Healthy skin CLEANSE
Bad skin, food allergies, poor elimination, low energy levels...
these are many of the symptoms that are signs of toxicity in your body and tell you that it may be a good time to start cleansing.
Internal cleansing is a natural detoxifying process that is going to help your body to cleanse through its channels of elimination. Usually it comes in the form of an herbal cleanse kit, a tea cleanse or a homeopathic detox.
A cleanse contains herbs or homeopathic remedies to support and enhance the normal cleansing functions of your emunctories, which are the organs that enable accumulated toxins to be eliminated. Our body has five emunctories: the liver, the intestines, the kidneys, the lungs, and the skin, our largest organ.
Please ask a licensed health care practitioner to help you select and monitor your cleansing program. A cleanse can be quite aggressive for your system; they should not be done if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. If you experience any unusual or severe symptoms when you are cleansing, be sure to contact your practitioner.
Why would a cleanse help with my skin?
Problems of digestion can lead to toxic build-up and one of the organs that suffers from it is your skin. Poor digestion might be the reason for a lack of absorption of vital nutrients needed for an healthy skin. That is why it is very important for your skin to purify through a cleansing process.
Organs are linked together and if one doesn't work properly, it may have an impact on the other ones. When you are not eliminating properly, wastes may not be expelled for days, toxins back up in your colon, which can cause auto-intoxification. These toxins eventually seep into every cell and tissue, especially into the weaker parts of you body, which could be your skin.
How to choose between all of theese cleanses on the market?
Start with a gentle cleanse to see how your body reacts to herbal cleansing and to prepare the body for a deeper cleanse. If you are sensitive to cleansing, you may do a gentle cleanse from two to twelve days.
A homeopathic detox is a gentle way to stimulate your body's natural drainage process and allow autoregulation and elimination of toxins. For poor circulation or cellulite for example, you could think of draining your lymphatic system through a homeopathic detox.
If you want to do a more advanced cleanse, there are some programs that also last up to one month. Different ingredients are commonly used in cleansing products. To mention a few:
- Fibre sources (psyllium, triphala, flax seeds, borage seeds) or magnesium hydroxide to improve bowel function
- Burdock root to detoxify the lymphatic system
- Artichoke, dandelion roots, or milk thistle to support liver function
- Juniper berries, uva ursi, to cleanse the kidneys
- N-Acetylcysteine (NAC), glutathione, calcium-D Glucarate, to neutralize free radical damage
To focus on your skin problem, it might be a good idea to do a liver cleanse, as skin problems might be linked to a liver dysfunction. our liver filters blood to remove toxins and excess hormones. Without the liver's detoxifying process, toxic fats can lodge in the cells and can contribute to skin conditions.
However, a cleanse that focuses on only one aspect of detoxification can potentially lead to health problems. It is very important to open all the pathways of elimination first through a general cleanse, and then think of targeting one organ, such as the liver, if needed.
Can I still cleanse without buying any of these detox programs?
Herbal or homeopathic cleanses are ideal to do two to four times a year, especially at the change of the seasons, because they really stimulate your body to drain. However if you don't have the money, there are still some other ways to detoxify your body.
Tea cleanses are less expensive. They are usually quite mild and well tolerated by the body.
Certain types of foods also possess powerful cleansing properties. They are good foods to include in your cleansing diet unless you have food sensitivities to any of them.
- Dandelion greens (liver tonic, blood purifier)
- Ginger (promotes excretion of toxins, combats inflammation)
- Garlic, legumes, onions, eggs (high sulphur content)
- Apples (water soluble fiber, blood purifier, increases lymphatic action)
- Pears (water soluble fibre)
- Lemons (alkalizes the blood!, stimulates liver function)
- Grapes (antioxidant, stimulates liver, bowel, kidney function)
- Artichoke (stimulates the liver, metabolizes fats)
- Beets (blood purifier, liver cleanser, stimulates lymphatic system)
- Parsley (blood purifier, stimulates the bowels, good source of chlorophyll to detoxify)
- Grapefruit (cleanses the liver and gallbladder)
- Yogurt (helps restore the flora for a proper assimilation of food)
- Cabbage family vegetables : broccoli, Brussels sprouts
You could also juice or fast for a few days. Keep in mind that cutting off food completely from your diet can be dangerous, because it could deplete your system from essential nutrients and weaken your immune system. You have to know what you are doing and reincorporate food little by little, or your stomach is going to overeact.
The Master Cleanse is also a way to detox your body. It is also called the "Lemon Cleanse" and the "Maple Syrup Diet". The cleanse involves drinking only lemonade made from fresh lemon or lime juice, Grade B maple syrup, Cayenne pepper and water. No solid food is eaten for the entire cleanse. However it is more gentle on the body than a fast because it does contain some essential vitamins and minerals. For more informations about the Master Cleanse: http://themastercleanse.org/
Book on the Master Cleanse: The Master Cleanse 10 Days Diet
Do I have to make any changes in my diet and lifestyle?
Most of the cleansing programs will give you some recommendations on what kind of food to eat and to avoid. Because balance starts with nutrition, it is advisable to follow some dietary suggestions if you want your cleanse to be more effective:
- Eat fresh fruits and vegetables (organic if possible to get the most nutrients)
- Choose grains preferably among these ones: buckwheat, quinoa, millet, amaranth or spelt
- Avoid meat (if you can't, free range chicken or turkey is best), wheat pasta (go for brown or wild rice instead), refined food, and sugar
- Stay away from alcohol and caffeine. If you are addicted to coffee, swiss water decaffeinate coffee is a good alternative. This decaffeination process uses only water to remove caffeine from coffee. Most other decaffeination processes use chemicals like Methylene Chloride.
- Avoid bread with wheat flour. You can find bread without flower in many natural food stores.
- Avoid fried foods and fatty substances, apart from good fats. Essential fatty acids are important to take on a daily basis: flax oil rich in omega 3 or all kind of omega 3,6,9 oils, plant-based or fish source. Evening primrose oil is also good for skin problems with its high content of GLA.
- Time for a snack? Have some raw nuts like almonds, and seeds like hemp, pumpkin or sunflower, preferably unsalted and unroasted
- Take some fibre, either psyllium seeds or flax seed, to support healthy bowel movements and strengthen the colon (proper bowel function entails having two to three bowel movements per day!)
- Drink lots of water (more than eight glasses a day)
- Don't overeat as it puts a high amount of stress on your digestive system and try to find the time to cook nice recipes with good food!
Cleansing your body can be quite demanding for your system. You may experience fatigue, mild headaches, changes in bowel habits, emotional sensitivity, or even weight loss.
How your body responds to a cleanse depends on your individual biochemistry. At any time, if these symptoms intensify, stop the cleanse and seek your practitioner for advices.
Here are some lifestyle suggestions to avoid side effects:
- Reduce stress whenever possible
- Avoid smoking
- Exercise every day but avoid harsh exercises or anything too physically demanding
- Sleep and rest a lot
- Choose a diet that includes nutrient-rich, chemical-free foods, not a fast!
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