I am very conservative about recommending supplements, as I believe you’re best off getting your nutrients from healthy, whole organic foods. But I’m also pragmatic, and I understand a perfect diet is hard to come by these days, so some supplements I believe can be quite beneficial in promoting detoxification.
When you have worked your way up to one or, eventually, two days a week of partial fasting, the following supplements will help your body complete the detoxification process and minimize any damaging effects from the toxins that may get liberated from your fat stores. They should be taken on days you are KetoFasting.
Ubiquinol (the reduced form of CoQ10): 100 to 150 milligrams twice a day. Coenzyme Q is necessary for your mitochondrial energy production and regulates the expression of genes that are important for inflammatory processes, growth, and detoxification reactions.1
Organic whole psyllium husks: 1 to 2 tablespoons. Psyllium is an excellent source of both soluble and insoluble fiber, which means it will add bulk to your stool and help your body excrete more of the toxins that make it to the GI tract. As psyllium contains about 18 calories per tablespoon, be sure to add this into your Cronometer data so you will hit your appropriate calorie target. For more information on psyllium.
High-quality probiotics: Follow dosage guidelines on the packaging. Look for one with L. rhamnosus, which has been shown to reduce pesticide toxicity,2 and L. plantarum, which has been shown to reduce the negative effects of mycotoxin exposure.3 The Complete Probiotics that I sell on mercola.com is an excellent source of these and other useful strains, but there are other companies that sell probiotics that contain these strains. Just make sure that whatever probiotic supplement you choose is high potency.
Magnesium: Magnesium is the fourth-most abundant mineral in your body and is involved in more than 600 different biochemical reactions. It facilitates all of your body’s enzymatic processes, including detoxification. Magnesium is also important for brain health, cellular health and function, and the optimization of your mitochondria. And up to 80 percent of people are estimated to be deficient in magnesium.
Magnesium resides at the center of the chlorophyll molecule, so if you rarely eat fresh leafy greens, you’re probably not getting much magnesium from your diet. Furthermore, while eating organic whole foods will help optimize your magnesium intake, it’s still not a surefire way to ward off magnesium deficiency, as most soils have become severely depleted of nutrients, including magnesium.
Magnesium absorption is also dependent on having sufficient amounts of selenium, parathyroid hormone, and vitamins B6 and D and is hindered by excess ethanol, salt, coffee, and phosphoric acid in soda. Stress, lack of sleep, excessive menstruation, and certain drugs (especially diuretics and proton-pump inhibitors) also deplete your body of magnesium.4 For these reasons, many experts recommend taking supplemental magnesium.
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for magnesium is around 310 to 420 milligrams per day depending on your age and sex,5 but many experts believe you may need 600 to 900 milligrams per day, which is more in line with the magnesium uptake during the Paleolithic period. Personally, I believe many may benefit from amounts as high as 1 to 2 grams (1,000 to 2,000 milligrams) of elemental magnesium per day. Most of us have high chemical and electromagnetic field (EMF) exposures, and the extra magnesium should help lower the associated damage. Elemental refers to how much pure magnesium is in each milligram, or what percent is actual magnesium.
One of the best forms is magnesium threonate, as it appears to be the most efficient at penetrating cell membranes, including your mitochondria and blood-brain barrier. If your body agrees with the higher doses of magnesium, it is best to take it in evenly divided doses throughout the day to prevent loose stools. It can be taken with or without food. If you’re also taking calcium, take them together.
While the ideal ratio of magnesium to calcium is thought to be 1-to-1, most people get far more calcium than magnesium from their diet; hence, your need for supplemental magnesium may be two to three times greater than calcium.
Milk thistle: The milk thistle herb has been used for thousands of years to support liver, kidney, and gallbladder health. The herb is native to the Mediterranean and is regarded as a weed in some areas of the world. When the leaves are crushed, they release a milky sap, which is where the herb gets its characteristic name.
Silymarin is a group of flavonoids (silibinin, silidianin, and silicristin) known to help repair your liver cells when they’ve been damaged by toxic substances. These flavonoids also protect new liver cells from being destroyed by toxins. As such, milk thistle greatly improves the overall functioning of your liver, with specific applications related to cirrhosis of the liver, chronic liver inflammation, and liver damage from alcohol and other intoxicating substances.
Milk thistle is available in a capsule, extract, or powder form shown to benefit your liver, gallbladder, heart, and prostate. According to the National Institutes of Health, silymarin is the most commonly used herbal supplement in the U.S. for liver problems.6 It is also useful as an essential oil.
