Poisons and toxins have always been around and our bodies know how to deal with them. However, these toxins are starting to take over and ultimately making it harder for your body to detox them. In this episode, Dr. Bryan and Dr. Olivia Joseph will show you why and how you can cleanse your body to rid toxins from your system.
Table Of Contents
- Cleanse Your Body: An Introduction
- What Happens To Your Body When You Detox
- How Often Should You Detox
- Recommended Way To Cleanse Your Body
- Benefits Of Finishing A Detox
- Closing Thoughts
Cleanse Your Body: An Introduction
Brian Joseph: Dr Olivia and I are going to enlighten you on a topic that comes up so frequently and it is centered around this discussion of cleaning your body up or detoxifying your body. So frequently people ask, “Man, I think I just… I feel so groggy and I feel like I’ve gained a bunch of weight,” or, “I’m just not feeling like my brain’s firing right.” And people read on the internet, I hear there’s ways to clean your body up. I can detoxify this or there’s got to be a way to properly start to improve my health.” So we want to just expand on that topic for you today. So Dr. Olivia.
Olivia Joseph: I cannot believe we’ve made it almost 50 episodes and not talked about detoxification because I feel like when I’m working with someone clinically that’s step one or step zero even. And it’s the topic I have taught on. I have lectured on more than any other topic. So it just blows my mind that we’ve gone into such advanced sexy things and we’ve not done this one yet.
Why we need to detox
Brian Joseph: Well, let me back up a little bit. It’s not that we have not, we just have not completely expanded solely on the topic because a lot of the other podcast episodes had mentioned detox is a solution, but we’ve really not spent time. So you’re right. Yeah. So here we go. Let’s explain why. Why would anybody want to detox? Why do we need to detox? What is detox?
Olivia Joseph: So our body has built-in detox systems. Our body is intended to detox. You’ve got your kidney that’s part of that. Your liver is the biggest part of your detoxification system as well as your digestive tract and your intestines. That’s how we eliminate toxins. Water-soluble when we pee, fat-soluble when we poop. That’s how our body eliminates them. But we are being exposed to more toxins in this country than ever before. Through medications, through environmental toxins, through farming toxins, through what the animals are exposed to through plastics, herbicides, pesticides.
Our exposure is greater than it’s ever been in this country because many of these toxins are banned in other countries. Skincare, hair care, makeup, perfumes, lotions, potions. These all can be forms of toxins. So it’s that our body cannot keep up with the number of toxins we’re being exposed to. And as a result of that, you see weight gain, you see elevated liver enzymes, cholesterol going up, of activation of a bunch of immunoglobulins, which in English means allergies. So these things are becoming more prevalent because our detox pathways are being stressed out so badly.
What is a toxin?
Brian Joseph: So let’s just back up for a moment and define what a toxin is. Because in the world that we live in, we talk about all the different exposures to toxins, but somebody might be thinking, “Well, what is a toxin? Why is that a bad thing?
Olivia Joseph: Sure. So a toxin is… I’ll give you an example of a toxin. One type of toxin is called a xenoestrogen, and one might think, “Oh, but it’s an estrogen. How is that bad?” Well, xenoestrogen is a man-made estrogen and it behaves completely differently in the body than a natural hormone that your body made. A xenoestrogen will disrupt your hormone system, can cause weight gain, but worst of all can increase your risk for a hormone positive cancer. So a toxin could be an artificial sweetener and artificial coloring, which are banned in many countries. So we’re just being exposed to so many of them.
Brian Joseph: So there are a ton of different types of toxins, which makes sense. Based off of, I guess Wikipedia or the definition online of a toxin, really just makes it real simple to just say a toxin’s really just like a poison or a venom that the body doesn’t know what to do with and eventually at a low dose, if it’s exposed in the body, it can create a disease.
