What the heck are toxins?

[BigSteve]

So what are we actually talking about when we use the word "toxins"? I assume one of them
is Carbon Dioxide, but what are the others?

[Bajanne]

I never researched exactly what they were.  I just know that our body naturally takes in a lot of toxic material, and that is what our kidneys chief job is  - clearing the toxins from our body.  Since our kidneys have failed, the dialysis machine does that, removing fluid and the toxins.  Maybe someone more knowledgeable can tell you what they are.

[goofynina]

I have always thought that toxins are the poisons in our bodies, its why urine is yellow  (i know i know, not the brightest crayon in the box)

[silverhead]

"Toxins", I believe would be mainly Urea and Uric Acid.....
Tom

[angela515]

Here is what I found:

A toxin is basically anything that causes an irritation in the body or has a harmful effect on it. There is little doubt that our world in the 21st century is  an increasingly toxic place. Many private and governmental health organizations are highly concerned with the unhealthy effects of pesticides, industrial chemicals, food additives, and heavy metals.

In addition to these environmental threats, many people have adopted a lifestyle that adds further to their toxic intake by ingesting legal drugs (alcohol and tobacco) and sometimes the use of illegal drugs (cocaine and marijuana).

Naturopaths and other alternative medicine practitioners fear an epidemic that they call bioaccumulation, or a buildup and trapping of toxic substances in the body. These substances weaken the organs of elimination, as well as the immune system that can gradually erode human health.

Practitioners of naturopathy and of traditional medicine agree that the body has its own natural processes for eliminating and neutralizing toxins via perspiration, urination, exhalation, and bowel movements. However, they disagree on the question of whether the body's elimination systems are capable of handling the nature and amount of toxins in today's world.

[KT0930]

Here is what I found:
 
Naturopaths and other alternative medicine practitioners fear an epidemic that they call bioaccumulation, or a buildup and trapping of toxic substances in the body. These substances weaken the organs of elimination, as well as the immune system that can gradually erode human health.

I've read several times in the forums where a lot of you say that you're immuno-suppressed. I know those who have had transplants are, but is this what those of you on dialysis mean? I'm currently not on any meds to suppress mine.

[bolta72]

Maybe not one of the brightest Goofy, but one of the most colorful.

[Ken Shelmerdine]

I think the word toxins is probably an inaccurate word to describe body substances which are not in themselves toxic but nevertheless are detrimental to health if the amounts of these substances are greater than normal levels. For example potassium is essential to the heart muscle and very high levels of it in the blood can course cardiac arrest as can too lower levels. In other words essential substances which everyone carries can become toxic if not properly regulated by kidney function.

[jbeany]

I've read several times in the forums where a lot of you say that you're immuno-suppressed. I know those who have had transplants are, but is this what those of you on dialysis mean? I'm currently not on any meds to suppress mine.

Anyone with kidney failure has a lowered immune system - we're not strong enough to fight off germs and viruses that a healthy person wouldn't notice, and the symptoms we get during the flu or a cold are more likely to turn serious.

[stauffenberg]

The essential characteristic of the healthy human body is homeostasis, in which there is a constant level of all the substances present in the cells, blood, and intracellular space which we need for life.  The basic role of the kidneys is to filter out all the excess of various substances we accumulate, since too much of any of the many things we need to survive can be harmful.  In this sense any surplus of any substance, even of a substance which sustains health in the appropriate amount, can function as a 'toxin.'

In addition, some substances which appear in the body as by-products of metabolism are intrinsic toxins, damaging to the body in any amount, such as carbon dioxide, free radicals, creatinine, urea, etc.

While the natural kidney is an ecact filter, quite sensitive to every possible excess, the dialysis machine is not, and often extracts too much of one substance while leaving behind too much of another. This is why people on dialysis are never as healthy as those with a natural kidney, and also why patients with a renal transplant live two to three times longer than those on dialysis.

[goofynina]

Maybe not one of the brightest Goofy, but one of the most colorful.

Aww, thank you so much Charlie, you made my day 

[boclark54]

Not entirely sure I'm right but I think that as said while taking off toxins dialysis also is taking out of blood needed things such as protein. This is what your albumin count is in blood test and your immune system.  Dialysis patients usually need a high protein diet to keep this number up, lower the number lower your immune system. For many they just don't have the appetite to eat that much protein (fish & meat) Supplements only work so much since they're usually high potassium which patients have to watch. Its one of the plus of home dialysis since it seems to help increase your appetite (plus can eat on machine)