Our bodies are made to detox, essentially on autopilot. This process can more accurately be defined as “drainage.” Drainage includes the body’s automatic waste removal systems. I don’t have to tell my liver what to do, yet it acts as a filter for all the blood in my body, every three minutes, every day of my life. Other drainage organs include the kidneys, which filter water-soluble waste materials, the colon, which forms solid waste out of digested materials and liquid, the skin, which eliminates excess minerals and water, and the lungs, which eliminate gaseous waste. Let’s take a closer look at each of these organs to see how they support detoxification.
Like most things in the body, there is a well-organized “system of operations” when it comes to these drainage organs. If you picture them like a funnel, with the colon at the bottom – the end of the line – you can see how a “clog” in any particular organ backs up each organ that precedes it.
Sometimes, people jump into a rigorous detoxification program including supplements, enemas, fasting, rebounding, special diets, lymphatic massages, sauna sessions, etc. and experience uncomfortable side effects. These side effects are called “Herxheimer reactions” or Herx reactions, after the individual who first documented them, and result from pathogens and toxins “dying off” without having a way to exit the body quickly enough to keep up. So they recirculate and trigger the body’s own immune system to attack them, making the person experiencing the Herx reaction quite uncomfortable.
Herx reactions are due to a clog somewhere in a person’s drainage funnel. As shown here, a clog in the colon (constipation or slow bowel motility leading to fewer than 2-3 bowel movements a day) will not just affect the colon, but also prohibit the liver and bile ducts from operating as they should, which then impairs the lymphatic system, and so on.
The rigorous detoxification measures listed above all have a time and place, and have a long history of reversing disease in those people who truly need the extra detoxification support. But beginning by supporting your body’s natural drainage funnel, from the bottom up, will prevent the majority of detoxification side effects and make your detoxification efforts far more effective.
Colon
The colon’s primary job is to separate liquid from solid waste and move solid waste into the rectum so it can leave the body. Many factors affect how well the colon can do its job. When a person is chronically constipated, with 3 or fewer bowel movements per week, the colon of a 5 foot tall person can have nearly 25lbs of fecal matter trapped inside! This can make it harder for the colon to do absorb excess water, electrolytes, and nutrients, which perpetuates the problem.
When waste isn’t eliminated, some of it begins to recirculate through the bloodstream, leading to fatigue, weight gain, skin problems, and even autoimmune conditions. Waste simply isn’t meant to enter the bloodstream, and its presence activates the immune system when it does. It was estimated in the year 2000 that 63 million people in the United States experienced frequent constipation, which is no surprise since ‘ultra processed foods’ make up 57.9% of the average American’s diet1. Processed foods slow digestion since they are harder to break down. They don’t contain enzymes or other components that make real food easier to digest. They require a lot more liquid to be broken down and moved through the body. And after all that extra work, they don’t even provide the vitamins or minerals our organs need.
The question here isn’t “do Americans need to eat for colon health?” or not — the issue is that Americans don’t digest food and eliminate waste materials adequately, and supporting proper elimination would go a long way in improving health. That’s not detoxing, that’s just bringing your digestive system back into working order.
How can you tell if your colon is backed up?
- are you pooping less than 2 times a day?
- do you experience swelling or water retention?
- do you experience fatigue, headaches, brain fog, and trouble concentrating?
- do you wake up feeling tired?
- do you pass hard, round stools that feel as if “it didn’t all get out”?
Compare your stools for a week to the Bristol stool chart – you want to consistently see Type 4, at least once a day.
Liver, Bile Ducts, and Gallbladder
Two common misconceptions about the liver are that it is our body’s only detoxing organ, and that all it does is remove waste from the blood. In reality, the liver performs over 500 vital functions! Detoxification is only a small part of the liver’s job. So what exactly does the liver do for detoxification? It receives fat-soluble waste products (or toxins) and breaks them down into water-soluble waste materials, which are ready to excrete. The job of excreting them falls to other organs in the body.
This is a two-part process we call Phase 1 and Phase 2 liver detoxification. For each phase, certain nutrients are required. Phase 1 requires the following nutrients to turn fat-soluble toxins into “less fat-soluble” waste:
- riboflavin (vitamin B2)
- niacin (vitamin B3)
- pyridoxine (vitamin B6)
- folic acid
- vitamin B12
- glutathione
- branched-chain amino acids
- flavonoids
- phospholipids
After making their way through Phase 1, waste materials are somewhat less fat-soluble, and are very reactive, meaning we need more nutrients to stabilize them and keep them from causing damage to the body. During this intermediary stage, more nutrients are required:
- carotenes, like vitamin A
- coenzyme Q10
- ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
- thiols
- tocopherols
- selenium
- copper
- bioflavanoids
- zinc
- silymarin
- manganese
- pycnogenol
Now the waste materials move into Phase 2 liver detoxification. At the end of this phase, waste materials will be water-soluble and move on to other organs (kidneys, skin, and colon) for removal. For Phase 2 liver detoxification to occur properly, we need:
- N-acetylcysteine (NAC)
- glycine
- taurine
- glutamine
- cysteine
- methionine
So while the liver does perform its job without our conscious effort, if we do not provide our bodies with plenty of nutrient-dense foods, and keep our digestive system working properly to break down and utilize the nutrients we ingest, the liver cannot be 100% effective at its job. We can see the results of this in the rising numbers of young people with non-alcoholic fatty liver, and congested liver with bile “sludge” present. The typical American diet simply does not provide our organs with what they need to stay in top shape for a lifetime.
