Chapter 5. Detoxification

Detoxification is a cumulative process that is carried out by a number of organs that are closely interconnected.There are organs that specialize in the processes of detoxification and neutralization, that is, for which cleansing of toxins is the main activity.These organs include primarily the liver and kidneys.There are organs that are not true organs of detoxification, but which, if necessary, can enter into this process.These are the gastrointestinal tract, lungs and skin.When the body is compensated, intoxication is resolved at the level of the liver and kidneys.Everything that is needed is neutralized and removed from the body.But if the body is initially weakened or if the intoxication is too great, then other organs are also involved.And they get damaged very quickly because of this.Skin rashes due to intoxication, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, disruption of the lungs, obstructive bronchitis in our chronic patients are often associated with the systemic intoxication process.So, the skin, for example, becomes dry, cracks, rashes appear, or, conversely, becomes excessively oily, moist, and sweating appears.These are all manifestations of intoxication and detoxification through the skin.

In general, all detoxification organs make up the total detoxification potential.And the sum of toxins, which consists of external and internal, forms the overall intoxication background.Internal toxins include intracellular metabolic products and waste products of the microbiome.External intoxication is everything that enters the human body with food, air, through the skin (chemicals, plastic, styrene, benzene, insecticides, etc.).

The structure and systems of balance between the intoxication load and possible intoxication are individual.Accordingly, a low intoxication load with a low intoxication potential will already lead to decompensation.And if the detoxification systems work actively for a long time at a young age and are not overloaded or depleted, then a person will tolerate even a high level of toxins in severe diseases, with some kind of dysbiosis or poor-quality food without any pronounced symptoms.

There are true external and false intoxication.For example, sometimes patients receive laboratory results that reveal an increase in lead or mercury, but when examining the home, lifestyle, or place where the person lives, no objective source of lead or mercury is found.At the same time, a person who works in production or comes into direct contact with lead may have clean tests because it has a high detoxification potential.

In my practice there was a child with a very low detoxification resource.If he washed down the pills with water from a plastic bottle, he would have an attack.If he drank water from a glass bottle, there was no crisis.When we drink from a plastic bottle, we do not feel any load of phenols, but this does not mean that these phenols do not enter us and that they will not ultimately deplete the detoxification system.But a child with low detoxification ability responded to them instantly.

There is a difference between external and internal intoxicants, because external ones are still dependent not only on our detox potential.They can be controlled: reduce the amount of plastic, eat from normal dishes, use less toxic materials for your home.

But there is a basic amount of endogenous intoxication, which is part of human physiology.Thus, as a result of normal protein metabolism, when amino acids are broken down, a by-product appears, which is called ammonia.Normally, little of this endogenous cellular poison, a very strong intoxicant, is formed, and in the liver the urea cycle, specially created for this purpose, completely utilizes the resulting ammonia.And a person, regardless of how much protein he consumes, or whether he ate more meat, does not feel the difference.But if the patient has low detoxification capacity, even a small increase in protein intake can lead to an increase in ammonia load.

Or, what happens more often, if the neutralization of ammonia itself is impaired, although the human body has a number of additional auxiliary mechanisms to remove ammonia, the kidneys and lungs are also used.

Второй важный внутренний эндогенный интоксикант – это ацетон, продукт метаболизма жиров. Конечные продукты обмена жиров – кетоновые тела, которые бывают разные.

Сначала образуется ацетоуксусная кислота, но она быстро конвертируется в ацетон. А ацетон летуч, он должен обезвреживаться. В норме в организме он конвертируется обратно в ацетоуксусную кислоту и в кетомасляную кислоту, которые: а) не токсичны; б) используются клетками для получения энергии.

But if a person has metabolic disorders, then the amount of acetone may increase.And this condition will be called acetonomy.And it will also be a manifestation of endogenous intoxication.

The third global endogenous intoxicant is lactic acid.When carbons are broken down slowly and correctly, it is called aerobic glucose breakdown.But in case of an emergency or when the body is already in an inflammatory process or intoxicated, an anaerobic, that is, oxygen-free, pathway for the breakdown of glucose is possible.It is quite fast, but, in addition to obtaining energy, a by-product appears - lactic acid, lactate.

If this is a short-term one-time process when a person is “stressed”, for example, he ran for a bus, managed to fly in, exhaled, then the amount of lactic acid that is formed will not bring anything other than unpleasant sensations in the muscles.But when the body is chronically intoxicated and inflamed, metabolism switches completely to this oxygen-free pathway.And then the amount of lactic acid not only in the muscles, but also in the blood begins to increase, and this is called lactic acidosis.It is dangerous because against this background all other metabolic processes slow down, because in an acidic environment the level of enzyme activity decreases.And when we talk about the intoxication system, we also talk about enzyme activity.The simplest example is alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme that breaks down alcohol.But, in addition, there are a lot of other enzymes that participate in the fermentation of all other products foreign to the body, either deactivating them or facilitating their elimination.

