The Shocking TRUTH About Detoxification (What You’re Not Being Told)

Why Daily Detox Matters 0:00

Really, you've got to support detoxification every day of the week because you got get ahead of curve. You got prevent these toxins from building up in the body. If you are feeling some symptoms that you think could be related to, a buildup of toxins, maybe start eliminating things in your everyday life. Maybe start using air purifier. Stop drinking out of bottled water and plastic. Change your coffee brand, change your meal containers and see if there's a difference within a couple of months. Those are the things where you're getting the toxins.

Not expensive to change it. Detoxification. What is it? What does it really mean? We're going to cover in this video what detoxification is. And really, what is the essence of why you need to detox? Where are the main players in the body for detoxing? And what do you do for nutrition to be detoxified? So stay tuned to this. I think you'll find this very helpful because we live in a toxic world and yes, we have to learn how to de-toxify. I'm Dr. Mark Stengler, I am a naturopathic medical doctor. I've been in practice for over 30 years.

Have written 20 books on nutrition and functional health. And here I have Hope Stangler-Castro and yes, we are related and she has a master's degree in functional medicine and human clinical nutrition. So that's a great combination to have. We both work at the Stegler Center for Integrative Medicine along with Dr Angela, my wife, and Hope is our daughter. And this is a very important topic, Hope, because, you know, look, I've seen research showing, and I talked about this on my books, that we have over 100,000 man-made chemicals in our environment.

Most of these chemicals don't even have good studies on them. They shouldn't be in the environment, but this something people are exposed to all the time in air, in water, the cosmetics they use, medications they take. So it's just, everyone's bombarded, so you can't healthy if you have toxicity in your body. But really, you know, for the viewers out there, what would you say detoxification really means? So a lot of the younger people, especially around my age, early, mid 20s, don't fully understand that detox is not something that you need to do.

How the Body Detoxifies Naturally 2:00

It's your body already does it every single day. And we're harming our bodies every day with, like you said, different cosmetics, foods that are not organic, have added hormones, toxins in the air, even air fresheners in our house. plastics, microwave plastics. A lot of people don't understand that it's not just juice cleanses and fasts that fix that. You know, it is not a short-term thing. It's an ongoing natural process that the body performs every single day. Yeah. And so you look at detoxification, here's the good news.

The body has an intricate design to eliminate toxins. And so if we work with that design, you can detoxify, but I think to your point, a lot of people do detoxification programs, which isn't bad, can be helpful, especially, depending on how you're doing it. But the body is set up, is designed so that your cells and your organs are detoxifying every second of the day. We have special, what they call organelles and detoxifications systems. People always think of the liver and kidneys and yes, they're major organs of detoxification, but in the cells themselves, we have special organelles which help with detoxifications.

And so what we want to talk about today is how do we best support that process? But anything else you want Yeah, I think there's just a misunderstanding that it's something, detox is something we need to do to help the body and support the Body Detox because it is already doing it, but we're harming the bodies by thinking we are fixing things by drinking juice or not eating for a couple hours a day, But we still, you know, having all of these chemicals in our bodies and doing these daily things that can harm us without even realizing it.

Right. I think, you know, at the deepest level, how do these toxins that we're exposed to, How do they affect people? Well, there's a couple of things to consider, right? It depends what the toxin is. Some toxins are much more damaging than others. If you have high levels of lead in your body compared to let's say, high-levels of some water-soluble chemical you've just been exposed too briefly. There can be big differences in the harm to the body, but there are so many of them. That is the key. When we test people at a clinic, we do an environmental urine test.

Or we screen like pesticides and plasticizers and BPA and, you know, and we check for toxic metals too, lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, Mercury, aluminum, all these things. And, let's just face it, the average person we test has multiple toxin levels in their body, usually more than just mild levels. We check mycotoxins too. Multitoxins people get from their food supply, like from grains, nuts and seeds, their coffee. Coffee is a big one for... Yeah. So the thing about it is we do have the technology to test for these toxins, the levels that they are, and then which ones are more dangerous and serious.

People can use this technology. Right. And so we find patients like that. Now, one of the things they like is that it motivates them then to take action. I mean, when you see high levels of lead or mercury or mycotoxins or some, you know, we see people with glyphosate known as Roundup high-levels. So I'll say with certain types of cancers and pesticides with Parkinson's disease, it does motivate people, to take action.

