Adopting healthier lifestyles is a trend that has been going strong for many years now. Keto, Atkins, and low-carb paleo are just some of the meal plans that are the latest hype these days, but detox is the most amped buzzword out there. This term refers to a way of eating and living that claims to aid the body in eliminating toxic substances, allowing better overall functionality and more robust health.
The human body has its own range of functions to eliminate toxic chemicals and substances that build up or are ingested in various ways. However, the detox trend and the strategies it involves can facilitate the rejuvenation process, allowing you to feel healthier and fresher. These simple steps improve the effectiveness of your immune system, the body’s functions like digestion as well as your overall appearance and energy levels.
Here are some tips to help you detox and revitalize yourself:
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Start by limiting alcohol consumption
While occasional drinking is socially acceptable, excessive alcohol consumption has always been known to have detrimental health impacts. For some people, this habit becomes an addiction problem requiring treatment that includes either inpatient or outpatient therapy services. This is an example of a worst-case scenario.
In natural cases, the human body can break down 90% of the alcohol you consume, eventually turning even the toxic chemicals into harmless substances. But excessive drinking hinders the liver’s ability to perform these functions effectively. When you consume too much alcohol, it results in not just an accumulation of fat in the liver, but scarring and inflammation too. Health experts recommend normal individuals limit the amount of alcohol they consume to one or two drinks a day. Moreover, knowing now that your body can naturally digest the alcohol you consume shouldn’t give you a reason to suddenly start drinking excessively.
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Fix your sleep cycle
Making sure you get a sound 7 to 9 hours of sleep is the best favor you can do to your body. This simple habit allows the body’s natural systems to function in a healthy and effective manner while also supporting the natural system of detoxification.
While you sleep, the body recharges itself by removing various toxic waste products, among other things. For instance, beta-amyloid is a harmful by-product of some reactions in the body, the build-up of which has been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease in patients. When you deprive the body of the adequate amounts of sleep that you need, the toxic chemicals that were supposed to metabolize start to build up and not only hinder normal processes, but also lead to a variety of damaging consequences like obesity, stress, diabetes, anxiety, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
In case you have trouble going to sleep, there are a variety of steps you can try, including avoiding screen time before going to bed and taking a shower. These simple habits relax the body and allow you to sleep more consistently.
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Stay hydrated
When you think of detox, the first thing that comes to mind is lime and mint-infused water. Well, it may come as a surprise, but water alone can do the job just as well. Besides quenching thirst, water facilitates the removal of waste products from the body via the kidneys and skin, regulates the internal temperature of your body, and aids nutrient absorption as well as digestion.
Scientific research has shown that the appropriate amount of water a person must drink daily is 3.7 liters or 125 fluid ounces. For women, this limit is lower at 91 ounces or 2.7 liters. However, these numbers are not set in stone, and you need to consider whether you consume more or less depending on individual requirements.
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Limit your intake of carbohydrates too
Carbohydrates, which include sugar more specifically, and processed foods are already a health crisis today. The fast-paced lifestyle these days have inadvertently shifted people toward the consumption of processed food and drinks as they are readily available on the go. Unfortunately, these foods and sugary drinks are overloaded with unhealthy carbs.
Carbohydrates are sugars in layman’s terms, which are the cause of numerous ailments that are especially prevalent in the modern world. Research backs the fact that sugary and processed foods lead to issues like heart disease, diabetes, fat build-up in the liver and kidneys, and obesity, all of which hinder the body’s normal waste-removing functions. Therefore, if you want to detox, limit or eliminate your intake of junk food.
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Consume foods that contain high content of prebiotics
The health of your gut is vital to ensure that your natural detoxification system remains healthy. The intestinal cells in your body particularly control the excretion and detoxification system that safeguards you from hazardous toxins, such as chemicals produced as waste by-products of various reactions in the body.
Prebiotics are a type of fiber that feeds the good bacteria in your gut. They are the foundation of good gut health. Your healthy bacteria can make short-chain fatty acids, which are nutrients favorable for your health. The use of antibiotics, poor oral hygiene, and consuming subpar-quality food all have the potential to change the bacterial balance in your stomach, leading to rising toxicity levels in the body.
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Focus on staying active
Exercise and physical activity is one of the most efficient ways to detox and rejuvenate your body. Even the simplest exercise, like a brisk walk for thirty minutes, can allow normal bodily functions to accelerate, allowing harmful chemicals in the body to either expunge through sweat or through the normal excretion system of the body.
Through a routine of physical activity, you ensure that fat build-up in your body remains limited. Excessive fat can accumulate in arteries supplying blood and other vital organs, eventually hindering their normal function. Daily exercise keeps these adverse effects and their consequences in check.
Conclusion
The human body has effective mechanisms to detox itself. Still, there are certain steps you can take to facilitate these processes. Staying active on a constant basis, limiting consumption of alcohol and sugary and processed foods, sleeping well, and ensuring that your body is properly hydrated are just some of the steps to do this. When you follow these tips, you give your natural systems a healthy boost, which pays dividends in terms of long-term health.