Olivia Joseph: Our body knows how to deal with small amounts of exposure. That’s not the problem. These gene mutations even that affect your detox pathways, the gene mutations have been around forever, but why are these things a problem now? Because we have more toxins in our environment than ever before because many of these toxins they accumulate.
Symptoms when your body is full of toxins
Brian Joseph: What type of symptoms can somebody show up with if their body’s full of toxins?
Olivia Joseph: Yes. A very, very common one is unexplained aches and pains. A lot of myalgias, brain fog, bloating, swelling, unexplained fatigue that’s consistent and doesn’t go away. Weight gain, inability to lose weight. Clinically, you may see elevated liver enzymes, elevated cholesterol. Cholesterol’s made in the liver. Your liver’s your main detox organ in your body. So I see more people with elevated liver enzymes than ever before. Doing this for 15 years and seeing blood work on patients for 15 years, thousands of times. I see more elevated liver enzymes or kidney enzymes than I ever have before. Historically,
Brian Joseph: A lot of the symptoms that you just listed sound a lot like what someone would feel like if they had the flu with the exception of vomiting maybe, but they-
Olivia Joseph: It does feel like a… I would say symptoms of toxicity are mild flu-like symptoms.
Brian Joseph: And nobody wants to experience quality of life through the lens of the flu-like symptoms, right?
Olivia Joseph: No.
What Happens To Your Body When You Detox
Brian Joseph: I know you teach to other doctors on this subject in regards to the detox pathways of the body, but can you go into just a little bit of the premise of what’s happening when someone’s actually detoxifying?
Olivia Joseph: So, how our body detoxes naturally is we get exposed to a toxin. If it’s water-soluble and we drink enough water, not toxic drinks that are liquid, then your body’s going to get rid of those water-soluble toxins through your kidneys. If it’s a fat-soluble toxin, which those are the really bad toxins, then your liver is going to flush it out, dump it into the gallbladder, dump it into your intestines, you’re going to poop it out. That’s how it works. What happens when you actually do a detox is it forces your body to go through three pathways.
Phase one detoxification, that’s water-soluble. Phase two detoxification, that’s fat-soluble. And phase three is where toxins have accumulated in organ and glandular tissue. We know there are neurotoxins. We’ve known this for 15, 20 years. There’s research to support it. So that’s different. That’s when these toxins have accumulated in nervous system tissue or when you see elevated liver enzymes, you know that that’s an issue where it’s…
The problem’s been there so long it’s affecting your phase two or fat-soluble detox system. The same is true with hormone-positive cancers or people who are estrogen dominant. They have too much xenoestrogen, which is dangerous, in their fat and glandular tissue. We see symptoms develop like fibroids, endometriosis, chronic bleeding, hormone-positive cancer, inability to lose weight, things of that nature. It doesn’t sound fun.
How Often Should You Detox
Brian Joseph: Okay. So there are many ways in which your body’s…It’s already trying to clean itself up. It’s just the level of exposure of toxins as it continues to go up and rises in our environments, then sometimes you need a boost. You need a way to accelerate, speed that up.
Olivia Joseph: So I want to say one thing. So studies show… So you want to talk about toxic exposure, when they check the cord of a newborn, studies show there are like 250 toxins found in the cord because that’s one of the things your placenta does and the umbilical cord does, is it helps to detoxify. It helps to keep those toxins that mom is exposed to from getting to a vulnerable fetus. So we see it in umbilical cords. They’re actually tested.
Another thing, studies also show that if you do a detox, your own detox pathways are more efficient for up to six months. So what that means is healthy people can and should detoxify. Why? Because your own detox pathways are going to be more efficient after doing a detox. I believe, and I know this is one of the next questions you’re going to ask me, how long, every how often should we detox? At least once a year. I recommend every six months. And people that we know have chronic illness, people that we know have compromised detox pathways because we have genetic testing on them, those people may benefit from detoxing, I would say about once a quarter, once every three months, or staying on something to maintain healthy detox pathways, which we can talk about.
