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Do Our Bodies Have Natural Detoxifying Systems? - Dr. Ring (VIDEO)

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More Videos from Dr. Melinda Ring 17 videos in this series

Dr. Ring shares if our bodies have a natural detoxifying system.

Dr. Ring:
Our bodies are amazing. They have amazing detoxification systems in place. The liver, of course, is the main detoxifying organ. It has two main phase, phase 1 and phase 2, that alter toxic substances into, you know, water-soluble things that we can either excrete in our urine or in our stool. The problem occurs when one of those two-phase systems is overloaded or isn’t functioning properly and that can happen through a few different ways.

There are different things that induce or reduce the enzyme’s abilities to work and that can be anything from medications that we take, stress, vitamin deficiencies, gene issues. So there’s a lot of different factors that play a role and one of the concerns in terms of the liver’s ability to detoxify is if we’re doing, if those two phases are not in balanced because the first phase of the liver’s detoxification process produces an intermediate substance that’s actually even more toxic to the body and can damage the DNA.

So if we start doing it detoxifying and then end up with these intermediaries and that second half of the system isn’t ready to go, we can actually create more damage through our body’s natural process. So the liver is great, but it needs a lot of different things to go right for it to work at it’s optimal best.

About Dr. Ring, M.D.:
Melinda Ring, M.D., is an Integrative Medicine physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Ring believes the patient and physician are partners in the healing process. She uses evidence-based approaches from other cultures to complement Western medicine treatment and stimulates the body's innate healing abilities. Her philosophy embraces treating the whole person, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions, to achieve optimal health. Dr. Ring received her medical degree from the University of Chicago/Pritzker School of Medicine and has been practicing medicine since 1997.

Visit Dr. Ring at Northwestern Memorial Hospital

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