Naturopathic detoxification involves a protocol that includes but goes beyond fasting, saunas, and exercise. Our detoxification program includes dietary, oral, and intravenous methods of removing the body burden of inorganic toxins (eg heavy metals) and organic toxins (eg pesticides, solvents, environmental senstivities, etc).
Last edited: May 2021 by Eric Chan, ND
Combination of Therapies for Detoxification and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue / Myalgic Encephalitis, Fibromyalgia, and Other Chronic Diseases
Chronic fatigue syndrome, or Myalgic Encephalitis, along with fibromyalgia have become an increasingly common condition that is seen in the office. It is often difficult to manage, and most of the conventional approach has been focused on pacing, sleep hygiene, and in some cases symptom management with medications. These are very important components of the treatment but there are some subsets of patients who may do well with assessment for toxins and then subsequent reduction.
Reducing the toxic burden is another way to "take a load off the body" so that homeostatic mechanisms may become more efficient.
Toxins can be classified as inorganic (toxic heavy metals and transition metals), organic (pesticides, solvents, cigarette-related toxins), or biological (allergies, low-grade hidden infections). Various toxins may be cleared by the liver detoxification pathways. It is general opinion by Environmental Medicine groups such as the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, that unfortunately these toxins may potentially overload detoxification pathways, potentially aggravating symptoms. Infections may be a toxic foci, which until naturally resolved by the system or treated, may potentially contribute to chronic diseases.
The increased burden on the system can be fatiguing in a very general sense and affect the energy envelope available to the patient.
Our combination of detoxification therapies is comprehensive in that toxic metals may be pulled out of the tissues and excreted (intravenous chelation therapy), low-grade infections may be treated, organic toxins can be identified in case there is an increased body burden and addressed, and the liver, kidneys, and lymphatic system may be supported. A temporary low-allergen diet may recommended in patients.
Support of liver detoxification comes from recognizing the biochemistry of natural detoxification in this organ. Medical foods and supplements may be used to support Phase I reactions and Phase II liver detoxification pathways. There are also herbal drainage remedies that are commonly used which seem to give additional help.
Detoxification can often be broken down into a three-step process when dealing with either heavy metal toxins organic toxins.
The 1st is to focus on intracellular mobilization of the toxins: the analogy here is to go through a deep spring cleaning of the house.
The 2nd is to focus on excretion of those toxins by mobilization of the lymphatics, kidney and liver support. The analogy can be thought of as making sure that the garbage and recycling pickup is operating so that what is removed in the deep spring cleaning does not simply accumulate elsewhere.
The 3rd important component is to ensure that there is no reabsorption of the toxins, which typically happens in the enterohepatic recirculation system between the gut and the liver. This is where fibers, binders can be useful to ensure that toxins stay in the gut and get excreted. Again, and analogy is that we want to make sure that the garbage and recycling does not make its way back to the house after the spring cleaning.
In conclusion, detoxification is one of the fundamental ways in which we can support body. We are not speaking of acute toxicity but rather are trying to lower the burden on the body. Stimulation of the body's natural healing ability may involves removing these toxic obstacles to cure; thus detoxification may be indicated.
Signs that detoxification may be indicated:
feeling worse with exposure to stronger scents
aggravation of symptoms with even the slightest departure from a very clean diet
onset of symptoms after a more acute chemical or toxin exposure
aggravation of symptoms in certain environments such as the workplace or home
Evidence for role of infections in Auto-immune diseases, heart disease (only a few of many more):
·Assessment of systemic inflammation and infective pathogen burden in patients with cardiac syndrome X.
Am J Cardiol. 2004 Jul 1;94(1):40-4.
·High prevalence of Chlamydia pneumoniae seropositivity in Mexican patients with ischemic heart disease.
Arch Med Res. 2004 Jul-Aug;35(4):318-23.
·The prevalence of Mycoplasma fermentans in patients with inflammatory arthritides.
Rheumatology (Oxford). 2001 Dec;40(12):1355-8.
·Mycoplasma fermentans in rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory arthritides.
J Rheumatol. 2000 Dec;27(12):2747-53.
Selected references for more reading
Evidence for IV chelation, vitamins/minerals for cardiovascular disease
Issa OM1, Roberts R2, Mark DB2, Boineau R3, Goertz C4, Rosenberg Y5, Lewis EF6, Guarneri E7, Drisko J8, Magaziner A9, Lee KL2, Lamas GA10. 2018. Effect of high-dose oral multivitamins and minerals in participants not treated with statins in the randomized Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT). Am Heart J. 2018 Jan;195:70-77.
Diaz D1, Fonseca V2, Aude YW3, Lamas GA1. 2018. Chelation therapy to prevent diabetes-associated cardiovascular events. Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes. 2018 Aug;25(4):258-266.
Evidence for Chelation therapy
Alessandro Fulgenzi and Maria Elena Ferrero 2019. EDTA Chelation Therapy for the Treatment of Neurotoxicity Int. J. Mol. Sci. 20(5), 1019.
Bamonti, F.; Fulgenzi, A.; Novembrino, C.; Ferrero, M.E. Metal chelation therapy in rheumathoid arthritis:
A case report: Successful management of rheumathoid arthritis by metal chelation therapy. Biometals 2011.
Fulgenzi, A.; Zanella, S.G.; Mariani, M.M.; Vietti, D.; Ferrero, M.E. A case of multiple sclerosis improvement
following removal of heavy metal intoxication: Lessons learnt from Matteo’s case. Biometals 2012, 25, 569–576.
