The History of Drug Detoxification
Beth on 16 Nov 2009
Most people know about detoxification as it relates to purging the body of unhealthy chemicals from food or overdoing it with sugar or caffeine. In a case like this, you want a natural detoxification to help you get back in balance. Whether as a result of an illness or simply getting on track to live more healthily, a natural detox is a great beginning. Drug detoxification takes the process a step further.
The History of Detoxification
Body cleansing or detoxification has its roots in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians, and later the Greeks, believed that foods could cause an imbalance of the body’s natural balance, that the “humors” could be misaligned by eating too much of certain foods. It was the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 BC) who developed the mature medical theory.
He believed certain human moods, emotions and behaviors were caused by fluids in the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Well into the mid-20th century the term “autointoxication” was used to describe the theory that eating too much of certain foods would build up toxins in the body. In modern times this theory still persists. Except in the case of purging drugs from the body, the medical establishment has turned away from detoxification as a prescribed method of curing a patient’s ills. Certainly your body encounters toxins every minute of the day. Fortunately the liver, kidneys, lungs, intestines, and blood continuously clean. If we don’t introduce extra chemicals, like drugs, into our bodies then the internal cleansing process keeps us from literally poisoning ourselves.
History has very little to say about drug detox. Alcohol, the drug of choice for most of human history, does have a tried and true detox remedy in Milk Thistle. It has been known since before medieval times as a liver tonic. Modern clinical studies have confirmed the usefulness of Milk Thistle extracts in cases of cirrhosis and other chronic liver aliments associated with alcohol abuse.
History of Detoxification Services
In the late 50’s the American Medical Association made it their official position that alcoholism is a disease. Slowly shifts in society’s understanding of addiction changed how people with a dependency on alcohol and other drugs were treated. 12-step programs certainly helped. Until the mid 1970’s people arrested for “public intoxication” were held in local jails. Depending on the length of the sentence, a person might experience alcohol detox in jail, with little or no medical intervention. This happened regularly even though in 1971, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws adopted the Uniform Alcoholism and Intoxication Treatment Act which recommended that “alcoholics not be subjected to criminal prosecution because of their consumption of alcoholic beverages but rather should be afforded a continuum of treatment in order that they may lead normal lives as productive members of society” (Keller and Rosenberg 1973, p. 2). It was only a recommendation, not a law, but it helped create a change in the legal implications of addiction. Over the next quarter century understanding of drug detoxification grew and became the medical process we recognize today.