Category: Research
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Probiotic Strain Specificity
A study by Ghattargi et al. (2018) highlights the potential for strains from a single species to range from probiotic to pathogenic, with some being cultivated in traditional fermentation while others exhibit a neutrality that is neither probiotic nor pathogenic. This study compared the genomes of ten different strains of Enterococcus faecium. While these different…
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Glucuronidation and Enterohepatic Recirculation
β-glucuronidase produced by the microbiome can deconjugate xenobiotics that have already undergone glucuronidation by phase II enzymes, causing them to undergo enterohepatic recirculation rather than being eliminated in the feces. Elmassry et al. (2021) found that males have higher levels of intestinal β-glucuronidase than females, and infants have higher levels than their mothers. Malik et…
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Diaphragmatic Breathing
One group of clients for whom I would recommend diaphragmatic breathing are those who are interested in detoxification yet are also experiencing ongoing stress. The IFM handout, Breathing Techniques to Soothe the Soul, gives a good description of the modality on one page, and suggests that five minutes of practice would be enough to achieve…
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Sleep and Muscle Mass
Daily rhythms of light and darkness have been a part of human evolution. While some animals are more active nocturnally and humans tend to get exercise and food in the daylight hours, our evolutionary heritage may have led to shared similarities in how circadian genes orchestrate muscle cells’ response to the energy influx that comes…
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Sweat Detox
The possibility for sweat as a route of toxin excretion is intriguing. Hussain et al. (2023) found metabolites from insecticides in the sweat of women who participated in a randomized crossover trial involving sauna and indoor cycling. The authors noted differences in the levels detected between the two modes of inducing sweat, and between the…
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Brassicas for Liver Function
An association has been found between higher levels of gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and serum levels of several persistent organic pollutants (Lee & Jacobs, 2006). Also, increased oxidative stress has been found in association with elevated GGT (Lim et al., 2004). Brassicas are emphasized in the Detox Food Plan, and consumption of cooked, frozen brassica vegetables…
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St, John’s Wort and CYP450 Pathways
Dürr et al. (2000) gave 300 mg of St. John’s Wort to healthy volunteers three times a day for two weeks. They found that this induced CYP3A4 in both the liver and the intestines, which explained the interactions that had been observed between St. John’s wort and certain drugs. It seems that it reduced the…
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Herbivorous Fish
I found an interesting study (Lino et al., 2018) that looked at the concentrations of both mercury and selenium in different species of fish in Brazil. They found that carnivorous fish had the highest concentration of mercury and also the lowest concentration of selenium, while fish lower on the food chain were higher in selenium…
