How to begin a detox program

You always start with food first. You need to remove all the offending foods and things in your environment that are suspected to be causing you a problem. You might start with an elimination diet which is meant to figure out which foods are an issue for you. Then you move on to the detoxification food plan which is just that- a plan for the rest of your life. That doesn’t mean that you never again can eat out or enjoy a treat or whatever- it means that for your health and longevity you will need to maintain a new, healthier lifestyle and way of eating. You do this by adding in nutrient dense foods that feed those detoxification pathways or phases that we talked about in the past few weeks. You literally want to eat a rainbow of colorful vegetables and fruits every day. 

How do you know if you are a candidate for needing detoxification? As I said before almost everyone needs to do it but here are some symptoms to look out for: 

• bloating, gas, GERD

• joint pain, muscle aches

• low energy

• immune system issues- sick a lot or autoimmune disease like hashimoto’s or Graves

• IBS

• leaky gut

• asthma

• skin rashes- this is a big sign your body is toxic

• fibromyalgia, arthritis

• mood disorders- anxiety, depression etc

• allergies

• weight gain

• food intolerances/sensitivity

• high liver enzymes

The detox food plan used by the Institute for Functional Medicine focuses on whole foods though a supplemental detox powder can be very helpful. It also focuses on organic foods for the big reason that most non organic or conventional foods are sprayed with more chemicals than organic. The ideal situation would be to get as much locally from growers who don’t spray at all. You do the best you can and at a minimum follow ewg.org list of dirty dozen and clean fifteen. 

You will want to also make sure you are getting enough protein balanced out with some healthy fats and lots and lots of a variety of vegetables and some fruits. Your everyday diet should be low in sugar and processed foods. If you are able to make this work for you, you should not have to “diet” or restrict calories in any way. It is gluten and dairy free which are best for those of us with Hashimoto’s or autoimmune disease. This will keep your gut bacteria in balance, reduce cravings and food addiction. You will get the antioxidants your body needs to repair and support itself as well. 

Fish is a big problem for heavy metal exposure. Mercury half life in fish is 2 years long which allows for greater accumulation of this heavy metal the bigger the ocean fish consumed. We have a 60 day half life for methylmercury so if you ate fish once a week, it can raise your own blood levels.  There are mercury advisories for many bodies of water around the country and  you can find out more about your local area at www.epa.gov . Fish from the great lakes will expose you to persistent organic pollutants but farmed salmon (restaurant) exposes us to 97% of all POPs in our diet. ⅔ of salmon eaten in the US is farmed and the POPs come from the food pellets fed to the salmon. Sardines are high in PCBs. 

A note on the organic aspect. This gets expensive. I do realize that and that it won’t be affordable for everyone to eat 100% organic. Make sure your protein choices are leaner cuts of meat or you are trimming the fat. Buy organic of whatever you eat the most of whenever possible. I have been using Imperfect Foods delivery of imperfect produce and you can get organic produce delivered to your door for cheaper than most grocery stores. Stick to real whole foods- they will keep you full and nourished. The cleaner the food, the better.  

Now you also need to look at what else in your life might be exposing you to toxins. 

Air pollution is a problem in urban areas, office buildings and your home. Things like air filtration systems or tightly sealed homes and buildings are all something to consider as well as smoking, exhaust, diesel fuel exhaust (ever been behind a school bus at a stop light or just behind a bus on the road?). What about air fresheners- those terrible chemical things you can plug in to your outlets- or just regular spray air fresheners. How about non stick cookware? That is one thing you should definitely get rid of. Carpeting emits semi-volatile organic compounds and collects all kinds of toxicants which includes things you bring in to your home on your shoes. 

Do you have vinyl shower curtains or live in a city that chlorinates their water so when you shower you are showering in chlorine? You can get a filter for your shower head and use a cloth shower curtain. 

To remove all these things from the air you can use air purifiers with HEPA filters and surprisingly house plants are good air filters. Or maybe not surprisingly to you. This was new to me until a couple of years ago. Spider plants, mother in laws tongue, Janet Craig, Sweet chico, peace lily are all great options for cleaning the air in your home. 

