WHY DETOX? ~by Eriq the Biochemist
How It Works
We are all designed to
continuously and naturally remove toxins from the body. There are two kinds of
toxins: water-soluble and fat-soluble. Water-soluble toxins are easily flushed
out of the body via the blood and kidneys, but the fat-soluble toxins are a
challenge for the body to remove. These fat-soluble toxins such as heavy
metals, pesticides, preservatives, food additives, pollutants, plastics and
other environmental chemicals must become water-soluble for the body to
eliminate them fully. This happens mostly in the liver, but if our digestive
and detox pathways are not functioning optimally, these toxins find their way
from the liver to the blood, fat cells, and brain, where they can store for
years, setting you up for health concerns down the road.
When we digest a meal,
the nutritional and toxic fats are shuffled through the stomach into the small
intestine where bile secreted from the liver and gallbladder emulsifies them.
In the small intestine, there are millions of small villi and lacteals, which
are little finger-like “grasses,” or mucus membranes, that sweep the gut and
help absorb nutritional fats and send the toxic fats on to the liver for
processing. If this detoxification pathway is not properly working, the
body can store the toxic fats, rather than remove them.
The Most Important ½ Inch of the Body
The very beginning of
the body’s lymphatic system is called the Gut Associated Lymphatic Tissue
(GALT), which surrounds the entire intestinal tract. This is what I call, “the
most important half inch in your body,” because it is here that lacteals help
absorb and process both nutritional and toxic fats. The ¼ inch on the inside of the gut wall must have those villi and
lacteals functioning well, and the ¼ inch on the outside of the gut (which is that lymph tissue) must
not be congested. (5-9)
The lymphatic system
around the gut will take all the absorbed fats back to the liver where the good
fats are put to use making cholesterol, cell membranes, hormones, brain cells
and skin, to name a few. The toxins are processed by the liver and earmarked
for elimination. When the lymphatic system becomes congested, this
natural process of using good fats and discarding bad fats can be severely
compromised.
Symptoms
of a Congested GALT Affecting the Lymphatic System are:
·
Elimination concerns
·
Holding extra weight
around your belly
·
Bloating
·
Skin irritations or
itching
·
Swollen hands and feet
·
Breast swelling and
tenderness during the menstrual cycle
·
Hypersensitivities
·
Occasional headaches
·
Joint stiffness
It’s All About Elimination
There are many factors
such as diet and stress that can irritate the intestinal villi and compromise
the function of the bowels. Excessive stress can cause the intestinal villi to
dry out, causing occasional constipation. A history of constipation can dry out
these villi (grass-like mucus membranes) and force them to produce a reactive
mucus. If this mucus is excessive, the stools could appear normal (1-3 regular
bowel movements a day), but you could still be unhealthy and bloated or
carrying extra belly weight. If the mucus is even more excessive, the stools
can become looser, diarrhea-like and more frequent. If you EVER see mucus in
your stool, this should be addressed right away. When this happens, the villi
become congested and bogged down in the excess mucus. This means that the
delivery of good fats, excretion of toxic fats, the normal immune response, and
the health of the intestinal skin as a barrier for toxins breaks down.
Normally, toxins that are absorbed into the lymph are neutralized by
immune-boosting white blood cells in over 500+ lymph nodes in the lymphatic
system. But if mucus is excessive, this may not happen and the toxins are
directed back to the liver. To avoid the toxins from defaulting back to the
liver, the mucus membranes of the intestinal tract cannot be too dry or too wet
– there is a delicate balance that must be achieved. Some of the other causes
for irritation that compromise the intestinal villi are stress, worry, food additives,
processed food, coffee, soft drinks and hyperacidity – to name just a few.
Where Do These Toxic Fats Go?
Optimal bile flow from
the liver is critical to our health. Bile acts similar to a Pac-Man in the
liver and intestines, where it gobbles up fats and acts as the great immune
system responder in the digestive tract. The bile will gobble up heavy metals,
parasites, pesticides, bad bacteria, and numerous other chemicals that can
cause problems. If there is plenty of fiber in the diet, the heavily
loaded bile will be taken to the toilet. If the diet is deficient in fiber, up
to 94% of the bile – along with its toxic baggage – gets reabsorbed back to the
liver to be recycled. (10) The liver can become overwhelmed because it is not
expecting the return of these toxic fat cells.
Over time, the liver
can become congested and the bile can turn thick and sludgy, making it more
difficult to break down a hamburger, fatty foods, heavy metals and other
fat-soluble toxins. Over time, the bile can become too sluggish and thick to
buffer the stomach acids that start to enter the small intestine. The acid acts
as another irritant to the villi, and thus more congestive, reactive mucus is
produced. As the bile becomes more viscous, it can also block the flow of
pancreatic enzymes into the small intestine. The pancreas shares the common
bile duct with the gallbladder, and when this flow stops or becomes sluggish,
the digestive process can be compromised.
What Happens When The Liver Becomes Overwhelmed?
When the biliary tubes
in the liver become congested with thick bile and toxins, the liver pushes the
fat-soluble toxins into the blood stream. These toxins can find their way into
the fat cells where they can store for many years and cause oxidation (free
radical damage) and degeneration. Toxins can deposit in fatty tissues all
over the body including the brain. It is becoming more common for the toxins to
become neurotoxins and deposit in the fatty tissues of the brain. These
neurotoxins may cause cognitive problems and a host of health imbalances.
