Many of us at some point in our lives have felt the need to ‘go on a detox’, but why should we? Even more importantly, ‘do we even need to?’ Let’s find out. We share with you 5 simple ways to detox that won’t cost you the earth!
There are many reasons to periodically check your body’s status when it comes down to toxins. Whilst the body does an amazing job of flushing out many of these toxins naturally, we could also be mindful of servicing it along the way. Especially when the toxins have built up to an unnaturally healthy load, mostly due to our modern environments and surroundings.
Many marketing campaigns promise the ‘Garden of Eden’ when it comes to detoxing: more energy, better skin, and improved sleep. Juice and water cleansing are most commonly prescribed, although not very beneficial. These detox programs tend to rob you of the vital nutrients needed for us to function optimally.
Instead, we need to look at how our detox pathways work to flush out the more stubborn toxins, while still maintaining a healthy method of providing our body with its essential nutrients.
What are toxins?
Toxins are everywhere, this is why our biology has mechanisms in place to filter them out. From car fumes to perfumes, paint, flame retardants, plastic packaging (microplastics), pesticides, heavy metals, and exogenous hormones from meat and dairy products, the list goes on.
They mostly enter our body from our external environment, either via the skin, breathing or directly through the mouth from drinking and eating.
Unless you live entirely hardcore lives in the depths of the jungles and forests void of modern living and away from anyone and anything, it’s going to be pretty tough avoiding these toxins, altogether. Almost impossible.
The good news? We can make adjustments to our lifestyles to use alternative products. Plastics for glass, fabrics without microplastics, factory-farmed meat and dairy for local pasture-raised and raw dairy, tap water for filtered water, pesticide-ridden fruit and veg to organic. There are many, many healthy alternatives.
We can make choices. Let’s look!
1. START THE PROCESS WITH A CLEAN INTAKE
It sounds pretty obvious, right? Starting the process of detoxing with a great head start will almost certainly give you the best chance to mitigate toxins from your body. If you’re not constantly introducing them, you will lessen the build-up.
Apply these things:
LIMIT ALCOHOL
Limit your intake of alcohol, eliminating it altogether whilst detoxing is obviously going to be far more optimal! Your liver metabolises alcohol into a known neurotoxin called ‘Acetaldehyde’. This is already a problem for the liver to tackle, but alas, as magic as human biology is, our liver still manages to make a conversion.
Your liver will convert this toxin into a harmless substance called Acetate which is then passed through your body. However, this can become very taxing on your liver if you’re chronically consuming alcohol.
DRINK FILTERED WATER
Without water, we cannot survive. Not only does it hydrate us (if the mineral content is good) but it has a whole host of other key benefits. It detoxifies the body by flushing out waste, regulates body temperature, helps lubricate joints and even aids with digestion!
The best practice is to filter the water from your home to remove harmful toxins first. Tap water can contain all sorts of nasty chemicals from pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, POP’s, and environmental toxins.
Our preferred choice of method is to use a Reverse Osmosis system like the ‘AquaTru’ to filter and purify the water. From there it is very important to add the essential minerals back into what has essentially become ‘dead water’ in terms of mineral content. You can use good quality salts like Celtic Sea Salt or Pink Himalayan. Trace mineral drops are also a great option!
REDUCE ULTRA-PROCESSED FOODS AND SUGAR
Arguably the leading cause of modern diseases today, chronic, heavy and overconsumption of processed foods will eventually lead you down a road to at least one comorbidity in your life. Obesity, Heart Disease, Cancers, Alzheimer’s and Type 2 Diabetes have been climbing at an alarming rate!
Diseases can take decades to develop, so it’s very easy to stand by the attitude of “well I’m still here, fit and healthy”. You could be right around the corner from being on medication for the rest of your life, very soon. Or worse.
These diseases hinder your organs’ ability to detoxify and repair because of the damage that processed foods have caused.
High sugar consumption can also be a cause of fatty liver disease, which was only really considered to be the problem of alcohol abuse. Children are now beginning to show fatty liver disease at a very young age due to access to and overconsumption of processed, sugar-loaded foods.
Think about that!
PRIORITISE SLEEP
Sleep deprivation has been shown to cause a whole host of problems from anxiety, depression, immune system suppression, downregulated memory function and lack of concentration.
Correlation has also shown that sleep deprivation may even shorten your life span.
Sleep deprivation can cause stress on the body which might lead us to underperform basic functions including removing toxins. Toxins have the potential to build up through lack of sleep.
One of these neurotoxins is a protein called beta-amyloid which contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s.
2. EXERCISE
During exercise, we tend to sweat, alongside breaking down fat tissue (known as lipolysis). These two processes both do similar things when it comes to flushing out toxins from our system.
Multiple studies have shown that through sweating we are able to flush out heavy toxic metals including mercury, cadmium, lead and arsenic. This is very beneficial for people with heavy toxic metal loads in their bodies.
Bisphenol A, also known as BPA is a chemical used to make plastics in our drinks bottles, plastic containers and some clothing. BPA collects and stores in our fat cells. Sweating can also flush some of the BPA out of the body.
Check out our blog ‘How To Slow Down Ageing In 8 Steps’ to learn more about the amazing benefits of exercise!
3. SAUNAS
Speaking of sweating…
As we explained above with exercise, sweating holds a very beneficial influence on our bodies’ ability to flush out toxins, naturally. We can push this button even harder by putting ourselves into a state of hormesis (small, short stressors).
Saunas are the perfect environment for this. The intensity of the heat will make you drip with sweat by the time you’re finished!
Traditional saunas and infrared saunas are both as beneficial as each other, various studies are currently being carried out between the two to decipher which is better but with no clear result as of yet.
It is always important to rehydrate after a heavy sweating session with electrolytes. A pinch of mineral-rich salt in a glass of water would be perfect for this. Either a Celtic salt or Himalayan Pink salt work very, very well!
4. ACTIVATE CHARCOAL
Activated charcoal is a carbon which has an incredible ability to bind toxins.
It’s been used for thousands of years and is still used today in hospitals to treat poisoning.
Because of its strong negative charge and large surface area, it can hunt down and attract positively charged toxins to it, bind them and then eventually excrete them at the other end. Oh yeah, you poop it out!
A good time to take a couple of charcoal supplements would be around exercise or sauna sessions and not too close to other supplements like vitamins or minerals as it can also bind those. It’s a bit of a scavenger!
5. TAKE GLUTATHIONE
Glutathione is one of our great protectors! It is an antioxidant found naturally in our body that can protect our cells from toxic heavy metal damage. This has been shown both in human and rat cell studies.
Produced by the liver, consisting of 3 amino acids: Glycine, L-Cysteine and L-Glutamate. Its job is to metabolise toxins and break down free radicals within the body. Also supporting immune function.
There are a few forms of Glutathione that can be taken, a liposomal glutathione supplement would be preferred as it can make its way to the stomach easier. Normal glutathione can be broken down by the digestive system before it can effectively do its job.
You can also supplement with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and alpha-lipoic acid, these are precursors to Glutathione which can help the production and generation on its own.
DISCLAIMER: Always talk with a healthcare professional, naturopath or functional medicine doctor before considering this option for you. To be avoided if pregnant or breastfeeding.
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