Next is looking at the plastic in your home. Do not cook food in plastic, do not store high fat foods in plastic or put warm liquids in plastics. Don’t use plastic microwave safe containers in the microwave. Use glass storage for foods. You can find inexpensive glass containers at stores like HomeGoods, Marshalls, and TJ Maxx. 

Clean up the water you drink. Get a reverse osmosis water system for your drinking water at a minimum. If you have a well, get the water tested. Your county often will do water testing but you have to check with them as to what exactly they are testing for. 

Personal care products and household cleaners are big ones too. This is one big way you can reduce your body’s toxic burden. 

• body lotion

• shampoo, conditioner

• body wash, soap

• deodorant

• cosmetics

• perfume

• skin creams, cleansers, serums

• lip balms

• nail polish

• hand soap

• laundry detergent

• household cleaners

This list can be overwhelming and I suggest just making one or two changes at a time so you are not burdened by this. I’ll share with you what I use and you can also check out ewg.org as they have some resources there for cleaning products and cosmetics. 

Here is my list: 

• Branch Basics for cleaning products and hand soap. It is a concentrated non toxic cleaner that really really works. I add Good Samaratin essential oil blend from Pranoram to the hand soap and to the general cleaning bottles. It smells good and has antiviral, antibacterial properties. You can also use this for laundry but I find it gets really expensive so I use Ecos or BioKleen. 

• Dr. Bronners liquid and bar soaps for cleaning. The bar soap is at our utility sink and I have used the liquid soap to clean really dirty dogs. 

• Ecos dish soap

• Seventh Generation dishwashing detergent and non chlorine bleach. I do keep chlorine bleach around for when someone has a stomach virus or for some special cleaning jobs but use it rarely. 

• Bar keepers friend and Bon Ami for cleaning tough spots on pots and pans and for cleaning my kitchen sink. 

• Beautycounter is mostly what I use for cosmetics but there are other brands such as Araza Beauty, W3LL People, RMS Beauty, 100% Pure, Crunchi, Mineral Fusion, Vapour, Lawless, Gabriel Cosmetics. I know nothing about these companies except Beautycounter which I used to sell to get the discount but am not selling anymore. They are not the cleanest but are better than many and I don’t wear a lot of make-up. I also like Celtic Complexion skin care and MeiZen skin care as well as Evan Healy and Intelligent Nutrients. 

• Hair products, I use are Intelligent Nutrients (they often have a 30% off sale) and I have started using HairStory which is not as clean. 

• I use Shea Butter or Jojoba oil for moisturizer or Allafia or Everyone lotion and body wash

• Allafia makes a non aluminum and non baking soda based deodorant which is nice. 

• I use a steam mop to clean my floors and I have microfiber cloths as well. 

• I use cast iron pans, stainless steel and enameled cast iron. We do have a non stick waffle maker and griddle but I just got a new stove with a cast iron griddle attachment so I am looking forward to using that. 

I think the other thing I would like to briefly mention is genetic testing. You may have a polymorphism in your genes- well we all have them it just depends on which ones you have and how many that determines if your body has some difficulty with detoxification. You can do genetic testing and work with someone who can create a nutrition plan for you based on your SNPs but you can do some general dietary recommendations like what I have talked about here. What you eat plays a role in turning on or off your genes that can create or keep disease at bay, especially chronic illnesses. Chronic illness like autoimmune disease is influenced by what we put in our body. 100 calories of cake is not the same as 100 calories of apples. It just isn’t. We also have to keep in mind epigenetics which is the role the environment plays in our overall health and what it is doing to our genes. So a clean diet that is full of plants of varying colors and quality proteins are your best bet for the beginnings of good health. 

Thanks so much for listening. Please head over to my website and sign up for my newsletter. It has been awhile since I sent a recipe out and I am due to get something together this weekend. If you could leave me a rating or review on apple podcasts I would really appreciate it. The goal is to educate as many people as possible to take control of their own health and I can’t do it without you. Share this with someone you know who might be struggling with autoimmune disease, especially hashimoto’s. 

How to test for toxins in your body

We talked about toxins last week and how some particular toxins can affect the body. How do you know if you have an issue with toxins? Functional medicine can be helpful here when you use their timelines and you work with a practitioner to gather information about your health. 

Your practitioner should ask you, “When was the last time you felt good or when was the last time you remember feeling really good?”

