There are a lot of diets and products out there right now that claim that they can help you “detox” your body, but what exactly does that mean? The idea behind a detox is that you’re minimizing the toxins going into your body, giving your liver some breathing room in order to process those toxins effectively. The toxins in your body are absorbed into the lymphatic system, kidneys, and blood to be eliminated altogether.

Your Liver: A Built-In Source for Detoxing

It’s entirely possible that you can detox without the use of a special “detox diet.” You’re technically detoxing right now as you sit here and read this article. Your liver can filter out all the toxins from your body by converting them into waste, cleansing your blood, and metabolizing nutrients and vitamins to give your body necessary proteins.

Due to the amount of toxins, chemicals, additives, stress, and hormonal byproducts that our livers have to deal with, it is important to support your liver for it to function optimally. This means ensuring drainage pathways are open to eliminate the toxic waste. Many of us suffer from congested livers and blocked drainage pathways, which leads to a variety of symptoms and impaired health.

Working with an integrative health practitioner to open your drainage pathways and promote greater, more effective liver detoxification is a smart step towards improving your health and addressing root causation. An integrative health practitioner will educate you in this area so you can implement the protocols to regain your liver health and prevent further liver congestion or break down.

Tips on How to Protect Yourself From Liver Disease

There are several ways you protect yourself from liver disease, ensuring that your body will continue to detox itself:

Don’t go crazy with alcohol - Men shouldn’t have over 3 drinks a day and women shouldn’t have over 2 drinks a day.

Avoid weight gain - Avoiding sugar and maintaining a body mass index between 18 and 25 by eating healthy and exercising can prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Obesity can lead to fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver.

Avoid risky behaviors - Engaging in illicit drug use and having unprotected sex with multiple partners can lead to getting viral hepatitis.

Know your risk factors - Get screened if you have a family history of liver disease or partake in excessive alcohol use.

Liver detox - Liver and gallbladder flushes and coffee enemas have been used for centuries to cleanse the liver and prevent disease.

The Most Common Ways to Detox

There are different options for how to go about a detox diet that range in duration and intensity. While a lot of these are effective, not all of them are the safest way to detox your body.

Some of the most common methods of detoxing include:

• Fasting for 1 to 3 days
• Drinking liquids such as smoothies, juices, water, and tea
• Drinking solely a specific liquid such as salted water or lemon juice
• Eliminating heavy metals, contaminants and allergens from your diet
• Taking supplements or herbs
• Avoiding allergenic foods and then slowly adding them back to your diet
• Using enemas, colon cleanses, or laxatives
• Eliminating things from your diet such as coffee, alcohol, sugar, or cigarettes

 

How to Detox in a Safe Way

Some detox methods mentioned above are not the safest or best way to detox your body. Some of them can be flat out dangerous and not recommended. There are a few different, and much healthier, things you can do in order to detox your body without causing yourself harm. These include:

Cutting back on alcohol. Alcohol actually slows your body down from being able to process toxins.

Cutting back on processed foods and sugars. These can mess with your metabolism and make it harder for your body to detoxify.

Eating foods that are rich in antioxidants. These can offset free radical damage that causes oxidative stress to your body. Free radicals are unstable atoms that damage cells, resulting in aging and various illnesses. Oxidative stress is a factor in several diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and eye diseases.

Taking prebiotics. Probiotics provide fuel for healthy bacteria for your gut to help process food through your body.

Drink healthy fluids such as water, lemon water, and detoxifying herbal teas. Hydrating helps your kidneys flush out toxins.

Sweating from saunas or exercise, not only helps get toxins out of your body, but it helps promote healthy circulation throughout your body.

Exfoliation and dry brushing promote circulation and new cell growth.

Getting adequate sleep is the key to maintaining good health and ensuring proper detoxification.