Detox

Detox may refer to drug detox or to the alternative therapy treatment that rids the body of toxins.

About Detox

Drug Detox

Drug detox (detoxification) is the first step toward addiction recovery. Drug detox programs are available to safely eliminate all toxins from your body. This should be done under medical supervision because of the potential problems that may occur as a result of discontinued use of certain drugs or alcohol.
Drug detox is the process of flushing the body of all of the harmful chemicals that have accumulated due to drug abuse. Also known as cold turkey drug detox is only the beginning of rehabilitation. It is commonly described as the period of time from when a patient stops taking drug to when there are no more cravings.

The symptoms of drug detoxification can be mild, extreme, perilously unhealthful or even fatal.
When looking for a drug detox center, you should look for a center that has the following criteria:
Twenty four hour medical supervision, individualized treatment plans, physicians certified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (A.S.A.M.), a location within an accredited drug and alcohol rehab center (detox is most successful when included in a comprehensive drug rehab stay) and the complete removal of drug residuals. Without this step, drug residuals can stay in your body and cause cravings for years after drug use has ceased.

The length of a detox program is different for everyone and it is based on a number of factors: the intensity and history of the client's addiction, their physical makeup, and the specific drug that is being cleansed from the body. In general, the average drug detox program lasts anywhere from several days to two weeks.

There are three stages to drug detox:
Medical Detox: A medical doctor will supervise your medical withdrawal from drugs, ensuring you complete this phase safely and with minimal complications (this may take several days).
Physical Detox: Once your body is no longer dependent on drugs, you will need to work on building up your physical health. A nutritionist will work with you and help you to develop a balanced diet to help you through the rest of the detox process.
Emotional Detox: Drug detox can be extremely difficult on your emotional health, which is why most treatment centers offer counseling during detox. Since drugs have become an large part of your mental, emotional and social life, you will need emotional help as you detox.
If you or someone you care about has a problem with drug addiction, call the Nationwide Addiction And Detox Helpline number at 1-800-559-9503.

Detox as an Alternative Medical Therapy

Detox or Detoxification is an alternative medicine which proponents claim rids the body of toxins. They claim that these toxins are harmful substances that exert a negative effect on ones individual health. This is done usually in the form of dieting, fasting, consuming exclusively (or avoiding) specific foods such as fats, carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, juices, herbs or water, through colon cleansing, and heavy metal chelation (which is the removal of dental fillings). Body cleansing is not supported by science, with no medical benefits demonstrated, and is based on questionable or disproved scientific claims. The toxins are usually undefined, with no evidence (or inappropriately used testing) for toxic accumulation in the patient.

The different types of detox are:

Detox diets

Detox diets are dietary plans that claim to have detoxifying effects. Scientists, dietitians, and doctors, while generally judging 'detox diets' harmless (unless nutritional deficiency results), often dispute the value and need of 'detox diets' due to lack of supporting factual evidence. Detox diets can involve consuming extremely limited foods (only water or juice, a form of fasting), or eliminating certain foods from the diet (such as fats). Proponents claim that this will cause the body to burn accumulated stored fats, releasing fat-stored toxins into the blood, which can then be eliminated through the blood, skin, urine, feces and breath. Proponents claim things like an altered body odor support the notion that detox diets are working; this claim has been criticized for misinterpreting the body undergoing ketosis. Though a brief fast of a single day is unlikely to cause harm, prolonged fasting can be fatal.

Heavy metals

Advocates may recommend the removal of dental amalgam fillings because of the chance of mercury poisoning. The process inappropriately uses a mercury vapour analyzer to generate spurious, which are then used to justify an expensive and unnecessary operation to remove the fillings. Proponents also will call for the use of chelation therapy, inappropriately using a chemical such as EDTA to provoke spuriously high urine levels of heavy metals so tests give inaccurate readings. Following the falsely high test result, the advocate will then recommend detoxification using products and services sold by the advocate.

Detoxification devices

There are certain devices that are promoted to allegedly remove toxins from the body. One version is a foot bath using a mild electrical current, while another involves small adhesive pads that are applied to the skin. In both cases, the production of an alleged brown toxin appears after a brief time. In the case of the foot bath, the toxin is actually small amounts of rusted iron leaching from the electrodes, while the adhesive pads change color due to the oxidation of the pads' ingredients in response to the skin's moisture. In both cases, the same color changes occurred whether the water or the patch was in contact with the skin.

Colon cleansing

Colon cleansing, is based on a pre-scientific theoretical model adopted from Ancient Egypt. It involves the use of herbs and/or enemas to remove food that proponents claim remains in the colon and rots, producing symptoms and general ill health. In reality, the colon does not require cleaning, and the practices can be both expensive and they can be dangerous.

Criticism

Body cleansing and detoxification have been referred to as an elaborate hoax used by con artists to cure nonexistent illnesses. Most doctors admit that the 'toxins' that are in question do not even exist. In response, alternative medicine proponents frequently cite heavy metals or pesticides as the source of toxification; however, no evidence exists that detoxification approaches have a measurable effect on these or any other chemical levels. Medical experts state that body cleansing is unnecessary as the human body is naturally capable of maintaining itself, with several organs dedicated to cleansing the blood and gut.

Created by vickiz

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