Mark has a mystery illness.

Five years ago, he was a robust 40-year-old bursting with vitality and joie de vivre at the peak of health. Five years ago, however, he began to notice aches and pains in his hips, lower back and knee joints after not particularly strenuous exercise. Then his body began to feel stiff in the morning. The aches progressed to limit his range of motion and prevent him from taking part in activities he loves. He has a strange constellation of other symptoms—swollen and itchy eyelids, constant phlegm in his nose and throat, and fatigue. Despite his dislike of doctors, he started making the rounds. He had the barrage of tests—blood tests, liver functions, Lyme disease, HIV, Epstein-Barr. Everything turned up negative. Now he wonders if a detoxification program will help.

Illustration by Tamara Codor

Toxicity and its telltale signs

Before going any further, let’s define our terms. A toxin is defined as any compound that has a detrimental effect on any cell function or structure. Significant environmental toxins include heavy metals, liver toxicants, microbial compounds, and the breakdown products of protein metabolism. Toxicity is when the body becomes overwhelmed with toxins and its cells begin mutating as a result.

Just how serious is this issue of toxicity? Most drinking water in the United States, for instance, contains over 700 chemicals. The Food and Drug Administration currently permits over 2,000 food additives, including artificial colors, flavors, stabilizing agents, texturizers, sweeteners, anti-microbials, and antioxidants into America’s food supply. Approximately 10,000 chemicals are used in food processing and storage. Over 2.5 billion pounds of pesticides are dumped on crop lands, forests, lawns, and fields annually. In a single meal, a single person could easily consume residues of a dozen different neuro-toxic or carcinogenic chemicals.

Many doctors and researchers believe that the real problem is the bio-accumulation of chemicals in our bodies. When scientists have done research on the subject it seems clear that the chemicals act synergistically to make us sick. In one 1976 study on three chemicals given to rats, it was found that one chemical alone produced no ill effects. Two chemicals given in conjunction resulted in an observable health decline. Three chemicals administered together caused death in two weeks.

Three Wholistic Approaches to Detoxification

The Naturopath

Dr. Cyndy DiBeneditto, ND, is a Holistic Health educator and counselor who sees her fair share of cases similar to Mark’s. How would she determine that there is toxicity involved? And how would she go about the detoxification process? (Dr. DiBenedetto does not diagnose or prescribe anything for clients. All information is for educational uses only.)

C: How do you know when you have a case of toxicity on your hands?

CD: A strong indicator that there’s toxicity involved is that the person is feeling bad and they’ve had every test in the book. Food sensitivities could also be indicative of a toxic state.

C: How do you confirm a suspicion of toxicity, by which I mean real toxic overload in the body? Do you order tests?

CD: I use standard naturopathic means such as iridology, pulse testing, finger and tongue inspection, muscle testing and hair analysis for finding out what’s going on inside the body. We use finger and tongue diagnosis, pulse diagnosis, muscle testing, hair analysis.

C: What types of therapies do you use to help the body strengthen and detoxify?

CD: Herbs, dietary changes, hydrotherapy and various types of water techniques. I also ask my patients to do different exercises to open different channels.

C: Is there a certain order to "cleaning out" the body?

CD: The stages of detoxification depend on the state of health at the moment. Short cleanses don’t really address the problem and could make the patient much sicker. I don’t advise long cleanses either (several months), since they can throw the body off equilibrium. I have to determine what I think the body can handle. If they’re feeling too weak, I build them up first.

C: How long should a detoxification program take?

CD: It’s not about detoxification. It’s about a commitment to feeling well. I have seen tremendous success in treating serious illness, but I’ve needed that commitment from people. In Mark’s case it could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to resolve his condition. Of course, I work with symptoms and I would try to make Mark feel better in the short-term, but my focus is comprehensive.

C: What kind of a fast would you recommend for Mark’s condition?

CD: I almost never suggest a fast. They’re really too strong for the body. With these short, strong fasts, you can end up flushing the lymph so fast that too many toxins or broken down putrefied nutrients are released into the blood, and your symptoms will worsen. You could end up with a severe headache, diarrhea, lethargy, dizziness, nausea, or fainting. You need to monitor your blood sugar as well. When you stop eating for a day or two, processes like peristalsis [the movement of the smooth muscle tissue in the intestinal tract that pushes ingested material along] and bowel movements begin to shut down. At the same time, the body breaks down muscle tissue to get glycogen for energy. If these cells are toxic and you’re not having a regular bowel movement, you can end up re-poisoning yourself. Also, some people fast to control their weight. But the body doesn’t efficiently burn fat by fasting.

C: Would you advise major dietary changes for Mark? Would you ask him to give up his coffee and chocolate forever?

CD: I’m actually not very strict about diet. I think you can eat anything in moderation, providing you have a healthy body, and in fact, the stress that rigidity around food choices makes you unhealthy. I may take a person off chocolate for a month, but definitely not forever.

C: People want to strengthen and supplement their own bodies. Do you have anything to say about that?

CD: The worst thing a person can do is to take grocery bags full of herbs and supplements. When you take so many things at once, you overwhelm the body and add to the toxic state.

C: So can people try to detoxify on their own?

CD: No. It’s a very trendy idea, but it’s a very serious process. Seek guidance and education before you start. Cleansing the body doesn’t happen overnight.

 

The Ayurvedic Practitioner

Frank Jude Boccio, MSC, an Ayurvedic medicine practitioner, considers most of his practice to incorporate detoxification on some level.

C: How would he go about treating Mark’s case?

