Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself (9 page)

One cannot argue with success. As a doctor, when I answer the frequently asked question of what to eat for a long, healthy life, my patients who follow my advice start eating like the people who live in the blue zones. What I prescribe is geared toward creating the conditions by which the digestive system is put to relative rest, so the detoxification system can wake from its relative hibernating state and the organs and systems involved in the process of cleaning our insides can have everything they need, when they need it, to complete their job. This is what Clean is about.

CHAPTER FIVE How Toxins Affect Your Health

Each toxic molecule creates a cascade of reactions that expands like the radiating ripples around a single drop of water on the surface of a calm lake. You can follow the ripples as far as your eye can see. In the same way, you can follow the chemical footprint of each toxin long after the toxin itself initiated the chain of events. But a tropical storm on that same lake is a very different picture. Millions of individual drops, each starting a ripple that collides with other ripples, make it impossible for an observer to distinguish one ripple from another. In fact, when the storm gets real intense, there are no more ripples. It just becomes a new kind of general surface pattern.

The Drop

Toxins have many ways of interfering with the normal physiology of life. They can do it in a very unique and specific way, like arsenic, a deadly poison that causes asphyxia by blocking the usage of oxygen needed for the full metabolism of glucose. Toxins may block an enzyme needed for an important body function. Or they may stimulate a specific body function in such persistent ways that it begins to cause damage. Caffeine, when consumed many times a day, stimulates the adrenal glands, resulting in a fight-or-flight response, in which the body prepares for intense action by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, alertness, and temperature. When caffeine is taken in persistently over a period of time, one can exhaust the adrenal system and not even realize caffeine was the cause. In fact, when started on the Clean program and asked to stop caffeine completely, many patients complain because they think they can only function if they have their coffee. Other toxins kill the good bacteria in the intestinal tract, block oxygen from binding to red blood cells, interfere with DNA synthesis by switching genes on and off, or block the absorption of different vitamins.

Molecules that carry an electric charge cause irritation and damage by facilitating oxidation, the much talked about “oxidants.” The process is similar to what happens to metals when they rust. These toxins are neutralized by antioxidants, abundant in raw vegetables and fruits. There are also toxins that interfere with the absorption of necessary nutrients, such as the prescription medications listed in appendix “Prescription Drugs and Nutritional Depletion.”

OVEREXPOSURE TO HEAVY METALS

For the last eight years, thirty-eight-year-old Sara has been experiencing joint pains, most severely in her lower back and hips. She has gone to many doctors and specialists. She was found to have antibodies against her own cells’ nuclei, a subtype called anti-Ro. Though her specialist could not tell her why this happened, he gave her a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis, a form of autoimmune arthritis. Painkillers, antiinflammatories, and steroid injections to manage the pain became a part of her life. Finally, a course of chemotherapy was recommended to inactivate the confused immune system of her own body. Her own “natural instinct” rejected the idea, and she came to me for help on the recommendation of a friend.

One question puzzled her. I asked if she had silver amalgam fillings in her mouth. She did. My questions also revealed she ate sushi a lot, which is known to have a high heavy-metal content. I asked her to do a twenty-four-hour urine challenge test with DMSA and found she had toxic levels of mercury and arsenic. We don’t know why one person is more susceptible than another—but clearly she needed to correct this. Although I didn’t tell her to stop the chemotherapy, I asked if she would put it on pause for a few months, since she’d already had eight years of pain and a different approach was merited. She agreed.

Sara completed three weeks of the Clean program and afterwards started oral chelation, a process using a chemical agent called DMSA to bind to heavy metals and draw them out. (This is a long-term treatment; it must be done with professional supervision and on a schedule to ensure the reintroduction of beneficial minerals, which are also drawn out in the process.) Midway through, her grayish skin tone turned to pink, and her joint pain started to lessen. Her optimism returned, and she simply felt and looked healthier. At the time of this writing, we are still waiting to find out if, after the completion of her heavy-metal detox, she will show a reversal of the antibody production.

