According to the body burden study of the Environmental Working Group, our children are born with over 200 foreign chemicals in their body from the toxins that we take in. Obviously this is becoming a pandemic issue where children are literally born toxic. It stands to reason that all of these toxins in our system are likely affecting our health.
So what do we do about it?
If you are into complimentary alternative medicine, the Textbook of Functional Medicine has an entire chapter dedicated to the topic of helping the body clear toxins out of the body. The takeaway message from the textbook is that your liver processes the toxins in your system and should be working as well as possible in order for you to detoxify properly. A suggested way to help the process of detoxification is to go through a 10 or 28 day metabolic detoxification program where you modify your diet to cut out many of the toxic-contributing nutrients. During this program, supplement your diet with nutrients that are formulated specifically to support and balance your liver function while providing the low-allergen potential macronutrients that your body would need to power the detoxification process.
Does it work?
Well there is still a lot of debate. However, there are a few published studies out there that point to a clinical benefit. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9359760&dopt=AbstractPlus
Overall, I am a great fan of detoxification and go through the ten day detox program, with the medical food that was used in the above study at least twice per year.
TAGS: Detoxification, functional medicine, IFM, body burden, medical food, environmental working group, liver, 10 day detox, 28 day detoxification
Filed under: Detoxification, Metagenics
