Journal

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To date I have found no science in support of the idea that you can consume a special diet and have it remove toxins, metals or other bad things from your body. All the science that I have found states that the body naturally ‘detoxifies’ itself all the time, and there is nothing which can be done to speed up or improve this process, and in fact those special detox diets may hinder the bodies natural processes.

From what I’ve found, this is the near unanimous opinion of scientists, clinicians, toxicologists, dietitians, nutritionists and just about anybody else who ought to know and has studied it. Nor do I believe there is a vast, world-wide conspiracy amongst all these people across all these disciplines because they somehow feel threatened that their source of income will dry up or be impaired if people start detoxifying themselves. (This is a common rebuttal from those who want to accept alternative care modalities on blind faith)

For those who detox themselves and experience amazing benefits, we can point to the remarkable power of placebo. Unlike detox regimes the power of placebo is extraordinarily well documented scientifically. In fact it is a major problem for drug companies, which are required to use placebos during their clinical trials. More often than not, the placebo works better than their drug. The mind has an amazing ability to make the body adapt to its expectations of what should be occurring. I find it fascinating that some people rebel against the proven reality that their mind is tricking them but happily accept the unproven miracle cures offered them by others. Surely there is fodder here for sociological research.

I’m filing this one under complete nonsense until I can dig up some good data to support it. If I do, I will detoxify myself!

For about 10 years now I’ve slept several hours followed by several hours awake followed by another several hours of sleep before rising.  It turns out that all mammals except humans consider this normal. “In healthy people this bimodal pattern of sleep would be called a sleep disorder, although the resemblance to animal sleep confirms its naturalness. And as people get older they revert to this pattern of divided sleep. Perhaps it gets harder to override it.”

An ongoing area of interest for me is neuroscience. Some time ago I read that some neuroscientists drink coffee simply for health benefits – to ward off dementia. The scientific evidence is stacking up, and now a recent study shows that coffee may actually reverse Alzheimer’s. Black tea also has been shown to have significant cognitive health benefits. Oddly, in the black tea studies I have read, “coffee has not been shown to have the same benefits.” Likewise, in the coffee studies, black tea is not as effective.