In the coming weeks, we will draw your attention to ways to help your mind and body detox from the constant abuse of unhealthy foods, environmental toxins and stress.
We all experience a certain level of attack that contributes to the dysfunction of mind and body. If you feel slow, lethargic or cloudy-minded, detoxification may help your body find balance and some sort of reset. When we give our body what it needs, it has an amazing way of healing us.
Successful detoxification involves two things: removing harmful elements and adding specific beneficial factors, such as food, supplementation, herbs, activities, etc. This is not something to do when you remember, active daily intention is crucial to success.
Affective detoxification comes when we provide our body with the tools and space to carry out its own internal process of toxin elimination and self-regeneration.
We can detox without making big changes, but our mind and body are so overwhelmed by biological and psychological toxins that we make it difficult for our body to move forward into a place of significant health and healing.
You can look at some of the leading causes of death in the Western world, all of which are linked to an inability to successfully detoxify. Chronic lung and kidney disease, heart disease, cancer and diabetes all have either direct or indirect roots back to a lack of detoxification.
By understanding how detoxification works, you will be able to see where you can support your key areas of detoxification. Let us talk about the liver, colon, kidneys and other organs that are crucial for proper detoxification.
Your LIVER is crucial. It has more than 500 jobs and is responsible for 13% of your blood supply.
The liver receives blood from the digestive system, which contains nutrients, drugs and toxins. Your liver either allows these substances to be returned to circulation or sends them to the intestine for elimination. A toxic by-product of protein metabolism is ammonia, which your liver transforms brilliantly into urea, which is safely sent to the kidneys for elimination.
Your COLON receives leftover food from the small intestine, which it processes into stool. This method of elimination depends on how well the digestive system works. If you have issues in your stomach, small or large intestine, then this waste removal process can cause serious problems.
Today, we see more people with chronic constipation problems, which means they do not detox their bodies properly.
Then we have your KIDNEYS, arguably one of your hardest-working detoxification systems. The kidneys work hard to filter the blood and separate nutrients from toxins.
When the kidney filters something useful, such as a vitamin or mineral, it releases it back into circulation, while toxins are sent to the bladder. 20% to 25% of cardiac output goes through these tiny organs, allowing them to filter the blood remarkably 60 times a day (1).
Everything toxic, either from a metabolic process or from the outside world, is eliminated by the kidneys. These chemicals include urea, uric acid, heavy metals and creatinine. When we consume things in access, our kidneys take care of it for us.
But in our modern world, toxins accumulate in the kidneys, rather than being eliminated. The exposure to such a high toxic load in the modern world causes serious kidney problems (2). For this reason, we need to limit the toxins that enter the body and help these systems eliminate them.
We have other organs that promote detoxification. The skin and lungs.
As we have learned, toxin accumulation is possible in any organ, especially in a body under stress. Therefore, it is important that we have other methods of elimination.
Just as we consume toxins in the digestive system, we also breathe toxins into the respiratory system. The lungs filter toxins from the air we breathe. The lungs have a mucosal layer that acts as a first line of defense against the toxins we breathe in. Toxins are caught in this layer, and your cilia helps move the mucous towards your central airway, and is then consumed by the digestive system. We also cough and spit.
The largest organ in the system is your skin, and sweating allows us to eliminate unwanted toxins. To learn more about the Benefits of Sweating, please check out this BLOG POST.
I wanted this blog post to introduce you to the importance of detoxification and how many parts of your body are involved. We need to take care of our internal organs if we want to be rid of the toxic substances that prevent us from feeling awesome!
Next time, we will discuss Cutting Out Toxic Exposures.
Have the best day!
Simon Brazier. Dip HN, NNCP
simon@truehope.com
References
1. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Your Kidneys & How They Work https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/kidney-disease/kidneys-how-they-work
2. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2015 Dec; 14(6): 8–13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718206/
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