- A new book shows us how to rid our bodies of harmful toxins.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, detoxification has become an important part of staying healthy for everyone, not just those of us who work in toxic environments. As noted in the January issue of Green Medicine, men who want to maintain the same levels of testosterone that all their male ancestors had for hundreds of thousands of years must detoxify themselves regularly. Because of unprecedented pollution of planet Earth, in 2017 the average 40 to 50 year old man has significantly less circulating testosterone than did men of the same age in the 1950s.
Elsewhere in this issue, the article about “reverse T3” notes a brand new cause of “functional hypothyroidism,” in which the thyroid is functioning normally—in fact “over-functioning”—and yet individuals with “functional hypothyroidism” have symptoms and body signs of weak thyroid! This problem too can only be solved by detoxification!
There are so many ways to detoxify that they can’t all be listed here. Although some of them require a physician’s help, many can be done on one’s own. One do-it-yourself system has just been published by Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, one of the founders and longtime president of Bastyr University, located near Seattle, which has programs in naturopathic medicine as well as acupuncture and oriental medicine, nutrition, herbal sciences, midwifery, and many other natural healthcare programs.
Dr. Pizzorno’s book is The Toxin Solution: An Eight-Week Program to Detoxify Your Life. It’s subtitled How Hidden Poisons in the Air, Water, Food, and Products We Use Are Destroying Our Health—AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO FIX IT. After identifying the problem in the first two chapters—39 pages—the book focuses on the WHAT WE CAN DO TO FIX IT part. It does so very well in just six more chapters, only 166 more pages.
Chapter 3 (The Two-Week Jump Start Diet) tells us which foods are most likely and which are least likely to contain toxins. There are case reports about people who have followed this guidance. There is a reference to the Environmental Working Group, an excellent online source of information (www.EWG.org) about toxins in foods, women’s skin care, and many other things. Meal plans are included for the two weeks.
Chapter 4 is titled “Clean Up Your Gut.” At the end of the chapter, he summarizes what needs to be done in these two weeks in four steps: Step 1, eliminate the bad bacteria. Step 2, add fiber to bind toxins and carry them out of your system. Step 3, introduce healthy gut bacteria and repair the gut walls. Step 4, stop the damage from recurring. Of course, the prior pages in this chapter tell us how to do this and give more case reports.
Chapter 5 moves us from the intestinal tract to the liver. It’s titled, “Restore Your Liver,” and gives us the “Two Week Liver Detox Protocol.” Once again, case reports and considerable detailed advice is included, and is summarized in another four steps: Step 1, restore your liver and repair any damage. Step 2, add nutritional and herbal support for your liver’s special detox enzymes. Step 3, balance and support the phases 1 and 2 of your body’s liver detox enzymes. Step 4, rebuild your detox capacity. Again, there are sample menu plans.
Chapter 6 is “Revive Your Kidneys.” For some, this may be a surprise as it’s not generally known that (except for kidney failure patients) even apparently healthy kidneys need reviving! As is the case with the prior three chapters, it’s a two-week program with recommended foods and supplements, case histories, and detailed advice.
Chapter 7 (“Intense Full-Body Detox”) emphasizes sweating and saunas, while Chapter 8 (“Stay Healthy and Detoxed”) reviews what to do and not to do to keep future toxic exposure to a minimum. There are also several Appendix sections: A, Conventional Lab Tests Indicating Toxic Load; B, Lab Tests for Specific Toxins; C, Diseases Indicating Specific Toxins; D, Symptoms Indicating Specific Toxins; E, Symptom Tracking; F, Safe Products; and G, Helpful Services. And of course there is a listing of the citations (references) for every chapter!
As you might guess, this book is very highly recommended!