Detox-New Year’s Resolution?
With another year gone, it’s only natural to slow down to reflect on life and goals. The New Year brings the feeling of excitement and opportunity for a new beginning, especially a chance to better your health. One of the best ways towards a healthier you is by cleansing the body to get rid of stored toxins, better improve the function of the body’s organs, improve energy levels and help improve overall health.
Simply put, we are exposed to toxins all the time. They are present in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Some come naturally from the environment, while many others (especially the type which pose a challenge for our body to properly metabolize and eliminate) are synthetically created from industrial manufacturing. While our body is naturally in a “detox mode” every minute of every day, unfortunately there are now over 83,000 man-made chemicals circulating freely in the Earth’s environment and evidence from the 2013 CDC’s Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals has shown that a number of these chemicals have bio-accumulated and become stored in our body’s tissues. A few examples of groups of these chemicals and their metabolites are; acrylamides, phthalates, phytoestrogens, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organochlorine pesticides, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), both Dioxin-like and non-Dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (Unfortunately there are many more too). Some of these chemicals are classified as, and have been shown to elicit effects of, endocrine disruptors, neurotoxins, teratogens, carcinogens, clastogens and mutagens. It seems as though, nowadays, we are exposed to a large number and of synthetic chemicals which we are just beginning to understand how their sole presence can impact our health, let alone react with other molecules to create a synergistic, hazardous and toxic effect on our health.
This is one reason why many holistic health practitioners believe it can be beneficial to undergo a “cleanse” in order to help free up enzymes and allow the body’s major detoxification organs to properly break down and eliminate old toxins that have already accumulated and become stored in the body. A healthy and effective cleanse can, in essence, help improve and support the body’s regular, daily detoxification processes by “cleaning house”. The key is to choose a healthy, responsible and holistic cleanse program that recognizes the body as a whole and is designed to support not simply the liver and its enzymes that are involved in both phases of detoxification but also all of the other major channels of detoxification and elimination (such as the lungs, Lymphatic system, kidneys, skin, blood and bowel). Renew Life offers good products like these along with free educational information on various cleanses so that consumers can better choose a cleanse program that suits their needs. Renew Life’s cleanse products range from an overall whole body cleanse, to a cleanse program designed specifically to help cleanse the liver or even kidneys. They even have a cleanse product for smokers. An important factor to remember is that for best results, eat a healthy diet consisting of fresh organic foods such as fruits and vegetables; drink plenty of water; and reduce as much exposure to toxins as possible while taking any cleansing products.
References:
Murray, M. & Pizzorno, J. (1998) Enzyclopedia of Natural Medicine: revised 2nd edition pp. 104-125, New York, NY: Three Rivers Press
http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/pdf/FourthReport_UpdatedTables_Sep2013.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9777756
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/teacher_resources/webfieldtrips/toxics/
http://enviornmentalhealth.wikispaces.com/Synthetic+Chemicals
http://phys.org/news/2013-02-eminent-scientist-global-contamination.html
http://people.oregonstate.edu/~muirp/pesthist.htm
http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/chemicalcontaminantrules/basicinformation.cfm
