fbpx
How to boost your immunity

How to boost your immunity

by | Aug 22, 2023 | Gut, Immunity, Root cause of burnout

And how to stop getting sick!

Listen to the episode here on the Healthyish + Happy podcast, or read below.

Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Spotify

This winter (and autumn) has been a dooz-ay of people falling sick left, right and center.

  • Whether it’s our lack of exposure to bugs…
  • Or super-hero hygiene during the c🦠 era…
  • Or whether there’s a new branch of super bugs floating through the air…


No matter the reason, if you’re fed up of fighting the stuffy nose, ignoring your scratchy throat, feeling run down, and throwing back vitamin C and cold and flu tablets like they’re lollies, then, oh boy, you are going to loveeee the latest Healthyish + Happy podcast  episode.

The time has come where you can finally stop falling sick (and tired, grouchy, achy, icky) every winter (or all the time).

AND what’s even more amazing, is the answer is super simple: 


✨ boost your immunity ✨

I don’t meant generic boosting like chugging on Armaforce, swigging back Echinacea or surviving off cold and flu tablets. These help boost your immunity short term or reduce your symptoms when you are sick, but they’re not always going to stop you from getting sick the next time a bug floats your way.

What will stop those bugs from causing a flu, cold, cough, achy bod, or diarrhoea party is building your immune system up at the root cause.

Once you do, your chances of falling sick in the first place dramatically reduce. Meaning no sicknesses, even when someone coughs or sneezes a snot rocket in your face.  🤧🦠

Wanna know what I mean and how to do it? Let’s jump in!

What’s depleting my immune system?

There are 3 main root causes you’ll want to nourish:

#1. NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES

The top 3 are vitamin C, zinc and vitamin D.

Boosting vitamin C and zinc are your first point of call because they’re needed to build up your white blood cells which protect you and they’re very easily depleted when you’re sick or stressed.

Vitamin D is third but just as important. It’s crucial to balance your immune system, especially if you have autoimmune conditions. 1 in 3 Aussies are vitamin D deficient (despite all the sun we see) so it’s super important to get it checked with your Doctor and check out episode 46 to see if you have enough or need to supplement.

 

#2. GUT INTEGRITY

The gut is crucial for many things, and your immune system is one of them. Because 70-80% of your immune cells are located in your gut and your gut bacteria influence your immune system, too. So the gut is a crucial place you want to direct your eyeballs to boost your immune system back up.

While certain probiotics can have a short lived effect on your gut and immunity, it’s more beneficial to support and influence the gut bugs you already have in your gut for long-term results. This means using prebiotics instead of probiotics – so we actually feed the good guys in your gut that do all the important work.

How do you do this? Start off with by aiming for lots of fibre, veggies all colours of the rainbow and bone broth to help heal the gut. I’ll go into more detail in another post on all the gut healing goodies.

 

#3. BALANCE YOUR ON-THE-FRITZ NERVOUS SYSTEM

Long term stress (when you’re go go go, juggling a million and two things, inflamed, life stress, etc) depletes your immune system.

After constant exposure to stress, you’ll no longer have an uber strong immunity protecting you. This means every bacteria, virus and Frank will shoot up your nose or down your throat and have a very high chance of making you sick.

The solution? Rebalance your nervous system. This might involve more downtime, less working late, more fun in your life, better boundaries (aka. less time spent with those energy destroying people in your life). A great place to start is choosing one simple thing you enjoy and purposefully finding a time to do it each day. Doesn’t have to be much – simply standing outside in the sunshine and taking 3 deep breaths is fab.

How I Figured Out My Food Intolerances

How I Figured Out My Food Intolerances

by | Nov 17, 2020 | Bloating, Digestion, Food intolerances, Gut

How I Figured Out My Food Intolerances

(When My Gut Reacted To Everything)

How can you figure out what you’re reacting to when it feels like you’re reacting to everything?

Well let me share with you how I figured it out.

Ten years ago it felt like I reacted to everything and anything.

I’d eat an egg and I’d end up in foetal position on my bed, feeling like someone was twisting my intestines. I’d squirm to the toilet, digging my nails into my thighs to try and reduce the churning, agonising pain I felt in my gut.

So I cut out egg.

Then the same thing happened when I ate dairy. Then onion. Then garlic, pears, apples, asparagus, grapes, berries, bananas, pasta, bread, cauliflower, cabbage, beans…

So one by one, I removed them from my diet too.

