#150 - Understanding Toxic Overload

“Detox” is everywhere right now, but most of what we hear is either fear-driven or oversimplified and that leaves people confused, skeptical, or stuck chasing the next cleanse. We want a smarter, calmer approach, so we’re digging into what “toxic overload” actually means and what it doesn’t, using a simple framework: your body is built to process toxins, but constant high exposure can fill the bucket faster than your systems can keep up.

I’m joined by Centurion Health founder and CEO Troy Duell to talk about the real-world sources that drive toxin exposure today: synthetic chemicals, microplastics, pesticides, highly processed foods, alcohol, medications, mold, and pollution. We also zoom out to the generational shift in how we cook, store, and buy food and why shelf life and convenience can come with tradeoffs that show up later as fatigue, brain fog, headaches, digestive issues, skin irritation, and trouble concentrating. We’re careful here: those symptoms aren’t a diagnosis, but they are signals worth exploring instead of ignoring.

Then we get practical. We break down the body’s everyday detoxification systems (liver health, kidney function, gut elimination, lungs, and skin) and the sustainable habits that support them: whole foods nutrition, hydration, exercise, and sleep. Troy also explains several supplement-based detox support options discussed on the show, including liver support nutrients tied to methylation and ingredients like NAC, plus approaches aimed at kidney and urinary support, heavy metal binding, and gut support.

If you want a grounded detoxification conversation with clear next steps, hit play. Subscribe to the Frontline Health Podcast, share this with a friend who’s overwhelmed by “cleanse” culture, and leave us a review with the health topic you want us to investigate next.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Detox Confuses Us

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Today on the Frontline Health Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

When people are talking about toxic overload, they're usually referring to the idea that our exposure to those toxins, whether they be chemicals or pollutants or heavy metals or food additives or alcohol or medication or whatever it may be, that our body can't actually process all of those things at a given time. So it's important to understand that it's not a medical diagnosis. It's really more of a way to describe a certain situation where you may have a higher burden or higher exposure to these toxins than our body can manage.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Welcome back to the Frontline Health Podcast, where we share news, tips, and insights to help you take ownership of your health. I'm your host, Evan Patrick, and today we're tackling a topic that's become increasingly popular in the health world, but it's also one that comes with a lot of confusion. You hear terms like toxic overload, detox, and cleanse everywhere, but what do those words actually mean? Are we really exposed to more toxins than previous generations? And if so, how do you know when your body may be struggling to keep up? Joining me as always is Centurion Health founder and CEO Troy Duell. Troy, thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Absolutely excited to be here. Um, it's definitely one of those topics that seems to be bubbling to the surface everywhere you look, and there's a lot of marketing behind it and certainly a lot of misinformation. So exciting, excited to get into it and kind of talk through what is reality and what isn't.

What Toxic Overload Really Means

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah, well, excited to dig in. And I think a good place for us to start would be with this hot button term, toxic overload. It uh it sounds a little bit dramatic. And honestly, I think a lot of people, when they hear things like this, they think that it's just marketing, they immediately become skeptical. So what does toxic overload actually mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yeah, I think that's a a great place to start. First, we have to understand our bodies really were and are well designed, and we're able to handle so many things that come at us that we're exposed to every single day. We've got our liver, our kidneys, our diet, our digestive tract, our lungs and our skin, every single one of them are a part of that whole detoxification process and a part of us coming across different toxins in our daily lives, and they play a role in helping us stay healthy. But when people are talking about toxic overload, they're usually referring to the idea that our exposure to those toxins, whether they be chemicals or pollutants or heavy metals or food additives or alcohol or medication or whatever it may be, that our body can't actually process all of those things at a given time. So it's important to understand that it's not a medical diagnosis. It's really more of a way to describe a certain situation where you may have a higher burden or higher exposure to these toxins than our body can manage. I like to think of it like a bucket of water. You know, that bucket's gonna hold water and it's gonna do it effectively until it gets to the top. And then when it gets to the top, it just spills over and it can't hold anymore. Our bodies kind of do the same thing when it comes to toxins. We've got a certain amount of water and a certain size bucket, and we hope that the evaporation process and the drain hole that we have in our bodies is able to sustain it. But sometimes we get so much more than our bodies can handle.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, I think that's a really helpful way to frame it. So thank you for just kind of painting that picture because I think people tend to go one of two ways when it comes to this conversation. One, they want to jump on whatever the fat is, whether it's like a juice cleanse or something like that, and people aren't really aware that their bodies are already, when they're working properly, doing a really good, good job of detoxification, right? You mentioned the liver, the kidneys, you know, these different organs we have that literally that is their job is to get rid of these toxins from our bodies. But then you have others who they they don't recognize that, you know, there are reasons why somebody might need extra support when it comes to supporting detoxification. Um, so it's uh so these these systems are working constantly. And as you just said, sometimes they get overloaded and they have to they have to do more work than we would want them to actually have to do.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

