Lemon juice, cayenne pepper, ice water, dandelion leaves, laxatives, enemas, and pills - does that really sound like the best menu for a healthy, high-functioning body?
Detox diets and cleanses are a hugely popular right now, and New Year's resolutions to get in shape often involve swift and direct action to mitigate the holiday season's less-than-healthy festivities. January will no doubt see a lot of us turning to the internet to find the best way to recover from overindulgence in eggnog and honey-baked ham, but throughout the year I'm asked if there's such a thing as "acupuncture for detox."
This answer, of course, is yes! But maybe not the way most people expect.
Whenever someone tells me they would like to detox, I always ask what sorts of toxins are in their body and how they got there. Part of me expects an exciting Jack Bauer-esque story of intense radiation exposure while diffusing a dirty bomb in the basement of the KFC Yum! Center or contracting an experimental retro-virus in the process of saving the mayor from terrorists, but that's almost never what patients report to me. Usually, it's something along the lines of, "Well, I've kind of been eating a lot of junk lately and/or drinking too much, so I feel like I need to get that out of my system." Yeah, that's a bit of a different story... and luckily an easier fix!
I came across a great article earlier in the month about the non-benefits of popular detox diets and products that made a couple good points. Firstly, there is a distinction between detoxing drugs from your system, especially with regard to addiction, and cleaning out your colon. Secondly, the body is built to filter and remove waste constantly by way of the kidneys, liver, skin, lungs, and intestines, obviously. Basically, you're pretty much pooping all the bad out. Toxins generally don't accumulate in the body because of it's ability to self-cleanse, and indeed I would argue that "toxin" is not really the appropriate word for junk food in the body, unhealthy as it may be. Again, drugs and heavy metal exposure are a slightly different situation, but generally people are not turning to the Master Cleanse for that. The takeaway is really that "detox" sounds like something that would be really beneficial, but "the word [is] being hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks, and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment" that's really not necessary.
The Acupuncture Side of Things
In the context of acupuncture, there are generally two very broad diametrical treatment strategies that we employ in any given treatment: 1) supplement and nourish that which is deficient, or 2) drain and sedate that which is excessive. In the ancient Chinese medical texts, there is a lot of dramatic language about how dangerous it is to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. You wouldn't want to add more to a system that is already overly replete, and you definitely wouldn't want to further deplete someone who is already weak. Detox products, recipes, and diets are almost always draining in nature because the goal is the remove something from the body.
The problem lies in the fact that the average detox-seeking patient would most often be diagnosed according to Chinese medicine as having a deficiency condition. The feelings of general un-wellness, which can include fatigue, malaise, sleep problems, body aches, bloating, indigestion, irregular bowel movements, foggy-headedness, and emotional turmoil usually have less to do with poison coursing through your body and more to do with deficiency of the Qi and Blood or a weak Spleen. Stress and overtaxation deplete the Qi and Blood, and poor diet weakens the Spleen over time. Now add a detox protocol that involves precipitating frequent bowel movements with cold, Spleen-damaging ingredients, and it will usually make things much worse. At the very least, it perpetuates the underlying conditions of deficiency which make a person feel the need for another cleanse down the road.
The Spleen, in many ways, is the detox organ of Chinese medicine. Its function is to "separate the clear and the turbid" from the food we ingest, utilizing the nutrients to create Qi, Blood, and the other vital substances that nourish the body and sending waste to the Large Intestine to be expelled. If the food we eat is comprised of more turbid than clear, such as junk food, then the Spleen has to go back to work on transforming and removing waste after it has managed to extract all available nutrients. When the diet is poor, this process gets backed up, and dampness starts to accumulate in the body. Still, this is closer to amassing water weight and fat than harboring actual toxins. The way to treat this is at its source. Acupuncture can be used to strengthen the Spleen, making it more efficient at its job of transformation. There are acupuncture points that are described as being able to powerfully augment the Spleen Qi and awaken and revitalize splenic transformation. Acupuncture can also facilitate a bowel movement in a much safer and less draining way than purgatives and laxatives.
Equally important is what we are putting into our bodies. The best way to "cleanse" the body is with a "clean" diet. There doesn't have to be a dramatic intervention to shock the body into turning over a new leaf. As I mentioned, the body is always working at filtering out the bad. Yesterday's Big Mac is already pretty much out of your system, so why not make today the first day of eating better? Giving your Spleen a break by eating food which is easier to break down and more nutrient rich will be better for the system in the long run. The hallmark of a Chinese therapeutic diet is balance. An easy way to achieve this is with colorful natural foods. If all the colors are represented in a daily or weekly menu, all of the elements the body needs should be met. Since cold and raw foods are harder on the Spleen, these types of foods should ideally be avoided, but balancing them with warm teas and soups helps to mitigate their draining effects. Dairy and processed foods are just going to bog down the Spleen, so they are best avoided.
Eating Healthy Is All Well and Good, But What About Actually Detoxing Off Of Drugs?
Okay, so not everyone who is interested in detoxing wants to do so because of a Dr. Oz fad diet. Sometimes, such as in cases of drug and alcohol addiction, there is a legitimate need for medical intervention. Acupuncture is really good at addressing this, as well. Detoxing from addictive substances is a process made difficult in no small part by cravings and withdrawal symptoms. These are commonly addressed by auricular acupuncture in a treatment plan called the NADA Protocol. Developed by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association, this protocol has been used successfully to treat addiction in court-mandated drug rehabilitation programs across the country. Ear acupuncture is a bit of a different system than the meridian based tradition of classical Chinese medicine. It's a relatively modern style which interfaces directly with the central nervous system; the NADA protocol uses points to invoke the organs of detoxification - Liver, Kidney, Lung - while also balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems to reduce withdrawal symptoms.
In addition to the NADA protocol, body acupuncture is still done based on a diagnosis. There is still generally a pattern of deficiency that needs to be addressed as drugs and medications delete the body of vital substances and throw the organ systems off balance. This goes for non-habit-forming long-term prescription drugs, too, as well as chemotherapy. All of that passes through the kidneys and liver, and many damage the stomach and other digestive organs. Part of the "acupuncture detox" treatment may involve support for these organs so that they are better able to handle the metabolism and excretion of medications. When these prescriptions are necessary, especially over the long term, it becomes even more vitally important to have a clean diet. Otherwise, the body is getting a double dose of weird crap to filter and transform!
Personally, I'd rather eat a balance of steamed and roasted vegetables, high-quality organic meat, and limited amounts of dairy than have a colonic - I don't care how nice the spa is.
Photo credit:
http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/Kamanao/story/why-fad-diets-slow-you-down
http://www.universityherald.com
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