Is this available by telehealth?

Yes, nationwide. Labs are drawn locally and reviewed with a hol+ physician by video. In-person care is available in Atlanta at Brookhaven and Johns Creek, in New York City at the Financial District, and in Los Angeles at Brentwood.

Will I feel worse before I feel better?

Feeling significantly worse is not an expected part of a well-designed program. It is a reason to contact your physician, not a sign it is working. That expectation is one of the more harmful ideas the wellness industry has attached to this word.

Do I have to fast or do a juice cleanse?

No. The program is built on adequate protein and fiber, because phase II detoxification pathways require amino acids. Extended fasting works against the goal. If a protocol's main feature is what it takes away from you, it is probably not a clinical protocol.

How do you detox from mold?

Mold and mycotoxin exposure is evaluated, not guessed at. Care starts with exposure history and testing, then addresses the source, because no protocol works while exposure continues. Support focuses on elimination, bile flow and nutrient status. Symptoms attributed to mold overlap heavily with other conditions worth ruling out.

Can toxic load affect hormones?

Yes. Hormones including estrogen are metabolized through the liver and excreted through the gut, so impaired bile flow or constipation can affect hormone clearance. This is one mechanism among several, and it should be evaluated rather than assumed. It is a common reason hormone treatment underperforms.

What are phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification?

Phase I is biotransformation, run largely by liver cytochrome P450 enzymes, which chemically modifies compounds. Phase II is conjugation, which attaches molecules to make those compounds water-soluble so they can be excreted. Phase II requires amino acids, which is why protein adequacy matters more than fasting.

What is the difference between a detox and a cleanse?

A cleanse usually means a restrictive short-term protocol you buy. Detoxification is a continuous physiological process your body runs whether you participate or not. Supporting the second does not require the first, and the two are frequently confused on purpose.

Do detox teas and juice cleanses work?

No. There is no evidence that they remove toxins from the body. Extended juice fasting can also worsen blood sugar instability, which raises cortisol, so it can leave you feeling worse in a way that is easy to mistake for the protocol working.

How do I know if I need to detox?

The more useful question is what is driving your symptoms. Fatigue, brain fog and digestive symptoms have many possible causes, several of them more common than impaired clearance, and all of them testable. Start with an evaluation rather than a protocol.

Is toxic load a real medical condition?

It is a clinical framework rather than a formal diagnosis. Detoxification pathways are well-documented physiology. Whether a given person's symptoms are explained by their clearance capacity is what an evaluation determines, and often the answer turns out to be something else.

What is a functional medicine detox?

A functional medicine detox supports the clearance pathways your body already runs: liver biotransformation, bile flow, gut elimination and kidney function. It starts with testing and an exposure history rather than a cleanse, and it looks for what else might explain the same symptoms. At hol+ it is physician-supervised throughout.

Starting at $299 for wellness visits

PHYSICIAN-LED FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE

Detox and Toxic Load

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Detox is one of the most oversold words in wellness, and the skepticism is earned. No juice, tea or foot pad removes toxins from the body. But your body does perform detoxification continuously, through defined biochemical pathways that every medical school teaches, and those pathways can be supported or overwhelmed.

hol+ approaches detox as a clinical question rather than a product. Our physician-led team evaluates how well your liver, gut, kidneys and skin are clearing what they process, what is adding to the load, and whether something else entirely is behind how you feel. That evaluation comes before any protocol.

If you're dealing with fatigue that sleep doesn't fix, brain fog, digestive symptoms, sensitivity to smells or alcohol, or hormone symptoms that haven't responded to hormone treatment, hol+ can help you look deeper. Our approach to detox focuses on testing, exposure history, and a plan built around what your results actually show.

A functional medicine detox supports the clearance pathways your body already runs, meaning liver biotransformation, bile flow, gut elimination, and kidney function. It does not flush anything out. At hol+ it begins with testing and an exposure history rather than a cleanse. A physician supervises it throughout, and it is available in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, and by telehealth.

This program does not treat substance withdrawal. If you need medically supervised withdrawal from alcohol or drugs, please contact a licensed addiction treatment provider or call 988.

What is toxic load?

Toxic load describes the cumulative burden of substances your body has to process, from your environment, your diet, your medications and your own metabolism. Your liver, kidneys, gut and skin clear these continuously. The clinical question is not whether toxins exist. It is whether your clearance pathways are keeping up, and what is adding to the load.

Here is what is not in dispute. The liver runs phase I biotransformation, largely through cytochrome P450 enzymes, then phase II conjugation, which attaches molecules to make compounds water-soluble so they can leave the body. Bile carries some of that out through the gut. The kidneys clear the rest. This is standard physiology.

What is disputed, reasonably, is the wellness industry's version of it. That version sells a cleanse, skips the evaluation, and treats "toxins" as a single undifferentiated enemy. A functional medicine evaluation does the opposite: it asks which pathway, in which person, under what exposure, and what else could explain the same symptoms.

What contributes to the load?

