The Science of Detox

“Scientists say: drop “detox”: have a glass of tap water and get an early night” was the advice recently issued from “Sense about Science” (full details: http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/DetoxPressRelease.htm). So how scientific is this advice?

Actually we know a great deal about the detoxification process, and it is true that the body is quite good at getting rid of toxins. For one thing, we are involved in a constant evolutionary arms race with the things we eat, which develop toxins in order to discourage us from eating them, while we in turn have to develop ways of disabling and excreting these toxins so that we can carry on feeding ourselves. If we couldn’t handle these toxins we couldn’t survive.

There is no doubt however that in the modern world we are under increased pressure from toxins notably from man-made chemicals found in our food and in the environment which our bodies have not had time to evolve defences against – DDT is a well-known example of one of these that our normal Detox mechanisms cannot deal with. There’s not much we can do about DDT but what about other toxins? Take mercury for example, the second most toxic element after plutonium. We all have mercury in our bodies derived both from the environment and from dental amalgam, and we are able to excrete it at a certain rate. For many of us especially those with many fillings, this rate is not fast enough and as a result mercury accumulates in nervous tissue where its toxicity is most damaging. There is a simple test that measures this called the Kelmer test. Kelmer is a chelating agent which helps remove mercury (and other heavy metals) from your body and after taking a dose you can measure the increase in mercury excretion in your urine using HPLC– typically in someone who has excess mercury this will be elevated about three or four times over the background excretion rate for 24 hours after taking Kelmer. Where excess mercury is not present there will still be some elevation in excretion rates, but much less and generally there is no cause for concern if it is less than double.

A few years ago a Vietnamese researcher (Yoshiaki Omura Acupunct Electrother Res 1998 (21) 2; 133-6) noticed that coriander leaf had the same effect as Kelmer and other chelating agents such as DMPS or EDTA, and was just as powerful as the pharmaceuticals, which is why at Thorncroft we use it as an ingredient in our Detox Cordial. Many of us have too much mercury as well as other heavy metals like lead in our systems and taking coriander (yes, you could just as well buy fresh coriander and add it to your food) is a simple, cheap and healthy way of increasing the rate at which we get rid of it. The science of this is clear, the benefits unmistakeable, and for anyone lucky enough not to need it, there is no danger in consuming what after all is a common herb. In fact all the ingredients in Detox cordial are foodstuffs, which may seem strange to admirers of drug based medicines, which are all toxic by nature (if it isn’t toxic – i.e. doesn’t have side-effects – it’s not a drug) but not at all strange to herbalists whose art is based on using common edible plants to support the bodies own healing processes, in contrast to the apothecary’s art of judicial use of poisons.

Other herbs that support the Detox process have long been used in soft drinks and herbal medicines and indeed their names live on in the names of many common soft drinks nowadays although these are typically just flavoured lemonades nowadays, with little in common with their herbal forerunners, which were all drunk principally for their health benefits. Examples are Dandelion and Burdock, Sarsaparilla, and Root beer. Dandelion and Burdock is the classic Detox combination (they have no flavour and were used in drinks purely for their function – the flavour of D&B lemonade is wintergreen) and this combination is also used in both Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for its effect in supporting the detox process. Put simply, Dandelion root stimulates bile flow, while Burdock supports kidney function. Unlike Coriander, they don’t initiate a Detox process on their own, but simply support whatever detoxification is going on in the liver and kidneys already. As a certain amount takes place all the time they may always do some good but to get the real benefit you should take them in combination with other measures to increase the Detox process. The most effective of these is to fast taking juice only for seven days – but this is quite demanding and therefore unfashionable, and a less demanding approach is to follow a light diet cleansing diet designed to have a similar if less intense effect over a longer period. This is when Detox Cordial, or Detox tea, or other herbal preparations that support the Detox process really come into their own.

There is little doubt that there are “Detox” products on the market which are of little value, many being nothing more than juice drinks, and that the “detox” tag is being abused by some manufacturers and supermarkets, but this is not to say that the whole concept is disreputable and that some conscientious manufacturers are not making products that genuinely help people to deal with the toxic stress of modern life.

Feel free to contact us on info@thorncroftdrinks if you have comments or would like further information.

Guy Woodall 6/1/6