Whatever skin imbalance you may be dealing, with be it inflamed irritated eczema, dermatitis, rosacea, psoriasis, premature aging or acne of any grading, there are only valuable improvements to be made by treating your body to a detoxification period. If the thought of detoxifying seems overwhelming or too hard know that even a 2-week supported health retreat for your insides can make a significant difference when tailored to your specific biological needs. If you have tried a cleanse in the past such a juice or shake program and not experienced the benefits you thought you should have for your effort, it’s likely the program wasn’t suitable for your unique internal processes and didn’t support your nutritional biochemical imbalances in the way your detoxifying organs truly needed. There are however some incredible healing catalyst for cleansing approaches you have the ability to incorporate into your skin resolution plan.
What is Detoxification?
Detoxification is the process by which our organs of elimination move undesirable materials both made within the body as a byproduct of standard biochemical processes as well as toxins taken into the body from external sources such as things we eat, inhale and absorb through our skin. Skin being our largest organ of elimination unfortunately wears conditions of disharmony when the other pathways for clearance are over burdened or under functioning. Detoxification runs smoothly when our liver, kidneys, lymphatic system and intestines are operating optimally and our diet and lifestyle supports optimized detoxification of these vital organs. Detoxifying organs innately want to cleanse, it’s just that we bombard them with so much extra work on a day to day basis they just don’t actually get the chance until everything else is done. Blocks to this innate cleansing function include diets high in inflammatory foods, excess sugar and processed carbohydrate, alcohol, cigarette toxins, stress, some medication use such a pain killers and synthetic hormones like the oral contraceptive, exposure to chemical agents internally and externally, intestinal flora imbalances (bacteria, yeast, parasites etc.) and some genetic polymorphisms related to detoxification genes. These factors don’t stop detoxification they just slow it down increasing the negative burden of these compounds on our entire system and inevitably our skin.
Why Clearing Toxins from the body Supports Skin Resolution?
In a very simple sense a toxin eliminated is a toxin that can’t burden your skins healing processes and your health across all areas. A high toxic burden in general will overwhelm the skins elimination processes causing disease over time. However specific types of toxins will impact different skin conditions negatively, which is why it’s most beneficial to have a protocol tailored to your unique internal burden and the related negative health influence. This is how you make the most impact out of your focused detox timeframe. For instance in hormonal acne, melassma and rosacea we rely on the liver and intestinal cleansing functions for support in clearing elevated inflammatory hormones. Intestinal micro-biome imbalances as such a large percentage of the western world unknowingly suffer from is a huge focus area for skin detoxification and connected to different presentations of acne, dermatitis and rosacea. In allergy driven skin the body can be unburdened of excess histamine through liver detoxification pathways and the elimination of chemical and heavy metal products that cause immune dysfunction can be cleared through focused detoxification. Autoimmune dysfunction and inflammation seen in both psoriasis and rosacea are exacerbated by a high toxic burden and clearing harmful toxic compounds therefore helps to lessen the weight of this toxic load on our immune system.
How to Detoxify?
There are two ways of conducting focused detoxification for skin issues. One is to gently overtime build detoxification habits and supportive supplements into your lifestyle allowing your organs to keep up with internal cleansing requirements across time. This is ideal if you’re a very sensitive individual or don’t have a large backlog of toxic material to clear ASAP. The second way is in an intensive period running from 2 weeks to a few months if your feeling super motivated. This doesn’t need to be overwhelming and you can’t fail at it as even a small amount of cleansing is still going to be a positive reinforcement for your body to undertake healing. A supportive detoxification protocol is also something you can negotiate with a practitioner to your individual capacity at that point in time. It’s about healing and not creating physical or emotional stress for the undertaker.
Top Tips for Detoxing Habits in your Lifestyle
Drink plenty of filtered water
Ok so I know this sound super simple but proper cellular hydration is key for optimal detoxification, so if your not doing this already please do yourself this one favor. Unfiltered water is much better then not enough water but if you have the resources to consume the filtered form without the chlorine, fluoride and potential other toxins, then that would be extra amazing. At home filter jugs that aren’t too expensive are a great way to get started here.
Reduce your chemical intake burden;
This one can be implemented over time, just replace as much as possible of your personal care products to organic or low chemical content products. Cleaning products your touching or inhaling should optimally be organic or chemical free wherever possible and organic food sources will also decrease your chemical burden, the dirty dozen fresh produce list and animal products like butter, yoghurt and meats are a higher priority and if you can’t afford organic plant produce you can make a vegie soak or spray with apple cider vinegar (1 tablespoon to 1 cup of water) to remove excess pesticides.
Things you might not have heard of
Exercising near busy traffic areas increases your inhaled toxin load, so find a less traffic congested or ideally green route for cycling and running. Single use coffee cups are lined with BPA (a hormone disruptor) so keep cups are not only great for the environment but also your hormonal health. Microwaving in plastics or with plastic wrap or putting hot food into single use takeaway containers or malleable plastic containers will leach BPA into your food. Glass is just safer in this aspect. Single use water bottles also leach BPA into the water supply so try for a stainless steal or glass sidekick you love and will keep next to you always.
As you can see I’m not going to prescribe detoxification supplements as I believe this should be done on an individual case basis. Cleansing shouldn’t be a cookie cutter approach especially when wanting to improve a specific health issue and your skin issues are not super likely to improve over an indorsed product a social media models who dose not suffer from an active skin concern think is amazing. If you would like to benefit from the full value of a skin focused detoxification protocol working with a naturopath or other health professional you may feel more comfortable doing so with is your best path to a positive change.