 So you might have been feeling a bit more bloated lately. Oh yeah, and then there's all the Xenoestrogens that are coming from the water and our plastics and, oh, fluoride and chlorine. And what about the pesticides? So you might be thinking that you need to do some kind of detox to get this stuff, all these toxins out of your body. You might be thinking that with such a toxic world we live in, we have to get all this junk out of our body, it's stored in there somehow. Well, in this video today, let's talk. We'll talk a little bit about the Chinese medical point of view with detoxification, but also the fact that what's going on with your body, what doesn't naturally do, what do you need to do on top of that? And let's address this idea of getting toxins out of your body. And you know what the best part is? I'm not going to try to sell you some dumb colon cleansing kit in the description. Hey, Alex Hine here, author of the book Master of the Day, current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine. Now, I've also included a free series of downloads. One is a PDF, like an infographic on five daily habits to help you add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. It's the first link in the description box right there below. So let's talk. OK, what are all these toxins that everybody is referring to? Are we speaking about the fact that we feel a little bloated and full and sluggish and we're not sleeping well after Thanksgiving or Christmas meal? OK, well, bloating is not necessarily toxins. Are we referring to toxic things in the air or the water supply or pesticides or heavy metals? What are we really referring to? Because I hear this all the time, people saying, I need to do a detox. And what are we detoxifying from exactly? Most often I hear I feel bloated and full and lethargic. That's very different from being toxic or having toxins inside your body. Because if a person is feeling toxic and bloated, well, the solution is to poop. So let's talk about detoxification in terms of Chinese medicine. Now, in Chinese medicine, just like conventional medicine, there are a few associated organs with myriad kinds of detoxification. For example, we have large intestine, which is bowel movements, the most obvious form of detoxification. We have the skin for sweating. We have the skin is usually associated with the lung. We have the lymphatic system, which may be associated with the sand gel. We also have the kidneys and the liver. And they're all hard at work to detoxify things coming into your system. You know, an example is thinking about the liver damage from acetaminophen, which is Tylenol. Now, the body will try to detoxify that as long as it's not being constantly bombarded. Now, to be clear, you can have liver damage from herbs, too. So it's not that Tylenol is the big bad wolf. It's about understanding the body, the processes related to detoxification, and the dosage of a medicine, which then can become a poison. Now, generally speaking, I say that with an asterisk, because there are scenarios this doesn't apply to. When a person is living well and eating well, those systems are all properly working to constantly detoxify things from your system. You know, we think the classic thing in modern society now is, I need a green juice to detoxify these mysterious toxins, which no one is specific about. And then we don't think, okay, how is a green juice going to help? Like, why a green juice? Like, what's the theory? What's the treatment approach here? A green juice. Well, if a green juice is really going to be enough to detoxify you, why not just eat more vegetables in the first place? Which is exactly the same thing, right? So if that's the case, why don't we just eat healthier in the first place? So if you're feeling toxic, feeling full bloated, whatever it may be, eating better is going to solve the problem in many of the cases. So why not just say, I've been kind of bloated and full eating like crap, I need to do a detox, I'm just going to eat better starting today. I'm just going to have more vegetables every single meal. Now, in Chinese medicine, when a person is truly not well detoxing for whatever the reason, maybe they have gallbladder issues, they have actual liver issues, they have constipation issues, a very obvious case where someone's not pooping for three to five days and that's chronic over decades. That's a big problem. We use fairly strong formulas to actually get that process going. In Chinese medicine, it's usually chi, blood, phlegm. And in biomedicine, biomedical thinking, these often mirror hormonal processes. And finally, let's talk about the downside. If I didn't really express the downside of detoxing, this idea, this feeling that we need to detoxify consciously. The problem to me is that this philosophy of, I need to do a regular detox leads to two things. It leads to a person binging usually on bad food. And then afterwards, we think, I really need to detox. I need to purify myself. And then we go back to the solution of buying herbs or going through some detox process or detox kit or these specific green juices. And then we feel better, we feel cleaner, and then we give ourselves permission to maybe not so live so healthy again. We think that detoxification or being pure or clean, number one only comes through diet, which by itself is not true. And then number two can only be resolved through these regular processes of detoxification. And so we emphasize the food and this event as opposed to a life that does not lead to accumulation in the first place. And I use accumulation deliberately in a very vague sense. Whatever that may mean for you that you need to detox. Now like I said, that doesn't include a lot of things like how heavy metals may be stored or other metabolic byproducts in the body. There's a lot more going on, but as a high level principle, I wish more people thought this way and embrace this kind of philosophy and emphasize the way they live as a whole, inner, outer, and not just I need a green juice because I feel toxic. Now again, good way to stay in touch is you can grab that free guide, Five Daily Habits that Add 10 Years to Life with Traditional Chinese Medicine. It's included right there. It's the first link in the description box there below. And again, you can check out my last videos right there and right there.