10 Simple Ways to Help Your Body Detoxify and Cleanse Itself
Toxins creep into the average routine of nearly every person, even those who you might think are far from susceptible to them. They lurk in our food, drink, air and plenty of other unsuspecting places. Our bodies will naturally work to filter out these toxins on a daily basis with the colon and liver, but it is still possible for people to feel lethargic from the toxins that are left over.
If you really want to appreciate your need for detox and to get motivated, you’d better know about the main systems and organs that your body uses to detoxify itself. These are the liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs, skin and lymphatic system, which play a major role in keeping your body clean and toxin free.
How Your Body Detoxifies Itself
1. The Liver
The liver has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion.
This organ plays a major role in metabolism and has a number of functions in the body, including filtering the blood and producing enzymes to destroy toxins that come from our food, water and the air.
The liver prepares these toxins so the body can expel them through urine or your bile. If your liver is overloaded, it slows down its function and thus contributes to toxins accumulated in your blood. A detox plan will aim to reduce your liver’s load, so it performs at its best.
Further reading: Best foods to cleanse your liver, 6 herbs to detox your liver including liver tonic recipe.
2. The Intestines
The intestines are where digested food passes through and where nutrients are absorbed. They also balance the good and bad bacteria, helping the body to digest better and produce natural antibiotics to break down toxins.
If you have an unhealthy diet, you may damage your digestive process so that the digested food remains in your gut and your body may reabsorb the toxins. A detox plan will improve your digestive process and maintain the balance between the good and bad bacteria.
Further reading: Best foods to cleanse your colon, How to effectively cleanse your colon with only 2 ingredients.
3. The Kidneys
The kidneys are essential part of the urinary system. They serve the body as a natural filter of the blood, and remove waste which is diverted to the urinary bladder. In producing urine, the kidneys excrete waste such as urea and ammonium. A detox plan will help with these processes and relieves the pressure on your kidneys.
Further reading: Best foods and herbs to cleanse your kidneys, 15 common habits that can damage your kidneys.
4. The Lungs
The lungs are the essential respiration organs in our body. Their principal function is to transport oxygen from the atmosphere into the bloodstream, and to release carbon dioxide from the bloodstream into the atmosphere.
We may breathe toxins in the air through our lungs, but the lungs are also able to expel toxins. We can breathe deeply and fully exhale to maximize the cleansing effect.
Further reading: Best foods to cleanse your lungs, Early signs of lung disease and how to strengthen your lungs.
5. The skin
Sweating is the production of fluids secreted by the sweat glands in our skin. Sweating not only allows the body to regulate its temperature, but also provides detoxification by expelling toxins through sweat. A detox program will help in the long term to achieve a healthy glowing skin.
Further reading: 5 easy ways to naturally detox your skin, How to use clay for body detox and great skin.
6. The lymphatic system
The lymph is the fluid that circulates throughout the lymphatic system and is part of our immune system. The lymph contains white blood cells that pick up bacteria or other toxins from the body’s cells and bring them to lymph nodes where they are destroyed.
The lymph moves around the body by breathing and muscle contraction, so breathing and mild exercise help it to work better.
Further reading: Top 10 natural ways to cleanse your lymphatic system.
10 Simple Ways to Help Your Body Detoxify Itself
There are plenty of ways to pitch in with the detoxification process. Try tweaking your routine with a few of the following daily habits to detox every day.
1. Drink Water (including Lemon Water)
You’ll find that consuming liquids is going to play a big role in your daily detox. This is because the liquids not only help transport vitamins and minerals throughout the body, but also flush the toxins through the organs more efficiently.
Water is by far one of the most important daily habits for it. Apart from being the main component of the human body, it also works with the kidneys to strain out foreign toxins in the body. It can keep taxing health problems like kidney stones away and is probably the easiest habit on this list. Try to get between 8 to 10 tall glasses of water in between each meal daily.
Warm lemon water is a simple and tasty way to add body cleansing properties to your routine with nutritional incentives. Try slicing a lemon into warm water. The lemon juice will aid in removing toxins from the body and also alleviate digestive problems, nausea and heartburn. There is also evidence suggesting that sour foods play a big role in removing toxins to metabolize fat.
Further reading: Health benefits of lemon water.
2. Detox Tea
Building on the idea of hot beverages, there are many types of detox teas that are easy to make. including certain types of teas into a detox routine can nurture your liver to a cleaner state. Milk thistle, dandelion, burdock and artichoke teas are some of the best options.
