There are over 850,000 chemicals in use in the United States currently. The most toxic area is our soil – with over 3 billion tons of pesticides found by the CDC when they tested samples around the country. Spinach, kale, and strawberries topped the Environmental Working Group’s dirty dozen foods for 2019. The most toxic area of our crops are cotton, tobacco, and COFFEE – the most widely consumed beverage in America. All of these chemicals enter the liver to be broken down and made safe for excretion through the kidneys and urine.
The liver is where your body takes in the toxins you are exposed to (all are fat-soluble) and runs them through Phase 1, Phase 2, and eventually brought to the kidney in Phase 3 to be excreted out of the body safely. The problem with most people’s detoxification process is that Phase 1 is going too fast due to the medications we take, and the coffee and alcohol we drink. Phase 2 is too slow to handle this amount of toxins and we start to store these in our fat cells causing us to be sick and inflamed.
Signs and symptoms of excess toxic burden are headaches, ACNE, eczema, achy joints/muscles, IBS, WEIGHT GAIN, and hormonal imbalances (especially thyroid). As toxins build up the symptoms often get worse. Unfortunately, liver panel lab tests appear normal in the earlier stages of toxicity and many are placed on medications to manage the symptoms. People may even have fatty livers or benign tumors on their liver that will be seen as normal within conventional medicine testing.
Since the turn of the new year, many people have been embarking on a weight loss program. Many are unaware that toxins you have been holding in your fat cells are released as you start the process of losing weight. If this process isn’t guided properly, it creates even more damage inside because these newly released chemicals are worse for your health than when they first entered your body. Under this potentially heavy toxic burden, your metabolism slows down and many notice a plateau in their weight loss. You might even feel sick or see a worsening of your previous symptoms.
The first thing we have people do is clean up their daily personal hygiene and household cleaning products to reduce the toxic load placed on their bodies. Next, we clean up the foods they eat and the water they drink by choosing organic food whenever possible and using a high-quality water filter. Last, we use a detoxification program in our clinic to help people clean up the inside of the body.
You need to support your body in an environment that is very dirty. A proper detoxification program will provide the nutrients needed to safely bring those toxins in a water-soluble form to the kidney. The use of a medical food detox program will provide all the necessary nutrients to do this safely and effectively in addition to ridding the body of heavy metals. To do a detox correctly and safely, we rely on products that are proven to be the best and safest for our patients.
-Dr. Brian Opp