Detoxify. Slowly.
Is detoxing the whole story of recovery?
- Can we detox our way to health?
- Is “fast & furious” the best way to detox?
“You don’t need to “detox.” Your body has a liver.”
— Bad internet advice.
Hard Detoxing Has Consequences
Nutrients Are Rapidly Lost
When detoxification ramps up in intensity — nutrients are used at an increased rate.
The liver suffers when adequate nutrition is not available to meet demands. We can even develop a fatty liver due to lack of nutrients — and a sluggish, fatty liver is not good for detoxification.
Detoxification requires adequate minerals, B-vitamins, protein, and fatty-acids. When gut health is poor, deficiencies in these nutrients will already be widespread.
Gut Health Suffers
Toxins in liver bile don’t want to stay in the gut — and in poor gut health, they are easily reabsorbed back into the bloodstream. They’ll then cause inflammation and overwhelm the liver & kidneys.
To combat this, it’s common to take “binders” to sop up these toxins, trapping them in the gut.
Binders
However, harsh binders are bad for the gut microbiome, and commonly cause severe constipation.
To combat constipation, laxatives are typically prescribed (via prescription or high-dose magnesium), all of which can have negative impacts on gut health.
Perhaps worse, harsh binders can trap nutrients in the gut — including the b-vitamins, minerals, and fat-soluble vitamins as well. This can make any pre-existing nutrient deficiencies even worse.
Ironically, the harsh binders used to facilitate detoxification can rob the body of necessary nutrients required for detoxification.
Harsh binders, themselves, have negative effects on the microbiome.
How To Take Binders
First, choose more gentle binders, such as chlorophyll and chlorella. These are super gentle on the gut, and may even improve the gut microbiome — without causing constipation.
Second, if using pharmaceutical binders (cholestyramine, etc), or even activated charcoal, use very small, infreqent doses.
The best method is to rotate on & off. Take a binder for several days to0 a week, then go off of it for the same amount of time. This will allow your body to continually improve its nutrient levels and organ health before you begin a next round of binders.
If the liver lacks any nutrients, it is being harmed.
Sleep Suffers
As nutrient supply drops and gut health suffers, sleep A main characteristic of heavy detoxing (and worsened gut health due to binders) is terrible sleep — and for quite obvious reasons.
When inflammation is high, gut health is low, nutrients are being lost — sleep is less likely to happen.
Sleep is an extremely hormonal process, and hormone production requires nutrients. Minerals, b-vitamins, and fat-soluble vitamins — as well as caloric energy — are all important for sleep.
Years of depletion — due to excess toxicity and poor gut health — will leave the body depleted; harsh binders can exacerbate this effect by preventing the body from absorbing nutrients from food.
Yet, decent sleep is of utmost importance for your healing.
Restorative sleep is necessary for detox and healing.
Read more:
Slow Detox? How & Why
Too Much Detox Is Bad For The Liver
“Sustained activation of detoxification pathways promotes liver carcinogenesis in response to chronic bile acid-mediated damage.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5957449/.
An overburdened liver needs to be supported: by nutrients, by an improving and function digestive system, by optimal circadian rhythms, and more.
Therefore, detoxing needs to be done slowly over time — in a healthy and improving system. It’s an ongoing process that can — and should — last months or years, even.
This doesn’t mean we can’t start feeling better quickly. In fact, that’s a main reason to detox slowly! We focus on restoring bodily function as a means of facilitating detoxification.
I believe this represents the best scenario for your recovery of health. The body’s energy and healing power improve together: nutrient levels rise, sleep improves, gut health improves… and the body’s total function improves. At this point, detoxification naturally rises, along with thyroid function and every other marker of health.
Does undercutting crucial bodily functions help the healing process? Maybe not.
How To Detox Slowly
Heat certainly feels good, but its benefits in the body go even deeper.
The most basic source of detoxing power is heat (infrared light) — especially when it’s strong enough to force your body to sweat.
Heat is infrared light — always — and infrared light is among the most powerful therapeutic substances health science has found.
Infrared light supports every biological action:
…and yes, infrared light supports liver detoxification.
Light treatment for 18 days in acutely diabetic rats resulted in the normalization of hepatic glutathione reductase and superoxide dismutase activities and a significant increase in glutathione peroxidase and glutathione-S transferase activities.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19202557
The best ways to obtain infrared light.