Reducing Everyday Toxin Exposure 5:00

I guess the first thing we should talk about, let's hear it from you. It's one thing to detox, but going a step before that, You've got to as best you can avoid the toxins to begin with. What are your thoughts on that for the? So the biggest thing I think is try to eat as much organic produce as possible. Like you were talking about, you know, spraying with pesticides, different chemicals, then we're eating that food and digesting it and it's in our body and we keep eating it, and then it builds up and like you've seen on those tests, I'm sure you have seen a lot of that.

from foods people eat, avoiding heating food in plastic in the microwave, because I'm sure you've seen all the studies that come out with the microplastics. People are heating up their leftovers. It's cheaper to buy plastic than glass containers, but it's not cheaper in a long run. Well, you just pointed out a major category I forgot in introduction there, the old micro-plastic. Now we're seeing in people's blood vessels, in their brain, and they're getting surgery and stuff. So, it was a sad thing where people were eating healthier, they're exercising, right?

And then all of a sudden, you know, their making their own food at home, and lo and behold you find out people are getting microplastics from the container. They're making healthy food and storing it in, that's frustrating. I know we've moved over to, because we prepare our meals for the day when we're at the clinic for lunch and stuff. Tell the viewers what we eat. Yeah, we use the glass containers. No more plastic, no more bags, even, you know, pre-made food in bags. Microwavable organic rice, things like that.

You just want to take them out of the plastic. Put them in a glass container. Just no reason to be ingesting that if you don't have to. Yeah. And how about the, you know, the water bottles, yeah, it's a plastic water bottle and even just testing your water to see, how good quality is, try to stay away from plastic, water, bottles. Bring your own filtered water from home. Yeah, and we have a free water. Right. We have water filtration systems at the clink in the home, so you got it. Now that you have to have our filtration system, I mean, that's just imperative.

Well, and so the water containers focus on stainless steel, ceramic, glass, right? Because now they found these other BPAs, bisphenol, like B and other bis phenols. So people heard about BTA and it's not in the bottles anymore, but it is still in environment. Right. But you still have other chemicals in a plastic. And so... In the bottle, staying out in heat. If you're at the beach or somewhere out and they're all hot and then you are drinking, you know, all this plastic and its just... Yeah, and so let's say you're on a trip or whatever and you don't have your bottle with you and, you know, You're getting it once in a while.

It's not a problem. But for people are doing it day after day, after a day and these toxins are going to accumulate. So I'll say the water is critical. The food eating more organic, tons of studies on reducing pesticide exposure by eating organic foods. And then we have the air. Yeah. I mean the Air. Now some people can control that. Well, some. People can't, but I know I've written about studies where people who live in the city, And they're near a bus route and then they are exposed to so many more chemicals and have respiratory problems, cognitive problems.

Now the studies are showing you're exposed air pollution. So it's difficult for some people to avoid that. You got to do the best you can. But as we're sitting here, we've got an air filter here and we got one at the clinic and our bedrooms at home. We're in the workplace, too. I know some people can't help it, but it's good to, you know, be aware of that and realize if you're having some health issues, maybe it has to do with the environment you are working in, like you talked about heavy metals, pollution, things of the sort.

And, it is so amazing, we're here in San Diego area, the amount of patients we get where they have the high levels of mycotoxins, molotoxin, showing up in their bodies or giving urine samples to the lab. And we see it from both. We see from the buildings right from their home or their workplace. Often those can be the more serious ones, especially if they're kind of like black mold related. But we'll see a lot of people with toxins from food supply. Right. So in more recent times, we've been really guiding the patients on Especially everyone loves their coffee.

It seems like and so we were finding out a lot of people are getting high levels of mold from their Coffee and while we're not gonna get brand names. Oh, you can get coffee I'm your coffee person's right right low acidic low molds organic whole beans not already ground So it's the most fresh. Of course, if you go out to drink a coffee, it is going to be in a plastic cup.

Foods and Nutrients That Support Detox 9:00

That's inevitable. But once in awhile, that's not going hurt. You should still enjoy it, but don't make it a daily habit because then you're having probably mold from coffee at a brand store. And then, you are also having that plastic up where the hot espresso was brewing into it. So we don' know how much microplastics got into that either. Right, right, well, let's get a little bit more into diet. Obviously, organic foods people know about and many more stores are carrying these products now, which is good.