If you suffer from a chronic disease that puzzles your primary-care doctor, does not respond to any treatment for too long, or responds, but immediately another set of symptoms takes their place, find a healthcare practitioner who is trained in Functional Medicine to help you get the right test. Mercury or any of the other toxic metals could be a daily visitor in your life without your even knowing it. See the chart of possible sources of toxic metals in Appendix “Unexpected Common Sources of Heavy-Metal Exposure.”

Mercury, a toxic metal, is known as the “great mimicker.” Mercury toxicity can present as almost any other disease. Toxic levels of this metal can trigger a chain of reactions that end up causing psychiatric imbalances, cancer, autoimmune diseases, or anemia, to name a few.

Each of the examples above describes how one type of toxic molecule interferes with our ability to maintain the balance necessary for a healthy life. We can describe the individual mechanism for any of the many of the toxins mentioned so far in the book. It is even possible that scientists could one day understand how each of them alters our chemistry. But what is certainly impossible is to ever understand in detail how they interact when many of them are present together in the same organism.

The Storm

In my practice, I needed to find a way to think about toxicity that allowed me to help my patients. Looking at every individual toxin and trying to isolate its chemical ripples from the others was too confusing. Once again, when I took a step back from the detailed level of individual molecules to the perspective of the whole person, a much clearer picture started to emerge. The storm of toxins on the lake of the human body started to create patterns similar to symptoms and diseases I knew too well.

Puffiness

When Ari came to see me, he described some of the side effects of eight years of married life and having small children in the house. His fridge had had a makeover for the worse. Diet Cokes, cupcakes, and chocolates were there to tempt him, and with more than a few bites here and there his belly was getting a makeover too. He told me, almost laughing, “For the first time I’m feeling like a tired old person—and no one looks at me on the beach anymore.” Though he was resistant to the idea of replacing two meals a day with liquids, he successfully completed the Clean program. Several pounds came off over the first two weeks. By the third week he reported something surprising. Not only had the extra eleven pounds he’d been carrying for years slipped off his frame, but his skin looked tighter and firmer. “As I was shaving, I realized the face in the mirror looking back at me was different. It looked ten years younger,” he said.

Most Eastern forms of medicine talk about mucus as toxic waste in our body. It is a very different understanding than we have here, which has mostly to do with runny noses. When I first heard a doctor of Chinese medicine talk about mucus being present in the entire system, it sounded laughable to me. I remember thinking, “What is he talking about?” So I asked him, “Where is this ‘mucus’?” Dr. William So, a Korean acupuncturist from a multigenerational family of healers who has since taught me a tremendous amount about Chinese medicine, replied calmly, “Everywhere. It’s in the cells, around the cells, in your blood, in your guts. It’s even in your thoughts.”

India’s Ayurvedic tradition calls this heavy, toxic substance that accumulates in the body amma and doesn’t distinguish whether the source is physical or mental. It says that all stressors on the system, from toxic foods to toxic thoughts, manifest as a mucusy heaviness in the body, which is the first stage of disease. When you are trained to see it, you can detect its presence right away. The clinical sign of it is what I call “puffiness.” It’s a symptom that Western medicine doesn’t even have a name for and is largely overlooked, even when we’re staring right at it. (This is one of the limitations of the Western model of medicine: if a condition doesn’t have a name, doctors don’t even see it.)

But just look around, and it’s evident that almost everybody living a modern life is “puffed up” to some extent:

The skin might be a little saggy, instead of being taut and firm. There may be dark circles under the eyes on waking up.

There is bloating around the body, and sometimes there are extra pounds that won’t budge, even if the person counts calories and exercises. Clothes feel tighter, or the belly is puffed, even on a thin person. Often there’s a turgid state especially in the bowels; movement gets stuck and constipation results.