Because it was either remove the food, or live in fear that I may react and be in horrendous pain.

But then I started worrying about what was in the food at restaurants or that friends cooked. Then I’d worry about where the nearest toilet is – just in case I did eat something I’d react to and I needed a toilet ASAP.

After 6 years, my gut was in control of my life. What I did, what I ate, where I went.

Until I figured out why I was reacting to everything under the sun, and 6 months later I no longer reacted to anything.

No more urgency to find the nearest toilet, no more 6 month pregnant bloated belly at the end of the day, no more twisting of my intestines and lying in a foetal position.

And the best part? No more worrying about what food I ate when I went to a restaurant or when friends cooked for me.

Want to know how I figured out what my gut was reacting to? Then this episode is for you.

Grab your cosy pants and your furry friend and hit play below or download the episode at your fav podcast platform.

Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Spotify

A few weeks ago I got hit with a weird case of gastro. No vomiting, just a poopie party.

This is the first time I’ve had gastro since 2012, so it was bringing up some strong memories and flashbacks to the days when my gut would be bloated and I’d react to all these random foods.

> It made me remember what it felt like to be so bloated it felt like I was six months pregnant, to have that tight uncomfortableness stretch from the base of my ribs down to the bottom of my gut. Where I just wanted to grab a pin and pop my gut like a balloon to let some of the air and pressure out because it felt so heavy and uncomfortable.

> Where you have this horrible, queasy, churning feeling in your gut and you know that if you pass a stool it’ll go away. But you sit on the toilet and it just won’t happen. So that pain in your gut becomes agonising and you go on your tippy toes to bend over into the best foetal position you can, stabbing your nails into your thighs to divert the feeling of pain away from your gut because it feels like someone’s stripping and twisting your insides.

> Where you’re too scared to eat anything for fear that it will make your gut react. You avoid garlic, onions, beans, chickpeas, lentils, asparagus, banana, bread – absolutely anything and everything that could be slightly reactive. That could make your stomach churn, that could make that queasiness come back. You prefer to fast all day because you’re too scared to have food make you react.

> Where you wish you could eat food and try new foods worry free, knowing you’d never react. Never feel bloated, never feel in pain and never have to rush to the toilet.

That was my life 10 years ago.

My gut controlled my life. Anything I did or anything I ate was 100% controlled by my gut. And it sucked, big time.

At the time I never thought it would end, but I can happily say that the only food I ever react to now is dairy. And even that I can now eat chocolate or dairy in recipes without reacting. It’s more the pure cup of milk that would send me skedaddling to the toilet. But that’s because I’ve avoided dairy for over a decade because I don’t enjoy the taste so I never bothered to get my tolerance level completely back.

How did I figure out what I was actually reacting to?

Because there were times when I hadn’t eaten dairy but I was still toilet bound and curled over in pain.

Truthfully, figuring out I was lactose or dairy intolerant happened when I was 16 after I ate a lot of icecream and had the same reaction 3 times in a row.

I can still recall sitting by my pool with a friend, munching on Cadbury’s caramello icecream and feeling those first pangs of pain. Then I had this realisation that flooded me that I can’t tolerate dairy.

But it didn’t stop me.

It turned into a game of Russian roulette: how much dairy could I eat before I’d react? I began to identify a rhythm of 2 meals with dairy was fine but the 3rd meal would send me over the edge. Milk, cream, yoghurt and icecream were the worst, cheese and chocolate I could tolerate a tiny bit of.

It was in the following 2 years where my dairy intake was at a minimum but my gut started to react again that I felt like I was back to square one.

  • At first I ate fried eggs and react, so I then only ate boiled eggs.
  • Then sausages made me react so they were out.
  • Then boiled eggs made me react so eggs went completely.
  • Then garlic triggered my gut followed by beans so both of those were removed.
  • Then grapes, pears, asparagus, cauliflower, cabbage.
  • Until pasta and bread made my gut feel like a lead weight and I’d get those shots of pain.

The list of foods I’d react to kept growing, and I eventually become too scared to eat anything without triggering the pain.

I tried…

  • Avoiding all reactive foods
  • The candida diet
  • The zero-sugar diet
  • Living off random probiotics that had the highest billions and range of bacteria
  • Herbal teas
  • Digestive enzymes

I was at a point of either doing the elimination diet or doing a food intolerance test (which I’m so glad I didn’t do) when I heard the term ‘leaky gut’ and gut bacteria or ‘dysbiosis’ for the first time.