You can even combine your teas with the above-mentioned lemon water for twice the detox power.
Further reading: Herbal infusions to cleanse your body.
If you are interested in natural and herbal remedies, you can find more useful information in my e-book The Herbal Remedies Guide which will teach you how to treat common ailments using herbs.
3. Detoxifying Foods
Try to tweak your shopping list with special food that is rich in detoxing properties.
- Fruits are great because of their antioxidants, vitamins and high liquid content.
- Try green vegetables that are loaded with chlorophyll such as kale, spinach, arugula and alfalfa.
- Citrus fruits, like lemons, oranges and limes, as well as berries are rich in vitamins C.
- Seeds and nuts hardly ever contain contaminants and are a great source of protein and healthy fat.
- Foods with Omega-3 oils such as fish, avocado and flax seed will make the digestive process smoother, leading to a purified body.
Further reading: If you are interested in detoxifying your body, you can find more useful information in my e-book The Detox Guide which will teach you how to use detox to cleanse and energize your body naturally and safely.
4. Eat Clean
This is a simple and obvious step that might be a bit harder than you think. After all, the most effective defensive strategy is avoiding the enemy altogether. Most people have a difficult time maintaining a diet that isn’t saturated with the convenience of processed foods. If you go organic and stay mindful of your food intake, you could significantly reduce the toxin levels needing to be flushed.
Further reading: Top 10 worst ingredients in food, 15 fruits & veges with the most pesticides to avoid pesticide exposure while still maintaining a healthy diet.
5. Detox Bath
Bath time can be useful for more than just a relaxing unwind from stress at the end of a long day. Under the right conditions with optimal ingredients mixed in, you could detox your body simply by laying in a warm tub.
When filling the bath, some people mix in Epsom salt, baking soda and ground ginger (a pivotal sweat inducing ingredient) to give the water minerals for the body to absorb while it’s also expelling the toxins through sweat. You can find more details in my article how to make 5 cleansing and rejuvenating detox baths.
Further reading: The most extraordinary uses for Epsom.
6. Get Your Fiber
If you haven’t already outfitted your dietary routine with a sufficient amount of fiber, it’s a worthwhile task. There are plenty of health benefits that come from fiber, including prevention of cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Fiber-rich foods like fruits, nuts, legumes and whole-wheat products will help flush your body, just ease into consuming them if you already have a low-fiber diet to avoid confusing your body.
Further reading: Increasing your fiber intake is also one of the 70 habits featured in my e-book 70 Powerful Habits For A Great Health which will guide you how to take positive steps to improve your wellness and overall health.
7. Deep Breathing
When we breath, we usually use only the upper parts of our lungs (shallow breathing), but if we also use the lower parts of the lungs, we enable oxygen to circulate properly to our tissues. It brings with it nutrients and removes the waste away.
Deep breathing also stimulates the lymphatic system which helps the body get rid of toxins and brings a sense of relaxation. If your abdomen moves, then you deep breathing, but if only the area below your rib cage is moving, then you are shallow breathing. Try to adopt deep breathing in normal life and try to change your breathing habits for the better.
8. Detox Your Mind
Health experts have long praised meditation for its beneficial mental health properties. There is also research that suggests it can help with physical ailments such as cancer, asthma, high blood pressure, sleep problems and heart disease.
Less stress in your life means less toxins and anxiety holding you back from your full potential.
Start small with five to ten minute relaxation sessions and build your way up to a comfortable meditative state. You can find here 7 simple and effective meditation techniques to reduce stress (without actually sitting down to meditate). Meditation is an excellent way to relieve stress and improve your health while giving yourself a sense of control and well-being.
9. Get a Good, Intense Massage
It may seem like a strict luxury, but massages are a great form of physical therapy that will help your health in several ways. Pinpointing certain pressure points where toxins build up can prompt their release if done correctly.
You can also do a lymph drainage massage which is type of massage that stimulates lymph circulation and drains fat, fluids, toxins and other waste products away from your cells. Add essential oils to the massage – the aromas also affect the emotional center of the brain which is responsible to the way we feel.
Further reading: If you are interested to learn more about essential oils you can find useful information in my e-book Magical Aromatherapy. This e-book will help you to discover the power of essential oils and the most effective ways to use them.
10. Get More Exercise
Go for a daily walk, walk to work, do a leisurely bike ride, or anything else that will get your internal systems warmed up and primed for eliminating toxins. More intense workouts will do better, however, allowing your body to release sweat and firing up the circulation .
Related articles: