Detox cures have been in trend for some time and should not only be good for internal health, but also have an external effect and make hair, skin and nails beautiful. But what is really all about the hype? If you want to know what a detox should bring you and what health benefits you can really get from a detox cure, find out in this article how detox can help you and what you should pay attention to.
Detox is derived from the English term detoxification from and means detoxification. Detoxifying the body has not just emerged in a few years from a trend that mainly follows the Christmas time has proven to be an integral part for many. Detoxification of the body has been used by various cultures around the world for centuries, for example in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, to cleanse the body from the inside out and to do it good. There are several methods of detoxifying your body to maintain and improve your health by flushing out toxins and adding important nutrients.
Why should that be necessary? Our body is exposed and stressed to a wide variety of things in everyday life. This causes toxins to accumulate, for example through
- Dietary additives
- the air we breathe
- Cosmetic products for our skin
The human body is designed to remove toxins, but the body can become clogged quickly. This causes the toxins to become stored in our cells and joints, which means that it limits your body's ability to function properly and to heal itself.
Detox: what is it?
A detox is generally a short-term diet aimed at removing toxins from the body. The purpose of detox is that Body cleanse and is supposed to help with various health problems. The detoxification cure follows a strict diet and can be carried out, for example, with various fruits, vegetables, juices, water, herbs or teas. But there are other options too To detoxify your body naturally.
By detoxifying you should come to a healthier well-being and you can reduce weight during your cure.
Benefits of a detox: what is the point in detoxifying the body?
It is claimed that detox is said to have positive effects on your health.
A detox can have benefits for your body through the natural cleansing process by supporting the process:
- Organs rest from fasting
- Stimulation of the liver
- Promotion of toxin excretion
- improved blood circulation
- Supply of healthy nutrients
Short-term detox cures, however, rarely have permanent effects. In addition, the human body has many natural processes to remove toxins from the body, such as sweating or urinating. Therefore, the best way to detoxify your body is to support your own detoxification system and its processes, instead of tormenting yourself through a crash diet.
Detoxification: what happens in the body?
How do detoxification processes work in the body? These important organs, among others, play a role in the process:
- Liver
- Niere
- Skin
- Intestine
Toxins can not only burden our body in a physical sense, but also in a psychological way. Our everyday life is often accompanied by stress, pressure, fears and worries and weighs heavily on our soul and has an impact on mood and health.
How does the liver detoxify the body?
The liver has many important metabolic functions. After the blood has passed from the digestive organs through the portal vein to the liver, the nutrients and toxic substances are processed, stored, converted and detoxified. Then, when the liver is detoxified, the substances are returned to the blood or released in the intestine so that the toxins are eliminated from the body.
The metabolism of proteins creates the by-product and the toxic substance ammonia, which is converted by the liver cells into a less toxic substance, urea, and released into the blood. The urea is then transported to the kidneys and excreted from the body as urine.1
How does the kidney detoxify?
The kidneys are important when it comes to getting rid of excess waste, balancing electrolytes, or building hormones. The body excretes unwanted or unnecessary substances, such as liquids, through urine. In order for the body to pass urine, the kidneys need water. Therefore it is important enough water to drink so the kidney can flush away the excess waste.2 If you drink too little and excrete little urine, this can lead to kidney problems and, for example, favor kidney stones.3
Detoxification through the skin
The skin is your largest sensory organ and protects you against environmental pollution such as fine dust and exhaust gases, among other things. But sometimes we are plagued by blemishes like pimples that want to get rid of excess from the inside. However, the most important function of skin detoxification is sweating. On the one hand, sweat cools the body and frees itself from end products from the metabolism as well as other substances that are transported through the sweat or sebum glands.
Detoxification: How do I stimulate the bowel?
The cells in your intestines protect your body from harmful toxins with the help of a detoxification and excretion system.4 In order for this system to stay healthy, it is important that you take good care of your bowels. This is what your gut needs Prebiotics, bacteria that feed your intestines and produce nutrients.5 A balanced diet is essential for a healthy immune defense and a functioning detoxification system.
Detoxification of the soul
The soul can also be detoxified from stress and negative thoughts or feelings. Your soul detoxifies itself, for example by getting rid of your stress or negative feelings. That sounds easier than done at first. You can start exercising more mindfulness and becoming more aware of your feelings and bringing them into your actions. Try to focus more on the present moment and stop lingering on thoughts that belong to the past.
Tips: What Natural Ways Are There To Detox?
You don't need any expensive trendy detox cures from the drugstore or the numerous online shops. Usually, your body is a well-trained detox machine. But toxins can only be effectively removed from your body if your organs are healthy. However, if you want to optimize or support your detoxification system in your body, you can do this in various ways to have a positive effect on it.
