The Detoxification is an alternative medicine procedure. During a purification process, toxins, metabolic end products and other harmful metabolic products are to be eliminated from the body.
What is detox?
In many naturopathic theories, health is defined as freedom from poisonous damage and from poisons. In alternative medicine, toxins and acids are called slags, which are first neutralized with minerals and trace elements and then deposited in the tissue. Conventional medicine also knows such symptoms.
Gout is an example of how the body deposits metabolic end products that it cannot eliminate. In gout, so much uric acid accumulates in the blood that the kidneys can no longer completely excrete the acid. Uric acid crystals form, which are then deposited in the skin, in the joints or in bursa. There they can cause inflammation. According to the understanding of alternative medicine, the body also deposits other substances that it cannot excrete in different places in the body. He prefers to use the connective tissue for this. At first glance, the only function of the connective tissue is to keep the organs in place and to protect them.
But the connective tissue is also an important transit route. Oxygen, carbon dioxide, vitamins, nutrients, water and other substances are transported from the blood capillaries to the target cells via the connective tissue. For the Austrian doctor Alfred Pischinger, the connective tissue was the body's central regulatory organ. Too many deposits in the so-called Pischinger area should disturb this basic regulation and thus lead to numerous clinical pictures. The goal of purification is to free the connective tissue and the other waste tissue from toxins, acids and metabolic end products.
Function, effect & goals
Various alternative medical therapy methods can be used for detoxification. The concept of detox is not scientifically recognized. The effectiveness of the individual procedures has not yet been proven using strictly scientific methods.
In traditional occidental medicine the so-called drainage procedures are used for purification. A draining procedure is, for example, bloody cupping. Cupping glasses are used to create negative pressure on the skin. With bloody cupping, the skin is pierced several times with a sterile needle after disinfection. Then the cupping glass is put on. The vacuum is traditionally created by heating the air in the cupping head by lighting a cotton ball. Alternatively, there are also cupping glasses with a suction cup.
The negative pressure in the cupping glass draws the blood out of the skin. Cupping glasses are mainly placed over so-called myogeloses. Myogeloses are hardened muscles that, from the perspective of alternative medicine, are a sign of slag deposits. The blood that collects in the cupping glasses is said to be particularly rich in slag.
Bloodletting has a similar draining effect. Blood is drawn from the patient during bloodletting. The aim is to get the melanche, the black bile, out of the body. The bloodletting according to Saint Hildegard von Bingen is only carried out in the week after the full moon. The Cantharidenplaster is also one of the traditional detoxification methods. The plaster, which is coated with an ointment made from the dried and ground beetle Lytta vesicatoria, promotes blood circulation and stimulates the lymphatic system. After a few hours on the skin, it causes blistering of the skin. The leaking lymph fluid should contain waste products and toxins. The cantharid patch is also known as white bloodletting.
Well-known detoxifying measures are fasting cures and enemas. There are various fasting cures that are supposed to stimulate the purification of the body. The Buchinger therapeutic fasting fasts mainly with vegetable broth and juices. The Mayr fasting cure is based on the milk and bread roll diet. Only fruit and vegetable juices are consumed in juice fasting. In all fasting cures, targeted emptying of the bowels is carried out using an enema or Glauber's salt. The sauna is also one of the purifying procedures. The metabolism is stimulated by the high temperatures and waste products can increasingly be excreted in sweat.
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From a conventional medical point of view, purification has no advantages. A health benefit of the individual purification processes has not yet been proven. Purification would therefore be useless. But some purification methods also involve risks. Fasting not only leads to the elimination of waste products, but also to a vitamin and mineral deficiency.
Due to the lack of energy supply, the body breaks down proteins from the muscles. The heart muscle can also be affected. Patients who have heart or circulatory diseases should therefore not fast. Fasting can also be dangerous for cancer patients, patients in convalescence, the elderly or the chronically ill. Diabetics, pregnant women and breastfeeding women should not fast at all. In general, inexperienced people should only fast under medical supervision or accompanied by a non-medical practitioner. It should be noted that some conditions can get worse while fasting. Especially with gout, gout attacks can occur more frequently.
With cantharid plasters, careless wound treatment or immunodeficiency can lead to dangerous infections. The plaster should therefore only be used by experienced doctors or alternative practitioners. The same goes for bloody cupping and bloodletting. These are invasive interventions that require adequate hygiene and specialist knowledge. A doctor should always be consulted before purification is carried out. This can rule out the existence of a serious illness that requires conventional medical therapy.
