We live in a toxic world. Our environment just isn’t the same as it was a couple hundred years ago before the industrial revolution. Whether it’s the air we breathe, the water we drink, or even the packages that contain our food and beverages, we are ingesting contaminates at an alarming rate. Outside there are emissions from coal plants, planes, trains and automobiles, and biproducts of production leaked into our environment. Inside the average home are unnatural construction materials, cleaners, skin care products and even the drinking water has chlorine in it. In other words, it’s hard to find a toxin-free environment. Thankfully, the human body is equipped to do a certain amount of detoxification on its own, but our bodies can become overwhelmed. “If you think of our bodies as a beaker that’s becomes so full of chemicals it has a really hard time getting rid of toxins,” explains Nutritional Therapist Maxine Johnson owner of Templefit.
And sadly, it begins before birth. A study showed 200 chemicals were found in umbilical cord blood. So, children are coming into the world already toxic.”
Helping the Body Detox
While the body does have its own mechanisms to detox, there are ways that we can aid our bodies in the process. We all need to detoxify.
“The liver conjugates everything,” explains Maxine. “Everything goes through the liver and it has different pathways for different types of detoxification that it has to do. And this is simple, but the first thing a person needs to do is make sure you’re having bowel movements every day. If you aren’t going everyday then you are getting backed up!”
Another way to keep the system flushed is to drink water. Lots of water. But it’s best to get it chemical free. A water filter on household taps is an effective way to ensure that drinking water is safe. “Everyone should have a water filter of some kind,” says Maxine. “It’s easy to start with a Brita filter, and graduate to tap filters. Filters even exist for your showerhead so that you aren’t bathing in chlorine.”
Another natural detoxification method is movement.
“The body was never designed to sit for hours, the way we do now,” says Maxine. “The lymph system is the garbage disposal of the body. It doesn’t have its own peristalsis so it relies on the surrounding muscles to move, which push the lymph through and then it pushes into the bowel and dumps into exit pathways from the body. If you don’t move you end up with a stagnant lymph, problems in the spleen and a congested liver. It all starts to back up.”
Exercise doesn’t have to be complicated. Maxine encourages brisk walking with arm movement and deep breathing. This leads to another form of detoxification which is breathing and sweating. We detoxify through our lungs through respiration. Exercise and diet will also help maintain a healthy body weight as excess weight puts added stress or toxins in the body.
In addition to working up a sweat through exercise, relaxing in a sauna is beneficial. “I enjoy my infrared sauna,” says Maxine, “because you perspire but it isn’t thermal heat that makes you uncomfortably hot. I can’t sit in those, but I can sit in infrared and it feels wonderful. Infrared goes deep into the tissues and helps to alleviates arthritis and detoxifies. Other heat saunas are good too, but if those give you heart palpitations, infrared might be better.”
According to Maxine, the body is smart and knows when there are chemicals present. “If you have a yeast overgrowth in your body from too much dietary sugar, your body will use the yeast to store metals in the yeast molecules and hide them away so that the metals don’t get lodged in the organs,” she explains. “If I have a client who has metal toxicity, they will also test positive for yeast. The chemical toxins are then hidden in body fat. Consequently, someone with this may have trouble losing weight because the body doesn’t want all the stored toxins released.
There are steps one can take so that the body feels safe to release stored fat, which include sweating and exercise in conjunction with diet. “My clients have the most success when they employ all things,” explains Maxine “not just go on a diet.” I had a client who needed to get her blood sugar down. She got her diabetes under control on a keto diet. It was all vegetables, protein and fat. When her body switched from being a sugar burner to a fat burner the weight melted off of her. It was a fast weight loss. During that weight loss she broke out in a bright red rash overnight, and in about five days it disappeared. That was a reaction. It was the toxins being released and then her body taking care of them. She regularly spent an hour on the treadmill and worked up a sweat. So as long as she was sweating her body felt safe to release the toxins.”
Other ways to aid the body in detoxifying are Epsom salt baths. Epsom pulls out toxins and the body absorbs some of the minerals like magnesium.
Maxine also offers supplements like Chlorella, which is a blue green algae that latches onto heavy metals in the body and is most commonly found in supplement form. Also, Parotid PMG which helps to break down food, but also breaks down toxins. Maxine also carries beneficial homeopathic remedies that aid in detoxification.
To learn more about how to detox and how to get your diet back on track so that you can be your healthiest you, contact Maxine Johnson at Templefit and follow her on Facebook.
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