And the concept just clicked.

The real cause of ‘food intolerances’

This idea that if the gut is ‘leaky’ then larger molecules found on food – that never should be able to get past your gut – suddenly had direct access right through your gut and into your body.

It made sense.

Our gut is incredible in what it does, but it’s not invincible to being damaged.

When the gut becomes damaged or leaky, then it puts the good gut bacteria at a disadvantage. Suddenly their home in the gut is volatile and broken and isn’t a nice place for them to thrive.

 

How I got rid of my gut symptoms

I’d put up with my gut symptoms and random food reactions for over half a decade and had just accepted that this was my life now. So, I didn’t have much to lose by trying this gut healing approach my lecturers were talking about.

And holy freaking cow, I’ve never experienced relief like this.

Within 2 months…

I didn’t change my diet at all and after 8 weeks of healing my gut and another 2 months of manually altering my gut bacteria to favour the good guys, I suddenly ate food reaction free. I suddenly had a day where I went to bed not bloated and I’d look down and my stomach would be flat and not 6 months pregnant.

Within 6 months…

After 6 months of gut healing and altering my gut bacteria, I got to a point where the only food I reacted to was dairy. And even then it’s only if I drink a glass of milk or a glass of cream.

  • I can pop cream or icecream with my apple pie and not react.
  • I can eat a certain amount of cheese, including brie and camembert and not react.
  • I can eat chocolate cake and not react.
  • I can even eat a slither of cheesecake or icecream cake and maybe not feel 100%, but I only feel a little off in my gut, not back to having stabbing pains and reactive diarrhoea.

I now know that if someone cooks with cream or cheese, I may feel a little off kilter, but the worst that will happen is maybe some gas and a slightly softer stool. No pain, no 6 month pregnant bloated bellies, no diarrhoea, no twisting intestines.

For me, I have 1 true food intolerance and that’s dairy.

From there, my gut was just damaged and I had an overgrowth of the bad gut bacteria that were making me react to everything and anything under the sun.

 

Healing my gut was so incredibly simple.

For my particular symptoms, a yeast based probiotic called Saccharomyces boulardi was perfect for me and worked like a charm. Then I was on a rotation of prebiotics including PHGG, lactulose, inulin and GOS to bring my good gut bacteria back to life.

Plus a smidge of gut soothing and adrenal herbs chucked in too to keep my symptoms minimal and prevent further gut damage.

And that was it.

X No bacterial based probiotic.

X No cutting out food.

X No weird and wonderful random remedies.

One yeast based probiotic and prebiotic fibres.

Since then it’s like my eyes have been opened wide. For absolutely any gut client that I see, I never start by yanking food out of their diet unless something is starkingly obvious – like dairy was for me.

Because more times than not, it’s simply a matter of you having a leaky gut or increased intestinal permeability, which has caused an imbalance to your gut bacteria, and created a whole bunch of false food intolerances.

 

Step #1

We always focus on healing the gut first, rebalancing the gut bacteria by feeding your own good gut bacteria, not adding in new ones…

Step #2

And then, and only then, if symptoms persist will be look into a gut infection…

Step #3

And then lastly, an actual food intolerance.

 

Because truth be told, some food intolerances only require you to remove the food for 3 months. This gives your immune system a chance to forget that it doesn’t like that food. You can then reintroduce it and you’ll no longer react to it.

 

Your guts healed and not reacting anymore, now what?

The final stage is an incredibly important one: it’s figuring out why your gut was damaged in the first place.

  • Was it certain bad gut bacteria?
  • Was it an infection?
  • Was it your stress hormone?
  • Was it gilberts syndrome?
  • Or some other cause that was damaging your gut and making you react?

Once you figure out what’s damaging your gut and fix it up, you’ll never go back to reacting to foods again.

Your gut is a miraculous and powerful thing. Although it can easily be damaged and throw a tantrum, it’s also super receptive to being healed and working like a well oiled machine. You can have a gut that no longer reacts to the food you eat, no longer bloats and no longer sends you into a squirming ball of pain and agony.

Before you go cutting out anymore food from your diet, I highly recommend healing your gut and gut bacteria first. Because chances are removing the food maybe dampen your symptoms a little, but it won’t fix what’s truly going on.