That's right. And I mean, it's as simple as we're introduced to more toxins than our body can keep up with getting rid of. And that's that's ultimately what we're talking about when we talk about toxin overload.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Yeah. I think people are becoming more aware today that for whatever reason we are exposed to a lot of toxins today that possibly previous generations were not through different products that we have, through different things in our in our environment. You

Are Modern Toxins Really Increasing

SPEAKER_00 5:05

know, there there's a lot of um a lot of news highlighting this. There was a recent Netflix documentary called The Plastic Detox, talking about microplastics, which everyone is terrified of. And um, yeah, it just feels like it's all over the place. So is this actually true? Like I think it it'd be good for us to just kind of investigate the the reality of this. Is it actually true that we're exposed to more toxins today than people were in the past, or is it just good marketing?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

No, I think it it absolutely is true because we are exposed to a lot more synthetic chemicals than previous generations. You know, previous generations didn't have a lot of these synthetic ingredients, synthetic chemicals in our foods. Uh, they don't have, they didn't have the wireless connections, so you've got a lot of that type of thing going on. You didn't have treatment of water systems. So all of it kind of adds up and compounds on itself to create an issue where um your body may not be able to keep up. And, you know, we've got plastics that uh earlier generations didn't have to deal with, and those plastics find their way into our food and into our water supply. So it's certainly something that we're dealing with. Um so yeah, more pesticides. Our food certainly isn't the whole food that we once had um and could only rely on. So um a lot, a lot more issues.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah, so I I kind of want to paint a picture for people and share something that might be kind of uh a relatable scenario for them, and then maybe have you just kind of unpack this a little

