Cleanse and Detox Your Body the Natural Way

If you really thought about it—and read about it—and looked at all of the studies that have been done about it—you would probably never want to leave the house.  What is this “it,” you might be asking?  For the purposes of this article, “it” is the amount of toxic pollutants that we encounter every single day.  Actually, when you consider that quite a few of the toxins are hanging out inside your home along with you, I’m not sure that staying home is such a good option.  Maybe living atop a high mountain breathing in pure air and drinking purified water might do the trick, but staying inside amongst the barrage of household chemicals is not as healthy as you might think.

“Oh come on Dr. Loes,” some of you might be saying.  “My life is not that filled with toxins.  After all,
I don’t smoke, I avoid spraying my garden with anything other than a hose, and I just got my mercury fillings removed last year!”

At the risk of sounding a tad snarky, or perhaps even curmudgeonly, I generally reply with two words to gentle patients and readers like the one above: wanna bet?

Think about it.  You might not smoke (and I certainly hope you don’t), but the person next to you at the restaurant yesterday does, and her smoke floated your way during your entire meal.  You might keep your garden pesticide free, but do the farmers who sell their produce to your grocers?  Mercury and porcelain fillings notwithstanding, we breathe in and absorb car exhaust, chemicals, cleaning solutions, heavy metals and other pollutants every single day. 

In addition, our bodies are under constant siege from bacterial toxins, and I’m a firm believer that negative mental and emotional thoughts can be toxic too.  Like I said, just thinking about the number of toxins we encounter all day from all sources is enough to give even the sturdiest person a serious case of the creeps.

Since retreating to that mountain top is not really an option for most of us (not to mention the lack of enough mountain tops to go around for everyone), we need to look for other options to help keep our bodies as toxin-free as possible.  And as is often (or in my humble opinion, always) the case, natural remedies can help us out immensely.

For example, the chelated forms of minerals like zinc, copper, and manganese may all help keep our bodies free of toxins as can selenium.  Whether working as antioxidants and keeping free radicals to a minimum (toxins help produce free radicals by the way), or helping to boost the immune system, this quartet of minerals is a good place to start when looking to naturally detoxify the body.

A supplement called sodium alginate has been linked to helping remove heavy metals from the system, as does chlorella.  Bladderwrack, an herb that is rich in iodine, has been found to stop radioactive bi-products from getting into our bodies and being absorbed.

Methylsulfonylmethane, or MSM, aids in the creation of the amino acids called methionine and cysteine, which in turn may help to cleanse the system.  The herbs beet root, red clover, dandelion root and Oregon grape root may all help purify the blood, and may also help stimulate the immune system and/or detoxify the liver.

Finally, milk thistle extract has been the focus of many studies which have shown how this herb can protect our livers by both detoxifying and cleansing.  It may even help produce new liver cells.  For any of my patients who wish to work on detoxifying their bodies, milk thistle is an absolute must.

Do you want to know the cold, hard facts of life, at least when it comes to toxins?  Try as you must, you just cannot live a normal life and avoid all toxins.  Even the healthy activities we need to pursue, like regular exercise, involve ingesting some toxins (like when you walk your dog for a mile or two and the cars and garbage trucks pass you by).  So what is my advice to you then, as a doctor?  Live your life!  Get out and enjoy it!  Go out to eat, but just stay as far away from the smokers as possible!  Walk your dog and do the best that you can.  Try to get adequate, restful sleep therapy—this can also help a lot. And to insure that your best will be even better, try this combination of natural ingredients.  When taken on a regular basis, it will be as if your system is getting a cleansing shower on the inside, which in turn should lead to salubrity, or the state of enviable health shining through clearly on the outside.

Click here for more information on my Detoxification Formula