One of the core principles of natural medicine since time immemorial is that a primary cause of illness is the accumulation of toxins in the body. Accordingly, detoxification methods have been in use since before the advent of writing. Ancient cuneiform tablets depict the use of hollow reeds to flush out toxins in the colon long before the invention of enemas and colonic irrigation. One thing this history makes clear is that detoxification has been a cornerstone of natural medicine before the industrial revolution introduced environmental toxicity on a massive scale.
The original source of toxicity is poorly digested food compounded by sluggishness in the bowels. The ancients spoke of a “digestive fire” whose role is to release the essence of the food (sort of like smoke) for the benefit of the body. If the digestive fire successfully “burns” the food, there is very little residue, like the fine gray ash in the fire pit. A poor digestion (weak fire) is marked by symptoms such as gas and bloating, nausea, heartburn, stomach pain and constipation. You can think of a smoky, sputtering fire here, as occurs if you try to burn wet leaves. If these conditions prevail, there is a residue of unburned material in the system. If the bowels are slow, the problem is compounded, as the toxic residue has more time to be absorbed into the blood. This undigested material then fouls the blood and the body, in its wisdom, seeks to remove the toxins. Just as we dump our garbage on the edge of town, the body looks for places within the barrier of the skin to dump its poisons. As it needs to protect the precious organs, the body releases its load into the connective tissues, muscles and joints. From our perspective, it is these toxins and not just normal ageing that form the root cause of the arthritis and muscle stiffness now considered normal in these toxic times.
Our current understanding of arthritis can easily incorporate this view. Medical doctors consider arthritis to be an irreversible and normal part of ageing due to wear and tear of the cartilage that lines the bones in every joint. The thinking here is that cartilage lacks the blood supply needed to supply the cells (called fibroblasts) that produce and repair cartilage within the joint, and that the fibroblasts therefore lack the vitality to keep up with demand. Modern science postulates that the cartilage, which is almost entirely water in spite of its tremendous strength, gets its nutrients from the lining of the joint, a very juicy tissue called the synovium. The synovium produces a viscous fluid called, appropriately enough, synovial fluid. This fluid at once acts as a lubricant and as the source of nutrients and removal of metabolic wastes. The watery cartilage acts as a sponge when the joint moves, soaking in nutrients and expelling wastes. Toxic material, called “ama” (not to be confused with the American Medical Association) in the Ayurvedic system, has the texture and consistency of mucus. If this mucus-like material accumulates sufficiently in the spongy cartilage, it literally gums up the works. The clogged sponge can no longer absorb and release, much as a greasy sponge won’t clean up your kitchen. The fibroblasts are then hampered in their ability to do their job properly, and cartilage deteriorates.
This is where detoxification comes in. Detoxification, along with a long-term anti-inflammatory diet, can provide significant relief from arthritis by producing conditions in which the fibroblasts are able once again to repair the damaged cartilage. I’ve seen this happen with patients who are motivated by conditions such as cancer to clean out their bodies and improve their diets. They find relief of arthritis as a sort of “side effect” of their efforts.
There are many systems of detoxification out there. Since we live in a culture with little understanding of or appetite for balance, many of them are extreme, and can do as much harm as good. Repeated coffee enemas, which landed one of our beloved patients in the hospital, are a case in point. As some of my patients know, I tend to turn to India’s ancient Ayurvedic system for guidance. Ayurveda has focused on detoxification for thousands of years and has expert knowledge on how to do it safely and effectively through a group of therapies called panchakarma along with a restricted diet and herbs. Explaining panchakarma is a separate article but suffice it to say for now that we offer it here at Elemental Medicine. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to know more.