Well, look, it's come to light like these alter processed foods. You know, we've always seen the problems with artificial dyes and colorings and preservatives and depending on the person, some people are more sensitive than others. can definitely affect mood, can affect memory and focus, skin health, digestive problems. I know the administration recently is coming out trying to change what's available in packaged foods in terms of these dyes and stuff, but the average person out there, they're eating out a lot.

They're getting a lotta these chemicals, aren't they? Right, or taking Tylenol or Advil, which is not a bad thing, but, you know, multiple times a week, just having some headache or something like that. There's so many other natural alternatives to that, But people are used to it now, and that's what they know. Sorry. It's good to be informed of what else is out there. Yeah, yeah, be informing, educated. Now, let's get into some of the foods. I mean, there's many healthy foods people can eat,but there are foods that are more well-studied for detoxification.

Tell us a bit about the cruciferous vegetables because they have a lot of research. Your favorite is the Cruciferus vegetables every single lunch. We try to throw kale in there, broccoli in their, you know, carrots, Brussels sprouts, steamed or cooked with olive oil, not on too high of heat. we don't want to kill all of the good ingredient or compounds in they're by cooking it too much or over high heat, I'd say those are the big ones. Cruciferous vegetables like say broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, kale, Brussels sprouts.

I mean, they have some very unique studies on them where they had been shown to assist the detoxification pathways in like the liver and kidneys. So they actually help the body, you know, break down compounds. And one of their unique benefits is they often can boost like glutathione levels. an enzyme to relate to glutathione, which is a major antioxidant and detoxer in the cells of the body. But the average American is not consuming cruciferous vegetables on a regular basis. Yeah, I have not seen that.

Many people do, that's right. Of course, we also have, you know, what are called the allium vegetables. Talk a bit about that, the garlic, Yeah, I mean, garlic is really easy to use as a season enhancer. You can add that in pretty much any meal. Onions, grilled or even boiled, those are great additions. They're really to cook, you don't really need to be a chef at all. you can just make it however you like it and add the seasonings and it's a great addition to your meal, help you detox. One of the key things with detoxification is we know that the average American doesn't come anywhere near meeting the amount of fiber requirements on a given day.

I mean, a lot of people are getting like five grams of fibers, and you should be getting 25 to 40 grams a fiber a day, so you're going to get most of that in your salads, your vegetables, you can get some of it from fruit too, from nuts and seeds and beans, but if you don't get enough of those fibers especially what we call the insoluble fiber, because that's going to carry, you know, obviously the fecal waste out of the colon. And we have inefficient bowel elimination. We now know and what we've known for some years, that you actually can reabsorb certain bacteria from the column back into the bloodstream.

So this is why, in holistic integrative medicine, regular bowel movements is a big thing. I'm always surprised we get some patients coming in and they tell you they have one to two bowel moments a week. And then their general provider tells them, not a problem, it's not big deal. Well, okay, its not going to kill you immediately, but it is setting you up for having health problems and you know. Right. How are they detoxing efficiently if they're not getting anything out? Yeah. They can't be. Yeah, right.

It's impossible. We often do recommend things which support liver detoxification because liver is so important. But most of the things we recommend for liver also help kidney. Now you talk about the cruciferous vegetables, obviously even just the leafy greens, spinach. And these types of foods, the other leafy greens, romaine lettuce and other ones, they all give you the fiber that have different nutrients, which are important. And sometimes we put patients on supplements with supplements which help liver detoxification more like milk thistle, artichoke extract.

Artichokes are another good food. Danielion root, again, using glutathione, things that improve liver and kidney detoxification. And they work in part by stimulating the production or release of bile, and bile carries toxins out from the liver, gallbladder into the GI tract so you can eliminate them. So you're getting rid of those toxins more effectively. What about, you know, we're talking about the fiber and the fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, but people need protein too. What are both the importance of just high quality protein sources?

Yeah. Yeah, We focus a lot on getting the wild caught salmon at the stores. Try to, stay away from the frozen or the farm, things of that sort. Like more of the lean meats, the chicken breast, ground turkey, maybe even tilapia or halibut. Those are the main ones. Once in a while, some ground beef, low in fat, But we try to make that more once in awhile type of meal. Well, what about what we've really focused on the last couple years in the way we cook the proteins? You're the master cook, so maybe tell them a bit about, you know, how we're really, really restricting the grilling.

