What Is A True Detox?

You often hear about detox when someone talks about weight loss. Through hearing conversations of "experts", it is apparent that there is some confusion on this topic. First it is important to note what detoxing IS and ISN'T.....

Detoxification is the process of removing toxins from the body (basically put). Where are toxins stored you may ask?....in the fat is the most common answer and true, but there is another part to detoxing.......THE LIVER!! The liver is a our largest organ and has a hand in many digestive and endocrine functions. Liver spots are noticed with estrogen dominance. The liver breaks down hormones, decides which cholesterol becomes LDL or HDL, has a role in blood sugar stabilization, works with the gallbladder, breaks down any medications or drugs we put in our system, and is our built-in detoxifier. It is the only organ that can regrow part of itself like a lizard's tail, therefore more likely for mutation defects just because of its nature....all the more reason to take care of the liver! The liver is thought to be responsible for up to 500 separate functions, usually in combination with other systems and organs.Think of the liver as an assembly line worker. If the work load is too much....poor diet, synthetic vitamins, prescription drugs, artificial sweeteners and other chemicals, over weight, regular alcohol consumption, harboring anger or resentment issues, blood sugar issues, cholesterol imbalance, etc....the products build up and bulk up on the assembly line and the poor liver is overwhelmed!!! Another important thing to note is with as little as 10 lbs overweight, the liver can turn in to non-alcoholic fatty liver. The fat accumulates and causes inflammation and scarring to the liver.

A TRUE DETOX cleans the liver, cleans the whole body, and also cleans out FAT where TOXINS  are also stored. Good kidney function is also important to a detox. A detox IS NOT A BOWEL MOVEMENT!!!! Many weight loss systems claim that just because you are having normal bowel movements that you are detoxing. This is simply just not true. Regular bowel movements are part of healthy body function and should happen, I'm not saying that but sometimes the bowel movement is just a bowel movement.... If you aren't having regular bowel movements, that could be for a number of different reasons....lack of digestive enzymes, dehydration, the need of more good fats in your diet, etc. Increasing your consumption of fresh water is a crucial part to detoxing. Think of your body as a stream of water. The more water, the higher the rate of movement of the water. You want the toxins to move our quickly and not hang around inside you. Also the cleaner the stream gets, the more you will notice you are influenced by unhealthy foods or chemicals. A dirty stream doesn't notice an extra piece of trash, but the trash in a clean stream can't help but be noticed!

Also important to mention is while you are doing a detox, you can not be detoxing while eating a "normal" diet. If you are eating muffins and sandwiches and things that can easily be ordered in a restaurant, you are NOT DETOXING!!! To detox your whole system, you have to rid the toxins that you have and not continuously add more with every bite. There are lots of detoxification diets. Basically it's going to be lots of vegetables, half as many fruits as vegetables, no preservatives, no MSG, no pre-packaged foods, and usually no meat until day 10 or 11 or so. It's usually 21 days. Lots of diets are 21 days or so. Have you ever noticed that? The Daniel Fast and many others are 21 days. That's more than likely because research has shown that it takes 21 days to create a new habit and break an old so changing the way you eat is DEFINITELY A HABIT!

If you are interested in doing a detox or losing weight or making a positive change for you health, I encourage you to have someone on your team to help you make the most of the time you invest in your health. Find someone who is knowledgeable in the ways of clinical nutrition and has experience working with vitamins, supplements, herbs, etc. Chiropractors with nutritional emphasis make a wonderful support system and are very knowledgeable in the physiological processes of the human body. Chiropractors actually have more human science courses in their 8 years of study than medical doctors because our focus in the body is different. We don't take all of the pharmacology classes that they do so we have time to focus on the inner works of the amazing body that God made! And that's another thing to make mention of.....God made us this body. We owe it to him to take care of it and treat it as the vessel it is for us to do God's works while we are here on this Earth. When you think of it like that, it really puts things in to perspective! :)


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