Other symptoms associated with a body full of toxins
Brian Joseph: Yeah. You mentioned symptoms that people experience and I think that some of the most common reasons that you may want to consider yourself doing a detox or cleanse your body when someone’s like very fatigued for unknown reasons. Sluggish, brain fog, memory challenges are starting to show up more frequently.
Olivia Joseph: Can’t lose weight. That’s a huge one. So clinically, your thyroid hormones convert in the liver. Every thyroid case I take, we start with a detox. Clinically, your liver is a major player in glucose metabolism. Every diabetic we work with, we start with a detox. The only time we don’t start with detox is if you are pregnant, nursing, or when we’re working with children, we modify and do different types of detoxification.
Brian Joseph: So other people too that experience menstrual problems, bloating in their intestinal tract, puffiness around their eyes and allergy-related symptoms, even skin.
Olivia Joseph: Skin conditions, eczema, psoriasis. So the only thing I want to say, you said bloating, like dietary bloating. A lot of people confuse a colon cleanse with a detox. A colon cleanse will cleanse your body. It’s called a cleanse and there are so many companies out there that say, “Oh, do this 10 day cleanse, this juice cleanse.” Those things are called a cleanse for a reason. They are not the same as a detox. Detox is defined by something that moves your body through all three phases of detoxification. Phase one, two and three.
Recommended Way To Cleanse Your Body
Brian Joseph: So that leads me to my next question. So there’s a lot of people that go into these different fasting episodes or you can go online, there are all sorts of different recommended whole body cleanses and detoxes, whether it be juice, fasting or whether it be foot baths, liver or gallbladder flushes. It can be overwhelming and you don’t even know…What is the recommended way that you’d suggest somebody move through detoxifying in a safe way?
Olivia Joseph: I don’t recommend you do it piece by piece because that’s exactly what’s broken in our healthcare system, is we see everything piece by piece. The body works as a whole, and your detox pathways are connected to your digestive pathways and they’re connected to your hormone pathways. You need a healthy foundation to build upon. So what you just said, you said fasting, you said cleansing, you said liver, gallbladder flush. Those are not a detox. Are they beneficial? Yeah. People have done liver and gallbladder flushes with gallstones and they see gallstones pass. People have done fasting for apoptosis for a variety of things. People have done other flushes, juice cleanses, and they feel great.
It’s okay to do those things. There’s a benefit to all of them, but we can’t confuse those things for a detox. So my belief system is we have to get the most bang for our buck. By buck, I don’t mean dollar, I mean the energy you’re putting into something. Whether you’re going to follow a diet, an exercise program, a supplement program, you want to do something that’s going to influence the most amount of systems because these systems work together, not individually.
This is not a parasite cleanse
Brian Joseph: It’s amazing being in healthcare for, both of us, going on a little over 15 years is all the different cleanse your body and detoxes that people actually have taken themself through, it’s amazing what actually comes out of the body, right? Like, people talk about when they’ve eliminated in bowel movements, different parasites or worms, literally, in their stool.
Olivia Joseph: So the detox I’m talking about isn’t a parasite cleanse. Unfortunately, that’s a very specific type of cleansing that I recommend, that I work with because we do so much stool analysis and we see so many parasites. A parasite cleanse isn’t the detox I’m talking about, but you’re right.
Brian Joseph: But that’s not even what I was referencing. Is what I was referencing is it just shows that when you just… When you do something intentionally to try to clean up the body, in some way, sometimes you can discover how many unique things or microorganisms are living in your body that might be slowing down the performance of your body and you’re completely unaware of it.
Olivia Joseph: And they live in your body for decades and decades and decades. We know that with parasites, right? It’s not something you get exposed and, oh, it’ll work its way out. Not really, and that’s the thing with toxins is they accumulate, they’re cumulative. Where do they accumulate? In fat and glandular tissue, in organ tissue, and that’s dangerous places to have toxins hanging out. But our body put those toxins there to protect us because those toxins cannot be living in your bloodstream.
