Did you ever wonder why we always seem to get that urge to ‘spring clean'? Whether it's the garage, basement, closets, or kitchen cupboards, there seems to be some biological impulse pushing us to give everything a good going over once winter passes. But what about your body? Isn't spring a time for it to be cleaned out too?
Interestingly, Chinese medicine has been thinking about this for some 2000 years or more. In classical Chinese medicine each organ in the body is associated with a particular season. The liver, for example, is associated with the spring, a time for clearing out the old and making room for the new. From a metabolic point of view, the liver is the most important cleansing organ in the body. So maybe there is an underlying biological reason that has us thinking about cleaning each spring.
Whatever it is, the fact remains that day after day our bodies are asked to process a variety of potentially harmful substances: pollutants in the air, additives or hormones in our food, carcinogens, heavy metals, drugs, chemicals, and various other toxins. Clinically, toxicity levels in the body may contribute to a wide variety of conditions ranging from migraines or chronic fatigue syndrome, to fibromyalgia or neurological disease. A cleanse, therefore, is an opportunity for your body to eliminate existing toxins and better cope with the burdens we place on it.
As a Naturopathic Doctor and acupuncturist, I'd like to offer some guidelines here for what I consider a reasonable cleanse program. The approach I recommend is two-fold: addressing the issue of exposure to toxins, and restoring the body's natural ability to process the toxins.
The first part of the equation is fairly straightforward. So let's start with some simple yet effective lifestyle choices that work to reduce the amount of toxins that enter our bodies. Drinking filtered water (preferably filtered by reverse osmosis), choosing natural (indeed organic) foods free from pesticides and herbicides, and minimizing contact with chemicals will help reduce the number of toxins your body must handle. Such choices will serve your long-term health interests. What about the toxins we do take in? How has nature equipped us to get rid of them? The liver, followed by the kidneys, skin, and intestines, are the key players in cleansing our bodies.
The liver contains a group of enzymes called the P450 cytochrome pathway that is responsible for making harmful substances water-soluble and excreting them. There are two steps that the liver follows to filter any waste from the blood. The first step is to conjugate, or render water soluble, the toxin. The second step is to excrete it into the bile. To use an analogy that everyone is familiar with, it's like bagging the garbage (cytochrome p450 system) and then taking it out (the bile). Stimulating the function of the liver and encouraging this pathway is an important part of any cleanse.
In discussing any cleanse, we might also include a focus on substances known as lipotropics. These are substances that help the liver to produce and secrete bile. Substances that help the liver secrete bile include methionine, choline, and lecithin, and plants such as taraxicum, chelidonium, and berberis. Many good multivitamins will include small amounts of lipotropics, recognizing that perhaps the liver needs help more than once per year.
If the liver is responsible for filtering all unwanted substances, it reasons that the liver's need for antioxidant protection is greater than other areas of the body. Nutrients important for protecting the liver include silymarin (milk thistle), glutathione and sulfur containing foods such as garlic and onions. In short, a good cleanse will have something to help the liver perform its functions (lipotropics) and something to protect the liver during the process (antioxidants).
The importance of fibre should also be considered. Once the liver has processed the toxin for excretion it is sent to the intestine for elimination with the stool. Fibre helps to keep the toxins bound so that they aren't reabsorbed into the blood. There is a system in the body called the entero-hepatic circulation system, where bile is reabsorbed before it has a chance to be secreted in the stool. It may surprise you that well over 95% of the bile never sees the light of day. You may also recall that cholesterol has to be excreted in this way without being reabsorbed, so an increase in fibre serves both your cleansing as well as your cholesterol needs. It is interesting that one of the most important risk factors for colorectal cancer is sustained constipation. The net effect of constipation, of course, is that everything that was bound for excretion, ends up being exposed to the intestinal wall for a prolonged period of time.
Water, too, is essential to a good cleanse, and you'll need to drink plenty of it (up to 8 glasses/ day). Remember that the first half of the liver's job is to render each toxin water-soluble. Solubility is made easier with a proper hydration level. The kidneys, as mentioned in the beginning, are also an important organ for detoxification. Botanicals such as equisetum are gentle stimulants for the kidneys. The body uses the skin as a route of excretion as well, so rigorous skin brushing after a shower is also recommended during a cleanse. And to give the digestive tract a break, I encourage a two-week period simplified eating. Simplified eating means eating in moderation and reducing if not eliminating the most common food sensitivities (wheat, milk, eggs, and meat).
It should be noted that starting a formal cleanse should be done under the supervision of a qualified physician.
By: Dr. Gordon Sims
Spring Cleanse
