Reading time: 6 minutes
Detoxification, or detox, is the process of removing toxins from the body. The detoxification of the body appears to be an essential process in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Before we go any further, keep in mind that sleep is a powerful detoxifier for our bodies and brains, but we will be discussing two other things.The human body has organs that are built to remove toxins, like the liver, kidneys, intestines, and lungs They always perform an excellent job. External processes cannot take over their functions and produce results that are even half as good as theirs.
However, we can help our bodies to remove the accumulated toxins by giving the organs of detoxification some rest, so to say. Because these organs are always busy working to remove all toxins from your body, you can help them greatly by giving them two tools to work with – water and exercise.
Dangerous Ways To Detox
The idea that you can detox your body of the toxins it gathers over months and years by processes such as colon cleanse and nasal cleanse is dubious. For centuries, there have been a plethora of such ineffective ideas on detox by water.
By the way, colon cleanse is pumping water into your large gut via your aboral end, and allowing it to drain out with the fecal matter.
The idea of nasal cleanse to clean nasal passages of accumulated mucus, allergens as pollen, viruses, and bacteria, has existed for around 5,000 years. The earliest mention is in the Indian Ayurveda, as jala-neti.
Nasal cleanse or nasal irrigation has found its way to the West as tiny teapots, called neti-pots, with long swan-like necks to help the process. The process is essentially pouring clean saline water from these pots is into one nostril and draining it out from the other.
But what you may not know about it is the severe harm it might do to you.
There has been at least one documented case of a dangerous brain infection caused by nasal lavage. A 69-year-old lady, who went to the doctors for a nasal skin rash and seizures, could not be saved from the fatal Balamuthia mandrillaris amoeba that found its way to her brain.
2 Best Ways To Detox Your Body
Your body can detoxify itself. In fact, it’s doing it every second you’re alive and letting you carry on living on this beautiful earth. The best way you can help your body detox is to supply it with two vital things—exercise and water.
1. Detox By Water
There are a lot of different ways to detox your body, but drinking water is one of the easiest and cheapest.
Water is an essential part of our bodies and our lives. So it’s not surprising that water can be a highly effective way to detoxify our bodies for a healthier way of living.
The human body does not function properly without enough water. Dehydration can lead to many health problems such as headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. Drinking more water than required can also help you lose weight and reduce the risk of kidney stones.
Drinking water is a natural and inexpensive way to detoxify your body. We can detoxify our bodies by drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day. Water also helps the digestive system and the cleansing of toxins in the kidneys and liver.
It is recommended to drink 2 liters of water a day for detoxification purposes. Water helps with hydration and flushing out toxins from the body for healthier organs which in turn, makes it easier to lose weight or maintain current weight.
The detoxification process can involve eliminating toxins from the body or water fasting. It means having only water for a fixed number of days (usually 1 to 7 days). It seems to work since fasting stops any toxin to enter the body via food, while water can effectively flush out the harmful toxins and chemicals already present in the body.
Do water fasting once in three to six months.
2. Detox By Exercise
Exercise cleanses your body of toxins. Exercise not only has a positive physical effect on your body but has significant beneficial effects on mental health as well.
Physical activity has a positive effect on people’s mental health and well-being. Exercise improves the levels of fatigue, self-esteem, self-image, and quality of life – as scientific studies have shown.
Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet have found exercise causes important changes in skeletal muscles. These changes help to purge the blood of substances harmful to the brain which build up during stress.
Dr. Jorge Ruas, who led the study, said:
Our initial research hypothesis was that trained muscle would produce a substance with beneficial effects on the brain. We actually found the opposite: well-trained muscle produces an enzyme that purges the body of harmful substances.
Another study in the field of exercise and happiness revealed how exercise helps the body remove toxic substances linked to stress-related depression.
The research was published in the scientific journal Cell. The paper writes (warning: scientific jargon ahead; you may skip it safely):
Here, we describe a mechanism by which skeletal muscle PGC-1α1 induced by exercise training changes kynurenine metabolism and protects from stress-induced depression. Activation of the PGC-1α1-PPARα/δ pathway increases skeletal muscle expression of kynurenine aminotransferases, thus enhancing the conversion of kynurenine into kynurenic acid, a metabolite unable to cross the blood-brain barrier. Reducing plasma kynurenine protects the brain from stress-induced changes associated with depression and renders skeletal muscle-specific PGC-1α1 transgenic mice resistant to depression induced by chronic mild stress or direct kynurenine administration.
Do it for 30 minutes every day, or at least five days a week.
Final Words
Water and exercise are the two best ways in which you can detoxify your body naturally at home. Putting in some extra time to detoxify your body could be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made for your health and lifestyle.
• • •
Author Bio: Written and reviewed by Sandip Roy—a medical doctor, psychology writer, and happiness researcher. Founder and Chief Editor of The Happiness Blog. Writes on mental health, happiness, positive psychology, and philosophy (especially Stoicism)
√ If you enjoyed this, please share it on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn.