NYT: Flush those toxins! Eh, Not so fast

[Guest guest]

NY Times January 22, 2009

Skin Deep

Flush Those Toxins! Eh, Not So Fast

By ABBY ELLIN

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/fashion/22skin.html?pagewanted=2 & em

DIOXINS. PCBs. Phthalates. Those are the reasons Randall Hansen and

his wife, Katharine, embark on an annual detoxification program.

The Hansens, who live in DeLand, Fla., have made a ritual of doing

the " Fat Flush Plan " at least once a year " to cleanse our bodies and

help break some bad habits, " said Mr. Hansen, 48, president of

Quintessential Careers, a career guidance Web site.

The regimen, made famous by the nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman in

a 2001 book, mostly targets the liver, which Ms. Gittleman believes

is less able to metabolize fat because of toxins absorbed orally or

through the skin. Her plan includes a low-carbohydrate, high-protein

menu of about 1,200 calories a day, with no alcohol, caffeine, sugar,

grains, bread, starchy vegetables, dairy products, fats or oils (save

flaxseed oil). She also recommends a " Long Life Cocktail " of diluted

cranberry juice and ground flaxseeds, or a teaspoon of psyllium

husks, in the morning and evening; and a mixture of cranberry juice

and water throughout the day. Ms. Gittleman sells a Fat Flush kit for

$112.50 with herbs and nutrients like dandelion root, milk thistle

and Oregon grape root.

" It's horrible when I'm on it — I feel very deprived, " said Mr.

Hansen, who credits the program with helping him lose more than 70

pounds. " But I always feel better after, and I end up dropping about

10 pounds in the two weeks — an added bonus on top of the detox. "

The Hansens are among the thousands of Americans who

regularly " detox " in an effort to rid the gastrointestinal system of

unsavory substances that proponents believe build up and can cause

allergies, exhaustion and certain cancers.

But many Western doctors question the legitimacy of the regimens and

their claims of promoting good health, believing detoxification does

little to no good, and is possibly harmful.

" It is the opinion of mainstream and state-of-the-art medicine and

physiology that these claims are not only ludicrous but tantamount to

fraud, " said Dr. Pressman, an internist with the Naval Hospital

in ville, Fla., and a critic of detoxification. " The contents

of what ends up being consumed during a `detox' are essentially

stimulants, laxatives and diuretics. "

Such opinions have done little to deter the growing interest in the

practice. Detoxification is enormously popular, according to SPINS, a

market research and consulting firm based in Schaumburg, Ill., that

caters to the natural and organic products industry. Sales of herbal

formulas for cleansing, detoxification and organ support among

natural food retailers were more than $27 million from Dec. 2, 2007,

to Nov. 29, 2008. A survey by Mintel International, a Chicago-based

research firm, found that 54 food and drink products were launched in

2008 with the word " detox " in their descriptions — up from 15 in 2003.

The thinking goes that by avoiding certain foods, adding nutritional

and herbal supplements and cleansing your innards, you can cure the

body of all sorts of evils.

" Western medicine is treating the symptoms instead of addressing the

root cause, " said F. Group III, a Houston-based naturopath

with theholisticoption.com, an online resource for the alternative

wellness community. " We basically have a world that's constipated.

It's like if you change your oil in your car but never change the oil

filter. Ultimately it gets so full of sludge the engine's going to

break down. "

The goal of detoxification is to remove that sludge. Indeed, most

regimens — whose benefits have been espoused by celebrities like

Beyoncé Knowles, who claimed to have lost 20 pounds before the

movie " Dreamgirls " on the Master Cleanse, a concoction of lemon

juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup and water — typically involve

fasting, food restriction, nutritional supplements or a combination

thereof.

Most regimens eliminate caffeine, alcohol and nicotine; some limit

meat and solid foods and rely on unusual juice blends (cayenne pepper

and lemon, for instance), all in an effort to rid the

gastrointestinal system of pesticides, dioxins, polychlorinated

biphenyls (PCBs) and food additives — in other words, just about

anything you have eaten, drunk, smelled, inhaled or looked at that

isn't organic.