There should first be a focus on your symptoms before you spend a dime on lab testing, except your obvious thyroid labs of course. Your practitioner should take a very thorough history and plotting your life on a timeline with you. Plotting all your toxin exposure on a separate timeline can be very helpful for you to be able to see just how much of a burden your body is under. 

Some of the things that are involved in your toxic burden are genetics, things like polymorphisms in your genetic make up called SNP’s. Things that you come with at birth, maternal heath habits and health history. What was it like while you were in the womb? Then think about things you were exposed to as a child or exposure over time to a particular toxin. For me it might have been mercury through a mouthful of amalgam fillings. Next we are thinking about how disease gets triggered. You have a lifetime of exposure to something- for me it was second hand smoke, then I had a root canal as an adult- maybe you had something else. The point is you get this compounding effect and something in your body is triggered. When my son died, I am pretty sure the trigger for the thyroid storm was stress. I didn’t handle stress very well at all back then and didn’t learn how to really manage it until the last couple of years if I am being honest. So stuff is brewing and finally your body breaks. The final straw could be something as simple as gluten. It really depends on you and your bio-individuality. That is why the timeline is so important in helping you figure out your root cause. 

Next you look at what keeps the symptoms going over time. What is making things worse? It could be not enough water or vegetables in your diet or chronic constipation which is common in hypothyroidism and is sure to keep you in higher toxic burden. Maybe it is mold. 

I will share some of my timeline I had to do for my class as an assignment. Each functional medicine timeIine starts with prenatal exposures so we always start there. My mom had rheumatic fever and was on penicillin for ten years so she basically had a completely destroyed gut microbiome before I was born. She grew up on a dairy farm- probably exposed to some chemicals in the fields there and diesel fuel as well. I was born in the early 70’s and it was okay for women to smoke while pregnant so I had that exposure in the womb as well as the occasional bit of alcohol exposure. I had second hand smoke exposure my whole life, ate a Standard American very processed foods diet all while growing up. Both my parents worked so there was a fair amount of convenience foods though my mom did cook meals from scratch most of the time. I consumed a ton of sugar as a kid and young adult- not so young adult as well. I had a mouth full of amalgam or silver fillings, lots of hair perms in the 80’s and early 90’s, regular alcohol use for at least 10 years, Round up exposure for sure over the years but a time frame is hard to pinpoint. Lots of household cleaner chemical exposure as a kid too. My mom used to choke while using a certain cleaning product that took lime off the shower every single weekend. New furniture and new carpet and new construction off gassing over a lifetime, several flu shots in my past until my kids put up such a fight over getting them, we quit going. The use of plastic food containers, heating food in plastic containers in the microwave. Chlorine and fluoride exposure in drinking water, non stick cookware.  

You can see how seemingly small things add up to a lot of exposure over time and can contribute to dis-ease. Plotting all this out can be super helpful for you and your practitioner to see where your exposures were and are and you can start to make small changes over time. 

Some other very important things you need to consider before labs are things that play a role in your overall health and not just your physical health but your mental and emotional health as well. 

How are your relationships? Hashimoto’s and thyroid disease in general can create some loneliness. You don’t look sick but you feel like crap or have zero energy so you don’t make an effort to be with friends or family. You maybe start to stay home more than socialize and people don’t understand. You might feel depressed and certainly there are many of us who have been told by our doctors that we are depressed and there is nothing wrong with us. 

How is your stress level? Not just your physical stress but financial stress, are you a caregiver? cortisol issues, any kind of thing you or your body perceives as stress. 

Diet- what do you eat and drink? Processed foods, foods with little to no nutrient density? Artificial sweeteners? Chemicals, food dyes? Do you eat fish that has high mercury levels?

Are you exercising? All you have to do is just move to start with if you don’t feel like you can do much. Maybe you are working out too hard, too long or too many days a week. That is stressful for your body too. Maybe you are dehydrated or you use energy drinks or caffeine to help you get up and go. 

