Tips on how to Detox everyday!

Few of us give our liver a second thought. Yet this overworked organ is responsible for over 500 different functions, including: detoxifying environmental chemicals, storing certain vitamins, controlling cholesterol levels, metabolising fat, and even regulating hormones.  

When talking about this with people, I often get asked if you can drink our Detox-me Herbal tea every day or whether it is just for when you are detoxing. So it inspired me to talk about Detoxing every day.

I think that with so many 'Detox' Kits on the market we have all been conditioned to think that detoxing should be done only once or twice a year, after overindulgence periods. 

But the reality is that is not really the best way to go about it.  In fact many of the expensive detox kits on the market are actually just full of laxatives, so you might feel a bit lighter, but the long term benefits are marginal.

So when I wanted to add a 'Detox' tea to our range I made sure it was safe and easy (eg: tasted good!) to drink every day. 

There are also other things you can do every day to help your overworked liver and digestive tract (some are more overworked than others!!), so instead of doing a once yearly detox here are some tips to on ways to detox every day........

• Firstly start the day with a large glass of warm water with the juice of half a lemon squeezed into it. Your body needs water to flush out toxins in your bowel movements and urine. The addition of fresh lemon juice helps to stimulate your liver to produce bile that helps flush out toxins and it also reduces acidity.

• Also ensure you eat lots of Garlic and Onions as these contain important phytonutrients and sulphur compounds that help your liver metabolise fats and excrete chemicals.

• And if you are looking for a supplement, make it a daily tablet of Milk thistle extract. Milk thistle contains a potent substance called silymarin that protects the liver by inhibiting damaging substances that can cause liver cell damage. Silymarin also prevents the depletion of the nutrient glutathione–one of the most critical nutrients for liver detoxification. Both alcohol consumption and exposure to various types of synthetic chemicals can deplete glutathione in the liver.  (Milk thistle is far too bitter for a tea, so best in a capsule.  I use dandelion root in detox-me as the flavour is more neutral, but it has similar liver cleansing abilities).

• Eat Indian curries!  Turmeric, one of the main spices used in Indian cuisine, adds a yellow-orange color to curry dishes along with a potent healing boost. Turmeric protects the liver from free radical damage. Add turmeric powder to soups, stews, and curries to bolster your liver’s cleansing abilities.

So with a little bit of  liver care and attention it isn't surprising that these simple measures could make a world of difference to your health.

Click here for more info on our yummy Detox-me Healing Herbalist blend...

Why does drinking water matter so much?

Why are we always being told to drink so much water?  Do we really need to or is it a bottled water companies marketing dream?  I think a bit of both really!  
But there are some very good, often not considered reasons for making sure you drink enough water.

• Water ensures we remain energized: Suboptimal hydration slows the activity of enzymes, including those responsible for producing energy, leading to feelings of fatigue. Even a slight reduction in hydration can lower metabolism and reduce your ability to exercise efficiently.  If we are not drinking around 25-35ml per kg of body weight daily this dehydrates our cells and we cannot then produce enough energy at a cellular level. 

• Water is important for proper detoxification: Water helps our body to flush out residual toxins created from our own metabolic waste, as well as toxic chemicals, pollution, cleaning products, skin care/hair products, foods, alcohol, medications etc.   Without essential water it puts further pressure on our detoxification pathways – liver, kidneys, lymphatic system, digestive system and skin which can lead to further complications and increased sluggishness.

• Water is also crucial for our Digestion: Our bodies produce an average of 7 liters of digestive juices daily. When we don’t drink enough liquid, our secretions are more limited and the digestive process is inhibited.   Not enough water can also cause problems with regularity and lead to constipation.

• Important for healthy blood pressure:  A lack of fluids can also contribute to high blood pressure.  When we are chronically dehydrated, our blood becomes thicker and more viscous. In response to this reduced overall blood volume, the blood vessels contract and the body must work harder to push blood through the veins, resulting in elevated blood pressure.

So some pretty important reasons to remain hydrated.  If you are bored with plain old water add a squirt of lemon juice or some leaves of peppermint or lemon balm from the garden.  

Herbal Infusions and Fruit Infusions are another way to get water into you, as they don't contain caffeine and can be good for those who struggle with lots of plain water.    You can chill them
down and sip cold through out the day if you prefer.

Soft drinks, diet or not, will deplete you and do not count as fluid intake!

How much should you drink?
We're often told 6-8 glasses of water a day and this is a relatively good guideline. But it depends on each person - if you eat a lot of fruit and veges then you will be getting more water from them than someone who doesn't.

