It’s really important when detoxing in any way to support the body as much as possible.  Failure to do this could mean you absorbing many of the toxins you have released during a detox back into the body again.  Quick-fix detoxes generally allow this to happen.  If your body couldn’t process these toxins the first time round, what makes you think that it will be able to the second time round when you release these along with  many other additional toxins whilst doing a detox?  As such supporting the body in anyway possible is essential.  This is especially so for the liver, lymphatic and digestive systems as these are fundamental to the permanent removal of toxins from you body.

Below is a list of my top 21 tips for doing so:

1. Reduce the toxic load of your food.  Replace processed sugars and white foods (like bread, flour and rice) with wholemeal versions and stay clear of sweeteners, diet foods and drinks, as well as caffeine and alcohol.
2. Reduce the use of toxins in your home and on your body.  Your body absorbs a lot of the toxins from its environment, so replace these with natural alternatives or make your own.
3. Drink plenty of water (at least 2 – 3 litres every day and more if exercising).  Make sure you drink from a non-plastic, or at least BPA free plastic container.  This will help your lymphatic system eliminate toxins.  Preferably drink at least a litre of this as soon as you wake up and before doing anything else with you day.
4. Exercise regularly.  This doesn’t need to be high impact – just a minimum of 20 minutes four times a week.  This helps the body sweat out toxins.
5. Increase your intake of probiotic foods and drinks.  By this I mean fermented (not pickled) vegetables and drinks like kefir and kombucha as these are an amazing sources of many billions of different probiotics bacteria.  These will help the body eliminate toxins and balance good and bad bacteria and yeasts within the gut.  Failing this, then take a really good quality, multi-strain probiotic supplement instead (one with many billions of multi strain good bacteria in).
6. Drinking herbal teas and using herbal remedies such as burdock, parsley, peppermint, turmeric, black walnut, elderberry, dandelion, nettle, liverwort, wormwood, charcoal and milk thistle all help the body to detox and support the liver through the detoxification process.  The more bitter, the better.
7. Increase your consumption of magnesium rich foods (leafy greens, nut, seeds, beans, lentils, fish, avocados, figs, bananas and whole grains).  Try to also have as many Epsom salt baths as possible.  Epsom salts are high in magnesium and help to draw out toxins (as well as general aches and pains, so they are great after exercising etc) from the body.  Try to relax in the bath for a minimum of 20 minutes if you can as this will have an optimum affect.
8. Consider regular massage, reflexology, saunas, steam rooms or any other detoxifying therapies. These therapies stimulate the lymphatic’s, helping them to eliminate toxins through sweating and other means.
9. Take up body brushing.  You can either use a long handled brush or just your own hands and general brush your body in the direction of the chest.  Make sure, especially with women you brush up the sides of the breasts, where we store a lot of toxins (these may become tender once you start shifting toxins but keep going as that’s a good sign and they will clear up). This will also stimulate the lymphatics and remove blockages, helping them to work more effectively at removing toxins from the body.
10. Don’t skip meals.  Eating regularly means the body works more effectively and when this happens you eliminate toxins better.  It also means that your blood sugar levels shouldn’t get so low that you feel the need to snack on something naughty!  And remember to include plenty colourful fruit, vegetables, seeds and nuts into your regular meals.
11. Make sure you are having your having at least one bowel movement a day.  Bowel movements are one of the body’s main ways to remove toxins from it.  If you’re not having at least one bowel movement a day then you are likely holding on to a lot of the toxins from your food.  This will be mean you will be absorbing these toxins back into the body instead of them being removed from the body during normal bodily functions like this.  If your not having regular bowel movements then try eating more fibre, drinking more water and take up body brushing and rebounding.
12. Daily rebounding (jumping on a mini trampoline), as this helps stimulate the lymphatic’s, which will help remove toxins from your system.
13. Try not using antiperspirants.  These products impair the body’s ability to eliminate toxins in the normal way, through sweat. I know some people worry about body odour, so they still use antiperspirant products. If nothing else, try to cut them out at home to allow your body to sweat normally.  If the toxins can’t get out they will end up stored in the body.  There are a lot of great natural products on the market (my favourite is PitRock, a salt stone deodorant).  Once your body has eliminated the build-up of toxins and you have lowered your toxic intake you won’t need a deodorant as you won’t smell when you sweat, as the smell is toxins leaving the body.  That’s why people smell worse after a drinking session, a takeaway or when on medication.
14. Get a minimum of eight hours sleep a night, out body’s do a lot of their detoxing work during our sleeping hours, so it’s important to give it the time to do this.
15. When eating meat and dairy always try to opt for the organic versions of these so you will be absorbing less toxins through your food then.
16. If you don’t understand the label then don’t eat it, strange words etc on labels more often than not means chemicals, so avoid eating these sorts of foods where possible as they will only add to your toxic load.
17. Look into the symptoms of a yeast imbalance within the gut. It’s believed with the way we live our lives these days that up to 70% of us have this issue.  Whilst the bad yeasts grow and get out of balance within the body they produce toxins that the body has to try to eliminate (on top of all the other stuff).  This can make us feel pretty lousy.  It’s fairly simple to bring the good and bad yeasts back into balance with a change of diet, an introduction of some natural anti-fungal foods and increasing our consumption of fermented/probiotic foods and drinks (mentioned within a later chapter of this book).
18. Breathe deeply, fully into the lungs, stomach and back and with purpose, as many times in the day as you remember. As mentioned in one of the previous chapters this will help the body remove toxins from the respiratory system and allow the rest of the body to get the energy and oxygen it requires to do its job effectively.
19. Try to incorporate yoga, pilates, tai chi, qi-gong or meditation to your daily life.  These will help support and strengthen body and mind for detoxing and much more.
20. Swap your normal fluoride toothpastes and mouthwashes for more natural non fluoride versions.  And consider having mercury filling removed by someone who specialises in this process.
21. And last but by no means least, reduce your stress levels!  This leads to an over production of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.  When this happens many of the normal functions of the body become impaired and this can mean that not only are you not eliminating toxins, but your also then storing these additional hormones.  Also when you’re stressed you tend not to eat well, exercise and generally look after yourself as you should.

Watch this space for: Top Tips for detoxing the Mind and Top Tips for Detoxing your Home.

Here’s some other detoxing pages you might be interested in:

25 Ways to Detox From Heavy Metals etc, click here.

10 Ways to Detoxifying the Body, click here.

28 Simple & Natural Ways to Detox your Body, click here.

Foods that will Naturally Detox you, click here.

How do you detox?