The word “detox” is all the rage in fitness industry for those looking to offset the effects of overindulgence during the holidays or setting a new year’s resolution.  One of the most common things heard in yogaland is that twisting yoga poses will “detox the body”, “detox the liver”, “massage the internal organs”, or “wring out the internal organs and spine” to name a few.  But do twisting postures actually have the detoxifying effect yoga teachers claim?

 

The idea that twisting asanas detoxify the body was made popular by B.K.S Iyengar.  According to Iyengar, twisting poses will restrict blood flow to muscles and organs, and then when released, blood will flow back into those structures, thus improving circulation.  This became known as the “squeeze and soak” theory.

 

Detoxification is a cellular process.  While our organs (liver, kidney, skin) are absolutely capable performing their detoxifying duties on their own, movement and exercise in general does support the organs in performing these natural processes. But a twist alone does nothing to alter the cellular or biochemical function of the liver nor any other organ in the body.

 

Throughout our evolution, the liver has evolved to deal with a lot of biological abuse.  Think of the liver as a gatekeeper.  It acts to filter out unwanted things, such as toxins, byproducts of the food we eat, the environment, and pharmaceuticals from entering the bloodstream. 

 

Metabolic detoxification depends on the ability for water to act as a solvent to dissolve toxic substances.  Generally speaking, the body converts fat soluble toxins into water soluble metabolites through a process called solubilization.  This is accomplished by enzymes in 3 phases.  

During the first phase, enzymes transform lipid soluble toxins into water soluble compounds in preparation for phase 2 of the detoxification process.  Phase 2, known as conjugation, further breaks down the products of phase 1 to increase solubility and decrease toxicity.  During phase 3, these compounds bind with enzymes found in the liver, kidney, lungs, brain, etc to transport these inactive compounds in and out of the cells to be expelled the body.

 

This is a metabolic process, rather than a mechanical process as yoga teachers might lead one to believe.  While twists may increase the motility of the gut, they do nothing to alter the bodies chemical process of detoxification. 

 

The bottom line is that the body is capable of performing it’s natural detoxification processes without the extra push from a twist. In fact, twisting poses themselves have zero physiological effect on the bodies natural detoxifying process.  While twisting poses do have their utility, detoxing the body and massaging the internal organs are NOT any of them. I would even argue that manipulation the internal organs is not a desirable activity, more likely to cause damage than improve function.

 

So the next time your teacher says the sequence is designed to detox the body with twists or a student asks what poses I’ll detox the body, know that exercise in general aids the detox process, twisting alone has zero effect on the bodies natural processes to remove toxins from the body.