How the Body Detoxifies

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How the Body Detoxifies

There are two major detoxification systems operating within the body--the antioxidation system, and the liver's detoxification processes. They both work in conjunction with the body's circulatory and elimination systems. Even superficial understanding of how these systems work can give you a whole new basis of health, because with this understanding, you can improve your body's ability to detoxify, based on a scientific framework. You will understand how and why these measures help to protect your health.

We credit Sidney Mac Baker, M.D., author of Detoxification & Healing: The Key to Optimal Health, and S. Bland, Ph.D., author of The 20-Day Rejuvenation Diet Program for helping to make this biochemistry lesson understandable. They both offer more extensive, yet easy-to-comprehend explanations of these processes in their books. We recommend them both.

The first process to understand is how the body prevents oxidation. You've probably heard the word "antioxidant" many times in reference to vitamins, supplements, foods or teas. In case you do not understand it, please read the following slowly and carefully and try to follow the thought progression:

Thought 1. We need oxygen to live. That's obvious.

Thought 2. Why do we need oxygen? Because oxygen plays an important role in metabolism, in the breakdown of food into energy and the raw materials to supply every other function that goes on inside the body. Every cell of the body--trillions of them--needs oxygen to carry on its individual function. Brain cells, for example, begin to die after only three minutes without a fresh supply of oxygen.

Thought 3. Oxygen is, however, a reactive substance, i.e. it reacts with other substances. That's the reason why you have to be very careful in the presence of pure oxygen or you could have an explosion, i.e. a powerful reaction. (The air we breathe is only 20 percent oxygen.)

Thought 4. When oxygen reacts with other substances, it causes oxidation. Fire, for example, is rapid oxidation. We also see it when iron rusts; the rust is oxidation. An apple cut in half and exposed to air turns brown; the browning is oxidation.

This process of oxidation also occurs within the body, where it's called biological rancidification. Researchers have determined that biological rancidification is one of the primary causes of aging.

Dr. Bland states, "The way biological rancidification occurs in the body is similar to how oxygen combines with fat in a cube of butter and causes it to become rancid...The 20-Day Rejuvenation Diet Program page 80). ...activated forms of oxygen--oxygen radical or reactive oxygen species (ROS)--are manufactured in the body following exposure to radiation, pollution, viruses or other infectious agents, drugs and medication (including alcohol and cigarettes) and even as a consequence of the activation of the body's immune system." (Page 81.)

Thought 5: The biochemical forms of oxygen that are most likely to cause this biological rancidification are commonly known as "free radicals." Free radicals are molecules that are missing an electron, so they steal a replacement electron from another molecule, causing oxidative damage to the "victimized" molecule and the tissue of which it is a part.

Thought 6. Unfortunately, there's a domino effect caused by free radicals in the body. They don't just cause one reaction and stop. The "victimized" molecule now steals a replacement electron from yet a third molecule...and on and on it goes.

Here's how Dr. Bland describes the effect of free radicals on the body: "...imagine a Ping-Pong table covered with mousetraps. All the traps are set, 'baited' with a carefully placed Ping-Pong ball. Then imagine tossing another ball onto the table. That ball springs one trap, bounces off and begins a reaction that in a short time triggers all the mousetraps on the table, with Ping-Pong balls bouncing everywhere. This is very similar to the explosive chemical reactions which are initiated by free radicals..." The 20-Day Rejuvenation Diet Program (Page 84.)

Dr. Baker clarifies how this pertains to the body: "If a fatty acid molecule [back to that pat of butter] gets its electron ripped off by oxygen in the air, it is damaged...If the fatty acid molecule is nested among millions of others in ... our cell membranes, we call the damage 'oxidative damage'..." Detoxification & Healing: The Key to Optimal Health, (page 69).

Understanding Oxidative Stress

Dr. Baker helps us understand electron exchanges from the larger perspective of chemistry in general: "...oxygen and all related oxidative stresses...put our molecules at risk of losing an electron. Such a loss is a necessary part of all chemistry in which molecules participate voluntarily...chemistry has to do with the sharing, gaining or losing of electrons from one atom or molecule." Detoxification & Healing: The Key to Optimal Health, (Pg. 69)

Thought 7. Fortunately, the body has a system that prevents damage from free radicals, if it has an adequate supply of essential nutrients.

The essential nutrients are vitamin C, E, B2, bioflavinoids, beta-carotene, glutathione, selenium and zinc.

First a vitamin C molecule gives the "victimized" molecule a replacement electron and then the vitamin C molecule itself receives a replacement electron from a molecule of the bioflavinoids. The bioflavinoid molecule in turn receives a replacement electron from a beta-carotene molecule. The beta-carotene molecule in turn receives a replacement electron from a vitamin E molecule. The vitamin E molecule in turn receives a replacement electron from glutathione. As you can see, and as Dr. Baker informs us..."Antioxidants do not work alone." (Pgs. 69-71)

The nutrients all work together and if the diet lacks any one, there will be oxidative stress. For example, a beta-carotene molecule with a missing electron becomes unstable and toxic when its missing electron is not replaced by one from vitamin E and vitamin E cannot replace beta-carotene's missing electron if it is not able to borrow one from vitamin B2.

Dr. Baker uses a bucket-brigade analogy to describe the chain of electron exchanges among the different antioxidants that prevent oxidative damage. If one of the antioxidants in the chain is missing, that's the point where the process stops and damage begins.

