Do you practice regular detoxification to feel your best? It is not talked about as much as good nutrition but is equally important to our health.
Who needs detoxification?
Everyone should do a thorough detox once nutritional support is in play. If you do a deep cleansing without the already lacking nutrients you could experience some severe detoxification symptoms called Herxheimer or retracing symptoms. When you are fatigued, pushing your body to release what it is storing for your safety and well-being is miserable but it can also be dangerous.
Experiencing exhaustion, insomnia, skin rashes or issues, irregular bowel movements, cold hands/feet/circulation, teeth grinding, headaches, inflammation, and more are your red flags to begin detoxification modalities.
We are all exposed to a variety of toxins from heavy metals, parasites, herbicides, chemicals, or pesticides, through our air, food, water, and environments. Getting them to move through your elimination pathways at an average rate will help to ensure you stay healthy.
Who doesn’t want to feel naturally energetic, well-rested, strong, calm, and at their best?
Why is detoxification important?
We need to remove the trash. No one likes feeling drained and sluggish. When byproducts or your food and lifestyle are cleared you can feel clear-headed and stop so many exhausting symptoms.
It is when you become nutritionally deficient, that you begin to accumulate toxins. It may be chemicals, heavy metals, or even parasites (and their feces). When our elimination pathways such as lymphatic, urinary, colon, and even skin stop working efficiently toxic waste build.
When you no longer have the energy or nutrients to safely remove them, they get stuck in our tissues and organs. By restoring your cellular savings of the essential nutrients, you will increase your energy. Just think if we didn’t take out the trash or just removed part of it each day. We need to clean out so we can feel well and energetic again!
Are some detoxification protocols harmful or dangerous?
Some can be! Let’s say you have copper toxicity. While it is an essential trace mineral that we need to produce red blood cells, in excess it can become unbound from proteins causing hair loss, anemia, mood swings, rashes, or even mental illness. This can accumulate in your brain, tissues, organs, or even your eyes.
If you insist on getting intravenous chelation or hemodialysis to remove it by force quickly, the copper can be pulled into your bloodstream to bind with protein. If the bound copper can not be urinated out due to impaired kidney function or low protein levels it could trigger a heart attack. The body stashes it slowly to protect you so you don’t want to force it out too aggressively.
If you experience gallbladder or liver issues doing a flush could potentially move the stones too fast creating a log jam that might need medical intervention. Doing a gentle, slow detoxification process over time will help to soften or dissolve some of these stones so that you can pass them comfortably.
Sweating can be very beneficial in removing many toxins but if you have not done a Hair Mineral Analysis you won’t know if you have available levels of sodium and potassium to spare in the process. If you lose an already low amount of potassium, you could struggle to regulate your heart. Why not test instead of guess?
Many think binders or products such as zeolite will do a fast, magical trick but not so fast. These products can pull precious minerals along with the metals you are trying to chelate or attach to. This can leave you with a worse mineral deficiency and open up the blood-brain barrier. Once open, it allows the “loosened” heavy metals to be redeposited into your brain. There is no quick fix to safely removing heavy metals. These binders may also pull too much too fast so use extreme caution or avoid them altogether.
What is the process of detoxification?
There are many forms of detox from internal to external. Supplements, herbs, oils, and nutrition all work to push toxins from the inside out. External modalities can help to stimulate or pull from the outside to remove various items.
Gentle and slow removal with the tools you are supplying is the safest method to assist the process when the body is ready to release them. Clearing your liver, gallbladder, kidneys, lymphatic system, and colon is key!
Can detoxing help me lose weight?
Yes!! By eating a moderate diet based on your metabolism or oxidation rate, you can let go of the excess weight. By adding detoxification you will be removing waste that has been stuck and correcting hormone imbalances due to hormone-disrupting chemicals that have been stashed in tissues.
Heavy metals can disrupt your energy pathways and even neuropathways in your brain. Your gut then struggles to tell your brain you are full. This leaves the Ghrelin, “I’m hungry” hormone turned on for too long. Even having nickel toxicity can trigger depression leading to emotional overeating to self-soothe.
The parasites you may harbor also carry heavy metals within so by eliminating them, you cut down on toxic waste and weight. Since they get first dibs on your food, you may be left nutritional deficient or overeating to compensate.
You oxidize or burn up to 80% of your fat loss through respiration so learning deep breathing exercises can help you to open up your lungs to increase your fat-burning capacity along with increased oxygenation.
Which is better, to detox or cleanse?