Because many holistic doctors believe that one's bowels should be

irrigated as much as four times a day, some detoxers rely on

colonics, enemas and herbal laxatives to move things along. Others

rely on liquid fasts, herbal supplements, colonics and formulas like

those sold by Kirsch, a fitness trainer in New York. His

products include " LemonAid 48 Hour Detox Diet, " which consists of

lemon, purified water, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, and is

designed to " turbo-charge your metabolism, increase energy and kick-

start weight loss. " (A 32-ounce bottle of his " one of a kind

supplement " costs $24.99 on his Web site.)

According to Lynne McNees, president of the International Spa

Association, almost all of the roughly 15,000 day and destination

spas nationwide offer some kind of detoxifying treatment. For

instance, Le Jardin Day Spa near Philadelphia has a 30-minute " foot

detox, " which involves placing feet in a saltwater bath; it can, the

spa claims, energize red blood cells and circulation, aid kidney and

liver function and boost the immune system.

In February, the Beljanski Wellness Center, a detoxification center

offering wraps, facials, colonics and medical consultations, is set

to open in New York. The center is based on research by the late

Mirko Beljanski, a biologist and biochemist who studied the

relationship between environmental toxins and cellular DNA damage.

As the number of products and treatments grows, critics like Dr.

Pressman continue to emphasize what they say is a lack of scientific

evidence that detoxification actually works.

" There is absolutely no scientific basis for the assertion that the

regimens popularly defined as `detox' will augment the body's own

capacity for identifying and eliminating your own metabolic wastes or

doing the same for environmental toxins, " Dr. Pressman said. " I

advise patients that these detox programs amount to a large quantity

of excrement, both literally and figuratively. "

Dr. Lipman, a specialist in integrative medicine in New York

and the author of the book " Spent, " puts it a little more

delicately: " People are selling a product. There's a difference

between selling a product and practicing good medicine. "

While Dr. Lipman says footbaths are " nonsense " and calls skin

scrubs " third-level detox, " he does think there is a place for

chelation therapy (a way of removing heavy metals from the body,

either intravenously or through oral supplements) and colonics (a

manner of irrigating the bowels), mainly for patients with chronic

digestive problems. He says he is also concerned about exposure to

toxins, adding that a typical home has more than 1,000 of them,

including cleaning chemicals, formaldehydes and paint.

There is reason for his concern. In its ongoing National

Biomonitoring Program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

tests for select environmental chemicals in the urine and blood

samples of United States residents. In its 2003-04 study, for

example, it found concentrations of chemicals like the sunscreen

agent benzophenone-3 and triclosan, a synthetic chemical in personal-

care items and other products, in significant percentages of the more

than 2,500 people tested.

Epidemiological studies have shown that exposure to high levels of

PCBs and dioxins absorbed through food, water and air may contribute

to cancers and reproductive damage in animals, but human clinical

studies are limited, said A. Clemens, a professor at the

University of Southern California School of Pharmacy.

In 2002 the National Center for Complementary and Alternative

Medicine and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, both

components of the National Institutes of Health, began a large-scale

study to find out if the detoxification treatment EDTA chelation

therapy is safe and effective for people age 50 and over with

coronary heart disease, a condition for which chelation is often

used. The study is expected to be completed in 2010.

Meanwhile, critics say that although detoxification regimens claim to

eliminate toxins, most people's bodies are capable of doing that on

their own. Dr. Clemens said that consuming copious amounts of fluids

might help eliminate water-soluble chemicals like, say, arsenic, but

it does nothing for fat-soluble chemicals, meaning those stored in

fat. Colonics and laxatives, so-called purifying agents, can lead to

fainting, muscle cramps and dehydration. What's more, high-volume

consumption of liquids can cause hyponatremia, or low sodium in the

blood, said Dr. Clemens.

Dr. Stram, medical director and founder of the Center for

Integrative Health and Healing in Delmar, N.Y., believes that eating

whole foods always trumps fasting or juice diets — and that education

overrules everything. " People are getting their info from the massage

therapist or the clerk at the health food store who may not know the

potential risks, " he said.

Still, many people swear by these programs. Whitney, 37, a

registered nurse and mother of three in Traverse City, Mich., did the

Master Cleanse over a seven-day period, plus six days of pre and post

cleanse, which included consuming copious amounts of organic juice,

fruit and vegetables. " With all the fast food, preservatives,

chemicals in our food, it seems impossible that our bodies are not

loaded with toxins, " Ms. Whitney said, adding that she plans to

repeat it in the next few months. " I had more energy during this

cleanse than I can ever remember having. "