Are you sleeping? Many of you are not. I spent my college years not sleeping- of course. I recovered on the weekends by sleeping in. Then I had kids. I didn’t sleep through the night for probably 6 or 8 years. Then my blood sugar was a mess and my thyroid problems started so I had a lot of insomnia, tons of fatigue. Then my husband started snoring and having sleep issues. He actually chokes in the night and then flails about, kind of punching his way to a breath so I got woke up by that with a shot of adrenaline and couldn’t sleep. I am 49 this year and I had had enough of the no sleep so I now sleep in a separate room and am sleeping hard and through the night and it feels wonderful. Not so great for my relationship- so that part of my functional medicine matrix paperwork is suffering but I am sleeping and sleep is important to me. I cannot function without it. My brain doesn’t comprehend when I don’t sleep and being in school, brain function is important. I made a choice but so did my husband when he let the doctor tell him he didn’t need a sleep apnea machine because he was borderline.  That is probably more information than you needed but I want to keep it real here. The other important parts of sleep are things like keeping electronics out of your bedroom, keeping the room cool and dark and making sure you have down time. What do you do to relax?

What kinds of dis-ease can be attributed to toxin exposure? Well just about anything but I’ll run down some general things: 

• Poor digestion, constipation, IBS

• Infections, either chronic or things that are recurring, autoimmune disease in general, skin problems, cancer

• Fatigue

• Multiple chemical sensitivities, kidney problems, elevated liver enzymes

• Cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, asthma or things like COPD

• Hormone problems, thyroid problems, type 2 diabetes

• Bone loss, leaky gut

• Brain fog, anxiety, depression, feeling a lack of purpose

For toxic exposure in particular, once you pinpoint the types of exposures you have had, you can then think about potential lab work that might help you set a baseline for measuring how you are moving these toxins out of your system. 

Without addressing your thyroid issue or autoimmune disease, and just thinking about removing toxins from your body, you want to be sure that you have great digestion and you are pooping at least 1-2 times a day so that once you get the toxins mobilized, you can eliminate them without causing you to feel sick.  You will work on avoiding any more significant exposures, probably make some lifestyle changes and then work on a diet plan to clean up your body’s insides. 

Once you do that, then maybe test to see if you are assimilating nutrients meaning- is your body using or able to use the vitamins and minerals you are taking in through your diet. 

But you can take the Toxin Exposure Questionnaire from the Institute for Functional Medicine to get a picture of where exposure is in addition to plotting your life on a timeline. Every one of us has a toxic burden. We want to figure out if your toxic burden is one reason you have thyroid problems or autoimmune disease. So besides doing the questionnaires and having an interview with a practitioner you can have some lab work done. I want to emphasize that the other work should be done first and lab work can come later. 

You can have blood, urine, hair or stool testing done pretty easily to measure some of your toxic load. Maybe have a heavy metal lab test done if you have skin issues, heart disease, high blood pressure (and you know it isn’t from a crap diet), peripheral neuropathy, chronic headache, sleep issues, memory problems or issues with concentration. Anemia, regular abdominal pain, cancer. Any of these can be due to chronic heavy metal exposure. 

Some labs have toxicity panels- I think Genova, Great Plains Labs and a few others offer these types of tests. They are not super cheap though so be sure it is something you need or want. They can test for things like BPA, organophosphates, PCB’s, pesticides, and more. Say you used a ton of plastic over the years- maybe you want a baseline for BPA so you can measure how well your new diet and lifestyle changes are doing at excreting this out of your body. This would be a reason to have a blood test done. 

You can check with your doctor to have a full blood work up done too for things like your blood sugar, maybe mold, your thyroid panel, sex hormones, some doctors do adrenal hormones, homocysteine which measures the level of inflammation in your body, I think you can even get a glyphosate test, red blood cell count, liver enzymes. All those can help you learn more about where your body is at even if they are in the “normal” range. The high end of normal can be indicative that something is going on that you might want to pay attention to. 

IMPERFECT FOODS

Nutritional Detoxification for your Thryoid

Branch Basics All Purpose Cleaning Concentrate http://branchbasics.refr.cc/stephanieewalsntp

Beautycounter.com/stephanieewals

Nutritional Detox

1. Most detoxing takes place when we are sleeping. If you are always in overdrive detoxification can’t take place. We must be relaxed for detoxification to happen. 

2. Your body is designed to constantly be “cleaning house” or removing toxins and debris that build up in the body. 

3. Without ensuring your digestion and other systems are running optimally, detoxification can overload a system and toxins can recirculate in the body. 

