The 3 Pillars of Detoxification [Plus 15 Signs You Need to Invest in Detox TODAY]

You’ll often hear the liver associated with detoxification. Why? Because it really is the foundational organ of detox! At only about 3 pounds, it does a LOT for its size. For example, the liver:

• Produces proteins that play a role in blood clotting
• Breaks down old or damaged blood cells
• Ensures that your blood sugar level stays consistent
• Converts the amino acids from protein into energy the body can use
• Converts ammonia from protein to a much less toxic substance called urea
• Helps fight infections

When it comes to detoxification, the liver works in two phases. Both are critical to completely remove the chemicals and other toxins the body encounters daily.

Phase 1: Most toxins are fat soluble and that means when they build up in your body, they often hide in fatty tissues such as the brain and other organs. It also means they can’t dissolve in water, which makes them difficult for the body to eliminate. But don’t worry, that’s where the liver steps in! The liver works to convert fat-soluble toxins into water-soluble components that can then be eliminated. In phase 1, the liver converts a toxin into a reactive intermediate, which can actually potentially be more harmful than the original toxin. Phase 1 enzymes prepare substances to be excreted from the body.

SUMMARY

Fat-Soluble TOXIN —> Phase 1 —> Reactive Intermediate

Phase 2: In this phase, the liver will attach an anchor molecule to that reactive intermediate, such as a sulfur-containing compound, which makes the intermediate compound water-soluble so that the body can then excrete it with the bile or in the urine. It basically neutralizes those reactive substances, preventing DNA damage, and preparing them for removal via the kidneys or gallbladder.

SUMMARY

Reactive Intermediate —> Phase 2 —> Water-soluble Metabolite

You need both phase 1 and phase 2 to be working optimally to really have healthy detoxification. In fact, if phase 1 is working optimally but phase 2 is slower, the extremely toxic intermediate compounds produced in phase 1 can build up and damage your DNA. I often explain it to my patients like this:
Phase I sets the countdown timer on an intracellular bomb, and Phase 2 deactivates that timer so the bomb doesn’t explode.

As you can see, the liver is really the foundation of detoxification. But it doesn’t act alone! The gut also plays a big role in detoxification.

Your digestive tract is a complex ecosystem that is at the center of so many of your body’s processes. Along with the skin, the gut is really how your body interacts with the outside world by processing all the foods you eat and liquids you drink. Your gut lining is an important part of digestion. It contains a one-cell-layer-thick semipermeable membrane that is responsible for absorbing nutrients and keeping other harmful things — like large, partially-digested food particles and of course, yeast, bacteria, toxins and chemicals from the environment, the food you eat, and medications you take out of the bloodstream where they can wreak havoc by triggering an immune response that leads to inflammation.

Unfortunately, an imbalance in the gut microbiome can lead to a breakdown in the gut wall, opening up the velcro-like connections between cells known as tight junction proteins — which are like the security guards who decide what passes through and what stays out. In essence, this is what a leaky gut is — loosened tight junctions. As a result, it allows toxins to slip through the gut lining and cause inflammation, which can lead to any of the 15 symptoms of impaired detoxification we talked about earlier.

There’s also a strong connection between what the gut does for detox and what the liver does. For example:

• After the gut breaks down and absorbs what you eat, the liver converts food into energy and nutrients.
• Blood carries nutrients, medications, and toxins from the digestive organs to the liver. This critical organ processes and eventually detoxifies these things, after which the liver releases them back into the blood or to the colon for elimination.
• The liver gets 70 percent of its blood supply from the intestine via the portal vein, which carries blood from the gut and other organs to the liver.
• The liver produces bile, a fluid made and released in the liver that the gallbladder stores. Bile travels to the gut to break down dietary fats and helps eliminate the toxins that are fat-soluble.

And then, there are the bacteria living in your gut — collectively known as your gut microbiome.

The gut microbiome is the community of at least 100 trillion bacteria living inside your intestines. These bacteria live mainly in your large intestine and help you break down your food, produce essential postbiotic nutrients and important signaling molecules like neurotransmitters. But the reason I’m mentioning it here is because the gut microbiome also supports detoxification. In fact, gut bacteria are often the first ones to start breaking down toxins or pesticides or chemicals that you ingest.

Unfortunately, although these chemicals supposedly don’t harm humans, these chemicals — which are designed to kill unwanted pests like insects, weeds, rodents, and fungi — can end up killing our own beneficial gut bacteria. Exposure to pesticides (even in run-off water), like chlorpyrifos, glyphosate, and atrazine can reduce your gut microbial diversity in the same way antibiotics do, and consequently impair detoxification. Encouraging diversity and abundance of good bacteria in your gut by eating fermented foods, a high-fiber diet, and probiotic supplements, is an absolutely critical part of supporting detoxification.