Infrared Options
Sunlight
Heat Lamps
Sauna
Red LEDs
Sweating Is Restorative
Sweating is a proven method to remove toxins from the body.
It’s an essential component of recovering from chronic illnesses of every kind.
The Research
When saunas are used to reduce blood pressure and enhance blood flow and cardiac functioning, only short sauna sessions (15 minutes) are necessary. When one wants to enhance the mobilization of heavy metals and chemical xenobiotics, longer sessions are needed and those should be medically monitored.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=sweating+detox
Supplemental Heat… & Blood Sugar
When beginning, infrared light will almost always cause a blood sugar crash (as metabolism and detoxification ramp up).
Be sure to eat more food to compensate and, if necessary, replace lost minerals: sodium, potassium, calcium, & magnesium. (Pay extra attention to sodium if you’re hypothyroid.)
Read more.
Smart nutrient balancing can both help the body detox and reduce symptoms.
The secret is to know how much your body needs:
- smaller amounts, daily
- excellent balance
Wise nutrient supply — when balanced well — will help you sleep, improve gut function, and restore detoxification.
It’s important to protect sleep and gut health; the two are essential for restoring healthy detoxification. Low-dosed, balanced nutrient supplementation are essential to protect sleep and gut health.
Remarkably, up to 70% of the brain’s power goes to maintaining sodium/potassium balance in cell membranes.
Therefore, any steps we can take to supply nutrients in the safe, manageable doses is of utmost importance when restoring bodily health.
Design a smart nutrient regimen.
For proper detox, the work of improving gut health must begin as quickly as possible.
Attempts to detox with poor gut health are bound to fail, and potentially cause more problems than are solved.
Regularity
Daily full bowel movements are necessary for detoxing.
Constipation and diarrhea both mean toxins (from the liver) are not being trapped in the gut for excretion.
You desperately need daily, effortless, healthy bowel movements to detox your body. Constipation causes all toxins in the body to stay in the body indefinitely.
Toxins, therefore, should be exiting the body daily — so they stop overwhelming the liver and being stored in fat cells.
A harmed liver slows down every bodily function, and toxins becoming stored in fat cells can make fat burning very stressful on the body.
Don’t depend on laxatives — or nutrients/herbs with laxative-like effects — to facilitate regular bowel movements. These are not helping the gut in the long run, and some can create dependencies or nutrient imbalances.
Healthy Gut Function
Restoring the gut barrier is absolutely paramount to recover from chronic illness.
The gut barrier is a robust defense against pathogens. When weakened, the body is susceptible to invading organisms — and that means chronic inflammation, histamine responses, and mast cell hyperactivity. A chronic immune response interferes with healing.
A compromised gut also struggles to absorb nutrients properly. Pathogens in the gut release toxins, stimulate inflammation and steal nutrients from food.
Improving your gut’s nutrient absorption is critical for detoxification.
To restore nutritional levels, the gut must be always improving.
Binders
Use these binders with caution and don’t rely on them to heal you.
Binders are merely a tool, and in many cases will not improve the gut microbiome. The gut microbiome is improved by feeding and supplying healthy microbes.
Many binders have negative side effects on gut health.
With a few exceptions, binders tend to destroy the gut microbiome, making it difficult to make substantial, lasting progress on gut health while taking them.
Safer Binders
The following binders represent safer, effective options.
Each of these is excellent for gut health and will encourage proper microbes to flourish in the gut — rather than harming them.
They are still best used in moderation.
The Circadian Rhythm’s Role In Gut Health & Detox
An essential part of optimal recovery, sleep has a profound effect on gut health.
As gut health improves, immunity improves, so the circadian rhythm directly improves the immune response — lowering pathogenic load and, therefore, inflammation in the body.
To unlock life-changing detoxification, explore and cherish the role of the circadian rhythm — for its benefits on inflammation, nutrient absorption, metabolism, & immunity.
Any detox program will be greatly enhanced — or held back — by the quality of the circadian rhythm.
Environmental toxins can halt the body’s detoxification in its tracks.
By contrast, when the body stops being assaulted by environmental toxins, it will begin to dump its toxic load.
This is widely reported among folks in the mold community — and I’ve personally experienced this many times as I’ve relocated and even been temporarily exposed to environmental toxins.
Once the body has become quite toxic, it will respond more aggressively in response to exposure.
