Detox Defenders: Polyphenols, Minerals, and the Hidden Battle Against Toxic Burden with Liza Twohill

What if the root of stubborn chronic illness isn’t just poor lifestyle choices, but an invisible toxic burden quietly overwhelming the body?

In this compelling episode, naturopath and mentor Liza Twohill shares insights from her 25+ years of clinical experience helping patients in regional Australia navigate the hidden impact of agricultural chemicals, mining exposures, heavy metals, and everyday pollutants. From her grassroots beginnings in Dubbo to her current role as NHAA Board Director and Adjunct Professional Fellow at Southern Cross University, Liza has honed a practical, step-by-step framework for guiding patients safely through detoxification.

You’ll learn why trace minerals like zinc, iodine, and molybdenum are foundational to detox, how polyphenols and antioxidants can dial down chronic inflammation and support mitochondria, and why jumping straight into “heroic” detox protocols often backfires. Instead, Liza maps out her six-stage process - assessing exposures, reducing body burden, calming the nervous system, addressing inflammation, optimising drainage, and finally implementing targeted detox strategies.

Whether you’re a clinician seeking clarity on environmental medicine or someone struggling with complex health issues, this episode offers a refreshing perspective: detox isn’t about quick fixes, but about restoring the body’s natural resilience with patience, precision, and respect for individual biochemistry.

Connect with Liza: www.lizatwohill.com

Shownotes and references are available on the Designs for Health website


Register as a Designs for Health Practitioner and discover quality practitioner- only supplements at www.designsforhealth.com.au

Follow us on Socials

Instagram: Designsforhealthaus

Facebook: Designsforhealthaus

DISCLAIMER: The Information provided in the Wellness by Designs podcast is for educational purposes only; the information presented is not intended to be used as medical advice; please seek the advice of a qualified healthcare professional if what you have heard here today raises questions or concerns relating to your health

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Liza Tuhill
• 1:21 Liza's Journey to Regional Naturopathy
• 3:28 Childhood Influences and Career Path

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

This is Wellness by Designs, and I'm your host, amy Skilton, and joining us today is Liza Tuhill, a naturopath who is very passionate about empowering clinicians to tackle complex chronic diseases, and her approach really looks at addressing the hidden toxic burden within the context of a naturopathic care model, and I'm really excited to be chatting with her today because she has a very interesting legacy and a really interesting patient demographic which we can all learn from. But a little bit about Liza before I bring her on. She is a respected naturopath, mentor and research clinician with over 25 years of clinical practice and, as I said before, her expertise lies in supporting individuals with really complex and chronic health conditions. Now Liza actually lives and works in regional and remote Australia and this has really shaped her practice and her as a clinician, allowing her to refine grassroots naturopathic approach through food as medicine, herbal and lifestyle therapies, as well as environmental medicine and really practical interpretations of pathology results. Now Liza is a passionate advocate for complementary medicine being integrated into primary health care and her clinical experience is matched by her commitment to mentoring other practitioners. So we will absolutely touch on that today if you're interested in learning from her.

Speaker 1: 1:39

And lastly, in addition to her clinical and mentoring roles. Liza is an adjunct Professional Fellow at the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine at Southern Cross University and a current Board Director of the Naturopath and Herbalist Association of Australia, also known as NHA. Liza, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, it's an honour, an absolute pleasure. Well, look, before we dive into the juicy topic we're going to be chatting about today, I'd love to hear more about how you got started in complementary medicine, where being located in remote and regional parts of Australia came into this, and also your role on the NHAAA board and through Southern Cross University, like how you're really, I guess, injecting your passion and love into the landscape of our profession.

Speaker 2: 2:31

Yeah, okay, there's lots of questions there. So my journey I'm located in Dubbo, new South Wales, and I've been here since the late, late 2003. And I was at that stage in early career naturopath I was in, I think. Four years out I came, we relocated for work, for my husband's work, and I was pretty devastated actually at the time, thinking that my profession would be over. I didn't think that I would be able to to earn a living as a naturopath out here because there wasn't really anyone out here. I wasn't sure about what I could do and, as I've learned in the last 20 something years, it's quite different and I have a passion in chronic health, environmental health and just complex chronic health disease.

Speaker 2: 3:21

My journey into naturopathy I've actually been exposed to naturopathic lifestyle since I was about three. So my parents got into it when I was a toddler, along with my large family, and so I've always had that background, I suppose, in holistic care and lifestyle medicine, food as medicine. And when I was in my mid I think I was 23, I decided I wanted to learn. I was very interested in the mental health aspects and the gut microbiome and how it impacted, and I decided to study naturopathy back then. So I went to Sydney and spent a fair bit of time there doing that. So that's.