Spring Detoxification, Trust me You’re Due

Detoxification in the body happens continuously, without it we would expire quite quickly. The detoxification label has become interchangeable with cleansing the body. So whatever you want to call it, detox or cleanse, trust me you are due and your body will love you for it.

Top 3 things to do on a cleanse

• Eat clean. Find clean sources, avoid GMO foods and determine if you have any food sensitivities that you should be avoiding.
• Drink clean. Just drink water and lot of it, if you can afford a filter look at a getting one. Typically, one should drink 1oz of water per kg of weight as a rule of thumb.
• Support antioxidant process. A good vegetable and fruit based diet will do this but if you are looking to go further look towards products that support glutathione processes. My number one pick would be curcumin but be sure to find one that is bioavailable (easily absorbed and recognized by the body).

Why Cleanse?

Every day we are exposed to over 50,000 chemicals, whether from food we eat, the air we breathe or the water we drink. Studies have shown that we all carry a chemical load, even newborn babies on average have over 26 different foreign man-made chemicals! Do not doubt environmental toxins are impact your health in very significant way, every day. We call this chemical or toxic burden.

• Are you often feeling tired or have lack of energy?
• Do you have sore muscles for no apparent reason?
• Do you have difficulty concentrating?
• Moody or easy irritable?
• Trouble sleeping or wake up tired?
• Do you feel bloated or gain weight easily?
• Do you have digestive discomfort?
• Do you get mild headaches?
• Do you feel you are not as healthy as people your age?

How and Why Does it Work?

By doing a focus cleanse, we can start calming the mild irritating symptoms of inflammation before they lead to more chronic health problems. In essence, it’s a primary tool to help the body to recover and optimize its functions, getting rid of those pesky irritating symptoms all the while reducing our chances of developing a more serious chronic disease. Think of it this way, if your rain barrel (toxic burden) is full, it begins to show up in all kinds of ways (symptoms), if we reduce our rain barrel content, we reduce and eliminate symptoms. Cleanses are the primary way to drain our rain barrels.

A cleanse can be done in an infinite number of ways, specifically tailored to your health needs. However, the basic principles are to create an environment where your body’s “air filters and oil filters” are cleaned for optimal performance. Naturopathic doctors call these tissues, emunctory organs or organs of elimination. The primary organs of elimination are bowels, lungs, liver, kidneys and skin. They are responsible for making sure our blood and tissues are cleansed in order to work properly. So as a naturopathic doctor, we start working with these tissues supporting them with herbs, vitamins, acupuncture, diet and other remedies to optimize their ability to cleanse the body.

Each person has different needs and there is no one size fits all when it comes to cleanses but a naturopathic doctor can refine and optimize a cleanse for your current health needs.