You can find milk thistle at most health food stores under the names silymarin or silybum. Your best options are extracts of milk thistle with silybum or silymarin standardized to 70 to 80 percent. The recommended daily intake is 420 milligrams in divided doses. While you can stay on milk thistle indefinitely, it is not generally recommended. Be sure to consult with your doctor before taking milk thistle on a continuing basis, especially if you are using other medications.
NAC: N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is an incredibly useful supplement that has many benefits related to its ability to boost production of glutathione, an antioxidant that is used to reduce free radical damage and that plays a role in the detoxification of heavy metals and other harmful substances.
The most common use of NAC is for liver support, especially to counteract the effects of alcohol and acetaminophen, two common compounds metabolized through the liver and associated with liver damage.
NAC supplementation can help “pre-tox” your body when taken before alcohol, thereby minimizing the damage associated with alcohol consumption. NAC is a form of the amino acid cysteine, which, in addition to increasing glutathione, also reduces the acetaldehyde toxicity that causes many hangover symptoms. Taking NAC (at least 200 milligrams) 30 minutes before you drink can help lessen the alcohol’s toxic effects.7 It is thought to work even better when combined with vitamin B1 (thiamine).8 All of that said, it’s important to realize that this protocol will not reduce your susceptibility to alcohol poisoning or other acute adverse events associated with binge drinking, so please use common sense and drink responsibly. NAC is also used as an antidote for acetaminophen toxicity, which also causes liver damage by depleting glutathione.
NAC is widely available as an oral dietary supplement and is relatively inexpensive. Considering its wide array of health benefits, it’s a supplement worthy of consideration for many. Unfortunately, it’s rather poorly absorbed when taken orally. According to some studies,9, 10 oral bioavailability may range between 4 and 10 percent. Its half-life is also in the neighborhood of two hours, which is why most study subjects take it two or three times a day.
Due to its poor bioavailability, the recommended dosage can go as high as 1,800 milligrams per day. No maximum safe dose has yet been determined, but as a general rule, it’s well-tolerated and has no known serious side effects, although some do experience gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, or constipation. Should this occur, reduce your dosage. It’s also best taken in combination with food, to reduce the likelihood of gastrointestinal effects.
Since NAC boosts glutathione, which is a powerful detox agent, you may experience debilitating detox symptoms if you start with too high a dose. To avoid this, start low, with say 400 to 600 milligrams once a day, and work your way up. Also, if you are currently taking an antidepressant or undergoing cancer treatment, be sure to discuss the use of NAC with your physician, as it may interact with some antidepressants and chemotherapy.
MSM: Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) is the first oxidized metabolite of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)11 and a naturally occurring sulfur compound found in all vertebrates. When you have insufficient MSM your cells become hard and stiff, which means they can’t allow for adequate flushing of foreign particles and free radicals.12
As a supplement, MSM is widely used in the treatment of pain, especially pain associated with arthritic conditions. One clinical trial found that people with osteoarthritis of the knee who took 3 grams of MSM twice a day for 12 weeks experienced significantly decreased pain and improved physical function, compared to a placebo.13
MSM is 34 percent sulfur by weight. Sulfur has only recently become more widely appreciated as a critical nutrient, without which many other things don’t work properly. If you don’t have enough sulfur in your system, you’re not going to be able to naturally produce the most important antioxidant that your body produces: glutathione, which is absolutely essential for removing heavy metals and many of the toxins you’re exposed to. Without sulfur, glutathione cannot work.
As a supplement, most tolerate up to 4 grams daily with few known and mild side effects.14 Clinical research studies have found the effective amounts range from about 1.5 grams to 6 grams.
That said, potential side effects at higher doses include intestinal discomfort, ankle swelling, and skin rashes. These are likely detoxifying effects that can typically be mitigated or minimized by cutting back on the initial dosage and slowly working your way up.
It’s a bit of a challenge to get an ample amount of sulfur from your diet these days. There’s been a transition away from many foods that have traditionally been big sources of sulfur, like collagen or keratin. If you make bone broth—by cooking down bones from organically raised animals—and drink it regularly (or use it for soups and stews), that definitely helps. The connective tissues are sulfur-rich, and when you slow-cook the bones, you dissolve these nutrients out of the bone and into the water.
DIM: Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) is a potent phytochemical found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower. Once eaten, your gut converts I3C into diindolylmethane (DIM). DIM in turn boosts immune function, plays a role in the prevention and treatment of cancer,15, 16 and acts as a powerful antioxidant.
