Easy remedies for detoxification (we all need it)

Regular detoxification supports health system-wide

This post is updated from its original.

We all know that heavy metals, fossil fuels, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and other modern toxins are causing unprecedented levels of pollution worldwide. Unfortunately, that pollution seeps into our bodies from foods, water, air, and other exposures; making us more susceptible to chronic conditions like Lyme disease, mold toxicity, autoimmune dysfunction, mental illness, chemical sensitivities, and even cancer. At some point perhaps conventional medicine will notice the link between toxicity and modern illnesses and begin to investigate. For now, however, it seems it’s up to us.

Those of us on a healing path have a serious personal investment in cleaning up our environment: choosing less plastic, buying from sustainable companies, feeding our families organic and local, and electing people who care. We also need to tackle our own internal detoxification.

Regular detox practices can benefit anyone looking to live a long and healthy life – get after it while you still feel great! (I wish I had started pre-Lyme disease.) Here are some of my favorite inexpensive tools to keep your insides clean and clear.

Visualization to boost your liver and kidney function

Visualizing your organ systems healthy and thriving is a powerful healing tool, and it’s free! Your liver and kidneys want to do their job of cleansing toxicity.

It may sound odd, but the liver and kidneys love to be noticed. They enliven when you visualize them; when you send them healing images and mojo. I feel this every time I put my hands on a client’s liver or kidneys, and ask them to tune in. It’s not a power most people know they have, but we all have it.

Try putting your hands over your liver, on the right side of your body under your ribcage. (Look up a photo if that helps.) Imagine your liver like a large, gentle sea creature living in your middle, floating, with its own intelligence. It never stops working for you. Breathe into it. Warm it. Imagine it scooping up any substances that don’t serve your health and burning them away. Send it some gratitude for its hard work.

Bodyworkers specializing in organ systems can help you feel this. So can guided visualizations. The Detoxification meditation on this site enlivens your liver and kidneys, building your awareness of those powerful systems and moving them toward healthy function.

Daily exercise (even gentle) moves they lymphatic fluid

The lymphatic system is another powerful tool for detoxification. Within your lymph, specialized cells break down toxins (as well as viruses and bacteria), and flush them away through the liver and kidneys.

Keeping your lymph moving is vital, but the lymphatic system doesn’t have its own pump. The only way the fluid moves is through exercise. Luckily, even really gentle exercise does the trick. If a daily walk or swim isn’t in the cards, yoga can move the lymph, especially poses that get your feet up over your head and reverse gravity’s typical pull.

Try lying on your back with your legs extended up a wall. If your hamstrings won’t quite agree to this, it’s fine to bend your knees a bit. Just resting in this position helps move lymph from the feet toward the heart, flushing toxins along with it.

Sweating

Your skin is your largest and most effective detoxification organ. Sweating is a powerful way to clear toxins, and it takes the load off your liver, kidneys, and lymphatic systems.

Some of us can head out for a run and bust a good sweat, and some of us can’t. For those who need a more gentle approach, meditative time in the sauna or in an Epsom salt bath can do the trick quite effectively.

There is loads of evidence that regular time in the sauna leads to greater longevity and better overall health, which I imagine is due to its powerful ability to detoxify. If you don’t have access to a sauna, a soak in Epsom salts will get you sweating and releasing toxins as well.

Foods that help with detox

Chlorella and cilantro are terrific foods for detoxification, often used together. Chlorella binds to lead, mercury, and other metals, which are then excreted. (If the whole herb bothers your stomach, you can get it in tincture form.) Cilantro is not a good binder, but it does move heavy metals and other toxins out of their hiding places in tissue and into the gut. If you’re using chlorella, it’ll bind to the toxins there and move them along.

If you don’t use chlorella, you need another binder, or you risk reabsorbing the toxins set free by cilantro. There are a billion charcoal and clay detox supplements on the market, all of which bind toxins. (Make sure you choose a reliable source.) Unlike chlorella, charcoals and clays will typically bind to everything, including drugs and vitamins. Take them at least an hour away from your other supplements. (Unless you are having a bad reaction to one – in this case charcoal or clay may strip it from your body and speed your recovery, just like they do with food poisoning.)

To wrap!

Creating regular practices that encourage detoxification is an important part of vibrant health and longevity in our modern world. If there were more education around healthy ways to detox, we’d have less risk for chronic “mystery” illnesses. It’s not expensive or difficult to support your liver and kidneys, your lymphatic system, and your skin in doing what they do so well every day – clear your system of toxins so you can live wild and free. A little self-care goes a long way.

Thank you so much for reading! Your body is a river in flow,

Shona