Fulgenzi, A.; Vietti, D.; Ferrero, M.E. Aluminium involvement in neurotoxicity. Biomed. Res. Int. 2014, 2014,
758323.
Fulgenzi, A.; De Giuseppe, R.; Bamonti, F.; Vietti, D.; Ferrero, M.E. Efficacy of chelation therapy to remove
aluminium intoxication. J. Inorg. Biochem. 2015, 152, 214–218.
Fulgenzi, A.; De Giuseppe, R.; Bamonti, F.; Ferrero, M.E. Improvement of oxidative and metabolic parameters
by cellfood administration in patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases on chelation treatment.
Biomed. Res. Int. 2014, 2014.
Roussel, A.M.; Hininger-Favier, I.;Waters, R.S.; Osman, M.; Fernholz, K.; Anderson, R.A. EDTA Chelation
therapy, without added vitamin C, decreases oxidative DNA damage and lipid peroxidation. Altern. Med.
Rev. 2009, 14, 56–62.
Evidence for detoxification improving risk factors and healing chronic disease (brief examples of many):
·[Leaded gasoline and cancer mortality]
Schweiz Med Wochenschr. 1976 Apr 10;106(15):503-6.
·Association between malignant tumors of the thyroid gland and exposure to environmental protective and risk factors.
Rev Environ Health. 2000 Jul-Sep;15(3):337-58.
·Organophosphorus ester-induced chronic neurotoxicity. Arch Environ Health. 2003 Aug;58(8):484-97. Review.
Evidence for sauna therapy
Masuda A1, Kihara T, Fukudome T, Shinsato T, Minagoe S, Tei C. 2005. J Psychosom Res.
The effects of repeated thermal therapy for two patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Apr;58(4):383-7.
Beever R1. 2009. Far-infrared saunas for treatment of cardiovascular risk factors: summary of published evidence.
Can Fam Physician. Jul;55(7):691-6.
Beever R1. 2010. The effects of repeated thermal therapy on quality of life in patients with type II diabetes mellitus.
J Altern Complement Med. Jun;16(6):677-81.
Soejima Y1, Munemoto T, Masuda A, Uwatoko Y, Miyata M, Tei C. 2015. Effects of Waon therapy on chronic fatigue syndrome: a pilot study. Intern Med. 2015;54(3):333-8.
Isomäki H1. 1988. The sauna and rheumatic diseases. Ann Clin Res. 1988;20(4):271-5.
Matsushita K1, Masuda A, Tei C. 2008. Efficacy of Waon therapy for fibromyalgia. Intern Med. 2008;47(16):1473-6.
Matsumoto S1, Shimodozono M, Etoh S, Miyata R, Kawahira K. 2011. Effects of thermal therapy combining sauna therapy and underwater exercise in patients with fibromyalgia.
Complement Ther Clin Pract. Aug;17(3):162-6.
Laukkanen T1,2, Kunutsor SK3,4, Khan H5, Willeit P6,7, Zaccardi F8, Laukkanen JA. 2018. Sauna bathing is associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality and improves risk prediction in men and women: a prospective cohort study. BMC Med. 2018 Nov 29;16(1):219.
Kunutsor SK1, Khan H2, Zaccardi F2, Laukkanen T2, Willeit P2, Laukkanen JA2. 2018. Sauna bathing reduces the risk of stroke in Finnish men and women: A prospective cohort study. Neurology. 2018 May 29;90(22):e1937-e1944.
J Hum Hypertens. 2018 Feb;32(2):129-138. doi: 10.1038/s41371-017-0008-z. Epub 2017 Dec 21.
Acute effects of sauna bathing on cardiovascular function.
Laukkanen T1, Kunutsor SK2, Zaccardi F3, Lee E4, Willeit P5,6, Khan H7, Laukkanen JA8,9.
Laukkanen JA1,2, Laukkanen T3. 2018. Sauna bathing and systemic inflammation. Eur J Epidemiol. Mar;33(3):351-353.
Zaccardi F1, Laukkanen T2, Willeit P3,4, Kunutsor SK5, Kauhanen J2, Laukkanen JA2,6. 2017. Sauna Bathing and Incident Hypertension: A Prospective Cohort Study. Am J Hypertens. Nov 1;30(11):1120-1125.
Laukkanen T1, Kunutsor S2, Kauhanen J1, Laukkanen JA1. 2017. Sauna bathing is inversely associated with dementia and Alzheimer's disease in middle-aged Finnish men. Age Ageing. 2017 Mar 1;46(2):245-249.
Tei C1, Imamura T, Kinugawa K, Inoue T, Masuyama T, Inoue H, Noike H, Muramatsu T, Takeishi Y, Saku K, Harada K, Daida H, Kobayashi Y, Hagiwara N, Nagayama M, Momomura S, Yonezawa K, Ito H, Gojo S, Akaishi M, Miyata M, Ohishi M; WAON-CHF Study Investigators. 2016. Waon Therapy for Managing Chronic Heart Failure - Results From a Multicenter Prospective Randomized WAON-CHF Study. Circ J. 2016;80(4):827-34.
Laukkanen T1, Khan H2, Zaccardi F3, Laukkanen JA1. 2015. Association between sauna bathing and fatal cardiovascular and all-cause mortality events. JAMA Intern Med. 2015 Apr;175(4):542-8.