Dr. Bland emphasizes the same point: "In order for oxidant free radicals to be properly quenched and detoxified, all of the antioxidants must be in balance one to another. Taking high levels of a supplement of one antioxidant without increasing the others could significantly impair the effectiveness of the single protective nutrient." (Page 93)

A state of "oxidative stress" can result when the body does not have the adequate nutrients. Most of the chronic illnesses that affect our society are related, in one way or another, to oxidative stress. This explains why some people age more quickly than others. It is because, over the years, they have not supplied their bodies with adequate supplies of these nutrients.

Both physical and psychological stress (see psychoneuroimmunology) increase the body's need for nutritional supplementation, as do exposure to toxins, lifestyle choices and internal toxins such as those generated by candidiasis, i.e. intestinal yeast infections.

The antioxidant defense system takes place throughout the body, on a cellular level.

Another critical detoxification process takes place in the liver. This is a two-phase process involving a series of enzymes.

, N.D., and Barrie, N.D., describe it in their book 7-Day Detox Miracle: Restore Your Mind and Body's Natural Vitality with This Safe and Effective Life-Enhancing Program. "Think of this detoxification process as a two-phase wash cycle. Enzymes are like the soap that liberates grease into little droplets, removing impurities that the water can't remove on its own. In the first part of the wash cycle, enzymes break toxins down into intermediate forms...Some toxins are ready for elimination at this stage, but others require a second wash cycle. In Phase Two, these intermediate compounds are routed along one of six chemically driven detoxification pathways, where they are further broken down, and then bound to specific types of protein molecules which act as 'escorts' to guide them

out of the body, allowing them to exit through the kidneys (in the form of urine) or the bile (in the form of feces). This process is called conjugation." (Pg. 97-98.)

Many toxins are fat-soluable. The liver's job is to transform them into water-soluable substances so they can be excreted via the bowel or the kidneys. (The bowel and the kidneys cannot process them out until they're water-soluable.) When hormones, drugs, chemicals or other toxins enter the liver in the blood, the first group of enzymes, the Phase One detoxification system, go to work to transform them. When the Phase One enzymes have "biotransformed" the toxins into intermediate forms, Phase Two enzymes combine with the "biotransformed intermediates" to create nontoxic water-soluable compounds that can then be excreted. If there aren't enough nutrients to generate these Phase Two enzymes, a dangerous bottle-neck in the detoxification process is created. The necessary enzymes are derived from various vitamins and minerals, plus amino acids (glycine,

glutamine, taurine, methionine, cysteine and glutathione) found in high quality proteins.

These biotransformed intermediates have another name we're now more familiar with, oxygen free radicals, and if they can't be immediately processed out due to lack of nutrients, they begin to cause oxidative stress within the liver and to other tissues where they're carried in the bloodstream. The free radicals, can be MORE DANGEROUS than they were in their original form as toxins entering the liver.

Dr. Bland reports "These intermediary materials have adverse effects upon the hormone-secreting endocrine system (the thyroid, adrenal and pancreatic glands), the immune system, which provides the body's defenses, and the nervous system. These three organ systems seem to be most sensitive to endo- and exotoxicity [that is, toxins of internal and external origin], and the symptoms patients experience are often related to thyroid difficulties, adrenal stress problems, immune hypersensitivity or immune suppression problems associated with increased inflammation or "catching every bug that comes along," and chronic nervous system problems that may, in some individuals, progress to become such serious disorders as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease." (Pg. 116)

The enzyme system in the liver is very delicate. Like the antioxidant system, it depends on having the right combination of an assortment of nutrients that is almost impossible to get without nutritional supplementation, even from a very healthy diet. The enzyme system is also subject to great genetic variation. Dr. Bland reports that when all the health-conscious members of his staff had their liver detoxification processes tested, they found a 10-fold difference in Phase One detoxification ability among these "normal" individuals. "In fact," he writes, "individuals among the staff who had the slowest cytochrome P450 [i.e. the liver's enzyme system] detoxification activity were the most sensitive, with histories of allergy, asthma and environmental sensitivity. On the other end of the continuum, those who had very active cytochrome P450 and liver detoxification systems appeared to be the staff members who never got sick when they traveled

internationally, experienced no allergies to foods or other substances and had no eczema or asthma." (Pg. 114)

Another complicating factor can be that a person may naturally have one phase that works better than the other. Fortunately, there is now simple, noninvasive testing that tests a person's Phase One and Phase Two detoxification processes, allowing the individual to make dietary and nutritional adjustments to account for their individual differences.

If the body does not have the nutrients to process out the toxins when they enter the liver, they are stored, either in the liver or in fat tissue. Persons who are overweight have a higher level of stored toxins. During dieting, as the body uses the nutrients stored in the fat cells, these toxins come back into circulation, causing many of the unpleasant effects of dieting, such as jittery nerves, light-headedness and sometimes mild nausea. If inadequate nutrition is being ingested during dieting, the additional biotransformed intermediates can cause extra oxidative stress while dieting. For this reason, both Dr. Bland and Dr. believe fasting may not be the safest way to detox.

Patty's note: I did alot of fasting early in my illness (naturopathic supervised), and then again about midway through after I felt I had hit a plateau. The 2nd set of fasts is what I felt jump started my ultimate healing, so I don't think fasting should be written off entirely, but at the same time, it is a personal choice. Biblically, fasting has been around for centuries.....__________________________________________________