We form the cancerous compounds when you grill proteins and meats and stuff. Tell them what you mainly focus on cooking the protein. Yeah, we try to do a lot of the air fryer, lower heat, and then olive oil on the pan. Again, low heat. We don't want to kill any of those good compounds in the olive or in food or anything like that. So, nice and low. But we really have transitioned a little to the Air Fryer. Mostly to Air Frier. Yeah. I would say so. You can, of course, bake and all that too, but, you know, our meals aren't large, so the Fire does work well.

You know, people are drinking coffee, hopefully they're drinking purified water. But teas, drinking the right teas can really support detoxification. A ton of studies on green tea. Green tea has the most numerous studies in terms of a tea, because it has unique effect of supporting the detox pathways,

Lifestyle Changes and Results 15:00

which I won't get into. Of course, green teas supports detoxication and probably is one of the reasons, not the only reason, cause it does have special compounds in it, you know, effects. But the green tea, again, one of its benefits, probably why it helps prevent cancer, reduces the risk of cancer is its ability to improve detoxification. And when you get bad toxins out of the body, which cause DNA damage, that obviously can have a cancer protective effect. What kind of teas do you like to recommend to people in terms of just supporting the detox?

Definitely try to do organic tea again as much as possible. I like green. And just just to interrupt, I mean, there's I've seen a lot of studies on how regular teas are organic loaded with heavy metals, loaded heavy metal, bad bacteria. So the organic, especially for the teas, highly recommend you got to go organic. And then I know you did mention trying to get the loose leaf tea as well. You know, that's a good point. Talk more about that because of. Yeah. More, more, my more microplastics. It's hard to stay away from them, but if you can, you know they sell loose leaf tea now that you could steep on your own at home.

So if your able to, if that is the best, or at least get organic. I like jasmine, green tea, black tea. If you need a little bit of caffeine. Burdock. You can get burdock tea Shickory. Rubos. All really, really good options. A little non-coffee alternative. Now, you raise a good point because we have organic teas. We try and get the loose-sleep. Gee, I saw you at my green tea in the morning. However, we do have tea bags, which you bought, different types of teas, right? Because it's hard to get all of them loose sleep or organic.

So when we're using those ones, We put them in what? That little container? We open it up and we put in that little stainless steel container. Yeah. Get it out of the bag. It gets all around to the water. There's a name for it. Anyways, there's other ways to protect yourself. Again, once in a while, these things aren't going to hurt you, but time after time. So it sounds like in the nutshell, if we had to summarize, your body's detoxifying every second of the day. You've got to not only restrict the toxins that are coming in, you've gotta support your detox organs and cells with the proper nutrition.

Do your best with air purification, the water purifications. And it's interesting, people, what are some of the differences you notice when people make, like, these basic changes for detoxification? What are the changes that patients report to you, you know, just within even a few weeks to a month or two? I would say a trend that I've seen is energy levels going up, fatigue going down, better mood. And even these people don't even realize that they didn't have good mood or great... They didn' even know it was possible to be more energetic because this has been their normal for so long.

until they pinpoint what's been driving these processes. And their bowels start to regulate. Digestion. Now, the big one, of course, a lot of women report to us, what about the skin? Yeah, healthier skin. Definitely brighter. Yeah. Clear skin, acne improves, yeah. Maybe even healthier hair too. Healthier hair. I know a lotta women are very self-conscious about their hair, I mean, makes sense. A lotta woman do lose hair but I would say that's a big that they report as well. Very good. For appearance.

So basically, everyone should be working on their detoxification. Again, these detoxication protocols, and we do them depending what lab tests show and stuff where you're very tense for three days a week, two weeks, whatever. But really, you've got to support detoxation every day of the week because you got get ahead of a curve. You got prevent these toxins from building up in the body. Right. And if you are feeling some symptoms that you think could be related to, you know, a buildup of toxins, maybe start eliminating things in your everyday life.

Maybe start using air purifier, stop drinking out of the bottled water and plastic, change your coffee brand, to change you meal containers and see if there's a difference within a couple months. You gotta do those basic things, because those are the things where you're getting the toxins. Not expensive to changing. Yeah, and those are one of the main reasons people are getting the toxins on a consistent basis. You gotta do those foundational things. But in any event, good talking with you and with the viewers out there.

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