Environmental exposure, alcohol, medications and their metabolites, an ultra-processed diet, a disrupted gut barrier and microbiome, impaired bile flow, chronic inflammation, and the body's own metabolic byproducts, including hormones. Estrogen is a useful example: it is metabolized through the liver and excreted through the gut, which is why constipation and hormone symptoms so often show up in the same person.

What symptoms get attributed to toxic load?

Persistent fatigue. Brain fog. Skin changes. Digestive symptoms and constipation. Sensitivity to smells, alcohol or medications. Headaches. Hormone symptoms that don't respond to hormone treatment. Weight that won't move.

These are non-specific, and that matters. They can point to impaired clearance. They can just as easily point to thyroid disease, anemia, sleep apnea, depression, perimenopause or PMOS. That is exactly why an evaluation comes before a protocol, and why "detox" as a standalone product so often leaves the real problem unfound.

Who is Detox care for?

Detox care at hol+ is designed for people whose symptoms have outlasted the explanations they've been given, and for people who want to reduce their exposure load deliberately rather than seasonally.

Many patients arrive after being told their bloodwork is fine. Others have already tried a cleanse, felt briefly better, and watched the symptoms return. Some come in because of a specific exposure they know about: water damage in a home, an occupational exposure, a period of heavy drinking, or years of medications.

You may benefit from a detox evaluation if you experience:

Persistent fatigue that rest doesn't resolve

Brain fog or trouble concentrating

Constipation or irregular elimination

Bloating or other digestive symptoms

New sensitivity to smells, alcohol, or medications

Headaches without a clear cause

Skin changes, rashes, or acne in adulthood

A known exposure: mold or water damage, heavy metals, occupational chemicals

Hormone symptoms that haven't responded to hormone treatment

Symptoms that started after a move, a renovation, or a new job

Weight that won't move despite real effort

Because these symptoms overlap so heavily with thyroid, adrenal, metabolic and mood conditions, hol+ evaluates the full pattern. Your care is not built on one symptom or one lab value.

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How We Help

Root Causes hol+ Addresses

Impaired clearance is rarely the whole story, and it is almost never the only thing going on. A root-cause approach looks at what is adding to the load and what is limiting the body's capacity to handle it.

Root causes and contributors we may evaluate include:

Environmental and household exposures, including mold and mycotoxins
Heavy metal exposure, occupational or dietary
Alcohol intake, current and historical
Medications and supplements metabolized through the same liver pathways
Impaired bile flow or gallbladder dysfunction
Constipation and slow gut transit, which allow reabsorption

Gut barrier and microbiome disruption
Nutrient status, particularly the amino acids and cofactors phase II conjugation requires
Chronic inflammation
Cortisol dysregulation and its effects on gut motility and bile flow
Estrogen and hormone metabolism through the liver and gut
Genetic variation affecting detoxification enzymes, when clinically relevant

Because the liver, gut, kidneys and hormonal systems depend on each other, symptoms attributed to toxic load usually have more than one contributor. That is what a whole-systems evaluation is for.

The hol+ Approach

Discover. Recover. Heal.

hol+ views detoxification as a set of connected systems rather than a single organ. When one part of the sequence is limited, the whole chain backs up, and supplementing harder at the front end tends to make things worse rather than better.

Liver Biotransformation

We review phase I and phase II function, medication and supplement load, alcohol history, and liver markers.

Phase II conjugation depends on nutrient availability, particularly amino acids such as glycine and cysteine. Pushing phase I without supporting phase II is one of the more common ways a poorly designed protocol causes symptoms.

Bile Flow and Elimination

Conjugated compounds leave the body through stool. When bile flow is impaired or transit is slow, they are reabsorbed instead.

Daily elimination is the single most overlooked factor in this entire category, and it is one of the first things we assess.

Gut Barrier and Microbiome

The gut determines what gets absorbed, what gets excreted, and how much inflammatory signaling the liver is working against.

Microbiome patterns also affect hormone clearance, which is why gut symptoms and hormone symptoms so often travel together.

Kidney Function and Hydration

The kidneys clear what the liver has made water-soluble.

Renal markers and hydration status are part of any complete evaluation, and they also determine whether a protocol is safe to run at all.

Hormone Metabolism

Estrogen and other hormones are processed through the liver and excreted through the gut.

Impaired clearance can look exactly like a hormone imbalance, and hormone symptoms that haven't responded to hormone treatment are a common reason people end up here.

Stress Physiology

Chronic cortisol elevation changes gut motility and barrier function, alters bile flow, and shifts the inflammatory environment the liver is working in.

It also drives the behaviors that raise the load: poor sleep, alcohol, ultra-processed food, skipped meals.

This is why the two questions that bring most people to hol+, cortisol and detox, so often turn out to be one question. Our Cortisol & Stress page covers the Cortisol Loop™ in full.

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What we Offer

hol+ Services for Detox

Testing and Exposure Assessment

Detox care at hol+ starts with data, not a protocol. We assess how the clearance pathways are functioning, what the exposure history actually contains, and which of the more common explanations for the same symptoms need ruling out first.