Is Detoxing really necessary?

Yes, if its the right one. No, if its the wrong one. How do you know if its the right one? To get to that answer let me start from the beginning. Our body, and liver especially, is beautifully designed to detox itself. When we sleep appropriately, eat appropriately, exercise appropriately, drink appropriately we are health machines capable of amazing innate detox abilities. But even if we are perfect in how we take care of ourselves there is still this huge luming toxic thing we all live with called the environment and stress. These environmental pollutants and external stresses turned internal stresses we live with alone area good reason to occasionally help our liver detox chemicals that really have not been proven safe or harmful, let alone the chemicals that have been proven harmful. Harmful chemicals, natural chronic levels of cortisol included, are proven biomarkers for major life threatening diseases like cancers, chronic pain and and degenerative diseases. So, once a year, twice a year or even even season if you like a good quality detox is not out of the question to give yourself some actual solid health and life insurance. (in fact, one of my colleagues, Ted Haun often “jokes” that before you buy a life insurance plan, do a detox because your biomarkers will never be better and you will get the lowest rate possible!) Now, add in reality that the majority of us are not buddhist monks living the cleanest healthiest life at all times and we have even more toxins building up over time in our bodies. And the symptoms of toxicity are clear- fatigue, need “caffeine”, any sleeping difficulties, chronic pain or pain that comes and goes, acne, diarrhea, gas, constipation, bloat, depression, anger, irradiate emotions, irregular cycles. These are all symptoms of our body telling us “we can’t work properly because we have the wrong tools or the tools we need don’t seem to be available.” When my patients are concerned about long term health, serious chronic diseases or what their symptoms mean right now I often recommend a detox to get the body back to a baseline to see what can be fixed by allowing the entire digestive tract to heal and repair, by getting out endocrine disruptors, and decreasing inflammation. Once we are at baseline, if any of the the symptoms still remain they do so at a much lower level. This gives me and you a more realistic idea of what we can do with herbs and acupuncture and a treatment plan expectation. The cleanse that i believe in, use myself and for my family and patients is “Standard Process 21 day purification program”. I have come to find out that i think this cleanse is harder than any one of my patients or family members have ever reported back to me! And i still do it and think its the best one out there. Doing it for 21 days allows you to slowly build the lifestyle and cooking habits to succeed when the cleanse is done. It forces you to have a clean kitchen, prepare food ahead of time and think about where you out and what you eat when you go out. It is a grounding and emotional detox. It is a whole food, satiating and nourishing detox. I never worry about a deficient person or an excess person using this cleanse because it nourishes the body and mind from all 360 degrees. As an acupuncturist i am here to guide, assist, educate, care for you. This is one of my greatest tools to help you care for yourself and your health.