TOXINS
In my opinion, the best totally natural detox therapies available today are fasts and the Mayr Therapy. But what do the terms “intoxication” and “disintoxication” really mean? The word “toxin” is a synonym of “poison,” and can be defined as a “substance that is harmful to the body.” Toxins can be exogenous or endogenous. The exogenous ones are produced outside the body, in the external environment: atmospheric and water pollution, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, preservatives, colorants, additives, detergents, solvents, some drugs, rotten food, conventional poisons, etc. Endogenous toxins instead, are formed in the body, mostly in the intestines, and provoke the intestinal self-intoxication.
INTESTINAL SELF-INTOXICATION
According to the Austrian doctor and researcher, Franz Xaver Mayr, the cause of the formation of endogenous toxins in the intestines is the fatigue or hypotonicity of the intestines. As the intestine wears out, its peristaltic movements slow down, and the foods accumulate more and more in the smoother tracts, giving rise to stagnant masses in the intestinal loops or produce encrustations that stick to the walls of the tube. Inactive intestines are not able to completely digest these stagnant foods, and after 10-12 hours the indigested residues of carbohydrates and proteins – in the warm, humid and dark environment of the lumen or cross-section cavity of the gut – start to decompose, i.e., undergo abnormal chemical reactions, triggered by bacteria that have settled in the intestines.
FERMENTATION AND PUTREFACTION
It is known that during normal digestion carried out by the digestive enzymes, the carbohydrates are chemically broken down to produce simple sugars (glucose, fructose and galactose) and the proteins are transformed into amino acids. Instead, in abnormal bacterial decomposition, the carbohydrates ferment, emitting in the intestinal tube organic acids, toxic alcohols (methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl), and huge quantities of carbon dioxide and hydrogen which, being gaseous, bloat the tummy (meteorism). The proteins undergo chemical reactions of putrefaction, producing toxic substances (sulphuric acid, ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, mercaptan, phenol, cystine, cresol, skatole, indol, putrescin, cadaverine, neurin, spermidin), mostly liquid and foul-smelling, and small quantities of inodorous gases (methane, nitrogen oxide). All these substances, mostly toxic, together with the products of normal food digestion are absorbed by the intestinal walls and “micro-pumped” into the blood. In fact, the villi of the intestinal walls act as tiny pumps that suck all the substances that are so tiny as to be able to pass through their perforations and push them into the thick weft of blood and lymphatic vessels enfolding the intestines.
SELF-TOXINS DAMAGE
In short, if our intestines are healthy and in order, and if no exogenous toxin has entered the blood through the mouth, nose or skin, if the blood has absorbed only the normal products of the digestion of the foods, these are brought by the blood to the cells and allow us to live healthily. If instead our intestines are weary and/or if we have incorporated exogenous toxins, our blood will contain both endogenous and/or exogenous toxins which are also transported by the blood to the cells, penetrating and damaging them. Please take note that, though taking into account the elevated environmental pollution over the last decades, the damage wrought by the intestinal self-toxins as a mean exceeds that of the exogenous toxins, given that in weary intestines the former are produced continually in the stagnant stools, while the exogenous toxins enter into our blood only when we are exposed to them. What are the diseases and disorders that can cause toxins? Many naturopathic doctors, including myself, think that it is precisely those I have described on this site. It is certainly just a simple hypothesis which some have considered to have been surpassed by experimental means of modern medicine. And yet I think that the theory of intestinal sef-intoxication should be attentively heeded precisely on the basis of the most recent studies on the intestines and the intestinal bacterial flora.
START PAYING ATTENTION TO THE CONCEPTS OF “INTOXICATION” AND “SELF-INTOXICATION” FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH BENEFITS!
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