Detoxification is the way the body heals and repairs itself 

Body Systems involved in Detoxification: 

Cardiovascular ~ circulating blood cleanses other detox sites such as the liver

Lymphatic ~ fluid flow through lymph where pathogens are filtered out

Digestive ~ GI tract scans food for invaders, detoxes poorly digested and 

  fermented toxins all of which leave the body through elimination

~ Liver- cleans and purifies blood by filtering toxins from blood &

    neutralizing them before elimination (includes pharmaceuticals)

~ Gallbladder neutralizes toxins which are carried out through the bile

    and excreted in elimination!

Kidneys ~ Filter blood and remove waste through urine

Skin ~ Sweat glands are like a second kidney removing waste through sweating

Lungs ~ eliminate waste like carbon dioxide

• Fasting is not recommended for someone with blood sugar issues or what is commonly called hypoglycemia or low blood sugar.

• Releasing toxins too quickly can be detrimental

• The liver is the Spring organ. A good time for detoxification is in Spring because our bodies tend to hold on to things through the winter. 

• Scientists estimate that humans carry over 700 toxic chemicals in their body. A toxin is defined by any substance that creates irritating and/or harmful effects in the body. 

• ANY substance in excess can create toxic elements in the body. 

Pesticides and your food

Strawberries: the soil in strawberry fields are/were repeatedly saturated with methyl bromide and covered with plastic sheets. Methyl Bromide kills all weeds, insects and soil microbes. In 1999 over 5 million pounds of Methyl Bromide were applied to strawberry fields in CA. Methyl Bromide is a category 1 acute toxin (the most toxic kind). Side effects of exposure include: headaches, nausea, muscle aches, blurred vision, dizziness, damage to lungs, kidneys and other systems in the body. Field workers are often told they have the flu when picking berries in June and July. Source: Kimbrel, A., Fatal Harvest 2002.

Processed lifeless food is seen by the body as a toxin. 

Too much food consumed at one time uses too much energy. It doesn’t leave any energy for “house cleaning” 

The best foods to consume for maintaining healthy systems and proper detoxification 

Check EWG.org for the list of the CLEAN 15 and DIRTY DOZEN produce guides to know which items you should always buy organic and which are okay to buy conventional. 

Foods that love the liver:  

acerola cherries rose hips red chili peppers kiwi mango  guava sweet peppers

strawberries parsley  cantaloupe citrus fruits papaya asparagus  collard greens

kale cauliflower red cabbage broccoli brussel sprouts spinach

Consume High Quality Fats: keeps your gallbladder working well and bile free flowing

Avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil, ghee, lard, tallow or expeller pressed sesame oil 

If you are not digesting your food, even the most perfect diet can clog detox pathways.

• It is important you are relaxed when you sit down to eat a meal. Take time to give thanks, take a deep breath, chew and savor each bite (ideally 20-30 times). 

• The breakdown of proteins provides amino acids that are critical to detoxification throughout the body. It is important to know if you are making enough stomach acid!

• Poor fat digestion clogs the lymphatic system and the liver- if you don’t have a gallbladder it is imperative you take bile salts with each meal. 

• If your blood sugar is out of control your liver will be stressed  Sugar depletes B vitamins (B6 needed by the liver to detox and B2 needed for the detoxification pathways to work properly

• Fat tissue is the storage shed for toxins like metals, petroleum and other chemicals (soap, shampoo, hair styling products, make up, shave cream)

• Consuming and Digesting healthy fats causes less liver stress

• Bile is built of healthy fat- toxins flow through and are removed by bile

• Minerals from the soil and your food are needed by the body for detoxification

• Selenium detoxes heavy metals (many people with thyroid problems are deficient in selenium)

• Zinc is depleted by heavy metals and needed to produce adequate stomach acid

• Molybdenum plays a role in detoxing- if you are sensitive to perfumes, smoke, diesel fumes it indicate deficiency

• Water is extremely important for detoxification. Keeping hydrated (half your body weight in water approximately) helps the body flush toxins through the urine and keeps elimination regular (two major detox pathways)

• Keeping hydrated allows the body to sweat out toxins. The skin is the largest detoxification pathway the body has. Taking regular saunas is ideal

• Hydration allows your lung tissue to remain moist and detox through carbon dioxide

• Hydration keeps your blood fluid allowing intracellular waste to be transported through the liver