Is There A Simple And Effective Detox Program?

Key Elements of Effective Detoxification

If you lose weight, you will gradually move the toxic chemicals out from the fat with the triglyceride mobilization into your blood, from where they can then be removed. This was clearly demonstrated in a 1999 study.4 This is an important concept, as two-thirds of Americans are overweight.

A simple way to detoxify is to optimize your lean body mass, because you can’t store toxins if fat is absent. To mobilize and excrete toxins, Dr. Yu recommends using niacin in combination with exercise and sauna therapy. Exercise is key, in order to eliminate the toxins through your skin, otherwise, they’ll just end up being reabsorbed by your body. Using a sauna will also allow for excretion through your pores. Infrared saunas are a great option, and can significantly expedite the detoxification process.

The sauna heats your tissues several inches deep, which can enhance your natural metabolic processes. It also enhances circulation and helps oxygenate your tissues. If you do use an infrared sauna, make sure that is a low or no EMF model as many of the infrared saunas emit very high levels of potentially harmful EMF radiation. Your skin is a major organ of elimination, but many people do not sweat on a regular basis. This may be due to wearing synthetic or tight clothing that does not breathe. Sedentary living and sun damage also inactivate your skin. Repeated use of the sauna slowly restores skin elimination, which can help reduce your toxic load quite significantly.

For added elimination, you can also use substances like activated charcoal (Dr. Yu typically recommends 500 mg, or about five 100 mg tablets), and/or zeolite clay (even oils which also absorb toxic chemicals)—both of which will pull the toxins from your blood and out through your GI tract. In the old days, we used to treat drug overdose with anti-asthmatic drugs, such as theophylline, by simply using a heavy dose of charcoal to absorb the drug through the GI tract.

Just beware that any medicines and supplements you take around the same time will also be bound up by the activated charcoal, and expelled before they can take effect. Similarly, toxic pesticides and industrial chemicals are not the only toxins mobilized and eliminated by the niacin-exercise combination. Other substances that will also be expelled include the following. Dr. Yu actually recommends using this type of detoxification post-surgery (and in cases of drug abuse), to eliminate medications that might otherwise remain trapped in your fatty tissues:

Dosage and Frequency Recommendations

In terms of dosage, people exposed to highly toxic situations, such as the 9/11 firefighters, are slowly worked up to a dose of 5,000 milligrams (mg) of niacin over the course of 30 days. Ordinarily however, 100 mg of niacin, once to twice per week, will be sufficient for most people, in combination with exercise and/or post-exercise sauna or a hot bath to draw out the toxins. If you’re engaged in an active weight loss program, you may benefit from daily niacin, exercise, and sauna therapy.

“You have to mix in the exercise because it also causes vasodilation on top of the Niacin flush effect and increased cardiac outputs,” Dr. Yu explains. “You’re moving things. We insist that we follow the same protocol for the more toxic people: they take [niacin], they exercise, and then they go into the hot room to sweat it out.”

A 100 mg dose or higher may give you what’s referred to as a “niacin flush,” courtesy of the vasodilation caused by the niacin. Typically, this effect will last for about 30 minutes. Taking a cold shower can help ameliorate any discomfort you may experience from the niacin flush. It’s also advisable to start with a lower dose, say 50 mg/day, and work up, in order to become accustomed to its effect. The niacin causes a “Rebound Lipolysis” first described by L.A. Carlsen of Sweden when studying Niacin for use in treating hypercholesterolemia—this vitamin first tries to prevent lipolysis and then after one to two hours, it rebounds and leads to massive fat cell release of triglycerides and at the same time release of toxic chemicals.

Although Carlsen did these elaborate studies, what is needed is still more studies on the basic science; studies of simultaneous triglyceride and toxic chemical release. This process is where the toxic chemicals are also released. Although there are many effects of niacin, Dr. Yu believes it is the rebound lipolysis phenomenon that is the most important factor in mobilizing fat and toxins. We are now surrounded by so many toxic chemicals, it’s virtually impossible to completely avoid exposure. In addition to avoiding known toxic exposures, your best bet is to use a proactive approach to clean out your body on a regular basis.

“The way I look at it… it should be a part of your lifestyle,” Dr. Yu says. “You should have a sauna at home. You should be doing this maybe twice a week as part of your exercise routine and it doesn’t have to be with Niacin but . use it in graduated doses starting with 50 mg and increase slowly so your body gets accustomed to it once a month or more when you have some exposure.

Remember, hair coloring is a toxic chemical, especially hairdresser, people with large burden of chemicals from massive tattoos, and people who work with chemicals and solvents probably need the cleansing more. I would say [sit in the sauna for] an hour. The temperature has to be high enough, so that you’re sweating. Now, you could be sweating even in a bathtub if the water’s clean.

If you are on an aggressive weight loss program, it is imperative in our clinic that they use this system as they are expelling large amounts of toxic chemicals in the weight loss program and need to eliminate it otherwise they will reabsorb into both fat and brain. Thus, Yo-Yo diets can be more dangerous than you think.

What is the down side of using Niacin besides the flush vasodilation? Very little! As I and others have seen, mild liver function elevations which are transient. I myself had to go through the program (using up to 3000 mg in a 30 day period) to understand and checked my liver functions without any changes. It is the non flush longer acting niacin which can cause more liver problems, which I never recommend.”

In terms of timing, you’ll want to begin your exercise 20 minutes after taking the niacin. Exercise for about 20 minutes, making sure you’re really breaking a sweat, then get into the sauna for up to an hour. The sauna should be at least 130 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, in order to produce profuse sweating. After you get out of the sauna, you can use activated charcoal or zeolite clay to further help eliminate toxins through your GI tract.

Keep in mind that when you sweat, you lose a lot of minerals and even vitamins, so make sure you replenish with electrolytes and potassium. Coconut water is an excellent rehydrator. It’s a powerhouse of natural electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, amino acids, enzymes, antioxidants and phytonutrients, and is low in sugar but you need vitamins and minerals especially magnesium, sodium and potassium. Dr Yu’s recommendations seems to make sense and I am going to start experimenting with it soon and integrate it into my workout schedule by taking niacin before my Peak Fitness workouts, doing Peak Fitness on my elliptical, and then go into the sauna for half an hour twice a week.

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