To Detox or Not To Detox...

New Year - New You!!! We’ve all seen the ads telling us that after indulging all festive season we’ve accumulated all sorts of rubbish in our bodies and need to detox hard this new year. Feel and look younger, and even get rid of that stubborn belly fat! A program of expensive supplements are then touted as the fastest and most effective way to finally look and feel the way you’ve always wanted... So is it that easy? Is there a better way? Do we even need to “detox” at all? Here’s my take on the subject...

What do I mean by 'Detox'?

It’s important to differentiate between your body’s natural processes of detoxification, and the supplements, programs & plans being sold as detox products. I have often heard something along the lines of “detoxing is a sham, because your body already detoxes itself”. Although I enjoy some healthy cynicism when it comes to buying into health products, I find this perspective a little too binary for my liking. As so often is the case, the reality is nuanced; it is definitely true that your body is what does the actual detoxing, but there are things that we can do to either help or hinder the process – although a 10 day supplement program might not be the best solution.

What exactly is it that needs detoxing?

Some examples of substances that can cause inflammation and damage to your body if not filtered out are: carbon dioxide, urea, excess salts, metabolic waste products such as ammonia, heavy metals, synthetic chemicals, and parts of processed foods. While these things can accumulate over time, it’s unlikely you’ve significantly increased the load over the summer period - but excess consumption of alcohol, food, sugar, and limited exercise could slow down the body’s processes of elimination. When your body is working well - assuming you’re not being exposed to excessive amounts of harmful substances - it should be capable of eliminating the toxins you take in without the aid of detox products.

How does the body expel these wastes?

The Liver is the primary organ for transforming toxins into waste products to be removed. Kidneys filter and excrete waste products and excess fluid from the body. The skin excretes excess salts, urea etc through sweat. You exhale carbon dioxide, other gases and water vapour via the lungs, and the intestines also do some filtering and excreting of parasites and foreign substances.

Are detox programs and products useful or necessary?

Scientific reviews say there is very little evidence to indicate that they are. It’s a broad subject to study as there are many different approaches, and they often fail to specifically prove which toxins are being dealt to and how. As is the case with many diet programs, unless you are creating sustainable change and improving your health habits long term – any positive result is likely to be short-lived. The detoxification process is not a fad that you need to sign up for from time to time; it is constantly going on in your body to some degree. Your diet, lifestyle and environment can contribute to the level of toxic substances that make it into your body, as well as the efficiency of your system to remove these substances.

So what should you do if you're still feeling heavy and sluggish after the summer break?

You might be confusing toxic overload with simply not treating your body the way it needs to be treated to feel energised. Good news – there are ways to support your body’s eliminative functions, as well as give your body what it needs to thrive – and the best way to do it is with a holistic and sustainable approach.

It may not be as flashy as a juice fast, but a good old fashioned routine of healthy balanced eating, drinking enough water, sleep, exercise and stress reduction is the most tried and true way to support your body’s detoxification systems. Just do it properly – be honest with yourself about how much sugar you’re eating or wine you’re drinking, and cut these habits significantly enough, for long enough, to really impact how you feel.

I suggest you use this basic approach, and if you feel like a short, more intense reset would be helpful to get you off to a good start then you could try adding some short term changes on top of your long term improvements. An example might be having two weeks without coffee before settling in to just having one per day. Or take a month off alcohol before settling in to having one drink on a Friday & Saturday.

Others might find it easier to slowly build up to their new, balanced way of living. For example each week implementing a new improvement; week 1: walk every day, week 2: remove refined sugars, week 3: increase vegetable intake etc etc...

How can I help?

As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, massage and acupuncture can both be very effective with getting your body into the ‘rest & digest’ mode of your nervous system; where detoxification can proceed more easily while your body is less focussed on dealing with stressors that trigger ‘fight or flight’ mode.

Massage and acupuncture can stimulate circulation of blood and lymphatic fluid, and an acupuncture treatment can even be tailored to specifically stimulate the organs involved in detoxification, and personalised to treat your individual symptoms such as sluggish digestion, chronic headaches, brain fog etc. At the more extreme end of the spectrum acupuncture has been shown to be an effective complimentary therapy for patients with liver disease such as cirrhosis.

In conclusion

Don’t beat yourself up over a few kilos gained while you’ve been enjoying our much-deserved Wellington summer! It’s the healthy habits that you maintain most of the time that will keep your body in a good state – not yoyo-ing from indulgence to abstinence. Create a sustainable routine for yourself where prioritising your health and wellbeing is front and centre, because feeling good doesn’t have to be extreme or expensive – but the benefits will seep into every other aspect of your life. Cheers to that!