 

Want help to heal your gut and eat foods worry-free? Book in for a free discovery call and I’ll let you know if I can help you get the life and gut you want. 

click here to Book your free discovery
How To Treat Anxiety #4: Rebalance Your Inner Health

How To Treat Anxiety #4: Rebalance Your Inner Health

by | Aug 18, 2020 | Anxiety, Gut, Mindset, Naturopathy, Sleep

How To Treat Anxiety #4: Rebalance Your Inner Health

(From Those Opinionated Gut Bacteria To Your Pesky Hormones)

Want to finally experience anxiety relief?

Then listen up as this next topic packs a hell of a punch.

Throughout the “How To Treat Anxiety” series you’ve learnt that:

#1. The root cause of your anxiety is your beliefs and how to treat them is by “rewiring your brain”

That you want to strengthen your anxiety resiliency armour so that you’re not affected when an anxiety trigger comes around by:

#2. Strengthening your mindset by “altering your thought patterns”

#3. Optimising your environment by “beautifying your environment”

And lastly, to treat your anxiety you’ll want to rebalance the health of your body – from those opinionated gut bacteria to your pesky hormones.

An unbalanced health is typically the reason you may experience random anxiety bursts for no apparent reason.
Yep, send those death glares to your hormones or gut or lack of sleep.

Your body is full of beautiful chemical reactions and for those of you who remember chemistry in high school, you’ll remember that for a reaction to occur it needs a desirable environment, cofactors and catalysts.

A calm mind is the same.

To achieve a calm mind you need balanced hormones, a happy gut, sufficient nutrients, and a whole bunch of other things to be present.

Remove one of those things and your reaction to a calm mind may totally flop and you’ll be stuck with an anxious mind instead. Ugh.

In today’s episode I dive deep into all the factors that make or break the physical component of your anxiety resiliency. If you’re wondering what part of your health may be letting you down and allowing anxiety to sneak in, this episode is for you.
(don’t worry, there’s no more chemistry talk)

Check out this weeks podcast episode on your fav platform or hit play below.

Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Spotify

The Gut-Brain Connection: Healthy Gut, Healthy Mind?

The Gut-Brain Connection: Healthy Gut, Healthy Mind?

by | Sep 12, 2019 | Anxiety, Digestion, Gut

THE GUT BRAIN CONNECTION: HEALTHY GUT, HEALTHY MIND?

YOUR GUT – YOUR SECOND BRAIN:

Have you ever had “gut-wrenching experiences” or “butterflies in your stomach”?

We don’t use those expressions because they’re more dramatic and help us embrace our inner divi-queens, they were created for a reason.

Your gut is super sensitive to emotions. Feelings of stress, anxiety and sadness can trigger uncomfortable symptoms in your gut (aka. Indigestion, diarrhoea, constipation, nausea, cramping, etc).

So the next time you feel queasy nausea churning in the pits of your belly or the sudden urgency of an impending poop-attack…it may not be the food you’ve just eaten, it may be the fact you’re on an awkward first date, about to face your boss, worrying about something or drowning in endless to-do lists.

This is why your gut is labelled your second brain. 

But did you know, your gut-brain connection actually works both ways. Yes your emotions (stress, anxiety, depression) can trigger gut symptoms, but your gut and how it’s functioning can also increase your risk of experiencing anxiety and depression. 

 

Holy macaroni, right?!

 

Your gut communicates back and forth with your brain all day long, so it makes sense that it has to influence how it operates in some shape or form. And it does, massively.

Current research shows there are three ways the gut influences the brain:

#1. Neural pathways

These are your nerves that connect from your brain to your gut. The big player here is your vagus nerve which has nerve endings all along your digestive tract, but also activates the areas in the brain that control mood (amygdala (fear centre), hypothalamus (master regulator) and bed of nucleus of the stria terminalis).

#2. Metabolic pathways

Metabolic chemicals such as hormones and neurotransmitters which either influence the end of your nerves in your gut to send a signal to the brain or are absorbed into your body, travel in your blood and cross your blood brain barrier and enter your brain.

#3. Immune pathways

Cells that form part of your immune system or inflammatory metabolites (such as lipopolysaccharides) which also either interact with the end of your nerves in your gut or are absorbed into your body and end up crossing your blood brain barrier.

And who influences all three of the above? Who can interact with your nerves, can produce metabolic chemicals and can influence immune cell and inflammatory metabolite production?

Your gut bacteria.

