A Detox Method that Really Works!

Unless you live under a rock you have probably seen many “detox” cleanses and products that claim to help the body purge itself of toxins, but do any of them actually work?   Certain products can support the key organs of elimination which are the liver, kidneys and digestive tract, but the process of detoxification is actually quite complex and occurs at many different levels starting with individual cells progressing to tissues and then finally organ systems.      Saunas and in particular infrared saunas also support detoxification.

The body is constantly producing waste products that need to be eliminated for optimal cellular, tissue and organ function.    Even people who eat nothing but organic food and highly purified water create waste products, and they also encounter toxins from the environment.    Some of these toxins are worse than others, but no one can completely escape contact with toxins.

Where do Toxins in the Environment Come From?

With over 100,000 chemicals in commercial use with 25% of them known to be hazardous there are a lot of toxins in our environment!

To get a sense of how wide-spread environmental toxins are in our bodies let’s take a look at the results of the National Adipose Tissue Survey conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency which examined toxin levels in peoples’ bodyfat.     The results are alarming to say the least:

Chemical Tested                                              % of people having this toxin in fat

Styrene                                                                100%

1,4-dichlorobenzene                                      100%

OCDD (dioxin)                                                   100%

HxCDD (dioxin)                                                 98%

Xylene                                                                  100%

Benzene                                                              96%

TCDD (Agent Orange)                                     76%

DDT (banned 1972)                                          55%

PCB’s                                                                     95%

M, p-Cresol                                                        93%

Toluene                                                               91%

To make matters worse many chemicals we encounter do their damage quickly and cannot be found in human tissue because they quickly degrade., yet they do cause tremendous harm from just brief exposure.  

Autophagy – Your Bodies Clean Up Method!

Autophagy is a detox process your body uses to clean out damaged cells and regenerate new ones.  Autophagy plays a key role in your body’s ability to detoxify, repair, and regenerate itself.  The benefits of autophagy include:

Reduced inflammation

Improvement in cellular, tissue and organ function

Prevention or delay of neurodegenerative diseases

Increased longevity

According to Dr. Colin Champ who is a radiation oncologist and professor at the University of Pittsburgh:  “Think of it as our body’s innate recycling program.   Autophagy makes us more efficient machines to get rid of faulty parts, stop cancerous growths, and stop metabolic dysfunction like obesity and diabetes.”

How Do You Increase Autophagy?

There are five key ways to ramp up autophagy in your body:

Exercise

Use Intermittent Fasting

Eat a high fat low sugar and starch diet

Limit protein intake to 15 grams per day one time per week

Get a good night’s sleep!

Exercise

HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training, is the most effective form of exercise to stimulate autophagy because it stresses your body enough to provoke biochemical change.  It is about getting in short-term, acute stress.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting dramatically ramps up autophagy.   Intermittent Fasting can be done several ways but the easiest method to integrate it into your life is to simply  keep all your meals within an 8 hour window each day (see  this blogpost for details on intermittent fasting:  http://workoutanytime.blogspot.com/2017/02/intermittent-fasting-for-health-and-fat.html )

Limit Protein

Excessive protein intake stimulates IGF-1 and mTOR which shut-down autophagy.    So in an ideal world you should limit your total daily protein intake from 40 – 100 grams per day depending on your size and level of lean body mass.   

For body builder types or anyone looking to increase muscle mass adequate protein intake is important, BUT you can accomplish this without overeating protein as described above and/or limiting your protein intake to 15 – 25 grams once or twice a week on non-training days.

This gives your body a full day to recycle proteins, which can help reduce inflammation and cleanse your cells without muscle loss.

Sleep

Sleep is a time of physical and mental restoration and during productive sleep autophagy is ramped up all over.   During sleep the brain cleans itself of toxins that have accumulated throughout the day.  During sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain increases dramatically, washing away harmful waste proteins that build up between brain cells.