MadSci Network: Medicine
Query:

Re: Is there really a way to 'flush toxins out of the body'?

Date: Thu May 17 07:35:57 2007
Posted By: david bell, Faculty, life & Envrionmental sciences, nottingham uni
Area of science: Medicine
ID: 1157592240.Me
Message:

To a rough approximation, claims about "detoxifying" the body are bunkum. In detail, you can obviously imagine claims where you can detoxify.

For example, a chronic alcoholic could detoxify by stopping drinking so much alcohol!

There are particular circumstances where dietary additives can help remove compounds from the body, e.g. an olestra rich diet can help clear out some very fatty compounds from the body. Given the many unpleasant side effects of olestra (e.g. anal seepage), you probably won't get too much of that in your "detox package".

But I think the perspective is wrong, as your scientist colleague suggests. If you start from the perspective that your body is somehow "toxified", it is a false premise. Your body is detoxified normally by the liver, and for most people, it does a fine job, and you don't even notice it. Life spans are the longest they have ever been, and they continue to rise. So there is no need for detoxification in the first place, nothing to detoxify, and the diets so expensively touted have no efficacy whatsoever.

Hope this helps,
david


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