I’m sure you’ve heard of dysbiosis (aka. an imbalance between the good beneficial bacteria and the bad bacteria) being a huge cause of IBS, diarrhoea, constipation, bloating, gut pain, and really any gut issue.

Well, research has also identified that:

  • The severity and duration of gut pain is associated with elevated anxiety.
  • Anxiety frequently co-occurs with IBS and inflammatory bowel disease.
  • Antibiotic use increases the risk of developing anxiety later in life.
  • Infections in the gut (eg. gastro or food poisoning) has been associated with an increased risk of developing anxiety within the next 2 years.

So doesn’t it stand to reason that a huge causative factor of these gut conditions (aka. gut dysbiosis), may also be an influencing factor of anxiety, depression and stress?

The answer is yes.

One particular study (double blind, randomised controlled) assessed 55 humans who either took a probiotic with Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175 or a placebo tablet for 30 days.

At the end of the 30 days, those who were taking the probiotic had:

  • Improved depression, anger hostility and somatisation (Hopkins Symptom checklist-90 assessment)
  • Improved anxiety (HADS-A assessment)
  • Reduction in self blame and increased problem solving abilities 
  • Reduced 24 hour urinary cortisol (stress hormone measurement) while the placebo group did not change.

Honestly, I used to be amazed at the strength of an ant for its size but these minuscule bacteria blow ants out of the water with how brilliant they are!

 

My take home?

Suffering from anxiety, depression or heightened stress isn’t purely a psychological issue. Your health, and in this case your gut health and what bacteria are in your gut, also heavily influence your risk and susceptibility of experiencing mood changes too.

If you’re doing all the right things to improve your mindset and belief systems, but just aren’t getting relief from your anxiety, then have a look at your gut. Because if your gut function and your gut bacteria are constantly working against you to create an anxiety-prone brain, then you may always be prone to experiencing those flares of anxiety and panic.

My Anxiety Program is coming soon (I actually cannot contain my excitement to finally share it with you!) and because the gut and bacteria are an integral part in transforming your anxiety and finding freedom in life, they form part of the program. I’ve opened up a handful of Anxiety Transformation calls in the lead up to the program launch in October, so if you want to learn more – book a call! 

P.S

Please remember not all probiotics are the same. For anxiety and depression, Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175 are the strains indicated, while a different bacterial strain such as Bifidobacterium longum BB536 is indicated for allergic rhinitis, high cholesterol, eczema, immune enhancement and gastric bypass recovery…with no evidence this particular bacteria directly influences your mood. Check out my blog on probiotics here if you want to know more and avoid having expensive poo!

Is your probiotic actually helping you?

Is your probiotic actually helping you?

by | Aug 27, 2019 | Bloating, Constipation, Diarrhoea, Digestion, Gut, Naturopathy, Probiotic

IS YOUR PROBIOTIC ACTUALLY HELPING YOU?

Probiotics 101:

Probiotics have become extremely mainstream in the past few years. It’s expected that you can simply pop a probiotic pill every day and feel right as rain!

But do you know exactly what you are taking, and what the specific bacteria in those probiotic pills are doing to your body?

No? Well you aren’t alone.

In all my years working in a pharmacy, health store and clinical practice, I stopped being amazed by how many people were on a probiotic “just ‘cause”. Customers’ would stare wide-eyed and shocked at what taking that probiotic supplement was doing to their body. Because for those 6 months of taking a probiotic to help with diarrhoea, the bacteria in that probiotic were known to speed up transit time and help with constipation. *face palm*

Now I have a question for you. 

Hands up how many people have bought a probiotic off the shelf purely because of its claims to be “multi strain” and with super duper high “40, 50, even 60+ billion CFU (colony forming units)” on the label?

I bet you’re sitting there thinking: that’s me! Well don’t worry, that was me too.

But I’m sorry to say, there is a very high chance you just bought yourself really expensive poo.

 

So how the heck do you know if you need a probiotic and that you’re choosing one that’s right for you and for your body?

 

Well, let’s clear the air of some common misconceptions and highlight the truth behind probiotics and your friendly gut bacteria.

 

1. Probiotics don’t change your microbiome.

Holy moly, this is a big one! When you take a probiotic, the bacteria in the probiotic only stays in your gut on average 2-14 days. The bacteria generally won’t colonise your gut and stay there for life. What they do is exert a beneficial effect as they are floating through. They can produce chemicals, fight off against pathogenic microorganisms, interact with your immune cells, etc, which can all improve your health while taking the probiotic. But generally the symptom relief wears off a few days post taking the probiotic as those particular bacteria are then found in your poo and are no longer in your intestines.