From Mason Jars To Velveeta

SPEAKER_00 6:43

bit. So uh, for example, I go to my grandma's house uh because because I'm from the south, I call her Mima. Uh and I think this is a yes, as any as any good southerner should. And I think this is a common phenomenon for millennials and Gen Z. Her kitchen looks completely different than mine and my wife's. So my wife and I, when we got married, we put no plastic, uh, no plastic cookware on our registry. It was all glass and stainless steel. Uh, we purchased whole foods as much as possible. We use an olive oil-based hand soap, etc. And she has, uh, you look in her pantry, she has this Velveeta mac and cheese, right? That's got like the big glob of cheese that lasts forever that sits inside of the pantry, uh, sodas in the refrigerator, and plastic cookware. And kind of the impression that I get from this is that either A, you know, we just kind of know too much about these things now, and they've always been there, they've always been bad for us, or B, these products have changed uh and are bad for us now in a way that they weren't in the past. So I'm curious for you. I'm not I'm not calling you old here, so don't uh don't don't hear me saying that, but I'm curious how have you seen cooking products, foods, cleaning products, all these things that we we now know that we're getting toxin exposure from, how have you seen these things change over time?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah, I think it's interesting because it is a such a generational change, and I think it's probably a little bit of both. So if I go back to to my grandmother and going to her house, she had a pantry full of canned goods that she had canned herself. She had a lot of homegrown fruits and vegetables. They were getting their own eggs. Probably in uh chickens in glass mason jars, right? Uh they were in glass mason jars for sure. There were there were a few that they had the old style uh aluminum cans that they would have um sealed up, but most of them were the glass mason jars with the beans and uh peas and other things that you would have in there. Or she'd have things that were frozen, and that was probably a newer thing for her because they didn't have the best refrigeration back in the day. Um but I think as time went on and you saw these conveniences come in, that's when the generational change started happening because we were looking for quicker ways to to get our food and get out the door, and we were marketed in such a way, or they were marketed to us in such a way that we were like, oh, this isn't bad. It's got all the essential nutrients and vitamins that we're really looking for in our meal. And as that started happening, I think you also saw a change in the ingredients themselves in those products. So that generation, uh, like my grandmother's generation, never really had much to deal with from a highly processed food situation. But then your grandmother's generation has more to deal with from processed foods, and there's kind of a hybrid piece that went on. And eventually, the more that happened with that, the easier it was to change out those ingredients because they were a little cheaper. They were, they allowed things to stay on the shelf longer, and the more they stayed on a shelf, the more money they had because nothing went bad. I think uh the other day I was thinking about the the whole manna thing that we hear about in the Old Testament, how God told them to just get enough for the next day. But their greediness meant that they tried to get more, and when they got more, it turned to uh worms and other things um that it just wasn't any good to eat anymore after the second day. And I think in a lot of ways, that's us and our food supply where we have come in and said, what's the what's the most uh what's the greatest way to reduce our fear of running out of food, of uh making sure it lasts longer, so our dollar lasts longer. And really it's all kind of driven, driven by fear in my mind, um, of what we're doing. And this is uh a good example of that.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah, that's a really interesting way to to frame it because when you think about it, there are not many things in life that are more essential to our well-being and our health than the food that we eat. But as we've we've made them less expensive over time, we've made them longer lasting, we have sacrificed a lot of quality for that, and uh, and we're we're paying the price.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Uh definitely. And, you know, these ingredients as we're starting to learn more have a long-term effect on our health, and we're seeing more and more chronic conditions because of it. And uh when you go overseas and you see what Europe has done and Asia has done, uh, they don't allow a lot of these same chemicals and ingredients in our foods uh or in their foods in order to help their populace stay a little bit healthier and they don't have the the chronic epidemic or the epidemic of uh obesity and all the other chronic conditions that we seem to have here in the States.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Mm-hmm. Well, that's really helpful. So thank you for framing that up for us. Um let's let's continue digging into

Reducing Exposure Without Living In Fear

SPEAKER_00 11:59

this. And we want to say, you know, the goal never on anything that we talk about on this podcast is to leave people with a sense of fear. We're all about helping people take ownership of their health and make meaningful choices and really just live with with intentionality and uh and be conscious of the decisions that they're making that might seem small or insignificant, but that uh actually can can make a big difference for our lives.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Absolutely. And I I think uh it's good to remind everybody that you're not going to be able to eliminate every single exposure or toxin in your life. But what we're trying to do is make you aware of whatever toxin or exposure that may be out there and reduce those exposures as much as much as possible in order to just make a better choice and move forward.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Hey,

Like Subscribe And Suggest Topics

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Frontline Health family. If you're enjoying this conversation, please go ahead and like this episode and subscribe to the Frontline Health Podcast. It really helps us reach more individuals who want to take ownership of their health. And comment down below what is a health topic you'd like us to investigate in a future episode. Leave your suggestions in the comments, and I promise we do read all of them. Together, we're building a community that values health stewardship. And now, let's get back to the episode.

Signs People Attribute To Overload

SPEAKER_00 13:18

So, uh our next question here, uh, and this is probably the question that everyone wants to have it answered. If someone wonders if they are experiencing toxic overload or not, what kinds of things might they be experiencing?

