I've just about had it up to here with radio infomercials hawking the various snake oil solutions to "toxins" in the body.

Toxins in our blood, our bowels, our cells, under our fingernails, behind our ears where momma always told us to scrub real good.

Well, folks, if you're ever concerned about this kind of garbage, take your chances and switch the dial.

The intestine is a long tube of mucosa not terribly different from the inside of your mouth. 
Rendered slick by mucous, food slides down our throat, slips through our stomachs and more or less slides right through the entire 25 feet of our intestine before making its less than glorious exit.

While passing through, rough fibers and filaments from vegetables, grains, seeds and fruit brush against the intestinal wall.  The walls of the intestine intensify this scraping action be squeezing down on the food and the squeezed area travels down the intestine.  Food travels through us in bulges like a rat through a snake in a process called 'peristalsis'.  The fiber scrapes away at the walls and the body, evolved to withstand this abuse has been designed to slough off much like our skin flakes off. 

The claims that some junk in a supplement the radio salesmen are hawking removes food (they especially love to finger red meat for some reason) from the walls of the intestine is... crap.  The walls themselves come unstuck from the walls!  It CAN'T stick for long because the walls they are reportedly stuck to come loose and leave us.  No food stays very long and no toxins of unexplained origin have any more time to form than any food you eat today.

This explanation covers the claimed benefits of "colon cleansing".  It's basically an industrial strength enema.  Removing non-existent toxins may be worthless, but it's rarely free.  Invest instead in high fiber foods that make you feel full, don't provide too much in calories, and move the food (and intestinal lining trash) out smoothly.

And speaking of getting rid of the garbage... stay tuned.


*DM


Next:   An Old Man's Obsession.


THE CHART:

This Week's Fitness Activities:
Strokes on Bike (daily average) 20
Bench Presses  (daily average) 4
Curls  (daily average) 0
Lifts  (daily average) 0
Stairs (flights per day) 15
Walking (minutes per day)  0
Heavy bag (seconds per day)  54
Dancing (minutes per day)  0
Push Ups (per day)  6
Sit-ups (per day) 3


Effort Grade:  A- 

This Week's Fitness Activities:
Strokes on Bike (daily average) 10
Bench Presses  (daily average) 0
Curls  (daily average) 0
Lifts  (daily average) 0
Stairs (flights per day) 10
Walking (minutes per day)  5
Heavy bag (seconds per day)  0
Dancing (minutes per day)  0
Push Ups (per day)  2
Sit-ups (per day) 1


Effort Grade:  D

Pulse: 70
Blood Pressure:  107/67  10/21/08
BMI 25 (barely overweight) 


Workout Partner's Progress:  Position Vacant

RECENT SYMPTOMS : None
ONGOING SYMPTOMS:  Clicking knees, Pain in right knee when kneeling and shifting knee to the right.  Hyperhidrosis.
DIAGNOSIS: Suspected neuroma or hairline fracture to foot. Unknown injury to right knee, possible impact from small stumble (c. 2006) onto landing of concrete stairs. Injured knee joints from sprinting (c. 2007)

ONGOING TREATMENT: Tri-Annual dental visits, Meta-tarsal pad in shoe

DRUG REGIMEN:  Aspartame.  (3 diet sodas daily)  Caffeine (three cups of coffee daily.  two colas.)
PROGNOSIS:  Gradual decay of knee function.
POTENTIAL TREATMENTS:   Fish Oil supplements.  Axillary vacuum curettage.

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