Cleansing is a quick, short-term cleaning such as taking a laxative to unclog your colon whereas a detox is a long-term process of going through and scrubbing out the nooks and crannies while digging out things that don’t belong. A cleanse could potentially open the door to an overstuffed closet of heavy metals. Your body may have stashed them until it could safely remove them so you wouldn’t feel ill. This wouldn’t be bad if you had the energy and tools to remove what falls out but if you don’t it will cause you to feel even worse than when you began your “cleanse”.
If you have been on a detoxification and rebuilding program like mine, it is good to do a cleanse occasionally as you have the nutrients to remove the toxins and tools to replace them with what should have been in their place all along. Anything extreme should be avoided or under the supervision of a professional.
How often should I detox?
Since you experience exposure every day, it is best to do a few forms of detox daily. This can be simply taking targeted supplements as dictated by your hair analysis. We implement regular liver flushes as well as the gallbladder. Doing this with an experienced expert such as myself makes the process comfortable. Keeping the flow going is the key so by doing many modalities you can aid your body in efficiently cleaning out accumulation and removing what is stuck in tissue.
I recommend a parasite cleanse bi-annually after you have completed a regime of 2 or more products to clear adults, larvae, and eggs in 3 cycles (40 days). I suggest a second form with varied ingredients to hit any resistant buggers.
What am I trying to detoxify?
The free radicals left behind due to oxidation or oxidative stress can harbor diseases such as cancer. Ideally, you need enough oxidants through our food or supplementation to clean them out or recycle the minerals that are left behind before disease settles in on them.
Waste byproducts such as dead skin cells, excess oils, and used metabolites. Also purged are ammonia, creatinine, uric acid, and urea from the kidneys.
Heavy metals can interrupt vital pathways as well as cause physical, mental, emotional, and psychological symptoms. They “clog” up your systems and tissues with forms of heavy metals that are no longer beneficial.
Herbicides, pesticides, and hormone-disrupting chemicals can get stuck in your digestion. You can have impaired motility causing constipation or even leaky gut which is exactly as it sounds. The ziplock like tight junctures get stuck open in the intestine causing large food particles to pass into your bloodstream triggering allergies.
Parasites may be causing you to be malnourished, tired, unable to stay asleep at night, have headaches, and do some teeth clenching when you do sleep. You can knock them out with natural products and detox methods. This way they won’t be stealing your nutrients first or leaving their waste behind for your body to clean up.
Why is water important for the detoxification process?
Disease grows on stagnation. Think of a running river that never grows stinky algae like a pond with no flowing water. We need to keep hydrated to use the water in elimination through our feces, urine, sweat, and breath. Nothing flows through a dry creek so drink at least ½ your body weight in ounces daily.
Oxygenation and nutrients are fed to our cells if we have plenty of mineral rich spring water on board. Many bottled sources add fluoride without listing it. Email me if you need a list of truly clean spring water sources.
What are some simple detoxification modalities I can do?
- Clearing your lymphatic system. Try jumping on a rebounder (mini trampoline) or jumping rope for 5-10 minutes a day to jog the drainage pathways. This system is like a dead garden hose that needs stimulation through lymphatic massage or exercise.
. - Dry skin brushing is a great way to flush the blood flow to your skin for removal. I have a wonderful company that I partner with because I love their brushes on the services page. There is also a tutorial on how to do it correctly. It is a small investment to improve your skin detoxification ability.
. - Deep breathing is simple and you can do it many times a day to relax or increase oxygen in your cells. Along with visualizing your energy pouring down into your feet. This can help to rebalance and get “your head out of the clouds”. This is common with toxic amounts of copper and the most prevalent heavy metal toxicity.
. - Organic castor oil packs can be done with a piece of flannel or cotton fabric placed over the liver for 30-45 minutes. It will stimulate your liver and lymph function. This practice has been recorded back to medical textbooks in Egypt as early as 1550 B.C.. It can be put onto parts of your body that need assistance such as the uterus (fibroids, fertility, menstrual cramps, PCOS), gut inflammation, thyroid cysts, breast cysts, gallbladder issues, lymph drainage, and digestive issues. Once you have wrapped it around you, placing a hot water bottle on top feels so relaxing.
I know this can all seem overwhelming at first. That is why I’m here to help you walk through the process, answer questions that come up, and without stopping the detoxification. When we get the hair analysis roadmap to see where you are at and where you need to go, it can be a simple journey with a few hills and dips to the destination of your best possible health.
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