Metabolic detox
Brian Joseph: So if someone’s on the opposite side of this microphone and they’re actually thinking, “Okay, I want to detox, I would want to… I want to do this properly.” Is there somewhere you can lead them to or suggest that they go or should they contact us? Where can they go to get some information on the proper way to detox based off of what you’re recommending?
Olivia Joseph: I think the most amount of personal resources that I have out there are in my closed Facebook group, Detox with Dr. Olivia. You just have to ask to join the group. We’ll approve of you. And the reason we do that is that you’re asking for advice on detoxification. I’ve taken three groups of hundreds of people at a time through the detox and during those phases I post a daily video, so there are so many resources there. In the file section, I have my quick start detox guide. I have men using shopping lists to help you through the process of detoxification. But I don’t just detox with diet and lifestyle.
We actually use a metabolic detox. It’s the same one I’ve used for 15 years, and the reason it’s the same one I’ve used for 15 years, I’ve tried many. You know, I am like ADD when it comes to detox. I have tried them, Guinea pigged them on myself, on you. I keep coming back to this one because I find it is the most pleasant, but also the most clinically effective one out there. This detox won’t detox metals. I just want to put that other disclaimer in there. It’s not a colon cleanse, not a parasite cleanse, not a metal detox. It’s just a full body detox.
Benefits Of Finishing A Detox
Brian Joseph: So if somebody does go through a detox or cleanse your body, what would be some of the outcomes they could expect to see on the other side of this? Like what are some of the benefits? What might they feel? What’s commonly said or felt when somebody finishes a detox?
Olivia Joseph: Well, I want to hear about your experience. Everybody’s experience is different. Mine, I have the craziest amount of energy and mental clarity while I’m on a detox. Now, I’m not a toxic person going into detox. So for me, detox is like fun because I feel amazing, versus if I had high levels of toxicity, it might be a different process. I might feel a little achy, a little lethargic, a little foggy, but you’ll come out of that feeling better. Another thing I hear a ton from people is weight loss.
I just spoke to somebody this morning that I started on a detox three weeks ago. She’s like, Dr. Olivia, I am so excited to announce I’ve lost eight pounds.” This is a 61-year-old female that is not overweight. She was bloated, swollen, puffy. She has inflammatory bowel disease, brain fog, GI symptoms. That’s why we started her with a detox. She took hormone replacement therapy. That’s why we started her with a detox. So her eight pound loss was just a bonus. What do you notice when you detox?
Brian Joseph: Well, it’s not that I’ve lost a ton of weight, but it’s one of the most common things that I do hear people saying, including myself, I’ve lost, oh, probably three to five pounds every time I’ve done it.
Less inflammation & mental clarity
Brian Joseph: But what I’ve noticed within myself the most is I would tend to get a distended belly, and it wasn’t that I was gaining weight, it was just intestinally I would feel things like pushing out bloated and swelling and then even some point tenderness. I’d push into my gut and I’d feel like… It felt like my intestines were sore. As I go through a cleanse your body, then sometimes for me personally, I could feel a little bit like sluggish the first day or two, maybe even a low-grade headache because you’re changing some things.
But on the outside or the flip side of that is a lot of the tenderness goes away in the belly. It feels like I lost like three waist sizes, even though I’m not looking a ton differently on the scale. It’s like all of a sudden my waistline and my belt and my pants fit differently. And then my energy is, as you noted, extremely different. You just feel like maybe… I don’t know what to attribute that to other than the fact that I feel more focused and more clear in my mind.
