Why Detox?

Cleansing or Detoxing (as some people refer to it) is the process of removing unwanted and unusable chemicals from the tissues of your body.

Your body is constantly working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year cleansing and removing unwanted particles from its cells (the popular terminology “free radicals” sound familiar?).  This is an inborn process you don’t have to think about or push a button to get started.  The problem comes when your body loses the ability to remove these unwanted particles as fast as they are coming in.

These particles come from the environment… your environment.  Any substance that can’t be used normally in the body’s physiology is considered an unwanted particle or a toxin and must be removed.  If these toxins are allowed to stay in your body they will start to cause a breakdown of one, if not more than one, of its chemical processes.  Most of us don’t realize how bombarded our bodies are everyday by toxins in our environment. Think about this:

• did you use shampoo and conditioner in the shower?
• did you use soap?
• did you use shaving products?
• do you use lotions, make up, aftershave?
• did you put on cologne, perfume?
• the clothes you are wearing.  did you use detergent, dry cleaning solutions, dryer sheets, softeners?
• did you have coffee for breakfast? use a microwave?  what did you eat?
• did you travel on the roads today?  inhale any car fumes?
• ever hear of out-gassing?  it is when molecules are being released from a solid or liquid into the atmosphere.  this is caused by carpets, painted or stained woods, plastics that are heated, industrial factories, synthetic items (even if you don’t notice an odor).

The point is, when you breathe, you are taking in toxins.  They are prevalent and they are everywhere so the build up is inevitable.

Symptoms of buildup are:

• low energy
• painful joints
• mental fog
• headaches
• weight gain
• skin problems
• allergies
• sleep disorders
• even depression

Types of Cleansing:

Fasting – short fasts, even just a day or two, are very beneficial.  Fasting also helps control eating habits.  The hardest part is breaking the emotional connection we have with food.  Listen to your body and come off the fast when you feel ready.  Always remember, the longer the fast the better in order to get a deep level of cleansing.  There are a few types of fasts to choose from:

• water fast – this is the easiest fast as far as all the rules go… you can only have one thing, water.  The reasoning behind this is that less energy is expended on digestion of foods, resulting in more energy for the rest of the body to expel toxins as well as to recover and heal itself from the stresses digestion places upon it.  Make sure you only use good quality filtered water.   Even though this may be the easiest as far as directions go and on your body, it can be the hardest to follow.
• raw juice fast – a juice fast is as much the same as a water fast, in so much as you can only drink raw juice.  Raw juice is defined as freshly juiced fruits and vegetables.  This, of course, doesn’t include anything close to Sunkist or V-8 or any other processed and pasteurized juice found on supermarket shelves.  You can find further instructs ions here.
• powder greens fast – same as the raw juice fast except that instead of the fruit and vegetable juice, you can use a high quality greens powder mix.  All you do is add water to the powder and drink it in place of your raw juice.  This works great for those people who are very busy or have a problem handling the high levels of natural sugars that you get from the juice.

Herbal Cleansing – this is when you use botanical herbs that have the ability to cause a release of toxins from a specific tissue.  Ever heard of colon or liver cleanse?  This can be the easiest cleanse to do because you still get to eat.  Of course, the quality of foods you consume is extremely important and will greatly influence the effectiveness of the cleansing.  Make sure your water intake remains high to move the toxins through and abstain from carbonation, caffeine, alcohol, fried foods and sugary foods.

For information on what types of herbs are effective in cleansing and for complete information on cleansing/detoxing, go here.