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This article is part of a weekly series in which Dr. Mercola interviews various experts on a wide range of health issues. In this interview Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, an expert in body detoxification, appears.
Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt is known for his successful treatment of neurological diseases and Lyme borreliosis through integrative medicine.
Klinghardt, who comes from Berlin, Germany, practiced medicine in the USA for more than 35 years. He also has patients in England and Switzerland.
In Switzerland he was part of a group that initiated a constitutional change, making alternative medicine a constitutional right for all citizens. This includes homeopathy, neurotherapy, acupuncture and all other practical therapeutic techniques.
“It is the only country on the planet where complementary or alternative medicine is an inalienable right of every citizen,” he says.
“When we achieved that, I arranged to be issued a [medical] license in Switzerland as a possible escape route from the forces that are sometimes very obstructive in the USA and elsewhere in the world.”
Here we discuss the importance of detoxification for overall health and disease treatment, and he names some of Klinghardt’s best detox tips.
German toxicologist Dr. Richard Straube developed a blood-cleansing procedure (apheresis) in which toxins are filtered from the blood and can then be analyzed with affordable laboratory tests.
“He found that ten years ago the population had an average of 20 detectable toxins,” Klinghardt says.
“That number in just ten years rose to more than 500, which is a shocking number … it’s an exponential increase that is incompatible with life …
He is currently preparing to publish this research. He studied 1,200 patients. It is one of the largest toxicological studies.
Of course, leading the list are aluminum, barium, lithium and strontium. They are geoengineering toxins. They are deposited on us similar to rain. Therefore – and because many of these toxins are especially toxic to mitochondria – detoxification … is a survival strategy for everyone. “
Toxicity and infectious disease are interconnected
When your body is contaminated with man-made toxins, it tends to sort them into “boxes.” Eventually each of these bodily “boxes” reaches a threshold of toxicity at which your immune system can no longer keep microbial growth in that area under control.
“They become areas where microbes reside, whether bacteria or viruses of bartonellosis, Lyme borreliosis, babesiosis or herpes. They are not everywhere, yet they settle very specifically in certain parts of the body,” Klinghardt explains.
For this reason you can no longer make a distinction between toxicity and infection, because they go together. As Klinghardt notes, it’s like a “package deal.”
“For 20 years I have worked on Lyme borreliosis and developed a treatment that does not include antibiotics, because treating Lyme with antibiotics is a huge mistake,” he says. “We now know too much about the microbiome and how sensitive those structures are.
The latest development over the past two years was my work with Judy Mikovits. She was part of our think tank sometime in 2006 or 2007, and at that time she tried to warn us of the fact that retroviruses are embedded in our DNA and that certain environmental states disable our mechanisms for silencing those viruses, allowing them to activate …
The most well-known retrovirus is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but there are hundreds of others. Most of them are immunosuppressive, suppressing immunity.
I would prefer the term ‘immunity-disrupting’. Some aspects of the immune system are strengthened, others dampened.
That makes us extremely vulnerable with Lyme borreliosis, mycoplasma and bartonellosis … For survival in this crazy time, detoxification … is absolutely necessary. “
Toxins can be water-soluble or fat-soluble. Two main water-soluble toxins are the vaccine preservative thimerosal (mercury) and the herbicide glyphosate. According to Klinghardt, they tend to isolate in areas such as the kidneys, lungs and bones.
Examples of fat-soluble toxins are benzene derivatives, insecticides, pesticides and herbicides. They like to settle in fat tissues, which makes them potent neurotoxins because your brain is composed mainly of fat.
Water- and fat-soluble toxins require different detoxification methods.
Detox strategies for glyphosate
Although you have over 20,000 chemicals in your body, two especially dangerous ones for your brain are glyphosate and aluminum. Glyphosate is an analog of the amino acid glycine.
It attaches to places where you need glycine. Importantly, glycine is consumed in the detoxification process, so many of us do not have enough for effective detoxification.
To eliminate glyphosate you need to saturate your body with glycine. Klinghardt recommends taking one teaspoon (4 grams) of glycine powder twice daily for several weeks, then reducing the dose to a quarter teaspoon (1 gram) twice daily.
This displaces glyphosate from our system, allowing it to be excreted in the urine.
