How often should you detox?

In order to enjoy the benefits of good health, detoxification should be a continual practice. When the body is perpetually cleansing and ridding of toxins, the degenerative diseases and conditions, which occur with age, can be combated.

There are a variety of methods which are used to maintain liver and digestive system health. Fasting, botanical remedies and diet modification are the most popular routes to detoxify and cleanse. Some health care professionals use all three together while others have a particular preference for one.

Diet modification

Obesity is almost always associated with toxicity.

When you lose weight, you reduce your fat and thereby your toxic load. However, during weight loss you release more toxins, and thus need protection through greater intake of water, fiber, and antioxidant nutrients. Exercise can also help further detoxification.

Basically, your goal is to enhance well being through optimum nutrition which, in turn, facilitates improved digestive health and elimination, reducing your intake of toxins.

Some possible detoxification symptoms

Detoxification symptoms ? both physical and mental ? may appear when you alter your lifestyle by starting something new, such as changing your diet or exercising, or by discontinuing a current habit, such as eating chocolate or drinking coffee.

When you make a change in diet or lifestyle, through stopping a bad habit or eating better, your cells begin to eliminate the toxic substances. Before finding the exit, however, the toxins are released into the blood stream and are carried through the circulatory system.

This transportation and elimination may result in headache, diarrhoea, or constipation, and often toxins are eliminated through the skin, resulting in rashes or skin problems (especially if you are prone to such problems).

You may also feel a lack of energy, especially if you are eliminating meats from your diet. (The protein found in meat is more stimulating than that found in vegetables.) You may also find that, with the absence of toxins, you absorb substances more easily. Thus, the sugar and caffeine in a soda might really set you off.

• Clogged sinus
• Constipation
• Cough
• Diarrhoea
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Flu symptoms
• Cold symptoms
• Gas
• Headache
• Irritability
• Moodiness
• Skin rash
• Stomach ache

The body will begin to remove the garbage deposited in all the tissues. The old you will be replaced by the newer, more vital nutrients being taken in. Interfering waste will be discarded, and new tissue will be formed faster due to the improved assimilation of nutrients.

The body’s need for the usual amounts of food decreases and we are able to maintain our weight with less food.

How severe are the symptoms and how long do they last?

How long the symptoms last and how severe they are depend on your lifestyle before making a change and how quickly you make a change.

If you have a diet heavy in red meats, for example, and become a vegetarian overnight, you might have severe symptoms for a time. If your lifestyle changes are gradual, the symptoms could be less severe. The duration of the symptoms might not be linear; there is a greater chance that they will come in cycles.

At first you may feel great and then experience some detoxification symptoms. After the initial toxins are flooded out, you will feel good again, if not better.

However, the body ?goes deeper? and finds more toxins to eliminate; the symptoms may reappear again, and after more toxins are eliminated, you will feel better yet.

As things progress, you will find that the period of symptoms is shorter and the period of well being greater.

What can you do during this period?

The hardest thing for many people to do is accept that they are not sick and realise that the body is cleansing itself.

Once you get beyond this psychological barrier, the rest is easy.

The most important thing to do can be summed up in one word: Rest. Rest, and let the body do what it needs to. If you have the luxury of staying home, do so! If not, cut back on social engagements and perhaps even cut back on any exercise you are getting. Give your body as much energy as possible to do its job.

There are several foods to avoid as much as possible for detoxifying the body:

• All foods grown with pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides
• Toxic fats (margarine, fried foods, and refined vegetable oils)
• Coffee, alcohol and other stimulants
• Sugar
• White “enriched” flour products

A very effective way to combat the overwhelming effects of toxins is to maintain a diet with plenty of nutrient-rich foods and supplements.