneys detoxify by secreting toxins or filtering toxins out of the blood into urine.

  • Liver detoxifies by changing the chemical nature of many toxins.

Natural Detox --- How?   Mother nature has its own built-in bio-chemical process of getting rid of body made-toxins in our bodies.  Humans are born with a natural immune-detoxification system. Liska article no longer active.

free-radicals Our immune system is part of our body's need to get rid of wastes. Oxidants are waste products formed when oxygen is used to metabolize food and make energy. These oxidants are also referred to as free radicals because they are very unstable and circulate in the body looking to attach to body cells, in an effort to stabilize; which they do.

An excess of free radicals can interfere with normal body processes, such as disrupting our protection system, the immune system.  To avoid free radical build up, babies are born with the antioxidant ability to fight and get rid of free radicals. Sorochan: glisodin natural body detoxifier  These early life antioxidants are referred to as Superoxide Dismutase or SOD. Sorochan: glisodin natural body detoxifier

SOD is made at birth but the synthesis process rapidly decreases with age. Excellent Background info | SOD and aging  The baby's body starts pumping SOD into its system in the first few hours of baby life. It’s absolutely necessary for survival. Unfortunately, this capability to synthesize SOD dissipates early in life, so that as we grow older we have less and less ability to synthesize SOD.

SOD is the first line of defense against the free radical substance called superoxide. In absence of the first defensive line of SOD, we also have a backup system of getting antioxidants from eating foods rich in SOD, like broccoli, cabbage, greens, ground flax seed, melons and fruits. Unfortunately, foods provide such a weak second line of defense against free radicals that free radicals can over accumulate and disrupt [ stress ] our immune system. The immune system is particularly compromised by smoking, pollution, over-exposure to sunlight [ UV radiation ], infection, processed foods, sugars and aging; resulting in "oxidative stress." [ a condition where more oxygen wastes or free radicals accumulate than can be removed by antioxidants from the body, causing stress on cells to survive. ]

Another simpler example of our body making waste products from the breakdown of food is alcohol.   Our own bodies produce alcohol as a part of the digestive process. Wiki: alcohol made by body  The average human digestive system produces approximately 3 grams of ethanol per day merely through fermentation of its contents. Wiki: alcohol made by body   If the alcohol is not removed from the body, we would be poisoned by it.  So the body detoxifies [ changes ] alcohol in the liver into a water soluble product that can easily be filtered out of the body by the kidney.  But your kidney can do its work as long as it has plenty of water to move the water soluble alcohol out of the kidney. This detoxification process also works in the removal of wastes resulting from body processes like the digestion of foods, the invasion of microbes, medications and ingestion of pollutants.  And your body's detox system works fairly well as long as it is not overburdened.

In addition to ensuring that you have adequate glisodin, you need to ingest adequate  iodine to have a natural ability to detoxify.  Iodine is a natural body detoxifier; providing that you have more intake than just the bare minimum to avoid goiter.  In adequate body amount, iodine will help get rid of heavy metals such as mercury, lead, bromine, fluoride, chlorine, radiation and other toxins.  Iodine is also a part of the body's natural detox system.

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables also  help to cleanse the body.

So how can you keep your body in good working order?  To start with, you do not need to engage in expensive commercial detoxification programs.  Although many detoxification programs [ detox diets colon cleansing ] have been commercialized to make money, some may be safe and may work.  You can bolster your immune system to work better by supplementing with co-factor supplements like vitamin D, magnesium and iodine; and with glisodin, a natural vegetable extract claimed to prolong life, enhance immunity, prevent diseases and protect against sunburn. Glisodin organization info   Glisodin is supposed to do for adults what Superoxide Dismutase does for babies [ help get rid of toxins ].  Sorochan: glisodin natural body detoxifier

The lymphatic system cleanses the fluid that surrounds the cells in your body by removing impurities and waste products.

You can help to cleanse your body by:

  • eating raw fresh fruits and vegetables [ fiber ]

  • drinking lots of water

  • exercising regularly
  • having good lifestyle habits [ like not smoking and not drinking excessive alcoholic beverages ]

  • Avoid exposure to toxic pollutants Woolston: how to detox your body
  •  
  • You can also eat foods rich in anti-oxidants to help get rid of free radicals.
  • Avoid exposure to bromide insecticides, fluoridated toothpaste and water, chlorine

This is a simple and safe preventive recipe and it works!   The human body has the ability to get rid of body wastes and toxins in a natural manner. Liska article no longer active.

There are plenty of ways to move lymphatic fluid right from the comfort of your home. The biggest focus for lymphatic health is on movement—any type of exercise, yoga, or stretching can be beneficial to boost your body’s natural drainage and detox capabilities. Unfortunately, most persons think of exercise as muscle building and physical fitness and not body movement.

There is the electrical vibrating movement machine that vibrates, shakes all of your body and the shaking, in turn, has muscles surrounding the lymphatic vessels contracting and squeezing the toxic fluid out into the veins and eventually into the kidneys and out as urine.

isotoniqueAnother movement process is the silent body movement referred to as isometric exercise

The illustration on the right helps to illustrate the isometric contraction procedure. There are two types of muscle contraction .... isotonic [left side ] and isometric [right side]. We are interested in the isometric contraction where the muscles contract but there is no body movement.

 One keeps the arms, legs or body still and contracts [tenses] the muscles without movement for one to three seconds and then relaxes the muscles for 15 to 30 seconds; then resume the muscle contractions again for several seconds, then relax for about 30 seconds.  Repeat this process five or more times a day to promote blood circulation, joint pain, relieve skin itchiness and also move toxins out of body areas. You may not feel any relief for 15 to 20 minutes until the toxins are moved out.  This relief usually lasts for about three hours and you then may need to repeat the isometric contractions after this time. You can do isometric exercise standing up, sitting down, lying in bed, while on an airplane and even if you are disabled in a wheelchair.  Although research on this detox approach is hard to find online, this approach works and does make sense! It is free and you do not need to go on a detox diet or take medications to move toxins out of the body.

References:

Breslin Jerome W., "Mechanical forces and lymphatic transport," Microvascular Research, Volume 96, November 2014, Pages 46-54.   Breslin: lymph transport 2014

Davidson Jay, "Activate Your Lymphatic System for Improved Drainage and Detox," Davidson article no longer active.

Liska DeAnn J., "The detoxification enzyme systems," Alternative Medicine Review, 1998, vol 3, No. 3.   Liska article no longer active.

Quicksilver Scientific, "The Human Detoxification System."  Detox system

Shade Christopher W., "Mercury and the human detoxification system," Quicksilver Scientific. September 11, 2010.   Shade: mercury detox

Sorochan Walter, "Supercharging the immunity system."  Sorochan: glisodin natural body detoxifier

Superoxide dismutase research Superoxide SOD research  Article no longer active.

U-Tube, "Body Pollution, Chemical Toxicity."  Video: Body Pollution, Chemical Toxicity

Wikipedia, "Detoxification (alternative medicine)," Wiki: detox

Wikipedia, "Ethanol metabolism."  Wiki: alcohol made by body

Alcohol is metabolized by several processes or pathways. The most common of these pathways involves two enzymes—alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). These enzymes help break apart the alcohol molecule, making it possible to eliminate it from the body. First, ADH metabolizes alcohol to acetaldehyde, a highly toxic substance and known carcinogen. Then, in a second step, acetaldehyde is further metabolized down to another, less active byproduct called acetate, which then is broken down into carbon dioxide and water for easy elimination from the kidney.  

Woolston Chris, "How to detox your body," Health, March 15, 2009.  Woolston: how to detox your body