Q: What does detoxification and to detoxify our body mean? Why I am asking this is because I was a regular smoker for the past 10 years and used to smoke around 5 cigars a day. I have reduced this and want to know what detoxification?

A:Detoxification in allopathic medicine refers to trying to wean patients off chemicals whether prescribed by a physician (such as narcotics etc) or considered a substance of abuse (such as alcohol, cocaine etc) they have become dependant on. The detoxification is often done under close medical supervision where the dose of the substance is progressively decreased with or without another agent to reduce the craving or dependency on the substance of abuse. Sometimes this is done in Rehabilitation centres where in addition to physicians there are psychiatrists, psychologists and behavioural scientists. Detoxification is regarded by some as cleaning the body of toxins that may have accumulated. I believe this is what you are referring to. For this, enemas, purgatives and a whole variety of remedies are recommended by people. This is not a concept that exists in modern medicine since it is believed that when the body is functioning optimally, it eliminates any toxins and does not need any help to perform this function. I might mention that cleansing therapies have not been shown, scientifically to be of any value.