Part 2 of “Is Detoxing Overrated?”
Click here to access my 3 Part Series on Detoxification
Part 2
In the last article you read, you learned about toxins and why you should consider detoxing.
You also learned that your body already does a fair amount of detoxification on its own but isn’t always cut out to take care of the more than 80,000 industrial chemicals that exist in the world today.
The truth is your body acts in absolutely stunning ways as it uses your skin to protect you from toxins and uses organs like the kidneys, liver and lungs to expel them.
But, while I’m at it, I’m going to give you a bit more doom and gloom before I move into the good news I have to share with you.
What Can Toxins Do to You?
The first thing you should understand is the role toxins play in your health.
The odds are if you suffer from a chronic illness of any kind, part of the reason for that is because you’re toxic. Toxins have an overall negative burden on your health, and when toxins are present in your body, it can disrupt many of your body’s basic functions as well as causing severe health complications.
The complications or health problems associated with toxins are often severe, and varied. The following list will give you an idea of what can be caused by a toxin build up inside of your body.
- Fatigue
- Muscle aches
- Joint pain
- Sinus congestion
- Postnasal drip
- Headaches
- Bloating
- Gas
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Foul-smelling stools
- Heartburn
- Sleep problems
- Difficulty concentrating
- Water retention
- Trouble losing weight
- Rashes
- Skin problems
- Canker sores
- Acne
- Puffy, dark circles under the eyes
- Premenstrual syndrome
- Parkinson’s disease
- Alzheimer’s disease/Dementia
- Autism
- Attention deficit disorder
- Depression and other mood disorders
- Heart disease
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Fibromyalgia
- Cancer
- Autoimmune disease
- Food allergies
- Arthritis
- Digestive diseases like Crohn’s disease, ulcers, and colitis
It’s a pretty big list, and, honestly, I stopped it short because I figured that gives you enough of an idea of what toxins can do to you.
As you read over that list, you might have found yourself wondering where these toxins come from and what can you do eliminate them from your body.
Well, that’s where the good news starts.
Generally speaking, there’s not much you can do get away from industrial chemicals. BUT,, that’s not the only source of toxins in your body.
Toxins come from a variety of sources.
For instance, some toxins, as I just mentioned, come from the environment. These toxins are heavy metals like mercury and lead. Then there are pesticides, chemical residues and petrochemicals. Often times these are present in the food you eat or come from products you eat from (for example, BPA is a toxin found in many conventional water bottles).
As you can guess, when you avoid these source of toxins it decreases your overall exposure to toxins.
Other ways that toxins can infiltrate your body are via your diet, particularly the “Standard American Diet.” This diet consists of processed foods and an over-reliance on products like, gluten, soy, dairy, and sugar. Personally, I believe that adjusting your diet is one of the best things anyone can do to experience amazing health and detox naturally.
And still others actually are manufactured by your own body.
These toxins often come from the presence of bacteria, fungus, and yeast.
If you have an overgrowth of yeast (called Candida), or unfriendly bacteria, they will create toxins inside of your body. It should come as no surprise that one of the main sources of toxicity in the human body originates in the gut, and, as we’ve discovered in the field of medicine, when you fix your gut you generally fix the whole body.
Another point to mention is that our ability to detoxify can be effected when you have negative emotional, spiritual, or mental health.
Though you might think this sounds like it’s outside of the realm of medicine, the truth it is this: negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, loneliness, as well as constant stress, can actually disrupt our detoxification system. If you achieve balance spiritually, emotionally and mentally your body will be have an enhanced ability to clear out toxins compared to when you have a negative outlook on life.
Whew, I know that’s a lot to take in, and, after reading over that segment, I’m sure you might be feeling a little overwhelmed.
Well, relax, because there’s good news to be shared.
How To Rid Your Body of Toxins
One of the most amazing aspects of human health is the body’s ability to repair itself.
Unlike the car we talked about in the last email, if your body has gone too long without an “oil change”, it doesn’t mean you’re too far gone to rectify the problem.
If you believe you might be toxic, or, for that matter, if you just want to make sure that you’re not, there are quite a few things you can do to support your body’s natural detox systems and reverse some of the conditions you might be suffering from.
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, who’s known to be one of the leading medical experts on toxicity, he recommends you follow 5 simple steps on you way to reducing the amount of toxins in your body.
- Identify and Get Rid of Toxins – That could mean you quit eating canned tuna (which has loads of mercury in it) or work on achieving mental balance. As Hyman says “Eliminating them [toxins] is absolutely essential if you want to rebalance your detox system.”
- Fix Your Gut – Gut imbalances are a key source of toxins for many. This can be done with probiotics for some, and for others it might mean taking a food allergy test to discover what is disrupting their basic gut function. The truth is fixing your gut is one of the best things you can do to eliminate toxic overload.
- Get Moving – The idea here is you want to have blood circulate through your body in an effort to boost your detox ability. Exercise is critical to helping clear out toxins.
- Get Your Liver and Detox System Working – This can be done by drinking more water, avoiding medicines you don’t need, having more frequent bowel movements, taking supplements, and eating healthier. You want to reduce the amount of stress your body’s natural detox systems incur, and these are great ways of making this happen.
- Detox Your Mind, Heart, and Spirit – Such an important part of reducing toxins. To help with this process, you can write in a journal, talk with friends and family about issues, forgive those who have hurt you, and get involved in volunteer activities to practice altruism. The mind-body connection is often overlooked in mainstream medicine and needs to be brought to attention far more often. I am a big proponent of prayer, and I think that everyone should incorporate this into their daily routine.
When you follow these 5 steps, you give your body an opportunity to not only detox effectively, but you’re also giving it the ability to repair itself.
If you read through the list above that outlined many of the ailments associated with toxins and found yourself identifying a few that you suffer from, it’s very possible that a detox program will help you feel much better than you currently do.
In Part 3 of this detox series, I’ll be sharing some practical steps you can follow which will help you detox efficiently so you can purge your body of accumulated toxins.
The best part about what I’ll be talking about is that each will everything I cover is easy to do and can lead to the best health you’ve experienced in years.
Click here to access my 3 Part Series on Detoxification
In the meantime…Be well,
Dr. Wiggy