How to enjoy a detox – naturally
Just the word ‘detox’ can quickly instill fear in people.
It’s understandable – after all, when we think of detox, we think about ‘getting rid’ of things. Often, these are things we enjoy and no one wants to be deprived of something that makes them happy. The good news is however, that not only can a detox be enjoyable, but it can be perfectly natural too. You just need to make a few healthy changes to your lifestyle and habits, and your body will start the detoxification process all by itself.
Add green tea to your healthy living diet
That’s right, the first stage of your detox is not to give something up at all. It’s quite the opposite as we’re suggesting you add something to it! It’s not a myth that green tea has powerful antioxidant effects and there are plenty of studies that demonstrate the benefits of green tea. It’s been shown to promote hydration which can help you meet your daily fluid requirements, filter waste effectively, regulate your body temperature and promote nutrient absorption.1
Try fasting
Fasting may help to enhance the production of certain enzymes involved in detoxification, as well as help to keep your liver healthy.2 It’s far easier to go backwards and eliminate built-up toxins if you’ve put on the brakes first. There are various fasts that halt the consumption of certain foods and drinks and focus on filling your body with healthier, anti-inflammatory foods and drinks instead.
Do more exercise
Regular exercise is wonderful for helping you detox naturally as it encourages blood flow around the body, promoting better circulation and helping your organs cleanse themselves effectively. Increasing movement makes our lungs work harder to exhale toxins and opens up our sweat glands to cleanse the skin through perspiration.
Drink more water
Drinking water is beneficial to your health in so many ways, one of which being its ability to help detoxify your body by removing waste products.3 Water transports and removes these waste products through urination, breathing or sweating – making good hydration particularly important for detoxification.
Limit alcohol
Your liver is the main organ in your body responsible for metabolizing toxins, so it goes without saying that the better health it’s in, the better able your body will be to detoxify itself. Excessive drinking not only gives your liver more toxins to remove, but can cause fat build-up, inflammation and scarring – which are all types of liver damage.4
Consider dry brushing
Dry brushing exfoliates the skin and opens up the pores to physically slough away dead skin cells and also makes the skin more receptive to absorbing water and opening the pores to remove toxins. There have been no scientific studies to support dry brushing as a means of detoxification, but there is anecdotal evidence that helping increase the circulation of fluids through dry brushing is helpful in removing toxins.
Adopt an anti-inflammatory diet
Sugary and highly processed foods have an inflammatory effect on our bodies that can lead to certain diseases that impact your body’s ability to naturally detoxify itself.5 By eating a more natural, anti-inflammatory diet, you can keep your detoxification system healthy and better able to function.
Take probiotics and prebiotics
We all have bacteria in our guts and this is actually a good thing! While there are bad bacteria that can make us unwell, there are also ‘friendly’ bacteria that can fight the bad bacteria to keep us in good health. It’s very easy to become unbalanced if you don’t have a good quality diet. If you take regular antibiotics or if you are unwell, you can take friendly bacteria containing probiotics and prebiotics to help build up the supplies of ‘good’ bacteria again, which can strengthen your immune and detoxification systems.6
Get quality sleep
Ensuring you get a good night’s sleep is one of the best ways to support your health and natural detoxification system as poor sleep is regularly linked in studies to an impaired immune system.7 When we sleep, we’re giving our brain a chance to recharge and our bodies a chance to remove toxic waste that has built up throughout our waking day.8
Step away from the screens
Strongly related to the inability to sleep, is an excess amount of time staring at screens. This is because they emit a blue light that slows the production of melatonin, the hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle, making it more difficult both to fall asleep, and to wake up the next day.
Detoxing doesn’t have to be hard work. Even just making small changes based on the suggestions above can add up to help keep your body healthy.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908954/ [↩]
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6314618/ [↩]
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4529263/ [↩]
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4381184/ [↩]
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5174149/ [↩]
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808900/ [↩]
- https://oeachoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Spa-for-the-Mind-Detox-with-Sleep-Presentation.pdf [↩]
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4651462/ [↩]