FJB: Ayurvedic medicine can be broken down into two major types of therapy, either cleansing/detoxifying or nourishing/tonifying. For Mark, to determine which I will emphasize, first I go to his pulses. We feel the pulse at seven different levels in Ayurvedic medicine. If I feel obstruction in the paths of energy, of if I feel a kapha imbalance, or if I feel ama in the pulse, I would consider detoxifying.

C: What’s a kapha imbalance?

FJB: It could manifest as water retention, excess tissue growth or obesity, heaviness, not only physically but mentally, mental fatigue, or lethargy.

C: What’s ama?

FJB: Ama is at the most basic level "undigested nutrient" deposited in places in the body where it shouldn’t be. Mucous and cholesterol are examples of ama, and are candidates for cleansing.

C: Assuming, from Mark’s pulses, that there is ama in his body, what would you do?

FJB: I would likely begin with dietary therapy. As I’ve said, the pulse tells us the condition of the digestive fire. It could be deficient, but is that because it is truly weak, or because too many wet logs have been thrown on top? If it’s the wet logs, I do a cleanse beginning with the "anti-ama diet."

C: Wet logs sound ominous. Like chocolate and French fries.

FJB: Okay. Let’s start with what to avoid. No meat, no dairy, no refined flour, no sugar, nuts, coffee, and alcohol.

C: What can you eat?

FJB: Beans, particularly the sattvic mung and aduki beans. Kicheree, an Indian dish made of mung dal and basmati rice, is a staple. Whole grains such as barley, millet, quinoa, and buckwheat are encouraged, while I ask clients to eliminate oats and wheat, the heaviest of the grains. Lots of greens, particularly the bitter greens to stimulate the liver. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds are okay. And the simplest part is to sip warm, filtered water throughout the day.

C: What can people expect after following a diet like this for a while?

FJB: Well, I put my father, whose coronary arteries were 94 percent occluded, and he was scheduled for angioplasty. He agreed to go on this diet before having surgery and he complained that he had to eat too much food! But he lost 30 pounds, his systolic blood pressure dropped from 270 to 180, and the occlusion in his coronary arteries decreased to normal levels in six weeks.

C: Once someone like Mark has cleared a lot of mucous on the diet, what happens?

FJB: Then I start tonifying. I might find that I have to strengthen agni, or the digestive fire, and to do this I would prescribe different thermogenic herbs, such as the traditional formula called Trikatu, made of Pipali, dried ginger, and black pepper. If Mark already has a lot of heat in his system, I would prescribe Kavam Baskar, an herbal formula that is less heating but it still stimulates digestion.

C: Do you ever recommend a fast?

FJB: I very rarely recommend a fast. It’s constitutionally determined. The ancient foundational Ayurvedic text, the Charaka Samhita, advises against these radical, dramatic changes in our diets and lives. It encourages people to change in incremental or quarter turns.

The Homeopath

Dr. Ronald D. Whitmont, whose Hudson Valley practice is located in Rhinebeck, was classically trained in homeopathy by his father, Edward C. Whitmont (the renowned 20th-century homeopath, psychologist, and author of Psyche and Substance, The Alchemy of Healing). Ronald Whitmont is also a Western medical doctor. Homeopathy is a system of medicine based on the Law of Similars (homeo means similar) that Samuel Hahnemann put into practice 200 years ago. Homeopaths use this law to relieve constellations of symptoms in the body.

C: Can homeopathy be used to help the body detoxify?

RDW: Homeopathy can definitely be used to help the body detoxify, but it’s important that the body is not overtaxed in any detoxification program. You want to be strengthening the existing system anytime you are removing something.

C: How does it work?

RDW: In classical homeopathy, we evaluate the whole organism, not from lab values and tests. We look at the physical, mental, and emotional state of the organism to determine where the imbalance lies for the whole. Specific imbalances respond to specific remedies. We strengthen the body to detoxify itself, and we have to treat the whole body to do that.

C: Can you give me an example of how the detoxification process would occur using homeopathy?

RDW: In homeopathy, early scientific research indicates that interesting things take place with certain homeopathic remedies. Harris Coulter’s Divided Legacy demonstrated the "paradoxical response," or the reverse effect that happens with certain substances. If, for example, an infinitesimal amount of mercury is ingested, it can cause a measurable increase of mercury emission—a detoxification of mercury—from the body. This is called isopathy, which refers to the process of administering the same substance (iso means same) to produce an effect with that substance. Isopathy can be utilized to encourage a detoxification of certain substances.

Isopathy is an interesting phenomenon and is a part of our practice. It is not, however, classical homeopathy nor a well established method of treatment for heavy metal toxicity. If you know you have heavy metal toxicity, you’d do better to go and get some chelation therapy. [Chelation therapy is a safe, non-surgical method of drawing heavy metals out of the body. Chelating agents are available in oral form, over-the-counter, and in intravenous solutions that must be administered by a doctor.]

C: Do you think there’s some misperception in people’s minds about what the detoxification process entails?

RDW: I don’t believe that you can "clean out" your liver or your intestines, or whatever. We need to be living in balance with the environment, which includes organisms. Sometimes these work with us and sometimes against us. Balance must include a dialogue between these organisms, not an eradication of them.

C: So if you’re not cleaning out the body, what are you doing?

RDW: We support the body’s resistance, the ability to maintain a boundary, in homeopathy. The body has to be able to deal with toxicity in the environment. That’s what your body is for.

C: How long does this kind of treatment take?

RDW: That depends on a number of factors. The first is how long the stress, or in this case, the toxin, has been in the system. The second factor is whether this is an acute case of toxicity, which responds rapidly to treatment, or whether it is chronic, which can take much longer.