 

2. Any old probiotic won’t help, you need a specific strain.

The bacteria or yeast found in probiotics don’t all do the same thing. Nor are they all beneficial to your health. Every bacterial strain is as unique as you are. The therapeutic action of a bacteria all comes down to its strain. For example, Lactobacillus acidophilus is a common bacteria found in probiotic supplements, but the different strains help you with different symptoms.

Lactobacillus acidophilus W37: helps with bacterial vaginosis.

Lactobacillus acidophilus DWM 24735: helps with constipation, IBS symptoms, ulcerative colitis achieving and maintaining remission, and viral gastroenteritis.

Lactobacillus acidophilus CL1285: supports diarrhoea prevention with antibiotic use and atopic eczema treatment.

Lactobacillus acidophilus La-1: helps with depression, migraines and liver cirrhosis.

 

Imagine if you suffered from diarrhoea and you grabbed one off the shelf that contains Lactobacillus acidophilus 24735. This guy helps with constipation, so you are unknowingly making your diarrhoea worse. Grabbing a ‘multi-strain’ probiotic won’t be effective if the strains in the probiotic aren’t right for you. I often opt for single or a probiotic with 3 bacterial strains because I can make sure every single bacterial strain is essential for my client and their health.

3. The CFU only matters for individual species, not overall.

Ignore when a probiotic states 40, 50 or 60 billion bacteria. In this case bigger does not mean better! The important number or CFU to pay attention to is per bacteria. You need enough of the little guy to be therapeutically effective. Take for example Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938. You only need 200 million CFU to be therapeutically beneficial for constipation. Whereas Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell-52 needs 1 billion CFU to be clinically effective for anxiety. The number of bacteria really depend on what they’re being used for.

 

So here’s the big question:

do you need to take a probiotic?

For the general population, my answer is no.

I only advise taking a probiotic for a specific health condition or symptom if it’s warranted, and generally not for long term use (eg. Constipation, diarrhoea, eczema, anxiety, depression, thrush, bacterial vaginosis, etc). I don’t advise taking one for everyday well-being because there are more effective strategies.

 

What do I recommend?

Your gut bacteria are uber important. They influence soooo much, so making sure you have the right bacteria and a great diversity are one of my biggest concerns with every client. To achieve this, I recommend prebiotics which are the food for the bacteria. Your bacteria need to eat in order to survive and proliferate.

I stand by the principle and evidence, why not feed the beneficial bacterial strains already in your gut rather than add in a probiotic that only floats through temporarily? Your beneficial bacteria need food to proliferate and carry out their tasks in your gut, so feeding them with select prebiotics is the most effective method.

I highly recommend speaking to a qualified health practitioner who will be able to really guide what probiotic and prebiotic is needed and will be beneficial for YOUR unique health. Choosing any old probiotic supplement for the sake of it, isn’t doing much for your health, well except increasing the price tag on your poop.

The Truth Behind Detoxing

The Truth Behind Detoxing

by | Jan 10, 2019 | Detox, Digestion, Gut, Naturopathy

THE TRUTH BEHIND DETOXING

& HOW TO DO IT THE SMART WAY

‘Detox’ is always the in word for January. You may be seeking a way to shed some of that extra ‘heaviness’ and ‘grit’ you accumulated over the Christmas and New Year binge?

You’ve browsed 100 different ways to ‘detox’ from juice fasts, water fasts, ‘magic pill’ detoxes, laxatives…but how do you know which one’s right for you or if any of them actually work?

 

The truth is: none of them will work if your own body elimination processes aren’t working.

In fact, you may be making yourself worse.

 

Here’s the snitch: we are always detoxing.

  • Your liver is constantly activating both phases of detoxification to eliminate toxins.
  • Your lymphatic system is always circulating to remove build up of toxic waste in bodily tissues.
  • Your kidneys are always filtering and excreting water soluble toxins.
  • Your gut is always housing those brilliant bacterial workers who assist in detoxifying incoming toxins and help to excrete them all out.

 

But your liver, lymph, kidneys and gut aren’t always working at their absolute best.