SPEAKER_01 13:33

It's a great question, and it's probably need to be a little bit careful with it because there are so many different ways it could go. Because there's really no checklist that can prove that you've had toxic overload or you're being exposed to too many things, because a lot of those symptoms are very similar to other things that could be going on, and there could be dozens or uh dozens of different causes for those symptoms. But understanding that, what people typically report when they're talking about toxic overload and when we find out that's what's going on is they're a little bit more lethargic. They're tired all the time, they have brain fog, they can't give uh great thought to or remember things. They have more headaches, they might have more digestive complaints, there may even be some skin irritation, uh, they even will have difficulty concentrating on whatever it is that they're going, uh going through or trying to do. And it doesn't necessarily, again, mean that toxins are the cause of it, but it's certainly one of those things that we need to start paying attention to if we're seeing it and we haven't seen it in a while and we've been exposed to things that um once we get down to the historical, we find out we're exposed to mold or uh more air pollution or even uh eating a lot more highly processed food, that's a sign that it it could be uh because of those causes.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah, thank you for that list and and for just kind of the careful distinction there. You're not saying if you have brain fog, you have toxic overload, or if you have, you know, digestive issues, if you feel tired all the time. We can't we can't make that diagnosis for people, right? But what we do want to tell people is don't ignore the symptoms, right? If you are dealing with these things on a daily basis, that is not how you were meant to feel. So dig in a little bit, look at your lifestyle, and try to figure out why this is happening.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, and I think it's always a good idea to take and evaluate what's going on. Are you eating way too many highly processed foods? Are there toxins that you're being exposed to? And if you can reduce those, then do it. Because no matter if you're having some of those symptoms we described earlier or not, if you're chronically or if you're uh being exposed to that stuff every single day, eventually those things will come into play. So I think there's no better time than now to really evaluate your uh particular situation and make sure that you're um doing everything you can to limit your exposure.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

That's right. That's right. So

How The Body Detoxes Daily

SPEAKER_00 16:16

uh we alluded to this earlier, but let's talk a little bit about what the body's already doing to detoxify. Uh, because again, people hear the word detox, they picture juice cleanses or some kind of uh regimen or protocol. Our bodies already have detoxification systems in place.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

That is absolutely correct. So the liver is certainly the big player when it comes to this, because everything, the majority of everything that we take in goes through our liver, it's cleaned, it uh cleans our blood, it cleans so many things and takes out all of the bad things that are happening in our body, or it's supposed to. The kidneys we've already talked about help filter the blood and a lot of the fluids that come in, and then you have the digestive tract that comes in, eliminates waste, and your lungs remove carbon dioxide, and then your skin helps through sweating. So it's important to remember we're not about turning something on, but we're really just about how do we come in and support those processes that the body already has in place. Because again, the body was created in a way to make sure that these toxins don't have an effect on us. And if you're having some of these symptoms, it's usually a sign that something is going on, either from outside the body or inside the body. And there are ways that we need to start addressing it and supporting our body to get the best outcome possible.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Mm-hmm. Kind

Nutrition Exercise And Lifestyle Support

SPEAKER_00 17:47

of the approach that that we would point people towards is um if your detox systems are already working, we know how important the the that nutrition is and the foods that we're getting on our bodies and the nutrients that we're fueling those systems with are to our overall detoxification. Because again, those systems that our body have, they need certain nutrients to be able to work. So how does nutrition fit into the picture here?

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yeah, I think nutrition is really the baseline of everything. If you don't have good nutrition, you don't have great supplementation, then you're really not gonna have a great detoxification process going on and being supported. So we know it depends on certain nutrients. Some of those we know are B vitamins, for instance. We know that it requires certain minerals, but um, we also understand that you're not gonna necessarily nutrient your way into good health, but it is a part of the overall process that we need to take into place because exercise is a big part of getting those toxins out of our body as well. So exercise, diet, and supplementation are gonna be key.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Yeah, it this is just such a different way than I think a lot of people are already thinking about detoxification because a lot of people think of it as just like a one-time thing, or like you do this once a year, January comes around and you you do like a week detox or a month detox, and uh, and they think of it that way, but the better way for us to think about it, it seems like, based on our conversation here, is how do I just support the detoxification that's going on in my body? Like on a regular basis, how do I sustainably do that?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah, and I I think it's all about lifestyle. And if we can get into our minds that it's a lifestyle as opposed to uh a one-time thing or uh a five-day thing, then we're going to have much better outcomes in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah,

