Holistic Nourishment

Did you know that your skin is your largest organ? And it is a great pathway of elimination for the body. When you exercise, take a hot bath, or go in the sauna (any way you work up a sweat), you are encouraging toxic chemicals to be released from your skin!

With hundreds of thousands of man-made chemicals in our environment, we are all accumulating these compounds in our body. The majority of these compounds end up being stored in our fat cells, our bones, and our nervous system (including our brain). And many of them have very long half-lives in the body, years to decades! So with continuous exposure, you could expect to never get rid of those chemicals.

So how do we get them out? The major organs of elimination include our liver, GI tract, kidneys, lungs, and our skin. Elimination through our skin is one of the very underutilized ways of encouraging these toxins to leave our bodies. Exercising, increasing body temperature, and the subsequent sweating is a safe way to mobilize these toxins from where they were stored and excrete them out of our bodies.

Ancient and modern civilizations have used sweat therapy for 2-3000 years! The first medical research using saunas occurred in France in the 1830s and continues today. The research is showing that many toxic elements are preferentially excreted through the sweat. Fat and water soluble toxicants and toxins, including insecticides, herbicides, solvents, toxic metals, and natural body waste, can be encouraged to leave the body more rapidly by stimulating sweating. In fact, the only toxins that have been studied that are not excreted in the sweat are perfluorinated compounds (i.e. Teflon, Gortex…don’t use non-stick pans!).

In a study of factor workers with heavy inorganic mercury exposure, the mercury found in sweat during 90 minutes of sauna time, was 50-200% more than the mercury appearing in 16 hrs worth of urine!

Sauna Protocol:

• A dry (finnish) sauna or infared sauna may be used.
• Exercise 30 minutes before entering the sauna to enhance toxin mobilization from storage.
• Find a sauna that is between 140-180 degrees.
• Stay in the sauna for a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of 3hrs a day. Take breaks and take a cold shower, drink electrolyte water, eat salty snacks. (Sweating not only excretes toxic metals, but also beneficial minerals such as sodium, magnesium, and potassium).
• Depending on your toxic load it may take 40-100+ hrs of sauna time to decrease your body’s toxic burden. Work with a knowledgeable practitioner who can run blood and urine labs to help you identify the best protocol for you.
• Eat an organic whole foods diet
• Drink 2-3 liters of water per day. Consider electrolyte supplement or Himalayan sea salt in your water during the sauna use.
• Sleep 8 restful hours each night
• Supplements: multivitamin, essential fatty acid, fiber, chlorella, buffered vitamin C

Role of Exercise:

Vigorous aerobic exercise for 30 minutes immediately before the sweating is strongly recommended. This will stimulate good circulation for optimal sweating, bring blood flow close to the surface of the skin, and initiate toxicant release from fatty tissue.

Toxicants mobilized by sweating will, in addition to exiting through the skin, leave the body in increased quantity via the liver, kidneys, and lungs. In fact, studies have shown that this continues to occur for many weeks after the intensive sweating regimen is terminated.

Diet and Nutrients:

• Eat regularly, three times daily with snacks as desired. Don’t get hypoglycemic.
• Drink lots of filtered water – 2-4 liters/day or more, varying with total sauna
• Eat organic foods if possible. Do not eat products that are canned, packaged, prepared, contain coloring, preservatives, additives, chemicals, and so on.
• Eat lots of vegetables and some fruits; try for 8-10 (½ cup packed) servings each day. They are full of antioxidant substances and fiber that is helpful in detoxification. Brassica vegetables improve detoxification and reduce tissue toxicity of xenobiotics and drugs, likely through providing increased sulfation and sulfonation cofactors.
• Eat less flesh and dairy and more vegan proteins, such as tofu, beans, tempeh, nuts, nutbutters and seedbutters. If you eat fish (small salmon, herring, sardines only) take 1000 mg Chlorella with the meal; this will along with a fiber supplement to reduce mercury absorption. If you eat meats, try to eat low-fat cuts from free range grass-fed, hormone and antibiotic free animals.
• Eat lots of fiber. It is a great detoxifier as it binds fats, hormones, chemicals, metals and other undesirables in the intestines. Fiber is found in beans/legumes (the best!), apples, peaches and pears, berries, crunchy vegetables, and whole grains. Eat two to three of these fiber sources at every meal. You should aim for at least 30g of fiber per day. If you don’t get enough from food, take a fiber supplement.
• Eat at least once daily foods stimulating to liver function and bile flow (lemon/lime, beet, carrot, chlorophyll (greens) ……).
• Avoid: refined or concentrated sugar/sweets, caffeine or alcohol, fried and deep-fried food.

Supplements:

• Take a quality therapeutic, high potency multi-vitamin/mineral/trace mineral/antioxidant supplement several times daily with meals.
• Vitamin C buffered with calcium and magnesium will alkalinize the extracellular matrix and reduce immune reactivity, and to provide extra magnesium for detox support. Get plenty of water and dietary fiber; the bowels should be kept moving.
• Fatty acid consumption has been shown to reduce enterohepatic (gut-liver) recirculation of excreted toxicants. Take 1-4 tablespoons of essential fatty acids daily with meals – mixed fish, olive, walnut, flaxseed, and sunflower oils.
• 10g of fiber per day, divided into 3-4 doses, will help bulk your stool and keep the bowels moving. Preventing constipation is very important, as many toxins are excreted from the liver through the bile and if the stool is not eliminated, the bowels will reabsorb those toxins! Drink 12-16oz of water with each dose of fiber to prevent blockage (fiber absorbs water and if you don’t drink enough, the fiber will get stuck and be counterproductive!)

A Note of Caution:

The important signs that you need a break from the sauna for hydration, or electrolyte replenishing are: headache, dizziness, “spaciness”, weakness, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, heart pounding, irritability, or just feeling uncomfortable. These are your signals that it is time to end the day’s sweating session if they do not resolve with water and salty food consumption. Whatever sweating method you are following, you must not ignore these signs. If you feel one or more of them, take a break as above until the feelings(s) are improving.

If at any time you feel progressive palpitations, racing heart, shortness of breath, chest pain, sudden severe headache, or if any of the symptoms discussed above persist in a severe way despite breaks, discontinue for the day and contact your doctor. If you feel you are having a medical emergency, first call 911.

Resources:

• Genuis et al. Public Health 124(2010)367-375.
• Journal of Environmental and Public Health volume 2012 Article ID 185731.
• Yu et. al. Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2011 Article ID 417980.

Tags: buffered vitamin C, chlorella, clean diet, detox, fiber, fish oil, fruits and vegetables, heavy metals, organic, personal care products, pesticides, sauna, sweat, toxins