Contributed by: Healthians Team
Introduction
Detoxification is a natural process that your body can perform without any specific medication. It involves the elimination of toxins through the lungs, kidneys, liver, large intestine, and skin. This process starts with cutting short or quitting habits like alcohol consumption and smoking.
You will also need to stop eating refined sugar, junk foods, and foods rich in saturated fat because these unhealthy habits contribute to adding toxins that decrease the body’s normal functioning.
- Liver: Helps in excreting waste, removing excess hormones, and other foreign substances
- Lungs: Aid in exhaling carbon dioxide. A toxic byproduct of the respiration process
- Kidneys: Aid in removing waste from the blood through urination
- Skin: With the help of sweat glands, aids in the sweating process, which in turn helps detoxify the body
The body’s arsenal of cells is also vital for the optimal functioning of your system, as they break down essential nutrients you gain from the food you eat, which are used as energy by your body. However, this energy conversion process leads to waste generation in the form of urea and carbon dioxide. If left unchecked and left to accumulate, the waste products can lead to serious health complications.
Detoxification can be a complex process. Here’s a breakdown for you in four easy to understand steps:
- Resting the organs by fasting at least one day every month
- Following a healthy lifestyle can stimulate the liver, intestines, kidneys, and skin. They help in removing toxin substances from your body through excretion, urination, and sweat
- Taking measures like regular exercises, increasing water intake, and managing stress to improve blood circulation
- Adding food items to your diet that are rich in essential nutrients to promote the health of your organs and eventually aid in detoxification
Note: Environmental factors like air pollution, adulterated food (preservatives and additives), or water pollution are some of the biggest contributors to the increased amount of toxic elements in the body that you consume unknowingly through the air you breathe, the water you drink, or the food you eat.
Symptoms of toxic overload in the body
Like any medical condition, your body manifests some symptoms when it suffers toxic overload. Some of the common symptoms that denote increased presence of toxins in your system include:
- Unexplained fatigue
- Joint and muscle aches
- Excessive sinus congestion
- Postnasal drip (nasal fluid that travels down the throat, thus causing cough and congestion)
- Headaches
- Stomach ailments like bloating, gas, constipation, and diarrhea
- Foul-smelling feces
- Heartburn
- Irregular sleep patterns
- Difficulty concentrating
- Unusually increased appetite
- Water retention
- Trouble losing weight
- Skin rashes and acne
- Eczema
- Puffy, dark circles under your eyes
- Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
- Other menstrual disorders
- Foul breath
Top four natural ways to detoxify
These above-mentioned symptoms though seem to be non-serious, but if not addressed in time, can cause health complications. Here are the best four natural detoxification steps you can take to mitigate these symptoms and keep your system running as it should.
- Get sufficient sleep: Sleeping disorders primarily affect your brain health and lead to stress and anxiety. They are also responsible for several illnesses like high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Getting sufficient sleep (seven to nine hours per day) enables the brain to recharge and protect you from these illnesses. Adequate sleep also enables the body to detoxify as it removes the toxic byproducts of metabolism, respiration, and the renal process, while your other organs are at rest.
- Drink plenty of water: Water not only quenches your thirst but also aids in regulating body temperature, promoting healthy digestion and nutrient absorption, cleansing the bloodstream, transporting essential nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and protecting joints. Researches suggest that women should drink around 2.7 liters of water every day and men should drink around 3.7 liters of water every day. Water is one of the most potent detoxifiers as it helps in the removal of waste and toxins via urination, sweating, and excretion.
- Reduce salt intake: Consuming too much salt can lead to enlargement of heart muscles, heart failure, headaches, high blood pressure, kidney stones, or stomach cancer. However, if you cut down on salt consumption and increase the amount of water intake, the excess amount of salt can easily leave your body through urination, thus detoxifying your system in the process.
- Follow an exercise regimen: Regular exercising is very essential in the process of detoxification. It helps to remove toxins mainly through sweat, and extensively promotes the health of your organs by reducing the risk of diseases like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Exercising regularly also helps in reducing the risk of certain cancers.
Top seven foods that aid in detoxification
Besides lifestyle changes, healthy alterations to your diet can also greatly assist in the detoxification process. Here are seven must-add food items to your daily diet to ensure that your body is able to detoxify, effectively.
- Lemons: Rich in vitamin C, lemons are citrus foods that aid in promoting skin health and boosts immunity. Furthermore, lemons have antioxidant properties that help in restoring the body’s pH balance (balance between the body’s acid and alkaline levels). Start your day with a glass of hot water mixed with lemon juice to flush out the toxic substances in the body.
- Ginger: Consuming ginger not only helps in reducing the feeling of nausea but also improves digestion. If you have been consuming too much fatty food or alcohol, adding ginger to your tea, juice, and food can help in detoxifying your body by stimulating digestion, promoting blood circulation, and opening skin pores to increase sweating.
- Beetroot: Enriched with nutrients like vitamin C, iron, and magnesium, beetroot is a superfood that you should consume for improving skin and hair health. It also helps in managing cholesterol levels and contributes to liver detoxification by thinning bile and easing its movement into the small intestine for removal. Consume it raw or as juice, to improve your body’s detoxification process.
- Fresh fruits: Fruits are great sources of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber and greatly help in detoxification by improving blood circulation and easing excretion by promoting the health of the large intestine. They are low in calories and promote your skin health, eye health, hair health, and digestion. There are varieties of fruits available that you can consume throughout the day, anytime.
- Cabbage: Enriched with sulforaphane, cabbage is excellent detoxifying food because it cleanses the digestive tract and promotes easy urination and bowel movements. It also aids in weight loss and promotes liver health.
- Brown rice: Rich in various nutrients like B vitamins, phosphorus, magnesium, and manganese, brown rice is an excellent alternative to processed foods. Consuming brown rice can help in the detoxification of the colon as it is enriched with fiber too and aids in smooth bowel movement. Brown rice also helps protect the liver and improve complexion.
- Garlic: Essential for your heart health, garlic features a chemical compound called allicin. Allicin aids in the production of white blood cells and helps detoxification by increasing the number of detoxification enzymes in the body. Garlic also has antiviral, antibacterial, and antibiotic properties that keep you protected from various illnesses. Taking raw garlic is the ideal form of consumption to avail of its remedial benefits.
Final thoughts
Your body constantly performs detoxification throughout the day. Overload of toxins in any of the organs can cause hindrance in detoxification and give rise to several health complications. The aforesaid information will guide you through the natural means to detox with the help of foods and some lifestyle changes.
But before you begin with the process, we recommend you undergo an early diagnosis to ascertain which organ needs urgent attention.