I personally have been taking 1 gram twice daily for some time now. Glycine is cheap and is actually sweet. It is ideal to take it approximately at the time you consume food that might be contaminated with glyphosate.
“At least for a while we take high doses of glycine. There are no problems with it. The only published study was on chickens, which shows that humic and fulvic acids can completely cleanse the organ systems of a chicken …
So we take glycine for some time. We monitor glyphosate excretion in urine. When it slows down – in some people in two months, in others in six – we reduce glycine and continue with a smaller dose. “
How to detoxify aluminum
Even more sinister is aluminum. Stephenie Seneff, PhD, has shown that aluminum that reaches the extracellular space completely alters the potential of cell membranes – voltage-gated channels – and has a strong effect on the microstructure of that matter.
“It essentially damages the receptors we have in the cell wall, receptors for hormones, neurotransmitters, insulin. Aluminum destroys them all. It really has a very strong effect, stronger than any other toxin,” Klinghardt says.
“Seneff’s work shows that glyphosate is a chelating agent. When you have glyphosate in the diet it binds all trace minerals. They are no longer able to be absorbed. It robs us of trace minerals.
There is one exception, and that is aluminum. Glyphosate acts like a shuttle for aluminum. It binds aluminum, transports it across the intestinal wall into tissues and spreads it everywhere.”
One of the common diseases related to aluminum toxicity is hypothyroidism, which is currently unbelievably common.
Aluminum hydroxides – as found in antacids – actually prevent the gut from absorbing thyroid hormones.
Because it is a metal, it also favors the nervous system and tends to accumulate in your brain, spinal cord and enteric nervous system. In all these places it interferes with vital functions.
To eliminate aluminum you need to increase your silicon intake. Klinghardt recommends using plants rich in silicon, such as coriander.
“Twenty years ago Dr. Yoshiaki Omura conducted a study in which he showed that in an experimental animal you could very quickly reduce aluminum content by simply administering coriander extract,” he says.
Other good choices are horsetail (which also contains a lot of silicon) and a liposomal silicon product called BIOS.
Citric acid has also been shown to help against aluminum. A simple and cheap strategy is to squeeze some lemon into a bottle of water and sip it throughout the day.
Another is malic acid – apple cider vinegar. You can also buy malic acid in capsule form or take magnesium malate.
“Doctors can use Desferal. It is a powder for preparing an injectable solution that is administered subcutaneously once a week. It is an excellent detox agent.
However, the question is whether it crosses the blood-brain barrier or not. Silicon does. Presumably it does not, but by injecting it once a week you can remove aluminum from the body.”
How to remove fat-soluble toxins
For removing fat-soluble toxins Klinghardt recommends combining sauna and binding agents such as chlorella, brown seaweed (Ecklonia cava) and an intestinal gel like methylated silicon dioxide and zeolite.
It would be best if you took one or several of them daily. During sauna therapy the toxins bound by these agents are released, allowing safe excretion instead of reabsorption.
“Do it regularly and monitor your bowel transit time; it should be within 24 hours. That means when you swallow something indigestible, it should come out the other end within 24 hours.
We have some patients whose transit time is about 20 days. Those people are not able to excrete via the small intestine. They are doomed to decline.
Then it becomes a priority to restore digestion as soon as possible. It is usually a problem with parasites. That is somewhat my hobby – diagnosing and treating parasites.”
Focus on parasites
Many parasites, especially nematodes, but also fungi and yeasts, can absorb toxins in amounts many times their body weight.
For example many worms are able to absorb lead in amounts 300 times higher than host tissues. The parasitic burden of a host is also a bioindicator of the toxicity of that host’s environment.
“Every patient with chronic Lyme is also full of worms,” Klinghardt says. “ It has been shown that if you do not focus on them, parasites in a Lyme patient become infected with the Lyme spirochete. Treating with antibiotics does not harm the parasites.
The Lyme spirochete simply withdraws into the worms, waits until you stop taking antibiotics, and then reappears.
The rule of thumb is to treat from the large to the small. In a chronically ill patient always assume they have parasites. Treat them, and then proceed slowly. “
Unfortunately there are few effective tests to assess your parasitic burden. Klinghardt uses the autonomic response test (ART) and prescribes various antiparasitic drug cocktails based on it.
