 So I was reading this wellness article the other day and as I was trying to read this article and the research this annoying ad kept popping up and it said one simple trick to detox your large intestine. Now of course I rolled my eyes because the internet is filled with these scammy ads and after I read a few more articles and obviously their advertiser had somehow tagged my computer I saw it three more times and so I clicked it to see where it would bring me. Of course it brought me to some long winded video talking about some brand new research and a revolutionary discovery and what they had discovered was some BS method probably and then selling some $200 supplement but I thought I would talk about this a little bit in this video because I do see that there is a definite interest that people have in this idea of detoxing and detoxification and so I thought I would have a little fireside chat about some thoughts on this topic of detoxing. Hey guys Dr. Alex Hein, Doctor of Chinese Medicine. Now before we jump into this video, two very important links for you right down below this. The first is for a free guide, four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine and the second is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally or online via telemedicine you can reach out to my private practice right below this video. So there is definitely a cultural obsession with detoxification and detoxing and it's interesting because I have quite a few patients that come in expressing that they feel toxic, they feel bloated, they feel like they need a detox and really whenever I question them to understand what they mean because often what people say is what they've been told from marketing or from their doctor or from some wellness kooky person. So when I say what do you mean like what do you actually mean when you say you feel you need a detox? People reference things like I feel bloated, I feel full, I feel like I'm retaining water, I feel like I'm constipated or just I feel full. So primarily what I see is people are referencing digestive problems right they're referencing water retention, bloating or the state of their digestion but it's interesting because I often wonder with this obsession to detoxing and this obsession around these protocols and the cleanses that are so trendy, how much does our body actually really need this? So let's talk a little bit about what I think are effective ways to detox your intestines. Now I'll share in just a second why I don't think your body in general needs detoxing. I had a professor that was an anatomist and he was the one doing our cadaver labs and he would always slam these detox people doing the liver cleanses, the colon cleanses, the gallstone flushes and he was so adamant that this was complete BS, complete bunk and I'm really on that side but addressing what people often come to me for which is the referencing their intestines, their digestion. There are three ways that I think are pretty effective that I've seen clinically. The first is really fasting right if you want to detox your large intestine just don't put any food in it. That is the fastest way to detox your intestines because hopefully if they're functioning properly you put in food, food comes out. For some people it's faster, for other people it's slower. Ultimately if you have one meal a day instead of three you're going to be able to eliminate whatever has been accumulating over a couple days and you're going to feel lighter and less bloated. So the first is definitely fasting. Before I personally run to take Chinese formulas for my own digestive problems the first thing is for a couple days I just eat light. I make sure I'm only eating when I feel hungry. I make sure I'm usually typically doing a lower starch diet which helps me a lot and I find that this is one of the fastest ways instead of adding something is just eating less food, eating lighter. The second thing is what I call the monks diet or a monks diet. You tend to see that monks generally speaking and there are of course different religions, different spiritualities, but if you see a lot of Buddhists and Taoists the diet can be very spartan. There are all these prohibitions against certain spices and garlic and all these pungent things that affect your senses and I think that's very wise and even though there's one piece the practical purpose of these spices affect metabolism and affect your physiology stronger and so it affects your inner state. But also if you go to a monks diet which is very spartan it is less likely to have a strong influence on your body in either direction. If you're just eating a jasmine white rice with some sautéed vegetables and an egg you're not introducing a lot of spices, you're not introducing a lot of fried food, you're not introducing a lot of bread, there's not a lot of meat. There are very few ways that you can kind of mess up your digestion so to speak from that perspective. I find that a spartan or more elemental kind of monks diet for me I go with usually jasmine rice and sautéed vegetables not raw vegetables and egg and very minimal spices for a couple days that often will produce a large reduction in whatever fullness or feeling of accumulation that I have internally. Now the third way is using Chinese formulas right and I say this in this order because we always want to try to do less or remove things before we add on new things right this is mastery philosophy is always doing less if you can have a minimal intervention and have the best success that is always where we want to start so intervening with formulas or medications should be the last idea but when we talk about detoxing you know some people for example are cigarette smokers and heavy drinkers and they've got that red face and that red nose and they've got a lot of acid reflux and indigestion these are people who from one perspective you could call toxic meaning they're probably are anatomical and physiological gallbladder or liver problems there's definitely stomach problems and there are for sure bowel problems so this is closer to a quote unquote toxic state than most people are for sure which most people are just bloated really and probably a little constipated so for those people we utilize formulas that will actually flush those organs and make sure that they are functioning properly so generally speaking from one perspective if the person is actually having reflux with burning and indigestion one of the patterns we think of it as is either the liver or gallbladder we consider them some of the wood organs overacting on the spleen and the stomach so these organs are now experiencing because the stomach is not having enough time to drain itself and is this burning and there's this reflux for some people those gallstones now that actually needs we need to address this heat that's forming that's kind of constrained this localized heat and we need to move that and flush that now long story short your body is always trying to detox itself I mean keep in mind the human the human body homo sapiens have been evolving for a very long time right and we are built in with detox organs your colon your digestion is a detox organ it is absorbing what is useful and excreting the waste and dead bacteria and things like that it is trying to do that your lungs your skin your liver your kidneys these are all trying your urine this is all flushing things out of your system so it is designed to do that at the most optimal rate possible that is that is their function one of their functions anyway and I think so many people are under this delusion that a squirt of lemon in their water every morning is going to be a serious detox guys it's not it's not going to be a big detox you know it's going to be a big detox not drinking two liters of high fructose corn syrup and getting you know non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that's going to be a lot more effective than a half lemon squeezed into some water all right so I don't think most people really need to do much detoxing I think eating lighter and more Spartan maybe introducing some intermittent fasting if the person is going towards weight gain or diabetes or some fatty liver I think that's realistic for most people and that this buying of detoxes and trying detoxes I don't think is necessary and I think a lot of it's yes frankly so just my two cents for today something that's very trendy and is very common to hear and I think people just probably need to poop better to be honest so hey that's your problem come to me I can help you do that all right guys that's all I've got today my fiery rant you know always throw in shade on alternative medicine seems to be my thing these days unfortunately but again before we go two important links below this video if you want to be a patient of mine locally or online via telemedicine the info for my private practice is right below this video there's also a free guide for daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine potentially also right below and then before you go check out these two other videos that can help