The Mind-Body Connection

To learn about the link between depression and inflammation within your body please read this excellent discussion.

To understand more about the relationship between toxicity and your mental and physical wellbeing, first let me ask you how many of these symptoms plague you?
...headaches
...frequent colds or viruses
...constipation
...allergies or hay fever
...congestion
...feeling bloated after eating
...those few extra pounds you can’t loose with diet and exercise
...puffiness
...itchy skin
...pain or stiffness in your joints or muscles
...restless sleep
...lows moods or a foggy mind
...difficulty concentrating
...feeling excessively tired and apathetic
...moodiness and bursts of irrational anger and frustration.
 
Toxicity is at the root of many of the aliments that plague humans in modern society. Amazingly, toxicity is woefully under-recognized, under-diagnosed and therefore poorly treated by the Western medical establishment.


Toxicity is a condition that is present in all of our lives and across the entire planet. Dr. Alejandro Junger explains that “toxicity is not a disease or one specific symptom, it a condition that involves the wider, low-grade state that, to one degree or another, everyone who breathes today’s air, eats today’s food, and lives in today’s cities, suburbs, or rural areas is experiencing inside.” In other words, toxicity is present within all life on the planet, and with the rapid growth of modern societies, there has been a staggering escalation in the volume and pervasiveness of toxins all around us.


Toxins come in two basic forms. First there are endotoxins which are produced inside the body - they are the waste products from normal cellular activity (e.g., uric acid, ammonia, lactic acid, carbon dioxide, bile, fecal matter). Second there are exotoxins which are human-made (e.g., pollution in the air we breathe and water we drink, dangerous chemicals in the buildings we live in, the cosmetics and medications we use, the foods we eat). 


Our bodies have evolved ways to manage toxicity through naturally occurring detoxification processes. Unfortunately, modern lifestyles greatly impede the body’s ability to engage in detoxification. For our bodies to function we have trillions of cells that all perform specific functions. To execute their functions, the cells in our body need energy, but there is a limited amount of energy available at any given time. When the body is faced with competing energy demands, it has to prioritize and send energy where it is most needed, forcing other processes to wait to be performed. Detoxification is a mid-level priority and depending on the kinds of demands placed on the system, it is not uncommon for detoxification to be placed on hold while energy is diverted to fuel other activities.


Ironically, digestion is a highly energy demanding process. Most of us think of eating as a way of adding energy to our system but in fact, the energy that goes into chewing, swallowing, digesting and absorbing takes more energy that it produces and because the foods that most of us eat are nutrient deficient, they offer little return on the energy invested in digesting them. Hence, the combination of the toxins that modern living exposes us to, coupled with the continuous consumption of nutrient-deficient foods, results in an overload of toxins that our bodies lack the energy resources to properly and efficiently detoxify.


When our bodies cannot eliminate the toxins that are present, it is forced to store them away until sometime in the future when hopefully the energy will become available to dispel them. Unfortunately, for many of us, the way we live our lives means that we simply build up more toxins than our bodies can efficiently eliminate thereby leading to a buildup of toxins that contribute to an array of aggravating and threatening symptoms.


One way to cope this toxicity is to engage in a controlled detox process. While there are many different kinds of detox programs, the Clean Program developed by Dr. Junger is one of the most balanced, safe and effective programs that can be used by people who are living busy lives. To learn more about the Clean Program, I strongly encourage you to read Dr. Junger’s New York Times best-selling book, Clean which presents a revolutionary program to restore the body's natural ability to heal itself, thereby setting the stage for emotional, psychological and relational restoration and well-being.