The skinny on weight loss: Part VII

What does detoxification have to do with weight loss? A better question might be "is there a connection between toxins and fat?" Let me explain. All the detoxification pathways in the body (liver-colon, kidney-bladder, skin-sweat, and lymphatic system) require water.

As Dr. Dave Carpenter, a naturopathic physician, explains in his book Change Your Water, Change Your Life, "When water is not supplied in abundance, wastes build up in the fluid that surrounds each cell and all the detoxification pathways become sluggish. However, the body is ingenius. It always adapts. Under the stress of dehydration your body will find places to store toxins where they will not immediately interfere with critical life processes.

Toxins and wastes can send up in fatty tissue, in joints, and as deposits in arteries. In the short term, life is preserved, but the long term consequences are obvious."

You might be asking yourself "Where would I be exposed to toxins?" Answer: Everywhere. In the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the chemicals we use to clean with or kill weeds, insects, etc., etc. (Remember Chernobyl?) Recently it was reported that scientists have discovered PCB's (cancer causing chemicals) in the snow caps on top of the Andes mountains. DDT has been found in the liver of penguins in Antarctica.

If you think your body doesn't have toxins, dream on little broomstick cowboy or cowgirl. So as you lose weight the fat cells will yield fatty acids to be burned as fuel and will also release toxins that include heavy metals such as mercury, lead, thalium, etc.

On the Ideal Protein Diet/Treatment it is required that you drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water (2 quarts) per day. We monitor your hydration level once a week with the BC-1 bioimpedence device by StayHealthy. This tells us if you are drinking enough water and if you're assimilating it all and it will go right to the kidneys to be excreted. So sipping is much more effective than chugging.

We recommend Glutathione supplementation to our weight loss patients since Glutathione is the most important detoxification amino acid found in the body. We also recommend Omega 3 oil and antioxidants for our dieters and wellness patients.

From our experience with heavy metal detoxification we know that you can release heavy metals from the cells but if they aren't cheated or bound with Omega oils they can go to some other area of the body to be stored instead of being excreted from the body.

Toxins and heavy metals also are free radicals that cause cell damage by pulling electrons from healthy cells to satisfy their unstable lack of electrons (the same way water causes iron to rust).

Antioxidants donate electrons to neutralize the harmful effects of free radicals thus sparing the healthy cells in our body. Since dieting requires eating less food (that hopefully is rich in antioxidants), this does present a problem unless you take antioxidants to supplement this deficiency.

In addition, we offer our weight loss patients ionic food bath detoxification with our Erchonia Energy Balance detox machines. We also have a far infared dry sauna by Sunlighten Saunas that has the deepest penetration to aid in the detoxification process.

So, dieting, when done properly, is a wonderful opportunity to not only address the metabolic issues that cause us to gain weight (i.e. a dysfunctional pancreas causing too much insulin) but also to deal with the accumulation of toxicity in our bodies.

For more information on classes taught by Dr. Grandstaff on the Ideal Protein Diet/Treatment or the StayHealthy monitoring tools call (208) 772-6015.