Demystifying detox - Can yoga really

cleanse the liver?

January is the month for detox myths, including yoga to 'cleanse the liver' and 'rinse
the spine'. Ouch!

Yoga classes are popular in January, but can a twist cleanse your liver? Photograph:
Getty Images
Nicole Slavin
Monday 13 January 2014
Comments
135
If theres one word that seems ubiquitous every January, its "detox". Anyone hoping
to wash away the excesses of the holiday season will look for ways to be better and
healthier, at least than they were the year before. The fact is, detoxing isnt a thing. It
is well dressed (and well marketed) pseudoscience. It is hard to pinpoint a single
culprit responsible for this piece of bad physiology that persists. Who knows where
the origins of this misnomer lay, but recently its been seen more and more in the
ever-growing yoga industry.
Madonnas triceps and Stings bedroom habits aside, yoga has been steadily
increasing in popularity since the 1990s. A 2008 study in Yoga Journal reported the
worth of the yoga industry to be $5.7bn, and today there are approximately 4,500
yoga-based businesses in the UK alone.
One benefit of yogas visibility and popularity is the variety of styles and methods
available for one to get a stretch on. Classes offered nowadays can range from more
traditional yoga styles that honour its cultural or spiritual origins, to ones that cater
to a more fitness-orientated crowd. Its possible to find "hot" yoga, where the studio is
warmed to 40C, theres even yoga for "dudes". For the ultra-warrior, there is a fusion

of Boxing Yoga, and the latest addition to the myriad of ways to stretch is disco-yoga!
Regardless of whether youre seeking the reverent or the physical, one thing still
abounds in many yoga studios: bad science.
Type "yoga" and "detox" into any search engine and the claims youll find will be quite
staggering. One yoga posture (or asana in Sanskrit) that seems to bear the brunt of
being super magical and "detoxifying" is the spinal twist, performed in poses like
Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Lord Fish Pose). Some claims associated with this
particular pose are reasonable, such as releasing muscles around the spine and lower
back to ease pain or increase flexibility, for which there is some evidence.

The Ardha Matyendrasana pose.

But other claims are ridiculous, such as claims it can "rinse the spine". I dont know
about you, but Im pretty happy with my cerebrospinal fluid un-rinsed, thanks. One
of the more frequently made claims is that spinal twists detox the spine and
subsequently massage the liver in order to increase its ability to detoxify (ie do its
job). The sources of this myth are so numerous that a quick internet search will bring
back hundreds, if not thousands, of hits. But it's simply not true.
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The liver is astounding, and after the skin, it's the body's largest organ. It has evolved
to put up with a great deal of biological abuse, and the way it works is nothing short
of incredible. Because of its size and connection to two very large blood vessels, the
liver is well situated to receive whatever comes through your intestinal tract, the
good, bad or ugly. It takes on a bouncer-like job and keeps unwanted items, or toxins

(such as byproducts from pharmaceuticals, or environmental carcinogens) from

getting into the bloodstream; basically the liver has got your bloods back.
The blood that comes into the liver from the spleen and gastrointestinal tract is
greeted by Kupffer cells, a kind of macrophage (quite literally, "big eater"). Theyre
not picky and will, in plain English, eat the flotsam and jetsam right out of your blood
by digesting these undesirable particles. They do the first pass of "toxin flushing",
after which anything not caught here gets further broken down by enzymes produced
by Hepatocytes, which are sensitive to blood sugar levels.
So what does the Ardha Matsyendrasana twist do? When performed correctly, after a
proper warm-up and with attention to alignment, this humble but adaptable twist
both strengthens and releases a host of muscles from your rhomboids (associated
with the scapula) to your hamstrings, with a lot in between including both internal
and external obliques and spinal extensors. Not to mention it feels pretty good too
(one hopes).
One thing its not doing is directly affecting the cellular or biochemical workings of
the liver, which are the primary mechanisms of "detoxification". And I dont even
know what "massaging the liver" means. If youre manipulating your internal organs,
youre more likely to cause damage than improve their function.
Will practicing yoga, or exercising in general, get your cardiovascular system
working? Yes. Does this have an impact on blood flow? Yes. Does change in blood
flow impact on the other organ systems of the body? Yes. Can eating healthily,
avoiding fatty food, alcohol etc give the liver a "break" from the demanding work of
detoxing? Yes, it can. Does this mean you can make your liver work faster, better,
stronger through an exercise or specific product/food/ritual? No, you cant.
The best detox advice I know is:
Possess a (hopefully healthy) liver.
Limit intake of high fat foods, excess calories, alcohol etc to maintain said healthy
liver.
And, of course, though it wont "detoxify" you directly, do exercise.
To quote Sir Liam Donaldson, former Chief Medical Officer, in his 2009 report on the
state of public health: The potential benefits of physical activity to health are huge. If
a medication existed which had a similar effect, it would be regarded as a wonder
drug or miracle cure.

Namaste.
Nicole Slavin is a 200 Yoga Alliance-registered yoga teacher and holds a BSc in
physiology and pharmacology. She can be found on Twitter @schrokit