Also if you drink a lot of caffeine, salty processed foods, are stressed or exercise a lot then you will need to drink more fluids to make up for the extra that is lost.

Excessive Sweating

Since it's winter (well spring now) so you wouldn't think you would have problems with excessive sweating.

But some people have real problems with excessive sweating which can be uncomfortable and embarrassing especially at work - you don't want to be the person giving the presentation with big sweat marks under your arms.

Excessive Sweating is not just a problem that affects menopausal women but can affect people of all ages and both sexes. It is important to note that the hot flushes women experience with menopause will need extra hormonal focussed help to get on top of it - but they will also benefit from some of the suggestions I have below to reduce the excessive sweating.

So if you find yourself in an air-conditioned cool office and are still sweating too much and it is causing you problems then there are a few things you can consider to help reduce the problem.

So lets think about what might be happening in your everyday life that could be aggravating the problem...

Stress and lifestyle causes

The first two possibilitities relate to your adrenal glands and what happens to you when your body releases adrenaline - so it is worth talking about this as overworked adrenal glands are often the cause of excessive sweating.

When you are under stress your adrenal glands make adrenaline which is released into the blood stream. This hormone has a remarkable effect on the body and causes your heart rate and blood pressure to increase, your digestive function slows down and your blood is shunted out to your muscles, your pupils dilate and your heat up - thus you will perspire more!

If you are under long term low stress you may not notice these effects so much but they are still happening!

1. So the first thing to try to get under control or acknowledge is whether Stress causing your excessive sweating - when you are about to give a presentation or go to a performance review or an important meeting you will often find you sweat more. Sometimes you might find yourself in a job where stress is a daily occurence and almost becomes normal - in this situation you will be releasing above average levels of adrenaline and thus excessive sweating.
2. The second thing to consider is the amount of caffeine you are consuming - especially where caffeine is released quickly into the blood stream with coffee and cola drinks. Caffeine stimulates the release of adrenaline into the bloodstream which increases body heat. In this way it will increase sweating in the same way as stress - so if you are stressed and drink excessive caffeine you have double the effect.
3. Bad elimination – perhaps your bowels, overall digestion or liver aren’t working properly or are overloaded with excess bad food, alcohol and chemicals. One major way our body eliminates it's waste is through the skin so if you are clogged up and toxic in your other elimination channels your body will try to get rid of it's wastes through your skin. A sign this might be a problem for you is if you find your perspiration and/or urine is deeply yellow coloured or excessively smelly.
4. An imbalance of minerals – you might need some mineral therapy with the correct balance of sodium and potassium – an imbalance can cause fluid imbalances leading to excessive sweating.
5. There are a lot of medications that can have the side effect of excessive sweating so check your medications carefully.  Even common ones such as pain relief, nervous disorders, antacids and cold and flu medications can cause this problem.

Helpful natural treatments

• Sage tea!  Sage has been shown in many studies to help reduce excessive sweating - it is what is called an anti-hydrotic herb. (if your sweating is likely caused by menopause then try my Hormone Help blend - this has sage in it).

• To improve help your body cope with stress you should focus on B Complex Vitamins and Magnesium in supplement form.  These nutrients help the adrenal glands to function and also give you energy.

• Try a herbal tea with calming and relaxing herbs.  The tea should contain adrenal tonics too such as licorice root which will help restore adrenal glands that are tired and worn out.  For more information on this click here to see information on my Destress-me healing herbalist blend.

• If you think you need some detoxing then a really easy thing to do is to squeeze half a lemon into warm water and drink this first thing in the morning. It acts as a bitter and stimulates your digestion.  Also look at liver function herbs such as dandelion root or milk thistle.  A tea is a good way to get detoxing going as you will also drink lots of fluid that increase the detox process through your kidneys.   Try my Detox-me blend which has a gentle detoxing effect so you can take it on a daily basis.  It has no harsh laxatives and it tastes great!  Or another option is to take Milk Thistle tablets daily - it doesn't taste so great as a herb so you are better with tablets.  My favourite is Blackmores Milk Thistle as it contains clinically trialled doses and is good quality.

• If you want to still get some caffeine - and I would say it is ideal to come off caffeine completely for a while - but you could start by switching to tea instead of coffee.  The levels of caffeine are less and what caffeine there is is released slower into the blood stream so it is easier for the body to process.  Tea also contains a compound called L-Theanine that reduces stress but keeps you alert!

Try some of these suggestions, herbs and nutrients and you should notice a benefit.