The human body is biologically well adapted to its environment. Therefore, it is also capable of regenerating and detoxifying itself. For this purpose, it starts a process in the metabolism in which harmful and foreign substances are transformed into excretable substances by various chemical processes. Organs such as the liver, gall bladder, kidneys, intestines, lymph, lungs and skin are essential for the body’s own detoxification. The intestines, for example, excrete most waste products from the blood through the stool, and what remains passes through the veins to the liver. To transform toxins in turn and make them water-soluble, they are transported via the bloodstream and disposed of in the kidneys, while the fat-soluble components are stored in the bile. Detoxification prevents disease in many ways and can be supported by methods such as purification or deacidification of the body.
What is the body’s own detoxification?
The liver is one of the organs that are essential for the body’s own detoxification. In addition to physiological metabolic processes, it basically accumulates substances that are not directly excreted by the kidneys or intestines. The body also repeatedly absorbs foreign substances from food and nature, as well as substances that are synthetically produced. Such are, for example, pesticides, heavy metals, medicines, drugs, various substances of malnutrition, acids from food, preservatives and others. In order to counteract the absorption of such harmful substances, an independent process of detoxification begins in the body, whereby its own waste products are also produced, which must also be excreted. These can be ammonium or intestinal gases, for example. The kidney cleans and filters the blood in the process. Water-soluble toxins are bound to glucoronide, broken down and excreted through the urine. The kidney must be supported in this process with sufficient fluid. The more fluid excreted, the more toxins pass out of the body. Fat-soluble toxins from the liver find their way back into the blood via the intestines and bile. Small solvents such as alcohol are excreted through the lungs, and toxoids such as arsenic or thallium are excreted through the skin and hair. Large-molecule substances, pesticides or heavy metals, on the other hand, cannot be excreted so easily. They end up in connective and fatty tissues, cells, joints and muscles.
Function and task
The body’s own detoxification process takes place in three important phases. In the first, enzymes activate foreign and harmful substances. In the second, the activated foreign substances are combined into smaller active groups and find their way out via the kidneys or bile in a chemically altered form.In the third phase, which is also called detoxification, a discharge from the interior of the cell takes place, e.g., into the intestine. In this process, the body does not necessarily specifically recognize whether the substances are biologically active or toxic. This means that a reverse effect can also take place through the process of the enzymes, i.e. a non-toxic substance is converted into a toxic one. For example, some drugs are administered in an inactive form and are only converted into an active substance by the body’s own detoxification process. This happens, for example, with sleeping pills such as chlordiazepoxide. The most important enzymes in the first phase are light-absorbing heme proteins such as the cytochromes. They are responsible for oxidation, reduction and hydroxylation, but can also involve intermediates that are dangerous to the organism. The oxidation reactions take place by monooxygenases, dehydrogenases and peroxidases, reduction reactions by cytochrome P450 and gutathione peroxidase, hydrolysis reactions by esterases and hydrolases. In the second phase, intermediates and foreign substances formed in the first phase are bound in a water-soluble manner. Toxic reaction products, also known as conjugates, which occurred with the first phase are now detoxified, i.e. they are either further metabolized or excreted. This occurs via the kidneys, sweat or respiration. The third phase serves the transport processes, which take place in the bloodstream, in the lymphatic system and via transport proteins. In the latter, metabolism does not always occur. When talking about the conversion of a non-active form into an active one, as by certain drugs, we speak of toxification. The substance is transformed into a toxic metabolite.For example, methanol alone is relatively harmless, but through the degradation pathway in the organism it becomes formaldehyde and later formic acid. Similarly, morphine becomes morphine-6-glucuronide in the liver and is much more potent than morphine itself. Such processes are called first-pass effects.
Diseases and medical conditions
Even the famous physician Paracelsus prophesied health through detoxification in the 15th century. Nowadays, environmental pollution and pollutants in nature and food have greatly increased. Heavy metals such as mercury in dental fillings, lead from tap water, cadmium from tobacco are only some of the external toxins that have a harmful effect on the organism. In addition, heavy metals from the soil repeatedly find their way into various foods such as meat, fish or vegetables. They are cellular poisons that disrupt metabolic processes even in the smallest concentrations. They produce free radicals, which can lead to long-term organ and tissue damage with the destruction of the body’s cells. If the body’s own detoxification no longer functions properly, withdrawal symptoms become more frequent, as the body can no longer process and eliminate the harmful substances. This can be due to disorders of the organs themselves or to a metabolic disease. More and more metabolic waste products settle in the body and cause diseases. Such diseases include uremia or even hepatic coma. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to use elimination and detoxification therapy. These methods belong to the basics of naturopathy. In doing so, the overload of toxins in the body is counteracted. To support the body in its own detoxification, there are, for example, herbal remedies that boost metabolism and improve excretory functions. These are, for example, natural absorbents such as mud agents, the chlorella alga, birch charcoal or other remedies from homeopathy.