So if you try to detox your body while one of these systems is out of whack or exhausted, then you have lost one of the key methods your body has to get rid of toxic & damaging metabolites.

So now you have liberated toxins or damaging metabolites from your bodily tissues as part of your detox….but they can’t be eliminated…so where else do they have to go but continually recirculate throughout your body, all the while continuing to inflict damage?!

Definitely not the result you were after.

 

As a naturopath, I don’t encourage ‘detoxing’ as such.

I encourage supporting your eliminatory organs (aka. your emunctories: your liver, lymph, kidneys and gut), because if they are all working at their best, then they can (mostly) handle whatever toxins or grit you are throwing at them and get them out of your body automatically.

If you want to ‘detox’ the smart way, then gently nourishing your emunctories is the way to go. It will support your overall health, as well as be a sustainable and longer-term solution with long-lasting results (without those nasty side effects). Because it isn’t a detox, but a new way of living.

 

1. liver

Your liver is the big powerhouse, the head macho, the one who can have the biggest effect…and cause the most damage too.

Your liver has 2 phases of detoxification.

Phase one takes metabolites in your blood and starts to break them down into their new metabolites (usually more toxic than they were before). Phase two then grabs these metabolites and makes them inactive through various different detoxification channels to then be eliminated either via your stool or by your urine.

Where the liver goes wrong is phase one works brilliantly getting all these new toxic metabolites ready for phase two. Unfortunately, phase two can be very sluggish meaning these new toxic metabolites start to build up and inflict damage.

Phase two can be sluggish due to various reasons such as genetic variations, lack of nutritional cofactors, etc. So the best thing you can do is provide your liver with all the delicious and nourishing foods it needs to help these pathways along – the main ones being cruciferous (liver loving) vegetables such as brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy, dark leafy greens (caution in thyroid issues); and herbs that chelate to toxins such as parsley and coriander.

 

2. lymph

In my opinion the lymphatic system is one of the most underrated systems. It follows alongside your blood vessels and is the king at mopping up waste products to bring them to your main detoxification organs to be properly eliminated.

But if your lymph doesn’t have it’s own system moving it around  – it relies on you. So if your lymph becomes stagnant, then those mopped up toxins have no other way to get to your eliminatory organs to be detoxed and removed.

The easiest way to move your lymph is to move your body. The contraction of your muscles are the main way your lymph is pushed throughout your body. If you need an extra push, try dry skin brushing before your shower by brushing your skin in the direction of your heart to encourage full elimination.

 

3. kidneys

Water soluble toxins have one main way out and that is through your urine. So if you aren’t drinking enough fluid to be urinating regularly enough (and so that your urine is closer to transparent rather than dark yellow), then you will be retaining a lot of those toxic metabolites.

The solution is easy: up the fluid intake to 2-3L per day, and include wet sloppy foods, watermelon etc to boost incidental intake.

 

4. gut

Your gut has two influential factors: the fact it pushes out your stools and it houses your powerful community of microbes.

For one, if you aren’t passing a stool at least everyday (if not more), then your stool (filled with all toxins and wastes) is moving too slowly through your bowels, giving your digestive tract the chance to reabsorb some of those toxins back into your body for recirculating.

Two, you need a good diversity of the beneficial microbes to help with detoxifying, neutralising and eliminating your wastes and toxins, as they can reactivate toxins & metabolites for reabsorption and slow down transit time.

So this is a two prong approach: increase your fluid intake to promote regular bowel habits, and consume enough dietary fibre and a variety of it to feed all the beneficial microbes so they can effectively do their job.

In terms of fibre, aim for all colours of the rainbow in vegetables and wholegrains, and a variety of 40 whole foods. This is easier than it seems with red, white and black quinoa counting as one each (so 3 all up), red, purple and orange carrots are individually counted (so 3 all up), etc. Each new variety is a new wholefood.

 

5. extra love: skin

When you sweat you are effectively eliminating wastes through your skin, so having a good sweat can help to detox your body.

Go sit in an infrared sauna a couple of times per week to give your body all the support it needs.

 

Detoxing doesn’t have to be this intense 3-10 day hit, because if your eliminatory pathways aren’t prepared for it then you won’t be getting the results you’re after. Try to support each of these pathways, and watch as your health blossoms.

 

Your perfect detox plan is as individual as you are, so if you need help to kickstart your health for the new year, seek out a Naturopath to tailor the perfect treatment protocol for you and get you feeling fabulous for this new year.