Question to the expert: Does healthy people need detox from "slags and toxins"
Text: Alexey Vodovozov
RESPONSES TO THE MAJORITY OF US QUESTIONS we are all used to searching online. In this series of materials we ask exactly such questions - burning, unexpected or common - to professionals in various fields.
Concepts such as "cleansing" or "detoxification" are found in almost any alternative medical course. If, say, the practitioners of meditation and “cleansing” of their thoughts have no complaints, then as regards physical cleansing of the body, questions arise about the necessity, benefits and possible harm of such detox. We talked about this with a specialist.
Alexey Vodovozov
toxicologist, scientific journalist
"Slag" and "toxins", which offer to clean in alternative medicine - this is a non-existent threat, and no one has ever seen them. They are not given a clear definition, they can not be detected even with the help of laboratory devices of the latest generation, they are not visible either in optical or electron microscopes. In most cases, the postulate of their existence and regular accumulation is proposed to be taken on faith; sometimes pseudo-diagnostic methods called to confirm the “terrible diagnosis” are called for help.
At the same time, "alternatives" actively use fictional, but science-like terminology - for example, they describe "seven degrees of slagging according to the classification of the World Health Organization". It is not very clear why in this case to hide behind the WHO name: just go to the official website and try to find the word "slagging" with a search in order to get a zero result. Neither "slagging" nor "acidification" - another common diagnosis from the dark side of medicine - cannot be found on the website of the International Classification of Diseases.
A strange argument is often used: official science cannot refute our assertions, which means we are right. But science does not work this way: the burden of proof lies on the asserter - and these very proofs have not yet been observed. Although, frankly, sometimes scientists still take on the refutation of myths and successfully do it. Indicative in this sense is the story of stones that allegedly come out of people during the "cleansing of the liver." The procedure is familiar to many adherents of alternative medicine: in the evening, olive oil and fruit (usually apple or lemon) juice are taken on an empty stomach. After that, you can put a heating pad on the area of the liver, you can not put, you can lie on your right side, and you can on the left side - it depends on the flow to which the one is cleaning. In the morning, guaranteed to come "stones."
"Slag" and "toxins", which offer to clean in alternative medicine - this is a non-existent threat, and no one has ever seen them
In 2005, two New Zealand scientists - a clinical biochemist and a gastroenterologist - decided to check what these stones consist of. A woman with real stones in the gall bladder, whom herbalist recommended such a “cleaning”, turned to the clinic; Some of the formations that she had collected, frozen, and then brought to the study actually came out of the patient. After a thorough analysis by various methods, it turned out that the "stones" consisted of components of olive oil and lemon juice, slightly modified under the influence of digestive enzymes. That is, the output was obtained the same that was available at the entrance; and these stones had to be removed from the gallbladder surgically.
Speaking of surgery. With some stones in the gallbladder, you can live a lifetime. But if you stimulate the liver with such alternative methods, the pebbles can go out on their own. Well, if they are small and pass through all the ducts and sphincters, and if stuck in a narrow part of the duodenum, which open the common bile duct and pancreatic duct? Stopping the outflow of bile will seem flowers compared with acute pancreatic necrosis - the destruction of pancreatic tissue by its own enzymes. And no cleansing in this situation will help, and the doctors are not always able to cope with it.
"Cleansing" are also relatively harmless, for example, the popular "detox" - a diet of juices and smoothies. It is unlikely that they will be able to directly harm the bottles with multi-colored contents, after all there are food products. Passion for liquid food is not very good for the health of teeth and deeper parts of the gastrointestinal tract, but still large-scale problems on this side should not be expected. The trouble is that people rarely confine themselves to detox bottles. Often "cleaned" in a complex. For example, with the help of hydrocolonotherapy, which is presented as a soft, natural and physiological method, although it is not very clear that it is physiological in pumping through the anus under the pressure of huge (tens of liters) volumes of water. Not only does the intestinal microflora occur, much more unpleasant consequences are described. For example, perforation of the rectum or infection with amebiasis. This procedure not only does not solve the problem, but also creates new ones. As well as not less popular coffee enema - cases of perforation of the rectum due to burns of mucous hot coffee, as well as deaths are described. And this is not counting such "trifles" as electrolyte imbalance and polymicrobial septicemia.
Hydrocolon tearpie is presented as a soft and physiological method, although it is not very clear that physiological is pumping through the anus under the pressure of huge volumes of water.
"Natural" supplements, which are often included in the complex of cleansing, turn out to be stuffed with the very "terrible pharmacy chemistry", which the BAA seems to be designed to replace. For example, prescription sibutramine, bumetanide, phenytoin, pseudoephedrine, amphepramon, which have very serious side effects and are used for strict indications, as well as carcinogenic and discontinued phenolphthalein, known as purgen, have been found in just eight different “herbal” slimming supplements.
And there are plenty of such examples. Not being able to prove the existence of real diseases, the apologists of alternative medicine and their adherents simply postulate: slags are there, we must be cleaned of them, without being puzzled by questions of the validity of such actions. As a result, people harm themselves directly or indirectly, not turning to doctors in the presence of serious pathology and trying to escape from diseases with ephemeral "cleansing".
When does the body need to be “cleaned” and from what substances? For example, with serious violations of the liver or kidneys, if they do not cope with their main task - in fact, the elimination of toxins and processed products from the body. Metabolites resulting from the breakdown of proteins, including urea, uric acid, indican and creatinine, are eliminated through the kidneys. If the kidneys do not cope with their work, these nitrogenous slags (the official term) accumulate and begin to harm the body. The method of purification of the body from such slags is known: hemodialysis using the apparatus "artificial kidney". This is a cumbersome inpatient structure, although in 2016, the portable version of the device successfully passed the first phase of clinical trials.
A variety of toxins are also well studied. With many of them, such as toxins of microorganisms, we regularly encounter when we are sick with infections. Poisoning with some toxins we can easily arrange for ourselves: the famous hangover is nothing more than poisoning by metabolites of ethyl alcohol, primarily acetic aldehyde. And here, too, everything is clear with the cleaning process: the methods repeatedly tested in toxicology are used. Most often these are various intravenous infusions (“droppers”) with simultaneous forcing diuresis (excretion with urine) diuretic, plasmapheresis or hemosorption can be involved, sometimes it is necessary to carry out antidote therapy (antidotes).
That is, toxins and slags themselves are not a myth, they are known to medicine, they are well diagnosed, and there are various treatment methods with proven efficacy to combat them. But all this has nothing to do with the practice of “cleansing” or “detoxifying” for a healthy person.
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