DIM also has other health benefits. Research has shown that it can help balance male and female hormones, thereby supporting reproductive health in both sexes. Importantly, DIM has been shown to balance 4-hydroxyestrone, an estrogen that can have damaging effects and plays a role in reproductive cancers. In one study, supplementation with I3C at dosages of 200 and 400 milligrams per day for three months reversed early-stage cervical cancer in 8 of 17 women.17
It also supports your liver’s detoxification processes, and helps heal liver damage by supporting the reproduction of normal, healthy cells. If you are taking the seeds as mentioned previously, you likely will not need this supplement as it is in the seeds naturally.
Broccoli seed extract or broccoli sprout powder: These two supplements are excellent sources of I3C and DIM; they also have the extra benefit of providing other compounds found in broccoli that a DIM supplement can’t: glucoraphanin and the enzyme myrosinase, which is required to convert glucoraphanin to sulforaphane. Sulforaphane is a powerful phytochemical (isothiocyanate) that increases enzymes in your liver that help destroy cancer-causing chemicals you may consume or be exposed to in your environment. It is also known to block inflammation and damage to joint cartilage.18
Because of the power of these phytochemicals, I highly encourage you to sprout your own broccoli seeds and eat fresh organic broccoli as often as possible. It’s hard to beat these two wholesome foods for their phytonutrients and fiber.
However, there may be times when you want far larger amounts of these two incredible compounds. For those times, I recommend taking broccoli sprout powder or broccoli seed extract. I sell a fermented version of broccoli sprout powder on my website, because fermentation helps convert glucoraphanin into sulforaphane before you even ingest it. Again, if you are taking the seeds as mentioned previously, you will not need this supplement as it is in the seeds naturally.
If you don’t consume binders when you’re fasting, you run the risk of resorbing the toxins you so carefully were able to remove from your fat, thus exposing yourself to more damage from the toxins you’ve unleashed from the safe cocoons of your fat cells. A binder does just what it sounds like it should do: it binds with substances in the GI tract so that those substances can be excreted through the feces.
There are a large number of binders on the market and one can make an argument for using many of them. I recommend using all of the ones below based on my review of the literature19 and personal experience. All binders need to be taken on an empty stomach, either one hour before or two hours after your KetoFast meal. If you take the binders too close to when you eat food, the binders will actually bind the nutrients found in the food and make them unavailable, rendering them essentially useless.
Activated charcoal: 5 to 6 grams. Activated charcoal is the primary filtration mechanism for most home water filter systems because it is so effective at removing chlorine, disinfection byproducts, and drugs that are in the water supply. It has been used to remove lead20 and to treat iron overdose21 and mercury poisoning.22 Taken at the appropriate time (not too close to when you eat your KetoFast meal), it will help eliminate the toxins that the liver is releasing into the bile and subsequently into the colon via your stool.
Chitosan: 2 to 3 grams. Chitosan is a derivative of chitin, which is a naturally fibrous material found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans and insects.23 It has been shown to be useful in removing heavy metals24, 25, 26 and even radionuclides.27
Modified citrus pectin: 5 grams. Pectin, a complex carbohydrate found in virtually all plants, helps bind cells together and maintain the shape and integrity of cell membranes. A modified form of citrus pectin derived from the pulp and peel of citrus fruits has been shown to attach to cancer cells to prevent them from spreading throughout the body, pointing the way to a potentially safe approach for preventing or reducing cancer metastases.28 It is also very effective for binding heavy metals.29, 30
Chlorella: 4 to 10 grams. Chlorophyll has a number of important biological activities, several of which offer protection against cancer. These include:31, 32
Dark green vegetables are a rich source of chlorophyll. Another excellent source, indeed one of the best, is chlorella, a green alga often recommended as a binder in heavy metal detoxification protocols. Chlorella has a particular affinity for binding and eliminating mercury, and can therefore be useful when eating a lot of fish. It’s also high in plant-based protein.
I typically take 10 grams, or 50 of the fermented chlorella tablets that I sell on my website, mercola.com, before my last meal or before I walk in the sunshine, as there is some evidence that it increases adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production in the mitochondria.33 Chlorella is one of the most chlorophyll-dense foods, and 10 grams of chlorella is equivalent to the chlorophyll in several pounds of spinach. One of the most important factors to consider when purchasing a chlorella product is its digestibility. The key to its detoxing abilities lies within the membrane of this single cell, but the cell wall of chlorella is actually indigestible to humans.
Broken cell wall is the term most often used to describe chlorella that has been rendered digestible. If a product does not specify that the cell wall has been broken, you’re likely flushing your money down the toilet, as the chlorella will simply pass right through you without doing you any good.