Supplements Discussed For Detox Support

SPEAKER_00 19:48

so we have uh crafted our detox products around this kind of framework or idea that it's not just like a one-time thing, but it is something that we we need to support consistently and we need to not just have something that is going to flush us out or like disrupt what our body is doing, but something that's actually intended to, again, help our bodies get the nutrients that they need in order to carry out the detoxification systems that our bodies already have have in them. So I wanted to ask you, Troy, if you would just take a moment to kind of speak to the formulas we have that can help people detox.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yeah, the first one, uh, be glad to. The first one's Defender Detox, and that actually has the premise behind that is trying to get the liver supported as much as possible. We know that one of the main pathways the liver uses to help uh detox the things that we come in contact with is methylation. And methylation is going to be supported by vitamin B6, it's gonna be supported by folate, and dimethylglycine, which is DMG. So we want to make sure that and in that product it has those things, but it also contains NAC, arlopoic acid, and phosphotiolcholine, which help with cell membrane. It helps with just detoxifying the NAC uh itself, and acetylcysteine is one of the best when it comes to liver detoxification. It's actually used in emergency rooms if somebody comes in from a uh Tylenol or acetaminophen overdose situation because it helps detoxify the liver from that standpoint. So if you're talking about liver health and liver detoxification and support, then you're gonna want to go with Defender Detox. We have a kidney cleanse product, which actually has 21 uh clinically proven ingredients in it. That, you know, a couple of them are cranberry extract, uva ursi, uh, juniper berry, Java tea leaf, and astrogalis. And those are all meant to kind of uh support urinary tract health and your kidney wellness and function. And it does that by really creating uh a healthier urinary environment and Allowing better urine flow, and it also protects the kidney cells from oxidative and inflammatory stress. And then we've got two other products. One is zeolite, and we call it zeolite because that's the main ingredient in it, but it's typically going to work on trying to pull those heavy metals out of the body. So zeolite itself is a volcanic material that's kind of porous and it acts like a sponge in our digestive system to bind those heavy metals to it, like lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, and nickel. And then it pulls it out of the body, but it also contains milk thistle, shilajet, and selenium that all kind of work to help support the liver itself and the intestinal walls. And the final one is wormwood, which has three different ingredients. It has wormwood itself, black walnut, and clove. And that combo has traditionally been used in functional medicine to target intestinal parasites, which some studies suggest over 90% of the U.S. population has some parasites. So the wormwood and black walnut help kill the different adult and larval stages of those parasites. And then the cloves come in and it actually kills the eggs that uh those parasites lay. So those are kind of the the main products we have when you're talking about a cleanse or a detox or support for our detoxification system, specifically in the liver and the gut itself.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Yeah, thank you for sharing those, Troy. And if anyone is interested in learning more about those products, uh you can find them at www.centurion.health. But beyond uh just products, I think it'd be great if we kind of wrap up this episode with some practical advice. You know, if

Practical Steps And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 23:54

someone's been listening to this and they're like, yeah, I am, I'm dealing with brain fog. I'm tired all the time. I have so much inflammation. They they've been listening to what we've been talking about and it really resonates with them, and they want to be able to help their body detox. They think that's that's something that can help. What would be your advice to them?

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Yeah, I think it goes back to the fundamentals that we talked about earlier. So eat more whole foods, stay well hydrated, exercise, which we talk about all the time, and make sure that you're getting plenty of good sleep. Uh, and then once you're handling those things, reduce those unnecessary exposures that we talked about. So don't be around, don't smoke, and don't be around a lot of tobacco smoke. Avoid certain chemicals that are going to be in the highly processed foods, and avoid excessive alcohol because all those things add up to really push your bucket of toxins over the top and you start to overflow.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

That's really helpful. And uh, Troy, I just want to want to wrap this up and and thank you for the way that you've handled this conversation today. Um, not pointing people to fear again, like we always want to do. We don't want to convince people that everything around them is toxic. Again, we as you mentioned earlier, we cannot uh we cannot reduce the number of toxins we're exposed to to zero. Uh we live in a fallen world and these things are just a part of it. And so the point is not to be in fear. The point is actually for us to to kind of recognize and appreciate what our bodies are capable of when it comes to detoxification, um, but recognize that they need good nutrition, they need healthy habits to uh to function at their best. So thanks for bringing us uh bringing some balance to this conversation, Troy. And um, yeah, just a conversation that's often filled with the extremes to be able to look at it in a in a balanced and and rational way.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Absolutely. And I I think it's one of the easiest areas for us to start taking ownership of our health because we know that it really matters. And if we can make those consistent, healthy choices over time, then we're going to be that much better off in the long run and really start to kind of push aside some of those chronic disease uh pieces that we have in our country currently.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

So true. Well, to our listeners, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Frontline Health Podcast. You can learn more, like I said earlier, about Defender Detox and our other detox products, uh, and additional educational resources at www.centurion.health. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time on the Frontline Health Podcast.