Tips for Detoxifying Your Body

Detoxification is the process by which your body gets rid of impurities. This is an important process for improving health and promoting weight loss. Luckily your body is naturally equipped to detoxify itself. However, you can improve your detox system by following a particular diet, lifestyle, and by taking supplements that aid in detoxification.

The following tips will help you detoxify and rejuvenate your body

1. Drink more water

Water does a lot more than quench your thirst. It helps regulate your body temperature and keep your joints lubricated. Water also aids digestion, nutrient absorption, and it detoxifies your body by removing waste products.

The different processes in the body continually release waste in the form of urea and carbon dioxide. If this waste is allowed to build up in your blood, it can become harmful.

Water acts as a medium to transport these waste products efficiently, removing them through natural processes such as urination, breathing, or sweating. So, staying properly hydrated is important for detoxification.

TIP

The adequate daily intake for water is 3.7 liters for men and 2.7 liters for women. You may need more or less depending on your diet and level of physical activity.

2. Focus on sleep

Make sure that you get adequate and peaceful sleep each night in order to support your body’s health and natural detoxification system.

Sleeping allows your brain to reorganize and recharge itself. It also helps to remove toxic waste by-products that have accumulated throughout the day.

One such toxic waste product you want to steer clear from is a protein called beta-amyloid, which contributes to the development of Alzheimer's disease.

When you don’t sleep properly, your body does not get time to perform the important detoxifying functions, so toxins can build up and affect several aspects of health. Sleep deprivation has been linked to a number of health issues, such as stress, anxiety, high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

You need to get seven to nine hours of sleep per night on a regular basis to promote good health.

If you have difficulties staying or falling asleep at night, you may need to change your lifestyle and limit the blue light emitted from mobile devices and computer screens prior to bedtime. These changes are useful for improving sleep.

3. Cut down on sugar and processed foods

Sugar and processed foods are key elements that contribute to poor health in some people. Here are some ways in which they do that:

• High consumption of sugary and highly processed foods can lead to obesity and other chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
• These diseases disrupt your body’s ability to naturally detoxify itself. It does so by harming the organs that play an important role in detoxification, such as your liver and kidneys.
• High consumption of sugar and sugary beverages can cause fatty liver disease, a condition that negatively impacts liver function, which is responsible for metabolism and also detoxifying chemicals in your body.

The changes you need to incorporate:

• By consuming more healthy food and less junk food, you can keep your body’s detoxification system healthy.
• Replacing junk food with healthier home-cooked meals, fruits, and vegetables is the best way to keep your body healthy.

4. Eat foods rich in antioxidants

Antioxidants protect your cells against damage caused by molecules called free radicals. Oxidative stress is a condition caused by excessive production of free radicals.

Your body naturally produces these molecules for cellular processes, such as digestion. However, bad habits—such as consuming too much alcohol, smoking, a poor diet, and exposure to pollutants—can increase the production of free radicals.

By causing damage to your body’s cells, these molecules can lead to a number of health conditions, such as dementia, heart disease, liver disease, asthma, and certain types of cancer.

Eating foods rich in antioxidants can help your body fight oxidative stress caused by excess free radicals and other toxins that increase your risk of disease.

So, focus on getting antioxidants from food. You can also get these antioxidants from various detoxifying supplements.

Examples of antioxidants include vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin.

Berries, fruits, vegetables, nuts, cocoa, spices, and beverages like coffee and green tea have some of the highest amounts of antioxidants and detoxifying vitamins.

5. Increase the intake of prebiotics

Gut health plays a very important in keeping your detoxification system healthy. Your intestinal cells have a detoxification and excretion system that protects your gut and body from harmful toxins and chemicals.

Good gut health starts with prebiotics. Prebiotics are a type of fiber that feeds the good bacteria in your gut called probiotics. With prebiotics, your good bacteria are able to produce nutrients called short-chain fatty acids that are beneficial for health.

Sometimes, there can be an imbalance in the good bacteria and bad bacteria from the use of antibiotics, poor dental hygiene, or diet quality. Consequently, this unhealthy shift in bacteria can weaken your immune and detoxification systems, and increase your risk of disease and inflammation.

Eating foods rich in prebiotics can keep your immune and detoxification systems healthy. Good food sources of prebiotics include tomatoes, artichokes, bananas, asparagus, onions, garlic, and oats.

6. Get active

Regularly exercise, be it weight training, jogging, or cycling, is associated with a longer lifespan and a reduced risk of many conditions and diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain cancers.

While there are several mechanisms involved in the health benefits of exercise, reduced inflammation is an important one. While a little bit of inflammation is necessary for your body to recover from the infection and heal its wounds, excessive inflammation can weaken your body’s systems and promote disease.

Working out regularly can reduce inflammation, and it can help your body’s detoxification system function properly and protect it against diseases.