“Detox” is big business, with many products and processes billed as able to clear your body of toxins, help you lose weight, and gain more energy. Liver detox products currently proliferate.
It might be tempting, early in the new year, to resolve to “clean up” your act, especially involving your body, and you may be looking at claims made by distributors of detox products and systems.
Is a detox even necessary? Unfortunately, there’s no research or science to support many of the claims made by detox and cleanse providers. The team at South Central Family Practice Clinic in Soldotna, Alaska, led by Dr. Gladys Bailon, recommends that you avoid questionable products. Instead, talk to us about the conditions and symptoms for which you need an effective solution.
Detoxes are recommended for a wide range of reasons, including improved liver health, cleansing your colon, detoxifying through the feet, and more. Typically, detoxes and cleanses use one or more approaches, often combined with an available-for-purchase product or supplement to “enhance” the effects.
Questionable detox and cleanse practices often include approaches like:
Detox programs can be marketed commercially, sold in health food stores, or promoted as natural or naturopathic treatments. Some detox and cleanse products and procedures can be falsely advertised and potentially harmful.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends chelation therapy to remove heavy metals from your body when they reach toxic levels. It’s the only medically recognized “detox” procedure for clearing your body of harmful substances.
Chelation therapy introduces special chemicals into your bloodstream that bind to toxic metals, after which both the chemicals and metals are flushed from the body in your urine. The procedure has side effects, including removing essential metals that your body needs, so it’s only done when you test positive for high levels of heavy metals through blood screening.
Frequently a target for questionable detoxes, the liver is actually your natural detox center, performing many of the functions that detox products claim as their own. Your liver filters blood exiting the digestive system, removing waste products, medications that have moved through your system, and toxic substances from your body.
It also manufactures bile, eliminating fat-soluble toxins, and using enzymes to break down harmful chemicals in your body, reducing them to water-soluble byproducts for removal through your urine.
Supplementary liver cleanses aren’t needed and may in fact be harmful, since liver detox products are unregulated.
Contact South Central Family Practice Clinic, online or by phone, if you’re suffering from conditions that detox and cleanse products claim to treat. Chances are, we have a better and more effective solution for you. Book your visit with us today.
