Detoxification (Detox)

The terms Detoxification or Detox, in the naturopathic sense, are not just vague buzzwords. They refer to a set of vitally important health-promoting procedures.

The term(s) Detox or Detoxification are widely used but perhaps little understood. First, one should understand what is toxicity, why is it bad and then what can we do about it (Detox or Detoxification).

What is toxicity?

Toxicity occurs both externally and internally. We can acquire toxins from our environment by breathing them, by ingesting them, or through physical contact with them. We all are exposed to toxins daily.

Externally acquired toxicity in the body is more widespread than ever before. There are many new chemicals present in the air, water and food chain. We ingest new chemicals, use more drugs of all kinds, eat more sugar and refined foods, and daily abuse our bodies with stimulants and sedatives. The incidence of many diseases resulting from environmental toxins has also increased, principal among them, Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease, Arthritis, allergies, obesity, and many skin problems. This concept, ridiculed, for decades is now receiving its rightful recognityion. In addition, a wide range of symptoms, such as headaches, fatigue, pains, coughs, digestion and intestinal issues, and problems from immune system weakness, can all be related to toxicity.

Internally, our body produces toxins through its normal everyday functions. Biochemical, cellular, and bodily activities generate substances that need to be eliminated. Free radicals are biochemical toxins. When these substances/molecules/toxins are not eliminated, they can cause irritation or inflammation of the cells and tissues, blocking normal functions on a cellular, organ, and whole-body level. Microbes of all kinds--intestinal bacteria, foreign bacteria, yeasts, and parasites, produce metabolic waste products that we must handle. Elimination of these toxins is essential to health. Clearly, a normal functioning body evolved to handle certain levels of toxins; the concern is with excess intake or production of toxins or a reduction in the processes of elimination.

What is a toxin?

A toxin is basically any substance that creates irritating and/or harmful effects in the body, undermining our health or stressing our biochemical or organ functions. This may result from drugs that have side effects, or from patterns of physiology that are different from our usual functioning. Recreational drugs also usually have harmful effects. The free radicals irritate, inflame, age, and cause degeneration of body tissues. Chronic inflammation is now being recognized as a cancer initiator. Other materials picked up from the environment, i.e. air, water, food (additives, pesticides or other pollutants), disrupt normal body chemistry by introducing molecules and chemical species that deform the intricate shapes of proteins (see below), enzymes and hormones.

Detox or detoxification clears and filters toxins and wastes and allows our body to work on enhancing its basic functions.

What can you do about toxicity?

At Stop the Clock Clinic (serving Mississauga, Oakville, Etobicoke and West Toronto) we offer a wide range of holistic (natural) alternative detoxification methods.

What is a Protein?

Wikipedia presents the following description of proteins.

Proteins (also known as polypeptides) are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and folded into a globular form.

Like other biological macromolecules such as polysaccharides and nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), proteins are essential parts of organisms and participate in virtually every process within cells. Many proteins are enzymes that catalyze biochemical reactions and are vital to metabolism. Proteins also have structural or mechanical functions, such as actin and myosin in muscle and the proteins in the cytoskeleton, which form a system of scaffolding that maintains cell shape. Other proteins are important in cell signaling, immune responses, cell adhesion, and the cell cycle. Proteins are also necessary in animals' diets, since animals cannot synthesize all the amino acids they need and must obtain essential amino acids from food. Through the process of digestion animals break down ingested protein into free amino acids that are then used in metabolism.

So, proteins play an enormous number of roles in the processes that keep our bodies alive. Furthermore, the specific function of each protein is dictated by its shape. Protein receptors are like a “lock” on the surface of a cell. They are looking for a “key” that fits the lock.  An example would be an insulin molecule towing a glucose molecule to a cell so that the glucose can enter the cell to be burned for energy, or stored. However, if a pollutant atom or molecule has attached itself to that receptor, its shape will be altered because of the electrical forces between the pollutant and the attachment site on the receptor. If the key no longer fits into the lock, that receptor cannot perform its function i.e., transport the glucose into the cell. The receptor has become insensitive.

Detoxification (detox) procedures encourage the release of the polluting atoms or molecules to restore the function to the cell. Detoxification can release many of the pollutants into the blood stream and it is essential to eliminate them from the body as quickly as possible to prevent them from re-attaching in another location.

The lock and key example used above does not convey the actual complexity of the shape of the lock and key. The following images show the true 3D complexity of these folded linear chains called proteins.

The first two pictures are of hemoglobin. The second picture omits some of the detail to permit a demonstration of how the shape changes in a normal transition.

When a pollutant attaches to these complex shapes, deforming the shape, they lose their function. The third picture is sucrose-specific porin. Porins cross cellular membranes and act as a pore through which specific materials are transported into the cell.

This is why Detoxification or Detox, to make your body release the toxic atoms or moelecules, is important for health. It is not just a vague buzzword, it is an important health-promoting procedure.