In addition, both metabolic processes and enzyme activity are important for synthesis.If the activity of these enzymes slows down in an acidic environment, a vicious circle begins.Inflammation leads to the development or disruption of metabolic processes or to the development of lactic acidosis, which will increase this inflammation and deteriorate metabolic parameters.

Lactic acidosis can be life-threatening, even fatal.A very important point is that the development of lactic acidosis initially is a compensatory process, that is, a compensatory reaction aimed at ensuring that the body accelerates as much as possible, quickly receives energy and utilizes the problems that it has encountered.But with the chronic course of lactic acidosis, disadaptation and decompensation occur.

The most important “professional” detoxification organ is the liver.In the liver, detoxification follows a strictly defined process, which consists of two parts.The first is the first phase of detoxification, aimed at increasing the solubility of the substance that needs to be removed from the body.In the first phase, there is bombardment with active oxygen, hydroxyl groups are introduced, and as a result the substance becomes more soluble, but sometimes more toxic, because it can get anywhere without carriers.

The main task of the liver in the first phase is to make a substance water-soluble and immediately transfer it to the second phase of detoxification, which, in essence, is conjugation, that is, one of the substances binds a ready-made water-soluble compound, ultimately forming a non-toxic molecule ready for transportation, which then leaves the body through the bile ducts or kidneys.There are several types of substances that can conjugate and excrete.And several methods of “linking”.

One of the simplest is the methylation method.

You can bind not only to the methyl group, but also to amino acids.There are cases where neurological patients describe that they feel much better after taking glycine.But in fact, their improvements are not associated with the intake of glycine as some kind of inhibitory neurotransmitter, but with the fact that glycine is one of the amino acids that can bind in the second phase of detoxification.

One of the most popular phase two detoxification systems in the liver that has been studied is the glutathione system.The starting materials for the synthesis of glutathione are sulfur-containing amino acids.

Endogenous and exogenous intoxicants, as well as the detoxification capabilities of the body, are determined through laboratory tests.The topic of systemic intoxication is directly related to the topic of antigen load.The problem of impaired detoxification systems underlies many vicious pathophysiological circles, affecting mitochondrial function, damaging biological membranes and slowing down the synthesis of substances necessary for the body.Resolving detoxification problems is the second stage of the body's recovery strategy, in most cases following the antigen unloading stage.There are special cases when a detoxification program precedes or goes in parallel with anti-inflammatory therapy.Thus, a course of antiparasitic and antifungal therapy often leads to the phenomenon of increasing intoxication due to the release of toxins by dying pathogens under the influence of drugs.Symptoms of such intoxication may include fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and skin rashes.If a high degree of parasitic or fungal load, detected laboratory or clinically, is suspected, therapy is needed to normalize the passage of intestinal masses; choleretic, laxatives, sorbents, as well as drugs that support liver and kidney function can be prescribed.At the same time, increased drinking and a special diet may be recommended.

And for extremely weakened patients, such programs are carried out in a hospital setting against the background of infusion therapy and, in some cases, plasmapheresis.

Infusion-detoxification therapy is the most effective way to carry out antigen unloading and detoxification due to the direct release of drugs with a high level of bioavailability and detoxification solutions directly into the patient’s bloodstream.

For healthy people living in urban areas and not following an elimination diet, it is advisable to conduct periodic courses of detoxification support with various tools that support the liver, intestines and kidneys.These can be herbal preparations, dietary supplements and medications, or infusion therapy with the inclusion of vitamins and active detoxifying substances in the solutions, such as glutathione, thioctacid, succinic acid, etc. Methods of physical detoxification include visiting a sauna, hammam and bathhouse, or at home - warming up with forced sweating using infraredblanketsThe optimal temperature to enhance sweating is 70–80°C, the duration of the procedure is 20–40 minutes.To enhance the vascular reaction during bath procedures, it is advisable to additionally use niacin from 100 to 500 mg, depending on the degree of individual vascular reaction.

Таким образом, проведения детоксикационной разгрузки и детоксикационной терапии являются неразрывными фундаментальными этапами нормализации работы как больного, так и условно здорового организма, становясь платформой для дальнейшей метаболической, митохондриальной, регенеративной, а в зависимости от задач и антивозрастной терапии.