Olivia Joseph: It’s because you’re less inflamed. So a detox is not for weight loss, but your body can’t lose weight when you have high levels of toxicity. So when you say, “Oh, I lose three pounds, it’s in my belly, I lose three waist sizes,” it’s because dilution is the solution for pollution. When your body is polluted, your body tries to dilute that. How it does that is it makes you bloat and swell and your water, instead of going in the cell, stays outside your cells and your rings might not fit, your ankles might look swollen.
less pain and better skin health
Olivia Joseph: So, the reason you feel that mental clarity, that energy is because your inflammation goes down. The detox we use has an alkalizing agent. So it forces your body into an alkaline state while you detox. That makes you feel pleasant instead of miserable while you’re detoxing. And when you say how quickly you detox, a 10 day detox, it’s fast and furious. You’re more likely to have some detox symptoms because you’re detoxing so quickly. If you go slow and steady, do like a 20-day detox instead of a 10 day, I find yeah, it’s longer, it’s a bigger time commitment, but it’s so much more pleasant.
Brian Joseph: So that’s one thing. Number two is energy, as we both felt in our own worlds. And then number three is overall pain starts to disappear because inflammation goes down and you feel like you’re not hurting for some reason. So those are three great things that we hear as a benefit.
Olivia Joseph: One other benefit I want to just throw in there is skin health. I see so many people say to me, “Oh my gosh, my skin looked amazing after detox,” Or, “While I was on the detox.” Because our hormones sometimes get clogged in our detox pathways. So you’re just starting with a clean slate. You’re making your body alkaline, you’re getting your body absorbing water better. There are just so many reasons to do a detox. The only time you wouldn’t, pregnant, nursing. Pregnant, nursing. And with children, we do different types of detoxification.
Closing Thoughts
Brian Joseph: All right, well hopefully that sheds some light on the subject of detox and not only just detox but how you can actually clean up your body from a natural perspective in addition to what your body already knows how to do. This is kind of putting some fuel on the fire and helping you basically just continue to live as healthy as you can, keeping your body well for as many years as we’re all given an opportunity to live well. Is there any closing statements that you have?
Olivia Joseph: Yeah, I just want to say that people hear the timeframe, 10 days, 20 days, what am I going to eat? You’re going to eat the food that nature made. If nature made it, you can eat it. You can eat fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, raw nuts and seeds, seeds, and you eat a sweet potato and you can eat proteins, even animal proteins as long as they’re free-range, wild-caught, which we’ve talked about on so many other podcasts. But you can eat food that is growing from the earth, walking the earth in its most unrefined state.
Nothing processed. We’re taking out gluten, dairy, sugars, soy, alcohol, stimulants, things of that nature. And it’s not bad. It’s actually really pleasant. Most people are pleasantly surprised. Some people are really, really toxic and they struggle a little bit more, but they’re always happy they did it on the other end. I really only have like one to two people a year say, “That was awful.” Most people say the exact opposite. And you know how many people we detox, whether it’s in a group or whether it’s in a one on one basis.
Be prepared and realistic
Brian Joseph: The last thing I would say is if you’re about to go on a vacation or you’ve got a big party coming up, I often just tell people, just wait. Don’t start. You got to be mentally prepared to actually carve out a good 10 days of actually putting yourself in the right spot. I know that doesn’t sound like the most proactive approach, but let’s be realistic sometimes too, and just say, if you’re about to go into a scenario where you have to abstain from a lot of the things you’re used to eating or drinking, then starting to detox, that may not be the right time for you to do it at that moment.
Olivia Joseph: Sure. The three most common times people detox, New Year’s, New Year’s resolutions. Second, in the spring, spring cleaning before they hit summer. Third, after summer when their kids go back to school when they’ve been simmered and they want to go into fall with a clean slate.
Brian Joseph: All right, well there you have it. This is episode 46. You can find this episode on our podcast if you like what you heard. As always, thank you for sharing it with those that you think would benefit from it. Our personal mission and our company mission is to continue to help more people get well and stay well, and this is one of the manners in which a lot of people have benefited within their health and we hope you benefited from it as well. Until next time, we’ll see you. Visit us at thewellnessconnection.com/podcast/ to subscribe to our show and get connected.