When you hear the word ‘detox’ what automatically comes to mind? Fasting and starvation, juice only cleanses, coffee enemas perhaps? Detoxification can mean different things for different people and for my clients, detoxification depends on the goal we’re trying to achieve e.g. lower inflammation, reduce pain, lose weight.

Why do I need a liver cleanse? Doesn’t the body do this naturally?

Absolutely!! Our bodies are constantly detoxing – it is a very natural, very sophisticated process. However we are very, very good at overloading the body with toxins and making it work in the least efficient way possible. Plus, we are surrounded in a sea of toxicity in our everyday lives, and our bodies simply can’t keep up. Detoxification is an ongoing process. We don’t just do our juice cleanse and then STOP detoxing. Every day, our organs are working diligently to eliminate toxins, contaminants and more. So what are these toxic everyday substances? They can be materials used in new constructions, new cars, chemicals in new carpet and/or upholstery, paint, household cleaners, dental restorations, personal products you use daily such as face, body and hair products, perfume, air fresheners, laundry detergents, prescribed and over the counter drugs, the air you breathe, 2^nd hand smoke exposure and even the by-products of our own metabolic processes. One of the most common exposures of toxins is chemicals from agricultural production (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers). These exposures are commonly consumed or inhaled through contaminated water, food and air. So how many of these have you been exposed to recently……how many have you been exposed to today? We also use a lot of energy to detoxify the body. So if you’re finding you’re exhausted all of the time and not sure why, stabilizing the two very complex phases of detoxification (I’ll save you the chemistry lesson for today……) may be a great way to bring some energy and vitality back to your body for 2019! There are a lot of reasons why the body isn’t particularly efficient at clearing toxins, including;

• Situational – we simply might have too many toxins coming in
• Constipated – we are unable to excrete toxins in the stool
• Nutrient insufficiency or deficiency; we might consume a nutrient-poor diet
• Stress
• Chronic disease state
• Not enough physical activity or restorative sleep
• There are also genetic reasons, e.g. we might have particularly slow enzyme that’s not very efficient in converting toxins into safe, compounds that can be excreted by the body.

Liver Toxicity Symptoms – what happens if I don’t detox my body?

The toxins I’ve mentioned can yes, make us feel tired and run down, however it’s not uncommon for me to see clients that become so sensitive to particular toxins and irritants that they can even develop allergies and illnesses due to chronic exposure. If we can’t process and remove toxins efficiently, they are generally stored in our fat tissue as there is no limit on the amount of fat tissue we can make should the need arise (boo! ☹). As toxins continue to build to dangerous levels, they can inflict chaos on your immunity, fertility, hormones and metabolism. In order to excrete these toxins, we need to safely convert the specific toxin to (generally) a water-soluble compound so we can safely get it out of the body through our methods of elimination such as urine, stool and sweat. Clients come to clinic with pain, a chronic illness diagnosis, out of control hormones, debilitating stress and infertility. They don’t realise the true cause of this imbalance is sometimes an accumulation of toxins in their body. My goal is to take the load off the specific organs of detoxification in the body (e.g. liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph/skin/sweat glands and the bowel) so we can live optimally and in true health as well as address the deep cellular toxins that contribute to feelings of dis-ease and ill health. Now, all of this generally doesn’t happen overnight (or in a 7 day juice cleanse), but gentle and effective detoxification can definitely provide long lasting, improvements on your health and wellbeing. Next up, I’ll go through my favourite core ingredients and detoxification products that are most importantly, safe so you can optimise your natural detoxification processes ASAP in 2019.