Dr. Nathan Goodyear

“For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.  In the less than two decades of their use, the synthetic pesticides have been so thoroughly distributed throughout the animate and inanimate world that they occur virtually everywhere.”

While this quote sounds like a line from a recent news report, it is actually an excerpt from Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring published in 1962.

Detoxification seems to be a buzz word these days. Just google detoxification. You will find everything from water detoxification to colon cleanses.

So what is detoxification? The official definition of detoxification is this: the chemical changes of a xenobiotic, a phytochemical or an endogenous (one your own body makes) compound that renders it less toxic and ready to be excreted.  In layman’s terms, detoxification is the way our body protects us from things that we take in that could damage our body.

The ideal situation is toxins in and toxins out, right? If the body is working as designed, then it should be toxins in and toxins out. And how does the body get toxins out? There are many organs that detoxify.  The skin (through sweating), kidneys (through urination), but the liver is the most important detox organ.  The liver detoxification mechanism involves 2 main processes: Phase I and Phase II detoxification.

Phase I detoxification involves the cytochrome P-450 system in the liver. This is the first line of defense against all toxins.  Toxins are tagged and altered for further detoxification, which then occurs in Phase II.  Any break down in this process will result in increased toxin load on the body.  We will talk more in-depth about the detoxification process in my next two posts.

We are what we eat, drink, breath, and touch. But did you ever think that we are what we don’t eliminate? Without elimination of the toxic chemicals we take in and produce every day, our bodies swim in a sludge pool of toxins.

This increased toxic load on the body leads to  inflammation, the balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory substances. The balance between Omega 6, a pro-inflammatory subtance, and Omega 3, an anti-inflammatory substance, is the perfect example.

It is the chronic imbalance of  pro-inflammatory substances that then leads to disease.

Shouldn’t the aim of all health care be to prevent inflammation and, therefore, disease? It is in fact, one of the main focuses of the Seasons approach to health and wellness.

In my next two posts, I will cover what detoxification is, who needs detoxification, and how one detoxifies.