What
Is Detoxification / Detox?
Detoxification is
the term used for the symptoms - both physical and
mental - that may appear when we alter our lifestyle
by starting something new such as a diet or
exercising - or discontinuing a current habit such
as eating chocolate or drinking coffee. These
detox symptoms may include headache,
stomachache, coughs, diarrhea,
skin rash, clogged
sinus, fever, as well as feeling run down and
irritable. The detox symptoms
may be of short duration and slight irritation, or
they could last longer and cause considerable
discomfort.
Because these
detox symptoms are the same as those
that show up in certain illnesses, changing your
diet or lifestyle can result in misunderstanding:
"If I am doing something that is supposed to be good
for me, why do I feel worse, and not better?"
Understanding this apparent contradiction is perhaps
the first and most important hurdle we must get over
when making dietary or lifestyle changes.
If you consider
detoxification carefully however, it is easy to
understand. Think how you might have
experienced this on a short-term basis. If you
don't exercise regularly then play some soccer with
the kids, the next day you will feel dead tired with
sore muscles. This is your body reacting to
something it is not used to. You can see the
same thing happen when you stop a regular activity
like drinking coffee. You will probably notice
you have less energy and even have a headache for a
couple of days. When you change your diet or
lifestyle the same thing happens - your body reacts
to the change.
Why
Does Detoxification Happen?
As we live, toxins
accumulate in our body. Some are due to our
diet and others due to our environment. Of
course our lifestyle also fits in here. If you
smoke or use alcohol you are accumulating even more
toxins.
When you make a change
in diet or lifestyle through stopping a bad habit or
eating better,
your cells
begin eliminating the toxins. Before
finding the exit however, the toxins are released
into the bloodstream and are carried throughout the
circulatory system.
This transport and
elimination may result in the detox
symptoms we have mentioned. Often the
toxins are eliminated through the skin resulting in
rashes or other skin problems, especially if you are
prone to such problems. You may also feel a
lack of energy. With the absence of toxins,
you may also find that you absorb substances more
easily. Thus, the sugar and caffeine in a soft
drink might really set you off.
In a nutshell, we could
say that the body always goes for quality, and when
what's coming in is of higher quality than the
present tissue, the body will discard the present
tissue because it wants to make room for tissue
created by the higher quality food.
How Severe Are
The Detoxification Symptoms and How Long Do They
Last?
This depends on
what your lifestyle had been like before making
the change, and how quickly you make the change.
The duration of
the detox symptoms might be linear
-there is a greater chance that they will come in
cycles. At first you may feel better, and
then experience some detox symptoms. After
the initial toxins are flooded out, you will feel
good again, if not better. However the body
then "goes deeper" and finds more toxins to
eliminate and the detox symptoms can appear again.
And after even more toxins are eliminated, you
will feel even better yet.
As things
progress, you will find that the period of
detoxification symptoms is shorter and the period of well being
is greater.
What Can I Do
During This Detoxification Period?