Examples of environmental toxins include:
All can become disruptive to the body’s nervous and endocrine systems through ongoing exposure.
Body odor can change rapidly upon new exposure to an environmental toxin. The compounds in the environment can influence body odor.
Read more.
Revisit the 5 Paths below.
Max: “It’s so clear how much thought you’ve put into the site.”
“You have changed how I think about what I expect from every health professional I work with. You are a rockstar!
You are practical, not selling an agenda and so open-minded, which comes through in your writing. It’s so clear how much thought you’ve put into the site, and the content and delivery of content is unparalleled.
You are thorough, but also able to communicate in a way that’s not overwhelming, which I feel is a really hard to balance. You’re able to communicate this stuff 100x better than anyone else out there.
I’m often referencing your site in my mind as I’ve been helping my brother work through issues.
I’m so appreciative of you and your work — the mindset you’ve given me is invaluable. You’ve trained and taught me well!”
Max Friedman
Massachussetts, USA
Josh: “The material on this website is extremely clear cut.”
“I just want to say: Travis Burch has been key to my healing process over the last year, which is getting better and better.
Coming from so many different dietary influences, I feel as though Travis has shown me the balance that I needed.
If I could have gone back in time 4 years ago, when I started searching into health, and had access to the knowledge on this website and Travis’ direct support I would have sorted a lot of issues I had out a long time ago and saved my self a lot of tim.
The material on this website is extremely clear cut, organised and actually very enjoyable and easy to read. Never have I been so interested and excited when looking into health. Everything is actionable and there are a million things I’ve taken from the website to improve so many issues I had (sleep improved greatly, circadian rhythm, energy levels, skin issues have improved, strength in the gym are just a few of many others, oh and also balance, so key). Everything you need to heal is here on this website.
Also working with Travis directly he has been able to troubleshoot a lot of issues and I am always so grateful for the time he takes to help me. He really does put thought and effort into every single response I have from him and honestly just cannot thank him enough.”
Josh Clement
United Kingdom
Luna: “I wanted to keep Travis a secret out of fear that his prices would go up a thousand fold, because he is worth that much.”
“I have been searching the internet for years trying to find solutions for the various health conditions my family and I have been suffering from. Because of that, I would go into various rabbit holes of I formation which would promise ultimate healing by following certain diets and or protocols. I had information and books about GAPS, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Paleo, Keto, Medical Medium, Jack Kruse, Ray Peat, prometabolic eating so on.
Every time I would find some new information — or some kind of answers — I would get excited, and I would try to apply the information! But I would also try to make sense of it in the context of all of the other information that I had gathered from the past
One day, while searching through message boards and forums, Travis’s website popped up. The guy seemed to have a handle on all of the information. I was highly impressed and decided to book a free call so I could basically spew all of the information that I had read for the past two years onto him.
From the beginning I was so moved by his kindness and vast knowledge. He was not only familiar with all of the things that I asked him, he was able to explain how that information fit into my particular situation. I had tried to reach out to various people in the past and they all demanded money for the slightest interaction or were incredibly pompous and rude to be asked even a simple question. I had SO many questions to ask him before deciding whether to work with him. I wanted to make sure that he know at least as much as I did about all the things. He was so patient and answered all of my questions without ever sounding annoyed or in a rush to “get” me as a paying client.
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I wanted to keep Travis a secret out of fear that his prices would go up a thousand fold, because he is worth that much. But I know what it’s like to suffer alone trying to find answers in an endless sea of information. I believe that he can help many people. Thank you Travis! You have really been a God-send.”
Luna Tomy
USA
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“I’ve been on an 8-year long journey of struggling with hypothyroidism and a ton of health issues stemming from that (i.e. chronic fatigue, depression, weak immune system, insomnia, constant sore throats, digestive issues, etc.) I’ve seen tons of different doctors, naturopaths, healers (and spent thousands of dollars) with little to no results.
In the first few months of working with Travis, my issues started to reverse almost instantly! Within 6-12 months, I felt like I had healed 80-90% of my issues. It was remarkable. And with so much day-to-day support. He’s also very open-minded and non-dogmatic, so he’ll work with you however you want to explore things. Not to mention, he’s also just an incredibly caring and awesome human being. Navigating my health journey has been infinitely more manageable and less overwhelming with Travis by my side.
