Detoxification – Everybody’s Doing It! Every substance that is ingested or injected, in addition to those that pose as a topical application or exposure need to be altered in way that will let them pass through the body without causing any injury in the procedure. Including items we eat or drink, drugs (over the counter in addition to prescription), creams we rub on our bodies and even substances that our bodies naturally produce.
Tylenol
One example lots of individuals are familiar with is Tylenol. When you have Tylenol your body must change it to a form that’s not toxic so that it can be excreted from the body without damaging us. If you have too much it’ll kill you. This is time and dose dependent. Meaning, if you take too much Tylenol in too short of a time period you may consume your entire glutathione and your body won’t have the time to generate more before you develop liver failure and die. If you make it to the hospital in sufficient time you’ll be given an extract of n-acetylcysteine that your body will use to produce more glutathione and hopefully keep you from dying.
Glutathione
It is one of the most significant aspects on your body’s detoxification pathway. Tylenol overdose is an extreme example of what can happen if things don’t work correctly but you will find other extreme cases and many more in which the consequences might not be passing, but diminished functioning and less than optimal health. There are two primary pathways involved in the detoxification procedure. They occur in the liver. In general it involves changing chemical structures of compounds so that they can be excreted in the bile, urine, sweat and feces rather than build up and get stored in cells within the body.
For some substances they’re temporarily toxic after step one and should step two doesn’t happen or happens too slowly they’re more hazardous then when ingested. The method seems is quite complex and requires many enzymes and cofactors for these enzymes. Additionally, it requires all of the building blocks to have the ability to manufacture glutathione. The ability to add sulfur classes and methyl groups is crucial in this procedure and any deficit will leave the pathways functioning at less than optimal efficiency.
Vitamins
This means there are lots of B vitamins in addition to amino acids that could behave as sulfur and methyl donors that are essential for this procedure to work. Due to the complexity of the system it means that there are several diverse ways that it can malfunction. There may be congenital deficits in those pathways, liver disease (infectious, inflammatory, malignancy) that may have a negative effects. Poor nutrition (either from poor intake or inability to consume because of gut inflammation), toxic exposures, in addition to epigentic changes can play a part in the efficacy of the detoxification pathways.
Since this system is so fragile it’s not hard to understand how a person that has a baseline weakness in this system and less than adequate nourishment would have an issue when faced with a toxin in the kind of food, medication or injectables. The food doesn’t even need to be tainted but only something to which their body is sensitive and inducing an up-regulation of the immune system. Another scenario is an individual who was given several rounds of antibiotics within a brief time period without allowing the gut to heal so that it couldn’t absorb the essential nutrients in the diet or supplements as necessary. This could also occur if you subjected an individual to many injectables at the same time. This might also trigger a reaction in the immune system, which might lead to inflammation and poor absorption.
Keep in mind
If you combine any of those situations then the possibility for issues would be raised. Because at birth we don’t know who’s susceptible and because lots of men and women handle these situations without apparent significant handicap the most reasonable course is not to overload your body’s detoxification system . Maintain proper nutrition which contains the essential cofactors in the diet and as nutritional supplements for the ones which are more vulnerable.
Avoid exposure to unnecessary antibiotics and if not possible, repair and restore the normal gut flora whenever they are used. Spread out any vaccines which are being given and don’t take them when you’re sick, or following antibiotics without using probiotics. I find that the variability in the operation of the detoxification system and the probable complications from it not working correctly comparable to smoking cigarettes.
Be aware
Most people who smoke won’t get lung cancer but many will develop cardiovascular disease, stroke, and lung disease. You don’t know whether you are the person who can get lung cancer until you’ve got it and then it’s too late. The best defense against lung cancer isn’t improved detection and treatment, or genetic testing to find out who is more susceptible to the development of lung cancer. The best and cheapest way to prevent lung cancer isn’t to smoke in any way! So no matter who you are, you ought to avoid toxins and ensure that your body is detoxifying as best it can.