What you can do to detoxify your body:
- Refrain from alcohol
- Optimizing sleep
- drinking enough
- balanced nutrition
- regular exercise
Refrain from alcohol
Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage liver function and lead to fat build-up, inflammation and scarring. This ensures that the liver cannot function properly and therefore cannot do its job of filtering waste and toxins in the body.6
Optimizing sleep
Sleep is important to get your body back Recharge energy can and your brain recovers at night by removing toxins and by-products that have been building up throughout the day.7 If you have trouble sleeping, you should rethink your current lifestyle and see what factors are preventing you from restful sleep. Do you have sleep routines and do you regularly go to sleep at the same time? Do you expose yourself to too much blue light before sleeping by watching TV or using your cell phone? You can find tips on how to change your behavior in the ahead Academy!
Drink enough
As already mentioned, it is sometimes important for the functioning of your kidneys that you keep your body hydrated. Water enables your body's detoxification system to remove waste products through urine, sweating, or breathing.8
Balanced nutrition
A good approach to detoxifying your body is to change your eating habits. Banish all junk food from your kitchen, which does not provide your body with any real nutrients anyway. Keep your detox system healthy by adding lots of fruits and vegetables to your diet and by avoiding sugar and processed foods. Excessive consumption of sugary drinks can lead to fatty liver disease and other diseases, which have a negative impact on the functioning of your organs.
Which foods detoxify the body?
You can do your body good by eating a diet rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants protect your cells and help your body fight oxidative stress caused by free radicals and other toxins.
Foods that are high in antioxidants are:9
- berries
- Fruits
- Nuts
- Cocoa
- Vegetables
- Herbs & Spices
- Green tea
If you are a big lover of salt in your food, you should try to minimize salt in your diet. If you drink too little water but take in too much salt, your body releases an antidiuretic. This prevents you from urinating and thus also disrupts your detoxification.10 However, you can consume more foods rich in potassium, which offsets some of the sodium effects.
Foods rich in potassium include:11
- Bananas
- Beans
- dried apricots
- potatoes
- pumpkin
- Lenses
- raisins
- spinach
- prunes
You can also rely on foods that have a high sulfur content and promote the excretion of heavy metals, such as broccoli, garlic or onions.12
Disadvantages: Which symptoms can occur during a detox?
If you've done a detox before, such as a juice regimen, you may have experienced some detox symptoms as well. With a detox regimen you can definitely experience a few side effects by getting detox symptoms, like
- fatigue
- irritability
- headache
- Nausea
- diarrhea
- concentration problems
- dizziness
- Skin Problems
In fact, there is little evidence or human studies of detox regimens to show that toxins are removed from the body during such a detox regimen. The few studies that deal with detox show significant shortcomings.13
Still, many people report that they feel better and have more energy after a detox. This could be because unhealthy foods such as alcohol, junk food, or other processed foods have been cut and more vitamins and minerals have been added. Nevertheless, it is more advisable to change your diet and lifestyle in a healthy and balanced way and to benefit from them in the long term. If you are more on the topic Mineral deficiencies you can read on here in the Academy.
Detox in everyday life
For your detox you can not only reduce harmful substances in the form of diet in everyday life, but also by paying attention to your environment. There are many harmful toxins in many products such as cosmetics or clothing that are not good for our skin, for example. You can also reduce your consumption of plastic or you should try Digital Detox. Changing your lifestyle can improve your body's natural detoxification system. You can also detoxify your body and soul with exercise.
How to detoxify your body with exercise
If you exercise regularly, you will stimulate the detoxification system of your body. In addition, physical activity has many health benefits and positive effects on your body, such as a reduced risk of disease.
Another central point is the reduction of inflammation, which can weaken your body and favor diseases. Exercise can help your body's system and detoxification system work optimally.14
For example, you can Detox yoga try one that is designed to help the body detox. With certain exercises, the metabolism and blood circulation are stimulated. In addition to the relaxation that occurs, Detox Yoga also promotes breathing and thus detoxification. Breathing calmly and evenly increases the uptake of oxygen and the toxins can be removed from the body more quickly by exhaling. This makes Detox Yoga a good way to detoxify the soul.
PROTECT
To keep your digestive system healthy, you should eat a diet rich in prebiotics. After all, your intestines make up 70-80% of your immune system. It is therefore important that your digestive system is functioning optimally in order to perform at its best. Do you already know PROTECT? To support your bowels, contains PROTECT Calcium and zinc as well as a comprehensive and balanced spectrum of bacteria with 18 bacterial cultures and 15 billion live cultures.
Summary
Basically, your body already has a good detoxification system that does not require any expensive or time-consuming detox cures from advertising that you torment yourself with for days. However, if you feel like you could use a detox and want to improve your overall health, then you can naturally support this natural detox system. Changes in your behavior, your diet and your consumer behavior can be helpful in detoxifying your body. You can start with adequate fluid intake, more exercise and a balanced diet rich in antioxidants and avoiding junk food and alcohol, which only put a strain on the body.
¹Calcium contributes to the normal function of digestive enzymes.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279393/
[2] https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/kidney-disease/kidneys-how-they-work
[3] https://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.4111/kju.2014.55.12.775
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3942919/
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5622781/
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4381184/
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24199995
[8] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908954/
[9] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841576/
[10] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526069/
[11] https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Potassium-HealthProfessional/
[12] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18521705/
[13] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25522674
[14] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4142018/