I’m not exactly sure what forum this belongs in, but I’m looking for scientifical-type facts, so I think I’ll try GQ.
Usually when I encounter the term “toxins,” it’s either in the context of bacterial infection or environmental pollution, and seems pretty reasonable, or it’s as a buzzword associated with a wide variety of, shall we say, fringe health practices: herbalism, juicing, colonic irrigation, sweat lodging, etc. In this context, “toxins” are made out to be something horrible in your body that you must try to get rid of (but not too fast, or they will overwhelm your system!) Yet no doctor or professional nutritionist has ever mentioned toxins to me, which seems odd. I mean, you don’t hear about a scientific study showing that a diet high in wheatgrass lead to 20% lower toxin levels in rats, and no doctor has ever told me that in addition to my cholesterol level, I should be tested for toxins, or that I should change my diet to avoid toxins, or that I should be pursing some sort of activity to purge toxins from my system. I’m sure it’s my unhealthy Western Materialist paradigm speaking, but this whole thing sounds an awful lot like a made up new-agey crank concept to me.
A somewhat niave friend of mine was extolling the toxin-purging virtues of yoga last week, and I told her that this toxins stuff was bull-puckey. But then yesterday another friend of mine who Should Know Better told me that exercise helps your lymph system flush out toxins, so excerise improves all the systems of your body on cellular level. I am highly dubious, but this person is a scientist, and I would hope more resistant to crank claims than average. Am I missing out on the toxins boat?
Toxin’s a real word: Cholera-Toxin Saxitoxin BUNGAROTOXIN
It just gets used to explain everything from the “heebie-jeebies” to “an excess of black bile.”
“Toxins” covers the wide range of things that are, surprise, toxic to you. The reason you don’t hear a lot about toxins from your doctor is because it is a rather wide term; your doctor could tell you to avoid drinking sewage because of toxins, but for a more specific change he/she would probably have a specific reason.
Encouraging the health of your lymphatic system and drinking your required amount of water are things that will help remove toxins from your body, for clearly understandable reasons. Exercise is known to improve your body’s health by getting things moving in high gear, and if that is the reasoning behind the claims of toxin-flushing qualities of yoga there is a grain of truth behind it. However, in my opinion yoga is less exercise than an equal amount of CounterStrike. If you want to become more flexible yoga is a good option, but exercise and self-defense is found in a “real” martial art.
Are there toxins in my body that need to be removed? No doctor has ever told me that I need to encourage the health of my lymphatic system. Can you give me some cites showing that this is a legitmate health concern?
Are you talking about anything beyond cardiovascular conditioning, building muscle, and burning calories? If so, you need to clarify exactly what is “known”, and who knows it.
I’m not shopping for an exercise program, but my friend can touch her toes to her nose, and I am extremely jealous. Far be it from me to pooh-pooh yoga. My friend enjoys it a great deal, it has helped her back aches, and she’s losing significant amounts of weight, though that’s probably due to dieting–but if the yoga is helping her motivate herself to be more healthy overall, more power to her. Plus, she can touch her nose to her toes, and that impresses the hell out of me. This is not a svelte young lady we’re talking about, here–which makes me think that she would probably not have the confidence or the desire to get into martial arts, but yoga is really rowing her boat.
“Toxins” is one of those words that depends entirely on the context in which it is offered, definitions be damned. Silver can be toxic if ingested, but not so much if worn around your finger. “Dirt” is nasty if under your fingernails, but not if in fertile soil in Wisconsin.
“Toxic” may be meaningless if someone is telling you how to remove it from your body, but if they are talking about removing it from your diet, that’s another thing entirely.
“Are there toxins in my body that need to be removed? No doctor has ever told me that I need to encourage the health of my lymphatic system. Can you give me some cites showing that this is a legitmate health concern?”
Well, every time you pee you are removing toxins from your body. No matter how clean you are, you take in stuff that your body does not really want. Your lymphatic system is just another one of your body’s systems keeping you alive; encouraging your overall health is enough, you don’t have to exercise your lymph nodes or something.
“Are you talking about anything beyond cardiovascular conditioning, building muscle, and burning calories? If so, you need to clarify exactly what is “known”, and who knows it.”
Conditioning, building muscles, and burning calories are all things that your body needs to do. By doing these things regularly your body gets better at doing the same when it really needs to, such as when you are sick. All of your body’s systems are connected, so an increase in one area tends to carry over into several others. Building muscle tends to also increase the strength of the heart to supply that muscle. That muscle needs an immune system too, right?
As has already been pointed out, the term “toxin” is pretty useless when used on its own. At sufficient concentrations, oxygen is toxic to humans. Should we therefore try to eliminate this toxin from our bodies?
Having said that, your friend is partially correct when s/he says:
Lymphatic pumping occurs via two general mechanisms: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic pumping is controlled by smooth muscles in an involuntary fashion. Extrinsic pumping is controlled by skeletal muscles due to breathing and exercise.
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9350633&dopt=Abstract
However, I generally stop listening when most anyone starts talking about flushing out toxins.
Just tonight, Dr. Drew and Adam on Love Line launched into a rant about “toxins”, and said almost exactly the same things.
Adam was impersonating his mother: “What we need to do to get rid of the toxins you’ve picked up from the toxic world is pump a gallon of coffee into your rectum.”
Far be it from me to pooh-pooh yoga. My friend enjoys it a great deal, it has helped her back aches, and she’s losing significant amounts of weight, though that’s probably due to dieting–but if the yoga is helping her motivate herself to be more healthy overall, more power to her. Plus, she can touch her nose to her toes, and that impresses the hell out of me. This is not a svelte young lady we’re talking about, here–which makes me think that she would probably not have the confidence or the desire to get into martial arts, but yoga is really rowing her boat.