When the liver is congested or bile flow is not adequate, symptoms will manifest in the skin, kidneys, and lungs. For example, chronic rashes and allergies are two big signs that a person’s liver needs extra support! The lymphatic system, the next layer in our drainage funnel, will also be unable to function properly, since the liver is responsible for producing up to 50% of our bodies’ total lymphatic fluid.
While the gallbladder isn’t truly a detoxification organ, it works closely with the liver to support its function. The gallbladder is part of the biliary system, which is responsible for producing, storing, and secreting bile. The liver and gallbladder work together to make up the biliary system. The bile they produce and transport helps your body digest the fats you eat. Between meals, bile is not used and needs to be stored, so it remains in the gallbladder until you eat again.
When the gallbladder becomes inflamed or a gallstone blocks the ducts where only bile should flow, intense pain can result and often leads to the removal of the gallbladder. Because gallbladder removal is a fairly safe procedure and a person can live without a gallbladder, many people have their gallbladder removed when problems with it arise.
However, without the gallbladder to store bile, bile flows nonstop into the small intestine. This can make digesting some foods more difficult, especially foods that contain fat. Some advise limiting fat intake to less than 3g at a time! This can make enjoying healthy foods very difficult, so making diet and lifestyle changes ahead of time to avoid the need for gallbladder removal is ideal. For someone who has already had their gallbladder removed, absorption of nutrients can be hindered as well, so added measures like taking digestive enzymes with meals and bile salts daily are beneficial.
Kidneys
Our kidneys are also working full-time to filter water-soluble waste and balance the composition of body fluids, as well as to release hormones, including a form of vitamin D. It is estimated that kidneys filter about 200 quarts of fluid every 24 hours2.
To function properly, kidneys need vitamin C, B vitamins, sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Magnesium deficiency, an overconsumption of animal protein, inadequate water intake, and B vitamin deficiencies can cause stones to form in the kidneys, meaning they aren’t functioning optimally anymore. Drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen, Advil, and Motrin can damage the kidneys and eventually cause kidney failure. Paying attention to what you eat to get the vitamins and minerals you need, and minimizing your use of over the counter or prescription pain relief are vital components of kidney health.
Another dietary factor to note for kidney health is that a salt (sodium)-free diet interferes with the potassium-sodium exchange regulated by the kidneys. Salt is a necessary component of liver, kidney, heart, and adrenal gland function. To keep your kidneys operating well, salt your food to taste and don’t be afraid to eat salty foods!
Herbs like milk thistle, marshmallow root, parsley, gynostemma, beetroot, and ginger are especially helpful to protecting kidney tissue and optimizing kidney function.
Lungs
Our lungs detoxify our bodies constantly as well. The lungs remove gaseous waste (CO2) and filter pollution, smoke, airborne pathogens, pollen, and mold spores that we breathe in every day. Each day, the average person inhales and exhales about 11,000 liters of air!
The lungs have natural mechanisms for preventing small particles from entering the bloodstream through the air we breathe, like cilia (small hairs) and intricate tunnel-like tubes that get progressively smaller the further they go into the lungs. While the lungs’ first job is filter what comes in and prevent it from causing a problem, they can also expel, or “detox” harmful or irritating substances in a number of way.
Particles that reach the smallest, most inner parts of the lungs are “gobbled up” by special cells called macrophages and expelled. You may have never thought of this before, but mucus is more than a nuisance – it’s a defense mechanism. Mucus is a way for the lungs to “detox” by expelling potentially harmful materials from the lungs. We fight against mucus tooth and nail with decongestants anytime we are sick, or antihistamines when allergies flare up…but what if we used hot showers and nasal rinsing to help our bodies get it out instead of suppressing this natural process?
Skin
Sweat has traditionally been recognized as “cleansing” for the body. While many top hits from Google searches deny the ability for sweat to “detoxify” your body, they ignore the body of research on this topic. In the following excerpt from a study called “Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury in Sweat: A Systematic Review3,” the term dermal excretion simply means sweat.
“In individuals with higher exposure or body burden, sweat generally exceeded plasma or urine concentrations, and dermal could match or surpass urinary daily excretion. Arsenic dermal excretion was several fold higher in arsenic-exposed individuals than in unexposed controls. Cadmium was more concentrated in sweat than in blood plasma. Sweat lead was associated with high-molecular-weight molecules, and in an interventional study, levels were higher with endurance compared with intensive exercise. Mercury levels normalized with repeated saunas in a case report. Sweating deserves consideration for toxic element detoxification.”
1https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/3/e009892