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Debate rages on medicinal benefits of detoxification

By Chukwuma Muanya, Assistant Editor (Head Insight Team, Science and Technology)
14 July 2016   |   4:11 am
Experts said supervised and regulated medical detoxification with herbal teas, bitter kola, fresh fruits and vegetables and ‘fasting’ are effective and safe to achieving success.
Bitter kola (Garcinia kola)...Garcinia kola has been shown to posses remarkable anti-hepatotoxic activity against a variety of experimental hepatotoxins, including carbon tetrachloride, 2-acetryl-aminofluorene, paracetamol, and galactosamine, and protection against the accumulation of heavy metals in the liver. PHOTO CREDIT: google.com/search

Bitter kola (Garcinia kola)…Garcinia kola has been shown to posses remarkable anti-hepatotoxic activity against a variety of experimental hepatotoxins, including carbon tetrachloride, 2-acetryl-aminofluorene, paracetamol, and galactosamine, and protection against the accumulation of heavy metals in the liver. PHOTO CREDIT: google.com/search

There have been claims and counter-claims on the benefits of detoxification. Most medical practitioners insist that detoxifying the body of toxins from food, pollution and water could help in preventing chronic diseases. But a few others describe the practice as ‘waste of time and money.’ However, there are emerging evidence that the use of herbal teas, bitter kola, fresh fruits and vegetables, ‘fasting’ and local probiotic Fura (in Hausa/Fulani) are effective and safe in achieving detoxification. CHUKWUMA MUANYA, Assistant Editor (Head Insight Team, Science and Technology) writes.

Have you been battling with potbelly, stretch marks (cellulites), arthritis, waist pain, erectile dysfunction (weak erection), acne and wrinkles? Have you been seeking to get pregnant without success?

Experts said supervised and regulated medical detoxification with herbal teas, bitter kola, fresh fruits and vegetables and ‘fasting’ are effective and safe to achieving success.

The experts, however, said it is critical to see a practitioner who understands detoxification as a way of helping the body heal, regenerate, and repair.

Detoxification or detoxication (detox for short) is the physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including the human body, which is mainly carried out by the liver.

A fertility expert, joint pioneer of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)/Test Tube Baby in Nigeria and Medical Director Medical Art Centre (MART) Group of Health Services and MART Life Detox Clinic, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, told The Guardian: “These have been recognized by American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine that there are toxins around and especially a woman that wants to have baby should not eat large fish or stock fish because they contain mercury, which can prevent conception and other toxins that can have consequences even on the baby yet unborn.”

Ashiru said the MART Life Detox Centre was set up to address these issues, to remove toxins either from bad eating or from eating toxic foods or toxins that are available in the environment, which people have no control over such as pesticides, insecticides, oil fossils, diesels and so much more of such toxins. “So when people now go through these, they now go for their fertility treatment and it increases their success of fertility,” he said.

Pharmacological studies on bitter kola published in Handbook of African Medicinal Plants (Second Edition) by a consultant pharmacognocist, Prof. Maurice M. Iwu, noted: “Garcinia kola has been shown to posses remarkable anti-hepatotoxic activity against a variety of experimental hepatotoxins, including carbon tetrachloride, 2-acetryl-aminofluorene, paracetamol, and galactosamine, and protection against the accumulation of heavy metals in the liver.

“Chronic ingestion of Garcinia kola seeds caused inhibition of gastrointestinal motility and weight reduction and prevented castor oil-induced diarrhea in rats. Other activities of the biflavonoid mixture include those involving anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, and antiviral properties. The antiviral activity is quite broad and showed remarkable inhibitory effects against a variety of viruses, including Toro and Pichinde viruses, sandfly fever, influenza A, Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis, and ebola.

“… Kolaviron, the mixture of bioflavonoids, benzophenones, and chromanols, as well as other phenolic compounds in Garcinia, possesses strong antioxidant activities. Several reports on the experimental validation of the antioxidant properties of Garcinia are due essentially to kolaviron…. Kolaviron, the mixture of biflavonoids, benzophenones and chromanols, and related phenolic compounds in Garcinia kola possesses strong antioxidant activities.

“…It is intriguing that bioflavonoids of Garcinia kola are capable of modulating almost any physiological anomaly. The answer perhaps lies in the role of flavonoids in the evolutionary course of human beings. Humans, over many millennia, have adapted to a diet, which is favourable for their survival and the flavonoid-like structures were part of the physiological system.”

