Spring is just around the corner and with it comes the desire to do a thorough spring cleaning of the house.
But what about our bodies? Do they not deserve a good spring cleaning too?
We are inundated every day with chemicals, heavy metals and toxins in our water, food and environment.
While we have an innate detoxification system in our bodies to deal with these toxins, we are being exposed at unprecedented rates.
These toxins have been shown to accumulate in our system over time and without adequate elimination through our liver, kidneys and gut, can create a wide variety of symptoms and conditions that reduce our quality of life.
Why detoxification?
Symptoms occur when the total amount of toxins is higher than the capacity to detoxify and eliminate them from the system.
Think of our detoxification system as wipers on a car and snow as the toxins. When there is a light snow fall, the wipers are able to easily remove the snow from the windshield. But if there is a heavy snowfall, there is too much snow for the wipers to shift. In this case, you have to use another means to remove the snow.
When there are too many toxins in the body, it is no longer able to remove them without some type of external support, such as a detoxification program.
Symptoms of a heavy toxic burden on the body include but are not limited to: allergies, chemical sensitivities, skin rashes, recurrent infections, infertility, depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel conditions and insomnia. Heavy toxic load can also lead to a variety of chronic and degenerative diseases including arthritis, chronic migraines and cancer.
The following are suggestions on how to improve and support the detoxification pathways in our body. Through diet, exercise and medically-supervised detoxification programs two to three times per year, we can reduce the toxic burden on our bodies, reduce symptoms and regain a healthy, active and enjoyable life.
Diet
A diet rich in organically grown, high-fibre legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables will not only improve digestive health and supply you with significant quantities of vitamins and minerals, but will also reduce your exposure to many toxic compounds used to grow our food conventionally. Fibre binds toxins and helps to eliminate them from the system.
Limiting the intake of refined and processed foods, as well as red meat and dairy, will improve the body’s ability to detoxify and eliminate harmful chemicals. Chose organic chicken and cold water fish over red meats to improve overall health.
Avoiding alcohol and caffeine will greatly improve one’s natural ability to detoxify, as these two substances are hard on the liver and deplete it of necessary detoxification chemicals.
Water
Increase water intake to at least 2 litres of clean filtered water every day to improve elimination of water-soluble toxins through the kidneys, liver and gut.
Exercise
Daily exercise increases the metabolism of cells in the body, which increases the removal of cellular waste into the blood. By increasing blood flow in the body, exercise allows for more blood to be filtered by the liver.
This increases the amount of toxins the liver is able to remove from the system. Regular exercise also improves digestion and speeds up gut transit time, allowing for more frequent bowel movements, and less risk of re-absorption of toxic chemicals found in feces.
Supplements, detox support
Many supplements and products can help improve and support the detox pathways of the body. These include vitamin/mineral injections, herbal formulas, beneficial gut bacteria and metabolic detox products.
Every person is unique with different symptoms and areas of weakness. While many products are available over the counter in pharmacies and health food stores, undertaking a detoxification process has the potential to be dangerous and should be properly supervised by a primary health care provider.
Katie McKeown is a naturopathic doctor with Optimum Integrative Health Centre in Fergus.