Since you know parasites are full of toxins, your goal is to get them out of tissues into the bowel, where they can be safely excreted.
For that Klinghardt uses the Gubarev protocols. These are enema procedures developed by a Russian scientist. When no more parasites can be found, he gives the patient antiparasitics such as Rizol Kappa and Rizol Gamma – ozone-saturated plant oils from Biopur.
“Recently there has been an incredible growth in the literature showing that almost every antiparasitic drug can also be used to treat cancer. I’ll give an example.
Albendazole, a month’s treatment, used to cost $80. Then articles appeared saying it treats cancer. Now it is $24,000 a month …
We use antiparasitic drugs, multi-purpose drugs. The intracellular pathways of a cancer cell are incidentally similar to the pathways of a parasite. A very good approach is to start chronic [parasite] treatment early before we begin treating Lyme borreliosis or mycoplasma …
The main problem with parasites is this: if you do not cure a parasite sufficiently, then using a dose of an herb or drug that is insufficient to kill it but enough to make it sick means the parasite will secrete enormous amounts of biotoxins, from which you will become seriously ill.
The trick in treating parasites is to engage full force from the start so these creatures cannot return your fire …
Parasites come out in the stool only when the parasite is sick. In that way parasites do not show themselves. As long as they live in the abdomen, intestines, you can palpate them and you can get certain symptoms that seem to indicate you have the right diagnosis.
Unfortunately the larval stages of many parasites wander into the lungs and end up in the brain as well. Cysticercosis is the name given to larval stages of tapeworms in the brain.
We see it all the time. In children who have seizures, it is often this problem. It is easy to treat … well, it is difficult to treat with natural things.
We are finding that the natural medicinal plants we use are good when used together with pharmaceutical drugs.”
Rectal ozone therapy
Klinghardt uses ozone therapy, preferring rectal administration of ozone before injection. “Many of our patients buy a cheap ozone device and perform rectal ozone therapy daily,” he says.
In India Klinghardt collaborated with one of the best parasitologists, studying the impact of parasites on disease. They were not at all surprised to find a direct, linear relationship between the number of anaerobic organisms in the large intestine and a patient’s health.
The more anaerobic organisms the patient had in their stool, the sicker they were. At that time they did not have ozone available, so they treated patients with rectal oxygen.
“It was a very effective strategy to get people out of chronic disease,” he says. Ozone is an even more effective option.
Avoiding electromagnetic fields is also important for effective detoxification
In the previous interview we talked about the importance of avoiding exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMP) from mobile phones, modems and Wi-Fi routers during chronic disease treatment, because this exposure exacerbates disease and also infections.
Klinghardt notes:
“In my view this is the most important problem of our time … Wi-Fi is destroying life on the planet. That is indisputable. Unfortunately, titanium and aluminum in our system act as antennas for Wi-Fi.
There is a beautiful study on amalgam.
If you have an amalgam filling and you make a phone call on the side where the filling is, the rate of mercury evaporation from the tooth is multiplied.
Basically we take the position that if the body is to survive this crazy time, it must be free of metal … One phone call – in my view about seven minutes – activates Epstein–Barr virus for many years.
We have already published that. We all carry that virus. If you want chronic fatigue, it’s a great recipe …
There is a direct, linear relationship between cumulative exposure to man-made radiation and chronic disease.
The more you are exposed, the sicker you are … this must change, because when people are poisoned with metals they concentrate radiation, and that then grows exponentially …
These viruses called human endogenous retroviruses are released by the combined effect of toxicity and Wi-Fi. That, in fact, ultimately causes the severity of chronic diseases.”
To protect against EMF Klinghardt recommends the building biology approach to electromagnetic field remediation, which means shielding your home, especially the bedroom. For internal protection he recommends using a rosemary or propolis tincture.
For retroviruses Klinghardt developed an herbal blend called Retro, which is a powder produced by Ki Science containing 10 medicinal plants.
It has been found to be better at suppressing retroviruses than eight available drugs. Two other effective tools against retroviruses are cistus tea (Cistus incanus, rockrose) and broccoli sprouts.