Travis has given me my life back and I can’t thank him enough for it! And his ideas and perspectives on health feel absolutely foundational to me. Your mileage will vary with any health coach or protocol, as everybody and situation is different, but I’m convinced that Travis’ coaching would be helpful to pretty much everybody. His protocols feel absolutely fundamental to me for better health.”
Jaemin Yi
California, USA
Diane — “I can personally attest that Travis Burch is the real deal.”
“There are seemingly endless numbers of health and nutrition gurus selling protocols, but very very few of them actually possess the qualities needed to heal for a person struggling from ill health or disease.
I can personally attest that Travis Burch is the real deal. I’m forever grateful to have crossed paths with him at a very crucial time during which the collective health of my family had fallen apart as a result of living in a moldy house.
His in-depth understanding of nutrition, lifestyle (and their interactions) and the way in which the environment influences our health (good and bad) is astounding.
But, the best part is that he’s big-hearted and has a faculty for tuning in and listening that effectively sets him apart from others in the field. Thank you, Travis!”
Diane Tantimonaco
California, USA
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Thank you so much! Love the content, I’m constantly reading and referring to it! Now I’ve got it for life! ❤️
Shea Frith
Australia
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“I have suffered from chronic digestive issues for decades. I tried so many things and was feeling so lost, just getting worse, never better. Never knew what I should be eating-my health was getting worse and it was taking a toll on my work, my relationships. Working with Travis over the past year has helped me tremendously. He understands what it feels like to feel anxious and confused and so sick of being sick. He is a helping hand in a sea of confusing health information. He has such a level head and takes a reasonable approach to healing (starting with foundations). He really listens. He sends quick, thoughtful replies everytime I write him. He has been there for me when I was really scared or unsure how to proceed. I always feel better after our zooms. He is patient and answers all my questions and never makes me feel dumb no matter how many questions I have. He has saved me a lot of money with his many hacks and product recommendations! If you hire Travis as your health coach he will help you heal, and this may not be overnight, it takes time to undo years of being sick, but he will be there and stick with you as you figure things out, and teach you a lot!”
SM, R.D.
Massachussetts, USA
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USA
Bart: “Travis has helped me tremendously…”
“With his website and coaching Travis gives a very clear picture about what constitutes health, which he describes perfectly through his pillars of health. As a coach he is highly engaged and responds quickly to all your questions. He has helped me tremendously in dealing with illness and navigating the maze of online self help recommendations and I can’t thank him enough.”
Bart Lutmers
Netherlands
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“Travis Burch is extremely patient and really listens.
He has helped me recently discover some major issues with my regimen and I’m forever grateful!”
Mandy Rode
Alberta, Canada
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Travis himself is different from anyone I’ve spoken to in the health world, I’m constantly blown away every time I speak with him. He will look at every angle of my questions and always give me the light at the end of the tunnel with my problems (Even my more silly questions!)
Travis you are a kind, amazing person: you listen, you are patient, & you want to help. Your understanding of health is essentially on a different planet. From every moving part, you’ve let me explore my issues in my own time and way, with no pressure that might make me feel overwhelmed. You put enormous amounts of effort into every single thing you do. I’m forever grateful for the help you have given me over the years.
There’s no agenda or bias with Travis, only what works, he is the real deal.”
Brooke Collins
U.K.
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Krystie Kyes
USA
Erica: “A life-changing practitioner to work with. “
“I’ve been working with Travis for over a year. I can’t over-emphasize the influence he has had on my life, on my health, and my happiness. I started working with Travis just as I came down with a chronic health condition called gastroparesis (“GP”). I was convinced by the medical community, scientific literature, and the general consensus of anyone who has this condition that I would have it for life, and at the very best be able to manage my symptoms with medication and drastic, permanent dietary changes.
Over the past year, Travis helped me recover from an all time low with my health. Working with Travis gave me the gift of no longer believing I’ll suffer from a chronic health condition the rest of my life. It allowed me to be able to eat foods I wasn’t sure I could safely eat again, be able to feel energy I wasn’t sure would return, be able to have substantial periods of time where I’m healthy & feeling great and to experience my health continuously (but not linearly) improving.
I can’t recommend working with him enough. Travis is so methodical, thorough, practical, and an incredible person – which makes him a life-changing practitioner to work with. Thank you for everything Travis, endless appreciation for all that you do!“
Erica Mulford
USA
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