Detoxing

My new hours at work keep me from researching very much and really knock back my computer time. It's a busy time of the year.

There are people on this forum with great advice about detoxing and I'll defer to them on those methods (mini-trampolene is my fav) and supplements. I thought I would discuss what I see as detoxing and that may be a little different perspective than what most people see it as.

Detoxing is defined as "to abstain from or rid the body of toxic or unhealthy substances." Lyme patients have many unhealthy or toxic substances in their body. Those substances can be quinolinic acid, heavy metals, aluminum, acidic cellular debris, pesticides, household chemicals, environmental toxins, and mold. One common theme from these toxins is that they cause and occur in an acidic environment. Although our blood is slightly alkaline, our bodily processes are slightly acidic. What we eat most of the time is acidic and our body buffers this acid without us having to even think about it. But with Lyme, the body can become deficient in our primary buffering capacity and our body uses "other" items to help buffer our acid load. This is often why aggressive exercise is frowned upon with Lyme. Exercise is very helpful, but exercise to the point of pyruvic acid/lactic acid formation is not good. With Lyme, we need to eat alkaline foods to help our system work better. Start noting the pH of the food you eat. The higher the better. Raw vegetables are good because of the bacteria introduced into our GI tract and the fiber that helps the phase II detox pathways remove toxins though the colon.

How does pH relate to detoxing? We have biological pathways that help us rid our body of unhealthy substances. Those pathways involve methylation, transsulfuration, conjugation, hydrolyses, and several other pathways. These pathways are simple chemical reactions that use acids and bases. If there is more acid in each reaction, the efficiency of the pathway starts to diminish as the amount of buffering agents are eliminated. In essence, Lyme may cause a downward spiral by diminishing our buffering agents and the bacteria in our GI tract that help remove toxins. These agents can be increased through proper nutrition AND altering our GI flora which increases nutrient absorption. Silica, copper, iron, calcium, magnesium, boron, manganese, and molybdenum are just a few of the depleted nutrients we need to increase our detox pathways.

We know the liver is main detoxifying organ but detoxing occurs in most tissues. The liver is known for it's detoxifying Cytochrome P-450 enzymes. There are many dozens of P-450 enzymes. These detox enzymes help make chemicals more water-like to be eliminated. For instance, if you have an estrogen problem, that is most often a detox pathway issue. Your body isn't able to "package" the estrogen to make it more water-like to be eliminated. Or your body is making so much histamine that your liver is spending all its resources to eliminate the excess histamine. P-450 enzymes require Vitamin C as a cofactor.

Methylation plays a huge role in this and methylation can be limited by the amount of substrates (magnesium, copper, zinc, boron, etc). Glutathione (the end product of methylation) is the most important substance for detoxifying the free radicals produced during Phase I detoxification.

Long story short, Lyme causes free radicals. Detoxifying causes free radicals. We must deal with these increased free radicals or we have problems. We do this through reducing our bacterial load, increasing nutrients which increase our detox pathways, and changing our GI flora which increases nutrient absorption.

Thank you for this! A lot of it is over my head at the moment lol That being said, I posted this question previously somewhere on this forum, but is there a chance of becoming too alkaline or does that possibility not really exist for Lyme patients?

Traveler said...
You forgot to mention bacterial/viral debris in the blood as well, unless those break down into "just chemicals" as well?

I think eating raw vegetables is not only tasty,but good for us, as long as you know your digestion is good. If a person has lowered stomach acid, personally I would question this, as the body will have difficulty breaking down raw foods.

I mentioned acidic cellular debris.

Eating raw is good for us from an acid/base and bacterial introduction standpoint but like you mentioned, everyone can't jump right into it. Not only lowered stomach acid but a reduction in bifidobacterium and oxalobacter reduces digestion of fiberous foods. Those that have already down regulated their immune response may not be able to handle green leafy vegetables because of the increase in methylation. I am at a loss as what to do if one has already down regulated. I have 10 epigenetic shifts in my methylation pathway at all the bad places. I have no clue how to fix what has occurred. I can live "normal" but I want to be what I was before this happened. I don't think that is going to happen.