NEW YORK - The word "detoxification" is flung around the fitness
community as frequently as kettlebells are swung.
Yoga teachers regularly speak of detoxifying
twists, aerobics instructors of detoxifying sweat, dieters of detoxifying
fasts. But health professionals are sceptical.
"If you start talking about exercising
to detoxify, there's no scientific data," said Dr. Elizabeth Matzkin,
chief of women's sports medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The human
body is designed to get rid of what we don't need."
The same applies to fasting.
"No good scientific data supports any of
those cleanses, where you drink juice, or (only) water for a week," she
said.
Exercise is important, Matzkin added, because
it enables our body to do what it is made to do, but the kidneys and colon get
rid of waste. The role of exercise in that process is unclear.
"In general exercise helps our lungs;
kidneys get rid of things that can cause us onset of disease," she said.
A healthy lifestyle - eating healthy,
drinking plenty of water and exercising - is important to detoxifying because
it enables our body to do what is intended to do.
"As for specific yoga moves, I'm not so
sure," she said.
Yoga instructor and fitness expert Shirley
Archer, an author and spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise (ACE)
said the theory behind the effectiveness of detoxifying twists in yoga is that
they squeeze the organs, which push the blood out so fresh blood can rush in.
"Better circulation equals better
health," said Archer, who is based in Florida. "If detox means to
eliminate from the body what it no longer needs, then certain yogic practices
can help."
She said yogic deep breathing with strong
exhalations can empty the lungs of unneeded carbon dioxide and allow for a
fresh breath of more oxygenated air. "This nourishes all of our cells,"
she said. "It is also a method of cleansing because better circulation
equals better health."
Meditative movement practices, such as yoga
and tai chi, she added, can detox your attitude because they require staying in
the present moment and discourage dwelling on the past.
Last summer, celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson
began taking groups of 40-odd women on what she calls Detox Weeks, which
involve at least three hours of workouts each day, as well as lectures on
fitness and nutrition aimed mainly at encouraging lifestyle changes.
Similar weeks in other cities are planned for
2013.
"Women work out and think 'Why can't my
love handles, muffin tops go away'?" said Anderson, creator of the Tracy
Anderson Method and a co-owner, with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, of fitness
centers in Los Angeles and New York. "The most important thing is if you
can become a consistent exerciser."
"A good workout is not five to 10 yoga
poses," she explained. "You have to learn to scale up your endurance.
If you can only jump for five minutes straight, we'll go to 10 minutes, then 20
minutes."
Anderson said she uses the term
detoxification broadly to include everything from working up a good sweat to
clearing the mind of destructive thoughts.
"Detoxification is a big topic,"
she said.
Nancy Clark, a registered dietitian in
Boston, Massachusetts and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine,
said the body generally does a fine job of detoxifying itself through the liver
and kidneys. Sweating has nothing to do with it.
"When you sweat you really don't
detoxify anything," she explained. "If someone goes on a crash diet,
then maybe toxins are released but then the body would take care of them. When
you sweat you lose sodium."
Reuters
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