Detox and the Brain

“Detoxification crises are responsible for excitatory symptoms of nervous and mental disease and violent behavior.”

Proper detoxification in the body is incredibly important. How important? It’s so important that your body is doing it every second of every day. It’s your body’s natural cleaning mechanism that keeps your cells working correctly. Without our body’s natural detoxification processes we would have a hard time surviving in the modern world.

While detox is a natural, necessary process we need for proper health, the term detox has been misused by many in the health industry as a way to push fad diets and supplements. Ever heard of a juice cleanse? I hear all the time from clients who have tried a detox in the past and not only did it not work, they actually feel like it made their condition worse. The fact is that to make a detox work for you, you have to set your body up for success, and that doesn’t come from simply drinking juices, teas, or even fasting.

Proper detox can also be a powerful nootropic. The process of clearing out metabolic debris and toxic chemicals that come from our environment allows our body to work properly and make the neurotransmitters we need, and clear out the neurotransmitters and toxins that lead to neurotoxicity.

Why Is Detox So Important?

Our body is under assault from chemicals every day, and unless they are properly removed from the body they will wreak havoc on our mental health and lead to neurotoxicity.

• PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) affect the nervous system
• Exposure to iron, mercury, manganese, and lead have been shown to contribute to Parkinson’s
• Exposure to lead, cadmium, and antimony are associated with susceptibility to ADHD and higher symptom severity
• A recent systematic review found that environmental exposure to dangerous chemicals such as bisphenol A, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (found in many plastics and household items), along with pesticides, may contribute to ADHD — and found a significant association between lead and ADHD
• Pesticide exposure has a direct link to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts
• Air pollution also contributes to toxicity

To make matters worse, our body adds more toxic materials from everyday metabolic processes called metabolic waste. Part of this metabolic waste is neurotransmitters, and failure to detoxify them properly can cause neurotransmitters to get stuck where they’re not supposed to be, and this can cause psychological problems. Neurotransmitters get clogged up and this can cause emotional problems. Because of the spatial nature of nerve transmission, messages may travel through alternate neurons causing distorted and compulsive thinking, delusions, hallucinations, psychosis, and unintended behavior.

Neurotoxicity from chemicals in the environment is especially present in the brain’s hypothalamus and pineal glands — two glands that play direct roles in behavior, mood, and mood disorders like depression and anxiety. This is because these two glands are not protected by the blood-brain barrier, and when neurotoxic agents enter the body they easily make their way to these areas of the brain.

Evidence for Therapeutic Detoxification

There is plenty of evidence of therapeutically induced detoxification helping cases of:

• Parkinson’s disease
• Alzheimer’s disease (in both mice studies and human sauna therapy studies)
• Norepinephrine release through light exercise and sauna
• Chronic pain and anger issues through sauna therapy
• Depressive symptoms through thermal therapy (heat)
• Anxiety and depression through heat therapy
• Fibromyalgia through sauna

Glutathione, your body’s master detoxifying antioxidant, has been shown to be low in autism spectrum disorder — the more you have, the better for your brain. Even supplying the right vitamins to help the methylation cycle seems to be benefiting cases of autism. And we know that lack of detoxifying enzymes and antioxidants like glutathione is found to play a role in schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder.