There are many reasons you might be on the hunt for a detox. After the holidays or visits with old friends, you might have found that you feel terrible because of all the junk food and drinks you’ve had.
Maybe you work with toxic chemicals and so want to give your body a little boost. Maybe you can’t figure out exactly what has left you feeling so lackluster, but you’re certain a detox will help. The following will explore a few tricks that can help you detox your body as quickly as possible.
Before beginning, it’s important to note that if you’ve been poisoned or experienced extreme levels of a particular toxin, it is vital that you seek out medical attention. The following steps can, of course, help you, but they do not replace actual medical intervention.
Study Your Toxin If You Know it
If you know what specifically you’re detoxing, the process can be made a little easier because you can focus on specific compounds and what removes them emphasize that knowing what sort of toxins you’re working with and what metrics you want to measure your toxin levels by can help you determine the right course of treatment. It’s also a good idea to take your weight if you haven’t recently as this might influence what is recommended for you.
Charcoal
It has been all the rage lately for a number of reasons, but one of these reasons is detoxification. Charcoal tablets can be bought at your local drug store, and they work very quickly. It’s important to note that they work best in tandem with water, so you might be very thirsty after taking them.
Drink lots of water. It’s also important to note that charcoal is not very selective; it detoxes everything, and this includes any medications you’ve taken. If you need to be on medication for any reason, charcoal might not be your best bet.
Liver Support Foods
Detoxification is a process that happens in the liver, and as such, anything you eat that supports the liver is going to support that process. Eggs, blueberries, carrots, dark chocolate, beans, spinach, apples, brazil nuts, and cilantro are all excellent things to be eating if your liver is working overtime. Raw vegetable juice and potassium-rich foods can support your liver, as can supplement like milk thistle, dandelion root, and turmeric.
Sleep Like Crazy
Your body does most of its heavy lifting while you’re asleep; this applies to detoxification as well. Try to get more than your normal amount of sleep if you want to speed up the detox process; you need to be resting.
Lemon Water
Warm water with lemon squeezed into it is a marvelous detox combination. Not only is water necessary if your body is going to flush things out, but the lemon helps the cleanses process because of its acidic nature. If you can handle the kick, why not add some cayenne pepper into the mix? That will help things speed up a little more.
Avoid Processed Sugar
While your body is detoxing, sugary foods are going to slow the process. Avoiding processed sugar can help ensure that you’re not making it harder for your body to detox than it has to be.
Sweat It Out
Another one of your body’s fantastic methods for removing toxins in your sweat. If you have the time or energy, working up a sweat can really help aid the detoxification process. Even just jumping jacks or running around the block can help.
Lymph Massage
Your lymphatic system helps the body by supporting the immune system and filtering waste. There are massage techniques that help get the bile in this system draining as it should be.
The steps are simple, can be done at home, and feel fantastic. You might find you want to include a quick lymph massage into your weeks long after this detox period is over. Body brushing is a common way to do this, but you can also use your fingers.
The above tips should help you detoxify your body quickly. It’s important to note that some toxins like heavy metals take a long time to leave the system, and so depending on what it is you’ve encountered, the desired outcome might require a little bit of time to present itself.
It’s also important to be aware of any allergies you have, and if you begin to react to any particular detoxification whole food or product, it’s best to stop. Your body can’t detoxify itself optimally if you’ve got a ton of inflammation going on.