The idea of enhancing detoxification to improve health has been known and practiced in the natural healthcare community for decades. Herbs, saunas, activated charcoal, juicing, and body wraps are just a few of the ways practitioners and patients have sought to rid the body of toxins and waste more efficiently. These different approaches have gone in and out of fashion, and with the advent of social media you can find any number of people claiming they’ve got the perfect shake, supplement, or potion for everyone to achieve a cleaner body. Let’s face it, some of them are scams, but the theory is sound—help the body detoxify and you’ll have more energy, clearer skin, better bowel elimination, and avoid chronic illness later in life.
I’ve seen Western medical professionals claim that “detox” is not really a thing to be enhanced, but rather something the body does just fine on its own without intervention. It’s true that we have multiple ways to neutralize and eliminate toxins via our liver, kidneys, skin, and lungs. In a perfect environment with a nutrient-rich diet these processes would work efficiently and perfectly. However, these processes are often compromised or made sluggish by our lifestyles and exposures, making it necessary to support and assist the organs.
The main categories of offending substances include metals, chemicals, and pathogens (microbes). These are found in our air, water, and food supply thanks to modern industrial and farming practices, and our reliance on antibiotics in meat production. Additionally, in our households they are found in many everyday items—cookware, carpets, plastic containers, cleaners, makeup, air fresheners, shampoos, and anti-bacterial soaps.
With the amount of toxic items we are exposed to through breathing, eating, drinking, and through our skin, it’s kind of amazing we are able to withstand the assault at all! Unfortunately, these concerns do contribute to chronic issues for many of us, including allergies, asthma, skin conditions, autoimmune problems, fatigue, and eventually can lead to changes in cellular function that we ultimately call cancer. The symptoms and conditions that can be attributed to toxin exposure are innumerable, and based on clinical practice for decades, can mostly be reversed if we help the body more effectively detoxify.
The first and best way to enhance detoxification is to minimize your daily toxin exposure. Drinking filtered or distilled water is essential and switching to naturally derived cleaners and skin care are important as well. Choosing responsibly grown meat and produce is better for you and for the environment. Using glass containers to store your food, minimizing plastics in your kitchen, and upgrading to ceramic, glass, or cast iron cookware are also great ways to lessen your daily load.
Read related article: Understanding Detoxification
You won’t be able to avoid toxins in the world at large, so making your home and your workspace more body-friendly is key. A good quality air purifier at home and at work is a great investment and positively impacts everyone who lives or works in the space.
There are great option for water filtration, and even home distillation, that are also cost-effective when you consider the money you can save on purchasing water, and also the money potentially saved on medical bills in the future.
Sweating is an excellent way to get more toxins out through your skin, the largest detoxification organ. Saunas and exercise are two ways to enhance elimination through sweating.
Dry brushing the skin is also helpful to remove dead skin and assist in lymphatic drainage—another inexpensive but impactful practice to help your body do its best.
There are also benefits to fasting diets, purification shakes, supplements, and juicing to name a few. I recommend consulting with a practitioner that is well-versed in these before deciding which is best for you and your current condition. This will ensure that you get the most benefit for your efforts, and you’ll also be less likely to experience unpleasant side effects or problems if you’ve got someone to guide you through the process. Of course, having a green smoothie or fasting for a day are safe practices for most anyone without serious illness.
Currently, there are excellent technologies available to assist in detoxification, including red light therapy, ionic foot baths, and infrared saunas. Depending on your current health status and your health goals these may also be something to consider. Ultimately, it seems our environmental toxin load is only increasing, so to improve your health now, and enjoy vibrant health in the future, it’s important to adopt as many of these practices as possible for you and your family.
Dr. Shannon Roznay, D.C. is owner and head practitioner at Thrive Wellness Center. She has been in practice for 20 years, specializing in clinical nutrition and wellness. Dr. Roznay utilizes Nutrition Response Testing® to help optimize her patients' health, and in the last 14 years has taught practitioners how to do the same in their practices. Thrive offers chiropractic and nutritional services, infrared sauna, ionic footbaths, and an array of healthy products for home and beauty. They are located at 6901 State Road, Suite D in Saline, MI. Visit them online at thrive-wellness-center.com or give them a call at (734) 972-6631.
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It is not surprising that Dr. Farah got the idea for the name of the fitness and yoga center while on a long run. After all, he has been an athlete and a fitness enthusiast for most of his life. He has run competitive distance races, including more than 100 marathons for decades—19 of them in the famed Boston Marathon. (For several years and last summer at age 79, he ran the Crim which is a 10-mile race in Flint.) He’s also been a sailor, a skier, snowshoer, and bicyclist, and has been leading fitness classes at Imagine Fitness and Yoga ever since it opened in the summer of 2015, less than a year after he got the idea.