After any holiday, it’s natural to look for balance again. January is always a good month to make good decisions, especially regarding health. With its detoxification and cleansing, the growing trend toward healthy living offers so many options – from juices to caveman diets – that it can be almost impossible to know what works best.
What is a detox?
- Detoxification is a process that naturally begins in the liver.
- This organ, responsible for doing the body’s heavy lifting, filters nearly 1.4 litres of blood per minute.
- It breaks down and neutralises toxic substances, converting them into highly reactive metabolites that are then excreted in bile or blood.
- Toxins range from acute ones, such as those found in alcohol or tobacco, to cumulative, subtle, and much less noticeable ones, such as pollutants or pesticides in food.
- This is what your body does naturally: it processes unwanted materials and toxins.
- This is the body’s primary function, constantly functioning and interacting with all other body functions.
- Detox aims to improve, optimise, and support the body’s natural detoxification process by reducing the amount of toxins we consume.
- In addition to providing the body with the nutrients it needs, it also functions properly.
Why should you do a detox?
When your body is overloaded with toxins, such as eating too much but not enough nutrient-rich food or drinking too much alcohol, your metabolism slows down.
This causes fatigue, fluid retention, restless sleep, and increased anxiety. Sound familiar?
The good news is that a detox can restore all of this. It’s a great way to reset it and its benefits.
An effective detox can improve your overall health by reducing your body’s toxic load and optimising its natural detoxification processes.
When you feel more active and lose weight, your skin clears up, you feel less bloated, your aches and pains decrease, and you often notice an improvement in your attentiveness and focus.
You can relieve bloating and gas, and help reduce sugar cravings.
How long should a detox last?
- A detox aims to help your natural elimination system adapt to your regular diet and activities. It is a reset, so a detox does not have to last forever.
- A gentle, natural detox program can stimulate your body’s natural cleansing abilities and set you on a path to rejuvenation.
- This can be done once a year or every season, depending on your needs.
How to detoxify your body at home?
1. Eliminate poisons from your diet to give your body a chance to breathe
- An intense detox eliminates foods that often cause responses in the body, such as gluten and dairy, and irritate the stomach, such as liquor and caffeine.
2. Fill your body with complete nutrients.
- Focus on choosing the right ingredients. Eat (and drink) real, whole foods.
- The less altered and manipulated they are, the better.
- Choose high-quality, complete proteins, healthy fats, and leafy green vegetables when filling your shopping cart.
- Fill your plate with whole foods like leafy greens, nuts and seeds, grass-fed meats, wild-caught fish, and high-quality fats like emerald, avocado, animal butter, and ghee.
3. Exercise regularly to sweat.
- During your detox, try to move and sweat more. This helps flush toxins from your body and regulate your body temperature.
- Intense exercise and hot yoga are two traditions that can be used to do this; saunas, especially infrared ones, are another option.
- Saunas and similar heat treatments have remained part of preventative health procedures for centuries.
- Heat stimulates circulation, which lowers blood pressure, relaxes tense muscles, and relieves minor aches and pains.
- Balanced cortisol levels improve arterial function by strengthening the endothelial cells that line your arteries.
- Relax in a sauna for 15-20 minutes once a week.
- Be sure to drink plenty of fluids and spray immediately to prevent reabsorption of toxins.
4. Try dry brushing
- The skin is the largest organ in the body, eliminating 15-20% of the body’s waste.
- Exfoliating dead skin cells can reduce the burden on the body’s most important detoxifying organs: the kidneys and liver.
- Dry brushing also improves circulation but has the most profound cleansing effect on the lymphatic system, helping eliminate toxins from the body.
- Using a natural fibre body brush, start with your arms and brush toward your heart several times, covering all areas.
- Next, scrub your feet and your legs in the same manner. Use clockwise circular motions on your stomach and underarms.
- Repeat the process in these areas using counterclockwise motions.
- After this simple self-care routine, take a warm shower or bath and enjoy the benefits.
5. It also relaxes the mind.
- Stress causes cortisol levels to rise, slowing your metabolism and being counterproductive during a detox.
- Find what works best for you to decrease stress.
- Yoga, exercise, and meditation are ways to stay on the path to calm; making time for things you enjoy and spending time in nature are also helpful.
6. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
- Water is the key to everything.
- Staying hydrated provides numerous benefits, including maintaining a stable body temperature, developing practical cognitive skills, and supporting healthy kidney and liver function, which are essential for detoxification.
- Even mild dehydration can disrupt these natural detoxification systems.
- Since detoxification aims to support the organs that naturally eliminate toxins, staying hydrated is even more critical during this period.