And at the end of that abstract, this appears: "research needs such as quantification of individual Taraxacum constituents and assessment of their pharmacological activities in humans have briefly been outlined." Translation: we don't know what pharmacologic effects, good or bad, these compounds may have in humans. Research needs to be done. Preliminary studies in mice and rats are fine. The danger is in 1) assuming that any results can be generalized to humans (hopes in this regard have been dashed many times) 2) assuming that something safe in rats and mice will be safe in humans (another assumption that has fallen flat on prior occasions). Another big problem here is making the assumption that revving up a particular enzyme system is necessarily going to be a good thing. Is there a reason we evolved to have a particular level of that enzyme? What might be the negative consequences of greatly increasing its activity? As of right now, if we are to guess that dandelion extracts greatly increase activity of this drug metabolizing enzyme in humans, does that mean that dandelion or its extracts should not be components of teas containing other herbal medicines, because they'll be metabolized so fast they won't get a chance to work? We are currently having second thoughts about supplementation with antioxidants, after it was discovered that extra vitamin E may not only be ineffective in curbing heart disease and prostate cancer, there's a chance it may increase health risks. "Here are two of the main arguments used to dismiss the idea of detoxes: 1) none of the people talking about detox can describe what these mysterious toxins are, 2) none of the people who believe in detox can show how an herb would help the body eliminate them." This is only partly correct. I'd restate this as: 1) The great majority of things that people fear as "toxins" are not toxins at all, at least in the amounts to which we are exposed. 2) What's left over is efficiently disposed of by our livers, kidneys etc. assuming we're not seriously ill. 3) the people who promote "detoxification" cannot show that their products/potions/programs remove "toxins", i.e. there is no clinical evidence supporting their use. 4) the "cleansing" programs themselves can be harmful. 5) Real toxins (for instance, heavy metals in high concentration) can be removed i.e. by chelation, but this is not something commercial supplements and "cleanses" can accomplish, but is rather a job for trained medical professionals. Dandelion is an interesting and useful herb. What's been presented here, however, does not justify the claims of the "cleanse/detox" industry. Lastly, I'm gratified to see a civil response to my previous post. I'm sure brendan would be pleased too. ;)

lydia -- the 100+ food Elisa test sounds very interesting. I may give that a try, eventually. I'm convinced that I have quite a few food allergies. I used to throw up when I was given white milk as a child. Never drank any once my mother figured out the cause. Except in elementary school when I was forced by a teacher and I threw up. Funny how I was able to drink chocolate milk, though. I read later (as an adult) that in fact the chocolate in chocolate milk reduces the allergic reaction. Anyway, regarding food allergies, I know I'm sensitive to wheat though I'm not a celiac. I am also sensitive to dairy. (Ask me why I can't give up my goatsmilk yoghurt, this is the last frontier for me, hope to give it up eventually.) I subscribed to the test at http://www.enterolab.com/ which is where I got the results about wheat and dairly. The test was expensive. I think over $300.00. Glad I did it though. Sounds like the Elisa test may give you the same results plus some. This food allergy thing is tricky, I think. One of our dogs now it seems has food allergies. I asked the vet to test and she said that testing for food allergies is not very reliable (for dogs). I wonder if this is true for humans? A food elimination diet was the only thing she could recommend plus eating only a particular type of dog food that was "engineered to have a small enough molecule size so it doesn't trigger the allergic reactions" (her words). I was amazed and am wondering if raw food has "smaller molecules" than cooked food, HA, HA. Perhaps moite's methods that she got from her doctor about measuring her pulse rate may be the best way. I'm going the simple route with this raw food diet (for now) because it meets many other needs also. I had a great day yesterday. I went the whole day without the "wave of tiredness" that comes over me every day after lunch. I hope it wasn't an anomaly. Bad news is that with the raw food diet, there is a "detox phase" initially where some claim that you are ridding your system of toxins. The detox phase can produce acne which is what I just got yesterday. I haven't had a pimple on my face for many years but I have two now. Oh well. If my energy level stays good, I'll have to add that as one more reason why I'm glad I found this diet. I was craving cooked food day before yesterday but managed to get by without it. Hopefully those days will get less in number. This was kind of like craving a cigarette after quitting, as I remember it many years ago. Keep us posted about your food allergies. I'm becoming more and more convinced that for some of us, they are literally killing us or are reducing our quality of life (for some of us) to a very very large extent producing chronic problems and diseases that mainstream medicine doesn't have a clue. In my case, I definitely feel like I've become a guinea pig for trying out different "cures". I'm hoping that raw food will by my answer. I realize that because there is no definite proof, I could be wrong on this but as my DH says, it's gotta be better than being so overweight and hungry all the time. We were killing ourselves eating cooked food so how could this be any worse.

When watching the Doctor's, they said no one needs to do a detox, its a hype. Don't waste your time or money.

probably 15 years or more, I was listening to talk radio. He was a Dr. and had more old fashioned recipes. for example, take cod liver oil caps everyday, and when ypu strt getting on in age, your bones wont be brittle.. ok...He lived in KY and always gave his phone # out over the radio.. It seemed I was always on an interstate and never got it down exactly. .he had a juice drink, that he concocked that was for better health.and loose some weight, I made a gallon every week, and could see it was some detoxing.it had cider vinger cramberry juice apple juice grape juice and i can't remember what else. nor the proprotions. just wondering if anyone has the recipe////////