| Detoxification
Detoxification
helping nature do its job
by
Greg Tilford
 Mick,
a five-year-old Labrador retriever, has
flaky skin and smells more “doggy”
than usual. Katrina, a two-year-old mixed
breed cat, has goopy, runny eyes and oily
fur. She eats a lot of grass and vomits
almost every day. Lately, her stool has
been covered with mucus. Twelve-year-old
Joe the beagle, meanwhile, has a fatty
tumor on his right side and a cyst behind
his left ear. All these animals share
something in common: their bodies are
working to push out toxins and waste materials
by a natural process called detoxification.
In mainstream medicine, the mechanisms
of detoxification are often viewed as
unpleasant symptoms of illness that need
to be remedied. Eye drops are administered
for goopy eyes, dandruff shampoos for
flaky skin, surgery for removal of cysts,
and so forth.
When viewed from a more holistic perspective,
however, detoxification is a natural part
of the healing process that should be
assisted, not stopped. After all, helping
the body in its efforts to heal itself
is the primary goal of the holistic practitioner.
The body’s detoxification system,
being extremely complex and very efficient,
works to eliminate anything that may be
harmful to the body, by whatever means
necessary. Routine detoxification is ordinarily
handled by waste removal mechanisms in
the digestive tract and liver, the filtering
activities of the lymph system, and at
immune system levels, where a complex
army of antibodies, toxin-scavenging cells
and special chemicals weed out, destroy,
and eliminate waste. If the detoxification
system becomes over-burdened with too
many toxins, however, or is rendered dysfunctional
by injury or disease, the body may resort
to extraordinary methods of elimination.
When excess waste cannot be eliminated
via normal digestive and urinary channels,
the body attempts to push it away by any
means necessary. If pushed through the
skin, we see the eruption of rashes, dandruff,
oily coat or pustules. If via mucous membranes,
we see runny eyes, nose, or mucus discharge
at the rectum or urethra.
To the holistic caregiver, such occurrences
bring two questions to mind: what is causing
or contributing to the animal’s
underlying state of disease, and what
can be done to help the body detoxify
itself?
While searching for answers to the first
question with the assistance of your veterinarian,
there are several things you can do to
help your companion detoxify.
It all begins with simplifying the body’s
job of keeping itself clean.
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Published
in the October/November 2003 issue of
Animal Wellness Magazine
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