In the morning, the tongue might have a white film on the back part of it. If it’s there, it should be scraped off with a tongue scraper. (A significant amount may indicate that you have been eating and drinking late at night when the digestive system should be resting.)

There may be a heaviness or torpor in the system, which is sometimes also felt as a lack of clarity or joy.

Even people who consider themselves healthy and fit are familiar with this puffy state—maybe on some days more than others, depending on how well they’ve been eating and drinking.

Mucus is a natural defense response against irritation. If you inhale some cayenne pepper while cooking, your nose runs because it’s trying to get that irritant out. The mucus is the gel that first surrounds the pepper particle so it can’t burn the sensitive nose lining and then facilitates sliding the irritant out.

Too much of the wrong food or other toxins from the environment cause irritation also. But this time it’s inside, where you don’t see or feel it happening. The toxins irritate the sensitive wall of the intestines. When the cells there get irritated, just like in the nose, they defend themselves by creating a protective buffer of sticky mucus to separate themselves from the toxic particles. This can be the beginning of a constipated state, something that is typically made worse by the degraded state of the intestinal flora.

Next, the irritants slip through the lining of the intestines and into the blood vessels on the other side, irritating them as well. As the toxins are carried around in the bloodstream, they trigger irritation everywhere they go, which generates mucus in and around the cells of the muscles and tissues. This mucus is acidic, so it adds to the already overly acidified state of the body. And because it’s like a sponge, sucking up water, mucus swells the cells and “puffs you up”—you look and feel bloated and dulled.

When your nose makes mucus, it comes out easily. You blow your nose to help it move and then it’s gone. When mucus is being made deeper inside the body, it gets stuck. Of course, there is a pathway for it to get out—the mucus needs to be pulled back out of the cells, carried back in the blood to the intestinal wall, and then moved back across the wall into the lumen, where it can get eliminated. But this requires resources, and if the volume of inbound toxins is high, the body’s economy of energy is tilted toward containing the attack. It is so busy surrounding the irritants that it can’t get to the job of carrying them out. It’s as if all the garbage handlers in the city are bagging the trash and none of them are left to drive it to the dump. Add to this the fact that digestion and the metabolism of food also take energy, and there’s little left for full detoxification. The more we eat and snack, the less energy is left over for throwing out the trash. The mucus builds up and doesn’t leave. Stubborn weight lingers on the body, the puffiness in the face won’t go down even after a diet, and things don’t change until a concentrated period of detoxification starts.

Fortunately, the opposite also proves true. When you eat sparingly, take in nutrients that promote detoxification, and start exercising, you “de-puff.” You may experience this after a few days of cutting out bad foods on your own. After several days on an effective detoxification program or cleanse, the effects are much deeper. As mucus is released from its sites all around the body, toxins are stripped of their mucus coating and make their way back into bloodstream for eventual neutralization and elimination. In a kind of natural “shedding,” excess weight caused by the water and mucus begins to melt away. Often, as with Ari, the person loses some significant extra pounds of weight—the body self-corrects. Eyes get much whiter and brighter, and skin firms up so much that women patients often say their friends ask if they got a facelift.

Not surprisingly, a sense of clarity and lightness return to body and mind after a cleanse. Western medicine has historically separated body and mind, but Eastern medicine never has divided them. They are two aspects of the whole. Amma therefore refers to both the congesting mucus created by toxicity and the heavy, dulled thoughts and emotions that keep you “stuck” in a negative mind-set. Both are considered to have a dense nature and therefore to attract each other. Vital, fresh foods and inspired, uplifting thoughts also attract each other and go together. Too many negative emotions or thoughts will make you crave the foods that end up generating the production of mucus and will cause you to fall into lazy lifestyle patterns (like not exercising) that help it accumulate. Similarly, it can happen the other way around: the formation of excess mucus from poor foods, irritation, and stagnancy in the body makes the appearance of negative emotions and thoughts much more likely. It’s another way of saying, “We eat what we are.”