Iwu, who is also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bioresources Development Group and Intercedd Health Products (IHP). The research group has formulated bitter kola into capsules and marketed worldwide as Garcinia IHP- ‘The Cold Cap’.

Why detoxify? Iwu said: “the whole idea of detoxification from the colonic point of view is that you would be able to wash out and clean your system so that you do not have remnant of foods you took years ago, particularly meat and stuffs like that, and they keep accumulating and they putrefy and poison your system. It is that putrefaction and poisoning. It is just like deliberately taking chemicals that are harmful to you.”

Iwu said another reason why detoxification becomes very useful is that there is a lot mechanic chemicals that enter the system and they can not be avoided, like a construction and wielding sites, a lot of things enter the body. “They cannot be avoided in a modern society, so the need to have a system that removes them from the body, so that is why the formulation of detoxification that we have that is the IHP Detox,” he said.

IHP Detox tea is a unique blend of seed and leafs which are rich in flavonoids, polyphenols, and diterpenoid lactones which are responsible for the activities; general body cleansing, detoxifier, enhance immunity and other health benefits.

The pharmacognocist explained: “The tea has this ability to not only stiff your tummy of these things but also would be able to remove heavy metals from your system. That is why the detox becomes very important and ours is not just taking laxative, but we deliberately formulated something that will take care of all these toxins in the body and then be able to renew the body.

“But actually, we call it the 90-day programme. By the time you allow your system go through all that, you will feel it, the energy level comes up, the system comes up. And we also agree with a lot of people that once you finish it, our local Fulani Fura, the local yoghurt, should be taken for a minimum of 10 days to reinvigorate your gut microorganism.”

What are they made up of? Iwu said: “They are made from cereals and they then inoculate some microorganism in them; naturally they allow them to ferment. So in the programme we run, we encourage people after detoxifying, they take some Fura to be able to renew their microorganism level. The microorganism level is so important that people are now saying the biome in the stomach and body to be another organ because each person is different and that is what makes us thick.”

Iwu said the IHP Detox tea provides the following health benefits:
Adaptogenic function – Helps to normalize a physical function depending on what the individual need. It lower blood pressure or raise blood pressure, as an analgesics (pain killer); Antibacterial (fights bacterial activity); Anti-inflammatory (reduces swelling); antioxidant (helps in protecting the body from free radical damage); anti-diabetics (prevents high blood sugar); anti-acne (prevent skin from pimples); anti-carcinogenic (activity against different types of cancer and leukemia); anti- thrombotic (prevents blood clotting); anti-viral (inhibits viral activity); antimicrobial (fights common cold, flu and respiratory infections); antiperiodic (counteracts diseases like Malaria); antipyretics ( reduces fever); etc.

Depurative: IHP Detox tea acts to clean and purify the body’s blood as bitter tonic.

Chloretic: IHP Detox tea alters the properties and flows of bile and also promotes evacuation of bowel for easy digestion and reduces constipation.

Cardio- protective: IHP Detox tea helps to protect the heart muscles and also serves as blood clot buster which enables blood supply to the heart.

Immune system stimulator: IHP Detox tea provides antibodies, which are made to counteract the invading microbes or viruses in the body.

Hepato-protective: It helps to protect the liver and gall bladder functions, thereby provide general body detoxification and cleansing.

However, some scientists claim detoxification diets, such as the trendy juice fasting, is nothing but a waste of time and money. Sense About Science, a United Kingdom (UK)-based charitable trust determined that most commercial products’ detoxification claims lack any supporting evidence.

The group said that instead of subsisting on raw fruit and vegetables and shunning sugar and caffeine to cleanse the body of chemicals, all people need is a glass of water and a good night’s sleep.

According to a report published by DailyMail UK, a myth-busting guide on the chemicals that form part of people’s everyday lives states that the human body is perfectly capable of protecting itself from life’s excesses. And it is a myth that the process can be speeded by special diets, body wraps or pills.

“The gut stops many potential poisons getting into the system in the first place. And the liver deals with those that do,” the report stated.

A Mayr nutritionist and Managing Director of Martlife Detox Clinic, Mrs. Idowu Ashiru, told The Guardian that detoxification is key to looking younger and healthier even in old age. “Do you want to be attractive, beautiful, young and healthy in your 60s? You may have to go for regular detoxification with fasting, drinking vegetable broth and increasing your physical activity.”

Idowu said: “The secret is the Detox Clinic. When you remove all the toxins from your body, then all your face and body becomes fresh and vibrant.”

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